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Christmas At Rock Point · Rewind

Rock Point Church

72 min

Pastor Bill Bush · Dec 25, 2018 · 5 min read · 72 min listen

The big idea

Jesus was born so that we could be born again — the real answer to what you're looking for this Christmas is right in front of you, if you'll actually look at Him.

In this message

The big idea
Point 1 of 6We often miss the obvious answer because we're focused on the wrong thing
Point 2 of 6Nicodemus came to Jesus spiritual but still missing the point, and Jesus told him he must be born again

Point 3 of 6Eternal life (Zoe) isn't just never dying, it's life found in God, available despite our circumstances
Point 4 of 6Israel's wilderness complaints show how we reject God's provision when the journey feels too long
Point 5 of 6God didn't take away the snakes, He gave a cure — and the same is true of sin
Point 6 of 6God doesn't always remove the hard path, but He promises to take us through it
Take it into your week
Transcript

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Scripture in this message

John 3:1
John 3:14-16
John 3:16
John 3:14-15
Proverbs 14:12
Numbers 21

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 25, 2018 · 72 min watch · 3 min read

Christmas At Rock Point

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

John 3:1
John 3:14-16
John 3:16
John 3:14-15
Proverbs 14:12
Numbers 21

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Jesus was born so that we could be born again — the real answer to what you're looking for this Christmas is right in front of you, if you'll actually look at Him.

Christmas is the story of God coming to give us real life — life found in Him, not just fleeting moments of happiness. Like Israel in the wilderness, we're all snake-bitten by sin, but God didn't remove the danger, He gave us something to look at. Jesus, lifted up like the bronze snake on the pole, is the cure; all we have to do is look to Him and believe.

Key points

1
1We often miss the obvious answer because we're focused on the wrong thing
Pastor Bill opens with the well-known 'moonwalking bear' awareness video, where viewers counting basketball passes miss a bear walking through the scene. He applies this directly to Christmas: people are searching for peace, contentment, and joy but are so busy counting passes that they miss Jesus, who is right in front of them.
2
2Nicodemus came to Jesus spiritual but still missing the point, and Jesus told him he must be born again
Pastor Bill walks through John 3, where Nicodemus, a Pharisee and teacher of the law, comes to Jesus at night believing in spiritual things but not understanding the new birth. Jesus explains that physical birth isn't enough — a spiritual birth by the Holy Spirit is required to enter the kingdom of God.
3
3Eternal life (Zoe) isn't just never dying, it's life found in God, available despite our circumstances
Pastor Bill unpacks the Greek word for 'life' in John 3:16, explaining it means life as the creator intended, marked by peace, contentment, and joy that isn't dependent on circumstances. He contrasts this with life lived on our own terms, which only offers fleeting moments before ending in nothing.
4
4Israel's wilderness complaints show how we reject God's provision when the journey feels too long
Pastor Bill retells Numbers 21, where the Israelites, fed daily by miraculous manna, complain there's nothing to eat and grumble against God and Moses on the long road to the promised land. He compares it to kids on a long road trip and to modern believers who resist God's plan and provision when it doesn't come the way they want.
5
5God didn't take away the snakes, He gave a cure — and the same is true of sin
When the people were bitten by poisonous snakes and cried out, God told Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole; anyone who looked at it would live. Pastor Bill explains this wasn't magic, it was trust in God, and it foreshadowed Jesus, who was lifted up on the cross and became sin, taking the poison that kills us, so that all we have to do is look to Him.
6
6God doesn't always remove the hard path, but He promises to take us through it
Pastor Bill tells the story of his son's separation anxiety in kindergarten, and how his wife gave the boy a verse from Philippians to carry in his pocket instead of taking away school. The boy's situation didn't change, but looking to Jesus changed him, which Pastor Bill offers as the pattern for how faith works for anyone in a hard season.

Application

Pastor Bill's charge is to stop counting the passes and look to Jesus, the moonwalking bear who was there the whole time.

Look to Jesus instead of your own plan
Admit you've run the wrong way looking for peace, contentment, or happiness on your own terms, and turn your attention to Jesus as the actual answer.
Trust God's provision even on the long road
When the journey feels too long or His provision looks disappointing, resist the urge to complain or demand a shortcut, and trust that the harder path may be His protection.
Pray the prayer and look to Jesus for the first time
If you've never been born again, pray the prayer Pastor Bill led, putting your faith in Jesus rather than yourself, and raise your hand as a step of courage.
Recommit if you've gotten distracted
If you're already a believer but have drifted from looking to Jesus, use this moment to recommit and remember why you're thankful.
Carry Jesus with you into hard moments like a verse in your pocket
In seasons of fear or frustration, look to Jesus rather than the circumstance itself, trusting that He may not remove the hard thing but will take you through it.

