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Go Tell It | Week 1 | Sermon · Rewind

Rock Point Church

57 min

Pastor Bill Bush · Dec 11, 2024 · 4 min read · 57 min listen

The big idea

Quoting the message: The joy of the manger is found in the gift on the cross, end quote. — Christmas and Easter are the same story, and only by connecting them can we find real joy.

In this message

The big idea
Point 1 of 7Christmas and Easter are the same story, told through the same plot line.
Point 2 of 7The shepherds understood Jesus because they raised the sacrificial lambs, and that lamb imagery points to why we must accept the gift.

Point 3 of 7Confusing Christmas with 'Santa theology' — a contractual, earn-your-blessing view of God — steals our joy.
Point 4 of 7Psalm 23 shows that God doesn't promise to remove the valley, but to walk through it with us.
Point 5 of 7Accepting the gift means confessing we are sinners and resting in Jesus' finished work rather than our own effort.
Point 6 of 7Once we've received the gift, we're called to live in resurrection hope rather than shelving it like an unused gift.
Point 7 of 7Telling others about Jesus should flow joyfully out of understanding grace, illustrated through the life of John Newton.
Take it into your week
Transcript

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Scripture in this message

Matthew 28
Matthew 28:1
Luke 2
Luke 2:8
John 1:29
Psalm 23

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 11, 2024 · 57 min watch · 2 min read

Go Tell It | Week 1 | Sermon

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Matthew 28
Matthew 28:1
Luke 2
Luke 2:8
John 1:29
Psalm 23

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Quoting the message: The joy of the manger is found in the gift on the cross, end quote. — Christmas and Easter are the same story, and only by connecting them can we find real joy.

Christmas can feel confusing when it's disconnected from the cross, but the baby in the manger and the risen Jesus are the same story of grace. Real joy isn't found in getting what we want from God like a cosmic Santa, but in accepting the gift of Jesus, resting in His finished work, and living out that hope even in hard seasons.

Key points

1
1Christmas and Easter are the same story, told through the same plot line.
Pastor Bill reads Matthew 28's resurrection account and then Luke 2's shepherd account side by side, showing the parallels: an angel appears, people are terrified, they're told 'go tell,' and they respond with joy. Words like 'savior' and 'messiah' spoken to the shepherds are, he points out, really Easter words.
2
2The shepherds understood Jesus because they raised the sacrificial lambs, and that lamb imagery points to why we must accept the gift.
Pastor Bill explains that these particular shepherds cared for the temple's sacrificial flocks, so when told the Messiah was a baby in a manger, they immediately understood He was the lamb born to die for sin, unlike the disciples, who took years to grasp it. He ties this to John 1:29 and explains the sacrificial system always pointed forward to grace, not to earning God's favor.
3
3Confusing Christmas with 'Santa theology' — a contractual, earn-your-blessing view of God — steals our joy.
He unpacks how kids (and adults) treat God like Santa: be good, get rewarded; be bad, get coal. He shows how this system leads either to arrogance when things go well or to hopelessness and anger at God when they don't, and argues this is the real source of Christmas depression.
4
4Psalm 23 shows that God doesn't promise to remove the valley, but to walk through it with us.
He walks through the psalm's imagery of sheep being foolish and easily led astray, needing to be made to rest and led to loud, moving water they'd otherwise fear. He stresses the psalm never promises we'll avoid the valley of the shadow of death, only that God will be present in it, which he contrasts with the Santa-theology expectation of getting what we want.
5
5Accepting the gift means confessing we are sinners and resting in Jesus' finished work rather than our own effort.
He defines sin using the archery term hamartia — missing the mark, going our own way — and explains that real faith means confessing that distance from God and trusting the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus rather than a system of earning blessing. He leads the congregation in a prayer of response at this point.
6
6Once we've received the gift, we're called to live in resurrection hope rather than shelving it like an unused gift.
Drawing on Jesus' words 'it is finished,' Pastor Bill says Christmas begins the mission that Easter completes, and that our call now is to actually live from that finished work day to day, not just believe it intellectually. He quotes Max Lucado's line about the cradle and the cross to reinforce that both halves of the story matter.
7
7Telling others about Jesus should flow joyfully out of understanding grace, illustrated through the life of John Newton.
He tells the story of John Newton, a slave ship captain converted at sea, who kept working the slave trade for years before leaving it, becoming a pastor, mentoring William Wilberforce, and writing Amazing Grace. Pastor Bill highlights Newton's line 'grace that taught my heart to fear, but grace my fears relieved' to show that embracing grace, not avoiding it, is what relieves our fears.

