God With Us
John 1:1-14 (NIV)
During this time each year children begin dreaming of the gifts they’ll find under the tree on Christmas morning, while their parents are running from store to store fighting the crowds and spending money on things they hope will bring happiness to those they love.
But Christmas is more than a personal event. It’s more than a cultural event. As the popular slogan puts it, "Jesus is the real reason for the season"
Christmas is all about the glorious coming of the Christ, the Messiah, our salvation.
This first coming of Christ we call he "incarnation". In Webster’s dictionary "incarnation is define as, "The union of divinity with humanity in Jesus Christ". In other words God became man.
So while many of us have our own personal memories of Christmas, it is extremely important that we take time to remember the person who gives Christmas it’s real meaning.
Today our text is from John 1:1-14 where it speaks about the coming of Jesus. In these verses are truths that can help us not only to get a clearer picture of who Christ is but also who we can be in Him.
Please turn in your Bibles and stand as we give honor to the reading of God’s word.
In the first three verses we have a picture of the pre-incarnate Christ and His supremacy as God over us.
He is called "the Word". This is the perfect revelation of who God is. It says "the Word, meaning Christ, was with God and the Word was God".
So what is he saying here? He is saying that Christ and God are one. That little baby Jesus that we sing so much about is God becoming man.
Now that is an awesome thought. He was no mere mortal, but the all powerful God who existed in all eternity and who was the creator of all things.
For a more graphic picture of the supremacy of Christ hold your place in John 1 and let’s turn to Colossians 1:16-18.
“For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy.”
The bottom line is that He is Lord. He is the God before whom we bow the knee. He is the God to whom our worship is due.
Read Vs 4-9
Here we see how God is "for us".
Illustration:
When we have to stand before a Judge in a court of law we usually take someone with us called an attorney. His job is to present our side of the case, to speak for us. He is our mediator before the court.
Now, because Christ loved us He came into this world to become our mediator, to speak for us. Don’t let yourselves be fooled by Satan because one day we will all stand before the judgment throne of God to answer for our sins. And no matter how great or small those sins, God will pronounce you guilty! But if you have accepted Christ as your Savior, then Jesus will approach the bench, as your mediator, your attorney if you will, and say to God, “I have paid his debt, my blood has washed away his guilt.”
Isn’t that an exciting thought? Listen to what John 3:16-17 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
What a powerful message. And you know, the birth of Jesus Christ testifies to that love of God. He loved us enough to come to this earth and become a man; then die for us on a cruel cross that we might be set free!
Now I’d like to skip ahead a little bit to Vs 14
In this verse John reveals Jesus as the "word" made flesh. Here we have another truth of the incarnation, that God became one of us.
Let’s listen to Matthew’s account in chapter 1:21-23:
“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ --which means, God with us.”
Do you see what it says? Immanuel means, “God with Us”.This is the great truth of the incarnation. That God came to be one of us.
He came to be just like you and just like me, so He can identify with us.
In Philippians 5:7 we are told that Jesus, “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!”
Jesus gave up the power and glory that was rightfully His to take on the nature of a servant, to be like us and to walk among us. Because of this He can understand our trials and temptations, and our hardships and heartaches.
Christ is God with us!
Now let’s go back to verses 10-13
Here we have Christ as God in us and through us. When we accept Jesus as our Savior we have the privilege of having God live within us. We can exchange our life for His.
In Galatians 2:20 it says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Christ wants to live in us so that we might live fulfilled lives. He also lives in us and through us that we might be His representatives to others.
In 2 Corinthians 5:20 Paul reminds us, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
When we allow the Son of God to live in and through us then we will be able to communicate His love to others for they will see in us those who have been forgiven.
On that special night 2000 years ago, in the little town of Bethlehem, a pregnant woman and her husband were turned away from an Inn. When the baby was born He was laid in a manger. In those humble surroundings Christ was born, not as the King He was, but as a man.
He came that first Christmas because He was God, because He loved you, and because He wanted you to be His.
That is what Christmas is all about.
