Experiencing the Music of Christmas
A Christmas Worth Celebrating
Experiencing the Music of Christmas
“Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.”
Eph 5:19 (NIV)
How to Experience the Music of Christmas
1. God wants you to sing a song of joy this Christmas
And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
Luke 1:46-47(NIV)
· Rejoice in what God has done for you
“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name.”
Luke 1:46-49 (NIV)
· Rejoice in what God will do through you
“His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.”
Luke 1:50 (NIV)
“He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers."
Luke 1:54-55 (NIV)
2. God wants you to sing a song of praise this Christmas
· Sing praise to God for setting you free
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.”
Luke 1:68 (NIV)
· Sing praise to God for delivering you from Satan
“He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.”
Luke 1:69 (NIV)
“To rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear.”
Luke 1:74 (NIV)
· Sing praise to God for paying your sin debt
“And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.”
Luke 1:76-77 (NIV)
· Sing praise to God for shining His light in your darkness
“Because of the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Sunrise from on high shall visit us,
To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace."
Luke 1:78-79 (NASB)
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
John 8:12 (NIV)
Singing for the Savior:
· Will you trust Jesus as your Savior this Christmas?
· Will you experience His joy this Christmas?
· Will you express praise to Him this Christmas?
Intro:
(first service)
How many of you like to sing?
What do people hear when you sing?
(humor illus?)
(second service)
As you listened to the children sing this morning what did you hear?
I heard singing from the heart!!
Children know how to sing from the heart…don’t they?...do you?
We’ve heard them sing…what do they hear when we sing?
How Children Hear Us Sing …
• Deck the Halls with Buddy Holly
• On the first day of Christmas my tulip gave to me
• Later on we’ll perspire, as we dream by the fire.
• He’s makin’ a list, chicken and rice.
• Frosty the Snowman is a ferret elf, I say
• Sleep in heavenly peas
• In the meadow we can build a snowman, then pretend that he is sparse and brown
• You’ll go down in Listerine
• Oh, what fun it is to ride with one horse, soap and hay
What do children hear when we sing?
What does God hear when we sing?
Do we sing?
God wants us to sing…Eph 5:19 says, “Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.”
God wants us to sing.
Last week I began a Christmas series entitled: A Christmas worth celebrating.
Last week we looked at Experiencing the miracles of Christmas…
…today we are going to look at Experiencing the music of Christmas.
A big part of celebrating Christmas is experiencing the music of Christmas…singing the songs of Christmas
There is no better time to learn how to sing than at Christmas.
You might say… there is no way I can ever learn to sing…I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.
That’s okay…singing is not about the voice…it is about the heart…sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.
God wants us to learn two songs this morning.
There are two songs that we find in Luke 1.
Two songs that God wants each of us to sing.
The first one is Mary’s song.
What does she teach us about singing?
1. God wants you to sing a song of joy this Christmas
That is what we find from the example of Mary.
In Luke 1 we find her singing a song of joy.
The background for this passage is Elizabeth and Mary exchanging good news with each other.
Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant with John the Baptist…and Mary had just found out that she was pregnant with Jesus.
In Luke 1:46 Mary’s song begins in this way:
46 And Mary said:
"My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
Luke 1:46-47
Mary’s song is often called the “Magnificat,” because of first word in the Latin translation of this passage—magnify or glorify.
Mary’s song has often been used as the basis for choral music and hymns.
More importantly it can used to teach us how to sing to the Lord.
Notice how the New Century Version of the Bible translates vv. 46-47:
46 Then Mary said, “My soul praises the Lord;
47 my heart rejoices in God my Savior,
Luke 1:46-47 NCV
Whatever is in your heart will come out of your mouth.
Mary’s heart was full of joy…so her song was full of joy…she teaches us how to sing with joy.
From Mary you can learn to:
· Rejoice in what God has done for you
In vv. 46- 49 she says:
“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name.”
Luke 1:46-49 (NIV)
To begin with God had saved her…she says, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
Mary was a sinner like all of us and needed to trust the Lord for her eternal salvation.
Not only had He saved her, but He had also chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah.
You might think…I have nothing to be joyful about.
Has God saved you?
