(Christmas Eve) God Became Human - John 1:1-3, 14

As they're finding their way back to their seat, I'm going to

read to you the scripture for the Christmas sermon tonight.

It's in John chapter 1, verses one through 3.

John 1 · chapter mention

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and

the Word was God. He was in the beginning with

God. All things were made through him

and without Him was not anything made that was made.

This is the word of the Lord, Amen.

Would you guys pray with me? Father, we do come to you this

morning thankful that you sent your son, thankful that we have

a Savior, Jesus Christ. The Lord who first had to become

human, had to become one of us. And every year we make a big

deal out of it, although our world has and even the enemy has

tried to to drown it out or confuse this holiday.

We come together as your people claiming this holiday back as as

ours. It's a Christian holiday.

This is about Jesus. This is about 2000 years ago you

came down to be one of us grew up, lived a sinless life and

died for us to be, as Matthew says, to save us from our sins.

So Father, help us to understand your son even more.

Help us to hear all the, the glories and the wisdom and the

the majesty that is that's wrapped up in him as we look at

your word once more tonight I pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Well, my name is Eric. I'm one of the pastors here.

Thank you for being here on this Christmas Eve.

This is our second one as a church plant.

And so hopefully it's better than last year.

But in either either case is about what does God's word have

to say about who Jesus is? And I've titled today's message,

God became human. And in those verses it said the

word. It talked about this, this, this

being called the word. What or who is the Word now?

Back in 600 BC in Ephesus, there was a a philosopher named

Heraclitus who who came up with these ideas about an impersonal

force that was the principle of reason.

This, this rational force that gave order to the universe and

and Plato and Socrates and Philo, who were philosophers

later in Greece followed this and they, he was famous for

asking these questions like it's or it's, he said it's impossible

to step into the same river twice, meaning that if you take

your foot out of the river and then step back in, it's a New

River now completely the the water has flowed down it and

asking these questions like philosophers do.

One was that if that be so, how is it that everything that

exists is not in a state of perpetual chaos?

And they came to believe and reason that there's an ordered

change out there in the universe.

There's a a divine reason or a word.

And that's that word in the Greek, the New Testament was

written in Greek. The word word is Lagos, which

means statement or speech or a message or reason.

John, John is believed to be the apostle John, a pastor in

Ephesus later on in his ministry.

And he pastored there and, and it's believed that he wrote this

gospel, the book of John about Jesus from Ephesus, from from

his ministry while he was in Ephesus.

And he knew about the philosophers and, and what they

believed about reason and logic. And so John opens his gospel

unlike any of the other gospels, talking about this person, the

Word, the Logos, the one who brings all reason, the one who

holds all things together, who brings order to the universe.

And so we're going to look at this being whom philosophers

tried to grasp but didn't quite get it.

John brings clarity. And so I've got 4 points from

this text I want to look at tonight.

And the first is answering the question, who is the Word?

Jesus is the Word. The first verse in the beginning

was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

In Revelation 1913 it says He is clothed in a robe dipped in

blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God.

This is a title of Jesus Christ in the Bible.

In fact, if you Scroll down to verse 14, it says the Word

became flesh and dwelt among us. So we know that this first

verse, John is telling us that this word, this Lagos, this

statement, this speech is a person, not just an in

impersonal force out there in the world like a law of nature,

but the one who spoke all the laws of nature, nature into

existence. But it's not only that that he

speaks, he also comes with a message.

The word comes with this message, and in Hebrews 1 verses

one through 3, it says long ago, at many times in many ways, God

spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days

He has spoken to us by His Son, whom he appointed the heir of

all things, and through whom also He created the world.

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of

His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His

power. So the apostle John, along with

all the other writers of the New Testament, are trying to get us

to understand who Jesus is. And this says that Jesus is God,

Jesus is God. And there's so much to that

statement to try to understand. But back in that first verse, it

says in the beginning was the Word, the word was with God and

the word was God. And so there's these

distinctions that the word was with God, another person, and

yet the word was also God. So right there is just the the

beginning of this understanding that God is triune.

