Skip to main content

Ask Rewind

Sign in to ask Rewind about this sermon — answers are grounded in the actual transcripts.

The study, discipleship, and teaching platform built on your church's own preaching.

Product

How it works
Pricing
What's new

Solutions

For churches
For teaching teams
For groups
For seminaries

Company

About
Contact

Legal

Terms
Privacy
How we use AI
Accessibility

© 2026 Rewind

Christmas At Rock Point 2021 · Rewind

Rock Point Church

Pastor Bill Bush · Dec 25, 2021 · 65 min watch · 3 min read

Christmas At Rock Point 2021

Playback speed 1×

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Matthew 2

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Quoting the message: Christmas is about trusting in the truth of a Savior over the traditions of a season, end quote..

Pastor Bill challenges listeners to move beyond the comfortable routines and distractions that can hollow out Christmas and instead place genuine faith in Jesus — the Savior whose birth, life, death, and resurrection are the whole point of the season. Drawing on the contrasting responses of King Herod and the wise men, he argues that clinging to personal sovereignty mirrors Herod's futile war with God, while surrendering to Jesus in worship — as the wise men did — is the only path to real peace, joy, and eternal life.

Key points

1
1Traditions can dull us to the truth they were meant to point toward, causing us to miss what Christmas is really about.
2
2King Herod's response to Jesus — feeling threatened and refusing to surrender his kingship — pictures anyone who stays lord of their own life and ends up at war with God.
3
3The wise men trusted the truth they had, sought Jesus to worship and surrender to Him, and were filled with joy — a picture of saving faith.
4
4We are not mistakers who can clean up a few errors; we are born sinners who need a Savior we cannot be.
5
5Jesus came, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and took on our sin so that by confessing sin and professing Him as Lord we can be made right with God.
6
6True Christmas joy and peace come not from circumstances but from being washed clean through faith in Christ — even the darkest moments can be endured because He is with you.

Application

Pastor Bill calls every listener to stop letting Christmas traditions — however warm or familiar — become a substitute for a real, personal faith in Jesus. The contrast is vivid: Herod kept his throne and lost everything; the wise men surrendered and found joy. The invitation is to do what the wise men did — seek Jesus not out of obligation or habit, but to worship Him and give Him your life. If you have never confessed your sin and professed Jesus as Lord, this moment is your opportunity to start a new tradition rooted in truth. And if you already know Him, let this season strip away the noise and return you to the wonder of what the red and the white really mean: His blood shed for you, and the clean slate only He can give.

Take it into your week

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“So in Matthew chapter two, it says this. Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of King Herod. About that time, some wise men from the Eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem”

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7

The wise men didn't stumble onto Jesus by accident. They saw a sign, they believed it meant something, and they went looking — on purpose, at great cost, across a long road. That kind of seeking is worth sitting with as the Christmas season fills up with noise and obligation. Pastor Bill raised a quiet but serious question in his sermon: Is it possible to keep every tradition, sing every carol, and still miss the whole point? The answer, honestly, is yes. Traditions are not bad — they were designed to point somewhere. But when the pointing stops and the routine takes over, we can find ourselves celebrating a holiday without ever meeting the Person at the center of it. The wise men remind us that the journey toward Jesus is intentional. It requires deciding that the star matters, that what it points to is real, and that getting there is worth whatever the road costs. This week is an invitation — not an obligation — to ask whether your Christmas is pointing you somewhere, and whether that somewhere is Jesus Himself. You don't have to have everything figured out. The wise men didn't either. They just knew the destination was worth the trip.

For reflection

When you think honestly about how you've experienced Christmas in recent years, what has it mostly been pointing you toward?

Pray

Pray for eyes to see past the familiar surface of this season to the Person it was always meant to celebrate.

King Herod heard the same news the wise men heard — a king had been born — and his response was to feel threatened. The text says he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Not curious, not hopeful, not open. Troubled. Pastor Bill pointed out that Herod's reaction pictures something that lives in all of us: the deep, instinctive resistance to surrendering our own throne to someone else, even when that someone else is God. Herod didn't oppose Jesus out of cruelty alone. He opposed Him because Jesus arriving meant Herod could no longer be the final authority over his own story. That is a recognizable feeling, even for people who would never describe themselves as Herod-like. Holding onto control, keeping God at arm's length, managing our own lives on our own terms — these feel like wisdom until you look at where they lead. Herod kept his throne until the day he lost everything, including his own soul's peace. The hard and freeing truth the sermon pressed on is that clinging to personal sovereignty is not a neutral position. It is, in its own quiet way, a war with God — and it is a war no one wins. Sitting with that today is not meant to produce guilt, but clarity.

