Christmas Eve at CCW 2023

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Well, God is good.

Can I get an amen?

You know what?

Let's try this.

Let's try this.

Let's try this.

God is good and all the time.

I reflect on the goodness of God most probably through the season of Advent.

Advent is the celebration of the first coming of Jesus as we look forward to his second coming.

And now, as saints and members of Christ's church, it can almost be tempting to focus more and more and more on that second coming.

And by God, it is good to focus on that second coming.

But we cannot forget just how miraculous, how amazing, how undeserving we are to have received Christ's first coming.

The Son of God, eternally existing in heaven with all the worship and all the praise he ever needed, clothed himself in flesh, condescended to earth, and was born in the form of a baby.

He was a baby.

The maker of Mary is now Mary's son.

It's hard to wrap our mind around just how incredible it is that Jesus would bother anything with us at all.

But he did.

And thanks be to God for that.

In this book, this is called The Valley of Vision, and it's a collection of Puritan prayers, and I wanted to share one with you.

It's titled The Gift of Gifts.

And it says this O source of all good, what shall I render to thee for the gift of gifts?

Thine own dear son, begotten, not created, my redeemer, my proxy, my surety, my substitute.

His self-emptying, incomprehensible.

You can't understand it, kids.

His infinity of love beyond the heart's grasp.

Herein is wonder of wonders.

He came below to raise me above.

He was born like me that I might become like him.

Herein is love.

When I cannot rise to him, he draws near to me on wings of grace to raise me to himself.

Herein is power.

When deity and humanity were infinitely apart, he united them in indissoluble unity, the uncreated and the created.

Herein is wisdom.

When I was undone with no will to return to him and no intellect to devise my own recovery.

He came, God incarnate, to save me to the uttermost, as a man to die my death, to shed satisfying blood on my behalf, to work out a perfect righteousness for me.

Oh God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds and enlarge my mind.

Let me hear good tidings of great joy, and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore.

My conscience bathed in an ocean of repose, my eyes uplifted to a reconciled father.

Place me with ox, donkey, camel, and goat to look with them upon my Redeemer's face, and in him account myself delivered from sin.

Let me with Simeon clasp the newborn child to my heart, embrace him with undying faith, exulting that he is mine and I am his.

In him thou hast given me so much that heaven can give no more.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, if I hadn't met you before, my name is Pastor Rick.

I have the joy and privilege to be the lead pastor of the church at Chelsea Westover.

And I want to tell you right now and invite you, next Sunday and the Sunday after, we're doing Christmas Eve service again.

I'm just kidding.

You know, we were at a Christmas celebration recently, and Granny got out the Jesus stocking.

And every year at this celebration, we put something in Jesus' stocking.

And this year she talked about what I wanted to talk about.

She said, We're gonna put glory back into Jesus' stocking.

I know, kids, you're waiting for Christmas and you have all kinds of celebrations.

And she said to all the kids there, now who knows what we do after this, after we put these notes in Jesus' stocking.

And one of the kids piped up and said, We move all the presents and we open presents.

And Granny said, No, no, there's one more thing.

We're gonna sing happy birthday to Jesus.

And it brought them back to the point of the whole season.

You know, that song that we just sang, there's a verse that says, This light and life to all he brings.

Listen to these words risen with healing in his wings, mild he lay as glory by, born that man no more may die.

That's an important line.

Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.

See that verse of that song holds a lot of weight.

Because ever since the day you and I were born, we've been told dream big dreams.

You can do anything if you put your mind to it, the sky's the limit.

And it's incredible.

And if you look around, those things are not untrue.

There is love and beauty and depth to that and knowledge, and there's people with all kinds of abilities in here.

And God said this on the sixth day of creation that as he looked at man that he created, he said, It is very good.

And you and I were born to bring glory.

Genesis 127 says that we are image bearers of God.

We're born for that purpose to bring him glory.

And Psalms 139 said, Before you were ever even born, you were knit together in your mother's womb with a plan for your life.

God planned you.

I was talking to a friend recently, and he said, If God had a plan for me, that's news to me.

Then I listened to him talk about life and struggles, and and I said, You know, there's some people right in your home.

There's some people at your job, there's some people in your circle.

I said, Man, that was God's plan.

That you would impact people in those circles of living and bring God glory.

We who are a mess, are we not?

Bring God glory.

Think about that.

How much more when Jesus was born, the express image of God, his son, does he bring God glory?

Well, when you think about Jesus being born, Jesus wasn't born like you and me.

He wasn't told to dream big dreams, he didn't come to accomplish something for agriculture or technology or medicine.

Jesus was born with a laser-focused mission to die, to give his life.

He was born, that verse in hark the herald angel sing, that men no more may die.

I want to read to you from Luke chapter 2 what it says about the glory of God and why his coming to be born and coming to die is so important that we understand.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 2, verse 9.

Luke 2:9

It says, And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were afraid.

Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people.

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be the sign to you.

You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly, listen to this think about the scene.

And suddenly there was with the angels a multitude, a host of angels, heavenly host, it says, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.

Some of you may have heard of a Trans-Siberian orchestra, and I've heard about this band.

I haven't yet seen them, but I've heard the light show enough is worth the ticket.

But people come there, and the whole scene is a glorious picture of just Christmas carols and lights and choir and all of it.

And I want to tell you, that day, when Jesus was born and the heavenly host had glory of God shining, it was like nothing anybody had ever seen.

And so when they said glory to God, and I want you to think about this question I asked myself, how is a host of angels and shepherds celebrating over a birth of a man marked for death?

Why is that so good?

Well, in the Old Testament church, for anybody who was a sinner, which was everybody, they had to have animal sacrifice, blood sacrifice to cover their sins as an offering unto God, as an offering to him and a repentance and a way to give back glory because sin separated us.

That sin separates us from his glory.

And Hebrews 9 said, Without the shedding of blood, this is where we're getting to.

And this is what Jesus said about his mission, John 17, 4.

Jesus said, I glorified you on the earth by accomplishing the work which you sent me to do.

That glory back to God came through the shedding of Jesus' blood on a cross.

That submissive act of Jesus Christ and the grace of God to bestow his only son.

Listen to me, church, is the grand culmination of glory.

It is the crescendo of all eternity, past, present, and future of God's grace in a moment.

When Jesus died on a cross, our sin was abolished.

And it allows us back to a relationship with Him.

And that angelic choir sang that day.

They said, Glory.

And we sang, Hark, the herald angels sing.

We're singing glory, glory came back on that day.

Well, to explain the coming of this day to the disciples, Jesus told the disciples to gather together before he was going to be crucified.

And he said, Come to the upper room.

I'm going to ask if our ushers would come at this time.

And as he gathered them together in the upper room, he began to explain to them what it meant for his body to be broken, for his blood to be spilled out, and that this was going to have to happen.

He was going to die.

Hear me, church.

The greatest thing, visitors, the greatest thing that you can hear this Christmas is this.

That Jesus died on a cross, he was buried, and he rose again, erasing my sin and yours.

If you'll enter a relationship with him and be repentant of your sin.

And so Jesus explained that to the disciples that day in the upper room.

So we're going to take part in the Lord's Supper.

And as the man prepared to pass those elements to you to take, and listen, I'm going to read some scripture over that.

We're going to join together in that man.

If you would go ahead and begin to pass the elements of the Lord's Supper.

But let a man so examine himself.

And so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For he who eats and drinks unworthy eats and drinks judgment, not discerning the Lord's body.

And so we're told to take a moment as the elements are passed and take a moment quietly, privately in prayer before you and the Lord.

If there's anything that's not right between you and a brother, this would be a time where we check that heart, check that spirit.

And let me encourage you, pass today.

What a season for restoration.

What a season to get something right with somebody.

Life is too short, it's too brief.

And so we're going to take a few moments as the elements are past.

And I'm going to ask you to bow and just be in silent prayer before you and the Lord.

And the moment will continue.

So here we are today to celebrate this baby, Jesus, born in Bethlehem to the Virgin Mary, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, visited by shepherds and kings.

But see, before this beautiful story about Jesus being born, and before the story about Jesus dying on the cross, there's another story.

See, before Jesus was a baby, he was light.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him, and without him, nothing was made that was made.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

In the beginning, Jesus was light.

And while Jesus was on the earth, he was light.

He told his disciples in John 8, 12, I am the light of the world.

He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.

When Jesus was on the cross from noon till three in the afternoon, the light stopped.

The Bible tells us that the whole earth became dark.

And Jesus died and was placed in a tomb.

And if that was the end of the story, there's no reason for us to be here today.

But you see, it's not.

Jesus is the light of the world from the beginning, and he's a light who cannot be extinguished.

And on that glorious Easter morning when the ladies went to the tomb, he was not there.

He is risen.

And after Jesus rose from the grave, he ascended into heaven.

And in Revelation, his disciple John had a vision of him in heaven.

And you know what John saw?

His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength, light.

And one day, oh one day, this Jesus who was born of a virgin, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, visited by shepherds and kings, this Jesus who died on a cross for our sins, who rose again on the third day and ascended to heaven, this Jesus, one day, is coming back to make all things new.

A new Jerusalem, the Bible tells us.

And guess what the Bible says about it?

It says that city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God has illuminated it.

The Lamb, Jesus, is light from the beginning until the end.

This baby we celebrate today is the light of the world.

And the good news is this He tells us in the Bible that we are light.

You are the light of the world.

And a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but they put it on a lampstand.

Hear me today.

If you know Jesus, you're the light of the world.

But don't hide your light.

Share your light.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who's in heaven, who sent his son to be our Savior on that silent and holy night so very long ago.

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