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Ugly Sweater | Week 1 · Rewind

Rock Point Church

67 min

Pastor Bill Bush · Dec 3, 2018 · 4 min read · 67 min listen

The big idea

Quoting the message: Christmas is about a mission, not a moment, end quote. — God went on a mission for us in Jesus, and now He wants to continue that mission through us.

In this message

The big idea
Point 1 of 6We treat Christmas like an ugly sweater — worn proudly for a season, then packed away.
Point 2 of 6John's gospel tells the Christmas story differently, focused on who Jesus is and why He came rather than the birth narrative details.

Point 3 of 6Jesus is the light the darkness can never extinguish, and He came to restore what sin had broken.
Point 4 of 6John the Baptist models the mission: he pointed away from himself and toward Jesus.
Point 5 of 6Jesus' question, 'What do you want?' and invitation, 'Come and see,' exposes whether we're living for a moment or a mission.
Point 6 of 6We often want a toy from Jesus when He's offering a tool for real life.
Take it into your week
Transcript

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Scripture in this message

John 1
John 1:5
John 1:38

Rewind AI drafted the Big Idea and some point headings shown here from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Pastor Bill Bush · Dec 3, 2018 · 67 min watch · 2 min read

Ugly Sweater | Week 1

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

John 1
John 1:5
John 1:38

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Quoting the message: Christmas is about a mission, not a moment, end quote. — God went on a mission for us in Jesus, and now He wants to continue that mission through us.

Christmas isn't a season we pack away once the feeling fades — it's the story of God's unfailing love and faithfulness breaking into the darkness through Jesus. Pastor Bill shows from John 1 that Jesus came to restore the light and life we lost, and that He now invites us to come and see, and come and be part of that same mission.

Key points

1
1We treat Christmas like an ugly sweater — worn proudly for a season, then packed away.
Pastor Bill opens with the tradition of ugly Christmas sweaters and holiday decorations, noting how we bring out extra joy, generosity, and faith during the season but then put it all away once the moment passes, treating the meaning of Christmas the same way we treat decorations.
2
2John's gospel tells the Christmas story differently, focused on who Jesus is and why He came rather than the birth narrative details.
Pastor Bill explains that John, writing decades after the other gospels as the last living original disciple, skips the manger scene and instead starts 'in the beginning,' echoing Genesis, to show Jesus as the eternal Word who created the very world He entered.
3
3Jesus is the light the darkness can never extinguish, and He came to restore what sin had broken.
Working through John 1, Pastor Bill points out that Jesus is called the Word because He is God's glory, His unfailing love and faithfulness, made visible; even though His own people rejected Him, the darkness could never put out the light He brought.
4
4John the Baptist models the mission: he pointed away from himself and toward Jesus.
Pastor Bill shows that John's job description — to be a witness who testifies to the light — is the same calling given to every follower of Jesus; when challenged about his authority, John made clear the mission was never about him.
5
5Jesus' question, 'What do you want?' and invitation, 'Come and see,' exposes whether we're living for a moment or a mission.
Pastor Bill unpacks the exchange with the first disciples, arguing Jesus was asking a deeper question about their expectations, not just where He was staying, and that His answer, 'come and see,' calls people to follow rather than demand.
6
6We often want a toy from Jesus when He's offering a tool for real life.
Pastor Bill tells the story of receiving a World Book Encyclopedia for Christmas at age six and being disappointed, only to realize years later his mother's gift reflected real love and lasting purpose; he applies this to how we treat Jesus like a vending machine for momentary wants instead of trusting His deeper, faithful plan.

Application

Pastor Bill frames the charge as choosing to come and see, and come and be part of Jesus' mission rather than staying stuck in the moment.

Ask what you actually want from Jesus
Sit with Jesus' question, 'What do you want?' and be honest about whether your answer is a moment answer (fix this, give me that) or a mission answer that trusts His deeper purpose.
Surrender your expectations of what Jesus should do
Like Israel expecting a political savior, or a child expecting a toy, recognize when your disappointment comes from expecting the wrong thing from Jesus rather than trusting His unfailing love and faithfulness.
Choose to come and see
Follow Jesus into whatever He's doing rather than waiting for Him to meet you where you already are; trust that following leads to greater things than you can currently imagine.
Point others to Jesus like John and Philip did
Take up the same calling given to John the Baptist and Philip: be a witness who testifies about Jesus and invites others, 'come and see,' rather than making the mission about yourself.

Take it into your week

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“We're gonna look at the Christmas story in the book of John. And and you're and if you know anything about the Bible, the book of John's different”
From the transcript
“it says in verse five, that the darkness can never extinguish the light. The darkness can never extinguish the light. Are you in darkness right now”
From the transcript
“says that John pointed, he pointed people to Jesus. He knew the mission was it's not about me. There's Jesus. Follow him. That's my job. I need to point you to Jesus. And so he's like, look to Jesus and what he has. Go follow him. So so it says they follow him. And then in verse 38, says, Jesus looked around and saw them following”

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. 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.

