Why did the angels sing?

Luke 2:7-13  She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped Him snugly in strips of cloth and laid Him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them. That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep.  Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified,  but the angel reassured them. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!  And you will recognize Him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger." Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,

  "Glory to God in highest heaven!  Peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased!"

While I was thinking on this scene, I wondered, “What was it like for the angels?  What was their perspective on all this?”  We have heard many Christmas messages focusing on the different people involved in this story…Mary, Joseph, shepherds, wise men, etc.  But I can’t recall hearing one that was focused on the angels. As I thought more about it, I became more intrigued… So…...Why did the angels sing?   ( I know it says that the angels  were ‘saying’.. but I think if a huge multitude of angels were rejoicing...it would sound like singing!)

To really understand, I had to go back and look at this story from the beginning…the real beginning...the beginning of time…the beginning of man.    I want you to picture with me in your mind the progression of man’s story and remember that the angels were watching as it all unfolded....

1.  God’s plan

It starts back in Genesis….God had a plan…and it was good.

Genesis 1:1  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Genesis 1:27  “God created man in His own image…male and female”

God said that it was good.

Genesis 2:15  “Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.  The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die."

Genesis 3:6-8  “… the woman… took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.  They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God.”

A.  God had created the earth and formed mankind to have a relationship with him in response to His love….He gave man a free will, because apart from a free choice, there can be no true response to love.

B.  But they chose to disobey God.    As a result of their disobedience, they became self-conscious…they knew guilt and they hid from God...they tried to cover their sin.

C.   God could not allow rebellion to go unpunished.   He is holy and just and also love,  but to be true to Himself, He can’t exercise love and ignore justice.  If He did, the universe would become an uncontrolled, chaotic mess.

D.  The only penalty there could be for rebellion to a holy, righteous God had to be separation…death is separation….physical and also spiritual.   So they were separated from experiencing God’s presence in the close intimate way they had known before they had sinned. 

E.  But in His love, God still had a plan.  He promised one would come to pay the penalty for man so man could be reconciled back to Him.  This would satisfy His justice and His love.   Until that time came, He accepted the lifeblood of an innocent animal as a substitute to cover over their sin…but it was only temporary.  The life of an animal could not satisfy the payment required for man’s sin.  That required the life of a man…an innocent man who did not have to pay for his own sin.

2.  Looking for the Promised One

A.  So from Genesis, in the beginning, all through the Old Testament, they were looking for the Promised One, the Redeemer, the Messiah, the Savior...the One who would come to reconcile them back to God...to set them free from the penalty of their sin. 

Try to picture it here with me...what is was like for them....

B.  Year after year, they were continually reminded of their sin and their inability to come before a holy God on their own merit.  They had to keep offering up the sacrifices, over and over and over…always looking forward to the time God had promised to send one to make it right…to satisfy His justice and holiness… to take away the penalty for their sin….One who would redeem them back to God…

C.  All through the years of the patriarchs...Abraham, Isaac, Jacob…the angels watched.... 

      ~ through  400 years of slavery in Egypt…
      ~ 40 years of wandering in the wilderness…
      ~finally coming into the promised land…
      ~ through the period of the judges…
      ~ then the years of being ruled by kings…Saul, David, Solomon...and many after them...some good and some bad…
      ~God gave prophets to communicate with the people….but they didn’t listen…they went their own way. 
      ~through the 70 years of captivity in Babylon…
      ~ then coming back into the land…
      ~rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple…
      ~then 400 years of silence…400 years with no communication from the Lord to encourage them that He had not forgotten them and His promise!

 After all the years of waiting, many had lost all hope of the Messiah coming to redeem them back to God.  But some still held on. Some of the people trudged on watching and hoping….continually offering sacrifices to cover their sins, over and over again.  Every year going up to Jerusalem to off their sacrifice to cover their sins for another year.

Hebrews 11:13   tells us, “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance.”

3.  SO…..WHAT ABOUT THE ANGELS? What does all this have to do with them?

Think about it with me:

~~The angels had watched as God created the earth… then as He made Adam and Eve and placed them in the garden.  They watched in wonder at what God was doing with these beings created as an extension of His love, created in His image and given self determination over their own lives…

~~They must have marveled that man chose to obey Satan instead of their creator and then watched  them stumble along generation after generation in an endless cycle of rebellion, chastisement, repentance, then rebellion again….

