The World

Pat Steeves · Tidal Church Moncton · November 30, 2025 · Who Needs Christmas series

Pat Steeves traces the Christmas backstory from Genesis 12, where God promises Abraham that all peoples will be blessed through him, to its fulfillment in Jesus. The world needed a Savior, still does, and God keeps His promises.

More from Pat Steeves · The Who Needs Christmas series

Topics: Hope, Faith, Christmas

Transcript

[0:00] Maybe a better question is, is there anyone excited for Christmas yet? Few people. Alright. Now, I gotta be honest, I am kind of a Christmas guy. I love the sights, I love the smells, I love the traditions, all the things. And even at a young age, I enjoyed Christmas. But here's what also comes with that is I don't know if anyone has experienced the stress, the overeating, the unrealistic expectations that sometimes family and friends put on us sometimes. It causes me to wonder. Christmas doesn't really live up to all the hype. Now I know for some of you, you watch those Hallmark Christmas movies and everything turns out good, okay?

[0:49] But we all know that is not reality. We like to escape and think that that is, but Christmas truly doesn't live up to the hype, which causes me to question, and maybe you too, is there something bigger? Is there something more to this whole Christmas thing? And so today, I want us to look at the topic, the question of who needs Christmas? Who is Christmas really for if it doesn't live up to what all the movies and the stories and the books and all the things? Who is Christmas for? And I wanna ask the question because I think we'll come to realize that there is something so significant, and that's why Christmas really is a beautiful, amazing thing because there's a massive story that's behind it.

[1:40] And I believe that Christmas is for the world. And so I want us to look at this conversation, because now if you've, maybe you're new to church and this whole thing is, you know, a new experience for you, or maybe you've been here for a long time, regardless of your culture, your language, where you come from, everyone knows the story of Joseph, of Jesus, the manger, the angel, all the things. And I don't know about you, but that's sort of what we think of when we think of the Christmas story. Is that not fair? When we think of Christmas, that's what we think of. But here's what we're gonna do today.

[2:26] See, we're gonna learn to understand that that's actually the end of the story. That's the end of the Christmas story. The real Christmas story begins thousands of years ago. And we're gonna go through the backstory of Christmas. Here's what's fun. And here's what I love about backstories: sometimes when you know the backstory of something, it makes the actual story, the reality part, so much more significant and mean so much more. Which reminds me of this story. A few years back, my wife and I had our fourth child. For some of you guys who don't know, we have three boys, okay?

[3:13] And we have a whole lot of fun together. But then God blessed us with something completely different, and a daughter, okay? We had the boy thing figured out, okay? And then the fourth one was our daughter. And I always say, Victoria, if you're here, you're watching. She is my favorite daughter. And so like any good husband, and that's when she rolls her eyes and is like, "Dad, I'm your only daughter." So we have four kids. And just a few weeks after we have our newborn daughter, as a good husband, I'm like, "I think it's time for a date night." Okay? I'm gonna take my wife out on a date and I'm gonna teach my daughter at a young age what a gentleman is all about.

[4:00] Okay? She's like four weeks old. And so I kind of planned this little surprise. Yes, we had dinner planned, but this extra surprise was I hired a professional photographer to meet us at a park here in the city, Victoria Park. And just a pro tip, guys, just to help you out, just so you know, if your wife, when the time comes or has a baby, it's not a great idea to hire a photographer to start taking pictures of her just a few weeks after she's given birth, okay? Usually they're not a fan, but my wife was a good sport and she went along with it, okay? So here we are at Victoria Park, the three of us, and the photographer asks me a question.

[4:46] She's like, "Why Victoria Park?" And you know what? If you know me, I'm a question asker. So when people ask me questions, I'm like so excited. I'm like, "Oh, I got a story to tell you." This park, this was the place that on my first date with my then girlfriend, I took her to this park and we were here that night. That was like our first date, went for supper and walked in Victoria Park and it became kind of our go-to place. Now, those of you that are dating or married, you all have kind of your go-to place, right? This was ours. This was the park that we had our first kiss.

