The Angels Did Say

We have heard on high, sweetly singing for the blaze in the mountain. Aunt Bee, flock, there goes their joy.

Good evening to all of you! I am so glad that you are here this evening for our Christmas Eve Eve service. It has been a tradition of ours for a long time to gather on the 23rd of December instead of the 24th. Sometimes people ask if there is some real spiritual reason for that, and actually, there is not at all. Once upon a time, we used to do our service at the Center for the Arts, and the union that runs the Center for the Arts would not work on the 24th. So, we did it on the 23rd, and that is why we keep doing it on the 23rd. It just turns out to work really, really well.

Merry Christmas to all of you! If you have your Bibles, open them with me to a familiar passage. If you don’t have your Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. We are going to read three passages of Scripture this evening: two from Luke and one from Matthew. So, if you want to open Matthew as well and put a finger in Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter 1, we will start at Luke chapter 1.

Although we didn’t sing the song tonight, some of you probably know that popular Christmas song that has been around for a long time, "The First Noel." "The First Noel" begins with the line, "The First Noel, the angels did say." What I wanted to look at tonight is what the angels did say as we look at the Christmas story and the story of "The First Noel." We find it in Luke chapter 1, another place in Matthew chapter 1, and also in Luke chapter 2. There are three different times that the angels speak about the coming of the Lord.

The first one is in Luke chapter 1, verse 26. There it is written: "Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, who was of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary." And having come in, the angel said...

To her, the angel said, "Rejoice, highly favored one! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women." But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

Now, keep a finger in the Gospel of Luke because we're going to come back there in just a moment. But flip over to Matthew chapter 1. We will begin reading at verse 18.

In Matthew 1:18, we read, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child by the Holy Spirit." Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not wanting to make a public example of her, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bring forth a son, and you shall call his

Betrothed to a wife who was with child, it was while they were there that the days were completed for her to be delivered. She brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch

Several weeks out, they can hardly keep the surprise back, and so they start to drop hints. You might know this type of person; maybe you are that type of person. You ask the intended recipient of the gift, "Don't you want to know what the gift is?" The excitement of the giver is so high that they can hardly contain it. My wife is like this. She's not here right now; I think she'll be at the next service. She's at work right now, so I can talk about her at this service. She can't keep it back, and some of you probably know what this is like. You want to try and give hints, or don't you want to try and figure out what it is? Maybe you leave a few hints along the way.

What I have discovered as I've looked through the Scriptures is that our God, who loves to give good gifts, does that all the way up to the final coming of the good gift, the great gift, which of course is Jesus Christ. For centuries, through the prophets, God could hardly contain this surprise. He keeps dropping hints through the prophets so that throughout the Scriptures, we have these indications of what this good gift would be.

Going all the way back to Genesis chapter 3, where the fall of humanity first took place, we find the first prophetic hint that God gives about the coming of this gift. In Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, God reveals that this gift will deal with the problem of sin, brokenness, and death in the world. It would be a male child born of a woman. Then, if you move a number of chapters down to Genesis chapter 12, you discover that this male child born of a woman would come through the line of Abraham.

Continuing on through Genesis chapter 17 and Genesis chapter 22, you find that this child is going to come through Abraham and then Abraham's son Isaac. As you continue with the story, you discover that God reveals this one will come through Jacob in the book of Genesis. All along the way, it is going to be a male child born of a woman from the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the last chapters of the book of Genesis, specifically Genesis chapter 49, verse 9, God reveals that this child will come to deliver.

His people from their sins would come from the tribe of Judah. He would be the Lion of the tribe of Judah. As you go through the story, you build this beautiful picture of who this one would be. In Genesis 3:15, Genesis 12, Genesis 22, and Genesis 49, you come to Second Samuel chapter 7 and discover that he would be a son of David. He would be of the royal line of King David.

Then, the prophet Isaiah, 2,800 years ago, reveals that this son who would come would be born by miraculous means, conceived of a virgin. Isaiah 7:14 also reveals that not only would he come by a miraculous conception, but he would be God incarnate. He would be called Emmanuel, God with us. In Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6, the prophet reveals even more: he would be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He would establish a kingdom that would have no end.

