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Good morning. My name is August Fern, and today's scripture reading is several texts from the prophet Isaiah,
as printed in the liturgy. I won't read all the numbers.
A reading from the prophet Isaiah.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel.
The people, walking in darkness, have seen a great light.
On those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse.
From his roots a branch will bear fruit.
The spirit of the Lord will rest on him.
The spirit of wisdom and of understanding.
The spirit of counsel and of might.
The spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord.
And he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes or decide by what he hears with his ears.
But with righteousness he will judge the needy.
With justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth.
With the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
In that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples.
The nations will rally to him and his resting place will be glorious.
I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David.
What he opens no one can shut and what he shuts no one can open.
There the Lord will be our mighty one.
For the Lord is our judge.
The Lord is our lawgiver.
The Lord is our king.
It is he who will save us.
From the west people will fear the name of the Lord.
And from rising of the sun they will revere his glory.
For he will come like a pent up flood that the breath of the Lord drives along.
The redeemer will come to Zion.
To those in Jacob who repent of their sins declares the Lord.
Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down.
That the mountains would tremble before you.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Morning Christ Church.
I trust that you had a happy Thanksgiving.
You all look very satiated and satisfied.
I want to begin this morning just asking this simple question.
How does the church keep time?
Or how do Christians mark time?
And very simply the church marks time by nothing else than the life of Jesus Christ.
And so after Thanksgiving every year we make this turn to the season of Advent.
Advent is a Latin term that means come to.
And we have four Sundays in Advent where we focus our attention on two things.
We focus our attention on the first coming of Christ as our Savior.
And we also focus our attention on the second coming of Christ as our Judge.
And we are using the season of Advent to prepare our hearts for Christmas.
Christmas is this wonderful, not one day celebration, but 12 day celebration that begins on December 25th.
Where we feast and we rejoice in the incarnation.
God taking on flesh and coming to dwell with us and to save us.
And that feast runs all the way from December 25th to Epiphany, which is a celebration of those Gentile kings that came and brought their gifts to Jesus as the King of Kings.
So that's how we keep time in the church.
And we could go on and talk about Lent and Easter and Pentecost, but I'll save that for another day.
The question is, how are we going to engage this season of Advent to prepare ourselves for Christmas?
Now, last week, Pastor Andrew preached on worship.
And he talked about how the Lord inhabits the hallelujahs of His people.
And how He's enthroned on the praises of His people.
And he was preaching from a text from the prophet Isaiah just before the text we read today.
From Isaiah 6.
And he preached on this great line.
And it says, at the sound of their voices, the doorposts and the thresholds shook.
At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and the thresholds shook.
And when he was talking about that, I was thinking to myself, you know, what if we sang our Christmas carols like that?
Where the doorposts and the thresholds of Christ's church shook.
And so, what we're going to do during the season of Advent is we're going to look at these songs that we know the best,
but perhaps maybe understand the least.
These carols of Christmas.
And every year we celebrate the birth of Christ with these beautiful carols.
But how many of us really see the depth of the gospel in the songs that we sing?
And what are the truths that we're singing that have made these carols timeless?
And so, as we explore these well-known carols of Christmas that were born from our joy that Christ entered our world,
I pray that you'll allow God's truth to be revealed to you in a fresh way,
just as it was on that holy night in that little town of Bethlehem 2,000 years ago.
So, here's the plan.
Each Sunday, we're going to look at the biblical foundations behind a familiar Christmas carol.
And then we're going to sing that carol together in a way that shakes the doorposts and the thresholds of our church.
Do you think we can do that?
You excited about that?
Okay.
So, let me just kind of give some background and context for today's Christmas carol.
The origin of this anonymous hymnic poem is uncertain,
but the dominant theory is that it began as a monastic chant called the O Antiphons,
which were based on lines that were sung in Latin in the 8th century.
And so, Christians have been singing these words for 1,200 years and counting.
And the first English translation of this carol,
some of you will be interested to know that it inspired some of the imagery and the names in Tolkien's saga,
the Lord of the Rings.
But I'm sorry to tell you that there are no hobbits, actually, in this song.
But you'll notice that each O in O come, O come is followed by a name or a title
that's linked to a prophecy about the Messiah, about the Christ,
in this Old Testament book of Isaiah.
And each stanza in some ways is a guided tour of a different aspect of the person and the work of the Messiah.
And so, this carol takes us into the mind of ancient Israel longing for her coming Messiah.
