Christmas Eve 2024
2024-12-24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZA3ZbRlkgE

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening. If you would like to pick up a candle for our last song this evening and you haven't done that you're welcome to do that or we will be having a in just a few moments so if you would like to grab those elements they are there on the back table pray and then we'll stand and spend some time in song Father in heaven we thank you for your goodness and for your grace and as we consider the good news of Christmas that doesn't just look back but looks forward to your return. Help us to remember this good news that for us there is a Savior. And so help us like the shepherds to hear the good news and to take action upon it. Help us to glorify and praise you. Thank you for all that we have seen and heard through your word and be with us tonight. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. If you would stand with me as we begin our time of worship. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Jesus, to Thee be all glory. Word of the Father, now in flesh of me. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Oh, come let us adore Him. Oh, come let us adore Him. Oh, come let us adore Him. God bless the Lord. Oh, come let us adore Him. Oh, come, let us adore Him. Oh, come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Oh, come, let us adore Him. Oh, come, let us adore Him. God bless the Lord in Christ the Lord.

Let the hell angels sing Glory to the newborn king Peace on earth and mercy mild God and sin is reconciled Joyful all ignitions rise Join the tree of the skies Nature rise and worship Him Who is born at Bethlehem Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King Let's pray. Pleased as man with man to appear Jesus our Emmanuel here Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King Thank you. We'll be right back. Thank you. The Lord is coming, let earth receive her King, let every heart bring room, and to heaven and nature sing, and to heaven and to heaven, heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the earth, the Savior, in their songs employ. Wild fields and floods, rocks and hills and plains. Repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy. Repeat, repeat the sounding joy. No more let sin and sorrow go, nor thorns infest the ground. He goes to make His blessings flow. For as the curse is found, for as the curse is found, for as, for as the curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations presume. of ease of his righteousness and the wonders of his love and wonders of his love and wonders, wonders of his love In just a minute, we'll be in the Gospel of Luke. Before we do that, I want to give you a kind of introduction clip. Some of you were here with us when we watched the best Christmas pageant ever.

Last week, I think Thursday night. So if you have been to see the movie or were here with us to watch the movie a few days ago, this is a short clip from when a group of kids heard the Christmas story for the first time. Let's start at the beginning of the Christmas story. We've all heard it a million times. I think it's a good reminder of what Christmas is all about. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, into the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house in the lineage of David. To be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. Great with child. stupid. Ralph, that's not. It's not very nice to say that Mary is pregnant. My mother would

have wanted us talking about that. It was true. Mrs. Wendelkin didn't like cats having kittens or birds laying eggs. She didn't let Alice play with anyone who had two rabbits. Yes, sure. I want to hear. I couldn't believe it. The Herdmans were famous, never sitting still, never paying attention to anyone. Teachers, parents, and priests. Yeah, the Christmas story We had them hanging on every door. Mary and Joseph had to go to the stable because there was no room for them at the inn. My God! Not even for Jesus? They don't use God's way in the gym. What's a manger? Is that like a bed for the baby? Why would they have a bed in the barn? Well, that's the point, actually, right? They didn't have a bed in the barn. They had to use whatever was there.

What would you do if you had a new baby, a baby in the barn? You put Gladys in a hero drawer. There you go. Married with the baby Jesus in a stone-feeding trough for animals. What were the wadded-up clothes? You said she wrapped him in wadded-up clothes. Wadded-up clothes. They used to wrap their babies tightly in a big piece of fabric so they couldn't move around. Hide him up and put him in a box? Where was child welfare?

All right, we're going to go to Luke 2 and talk about the baby who was wrapped in swaddling clothes. Before we do that, let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for Jesus, and we thank you for grace, and we thank you for your people and for your word, and we thank you for this time where we can gather and look back to the salvation that was given for us, and we can look forward to the hope Give us peace, give us strength, direct us to your son, it's in his name we pray, amen. So one of the things that I am not very good at, among probably a lot of things, is the presence. It may be because when I wrap presents in a hurry, it may be because I'm just bad at tape. Somehow I always end up with tape wrapped around and on the wall. I'm bad at folding

