Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

Good afternoon everyone. We're gonna get started in just another minute, but I wanted to welcome you here. Thank you for spending your Christmas Eve with us. We're gonna have a casual time of just a couple songs and Jeff will bring us a message out of God's Word.

Before we really get started, I wanted to ask if you are visiting here, we want to especially say thank you for coming, but we have a Connect card. This Connect card allows us to just send you a thank-you note just to say thank you that you came to Cornerstone.

I have ushers that can, if you slip up your hand, they'll give you a pen, they'll give you a Connect card. If you feel comfortable with just writing your name and email address down, we'll just send you that thank-you note.

Just slip up your hand real quick. If you happen to not get one, you can always get one in the back. There's pens and there's cards in the back and when you fill that out, you can stick it in the offering box in the back or you can give it to me or Pastor Jeff and we'll get it we'll get it circulated for you.

Thank you so much for your attention and again, if you need those, they're in the back. Jeff?

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service and the Joy of Gathering

A room so full on Christmas Eve, this is encouraging. It does mean we are short a few of these candles, but the way that the Christmas Eve service works is that at the end of the service, we will pass the the flame around and you can just kind of pass it back and help share that as it goes out and we'll sing the last couple songs by Candlelight.

So that will be kind of the conclusion. Before that, we're just gonna sing some Christmas hymns. I promise not to preach for my usual hour, but I'll keep it in the 20-minute range, but we will hear from God's Word and think about the meaning of Christmas and we're gonna have to I see people still streaming in, so hey, praise God that he's brought everyone here to hear the Word of God.

So this is wonderful. Yeah, let me open in prayer and then we'll begin to rise and sing. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this glorious afternoon. We are celebrating the birth of the Christ. Father, you gave Jesus into the world for our sins and so we want to turn all of our devotion to Christ and we pray that eyes would be open to see him more clearly for who he is, the light of the world.

We thank you, God, for this evening and we dedicate it to you and pray that your presence would help us here to bring glory to your name. In Jesus' name, amen. Can we stand?

Born the King of angels Let us adore O come, let us adore him O come, let us adore him Christ, the Lord Heirs of angels Sing in exultation O sing, all ye citizens Of heav 'nly to God Glory in the highest Let us adore him O come, let us adore him O come, let us adore him Christ, the Lord Let us adore him.

O town of Bethlehem How still we see thee Lie above thy deep and dreamless sleep The silent stars go by Yet in thy dark streets shineth The everlasting light The hopes and fears Of all the years Are met in thee tonight In thy dark streets shineth The everlasting light The hopes and fears Of all the years Are met in thee tonight.

The child of Bethlehem Descend to us We pray Cast out our sin And enter in Be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tidings tell O come to us Abide with us Our Lord Emmanuel. We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tidings tell O come to us Abide with us Our Lord Emmanuel.

We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tidings tell O come to us Abide with us Our Lord Emmanuel. You may be seated.

The Name of Jesus and the Meaning of Christmas

Let's pray. God, as we open your word, we pray that you would speak to our hearts, that you would pour light into our souls, that we would know you better this evening. Let this Christmas be all about the Son of God, Jesus Christ, not about us.

Remove the distractions from our minds and help us to focus on your word this evening. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, recently our church has been having a baby boom. Many babies born, just babies, babies everywhere, babies.

And it's a wonderful and awesome blessing that we're very excited about. In fact, two of the babies were born just one day after one another. And both parents named their child Chris. So we had a Chris followed by another Chris.

This name, Chris, means bearer of Christ. So one who carries Christ in his life. When a parent names their child Chris, they're naming their son after the Christ. And that is a great legacy. It's a wonderful blessing.

Not all parents have the same discernment in naming their children. There are some people who are incredibly smart, very book smart, but not necessarily street smart. One of those people would surely be Elon Musk.

He named one of his children XAEA -12. That was the name of the child. In fact, the first application failed because he tried to conjoin the A and E together as one letter, and that didn't exist in the English alphabet.

He named another child Technomechanicus. Well, thank you, Sandy. Technomechanicus. And a third, he named XA Dark Sidreal Musk, who just goes by the name Y. Why does he do this? We don't know. But names, names are supposed to carry meaning.

When you name someone, you are identifying them, you are giving them a legacy to live after. Isaiah famously named his son Maher Shalal Hashbaz. So this is a difficult name, but there was a prophetic reason for doing that.

