Christmas Eve Service 2023 - 4:30pm Service - John 8:12
First B Jackson
2023-12-25

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Well, hello, everybody, and Merry Christmas to you. Christmas. Glad you're here to worship with us. And, this really is one of our our our favorite worship gatherings of the year, and and we're just glad that you're you're here to be a part of it and worship with us. Just a couple of things before we before before we get started.

First, there is overflow down the hall. So if we run our seats in here, it looks like we have, the service is livestreamed in the Fellowship Hall, you don't have to go home. Also, we have a nursery downstairs. So if you have little ones that are feeling restless, we really want you to be here. But if you have little ones that are feeling restless and say, I'm not doing this, the the nursery is available downstairs if if needed.

So it'll be livestreaming there. That's all I have for announcements. Church, tonight is just meant to be a fun, reflective, and worshipful night. We're here to celebrate the Christ in Christmas, and we'll do that by reading the nativity story, singing Christmas songs. We'll close in a traditional candle lighting.

So to begin, I'd like to invite up the Owings family Owings family. So Glenn, Liz, Caleb, Logan, Cely, and Timber, and they're gonna light the two remaining candles on the advent wreath, the candle of love and the much anticipated Christ candle. Now at the end of the service, not quite yet, we're gonna use that Christ candle in the center to light ours and spread that light to one another. And thank you, allings, for the Advent reading tonight.

Alright. As we light the candle of love, it can remind us of God's greatest gift to us, his son Jesus. John three sixteen says, God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. We also light the Christ candle, representing Jesus as the light of the world. As the candle is lit, may Jesus' words in John eight twelve resonate in our hearts and be reflected in our lives.

Whoever follows him will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Hey. Would you stand with me? And we're gonna sing some songs together. This is very participatory. And, but may I pray first and just...

We'll open up in prayer. Lord, we thank you for the gift of Jesus. That is why we're here, the reason for this season, the light of the world. And as we gather here tonight to hear the story and sing the songs, may we open our hearts to you and truly joyfully praise you. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Hey, are you having fun? Okay. I just want to check.

Joy to the world. I mean, if we're going to sing of joy, let's have it. You can have a seat here. And Ray is gonna share the Christmas story as it's presented in scripture. So it'll be kind of scripture song, scripture song.

And whenever you see lyrics on the screen, would you please sing with us?

From the prophets Isaiah and Micah. 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 Emmanuel. 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. From Micah. But as for you Bethlehem Ephesians, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you, one, with a capital o, will go forth for me, with a capital m, to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.

You can remain seated, but what'd you what'd you sing, though? We'll sing God Rescue Mary Jones.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, which means salvation, by the way.

Yeshua, salvation. For he will save his people from their sins. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife.

Amen. Wow. Now in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all of the inhabited earth. And this was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census each to his own city.

Joseph also went up from Galilee from the city of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and the family of David. In order to register along with Mary who was engaged to him and was with child. And while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. In the same region, there were some shepherds and they were staying out in the fields and they were 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 about 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 of the peoples. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a savior who is Christ the Lord. And 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 that 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 well pleased. When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, let's go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us. May I stop right here for a moment? Have you noticed that when an angel spoke, angel is a messenger by the way. Angel means messenger.

When a messenger spoke to Mary, she said, may it be to me just as you have said. When an angel spoke to Joseph, it said he got up from there and did as was commanded him. And the shepherds, as soon as they had this message that was delivered to them, they said, let us get up straight from here and go into Bethlehem then and see this thing which has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. I like that. I think we're here to hear this message again.

Right? You all have heard this message before, have you not? May we act on the message that we hear. So they came in a hurry and they found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger. And when they had seen this, they made known the statement which they had been told to them about this child.

And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured all of these things and was pondering them in her heart. Now the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and all that they had seen, which was just as it had been told to them. That's from Luke two. You wanna have them stand with us, Carl?

Yeah. So speaking of glorifying and praising God, let's stand again. We'll sing a couple more songs. Angels, we've heard on high Version

Y'all can have a

seat. Yes. You can have a seat here for a moment. Ray's gonna share more about those wise men that we've seen.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, Magi from the East arrived in Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? Now, for context, Herod was the king of the Jews as far as Herod knew. So somebody showing up on his doorstep saying, where is he who has been born the king of the Jews would be upsetting for a megalomaniac, which all history shows that he is. For we saw his star in the East, and we have come to worship him. Now when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

Because when the king ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. Really. He... Gathering together all of the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where this Messiah, new king was to be born. And they said to him, well, in Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what has been written by the prophet.