He exists as three persons in one being, the Father, Son, and

the Holy Spirit. And that's what John is getting

at. He's trying to get that that

look, God became human and by believing and trusting in him

and the message that he brings, Can you have eternal life?

That's what John's gospel is all about.

But let me go on as we look into these verses.

And my next point is that Jesus is eternal.

You see, if God is eternal, then Jesus is eternal.

And John's trying to prove to us here in these verses again that

Jesus has always existed with God the Father.

In the beginning of time, Jesus already existed.

And that's the word he's using here.

In the beginning was the Word. The word was with God.

The Word was God. He was in the beginning with

God. And this isn't just the

beginning of creation. This goes further back.

Before anything was ever made, Jesus was with God.

That word beginning is the word archae, which which also means

the alpha. Revelation 18 says he's the

alpha and the Omega. He's the the.

The word means first, 'cause often times, you know, atheistic

science tries to explain how the world came about and the the

theists, the people that believe in God, say it's irrational that

something came out of nothing. You see, that's what a lot of

people believe when it comes to The Big Bang, that just out of

nowhere, at some point in time, from nothing, everything

happened. And that's what you see here.

But the rational way to look at it, the logical way to look at

it, is that there has to be a first 'cause there's always

cause and effect. That is, that is observational

science or observable science is that we see cause and effect.

Well, Jesus is the uncaused first, 'cause nobody caused him.

Why? Because He always existed.

In fact, a famous Christmas verse that we often read in

Micah 52. We looked at this in our sermon

last Sunday. But As for you, Bethlehem,

Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah.

From you one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel.

His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.

This person to be that that was prophesied about the Messiah,

Jesus the Christ to come, whom we're talking about here on

Christmas Eve. He is from eternity.

And in first John, John wrote this letter later in his life

after he wrote the Gospel. And it says that which was from

the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with

our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands,

concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest, and

we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the

eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to

us. Jesus is the eternal life that

He's talking about here. Who was with the Father.

As he had already told us, He starts off this letter pretty

similar to his his gospel. Within the beginning.

His emphasis is to teach us who Jesus is.

So then, if Jesus is the Word and Jesus is eternal, then my

Third Point then is that he must be the Creator.

Often times we think of the Father as the Creator, but the

Bible tells us that the whole triune God was involved in this

creation of the universe and the earth and everything in it.

And going back to our verses again in verse 3, it says all

things were made through him and without him was not anything

made that was made. Now this is this is this kind of

blows my mind here because if we think about Jesus, the second

member of the Trinity, the Son of God, he's always existed, but

he wasn't human. He only took on flesh later on

Christmas, the first Christmas before that though, how did he

exist in what? In what kind of essence or being

did he exist? And and while I don't know that

I can answer that other than God is Spirit and so he existed as

Spirit with the Father and the Holy Spirit, but there's

something else to it that I think just helps us to worship

Jesus a little bit more and understand his power.

As I said, the Lagos, the word of God, his, his title is a

message, a speech. And if you think about Jesus

being the creator and we go back to the narrative that we get in

the very beginning of the Bible, look how the world was created.

It says in the beginning God created the heavens and the

earth. 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.

And God said let there be light and there was light.

You see, God spoke the world into existence, the universe,

earth, everything that you can see, and even the things that

are unseen. When God said a word that was in

somehow in some way, the word of God was the Son of God and those

words that the Father spoke were, were through the Son's

power, through the sun's creating power.

Do we see everything that was made and, and going back to what

those philosophers believed about a, a force, some kind of

a, a rational reason that held everything together in that in

this verse in in Genesis 1, it says second in second verse, the

earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face

of the deep and in the, the timeline of creation days one

through six, it wasn't complete. And, and at this time God had

just started creating and, and often many theologians say the

world was in chaos without form and void.

