Emmanuel - Xmas carol service 2008
Ill:
• A couple of years ago an advert challenged different celebrities to;
• ‘Describe Christmas in three words’.
• One celeb replied: ‘Eating too much’.
• Another replied; ‘Morecombe and Wise’.
• Others suggested ‘filling a stocking’.
• Another replied; ‘The Queens speech’.
• Still another replied; ‘Last minute shopping’.
• Then came the adverts punchline: ‘Christmas in three words’.
• ‘Marks and Spencer’.
• Of course if you take the word ‘Christ’ out of ‘Christmas’;
• All you are left with are three letters – ‘M&S’,
• But......
• Is that really what Christmas is all about?
• It is so easy to get preoccupied with shopping;
• That we forget Christmas is really all about celebrating!
For my talk this evening I have chosen ‘Three words to describe Christmas’:
• They are found in two books of the Bible:
• First mentioned in the Old Testament book of Isaiah (chapter 7 verse 14).
• And they are also mentioned in the New Testament book of Matthew (chapter 1 verse 23):
• Where Matthew quotes Isaiah the prophet in his gospel.
• In the languages of the Bible (Hebrew & Greek) it is two words: ‘Emmanuel’:
• ‘Immanu’, meaning ’with us’; and ‘El’, meaning ’God’.
• Translated into English it becomes three words: “God with us”.
• To me those records best describe ‘What Christmas is all about’.
(1). Emmanuel - God.
Ill:
• Dictionary: the word ‘God’ is defined as ‘Deity or Supreme Being’.
• The maker of all things, a God who is omniscient and all-powerful.
• A being who is uncreated, eternal;
• A God who Christians believe has made himself known in a variety of different ways.
Ill:
• If you have kids, you know that early on in life they would hand you a letter or a book;
• And say; “Daddy, what does it say?”
• To them it is only ink on paper;
• They are ignorant of the fact it is a poem or a story.
Now take that same idea and apply it to an adult who is unable to read;
• It could be possible for a person who cannot read;
• To insist that a poem is nothing but black inky marks on white paper.
• They might even examine the print under a microscope;
• Or run tests and analyze both the paper and ink;
• But no matter how thorough their examination;
• They will never find anything behind this sort of analysis that you could call “a poem.”
• Those who can read, however,
• Will continue to insist that poems exist.
The Bible never tries to prove the existence of God:
• It simply states as fact; “In the beginning” or “Before there was anything else - God”
• It is by faith not by facts that our eyes are open to his reality and presence!
Ill:
• An older couple had an ongoing row;
• About which one of them was losing their hearing.
• One morning the husband decided he would settle the issue once and for all.
• While his wife was enjoying a book in the living room he said in a loud voice,
• "Dear, would you like a cup of tea?"
• Upon hearing no response he progressed to the next room and said again in a firm voice,
• "Dear, would you like a cup of tea?"
• Still there was no reply from his wife.
• Lastly he went into the living room and stood directly behind the chair;
• In which his wife was sitting.
• In an even louder voice he repeated,
• "Dear, would you like a cup of tea?"
• She turned to him with a slightly annoyed expression on her face and replied,
• "For the third time ... yes
Christians believe in a God who wants to communicate with us;
• He speaks to us through creation;
• Look at the world I made – open your eyes and see the design and beauty!
• He speaks to us through the Bible;
• In a world constantly changing he has given to us an unchanging word;
• He speaks to us through Jesus Christ;
• Who is called the ‘Word of God’.
Ill:
• On a wall near the main entrance to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas,
• Is a portrait with the following inscription:
• "James Butler Bonham--no picture of him exists.
• This portrait is of his nephew, Major James Bonham, deceased,
• Who greatly resembled his uncle.
• It is placed here by the family;
• That people may know the appearance of the man who died for freedom."
• No literal portrait of God exists either.
• But Jesus is described as the image of the invisible God.
Ill:
Coventry Cathedral.
• If you want to know if there is a God;
• Look at Jesus (his life, his teaching, his resurrection! Ill: Lee Strobel)
• If you want to know what God is like:
• Look at Jesus (good, loving, just, righteous).
(2). Emmanuel - “With”.
• According to the dictionary the word ‘with’ is a preposition.
• A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence.
• My dictionary gives 17 different examples or meanings;
• For the use of the word ‘with’.
• One of these 17 meanings is this one – ‘is in proximity to or in the same household as’:
• e.g. ‘He lives with his parents’
Emmanuel:
• No I am not saying that God ‘Lives with his parents’ – he hasn’t got any anyway!
• But rather God LIVED with his creation, his own creatures!
Ill:
• Lord Baden-Powell (British general & founder of the Scout movement, 1857-1941)
• Died in Kenya.
• The Dean of Westminster Abbey (London) Wrote to Lady Baden-Powell;
• He offered her a place of honour for her husband in the Abbey.
• It would be, he said, between the grave of David Livingstone (Scottish missionary & explorer in Africa
• And the tomb of the Unknown Warrior.
