Is there a better way to keep Christmas than the one we have grown used to? This message takes us back to the wilderness, where God tells Israel to build a tent so that He can dwell among His people (Exodus 40), and shows how that scene returns in the account of Jesus’s birth and in the words about the Word made flesh (Matthew 2; John 1). Not even Rachel’s weeping, nor the darkness we carry, cancels the promise of God present among us. Listen, if you want this Christmas to mean something more.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- In Exodus 33:12-23 Moses asks that God's presence go with Israel and longs to see God's glory. Why was this request more important to him than simply reaching the destination?
- God chooses to pitch His tent among the Israelites, and the whole nation's life centers on the tent of meeting. What did this picture tell the first hearers about what kind of God the Lord is?
- In the wilderness the Israelites ask whether there is a better way. According to the sermon, how does God's answer turn out to be not a new plan but His own presence?
- The sermon links the tent of meeting with the name Immanuel and John's words that the Word became flesh. How does the fact that God came to live among us in Jesus change the way you understand Christmas?
- The speaker compared God's guidance to Lego instructions that we often ignore. In which areas of life do you find it easiest to build your own way instead of following Jesus' words?
- What is one concrete step you can take this week so that your Christmas preparations are built around God's presence and not just around obligations?
