Living on the Other Side of Christmas - December 29, 2024

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6.19, Pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me, so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

Well, Christmas is over. For some, some still have a Christmas thing to do this afternoon.

The day of Christmas is over, I guess I should have said.

But Christmas doesn't have to be over every day in our hearts.

And it kind of reminds me of the story of the little girl who,

after opening all of her Christmas presents, looked under the tree and there were no more.

Looked at what she got and was very thankful and then turned to her father and

said, Daddy, I wish it was Christmas every day.

Dad kind of looked at mom and said, no.

Of course, they were looking at Christmas from two different perspectives, right?

The little girl thinking of, wow, all these gifts and no school and being able

to be with family all the time and just to celebrate by singing all the songs

that we sing during Christmas.

The excitement, the joy, the hope that she had as she opened a gift.

Will this be the one that she really wanted?

And then the parents look at each other and think about all the busyness of

the shopping to get the gifts, of going from here to there and all the holiday

parties and everything that's encumbered in getting the Christmas meal ready.

And so your perspective is important in how you look at Christmas.

And so I guess, you know, if we're going to talk about this this morning,

living on the other side of Christmas, the Christmas day that I should say is

very important because sometimes we can kind of fall prey to the Christmas blues,

the post-Christmas blues.

It's exciting just to be together, be with family and enjoy that meal together.

But then afterward comes the dishes.

Afterward comes the cleanup time. Mary, if you're here, there's some extra cardboard

boxes in the trash can from the Curry House, just letting you know,

when we think about what comes after Christmas, sometimes, like I've shared for pastors,

it's the low Sunday that comes after the Christmas time when you're celebrating.

You got the kids program.

Woo-hoo! Good job, kids, this year. You did awesome.

It's all the Christmas music and the Christmas choir. Praise the Lord.

Thank you, choir, for singing this year.

It's the messages that are focused all, they should always be focused on Jesus

and leading up to the birth of Christ.

Praise the Lord. Thank you, Mary. It's everything that works together,

all the parties, all the get-togethers, and it's the excitement of the time.

But if we're not careful, we can slip into that and say, okay,

we celebrated Christmas, now what?

There's a danger also of just staying focused on the baby in the manger and

not realizing that that baby in the manger had a purpose, That baby in the manger had a mission.

That baby in a manger, the greatest gift to humanity of all,

was truly going to be the greatest gift of humanity to all.

And so when I talked this morning about living on the other side of Christmas,

I'm in no way putting down Christmas of the season of Advent leading up to that.

But my encouragement to you is that you can live and really live on the other

side of Christmas now that you have received the Christ child and what that means for you.

And if you didn't catch Jesus, if you didn't accept Jesus during the Christmas

season, there's still time. There's still time now.

I love the songs that we sang this morning.

Jesus paid it all. Every single sin that we committed, Jesus' blood covers that,

and he forgives that. Isn't that great?

It's a gift that you couldn't go out to the store and buy yourself.

It's a gift that God gives to us because of His grace and mercy,

all motivated by the love that He is, the love that He has for us.

So this morning, we're going to read kind of a lengthy section of Scripture,

so if you want to remain seated, that's okay. You don't have to. You can stand and.

But it's an important passage, I think, for all of us who really wish to live

after Christmas Day and truly live in the way that God wishes us to.

And it's looking at some characters you don't really think of too much when you think of the Bible.

Maybe this might be the first time that you've ever heard of Simeon and Anna.

But I think they play a very special role in the whole Christmas story and even

in the after Christmas story, which is kind of where they show up in the week

or so after Jesus was born.

And so this morning, we're going to read from Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

And in Luke chapter 2, we're going to start at verse 25 and read these 15 or so verses.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Hear now the word of the Lord this morning from Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout.

He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before

he had seen the Lord's Messiah.

Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought

the child to Jesus to do for him what the custom of the law required,

Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, Sovereign Lord,

as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.

For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of

all nations, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.

The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him.

Then Simeon blessed them, and he said to Mary, his mother, this child is destined

to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against.

So the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed, and a sword will pierce your own soul too.

There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Peniel of the tribe of Asher. She was very old.

She had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage and then was a widow until she was 84.

She never left the temple, but worshiped day and night, fasting and praying.

Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about

the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the law of the Lord,

they returned to Galilee, to their town of Nazareth, and the child grew and became strong.

He was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was on him.

May God bless the reading and the hearing of his word to your life today. You could be seated.

This takes place after Jesus was born, of course, because he was there with them.

It takes place after his circumcision. It takes place upon the occasion of the

dedication of Jesus to the Lord, which was the custom, the Hebrew custom,

for the firstborn male of every family, that they would be dedicated to the Lord.