Application

Pastor Bill's charge is to stop living by Santa theology and instead accept the gift, live in resurrection hope, and go tell it joyfully.

Accept the gift of Jesus
Confess that you're a sinner who has gone your own way, and put your faith in Jesus' death and resurrection rather than trying to earn God's favor through good behavior.
Live in resurrection hope
Don't just believe the gospel intellectually and shelve it — actually rest in the finished work of Jesus day to day, especially in hard seasons, rather than doubting when life gets difficult.
Go tell it joyfully
Invite someone in your life to Christmas Eve service and share Jesus with them out of joy and love, not obligation, fear, or as a way to avoid people.

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've been in the book of Matthew forever. We're in the last chapter of Matthew. That's why within this next two weeks, and then it's Christmas, by the way, It's go tell it because we're looking at the two parts of Matthew 28”
From the transcript
“And it says in verse one, early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb”
From the transcript
“But now let's turn to Luke chapter two. And Jesus has been born, and starting in verse eight, there's these shepherds sitting out in a field at night watching their sheep”
From the transcript
“And Jesus has been born, and starting in verse eight, there's these shepherds sitting out in a field at night watching their sheep, and something amazing happens”
From the transcript
“Matter of fact, John one twenty nine says it this way. How to experience the next day, John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, look, The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”
From the transcript
“I mean, think about it. The most popular passage in all of scripture that people love, Psalms 23, and we love it. We faint. It's so encouraging”

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.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

Day 1

Pastor Bill opened with a striking claim: Christmas and Easter are not two separate holidays — they are one story told in two chapters. The manger only makes sense when you know where the story is going, and the empty tomb only carries its full weight when you remember it all began with a baby born to die. Matthew 28 opens in the dark — early Sunday morning, before the sun is up — and ends with women running from an empty tomb, filled with what the text calls 'great joy.' That phrase is worth sitting with. These were women who had watched Jesus die. Their circumstances had not improved; Rome was still Rome, and grief was still fresh. Yet joy arrived anyway, not because things got easier, but because the One they loved had conquered the thing that threatened everything. This is the foundation the whole week is built on. If you have ever felt like Christmas joy is somehow supposed to appear automatically — like good cheer is the natural weather of December — and then felt guilty when it didn't, this is where to start. Real Christmas joy is not produced by circumstances. It is received as a gift from a risen Savior who is already on the other side of the worst thing that could happen. The manger and the empty tomb belong together, and together they are where joy actually lives.

For reflection

When you think about Christmas joy, are you more often reaching for a feeling or resting in a fact? What is the difference for you personally?

Pray

Pray for eyes to see Christmas and Easter as one connected story, and ask God to anchor your joy in that truth rather than in how December feels.

Day 2

Pastor Bill pointed out something easy to miss in the nativity scene: the shepherds outside Bethlehem were not ordinary farmers. They were most likely tending the temple flocks — lambs raised specifically for sacrifice in Jerusalem. These were men whose whole working lives were spent with animals destined to die for the sins of the people. When the angel announced that the Savior had been born, these men ran to find Him. And when they got there and saw an infant lying in a feeding trough, something clicked that most of Israel simply did not see: this baby was the Lamb. Their daily work had been, without their knowing it, a long preparation to recognize Him. There is something quietly beautiful about that. God chose as His first human witnesses people who already knew, in their bones, what a sacrificial lamb looked like. They had been handling this reality for years. And so when they left the manger, verse 20 says they returned 'glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.' They were not confused. They were overwhelmed. This is an invitation to let what you already know about your own need — the places where you know you have fallen short and needed someone to cover you — become the thing that helps you recognize the gift more clearly.

For reflection

Is there something in your own story, even something hard, that has quietly prepared you to recognize your need for Jesus more clearly?

