Christmas Family Service

We're going to read our first passage on the little booklet. It's on page 3. We're going to read in Isaiah chapter 1.

Isaiah 1 · chapter mention

We're going to read from verse 15 to verse 20.

So it's on page 3 of the little booklet, so if you're using the church Bible, you'll find it around page 684.

Isaiah chapter 1.

Isaiah 1 · chapter mention

And we're reading from verse 15 down to verse 20.

So Isaiah here is speaking about God's people in his day, which was about 700 years before Jesus came.

So we're looking back a long way, and he's speaking to his people who were in trouble.

And we see a little bit of why they were in trouble in these verses.

They had forgotten God.

So we're going to read from verse 15 to verse 20.

When you spread your hands, I will hide my eyes from you.

Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.

Your hands are full of blood.

Wash yourselves.

Make yourselves clean.

Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes.

Cease to do evil.

Learn to do good.

Seek justice.

Correct oppression.

Bring justice to the fatherless.

Plead the widow's cause.

Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord.

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.

But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword.

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

May God bless that reading to us.

It's where our Bible verse for yesterday came from.

Verse 18 there, where it speaks about our sins are like scarlet, yet they shall be as white as snow.

Now what's your favorite thing about Christmas time?

Anybody want to give me an answer?

What's your favorite thing about Christmas time?

Just shout out an answer to me.

You don't have to put up your hand.

Anybody want?

Christmas dinner.

Christmas dinner.

Food.

That came from both sides of the pews there.

Food's very important at Christmas time.

Anything else?

What was that?

Presents.

Yes, presents are also important as well.

So there's lots of different things.

They're important for Christmas.

Food and presents.

Nobody mentioned snow.

Anybody want a white Christmas?

Snow can be fun, but it can also be dangerous.

There's two sides of snow.

It can be good fun.

When I was younger, seems a long time ago now, but I remember when winters were a lot more snow than we seem to get now.

And I remember one winter in particular where there was so much snow, the street on which I lived was blocked with the snow.

And a digger had to come and dig out the snow off the road so we could start to get out in the cars again.

It's hard to believe that maybe.

And yet, when I say to my parents, when I speak to my parents about it, they say we used to have even more snow.

Remember my mother saying that once when she opened the front door, she couldn't get out because it was just a wall of snow.

There was that much snow.

And we don't seem to get as much snow in the winter now.

But when we do, it can be good fun.

We like to go out maybe sledging or building snowmen or having snowball fights and these kinds of things.

And today we're going to be thinking about snow in the service.

Thinking about snow, but think about in particular just how white, how bright snow can be.

When there's a lot of snow around and if the sun comes out, it can be so bright, you sometimes have to wear sunglasses because it can be so blinding.

And that's the kind of description that we see of the snow here in Isaiah.

Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18,

Isaiah 1:18

Though your sins are like scarred, they shall be as white as snow.

They're going to be bright.

They're going to be clean.

And this verse reminds us of two things.

One is, we've got a problem.

There's something wrong.

Because it's speaking about sin.

And sin is a problem for all of us.

It's like a dirty mark that it leaves in our lives.

But it also reminds us too that we need something or someone to take away our sin.

And that's what we've been thinking about at the Christmas club.

This idea of sin being dirty and we need someone to wash our sins away.

Now, very often in church I wear a nice white shirt.

Nice clean white shirt.

And I've got another one here.

Nice white shirt.

But there's a little problem with it.

You see, when you have a bacon roll in the morning and you put tomato sauce on your bacon roll,

it can sometimes make a little mess.

So I'm not sure what's going to happen to this.

How are we going to wash this away?

But I couldn't wear it today.

I don't think it's too dirty.

And that's what sin is like.

Sin is like that tomato sauce.

It's just on us.

It makes us dirty.

And we need something to wash our sin away.

And one of the songs we sang at the Christmas club yesterday,

it spoke about this.

And it said in the song,

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

And it sounds a little bit strange that.

How can our sins be washed away with blood when blood seems to be dirty?

