Christmas Traditions

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry. Pastor Esteban El Jefe Cooley.

Si, como no. Si es bueno. Steve, tell me what is new with you.

You�re going through the LBC 1689 during Sunday school.

How�s that working out for you? The Long Beach� Community Rec Center.

Room 1689 is when they debrief you on� It�s really excellent. The London Baptist Confession of Faith, yeah,

I mean, I�m having a good time, so, you know, we�re aiming towards the

Sabbath, we�re gearing up for it. Uh -oh. Now, are you going to start, you know, doing lawn bowling on the

Sabbath, or are you going to stop eating marshmallows on the Sabbath? How�s that going to work out? Well, I�m preparing a list of rules that all will have to adhere to.

Okay, and you will determine to what degree those rules are kept? Because as I like to say,

I am the law. I am the law and the law won. I am the law!

Great scene from Judge Dredd. Did you ever walk into an area where you had to arrest somebody and say, �I�m the law ?�

I never said, �I am the law.� What did you say? �I�m a policeman. Put your gun down.� Well, no, you know,

I think I did say things at various times like, �Well, why do I have to do that ?� And, you know, somebody would say to me, and I�d say,

I�d point to my shoulder and say, �See that ?� It says, �L .A. Sheriff.� That�s why. Seriously.

What if they were illiterate and they couldn�t read? I�d read it for them because that�s just how

I am. Yeah. You�re so nice. Give me an illustration, Steve, of a time where you initially thought you were going to arrest someone, and then after talking to them, you either felt pity or sympathy or they changed the story in such a way where you thought, �You know what?

I�m not going to arrest them. I�m just going to give them a warning.� Well, there was one easy time or one that readily comes to mind.

It was a young man and his girlfriend, and they were out up in one of the turnouts up in the

National Forest, you know, looking over the beautiful city of Pasadena. And we came upon them, and so, you know, we do these wellness checks because all sorts of crime happens in those things.

And during our interaction with them, I saw what turned out to be, it was like the centerpiece of a shopping cart.

He cut that off, the shopping cart. And I�m telling you what, man, that thing weighed,

I don�t know, five, eight, maybe seven or eight pounds. I mean, it was heavy.

And I said, �What do you have this thing for ?� And he said, �Protection.� Bad move. That�s a felony, right?

Protection? Yeah. Because now you�re telling me you�re carrying this thing as a weapon, right?

Oh, oh. 12020A of the penal code. So sitting there talking to him, and I�m going, but he was a nice kid, had a job and, you know, everything.

And so I just said to him, I said, �Well ,� I said, �Here�s the issue. The issue is you�ve just basically told me that you�re guilty of a felony.�

And I said, �So the choices here are I can go ahead and take you to jail, or you can take this thing and heave it down the canyon .�

And I said, �Yeah, I�ll take your call.� He goes, �Well, hang on for a second.� There it goes.

Woo! Now, how can that be? How is that used as protection, as some kind of weapon or something?

What would he do? Oh. I mean, it was like a nasty club. Are you kidding?

It was a club? Yeah. Well, I mean, if you cut the center section out of the shopping cart, the handle part.

Oh. Oh, that. I thought you�re talking about like the cage. No. It�s reinforced. It�s reinforced. It�s heavy because you got to push, potentially,

I don�t know, how much stuff can you put on there? Maybe 150, 200 pounds in one of those carts, you know?

Plus, if you got your kids there, you know? People let their kids breastfeed now at 15 years old or something, and maybe they got their kids in a cart.

I�m not even going there, Michael. So, you know, it�s heavy. And to remove that thing,

I think he worked at a grocery store, so he probably also defaced some company property, but that�s�

And then you wrote him a citation for littering. No, I did not. No, actually, it would have had to been the marshals.

Now, there�s a funny story, because it�s almost Christmas time, right? Yes. So, same car, you know, different shift, but same car, we�re driving around up in the mountains one day, and we see a guy literally cutting down a tree.

So we go talk to him, and it�s against federal law to cut down your own

Christmas tree in the National Forest. People still do it, but it�s against the law.

That�s what makes it fun. Yeah. Will I get caught? Yeah. So we�re talking to this guy, and he was not a nice individual.

