Thank you. Fountain View. It’s so nice to have you here this morning. Welcome. We hope your accommodations were good and we’re looking forward to the blessings of this evening. So we want to encourage. If you are here locally, come early and get a seat as we think we will be maxing out our capacity. So it’s a rich blessing to have our schools raising our young people up to be a part of the glory of this great Advent Movement and to enhance our worship. And we’re glad this morning to have everyone. We are on the cusp of a major event here in this church which is expanding our ministry with our teaching and healing center.
And I do want to say that for those that should desire to do more than it’s already been done, it will be for the continuation and adaptation of the facilities. As our final pledges come in, we have clearly made it to the acquisition of the property. As long as those pledges come in and if more is given, it will be for the next steps. Let’s pray. Lord, our lives are Yours and we’ve come this morning to worship You. And we want to live our lives as an act of sacrifice. So now, Lord, I’m praying that these moments that we spend reflecting on the incarnation would touch our hearts and lives and make us like those whom we will discuss this morning. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
Entitled my message this morning. There’s a star in the sky. Myth or mystery? When we think about the Christmas story, it is a story at least 4000 years into a plan. We call it the Plan of Redemption. How many years in advance of that plan did the unoperated upon but agreed upon initiative, the strategy to protect a universe of free choice exist? We don’t know. We know that before the foundation of the earth, the plan was laid. But we do know this, that some four millennia into and past the fall of man, there is a small but bright light that breaks upon the Judean sky. This light brings hope to the shepherds, guidance to the wise men. And if the story is true, continues to light the experience of the modern landscape of life on planet Earth.
This morning I want to talk to you about worldview. If this story is true, there are none that can equal it in glory and awe. If this story is false, then none can equal it in deception and disappointment. What I want to do is I want to step back and look at the worldview through the eyes of the angels. This morning I want us to examine the plan of redemption.
Not so much as its recipient, but I want to examine the plan of redemption through the eyes of those that would cooperate with Jesus to make our hope a reality and to give a season, an experience, a time of year, its meaning. Now, we know that Jesus was now born on December 25, and we know we’re not to celebrate this season exactly like everybody else. But we do know from the spirit of prophecy that failure to celebrate the season leaves the wrong message with all the people of this planet. So while we are not of the ilk that is focused simply on the festivities, which have become very materialistic, we are to be the leaders in what it means to worship and stand in awe of a God who would become a man and pay the price for humanity. So let’s step back for just a moment and let’s get a worldview through the eyes of the angels.
Now, I’m not going to go all the way back to the war in heaven because the war in heaven predates the experience of our redemption. But I want to start from the angel’s point of view, what it was like after Eve and Adam took the fruit. Reading from patriarchs and prophets, page 63, paragraph one, she writes, “the fall of man filled all heaven with sorrow. The world that God had made was blighted with the curse of sin and inhabited by beings doomed to misery and death.”
Now we tend to think of heaven as a place where only there is joy and celebration. But the full spectrum of emotion that’s manifest in the heart of those made in God’s image here is manifest in the life of the inhabitants who have never fallen and who stand in the presence of God. There appeared no escape for those who had transgressed the law. Angels ceased their songs of praise, and throughout the heavenly courts, there was mourning for the ruin. The Synod rod. Imagine if you had survived the war in heaven. Two thirds of the angels left behind, loyal to God, only to watch with an unmitigated interest, the dialogues, the deception of the devil, Eve at the tree, all heaven looking on. They’re listening to lie combined with truth after lie combined with truth corrupted by falsehood.
And finally, when she takes of the fruit, the apprehension of heaven is great, but not complete, for she hurries away from that tree, finds her husband, and there holds in her hands an invitation to something very different than the temptation and sin she just experienced. It’s not deception that Adam is dealing with, it’s separation from her as he contemplates for how long, we don’t know. He chooses to take the fruit without deception and chooses Eve as now an idol in his life over the God who created the love that they’ve shared together.