And this is the reason they were here at the temple, was for this to take place,

that they would dedicate Jesus to God, not only as a sign of giving thanks to God,

but also as keeping with the custom way back,

that you'd bring your children and say, God, I want you to take these children,

and I want you to raise them up, and may they follow you all the days of your life.

Similar to what we continue to do today, when we dedicate babies,

when we dedicate young children to God, to say, God, we dedicate them to you, we commit them to you.

And the sign of the parents is we're going to covenant with the church,

in this case, to raise them up in the ways of the Lord and to do all we can

to set them on the right path.

It's interesting, we've got three characters here that we're going to talk about.

And I say three, and really it could be four if you include Joseph in that,

but kind of tagging off of last Sunday's sermon, we think about Mary as well.

But it just begs the question, how do we live on the other side of Christmas?

And more importantly, How were Mary and Joseph supposed to live on the other

side of that Christmas day?

Consider everything that they had witnessed.

Visits by angels. We've got visits by shepherds.

We have visits in a little bit by wise men that would come along and present gifts to them.

We have all these miraculous and incredible things that were happening as God

was unveiling more and more of his story of redemption.

How were Joseph and Mary going to live after all these exciting things took place?

And really, in a lot of ways, it's no different than a new family,

especially parents that have never had a child before.

And there's all this buildup and all this excitement for a new baby that's set

to come and to join the family.

There's baby showers to attend.

There's all the excitement from the family and all the guessing, what will they name?

And I guess a new thing, new to me, because my children are,

of course, already here and old, and it's this gender reveal parties and all

these crazy things that happen.

With those and the colors and exploding powder bombs and airplanes dropping

things out of them and things go crazy and things go awry with those.

But all this excitement, all this buildup, and then the baby comes.

And for new parents, rushing around to figure out how to change diapers.

What does this cry mean? What does this cough mean? What does this color of poo mean?

All of those things come into play in the reality of a little baby,

a new member of the family hits.

This morning, as we've read through the scripture, I just want to make three

points and hopefully I can make one of them.

How do we live on the other side of Christmas?

How do we live when the excitement kind of dwindles, when the reality of life

and perhaps credit card bills start to hit?

How do we live with the realization that Jesus is here now, and what do we do with him?

Well, I think the first lesson comes from Simeon and Simeon's story, that we live in faith.

Simeon lived in faith, filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit was on him anyway. and the Holy Spirit had promised him,

you will not die until you see the Lord's Messiah.

And he had faith in that promise that God brought.

Faith that you won't kick the bucket until you have seen the Messiah,

until you have seen the Christ.

Well, how special of a promise is that? Consider the Old Testament way back

when a Messiah was promised, a Savior,

even all the way back in Genesis, after the fall of human beings,

after Adam and Eve sinned, there was still a promise that began there,

that that would not be the end of humanity, but that God would make a way.

Where there seemed to be no way, God was going to make a way for there to be a Savior.

All the way through in the covenants that were made with God from holy men of

old, the covenants that would be made to say, I will save you.

God said, I will save you.

And here Simeon trusted God, trust him so much that even the promise that the

Holy Spirit gave him, that he would see the Messiah, that he would see the Christ,

kept him going, and he believed God.

What is the promise that God has given you that you really just trust,

that you really say, nothing will shake my faith because I believe this?

I know there's a lot of promises in the Bible. I know there's a lot of things

that we read, and there's many promises God has gifted us and given to us.

But what is that one promise that you just hang your hat on?

Even if every other thing is proved false, there's this one promise that no

one will ever disprove to you because you have the faith to believe that God

means what he says when he says this.

You know, when I think about the verses that are here on our wall,

this is one of those promises to me, that God is patient with you,

not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

I truly believe that. That is one of those faith promises for me,

that God, why hasn't God returned yet?

Why hasn't Jesus returned yet? Well, because he's patient.

He wants everyone to turn to repent and to follow him.

It's not that he's just kicking back, watching football and eating some pizza

and drinking a soda and just taking his time. That's not what he's doing at all.

Folks, I think in a lot of ways, he's waiting for his church to get out there

and to share the message of repentance with others, to share the gospel,

the good news with others, and not just us. I'm talking throughout the world.

We get a part in that. We continue this mission here to seek and save that which is lost.

Simeon here, he was ecstatic that he got to see Jesus the Savior,

that he was seeing how God was unfolding his miraculous plan.

And he declares peace and salvation to all if they will trust God in this little baby.

I love what it says because it says Mary and Joseph were just amazed.

Wow, this is our kid? This is our child? This is who you're talking about?

It still shocks me that they were still amazed because the angels had already

told both of them something.

But it's just continued affirmation of the promise of God and the plan of God,

what he was working through this little child.

