Hello, I'm Dr Kylie Fisher. Welcome to Heavenly Harmonies. Many people think of Christmas and Easter as times of special significance, maybe even a time to attend church.
Many people are aware of the birth of Jesus Christ as a baby and that Jesus was crucified on a cross. But does the life, death and resurrection of Jesus have any relevance to my life beyond just attending religious services once or twice a year? Our hymn for today, Tell Me the Story of Jesus, tells us in simple yet powerful language of the deep significance of Jesus'life on earth, not only to our world, but to the entire universe. Stay with me to discover how the message of this hymn can draw you nearer to the heart of God.
Thus far in our programmes we have been talking about the theme of the Bible and of God's wonderful plan to save people, planet and universe from the devastating effects of sin. But salvation is not just a theory, it's actually a personal experience. And God invites us to experience a wonderful joy and hope and peace that he can give us through this plan of salvation.
And our song for today, Tell Me the Story of Jesus, teaches about this in language that's so simple even a child can understand it. This song, as the title suggests, tells the story of Jesus'life on earth and what that means for us personally. But we also see from this hints of how Jesus'life is central to the plan of salvation and to the theme of the Bible.
And so I'd like to read some verses about this, actually from Revelation. Revelation, chapter twelve. Revelation is the last book in the Bible and it is a book with special messages for our time.
And so that's just really exciting. I love the book of Revelation. Revelation, chapter twelve.
Now, in our previous episode we did read chapter twelve, verse seven. You might recall how that there was a war in heaven when this beautiful being that God had created the highest of the angels, chose of his own free will to rebel against God, thought that he would make a better leader of the universe than God and tried to institute his own selfish purposes rather than the benevolent, loving rule of God. And so there was a war in heaven.
And the Bible also depicts how this war came down to earth when people sinned, which we can read about in Genesis chapter three. And so our world has actually kind of become, or has become, the battlefield for this great battle between good and evil. And so we're all involved in that battle, whether we like it or not.
So that was Revelation chapter twelve. And verse seven. There was a war in heaven.
And then, as we've been saying, this war came down to earth and this great battle between good and evil is described. And we're really given an overview in Revelation chapter twelve. The middle chapter in Revelation it's right at the centre of the book.
It's actually central to the theme of the book of Revelation as it is to the theme of the Bible. We're given an overview of this war from the time that it first began in heaven right up to the end of this world's history. And in this chapter in Revelation, we also see that the life of Christ on earth is really, really essential to this war.
And because the life of Christ really gives us the ultimate demonstration of the character of God, it's really amazing. So let's just have a look at a few verses about this. So let's have a look in Revelation, chapter twelve, and verse one talks about a woman that John sees.
Now, before I go any further, Revelation is a book where much of it is actually symbolic language. Revelation, chapter one. And verse one actually say that the book of Revelation is signified, which means that it's symbols, there's many symbols in Revelation.
And so this woman that John sees in a vision is actually, we don't have time today in our programme to look at all of the Bible references for this, but if you're interested, I would encourage you to write into us and we can certainly direct you to more scripture verses about this and other programmes that talk about this in more detail. But John sees this woman, which is a representative, really, of God's people. And let's pick up the story in verse two, revelation twelve and verse two.
It says that this woman was with child. So says she, being with child, cried travailing in birth and pained to be delivered. And verse five says that the woman brought forth a man child.
And you may recall that a couple of episodes ago that I quoted from Isaiah, chapter nine, verse six, which says, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And so this child that's depicted in this prophecy in Revelation is none other than Jesus Christ, the Son of God Emmanuel. As we've been saying, these are all names for the one being.
And so that was the baby that John saw in this vision. And so that shows us that the life of Christ on earth is really, really central to this conflict which we were reading about last week. Revelation, chapter twelve and verse seven, this great war between good and evil.
And so we see hints of the cosmic aspect of this war in our song for today. So, without further ado, let's get into the words of this song. So tell me the story of Jesus.
Write on my heart every word tell me the story most precious sweetest that ever was heard you know, in our last programme I was speaking about how God is love. Love is the very nature of God and God desires from his creatures. He hopes for a response of love.
He does not force us to love him, but he asks us for our love, he requests our love and he gives us that opportunity to respond to his love. And so I really love how this song starts out and how it says right on my heart every word. God is really looking for a heart response from us, from his children.
He loves us just so much. And actually I'd like to read a verse about this in the Book of Proverbs. The Book of Proverbs is one of my favourite books.
And Proverbs chapter 23 and verse 26, I think this really expresses these beautifully, says my son or my daughter, give me thine heart. And so that's what God is asking for. He desires from us a love response and we have the privilege and the joy of giving that to Him.
