Mike Novotny - Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Warning: This Song Is Not Relaxing
If you’re the kind of person who loves those peaceful Christian Christmas songs—the ones where the stars twinkle in the sky above that little manger, where the peaceful baby lies and the cows are low, but not too loud to wake him up. The ones that you can just push play on, take a deep breath, relax your mind after the end of a long, stressful day, and sense this heavenly peace washing over your soul—if you like songs like that, you’re going to hate today.
Today, I want to take you deep into one of Christmas’s classic songs called «Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, » and I just want to warn you up front, as a pastor, that this song is the exact opposite of all that. A manger has zero time—I should say, has a lot of time—for the stars, the baby Jesus, the cows, and his beautiful mother. «Hark! The Herald Angels Sing» has zero time for that. There are some Christmas songs that spend about half of the measures and beats with «Glory, » let’s do it again, «Glory, » hey, I want a third time. Hark says, «No, no! Those are precious measures; I only have so many beats until this song ends, and I want to fill your heart with something much more than repetition.»
Get Ready to Engage
I want to warn you up front today that this is not the Sunday to relax. If you’re watching at home, and you have your phone out, you’re kind of double-screening it. This is the moment where you need to shut your phone off and put it away. If you’re slouching in your chair, I need you to sit up straight. If your pen is somewhere else, I need you to grab it, click it, grab a bulletin, get ready to take notes, 'cause what we’re about to study is the opposite of a theological Twinkie. All right? It’s not light; it’s not fluffy; it’s not convenient; it’s not easy—it’s more like a barrel-aged bourbon stout, a rich, robust Cabernet. You don’t chug it; you don’t slam it; you sip it, and you shouldn’t drink too much of it too fast.
What we’re about to study actually has so much theology and meaning and depth that I’m going to spend this entire message not with some fancy introduction, but by digging in verse by verse by verse—all three verses of what I think is the most profound and perhaps spiritually helpful song that Christmas has to offer. I want to warn you because your brain is going to need to work, but I also want to entice you, because if your brain is willing to do the work, your heart might just reap the rewards.
Who This Song Is For
This song, which was written by Charles Wesley back in the early 1700s, is about to offer you this: if there’s just 1% of your heart that wonders where you’re at with God; if maybe you started following Jesus too late, or there’s just too much in your past to get over and past; Hark wants a word with you. If you’re one of those people who feels misunderstood and overwhelmed—like your mom doesn’t get it, your dad doesn’t get it, your best friend doesn’t get it—what you’re going through, the stress, and the pressure, the day-to-day things that you feel. If that’s you, the song wants to speak to you.
And if you’re one of those rare people who’s actually thought not just about life, but about death; if you’ve come face-to-face with your own mortality because of a sickness, or age, or you’ve just realized that maybe there’s more behind you than in front of you, and if that makes you feel uneasy or uncertain instead of excited and exuberant, this is the perfect song for you. So I’m not going to promise you the next few minutes are going to be easy or convenient; this is not the church to relax. Instead, I need you to power up your brain as much as you can. Slam that coffee real quick, because I want to unpack for you the words of this classic song, «Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.» I think if you pay attention, you will not regret it.
The Biblical Inspiration
Back in 1739, Charles Wesley was reading this verse from the Bible, and it inspired him to write this classic song. In Luke chapter 2, he found these words: «Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host"—host means army—a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel who was speaking to the shepherds about Jesus’s birth, and all of them together were praising God and saying, «Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.» Those are the verses that inspired the song. And now if you’re ready, here’s what the song says.
Verse One: God and Sinners Reconciled
Verse one: «Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King! Peace on earth and mercy mild; God and sinners reconciled. Joyful, all you nations rise; join the triumph of the skies, with angelic hosts proclaim, 'Christ is born in Bethlehem! '»
Hark! The very first word. Do you know what it means? Hark! is an old-school English word that essentially means, «Hey, pay attention!» Actually, if we were doing the grammar right, it should be quotation marks, «Hark!» exclamation point, end of quotation marks. The Herald Angels Sing, comma, quotation marks again, «Glory to the newborn King!» When the angel showed up, they were saying, «Hey, shepherds! Pay attention! Don’t miss this! What we’re about to tell you is really, really big news.» Hark just means, «Hey!» Which technically means if you go to school tomorrow or you go to work, you could say to your buddy, «Hark! Look at this TikTok video I made!» Right? It just means pay attention to this.
