Episode Transcript
Hello, I'm Dr Kylie Fisher. Welcome to Heavenly Harmonies. When the angel announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds, he said, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.
Our hymn for today, Angels From The Realms Of Glory shows us that Jesus truly came for everyone, stay with me to discover how the insights of this song can draw us nearer to the heart of God. In our programmes this season, we are focusing on the life of Christ and seeing what the significance of his life is to the story of our salvation. And so today, we're kind of going to backtrack and do a little bit of an overview, because we've already done a number of songs about the birth of Christ, but the birth of Christ is part of his life.
So we are going to do a bit of, as I say, an overview of Jesus'birth, because there's a number of different aspects to Jesus'birth that are recorded in the Gospels. And so, yeah, hymn for today, Angels from the Realms of Glory. Absolutely beautiful song.
And this hymn speaks of three groups of people who responded to the invitation to worship the infant Christ. So we're going to have a look at that, we're going to explore it. Some things we're going to be reviewing a little bit.
Other things, though, will be new. So we're going to look at those truths, and we're also going to see how we can more effectively convey those truths through our voice. Whether it's through singing this song or whether it's through just sharing the message of this song with other people in different ways, through our actions or through our speech or whatever.
So let's begin with the first verse. Angels from the realms of Glory, wing your flight or all the earth, ye who sang creation's story now proclaim Messiah's birth come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King. So reads the first verse.
So let's have a look back at it and see what it's talking about. So it starts out with Angels from the Realms of Glory. So some of these words may be words that we don't use all the time in our English language today, but basically this is saying how that the angels are from Heaven, which is a beautiful, it is a glorious place and that's where the Bible reveals that angels live.
And we've sort of spoken about that in other programmes, so I'll just leave it past with this mention and this explanation. So angels come from heaven, but they do, we've discovered in other programmes, they do come down to this earth and they do have so much to do with human history. And it's really incredible when we think about the involvement of angels in human history.
Yeah, it's just really, really amazing. The Bible gives us so many insights into these things and so the first one that's mentioned in this hymn is ye who sang creation's story. And then it goes on to talk about now proclaim Messiah's birth.
So ye who sang creation's story. So I have mentioned this before, but let's look at it again. Let's look at the verse that talks about this, which is Job chapter 38 and verse seven.
Job chapter 38 and verse seven. Let's actually pick up from verse four. I haven't read this one before, job chapter 38 and verse four, because this really gives us the context.
Verse seven talks about a song that the angel sang, but verse four really gives us the context. And this is God speaking. And he says to Job, the main character in the book of Job, god says to Job, where were you? Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? So this is clearly talking about creation, the time that God created the world.
And verse seven says that at this time the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. So morning stars, sons of God, those terms are sort of synonymous in these verses. This is the way that this is Hebrew poetry.
So Job is one of the poetic books of the Bible. And, well, there's many different aspects to Hebrew poetry, but sometimes there's similarities drawn between the two different sort of parts of a verse. And so here, morning stars and sons of God, they're kind of parallel to each other.
So the term sons of God explains for us what the morning stars are. They're these angels. So that's what's picked up in our hymn, ye who sang creation story now proclaim Messiah's birth.
Yes. So the angels sang at creation and these same angels that sang at creation, which was about 6000 years ago, about 6000 years ago our world was created. They also came to proclaim the birth of Jesus.
And we've read a fair bit about this in the Book of Luke. But I'd like to actually, before we go to the Book of Luke, which we will look at some verses from that today, but just before we do that, I'd like to also look at a time when we're told in the Bible about an angel appearing to the prophet Daniel around about 600 years before the birth of Jesus to prophesy the exact time of Jesus birth. So let's have a look at this.
So this is Daniel chapter nine, daniel, chapter nine. And the beginning of the chapter from about, well, starting, I guess really from verse four to verse 19 is a long prayer of the prophet Daniel. And Daniel in this prayer is greatly troubled.
He is praying for forgiveness for the sins of his nation, the people of Israel who have rejected God. And so it's an absolutely beautiful prayer, an amazing model for prayer. But in response to this prayer, something happens and an angel actually appears to Daniel.
So let's have a look at this. So let's pick up from verse 20. So Daniel, chapter nine and verse 20.
And it says there whilst I that is Daniel while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God whilst I was speaking in prayer. Even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning being caused to fly, swiftly touched me about the time of the evening. Oblation.
There's so much we could say about this verse. We don't have time to go into it, but here we see that, well, he's called a man in this chapter, but we see from other places that he is actually an angel and that is Gabriel. He appears to Daniel in answer to his prayer.
And let's have a look. Gabriel tells Daniel a number of things that are prophetic, things that are going to happen in the future. Some things especially relating to the time when Christ is to appear on earth and the work that he's going to do.
