Incarnate: Jesus - The Grace of Life - Dec 24, 2024 (Myles Holmes)

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

That's so good.

I don't mean to w rat out Wesley Julet, your son here, but he was playing with that monitor the whole time and talking.

He's a little too comfortable up here.

That's a pat that is a worship pastor's kid right there.

I'm also curious what the weight rating on the stage is.

We have a lot of kids in this church, and they seem to multiply year after year, and so I was a little worried there, but we're we seem good to go.

If you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, you can open them up to John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

We're gonna be in verses 15 to 18 this evening.

That's the first time I've said this evening tonight.

I've said this morning about 15 times, and I'm happy that I got that.

John chapter 1, verse 15.

John 1:15

It's been so good worshiping with you, and we've got so much to thank God for, and we want to talk about that tonight.

Here's what the word of the Lord says John bore witness about him and cried out, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.

For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

For the law was given through Moses.

Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

Let's turn to the Lord in prayer.

Father, we bow before you.

God, we thank you for your word.

Lord, thank you that all the evidence is for us right now, Lord, that you love to speak and that you have given us a book and you have spoken to us.

Which means, Lord, that every person in here, God, you have given us something meaningful, something special, and that is a message that you want us to know.

More specifically, it is a person.

And it is a person in Jesus Christ who we have spent the evening worshiping, and we will continue to seek now as we turn to your word.

And so, Lord, we pray for your help.

God, help us to hear.

Lord, we know that this requires supernatural power for you to shine in the darkness of our hearts, the light of the glory of Jesus Christ.

And so do that we pray, God.

Do a work among us.

God, thank you for your word.

We pray this all in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, one of my favorite questions, especially this past season, as I've talked to people over the sort of holiday season, is to ask them what your favorite tradition is.

What as a family is sort of tradition for you?

And it's nice to hear there are so many different traditions.

Well, our family has a Christmas Eve tradition that I want to share with you, and it's that on Christmas Eve we opened one present, and that present is Christmas jammies.

Anyone else do the Christmas jammy thing at Christmas?

Okay.

Well, this is a big deal in our house.

In fact, our kids have really embraced this tradition, and every year the request for the type of Christmas jammies gets bigger and more specific this year from one kid.

It was Christmas jammies with pockets that are big enough to fit a bird inside.

And then hearing that, another kid, her imagination was ignited.

She said, Christmas jammies with a pocket big enough to fit a puppy inside.

And so Christmas jammies in our house are a big deal, but the person that they are the biggest deal for is my wife.

My wife has a spiritual gift, and the spiritual gift is coziness.

Now, me, I don't care too much about Christmas jammies, and so even some years I'll skip their tradition.

Because I have the responsibility of getting my wife Christmas jammies, and she knows comfort.

And so while Christmas is a season of joy and peace and laughter for some, for me, until Christmas Eve, it'll happen in about an hour, until those jammies are opened and the approval stamp is put on it, there is this great sense of anticipation.

And I clutch in my hands the gift receipt all night, wondering if these jammies will pass the test.

And very much what John is saying to us in John chapter 1 is that each of us have been given a gift in Jesus Christ.

John 1 · chapter mention

You know, we read it tonight when Joel read in verse 9 of chapter 1, John the apostle, when he wrote about Jesus, he said, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

And in verse 16, we just read it again.

He says, For from his fullness we all have received grace upon grace.

And what God wants you to understand tonight is that he has given you a gift in Jesus Christ.

The gift is already in your lap, so to speak, but what is important for you is how you receive it.

I want you to understand that heaven stands in great anticipation of what you will do with this gift.

So great was God's desire for you to know this gift that we get to celebrate this Christmas season.

That God sent his only son who took on flesh, who spoke human language so that we could know God.

And we read it in verse 18.

No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side, that is Jesus Christ.

He has made him known.

God wants you to know this gift.

Here's the issue: that there are spiritual forces in this world that are doing everything so that we might miss it.

And in our day and age, we can all agree on this that the distractions are plentiful.

And when God has given us the greatest gift in Jesus Christ, we stand the risk of undervaluing it and misunderstanding it.

Well, this gift is Jesus Christ.

More specifically, John wants us to know that this gift is the grace that is offered to us in Jesus Christ.

John says in chapter 1, verse 16, for from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

This is what God wants you to know.

And listen, this is very important for some of you to hear because for some of you, you've come to church, and every time you come to church, it's just guilt, guilt, guilt, shame, shame, shame.

Religion, religion, religion.

And the bar is always set one notch too high.

You never feel like you're good enough.

And I want you to understand that the word that God has for you this evening, in fact, the word every time we open up, what God has to say to us is a word of grace.

Every time you come to Jesus Christ, you receive, God says, not me.

Listen, I'm not trying to paint this a picture that it not really isn't.

God Himself says, you receive grace upon grace.

Well, John wants us to know this gift.

And so he shares with us four important things we must understand about the greatest gift we've ever received in Jesus Christ, the gift of God's grace.

And first thing I want you to see is this grace declared.

John in these verses shows us grace declared.

Look at what John says in verse 15.

It says, John, now this is John the Baptist who came before Christ and was a prophet who preached of Christ.

It says, John bore witness about him and cried out, This was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me.

Because he was before me.

John has a leaderboard.

John has standings for the sports fans.

And what John is saying here is that the greatest of all time is Jesus Christ.

So great is he, John will say, that I am not even worthy in a few verses to untie the straps of his sandals.

