 This morning, we're beginning a new section in the Sunday School series on the glory of God for those here I have Handouts and For those online I posted it I posted it in Slack I've already discovered several mistakes with my typing but I hope to remedy that for the next week and Continue moving this morning and to begin with at the top I've introduced this the this portion of our study, which is going to be on the synoptic Gospels that means Matthew Mark and Luke I've chosen the text Luke 2 14 and Matthew 17 5 to introduce it because Those texts are dealing with a manifestation or word glory and Are key to what we're going to be looking at So glory to God in the highest and on earth peace goodwill toward men and Next while he was still speaking behold a bright cloud overshadowed them and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud saying This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased Hear him The scripture above serves to introduce the lesson however before we get into the lesson outlined below I think it is important to stress the place of Christ in the Bible in The place of Christ and redemptive history particularly as the agent of God's revelation if you will look down at the scripture memory verses at the end of the handout and One of those verses is John 1 18 No one has seen God at any time The only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father He has declared him That's tech serves to help remind us of the essential Indispensable agency of Christ in the revelation of God In Hebrews 1 it says that God has in these last days spoken to us by his son and Jesus told Philip in John 14 9 he who has seen me has seen the father So how can you say show us the father and I was telling Michael this earlier in the week But I remember reading and I can't find the the source But I remember reading biblical theology on redemptive history and the author was just bringing out how their So much pointing forward in the Old Testament to the coming of the Messiah and what he would accomplish in the name of God and Then after the resurrection and ascension so much of the New Testament is Explaining what happened when Jesus Christ was on earth in his humiliated state and what would come to pass in his second coming as well as explaining what the church is for and its purpose, but much of the Bible I would say It's almost Like you can't go too far with it because Jesus said you search the scriptures for in them You think you have eternal life, but it is these that testify of me So all these texts Should help and serve to remind us that we need to pay special or close attention To the life of Jesus Christ to his words and I don't mean that to the exclusion of the rest of scripture. It's all Equally and air and infallible but There's a reason why we have four Accounts of the same ministry of this one person because this one person is the only begotten of the father so I'm hoping that our Fly by of the Gospels Lead to your edification and further equip you to seeing God's glory through Christ in the New Testament And now I Want to give you some limitations of this approach So what I'm planning to do is not look at this in a canonical format That means Matthew first mark next in Luke then John Because they're often overlapping so much since they're synoptic. I Would be repeating the same accounts. So what I've chosen to do is take events Major events like the incarnation the birth narrative and Look at them together on that and then do so with the Transfiguration the second coming and on to the cross and the resurrection and That way it might go easier in our understanding of how the it's arranged But I'll be using Luke ahead of Mark and Matthew at times. So just to give you that limitation. It's more of a chronological Historically speaking rather than canonical approach And I haven't put in the cross into this handout or the resurrection Because I'm going to set that aside for the study with John which would be the third week from now So if you're wondering where is the cross, you know It's going to get it almost a lesson all on its own. So that's coming and then The main Skeleton or railroad tracks were running on to to grow and to study the glory of God and the synoptics is basically looking at the word doxa Which is the Greek word for glory or it's the Greek word translated for glory and then the Septuagint Will translate kaboad or k-bowed Into doxa. So even the Septuagint uses that Hebrew word that Noel was teaching on and To doxa. So that that's a key word that I think is helpful, but it is limited when we do a word study Or where we're kind of tying yourself to one word We're limiting ourselves. So I want that to be known out front and I even put a warning later on So having said all that Let's move to the the lesson First of all point one God's glory revealed in a key word doxa. That's a transliteration I didn't put it in the Greek form The semantic range is Fairly broad when you start to look at its usage in the New Testament or the synoptics when you look up a Authoritative source on that Greek word the B dag you get three general definitions for the word doxa One is the condition of being bright or shining and Can be translated radiance or brightness the second definition that this dictionary gave was a state of being magnificent or greatness or splendor and then definition three was When you Glorify