Christmas Eve 1990. I came this close to being physically thrown out of church.
We were new to town and we heard that a certain church in town had a fantastic Christmas Eve service. So, we went with some friends, about ten of us total, to this church in downtown Princeton, New Jersey. The church was packed and we were looking forward to a wonderful night.
Our first clue that something was a little off was when the usher gave us the night’s bulletin and warned us that there would be absolutely no talking before, during or after the service. Huh, we thought.
We were chided several times by an usher to quit whispering, and this was before the service started.
Just before the service started, an associate pastor came out and requested that those in the congregation please refrain from singing, for the paid professional choir found it difficult to perform with unprofessional singing.
I am not making this up.
Well, the service started with the hymn “Come All Ye Faithful”. Who can resist singing “Come All Ye Faithful”? The now familiar usher appeared and hushed our unprofessional row right up. He was quite menacing.
The second hymn was “Hark The Herald Angels Sing”. I have to admit, the choir was quite good, but unlike the rest of the congregation our row couldn’t resist singing and we jumped in on the second verse. Immediately our usher was upon us, this time giving us our final warning. “One more time, and you are out”, he quietly scolded us.
It was miserable. This usher would stroll by our pew every few minutes and give us a piercing glare. Christmas hymn, after Christmas hymn, and we couldn’t sing a word. We were like prisoners in our pew. Did we really sing that poorly? Finally, the service was ending, our candles were lit and the hymn “Silent Night” was just beginning. Well, I ask you, who can resist singing “Silent Night” on Christmas Eve? It is irresistible.
Soon a heavy hand fell upon my shoulder, “You have to leave, son, your singing again”. It was our ever vigilant usher. I didn’t move. Again, I heard, “You have to leave, son, your singing again”. At this point we were on the last verse of “Silent Night” and in unified Christmas Eve defiance, our whole row started to sing. We sang the hymn with ever increasing gusto. Would the usher make a scene? Would we be physically dragged out of church for our clearly unprofessional singing? Would we be banned from Christmas Eve Service forever?
Perhaps it dawned on the usher that this was Christmas Eve; Perhaps the usher’s bark was worse than his bite, or perhaps the joy of Christmas came upon the usher that at that very moment, I’ll never know – but our usher relented and returned to his post.
We finished the hymn, extinguished our candles, and headed for the door, where we were met by the usher who had pestered us all evening, he shook our hands and exclaimed, “Merry Christmas, please join us for Sunday Service this next week”.
We went to the church across the street the next Sunday.
We have been looking at some of the favorite Christmas hymns this Advent season and today we are taking a look at the theology expressed in the hymn “O Come All Ye Faithful”. This morning we will be looking at what the hymn is really saying. Some of you may find it helpful to have both your hymnal open to “Come All Ye Faithful” and your bible open to our Scripture from Hebrews chapter 1.
“O Come All Ye Faithful” was originally written in Latin by John Wade, but was mercifully translated into English by the good reverend Fredrick Oakley in 1841. John Reading composed the music for the hymn in 1751 and we have it in its present form today.
One of the great ironies of our day is that even people who are adamantly against Jesus Christ and all He stands for, can’t resist singing “O Come All Ye Faithful”. Even if under duress from a menacing usher, people cannot resist singing, “O Come All Ye Faithful”, and in so singing, they offer worship to Jesus Christ.
This great hymn speaks not only of the birth of Jesus but also the divinity of Jesus. This hymn describes the birth of Jesus that is described in Luke Chapter 2 which was read at our Advent candle lighting earlier. If you look at the first part of the hymn, you’ll see that we are invited to worship Jesus Christ. Why are we invited to worship? Not for all that Jesus promises, not for Jesus’ great teaching, but for His divinity.
We see that Jesus is God of God, light of light, begotten and not created, Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing – all references to the divinity of Jesus Christ, all references to the fact that Jesus is God himself. Right up front in the hymn “O Come All Ye Faithful” it is declared that Jesus is “born the king of angels” - another reference to His divinity. If you will turn with me to our Scripture in the book of Hebrews chapter one we’ll see what it means to be born king of angels.
When you get the chapter, place you finger on verse 6. You will notice it says that, “God brings his firstborn into the world”. This is not saying that Jesus is a created being. The term firstborn here carries with it the connotation of close relationship. Here it means that Jesus is closest in relation to God. In other words there is no one, there is no thing that can come between God and Jesus. That makes perfect sense since Jesus is God – remember Christians believe, and the bible teaches that God is made up of Father, Son and Holy Spirit – all God, three distinct personalities, yet one God – nothing can come between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Now, at first glace we may assume that “firstborn” here in verse 6 is a reference to Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, but scholars tell us that being “firstborn” is not in reference to Jesus’ physical birth, rather it refers to His “birth” in the new age. In context, what we see here is Jesus’ entrance into the heavenly world after his sacrificial death. Jesus is born, he lives, dies, is buried, and enters into the realm of the dead – here God commands the angels to worship Jesus because of his greatness of being able to conquer sin.
