A Spark For Your Heart

Author David Mathis says there's a lot that was surprising, even shocking, about the first Christmas.

An unwed woman? The virgin birth is one of the great surprises. And then the angel would come to Nazareth. Such an out-of-the-way place that all the gospels have to explain what it is. Because readers have never heard of Nazareth.

It is a backwater town. People have heard of Bethlehem. That was the city of David. It's small compared to Jerusalem.

But nobody ever heard of Nazareth. I mean, that is serious backwater. And so it is one unexpected thing after another. This is Family Life Today. Our hosts are Dave and Anne Wilson.

I'm Bob Lapine. You can find us online at familylifetoday.com. Revisiting the details of the Christmas story each year can remind us of how surprising and how even shocking God's grace is. We'll hear more about that today. Stay with us. And welcome to Family Life Today.

Thanks for joining us. We're going to talk about getting ready for Christmas today. But before we do that, it is Giving Tuesday.

I think most of our listeners have probably heard from everybody they support about the fact that it's Giving Tuesday. So we want to add our voice to that as well because this is a particularly critical time of year for ministries like ours. And I think most of you have probably heard our story by now that family life has literally changed our marriage. It's changed our lives. It's changed our legacy. And I know that we've heard from many of you that it's done the same thing. So I feel like you know how critical this ministry is. I hope you do. And so we really hope that you'll consider giving this Christmas.

Yeah. And I don't even know, honestly, if we'd be married and have the legacy we have without family life. That weekend, remember, we went to as an engaged couple. And now all the years, 30 plus, almost 40 years of input from family life has literally changed us. I know it's transformed you and people you love and even your legacy. And here's what I know about year end and Giving Tuesday.

Giving Tuesday is awesome, but I get emails after emails and I have to make a decision just like you do, like, who do I give to? And some of you can't. This has been a really tough year. You've been devastated, possibly financially.

And I understand that and you do what you need to do. But some of you have been blessed. God's taken care of you and even blessed you.

And I would ask you, I would challenge you to consider family life as the one of maybe a several. But I hope the one that says I'm going to give, I'm going to give generously because God has taken care of me. I'm going to give double what I gave or a little more than I've ever given because I know there are people that can't and I can. And so I want to tell you, as you give, you are changing families like the Wilsons, families like yours. And we need you more than ever this year to jump in and help and play your part.

And you can watch God use how he's blessed you to bless others. And when you give today, we want to say thank you by sending you a couple of thank you gifts. The first is a flash drive that contains more than a hundred, really the top hundred plus Family Life Today programs from the last 28 years. With Dennis and Barbara Rainey, with Dave and Ann Wilson, with other guests we've had here. Programs about marriage, about parenting, about extended family relationships. These are programs that are timeless. And they also get a hot new book off the presses.

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Again, give online at familylifetoday.com or call 1-800-FL-TODAY to donate. And let's talk about the Christmas season. Did you guys have any kind of a Wilson family tradition? I mean, if I called your boys today and said, what did you always do at Christmas that was kind of the family tradition, what would they say? Yeah, mom buys a whole bunch of presents. And dad is looking there going, what happened to the budget?

I think they'd say several things. The tree, you know, we're all together getting the tree. That's like a big full day. Food, praying before we open any presents. Reading the Christmas story. And you know, as a pastor, it's really our Christmas service that they have to go to. And of course, that meant that the December season for pastors.

I was going to say that's a difficult season for pastors' families because many times for me, I was alone with our kids most of the time until Christmas morning. One of the things I was responsible for was the stockings. I'm a big stocking guy. So we would hang the stockings.

Yeah, Ann is too. Oh, yeah. What's in your stockings? I just like fun and unexpected things in the stockings that are novelties. This is where I'm going to put stuff that silly string. You'll get a can of silly string in your stocking.

Stuff like this. Well, what I learned later was that our youngest son, David, would always get stressed out by opening a stocking that had all of this stuff that he thought, like, am I supposed to actually do something with this? Keep it? Where does it go in my room? Am I supposed to act like I like it?

Yeah, like I like it, right? And so we had to cool it on the stockings. But the kids just recently, they sent me an article they'd seen online about all of the Trader Joe's items you should get to stuff stockings with. And they said, Dad, just go pick out what you want and let us know so we can put it in your stocking this year.

We're talking about how to focus on the right stuff at Christmas. And we've got David Mathis joining us this week to do it. David, welcome back. Thanks, Bob.

Good to be here. David is a writer. He's a speaker.

