Christmas Traditions and Surprising Characters

Speaker 1 0:30

Well , christmas traditions are important for a lot of us . I know here at Northgate , one of our traditions is that we have some students read the Christmas story from Luke , chapter two , and a lot of you do Christmas traditions . One of those is coming to Christmas Eve service . Maybe you went with your family when you were younger , maybe some of you have kids and now that's what you do on Christmas . You bring your family to Christmas as well . Some of you . This is what you do each and every year . I haven't seen you in a year , so welcome back . We're glad you're here for this Christmas tradition . It's good to see you .

Speaker 1 1:00

A lot of people do different traditions , like trees , christmas trees . 77% of American households do Christmas trees and out of those , 81% do fake Christmas trees and 19% do real Christmas trees . So let's see in the room what we got going on here . So how many of you guys do the fake Christmas trees ? Ok , a bunch of you . How many of you guys do the real fire hazards ? That's great . Ok , that's good . What about this ? How many of you guys do both ? Anybody do both . I know my family actually does both . My wife has the real one . That's like her tree , because the kids will catch it on fire . So they have the fake one that they do their ornaments on . That's fun . That's one Christmas tradition . Another one is gifts . A lot of you guys do gifts . How many of you guys hold true to it when you're like there's no gifts until Christmas , we have to wait until then ? Right , couple of you guys Scrooge's OK , this is good . Some of you guys do them on Christmas Eve . So today you're going to be doing some Christmas gifts , maybe handing that out . I know we do Christmas pajamas . I don't know why this is a thing , but it's a thing . Yeah , ok , I see you . I don't want to see that part . That is good . So stockings is a tradition for a lot of people . We open stockings before you open the gifts and last year Santa gave me some nose clippers and ear trimmers . I felt like it's a little passive , aggressive , but I was like thanks , santa , scrooge , great , my stocking Some of you .

Speaker 1 2:22

Music is a big tradition for a lot of people . You know the radio station . It comes on you like jam into the oldest , like the Frank Sinatra stuff . Some of you really love the kind of newer stuff , like Mariah Carey , all I want for Christmas . I know in my household . One of the fun ones is I want a hippopotamus for Christmas . Only hippopotamus will . That's right . Yeah , that's good , that's a good one . I don't know if you ever really thought about it , though I was like , do you really want one ? Because I mean , if you came downstairs it'd be kind of creepy if you were just like there's a hippo . I didn't actually want a hippopotamus for Christmas . I mean , it's just a baby hippo and it's still funky , like , just be honest , movies is a big one . We all have traditions with movies .

Speaker 1 3:07

Some of you are , you know , your favorite Christmas movie is Die Hard . You're Die Hard about it . That's a Christmas movie , I'm telling you right now . Some of you it's like some of the classics , like it's a wonderful life or a miracle on 34th Street . Or I know a lot of you guys are like home alone One , two , three , four , five , six , whichever time you got left home alone at Christmas . It's a weird pattern going on there . I know for my family we're about eight times in this December to Elf . That's kind of the season . We're in Francisco , francisco , that's good . Well , let's see what's another one .

Speaker 1 3:51

Another is Christmas lights . I love Christmas lights and when I'm talking Christmas lights I'm talking about all the lights Like I got to save money for my PGNU bill because we're about to go to war with the community and show them how we're going to light this place up . And we got opinions about it . I love it . I don't even wait until Thanksgiving is done . It's coming out Like we're going to bring some joy and some light into the neighborhood . There's actually a guy down the street . He went crazy . It was really great . It was just like I can't even compete . Like you're just better , just like ditto , like he win . We're celebrating you . You did some hard work there .

Speaker 1 4:26

Some of you guys are in a season where you're like you know , it's just been a tough one , it's time to go get the lights . You go up to the attic and you get it out . It's just in a tingle ball and you're like , ah , this is all I got , like I'm just going to call it good , right there . Christmas lights is a tradition . Another tradition that a lot of people do is nativity scenes . Some of you guys do nativity scenes outside . Some of you guys do nativity scenes inside .