It is a powerful image. Upon Jesus’ death, he receives worship. Even before His resurrection, Jesus is honored for who He is. Even before Jesus’ goes back to His disciples, He is honored for who He is.
See, Jesus’ incarnation made him lower than the angels. When Jesus came to us on Christmas Eve, he became human – now He was fully God and at the same time fully human, still, His incarnation made Him lower than angels. We read this in Heb. 2:7-8, “You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor
and put everything under his feet.” Jesus may have been a little lower than the angels for a time, but his death and conquest over sin exulted Him back to His rightful place, king of angels.
So, when Jesus is “born king of angels” it is not on Christmas Eve, rather it is, at the time of His death as He enters into the realm of the dead – and there He is worshiped and rightfully so. This hymn calls us not only to worship an infant Jesus, but looks forward in time and invites us to worship the triumphant Jesus, the Jesus who has done the impossible. The angels now must pay homage to the Son, for awesome and great He is.
We read in John 5:22-23 “Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.” And so even the angels must honor Jesus.
God calls Jesus his firstborn, that is, the one closest to Him, but of angels he makes them winds and flames of fire. We see this in verse 7, you see that? Verse 7 is a quote from psalm 104:4. Winds and flames of fire are subject to the will of God, they are subject to God’s creative activity. We read in Psa. 148:8 “lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding”. Here in this psalm (148), (as seen in context in the Hebrew) these elements are actually specifically referring to cherubim and seraphim angels – powerful beings that are subject to the will of God. What this means for us this morning is that God has full control over the angels, but Jesus is His own agent. To the Son, Jesus, God the Father, says you are so close to me, nothing can come between us, to His angels He says you are servants, subject to my will as the elements are subject to my will.
As we move into verse 8, we see eternal nature of Jesus Christ. Jesus doesn’t start out life as an infant, Jesus just always is. Jesus doesn’t start out human and then become filled with God, Jesus just is. He has always been, He always will be. There is never a time when Jesus wasn’t. There will never be a time where Jesus won’t be. As God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit said to Moses at the burning bush “I Am”. Jesus is an eternal being, always was, always is, always be and therefore is superior to any being.
God may tell His angels that they are servants, but of Jesus He says, His kingdom will be forever, for Jesus is eternal, always was, there’s never a time He will not be.
Verses 8-9 are a quote from Psalm 45:6-7.
(The quotes may be a little different here in the book of Hebrews than you may see in the Psalms if you look any of these reference verses up, this is simply due to the fact that these are all quotes from the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew bible, and the psalm in your bible is directly translated from the Hebrew)
Psalm 45 is a psalm about a wedding celebration. Here we see it applies as a prophecy of our time to come at the end of the age when we are all in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. At the end of the age, we who are believers, will gather at what the bibles calls the wedding feast. In psalm 45 we see this is a celebration of a royal feast, this feast is in honor of Jesus Christ and the Church finally being complete and together. In this context here in Hebrews, Jesus is the groom and the Church, that’s us, is the bride.
The companions referred to in verse 9 that Jesus is set above, is us, the saints, those who are believers. He was set above us by being anointed with the “oil of Joy”. We see in Acts 10:38, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” The oil of Joy we see in this verse is the specifically the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus.
Jesus is greater than the angels and Jesus is greater than any human, He is God after all.
On top of all this, we see that Jesus was in fact at the creation of the world. Verse 10, “you laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands.”. Verses 10-12 are a quote from psalm 102:25-27. In the Septuagint it is clear that the Lord God is specifically addressed here, the book of Hebrews informs us that these verses are to be applied to Jesus.
Jesus is not just an instrument of creation, Jesus is the creator – This is His rightful place.
This is His divine right, to be worship and set above all. Jesus is superior, in every way possible. Jesus is the one we will all gather to worship because of His divinity and his dominion over all.
This is who the Hymn “Come All Ye Faithful” is describing. This great hymn talks about Jesus birth as an infant in Bethlehem yes, but it asks us to approach the king of angels, the one who has overcome sin, it asks us to come and offer our worship to the one who truly deserves our worship – Jesus Christ our Lord.
At this point, I would like to now ask the ushers to remain where you are.. Let us now stand together professional and unprofessional and receive the invitation to worship as we sing together, “O Come All Ye Faithful”.
