Episode Transcript
Hello. I am Dr. Kylie Fisher.
Welcome to heavenly harmonies. Psalm 33, verse 17 says, thy way, o God, is in the sanctuary. The sanctuary services performed by the Israelites for over a thousand years are a wonderful depiction of the plan of salvation.
What do these symbols tell us about the work of Christ for us in heaven today? Our hymn that we will be looking at in this episode speaks to us about this. Stay with me to discover how Alleluia sing to Jesus can draw us nearer to the heart of God. In our programmes this season, we have been going through the life of Christ point by point, and we have seen the significance of his birth, his life, his death.
And last episode, we looked at the significance of his resurrection. We began to explore just a little of the significance of his resurrection. Now, after Jesus had been raised to life, he was here on earth for 40 days with his followers.
But the Bible says that he then returned back to heaven. And some people sort of, you know, why is Jesus up there for such a long time and we're suffering down here on earth, and does he care about suffering? Well, we're going to explore today a little more of the work that Jesus is doing for us up in heaven, in the heavenly sanctuary. Our song for today has some sanctuary imagery and so we're going to be looking a little bit at that.
And so let's get into our beautiful hymn for today. Hallelujah, sing to Jesus. Let's begin with the first verse.
Hallelujah, sing to Jesus. Here's the sceptre, here's the throne hallelujah. Here's the triumph here's the victory alone hark the songs of peaceful Zion thunder like a mighty flood Jesus out of every nation hath redeemed us by his blood.
And so we've been speaking in previous programmes and last week or the past couple of weeks, we have been speaking about the victory of Christ over sin. We've been speaking about the victory of Christ over death and the grave. And so that's appropriately what this song starts out with.
To Jesus belong the sceptre and the throne. He's the triumph, he's the victory alone. So Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth, not only through creation, but also through this glorious plan of redemption.
It's just such a wonderful truth. And so we have this wonderful expression, hallelujah, which we looked at last week, and it means praise the Lord. Praise to Jesus for these wonderful victories that he has gained.
So, yeah, look, I mean, we've kind of looked at the ideas from the first two lines of this first verse. In previous programmes, there's much more that we could say about them, but I'd like to move on to some things that we haven't talked so much about and leave you to do more of your own research on those topics that we have already looked at. And so, moving on to the third line of the first verse of this hymn.
Hark, the songs of peaceful Zion thunder like a mighty flood. Jesus out of every nation hath redeemed us by his blood. Now, this is based on revelation, chapter seven, and beginning at verse nine.
Revelation, chapter seven, and beginning at verse nine. Now, John, the disciple of Christ, was given tremendous visions on the Isle of Patmos. And he writes in this passage about what he saw in one of those visions.
So he says, after this, I beheld. He saw this in vision. And lo, a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues.
So that's what this verse is saying. Jesus out of every nation. So here, John the apostle, he saw this great multitude from people of all nations, and what were they doing? He said that they stood before the throne and before the lamb.
The lamb, of course, is Jesus clothed in white robes and palms in their hands. The palm here is a symbol of victory. So Jesus gained the victory.
But here his followers also have palm branches which show the victory that they have gained over sin in their lives. These people, they stood before the throne and before the lamb, clothed with white robes, palms in their hands. And verse ten says, and cried with a loud voice, saying, salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne and unto the lamb.
And so that's what this song here is referring to. So, yeah, Zion is a name given to the city where God lives. And so that's what this is talking about.
And I guess that in some sense, this scene actually is somewhat still future, but it's referring to that vision that John had. So, yeah, that's just such a wonderful and inspirational scene, isn't it? And so, yeah, to sing this song, that first verse would be just full of adoration for Christ, full of triumph, that sense of victory, that's just so glorious. And to think of the final victory of God's people, it's still in the future, but that's the scene you would want to have in your mind.
And that's the Bible verses that this song is based on. That's referring to. So, moving on to the second verse of this hymn, verse two says, alleluia.
Not as orphans are we left in sorrow now. Alleluia. He is near us.
Faith believes nor questions how though the cloud from sight received him when the 40 days were over, shall our hearts forget his promise? I am with you evermore. So, yeah, there's some glorious truths in this. So let's have a look at the passage and passages that this is referring to.
So, John, chapter 14 and verse 18. So, yeah, verse two. That first line says, hallelujah.
Not as orphans are we left in sorrow now. So John 14 and verse 18 says, jesus is speaking in this verse, and he has just been telling his disciples this is the night before he was crucified. And he has just been telling his disciples that he will not be with them for very much longer, but he assures them that he will not utterly forsake them.
So, verse 18, Jesus says, I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. And so in my Bible, the word comfortless, there's a little sort of in bold, but what's it called? Superscript type.
