Emmanuel ”The Arrival”

Hi, this is Bernie Dake. You're listening to The Salvation Army's Words of Life. For kids at The Salvation Army, a meal isn't just a meal. It's fuel for imagination, determination and dreams. It's energy to be role models, change makers and to just be kids. With your gift, a full meal means a full heart, a full night's sleep and a future full of possibilities.

Find $25 a month to show local kids love beyond hunger at SalvationArmyUSA.org. Welcome back to Words of Life, and today is Christmas Day. Joy Noel. Merry Christmas. Feliz Navidad. Happy Christmas.

Feliz Natal. Joy to the world. The Lord has come. Let earth receive their King. Thank you so much for joining us today. We pray that you and your family are having an incredible Christmas as we celebrate the birth and arrival of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

And we hope that you're enjoying this Christmas series, but if you've missed any episodes, it began on December 4th, so visit SalvationArmyRadio.org to get caught up. Today's message was written by Lieutenant Colonel Alan Satterley, and his focus is on music, specifically the songs of the angels. Hmm. Can you just imagine, right? The sound. Yeah. The angelic sound. The heavenly choir. Yes. And you know what, Bernie? We get to join them on earth as we enter into worship through music.

Yeah. What a privilege, man. What an honor, and it's just awesome. It's kind of hard for me to think about, because in the past year, we've lost a dear friend who as a musician was someone that we kind of think is up there in heaven getting ready for us to arrive and getting the band ready, so to speak. And this year, as a first for me, just as I think about that, I imagine that that choir also has an organ player and a drummer and a great bass player.

But the songs in general, what would the angels sing? The Bible tells us that it'll be nonstop praising the Lord when we get to heaven. I can't fathom it, to be quite honest, but music is such a powerful medium. It's certainly a way that as someone who's been involved in music, both of us, the idea of singing or music as an evangelical tool, to me, is really kind of what keeps me going sometimes.

It gives me hope and energy and drive to get to the next thing, because it just keeps my heart beating in a sense. Absolutely. I mean, music is so important to our worship experience, and it's never all. I mean, I know that when you say musical, it'll be a part of heaven.

It'll be what we're doing all the time, right? I just, it's not going to be dull and rote and all the things like, I mean, how many times can I sing the same old song? Because we tend to sing the same songs over and over again, right? Which really just are an affirmation. The words are the affirmation of our own faith. But the truth of the matter is that I really, I mean, I wish that we could just get out of our minds and go, okay, this is going to be the most spectacular part of being in heaven, is being able to worship in song and joining with the angel song.

And I just, I'm thrilled. I mean, I'm just excited to be a part of that. I think some of the words that we would hear in my brain are that like that hymn that we sing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. And I mean, we're told in the Bible that we'll sing these songs endlessly.

It's hard to believe, but man, it's definitely something I'm looking forward to. If for no other reason, those earthly things that we've lost, those people in our lives that we've lost, as I said, would just imagine that are up there getting ready for us. Well, music is a powerful thing, isn't it? And that brings us to those we love. But we pray that as you're around your Christmas tree or around your Christmas table today, that perhaps you would offer up a song to the Lord as a family, right?

And just allow that part of worship to be a part of your Christmas experience. Maybe just look each other in the eye and know that you've got someone on earth that loves you. And that love is from the Lord.

It's a perfect love. Oh, come let us adore him, Christ the Lord. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherd said to them.

Luke chapter 2 verse 17. Veteran Salvation Army missionary, Commissioner Herbert Lord, was sent to open the Salvation Army's work in Korea. Soon afterwards, North Korea invaded South Korea. Given the opportunity to evacuate, he refused. Having been a prisoner in the Second World War, he already knew the danger he was facing. He was quickly captured, and soon joining 830 others who were forcibly marched into North Korea. Two-thirds of the prisoners died along the way. Herbert Lord survived, only to be subjected to further cruelty for three more years until hostilities ended in 1953. But when it came time for him to be released, the North Koreans refused to do so, instead demanding that the Salvation Army negotiate for him. And finally, two years later, he was released, having lost half his body weight and barely able to walk. As soon as he was judged to be medically able, he was whisked away to London for a public welcome by the Salvation Army at Royal Albert Hall.

