Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Well, good morning, Twin Lakes Church. How are you guys doing? Merry Christmas. I've been saying that since the day after Thanksgiving and it feels very fitting now as we are in the week of Christmas. It's crazy, it came quick, but I'm excited to be here.

My name's Kyle, I'm one of the pastors here and as always, just privileged to get the opportunity to preach and open up God's word with you all and the worship together. And so we're gonna dive into the word in a minute, but before we do that, I thought it'd be good to take a quick survey just by raise of hands.

And so when it comes to music, how many of you would say you lean more towards being like lyrics type people? Like you care about the words of the song, the meaning behind it, raise of hands. Let me see all the lyric people out here. Okay, good.

And now how many of you are like, I like the beauty of the instruments and the melodies How many of those people? Okay, pretty even. I myself am a lyrics person. And so I find it just so funny when you hear people that just pay no attention to the lyrics at all and they completely butcher songs. You guys know these people. Raise your hands if you know these people. If you're not raising your hand, you might be one of those people.

They boldly sing the chorus and then they go, or they just get even the main part of the song wrong. I started looking up some examples of this. How many of you know the song by Elton John, "Tiny Dancer"? The line goes, "Hold me closer, tiny dancer." And it's been known to be commonly misunderstood in people saying, "Hold me closer, Tony Danza." I was a fan of who's the boss as a kid and angels in the outfield, but come on, no one's singing about Tony Danza.

Or what about this one, the Beatles song, this one's pretty out there if you ask me, the Beatles song I wanna hold your hand, quoted as I want to hold your ham. And I'm like, who would say, how does that even make sense? Unless you're trying to make it festive. Maybe it's Christmas, ham is my favorite Christmas food. So maybe that, it was a holiday version.

But my favorite one that I found, and I think it's an individual case, I don't think this one happens maybe as often or at least not in this way, but I was listening to a podcast and a dad said that his son got cast for his school Christmas music concert and he got cast to sing lead in the song Feliz Navidad. And that of course means Merry Christmas. And so his dad said he was really excited and I heard him for weeks practicing in his bedroom. I heard the music playing. I could hear him singing in the distance and it seemed like he was very well prepared only to realize the night of the performance when his son stepped up to the mic, he actually didn't know the words.

Because instead of singing Felice Navidad, he's saying, "Philips not my dad." ♪ Philips not my dad ♪ ♪ Philips not my dad ♪ I think it works, and Philip was not his dad's name, so he wasn't lying. And these are funny examples of kind of misquotes, but the reason I shared them, the reason my brain went here is, I think around Christmas time especially, when we hear kind of the familiar Christmas songs, the songs that maybe we all know that are on the radio and in the department stores and that we're singing in church, I think we may not miss the words, we might sing the right words, but I think a lot of times we maybe don't really understand what we're singing about.

And maybe it's 'cause we've never really thought about it, or maybe it's because we've grown so numb to singing these songs that they've lost kind of their potency. And so this is what we've been doing here at Twin Lakes over the past few weeks in a series we're calling Christmas Mix Tape, where we've been taking these familiar Christmas songs and looking at some of the maybe less familiar scripture that is kind of embedded in the fabric of these songs.

We started a few weeks ago looking at the song Joy to the World, we sang that one also this morning, but we talked about Joy to the World, we talked about I heard the bells, what child is this was last week. And now this weekend we're talking about what I think is one of the most familiar Christmas songs, Hark the Herald Angel Sing.

And I love this because that word Hark, right in the beginning, the very first word, what Hark means is listen up, pay attention, be attentive. And this morning, that is really my hope for us, that we would be mindful of what this song is saying about the incarnational love of our God. And that we would saturate, like pause and sit in that for a little bit, so that we could be excited and rejuvenated to then participate in proclaiming that incarnational love of God, amen?

So that's what we're gonna do, but before we get there, would you guys pray with me? Father God, thank you. God, you are so faithful and so good. God, I prayed that this morning you would speak through me, that you would open up our hearts to what it is that we sing about in this song and what it is that you have for us that was shown on Christmas first, but that continues on throughout every day of our lives.

And God may we as your church participate in the good news of Christmas, starting today. In Jesus' name, amen. You can go ahead and grab your message notes if you're a note taker, they're in the bulletin that you got on your way in, and you could open up your Bibles. I would like you to open your Bibles to Philippians, chapter two, the book of Philippians, chapter two.

