SPEAKER_00: Well, good evening and Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a guest with us this evening, uh let me introduce myself.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Jason Smith, and I have the awesome privilege of being the pastor here of First Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: And uh what a privilege it is to host you.
SPEAKER_00: I know so many of you have traveled to be here with family, so welcome this evening.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I love the Christmas season.
SPEAKER_00: I love the uh uh the lights, the music, the the decorations.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have a favorite Christmas carol.
SPEAKER_00: Uh pretty at the top of my list would be Joy to the World.
SPEAKER_00: Uh actually, uh last weekend for the first time, my family we went caroling, and that was quite an experience.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just say I carried uh the group, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But think about it.
SPEAKER_00: We have Christmas parties, tacky, tacky sweaters, uh, an excuse to eat whatever you want for an entire month.
SPEAKER_00: Just completely blow your diet, because you don't want to be rude, do you?
SPEAKER_00: And then there, of course, there's your family traditions and travel and the presence, right?
SPEAKER_00: The parents are pulling their hair out tonight, just making sure all of the presents are here and wrapped.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if your family is anything like mine, this season can also get hectic, even overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00: There's way too much to do, so much expectation and such little time.
SPEAKER_00: We run ragged, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Trying to create the ideal.
SPEAKER_00: While some of us even long to return to the ideal of yesteryear.
SPEAKER_00: Now, friend, I say all of that because I know how easy it is for us to forget the why of Christmas, to forget why Jesus actually came.
SPEAKER_00: So this Christmas season as a church, we've been walking through biblical passages that tell us specifically, they pinpoint Jesus' mission, why he came, helping us to focus because we all get easily distracted and can miss the true hope of Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that is our aim tonight for this Christmas Eve service.
SPEAKER_00: I know you've got a lot of things on your mind, but for the next 15 minutes, our hope, our aim is that we would focus our hearts and hear from the Lord for why King Jesus came.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to Matthew chapter 1, verses 20 and 21.
SPEAKER_00: Says, Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him.
SPEAKER_00: That's Joseph in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.
SPEAKER_00: For the child who has been conceived of her, or sorry, in her is of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_00: Will you pray with me?
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, this Christmas Eve, on the eve of the celebration of you giving your Son, right now, Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit would quicken our minds and our hearts to hear and to understand with great clarity the reason that you, Jesus, came to the earth.
SPEAKER_00: It is in his name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: All right, friends, I need to just be direct with you because our time is short.
SPEAKER_00: It is only when you accept the very bad news of Christmas, then you will know the overwhelming joy of Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: Without the desperate need for Christmas, Christmas will always be about everything else.
SPEAKER_00: You see, a thousand dollars to Elon Musk is nothing.
SPEAKER_00: But to the destitute, it is provision from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The promise of healing to a healthy 20-year-old means little.
SPEAKER_00: But to the mother dying of cancer, it means everything.
SPEAKER_00: So make no mistake about it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to save you from your sins.
SPEAKER_00: And for that to truly mean anything to you, you must admit that there was no other way.
SPEAKER_00: And that the biggest need in your whole world is being saved from your sins.
SPEAKER_00: Not financial, not medical care, not family problems.
SPEAKER_00: No that your biggest need, the one that Jesus came to rescue, was you from your sins.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're anything like me, you have a hard time believing that bad news.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: When you are selfish or when your words cut like a knife, you probably blame it on stress or sickness or a bad boss or your underperforming spouse, or maybe you have an overly needy child.
SPEAKER_00: When others point this out, you're probably like me, and you rush to your own defense because it sure is hard to believe that we are actually the sinner that they are describing.
SPEAKER_00: And there we are, trapped inside our own prison, hiding, guarded, unwilling to be truly known by anyone.
SPEAKER_00: After all, if they knew all of my thoughts or my selfish obsessions, no.
SPEAKER_00: Like Adam, we all hide in our sin, longing for a way out.
SPEAKER_00: Friend, I want to greatly encourage you to genuinely consider the very bad news of Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: God said there was no other way to reconcile you back to Himself.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus had to enter this lost and broken world, live a perfect life, and die in your place.
SPEAKER_00: That the baby in a manger was on a rescue mission to save you from your sins.
SPEAKER_00: But don't you see that at the same time it is equally the best news?
