Christmas Eve 2019

Salvation Has Come

Merry Christmas Everyone!

(lets give the kids and their teachers a round of applause)

My name is Kyle Lammott, I’m the lead pastor here at Exodus Church

I am a man who loves excitement.

I ask my kids all the time if they are excited for this or that.

are you excited to play basketball?

are you excited to go to the movies?

are you excited to do chores today?

are you excited for Christmas?

So, let me ask you kids…

“Kids, How excited are you for Christmas?”

Christmas is a time to rejoice! (what does it mean to rejoice? its means to celebrate)

This is the day we celebrate the birth of Christ,

Immanuel (God with us),

the wonderful councilor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace.

The son of David, the root of Jessie, the King of Israel, and the savior of the world.

The glorious fact that God entered into the darkness of our world to bring us into the light of his glory, to bring salvation to the world, is reason enough for us to rejoice every day of the year, yet it is good and right to set one day aside to celebrate the coming of our savior.

What is there not to be excited about???

So when we celebrate Christmas, we should REALLY celebrate!

So when we celebrate Christmas, we should REALLY celebrate!

For Christians, Christmas should be a day of feasting:

bellies full of good food, good drink, and lots of laughters.

bellies full of good food, good drink, and lots of laughter.

bellies full of good food, good drink, and lots of laughters.

The stories of Jesus’ birth go out of their way to tell us about men and women who are excited, who rejoice over the birth of the Messiah

John the baptist jumped for joy in his mothers womb when Mary, pregnant with Jesus, enters her home

Mary rejoices at the news of being pregnant with Jesus, she says, “my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

The Angles rejoiced, the shepherds rejoices, the wisemen rejoiced.

The Birth of Jesus is

Jesus tells us that even Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to his coming.

There are many great ways we celebrate Christmas in our day.

This should not be the case, out of all the people in the world those who follow Jesus should celebrate with the most vigor and joy at Christmas.

We should see every part of Christmas as a conduit that leads us to Christ, not something that distracts.

Think about some of the different traditions we have for Christmas

Christmas Tree and presents

What a great symbol for us to see everyday during the advent season. under the Christmas tree we receives gifts, in the same way under the tree Jesus died upon we receive the greatest gifts, of grace, mercy, forgiveness, and salvation.

Presents

Presents are not to distract us from Jesus, present lead us to Jesus. When we give gifts to one another we image our father in heaven who has given us the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ.

Special meals

When we eat and drink we are to do so for the glory of God, food and drink please the senses God has given us which allows us to praise God for his overwhelming kindness toward us.

Christmas dinner at my grandparents was always so good

Christmas Tree

turkey, ham, twice-baked potatoes, carrot casserole, egg-nog

What a

Time with Family and friends

When we spend time with family and friends we enjoy the unity and bond Christ died to create, the body of Christ, the family of God, enjoying time together around the celebration of the birth of Christ.

growing up we always went to my grandparents house on Christmas day. Not only was did I enjoy time with my cousins, seeing my aunts and uncles and grandparents, but I loved being at my grandparents house.

Christmas music

Throughout the bible celebration is accompanied with music. Around the throne of God there is an everlasting song being sung. So at Christmas we should join our voices with the angels of heaven and praise him for what he has done in Christ.

Christmas Eve Service

perhaps one of the best ways we celebrate Christmas is by hanging Christmas Lights

Last night we took our family around to look at Christmas lights. We went to the Arc which had a very impressive display of Christmas lights.

Christmas lights are a wonderful symbol for for the incarnation of Christ. For Jesus has come as a light in the darkness. John says,

John 1

John 1:4–5 ESV

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

He is the light in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it!

EXAMPLE*** Kids, who here is or ever has been afraid of the dark?

I remember as a kid spending the night as my grandparents house. A house that felt perfectly safe during the day, at night became a place where all my senses were on high alert.

It was an old house in New England

It had so many rooms, places to explore, antique furniture, and so on.

It was like a house from the story books.

during the day it was one of my favorite places to be. But at night, everything that loved about the house became the very things I feared.

