Carol Service

This transcript has been automatically generated

Beloved in Christ, be it this Christmastide our care and delight to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the angels, and in heart and mind to go even unto Bethlehem to see this thing which is come to pass, and the babe lying in a manger.

Therefore, let us read and mark in Holy Scripture the tale of the loving purposes of God from the first day of our disobedience unto the glorious redemption brought us by this Holy Child. And let us make this place glad with our carols of praise.

But first, let us pray for the needs of his whole world, for peace and goodwill over all the earth, for unity and brotherhood within the Church he came to build, and especially in the dominions of our Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth.

And because this of all things would rejoice his heart Let us at this time remember in his name the poor and the helpless, the cold, the hungry and the oppressed, the sick and them that mourn, the lonely and the unloved, the aged and the little children, all those who know not the Lord Jesus. Or who love him not, or who by sin have grieved his heart of love.

Lastly, let us remember before God all those who rejoice with us but on another shore and in a greater light, that multitude whom no man can number, whose hope was in the Word made flesh, and with whom in this Lord Jesus we forevermore are one.

These prayers and praises let us humbly offer up to the throne of heaven in the words which Jesus himself hath taught us. Angel Gabriel announces the birth of Jesus to his mother. In the 6th month The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, Hail, O favoured one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be.

And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, how can this be, since I have no husband? And the angel said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

Thanks be to God.

Jesus is born in Bethlehem.

In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrolment when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and all went to be enrolled, each one to his own city.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered, and And she gave birth to her firstborn Son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn.

And in that region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and And the glory of the Lord shone round them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, be not afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy, which will come to all the people. For to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is well pleased. Thanks be to God.

Child Jesus is recognised as the light of the world.

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. When they saw it, they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And inspired by the Spirit, he came into the temple.

And when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel. Thanks be to God. The better halves of many of the men who come here on a Tuesday, uh, it’s a very great joy if you’ve taken the trouble to come up from home and to be with your husbands today. And that of course goes for girlfriends and fiancées as well.

I wonder what in fact you do on a Tuesday in the lunch hour. Coming down Bishopsgate an hour ago, I saw that quite a lot of the girls shape up with Joan. That means, I suppose, that they are attempting to keep their figures every Tuesday in the lunch hour. I want to suggest sincerely to you that if you are fairly near this church in a serious sense, you should shape up to meet the modern age with all its crises and difficulties and opportunities by joining us, for we’re usually a full house here on Tuesday, to study and think with us about the teaching of Jesus Christ. Because I am sure and the many hundreds who come here are sure that that is the only way today to shape up to our own lives and our own responsibilities.

Now in the 2 or 3 minutes that I have this morning I want to resurrect a great Christian truth. You may think it’s rather old-fashioned, just like this thing that I resurrected this morning. You would have found me burrowing in our store in the church. I discovered this lovely old candelabra. If you’re not a student of Victorian art you may not like it but I like it very much and I went out to Mr. Robert Das and procured from him 2 candles so that we should be ready for whatever the Central Electricity Generating Board should do for us.

I only hope, gentlemen beneath, that nothing has hit you untoward from here.

Yes, rather old-fashioned but it has its use today to shed light on my notes. Now the great truth that I want to speak about which I think has a great deal of light to shed into our lives and minds today is the truth that Christ is going to return to this earth. And I have one small phrase from the New Testament where Jesus says, I will come again, and it may surprise you that he says that many, many times.

Now so much is there a need of this great truth today that quite a number of Christians have exaggerated it, and the result of that of course is to make people, uh, be put off by the exaggerations and the controversy. For example, some foolish Christians have tried once again in our own generation to date the return of Jesus in glory. But that of course is quite impossible. Someone may come up to us and say that Christ is going to come again tomorrow, but you know perfectly well that that’s very, very unlikely indeed. So you turn away from your Christian friend thinking, He’s as gullible as I thought all the Christians were.

Now I have a surprise for you if you’re new to the New Testament. When you turn to the New Testament and you ask Christ about his return in glory, he knew very well that there would be people like that and he talks about them, for example, in Mark chapter 13 and he says that people will come up to us and say, lo here and lo there and he’s coming again and then Jesus says something very surprising. Do not believe them.

Some people have the idea that the Christian church is telling us all to believe things. The Christian church is also here to tell us not to believe certain things, not to believe that man can build a world fit for man to live in, for example, and certainly not to believe this kind of teaching that he will return tomorrow. And yet The Christian church is commissioned to say, especially during Advent and at the Christmas season, that as certainly as Jesus came in humility and generosity and meekness, so he will return in glory to judge the living and the dead. And personally, I believe as a Christian that this saves us from despair. We haven’t got to look out into limitless space and wonder which of the mighty powers is going to press the nuclear button, we haven’t got to despair as everywhere people are despairing today and some young people dropping out altogether.

