Sermon: Christmas At First – The Christmas Letdown – Lk 2.20 (12/28/25)

Introduction

• Turn in your Bible to Luke 2.

  • Scripture

    • Luke 2.15 | When the angels had left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go straight to Bethlehem and see what has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” (CSB)

    • Luke 2.16 | They hurried off and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in the manger. (CSB)

    • Luke 2.17 | After seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this child, (CSB)

    • Luke 2.18 | and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. (CSB)

    • Luke 2.19 | But Mary was treasuring up all these things in her heart and meditating on them.(CSB)

    • Luke 2.20 | The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had seen and heard, which were just as they had been told. (CSB)

  • Notice a key phrase in verse 20...

    • The shepherds returned...

  • The shepherds went back to ordinary life, but they went back changed people.

    • They did not build a shrine...

    • They did not organize an annual observance or celebration...

    • They returned to their sheep, schedules, weather, responsibilities...

  • But they went back CHANGED PEOPLE.

    • Their spiritual life (spirituality) was not just about the event that was their encounter with Jesus.

      • Their encounter with Christ did not terminate in the event.

  • A REAL ENCOUNTER WITH CHRIST DOES NOT END AT THE MANGER.

• Event-Based Christianity

  • There is a Sobering problem as old as Christian history...

    • Christians who see their faith as a series of events or moments instead of a sustained RELATIONSHIP with the Lord.

      • It is an ancient problem.

      • And it is a contemporary problem.

  • Medieval Christianity organized faith around sacred days.

    • Medieval (Middle Ages) Christianity spanned from AD 500 to AD 1500.

      • Roughly from the death of Augustine to Luther's posting of his 95 Theses...

    • Events or observances such as...

      • Christmas

      • Easter

      • Lent

      • Corpus Christi

        • (Not first a city in Texas.)

    • Faith was about showing up at events...

      • The people showed up...

      • But they often returned to life unchanged.

  • The Puritans (Reformers) pushed back hard...

    • The Puritans did not celebrate Christmas (or any other annual spiritual rhythm) and condemned those who did.

      • This really goes back to the Reformation.

        • While Martin Luther did celebrate Christmas, John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli did not.

    • Why would they do that?

      • Please know that I am very glad WE celebrate Christmas!

        • I'm glad we do...

        • But I'm also glad they did not.

          • Because their refusal teaches us some important lessons.

      • A. The Puritans feared that event-based Christianity did not honor Scripture.

        • This was partly a commitment to the REGULATIVE PRINCIPLE...

          • The Regulative Principle says that worship and spirituality should not include anything not prescribed or modeled in the New Testament.

            • The opposite of the Regulative Principle is the Normative Principle.

              • The Normative Principle allows anything not expressly forbidden by Scripture.

            • The Puritans were suspicious of any practice that was not prescribed or modeled in the New Testament.

          • Today churches hold to the Regulative Principle on a spectrum...

            • FBC is probably right in the middle of that spectrum.

              • We hold to the Regulative Principle in some ways...

              • We hold to the Normative Principle in some ways...

      • **B. The Puritans feared that event-based Christianity ignored the power of the Holy Spirit's work through Scripture.

        • They held a firm belief that God meets us chiefly through Scripture.

          • Faith must be sustained and expressed weekly and daily not through annual celebrations.

            • Weekly Lord's Day worship...

            • Daily prayer, repentance, and obedience...

  • While it looks different today than it did in the 16th and 17th centuries, we face the same problem today.

    • Christmas-and-Easter Christianity

      • CEO Faith (Christmas and Easter Only Faith)

    • Camp or Annual Revival Services Christianity

• The Real Question

  • THE REAL QUESTION IS WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR FAITH WHEN THE DECORATIONS COME DOWN?

How to Safeguard Your Spirituality

I. Embrace biblical rhythms.

• We see weekly and daily rhythms in the New Testament.

  • The Daily Walk

    • Matthew 6.11 | Give us today our daily bread. (CSB)

    • Luke 9.23 | Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. (CSB)

    • Acts 17.11 | The people here were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, since they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.(CSB)

  • The Weekly Lord's Day

    • Resurrection Day...

    • Acts 20.7 | On the first day of the week, we assembled to break bread. Paul spoke to them, and since he was about to depart the next day, he kept on talking until midnight. (CSB)

    • 1 Corinthians 16.2 | On the first day of the week, each of you is to set something aside and save in keeping with how he is prospering, so that no collections will need to be made when I come.(CSB)

• The Holy Spirit can do extraordinary things through the ordinary daily and weekly routines.

  • THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS NOT ABOUT INTENSITY, BUT ABOUT CONSISTENCY...

II. Focus on the relationship not an event.

• Events can be helpful, meaningful...

  • But they are not the goal.

    • Christ is the goal.

    • A RELATIONSHIP with Christ is the goal...

• A relationship with Christ:

  • Is cultivated daily...

  • Is fed by Scripture...

  • Is expressed in obedience...

  • Is tested in ordinary life...

• The shepherds show us the pattern:

  • They saw...

  • They heard...

  • They worshiped...

  • And then…

    • THEY RETURNED

• Biblical spirituality is not about celebrations, seasons, or occasional experiences.

  • It is about ABIDING IN CHRIST.

    • John 15.4 | Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. (CSB)

Conclusion

• Church, the shepherds returned, but they did not return unchanged. 

  • They went back to sheep and schedules...

    • To cold nights and ordinary days...

    • All the while...

      • Glorifying and praising God...

• Christmas was not the end of their worship...

  • It was the beginning of their obedience.

• So as the Christmas lights come down and life returns to normal, don’t ask, “Did I feel something?” 

  • Ask this instead: 

    • Will I walk with Christ tomorrow?

    • Will I abide in him this week?

    • Will I return to ordinary life changed?

  • Because real encounters with Christ don’t terminate in an event...

    • They reshape a life.