So if we look in verse 25, Gabriel says, Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the prince should be seven weeks and three score and two weeks. Now, those are prophetic weeks. We don't have time to look at all of the time explanation and other verses that relate to this in this brief session today.
But we can see there that Gabriel declared to the prophet Daniel about 600 years, well, probably about 550 years by the time this prophecy was given, declared to the prophet Daniel when the Messiah Christ Emmanuel, the Son of God, was going to be born. So here we see these angels proclaiming Messiah's birth, or this angel Gabriel, proclaiming Messiah's birth. Now, so coming on to the time when Jesus was actually born, we see the very same angel appearing and announcing the birth of Christ.
This is really amazing. So this is in. Let's have a look in Luke chapter one.
So there's kind of a couple of stories, actually, in Luke chapter one, where the angel Gabriel appears. So the first time that he appears, he actually appears to the priest, a priest, Zacharias, and he tells Zacharias that his wife Elizabeth is going to have a baby. This is amazing and miraculous.
I've mentioned this in previous programmes because both Zacharias and Elizabeth are very old, they're actually too old to have children. And so this was an amazing miracle. The birth of John the Baptist, who also was actually Jesus'cousin, was a completely miraculous birth.
And so it was actually Gabriel that was the one that appeared to Zechariah to announce this to him. So this story is from verses five up to verse 25 of Luke chapter one. But let's just look particularly at the verse that pinpoints Gabriel, that is verse 19, Luke chapter one.
And verse 19 because Zechariah says how is this going to happen? My wife's too old to have a baby. But verse 19 says the angel answering said unto him I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God and am sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these glad tidings. So we see from that that the same angel that gave Daniel this prophecy about the Messiah's birth.
He was the one that came and announced to Zacharias that he and Elizabeth would have a special baby which was to be the forerunner of Christ. He was to announce the birth of Christ and that was John. And then again in starting in verse 26 we see again the same angel Gabriel coming and announcing to Mary that she would actually give birth to Jesus himself.
So let's pick up from Luke chapter one and verse 26 which says and in the 6th month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the virgin's name was Mary. So there we see once again Gabriel coming and proclaiming Messiah's birth. So that's just really amazing as we think about the involvement as I've been saying of angels in human history.
And yeah it must have been just an amazing occasion for the angels to actually proclaim Jesus'birth. When that time finally arrived that was a day that they had been waiting for for thousands of years. And so, basically, in this song, the first verse that we've just read is kind of depicting and it's talking about these angels that are flying all over the earth.
And the angels, evidently, were so excited to see the birth of Christ. And it was an amazing occasion. And they were looking for people who also would be interested in this.
And so the rest of the song, the other three verses in the song describe three different groups who accepted the invitation of the angels to come and worship the baby Jesus. So let's have a look at these three groups. And so let's go on to the second verse.
Shepherds in the field abiding watching all your flocks by night god with man is now residing yonder shines the infant light and so clearly this second verse is talking about a scene that we've spoken about many times which is the angels announcing the birth of Christ to the shepherds in the fields. Now, the fact that the shepherds were actually out in the fields at the time of Jesus'birth is something that actually indicates to us that Jesus was probably not born at the traditionally considered time of Christmas time, because Jesus was born in the northern hemisphere. And so during Christmas time would be very cold.
And so it's not really very likely that the shepherds would be out in the field. So that's an indication there as to the time of year that Jesus was born. So these shepherds were out in the field abiding, they were watching over their flocks.
Those words are pretty much taken just straight from Luke, chapter two. Now then it goes on to say, as we said, God with man is now residing. So that idea of God with man, you'll remember, that we spoke about in previous episodes, emmanuel, God with us was a special name that was given to Jesus.
And so these words, God with man, just pick up that idea of Emmanuel, god with man is now residing. So God is right here. Yonder shines the infant light.
So we've spoken about that a lot in other episodes. So let's press on now to the third verse. Sages, leave your contemplations, brighter visions beam afar, seek the great desire of nations, ye have seen his natal star.
And so this is also speaking about something that we've spoken about in previous programmes. This is clearly talking about the wise men that are spoken about in Matthew chapter two, at the beginning of that chapter. So here they're called sages.
Sages, leave your contemplations, brighter visions beam afar, seek the great desire of nations. We've spoken about that before. Haggai, chapter two, verse seven, which says that Jesus was the desire of all nations, ye have seen his natal star.
Now, you might be sort of wondering why was it that these wise men, these sages, were so particularly interested in this star that appeared? And certainly the star had very different behaviour this light that the wise men saw in the heavens had very different behaviour to most stars. And so they realised that it was not just an ordinary star, but that it seemed to have some sort of supernatural connection. And let's just actually look at a prophecy in the Old Testament that was spoken by someone that was not actually an Israelite.
This prophecy was spoken by Balam, who had been a true prophet of God, but sadly wandered away from God. But he did make this prophecy about Jesus. Numbers chapter 24 and verse 17.
