I'm going to ask a couple questions and then we'll pray. First, what's your favorite Christmas movie? Secondly, what's your favorite Christmas song? So let's pray. Father, we do thank you for this morning. Pray that you will continue to bless us and keep us and help us to have eyes for your Son, our Lord Jesus, who is the crux of all eternity, the center of everything. He is our Savior and Lord, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And we pray that you would enable us to hear about him and see him and cherish him and come to love him and believe him. I pray for this season of Advent where we focus on his birth, his first coming. Because Lord, we know you're coming again for us. And we pray that it would be so deep into our hearts that we look forward to it. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. My title is a little weird. Is it up there? Can you read that? Aren't you glad we don't say that? It says, Hark how all the welkin rings. Believe it or not, that is the same exact hymn. And that is what the author Charles Wesley wrote it as. Hark how all the welkin rings. Now there are some dictionary files. Is that the right word? Dictionary files? In the room, people who know their dictionary really well. What does welkin mean? Welkin is an old English word that means the skies, the heavens, where God dwells, which really means not just the heavens, it's everywhere. And Wesley wrote, hark how all the welkin rings. Man, I'm glad that someone came along and changed the words so that we can now sing hark the herald angel sings. And the person who changed that was actually another well-known preacher who may not be as famous as Wesley, but was a man named George Whitfield, a pastor, a wonderful preacher, and he actually changed the line, the first line. So I'm gonna come to that in a little bit, but do you notice, I have it marked in our hymnals, number 203, right? Look at it, or if you just remember what we just sang, three stanzas, but there were 10. Aren't you glad I'm not gonna cover 10 stanzas today? There were 10 that Wesley wrote. And so Whitfield actually dwindled it down to like four, but you notice we don't even have four, we have three. But if time allows, I'd like to mention the fourth stanza, because I think it's important theologically for us. I would say this is perhaps one of the most theological hymns in all of hymnody. And I will say a little bit about the background as we begin, but let me begin by just reading that first line. Hark the herald angels sing, meaning heralding angels, just like there's different kinds of people, there are different kinds of angels, but they're all messengers. The word engelos means messenger, but these are heralding angels. Have you ever read it or sang it that way, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. Not as, who is it in Charlie Brown Christmas who says, Herald Angel. Remember that? My favorite movie is Charlie Brown Christmas. I know you guys who are young, you don't even watch that. But you need to. I think Dan Gardner loves that movie, don't you, Dan? Yeah, he's mentioned it before. Charlie Brown Christmas ends in their little movie. Believe it or not, the producers of that movie did not want to include scripture. And Charles Schultz, the originator of Peanuts comics, said, if the scripture is not going to be included, I'm not doing it. And so they allowed the scriptures to be included in this little 30-minute cartoon Christmas movie. And at the end of the movie, they sing this hymn. In fact, my little one at home said, I remember that because we sang this hymn last night at our house during our family worship time. And we were remembering, hey, that was in Charlie Brown Christmas. And look how the line continues. Glory to the newborn King. The herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King. Do you, right off the bat, right from the beginning, do you see what they are doing and what they are busying themselves with? This angel, and then a whole bunch of other angels, I presume, the heavenly host, they are giving glory to the newborn King. So right off the bat, I want to ask you guys, as I ask my own heart preparing this week, what am I most busy with? What are you busying yourself with? Tell me. Now, yeah, I can't understand what that means, but Maybe it's hunger. Maybe it's comfort. But you have something in your mind, you know, that you're really busy in yourself with, that you're preoccupied with, that you're always thinking about. It's the last thing you do at night. It's the first thing you do in the morning on your phone. What are you busy in yourself with this season? Well, let's take a cue from the angels. It's the glory of God. Do you know that's what the shorter catechism teaches us? What is the chief end of man, people? The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. That is the most important thing we are called to do. To busy ourselves is to every moment of every day say, thank you, God, You are great. You are good. You are kind. You know, when I heard that Bill Cornfield lived through that accident, The first thought in my mind was, thank you, God, for preserving Bill's life. Thank you, God. And you give glory to God all throughout your life. This last week, I had a chance to speak to our staff. And at our session meeting, I shared a little devotional. I spoke about a man named Athanasius. Athanasius was a church father. And Athanasius wrote a lot about the incarnation. In