Do You Hear What I Hear, O Come O Come Immanuel

And today we're going to be starting a new series,

a brand new series, and we're going to do it

through the whole month of December, and I am so

excited about it. But Mariah Carey has officially fully been

unleashed on us. The Christmas season is in full effect.

Christmas lights are up, Christmas trees are up, the stockings

are all hung in a row, and Christmas playlists are

playing everywhere you go.

Sounds like a Christmas poem.

But when you hear these classic Christmas songs, are you

when you sing these Christmas carols or hymns?

What do you hear?

What do you hear when you sing these songs or

hear them? Do you hear snow falling? Do you hear presents?

Do you hear family traditions, Christmas lights, Santa Claus? Or

do you hear Jesus our Savior being born? Do you

hear Christmas? Or do you hear christ? Do you hear

what I hear? Is the name of this series that

we're doing all month of December, and each week what

we're going to be doing is we're gonna be taking

a look at a different Christmas hymn or Christmas song

and We're gonna go look at the scriptures, at the

scriptures that inspired them. And the whole point of all

of this is so that we can see Christ in

these Christmas songs. Do you hear what I hear? Do

you hear Christmas? Or do you hear Christ? And I mean,

for me, when I was studying this week, it felt

a little weird at first, So it might feel a

little weird to you at first, because it's gonna feel

like we're preaching through song lyrics. But we're not preaching

a song at all. I promise, we're gonna be diving

into a bunch of scripture. We love the Bible. Here

at the Roots, we love the Bible. So we're gonna

be diving into a bunch of scripture the whole time.

And we're gonna allow God's word to define our understanding

of all things, to define our understanding of all things,

and to direct us in all things.

So that's what we're gonna do today.

So grab your Bibles, and if you don't have a Bible,

we have a bunch of them at the resource desk,

and we'd love for you to take one and have

it as a gift for you.

We want you to have the Bible. You guys ready

for this? Okay?

The song that we're gonna be looking at today is

Come Oh Come Immanuel. We just sang it in the

set earlier, Come Oh Come Emmanuel. And my hope is

by the end of today that every time you hear

this song, instead of hearing all things Christmas, that you

would hear and you would think about Christ and more

specifically the hope that we have as we await his return.

That's what we're hoping for is since to have the

hope of Christ come to your mind when you hear

this song. Have you, guys, ever been in a seemingly

hopeless situation before, just desperate for a glimmer of hope,

looking for that light at the end of the tunnel?

I feel that way every time I run any more

than four hundred meters, So I'm.

Like, when is this going to end?

Lord?

Where's the finish line?

I mean, I joke and say I run for two things,

to run for my life, and I'll run to the bathroom.

But that's about it. That's all I got in me.

The record the longest I've ever run in my entire

life is a five case. That's not even that impressive.

But I do not enjoy running at all. I hate

every single second of it. And running is kind of

a silly example, but we actually have real heavy situations

that we go through, real heavy and hopeless situations that

we go through, where all we want is a light

at the end of the tunnel, just a little bit

of hope.

We just want some hope.

Well, this Christmas song is speaking from that very place

of desperation. Doesn't have the typical Christmas song vibe. If

you noticed very cheery, happy upbeat, it's not the same.

It's actually kind of a somber vibe, isn't it. Little

somber tone to it. But each verse is a cry

for Emmanuel to come. And much like the Psalms we

read in God's Word, through all the somber tones, in

all the desperation and desperate verbiage that's used, we're given

the answer to where hope is found. In the refrain

that is repeated over and over and over again. The

promise God has made is repeated for the purpose of

us being constantly reminded of that promise, and that reminder

should bring us hope. It should bring us hope A

hope that we can rejoice in. So what I'm gonna

do is I'm gonna read these I think super dope

song lyrics, and then we're gonna pray and ask God

for his guidance.

Sound good.

Verse one is Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel, and ransom

captive Israel that mourns and lonely, exile here until the

Son of God appear. And then is the refrain, Rejoice, Rejoice,

Emmanuel shall come to thee oh Israel. Verse two is

Oh come, thou Rod of Jesse, free thine own from

Satan's tyranny, from the depths of hell, Thy people save,

and give them.

