The Word Made Flesh

John chapter one.

We're going to be in verses nine through fourteen this morning,

nine through fourteen and turned there, and I'm going to

get us started with that with.

This question, do you believe in Christmas?

I mean, there are so many little things about what

has been piled onto the Christmas.

Holiday that are just I don't know how to put

it complete ballooney.

I mean, I'm not even going to talk about the

little game that some of us play. I wouldn't do that,

but I mean there is a bunch.

Of sentiment and hogwash.

I'm just gonna go ahead and do a drive by

on Bing Crosby and the Littlest Angel of All. Have

you listened to the words?

Okay, no, just me. Sorry. I was alone and was

listening to this song just.

Like but you know, it's just one song after the next,

mostly from Bing. I'm telling you, it's full of all

of these things that cannot and ought not be believed,

so many little sentimental maneuvers, marketing tricks and nonsense, but

actually believing in the message of Christmas, the Christian message,

the Christian Gospel, is not about believing.

These little ideas or sentiments.

It's about believing some fundamental claims that as astonishing and

amazing as they are, they actually hold up.

They actually hold up.

When the Gospel writer John writes about the coming Christ,

he gets right to these fundamental claims.

John is writing with purpose.

He is setting out to persuade anyone who listen of

the Christmas message of the Christian faith, the Gospel, and

he knows these truths on which the message relies. It's

like a three legged stool that relies on the legs

to hold the whole thing up. John starts testifying to

those fundamental truths, those legs.

Right away. I'm gonna read it for us.

You listen along to the truth that John is asserting

that hold up the whole message of Christmas.

Starting in verse.

Nine, the true Light, which gives light to everyone, was

coming into the world. He was in the world, and

the world was made through him. Yet the world did

not know him. He came to his own and his

own people did.

Not receive him.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in

his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

who were born not of blood, nor of the will

of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but

of God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,

and we have seen his glory. Glory is of the

only Son, from the Father, full of grace and truth.

This is the word of the Lord.

When we're talking about believing something, we're talking about trusting.

We're talking about putting your weight on something like that,

like that stool. It's like saying you believe that the

stool will hold you. Isn't all that trust is like

saying it. Trusting the stool means actually putting your weight

on it.

That's what trust is, That's what believing is. It's not

just talk.

So the question about this message of Christmas is do

you trust it with the weight of your life, your eternity,

your sins. Do you try trust the Christian message with

your hope, with your choices? The Bible says your life

depends on your trust in this message and the message.

The stool of Christmas and the life with God that

it promises is built on three fundamental claims, three legs

that are packed into John nine, sorry, John one nine

through fourteen.

Here's the first one.

The first leg on which this whole Christmas stool stands

is this.

Believing Christ's identity.

Believing Christ's identity, and then the message of Christmas and

the life with God that it promises. The message of

the Christian Gospel stands on this that the child is

God incarnate, This child, whom we celebrate is God. Verse

nine puts it this way. The true Light, who gives

light to everyone, was coming into the world. The world

was made through him, it says in verse ten, j

is claiming that this child whose birth that we're celebrating

is the creator God, the God whom humanity rejected with

our self dependence and our self love and our self

will and our self seeking. That God whom we've rejected

is this child. And John isn't the only one to

claim it. You also see this from the gospel writer Luke,

who says that the Angel told Mary, the Holy Spirit

will come upon you, and the power of the most

High will overshadow you, and the child will be born

and called holy, the son of God. Or the apostle

Paul saying something similar in Philippians chapter two. Christ Jesus,

who though he was in the form of God, did

not count a quality with God a thing to be grasped.

He emptied himself by taking the form of a servant

born in the likeness of men, or in the Old Testament,

we've seen Isaiah say over and over again things like

he says in chapter.

Forty, Behold, the Lord.

God comes, the Lord God will tend his flock like

a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms,

prophesying over and over again that the solution that's coming

is God himself. And it makes sense, it makes sense.

