Son of Man | O Come O Come Emmanuel - Isaiah 7 | December 15

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Well, good morning. Glad to be with you guys again this morning.

From the onset, I'm excited. I'm looking forward to the end of the service where

I say, worship team, if you could come up.

That's just going to be funny. You don't have to add that to the podcast.

Well, it just made me laugh this morning.

No, good morning. This Sunday, as Eric did last week, he said it's going to

be a little bit different and he had candy. I don't have candy.

Sorry, kids. I know. And Julie.

Yeah. Yeah, Julia was saddest about that. But last week, Eric definitely covered

the Hebrew scriptures and how it pertains and points to Jesus as the son of man.

And so this week is a bit of a response to that. It's actually kind of a hybrid,

an amalgamation, you might say, of a normal Sunday and a prayer and praise Sunday.

It's not going to be as prayer and praise as a prayer and praise Sunday,

but it's not going to be as normal as a normal Sunday.

Anyway, so that's the background. But what we're going through right now is

we're looking at Jesus as the son of man, the human one who takes the place

of humanity on the throne that God created for them when he created them, created us.

And so, Eric, last week, he covered how Jesus, when he says he is the son of

man, what does that mean when it comes to the ancient or the Hebrew scriptures?

And so today, we're going to be looking at it from the lens of an ancient hymn,

a common hymn for us right now called, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.

We're going to be looking at learning and experiencing this hymn together.

And it's filled with the language of the Old Testament prophecy.

The hymn itself has its roots to the seventh or ninth century.

Different people say different things. And it was originally written in Latin.

And it's based on seven prayers known as antiphons.

These antiphons are prayers said before a scripture reading.

And so there's seven that we're going to explore today that make up the now five.

And actually it became, it was seven verses then became, or seven prayers became five verses.

And now other people have said, well, why don't we make it seven?

And then some people are like, well, why don't we make it eight? Right?

So we're going to be looking at those today. And these prayers,

each one of them says, come, and then something, come Lord, or come Emmanuel, come key of David.

And so these are necessarily Advent prayers.

Advent, the season that we're in right now in the church calendar,

is the season of anticipation.

It's the time period where we as a church go back and we put ourselves in the

shoes of the ancient Israelites, the ancient Jews that were waiting for their coming Messiah.

They were waiting for the son of man to come and redeem and restore all things.

And Advent, which means arrival or beginning of something or someone,

is actually where we get our word adventure.

And we often think of Advent as we're going to light these candles as a season

preparing for the coming of Christ as a babe 2,000 years ago.

But as many of you know, we actually also are preparing for Advent.

As we participate in Advent, we're preparing for the coming of Jesus.

Once again, and he's going to restore all things.

So simultaneously, we are looking at the arrival of Christ as a babe and his

second coming when he will make all things right.

And so for the next few minutes, what we're going to do is we're going to look

at these seven antiphons from the Latin prayers.

We won't read them in Latin. We'll read them in English. I'm going to give a

little bit of background for each of the different ideas behind it.

We're going to look at the scripture that supports it. And then we're going

to pray the prayer together.

And so it'll be up on the screen, not yet, but it'll be up on the screen.

And we'll pray and then we'll keep going.

So, the first one, O Sipentia or wisdom, it highlights Christ as the wisdom of God.

And it's partly based on Proverbs 8.

But Dallas Willard, theologian and philosopher, he says that we often think

of the smartest people in the world.

We think of Einstein or we think of, I don't know, who are some other smart

people? That's all I got right now.

I don't know. No, we don't think that. Thanks though.

But we think of these really smart people, but is Jesus in the conversation

for smartest people in the world?

And oftentimes he's not. Oftentimes we think of other people,

maybe Oppenheimer. He might be because he's very smart. Also problematic.

So anyway, but Jesus necessarily is the smartest person to have ever lived.

He is the wisdom of God made flesh.

And so Proverbs 8 says, does not wisdom cry out and understanding lift up her voice?

Oh, you simple ones, understand prudence.

Counsel is mine and sound wisdom.

I am understanding. I have strength. By me, King's reign and rulers decree justice.

I love those who love me and those who seek me diligently will find me.

The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way before the works of old.

I have been established from everlasting from the beginning before there was

ever an earth. I was beside him as a master craftsman.

I was daily his delight rejoicing always before him.

Whoever finds me finds life.

These are a bit of excerpts from the speech that Lady Wisdom gives in Proverbs 8.