fact, we just read the Athanasian Creed, which is actually not necessarily written by Athanasius. It probably came afterwards, but there's a lot in it that sounds like the things that Athanasius would have said. And do you know what's written on Athanasius' grave? I found this very interesting. It's a Latin phrase that says, Athanasius Contramundum. All right, you Latin people out there, what does that mean? Athanasius against the world. Do you realize that as a Christian, you are swimming the other direction? Because the world says, praise this, praise him, praise her, praise your wallet, praise the country, praise whatever. As a Christian, we are always swimming against the direction, and I love that that was on his gravestone. Athanasius contra mundum, Athanasius against the world. You know why? Because he was actually fighting heresy until the last days of his life. Well, this is the background story. Famous carol written by Charles Wesley, Charles and his brother John. you probably heard the name John Wesley too, were major instruments of the Lord used during the Great Awakening in England. And on Sunday, May 21st, 1738, listen to this, after reading Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians, Charles was converted and he testified this way, I now find myself at peace with God and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ. I saw that by faith I stood, by the continual support of faith, So Charles was converted on May 21st, and John was converted three days later. After their conversion to Christ, both these brothers, Charles and John, were filled with such a zeal for the gospel that they wanted to teach it and preach it everywhere. They were itinerant preachers, but they were also skilled in other things. In fact, Charles was a poet. And so he loved to write about the gospel all of a sudden. But the Church of England thought that they were a bit out of the ordinary in the ministry styles that they chose, and kind of got close to their ministry. So you know what happened? As a result, these brothers started... riding horseback and took to open air preaching in fields and streets and to anybody who would listen to them, little children out on the streets or anywhere. And history says that John traveled over, listen to this, 200,000 miles on horseback within England alone. And they were concerned about converts being discipled and started creating little communities called Methodists. What do they call it? Methodist societies. That eventually became a denomination, as you probably know. Well, John ended up, I'm sorry, Charles ended up writing more than, guess how many hymns? 7,000. John, it says of him, there was scarcely a day in the 50 years following his conversion in which he did not set down some lines and verse every single day of his life. And his last hymn was dictated from his deathbed when he was too weak to hold a pen. This hymn is thought to have been written approximately one year after his conversion. That was in 1738, and this was written in 1739. And the tune that we now have is by, is a familiar one written by one of the master composers of the early 19th century, Felix Mendelssohn. If you want to hear, know more about that, ask Alex McDonald. I don't know as much about that, but. Here are the four stanzas that I'd like to give you some ideas about. And then if I don't finish, we don't finish, but you can dive into this on your own by meditating on the stanzas from a hymn book, look it up, Google it, read it around the dinner table tonight. The first verse is the promised one has come. These are just some markers for you. The second is the eternal God dwells with mortal men. The third one is, let's see if I have it, the third one is The righteous God regenerates unrighteous people. And the fourth one is the second Adam recreates his image in fallen people. So let me just go through some of these very quickly. The first stanza. The promised one has come. Hark, the herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. Peace on earth and mercy mild. God and sinners reconciled. With the angelic host proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem. This is all about the angels coming and pronouncing some tremendous news, the best news possible. Do you know, as I mentioned, angels are messengers. They brought news to Zechariah that he was gonna be the father of the forerunner of Jesus, John the Baptist. Angels brought the news to Mary and Joseph, and the angels announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds in the field. And this is what Hebrews 1.14 says, are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? The message that they gave is that Jesus is the promised Messiah. The Lord's people were told by the prophet Micah that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Judea. And this stanza reflects all of that. The hymn first was written as a hymn for Christmas day, but you can see how it has become so meaningful for any day, really, and especially all of Advent season. Now, think about some of these ideas with me. He is the one who gives us peace and mercy. When a king comes, is he often thought to come mercifully or is he coming to secting straight with terror? But this one comes to bring peace, peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. There's so much here. You know, it brings us back to the garden where Adam is separated from God, right? There's a broken relationship. And what Wesley's really