In the second part of Mary’s song you can learn to:
· Rejoice in what God will do through you
Mary was full of joy because she knew that God was going to use her to raise His Son…who would impact generation after generation.
In v. 50 she say,
“His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.”
Luke 1:50 (NIV)
Through the Child that she was to bear, God was being merciful to Abraham and his descendants.
In vv. 54-55 she sings,
“He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers."
Luke 1:54-55 (NIV)
Mary was aware that the birth of her Child was a fulfillment of the God’s promises to Abraham and his people to send a Savior.
Like Mary, you can rejoice in what God wants to do though your life!
He wants to be your Savior…He wants to do incredible things through you!
You can rejoice…because no matter who we are, no matter how insignificant we think we are, no matter how unimportant we may feel, Mary’s song reminds us of God’s great love for each of us.
That should make us sing for joy.
But have you noticed not everybody sings for joy at Christmas.
Sometimes Christmas celebrations can be anything but joyous…several incidents from Christmas 2003 remind us of this.
In San Rafael, California, two men exchanged gifts and were offended by what the other gave.
In the resulting fight, each man hit the other over the head with a flowerpot. Both were hospitalized.
Twenty-year-old Brandi Nicole Nason was also less than pleased with the gift she received.
When her former mother-in-law's house burned, Nason was accused of throwing the Molotov cocktail that started the $200,000 blaze.
Although most people don't know what to do with their tree once the celebration is over, a woman in Victoria, British Columbia, had an idea.
She was arrested for beating a man with her Christmas tree.
The incident was sparked when the man grumbled that the load of gifts in his arms was heavier than the tree she was carrying.
When her Jensen Beach, Florida, apartment complex held a Christmas-lights competition, Donna Simmons-Groover was a winner … briefly.
One of her neighbors, incensed at losing the contest, ripped down part of Donna's winning display.
Something was missing in all of those incidents…the joy of Jesus.
Jesus is the one who enables us to sing with Joy.
No Jesus…No Joy.
Know Jesus…Know Joy
Is He missing from your life?
Christmas is a time to be glad
not sad or mad.
Someone asked Joseph Hayden, the famous composer, why his music was so bright and cheerful.
He replied, “I cannot make it otherwise. When I think upon God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap from my pen.”
We ought to be full of Joy when we think about Jesus…and have a song in our hearts…a song of joy.
God wants you to sing a song of joy this Christmas
In Luke ch. 1, Zechariah teaches us another song God wants you to sing this Christmas:
2 God wants you to sing a song of praise this Christmas
“I don’t have anything to praise God for…this Christmas.
There is always something to praise God for at Christmastime.
It was just a few days before Christmas, when two men decided to go sailing while their wives went Christmas shopping.
While the men were sailing a storm came up-a mighty storm that tossed the boat back and forth across the water.
Finally the tiny sailboat was forced upon the shore of a small island.
The men jumped out of the boat tried to push it back into the water.
Suddenly, they realized they were being fired upon by the island's hostile natives.
As they dodged poisonous darts, standing waist deep in freezing water in the middle of a storm, one said to the other, "I realize that today hasn't exactly gone as planned, but this sure beats Christmas shopping, doesn't it?!"
There is always something to praise God for at Christmastime.
God wants us to sing a song of praise this Christmas
That is what we discover from the example of Zechariah.
Luke 1 tells us that Zechariah was an elderly Jewish priest.
He and his wife Elizabeth, despite a lifetime of praying, were childless.
One day while praying at the altar, Zechariah came face to face with the angel Gabriel, who announced some good news.
The frightened priest learned that he and his wife were going to become first-time parents!
Their child, John the Baptist, would be a great man who would turn many in Israel back to God.
Zechariah could not believe his ears—and because of his initial unbelief, God prevented him from speaking until the birth of his child.
Upon the birth of his son, Zechariah was obedient by naming him John…and God enabled him to speak again.
Note that Zechariah was standing in the future and looking back.
The verbs are in the past tense. He was predicting how someone could stand in the future and proclaim what the Messiah had done.
Immediately God opened the old priest’s mouth, and he teaches us how to sing a song of praise.
· Sing praise to God for setting you free
Look at v. 68,
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.”
Luke 1:68
The picture in v.68 is that of The opening of a prison.
