Much of the world does not understand Christmas. Christmas is celebrated but only the trapping of Christmas is presented.
We see it all around us in the music of the season:
“I dreaming of a white Christmas”
“Rock around the Christmas Tree”
“Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer”
“Santa Claus is coming to Town”
There are about as many if not more secular songs of Christmas as there are Religious, Christian Carols of Christmas. Even in Muslim countries, Christmas is celebrated. But a good bit of the world, including those who live across the street of the church have no clue what Christmas is about. The Sunday School answer we know - We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. But here is the question many Christians have a tough time answering, “Why did Jesus come?” “What is so important about His birth?” Here is the real reason, if you get nothing else out of this message, get this:
John 3:16 (NKJV) For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Jesus came for us. This where we are going this morning as we continue to look at the this first chapter of John.
John 1:9–14 (NKJV)
Why did Jesus come? That is the question many ask.The Greek philosopher Socrates made this statement: "Oh that someone would arise, man or god, to show us God." In the minds of scholars, here's one of the greatest philosophers who ever lived; and yet he, himself, had beating in his own breast--and he admitted it--oh that god could come in a man and show the world god in human form. Plato, who was one of the great students of Socrates, said, "Unless a god man comes to us and reveals to us the Supreme Being, there is no help or hope." [1]
Astronaut James Erwin is one of but 12 men to walk on the moon (Apollo 15) . As he stood upon the lunar landscape and looked up at the earth, he prayed for the first time in his life. He thought about the strife among nations, poverty, hunger, and rampant evil; and he thought to himself: "What is more important than man walking on the moon is that God should walk on earth." Jesus is God come to earth and He rules both in heaven and earth. [2]
Jesus came for us. God came and walked among us. The writer of Hebrews related that we do not have someone who has not been where we are:
Hebrews 2:17–18 (NKJV) Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
God knows the sufferings and the temptations we face if for no other reason, God, as the man Jesus experienced these things Himself. For us, it is all about Jesus. For God it was all about His love for us. There are four Statements in the Bible that address why Jesus was born? [3]
All of these express reasons was for our benefit.
1. Jesus came to reveal God to us.
John 1:18 (NKJV) No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
We wonder what God is like. Philip asked that question.
John 14:8–9 (NKJV) Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
To know God the Father, is to know Jesus the Son.
2. Jesus came to redeem mankind.
Galatians 4:4–5 (NKJV) But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
God had establish the Law with His chosen people, so Jesus came under the law to redeem those under that Law. The same is true for the rest of us.
John 3:17 (NKJV) For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
3. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.
1 John 3:8 (NKJV) He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Christmas was for our defense against the devil. Who has not been tempted by the devil? Jesus came that we might be free from the power of sin.
4. Jesus came to save sinners.
1 Timothy 1:15 (NKJV) This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
The fact is, we are all sinners. We have no ability to even seek after God.
Romans 3:10–11 (NKJV) 10 As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.
The fact is, we all need a Savior, we cannot help ourselves. Herein lies the problem. Mankind is lost and they do not even know it. That bring us to our focal passage. This is where we left off last week.
John 1:9 (NKJV) That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
Jesus is the Light that illuminates every man. Ever man is revealed for who and what they are, and that illumination should lead us to repentance, but the world like their sin.
John 1:10 (NKJV) He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
As we discussed previously, the whole world and all that is in it was made by Jesus and for Jesus. John’s use of the word “world” which is <kosmos> in the Greek, always refer to the realm where human beings live. The Creator came into His creation and His creation did not know him. That little word “know” is <ginosko> in the Greek, meaning to have a heart knowledge, an intimate, experiential knowledge. Not just a book, intellectual knowledge of Him. Even with book knowledge, the NIV and HCSB translates this as they did not recognize Him. Furthermore, when it was revealed who and what Jesus was, they rejected Him.
John 1:11 (NKJV) He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
More specifically, Jesus came to God’s special chosen people, and even though all the prophecies of old told them He was coming, they did not believe it when it happened. They did not merely receive him, there was downright rejection of Him. But there are a few who did receive Him, who knows who He is.
