Christmas Eve 2025: The Christmas Songs We Always Sing

We will always sing a song of longing.

Music - Major keys and minor keys. Minor keys express tension, weight, longing, sometimes sadness…

Life feels minor - The pain of broken relationships, the grief of losing someone you loved this past year, things not working out the way you thought they would, the heaviness of life.

Christmas in the minor - maybe celebrating Christmas feels difficult this year.

Most Christmas songs are written in major keys - Major keys express clarity, confidence, resolution, and joy. Songs of celebration are generally written in major keys, not minor keys.

We want our lives to be lived in the major key, but often our lives are written in a minor key.

One famous Christmas song written in a minor key - O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - expresses the longing of Ancient Israel.

Adam and Eve’s sin caused life to be in a minor key - everything broken because of sin. Because of sin, death comes for everyone. Because of sin, everything is decaying and dying. Because of sin, life is hard.

BUT - a promise - Gen. 3:15 - Sin and death will not reign forever - a Messiah will come to break the curse of sin and death.

The prophets give clues about the One who will come and rescue Israel.

Isaiah 7:14 - Isaiah tells us the Messiah’s name - Immanuel - God with us. God’s promise to a king, Ahaz, who struggled to trust God. God saying to Ahaz, “You can trust me. I will prove it.” God promised to send a child born to a virgin.

Isaiah 9 - The government will be on His shoulders. He is wonderful, counselor, Almighty God, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father.

THAT’S who we need to come to us!

O Come, O Come - Song of longing for a people who over and over failed to trust God and as a result were placed in exile. BUT - a chord of hope in the major “Rejoice.”

There’s always major in the minor - always hope - always the reality of knowing God will be faithful keep His promise.

Let your hopeful longing fuel perseverance. Don’t settle - let your longing for hope in Christ fuel you to persevere through life knowing that God is faithful to keep His promise to you. Your struggles will NOT defeat you.

Let your hopeful longing protect you from despair and cynicism. Your struggles are not the end of the world. They are temporary. God is at work. Struggles often cause us to grow cynical. “Life is unfair. God can’t help me. Faith doesn’t really work, etc.”

SING SONG - O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

We will always sing a song of celebration.

It happened. God kept His promise.

Luke - the story of Mary - the Angel, Gabriel, appears to a teenaged virgin in Nazareth and tells her that she will give birth to the Messiah. Mary, in wonder, says to the angel, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it happen to me as you have said.”

Mary’s life was about to get really complicated. She would have to tell her fiancee. Would he believe her story? Then, the scorn she would face from family and friends as they found out that Joseph wasn’t the baby’s father.

Ultimately, she would watch her son grow up and suffer. Her life was complicated by the birth of the Messiah, yet, “I am the Lord’s Servant.”

The song of Mary - Luke 1:46-56 - Mary’s response was celebration.

Matthew - the story of Joseph - full of uncertainty when he learns that Mary is pregnant. He will end the betrothal quietly so not to put her to shame. Gabriel appears, “Do not be afraid. Take Mary as your wife. The child she carries is the Messiah.”

Joseph’s life was about to get complicated. What would people think of him for marrying a woman who was pregnant out of wedlock with a child that wasn’t his?

But, Joseph obeys, takes Mary to Bethlehem because of a census, and in Bethlehem, a child is born in a crowded home where there is no room - so Mary gives birth to Jesus in the place where animals stayed, and they put the baby in a manger - a feeding trough.

A humble beginning but a night of celebration - God delivered on His promise.

In a field - a multitude of angels appear to shepherds; not to religious leaders, nobility, but ordinary blue-collar workers - announcing the birth of the child. Celebration!

Shepherds hurry their way through Bethlehem to find the Christ-child. They celebrate with Mary and Joseph.

They leave the manger as the first Gospel witnesses of the birth of Jesus! So much to celebrate!

The song changes! From minor to major. God has fulfilled His promises in Christ! The Messiah has come!

