Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we thought.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
It might be fun because a number of you really
enjoyed a little something we came up with part of
getting ready for the end of the year was going
back through stories making our list of our favorite stories.
One of the ways we do that is we file
all of Chad's weekend reviews the wr the weir as
(00:24):
we call it, because in two minutes you can hear.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
What the big stories were that week, whether it was
the President getting shot in the head, or the election,
the first debate with Biden, second debate with Kamala, or
any number of stories.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
So what we'll do is we'll play it over the loudspeaker.
We'll all guess what week that was. And a number
of you really as seemed to enjoy that. So I
said to Chad, because it was a pretty busy week,
instead of doing a week in review, pick a week
and Ramona and I will play along, and let's load
that as this week's week in review and see if
(01:06):
we can tell what it is. And you make your
submissions to me by email.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
And now a totally random week in review from the past.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Take a guess when this was.
Speaker 5 (01:24):
That song takes me to a place being six seven
years old sitting in front of the TV bowl of
cereal on the bean Bang, and it was time for
Captain Kangaroo. Was there anything better? Oh?
Speaker 4 (01:40):
My goodness.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Hunter Biden has been found guilty on all counts in
his federal trial in Wilmington, Delaware. Extraordinary moment when the
son of the sitting president of the United States was
found guilty.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
It happened very quickly.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Hunter Biden showed no emotion.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Joe Biden thought that Hunter would be acquitted. He would
not be guilty. You'd be determined not guilty. And once
that happened, he could say, well, the system worked. If
he'd been guilty, he would have had to serve. But
I trusted the jury, and y'all need to trust the
jury in the Donald Trump case.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Like the Curly Q Cord Immortalized and Sleepless in Seattle,
the landline connects us to the past. Twenty six percent
of American adults still have a landline.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I highly encourage people to do away with the landline.
Highly encourage and to put your phone away, to turn
your phone off for long periods of time.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Sunday, June sixteenth is Father's Day.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I ever thought to take that and be granted.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Just listen to the rank. I still remember everyting here.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Then, and how to be.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
All right?
Speaker 4 (02:57):
I know another week.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I literally never missed an event that I do. He
never missed a school event. He never missed a sporting event,
anything where a parent was allowed to be You never
missed one time. That kind of presence sends a very
strong message to a child. For me, that was a
sign of his love. Happy Father's Day, the thing that
(03:23):
we gave it away.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
This is what's the name you say, Michael Gooddy.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
It is an absolute and utter complete honor to speak
with our next guest, and I want you to know.
You listener to know what I have asked of him
prior to our conversation. Some of you may feel, well,
was he insulting me? No, I've asked him to do that.
(03:54):
What I've what I've decided to do is go back
to the basics. Let's go back to the basics of
what Christmas means for a Christian. Now understanding that Christmas
has a number of pagan traditions, Christmas has Nordic traditions,
Christmas has traditions across the globe, as we've talked about
(04:14):
earlier this week, and Christmas has American cultural traditions. They're
not all religious, but there is in its root the
birth of Christ a very important part of our faith.
And I wanted to get to that and how we
blend that in a society that is secular, and how
(04:36):
we witness, and how we live our life as a ministry,
and what things should bother us and what things shouldn't.
And I just want to go back to the very basics.
So you might learn some things that are new today,
and you might have some things that you are reminded
but you didn't quite remember. And some of these things
you may say, well, that's a little below my knowledge level.
(04:57):
I'm insulted, and that's okay too, because somebody else might
not know. So with all that leading up a man
that that I love, that I admire, uh that I respect,
and I'm looking for. What I'm gonna do is I'm
gonna I'm gonna ask very simple questions and I'm literally
just gonna turn off my mic and you're gonna be
at second Baptist. You're you're gonna hear, you're gonna hear
(05:18):
some some some fun stuff. And I will only interrupt
if I feel like I absolutely need to Pastor Ed
Young of Second Baptist Church of International Fame. Let's start
with a very simple question, why do we celebrate Christmas?
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Tremendous question, and I hope you will interrupt me. Uh, Michael,
just jump in there. We're just going to have a
conversation between two friends and two brothers in christ Christmas,
first of all, was anticipated for a thousand years. And
interesting the context you put this in, Michael, is that
(06:01):
I was reading last week in Isaiah of all books,
and I was reading Isaiah one, two, three, four, five,
And you get over there in Isaiah chapter seven you
run into an interesting thing. You can parallel Israel, Michael,
with where we are in the United States today and
(06:23):
certainly where we are in the world today. Now, just
think about it. If we had time, we could go
through the divisions. We know there's one element of our society,
the progressives, and they are five beta Kappa and dividing
us up right, that's a part of their gesus.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Of course, who was it that said the greatest was it?
Orwell said, the greatest thing that the devil ever did
was convince you he doesn't exist.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
That's exactly right. And what you have in America so
many divisions we can you name them. Actually every day.
It's obvious before anybody who understands contemporary history. The same
thing was true in Israel in the first century. You
had the Pharisees, the Sadducees, you had the Essenes, you
(07:13):
had the Erodians, you had the Romans. You had all
kinds of divisions there. And you go back to Isaiah.
You know, a thousand years before you had the same thing.