The old radiators would knock during the night

The pipes would make strange noises

And the walls and floors would creek.

And all the old furniture seemed to cast very strange shadows on the walls and ceilings

There were times in the darkness of my grandparents house that I experienced a lot of fear as my imagination would run wild.

You see, in the darkness i could not rejoice, i could not celebrate.

For the darkness only brought fear, worry and anxiety.

There is a weight to the darkness that keep the heart from rejoicing.

When I was at my grandparents house, the only thing that would bring any sort of comfort was to turn on the lights.

When the lights came on, the fear vanished as quickly as the darkness.

The light came with with comfort, peace, and rest.

When the lights came on i was able to see the house as it really was, the lies of the darkness gave way to the truth of the light.

When Jesus came, he came as the light of the world, he came to push back the darkness of sin and give us the truth of his light.

You see, the darkness of sin has enslaved people from the days of Adam. In the darkness of sin there is no life, only death.

And our only hope is that God himself would save us our of the darkness. For we are incapable of saving ourselves.

And this is why we celebrate Christmas - Jesus has come, the word was made flesh, the eternal God dwelling with man, and he saved his people from their sins.

I

This is what the Angel told Joseph before Jesus was born.

Matthew 1:21 ESV

21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

This is why we rejoice at Christmas.

This is why we have Christmas trees and presents,

This is why you have good food and drink

This is why you enjoy traditions, and music, and lights, and Christmas Eve services -

God himself wrapped himself in flesh and came to his people. He came to bring salvation.

He came defeat Satan, sin and death. He has transferred us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Christ.

peace

This is why we rejoice at Christmas

We rejoice because Jesus has come, and he has saved his people from their sins!

joy

He came defeat Satan, sin and death. He has transferred us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Christ.

We rejoice for Jesus Christ has saved us from the darkness and brought us into the light

Rejoice! for Jesus came to remove our guilt and shame and give us a righteousness that will never fade.

love

We rejoice for the fear of darkness has been cast out by the perfect love of God

rightousness

Because Jesus came to remove our guilt and shame and give us a righteousness that will never fade.

This is why we rejoice at Christmas

We rejoice because the light of Christ has shown into our lives and has saved us from

that we might know

Rejoice! for Jesus poured out his great love toward us, he died in our place to bring us into perfect harmony with God.

Jesus poured out his great love toward us, he died in our place to bring us into perfect harmony with God.

Jesus poured out his great love toward us, he died in our place to bring us into perfect harmony with God.

This is why we rejoice at Christmas

Rejoice! for He has come to bring truth and hope to the grieving heart. For apart from Jesus we are lost in the lies of the world.

Rejoice! for Jesus has brought a glory that will never fade away. He is the greatest, he is the ultimate satisfaction.

We rejoice at Christmas because Salvation has come, for he has saved his people from their sins.

If you are here this evening, and have never experienced the grace of God, I want to invite you to place your faith in Jesus, confess your sins and repent, and for the first time in your life you will have THE reason to rejoice this Christmas. If that is you, come talk to me after the service, talk to pastor Zach, because we want to rejoice with you.

Lets pray.

Jesus was born into political termoil,

You see, when the curse of sin entered the world the whole world was cast into darkness.

the glory of God’s light was concealed behind curtains were people could not see.

The nations of the world were lived in spiritual darkness. And when you live in darkness you tend to make a mess of things.

Though the world was cast into darkness, God did not leave his people without hope. They had hope that the light would return.

And when that light would return he would bring with him

Peace, love, joy and righteousness

That when the light would come he would come as a King, and he would bring an eternal love that

True peace cannot be known or experienced in the darkness

That when the light would come he would rule with justice and give his righteousness to his people

Apart from the light of God, the world knows no peace, but rather chaos and turmoil rules.

The people of God longed for and anticipated the day when the peace of God would return, they waited for generations for the light to come into the darkness.

But what would happen if you lived your whole life in the dark, do you think we might be afraid of the light?

Jude 24–25 ESV

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.