But it goes beyond that longing by voicing the yearning and the solemn expectancy of the church
for our Messiah, Jesus, to come again
and to consummate the history of redemption,
to establish the kingdom of God on the earth as it is in heaven,
to resurrect His people, to put the world right,
to wipe all the tears away from our eyes,
and to make all things new.
That's the Christian hope of what's going to happen when Messiah comes again.
So, allow me to read today's carol so it's fresh in our minds.
And I'm going to start with the stanzas,
and then I'll end with this repeated refrain.
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
O come, O come, thou Lord of might,
who to Thy tribes on Sinai's height
in ancient times didst give the law
in cloud and majesty and awe.
O come, thou root of Jesse, free,
Thine own from Satan's tyranny.
From depths of hell Thy people save,
and give them victory over the grave.
O come, Thou dayspring from on high,
and cheer us by Thy drawing nigh.
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
and death's dark shadows put to flight.
O come, O come, Thou key of David, come,
and open wide our heavenly home.
Make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery.
Rejoice, rejoice,
Emmanuel shall come to Thee, O Israel.
Now I want to say a few things about this carol
before we sing it.
I want to talk about the names of the Messiah,
the prayers of exiles,
and the joy of Jesus.
I want to talk about the names of Messiah,
the prayers of exiles,
and the joy of Jesus.
First of all, the names of Messiah.
I'm just going to walk you through each stanza.
The first stanza says,
O come, O come, Emmanuel.
And that's linked back to Isaiah chapter 7.
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign.
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son
and will call Him Emmanuel.
Emmanuel means God with us.
And this prophecy says that through His chosen King,
through His anointed Messiah,
that will be born of a virgin,
God will come to be with His people to save us.
The next stanza says,
O come, thou Lord of might.
And my bad that this wasn't printed here,
but if you look at Isaiah 33 verse 21,
it says,
The Lord will be our mighty one.
And then it says,
For the Lord is our judge.
The Lord is our lawgiver.
The Lord is our king.
It is He who will save us.
One of the favorite themes of the prophet Isaiah
is that when the Messiah comes,
He'll bring about a new exodus.
He'll bring about a second exodus,
an exodus that's even greater than the first exodus from Egypt.
And this stanza is telling us that the same Lord
who came in that cloud and majesty and awe at Sinai
to show us His power,
to give us His word,
to reveal His truth.
He's going to send His mighty one.
And when the mighty one comes,
the mighty one is going to be our judge
and our lawgiver and our king.
He's going to be this all-sufficient sovereign and ruler
who's going to reign over us.
And He's going to come in His reign.
He's going to win a victory for us on our behalf
and do something for us in our place.
And that's how He's going to save us.
If you just go and read that text in Isaiah 33,
you'll see about the Lord of might.
But then the next stanza says,
O come thou rod of Jesse.
Isaiah chapter 11 verse 1 says,
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse.
From his roots a branch will bear fruit.
This stump refers to the long, defunct house of David
and his father Jesse.
And if you just go back and read the Old Testament books
of 1 and 2 Kings,
you'll learn there that the rulers of God's people,
the leaders of God's people,
were pretty much miserable failures.
Except for a few partial exceptions.
And so the prophet is saying that out of this dead stump
of the house of Jesse, the house of David,
will come a root, will come a branch of Jesse.
And he will rise up and this future king will come
and he'll hold the shepherd's staff.
He'll hold the ruler's scepter
with awesome power and authority.
And I just want you to look back at Isaiah 11
that sort of describes the rule of this king,
this rod of Jesse for us.
It says,
The spirit, this is 11.2,
The spirit of the Lord will rest on him.
The spirit of wisdom and of understanding.
The spirit of counsel and might.
The spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord.
And he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes
or decide by what he hears with his ears.
He won't do anything based on mere appearances.
Rather, with righteousness he will judge the needy
and with justice he will give decisions
for the poor of the earth.
And here it is.
He will strike the earth with the rod.
This is the rod of Jesse.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth.
And with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
This king is going to come full of the Holy Spirit.
He's going to come with a rod in his mouth.
The breath of his lips.
The truth of his word.
And with that he's going to bring wickedness
and oppression to an end.
And with the righteousness and justice of God himself
he's going to lift up the needy and the poor.
He's going to do what no king has ever done before.
Our next stanza says,
O come thou dayspring.
And this is a great ancient word.
It is expressed in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 2.
It says,
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.
On those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
The dayspring is the sunrise at dawn.
The dayspring is that morning light
that comes and drives the darkness of night away.