And the Herald Angels are saying, «Hark! I know you’re busy, but don’t miss this: Glory to the newborn King, peace on earth and mercy mild.» And here’s the phrase I want to direct your attention to: «God and sinners reconciled.» You know, when I first studied the lyrics of «Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, » I went back home after a long day of work, and there was my family. And sometimes my family—if you’re the kid of a pastor, you know what this is—when Pastor Dad comes home and he’s more pastor than dad, he’s just preaching at you because he’s been studying all day. So I’m unloading on my kids, like, «Oh, this song! It says this, and there’s this part, and this phrase!» And I get to the end of it, barely taking a breath, and when I finally pause, my 13-year-old, Maya, interrupts me and says, «Well, Dad, you’re not going to have time to talk about all of that, so I guess you’re going to have to pick your favorite part.»
So I’m going to take her advice and talk about my favorite part, and here’s what it is: «God and sinners reconciled.» Have you ever stopped to think how absolutely relationally incompatible you and God are? Has it ever struck you that by your very nature you are not God’s type? You might be the black sheep of your family or the best of the bunch. You might have been super religious your whole life or brand new to this. You might have tons of regrets or a few, but because you and I are flawed, and even on our best days we stumble and we sin, we should be so far apart from God. The difference between you and me and God is greater than the difference between you and me and the sun in the sky, right?
Could you stand on the surface of the sun? Uh-uh. There’s something about the way the sun is and the way that we are that just doesn’t fit together. If you put on SPF a thousand, could you make it if you tried hard or wore the right clothes? No! There’s something about you and it that can’t fit together, and the Bible says the same thing is true spiritually with us and God. He’s not just like the best version of us; He’s not like 50% nicer and 75% wiser. The gap between humans and the holiness of God—He blazes with love and patience and goodness. He is good, with a caps lock: G-O-O-D. He is infinitely wise and pure and holy, and because He is so good, even if you’re the best of us here on earth, you are light years away.
And that’s why the angels are saying, «Hark! You’re not going to believe this! God and sinners reconciled!» This newborn King, Jesus, was born to bring peace to people on earth so we wouldn’t panic and think there was no chance, so we would just hope for the best—that God forgot about the bad things that we did. Jesus was born; He lived, and then He died so that this crazy phrase could be true: «Me and you, God and sinners reconciled!»
Yeah, I recently heard that Oprah, back in 2013, was giving a speech at Harvard. In the speech, she was telling this really intelligent, talented graduate something about human beings. Oprah, in her very, very long interviewing career, had met all kinds of people—multiple presidents, pop stars, military heroes—and she revealed that after her interviews were done, almost everyone, no matter who they were, asked her the exact same question. Once the camera stopped filming, once the microphones were cut, people would lean in to her. President Bush leaned in and asked her; President Obama leaned in and asked her; Beyoncé leaned in and asked her the exact same question.
The question was, «Was that good? Did I do okay?» In fact, she said one time Beyoncé was giving a show. You can imagine the Oprah crowd going crazy for Beyoncé. I mean, she kills it; she’s got the backup dancers, everyone’s going wild; you know she’s their idol. The camera’s cut, and Beyoncé hands the mic to Oprah, and what does she say? «Was that okay?» And Oprah pointed out to these Harvard students that it doesn’t matter how smart you are; it doesn’t matter how talented you are; it doesn’t matter how beautiful you are or how powerful you are. You could be the president, you could be the queen bee, you could be anyone, but at the end of the day, there’s this voice inside of the human heart that whispers, «Am I okay? Did I do good enough?»
And if we ask that about Oprah, imagine God. And that’s why the angels, a whole army of them, came with news that was so good: that Jesus was born so that you and God could be good. Now, some of you, you can’t get past that one thing in your past—the one thing you said before your dad died, that one moment of infidelity in your relationship, the words that just haunt you in the back of your brain. Others of you came to church so late in your life; you just have a wrecked relational history, and there’s no rewind button to fix it.
