December 15, 2019

O HOLY NIGHT
December 15, 2019
Charles Billingsley

 

Little more than a week until Christmas! Hectic, frantic last-minute shopping, decorating trees, wrapping gifts, thinking about food preparation—what part do you feel is out of control for you? Can you eliminate some of the busy-ness?

Open: We are now half-way through our Christmas series, “Sing Noel,” where we examine the powerful messages in some of our favorite carols. Each one has a special story. Today’s selection, “O, Holy Night” is extremely unique and powerful, filled with wonderful truths that have inspired millions of people. Let’s explore the words of this beautiful song as it tells the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Key Verse: Colossians 1:15-18: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.’”

He is Holy

“O, Holy Night”

• Read Luke 1:35. Just from this one verse, how can it be validated that Jesus is Holy? What does it mean for someone or something to be “holy”?
• What was significant about the night Jesus Christ was born? What impact did His birth have on the calendar some several hundred years later (about the sixth century)?
• Read Phil. 2:5-8. What did Jesus leave in order to come to the earth in a physical body?

  Did you know…”when you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God?”

              (“Mary, Did You Know?” By Mark Lowry)

• Read Phil. 2:9-11. What did God do for His Son, because He humbled Himself like He did?

He is Here

“Long lay the world, in sin and error pining, til He appeared..!”

• Can anyone share what your life was like before you surrendered to God? What did you use to fill the void between who you were then, and who you became after salvation?
• What is the soul?
• Read Jeremiah 29:11-13. How much are we worth to God? Does this knowledge give you a new sense of self-worth?

He is Hope

“A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices..”

• The night of Jesus’ birth ended how many years of God being silent? Why do you think most people may possibly have lost hope during this time? Think of your country: if God went silent for 400 years, how would people react? Can you describe what you would think or do?
• Why does the story of Christmas every year fill us with renewed hope?
• Read Romans 15:13. What is different about the “hope” of a Christian, and the term “hope” that the world uses?                                                                                     
• Read Luke 4:16-21. What did Jesus mean in verse 21?
• Who only can fill the space between depression and the Thrill of Hope? How can  you give Him your expectations, when others do not fulfill them?
• What is the simple message Jesus brought to YOU when He came to this earth? Do you really realize HE LOVES YOU?

Close:

“O, Holy Night, O night, when Christ was born!”

If you were in the congregation that heard Charles Billingsley give the background for “O, Holy Night,” you were probably enthralled with the circumstances under which the song was written. It was subsequently banned by the French Catholic Church. In God’s divine sovereignty, however, it had already started making its way into the hearts of believers, and its popularity began to spread. Soon, despite its failure to win the Catholic Church’s approval to be sung to the masses, it made its way to America, where it was re-written by John Sullivan Dwight into the carol that is sung at Christmas throughout most churches.

In many ways, the birth of this song, its eventual lack of acceptance by the Church in France, and the underground popularity as people everywhere recognized the beauty, truth, and hope in the carol, is not unlike the picture of the Baby in the manger so many years ago. He was soon abandoned by the religious leaders in the church, deemed unfit to be a Messiah, and eventually was crucified on a cruel cross, where He was “left for dead” by the Pharisees and Sadducees. Little did the world know—as those who witnessed the crucifixion—that this same Jesus would one day have followers in all the nations! Little did they know that there is coming a day when, “at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue (will) confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!” As the second verse of “O Holy Night” goes into the chorus, we sing, “He knows our need, To our weakness is no stranger! Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend! Behold your King! Your King! Before Him bend!”