And now all heaven is filled with sorrow. There are people who in these holiday seasons find no joy. They can only see ruin in the future. And that feeling was all throughout the ranks of heaven. There are two chapters that everyone should read during this time of year. They’re both out of the conflict of the Ages series. And by the way, if you’ve not read that series, you’re missing out on the best theological education outside of the Bible that you can get. If you want to read two chapters that especially address the experience of the angels in the plan of Salvation, read chapter four in Patriarchs and prophets entitled the Plan of Redemption. And read chapter 79 in the Desire of Ages entitled it is finished. Chapter 78 is about Calvary. But Chapter 79 especially looks at what just happened on the cross through the eyes of the angel.
These two worldviews are the one I want you to think about this morning. Jesus gathered all the angels in heaven, and He explained to them what would happen. The plan by which alone salvation could be secured involved all of heaven in its infinite sacrifice. It wouldn’t just be the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. It was going to be all of heaven.
Ellen White goes on to write, the angels could not rejoice as Christ opened before them the plan of redemption, for they saw that man’s salvation must cost their Commander, their loved Commander, unutterable woe in grief and wonder. Listen, we can read over these things very rapidly. But if the person you love the most told you they were stepping out of your life and stepping into a perpetual blender meat grinder of sorrow and sacrifice and rejection, and many for whom it was made would reject Him, reject the One you love. Then, in grief and in wonder, you would listen in the same way they listen.
They listened to His words as He told them how we must descend from heaven’s purity and peace, its joy and its glory and its immortal life, and come in contact with the degradation of earth to endure sorrow, shame and death, He was to stand between the sinner and the penalty of sin. Yet few would receive Him as the Son of God. He would leave His high position as the majesty of heaven, appear upon earth and humble Himself as a man, and by His own experience would become acquainted with the sorrows and the temptations which man would have to endure.
All this would be necessary in order that He might be able to comfort those that are tempted. When His mission as a teacher should be ended, He must be delivered into the hands of wicked men and be subjected to every insult and torture that Satan could inspire them to conflict. He must die the cruelest deaths lifted up between the heavens and the earth. As a guilty sinner. He must pass long hours of agony so terrible. Listen, they’re all listening. Jesus is explaining this.
I want you to see the endless sea of angels listening to Jesus tell this. He must pass long hours so terrible that angels could not look upon it, but would veil their faces from the sight. He must endure anguish of soul, the hiding of His Father’s face, while the guilt of transgression, the weight of the sins of the world should be upon Him. Now listen, when I’m driving up and down the road, every once in a while, listening to national public radio, every once in a while they have something that comes on, could be on the nightly news, which occasionally I get to watch, but I can hear them saying just a warning. The next things you are going to hear will involve things that might not be suitable for children or might be difficult for you to listen to my paraphrase.
And oftentimes I reach up and I hit the off button, because just because it’s true doesn’t mean I need to listen to it. And there’s some terrible things in this world. But I want you to understand. The angels are being told by Jesus there’s going to come a moment when it gets so dark that you’re not going to be able to watch what the ones I created do to Me.
And what was their response? She goes on to write that the angels prostrated themselves at the feet of their Commander and they offered to become a sacrifice for man. Listen, every single person listening to me here today, whether you like it or not, has been appointed by God, an angelic being, a living, breathing, heavenly citizen to follow you through life. And where they have the potential, where it’s not outright rejected, and even sometimes when it is by Divine directive from God, they intervene in your life to make sure that you don’t plunge yourself into the abyss of manmade, self made misery.
Every single one of those angels, which means the one that’s going with you day by day, offered to lay down their life for you, just like Jesus. I want you to think about this. Your guardian angel would have died in your place. Your guardian angel is never sleeping. They’re constantly paying attention to you. They are nothing but a character extension of the heart of the one who created them. For all of heaven lives, to love, to serve and to suffer.
They prostrated themselves at the feet of their commander and they offered to become a sacrifice for man. But an angel’s life could not pay the debt. Only He who created man had the power to redeem him. Yet the angels were to have a part to act in the plan of salvation. I want you to hear the silence. I want you to look in the faces of those angelic beings. Their eyes are wide open. They have offered themselves on behalf of earth, following the lead of Jesus. And Jesus has to nicely explain to them that this could never be. Jesus is going to pay the price as their Creator for all, including the ones that will reject Him.