or glory you honor as enhancement or recognition of status or performance like You would use this word and translate it you could translate it in this usage recognition renowned honor fame So with those three in mind and those we're not limited to those Men make dictionaries and they seek to observe what usage is in whatever literature They're looking at and try their best to give you a faithful representation of what they think that semantic range is But they are fallible We must tie ourselves to scripture. We must not Pigeon hole ourselves into a dictionary and say that the Bible can't operate outside of that because men said it had to operate within it No, if if you're seeing something in context and you're using proper hermeneutics from the Bible and you see I don't see this in the Dictionary that's a warning But it's not necessarily a stop so Let's look at us some usages of this word just to get familiar with it Matthew 4-8 and Then we'll look at the birth narrative And I'm gonna move pretty fast through these narratives since we started a little late or through this Ute this survey But in Matthew 4 verse 8 we see the word doxa Again, the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and their doxa I'm gonna continue to use that word doxa because it helps it helps Introduce something foreign to your ears and it kind of prevents you from Investing everything with all your knowledge of the word glory just to remind you to think Biblically and to go to the context and think about it So in this sense, I think it gets me and what the devil was trying to do was show Jesus the greatness or the state of the magnificence of All these kingdoms as a whole and and and as a whole looking at these kingdoms their immensity because he He the kingdoms of the world and their glory So it's looking at all of them in that sense go to so that that's an usage of the word doxa go to Matthew 6 13 and this is Jesus's Lord's the Lord's prayer and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen That's Not an easy one to interpret Yours is the glory however, it is in line with kingdom and power so I think it's Relevant or in the context Focusing on this attribute of God's power or His power being pronounced in the summary of his attributes And Sometimes the word glory gets that connotation When used in the Bible and This is a time where one of those three definitions I gave you a dictionary don't really fit very well Yours is the kingdom and the power and the and the Magnificence forever and that could be it, you know But I I'm not a hundred percent on that one I just am giving you what I understand from context that I think it's relevant to his attributes and if we had to To try to use one of those definitions that would be more like magnificent or greatness Go to 629 and Yet, I say to you that even Solomon and all his doxa Was not arrayed like one of these the lilies of the field and how God closed them with Solomon When Jesus references him he was at the height of Israel's glory The kingdom of Israel What had when it had Solomon at the height of his His reign he was in dued with him and Given wisdom from God He was blessed with riches of abundance to where Precious metals were considered like rocks And people from afar wanted to come and hear of Solomon and I think in this sense the word doxa is speaking of that second definition He was in a state of greatness and splendor a state of magnificence at the height of Israel with their order their possessions his wisdom just being noble Go to Mark or no Matthew 24 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son coming on the clouds of heaven with Power and great glory This another one is difficult with it's a combined with great and power. So It's coming when Christ is coming in great power and great glory Other texts say he comes in the glory of his father so if I had to Speak of this one again, I would probably if I had to use the B-dag I would go with number two But I think it's more than just being magnificent. I think it has a sense of him coming to reign and Take power it's not just a sense of him being great, but him actually Coming with a certain authority and power to fulfill that Coming Mark 8 let's go to mark now and just look we're just still looking and surveying this use of the word 838 For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him the Son of Man will also be Ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels That one's similar. He's coming in the glory of his father Again, I would say that this is not brightness or bright shining It's not him having recognition or fame. It's dealing with his greatness and his splendor and Luke chapter 2 verse 9 and Behold an angel the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were greatly afraid That takes on a different sense. I hope you can see that it's not coming in the greatness of something It's using a shone and That word shown there we can look as used one other place and probably be able to pick it out once we get there but That one I would say it probably falls more in the line of definition one where it's like the condition of being bright or shining or radiance Similar to the shekinah glory or the glory cloud on the mount of Transfiguration though, maybe not identical. It just says it's shown around them So it's some external manifestation that God is choosing to act to give weight and