Jesus’ Power - Christmas Eve 2025

Merry Christmas everyone.

>> Merry Christmas.

>> My name is Mati Scaring. If you're brand

new here, I'm the preaching and teaching

pastor. And I love Christmas. And

probably the only thing that I love more

than being home with my family or

friends for Christmas Eve dinner or

Christmas Day is being in the house of

the Lord on Christmas Eve. I love it. I

love the worship. I love the time in

God's word. There's just so many things

to love about Christmas. And since we've

got a bunch of kiddos, I love that too

that we have kids. I I will say um I am

not bothered at all about some baby

squawking. I've had six of them myself.

Uh technically I've had none. Uh my wife

had all of them. It' be a whole

different Christmas miracle that we're

not going to talk about. But regarding

those kids, um, so we're comfortable as

a congregation if if the kids are

talking a little bit with each other or

especially the really young kids, it's

not easy to keep them entirely

controlled. If as a mother you're

starting to get uncomfortable and need

to walk along the aisles or we actually

have a cry room and both the worship and

the sermon is played through speakers

and a TV in there. So feel welcome to do

that, but that's not me telling you you

should. That's for your comfort sake. So

also considering we have kids, I thought

a lot about a message today um about

Christmas, about the meaning of

Christmas that children can understand.

And uh another thing that I love about

uh Christmas is that it seems like a

great season for dad jokes.

I also think every season is a great

season for dad jokes.

But I want to go ahead and tell you one.

This one I'm not sure if kids will

understand. the very next one you will.

Uh, but I thought it was hilarious. And

this one is, I saw a man in a, if I saw

a man in a suit run into a phone booth

and then I saw Superman fly out, I'd be

like, "Wow, is that a phone booth?"

[laughter]

Not sure my kids got one when I was beta

testing these jokes. Here's another one

for the kids. This is actually one

Elijah told me, and he's got a great

sense of humor. Um, and this is a

question about Superman. They're all

about Superman. You'll find out why in a

moment. Why doesn't Superman wave with

this hand?

Cuz this is my hand.

That one got more laughs than I

expected. Great job, Elijah.

All right. This is probably my favorite

Superman joke, although it's the third.

I only know three Superman jokes. So,

um, but it's it's a it's my favorite cuz

it's a pastor's joke. And I think

pastors tell jokes to crack themselves

up more than anybody else. Uh, but I

think you might think this one's funny,

too. Um, [clears throat]

one psychiatric patient says to another,

"I'm Superman." And the other replies,

"No, you're not. I'm Superman." And the

first says, "How can you possibly be so

certain about that?" And the second

responds, he says, "Uh, cuz God told me

so." And a third patient angrily says,

"I said no such thing."

>> [laughter]

>> That's what we call crazy heretic.

>> Yeah. So, that's a pastor's joke and a

dad joke combined.

That's why I love that so much. So, why

are we talking about Superman? Well,

partly because I think it'll be

relatable to kids. Uh, but also, I used

to really be into comics. And, um,

comics will talk about Superman in a way

that Christians talk about Jesus. And

so, you know, Christmas, it's fine to

have lots of entertainment. I think I'm

looking forward to going to see Avatar 3

in the movies. We don't get to go see a

lot of movies in movie theaters anymore,

but maybe between the years we will. And

Superman's maybe I don't know if he's

still in the theaters, but there's a

brand new Superman out, so he's in the

conversation these days. And uh I used

to be really into comics. And there are

different comic book legends. So, this

particular story you've probably never

heard unless you're in comic books as

well. What happens is a villain kills

Superman's wife. At this point, Lois

Lane is his wife and a villain kills

actually tricks Superman into killing

his own wife and Superman snaps and

Superman decides to take over the entire

world and at first like a like a leader

who's not necessarily talented, he

rules. But after a while, since there's

still so many bad things happening, he

decides to just rule with absolute

authority. If you do something wrong, he

himself will come and imprison you or

kill you. What we call that is a tyrant.

Adults probably understand the danger of

tyranny more than kids do. But so in

this case, we're talking about a

Superman that's no longer the Superman

we know. He's ruling the world. He's

been affected by what Christians would

call sin, what in the comic world you

still call evil. Uh and he's decided

he's going to take things into his own

hands. because he's basically

invulnerable. He's unstoppable tyrant.