Victory o'er the grave.

Verse three, Oh come thou day, spring from on high,

and sheer us by thy drawing nigh. Disperse the gloomy

clouds of night and death's dark shadows.

Put to flight.

Oh come, thow key of David, Come and open wide

our heavenly home. Make safe the way that leads on high,

and close the paths to misery. Oh come at an eye,

Lord of Might, who to thy tribes on Sinai's height.

In ancient times didst give the law in cloud and

majesty and awe let's pray God, we thank you for

this moment. We thank you for a chance to set

aside any other distractions in our mind to focus on

your word as we get into it today. God, we

pray that it's that weird. We just submit to it.

It's work in our lives right now that we get

to understand and see You better, not just in general,

but as we hear Christmas songs, that we would see

Christ in the Christmas song. So God, guide our time

as we go through your word today, let it be

sealed in our hearts and let it transform us from

the inside out.

And Jesus name, everybody said a men.

Well, I wanted to start with a little bit of

history of this Christmas song or this Christmas carol. And

this song was actually originally written in seventeen ten, and

it was written in Latin, So buckle up for a

Latin lesson you guys, remember us sweating of the oldies?

How about sweating us some old Latin jams from the

seventeen hundos. I mean, I don't think they were playing

those back in Sweating of the Oldies. But the original

title of this song was actually Venni Venny Emmanuel and

If you remember the famous saying by Julius Caesar venni

vd vichi, which means I came, I saw I conquered,

you'll see that familiar word vennie. But much like Greek

or even English, in lots of cases, for us, the

same word will take on different meanings depending on the context.

So depending on the words that are around that word

or the sentence that it's in, it will change the

meaning of the word. So when this song was written

or when it was translated by some priests in eighteen

fifty one, the title was understood to communicate not a

past action like venni vdvici I came, but to It's

not this past action, but it's actually to communicate a

longing request free Manuel to come. That's why in English

the title is Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel, And you

read the rest of the lyrics, the whole song beautifully

lines up with this. The point of this song is

simply this, Rejoice Israel because Emmanuel will come to you.

That's basically the point of this entire song, to rejoice

Israel because Emmanuel will come to you.

Now, what does that have to do with us?

What does any of this have to do with us? Well,

that's what we're going to find in scripture today. You

guys ready to dig into it? Sweet, Let's look at

the first verse of this song, Oh Come, Oh Come,

Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel or Israel If you're singing

it so, it rhymes that mourn's in lonely exile here

until the Son of God appear. This entire song starts

out with a cry of longing, a cry of longing,

longing for Emmanuel to come. But who is Emmanuel? Grab

your bibles and turn to Matthew Chapter one. Matthew, the

first book in the New Testament, That first chapter of it.

We're gonna be starting in verse eighteen. I'll give you

a chance to turn there, because it's important that we

read this and see this together. Jordan's there, who beat

him like I was first? All right, once I have

your eyes, i'll know you guys are there, sweet, Starting

in verse eighteen.

Who's Emmanuel?

Now? The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this

way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph

before they came together.

I think you all know what that means.

She was found to be with child from the Holy

Spirit and her husband. Joseph, being a just man and

unwilling to put her to shame. Joseph is like a

g like that's a g thing to do there, resolved

to divorce her quietly. He didn't want to put her

to public shame. But as he considered those things this

is verse twenty. But as he considered those things, behold,

an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph,

son of David, do not fear to take Mary as

your wife, for that which is conceived in her is

from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and

you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save

his people from their sins. All this took place to

fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold,

the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they

shall call his name what Emmanuel, which means God with us, Emmanuel,

God with us and Matthew. Here is quoting the prophet

Isaiah from Isaiah seven. So this isn't something that's like

a new thing for them. This has been spoken of

long ago. It's prophesied long ago, way before Jesus was

ever born in the flesh on earth, that he is Emmanuel,

he is God with us, or another way to translate

that is with us is God. And that's who this

song is calling out for, crying out for and longing for.

