Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Good evening. I hope all of you have had a wonderful Christmas Eve day and are getting time today and tomorrow to spend with your families, friends, and loved ones. I want to welcome everybody to this Christmas Eve service, a little more informal, kind of a family service where we gather together and think about the incarnation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As we begin tonight, just two brief things to note. Almost all of the hymns that we'll be singing are in the hymnal, with the exception of the final two hymns that you'll find printed on the back of your order of service, Silent Night, Holy Night, and Man of Sorrows, What a Name. Those two hymns will be there on the back for you. And also, one of the things, we don't often do this here at our congregation, but in services like this one we do to highlight something, and that is that even readings are thought to be active on the part of the congregation, that we're all paying attention together and giving attention to the word of the Lord. So following the ancient Christian practice, When the reader concludes his reading, he will say, this is the word of the Lord, and the congregation will respond with, thanks be to God. So with those two things in mind, let me open us with a word of prayer, and then we will reflect tonight on the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we marvel that for sinners like us, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, was made man and took to himself real human flesh so that he might live for us, die for us, rise again for us and ascend into heaven and sit at your right hand for us. And that as we celebrate the fact that he came for us once, we know that he shall come again to bring us to himself in full salvation. And with that hope, we pray that you would fill our minds with joy as we reflect on the person and work of Jesus Christ this evening. We pray in Jesus' matchless name, amen. Well, let us begin by singing, taking our Red Trinity hymnals in hand, turning to hymn number 225, standing as we sing, Once in Royal David's City. ♪ Lost in royal David's city ♪ ♪ Stood a lowly cattle shed ♪ ♪ Where a mother laid her baby ♪ ♪ And a manger for his bed ♪ ♪ There he was an hour long ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ, the little child ♪ ♪ He came down to earth from heaven ♪ to his God and Lord of all. And his shelter was a stable, and his cradle was a stall. ♪ With the poor and needy and lowly ♪ ♪ With the Lord our Savior holy ♪ ♪ And through all his wondrous childhood ♪ ♪ He would honor and obey ♪ ♪ Was the lowly maiden ♪ ♪ In whose gentle arms he lay ♪ ♪ Blissful children all must be ♪ ♪ While the weary earth and sea ♪ ♪ When the rising sun shall see him ♪ ♪ To His own redeeming love ♪ ♪ For that child so near and dear so ♪ ♪ Is our Lord in heaven above ♪ ♪ And He leads His children on ♪ ♪ To the place where He is gone ♪ ♪ And the glory be stable ♪ ♪ With the angels standing by ♪ ♪ We shall see the glory in heaven ♪ ♪ Steadfast like men on high ♪ ♪ When Christ shows his children proud ♪ ♪ Come and watch ♪ The first lesson for this evening is the birth of John the Baptist, recorded for us in God's word in Luke chapter one, verses five through 17. Here is God's holy word. In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink. And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. This is the word of the Lord. Good people of this Christmas time, consider well and bear in mind what our good God for us has done in sending his beloved Son. With humble hearts we all should pray to God with love this Christmas day. In Bethlehem upon that morn there was a blessed Messiah born. Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep their flocks of lambs and feeding sheep, to whom God's angels did appear, Prepare and go, the angels said, to Bethlehem, be not afraid. For there you'll find this happy morn, a princely babe, sweet Jesus born. ♪ With thankful heart and joyful mind ♪ ♪ Contributes well and e'er be to mind ♪ ♪ And as God's angel had foretold ♪ ♪ He did our Savior Christ behold ♪ he was laid, and by his side the Virgin made, attending on the Lord of life, who came to earth to end all strife. you Our second lesson this evening is the birth of Jesus foretold. We'll be looking at Luke chapter 1 verses 26 to 38. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative, Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month of her who was called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, I am a servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. We will remain seated as we sing hymn number 216, Infant Holy, Infant Lowly. of of of of of of of of of ♪ Come to see him in the shepherds' evening ♪ ♪ He'll tell the morning tale ♪ ♪ Son of glory, hear his story ♪ ♪ Crying out the gospel tale ♪ ♪ God's rejoicing, free from sorrow, raise his voice again ♪ Christ the way, God's home for you. Christ the way, God's home for you. This is the third lesson, and it's Christ is born in Bethlehem. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord showed round about them. And they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, fear not. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. This is the word of the Lord. so so Yeah. The fourth lesson, Nunc dimittis, Luke 2, 22 to 35. And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was a righteous and devout man waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came into the temple in the spirit, And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up into his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. And his father and his mother marveled at what had been said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, behold, this child is appointed for the fall and the rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is opposed and a sword will pierce through your own soul also so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. This is the word of the Lord. As we reflect on this last reading that we just had, it is known as Nunc Dimittis. If you're familiar with classical music, that's the Latin title given to the hymns and psalms that are drawn from this word. In Latin, literally, you are dismissing now your servant. From the words of Simeon, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people, Israel. As we come to this Christmas season, I'm sure all of us have different things that we have been looking forward to. For some, it's getting together with family and friends that we don't see very often. For some, it's eating food that we only get from our mom or our grandma, or something that we usually only find in our family. For me, one of the things I look forward to is I have a repertoire of Christmas movies, and the one that is the most dear to me is the 1983 classic, A Christmas Story. It tells the story of a young boy named Ralphie, and the whole movie, I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen it, but it's been out since 1983, so don't hold me accountable if you haven't. He wants a Christmas present, and not just a Christmas present. For him, the greatest Christmas present of all time, a BB gun. No, not just a BB gun. To be precise, a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and, to use the technical term for the movie, this thing that tells time as well. The subtext that runs through this and that you can actually see in kind of the final scenes of the movie is, if I can just have this one thing, all will be right with the world and everything will be happiness. Oftentimes, children think that way about Christmas and the toys that they get. If they can just get that one toy, they will finally be happy. But I think as adults, if we reflect on ourselves, as we get older, not a whole lot changes. Oftentimes, we're looking for that one thing, whether it's that house that we've always wanted, that job and that place and prominence and career, the amount of money, the ability to buy things on impulse, the life, the family that we've always wanted, whatever it might be, oftentimes we have one or more things that we say, if I could only have that, that would make me truly happy. What's really remarkable here is that Simeon has found the one thing that made him truly and lastingly happy. Christmas is itself a testimony to the fact that nothing material can bring us final happiness because every Christmas there's always a new Christmas list with other gifts and things that you need or probably more accurately want. None of us probably play with the toys that we had when we were small children still as we grow older. But Simeon says, not only have I found what I'm looking for, he says, I'm ready now to die. Because the Lord had revealed to him, you will not die until you see the Lord's Christ, the anointed one who will come and bring salvation. And as he took up the baby Jesus in his arms, he says, now at last, I'm ready to depart this life. For mine eyes have beheld the one who will be the savior of all of God's people. And as we reflect on this, there are just a few things that stand out rather remarkably about Jesus Christ from this text. First, you can see the poverty of Jesus Christ in this text. That when he came to earth, he was not born into a great condition. Now, most of us know that, and one of the things that we would probably point to in the story of Jesus is the fact that he was born in a cattle stall and in a manger because there was no room in the inn, but that in and of itself does not tell you that the family was necessarily poor. Sometimes the inn is just completely full. I remember one time when I was driving back from doing some of my doctoral work, I changed my plans, and so I had to cancel a hotel reservation, and I thought, oh, it's fine, I'll just pick up a hotel reservation on my way back, and I happened to be driving through the state of Alabama at about midnight. Well, I didn't check, but Talladega was going that night. I would have given you almost all the money in my bank account, but for love or money, there was no way to get a hotel room in the state of Alabama during Talladega. But what we actually see in the text is that when a sacrifice is to be offered, we're told that they offered a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. In God's law, that's actually not the first level of sacrifice. The first level of sacrifice for the family who could afford it for a firstborn male should have been a lamb and a pigeon or a turtle dove. But God says if you cannot afford a lamb, you may offer this lesser sacrifice. And so here, it's remarkable that Jesus and his family could not afford the standard sacrifice to give thanks for his own birth. Jesus and his family likely would not have been able to afford the Christmases that many of us have enjoyed or will enjoy in the days to come. The old church fathers had a remarkable saying that what you see in the life of Jesus is that Jesus became like us so that he might make us like him. The principle of charity is that we give of ourselves, of our money, our time, our energy, our efforts. But if we help somebody out of poverty, we don't become poor in order to make them rich. But here with Jesus, we see the God of the universe who took on finite, limited human flesh. who was born into poverty, who suffered all the pain of this life, who humbled himself and came in poverty so that you and I might live with his father in eternity. Such is the love of God for us. Simeon sees not only the way in which Christ was born, but also the salvation that he would give to his people. When we're introduced to Simeon, Luke tells us, now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was a righteous man and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. The people of Israel at this time were in a poor estate. They were dominated by the Roman Empire. They didn't have political freedom. They didn't have religious freedom, they had to obey within the bounds of the Roman Empire. And they knew that things were not right and they were waiting for God to send them the long-promised Messiah. And we see