up the corners so they look really, really nice. I'm bad at folding up the paper so he gets that nice little point on the end of the package with the seams all straight and the wrapping paper all squared. And probably with some practice, I might end up being okay at wrapping presents. And now, while I'm really bad at wrapping presents, I can swaddle a baby like nobody's business. Like, I am really, really good at swaddling babies. Like, that little lady will be a tiny little baby burrito before you know it. Out of all of my failings as a dad, swaddling babies is not one of them. And I would say this, that a tightly wrapped burrito of a baby is a well-loved baby. And I say this because what we find in Scripture is while there are some things about having babies that have changed,

like locations and technology and sometimes medical procedures, a lot of the process of having a baby throughout history has remained the same. In fact, I want to show you a Scripture going back to the book of Ezekiel. And it's a picture of God's interaction with his people and his relationship with them. And the words that are in Ezekiel 16, they're strong, but it's not because God doesn't love his people. It's because they have turned their backs on him and rejected him. And so he sort of describes the situation they are in, their weakness, their helplessness apart from him, by describing the picture of what it was like for a baby to be born in Ezekiel's time. And it starts like this in Isaiah chapter 1, or 16, in verse 1. Again, the word of the Lord came to me,

Son of Man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations. Today, says the Lord of God to Jerusalem, your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite, and your father was a Hittite. And while this is serious judgment, I can't help but find a bit of humor in these words, much like in Monty Python and the search for the Holy Grail. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries. God is bringing a judgment against these people, and he's going to continue on with this picture of a baby being born. And as for your birth, on the day you were born, your cord was wet, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes. And the picture that God paints people is that of a child who is unloved,

not because there was no one to love them, but because they ran and didn't lose themselves from the love of God. And they now find themselves in this helpless and this hopeless situation, Far from everything that they need because they chased after all of these false promises. Now the good news is chapter 16 ends with the promise of a new promise. A promise that never ends. Sins that are atoned for. And the message there is hope for the rebellious. But this text doesn't just give us this theological picture of a God who comes to the helpless newborn. with no one to care for them, and then he ends up saving them. It's a picture of the customs at the time of birth, right? Just like today, and in fact, in Jesus' day, these practices were the same.

So Ezekiel says that the process of having a baby, the baby is delivered, the umbilical cord is cut, they're washed with water and with salt, often mixed with olive oil. So think about it like a nice, exfoliating, moisturizing cleanser. That was the purpose. Not to rub salt on the baby, but to clean the baby and moisturize and keep some of the infection that was possible at bay. And once the baby was born, unhooked, cleaned and moisturized, it was wrapped tightly in swaddling clothes. Just like we do with babies that are born today. They're delivered, we wash them, we clean them, moisturize them, and then we wrap them as tight as we can so that they feel safe. And it's not just what happened then, and it's not just what happens now. This happens to Jesus.

Just like the babies that came before him or the babies that came after him. And while they were there, this is Mary and Joseph, 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 room for them in the inn. So when we were having our babies, we were given a lot of baby blankets. One, a couple were made by my sister. One or two were made by Rachel's cousin. One was made by Rachel's great aunt. And you wrap the babies in their special homemade blanket. and not much has changed and if you've heard the Christmas story you may have heard these swaddling clothes they sort of grab some some pieces of fabric and wrap the baby up tight now

that was true in some cases but in many cases knowing that a baby was coming the family members wouldn't just gather up some clothes or some cloth to wrap the baby in but they would make something special and in some cases they would inscribe a family name or just we would embroider a bunny or a puppy they would sometimes embroider the symbol of the family house and we don't know if this is the case for Jesus but can you imagine for a minute that he is wrapped in swaddling clothes with a lion of Judah, especially if Mary's cousin Elizabeth has gotten involved in the preparations for this birth while Mary visited her. We see another reference to Jesus being wrapped and swaddled in a few more verses. The angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for

all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David that a Savior who is Christ the Lord, this will be a sign for you, you will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in the manger. Now, the sign for the shepherds is not that Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes, right? It's the manger, right? It's weird to wrap a baby and lay him in the manger, even in those days. It wasn't strange for a baby to be swaddled. But the picture for God's people and for us is wonderful. That Jesus, wrapped in swaddling clothes, the bread of life, is laid into a trough that is used to feed animals in the town whose name means house of bread. This is not an ordinary baby, and we might say, with many generations around us, what child is this?