Well, what it's saying is that Jesus came to pay the price for our sin.

The way our sin is washed away is by Jesus giving himself,

giving his life for our sin.

And that's what this verse is speaking to us about.

Though our sins be like scarlet,

though our sins be so dirty in our lives,

Jesus came to wash our sin away.

And that's what we're going to look at as we go through the sermon this morning.

There's going to be three little things we're going to look at.

But before we come to the first one of these,

which is Jesus predicted,

we're going to sing together first.

We're going to sing in Psalm 51.

And again, you find this on the little booklets on page 4.

Or if you're in the Psalm books, page 281.

It's the Scottish Psalter version.

And this is a psalm that speaks about our sin.

But it also speaks about our sins being washed away.

So we're going to sing Psalm 51, verse 5 to 10.

Psalms 51:5–10

And you see in verse 7 there,

it speaks about us being washed.

Do thou with hyssop sprinkle me,

I shall be cleansed so.

Yea, wash thou me,

and then I shall be whiter than the snow.

So we're going to stand to sing,

verse 5 to 10.

And at this point,

the younger ones can go out to the tweenies

during the singing.

So we'll stand to sing to God's praise.

Bluetooth Bluetooth Bluetooth Bluetooth

Bluetooth

In guiltiness and sin

Behold our in the inward heart

With duty I live art

Our wisdom, our child, make me know

Within the hidden heart

To the wicked soul sing the lead

I shall be blessed soul

They watch the dream

And then I shall be whiter than the snow

O God, Son of Joyfulness

Make me to hear the voice

That's all this very full switch

That's broken may rejoice

All my iniquities, O God

By faith I hold myself

Behold our iniquities, O God

Arise, O God

Amen

We're going to look at the first part of our sermon today

And it's Jesus predicted that we're going to think about

And this is based on our reading in Isaiah

Isaiah 1:15–20

Chapter 1, verse 15 to 20

Jesus predicted

What does the word predict mean?

It's like trying to guess in some ways

What's going to happen

Some people like to try and predict the football scores

They look at who's playing who

And they try and predict what the score is going to be

And it's not always easy to get that right

Others try and predict what the weather is going to be like

They look at the charts

And they look at what's happening

And they say, well, it's going to be windy

Or it's going to be dry

It's going to be sunny

They try and predict the weather

But again, it's hard to get that right as well

There's so many things we can try and predict

But in many ways, what we're trying to do is guess what's going to happen

But when we look at Isaiah

And as we think of what Isaiah was saying in his day

He was predicting Jesus

But not in a way where he was guessing what was going to happen

You see, when he was looking at this

He was telling something that was certain

Something that was true

Something that was sure and guaranteed

Because God was giving him a message

Isaiah was what we call a prophet

That is someone who came with a message to tell the people from God

So everything that he was predicting came to pass

And it's amazing when you think of Isaiah

He lived 700 years before Jesus was born

And yet, throughout Isaiah's writing

All you see is him speaking about Jesus in many different ways

Isaiah 53 is a very famous chapter

Where it speaks about how Jesus would die for our sins

And you've got other passages like Isaiah 9 or Isaiah 6

That talk about Jesus' birth

And here in chapter 1 we're seeing in verse 18

How Jesus is being shown even here

When speaking about our sins

That will be dirty like scarlet

They will be whiter than the snow

This is because of what Jesus is going to do

But Isaiah was writing to the people

Because the people were in trouble

And what trouble were they in?

They had forgotten about God

They had forgotten about God

And back in the days long before Isaiah

There was a man called Moses

And in a book in the Bible, Deuteronomy

Moses warned by God the people

Saying, be careful

In chapter 6 of Deuteronomy verse 12

Be careful, take care lest you forget the Lord

Because the people are going to have so many different things

It's like Christmas had come for them

They got everything that they wanted

They went into a land as is described

Flowing with milk and honey

They had everything that they wanted in life

And yet they forgot God

And that's something that happens again and again and again

And it happens with us

Do you forget God?

