Telling the Truth

Guest (Female): Did you know Christmas is about destroying death? That's the powerful message Jill Briscoe has for you today on Telling the Truth. But first...

Guest (Male): Right now is one of the most important times of the year for Telling the Truth. As we approach December 31st, generous friends have stepped forward with a special matching grant that will double your gift to help more people experience life in Christ. That means your support will go twice as far to help share God's word around the world through Stuart and Jill's biblical teaching, digital broadcasts, and global partnerships.

Every day, lives are being transformed as people discover the peace and purpose that only Jesus gives, and your year-end gift makes that possible. So don't miss this powerful opportunity to make an even greater impact before midnight December 31st, while your gift will be doubled through this special matching grant.

Call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill with her message, "Joy is Jesus."

Jill Briscoe: I think of Joseph and his first Christmas. He was older than Mary, seen many winters in more ways than one. The winter of poverty—carpenters were pretty low on the totem pole. Shall we say there was no money for healthcare, vacations, new clothes for the kids, never mind himself. When they brought Jesus to the temple, he brought two pigeons, a poor man's gift. Isn't it ironic that He, the Lamb of God, did not have a lamb to offer as a sacrifice for His purification? Only two pigeons.

And it didn't change. Joseph was poor all his life, yet he was rich. For there is a poverty of spirit. There are poor little rich people around this Christmas who have a wintermass to celebrate but not a Christmas. And he had a winter of poverty and he had a winter of pain. He'd been through those relational things. He was thinking about divorce that Christmas, minded to put her away privately. How could she do this? Struggling in his relationships, thinking about divorce, he had a Christmas. His marriage was saved, he was saved.

Joseph's first Christmas, and he found that the best things in life were free. And what about the shepherds? Well, they had their first Christmas. "Let's go to Bethlehem and see," they said. They'd had many winters without Christmas too. They were the despised, the ones that you'd cross over the other side of the street if you saw them coming. They were thieves, mainly because they couldn't make enough money to survive.

I always remember my mother saying, incidentally, during the Second World War when we were hearing about ordinary people in Germany who were starving to death through the bad war years and how they were stealing to get money for their children. My mother said to me, "They're mothers just like we are." And she looked at me and she said, "If the only way I could feed you was to steal a loaf of bread, I would do it. I would do it." I've often thought about that. We think, well, that's wrong, stealing's wrong. But would we do it?

I think we're tempted to steal in all sorts of ways even now. It's amazing what we are capable of doing. And so when we think of the shepherds and the thieves and rogues that they were, you have to ask yourself why. As I work with the poor, many people say, well, they're such rogues and thieves, why bother with them? They're stealing to feed their child. What would you do if the only way you could feed your children was to steal a loaf of bread?

And yet Joseph was a righteous man. He was a just man. He never stole a cart and he never stole a loaf of bread, and it never changed. He died a poor man. He lived a poor man. He was born a poor man. And what I love about the shepherds and what I love when I think about Joseph is that the incarnation means that Jesus comes to us where we are. He comes to us where we are.

He came to the shepherds in the fields. Here's the Good Shepherd. He sent them to a stable where sheep would be kept. Some sheep would be kept in that stable. Their world. He wanted them to know He understood sheep and shepherds and hills and crooks and all that stuff. He identified with them. He came where we were, they said.

And Joseph, a carpenter, Jesus became a carpenter. He came to a carpenter's home. He lived in a carpenter's shop. And He became a carpenter. He identified. And Joseph said, "He understands." And Jesus did that because He wanted us to know that remember where He was going when He came to Bethlehem? All the way up to His throne. When He got home, He would spend His time praying for us, identifying with us, understanding where we were.

Not too long ago, struggling with a personal problem and feeling very oppressed by it, waking up with it daily, I woke up one morning and I wasn't oppressed or heavy. And I lay there for a few minutes waiting for that blanket to fall on me, that spirit of heaviness that Isaiah 61 talks about, that garment of heaviness. And it didn't come. So I got up and I got ready and it still wasn't around. I was waiting to be blumped with it, and it didn't come.

And so as I was getting dressed, I thought, you know something? Somebody's praying for me. And a little voice said, "I am. I am, Jill." And I remembered that He is. That He came where I was, that He understood that particular problem. He stood in our sandals, He slept in our beds, He's eaten our food. He's been rejected by His family. He came unto His own and His own received Him not. He's been a shepherd. He's been a carpenter. He's been a family man caring for many children. He's been where I've been.

And the shepherds had their first Christmas and they returned rejoicing, rejoicing! Where's the joy in Christmas? It's in the situation. Situation didn't change. They stayed shepherds the rest of their lives. They returned to the fields, they returned to the shepherds. Their situation didn't change, but they did because they had a Christmas, because they had a Christmas.

So let's go to Bethlehem and see, they said, and they saw. And what about Simeon? He was enduring a winter of waiting. When I was doing my study on Job, I talked about being in God's waiting room and waiting being akin to suffering. What are you waiting for this Christmas? Waiting for a child to be conceived or born? Waiting for a prodigal to come home? Waiting for a marriage to be mended? Waiting for a sickness to be healed? Waiting for loneliness to disappear and God to bring a significant other into your life? What are you waiting for?