For a thousand different reasons, all of us, with a whisper or a shout in our hearts, wonder, «Am I okay?» Here’s the angel’s answer: if you have Jesus, God leans in and says, «We’re good.» If the problem with God and you was sin—light years of sin—and if Jesus came to take every last bit of it away, then there’s nothing in the way of you and God being good. You’re safe, you’re saved; you can sing with the angels! This is why it says, «Joyful, all you nations rise!» I don’t care where you’re from—you could be Asian, you could be American, you could be Mexican; you could be Mongolian—wherever you are from, get up with joy and sing with the angels! Christ has been born, the Savior of the world, who makes God and sinners reconciled.
And that’s better than a bunch of cows, is it not? And that’s just verse one!
Verse Two: Jesus Is God and Human
Give me a thumbs up if you’re ready for verse two! Right? You shouldn’t have put your thumbs up because verse two is the toughest of all. Verse two is actually so deep I have a hunch about half of you will need a dictionary to understand it. So let me give you a clue to what it’s all аbout: verse two is simply trying to tell you who Jesus is, and the simple answer to that question is: Jesus is God and human in one person—God, human, one person. That’s Jesus!
In the lobby after church, I’m going to tap some of you on the shoulder; I’m going to give you a pop quiz. But you’re going to be prepared for it because I’m going to ask you, «Who is Jesus?» and you’re going to tell me, «God and human in one person—humanity and divinity.» That’s Jesus—a divine nature and a human nature—that’s Jesus!
Philippians chapter 2 in the New Testament describes Jesus in this way: it says, «Jesus, being in very nature God,"—He’s God from His very nature—"was made in human likeness.» So He was made human. The Father never became human; the Holy Spirit never became human; but Jesus, God the Son, became human—God, human, one person! That’s what Hark verse two wants to tell you!
He—the words—Christ, by highest heaven adored; Christ the everlasting Lord; late in time, behold Him come, offspring of a virgin’s womb; veiled in flesh, the Godhead see! Hail—the incarnate deity! Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel! You catch it, right? Jesus is God! He’s not just a guy; He’s God! I think this verse says that in six different ways.
First, He’s by the highest heaven adored. Go to heaven; go to the highest ranks, the most experienced angel, and that angel is adoring someone that’s even higher than him—who’s Jesus! Which must mean that Jesus is God. Number two, He’s everlasting—He lasts forever, no beginning, no end; He’s eternal, unlike any created thing or human being—which means He’s God.
He’s the Lord—which means He’s the ultimate authority. He gets the last word—which must be God. If you see Jesus, you see the Godhead—that’s a fancy phrase that just means God. He’s called the incarnate deity. Deity is a word that just means God, and his nickname is Emmanuel.
So «El» in Hebrew means God, so if you have a name like Michael, or Rachel, or Nathaniel, or Daniel, the Hebrew name God is in your name. Emmanuel is just Hebrew for God with us. So who was the one who was with us? God! Emmanuel!
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6—six different ways this verse is trying to say to you, «Hey! If you think Jesus was just a nice guy, uh-uh! He’s God! If you think He just started some religion 2,000 years ago, nope! He’s more than that; He’s God! If you think He was a wise teacher who taught us to love our neighbor, turn the other cheek, be nice to our enemies—those things are all true times a million, because He is God!
And He’s human. Did you catch that too? It says, „Late in time, behold Him come.“ So in time, God is outside of time and space, but He entered into it. And I could be wrong about this, but I think „late in time“ means that Jesus was born as a human later than Old Testament Believers thought.
So, it’s kind of a quirk of the Hebrew. Adam and Eve, when they had their first kid, Cain, thought he was going to be the promised Messiah, because God made them that promise. No, the Messiah was a little bit later than that, and Abraham thought he was right around the corner. And David wrote songs about the coming Savior. Isaiah had all these prophecies 700 years before it happened.
