Christmas Day

TODAY HE OPENS HEAVEN AGAIN

Text: Luke 2:13-14

Dr. Carl C. Fickenscher II

"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.'"

Wow! That must have been a scene! Imagine being one of those shepherds and catching an eye-full of the heavenly host. The whole sky filled with angels from the throne of God. The shepherds were seeing heaven opened, weren't they. They really were. Heaven, come down to the plains of Bethlehem. Heaven, laid open for them to drink in. And then, so quickly, it was gone, closed up again.

To see heaven opened is a rare sight indeed. Jacob saw it in a dream, a ladder reaching up to heaven. Stephen, the martyr, saw the heavens opened moments before he died. They're among the exceptions. For most of us earthbound souls, heaven is locked away, closed.

And yet, having heaven opened is what our faith is all about, isn't it. Heaven is what every one of us longs for most, isn't it. Well, then, "Praise God the Lord, ye sons--and daughters--of men; today He opens heaven again!" The blessings of Christmas:
 

TODAY GOD STILLS OUR DEEPEST LONGING: HE OPENS HEAVEN.
 

Could there ever be a greater Christmas gift?

I. We long to have heaven opened.

  1. Ever since cherubim barred Eden, the faithful have longed for heaven to be opened
     
    1. Certainly that's what heaven be like--Garden Eden
      1. An up close/personal relationship with God
      2. Walking with God in cool of evening
      3. Talking with Him about days' events
      4. Seeing God face/face
    2. But where there was once openness/intimacy, suddenly there was a flaming sword
      1. When Adam/Eve sinned, door Paradise slammed faces
        [Genesis 3:24]

"So [the Lord God] drove out the man, and He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life."

      1. To this day, sin bars door heaven
      2. It's as if angel still stands at gate, holding sword that turns away everyone who isn't perfect/holy
      3. Heaven closed to all who would enter stained w/ sin

Oh, to have heaven opened again!

  1. We long to have God rend heavens, come down, set all things right (Is. 64:1)

"Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down!" Isaiah prayed, "to make Your name known to Your adversaries!"

    1. You know what Isaiah wanted: God to opens heaven, come down, blast bad guys
    2. That's one of problems of having heaven closed, see
      1. Seems as if everything down here going to the other place
      2. Seems as if God so far away, not being any help
    3. If only God open heavens vent His wrath this messed up world!
      1. Bail us out our problems/worries
      2. Save us from all evil around
      3. Use His power to set things right
    4. Actually He couldn't do that
      1. Because if He'd come in His wrath way Isaiah had wanted, would have consumed us, too
      2. Happened that way once, you know (Genesis 7:11-12)

"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day . . . the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights."

      1. That's what happen if heaven opened on sinful people
  1. Still, we do long for God to open windows of heaven and shower down on us
    1. God Himself longs to do that (Malachi 3:10)

"'Prove Me now in this,' says the Lord of hosts, 'If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.'"

    1. Would we love for heaven to be opened and start raining Christmas presents!
    2. Unfortunately, sin earns the wages of death--and it doesn't get any presents
      1. God cannot affirm sinfulness, bless wickedness, as if nothing wrong
      2. Sometimes has to shut those windows to bring His people to repentance as, Luke (4:25) reminds,

"...in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months" (there was no rain) "and there was a great famine throughout the land."

We desperately need heaven opened! Above all,

  1. Heart of believer longs hear that special word that unlocks heaven: pronouncement of forgiveness (Matthew 16:19)(John 20:23)

"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

"If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

    1. Forgiveness of sins opens heaven
    2. But how could we ever hope to hear word of forgiveness when we know how sinful we are?

"Oh, come, Thou Key of David, come and open wide our heav'nly home." If that's been our hymn and our prayer through Advent, then thank God it's finally Christmas. Today He opens heaven again!

II. Heaven is opened when God gives His firstborn Son.

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

The shepherds saw more than a fabulous light show.

  1. The Christmas angels were the sign that heaven been opened
     
    1. From holy presence of God, now they were bringing that glory to earth
      1. That open access Jacob had seen in dream no longer had to be hidden
      2. The border barriers were down
      3. The travel embargoes were canceled
      4. Now it was official: heaven/earth back together
    2. Very presence of angels a visible sign of message they also proclaimed: "On earth peace, good will toward men"
      1. God at peace with earth
      2. God's good will toward human race restored
      3. God/man reconciled
      4. Sin that barred door pushed aside)
    3. Imagine being shepherds and seeing such a dramatic sign that heaven was opened
       
  2. Heaven was opened by the Son who opened the womb.
     
    1. Remarkably, we don't sense any disappointment among shepherds when angels disappear, when view of heaven taken away (15)

"And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, 'Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us."

      1. What make of that? (glimpse heaven opened before them suddenly taken away, don't seem mind)
      2. Why not?
        1. Perhaps because understood heaven hadn't been closed once more at all--it stood open
        2. Or rather, it lay open
        3. Angels just sign of heaven open
    1. "This thing which is come to pass"--the real thing--(heaven opened) was still there to be seen lying in a manger
      1. Real opening of heaven was when God opened heaven to deliver His infant Son into world
      2. Heaven was opened when a little firstborn Son opened the womb of Mary
      3. No coincidence God told OT people: (Exodus 13:12)

"You shall set apart to the Lord all that open the womb, that is, every firstborn . . . male shall be the Lord's."

      1. Today He opens heaven again when gives us His own Son, His firstborn Son, His only begotten Son
    1. This is way--only way--heaven could be opened to us
      1. Jesus opens heavens/descends to us, leaving great big gaping hole through which someday ascend to Him
      2. "He opens us again the door of Paradise today; the angel guards the gate no more. To God our thanks we pay!"
      3. Here's relationship Eden restored: in God showing His face, coming to walk/talk His children
    2. This is way--only way--He could rend heavens/come down, set things right:
      1. To come first in gentle way, way wouldn't destroy us
      2. Not bringing God's wrath/punishment on evildoers
      3. But instead taking God's wrath/punishment for all evil/our evil to cross
      4. That's way God makes things right:
        1. By bringing forgiveness/reconciliation
        2. Someday taking us to new world where no evil/everything is just
    3. Meantime, Christ is one who makes possible all good gifts showered from windows heaven (by taking away sin that drove us from Eden/separated from God, opened again pipeline blessings)
    4. And that--Jesus coming to bring forgiveness all sin--reason we can be assured our sins forgiven every time absolution pronounced
      1. There's word that stills our greatest longing
      2. "Your sins forgiven"
      3. "Heaven open to you!"

I am so glad when Christmas comes; Let anthems fill the air! He opens wide for ev'ry child His paradise so fair.

I'm so glad it's Christmas.

 

This Page Was Last Revised: 31 January, 2000
©2000 Concordia Theological Seminary