For reflection

Is there an area of your life where you sense you are holding the throne tightly — unwilling to let Jesus be Lord of it?

Pray

Pray for honesty about the places where self-sovereignty still feels safer than surrender.

When the wise men saw the star had stopped, the text says they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. That is not restrained language. Matthew is describing people who have been on a long, uncertain road and have finally arrived at the thing they came for. And what did they do when they got there? They fell down and worshipped. Then they opened their treasures and gave. The order matters: worship first, then giving. The giving was not a transaction designed to earn access to Jesus. It was the natural overflow of people who had already bowed. Pastor Bill held this up as a picture of saving faith — not a faith built on obligation or religious habit, but on the genuine recognition that the One in front of you is worth everything. Joy in the Bible is rarely the product of good circumstances. The wise men were far from home, in a foreign land, kneeling on a dirt floor. The joy came from the presence of Jesus, not from the comfort of the setting. This is a word worth carrying into the harder parts of your own Christmas season. If joy has felt thin or conditional lately, the invitation here is to come back to the posture of the wise men: seek Him to worship Him, not to check a box.

For reflection

What would it look like for you to approach Jesus this season with the intentionality and open-handed worship the wise men showed?

Pray

Pray for a heart posture of genuine worship — open, unhurried, and focused on Jesus rather than on what you need from Him right now.

Related passage

Pastor Bill made a distinction in the sermon that is worth spending a whole day with: we are not mistakers who need a little correction. We are sinners who need a Savior we cannot be for ourselves. That is a different diagnosis, and it requires a different remedy. The word 'sinner' can feel heavy or clinical, but in Scripture it is simply an honest description of the human condition. Romans 3:23 puts it plainly — all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Not most people, not the obviously broken ones. All. This matters at Christmas because the whole logic of the Incarnation depends on it. If our problem were basically fixable with better habits or stronger effort, God sending His Son into a manger would be a dramatic overreaction. But if the problem runs all the way down — if what we need is a rescue we cannot perform for ourselves — then the manger is not just a warm story. It is the most important event in human history. Sitting honestly with this truth is not meant to discourage you. It is meant to help you see the gift clearly. You don't have to clean yourself up before you come to Jesus. The entire point is that He came because you couldn't.

For reflection

How does understanding yourself as someone who genuinely needed rescuing — rather than just someone who needed improving — change how you receive the Christmas story?

Pray

Pray for the humility to receive the gift of the gospel on its own terms, not on the terms of your own self-improvement.

Related passage

The sermon's central invitation was direct and personal: if you have never confessed your sin and professed Jesus as Lord, this is your moment. Pastor Bill wasn't reading from a script or following a formula — he was pointing to the hinge on which everything turns. Romans 10:9-10 describes it in plain terms: confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved. The two movements — confession and profession — are not a ritual to complete. They are the outward expression of an inward turning. Confession names what is true: that you have lived as your own lord, and that you cannot fix what that has cost you. Profession names what is also true: that Jesus is Lord, that His resurrection proved it, and that you are staking your life on Him. For those who have already made this turn, today is a day to remember it — to trace back to the moment your story changed, or to the slow dawning of faith that you could not undo if you tried. For anyone still on the edge of that threshold, the door is open. No special circumstances required. No cleaning up first. Just the honesty of where you are and the willingness to come.

For reflection

If someone asked you to describe in your own words what it means to confess sin and profess Jesus as Lord, what would you say?

Pray

Pray for the courage to name where you are honestly before God — whether that is taking a first step of faith or renewing your gratitude for the step you've already taken.