And so, yeah, so I love this start of this song to write on my heart every word. Tell me the story, most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. And then the song goes on and it narrates the story of Jesus'life on earth, as we've been saying.
Tell how the angels in chorus sang as they welcomed his birth glory to God in the highest peace and good tidings to earth. So clearly this is speaking about the birth of Christ. We've spoken about this in previous episodes, how the angel sang at his birth.
You can find that in Luke chapter two and verses eight to 14 about this amazing angel song. There really is so much that we could say about it, but I have sort of expanded on that in previous programmes. And so just in the interest of time, I won't really take a lot of time to dwell on that today because there are some other parts in this song that introduce a lot of new things that we haven't spoken about at all.
But this first verse really full of joy at this idea of Christ coming and the angels celebrating his birth. Because you will also hopefully recall from previous programmes how we read in one Peter chapter one, and I think it's verse twelve how that the angels long to look into, they long to have a better understanding of the plan of salvation. And so when they saw Christ actually born on earth, that was a wonderful, amazing day for the angels.
That's the first verse of the song. Let's press on to the second verse. And here we have a real scene change, a tremendous scene change.
So let's have a look at this verse which says fasting alone in the desert tell of the days that he passed, how for our sins he was tempted, yet was triumphant at last. So as we read the story of Jesus, the story of Christ's life in the Gospels, this song, as I've been saying, it really does pick out the key points in his life. So we're covering a lot of ground and getting a real overview of the life of Christ in this song.
And what we will be doing in future episodes in this season is we will be going through the life of Christ point by point, looking at different songs that reflect on his life in some way. And so we'll be exploring these things in more detail. But I thought that this song would be a really good one to give us an overview of the life of Christ.
And so from the Gospel of Luke we understand that when Jesus was about 30 years old, he was baptised at that time in the Jordan River and then the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke all record that immediately after that Jesus went into the wilderness and he fasted in there for 40 days and 40 nights. So that just really took him to the limit of human endurance. Even though we've been saying in previous programmes that Jesus was God in human flesh when he came down to earth, we understand that he did not use his divine power and so he suffered as we would suffer were we in that same situation.
And so that was actually the ground of Satan's first temptation to him in the wilderness that Satan came to him and know command that these stones be turned into bread. So for him that was a temptation to use his divine power, but we see from that that he did not. And Matthew chapter four and verse two says when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterwards and hungered, so he became very hungry.
Now Jesus went to the wilderness, he was led there by the Holy Spirit. He did not go there actually to invite temptation. He went there to be alone, to fast and to pray and to prepare himself for his tremendous mission on earth.
But when he went to the wilderness, as I've sort of hinted and mentioned just before, there was another being that followed him and that was actually it says in verse three, Matthew four and verse three says when the Tempter came to him. And so we see here what we would call the devil Satan, which spoken about in Revelation chapter twelve. There's various different names for this one being which was that same angel, sadly that fell from heaven, the Devil and Satan.
He was the one that came to Christ and he tempted him in the wilderness. And I think it's really interesting that this happened and it's very much actually connected to the first verse that we may not see that at first. So the first verse we were speaking about how the angels welcomed the birth of Christ on earth and so that's of course speaking about the angels who were loyal to God.
And yet there were according to Revelation twelve and verse four speaks about this. Well starting in verse three describing this dragon beast, which Revelation Twelve and verse nine tells us is that old serpent called the devil and Satan. Revelation Twelve and verse four tells us that his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.
So stars we know from Revelation one and verse 20 that that actually symbolises angels. And so from this we understand that Lucifer, this beautiful angel, deceived one third of the angels and he led them into rebellion. They united with him in rebellion against the heavenly government.
So these angels, you can imagine, they were not pleased about the birth of Christ. And in fact, let's have another look at Revelation chapter twelve and verse four, because this also tells us about something malevolent that happened even when Jesus was a baby. It says that the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
So from this we see that even though Christ had come to Earth to show what God was like and to save human beings, this salvation was not to be accomplished without a great struggle, a great struggle against the powers of darkness and against the leader of the powers of darkness. And we see the literal fulfilment of this symbolic prophecy. In Matthew chapter two is a record of how at the time of Jesus birth, the king that was reigning King Herod, he actually tried to destroy Jesus when he was a baby.
But that plan was foiled Jesus with his parents, Joseph and Mary. Joseph, his father, was warned in a dream to flee to Egypt. And so Joseph took Mary and baby Jesus, they fled to Egypt and so baby Jesus was spared.
So Satan's plans to destroy this infant baby before he could even begin his work on Earth were thwarted. And yet here in the desert we see Him still carrying it forward. This warfare against Christ.
And what he could not achieve by force, he tried to achieve through strategy and through tempting Christ, through drawing him away from his mission. And yet, as our song says, for our sins he was tempted, yet was triumphant at last. And so Christ was triumphant over Satan in the wilderness.
