Carols by Candle Light
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Joke - What did the wise men say after they offered up their gifts of gold and frankincense? Wait, there's myrrh.
My favourite recent joke - which has nothing to do with Christmas - Why do you never see elephants hiding in trees? Because they are very good at it!
Pray -
I was listening to the radio this week when a caller said how much they love this time of year.
You can close yourself in a room and if anyone comes to the door you can just shout ‘Don’t come in’ and they go away excited that you’re wrapping up presents for them.
When actually you can be enjoying a secret glass of wine and some mince pies!
Much about life is wonderful - the giving and receiving of presents would be a very small example.
but there is no escaping - much is also very hard - and so finding some time to hide away with some wine is an attractive proposition.
There are external forces at play in the difficulties of life:
Financial pressure
- fear of a burglary,
Job insecurity,
Health concerns?
There are also internal forces.
Our guilt for not loving our parents, children or spouses as we should.
Or we have secrets that are eating us up.
Or fear that something we did once will catch us up
Or people will realsise we are the frauds we feel we are inside.
If you like, we have all shut the door on the truth of life and are drinking wine and eating mince pies - don’t come in - we shout to anyone who gets too close.
I don’t know if you believe in the God of the bible here today - I know many of us do, but some of us wont.
But the bible understands our inner darkness and fears at the world around and our own failings.
The passage we read from Isaiah is about an ancient people, the Israelietes, who should have been living in Israel.
History records, as does the bible, that nearly 6000 years ago the Assyrian Empire from the north captured the Northern kingdom of Israel and took the people into captivity - in modern day Iraq.
History sees it all as external forces at work on the people of Israel - they offered good Labour and good lands - so they were invaded and oppressed.
But the book of Isaiah says, as is often the case - external forces are a consequence of an internal problem.
IN fact chapter 6 v10 says that the Israeliets were ‘blind and deaf’ to their God.
And so it was their own God who allowed the Assyrians to invade.
An internal problem that led to external evils.
They had shut the door and shouted to God - Don’t come in - hoping they could fool Him -
that they were doing something good towards him - when actually - they had dark secrets and a rebelion towards His Holy ways. - The bible simply call that sin.
Have you ever considered that if God is really God - then we too, all of us live life like that.
‘Don’t come in’!
It’s a bold move - that isn’t going to end well. We are all sinners in that sense. none of us are good enough, holy enough for a Holy and wonderful, and awsome God.
We have all sinned,
All shouted - ‘Don’t come in’ - I’m, err, doing something good!!
It’s not going to end well before a Holy and just God - who can’t ignore our rebelion - our sin.
We wouldn’t want an earthly judge to let people get away with injustice - how could a perfect and good God ignore ours.
And so - for the Israelites - they faced an earthly representation of God’s final judgement as a warning.. Captured and taken away by the Assirians.
But becasue God is just, neihter the Israelites or the Assyrians will avoid his judgement.
And so on Isa 10 33, which we read - we hear of God’s plans for all of them.
See, the Lord, the Lord Almighty, will lop off the boughs with great power. The lofty trees will be felled, the tall ones will be brought low. He will cut down the forest thickets with an axe; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.
Describing humanity which is set against God, as dense healthy forrest
- the forrest is being felled and cleared!
It’s a picture that offers no hope - a desolate dead land, where even the kings have been reduced to pointless tree stumps.
The line of Kings has failed - God’s poeple are cleared away to excile - judgemnt has come. And no amount of hiding behind a closed door will save them - or us.
They need, we need a King who ‘can’ save.
Someone to reverse the pain of external and internal forces.
Someone to deal with our sin and the evil in this world.
Closing the door doesn't’ remove this if it’s true - Shouting ‘don’t come in’, hiding our sin - saying we don’t believe in a God - none of that will work on God - like it does on a 4 year old!
Our sin will be judged - we will be separated from the love of God eternally - and sent and to the place the bible calls hell.
pause
Well - you’re thinking -
Not much festive cheer here is there! You came to feel warm and cozy inside - not be told you’re a sinner facing the right judgement of God.
But this is exactly what we need to understand if we want to see just how incredible and wonderful the message of Christmas is.
Christmas is not about the world trying to think nice thoughts,
or to encourage us to seek world pease,
or to live a good life!
That’s not very good news - it’s just another self-help message that leaves us pretending on the outside, but really the door is still closed - Don’t come in - and judgement still awaits us all before God.
No, Christmas is so much better than that.. - how sad our world has removed Christ from Christmas - for doing that condemns us all !
There is no hope in that message.
pause
So what is the hope of Christmas.
Remember that felled forrest - those mighty ones fallen - no King to save, no life worth living. Just old tree stumps sitting dead in the ground.
There is no hope for Israel - as, if we’re truly honest with ourselevs - there should be no hope for us before a Holy God that we’ve rejected.
But
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
Jesse was the Father of the first King of Israel, King David.
King David was a good king, but even he failed to live to God’s standards.
That first King of Hope still wasn’t good enough.
But - this prophesy was written long after King David - it promises one like Him - a new King David - a shoot from the dead stump - even more, a branch from the very roots of Jesse - will bear fruit.
And this King will be different - perhaps there is hope for the Israelites - for us today.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord— and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash round his waist.
This King will have the Very Spirit of God - in short he will be God.
And he wont judge the world like we do - based on what we see and hear - but he will judge by what is truly right and just.
Those external forces of evil that we live with - health, invasions, job insecurity - those things will be brought to account.
And our internal sin?
Well that depends on our responce to this King!
In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.
This shoot of Jesse - The King who will save,
He IS a Banner for all people, for all nations to rally to him!
Come he says - don’t bury your heads, don’t shout ‘don’t come in’
Come to me - I’m right here.
Christmas is so wonderful becasue the shoot of Jesse, actually broke into history.
As a Banner that declares - Gather to me!
Jesus was born.
The King who can save.
He is the Spirit of God, for He was born of the virgin Mary, by the work of the Holy Sprirt.
He was fully human - understanding the evil and temptations we face
- but he never closed the door to God.
He never had a secret to hide.
He lived perfectly at every step were we have not.
We have sinned - but he was sinless!
The hope of the world has been born.
Light shines into this darkness
The banner is hung high for all who are humble enough and willing to open our doors of sin, and say - forgive me - I come to you for grace and mercy!
And we will find it. - His resting place - his forgiveness and mercy we read is ‘glorious’.
We can rest in glory for all eternity in perfect joy and love with God Almighty - Because of Christmas if we go to the Banner for grace.
Christmas is so wonderful because the God who must rightly judge us for our sin chooses to do something about it, for us, by giving us Jesus his son - who would be born yes - but also die - at easter, to take the judgement we deserve upon himself - so that we might be forgiven!
You can’t really speak about Christmas without Speaking about Easter.
Jesus died and was judged so that we don’t have to be. He swapped places with us before God.
So we can gather under his banner that reads - I have already paid the price for this one.
Open the door this Christmas.
Repent and believe - come to the banner of truth and life.
Come to the one - who came once and will come again to end all evil and injustice.
And on that day - or when we die - whichever comes first -
we need to be under the banner of Christ - not behind our closed door saying ‘don’t come in;.
And that day and all of eternity - will be a glorious rest.
The last words we haven’t looked at in this reading gives us a visual picture to illustrate just how wonderful eternity with Jesus will be.
All those reasons we’ve shut the door - both external and internal - well he will remove all evil and sin - and we will be at joyful, wonderful, eternal rest and ease.
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Open the door of your heart today - and instead - Gather to in Lord Jesus.
Pray
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