Christmas Eve Service | Special Event

Glad my team came up, do something different than what you tell them you're going to do. Welcome to our Christmas Eve service tonight at Kootenai Church. Would you please stand as we begin our service this evening with a call to worship from the Gospel of John.

In chapter one, verse 14, it says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Let's sing together, tell me the story of Jesus.

Tell me the story of Jesus Tell me the story most greatest that ever was heard Tell how the angels in chorus Sang as they welcomed his birth He sent good tidings to her of Jesus In the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard Was triumphed, tell us, reject the story Question, pray, so tell for me Tell me the story of Jesus In the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard For angels sing and light up the sky For brings out in a newborn's cry Swing wide, you ancient gates For Christ is born today Prepare, prepare, let the King of glory enter in with us The promise has come to be this the one The prophets are longing to see In the darkness of blazing light To the hungry the words of life His kingdom now is here for those with fears to hear Prepare, prepare, let the King of glory enter in with us Busy as Bethlehem, don't say there's no room in the air Through the cradle, cross, and grave are displayed Now he's risen and he reigns, praise the name above all Let the King, prepare the King, our joy estranged Glory's day, uberlations proudly sung Shall seize day, adore Christ the Lord, the newborn King Shall seize day, adore Christ the Lord, the newborn King

The scripture reading tonight, you're welcome to follow along with me if you have your Bibles turned in the New Testament to the Gospel of Matthew, to Matthew chapter one. I'm gonna read verse 18 through the end of the chapter, Matthew chapter one.

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.

She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, 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, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son and he called his name Jesus.

Let's pray together.

Our Father, we gather here this evening to worship and adore you, our great God, who has planned salvation and then promised salvation and then provided salvation in your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the long expected Jesus, promised in the garden immediately after our fall in Adam.

You purposed to redeem a people for yourself, for your glory and for their good. And we are grateful that we can worship and adore you for that great salvation that is provided for us in the son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So as we are here tonight, reflecting upon the words of these songs and on your word written in scripture, we pray that our hearts will be filled with love and joy and affection for your son, for your glory.

We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.

To the child so dear

Please stand as we continue our worship. And we'll sing together, Away in a Manger.

Away in a manger, no crib for a Jesus laid down in bed The stars in the bright sky looked asleep, Lord Jesus. No crying he makes, I love thee, Lord Jesus. Till my Jesus I too stay close by thee.

Bless all the dear children in thy tender care. To the shepherds watch over angels, the suns And goodwill toward men born now in Bethlehem, Abed. Except the sovereign Son of God, Lord of the universe Breathing Jesus died to rescue all of our shame and sin.

Nailed to the tree with wonderful uprill Christ the conqueror was raised, heaven and nature sing. Wonderful counselor become Messiah Were stretched abroad from everlasting was the word.

God was he, the word was God and he must be adored By the word all came to be, the universe and all contained Showing God's authority, his power and his reign. Glorified the ever changing from our Lord He laid down his majesty and took on human form Mortals here beheld his face, the heavenly Father's perfect Son.

Full of truth and full of grace, the Savior now has come So our lips could gladly tell, Christ the Word has come to us Our Lord Emmanuel, oh, oh, oh

Would you please stand once again? And we'll sing together, Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

The old angels sing to the newborn king, Peace on earth and mercy in mind, Sin is reconciled, Joyful nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies, With angelic Christ is born, In Bethlehem Joseph the newborn, Christ by highest heaven laid in time, Behold him come, Offspring of the virgin's womb, Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, With Jesus' man was slain, To prison with him the second is laid, To angels' hymns we raise.

The Humble Circumstances of Christ's Birth and the Expectations of Israel

If you have your Bibles, will you please turn to the Gospel of Luke, to chapter 1. The Gospel of Luke, chapter 1. There is much about the Christmas narratives, the Nativity narratives, in the Gospel of Matthew, in the Gospel of Luke, which might be unexpected.

Not just the unexpected announcement of angels to a virgin, that she would be with child. Of course that would have been very unexpected to Mary and to Joseph. But also the humble circumstances of the birth of Christ.

