As you prepare for your Christmas Eve service, make sure those who join you don’t miss the redemptive reason for the season.
By Matt Henslee
According to Lifeway Research, half of U.S. Protestant pastors (48%) say a Christmas Eve service is their churches’ largest event during the holiday season.
As a pastor, I love the entire Advent season––all of the anticipation, preparation, joy, and more––I just love it!
Squirming kids decked out as Mary, Joseph, shepherds, angels, and … sigh, wise men? Sign me up! Parties with Sister Sue’s famous queso dip? Get in my belly! And the music? Mercy! It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.
As a pastor, I also know that, while I love everything about Advent and the Christmas season, it is exceedingly exhausting. I looked at my calendar last week, and we had––maybe––four nights open between then and Christmas. It’s insane, but totally worth it. Therefore, I don’t want this article to give you yet another thing to do in this hectic season.
No, as we make our way through this season and approach Christmas Eve, allow me the privilege of simply reminding you of the most essential element of what may be your most attended Sunday all year. Pssst … it’s not merely making sure you have enough candles (or even that they’re entirely extinguished). It’s not ensuring the choir has enough practice to learn their lines or that you have your Christmas suit pressed. It’s not printing off enough bulletins or cleaning up around the foyer so you make an excellent impression for first-time guests.
The essential element
Those things may have some level of importance, but they aren’t nearly the most essential element of your first or second most attended Sunday all year. In fact, the most essential element of our Christmas Eve services can be the one we most easily overlook.
“Christmas is empty if we only look at the manger and see the little Lord Jesus sleeping on a silent night.” — @mhenslee Share on XWe all know the cliché: Jesus is the reason for the season. And He is. But just like no one wants a half-baked turkey or ham, let’s not half-bake this incredible opportunity to declare the full gospel.
Friends, Christmas is empty if we only look at the manger and see the little Lord Jesus sleeping on a silent night as some random kid with a drum started going pa rum pum pum pum. We must look from the manger to see Jesus’s perfect life and sinless payment for our sins on the cross. It was then, and only then, that the whole reason for this season is realized. For three days later He rose again, and He rose to redeem. And that redemption was costly.
The story of redemption
It wasn’t just the arrival of Jesus onto the earth that redeemed us. It was His perfect life, sacrificial death, victorious resurrection, and triumphant ascension that brought the redemption we require because of our sin.
As Colossians 1:13-14 says, God “has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves. In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (CSB).
And why is that necessary? “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, CSB). However, Paul continues in verse 24 to teach we are “justified freely by his grace”—through what?—“the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (CSB).
And not only did Jesus come, live perfectly, die sacrificially, rise victoriously, and ascend triumphantly––one day, He’s coming again. Until then, we’re called to declare this glorious good news.
And what better time to make sure we’re crystal clear with that than one of the most attended Sundays all year? So, enjoy all the parties, giggle at the squirmy kids, and drink all the eggnog you want. But don’t leave Jesus swaddled in the manger!
Make sure you highlight why He came, what He did, and how He died, rose, ascended, and is coming again. Make sure those who join you this Christmas Eve don’t miss the redemptive reason for the season.
For permission to republish this article, contact Marissa Postell Sullivan.
Matt Henslee
Matt and his wife Rebecca have four daughters. He is the lead pastor of Plymouth Park Baptist Church in Irving, Texas and coauthor of Replanting Rural Churches.
