Order of Worship
December 19, 2010 (Evening Christmas Candlelight Service)
Call to worship
Welcome. We have been lighting a candle each Sunday for the last four Sunday’s to represent our anticipation of the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Tonight we will light the fifth candle to signify that Jesus, the light of the world, has come. He came the first time as a baby, born to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. He was no ordinary baby though; he was Emmanuel (God with us). And, he came for a specific purpose, to live a perfect life and to die on the cross to shed his blood for the sins of all who would believe. He rose from the grave the third day and ascended into heaven and he is coming again one glorious day to call his children home. Let’s join our hearts in prayer this evening and thank God for sending his son and to ask his blessing as we seek to worship him this evening.
Prayer
Creation/Fall/Proto-evangel/prophecy
By Connie Dever
By Connie Dever
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was covered with water and was in utter darkness. And then God said let there be light and there was light. And for six days he created everything in the heavens and on the earth. What was the world like at dawn on Day Six? The light of moon and stars withdrew in the blazing brilliance of the rising sun. The tall mountains and gently sloping hills rose high above vast grassy plains. Birds swooped across the cloudless, sapphire sky and perched in windswept treetops. Fish teemed in the foamy ocean and wriggled in the clear, sparkling rivers. What was the world like on the dawn of the Day Six? It was beautiful…but, strangely still and quiet. It was waiting for something more. The forests silently waited for creatures to venture into its cool greenness. The valleys waited for someone to come and nibble its juicy grasses. Small seeds lay sleeping under the fields, ready to sprout when there was someone to tend and harvest them. For you see, at dawn on Day Six, the LORD had yet to make any living creatures to live upon the land He had created. But now all of this was about to change. The LORD said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:24-25)
Now all the earth was abuzz with life. Yet the LORD was not through creating on Day Six. Once more the LORD spoke: "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." (Genesis 1:26-27) The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)
Dawn of Day Six had long passed. Now the sun was setting deep in the west. Its warm rays were growing dim and the twinkling stars were beginning to show their faces from under the dark blanket of outer space once more. Animals of every kind nestled down for their first night in their newly made dens. Birds roosted in the trees. And the man and the woman—Adam and Eve--were in their special garden, the Garden of Eden, enjoying perfect fellowship with God and with each other, and soaking in all the reflections of God’s glory displayed in the panorama of His wonderful creation. God looked at all He made and said it was very good. It was completely pleasing to Him. There was nothing that needed to be improved or changed. It was perfectly ready for His plans. “And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day." And on the seventh day he rested.
All was peaceful, until one day Eve was walking near the one tree of the garden on which hung fruit that was forbidden to eat. Then Satan, the tempter, appeared to Eve in the form of a serpent, and persuaded her to eat the forbidden fruit. Eve saw that the fruit was good to eat so she took some fruit from the tree and she ate it and then she gave some to Adam and he ate it and the eyes of them both were opened. In that fatal moment, sin came into the world. The world that was created very good to reflect the radiant light of God’s glory had now been plunged into darkness and sin. Before this, Adam and Eve would walk with God and the full radiance of his glory in the panorama of his creation unashamed. But after they disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit everything changed. When God came looking for them, his glory brought shame because it exposed the wickedness of their hearts. So God, being just, pronounced a curse on Satan, all mankind, and the creation because Adam’s disobedience. But, God who is rich and mercy and great in love promised that one day in the future the seed of the women would bruise the head of Satan to redeem mankind and creation and restore it to it’s original glory. The promised son was foretold by the prophets of days of old, who said,
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (meaning, God with us).” “And you, O Bethlehem of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.” “The people who walked in darkness will see a great light; For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Special Music: OCome, ocome, Emmanuel
O come, O come, Emmanuel
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
The birth of jesus foretold By Jon Bloom
One day, In the sixth 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.
Mary wasn’t herself. Joseph had sensed some urgency in her request that he meet her at “their” tree. She was staring at the ground. She seemed burdened.
“Mary, is something wrong?”
She looked up at him intensely. “Joseph… I’m pregnant.”
A blast of shock and disbelief hit him, blowing away all his coherent thoughts for a moment. His legs quavered. He grabbed at the tree to steady himself. It felt solid, rooted.
He stared at her. He was numb. No words came. Everything seemed surreal.
Mary was still looking at him with her intense eyes. He saw no shame in them. No defensiveness, no defiance. Not even tears. They looked…innocent. And they were searching his eyes for an answer.
Mary broke the charged silence. “What I need to tell you next I don’t even know how to say.”
Joseph leaned harder into the tree, bracing himself. He looked down to Mary’s feet. Her feet. They looked just the same as they did when he believed she was pure.
That was what made everything so strange. Mary looked as chaste as she ever did. If she had been the flirtatious type or had some discernable character weakness, this news might have been comprehendible. But Mary was literally the very last person Joseph would have suspected of unfaithfulness. He could not imagine her with another lover. He didn’t want to know who it was.
“What I’m going to say next will be very difficult to believe. But will you hear me out?” Still looking at Mary’s feet, Joseph’s nod was barely detectable.
“I have not been unfaithful to you.”
Joseph lifted his eyes to hers. Rape? That might explain her innocence. But why wouldn’t she tell me—
“God has caused me to become pregnant.”
This statement flew around his mind, looking for a place to land. It found none.
“Joseph, I know how it sounds. But I’m telling you the truth.” Then Mary described an angelic visit and the message she had received. She was to bear a son, conceived by the Holy Spirit, who would be called the Son of the Most High who would sit on David’s throne forever. God was the baby’s father. Mary was pregnant with the Messiah.
Mary sounded as sane as ever. Nothing about her was different—except that she was claiming to be pregnant with God’s child. He felt like his brain was exploding. Was she adding blasphemy to adultery? He could not conceive of her being capable of either.
“I…I don’t even know what to say to you, Mary. I can’t even think straight. I need to be alone.”
Joseph spent the late afternoon walking up on the brow of the hill that overlooked Nazareth. Things were clear up there. From this 500-foot perspective he could see the Sea of Galilee to the east, and to the west he could just see the blue Mediterranean on the horizon. But he could not see how Mary’s story could be true. He could not recall anything like it in the Torah. “God, show me what to do,” he pleaded.
The sun was setting as Joseph walked back toward the nearly finished house that was to be their home—the house he had dreamed just that morning would someday know the happy voices of his and Mary’s children. That dream was now dead. His decision was made. Mary’s claims were too incredible, maybe even delusional. He needed to end the betrothal, but he resolved to do it as quietly as possible, shielding Mary from avoidable shame. He still loved her.
That night he fell asleep, exhausted from grief. And while he was sleeping,
The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Special Music: What Child is This?
The birth of Jesus
(Reading from Luke 2:1-7)
What Child is this?
Away in a manger
O holy night
o come all ye faithful
ANGELS, SHEPHERDS, AND WISEMEN
(READING FROM MATT 2:1-12 & LUKE 2:8-20)
SPECIAL MUSIC: GO TELL IN ON THE MOUNTAIN
Special Music: God Rest ye merry gentlemen
Joy to the world
Angels we have heard on high
hark the harold angels sing
O little town of bethlehem
Sermonet (FROM LUKE 1 & 2)
Light candles (with Silent Night playing)
Special Music: Silent Night
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