Christmas in John 1
The Three Most Important Words of Christmas
John 1:14
December 22, 2002
Intro:
A. [Illustration]
The pastor of a small town church sent one of his men to the big city to order a Christmas sign to be hung outside on the door of the church.
The man lost the note, which the pastor gave him that gave the dimensions of the sign and the inscription that was to be printed on it.
So he wired a message to the pastor: “Rush copy of motto and dimensions.”
A new clerk in the Western Union office got the reply and almost fainted.
It read: “Unto us a child is born. Eight feet long, three feet wide.”
B. On this Sunday before Christmas, we continue our series from John 1.
C. Would you please stand with me out of reverence for the reading of the Word of God? [Read John 1:14 and pray]
D. Today I want share with you the three most important words of Christmas; the first is…
I. Incarnation
John 1:14 (NIV), The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
Hebrews 4:14-16 (NIV), Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
A. Incarnation simply means “in the flesh.”
1. I have already emphasized in our first three messages from this chapter that “the Word” referred to hear by John the apostle is Jesus.
2. Verses one and two tell us that the Word was there in the beginning with God and the Word was God.
1. Verse 14 tells us that in Bethlehem the Word became flesh.
2. In other words Jesus became a human.
3. Jesus left heaven and all that it means to be God and put on some flesh and became a human.
B. Christmas is not when Christ came into existence, just as the cross is not when He went out of existence.
1. The manger was simply when Christ put on some flesh and the cross is simply when Christ left the flesh.
2. Christ was in heaven before the manger and He is still in existence in heaven after the cross.
3. We have tried to pound this home, but there is another aspect of this God becoming human thing that we need to consider this morning.
C. Hebrews 4 tells us the significance of Christ becoming flesh.
1. This verse tells us that one of the reasons that Christ came in the flesh is so that He could sympathize with us.
2. So that He could understand us.
3. So that He could feel what we feel.
4. So that He could go through what we go through.
5. So that He could experience what we experience.
6. There’s no way that God could understand what it means to be human unless He Himself became human.
7. And Hebrews tells us that now we have the perfect high priest.
8. A high priest is a go-between between God and man.
9. Jesus Christ is our go-between between the Father and us.
10. Jesus Christ is our great high priest.
11. And Hebrews tells us that He is the perfect High Priest because He has experienced what we have experienced.
12. Now you may say, “Wait a minute preacher, I’m a single mother trying to raise three kids on my own and you want to tell me that Jesus has experienced everything I’ve experienced?”
13. Well, Jesus hasn’t been a single mother, but he has experience the same kind of rejection that you have.
14. Jesus has never been a single mother, but He has experienced the same kind of loneliness that you have.
15. Jesus has never been a single mother, but He has suffered the same sufferings that you have.
16. Jesus has never been a single mother, but He has been tempted with the same temptations that you have.
17. Jesus HAS experienced what we have experienced!
18. Jesus CAN empathize with us in our weaknesses!
19. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.
20. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
21. Since we have this great High Priest who knows what we’re going through, we can approach the throne with confidence and plead for grace!
22. Since we have this great High Priest has been in the flesh and gone through what we’re going through, everything is open in the throne room.
23. We can speak our mind!
24. Because of what Jesus has done for us, we can boldly go into the throne room of God and speak our mind and tell Him the truth about what we’re going through and it is not going to shock or surprise Him because He knows what we’re going through!
25. That’s what he incarnation means!
26. That’s why Christ gave up what He had in heaven to become flesh.
27. One of the most important words of Christmas is incarnation!
28. Another is…
II. Revelation
John 1:14 (NIV), … who came from the Father, …
A. The apostle John also tells us that Christ came from the Father.
1. Jesus came from the Father to reveal the father to us.
2. The world revelation means to reveal or unveil something; to make something known that was previously unknowable.
3. We often think of revelation of something that is mysterious, not able to be understood, unknowable.
4. But that is not accurate!
5. When something is revealed is brought to light.
6. When something is unveiled, it brought to light and is able to be seen and comprehended.
7. And God’s revelation is not limited to the book of revelation.
8. God revealed lots of things to lots of different people and He still reveals things today.
9. God’s revelation was never intended to be something we couldn’t understand; on the contrary, by definition, it was intended to give us understanding.
10. Revelation is God telling us about Himself.
11. Revelation is God telling us what He is like.
12. Revelation is God telling us what He wants.
13. Revelation is God telling us what is going to do.
B. Look at John 1:18 and see what the apostle John says about Christ’s revelation.
John 1:18 (NIV), No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
1. John says that the only way we have of knowing what God is like—is in Jesus.
2. John says the only way we can ever see what God is like—is in Jesus.
3. John says that the only true source of information that we have about God is—in Jesus.
C. Listen to some of the words of Christ from the book of John…
John 8:26 (NIV), "But he who sent me is reliable, and what I have heard from him I tell the world."
