Christmas Future with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name is Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at Medichurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life.

God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

And today we're wrapping up our three-week series, taking a fresh, new perspective on the nativity, helping us see just how real and how relevant it is to our lives in 2024.

If you're joining us for the first time today, my name's Clayton.

I'm the lead pastor here at Meta.

I'm so glad you joined us at one of our venues.

You are in very good hands.

If you're here at our Holotus location, then Pastor Tony is there.

For anything you need, if you're here at Petrenko, then Pastor Andre is here.

If you need anything from them, make sure to find them in the lobby after service.

One of the fascinating things about Christmas is just the massive volume of inspiration it has brought to our culture.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have looked at just a small sampling of the narratives, the movies, the novels, and shows that it has inspired, like The Nutcracker, The Polar Express, It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, Miracle on 34th Street Elf, and even the Christmas classic, Die Hard.

So many great Christmas stories.

However, there is one Christmas narrative that we're focused on in this series.

It is the great classic by Charles Dickens that has been told and retold and retold.

Of course, I'm talking about a Christmas carol.

This novel follows Ebenezer Scrooge as he's forced to confront his past, present, and future to help gain proper context for the Christmas he's experiencing in real time.

In our series, we're using that same format of Christmas, past, present, and future to fully flesh out what happened in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago during the very first Christmas.

So far, by looking at the lead up to that first Christmas or Christmas past, we saw that God always keeps his promises.

Last week we looked at the first Christmas present and stripped off the veneer and whitewashing to learn that when God shows up, we should expect the unexpected.

This week, we move on to the first Christmas future.

But before we do, would you pray with me?

Jesus, we are just right here in the Christmas season.

We're celebrating your coming to this earth.

And uh I do pray today, Holy Spirit, you would give us a new perspective and that Christmas would inspire us to not just look at our lives today, but to look forward towards the future.

We love you.

We have open minds and open hearts.

Holy Spirit, we ask you to move.

We pray it all in Jesus' name.

If you're ready to get going at all of our venues, say amen.

There is a Latin phrase that was hugely influential on Stoic philosophers like Seneca and guys like Marcus Aurelius.

It's the Latin phrase memento mori.

This phrase literally translates to remember that you will die.

However, it took on more of a philosophical flavor, meaning that you should embrace the moments that you have today by recognizing that death is inevitable.

Scripture often confronts us with this same idea, like when James writes, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring, what your life will be, for you are like vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Or when the psalmist writes, Lord, make me aware of my end and the number of my days, so that I will know how short-lived I am.

In fact, you've made my days just inches long, and my lifespan is as nothing to you.

Yes, every human being stands as only a vapor.

Or when Peter writes, For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like a flower of the grass, the grass withers and the flower falls.

This idea has been instrumental in leadership thinking.

Stephen Covey wrote one of the most famous leadership books called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

He suggested in habit number two an exercise where you somewhat regularly imagine your own funeral.

What do you want people to say about you at your funeral someday?

What legacy do you want to have left behind?

And more importantly, are your actions and decisions today leading you towards that end?

This habit in Stephen Covey's book is begin with the end in mind.

I love that.

Begin with the end in mind.

This is a great summary of what the Latin term memento mori is supposed to do, help you live today with your end goals in mind.

Charles Dickens drew from this same well in a Christmas carol after Scrooge visited his past and saw the impact it had on his life.

And after getting fresh eyes on his present situation, he was brought to his future grave.

For all intents and purposes, he was forced into Stephen Covey's funeral exercise, except what Scrooge found was heart-wrenching.

No one missed him, no one mourned his passing.

He was incredibly wealthy and completely alone.

No love and no legacy.

This moment was incredibly jarring for Scrooge and was the final straw that broke him free from his life of misery and greed.

Memento mori.

Remember, we all will die, so live with the end in mind.

Now, you may be wondering, what does that have to do with the first Christmas?

It's worth acknowledging that virtually every prophecy of Jesus' coming was linked to the future acts that Jesus would accomplish.

The angel, in anticipation of Jesus' birth, said, She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus because he will in his future save his people from their sins.

