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Was night of Jesus' birth really silent? Was it all that calm giving birth in a barn? In this message, Pastor Tim Glende shows how only a God of power and love could accomplish the miracle of that (perhaps) silent night.
The episodes are the weekly sermons from 922 Ministries (St. Peter and The CORE) of Appleton, Wisconsin.
Christmas Playlist
Week 3 - St Peter
Pastor Tim Glende
Welcome to week three of Christmas Playlist. If you haven't caught weeks one and two, you can find them on our YouTube Pages, St. Peter & The CORE, we went back to 2 songs already and on Christmas Eve will have our final addition to our playlist, before we get into today's song which we already told you about. I want you to get you to be thinking about the week ahead. If the odds are pretty good, if your home is like mine that as you launch into Christmas week, you're hoping that it is both meaningful and memorable, right? You want it to be meaningful for you, for your kids, for your family, or something about making memories. The holidays seem to bring some things that never get forgotten that took place at that Christmas, or this Christmas. And we want it to be meaningful. That's why we buy presents for the people that we love, something that they receive that acknowledges the important place they have in our hearts, And here's the thing about Christmas. Like, who doesn't want that? It's kind of what the songs that you hear on the playlist on your radio. The movies that you see, whether on TNT that are all familiar, or maybe the Hallmark Channel, everyone wants to find meaning in their Christmas. They want it to be memorable and it would actually tell you that in many ways, we have this romanticized idea about Christmas and the holidays that we get, just right? We do everything just perfect. If we have the most meaningful and memorable Christmas, have our lives will be forever changed?
Now, if you know, Someone like that in your life or you've seen a movie like that before you understand what happens. Sometimes, when you you hope that Christmas, is everything, the be-all and end-all and it doesn't turn out that way. Some pictures to maybe help you resonate with someone who wanted Christmas to be meaningful and memorable. My favorite movie of perhaps, all time at Christmas time. You can see it almost anytime “Christmas Vacation” like Chevy Chase in his main role as Clark Griswold was all about making that the most magical Christmas ever from the perfect Christmas tree to the lights, like no one else had ever had. Everyone gathering the food coming together. The Christmas bonus, surprise gift of the pool in the backyard. Like he had the best of intentions, but the magic didn't really happen. Like if you remember how it turned out at the end, he ends up taking a chainsaw, cutting down a tree in his yard, causing chaos for his neighbors and his family, the squirrel gets loose inside the house like disaster of all disasters. It was not magical but it was definitely memorable.
A lot of Christmas music does the same thing. Like it paints this picture of if we do, just the right things, have just the right hopes but a season like this Christmas itself can bring meaning and Magic to our lives. Like no other I just think of some of the songs and the freezes, It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Have a Holly Jolly Christmas. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. You close your your eyes and you let your, your nose, taking the aroma as and and the smells and the relationships. And the snow. On the ground will make this Christmas these season of All Seasons to be life-changing for you and me, right? Sometimes people look to the season of Christmas in a romanticize way to be magical, In blanks. That's what I want you to think about today. Before we get into our him, I would argue that there's a lot of Truth in this people. Want Christmas to be magical by definition. If you want to know what I'm talking about magic, I'm not talking about a guy with a wand pulling a rabbit out of his hat. No magical by definition. Is this something beautiful or delightful in such a way as to see him removed from everyday life. Something beautiful or delightful that allows us to be removed from everyday life people are looking to Christmas to to overcome their everyday life to help put them in a place where there are good tidings, good feelings, emotions. It will be game changing in this season and Beyond, right. Like if we get Christmas, just right if it's magical for the others in our life from the getting, the things that they want to the food on the table. Something Beautiful will take place that isn't normal in everyday life. And I want you to have that in mind as we get into our song for today. Have a lot of Christmas songs even Church ones, kind of romanticize the picture of the Season that they try and almost transport us to a place that is magical, right? But just think about the nativity scenes that you have in your house or had when you were growing up, like how the romanticized is the image that you have in your nativity scene, Joseph standing calmly over his wife's shoulders watching and with his head bowed down Mary on her knees, praying, and everything is so pretty and peaceful in the baby is just there in the manger. Like ladies.
