O Come All Ye Faithful

What do you adore?

To help you answer that question let me give you some clarity around the meaning of the word adore.

We can use it in a very informal, probably incorrect way.

Oh I just adore chocolate cake. It means we like chocolate cake a lot.

Then there is the slightly better use:

I adore my wife. When we use it like this we are talking about deep love and respect. We usually like our partners more than food even.

The word adore come from to latin words

Ad - to

orare - speak/pray

Combined it was a word that was used for worship. To adore something was to worship it.

When you say you adore something, technically it’s talking about it having first place in your heart. To be the thing you love and treasure and serve above all else. A bit strange to make chocolate cake that one thing, more understandable to make it your spouse. But actually even he/she will let you down.

Our carol today is an invitation to remove anything and everything from first place, and return, or remind ourselves that Jesus is the one and only one worthy of our adoration.

O Come All Ye Faithful

It’s a Latin Hymn - Adeste Fideles - literally “be present or near, you faithful ones”.

For a long time the author was unknown, however it is believed, though of course there is debate, that most likely the hymn was written in 1744 by an English layman called John Francis Wade, who published it a few years later in 1751. Unlike our carol last week, which had words penned by Wesley and music added by others, John Wade was a doublely talented fellow and is believed to have penned both the lyrics and the tune. Also unlike Hark!, the tune he penned is believed to be basically the same as the one we sing today.

There have however been some additions to the original, even if it is largely the same. And those additions come in the form of extra verses. John Wade penned the original with v1-2, and 6-7. Sometime later in the 18th Century, the French Catholic Priest, Jean-François-Étienne Borderies wrote an additional three verses. Our vv 3-5. Someone anonymously wrote an 8th verse but it is rarely printed and not well known.

This extended 7/8 verse version has been translated into over 100 languages. Our English version was translated by a priest named Frederick Oakeley in 1841. Only a few years before he switched from Anglican to Catholic. So we can claim the song!

The first 2 and the last 2 verses (the originals). For our consideration today:

V1 -Encourages us to visualise the infant Jesus in Bethlehem’s stable. To marvel at the king of kings in a manger in Bethlehem.

O come all ye faithful Joyful and triumphant O come ye o come ye to Bethlehem Come and behold Him Born the King of angels

V2 - Similarly to v2 of Hark! last week. This verse encourages us to remember that the baby Jesus is God and humbled himself to take on flesh.

True God of true God Light of light eternal Lo, he abhors not the Virgin’s womb; Son of the Father Begotten, not created

V6 (3) - Reminds us again as Hark! did last week, of that angelic choir heard by the shepherds and the fact that this act of God coming to dwell with us is an act that brings Him Glory.

Sing choirs of angels Sing in exultation Sing all ye citizens of heaven above Glory to God Glory in the highest

V7 (4) - And this final verse, calls us to give praise and adoration to the Word, to Jesus, our Lord who was with the Father but appeared in flesh.

Yea Lord we greet Thee Born this happy morning Jesus to Thee be the glory given Word of the Father now in flesh appearing

As this carol, and others like Hark! focus our minds on the incarnation. On God becoming man. I’m constantly drawn to Paul’s beautiful words about the incarnation in Phil 2:

Philippians 2:6–11 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus humbled himself. Became a human. Lived the perfect life none of us could. Died on the cross for us. And is now the king of the world and worthy of all our praise and glory.

That’s what this carol is about. And that’s why this carol calls us to adore Jesus.

Adore Jesus

Chorus: O Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

In calling us to adore Jesus, this carol is reminding us that this is our first need. Not to spend hours thinking through the mechanics of the incarnation, though there may be some fruit in that. Not to simply learn all the right answers so we look good. We’ve missed the point of Christmas if we’ve missed the beauty of Christ. We need to love and adore Jesus. We need Him to be our number one.

On that first Christmas night there was much worship or adoration of Jesus.

Luke 2:15–20 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

The Shepherds - so moved by all they’ve seen they are overflowing with worship.

And look also at Mary. She too is amazed at what God has done, and is filled with love for this child she has just given birth too. And as she is told all these wonderful things that God has done in bringing her son into the world, she ‘treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart’ (v19). This is adoration. Treasuring the wonderful news about Jesus and all you hear about him deep in your heart because you just love him so much.

Does that describe you? It’s a challenge isn’t it!?

Well I want to finish today by reading a short article by Jared C. Wilson - American Scholar, which I think challenges all of us and ought to motivate us to be people who adore Jesus.

We are typically very quick to note when someone is not showing love for their neighbor. But what about love for Jesus? Should it settle implicitly? Is love for Christ something that is sufficient when latent?

What I notice a lot every day in the Christian spheres of social media is just how incredibly adept we evangelicals are at doctrinal criticism, cultural rebuke, theological analysis, biblical exegesis, contending for the faith in apologetic and ethical debates, pithy spiritual bon mots, religious advice, and of course the quoting of Christian leaders present and past, but what seems less prevalent is adoration of Jesus.

When we see a Bible verse, we run its meaning through our mind and can expound on it with intelligence, but when we see Christ before us, do we stagger at his beauty and exult in it with awe? Do we adore Jesus?

When we see a lost person acting a fool in the news, our righteous indignation runs right through our fingertips to our keyboards, but when we see Christ before us, does our righteousness crumble and run right to his feet in a posture of supplication? Do we adore Jesus?

When we see one of our Christian heroes saying something smart or funny or challenging, we send them a virtual high-five and echo the proclamation in shouts of appreciation, but when we see Christ before us, do we lift him high in our hearts and herald his glory with shouts of acclamation? Do we adore Jesus?

When we see that someone is wrong on the Internet, we feel the responsibility to speak up, to be the one to stand in the gap between their ignorance and our assurance, but when we see Christ before us — supreme and sovereign and saving — do we feel the wonders of his radiance?

When we look at Jesus, are we warmed? Or do we shrug our shoulders?

Some professing Christians don’t seem to speak of Christ at all. Let them ask themselves, “Do I adore Jesus?”

Has Jesus become our mascot, our projection? When you look at him, what do you see?

There’s nothing wrong with using the Internet public squares for all kinds of messages, from the serious to the silly, and I don’t mean to suggest that there is. I just want to ask sometimes, “But do you adore Jesus? It seems you are fired up about all sorts of things, but it is not clear if you love Jesus.” I don’t think we should simply assume from some peripheral fire that the central ignition is love of Christ.

Christ is the apex of all that is precious, the centre of all that is glorious and delightful. He is the very point of existence. He is the Son of the living God, the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last who was and is and is to come. “O come let us adore him!”, not scrutinise, utilise, or analyse him.

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/jared-c-wilson/but-do-you-adore-jesus/

Here’s my question for you. As you hear and sing O Come Let Us Adore Him this Christmas.

What does it look like for you to adore Jesus? But not only this Christmas? Every day from now until he comes again?