Understanding the Good Tidings: Christmas Insights from John 1

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to

this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen

you in the word of God.

Now come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

The phrase good tidings means good news.

And so we're going to read here in John chapter one, the good

news of the light of Jesus Christ.

In John chapter one, it says, in the beginning was the Word.

The Word is Jesus.

It's another term that's used for Jesus in the Greek.

It's logos.

It just means Jesus, the one who knows all, the one who is all.

So it says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with

God, and the Word was God.

This speaks to Jesus's deity.

You know, if Christmas was just about a person being born, a

special person being born, it wouldn't be any different than any

other holiday.

But we know that Christmas is different because we don't just celebrate

a good historical figure.

We celebrate the coming of our Lord and Savior.

We celebrate the Creator of the universe.

It says here, the same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by Him.

So the Bible says that Jesus is the Creator.

All things were made by him, and without him was not anything

made that was made in him was life.

And so not only do we see that Jesus is the Logos, the Word, but

we see that he is the Light, and the life was the light of men.

And so there's three Ls here this evening that you can think of.

We're.

We're.

We're cheating a little bit because we're going to the Greek.

He's the Word of the Logos.

He's the life and he's the light.

We know that in John 14:6 it says that Jesus says, I am the Way,

John 14:6

the truth, and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

And so here in this passage of Scripture, it's a wonderful description

of who Jesus is.

Why is it so important that he was born in Bethlehem?

Why is it so important that he did certain things in his life?

Why was it so important that he died for us?

Why was it so important that he conquered death through the resurrection?

Well, it tells us here that, number one, he is the Word.

He has always been and always will be.

He is God.

He is life.

He extends everlasting life to all those who believe.

And it says here in Verse number four.

And the life was the light of men.

The Bible says that any hope that we have, any joy, that we have,

any comfort that we have any light in this dark world comes from

God.

Really.

We know that darkness is actually the absence of light.

And so evil and difficult things and painful things essentially

in this world are the absence of the goodness of God.

And what we can see here in verse five, it says, and the light

shineth in darkness tonight.

We're in a few minutes, going to turn off all the lights as best

that we can, and we're going to have our light here, but we're

going to see that when the Bible tells us that there's darkness

in this world, what it's saying is, is that we live in a world

that has turned their backs against God.

We live in a world, for the most part, that they don't celebrate

Jesus the way that they should.

And so the Bible says that the light came to this dark world and

the darkness comprehended it not.

And there's still people today who don't comprehend the light and

the life and the truth of Jesus Christ.

And so at Christmas time, we're not just celebrating an historical

figure, not just celebrating a prophet.

We're not just celebrating a good teacher.

We're celebrating the light of the world.

The light, the truth.

And the Bible says in verse six that there was a man sent from

God whose name was John.

He.

He came, as it says here, the same came for a witness to bear witness

of the light that all men through him might believe.

And so John was not the light.

John was the witness of the light.

He was the one to come before and tell other people about the light.

Verse 8.

He was not the light, but was sent to bear witness of that light

that was the true light, Jesus, which lighteth every man that

cometh into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world

knew him not.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

This is the testimony of Jesus.

Jesus came to this earth.

He.

He lived the perfect life.

He shined the light to all those around him.

But others, they rejected him.

But not everyone rejects him.

It says in verse 11, he came unto his own, and his own received

him not.

But as many as received him.

Meaning there are people who received him.

There are people who believe.

There are people who trust in the light, who trust in the gift

it says to them, gave he the power to become the sons of God.

Meaning this, when we trust in the Lord, he shines that Light into

our life.

He takes darkness, I love in the New Testament, later on, Peter

says it this way.

He takes us from darkness into marvelous light.

That's what salvation is.

And so when we trust in God, that light is not because I'm a good

person.

That light is not because I'm really smart or I'm really talented.

The light in the Christian's life, as it says here, is received

by God.

And so it's something that we have received of him.

And so we're blessed to have that light that we can shine to others.

So he says, as many as received.

And to them gave he the power to be the sons of God, even to them

that believe on his name.