So, what we can still say about him is

that he's invulnerable, unbelievably

powerful. No one can stop him, but he's

not good. You know, in the comic book

world, a lot of people like to, you

know, have this Superman fight this

Superman or this Superman fight some

other guy. And oh, you you talk about

his powers. And so while I was kind of

thinking that, I was thinking about

comparing Jesus to Superman because

there are some similarities, but there

also some really significant

differences. Um, one example of a major

difference, and it's the main thing I

want to talk about today is uh that

Jesus is also exceedingly powerful. So,

we're going to compare Jesus power to

Superman's power, but

Jesus is always good. And so I want to

talk tonight about just, you know, the

theme of this entire service is the

promised one has come. How powerful is

this promised one who's come in the

incarnation?

How good is he actually? And if there's

anything you take away from this

message, the main point is that Jesus is

so powerful and good that believing him

saves you for all eternity. Let me say

that again. Jesus is so powerful and

good that believing him saves you from

all for all eternity. So, I want to go

to Colossians. If you have your Bible,

go ahead and open up to Colossians. This

is one of my favorite passages about

Jesus, but maybe just in the entire

Bible. We're in Colossians 1:15.

Colossians 1:15

And the first half, 15-19, we're going

to be talking about just how powerful

Jesus is. And I've got a video for you

kids. I think you're going to like it. I

want to thank Ben Jansen for editing

this video. Uh the main content we got

from two different um uh YouTube, so

it's not original content to us, but we

edited the two things together. Uh and

I'll I'll set that video up in a little

bit more uh to to illustrate what this

passage is saying about just how

unimaginably vast and unlimited Christ's

power is. And then we're going to look

at verse 20 through 23 to see just how

good he is. Just like Superman was

affected by sin, there was terribly

painful for him. So was Jesus. But the

response could not be more opposite. At

least if you compare him to the Superman

of that particular uh uh series or that

universe. So here we are in Colossians

Colossians 1:15

1:15.

And it says this, he is the image of the

invisible God. I'm not going to define

everything in here because there are

things in here I think will make sense

to young and adult alike just by hearing

it. But what that really means is that

he's the invisible God made visible.

He's God made visible.

If you were a wise man and you were

looking at Jesus as a toddler or if you

were Mary and Joseph and looking at him

in his in the manger, you're looking at

God whom you're seeing is God. He is the

image of the invisible God. He's the

firstborn of all creation. Here's where

I want to define something. What this

does not mean is that he was created.

It does not mean that he's created. How

can we know that for certain? Well, look

at the very next verse. For by him all

things were created. So, it doesn't even

make any sense within the context to say

that he was like the first thing created

because then it wouldn't be true that

for by him all things were created. So,

what does firstborn of all creation

mean? Well, we've lost this meaning

culturally a little bit because uh our

firstborn now does not necessarily stand

to inherit everything. But back then

they would have immediately known that

what that meant is that he is what that

means is that he's the inheritor of

everything. He's the inheritor of all

creation. That's what it means that he's

the firstborn of all creation. For by

him all things were created in heaven

and on earth, visible and invisible.

What Paul is talking about here is not

invisible things on earth that were also

created by him. If you were thinking

about invisible things on earth, yes,

those were also created by him. What

he's talking about is the invisible

things that we can't see in the

spiritual realm where God is, where

heaven is, and there were things that

are created. Angels are created. There

are thrones there that are created.

Everything that exists in heaven that's

not God the Father, God the Son, or God

the Spirit is created and according to

Paul and therefore according to God.

For by him all things were created in

heaven and on earth, visible and

invisible, whether thrones or dominions

or rulers or authorities.

Right? That that means that Jesus is way

more powerful than tyrants, way more

powerful than anyone, even good rulers.

If Superman existed, way more powerful

than him. All things were created

through him and for him. And he is

before all things. And in him all things

hold together. So everything that's been

created, everything that's invisible

that we don't see in the spiritual

realm, everything that can be observed

in the observable universe created for

him and he holds it all together.

Another way that that is said by the

author of Hebrews

is that he is the radiance. This is

verse three of Hebrews 1. He is the

radiance of the glory of God, the exact

imprint of his nature. and he upholds

the universe by the word of his power.

That's where we come to this video. So,

I want to set this video up. You've

probably seen things like this. I find

them fascinating. There's more than one

of these kinds of video. Um, can you

already see it? Yeah. So, what this

video will be is comparing the smallest

known particles like neutrons to the

largest structures in the universe. By

the end, we'll get to something called

the Hercules Corona Borealis. I think

it's superructure, something like that.

But what I want you to know before that

um is that the reason why I'm showing

you this video is to show you all of the

things where they're so tiny that we

can't even observe them. So, a neutron

isn't observed by some kind of

technology. There's tests that they're

testing their hypothesis that exists and

then they find it. I don't even

understand exactly how they found a

neutron, but it's not like they're

looking through a microscope and then

they see it. I think they're ramming

particles around and since they hit

something, it's like, oh, there's

something small that was hit there. I

don't understand it. I don't pretend to

understand it. And even in trying to

research understanding it, still don't

understand it. So, but that's a tiny

little neutron neutron. And by the word

of his power, he holds that together.

