An Advent Primer: It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas
Dec. 10, 2024
Host: Dr. Jamie Mitchell
Guest: Pastor Tim Berlin
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 12/10/24. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.
Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.
Jamie Mitchell: Welcome again to another Stand in the Gap. Today I’m your host, Jamie Mitchell, the director of church culture at the American Pastor’s Network. Well, in just 14 days, many of us will be making our way to our church’s traditional candlelight Christmas Eve service. You’ll hear the story of Christ’s birth. You’ll sing your favorite carols and hopefully you’ll hear a message exalting the savior and the highlight of God’s amazing gift. And then as your time comes to a close, you’ll light your candle and sing Silent Night. I’ve done that nearly every December 24th for the last 60 years and it never gets old. Christmas is one of those holidays that not only retail stores and the Hallmark Channel love, but is also esteemed as one of the most holy and sacred times in a calendar year. Each year. It seems like we get ready for Christmas earlier and earlier, and for the most part, it seems that the world has hijacked the festivities and diluted the true meaning of Christmas.
Jamie Mitchell: At the American Pastor’s Network, we want to make sure that we recognize and hold dear the true meaning of the season, which is the birth of the Lord Jesus. On today’s program, I want to help us get in the mood for Christmas and start to focus our minds and hearts on why this holiday is really a holy day. Our program is entitled an Advent Primer. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and to help me school us on everything Christmas, I’m so pleased to be joined with one of the pastors who we love and have the utmost respect for Tim Berlin, who is the pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Clinton Township, Michigan. He has served there since 2011. He’s married to Michelle. They have four sons and most significantly four precious grandchildren, Juliet, Eleanor, Ezra, and Thea. Tim is also the state chapter president of the Michigan Pastors Network, an affiliate of a PN and Tim, we are so pleased to have you with us here. Welcome to Stand in the Gap.
Tim Berlin: Well, thank you Jamie. I sure appreciate the opportunity to join with you in today’s program and certainly for us in Michigan. It truly is acting like the season of Christmas and it is beginning to look like Christmas with a dusting of snow and all of that, but what a wonderful thing to be able to zero in on what Christmas really means and why the season is so amazing.
Jamie Mitchell: Tim, as we discussed in preparation, Christmas is a special time for families and acknowledged in our own nation, but more so believers should really lean into this holiday because of the theological significance of it. Tim, if you were talking to a new believer in your church, maybe somebody who has no Christian background, they’ve never even celebrated Christmas, and they come up to you and say, pastor Tim, it seems like Christmas is a big deal around here. Why is the church so consumed with it? Isn’t this just another gift giving holiday? How would you biblically explain the significance of Christmas?
Tim Berlin: Well, that’s a great question and certainly one that I think we’re facing more and more as our culture becomes increasingly more ignorant of scriptural truth and it often has come as a misunderstanding of new converts who simply have embraced Christmas for what our culture has done in commercializing it, and yet Christmas is about the greatest gift ever known to mankind. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed it than him should not perish but have everlasting life. It is about God’s love demonstrated to us who were in need and no ability to solve our own sin problem. God in love solved our sin problem by becoming flesh and coming to this earth and shedding his perfect blood and giving his life in payment for our sin. Wrapping it in this amazing gift called salvation, and he offers it to whoever would come and receive it. It is a wonderful reminder of the greatest gift and the greatest demonstration of love by God himself to mankind.
Jamie Mitchell: That’s why the apostle Paul said that this Jesus is an indescribable gift. And I think you’re right, Tim. I think the culture has hijacked it and we’re so focused on the gifts that are under the tree. We forget that there was a gift that was laid in a manger for us 2000 years ago, and that’s really what makes Christmas so significant, isn’t it?
Tim Berlin: It is, and it is so important for us as born again believers to influence our culture with a right perspective and to help them understand what Christmas really is about the true reason for the season and his name is Jesus.
