Christmas Eve Celebration

Merry Christmas to your family and your family. We are grateful you are joining us for our Christmas Eve celebration. We are delighted to have you join us this evening. I love hearing the strings celebrate Christmas for us and this team did not disappoint.

Christmas is celebrated for many reasons on so many levels. Many of us love the sentimental notions of Christmas. Picture the quintessential Christmas dinner with all the generations sitting around a table loaded with holiday favorites. A perfect fire crackles in the fireplace while fresh snow is falling outside. I think I have described just about every Hallmark Christmas movie in existence!

Others love how Christmas affords them a time to reflect as the year winds down. Plus, there are usually several days off from work, which is always a welcome relief. Yet, Christmas affords us a great opportunity to witness God keeping His promises.

Christmas does not begin in the gospels. Christmas did not start with Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the angels. The truth is the story of Christmas begins years before this. Seven hundred years before the Wise Men gave, the angels sang, or the shepherds came Isaiah explains what Christmas is all about. I invite you to turn your Bible to Isaiah 7 in the moments to come.

One of America’s favorite holiday songs this time of year is the classic, I’ll Be Home for Christmas. The song was originally written during WW II to honor soldiers who longed to be home for the holidays. It’s been sung by the likes of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Kelly Clarkson, and most recently, Pentatonix. The lyrics of the song make this promise:

I'll be home for Christmas

You can plan on me

Please have snow and mistletoe

And presents by the tree.

Promises – so easy to make, but so hard to keep.

Isaiah 7 predicts how the Messiah is to be born.

Isaiah 9 predicts how the Messiah will bless.

Throughout this evening, I want you to listen for these words: Promise made, promise kept.

1. The Promise of Christmas

Isaiah is one of history’s greatest men. A counselor to kings and a contributor to the Bible itself, Isaiah’s Old Testament book is quoted more than any other book in the New Testament, except Psalms. In fact, Jesus chooses a passage from Isaiah’s writings to preach His first recorded sermon.

One of the biggest predictions is from the prophet Isaiah predicts this: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Now, Isaiah is not alone in clearly and explicitly proclaiming the Messiah (“anointed One”) for Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Micah, Zechariah, and Malachi all make predictions about the coming Messiah. Yet, for the next few moments, let’s keep our focus on Isaiah’s eye-popping predictions

1.1 The Virgin Shall Conceive

Isaiah predicts the virgin shall conceive. Years, later the angel comes to Mary and says, “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” (Luke 1:31-35).

1.2 Predicting the Future

It’s a difficult thing to predict the future. I did some digging around in those whose job it is to look into “the crystal ball” in several fields, sports, economics, and politics. And here’s what I found. Only two Sports Illustrated experts out of 11 predicted the Dallas Cowboys would make the NFL playoffs this year. In the field of American Presidential politics, few people foresaw the election of Donald Trump even days before the election. Economists have failed to accurately predict when interest rates will rise repeatedly. Yes, the practice of forecasting the future is daunting. Who could have predicted in 1940 that a then-unknown colonel in the United States Army, Dwight Eisenhower would be elected President in 1952? For those of you who have been married for a number of years, think about your marriage for a moment. Wouldn’t you have loved to be able to predict his (or her) future just before he asked you to marry him (or her)?

1.3 Would You Believe?

A man visited a church service where the pastor spoke on Mary’s conception by the Holy Spirit. He was a skeptic and came up to the pastor after the service and said, “I don’t believe that story, and I don’t believe you believe it either.” The man continued, “Suppose a young woman about six months pregnant came walking into your office and said, ‘I’m expecting a baby. This is my boyfriend and he has never laid a hand on me. I conceived this baby miraculously by the Holy Spirit.’ Would you believe her?” This skeptical man thought the pastor would surely say no. To his surprise, the pastor said, “Yes, I would believe it.” Then after a dramatic pause, he said, “Yes, I would believe it if that birth had been foretold by prophets thousands of years before the baby was conceived.” “Yes, I would believe it – if an angel visited this boyfriend and said, ‘Do not be afraid to take this woman as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” “Yes, I would believe it – if when that baby was born wise men traveled from afar and brought gifts to worship him and a star guided him to where that baby lay.” “Yes, I would believe it – if her son had power over the wind and the waves, over death and disease.” “Yes, I would believe it – if her son died on a cross and was raised from the dead three days later.”