Israel was in trouble, and they were divided, and conquerors
had come in, and nobody trust anybody. They had a
form of godliness, a form of religion. There was absolutely
(07:37):
phony with the Pharisees, sadduace etc. And you're going along
there saying, what's going to happen to the world, what's
going to have to God's people? And God's answer was
a baby read it, a baby predicted in Isaiah fulfilled
in the first century, and the wonderful passage there says
(07:58):
in the nk of and the fullness of Sign, God
sent forth a baby of all things. We look at
our world today, Michael, and what's the answer. It's the
same thing in the first century for the world, the
same thing in the twenty first century. He sent a baby.
Now the question is who was that baby? What was
(08:23):
that baby? And that's where we have to look in
the Bible and understand the prophecies, the predictions of over
hundreds and hundreds of years that there would come a
day that God would take off his robe of light
and he would put on human flesh and he would
(08:43):
dwell among us. Now, Michael, a lot of things about
the Bible, about God, I don't understand. But one of
the most astounding things is that God, Almighty, the God
omnipotent on the present, the one who spoke in the world,
came into being, I mean Almighty God, put on human
(09:08):
flesh and entered the world as a baby. The great
condescension of God, Michael, the humility of God. Why did
he do that to answer the problems of the world
yesterday and answer the problems of the world today, Because
that was god fulfilling prophecy in the Old Testament, Michael,
(09:32):
there were three hundred different propheties predicting Christmas. There, for example,
eight prophecies. People say, well, Jesus could have come and
figured out I want to predict this one. I want
to fulfill this one. I want to do what this
is predicted. You can't do that. You take just eight
prophecies Michael in the Old Testament predicting the coming of
(09:54):
Jesus that cannot be artificially produced over words. I could say,
Michael is going to run for governor of Texas, and
you could say, well, I'm going to fulfill that prophecy.
I'm going to do it. You see, some people think
that's what Jesus did. Not true. There are the three
hundred prophecies. Eight of them Michael could not have been
(10:17):
fulfilled by Jesus or his followers to predict that he
was indeed the Messiah, for example the probability. And doctor Stoner,
a tremendous mathematician, figured this out. I could not do it.
Doctor Stoner said, to have eight prophecies fulfilled by one
person is ten to the fifty seventh power, and he
(10:41):
shows it is impossible statistically, but happen. Now what is that?
It means that you could take silver dollars Michael, stack
them two feet high cover in the state of Texas,
marked one silver dollar somewhere in Texas, put a blindfold on,
and had somebody walk around at your stumbled on, well,
here is that one mark silver dollars. That's the same
(11:05):
odds that you have of one person fulfilling only eight prophecies.
So the bottom line is, by the way, Michael, that
was the day I was in Israel, and I was
in the basement of the Hebrew University, and half Rabbis
and half evangelical Christians, and we debated the coming of Christ,
the birth of Christ, the second coming of Christ. And
(11:27):
this is a thing that staggered them. Eight prophecies predicted
in the Old Testament fulfilled perfectly new tub three hundred
were but eight that was distinctive. And so therefore we
read the Book of Galatians. In the fullness of time,
God sent forth his son. Now, when God came into
(11:49):
this world and put on human flesh, and I love
to quote, I do it every Christmas, Michael Phillips Brooks said,
God came down the stairs of heaven with a baby
in his arms. Now, Michael, you were God and you
wanted to come into this world, how would you and
I have come? They've thought about it. I haven't we
(12:11):
have a grand dredg would.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Well, yeah, we'd strike up the band.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
I guarantee you and some of that was there, but
such a little exclusive audience, the shepherds, the wise man,
that little backwoods country that you find there.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Wait, hold on, hold on, right there, Pastor ed Young
is our guest. He's about to talk about the birth
of Christ and the Manger scene and the frankincense and
the three wise men, and and and the Nazareth and
Joseph and Mary and oh, it's just it's a rich
story and he's a rich story teller. What a beautiful tapestry.
(12:48):
Our program today. Pastor ed Young of Second Baptist Church
is our guests talking about the meaning of Christmas.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
You're listening to the Michael Berry's show.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Pastor ed Young my friend, mentor and just a great,
great guy who is a wonderful preacher because he's a
wonderful storyteller. He's a wonderful teacher. And Pastor, we're talking
about the meaning of Christmas. And you had you had
brought us into God, bringing his child into the world
(13:23):
and presenting him and I'm just gonna let you take
it from there.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Well, let's let's put it once again into context, if
I might. Michael, For example, we talked about eight prophecies
and one to the tenth power, the seventeenth power, that's
a one with seventeen zero. That's the probability of this happening.
So the bottom line is, statistically, you'll have to say, well,
all those properties are true. He fulfilled them, and therefore
(13:49):
you say, what's going on. God so loved the world, Michael,
You and I learned that queer down three six kindergarten. Yeah,
that he gave his only be God's son, whoever anybody
believes him will not parents, but have every lasting life.
Jesus God put on human flesh to demonstrate to you
(14:10):
and me in the world, this is how much He
loves us. And he was totally God and totally man,
and nobody fully understands that. But that is who Jesus was.
That's who Jesus is, and he came into this world.
And who is Jesus. It's simply stated, Jesus is with us.