She is the personification of the wisdom of God and declares that the whole

earth was ordered by this wisdom.

In wisdom, God delighted and by wisdom, the Kings rule the earth.

This opening antiphon that we're about to read, it highlights and it sets the

stage for the rest of the antiphons with Christ being wisdom personified.

Paul picks up this idea in a number of his New Testament letters when he specifically

calls Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. And then later in 1 Corinthians,

he says that Christ became the wisdom of God for us.

Jesus is the embodiment of wisdom. He is the logos of John's gospel.

Wisdom is not an ethereal idea, but it is a person whose name is Jesus.

The Hebrew scripture spoke of wisdom, longing for the world to be reordered,

to reflect the wisdom of God.

And so now we too long for God's wisdom, Jesus Christ, to order the world so

that the world, the whole earth would reflect the glory of God,

that his kingdom would be established all over the earth.

So if you wanna go to the poem or the antiphon, we'll read this out loud together.

Oh wisdom coming forth from the mouth of the most high, reaching from one end

to the other mightily and sweetly ordering all things.

Come and teach us the way of prudence.

The next antiphon is O Adonai, which is the word for Lord in Hebrew.

It is often used to reflect the personal name of God, Yahweh,

that was spoken to Moses from the bush.

This reflects on the law given to Moses from Mount Sinai.

This antiphon sees Christ as the one speaking from the bush and the great lawgiver on Sinai.

And as Moses led Israel from slavery, this Antiphon prays as we'll see that

Christ would come and redeem his people now.

Exodus 3, 2 and 14 say, And the angel of the Lord appeared to him,

that's Moses, in a flame of fire in the midst of a bush.

So he looked and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.

And God said to Moses, I am who I am. And then in Exodus 24,

he says, the Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and be there.

And I will give you tablets of stone and the law and commandments,

which I have written that you may teach them.

So this first image of the burning bush, which is a consuming fire,

that's unable to consume the tree with which it's lighting.

It has often been thought of to reflect the identity and person of Jesus being

the wholeness of God and the wholeness of man, a consuming fire that doesn't consume the tree.

This paradox is reflective of the ultimate paradox of the God-man.

Yet this image is even more complex. When the God-man, the fullness of God and

the fullness of man, Christ is consumed by death on a tree.

The God who is inconsumable becomes consumed by death.

Yet we know that this consumption is not the end of Jesus's story.

No, the resurrection is the consumption of the ultimate consumer.

Death, which affects all, is consumed by the resurrection of Christ.

And by raising from the dead, Jesus renders death powerless.

And in so doing, he comes and he redeems us with an outstretched arm.

Zachariah, in Luke chapter one, when he is rejoicing over the coming savior,

he says, blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people.

Paul in Galatians 3 talks about Christ having redeemed us from the curse of

the law by becoming the curse for us.

Jesus, the fullness of Yahweh made flesh has redeemed us, you and me, by becoming the curse.

And we are made free in him, Adonai, the leader of Israel.

What's interesting about Jesus being the ultimate law giver is we know when

Jesus comes, he no longer writes his law on tablets of stone, but on flesh.

And he transforms us from hearts of stone to having hearts of flesh.

And this antiphon, it reflects that idea and highlights Jesus as this ultimate

law giver, giving us, freeing us both from the law and into the spirit.

And so we can go and pray this together.

Oh, Adonai, and the leader of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in

the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai, come and redeem

us with an outstretched arm.

So you see what we're doing here is we're reflecting on the identity of Christ,

where we're not even actually saying the name Jesus in these prayers,

but we are reflecting on his rich identity found in the Hebrew scriptures.

And so the next antiphon, the next identity that we're going to look at is Oredix,

which translates to root.

It highlights Jesus as the offspring of Jesse. And it highlights Jesus as the

root or maybe the vine by which all branches have life. Isaiah 11 says.

Shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins and faithfulness the belt of his waist.

And in that day, there shall be a root of Jesse who shall stand as a banner

to the people for the Gentiles shall seek him and his resting place shall be glorious.

The root of Jesse, the descendant of David will one day rule the cosmos as King.

He will judge the world with righteousness and all the peoples with faithfulness.

Jesus, the root of Jesse is this promised King.

And he actually, he picks up that idea in a very unique way in John 15,

when he calls himself the vine, he says, I am the vine and you are the branches.

He who abides in me bears much fruit for without me, you can do nothing.

And it's actually only through Christ, this vine that we were able to be grafted into the family of God.

