‘O Holy Night’ Childrens Lesson on Luke 2:8-20

BIG IDEA: JESUS MAKES US HOLY

AIM: The ‘O Holy Night’ Childrens Lesson on Luke 2:8-20 is a brilliant session using the Christmas Carol ‘Oh Holy Night’ to help children to see that God came close to them so that they can come close to Him.

SONG IDEAS:

1. ‘Born is the King’ by Hillsong Worship
2. ‘Oh What a Glorious Night’ by Sidewalk Prophets

GAME IDEAS:

1. Santa Face. (regular/widescreen) Choose a few players to compete. Players must get their face covered in vaseline (chin only if being Santa). Then when the game starts players must compete to dunk their face in a bowl of cotton wool until they look like a sheep or Santa. The player with the best sheep or Santa face at the end is the winner.
2. Christmas Nativity Bingo. (regular/widescreen) Create some bingo cards with people/animals from the birth of Jesus featured. Children can play Bingo as you call out the people/animals. The first child to tick off all their characters is the winner.
3. Shepherd and Sheep. (regular/widescreen) One person is blindfolded and becomes the shepherd. All the other children become sheep and must get on the floor but stay still. They can make a ‘baaa’ noise. The shepherd must try and find the sheep. Sheep can only twist their body to avoid being touched. Once a sheep has been touched they become the shepherd.

BIG VERSE: A child will be born to us. God will give a son to us. He will be responsible for leading the people. His name will be Wonderful Counselor, Powerful God, Father Who Lives Forever, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6.

(regular/widescreen)

Download Bible cards.

INTRO QUESTION: If you had good news, who would you tell first?

SET the Scene:

Read Luke 2:8-21. Explain that after Mary was told she was having a baby, Joseph was also told in a dream. Soon after Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem for a census – a register of everyone in their family hometown. When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem there was nowhere for them to stay in an inn. They were given a place to stay (most likely a cave) and the baby was born and laid in a feeding trough – a manger. The first people to hear about Jesus were the shepherds. Angels appeared to them and told them all about the Savior that had been born. Shepherds were those that lived on their own among the hills. This was good news for everyone!

You could use the O Holy Night Skitor the O Holy Night Sensory Story.

VIDEO IDEAS:

1. ‘Angels Visit Shepherds’
2. ‘The Story of Christmas: Jesus and the Shepherds’ by Saddleback Kids
3. ‘Shepherds Visit Jesus’ by LifeKidsTV
4. ‘The Shepherds Worship Jesus’ by GraceLink
5. ‘The Natavity Scene’ from The Star movie

REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. How did the shepherds feel when they saw the angels? (verse 9 – frightened)
2. What did the angel say to them? (verse 10 – don’t be afraid)
3. Who did they say had been born? (verse 11 – the Savior, Christ the Lord)
4. How would the shepherds know this Savior? 9verse 12 – they would find him wrapped in cloths in a manger)
5. Who joined the angel? (verse 13 – Many more angels praising God)
6. Where did the angels go? (verse 15 – back to heaven)
7. What did the shepherds do when they found the baby Jesus? (verse 17 – told what the angels had said about the child)
8. How did everyone react? (verse 18 – they were amazed)
9. How did Mary respond? (verse 19 – she thought about all these things)
10. What did the shepherds do next? (verse 20 – went back to their sheep praising and thanking God for everything)

 

SPOT the Simple Meaning:

1) WHAT IS A HOLY NIGHT?

You will want the word ‘HOLY’ (regular/widescreen) up on a screen or written out clearly for all the children to see. You will also need to play one of the ‘Oh Holy Night’ videos below:

1. ‘O Holy Night’ by Bethel Kids with lyrics
2. ‘O Holy Night’ Hillsong edition with lyrics
3. ‘O Holy Night’ by Pentatonix
4. ‘O Holy Night’ acapella group
5. ‘O Holy Night’ by Jackie Evancho (10 year old girl)
6. ‘O Holy Night’ boys choir
7. ‘O Holy Night’ by Mariah Carey

Say: Luke 2 tells us about the shepherds and how they were told about the baby Jesus first. Ordinary shepherds were the first to hear about Jesus!

That night, some shepherds were in the fields nearby watching their sheep. An angel of the Lord stood before them. The glory of the Lord was shining around them, and suddenly they became very frightened. The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, because I am bringing you some good news. It will be a joy to all the people. Today your Savior was born in David’s town. He is Christ, the Lord. This is how you will know him: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a feeding box.”

Luke 2:8-12

You will need some Christmas decorations that you can hold up and pass around; some should be of Santa Clause and reindeers etc but you could also have a decoration that is focussed on Jesus. 

Say: Do you have some Christmas decorations like this at home? It’s funny because they never come our at any other time of year – only Christmas! It might be a little strange if you brought them out during the summer. Why? Because they have been set apart for Christmas and Christmas alone.

To be ‘holy’ means to be set apart – completely different to anything else anywhere ever!

Yet these Christmas decorations aren’t holy… because ‘holy’ doesn’t just mean being set apart – it means set apart for God!

Places, objects and people can all be considered ‘holy’ if they are set apart completely for God.

[If you have a nativity set or Jesus Christmas decoration of any kind, you could show the children this decoration as you talk.]

