Episode Transcript
Hello, I'm Dr. Kylie Fisher. Welcome to heavenly harmonies.
Revelation three, verse 20 says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. Jesus is knocking. He is pleading for entrance into your heart today.
Would you like to invite him in? Discover how you can respond to this in poetry and song. See how our hymn for today, thou didst leave thy throne, can draw us nearer to the heart of God. We have been going through the life of Jesus one scene after another.
And so we've traced through his birth, we've traced through his childhood, his baptism, temptations in the wilderness. And we've looked a little bit at his public ministry as well. And I would like to read a quote about the benefits of doing this from this lovely book, the desire of ages.
And on page 83, the desire of ages says, it would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon his great sacrifice for us, our confidence in him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with his spirit.
If we would be saved at last, we must learn the lesson of penitence and humiliation at the foot of the cross. And so that's what we've been doing in this particular season, and I think that that's especially relevant for us, living at this time in earth's history. So, in previous programmes we have spoken about three angels in revelation, chapter 14.
And these three angels really unite their three messages into one. It's one message with three parts. And so those messages are found in revelation 14 verses, I guess, particularly six to eleven, verse twelve, which I guess is part of the message.
But it does tell us the result of this message. So revelation 14, verse twelve says, here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus by meditating on, by thinking about the life of Christ.
That is how we gain this faith of Jesus, which is a little bit different from just faith in Jesus. We do need to have faith in Jesus, but this verse says specifically, the faith of Jesus is the same faith that Jesus had. And we might be able to have that guess, you know, just by chance, even not cognizantly thinking about the life of Christ.
But we're going to have a much better opportunity and be sure that we have the faith of Jesus if we actually think about his we. Well, I don't know about you, but I want to be sure of eternal life. In fact, in Peter, it talks about making your calling and election.
Sure. And so that's what we have been doing in these hymns. And we have a beautiful hymn today, thou didst leave thy throne.
And so in this hymn, we're actually. This hymn is a bridge between the things that we've already looked at and the things that we're going to look at. So sometimes this is referred to as a Christmas carol because it does speak about the birth of Jesus, but it actually goes all through his life, goes to even his death, and then it takes us and looks forward to the hope of Jesus'soon return.
So this is a really wonderful, wonderful hymn. So let's start out by looking at the first verse of this hymn. And.
Yeah, so let's dig into it. The first verse. So this says, thou didst leave thy throne and thy kingly crown when thou camest to earth for me but in Bethlehem's home was there found no room for thy holy nativity? And then we come to the refrain which is repeated in.
Well, in what I'll be discussing today, it's repeated in the first four verses, and then there's a slight change in the fifth verse. So this refrain, it says, oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee. So, as we were thinking about revelation three, verse 20, right at the beginning of our programme, which says that Jesus is standing at the door and knocking.
And so the refrain that's repeated for four of the five verses is really responding to that invitation of Jesus. It's saying, oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee. So let's go back to the beginning of the song and the beginning of the verse to see why this welcome is given in the person's heart.
Hopefully it's in your heart. So back at the beginning of the first verse, thou didst leave thy throne and thy kingly crown when thou camest to earth for me. So the first verse starts out by talking about what Jesus left to come to earth for us.
And we have spoken about this in previous programmes, so I'm not going to dwell on this a great deal. I would encourage you to listen back to previous episodes, if you haven't heard them, to listen for the first time, if you have heard them, to refresh your memory. So it talks about what Christ has given up to come to earth for us.
And then we have tremendous contrast of how Christ was greeted when he came to earth. And it says there, but in Bethlehem's home was there found no room for their holy nativity. And so we've expanded on this, that when Christ came and was about to be born of Mary, and so Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem, they could not find anywhere for Jesus to be born.
And so eventually he was born in a stable, probably in a cave amongst animals, and he was placed in an animal feeding trough. So there was no welcome for Jesus when he came here to earth. And so the person that's speaking in this song says, realises, I should say, what a tremendous tragedy this is.
And so the person is just so moved by it that it leads them. It leads us to utter the response, oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus there is room in my heart for thee. So just thinking about this structure in the first verse, which is actually echoed all through the song, all through the song, we have this same structure in the verses.
We have, first of all, some statement about Christ and his character and his situation. And then we see a contrast in terms of the way that people on earth at the time of Christ actually responded to that. And then in the refrain, we are distinguishing.