And in this, we remember as our poem is going, our prayer is going to suggest

that our cry is for Christ to deliver us, that he would delay no longer.

For we are as branches dependent on Christ the vine, the root of Jesse for all

life, nutrients, and sustenance. Let's pray.

O root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the people, before you kings will

shut their mouths, To you, the nations will make their prayer.

Come and deliver us and delay no longer.

The next one, O Clavis or key, translates or highlights Jesus as the key of David.

He is the scepter from the throne.

And as Jesus as the key, he unlocks the prison doors and he sets the captives free.

And as the scepter, Jesus extends the invitation to us to approach the throne

of grace boldly like Esther.

Isaiah 22 says, The house of David I will lay on his shoulder,

so he shall open and no one, sorry, the key of the house of David I will lay

on his shoulder, so he shall open and no one will shut, he shall shut and no one will open.

Then Isaiah 42, I the Lord have called you in righteousness,

and I will hold your hand.

I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the

Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison,

those who sit in darkness from the prison house.

This image of the key, it suggests power and suggests control over the entry and exit.

And yet the poem goes beyond just seeing Christ as holding the key,

but it calls him the key itself.

He's the one that fits perfectly into the lock.

He is the opening by which we all enter into the kingdom of heaven.

John picks up this idea in Revelation 3, when he says this about himself,

that Christ holds the key of David.

And John Bunyan, Puritan writer who wrote The Pilgrim's Progress,

picks up this idea of the key when he talks about Christian and hopeful when

they're in the doubting castle in the dungeon of the giant of despair.

To set the stage, you have this giant named Despair, and his wife is named Diffidence.

And Diffidence means shyness in approaching God or distrust in God's mercy.

And Christian and hopeful, they got there because they strayed from the path

and there was a path that looked easier and it led them straight into the dungeon

of despair and doubting castle.

And so for three days, despair wails on Christian and hopeful.

And Christian himself is even wanting to give up.

He's wanting to give in and say, there's no point. I can't, he distrusts God's

mercy. He says, I don't want to keep going.

Yet hopeful encourages him to remember the past faithfulness of God.

And it's through prayer and remembrance on God's past faithfulness that Christian

is reminded of the key called promise.

That key is hanging around his neck and he pulls it out and he goes,

I wonder, he doesn't say this, it's Puritan language. So he says,

I'm like, oh, thou, what?

Yeah, but he says, basically he says, I wonder if this key could fit into the

lock and set me free from the prison doors.

And he tries it in one door and it swings wide open.

And then he tries that same key in another door and it swings open.

And pretty soon all the doors have been opened and Christian and hopeful are

running away from Doubting Castle from the giant of despair and with his wife diffidence.

This key of promise is Jesus. He's the key that fits into the prison doors and sets us free.

Jesus himself says so in Luke chapter four, when he says, the spirit of the

Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He sent me to heal the brokenhearted and to proclaim liberty to the captives,

the recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

Christ is our liberator. He leads us, former prisoners of death and chaos into

life and light. Let's pray.

O key of David and scepter of the house of Israel, you open and no one can shut.

You shut and no one can open.

Come and lead the prisoners from

the prison house, those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

This next one might be one of my favorites right now. It's called Oh, Orion's or day spring.

We might think of that more readily as the sunrise, the spring of day.

It identifies Jesus as the ultimate light.

And Malachi 4 says, but to you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall

arise with healing in his wings.

This idea of day spring or sunrise, as we would want to call it,

beautifully and captures and enraptures us in the beauty of Christ.

That his light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.

Christ is the light and life of men. This idea actually has greater meaning

when we explore other ancient myths.

Malcolm Guy, who actually I'm drawing on a lot from his book, Waiting on the Word.

And if you're interested, I can tell you more about that later,

but he explores this idea of other pagan myths that I highlight the idea of

the human journey as a movement from sunrise to sunset.

Homer and Virgil both set their characters on journeys westward.

It's the idea of maturity that we mature from our birth at sunrise,

and then we have full strength and vigor in the apex of the sun,

and then our strength wanes in our human life, but we are more mature as the sun sets.

Christianity, however, turns that idea around.

And in Christianity, we actually go from sunset to sunrise, from west to east.

We go from death, we enter by the Christian life through death,

and we are journeying towards the ultimate light.

C.S. Lewis picks up this idea in his book, Voyage of the Dawn Treader,

which actually as I was preparing this, it clicked in my mind.

