Theology of Christmas Carols

Introduction

Who loves singing Christmas carols?

Why do you love singing Christmas carols?

Some may have touched on it...

We should love singing Christmas carols not just because they are pretty but really because they have such deep meaning

I love Christian music. I love singing with the church body in our services. Though I do not always follow this, I am burdened that all of us would sing thinking of what we sing. there are some really great songs in our hymnal that speak of really deep things or important theological topics.

Do we sing these songs just because that is what the song leader says to sing or do we sing with a desire to really mean what we say and really think about what we are singing? This can be really difficult especially with very familiar songs. We tend to sing familiar songs simply repeating the words we know so well.

This can especially be true of Christmas carols. We know most or all of them by heart so we just sing them from memory but don’t think about what we sing. I want to challenge us all to think about what we sing in all of the songs that we sing but especially this morning, looking at Christmas carols specifically.

We indirectly looked at this at the Christmas Eve service when we sung while looking at the different aspects of the Christmas story.

This morning I want to focus in on just a few Christmas Carols and consider the theology that is being taught through these familiar songs.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

I love this hymn. Partly because of the message and partly because of the melody. My piano teacher in college called me a hopeless romantic because I enjoy thunderstorms and minor melodies.

This carol has so much depth to it and I want to look at a couple of the stanzas this morning.

Stanza 1

O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Title/First line: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

In the title alone we see some important information.

This is a prayer. We are praying to God for the coming of Emmanuel. This song is set before the appearing of the Savior. as we will see in the rest of this stanza

We are praying for the coming of this one, Emmanuel. This title/names points us to an Old Testament prophecy

Isaiah 7:14 KJV 1900

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, And shall call his name Immanuel.

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Historical situation:

The king of Syria and the king of Israel (the northern 10 tribes) have come together to make war against Judah. Ahaz is the king at this time.

The Lord tells Ahaz through Isaiah that Syria and Israel will not prevail but the Lord promises that they will not prevail (v. 7)

The Lord gives a sign to accompany this promise, though Ahaz does not want a sign.

Verse 14 is the sign, which we know as the promise of the Messiah.

The Lord says that the virgin will conceive and bear a son.

Here we see the prophecy of the virgin birth. (utmost importance to our faith)

The Lord calls this promised child “Immanuel”

This literally means “God with us”

Here we also have a major doctrine of our faith: The Deity of Christ

God with us. God himself becomes a man in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ is fully God and fully human.

Christ is Immanuel, God with us!

And ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here,

Here the song writer points out the historical situation. The people are facing exile and punishment for their disobedience to God’s Laws. At the time of , they are not in exile yet but they soon will be. Israel is taken by Assyria and Judah is taken into captivity/exile by Babylon.

The song writer captures this that they are awaiting their Messiah, because they are in exile and captivity.

Until the Son of God appear.

Here the song writer points to the identity of Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, God Himself.

God’s people in exile are awaiting deliverance by the savior

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel.

The song writer points to the hope (hopeful expectation) of Israel that Emmanuel will in fact come to them and save them.

Stanza 3

O come, Thou Key of David, come And open wide our heav'nly home; Make safe the way that leads on high, And close the path to misery. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Here we see referenced, the lineage of Emmanuel (the earthly lineage) He calls him the key of David. referencing the line of David through which the messiah would come

God promised David a descendant on the throne of Israel forever

2 Samuel 7

2 Samuel 7:16 KJV 1900

And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.

Physically, this promise was kept for a while but then the people were scattered and obviously now we have no physical king in Israel.

Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of this promise.

And open wide our heav'nly home; Make safe the way that leads on high, And close the path to misery.

Jesus came on a mission to make a way for us to be reconciled to God. We are sinners separated from God because He is a holy and just God.

Because of His love for us, He sent His only Son to die for us so that there could be a way for us to be reconciled to Him and live with Him forever.

Christ opened up our way to live in Heaven with God.