Gravity to the situation and the words being spoken I'm just gonna stop there you you're getting a sense now of this word doxa. I have a warning here word studies are necessary That's kind of what we're doing. We're running along this track of this words are out its key uses and We might get a really good grasp of this word, right? Well, we're studies are necessary and helpful, but they're limited They are limited by the author's contextual usage or use word studies help build help build a systematic doctrine But do not usually explain the whole of a doctrine Also authors do not always use the same words to describe the same thing For example mark uses the word doxa glory in mark 1037 Whereas Matthew of the same account Uses the word Basilea kingdom and Matthew 2021 so take a look at Matthew 2021 and He said to her what do you wish she said to him grant that these two sons of mine may sit one on your right hand and the Other on the left in your kingdom Basilea kingdom, but look at mark go to mark 1037 They said to him grant us that we may sit one on your right hand and the other on your left in your glory so mark has chosen the word doxa whereas Matthew chose the word Basilea kingdom and What that helps to teach you or to remind us is that if we just focused on doxa and say well I got a good understanding of the of the word of the the definition of glory and the new test are in the Synoptics well, did you know sir that your understanding is limited now because the authors will address that concept with other words and Sometimes not necessarily with one key word, but with a whole series of words or imagery So there's a lot of ways in which the Bible can reveal to us the glory of God and The way we are taking is helpful It will help us build a systematic doctrine, but it's limited and we just need to recognize that as we go along And Interesting Matthew doesn't use the word doxa a whole lot very limited John He's just like a whole bunch like if you look at a list of all you say John He just takes them up Luke. He's pretty good, but Matthew and Mark very little But but Matthew uses the word kingdom a lot So I'm just giving that to help us. I don't want to just Give you a fish. I want to I want us to be helped to know how to fish God's okay, so let's look now at the birth of Jesus God's glory revealed in the birth of Jesus And we're gonna look at that word doxa in some key places some key primary text So let's start with Luke to nine and Behold an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord Shown around them and they were greatly afraid That's the text. That's the word glory We want to grow in our understanding of the glory of God and we want to use this text in context and thinking about the birth narrative to Lord willing Grow in our adoration and knowledge of God that our communion might grow So first of all they were greatly afraid when this event occurred The angel an angel of the Lord appears to them. These are shepherds Think about it from the perspective of the angels who are getting ready to worship they have been waiting and looking into these things and They are one is given the privilege of delivering a message to these lowly shepherds and It is a glorious day to be able to have the privilege of Serving God Almighty and go deliver this message that has been long awaited and They come to him and they immediately say Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields keeping watch over the flock by night and behold an angel The Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were greatly afraid and the angel said to them Do not be afraid for behold. I bring you good tidings of great joy Which will be to all people For there is born to you this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord and This will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger and 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 These angels are praising God and the reason why is the content of the message is What God is doing and who it is that has come? it is in The city of David a savior Who is Christ the Lord and Initially when this happens the shepherds are greatly afraid This is a common response to a manifestation that God chooses to give of his own glory He has in transit glory, which he possesses apart from any show or display or extrinsic working of it but he in that glory extrinsically Manifests his name to others through displays of works and words and people and things and Even this this light Which I doesn't say light it says the glory of the Lord So I'm not a hundred percent what that means but it's the glory of the Lord is shining around them and this angel in his angelic majesty is standing before him in whatever way the angel appeared and They're greatly afraid If you look at Matthew 17 6 and when the disciples heard it They fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. What did they hear? Verse 5 while he was still speaking behold a bright cloud Overshadowed them and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud saying this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased Hear him and when the disciples heard it they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid the gravity of the situation the holiness power and Intrinsic glory which God is and possesses When manifest in however way he chooses to manifest it in these ways is when it comes into contact