And glory fills the earth! Luke 2
Luke 2 (7)
We’re celebrating the birth and early years of Jesus this week. Our current Scriptorium series will return on Monday. Have a blessed Christmas.
Pray Psalm 85.7-9.
Show us Your mercy, LORD,
And grant us Your salvation.
I will hear what God the LORD will speak,
For He will speak peace
To His people and to His saints;
But let them not turn back to folly.
Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him,
That glory may dwell in our land.
Sing Psalm 85.7-9.
(Lyons: O Worship the King)
Lord, show us Your love; restore us, we pray!
And help us to hear the words that You say.
Speak peace to Your people; in truth let us stand.
We fear You; let glory and grace fill our land.
Read Luke 2.1-52; meditate on verses 8-18.
Preparation
1. What Good News did the angel announce?
2. How would this Good News affect the people of the world?
Meditation
In our day, most people live what Solomon would describe as “under the sun” lives. That is, they do not believe and cannot see anything beyond the material world. As the late Carl Sagan was fond of putting it, “The cosmos is all there is, or was, or ever will be.” Ours has become a “disenchanted” world, as Charles Taylor explained (A Secular Age). Life has no meaning or purpose beyond some level of survival. And even survival is but a blip in cosmic time, “a tale told by an idiot,/full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (Macbeth, Shakespeare).
The Good News announced by the angel and celebrated by the angelic host is that heaven has come down to earth in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, bringing the blessings of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14.17, 18). The eternal, indestructible, unseen, “under the heavens” realm has broken into time. Since the announcement to those lowly shepherds, the Good News of salvation and the Kingdom of God has spread throughout the loaf of this secular world and, in every generation, has worked to make all things new (Lk. 13.20, 21).
Wherever the Good News of Jesus has gone, people have known forgiveness, peace, and life. In Jesus, righteousness and peace, truth and love, hope and promise, meekness and power, grace and glory are all combined. When we have Jesus, we have all this as well. We must not think that the people of our generation are impervious to the Good News of Jesus and His Kingdom. They are all made in the image of God and have a certain degree of the knowledge of God etched onto their souls (Rom. 1.19, 20). God can open the heart of even the vilest of sinners – as indeed, some of us know all too well.
Let us, like those shepherds, fully persuaded that heaven has come down to earth, go with wonder and joy to make Jesus known to the people in our Personal Mission Field. Joy to the world! The Lord is come!
Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
In 1991 a new Christmas carol written by Lowry and Greene came upon the scene. It is entitled “Mary, Did You Know?” and asks some very good questions. The two that I find most emotionally charged are these: Mary did you know…when you kiss your little Baby you’ve kissed the face of God? And Mary did you know…that sleeping Child you’re holding is the great I AM? When I try to sing along with my CD, I can never quite make it through without tearing up. It is, indeed, a lovely addition to the catalog of carols that we cherish singing and rejoicing in about the birth of our dear Savior, Jesus Christ.
But in some respects, the song seems unfinished. Here is what is needed to complete the idea of that song: People, believers, do you know? Do you know and serve this One, this Son of Mary, and of God? Do you know that we are told through the psalmist that we are to “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little”? (Ps. 2.12).
And do you know that this same Jesus said, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”? (Jn. 14.6)
Do you know that He also said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments”? (Jn. 14.15)
We dare not leave Him in the manger, as a dearly loved Baby; but we must serve Him as we ought as the Ruler and King of all the earth—under the sun and under the heavens. This is the One of Whom it is said, “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (Rom. 16.20).
Did Mary know the answers to those questions? Yes, as best she could, she did.
Do we know the answers to the questions? Yes, as best we can, we do, if we believe and act on the promise that “he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us” (1 Jn. 3.24). “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (Jn. 13.17).
Heaven came down and glory filled my soul,
when at the cross the Savior made me whole;
my sins were washed away and my night was turned to day—
heaven came down and glory filled my soul!
(Peterson, 1961)
For reflection
1. What is the significance in your knowing that heaven has come down into your life in the Person of Jesus Christ?
2. What can you do to help ensure that we don’t “leave Jesus in the manger”?
3. Who will you encourage today to a deeper and more personal experience of the Good News of Jesus?
God’s goodwill to men, manifested in sending the Messiah, redounds to his praise. Other works of God are for his glory, but the redemption of the world is for his glory in the highest. God’s goodwill in sending the Messiah, brought peace into this lower world. Peace is here put for all that good which flows to us from Christ’s taking our nature upon him. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on Luke 2.8-14
Pray Psalm 85.10-13.
Thank the Lord for His mercy and truth, His righteousness and peace, and all His daily blessings – all of which come together as one in Jesus. Call on Him to be with you and go before you today, that you might walk the path He has marked out for you in His Kingdom.
Sing Psalm 85.10-13.
(Lyons: O Worship the King)
In Jesus God’s grace and truth are combined;
both goodness and peace in Him do we find.
Truth springs from the earth as He walks in our midst,
and righteousness flows from the heav’ns as a gift.
The Lord by His grace will give what is good;
our land will produce abundance of food.
And righteousness will go before the Lord’s face,
and make of His footsteps a way in this place.
T. M. and Susie Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Jesus brought the joy of the Lord when He came to dwell among us. Now He has appointed us to proclaim that joy to our world. Our little book, Joy to Your World!, can help you do just that. Learn more and order your copy by clicking here.
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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.