And so those that believe on the name of God, those that believe

in Jesus Christ in faith and what he did for us on the cross and

what he did through us, for us through the resurrection, we can

say we have the light given to us.

And it says more here in verse 13.

Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor

of the will of man, but of God, Meaning we are born again.

John 3 talks all about this.

You must be born again.

You must be in.

In this.

In this context, you must come to life.

The Bible says that we're dead in our sins, but when that light

shines in us, go back.

What does it say that Jesus is?

He's the light and he's the life.

He gives us new life.

He gives us eternal life.

And in that eternal life and in that life that he gives us here

and now we know that we can have, as the Bible says, joy, peace,

comfort.

He's the prince of peace.

He's the God of all comfort.

He's the one as it gives us the Holy Spirit and allows us to

have what the Bible says is the fruit of the Spirit, which one

element of that is joy.

That's why we sing joy to the world.

That's why we sing that he is the prince of peace, that he's the

God of all comfort.

Because that light shines to us.

And we receive that light.

And we know that that goodness is only from God.

And then it says in verse 14, and the word was made flesh and dwelt

among us.

That's the Christmas story.

That's the manger.

That's Jesus's life.

He came in the flesh.

He didn't have to do that, but because he loves us, came and was

born in a manger.

He was born there in Bethlehem.

And it says, not only did he just come, but it Says he dwelt among

us.

And this is John speaking in the first person.

This is John saying this.

He says, I lived with Jesus, I saw Jesus, I walked with Jesus.

He says, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten

of the Father.

He says, I got to experience his glory.

And we all, by extension, when we receive the light, when we receive

the gift, are able to experience and know the glory of

God.

And then he says, what kind of glory was that?

That was the glory as of only begotten of the Father.

Meaning that type of glory that Jesus has and that type of glory

that he gives to us and we can experience and that we can worship

him for is only there because of who he is.

It's unique.

It's unique to him and him alone.

Then it says here at the end of verse 14, full of grace and truth.

That's one aspect of Jesus that I just love, because it's not

all about grace.

Even though grace is there, he's full of it, but he's also full

of truth.

And when those two come together, we see the perfect understanding

of what Jesus does for us because he tells us the truth.

He's the righteous judge.

He's the one that does not accept sin.

He's the one that can.

He does not condone sin, but nonetheless, he comforts us, even

in the conviction.

But he's full of grace.

And that grace is the fact that we can know that we didn't deserve

Jesus to be born.

We didn't deserve Jesus to die on the cross.

We didn't deserve the gift of.

Of salvation.

But he still gives that to us because he loves us.

And so when we think about Jesus being the Logos, the Word,

the One who knows all, the One who is above all, the One who is

eternal.

When we think of Jesus being the light, the One who extends new

life to us, the One who extends everlasting life.

When we think of Jesus being the light, the One who lights us

in the midst of our darkness, in the midst of our world, and gives

us new hope.

When we think about that, what do we think about in the greater

picture?

The greater picture is that he does all of that in his love, right?

Full of grace and truth.

And so think about that here this evening.

The Logos, the.

The life, the light.

It's all wrapped up in his love for us.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,

Man.

That's.

That's a picture of love.

And we're in the Christmas season, and we're thinking of gifts

and we're thinking of love, and we're thinking of family, and

we're thinking of all these things.

But the greatest picture of any of those things is found in what

Jesus Christ has done for you.

And if you've trusted in that, the Bible says that as first, as

John says here in this first chapter, verse 12, as many as received

him to them gave he power to become the sons of God.

Meaning this.

If we have believed in Jesus, if we have received the gift of grace,

all of us can claim that we are children of God.

And we have that life, we have that light.

And so the Bible says that that's the distinction in this world.

If we want to shine light to the world, if we want to see change,

if we want to see people know the truth, we must be the ones who

shine that light.

And so I want you to go to one other passage of Scripture with me

here this evening.

It's in Matthew.

Matthew, chapter five.

The Bible says that when we receive that light, we don't.

We don't hide that light under a bushel.

We don't have the light.

And go, well, I don't want anyone to see that I have the light.

If I have the light, the Bible tells me something very clearly that

I need to do.