He works for Desiring God Ministries. He's the author of an Advent devotional. And we really should say your book, The Christmas We Didn't Expect, is not a how-to guide for families on how to go through Advent. It's a devotional for all of us to be reading through during the Advent season so that we can be recaptivated by the mystery and the unexpected that this season is all about. So it doesn't become so common that we just forget the amazingness of all of this. That's right.

The world and our society has very much an agenda for your Christmas. Yeah. If we're not intentional as Christians, we will just fill it up with everything the world's pressuring right into it. And so it's a kind of call. Let's put Jesus at the center. Let's marvel at Him afresh this Advent. Let's see this as an opportunity.

When the world is changing its colors and its tune, December has its own music, it is by far the most distinct month of the year in our society. And that's an opportunity for Christians. It hasn't always been this way with the pagan world.

But for some reason, we have this situation. Let's make the most of it. And let's be intentional about keeping Jesus at the center and marveling at Him in this season. I think that's the word intentional, because if we're not, we will get sucked into the commercialism, the gifts, the songs, the movies, and it can be easy to lose Jesus in the midst of that. I'll never forget being 16 years old, having just given my life to Christ, sitting at a midnight service at church, sobbing because it was the first time I realized what Christmas was really all about. And the fact that God came down and was with us, like that was mind-blowing and life-changing to me. And I was so grateful and thankful that I finally figured out what this Christmas season is about.

And we can give that to our kids, but we have to fight for it or else they too will get just sucked into, let's give a good gift and let's watch the Grinch tonight. One of the biblical themes around Christmas, one of the significant biblical themes is the idea of the virgin conception, which is really better than virgin birth. It's the virgin conception, Mary conceiving, having never known a man.

First of all, explain why that's significant beyond just it being an anomaly that a virgin would conceive. One way is significant because that's how God did it. And that's how God tells us he did it. And so the fact that he puts it in Scripture makes it significant. What is God saying to us in doing it this way? Why did God do it this way? He could have done it other ways, but he chose to do it this way.

And what's he saying to us in that? One of them is just the supernatural that's on the very front end of Christmas. There's the supernatural virgin birth at the front end of Jesus' life. There's a supernatural resurrection at the end of Jesus' life as he comes back to life in the great resurrection. So this life is set off by the supernatural at the front end and the back end.

And there's something fitting to set this life off with the supernatural at both ends. Also, what the virgin birth shows us, virgin conception, is the depth of our need. Humans could not bring about their own redeemer.

God had to come in from the outside. This is not something we can work, we can achieve, we can make happen. We are desperate. We need rescue. And in the virgin conception, there's an echo of God making the rescue.

And that would be a third thing. God's the one who takes the initiative. We don't take the initiative in our salvation.

We respond. The angel comes and doesn't say, oh, Mary, could we have your permission to carry this out? The angel announces, behold, you will conceive and bear a son, and you'll call his name Jesus. So God takes the initiative, even in the gentleness with which he comes to Mary, he announces what he's going to do. And God carries out his rescue mission to save his people as he comes in Christ. And another unexpected, and I know you have a lot of them in the book, but it's literally the God of all creation is entering time and space history. You would think it's going to be the most glorious blast out of the heavens, and he comes so humble. Talk about that. That's right.

We have our human expectations, do we not? I remember growing up, I think I was age six, when we did this Christmas play at our church called Angels Aware. Maybe there's some Southern Baptist listeners out there who did Angels Aware.

It's a phenomenal play. I remember these songs. I can still go through the Old Testament prophets because of one song we did in there.

But one of the songs was called If It Was Up To Me. And different angels step forward and say how they would do it. He'd be a great military ruler.

He'd be a great athlete. And we have our human conceptions of glory. We have our human anticipations in ways that we would do it. And God just shatters those. His ways are greater than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And he puts that on public display at that first Christmas.

No human thought of this. This is how God does it. And he shows his greatness. He shows his peculiar glory, that he does things far and above, beyond all we can ask or think, Paul says in Ephesians 3.

He does it beyond what we can expect as humans. And that is on display over and over again at that first Christmas. And then, David, talk about what's so unexpected about the wise men. Oh, my, the wise men.

I mean, to call them wise men is an interesting publicity stunt, right? Or the three kings. That's right, the three kings. Dudes aren't kings.

They are not kings. Magi is where we get the word magician. The magi, go to the book of Daniel and read about the magi, also called the sorcerers or the astrologers. One of the greatest surprises here is the Christ child comes, long expected.

The trained theologians of the day are five miles away in Jerusalem. They give the answer to the magi when they ask. Oh, yeah, Micah says we'll be born in Bethlehem.