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Day 1

Before the manger, before Bethlehem, before any of it — there was the Word. John doesn't open his Gospel with a birth announcement; he opens it with a declaration about eternity. 'In the beginning the Word already existed.' Christmas, then, isn't the start of something. It's the arrival of Someone who was already there at the very foundation of everything. The light and life John describes aren't seasonal feelings — they are the character of Jesus Himself, woven into the fabric of creation from the very beginning. This matters because it reframes what we're actually celebrating. We aren't just marking a holiday or honoring a tradition. We are standing inside the story of the eternal God choosing, in love, to enter the world He made. That world was broken — and He came anyway. That's not sentiment. That's mission. The sermon pointed here on purpose: if Christmas begins 'in the beginning,' then it can't be something you unpack in December and put back in a box in January. It's the opening movement of a mission that is still unfolding — one you and I are invited to be part of right now, today, wherever we are.

For reflection

How does it change the way you approach Christmas — or your faith in general — to see Jesus not as a seasonal figure but as the eternal Word who entered His own creation on purpose?

Pray

Pray for fresh eyes to see Jesus as He truly is — eternal, present, and actively at work — not just as a figure tied to one season of the year.

Day 2

There is a short sentence in John 1 that carries an enormous amount of weight: 'The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.' John wrote that in the present tense — shines, not shone. The light is still shining. That matters because most of us know what it feels like to be in a dark season. Grief, uncertainty, exhaustion, disappointment — darkness isn't abstract for most people; it's a lived experience. And John isn't pretending it isn't real. The darkness is real. But his point is that the darkness does not get the final word. It never has, and it never will. The mission Jesus came on — to restore light and life to broken humanity — is more durable than any darkness you are currently facing. The sermon made this point with pastoral honesty: no matter how dark your season feels right now, the mission of Jesus is greater than any single moment of despair. That isn't a cliché designed to make hard things feel small. It's a claim about the nature of Jesus Himself. He is the light, and the darkness simply has no mechanism for putting Him out. That truth is worth sitting with today — not to rush past the hard parts, but to let the light of Jesus reach into them.

For reflection

What is the 'dark season' or specific circumstance in your life right now where you most need to trust that the light of Jesus is still shining — and still stronger?

Pray

Pray for courage to trust that the light of Jesus is present and active in whatever feels darkest in your life right now.

Day 3

John the Baptist is one of the most striking figures in the New Testament, and the way John's Gospel introduces him is quietly radical. He wasn't the light — he came to point to the light. That single clarification is the whole job description. John's entire ministry, his reason for being, his calling — it was to be a witness who directed attention away from himself and toward Jesus. The sermon drew a direct line from John the Baptist's calling to ours. We are not the light either. We are witnesses. And that distinction is actually freeing, not limiting. We don't have to manufacture the light, sustain the light, or protect the light. The light of Jesus doesn't need our help to keep shining. What we're called to do is point — with our words, our lives, our time, our relationships — toward the One who is. That's the mission Christmas is about. Not a performance. Not a platform. A witness. When John the Baptist showed up in the wilderness, he wasn't building something for himself. He was preparing the way for someone else. The question worth sitting with today is: In your daily life — in the relationships you already have — are you pointing toward Jesus, or are you pointing toward something else?

For reflection

Think of one person in your life who doesn't yet know Jesus. What would it look like for you to be a 'witness' to them — not with pressure or performance, but simply by pointing toward the light?

Pray

Pray for one specific person by name — that God would use your ordinary life as a witness that points them toward Jesus.

Day 4

Jesus' first recorded words in John's Gospel are a question: 'What do you want?' Two disciples are following Him down the road, and He turns around and asks it plainly. It could sound like a simple question. The sermon suggests it is anything but. What Jesus is really probing is the depth of our expectation — not just what we want in the moment, but what we believe following Him is actually supposed to produce in our lives. Most of us, if we're honest, bring a list. Take away this problem. Give me that outcome. Fix this relationship. Heal this diagnosis. Those aren't wrong desires — they're human ones. But the sermon's challenge was direct: when our faith is driven entirely by what we want in the moment, we can miss the deeper, greater things Jesus has prepared for those who trust His mission. 'What do you want?' isn't a trick question and it isn't a dismissal of your real needs. It's an invitation to honesty — with Jesus and with yourself. It asks you to surface what's actually driving you. The disciples in this story didn't have a polished answer either. They asked where He was staying. And He said, 'Come and see.' That's where the real answer begins — not in the want, but in the following.

For reflection

If Jesus asked you right now, 'What do you want?' — what would your honest, unfiltered answer be? And how does that answer reveal what you currently expect following Him to look like?

Pray

Pray for the honesty to bring your real expectations before Jesus — not to clean them up first, but to let Him meet you in them.