Jamie Mitchell: And it’s interesting too, is by talking about the culture and all of that, the culture is always putting up substitutes. It’s always putting up fake something to distract us from what is real. I heard the other day even the whole thing of Santa Claus and that funny little song that says he sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows when you’ve been bad and good, and I was thinking to myself, wait a minute, he is describing something that is omnisci and omnipresent and it’s just another substitute for God. And that’s what has happened to Christmas, hasn’t it, Tim? There’s been all of these substitutes to get our eye off the real meaning of Christmas.
Tim Berlin: Yeah, that’s exactly what has happened. Our culture is increasingly becoming ignorant of scriptural truth and antagonistic against God, more atheistic in our approach or secular humanistic in our thinking, and we really need to address that all year in a multitude of ways. But one of the greatest and maybe easiest ways to bring our culture back into focus, to biblical truth and very important time of year is the real reason for the season of Christmas.
Jamie Mitchell: Friends listening today, we’re not saying that you shouldn’t decorate and you shouldn’t have gifts and you shouldn’t have celebrations, but Christ needs to be at the center of Christmas. I’ve said this time and time again each December, if you can’t find a reason to rejoice, give thanks and worship God differently after considering the fact that at Christmas God became a man, he dwelled among us ultimately to die in our place, then you have fully missed the significance of Christmas. When we come back from our break, Tim and I are going to have some fun and we’re going to help you win at Bible trivia the next time you play because we’re going to look at some of the myths of Christmas. We’ll be right back after this short break. Well, as the Christmas songs state roll out the holly hang up the tinsel, ring the bell and light the candles.
Jamie Mitchell: It’s Christmas time and we’re trying to get you in the mood for Christmas, but more so point your hearts towards the wonder and the glorious reality of what Christmas is all about. When God came to earth, pastor Tim Berlin is our guest today, and Tim, we’ve been talking about the significance of Christmas. Before we run on to our next topic of myths, how does the Berlin family celebrate Christmas? Do you have any traditions or favorite things that you do? I know now you’ve got some grandkids that must be a centerpiece, but what does your family do for Christmas?
Tim Berlin: Well, we do, and Christmas is one of the highlights for the Berlin family and now that our boys are out of our home all married and as you said, starting to give us grandbabies, we have four and one on the way. I encourage my kids to just keep bringing me those grand babies, but it is a special time. We do something very unique and that is because Michigan is cold and Florida is warm. We have two of our boys that live in Florida and my brother is there and my parents spend the winter there that I have just started encouraging my boys and their families to make their way to Florida and we call it Berlin, Christmas in Florida. It gives us a break from the cold weather in Michigan. It gives us a unique time to relax away from all of the hustle and bustle of our personal calendars and schedules, and some of the more important things that we do is obviously centered around celebrating the birth of Christ, reiterating the story of his birth reading from Luke chapter two.
Tim Berlin: We take time to give testimony of how this year the family has participated in caring for one another, demonstrating the love of Christ to one another, thanking each other for the part that each one plays in our lives and the significance of that. It is a very special time in the Berlin home as we prepare to exchange gifts. We want the atmosphere to be centered in on the love that was shared to us by God and the opportunity for us to express that to each other, not just in the giving of gifts, but in showing gratitude that each one has been by God’s grace put into this family and we’re able to share life together.
Jamie Mitchell: Tim, the bottom line is they will remember those moments more than they will ever remember what gift they got under the tree. Thanks so much for sharing that, and I encourage our listeners to emulate that and do that. But Tim, I have a pet peeve at Christmas and I need your help and it’s this Christmas cards, not that I don’t like getting them, I do, but what I do not appreciate is on most Christmas cards is really bad theology that they pass along many Christmas cards, portray more errors and what I have commonly now called myths of Christmas, and I thought we could help our audience by discussing a few of these frequent ones. And so let’s take the most obvious Tim, a picture of a nativity scene, the baby Jesus and a manger there, Mary Joseph, maybe some animals scattered around, and then in front of them kneeling the magi from the east. Tim, you got to help me. Is that correct?