There was darkness. This there was not order.

The order had not happened yet on the first day in God's

creation. And the Word of God brings about

that order to everything in the universe, the laws of nature,

gravity, thermodynamics, things like this.

And it is Jesus. And let me just tell you what

Paul says about him in Colossians then that ties into

this. It says he is the image of the

invisible God, the first born of all creation.

And by the way, that word first born in its original language,

Protata cost doesn't mean although he was physically born,

it also means first in rank. If you know anything about

Jewish tradition, it was always the first born son who gained

the inheritance, who took over the blessing.

And and this is saying that Jesus is the protatacost, the

first in rank of all creation. Why?

Because he's the creator. Let me go on.

For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth,

visible and invisible, whether Thrones or dominions or rulers

or authorities, All things were created through Him and for Him.

And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

So what the Greeks thought was an impersonal force.

We know as Christians that God is a very personal being and

very powerful. And this God who was born as a

baby, even now, because when Paul wrote this in Colossians,

Jesus had already ascended and he's sitting on his throne in

heaven, ruling and reigning his king.

And somehow in his reign, he is still holding all things

together. Isn't it amazing to think about

Jesus that way, as Almighty God? Because that's who he is.

That's the significance of Christmas.

It's not just a baby that was born to be king to, to save his

people from oppression one day, but this was God coming down in

all of his power, in all of his might, in all of His Majesty.

A great commentary which I think you should all look at.

It's very accessible and easy to get by.

A guy named Matthew Henry. It's free anywhere.

You can download it off the Internet.

Or he said this. This proves the Excellency of

the Christian religion that the author and founder of it is the

same one who is the author and founder of the world, the one

that we believe in, that our faith is completely built

around. As Hebrew says, he's the author

and perfector or finisher of our faith.

He's also the author of the world in everything that you can

see. Jesus created the world and then

later he came into the world to save it because we plunged it

into sin. As human beings, we chose to go

our own way, follow our own passions and desires, and when

those don't line up with God's Word and God's will, and when

God isn't the first one we worship in our lives, in fact,

the only God who we worship, that is sin and all of the other

moral failings that God has said in His Word, we tend to go

against those not just on a yearly basis or monthly basis, a

daily basis even, me included. We've plunged the world into sin

and we ourself are sinners and that is why God had to come,

because only God could take away the sins of the world, not some

created being. Back in John's day in Ephesus,

there was a man named Cerinthus and there was this heresy going

around that that God was or Jesus was a created being.

But when the Spirit came on him and his baptism, that was the

the, the, the height of his deity and then and then

eventually before the suffering God, the spirit left him again

and he was just a human being suffering.

This was a heresy that one of John's direct disciples,

Polycarp, who we have many of his writings, said that when

John ran into this guy Cerinthus in Ephesus at the bathhouse, it

says let us flee lest even the bathhouse fall down because

Cerinthus the enemy of the truth.

It is a heresy to not believe that Jesus is God.

It is a it is the only way to truly understand and know the

sacrifice that was made for your sin and in the power of the one

who can save you is to believe that Jesus is God.

Now you might not fully understand it or wrap your mind

around it, but that is what God's Word says and we must come

to that conclusion. But He also, although he was

fully God, he was fully human as well.

We must understand this about His nature.

In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word

was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And we have seen His glory, glory of the only Son from the

Father, full of grace and truth. Jesus is the perfect picture of

God here on earth because God is so transcendent and mighty.

But he's also a personal God. He decided I'm going to come

down and I'm going to show you who I am in the most perfect

human being, whoever existed, and that's Jesus Christ.

And it is only by him becoming a human could God die for the

sacrifices of our sins. So this is how it needed to

happen as Philippians tells us, who though he was in the form of

God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but

emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in

the likeness of men and being found in human form.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross. So I want to end with this.

I hope I've proven to you that Jesus is God, and the whole

Bible tells us that Jesus is God.

