The Carol Service

The setting Christmas Eve 1945 witnessed perhaps the most incredible Carol Service in history. Inside a courthouse in the war ravaged of Nuremberg, thirteen men gathered in a little makeshift chapel to sing Carols and listen to a Lutheran Army Chaplain named Henry Gerecke preach the Gospel. These were the leaders of defeated Nazi Germany, whose names were reviled the world over. For the paste month they had been arranged just for them. For most It was the first Carol Service they had ever attended, for some it would be their last! The Surprise The Chaplain read from Luke’s Gospel chapter two, a passage in the Bible that details the birth of Christ. He then preached explaining with great clarity why God had sent His Son. When Gerecke had concluded Fritz Sauckel, the Nazi’s slave driver, stood to speak. “We never took time to appreciate Christmas in its Biblical meaning. Tonight, we are stripped of all material gifts and away from our people. But we have the Christmas story. And that’s all we really need, isn’t it?” The Singing Former German SS Colonel Walther Schellenberg commenced to play “Silent Night” on the organ. The thirteen men either sang along or hummed reverently before Henry Gerecke closed the meeting in prayer. As each man sat alone with his thoughts, a silence filled the room. The Sequel Gerecke held a further service on Christmas Day. All without exception turned up to listen to the Chaplain from St Louis read the Bible, preach Christ and lead the singing. These men having fully supported Adolf Hitler knew that they required something beyond Nazi ideology. They needed God’s forgiveness. The Salvation Ten months later on October 16th, 1946 , moments before Joachim von Ribbentrop, one-time German foreign minister, was led out to die he said calmly to Gerecke, “I put all my trust in the blood of the Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world!” A few minutes later standing on the gallows that would take him into eternity he turned to the Chaplain saying, “I’ll see you again.” The Saviour This Christmas will you like Fritz Sauckel and his fellow prisoners consider carefully the real meaning of Christmas? It is about far more than Santa Claus, presents, decorations and turkeys. The Bible records “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the World”1. The Lord Jesus Christ was nor in Bethlehem because we all have a soul that needs to be cleansed from sin in order to enter Heaven. Not only did the Lord Jesus “Come into the world to save sinners,”2 but He “died for our sins, was buried and rose again.”3 The greatest problem that you have is you have is your sin that will ultimately separate you from God for all eternity because “all the world is guilty before God”4. We may not have lived as those thirteen men in Germany lived, but each of us has broken God’s commandments and thus we are all sinners. Those Nazis needed forgiveness and so too do we. The greatest provision that has been made was the sending of the Lord Jesus into the world, “for when the fullness of the time was come God sent forth His Son… to redeem.”5 The greatest price that was paid was Christ’s death on the cross for our sins, Christ’s death on the cross for our sins, “Christ died for the ungodly.”6 The greatest promise given from God is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”7 This Christmas will be the most special you ever spend if you turn from your sins, own Christ as a Saviour and start for Heaven. Robert Plant Bible Reference: 1) 1st John Ch4 v14. 2 2) 1st Timothy Ch1 v15. 3 3) 1st Corinthians Ch15 v3 & 4. 4 4) Romans Ch3 v19. 5 5) Galatians Ch4 v3 & 4 6) Romans Ch5 v6. 7 7) Acts Ch16 v31