He's calling Emmanuel God with us Jesus to come. But

that verse continues to come and do what to ransom

captive Israel? The captive Israel who is mourning in exile,

a waiting for the Son of God to appear. And

if this song stops after verse one, it's a mega

depressing Christmas song. It just is if it stops at

verse one, but it doesn't thank God. But this is

the pattern for Israel all throughout history. You read through

Israel's history, it's a cyclical thing that happens. Judgment is

brought upon the people of God, the people of Israel

because of the rejection of God. The temple gets destroyed

or their place of worship gets destroyed, and they're kicked

out of the Promised Land. On repeat. This just keeps happening,

and then they are mourning as they live out their

lives as exiles and foreigners in a land that does

not belong to them. And sometimes they were actual captives

and actual slaves in these different countries. And it's in

those times that they were crying out for God to

save them, begging for God to hear them and bring

and come rescue them out of their situation. But all

that is the history of Israel. So again I ask, well,

how does this apply to us? What does this have

to do with us? How is this relevant to us today?

Why would we here in this room sing, Oh, come

Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel that mourns and lonely exile

here until the Son of God appear.

Why would we sing it?

Well, we'd sing it because all those who have put

faith in Jesus are people of God's promise and are

part of true Israel. I want you, guys to turn

to Romans chapter nine. We're going to go through a

couple spots in scripture here that are really important for

us to see to understand who true Israel is. So

let's go to Romans chapter nine, verse six. We'll start there.

But it is not as though the word of God

has failed.

For not all who are descended from Israel belong to

Israel uh oh, and not all are children of Abraham

because they are his offspring. In fact, Jesus spoke to

some of the people and said, your father is the

devil because you don't believe your father when they were

claiming to be children of Abraham. And not all our

children of Abraham because they are of his offspring. But

through Isaac shall your offspring be named verse eight. This

means that it is not the children of the flesh

who are the children of God, but the children of

the Promise are counted as offspring. So not everyone who

is an Israelite by blood isn't Israelite, is what that

verse is saying, or those verses. It's those who are

the children of the Promise. The real children of Abraham

are those of faith. They are those of faith. But

I want to keep pulling on this thread to kind

of see where it goes. I want you to turn

out of Galatians chapter three, kind.

Of jumping all over the Bible. You guys are going

to be experts and knowing where the books are by

the end of.

Todays chapter three, starting in verse seven, Know then that

it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

Know then that it is those of faith who are

the sons of Abraham. And the scriptures for seeing that

God would justify the gentiles by faith, preach the gospel

beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations

be blessed. So then, and here's really important for us

to see. So then those who are of faith are

blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Keep your

place there, because let's just scoot forward a few more

verses to verse twenty five. But now that faith is come,

we are no longer under a guardian, the guardian being

the law of God. Verse twenty six. For in Christ Jesus,

you are all sons of God through what say it loud,

through faith.

Verse twenty seven.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ

have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek.

There is neither slave nor free. There is no male

and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring heirs.

According to promise.

We're talking about who true Israel is right now, Abraham

Isaac Jacob. God changed Jacob's name to what Israel. And

then the twelve tribes children of Abraham are the true

Israelites through faith, not by blood. True Israel the children

of Abraham. Those who are heirs of the promises of

God are those who are in Christ, those who have

put faith in Jesus. So if you've done that, congratulations,

you're true Israelite.

That's awesome. You can totally clap for that.

Yeah. The beautiful thing about is that God has ransomed

you through the work of Jesus on the Cross, from

slavery to sin. He has ransomed you ransom captive Israel.

God has redeemed us through the blood of Jesus. That's

why Jesus came. Emmanuel came to save his people from

their sins and ransom them or redeem them from captivity.

And Jesus says it. Says it himself in Mark chapter ten.

You don't have to turn, there will be on the screen.