Tim Berlin: No, no, it’s very familiar, but biblically it is not correct. We know that these wise men were introduced to us all the way back in the book of Daniel chapter two, and I believe it’s verse 27, where Daniel is referencing Nebuchadnezzar and talking about those that help him to understand life and to interpret life, and he calls them wise men and astrologers and magicians and Soo sayers and Daniel’s going to introduce the fact that it is God who reveals truth and not these men, but yet it introduces that these men had a realm all the way back then a purpose within the kingdom, and these wise men from the east, these magi from the land of Persia were those who studied and wanted to know what was coming, what lied into future. And we find that in Matthew chapter two that they come to Herod in Jerusalem and they’ve seen this star, but the star was in the east and they followed it and they came to Jerusalem.
Tim Berlin: It wasn’t until they did some more research with the scribes of the day to find out that the babe was actually born a long time before this, maybe a year and a half prior to this time because it took ’em all that time to get there that they then went to Jerusalem as the star reappeared to show them where the Christ child was. And so they probably saw Jesus a year and a half after he was born, so they were not present at his birth, though they did present gifts to Marian Joseph in honor of the Lord Jesus.
Jamie Mitchell: And we know Tim, that the scriptures are very clear that Herod in being threatened by this idea that the real king of the Jews had been born, he slaughters all the male babies from two years of age and below. And so we know that when they got there, they would’ve seen a toddler, not a in the manger. It makes for a great Christmas card, Tim, but thank you. Thank you for helping solve that. But I have another problem, Tim, and that is many listening here are heading back to their store and they’re going to take their magi at the stable. They may take one other, and that is just where Jesus was born talking about the stable. There’s been many thoughts about the actual place where Mary gave birth to the baby. We know that there was no room at the end and the inkeeper pointed Mary and Joseph to place to lodge, but where was it Tim? What was that setting that we commonly call a stable?
Tim Berlin: Well, I think in our Western mindset too many times we take what is familiar to us and begin to interpret the scriptures from that mindset rather than trying to understand to whom was it written, where was the location addressed within it and what was true of that? One of the biblical hermeneutic principles of interpreting scripture is it cannot mean today what it did not mean then. So it’s important for us to understand what was going on then having taken four trips to Israel and being able to see the terrain, I oftentimes would take our groups outside of Bethlehem to the hillside where the shepherds would be where there were a number of caves and that’s where they would put their cattle. That’s where they would take their sheep for shelter. It was the place that it was a place to get out of the storm or out of the elements and it was all stone.
Tim Berlin: Here in the west we have trees galore and when we see a barn or we see a stable, it’s made out of wood. And so when we make our nativity scenes or we’re making props for our Christmas program, we tend to think of a stable along the lines of our western thinking made of wood, but most likely it was a cave and the major was just a stone that had been hu out in the form of being able to hold feed for the sheep or the cattle and it became the bed place for the Lord Jesus.
Jamie Mitchell: I remember my old friend, Jimmy De Young, who’s with the Lord now. He used to talk a lot about even the probability that the place where they placed Jesus was not just any stable but probably the stable of the lambs of the sheep that were going to be used for the temple sacrifice. What No better place for Jesus to be born, the precious lamb of God. But in that place, Tim, one quick one. We see pictures of Mariana donkey. What’s the likelihood that she was riding a donkey all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem?
Tim Berlin: Well, again, our world is so different. We tend to think of transportation and what is the most popular or most convenient way of getting from point A to point B, and we think through, well, it would’ve been an incredibly long walk, and so there had to have been another way to travel. And certainly in Bible times they did travel by donkey. They did travel by camel. They even sometimes used horses if they were able to afford them, but much of the travel was done on foot. And I think sometimes people begin to say, wow, that’s just a long ways for a pregnant lady to walk. And so having been at the last part of her pregnancy, that must have been too uncomfortable. Certainly she must have had another way to travel and it must have been donkey and it sells a lot of cards and it makes somewhat sense, but I don’t know. But I’m guessing that most pregnant women would probably disagree that riding a donkey would be very convenient at that time.
