The Meaning Of Christmas

(adapted from a sermon by Darryl Dash)

TEXT: JOHN 1:1-14

TITLE: “THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS”

OPEN: A. In just two days, most of our entire country will shut down.

1. The offices will close

2. The roads will seem empty

3. The whole world will focus on a single event: Christmas

B. What’s the big deal?

--How could a baby born two-thousand years ago stop traffic today?

1. It’s because that baby was no ordinary baby

2. The Bible says that 2,000 years ago, God came to earth

3. On that day, it was as if God descended the stairs of heaven, came to earth, and placed His Son

in a manger in a little town called Bethlehem

4. That, my friends, is much bigger news than man setting foot on the moon

5. When God came to earth in human form, it divided history into A.D. and B.C.

C. Our passage this morning is not your typical Christmas passage.

1. It doesn’t say anything about Joseph and Mary

2. It doesn’t mention angels, shepherds, or wise men

3. It doesn’t talk about Bethlehem, Nazareth, or Jerusalem

4. In this passage, John goes back to the beginning

--Before there was ever a creation or creatures in creation

5. John the apostle doesn’t look at the birth of Christ in the physical sense

--John explores the spiritual side of the Christmas story

a. John, writing towards the end of the 1st century A.D., basically says, “You’ve already heard

what Matthew and Luke have related about the events surrounding Jesus’ birth. Let’s move

on and see the spiritual significance behind those events.”

b. John is really saying, “Let’s explore the meaning of Christmas.”

D. John 1:1-14 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was

God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing

was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines

in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God;

his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all

men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true

light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. 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.

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become

children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will,

but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his

glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

E. Over the last several weeks we’ve looked at several images of Christmas

1. “The Angels: Images of God’s Provision”

2. “The Star: Image of God’s Guidance”

3. “The Manger: Image of God’s Grace”

4. There are lots of images that evoke Christmas in our emotional memories

5. When you get down to it, the question you have to ask is: “What does Christmas really mean?”

6. Let’s talk about five specific things that tell us what first Christmas meant and how those five

things can effect our lives today

I. AT CHRIST’S BIRTH, GOD BROUGHT A MESSAGE FOR OUR HEARTS

--Jn. 1:1 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

A. When John introduces Jesus to us at the start of his gospel narrative, he uses an interesting term

--the term is the Greek word logos or literally translated “word”

1. It was term used in Greek philosophy

2. But the most significant use of this word is found in Jewish writings

--It was a term borrowed from the Old Testament

3. To the Jewish reader, this Greek word logos had specific significance:

a. The Word active in creation

--God speaking the world into existence

b. The prophetic Word of the LORD

c. Some Jewish scholars used this word as the personification of Wisdom

--as in Proverbs

d. Jewish scholars also used this term to refer to the Law

B. In John’s gospel, this term is used to describe Jesus as the divine revealer

1. He comes with a message

a. The word logos meant more than spoken communication

b. It also referred to the meaning conveyed and not just the sound

2. Jesus is literally the expression of God to human beings