The prophecies of this Immanuel are specifically fulfilled in Christ.

Matthew 1:20–25 KJV 1900

But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.

Matthew 1:20-

Matthew points out that the birth of Christ was in direct fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah.

Jesus Christ is Immanuel. Immanuel has come.

This does not mean we don’t sing this song any more. This song simply reflects on the reason why Christ came. It looks back to the time before Christ. When the people of Israel looked forward and longed for a savior. It helps us look back to a time when we did not know Christ as our savior and were lost in our sin. We were in a state of exile, separated from God. But Christ, our Savior came and freed us from that exile and reconciled us together with God.

This is the meaning of this song. So as you sing this song, remember all of the meaning behind it and let it truly bless your heart and draw you closer to God.

O Come, All Ye Faithful

I want to focus on the final stanza of this song

Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning Jesus, to Thee be glory given Word of the Father Now in flesh appearing O come, let us adore Him O come, let us adore Him O come, let us adore Him Christ the Lord!

Obviously we see in the first line a reference to the birth of Christ. That is what we celebrate at Christmas. But who is Christ.

He is worthy of glory: Pointing to His Deity

Focus in on the third line

Word of the Father

Now in flesh appearing…Christ the Lord!

Here the song writer clearly refers to

John 1:1 KJV 1900

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14 KJV 1900

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

The Word, is Jesus Christ.

He is eternal, he is God Himself. He became man, flesh. This is the Christ that we celebrate at Christmas.

Hark, the Herald Angels Sing

Stanza 2

Christ by highest heav'n adored, Christ the everlasting Lord! Late in time behold Him come, Offspring of a Virgin's womb. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate Deity, Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel. Hark! The herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King!"

There is going to be some overlap of themes in these songs because they are all written about the same person and event. But it is nice to see things from different perspectives.

Christ by highest heav’n adored, Christ the Everlasting Lord!

Jesus Christ is the everlasting Lord. He is fully God. He is fully God and fully human.

Late in time behold Him come, Offspring of a Virgin’s womb.

There was a long period of waiting. The people had been promised a savior, a messiah, for many hundreds of years. Now He finally appears. From a human perspective, they had to wait a very long time. It was late in time. We are also waiting for Christ to return. It has been over 2000 years. It could be a long time still. Or it could be today. He came as a baby at the perfect time, the time appointed by God.

Galatians 4:4–5 KJV 1900

But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

He was born of woman, specifically a virgin. Again, looking back to the promise made in Isaiah. Mary was a virgin. This is how Christ came into the world through a miraculous birth.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate Deity

Here again a reference to the deity of Christ as well as the fact that he was fully human and fully God. He is God, “veiled in flesh”. He is deity become human, become flesh, incarnate.

Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.

He was not forced or coerced to come as a human. He was pleased. His love compelled Him to take on this mission of mercy to rescue humanity, to rescue you and me from our sinful state. He was pleased to dwell as a man for a lifetime.

Jesus is our Emmanuel. He is God. He is with us as a man. He is God become flesh to save us from our sins. He is even still our Emmanuel. If we have accepted Christ as our Savior, we have God himself in the form of the Holy Spirit with us always, dwelling in our hearts.

Stanza 3

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness! Light and life to all He brings, Ris'n with healing in His wings. Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth. Hark! The herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King!"

Light and life to all He brings, Ris'n with healing in His wings.

The song writer looks forward to the purpose and effect of Christ’s coming. He bring life offered to all. He rose with spiritual healing from our sinful state offered freely to all men.

Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die,

He left His Heavenly home to be born a man. He laid his glory aside and became flesh and blood. He was born for the purpose of giving eternal life to all men. He was born so that men would no longer die (spiritually).

Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.

Another way of stating it, He was born so that we could be born again. He came to die. He came to offer eternal life.

The True Meaning of Christmas:

God Himself was born as a man, in order to live a perfect life and die as the perfect sacrifice so that we might be able to become children of God.