Good morning, everyone. It is Monday, December the 23rd, 2024. It is currently 1053 a.m. Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, I don't know where you are listening to me from. I don't know what the weather is outside. It may feel very wintry. It may feel very Christmas where you are. There may be other things around you that feels very Christmas. Now here in West Texas, I think today is going to be like 75 degrees. So, you know, I mean, to me, that's great. I mean, that's a Christmas gift. Have the temperature 85 degrees. That's a Christmas gift. But it probably is not going to have that traditional feel of Christmas, at least not today. I mean, well, I think even on Christmas Day, I don't know right now what the temperature is. I think it's going to be almost in the 70s. that to me that's wonderful and that's great just is not going to feel like Christmas and so maybe it's the weather maybe it's things around you who knows for some people they get that Christmas feeling they get it they love it they embrace it they have a lot around them that can just really make you know Christmas special there are others and I always speak to the others because there's always the others at this time of year obviously is horrible it is depressing, it is discouraging, you feel abandoned, alone, like all those emotions, maybe past trauma. And so I always speak really to that group typically more than to the other group because I can relate more to the group that it's not a pleasant experience and I can't really relate to those who think it's the most wonderful time of the year. I always tend to speak to that one group because that group tends to get forgotten and it's kind of abandoned. I did see, though, a kind of an interesting trend. I was going to do a podcast about it. I need to find the article. I don't know if I can find it. There is a trend happening in some churches, and I don't know what they're calling it. They're calling it like a blue Christmas service or something along that line, and it's basically a Christmas service basically for those who do not like the whole Christmas season because it's miserable for them, it's depressing. And it's almost like a service saying, hey, for all of you broken, depressed, discouraged people who have suffered great childhood trauma, you can come to this church service. All the happy people who've got family and all of it, they can come here. And it's kind of like, hey, this is the service for the really messed up people. The normal people get to go to that service. I think it's kind of an interesting idea. I don't know exactly how it's structured and exactly what is different, but I am pleasantly surprised that at least some churches are taking into consideration, this is a difficult time for many people. And if it is a difficult time for many people, this can be a really bad time maybe to listen to sermons because almost every sermon is going to be about Christmas. Now, it depends on how they handle it, right? So, do you love all of the Christmas sermons or do you loathe them? Do you love or loathe? Because if you open up the Sermons 2.0 app, because I opened it up this morning, because I was like, well, you know, we're doing the Sermons 2.0 App Sermon Challenge. That's the one thing I'm going to be able to at least feel like I completed in 2024. It's at least one thing I feel like I can say I accomplished. So, you know, maybe I'll look for a sermon to review. So I opened up the Sermons 2.0 app and I looked and guess what the trending hashtag is for the Sermons 2.0 app. Can anybody guess? The number one trending hashtag. Christmas. That means all of the sermons being uploaded are placing there, and its description for a hashtag is Christmas. And so then I went to the new sermons category, if I can go back up here. Newest sermons and the newest sermons. It's loading. It's, well, I'll just start reading some of the titles. Advent of the King Priest. Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man. Christmas and the gospel. Christmas message 2024. Joy, see here, hymns December 22nd. Peace in Christ. I'm not leaving without my gift. the spirit of Christmas, the light of Emmanuel, the true son is born. Here's why he came." That way, in fact, a little while ago, that was the first sermon. Here is why he came. You want to hear just how that that sermon begins? Here's why he came. That was the first sermon that was listed. what, 15 minutes ago, 30 minutes ago, when I was looking at all the sermons. Now all of these others have been added because, you know, thousands of sermons are added each week to the Sermons 2.0 app, and I would argue I don't know if I have, I don't have any statistical proof, but most likely you're going to see at least probably yesterday and today, a dramatic amount of sermons being added because everyone's doing their, they're going to be doing, and then you'll see it probably tomorrow. You're going to see Christmas Eve services being uploaded and all kinds of just Christmas, Christmas, Christmas related thing. But here's, here's why he came. This is how this sermon began. Let's take a word of God, please. Turn to the book of the gospel according to Luke chapter 19, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Glad to be here. Say amen. Well, I'll tell you what, I certainly am. I have missed being here. Anytime that you're faithful to the house of the Lord and you miss three services like I have missed, it feels like a lifetime. So I'm glad to be here. I'm glad you're here. You're all looking good from our house to your house. Merry Christmas. The volume was way, way low, but Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! And that was a sermon, obviously, from yesterday. So in many churches, yesterday was the big Christmas day. So if you went to church, just think about this. If you go to church and Christmas is already like, oh man, you're just having issues with it. And you go into church and everything is Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. Do you walk out feeling better or do you walk out feeling worse? Now, I'm not saying churches shouldn't obviously talk about it. I just don't know if they always talk about it in a way that actually is beneficial or if they handle it in a way that could be at least challenged or maybe even offer a little bit of criticism. So what I'm going to do in this hour, and I'm glad I decided not to review that sermon, I did not review how, I did not realize how low that volume was. That was ridiculously low. Okay, but if we just consider, so here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna consider Christmas sermons. We will acknowledge that for some people, they can be uplifting. For some people, it offers kind of a time for celebration. They're kind of a celebratory kind of occasion and people like that. But they sometimes, I don't know if I should say sometimes or many times, I will say it happens a lot. I can't say if it's most or, it happens a lot that many of these so-called Christmas sermons suffer from, I think, some weaknesses and there's some problems with them. So I'm gonna try to outline some of the issues that you may, Here, like