Christmas Eve 2023

Welcome

Good evening!

And Merry Christmas!

I would like to welcome you all to this Christmas Eve candlelight service.

I want to invite you all tonight,

As best you can,

To set aside your troubles,

To stop thinking about your to-do list for tomorrow still,

And to take this hour or so tonight,

To remember,

To think deeply about what matters most,

To, as the video said,

Look closer this Christmas at the Bible,

And what it tells us,

Better yet,

How it shows us,

God,

And the depth of His love for us!

Tonight, we are gathered to remember,

But also to renew our hope in this ancient story.

A story that actually begins long before the birth of baby in a manger,

A story that goes all the way back to the beginning.

A story about people.

People who are broken,

People who are wayward,

People who make mistakes,

People who are lost,

People who are just like us.

But the story is not just about people like us.

The story is also about the God who always loves people,

And pursues after them.

So, this ancient story is not just about far off distant historical figures or fictional characters.

It is your story,

And mine.

So, I want to invite you to listen closely,

As we look closer this Christmas at the Bible.

Pay careful attention to the thread that connects the dots of this story about you and me and God,

From the pages of the Bible,

And through the words of the songs we sing.

As you do,

Think about how God has pursued you in love,

And welcome His love into your heart this Christmas.

Please, let me pray for us all,

Then we will begin our story with the very first pages of recorded history in the Bible.

Let us pray.

“Loving Lord, we thank you that we can have this sense of assurance about your victory over the brokenness of this world and the brokenness in our lives. The cross defeated what is evil in this world. And though the effects of evil in this world can still be felt in deeply real and painful ways, I ask that when we feel alone and in darkness, may we remember that the One on the cross experienced the fullness loneliness, darkness, pain, and suffering, and in turn, overcame all that is evil on our behalf. So, it is in the Name of that One on the cross, Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, whom we ask these things, Amen.

Genesis 3:8-19

Song: Christ is Here

“He shall crush your head and you shall bruise his heel”,

This ancient prophecy is a glimmer of hope,

Coming at the end of humankind’s tumultuous beginning.

The heel that is bruised is Christ’s,

But the head that is crushed is Satan’s.

God fights for the freedom of His people from the enslavement to sin.

The battle plan that He outlines from the very beginning is…unconventional,

Completely defying human thought, logic, and reason.

Generations later,

God would use the faith of a man named Abraham and his family,

To bring the Savior into the world.

But first,

Abraham’s faith was tested.

Genesis 22:1-18

Children’s Lesson

Song: Joy to the World (Joyful, Joyful)

Hundreds of years after Abraham’s faith was tested,

His family grew into this mighty nation named after one of his sons,

Whom God would give the name, Israel.

But Abraham’s faith,

Was not embraced by all who came after him.

The nation of Israel’s faith would wax and wane.

Instead of being this light that shines and shimmers to all the nations,

They began adopting the different problems the other nations had.

And in doing so,

They broke their covenants with God.

They were breaking their promises to God,

Causing separation in their relationship.

So, God allowed these other influential nations to take over Israel,

Bringing them back into their home nations during a period in history called the exile.

Now, they were not only slaves to sin,

They became literal slaves to these other nations.

During this time,

That glimmer of hope that God gave of conquering sin and freeing His people,

Seemed all but lost.

Therefore, in this dark time,

God gave His people prophets.

People like Isaiah,

Who would tell the people in great detail about the coming of the Messiah,

The coming of a Savior,

And the hope of peace and freedom He would bring when He comes.

Isaiah 9:2-7

Song: O Holy Night

“Christ is the Lord, O praise His Name forever!”

Today, we know the prophecies were fulfilled in this person,

Jesus Christ.

But the leaders of this nation, Israel.

The leaders of God’s people.

The people through which the promise of Christ was given,

Did not believe this to be true.

They did not welcome Him as the One who was born to set them free.

God’s surprising plan to save His people,

Is filled with the weakest and lowliest of human kind.

Because it is among the weakest and lowliest where God’s glory and strength shimmers the brightest!

So, the light that would bring life to all,

Would come from the glorious splendor of heaven,

To the humblest of cribs,

A feeding trough in a stable.