And I don't know from the video if

you'll actually perceive how big this

Hercules structure is, but it's written

there and you ought to see by

comparison. Uh we'll talk about that

afterwards. But all of these things

Jesus holds together. There is no comic

book lore where Superman is anywhere

near that powerful. So let's go ahead

and roll the video.

Oh,

[singing and music]

you said

I am the way,

[music] the truth,

the life.

No one comes to the father except

through me.

If you had known me,

you would have known my father also from

now on,

you know him and have seen him.

Cuz I am in the Father and the Father is

in me.

I don't do this of my own accord.

Don't you know? [singing and music]

>> I am [music] he.

>> I am.

>> I am he.

[music]

The words I say to you,

I do not [music] speak on my own

authority.

But the Father who dwells in me does his

works.

Believe me that I am in the Father and

the Father is in me.

Or else believe on account of the works

themselves.

Truly,

truly I say to you, [music]

whoever believes in me will also do the

works that I do, and greater works than

these will he do, because I'm going to

the Father.

Whatever you [music] ask in my name,

this I will do, [singing and music]

that the Father may be glorified in the

Son,

don't you know? [music]

Have you not seen? I am.

[music]

I am.

I am. [music]

I am.

[music]

I am.

>> [music]

>> I am here.

>> I am.

[music and singing]

So, what you're looking at right there,

go ahead and keep that that up. That's

what I was talking about. If you were to

look out at the starry sky and there's

no clouds and you're free from city's

ambient light, most of you, even kids,

you've seen it. Just all those stars.

Okay? So, this is not a structure of

just a bunch of stars. This is a

structure of galaxies.

Okay, we're in the Milky Way galaxy and

I'm not sure I can even wrap my mind

anywhere close to this number even. But

there are 1 billion stars in our galaxy.

To be honest, I don't even know what

this number means. There are four

quadrillion galaxies in that

superructure.

And Jesus holds them all together by the

word of his power. By the word of his

power. And I think this was the first

time that I had this thought because I

was thinking of Colossians

with Christmas and Christmas Eve and

this message coming up. Did you know

that he was upholding the Hercules

Corona Borealis Great Wall

Superstructure

[clears throat] while he was a baby

in a manger? He never stopped or it

would just go poof and we would go poof.

He doesn't just hold a neutron together

or you or our houses or our Earth. He

holds things. it, as you can see there,

10 billion light years from edge to

edge. That's how long it would take

light to travel from the lowest portion

to the top. Do you even fathom? I don't

fathom how long

a 100 light years is. I mean, it's just

it's so vast

my mind starts running out in being able

to comprehend the size of the sun. To be

honest, I think sometimes we look at the

earth and don't even realize how

gigantic it is. And then maybe you get

on a mountaintop and you're looking out

and like this is so vast and I'm only

just looking at a tiny little piece of

the earth,

everything in the universe. If you were

to zoom out, the the video did end, we

had it edited off, but end with the

obser observable universe. But we don't

even know that the observable universe

is anywhere near the end. For all we

know, it's infinite. We don't know if it

ends. It's all just theory.

But what if even the observable

universe, if we could zoom out far

enough, somehow with technology, it

finds out that it's like just another

unit like we think of galaxies. This is

just like a a portion and there are

billions of portions like that. If that

were true, I don't know. It's just

theory.

that also Jesus upholds by the word of

his power while being in a crib. And

there's a mystery because he learned

language like Aramaic and he didn't know

it as a baby. He's a human being.

So in his nature as God, he was doing

that in his nature as a human being. He

was thinking whatever a human being

thinks. And I don't know how much they

think or exactly how little they think

because I don't remember.

But that's how powerful Jesus is. Let's

continue for a short while considering

his power as we walk through Colossians

here.

Let's just finish. I'll read it again.

And he is before all things and in him

all things hold together. And he is the

head of the body, the church. He is the

beginning, the firstborn from the dead.

Do you know what the firstborn from the

dead means? It doesn't mean first to be

resurrected. I think kids, you might

have heard of a famous person named

Lazarus. and he was resurrected before

Jesus was. What it means is that he's

the beginning of the resurrection. He's

the first to be resurrected eternally.

That means that he will never die again.

He has a resurrection body glorified.

When he was walking on earth, it seemed

like after resurrection, he could appear

and disappear. He could disguise the way

he looked so people couldn't recognize

him and then show them who he was. He

seemed to be able to walk through walls.