Day 5

When the disciples asked Jesus where He was staying, He didn't give them an address. He said, 'Come and see.' Those three words are an invitation past the question and into the experience. You don't get the full picture from a distance. You come. You follow. You see as you go. The sermon pointed to this as the antidote to moment-level faith — the kind of faith that only works when it's getting what it wants and shuts down when it isn't. 'Come and see' is a missional posture. It's what Philip said to Nathaniel when Nathaniel wasn't sure Jesus could be worth following. It's what every follower of Jesus is essentially saying when they invite someone else into the community of faith: I don't have all the answers, but I've seen something worth seeing. Come and see. There's a practical shape to this. Living a 'come and see' life means your faith is visible enough that the invitation is real. It means engaging your neighborhood, your workplace, your family — not with rehearsed arguments but with genuine witness. The mission of Christmas — God entering the world to restore light and life — doesn't pause when the decorations come down. It moves forward every time someone says, with their life and their words, 'Come and see what I've found.'

For reflection

What is one way you could extend a genuine 'come and see' invitation this week — through your actions, your words, or your presence with someone who doesn't yet know Jesus?

Pray

Pray for the courage and the opportunity to say 'come and see' to someone in your life — in whatever form that invitation takes.

Day 6

Nathaniel is barely in the story before Jesus makes him a remarkable promise: 'You will see greater things than this.' Then He points to something from Genesis — heaven open, and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man. He's echoing Jacob's ladder, that image of a stairway between heaven and earth. What Jesus is saying is that He is that stairway. The cross — His unfailing love and faithfulness made visible at its fullest — is what reconnects broken humanity to God. The 'greater things' Jesus promised weren't just more impressive miracles. They were the culmination of the entire mission He came to accomplish. The sermon grounded this point in something the pastor kept returning to: God's love and faithfulness aren't just personality traits — they are the engine of the mission. Because He is faithful, He doesn't abandon what He started. Because He loves, He pays the price that restores the connection. When life feels like God has gone quiet or that your faith isn't producing what you hoped, this is the anchor: the greater things He promised are rooted not in your performance but in His character. He is the stairway. That doesn't change with the season, and it doesn't depend on the moment.

For reflection

Where in your life are you most tempted to measure God's faithfulness by your current circumstances? What would it look like to anchor your trust in His character instead?

Pray

Pray for a deeper trust in God's unfailing love and faithfulness — especially in the areas where you can't yet see the 'greater things' He has promised.

Day 7

Philip finds Nathaniel and says, simply, 'We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about. His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.' Nathaniel's response is skeptical: 'Nazareth? Can anything good come from Nazareth?' And Philip doesn't argue. He doesn't debate. He just says, 'Come and see.' The whole week has been building toward this. Christmas is not a moment to be celebrated and stored away. It is the beginning of a mission that moves through history and through ordinary people — people like Philip, like Nathaniel, like you. The sermon's closing challenge was personal: Why are you following Jesus? If your answer lives only at the level of what you want right now, the invitation is to go deeper. Surrender the moment-driven expectations. Trust His unfailing love and His faithfulness. And then do what Philip did — go find the people in your life and say, with your words and with your whole way of living, 'Come and see.' You were not given the gift of knowing Jesus just to keep it. It is, as the sermon said, not a toy for the moment but a tool for eternity. The mission of Christmas is the mission you were made for. It starts again today.

For reflection

As you look back on this week, what is one specific way God is calling you to move from a seasonal, moment-level faith into the ongoing mission He has prepared for you?

Pray

Pray for the willingness to surrender moment-driven expectations and step fully into the mission Jesus has been inviting you into all along.

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. 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

Think about the last time something surprised you by being far bigger than you expected it to be. This message suggests that Christmas is exactly that kind of surprise — not a moment to be celebrated and packed away, but a mission that stretches from eternity past all the way into our ordinary lives.

Discussion questions

1
John 1:1-5 opens by placing Jesus — 'the Word' — not in Bethlehem but 'in the beginning,' as the eternal Creator who entered His own creation. What does that framing add to the way we understand what is actually happening at Christmas?
2
John 1:6-8 introduces John the Baptist with a very specific job description: he was not the light, but a witness sent to point others to the light. What does that distinction tell us about what it looks like to make a mission about something larger than yourself?
3
In John 1:38, Jesus turns to the disciples who are following Him and asks, 'What do you want?' The message frames that as a deeper question about expectation — not just an immediate request but what someone hopes following Jesus is ultimately going to lead to. What kinds of expectations do people tend to bring to that question?
4
Jesus responds to the disciples with 'Come and see' rather than a direct answer, and Philip uses those same words when he tells Nathaniel about Jesus in John 1:45-46. What does that repeated invitation suggest about how the mission of God tends to move from one person to the next?
5
The message drew a contrast between 'moment-level' faith — give me something I want, take away something I don't — and a missional life oriented around 'greater things.' How might a community of people who have made that shift actually look different from the outside?
6
John 1:5 says the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never extinguished it. The message connected that promise to the 'greater things' Jesus points toward — ultimately the cross — as the foundation of God's unfailing love and faithfulness. How does anchoring that hope in who Jesus is, rather than in a particular outcome, change the way we might hold onto it together?

Pray together

Asking God to loosen our grip on moment-level expectations and to give us eyes to see — and courage to follow — the greater things He has prepared for those who trust His mission

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Ugly Sweater

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