Christmas kicks off at Cross Church officially today! I hope this is the best Christmas for your family and you have experienced.
Now perhaps the best news concerning Christmas came from our friends at Hallmark. Hallmark announced they are really close to developing a second movie plot.
Seriously, thank you for joining me for a Christmas sermon series entitled, A Timeless Christmas. It really is quite amazing that all over the world, billions of people will stop everything they are doing to celebrate this Son of a carpenter, born in a “no nothing” town, to a teenage girl and a young man who wasn't even His biological father. Today, Christmas is a worldwide phenomenon observed in a million ways every year by billions of people.1 Churches will celebrate Christmas with candlelight celebrations to pageants to even live nativities with many of the animals that witnessed the first Christmas.
I invite you to find the Gospel of John with me. This morning I want you to receive a gift that will never disappoint you – the gift of Jesus.
Today’s Scripture
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:1-5, 12-13).
In these five short verses of sixty-five words, John gives us enough truth and enough theology about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to fill up five books and 65,000 words. Someone has well said about this passage: “Never has so much been said in so few words.”
What is Christmas with giving gifts? And it seems that every so often, there’s one gift that you just have to have, right? You’ve probably dedicated some brain cells to gifts and gift-giving. Who doesn’t like presents for everyone brimming from underneath a Christmas tree? Jesus is the best gift you can receive this Christmas for three timely reasons.
1. Jesus is the gift you will never return.
2. He’s the gift that will never go out of style.
3. And the gift that you always need.
This Christmas, I want to convince many of you to believe and receive Jesus Christ.
1. The Eternal Jesus
If wanted to gather all the information about Christmas from the four gospels, you’d be surprised by the gospel of John. There’s no genealogy of Jesus’ family in John’s gospel like Luke and Matthew have. There’s no story about the nativity, no Bethlehem story, and no manger in John’s gospel. We don’t find anything about the boyhood of Christ in the Gospel of John either. There’s a lot John doesn’t include. But John does one thing that no other gospel does: he takes us to Jesus’ very beginning.
Bethlehem was the beginning of Christmas, but it wasn’t the beginning of Jesus. You see, the true Christmas story commences before creation, continues with a cradle, before carrying on to a cross, and it concludes with a crown.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2).
Jesus has been portrayed as, among other things, a cynic philosopher, an apocalyptic prophet, a zealot, a rabbi, a Pharisee, a feminist, and a radical egalitarian.3 John says He’s so much more than that.
1.1 Jesus in the Beginning
When John discusses the origins of Jesus, he seems to want to remind us of the beginning of the Bible: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
“In the beginning” is the very first three words of your Bible. In fact, the three English words “In the beginning” are but 1 Hebrew word which we translate, Genesis. When John wants to discuss the beginning of Jesus, he doesn’t start at His birth. When John tells the story of Jesus’ early days, he doesn’t start with the Wise Men, Mary, and Joseph in Bethlehem. Instead, John goes back to the beginning of all things, the beginning of the universe. John wants to take you all the way back. Because Jesus didn’t begin to exist at Bethlehem. Instead, He simply became a human there in the nativity.
Jesus is Genesis; He’s there at the very beginning. Jesus is the root of the very universe and He’s at the beginning of history. Before there was a cosmos there was a Christ. Before there was a sun to shine, a moon to glow, a star to twinkle, or a river to flow, there was Jesus.