Devoted completely to God! And so the night that Jesus was born is considered a holy night because there was never and would never be another night like this. This was the night the Savior of the World was born. The night God was born as a baby. The night that the world changed. Jesus was a holy child because He was completely different to anyone that ever lived and He would give His whole life for God. He was both fully God and fully human!

The song ‘O Holy Night’ was first written as a poem by a frenchman called Placide Cappeau. A priest asked the poet to write a poem about the birth of Jesus for a mass – a Catholic church service. Using the book of Luke – most probably our passage from today – Placide imagined how he would feel if he was meeting Jesus on the night that Jesus was born. The poem was called “Cantique de Noel.” Placide Cappeau knew that the poem needed to be set to music. Placide asked a friend; Adolphe Charles Adams to help him by setting the poem to music. Neither of the men were church goers, yet it seems they could imagine what it would have been like to meet the Savior. This song is now used in worship by Christians all around the world at Christmas. “Fall on your knees, all hear the angels voices, O night divine, when Christ was born.” These words of truth reflect just how holy Jesus is – that even those who do not yet know Him can recognise His holiness.

2) JESUS IS HOLY

You will need a jug of water, some food coloring and a container of oil. Mix the food colouring and the water together. Keep the oil separate.

Say: The shepherds were told about the special baby boy because there was something very different about Him. The angel told the shepherds,”Today your Savior was born in David’s town. He is Christ, the Lord.” Jesus was and is Holy because He is God – God’s Son. Jesus came into the world to live His life completely according to what the Father told Him to do. His life was fully about serving God, and He never did anything wrong.

The angels knew that Jesus was holy. They praised God for his birth.

3) JESUS MAKES US HOLY

You may also want to use the Skittles advert or the Narnia clip.

Say: None of us here are perfect, are we? [Get feedback]. Although some of us might think we are pretty close?! The good news is that, although we are not perfect, God can make us holy. Remember, to be holy means to be set apart for God. [Put the word ‘Holy’ from object lesson 1 on the screen]

Luke 2:20 says,

 “Then the shepherds went back to their sheep, praising God and thanking him for everything that they had seen and heard. It was just as the angel had told them.”

The shepherds were changed when they met Jesus. They came away praising and thanking God! Something had happened in their hearts for them to suddenly begin thanking and praising God. They realised that Jesus was holy and they went away differently.

It’s kind of like the story of King Midas; have you heard it? King Midas wished that everything he touched would turn to gold, and it did! For Midas this was not a good thing… it wasn’t good when his daughter turned to gold. Let’s see a similar tale in action. [Show one of the videos as an example].

The amazing thing about Jesus is that when we come to Him and want to be like Him, He changes us. He makes us holy like He is holy. It’s like everything He touches becomes holy! So when we accept Jesus into our lives He makes us holy – He changes us from the inside out. 1 Corinthians 1:30 says “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God–that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” Jesus is holy, when He comes into our lives and we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, He makes us holy.  That means He makes us different and set apart from others, not for our own glory or to make us famous – but to show others who Jesus is. We can never be holy on our own – we need Jesus to make us holy. Why? Because we have all thought, said or done wrong things. Those things separate us from God and mean we cannot be holy. Yet when we accept Jesus he makes us clean of all the wrong things we have done. We become brand new holy people! God asks us to live a holy life – a life set apart for Him. That means there are some things that He wants us to do and other things that He does not want us to do. He gives us His Holy Spirit to help us make good choices and to help us follow Jesus. The Holy Spirit helps us to live a holy life each day.

 

SEARCH the Scriptures:

SENSE How You Feel:

Encourage the children to imagine what it must have felt like for the wise men to follow the star. Ask them to think about this question, as if they were one of the wise men.

How would you react when you saw the baby Jesus?

1. Make your own Paper Plate Sheep using a paper plate, cotton wool and glue. You can use our  Color version if you could like to color your sheep or the B&W version  if you would simply like to print the face and legs and stick them on.
2. Build: a field full of sheep with Lego or building blocks.
3. Mould a sheep from playdough or clay.
4. Sensory: Use some toy sheep and cotton wool or cotton sheets to place around the sensory table. Encourage children to feel the different cotton textures.
5. Fill in/Color the 5-7s Booklet or the 8-11s booklet.
6. Check out our Pinterest page here.

 

SEEK God:

1. Say: Today we’re going to imagine what meeting Jesus. Close your eyes because we are going to go on an adventure. I want you to think of a place where Jesus is. Somewhere good. It might be your favorite place to go. It could be anywhere in the world. Imagine going there. Imagine seeing Jesus face to face. How does he look at you? What is he doing? Jesus is good and full of love. How does he respond to you? Jesus starts to say something to you. What is he saying? How does he make you feel? Listen for a moment.

What do you say back to Jesus?

When you are ready, open your eyes.

Does anyone want to share what happened and what they thought, felt or saw?

2. Say: In what area of your life do you want to become holy? Sometimes we need God’s Holy Spirit to help us live a life of holiness. Is there something that you don’t think you are doing for Jesus, something that you need to change? Write it on one of the stars and attach it onto the black cloth as part of the night sky.

3. Say: Have you accepted Jesus into your life? Do you want to be changed by Him? You can do this today. [Lead the child/ren in a prayer asking God to forgive them and make them holy; set apart to God.]