today, if you were just like, you know, okay, it's Christmas week, I'm gonna spend a lot of time listening to Christmas sermons. Now, for some of you, you're gonna love them all, no matter how they go. But for me, I believe many of them will demonstrate specific weaknesses and there'll be some problems. So let's look at some common weaknesses. Christmas sermons. Some common weaknesses in Christmas sermons. What do you think is the number one common weakness in Christmas sermons? What do you think? What do you think? You can tell me if you think this is fair. I think in many cases, they're overly sentimental. There's kind of a sentimentality in a lot of these Christmas sermons. And I think that that's a weakness because in many Christmas sermons, they tend to emphasize warmth, nostalgia. And sometimes they do this at the expense of philological depth. In other words, the sermons are kind of more there to create this feeling, this sentimental feeling, the way the pictures are being, you know, the way the scripture is being pictured. Let me state it that way. It's trying to create this warmth, this feeling of nostalgia that everyone can walk away, oh, it's the most wonderful time of the year. And some people really can embrace that, but there's going to be others that they're going to push back on that sentimentality. They're going to push back on that warmth. There is no nostalgia for them. And they're going to feel disconnected. And this can result, and I think this is fair. I hope I'm not being too overly harsh. You can tell me what you think. I think that this can lead that many sermons feel more like a Hallmark card. They feel more like a Hallmark movie. And it's trying to express maybe the sentiments you would see on a Hallmark card rather than a robust exploration of scripture. It's the sentimentality. It's like a Hallmark movie. It's like a Hallmark card. It's trying to give you these sentiments. And really, they do this And it's not really a in-depth study of the scriptures themselves and all of the difficulties and issues that may arise from really being honest with the scriptures. Now, I think there are many churches who try to avoid that over-sentimentality. I think there are, but I think it's that even in those churches where they try to go in-depth, they try to offer some great theology, there's still this overall vibe within. And it may not just be the sermon itself, it just may be the overall vibe you get when you go to church around Christmas time, that there's just really this push for this sentimentality, and everyone is embracing it, right? And I think there, I don't know. I think this really comes to, this is a situation where this is very person-specific, right? Your experience with Christmas is going to greatly impact your life situation at that very moment. Whatever you're going through at that very moment, it's going to be greatly impact how you're going to feel about the whole thing. You may go walking into church and just feel like, look, I don't know what all these other people, you look at all that they have, I don't fit in with that. And it can make it, It may make it more obvious to you that what they have, you don't have. And then that can turn into. you know, feelings of bitterness and disconnection. So I think it, and of course the church can't fix that, right? There's no way the church can just say, hey, we can address this for everyone. But I think the church has to be aware of, hey, not, I know you, it's a wonderful time for many people, but there's always those people that it's not. So can the church avoid being over, sentimental during Christmas sermons, I don't know if they can. Because it's just, it's so, it's almost baked into the holiday, right? It's almost just like, it's synonymous with the holiday. Look at the Christmas movies. Look at everything. It's this sentimental nostalgia. It's just built into it. I don't know if it can ever be removed from it. But I think that that's a possible weakness. I think that's fair to say. How about, so there's the first one, an over-sentimental, over-sentimentality within many Christmas sermons. I think that's fair. I don't think that's being overly critical. And again, let me make it very clear. I think when I was younger, I almost resented it. I would almost kind of get ticked off about it, right? I think now, I think now I can at least understand that, hey, for some people – that's why I think a lot of the things I've said this year and a lot of the podcast episodes I've either said at the beginning or at the end. I think that for the people who have, I mean, you've got family, you've got companionship, you've got all these, you should just enjoy it. And I think the church can't ignore those people who enjoy it and love it. You want to make it even more special for them, right? I think you want to make it special for them. And I think that's probably the majority. So the church almost, I mean, the church can't just ignore those people, right, and just focus on, hey, look, I know this time of year is complete garbage and trash for many of you, and just, I don't think you can do that. I don't know what the balance is there. So I think what it is is for those who, it's not a time of sentimentality, it's not a time of nostalgia, it's a time mixed with, I think those individuals, we have to almost, We have to help those individuals understand that, hey, your feelings are just as valid, and it's okay that you don't like it. You shouldn't have to feel guilty. You shouldn't have to feel that, but you let them enjoy their thing. Don't become bitter about it. And then you grab onto what you can. I think it's very difficult. There's just no way you can address this for everyone. I mean, the church is almost designed, I mean, the whole Christmas candlelight service for Christmas Eve, I mean, if that's not over-sentimentality, I mean, it creates an entire vibe, right? It's about the warm feelings. It's all about that. And then if you show up, you see all these people there with their families, husband, wife, oh, they're holding hands, their kids are next to them, they all leave together as a family, and they're happy, and they're gonna go back to their home and sit in front of the fireplace and read the Christmas story and open presents, and it's this wonderful big family thing. Well, other people will be like, well, they're not gonna go back to the same situation. But what does the church do? I'm trying to see both sides here. I think when I was younger, I was just like, I'm so sick of all of this, right? And I'm trying to be more fair to it. But I think there isn't a level of over-sentimentality. I just don't know how you fix it. Second, a lack of contextualization. There's a lack of contextualization. Many sermons, and I think this is fair, fail to adequately place the birth of Christ within the larger narrative of the Bible, right? I think it tends to, the focus tends to remain maybe on the nativity scene without connecting it maybe to Old Testament promises or the ultimate purpose of Christ's coming, his death and resurrection. I think in some sermons they do say those things, but I think they try to I