Jamie Mitchell: Well, the birth of Jesus is a miracle. When we come back, Tim and I are going to discuss the miracles of Christmas. Well, welcome again and thanks for letting us inform you and hopefully inspire you about Christmas. Tim Berlin is the president of the Michigan Pastor’s Network and he’s with us today and we’re talking about everything Christmas. We’ve discussed the significance of Christmas and we’ve discussed some of the myths of Christmas, and I know there’s probably more myths that we could have touched on, but Tim, one of the obvious elements of the entire Christmas narrative is that it’s a story of the supernatural work of God, the miracles of Christmas. And Tim, we believe in miracles because the Bible describes them. So I want to consider some of the miraculous events surrounding Christ’s advent, and the first up is the virgin birth. And Mary, although betroth to be married to Joseph, she was a virgin. The Bible tells us, yet she is now with child. How did that happen and why is it significant that Jesus came forth from a virgin?
Tim Berlin: Well, I think it is the most critical part of the entire Christmas story because the Bible tells us in Genesis chapter one that speaking from a Trinity perspective, God said, let us make man in our image. And so man was created with a soul after God, the Father with an eternal nature that’s going to live forever someplace, a body after God, the Son and a spiritual nature after God, the Holy Spirit. And we know that when Adam and Eve sinned, they died immediately. They died spiritually immediately, and because of that, they would die physically and death became part of a reality. Never was it God’s intent for man to do that. But in love he gave man a choice and man chose orally. He chose to disobey and sin the world. Genesis chapter five in verse three says that Adam produced Seth after his own image in his likeness, which was a soul that would live forever someplace a body but dead, spiritually unfit and incapable of going to heaven.
Tim Berlin: Well, we realized that for Jesus to come into this world, it was in important that he be born but without a sin nature. So how does the sin nature get passed on? Well, we know that as in Adam, all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive or as by one man, sin entered the world and death by sin. So that death passed upon all men for that all have sin. The sin nature is passed on from person and generation to generation through the man. Therefore, the virgin birth of Christ was absolutely critical for Jesus to be born into this world without a sin nature. And so God miraculously did a miracle in the life of Mary by allowing the Christ child to be placed inside of her miraculously of the Holy Spirit. I also think it’s critical to understand the role of the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit doesn’t draw attention to himself.
Tim Berlin: He’s always pointing to Jesus Christ, and yet he’s the power behind it. And so we find that when Mary is frightened, the angel says, fear not for that which is conceived in you, is conceived of the Holy Ghost. This is a miraculous event in your life that God himself has done, and the child that is born is not going to have a sin nature for it is born of a virgin. And in order to prove that, Matthew one says that Joseph, even after all of this refrained from any type of sexual relationship, even as Mary was his wife, in order to procure the importance of the virgin birth of Christ, it is critically important,
Jamie Mitchell: His deity, the fact that his death would be one of perfection. It is so critical, Tim, that we are reminded again of this central miracle, but there’s another miraculous part of the Christmas story, and we alluded to it a little bit in the last section talking about the Magi, and that was this reappearing star which led people to where Jesus was. What do you think it was, Tim? And again, what’s the significant behind the star in the story?
Tim Berlin: Well, I have a man in my church, his name is Brendan White. He wrote a book called A Magi Tale, and it’s a cute perspective of becoming part of the magi and telling the story from their perspective, and it lays it out so biblically and so marvelously in understanding how God miraculously directed these people to where the Christ child would be first pointing them simply that there’s a star in the East and they would follow it and come to Jerusalem and then have it reappear to direct them to the Christ child. And of course, Herod said, when you find him, bring me back word. But then the angel interfered and said, don’t go back to Herod. And that ticked Harriet off as we know. But that star, sometimes we try to rationalize or think that somehow we need to scientifically prove or to have a legitimate explanation for.