And they don't even bother to make the five mile journey down to Bethlehem. And the pagan astrologers come and they bow. And it is a sign of what God is doing among the nations. He is going to take pagans and he's going to make them into his people. He's going to take astrologers, he's going to teach them a new vocation because it is very clear throughout the Old Testament that astrology, the kinds of things the magi do, is abominable. And it's just as clear in the New Testament as they encounter various magicians in the book of Acts. So the Bible is very clear about this vocation of being a magi.

This is not allowed. And yet, what a picture of the sinners that God invites to come to his son. He doesn't say, clean up your act first and then you can come. He says, come on, come on where you are. I'll change you, I'll change you through worship as they bow, as they rejoice with joy that is exceedingly great.

They are being changed. It's a picture of what God's doing among the nations. And it is so beautiful. You were saying earlier about the humility, the humble surrounding of how the king of the universe is born. I mean, think about the statement God's making because in the Old Testament and really any perspective, the only emotion you had when you approach anywhere near God was fear. Because you were revering the powerful God you were afraid.

And now who's afraid of a baby? I mean, he's making a statement to the world, isn't he? It's like, I mean, think about this. They probably had to walk by Mount Herodium, which is a statement to King Herod. I build my own mountain that says I'm the most powerful man in the universe. They walk by a symbol of power to a little stable, a cave, you know, to a little baby to say this is the most powerful person ever in the universe in history. And you don't have to be afraid. That's a lie of power.

This is real power. And it's humble. You talk about unexpected.

How beautiful is that? And yet then they run and tell that to the world. How often it is with prophecy and with providence that we have our certain expectations. And then on the other side of it, we look back and go, oh, of course, of course. I would have known it. I would have known it.

And no, you wouldn't have known it. Like you're human. And God did it his way with his higher ways and his higher thoughts. And then we look back and we see it and we go, oh, isn't that just like God? Like this God is so secure that he doesn't need to come with an army. This God is so stable. He's so strong that he can humble himself to be weak because he's got this in control. He's not threatened.

He's not insecure. And so it's a mark of Jesus' divinity that he comes so lowly. And yet many rejected him. His own people rejected him, not realizing this was the Messiah.

He didn't meet their expectations. The magi are not there like the day after Jesus is born, right? When you do your nativity scene at home.

But it works out best for the half-hour special. They come in for the photo op. Yeah, they probably showed up later. Mary and Joseph were still in Bethlehem months later.

I mean, what's your understanding of how all this works? We hear in the story of the slaughter of the innocents about Herod killing the children that he did so up to age two. That was the command. So there's been the assumption throughout church history that the magi came later. Luke chapter two is giving us kind of the story of that first night. That's the shepherd's time.

That's Mary pondering and treasuring these things in her heart. We don't hear about the magi there. And so the assumption has been throughout church history they came later. And that's one reason that the visit of the magi is celebrated later on January 6th. So apparently Mary and Joseph stayed. They hung around Bethlehem for a while after Jesus was born.

We don't know how long, maybe a year or more. But before they fled to Egypt. Before they fled to Egypt. What about the choir that shows up with the shepherd? First of all, the fact that shepherds get the birth announcement.

That's pretty remarkable, right? I mean, these are the blue collar workers of the day. So it's not that shepherds were so well respected.

They were the dignitaries of the first century. That's not why they were invited to his birth. This again is a mark of this divine lowliness that God would do it in this way. And that he would extend his arms open to the shepherd to say, all right, I'm not coming to save the popular. I'm not coming to save the acknowledged. I'm not coming to save those who have the ability to do this for themselves.

I'm coming with my arms open to save all. Blessed are the weak. Blessed are those who know their hunger. Blessed are those who know their lowliness.

I'm inviting those in. And that's what happens with the shepherds. Yeah, a question that you're answering that I think is a critical question is, what does the way God entered the world reveal about who God is? Because, you know, an entrance usually reveals something. I mean, you think about how queens travel into our country.

I mean, millions of dollars are spent for all the glamour and glitz to bring a VIP through a town, right? The God of the universe is making a statement, isn't he, about this is my character by coming that way. That's what you're getting at. It's so unexpected.

It's like, who would do this? He's revealing something very significant to his love for us. And that he is approachable. He is humble.

He is with you, right? It's a rescue mission. This is not a cameo. This is not just to show us, hey, you're human.

I'm God, but I can be human, too. Like, this is not a grand moment here. He's coming on a rescue mission to save his people, which is why the song, What Child Is This? I remember singing that as a kid, maybe as a teenager, even as a collegiate, thinking, why would we sing about nails, spear, we'll pierce him through? Come on, let's just have a bright, happy Christmas. Like, we'll worry about the death in April when we do Holy Week and Easter.

