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Hello.
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Hello. Hello. Good morning. How's everyone? You look so excited.
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What do you say we stand up? We'll sing together. Angels we have heard on high. Gloria in excel in excelsis Deo. Glory in the highest to God.
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The English version, glory be to God on high. Amen? Let's sing to him.
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Alright. Angels, we have heard on high. Angels, we have heard on high, sweetly singing your things. And the mountains in reply echoing their joyous strings. Alright.
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Shepherds, why this jubilee? Shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strings put on me? What it shall cease day come to Bethlehem and see come to Bethlehem ham and see. Christ to his birthday, angels sing.
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Come adore unbended knee. Christ our Lord, name name
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We're the
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shall cease day. We're One more. And you.
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You sound great.
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Y'all can have a seat. I've got a couple of announcements this morning. They are they are happening. All these things that we've been announcing for so many weeks are happening. This week was a big one.
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Celebrating Christmas here, we're having Christmas Eve services. They'll be led by the first B worship band on Christmas Eve. There are two of em. They're both alike this year rather than having one be a participatory and one be a choir service. They're both participating in worship at 04:30 and at six and all of y'all are welcome and everybody else too.
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We'll try to make overflow room available but come on and join in. If it's standing room only, that's a good thing. So, tonight, December 20 at 04:30 or this evening, we're going to gather right out here. Y'all saw there are two trailers out here. We've got a load of hay on em and we're going to do the Christmas caroling starting at about four thirtyish and we'll go from 04:30 and come back here around six, and it'll be a gathering for the Buzzard Breath Chili Cook Off.
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And that's usually a really, really good time. So I'm looking forward to that. We have a little bit of pozole left over from last night. We had a Mexican fiesta last night. Oh, my goodness.
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We have probably close to 100 people here last night. I don't know exactly. I couldn't count because we were all moving pretty pretty regularly but really really good food tonight and good singing. So, come do that. Renzi, you have anything to add?
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Nothing to that. Oh, there's some serious prizes to be given away at this thing. So, bring your best wares.
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Okay.
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And we are going to have a good time.
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Okay. Good. None of that.
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I do have one announcement about this. Okay. There's no girls study today, but there is guys study today. So you high school, middle school guys, if you wanna meet, they're meeting in the library today and as far as solid rock stuff, it is over until after the first of the year. So, okay.
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Enjoy your Christmas break.
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When you start back up to school, you start back up with this.
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You got it.
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Alright. Thank you, Renzy. Merry Monday nights at First B still going on. So, Monday night, tomorrow night, Carl would be preaching on. The Bible.
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Yes, very good. Alright, good. And our Kimberly there you are. Kimberly is the only one here right now. Why don't we wait on that?
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Alright, we'll wait on the advent reading and I'll call for it in a little bit, Blake. Alright? If there are more family to show up. So, would you stand up and just greet one another and the band will bring you back together with another merry tune. We're glad you're here.
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Alright,
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we'll sing joy to the world
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joy to the world when the over days come. Let earn the receiver king. Let every heart repair him room. Heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing.
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And heaven and heaven and nature sing. To
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world.
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Far as the curse is found And he rules the world He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteous days and wonders of his love and wonders of his love and wonders wonders of his love.
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Amen. God, we're grateful to be able to just meet with you, sing to you, give you praise, adoration. You truly are the reason for this season, And I pray that nothing would hinder us as we sing to you and that we'd come with you with an open heart, an open mind, just celebrating you living among us, being born to us, dwelling with us, living for us, dying for us, raising for us. It's just it it really is a joy to sing to you, and I pray that you'd fill our hearts with joy this morning. Amen.
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Alright. The first snow whale. The first snow whale the angels didn't say forever indeed upon their knees and offer their Oh, well, no well, no well. Morning is the king
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From Luke two, an angel, Lord, appeared among the shepherds, and the radiance of Lord's glory surround surrounded them. Imagine this scene. They were terrified. Who wouldn't be? But the angel reassured them, don't be afraid.
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I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. That is good news, isn't it? That Christ, the savior, was born to to come and and redeem us and save us and draw us to God and reconciles to God when we are far off, he brings us in. And that really is good news, and that's why we're here.
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Good news of great joy.
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Alright. God rest you. And God rest you, Mary gentlemen, let nothing you despair. Remember Christ our savior was born upon this day to save us all from Satan's bow when we were gone astray. Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy.