Ah, dawn treaders, that is what we are. We are treaders of the dawn,

and they're moving eastward to the ultimate sunrise, right? You have Reepicheep

who's running out or swimming, and he's swimming towards the sunrise where he meets Aslan.

Our journey from west to east or towards the day spring,

towards Christ is fully pictured in Revelation and the new creation,

where the city will have no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it,

for the glory of God will illuminate it, for the lamb is its light.

We are treaders of the dawn who are moving towards the ultimate light,

the day spring who is Christ.

We look forward to the day when Christ shall return and fully dispel darkness.

Let's pray. O day spring, splendor of light eternal and son of righteousness,

come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness.

This next one, O Rex Gentium or King of Gentiles or nations,

highlights Jesus as King of Jews and Gentiles, that all nations will bow and worship before Jesus.

Haggai 2 says, once more, and it is a little while, I will shake heaven and

earth, the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations and they shall

come to the desire of nations.

I will fill the temple with And Isaiah 49 says, Thus says the Lord,

the Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, to him whom man despises,

to him whom the nation abhors, to the servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise,

princes also shall worship, because the Lord who is faithful,

the Holy One of Israel, he has chosen you.

Jesus is the king of kings and the Lord of lords. And to him,

all the nations will come and worship.

This is the great news of the coming of the Magi. The Magi, when Christ was

born, before he even did anything, the nations were coming to worship Jesus.

Yet this antiphon, as we're about to see, it doesn't see King Jesus as distant

or removed from his people.

Rather, we see Christ as the fashioner of humanity from clay.

He's the king who got his hands dirty in the mud in Genesis 2.

His coming and taking on of human flesh, his becoming of the son of man,

the human one, reflects that same idea, that God's pursuit of mankind would

take the extreme form of love of Christ putting on flesh.

It is this very putting on of flesh and obedience that exalts Christ.

As Zach and Eric talked about, Philippians 2 reflects this beautifully as it

talks about Jesus humbling himself and taking on flesh, becoming obedient.

And it is this humility, this obedience to the point of death,

death on a cross that ultimately exalts Jesus above all as King.

And Paul even goes beyond just the King of nations coming and worshiping,

but he says the whole cosmos, those above, those on the earth and those below

the earth will come with bent knee humility and worship of Jesus. Let's pray.

O king of the nations and their desire, the cornerstone making both one,

come and save the human race, which you fashioned from clay.

And this leads us into our last one, the one we're the most familiar with.

O come, O come, Emmanuel.

God with us. The beauty in this phrase, God with us, is overwhelming.

And as Eric reflected on last week, it's almost impossible to communicate the

fullness of this idea with words.

But Isaiah 7 says, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

shall call his name Emmanuel.

And Luke adds the line, which means God with us.

Since the beginning of creation, God longed to be with humanity.

He walked with humanity in the garden.

And even after Adam and Eve fail, he decided that he wanted to continue to pursue

humanity. He met with Abraham.

He spoke with Moses, descended in the

midst of the people of Israel in the wilderness. He dwelt in the temple.

The whole movement of scripture is God's wondrous and surprising move to be with his people.

A people that rejected him and continued to reject him.

A people that choose lesser gods over him, that resists his tender drawing of them near.

It was these people that God chooses to move toward. And ultimately Christ is

the fulfillment of the withness of God.

The cry of this antiphon, as we're familiar, it's that God would come and save us.

It is an admittance of the need and of need and a correct understanding of who

Christ is, our Lord and our God. Let's pray.

Through exploring these seven antiphons, we have called on Christ to be our

wisdom, our Lord, our root, our key, our dayspring, our King, and our God with us.

And the beautiful thing about this, exploring these seven ideas is some of us

in this room probably need to really remember and reflect and be encouraged

by Christ as the key, by which we are set free.

Some of us might be encouraged and in need to hold fast to Christ being our

dayspring, the one in whom all light is found.

And still some of us might need to reflect and remember that God is with us,

that Christ is the withness of God by which we can be encouraged.

This season of Advent, as we're reflecting on the coming of Christ as a babe,

encourage and instructs us to reflect and desire and hope for his second coming.

As I've said before, his second coming when all things will be made right.

So we worship him now and we will worship him then as the God that is with us.

Thank you for listening to Mountainside Church's podcast. We hope you found

inspiration and encouragement in today's teaching.

To learn more about our church, stay connected or partner with us, visit mcboon.com.

Music.