Sermon for Sunday December 23rd, 2007

Christmas Candlelight Service by Bruce Ball

Matthew 28:19-28:20


LUKE 2:10-11

‘And the angel spoke to the shepherds and said, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for al the people. Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.”

And Christ was born. For centuries before this, mankind had wondered what God looked like, and on this night, the night of Heavenly hosts, God took off His mask and showed us what He looked like in the form of the Christ-child. God was love. And He sent His only Son to save us.

JOHN 3:16 says it best.

“For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

There was a man who was in a hospital, undergoing surgery. Everything went fine until he came out of recovery. When he awoke, he found himself to be totally blind. He opened his eyes to utter darkness, and utter silence. Can you imagine knowing something is wrong, but not know what is wrong? Can you imagine not knowing where you are, and in addition to that, you are blind and cannot see? What kind of fear would that invoke in you?

The man panicked and started yelling for someone to help him. And he had the presence of mind to stay put until that help arrived.

Mankind is in the same situation. We are utterly lost, and are blinded to the truth, but unlike that man, we all-too-often do not have the presence of mind to scream for help and then do nothing until that help arrives.

But there remains a solid truth, whether or not we wish to acknowledge it. Jesus was sent to save us; to offer us the only way out of this sinful and dark world. As humans we need a lifeline to grab on to, and a light to show us the way. Jesus is that lifeline and He is that light.

We must fully realize three things in our walk with the Lord.


1. JESUS IS THE ONLY LIGHT

In JOHN 8:12 Jesus said,

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness."

Have you ever walked down a country road without a lantern or flashlight? I have, and I will tell you something; it can get very dark. In fact, it can get so dark you literally cannot see the path in front of you. There are no street lights out in the country. And unless there is a full moon, you will not be able to see anything.

This world is spiritually dark, so we need a light to see where we are going. Jesus is the light in this dark world. He is the light that our spirit needs to see by. And the pathway He lights is the path of righteousness for His name’s sake.

The first thing we must do is realize that we need to follow Jesus. He is our only source of light in this spiritually dark world. And as such …


2. JESUS IS OUR ONLY SAVIOR

1 JOHN 1:8 tells us,

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

Realizing that we are sinful is one thing, but we must also realize just what that sin will cost us.

ROMANS 6:23 tells us what the cost of sin is.

“For the wages of sin is death…”

According to this part of the verse, if we sin, we die. That means we will live forever without God, and that place is described as hell. It is imperative that we fully realize just how serious sin is.

But there is good news here, too. That same verse goes on to say, “… but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Once we realize that we are sinners and that spiritual death is the price we will have to pay for our sins, we will see the need to turn to Jesus Christ. But when we choose to submit or lives to Him, we will be forgiven from paying that price.

And once we have been forgiven from our sins, we acquire a responsibility. That responsibility is so heavy that many of us do not want to bear its load.

We are all born into a sinful world; therefore, all of us are creatures of sin. The only way we can go to Heaven is to be saved from our sin.

On the Bill O’Reilly a couple years ago, he and Barbara Walters were discussing Heaven. It was obvious that neither one of them knew anything at all about Heaven or what it takes to get there. Ms. Walters said she is a ‘secular Jew’, and she is not sure what we need to believe to get to Heaven. Mr. O’Reilly said we needed to be good people to get to Heaven.

Let me set the record straight. The Bible is the handbook of Christianity. I am one who thinks we must believe 100% of what the Bible says, even if we do not understand it. That is called “faith” by the way. And, the Bible clearly states in 1 JOHN 2:23 that we must have the Son (Jesus) before we can even have a relationship with the Father (God).

How can we go to Heaven if we don’t have a relationship with God the Father? We can’t. And, according to what I just read, unless we first have a relationship with Jesus, we will not have that relationship with the Father, and that means without Jesus - - we don’t go to Heaven. Nowhere in the Bible does it contradict that statement, but many places throughout the Bible confirm that statement.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I enjoy watching O’Reilly’s show on TV, and I enjoy Ms. Walters’ interviews, but I can see where they are wrong in their viewpoints about God and Heaven.


3. LOVE OTHERS ENOUGH TO SHARE YOUR LIGHT

We like old sayings, don’t we? There is one that all of us have heard and we keep repeating it over and over again. “Live and let live.” In other words, live your life the way you want to live it, and let others live their lives the way they want to live it. That is meant to tell us that if everybody did that, this world would be a perfect place. Let me tell you something very important. THAT IS WRONG!

That is the reasoning behind all of the “tolerance” philosophies you see so much of in today’s world. For years the world has told us that we need to be tolerant of other people’s beliefs no matter what their belief is, but during the same years we have been hearing this, we have seen violence towards each other and hatred of one another increase by leaps and bounds.

So, what is the solution?

ROMANS 13:9 says you should

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

We are to love our neighbors enough to tell them the truth. There is another old saying that goes, ‘The truth hurts.’ And, we certainly have a way of bending the truth to make it more comfortable, don’t we?

The Smith family was a very proud family. Their ancestors came over on the Mayflower, and many of their relatives had been politicians and preachers.

They decided to have a book written about how great their family was. Things were going great until they got to their late uncle Calvin. He was so bad he had been electrocuted.