There was a set of parents who named their daughter Random. Random. And when this child was doing an Easter egg hunt, the organizers had actually written the name of every child in the hunt on the eggs.

And so each kid went and found their own egg. But when they saw the ones labeled Random, they just thought those were freebies and grabbed them, so the poor kid didn't get any Easter eggs. The parents were mad, but listen, that was their own fault.

The moral of this story, listen, names are not to be random because names have a very important meaning. And in the story I'm about to read to you, just a few verses, then I'll make a three-point comment on it, it is the naming of Jesus, but this name, the name of Jesus itself preaches the gospel to each of us.

Allow me to read the naming of Jesus Christ. This comes from Matthew 1, verses 18 to 25. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. This morning, I would like us to focus on those simple words and try to keep my sermon much more simple than this morning.

For those of you who were there, we took a very deep dive and covered a lot of territory. Tonight, we just want to be very simple and focus on these words, call his name Jesus. What is the meaning of these words?

Well, it is the naming of Jesus. When Jesus was given this name, prior to this moment, he had always been the son of God, but only in the taking on of human flesh was he forever now to be called Jesus.

What is the meaning of this? Well, first of all, he is named this, identifying him, but there is a second meaning that comes from the text, and that is when you call his name Jesus, you will be saved from your sins.

In Romans chapter 10, verses 13, it says, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. You must first of all know his name to call his name and know who he is and what he's done. When you come to him in faith, calling on his name to be saved, you will indeed be saved.

Now in the story in verses 18 to 20, we hear that the birth of Jesus took place in this way. Joseph learns that Mary is pregnant and his first reaction to this news is to divorce her quietly. They had been betrothed, which was sort of like the first step of marriage.

It's not like being engaged. It was something more formal than that. There was this two-step wedding process where the husband would go away to build the home for the bride. They were already, in a sense, married.

It just hadn't been consummated at that point in time. But finding her to be pregnant, he had in mind to divorce her until an angel of God came and said that this child is from the Holy Spirit. Now, the first point I would like us to understand from the text comes from this little word for.

In verse 21, it says, she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus for, F-O-R, for, meaning the reason, the ground of calling him Jesus is to follow. For, listen, the best news you'll ever hear, he will save his people from their sins.

Why does the name Jesus communicate he will save his people from their sins? Well, the name Jesus comes from Joshua, Jehoshua in the Hebrew, Yeshua. The tetragrammatron, Y-H-W-H, is the formal, personal name of God.

When God revealed himself in the burning bush to Moses, he said, I am who I am. And from this, we get the name Yahweh. The name Yahweh saves, which is the name of Jesus, is the meaning of his name. It communicates who he is.

He is named Jesus because Yahweh, God, is salvation. God is salvation. This is the great need of every person in this room. I'm sure as a room as full as this, there are a thousand needs in this place.

Many of us are aware of how acutely needy we are. It could be a financial need, a relationship need, a strain in the marriage, a rift with children. There could be some kind of need relating to your health.

Surely there are a thousand needs in this building, but there is one need that many people fail to recognize to be their greatest need, and that is the forgiveness of sin. It says in verse 21, he will save his people from their sins, which means that all of us are in need of forgiveness.

God has given us commandments to rule our behavior, and all of us are lawbreakers. He has commanded, thou shalt not lie. How many lies have you told in your life? He has commanded, thou shalt not steal.

Have you ever taken private property, regardless of its value, from someone else? He gave commandments related to himself that we should have no other gods beside him and none before him, to make no idol, to never take his name in vain.

And all of these commandments are binding. To break one of these commandments is to become a lawbreaker. The great need of every person in this room is to be forgiven for the sins that we have committed.

God has set a standard, and none of us achieve that standard. We all fall short of the glory of God. We need forgiveness. The amazing story of Christmas begins right here, with the answer to the question, what has he come to do?

What was he born to do? We know that he lives a perfect life, never committing sin. This innocent one was born to die for sinners like us, to pay the penalty of sin, to lay down his life as a sacrifice for sinners, in order that we can be forgiven.

The great news begins right here. They will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. That's the first thing, what he's done. Now, surely, there are many who listen to this message and wonder, how do we know that this is true?

It may sound good. Surely we want to be forgiven and we would like for God to forgive our sins, but how do we know that that forgiveness is found in Jesus and not some other way? Because there are many claims to be from God.

How do we know that this alone is the truth? Well, the next verse says, all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. How do you know and how do you distinguish between the voice of the true God, the creator of the universe, and any other imposter who only claims to speak for God?