Countless verses like this look forward to what Jesus would ultimately accomplish with his death.

Even hundreds of years prior to Jesus' coming, God spoke through the prophets about what baby Jesus would eventually grow up and do.

Through Isaiah, he said, but he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities, punishment, for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.

We all went astray like sheep, we all have turned to our own way, and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

Jesus was born with a mission to ultimately give up his life as a ransom for all.

When Jesus very first entered the scene publicly as an adult, John the Baptist heralded him, proclaiming, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Now don't miss this.

Even in Jesus' extraordinarily strange arrival, laid in a feeding trough, surrounded by animals, it was pointing ahead.

It was pointing to the future.

Christmas present, pointing at Jesus' future that would forever reshape the world as we know it.

In many ways, Christmas was pointing to crucifixion.

Jesus would live with memento mori, a moment-by-moment awareness of what his life was meant for.

In other words, Jesus perfectly lived with the end in mind.

When the time was right, Jesus even started sharing what was coming with his followers.

In Matthew 16, it says, from then on, Jesus began to point out to his disciples that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, to be killed and then raised on the third day.

Now the disciples freaked out when they heard this.

They were not interested in their leader losing his life.

They had plans.

And they were living for the moment, but not Jesus.

He was living for the end game always.

Every step, every decision, every action and reaction.

It was all done with intention to fulfill his purpose.

If you were at the first Christmas and you looked into Jesus' future, you would realize there is a direct line between Christmas and Calvary.

See, living with the end in mind is something that Jesus taught constantly.

Not only did he model it in his own life, but he desperately desired for his followers to live with that exact same perspective.

He was always trying to shake people out of the facade that all there is to live for is today's instant gratification.

One of the famous parables that Jesus shared in Matthew's gospel goes like this.

Jesus said, It's just like a man about to go on a journey, he called his own servants and entrusted his possessions to them.

To one he gave five talents, to another, two talents, and to another, one talent, depending on each one's ability, and then he went on a journey.

Now immediately the man who had received five talents went, put them to work, and earned five more.

In the same way, the man with two earned two more.

But the man who had received one talent, he went off, he dug a hole in the ground, and he hid his master's money.

After a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

Now a talent was a large amount of money.

One talent was more money than you might see in your entire lifetime.

And the king entrusts his servants, depending on their own ability, their proven past performance, with these different amounts, to one he gives five, and to one he gives two, and to one he just gives one.

And they know someday the king will return.

And someday they will have to give an account for what they did with what they were given.

Now you can already see the formulation of what Jesus is getting at here.

How the servants made decisions every day that the ruler was gone would determine how they fared once he returned.

Were they lazy and selfish and greedy and careless, or did they hustle and grind and live with the end in mind?

The reality that one day they would give an account for what they were given.

In verse 20, the man who had received five talents approached, presented five more talents, and said, Master, you gave me five, and see, I've earned five more.

And his master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.

You were faithful over a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, share in your master's joy.

And the man with two talents also approached.

He said, Master, you gave me two talents, see, I've earned two more.

And his master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.

You were faithful over a few things, I'll now put you in charge of many things.

Come and share in your master's joy.

Now notice, these two men did not start with the same amount.

One was given five, and one was given two, but they were both rewarded at the same proportion.

It wasn't about what they were given in life, it was about what they did with what they were given.

Now the third servant took a completely different approach.

In verse 24, the man who had received one talent also approached and said, Master, I know you.

You're a harsh man, reaping where you haven't sown, and gathering where you haven't scattered seed.

So I was afraid, and I went off and I hid your talent in the ground.

See, you have what is yours.

And his master replied to him, You evil, lazy servant, if you know that I reap where I haven't sown and gather where I haven't scattered, then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and I would have at least received my money back with interest.

So take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten.

For to every one who has, more will be given, and he will have more than enough.

But from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.

So what is the point of this parable, and maybe more importantly, a few days out from Christmas, what does this have to do with the Christmas story?

The point of the parable is you only have one life to live, and so what will you do with what God has placed in your hands?

