O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

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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.

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention

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,

Isaiah 33:21

it says,

The Lord will be our mighty one.

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,

Isaiah 11:1

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.

O come thou dayspring.

And this is a great ancient word.

It is expressed in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 2.

Isaiah 9:2

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.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

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.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

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,

Mark 10:45

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

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

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

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

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

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