There's a little letter A. And so that tells me that it's a marginal reading. And so when you go down and look and you see the little A, you can see there that it says orphans.
So actually, the more literal translation of this is verse 18 would be, I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. So that's really what this song is saying.
Hallelujah. Not as orphans are we left in sorrow now. So, yeah, Jesus is depicted in the Bible as, like, our father.
And so, yeah, some people, as we were saying earlier, they sort of know, why has God left us to struggle in this world of pain and sorrow? But we can see there from this verse that Jesus is saying, no, I'm not leaving you comfortless. I'm not leaving you orphans. I'm not leaving you alone.
I am going to come to you. And the way that he does that now is he has sent what's called the Holy Spirit. So it's not the purpose of this programme to go into a lot of detail about the Holy Spirit, but it is what we call the third person of the Godhead.
And this is mentioned in John 14, verses 16 and 17. Jesus again speaking. He says, I will pray the father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever.
Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not. Neither knoweth him, but ye know him. For he dwelleth with you and shall be in you.
So this is really a glorious promise. When Jesus was here on earth, his disciples had the privilege of associating with him in bodily form for three and a half years during his public ministry. And, yeah, so when he was here on earth, Christ was here in bodily form.
And that's just really incredible. But here we see an even closer union is described in John 14 and verse 17, because it says that the Holy Spirit not only dwells with us, but that the Holy Spirit can be in us. Again, this is a tremendous mystery that we can't fully explain.
How can the Holy Spirit live within us? How can the Holy Spirit be everywhere, all at once? These are tremendous mysteries we can't fully explain. But that's really what the second line of the second verse of our hymn for today is saying, which says, hallelujah, he is near us. Faith believes nor questions how.
As Jesus was explaining these different truths to his disciples, they were wondering, what is he even talking about? And I can't really understand what he's saying. And Thomas, in fact, said to him, lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way.
So Thomas was sort of saying, how can this be? And that's sort of a question that actually Nicodemus asked. Nicodemus, the Pharisee, the one who was a spiritual leader, he was a religious ruler, he was one who should have, was to be teaching people things that were in the. So, you know, when Christ started to explain to him about the new birth, and Jesus said, unless you're born of water and of the holy and of the spirit, you can't enter the kingdom of God.
And Nicodemus said, how can these things be? And so he couldn't understand, know a spiritual leader who'd spent his whole life studying the scriptures that were available in his time. And so, yeah, this is not something that we can completely understand, but we can know it to be true in our experience. I mean, as we've said in other programmes, there's many things that we can't fully understand, but we experience the reality of them every day.
I mean, just even breathing, I know that I've got lungs and I know that I've got windpipe, and I know that the air goes to the different cells in my body, but exactly how that happens, and I'm not consciously thinking about that, I just do it without even thinking about it. And so it's an act of faith, I guess, just even to take that breath, these breaths that keep us alive. So there's many things in the world that we cannot fully understand, and yet the things that we do show that we have faith, that we believe them and so it's the same with spiritual things as in the physical world.
So in the spiritual world, faith believes nor questions how. And then the second verse of this hymn goes on to say, though the cloud from sight received him when the 40 days were over, shall our hearts forget his promise. I am with you evermore.
So, yeah. Acts, chapter one and verse eleven describes how the disciples. Sorry, verse nine actually, acts one, verse eleven is a beautiful promise, one of my favourite promises.
But acts, chapter one and verse nine speaks about the ascension of Christ, says when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And so that's what this verse is talking about. Though the cloud from sight received him when the 40 days were over.
Shall our hearts forget his promise. I am with you evermore. And so that promise is maybe one of the so many beautiful promises in the Bible.
This is just a really beautiful one. Matthew 28, verse 20. The last part of the verse, that's just such a beautiful promise.
Matthew 28, verse 20, which says, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. And, yes, so that's really a reflection and echo of the promises that Jesus spoke to his disciples in that upper chamber when they were together on the night before he was crucified as we were reading. So that's the second verse focusing on the comfort that we receive from Jesus and how we can be assured of his presence even now.
And so I think, by contrast, maybe to the first verse, which is full of triumph, I think the second verse would be very warm, have a lot of warmth to it, a lot of understanding of that comfort that we gained from Christ. Maybe a bit softer in that second verse. So, moving on to the third verse.
Alleluia. Bread of heaven, thou on earth our food, our stay alleluia. Hear the sinful flee to thee from day to day intercessor, friend of sinners, earth's redeemer plead for me where the songs of all the sinless sweep across the crystal sea yeah, so this is just glorious.
A lot of this hymn is really. It's really a hymn that's actually teaching. Well, actually, it speaks to just looking through this.