The reality is the end comes for us all.

Memento mori.

Remember, we all will die.

The story of Christmas, it's not just about the manger and the angels and the shepherds and the wise men.

It's about Jesus coming with intention, focused on the end goal from the very beginning.

In other words, Christmas is a forward-facing event.

It links to the cross and the empty grave and even beyond.

You see, if the Stoics would have read Jesus' parable, they would have taken away maybe that we should all imagine our own funeral and then, based off how we want to fare at our funeral, reverse engineer based on how that scene would play out.

But because of what Jesus accomplished on the earth, the parable actually means infinitely more.

We learn in scripture that those who are in Christ, who have put their faith in Jesus, believing Jesus is who he says he is, and he's done what he says that he's done, receive eternal life.

Which means that death doesn't have the final word.

Your funeral is not the end of your story if you are in Christ.

Then at the other side of death is eternal life, which scripture shows us is the realest version of reality.

What this means is the first Christmas wasn't just pointing to the cross.

The first Christmas points us towards the second Christmas.

Now you might be thinking, what the heck is the second Christmas?

Like I missed that part of the movie.

I know about the first Christmas, you know.

You got Mary and Joseph and the barn and the shepherds and the wise men.

What is the second Christmas?

Maybe you've never heard of such a thing, but let me remind you: Christmas is just the celebration of the coming of Jesus.

But scripture promises us that Jesus will come again.

The second Christmas.

See, immediately after Jesus ascended to heaven, angels appeared to his followers and they said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven?

This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come in the same way that you have seen him going.

In other words, don't just stand and stare.

Do something with the light that Jesus has given you to live.

The apostles who started the church, they understood the same reality.

The Apostle Paul told the church in Thessalonica, the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel's voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

At the first Christmas, God took on flesh and he dwelt among humanity.

At the second Christmas, he will return in glory to establish his eternal kingdom, fulfilling the promises that began in a manger in Bethlehem.

This second Christmas will be the culmination of the hope and the anticipation that began with his birth.

See, when Scrooge was confronted with his future, it radically changed how he was living in the present.

When Jesus told the parable of the talents, it was a direct metaphor for what happens when King Jesus returns to earth.

The first time he came, he snuck into our world in the most vulnerable and humble way.

When Jesus returns, it will be surrounded by glory and worship.

He came as the suffering lamb the first time, but he will return as the Lion of Judah.

And the question that Jesus will have for us when we see him again is what did you do with the life that you were given?

This is the question of memento mori.

The realization that someday our life on earth will end and our realist life will begin.

The realization that everything we're doing in this short time we get on planet Earth is an investment and a preparation to stand before Jesus and answer the question: what did you do with the life you were given?

One servant was given five talents, the other two, and the other was given one.

And yet they were each rewarded in proportion, not to what they started with, but to what they did with what they were given.

See, we can quickly fall into the comparison trap, especially during Christmas, a time when most people go into massive amounts of debt to buy Christmas presents that they can't really afford, to impress people who don't really care about them.

We can compare ourselves intellectually, we can compare ourselves physically, we can compare our careers to our friends and family that we'll gather with over the holidays.

We can think if I only had their life, if God had only blessed me a little bit more, if I only had a different skill set, if I had only gotten a better start in life, if I only came from a different family.

That's not what Jesus will ask us at the end of our lives.

What Jesus will ask is, what did you do with the life that you were given?

How did you steward the talents that were placed in your hands?

Jesus perfectly lived with the end in mind every second of every day.

In the book of Philippians, it says that Jesus humbled himself and became obedient even to death on a cross, and because of that, he was glorified to the highest position and given the name above every name.

See, Jesus is the one person who could answer that what he did with his life on earth was actually perfect.

We won't be able to say that.

But what we can do is understand that Jesus' coming doesn't just point us to the nativity, it doesn't just point us to Bethlehem, it doesn't just point us to Calvary, it points us to the second Christmas.

To the daily reality that how we live today will matter tomorrow, that this life is an investment in eternity.