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Oh, tidings of comfort and joy. From God our heavenly father, this blessed angel came and unto certain shepherds brought tidings of the same. How I let the hamless born the sun God by name. Oh, tidings of comfort and joy. Comfort and joy.
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Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.
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Now to the Lord, sing praises.
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Now to the Lord, sing praises on you within this place. And with true love and brotherhood each other now we embrace this holy tide of Christmas all others dot their face. Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy. Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.
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Amen. As a front lean frontline team is coming forward, I'd like to, you can you can have a seat and, invite our acapella group up. And as we're participating here in the worship of Yevan, I I really think of John three sixteen, that God so loved that he gave. And loving, part of loving is giving. It just is.
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And it's not just about giving money. It's about giving ourselves. It's about living life with an open hand. So I pray as we participate here. God, we are grateful.
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Thank you that you love so much that you gave. And I pray, God, that you would in in in instill in us a a a grateful heart, one that wants to truly give and live life with an open hand. Would you use these, these offerings to to make to make you known, not just here in Jackson, but to the ends of the earth. And, let it be a response of us. Just being grateful and living in gratitude.
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Amen.
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Come to
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make you new. The child that you deliver will soon deliver you. Mary,
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Just use this mic.
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Thank you. There we go.
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Today, we light the fourth candle on our advent wreath, the candle of love. God's inexpressible love was demonstrated in the sending of his son.
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His love has led to our salvation. We respond by loving and living for him.
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John three sixteen and seventeen. For God so loved the world that he gave this one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him. May the Lord bless the reading of his word.
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Amen. And now, the children's church is starting downstairs so the kids are dismissed to go down to Peak Children's Church. And that'll leave a few holes up here next to these parents. If you're sitting in the back and you can't hear well or can't see well and want to, you're welcome to slide forward and fill in some of this some of these holes and there's always room on the front row. Always.
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So, I think I mentioned at Easter because several of y'all have reminded me of it that I said that Easter was like the Super Bowl. When for a preacher getting up in the front of this many, it's always more people. It's always a time of year where everybody's excited about the savior and so it's an intense time but Christmas, oh my goodness. It's even more. Y'all have had the build up for this for about a month now.
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I know I have. We've had events feels like every night for about fifteen or sixteen days. The twelve days of Christmas is an understatement but I as I was preparing for this morning, I thought we are going to leave the last two angry chapters of second Corinthians. So, we're going to talk about the Christmas passage and we've already read several things from Luke two. You've probably heard things from Luke two to this week building up to this.
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So, we're going to read that but I'm going to focus in on just one verse and actually, it's really the last half of one verse and would you pray with me? Lord, would you help this make sense? Amen. Now, there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night, and behold an angel of the Lord stood before them, An angel of the Lord. Angel, the same word for angel is messenger.
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It means messenger. It's somebody who carries a message. So, in that sense, I'm an angel. In only that sense. I'm an angel.
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It's a messenger. One who carries a message. So, and behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were greatly afraid and then the angel said to them, this is the guy who carries a message and this is the message. Do not be afraid. For behold, I, this angel, messenger, bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
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For there is born to you this day in the city of David, a savior, who is Christ the Lord, and this will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly, there was with the angel, a multitude of heavenly host. So, these are other angels and they have a message and they carry this message and it's a message from God and it's nice that it says, heavenly host. So, these are not just messengers.
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This is not just guy who wandered into the field and told him something. This is something that is supernatural. It's something miraculous and suddenly, there was with the angel, a multitude of heavenly host, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. This is a new King James version right here that I'm reading. New King James.
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Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill to man and that last part of that last verse is what I wanted to talk about this morning and it's interesting because if you dig in, there's plenty there. You know, there's always plenty there and I wanted to just say, okay, every angel that we see and I was thinking, listen to the angels sing. Listen to what the angels have to say to Joseph, to Mary, to the shepherds, to everybody. Who is it that they're talking to? And what are they saying?
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And the more I thought about it, the second part of this verse is the part that stuck with me that this is something that's probably the most confusing for us living today and for them probably at that time too of anything that the angel said. So, let's go through it. So, there is to begin with a parallelism and I could say the first part is actually pretty easy to understand. This glory to God in the highest. It's pretty easy to understand because of parallelism.
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So, we've got glory and God and heaven and I say heaven in the highest. Some some people may have heard this explained before. Y'all might have heard it explained before. That's glory in the highest or glory in the highest degree or to God who is the highest or the most almighty and both of those things are true but that's not what this verse says. Context and grammar tell us what it says and it's because of this parallelism of peace and men and earth.