[5:32] Come on, somebody, okay? This was the park that I proposed to her right by this tree. So many, so, and so I'm explaining this to the photographer and she pauses and she's like, "So that's why you named your daughter Victoria." And I'm like, "I never connected the dots." Here is this park that meant so much to us and it's the same name as our daughter. And so it makes it to the point of sometimes the backstory makes this story so much more significant. It takes on a whole new understanding and a whole new reality.

[6:19] And that's what I hope today as we go through the story of Jesus and the New Testament and all these things, that there is a backstory that goes back thousands of years. That when you hear about Jesus and the Savior and all the things of Christmas, you're like, "Oh, wow, that's just part of the story." You gotta hear way back from the beginning. And so I need you guys to help me out because if you don't know me from my communicating style, I'm not what people would say, I'm not the teacher, the theologian, the most qualified communicator up here to do much teaching. To put this in hockey terms, like you have your first line guys, like, they're your finesse guys.

[7:06] They can put the puck in the net with ease, okay? I'm kind of your third line guy. Like, I'm your grinder, I'm your worker. We're gonna get through it. It may not be pretty, but we're gonna cover some ground. So are you guys with me this morning? We're gonna go back a few thousand years and we're gonna pick the story up, not in the New Testament, but we're actually gonna start in the Old Testament in the beginning in a book called Genesis, in the beginning. And if you're familiar with the Bible at all, it starts with Adam and Eve and it talks about how amazing it is. They're in this garden, life is good, there is peace, there is purpose, there is God. And should I say they're naked, just hanging out, enjoying life.

[7:57] You guys have some fun with me this morning, right? Life is good. Come on, all the married people. And so life is good. But as you go through and flip the pages of Genesis. I see some of you guys smiling. As you flip through the pages of Genesis, you will see that there was deception. Eve was deceived, sin entered the world, and there was a curse placed on the world. And as you begin to go through this story, you begin to see for the first time, there's no more purpose, there's no more peace, there's no more God's presence. It's actually disconnection. And there is evil and there is murder, and there is sexual immorality. And the world becomes a dark place. And that's where the story of a Savior begins to enter in.

[8:47] God has a plan for a Savior. Now, this is where the Christmas story begins, that God promises a Savior. So Adam and Eve, this is why we needed a Savior, because sin entered the world. There was a curse on the world. This is why. But what I want us to spend our time on this morning is talking about how God plans to save the world. Why we need Christmas. God had a plan, God had a promise, He had a purpose. And He uses a guy named Abraham. And this is where we're gonna pick up the Christmas story here today.

[9:33] You see Abraham, he is a young, vibrant, 75-year-old man, okay? Married to Sarah again. She's in her seventies as well. Here's what's interesting about a little bit of the backstory that is so important to know. Abraham and Sarah have no children, okay? Sometimes I'm like, oh God, I wonder what that would be like after having four kids. They had no children. He's just a 75-year-old dude getting up in the morning, you know, grabbing a coffee, heading out to go talk to the boys about the weather, right? Political issues, you know, just doing what 75-year-old men do.

[10:18] Life is good, but we're gonna pick the story up in Genesis chapter 12. And something significant happens in Abraham's life where his life is changed forever. God shows up on the scene. There's no backstory to Abraham. It wasn't like his character or he was connected with some deep relationship with God, none of that. He was just a regular dude just like me and just like you, and God shows up. Genesis 12:1-3. Let's check this out. It says, "The Lord said to Abraham, 'Go from your country, your people and your father's household to a land that I will show you.

[11:04] I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse. And all the people on the earth will be blessed through you.'" Now, there's a lot in these verses. And so I wanna start in verse 1 where God is saying to Abraham, "I need you to move to a different country." Now, I don't know about you, I know there's people in this room that you have moved from a different country and I can only imagine how difficult that would be. But think about it. If you move from Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, and you move to some other country, how many know that's a massive shift, right?

