There’s a pastor by the name of Casey Zack who related a story about a woman in his congregation, a Mrs. Alex. For the past 10 years Mrs. Alex was in charge of putting on and directing the children's Christmas Pageant. Every year something always went wrong. She cast her son, Blake, in the play when he was eight years old. He was cast as a wise man, which was a very coveted position. It didn’t involve any talking and you didn't have to memorize lines. You only came in at the end, so you didn't have to spend much time on stage and you got to wear really cool costumes.
When he was 12 years old, Mrs. Alex cast Blake as the innkeeper. Which meant he had to wear an ugly brown costume, and he had to speak. When Joseph came and asked for a room, he was to say, “Sorry, no room in the inn.” Just six words, that's all. Blake did not like his new role. He was unhappy, he was angry at his mom and so he devises little plan to seek revenge. The morning of the performance comes, and when Joseph ask for a room, Blake says, “Sure! We’ve got plenty of room! Come on in.” Later on, the pastor tried to console Mrs. Alex, and he said, “I hope you'll keep trying to do this again next year”. She said, “Oh yes, I will keep trying, because one of these years, I keep hoping we will get the Christmas story right.” And that, friends, is really the whole point of John, chapter one. John wants to make sure that we get the story right.
In verses one and two he begins by saying this, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Jesus Christ is that Word. Jesus Christ was the Word of God and Jesus Christ was God, he was God in human flesh. That is the significance of the pink candle in our advent wreath. Many people figure out that the Christ candle is one in the center because it is the largest and the white represents purity. Most of us can figure out that the purple candles represent royalty because Jesus was born king the Jews, but that one odd pink candle reminds us of the fact that God Himself put on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. That's the message of Christmas that we need to get right. As you read through John, chapter one, these first few verses, it’s evident that some people missed it. In verses 10 and 11 he says this. 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.
I remember my first year of college, I was taking introduction to philosophy. One of the major areas of philosophical inquiry is about the nature of God. This unit lasted for two weeks. There was a lot of spirited discussion, a lot of opinions. One guy got frustrated and raised his hand and said, “You know, if God is going to make all these rules and expect us to keep them, why doesn't he come down here and show us how to do it?” Another young man in the class raised his hand and said, “He's already done that.” And he quoted John 1:14: 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. God made his dwelling among us.
Can we really grasp how miraculous that is? All too often we have this image of God as being up there and removed and aloof. That's how we tend to think, but that's not what the Bible says. It says he made his dwelling among us in the person of Jesus Christ, and he continues to make his dwelling among us in the person of the Holy Spirit. Do you see what that means? That in spite of our sin. God was not ashamed of who we are. In spite of our sin, he became one of us, except for sin. And that's what it means when it says that we have seen his glory.
We have seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus and His glory means that he is a perfect teacher. Philippians 2:5: In your relationship with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. You see, in Jesus, we can see how God thinks and how we need to think. We can see in the face of Jesus, what God wants us to become. 1 Peter 2:21,22: To this you were called because, Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. He shows us how to live and gives us the power to do His will.
Jesus is also the perfect sacrifice. We've seen God's glory in this. Colossians 1: 19,20: For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth, or in heaven, by making peace, through his blood, shed on the cross. Jesus became the perfect sacrifice for sin, and it was his death that satisfied all the requirements of God’s holy law, which is something that none of us can ever ever do. We have to let Jesus do that.
Having seen his glory in the face of Jesus means that Jesus is our perfect friend. Hebrews 4:14-16: Therefore, since we have a great high priest, that is Jesus, who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith that we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize 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. Because he became human; because God put on human flesh in Jesus, he knows exactly everything we go through. He knows the pain, the joy, the success, the failure, the gain and the loss.
One of my all-time favorite movies is Titanic. Toward the beginning of the film, Leonardo Di Caprio, was playing the part of Jack Dawson, who was a young man trying to make his way from Europe to the United States. When he finally had enough money to buy a ticket he gets on board and the ship gets underway. Along the way, he meets this beautiful young woman and falls in love. Life is good. In fact, so good, he goes up to the very tip of the bow of the ship leans over the rail, and stretches out his arms and says, “I'm the king of the world!” And then three days later the ship sinks. That is what life is like; just about every time we feel like we're finally on top and we feel like shouting I'm the king of the world, the ship that we're on sinks and Jesus knows what that’s like.
Thirty-three years after his birth Jesus was at the height of his glory. Just before he was crucified. He had performed many miracles, many healings. He had raised people from the dead. Throngs of people were following him and hanging on his every word. And when he did finally come to Jerusalem, he was greeted with shouts of hosanna and palm waving. Essentially, they were saying You are the king of the world. Jesus knows what it's like to be king of the world on board a sinking ship. He also knows what it's like to rise again. As a child of God, we're going to be on a number of sinking ships in our life, but the hope that we have with all of those times, is to rise again. At verse 12 it says, Yet, to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. The hope that we have as a child of God, is that we believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and we receive Him as our Savior. Once we've done that, we've got the story of Christmas right.
Sometimes we get confused and the message doesn’t always get through. If we read the rest of John 1, the story of John the Baptist, which I preached about last Sunday, he quotes Isaiah by saying, Make straight the way of the Lord. Now in ancient times, whenever a king planned to visit a town or a city or a village, they would always make the road straight. All the people would go out and they would straighten up the road by removing whatever blocks or barriers stood in the way. In order to get the Christmas story right, maybe we need to get our road straightened up and remove the barriers in our heart that stand in Jesus way. Perhaps we have some anxieties we haven’t let go of yet, that we haven’t yet trusted to God’s care and control. Maybe we have bitterness and unforgiveness that we have not yet turned over to God. Or perhaps there is pridefulness that we have not yet let God redeem. Pridefulness is simply a matter of not wanting to do what God is calling us to do. But once we get the story of Christmas right, then is when we will see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
I’d invite you now to bow your heads with me in prayer. Everlasting and loving Father, we ask you to show us the barriers that exist in our life, that keep us from getting the Christmas story right. You made your dwelling among us, you continue to make your dwelling among us and you ask us to follow you. Lord, redeem any of those barriers that we are reluctant to let go of. We ask, heavenly father that you would, once again, show us your glory in the face of Jesus Christ. We ask all of this in Christ’s name, Amen.
