Children's Christmas Program

Idea

History behind “O Come All Ye Faithful”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Come,_All_Ye_Faithful

https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-o-come-all-ye-faithful

https://mynativity.com/blog/o-come-all-ye-faithful-the-story-behind-the-famous-christmas-carol/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3674120/The-story-behind-the-carol-O-come-all-ye-faithful.html

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/occasions/christmas/o-come-all-ye-faithful-lyrics-composer-carol/

Text

1 O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant! O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem! Come and behold him, born the King of angels;

Refrain: O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him, Christ, the Lord!

2 God of God, Light of Light eternal, Lo! he abhors not the Virgin's womb; Son of the Father, begotten, not created, [Refrain]

3 Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation, Sing, all ye citizens of heav'n above: "Glory to God, all glory in the highest!" [Refrain]

4 Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning; Jesus, to thee be all glory giv'n; Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing; [Refrain]

Or

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant! O come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem Come and behold Him Born the King of Angels O come, let us adore Him O come, let us adore Him O come, let us adore Him Christ the Lord!

God of God, Light of Light Lo, He abhors not the Virgin's womb Very God Begotten, not created O come, let us adore Him O come, let us adore Him O come, let us adore Him Christ the Lord!

Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above! Glory to God All glory in the highest O come, let us adore Him O come, let us adore Him O come, let us adore Him Christ the Lord!

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!

Order notes

Dismiss kids at M&G

Meet and greet together

Put Zoom on the screens

Use tablet to pan the onsite congregation, wave, and on 3: “Merry Christmas!”

Call on random online people to say your names and give us a “Merry Christmas” or “Good morning” or whatever you want to say

Set change

Intro

Thanks to the Children

Thanks to Linda

One thing that 2020 has afforded us is an appreciation for what matters

What matters is not pageantry and big productions

What matters is the next generation taking ownership of the Gospel ministry

This is what we must do before we die - nothing else

What we just saw here is not just cute and Christmas-y. This is part of the most important thing we can do.

Thank you, Linda, for doing this most important thing over the last few weeks

I want to look at just one of the songs the kids sang and think it through a little more deeply

B/c the song contains plenty of good biblical truth

I love that we started with a song that was new to me, “O Come All Ye Unfaithful” - that, too, is filled with biblical truth

Verse 1 - The Invitation

This whole song is an invitation

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!

O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem!

Come and behold him, born the King of angels.

JC came to Bethlehem first

We didn’t get there first - He did

The Son of God

With eternal glory

Who is the object of adoration of angels

The King of Angels

Humble - (Beth, manger) perhaps better: normal, regular, like us

The King of Angels, but arrived more like us than like the kings of earth

But we still must be curious enough to inquire, to “come ye to Bethlehem”, too

Go to Bethlehem, too - that’s where He can be found

“Come and behold Him” - take Him in

Just have a good look for yourself who this Christ is

Don’t just take my word for it

Come to Bethlehem, too, and check out this JC for yourself

JC’s invitation to us, and our invitation to others

JC w/first D’s, “Come and you’ll see. Spend with Me and see what I’m about.” (John 1:35-39)

John 1:35–39 CSB

The next day, John was standing with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this and followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and noticed them following him, he asked them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come and you’ll see,” he replied. So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon.

The song bids the faithful to come

Yes, “O Come All Ye Unfaithful” - come all ye broken people, but come as an act of faith that Jesus just might be the Savior

Our faith is our posture toward something more grand than ourselves

JC came to Bethlehem first, he’s the one more grand than ourselves

Our faith is our posture as we come to Bethlehem, too, in order to see Him for ourselves

Who we have faith in matters more than our fickle faith

O come, faithful and triumphant: we are not triumphant before we show up in Bethlehem, but after

Refrain - Let’s Adore Him

Not just an invitation to show up in Bethlehem, but an invitation to adore Him once you get there

O come, let us adore him,

O come, let us adore him,

O come, let us adore him, Christ, the Lord!