So later in time God kept His promise, but later than expected. Behold! Here God is, coming in human flesh; He’s the offspring of a virgin’s womb, born of a woman named Mary—a human, because He is human. I love this line: „Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see!“ How many of you wore a veil on your wedding, quick, please? Yeah, you know what a veil does. A veil—you can see a veil, but you can see something else behind a veil.
So „veiled in flesh“ means that if you look at Jesus, you could see His flesh. He’s a human being—his hands; you could give Him a hug, you could shake His hand, touch His feet. And yet behind His humanity, you could see something more: „Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see!“ When Jesus would walk on water, you would see his body and say, „He’s not just like my buddies; He’s so much more!“ When He would multiply fishes and loaves, you would say, „My brother can’t do that!“
So behind His humanity, you could see His divinity: „Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see! Hail the incarnate deity.“ Deity means God. Incarnate—there’s a word to impress your friends with next time you’re out for a drink! Incarnate means „in flesh.“ So a carnivore is something that eats flesh; incarnate is God in flesh. If you speak Spanish, „carne“ means flesh or meat. Incarnate deity is a way of saying God in human flesh.
And finally, „Pleased as man with man to dwell.“ So He dwelt with us as human beings, but He was truly man—God man, one person. That’s Jesus! Give me a double thumbs-up if you got it! If you don’t, I’m going to start over, and it’s going to take a long time!
The Emotional Beauty of the Incarnation
Now, some of you are not going to say this out loud, but you’re thinking, „Boring! That part was kind of boring. Thank you for the technical definition of who Jesus is.“ It seems you know theological and technical, but I would tell you this: when you think about it, it is actually profoundly emotional, spiritual, and beautiful.
I thought of this theological truth last summer when my family and I took this epic road trip. We stopped in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We went to this incredible Museum of the American Revolution, and there we saw with our very own eyes the tent of George Washington. You should really Google this! For over 250 years, the tent of George Washington has been passed on, bought and sold by pastors and slaves and people. They actually have it on display at this museum.
But before the curtain came up and we got to see the tent, we got kind of the museum hype about it. To be completely honest, I kind of thought they were overselling it just a little bit. The printed brochure is like, „An unforgettable experience that will move you to tears!“ I thought, „I dare you!“ I should not have dared them. Before the curtain comes up, this video starts playing. It tells the story of George Washington and the Revolutionary War—that he’s this really respected, gifted general. But instead of, you know, living, dwelling away from his soldiers, he sets up his tent right in the midst of them.
And even though he could have been at Mount Vernon, even though he could have gone away to the comfort of family and friends, he didn’t. When the winters were bitterly cold, right there in the midst of them was the General. When the summers were sweltering hot, he didn’t run for cooler climates; he stayed right in the midst of them. Who does that? It’s like the CEO of the company having a cubicle in the midst of the interns instead of the corner office. This is like Mom and Dad sleeping on the camping mats that deflate in the middle of the night while the little kids are in the master bedroom. Who has the authority and the position but gives it up for the sake of others?
And I’m hearing about George Washington, but my Christian brain is thinking of Jesus, like, who had all the comforts of heaven and gave it up to dwell among His people—who had every right to escape from the pain of human experience but instead chose to enter into it so He could lead us to a great spiritual victory. Who would do that? George did it for a little bit; God in human flesh did it for 33 straight years.
As I’m thinking about the profound humility and beauty of Jesus, of course, that’s the time when the music swells and the curtain comes up, and the lights flash on, and I’ll show you a picture of what I looked at—the tent of General George Washington. It was stunning! It was moving! The brochure did not oversell it! And „Hark! The Herald Angels Sing“ isn’t overselling Jesus either! Hail, worship Him, bend a knee, and weep next to the manger of Jesus, who, being in very nature God, would be made in human likeness!
The Bible says that because Jesus did that, He gets you. I think it’s Hebrews chapter 2 says that He Himself suffered when He was tempted; He knows what it’s like to feel human weakness. Have you been hungry? Jesus was too! Thirsty? Yep! Tired? Yep! You ever had a long, exhausting day, and you just collapse at the end of it? Jesus did! You ever had drama with your family? Jesus did! Ever been betrayed by a friend? Jesus did! Ever been hurt by the church? Jesus did! Ever been taken out of context—your words twisted? People thinking things about you that simply are not true? You ever felt pain—excruciating pain, torturous pain?