I mean, just really not cool at all. And he was like, �Well, you know, this is the

National Forest. You guys can�t do anything to me.� And I said, �Oh, yeah, we can.� We detained him and called the marshal over, or the forest ranger, gave him a ticket.

And, you know, keep in mind now, this was like 30 years ago. They wrote him a ticket, and the fine on that thing was like $700.

And I�m like, �That�s probably the most expensive Christmas tree that guy�s ever given.� And he goes, �Can I take the tree ?�

And the ranger goes, �No.� Oh, that�s funny. The most expensive tree he never bought.

Amazing. Did you ever, Steve, last question before we get to the topic at hand, did anyone ever a minister of God, you know, how we might, in light of Romans 13, say?

Do you know, actually, the Bible teaches that you�re a minister of God. Did anybody ever do that? Not while I was in patrol, and, you know, probably not until I was saved.

Okay. You know, so. All right. Well, today on No Compromise Radio, since it is Christmas, I have some

Christmas traditions around the world that I�d like to talk about, and then you can respond. Oh, Christmas traditions.

Very good. By the way, do you have any Christmas traditions that are of radio noteworthiness?

Christmas traditions that are of, you know, I can�t really think of anything.

I mean, usually Janet and I are just home on Christmas, you know, the kids are gone, and we let them do their own thing on Christmas.

We don�t put any demands on them, so I, you know, I mean, we usually wind up watching some kind of movie or something on Christmas Day.

Okay. Well, in Bangladesh, do you know worshippers light the way to church using arches made from banana trees with oil lamps?

Hmm. Now, you know, we�re all into church growth here and everything, you know, helping the Lord Jesus build the church.

That�s awesome. How would that work? We actually had banana trees in my backyard when I was growing up. Did you? All right.

Yep. They were funky. Okay. Banana trees are funky. How about this?

In Egypt, according to this little book that I have here, Christians fast during Advent. On Christmas Eve, January 6th for them, they attend church wearing new clothes, and on Christmas Day they visit friends and share a type of shortbread.

Mmm. This is scintillating. I love shortbread. Tell me the difference,

Steve. This is a real theological question. If people want to celebrate

Christmas, is it a theological problem? How do we work through this, people�s consciences and what they do on Christmas?

I think at the radio show we both agree that there are 52 special Sundays in a church calendar, and beyond that there�s really nothing, right?

Every Sunday we�re thinking about literally the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. It could be from Christmas to Easter and beyond, in eternity past and in eternity future, every single

Sunday. So what do we do with the Christmas holiday? Well, even so, you know, it�s a good question. I think even so, though, for most people in the congregation, there are really two highlights, you know, and Christmas is secondary, the primary one being the

Super Bowl, you know. And for many New Englanders, it�s Christmas and Super Bowl at the same time because New England�s there, so it�s their team, right?

Well, yeah, but that doesn�t now, the Super Bowl is like the first weekend in February, you know, so it�s pretty late to be celebrating

Christmas. Well, I know a lot of people are concerned because I heard in 2020 the

Super Bowl is the first day of Shepherd�s Conference, so they�re melding those two together.

Ooh. So the question is, do I want to go watch the

Super Bowl on satellite at Shepherd�s Conference or stay at home and watch it on satellite? Right, right. Yeah.

Or you could do the Roko kind of like sling box. Roku? Yeah. That thing? Yeah. What�s Roko?

I don�t know. You made it up. It�s like no -ko, only Roko. But, you know, Christmas, is there a problem with it?

I mean, I don�t think so. I�m sure that I could find some, sorry,

King James -loving guy who says, you know, Christmas is of Satan because it is, and I�m sure there are plenty of them, because it is nothing more than the

Christianization of pagan holidays, but because the one thing we can be pretty sure of is

Jesus was not born December 25th. Right. I mean, if we examine even the

Gospels, even without knowing anything, we would quickly discover that the idea that all this is taking place in December is not a tenable position.

How about, Steve, when we put together a worship service for the Christmas Sunday, whichever one that is, sometimes it falls on Christmas on the 25th, sometimes it�s the 24th, or this year

I think it�s the 23rd, what do we do differently? Is it okay for churches to have a service dedicated to the incarnation and Jesus�s birth?

