Thus Begins Christmas
John 1:1-18
Sermon by CH (CPT) Keith J. Andrews
All Scripture Marked ESV: The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Let Us pray:
Dear Heavenly Father;
We approach this time in our worship to hear a word from you.
I pray that in this season of giving and parties and family—
That we don’t forget to see your miracle of sending your son to us and for us.
I ask that you bless this message this morning.
Bless these words that have been prepared.
And bless this attempt to speak the wonders of your gospel.
Bless this time, we pray.
A-Men
I want to begin, this morning, as John begins his gospel by focusing on the beginning.
Genesis chapter 1:1 reads--
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. (Genesis 1:1-5 ESV)
John mirrors this passage as he reflects on the life of Christ in which since the beginning of time, the world had waited for Christ to appear.
John takes a moment to make this fact very clear to the reader in his Gospel—who they have waited for—making the connection—if anyone had missed it.
John says “In the beginning was the Word.”
To the Hebrews, “The Word” meant an agent of creation, the source of God’s message to his people through the prophets, and God’s law, his standard of holiness.
To the Greek, “The Word” was the principle of reason that governed the world.
John says:
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through 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 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5, ESV)
John chooses to remind his readers that the story of Christ didn’t start with the manger; the beginning of the story of Christ began – in the beginning.
In the beginning there was God
In the beginning there was Creation.
“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
But in the beginning, God made Man and Woman. And this man and woman sinned against the Lord.
And in the beginning, God had a plan to redeem humanity.
This was the Word, who was with God in the beginning.
Who, in Genesis 3:15, God announces the Christ will have the last destroying below to Satan.
And, as Hebrews 2:14 explains
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, (Hebrews 2:14, ESV)
As we look at Christmas we must know that from the very beginning of time itself God had a plan to send Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin.
1. To this beginning we see that there is a witness.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. (John 1:6-9, ESV)
John the Baptist was the son of Elizabeth, relative of Mary. When Elizabeth saw Mary, John, still unborn jumped for joy. John was sent with one mission. That mission was to pave the way for Christ.
He was there to point the way to Christ. He was not the messiah – he was the witness.
I’m enjoy reading Mary Higgins Clark books and most of her stories are murder mysteries.
These mysteries hinge on the testimonies of the witnesses.
John was a witness to tell the world the Christ was on his way.
Growing up in the South I remember seeing the barns painted that said “See Rock City.”
Those words were printed on barns across the South.
They all point to the tourist area Rock City and Ruby Falls near Chattanooga, TN. You can see seven states from there.
I once read that these became represented the greatest advertising campaign of all time.
And-- John the Baptist pointed to Christ.
In the world today, we come across many so called prophets.
But John the Baptist gives the example of a true prophet. A true prophet points to Christ. He doesn’t point to himself. He doesn’t seek to build himself up, he simply points to Christ.
A good example of this found in John 3:26-30. John’s disciples are concerned the Jesus is the baptizing more then they are. John simply replies:
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30, ESV)
John’s mission was to point the way to Christ.
In the same way, we are to point to Christ. We can get so turned around on things – we can focus on get people to this service; we can we can focus on cleaning up every bodies language; we can focus on fixing every bodies marriage. But no matter how important any of these are, we must focus on Christ. We must point the way to Christ constantly.
Over this next month are you going to focus on the presents on the family, on the lights, or the food?
If you live your life to point to the material things in our life-- you will always be disappointed. But if you point to Christ, you never will be disappointed at all.
You will point to someone incredible; you will point to someone open and willing to take on the hurts of the world; you will point to someone whom while we were yet sinners—he died for us.
II And we point to him as we begin Christmas because we are the children.
John 1:10
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:10-13, ESV)
The world did not recognize Jesus when he came to earth. They were too busy with their parties, they were too focused on their own materialism, they were too wrapped up in traditions and they were too bothered by family responsibilities to see who Jesus really was. Sounds a lot lie Christmas.