SPEAKER_00: For he sees my sin, all of it.
SPEAKER_00: He truly sees it for what it is, for the death that it is.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he knows all of me, my limitations, my quirks, every facet.
SPEAKER_00: And he still came to rescue me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came so that you could be fully known and fully accepted.
SPEAKER_00: And friend, that is the true joy of Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: Joy to the world.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has come.
SPEAKER_00: Let earth receive her king, let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.
SPEAKER_00: And heaven and nature sing, and heaven and heaven and nature sing.
SPEAKER_00: There's one other point that I want to make for us this evening, and then I'm done.
SPEAKER_00: And it's found in the third verse of that hymn, Joy to the World.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it, it's on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground.
SPEAKER_00: He comes to make his blessings flow.
SPEAKER_00: Far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as, far as the curse is found.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever thought about the fact that Christmas begins the new creation?
SPEAKER_00: Born in obscurity amongst the animals, was the dawn of new creation.
SPEAKER_00: That the angels sing because the curse is being reversed.
SPEAKER_00: A few weeks ago, when Pastor Daniel preached, he made a reference to a famous quote in the Chronicles of Narnia.
SPEAKER_00: Now, to set up that scene, Narnia is underneath the curse of the wicked, evil white witch and her spell.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, it is always winter and never Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: It is cold and full of hardships, always winter.
SPEAKER_00: But there's never any true joy or celebration.
SPEAKER_00: This is a powerful metaphor for the human condition.
SPEAKER_00: A world full of suffering, each of us longing for true joy and happiness.
SPEAKER_00: But once Aslan, the true king of Narnia, once he steps foot back into Narnia, the moment that that happens, immediately everything begins to thaw.
SPEAKER_00: For the first time and a long time, things move in the other direction.
SPEAKER_00: That is Jesus at Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: The manger is the first brick of the world's recreation.
SPEAKER_00: God is not finished with this broken world.
SPEAKER_00: He has come to make all things new, far as the curse is found.
SPEAKER_00: His birth, declaring the nearness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Emmanuel, God with us.
SPEAKER_00: His death, paying the penalty for our sin, his resurrection, victory over death.
SPEAKER_00: Brick by brick, he builds the hope of the gospel that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: But you say, creation still groans, the earth still quakes.
SPEAKER_00: Friend, one day soon he will return and he will make all things new.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to how the book ends.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to Revelation chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death.
SPEAKER_00: The first things have passed away.
SPEAKER_00: And he who sits on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new.
SPEAKER_00: He comes to make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found.
SPEAKER_00: In closing, I would like for you to look at this drawing.
SPEAKER_00: It's titled Mary Consoles Eve by Grace Remington.
SPEAKER_00: I love this piece for its ability to portray many biblical themes.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the way that Eve clutches her fruit, but she's surrounded by the goodness and the abundance of God.
SPEAKER_00: Somehow in sin, we believe that God is holding out on us.
SPEAKER_00: And yet the end result is she is dejected.
SPEAKER_00: But most of all, I want you to notice the way that Mary consoles Eve.
SPEAKER_00: Eve, lift your head.
SPEAKER_00: There is hope.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you see in the very center of the picture is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And he has come to right every wrong, to undo every curse.
SPEAKER_00: Joy to the world.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is come.
SPEAKER_00: Let earth receive her king.
SPEAKER_00: Let every heart prepare him room.
SPEAKER_00: Friend, I wonder if there is room in your heart tonight for the king.
SPEAKER_00: God has drawn near.
SPEAKER_00: Will you admit that you are a sinner that is in need of a savior?
SPEAKER_00: He has come to rescue you unto himself.
SPEAKER_00: Will you bow your knee?
SPEAKER_00: Will you pray with me?
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we bow our knees before you.
SPEAKER_00: We pause to say, thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: There is no God like you.
SPEAKER_00: There is no, there is no spot where we can be fully known and fully received and accepted except in you, King Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In your love, you saved us.
SPEAKER_00: You have come to rescue us, and we are fully known.
SPEAKER_00: I praise you.
SPEAKER_00: I praise you for my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I praise you that you are the God who draws near.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that every heart here knows that salvation, that they know you personally.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name that we pray.