Well, if we're going to live on the other side of Christmas,

if we're going to continue to follow Jesus in the great times and even in the

difficult times, We've got to be like Simeon,

just have that kind of faith that says, no matter what, God, I'm following you.

I'm trusting the promise that you've given me.

Do you have that kind of faith today? You have the Simeon kind of faith today.

Well, not only do we live in faith, but we also live in joy.

And that's Anna's side of the story here. Anna was a prophet, the scripture says.

Anna was married for seven years. And of course, reading into the text,

you kind of think, okay, her husband passed away because the scripture says

she was then widowed and lived the rest of her life at the temple,

both day and night, the scripture said.

She was there committing herself to God. And now she was 84 years old.

All that time she had dedicated to the Lord. And so I can just imagine the scene

unfolding as they're in the temple courts there.

Simeon comes over and he gets Jesus in his arms and he's saying all these great

things about who Jesus is and what he will do.

But then Anna gets a chance. And the scripture doesn't tell us what Anna says.

It says she said some great things. I wish it recorded that.

She was a prophet after all. She was a preacher, after all, to proclaim forth

the word of God. So it would have been neat to see.

It's one of those things, I guess, we'll wait till heaven and find Anna and

say, Anna, what did you say?

What was it? But no doubt, it was something great because, again,

it built Mary and Joseph up. It edified them in their spirit.

She had nothing but joy upon seeing Jesus.

Now, I remember when my son Noah was born, my grandpa, my mom's dad, Grandpa Huey.

He came by to see him, and we had the privilege of telling Noah that his middle

name was named after Grandpa Huey.

My mom's dad was something special.

It's part of the reason I'm going gray and white so early in life.

You always take after your mother's father, and so that's kind of the reason.

But my Grandpa Huey was one that he overcame alcoholism because of what the

Holy Spirit did in his life.

He overcame a lot of things because of the power of God working in him.

As he was at the end of his life when he got to come and see baby Noah for the

first time to hear that his middle name was, he was named after him and my dad

too, but that's another story.

Grandpa Huey, just the look on his face when he saw this little baby Noah,

our second child, come in, just the joy that exuded from him.

Even getting wheeled in in a wheelchair to the room.

Grandpa was a good dancer. He wasn't a Nazarene, so don't worry about all that conflict.

He was a good dancer. I didn't catch his dance moves. My mom did.

But if he could have, he would have leapt out of that wheelchair and just started

dancing and praising the Lord, I think. Yeah.

Because this little baby that was born. You know, the joy that Anna saw from

the little baby that wasn't even hers, but hearing Simeon proclaim that this

is the one who will save the world, that this is the one who will do all these things,

just evoke such joy within her,

the happiness that just was eternal, that was found in the source of this little

baby, that she could not help but exclaim and praise God for that.

You know, that's interesting how this is set up in the passage of Scripture.

We have a man who had great faith, so much faith that he continued to live until

he saw God's promise fulfilled.

And we had a lady that was just so overjoyed at the fulfilled promise.

And I think if we think about how God works in our own lives,

it kind of works that same way.

We exercise faith, believing in what we don't understand really,

believing in what we really can't see, and we trust God for these things that he's said to us.

And it's only after believing and trusting God that then the joy comes,

the happiness, because we see not only God fulfill these promises,

or we see and we feel his presence in a way sustaining us until those promises are fulfilled.

And so it's just neat that first we have faith and then that joy follows faith.

The joy is not always the feeling, but just that contentment that God is near,

that God is with you, that God is getting you through these things.

So we have Simeon, we have Anna, but there's Mary and Joseph who aren't to be

left out, but it's Mary who I want to just kind of focus in on for a moment,

because it's something that Simeon said that was very, very important.

You see, I think Mary, how she was going to live on the other side of Christmas

was she was going to live with hope, that continued hope that she had from the

very beginning when the angel visited her, from the very time when she went

with her cousin, Elizabeth.

And Jesus' cousin left in the midst of Elizabeth's womb.

It's that very hope, I think, that she had just experienced all the joy.

Jesus was born. She had the visits from the shepherds and everything that was

going down. And the joy that comes when a new baby comes.

But there was also some mixed emotions, I think.

Let me read again what Simeon said to Mary as he's praising the Lord and proclaiming this about Jesus.

In verse 30, it says, For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared

in the sight of all nations, a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and the glory for your people Israel.

When we think about what Simeon said even further on,

he said, This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel,

and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts

will be revealed, and a sword will pierce your own soul too.

And I think it's that last phrase, which as Mary continued to raise Jesus,

her and Joseph, and then somewhere along the way, a tradition says Joseph passed

away, of course, because as Jesus gets older,

Joseph is not on the scene anymore.

But a sword will pierce your soul too.

Imagine Mary and seeing everything that Jesus went through.

