A Christmas Message For December 22, 2024 Series

A Christmas Message for December 22, 2024 (based on a sermon preached at New Hope Baptist Church near Fulton, MO on 12-22-2024. This is not an exact transcription.)

(Full disclosure: Sermon Central has already posted a message of mine, based on this same text, called “The Unwanted Christmas Gift”. This message was preached to a different congregation at least a year later and is not just a copy and paste of the previous message.)

Introduction: We’ll be celebrating Christmas Day in a few days! Some of us are remembering the different gifts we’ve received, or, maybe those we’ve given to others. But I hope we all, all of us, remember the greatest gift of all—Jesus Himself, and the salvation He made possible!

Our text this morning comes from John’s gospel, chapter 1; beginning with verse 1. I’ll be reading through verse 14:

<Opening prayer>

Text: John 1:1-14, KJV: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word was made 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.

1 He wasn’t known by the world in general

Note how our text actually takes us back to the beginning—doesn’t the phrase “in the beginning” remind us of what Moses wrote in Genesis 1? God made the universe and our earth in six days (I take the six days of Genesis 1 to be literal days) and He’s been managing things since!

Now, one of those things He managed was the presence everywhere, There’s a term some people use called “omnipresent” which just means God is everywhere and in all places—there is no place where anyone can escape from God! David said as much in Psalm 139, especially verse 7.

And part of that was being part of the world He had created. I mean, think of this: not long after God created Adam from the dust of the ground, God had a conversation with Adam! And they—God, Adam, and later Eve—all enjoyed that communion, fellowship, just talking things over, I take it. Even after they sinned, Adam and Eve still knew God wanted to speak with them one-on-one (Genesis 3).

God stayed in contact with His creation. Look at how often He would speak to people: Abraham, Moses, Jacob, and many others. John wrote in verse 10 that “He (Jesus) was in the world”, but here’s the sad part, “the world knew Him not.” More literally, as a Bible teacher explained, John said, “the world was not knowing Him”. It’s as if God was reaching out to people, but not many were reaching back to Him.

To get another look at this, take a moment and read Romans 1, especially verses 18 through the end of that chapter. Paul knew, as most if not all believers knew, that Noah and his family, eight people in all, survived the Flood as recorded in Genesis and all, to the best of our knowledge, were believers in the God of Noah.

But sometime later, the vast majority of humankind decided they wanted to worship something or some one other than the Only True God. Paul traces that sad, sad story how those first pagans knew God personally but rejected Him. Again, Paul said that those first pagans “exchanged the truth of God for the lie (Romans 1:25)—they had a choice between following the God Whom they knew, but rejected Him in order to worship other “gods” or idols which they made with their own hands!

Only a few have ever known the blessedness of speaking to God as to a friend, and truly, there is no better friend than the Lord Himself. Those pagans of yesterday and the pagans of today may or may not know what they’re missing, but we did! Aren’t all of us glad the Lord loved us enough to offer us salvation and forgiveness of our sins?