Hands up if you forget God

There's times I have to say

I forget God

We all do

We all forget God at some times

Because we think we can do without Him

We can manage fine on our own

And we can forget how important God is

Because it's always a danger to us

And especially as we think of Christmas time

A time when we're supposed to be thinking about

The wonder of Jesus coming into the world

How amazing it is that Jesus was born

And yet we can get distracted

We can forget about Jesus

Jesus who was promised to us

Somebody put it like this

To see Christmas through its wrappings

Becomes more and more difficult every year

So Christmas becomes so busy

Whether it's food or presents

Snowmen or sledging

These things can be fun and good and right

But the danger is that we forget about God

And so that's why we were doing it at the Christmas club yesterday

We were doing all kinds of different crafts and different stories

Reminding ourselves of just how precious Jesus is

Remember you did your snow globe

Did you all make these?

You all got them switched on at home?

Yeah?

Or did anybody give away to somebody else?

Or did you have it yourself?

Now the important thing on this is

The verse that's on it

Because the verse is this verse from Isaiah

Though your sins are like scarlet

They shall be as white as snow

So there's a reminder to us

So we are helped not to forget

Jesus was predicted by Isaiah

He was saying that Jesus is going to come

700 years after he said it

That promise, that prediction came through

Jesus came into the world

And why did Jesus come?

Because we had forgotten about God

It was like we couldn't find a way back to God by ourselves

But Jesus came to show us that way

You think of the little lights in here

It shines bright

Switch off the lights in here

And you'll be able to see these lights very clearly

But Jesus is described as the light of the world

And he came to shine into the darkness of our sin

And show us the way back to God

Though our sins be dirty like scarlet

They shall be white as snow if we put our trust in Jesus

But the question with that is

Do we want Jesus in our lives?

Do we want to be right with God?

A man called Augustine

He put it like this

He said there's three different ways

That we can look at sin in our life

And he said the first way is this

Lord make me good

But not yet

Is that you today?