Because God didn’t stay comfortable in heaven but made His dwelling among us; because He was Emmanuel, God with us, He gets it! The Bible says He sympathizes when you’re hurting; He feels compassion when you’re suffering. When you’ve been through it, you are not the first! Your pain is not unexplainable because Jesus took on human flesh; He’s God, human with us. Man, that thought makes me want to say „Amen!“ and sing!
Verse Three: Born for Second Birth
But I’ve got one more verse to cover today. Here’s what it says: „Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness! Light and life to all He brings, risen with healing in His wings! Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die; born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth“!
It is not fair that I only get to talk about one thing in this verse! There’s so much gold here about Jesus: the peace He offers, the light He offers, the life He offers, and the healing He offers. But sadly, I don’t have time for all that. I have to pick just one thing today, and I’m going to pick the last line that Jesus was born to give them— to give you—second birth!
If I asked you in the church lobby, „Who was Jesus?“ you would say, „God and man in one person.“ If I asked you why was Jesus God and man in one person, this would be a great answer: He was born to give me second birth! It’s a technical Bible term; you might have heard of the phrase „being born again"—same idea. The concept is that when someone is born, they’re pushed into a whole new kind of life, right? You probably don’t remember this; your mother does! The first time you were born, you were pushed by her into a whole new kind of existence—a brand new life outside the womb! Everything was different!
The Bible says that when you’re born again, not your mother, but the Holy Spirit pushes you spiritually into a whole new kind of life where everything is different. What you value is different; what you love the most is different; how you think, how you behave, what you believe—this is really Bible slang that’s talking about being a Christian—repenting of sin, trusting in Jesus. The reason He came is so you could have a whole new kind of life!
I’m going to steal a famous phrase that I didn’t invent: when you’re born just once, you die twice. But if you’re born twice, you only die once! Can you crack that riddle? Born just once? You’re just born physically, but you have no spiritual connection to Jesus; you’re not born again. You will die physically—of age, or cancer, or an accident, or whatever—and then, because there’s no Savior to save you, you will die eternally. You’ll be separated from God; you’re not good enough to stand in His presence, no matter how good you might feel!
But if you come to faith in Jesus, and you’re born again, if you have not just a physical birth but a spiritual rebirth, you only die once! You still die physically, right? The cancer still comes to Christians; the tragedy still happens to believing families. But after that death is over, there is no second death; there is just eternal life! The reason the news of Jesus is such good news that the angels want your attention is because if you look at the birth of Jesus and then His life and then His death and then His resurrection, what you end up with through faith is a second birth!
Yeah, I’m not sure if this is hitting me more just because I’m statistically over halfway dead—I’m 42 years old—and if you’re 60, you’re going to blow off this comment! But I feel my age every day in a way that I did not five years ago. I see it on the wrinkles that my daughters love to count when I put them down for bed, the gray hairs three weeks after a haircut. I feel like I need another haircut! I feel it in my back after I work out, my lack of flexibility; my body is changing; my mind is forgetting things.
The other day, I was typing up a sermon, and I had to increase the zoom on the screen to be able to read it! Like, I feel it! And I realized this—that time is coming, and maybe it’s already come, where most of my life is behind me. And you might be 15 here today, and it seems like it doesn’t apply to you, but you will blink, and you will not be 15! You might just be praying for your little kid to get through the night; you’re going to wake up one day and that kid’s going to be driving you in the car! Life flies by!
So sooner or later—and maybe you’re at this point where you really start thinking about big questions about life and death and what happens next—this song is reminding us that if you have Jesus, you are one step closer to your pain being done forever! Like, if you have Jesus, you might have anxiety, and maybe it’s not getting better, and it’s not going away, but you are literally one day closer to the end of anxiety!