And Jesus called them to him and said to them,

you know that those who are considered rulers of the

gentiles lorded over them, and they're great ones exercise authority

over them. But it shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,

and whoever would be first among you must be slaves

of all. For even the son of Man came not

to be served, but too served, or to serve, and

to give his life as a ransom for many.

Why did you just read all that?

Jesus is telling the disciples how they should be interacting

with one another. But his argument for why is what

I want you to understand. His argument for why is

based in following his example of giving his life as

a ransom for many. That's why Jesus came. We are

ransomed by his precious blood. His death brought about the forgiveness,

forgiveness of our sins, and that is a thank you Jesus,

Praise God. Moment, listen to Romans six, verses five through seven,

For if we have been united with him in a

death like his, we shall certainly be united with him

in a resurrection like his. For we know that our

old self or the old man, was crucified with him

in order that the body of sin might be brought

to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved

to sin. So that we would no longer be enslaved

to sin. For the one who has died has been

set free from sin, or has been justified. We are

no longer slaves to sin because of what Jesus has

done because of what Jesus has done, we're no longer

slaves to sin. Believers, those who have put faith in

Jesus have been set free or ransom, from the bondage

of sin, from the guilt of sin, from the shame

of sin, and from the consequences of sin.

This is really really good news.

Come, oh, Come, Emmanuel, rescue your people from captivity, your

people who are mourning and alone in exile. That's just

me putting a modern spin on the lyrics. But are

we in exile right now? What even is exile? In exile?

Someone has been removed from their homeland, someone who is

so journeying in a land that isn't their own home,

a stranger, a foreigner. So let me ask, is this

earth our home? No, this earth is not our home.

Are we of this world?

No?

Bible says it's opposite, says we're not of this world.

We're not of this world. Where is our true citizenship

as the people of God? Someone's been reading their Bible.

Look at Philippians three twenty. Paul tells the believers in Philippi.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we

await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. This earth is

not our forever home. This earth is not our forever home.

We're not true citizens of this earth. Do you feel that?

Can you feel what that verse is saying. I don't

think a single one of us can look around at

this sin stained world and say this is totally it.

This is what God intended. I think we know it

deep down in our blood and guts. This is not

our forever home.

This is not the way things are supposed to be.

Sin, death, pain, suffering, tears, dissension, heartbreak, conflict like constant conflict, toil.

Work is hard. This is not how God intended for

the world to work. If you don't believe me, go

back and look at the garden of Eden. That's what

God intended, That's what he intended for it to work.

But everything is broken because of sin. Everything is broken

because of sin. And every verse of this song is

saying the same thing. It's kind of just repeating the

same thing over and over again. So I want to

look at these verses and don't worry. We're not going

to go through miss Slowly's through the first verse, it'll

be quicker. The second verse is, Oh come thou Rod

of Jesse. Rod of Jesse's is Jesus. It's the prophecy

in Isaiah, the root of Jesse, the stump of Jesse,

David's dad. Oh come thou Rod of Jesse, Free thine

own from Satan's tyranny. Save your people from the oppression

of Satan. Guys, Remember the Lord's prayer. Lead us not

to temptation, but deliver us from the evil one is

free thine own from Satan's tyranny, from the depths of hell,

thy people, save and give them victory or or over

the grave. Jesus death and resurrection is what accomplished our

victory over death. Though we die, yet we live forever.

This verse is crying out for Jesus to come and

save his people. That's the verse two was saying. It's

crying out to Jesus to come and save his people.

What about the third verse, Oh come thou day spring,

day spring is the dawn or bright and morning star.

Oh come thou day spring from on high and shear

us thy by thy drawing nigh, bring us joy by

coming near to us.

But it's you.

Coming near to us, bright and morning star, disperse the

gloomy clouds of night and death's dark shadows. Put to flight.

Put to flight is to make something run away from you.

World is full of darkness.

It just is.

Come Jesus, our bright and morning star, and bring light

to dispel the darkness. Again, this is a desperate plea

for Jesus to come. So verse three is a desperate

plea for Jesus to come. How about the fourth verse,

Oh come thou key of David.

By the way, there.