The announcement of angels to shepherds out in their fields at night. Not having the birth of the sovereign Son of God announced to the ruling class of Israel or to Rome. And the fact that he would be born in Bethlehem, which is a lowly small town just in the shadow of Jerusalem.

Rather insignificant city by itself. All of that is rather unexpected given the nature of who it is that was born there. Those are humble circumstances. And given the exalted nature of what was promised in the Old Testament, our expectations would be that someone who was born of that type of nature would be someone, if he's born into a royal family, in a royal lineage from a royal line, we would expect him to be born amidst the pomp and the circumstance, amidst the ease and privilege and wealth and comfort and convenience that might accompany the birth of a king.

That's what we might expect. After all, this was the heir to David's line. This was the heir to the throne. This one being born was himself the king who would inherit the nations and rule them with a rod of iron.

This is David's greater son, the one to whom an eternal kingdom is promised in scripture. And one to whom an eternal kingdom will be given. He is the great shepherd, the king, the priest, the deliverer, the fulfillment of all Old Testament expectation.

He is the one that Moses and the prophets and the Psalms all wrote about. He is the one that everybody anticipated and expected from the time in the garden, every righteous heart longed for the day that they might see the fulfillment of this promise, this deliverer who would come to crush the head of the serpent.

And yet without denying that any of those things are true of Christ, scripture tells us that his birth was humble and for the most part, unrecognized, unobserved, unnoted by anybody, unnoticed. And the Jewish expectation of the Messiah did not completely match the person and the work of Christ at his first coming.

They were not expecting a suffering servant born in humble circumstances. They were expecting a conquering king. They expected a king who would judge the world in righteousness, a deliverer who would subdue the nations, a king who would overthrow Gentile nations and pagan powers, a king who would establish an eternal kingdom under David's throne, a king who would cut off the wicked from the land, who would bring safety and security and peace and prosperity to the world.

That was the Jewish expectation of the first century. Now, were they wrong to expect that? They weren't wrong to expect that because that's exactly what Yahweh promised all of those things on multiple occasions in the Old Testament.

The problem was not that their expectations were wrong. In fact, their expectations were simply inaccurate. The problem was that their expectations were incomplete because scripture also promised one who would be born in Bethlehem.

He would grow up like a tender shoot. It's Isaiah 53. He would have no stately form or majesty that we should desire him. He would be presented to them lowly and riding on a donkey. Zechariah 9. He would be pierced for their transgressions and crushed for their iniquities.

He would be as a lamb led to the slaughter. He would be cut off from the land of the living. Isaiah 53. He would render himself as a sacrifice for sin. Some would gamble for his garments. Psalm 22. He would have no place to lay his head.

He would die with criminals and be buried with the rich and his body would not see corruption but he would be raised again on the third day. All of those passages were fulfilled just as they were written in the prophets and in the Psalms.

So were the Jews wrong to expect a conquering king? No, but they should have added to that the suffering servant who would come first. And I would submit to you that all of the passages regarding his rule and his kingdom and what is to come will be fulfilled in the same way that all of the prophecies regarding his first coming were fulfilled.

That is to say literally just as they are written. We know how God is going to fulfill future prophecy because he has a track record of fulfilling past prophecies that have already been fulfilled. And this in fact is what we see in the angel's announcement in Luke chapter one.

The Angel's Announcement to Mary of the Divine Son and Davidic King

So if you are there, we're going to begin reading at verse 26. We're going to read through the end of verse 38. We're going to focus in on verses 31 and 32. Luke one 26. Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the descendants of David and the virgin's name was Mary.

Verse 26 mentions the sixth month. Luke is referring there to the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy who was mentioned earlier in the chapter. In fact, just in the previous verses. Verse 28 and coming in, he said to her greetings favored one, the Lord is with you.

And she was very perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. And she's wondering why she is favored. What would occasion such a blessing, such a visitation like this from an angel.

So she's perplexed. Why she of all people would be seeing an angel. She doesn't understand that. Verse 30, 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 name him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end.

Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I am a virgin? The angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. And for that reason, the Holy child shall be called the son of God.

And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month for nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, behold, the bond slave of the Lord may it be done to me according to your word.

And the angel departed from her. Now that's the announcement we read earlier, the visitation of the angel to Joseph and what he was informed of. Now we're reading here of the visitation to Mary and what she is informed of.

In Matthew's gospel, the announcement to Joseph focuses in on his savior capacity, the fact that he is the savior of his, he will save his people from their sins. And here the emphasis is on him being great, being called the son of the most high, 32, verse 32, and that the Lord God would give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end.

Well, I want you to notice two things here that the angel communicates to Mary first, that Christ is a divine son and second, that he is the Davidic sovereign. He is the divine son and he is the sovereign or the king who comes from the line of David.

Verse 31, behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high. He is the divine son and his greatness is tied to his nature.

You and I are called sons of God or daughters of God, children of God. When we make reference to that, we mean something different than what is meant here. We mean that we are sons by adoption. We are adopted into a family that we have no right to enter into on our own, by ourselves.

We're brought in as adopted sons, but when we describe Jesus as the son of the most high, we mean that he is a son by nature. That is, he is the second person of the Trinity. He is God himself. He is Yahweh.

That is what is meant by that. He is the eternal one and the eternal one who did not regard his equality with God as something to be held onto, but instead he laid aside the comforts and conveniences of heaven and he stepped into time and space and took upon himself human flesh and a real human nature without ever ceasing to be what he had always been, the divine son became something that he had never been before.

He became Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, united fully and completely and eternally with a true human nature. So the divine son, the second person of the Trinity who spoke all things into existence, he, in his divine nature, without changing his deity, without divesting himself of his deity, without surrendering any of his divine nature or any of his divine attributes and without ever changing his divine nature, became something that he had never been when he took upon himself a human nature, a true and real human nature united forever in that one person, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Godhead was veiled in human flesh so that the Lord Jesus Christ would know and experience all of the limitations and frailties of humanity, the very humanity that he assumed. And we're not talking about sinful humanity.

We're not talking about the limitations of sin or the frailties of sin, but the limitations of being finite, being human in nature. Without sin, without fallenness, the preexistent son of Yahweh who shares fully the divine nature became Jesus of Nazareth in the incarnation.

And he didn't give up his deity. He didn't change his deity. He didn't forfeit his deity so that we can confess that Jesus Christ is truly man and truly God. That is why we worship him. He is truly man and truly God.

Luke 1 .32 says, he will be great and will be called son of the most high. That Jesus himself did not shy away even in the least of affirming that he was God in human flesh. In John chapter five, after doing a miracle, he defended his actions for doing that on the Sabbath to the Pharisees by saying, the father has been working until now and I have been working.

And John says the Jews sought to kill him because he being a man made himself out to be God by claiming to be the son of God with the authority to heal and to work on the Sabbath, the Jews understood exactly what he was claiming.

Then in John chapter eight, he said before Abraham was, I am, and he took the divine name to himself. And again, the Jews picked up stones to stone him because they understood exactly what he was claiming to be the preexistent and eternal God.

In John chapter 10, when he said, I and the father are one, the Jews again picked up stones to stone him.

Why?

Because they understood exactly what he was claiming to be, God in human flesh. And all of this was accomplished through this miraculous conception. Luke 135, the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you.

And for that reason, the Holy child shall be called the son of God. And this was to fulfill the scripture which promised this in Isaiah 7, 14.

Therefore,.

The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will conceive, will be with child and bear a son and she will call his name Emmanuel. Emmanuel translated God with us. That was the promise. The virgin would bear somebody whom we can call God with us.

So he is the divine son. That's what the angel promised. Second, the angel promised that Christ would be the Davidic sovereign. Look again at the end of verse 32, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end.

He will be given a throne. He will reign over the house of Jacob and his kingdom will never end. Over the last several weeks and actually a few months as we've been going through the Psalms, we've had opportunity to jump back into the Old Testament and look at some of the Old Testament promises regarding that king and the kingdom.