when men come into contact with it They are terrified Absolutely terrified You look at acts 10 Verses 3 to 5 This is Cornelius in a vision about the ninth hour of the day He saw clearly in a vision an angel of the Lord coming in and saying to him Cornelius and when he observed him He was afraid and said what is it Lord? So it's not just the presence That's being manifested I think that there's this element to of our sinfulness if Adam in a state of innocence he did not run and hide until after the fall The Lord had to call out room where are you? The Lord created man that he might be a steward of his creation and walk with him commune with him and Not that we shouldn't have a healthy God honoring fear regardless of what state we're in when we have a sin nature or remaining sin it only Inexplainably amplifies and exponentially Increases the fear by adding this terror To it because we are in opposition to God's nature with that remaining sin or that sinful state so I Think it's a combination of just the glory and greatness of the situation the gravity that's being communicated through this presence the presence and startling factor of the angel and him saying these words and just that but as well a Recognition of their own sinfulness and God is a consuming fire, you know And They're afraid So this should teach us something about God, you know, it teaches us that God is gracious to reveal a manifestation of his glory in These ways to help signify the importance of situations. So God's grace is on display, but also God's holiness And God's power his righteousness And it says it's shown around them the only other place that that verb occurs is when Paul had The I don't remember the word and I don't want to go there for time sake, but he had the light that's shown around him But let's keep moving let's go to This same account, but look at a Luke 2 14 How do the angels respond to? the message Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will toward men What was it that the angel that angel the Lord Communicated in the message before the praise It was good tidings I Bring to you good tidings of great joy Which will be to all people For there is born to you this day in the city of David a savior Who is Christ the Lord? The Incarnation the son of God who is of one substance with the father Who is co-eternal co-power The equal and power and co-eternal The son of God through whom all the worlds were made Who has no beginning Has come He has come in the likeness of sinful flesh a body the father had prepared for him and He has come as it is written in the book to do your will. Oh God and he is assumed in the divine nature has assumed humanity and Without being confused They are two natures and one person and It's for the purpose of salvation It's for the purpose of mediation and the angels understand that to some infallible degree Because they praise God for it It's not just the fact that God's Performing what he promised They're praising God for the reality of this good news and on earth peace They're praising God they're thinking these these the sinners That God promised all the way back with Adam God is fulfilling it and They're rejoicing They're praising God that he's coming to manifest his power and grace Glory to God and this word doxa here isn't a Manifestation of God's glory. It's a reciprocation From the creature back to God It's not man adding to anything to God That's impossible for man to do God is unchangeable He's all sufficient I say He needs no one he never has Relationally or otherwise but God's glory is Intrinsic he possesses it and then he communicates some degrees of it and then expects and Causes it to be Reflected back through praise and worship and in doing that Of course, this is inseparable from Jesus Christ in true worship there is communion and There God's glory is manifested as well That God is a communing God And the angels are worshiping God I've thought about that before you know like I hate that when I think that way but I think about God's not needing anything and him being sovereign and glorious and all-powerful and The thoughts ran across my mind like Intemptation why does he want praise when he doesn't need it? You know, I don't know if anybody else has ever thought that but that's that thought about that, you know, and That is God isn't like How can I put it passive and self-sufficient in his passivity? He's active He's the Bible uses the words like fullness and abundant and he's just superabounding and power and infinite and grace and Of course righteousness and and those vessels of mercy he is Exercising his own works in accordance with his own nature and and bringing others into this glory to some degree through his son and In that doing that is an aspect of his glory so it's a marvelous thing and It takes us back to that our triune God Let me see we can find it real quick What time are we over with 945? Okay? Sorry, let's see it was Yeah, here we go. I saved it. Oh here we go God displays his grace and in displaying his grace. He brings glory to himself Furthermore the whole Trinitarian plan of redemption displays this goal as seen in the mutual Glorification of each person of the Trinity the glorious father sins the glorious son Who voluntarily humbles himself and glorifies the father through his incarnation obedient life and substitutionary death in Response the father glorifies the son