Related passage

Toward the end of the sermon, Pastor Bill pointed to the colors of Christmas — red and white — as more than decoration. Red for the blood of Jesus, shed in our place. White for the clean slate only He can give. Isaiah 1:18 speaks to that image directly: 'Come now, let's settle this,' says the Lord. 'Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.' That is not a gentle suggestion. That is God initiating a conversation about the very thing we tend to avoid most — our own record, our own failures, our own need. And the direction of the offer is striking: He is the one asking us to come. He is the one doing the making-white. We are not scrubbing ourselves clean in the back room before we're allowed in. He is calling us to settle the matter face to face, and He is the one who provides the remedy. This is the logic at the heart of Christmas. The season of red and green and gold is actually, underneath all of it, a season of red and white — blood and cleansing, cost and gift. Letting that truth sit close today is not about feeling bad. It is about letting the full weight of what was given land somewhere real in you.

For reflection

What would it mean for you, practically and personally, to carry the truth of Isaiah 1:18 into the rest of this Christmas season?

Pray

Pray for a fresh sense of wonder at the exchange the gospel offers — your record for His righteousness — and for gratitude that is grounded in what it actually cost.

Looking back across the week, the whole arc of Matthew 2:1-12 holds together as a story about response. Two responses to the same news, in the same moment, in the same city — and they led to completely different destinations. Herod clutched his crown and lost everything. The wise men opened their hands and were filled with joy. Pastor Bill's sermon asked, quietly but clearly, which response describes you. Not which tradition you celebrate or how much Christmas means to you sentimentally — but whether you have actually surrendered to the One the whole season points to. That is not a question designed to produce anxiety. It is the most important and freeing question you can carry. Because the invitation is still open. The wise men were not insiders. They were outsiders, from far away, with an incomplete picture — and Jesus received their worship. He receives yours too, wherever you are coming from and however far the road has felt. As this week closes, let the story do what it was always meant to do: not just move you, but move you toward Jesus. Bring Him what you have. Bow where you are. Let this Christmas be the one where the traditions finally delivered you to the thing they were pointing at all along.

For reflection

As you look back on this week of reflection, what is one specific, concrete way you want to live differently because of what Christmas is actually about?

Pray

Pray for the commitment to carry what this week stirred in you past December — into ordinary days, real relationships, and the rest of your life.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Christmas traditions can carry a lot of meaning — but Pastor Bill suggested they can also quietly become a substitute for the real thing. As you settle in, think about what made Christmas feel significant to you growing up.

Discussion questions

1
Pastor Bill described how traditions that were meant to point us toward truth can gradually dull us to that truth instead. What makes a tradition start to hollow out — and what might keep it from going that direction?
2
In Matthew 2:3, King Herod hears about Jesus and is deeply disturbed. What does his response tell us about what it looks like when someone feels threatened by Jesus rather than drawn to Him?
3
In Matthew 2:10-11, the wise men see the star, arrive at the house, and respond with overwhelming joy and worship. What stands out about the way they approached Jesus — and how does that contrast with Herod's response?
4
Pastor Bill drew a distinction between being someone who makes mistakes and being someone who is, at the root, a sinner in need of a Savior. Why does that distinction matter for how people understand what Jesus actually came to do?
5
Pastor Bill suggested that the red and white of Christmas imagery can point to something real — the blood of Christ and the clean slate only He can give. How might that kind of meaning change the way a community or family experiences familiar holiday symbols?
6
Pastor Bill described a joy and peace that holds even in the darkest moments, grounded not in circumstances but in being made right with God through faith. What would it look like, practically, for a community of people to live out of that kind of peace during a season that often carries its own pressures and grief?

Pray together

Gratitude that Jesus came not to be served but to seek and save — and a fresh surrender to Him as Lord this season

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Sign in to save this message.

Go deeper

Where this passage is preached

Explore related topics

Christmas's True Meaning Joy in Christ Personal Sovereignty vs. God's Rule Saving Faith Surrender to Christ

Related sermons

Hope Is Born | Part 2
Pastor Scott Rodgers · Dec 15, 2019
Shares scripture
Essentials | Week 4
Pastor Bill Bush · Aug 24, 2026
Same speaker
Essentials | Week 3
Pastor Bill Bush · Aug 16, 2026
Same speaker
Weekday Warrior | Week 4
Pastor Bill Bush · Jul 26, 2026
Same speaker
Weekday Warrior | Week 1
Pastor Bill Bush · Jul 6, 2026
Same speaker
Playlist For | Week 4
Pastor Bill Bush · Jun 16, 2026
Same speaker

Powered by Rewind · make your church's Rewind →