In Psalm 2, we see that king in his divine nature expressing his right to rule the nations and to be given all of the nations as an inheritance. That's in Psalm 2. In Psalm 89, we see reiterated the promise to David from 2 Samuel 7 that God would seat one of David's descendants upon his throne and that he would rule over the house of Jacob, over David's kingdom forever.

The words of the angel here in Luke 1 are directly almost word for word from Isaiah 9, verses 6 and 7. In fact, I want you to look at verses 32 and 33 and I'll read Isaiah 9, 6 and 7. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders.

That's rule and reign. And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father or Father of Eternity and the 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.

Now you can see how the angel is taking language from Isaiah 9, 6 and 7 and he is restating the promises to Mary regarding this child that she would bear. Just on Sunday, we looked at Jeremiah 23, 5 and 6.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely and his name by which he will be called the Lord Our Righteousness.

This righteous branch would be called Yahweh Our Righteousness. He will be called Son of the Most High God and he will rule over the house of David or he will take the throne of David. Now notice when the angel promises this to Mary in Luke chapter 1, notice from all of the Old Testament texts that we've looked at, 2 Samuel 7, Psalm 2, Psalm 89, Jeremiah 23, Ezekiel 33 and 34, Jeremiah 33, all of those passages that we've been going through in recent weeks, notice that the angel signals no change of plans to Mary regarding the nature of this king and his kingdom.

There's no alteration in the promises from the Old Testament. They're simply restated in the same language that the Old Testament prophets used. The same language with the same promises and the same details.

The angel does not spiritualize the promises. He doesn't redefine David's throne or David's kingdom. He doesn't spiritualize the rule and the reign or the notion of him ruling a government. He doesn't make the house of Jacob symbolic of all of God's people over all of time or the church or some spiritual kingdom.

He doesn't do this because Mary understood exactly what it was that the nation of Israel should expect in their Messiah. She understood the Old Testament prophets and the passages. She understood the promises from the Old Testament.

She was of David's line. She could probably recite the details of the Davidic covenant. She could probably recite Psalm 89. She knew that God had promised to the lineage of her great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather, David, that someday God would raise up a king from David's throne, from David's line, to sit on David's throne and to rule the nations forever.

Mary knew the promises. She understood what the son of David was destined to do. And so the angel doesn't change anything regarding the promises. Simply says, Isaiah 9, 6, and 7, all that Isaiah promised, all that the prophets promised is coming to pass.

And the one that you will give birth to is the one who will fulfill those prophecies just as those prophecies were given. That is what the angel promised. Notice that Mary's question is something different than you might expect, given what the angel has just said.

The angel has just promised that this child would rule on David's throne with the right to rule the nations, fulfill all the Old Testament prophets, reestablish the throne of David. And Mary doesn't ask a question regarding any of that.

She doesn't ask, how is this going to be since David's kingdom has come to an end 500 years ago? How can this possibly be since the line of David's succession was cursed under Caniah? How can this possibly be since there is no Davidic kingdom and for the last five centuries we as a people have been ruled by Gentile powers from all over our region?

We have not ruled ourselves yet. How can this possibly be that Joseph, who might be a descendant of Caniah, himself cannot take the throne because of the curse upon Caniah's line? She doesn't question any of that.

What does she wonder about? How can this be since I'm a virgin? That's the question she asked. In her mind, it's difficult for God to create a child in her womb, not so difficult for God to revivify the throne of David and to establish the kingdom.

For her, the big hurdle was the fact that she is a virgin. Not that the Davidic dynasty has fallen into nothing and that Caniah's line was cursed and that they haven't been ruling themselves for the last five centuries.

None of that is an issue to Mary. She's just wondering, how can this be since I am a virgin? And the answer is, there would be a creative miracle wrought by the Spirit of God in the virgin Mary and God miraculously caused, just as God miraculously caused Elizabeth to conceive in her old age, God would do something similar in Mary in a miraculous conception there as well.