Speaker 1 4:50

I know we have a handful of nativity scenes . Especially when the kids were younger we had one that can kind of play with and you know , you take out the different characters and some of you explain the different characters and if you think about the nativity scene and the tradition of it , you really start to find these surprising , unexpected characters in it . I mean , first for everyone I think most everyone the nativity scene really centers around baby Jesus in a manger , which , if you just pause there for a minute and go hold up , time out . So the son of man came and then spent his first night in an animal trough , in a cave or a manger , where a stable , where animals lived . And I think if we were writing this story ourselves I don't think that's how we would write it We'd be like , okay , so Emmanuel , god with us , was going to show up and this is how he's going to spend his first night . That's not usually the way that I'm going to be writing it . So there's animals there . That's kind of crazy . Then you have in there , see , you have Mary , his mother , you have Joseph .

Speaker 1 5:55

You know we don't know a lot about either of them . Mary , we know she wasn't very prominent . She was a simple young woman . We learned a little bit longer , a little bit more about her as we saw more of her life . Joseph we know even less about . We know he was a carpenter . He was a simple man . He wanted to provide more he was able to for his family .

Speaker 1 6:15

We know that generationally it was from Bethlehem , because him and his family were traveling back to Bethlehem for the census and so they traveled and Mary was just days away from having baby Jesus and they're traveling there and I don't know if you've really ever sat back and thought about it . It seems odd . They can't find a place to stay and you know , at first we just think , oh , it's busy and everyone's coming into town and tussling bustle . But if you stop and you pause and you think about it , you're like , yeah , but it's like full of its own . Yeah , but it's like full of its family and friends and like generational people . Like this is like a big , giant reunion . And so I don't quite understand why you know you wouldn't knock on the door and say , hey , you got something for us you can see my fiance she's do really soon where they would say , oh yeah , come on , come on in and we'll go stay out with the animals , we'll make space for you . So I'm not really sure if it was a , there wasn't enough room , as much as maybe it was the , the scandal of it all . I mean , people could do math . They knew they weren't married . You know what are the ? What are the neighbors going to think if they're staying here ? Or maybe even Mary and Joseph are like you know , we can't find room because we don't want to burden someone else and put that on them .

Speaker 1 7:30

You have to have a good shepherd in your nativity . Everybody's got a shepherd in your nativity . Seeing this , these guys are . These guys are fascinating . Why is ? Because the religious leaders had already outcast shepherds as unclaimed the community and outcasts and this is they weren't even allowed to give testimony in a court of law . They spent months at a time in the high desert and high climate , a warm climate , they smelt , they were dirty , but yet says in Luke two that the angels came to bring good news of great joy . And who's the first person that reported that ? Emmanuel , god with us , the Son of man , was here . It was a shepherd . And so what does that tell us ? It wasn't . It wasn't like this royal person , it was a shepherd .

Speaker 1 8:22

I think what we learn here is that this good news of great joy is for everyone . Because it was for a shepherd . It's for everyone , not just the well behaved or the well liked or the well educated , the well thought of , but for all Like , no matter who you are or where you're from or what you look like or what you've done . The good news of great joy is for you too . Then .

Speaker 1 8:50

I'm sure a lot of your nativity scenes include a wise man . Why is men are interesting ? Because they actually don't show up to the actual scene . For a couple of years they were from about 800 miles away . They weren't a part of God's original chosen people in the Old Testament , but yet it seemed important enough for them to travel , whether they had read prophecies or prophecies from Daniel . They made a trip . They followed a star and made their way to meet this toddler king .

Speaker 1 9:21

But you look at this whole scene , you look at this whole group of people and you have this sense of belonging that it's for everyone , that Christmas is for everyone , it's not exclusive but it's inclusive , that everyone gets an invitation , that Jesus came for everyone . And the good news is that it's good because there's a lot of different people . This makes up a good collection of what's even in the room here . If you think about it , if you look around , there's a lot of different kind of people here representing a lot of different things . A lot of you are maybe country . You like country . That's weird . Some of you guys like rock and roll you're like making a rock and roll . Some of you guys lean right politically . Some of you lean left politically . Some of you grew up with a Catholic background or a Baptist background .