Whom angels greet while shepherds watch, are keeping. And Psalm 19.1 says this, The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. And as the angels sing, and as the star for the magi proclaims that something wonderful has happened, And in the birth of Jesus, you see this baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger is something special. And in part, it's an invitation. It's an invitation to those who are distant and who are far away, to the shepherds who were viewed as sort of second-class outcasts because they were unclean and couldn't attend the temple services. The Magi, those people who were from far away, not followers of God, but distant magicians who come to worship him. This wrapping of the baby and placing him in a manger is also a statement that God is with us.

From God in his holiness and in his righteousness and justice when mankind encounters that there is great fear but here God comes wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger now this is not the only place where Jesus is wrapped in cloth Jesus will grow up he'll be baptized he will go into the wilderness to face Satan he'll work miracles he will teach he will face opposition and then comes this week that is remarkable in both the declaration of his kingship and the greatness of his suffering. And Jesus enters Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday being declared as king. And on Thursday night, he gathers with his disciples to eat a meal. And it says this, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God,

rose from supper, and he laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel, he tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. So here we see Jesus once again wrapped in a towel, In a cloth. And this is strange because here's the reality. If I come over to your house for dinner and you try to wash my feet, like we're going to have a problem. That's weird. We need to understand a little bit of what is happening here. One of the things that I got forced into while I was in college, our school every Christmas had a big Christmas play. And they had a giant Christmas tree that was like 25 feet tall with different rows on it.

And they put a choir in the Christmas tree to sing. And they brought in a live nativity and they told the story and they sang. And there was sheep and there was donkeys and there was camels and all of these things. And I successfully avoided it for three years. In the fourth year, they needed some guys who could carry one of the wise men, one of the magi. And they had him on a palaquin, one of those things. You have four guys on each side holding up the wise man. And thankfully, they picked the smallest guy, put him there. And so there's four of us carrying this wise man in. And they said to us, we have costumes for you, but you guys have to decide among yourselves whether you're going to go to Walmart and buy sandals that match,

which as men is not an okay thing to do, or you can just go barefoot. And none of us had any money, so we said we're going to go barefoot, which seemed like a great idea because it was around the side of the auditorium, up a ramp, onto the stage, down the ramp, off the other side, and out the door. Which was great until you realize chronologically that the wise men follow shepherds. And this is a live nativity. So in front of us, Mary and Joseph have come on a donkey. The shepherds have come with a flock of sheep. And we're like third in line behind the camel, and we are barefoot. Like none of these animals are house trainable. And so you just have to walk and hope for the best, right? There is no dodging.

You just got to take it like a man as you walk up carrying another guy on your shoulders. And that's what's happening in the first century. Maybe not barefoot, but in sandals, walking everywhere on a dusty road. And you come to dinner and it's not tables and chairs, but you're reclining around a low table, reclining on a cushion, and your feet that have just walked ten miles behind a herd of camels is now in everybody's face. And nobody in Jesus' group wants to wash anybody's feet who have been anywhere near camels, and so they don't. But Jesus does. In a picture of his love and his incarnation, And his mission, he washes their feet. He sets aside all that he deserves, wraps a towel around his waist, starts washing their feet and drying them on the towel.

And here we are in our brokenness. And God comes close and he sets aside what he deserves. And he takes on all of our brokenness and our weakness and our smelly mess. And he loves us. Do you know what happens next in this story? The meal will end, they will sing a song and they will go to the Mount of Olives. And this meal, the Passover meal, the psalm they would have sang, would have been 118. It's the psalm that started this week of Jesus' week on life. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And now they sing these words as they go to the Mount of Olives. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing and marvelous as it is in our eyes.

This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. And in the midst of the heartbreak that is about to occur, they sing of God's providential reversal and how God turns things upside down. And Jesus goes to the garden and he prays and he weeps and his disciples fall asleep. The soldiers arrive. Judas betrays him. He goes to these hearings from Annas to Caiaphas to the Sanhedrin to Pilate to Herod and to Pilate. Beaten and mocked, given a crown of thorns, Jesus is led to be crucified. And he cries those familiar words from the cross ending in this. It is finished. And then Jesus is wrapped one more time. When it was evening, Jesus has died on the cross. There came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus.

