13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:13-14)
Well, this evening we actually have completed the lighting of our Advent Wreath, yet we have not finished our discussion of the meaning of all the candles. This evening we will talk about the fourth candle on the outer ring and tomorrow morning we will move on and talk about the center candle, the Christ Candle which, obviously we have lighted tonight. So, this evening as we celebrate the birth of the One promised, we talk about the work of the angels.
God created angels to be His messengers. God created angels for the work of proclaiming His message to those to whom He would send, as well as their work is to watch over us as God’s people. Personally I believe we each have at least one or two angels watching over us and I am sure that oftentimes children can actually see their angels. During the time of preparation for the birth of the One promised back in the Garden of Eden, the time of the birth of Jesus, the Savior of the world the angels did a lot of work. One of the first works of the angels was to deliver God’s message to Zechariah that he would be the father of the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah, the one who would come in the spirit of Elijah, that message of the birth of John the Baptist. This proclamation came about six months before we hear of the work of the next angel.
The next work of an angel, namely the angel Gabriel was to deliver God’s message to Mary, the one favored by God, that she was favored by God, that she was chosen by God to be the one who would be the earthly mother of the One promised. Because of her youth, her not being married, and her understanding of the biology of the birth of children the angel went on to explain to Mary just how this immaculate conception would take place, that is that she would become pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit so that the child to be born would be truly God in flesh. And as we know, she consented to be the mother of Jesus.
The next work of an angel is that of appearing to Joseph, but not in person as the angels appeared to Zechariah and Mary rather in a vision or a dream. The angel explains to Joseph why Mary is pregnant even though they were merely betrothed and not yet married. The angel had to explain that Mary had not committed adultery or been unfaithful. The angel proclaimed to Joseph that he was to be the adoptive father of Jesus. And of course, Joseph also consents.
Finally, we have the work of the angels as we hear in our text, that of announcing the birth of Jesus to the Shepherds. Last week we heard about the lowly, humble shepherds who were the first to hear of the birth of Jesus and the first to see the new born king. It was the angels who declared this wonderful news to the shepherds.
But why are there all these angels and what are all these angels doing there at the birth of Jesus? The angels were created to be messengers of God, to do His bidding and also to be protectors and defenders. Thus we might rightly understand that the angels, this host of angels, intimating an army of angels, were there at Jesus’ birth to work as defenders of the helpless baby Christ child. The angels were there to protect the vulnerable child, especially from Herod’s execution of the children in Bethlehem. The angels appeared to Joseph just in time for him to escape Bethlehem and flee to Egypt to save the baby Jesus. The angels were also there to protect the baby from any attacks of the devil.
Also, the angels were there to protect the child and His parents going to, while in and coming back from Egypt. Although the children of Israel had spent many years in Egypt and had fled from their slavery in Egypt, Mary and Joseph were foreigners in Egypt, thus they needed the protection of God’s angels.
The Angel’s Candle reminds us that angels are real and that they are messengers from God. God created angels and although Satan, or Lucifer was once one of God’s good angels we know that he rebelled thinking himself to be god. Thus God created hell for all those evil angels. God separated the evil angels from His good angels and although the devil, the evil foe himself roams around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour the Lord has His pure, good and perfect angels always guarding and protecting us. And they deliver to us the good news God would have them deliver.
The Angel’s Candle reminds us that angels do God’s bidding. As has been the case many times in the Old and New Testaments, to see God’s angels is a remarkable experience especially as described in our text when we are told that a whole multitude of heavenly hosts praised God.
The Angel’s Candle reminds us that angels protect God’s children. Again, I believe that little children and babies can actually see their angels, at least at times. Little children have not yet been tainted by the skepticism of the world and so have no problem seeing these supernatural beings.
The Angel’s Candle reminds us that angels rejoice in God’s goodness. Some of you have heard me say it before, but when we come to the Lord’s Table, when we come to Divine Service and sing praises, we are not alone, but the whole company of heavenly hosts is with us, praising God.
So, this evening we say, let the celebration begin. We have been preparing for just this moment, for this evening. We have been preparing for this moment for our celebration of the birth of Jesus which and who is the reason for the Advent Season. The Advent Wreath has helped us count down to this day. The Advent Wreath has reminded us that it was the angels who announced to the shepherds that in Bethlehem our eternal, living God fulfilled His promise, the prophecy to send a Savior, Christ the Lord.
We are ready to celebrate and remember we celebrate for twelve days. We do not simply celebrate tonight and tomorrow, but we continue to celebrate. Certainly we have heard the carol of the twelve days of Christmas. The twelve days of Christmas lasts until the day of Epiphany, that is the day we celebrate the visit of the Magi or wise men, the first non-Jewish visitors to see the child Jesus. There are actually some families who celebrate the twelve days by opening a new present each of the twelve days as a reminder to continue on. We leave our lights up to bear witness of the continued celebration.
We celebrate and we rejoice in God fulfilling His promise to send a Savior. God loves us so much. We see His great love in the fact that He knew what all was going to happen even before He began creating the world, that is He saw Adam and Eve’s sin, His need to be born in human flesh in order to be our substitute so that He might live perfectly for us, take our sins and pay the price of sin, death for us in our place. He knew His suffering and yet, because of His great love for us He created us anyway. And so we rejoice.
We rejoice in Jesus our substitute and His gifts of faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. Thanks be to God that Jesus is our substitute. What we could not do, live perfectly He did for us in our place. How can we not rejoice and celebrate.
Jesus was born for a purpose, to live perfectly, to take our sins and to suffer and die. Indeed, we do celebrate but we celebrate in the shadow of the cross. For some, the Christmas tree, after it has lost all of its leaves, is taken and made into a cross to remind us that this baby was born to die. That may not be the most happy thought or a thought that would make us want to celebrate, except that this baby is God in human flesh. This baby is one who loves us so much that He was willing to do anything and everything that needed to be done for us to save us. How can we not celebrate such great love for us, His children. So, we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Christ the Lord. We celebrate that God has fulfilled His prophecy, His promise, with the angels announcing to the shepherds that in Bethlehem the One who lives for us, takes our sins, suffered and dies for us, rose from the dead and gives us forgiveness, faith and life and we say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.