That night, over 12,000 people left standing room only. When Lord appeared, a spotlight shone on him as the band played Hallelujah. Still with his tattered prison clothes, he was brought to the front.

General Kitching, the Salvation Army's international leader, removed the rags that were his jacket and placed on him a new Salvation Army uniform. The great hall was absolutely silent until someone began singing an old Salvation Army chorus with others joining in until all voices rose together. Give to Jesus glory, proclaim redemption's wondrous plan, and give to Jesus glory. When this beautiful occasion took place, the most natural, the most appropriate thing to do was to express through music something more than mere words could. Music is a gift of God.

The Bible tells us that it was present at the moment of creation. In Job 36 verse 7, we read, the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy. And we're told that music will be there at the end of the age. Revelations chapter 7 says, all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying, Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever.

Amen. One of the reasons Heaven's songs were sounded is that at both creation and at the end of the age, sin did not and will not exist. After creation, the angel song on earth was silenced. Days, weeks, months, years went by without the appearance of the angel chorus. Angels would show up in ones or twos, but there was no mighty chorus that we read about in the verses earlier. It's not that Heaven itself didn't enjoy the song of the heavenly chorus, but those on earth couldn't hear it. Our sin had placed a wedge between Heaven and earth and we were too far away to catch the melody of the angel song.

That is, until the birth of Christ. When Jesus was born, the news was too fantastic, too world shattering, too incredible to be delivered by a text message. It had to be sung. And since then, singing has become so much a part of Christianity that believers naturally sing whenever they gather. In fact, Christianity is the only religion with a hymn book and praise songs that invite everyone to sing along. Think of how important music is to accompany words. Can we imagine these songs without the melody? Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace.

So we're back to the greatest announcement in the history of humanity. Glory to God in the highest. In the Gospel of Luke, we only have the lyrics. Have you ever wondered what the melody sounded like? We're told in Scripture that one of the angels had a voice like a pipe organ. Can you imagine how the night was filled with not only a fantastic melody but the most beautiful singing ever heard on earth? One of the legends that comes to us from this first Christmas is about the shepherds who were the audience that night. We're told that they made their way into Bethlehem to see the Christ child, but one of them couldn't go because someone had to stay with the sheep.

He was disappointed, and even more so when the shepherds returned having seen the baby Jesus. Speaking about that night, the shepherds tried to sing the strains that they had heard, but they couldn't, except for the shepherd who stayed behind. Whenever he was asked, he could sing this most beautiful melody, but when others tried, they couldn't.

It was his gift alone. Then one day, he met Christ, who came to him and asked him to sing his song. To his astonishment, Jesus sang it with him.

At last, he had met the one that the song proclaimed. All of this reminds us that, even with a great melody, words are limited. Every sermon preached is an attempt to put into words what's impossible for words to frame.

We should understand this from our own experience. Who can find the right words to describe the moment when a baby is born? How can we properly speak about the love of family and close friends? How useless are words when someone is lost through death? And what words are enough to adequately define our praise of God for salvation? God's words were enough to speak creation into being, but when it came to reaching to us, to save us, and to make us into what we could never be without him, God did not send words alone. He sent Jesus. He interrupted history to come be among us, yet he still spoke to us as well. To the shepherds that night, through the angels, he said, Fear not.

That was not a new message. God said fear not to Abraham, Joshua, David, on the Sea of Galilee during the storm that threatened the disciples' lives, and to the women after the resurrection. He speaks that to us as well. Fear not.

He is in control. Good tidings, a Savior is born, and since he is born, we can bear up though the world falls apart around us. Glory to God in the highest.

He has glorified himself by stooping down to save us. This Christmas season, sing the carols of Christmas knowing that you match the angels in their heavenly task. Sing your praises to God because salvation has put a song in your heart. The angels may have better voices, but your song is better. They can only wonder at redemption.

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