1.2 Religious Firehouse
Imagine you are a firemen – sounds like fun, right? All the trucks are washed, no one’s house is on fire, and no one is in need of medical attention. Your shift gathers for a meal around the table when someone brings up your religion. You had worked together with most of the guys for years and you knew that not everyone was religious but you were surprised to learn that one of the new guys was a Ladder Day Saint, or a Mormon. The day shift has a wide assortment of men from various backgrounds and rough personalities. The day shift included a Muslim as well as a Jehovah’s Witness alongside several people who didn’t practice any sort of faith.4 While you get along with everybody, the guys know you are serious about your Christian faith. When they ask you why you take Christianity so serious, you say something to the effect, “I am Christian because of Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect life and died for my sins.” After a brief awkward silence, the Engineer is Muslim and offers his opinion first, “I think Jesus is a prophet like Abraham, Moses, or Isaiah. He is not God but he deserves our respect. Mohammed was also a prophet of God and he was God’s greatest prophet. I don’t believe Jesus died on the cross as God saved him from this terrible tragedy.”4 Some banter goes back and forth when the Mormon Newbie speaks up, “Jesus was the firstborn child of Elohim. He is our elder brother. If we are really good and follow the Church’s teaching, then we can become a son of God just as Jesus is a son of God.”5 At this moment, you are wondering why you didn’t keep your mouth shut. Before the conversation moves on to another topic, the Jehovah’s Witness says his piece. “I believe Jesus is also known as archangel Michael. After God created the earth, Jesus shifted from the archangel to the ‘Jesus’ who knows now. Jesus is god with a small ‘g’ if you will. Yes, he’s god but he’s not as powerful as the God.”6 One of the longest-serving men of the crew who’s never cared much for religion concludes the discussion by saying, “This is why I don’t bother with religion. If you guys cannot make up your mind about Jesus then why should I bother?”
1.3 Larry King’s Question
Larry King was famous for interviewing the biggest celebrities just a few decades ago. But King himself was interviewed on a New York City radio program and was asked, “Larry, if you could meet God and ask Him one question, what would it be?” Larry King, who was a Jew, said, “Do you have a son?”7 Christmas says, “Yes!” John says, “Yes!” Jesus says, “Here I am!”
The Lord Jesus eternally existed in a time when there was no time, and now lives in a place where there is no time. John says simply that Jesus was there at the very beginning. Again, Bethlehem was the beginning of Christmas but it wasn’t the beginning of Jesus. Jesus had His birth in Bethlehem, but not His beginning.
1.4 Before Abraham
Later John will tell us about this remarkable exchange between those who refused to believe in Jesus or to follow Jesus. They ask Jesus like you’d ask Clark Kent of Superman fame, “Just who are you?” (John 8:25). “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am’” (John 8:58). The religious teachers asked Jesus, “You’re not even 50 years old? How could you have seen Abraham?” (John 8:57). Not only is Jesus claiming to have existed more than 1,000 years earlier, He also uses the name of God for Himself.
Now, you might meet someone who calls himself “Jesus” as a number of Spanish people. Jesus is doing more than simply using God’s name here. By saying the two little English words “I am,” Jesus is deliberately and with full intentionality taking the very name God told Moses more than 1,000 years before. It’s the Hebrew name Yahweh. Now, notice “I AM” is not “I was” or “I’m working on it.” Just “I AM.” “There never was a time when I was not. I have always been, and I will always be. I am the great “I AM.” “I AM” is a holy, sacred name for the self-existing Almighty. The miracles, the walking on water, the immediate ability to tell nature what to do and it responds, Jesus is telling us He’s God. Now, Jesus says the very name God said was “Mine” to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). Now, Jesus says, “Ditto. The name applies to me as well. I am Yahweh.”
1.5 The Big Bang
Let me get technical for a moment. The widely accepted theory of the beginning of the universe is currently the Big Bang Theory. Not the TV show but a theory that says the cosmos exploded in existence around 15 billion years ago.
1.5.1 Hubble Telescope
In fact, NASA’s website reads: “Astronomers combine mathematical models with observations to develop workable theories of how the Universe came to be. The mathematical underpinnings of the Big Bang theory include Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity along with standard theories of fundamental particles. Today NASA spacecraft such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope continue measuring the expansion of the Universe.” 8 The Big Bang Theory points to a time when our universe began. Robert Jastrow was one of the first to address this issue in his book, God and the Astronomers. By using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers reported that “by peering back into the beginning of time, a satellite finds the largest and oldest structure ever observed — evidence of how the universe took shape 15 billion years ago.”