[12:01] All your routines, all your relationships, you are starting over from zero. You're taking none of that with you. And here's what is interesting about what God is asking Abraham to do. He's asking him to leave everything behind that he knows. And He goes on to verse 2 to say that "I will bless you." And verse 3 is like actually more crazy, where all the people in the world are gonna be blessed through your name. And so remember, think about this. This is Abraham. He has no kids. He's got no offspring. How is there gonna be a blessing? Like Abraham is thinking, "A great nation, I would just be happy with being a great grandfather," right?

[12:51] He has nothing to look forward to. Like this story does not make sense. "I'm gonna bless all the people of the world through you." This is completely outrageous. And it's interesting as you read Scripture, Abraham actually, in Genesis 17, do you know what he does? His response to God is just like you or I would be. He fell on his face and laughed like, "This is hilarious, God. Like look at me, look at Sarah, like this is not happening." He completely is just laughing on his face. And ladies, get this, he goes and tells Sarah. And when Sarah hears about it, do you know what she does?

[13:39] She laughs, 'cause it's like this is unbelievable. It makes no sense. But here's the interesting thing, and this is when reality starts to set in: Abraham believed God. And that's the difference, where he heard this story that seemed unimaginable. And I just wanna encourage you to just bring this story home just a little bit, that I believe that God puts dreams, visions, pictures, ideas inside of you. And guess what? No one else is gonna believe it.

[14:24] And those dreams and ideas, people are going to laugh at you if you were to tell them. And you and I both have a choice, we can either bow down to pressure and what people think, or you can choose to believe that the gifts and talents and personalities and things that God placed in your life, that He placed there for a reason. He gave them to you to do something with. And you can work hard and develop those gifts and put your trust in God. And you can see God do something incredible through your life, but you have to choose to believe. Are you gonna choose to laugh? Be like, "Oh, this will never happen." Are you gonna choose to believe the people that are laughing at you?

[15:13] Or are you gonna choose to believe the promise of God? And we see here that as outrageous, as unbelievable, as unthinkable as this promise that God gave to Abraham, he chooses to believe. God's promises aren't limited by your human inability. And I'm encouraging somebody today to believe the promise of God on your life. Find out what that promise is and stand on it. So God promises Abraham, "You are gonna be a great nation. I'm gonna bless people," all these things. Guess what happens? Sarah becomes pregnant.

[16:01] Now think about this for a second. You're like, "Okay, whatever." But no, stop and think about it. Here's Abraham, 75 years old. Every day he grabs his coffee, he heads out to the local tent gathering with all the other local men, right? Talking about the weather and the news. I bet you once Abraham finds out Sarah's pregnant, I'm thinking he walks out with his shoulders square, just a little bit wider, thinking he's the man. Come on, somebody, like he's pretty proud of himself. 75 years old, come on. Right? And so we see the promise of God is beginning to actually happen.

[16:47] Here's what's fascinating. Here's what I learned. Do you know what the, His, they gave birth? And God said that He would give birth to a child and you would name him Isaac. Do you know what the name Isaac means? He laughs. Just as a reminder that people aren't gonna believe the promises of God. People aren't gonna believe what maybe God said to you. Go ahead and laugh, but I'm choosing to believe the promise of God. Here's what's important. As Christians, as followers of Jesus, we need to know the backstory. You need to educate yourself on your spiritual inheritance. Did you know that Abraham is your great-great-great, great times?

[17:35] Like 10,000 grandfather, your spiritual heritage goes back all the way to Abraham. How many of you guys grew up in Sunday school? Okay, I'm about to embarrass myself, but I feel like the point is significant enough that I will embarrass myself on behalf of making a point. Okay? Some of you that have been in Sunday school, maybe you can help me out. There was a song that I learned and it went like this. Father Abraham had many sons, had many sons, had Father Abraham, and I am one of them. And so are you, my friend. We're gonna stop right there 'cause there's actions and that just gets weird.

[18:21] But here's the point. I wanna you to know Father Abraham is our father who had many sons. We are one of them. If you are a follower of Jesus, you can date your spiritual inheritance all the way back to Abraham. And I think that is so important to know, and I think it's so important that, you know, as a follower of Jesus, you know the Bible. Doesn't that make sense? And so I wanna put up on the screen here just a QR code of something that has been so helpful for me. And it's called the Bema podcast. And this podcast takes you through the entire Bible, but through the entire Bible so slow.

