Son of Man | O Come O Come Emmanuel - Isaiah 7 | December 15
Generated Transcript
Well, good morning. Glad to be with you guys again this morning. From the onset, I
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 gonna be fine. So 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,
Julie was sad 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 and 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 comment them. 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 of 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. An Advent, which means arrival or beginning of something or someone, is actually where we get our word adventure and and we often think of Advent as we're going to light these candles as as a season preparing for the coming of Christ as a babe, 2000 years ago. But as many of you know, we actually also are preparing for Advent. Are 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. We'll pray, and then we'll keep going. So the first one ospentia, or wisdom, it highlights Christ as the wisdom of God, and it's partly based on proverbs eight. But Dallas Willard, theologian and philosopher, he says that we often think of the 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 thinks, 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 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's the wisdom of God made flesh. And so proverbs eight 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. Kings 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 eight 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 one 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 the world, the whole earth, would reflect the glory of God, that his kingdom would be established all over the earth. So if you want to 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. Three, two and 14 say, 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, 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' 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, when 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, three 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. In 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 the his rich identity found in the Hebrew Scriptures. And so the next Antiphon, the next identity that we're going to look at is O radix, 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, There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jess and a branch shall grow out of its roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. With righteousness, He shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips. He 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 in 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 are 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 the 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 a 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, oh, clavis or key, translates or highlights Jesus as the key of David. He is the scepter from the throne. As Jesus as the key, he unlocks the prison doors and he sets the captives free. And as the 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, and 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 22 when Jesus says this, or Revelation three, when he says this about himself, that Christ holds the key of David and John Bunyan, Puritan writer who wrote the Pilgrims 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, set the stage. You have this giant name despair, and his wife is named diffidence. And diffidence means shyness and 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.
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 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 broken hearted 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, Oh, 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 O Orions or Dayspring. We might think of that more readily as the sunrise the spring of day. It identifies Jesus as the ultimate light, and Malachi four says, but to you who fear, my name, the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings. This idea of Dayspring, or sunrise, as we would want to call it, beautifully and captures and enraptures us the in the beauty of Christ, this 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 guide, 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 the from death. We enter by the Christian life through death and we are journeying towards the ultimate light. CS 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 reepichee, 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 dayspring, towards Christ, is fully, or is fully, and pictured in Revelation, in 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 dayspring, 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 Sun of Righteousness come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness. This next one, ORex Gen Tim, or king of Gentiles or nations, highlights Jesus as King of Jews and Gentiles, that all nations will bow and worship before Jesus. Haggai two 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 glory, says the Lord of hosts. And isaiah 49 says, Thus says the Lord the Redeemer of Israel, their holy one.
One to Him whom man despises, to Him whom the nation of whores, 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, 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 fashion of humanity from clay. He is the King who got his hands dirty in the mud in Genesis two, his coming and taking on of human flesh as 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 that it and obedience that exalts Christ, as Zach and Eric talked about Philippians two 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, Oh 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. Oh, come, Oh 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, seven 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 resist His tender drawing of them near. It was these people that God chooses to move toward, and ultimately, Christ is the fulfillment of the witness 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, Oh Emmanuel, our King and our lawgiver, the hope of the nations and their Savior, come and save us Lord our God. 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 might be encouraged in a need to hold fast to Christ being our day spring, 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 witness of God by which we can be encouraged. This season of Advent is we're reflecting on the coming of Christ as a babe encourage and instructs us to reflect in desire and hope for the 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.