It says in verse number 15 in Matthew 5, neither do men light a

candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and

it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

Meaning if God gives us the light, which he does, if we believe

in him, we're not to hide that truth, we're not to be ashamed of

it.

We're not to be embarrassed of what it means for us.

But actually supposed to put it on a candlestick and hold it up

and display it to the world.

And actually, you know, this, that the more dark the room is, the

brighter the light shines.

And in this world, it gets darker and darker.

As, you know, look at the news.

I mean, people around us with violence and anger and bitterness

and all this division.

But folks, here's the thing.

The way we fight that is not by more darkness and not by getting.

Getting to a place in our life where we separate ourselves from

the world.

We are supposed to be separate from the world in what we do, right?

We're not supposed to join in with them.

We're in the world, but we're not of the world.

But we're in the world.

So therefore, how do we influence the world?

We shine the light.

We hold the truth of Jesus Christ up by what we say and by what

we do.

And that's what he says in verse 16.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works

and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.

So this, here it is.

He says, as a Christian, as someone who has received the light,

I don't hide it under a bushel and say, well, I'll pull the light

out at church when everyone else has the light.

But we hold the light up in a world that's dark.

We hold the light up in a world who doesn't like the light.

You ever been in a dark place?

We're about to have it in a few minutes where it's totally dark,

and then we flip the lights on.

You ever been around people that they've been inside the darkness

for so long, you flipped all the lights on and it's.

It makes them recoil, right?

Because it's different.

It hurts them.

And that's sometimes what it is.

In the world.

Today, when we shine the light upon darkness, there is going to

be opposition.

But at the end of the day, the light's the only thing that can save

our world, that can save the person who is lost in his or her

sin.

And it's the only thing that can save on.

And so the light is there to light our lives.

But again, we're not the source of the light.

Think about the source.

The source is Jesus Christ living within us.

And so what we do is essentially we reflect the light.

The light comes in our life, it changes us.

And we show that light to others so that they may see our Father,

that they may see him, and they may trust in him, so that they

can see the light, so that they can shine the light.

So here's what we're going to do here.

For the next few minutes, I'm going to see if we can do this.

It's probably not going to be as effective as we would love it

to be, but I'm going to try to see if we can just have all the lights

off in the room, at least these up here, and, you know, maybe

try to be creative here and pretend like it's completely dark.

Can we do.

Can we do that?

Appreciate it.

Okay, so now what I want you guys to do, I want you to think about

this for a second.

Okay?

Now our eyes are going to adjust a little bit so it's not going

to be complete darkness in here.

But think about this.

We're going to leave here tonight, and some of you maybe are

going to go look at Christmas lights, or maybe you're already eaten,

or maybe you're gonna go eat some more food or you're gonna go

to bed and get ready for tomorrow, whatever it might be.

But eventually what's going to happen is we're going to go out into

a world that's dark.

Not just physically dark, but we know spiritually dark.

And what we can do is we can say, you know what?

I'm just going to join in in that darkness, or maybe I'm going

to hide my light.

But the biblical thing that we're called to do is say, no.

Jesus came and he gave us the word, the Lagos.

He gave us life, and he gave us light.

And so you know what?

What I'm going to do is I'm going to be different.

I'm going to shine the light where it's dark.

I'm going to tell others about who Jesus is.

I'm going to tell others what Jesus does for me.

I'm going to tell others what it means to be different.

Why?

Not because I'm better, but because I've experienced the light

and now I'm a child of God.

And so here this evening, what I want us to think about is this,

and it's a very visual thing, is that if I'm a Christian, sometimes

I'm willing to hold it right here.

Sometimes if I'm at church, I'm willing to hold it out.

But how many of us, including myself, I will put myself in this,

are ashamed sometimes to hold it out, hold it up high and show

it to people around us.

Not in a prideful way, because when we do it that way, what do we

do?

We say it's about us.

But Matthew 5 says, no, it's about Jesus.

It's about glorifying our Father in heaven.

And so I want us to think about that.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church

podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church

or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org

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Thank you so much.

God bless.

Have a wonderful day.