Christmas 2024

Well, it would be helpful if you could just keep that last reading from revelations 7 open in front of you as we spend a few minutes looking at those incredible words.

And, the reason for that is because I think for lots of people, if they are, going to think about Jesus at all at Christmas time, it tends to be the baby Jesus in a manger. That's how they think about him at Christmas lying there in the straw surrounded by those animals and some shepherds and some wise men are coming along. And that's the seen they think about when they think about Jesus at Christmas. And in some ways rightly so, I mean, it is a breathtaking truth the Bible gives us there that that first Christmas the 1 who is in very nature god who created the world and who has existed forever, condescended, and and became a little child, took flesh, became a baby, and housed himself in a manger surrounded by animal. That is a breathtaking thing, and it's right that we think about it.

The trouble is if we only have that version of Jesus in our minds, there's a danger that he becomes to us, just safe and sentimental. The Christmas of Jesus wrongly understood can be safe and sentimental, safe because a baby lying there in the manger doesn't make any demands of us. He doesn't threaten us in any way. We can just gather around and look down, and it's a picture of a safe god baby there. And sentimental because when you look at a scene like that, it might remind you of your own past, It might make you feel warm inside.

You might even feel a little bit sorry for him. Right? That is the danger of a wrongly understood Jesus in the manger. He's a bit safe and he's a bit sentimental. And for that reason, I want us to spend a few minutes this evening looking at the Jesus of Revelation 7.

Because what happens in Revelation 7 is that we are transported in time, not back to the manger but forward to a heavenly throne. I don't know if you noticed as it was being read or as you were looking down perhaps that the word throne is repeated quite a few times in Revelation 7. The manger is gone, and it has now been replaced by a throne. And what you find is not a group of people gathering around a manger and looking down at Jesus. But you find an international multitude falling down before Jesus.

Because they've come to realize that the god man born in a manger is actually the exalted lord of history who sits now on a throne. That's what we're gonna do. We're gonna see the Christmas Jesus, but not as we know him, not in the manger, but on the throne. And so have a look down with me, if you will, at sentence number 9. After this, I looked Now the eye there is the disciple John.

John was 1 of the followers of the lord Jesus Christ. He wrote that gospel, John's gospel. And here in Revelation, he is seeing a heavenly future. The lord is revealing to him what is soon to come to pass. And so he is looking with the eyes of prophecy into the future after this eye looked.

And what are we told? And there before me, was a great multitude that no 1 could count. So he's surveying this vast throng of people. And as he looks out, he realizes it's impossible to number them. So it's a bit like perhaps going to the beach with a friend.

And your friend says to you on this sandy beach, I want you to try to number for me the grains of sands that are on this beach. And as you look several miles off to the east and several miles off to the west, you realize that that is a multitude that you would never be able to count. You know in your mind that it's probably not infinite, There probably is a limit to the number of grains of sand on that beach, but as you look at it, you think there is no way in a thousand lifetimes I would be able to number these grains of sand. It is a great multitude that no 1 can count. And yet John also sees diversity in this group.

It's a great multitude, but they're not all the same. And so again, if you imagine taking just a handful of sands on most beaches, you see that not all the sands is the same. It's not all been eroded from the same rock. If you were to put it under a microscope, you would see different types of rock and different textures and different colors, and maybe even micro shells in there. There's a great multitude, but it's not all the same.

It's diverse and different. And John John recognizes that. There's a diversity to this crowd. I mean, have a look with me again. I could count from every nation tribe, people, and language.

Every nation, tribe, people, and language. Now I was looking this up, and apparently, people estimate that there are 7111 distinct languages in the world today, 7111. There are between it depends who you ask and how you count it. There are a hundred and 93 to a hundred and 95 different nations. So I'm not sure what's happened there, but I either a hundred and 93 to a hundred and 95.

And apparently, there are over 17000 distinct people groups, distinct tribes, distinct types of people, and that's only today. So that doesn't include every language that there has ever been or every people group that there's ever been. That's just today. And so do you see the extraordinary diversity that is here? I look, great multitude.

No way I could count it, but these are not all the same types of people. There there is something here about the North Koreans that is different from the Polish people that is different from the Portuguese people. You know, this this sentence means nothing unless that diversity is recognizable. It it he must be able to see and distinguish between types of people in this great multitude. Do you see that?

And yet for all of their diversity, look at sentence 10, 9, and 10, and just now note the ways in which they're the same. After this, I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no 1 could count, from every nation tried people and language, standing before the throne, and before the lamb. They were wearing white robes, and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our god. And so do you see for all of the many differences that exist in this crowd, They are standing before the same throne, standing before the same lamb.