[19:08] Like, I've been listening to it for months and I'm just into Exodus now. But they break down the Bible and help you understand the backstory and the meaning of things and the Hebrew language, and they are able to keep guys like me engaged in it. That's saying something. And so it's been very helpful. And so I would encourage you to just take a screenshot of that. But here's the story. So now the promise was given to Abraham, now they have Isaac. And so I, we're gonna journey through some years here together and see if the promise of God is going to come to pass. So Abraham and Sarah have Isaac, Isaac has two sons, Esau and Jacob.

[19:57] And I think we're gonna put up on the screen a graphic here. Thank you, Hiro, for making this graphic. We're gonna put a graphic up here of Isaac. Isaac has two sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau was the oldest. We don't have time to go into it. Esau was the oldest. Jacob was the youngest in that culture. The oldest gets the inheritance and gets everything. But the Bible talks about Jacob. He was tricky and he fooled his brother. He deceived his brother into his brother's inheritance. You gotta go check out the story. And so that's why we have Jacob's name here. You think your family has dysfunction and all kinds of wild stuff. Read the Bible. It's crazy. Okay, Jacob, he had 12 sons, okay?

[20:48] 12 sons, one of them. If you've been around church or you have Sunday school, you'll know that one of the 12 sons was a guy named Joseph. Here's what's interesting about this story. Just like I have a favorite daughter, my only daughter, the Bible talks about that Jacob favored Joseph. And just like any other brothers, they got jealous. Now, how many of you guys have some siblings? How many grew up with siblings? Okay, don't raise your hand to this next part, but who's ever thought the most, I'm not sure of the right word, so I won't use it. But you've ever thought of, I wish I could trade my sibling in for somebody different.

[21:36] Okay, well, this is kind of what was going on where Joseph annoyed them so much. They were so jealous of Joseph that they made up a plan and they came up with two plans, okay? They're like, do we either kill 'em without our dad knowing, we like kind of make look like it was an accident? Or do we trade him? Could you imagine the 11 brothers sitting down being like, okay, which option, boys, are we going with? Like, and so they come up with the option of trading him because then they would get money from him for him to send him to Egypt as a slave. We're following our spiritual heritage here if you're with me.

[22:23] Okay, so we got Jacob, 12 boys, one of them was Joseph. He goes off to Egypt. Here's what begins to happen in the land. Joseph was like 16 years old when they shipped him off. Okay? Fast forward 15 years later. Now there's a famine across Egypt and it's important to know that Joseph was a slave. He was put in prison. Life was, didn't treat him a good hand. And I think for some of us we can relate to, you know what? Life didn't treat us a good hand. And you have two options. You can stay where you're at or you can work hard and use the gifts and talents and abilities that God placed in your life and you can change your situation.

[23:17] And that's what Joseph chose to do. God's hand was on Joseph's life and he didn't stay as a slave. Do you know what he did? He got to work and he became the best in whatever it was that he was doing at the time. And it earned him recognition. And people started talking about Joseph and the way that he was living out his life and he moved from slavery to, he started earning the ranks in the Egyptian government, so much so that he worked his way up to second in command. Why does this matter? Because, as I mentioned, Egypt went into famine. That means you couldn't grow crops, people were starving.

[24:04] It was hard times. And so Jacob, just like any good father, he's like, family, sons, aunts, uncles, we're going to Egypt because there's gonna be food there that they've stored up that's gonna provide for our family. So Jacob, the Bible talks about, sends all of his family and Joseph, who they sold off, is in a position of power and recognizes that's his family and they're coming to him for help. And it's so interesting when you read this story, he had the opportunity to say, you know what? You guys dealt me a bad hand. I'm gonna do the same for you.