Resurrecting him from the dead and exalting him to the highest place the father sends the glorious spirit who glorifies the son and All this were down so the glory of the father There's this this the you've heard of us being given to the son and the son Sanctifying us Justifying a sanctifying ultimately will glorifying us and then just giving us back to the father We are like the object That God is choosing to use in his love and his enter Trinitarian Manifestation of his glory and yet we're not just objects We're rational beings that God's made that we might know this and communicate with him and worship him in the midst of it so Very intimate and communal It's not it's not, you know, just Ideals that that are an abstraction to one another and they're not personal but yet those ideals are true and Unchangeable so it's you know, it's very deep, but I think that that's helpful worth saying and Giving you food for thought let's look though now at So they're reciprocating when they use the word doxa and that's a form of exultation of praise of Glorifying God they're not adding to him. They're praising him and it's it's a form of just Revealing or stating what is a reality for the purpose of Revealing his name to others not even primarily, but that's part of it But also just it's just like an outpouring of joy and of rejoice It's like you're left no other avenue but to worship him and you don't want it any other way So that's what that glory use there is Let's look at Simeon now in Luke 2 32 and then we'll close and look at the remainder Luke 2 32 a Light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel And I'm going to read before that now and behold there was a man in Jerusalem Whose name was Simeon and this man was just in devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ So he came by the Spirit into the temple and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law He took him up in his arms and blessed God and Said Lord now you were letting your servant depart in peace according to your word for my eyes have seen your salvation Which you have prepared before the face of all the peoples a Light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel So what does this word glory mean here? It's This could be translated two different ways either Glory and revelation are two different ways of describing the light or The light of to bring revelation and the glory are two different ways to talk about his salvation For my eyes have seen your salvation go to 32 a light and the glory is That what the glory is referencing the salvation or is it referencing the light? Another interpretation would say a light to bring revelation and a light to bring glory So both then then the parallelism parallelism is between revelation and glory and both of them are synonyms for light but another way is to look at it as light and glory are synonyms to describe salvation and I think Isaiah 60 verse 1 kind of clarifies it if you go to Isaiah arise and and I'm gonna read before it as for me says the Lord this is my covenant with them My spirit who is upon you and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth Nor from the mouth of your descendants nor from the mouth of your descendants descendants says the Lord from this time and forever more My covenant is with them my spirit is upon you arise shine For your light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you hear The light and the glory are paralleled And back in Luke if we ask the question does it fit contextually here? Knowing that Simeon only had his Old Testament and he according to the scriptures was looking forward To the coming Messiah and knew that the Messiah had come Knew that Isaiah 60 in that long section of prophecy was pointing to the Christ says From my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all peoples a light to bring revelation to Gentiles to the Gentiles and The glory of your people Israel. I believe that both of these are parallel the parallel is between light and glory and both of them are Synonyms for salvation and if we think about what does light do when we think of it as a figure of speech and Con in revelation like to Gentiles well the Gentiles were outside of the covenant They had not been given the oracles of God. They were ignorant of the things of God and Jesus Christ we know this this great mystery has happened when Jesus Christ comes and then ascends and the Holy Spirit's given and The the food the blanket and all the animals come down to Peter and and God is spreading the gospel out to all nations So we know that Jesus has come as a light to the Gentiles. That's a saving light a Salvific revelatory light They are ignorant blinded he grants them power by the Spirit to be volunteers and Opens their heart and minds to see his glory and the need for his salvation and and so doing they trust him and They already had occurred the benefits having been brought into union with him, but that salvation is Described as light here with reverence to the Gentiles because they are ignorant Whereas the Israel wasn't ignorant in the same way the Gentiles were So the salvation that goes to ethnic Jews not all but some like Paul or Luke that those those Jews who do Receive the salvation from Christ for them. It is their glory They had always hoped in their Messiah They always look forward and for a Jew to know This is my Savior. This is the one