Christmas Eve 2024

December 24th 2024

Matthew 2:1-12

Today, this evening, we are here to celebrate nothing apart from the Birth of Jesus Christ. Yes…there is Family and everything that comes along with it, both good and bad. Some of us have traditions specific to our families that we celebrate…and that's a good thing. Tradition is a tool well able to maintain the memories and lives of those who have gone before us. Just earlier today, my family gathered and celebrated our traditions; we ate pasta and cake from recipes our great-great grandparents wrote. We opened presents and we played games. However, above and beyond the Earthly Traditions of our ancestors, we will also be joining our hearts and minds together in something that transcends all families. We will be celebrating the Birth of the long promised Savior, who has also promised that in our collective future…He will return. If you have been joining us for the past few Months in our Sunday Service, we have been talking a lot about that promised return. But here, today, we lean our thoughts in a different direction to read words long written down, and call to our weary minds the day when the King of the Universe took on humanity, was born of a Virgin, and claimed His rightful place as the the King of not only the World, but the King of our lives as well. 

To help us do this, we will be reading the story of the Three Wise Men. Three men, who Scriptures gives little information of, yes, but of what we know, we will discuss as we move forward. If you have your Bible with you, &  it’s ok if you don’t, turn with me to Matthew chapter 2. We will be reading Verses 1 - 12.

A lot can be said here this evening, but I want to call your attention to what the Wise Men said to King Herod that day. They said, in Verse 2: “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”. We all know this story.  They came from somewhere East of Jerusalem, traveling, roughly, almost 1,000 miles on Camelback. Which, to bring that into terms we can wrestle with, they rode from Orlando Florida, to here in Clyde. And yes, we can all laugh, and we should, about someone traveling from a major city, a major destination, to a town as small as Clyde. We can laugh at this, because, from our human thinking… it's absurd. It would be outrageous to take a 2 week long road trip, to end in a town with no grocery store. A town with nothing to offer visitors, and a town with nothing to offer the World. However, and I can assume the Wise Men thought this same thing about the town they were traveling to…when God is doing something in our World, where in the World it’s happening, can’t stop Him from doing it. 

You see, what we need to understand is that over a Century had passed between the prophecy of Jacob’s Star, and the day those Magi saw it blinking in the cool night sky. Generation after Generation told stories of the miraculous works of God in times long since past, always ensuring to speak of the promise of the Godstar whose rising would mean the end of every enemy. And though hundreds of years and hundreds of wars had passed by…though nations and kings rose and fell…God kept His promise.

It was a promise He made in the Garden of Eden, and was spoken of in every single Generation until it was fulfilled. You see, those Three Wise Men were referencing Numbers 24:17, which says this: “ “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Scepter shall rise out of Israel, And batter the brow of Moab, And destroy all the sons of tumult.” The Book of Numbers was written 1,400 years before Jesus was born, and the Magi kept it in their heart and mind until that day. For One Thousand Four Hundred Years, the people were relying on God’s promise, and it was a promise that He fulfilled that day in a Manger. And this brings up why I chose the story of the Three Wise Men for our Service this evening. They would have read the story of the Exodus as children, been told it by their parents and grandparents, the name of God was lifted high over the World in those days, and people from every corner of the known World would be familiar with it…but after 1400 years? How long can you wait, brothers and sisters? Do you keep your heart and minds trained on Heaven, for only a Week? A Month? A year? Do you tell your children and your children’s children about the work that God has done in this World, and continually point to the promise He has yet to fulfill?

Oh star of wonder! Star of light! Star with royal beauty bright! Westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. We can learn an important lesson from those three oriental kings, from the centuries of time the promise of the Godstar stayed relevant to them, yes, but also from the journey they took to follow it. Did their faith waver? Perhaps. Did they doubt? Possibly. When was it? Was it when blisters and fatigue began to set in? When hunger struck, storms raged, and enemies surrounded them…did one look to the others and say: “Is this really worth it?”

Did they take the circumstances of their life, the town they were in,

or the circumstances of the state of the World at large,

and then use them to dismiss what God has said?

How many Nations rose to power and fell in those 1400 years? How many families were forged, grew, and then were no more? How many children were born? How many grandparents were buried? How many tears were shed in a thousand years of anticipation?