saying is, this one, this promised Savior, comes to bring peace, and He's merciful, He's kind. This King comes with peace. The birth of Jesus. is a profound juxtaposition of glory and humility. I'm going to read this to you. This came from a commentary that I read. Here is a newborn king who will bring peace on earth, but he's born in a feeding trough. His arrival on earth is announced by a choir of heralding angels, but they are singing to shepherds in the middle of nowhere. We discover the profound juxtaposition of Jesus himself here. He is the sovereign Lord, but he's also the suffering servant. He's a lion and a lamb. He wears heaven's crown, but he wins it with a cross. He wins the crown by a cross. Let me go to the second stanza. The eternal God dwells with mortal man. Look at how it reads, Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord. You see, He is the everlasting Lord. He's the one who existed from all eternity. The second person of the Godhead, as I was teaching the Little Ones in Communicants class some weeks ago, He always existed. He was always there. It says nothing that was ever made was made without Him, without His hands. He is the eternal God. This is what Revelation 1.8 says, I am the Alpha and the Omega. What does that mean? Says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. And it says, late in time, behold him come. What does that mean? Does that mean his birth was late? No, it was at the right time, hundreds and thousands of years later. Remember, for those of you who are here at our Christmas concert, we said there was 400 years of silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament. 400 years of silence. But this was when the fullness of time had come. Let me read you Galatians 4. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order that he might redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. He was born of a virgin, the offspring of the virgin's womb. What does that mean? That this woman, was not stained by any man. There was no relationship with a human father. And Mary was chosen to be His mother. Because the Holy Spirit, overshadowing Mary, conceived the child supernaturally. And Jesus Christ is the God-Man. This is probably my favorite part in here. Listen to how this goes Late in time behold him come offspring of the Virgin's womb veiled in flesh the Godhead see hail the incarnate deity Pleased as well as man with men to dwell Jesus our Emmanuel veiled in flesh the Godhead see Do you realize that before nobody could see God? Not without terror Not without experiencing death, but here you see God Himself veiled in flesh, the full Godhead see. Hail the incarnate deity. You know what the response is to all this? Hail. What does that mean? Acclaim, give acclaim, adore, praise, revere, bow down. That is our response. I love that Wesley sees this kind of as a model for worship. Our response is join in. Join in with all the angels. Join in with all the shepherds. We respond by hailing Him as the incarnate deity. Colossians 119 says this, for it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him. You know, the very, very well known passage in Philippians where the Apostle Paul writes about the incarnation. We often use it in our affirmation of faith. By the way, it is a magnificent little hymn of the early church. Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 7 is called the Christ hymn. If you look in your Bibles, it might even be indented a little because it was actually a hymn of the early church that they may have sung while they were in persecution, hiding in caves, but it talks about this, have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. And you know what Paul is showing here? He's showing the humility of Christ. who was in perfect unity with God the Father and equal in authority, but emptied himself of all his heavenly glory and took on the role of a servant. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate deity. Why would Jesus empty himself by taking the form of a servant? I'm going to give you two reasons here. One is God is willing to humble himself by stooping down from heaven's glory to meet us. Now think about this. He crosses the divide. He crosses this great divide from heaven to earth. He actually came down to meet us. And then secondly, God has now come to be with us in the most vulnerable way. You know, as I watch these little newborn babies in our church, and every once in a while I'll get to pop back and have a look and see how their faces have changed and how they're holding their heads up, and yet I see incredible vulnerability. so dependent on their mom or their dad. Do you, friends, realize that He didn't just traverse the divide, He came in the most vulnerable way. He didn't come as a king. He came as a baby, born to poor parents in an obscure village, and the first people told were shepherds, the most lowly of people. So there are two big questions that are answered in this hymn and in this verse. Who is God? And what is he like? Do you realize that these are probably two of the most important questions that you will ever ask? In all of humanity, in order to be able to live, to have joy, to live well, to have a prosperous life, you need to answer these two questions. Who is God and what is he like? You don't need to go any further. It's the person of Jesus Christ. Look at Jesus and you will see the face of God. He was pleased to lay aside His glory for the glory of God in the