John 1:12 (NKJV) But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
Here we see the human requirement in meeting and knowing God. We must receive His Son, Jesus Christ. To those who receive Him we see the beauty of receiving, Jesus had offered Himself to us. The choice is ours: Do we either receive the offer of Jesus, or do we reject Him? There is no in between. Not to receive Jesus is to reject Him.
“To those who believe in His name” is a very Jewish statement. To the Jew, especially in OT thought. In the OT the name of a person was very important. It was a hopeful/potential prophecy about their character or a description of their character. To believe in the name is to believe and receive the person.[4]
These that received Him, believe in Him, “He gave the right to become children of God.” The NT writers constantly use family like metaphors to describe Christianity: (1) Father; (2) Son; (3) children; (4) born again; and (5) adoption. Christianity is like belonging to a family, not a product (ticket to heaven, fire insurance policy).[5]
John 1:13 (NKJV) who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Who were born spiritually, not a physical birth that we all have experienced. Jesus makes this difference very clear:
John 3:6 (NKJV) That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
We all must be born again, of the Spirit. “not of blood” which indicated a physical birth, but also blood relations. It matters little if uncle, your grandfather, brother, or cousin was a preacher, or even Billy graham himself, we all come to God individually.
“nor of the will of the flesh” Contrary to popular belief, we cannot choose on our own to come to Jesus. We must be have the drawing of the Father.
John 6:44 (NKJV) No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
Jesus said
John 15:16 (NKJV) You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
Yet in John 6:70 Jesus said the same thing yet one would reject Him, Judas. It is not by our will we come to Jesus, but it is by our will we receive or reject Him.
“nor of the will of man” No one can “will” you or make you believe. Not one of us has ever won anyone over to the Lord. We may have been the faithful witness Jesus has called us to be, but it is the Lord Himself, through His Holy Spirit, that convicts a person, changed their hearts, and lead them into repentance.
The most we can do for another is be the witness and pray. The rest is up to God.
“but of God” It is the will of God that we be saved. That grace God makes know to all men:
Titus 2:11 (NKJV) For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
And it is solely by His grace, made possible through Jesus, that we are saved.
Ephesians 2:8–9 (NKJV) For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
That salvation, bought by Jesus on that God-forsaken cross, bearing our sins, paying the price for our sins, that grace, a gift from God that saves us. Jesus came for us. And herein is the miracle of Christmas:
John 1:14 (NKJV) And the Word became 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.
The eternal Word, that is Jesus because man and “dwelt among us.” The word “dwelt” is the Greek <shenoo> which is the picture of pitching a tent. Jesus came and pitched His tent among us. To the Jew, the image is that of the tabernacle, the tent of the meeting place the Israelites pitched in the desert, the place where God glory shown, the place where they met God. That is reflected in one of Jesus’s names. Quoting from Isaiah, Mathew records:
Matthew 1:22–23 (NKJV) So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
God with us is the message. God with us and God came for us. John knew this and desired his readers to know this. He was an eyewitness: “and we beheld His glory.” John beheld His glory when he witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1-8). But John also witness the miracles of Jesus, His compassion, His forgiveness, all mixed in with His humanity. This too was the glory of Jesus.
For those who have accepted Him, and fully received Him, will one day see His glory first hand.
Jesus came for us. He came to save and came to give us a new life. It is not God’s desire that anyone should perish (2 Peter 3:9) but that all will come to repentance in Jesus. It is all about Jesus. Yielding all to Him.
[1] www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/82690/messianic-prophecies-by-bishop-lalachan-abraham?ref=TextIllustrationSerps
[2] www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/74287/incarnation-by-sermoncentral?ref=TextIllustrationSerps and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Irwin
[3] Borrowed heavily from Jerry Lewis’ 4 points from his sermon found at www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/why-was-jesus-born-jerry-lewis-sermon-on-humanity-of-christ-64190?ref=SermonSerps
[4] Robert James Utley, The Beloved Disciple’s Memoirs and Letters: The Gospel of John, I, II, and III John, vol. Volume 4, Study Guide Commentary Series (Marshall, Texas: Bible Lessons International, 1999), 12.
[5] Ibid.
