INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Now we are in the New Testament. I hope that you gained some insights from our study of The Story through the Old Testament!
• Today we begin our New Testament journey through The Story with the birth of THE King!
• The birth of Jesus was predicted in many prophecies on the Old Testament. All the ceremonies and laws had the purpose of pointing us to the need we have for a Savior, Jesus!
• SLIDE #2
• Galatians 4:4 (NIV) But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
• Yes, the time was right, God knew it was time for His son to come into the world, it was time for all those great Old Testament prophecies to be fulfilled, and it was time for the world to be able to look into the eyes of God!
• This was an exciting time, it should be been a time of rejoicing, and it was, but not for all!
• God in keeping with creating us with freewill knows that some will reject His son and the gift of salvation.
• Really the rejection started from the start.
• You may have seen the Christmas plays were a little boy who comes in as Joseph dressed in a bathrobe and Nike tennis shoes taps on the door of the Inn and then seeing the innkeeper tell Joseph there is no room for he and his wife Mary in the Inn.
• What if a voice calls out to the innkeeper asking him if he knows who he is turning away? Does the innkeeper really want to be known through history as the one who turned Jesus away? But we can’t change the scene can we?
• I wonder if the Innkeeper would find room for them at that point. Hold that thought for a few minutes.
• Today we are going to look at the birth of THE king. As we look at the entrance of the Messiah into the world, we will examine a couple of things that shows just how amazing our God is.
• What we will see as we examine the birth of THE king is just how much you mean to God!
• The first observation we will make comes to us from John 1:14
• SLIDE #3
• John 1:14 (NIV) 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.
• SLIDE #4
SERMON
I. The King (The Word) did not just rule from on high.
• You know what is amazing to me? That God sent His son from heaven to dwell with us.
• He did not just sit on the throne in Heaven and tell us what to do, HE sent His son to earth to SHOW us what to do!
• Our God has given us a personal touch. One of the issues we face in our country is the fact that our elected leaders tend to lose touch with the people. They stay in Washington and rule from on high.
• They make decisions that have terrible economic consequences for the people. Fuel is a great example, those guys and gals do not fill their tanks, but we do! So we know the economic impact of a poor energy policy.
• God KNOWS what we deal with! His son came in the flesh to dwell with us!
• The WORD who was God, was made flesh! We see this in verse 14.
• SLIDE #5
• Hebrews 4:14–16 (NIV) Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
• The fact that God send His son in the flesh and did not just dictate mandates from on high shows He really loves and cares about us!
• The Greek word we translate “WORD” is the “LOGOS” from which we get our word logic, or reason.
• The son is called the WORD in part because “a WORD is both the revelation and expression of an idea; and he is the full and complete revelation of deity (the divine nature) to the world.” Gospel Advocate Commentaries - New Testament Commentary – A Commentary on the Gospel According to John.
• How was the world created? With WORDS! God said… let there be light, etc..
• The son is the word in the flesh!
• SLIDE #6
• John 1:18 (NIV) No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
• To me it is reassuring to know that through my darkest hour, my God knows me, knows what I am going through and loves me in spite of my struggles!
• He does not look down on me, He looks at me with love. He cared enough to send His son to suffer and die for me!
• Next let us look at the fact…
• SLIDE #7
II. The Word who is God is revealed in Jesus Christ.
• Let us look at John 1:1!
• SLIDE #8
• John 1:1 (NIV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
• I love John 1:1, it echoes the theme from Genesis 1:1, “In The beginning God created...”
• Jesus was with the Father from the beginning along with the Holy Spirit!
• In Genesis 1:26 we see…
• SLIDE #9
• Genesis 1:26 (NIV) Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
• Who is the OUR in verse 26? We see the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the watery depths in verse 2.
• The “OUR” in Genesis 1:26 is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit!
• Jesus has been and always will be as the Father and Spirit have been and always will be!
• Look at what John 1:2-3 says about Him!
• SLIDE #10
• John 1:2–3 (NIV) He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
• The Christ has been as long as God has been. In fact, Jesus was the Genesis Word. How did God create the universe?
• With words. “Let there be.” And there was. John is saying that the voice saying “Let there be” was the voice of Jesus speaking.
