“O Holy Night” is of the most beautiful and favorite songs that tells of the Savior’s birth in Bethlehem. What many people don’t realize is that the combined talents of three much unexpected people brought us this song. In fact, this song is the result of the work a wine merchant, a penniless French composer and a liberal American preacher. The song began as a poem written in 1847 by a French wine merchant named Placide Clappeau whose hobby was writing poetry. The music was written by a French composer named Adolphe Charles Adam who wrote thirty-nine operas during his lifetime. Adam became penniless late in his life due to a failed business venture involving the French national opera. This French carol was discovered and translated into English by a Unitarian minister by the name of John Dwight. Ultimately Dwight would leave the ministry due to his increasingly liberal views and begin a career in music journalism. The main question that comes to mind when we think of that night more than 2,000 years ago the main question is, “What made this night any more holier than any other night during the time Jesus walked on this earth?” Before me examine the message of this great Christmas Carol I believe it would be very appropriate to get more familiar with the term “holy” as it is used in the Bible. So let’s turn to the pages of Scripture and examine what we can learn from this timeless classic, “O Holy Night!”
I. Understanding what Scripture means when it uses the term holy.
A. The use of the term in the Old Testament.
1. The Hebrew word is qadash which means to seat apart, consecrate or dedicate.
2. This word appears fifty-seven times in the Old Testament.
3. The world is used of course to describe God’s character showing that He is set apart from the world.
4. The word is used to describe things that are set apart to be used for worship and in the service of the temple.
5. The word is used in connection with the Sabbath showing that God established it and set it apart.
6. The word is also used to describe how God chose the nation of Israel and set them apart to be His exclusive people.
B. The use of the term in the New Testament.
1. The Greek word is hagios which means set apart or sacred.
2. This word appears two-hundred-thirty-two times in the New Testament.
3. The word is used to establish anything that is connected with God.
a. The Christian who are His chosen people in the New Testament.
b. His Spirit.
c. The Church that He established.
4. The word is also is used to describe anything that God chooses to set apart for His exclusive purposes.
5. The word is also used to describe the type of life that a Christian should strive to live.
II. This night in Bethlehem ushered in a new era for humanity.
A. This new era would bring with it a solution to mankind’s greatest problem.
1. Since man first disobeyed God in the garden all of humanity had been cursed with sin.
2. In fact Paul writes in his letter to the Romans of the universality of sin.
3. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23—NIV 2011)
4. The problem of sin destroyed man’s relationship with God and man could do nothing to solve this problem.
5. When Gabriel told Mary what the child’s name would be, he announced the solution to the problem. His name would be Jesus which means “Yahweh saves.”
6. Paul sums this up in the verse that follows the one we just read.
7. And all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:24—NIV 2011)
8. Just as God had led His people out of slavery in Egypt, this era would be marked by God leading His people out of their slavery to sin.
B. This era would mark the beginning of a new relationship between man and God.
1. The intimate relationship that mankind enjoyed with their Creator was destroyed by sin.
2. However, immediately after mankind sinned God set into motion His plan to restore His broken relationship with His creation.
3. This child’s very name as we mentioned earlier puts the spotlight on God’s intention of restoring this relationship.
4. Christmas should remind us that each one of us matter to God and the depth of His love for us goes beyond our ability to comprehend.
5. God would take us from slavery and adopt us into His family giving us the promise of a life with Him that would last forever.
III. The child born on this night would be unlike any child that would ever be born.
A. Luke shows that Gabriel reveals five things about this child’s identity.
1. He would be great: this reveals that He would be different from the rest of humanity.
2. He would be called the Son of God; this fact establishes His divine nature.
3. God would give Him the throne of His father David. This establishes the fact that He was indeed the long awaited Messiah.
4. He would rule over the house of David. This is also Messianic in nature as it shows that He would be the King over God’s chosen people.
5. His Kingdom will never end; this fact establishes that this Kingdom would last forever.
B. This child would be set apart from the rest of humanity and would carry out God’s will.
1. Gabriel highlights this fact when refers to the child as being “holy.”
2. Even before Jesus was born, the angel of the Lord declared Him to be the Son of God. This claim did not come by chance, nor by afterthought, but in the unfolding of God’s way of redemption.
3. Another thing that shows the uniqueness of this child would be the fact that His conception would be brought about by the Holy Spirit.
4. In these first two chapters, Luke mentions the Holy Spirit six times to highlight the Spirit’s involvement in all that was taking place.
5. This child who would display God’s power throughout His life would be identified by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
6. The kingdom of God could be said to have arrived in the ministry of Jesus, since by exalting Him God showed that He was acting as His representative on the earth.
IV. This night would bring great joy to Heaven and Earth alike.
A. The angel’s announcement to the shepherds focused on the fact that the birth of this child would bring about great joy.
1. “For all the people” is also an important element in the announcement. Most often, what is good news for some people will be bad news for others. But this is good news to all the people of the world and for all time.
2. The people of Israel would find joy because God had kept His promise and their long awaited Messiah had arrived.
3. There would be great joy in Heaven because God’s purpose had been accomplished and the relationship between the Creator and His creation would be restored.
4. The rest of the world would find joy because of God’s love and grace would make the forgiveness of sin possible.
5. Perhaps the joy rest in the fact that this child would be called the Savior. This is the only place in the Synoptic Gospels where this word is used in reference to Jesus.
6. Savior goes right along with the meaning of the name of Jesus. The significance of this name would not be missed by the Jews who put great importance on the meaning of names.
B. Although Scripture does not refer to the night of the Savior’s birth as holy, one would definitely be correct in referring to that night as holy.
1. The events that took place on that night undoubtedly set that night apart from all other nights.
2. The presence of the angels and the glory of God highlighted the fact that this night was like no other.
3. The night was holy because it was the point and time that God would enter our world in the form of His Son.
4. The night was holy because it was on this night that God would change His relationship with man forever.
5. The night was holy because it made our salvation possible.
a. No longer would mankind have to be lost in their sins.
b. No longer would death have power over man as God made eternal life possible for each of us.
6. The night was holy because God gave each of us a purpose and show us how much He loved us.
Closing:
"This is about a modern man, one of us, he was not a scrooge, he was a kind, decent, mostly good man, generous to his family, upright in his dealings with others. But he did not believe in all that incarnation stuff that the Churches proclaim at Christmas time. It just didn’t make sense to him and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just could not swallow the Jesus story about God coming to earth as man. I’m truly sorry to distress you, he told his wife, but I’m not going with you to church this Christmas Eve. He said he’d feel like a hypocrite. That he would much rather stay home, but that he would wait up for them. He stayed, they went. Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier, then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another and another. At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. Well, when he went to the front door, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They had been caught in the storm and in a desperate search for shelter they had tried to fly through his large landscape window. Well, he couldn’t let the poor creatures lie there and freeze. He remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter -- if he could direct the birds to it. He quickly put on his coat and galoshes, trampled through the deepening snow to the barn, opened the door wide, and turned on a light. But the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in and he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow making a trail to the yellow lighted wide open doorway of the stable, but to his dismay the birds ignored the bread crumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them, he tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms -- instead they scattered in every direction except into the warm lighted barn. Then he realized they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature, if only I could think of some way to let them know they can trust me. That I’m not trying to hurt them, but to help them. How? Any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him. If only be a bird myself he thought. If only I could be a bird and mingle with them and speak their language, and tell them not to be afraid, and show them the way to the safe, warm barn. But I'd have to be one of them, so they could see and hear and understand.
At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sound of the wind. He stood there listening to the bells. Adeste Fideles. Listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. And he sank to his knees in the snow.