And Jesus will do more. For it’s not just about the substitution of the innocent for the guilty. It’s about an explanation of what is deep in the heart of God, who He really is. Finally, after Jesus explained to them what this would do, the mood in heaven changes. Then joy, inexpressible joy, filled heaven. The glory and blessedness of a world redeemed outmeasured even the anguish. And the sacrifice of the prince of life through the celestial courts echoed the first strains of that song, which was to ring out above the hills of Bethlehem. So lest we think that the shepherds heard the first verses, let us be certain that in heaven, the words of Luke 2:14 were proclaimed throughout the ranks of the heavenly host. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill towards men.
She’ll go on to write with a deeper gladness now than in the rapture of the new creation. The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy,Job 38:7, did you catch that? When Jesus finished saying, let there be light. When Jesus finished finally forming of Adam from the dust of the ground, and He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, the angels, in awe, watching the creative power of God, stood and rejoiced in song. But when they heard of the plan of redemption, the glory of their song was greater.
When Satan was thrust out of heaven, he determined to make the earth his kingdom. When he tempted and overcame Adam and Eve, he thought that he had gained possession of this world because he said, they’ve chosen me as their ruler. Now I want every human being that hears this message to understand something. The last choice Adam got to make was the choice to choose Lucifer, who was now the devil, as his ruler. That was the last choice.
From that point forward, every choice was corrupted by the spirit that had ruined the heart of the Archangel Lucifer. The last choice that was available to every human being was the choice to eat from the tree. From then on, all choices while there would be, some would be under the larger context of selfishness and service to Satan, this was his last choice. Unless heaven chose to step in.
He claimed that it was impossible that forgiveness should be granted to the sinner and therefore the fallen race were his rightful subjects and the world was his. But maybe the most powerful word in the English language in some context. But God gave His own dear son one equal with Himself to bear the penalty of transgression. And thus He provided a way back whereby they might be restored to His favor and brought back to their Eden home. Now, I want you to think about this for a minute. Satan says to himself, God made the world for them. They chose to give themselves and the world to me.
Game over. There’s no forgiveness for me. There’s no forgiveness for them. This world is mine and I’ll do with it as I please. This was the world we inherited. This was the new ruler that we lauded. Watching Adam with the knife in his hand take the first sacrifice. Horror must have run through the ranks of heaven. Certainly it did. Through the heart of the Father of our race. Christ undertook to redeem man and to rescue the world from the grasp of Satan. Those are ugly words, the grasp of Satan. I want to tell you, I didn’t grow up in a Christian home. I didn’t grow up growing to Christian schools. I knew what bullies were.
By God’s grace, He saved me from becoming one by letting me be a functionary of some. And I can remember moments when some of those Bullies had me in their grasp and they were bigger than I was and they were stronger than I was. And I had to acknowledge it. I want you to see your life in the grasp of Satan. It’s not the human race. It’s you. It’s me.
I want you to sense the icy fingers of sin and addiction and lack of will wrapped around your life. I want you to sense what He has in the future for you. I want you to see every single human being wracked in the grasp of Satan and He won’t let go. And I want you to understand that Jesus was unwilling to let him stay in charge. He was unwilling for us to be prisoners of pain and misery and suffering and sorrow and grief and hopelessness and poverty and grinding want.
So, what did He do? He revealed the plan of salvation. The great controversy begun in heaven was to be decided in the very world and on the very same field that Satan claimed as His own. And for 4000 years you watch mankind plummet into an ever deepening, darkening experience. Greed and violence, murder and betrayal, lack of faithfulness, little children and innocent animals suffering through poor leadership and tyrannical rulership. Finally, after prophet and prophecy has been shared over the centuries, something happens. One day, a priest, a discouraged old man, receives the lot to go into the temple. And while he’s in the temple, on the right side of the altar, which is the side of favor, an angel appears.
The most glorious privilege that any human being can receive, and it’s there for you, and it’s there for me, is to be the feet that bring good news. Take your Bibles and turn over to the Book of Luke. Luke, chapter One, verse ten. And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing to the right of the altar of incense.
Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel and fear gripped him. But the angel said to him, don’t be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard. And your wife, your barren wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son and you will give him the name John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.
It’s like the June 1944 landing of the Allied soldiers on the shores of Normandy, France. Somehow in the ranks of heaven, Operation not overlord, but Lord of all the universe has begun. And the first angel has leaped out, as it were, the heavenly air force. And he has descended down into the ranks of darkness to bring a message of light.