If we truly seek to understand the moment that is coming for us in the future, it will radically change how we are living in the present, how we manage our relationships today, how we steward our finances today, how we battle our addictions today, how we raise our children today, how we invest in the movement of Jesus today, and how we tell others about our Savior.

When we look at the first Christmas this year, my prayer is that it will inspire us to focus ahead on the second Christmas, the return of our King.

What this all means is that Christmas is a glimpse of the glory that is still ahead.

At MetaCurch, one of our values is living with a pilgrim's perspective, the daily reminder that this world is not our home, that Jesus will return for his people someday, that our lives are eternal and our time on earth is fleeting.

If we fully understand Christmas, it is one of the most compelling reasons to live with the end in mind.

To live as pilgrims passing through, to get our eyes off of today and on to Jesus.

This Christmas, if you will allow the miracle of Jesus' first coming to inspire you to live a life focused on his second coming, your life will become the ultimate gift to those around you.

This is how you begin to live a life on purpose and with purpose.

The kind of life that Jesus modeled for us.

A life lived with the end in mind.

As we come to a close of our message here today, I want to ask you across our venues to enter into a time of reflection and application.

I want to ask you right where you're sitting to just bow your head and close your eyes.

There's nothing magic about that.

It just creates some space for you and for the people around you.

I want to ask you, as always, to just be really honest about where you're at in this season.

Are you consumed by the worries of today?

Are you living in rhythms and patterns where you are seeking instant gratification?

If you're really honest, are are you living primarily or maybe even exclusively for the here and now?

Christmas time when we are supposed to look to Jesus and even be inspired to look ahead to his second coming has become commercialized and capitalized.

And now we focus on what we can get and what presents are coming and how much debt we can manage.

What if this Christmas, our main perspective was not just that Jesus came, but that Jesus is coming again.

And how we live today.

Determines how we will answer the question when Jesus asks, What did you do with the light that you were given?

What would it look like for you practically to begin living with a pilgrim's perspective for the rest of this holiday season?

What things can you do to begin focusing on Jesus and the reality of his imminent return?

As always, before we close out service, I also want to acknowledge that there may be some across our venues who have never taken the first step of relationship with Jesus.

And because of that, you still are separated from our Heavenly Father and from the eternal life that he offers.

You see, all of us as humans have a very real problem.

We all sin and we fall short of God's glorious standard.

And the wages of our sin, what our sin has earned us, is death.

And not just physical death, but the kind of death that comes when we are separated from God forever.

But God loves you so much, God loved the world so much he sent his only son, Jesus.

That's the story of Christmas.

And Christmas pointed towards Calvary and towards an empty grave.

God loved you so much that he sent his only son, Jesus, so everyone who puts their faith in him will not die, but will be given the gift of eternal life, a gift that no one and nothing can ever take away from you.

Today I want to give you the opportunity to take hold of that eternal life, to take hold of relationship with your Heavenly Father.

All that is required is our faith, believing that Jesus is our hope for today and our hope for eternity, believing that Jesus is who he says he is, and he's done what he says that he's done.

And so if you're here at one of our venues today and you've never had a moment in time where you've made a conscious decision to put your faith in Jesus, I want to give you the opportunity to do that today.

With everyone's eyes closed across our venues, I want to ask you if you're ready to put your faith in Jesus, to simply raise your hand up as a symbolic gesture.

And as hands go up across our venue, you are saying, Today I choose to put my faith in Jesus.

For those who raise a hand, I need you to know that God sees your faith and accepts it.

Scripture tells us that your sins are now forgiven.

All of your sins, past, present, and even future, are covered by the righteousness of Christ.

That you have now been adopted into the family of God and you have been given the gift of eternal life.

And so I want to help you just very simply acknowledge the decision you've made today through a prayer.

I'm gonna ask everyone who raised a hand to repeat this prayer after me, and I'm gonna ask all the believers across our venues to pray this out loud as well.

Let's pray like this.

Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

I believe you are God, that you died for my sins, and that you rose from the grave.

I thank you for loving me and forgiving my sins.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

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