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Oh, holy night, which has got to be one of my favorite Christmas songs and really one of my favorite worship songs. I love this song. Oh, holy night. And you should love it, too. And I'm gonna tell you why. First, um, off, here's some trivia for it. It premiered in 1847 in France.

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In France. It was actually written in French by a guy who might be named Placid Capo. I have no idea how to pronounce his name. I think just described some sort of brazilian martial art. It was originally called Cantique de Noel, which is like, song of Christmas is a, uh, french or french ish, depending on how I said it. It means song of Christmas. That was the words. The music was by a different guy named Adolf Adam. And then years later, it was translated into English by a guy named John Sullivan Dwight, who was, um, an abolitionist. In fact, that's something that the author of the song and the translator in English had in common. They were opposed to slavery. And that will play into us understanding this song. It is a story song. The first verse, it starts off saying, oh, holy night. The stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear savior's birth. And that sort of sets the stage for the story. You now know what we're talking about. Oh, it's the holy night. It's nighttime. It's the time of the savior's birth. The stars are brightly shining. That might be perhaps a casual reference to the magi seeing the star. The stage is set. Then it says, long lay the world in sin and error pining. And these are two issues, according to the song, that the world has sin and error. This is such a beautiful song, but it just blasts the world. It just put the world on blast. Like, you're all in sin and error, and you're just pining in it, which means sin is, like, wrong living, error, wrong thinking. And this is a description, sadly, of the world in general. And we all know it's true of everyone else. The question is, do we know it's true of ourselves? That's the real question. That word pining, it means, in case you don't know, uh, to yearn intensely or persistently, especially for something unattainable. That's the dictionary definition of the word. This isn't my own special definition. That's just what it means to yearn intensely and persistently, especially for something unattainable. And so the world is pining. They can't get what they need. And so that sets the stage right this night. Here's the world. The contrast is being set. And then it says, till he appeared. Till he appeared. And the soul felt its worth. I like the contrast. Like, look at the poetry of the song and think about the lyrics. With me, this is a great contrast. The world, sin and error pining. That's like despair, it's hardship. Yet there's already this hopeful attitude because of the first line of the song. And then it leads into, uh. And he appears and the soul felt its worth. And this contrast is actually very biblical because you might say the soul felt its worth. That's not biblical. You are worthless. That's not actually true. Biblically, you're not worthless. We're made in the image of God. Now, I didn't deserve to be saved, but that doesn't mean I'm worthless. I don't deserve it, but I'm not worthless. And the soul felt what worth? Well, in a sense, things are worth what you pay for them. If you paid a million dollars for, like, a little toy car, how much is that toy car worth?

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Fifteen cents or a million dollars? Well, it kind of depends on how you look at it, doesn't it? And so Christ, he pays for us and says, look at the value I place on you and feel this. You've been in sin and error pining and yet you've been valued so greatly, so highly by me. I shed my blood for you. I died for you. The holy for the unholy, the godly for the ungodly. So I think it's a great contrast, uh, showing kind of both sides of the sinfulness of man, and yet the value that God sees in us. Really neat, then. A thrill of hope. A thrill of hope. Just an exciting line there. The weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks aew and glorious mourn. And it's describing a song at night, yet there's the breaking of a morning, of the morning at night. So like the sun rising at night. Here we have the birth of Christ being pictured poetically. And the music fits this because the music is building in anticipation as you're singing the song and I'm playing guitar in my head right now, as you're going through, um. As a b minor, f sharp, minor seven.

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And the music fits this. Then it gets to this grand part. Fall on your knees oh, hear the angel voices o night divine o night when Christ was born, then it repeats night o night divine. The idea is that there is a divine thing happening. I mean, Christ himself is deity, of course, in the flesh. But this is the big deal. The sin and error of the world, the deliverance from sin, it all comes back to Jesus. This one moment here on this night, uh, when Christ was born. Now, do we know that Jesus was born in the evening?

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No, I don't know when he was born, what time of day he was born, or even that it was sometime in the wintertime. We're not really sure when he was born. Um, and so, uh, the song pictures it happening in the evening. That's just as possible as it happening in the day. I'm not sure when most babies are born or if that even factors into it or not. Um, so here's what's crazy about this song. This song is so greatly loved, yet it's just boldly saying, like, you're a sinner, you need Jesus, get on your knees. And it's like everyone's like, I love that song. And that's the power of a Christmas song. Like this is. It really is proclaiming the gospel in such a beautiful way.

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Great, um, Christmas song with, uh, an idea of true surrender to Christ. And that's what it's saying. It's commanding. You get on your knees before him. This is your response. You want the savior, let him be your lord. I like that. So then it gets to verse two. My favorite verse, actually. And, uh, there's more to the song, but I'm just going to do these two. It says, truly he taught us to love one another. Speaking of Jesus'doctrine of love, his law is love, and his gospel is peace.

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Chains shall he break. For the slave is our brother, and in his name all oppression shall cease. Now, this is all about how Jesus changes, how we see and treat each other. It's not just about our relationship with God, where we have peace, but it's also our treatment of one another. Jesus said in John 1334, he said, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. So his law is love. This is his law. This is the law. Love, love each other. This is so consistent with New Testament teaching. Multiple books of the Bible are being used for this phrase. His law is love.

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And I think that's really neat. Um, the rule he lives by is love. And he calls us to live by a rule where we walk in love. A good reminder heading into the Christmas season.

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His gospel is peace. And peace means peace with God. I have peace with God, and I also have peace with each other. It brings us all together in one, in Christ. And that's glorious. Uh, then it has this idea of chains and slaves. And it says, chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother. That is like a reference to the book of Philemon, this jamaican book in the New Testament, one chapter called Philemon, if you pronounce it wrong.

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And the book Philemon is written about a slave who's returning to the owner of the slave in the first century right over there. And the beauty of it is, this is Paul says to Onesimus, he says, or about him, and he says, I want you to receive him no longer as a slave, but as your brother.

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I mean, that's right out of the song, or the song's right out of that. For the slave is our brother. And so it's this law of love and this sense of the equality of mankind, and all this especially achieved in Christ. Because if you've been saved in Christ, born again, given the Holy Spirit, made a co heir with Christ, how can I call you a slave?

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It's beautiful. It's great. Um, so Solomon, he was an abolitionist as well as the author of the song. And the one translated it into English, and he translated into English, made it, I think, even stronger in the way it's written. Um, from what I could tell, trying to look at the French, uh, the literal translation from the French, and then looking at his. But, um, it's so beautiful, so awesome. I love the poetic double meaning because we're delivered, um, from sin and the slavery. We have to sin, and we're also letting the love of Christ apply to our views about human equality. Now, that's not a social gospel. That's just how God wants us to treat each other. Okay, that's a beautiful thing. Then, uh, it goes on. It says, sweet hymns of joy and grateful chorus, raise. We let all within us all within us praise his holy name Christ is the Lord do you like this song yet? I mean, I love this song. Oh, praise his name forever his power and glory evermore proclaim then it says again, his power and glory evermore proclaim lots of different variations on how this is worded at the end. Little subtle differences. Um, but it ends in the worship of Christ, which is this grateful chorus that we raise. In fact, if you look at it right, in grateful chorus, we're raising hymns of joy, and then you have the very response to this, right? Christ is the Lord praise his name forever. You're saying we're going to praise him and then you praise him. So, ah, almost a call and response.