think it gets lost. It's like the sermon is not really designed about contextualization and how this connects to this, and this is a fulfillment of this, and this is what... Now, some will do that. I'm not saying they won't, but I just... So maybe the contextualization is there, but maybe we should say this. The sentimentality almost overshadows the contextualization. Maybe there's not a lack of contextualization. Maybe there is plenty of context being provided, but the overall sentimentality and nostalgia, warm feelings, maybe it overshadows the contextualization. Like, it's hard to grab onto the context and where this all fits in theologically, biblically, textually, because everything else seems to override it. Maybe, is that a better way of saying it? Maybe there's a lack of contextualization. I struggle with that. Maybe it's just overshadowed. So number one, over sentimentality. I do stand by that one. A lack of contextualization. I think I should maybe say that the contextualization and everything dealing with the text kind of gets overshadowed. It may be mentioned, but it gets overshadowed. It's like yesterday on the way to church, I was listening to a sermon on Isaiah 40, verses 3-5. I think it went from 3-8. And there was a lot of contextualization, there was a lot of history, but a lot of it got overshadowed when he basically took Isaiah 43-8 and turned it into, here are three things you need to do. You need to show up to church. early so that you can prepare yourself for worship. You need to meditate on the text that the sermon is going to be taken from prior to arriving so that you can be ready to worship. And you need to review what hymns are going to be sung so you can memorize that. And I'm like, what does that have to do with Isaiah 43 through 8? Now, there was plenty of things in the sermon about Isaiah 43 through 8, but it got overshadowed because it turned into that. Does that make sense? So I think sometimes there is contextualization in Christmas sermons. It just gets overshadowed with the sentimentality and the nostalgia and the warm feelings. So maybe that's a better way of saying it. So there's the weakness of over-sentimentality. There's a weakness of maybe contextualization in the text being overshadowed by the whole Christmas thing. Number three, this could be a weakness, maybe over-familiarity. We're so familiar with it, there's an over-familiarity with the text itself, with the text that we typically look at during the Christmas season. So the preachers kind of approach it in many cases like the congregation already knows this story. So maybe it leads them to almost a lack of any fresh insight. And maybe it kind of leads them, they don't really engage the text. Instead of really engaging the text, they just kind of retell the story because they know everyone's already familiar with it. So maybe this kind of makes, is this fair to say that if you, now, you can listen for yourself. I mean, you've got the Sermons 2.0 app. When you listen, let's say you listen to 10 Christmas sermons. Because there's an over-familiarity with it, do you feel that the sermons can become just, they feel repetitive, they feel uninspired, they feel just kind of the same, same-o, same-o, same-o? Now, at the same time, Maybe there's supposed to be a sameness to them, right? Because, I mean, you're taking these texts that are basically historical narratives about what happened. They are descriptive. There's only so many ways. Now, I think what happens is, because we become so over-familiar with it, maybe you could argue, because we're so familiar with it, that then pastors maybe take artistic license with it. I don't know. But there is a familiarity with it. there's no way to fix that. I mean, every year you're going to hear the same passages preached upon. So, is that a weakness? I don't know if that's a weakness. I struggle with that one. Is this another weakness? Maybe there is a Pastors limit the scriptures used to talk about the quote-unquote Christmas stories? Preachers often isolate part of the Christmas story, such as Luke 2 or Matthew 2, without exploring broader biblical context. They may go to Matthew 2, they may go to Luke 2, but in many cases they kind of ignore other parts, and they kind of just retell the story. Maybe. But see, then at the same time, sometimes they will reference, say, Isaiah 9, or maybe Micah 5, but in many cases, when they do reference them, then they don't actually deal with the issues. And if you go to Isaiah 9, there's a lot there to struggle with. If you go to Micah, there's a lot there to struggle with, correct? So in many cases, I would say, There is a selective, let's call it a selective use of scripture. They just go to scripture just to grab the kind of the Christmas part and without really necessarily doing all the work. Because when the texts were put together, it wasn't a Christmas text, right? Luke 2, Matthew 2 is not like, here's the Christmas text. It's like, no, here's the historical narrative about what happened and contained within it. is all kind of—not only of historical facts, there's a cultural context, historical context, textual context, there's all kinds of theological implications, and there's lots of textual issues to work through. But we don't really—so it's a selective use. We go to the Scripture just because we need something for Christmas. I said, like, we're going to go to the Scripture because it's in the Bible. I think in many cases what happens is If pastors are going to deal with Matthew 2 or Luke 2, they do so in a much more correct manner when they're preaching those and it's not Christmas. If it's Christmas, then these texts are kind of selectively used just to get to the Christmas story. If it's not Christmas, then the sentimentality, the nostalgia is gone, and they're like, we're going to dig into Luke 2 and Matthew 2 because you don't have all the trappings of Christmas attached to it, so you can just dig into the text. I think that's fair to say. I think that's fair to say. So there's a selective use of scripture during Christmas. All right, so we have kind of a over-sentimentality. I think that that's, I'm going to stand by that one. I think that sentimentality kind of overrides any contextualization the sermon tries to offer. I think there's an over-familiarity with the text, which can lead to some problems. And I think there's a select use of Scripture. Scripture is used in a very selective way in order just to give us a Christmas message, versus actually digging into the text. Because it's not going to be a series, right? It's going to be like a one-off sermon. Now, sometimes people will be doing some Christmas-related sermons if they go through, say, the month of Advent. But in many cases, it's very limited. It's not like, we can't stay in Matthew 2 for six months. No, we've got to get through this because this is just our Christmas season, and then we can move on to other things. So therefore, the text has to be used in a very selective way. Oh, I think this one is a big one. Moralism. Moralism. I think it's fair to say that in many Christmas sermons, the sermons reduce the Christmas story to a lesson