The Christmas Word
Text: Jn. 1:1-5
Introduction
1. Illustration: I heard a story about a woman who was doing her last-minute Christmas shopping at a crowded mall. She was tired of fighting the crowds. She was tired of standing in lines. She was tired of fighting her way down long aisles looking for a gift that had sold out days before. Her arms were full of bulky packages when the Elevator door opened. It was full. The occupants of the Elevator grudgingly tightened ranks to allow a small space for her and her load. As the doors closed she blurted out, "Whoever is responsible for this whole Christmas thing ought to be arrested, strung up, and shot!" A few others nodded their heads or grunted in agreement. Then, from somewhere in the back of the elevator came a single voice that said, "Don’t worry. They already crucified him." We need to remember who is responsible for the whole Christmas thing. It is all about how God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son so that who ever believes in Him might have eternal life. John 3:16
2. We can focus on what the world chooses to focus on at Christmas or we can focus on the purpose of Christmas.
3. We need to focus on the Word of Christmas. Not the word Christmas, but the Word of Christmas. You see the Christmas Word...
a. Is A Sacrificial Word
b. Is A Creative Word
c. Is A Life Giving Word
4. Let's all stand together as we read John 1:1-5
Proposition: The real purpose of Christmas is that of sacrifice; Jesus, the Living Word, sacrificed everything so that we could have eternal life.
Transition: The first thing we need to understand about the Christmas Word is that...
I. It's A Sacrificial Word (1-2).
A. The Word Was God
1. In order to understand the prologue of John's Gospel there are several terms that we need to come to grips with. The first, and perhaps most important, is the term "The Word."
a. John was writing to an audience that was a mixture of Jews and Greeks, and this is a term that would have been familiar to both groups of people. However, they both had their own slant on the term.
b. To the Greeks, "The Word" was a philosophical term, thought of as the soul of the universe as well as the rational principle of the universe.
c. Without a doubt, when John used this term, the concept of a supreme force in the universe popped into their minds, but to them it was an impersonal force.
d. The Jews, on the other hand, saw it very differently. For them it was a very personal term.
e. When they heard this term it brought to there minds the words that were delivered by the prophets from God.
f. To them it's vital importance was in the phrase "and God said..."
g. For them when it was very personal because when God speaks He does something in one way or another for their benefit.
h. However, John takes the term and combines elements of both definitions, but gives it a new meaning that is unique to John himself.
i. For him "The Word" was not a philosophy but a living Being and the source of life; not a personification but a Person, and that Person divine (Morris, NICNT: John, 102-109).
j. Make no mistake, when John uses "The Word," he is talking about none other than Jesus.
k. When we think of "The Word," we usually think of either the written or spoken Word of God. While John's term certainly includes that idea, it means so much more.
2. With this background in mind, we can understand what John means when he says, "In the beginning the Word already existed."
a. The phrase "in the beginning" is reminiscent of the first phrase in the Bible from Genesis 1 and the account of creation.
b. John is talking about a new beginning, a new birth, and so he uses words that remind us of the first beginning.
c. By using the term "The Word," John is indicating that it is Jesus that brings about this new life.
d. He says "in the beginning the Word already existed," and is simply saying that before creation and before time Jesus already existed.
e. He always is, always was, and always will be.
3. Then John indicates Jesus unique relationship with the Father when he says, "The Word was with God..."
a. John also indicates that Jesus has a close relationship with the Father by the phrase "the Word was with God."
b. The preposition "with" in the phrase "the Word was with God" indicates both equality and distinction of identity along with association.
c. The phrase can be rendered "face to face with" (Tenney, Expositor's Bible Commentary).
d. It is an indication of close personal relationship, however, it also indicates a sense of uniqueness.
e. They were together but different.