When you may be thinking about God

You're saying Lord I want to be good

But not yet

Because I want to go and enjoy life

Well that's a dangerous thing to do

Another way of putting it is like this

Lord make me good

But not completely

In other words I want a little bit of room in my life

Where I can be good for God

But I can also have a little bit of what I want for myself

That's not the way either

He said the third way is the way to go

He said Lord make me good

And the only way for that is

By being washed of our sin

By being as white as snow

By putting our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ

Jesus was predicted by Isaiah

That he would come into the world

To save us from our sin

What we couldn't fix

He came to fix for us

To take our sin away

So long before he came

Jesus was predicted

It wasn't a guess

It was something sure

Something true

And that's what we're going to look at

Secondly as we're going to read

Our second reading in Matthew's Gospel

And here we're going to see

How what Isaiah predicted

Became true

In Matthew chapter 1

Matthew 1:18–23

Verse 18 to 23

So you'll find this

On your little booklet

On page 5 and 6

And also if you're using the church Bible

It's the first book in the New Testament

Around page 973

So Matthew chapter 1

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

And verse 18

Now the birth of Jesus Christ

Took place in this way

When his mother Mary

Had been betrothed to Joseph

Before they came together

She was found to be with child

From the Holy Spirit

And her husband Joseph

Being a just man

And unwilling to put her to shame

Resolved to divorce her quietly

But as he considered these things

An angel of the Lord

Appeared to him in a dream

Saying

Joseph son of David

Do not fear

To take Mary as your wife

For that which is conceived in her

Is from the Holy Spirit

She shall bear a son

And you shall call his name Jesus

For he will save his people

From their sins

All this took place to fulfill

What the Lord had spoken

By the prophet

Behold

The virgin shall conceive

And bear a son

And they shall call his name Emmanuel

Which means

God with us

So Jesus was

Predicted by Isaiah

But now we see Jesus

And pronounced means telling

That something has come to be

To be

Mary and Joseph

And Mary was going to have

And look at the way

This child is

Pronounced there

As the angel spoke to Joseph

In verse 21

And you shall call his name Jesus

For he will save his people

From their sins

And you see how that connects

With what Isaiah was saying

Isaiah was saying

And as Isaiah

It's quoted there at the end

In verse 23

So what we're saying is

Everything Isaiah said

Has come true

So he's predicted

And here we see pronounced

So Isaiah said that our sin

Is like scarlet

Our sin is dirty

But that our sin

Can become white

As snow

And here we see how

Because Jesus was coming

And it says in verse 21

For he will save his people

From their sins

He will save his people

From their sins

People have often made

They've tried to tell people

This is what is going to happen

And in many different ways

They thought they would get it right

For example in 1926

The man who invented

To make televisions

He said that

They're not going to become

They're not going to take off

Are going to have them

Well look at the world today

How long have you got television

In your house?

Most people will have televisions

Don't they?

And yet somebody once pronounced

They're not going to take off

They're not going to be popular

Nobody's going to want them

And now everybody has them

Same with computers

In 1943

A man who was chairman of IBM

A big computing company

Said the world market for computers

Will be how many do you think?

How many did he predict

That would be computers made?

How many?

Anyone want to have a wee guess?

Shout out

Give me a number

Have you been reading my notes?

It was

Five

I'm sure you're not reading my notes

Five computers he predicted

Imagine how many computers are in the world today

Thousands

Millions of computers

What about phones?

In 1980 somebody said

Phones aren't going to take off

I reckon there will be about

Maybe a million people in the world

Who will have phones one day

Well

In this year

It's reckoned that

70% of the world's population

Has a mobile phone

How many people is that?

It's nearly 6 billion people

Have a mobile phone

And somebody had said

Maybe only a million people

All of these pronouncements are made

And they're thinking

This is going to be what happens

But yet here we have a pronouncement

I see I made a prediction

And Matthew here is making this pronouncement

Through this angel who spoke to Joseph

That Jesus is come

And he will save his people

From their sins

How many people will he save?

Will it be just a few?

A small number?

A small number?

No

It will be a great number

A number beyond anything we can imagine

Because he will save anyone

Who puts their trust in him

That is the pronouncement

It's pronouncements that the angels

Made to the shepherds

In Luke chapter 2

Luke 2 · chapter mention

A verse we so often look at

At Christmas time

Luke 2 verse 10 and 11

Luke 2:10

The angel said to them

This is to the shepherds

Fear not

For behold I bring you

Good news of great joy

That will be for all the people

For unto you is born this day

In the city of David

A saviour who is Christ the Lord

A saviour is born

A pronouncement is made

Jesus has come

And he has come to save us

Think of snow

When you see it lying

And the place is white with snow

It looks like there is just

A large great big pile

But snow is made up

Of little snowflakes

Thousands and thousands

And make this great big pile of snow

Have you ever caught

A snowflake in your hand?

Or seen it land on your jacket?

Every snowflake is different

Not any one snowflake is like another

Each one has its own design

Each one is different

It's amazing to think

When you think all the snow

That falls in the world

And every snowflake is different

Yet that's just like us

There are billions of people in the world

And yet every one of us is unique

Every one of us is different

And yet Jesus sees us all

And he knows us all

And he came to invite us to himself

That we might know the forgiveness of our sin

Isaiah 1.18

Though your sins are like scarlet

They shall be as white as snow

How?

Because Jesus came to save his people

From their sins

His people

We are his people when we put our trust in him

He knows us each one by name

And he calls us to himself

When you get a present

Or a Christmas card

It often says two

And your name will be on it

So you know it's for you

Well, when Jesus gives us this great gift

He puts our name on it as well

He has come to save his people

From their sins

And we are his people

If we put our trust in him

Do any of you have an advent calendar?

Yeah, you're all working your way through it

What day are we on now?

Fourteen

There's not many left now

I've opened fourteen already this morning

After I made the mess with my bacon roll

And as you work your way through your advent calendar

What are we doing?

We're counting down, aren't we?