They are wearing the same clothes. They are holding the same victory branches. And they are crying in 1 voice, salvation belongs to our god who sits on the throne and to the lamb. For all the diversity, There are these bonds of unity that that exist between them. Something has happened to them all to make them sing in this way.

And haven't we seen tonight just a a flavor of that diversity and unity? We've had people reading in the last hour, from Pakistan, from Portugal, from Greece, from Greece, reading in their languages, and they've been shared. We've seen the differences. We've seen the diversity, a glimmer of it, and we saw it in the food hall, earlier, didn't we? The diversity in the grub that is served up from the nations is wonderful.

And yet we've also seen a unity that these people from the nations have been reading from the same book of god, the Bible, and they have been singing the same truths about the lord Jesus Christ. You know, if we're thinking carefully about what's been before us tonight and in the Bible, we really ought to be asking, how has that happened? How has that happened? How has such diversity become so united? Because let's be honest about it.

Even in cities like our own, which are very, very multicultural. It's true, isn't it? That often the differences that exist between cultures in our capital are not celebrated, but they're used as opportunities to marginalize and to persecute. It's true, isn't it? That probably if you take all of history together, I would say that the differences that exist between cultures have not mainly been a source of joy, but an opportunity in order to push people to the boundaries to separate to segregate.

Yeah? And yet here in the bible, and we've seen the flavor of it tonight, We see diversity, and we see unity, and we are supposed to be asking, how has that happened? How has that happened given the world that we're in? I mean, we've seen something of the world. Haven't we tonight?

In Genesis 1, We're told that god created Adam and Eve and created the world, and he created all nations from them. It was a good creation. And yet in Genesis 3, we're told that Adam and Eve turned away from god and they rebelled and sin came into the world and death came into the world. And that's what explains the persecution and the marginalization. It's it's because of that originally because we've sinned against god.

That sin has affected all of us from every culture and it's affected the way we treat 1 another. We don't rejoice in each other as different image bearers of god. We seek to put each other down to persecute and to kill image bearers of god. Who were different from us. So do you see, you know, we're so used to it, really, but we ought to be asking, how how has this hap how has this happened?

Such diversity, such unity, such peace, such difference? And the answer is just 1 word, and it's in sentence number 10. Here's the here here's how it's happened. Sentence number 10, they cried out in a loud voice. Salvation Salvation.

That's the word. Salvation belongs to our god who sits on the throne and to the lamb. That has been the unifying theme, hasn't it, in all of our readings and in all of our carols, this salvation that god has provided to the world. We saw it even all the way back in Genesis 3, When Adam and Eve turned away from god, how did god respond? Well, he responded in judgment, and he wanted them to know that what they had done was wrong and harmful, and there would be consequences.

But in his mercy, he also promised that a savior would come and would redeem men and women and boys and girls from every nation. And we've seen that developed through our readings. Then as the Bible story progresses, god never gives up on that promise. That 1 day into the world, the lord Jesus Christ would come, and he would redeem and save a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, salvation, is what bonds the peoples together in a way that nothing else can. It's right there in the Christmas story, isn't it?

You know, you've got these rough, probably quite ordinary working class Jewish shepherds, and they are gathering around the manger to worship the international savior and look who's coming a short time afterwards, wise men from the east, from the east far away. Not from Jerusalem, not Israelites, not Jewish, but they've come from the east, and yet they have come to gather around the same manger and to worship the same savior. Who is good news of great joy for all peoples. How have we managed to bring together in Revelation 7 such diversity and to unite them so beautifully because they have come to realize that Christ is the 1 that they need, that Christ is the 1 who has paid for their sin, and that Christ is the 1 who can secure for them an everlasting life. No matter what nation they're from, they've realized that they need Christ.

And just in the few minutes, we have left, I want us to just spend a little bit more time trying to think through how exactly has that happened. Okay. So we can see this great multitude. They're different yet. They're united.

They've all been saved by Jesus. I get that, but but how has that actually how has that actually worked? I hope it doesn't feel like too much of a gear change, but but just bear with me if it does. 1 1 of the programs that I I really don't like that's on TV at the moment, but finds that I can't help but watch is I'm a celebrity get me out of here. Okay?

I don't know if there's anyone else watching that. If you are, you shouldn't be. Okay? Cause it's really not very good. But the premise is, if you don't know, don't know, you take a load of, sort of, once were celebrities And, you basically take everything away, put them in the Australian jungle for a 3 weeks and see who survives.

That's that's the kind of idea. And so what happens is you've got this group of celebrities, and and what I do quite like about it, and the interesting thing about it is, here here are a group of people who in the world have many achievements to their name, have many awards, many accolades, and they will live pretty high flying lifestyles. They'll be able to eat mostly what they want, drink where they want, live where they want, they don't really want for anything in the world. And yet, when you put them in the jungle and strip back all their achievements and strip back all those luxuries that they have, you realize that people are are a lot more similar than they are different. And what you see in the jungle is a group of people who, for for all that they have in the world, are united by a common need.