 ~~Did the angels wonder at God’s plan? 

~~Did God clue them in to what He was going to do?  We know that they interacted with men on earth at certain times.  Scripture records those times for us.

 ~~Did they grieve over the state of man as they watched them stumbling along over the centuries- losing the hope that God would really ever redeem them? 

 4.  The right time

Now we come up to that wonderful night….. The time had finally come for God to redeem lost mankind back to Himself.  As the apostle Paul said in his letter to the Galations –

Gal 4:4  “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son..”

God Himself…the Creator of the universe…

~~~stepped out of eternity and into time...out of heaven and into earth…out of immortality and into mortality…limiting Himself to the confines of a human infant, totally dependant on others for His welfare.

The apostle Paul describes it so wonderfully:

Philippians 2:6 (Amplified version).. “Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God [possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God], did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained, But stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being.”

Colosians 2:9  “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.”

 5.  The Redeemer has come!

This was His plan!….This was how God was going to redeem mankind back to Himself!

 AS The angels WATCHED THEY would not have been able to contain their joy!!  
Indeed the whole realm of heaven could not help but burst forth in glorious praise and rejoicing!  It would have been like when your team is behind and then suddenly they make a great play and score a touchdown. The whole crowd erupts with rejoicing and cheering.  This is what it was like for the angels!  The savior had come!  Mankind would be redeemed now! All of heaven was rejoicing!!  Yes!!! Hallelujah!!

The angel gave the announcement to the shepherds :

Luke 2:11   “The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!”

Then…. he pulled back the curtain a little bit to allow the shepherds to see what was taking place in heaven.

Luke 2:13   “ And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,  "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased!"

I don’t think that the angels just suddenly appeared and then started to sing…I think that they were already rejoicing!  In fact I think they were probably dancing as well!  And as the veil between heaven and earth was briefly lifted-- the shepherds had the special privilege of seeing the rejoicing that was taking place there.

6.  Not the end of the story

But the story doesn’t end with a baby in a manger…so many times we end the story at His birth and don’t follow it on to the reason He came.   The reason the angels were rejoicing was because this was how God was going to redeem the world…the baby was the Lamb of God.

 John 1:29   “When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him he said, "Look!  The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

This is why He came….to be the perfect sacrifice….the perfect Lamb of God…God’s own sacrifice…offered on our behalf…to redeem mankind back to Himself. 

All the animal sacrifices of all the ages had been only temporary….they were just standing in for the perfect sacrifice that would be made….once and for all.

 He came not just to be born…but to die…in our place….for our sin.

2 Corinthians 5:19   “For God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself…no longer counting people's sins against them.  For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”

7.  God’s gift

Jesus is God’s gift to us.

John 3:16  "Because God loved the world so much, He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him, puts their trust in Him,  will not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 5:15   “For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and His gift of forgiveness to many through this other Man, Jesus Christ.” 

 THIS is why the angels rejoiced!….not just that a baby was born into the world…but that through this baby, God was going to reconcile the world back to Himself….He was going to redeem mankind so we could dwell in His presence for all eternity!

~~So this year, let’s try to bring the focus back to God’s gift of redemption…and not leave Him as a baby in a manger scene.  Let’s not let all the trappings of the season become distractions away from the real reason He came...to redeem us back to God.

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You know, a gift is only good if you accept it.   If someone gives you a gift, you cannot experience it and it doesn’t do you any good unless you accept it from them and make it your own. 

God has given us the greatest gift ever….the gift of His Son as the sacrifice for our sin…Our sins have been bought and paid for by His blood.  But if we don’t accept it…make it our own…we are still left in our sins…still under the penalty of death…still separated from God.

If you have never come to the place in your life where you have acknowledged your sin to God and your need for His forgiveness, why not make this Christmas the best one yet…accept His gift of redemption in Christ…make it your own….be reconciled back to God.

Jesus said,  "there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

So this year....why not give them another good reason to sing? 

               HAVE A VERY BLESSED CHRISTMAS!!!