John 12:49 (NIV), For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.
John 14:9-11 (NIV), Jesus answered: "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ’Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
John 17:8 (NIV), For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.
D. Jesus came to reveal the Father to us!
1. [Illustration]
There’s a story about a man and his wife who were living on a farm on very snowy Christmas Eve.
The church was having a Candle Light Service.
The wife asked the husband to go, but as usual, he refused.
This stuff about God becoming a baby in a manger just didn’t make any sense to him.
He said he’d just wait at home for her and the kids to return.
After they had left, the man sat down to watch some television.
After a few minutes he heard something outside.
He went to the door and there were about a dozen birds out there.
They were very cold and trying to find a place to get out of the whether.
The man had a barn, so the got his coat and boots on and trudged out through the blowing snow to open the barn door.
Even though he had the door open the birds just didn’t understand that they could get out of the cold in the barn.
And so the man decided to go back up to the house and yell at them to go to the barn.
He did scare them away from the house, but the birds still didn’t go into the barn.
He then remembered that he had some birdseed in the barn, so he braved the wind again and went to the barn and strew some seeds on the floor.
He scattered them out across the yard to where the birds were, leaving a trail up to the barn.
The birds flew right back to the house.
By this time the man was freezing and ready to give up.
As he closed the barn door, he thought to himself, “I guess the only way I’d be able to get those birds to understand is to become a bird myself.”
And as he walked back to the house the man realized that that is exactly what God had done.
He had to become a man in order for us to understand Him.
2. That man teaches us a valuable lesson:
a. God became a man in order for us to understand Him.
b. If we were ever going to understand Him, He had to become a man.
c. Jesus became a man in order to reveal the Father to us.
d. He came to show us the way to the Father.
e. He came to tell us what God is going to do.
3. Jesus came to reveal the Father.
4. So two important words of Christmas are: incarnation and revelation; a third is…
III. Celebration
John 1:14 (NIV), We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
A. Christmas should be a time to celebrate Jesus!
1. We need to find significant ways to celebrate the incarnation and the revelation of Jesus Christ!
2. I know that tends to scare us a little as Christians because we tend to think of non-Christians and the parties they throw as not being appropriate for us.
3. But have you ever noticed how many festivals and holidays God instituted and told the people to celebrate?
4. Have you ever noticed how many parties and feasts Jesus attended and told parables about?
5. Have you ever noticed that there is going to be a huge wedding party when we all go to heaven?
6. We have allowed non-Christians to take over our territory!!!
7. We are the ones who should be known for partying!
8. We are the ones who should be known for celebrating!
9. We are the only ones who really have anything to celebrate!
10. We should be party animals and I say its time we started acting like it!
11. Now I’m not suggesting that we do anything sinful, but there are ways to celebrate without sinning, aren’t there?
B. A Box of Love
While helping her mother prepare for Christmas, a little girl asked about the meaning of this holiday.
The mother told her that Christmas was the time of the year we celebrate the birthday of Jesus, God’s Son.
The little girl asked her mother why Jesus didn’t get the presents if it was His birthday.
The mother explained the tradition of gift exchange as a way of showing love for one another and the matter was dropped at that.
The evening before Christmas the little girl brought a gift-wrapped package from her room and placed it under the tree.
“What’s in the box?” her mother asked.
“A gift for Jesus I am leaving it under the tree so he can open it tonight while I am asleep.”
The mother did not want her daughter to be disappointed, so during the night she opened the package.
But there was nothing in it.
The next morning her daughter raced into the living room to see if her package had been oopened.
It had!
She shouted to ther mohter, “Jesus opened His present last night!”
The mystified mother walked over to her daughter and asked what she had given Jesus.
The little girl explained, “I figured that Jesus has about everything He needs, and I can’t give Him much cuz I’m just a little girl.
But there is one thing I can give Him.
So I decided to gve Him a BOX OF LOVE.”
The little girl is right; all Christmas really is is a big box of love.
1. The little girl asks the right questions.
2. How DO we celebrate someone’s birth? We have a party; we give gifts.
3. Are you having a party to remember and celebrate Jesus?
4. Is your party any different from the world’s Christmas gatherings?
5. How do you honor Christ at your Christmas?
6. Do you give gifts to Christ?
7. What kinds of gifts can you give to Christ?
a. How about an extra offer to His church?
b. How about given to someone who is not able to have Christmas?
c. How about giving a donation to Christian ministry?
d. How about giving someone the gift of forgiveness?
e. How about giving yourself to Christ?
f. What gift will you give to Christ in honor of His birthday?
g. Whose birthday is it that deserves gifts more and deserves more celebration?
h. How will you honor Christ for His incarnation and revelation?
