“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21.

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:21

Hark, the herald angels sing,

“Glory to the newborn King!”

Peace on earth and mercy mild,

God and sinners reconciled.

Hark the Herald Angels SingCharles Wesley, Felix Mendelssohn

Joyful, all ye nations rise;

Join the triumph of the skies.

With the angelic host proclaim,

“Christ is born in Bethlehem.”

Hark! The herald angels sing,


Christ by highest heav’n adored,

Christ, the everlasting Lord.

Late in time behold Him come,

Offspring of a Virgin's womb.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,

Hail the incarnate Deity.

Pleased as man with man to dwell,

Jesus, our Emmanuel.



Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!

Hail the Son of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings,

Ris’n with healing in His wings.

Mild He lays His glory by

Born that man no more may die

Born to raise the sons of earth

Born to give them second birth



“Hark the Herald Angels Sing”: Words by Charles Wesley / Music by Felix MendelssohnPublic DomainCCLI License #503207

Leader: And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

Men: For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Responsive Call To WorshipLuke 2, Revelation 7

Women: And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

Men: And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

All: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Responsive Call To Worship

Leader: After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. . .and crying out with a loud voice,

People: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”


Leader: And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying,

All: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”


Joy to the WorldGeorge Frideric Handel, Isaac Watts

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King!

Let every heart prepare him room;

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!

Let men their songs employ

While fields and floods, rocks hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy

Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

He rules the world with truth and grace

And makes the nations prove

The glories of his righteousness

And wonders of his love,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders, wonders of His love.

“Joy to the World”: Words by Isaac Watts / Music by George Frideric HandelPublic DomainCCLI License #503207

Glory and honor, dominion and power

Now and forever, the Lord God omnipotent

Reigneth with power, forever with power

Greater than all, You are sovereign God!

God Great God Kurt Karr

God, great God!

Worthy of honor and glory

We stand here in reverence

Blessed in Your presence, Jehovah

Forever and ever our God




Greater than all, You are sovereign God!

God, great God!


We stand here in reverence,

Blessed in Your presence, Jehovah,


God, great God!

God, great God, Jehovah!

God, great God!

God, great God, forever!

(repeat)

Nobody greater (nobody greater)



Greater than my God!

(Greater than my God!)

(repeat)




Greater than all, You are sovereign God

God, great God!


We stand here in reverence

Blessed in Your presence, Jehovah


God, great God!


God, great God!


(repeat)




Greater than my God!

(Greater than my God!)

(repeat)

God, great God!


God, great God!


(repeat)

“God, Great God” by Kurt Carr© 2004 KCartunes Music / Lilly Mack Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)CCLI License #503207

Awesome God, we sing of your goodness, your kindness and your mercy. Yet we confess that we have hearts that rebel against you and your loving Lordship. We confess our callousness towards those who suffer in our world. We confess our tendency towards pride and self-centeredness. We confess that we constantly fall short of your holy will for our lives.

Confession of Sin

Heavenly Father, forgive us for our offenses. May the precious blood, shed by the Son of God, our Bethlehem born Savior, remove our guilt and cleanse our hearts, that we might live for your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Silent time for personal confession

Your presence, Your glory,

You’re welcome here

All honor, dominion, Lord please come near

We want You, we need You,

We live to glorify… Your name

(repeat)

Glorify Your NameKevin Singleton

Glorify Your name,

Glorify Your name

Glorify the name above all names

Your presence, Your glory,

You’re welcome here

All honor, dominion, Lord please come near

We want You, we need You,

We live to glorify… Your name

Glorify Your name,

Glorify Your name

Glorify the name above all names

(repeat)

We want You, we need You



We live to glorify…




We live to glorify… Your name.

“Glorify Your Name” by Kevin Singleton© 2001 Hoops And Tunes Music (Admin. by Integrated Copyright Group, Inc.)CCLI License #503207

Bring your completed Connection Cardto the Welcome Table in the Foyer for your

New Visitor Packet

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

TuesdayDecember 24, 2013

7:00 p.m.

Concert of Prayer 7pm, Friday, January 3, in the Parlor

Scripture ReadingGalatians 3:15-18, 26-4:5

15 To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. 16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.


17 This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. 18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. . . . 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.


27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.


4 1I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.


4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

The Promised One

John 10:37-39

37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.

