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“Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’”

Merry Christmas!

᛭ INI ᛭

There were so many amazing things that they saw that first Christmas! They saw the angel. They saw the heavenly host. They saw “Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.” At the end of it all, “the shepherds [were] glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.”

There’s many things that we look forward to seeing during the Christmas season, too. There’s all the presents under the tree. There’s all the decorations—not just at home, but here at church! There’s all the family and friends that we get to see. And there’s those we’d like to see, but won’t or can’t. Those we won’t see until we also “depart to be with Christ.”

But the most important “seeing” that happens isn’t lights or trees or presents. It’s also not family or friends, or an empty chair… It doesn’t have to do with you seeing at all. It has to do with God seeing you, and only then with you seeing Him. The benefit of being seen by God and seeing Him is all wrapped up in: “The Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” For the angels only sing what they sing because of Christ. There’s “on earth peace, good will toward men” because

GOD SEES ALL OF US IN CHRIST, AND WE SEE ALL OF GOD IN HIM.

(I. God sees all of us in Christ.)

What does God see when He looks at the earth? Well, that depends. Apart from His Son, He doesn’t see anything good. (Not a very popular truth.) Our flesh is always trying to say God looks at us with some sort of deserved love and kindness. There’s always some redeeming quality in us. We have a high view of humanity. We think there’s a reason in us that there can be peace on earth and good will from God toward us.

The Lord tells us something different… “The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” (Ps 14) The inclinations of our hearts are evil from our youth up! (Gen 9) We are all conceived and born sinful. (Ps 51) We are all under the power of the devil, citizens in his kingdom. (Col 1) Humanity, left to its own devices, is dead in trespasses and sins. (Eph 2)

Yet, the angels sing: “Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” How’s that true? Only because of Christ! Only because He’s been born! Only out of undeserved mercy and kindness does the Father send His Son as the Savior of the world. Only because Christ dies and rises does God see anything redeeming in humanity! For His Son is both God and man! God sees all of us in Christ: “Because one died for all, therefore all died.” (2 Cor 5) All humanity is “died for” by Jesus, therefore God’s looks at humanity not with rose-colored glassed, but with Jesus’-blood-colored glasses. Yet, the eternal benefits of this are only received by each person by believing in Jesus:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Rom 3:23–25)

“Because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” (1 Cor 1) “You are all sons of God through faith, for as many of you as were baptized in to Christ, have put on Christ…And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Gal 3) In holy baptism, He made you alive through Jesus’ resurrection. (Col 3) “He’s taken you out of the Kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col 1) By holy Baptism, you are in Christ, and “if anyone’s in Christ, He’s a new creation.” (1 Cor 5)

That all means, when God the Father looks at you, what you do, what you say, how you live, all He sees is Christ. Not by your works, but by faith: for you’re baptized into Christ, believe in Him, united to Him in His body and blood for your forgiveness. You’re the righteousness of God in Jesus, His child in Jesus. He sees you in Christ. HE SEES ALL OF US IN CHRIST!

(Transition.)

Yes, GOD SEES ALL OF US IN CHRIST, but that’s not all! WE also SEE ALL OF GOD IN HIM.

(II. We see all of God in Him.)

WE SEE ALL OF GOD IN Christ. First, because Jesus Christ, even as a baby, is true God! Paul puts it this way: “For in Him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” (Col 1) “The whole fullness of deity dwells bodily in Him.” (Col 2) He’s “God of God, Light of Light, very God of Very God.” “He’s the radiance of the [Father’s] glory and the exact imprint of His nature.” (Heb 1:3) As Jesus says, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” (Jn 14) for “I and the Father are one.” (Jn 10)

But it’s more than just Jesus is God. WE SEE ALL OF GOD IN Jesus: we see God’s mercy toward us. We see the Father’s tender heart. We see it only in Jesus’s face: His sacred infant face, His heroic suffering face, His glorious resurrected face. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor 4) His glory is to save you, that you would be saved, that you would not only come to know Him, to believe in Him and trust Him, but to see Him face to face!

When God’s hidden behind our crosses and sufferings, He isn’t behind them with the stern visage of an angry Father nor the grimace of wrathful Judge. He’s on heaven’s throne with smiling face. We only know that, believe that, trust that because we see Jesus’ face: in a manger, on a cross, risen from the dead. He promises that you will see Him face to face forever. He promises that as He brings you near not only to see, but to eat and to drink: “My body given for you, My blood shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.”

(Conclusion.)

There’s so many amazing things that they saw that first Christmas! There’s a great many things that we look forward to seeing during the Christmas season, too. Not just lights or trees or presents, not just family we do see or those we want to see… Christmas has to do with God seeing you, and then with you seeing Him.

GOD SEES ALL OF US IN CHRIST, AND WE SEE ALL OF GOD IN HIM.

He does see you in Christ: forgiven, righteous, holy in Him. You are in Christ—by faith, by baptism, by communion. (Can’t separate any of those…) And you see all of God in Christ: not only that Christ is God, but you see God’s tender heart in Him.

With eyes of faith we see today. We believe that the angels are here, that our heavenly Father is here, that Christ is here, that those we long to see are here, too! “Angels, archangels, all the company of heaven.” They gather with us, as we gather around Jesus to rejoice in and to receive His redemption and salvation at Communion. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Cor 13)

Merry Christmas!

᛭ INI ᛭