One Holy Night
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The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.
You shall multiply the nation,
You shall increase their gladness;
They will be glad in Your presence
As with the gladness of harvest,
As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,
The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.
For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult,
And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
Pray, invite the church to be seated
Isaiah wrote these words some 750 years before the birth of Christ
750 years before starlight lit the manger like a throne
750 years before there was no space in an inn
750 yeas before shepherd saw angels
Before maji made a journey
before Herod went on a rampage
750 years before Christmas, Isaiah wrote:
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
Too often in the Christmas Story, all we hear is that: a story
Something cute and colorful, wrapped with a bow
tucked in a box to pull out once a year with presents and tinsel
We teach it to children, and re-enact it in pageants
And it isn’t that any of these things are wrong...
But this holy night, what we celebrate is more than a story
In these last two years, we have longed for the world to return to normal
We have longed to put the craziness of the pandemic and the election and the upside-down cycle of events in the rear view mirror
But my prayer is that we find Christmas is anything but normal. Tonight,
We celebrate a promise kept
We celebrate a promise kept
It was a promise thousands of years in the making
We first find it in Genesis 3:15 when God tells the serpent
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
This child was to be the seed of a woman
The only time we ever find that word in the feminine.
It is the promise of a virgin birth
To Abraham, God promised to bless all the families of the earth
He is the descendant of David, of whom Psalm 110 declares
The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
The Prophets echo his coming again and again
In Isaiah He’s of the line of David
Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
In Micah He is born in Bethlehem
“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity.”
We sit on more than 2000 years of Christmas celebrations; but tonight, let it fill you with wonder again
For, there was a day before Christmas came!
For thousands of years Christmas was merely a promise
until one dark night in Bethlehem that promise was kept
Tonight, we celebrate that promise, and
We celebrate the hope He brings
We celebrate the hope He brings
There is no greater hope a man can know than freedom from our sins
Through Isaiah, God promised as much
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
In Jesus we find forgiveness for all the ways we fall short of God’s glory
Our debts are not forgotten, they are paid in His blood
At Christmas, we stand at the doorway to forgiveness,
Let us leap for joy with Simeon at the site of Jesus
“Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace,
According to Your word;
For my eyes have seen Your salvation,
Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
A Light of revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.”
Let us praise Him in wonder with John as
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Let us declare with Peter that
“He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone.
“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
In Jesus, we celebrate our only hope, and at Christmas we are reminded our hope is assured
Our God is a God who keeps His promises
He is the Light that was born in the darkness to break the yoke of Sin and death
To the redeemed, Christmas is anything but normal, it is our celebration of the One who Saves us
With Paul we cry out
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Tonight, let us celebrate our amazing God
We celebrate a promise kept
We celebrate the hope that He brings, and...
We look with joy to His glorious return
We look with joy to His glorious return
This Jesus, born at Christmas in the city of David
This King, crucified and lifted up as the serpent in the wilderness
This Jesus, Lord of All, who rose again from the dead
This Jesus, who ascended into heaven as His disciples watched in awe
And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them.
They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”
As we remember that our God keeps His promises, remember that He promised that Christ will return
Jesus is coming again, and we can rejoice in the promise because we know it is true
At Christmas, as we look to his return, we remember what we’re doing here
With everything we are we strive to Know Jesus and to Make Him known because we know He is returning
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
“And you know the way where I am going.”
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
As we celebrate His coming, While we await His return, let us keep our eyes fixed on the King of the manger
As we celebrate His hope, His peace, His promise, and salvation, we need to do so looking forward
Forward into the life He has called us to live in proclaiming His Name
Forward to His unending reign, when we will be with Him forever
Tonight, in the stillness, before the excitement of ripped paper and bows,
Let this be the celebration!
Before the tasty treats, and special meals, let us make much of Christmas
Let us turn our hearts fully to Him. Let us make Him the center of His celebration, because tonight
In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.
And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people;
for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
“This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
As we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together this evening, let us remember He is more than a story
He must remain so in us, if we are to receive in Him, His Christmas
He is, tonight, our hope. Hope we find in the promise of God
Hope rooted in promises kept by this baby, this child, born in a manger
For as our ushers come forward, we prepare to share in this Lord’s supper together.
I will read for us, from Scripture. Then our ushers will pass to you the bread and the juice, these symbols of the body and blood of Christ.
Would you use this time to reflect, and to one more time, search for how God might prepare your heart this Christmas. We will then take these elements together.
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;
and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.