Was like a bunch of different versions of this song online.

I kind of grabbed the one that seemed the most

like consistent with all the versions that are out there.

So even the one we sang before only had a

couple of the verses in it. But verse four, Oh

come thou key of David, Come and open wide our

heavenly home. Jesus is the key from the line of

David who gets us into our heavenly home. He's the way,

the truth, and the life. He is the key of

David makes safe the way that leads on high and

close the path to misery, the path to misery that

we all walk on. I mean, read a little bit

of Ecclesiastes, get a real sobering look. It's kind of

the state of humanity. Sometimes it's path to misery that

we all walk on. Jesus, please come and lead us

safely on high, Lead us where to our heavenly home.

Lead us to our heavenly home. And the fifth verse,

oh come Adami, which is a name for God. It's

my Lord, Lord of Might. Oh come Adami, Lord of Might,

who to thy tribes on Sinai's height in ancient times

did us give the law in cloud and majesty and awe?

So cry for the Almighty Lord, the same God who

showed up on Mount Sinai to give the law to

his people. You guys, that's the languages to use their

Mount Sinai, the cloud and awe. So when God gave

is his law to the people, to cry out for him,

the same God who did all this.

To come. And when did God give us his people

the law? When did he do that?

It's on his way leading him out of captivity to

Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.

It's the exodus.

This whole thing is asking Jesus to come and save

his people. And this fifth verse uses the example of

when God took his people out of captivity and into freedom,

into the Promised land. This is a cry. This verse

is a cry for the Lord to come to his

people now. And the same Lord who saved the people

of Israel to come and save his people now. So

if you look at all these verses, they're all communicating

the same thing. It's communicating the same thing over and

over and over again. They're all desperate, please for the

Lord to come and save his people. So I'll read

that first verse again. Come, Oh, come Emmanuel in ransom,

captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the

Son of God appear.

You, guys, hear the desperation in those words?

Is this how I cry out for the Lord to return?

Do I long for it?

Do I look at the world today and desperately cry

out for Jesus to return? Is that how I interact

with the world. This is not the final home that

God has provided for his children.

This isn't.

Jesus says that the Father's house has many rooms, that

he has gone to prepare a place for his people.

And when Thomas asked him, how will we know the way?

What did Jesus say? Jesus said that he is the way.

How will we know the way? Jesus said, I am

the way. That's how you'll know the way. It's in Jesus.

This earth is not our forever home. Eternity with Jesus

is our forever home. Amen, that's awesome. We are waiting

as exiles now for Jesus. That's who we're waiting for,

waiting for the Son of God to appear, because when

he does, he will take us out of exile. He

will take us out of exile and into our forever.

Home with him.

And that's what this refrain tells us. On repeat this

refrain that says, Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee

oh Israel. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee oh Israel.

We don't stay in this state of desperation, not as believer,

as we don't. Our mourning turns to dancing. Our mourning

turns to dancing. Re rejoice because Jesus has promised that

he will come to his people. And now what we're

going to do is read the very.

End of the Bible.

So I need to turn to Revelation chapter twenty two,

and the flagon of the worship team come up. Please. Revelation,

the very last book of the Bible, and we're going

to go to the very last chapter of the Bible,

chapter twenty two. All right, we're there, sweet, starting in

verse six, and we're going to read all the way

to the end of the book.

Through verse twenty one.

And he said to me, these words are trustworthy and true.

And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets,

has sent his angel to show his servants what must

soon take place. And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed

is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy

of this book.

I John.

So if you ever want to know who has wrote Revelation,

John's wrote Revelation verse eight. I John am the one

who heard and saw these things. And when I heard

and saw them, I fell down to worship at the

feet of the angel who showed them to me. But

he said to me, you must not do that. I

am a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets,

and with those who keep the words of this book.

Worship God. Don't worship me, worship God.

Verse ten and he said to me, do not seal

up the words of the prophecy of this book, for

the time is what near Verse eleven.

Let the evil do or still do evil.