Simeon was waiting to die. He said, "I've no peace. I need salvation." And God said, "Well, you won't die before you have both." And one day, Simeon, led by the Holy Spirit, went into the temple, if you remember. And as he came into the temple at the right time—God's timing is so perfect—Mary and Joseph and the baby were there and the Holy Spirit said, "This is your salvation." And Mary and Joseph put the baby in this righteous man's arms and he said, "Now my eyes have seen my salvation. My eyes have seen Your salvation which You've prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, for glory to Your people Israel. Now let Your servant depart in peace. I'm ready to die."

Why did God come? Well, He came to die Himself so that we might not be frightened of death, so that we might know there is a crown for us, a throne for us, a Christmas for us in heaven ahead of us. That's why He came—to give us salvation, to save us from going to a place where we would never have a Christmas and being apart from God forever.

He came to do something about death. Christmas is about death. It's about destroying death. Christ's birth destroyed death. Doesn't mean we don't still have to go through it, but for the Christian, we can be promised life everlasting, receiving it now as we receive Christ. We receive His life. He that has the Son has life, eternal life, the life that's going to matter in heaven. And then when we die and go through the process of bodily death, we are released into that experience for all eternity without the encumbrances of our bodies, these earthly bodies, at any rate. God is going to give us new bodies.

I've told this story in church, but I want to tell it again here. As I was babysitting our two eldest grandchildren, Danny and Mike, I bathed them and stripped them off and their two little piles of clothes were there and put them in the bath and wrapped them up and dried them off and they got into their pajamas and into bed and told the stories and dealt with the drinks of water and all the things that putting off the light and having to go to sleep.

And as I was eventually going out of the door, Danny said to me, "Nana, I was watching the television." I can't remember when this was, this must have been—well, it was Nixon's funeral. And he said, "It was President Nixon's funeral, Nana," and I said yes. He said, "I was watching it on television, Nana," and he said, "They put him in a—in the box." And I said, "The coffin, yeah, the box. What's your question?" "Nana, how long will I be in the box?"

And I put the light on again and I came and I sat in his bed and Mike curled up on my other side and I said, "Danny, not one second will you be in the box. Absent from the body, present with the Lord. He that believes in Me," said Jesus, "will never die. And when you are dying, you will never die. Your body will, but you will never die. Absent from the body, present with the Lord."

That's what Christmas is all about. That's what He came to do. God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes, trusts that, will not perish. Won't be in the box, but have everlasting life. And Mike, at this point, who had been very still and quiet listening, said, "Nana, does everybody know about this?" And I said, "No, they don't, Mike." He said, "Then we have to tell them! Joey doesn't know!"

And Mike went to school the next day to speak about the unspeakable and describe the indescribable gift of God. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift, for His unspeakable gift. And then Mike said to me, "Nana, if we're not going to be in the box, what goes in the box?" Children are wonderful. And I looked down at the floor and there were these two little piles of clothes.

And I said, "Look at this. I stripped Danny here and I stripped you off here, Mike. These are your clothes, right?" "Yeah, Nana." "That's what goes in the box. Our body is like these clothes." And so Mike, very practical, said, "Will we be naked then?" And I said, "Oh no, Mike, you'll have glory clothes. Your body—robes the Bible talks about. Whether they will be robes or robes, who knows, but there will be a glory about your resurrection body, like I believe there was before the fall, even in the Garden of Eden. That's why they felt naked when they sinned—the glory went. But there'll be glory clothes, something to wear."

And you know Simeon said, "My eyes have seen my salvation, now let me depart in peace." There's two things you have to learn to do in life: one is to live and one is to die. Do you know how to live? Do you know how to die? That's all. And Simeon had been in God's waiting room. Now he could die in peace, sure of his salvation, knowing where he was going. He was going to celebrate Christmas in heaven.

So all these people had a Christmas. Have you had your first Christmas? Maybe you've had many wintermasses, but have you celebrated your very first Christmas? Let me tell you about my first Christmas. I was 19 years of age and I'd had 19 wonderful wintermasses. You can have a marvelous time with Rudolph and sleigh bells. Fun time, a fun festival. And our home was warm, it was decorated. My mother just made that home such a marvelous place to be. Chestnuts on the open fire, and Bing.

I can see what age I am—Bing Crosby, in case you didn't realize. And for those of you who are a lot younger, he was a singer in my age. And he sang a song, "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas." What nostalgia for me, because it was my father's favorite song. And then I went to Cambridge and somebody got hold of me and they spoke about the unspeakable and described the indescribable while I was lying in a hospital bed.

And I understood that God so loved Jill Briscoe that He gave His only begotten Son, that if Jill Briscoe would believe in Him, she would not perish but have everlasting life. And she explained how the Christ by His Spirit could be born in me. My life could become a Bethlehem so that people could say, "Come, let's go to Bethlehem and see the Child, the Christ in me."