about kindness, generosity, family values. it becomes about the moral lessons we can learn. We need to be like the wise men. We need to be like Mary. And it's all moral lessons. Moralism, moralism, moralism, moralism, moralism, moralism. And so you go to church, and what you learn is, well, I probably am not having the right attitude. I'm probably not doing the right thing. And so instead of being uplifting, you may just walk away going, well, Not only do I not have the right attitude about this time of year, I don't do these things. So now you just may walk away feeling even more guilty and it may actually make the holidays even worse. No, I'm not saying there aren't moral lessons. I'm just saying you got to be careful when you reduce it to moralism. And then guess what happens? you reduce it to moral lessons, you miss the profound theological realities of, say, the Incarnation and its implications. Even the incarnation sometimes gets turned into moralism, right? Because you go to John chapter one, right? And the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, and the Word became flesh. And then you jump over to Philippians, and you see how Christ laid aside, and then we learn about humility and putting others before ourself. Now, I'm not saying that there isn't a moral lesson to be taught there, but it can just become moralism. So, I think these are some weaknesses in over-sentimentality. Now, each individual is going to have a different feeling about that. I think that overrides any contextualization the pastors are trying to offer in the text, because it's about the Christmas feeling. Everyone's so familiar with these passages, the over-familiarity can lead to some problems, at least I think so. Maybe it seems uninspired. It just seems repetitive. It's the same, same, same. But at the same time, is that bad? I struggle with that one. The scriptures are used in a selective way simply to get to a Christmas sermon. I think that that is a legitimate weakness. Moralism, I don't think that one can be denied. Now, this next one, maybe the Christmas sermons rely heavy on cultural elements. Cultural elements. Maybe in an effort to be relatable, many sermons, they lean heavily on cultural elements of Christmas, gifts, traditions, and maybe even though they don't attempt to do this, it begins to overshadow the biblical message. They rely on a lot of cultural cultural things, the things about Christmas as it has become known within our culture, are kind of inserted into the sermon, and that kind of overshadows the biblical message, because it just becomes relatable, and people gravitate to those cultural things that are mentioned, those things that are so a part of the Christmas, at least the idea of Christmas. And how about another one is maybe we could call this uncritical traditions. So we have an over-sentimentality. Number two, their sentimentality seems to overshadow sometimes the contextualization of the actual text. We're over-familiar with it, which can lead to some problems. Pastors tend to use the scriptures in a very selective way simply to get to a Christmas message. Moralism. cultural ideas, cultural concepts are so included in the sermons that they overshadow the biblical concepts, because then it becomes more about our cultural experience with Christmas than it is what was actually happening in the text. and then uncritical tradition or uncritical traditions. Sermons, many cases, not always, they kind of perpetuate inaccurate details about the nativity story. Three kings instead of wise men, Mary riding on a donkey, Jesus being born in a wooden stable. These reinforce traditions that aren't scripturally accurate. we could go we could probably make a list of them of things said around christmas time and you're kind of like what in the world is going on that's not that's just some tradition that's something you took from some movie what are you doing we got to get to the text oh and you want and this now i know i'm gonna i know i'm gonna make people very upset about this but um You know what one of the number one culprits are? It's those little Christmas pageants that churches love to have. Hey, we get all of our little kids and we can get up there and put them up there to act this all out, right? So that everyone can take their phones and videotape it and send it to grandma, right? It's all wonderful. It's all cute. Who cares if it's inaccurate? Who cares if it gives a completely wrong idea? Nobody cares. Now, we should care because it's the church and what the church is putting on something, if it's not biblically, and I know people get so offended. Who cares? It's just a Christmas pageant. It's just the kids. Stop being all, oh, you're getting all worried about it and you want to criticize it theologically. Look, if that's the game the church is going to play, that it doesn't really matter if it's accurate and who really cares, then you know what? There's no point in me coming back to church. I can just stay at home because if you're just going to, if it doesn't really matter because it's our kids and we can have a nice little Christmas story, and okay well then if that's all it is is sentimentality and cuteness and videos for grandma and that's all it that's what you're going to reduce it to then you know what it'd be better everyone just stay at home and not even bother going to church Now, I know I say that, I tick everyone off, but it's like either we care about truth or we don't. But many of these ideas show up and you're like, what? This is completely not accurate to the biblical story. And anyone who criticizes that, they're almost immediately like, you're screwed. You're still in Christmas. You're still in Christmas joy. Get thee behind me, Satan. What is wrong with you? You're just so all uptight. Now, I understand some people can be maybe quote unquote too uptight, but at the same time, the church has a responsibility that whatever it puts forth about the Christmas story is biblically and theologically accurate. Oh, I know that that probably didn't go well. So those are some weaknesses. I refer to them as weaknesses, right? I'm not saying that these are necessarily wrong in every situation. I'm saying that there are. Now, I think when those Christmas pageants are completely biblically inaccurate, that is wrong. That's not a weakness. But because that's just putting forth the wrong, you're preaching the wrong thing. But these are weaknesses. And I'm being very transparent here, right? Your personal feelings about Christmas are gonna greatly impact how you see Christmas sermons and how you see churches and all the Christmas things they're going to do. You're going to have different feelings. You're either gonna be drawn to it, love it, embrace it, and it's wonderful for you and your family. And you should not feel guilty about that. But at the same time, you shouldn't be looking down at the person who seems to be like, you know what? I don't like any of these reindeer games. I don't like any of this. I don't, because I don't like, this is all negative for me. You can't look down on them either. Because everyone shows up, everyone has their own story. Every