The O Antiphons of Advent

For our sermon today we use the Great “O Antiphons” of Advent. An antiphon is a psalm, hymn or prayer sung or chanted in alternate parts. These O Antiphons have been used at the end of the Advent season since the very early Church.

The importance of the O Antiphons is twofold: each one highlights a title for the Messiah: O Emmanuel, O Wisdom, O Lord, O Root of Jesse, O Key of David, O Dayspring and O Desire of the Nations. Also, each one refers to the prophecy of Isaiah of the coming of the Messiah.

Emmanuel

“God helps those who help themselves.” It almost sounds biblical. Some people think it comes from the Bible, but it doesn’t. It is actually unbiblical, even anti-biblical. For the Bible actually says the opposite: God helps the helpless, those who cannot help themselves. God saves those who cannot save themselves. For we are prisoners who cannot free ourselves. We are dead and cannot raise ourselves. We are hell-bound and cannot change our direction.

God must come to us to help us. He must reach down to us; we cannot reach up to Him. He must come to be with us.

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Emmanuel means “God with us.” God sets down His crown, takes off His royal robes and puts on the work clothes of a servant. He takes our humanity. Emmanuel works and weeps and suffers and sleeps and bleeds and dies. God comes to help those who cannot help themselves – for He is Emmanuel.

Sing verse 1.

1. Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel!

Wisdom

Foolishness is apart from God. Wisdom is from the Lord. “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-- the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD-- and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears” (Isaiah 11:2-3). Man turns away from God and seeks to study creation without worshiping the Creator. Worship the creature instead of the Creator. We believe the original lie: “You can be like God.” “You can have knowledge apart from God.” That’s not Wisdom but Folly, foolishness, unbelief. “The fool says in his heart there is no God” (Psalm 14:1). The end of folly is death.

But Jesus Christ is Wisdom incarnate, holy, perfect Wisdom in the flesh. He is the “power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). “He is before all things and in Him all things hold together” (Col 1:17). He is the gracious “glue” that holds the universe together – the stars, your DNA, these pews – they hold together by the power of His Word. He is the Intelligent Designer. And He gives us His holy Wisdom so we might be saved.

Sing verse 2.

2. Oh, come, our Wisdom from on high, who ordered all things mightily;

To us the path of knowledge show, and teach us in her ways to go.

Rejoice ! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel!

Lord of Might

Jesus is your Adonai (Hebrew for Lord Almighty). “Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this” (Isaiah 9:7). The Lord Almighty comes to save His people. He comes in a burning bush to name a leader. He comes as a pillar of fire to protect His people from the Egyptians. He comes as the angel of the Lord to rescue a son from a father’s knife. He comes to bridge the huge gap between His holiness and our lowliness. He comes as a child to be a Savior for humanity. He comes as a Shepherd to lead His straying sheep and lambs to safety and salvation. He comes as Redeemer to die for wayward souls. And He comes as King to bring His people to His eternal Kingdom.

Sing verse 3.

3. Oh, come, oh, come, our Lord of might, who to your tribes on Sinai’s height

In ancient times gave holy law, in cloud and majesty and awe.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel!

Root of Jesse

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit” (Isaiah 11:1). The Root of Jesse is God’s Promise that David’s throne would stand forever. Jesus is in the family tree of David, Israel’s greatest king. Jesse is David’s father. Even when the tree of the nation of Israel was cut down and reduced to a lifeless stump, the Promise lived on in the Root.

Our sin goes all the way to the root. Not only is the fruit tainted, but the whole tree is bad, roots and all. That’s why God says in Malachi 4:1: “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire. Not a root or a branch will be left to them.”

We must be grafted to a new Root. We must be joined to the Root of Jesse and connected to the Vine who is Jesus. We are now the living branches grafted to the living Root of Jesse. Jesus is your Vine and your Root. Apart from Him you can do nothing. Joined to Him, believing in Him, you bear much fruit.

Sing verse 4.

4. Oh, come, O Rod of Jesse’s stem. From every foe deliver them

That trust your mighty pow’r to save: Bring them in victory through the grave.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel!

Key of David

Isaiah had prophesied: “I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open” (22:22). Sin locks the door to heaven. It makes our lives a prison of fear of death. Like the disciples in the locked upper room on Easter evening, we are hiding from our enemies, hoping death doesn’t find us. We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. No matter how much we struggle against the chains and rattle the bars, we are unable to break out of prison. The eternal penitentiary of hell is waiting us once death finds us.

But Christ has come and entered the prison. He endured the Law’s death sentence. He stormed the gates of death and hell with His death and His descent into hell. He turns the key to our prison cell. He is the Key that closes hell’s cell doors and unlocks heaven’s gates and breaks the chains of death. He sets us free to live as free children in His free city. For Jesus is the Key of David who opens and no one can close, and who closes and no one can open.

Sing verse 5.

5. Oh, come, O Key of David, come, and open wide our heav’nly home.

Make safe the way that leads on high, and close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel!

Dayspring

God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness. God spoke Light into the darkness. Light is life. Without light there is no life. Darkness is death, the silence of God, the absence of God.

Our sin plunged the creation into darkness and death. Sin loves the darkness and hates the light. Sin loves the death and hates the life. Adam hid in the darkness of the trees. Judas betrayed his Lord at night. Sin seeks shelter under the cover of darkness. Darkness cannot produce light. It is nothing, formless and void, empty. Light must be spoken into darkness from the outside.

God sent His Son, the light of the world thrown into darkness. He is the light no darkness can overcome. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:2). Jesus is the Morning Star, the Dayspring from on high, the signal of the coming morning. Day is at hand. The Dayspring has risen. The sun of righteousness rises with healing in His wings. He was born in darkness that we might be reborn as children of the light. He died in the darkness that we might live in the light of His life. He rose at dawn to usher in the new day of His resurrection. He shines into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who works through the Word, dispelling the darkness, killing the death and bringing light and life.

Sing verse 6.

6. Oh, come, O Dayspring from on high, and cheer us by your drawing nigh;

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death's dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel!

Desire of the nations

Jesus is the Desire of the nations, the King of Peace. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). “He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).

The sinful nature refuses the King and resists His rule. Sin is the overthrow of God’s reign, the attempt to place a god in place of the God. The outcome is chaos and death. A kingdom in which everyone is king is no kingdom at all. It is anarchy.

But Christ has come as King to set up His Kingdom in our hearts and in His heaven. His coming was without the trappings of royalty. A virgin teenage mother. A manger crib. No place to lay His head. Fishermen for followers. A borrowed donkey. Royal robes worn in mockery and scorn. His crown was made of thorns. His throne was a cross. His glory was in His grave. But He has come as King and He is coming once again as King to bring us Peace.

Sing verse 7.

7. Oh, come, Desire of nations, bind in one the hearts of all mankind;

Oh, bid our sad divisions cease, and be yourself the King of Peace.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel!