Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
Charles Wesley's beloved Advent hymn is based on some words in the prophet Haggai. But did you know that he only wrote two of these verses?
It's the last Friday Classic of the year. I've had such a great year doing these videos, and I want to thank you for joining me week by week - I've done over 100 of these these days, so check them out. I've really covered all the classics and I'm starting to get into some deeper, less known ones.
This is one of the great Christmas classics or advent classic - the period leading up to Christmas. It's one that I think Methodists have sung for years, and I would love to know if you know the song, if it means something special to you. Share it in the comments below. What do the words mean to you as we work through them today? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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The Story Behind "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus"
Charles Wesley and Methodist Hymn Writing
Another Charles Wesley hymn. I think I've featured more of his hymns than anybody else at this point in the series. He is a great hymn writer and has written thousands upon thousands.
Charles Wesley was the brother of John Wesley. Some people get them confused. John was the great preacher and organiser, starting little groups of Christians called societies throughout England in the 1740s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. Charles was his brother, who was a little bit quieter, I think, not quite as charismatic, but who wrote all the hymns.
The Methodist movement was really strengthened deeply by the hymns of Charles Wesley. John's brilliance in his church leadership and Charles's hymn writing kind of worked together to make Methodism massive and spread all around the world.
The Wesleys were very big on social holiness. They would call it holiness - not just as my personal freedom from sin, although it is that, but it's so much more than that. It is also making a positive impact in society, reaching out to the poor, caring for the orphans and the widows. The Wesleys were big on making a difference in society in the name of Jesus and as your offering of holiness.
The Biblical Inspiration
This song was written when Wesley was meditating on Haggai 2:7. Let me read it to you from the scriptures: "I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty."
And so you'll see in the lyrics how he refers to that - the desire of the nations thirsting for God to come and give them what they desire, really, which is His blessings.
Wesley published this in 1745, in a pamphlet called Hymns on the Nativity of Our Lord. There were eighteen little hymns in this pamphlet, and this became one of the Methodists' favourite collection of his hymns. It was used for decades and it really had some powerful hymns in it, including this little two verse hymn.
The Hymn's Journey Through History
Other people started to publish Wesley's hymns in the 1700s because they were so good, and his work began to spread to other churches.
In fact, in subsequent years Wesley himself made some changes to the text of this hymn, because he didn't quite like how he'd phrased it. He drew from some of the other publications of his hymns to get it in a more singable way. It was in 1855, many decades after Wesley had died, that the song took on new life when Charles Spurgeon used it in one of his Christmas sermons. London grabbed on to this hymn again, and it's become one of the favourites.
But interestingly, Wesley only wrote two of the stanzas. This is a four verse hymn and I just thought he wrote all four. They sound all like Wesley, but as it turns out, he only wrote what we know as verse one and four. Verse two and verse three were added in the 1970s. There was a man in America named Mark E. Hunt who added those two middle verses. They're beautiful. They're absolutely stunning. The song now gets published with all four in most cases, I think, and I think with good reason. It really folds out the song in a beautiful way.
Wesley's Legacy
Of course, the Wesleys died in the late 1700s, but Methodism carried on, and there are many churches that are Wesleyan even outside of the Methodist Church. My own denomination, the Nazarenes, we hold to Wesleyan theology and Wesleyan thinking. And so these hymns are very precious to us as well.
What Do the Lyrics of "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" Mean?
Verse One
Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free.
Verse one starts with "Come, thou long expected Jesus." Advent, if you're not familiar with the church calendar, is a time before Christmas to not only think about when Jesus first came, but to look forward to His coming again. Wesley balances these beautifully here. He looks at the manger, but he also, in a sense, is looking ahead and expecting Jesus to come again.
"Born to set thy people free." The people were waiting for Jesus before He came. The Israelites, the Jews were longing for their promised Messiah. And so, in a sense, we sort of step back into their shoes and think about what it must have been like to wait for Him. But in another sense, we wait and the long expectation wait for Him to come again.