39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,

“Abraham rejoiced to see my day. (John 8:56) Moses wrote of me. (John 5:46) David called me Lord”(Matthew 22:45) We have in these words of our Savior abundant authority for seeking Him in the Old Testament…”

A.M. Hodgkin

Born of a virgin Isaiah 7:14 Matt 1:18-23

A Light to a dark world Isaiah 9:2-7 Matt 4:12-17

Betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver

Ps 41:9, Zech 11:12-13

Matt 26:14-16

Forsaken by the Father in the cross

Ps 22:1 Matt 27:46

Messianic Predictions and Fulfillments

Genesis 22:1-19After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. ell you.”

4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together.

7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” 15 And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,

17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,

18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

The promise of the Ram in the thicket

We even see the promise of Christmas

in God’s encounter with Abraham

A Difficult Assignment

vv. 1-6

Stature Relationship with Self

Physical Life

Wisdom Relationship with the World

Cosmological Life

Favor with Man Relationship with other People

Social Life

Favor with God Relationship with God

Spiritual Life

Luke 2:52

At first glance it would seem that God was mocking Abraham. “take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love.” These words seem cruel but they should have reassured Abraham that God was fully aware of what he was asking him to do.

God was asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Not Eliezer, who was not his son. Not Ishmael, a true son but not the son of God’s promise. (Hagar and Ishmael in fact had been sent away.) Not even an Isaac about whom Abraham might have conceivably been indifferent. It was “your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love.” Abraham was to know that God was fully aware of the struggle that obedience to the command would pose.

James M. Boice

The problem was not merely that Abraham loved Isaac. What was even more important was that God had promised that all the future blessings of salvation were to come through Isaac.

Now God says that Isaac is to be sacrificed, and for the first time in all of Abraham’s experience with God he is confronted by a conflict between God’s command and God’s promise. This test involved a conflict apparently within the words of God Himself. God had promised posterity through Isaac. But God had now also commanded Abraham to kill him.

James Boice

So long as men live in the world, they will turn to this story with unwaning interest. There is only one scene in history by which it is surpassed: that where the Great Father gave his Isaac to a death from which there was no deliverance.

F B Meyer

An Amazing Submission

vv. 7-9

A Timely Provision

vv. 10-14

ISAAC, THE SON OF ABRAHAM

JESUS, THE SON OF GOD

He had a miraculous birth He had a miraculous birth

The “only” son of Abraham The “only begotten” Son of God

Land of Moriah – in Jerusalem Golgotha – in Jerusalem

Isaac carried his own wood Jesus carried his own cross

He was persecuted by his contemporaries He was persecuted by His contemporaries

He voluntarily gave Himself up, trusting his father

He voluntarily gave Himself up, trusting His Father

Story involved a dramatic 3 day journey before resolution

Story involved a dramatic 3 days of silence before resolution

A ram was substituted for Him He became the Lamb that was the substitute for many

Genesis 22 2 Chronicles 3:1 Matt 27:33

In the region of Moriah Mt Moriah – Jerusalem Golgotha – (Calvary) Jerusalem

Abraham symbolic sacrifice of Isaac

Jewish Temple sacrifices God’s once for all sacrifice of His Son

Ram in the thicket Sheep, bulls, goats, pigeons, turtledoves on the alter in the holy temple

Lamb on a Roman cross

ISAAC, THE SON OF ABRAHAM

JESUS, THE SON OF GOD

He had a miraculous birth He had a miraculous birth

The “only” son of Abraham The “only begotten” Son of God

Land of Moriah – in Jerusalem Golgotha – in Jerusalem

Isaac carried his own wood Jesus carried his own cross

He was persecuted by his contemporaries He was persecuted by His contemporaries

He voluntarily gave Himself up, trusting his father

He voluntarily gave Himself up, trusting His Father

Story involved a dramatic 3 day journey before resolution

Story involved a dramatic 3 days of silence before resolution

A ram was substituted for Him He became the Lamb that was the substitute for many

Now behold the Lamb

The precious Lamb of God

Born into sin that I may live again


(repeat)

Now Behold the LambKirk Franklin

Holy is the Lamb


Why you love me so, Lord,

I shall never know


(repeat)

Thank You for the Lamb


Because of Your grace

I will finish this race


(repeat)

Because of Your grace

I will finish this race


Why you love me so

Lord, I shall never know


“Now Behold the Lamb” by Kirk Franklin© 1995 Lilly Mack Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)CCLI License #503207

“And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.”

Genesis 22:13

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21.

Documents

worship slide

herald angels sing

world joy

felix mendelssohn slide

sounding joy repeat

newborn king

nature sing

earth peace