Pray

Pray for the kind of clear-eyed recognition the shepherds had — that what you see in Jesus matches the depth of what you know you need.

Day 3

When John the Baptist saw Jesus walking toward him, he did not say, 'Here comes a great teacher,' or 'Here comes a moral example.' He said, 'Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!' It is a statement that connects every animal sacrifice in Israel's history to this one moment, and it is the interpretive key Pastor Bill placed at the center of the sermon. Pastor Bill described what he called 'Santa theology' — the idea that God is keeping a list, weighing your behavior, and deciding how much favor you deserve based on your performance. It is honestly a very human way to think about God, because it mirrors how so much of life works. Work harder, get more. Behave better, earn reward. But John 1:29 announces that the entire system has been replaced — not by lowering the standard, but by Jesus meeting it completely, in your place. Accepting the gift means releasing the performance treadmill. It means trusting that what Jesus did is enough — not a down payment that your good behavior tops off, but a finished transaction. That word 'takes away' in John's statement is active and complete. The Lamb does not reduce sin or manage it; He removes it. Christmas joy begins the moment that truth moves from something you believe in theory to something you actually rest in.

For reflection

In what area of your life are you still trying to earn something from God that He has already freely given?

Pray

Pray for the courage to stop performing and to genuinely rest in the finished work of Jesus — and ask God to show you where that is hardest for you.

Day 4

Psalm 23 is one of the most quoted passages in the Bible, but Pastor Bill drew attention to the line most people would rather skip: 'Even when I walk through the darkest valley.' Not around it. Not above it. Through it. The promise is not that following Jesus means your circumstances will stay comfortable. The promise is presence — 'You are with me.' And it is precisely because the Shepherd has walked through the valley of death Himself and come out the other side that His presence in yours means something. He is not coaching you from a safe distance. He has been there. This is where Christmas gets real for a lot of people. Not everyone arrives at December feeling festive. Some people arrive exhausted, grieving, anxious, or quietly hollow inside. Pastor Bill's point was not that those feelings are wrong — they are honest. His point was that the joy the angels announced is not cancelled by the valley. It walks into it with you. The Shepherd in Psalm 23 is the same Lamb in John 1:29 and the same risen Lord in Matthew 28. The one who tends you through the dark places is the one who has already conquered what waits at the end of the darkest road. You do not have to feel better to have hope. You just have to know whose hand you are holding.

For reflection

What valley are you walking through right now, and what would it look like today to reach for Jesus' presence there rather than waiting for the valley to end?

Pray

Pray honestly about the hard place you are currently in, and ask the Shepherd to make His presence more real to you than your circumstances.

Day 5

The angel's announcement to the shepherds carries a word that is easy to slide past: 'I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.' Not some people. Not the people who have it together. All people. Pastor Bill's point about resurrection hope is connected here. Christmas is not the moment of completion — it is the beginning of a mission that the cross and empty tomb would finish. Jesus was not born simply to teach a better way of living. He was born to accomplish something on behalf of people who could not accomplish it themselves. The 'good news' the angel announced was not 'try harder now that God has arrived.' It was 'a Savior has come to do what you cannot.' Living in resurrection hope means keeping that distinction clear, especially when life is hard. It means your confidence is not in your own spiritual performance improving, but in a mission that has already been completed. The Christmas season can subtly push us toward self-improvement mode — be more generous, be more grateful, be more present. None of that is bad. But underneath all of it, resurrection hope says the most important thing has already been done, and you are living in the light of it. That is a foundation that does not shift when January comes and the decorations come down.

For reflection

What would change in how you face the coming week if you genuinely believed the most important thing in your life was already finished, not still in progress?

Pray

Pray for a deeper confidence in the completed work of Jesus — ask God to help resurrection hope become your real foundation, not just a seasonal feeling.

