Traditionally, people have always enjoyed celebrating birthdays. Even as a nation we celebrate the birthdays of individuals who throughout history have made an impact on the United States. In January we will honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on His birthday. In February we will honor George Washington and Abraham Lincoln on their respective birthdays. In fact each year on the fourth of July we celebrate our nation’s birthday. Although each of these birthdays is significant, none are more significant than the one we celebrate on December twenty-fifth. On this day businesses shut their doors, people travel miles to gather with family, in fact people all over the world remember the birth of Jesus. Consider the countless number of songs that have been written over the years to remember Jesus’ birth. (Silent Night, Away in a Manger, Joy to the World and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing) Each one of these songs offer praise to that little baby born in a manger in that tiny village of Bethlehem many years ago. Christmas is all about a birthday celebration. Wait a minute! Is it accurate to say that Jesus’ existence began like ours, in the womb of His mother? Did life begin for Him when He took His first breath of that damp musty stable air? Was the day of His birth truly the beginning of the Son of God? The truth is, that unlike us Jesus existed long before His birth, in fact long before there was air to breath and long before the earth even existed. In our text John provides some convincing proof that Jesus existed long before He was born.
I. Jesus the Son of God in the very beginning.
A. As John writes of the beginning, he is paralleling the words of the creation account.
1. John’s opening words echo Genesis 1:1, but whereas Genesis refers to God’s activity at the beginning of creation, here we learn of a being who existed before creation took place.
2. John calls the Son of God, who was with God His Father in the beginning, the Word. John does not identify this person immediately, but described His nature and purpose before revealing His name.
3. As the Word the Son of God fully conveys and communicates God. So we start before the beginning outside of time and space in eternity.
4. If we want to understand who Jesus is, John says, we must begin with the relationship shared between the Father and the Son “before the world began”. This relationship is the central revelation of this Gospel and the key to understanding all that Jesus says and does.
B. Understanding why John chose to use the term “Word” to describe Jesus.
1. Theologians and philosophers, both Jews and Greeks used the term in a variety of ways.
2. In the Hebrew language “the word” (dabar) is described as an agent of creation, the source of God’s message to His people through the prophets and God’s Law, His standard of Holiness.
3. The Greeks used “the word” (logos) in two ways. It could mean a person’s thoughts or reason or it might refer to a person’s speech, their expression of thought.
4. In both the Jewish and Greek conceptions, logos conveyed the idea of beginnings thus the world began through the word.
5. John’s description here shows clearly that He is speaking of Jesus as a human being that he personally knew and loved, who was at the same time the creator of the universe, the ultimate revelation of God, and also the living picture of God’s holiness.
6. Jesus as the logos reveals God’s mind to us.
II. Jesus the Son of God at the creation.
A. The New Testament portrays the Son of God as the agent of creation.
1. The word "made" (egeneto) has the meaning "became" or “came into being” rather than "constructed." The action refers to an event rather than a process. The visible universe with all its complexity owes its origin to the creative mind and power of God.
2. The description is stated both positively (all things) and negatively (“nothing without him”). This creating definitely makes the Word deity, because who or what else can make a universe except God?
3. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. (Colossians 1:16—NIV)
4. The Greek verb egeneto is in the second person aorist form, which implies a “completed act.” Creation is finished. It is not a process still going on, even though God is certainly at work in His creation. Creation is not a process; it is a finished product.
B. Without a doubt John is teaching here the priority of Christ over creation.
1. All things were made through Him. He Himself was not a created being; rather He was the Creator of all things. This includes mankind, the animals, the heavenly planets, the angels —all things visible and invisible.
2. Without Him nothing was made that was made. There can be no possible exception. If a thing was made, He made it. As Creator, He is, of course, superior to anything He has created.
3. All three Persons of the Godhead were involved in the work of creation: “God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). “All things were created through Him (Christ) and for Him” (Colossians 1:16).
C. Jesus was the source of both physical and spiritual life.
1. John is not simply saying that Jesus possessed life, but He was and is the source of life.
2. The Greek term used for life is zoe; and when John writes, he always uses it to describe divine, eternal life.
3. When we were born, we received physical life. When we are born again, we receive spiritual life. Both come from Him.
4. He is the light of the world in that he reveals such life which is inherent in God and can be shared by God with humankind, in spite of the prevalence of death and darkness in this world.
5. The simplest way to state this is, “In him was life” meant that life was inherent in Jesus so that he could make the physical world and its habitants, and “the life was the light of man” meant that he was the revealer of this truth to humankind.
III. Jesus the Son of God in the flesh.
A. Jesus, the logos entered into a new dimension of existence through the gateway of human birth and took up his residence among men.
1. When Jesus was born as a Baby in the manger at Bethlehem. He had always existed as the Son of God with the Father in heaven, but now chose to come into the world in a human body.
2. God actually came to this earth and lived here as a Man among men. The word “dwelt” (skenoo) means “to take up residence” or “pitched His tent.” His body was the tent in which He lived among men for thirty-three years.
3. In the phrase "he came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him," the former "own" refers to things; and the phrase may mean "his own property" or "his home". The latter "own" refers to "his own people," the nation he belonged to. Jesus came to the place he had created and had a right to possess. Those who inhabited it turned him away in rejection.
4. He was not trespassing on someone else’s property. Rather, He was living on a planet which He Himself had made.
5. When He came into the world, He presented Himself to the Jews as their Messiah, but they would not receive Him.
B. What should all this mean to me?
1. If you see a single picture of Jesus in a manger, you have no idea what came before and what comes after that picture. People often take one look at Jesus and assume they know all about him.
2. The nativity scene really looks the same year after year. A mother, father and baby, some shepherds, some wise men and of course a few animals.
3. However, to truly understand the true meaning of Christmas, we need to see the baby as John describes Him.
a. Existing from the very beginning.
b. The creator and author of life.
c. God with us in the flesh.
4. We cannot be guilty of leaving the baby in the manger, we must allow Him to grow up and complete His mission.
a. He experienced our pain and grief.
b. He experienced rejection.
c. He paid the penalty for our sins on the cross.
5. Even in the pre-creation past we were on His mind as He was laying the foundation for our redemption.
6. Time does not imprison Jesus because He created it. He can step in and out of time like we step in and out of the shower. He moves freely and instantly anywhere He desires. Everywhere we have been and everywhere we will be, He is there.
7. The One who came from the throne of heaven resided in Mary’s womb until the right time to enter our world.
During the dark winter of 1864, at Petersburg, Virginia, the Confederate army of Robert E. Lee faced the Union divisions of General Ulysses S. Grant. Late one evening one of Lee’s generals, Major General George Pickett, received word that his wife had given birth to a beautiful baby boy. Up and down the line the Southerners began building huge bonfires in celebration of the event.
These fires did not go unnoticed in the Northern camps and soon a nervous Grant sent out a troops to see what was going on. The scouts returned with the message that Pickett had had a son and these were celebratory fires. It so happened that Grant and Pickett had been contemporaries at West Point and knew one another well, so to honor the occasion Grant, too, ordered that bonfires should be built.
What a peculiar night it was. For miles on both sides of the lines fires burned. No shots fired. No yelling back and forth. No war fought. Only light, celebrating the birth of a child. But it didn’t last forever. Soon the fires burned down and once again the darkness took over. The darkness of the night, and the darkness of war.
The good news of Christmas is that in the midst of a great darkness there came a light, and the darkness was not able to overcome the light. It was not just a temporary flicker. It was an eternal flame.