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It's a contrast between God and men and heaven and earth in a way but this Earth right there on Earth tells us that in the highest is talking about in the heavens. So, an angelic messenger who has been with God since his creation, not since God's creation, since the angel's creation. This angel that has been with God and knows him intimately is glorifying him and praising him because of what's happened at that evening. That's pretty amazing. So, he's giving glory to God and has been.
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He's saying, there is glory to God in the highest. In the heavens, there is glory to God. Now, either it's a statement which I just presented as. There is glory to God in the heavens or it's kind of almost a command, an imperative to say, bring glory to God. Glorify God in the heavens.
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You, people, shepherds, glorify God in the heavens. It could be either of those. Grammatically, it could be that there's no verb in there. Glory to God in the highest. That part's pretty easy.
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Glory to God in heaven. Grammatically, that's what it has to be. Peace, men, earth. This is the part that's more difficult. This is the part that's more difficult because we look around and we don't see peace and it's been two thousand years.
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Now, at this time, there was the Roman peace that was going on. It was the most peaceful but it was peace at the end of a sword. It was a forced peace. Peace, man, and earth is kind of hard and I, the more I thought about this, I was thinking, why is it? Well, for one thing, I know a lot of different versions of the Bible that I've got bouncing around up here.
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New King James is what I grew up with. Either old or the new King James and so I've got this peace on earth goodwill towards men. I've got that in my head and for every modern translation that I read, it doesn't say that and that irritates me a little bit but it says something a little bit different and so the more I started to look into it and think about it, there's a reason why one says one thing, one says the other. And I wanna explore that. That's why the prayer help this make sense.
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It makes sense to me. I hope I can communicate it to you. Do you have persistent questions? Got milk? Got persistent questions?
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Do you? I think we all do. There are some persistent questions in Christianity that are one of these things where you always hear me talking about the balance between ideas, the sovereignty of God, and the responsibility of man. How in the world could those two things coexist? Well, there's a balance, a biblical tension there and so that's a persistent question that we keep on asking.
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So, let's go on into this.
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You know, can we can we all get along? Can we can we get along? Can we stop making it making it horrible for for the for the older people and the and the and the kids?
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That was Rodney King in 1992. Now there's a lot of racial issues going on right now, using something fresher might have been better, but the can we all get along is something that has persisted. How many of y'all have seen an internet meme about this? People usually add to those memes. They say, can't we all just get along?
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Can't we all get along? And he said, can we all get along? Not can we just all get along Or can we all just get along? They add emphasis. I think that was a sincere, earnest plea.
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You know, he had been guilty of what the policemen were stopping him for and he knew it and so he was running and they stopped him and they beat him and they shouldn't have. And they got off on it. Probably shouldn't have. Some of em did. Some of em did.
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It's hard to say but his plea was, can we all just get along? What he's calling for is peace on Earth because he was not seeing it And so for me, I think this is the most confusing part of what the angels had to say. So peace on earth, peace on earth, exclamation point, or peace on earth, question mark, or perhaps peace on earth? In taro bang? I think it's a continuation right here.
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It's a leading into something. So after looking it over, this is a poem that was written during the Civil War. Same thing, peace. We're not seeing it. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, remember the guy shot an arrow into an air from a few weeks ago?
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Same guy. This is a poem that was set to music later but I heard the bells on Christmas day. They're old familiar carols carols play. So, at this time, it was eighteen sixty three. It had been eighteen hundred and sixty something years since Jesus was born.
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I heard the bells on Christmas day. Eighteen hundred and something years later. They're all familiar carols play and wild and sweet. The words repeat of peace on earth. Goodwill to men.
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And though and thought how as the day had come, the belfries of all Christendom had rolled along the unbroken song of peace on earth, goodwill to men. Till ringing, singing on its way, the world revolve from night to day, a voice, a chime, a chant sublime of peace on earth, goodwill to men. It was written in 1863. Then from each black a cursed mouth, the cannon thundered in the South, and with the sound the carols drowned of peace on earth, goodwill to men. It was as if an earthquake rent the hearthstones of the continent and made forlorn the households born of peace on earth, goodwill to men.
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1863, right in the middle of the civil war. When he wrote this song, he had lost his wife to a fire and his son in battle. His son was a union soldier. It was as if an earthquake rent the hearth stones of a continent. Home for him had been Christianity.