And I'm gonna give you a second to open up there because while you're turning, I want to give you a little bit of history about this song. The song "Heart The Herald" was actually originally written in 1739 by a man named Charles Wesley. Now Charles was the youngest of 12 children, 12. Can you imagine having 11 siblings? It's crazy. Some of you are like, I have 11 siblings, maybe. I don't know. But there were 12 kids in the family and Charles became a kind of well-recognized songwriter.

He wrote over 600 known hymns, and he was also an evangelist alongside of one of his brothers who is named John Wesley, that many of you maybe know. He's the founder of the Methodist Church. So John Wesley is his brother, and they were evangelists together. Now, Wesley's words that he wrote for this song were meant to kind of capture the scene on the very first Christmas that we can read about in Luke's Gospel, chapter two.

And in the passage of Luke two, we see a messenger angel appears to shepherds in a field. Now, real quick note, Harold is not the name of the angel. Harold means messenger. So it's like, pay attention, there's a messenger angel and it's talking about Luke two.

And this messenger angel appears to the shepherds in the field and says this, starting in verse 10 of Luke two. It says, "I bring good news of great joy to all people." Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. And this will be assigned to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Suddenly a great company of heavenly hosts appeared with the angel praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest heaven. "an earth peace to those on whom his favor rests." It's this beautiful scene that Wesley is writing about.

However, originally when Wesley wrote the song, he did not have the opening line, Hark the Herald Angel Sing. The song was not titled that either. It was actually originally published under the title, Him of Christmas Day. And the opening line looked a little different. It was, "Hark how all the welkin ring." And you're like, "That's weird." I thought the same. But welkin is this old English word that just means the skies, the clouds, or the heavens.

And so what Wesley's writing is, is pay attention because on that first Christmas, the heavens opened up and the glory of God shined on us. The glory of God came to earth. This is beautiful, beautiful opening line. However, the hymn really didn't get any notoriety or take off until about 19 years later in 1753 when Wesley's dear friend George Whitfield revised the song.

And he changed that opening line and the title to the now familiar Hark, the herald angel seen. And some other minor changes, but that was the main one. Isn't that fascinating? So if the song is written about Luke chapter two, why in the world did I ask you to open up your Bibles to Philippians chapter two? Well, I'm glad you all asked, because I believe that it's in Philippians two is one of the places where we see the richness of that incarnational love embedded in what the apostle Paul is speaking to the church in Philippi.

And so keep that in mind as we kind of dive into it, but something that's fascinating is the apostle Paul in this letter is writing to the church in Philippi from prison. And does anyone know what he's in prison for? Anyone? Bueller? He's in prison for preaching the gospel.

And as he's in prison, he's writing a letter to the church and guess what he's telling them to do? Preach the gospel. He's saying your whole life should mimic that of Christ. We should be preaching with our words and with our actions. And this is why in Philippians two, starting in verse five, he says your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. And Paul is speaking to the church in Philippi, but this morning, Twin Lakes, Paul's words are important for us, that we should carry ourselves in man and have the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus.

And so that's what we're gonna look at. What does that look like? And as you notice, if you look at the passage we're gonna be digging into, starting in verse six, there's like a funny indentation in your Bible. That's because scholars say the words of the Apostle Paul in verses six through 11, he is the one He's actually quoting an early church hymn.

And so we're kind of looking at the song behind a song. It's kind of like Inception, right? Confusing, mind boggling, but that's what we're gonna do this morning. So as we look at the lyrics of this early church song and Hark the Herald, we're gonna begin to see that theme of the incarnational love that God became flesh. God with skin on, if you will.

And it begins in the very next verses that tell us, Jesus came to be with us. Jesus came to be with us. Look at what it says in verse six. It says, "Who being in very nature, God," speaking of Jesus, "He did not consider equality with God "something to be used to his own advantage, "but rather, he made himself nothing, "taking the very nature of a servant "and being made in human likeness." We're gonna stop there because this is a profound verse. This is profound stuff here because it's talking about God becoming flesh.

Think about that. The God of all creation, the ruler of all things, the one who is larger than the universe itself became a baby, helpless baby, who needed the care of his mother. Even though he was God, it says he did not consider equality with God something to grasp. Now, this is deep theology. This is the stuff we could nerd out on and go down this rabbit hole, like wait, you're telling me Jesus is fully God and fully man at the same time. How does this happen?

And we could sit with that, but I'm afraid that if we did that this morning, if we really went down that road, I think we might miss the simplicity and the power of what this actually communicates for us. See, God doesn't just see us from above and know what's going on in the world because he's God. He actually stepped out of heaven and into our world, into our mess.

