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The Good News of Christmas -- Christmas 2016

As worshippers excitedly entered the sanctuary on Christmas Day, one of the pre-service reflection questions shown on the screen read as follows: “On this Christmas Day, are you thankful and joyful that Jesus Christ is your Messiah King who humbly became man in order to rescue you to live under His reign? Give thanks to God for your salvation.” (based on Micah 5:2-4) What a wonderful truth to reflect upon at the beginning of our worship service on Christmas Day, reminding us that Christ is Immanuel, God with us, and His coming in the flesh is our salvation, to God’s eternal praise.

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With these words in our hearts the service began with Grace, Che Eng and Wei Tek Lee lighting the Christ candle in the advent wreath and leading us in beautiful words of reflection and prayer to quieten our hearts.

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Pastor Oliver then read Isaiah 9:2-7, which tells of Isaiah’s great prophecy of the gift of a son, a child, who shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Following these stirring words, the Christmas choir took the stage and the whole congregation joined in song for the carols: both ancient – Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Angels, From the Realms of Glory, and modern – Joy Has Dawned. 

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The choir gave us the offertory Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne, a song which speaks of how the singers have room in their hearts for Jesus, despite there being no room for Him when He came to earth, and that their joy will be to hear Him say, “There is room at my side for thee” when He returns in glory and victory at His second coming.

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After the offertory Joy Tan read for us the penetrating and profound words of John 1:1-14, ending with the majestic declaration that could only have been written by an eyewitness: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory; glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” With that we were ready to sing two more carols: From the Squalor of a Borrowed Stable, and Come, All Ye Faithful.

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Pastor Ian’s sermon was taken from Luke 2:1-7 and titled “Lessons from the Innkeeper”. Lesson 1 is that sometimes, like the innkeeper, people are just busy. They are preoccupied with things, people, work: the timing is wrong, so wait, try again later, don’t give up.

Lesson 2 is that sometimes people are already full – their calendars and hearts are full with other stuff, even other religions, because someone else got there first. The gospel demands urgency. As Pastor Ian memorably put it, it’s not good news if it doesn’t get there on time. But the key point here is that people may only think they are full. Actually they may be empty, but they just don’t realise it because the power of God has not come upon them yet, so we should not assume that people have rejected Jesus and should keep encouraging them to look up and find God.

Lesson 3 is this: that when I can’t give Him what He deserves (because I can’t) He receives what I offer. What a great comfort it is to properly understand this truth and take it to heart. Pastor Ian likened our bodies to the barn that Jesus was born in. Too often we have a sanitised version of the manger scene in our minds, but we were reminded that barns are where farm animals live, and farm animals are smelly and dirty and not too bothered about toileting arrangements. Likewise, our bodies are full of filth and rubbish garnered over a lifetime. Why should Jesus want to come and live in us? Haven't we often heard people say, “If you can’t give Jesus what He deserves then don’t bother”, or “If you can’t give Him the best then don’t give Him anything”? Pastor Ian reassured us that this is not true. The quality of His Lordship is not dependent on the quality of the barn. In Pastor Ian’s words: “The King of Creation makes our barns His temple, not because we are clean but because He cleans us up.” This lesson is illustrated for us in the last chapter of the gospel of John when Jesus met the disciples after His resurrection: a passage that is often described as the reinstatement of Peter. Pastor Ian mentioned that the English word ‘love’ is deeply inadequate as a translation of the original Greek words ‘agapeo’ and ‘phileo’. In verse 15 Jesus asked Peter “Do you agapeo me?” but Peter could only reply “Yes, I phileo you.” A second time Jesus asked Peter “Do you agapeo me?” and Peter replied “Yes, I phileo you.” But the third time we see the grace and mercy of our Lord because he changed his question to “Do you phileo me?” and Peter replied again “Yes, I phileo you.” Jesus was willing to accept what Peter could offer Him, even though it was less than the best. In the same way we should offer Him whatever we have, however lacking we feel it to be, because He is willing to receive it. Praise God for His loving-kindness to us!

What more fitting way to respond to such an uplifting message than to sing Joy to the World with all our hearts! This was followed by a postlude from the choir of Go Tell It On The Mountain. 

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After the service the spirit of celebration continued as members and guests enjoyed fellowship downstairs over light refreshments. The atmosphere of joy and friendship was heartening: an appropriate end to a service billed as “The Good News of Christmas!”

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