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
“it's in the book of John chapter three and starting in verse one, it says this, there was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee”
Read the whole chapter →
From the transcript
“And then in verse fourteen, fifteen, and 16, he explains what the second birth looks like. He basically tells Nicodemus, here's how it works”
From the transcript
“For this is how god loved the world. Verse 16, the most famous verse in the Bible, for this is how god loved the world. He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal”
From the transcript
“and as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up. So that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life”
From the transcript
“the Bible says, there's a way that seems right to man but in the end, it leads to death. What that's saying is there's a way we try to go after life”
From the transcript
“it's in the book of Numbers chapter 21. Numbers, that sounds like math. Numbers is really the chronicles of when the Israelites were miraculously saved from slavery in Egypt by god”
From the transcript
“Verse four says this, then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hore taking the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom but the people grew impatient with the long journey”
From the transcript
“So the Lord, verse six, sent poisonous snakes among the people and many people were bitten and died”
From the transcript
“she pulled out the bible and turned to the book of Philippians and she read a passage that says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”

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

There is a way that seems right to us. That is not a harsh judgment — it is just honest. Most of us are not chasing obviously bad things. We are chasing peace, joy, contentment, a life that holds together when things get hard. The problem Pastor Jeff named is not the destination; it is the map. We keep assuming the next relationship, the next job, the next version of our circumstances will finally get us there. And when it does not, we do not question the map — we just start planning the next trip. Proverbs names this pattern plainly: some roads look right and still lead somewhere we never intended to go. That is not meant to make you feel foolish. It is meant to make you stop long enough to ask whether what you are following is actually taking you where you want to end up. The invitation this week is not to feel bad about the roads you have taken. It is to honestly look at where they have led — and to stay open to the possibility that what you are truly searching for cannot be found by trying harder in the same direction. Something better is being offered. This devotional exists to help you see it.

For reflection

When you picture a life that feels truly full and at peace, what have you been counting on to get you there — and has that thing ever actually delivered?

Pray

Pray for honest eyes to see where your own map has been leading you, and openness to a different way.

Day 2

Nicodemus was not a skeptic or an outsider. He was a respected religious leader who came to Jesus at night — maybe because he did not want to be seen, or maybe because something was quietly unsettled in him despite having done everything right by every visible measure. Jesus did not ease him in slowly. He said: you need to be born again. Not reformed. Not improved. Born again. Nicodemus asked the obvious question — how does a grown person start over? Jesus explained that this is not a human project. It is a spiritual one, prompted by the Holy Spirit. You cannot manufacture it by being good enough, knowing enough, or trying harder. This is actually freeing news, even if it does not feel that way at first. It means the new life Jesus is describing is not contingent on you reaching some performance threshold. It is something given — received by faith, not earned by effort. The same Spirit who hovered over creation is the One who makes this new birth possible. What Nicodemus needed — and what Pastor Jeff argues we all need — is not a better version of the life we already have. It is a life that comes from an entirely different source.

For reflection

Have you ever tried to close the gap between who you are and who you want to be through sheer effort? What did that feel like over time?

Pray

Pray for a real openness to the kind of change only the Holy Spirit can bring — not just self-improvement, but new life.

Day 3

The Israelites had been walking a long, hard road, and they were exhausted and discouraged. So they spoke against God and against Moses — and the text does not dress it up. They rejected the provision they had been given and declared it worthless. What followed was painful: poisonous snakes, bites, death. It is uncomfortable to sit with this story because it is not subtle. But before it becomes a story about punishment, notice what it is really a story about: people who, in their exhaustion and frustration, turned away from the source of their life and tried to determine on their own terms what was good enough. That pattern did not begin with the Israelites, and it did not end with them. Pastor Jeff's point was not that our struggles are proof of judgment. It is that all of us, in our own way, have been bitten — not necessarily by a literal snake, but by the slow poison of trusting our own judgment over God's. We feel it in the restlessness that does not go away, in the things we were sure would satisfy us but somehow never quite did. The story is honest about the problem so that the solution, when it comes, lands with its full weight.

For reflection

Where in your own life have you felt the ache of reaching for something that promised life but left you more depleted than before?

Pray

Pray for honesty about the places where you have been living on your own terms, and for the courage to name that before God without shame.

Day 4

God's answer to the snake crisis was not what anyone would have designed. He did not remove the snakes. He did not reward the people's apology with an immediate return to comfort. He told Moses to make a bronze snake and lift it up on a pole, and He promised that anyone who looked at it would live. That is it. Look and live. The healing was not in understanding the mechanism. It was not in earning it or waiting until the situation improved. It was in a single act of trust — turning your gaze toward the thing God provided instead of staying focused on the wound. Pastor Jeff drew this line clearly: this moment in the wilderness is a picture of what Jesus would do on the cross. The very thing that represented the poison — a snake — became the instrument of healing when it was lifted up. Jesus, who had no sin, took our sin upon Himself, and now anyone who looks to Him in faith receives life. The simplicity of it can feel too easy. But the Israelites probably thought so too. The invitation was not complicated. Neither is this one. You do not have to have it all figured out. You just have to look.

For reflection

What makes it hard to trust something so simple — that looking in faith is enough? What would it mean for you to actually do that today?

Pray

Pray for the faith to look to Jesus — not as a last resort after everything else fails, but as the first and truest place to turn.