That's what we were doing at the Christmas club last year

The adventure club that we had

It was all about counting down to Christmas

And that's what we do every year

We count down to Christmas

But the danger is

That as we're counting down

We forget what Christmas is really about

Because remember what we're counting down to

Is a reminder to us

That Jesus came into the world

To save us from our sin

To wash away our sin

Jesus is so, so precious

He has been predicted

And by Isaiah

It's been pronounced

In Matthew and Luke

And these other gospels

And the third thing we want to see

The final thing we want to see just now

Is Jesus proclaimed

And we're going to read our last part of scripture

Which is in 1 Timothy

!

Chapter 1

Verse 12

To 17

So further on

In the New Testament

1 Timothy

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Chapter 1

You'll find it around page 1193

Of the church Bibles

We're going to read verse

Chapter 1

Verse 12

To 17

Here we see a man called Paul

Thanking God for all that he has

1 Timothy

Verse 12

Of the little booklets

I thank him who has given me strength

Christ Jesus our Lord

Because he judged me faithful

Appointing me to his service

Though formerly I was a blasphemer

Persecuted and insolent opponent

But I received mercy

Because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief

And the grace of our Lord

Overflowed for me with the faith

And love that are in Christ Jesus

The saying is trustworthy

And deserving of full acceptance

That Christ Jesus came into the world

To save sinners

Of whom I am foremost

But I received mercy for this reason

That in me as the foremost

Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience

As an example to those who are to believe in him

For eternal life

To the king of ages

Immortal, invisible

Only God

Be honour and glory

Well Jesus came to live in this world

He was born into this world

But ultimately he died in this world

He died on the cross

And that is what he had to do

To wash our sin away

But although he died

It wasn't the end

You see for Jesus to show his power over sin

Something else was to happen

After he died

On the third day after

He rose from the grave

He is alive

And to this day

A risen saviour

And who will come

And this is the saviour that Paul

This man who wrote 1 Timothy

This is the saviour he came to know

And Paul as you see in some of the ways

He describes himself here

In his past he did many bad things

But in verse 14 it says

The grace of our Lord

The grace of our Lord

Overflowed for me

With the faith and love

That are in Christ Jesus

This amazing gift that Jesus gave to Paul

And gives to all his people

Faith and love

That are in Christ Jesus

So this is how Paul

Was able to describe him

This great gift

That Paul received

Faith

What faith in Jesus gave to him

Was this new life

This new way

Of living

And in verse 15

He then says

The saying is trustworthy

And deserving of full acceptance

That Christ Jesus

Came into the world

To save sinners

Of whom I am foremost

Of whom he sees himself

As the worst of sinners

Is proclaiming

Jesus to others

Proclaiming Jesus

When we get a great gift

We want to share it

What did you get for Christmas

Hands up if you remember

Well a few people remember

Not everybody does

It's amazing how quickly

What you got for Christmas

What about two years ago

Or three years ago

Ten years ago

You forget

Don't we

We often forget

What we got for Christmas

And it's the same

With Jesus

We often forget

What Jesus has done for us

He had forgotten Jesus

In his past

He thought he was a good person

Because he was forgetting Jesus

But now that he's known Jesus

And what Jesus has done for him

He's proclaiming

He's telling others

That this Jesus is amazing

This Jesus is wonderful

This Jesus is a saviour

He can save us

And so he's making it known

He's sharing

If you were at the club yesterday

You were decorating cakes

How many cakes did you decorate?

Okay

Do you remember what you were meant to do with them?

One was for who?

Me

Me

And one was for who else?

To give away to somebody

Hands up if you gave me

Hmm?

Who ate their cake?