souls of men and women. He is our Emmanuel, God with us. And in being with us, He also shows us that He is God for us. I want you to hear that. He is not just God with us. He is God for us. For you, in your situation, in your problems, with your doubts, with your discomforts. For in Jesus, we not only find a God who knows our pain, our temptation, our weaknesses, but one who has overcome them all in himself. And we don't follow a king that is far off. One who reigns from a palace that's far away at a great distance from the real life struggles of the subjects that He rules over. No, we follow a King who is in every sense with us and for us. Read the third stanza. I don't have time to go into this deeply, but I want you to just dwell on this stanza when you can. By the way, This is considered one of the top five hymns in all of Christian history. It has made the cut to enter the hymnals of every denomination around the world. So it's not just a great Christmas hymn, it is a powerful, theological, Christological hymn for all the ages. And this stanza, verse 3, is full of references, full of references to the Old Testament. Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace, that's from Isaiah. Hail the Son of Righteousness, that's from Malachi. Light and life to all He brings, that's the Gospel of John. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. That's what John's Gospel says. Risen with healing in His wings. Do you know what Wesley is referring to? The death and resurrection of Jesus? That He actually was born to die? that His very, very purpose for being born was to die, to rescue and to save us, to give us new life, to give us life and meaning. So here's the thing, you can't die without being born. He was crucified and put to death. But He was born as a baby in Bethlehem and lived the perfect life. and died the most perfect death as the spotless Son of God. And on the third day, the Gospel says, the Father raised Him to life bodily, and He rises with healing in His wings. Born that man no more may die. Friends, Jesus came and was born and lived and died so that we wouldn't have to die the most horrible of deaths. Now, we're all going to die. That's what the book of Hebrews says. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment. But for all those who believe in Jesus, there is no more second death. No more. So born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. All right, I have like two minutes left to say something about stanza four. So I'm just gonna give you the lines. This is, by the way, the forgotten verse. Maybe you need to tell Eric Basel, we need to get this in there somehow. We need to sing it before the end of the season. It's actually a conglomeration of Wesley's fourth and fifth stanzas put together. And it makes it into some hymnals as the fourth stanza. Come, desire of nations, come, fix in us thy humble home. Very quickly, you know what that means? I don't care if the whole world rejects him, he's still the desire inside every human heart that they're searching for. You ever heard the great U2 song, I still haven't found what I'm looking for? Or you keep looking for love in all the wrong places? Come on, you know. He is the desire of the nations. Even though they don't say it or know it or willing to admit to it, He is the desire of the nations. And it says, fixing us thy humble home. Rise with the woman's conquering seed, bruising us the serpent's head. That is a direct going back to Genesis 3.15, what we call the Proto-Evangelion. The first time you see the promise of the gospel. Genesis 3 15 says and of your offspring and her descended he shall bruise you in the head and you shall bruise him on the heel Jesus will finally conquer him Death and Satan will be defeated Friends, are you afraid of the devil you should be? But I want to tell you something King Jesus is gonna kill him It's gonna conquer him There will be a final victory And the whole world will know. Adam's likeness now will face stamp thine image in its place." Well, Adam messed up, but Jesus will not. Jesus is re-imaging us into His own image. And day by day, we are looking more and more like Jesus, marred the image. And here's the last part. Second Adam from above, reinstate us in thy love, hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King. Jesus is the perfect Adam. Jesus now represents us. And everything that we have in Jesus belongs to us. And he says, wiping away everything that All the messed upness Jesus says I am making as the second Adam. Hark! The herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King. So can I just ask as I close where I started with, what are you busying yourselves with? Too much shopping? Too little sleep? I think of Mary, Lazarus' sister, sitting at Jesus' feet while all this busyness was going on, and Jesus says, leave her right there. She has chosen the better thing. We are here for one reason and one reason only. To glorify God every day in everything we do. In Jesus' name, Amen. Father, we ask that You will speak these words deep into our hearts. Father, I pray that You will penetrate the hardness of our hearts and the things that we're running after, Lord, that are really just meaningless and worthless. Father, help us to have eyes to see You, the great King of all the earth. As the nations to join in, joyful, all ye nations rise. I pray that we will worship You in spirit and in truth. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.