Audio Messages:
Pastor Wade Burleson

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Singing the Theology of Christmas
O Holy Night

Singing4.mp3 (16.0 MB)

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The theme of our series is "you end up believing what you spend time singing." We have examined “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus,” “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” and “Joy to the World.”  Now we come to a beautiful but difficult carol to sing entitled “O Holy Night.” Of all the Christmas carols, this one has the most fascinating history behind it.

The "holy" night is the night Christ was born. Let me remind you that the term "holy" means "set apart for a special purpose." Holiness is not so much something you propose or pursue as it is something God purposes. The core meaning of holiness is not "good" but rather "set apart" -- and therefore, good. This is why the utensils in the Tabernacle were called "holy." This is why the night Christ was born is called "holy." When God begins to move -- when God begins to work -- when God begins to appear -- it is a holy moment.

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

1. A holy moment can occur through the work of unworthy people.
   This carol was written in 1847 by a French businessman named Placide Cappeau. He was the commissionaire of wines in a small French town known more for his poetry than his church attendance.
   
   In a dusty coach traveling down a bumpy road to Paris, Cappeau imagined witnessing the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Not musically inclined himself, the poet turned to one of his friends, Adolphe Charles Adams, a Jew, for help. Initially, this carol was wholeheartedly accepted by the church in France and the song found its way into various Christmas services. But when Cappeau walked away from the church and became a part of the socialist movement, and church leaders discovered that Adolphe Adams was a Jew, the song was uniformly denounced by the church as "total absence of the spirit of religion." I am reminded of the Scripture: "God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong . . . so that no human being may boast in the Lord’s presence. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord” (I Corinthians 1:31).
2. A holy moment can occur when God moves in unexpected places.
   On Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden--a 33-year-old university professor and former chief chemist for Thomas Edison--did something long thought impossible. Using a new type of generator, Fessenden spoke into a microphone and, for the first time in history, a man's voice was broadcast over the airwaves reading Luke 1. Radio operators on ships and astonished wireless owners at newspapers sat slack-jawed as their normal, coded impulses, heard over tiny speakers, were interrupted someone reading Luke. After finishing his recitation of Christ’s birth, Fessenden picked up his violin and played O Holy Night, the first song ever sent through the air via radio waves.
3. A holy moment can occur while facing unbearable problems.
   Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother. In his name all oppression shall cease. John Dwight felt that this wonderful French Christmas song needed to be sung in America. Dwight strongly identified with the lines of the third verse and published the translation in a magazine which became the anthem of abolitionists in America. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (I Corinthians 4:8-9). O Holy Night reminds us that God sets apart all things for His purposes (Rom. 8:28).