Day 6

After the shepherds saw Jesus, they could not stay quiet. Luke says they 'told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said.' And the people who heard them 'were astonished.' There was no organized campaign, no polished communication strategy — just people who had seen something so real that saying nothing felt impossible. Pastor Bill made the connection plainly: the deeper you understand how much grace you have personally needed, the more naturally and freely you will want to point others toward it. Sharing the gospel does not begin with learning the right words. It begins with actually grasping what you have been given. The shepherds did not go tell it because someone assigned them the task. They went because what they had encountered was too large to carry alone. That is the model Pastor Bill set out in the third movement of his application: think of one person who needs to hear that Jesus is the answer, and find a way to get them in a room where they can hear it — or simply be honest with them in conversation. This is not a pressure to perform. It is a natural outflow of the first two movements — accepting the gift and living in resurrection hope. When those two things are real to you, telling someone becomes less about obligation and more about not being able to help yourself.

For reflection

Who is the one person that came to mind when Pastor Bill said to think of someone who needs to know Jesus is the answer? What is one small, honest step you could take toward them?

Pray

Pray for that specific person by name, and ask God to open a natural door for you to point them toward Jesus in a way that feels true to who you are.

Day 7

You have spent a week sitting with a single sermon's worth of truth, and it is worth naming what that truth adds up to. Christmas joy is real — but it is not the kind that depends on things going well. It is the kind that survived the cross, walked out of a tomb, and ran toward frightened women in a garden saying, 'Don't be afraid.' Pastor Bill's three movements — accept the gift, live in resurrection hope, go tell it joyfully — are not a checklist to complete before Christmas arrives. They are a way of being oriented. The person who accepts the gift is no longer trying to earn what has already been freely given. The person living in resurrection hope does not need the valley to end before they can trust the Shepherd. And the person who goes and tells it is not doing so out of duty, but out of the overflow of what they have actually received. If this week surfaced something personal — a question, a struggle, a place where the sermon's truth feels true in theory but hard to hold in real life — the best next step is not more solitude with the devotional. It is a real conversation with someone at Rock Point who can walk with you in it. The sermon pointed to Jesus; this week pointed back to the sermon. Now let the community around you help you carry it forward.

For reflection

Looking back over this week, which of the three movements — accepting the gift, living in resurrection hope, or going to tell it — feels most alive in you, and which one is the invitation you are still sitting with?

Pray

Pray with gratitude for the whole story — the manger and the cross, Christmas and Easter — and ask God to make the joy that comes from that story something you carry past the season.

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

Christmas and Easter can feel like two separate holidays on the calendar, but this message makes the case that they're actually one story — and that changes everything about what Christmas joy really is.

Discussion questions

1
In Matthew 28:1-9, the women come to a tomb expecting death and instead encounter resurrection. Pastor Bill connected that moment directly back to the manger. What does that connection suggest about what Christmas is actually celebrating?
2
In Luke 2:8-20, it's shepherds — people who spent their lives raising temple lambs — who are the first ones sent to see Jesus. Why do you think the announcement goes to them first, and what might they have understood about the child in the manger that others missed?
3
Pastor Bill described what he called 'Santa theology' — the idea that God's favor is something we earn through good behavior. How does John 1:29, where John the Baptist calls Jesus 'the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,' push back against that way of thinking?
4
Psalm 23 pictures God walking with His people through the valley — not lifting them out of it. Pastor Bill made the point that the joy of the Lord isn't removed when life is hard. What does it look like, practically, for a community of people to reach for the hand of Jesus in the valley rather than just reaching for circumstances to improve?
5
The shepherds in Luke 2 didn't organize a campaign — they just started telling everyone what they had seen and heard. Pastor Bill said the deeper you grasp how much grace you've needed, the more freely and joyfully you share it. What does that connection between receiving grace and wanting to talk about it say about what actually motivates people to point others toward Jesus?
6
Pastor Bill challenged us to think of one person who needs to hear that Jesus is the answer and to find a way to invite them into that conversation — whether through a Christmas Eve service or a simple, honest exchange. What might get in the way of that, and how might holding the manger and the cross together as one story make it feel less daunting?

Pray together

Gratitude for the grace we didn't earn, and courage to carry it joyfully to the people around us

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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Go Tell It

Week 1 · 2 messages

Where these passages are preached

Matthew 28 Luke 2 John 1 Psalm 23

Explore related topics

Christmas and the Cross Freedom From Fear Grace and Redemption Resurrection Hope Sharing Your Faith

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