Speaker 1 10:11

Some of you here are finding yourself today single . Some of you are married . Some of you are single wishing you were married this Christmas . Some of you are recently divorced or divorced or experiencing a blended family for the first time this Christmas , or widowed . Some of you , maybe , are watching this online or even here in this room , and you're struggling . You're just having a hard time . You're feeling discouraged , hopeless , you're not really sure what's wrong and you just haven't been feeling yourself lately . Some of you are dealing today with a diagnosis or a significant illness and you're scared . Maybe an addiction that's the secret and guilt and shame have made you avoid places like this and I just wanna say again I'm so glad you're here today because Christmas is for everyone .

Speaker 1 11:15

The Bible is really clear that , although we're all different and kind of a mishmash of mess , we all have one thing in common , and that is a need for a Savior to be rescued , because we've all sinned and fallen short and we no longer , because of this gift , have to carry guilt and shame or fear about what my purpose is in life or what happens when I die , because God this is why we celebrate has given us the gift of salvation through Jesus . When we put our faith and we put our trust in Him , and when we do that , what we receive is hope and joy and forgiveness of our sins . And the nativity scene reminds us that everyone is included , that we all have an invitation . But I think for most of us there's actually a character that oftentimes probably doesn't get included in your nativity scene . We get our nativity scene view from Luke , chapter two . Like I told you , this is a perspective from the earthly first Christmas nativity scene . But if you look , it's interesting . If you look in the book the last book , in fact , of the Bible called Revelation if you look in there , it also has a picture of the Christmas scene from a heavenly perspective . What you see there is you see a woman that's gonna have a baby boy , and this baby boy is coming to bring hope to the world , but you also have this character which is a red dragon . Now , I'm sure that's not part of many of your nativity scenes , certainly not your grandmas , right , and I know some of you right now are going . What are you doing ? I brought my neighbor . Your neighbor's gonna be okay , I know they've been just watched Game of Thrones . You're gonna

Battle With Dragon in Revelation 12

Speaker 1 13:16

be good .

Speaker 1 13:17

So Revelation 12 , I'm actually gonna read you some of Revelation 12 . I'm gonna tame it down because I know there's some young ears in here . I'm gonna paraphrase . It's written by a guy named John . He's the writer of this and John says hey , I witnessed in heaven an event of great significance . I saw a woman and she was pregnant and she cried out because of labor pains and agony of giving birth . And then I witnessed in heaven another significant event . I saw a large dragon with seven heads and 10 horns . So here's the deal .

Speaker 1 13:49

There is a lot going on here , and what we need to understand real quickly about Revelation is it's full of imagery and different kinds of significance and it's from this heavenly realm , and so the timelines aren't necessarily linear and things kind of move and they jump around . But what we can understand and grasp from this is that there is a woman , there is a baby boy and there is a dragon who is desperate to keep the baby boy from being born . Now the question we should ask is why is this dragon so desperate ? Well , friends , it's because this baby boy is the dragon slayer . He was coming to bring light into darkness and to defeat death , and so this dragon is desperate to stop that from happening . And I know , I know For many of us , when we look at this scene right now , we're just like it just kind of ruins it a little bit . Like I'm , just like I can handle the weird gross shepherd and he's like in a stable and this wise guy Like I can handle a lot of stuff , but like this just doesn't . It feels out of place and like it just kind of ruins the mood a little bit . Right , I wish it wasn't part of the story either .

Speaker 1 15:08

I read a story not that long ago . I think that this family was familiar with Revelation 12 . They put a nativity scene in their yard . You know those big giant old school like plastic ones that have like all the lights in them and they glow , and they put those out there and then they put a giant inflatable red dragon . The neighbors were not too happy about this . In fact they wrote an anonymous letter . I have it . It says this it says this your dragon . This wasn't my yard , by the way . You guys were like , oh , this is really from the story . Your dragon display is only marginally acceptable at Halloween . It is totally inappropriate at Christmas . That makes your neighbors wonder if you're involved in some sort of demonic cult , and I love how it ends . But may God bless you and help you know the true meaning of Christmas . Now I get this out of it . It's uncomfortable but it's real . Like behind the scenes , like behind all of our traditions and the candy canes and the carols and the movies and the lights and the Christmas trees , all that kind of stuff . Can we just stop and recognize that there is an enemy and Jesus was born to destroy death and darkness ? He actually explains why . So he explains why he came . Jesus does In chapter 10 , verse 10 , john this is the fourth book of the New Testament Chronicles Jesus' Life .