Probably not the case when you had your children, right?
And that's really what Silent Night has kind of become in a lot of people's minds. Like it's almost this magical song that puts us in the special place that allows us to be removed for just a few moments maybe on Christmas Eve or beyond like, I can turn down the lights when we sing it today. And you might think back to a Christmas gone by when we were allowed to hold candles in church and they gave us open flames and wax with dripping all over your hands. And it was magical.
And thank goodness, it wasn't memorable. We’d burn down the church ever.
Even the words. Like Silent Night. All is calm. And it's never cloudy over the Streets of Bethlehem. I'm not so sure about that.
So sometimes the romanticized view of Christmas, the magical need that we believe Christmas can bring to our life to make things better. Affects our life in such a way that we miss out on what truly makes Christmas magical and meaningful. And I want you to be on the right place on the right path for this week because all come a moment where you'll be. So consumed will all the things to do that, you'll forget. That what's really magical and meaningful is not getting the water chestnuts wrapped in bacon just right. There's something more, something better that we need to hold on to that. We need to see that help guard our heart this week to not be consumed by the magical of all, the distractions and the romanticized view of the world has, but what God wants us to take in. And to help you do that today, before we get into our song, I want you to see Christmas through the point of view of Mary. Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary, the chosen one, Mary, who the angel Gabriel came to to announce that you are the one who will have a baby, whose name will be Jesus, who will save his people, from their sins. I want you to see it through the lens of Mary, over the nine months of time from the time she conceived to when everything was done on Christmas that first Christmas and get a picture through her eyes of what is taking place that really is meaningful and really is magical. For Christmas. Luke chapter 1, takes us back to when Mary found out that God was acting and carrying out his Plan of Salvation. The angel Gabriel said to her, do not be afraid. Mary, you have found favor with God, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you were to call him Jesus. He will be great, and be called the son of the most high. The Lord God will give him the Throne of his father David and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end. How will this be Mary asks? Since I am a virgin. The angel answered, the holy spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called The Son of God. Mary understood very clearly. What the angel Gabriel was saying, you are going to have a baby
And yet, Mary did not understand, comprehend how she knew it was impossible since she was a virgin. She knew she could not be pregnant. She knew there was no way that she could be pregnant with a child and so Gabriel, cleared it up for her. Gabriel made it very clear about what makes Christmas magical. It has nothing to do with the special dessert that you make. It has nothing to do with having just the right decorations. It has everything to do is a miracle. That she would become pregnant by God's doing. See, Mary had nothing to do with Christmas being magical or meaningful. God did that. God made a promise that God stepped in that God acted that God caused her to become pregnant. Yes, Mary is is special in many ways because she carried the Son of God. But she's no different than you or me because she's a sinful human being who needed that very savior that she was carrying. He will be the son of the most high will be called the son of God.
Mary knew very clearly from the Angels words, what God was saying? What God was doing was what made
What transpired, nine months later, meaningful. It's the gospel writer’s record with two simple verses Luke chapter two of the famous words of the Christmas story. Do not romanticize Jesus birth in any way, shape, or fashion while they were there. The time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn. A son. Like the birth of Jesus is only recorded in two gospels and the details of Jesus birth only gets three verses. Matthew gives one verse, she had a child, and named him Jesus, Luke gives us two verses, the time came for the baby to be born. The due date hit and she gave birth. That's it. It's not like this magical moment. There's not this romanticize seen God doesn't paint this beautiful picture of how this birth was so different than every other birth in the manner of the birth itself. Know God wanted you and me to focus on the miraculous and not on all the fixings.
Which Mary understood? Like if you go back, nine months to after everything happens on that first Christmas Day, Mary treasured up all these things. And pondered them in her heart.
Like all the work you're going through to make this Christmas meaningful. And magical might bring some memories that you hold onto.