(14:33):
You read in that passage in Isaiah. But all hell
was breaking loose. I use that word theologically, Mike, but
all hell was breaking loose in the world. God's answer,
as we said, is a baby. And this baby was
unique in every single faceting life. And they asked what
(14:54):
would his name be a virgin shall conceive and bears son,
and his name will be whole Emmanuel, which means God
with us. So therefore, Michael, we don't have to say.
I wonder what God is like. I wonder what I
should do in this situation. I wonder when we can
(15:15):
look at Jesus and very simply get all of those
answers clear and plain illustrate his life. Michael, what if
you claim to be God? Now that would be something.
What if I claim to be God? Let me tell
you about it. Let me tell you about Michael. That
is the craziest thing in the world. But you look
at the evidence that his historical evidence that Jesus was
(15:39):
indeed God in human flesh and his life bears us
out not only prophecy of Christmas God with us, but
also God is for us. This is what Christmas began.
How is He for us? Michael? You and I could
go God, I want to talk to you God. And
everybody thinks they can work out their own deal with God. Right,
(16:02):
you can't. He spelled it out clearly and simply for everybody.
And there He's not only with us is Christmas, he
is for us in the sense he took all the
garbage in your life and my life, and it was
transferred to him on that cross, and he died to
death that you and I deserve to die so we
(16:24):
can live the life that he only deserves to live,
that perfect life. Read his teachings, reach what he said.
He was not a guru, he was not strictly a prophet.
He was God in human flesh, and he gave his
life own that cross. That's what he did for us.
So we have an andrade God. If I go to
(16:46):
fart Edwin young our order, who are you? Who am
I with all of my sinfulness to go and save it? Well?
God will. But see Jesus Christ has taken on our
sin when we confess our sin, just to forgive ourselves,
saying had to clean up our act. And therefore God
looks at a Michael and Edwin and all of our
(17:08):
sin if we've taken it on that cross. So he
is with us and he is for us. He died
the diet death we deserve to die so we can
live the life he deserves to live. And also he's
not over that, he is in us. And this is
the distinctiveness of Christianity. Almost all the major religional words,
(17:29):
in fact, all the major world. It's some prophet who
has spoke. It's some guru, it's some teaching, it's some enlightenment.
But not a single one of them, Mohammed, Confucius, none
of them claimed to be God, Buddha. No, they just said,
we're voices. We've had a vision. But Christianity is rooted
(17:49):
in history and fact and reality. That's the difference God
took on human place. Thus in time and space and
the reality, and that were he was God with us.
That's Jesus. God is for us. He paid the price
so we can get right with God. And then finally
God is in us. There comes a time in life
(18:11):
when you say, Lord, I don't understand it all, but
I confess all my garbage before you. I turn away
from that trash, and I ask you to come into
my life. Those who receive Him and Jesus comes in,
and that's the Holy Spirit in us. And therefore when
that happens, he says, you become brand new. I think
(18:34):
about it, Michael, that's what we call in your tradition
mind being born again. How many people among us would
like to have a fresh start to be born again.
That's what happens. Doesn't mean we live a perfect life now.
We still strike out, we fumble, we fail, we clip,
we do all those things. But it's wonderful we can
(18:55):
go back to him because He looks on Michael, Barry
and dead young and those who received him. He is
in our life, and God sees us as perfected. In fact,
the tery thing God does, say, Michael, just a little
subset here. He forgets all about our sin. Isn't that great?
I remember it? He said, don't bring it up. I've
covered it. I took caverl I'm grateful. I'm so grateful too.
(19:21):
And that is when we keep being born again and
again as Christ has given it. Let me tell you
the problem, Michael. I think, with this time and age
in which we live, it's a tremendous problem. And I
think it's illustrated by well. I looked up Hallmark Christmas movies.
Now there was good movies. Women watch them, some men
(19:41):
watch them. I don't. And did you know over eighty
million people watch Hallmark movies this Christmas season. ESPN highest
viewership came to twenty nine million. I couldn't imagine. And
guess what we're men are watching. I'm not. But the
last count, now get there was more than one hundred
and forty new Christmas movies. More than one hundred new
(20:05):
Christmas novels came out. Guess what last year?
Speaker 5 (20:10):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (20:10):
Just like let's breaking all records. The supply, you know,
speaks of demand at Hallmark and what Lifetime are working
just over time, the big the demand, hundreds of new
Christmas movies. But there's an interesting.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Thing, Pastor, hold right there, Hold that interesting thing right there.
Pastor ed Young is our guest. We'll continue our conversation
with him about the meaning of Christmas.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
You've got to Michael Berry show.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Pastor ed Young of Second Baptist Church, a man I
have a great deal of respect for is our guest
to talk about the meaning of Christmas and Christmas for
a Christian in twenty twenty three. And you were talking
about how the interest in Christmas is higher than ever,
and not just songs and festivities, but in the meaning
(21:00):
and the importance to a Christian. And I had to
interrupt you, so go ahead, Pastor, No.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
No, no, no. I was just talking about Hallmark and
these other outlets of writing books things. It's life you're
amazing by Christmas. But interesting thing in all this secular
and understanding Christmas, you know, the sake of sweet baby
is born, and carols and gifts and holidays and all
the giving and receiving and charities which we're all for,
(21:27):
but there is virtually listen, no God in a Hallmark film.