This hymn actually speaks to a range of different audiences, really, doesn't it? So, hallelujah, sing to Jesus. I mean, those hallelujahs are really directed, to some extent, to God, so praising God, and it's also inviting others to share in the joys and the triumphs of Christ, to share in this wonderful assurance. A lot of the time, you know, speaking to a human audience, I think, in this hymn.
But there in the last two lines of this hymn, it really goes into actually a prayer because it's really directly addressing Jesus intercessor, friend of sinners, earth's redeemer plead for me, where the songs of all the sinless sweep across the crystal. You know, we've looked at the angels and how they praise God in heaven. So that's clearly what those verses are talking about there.
But what is this? Bread of heaven, thou on earth, our food, our state? What's that saying? And this is the part where the sanctuary comes into it, which points us to the work that Christ is doing for us now. And look, the sanctuary service is just so deep. There's so much truth in it.
We have not got even time scarcely to even begin brushing over the surface of this huge, huge topic. But let's just have a bit of a look at the words that are in this hymn and see what those are saying to us. So Exodus chapter 25 and verse 30 is kind of what this or the part of the sanctuary service that these words are pointing to.
So Exodus chapter 25 and verse 30, which says, thou shalt set upon the table, show bread before me always. So what's this talking about? So basically, in the sanctuary, there was in the earthly sanctuary, which is a model of the things that are in heaven, and it's also teaching important spiritual truths about the work of Christ. So there were basically two parts to the tent, or later on it was a temple, two rooms, really, in this tent or temple, tabernacle, sanctuary, all words the same thing.
There were two rooms. And in the first room that you entered, there was a candlestick with seven lamps that were always to remain alight. There was an altar of incense, and that would be directly in front of you.
And there was also a beautiful golden table with a lovely golden crown around the top of the table. And so that actually represented God's throne. And on this beautiful golden table, there were twelve loaves in other places in the Bible, we don't have time to look into it all today, but there were twelve loaves in two piles of six that were placed on that table.
And it was called the table of showbread. That's what this verse in Exodus is describing. And Jesus actually was referring to this in John, chapter six.
We've looked at it in a previous episode. John, chapter six and verse 35. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. And so Jesus took up this symbol of the bread that was placed in the sanctuary and he showed how that applied to himself. And so just as we rely on physical food, and bread is a staple food, just as we rely on bread as a staple food to gain physical strength, so we are to rely on Jesus to gain physical strength.
And just as on pretty much every day we have to eat. You can't eat once in the week and then that's it for the week, unless you're doing some sort of a fast or something like that. But as a general rule, you have to eat on a regular basis.
And we usually eat daily. And so, just the same, we need to feed on Christ, feed on him for spiritual life. We need to feed on him every day.
So this bread that was placed on that table represents the work of Christ for us and that he is standing before his father's throne and presenting his blood and pleading for us. And also the altar of incense, that was where incense was offered. That represents, like, we don't have time to look at it in detail, we're running out of time.
But that represents just like the smoke of the incense went up to heaven, that represents, like our prayers going up to Jesus. And so this is what this is saying. Intercessor, friend of sinners, Earth's redeemer, plead for me.
And some beautiful passages, actually, Hebrews, chapter four. We've looked at it in a previous programme which says that, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. And so up there in the heavenly sanctuary, Jesus presents our requests before his heavenly Father.
And that's how we receive the answers to our prayers. So it's evident, referring back to our programme last week, that if Christ had not been raised from the dead, he would not be able to be our representative up in heaven. And so some people say, and look, I've said the same thing myself, sort of say, well, even if we don't have eternal life, it's better to be a Christian in this life, because I'd still rather be a Christian.
But if it wasn't for the resurrection of Christ and being raised to life, we wouldn't even have the blessings that we now enjoy, because all of those blessings come to us through know, spiritual blessings, physical blessings, all of this, it all comes to us through the death and resurrection of Christ. And so we can just praise God that we have such a wonderful saviour and that he has such a complete plan of salvation complete plan of redemption so yeah, these truths, the sanctuary truth is brought to view in this beautiful song Hallelujah sing to Jesus. So let's listen now to the St Michael's singers singing this glorious hymn for us to Jesus.
Jesus night with love hallelujah hallelu. Your easy no question Lord Jesus when I shall forget it wrong with you ever all day shall I say ha from day to day Jesus when I saw my cross for Christmas Jesus ha. The day I.
Dear God, we are so grateful for the love of Christ and for his high priestly ministry for us that today the friend of sinners is presenting our case in the heavenly court. So we thank you and praise you for this. May we realise the reality of it in our own lives.
I pray in Jesus name. Amen. So thank you so much for joining me today on heavenly harmonies.
Please do join me again next time, but until then, goodbye and God bless.