here that Simeon knows that the day of salvation is coming when he says that according to the word of the Lord, my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people, Israel." The thing about the life of Jesus is he came to bring salvation to his people, but if you read through the rest of the Gospel of Luke or any of the other Gospels, the thing was his people ended up rejecting him because the salvation that he brought was not what they thought it was. Jesus came to save them from their sins, not from the shackles of the Roman Empire. And so they didn't understand the message of Jesus when he came saying, you think your problem is the Roman Empire, but your problem is that you are sinners who stand before a holy God and you need forgiveness and cleansing of your sins. That is the salvation that he offered to his people. And they also didn't understand those words, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. Jesus said repeatedly, I've come not just to the house of Israel, but to the whole world to offer salvation from your sins by his life, by his death, by his resurrection, and by his ascension. I wonder tonight if you might be here like one of the people during the time of Jesus who think about God in certain ways and thinks that God will provide you happiness in this life, materially or psychologically or emotionally, but you don't think of yourself as someone who is a sinner in need of the cleansing, justifying grace that can only come from Jesus Christ. The real message of Christmas is that all of us have sinned, but that God through his own son has provided salvation that we need. And we see the way in which Jesus would do that through this blessing that Simeon gives. He sees his father and his mother. They're amazed at what Simeon has said. And he looks at them and blesses them and says to his mother, Mary, behold, this child is appointed for the fall and the rising of many in Israel. and for a sign that is opposed and a sword will pierce through your soul also so that thoughts from many hearts might be revealed. Jesus came to reveal the hearts of many and to provide salvation. And most poignantly, Simeon, in a word of prophecy, looks at his mother and says, the son of yours is the man of sorrows. He's the one who's going to suffer for his people as Isaiah has foretold. And he says to her, a sword will pierce through your own soul also. That word also there indicates that Jesus is the one who's going to go through the suffering. His mother is going to have to see him mocked and beaten and scorned and hung on a cross in Calvary. And Simeon says, this will even be for you to undergo with him. This points us to the fact that Jesus was the man of sorrows, who lived in a poor estate, who was despised by the world, and rejected so that he might suffer the wrath of God, so that we his people might be eternally blessed. So that, Simeon says, thoughts from many hearts will be revealed. As we come to celebrate Christmas tonight, the most important question that any one of us can have is, what does the gospel story say about my heart? Am I someone who has come to God and accepted the free gift that God has given through Jesus Christ? Salvation from my sins by believing in his message of salvation, by repenting for my sins and coming to God saying, Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner. If you will reach out to the Lord by faith, the message of Christmas is that God will receive you. That is the whole purpose for him. He sent his only son to live and to die for us. you. And as we conclude this service, for those of us who know the Lord Jesus, like Simeon, we can say, Lord, you are letting your servant depart in peace. No matter how much life we have in front of us or behind us, if you have Jesus, you have the greatest gift that has ever been given. You have peace with God, and that can never be taken. It is the greatest Christmas gift. greater even than a red rider, carbine action, 200 shot range model air rifle, and it will bring eternal satisfaction. Let us pray. Father, I pray for all of us assembled here, and I ask Lord that you would be with us as we go to our homes and our families. We ask, oh, Lord, that you would Calls your spirit to move in each of us, drawing us close to you. If there's any who do not know you, I pray that you would draw them savingly to yourself, yea, even this night. And for those of us who do know you, oh Lord, give us the peace that Simeon felt and the joy that filled his eyes as he beheld the Lord Jesus Christ, as we do also by faith. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, let us conclude tonight's singing by singing the two closing hymns, Silent Night, Holy Night, and Man of Sorrows. What a name printed on the back of your order of service. Let us stand. All is calm, all is bright, round yon virgin, mother and child. Sleep in heavenly peace. Silent night, holy night. Shepherds quake at the sight. Glories stream. And we all will sing hallelujah Christ the Savior is born Christ the Savior is born ♪ Silent night, holy night ♪ ♪ Son of God, love's pure light ♪ ♪ Radiant beams from thy holy face ♪ ♪ In the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth ♪ ♪ Silent night, holy night ♪ ♪ Mother of stars, at Thy light ♪ Alleluia to our King! Christ the Savior is born! Christ the Savior is born! of of of Mary's shame and scoffing grew in my waist until He stood still, my pardon, with His blood. Alleluia! What a Savior! Empty, vile, and helpless Queen, Spotless when our God was King. Full of tongue and magnificent, Alleluia, what a Saint! In His face was His pride, And in heav'n exulted I. Alleluia, what a Savior! Amen. Let us conclude our service with prayer. Our blessed God, you who 2,000 years ago gave us the consolation of Israel, who would redeem his people from their sins. Bless us, we pray, that we might go, that our time with family and friends might be enriched with the true joy and peace that comes only through salvation with Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen. Go in peace and Merry Christmas.