Hank Smith: 00:04 Hello my friends. Welcome to FollowHIM Favorites. This is our last FollowHIM Favorites of the Old Testament year. And it’s the time we say Merry Christmas to you because it’s our Christmas lesson. I’m here with my festive co-host, John Bytheway. And John, Merry Christmas to you. Hopefully you’re having a wonderful holiday season. John, for our FollowHIM Favorites this year, why don’t we give a little Christmas message? I can’t remember if we’ve done this one before, but I know you do a beautiful lesson on the three levels of Christmas. Why don’t you walk us through those.

John Bytheway: 00:40 There was a Church News editorial written by a man named William B. Smart. And I’ve always thought, what a great name because it sounds like a sentence, “William, be smart”. But something we’ve all known but maybe hasn’t been articulated before is that Christmas has about three levels and level one is the Santa Claus level, reindeer and stockings by the tree and Christmas trees and all of those wonderful things that make it so fun and festive.

Hank Smith: 01:06 And that’s an important part of Christmas.

John Bytheway: 01:08 And it’s an important part and I love it and I watch the Christmas shows like everyone else. But level two he said, he called it the Silent Night level about the baby Jesus and the wise men coming and the shepherds hearing the announcement, singing Silent Night, which we all love too. It’s a beautiful time and I love singing those hymns about that night when Christ was born.

Hank Smith: 01:28 So level one.

John Bytheway: 01:29 Yeah, level one is Santa Claus.

Hank Smith: 01:31 Level two.

John Bytheway: 01:32 Is level two is Silent Night level.

Hank Smith: 01:33 Silent Night. I’ve heard someone say before, John, approaching the Lord of the universe can be intimidating for some people. Kneeling down and praying to the Lord of the universe can be a little bit scary. And so every year he gives us a chance to approach him as a little baby. It can be a little bit easier in their mind. Like Mr. Krueger. Remember Mr. Krueger’s Christmas? Approaching that little baby and expressing love for that little baby can be something that you can do during Christmas, that maybe you can’t do at other times.

John Bytheway: 02:04 Those little nativity scenes that we have all over remind us of an event that had been prophesied forever and finally came and the shepherds got to hear about it, not through other people but from an angel and went immediately to go find him. But William B. Smart said something kind of profound, he said, “But if you keep Christ in the manger, you’ll be unfulfilled”. And we’re not here talking about it unless there was the level three of Christmas. And that’s the Lord level, he called it. We might even call it Easter. The resurrected Christ who performed his work, suffered for our sins, our problems, our infirmities, everything because of him we’ll all live again. And we wouldn’t have level one or two if it weren’t for that level three.

  02:47 It’s kind of fun. And I could ask our listeners, as you’re singing Christmas carols, watch for level two and three in the hymns that you’re singing because there will be things about the newborn Christ and there will also be things that call him the Lord and the Savior. And those things kind of came later in his life. So you’ll see them both. It’s kind of fun for me, I think, to watch for him as I sing the Christmas songs at church.

Hank Smith: 03:09 Right. I like that level three, John, because this is what makes Christ different than anybody else. A lot of people have been born but nobody’s been resurrected. Nobody had died and come back to life. So you’re right there. Let’s not keep Christ in the manger. Let’s get to the major event that makes Christianity what it is. And that is Easter, the resurrection of the Lord.

John Bytheway: 03:30 And that’s why after Easter we were so glad he had been born at all. So glad that he came. But so it’s right to celebrate level two. Look, Christ the Lord is born. But then level three, Christ the Lord has risen today and it’s fun to see those all together. I like it at all three levels.

Hank Smith: 03:48 Yeah. Well from FollowHIM to all of you. We hope you have a joyous level one Christmas. We hope you have a reverent level two Christmas and we hope you have a powerful level three Christmas. How about that?

John Bytheway: 04:02 Well said.

Hank Smith: 04:03 So Merry Christmas from all of us to you. We hope you’ll join us next year on our full podcast. It’s called FollowHIM. Come read the entire New Testament with us. We hope you’ll join us as we walk through these incredible books of the New Testament together. And then join us because we’ll be back next year, every week with another FollowHIM Favorites.