So yeah, that was a tremendous victory that he won in the wilderness. And I think it's very significant that this song says for our know he went through that temptation, he suffered those trials for us and that his victory can also be our victory. Perhaps you feel that you've been overcome so much by sin and there's some thing in your life that you're struggling with guilt and you know that you're doing the wrong thing and you feel like you can't escape from it.
Well, through Jesus you can escape. His victory can also be your victory if you ask Him. But let's keep going with the next part of this song.
Tell of the years of his labours, tell of the sorrows he bore. He was despised and afflicted, homeless, rejected and poor. And we have spoken about this in previous episodes.
Isaiah, chapter 53, one of the most famous prophecies about Jesus says that he was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as we read through the story of Jesus'public ministry on earth, a ministry that sadly lasted only three and a half years, we can see that he certainly was despised and rejected by those who came to save by the very nation that should have recognised him. And so that's a very tragic story that was all inspired hatred, actually inspired by Satan.
After he could not get the victory over Christ in the wilderness, he was the one that inspired the Jewish leaders to reject Christ. So absolutely tragic story. And so Jesus, we know right from the manger to Calvary, he was despised, he was rejected.
Yes. But let's move on to Calvary and the cross that Jesus bore. And let's see what this song has to say to us about this in the third verse.
Tell of the cross where they nailed Him, writhing in anguish and pain. Tell of the grave where they laid him, tell how he liveth again. So, yeah, the story of Jesus death on the cross is just an incredible story, how even on that cross he prayed, father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
Just an amazing story. He died, he suffered the penalty for our sins, he was cut off from his Father, and yet he rose to life. So he was crucified on.
The Bible tells us the preparation day, which is what we would today call Friday, but he rose again on the third day. So with inclusive counting. So what we would say Friday, then what we would call Saturday, and then Sunday morning was when he rose again.
And because he rose and because he lives, we also can live. And that's just so wonderful. But the last part of this verse and of this song, what does it say to us? Love in that story? So tender, clearer than ever I see stay, let me weep while you whisper love paid the ransom for me.
And I'd like to just read one verse, actually about this from two, corinthians, chapter five and verse 21. This is a beautiful verse which says, he that is God has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So through Christ we can find forgiveness of sins.
He took our place, he bore our sins and through Him we can find forgiveness of sins and we can also find power to overcome sin. And so, just very briefly, how would we express these things in singing this song? Well, I think the first verse would be well, the very opening would be very tender. Write on my heart every word tell me the story most precious, then, as we think about the angels in chorus, that would be full of joy.
Then the second verse fasting alone in the desert. The second and third verse, I think it would just be going from one intensity to another, just becoming more intense as we go through. And then loving that story so tender, very, very tender there at the end.
So let's now listen to Danny Shelton as he sings us this amazing song. Tell me the story of Jesus tell me the story of Jesus right on my heart every word tell me the story most precious sweetest that ever was heard tell how the angels in chorus sang as they welcomed his birth and glory to God in the highest peace and good tidings to earth. Tell me the story of my Jesus right on my heart every word tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard in the desert to tell of the days that are past.
How for our sins he was tempted and yet was triumphant at last hell of the years of his labour until all the sorrow he bore he was despised and afflicted. Homeless, rejected and poor till of the cross where they nailed him ripen in anguish and pain. Tell of the grave where they laid him and tell how he liveth again loving that story so tender clearer than ever I see stay, let me weep while you whisper love paid the ransom for me tell me the story of Jesus and write on my heart every word.
Tell me the story most precious sweetest that ever ear was heard you the desire of ages. Page 25 says, christ was treated as we deserve that we might be treated as he deserves. He was condemned for our sins in which he had no share, that we might be justified by his righteousness in which we had no share.
What a tremendous privilege it is for us to be offered this amazing gift of salvation. Let's just say a brief prayer that we can experience this in our lives. Dear Lord, we are so grateful for Jesus that he came and lived and died for us and it's the wonder of the universe that Christ should love us.
I just pray that we may experience this amazing gift of salvation in our lives and help us, dear Lord, as we experience it more and more every day. That we can also express this through the sincerity of the music and the hymns that we present to people. So thank you dear Lord, for hearing and answering our prayer in Jesus name.
Amen. So thank you so much for joining me today on Heavenly Harmonies. Remember, you can email us at
[email protected] if you have missed any of the previous episodes, you can find us on most podcast directories. You can also find us on our webpage 3abnaustralia.org.au if you just go to that page, click on the Listen button then you can find this programme many other programme grammes on many other topics. Join me again next time to discuss another hymn. But until then, goodbye and God bless.
