Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Opening & Intro

Hope, peace, and now joy.

What is joy?

Joy isn’t a feeling. It isn’t an emotion. Joy is not happiness. We can find joy in the darkest of places. In our grief, in our pain, in our sadness, even in our anger we find joy. In a humble manger we find joy. In a small baby we see the hope of humanity. These aren’t stories, this is our history.

Joy is a state of being. It is present when life is peaceful and free of pain, and it is present when life swirls around us, chaotic and troubled. When we know where to place our hope, we can have peace, with this peace we can then find and experience joy.

How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? I am sure this psalm was quoted often by God’s people while His people were being ruled by the Romans. The reality is God made a promise to His people and no matter how long that promise takes to fulfill it was still a promise of God.

God is always with us, and He always keeps his promises, even in the quiet times.

We light this candle on the third week of advent to remember that with our hope and peace that is found in the promise of the birth of Christ we can also find joy.

As the angels said to the Shepherds over 2000 years ago, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people…”

We still celebrate that Joy to this day, because of the hope and peace we have in Jesus.

(Light the Candle)

Many of the carols we sing have a rich theological tradition, and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!” is no exception. It was written by Charles Wesley, who was an English Methodist leader and hymn writer. Wesley wrote over 6,000 hymns, more than any other male writer (Fanny Crosby wrote 8,000).

His goal in writing hymns was to teach the poor and illiterate sound doctrine. His brother, John Wesley, a famous theologian and founder of Methodism, said that Charles’ hymnal was the best theological book in existence. Some have noted that Methodism was born in song and Charles was the chief songwriter.

Wesley, inspired by the sounds of London church bells while walking to church on Christmas Day, wrote the “Hark” poem about a year after his conversion to be read on Christmas Day. The poem first appeared in Hymns and Sacred Poems in 1739 with the opening line of “Hark, how the welkin (heaven) rings.”

In 1753, George Whitefield, a student and eventual colleague of Wesley’s, adapted the poem into the song we now know today. It was Whitefield who penned the phrase “newborn King.”

The hymn that we now sing is the result of many alterations by numerous individuals and hymnal editorial committees.

Changes in hymn texts are quite common. The average singer on Sunday morning would be amazed (or perhaps chagrined) to realize how few hymns before the twentieth century in our hymnals appear exactly in their original form. Perhaps the most notable change in this hymn was Wesley’s first line. The original read, “Hark how all the welkin rings!” “Welkin” is an archaic English term referring to the sky or the firmament of the heavens, even the highest celestial sphere of the angels. This term certainly supported the common eighteenth-century notion of the three-tiered universe, where the top tier includes the celestial beings, the lowest tier the normal activities of humanity (birth, death, marriage, work, sickness) and the natural created order (rain, drought, natural disasters), and the middle tier where celestial beings influence the activities of beings and events on earth with their superhuman powers.

Gratefully, George Whitefield (1740-1770), a powerful preacher and friend to the Wesley brothers, made several changes to this hymn in his Collection (1753). He eschewed the original first line for the scriptural dialogue between heaven and earth. Wesley scholar and professor at Perkins School of Theology, Dr. Ted Campbell, comments on Whitefield’s modification of the first line with his characteristic humor: “I have wondered if anybody but Charles knew what a welkin was supposed to be. Maybe John looked at the draft version and said, ‘It’s ever so lovely, Charles, but whatever on earth is a ‘welkin'?’ So, all the more reason to give thanks for the editorial work of George Whitefield.”

Main Point

Redemption is here and we cna celebrate. Hold that hope and live in peace to maintain our joy!

Why Does it Matter

It matters because God’s plan is for us to have Joy and peace.

Scripture

Hark! the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King;

Peace on earth and mercy mild,

God and sinners reconciled:

Heaven declares Jesus is born what is the declaration? Jesus is here and We will finally be reconciled with God!

Joyful all ye nations rise,

Join the triumph of the skies,

With the angelic host proclaim,

Christ is born in Bethlehem:

Let’s celebrate! Shout it from the roof tops!