• Paul would later say that Jesus was the first born over all creation. Peter would agree, saying God chose him for this purpose long before the world began.
• As you read the Old Testament, did we see Jesus in some other places? Jesus birth in Bethlehem apparently was not the first time He had been here!
• Was it Jesus who was wrestling with Jacob in Genesis 33:24-ff?
• Was it Jesus whom Joshua worshipped the one who called himself the Commander of the Army of the Lord in Joshua 5?
• The fourth figure in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, was that Jesus?
• We do not know for sure, but it sure seems probable!
• Jesus is God in the flesh!
• SLIDE #11
• Matthew 1:23 (NIV) “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
• We also see in Hebrews 1:3
• SLIDE #12
• Hebrews 1:3 (NIV) The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
• Jesus is the one who was made flesh, with skin, teeth, liver, and all we have, not part man, part God, but fully human and fully God!
• The next observation is one that is really amazing to me!
• SLIDE #13
III. Jesus was born as an ordinary person to ordinary parents.
• Jesus was born to an ordinary young virgin girl. Mary was not a queen, she was not royalty, she is not someone you would have picked out of a lineup to say, yes, she will be the mother of Jesus.
• She was an ordinary girl, nothing about her seemed to be special.
• God did as usual choose wisely.
• When you think about it, even though Mary seemed like she was ordinary and in many ways she was, but her response to God’s call was extraordinary!
• When told what was going to happen to her she simply asks…
• SLIDE #14
• Luke 1:34–35 (NIV) “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
• She simply asks how this can be, then in verses 46-55 of Luke 1 Mary gives praise to God.
• Compare that to the great leader Moses. AHHHH! NOOOO!
• Isaiah, NOOOO!
• Jesus father Joseph was an ordinary carpenter. Yet his response to Mary was extraordinary!
• At first when he heard Mary was pregnant he was going to quietly end the engagement. Put yourself in Joseph’s position. What would you do with her?
• In Matthew 1 when an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream Joseph listens and obeys.
• SLIDE #15
• Matthew 1:24–25 (NIV) When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
• Later Joseph is not even mentioned any longer, just an ordinary guy.
• Jesus birth was ordinary, He was born in a stable because there was no room for His parents in the Inn.
• Jesus, the son of God was not born in a palace, but rather in a feeding trough.
• Jesus is humble enough to know what you’ve been through this week; humble enough to know what keeps you awake at night; humble enough to know a cold night and a hungry belly. The Word became flesh. He came to us and for us.
• Let us look at John 1:10-11 so we can see a concluding observation.
• SLIDE #16
• John 1:10–11 (NIV) 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.
• SLIDE #17
IV. The King was turned away by many.
• The innkeeper was not the only one to turn Jesus away.
• We can only imagine what went through his head as he rejected Jesus, claiming it was too crowded to have a pregnant woman give birth in his inn.
• I wonder how he felt years later.
• The world is always “too crowded” to receive Jesus—crowded with deadlines and headlines, phone lines and long lines, full itineraries, full schedules, jam-packed lives.
• It amazes me that God would go to so much trouble for us and then allow us to still turn away His son.
• It boils down to that freewill stuff. True love cannot exist without freewill.
• We all need to understand that Jesus comes not to complicate our already complicated lives, but to simplify our lives, even to give us life.
• SLIDE #18
• Matthew 11:28 (NIV) “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
• People are still turning away Jesus.
CONCLUSION
• It is never too late to invite Jesus into our lives. We don’t have to clean up our act first. He comes in even at the 2 minute warning of life.
• It was not too late for Abraham at 100 years of age, not too late for Moses after 40 years in the desert, not too late for Jonah running from God, not too late for Saul of Tarsus who persecuted Christians and who met Christ on the Damascus road.
• Not too late for Peter who denied Jesus or for Thomas who doubted Jesus.
• It’s not too crowded and it’s not too late to meet Jesus—the Word, our King and Savior.
• He comes to common folk—a common carpenter, a common virgin girl, common shepherds. When God comes, he comes through common things
• I still wonder if the Innkeeper knew who he was turning away if he still would have done the same.
• I have a message for you today. You are the innkeeper of your heart, Jesus is knocking at the door, you now KNOW who He is; will you turn Him away?
