What does Tribe teach about christmas story?
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 Christmas story starts not in Bethlehem but on the first page of Genesis. In the outdoor Christmas Eve services, Brian Hunter made the case plainly: as Brian says, "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." God created humanity for relationship, gave free will as a gift, and when that freedom was used to walk away from him, sin entered the human race, bringing with it war, sickness, death, and what Brian called permanent separation from God's family. Even in that moment, God already had a plan, announcing in the garden itself that an offspring would come who would crush the head of evil.
Colson, one of the leaders in Tribe's young adults ministry, carried that same thread through the whole Hebrew Bible on the Sunday after Christmas. He traced a pattern that repeats across the Old Testament: an Eden-like setup, some act of violence or transgression, a chosen person who is rescued and intercedes, and a covenant God makes with his people. Every figure in that line, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, was someone you would not have picked. The youngest shepherd boy nobody thought to present to Samuel. A man who laughs at the promise of a son at a hundred years old. A deliverer with a speech problem. God's pattern, Colson kept saying, is to choose the person you would not choose. The covenant God made with David in 2 Samuel 7, that through his offspring a kingdom would be established forever, became the sharpest point in that line, pointing directly toward Bethlehem.
Both threads land in the same place: the birth described in Luke 2 is the arrival of thousands of years of accumulated promise. Brian noted that God always goes one step further than expected, giving the Messiah not only to Israel but to the whole world. Colson pressed on how hard it is to hold onto that, pointing out that the Israelites watched God part the sea and were building a golden calf two weeks later, and that people do the same thing by Tuesday. The Christmas story, as Tribe teaches it, is not primarily a holiday tradition. It is the answer God prepared before the problem fully unfolded, arriving in the most unexpected way possible.
Taught from Genesis 3:15 · Luke 2:1-20 · 2 Samuel 7:8-16 · Isaiah 9:6-7 · Matthew 1:1
“The same God who was born in a manger in Bethlehem to a poor teenage Jew is the same God who seeks you out and loves you.”
From Christmas： The Whole Story
The passage taught · 1 Samuel 16:6-13
6 When they had come, he looked at Eliab, and said, “Surely Yahweh’s anointed is before him.”
7 But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I don’t see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.”
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “Yahweh has not chosen this one, either.”
9 Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. He said, “Yahweh has not chosen this one, either.”
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- December 29, 2025 Christmas： The Whole Story A young adults leader walks Tribe church through the entire biblical story to show why Christmas begins on page one of Genesis, not in a manger.
- December 28, 2025 The Christmas Story A young adults leader walks through the whole Bible to show why Christmas begins on page one and why the story of Jesus was the most unexpected rescue imaginable.
- December 25, 2025 Tribe Christmas Eve Service - Town Square A Christmas Eve message from Jackson Hole about why the story of Christmas begins not in Bethlehem but in a garden, and what the gift of the Messiah means for everyone.
- 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.