If you’re grieving the loss of someone you love, compared to last Sunday, you are one week closer to being done with your grief! If your back hurts, if you deal with the trauma of war, if you struggle from something that happened to you as a kid when you were growing up, if you have Jesus, you are one day closer to the end of it!
We make these little chains coming down to Christmas Day; I think we should just—wouldn’t know how long to make it—we should make a chain for our pain! Every day, one day closer, one day closer until I get to put my hand on the doorknob of eternity! And a kind of light and love and healing and life and happiness I can’t even fathom in this life that is mine forever!
Without Jesus, I didn’t stand a chance at it! I would have died twice! But because of Jesus, you and I, no matter what your story, your sin, your struggle, your past, your brokenness, if you come to Jesus, if you believe in Him, that could happen right now for some of you—for the first time ever—you would only die once and receive in His name the gift of eternal life!
It makes me think last year I was at this church service visiting in another city, and the pastor invited all the little kids up for the children’s message. You ever seen something like that? And all these kids come up, but apparently this toddler who was sitting right behind me and my family, he did not want to go up. And I was close enough to hear the parents! Have you ever had a whisper argument with your kid in church? What happens? «Go, go, go up!» «I don’t want to!» «No, go up!» So this little kid, stubborn, just sits there in the pew; he’s not moving until the very first line of the pastor’s message where he says this quote: «Kids, I’d like to give you some candy.»
And I kid you not, this little guy, he’s like Usain Bolt out of that little pew! He jumps up, he scoots past, takes a hard left, and he literally hurls his entire body like a major leaguer sliding into second! Because he wanted a gift that was so good and it was so free and it was so close! And I just want to say that’s like Jesus! Maybe some of you are reluctant about church and the Bible and you know there are these rules you’re supposed to give money and have this different ethic of sexuality and marriage, and you sit there and you don’t want to surrender; you don’t want to be all in for Jesus.
And before it’s too late, I just want to tell you this: whatever it costs you to follow Him, what He is offering you is infinite; it’s eternal! This world can make you happy in bits and starts. The likes and the love and the loot works for a little bit, but what Jesus is offering you is forever! Today could be your day to come to Jesus, to receive the light of the world, to be born again—a whole new kind of life where you give up a little but you gain so much more!
Some smart angels, hark! Hey! You and God—God and man, Jesus in one person, born so that you could be born again! What a song! And what a Savior!
Prayer
Oh God, this news—it almost feels too good to be true! If there’s some commercial, some YouTube ad that told us our pain would be over forever, we wouldn’t believe it; we’d skip it. But You are telling us that maybe not today or tomorrow or next year, but You have promised us a life of happiness and peace and hope and joy that seems hard to believe, God. So give us the faith to believe it—that for all of us who follow Jesus, we are one step closer to a happiness that words simply could not describe!
God, I’m praying—I’m praying big for people here today who are just uncertain. They’ve been watching at home; they’ve been coming to church; they’re not all in with Jesus. Open their eyes to see that what He is offering is infinitely better than everything this world treasures! And I pray, God, that You would hold on to us in the difficulties of this earth! Jesus, You know what it’s like; You know what it’s like to be here and to walk in our shoes. You did it for 33 straight years! So sustain us and strengthen us; give us everything that we need to get up in the morning with joy and to lie down at night with peace. We pray all these things, God, with confidence and with hope because we know who we are—those who have been born again—and we know who You are—our heavenly Father, Who’s given us new life. So we pray all these things in Jesus' name, and God’s people said, «Amen.»
God, I’m praying—I’m praying big for people here today who are just uncertain. They’ve been watching at home; they’ve been coming to church; they’re not all in with Jesus. Open their eyes to see that what He is offering is infinitely better than everything this world treasures! And I pray, God, that You would hold on to us in the difficulties of this earth! Jesus, You know what it’s like; You know what it’s like to be here and to walk in our shoes. You did it for 33 straight years! So sustain us and strengthen us; give us everything that we need to get up in the morning with joy and to lie down at night with peace. We pray all these things, God, with confidence and with hope because we know who we are—those who have been born again—and we know who You are—our heavenly Father, Who’s given us new life. So we pray all these things in Jesus' name, and God’s people said, «Amen.»