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You can read through his poems. There's no doubt about it. Home for him was peace on earth and goodwill to men and he believed it and then, during the Civil War, one of the hardest times in our nation and his family, his wife dies, his son dies within a few months and he writes this, it made forlorn households born. For him, at his mother's knee, he had known Christ and he had known in his heart, peace on earth but even for him, it's like it was an earthquake that rent these things apart of peace and earth, goodwill to men. And in despair, I bowed my head.
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There is no peace on earth, I said, for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men. Let that one sit for a minute. Do you see hatred mocking the song? Y'all are crying just like I am, I'm sorry. Then peel the bells more loud and deep.
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God is not dead nor doth he sleep. The wrong shall fail. The right prevail. With peace on earth, good will to men. His faith kicked back in.
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It's not something that he's gonna see right now and he realized that although he's going through it. It's something that will come to pass though. Absolutely. God is not dead and he does not sleep because he doesn't sleep or get weary. Isaiah says, but he has given us free will.
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He has extended to us his goodwill. Now, here's the part that I hope makes sense. Peace on Earth. Peace on Earth. Peace on Earth.
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This is Greek to me. I mean, it's Greek to y'all too, but this doxa this is Greek, and this is Greek. You notice the difference there? There's not much. There's one little squiggly.
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It's that. It's right there at the end of that line. You see it? That's the difference in the nominative eudocea or the genitive, for those of you who care. It makes a big difference.
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This is the reason why your modern translations say something different from your older translations and some of your older translations actually said the same thing as the modern ones and some of your modern ones still say the same thing as some of the older ones because this is a persistent question in Christianity and it's something that has roots in the text which I love. There is some confusion over what the original script that Luke wrote says, is it this or is it that? So, is it the angel song that says, like the King James, with the nominative. Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill to men, toward men. Or is it like the new King James, which is, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.
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You know, when you're studying, you run into all kind of weird stuff you didn't know. There's a King James Purple edition. Did y'all know that? The King James Purple Edition puts the names of God in purple and the names of angels in a different color purple and other stuff in a different color purple. I don't understand that but it says, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men and I like this.
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I really really like that because of the song, I heard the bells on Christmas day because of just thinking of angels and the great joyous message of the Messiah that they were given. To me, this makes the most sense. It is goodwill toward men, spread toward them, or even among them. So, it's God making peace with man or it could be among men. God allowing the possibility that as Rodney King asked, can we all just get along?
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Yes. The among men, the peace there is possible with a relationship with God. The Middle East peace process does not have a lot of chance of working. Do you understand that? It could work.
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There could be peace, but it requires people accepting peace, forgiveness, extending forgiveness to the other. We're commanded as Christians to forgive just as God in Christ has forgiven you. If we could all do that, then there would be peace. You can experience that peace by forgiving just like God forgives. Completely, freely, and graciously.
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But there are other text has the little squiggly at the end there and it makes it genitive and so this one in the new international is glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests. The ESV says, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is well pleased. And that's what it says with the genitive. That's what it says and I'm not arguing with it. That's what it says.
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But it sure does smack up something Calvinistic, doesn't it? Doesn't it sound like, oh my goodness, it's peace on earth and goodwill towards those who are elect and it trails off. Listen to this. Glory to God in the highest. Heaven and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased, new living.
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Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among men with whom he is pleased, New American Standard. Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to people he favors. Oh my goodness, it's getting worse. That's the Holman Christian Standard Bible. That's the Southern Baptist most recent Southern Baptist version right there.
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Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among those whom he favors. That's the new revised standard version right there. Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among men and whom he is well pleased, American Standard. Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among men on whom his favor rests. I actually like that one a lot.
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Because it is possible to experience peace when God's favor has rested upon you. It is possible. We're human. We walk away from that but God doesn't. Glory to God in the highest on on earth.
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Peace among men on whom his favor rests. Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among men in whom he is well pleased. ERV. Esteem to Elohim. This one's obviously a messianic Jewish context.
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Esteem to Elohim in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is well pleased. That's the Institute for Scripture Research, scriptures. They put all of the original names of God as best they can into like Elohim and Shaddai and Jehovah, all those. Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to people who enjoy his favor. I like that one too.
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International Standard Version to people who enjoy his favor, there is peace. Amen. So, those are just a few translations. There are lots of em and some of y'all come to me and they say, why are there so many translations of the Bible? Well, a lot of em have a different out from the outset.
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They're all to understand to help people understand better and those two options are both great options. It's based on that. One little squiggly. Both are true. Absolutely, both of em are true.