person has their own story. And the church likes uniformity. It wants everyone to conform to such an idea. Well, you can have the nice little wonderful time, great for you and your family, but back off if someone else doesn't feel the same thing. It doesn't make them unspiritual. doesn't make them ungodly. They may not even want to have anything to do, be around the church at that point in time. And I don't think they should be criticized for that. Because sometimes you got to do what's best for your own mental health and your own spiritual health. If going to church is actually detrimental to your mental and spiritual health, then take a step back at least for those few two weeks, three weeks, whatever it needs to be. And then you can come back when the church returns to normal programming. But those are some weaknesses. Let's now look at some possible major problems with Christmas sermons. Neglecting the doctrine of the incarnation. Now, we've already listened to one sermon. Let me do this. So this is a major problem with some Christmas sermons. They neglect the doctrine of the incarnation. They don't really handle the incarnation in a theologically sound way. They don't really deal with the doctrine of it. It's all the sentimentality and the story. It's not the theology of the incarnation. But what makes it worse, and we've already, we just listened to one sermon already this year, and I haven't been going through all the Christmas sermons to find if others have done so. but we found a Christmas sermon, all right, well it was a sermon dealing with, I think, I think I would have to go back at the dating of it, but it was a sermon and they mentioned the Immaculate Conception and referred to the birth of Christ as the Immaculate Conception. Ladies and gentlemen, that is just theologically wrong. The Immaculate Conception is about Mary, has nothing to do with that, and it's a Catholic idea that Mary was conceived without sin. How do you apply? What are you doing? Again, many churches are so theologically sloppy at this time of year. And when it comes to the doctrine of the incarnation, things can get really weird. I've heard pastors start talking about the incarnation and the hypostatic union. They don't use the term hypostatic union, but they're trying to describe truly God, truly man, one God, three distinct persons, and the next thing you know, they slide into some Christological heresy from the past. They slide into maybe modalism or Sabellianism, and you start listening to them, and you're like, what is happening right now? Now, what ticks me off is when you call out the church going, what are you doing? You're destroying the whole theology of Christ. Your Christology is a mess. They'll just be like, you know, oh, you're being all picky. And they get ticked off because they don't want to be criticized, but I'm sorry. If it's Christmas time and it's really Jesus is the reason for the season, if you're going to talk about Jesus, you've got to either do so theologically accurate or just say, we're just going to hear and we're just going to sing songs, light a few candles, hold some hands, and sing kumbaya so we all can have warm feelings for Christmas. We really don't care to deal with, I don't know, the incarnation, the eternal Son of God, and then the eternality of I mean, we can get into so many theological issues around this. Churches could really go all in on—you could do this. What are the major—I mean, I'll just ask you a question. If you've been going to church for years and you've been listening to Christmas sermon after Christmas sermon after Christmas sermon, list to me the three—I'll just say three—three of the major Christological heresies that the early church fought against. Three of them. These are specific heresies about the nature of Christ. Just name three. Can you name four? Now, if you need help, you can take Grudem's Systematic Theology, and he lists out the early heresies, the Christological heresies. And what I have done around Christmastime before is I taught those Christological heresies. I'm like, here's what it taught. Here's what it looks like in the modern context. And in many cases, I could take sermons that were being preached by good churches and say, that's straight up that Christological heresy, and they don't even realize they've walked into it. See, when you begin to neglect the doctrine and the theology of the entire Christmas story, well, then pastors are saying things like, the immaculate conception. You're like, what are you talking about? They start saying things about the nature of Christ. You're like, stop, stop, stop. You're walking, you can almost see it coming. You're like, you're walking towards the landmine. You're gonna, oh no, he just stepped on it. What just happened? the theological heart of Christmas. I should say this, the heart of Christmas is theological. The heart of Christmas is not sentimentality. The heart of Christmas is not lighting candles in the dark and singing a hymn, a cappella, so we get warm feelings. The heart of Christmas is theological. And the key theological truth of Christmas is the incarnation, God becoming flesh and the person of Jesus Christ. This is where you can clearly talk about the hypostatic union. Which council gave us the hypostatic union? What is that called? What Christological heresy were they fighting against? See, I can start asking you very important issues. See, sermons that focus solely on the narrative details without addressing the significance of the Incarnation fails to convey the profound mystery and wonder of Christmas. See, the true wonder of Christmas, the true mystery of Christmas is God in the flesh. It's not warm feelings and, you know, chestnuts roasting on the open fire and mistletoe and all of that wonderful stuff. Now, I'm not criticizing all of that. If you've got family and a loved one and you've got all of that, by all means, enjoy it. See, when I was younger, I would kind of just almost criticize that because if I didn't have it, then almost I would use theology as a way to condemn it or to mock it. That's not right either. So I've not always handled this right, either. But at the same time, my criticism was right. Hey, if it's all about Jesus and you turn it into all of this other stuff, and you don't even walk away with a clear understanding of the Incarnation, you can walk around many churches and ask basic questions. Just ask people in your church the definition of the Trinity. Many cases, they give you straight modalism, straight Sabellian, straight Christological heresies. Ask them about the hapostatic union. They can't. But you know what? They've been going to church for 20 years and have heard Christmas sermon after Christmas sermon after Christmas sermon and completely miss the heart of Christmas, which is theology. See, on one hand, you don't want to use this reality that the heart of Christmas is still logical. You don't want to use that to condemn people who get to have a wonderful season, a wonderful holiday with their loved ones, with their family. They have closeness. That's wonderful for them. So you don't want to criticize those people, right? Because