He will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. Now, I want you to think about that phrase. That may be the most operative phrase in the whole narrative. Here’s a priest.
For a few weeks out of the year, he comes to Jerusalem. He’s given the special privilege of going in and ministering in the Temple. And while he’s there, he gets a greater privilege because the one who replaced Lucifer is going to show up and have a dialogue with him. All of his answered, perceivingly unanswered prayers are about to come to fruition. And when he says he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God, you just need to know that Israel had lost its way.
And if you think Israel is the only place where religious people with a remnant connection could lose their way, you need to think again. Just before the return of Jesus. There’s going to be the very same need. That was plenty enough aware to Zacharias. There were lots of bad other priests. There were lots of bad other preachers. There were very few true prophets. Zacharias was not only discouraged with the fact that it seemed like God wasn’t listening to him on his own behalf. But he must have had some doubt about the future of Israel. It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him.
In the spirit and power of Elijah. To turn the hearts of the Fathers back to their children. This is the last verses of the Old Testament. This is the last statement by Malachi, the prophet. And the disobedient to the attitude of righteousness. So as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Now Zacharias, who started out in fear. And is now listening with amazement. Cannot summon enough faith to believe that light can shine into this darkness. And he says to the angel, I need a little bit more proof.
How do I know this is going to happen? I’m an old man and my wife is advanced in years. And the angel answered. And he said to him, I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God. And I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you’re not going to be able to tell anybody until the day when it happens. Because you did not believe. My words, which were fulfilled. Will be fulfilled in their proper time. There may be somebody here today.
Who doubts the ability of God to turn certain things around. There may be somebody here today. As discouraged as Zacharias was. There may be somebody here today doubting this story. Is it really real? Is it myth? Or is the most glorious, celestial, cosmic ever enduring infinite mystery?
Is it really true that when it gets as bad as it is now, and when it gets worse. God Himself is going to gird on His armor and come down and hold up a standard. And the final battle is going to be gloriously won by God. Through and in and amongst His church. The answer is yes. Is it true that there are celestial beings, unseen agencies, some good, some bad. That are working havoc or hope on the face of the planet?
You bet there is. Is it true that Satan’s grasp was broken and that freedom was granted and that hope is reality. Desire of Ages, chapter 79, It Is Finished. The author states, “the archapostate had so clothed himself with deception. That even holy beings had not understood his principles. They had not clearly seen the nature of his rebellion.”
Now, I want you to think about that. It’s a good moment for all of us to humble ourselves. You think you’re smart. You think you know the data. You’ve listened to people with more intelligence and more education than you cast doubt on the scriptures. You’ve thought to yourself, it’s just a little bit too far out. I want you to understand that the angels themselves, whose minds are not limited by the debilitating effects of sin, all the way up until the cross, couldn’t really see through some of Satan’s deceptions.
So, I take you to those last hours of Jesus. She writes, heaven beheld the victim betrayed into the hands of the murderous mob. This is in Gethsemane. And with mockery and violence, hurried from one tribunal to another. It heard the sneers of His persecutors because of His lowly birth. It heard the denial with cursing and swearing by one of His best loved disciples. It saw the frenzied work of Satan and his power over the hearts of men. Heaven viewed with grief and amazement Christ hanging upon the cross, blood flowing from His wounded temples and sweat tinged with blood standing on His brow.
From His hands and His feet, the blood fell drop by drop upon the rock drilled for the foot of the cross. The wounds made by the nails gaped as the weight of His body dragged upon His hands. His labored breath grew quick and deep, and His soul panted under the burden of the sins of the world. All heaven, think angels, Arch and ordinary, were filled with wonder when the prayer of Christ was offered in the midst of His terrible suffering. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Yet there stood men formed in the image of God, joining to crush out the life of His only begotten Son. What a sight for the heavenly universe. Angel and Archangel. Satan saw that his disguise was torn away. His administration was laid open before the unfallen angels and before the heavenly universe.
He had revealed himself as a murderer. And by shedding the blood of the Son of God, he had uprooted himself from the sympathies of the heavenly beings. Henceforth, his work was restricted. Whatever attitude he might assume. Now listen to this. This next phrase is important. Whatever attitude he might assume, whatever guise, whatever logic, he could no longer await the angels as they came from the heavenly cords and before them accused Christ’s brethren of being clothed with the garments of blackness and the defilement of sin. So just imagine it in heaven. There is a place. The angels live there.
