Carol Service Address 2006
No doubt, some of the younger people here this evening are getting very excited about
Christmas. Not only are there the school holidays to look forward to, but there is the
excitement of Christmas itself, the presents, the decorations and lights, the special food and
treats. Some would even say that they wished it was Christmas every day! But for others of us
there is the expense, over indulgence, hard work of cooking and washing up, and entertaining
sometimes grumpy relatives.
But for the true Christian, in a sense every day, every week, is a celebration of the fact that
2,000 years ago, God became man; he was born as a real, human baby, he grew as a child, he
worked as a man, he experienced hunger, thirst, pain, happiness, rejection and an untimely
death. But he didn’t stay dead; he rose from death and ascended to heaven. There is no tomb
of Jesus Christ that you can visit today. When the apostles preached in Jerusalem about the
resurrection of Christ, nobody could prove them wrong by producing his dead body. And the
same apostles had no other reason than its truth to go on proclaiming that he was alive
because it cost many of them their own lives. No, for the Christian, Christ has conquered
death.
So why, you may ask, is this relevant to me? Listen to this statement of Scripture found in 1
Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive”. You are in
that statement; did you hear it? ‘As in Adam ALL die’. Romans 5:12 says much the same,
‘through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through sin, thus death spread to
all men, because all sinned.’ As human beings, we are all descendants of Adam, the first man,
and because he rebelled against the God of the Universe, we are all sinners and rebels against
Him. He is the Federal Head of the human race. Just as all British citizens were at war with
Argentina in 1982 over the Falkland Islands because the Head of State had declared war on
Argentina, so we all are sinners because Adam sinned. You might want to protest that it isn’t
fair were it not for the fact that as Romans 5:12 says, we all sin without exception.
But 1 Cor 15:22 continues to say that, just as we are all declared sinners in Adam, that in
Christ, there is LIFE. Hear what some other Scriptures say:
Matthew 1:21 – his name shall be Jesus, for he will SAVE his people from their sins
John 3:16 – God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes
in Him should not perish but have EVERLASTING LIFE
John 10:10 – Jesus said, I have come that they may have LIFE and have it more abundantly
1 Tim 1:15 – this is a faithful saying and worthy of acceptance by ALL, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to SAVE SINNERS of whom I am chief.
2 Tim 1:10 – (the purpose and grace of God) has been revealed by the appearing of our
Saviour, Jesus Christ, who has ABOLISHED DEATH and brought LIFE and IMMORTALITY to light
through the gospel (good news).
The coming of Christ that we remember always, but especially at Christmas, is relevant to
everyone because it is a matter of LIFE and DEATH, of eternal condemnation or eternal glory,
of facing your maker as his enemy or as his child.
In Galatians 4:4,5 we read of a timely rescue, “”When the fullness of the time had come, God
sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” Through all the time from Adam to Christ,
mankind had been searching for the answer to the question posed in the Bible in Job 9:2, ‘how
should a man by JUST with God?’ It was clearly impossible for man in his own strength. We
know that even our best efforts are only ‘filthy rags’ (Isaiah 64:6) in the eyes of the God who is
HOLY. But the Scriptures promise on every page that a Messiah is coming, the Christ, the GodMan, the Lamb of God, the sinner’s substitute to stand in the place of sinners such as we all
are and do that which we could never do for ourselves. Gal 4:4 says that at the right time, God
sent his Son into the world.
People were waiting expectantly. The Magi (wise men from the east), Simeon and Anna in the
temple, and others were waiting for the promise of the Scriptures to be fulfilled, waiting for
God to come as a man without his own sin, to establish God’s righteousness as a true man,
and to die in the place of his people, pouring out his life-blood in their place as the penalty
for their sins. Only God Himself could establish such a perfect and far-reaching
righteousness, and only He could pay such a vast penalty for the sins of an innumerable
multitude. We read in John’s gospel chapter 1 and verse 14 that the Word (Christ who is the
Word of God) became flesh and dwelt among us. He lived as a man in the place of men (and
women!) and died the death that was justly theirs, bearing the punishment of the holy and
offended God.
Christ has paid the debt, he has credited his righteousness to all who believe him and those
who trust him are no longer enemies of God but His adopted children destined to spend
eternity with him.
Now that gives me cause to REJOICE! What about you?