The father of John the Baptist, Zechariah,
he talks about this in Luke chapter 1.
He says,
The rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death.
Come thou dayspring is a longing for Messiah to come
and to be the light of the world
and to drive the dark powers of sin and death
out of this world for good.
Last stanza,
O come thou key of David.
That's from Isaiah chapter 9.
Again, it's,
he says here in Isaiah 9, 6,
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And if you look down at Isaiah 22,
it says,
I will place on his shoulder
the key to the house of David
so that what he opens no one can shut
and what he shuts no one can open.
So what's on the shoulders of this Messiah?
It's the government of the kingdom of God himself.
What's on the shoulders of this Messiah
are the keys to the kingdom of God.
And what do our keys do?
Our keys close
and they lock
open doors
that have been letting all the bad things
into our lives.
Darkness,
death,
disconnection,
all these things that dominate our lives
and destroy us.
But keys also can unlock and open doors
that are keeping good things
out of our lives.
The light and the life
and the love of the creator God
and what he intended for us.
And so,
this great prophecy
is about the turning
of these keys
that only one person holds.
These keys to the kingdom of God
that can give us the security
and the safety
and the peace
that we cannot secure
for ourselves.
And that's the O antiphons
that Christians have been singing about
for 1,200 years now.
It's this great hymn of Advent,
this great carol of Christmas
that calls us
to rejoice
in these biblical names
of the Messiah.
Emmanuel,
Lord of Might,
Rod of Jesse,
Dayspring,
Key of David.
And so,
when we pray
over this next month
between now and Christmas,
I want to invite you
to take these names
of the Messiah
on your lips
and take these scriptures
about the Messiah
into your heart
and let them fill you
with new prayers
in this next season.
Let them fill you
with a hope
in this Messiah
who has come
and who surely will
come again.
That's the names
of the Messiah.
But I want to talk about
the prayers of exiles.
I want to talk a little bit
about the prayers of exiles
because each stanza
calls on the name
of the Messiah
with what I call
the O of longing.
The O of longing.
Right?
O come, O come.
Whoever's singing this song
is begging,
is begging
with a sense of desperation,
O, won't you please,
please,
pretty please,
come.
The O here expresses
a thirst of deep desire.
It's a cry of men
and women
who know that
they've come to the end
of their resources.
It's a cry of people
who are waiting
and who are looking for
and who are longing
for God
and saying,
O, come.
O, please,
come.
And each stanza
then depicts
human needs
that the first
and second coming
of the Messiah
might remedy.
So, what are some
of the human needs
in the prophet Isaiah's day
700 years before
the coming of the Messiah?
And what are some
of the human needs
in our day
2,000 years after
the Messiah
has come?
Well, we sing about it
in this great line.
We sing our need
and we say,
come and ransom
captive Israel
that mourns
in lonely exile here.
Come and ransom
captive Israel
that mourns
in lonely exile here.
You may know
that in Isaiah's day
the people of God
had been carried off
to Babylon
as the just judgment
for their sins.
So, here they are
in exile
and captivity
longing for someone
who will come
and free them
mourning and lonely
because they're far
from home
and far from God
longing for someone
who would come
and wipe away
the tears
from their eyes.
Longing for someone
who could return them
to what they were made
to be
and to do.
And in many ways,
Israel in the exile
of captivity
is a microcosm
of all of us
and our humanity.
That we too
are overpowered
by our sins.
We too
have been carried off
to a far away place
at a great distance
from what we were
meant to be
and meant to do
and here we are
in this place
where we really
can't help ourselves.
And the only
possible remedy
for us
is if God Himself
would come
in His power
and with the resources
that only He has
to, as the song says,
ransom us,
to buy us back
and to bring us home.
And this is what Jesus
says about Himself
in the Gospel of Mark,
chapter 10,
verse 45.
It's a great verse,
one that you should
probably memorize.
Jesus says,
the Son of Man
did not come
to be served
but to serve
and to give His life
as a ransom
for many.
Emmanuel is
God with us
and the reason
He came to be
with us
is to pay
this ransom
that only
the God-man
can pay.
And the Gospel
tells us
that on the cross
of Jesus Christ
that final blood
was indeed shed,
that debt
was paid
and forgiveness
was purchased
and God's wrath
was removed
and our adoption
was secured
and redemption
was accomplished.
However,
redemption
has been accomplished
but it's not yet
been fully applied.