Now, Elizabeth's conception was not without the agency of her husband, not apart from her husband, but it was a supernatural work nonetheless. And so the angel affirms in Luke 1, verse 37, for nothing will be impossible with God.

And nothing we have read in this text is impossible. Nothing is. Not conceptions in old age, not virgins conceiving, not the revivification of David's throne and his kingdom, and certainly not Christ taking that throne and ruling in his kingdom forever over the nations.

None of that is impossible. God keeps his promises. And this king that was born of a virgin to live and die as our Savior also rose from the dead as our Redeemer because God keeps his promises. He died as our sacrifice and fulfilled the Scripture.

And through his one and atoning death and his resurrection, he has purchased salvation for any and all who will come to him in faith. He ascended to heaven where he sits at the Father's right hand and he will come again and he will fulfill his word.

He will sit on the throne of David and rule over the house of Jacob forever. God keeps his promises. He keeps his promises to forgive and to redeem the one who places their faith in this Savior, the guilty sinner who sees their need for a Savior, their need for forgiveness and their need for righteousness.

You, guilty sinner, are commanded to come. To come to this Christ, to come to this Holy One, to come to this Divine Son born of a virgin, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law. Come to him in repentance.

Do you as a sinner see your need for forgiveness and salvation? Do you see your guilt and your condemnation, that you have lied and stolen and blasphemed and committed idolatry, that you have been covetous, that you have lusted, that you have hated in your heart, that you are wicked and that if God were to judge you today on the basis of his 10 commandments that he would find you guilty and do you come to see that if he finds you guilty because he is good and righteous and holy and just that he must punish your sin and send you to eternal damnation?

If you see that and you feel the weight of that and you hunger for the words of life, for the bread of life and for the living water, I have good news for you. You ought also to see that this one who was born of Mary has righteousness and forgiveness available.

He is your only hope for righteousness. He is the only one who has paid the price for guilty sinners. He is the only one who has offered an atoning sacrifice sufficient to pay the price for your sin and for my sin.

And only he was born to save his people from their sins and only he offers you pardon and forgiveness, clemency and righteousness even tonight. So turn from your sin and come to this one who died to save you.

Come to this one who is coming again to judge the living and the dead. He will receive a kingdom. He will crush the nations. He will rule the world in righteousness. He will cut off the wicked from the land and he will bless his people with abundant peace forever.

He commands you this day to repent that is determined from your sin and to believe and trust him for the salvation that he offers you. Worship him who is born King of the Jews. Worship him who is born the Son of God and the Savior of sinners.

Let's bow our heads.

Our Father, we delight and rejoice in the fulfillment of promise in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that you have provided for us in him all that is necessary for our forgiveness, for our righteousness, and for eternal life.

We who have hungered for living water and hungered for the bread of life have found our souls satisfied in your Son in Christ who lived and died for us, fully man able to represent us, fully God able to bear our sin and our punishment.

And so we thank you for a Savior who has been born to us, Christ the Lord. We thank you for the fact that he has risen from the dead. Death no longer has dominion over him. And we thank you for the hope that he is coming again to take the throne of David as you have promised and to rule and reign over the nations forever.

Thank you for including us in that everlasting kingdom. And it is our prayer for any here who do not know this Savior born of the Virgin Mary that you would draw their hearts to you and open their eyes to their need for salvation and a Savior from their sin so that they may have righteousness and find peace with you, a God whom they have offended by their sin.

Be magnified and glorified to draw sinners to yourself and to comfort the hearts of your people as we worship you tonight for all that you have done for us in your Son in whose name we pray.

Amen.

Would you please stand as we end our service this evening and sing together Silent Night.

With a quote.

By Saint Augustine of Hippo. Let the just rejoice for their Justifier is born. Let the sick and infirm rejoice for their Savior is born. Let the captives rejoice for their Redeemer is born. Let slaves rejoice for their Master is born.

Let free men rejoice for their Liberator is born. And let all Christians rejoice for Jesus Christ is born. Merry Christmas.