[24:52] But Joseph begins to help out his family in a time of need. And here's why this story matters, because as I was going through this whole journey and this promise that God made to Abraham, I'm thinking, how did they become a nation Like you promised them to be a nation? How does that even actually happen? And it's so cool when you get digging into the Scripture, it actually tells you. And so I just wanna highlight one thing here really quick, is in Genesis 46:27, it says, "All the persons of the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were 70."

[25:40] How many? 70. So this is the nation of Israel, 70 people. It's small, okay? But then as you read further, it says that they were there for 400 years. And when you do the math on it, it actually makes sense that over the time of 400 years, this small tribe is now 2 million people after 400 years. And so this promise that God made to Abraham, "I'm gonna bless you, I'm gonna make you a great nation." We're actually starting to see how that could actually possibly happen. Except they're not a great nation.

[26:26] They're 2 million people strong that are slaves stuck in Egypt, working for a guy named Pharaoh. And again, I wanna remind you, God had a promise to make their name great through you. We're gonna bless all people, but this is not what it looked like then. And so if you've read through the Bible, you'll know that God raised up a leader named Moses, and Moses went to Pharaoh, who was in rule, who was in power over these 2 million people. And he's like, God has told me to let my people go, let His people go.

[27:14] And Pharaoh's like, yeah, you know, he kinda laughed that off like, yeah, we're not gonna let them go. Like they're, that's how our economy's running. And that's how things, that's how our country, our nation is thriving off of the work of them. And he's like, okay, fine. If you don't wanna let them go, and God starts to put a curse on, remember back in Genesis, those who curse them will be what, cursed. And so there would be one plague after another, and after each plague, Moses would go back to Pharaoh and be like, let my people go. And he would think about it and then he would end up not following through. And what's interesting when you read the story is actually God was actually trying to get to the heart of Pharaoh through this story, but eventually Pharaoh had enough and he's like, take these people and get them out of our country.

[28:13] And so this is the story. As you begin to see the promise unfold, now you have a people group. They were going to a place called the Promised Land, and I can't get into all the details, but over 40 years they're on this journey. This is where Moses has the 10 Commandments where God is trying to bring in some guidelines and some principles to teach His people right from wrong and all these things. And so you can slowly see the promise of God almost starting to happen, but they still own nothing. They land in present day Israel. Now they're leader, they wanted a leader. And it is a guy by the name of David. If you've read the Old Testament, you hear a lot about David.

[29:02] He was an incredible leader, a man after God's own heart. This was the point in time where the Israelites started to gain some influence. David had a son, his name was Solomon. And this is when wealth became part of their story. They were the wealthiest nation. Like, I don't know about you if you're tracking with this, but can you see how they grew from 70 to 2 million? To now they're a nation, they're recognizable, other nations feared them. This promise that seemed impossible is now beginning to unfold. But just like any Hallmark movie, there's always this like plot twist, isn't there, where like everything is great and then all of a sudden things begin to fall apart.

[29:58] This is so much more significant than this. But I want you to catch this of what's happening. So Solomon is in rule, he's ruling the Israelites, he had all the money, all the wealth, like wealth that would blow our minds, kind of crazy, okay? He had like 900 wives, like I don't even know how that happens, but like the dude's got a lot happening. And God says this to him, you can have all this stuff, but he's like, He said this. He says, "You must not intermarry with foreign women who worship other gods because they will turn your heart after their gods."

[30:50] And so God was very clear to him, be careful in this area because it's gonna turn your heart away from the very God who brought all this to you. And I just wanna pause there to just let this story just sink in for us that we live in a very prosperous nation. And as much as we wanna focus on all the things that are wrong and all the things that we don't have, we live in a very prosperous nation, one of the most in all the world. And we have an opportunity to have possessions, to have power, to have influence.

[31:38] We have the ability to have all that and many of us actually do in world standards, but it's important that we don't allow those things to become our god. And it's important that we check our heart. And here's one thing that's helpful for me, is God wants you to steward these things and He wants to entrust these things because these things aren't bad. They can actually do a lot of good, but it's important for us to check our heart and know, does the possession, the power, the influence, all the things, does it make us more thankful and more grateful and say, God, thank You for entrusting this to me.