The speaker is distinguishing their response from the previous responses that have rejected Christ. The speaker is giving a welcome to Christ, a welcome into their heart. And as we have said in previous episodes, that really, in order to be able to sing this hymn and all other hymns, we really need to feel that in our own heart, we need to be willing, and even at that moment, to be welcoming Christ into our heart.
And even if that's something that you have done in the past, I mean, I think back with joy to the day that I got baptised. That was just such a wonderful blessing to be able to make that public declaration to give my life to Christ. But that is a choice that we need to make every day, and not even every day, but every moment.
That's something that we should be seeking to have a deeper experience with Christ at every. So this amazing cry, really, at the end of each stanza of this song, is something that we just should be. Our heart should be crying out more and more, oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus there is room in my heart for thee.
And we should just be feeling greater and greater intensity of that in our life as well as expressing it in our songs. So that's the first verse. Let's go on now to the second verse.
Heaven's arches rang when the angels sang proclaiming thy royal degree but of lowly birth didst thou come to earth and in greatest humility. So, yeah, what a tremendous contrast we've got here. A description of the angels singing when Christ came to earth.
We've spoken about that in previous. You know, the angels recognised that this was the king of Glory that they were singing about. They sang glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.
And so, yeah, Christ stepped down from the throne of the universe and he took the lowest place. We've spoken about that. I mean, I've mentioned it already today in our programme how he know born and placed in a manger.
But, yeah, we've spoken in previous programmes about how poor his parents were, how his parents were dependent on their daily toil, on their daily work for their income. And so Jesus grew up and he worked as a tradesman, he worked in his father's carpenter's. So, yeah, Jesus came to earth with the greatest humility and very few people recognised the deity of Jesus.
And where he came from, there were those who did, the wise men who may recall at his birth, they knelt down and worshipped him because they recognised that he was God, not just a king, but actually God. And so there were very few, though, that recognised the divinity of Christ. And so that's such a sad thing.
But as our song says, oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee. And so that's a response of our heart. All right, so going on to the third verse.
And so this brings us to the ministry of Christ and let's see what it says about this. So, verse three says, the foxes found rest and the birds their nest in the shade of the forest tree. But thy couch was the sod, o thou son of God in the deserts of Galilee.
And now, this is actually based on a couple of Bible texts. So let's read these Bible texts. They're both actually speaking about the same situation, narrating the same occasion in Jesus life.
So the first one that we'll look at is Luke, chapter nine and verses 57 and 58. It says there it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. Now, if we look and compare this in Matthew, chapter eight and verse 20, well, starting at verse 19, it says there that a certain scribe came and said unto him, master, I will follow thee with us however thou goest.
So Matthew gives that little bit more detail there than what Luke does, that this certain man was a scribe. But this was Jesus response was verse 58. So Jesus said unto him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head.
That shows us just how poor Jesus was when he was here on earth. He didn't even have his own house. So that's what this verse is reflecting on, how that the foxes found rest and the birds then nest.
But Jesus, he had nowhere to lay his head when he was here on earth. And yeah, what a tragedy that. Know, if we had been living in that time, would we have opened our home to him? There were those who did.
There was Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And the Bible speaks about Jesus going to their home. And so, yeah, there were those who did open their home to him.
But much of the time we just find Jesus out praying in the mountains, praying out in nature. And so there were not many who opened their homes to him. But today we can open our hearts to him.
And so, as the refrain says, oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee. So Jesus came to earth and he did not come to earth to exact homage. He did not come to earth to be an earthly ruler and to establish a kingdom after the order of earthly kingdoms.
So let's see what the fourth verse of this song has to say about Jesus, what he came to do, and what was the final response of people by the time he came to the end of his ministry. So verse four says, thou camest, o Lord, with the living word that should set thy people free. But with mocking scorn and with crown of thorn they bore thee to Calvary.
So how tragic this was that they did the people of Christ stay. Very few of them recognised that Christ was coming to offer them a new life and something far better than what they could imagine. But their hearts were so set on hopes of worldly greatness that they did not welcome Christ, and instead they crucified him.
How tragic. And we will be looking at that in our next couple of, you know, people rejected Christ, but we can welcome him into our heart. Oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee.
And then the final verse takes us beyond even today, the day in which we're living. It takes us on to the glorious future and what Christ came to do for us. So verse five says, when the heavens shall ring and the angels sing at thy coming to victory, let thy voice call me home saying, yet there is room, there is room at my side for thee.
