3rd Sunday Of Advent

There’s a pastor by the name of Casey Zack who related a story about a woman in his congregation, a Mrs. Alex. For the past 10 years Mrs. Alex was in charge of putting on and directing the children's Christmas Pageant. Every year something always went wrong. She cast her son, Blake, in the play when he was eight years old. He was cast as a wise man, which was a very coveted position. It didn’t involve any talking and you didn't have to memorize lines. You only came in at the end, so you didn't have to spend much time on stage and you got to wear really cool costumes.

When he was 12 years old, Mrs. Alex cast Blake as the innkeeper. Which meant he had to wear an ugly brown costume, and he had to speak. When Joseph came and asked for a room, he was to say, “Sorry, no room in the inn.” Just six words, that's all. Blake did not like his new role. He was unhappy, he was angry at his mom and so he devises little plan to seek revenge. The morning of the performance comes, and when Joseph ask for a room, Blake says, “Sure! We’ve got plenty of room! Come on in.” Later on, the pastor tried to console Mrs. Alex, and he said, “I hope you'll keep trying to do this again next year”. She said, “Oh yes, I will keep trying, because one of these years, I keep hoping we will get the Christmas story right.” And that, friends, is really the whole point of John, chapter one. John wants to make sure that we get the story right.

In verses one and two he begins by saying this, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Jesus Christ is that Word. Jesus Christ was the Word of God and Jesus Christ was God, he was God in human flesh. That is the significance of the pink candle in our advent wreath. Many people figure out that the Christ candle is one in the center because it is the largest and the white represents purity. Most of us can figure out that the purple candles represent royalty because Jesus was born king the Jews, but that one odd pink candle reminds us of the fact that God Himself put on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. That's the message of Christmas that we need to get right. As you read through John, chapter one, these first few verses, it’s evident that some people missed it. In verses 10 and 11 he says this. He was in the world and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

I remember my first year of college, I was taking introduction to philosophy. One of the major areas of philosophical inquiry is about the nature of God. This unit lasted for two weeks. There was a lot of spirited discussion, a lot of opinions. One guy got frustrated and raised his hand and said, “You know, if God is going to make all these rules and expect us to keep them, why doesn't he come down here and show us how to do it?” Another young man in the class raised his hand and said, “He's already done that.” And he quoted John 1:14: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. God made his dwelling among us.

Can we really grasp how miraculous that is? All too often we have this image of God as being up there and removed and aloof. That's how we tend to think, but that's not what the Bible says. It says he made his dwelling among us in the person of Jesus Christ, and he continues to make his dwelling among us in the person of the Holy Spirit. Do you see what that means? That in spite of our sin. God was not ashamed of who we are. In spite of our sin, he became one of us, except for sin. And that's what it means when it says that we have seen his glory.

We have seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus and His glory means that he is a perfect teacher. Philippians 2:5: In your relationship with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. You see, in Jesus, we can see how God thinks and how we need to think. We can see in the face of Jesus, what God wants us to become. 1 Peter 2:21,22: To this you were called because, Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. He shows us how to live and gives us the power to do His will.