But as I grew up, I realized, oh, it belongs right here. This is a rescue mission. Yes, nails, spear, we'll pierce him through. Simeon will have his prophecy to Mary saying that a sword will pierce your soul as well, meaning it's going to pierce him.

He's going to be pierced. He's coming here to die for his people. He's coming to rescue a people. And it is interesting to think, again, we're focusing on the baby, the humility, and at the same side, it's an act of war because we've got a spiritual realm that's existed before history. It's almost like prehistory 101, the angelic realm, the heavenly realm, the earth is created into that realm. And so there is, as you said, a rescue mission that requires a warrior to come slay the enemy of our soul.

And that was, I mean, it's a beautiful, tender story. And at the same side, behind the scenes, it's like, oh my goodness, this is the most aggressive move in the history of the world. God is going to come gentle but firm because he has a mission that involves that slain coming later. Indeed, life and death are at stake.

I mean, all of history is at stake in this moment. And just as the angels are appearing to Mary, appearing to Joseph in a dream, appearing to the shepherds, you can guarantee the demons are watching as well. And this is happening on the stage for the spiritual principalities and powers to see. God is bringing them to defeat. He's humiliating them.

He's shaming them. He's delivering the death blow to Satan here. He's surprising Satan with this attack through a child.

Sure, Satan's expecting some great ruler with power like Herod to come. And he thwarts that kind of effort and comes in this rescue mission. And so, yeah, the angels are watching. They are looking into this. The good angels are in awe of what he's doing.

They long to look into these things. And he comes as a rescuer not for angels. There's no rescue to be had here for demons. He comes as man to save man, which is why the angels look into this with such longing.

It's amazing. What would it be like for God himself to become one of your race, of your species? When Lucifer rebelled, God did not become an angel to save the rebellious angels. No redeemer for angels. But when Adam rebelled, God became the second Adam. And so the angels look and go, how he must love these people in order to become one of them, to save them.

He's gone beyond with them what he did with us. Talk about the significance of what it was the angels said to the shepherds. And I say said rather than sang because I'm just letting you know.

Yeah, why? There's nothing in Scripture that indicates that they were singing. What? Yes, that's true.

Are you backing me up on this? The angels said, right? The angel announced. And suddenly there was with the angel a choir of the heavenly host. That's why we think they were singing because they're called a choir. I was going to say, I know the word choir is in there. Choir is in there, but there's nothing that indicates they sang.

Here's why that's significant. I've had somebody point this out to me that the angels sang at creation. The angels will sing again at the second coming. But in between, this person said, there's no indication of angels singing. Even at the birth of Jesus, they speak, but the Bible doesn't say they sang. So here's, if you want to imagine them singing, I won't, we won't part fellowship with them.

Bob, you're ruining the story. You're saying they're only going to sing two times? Hark, the herald angels said.

Said. Is how we should sing that song. But the message was glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and goodwill among men with whom he is pleased.

What does that mean? Well, I think the thing that's more fascinating at Christmas is what that first angel announces when he says, fear not, behold, I bring you good news of great joy. And what's so significant there is that he talks about great joy, which is not a common phrase in the Bible. Joy is common.

A typical English translation will have 200 plus mentions of joy. Old Testament, New Testament, joy, joy, joy. God made a world of joys. There are various joys in our lives. We know joy.

But what is unusual is great joy. And there's great joy when David brings Solomon into the throne and when Solomon dedicates the temple and when Nehemiah rebuilds the wall. And at the resurrection, there's great joy. And at the birth of Christ, there's great joy. So what's so significant that first Christmas is that we are not just announcing joy at Christmas, which is one of the things that's a reason to observe this season, take the opportunity of the Advent season in a way that you may not take the month of November or the month of January, that this is an occasion of great joy, of a joy that is surpassingly joyful compared to the normal joys of our everyday life. And God means to show us something. This is one of the most significant events in the history of the world here as Jesus comes in to begin his life and as Jesus rises again to complete the work of redemption for us.

So now we've got to start singing great joy to the world, the Lord is come and heart the herald angels said in order to be more biblically accurate. Let's get real practical and talk about how can we really carve this into our schedules. You know, what are some things that you guys have done, Bob, and your family to make sure that we're really getting this in our hearts and in our homes, David, and what kind of practical things besides reading scripture every day, like are you guys praying as a family? Are you praying with your wife?

Are you reading the scripture more than just the one words with just you and your wife? A great way to build any habit is to get as early in the day as possible. Once the day gets going and rolling, there's a chance something's going to come up and interrupt it. Said the morning person.