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I don't wanna argue with either because there is some question. It's a persistent question in Christianity. Is God really sovereign or is man really responsible? Yes, he is and one reflects one and one reflects other a little bit more strongly. So, both of em are true.
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I could go over verse after verse after verse. If you want to, come see me after the New Year, not this week. Poor Favour. I'm just kidding. If you got a real problem, that's not just a persistent question, please come see me.
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Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good pleasure in men. That is a Darby translation. Sorry. That's just to let you know that there are some bounds. No, that's not good.
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It's not right. It's a terrible translation. One more. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace. Two men of goodwill.
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Dewey Reams. Now, again, not grammatically possible, incredible, acrobatics have to be done to make that work. That doesn't, that doesn't work. Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men is the new King James. Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rest and I like that.
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So, those two are our options and looking at em like I said, both of em are true. I wanna go back to the text because if that Calvinistic thing kinda you're saying, no, but I I think that I'm deciding on the squiggly. It's there. Dog on it, it's there. That's almost like the folks who have the King James only idea of it's not there, dog on it and we're gonna fight about it.
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It's peace on Earth, people. Okay? Don't fight about it. There's room. It's a big tent, okay?
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And if you think that, it's Calvinistic or it's way too hyper predestination type Calvinistic. Then, look back to verse 10 just above that and it says, do not be afraid for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. All people. So, it is a universal call. That does not mean that it's gonna be universally accepted.
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Do y'all get that? It's out there. It's a very real invitation to partake of the peace of God made possible through his son, Jesus and so, there's the parallelism. Glory to God in the highest. We think we understand pretty well.
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Peace and goodwill to men extended freely by God, goodwill towards men or among men made possible on earth because God in his heavens receives and deserves our glory, receives the glory from angels, and deserves glory from us. Okay. Well, we do have to throw this one in there too. Peace to men whom God loves and that's true. It is true.
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He loves everybody, people. He loves everybody and the offer is made to everybody. It is a universal appeal. Sovereignty of God and responsibility of man are held in tension. It's one of my favorite quotes in red.
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It's hard to say. It seems easier to go to a consistent extreme than to stay at the center of biblical tension. That's true with the justice of God and the mercy of God. It's true with the love of God and the wrath of God and it's true with the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man but God in his sovereignty has said, I'm going to let you make this decision. I'm going to let you decide and then I'm going to stick with my part But you need to know where you are.
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You need to know where you are. The shepherds were wandering out of the fields. How many y'all feel like you're wandering out in the fields? Gracious, I do. And then a messenger came to them and he delivered a message from God.
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Glory to God in the highest. God deserves glory and I'm giving it to him and I'm asking you to join with me. Give God the glory he deserves because he's made peace possible and not just here in heaven but on earth. My job and my goal is to preach God's goodwill and his sovereignty to whosoever is willing to responsibly respond to it and receive it. So that's it.
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This is a short sermon. I didn't know that in the study, but good, because we've got communion to follow. Do you have persistent questions? I can't make myself got persistent Do you have persistent questions? I think we all do.
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But once it has been delivered, what is to be done with a message like this message? Once it's been delivered and let me just tell you, it's just been delivered. Okay? Let's go back and see what the shepherds did. So, immediately after this, this is the next verse picking up.
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Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill to men on whom his favor rest, okay? We do, either way, whatever you wanna see. The next one is 15 and it says, and so it was that when the angels had gone away from them into heaven. So, these are supernatural beings. It's not just a messenger that wandered up.
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When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, among themselves, they spoke to each other and they said, let us now go to Bethlehem. So, they put action to having heard the message and see this thing that has come to pass. They put faith in the message. They didn't say, let's go see if this thing has come to pass. Let us go see this thing that has come to pass which the Lord has made known to us.
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They recognize the divine content of the message. And they came with haste and they found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger and now when they had seen him, Wait a second now. The angel told them ahead of time exactly what they were going to do. They were going to find a baby and he's going to be wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger and now when they had seen him, lying in a manger exactly like they had said beforehand, Oh, that's a little Calvinistic too, isn't it? Whatever.
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It's uncomfortable, but it was how he they were gonna know. It's a small town, baby just born, might have been two or three. Baby in a manger, not very often. That's how they found him. Now, when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child, Jesus.
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And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds, but Mary kept all these things and she pondered them in her heart. Luke had interviewed Mary. Then the shepherds returned and when they returned, they were glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told them. All the things that they had heard and seen, experience. There's the message, the content that was given them, and then there was their experience of the truth of the message.