How can a person know this? Is it within the human understanding? There is a verse in the book of Isaiah where God tells us how we are to know. In Isaiah chapter 46, verses nine and 10, he says, remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other.

I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose. This verse falls within what is called the trial of false gods.

The God of Israel will compare himself to the gods of the nations, the so-called gods, the idols that people make with their own hands. And he says, this is how you distinguish and know me, the true God, against the imposters.

I tell you the end from the beginning and all of my purposes, what I say I will do, I bring those things to pass. For those listening here today, and maybe you've never come to believe that Jesus is the son of God, that he is the Christ and you're wondering, how could anyone know such a thing?

The answer is right there. God has spoken through prophets for hundreds of years and then fell silent for 400 years before fulfilling what he promised to do. He has spoken through prophets to tell of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

But for our purposes this morning, we're just going to look at two verses where he promised 700 years beforehand what he then did in sending Jesus. The first is my third point. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel.

The prophet Isaiah gave a sign that none could miss. A virgin giving birth to a son, something the world had never seen before, something that is impossible apart from God. But not only did he confirm the truthfulness of his word by this miracle that a virgin gave birth to a son, he also foretold it prophetically 700 years before he did it.

In Isaiah chapter seven, we hear these words. Behold, therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Emmanuel means God is with us, God with us.

Jesus in fact is God with us. But he continues on to reveal more about this coming one, the one who we call Jesus. In chapter nine, verses six and seven, he says this. Listen carefully. For to us, a child is born.

To us, a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called. Recognize that phrase? His name shall be called. Matthew will repeat this in the telling of the story of Jesus.

His name shall be called, listen, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there shall be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

What he promised to do through Isaiah the prophet, he did in time, in the fullness of time when God sent his son, born of the Virgin Mary, born under the law. The promise of a coming, everlasting father, a wonderful counselor, almighty God, prince of peace.

This is the identity of the one born in Bethlehem. He is none other than God himself born into flesh. He is the everlasting father. He is the prince of peace. This promise in Isaiah 9, 6 came true on that Christmas morning.

Now, one other thing I want to point out from this verse, it says, for to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. He was the son of God from all eternity past who was given into the world. As a child, he was born.

And at the birth of this child, the Christ child, he was called Jesus. But even before he was born, he was a son. The son preexisting was given into the world. And so we'll conclude back where we began in Matthew 1 with these three points.

The first is, we call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. What he's done. Secondly, all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. The prophecies fulfilled are the reason to believe.

And thirdly, who he is. Who is this one who was born and laid in a manger? He is none other than the everlasting son of God, born into our world to pay for our sins. He is God in flesh. And the verse ends this way.

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. Could it be this simple?

What sermon could ever be more simple than this? Call his name Jesus means that Jesus is God with us, come to save. Who is he? He is God in flesh. What has he done? He's died for sinners. And what does God require of us?

Call his name and you will be saved. This means repent of your sin and have faith in the son of God. Turning away from sin, turn to Christ, call on him. God, I am a sinner. I have broken your commands.

I deserve punishment, but I'm calling on the only name that can save me today, the name of Jesus. The only name that has ever saved, the name of Jesus. Call his name. I want to read four or five verses to you that are the promise of forgiveness of sin.

From Matthew 1 21, we heard it promised that he will forgive us of our sins. That's what his name means. Listen to some other verses that make this promise as well. This is the best news you'll hear this Christmas.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Psalm 32 one. In him, that is in Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.

Ephesians 1 7. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.

Hebrews 8 12. And listen to this. As far as the East is from the West, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. Psalm 103 verse 12. Did you know that this was our greatest need? Forgiveness of sin.

The reason the world is as wrecked and destroyed as it is is because sin came into the world in the garden of Eden. And we have many struggles in this life. They can all be traced back to that root. The issue, however, is that each of us has committed sin.

We each have inherited sin from Adam. And so we ourselves stand in need of forgiveness. And the good news of Christmas is that his name is called Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Are you one of his people?

This evening, have you put your faith in Jesus? Have you repented of your sin and called upon his name? The promise is this, whosoever calls his name will be saved. Will you repent of your sin, turn to him and believe that he is none other than the very God who created you born into our world.

For sinners like us, the forgiveness of sin is the best news ever told in the history of the world. And it is told to you this evening. All you must do is repent and call his name for the forgiveness of sin.