You see, the word redeem means “to set free by paying a price.”
It refers to the releasing of a prisoner or the liberating of a slave.
Jesus Christ came to earth to bring “deliverance to the captives” (Luke 4:18), salvation to people in bondage to sin and death.
Certainly we are unable to set ourselves free; only Christ could pay the price necessary for our redemption.
In his book, Detours: Sometimes Rough Roads Lead to Right Places, Clark Cothern tells of a Christmas when his family encountered an unexpected house guest.
A squirrel had fallen down their chimney into the wood burner stove in the basement of their Michigan home.
Cothern writes:
I thought if it knew we were there to help, I could just reach in and gently lift it out. Nothing doing.
As I reached in…it began scratching about like a squirrel overdosed on espresso.
We finally managed to construct a cardboard box “cage” complete with a large hole cut into one side, into which the squirrel waltzed when we placed the box against the wood burner’s door.
We let it out into the safety of our backyard.
Later, I thought, Isn’t it funny how, before its redemption, our little visitor had frantically tried to bash its way out of its dark prison?
It seemed that the harder it struggled in its own strength to get free, the more pain it caused itself.
In the end, he simply had to wait patiently until one who was much bigger—one who could peer into his world—could carry him safely to that larger world where he really belonged.
That is what we need the Lord to do for us….that is what He will do for us…set us free!
When He does…we should praise Him!
· Sing praise to God for delivering you from Satan
In v.69 we read,
“He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.”
Luke 1:69 (NIV)
He goes on to say in v.74,
“To rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear.”
Luke 1:74 (NIV)
The picture here is that of The winning of a battle.
In Scripture, a horn symbolizes power and victory.
The picture here is that of an army about to be taken captive, but then the Rescuer arrives and the enemy is defeated.
Jesus Christ is the Rescuer…
When you trust Him as Savior, you are delivered from Satan’s power, moved into God’s kingdom, redeemed, and forgiven.
If God has delivered you…Sing praise to Him.
· Sing praise to God for paying your sin debt
In vv. 76-77 Zechariah says,
“And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.”
Luke 1:76-77 (NIV)
The picture here is that of The canceling of a debt.
Forgiveness means “to send away, to dismiss, as a debt.”
All of us are in debt to God because we have broken God’s law and failed to live up to His standards.
All of us are spiritually bankrupt, unable to pay our debt.
But Jesus came and paid the debt for us (Ps. 103:12; John 1:29).
If you have experienced God’s forgiveness…Sing praise to Him.
· Sing praise to God for shining His light in your darkness
In vv. 78-79 Zechariah says,
“Because of the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Sunrise from on high shall visit us,
To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace."
Luke 1:78-79 NAS
The picture here is that of The dawning of a new day (vv. 78–79).
Dayspring means “sunrise.”
The people were sitting in darkness and death, and distress gripped them when Jesus came; but He brought light, life, and peace.
Jesus said in John 8:12,
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
John 8:12 (NIV)
Jesus is the light of the world!
A church produced a Christmas play a few years ago. A young boy had only one line.
He was to stand and say, "I am the light of the world".
However, on the night of the production, he froze at the sight of so many people and forgot his line.
His mother was seated on the front row and began mouthing his line for him.
Following her cue, he said, "My Mother is the light of the world".
Jesus…not Mom…is the light of the world!
When Zechariah opened his mouth…he sang praises to God because of Jesus!!
Jesus is the reason we can sing this Christmas.
God calls us today to believe in Jesus.
Those who trust Him will experience His joy and want to express their praise to Him.
It is not enough for us to say that Jesus is a Saviour, or even the Saviour.
With Mary, we must say, “My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:47, italics mine).
Why is there joy and singing at Christmas?
For the same reason that there is joy and singing in heaven when one sinner repents.
When salvation becomes a reality, when we understand what it truly means to be forgiven, to have the burden of sin lifted off us, to know that we never have to stand in judgment for our sin, we will sing!
God wants us to sing this Christmas.
Singing starts with the Savior!!
Singing for the Savior:
· Will you trust Jesus as your Savior this Christmas?
· Will you experience His joy this Christmas?
· Will you express praise to Him this Christmas?