When our daughter got married, I walked her down the aisle. At the front of the church, before all their family and friends, in their overflowing love for each other, she and her husband promised exclusive loyalty. They made a covenant of love. It was a love-filled occasion.

A covenant is two people, or two parties, entering into a formal agreement. The making of covenants was a common feature in the ancient world. A covenant would often be made with a solemn action, such as a blood sacrifice.

The idea of covenant is so important in the Christian Bible that the two parts came to be called the Old and the New Testaments (‘Testamentum’ being the Latin word for covenant). Although the new covenant was different from the old one, both covenants come from God’s abounding love for you.

Over 55 million people have now watched a youtube clip of unsuspecting shoppers who get a surprise while eating lunch. A young woman, seemingly enjoying her lunch in a food court, stands up. She appears to be on her mobile phone. She begins singing the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus. All around her, over 100 (clearly prearranged) opera singers stand up one by one and join in.

Messiah is George Frederick Handel’s most famous work. It tells the story of Jesus – the Messiah. Part Two is about his death on the cross, his resurrection and his ascension into heaven. It ends with the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus. In the spring of 1742, King George II rose to his feet as the first notes of the triumphant ‘Hallelujah’ chorus rang out. Royal protocol has always demanded that, whenever the monarch stands, so too does everyone in the monarch’s presence. Thus, the entire audience and orchestra stood. King George II had accepted that he too was subject to the Lord of lords and King of kings.

The word ‘Hallelujah’ is an invitation to worship – it literally means ‘Praise (Hallal) the Lord’ (Yahweh). It occurs twenty-four times in the Old Testament (mainly in the Psalms) and it occurs four times in the New Testament – each of them in our passage for today.

The day after Christmas, many of us may feel rather out of pocket. But this issue does not only arise around Christmas time. Most of us have to deal with money in some way every day of our lives. But we prefer not to talk about it in church. However, Jesus talked about money a great deal. The Bible has a lot to say about it. Money matters. It matters to us and it matters to God. How should you handle money?

Today we celebrate the ‘central event in the history of the earth, the very thing the whole story has been about’ (C.S. Lewis). We celebrate the birth of Jesus. It is a day of great joy and celebration around the world.

And yet, in the midst of all the trappings and celebrations of Christmas, it can be easy to miss why Jesus’ birth is so significant. The key to Christmas lies, not in the details of the shepherds’ visit or the wise men’s journey, but in the identity of the one whom they came to worship. In Jesus, God became ‘flesh’ and ‘made his dwelling among us’ (John 1:14). Christmas is about Jesus!

Our New Testament passage for today helps us to grasp something of the magnitude of what that means. In it we are reminded that ‘baby Jesus’ is also the ‘Lord of lords and King of kings’ (Revelation 17:14b). We are given a glimpse of the cosmic struggle between good and evil, as a vast array of powers and authorities line up against God. Yet we are reminded that, in the end, it is through the humility and self-sacrifice of ‘the Lamb’ that they are overcome.

Jesus puts aside the glories of heaven for a humble stall. As the carol, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, puts it:

   Christ, by highest heaven 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.

   Hark! The herald angels sing,

   ‘Glory to the new born King!’

In each of today’s passages we see the blessings of following this ‘new born King’.

In A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, the central character, Ebenezer Scrooge, was a miserable, mean, miserly old businessman who is shown his past, present and future. He eventually repents and starts to give generously.

Dickens captures the transformation in his character: ‘He went to church, and walked about the streets… and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk – that any thing – could give him so much happiness.’

‘Repentance’ is a very positive word in the Bible. The Greek word ‘metanoia’ means ‘change of mind’. That means, first, turning away from the bad stuff. This is the stuff that spoils your life and breaks your relationship with God. Repentance means to be sorry enough to quit. Getting rid of the bad stuff only enhances your life. But, that is only the first part.

The change of heart and mind means not only turning away from the bad things, but also turning towards God and good. The word ‘repent’ rarely appears on its own in the Bible. Genuine repentance is shown by its fruit. Remorse is not enough. A change of mind, heart and life is required. It is nearly always, ‘repent and…’. Repent and believe. Repent and put your faith in Jesus Christ. It is not just a case of looking back, but also looking up. Faith looks up.

In July 1999, Ralph Craythorne spoke at our church about the recent death of his eight-year-old daughter, Sasha, from a brain tumour.