If we believe that Christ is going to return then he’s got his hand on the controls. It also saves us from despising Jesus Christ because if he really is going to return on the last day it means a good deal, doesn’t it? It means he’s going to have the last word.

It means that none can compare with him. How amazing it is, the number of intelligent people you meet today who say, well, I believe in God of course, but there are many ways to him and Jesus isn’t the only way and he’s not the only Lord. My friends, if Jesus Christ is going to return, that means that he is the only Lord. Everyone else may have something to say, something to give us, something to commend their teaching to us but he is going to come to judge. What a dreadful thing it will be if we meet him face to face on that day and his, his, his name has been on our lips only in blasphemy.

What a dreadful thing if he faces us on that last day and we have never paid any attention to him while we were with the opportunity. If he’s going to come it means he’s the Lord. And it means we have to give an account of the way we’ve used the world and used our own lives.

Now I just want to ask and answer the question before I leave the pulpit: How does Jesus Christ prepare us for that great day which is beyond my imagining and yours when he will return? And I think he does it by coming to us today.

Jesus, you see, if you look carefully at the New Testament, not only says, I will come again at the last day, but he keeps saying in the gospels and his apostles said also in the epistles that he will come here and now. Let me explain what I mean. In John 14 when he tells his disciples that one day he will come again to take them to the place prepared for them, he then says to them, the Holy Spirit is going to come and take my place with you and when he comes, John 14:18, I will come to you.

So he prepared for them for that great day of Pentecost when the Spirit came to the church and entered the hearts of the believers and when the Spirit entered the hearts of the believers, lo and behold, they suddenly found that they knew Christ again, that no longer did they have to depend on his being with them in a certain place, in a certain time, in a certain portion of space but that he was with them wherever they went by his Holy Spirit. He’d come again and that joy has been with the Christian church ever since, the gift of the Holy Spirit. To be in your heart wherever you are. You can’t have anything more practical than that. Going to a wedding last Saturday, I talked to an elderly, fine elderly man outside the church just before it started.

He was a bell ringer. He’d been a churchman all his life. I asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ. Oh, he said, it’s such a wonderful example. Then there was a long pause and he said, but you see, it’s just not practical.

Well, I had to rush inside to get ready for the wedding but I longed to be able to stay there in the sunshine and tell him about the gift of the Holy Spirit. God come down to earth by his Spirit into our hearts to enable us by his power to follow Jesus.

But there’s a verse that has become very precious and with this I, I’m going to leave you with this today that we’ve been studying during November on our Tuesday services. It’s in a little portion at the end of the Bible where Jesus is writing to the church of his own day and he has some pretty rude things to say to the church of his day and I’m sure he’d have some pretty straight things to say to us in the church today.

And at the end of the letter there’s a strange twist to it. He finishes his letter by saying this, I want you to listen to it very carefully, it’s a very precious verse for me and many others here. Look, he says, I stand at the door and knock.

What’s that? Christ outside the door of the church unable to get in? I’m afraid that’s very like the church in our own country in the West.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come, that’s our phrase, I will come to him and sup with him. Do you see Christ says to the church of his own day, I’m outside but if there’s anybody there who will open the door of their heart I will come, I will come here and now. You haven’t got to wait till tomorrow, you haven’t got to wait 10 years, you haven’t got to wait till that final day when all the accounts are made up, the great account day. I will come to you today.

I know that for many of you this is the only opportunity that I shall ever have to speak to you and I want to commend to you Jesus Christ as someone able to come into life today. It was in 1941 in August at a boys camp that I first heard that good news and I opened the door of my heart to Jesus and I’m thankful I did. I didn’t make much progress for many years but he did come into my heart and I’ve met so many hundreds of people ever since who’ve taken that great step and responded to Christ’s promise that he will come and I’ve never met anybody who has asked Christ to come in and then has gone on to obey him and serve him who has regretted that great step. It’s the greatest step we can ever take. A woman said to me the other day, I long to put Christ back into Christmas.

Well, there’s only one way to put Christ back into our commercialised Christmas and that’s to get Christ into our hearts. And before we sing our last carol, I want you to turn to carol 13 and verse 3, and in the gloom, perhaps the stewards would put the lights on as I speak, you will see that this verse preaches my sermon much better than I can. Do you see verse 3 of carol 13? How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given, God imparting to human hearts the blessing of his heaven. No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin Where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in, yes, to be Lord.

As you go out of church this morning, why not say, Lord Jesus Christ, you’ve never been in my Christmas or in my life, come into my heart today. Amen.