What does Tribe teach about meaning of christmas?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on the meaning of Christmas starts not in Bethlehem but further back. Brian Hunter opens with a direct challenge to the familiar version of the story: "The story of Christmas doesn't begin in a barn in a little Judean town called Bethlehem. The story of Christmas actually begins all the way back in a garden." That garden was a meeting point between heaven and earth, where God walked with humanity and gave mankind the gift of free will. When that freedom was used to choose independence from God, sin infected the whole human race. Brian does not keep the diagnosis abstract. He names war, murder, injustice, and sickness, but also the selfishness, pride, envy, and rebellion inside every person's own heart. "This condition of sin has infected all of us, and it's terminal resulting in death, which is separation forever from God's family."
But the teaching does not stop at the problem. Brian traces how God, even in the garden itself, already had the answer in motion, promising that from Adam would come one whose heel would crush the head of evil. For generations the people of Israel waited, with prophets catching only glimpses. Isaiah 9 is read at length: people walking in darkness seeing a great light, chains broken, and a child born whose titles are the wonderful one, the mighty God, the father of eternity, the prince of peace. Then comes Luke 2, the birth in Bethlehem, the feeding trough, the angel's announcement to terrified shepherds that a rescuer has been born, Yahweh the Messiah, and the armies of heaven filling the sky.
The point Brian keeps returning to is that God goes further than expected. The savior was promised through one nation, but the gift was given to the whole world. Two thousand years ago God sent His Son to live as one of us, die a criminal's death, and pay the price for sin. That death and resurrection destroyed the power of the curse. Christmas, in this teaching, is not a holiday tradition to observe but a gift to receive, and Brian presses the question plainly: "Is it really a present if somebody hands you a gift and you go and you set it down on a shelf never having opened it?"
Taught from Isaiah 9 · Luke 2 · John 3:16
“The story of Christmas doesn't begin in a barn in the little Judean village of Bethlehem. The story of Christmas actually begins all the way back in a garden.”
From The Story of Christmas Begins in a Garden
The passage taught · Isaiah 9
1 But there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time he has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them the light has shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation. You have increased their joy. They rejoice before you according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the plunder.
4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- December 25, 2024 The Story of Christmas Begins in a Garden Brian Hunter traces the story of Christmas from a garden to a manger, explaining why he believes Jesus came, what he accomplished, and why it still matters.
- December 25, 2022 The Story of Christmas Begins in a Garden A Christmas Eve outdoor service in Jackson Hole where Pastor Brian Hunter traces the story of Christmas from the garden of Eden to a manger in Bethlehem.