You might see a church, you might see a church service,
but God is rarely even mentioned. And it's almost like
in the Christmas story we've forgotten what the story really is,
which you and I have just been talking about. But
(21:47):
even Hallmark is missing the mark because the greatest Christmas
story has already been written, and the book that almost
everyone else has the copy of in the Bible holds
the record and more copies than it has been sold
in any other book. But what Hallmark missus is the Savior,
(22:07):
the Prince of Peace instead of Prince Charming. The real
story of Christmas, Michael, is transformational and not seasonal, and
it is found in the book that most people already have,
and that's the sixty six books we have in the
New Testama tells us that God entered time and space,
(22:28):
and he wants to enter your life and my life,
and anybody who will receive him, and what a tremendous
change that is. I give him ed Young and he
replaces ed Young with Jesus Christ. Doesn't mean I walk
around the big puppet Bible on my arm and I'm
always quoted the language of Zion. It just means I'm
(22:50):
saved by his grace and I've asked him to come
and run my life. And Michael, God is better equipped
to run your life and run my life. I think
we are well, that's about pastor.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
You're better than I am. But that's not saying a lot. No,
we need a lot of help.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
It's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
He's good at what he does.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Hey, you couldn't have said it better. He's perfect at
what he does and what he gave to Michael. This
is a little subset here. Every Christmas, I'm always looking
for the perfect gift to give my wife my kids.
You are too, And I've got a terrible record. So
many times I've given my wife something that expresses my
(23:33):
personality but doesn't meet her needs. The perfect gift expresses
the personality of the giver and meets the needs of
the one who receives it. I got a good friend.
You know and Johnny Baker who decided he was gonna
give his wife a shotgun for Christmas, and he got
it all beautifully made like a woman's woman shotgun and
(23:55):
he said, Man, I'm gonna knock a home run. Well,
my goodness, she's not entered. It expresses his personality, that Carla,
and it didn't meet the needs you see of the
person God didn't make that mistake, Michael, Jesus God in
human flesh expresses perfectly the personality of God. And also
(24:19):
he meets our needs, which is forgiveness, which in new life,
and the ability to let his spirit come and run
my life and run your life. It's the perfect gift.
And so that's Christmas. We can decide to run our
own life, to play at the game, or we can
decide to say, God, you run my life. Now. I
(24:40):
can tell you he won't run any life in the ground.
Doesn't mean we're going to be rich or famous. That's insignificant.
It means that perhaps he can help us to understand
what real success is. Now, Michael, you have all the success,
more than you deserve, you need, you're smart enough to
understand and more than anybody would imagined. But that's not success.
(25:04):
Success is achieving all the worldly stuff. Success is in
this life somehow, some way make a difference for God,
for Christ in something that will last for ever. When
someone thinks physical success, boy, that you never get enough
of it, do you? It's impossible. But I'll tell you
(25:26):
when we're successful in our lives, saying, God, here I
am works in all. You came a blue collar background.
I came a blue collar background. I say, Lord, you know,
hold this stuff very lightly, but make sure we hold
Christ strongly in our hands, because I can tell you
he's holding you and me strong in his hand. And
(25:47):
the good news is, thank God, he's never going to
let us go. This is the miraculous gift of Christmas.
God putting own skin and saying this is the way
to live. This is how to have a life. And
Jesus and God, Jesus said, I've come that you'd have life,
you know, in a meager way, and abundantly. That's not
(26:09):
in physical stuff, the abundant life. The happiest people I know, Michael,
some of them they got very little in this world.
Others you and I know, they got it all, and
they're absolutely broken and miserable. So that's not the answer.
It's when we let the Lord Jesus Christ his spirit
control our life and our actions. I'll tell you what
(26:32):
your marriage will sing, your children will be blessed. No
perfection there, but God is working to perfect us in him.
And that's maturity, that's growing up. And that's our prayer
for this world, this Christmas. Our world is in a mess,
and you prescribe it and say it and diagnose it
(26:55):
every single day, and we're divided. But the answer in
the first century it's the same answer the twenty first century.
It's a baby. It's Jesus who didn't stay in the manger.
It's not just a story of cattle. It's not just
the story of wise men and shepherd. All that's there,
very witness. I don't believe it. But it's the story
(27:17):
of Jesus coming into time and space and history saying
I can make your life count, you can be abundant,
whatever your status. And that's what Christmas is. It's a proclamation,
it's an excitement, it's a celebration of all celebrations. God
enter time and space, and no longer can we say
(27:39):
I wonder what God would have me to do. I
wonder what principles are operating here. I don't know which
way to turn. I'm depressed, I'm down, I'm broken. He's
right there saying, you just turned your life over to me,
and I will give you the perfect gift that you need,
and that is you'll have a life that is relevant,
a life that is exciting, not dependent on physical stuff,
(28:03):
but a life that will count now in His kingdom
and will count forever. Christmas the greatest gift, I would say,
just receive him and he'll do the rest.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Pastor Hole, I thought, Pastor ed Young, Second Baptist Church,
we're talking about the meaning of Christmas. I want to
for those of you who will hold with us for
a moment, I want to talk a little more about that,
about rituals, the history of those cultural traditions and religious traditions,
and how we weave them together. How we teach our
(28:37):
children in this time of you know, sales at the mall,
how do we teach our children the real meaning of Christmas?
