The Christmas season is officially here. It began as soon as the Thanksgiving dinner was over. However I noted that in Walmart, the Christmas trees and lights and things were out for sale long before Halloween was over. Some radio stations and satellite/internet stations has been playing Christmas music since November 1st. But I’ve been disappointed in these different Christmas music stations, the Christmas music they play is most mostly the “Jingle Bells,” “Rock around the Christmas Tree,” and I’ll Be Home for Christmas” type of music. No real carols about the birth of Jesus is being played, not often at any rate.
We like Christmas. We want it the season to start earlier every year. But so often in all the hype of Christmas we miss the what Christmas is really all about. Being in church, the Sunday School answer to all of this is that “Jesus is the reason for the season.” We get that. We have the pins and the signs. But is that the message we truly convey? Is that the message we promote. Yes it is Jesus birthday, so what.?
This sermon series we will look at Christmas. Its more than a reason. It is all about Jesus. Today message is central to this series. Jesus is our source of Life. More than that, as we shall see, Jesus is the source of all life, physical, spiritual, and eternal. Jesus is life.
John 1:1–4
Though John doesn’t record the birth of Jesus, he does give a most profound introduction to the coming of Jesus. We will be looking at John’s introduction over the next few weeks. When we realize the grandeur of Jesus, we will only begin to see how incredible was the humbling of Himself to come to earth as baby, born into a poor family.
John 1:1–2 (NKJV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.
John makes it very clear. "The Word" here is very clearly Jesus. Jesus was with God and Jesus is God. Jesus was at the beginning. Jesus is the beginning. and for the matter, Jesus is also the end.
Revelation 22:13 (NKJV) I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”
And Jesus was the very agent of creation. Not only did Jesus create the expanse of the universe, he is also the very creator of the intricacies of the atom itself. Scientists will never be able to create life in the laboratory. Why? Because all life exist only in Jesus.
Colossians 1:16–17 (NKJV) For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
Did you get that last line? “in Him all things consist.” I like the NIV and HCSB rendering this line: “in Him all things hold together.” We would not exist if it were not for Jesus. Don’t you think Jesus might know a thing or two about each one of us? The psalmist proclaims this:
Psalm 100:3a (NKJV) Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
When we are broken, who better to fix us than our maker?
ILL: It was said of Charles Steinmetz, the mechanical electrical engineering genius and friend of Henry Ford, that he could build a motor in his mind, and if it broke down he could fix it in his mind. So when he designed it and actually built it, it ran with precision. One day the a massive generator, built by General electric, broke down at one of the Ford plants. None of Ford’s men could fix it, and time was of the essence, so they called in GE’s top engineer to fix it, Steinmetz. He looked over the massive generator and asked for a ladder. As Ford’s skeptical engineers watched, Charles climbed the latter and made a small “X” on the side of the generator. He instructed the engineers to remove the plate where the “X” was and replace the windings from the coil field there. They did so and the generator worked perfectly.
A few days later Ford received a bill from Steinmetz for $10,000. Ford wrote back, “Charlie, don’t you think your bill is a little high for just marking a little X?" Steinmetz sent back a revised bill: “Making a chalk mark on the generator - $1. Knowing where to make the mark, $9,999. Ford paid the bill.
Only Jesus knows where the fixing should be done in our lives to keep us in perfect running order. Christ always knows which screw to turn, which belt to loosen, and the most beneficial fuel to use. [1] We need Jesus for every aspect of life.
John 1:3 (NKJV) All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
There is nothing that escapes notice from Jesus. He created it all. John phrases this both in the positive and negative.
Positive: Jesus made it all.
Negative: Nothing was made that was made without Jesus
These first three verses in John 1 sets the stage for verse 4:
John 1:4a (NKJV) In Him was life
Jesus Christ the Creator provides physical life; Jesus Christ the Redeemer provides spiritual life; and Jesus Christ the Savior provides eternal life. [2]
We have life because He is life. Without Jesus there is no life. Whether you are talking physical life, or Spiritual life, all life lies in Him. The word “life’ is an important word in the Gospel of John. John uses the word 36 times. It is important concept to properly understand. Let’s look how Jesus describes himself using the word “life.”
John 5:26 (NKJV) For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself
Jesus has life because the God the Father has life. But more than that, Jesus gives life.
John 10:10 (NKJV) I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
Because Jesus processes the essence of life, physical as well as spiritual, He can give life as in case of the resurrections from the dead.
John 11:25–26 (NKJV) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
This Jesus says to Martha just before He raises Lazarus, her brother, for the dead. Jesus says He is “the life.” Jesus is not "a life," but rather He is "THE LIFE." Jesus repeats in this John 14:
John 14:6 (NKJV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
When we look at the essentials for life, things we need for physical life we need 4 things:
1. Light – Those who live north of the artic circle are without light during winter months. They suffer depression, anxiety , and general physical decline. You put a plant in a dark closet and it will die. Light is essential for life.
2. Air – We need air. Oxygen to sustain us.
3. Water – water is crucial. We may survive with out food for a quite a while, but without water we die in a few days.
4. Food – We must fuel our bodies to continue. We can go without for a while, but we cannot keep up any sort physical activities without food.
Let’s look at each one.
1. Light
John 8:12 (NKJV) Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
Jesus give us light and life. In His light we find our lives.
2. Air.
John 3:8 (NKJV) The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
The word “Spirit” in both the Greek and in the Hebrew, is from the word for breath, or wind. We are born spiritually by and in the very Breath of God.
John 20:22 (NKJV) And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
Jesus breathed on them. “Receive the Holy Breath” translated literally. Without the Spirit we are spiritually dead.
3. Water
John 4:14 (NKJV) but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Jesus give the water so we may never thirst again.
4. Food
John 6:35 (NKJV) And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
Jesus is needed for life. Without Jesus, people are walking around in this world are dead, they just do not know it.
1 John 5:11–12 (NKJV) And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
It is our hope and faith and belief in Jesus that give us life and eternal life. Jesus Himself gives us the very definition of eternal life:
John 17:2–3 (NKJV) as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Has Jesus given you eternal life? Jesus says knowing Him is the very definition of eternal life. There are two kinds of “to know” in the Greek. On is to know intellectually, like book knowledge. The other “know” <ginosko> means to know intimately, to know experientially. It is <ginosko> that is used here in John 17:3.
John’s purpose of writing this gospel was so people would believe and have life.
John 20:31 (NKJV) but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
That was the whole purpose of John. So the reader could have life, eternal life, but it is to be found only in Jesus.
John 1:4 (NKJV) In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
And this sets the stage for where we are going. His life, the Life that is Jesus and the life that is gives is the light of men. But the world rejects both the light and life of Jesus. But here is the whole Christmas message:
John 1:14 (NKJV) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus came to give us life. Yes, Christmas is all about Jesus. We serve a risen and living Lord. One of the most encouraging verse in all of John is Jesus’s word:
John 14:19 (NKJV) Because I live, you will live also.
Do you know this Jesus who’s coming we celebrate?
[1] www.smithsonianmag.com/history/charles-proteus-steinmetz-the-wizard-of-schenectady-51912022/?no-ist
R. Kent Hughes, John: That You May Believe, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999), 18.
[2] Kenneth O. Gangel, John, vol. 4, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 10.