And this is really wonderful. This is an amazing promise. So, earlier, right at the start of our programme, we thought about revelation three, verse 20, when Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock and he says, if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will supp.
With him and he with me. And so this is just an amazing invitation. And in fact, what that's referring to is, well, Jesus will come into our life right now.
But in particular, it also points us forward to the time when Christ will come to take us back to heaven. And the Bible speaks in several places about the marriage supper of the lamb. And that is just such an amazing privilege to be called the marriage supper of the lamb.
And it actually says that Jesus himself will serve us at that time. So I think, as well as Christ coming into our hearts today, that verse is pointing forward to that time. And then the next verse, revelation three, verse 21, has this amazing promise that this fifth verse of our song for today is based on.
And it says there, revelation three, verse 21, says to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne. So if we will allow ourselves to look at the life of Christ, to be transformed by his life, to have our character changed into his beautiful character, then we can sit down with him in his throne. It doesn't, of course, mean that we will be worshipped as God, but it's just a tremendous privilege and amazing promise that Jesus makes to us that we will be a sharer in his.
So that's really what this verse of the song, not the verse in the Bible. Well, the verse in the song is reflecting on the verse in the Bible. So what it says, let thy voice call me home, saying, yet there is room, there is room at my side for thee.
So if we welcome Jesus into our hearts today, then he assures us that there will be room at his side for us. And so then the final reframe is slightly different to the other ones because it says, my heart shall rejoice, Lord Jesus, when thou comest and callest for me. And so just thinking very briefly about how would we express this musically.
So what I've tried to bring out today in our programme is how that there are these. Each verse really has these three different parts, these three contrasting ideas. And so what I would recommend, if you are planning to sing this hymn, or even if you want to say this as a prayer, this is another hymn that's a prayer.
It's directly addressing God. If you want to pray this as a prayer, and if you're seeking to develop your voice further, and even in prayer, I'm sure if you're talking to somebody, do you feel very interested in the things that they say? If they're just sort of talking in a monotone and they're not really very interested? How much more interesting is it to you to talk to someone if you can tell that their heart's really in it and you can tell that they really love you and they really want to hear the things that you're saying? I'm sure that God feels just the same when we're praying to him. If we Jesus spoke about in Matthew chapter six, I think it is, he said, don't pray with vain repetitions.
So we should just really be striving in our prayer life and even more in our songs to really express the spirit of what we're saying. Yeah, so I think that we can do that, and that's a wonderful opportunity to improve our voice. So let's listen now to this hymn.
Thou didst leave thy throne. And we have fountain view to sing this for us today. Thou didst leave thy throne thou didst leave thy throne and thy king we crown when thou camest to earth for me by no room for thy holy nativity oh, come to my heart Lord Jesus there is room in my heart for me the boxes from rest and the bird in the shade of the forest tree but I count was the son outside of God in the desert of Galilee scorn and with crown of calm to my heart Lord Jesus there is room in my heart when the heaven shall ring and the angel sing as I come into victory let my voice call me home saying yes, there is room there is room that I die for thee oh, come to my heart for Jesus there is room my heart for me there is room in my heart for me so just beautiful.
And in that fountain view performance, how they varied the tempo and the expressions, the dynamics and things like that to express the different ideas in that song. So today, Jesus is standing at the door and saying, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him.
When Christ came here to earth, he did not find any welcome, or he found very little welcome. But we have today the opportunity to welcome him into our hearts. And so that's something I would like to encourage you to do.
And let's just bow our heads now in a prayer to ask Jesus to come into our hearts. If that's your desire, then I would just invite you to say amen at the end of the prayer to express that that is what you also want. So, dear Lord, we have been thinking about the beautiful hymn today, thou didst leave thy throne.
And it really traces through the different scenes in Christ's life and the response that he received from people while he was here on earth. And, dear God, we see that Christ was despised and rejected of men, and he did not find many people that welcomed him here on earth. But, dear Lord, today we would like to say, we want to welcome you into our hearts.
We want our lives to be transformed by the love and the life of Christ. And so I just pray for myself. I pray for each person listening to this broadcast that they will experience the transforming power of Christ in their life.
And we all just want to say, dear Lord, please come into my heart. Come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee. So that is our prayer today.
In Jesus name. Amen. So thank you so much for joining me today on heavenly harmonies.
Please join me again next episode when we discuss us another beautiful hymn and explore more of the life of Christ. But until then, goodbye and God bless.