And he went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. And then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. He rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. And Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb, wrapped in clean linen, but also wrapped in the tears and the sorrow and the hopelessness of his followers. And it's a dark Friday night, and it's a dark Saturday. When the sun rises on Sunday, the news begins to filter back that something has happened, and the tomb is empty. And Simon Peter and the Apostle John run for the tomb. And John wins the race, but Peter wins the courage contest

and dives into the tomb, and Peter sees this. He saw the linen cloths lying there, And the face cloth which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself. And the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed, as yet they did not understand the Scriptures, that he must rise from the dead. And then the disciples went back to their homes. They walk into this tomb, and the cloth that Jesus is wrapped in is still there, just as he was wrapped in it, but he is gone. The cloth covering his face is folded up and set to the side. And despite the darkness and the sorrow and the pain of these last few days, God was at work.

And in the darkness of the cross, we find forgiveness and peace. And in the light of that Sunday morning with those wrapped cloths empty, we find the goodness that in Jesus all our fears are conquered. where fear of death and of sin is gone and our Savior is alive. The one who was wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger came so that we could come close without fear. The one who wrapped himself in a cloth at the Last Supper in humble service to make the dirty clean. The one who was wrapped in those linen cloths after the crucifixion where we find salvation in those same cloths, not unwrapped but empty, on that Sunday morning, bring us to joy. And in just a moment, we will pause and partake of the Lord's Supper to remember the love, the humility, the sorrow of the cross,

and the joy of the resurrection in our souls being nourished. Jonathan Edwards, talking about the fact that Jesus is both our lion and lamb, says this. His humility marvelously appeared in the manner of his birth. He was brought forth in a stable because there was no room for them in the inn. The inn was taken up by others that were more important. The Blessed Virgin, being poor and despised, was turned away, even though she was in such serious circumstances. Those who counted themselves better would not give her a place. And therefore, at the time of her suffering, she was forced to go to a stable. And when the child was born, it was wrapped in swaddling clothes and lay in a manger. There Christ lay, a little infant, and he eminently appeared as a lamb.

Yet this little infant, born in a stable, laid in a manger, was born to triumph and conquer Satan, that roaring lion. He came to subdue the powers of darkness, to make a show of them openly and restore peace on earth, and to manifest God's goodwill toward men, and to bring glory to God in the highest, according the end of his birth declared by the joyful songs of the glorious angels appearing to the shepherds where that infant lay in a manger. Would you pray with me? Father in heaven, we ask as we partake of this bread and this cup that you would direct us to our Savior, both wrapped in swaddling clothes as a gift, come to be near his people and to save his people and to set his people free. that you would help us to see Jesus in his humility,

his disciples' feet making the unclean clean, that you would help us to see Jesus in his suffering and in his death wrapped in the darkness. You would help us to see the empty tomb where Jesus is no longer wrapped but alive and you would direct us to your glorious goodness. We ask that you bless this bread and this cup. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would partake of the bread with me, remembering Jesus' gift to us. If you would take the cup with me, remembering this new covenant given through his suffering and his blood on the cross that sets us free.

And if Evelyn and Penelope and Juliana would come, we're going to go ahead and stand. Go ahead and stand and grab your candles. They're going to come around and help you get lit. If you would, we're going to sing, O Come, All Ye Faithful. Or Silent Night, I'm sorry.

All night, all is calm, all is bright, round yon virgin, mother and child. Holy infant, so tender and mild Sleep in heavenly peace Sleep in heavenly peace Silent night, holy night, shepherds quake at the sight, Glory stream from heaven afar Heavenly O sing out of the earth Christ the Savior is born Oh, I stand, Savior, raise your heart. Oh, I stand, Savior, raise your heart. Silent night, holy night. Son of God, the pure light. We are beams from thy holy face. With the dawn of redeeming grace. Jesus, Lord, at thy birth, Jesus, Lord, at thy birth. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.