Thus Begins Christmas

Thus Begins Christmas

John 1:1-18

Sermon by CH (CPT) Keith J. Andrews

All Scripture Marked ESV: The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Let Us pray:

Dear Heavenly Father;

We approach this time in our worship to hear a word from you.

I pray that in this season of giving and parties and family—

That we don’t forget to see your miracle of sending your son to us and for us.

I ask that you bless this message this morning.

Bless these words that have been prepared.

And bless this attempt to speak the wonders of your gospel.

Bless this time, we pray.

A-Men

I want to begin, this morning, as John begins his gospel by focusing on the beginning.

Genesis chapter 1:1 reads--

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. (Genesis 1:1-5 ESV)

John mirrors this passage as he reflects on the life of Christ in which since the beginning of time, the world had waited for Christ to appear.

John takes a moment to make this fact very clear to the reader in his Gospel—who they have waited for—making the connection—if anyone had missed it.

John says “In the beginning was the Word.”

To the Hebrews, “The Word” meant an agent of creation, the source of God’s message to his people through the prophets, and God’s law, his standard of holiness.

To the Greek, “The Word” was the principle of reason that governed the world.

John says:

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5, ESV)

John chooses to remind his readers that the story of Christ didn’t start with the manger; the beginning of the story of Christ began – in the beginning.

In the beginning there was God

In the beginning there was Creation.

“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

But in the beginning, God made Man and Woman. And this man and woman sinned against the Lord.

And in the beginning, God had a plan to redeem humanity.

This was the Word, who was with God in the beginning.

Who, in Genesis 3:15, God announces the Christ will have the last destroying below to Satan.

And, as Hebrews 2:14 explains

14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, (Hebrews 2:14, ESV)

As we look at Christmas we must know that from the very beginning of time itself God had a plan to send Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin.

1. To this beginning we see that there is a witness.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. (John 1:6-9, ESV)

John the Baptist was the son of Elizabeth, relative of Mary. When Elizabeth saw Mary, John, still unborn jumped for joy. John was sent with one mission. That mission was to pave the way for Christ.

He was there to point the way to Christ. He was not the messiah – he was the witness.

I’m enjoy reading Mary Higgins Clark books and most of her stories are murder mysteries.

These mysteries hinge on the testimonies of the witnesses.

John was a witness to tell the world the Christ was on his way.

Growing up in the South I remember seeing the barns painted that said “See Rock City.”

Those words were printed on barns across the South.

They all point to the tourist area Rock City and Ruby Falls near Chattanooga, TN. You can see seven states from there.