The end
is not yet
and so in many ways
we are
like Israel
and Babylon
still mourning
in the lonely exile
of our captivity
because we live
in a sin-sick world
that's deeply broken
and we are in fact
sin-sick people
that are deeply broken.
We know this
in a really
personal
and painful way
that death
snatches away.
Disease
makes us
miserable.
Calamity
strikes.
Satan
prowls.
The flesh
wars against
the Spirit.
Sin
indwells us
and it tears
our families apart.
It tears churches
apart.
It tears
nations
apart
and leaves us
a bloody
and awful
mess.
We've not yet
been fully released
from this world
of sin
and this body
of sin
and so we mourn
in the lonely exile
of our captivity
to evil
and darkness
don't we?
We're not yet
fully free.
We're not yet
finally home
and this is why
the Apostle Paul
writes in Romans 8
he says
we groan
inwardly
as we wait
eagerly
for the redemption
of our bodies
which has not yet
come.
He says in 1 Thessalonians 1
that we wait
for God's Son
from heaven
to rescue us
from God's coming
wrath
which has not yet
happened.
He says in Galatians 5
that by faith
we wait eagerly
through the Spirit
for the righteousness
for which we hope
but which we do not yet
fully have.
And so as exiles
we wait
in the not yetness
of the gospel.
And look at
stanza 3
I love this
he says
the song says
O come thou
rod of Jesse
come this great king
with the rod of truth
in your mouth
come this great king
that defeated
Satan
by your word
that conquered
hell
that won a victory
over the grave
come thou rod of Jesse
and come apply
these things
to us.
Come and free us
from the tyranny
of the evil one
and his lies
in our minds
and in our hearts.
Come and save us
from the hellishness
of sin
that makes Thanksgiving
sometimes miserable
with our family
doesn't it?
Come and liberate us
from the grave
in our fear
of death.
Come and take
that redemption
that you accomplished
for us
and come apply
that freedom
and that salvation
and that victory
that you won for us
to our lives
and to our church
here and now.
That's what we're singing
when we're praying
this great carol
of Christmas.
So I want to talk
finally
I've talked about
the names of the Messiah
and the prayers
of people who are in exile
but I want to talk
finally about
the joy of Jesus.
I think I could do this
in a few minutes.
The joy of Jesus.
Now if you know
the tune of this carol
it's a plaintive mood
of longing.
We're going to sing it
in a moment.
You'll realize very quickly
it's not the same
as the vigorous
and bounding
Hark the Herald
angels sing
Glory to the Newborn King.
We're going to do
that one next week.
It's not the same
as the exuberant
Joy to the World
The Lord Has Come.
We're going to do that
the following week.
But the tune
and the mood
of this carol
is one of longing
one of aching
one of yearning
and waiting
and hoping.
The church needs
her vigorous
and bounding
and exuberant
songs of praise
but she also needs
to sing the blues.
Right?
She also needs
to sing songs
of lament
for a world
that's torn asunder
in Israel
in Gaza
in Ukraine
in Darfur
in Azerbaijan
the persecuted church
in North Korea
and Somalia
and Iran
even today
are torn apart.
And so we must sing
songs like this.
Stanza number four
tells us that we're
living under
gloomy clouds
of night.
It says that we're
living under
the dark shadows
of death
and so in this
miserable
terrible situation
that we find
ourselves in
what should the
church pray?
The church should pray
O come thou
dayspring
O come thou
dayspring
and rise up
like the sun
come and
disperse
our gloom
with your joy
come and
put the shadows
of our despair
to flight
with your light
come thou
sunshine of God
and illumine us
with your radiant
glory
come thou
light of the world
and warm us
with your presence
and your power
come
dayspring we pray
and cheer us up
come and cheer us
on
come
dayspring
we need you
it's a prayer
for the joy
of Jesus
to come
and flood
into our lives
to flood
into the church
and to flood
out into
the streets
of our city
and into our world
stanza five
talks about
someone who
could come
and we're praying
for this someone
to come
and quote unquote
close the path
to misery
wouldn't you love
for someone
to do this?
none of our technology
and none of our science
has fully closed
closed the path
to misery yet
has it?
wouldn't we love
for someone
who could come
and open wide
the doors
of heaven
someone who could
open up paradise
to us
so that we could
enter back into
Eden
which is our true
home for which
God created us
isn't this what
our hearts
and our world
is longing for?
what if someone
could come
and do this?
what if someone
could come
and meet us
down here
in this valley
of the shadow
of death
in which we live
and they could
as the song says
make safe
the way
that leads
on high
someone who
could take us
up to that
highest of heights
up to God
himself
what if someone
could do that?