Hark! the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King.

Christ, by highest heaven adored,

Christ, the everlasting Lord,

Late in time behold him come,

Offspring of a virgin’s womb!

This Messiah is worshipped by the greatest created beings in the world. He's saying, ‘Think of it! This babe in a manger in Bethlehem has been adored by the greatest created beings that exist. They worship Him: Christ, the everlasting Lord.’ What's he saying? That this Messiah is no mere earthly king; rather, He is the incarnate eternal Lord of the universe.

After all these years separated by God! Jesus is back!

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,

Hail the incarnate Deity!

Pleased as man with men to dwell,

Jesus, our Emmanuel:

When you look at Jesus you see the fullness of God!

He did this out of love and a desire to redeem us!

Why? Well, they were in tents! They were nomads, they were wandering in the wilderness; and when God commanded a place to be built that would represent His tangible presence with His people, what did He ask for? A tent. It was beautiful; it was expensive; it was elaborate; but it was a tent! And so the Lord says to David, ‘When My people were in tents, I came and dwelled in a big tent right in the middle of them!’ It's a glorious passage, when He says that to David.

Well, you see, Jesus does something even greater than that. He comes and dwells with us as a human, as the God-man, fully inhabiting our experience, living among us as one of us. “Pleased as man with men to dwell….”

Hark! the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King.

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!

Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings,

Risen with healing in his wings;

Mild, he lays his glory by,

Born that man no more may die,

Born to raise the sons of earth,

Born to give them second birth:

Then comes the third stanza, again all about Jesus Christ: “Hail the heavenly Prince of Peace!” Wesley is taking you all the way back to Isaiah 9:6, where the Messiah is described (among other things) as the Prince of Peace; and he's saying when you hail Jesus– when you acclaim Jesus, when you honor Jesus, acclaim him– acclaim Jesus the Messiah as the Prince of Peace who was prophesied by Isaiah.

And when you hail Jesus, hail Him as the Son of Righteousness, he says in the next phrase. There, he's going back to Malachi 4:2a, the first part of Malachi 4:2, and he's saying that Jesus the Messiah is the Son of Righteousness prophesied by Malachi.

And when you hail Jesus, acknowledge that “Light and life to all He brings….”–and of course Wesley is going back to John 1:4, a passage you’ll hear read tonight during the Lessons and Carols of Christmas, where John reminds us that He was the light of the world and the life of men–a phrase in John 1:4 that actually goes all the way back to Psalm 27:1, when the psalmist says that “the Lord is my light and my salvation, and He is my life.”

Then he says “…risen with healing in His wings.” He's back to Malachi 4:2b this time, the second half of verse 2 where the Son of Righteousness is described as rising with healing in His wings.

Then in the next phrase, “Mild He lays His glory by…” Wesley interprets for us Philippians 2:7 as briefly and as accurately as you can do it. You remember Philippians 2:7? That “…He emptied Himself and made Himself of no reputation” on our behalf… “Mild He lays His glory by…”

And then the next three phrases tell you three reasons why Jesus was born. He was born that man no more may die. In other words, Jesus was born to remove the curse brought by Adam's sin and ours. What was that curse? Paul says, “…the wages of sin is death”, so He was born to remove the curse brought by Adam's sin and ours. The wages of sin: death…so “that man no more may die.”

Secondly, He was “born to raise the sons of earth…” He was born to raise us to newness of life, as Romans 6 says. He was born to raise us so that we would be resurrected to eternal life, as I Corinthians 15 tells us; and, He was “born to give them second birth”; that is, Jesus was born that we might be born again, that we might be regenerated, that we might be renewed and transformed. And then we sing the refrain again.

Hark! the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King.

Philippians 2:1-11

1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Application

Jesus came to earth to redeem us and show us how to live.

This should bring us joy!

Closing

Joy!

Revelation 21:4 NIV

‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”