And at the age of 19, I had my first Christmas. I found a Christian friend who I'd just met and we went to church. And I'll always remember sitting there, very first Christmas. "O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie." All the words began to make sense. That last verse that says, "Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in." Yes! How could I miss it?

Standing in my traditional school singing carols year after year, how could I miss all that? "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see." God's unspeakable, indescribable gift. Yes! How could I miss it? How blind could I be? And we walked home singing at the top of our lungs. She was as bad as me, so it didn't matter.

I said goodbye and it was midnight by the time I got home. I walked in the room and people turned around and looked at me and stopped doing what they were doing, and silence fell. And I thought, what are they looking at? And my aunt said, "Where have you been, Jill?" And my sister said, "She's been to church." And my mother's friend said, "Yeah, you can see that. Look at her face." I had no idea what they were talking about, but I realized they were coming to Bethlehem and seeing something of that joy that I had been celebrating. They were seeing something of the Christ of Christmas.

It was my first Christmas. And I was able to tell a couple of them a little bit about the fact that Christ came, and stumblingly I tried to tell them about God's unspeakable, indescribable gift. I didn't do very well. How could I? Couple of weeks old in Christ, didn't know what I was talking about, didn't know how to talk about it. But I had to try! And so must we, because there's a whole city of people out here who are heading for wintermass. And we'd like to say, wouldn't we, "Come to Bethlehem and see what it's all about."

Guest (Female): Jill, how does someone receive God's promise of a life that doesn't end?

Jill Briscoe: First, in faith, you have to believe it even if you don't understand it. And then you have to ask, "What does that mean?" And you have to exercise your mind, you have to read some Bible, you have to talk to someone. The idea of life that never ends—if you've had a bad life, that's not a very good thought. And so you have to explain it more than endless life, because for many, many people they say, "Oh no, I just want oblivion." And that's a very serious thought.

So how does someone receive God's promise of a life that doesn't end? First, you have to talk a lot about Jesus because it's His life we're talking about. "He that has the Son has life. He that does not have the Son does not have life, but the wrath of God abides on him." And so in Christ, we find life. Christ is life. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life," He says. Which life? The life that is eternal.

And so some concepts of Christianity have to be understood before we can talk blithely about receiving the Holy Spirit or receiving Jesus and we have eternal life. So we need to do a bit of explaining about our faith. You can't get away from a Bible verse thrown at someone. It's not enough anymore. And so try and invite people into an Alpha course. An Alpha course or a Bible study in your church that's offered that explains Christianity to people. We need to do a bit of sowing the seed, maybe we even need to do plowing the ground, sowing the seed, praying it in, before we even get to these concepts of blithely using "you need eternal life, you need to accept Jesus." And so we need to do our homework.

Guest (Female): Jill, how can a believer share the true message of Christ, God's unspeakable gift, at Christmas?

Jill Briscoe: It says in the New Testament that when the persecution came on the church, it was like the devil threw a bucket of water over a fire and spread it all over the place. And the believers went everywhere "gossiping the gospel," the word is. I like that. Gossiping the good news. "Did you know? Have you heard what happened in Jerusalem? There was this man called Jesus and He turned out to be God," etc., etc.

And so it's the same thing now. There is such ignorance about Christmas. There is such a parody of what Christmas is all about. Any way that you can explain Christ, God's unspeakable gift at Christmas, have to start a long way back. Do not presume people know or understand theology of any sort anymore. They don't.

I was talking to a young man here in a 90% Lutheran Catholic city when we came 40 years ago. And he said to me, "I am a Catholic, and the last time I was in church was at my baptism." Now that has changed in 40 years in our city, sad to say. 40 years ago, he would have told me, "I am a Catholic. I have been baptized, confirmed, I am still in church." And it's taken 40 years for people to leave the church, not the faith. But the little they know now is very, very little. And so whatever you can say, say as much as you can and get your own theology straight first.

Guest (Female): Thanks for joining us today. We hope today's message has encouraged you to know Christ more deeply and live in the joy of His truth. Listen to what Anthony wrote in to say about how your partnership helped him in his walk with God through the teachings of Telling the Truth. He says, "Thank you so much for your teaching and clarity on God's word applied to our lives. We need it desperately." Yes we do, Anthony. Thank you for sharing.

Right now is one of the most important times of the year for Telling the Truth. As we approach December 31st, generous friends have stepped forward with a special matching grant that will double your gift to help more people experience life in Christ. That means your support will go twice as far to help share God's word around the world through Stuart and Jill's biblical teaching, digital broadcasts, and global partnerships.

So don't miss this powerful opportunity to make an even greater impact before midnight December 31st, while your gift will be doubled through this special matching grant. Call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thanks again for listening and for helping share the timeless truth of Jesus with people everywhere.

Thanks so much for listening today. Join us again tomorrow as the Briscoes share more powerful truth from God's word. Come back and experience abundant life in Christ next time on Telling the Truth.