And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means the least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. And then Herod secretly called the Magi and determined from them the exact time the star had appeared. He was trying to establish a timeline. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully for the child. And when you have found him, report back to me so that I too may come and worship him.

After hearing the king, they went on their way. And the star which had they had seen in the East, it went on before them until it came and it stood over the place where the child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. Now, these folks were not old testament scholars. These folks were from beyond the lands of the chosen people of God.

This is people that were falling after stars. Astrologers, you might say. Astronomers for sure. And they had seen a great light. That's actually the answer of a prophecy also.

And they saw this great light and they followed after it. They went after the light that God was showing them. When they saw that star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy, and they went after it. And after coming into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell to the ground and they worshipped him. And then opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

I'll come back to that in a minute.

Now we're going to pause there for just a moment. And in the spirit of giving, the joy and generosity like the Magi and the story, we too have an opportunity to to give this evening. So I'll invite the ushers and Rachel and and James is already up here. They're gonna share special music. But while they're coming forward, I I I really want you to know that you, are are not obligated to give, like, at all.

You're not obligated to give. That's not why we hold this service. If you feel compelled to give, I want you know what you're you're giving too. At First V, we support missionaries all over the world, here in The US and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe. And you'll see a picture of just a few of them on the screen here in just a minute.

And this year, our staff and our elders and our mission team all agreed enthusiastically that we wanna bless our missionaries even more this year. These are folks who wholeheartedly share the good news of God's love and forgiveness and word and deed to some of the most spiritually dark places on earth. So if that sounds like something that you'd like to give to, wonderful. And if not, that's okay. Either way, we'll pause just for a moment here to reflect and give thanks.

And Ray, may I ask you to pray?

God almighty, we thank you for thank you for this evening where we're gathered here, Lord, in your name, to hear a retelling of the Christmas story, the greatest story ever told. Lord, I pray that, as these are serving in their various fields, they are carrying this same message about a God who loves so intently that he came in person to walk out this life, to be tempted in every way that we are tempted and yet without sin. Thank you for the life, the righteous life of Jesus. Thank you for the acceptable sacrifice which was made on behalf of all who would put their faith and trust in him. In Jesus' name, Lord, we ask that you'd bless this offering to do your kingdom's work here in this valley and also to the very uttermost parts, Lord.

Show us your way and allow us, Lord, allow us privilege to humbly walk in it. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. This is a hymnal. It's not the Schofield Bible.

But I've got a song that we're not singing tonight. It's called We Three Kings. So We Three Kings of Orientare, you all know that one, right? It's a nice bassy number for those of us who sing down in the bottom register. Most of the time when we sing it, we don't sing all three kings.

Usually, we sing the first verse, we three kings of Orientar bearing gifts, we traverse afar, Field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star. That's the normal one. Yeah. That's the one everybody knows. If you sing a second one, you probably sing, born a king on Bethlehem's plain, gold I bring to crown him again.

King forever, ceasing never over us all to reign. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold is a gift for a king, in tradition. Doesn't say specifically that that's the case in Bible, but it was normal for kings to receive gold as a gift. Solomon and David and other kings received gold.

And so that points to Jesus' reign as king. Frankincense to offer have I incense owns a deity nigh. Frankincense is a symbol of his divinity or deity. By tradition, incense was used in worship, it was an aroma that would rise up to heaven. And so, that makes sense for a 100% human and 100% divine individual.

These wise men brought this. Prayer and praising all men raising worship him, God on high. That's what that third verse says. The one we skip and hardly ever sing is myrrh. How many of know what myrrh even is?

Right? Myrrh, what is myrrh? Myrrh is and I think it smells beautiful. We have a bowl at home that's made out of myrrh resin, and it just smells great. But it's an unusual gift for a baby.

It's an unusual gift for a baby shower because its primary use at this time was embalming. It's used in the embalming process. And so to receive a gift of gold as a king and to receive gifts of frankincense as deity, that makes sense. But to receive a gift of an embalming fluid has a foreshadowing that is kind of difficult. This fourth verse is about that.

It says, Myrrh is mine. Traditionally, Balthazar brought myrrh. Myrrh is mine. It's bitter perfume breathes a life of gathering gloom, sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in a stone cold tomb. There's a reason we skipped that verse.