Tim Berlin: But remember, miracles are unique things that God himself is doing. They do not always have an explanation. They many times, most often defy science no matter what it is, and God miraculously intervenes. And so was this a star? Was it a meteor? Was it this? Was it that I personally believe it was a star. I do believe that God miraculously placed it. He made it unique from all the rest of what they had studied. So it stood out and created curiosity, and they begin to study what could this possibly be? And it directed them according to the exact prophesied plan of God, to the place where they would find Christ in Bethlehem, just like was prophesied. So that star was a miraculous work of God. However he did it and with exactly what it was, it did get the wiseman’s attention and direct them to Christ.
Jamie Mitchell: Talking about getting people’s attention. Tim, there’s one other miraculous part of this story, and you have to kind of feel for them. Here were the shepherds out in their field at night and out of nowhere angels appear. And now again, we believe in angels because the Bible teaches us that they are heavenly messengers, but the shepherds encountered them that night. What was amazing about that sighting and why was angels appearing before the shepherds such an amazing, miraculous event?
Tim Berlin: Well, I have no doubt that that is an amazing thing, and if we get to go to heaven and get to download video of certain events, this might be one that we would all like to see real time. It was spectacular. It was no doubt, incredible to these shepherds. And it struck fear in them because of the uniqueness, because of the magnificence, the magnitude of what was being done in front of them and the announcement that was being made and how it was coming to them. But I think the most important thing for us to understand is what God is communicating by sending the message to shepherds. The shepherds were considered the lower echelon of the economic status they were looked down upon in many respects, and yet God is going to communicate that his salvation is available to everyone. It doesn’t matter your economic status, it doesn’t matter your ethnicity, it doesn’t matter where you are. God has provided a gift for you and he is reaching out and saying A savior is born unto you. This Savior is in Bethlehem. This savior is currently in a manger, but he is available to whoever will receive him by faith. This is a gift made available to everyone. There’s not an elite group. There’s not a specific people. This gift is available to everyone and God is going to communicate that by gloriously and miraculously making himself known through the angels to these shepherds on that hillside that night.
Jamie Mitchell: Wow. Amen and amen to that. Now, without being disrespectful, I have to tell you pastor years ago said this about Christmas, and this is the most breathtaking miracle of all that. When Joseph and Mary looked in that manger, God was in diapers. God came the creator, God, the king of the universe entered into the world through the birth canal of a Jewish woman, and now was laying there in the feeding trough wrapped in sheep’s clothing. That is a miracle. When we come back for our last segment, Tim and I are going to discuss the message of Christmas and how to communicate it and why every year it is so important to talk about Jesus coming and being with us. Well, as soon as we wrap up this program, I’m going to go turn on some Christmas music and fill our house with the sounds of the season.
Jamie Mitchell: We’re trying to help you get ready for what is called the most wonderful time of the year, and that’s a Christmas season. Tim Berlin, the pastor of Faith Baptist Church, Clinton Township, Michigan, has been our teacher and helper this hour. And Tim, both you and I, we’ve logged a lot of Christmas seasons in ministry and we do a lot of preaching and a lot of preparing. I have to admit something, and that is about five years into my role as a senior pastor. I was getting a little tired of Christmas. I was trying to find something new and fresh, and I became really convicted and I sat down one January after a Christmas season and I began to dig in and laid out for the next four or five years series after series after series of great Christmas messages. And since that time, I have just so waited for Christmas every year and try to keep it fresh and year after year. The message is simple but powerful. And Tim, you’ve been a pastor for a while. What are some things that you always want people who come to your church to realize about Christmas and what is the core message that you want to see communicated through the Christmas story each year?
Tim Berlin: Well, I think that unfortunately we see an increasing tendency for people to adopt an entitlement mindset. Our culture has almost taught a that if you don’t give your kids a gift, if you don’t have gifts ready to give to someone, if you go over to someone’s house and they present a gift to you and you don’t have one to give back that you feel awkward, you feel awful, something is wrong. I think we’ve misunderstood gifts. It’s not something we do in reciprocation to each other. It is not this time of year that if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. If you get me what I want, then I’ll get you what you want. That completely defies the real meaning of Christmas. What we want to emphasize at Faith Baptist Church is that no one is entitled to the gift of salvation. This is a gift that God himself designed.
Tim Berlin: He decided before he ever created the world that he would give a free will in his omniscience. He knew that giving a freedom to choose, that his creation could choose poorly and disobey and bring sin into the world. In fact, he knew they would. And so he created a plan of salvation that was rooted in his love for his creation. It was rooted in grace in doing something for them they could not do for themself and providing a way for them to be reconciled back to their creator. And so Christmas is centered around Jesus Christ, who is the very embodiment of love and the very fulfillment of God’s grace extended to his creation. When we had a need we could not solve, and we were not entitled to it, we didn’t deserve it, but God and grace provided it, and I want our people to understand it.
Tim Berlin: Christmas, this isn’t an entitlement. This isn’t something you have to do. This is something that because you love someone and you are able to provide something for them just because you can and you want to use that to meet a need, whether it’s a need that they have physically or whether it’s a need they have emotionally, you just want to use that gift to encourage them and to help, not because you have to, but because you want to. And that’s what God did for us. It is a testimony of his absolute unconditional love for mankind. None of us live in a way where we deserve it, and yet God loves us unconditionally and he sees us in our need, and he provided a gift that he paid for, that he provided completely in and of himself for us at Christmas. And so the core message of Christmas is a message of love and grace wrapped up in the Lord Jesus.
Tim Berlin: Everything that God designed is centered around Jesus Christ. We ask ourselves, why did God not just take me to heaven when I got saved? Because his design for sanctification is to leave us here on this earth as a physical illustration to be able to be a visual for the world, to see Christ in us, so we don’t have the liberty to have an attitude that points people to seeing us or do things that make people see us. We’re not here so people have an opinion of us. We are left here so that they come to a right opinion, a right conclusion about who Jesus Christ is. We can’t do anything to alter somebody’s eternity, but Jesus Christ can. And so Christmas reminds us of that greatest gift and reminds us of our greatest responsibility once we’ve received that gift. And that is to spread it to others, to help them know it’s available for you too. If you’ll turn from your sin and put your faith in the Lord Jesus in his finished work, you too can become a child of God. And then you too have the responsibility, the privilege to show the world Jesus Christ. And so Christmas really is that great time to just remind people of the value and the amazing gift that is in Christ Jesus.
Jamie Mitchell: Tim, at Christmas time, a lot of times we have fellowships and we have these things called Yankee swaps or white elephants, and everybody brings a gift. Everybody exchanges a gift. And I always go home from those events and I kind of feel kind of hollow because I gave a gift and I’m going home with a gift, and I’m always comparing, did I give a gift that it was better than the one I got? And you’re exactly right, that sense of entitlement. But then there comes a time at Christmas that you open something up and you get something that you didn’t expect, and you kind of say, are you kidding? I didn’t even think about this. What a surprise. And see, that’s what you’re getting at. When God sent Jesus, it was not because of anything we did, it was because of everything he did. And that was the great surprise. Tim, we got about a minute left, maybe even less. A lot of people have heartache at Christmas as a pastor. How do you encourage people this Christmas? And again, you have even less than a minute now.
Tim Berlin: Well, I’ll just say this, that yes, there’s people that Christmas reminds them of the loss of a loved one. It’s a difficult time. There’s sometimes a void or an emptiness, but it’s just a great reminder to tell people this life is temporary. Eternal life is forever. It’s our chance to help them understand that hope and joy and peace and love is found in Christ. So no matter the circumstance or situation, we can share Christ at Christmas.
Jamie Mitchell: Tim, thank you for helping get us in the Christmas mood. It is the most wonderful time of the year primarily because of what God did in sending Christ Jesus. Beloved, I hope you’ve been encouraging challenge today along with planning parties, dinners, purchasing gifts. Take time to plan how you are going to celebrate and worship the Lord. But before all the festivities commence, give Him honor for He is our indescribable gift. The Lord Jesus, have a very merry Christmas.
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