In fact, they found the very mass of matter predicted by Big Bang cosmology. One scientist exclaimed, “It’s like looking at God.” 9 Now, the Hubble Telescope has caused many people to think of the origins of the universe as the Big Bang Theory.
But there’s a second reason…
1.5.2 Entropy
The second law of thermodynamics is also known as the law of entropy. It asserts that the amount of usable energy in any closed system is decreasing. Now, this must be held in tension with the first law of thermodynamics that says the amount of energy in the universe stays constant. Got it: the amount of energy is constant but the amount of usable energy is decreasing. So scientists believe that our universe is getting more and more disordered. And if it is getting more disordered then our universe is NOT eternal. The universe had a beginning.
1.5.3 Expansion of the Galaxies
Now let me offer you a third line of evidence in the Big Bang Theory, the universe is expanding. Evidence points out that the galaxies are moving outward from a central point of origin. And scientific minds say the universe is moving and expanding faster and faster as the years roll by. Now, there’s much more to this and certainly, it’s beyond me.
1.5.4 A Road Trip
Have a little fun with me now. But imagine a group of scientists who take a long trip in a big family sedan. They take this long journey, and their first stop is the Hubble Telescope and their second stop is the expansion of the galaxies. And their third stop is the ordering of the laws of thermodynamics among a few rest stops. And you see this group of scientists coming around the backstretch toward home. And as soon as they pull up in the driveway, there to greet them is our old friend John who says, “Welcome home boys! Not sure what kept you so long ?.”
“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). No matter if you embrace the Big Bang Theory, the Bible says nothing could come into existence without the Word. That little newborn baby of Luke 2 was also the great Creator God of Genesis 1.
1.6 Jesus Is Self-Existent
John is saying Jesus was already there. God was already there. John says, “He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2). Jesus has no beginning. The Bible also speaks of Jesus in this way: “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17). Jesus was never created, and Jesus never came into being. He always was.
1.6.1 Jesus’ Family Tree
The Bible doesn’t attempt to tell you how God got His start. There are all kinds of accounts in other religions as well as in philosophy on the origins of God. For example, you’ll read in other ancient religious works of the family tree of gods. Or, you’ll read in other ancient religious works of the friction that arose among the various gods from their clashes of will and their mighty wars. You’ll even see how the various gods governed specific areas of the universe. 10 As if the gods had zip codes they were assigned to. But God has no family tree and He has no zip code.
1.6.2 Jesus’ Family Reunion
Jesus will never take you to His family reunion and introduce you to His father or His mother. Jesus has no father, and He has no real mother for God has no beginning. Yes, Mary was to give birth to Jesus in Bethlehem, but this only signaled Jesus’ taking on human flesh. For the child born at Bethlehem created His very mother. Jesus has no beginning, and He has no end and He has no rivals. 11 Jesus is the only person ever born who, at the moment of His birth, was older than His mother, and as old as His Father. Jesus is Self-Existent.
1.7 What This Means
Now, if Jesus existed before Christmas, you know what that means, right? Christmas was just the beginning of a round-trip that Jesus took from heaven to earth and back to heaven. Jesus booked a round-trip ticket from Heaven before He was born at Bethlehem. Jesus went from sitting on a throne, to laying in a manger, to hanging on a tree. He went from being a king with a crown, to a baby with diapers, to a criminal on the cross.
1.8 Top of the Organization Chart
Before the first Christmas, Jesus was the pinnacle of the organization chart of the universe. He was God and He enjoyed all the rights and privileges associated with being God. But at the end of His human life, Jesus died on a cross to save us from our sins. He never pulled rank. He never asked to be first in line. He never demanded His rights. He never leveraged who He was. This is the message of Christmas.
