The lines of the 1993 Christmas Gospel song Go Tell It On the Mountain can easily resound in our minds. Every Christmas, we'll sing this song over and over. However, many of us will often not "go and tell” that Jesus Christ was born. But in our series and attempt to go from Christmas to evangelism, there is a surprisingly easy path—Christmas carols.
As someone on Twitter astutely observed recently, secular businesses will play the most gospel-centric songs throughout the entire month of December simply because they are considered to be traditional Christmas carols. Therefore, a Text-Driven Soul-Winner can simply identify key lyrics in various songs and utilize them to bridge the conversation to the gospel. There are countless carols that can be used for this purpose. For the purpose of this article, we’ll identify three of them.
Hark! The Herald Angel Sings
Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled
So infamously sung at the end of A Charlie Brown Christmas, Hark! The Herald Angel Sings can be used to share the gospel this Christmas. How? Well, a King has come. Not just a king, the King has come, and He has come as an infant. Immediately, you can turn the conversation to how a king would be born in such a lowly place as a stable. You can speak of the humility of Jesus and why He came to this earth. From there, you can speak of how Christ came to bring peace on earth and, most importantly, how, through Him, God and sinners are reconciled.
You can also immediately begin by talking about the final line in the song, "God and sinners reconciled." Finally, you can end by asking multiple probing questions: "Why do sinners need to be reconciled to God?" "What does reconciliation mean?" "How would one be reconciled to God?" It is out of these several questions that you can then walk a person through the Romans Road of Salvation.
Angels We Have Heard on High
Gloria, in excelsis Deo
Gloria, in excelsis Deo
Come to Bethlehem and see
Him whose birth the angels sing,
Come, adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord, the newborn King.
The refrain of Angels We Have Heard on High can also be a great way to introduce a gospel conversation. You can begin by simply asking, “What does ‘Gloria, in excelsis Deo’ mean?” Many do not know the meaning of this Latin phrase that they have sung for many years. The phrase means "Glory to God in the Highest," and it is a statement directly from Luke 2, similar to the rest of the song’s lyrics. From here, you can talk about who God is and how He is worthy to be praised. You can even read and walk through Luke 2 and explain the original narrative.
The next line that can be used as a path into a fruitful gospel conversation is the fourth verse. In this, the Christmas carol calls for people to go to Bethlehem to bow down before the newborn King. This lyric is a great way to talk about the Lordship of Jesus and the necessity of submitting to His authority in repentance and belief.
The First Noel
Then let us all with one accord
Sing praises to our heav'nly Lord;
That hath made Heav'n and earth of naught,
And with His blood mankind hath bought.
The First Noel is also another great Christmas carol to use for evangelism. How much more perfect can the lyric "With His blood mankind hath bought" be for sharing the gospel? Walking a lost person is the heart of the gospel. Jesus bought all people with His blood. Bringing this lyric into focus will tell the lost person you're sharing with that Jesus did not come to lay in a manger but to die on a cross, and He did that so that sinners could repent, believe, and be saved.
Though the list is exhaustive, these three all-time favorite Christmas carols can help you be intentional in evangelistic conversations this holiday season.
Written by Klayton Carson
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