It's astonishing, it's amazing, but it makes sense that the

solution to the separation between God and man, to which

every major civilization in all of history acknowledges in some way,

the solution to that isn't the attainments of man, nor

is it affected by God from a distance. But the

solution to the separation between God and man rests on God.

To be precise, it rests on God becoming man.

The message of Christmas, the message of the Christian faith,

rests on God humbling himself to be born as a

baby in a barn in pursuit of you. I mean,

the whole message of the Bible starts with humanity running

from a relationship with God. And there is no spiritual

truth that resonates more clearly with the heart of every

person than the sensation of running from relationship.

With God and the Gospel.

The Christmas message is the part of the story in

which God comes to humanity, literally comes into humanity in

love to re establish relationship.

If you're here, and you would say.

I I'm here, I'm at church, but I don't really

know if I believe in Christianity like you're talking about,

thrilled you're here, wants you to be here. But let

me just say, if you get to the point where

you start recognizing how sick, twisted, and broken humanity is

and come to the conclusion that the only solution would

be for God himself to get involved, you should know.

The Bible agrees with you.

In fact, you've come to the place where you're starting

to agree with the Bible. You may be on your

way to becoming a Christian. Dinner my house tonight, talk

more about it. I was once where you are. If

you are here as a Christian, and I know many

of us are then recognizing that the only solution between

for the separation between God and man, recognizing that that

solution must be for God to enter into humanity himself,

and then to recognize, as John is saying here, and

as Luke says in his second chapter, and as Paul

says in the second chapter of Philippians, and as we

celebrate together here in song and in a whole variety

of ways over the course of this season, to recognize

that God himself had the love and the humility to

do exactly that is an occasion for worship and devotion

and praise.

For adoration.

That God himself did not remain aloof, but he took

on humanity to rescue and renovate humanity. Not from a distance.

It became like you in every way except for the

sin that separated you from God in the first place.

He is worthy of our praise. But to actually believe

that message, that message of Christmas, means trusting.

The claim of who this child is. And if you

have any sense.

Of the separation between God and man, then you may

have a sense of why God actually had to become

a human baby. It's astonishing, it's amazing, like the idea

of God becoming a human baby.

It's sort of, it's not sort of. It's completely supernatural

and mind blowing.

Right, And it's the only thing, it's the only.

Way God had.

To enter into humanity, and he loved us enough.

He does love us enough to do it. That naturally

leads to the question enter into humanity, to do what?

To accomplish?

What? And how?

What did the coming of the God Man two thousand

years ago actually accomplish? And that's actually the next leg

that holds up the Christmas message. The first leg that

holds up Christmas, holds up the Gospel, is the identity

of Christ. And the second leg on this stool that

holds up the Christian faith is the work of Christ.

The work of Christ, the.

Message of Christmas, and the life with God that it promises,

stands on this. That Christ's wor was to come into

the world and establish God with us. He came to

establish God with us. This is the kind of thing

that John is speaking of in verse nine, saying the

true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into

the world. He was in the world. He came to

his own. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

The word there is tabernacled, the word that God, the

Word made flesh tabernacled with us, bringing along these ideas

of God meeting with man, as God met with man.

In the temple, or God met with man in the

tabernacle or in the garden, and not only during his

earthly ministry, as it says in verse twelve right, but

all who did receive him believed in his name, and

he gave them the right to become children of God.

So he was God with us, not.

Only in his earthly ministry. He is actually establishing God

with us for eternity. Becoming the children of God is

what he accomplishes for us, for those who believe in

his name, which in John uses this as an expression

for genuine faith here and when he does that, he

means those who have come to Him in allegiance and trust,

accepting Christ's sacrifice, as he speaks of later in the

chapter right, behold the lamb of God who takes a

way way the sin of the world.

In other words, this.

Christ accomplishes the dwelling of God with man, not only

for a time as God with man in an earthly sentence,

but as God for man in a sacrificial sentence, in

order to enable God with man in an eternal sense,

that we would.