[32:24] God, this is not mine. This is Yours for me to use and to do things for good, or do those things only used for our benefit and they become our god? And so I just wanna encourage and challenge and allow us to just check our heart when it comes to these things. We have to be so careful. And this is exactly what happened to Solomon. And his heart turned away from God. And God said, if this happens, Israel will be destroyed. And this seems again, so unfortunate that God promised Abraham.

[33:11] And you see, over hundreds of years, this group of people actually became a nation, wealthy, respected, but because of sin, it began destroyed. And it's wild how, just like over just a few years, the nation of Israel is divided. Assyria destroys the north, Babylon destroys the south, and we see Israel lose all power and lose all respect. They were conquered at this time. They were powerless, they were irrelevant on the world scene. Now no one knew who they were and the promise that God gave to Abraham seemed impossible.

[34:02] And so we're entering a time where God was speaking through different prophets. And as you go through the Old Testament, Isaiah, and then we get to Malachi, we just did a series the last few weeks on Malachi, and the prophet Malachi speaks to this in Malachi 1:11. He reminds people, the Israelites, "My name will be great among the nations." And at a time where they're completely annihilated, though everyone is laughing at them, there was a promise that God gives to Malachi. And He says, "Remember, don't forget My promise. I have not forgotten you. I am still with you, even though it doesn't look like I'm doing anything.

[34:51] I'm at work. You are going to be a great nation." And as from there, there is complete silence for 400 years. The Israelites hear nothing from God. There's no prophets, there's no signs, there's no nothing happening. Can you imagine when God's voice goes silent for 400 years? And I wanted to remind me and remind you that just because God goes silent in your life and you don't hear God, doesn't mean that He is still. It doesn't mean that He's not at work. And you have a choice to believe.

[35:36] We all feel this at times in our life where, "God, where are you?" And we have to choose to believe God. "You are at work even though I don't feel You, even though I don't see You, God, I trust in You." And so after 400 years of silence, we begin to see the narrative begin to shift. When everything looked hopeless, when the promise seemed dead, when the world was least expecting it, God was at work behind the scenes. Galatians 4:4 says, "When the set time had fully come, God sent His Son." And we start to see the opening of the Christmas story begin to happen, and an angel appears to Mary.

[36:29] Remember Mary, Joseph, all of that. An angel appears to this virgin Mary, a young teenage girl, and says this, an angel appears to Mary and says, "You will give birth to Jesus. His name is Yeshua, meaning the Lord saves, and He will sit on David's throne." That phrase there is so important because Jesus comes from the family lineage of David, which was prophesied, and it's amazing how all these things line up. "And His kingdom will never end." Remember the promise that God made to Abraham when He said, "All the people of the world will be blessed through you."

[37:20] That promise is actually going to be fulfilled through Jesus, again at a time when no one was expecting it. No one saw it coming. Jesus slips through. The promise that began with Abraham is fulfilled in Jesus. And that's the power of this backstory of when you hear this Christmas season about Jesus and all the things. I want you to think back that there was a backstory of over 4,000 years of God's promise to a guy named Abraham that through you, I will bless all people.

[38:11] Who needed Christmas? The world needed Christmas. The world was broken, and it needed a blessing. The world needed hope, and the world needed a Savior. But here is where it comes home for me: the world is still broken. The world needs a blessing now. The world needs hope right now, and the world still needs a Savior. And guess what? Our role is in it. We get to bring the blessing of God from Abraham to this world.

[39:00] We get to bring the hope that God has put in us, that there is a Savior to this broken world. Christmas is so much bigger than the presents and all the things. We have something to celebrate. We have a purpose. But there is something bigger to this life than what we think it is. And we have found it in the Savior, Jesus. Let me remind you of these four things. God is active. He's at work in this world, and He's at work in your life. God is interested in you. He's interested in what you're concerned about. God keeps His promises.

[39:47] What is it that you're believing God for? I wanna encourage you to keep God's promises on the forefront of your mind. And lastly, God can be trusted. God can be trusted with whatever it is that He has promised for your life.