Speaker 1 16:42

And Jesus says in verse 10 , I have come to give life so that you may have it and have it to the full Cause God wants you to have a full life . It's beautiful , but notice this there's an ellipsis there , so let me take you back to grammar class . I know some of you guys have forgotten these things . So what ? Those little three dots right there , if you remember , means that like something has been omitted , a word or a phrase and oftentimes we don't really care , cause we just kind of move on . We're like , oh , we got to the point which this is a fantastic point that Jesus has come to give you life and he wants to give it to you to the full . Yes , got it . That's really all we need . But in this certain circumstance , in this verse , what has been omitted is actually very important . I think it really helps us understand a lot more about Christmas .

Speaker 1 17:31

In this story . What has been omitted is this Let me read the entire verse to you the thief comes to steal , kill and destroy . Yet I have come so that you may have life , and life to the full . The red dragon has come to bring destruction and division and death , but I have come so that you may have life , and life to the full . See , the Bible warns us exactly who he is and exactly what he came for , and I know that there may even be some of you in here in this room right now that you're going like , come on , like are we going to like really play this like evil ? There's evil and there's a devil or a saint , and like I really feel like that's naive . Larry , come on . I just would say and I want to say to you do you really lean into those around you , your neighborhood , into this country ? You travel around the world ? You look at what's going on in the lives of some people . I want to say , in the nicest ways I can , I think it's naive to believe that there's not evil and there's not an enemy .

Speaker 1 18:39

The Bible actually warns us exactly who the enemy is and exactly what he does . He lets us know that the enemy is actually a deceiver , like his native tongue is lies , like he loves to tell us lives and he loves then , with those lives , to tempt us . He likes to tell us what we're missing out on , and he tells us , you know why ? Don't you use the people around you as stepping stones to build your platform up and to push theirs down , to make you feel better and to make them feel worse , that you're greater and they're less ? Than he tempts you like you're missing out . You can have all of these great things in life . It just cost everyone else some things .

Speaker 1 19:13

He's a distractor . Now , distraction isn't necessarily all like dark and evil in itself , but what distractions can do is they can distract you from thinking about what's really important , like the important things in life , like what is my purpose , like what is my value , like am I actually known ? And my love , like evaluating myself . So then not only am I healthy enough for myself , but I'm healthy enough then to care for and serve other , this other kingdom's ethic . It distracts us from like stopping and looking in the mirror at ourselves and asking these questions like what is life all about ? Like what's gonna happen when I die ? It's just distractions and you know how distracted we are if you pause and you think about it . Life is full of distraction and it comes in the little things and the big things , like the game , playing , the internet surfing , like the social media , scrolling , the YouTubeing , the tick talking , the binge watching , right swiping , career chasing , bar hopping , rule keeping , political , obsessing , like you name it . Those things in themselves aren't necessarily evil , but what they do is they distract us and they start to make us stuff these things instead of being healthy and making ourselves available to be loved and known and cared for and full of value and less guilt and less shame and more freedom . They just consume and they distract us .

Speaker 1 20:41

It warns us that he's actually a discourager , that he like accuses us and reminds us all the time of our past . I mean , some of you may be today even on the way here or accused in your head like where are you going ? You think he's going to answer that prayer ? You think you're allowed to just come into this place and hear these good news of great joy with your past , with what you thought , with what you did or didn't . Do you think ?