Day 5

Jesus connected the bronze snake directly to Himself. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, the Son of Man must be lifted up — so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. And then comes the verse most of us learned before we could fully understand it: God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son. The word Pastor Jeff highlighted was 'Zoe' — the Greek word for the kind of life Jesus is talking about. This is not just a quantity of life, endless days stretching out after death. It is a quality of life, a fullness and vitality that God the Creator always intended for us. It is the life found in God Himself. And the astonishing claim is that this life is available now — not after your circumstances improve, not after you have sorted yourself out, but right now, through faith in Jesus. The cross is where this becomes possible. Jesus was lifted up not in triumph at first, but in sacrifice — taking what we deserved so that we could receive what He had. That exchange is the center of the gospel. Everything this week has been building toward it. This is what the searching is really for.

For reflection

How does it change your understanding of 'eternal life' to think of it as a quality of life that begins now, not just a destination after death?

Pray

Pray for a fresh, personal grasp of what it means that God loved the world — that He loved you — enough to give His Son.

Day 6

Pastor Jeff was careful with this verse because it is one of the most quoted and most misunderstood lines in the Bible. 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me' — it is on water bottles and locker room walls, usually treated as a promise that Jesus will help you win. But Paul wrote it from prison. He had learned — and the word he used means learned through experience, not in a classroom — to be content whether he had plenty or was in need. The 'all things' he could do through Christ was not a list of achievements. It was the ability to remain grounded, grateful, and present no matter what circumstances surrounded him. This is exactly what Pastor Jeff said looking to Jesus actually produces. Not a shortcut around the hard moments. Not a guarantee that the snakes go away. But the presence and strength of Christ through every single one of them. That is a more durable and more honest promise than the one we sometimes wish the verse made. It means that faith is not a strategy for getting what you want — it is the source of becoming the kind of person who can live well regardless. That is the life Jesus said He came to give.

For reflection

Think of a hard season you are in right now or have been through. What would it look like to go through it — not around it — with Christ as your strength?

Pray

Pray for the kind of contentment Paul described — rooted not in circumstances but in the presence of Christ — in whatever you are facing right now.

Day 7

Across this week, one invitation has stayed in the center: stop counting passes — stop waiting for the right circumstances to arrive before you look up — and look to Jesus. Nicodemus came with questions and left with a challenge that cut to the core of who he was. The Israelites in the wilderness needed healing they could not give themselves, and God provided a way that required nothing but a willing gaze. And Jesus tied it all together: the Son of Man was lifted up, just like that snake on the pole, so that whoever looks to Him in faith will not perish but have life — real life, the kind that holds when everything else shifts. If any part of this week landed for you, do not just sit with the feeling. Talk to someone about it. If you have questions about what it means to follow Jesus, or if you took that step for the first time, find someone at Rock Point you trust and tell them. Faith is personal, but it was never meant to be private. The searching you feel is real. The restlessness points somewhere. And the One it points to has been standing in plain sight, arms open, the whole time.

For reflection

What is one thing from this week that you want to carry forward — and who in your life could you share it with or talk it through with?

Pray

Pray for the courage to respond to what you have heard this week — whether that is a first step toward Jesus, a deeper trust, or a conversation with someone at your church.

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

This message centers on a simple but striking image: ancient Israelites bitten by snakes, healed not by removing the snakes but by looking at a pole. Pastor Jeff used that story to point straight to Jesus — and to the kind of life He offers.

Discussion questions

1
In John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that unless a person is 'born again' by the Spirit, they cannot enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus is confused — he takes Jesus literally. What do you think Jesus is getting at when He separates a physical birth from this spiritual one?
2
Pastor Jeff drew a distinction between 'living forever' and what he called 'Zoe' — the life God originally intended, experienced even in hard circumstances. How does that distinction change the way we might hear Jesus' promise of 'eternal life' in John 3:16?
3
In Numbers 21, God does not remove the snakes — He provides a snake on a pole so that anyone who looks at it will live. What do you think the story is saying about how healing and rescue come, and why do you think looking was enough?
4
Pastor Jeff described a tendency he called 'counting passes' — pinning hope for peace, joy, and contentment on the next relationship, job, or improved circumstance. Where do you think that instinct comes from, and how does it connect to the Proverbs line he cited: 'There is a way that seems right to a person, but in the end it leads to death'?
5
Pastor Jeff pointed out that the familiar verse 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me' is often quoted to mean getting whatever we want, but he argued it means something different — that Christ empowers us to go through every circumstance. How does that reading of the verse sit with you, and what does it suggest about what faith actually promises?
6
Pastor Jeff's main call was to stop looking to circumstances for peace and instead look to Jesus — the same way the bitten Israelites looked to the pole. What might it look like, practically, for a person or a community to make that shift in how they face a hard season?

Pray together

Gratitude for a God who provides a way to look to Him — and asking for the grace to keep looking to Jesus rather than to our own plans, whatever circumstances we are walking through right now

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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John 3 Proverbs 14 Numbers 21 Philippians 4

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