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So, what did the shepherds do once the message had been delivered to them? They put action to it. They put their faith in the message and they saw Jesus. And people marveled. Fantastic.
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So, what should you do? What should I do after having studied this and gone through it and through it and through it and having persistent questions? What should you do when you find out some of the answers to some of those questions? My thought this week, and I put it in my little phone in the middle of the night. Listen to the angels sing.
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Listen to the angels sing. And I thought of this, listen to the angels sing. You listen to that song, glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, goodwill to men, or the other one. God has issued through the message of these angelic messengers and through this very human one here today, an effective call. It really is an open invitation.
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You are not destined to be damned. Okay? God really does love you. It is an invitation for his favor to rest upon you. It's a universal call to experience God's peace on earth through his son, Jesus.
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And sadly, not all will respond favorably. But every time the message is presented, it gives somebody the opportunity to say it. So just because not everybody's gonna accept it, doesn't mean that you won't. It doesn't change the effectiveness of the call to you. So I'm asking you, we're gonna take communion in just a minute.
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This is a symbol of having made the decision like those shepherds to get up and go see Jesus. This is identification with him. We practice an open table here. Paul gives a very strong warning not to take this unworthily, not to take it if you don't believe it but if you believe it and you just believe it for the first moment right here today, I want you to accept this and take it and every single time from now on that you do, do it in remembrance of Jesus. This is the ground level of all of Christianity is identification with him and his shed blood which covers our sins, his broken body.
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We're gonna I'm gonna ask the elders if they would come forward and we'll just go straight into it. Florine, would you play something pretty? Thank you. So, it goes from one end of Jesus's life to the other and we're talking about his first night, his first night there in a little stable in Bethlehem and now, right now, this is a commemoration of that he instituted the night before his crucifixion. In an upper room, not 15 miles probably from where he was born in that stable, not far anyway.
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It was on the same night that Jesus was betrayed, that he took bread after supper and after he gave thanks, he broke it. Wow. Lord God, would you please bless this bread as we pass it out? These crackers, this gluten free wafers in the cupcake holder. Lord, would you bless this symbol of your broken body?
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As we distribute it, Lord, would every heart consider this effective call that you've given? And, Lord, we pray that your favor would rest upon them. In Jesus' name, Lord, would you bless us as we distribute? Amen. When Jesus was betrayed, he took bread after supper, and after he gave thanks, he broke it, and he gave it to those who were following him.
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He said, this is my body, which is broken for you. Take this and eat and do it in remembrance of me. Almighty God, I think of that baby Jesus lying in that manger. Pure and innocent and I think of that Jesus hanging on that cross. Pure and innocent.
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No one before, no one since has lived a life and died a death in exactly that same way. Jesus, we thank you for your broken body where you offered peace to men. They gave you nothing but hatred and war. I thank you that you went to the cross crying, forgive them for they know not what they do. God, would you Would you let us live in the gravity of that moment and the peace that it creates in us to know that you took it, Lord.
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And lord, would you bless this cup as we distribute it right now? This symbol of your shed blood. Amen. Given as a ransom for many, for all, Lord, who would accept this free offer. In Jesus' name, Lord, would you bless this cup as we distribute it?
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Amen. Brady took the cup after supper, and he said, this is my blood, which is given as a ransom for many. He's given for the forgiveness of sins. He's given for you. Take this and drink and do it in remembrance of me.
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Amen. And in this Christmas season, when we're all proclaiming Jesus's birth, Paul says that when we do this, Lord's supper, communion, the Lord's table. He says, when we do this, we proclaim his death and the forgiveness from sin until he comes again. We're looking forward to that next advent and I wanna say that when you've got persistent questions that go on and on and on like this, I think it's neat how God lets some of those things just gel. It requires us to either fight or live in peace And I'm asking that y'all live in peace and go tell it on the mountain.
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We're gonna
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sing, aren't we? Stand and join us, would you?
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Go tailing on mountains and on Jesus Christ is born Wild shepherds, wild shepherds keep their watching for silent flocks by night. Behold throughout the Lord And brought us God's salvation And blessed Christmas moon Go tallied on the mountain over the hills and everywhere you go. Telling on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. That Jesus is born. That Christ is born, that Jesus Jesus Christ is born,
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the peace of God accompany you onto the mountain and everywhere else you go and may you spread it around in Jesus name. Amen.