SING SONGS - Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, Angels We Have Heard on High, O Come, All Ye Faithful

We celebrate at Christmas because:

Celebrating reorients hearts. Celebration causes us to look beyond our problems and to the ONE who is over all of our problems.

Celebrating pushes back the despair. Celebration refuses to let sorrow and grief have the final word. We celebrate because we are convinced that Jesus has the final word.

Celebrating strengthens our relationships with each other. When we celebrate, we don’t keep it to ourselves. We want others to know why we’re celebrating. As Christians, declaring to each other that we’re rejoicing in what God has done.

Celebration is good for your soul, and you have every reason to celebrate this Christmas!

We will always sing a song of wonder.

Christmas day was over - challenges started. The celebration didn’t last long.

Life went back to a minor key.

Herod wants the Christ-child dead. Joseph is told by an angel in a dream to flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus.

This child that was celebrated at the manger, is now on the run for His life. The run to Egypt is a preview of Jesus’ life - rejected. Jesus comes as a suffering servant - not a triumphant King who woudl overtake Herod and Rome.

Isaiah 53:3-4: “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value hum. Yet he himself bore our sickness, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted.”

THIS is the MESSIAH. This was God’s plan to save the world - through a suffering servant - God’s only begotten Son, fully human/fully divine, who would live a sinless life for us, go to a cross and die in our place, only to rise from the dead three days later to defeat our greatest enemy: sin and death.

God’s plan of salvation for humanity was through suffering. A minor key - Christ has come, but He has come to die. The King has come to suffer in our place for us.

AND… the King invites us on a road of suffering. He doesn’t promise easy, but He does promise a life of purpose. He doesn’t promise a life of no problems, but He does promise that He will be with you as you live for Him in a world that is by and large opposed to Him.

Luke 9:23: “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

We will always sing a song of wonder - a song that considers the fact that salvation is through a suffering servant, and to follow Him is to take up your cross and live for Him in a world that is opposed to Him.

My friend: the Gospel is good news for you - but salvation that is offered came at a great cost to Jesus. And, following Jesus will come at a great cost for you.

As followers of Jesus we say:

I will count the cost.

I will deny myself.

I will take up my cross.

I will follow Him daily.

SING SONG: What Child is This

We will always sing a song of resolution.

We sing in the minor - now/not yet. Life is challenging, but one day the tension will be gone. One day the weight will be lifted. One day we will go home.

Another music lesson - chords. Within a musical key, chords move the song along. I chord to IV chord. IV chord wants to move to a V chord.

If I stop on a V chord - no resolution. It wants to resolve - it wants to go back home to the I chord.

Music resolves - when you listen - you are waiting for the resolution.

You don’t need to know music theory to know this—your heart feels it. You’re waiting to go home.

You’re waiting for resolution. You’re waiting to go home. Christ has come. He has defeated sin and death. But, we’re still in a broken world, willing to suffer for the One who suffered for us.

We wait in courageous obedience. We know what God says is best for us. He’s proved His love.

We wait with joy. We are in a joyous relationship with God NOW.

We wait with purpose. We know God is using us now for His Kingdom as we make disciples.

We wing with resolution because we know the Gospel brings resolution.

God has no unfinished business. Jesus will return. We wait on His return. He will come again and bring us home to be with Him.

Joy to the World - The Christmas song that says nothing about Christmas, but it says an awful lot about the reign of Jesus.

The joy of Jesus is for all seasons - not just the Christmas season. Jesus knows how to fill your heart with joy. How?

Joy because sin is gone. Jesus removes our guilt and shame (Romans 8:1).

Joy because we see life more clearly. Jesus gives us eternal perspective. We know how the story ends. We know that as bad as this world can be, it cannot take away what Jesus has done in our lives.

Joy because God is making everything right. That’s the hope of Christmas. He reigns over your life, and He reigns over this world.

Joy because our future is certain.

Joy because we know we are loved, and we know we have purpose.

Have you given your life to the ONE who brings joy? Repent of your sins and give your life to the ONE who came, lived, died, and rose again for you.

SING SONG: JOY TO THE WORLD