Go on, be honest

Hands up

A few have eaten it, yeah

Right, second

Hands up if you gave a cake to somebody

Oh, more hands are going up for that

That's excellent

Most people have given away their cake to someone else

Because that's what it was about

It was about sharing with others

Give one to me

That's fine

But give one to somebody else

Because then you can be able to share with somebody

Might be a parent or a grandparent

Somebody like that

And so it's good to share

It's good to tell others

This is what I made for you

And it's good as we see what Paul is doing here

What he's doing is he's telling others about Jesus

He's not keeping it to himself

He's sharing it with others

And as you read through the Bible

What you see is Jesus being proclaimed

Jesus being shared with the whole world

So that people might know how precious he is

Another of the songs that we sang yesterday

Comes to mind for this

One night into the darkness

One star shining the brightest

Heaven couldn't contain the greatest news

Shepherds couldn't believe it

Wise men wanted to see it

God was sending his only son to earth

Joy sing and shout it

Tell the world about it

God is with us

That song is reminding us

That we are to proclaim Jesus

We cannot contain it

Because Jesus is the most precious thing

That we have in this world

There are so many people

When we think about what people make predictions about

People try and predict their football scores

Well sometimes then if their team wins

They like to proclaim it

They like to tell others

That my team beat yours

Doesn't happen for some often

But when it does

They let you know

They tell you that their team has won

And there are so many things in life

We love to proclaim

We love to tell others about

But what about when we hear Jesus proclaimed

Do we listen?

Do we listen to Jesus as he is proclaimed here?

And as we hear about Jesus

Do we proclaim him to others?

Do we share him with others?

So a woman in the Bible

She is often described as the woman of Samaria

And she met Jesus at a well

And when she heard about Jesus

When she knew who Jesus was

Even though she was afraid of many people in the village

That she came from

She went back

She went back and she said this to them

Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did

Can this be the Christ?

She wanted to proclaim Jesus to others

And what a reason that we have to proclaim Jesus

And what he has done for us

One of the songs we heard yesterday being played says

Jesus paid it all

All to him I owe

Sin had left a crimson stain

He washed it white as snow

That's from this verse in Isaiah that we were looking at

Though our sins are like scarlet

They shall be whiter than the snow

That is what we have

If we put our trust in Jesus

Are we forgetting Jesus just now?

Are we forgetting Jesus every day?

Are we saying maybe not yet

Or not completely

Or are we saying Lord save me

Lord take away my sin

Jesus was predicted by Isaiah

We were told that he would come

Jesus was pronounced

He was born into this world

And he was called Jesus

That he might save us from our sins

And now Jesus is proclaimed

Because he is able to save us all

From our sin if we put our trust in him

Jesus came that though our sins are like scarlet

They might be whiter than the snow

So may we all remember Jesus

Today and in all the days ahead

And may we know his blessing with us

Let's just bow our heads in a word of prayer

Lord our gracious God

We do thank you that you are one who has promised

One who has come

We thank you that in Jesus we have the one who was called that name

That he might save his people from their sins

And we do rejoice in that good news

And we seek to proclaim it to each other and to all around us

That Jesus is the one we owe everything to

For he came to save and help us to remember

And not to forget how precious he is in the midst of everything else

That we might be busy with

That we might remember him

And give thanks for him

So hear us, go before us

Pardon our sin

As we ask all in Jesus name

Amen

We are going to sing in conclusion now

Psalm 103

It is the Sing Psalms version

If you are using the psalm book

It is page 135

Psalm 103

We are going to sing from verse 8 to 14

It is on the back of the little booklets

And this again a great psalm that reminds us of

How Jesus, how the Lord is able to forget our sins

As far as east is from the west

So far his love has borne our way

Our many sins and trespasses

And all the guilt that on us lay

We will sing verse 8 to 14

We stand to sing to God's praise

The Lord is mercy, full and kind

To anger slow and full of grace

He will not constantly be true

For in his anger I disise

He does not punish our mischief

Or give our sins their just reward

By the greatest love as high as den

Towards all those who fear the Lord

Towards all those who fear the Lord

Towards all those who fear the Lord

Towards all those who fear the Lord

As God has eased his home the west, so far his love has borne away,

our many sins and trespasses, and all the guilt that all has stayed.

Just as the Father was in child, so come us those who feel his pain,

for healing then works we are done, and well he knows and he will play.

And well he knows and he will play.

After the benediction I'll go to the door to my left. We'll close with the benediction.

Now may grace, mercy and peace from God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

rest upon and abide with you all now and forevermore. Amen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.