And then I want to talk, as he alluded to earlier,
about Israel in the world today and the role of
the Christian and Christian faith with Israel coming up
So we thought.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
It might be fun because a number of you really
enjoyed a little something we came up with part of
getting ready for the end of the year was going
back through stories making our list of our favorite stories.
One of the ways we do that is we file
all of Chad's weekend reviews the wr the weir as
(00:24):
we call it, because in two minutes you can hear.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
What the big stories were that week, whether it was
the President getting shot in the head, or the election,
the first debate with Biden, second debate with Kamala, or
any number of stories.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
So what we'll do is we'll play it over the loudspeaker.
We'll all guess what week that was. And a number
of you really as seemed to enjoy that. So I
said to Chad, because it was a pretty busy week,
instead of doing a week in review, pick a week
and Ramona and I will play along, and let's load
that as this week's week in review and see if
(01:06):
we can tell what it is. And you make your
submissions to me by email.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
And now a totally random week in review from the past.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Take a guess when this was.
Speaker 5 (01:24):
That song takes me to a place being six seven
years old sitting in front of the TV bowl of
cereal on the bean Bang, and it was time for
Captain Kangaroo. Was there anything better? Oh?
Speaker 4 (01:40):
My goodness.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Hunter Biden has been found guilty on all counts in
his federal trial in Wilmington, Delaware. Extraordinary moment when the
son of the sitting president of the United States was
found guilty.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
It happened very quickly.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Hunter Biden showed no emotion.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Joe Biden thought that Hunter would be acquitted. He would
not be guilty. You'd be determined not guilty. And once
that happened, he could say, well, the system worked. If
he'd been guilty, he would have had to serve. But
I trusted the jury, and y'all need to trust the
jury in the Donald Trump case.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Like the Curly Q Cord Immortalized and Sleepless in Seattle,
the landline connects us to the past. Twenty six percent
of American adults still have a landline.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I highly encourage people to do away with the landline.
Highly encourage and to put your phone away, to turn
your phone off for long periods of time.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Sunday, June sixteenth is Father's Day.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I ever thought to take that and be granted.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Just listen to the rank. I still remember everyting here.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Then, and how to be.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
All right?
Speaker 4 (02:57):
I know another week.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I literally never missed an event that I do. He
never missed a school event. He never missed a sporting event,
anything where a parent was allowed to be You never
missed one time. That kind of presence sends a very
strong message to a child. For me, that was a
sign of his love. Happy Father's Day, the thing that
(03:23):
we gave it away.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
This is what's the name you say, Michael Gooddy.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
It is an absolute and utter complete honor to speak
with our next guest, and I want you to know.
You listener to know what I have asked of him
prior to our conversation. Some of you may feel, well,
was he insulting me? No, I've asked him to do that.
(03:54):
What I've what I've decided to do is go back
to the basics. Let's go back to the basics of
what Christmas means for a Christian. Now understanding that Christmas
has a number of pagan traditions, Christmas has Nordic traditions,
Christmas has traditions across the globe, as we've talked about
(04:14):
earlier this week, and Christmas has American cultural traditions. They're
not all religious, but there is in its root the
birth of Christ a very important part of our faith.
And I wanted to get to that and how we
blend that in a society that is secular, and how
(04:36):
we witness, and how we live our life as a ministry,
and what things should bother us and what things shouldn't.
And I just want to go back to the very basics.
So you might learn some things that are new today,
and you might have some things that you are reminded
but you didn't quite remember. And some of these things
you may say, well, that's a little below my knowledge level.
(04:57):
I'm insulted, and that's okay too, because somebody else might
not know. So with all that leading up a man
that that I love, that I admire, uh that I respect,
and I'm looking for. What I'm gonna do is I'm
gonna I'm gonna ask very simple questions and I'm literally
just gonna turn off my mic and you're gonna be
at second Baptist. You're you're gonna hear, you're gonna hear
(05:18):
some some some fun stuff. And I will only interrupt
if I feel like I absolutely need to Pastor Ed
Young of Second Baptist Church of International Fame. Let's start
with a very simple question, why do we celebrate Christmas?
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Tremendous question, and I hope you will interrupt me. Uh, Michael,
just jump in there. We're just going to have a
conversation between two friends and two brothers in christ Christmas,
first of all, was anticipated for a thousand years. And
interesting the context you put this in, Michael, is that
(06:01):
I was reading last week in Isaiah of all books,
and I was reading Isaiah one, two, three, four, five,
And you get over there in Isaiah chapter seven you
run into an interesting thing. You can parallel Israel, Michael,
with where we are in the United States today and
(06:23):
certainly where we are in the world today. Now, just
think about it. If we had time, we could go
through the divisions. We know there's one element of our society,
the progressives, and they are five beta Kappa and dividing
us up right, that's a part of their gesus.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Of course, who was it that said the greatest was it?
Orwell said, the greatest thing that the devil ever did
was convince you he doesn't exist.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
That's exactly right. And what you have in America so
many divisions we can you name them. Actually every day.
It's obvious before anybody who understands contemporary history. The same
thing was true in Israel in the first century. You
had the Pharisees, the Sadducees, you had the Essenes, you
(07:13):
had the Erodians, you had the Romans. You had all
kinds of divisions there. And you go back to Isaiah.
You know, a thousand years before you had the same thing.
