God With Us

Title: God with Us!

Text: John 1:1-18

Thesis: God revealed himself to us in Christ.

Introduction

You’ve likely seen the ad… Reunited! E.T. Returns to Earth 37 Years Later to See Actor Henry Thomas reprises his role as Elliot alongside the alien ET character for Comcast's new "A Holiday Reunion."

Set 37 years after the events of E.T., A Holiday Reunion has Thomas portraying an adult Elliott who is now married with two children of his own. When Elliott and his kids find E.T. hiding behind a snowman outside, they invite him in to show him just how much things have changed since the extra-terrestrial had last been around.

An article in Discovery magazine noted a study that suggests there are around 700 quintillion planets in the universe, but only one like Earth. The article states:

It's a revelation that's both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. Astrophysicist Erik Zackrisson from Uppsala University in Sweden arrived at this staggering figure—a 7 followed by 20 zeros—with the aid of a computer model. Zackrisson found that Earth appears to have been dealt a fairly lucky hand. In a galaxy like the Milky Way, for example, most of the planets Zackrisson's model generated looked very different than Earth—they were larger, older and very unlikely to support life.

One of the most fundamental requirements for a planet to sustain life is to orbit in the "habitable zone" of a star known as the "Goldilocks" region where the temperature is just right and liquid water can exist. Earth orbits in such a goldilocks region.

CBC News ran a story about data NASA published showing that in our galaxy, the Milky Way, there are about 8.8 billion planets the size of earth that are orbiting around stars much like our sun, and these 8.8 billion planets are in what scientists call the goldilocks zone. Scientists say that the next step is to invent really powerful telescopes to take a closer look at these planets to see whether there is life on these planets or not.

If we discovered that there creatures on some distant planet, it would be in our nature to try to communicate with those creatures, to connect with them like Elliott in the classic movie ET. It seems we, being created in the image of God, are by design inclined to reveal ourselves and to communicate with and connect with others.

I think that is something of what our text is about today… God revealing himself to us here on our planet which just happens to be orbiting in a goldilocks zone, communicating with us and connecting with us.

God, in Christ, came to us and became one of us.

I. God takes on skin so that we might know him

So the Word [Jesus] became human and made his home among us… and we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. John 1:14

When the bible says the “Word” became human, the “Word” is God’s expression of himself or revelation of himself in the person of Jesus Christ.

In a conversation with his disciples in John 14 Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” And Jesus replied, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” John 14:9-11

I am not a scientist… but it is apparent to me that the universe is big. If, in the Milky Way alone, there are 8.8 billion planets the size of earth, in what they call a goldilocks zone, all orbiting planets like our sun, then I am convinced the universe is big. And I’m pretty sure it’s old. Scientists say the earth is 4.5 billion years old allowing for a 50 billion year margin of error. And yes, I know some say it’s only 6,000 years old and if it’s only 6,000 years old… it’s still old. I know that in this room there are likely young earthers as well as old earthers – but in either case, the earth is and the universe is old and if we agree that God is eternal then God too, is old.

Our text begins with this revealing statement:

A. In the beginning the Word already existed and the Word was with God and Word was God.

And he existed in the beginning with God. John 1:1-2

Cosmically speaking, the universe is inconceivably vast and old and God’s Word says Jesus was there in all that inconceivable and ancient vastness.

Our text continues with another revealing statement: