“The Glory Of Christ” (Part One)

With Thanksgiving behind us, Christmas is surely lurking on the horizon, making this an appropriate time to calibrate our thinking about this, the “most wonderful time of the year.” To do that, I would suggest that we examine the familiar Christmas story again, but from a different perspective.

Somewhere in the midst of the ringing of the bells (whether they be “Jingle Bells,” “Silver Bells,” or “Jingle Bell Rock”) there are a couple of threads that  seem to be at the heart of our celebration (culturally) every year at Christmas. We hear (and sing) a lot about…

Love, Joy, Peace

And all those are elements of the story. Unfortunately however, they are elements that fall short of the true central issue. As we celebrate together today and the next couple of weeks, I would like us to think about that central issue behind all the other elements of Christmas. That issue?

GLORY

I don’t want to imply that the theme of “glory” is entirely absent from our celebrations (Handel’s Messiah declares “And the Glory”)- I just want us to pull it to center stage.

What is it? The word “glory” (Heb.- kabod) means “weight” or “splendor” (2 Cor.4:17- “an eternal weight of glory!”). It is a word that seeks to envelop all that is wondrous about the living God and give it its due significance in our thinking. So, again, what is it? What is glory? Two basic perspectives…

• Person- in the person of God, glory is the sum total of the perfection of all God’s attributes (Ex.33:18,19);
• Presence- the very essence of who God is- not just how we perceive Him to be. This is not a relative issue, but an absolute one- for God is God and can never be less or other than what he is in His glory!

With that in mind, how is that glory manifested? Again, two elements are involved…

• Innate- this is the inherent glory that is part of God character. It can never be diminished or added to, because it is perfect.
• Enhanced- what we do to give glory to Him as we live in His Name in the world.

We need to recognize the simple truth that is basic to the Westminster Catechism- “the chief end of man is to glorify God!” As we saw last week, all we do is to be for the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31)- so we begin to consider that glory this morning as we pursue the glory of Christmas in “The Glory of Christ.”

The Glory of God

God’s glory had been displayed before men for all time! Notice…

A. In the Garden (Genesis 3:8)- they had continual fellowship with the person and presence of God until that fellowship was broken by the first episode of sin. The result was that they hid their faces from Him and rejected His glory, a glory…

1. Manifested in Creation (Psalm 19- “The heavens are telling…”)
2. Manifested in Relationship- His personal presence

B. On Moses’ Face (Ex. 33:14-19)- Moses asked for help in handling the 2 million children of Israel, and God’s response was to give him a glimpse of glory! The result? When Moses returned from the mountain, his face was aglow with the glory of God- but again the people reject God’s glory, desiring Egypt over God, and spend 40 years in the wilderness!

C. In the Tabernacle (Ex. 40:34-38)- in spite of their rejections, God manifested His glory in the wilderness for 40 years- in the tabernacle, in the cloud, in the fire! But, they became idolatrous – even turning the ark of the covenant into an idol! Result? 1 Sam. 4:21- “Ichabod! The glory has departed!”

D. In the Temple (1 Kings 8:10) When Solomon built the temple, again God’s glory was made known- but again it was rejected. What was the problem? Romans 1 has the answer…

“Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:21)

In the overwhelming evidence of the glory of God- men rejected God and refused to give Him glory! So what did God do? Track Ezekiel 8:3-16ff. In Ezekiel 8, there were four elements to the sins of Israel-

• Idolatry (v.5)
• Idols polluting the walls of the temple (v.10)
• Sexual worship of Tammuz (v.14)
• Worship of the sun (v.16)- in the temple!

The result? Watch as God’s glory departs from the Temple- and from Israel…

1. From the cherubs to the threshold (9:3)
2. Threshold to courtyard (10:4)
3. Courtyard to high above the temple (10:18)
4. To Mount of Olives (11:23)

From there to heaven! The priests would claim, “I have seen it”- but they had seen nothing. In fact, so severe was the absence of the glory of the Lord that Isaiah has to be taken to heaven (Isa.6) to visualize the glory of God!

Tomorrow, we will see the next aspect of the glory of God that should prepare our thinking for the celebration of the birth of Christ…