Child Of God // Week 3 // Pastor Jake Wood

·57 min·5 clips

Pastor Jake Wood compares Christmas to an archaeological 'tell' with centuries of cultural layers burying its real meaning.

Pastor Jake Wood opens by defining a 'tell' as an archaeological mound where civilizations build layers atop each other, analogous to how cultural practices like Santa Claus and gift-giving bury Christmas's true meaning. He proposes to 'tell it slant' via Emily Dickinson's idea, offering fresh angles on familiar stories. The first narrative is Zechariah and Elizabeth's conception of John the Baptist. Zechariah, a righteous priest, is barren and shamed, praying for a child for years. When an angel announces John's birth, Zechariah questions it and is silenced for nine months. Wood reframes this silence not as punishment but as a gift, like noise-canceling headphones, to help Zechariah listen to God. The second story is Elizabeth's pregnancy encounter with Mary. John, a 'coconut-sized' fetus, leaps in the womb at the presence of Jesus, a 'lentil-sized' embryo. Wood argues this irrational event calls for 'glasses of wonder,' accepting God's ways beyond logic, whether one is heart-led or mind-led. The third narrative is Simeon, an old man promised to see the Messiah before dying. He waits decades and meets the infant Jesus when Mary and Joseph, poor, offer pigeons for redemption. Wood contrasts passive waiting (distracted by phones) with active waiting (engaging faith through Bible reading), using his own childhood Christmas disappointment as an example. The sermon ties themes to Bethlehem ('house of bread'), Jesus as the 'bread of life,' and the stone manger mirroring stone tablets in the Ark of the Covenant. Wood closes by praying for the Holy Spirit to fill listeners, emphasizing that following Jesus is 'one beggar showing another beggar where bread is.'

As heard by us

A sermon on tells, silence, and the shock of being heard after waiting.

The message turns on the word tell and uses archaeology, a Lego set, and Zechariah's encounter with Gabriel to show how meaning can accumulate layer by layer. It also gives weight to Zechariah's surprise that his prayer has finally been heard after a long stretch of silence.

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Why you'd press play

If silence has started to feel normal, this sermon has a word for that.

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