The Story- Chapter 22 Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• Now we are in the New Testament. I hope that you gained some insights from our study of The Story through the Old Testament!

• Today we begin our New Testament journey through The Story with the birth of THE King!

• The birth of Jesus was predicted in many prophecies on the Old Testament. All the ceremonies and laws had the purpose of pointing us to the need we have for a Savior, Jesus!

• SLIDE #2

• Galatians 4:4 (NIV) But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

• Yes, the time was right, God knew it was time for His son to come into the world, it was time for all those great Old Testament prophecies to be fulfilled, and it was time for the world to be able to look into the eyes of God!

• This was an exciting time, it should be been a time of rejoicing, and it was, but not for all!

• God in keeping with creating us with freewill knows that some will reject His son and the gift of salvation.

• Really the rejection started from the start.

• You may have seen the Christmas plays were a little boy who comes in as Joseph dressed in a bathrobe and Nike tennis shoes taps on the door of the Inn and then seeing the innkeeper tell Joseph there is no room for he and his wife Mary in the Inn.

• What if a voice calls out to the innkeeper asking him if he knows who he is turning away? Does the innkeeper really want to be known through history as the one who turned Jesus away? But we can’t change the scene can we?

• I wonder if the Innkeeper would find room for them at that point. Hold that thought for a few minutes.

• Today we are going to look at the birth of THE king. As we look at the entrance of the Messiah into the world, we will examine a couple of things that shows just how amazing our God is.

• What we will see as we examine the birth of THE king is just how much you mean to God!

• The first observation we will make comes to us from John 1:14

• SLIDE #3

• John 1:14 (NIV) 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.

• SLIDE #4

SERMON

I. The King (The Word) did not just rule from on high.

• You know what is amazing to me? That God sent His son from heaven to dwell with us.

• He did not just sit on the throne in Heaven and tell us what to do, HE sent His son to earth to SHOW us what to do!

• Our God has given us a personal touch. One of the issues we face in our country is the fact that our elected leaders tend to lose touch with the people. They stay in Washington and rule from on high.

• They make decisions that have terrible economic consequences for the people. Fuel is a great example, those guys and gals do not fill their tanks, but we do! So we know the economic impact of a poor energy policy.

• God KNOWS what we deal with! His son came in the flesh to dwell with us!

• The WORD who was God, was made flesh! We see this in verse 14.

• SLIDE #5

• Hebrews 4:14–16 (NIV) Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize 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.

• The fact that God send His son in the flesh and did not just dictate mandates from on high shows He really loves and cares about us!

• The Greek word we translate “WORD” is the “LOGOS” from which we get our word logic, or reason.

• The son is called the WORD in part because “a WORD is both the revelation and expression of an idea; and he is the full and complete revelation of deity (the divine nature) to the world.” Gospel Advocate Commentaries - New Testament Commentary – A Commentary on the Gospel According to John.