And in doing so, he left his throne of glory for a manger and a barn. He traded the robe that he wears of glory and his crown as king to be wrapped in ragged cloths. He doesn't just know stuff about what's going on in our life. He humbly lowered himself to become part of our life. And one of the main reasons he did that is so that we can know that he relates, he understands.

That means that if you're here and maybe this season is not all jolly and joyful. Maybe this is a tough season. Maybe you're grieving loss. You have a God who understands grief. Because he grieved. Or maybe you're feeling pressure from the world around you, whether it be at work or in school or wherever. Maybe family pressure, all sorts of things. You have a God who understands pressure. You have a God who understands temptation. He's been there. He knows it.

Or it also means that maybe you're here and you are like, no, this is Christmas. I'm in a great place. God has been so faithful and good and I'm in this celebration season. He understands that too. And you could have joy with him in that because he came to be with us. And this is why we sing in the song, He's going to park the herald where it says, Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord. It's acknowledging he is God.

And then it goes on to say, Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail incarnate deity, Pleased by man with mendidwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. And that word Emmanuel means God with us. With us. It's a reference to Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14, He says, "Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, "and you will call his name Emmanuel, God with us." I don't know about you guys, but I can easily, because of all of the times I've heard that Jesus was born on Christmas, I can brush over the beauty and the love of God that is wrapped up in the idea that he became flesh, human.

His withness is something that offers us comfort and understanding. It's his withness that reminds me I'm not alone. It's his withness that offers security when everything else in my world might feel shaky. This is the hope of Christmas. I was, last time I had the opportunity to preach up here, I shared from a book called Everybody Always named Bob Goff. I'm gonna do it again. I apologize, not the same quote, but he's so good at writing and taking these, our understanding of God and putting him in really a practical way.

So I wanna read kind of an excerpt from Everybody Always. It says this, he says, "We have a lodge up in Canada. "And it's tradition that we have had for decades that everyone who visits climbs under our dining room table and signs it and then leave one word behind. One of my friends, Don, left the word "with" on the bottom of my table. One of the many reasons Don has been so influential in my life is that he has taught me the importance of being with each other.

I don't know what God would put under his table if he had one, but I don't think he'd want it to read like a poem or look like a painting. I actually think he would want it to say "with." He wouldn't need a $20 phrase or a 30 word Bible verse. His demonstration of the word with is so much bigger and worthier and more accessible than any 10 Bible verses. It doesn't sound like a big theological statement because it's not. It's a huge theological statement. It is God's purpose for us and it's the reason that Jesus came.

So what about us? I mean, it's easy for me, I don't know about you guys, but around Christmas when things are hectic, there's so much going on. It's hard for me to get past my own stuff and think about anyone else except for myself. But if I wanna have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, if I'm supposed to look like Jesus, then it probably should start with me being with people, present with people, the people around me.

And that means the ones that I like, that I'm gonna spend the holidays with and that are my friends and that I have fun with and it's exciting, but it also means those people that maybe are not as easy to spend time with. And if you're like, well, I don't know where to begin. You could start where Jesus tells us to, with your neighbors.

You know, I was working on this sermon and when I got to this part of my message, I was kind of like, man, like, I gotta think of a good example of this and no joke, totally God thing. As I was typing and thinking, my wife says, "Whoa, look what Chris and Ilona did. Chris and Ilona are my brother and sister-in-law, my wife's sister and her family and their kids." They sent her some photos, right when I was working on this, showing something they did. This is a sign that they put outside of their house. Neighborhood Cookies and Coco, this Thursday, four to 6 p.m.

And she sent this and told my wife, she just said, "Yeah, we know some of the neighborhood, but we wanna get to know more neighbors and share the love of Jesus this Christmas. And so we put this sign out and we didn't know who was gonna show up. And they said six o'clock rolled around on that evening and they said they had a fire pit set out and they had cookies and cocoa and coffee. And they said they sat there and at first, not many people showed up but slowly, a few people started to trickle in.

And before the end of the evening, they said we spent a few hours with some neighbors that we knew and some neighbors that we didn't know. So well, other than maybe a wave when they were out in their garden. And it was just this super tangible way to love their neighbors this Christmas. Talk about incarnational love, love with skin on. Jesus did the same thing.

That's why we sang in that song that Elizabeth wrote, Jesus moved into the neighborhood. Jesus moved into our neighborhood to be with people. And all of it was because he loves us. He loves you. Maybe you don't know that this morning, but God loves you. He didn't have to come to earth, but he chose to, and he did this, and I think this is what the angels are actually singing about that first Christmas.