when I read my Bible that that was promised. He's my glory The glory of your people Israel Jesus You know Peter who was it John wrote when he this is what he wrote when Isaiah saw his glory He knew Isaiah was in Luke 12 or John 12 was seeing the glory of Jehovah who was Jesus and That Jehovah is his glory in that sense So what I'm just pointing out is it doesn't need to be reworded as light for Israel in the same way Okay, so having said that that word glory there is dealing with salvation and That's particularly the glory of your people Israel that which makes Israel Majestic is their Savior So I Hope that helps now just to Since we only looked at just a couple words in a couple places I feel like it would be disservice to not mention the incarnation and not review it briefly and Let me let me just read this The end think with me be reminded brothers sisters the Son of God The second person in the holy trinity being very and eternal God the brightness of the Father's glory of one Substance and equal with him who made the world who upholds and governs all things he made Did when the fullness of time was come take upon him man's nature And with all the essential properties and common infirmities of it yet without sin Being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary the Holy Spirit coming down upon her in the most In the power of the most high overshadowing her And so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah of the seed of Abraham and David according to the scriptures so that to whole Perfect and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person without conversion composition or confusion Which person is very God and very man yet one Christ the only mediator between God and man John Gil and giving an illustration of how the father prepares the body and and enters into covenant with a son and Sends him and the son assumes this humanity Doing the will of the father and then the Holy Spirit Overshadowing the womb of Mary and conceiving Christ in her womb the son of God Taking on the material of this woman's womb and Adding to himself humanity so in talking about all three of these he had an illustration Because all three persons are at work in the incarnation in it simple He said it's like three virgins concerned in working a garment But only one of them puts it on so This garment is worked in a sense The the the reasonable soul and body of Jesus Christ and then Jesus Christ adds it to himself and He becomes two natures in one person God's glory is revealed and one and this is also a quote or I got from Gil But here's some things that are Revealed from God in these in the incarnation God's glory revealed and one of the causes of the incarnation Namely the love of the father and of the son to mankind first John 4 9 and 10 And this is the love of God The love of God was manifested toward us that God has sent his son into the world That we might live through him and this is love not that we love but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins and Allow me to say more One end of the incarnation was and hear hear these different glories that are revealed in the incarnation To show forth the glory of God in it the glory of his grace and his kindness and his goodness to men in The mission of his son in this way the glory of his faithfulness and fulfilling the promise of it The glory of his power and the miraculous production of Christ's human nature and the glory of his wisdom and bringing it into the world in such manner as to be free from sin and and the timing The perfect wisdom of God's redemptive plan People will say it when is he coming as if it's not soon enough and some people say as If they wanted to wait longer It's perfect Everything God does in his redemptive history is perfect the time that Jesus Christ came was absolutely perfect God's wisdom is on manifest display and So fit for the purpose for which it was designed and all this that God might be glorified in his Perfections as he was by angels by Mary by the father of John the Baptist by Simeon and as he has been by Saints in all ages Luther said all praise to thee Eternal God who clothed in garb of flesh and blood Does take a manger for thy throne? While worlds on worlds are died alone Hallelujah, and we know it's it's to come to bring glory to God and to be the propitiation for our sins as it means of doing that but I'll leave it there and We'll pick up with God's glory revealed in the transfiguration and the second coming next week father in heaven We praise your name I Thank you for this study that Our elders have directed us toward and I thank you for giving them the grace and wisdom to do it. I pray that We as a congregation Would Acknowledge where we Do not take advantage of This means of edification And that you would bring that knowledge of sin to us that we might repent and grow And I thank you Lord for the study and interest and meditation and prayers Where you are preserving us through through the worship of your people and through? Bible studies such as this please help us to grow and continue to grow And we might increase in faith and righteousness and bring glory to you By being like the angels there with the shepherds and praising you glorifying you Lord. We are blind Help us to see Lord help us to Grow in our sight. No, we're not Converted blind but help us to grow. I pray these things in your son's name. Amen