Bad thing. Like maybe it's Baby's First Christmas, maybe your kids are home for the first time or it will be for the last time all together. Maybe it's something else that will give a great deal of meaning to this magical season of the year in your world. But bringing you understand Mary understood very clearly. What was meaningful and magical was what had transpired and happened. She treasured up all these things. Like she stored them away. She put them in her heart. She didn't want to lose sight of them.
And then she pondered them. She thought about them, she came back to them.
Now I don't know about you but if I was to be in Mary shoes, I think the thing should have been treasuring up in pondering, would have been from beginning to end all that transpired from Gabriel coming to her say let it be as the Lord has promised that the ba to then all the chaos of of the, of the day of finding a place to be the baby arrives. She holds him in her hands. The shepherd, show up. They start talking about angels in the sky. He is the son of God. Mary pondered and Mary new and Mary treasured was this truth?
The miracle.
Is what makes Christmas magical?
Like the miracle of God in human flesh is what gives meaning and Beauty to Christmas. The miracle that that God kept his promise and Mary was chosen to give birth to the Son of God, that he arrives safely, that that Shepherd's came because Angels declared it and and God revealed to others. What had transpired in happened, the miracle is what makes Christmas magical? And I need you to have it on your heart this week. I don't want you to lose sight of that this week. All the other things you're doing can be great things. All the other plans you're making can lead to great memories, but please, please, please don't believe that. Those things are going to change your life. On December 26 are going to change the world. The magic of Christmas will kick. Take all the chaos out of your life. The Brokenness of our world, the lack of peace that we have on January 2nd after the holidays are over. Like, you would be misguided to believe that anything that can happen, this Christmas Is Magical in the sense of what it means. Eternity. Again listen to the definition of magical, beautiful are delightful in such a way as to seem removed from everyday life, what transpired in Bethlehem was not everyday ordinary life because the baby born was conceived by God's doing and the baby in the manger, the miracle in the manger. Is the magical thing that makes Christmas meaningful?
And that's what I want you to see through. The next few minutes, is found in the words of one of the most famous Christmas songs of all time. The miracle.
Franz Gruber. Is he wrote this song? The Miracle. As beautiful as the melody is as was played by a guitar romanticized, version of how the organ didn't work that night and they played the guitar. It was so beautiful and Heavenly the lullaby. That it is, all those things are great. But I want you to see this song through a different lens focusing in on how the songwriter understood the miracle is what makes Christmas meaningful. Because the miracle is what gives you and me the opportunity and only way to be removed from this life and get to the next That's not our doing that's God's to as a miracle.
So let's Ponder like Mary the things of Christmas that are found in Silent Night. First one tells us this Silent night. Holy night. All is calm. All is bright round yon virgin mother and child holy infant. So tender and mild sleep in Heavenly peace. Sleep in Heavenly peace. Now, the word round means around the virgin in that area. Yonder means over there. The songwriters is drawing your attention to the scene over there around. You'll find the virgin mother and child.
Miracle. Holy Infant. Holy Without sin infant. Perfect. Infant. Tender and mild. Innocent. Perfect.
That's the miracle. That God was in human flesh. That a baby could be born into this world, unlike any other baby ever born, sinful without sin, to do what you and I needed to be done the only way that there would ever be possible for us to experience Heavenly peace. Holy Infant.
Like a saw was written in the 1800's in the midst of a world that was broken. Like that the hymn writer lived in Austria. And as he wrote this song, they were diseases that were ravaging his country. There were wars that were taking people's lives. There is upheaval from a government standpoint, there's mass chaos. There's no peace and the songwriter understood and come. So many people in the season of Christmas gravitated. For this desire for the magical, the piece, the no more brokenness. But the only way for no more brokenness is through a miracle of a baby who could rescue you
The miracle of a Holy Infant makes Christmas magical, beautiful for you. And for me for eternity, First to focus our attention on more of the magical shepherd's quake at the sight over the hills and outside of Bethlehem, the shepherd's, see an angel in the sky. They Shake in Terror than the sky. Is filled with more angels. That is magical, that is not normal. That is extraordinary, the magical declared and denounced the miracle.