Israel was in trouble, and they were divided, and conquerors
had come in, and nobody trust anybody. They had a
form of godliness, a form of religion. There was absolutely
(07:37):
phony with the Pharisees, sadduace etc. And you're going along
there saying, what's going to happen to the world, what's
going to have to God's people? And God's answer was
a baby read it, a baby predicted in Isaiah fulfilled
in the first century, and the wonderful passage there says
(07:58):
in the nk of and the fullness of Sign, God
sent forth a baby of all things. We look at
our world today, Michael, and what's the answer. It's the
same thing in the first century for the world, the
same thing in the twenty first century. He sent a baby.
Now the question is who was that baby? What was
(08:23):
that baby? And that's where we have to look in
the Bible and understand the prophecies, the predictions of over
hundreds and hundreds of years that there would come a
day that God would take off his robe of light
and he would put on human flesh and he would
(08:43):
dwell among us. Now, Michael, a lot of things about
the Bible, about God, I don't understand. But one of
the most astounding things is that God, Almighty, the God
omnipotent on the present, the one who spoke in the world,
came into being, I mean Almighty God, put on human
(09:08):
flesh and entered the world as a baby. The great
condescension of God, Michael, the humility of God. Why did
he do that to answer the problems of the world
yesterday and answer the problems of the world today, Because
that was god fulfilling prophecy in the Old Testament, Michael,
(09:32):
there were three hundred different propheties predicting Christmas. There, for example,
eight prophecies. People say, well, Jesus could have come and
figured out I want to predict this one. I want
to fulfill this one. I want to do what this
is predicted. You can't do that. You take just eight
prophecies Michael in the Old Testament predicting the coming of
(09:54):
Jesus that cannot be artificially produced over words. I could say,
Michael is going to run for governor of Texas, and
you could say, well, I'm going to fulfill that prophecy.
I'm going to do it. You see, some people think
that's what Jesus did. Not true. There are the three
hundred prophecies. Eight of them Michael could not have been
(10:17):
fulfilled by Jesus or his followers to predict that he
was indeed the Messiah, for example the probability. And doctor Stoner,
a tremendous mathematician, figured this out. I could not do it.
Doctor Stoner said, to have eight prophecies fulfilled by one
person is ten to the fifty seventh power, and he
(10:41):
shows it is impossible statistically, but happen. Now what is that?
It means that you could take silver dollars Michael, stack
them two feet high cover in the state of Texas,
marked one silver dollar somewhere in Texas, put a blindfold on,
and had somebody walk around at your stumbled on, well,
here is that one mark silver dollars. That's the same
(11:05):
odds that you have of one person fulfilling only eight prophecies.
So the bottom line is, by the way, Michael, that
was the day I was in Israel, and I was
in the basement of the Hebrew University, and half Rabbis
and half evangelical Christians, and we debated the coming of Christ,
the birth of Christ, the second coming of Christ. And
(11:27):
this is a thing that staggered them. Eight prophecies predicted
in the Old Testament fulfilled perfectly new tub three hundred
were but eight that was distinctive. And so therefore we
read the Book of Galatians. In the fullness of time,
God sent forth his son. Now, when God came into
(11:49):
this world and put on human flesh, and I love
to quote, I do it every Christmas, Michael Phillips Brooks said,
God came down the stairs of heaven with a baby
in his arms. Now, Michael, you were God and you
wanted to come into this world, how would you and
I have come? They've thought about it. I haven't we
(12:11):
have a grand dredg would.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Well, yeah, we'd strike up the band.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
I guarantee you and some of that was there, but
such a little exclusive audience, the shepherds, the wise man,
that little backwoods country that you find there.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Wait, hold on, hold on, right there, Pastor ed Young
is our guest. He's about to talk about the birth
of Christ and the Manger scene and the frankincense and
the three wise men, and and and the Nazareth and
Joseph and Mary and oh, it's just it's a rich
story and he's a rich story teller. What a beautiful tapestry.
(12:48):
Our program today. Pastor ed Young of Second Baptist Church
is our guests talking about the meaning of Christmas.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
You're listening to the Michael Berry's show.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Pastor ed Young my friend, mentor and just a great,
great guy who is a wonderful preacher because he's a
wonderful storyteller. He's a wonderful teacher. And Pastor, we're talking
about the meaning of Christmas. And you had you had
brought us into God, bringing his child into the world
(13:23):
and presenting him and I'm just gonna let you take
it from there.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Well, let's let's put it once again into context, if
I might. Michael, For example, we talked about eight prophecies
and one to the tenth power, the seventeenth power, that's
a one with seventeen zero. That's the probability of this happening.
So the bottom line is, statistically, you'll have to say, well,
all those properties are true. He fulfilled them, and therefore
(13:49):
you say, what's going on. God so loved the world, Michael,
You and I learned that queer down three six kindergarten. Yeah,
that he gave his only be God's son, whoever anybody
believes him will not parents, but have every lasting life.
Jesus God put on human flesh to demonstrate to you
(14:10):
and me in the world, this is how much He
loves us. And he was totally God and totally man,
and nobody fully understands that. But that is who Jesus was.
That's who Jesus is, and he came into this world.
And who is Jesus. It's simply stated, Jesus is with us.