Said someone who's made himself a morning person who didn't live that way for 20 years of life. And the earlier we can get to it, the more it'll set the page, the trajectory for the day. So if we want to break up that Advent season into individual days, why not fly it as a banner over each day? Well, that's personal devotions, or that's gathering the family together. I love taking a single verse, explaining it to my kids, praying through it together, and then we launch into the day just to have that reminder.

Hey, this is great. It's Christmas season. We're coming up on Christmas. We're in Advent here. We're coming up on Sunday with that reminder. And then growing up, our family would do an Advent candle on the Sundays.

So we kind of did a once-a-week rhythm there growing up. And we'd have the Advent calendar. We'd do a Sunday reminder of that. And there can be weekly rhythms to it. Some churches will do that, where they'll light the Advent candle as part of the service on Sunday. And so one way to think through it is some personal rhythms that may help you remember the season and keep Jesus central, a family that's perhaps daily, something maybe weekly. And then as a church family, it's an opportunity for any pastors who are listening or lay leaders in the church to think, how can we make this season special?

How can we take an opportunity? Grandparents, you can do it Zoom, FaceTime. Oh, grandparents are the best for that.

Be great for that. We do the Advent wreath at our church, so we lit the first candle this week as we sang O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus. I think having Christmas music on in the house, but I would say try and have Christmas music on that's about Jesus, not just about Rudolph and Frosty, okay? It's the most wonderful time I'll be home for Christmas.

I like all of that. But there's something about Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. There's something about O Little Town of Bethlehem. There's something about those songs that just getting those in your children's heads and hearts. Maybe you've got a guitar and you pull it out and you sing it together as a family. Maybe you teach your kids some of these classic carols. Go to the hymnal. If you have a hymnal in your home, and you should, go get out the hymnal and find the songs in your hymnal that will not include sleigh bells ring, are you listening, or jingle bells, right? But sing the songs of Jesus in the season and plant those in your kids' hearts. And I would even add, bedtime is a great time for discussion with kids that are a little bit older, not toddlers necessarily. But just maybe on those evenings, to talk about a Bible character that was in the Christmas story.

Like, what do you think it'd be like to be Mary? You know, to talk about Elizabeth, to talk about the shepherds in the field. It'd be great just to listen to kids as you tell the story of the shepherds were in the field. And this is what the angels said. It'd be so interesting just to get kids to kind of identify with the characters in the Bible. Wouldn't it be great if God would do to Dad what he did to Zachariah and he couldn't speak for like several months? Really? Yeah.

Maybe get a copy of David's book. And I think with older kids, you can read a few paragraphs and just talk about that at the dinner table. The point is intentionality. We're back to that, making this something that's purposeful. And don't let this season get past you and go, we missed an opportunity.

Take advantage of the opportunity God's given you. And David, thanks for helping us kick off the season rightly here. And thanks for the book. I think that's going to help a lot of folks, help a lot of us during this Christmas season. My joy. Thanks for having me here.

Yeah. You can go to our website, familylifetoday.com to find out more about David Mathis' Advent devotional, The Christmas We Didn't Expect, Daily Devotions for Advent. Order a copy from our website, familylifetoday.com or call to order 1-800-358-6329.

That's 1-800-F as in family, L as in life, and then the word today. Now, as you have probably heard somewhere, today is Giving Tuesday, and it's a good day for you to think about year-end donations to ministries or organizations that God has used in your life over the last 12 months. And if family life is one of those ministries or organizations, this is a great time to make a donation for a couple of reasons. First, your donation is going to be matched dollar for dollar.

We've got a matching gift fund that goes up to $2 million. We want to take full advantage of that, so any donation you make today will be matched. And we'll send you, as a special thank you gift today, a copy of my book, Love Like You Mean It. We'll also send you a flash drive that's got the top 100 Family Life Today programs from the last 28 years. So you'll have a library of some of the best programs we've ever done on marriage, on parenting, on family issues, interviews with people whose names you will recognize. All of that comes your way when you make a donation today on Giving Tuesday.

Go to familylifetoday.com to donate or call 1-800-FL-TODAY to make a Giving Tuesday donation. And thanks in advance for whatever you're able to do. We appreciate you. Now, tomorrow we're going to turn our attention to a very challenging topic. We want to talk about the struggle that some people face with what's called gender dysphoria. How should we understand that? How should we think about it as Christians?

How can we have compassion for those who are wrestling with this desire and still stand for the truth of Scripture? Jay Allen Branch will join us tomorrow to talk about this. I hope you can be with us as well. I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, along with our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our hosts, Dave and Ann Wilson, I'm Bob Lapine. We'll see you back next time for another edition of Family Life Today. Family Life Today is a production of Family Life of Little Rock, Arkansas, a crew ministry. Help for today, hope for tomorrow.