Lee Street Church
Notes of Meeting on 25th December 2020
These are abbreviated notes, and do not include the words of the well-known carols.
Christmas Day
The programme included:
- Come and join the celebration
- Hark the herald angels sing
- Reading of Matthew 2: 1 – 12
- We three kings
- Prayers for needs of people world-wide
- It came upon a midnight clear
- O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.
Ken’s Talk
Why was the First Christmas important to Paul? 1 Timothy 1. 12-17
When we think of the First Christmas we focus on the impact of the people who were there and we can see the change in their lives. People like Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, Simeon, Anna and the wise men. But how can it affect those who weren’t there? We just read of the dramatic change in Paul’s life after he met Jesus. The life of Paul is like Nick Knowles “DIY SOS” where they take a house and make it completely new out of this world. That’s what happened to Paul with his life. The main difference was it wasn’t “DIY SOS” but “Jesus SOS “. When Paul explains the reason for the change he goes back to the First Christmas. He wasn’t there when it happened for it took place 60 years earlier, yet he speaks of it as though he was there and it was yesterday. Why was this event so life-changing for him? He simply states “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Before he spoke those words he prefaced them with this statement: “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.”
The reason the First Christmas was important to Paul was because it was a True. It wasn’t “fake news” but true and actually happened in our world. “Fake news” is news or stories on the internet that are false which try to make people believe they are true. The First Christmas story is true because it comes from God who cannot lie. It is news for all and to be accepted by all. The Christian faith is based on truth. Jesus himself said he was the Truth. Before Paul became a Christian he believed Jesus was an imposter; then he met the risen Jesus and realised he was the only true Saviour.
It is very important that we realise the First Christmas is a true story that took place. It gives great assurance to know that when we believe in Jesus we know we believe the truth.
The message of the First Christmas was also important because it was Transcendent. The word “transcendent” means “beyond the limits of normal or physical experience”. In other words something that is beyond our understanding or ability. How is the First Christmas like that? On July 29th 1969, Neil Armstrong put his feet on the surface of the moon. President Nixon said, “The greatest event in human history was when man put his foot on the moon.” Astronaut Hale Irwin thought otherwise and said, “The most significant achievement of our age is not that man stood on the moon, but rather God in Christ stood on the earth.” It is beyond our understanding that God came to earth as a fragile baby. We all admire a baby but this was the only baby that was ever worshipped as God, as he was by the wise men. The miracle of Christmas was not just the virgin birth but that the baby born of Mary was God become man. In this sense the First Christmas was way beyond our understanding, so a transcendent event.
Also in another way we could say the First Christmas was a transcendent event because of the reason why Jesus came: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” This statement points so clearly to our greatest need of the forgiveness of our sins. An anonymous poet sums up his mission, “If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent an economist. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent a scientist. If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent an entertainer. But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent a Saviour.”
Paul was very conscious of his need of forgiveness for he spoke of himself as a blasphemer, a persecutor of the church and a violent man. He acknowledged he had sinned in words, attitude and deeds. How could he know forgiveness for the terrible things he had done? God’s answer was beyond his understanding . It wasn’t to try and do better to keep God’s law. He couldn’t do that even if he tried his best. How could he see his past sins removed and forgiven? There seemed no hope.
That’s where the amazing mercy and grace of God stepped in. God sent his only Son into the world to pay Paul’s debt of sin by being punished in his place on the cross. It seemed too good to be true that the sinless Son of God would also be willing to be made sin that Paul in Christ would become righteous before God. But this is where God’s transcendent mercy and grace are seen. God’s mercy removed Paul’s sin and guilt and his grace declared him righteous in Christ before a holy God. We too need to receive forgiveness of our sin and the gift of righteousness before God.
The message of the First Christmas was so important to Paul because it Transformed his life. The persecutor of the gospel became a preacher of it, and the destroyer of the church became a servant of it. How was this possible? It was the abundant pouring out of God’s amazing grace that led him to believe in Christ and receive eternal life. Not only was he saved from sin’s penalty but he was delivered from the power of the sins in his past. His tongue was set free from blaspheming Jesus to praising Him. His violence was replaced with the love of Christ being seen in humble service to his fellow Christians he once persecuted.
The persecutor became the persecuted in suffering imprisonment, stoning and flogging for cause of Christ. He considered himself the “worst of sinners” but God uses him as an example of how no one can be too bad to be forgiven, restored and made a new person in Christ. If God can save a person like Paul then God can anyone by his grace. He is an example to us of how God can transform our lives. We may not have gone to the depths of sin that he went to but we are called to share something of the same transformation that he had.
After the angel announced the birth of Christ a great company of angels burst into praise glorifying God. Paul also breaks into spontaneous worship after speaking of Christ’s birth. This form of worship is called a doxology which specifically means giving glory to God for how great God is. Paul worships God as the Eternal King, Immortal with no beginning or end, Invisible, completely outside our time and space universe, the Only God. Paul is overwhelmed to think that this awesome, majestic, Creator should become man in order to die for their sin.
The fact that the First Christmas is true, transcendent and transformed his life causes him to worship in humble praise. How can we not fail to bring our worship to him today? A little boy was gazing in a shop window at a sign that read: Have the best Christmas ever! Thoughtfully, he said, “It’s pretty hard to top the first one.”