Not only are we invited to come to Bethlehem, we are invited to be rightly related to Him

Not to make of JC only whatever we want Him to be

But to be rightly related to Him

To “adore” Him

Adoring JC

“Adore” - love, cherish, treasure, admire, be in awe of, worship

Not = changing, modifying, (mis-)interpreting, picking and choosing, using as your justification for the views you already have

But adoring

And not adoring anything else

The adoration of Jesus requires us to let go of adoring all else, eg Ephesis RE Artemis (Acts 19:27)

Acts 19:27 CSB

Not only do we run a risk that our business may be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be despised and her magnificence come to the verge of ruin—the very one all of Asia and the world worship.”

We can’t adore Jesus and our idols at the same time - we have to let go

For us, not at the altar of the fertility goddess, but perhaps at the altar of the wealth idol or social standing idol or the twin idols of comfort and convenience

Adoring JC as He is

He’s the Christ - He’s the one God the Father designated to save us

He’s the Lord - His will is our privilege; we’re so blessed that He wants things to be a certain way, and we get to make our lives about putting things the way He likes

The song:

3x O come let us adore Him - adoring is the “it” of this song

Let “us” do it - invitation to do this together -

Simplest 2-step evangelism: 1) come see for yourself ,and 2) let’s adore Him together - simplest evangelism you’ll ever do

Verse 2 - Jesus’ Response

There are 3 responses in the next 3 verses: Jesus’, angels’, ours’

God of God, Light of Light eternal,

Lo! he abhors not the Virgin's womb;

Son of the Father, begotten, not created.

RE Nicene Creed (AD 325)

Good, solid theological statements RE the mindblowing nature of Jesus

JC = God, Light of the World, the one and only Son of the Father, eternally existing

And yet, born of a woman through the normal process of human birth (miraculous conception, but then the normal human gestation and birth)

Jesus’ response = He did not abhor going through this normal process, being born of a woman, taking on a fully human nature that was completely inferior to His inherent divine nature

He willingly chose all of this - not just the birth, but the whole Incarnation

God Himself does not despise His own humanity, the limitations He placed on Himself in order to rescue us

Nor does He despise you in your humanity: Not ashamed that you’re human (Heb 2:10-12)

Hebrews 2:10–12 CSB

For in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God—for whom and through whom all things exist—should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying: I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters; I will sing hymns to you in the congregation.

Most of all, He does not regret the Cross that our sins required

The song reminds us that the Son of God, Himself God, does not despise His humanity or ours - He despises what our sin does to us b/c He loves us humans

Verse 3 - The Angel’s Response

Now, it’s the angels’ turn to respond

Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation,

Sing, all ye citizens of heav'n above:

"Glory to God, all glory in the highest!"

Heaven’s response = awe

Not “awww!” - look at the baby Jesus in the manger

But the awe of tremendous beings, so overcome with the awesomeness of JC that they sing for Him to receive glory in the highest

Even the angels are in awe of JC (Rev 5:8-14)

Revelation 5:8–14 CSB

When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered, and you purchased people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation. You made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth. Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and also of the living creatures and of the elders. Their number was countless thousands, plus thousands of thousands. They said with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing! I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever! The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

In Rev, the angels were so amazing that John wanted to bow down and worship them

But all these amazing angels want to do is to bow down and worship Jesus b/c He’s more amazing still

The song tells us the magnitude of awesomeness contained in this little baby

Verse 4 - Our Response

And finally, our response to the invitation

Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning;

Jesus, to thee be all glory giv'n;

Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.

[Call up the worship team]

Our response = “greet” - “Yea, Lord, we greet Thee”

“Greet” = “Receive” JC for who He is - the Lord

Not just adore Jesus, which anyone of any religion can do, but to receive Him

Jn 1:10-18

John 1:14–18 CSB

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him and exclaimed, “This was the one of whom I said, ‘The one coming after me ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ ”) Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.

The song puts words to the point of Christmas - Jesus has come to us so that we can choose to receive Him

Prayer: Yea, Lord, we greet Thee

We invite You to come in to our own Bethlehem - our normal, daily, socially distanced lives

No, we beg You

To come into our lives,

To be our Christ,

To be our Lord,

To be the Word of the Father in our lives,

To be the one to whom all glory be given

Amen

Sing again