Micah chapter 5, verse 2 declares that he would be born in Bethlehem. All throughout the centuries leading to the time when the angels did say, "Now is the time," the prophets were dropping hints about what this gift would be and what he would come to do—that he would deliver the people of God from their sins. I could go on and on with these hints throughout the Old Testament because the prophecies concerning the first coming of Christ are many, and there are many about his second coming as well.

In this, we see that our God could hardly contain the surprise of this great gift. When Christmas, or the time of the coming of Christ, finally would come, and the gift would be revealed, God dispatches his heavenly hosts—what they are called in the scripture, his angelic beings, the messengers of God—to carry the message to humanity that now is the time.

The first message came, as we looked at in Luke chapter 1, verse 31, where this angel appears to the virgin who would conceive and bear a son, Emmanuel, God with us. The angel comes to her and says, "Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus." The Lord is salvation. You are going to bring this one forward; he will be great. The angel says he will be called the Son of the Highest, the Son of God. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.

Just like what was prophesied in 2 Samuel, chapter 7, verses 13 and 19, He will be of the throne of David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; His kingdom will have no end. He is still ruling and reigning. We are looking forward to His kingdom coming and being here on earth as it is in heaven, but He rules and reigns from heaven.

Then the angel again goes and speaks with Joseph, the man who was betrothed to Mary. Of course, they had not been joined together as husband and wife; they had not consummated their marriage, and now she is found with child. It is not really a good situation, and he is thinking about how to deal with this. He does not want the law to come down upon her because, at that time, that whole situation was dealt with capital punishment. He does not want the law to come down upon Mary.

At that point, the angel once again comes and says to him in a dream, "Joseph, listen, do not be afraid to take Mary to be your wife, because that which is conceived is of the Holy Spirit. You will call His name Jesus, and He will save His people from their sins."

Then, in that glorious story in Luke, chapter 2, we see not just one angel, but an entire host of angels gathered together to tell a group of shepherds in the fields outside of Bethlehem that the gift, the Savior, had come. I find that picture to be pretty interesting. I had the privilege this last week to share about Christmas at a Christmas party for Blue Letter Bible, an online Bible commentary website. As I was sharing there, my friend David Guzik and his wife were present. I was talking with his wife afterward, and we discussed this passage about all these angels and the entire host of heaven crowding together to see what was happening.

It occurred to me in that moment that when the angels gathered together in Bethlehem, it may have been the very first time that they, with their eyes, could look upon the Lord. If you think about it, when we see the angels described in the Old Testament, they always have wings with which they cover their eyes when they are in the presence of God. They are never able to look upon the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, until that moment when He was there in Bethlehem in the flesh. They came to worship Him and rejoice because the gift had come—the gift to bring salvation to all humanity. Every century since then, every year since the coming of Christ, the church has rejoiced in the coming of Jesus.

There are discussions about whether or not Jesus was actually born on December 25th. However, that is pointless to discuss; it doesn't matter if he was born on that date. What matters is that he came to save us from our sins. He came to release us from the burden of sin and death and to bring joy, peace, rest, love, hope, and all the things that we've been talking about over the last several weeks.

That is why we gather together at this time of year—to rejoice in the wonderful things that God has done in and through Jesus Christ and the things that he has done in our lives. He desires that we would share these blessings with other people.

I’m going to invite Anthony and the team to come back up, and we’re going to sing one last song. Here’s what I want you to do: you have to sing ten times louder than you normally do, even if you have a terrible voice. The Bible says to make a joyful noise to the Lord, so it’s got to be joyful; it’s got to be a noise. It doesn’t need to be in key—the worship team can be in key; they practiced and have better voices than us. But if you can overpower their amplified voices, I think you’d be singing with the hosts of heaven.

Would you stand with us? I’m going to pray, and you have to sing ten times as loud, okay?

Jesus, we rejoice tonight. We praise you for the good gifts that you have poured out upon us. God, in abundance, you have given us every spiritual blessing, but all those blessings come in Christ. Jesus is the Christmas gift; he is the package in which love, joy, peace, gentleness, and all these things are found.

Lord, I pray that as we hopefully all partake of those gifts, we would distribute them to other people this season. May you be glorified in and over our lives as we rejoice in the good things that you have done. We praise you, Lord. Stir our hearts now to sing with abandon, with nothing holding back, as we sing glory to you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Joyful and trying times can be challenging, but they also bring moments of happiness. It's important to embrace those joyful experiences and share them with others. We all have our ups and downs, but together we can find strength and support.