And not only that, but Jesus can take away your sins by faith

alone in him, by believing the work he did on the cross was

sufficient enough to forgive you past, present and future.

Let me read you this illustration by a man who I

follow, great theologian Joel Beaky.

There was a farmer whose wife became a Christian.

He was upset and didn't want her to become a Christian.

He rejected the incarnation of Jesus.

Him being born as a human baby. He said to his wife, why would

God lower himself to be human like us?

His wife said I hope you see it someday.

One snowy Sunday evening the wife took the kids to church.

After the farmer fed the animals, he read a little and

took a nap. Suddenly the weather got worse.

It was a snowstorm. He got concerned about his

family. He thought should I go to

church, Take the 4 wheel drive to get them.

He loved his family and his. He is thinking.

He hears a loud thump against the house, and then another, and

he looks out the door and he sees a large flock of Canadian

geese. They are disoriented from the

storm and stranded on his farm, not knowing where to go, unable

to fly, unable to see their way. It's a Blizzard.

The farmer has compassion on the geese, he thinks to himself.

The only good thing is to give them shelter in the barn for the

night. So he gets on his jacket in his

hat and he opens the barn doors and he tries to invite them in

and they scatter and emotions to them to go in and they won't.

He tries to get behind them and shoo them in but they go off in

all directions. They'll go anywhere but inside

the barn. He's tired and confused, not

sure what to do. He goes back inside, get some

feed and figures he will make a trail of food and they would

follow him in. So he spreads the feed all over

the ground. And still they won't come in.

He says to himself. How can I possibly save these

geese? The only way I can save them if

if I was a goose myself and I could lead them into the barn

and the the geese would follow another goose.

He realizes as all this is going on that it was time for his

family to follow or to come home.

So he jumps in his four wheel drive, goes down to the church,

picks up his family and the children are happy to see him

and start saying Daddy, daddy, we thought you would come for

us. He said, did you have a good

service? They said yes, yes.

We sang our favorite songs and the preacher was preaching from

John 1 where it says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And Daddy, the preacher told us that Jesus became one of us so

that we might find salvation and security in him.

And immediately the farmer thought, oh, become one of us.

And he thought about the geese, and it kept swirling around in

his head how he would save them by becoming one of them.

And for the first time in his life he had insight into what

God was doing when he sent his Son into a Manger in Bethlehem.

He didn't tell them of his new found insight, but he told them

about the geese. And when they got home, they

could not see the geese anywhere, but then they could

hear some honking. And when they got to the barn,

they found all of the geese eating.

And he said to his children, come see, come, see.

Well, that family never went to church without their daddy

again. And the Holy Spirit worked on

his heart until he too put his trust in the God who was made

manifest in the flesh. The God who says to you today,

come into my barn of grace. Come into the Manger, come into

the open stable door. Why do you flounder outside in

the storm of the wrath of God? You're disoriented out there.

Come in, there's food enough and more to spare in my son Jesus

Christ. I say to you today, come to

Christ, the Lagos of God. Your life is in chaos and it may

have no meaning because you have not Jesus, the author and

perfector of the world. As the author and perfector of

your faith, trust in Him as Lord and Savior.

Tonight, while there's still time, repent and turn back.

Acknowledge that your sins put Jesus on that cross and it was

because of your sins personally that He came down to become a

human. And it was only through that

death and resurrection could you be made right with God.

Believe in Jesus and follow Him. Now would you pray with me,

Father, Gracious and merciful Son, the Majesty, the King of

Kings and the Lord of Lords, Holy Spirit, the one who draws

us and helps us to understand. We come to you, God, and ask

that you would do a miracle, and those who do not believe in you

tonight that they would, that they would finally see why you

became a man. Every Christmas passes by every

year, but make this the year that they finally get why you

came. And I pray Father, that you help

them to come back Sunday after Sunday and meet more and more

people and read their Bible and pray until they get that Jesus

Christ is Lord who came to save sinners.

I pray in Jesus name, Amen.