you can turn into, well, since I don't have this, just going to so focus on the theology and I'm going to act like I'm spiritually better than everyone else." You don't want to do that either, and I've been guilty of that. right? Almost like, I'm going to use this as, well, you're off doing your little thing, holding hands, and you've got your family, you've got all that. Well, okay, well, I'm going to know theology. You see, that's not good either. But at the same time, all those who have all of that other wonderful stuff, if you've turned Christmas into all of this wonderful, warm, Hallmark movie vibe, and you don't even understand the theology of Christmas, I mean, you've got to at least consider that's a problem, right? Maybe? So I think it's a problem when the doctrine of the incarnation, let me state it again, it's a problem when Christmas loses its heart. And the heart of Christmas is theology. still logical. And you can't say that it's not, no, the heart of Christmas is Jesus. That's just so vague. That's just pure sentimentality. No, the heart of Christmas is the theology of Christ. Now, if you want to say it that way, because Christ is who Christ is, we have to have the right Christ. It's no What difference does it make you had a wonderful time that Jesus is the reason for the season and you start talking to me about Jesus next thing and I'm like, I don't know what Jesus you're talking about, but that's about every known philological heresy and the history of the church just came out of your mouth. Maybe that's what I need to do this year. Maybe what I need to do is we need to study the Christological heresies. Maybe that's what we need to do. Maybe I've kind of, I've got the focus on where to go for the next couple of days. We'll just look, we'll take maybe a, each episode we'll look at a Christological heresy. Maybe we'll do that. Maybe we'll do that. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see, all right? So, the heart of Christmas is replaced with sentimentality and something else, and we lose the heart of Christmas, which is theological. I cannot state it again. The heart of Christmas is theological. If you go to church and you hear Christmas sermons and you do all the Christmas stuff and you leave and you really didn't get the theological heart, then I'm sorry, you've got sentimentality. You've got the Hallmark version of Christmas inside your church. No matter how theological your church can be, it's almost impossible to maintain that during Christmas, because the people come flocking in. They're wanting that feeling, that vibe. And that's why churches love the Christmas Eve service. Have you ever noticed that? Churches love that thing. They love Christmas Eve service, because what does it turn into? candles, lights down, singing. It's all about a warm feeling, and everybody loves that feeling. And I'm not criticizing that you love that feeling, because who wouldn't love? Look, if you have all of those wonderful things about Christmas, who wouldn't love those feelings? They're positive feelings. The problem is, you went to church and you played, you had this nice little warm feeling, but nobody in the parking lot can even tell you anything about the theology of Christmas. That's the problem. I don't know how you balance that out. But I guarantee if someone, if everyone showed up for a Christmas Eve service and the pastor's like, okay, for the next hour, what I'm going to do is discuss the major Christological heresies. I'm going to define them. I'm going to outline what they taught. And then I'm going to correct it with a correct Christological understanding. I guarantee people would be like, what is this trash? I didn't come to church for this. I guarantee people would be ticked off. The majority would. Don't give me that. Because the majority want that nice little, like, let's light some candles. Let's sing. Mary, did you know? Oh, come on now. Don't get, stop looking at me that way. Come on. Stop getting mad. You know I'm telling the truth. Another problem is in many cases, the whole Christmas sermons, they ignore the sin problem. The sermons emphasize joy, peace, goodwill, without addressing why Jesus came, to save humanity from sin. Now, sometimes it will be mentioned briefly, yes, but it's all this other stuff. It's not like, hey, Christ came because we are sinners and we cannot save ourselves and talk about imputed righteousness. Because in many cases, you're too busy doing the moralism that you forget the actual that he came to because we can't keep the morality. He came because we cannot keep the law. So maybe we, some sermons kind of, I don't want to say ignore the sin problem. Maybe the sin problem gets overshadowed. So the heart, so the first problem is the heart of Christmas, which is still logical, is, well, we miss it or we replace it with something else. And then the sin problem doesn't get handled in a really accurate way. In many cases, it gets overshadowed by moralism. How about number three? An overemphasis on emotion? Now these are, we talked about weaknesses, now we're talking about problems. These are things I see as very much more problematic, okay? During this time, this Christmas sermons, it becomes an emotional pill of the Christmas story. A baby in a manger. Mary, Mary did you know, becomes this very emotional appeal. And it can overshadow the theological depth. Once again, the theology gets lost. And so you leave listeners with an emotional experience, but with a shallow understanding of who Christ truly is. If you leave with emotion, but you don't leave with theology, then I'm going to say that's a problem. And many people go to church around Christmas, get the Christmas sermon, and it's about leaving with the right emotion, not the right understanding. And the emotions may be good, It's wonderful that you can have all of those great emotions. Next, another problem that Christmas season becomes for many churches, you see the influence of a commercialized, a consumerism, a materialistic focus shows up. I can go through my email right now from ministry after ministry that has contacted me in the last probably 72 hours. It's Christmas time. Jesus is the reason, and God has given us his son. Now we need you to give your best gifts so that we can continue to proclaim Christ. And it's a Christmas season becomes an opportunity for ministries and for churches to raise money. Now that is so messed up. we're going to use Christmas as a way to make sure we can finish the year strong with our finances. Now, I understand you get to the end of the year and you got to realize, I've got a whole another year coming. What can we do? I mean, I could do that from the podcast. Look, man, we're fast approaching the end of 2024. All right, let's raise enough money so that 2025 is covered financially. But is Christmas time the time to do that? Sermons can unintentionally reinforce the consumeristic tendencies of Christmas by emphasizing material generosity or external celebrations rather than spiritual truths. Now, sometimes it can be a good thing. I guess it can talk about being generous towards other people, but it becomes about generosity