Numbers 24 and verse 17 says, I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him but not nigh. There shall come a star out of Jacob and a sceptre shall rise out of so a star out of Jacob.
And so when the wise men saw this star, they no doubt remembered this prophecy and they followed that star and they followed that star right to the place where Jesus was staying and they worshipped him, which is these words, come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ, the newborn king. That, of course, is the chorus of the song. So that's repeated with every verse.
And yeah, so the wise men accepted this invitation. And between the shepherds and the wise men, you know, that what a tremendous contrast. Shepherds, they're out in the field with their sheep.
It's a very humble sort of an occupation. And so we've got a huge contrast between the very humble shepherds. And yet here are also the wise men coming and acknowledging Christ.
Both the shepherds and the wise men came and worshipped Jesus. They worshipped the baby Jesus. And so this shows us that Christ did not come only for one class of people.
The Shepherds were Jewish people. They were from the Jewish nation. The wise men were from the east.
They were not Jewish people. By were, you know, what would be described as Gentiles. They were non Jewish people by natural descent, and yet they also came and worshipped Jesus.
And so this shows us that Christ came for all. But let's go on to the last verse of this hymn, because this also speaks about a third group that were longing to see Jesus and looking for Jesus. And so the fourth verse says, saints before the altar, bending, watching long in hope and fear, suddenly the Lord descending in his temple shall appear.
And so let's have a look back again in Luke chapter two. Luke, chapter two. And we can see in this chapter this chapter, after discussing the birth of Jesus, it talks about a time when Jesus was dedicated, when he was about actually doesn't tell us exactly how old he was, but when he was still only very young, just a few weeks old, jesus was brought to the temple to be dedicated.
And with two people that were especially longing to see Jesus. And these are the saints that are spoken about here. Sometimes we think of saints as people that have died and gone to heaven.
That's not really supported by the Bible. That's not the way that the Bible uses the term saints. The term saint is used to refer to a follower of Christ.
And that's the sense in which it is in this song. So let's just have a look in Luke chapter two and verse 25, which says, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. The same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. So this man was very elderly, and all his life he'd been wanting to see Jesus. He'd been wanting to see this promised Messiah.
And God revealed to him that he would see him. And he did see him. You can read in the next verses there.
And Jesus did not come only for people that are male. We see also that there were females that were waiting for him. So let's look at verse 36.
There was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Fanuel, of the tribe of ASA. She was of a great age. She was a widow of about four score and four years.
So she was 84, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers. Night and day. And she, coming in that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of Him to all that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
So here we have Simeon and Anna. These are the saints that were before the altar, bending, watching long in hope and fear. And Christ appeared when it says, suddenly the Lord descending in his temple shall appear.
The coming of Christ was not, even though it actually perfectly fulfilled Bible prophecy, it actually took many people in the Jewish nation by surprise, such surprise that they actually did not recognise Him. That was not through the fault of the Bible prophecies, but through their misapplication, their misunderstanding of them. So let's just before we do listen to this song, let's just speak briefly about these words and how might we portray these things? Well, we've only got to such a brief amount of time to speak about these things.
But what I would really like to emphasise is a verse that I've spoken about before, because we've spoken previously about how Christ is our example in all things, christ is our example in the voice. And Christ is the Creator, he's the leader of the angels. He is the one that they love to worship.
They worshipped him when he was here on earth, they worship him in heaven and they strive to be as much like him as they possibly can be. And we have spoken before about Matthew, chapter seven, verse 29, which says that Jesus taught the people as one having authority and not as the scribes. So Jesus had complete confidence in the word of God.
And as we think about the Know in this song that we've been discussing, the Know, they're calling on these three different groups to come and worship the baby Jesus. With what assurance, with what confidence would they be calling upon these groups to come and worship? And that's the same sort of conviction and tone, I believe, that we need to have in our voice to really bring this song to life. So let's listen now to Fountain View singing this beautiful song.
Angels from the realms of glory away, angel glory. Worship, worship. I love you, shepherd in the light, watching all your night.
Don't be like Jesus. I worship. Worship me the great.
Worship, worship, worship. I shall. I worship.
Worship. I am. As the angels called upon shepherds, the sages and the saints to come and worship the infant Christ, there was no doubt in their minds that this baby was worthy of worship.
And today the angels are still calling on us to come and worship Christ. Those angels in Revelation chapter 14 are saying worship him that made heaven and earth. So we also have this opportunity to respond to this invitation.
Let's say a brief prayer about this. Dear Lord, we're so grateful for the ministry of angels and I just pray, dear Lord, that we may respond to that amazing invitation that we also may join in worshipping Christ and share the joy of that with others, especially through song. So thank you for hearing and answering our prayer in Jesus name.
Amen. Thank you so much for joining me today on Heavenly Harmonies. Do join me again next time to discuss another beautiful hymn, but until then, goodbye and God bless.