Become the children of God.

God with us is the accomplishment of Christ, and Christ's

work in his death right the lamb of God, it

takes away this inn in the world.

In his work, he handles this tension.

If God's justice would judge us as sinners, but God's

mercy would reclaim us as his children, it makes sense

that Christ would bring those two things together. And that's

exactly what he does as the God Man. As the

only one who could do it, Christ took God's just

judgment as an act of God's real mercy.

He handles them both. He takes them both and establishes.

The dwelling of God with man, the right to become

the children of God. As I spoke to you before,

if you're here as a non Christian, if you're here

as someone who does not yet believe in the Christian Gospel,

you should know that if you've ever recognized your need

for forgiveness from God and wonder just how a just

God could forgive and extend that mercy, you actually may

be close to becoming a Christian.

And here's the thing.

Christ's work was not only to come into the world.

Christ's work is not only to die. Christ's work was

not only to rise from the dead. Christ's work is

actually active now. Christ is alive, ruling and reigning and

calling on people like he is active now. He is

about wooing people to himself, drawing people to himself, saying,

become conciled to me, dwell with me, be family with me,

be forgiven by me, be true to me.

That is the work of Christ right now.

That is his message for all who do not yet

believe he is active. And for those of you who

are here and you'd say, I do trust him. I

have recognized the work of Christ as an occasion.

For worship and love.

You should recognize also this that He is still working

right now, calling on you to live as one who

has been forgiven by him, Live as family to him,

live as forgiven by him, live as.

True to him.

Christ has done, is doing, and will do the work.

Of drawing you to be one who dwells with God

as God dwells with us.

So we've seen this Christmas message stands at least on

these two legs right, believing Christ's identity, believe in Christ's work.

But there's also this, says who says who?

Who is putting forward these claims about Christ? I mean

outside of spiritual intuition, which is a real thing outside

of our consciences, which are real, often have something to

say to us outside of subjective experience, also real, but

outside of those things.

Who is putting forward these claims? How can we know

that these things are true? As one.

Relatively recent convert to Christianity said, the professor from MIT

named Roslyn Picard, she's a scientist, and she had been

an atheist and then just investigated the claims.

Of Christianity, and over time she became a Christian. And

she said this, she said again.

As a scientist, she said, dance helps you a lot

in finding out the truth about some things, but really

not a lot with other things, like the historical events

of the Christian faith. But learning the truth there is

not about doing science. It's about doing history. It's about

evaluating claims and the credibility of eyewitnesses, even when it

seems unbelievable at first hearing another word, what she's saying

is that as a scientist, you're trained to follow the evidence.

You don't impose your own conclusion, even when your first

instinct is to say that can't be right. To do

good science and to do good history and any kind

of good truth seeking is to be open.

It's to say, could this be right?

And those who are putting forward these claims about Christ's

identity and about Christ's work, about who he is and

what He's done, that's the third leg of the stool.

It's believing Christ's witnesses. That's who's saying these things. It's

the witness that we have here present in scripture, and

John is one.

That's what he's saying.

In verse fourteen says, the Word became flesh and dwelt

among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as

of the only son from the Father, full of grace

and truth.

John is bearing witness. Well, what do we know about John?

I mean, if this whole Christmas message, this whole Christian

faith relies on the testimony of witnesses like John that

are present here in scripture, what do we know about him? Well,

for one thing, we know he's writing all this with purpose.

That's how he brings his book to an end. In

chapter twenty, he says this, Now, Jesus did many other

signs before his disciples, which are not written in this book, but.

These are written. I have written this stuff down.

So that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,

the Son of God, and.

That by believing, you may have life in His name.

Like John is writing on purpose.

He is concerned with using this testimony to persuade you

to believe this message and have life in His name.

And we also know this about John, like the other apostles,

like the others who were witnessing to the truths about Christ,

this astonishing, unbelievable, amazing truth that this child is actually

the God Man, that the only thing that could bring

God and man together.