Imagine Mary in her own mind. she brings Jesus to the temple.

He's circumcised. He is dedicated to the Lord. And it's in that temple later

that people would speak ill of Jesus, that people would plot to see him murdered,

that Jesus would become incensed and start throwing over the tables of the money changers.

Think of all the things that centered around the temple as you looked later on in the story of Jesus.

And Mary had these emotions of joy and the mixed emotions of what her baby boy

would suffer through, would have to endure.

And so while there was still faith in God, that he was unfolding his plan,

and while there was still joy, not just at the excitement of the circumstances

surrounding the birth of Jesus,

but being the mother of the Messiah, there was this mix too of a sword will pierce my own soul.

The anguish that I will go through as a mom, seeing what will happen,

but what needs to happen to this boy as he grows and then becomes a man and

enters into the ministry, enters into serving.

Simeon's prophecy about Jesus' future was exciting, was joyful,

but there was also some sorrow there.

Folks, you can have joy in the midst of sorrow. The reality of Jesus' mission

and the cost that redemption would bring became a reality.

You know, when we're living on the other side of Christmas, we need faith.

We need faith to believe, God, you're there.

God, you hear us. God, you interact with us.

We live by faith. We walk by faith, not just by what we see.

And if we're going to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit of God,

we've got to have that trust in God.

And that trust, when we step out in faith, we get the encouragement or the affirmation

of joy that comes along, but then we can't lose sight of the hope as well.

Because it's these three in this passage, the faith, the joy,

and the hope that all work together. And I know we lit candles based on two of those themes.

So we've talked about hope and we've talked about joy. But I just got to ask

you this morning, where's your faith today?

Is your faith still trusting in Jesus?

Is your faith still strong with Jesus even after the Christmas holiday?

Is it enough to carry you forward until we celebrate Easter?

And the story of redemption that culminates, or at least hits the climax of

Christ going to the cross for us, dying, laying down his life,

being put in a grave and then rising again three days later,

to bring about the victory over sin, the victory over death.

Folks, that's what we're turning the corner on, heading toward Easter.

Whether we have a kids' Easter play or not, we're still heading toward Easter.

No pressure, children's ministry people.

Folks, if we're going to live on the other side of Christmas,

it means we're living toward Easter.

We're living in faith toward the victory that God brings.

We're living in faith to see God bring others through our influence and through

the influence of the church and through the influence of other churches to bring others to Christ,

to awaken and give them the opportunity to know who Jesus Christ really is and

what Jesus Christ will do.

That Jesus Christ isn't just a baby in a manger that we celebrate one time a

year, but that can be celebrated every day of every year because of the freedom from sin that he brings,

because of the freedom to live as God wants us to live, to live into the new life, even in 2025.

And really, and I'll explain this more next week, to come alive in 25,

to live as God would expect for us to live in a way that just.

You get to fulfill your purpose because of what Jesus did.

And that's going to bring hope to you. That's going to bring joy to you.

And it's just a cycle that continues to build you up.

Instead of a downward spiral, boy, it's a spiral that just goes up and up and

up, and there is no end to it until Christ returns.

And then I don't think it ends there because God's still got a plan for us. The other side of glory.

So can you live on the other side of Christmas? Oh, yeah.

Can you really live and live, as Jesus said, the thief comes only to kill,

to steal, and to destroy.

But I have come, Jesus said, to give you life and to give it to you more abundantly

or to the fullest extent that it's available. I don't know about you.

Well, that's the best part of the Christmas gift, I think, of Jesus.

He enables you to live truly as you were meant to live, truly to live as God created you to live.

So are you ready to live?

We think about living on the other side of Christmas. It means that we do embrace joy.

It means that we do embrace the peace that God gives and the fulfillment that

comes from recognizing Christ and what he did with his redemptive work for you

and for me and for every other person that's ever lived, those that will still be born.

But Jesus has a plan for them and his redemption. So will you trust him?

We're going to close with a song, and then Pastor Ethan will come and lead us

in. The Lord's Prayer is our benediction.

As we sing this song, I hope and I pray that this will be your prayer as you

close out 2024, that you will go deeper and deeper in the love of Jesus.

God bless you guys. Let me pray for us. Father, it is in the name of your son,

Jesus, that we have come today to worship you.

Lord, trusting you that Christmas isn't the pinnacle of everything that it means to be in Christ.

It's not just what Christianity is all about, but Lord, beyond that,

we serve a risen Savior. He's in the world today.

And Lord, we know that your love is still being poured out, your grace, your mercy.

And so, Lord, help us to live into that in 2025.

Lord, thanking you for everything that you've done this past year.

Lord, we look with great expectation what you'll continue to do.

God, it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon, as well as other sermons, and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the

authority of the Bible. Thank you.