With that gift of forgiveness comes the positive side, which is eternal life. Your sin being atoned for, you are set free, you are cleansed and now you will enter with him for all eternity to dwell in the presence of God.

Almighty God will welcome you into his presence for all eternity because of the name of Jesus. What's happening here this evening and all across the world is the declaration of the good news of Jesus Christ.

His name is different than any other name. His name is God is salvation. It's the only name that saves. There is no other name given among men whereby men can be saved, but the name of Jesus. And there are really two groups of people in the world.

We saw this happen as early as the following days after the fall of man, as early as Genesis chapter four. In Genesis chapter four, there was Cain and there was Abel. One in faith brought a worthy sacrifice, which was one of obedience, a blood sacrifice to point to Christ.

The other, refusing faith, killed his brother. But the story goes on to tell us that having done so, Cain did not repent and call on the Lord for forgiveness of sin. Instead, it tells us he removed himself east of Eden, away from the presence of the Lord.

In this world, there are those like Cain who know themselves to be sinners, who are as guilty as the red blood on his hands. And yet throwing themselves away from the presence of the Lord, they run and they hide and they cast their tent east of Eden.

But we learn at the end of Genesis four that the son of Seth, who was born in replacement of Abel in a sense, Seth and his son began to call upon the name of the Lord. And that is the second group of people, those who call his name.

Seth and his son began to call on the Lord, save us, have mercy on us. There were two who came into the house of the Lord, according to Jesus. The first was a tax collector and a wicked sinner. And he fell back into the back of the room and slunk in shame and he beat his chest and he said, have mercy on me, the sinner.

And another religious man, not seeing his own sin, looked down on that man and he prayed, thank you God that I am not like him. One of the two left justified that day. It was the sinner who beat his chest, who said, have mercy on me, the sinner.

And so it is today. There will be some who like that righteous Pharisee who was righteous only in his own eyes, will see no need for the forgiveness of sin and will go east of Eden, away from the presence of the Lord, not wanting to hear this message, but others will know your need.

I know how desperately I need to be forgiven. Confessing my sin, I know how perfect my Savior is. Do you confess your sin? And will you do that right now? Let's close our eyes and pray. Maybe you've never prayed before and you don't know how to pray.

So I just encourage you, talk to God in your thoughts. The God who made you knows what you're thinking all the time. And you don't have to earn anything from God and be religious enough. He's not looking for the Pharisee who is righteous only in his own eyes.

He's given his son for all who will call his name. And so I'm gonna pray. And if this is your prayer as well, you say it to God. In the privacy of your own thoughts, he will hear you. You can call his name.

You may even just whisper the name Jesus under your breath. Quietly, he will hear every word you speak. Pray something like this. God, I am a sinner. I have broken your law. I've broken the commandments.

I deserve to go away from Eden. But this Christmas Eve, I hear of Jesus. One given for the forgiveness of sin. I need to be forgiven. Have mercy on me, the sinner. I call the name of Jesus. The only name that can save.

I turn from my sin. I believe in Jesus Christ. He died on the cross. He was buried and he rose from the dead. Lord, save me, the sinner. And thank you for the indescribable gift. Thank you for the baby born and laid in a manger who came to save me from my sins.

In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen. If you prayed that prayer, please talk to the person that brought you, your friend, your relative, that we could get you a Bible and we could encourage you to continue on in the Lord.

That every Sunday you could be gathering in the name that is above every name. For he is worthy of our praise every Sunday, not just Christmas. We are so blessed to be here this evening. So let's rise to our feet.

And Michael, is it time for the candle? All right, at this time, we will ask you to grab your candles and help us pass the flame around. Try to be careful not to light the hair of the lady in front of you on fire.

And then we'll begin to sing.

Candlelight, Christmas Joy, and Closing Prayer

Let's sing together. As the candles are getting lit, the lights will dim. And we'll sing together. Sun and sofa say Sun is from Jesus, Jesus Lord. Let's sing that first verse again. Sunshine.

That's a beautiful sight from where I'm standing. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this gift, this indescribable gift, your only son. And we pray now as we go to celebrate Christmas with our families.

Lord, that we would make you the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords in our lives. That we would walk with the Prince of Peace. Help us to put Christ first and over all in our lives in whose name we pray.

Amen. Go in peace.

You can blow out your candles. There's gonna be a metal basket in the back. You can drop them in. If you have a battery operated one, just hand it to the ushers in the back.