(14:33):
You read in that passage in Isaiah. But all hell
was breaking loose. I use that word theologically, Mike, but
all hell was breaking loose in the world. God's answer,
as we said, is a baby. And this baby was
unique in every single faceting life. And they asked what
(14:54):
would his name be a virgin shall conceive and bears son,
and his name will be whole Emmanuel, which means God
with us. So therefore, Michael, we don't have to say.
I wonder what God is like. I wonder what I
should do in this situation. I wonder when we can
(15:15):
look at Jesus and very simply get all of those
answers clear and plain illustrate his life. Michael, what if
you claim to be God? Now that would be something.
What if I claim to be God? Let me tell
you about it. Let me tell you about Michael. That
is the craziest thing in the world. But you look
at the evidence that his historical evidence that Jesus was
(15:39):
indeed God in human flesh and his life bears us
out not only prophecy of Christmas God with us, but
also God is for us. This is what Christmas began.
How is He for us? Michael? You and I could
go God, I want to talk to you God. And
everybody thinks they can work out their own deal with God. Right,
(16:02):
you can't. He spelled it out clearly and simply for everybody.
And there He's not only with us is Christmas, he
is for us in the sense he took all the
garbage in your life and my life, and it was
transferred to him on that cross, and he died to
death that you and I deserve to die so we
(16:24):
can live the life that he only deserves to live,
that perfect life. Read his teachings, reach what he said.
He was not a guru, he was not strictly a prophet.
He was God in human flesh, and he gave his
life own that cross. That's what he did for us.
So we have an andrade God. If I go to
(16:46):
fart Edwin young our order, who are you? Who am
I with all of my sinfulness to go and save it? Well?
God will. But see Jesus Christ has taken on our
sin when we confess our sin, just to forgive ourselves,
saying had to clean up our act. And therefore God
looks at a Michael and Edwin and all of our
(17:08):
sin if we've taken it on that cross. So he
is with us and he is for us. He died
the diet death we deserve to die so we can
live the life he deserves to live. And also he's
not over that, he is in us. And this is
the distinctiveness of Christianity. Almost all the major religional words,
(17:29):
in fact, all the major world. It's some prophet who
has spoke. It's some guru, it's some teaching, it's some enlightenment.
But not a single one of them, Mohammed, Confucius, none
of them claimed to be God, Buddha. No, they just said,
we're voices. We've had a vision. But Christianity is rooted
(17:49):
in history and fact and reality. That's the difference God
took on human place. Thus in time and space and
the reality, and that were he was God with us.
That's Jesus. God is for us. He paid the price
so we can get right with God. And then finally
God is in us. There comes a time in life
(18:11):
when you say, Lord, I don't understand it all, but
I confess all my garbage before you. I turn away
from that trash, and I ask you to come into
my life. Those who receive Him and Jesus comes in,
and that's the Holy Spirit in us. And therefore when
that happens, he says, you become brand new. I think
(18:34):
about it, Michael, that's what we call in your tradition
mind being born again. How many people among us would
like to have a fresh start to be born again.
That's what happens. Doesn't mean we live a perfect life now.
We still strike out, we fumble, we fail, we clip,
we do all those things. But it's wonderful we can
(18:55):
go back to him because He looks on Michael, Barry
and dead young and those who received him. He is
in our life, and God sees us as perfected. In fact,
the tery thing God does, say, Michael, just a little
subset here. He forgets all about our sin. Isn't that great?
I remember it? He said, don't bring it up. I've
covered it. I took caverl I'm grateful. I'm so grateful too.
(19:21):
And that is when we keep being born again and
again as Christ has given it. Let me tell you
the problem, Michael. I think, with this time and age
in which we live, it's a tremendous problem. And I
think it's illustrated by well. I looked up Hallmark Christmas movies.
Now there was good movies. Women watch them, some men
(19:41):
watch them. I don't. And did you know over eighty
million people watch Hallmark movies this Christmas season. ESPN highest
viewership came to twenty nine million. I couldn't imagine. And
guess what we're men are watching. I'm not. But the
last count, now get there was more than one hundred
and forty new Christmas movies. More than one hundred new
(20:05):
Christmas novels came out. Guess what last year?
Speaker 5 (20:10):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (20:10):
Just like let's breaking all records. The supply, you know,
speaks of demand at Hallmark and what Lifetime are working
just over time, the big the demand, hundreds of new
Christmas movies. But there's an interesting.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Thing, Pastor, hold right there, Hold that interesting thing right there.
Pastor ed Young is our guest. We'll continue our conversation
with him about the meaning of Christmas.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
You've got to Michael Berry show.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Pastor ed Young of Second Baptist Church, a man I
have a great deal of respect for is our guest
to talk about the meaning of Christmas and Christmas for
a Christian in twenty twenty three. And you were talking
about how the interest in Christmas is higher than ever,
and not just songs and festivities, but in the meaning
(21:00):
and the importance to a Christian. And I had to
interrupt you, so go ahead, Pastor, No.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
No, no, no. I was just talking about Hallmark and
these other outlets of writing books things. It's life you're
amazing by Christmas. But interesting thing in all this secular
and understanding Christmas, you know, the sake of sweet baby
is born, and carols and gifts and holidays and all
the giving and receiving and charities which we're all for,
(21:27):
but there is virtually listen, no God in a Hallmark film.