Don’t miss Jesus this Christmas!
I was looking for clip art to put on the cover of this mornings bulletin—SPC Agnegue found the art we used.
I was looking for clip art and the website I went to had Santa, Candles, Angels, Teddy Bears—not no Jesus.
Don’t get some busy that you forget the Son of God!
The world missed Jesus when he came to earth. Even most of his own people, they missed him.
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, (John 1:12, ESV)
This is critical. There some that understood. There were some that were able to catch on. Theses were some whose eyes were opened – These are the one’s whom He gave the right to become Children of God.
I remember when I was a little boy, I would go to the YMCA for July Forth. It was the talk of the town. They would have swimming races. They would have gold fish in the pool – and if you caught one you could take it home.
But the most important game of all was the “coin toss” – where the lifeguards would place a gallon bucket of nickels, dimes, quarters and silver dollars in the pool. The kids would all stand on the side, wait for the whistle, some kid would always get pushed in and then finally the whistle would blow and the kids would dive for the coins.
Every body wanted the silver dollars but there weren’t many in there. But every now an then you would see a dark spot in the bottom of the pool and you would first ignore it but it the back of you head you would want to check it out – because you didn’t want to miss something.
The world was so busy doing other tings that it missed the missed the messiah. They were diligently looking for him and I would look for the coins.
But—they missed him.
As we approach Christmas this is your opportunity to see the manger in a new way. You don’t want to miss him as many of us do year after year.
You don’t want to miss Jesus, because he is
III. The Christ
In verse 14, the Bible says:
14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:15, ESV)
This word that was there “In the Beginning” was now walking on the soil of the earth. He, the word, became flesh, that is incarnation—
This week a blog from Desiring God.com described the magnificent doctrine of the incarnation.
“And what a magnificent doctrine and fuel for worship this is! Jesus didn’t just become man because he could. He became a man “for us and for our salvation”…The Word became flesh to save us from our sin and to free us to marvel at and enjoy the unique union of divinity and humanity in his one spectacular person.” (David Mathis-- http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/952/ )
The word became flesh—to walk the earth—to gives us the best opportunity in the world to know him.
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10, ESV)
Christ came in the flesh.
Verse 15 continues that;
15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) (John 1:15, ESV)
The witness, John the Baptist, didn’t miss him. He was there pointing him out, “This is the one I was talking about.”
But then John, the author of the book John, begins to reflect as he closes his introduction.
16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. (John 1:16-18, ESV)
John reflects back at what it means to him for Jesus to truly be the son of God.
He points out that the law as given through Moses.
It was Moses who was given the Ten Commandments. It was Moses who wrote the Pentateuch – the book of the Law, which are the first five books of the Bible.
Through Moses we were all given God’s standards for living we were given the Law and we were judged by that law.
Through the law all of us stand condemned. For all of us are sinners and have disobeyed that law in one way or anther.
But
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17, ESV)
Through Christ we see God’s unfailing love.
Through Christ we see God’s Grace and mercy.
Through Christ we see God’s Faithfulness.
Through Christ We see God’s Salvation.
So, this Christmas, I encourage you to not let this season pass without considering where it all began. On that Christmas Morn, Jesus was placed in a manger. In a little stable. God came to earth to live, to teach, and to die on a cross – to pay the penalty for our sin, only to rise again, defeating the devil once and for all.
We must Point to Christ. Never stop pointing to Christ. Don’t miss him. Don’t let the celebration pass without recognizing who it is we are celebrating. And take the precious time it takes to truly see God—in all of his glory and majesty—in grace and in love.
Let Us Pray.
Dear Heavenly Father—
We thank you for your grace on us, since the beginning of time.
We thank you for the witness—setting the example.
We thank you that we are called your children.
And we praise your for your son that came to take away the sins of the world.
Guide us today. Help us to lead others to know you.
Bless each of these that are today and we give you all of the honor and the glory.
In Jesus Name I pray.
A-men.