Speaker 1 21:16

This Christmas , friends , to those who are finding themselves living in this deception , this darkness , distraction , discouragement , the Christmas story is news of great joy that the dragon slayer has been born and he has come to rescue you and give you a new life , and life to the full . Now I wanna make it clear that when you read Revelation 12 , that the dragon has actually defeated , I wanna make sure we understand that , that he has been defeated . It says that then there was this great war that broke out in heaven and Michael and his angels fought against the dragon , and the dragon and his angels fought back , but he wasn't strong enough , and so they lost their place in heaven and this great dragon was then hurled down , the ancient serpent called the devil or Satan , who leads the world astray . He was hurled down to earth and his angels with him . Now again , there's a lot going on , but the paraphrase of this he lost . He didn't defeat the woman , he didn't stop the baby from being born , he didn't defeat the angels . Victory has been won . This is why we get to celebrate right now and celebrate Christmas . This is why one of Jesus's final words on the cross was it is finished , which literally was a cry of victory .

Speaker 1 22:49

Now here's the other piece of this Is the dragon knows the enemy knows the devil knows he has been defeated . And what happens when you don't wanna be defeated , when you lose and you didn't want to ? You get all wonky Like , you get upset , you get angry , you get violent , you get radical . Right , he is filled with fury , it says , because he knows that his time is short . So what little time that he has left . He wants to bring as much destruction and death and division and chaos and confusion into the world as he possibly can , until Jesus decides enough is enough and comes back and says I'm making everything new . And I wanna tell you it seems that time's more apparent than ever that he is in panic mode and he's desperate these days . If you read verse 17 , it says that the dragon was enraged at the woman and he went off to wage war against her offspring , to which we would say well , who's that ? Those who keep God's commands and hold fast to their testimony about Jesus . Oh , wait , a minute . Like we're in the scene . A lot of us are in the scene , like we're in the Christmas scene .

Speaker 1 24:10

Christmas looks a lot differently when you look at it from the heavenly realm and it changes things for us , like how we live . It should change things for us and how we live and how we act and love ourselves and love others . And may we live with more intentionality this year , not just on a playground , but understanding we live in a battleground . And so this year let's live less distracted , less deceived , less divided and more for others . Let's understand that we're not just here to celebrate that Jesus came and his birth , but live expectant and anticipation that he's actually coming again .

The Power of Jesus' Second Coming

Speaker 1 24:58

And I wanna tell you that knowing how the story ends actually changes and allows you to change how you live right now , because you get to live with more freedom , less shame , less guilt , less like pressure , because he wants to give it to you right now . What he wants to give to you right now is hope that you can have today , and some of you maybe today are gonna receive in hope . For the first time in the Christmas story , he gives you joy today . He gives us joy that we can understand because we know him . He gives us peace beyond understanding , and that means that we get to live intentionally , expectantly , with a victorious spirit , and so , if it's just a tradition for you , can I just challenge you or encourage you to stop , to stop and consider everything that hangs in the balance . See , life here on earth is meant to be lived with Jesus at the center , every breath with him at the center , so he can carry it all , because that's what he came to do .

Speaker 1 26:04

And Jesus is coming again , and I'm going to tell you right now , when he comes the second time , he's not coming the same way he came the first time , because the first time when he came , he came in weakness , as an infant , and the second time he comes again , he's going to come with strength and power . The first time he came , he came as a servant . The second time he comes , he's going to come as a sovereign ruler . The first time he came , he came as a lamb , as a sacrificial lamb . The second time he comes , he's going to come as a lion . The first time he came , he came as a baby and a manger . The second time he comes , he's coming as the king of kings . The first time he came , he came silently , barely anyone even noticed . The second time he's coming , trumpets will fill the sky , every knee will bow , every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of lords .

Speaker 1 26:58

This really should change things . So maybe this is just a tradition for some of you , friends , but can I just say this one simple thing , and if you don't get anything else , can you please just hear this it's real , it's all so real . It's real and it should change the way that you live right now , and it can change the way that you're living right now and the way we live our lives today . And we want to sing about the birth of Jesus , but we also want to sing and declare that Jesus is the king of kings and the Lord of lords . And so , friends , we're going to do just exactly that , and so I'm going to ask you to stand as we respond and worship .