Luke 2:1-16

Song: O Come All Ye Faithful

Song: Hark, the Herald Angels Sing

John 1:1-14

Poem

Song: What Child is This?

Sermon

So, our story at last finds it way to Bethlehem,

To the birth of the One called Jesus,

Who was called this,

Because He would save His people from their sins.

For thousands of years,

The God of love has been pursuing after His people who have been straying.

He would not quit.

He would not stop.

Until He brought our rescue to its completion.

We heard the hints.

In the first prophecy about one who would crush the head of the serpent.

We heard the echoes of it in the story of Abraham and Isaac,

And the sacrificial substitute God would provide,

As He spared Isaac’s life.

We heard the promises,

From the prophet Isaiah,

Who predicted about 500 years before Christ was born,

That One would be born.

One who would be called Wonderful Counselor,

Might God,

Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace.

And now,

We hear that at last,

He has come!

The long awaited Savior is born in a manger in Bethlehem,

The Word has now become flesh!

There is this simple yet beautiful poem I often reference on Christmas that tells us why Jesus came down.

It says,

“Love came down at Christmas, love all lovely, love divine; love was born at Christmas, star and angels gave the sign. Worship we the Godhead, love incarnate, Love divine; worship we our Jesus.”

This One who humankind waited so long for,

Came down at Christmas,

To embody the love of God to us!

The season of advent retells this long story,

The story of the God of love pursuing His people,

Spread across 4 weeks.

Each week during advent,

We would light a candle.

A candle of waiting,

A candle of expectation,

A candle of hope.

And now,

On the eve of the celebration of Christ’s birth,

We light His candle,

The Christ candle.

Advent Candles

I would like to invite our volunteers up,

To now come and light the candles.

We start with the highest candle,

As a symbol of the light of God’s love,

Sacrificially and faithfully,

Coming down to humankind from heaven.

And Jesus Christ is the brightest shining light of God’s love.

The Bible says He is the image of the invisible God,

The firstborn over all creation.

So, we light the first candle.

Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God,

Did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped,

But made Himself nothing,

Taking the very nature of a servant,

Being made in human likeness.

With this in mind,

We light the second candle.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.

We have seen His glory,

The glory of the One and Only,

Who cam from the Father,

Full of grace and truth.

And now, we light the third candle.

Son of God,

Love’s pure light.

Radiant beams from they holy face,

With the dawn of redeeming grace.

Jesus, Lord at Thy birth.

We light the fourth candle.

Before we light the fifth and final candle,

The Christ candle.

I would like to invite everyone to stand,

And read one final passage from the Bible.

It comes near the end of the Bible,

And it is about passing the light of Christ from one to another.

1 John 4:9-11

1 John 4:9–11 (ESV)

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the [satisfaction of God’s wrath] for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

In the spirit of this passage,

We light the Christ candle.

As God has always pursued after His people in love,

This night He is pursuing after you in love.

Be assured of His love for you tonight.

You are loved by God.

It is why Christ came.

To make the love of God known and accessible to each and everyone one of us.

So, if you are at the end of your row,

I would like to invite you to come forward with your candle,

And light your candle from the Christ candle.

Then return to your row,

And pass the light from one to another.

This passing of the light from the Christ candle,

Represents the giving and receiving of God’s love.

At this time,

You may come forward.

Song: Silent Night

Benediction

Please remain standing with your lights shining bright,

And let’s close tonight,

By confessing our faith together.

Read along with me,

This brief Christmas confession written by Bruce Pewer called, I Do Believe,

“I believe in God whose light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never smother it.

I believe that on a night like this night in Bethlehem there was born a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.

I believe in the Word who has become incarnate, our very flesh and blood, yet full of grace and truth.

I believe in the blessed appearing of the salvation of our God that is for the happiness of all people.

I believe in His Name as Wonderful Counselor, Might God, Everlasting Father, Prince of peace;

Of the increase of His rule and of His unique peace, there will be no end.

This I truly believe!”

Amen!

Turn and wish someone a Merry Christmas before you tonight,

Be sure to blow out your candles and drop them off in the box near the door on your way out.

Merry Christmas!