You you basically discover that every person needs food, water, and shelter. And that's it. That's what they need, that they're stripped back to this common set of needs, which unites them all, and then the joy that they experience in the jungle when those needs are met is amazing. I mean, these are people who are used to driving Lamborghinis and eating caviar, and and yet when 1 of them wins, a competition and comes back into the jungle and says, I've won a bag of rice for us this evening. They're all elated.

I mean, they can't believe it. It's this joy that we're gonna eat rice, you know, that our our need has been provided for. And, you know, that that is something that I do find about the show for all its irritations, actually quite moving. That in the end, you see a group of people who are united by a common need. Who rejoice together when that need is provided for.

No matter how different they are, no matter how different their stories are, they are bonded by a common need and by a common provision. And, you know, I think when you come to Revelation 7 and you ask the question, you know, okay, the highest people united by Jesus, how but how has that happened? Well, really, it's not too dissimilar. That these people are united by a common need, and they are rejoicing in a common provision. Their need is forgiveness that they have sinned against god, turned away from him, rebelled against him, been horrible to him, been horrible to other people.

No matter what language they speak, they have altogether fallen short of the glory of god. That is their need. And yet Jesus Christ came into the world to be a joyous provision for every single 1 of them. No matter what tribe, tongue, nation, or language, Christ has come to meet their deepest needs. And this crowd in Revelation 7 and our readers tonight have have realized that.

A common need is what brings our church together, and it's what brings this church together. We need forgiveness. And in Christ, we rejoice because that has been met, common need, common provision. That's how to bring the nations together. You know, I think that really is a unique thing, isn't it?

Because you see in 1 sense, it is true that there are many different ways of bringing the nations together. You you can do that. I mean, if you think about the 6 45 train, that is gonna leave Cerberus for Waterloo tomorrow morning, you will bring the nations together on that train. They they'll be there together going to work. If you think about a group of people who are gonna be in the gym tomorrow morning before work, working out.

Yeah? There will be many different nations in that gym united by a common need to get fit. You think about any football stadium in this country next weekend, you will bring the nations together in support of a football team. In other words, there are ways of doing it. There are ways of bringing together the nations and they share in a common need of getting to work or a common desire to be entertained or a common passion for working out.

There are ways to do it. But do you see that what we have here is something so much broader and so much deeper and so much richer than anything else we experience, a group of people who are intimately and forever bonded by this common need for forgiveness. And by that provision of forgiveness in the lord Jesus Christ who died and rose to the nations. And so I wanna leave you with this thought because perhaps you're here and, you you've come with a friend or you've come with a neighbor, and you're here because you like traditional Carol services, and you're a bit sympathetic towards Christian things. But I wanna say Christmas is so much is so much more than that, that what we have seen tonight is an invitation to you to come and be part of this international crowd that is 1 day gonna surround the throne of Jesus Christ.

Because surely, this this scene speaks to us of inclusivity, doesn't it? It doesn't matter where you're from in the world. And it doesn't matter what shame you feel or what guilt you're carrying or what you've done wrong. You need to know that Christ came into the world to die for you. Because he loves you, and he paid the price for your sin.

And if all these lot can be welcomed around the throne, surely that says, well, you you can be too. There are people like you who failed in the ways you have in this chapter. There are people like you from the nation you're from in this chapter. In other words, it says, come, come friends. Leave your sins behind.

And ask Jesus to be your savior and gather yourself around this throne. Good news. Great joy. All peoples. A savior was born and a savior now raised.

And he can be yours if you've taken to be that this evening. I'm gonna invite now all of our readers back up, and they're gonna stand here. And 1 by 1, They are just going to read that 1 sentence from Revelation 7 verse 10. They're gonna read it in their own language, and that will give us just a tiny flavor. Of the nations who will 1 day be singing this around the throne of Jesus.

So all of the readers, would you please come back up and then 1 at a time, we'll read Revelation 7 verse 10. Revelation chapter 7 verse 10. There's her son in Murica. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we want to thank you for the lord Jesus Christ that at Christmas time he was that newborn king.

We thank you that he was born, that we may no longer have to die. That he was born so that by faith, all of us, no matter where we're from and what we've done, can know eternal life and forgiveness in Jesus, the savior of the nations. Park the herald angel scene. Joyful. All ye nations rise.

All the nations can rise joyfully. And they can join the triumph of the skies because Christ is lord. Help us please whoever we are to take away this good news in our hearts we pray in Jesus' name, amen,