Christmas Eve Candlelight

Welcome and Advent 5

Corporate Worship:

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

O Come Let Us Adore Him Medley

Isn’t He

New Baby, New Beginning

The beginning of the Bible began with, well…the beginning…of creation, that is. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” That’s how it all started, the first words of the Bible.

The NT begins in quite a different way: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.” Many people frequently read the beginning of Genesis to marvel at God’s creative power and might…and skip right over the beginning of the New Testament to “get to the good stuff.” Genealogy — we know that’s a big word that simply refers to tracing your family tree…your parents and their parents and their parents…on and on the genealogy goes. And that’s how the NT begins.

But here’s something special that we may gloss over, especially if we’re not in the habit of reading the Bible in the original languages. Matthew uses the word genesis in the beginning of his gospel. Just like the first book of the Bible. Maybe what Matthew is trying to tell us is that there’s a new start, a new genesis…a new…beginning.

Make no mistake about it, though. This is not an entirely new beginning. It is quite connected to the old. Jesus didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s not that this mythical and mysterious baby suddenly fell out of the sky on to a soft bed of hay. He wasn’t created in a science lab or with a magic wand. He’s actually the great, great, great, great…add a few more greats…grandson of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was from the tribe of Judah. He was born of the house of David. In His colorful family tree, He had some…characters. But, we all have a few of those cousins or aunts or uncles! Have you read the account of Tamar recently? She married two of Judah’s sons, but when they both died, Judah refused to give her a third son to marry. Long story short, she…briefly becomes a lady of the night to sleep with Judah and becomes pregnant with twins, Perez and Zerah. Well, Judah wanted to put her to death when he found out she was expecting. He didn’t want to be associated with a…lady of the night. But, he’d left his seal, cord, and staff as a promise until he could give her the goat he promised. She sends a message to Judah saying, “Hey, first, I want you to know that I’m pregnant by whomever owns these things.” YIKES! Well, long and crazy story short, Perez ends up in the genealogy of Jesus.

You also find Ruth, who was a Moabitess…not a Jew.

Then there’s Bathsheba, and we know how that all went down.

All of this to say, Jesus was real, with a real backstory and a real family with a real family tree full of real promises and real people with real problems. He was born, just like us. Yet, He was unlike us. That’s the truth about being the unique God-man. Jesus was born like any other baby boy, but His birth was unlike any before or since.

As we remembered a few weeks back, His parents, Mary and Joseph, they were betrothed…they’d legally promised to get married, but they weren’t yet, and Mary was pregnant! Remember how Joseph was an upright man, how he sought to put her away quietly, gently…with compassion, before an angel appears to him in a dream.

“Joseph, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She hasn’t done anything wrong. Her baby is by the Holy Spirit.” And, “her son will be called Jesus because He will save His people from their sins.”

Things were beginning to happen that people had hoped would happen for a long, long time. It was centuries ago, but Isaiah had predicted that a virgin would have a son called Immanuel, God with us. In other words, a young woman with no earthly means of having a baby was going to give birth to a heavenly child.

And we know the rest of the story. Joseph did everything the angel said, and Jesus was everything the angel promised He would be. Jesus…you know His name means, “the LORD saves.” Could there have been a more perfect name for the baby born in Bethlehem? An imperfect world needed a perfect Savior, and this is the perfect beginning to every person’s new beginning, even though God has been writing this story even before the very beginning of time.

Let us pray: We thank You, God, for Christmas, for King Jesus born as a baby, and that you are with us. Thank You for this amazing gift, Amen.

Corporate Worship:

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Here I Am To Worship

Great and Awesome: The Lord’s Day

Ever since sin entered our world — not long after man and woman entered the world — God had promised a deliverer. We first meet him as the Snake Crusher…then the child of Abraham, the goat taken outside of the camp, the tabernacle of God’s presence, wisdom from on high, and then the shiny One in the fiery furnace.

Later, He’s introduced as a prophet like Moses, a priest who takes away our sins, and a king like His father David.

He’s the Messiah, the anointed One. He’s the tabernacle of God who comes to dwell in our midst. He’s both our scapegoat and the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. He’s our Redeemer who lives!

All throughout the OT, there are hints of His coming and predictions of His arrival.

He will be born of a virgin, wrapped in swaddling clothes, born in Bethlehem in a time of trouble. He will be both conquering king and suffering servant, the One who is smitten and stricken and afflicted, cursed for our transgressions pierced for our sins.

God’s people didn’t know exactly what to look for, but if they paid attention to the prophets, they knew that their deliver would be a ruler, a teacher, and a covenant keeper. He would be a branch from Jesse’s tree and yet a rock of offense, the stone that the builders rejected.

The One they were waiting for would be a wonderful counselor and a prince of peace, a light to the Gentiles, and the Lord of righteousness. He would be both Son of God and Son of Man, sent from the Father, as the Son and empowered by the Holy Spirit. He would be a cursed One who brought blessings and a forsaken One that we might be forgiven. He would be the desire of nations and the destroyer of the devil.

So, many kept looking…watching…waiting…hoping to see the One the prophets had promised, the Consolation of Israel, the proclaimer of good news and Himself the Good Shepherd…a Savior sent for us and Immanuel, God with us.

Before it all happened, a messenger would prepare the way, just as the prophets had predicted. And finally, a day that is coming when all of the proud people are cast down and all the humble people lifted up…a dreadful days for the top dogs, and a beautiful day for the poor in spirit.

A day that is both great and awesome.

And when the king come as a baby arrived, indeed it was.

But still, indeed it will be, that is, when He returns. The Lord beautifully reminds us, “If you stand in awe of me, the sun of righteousness will warm your face, and you’ll go running through the land like a little cow just learning what to do with its legs.”

So today, just as hopes were realized with Christ’s first coming, may we, too, continue to look forward in faith....in hope...full of the Savior’s love…fully believing that the One we wait for, that His return is right around the corner, and with His return…every wrong made right forevermore.

Let us pray: We praise You, Heavenly Father, for You sent Your Son to redeem us and make atonement for our sins and to make us Your people forever. We look forward to Your great and awesome day when You make all things right again, and we pray, come, Lord Jesus, come. Amen.

Lighting of the Candles

Until He returns, we have a call on our lives, a commission from Christ our King: share the hope of the world with the world. Just as we’ve seen and beheld and committed our lives to follow the Light of the World, so we also preach and proclaim and plead with others to do the same in full assurance that He can and will save His people. The light that was once born little more than a Bethlehem barn is the light that lives inside us that we carry into a dark and dying world. As you receive the light, marvel at the miracle of Immanuel, and remember the call to carry Him His truth everywhere we go.