God actually accomplished.

All those who were testifying to this, at least to

those who were his twelve apostles. All of them were

killed for continuing to tell people about this.

Except for John.

It just exiled him on an island for the rest

of his life. I don't know which is easier, but

the point is this.

Nobody dies for a lie.

Nobody subjects themselves to lifelong banishment on an island for

something that they just thought up and were writing about

as a hoax. He seems to know that his witness

is a leg standing up this message, and he's willing to.

Die for it.

All of them were, they would not stop witnessing to

these things. Doctor Gary Habermass puts it this way. He said,

these men, not just the twelve, but hundreds of witnesses.

Went about testifying to these things. But before.

Before that Sunday, they weren't saying anything to anybody. On Saturday,

the day after Christ died, they were afraid to go outside.

They were afraid to talk to anybody about anything.

And then something.

Happened, and these guys got shot out of a canon

and started talking to the whole world. And honestly, people

have not stopped talking about this all over the world.

Sins and what got shot out of a canon. What

happened on Sunday is that the resurrected Christ appeared to

them and confirmed with them all of the things that

he had taught them when he was walking with them,

that he was in fact the pre existent God, that

he was the long awaited Messiah, that he was the

one who was to forgive sins.

All of these things.

That he had taught are true and remained true.

And then they would not stop. Many have examined this.

History, many have tried to disprove it by close examination,

and many times, instead of disproving it, instead of asking

all the questions that would make this historical account fall apart,

they come to faith. Like the most successful lawyer in history.

If you google the most successful lawyer in history, the

name that you'll find is Sir Lionel Luck Who.

Lionel luck Who was a defense attorney.

Who knew how to ask all the right questions to

make everyone's claims fall apart, and in so doing, he

won two hundred and forty five consecutive murder trials.

And he was challenged.

He was challenged to use those skills and that ability to.

Make a case fall apart.

He was challenged to use that to disprove the message

of the Christian Gospel. And so we went about it.

He studied it for years, and he came to this conclusion.

I'll read you as quote. I say unequivocally that the

resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels

acceptance by proof, which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.

When you examine the witness of the gospel writers, you

find that it stands up. Yes, it's astonishing, Yes, it's amazing.

Yes, it's supernatural.

And what must be the identity of Christ and what

must be the work of Christ, These things that they

testify to, they stand up, and if they stand, then

the Christian faith stands, the Gospel of Jesus Christ stands,

the Christmas message stands. In fact, it's the only thing

that stands in such a way as you can put

on it the weight of your life and your eternity

and your sins.

On it belongs the weight of your choices and your priorities.

When so many other messages, especially in this season, are

based out of sentiment and silliness and selfishness.

These things are written so that you may believe that

Jesus is the Christ.

And that by believing, you may have life in his name.

Would you stand with me in.

Pray, Lord God, we asked that you would give us

believing hearts.

We don't desire to have naive hearts, gullible hearts.

We don't desire that we would be swayed by silliness

and sentiment.

That actually is not of benefit to us or the

world around us. We're not asking that you would make

us frothy sort of gullible believers.

On the contrary, Lord, we asked that you would give

us the eyes of faith that would see truths that

are difficult and nevertheless apprehend them. Apprehend them with faith,

and that we would see things that are being proposed

and even sung about that are silly, and we would

understand them for exactly.

What they are.

And so so as we as we celebrate, as we

gather around to enjoy one another's company and good food,

and and and even listen to and sing songs that

are just frivolous, we ask that you would settle the

weight of our lives, the weight of our sins, our eternity,

our choices, our priorities, all that we mean to be

about in this life. We ask that you would settle

all of that directly, firmly on the message that stands

your message, that you sent your son, born of a virgin,

to be God with us and die on our behalf,

to win for yourself children of God, and that we,

in believing, would have life in his name.

We asked us in that name, Amen,