After much consideration, they wrote that he had occupied a chair of applied electronics at a prestigious government agency, and was kept there by the strongest of ties, and his death came as a real shock.

The moment we customize the truth it becomes something else besides the truth. It becomes a lie. And a lie in any form is sinful and evil. In purest Godly love, we need to love our neighbors enough to tell them the absolute truth. And this includes telling them the truth of how salvation is found only through Jesus.

How do we do this? Jesus gave us the way in –

MATTHEW 28:19-20

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Godly things start happening when His people start praying. I asked you who prayed for you before you received Jesus. I also asked who you were praying for to receive Jesus.

Jesus did not come into this world as a religious leader. Had He done so, He would have only had the religious as followers. He did not come into this world as a great political leader. Had he done so, He would only have had the political minded to follow Him. He did not come into this world as a fierce warrior, because only those bent on aggression would have been His disciples.

Jesus came into this world as the purest form of love. He came, not as a leader so that only a few would have access to Him, but He came as a poor child, born in a lowly manger so that everybody could have access to Him. He came as God’s wonderful and loving gift to this world.

But Jesus continues to be the forsaken gift. The majority of the people have always rejected Him. Rather than believe the simple truth, we bend that truth to make up something we can fit into our personal dictates.

We deny the full deity of Jesus. We say it is okay if we sin “a little”. We say there are many ways to get to Heaven. We bend the truth so we can be comfortable. To give you a very obvious example of what I am talking about, let’s go back to those words Jesus spoke in the Great Commission.

He said for us to go into all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and then to teach them everything we have been taught. Where are most of us willing to go in His name? Nowhere. How many people have we ever really tried to explain the need to be baptized to? Nobody. When is the last time we ever tried to take the time to disciple and train someone into knowledge of God’s Word? Never.

We have actually refused to do what Jesus said, yet we have convinced ourselves that we are good Christians and we are going to be admitted to Heaven with no problem at all. I think too many churches today only reach out to the community when it helps build their congregations. Now, I ask you this: Which is more in line with what Jesus wants –

· To reach others for Christ so they join your church, or
· To reach others for Christ so they go to Heaven?

My question to you is simply this: Are you sure that by denying the fullness of Christ there will be no punishment waiting for you?

In ISAIAH 43:10, the Lord calls us His witnesses. I think it is time that all Christians reassess how carefully they are following the Word of God, and whether they are walking in the light or walking in the dark, thinking they are in the light.

God expects us to spread the truth. In ISAIAH 45:22, He said for the world to turn to Him and be saved. He didn’t just say for a few people to do that. He said for the ends of the earth to do that.

Have we ever touched anyone for the Lord’s glory? Too many times, Christians depend on their ministers to do all the work while they remain content to just go to church. I am of the opinion that each of us has been called to do God’s work; and that is to evangelize the word of God.

Individually, we have power, but we have more power when we all walk in the light of Christ. I want to give you a very clear example of what I am talking about.

(All lights are turned off, and the pastor says…)

I want you to look around you and see how dark this sanctuary is.

(The pastor lights his candle and says…)

I hold my lighted candle up. What do you see? You see how the light from just one small candle will pierce the darkness, don’t you? It makes it possible to see, but only a little bit.

Will the ushers please come forward?

(The pastor takes his candle & lights the ushers candles)

As you can see, I am sharing my light with these men. Now, they will go and share their light with those sitting next to the aisles. In turn, each of you will take the light, turn around and share it with the person beside you.

(As the ushers light the first candles, one lady in the congregation very softly starts singing … “This Little Light of Mine”)

(As the ushers continue to light candles, on the 2nd verse, two others join in and sing softly. Then, a couple more until the entire congregation is singing – without music.)

(When all candles are lit, the pastor says ….)

When the lights were turned off, you saw how dark this sanctuary got. When I lit my candle, you saw that the light of even one candle pierced the darkness. Now, I want everyone to hold their candles high and look around you.

Can you now see how many candles create much more light? Jesus tells us that this world is in darkness due to sin. Jesus tells us to take our lights and share it with others so that the light can come into this world. You can see how much light will affect the darkness, yet too many of us still refuse to let the light of Jesus shine through us to others around us.

(Lights are turned on and candles are put out.)

We do not know when the Lord will be coming back, so it becomes all the more imperative to always be ready. If He would come back right now, would you really be ready to go with Him, or would you find yourself still here after He left?

Will you make a decision this evening to let your little light shine like it never has before? To let your light shine for Christ, our Savior? To make sure your name is forever written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Oh, by the way. That man who woke up blind eventually regained his eyesight. He received the proper help and he paid close attention to the instructions he was given, both by the doctor and by a nurse. The doctor advised him on his physical condition. The nurse read the Bible to him and brought him back to the Lord. He waited on the help to arrive and he grabbed on for dear life - - to Jesus Christ. And because he did, he is now sitting with Jesus at the Table of Grace this evening. That man was my dad.

Do you plan on being there for your eternity? One of the ways you can be sure to is to do everything in your power to share your light, so that others may know what you know about the Lord; so they might be able to see the light and get out of the sinful world, too.

You have been given instructions on how to do this. Will you grab on to those instructions and heed them? As we go into this time of invitation, will you accept the help given you?