The beautiful sight that the Angels were for those Shepherds. Was second on the list, however, to what the shepherd's saw in Bethlehem. Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia. Christ, the savior is born Christ, the savior is born, the miracle. The promise was kept, by God, the one who you and I need came to Earth. A savior is born. The miracle is, what makes Christmas beautiful and magical. The Angels were a part of that miraculous site, the extraordinary of that day so that you and I would miss out on what gave it true meaning which is in verse 3.
I just want you to look at verse 3 through the lens of married. Like you know what, Mary never celebrated Christmas like you and I do.
And she probably celebrate. Jesus birthday. Like everyone celebrates a birthday. But it didn't get romanticize, it probably didn't turn into an over-the-top dinner and meal that everything had to be just right and just perfect to give meaning to what his birth was like, Mary no doubt understood that she would want us to understand that. Friends group, who wrote the song in verse 3, understood the magic. The magical of Christmas. Son of God loves pure light. Radiant beams from thy holy face, with the dawn of Redeeming Grace. For four thousand plus years, God's people waited, they waited and they waited to hope that they might see the sun arrive. It's like a new day. Like, when we get up in the morning,
Darkness goes away, the sun comes up. And there's something about that, Dawning. That is magical times, right? It's beautiful. I think we haven't seen the sun in like seven or eight days. It really like to see some of it right now. That would be extraordinary and magical in Wisconsin world. And a songwriter understood that the arrival of Jesus was the dawning of Grace. Like God had promised it. God had guaranteed it. God had repeated it, but it had not yet happened. But when Jesus was born the dawning of Grace, the arrival of Grace, Truly for you and me. Is a miracle.
Like, without the power of the Holy Spirit, working faith in our hearts, we would not know God's grace. Without the amazing grace of God, we would not have eternal life with God. We would not experience the eternal life that God has in store on desires, for each and every one of us. But at Jesus birth the miracle of his arrival, led to a miracle for you. And for me, forgiveness Redemption, Eternity. So that one day we could experience. The same thing, the songwriter described.
The radiant face of God.
You get to hear the Angels sing praises to God.
To get for you and me. Removal from the broken world to experience. Life, like we've never seen here on Earth, the streets of Heaven.
See the miraculous friends. And I want you to hold onto this week, makes every Christmas meaningful if you don't get the lights, right? If you don't get the recipe, right? If you don't get all the gifts that you want, if not, everyone sings Kumbaya and hugs it out and forgives for old wrongs. All those things, while they might be great, are not the thing that will give your Christmas, the ultimate meaning, the ultimate purpose, his name is Jesus Christ. The Miracle of his birth is what makes Christmas meaningful. The miraculous of a Holy Infant, the very Son of God, declared by the Angels bringing Grace to Earth so that you and I might By God's grace and up in heaven that
That miracle in the manger.
Makes Christmas every day for you and me magically And I pray will make this Christmas meaningful. The Apostle Paul knew that. Like the Apostle Paul. Galatians chapter 4 said. When the sit time had fully come on, God's plan went into action. According to his timing and his purpose. He sent his son. God did it. He worked a miracle, born of a woman born under the law to redeem those under the law. That is a miracle for you and me that Jesus lived. Perfectly paid the price and God gives us what what he did. So that you and I get what he deserves eternity with God. So that we might receive adoption to sonship.
Like a miracle that you saw a pair of the baptismal font today. The miracle that God worked when he created faith in your heart. The miracle connects, you back to the manger and the manger my friends. That miracle. Is what makes Christmas magical?
And I know you'll probably be tempted like, Clark Griswold to do anything and everything to make this Christmas meaningful, if you work a little magical as well, when you get tempted, And all that work. Leaves you distracted and frustrated and overwhelmed. Maybe this week just stop and pause. And remember those words?
Play Silent Night.
A song that directs us to the miracle, the Holy Infant tender and mild So that one day we might have Heavenly peace. Let's pray about that. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word and your promises. We're going to sing in just a few seconds. This amazing song that redirects our eyes to the skies, the shepherd's quaking, but more importantly, the Miracles.