I think this is what Wesley wrote about in that song when he talked about the glory of God. I think the angels were in awe of the God who lowered himself to bring heaven to us, to be with us, to offer compassion and mercy and grace. And I think this is why the angel said, the song says, "Hark, listen up, pay attention. This is a big deal." We have a God who is creator that became part of creation. His life was a display of love for you and for me.

And he relates to us, but he also models for us what it looks like to live in humble service to the people around us. His sacrifice, it began with him actually becoming flesh. That's a sacrifice. The infinite became an infant, as some say. Love that. But it wasn't just that that we sing about. It isn't just that Jesus' love is shown by him coming to be with us, Jesus also came to die for us.

So he came to be with us, that was a sacrifice in and of itself, but then Jesus came also to die for us. Look at what verse eight says. It says, "And being found in the appearance of man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross." This has always been the rescue mission for you for me, sinners who are separated from God because of our own mistakes and choices, trying to rule our own lives.

And the plan was always for Jesus to come and forgive us of our sins by taking our place on the cross. Think about that. This is a way that the God of all creation is perfectly loving, extending his love to anyone who's seeking forgiveness and mercy and grace. But also, this is a picture of him being a perfectly just God. Sin has a consequence and he said, "I'll take the punishment." The only one worthy to take the punishment. It's this beautiful picture of his death, is his sacrifice for us.

And it's brutal and it was hard, but at the same time, Scripture tells us that it was his joy that he went to the cross. And you're like, wait, what, how could that be? Look at what it says in Hebrews 12, too. It says, "For the joy set before him, "he endured the cross, scorned in shame, "and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Now this doesn't mean that Jesus is like, oh good, I get to go die on a cross. It means that Jesus saw what was on the other side of it.

This is what David Guzik says, a pastor and commentator in commentary on this passage in Hebrews. It says, "Jesus did not regard the cross itself as joy, but he was able to endure the ordeal of the cross because he understood the good that would come from it. The good of a redeemed and rescued people, honoring God for all eternity. Jesus joyfully obeyed to the point of death because it meant your salvation and mine.

He gladly surrendered his life knowing it would save mine and yours. This is the good news the angels sing about in Luke two. And this is what we sing about in "Heart the Herald" angel seen when we sing the line, "Glory to the newborn king, peace on earth," because that's what he came to bring, peace, to mend relationship with humanity through his sacrifice on the cross.

But it says, "Peace on earth and mercy mild, God in sinners reconciled. Mild he lay his glory by," remember he didn't consider equality with God, something to grasp, and it says, "Born that we no more may die. "Born to raise us from this earth, "born to give us second birth." And the doctrine of second birth is speaking to this spiritual reality that when we surrender to the Lordship of Jesus, that we are born again, a new creation in Christ. The old is gone and the new has come.

He has reconciled us back to right relationship with the Creator. And in receiving the reconciling love of God, it's important that we as the church would see others through that same lens of mercy and grace. This is hard to do. Often I run away from the people that God's running towards. Because maybe they're hard to love and I'm looking at them through my human eyes, my eyes of judgment.

But this is a reminder that we have a God whose reach is always enough, that there's no one too far from God and his love, that he came to die for all who would receive him. And it should be a reminder for us to see people that way, to not give up on people, even if it's a person who maybe backstabbed us or betrayed us. Or maybe it's a person in our life that's an addict in some way.

And we don't understand their decisions, and I get it, that's hard to be there, but don't stop praying for them. Don't stop loving them. Or what about just the neighbor that you've invited to the Christmas Candlelight service the past four years and they never show up, so I'm done. Don't give up on them, invite them this year. We never know how God is going to work.

You know, I was thinking about two Thursdays ago, our college young adult ministry, which I have the privilege of being the pastor of. We went downtown Santa Cruz. We do it every December. We call it downtown outreach. And it's starting to get wet and cold. And so we tell the students collect warm jackets and blankets and socks and beanies and buy stuff, get it from your closet, whatever you need.

And we collect it all. And we all show up on a Thursday night and we go out and we just love on the people who are living on the streets in downtown Santa Cruz by meeting basic needs. It's really awesome. But my favorite part is not just meeting the needs. My favorite part is that when we get down there, the students break up into groups and we spend some time praying for the night.

Praying for the people that we're gonna meet. Praying for opportunities for God to work. And then we see students go out and what's so cool is it's not just about like, oh, here's something, see ya. We really emphasize, ask 'em their name. Ask 'em their story. Ask how they got down here. Look for opportunities to pray with people and to have gospel conversations, not forcefully, but just be in prayer as you're talking to them and see if God opens up an opportunity to do that.