and gift-giving than spiritual truths about the gift, which is, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Now, again, I'm not going to sit there. I'm not here to criticize gift-giving. Gift-giving, in some ways, is if you're giving a gift, and you're not expecting anything in return, and you're just giving not to get, well then in some ways that captures the Spirit. But in many cases, the churches are looking for you to give to them. Now, some churches, they may say, we're going to give to you, right? Some churches at this time of year may pay off people's medical bills and they do some great forms of generosity, not looking for anything in return. That's great. If your church, during this time of year, instead of focusing on telling everyone to give a special Christmas offering, they're like, look, We know of 10 families, either in the church or maybe not in the church, in the neighborhood, and we know that they have some specific financial needs. We're going to cover those needs. Now, the problem is many people in the church will get ticked off and want to know what you're doing with the money and blah, blah. But if you can, if the church can give, then that's great, without any expectation to get. But almost inevitably, many churches turn it into, don't forget us during your Christmas season. Give a gift. You see, that can become How do you keep from the consumeristic materialistic idea from creeping in? I think that can become a problem. I think maybe another problem is that in many cases during Christmas, maybe eschatology gets forgotten. Isn't there a host of issues pertaining to eschatology When we come to the Christmas story, isn't there a host of them? If we just go to Matthew 1, verse 20, "...but while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not, take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." Wow, who is that? Who is their, his people from their sins? There's a lot right there to be considered. Also, we can look at, there's a lot of other places we could look here. Because that's kind of, then we have Israel coming into play there. I don't think we can even forget that, right? I'm looking at some other plays. This is Luke 1, and we read these words. he hath hope in his servant Israel, and remembrance of his mercy." Israel is specifically mentioned, that's in the Magnificat in Luke chapter 1 verses 46 through 56. Israel is specifically mentioned. And there's other issues pertaining to eschatology about Israel, him being a king, all those other passages we could go into. So sometimes we neglect the issues or implications that the Christmas story may have in regards to eschatology. See, the coming story of Jesus isn't just about the first coming or the first advent, it also points towards his second coming. Many sermons fail to make this connection, missing an opportunity to tie the incarnation to the ultimate fulfillment of God's redemptive plan, or in many cases, they forget Israel in all of it as well. So there is eschatology here, and I think that's a problem when that gets overlooked. Again, people leave church with emotions, with sentiment, sentimentality. They don't leave with theology. The heart of Christmas is theological, from the incarnation to eschatology. So what could make Christmas sermons better? Well, I think Christmas sermons could be better if theological depth was a goal. Focus on the incarnation. Focus on Christological heresies of the past. Focus on theology. So if you want to make Christmas sermons better, it should be about theological depth. It should be about the heart of Christmas, which is theological. not sentimentality, not emotion, not giving everyone a Christmas vibe. Just preach the theology of it. Next, focus on biblical context. Tie the Christmas story to Old Testament prophecies and the larger gospel narrative. Focus on the biblical context, not cultural context, not trying to make it all relevant to Christmas time, trying to just make it fit the biblical context. Now, this is also, I think, needed because there's such an over-familiarity with it. Try to find some fresh perspective. I'm not saying create new doctrines, but fresh perspectives. Right? I mean, try to look at some things that are often overlooked. Try to be willing to deal with the difficulties within the text, things that don't make sense, things that can be somewhat profoundly confusing. Deal with the complications of understanding the nature of Christ. Offer a fresh perspective. And then, of course, don't forget eschatology, because there is eschatology connected to it. How does Christ showing up and how does that relate to Israel? How does that relate to the old covenant, the new covenant that is made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah? There are a lot of issues pertaining to eschatology. So if you want to make Christmas sermons better, theological depth, biblical context, fresh perspectives, and don't forget eschatology. Now, I don't know how many Christmas sermons you're gonna listen to today. I don't know. You've got plenty to choose from. You've got plenty. In fact, just during the time that I have been broadcasting, let me go back to the Sermons 2.0 app. Let me go back here. Just from the time that I have been broadcasting. Go here, newest sermons. Oh yeah, I don't even know how many sermons have been added. A whole bunch have been added. We've got, how is he David's son? Behold, the virgin will conceive more than the son of David. Mary, mother of God, my eyes have seen your salvation. Jesus, the light of the world, the peace of God, angels of Christmas, the promise fulfilled. The incarnation is not plan B. The great king. These are all new sermons that have been added just during the time that I have been broadcasting. You've got thousands upon thousands to choose from. Now, and as you listen, well, consider some of the possible weaknesses in them, some of the possible problems. Some of them will avoid the weaknesses, some of them will avoid the problems, and that should be great. Some of them will fall right into the trap of the weakness and the problems, but you can still possibly take something positive from it. What we would always hope, and I know this is not, it doesn't work this way. What we would always hope, and this is sometimes I struggle with this, It's when we reach, whether you follow Advent or don't follow Advent, when we reach this season, let's state it that way, when we reach this season, what you would hope is that when the season ends, you're better off spiritually. Now, for some people, they approach the season, and all they want to do is argue with everyone about Christmas and paganism and its connection, and that's what they want to do. They just want to go around, correct everyone, and say, what are you doing? You can't be celebrating Jesus during this time of year. I don't really understand that concept, okay? But that's what they want to do. And I'm often curious, when it's all said and done, okay, you spent a You spent the entire month of December being the Christmas police, being the pagan police, right? You went around telling everyone, oh, see this, and this could be linked to