That is a big downer, is it not? I mean knowing what we know now, the fifth verse will go into that. But man, that's a tough one. That's a hard one to take. Myrrh in this instance, gold frankincense and myrrh, that's what it says.

And we don't see... I I'm a... I like to do... I like to study kind of exhaustively. That's the way I like to do it.

And I like it when you look and there are only three instances of a word in scripture because you can kinda stop there, right, instead of going on and on. Myrrh is given to Jesus and his parents at his birth or shortly thereafter his birth. And I I can see the foreshadowing there. Difficult to bring embalming fluid to a baby shower. The next time we see it, it also has narcotic properties.

In Mark's Gospel, in Mark fifteen twenty three, he says, While Jesus was being raised up on the cross, they offered to him wine mixed with myrrh. And myrrh has mild narcotic. It's a pain killer. So he denies it. He's going up on the cross, and as he is going to be feeling what it feels like to have the sins of mankind placed on his shoulders, Jesus denies the narcotic and wants to feel that feel.

And the next time we see it in scripture is to prepare his body for burial. Turns out he didn't need that. He's only in there from Friday to Sunday. But 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes were placed on him, and that gets us to this fifth verse of We Three Kings. I'm making it my goal to always sing all five.

Glorious now, behold him arise. King and God and sacrifice. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Earth to heaven replies.

The song of the angels was that it's goodwill towards men. It's good favor, God's good favor on those who will accept this gift. And the last verse of this song says, Earth to heaven replies back that they've accepted that gift. That's pretty cool. Star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading, still proceeding.

God almighty, please guide us toward thy perfect light. Amen.

Speaking of that perfect light, as Jesus grew and he began his public ministry in John eight twelve, he said, I'm the light of the world. And if you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness because you'll have the light that leads to life. And tonight, want you to hear that very, very, very real invitation to all of you to trust and to follow Jesus. He is extending his grace always in our direction. He has sent...

God has sent Jesus as the light of the world to rescue us from the power of sin and darkness and to give us light that leads to life, abundant life now and life eternal. In response to this invitation, we're gonna close in a candle lighting. So I'll invite you to stand with your candle. And while you're standing, I'll invite our elders. Our...

If our elders would please come forward, and our elders are gonna light, their candles from this Christ candle right here in the center, and they'll pass that along to you. And that candle in the center represents Jesus as the light of life. And once your candle's lit, then we'll pass that to one another representing our task to let the light of Christ shine through us to the world. So when your candle's lit, would you please be sure to hold it straight up? Let that person next to you with their unlit candle tip theirs toward yours.

Watch those eyebrows and eyelashes. We'll keep those at Christmas. And while we're lighting these candles, I invite you to sing a couple of songs with us. We're gonna sing Away in a Manger and Silent Night. And may I also ask one of our elders, would you please turn off the the sanctuary lights here while our...

While we're lighting the candles? We'll sing away in a manger in silent night. You can now blow out your candles. But as you do, would you please hear this that we might blow out these candles, but there is nothing that can extinguish the true light of Christ. John one five says, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it or overcome it.

And I just want you to be encouraged by that, that the light of Christ cannot be overcome by darkness. Jesus is that true light who gives light to everyone. And John goes on to say, all who believe and receive him, he gives the right to become children of God. And that's the good news. That's why we're gathered here, that we're light bearers and children of God through belief in Jesus.

And that's why Matthew... In Matthew Jesus goes on to say that you are the light of the world. First, he says, I'm the light of the world. Then he goes, no. You are.

A town built on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp or put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. And then the same way, he says, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. And that's what this last song is about. So I encourage you to sing it out and then sing loud.

We'll sing go, tell it on the mountain. Merry Christmas everybody. Can I just? A little blessing as you... Do you

have one? I got one more thing to say. The angel tree back there. A lot of y'all all over the... Not just the church, but all over Jackson.

We had all kinds of people participating in this. And for the past couple of days, Tanya's been sick. And I've been involved in that like I have not been involved in before. And I just want to say thank you for your generosity to this from this community to this community and beyond. It's everybody.

There's all kind of folks, construction companies from out at the village and realtor boards and all kinds of people came together to just make a big deal out of the generosity of the season of giving, which was inspired by Jesus Christ. So anyway, I just want to say thank you to that, and y'all are spreading the love of God in doing that. Now go and tell it on the mountain, quite literally. Bye.