And the reason is because of this point, 'cause that's how God sees those people, the people that often get overlooked downtown Santa Cruz, they get, we walk by and we don't even acknowledge them. But to shake a hand, you know how powerful that is for one of them to just say, "Hey, can you tell me your name? Good to meet you, I'm Kyle." It's so cool and I was so proud to see our students doing that. It was so amazing. Talk about incarnational love. Love with skin on. That's what we're talking about.

That's what it means to have the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus. It means stepping into maybe uncomfortable situations when God calls us to. Because he is a God who cares so much about them and we know the reconciling love he has for them. And that leads to the third truth that we sing about in the hymn. Not only did Jesus come to be with us and come to die for us, but Jesus also came to shine through us.

Look at verse nine through 11. It says, "Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow. On heaven and earth and under the earth and every tongue would acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father."

In this verse we see Jesus being exalted, lifted up, glorified, we see him in all of his glory for his surrender and his sacrifice, his obedience to the Father, the healing that he offers, the peace that he brings, and the humility that he displayed. And he's glorified to his rightful place, the worthy king of kings, and he's being acknowledged as that, it says, "By every tongue." That word, that's why we sing in Wesley's song, hail the heaven-born prince of peace, hail the son of righteousness, light of life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings.

Hail, that word means revere, respect, honor, exalt, praise. We get to join in praising who he is and representing that to the world around us, not because of how amazing we are, but because of who he is.

Look at what it says in John 8, 12. This is Jesus speaking. He says, "I am the light of the world. "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but I will have the light of life." This is why the apostle Paul continues in the letter to the Philippians. In verse 14, he's talking about working out our faith. And he says, "Do everything without grumbling or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault and a warped and crooked generation. "Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life."

The apostle Paul is saying, "As we walk with Jesus, as we surrender our lives to Him, as we trust Him with everything, He does a work in us and begins to share his love through us, shine his light through us. This reminds me of a quote from Charles Wesley's brother, John, who I spoke of earlier in his book titled, "John Wesley's 52 Sermons." He's speaking of Jesus coming to earth, and the idea was not just so for us to get heaven, but actually to do the work in us.

He says as he says, he came so weak in no faith, not just mere ascent, but conviction that changes our souls. We are so privileged this side of eternity to shine that incarnational love of Christ in everything we do. It's what we're called to do.

Now at the start of this message, I asked how many of you were Lyric's people, and a lot of you raised your hands, and we've spent quite a bit of time looking at lyrics, words, meaning behind it. But what about those of you who, I didn't wanna leave you guys out that were more of the instrument melody type people. What about the melody of "Hark the Herald"? Well, a lot like that opening line, the original version of the song did not have the same tune that we know.

I couldn't find the original tune, but it wasn't this tune. Actually, the tune from "Hark the Herald" Angel seeing that we all know was added in 1855 by William H. Cummings. And he decided to put that music to the words of Hark the Herald, the revised version. And when he did this, it was actually Felix Mendelssohn, who was the composer of the melody we know, he fought against it.

And the reason he fought against it is he said, this song was not written to be paired with holy words or sacred words. He actually originally scored the song to honor Johannes Gutenberg and his invention of the printing press for a festival in Leipzig, Germany. I know you guys don't believe me, but I have it on. I want you to listen. This is the music. I just ruined the song forever for all of you.

I apologize. My kids, my wife is German and my kids speak German and all week they've been singing. It's really fun. So that was the original lyrics that went with that melody. And again, Mendelssohn who scored the tune said, "It's not meant to be paired with sacred words." But I kind of found it a little ironic actually, because if you know much about Johannes Gutenberg, who the song was originally written to celebrate or honor, his invention of the printing press, he was a man of faith, and after he invented the printing press, he decided the first book that was worthy to be mass produced was the Bible.

The story of God who became flesh and dwelt among us. The good news for all people that was sang about by the angels that first Christmas. So in a way, I think it's a very fitting tune to be merged with those sacred words because both are communicating the incarnational love of our God. So what is our song this Christmas? The song of our lives. Because you and I, church, we are invited to join the same song as Wesley wrote, to join the triumph of the skies with angelic hosts proclaim that Christ is born in Bethlehem. Amen?

Pray with me. God, thank you again for who you are. God, thank you for coming to earth. I think the Christmas message is so powerful and God forgive us for the times we kind of skip right over the true meaning of what it is that you became flesh. God, may we, if we are in this room or can hear my voice and we are believers that you are Lord of our life, may we, by your strength, by your spirit, may we shine that same love that you have for all people.

May we shine it this Christmas season and beyond. So God, we just praise you and thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.