Or should you just kind of keep going on as normal, you know, it�s just continuing the next set of verses?

I think you could go, I think you could do either. I don�t think there�s a wrong way to do it, because you are going to have a bunch of people from the

C &E club, the Christmas and Easter club, you know, they�re people, local people who just are looking for a church to go to on or about Christmas, you know, to have their consciences.

The one thing I would say, though, is you want to, you know, any sort of Frosty the

Snowman thing needs to be before the service. So... Okay, that�s good. That�s good.

No, we don�t do Frosty the Snowman. Steve, I found it fascinating that if the Christmas service, that Sunday service, is the 24th, a lot of unbelievers show up, or visitors,

I mean, I can�t tell if they�re unbelievers or not, but you know, if a friend says, �I�m bringing my unbelieving friend ,� that�s a regular thing, because I think with midnight masses at Catholic churches on Christmas Eve, you know, people just show up, they just feel the duty.

But if it�s the 21st on the Sunday, not so many show up.

Yeah. I mean, the 21st or the 28th, they�re like, �Meh, you know, Christmas is on Wednesday this year, or whatever.�

You know, it�s no big deal. Why go twice in a week? Because I�m bound to go to the Christmas Eve candlelight service, so why go twice?

Now, tell me what you think about this. I typically don�t like to say this is an

Easter message or a Christmas message. I just try to talk about the birth of Jesus in his life a little bit more during the

Christmas message, and I talk about his resurrection a little bit more at the Easter message, but I try to talk about them both anyway in every message.

Does that make sense? Sure. So this time, though, Christmas Sunday, 23rd, would be chapter 7,

Melchizedek. And so I thought, all right, there�s nothing wrong with continuing to talk about Jesus is a great priest.

These Jews were thinking, you know, how can he be a priest if he�s not, you know, his last name�s not Cohen, right? He�s not a Levite. Right.

And Jesus is from Judah, but there�s a greater priesthood than the Levites, and that�s from where the

Levites came, and that�s Abraham met this man named Melchizedek, this king of righteousness, king of peace. But there�s so much in there,

I thought, well, maybe I will do something from Galatians 4. Jesus is born of a woman, born under a law, and just have a deviation so I don�t have to explain

Melchizedek to the unbeliever, because that�s a harder go, I thought. What do you think?

Well, I don�t know. You know, I was an unbeliever who used to be a Melchizedek priesthood holder, so�

Yeah, now we�re talking radio. So, Melek is king, and Tzedek is righteousness, and so you were a

Melchizedekian priest, is that it? Well, no, I was an elder, but the

Melchizedek priesthood� Is through that line. Yeah. That�s what I held. So that�s why your name is pretty close to Cohen.

It�s Cooley, Cohen -Cohen. That�s interesting. So if your name wasn�t

Cohen or Cooley or something, then what do you do if it was like Johnson? Or Jones, or whatever. What�s a typical Mormon name? It doesn�t matter.

Do we know it? Are there some names that are just, when you hear you go, �That�s probably a Mormon.� Young. Seriously?

Forever young? A lot of times I think, �Oh, that�s probably.� But like Kimball, I mean, there are just certain family names that you just hear it, and you just go, �Oh, yeah, it wouldn�t surprise me, so.�

Okay, yeah, Brigham Young. Or Romney, right? And I�m not even kidding about Romney, as soon as I heard his name

I knew he was a Mormon, because Marion G. Romney was one of the first presidency, and I mean, there were just, the families, you know, are just, we�re going into Mormonism here now.

I�m wondering, you know, sometimes actors change their names, or musicians, just because they�re, you know, what was it,

Bob Dylan, you know, is Bob Zimmerman, and it just didn�t have a good flavor to it. So I heard initially that Mitt Romney�s name was

Mitt Rombus, but then they just had a lot of problems with trapezoids and other kind of associations.

That was false. Nine, don�t care. How about this for the listeners?