He was born to set His people free - not just from the Roman Empire, which is what the original people thought He had come to do, but He came to free them from the powers of sin so that they could live in the kingdom of God. In a spiritual sense, He was born to set people free from sin, from our sins and fears.
Release us from our stress and strains. Let us find our rest in Thee.
"Release us." Wesley originally wrote "Relieve us," but he changed it to "Release." It has a bit more of a freedom, sort of a feeling, than just relief. It's more release from captivity. And sins and fears hold us captive, don't they? But with our faith in Christ, our sin is defeated. And we have no fear because we trust so in Him.
"Let us find our rest in Thee." Of course, Jesus said, "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Yes, we can find our rest in Him. And of course, there's a sense in which He is our Sabbath rest as well. According to the book of Hebrews, we don't need to follow the Sabbath as a command like it was in the Old Testament, because we found our rest in Him. Now, it's still a great idea to stop once a week and spend a time having a Sabbath. But it's not so much to fulfil the law. It's because in that rest, Christ is united with us, and we find that rest in our spirits, in Him.
Israel's strength and consolation, hope of all the earth, Thou art.
Remember Simeon. When Jesus was brought into the temple as a young child, Simeon takes Him in his arms and pronounces these words over Him, and he calls Him the consolation of Israel. And so Israel that was longing for that Messiah to come, found in Jesus. Well, many of them haven't, sadly. And so we pray for our Jewish brothers and sisters to find faith in Christ. The consolation of Israel, the one that they were waiting for and are still waiting for, even though He's already come.
But not just Israel. He's the hope of all the earth. And so, whether you're a Jew or Gentile, you can find hope by placing your faith in Christ.
Dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.
There's that language from Haggai the prophet who said, every nation, every people, desires what only Jesus can bring. The joy of every longing heart. Every heart longs for fulfilment and only Christ can bring it.
And I ask you, have you found your fulfilment in Christ? Because every other endeavour will maybe work for a while, but it won't satisfy the longings of your heart. Only Christ, only faith in Christ can do that. Put your faith in Him. I pray.
Verse Two
Joy to those who long to see the Dayspring from on high appear.
Even today we long to see Him. And when we do, we will be overjoyed. When we one day see Him - whether it's for His return on the clouds, whether it's when we meet Him in heaven, whatever it is, and we don't really know - we'll be filled with joy. The joy for those who have their faith in Him will be complete.
"Dayspring from on high" kind of means sunrise or dawning from on high. And of course, Jesus came and visited us, brought sunlight in a sense, when He came and when He appears again, we will be overjoyed.
Come, thou promised Rod of Jesse, springing from the root of old.
This is a reference to the book of Isaiah that calls Jesus the shoot that comes up from the root of Jesse. Now He will bear fruit. And so that rod is kind of symbolic of how He rules as the King. We long to hear of His birth because it is so wonderful to us.
Oh, hail the stars together, the herald angels singing o'er! Glad tidings of a birth.
This pictures Luke 2, where the angels sing and His birth is proclaimed. The shepherds hear it and see the angels singing in glory. Amazing.
Go to Him, your praises bringing! Christ the Lord has come to earth.
Just like the shepherds did, go and worship Him. We too, in a sense, every Christmas revisit Bethlehem to bring our gifts and worship Him. Is that your Christmas this year? Are you coming to Him in worship and bringing your gifts to worship Him? I hope so.
Verse Three
Come to earth to taste our sadness, He whose glories knew no end.
That's beautiful. Jesus came to taste our sadness. He became God incarnate so that He could taste the human condition. I suppose Jesus could have just come as an angel, as an alien, but instead He comes down and takes on the fullness of humanity so that He could know our sadness and He could feel the pain of being crucified as our substitute. Even though His glory knows no end as part of the Godhead, still He comes and takes on our sadness and our sorrow.
By His life He brings us gladness, our Redeemer, Shepherd, friend.
So He comes and He redeems us by dying on the cross. He exists as our shepherd and our friend and our Redeemer, and brings us joy and gladness if our faith is in Him. Why would you not put your faith in Him? He brings all sorts of wonders that only can come in Him.
And by the way, this is a good thing for us to reflect on every Christmas. We always, of course, focus on the baby in the manger as we should, because it's the amazing frailty of God held in this child. But we need to never forget the cross that He went to and that He was born to die so that we could be born again.
Leaving riches without number, born within a cattle store.
He left behind the riches of heaven. And Philippians 2 says this beautifully - go and read it. He left the throne to come down and be obedient to death, even death on a cross. What a sacrifice it was for Him to enter into the world this way.
Praise the Lord! This the everlasting wonder, Christ was born the Lord of all.
It is an everlasting wonder. You could never get to the bottom of the mystery of the incarnation. It is an everlasting wonder that He would come and give His life for all, that He would come and be born and placed in that cattle store so that we could benefit from His death years later. I mean, it kind of blows the mind, doesn't it?
Christmas time - think about the wonder, the wonder of the incarnation, the amazing truth that God became housed in the body of a small child. Incredible.
Verse Four
Born thy people to deliver. Born a child and yet a king.
And then verse four, which is back to Wesley's words. Born to save. He gave Himself up. He came down and was born so that He could deliver us by giving Himself up on the cross. Wonderful.
The great paradox of the incarnation - a King above all would become a child so that He could enter into the world. The King humbles Himself in the most amazing way.
And remember, the full twofold nature of Jesus - fully human, fully divine. Not half, half. Fully human, fully divine. A real child born of a real woman, but a real King reigning over the world.
Born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring.
He's come not just to reign in a physical sense. I know that there's great controversy about the different eschatological views. Some believe He will reign physically. Some believe that the reign that's spoken of at the end of Revelation is a spiritual reign. It's a tricky one. People are respectful on both sides of that debate.
But more importantly, He was born to reign in us. And that's why I love that line - "Born to reign in us forever." And so with our faith in Him we are indwelt and He reigns in our hearts. That's what Christmas is all about in the end - Him coming down and being born in us.
And so as this hymn says, "Thy gracious kingdom bring" - let Your kingdom be here. The kingdom is not only coming later, the kingdom is here now for us who will believe. And so if we put our faith in Him, His kingdom is brought right into our lives, and we are brought right into the kingdom.
By Thine own eternal Spirit, rule in all our hearts alone.
Yes, that's what Jesus coming was to do. It was to break the bonds of sin and selfishness so that He could reign in us and we could live in His kingdom today.
And so I ask you, have you received His eternal Spirit so that He can rule in your hearts? That is what it's all about.
By Thine all sufficient merit, raise us to thy glorious throne.
I love this as it closes. Not my merit that allows me to be raised up to the throne of God. It's not my holiness, my goodness, my doing, my good works, my kindness, my generosity. It's His merit. His merit by dying on that cross that we, if we place our faith in Him, receive. And so we can go to the throne on His merits and in His name. Wonderful.
Conclusion
What a beautiful Christmas carol. It reminds us of the glory of His first coming, but also looks forward to our own hope of His coming again and us meeting Him face to face. What words really spoke to you? Would you share those in the comments below? I'd deeply appreciate it.
Go and check out my other Wesley hymns I've done. By the way, an interesting one was last year - I did "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" with his original nine verses. We usually only sing a few of them, and if you look at his original wording, it's a little different. So it's fascinating. Go and check that one out and my other Christmas Friday Classics, and I'll put the playlist link in the comments down below.
Before we finish, I want to say thank you to those who support the work that I do. Shereen and I are so blessed by your kindness and grateful. Thank you for supporting me this year. It's been a good year and it's been an important year in our lives, as some of you know, and your support has enabled me to do this.
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