4. Then John emphasizes Jesus' true identity when he says, "...and the Word was God."
a. John really blows the mind by saying, "and the Word was God."
b. So He is not only intimate and in relationship with God, but He is God!
c. How does that happen? How can one be with God and yet be God? Answer: it is a mystery of faith!
d. John is saying He is the greatest of all people; he is the Messiah of Jewish expectation; but more (this is John's unique message), he is the Son of God, the divine messenger from the Father (Burge, NIV Application Commentary: John, 54-61).
B. Jesus Sacrificed His Divinity
1. Illustration: "To get ready for Christmas, God undressed. God stripped off his finery and appeared – how embarrassing – naked on the day he was born. . .God could not be God-with-us if he wasn’t flesh...As evangelicals we have focused on the saving death of Christ but thrown out the Incarnation in our Christmas wrappings. As we cover God with Christmas, we hide what is most distinctive about Christianity. And this is the tragedy: What many don’t know about Christianity is that God has chosen to identify with their pain, their humanness, and their flesh. This is what we’ve lost as we’ve exchanged the Feast of the Incarnation for Christmas." (Mary Ellen Ashcroft, "Gift Wrapping God," Christianity Today, 12-8-97, p. 32-33).
2. Christmas is about Jesus sacrificing His divine identity.
a. Philippians 2:5-6 (NLT)
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.
b. Jesus gave up His home in heaven to become like on of us.
c. Jesus gave up His "face to face" relationship with the Father to become like one of us.
d. Jesus gave up His divine identity to become like one of us.
e. Although He had every right to cling to these things, He chose to sacrifice them to become a sacrifice for us.
3. Christmas is about Jesus sacrificing His divine privileges.
a. Philippians 2:7 (NLT)
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,
b. In America we have a sense of entitlement. We act as if the world owes us everything.
c. We like to walk around yelling, "I know my rights, I know my rights."
d. However, if we want to be like Jesus we have to be willing to lay down our rights and privileges.
e. He laid His rights as the eternal Word.
f. He laid down His rights as the One who always is, always was, and always will be.
g. He laid down His rights as the Son of God in order to identify with us.
h. He laid down His rights to be a sacrifice for our sins.
4. Christmas is about Jesus sacrificing His divine dignity.
a. Philippians 2:8 (NLT)
he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
b. For our sakes He was willing to become like one of us.
c. For our sakes He was willing to be treated like the worst of criminals.
d. For our sakes He was willing to be beat, spit upon, stabbed, and nailed to a tree.
e. For our sakes He gave up everything so that we could live!
Transition: We also learn about the Christmas Word...
II. It's A Creative Word (3).
A. Created Everything Through Him
1. Another thing that John declares about The Word is His creative power.
2. He says, "God created everything through him..."
a. Here John makes the claim that all of creation came through Jesus.
b. Notice that John does not say that everything we created by Him, but through Him.
c. Putting it this way affirms the fact that the Father created all things, yet makes plain the idea that Jesus was involved in the process.
d. The act of creation was not a solitary act, but rather a joint effort of the entire Trinity.
3. He then concludes this verse saying, "...and nothing was created except through him."
a. John is found of using a literary device where the first statement is done in a positive tone, but it then re-phrased in the negative for emphasis.
b. First he says that God created everything through Him, but then restates it as "and nothing was created except through Him."
c. Another way of understanding the second phrase is "without Him not one thing was made" (Morris, 71-72).
d. This again reaffirms the divinity of Jesus.
e. John's language here is careful and specific: The Word was not one superior creation that went on to create others.
f. In fact, the Word was never created. Nothing came into being without him (Burge).
B. For All Creation
1. Illustration: As the author Brenan Manning puts it "Creation discloses a power that baffles our minds…we are enamored and enchanted by God’s power. We stutter and stammer about God’s holiness. We tremble before God’s majesty…and yet we grow squeamish and skittish before God’s love."
2. Christmas is about hope for all creation.
a. Genesis 12:3 (NLT)
"All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
b. The message of Christmas is that through Jesus, the Word, all of creation is redeemed.
c. The message of Christmas is that no one is excluded from the salvation we have in Jesus.
d. The message of Christmas is that now all creation has hope because our Savior has come!