If your pastor preaches the gospel on Christmas Day, whether he deviates from his normal verse by verse preaching, or he continues with it, you ought to be glad, because you get to hear about the

Lord Jesus again. And I�m hoping that your church, that you attend, listener, talks about Jesus just as much on Easter and Christmas every other

Sunday. I think He�s the focus of our attention. Amen. And you know what I would say to just encourage you, you know, if you go on a

Christmas service and you think, well, the pastor didn�t say anything new, that was just the gospel, here�s what you ought to be thinking instead, is like what you said, but you also ought to be thinking this.

Okay, there�s a reason why he�s preaching the gospel with a special emphasis today. You know, why is that?

Well, because high probability that an unusual number of unbelievers would be there.

And so you ought to be thinking, I should pray that the Holy Spirit would open the eyes of, you know, the unredeemed people here.

That today would be the day that, you know, there would be, that we would hear for months to come of all the people who got saved today on account of the preaching of the gospel.

Steve, I like that kind of thinking, because maybe for you as well, but I�ll speak for myself.

I thought sermons were good when I was younger, when I learned something new, right, when

I had a new insight. And of course, that�s wonderful to learn something new about God, and you learn something more about His character, or even this last

Sunday when I was talking about the cities of refuge, and the Jews would flee there, they�d have asylum, what a great picture of the

Lord Jesus. And when we run to Him, we can flee to Him for refuge and find safety in the

Lord Jesus spiritually. I like that, but what if they just get up and say, you know, here�s another sermon about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

You�re like, okay, I think I checked that off when I first got saved, didn�t I accept Him in my heart and sign my name, and now

I�m good, can�t we get on to practical living? Well, you know what, here�s what I wonder. How many practical living sermons do you think you�re going to hear in heaven?

And if you�re like, oh, it�s boring and tedious now, well, just wait a year in heaven and all you hear about are the splendors and glories and majesty of God forever and ever and ever.

Jesus Christ expounded to you and explained to you over and over and over again, in greater depth maybe, but�

And what if you�re just sitting there looking at Him, and you�re just thinking about Him, right? Yeah. And you�re just like, okay. So, see,

I want to talk about that for a second, and this is what we do on this radio show, which is like ADD, we just flip all around because we don�t want you to change the channel.

Do they have channel changes? Yeah, we don�t want you to get ADD. Steve, when you think about marriages that need help, of course,

I think a husband could say, you know, what are some of the things, honey, you�d like me to do for you? That�s a loving thing, right?

Is there anything I could do for you today, you know, on a to -do list? I think that�s valuable. But would it be more valuable or less valuable if you just went and spent time with your wife and went and did something with her?

And then ask her how her day went, and how you�re feeling, or how does this make you feel, or what do you think about this? And just spending time together.

I�m wondering if, in addition to the honey -do list, there�s just a honey, let�s spend time together list.

I have ADD. We just went from the gospel to marriage advice. But yeah, I think that�s good.

I think that since we�re on that track, you know, I would just say that I think too many people, especially the guys, just have this sense that once they�re married, life is over, right?

I mean, the whole�all the work is done. It�s like�

Cruise control now. Yeah. You�ve won the prize. Here�s a question. Have you ever done this at a wedding, you know, when you�re pronouncing the couple man and wife?

Have you ever said, �Now, after I give you the vow, you just say, �It is finished ,�� right?

No, you say, �I do ,� right? Nobody gets to say, �It is finished.� My work here is done, right?

Your work is just beginning. So� No, that�s good. Well, my point was with back�thinking about who

Jesus is, and back to Christmas messages. Oh, I get it. We�re all going to hear the same thing again. Yeah. But it�s good to just reflect again.

And, Lord, I often forget this, I�m a works -based person, my default is merit,

I need to be focused on not my merit, because it�s not good enough, but on the Lord�s merit. And then in heaven, we�re just going to admire

Him and worship Him and just spend time with Him. And to your point, we don�t need a to -do list, because we�ll know who

He is, then we�ll naturally do. And I think that�s the part with marriage and even with Christian sanctification to a large degree.

Well, I mean, do you ever say to your wife, you know, you guys are out, and you�re just looking at her, and you go, �You know,

I don�t have anything to say to you. You�re boring.� I watch these couples, and they�re out on a dinner date, and they�re both texting, you know.

I�m like, �Okay, come on.� So we have Christmas traditions around the world. Iraq, it says, �Families light a fire of dried thorns in their courtyard on Christmas Eve.