1.9 If You Were to Follow
If you were to follow the shepherds in Bethlehem to see the Christ child you will find no flaming sword that obstructs your entrance to see the Child as you might find in some fable or myth. You need no ticket of admission to get in the door. You will find that there is no special favor shown to rank or title. Anyone may go in to see this Child born in the humblest place where an infant has ever been. You will find no visible crown of light encircling around the child.12
What you will find when you come to Bethlehem is this: the Infinite has become the finite, and the Almighty has become weak; The One who upholds all things by the word of his power, willingly became helpless; And the One who spoke all worlds into existence, willingly became a speechless child.
Those little hands will one day grasp the scepter of a universal empire. Those little arms will one day grapple with the monster called “Death” and destroy it. Those little feet shall tread on the serpent’s neck, and crush that old deceiver’s head. Yes, and that little tongue, which has not yet learned to articulate a word in Bethlehem’s manger, shall one day pour from Him a stream of eloquence the likes of which no man has ever heard. That tongue will fertilize the minds of the whole human race and infuse His teaching into the literature of the world. And one day that tongue shall pronounce the judgments of heaven on the destiny of all mankind.13
1.10 Why Did He Do This?
The Bible tells us that Christmas is important because of who Jesus was before His birth. Christmas was just the beginning of a round-trip that Jesus took from heaven to earth and back to heaven. Jesus went from sitting on a throne, to laying in a manger, to hanging on a tree. He went from being a king with a crown, to a baby with diapers, to a criminal on the cross. Why did He do this? What was Jesus thinking?
What motivated Jesus to do this? Because your soul was more important than His blood. Your eternal life was more important than His earthy life. Your place in heaven was more important to Him than His place in heaven. He gave up His place, so you could have your place.14
At the beginning of the message, I told you that I wanted you to receive a gift. I want you to believe and receive Jesus to make you His child.
1.11 Invitation Time
Repent – ask the Holy Spirit to help you make a U-turn
Believe – put all your faith in Jesus Christ
Receive – the last thing you need to do is to call upon the name of the Lord.
Would you bow your head as we pray?
1.12 Baptism
Heads are bowed and eyes are closed. I wonder how many in this congregation would say, “Pastor, I have received Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, I am born again”? I’m not just asking are you a baptized member of this church but you could say, ‘I know that I am saved.’ Lift your hand up and hold there for just a minute. If you could give me that testimony, would you slip up your hand and hold it up? All right, take it down – thank you.
Endnotes
Gerry Bowler, Christmas in the Crosshairs: Two Thousand Years of Denouncing and Defending the World’s Most Celebrated Holiday (New York: Oxford University press, 2017), 3.
2 Lee Strobel, The Case for Christmas: A Journalist Investigates the Identity of the Child in the Manger (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009).
3 I am grateful for this idea to Pastor Sam Storms: https://www.samstorms.org/all-articles/post/who-is-this-man--1:15-20-; accessed April 21, 2020.
4 https://islamfaith.com/jesus-islam-prophet-god/; accessed April 22, 2020.
5 https://mormonbeliefs.org/2013/08/26/mormonism-answers-the-virgin-birth/; accessed April 22, 2020. There is some debate of how LDS think Mary became pregnant with Jesus. One of the Presidents of the LDS Church, Joseph Fielding Smith said, “Christ was begotten of God. He was not born without the aid of man, and that man was God.” (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, 18).
6 https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/bible-teach/who-is-michael-the-archangel-jesus/; accessed April 22, 2020.
7 https://www.christianpost.com/news/im-probably-an-atheist-i-dont-buy-it-i-think-the-only-reason-for-religion-is-death-says-broadcaster-larry-king.html; accessed April 24, 2020.
8 https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-powered-the-big-bang/; accessed November 28, 2023.
9 Norman L. Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, 1999, 102.
10 Umberto Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis, Part 1: From Adam to Noah, trans Israel Abrahams (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1961) 7-8.
1“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7).
“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?” (Isaiah 40:12)
2 C. H. Spurgeon, “A Visit to Bethlehem,” The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol 50 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1904), 616.
3 Ibid., 622,
4 I owe this illustration to James Merritt. https://www.sermonsearch.com/sermon-outlines/143732/christmas-doxology-3-of-3/; accessed December 4, 2022.