And all of these questions can be asked of you this Evening. When was the first time you heard the Word of God? Was it a lifetime ago, or a few years? And in that time, did fatigue set in? Have blisters grown and faith shrunk? Have you looked to the people in your life, your parents, your spouse, and asked that same question: “Is it really worth it?... “I have buried loved ones, I have been abandoned and betrayed, I have been hurt, I have been…and I feel as if I still am…lost in the sprawling wilderness of the landscape before me, I have no idea what lies ahead, and I have lost count of the miles and mountains behind…are my tears and trials worth it?”

We read this about God in Psalm 56:1-8: “You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book? [9] When I cry out to You, Then my enemies will turn back; This I know, because God is for me. [10] In God (I will praise His word), In the Lord (I will praise His word), [11] In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

God sees your tears brothers and sisters, not one can fall that He has not seen, and seen in advance.  There is no secret grief. There is no quiet sorrow. No one suffers alone, because if you belong to Christ, then you are never alone, and never have been. Though the days of the present may be darker than any you have ever known, and no matter how deep your heart may be buried, if you are looking to the promises of God like those Wise Men 2000 years ago…then there is a way out of the dirt that has been heaped upon you, either by others, or by yourself. You see, just like those Magi, you are on a journey…but it is not measured in time or miles, but in sins and prayers.

All of us here this morning, and all you have ever known, the parents and children you may have buried, the grandparents you have loved and the family you have fought with…all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God in this journey. All of us have used the shovel of our favorite sins to dig our own grave, and when we did, we made it deep enough to block out the light of Christ that breaks through the trees above. Plainly speaking, all of us have willingly chosen to not travel towards, but away from the unmoving star of Bethlehem. And in so doing, we have earned ourselves nothing apart from the perfect wrath of God. 

Hear me children of Clyde Savannah, the grave we have dug for ourselves,

is one we will continue to dig until the very flames of Hell

lick the hands and hearts we use to get there.

However, this is not all that can be said. It is not all that should be said. Along this journey away from God, and the sins we have used to take every step, there is an unending voice echoing in the air.

Through every Mountain top and Valley this voice sings. Through the falling of every Nation, every family, and above the crashing waves of every Ocean you have ever tried to cross…the call of Heaven to repent and turn from your sins has never stopped. It has never stopped, because God will always do what He says He is going to do, and He has promised us to never lose a single one of His children.

Do you belong to God, brothers and sisters? Are you His? Is His mark of ownership upon your life in such a way that every step towards eternity leaves the imprint of His name in the soil upon which you tread? 

For that is the only way to reach the Manger of our King. You will grow tired, yes. You will hurt, yes. You will go through the valley of the shadow of death, but you can fear no evil, for He will be with you. His rod and His staff will comfort you. And He will prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies, and your cup will overflow, because goodness and mercy will follow you, everywhere you go. And when you repent of your sins and believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 

You will do so…not because you tried your hardest. Not because you were a survivor. Not because you had within you the strength to take another step, but because 2000 years ago, in the little town of Bethlehem, a Savior was born unto us. The weary World rejoices because away in that manger, with no crib for a bed, the King of kings and Lord of lords became a Human. Fully God and fully man, Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary, who lived a perfect life, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and though He never sinned, He became sin for us, that we might be called the children of God.

Are you a child of God this evening? Are you His? When God peers over the glittering edges of eternity, and lays His eyes upon you…what does He see? Does He see your sin and shame, or does He see the Does God see the blood bought righteousness of His only begotten Son?

Should your eyes refuse to flutter awake tomorrow morning, and your body be laid to rest, will they open in eternity? Will you behold with unveiled eyes, the author and perfector of your faith?

Mortals, join the happy chorus which the morning stars began! With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem! Hail the heaven born prince of peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness! Repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ. For when you do, that grave you have been digging your entire life, will not be your own, but it will be His. He will be the one to take the wrath of God that you have earned, and He will be the one who dies in your place, and, just like you will do when your time here comes to a close…He rose back to life. He is the death of death; He is the life of life; He is the incarnate King of the Cosmos, clothed in human flesh; He is Jesus Christ, and He is faithful and just to forgive us of all of our sins. 

In closing, should you, like those three Wise Men long ago, like I myself have asked before, should you be asking: “Is it worth it?” and you are waiting with baited breath for an answer, the answer…is “Yes.” Yes, He is worth every step. He is worth every tear. He is worth it, not simply because He will never let you go. Not simply because He will give transcendent meaning and purpose to every tear that He saves in His heavenly storeroom, but simply because He is God. He is worth everything in your life, simply because of who He is. Jesus Christ is God, repent of your sins and believe in the baby born in Bethlehem.