You might see a church, you might see a church service,
but God is rarely even mentioned. And it's almost like
in the Christmas story we've forgotten what the story really is,
which you and I have just been talking about. But
(21:47):
even Hallmark is missing the mark because the greatest Christmas
story has already been written, and the book that almost
everyone else has the copy of in the Bible holds
the record and more copies than it has been sold
in any other book. But what Hallmark missus is the Savior,
(22:07):
the Prince of Peace instead of Prince Charming. The real
story of Christmas, Michael, is transformational and not seasonal, and
it is found in the book that most people already have,
and that's the sixty six books we have in the
New Testama tells us that God entered time and space,
(22:28):
and he wants to enter your life and my life,
and anybody who will receive him, and what a tremendous
change that is. I give him ed Young and he
replaces ed Young with Jesus Christ. Doesn't mean I walk
around the big puppet Bible on my arm and I'm
always quoted the language of Zion. It just means I'm
(22:50):
saved by his grace and I've asked him to come
and run my life. And Michael, God is better equipped
to run your life and run my life. I think
we are well, that's about pastor.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
You're better than I am. But that's not saying a lot. No,
we need a lot of help.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
It's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
He's good at what he does.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Hey, you couldn't have said it better. He's perfect at
what he does and what he gave to Michael. This
is a little subset here. Every Christmas, I'm always looking
for the perfect gift to give my wife my kids.
You are too, And I've got a terrible record. So
many times I've given my wife something that expresses my
(23:33):
personality but doesn't meet her needs. The perfect gift expresses
the personality of the giver and meets the needs of
the one who receives it. I got a good friend.
You know and Johnny Baker who decided he was gonna
give his wife a shotgun for Christmas, and he got
it all beautifully made like a woman's woman shotgun and
(23:55):
he said, Man, I'm gonna knock a home run. Well,
my goodness, she's not entered. It expresses his personality, that Carla,
and it didn't meet the needs you see of the
person God didn't make that mistake, Michael, Jesus God in
human flesh expresses perfectly the personality of God. And also
(24:19):
he meets our needs, which is forgiveness, which in new life,
and the ability to let his spirit come and run
my life and run your life. It's the perfect gift.
And so that's Christmas. We can decide to run our
own life, to play at the game, or we can
decide to say, God, you run my life. Now. I
(24:40):
can tell you he won't run any life in the ground.
Doesn't mean we're going to be rich or famous. That's insignificant.
It means that perhaps he can help us to understand
what real success is. Now, Michael, you have all the success,
more than you deserve, you need, you're smart enough to
understand and more than anybody would imagined. But that's not success.
(25:04):
Success is achieving all the worldly stuff. Success is in
this life somehow, some way make a difference for God,
for Christ in something that will last for ever. When
someone thinks physical success, boy, that you never get enough
of it, do you? It's impossible. But I'll tell you
(25:26):
when we're successful in our lives, saying, God, here I
am works in all. You came a blue collar background.
I came a blue collar background. I say, Lord, you know,
hold this stuff very lightly, but make sure we hold
Christ strongly in our hands, because I can tell you
he's holding you and me strong in his hand. And
(25:47):
the good news is, thank God, he's never going to
let us go. This is the miraculous gift of Christmas.
God putting own skin and saying this is the way
to live. This is how to have a life. And
Jesus and God, Jesus said, I've come that you'd have life,
you know, in a meager way, and abundantly. That's not
(26:09):
in physical stuff, the abundant life. The happiest people I know, Michael,
some of them they got very little in this world.
Others you and I know, they got it all, and
they're absolutely broken and miserable. So that's not the answer.
It's when we let the Lord Jesus Christ his spirit
control our life and our actions. I'll tell you what
(26:32):
your marriage will sing, your children will be blessed. No
perfection there, but God is working to perfect us in him.
And that's maturity, that's growing up. And that's our prayer
for this world, this Christmas. Our world is in a mess,
and you prescribe it and say it and diagnose it
(26:55):
every single day, and we're divided. But the answer in
the first century it's the same answer the twenty first century.
It's a baby. It's Jesus who didn't stay in the manger.
It's not just a story of cattle. It's not just
the story of wise men and shepherd. All that's there,
very witness. I don't believe it. But it's the story
(27:17):
of Jesus coming into time and space and history saying
I can make your life count, you can be abundant,
whatever your status. And that's what Christmas is. It's a proclamation,
it's an excitement, it's a celebration of all celebrations. God
enter time and space, and no longer can we say
(27:39):
I wonder what God would have me to do. I
wonder what principles are operating here. I don't know which
way to turn. I'm depressed, I'm down, I'm broken. He's
right there saying, you just turned your life over to me,
and I will give you the perfect gift that you need,
and that is you'll have a life that is relevant,
a life that is exciting, not dependent on physical stuff,
(28:03):
but a life that will count now in His kingdom
and will count forever. Christmas the greatest gift, I would say,
just receive him and he'll do the rest.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Pastor Hole, I thought, Pastor ed Young, Second Baptist Church,
we're talking about the meaning of Christmas. I want to
for those of you who will hold with us for
a moment, I want to talk a little more about that,
about rituals, the history of those cultural traditions and religious traditions,
and how we weave them together. How we teach our
(28:37):
children in this time of you know, sales at the mall,
how do we teach our children the real meaning of Christmas?
And then I want to talk, as he alluded to earlier,
about Israel in the world today and the role of
the Christian and Christian faith with Israel coming up
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