I remember so well going to visit Sasha in hospital. On the way, in the taxi, I was desperately trying to think and pray about what God would want me to say. Only one word came into my mind: hope.

In his talk Ralph said, ‘That one word exploded in my spirit. It was as though I suddenly saw the fullness of what God has meant us to understand about “living in hope”. It’s not the kind of wishy-washy, “I hope this will happen, but it probably won’t happen.” It’s the sure, confident, positive hope – the way God designed us to live.

‘Our hope was placed not in an outcome but in the Lord.

‘Sasha, too, held onto hope – not necessarily to be healed, although that was included, but a deeper hope, the hope that comes from the certainty of being in the palm of the hand of an all-loving God.’

In the final two weeks of her life, she went blind. Ralph said, ‘I remember lying in the bed saying to her, “Sasha do you ever see angels?”

‘She didn’t have much energy to speak. She said, “No dad.”

‘I was a bit disappointed. So, I thought, we’ll go for the big one. “Do you ever see Jesus?” I asked.

‘“Of course, I do. He holds my hand.”’

‘The dream that she would be healed was shattered, but we’re not disappointed with God. He hasn’t changed. He still pours his love into our hearts. We don’t understand her death. I doubt we really ever will. One day we’ll know… These are the foundational principles of living in hope.”

Christmas at HTB is usually one of the biggest events in the church calendar. There are usually around fifty musicians in the orchestra and ninety in the choir – all members of the congregation volunteering their time and gifts. I’m not at all musical. In fact, I’m virtually tone deaf. However, I am always stunned by the beauty of the marvellous music and singing. It is a foretaste of heaven.

The apostle John writes, ‘And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne’ (Revelation 14:2–3). The heavenly orchestra and choir will sing a new song before a heavenly audience.

John goes on to describe the completed church in heaven – their purity and their power. The two are connected. As Pastor Rick Warren has tweeted, ‘In ministry, private purity is the source of public power.’

Hands are very important. On her wedding day, I took hold of our daughter’s hand and passed it over to the minister (who happened to be our son). His hand (for these purposes) represented God’s hand. He, in turn, joined her hand to that of her husband. Symbolically, I gave her to God and God gave her to her husband. A key part of the marriage ceremony is the joining of hands.

At one level, your hand is simply your palm, fingers and thumb. But when we use the word ‘hand’ we often mean it in more than just a physical sense. The ‘hand’ can be used as a metaphor for action, care and possession.

God uses hands. We read of Jesus healing through laying his hands on sick people, or even just touching them with his hands (for example, Mark 6:5; 8:23). At other times, he put his hands on people to bless them (10:16). He told his disciples that their hands would be used to heal the sick (16:18). Indeed, people were healed through the laying on of their hands (for example, Acts 8:17–18). Others were filled with the Holy Spirit (9:17; 19:6), or received gifts through the laying on of hands (2 Timothy 1:6).

What about ‘the hand of God’? What does that mean? In the Bible, ‘the hand of God’ means something very profound. Ezra said, ‘Because the hand of the Lord my God was on me, I took courage…’ (Ezra 7:28). God’s invisible and intangible hand is also on you: leading, guiding, encouraging, protecting, strengthening you and giving you courage.

In the last speech he ever made, on 31 March 1968, Martin Luther King repeated the phrase ‘we shall overcome’ over and over again. He was echoing the words of folksinger Joan Baez, who in 1963 led a crowd of 300,000 people in singing ‘We shall overcome’. The song speaks of overcoming and of discovering hope and a future amid adversity.

Throughout this year, as we have studied the entire Bible, we have seen that we should not expect an easy life. The Bible is true to real life. Life involves many struggles, trials, tests, temptations, difficulties and battles. Yet, in Christ you can be an overcomer.

The birth of Prince George of Cambridge in July 2013 brought great joy and celebration. He is the son of a future king of England and is himself second in line of succession to the British throne.

The United Kingdom has been ruled by kings and queens for centuries, and our royal family are an important part of our national life. However, most modern monarchs only have limited power. By contrast, in the ancient world, kingship was much more all-encompassing, and the king was the final authority in all aspects of national affairs. In our Old Testament passage, we read of the reigns of the kings of Persia and Israel. But alongside this, each of our passages also points us to an even greater King – God.

The central theme in the teaching of Jesus was the kingdom of God. It not only refers to kingdom in a political or geographical sense, but it also conveys the notion of activity – the activity of ruling and reigning. The kingdom of God means ‘the rule and reign of God’.