friends the breaking
news of Christianity
and the earth
shattering news
of the gospel
is that this key
of David
that we're going
to sing about
this key of David
saw us imprisoned
behind an iron gate
of misery
he saw us locked up
behind iron bars
of condemnation
he saw us shut out
and cut off
and separated
from our home
our true home
with God
and so this key
of David
his heart
went out to us
and not just his heart
but he himself
came down
to us
to open
the door
of life
the key of David
came to lead us
through that door
to our heavenly home
with God
and to not just
lead us to God
but to close
that door
and to close
that path
of misery
not just temporarily
but forever
friends
only Jesus
holds those keys
only Jesus
holds the keys
of life and death
because only he
has passed through
death
and gone out
the other side
and so only he
can give us
the safety
and the security
and the peace
and the home
that we're longing
for
and this
world
is never
going to give
to us
and finally
I just want you
to notice
that each prayer
each stanza
is a prayer
but each refrain
is really
an answer
to that prayer
so every time
we pray a prayer
we kind of say
what the answer
to the prayer is
when we sing
rejoice
Emmanuel
shall come
to thee
O Israel
and notice
we sing
that rejoice
not with a period
but with an exclamation mark
and we sing
that rejoice
not just one time
but two times
what God's people
longed for
after century
of waiting
we now know
and we now celebrate
that Emmanuel
God with us
has come to us
and he has lived
among us
and he died
for us
and he's risen
from the grave
and he's made a way
for all of us
who trust him
to be saved
from our sin
and reconciled
to God
so that we can be
home with him
forever
amen
Jesus came
that he might
make eternal joy
possible
a joy that
supersedes
our temporary
circumstances
a joy that
transcends
our terrible
suffering
he came to give us
a joy that
nothing in this world
can ever take away
from us
and so what I want
to tell you
as we begin
into this season
of Advent
is that you can
rejoice
no matter what
you're going through
you can rejoice
because you know
that Jesus came
and as we sing
in just a moment
he surely
shall come
he shall come
to thee
oh Israel
so even as we pray
with aching hearts
and with longing
even as we sing
the blues
and cry out
our laments
to God
the ground
note of our prayers
the ground
note of our songs
is always joy
because we know
how the story ends
Jesus is coming back
to finish what he started
it's why the apostle
says that when we grieve
we grieve
with hope
it's why he says
that we're sorrowful
yet we're always
rejoicing
the carol proclaims
the first advent
of the Messiah
even as it's stoking
our longing
and our desire
for the second advent
of the Messiah
which is going to be
so much different
because when he first came
he came silently
and subtly
he came incognito
and undercover
but he's not going to come
like that the second time
the prophet says
in Isaiah 59
that the redeemer
will come to Zion
like a pent up flood
the prophet says
in Isaiah 64
that oh that you would
rend the heavens
that you would tear
the heavens apart
and come down
that the mountains
would tremble
at your presence
that's what's going to happen
when Messiah comes
again
it's going to be
this mighty
irresistible
cataclysmic
unmistakable
force
and the prophet
tells us
what is going to happen
to Messiah's people
when he comes
in all of his glory
in Isaiah 35
says
those the Lord
has rescued
will return
they will enter Zion
with singing
in fact the Hebrew says
they'll enter Zion
with loud singing
they'll enter Zion
with shouts of joy
everlasting joy
will crown their heads
gladness and joy
will overtake them
and sorrow
and sighing
will flee
away
we sing
rejoice
because when Messiah
comes
he's going to give us
this unbroken
unbreakable
joy
that's our expectant hope
that's the hope
that we have to offer
to this world
that is without hope
that Christ
is going to come
to judge the living
and the dead
that he's going to come
and establish
the kingdom of God
on the earth
as it is in heaven
that he's going to
resurrect our bodies
that he's going to put
this world right
that he's going to
wipe away all the tears
from every eye
and that he's going
to make all things
new
and so friends
let us enter into
this season of Advent
looking back
to our Emmanuel
who has come
but also looking
right now
to Jesus
who is God
with us
in this moment
and also looking
forward to the Messiah
who will come
finally and fully
on that future
glorious day
to give us
his eternal
and everlasting
joy
you ready to rejoice
so we're just going
to have a quiet moment
as our musicians come
and prepare
to lead us in song
and then we'll stand
and sing together
and we just offer
this carol of Christmas
up
in the Holy Spirit
Amen