But you know what? He still ate fish. He

made a very strong point that he wasn't

a spirit just alone. He was still flesh

and bones. He says in Luke 24, did you

know that now he's seated at the right

hand of the father in heaven on the

heavenly throne and he's still human? We

forget that sometimes. He hasn't stopped

being human. Never stopped being God

when he became human. But he's both. He

is both. And he's the one even as an

infant upholding the universe. Verse 19,

for in him all the fullness of God was

pleased to dwell bodily. So infinite

orders of magnitude more powerful than

Superman.

But is he good? So when Superman had an

evil thing happen to him, he responded

with deciding, I'm going to control all

of it. I'm going to kill anybody who

doesn't do my will and I'm going to

imprison anybody else. And he just

became a tyrant. And he was no longer

good. He was very powerful, but he was

no longer good.

But according to Paul, human beings sin

against Jesus all the time. And his

response is very different than this

particular Superman's was. Verse 20. And

through him to reconc So I'll start with

verse 19. In him all the fullness of God

was pleased to dwell. God was pleased to

do another thing too. And through him to

reconcile to himself all things whether

on earth or in heaven making peace by

the blood of his cross. And you and this

is God speaking to everyone who once

were alienated and hostile in mind doing

evil deeds. He is now reconciled in his

body of flesh by his death in order to

present you holy and blameless and above

reproach before him according to God

before we repented of our sin. That

means admitting that you've sinned and

that it was wrong to God and that you've

got no excuse for having doing so. Just

a very clean confession of sin. Before

that, we were alienated from him and we

were hostile towards him. That means

that God is saying we were hostile

towards his son

and we were doing evil deeds. That's God

what God says. He looks down and that's

what he says. And yet you'd think, well,

if that's the case that he that Jesus,

just like Superman in that comic book,

would be justified in just wiping people

out. But that's not what he does. Unlike

Superman who has his wife killed and

then decides to kill other people, Jesus

sees all the evil that's ever happened

and he decides, I'm going to come and

I'm going to become a human being and

I'm going to show them what it looks

like to live a perfect life and I'm

going to follow the law of God which is

always good, right, and true. What he

says is good, right, and true is and I'm

going to do it all and in that way

fulfill it. But the law has a demand.

God is just and he's perfect.

And since he's just imperfect, he can't

just leave evil unpunished. That's not

possible. You would not be perfect if

you did that.

And so he decides,

God the Father decides that God the Son

is going to die as God and a human being

to pay for the sin of those who would

repent and believe.

That's what the gospel is.

If we went down a little bit further, it

talks about this ancient mystery. I'll

go ahead and read it. To them, God chose

to make known how great among the

Gentiles are the riches of the glory of

his mystery, which is Christ in you, the

hope of glory.

This mystery that had not been revealed

until it happened and then was uh

explained to uh the disciples by Jesus.

This mystery was not understood by

anybody.

There was a lot of people, philosophers

and such that understood, hey, humans do

evil things and they seem to continue to

do evil things. So, they don't seem to

be very good on the outside

and they would come up with all kinds of

different solutions for them. However,

nobody's solution ever was, "Hey, God,

you're perfect. We're not perfect. How

about you

die for our sin? How about you get

punished?" Nobody came up with that

idea. Nobody knew. Not only that, when

you place your faith in him, that very

person of whom it said Jesus Christ, for

in him the fullness of God was pleased

to dwell bodily come dwells in you. That

means that in Christians by the spirit

and those who believe in Jesus, that

same person who upholds the hercule

superstructure by the word of his power

lives inside of you.

These are unfathomable things. We can't

fully comprehend them, but they're true.

And it says this, I'll read it again.

and he is now reconciled in his body of

flesh by his death in order to present

you holy and blameless and above

reproach before him. If indeed you

continue in faith, stable and steadfast,

not shifting from the hope of the gospel

that you heard, which has been

proclaimed in all creation under heaven,

and of which I, Paul, have become a

minister. If we could put the main point

back up, I'll read it again in a moment,

but

you've seen just how powerful Jesus is

from his word and from illustration of

the size of the universe. And that's

just the visible thing, so to speak, not

even the spiritual realm, which we're

able to picture like that.

But you've also seen how good he is.

He's not a tyrant.

He's a God that desires that you would

be saved from the consequence of your

sin. I want to read you what is probably

undoubtedly the most famous Bible verse

in all the Bible. It's John 3:16. But I

John 3:16

want to read John 3:16 through John 18.