It’s being remodeled for the human race. It’s an amazing, glorious thing in heaven, after the cross, the House of God is being expanded to hold every human being that wants to live there. But those angels coming and going prior to that moment had to be confronted by Lucifer saying, what are you wasting your time for? What are you going down there for? All those people are terrible.
They can’t be won back. There’s no redemption for them. Look at how dirty and dark and defiled their actions are. I want you to see Satan. He’s always got a large, what do we want to call it? Psyops. Group of excellent, intelligent fallen angels that are waiting there to taunt those that would run the gauntlet from the gates of the heavenly city down to earth.
And as they leave, the angels that had fallen with Satan were there to taunt them about what a waste of time it was that they’d be coming down here to do anything with the human race that were his slaves and didn’t really want anything to do with them anyway. But you know what she writes? The last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken.
How dare you talk to us about how bad those human beings are. We watched you at the cross. Yes, if you’re an angel, you look at the plan of salvation with awe and wonder. All heaven and the unfollowing worlds had been witnessed to the controversy. With what intense interest did they follow the closing scenes of the conflict? They beheld the Savior under the Garden of Gethsemane. His soul bowed down with the horror of great darkness and they couldn’t do anything about it. They heard His bitter cry, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass for me.
And finally, as the Father’s presence was withdrawn. This is in the garden, they saw Him sorrowful with a bitterness of sorrow exceeding that of the last great struggle with death. It was the marvel of all the universe that Christ should so humble Himself to save fallen man that He would pass from star to star, from world to world.
Superintendent it all by His providence, supplying the needs of every order of being in His vast creation, that He should consent to leave His glory and take upon Himself human nature. It was a mystery which the sinless intelligences of other worlds desired to understand. They watched the battle between light and darkness as it waxed stronger and as Christ, in His expiring agony upon the cross cried out, it is finished. A shout of triumph rang through every world and through heaven itself.
The great contest that had been so long in progress in this world was now decided and Christ was conqueror. His death had answered the question of whether the Father and the Son had sufficient love for man to exercise self denial and a spirit of sacrifice.
Satan had revealed his true character as a liar and a murderer. And it was seen that the very same spirit with which he ruled, the children of men who were under his power, he would have manifested if permitted to control the intelligences of heaven. And every one of those angels was saying, we made the right choice with one voice. The loyal universe, she writes, united in extolling the divine administration and through endless ages, immortal minds seeking to comprehend the mystery of that incomprehensible love will wonder and adore.
There’s a song in our hymn book that says, crown Him with many crowns the lamb upon the throne. It comes to a spot where it has these words and downward bend their wandering eyes. No angel in the sky can fully bear that sight, but downward bends their wandering eyes at mysteries so great. Well, you know what? God extended the reach of His universe.
It was not only the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit who had brooded over this earth and brought it into existence through the work of Jesus. They, altogether ahead of time, had agreed that the revelation of who they were would be clear by the redemption of man. Not only did they reveal to the angels that all of the infinite universe would be involved in the redemption of man, but God sought to expand the redemptive army by asking us an act of gratitude that we would join with the angels as ones who could understand a bit beyond the angels what the joy of salvation brings. They’re singing up in heaven such as we shall never know.
The angels around the throne sing to the lamb. But the chorus of that song says, but when we sing salvation story, they will fold their wings. Why? Because angels have never felt the joy that our salvation brings. We are being invited to join ranks with the heavenly angels so that every other human being on the face of the planet can make this one decision. Is the incarnation of God to become a man a myth? Or is it a mystery?
We all better pause a little bit and make sure that we have a few moments under the dark night of the sky or sitting in a dark corner of our home, staring at the lights that have brightened the darkness. To be in awe of what Jesus did and what Jesus is doing. May we join with the angels in singing glory to God in the highest. May we sing with happiness our hearts. The chorus that was begun in heaven before Jesus became a Man.The chorus that was sung to those Bethlehem shepherds and the chorus that will be sung again in heaven when we’re all there, let’s stand together and sing the chorus that will swell to the end of time. Angels, we have heard on high.