3. Christmas is about joy for all creation.
a. Luke 2:10-11 (NLT)
10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.
11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!
b. Jesus, the Word, came to a world filled with sadness and brought joy.
c. Jesus, the Word, came to restore a creation that was created good but rebelled against Him.
d. Jesus, the Word, came to a world filled with fear and brought love.
e. Jesus, the Word, came to a world filled with bad news and brought Good News!
4. Christmas is about a new creation.
a. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
b. The story of Christmas announces the hope of new life.
c. The story of Christmas declares that in Jesus all things can become new again.
d. The story of Christmas proclaims that we can all be forgiven and have a second chance.
Transition: Most importantly, the Christmas Word show us...
III. It's A Life Giving Word (4-5).
A. The Word Gave Life
1. All around we see death. Several of us have experience to pain of death in the past year. However, the Christmas Word brings the hope of life.
2. John says, "The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone."
a. Another key term for John is the word "life." He uses the word 36 times, more than twice as much as any other writer in the New Testament.
b. Wherever it appears, it refers either to the principle of physical life (vitality) or, most often, to spiritual life.
c. Frequently it is coupled with the adjective "eternal" to denote the quality and power of the believer's life (Tenney).
d. Here he says that the Word gave life to everything. Only because there is life in Jesus is there life in anything else.
e. Here John is talking both about human life and spiritual life.
f. We can see this in the second half of the verse which talks about His life bringing light.
g. Darkness is frequently used in Scripture of the spiritually dead, while light is used to describe the spiritually alive.
h. Just as John links life to Jesus, he also links light to Him.
3. John then continues the idea of light in verse 5 when he says, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it."
a. There are natural enemies in the world; things which don't mix.
b. Like oil and water; Ohio and Michigan; Browns and Steelers.
c. The most important is light and darkness.
d. The job of the light is to expel the darkness, to oppose it, to overcome it. One of the major themes of John's Gospel is that of darkness and light.
e. Notice that John says, "the light shines in the darkness."
f. Jesus came to oppose the darkness, to drive it away, and provide light for a world oppressed by the darkness.
g. We should also note that the light "shines," it is constantly shinning on the darkness and bringing it into the light and exposing it.
h. Then John makes an amazing statement, "the darkness can never extinguish it." The darkness cannot overcome the light, and Satan can never overcome the Word.
B. New Life
1. Illustration: Our friend Randy Stonehill wrote a song called "A Christmas Song For All Year Round." In it he said, "I wonder if this Christmas they'll begin to understand The Jesus that they celebrate is much more than a man. 'Cause the way the world is I don't see how people can deny
The only way to save us was for Jesus Christ to die
And I know that if St. Nicholas was here he would agree
That Jesus gave the greatest gift of all to you and me
They led him to the slaughter on a hill called Calvary
And mankind was forgiven when they nailed him to the tree."
2. Christmas is about new life.
a. John 3:16 (NLT)
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."
b. Because Jesus came we can have a fresh start.
c. Because Jesus came we who were dead in our sins can come alive.
d. Because Jesus came we not only have a better life here, but we also have the promise of eternal life with Him.
3. Christmas is about walking in the light.
a. John 8:12 (NLT)
Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
b. Before Jesus came we were stumbling around in the darkness and unable to find our way.
c. Before Jesus came our spiritual eyes were closed so that we couldn't even recognize we were in darkness.
d. But now we have the light of life, and we have the promise of victory over the darkness!
Transition: The Christmas Word brings life to those who were dead and light to those who were blind.
Conclusion
1. We need to focus on the Word of Christmas. Not the word Christmas, but the Word of Christmas. You see the Christmas Word...
a. Is A Sacrificial Word
b. Is A Creative Word
c. Is A Life Giving Word
2. What are you focusing on this Christmas?
Proposition: The real purpose of Christmas is that of sacrifice; Jesus, the Living Word, sacrificed everything so that we could have eternal life.
