The Best Christmas Pageant Ever - The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Message from Kingdom Arts in Action at The Road on 12/14/2025

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello everyone, I'm Dr. Steve Holt. I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast. Each week we go into God's Word. We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse. And we are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world. So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life. In my opinion, there's no need really for a gospel presentation after that. Because what's so special and powerful about that story, which I grew up with, by the way, I remember in the early 70s, I was in eighth grade, and mom pulled out this little book with this angel, you know, on the front looking like this, and read us the best Christmas pageant ever. It's now become really famous. And there was a movie last year. Did anybody see the movie? Fantastic movie. It was so good. And, you know, I think that the thing that gripped my heart was the scandal, the scandal of Christmas that we miss in our more sanitized silent night, warm, you know, shepherds with bathrobes on kind of pageantry that loses the power and the anointing of what actually happened at that first Christmas. Uh, an unwed mother, a barn or cave. If you've been to Israel before, they'll show you a cave when you go to the West Bank in Bethlehem. So it probably was a cave rather than a barn. Wood was hard to find at that time. As a matter of fact, Joseph, who was a carpenter, was really more of a stonemason. We know that from history. So it probably was a cave, and it was probably stinky, and it was probably wet, and it's probably cold, and they had no family. And I'm willing to wager that most of the women in here that have had children would have found that a scandal, that you had no family, no midwife, and no help. And so Gladys gets it. I mean, she she somehow, and Imogene gets it, and and and Ollie gets it. They understand something because it's the first time they've heard it. And it may seem strange growing up in the background that I have with a pastor father, but I didn't really get the story until I was at Georgia, and I was an 18-year-old kid, and I was injured from an athletic injury, and a guy shared with me the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it was on a hill at the University of Georgia. I can still remember the place, it's still there to this day, and it was like it made new sense to me. Baptized as an infant, catechized as a 16-year-old, but yet it didn't penetrate my heart. And I think what happened to the herdmans was they encountered Jesus. They didn't encounter the Christmas story. They thought the Christmas story, as it was being read to them and its sanitized King James Version Bible, was kind of dumb. But they saw through that from a street smart family that understood that here was someone who they could relate to. If you have your Bible, would you look at Luke 4? Next week, next week I'm going to share the whole Christmas story, but I think for our brief time together here this morning, I just want to read Luke 4 because I think this captures what the herdmans understood to be the true story, even though they couldn't have articulated it this way. It's in Luke 4.18. And a crying baby's perfect. Perfect thing to happen as we share the Christmas story. It's fantastic. Luke 4.18, Jesus gives his mission statement. This is the mission statement of Jesus. And I think this is what touched the herdmans. This is what touched me so many years ago. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. This is Jesus speaking, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. You see, what I think happened to the herdmans can happen to us is that we come to understand that there's power and poverty, there's anointing and humility, and that that's why Jesus came. It's called hoopostasis. Does anybody know that term? It's a theological term. But it means that Jesus came 100% divine and 100% human, all in one person. And it's a mystery. We don't understand it. But he could relate to us because that's who he came for. He came to set the captives free. And here was a family that understood captivity and they encountered Jesus. Have you encountered Jesus? I remember that first time I heard Revelation 3.20. Revelation 3.20. Jesus said, and some of your Bibles say, hey! Or look. And then some say, Behold. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens that door, I'll come into him. And so an innkeeper had a knock and he had no room. Herod heard a knock, no room. Kings and priests, the chief priests, the high priest, no room. But then a bunch of shepherds, a bunch of average fishermen, and some women of the night heard the knock and they responded. And they encountered Jesus. And here we are all these years later, and still Jesus comes and he knocks. He knocks on the door of your heart. Have you encountered the real Jesus? Not the Jesus that sanitized and westernized and Christmas pageant Jesus. But the real Jesus, the ruthless one who comes to tear down the captivity of the devil. What did we read? Wow. To heal the brokenhearted. Proclaim liberty to captives. Well, you know, you can't be healed if you don't know you're brokenhearted. And you can't receive the liberty if you don't know you're captive. The herdman's got it. How many of you today have ever really given your heart to Christ? I mean said, I'm going to follow Jesus for the rest of my life. I'm going to surrender all. Not just for salvation someday, but for liberty right now. That's why Jesus came. That's why he loves you. And that's why we have Christmas pageants. And that's why the dominion of the Christian message and the liberty of Jesus is spreading all over the world. Unprecedented movement in all of human history. The word you could put over it is dominion. His dominion is coming and it's reigning and ruling all over the earth. And you're here today because a rag cad group of about 120 people sat up in an upper room after Jesus was risen from the dead and ascended to heaven, and they waited and they waited, and the Holy Spirit came down. And this broken group of men and women changed the world. And He can change your heart. He can change your life. Let's stand. And I have to ask you this morning: have you really encountered the real Jesus? The real Jesus loves you. The real Jesus gave his life for you. The real Jesus wants you to open the door of your heart to him. Would all of you just bow your heads right now? And if you've never ever, or maybe you have, but even at the sound of my voice, you wonder, I don't know if I've really encountered the real Jesus. I've encountered the religious Jesus, but I don't know if I know the real Jesus. But I want to open the door of my heart this morning and begin the wonderful adventure, the most powerful adventure, the most amazing movement in human history in my heart. With your heads bowed, raise your hand if you'd like to receive the real Jesus. Amen. Amen. Others, yes, amen. Yes, I see those hands. Awesome. So here's the prayer I prayed. You can put your hands down. Would you pray with me, Father God, I love you. Come into my heart. Make me the kind of person you want me to be. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. Thank you for raised, being raised up again on the third day. Come with your Holy Spirit and make me a new being, a new person, a son of God, a daughter of God. In the name of Jesus. Amen. So next week, next week, we're gonna look at the whole story. And we're gonna read it from the very beginning. And I'll give you a teaser about next week. The teaser is that God became a man that man could become God. God became man that man could become God. Now, small g God. But there is a divine nature that's now available to each of you to do amazing things through the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's what I'm gonna camp on next week.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast. We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world. For more information about the Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org. That's therode.org.