John 3:16

And this is what it says. For God so

loved the world that he gave his only

son that whoever believes in him should

not perish but have eternal life. For

God did not send his son into the world

to condemn the world, but in order that

the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him is not

condemned, but whoever does not believe

is condemned already because he has not

believed in the name of the only son of

God.

You might say, "Well, especially if

you're considering these things and

God is working on your heart in a way

that you just seem to not be able to

deny right now that what is being said

is true. You know in your heart that

it's true." You might say something

like, "What should I do to be saved

then?" And here's the thing. It's

nothing you did. And it's everything

that Jesus already did. And you just

have to confess your sin.

ask for forgiveness and believe in his

death on the cross and that God raised

him from the dead and you will be saved.

You don't have to do anything. You have

to believe that he did everything and

that he is powerful enough and good

enough to accomplish that for you.

Jesus is powerful and good enough to

save you for all eternity.

Even if Superman was real, he could not

do that. So, I want to apply that just a

little bit to those who already believe.

And then I'd like to offer a prayer that

if anybody

believes it's it's their time to put

their faith in Jesus Christ, to to

confess their sin, to say, "Yes, I'm

sorry, Jesus. I know that I need to be

forgiven, and I can't accomplish that

for myself." I have a prayer I'd like to

pray for you. It's very short, just

three lines. I'll do one at a time in a

moment. But as Christians, maybe

Christmas is not all that exciting to

you right now because there's problem in

your marriage. Maybe kids have been kind

of difficult. Maybe things have been

stressful and even the very people that

you love the most have been very

frustrating towards you. Whatever it is,

maybe your job's not really going well.

Maybe you lost your job. Maybe things in

your life, maybe you've lost your

health. Whatever it is, Jesus is

powerful and good enough for that

to sustain you. If he can uphold the

this Hercules superstructure, he can

uphold you and he can uphold your soul

after you die.

So whatever it is, but also Christmas in

all the good things can be a

distraction. There can be a distraction

of the gifts. There can be a distraction

of the food. There can be a distraction

of the entertainment. There can be a

distraction of the joy of all the good

relationships that you may actually be

experiencing. And what you start

[clears throat] loving most about

Christmas, Christmas is those things.

But remember those things are created

by, through, and for Jesus Christ. And

they find their real glory in him. And

so instead of being drawn into those as

a distraction, say to yourself, Jesus,

thank you for this amazing food. Thank

you for this fun movie to watch. Thank

you for this church. Thank you for my

wife. Thank you for my husband.

You know, honestly, when somebody you

love is frustrating you or vice versa,

when you thank God for them, it is a

powerful way to just be cleansed of the

negative feelings that are bothering you

too and you wish you didn't have.

If we're as bad as Jesus says we are,

then we don't deserve our wives and our

wives don't deserve us. That one's

harder to say for me [laughter]

because I am a sinner saved by grace.

[cough]

But if you've never actually

realized that this is true and today

it's ringing true in your heart, that

means God's been working in your heart

by the spirit and that if with the in

the sincerity of your heart you mean

what this prayer means and you say it.

You don't even have to say it out loud.

You have to mean it in prayer in

relationship to the Lord. then day today

would be the very first day of your

eternal salvation. I believe that with

all my heart, it is true all the way

through. So, let's all fold our hands

and let's pray. I'm not going to be

asking for a raise of hands. Although,

if today was the day you repented and

believed, I want to know. So, and and

the elders want to know and we want to

walk alongside of you in the early stage

of your faith faith and beyond. So,

please let us know.

Here's the prayer, one light at a time.

Jesus, forgive my sin.

I believe that you died and rose again.

Please save me.

Amen.

I have been really enjoying the worship

time.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas

Eve worship time is the lighting of the

candles and we're going to be lighting.

Ushers will be come alongside the the

edges here on the outside. And I just

have a couple instructions especially

for the kids. as they light your candle,

tip the unlit candle towards the lit

candle or you might end up pouring hot

wax on yourself. That's what we're most

concerned about. And then as we're

worshiping, kids, go ahead and keep your

candle upright cuz then all the wax will

be caught in the little plastic catcher

and that way you're not getting any hot

wax on your hands either. Let me pray as

we come back to worship. Heavenly

Father, thank you for sending your all

powerful son to the earth. Thank you

that you are better, more good than we

could possibly fathom. Thank you for

sustaining our lives, for sustaining

this church, for sustaining us even in

worship. You empower us by your spirit

from within to worship you and we're

caught up in it. Thank you for that,

Lord. Thank you for becoming a human

being unlike Superman. Subject to pain,

subject

to vulnerability, subject to weakness

and being tired, and subject to death

for our sin. Thank you for all of those

things. It's why we worship you. Amen.