• The family, however, knew Baden-Powell’s wishes.
• He was laid to rest in a little cemetery in Kenya.
• Above the grave was a simple stone which bears;
• His name, when he was born and when he died.
• There is also a sign carved in the stone - a circle with a spot in the centre.
• It is the Scout sign that means, "I have gone home."
For Jesus the opposite is true:
• He left his home (heaven) to enter our world (earth)!
• “He became flesh and lived among us!”
• Unlike you and me who did not start life until;
• Our father’s sperm fertilised our mothers egg.
• Jesus pre-existed;
• He was the uncreated Son of God – the third member of the Trinity.
Emmanuel:
• Jesus swapped home with God the Father & God the Holy Spirit.
• To be born as one of own creatures!
Ill:
• The most popular pet in the world is the goldfish.
• One in ten pet owners keep fish.
• The most popular name for a goldfish in Great Britain and the United States is "Jaws".
• The collective noun for goldfish is a troubling & a pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
• Mistake to think that a goldfish has a memory span of three seconds,
• Research show that goldfish have a memory-span of at least three months.
• Goldfish can live to be 5 to 10 years old.
• Goldfish originated in China with several hundred varieties developing over the years.
• Ill: 2 Fish story.
• Solution: To become a goldfish!
Ill:
• Celsus was a 2nd century Greek philosopher and an opponent of Christianity.
• During one debate Celsus the sceptic once asked,
• “What has Jesus given to the world that no one else has given?”
• The reply came back, “HIMSELF!”
Ill:
In the late 1800’s the authorities in Hawaii came up with a cunning plan.
• Whenever anyone showed signs of the highly contagious & incurable disease called leprosy;
• They were immediately sent to live on one of the islands of Hawaii, called Molokai.
• Molokai was a place without hope;
• A place of hopelessness where people were sent simply to rot and slowly die.
In 1873 a Catholic priest named Father Damien:
• Felt called of God to go and live on this island;
• And to spend his life ministering to these people.
• He built hospitals, clinics, churches and;
• He even built some 600 coffins during his ministry there,
Whenever he preached he would tell these outcasts;
• That God had not forsaken them.
• That God knew them and loved them and valued them.
• At all his Church gatherings,
• Father Damien would stand and address the people with these words; “My dear brethren,”
• But one morning in 1885,
• Twelve years after his arrival at the age of 45,
• In a calm clear voice, instead of “my dear brethren”
• He began his address with “my fellow lepers…”
• He too had caught leprosy;
• He truly had become one of them,
• And in becoming one of them he also answered with great authority the question,
• “Where is God?”
• The answer was clear:
• ‘In the midst of us’.
Ill:
• Jesus the ‘eternal Word’.
• Clothed Himself in human flesh, and in so doing, experienced life as a man.
• He hungered
• He thirsted
• He felt the sting of rejection
• He felt alone and forsaken
• He suffered at the hands of others/for others
• He was in all points tempted like as we are…
• HE UNDERSTANDS US!
(3). Emmanuel - “us”.
Ill:
• Literally means he is on our side – he is with us and not with you!
• Ill: Football – “There is only one.....”
Question: Why did he come to us?
Answer:
• Ill: “Give him the name Jesus for he will SAVE his people from their sins”.
• He came to save to rescue us!
• Those words spoken by the angelic being;
• Would be fulfilled not in the manger but 33 years later!
• One Friday afternoon at 3.00pm
• When nailed to a Roman cross Jesus would cry out “IT is finished!”
• Note: he did not say “I am finished”.
• But “It is finished”.
• It takes three English words to translate the one word in the Greek text.
• That word is “tetelestai” – “It is finished.”Done!” “Completed!”
Ill:
• Stamped on documents when a deal had been struck!
• e.g. The price of sin had been paid and paid in full!
Ill:
• One of Mozart’s greatest works is his Requiem.
• Written at the end of his life,
• When he was pressed with other work and in poor health;
• It contains some of his most sublime music.
• Yet he did not complete it.
• He died leaving instructions to his friend to finish it off.
• Unlike Mozart Jesus did finish (once & for all & never to be repeated) his work.
• No-one can add to it – it is terminated, ended, defunct, completed!
Quote: Cecil F. Alexander, 1847. wrote the hymn There is a green hill far away,
“He died that we might be forgiv’n,
He died to make us good,
That we might go at last to Heav’n,
Saved by His precious blood.”
“There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gate
Of heaven and let us in”.
• Ill: “Give him the name Jesus for he will SAVE his people from their sins”.
• He came to save us, to rescue us!
• Christmas in three words: “God with us”
• I nearly chose another verse; “God is Love!”
• Because Christmas is a message of how God has showed his live to us;
• “For God so loved the world that he gave....”
Ill:
DVD Clip – This is love – available from SermonSpice.com
Ill:
D.L. Moody.
• “How far to heaven?”
• Moody’s response was; “One step will you take it?”