If it burns to ashes, they will have a good year. Another bonfire is lit in church on Christmas Day, and there is a procession with the image of child

Jesus.� I don�t know if that�s true or not. It�s in this book here today, but that�s kind of an interesting tradition.

I think I just don�t, you know, that just sounds too fleecy to me. Okay. You know.

All right. So how about in Greenland, �Celebrators eat matak, which is whale skin containing a strip of blubber.�

You know, I�m� Matak.

Vulcans, but the bad guys. The Gorn. No. Romulans.

Klingons. Klingons. I think the Klingons eat that. Oh, I think they do. Remember that whole

New Testament that was translated into Klingon? No, but it doesn�t surprise me that somebody would waste their time doing that.

Can you imagine? I know. All right. Well, how about England? It says, �Christmas dessert.�

Just give me another idea. How about the Tolkien study Bible? Hey, you know what?

Steve, we better not say this on the air because we could be rich. We could come up with a C .S. Lewis study

Bible and be richer than rich. Yeah, but I�m just like, just think if we blended the

Lord of the Rings and, you know, the Bible, you know, just take the comments from Lord of the Rings and put those in the �

I was listening to Enya�s song, �O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.� I was like, �Ahhh.� I thought, I can just see the orcs come flying up over the hill or the

Black Riders or whatever they call those things. I�m like, �Ahhh.� This is bad.

In England, you know, they have a tradition, �Christmas dessert is a rich fruity pudding with brandy sauce.�

Now, do you have to like cook that brandy out if you�re a temperance guy? Oh, I don�t think so.

I met somebody recently. They told me they had to sign a temperance pledge to become a covenant member of their church.

Stop. Yeah. I have an old Bible that has a temperance pledge at the beginning and, you know, marriages, deaths, births, temperance pledge.

You know, if somebody comes up to me and says that they don�t drink, that they think it�s wise not to drink,

I�m going, �Good for you.� But a temperance pledge? No. No, I don�t think so.

All right. And then lastly, in Mexico, or maybe lastly, La Posada, doesn�t he play for the

Red Sox? No. He used to play for the Yankees. He used to be a catcher, actually. He did.

Jorge Posada. It�s a procession reenacting Joseph.

First I thought it said Josephus, and I thought you�re going to have to be like this Jewish guy who�s, you know, bound to write according to the

Romans. Reenacting Joseph and Mary�s search for shelter before the birth of Jesus, celebrators go from house to house carrying their images.

And so we have to find shelter. If I don�t get me some shelter.

I don�t think I like that, though. I mean, carrying the images, again, you know, why do they do that?

Why do they need the images? Well, I think it�s because they want to be viscerally moved and because they think that there�s something special about the images of Mary and Joseph.

I know. You know, I�ve been sometimes accused of a commandment violation showing pictures of Jesus with these little things that people send me, right?

This is like a little eraser and stuff that you can�t see on the radio, but I�m showing Pastor Steve. And that actually isn�t

Jesus. You know what? It�s Mary. So now I don�t have to think that it�s Jesus. It�s an eraser?

Well, it�s some, it�s actually it says it�s a pocket Jesus�s strength. You put that in your pocket every time you feel it.

You have a Christmas tradition and you walk over and you eat whale blubber and you have a banana tree with a lamp and then you carry this image over to the bonfire that�s made full of dried thorns for a year.

Here�s a� It�s an amalgamation worship. Oh, yeah. Just put everything together. You know, here�s the funny thing about images.

Not, well, it�s not funny, but here�s the odd thing about images. I am absolutely confident that there has never been an image that looks anything remotely like Jesus.

No, because the image is going to be obviously false and when you think about, you know, heaven, that image is, good thing you�re going to have real redeemed bodies or else you�re going to be just dust, right?

Here�s this Shekinah glory and this effulgent glory of the Lord Jesus. So on No Compromise Radio today we�ve talked about a variety of things.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas. Don�t you want to wish them a Merry Christmas? Yeah, Merry Christmas to everybody. And if you ever meet someone that has a carriage pole weapon, you want to make sure that you stay completely away from them.

I would agree with that. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God�s Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.