Let the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still

do right, and the holy still be holy. Behold, I

am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, or am

my repayment with me, to repay each one for what

he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega,

the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they

may have the right to the Tree of life, and

that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside

outside the city are the dogs and sorcerers, and the

sexually immoral, and murderers and idolatres, and everyone who practices

or loves and practices falsehood. Verse sixteen. I Jesus, who

Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you about

these things. For the churches, I am the root and

the descendant of David.

Does that sound familiar?

The bright morning star? Does that sound familiar? This is

Jesus talking. The spirit and the bride. Say come and

let the one who hears say come, and let the

one who is thirsty come. And let the one who

desires to take excuse me, desires take the water of

life without price. I warn everyone who hears the words

of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them,

God will add to him the plagues described in this book.

And if anyone takes away from the words of the

book of this prophecy, God will take away his share

in the Tree of Life and in the Holy City,

which are described in this book. He who testifies to

these things says, surely I am coming soon. When soon, Amen, come,

Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with

all amen. Surely I am coming soon. Jesus will return

at an hour you do not know, Like a thief

in the night, only the Father knows the time, not

even the son. But I assure you, even though we

don't know exactly when Jesus will return, he will return.

Jesus will return.

And I think that should cause you and me to

rejoice with a joy inexpressible, a joy inexhaustible, a joy unquenching.

Even in the midst of exile, even in the midst

of suffering or pain, or darkness or loneliness, or even

in the face of persecution, we can rejoice because we

know that Jesus Emmanuel God with us, the dayspring from

on high, our bright morning star, the Rod of Jesse

or root of Jesse, the key of David ad Ani,

the Lord of Might. We can rejoice because our King

and Savior, Jesus, he will return. We can rejoice because

he will return. He will make all things new, all

things new, and he will take us out of exile

and into our forever home with him. So I ask

you now, what hopeless situation are you in? What hopeless

situation are you in? What dark and gloomy clouds cover

you right now? Where is Satan oppressing you with his

evil tyranny?

What paths of misery lay ahead of you?

Where do you feel like you're still in captivity? Are

you still a slave to sin? There is no more

helpless situation than trying to deal with your sin on

your own. The only delay from all of this, all

of this negative bad stuff I'm talking about, Sir Jesus Christ.

Jesus already came to earth once he lived the perfect life.

He was crucified for sin, and then he rose from

the grave. And it's only through faith or belief in

him that you are delivered, that you were set free

from the bondage and slavery of sin, or the consequences

in guilt and shame of sin. So I implore you right

now on Christ's behalf, on Jesus, behalf, to be reconciled

to God, Be reconciled to God, to repent of your

sins and believe in Him. But a lot of us

in here have already done that. You already love Jesus,

You've already said, and I can't deal with my sin.

I know that Jesus is the only way to deal

with my sin. I've turned to him, I put faith

in him, I follow and seek after Jesus. A lot

of us have already done that. But we're still living

in exile. We're waiting for something, aren't we? Remember our

citizenship is where heaven. Citizenship is not earth. We're still

living in exile. We still have dark and gloomy clouds. Satan,

our adversary, is still fighting against us.

He hates us.

There are still paths of misery that we walk through.

So what are those in your life right now? Like,

stop for a second and really think about that. What

are some of those places in your life?

Now?

What's the light at the end of the tunnel. What's

the light at the end of the tunnel. Where is

your hope found? Where is hope found? Your hope must

be found in the fact that he Manuel God with us.

Jesus will return for his people. He will returned to

his people. He will make all things new.

I can't wait for that.

He will make all things new, and he will bring

us to our forever.

Home with him.

And that's why we can rejoice and have hope in

the midst of our circumstances. No matter what the circumstances are,

that's why we can rejoice in them. So when you

hear the song, Oh Come Emmanuel, do you hear Christmas

or do you hear christ Do you think of Christmas trees, lights, presents,

family traditions, or do you think of the hope that

we have because Jesus, our risen Savior, will return to

his people. My hope is that we'd hear this song

and rejoice in the hope that we have through Jesus.

Amen. Can you guys please stand to your feet.