this, and this could be linked to this, and you went and corrected everyone. How are you doing spiritually now? You better off? Did it make you more humble? Did it make you more sensitive to Christ, to sin, or did it just make you more frustrated and bitter with everyone? The same thing can be said to people like me. I don't get caught up in all of that craziness, but I do get caught up in churches trying to be more theologically precise and sound. Now, I can go through all these sermons, and you know what I can do? I can find out, what in the world is that? You just talked about the Immaculate Conception. You completely messed that up. What did you just say about the Incarnation? And I can point out all the theological. The same thing can be said about me when it's all said and done. Am I better off spiritually or do I feel better about myself? Am I more proud and arrogant and condescending and I haven't been really found the beauty of the Incarnation and been better off spiritually. In many cases, I'm not better off spiritually than anybody else because I get frustrated with all of this nonsense that happens. That's not good for me either. But for others, You may not be the pagan police. You may not be the philological, you know, being all philologically critical. You may be the one who embraces just the whole Christmas vibe and the sentimentality and the Hallmark movie vibe and you love it. You love that, and it's great that you do, and it's great that it brings you great joy and happiness. And that is wonderful that you have such good feelings and memories, and you've got the family, and you've got all of it. That's wonderful. But the same thing can be asked of you when it's all said and done. Are you better off spiritually? Or you just had a wonderful December, great family memories, You're closer to your husband, you're closer to your kids, and that's all wonderful stuff. But spiritually, you didn't get anything from Christmas. In fact, you missed the entire theology of Christmas. So that's not good either. We don't want to be the pagan police. We don't want to necessarily be the theological critic. We don't want to necessarily be the one who's the Hallmark—Mark, okay, using a wrestling term—the Hallmark superfan, the Hallmark fanboy, the Hallmark fangirl, that vibe. You don't necessarily want to be that. So we don't want to be the pagan police. We don't want to be the theological critic, but we don't want to be the Hallmark fan person. There's got to be a balance in all of it. And the problem is Christmas makes it almost impossible to find that balance. It really does. It's hard to find it. There's a fourth group, right? So you've got the pagan police, you've got the theological critic, you've got the Hallmark fan person, and you've also got the person who's just broken and hurt and discouraged and depressed by Christmas. And by the time Christmas is over, you're just, I mean, you're an emotional mess before it's over. That's not good either. Somehow, the story of the incarnation of Christ should be theologically so significant and so powerful that by the time Christmas is over, we're more focused on that. We're broken. We're humbled. We're convicted. We move somewhat forward spiritually. I just don't know if it really happens that way. I think when it's all over, we kind of find ourselves in one of these categories, right? The pagan police, where you're just going around pagan, pagan, pagan, pagan, pagan, pagan, pagan. And even if you try to water it down, it's still, that's your concern, right? Or the theological police, right? The theological critic. What is this? That's not the Incarnation. That's not the hypostatic union. That's a Christological heresy. And I think those things need to be addressed. But again, you just walk away just going around criticizing everything. That's not good. Or you just get so wrapped up in the sentimental part of it, that you're the Hallmark fan person, and what do you get from it? You get great emotions and wonderful time. I mean, that's, I guess, a good thing, but you miss out on the theology as well. Or you can just be the person who approaches it, and you just become more bitter, more isolated. You almost feel victimized by it. You almost feel like, like, what happened to me here? Like, you almost feel like you've been You almost feel like you've been taken advantage of, you've been brutalized. Those are all negative things. The reality is it's December the 23rd. We just got to get through today, tomorrow, and then the next day. And then really by December the 26th, 27th, everyone's already moved on. I mean, everyone, and then now, then it's like, then you got to get through New Year's Eve, right? Then New Year's Day. And then finally it's over. And then it's like, good, I'm good for a year. And you can, but the bottom line is, is what could be gained from all of it? So what I want you to do is I want you to listen to as many Christmas sermons as you can, right? To finish the Sermons 2.0 App Sermon Challenge strong. But I want you to just ensure that you find something within, no matter how good the sermon is or how bad the sermon is, you try to find something positive you can take from it. Something good, something that is spiritually beneficial. Not just be a critic. And I don't know which category you find yourself in. I don't know. I don't know where you find yourself. I don't know. We all find ourselves, this time of year, we find ourselves in very different, it's almost like we're living different realities. Like that's a person's reality. And it's like two different worlds. And like, I don't really understand you and you don't really understand me. And that's okay. You just don't expect others to live your world. right? Don't expect others to live your world. Let everyone be them and make it through this in their own way. Now, at the same time, we want to clearly care about theology, theological accuracy. We clearly don't want to miss the heart of Christmas, which is theological. But we also have to let people be them instead of trying to turn them into some kind of little, you know, clone. Nobody's a clone. We don't want conformity, right? We don't want conformity. People will go through the holidays their own special way. The key is we all do so in a healthy way, in a beneficial way. And the church will always struggle in exactly how to preach these sermons. So I think there's weaknesses and there's problems. But no matter how weak the sermon is or how many problems are in the sermon, find something positive in it. All right, thanks for listening. For those who can, have a happy, merry, wonderful Christmas. For those who it may not be so merry, may not be so happy, don't feel guilty about that. Don't become bitter about that. the good things that you can grab on to and hold on to those positive things that you can find, right? May not be what everyone else has. Don't look at everyone. Don't look at what everyone else is doing. Ignore what everyone else is doing. Who cares? They've got it wonderful. They've got it great, great. Just applaud for them and move on. All right. Thanks for listening. Everyone have a great day. God bless.