In other words, John comes to say this greatness is in the room.

Now you and I love greatness, don't we?

In fact, if you could tell me your hobby, I could probably find someone for you that's the greatest in that thing, and you would love to talk about that person.

And those of us who are sports fans love to sort of argue over who is the goat, the greatest of all time.

But it's not only in the realm of humans and the things that they do.

We just to be human, isn't it very much to be on a constant quest for greatness, for the next great thing.

So that have you ever had the experience that you know you read a story or you watch a movie and you watch a show and it finishes, and isn't there this sense of like disappointment?

Have you ever had that?

You know, because you cannot experience that for the first time again.

And you know you're gonna watch another movie or read another book, and it's not really gonna hit you the same as that did.

You found greatness, but you will never be able to experience it again, so that even in the great things we do experience.

Well, there's a bittersweet component to it because we we just want to experience it more.

And here is John saying that Jesus is greatness in the room.

Now, how is Jesus great?

Well, notice first that John says this that Jesus is great because he's eternally supreme as the creator.

Jesus is the creator of all things.

And so listen, everything that you have enjoyed in your life, this Christian worldview says that it is a gift given to you by God.

Listen.

You know, many of us over these next three days are gonna enjoy, I was gonna say some delicious food, but I don't think it's gonna be some.

It's gonna be a lot of delicious food.

I mean, my father-in-law got a turkey for me to make, and it's in my fridge right now, and I think it's like a hundred pounds how much space is taking in my fridge.

We are gonna eat a lot of food, and have you ever considered like, why does food need to taste good?

Because God created it so that it would be a signpost that points to his goodness.

Listen, everything that you experience in your life is created by God.

There is a reason that it makes you feel that way.

Everything that you long to experience, you must understand, comes from God the Creator, in its purest form.

And so listen, each of us, if we're honest, we want to be loved.

And who can love greater than the one who created, who is love?

We want joy.

And who is it who can show us joy more than the one who is joy himself?

We want peace.

And who is it that can give us peace?

Beyond the one who has had peace for all of eternity.

See, Jesus is the greatest because he is supreme as the creator.

But I want you to also understand that what John says here is that Jesus is the greatest because he has been eternally delighted in.

Look what he says.

He says, before he was, because he was before me.

He was before me, not only in rank, John says, but the the context of John chapter one is that Jesus is the eternal word of God.

He has always been around.

And listen, there was a time where this world was not yet formed, and God the Father, for all of eternity past was existing.

And you know what he was doing?

He was for all of eternity supremely satisfied in the Son.

For all of eternity, the triune God, the love of the Father, being delighted in the Son, the Holy Spirit being the expression of that love.

And you know what never happened?

The Father never got sick of the Son.

Listen, even in your favorite hobby, don't you get sick of it sometimes?

You know, even when you get to relax, you get a week off, you get to sit down and watch a show, there comes a time where you just cannot take it anymore.

And yet Jesus was so great that the purest love, the purest joy in the Father Himself for all of eternity delighted in the Son.

And so here is John to tell you and I tonight that Jesus is the greatest.

If he is the delight of the Father, then he can be the greatest delight of your life and of your soul.

This is who Jesus is.

He's the greatest.

You know, we have another tradition in our family on Christmas Eve.

We watch it's a movie, it's also a book.

It's called The Snowman.

Put your hand up if you know the snowman.

Do you guys know the snowman?

There's like three people who know the snowman.

Do I have to sing the song?

You know the song?

It's like we're walking in the air.

You know that one?

Put your hand up if you know that song now.

You know, no, okay, still only three people.

Okay, well, that was awkward.

But uh, you know, I'd love for you to go home and go on YouTube and start this own uh Christmas Eve tradition of yourself.

Go on YouTube, type in the snowman, and you will be like, why is that a tradition for them?

I don't know what they're doing.

But it's a tradition for us, okay?

And sometimes these traditions take a life of their own, and we don't know why they have them.

But but the snowman is this story about a boy who makes a snowman in a sort of this bitter, sweet, short film about the snowman then coming to life.

That's always what happens, right?

And this boy gets to experience this night of like magical wonder with this snowman.

You know, he comes in the house and you know, he sits by the fire, and that's not good.

So he goes in the freezer because obviously for a snowman, a fire is, you know, a freezer is kind of like a fire, and they have a lot of fun, but then there's this magical moment where they go outside and the snowman starts flying through the air, and you know, then the song comes on, and I won't sing it again for you guys because I don't want you to leave.

But they go and then they meet Santa Claus and then they come back, and it's this magical moment, but it's bittersweet because when the boy wakes up in the morning, the snowman has melted.

And he'll never be able to experience that greatness again.

And you know, the glory of Christmas is that Jesus is the greatness who is with us eternally.

That if your faith is in Jesus Christ, you can experience what your heart has always been longing for.

You can experience the greatness that your heart is always searching for, but you experience it and it does not end.

The show of God's glory does not have an end to it.

The song of God's majesty goes on forever and ever, and it always pleases.

This is who Jesus is.

He is greatness, and it's declared by John the Baptist.

Well, I want you to understand also that at Christmas we see grace delivered.

We see grace delivered.

Look at what John says in verse 16 for from his fullness we all received, we all received grace upon grace.

John wants us to understand this that Jesus is an inexhaustible source of grace.

And so listen, in your life, there are many failures.

Can we be honest for a moment?

You know, some of us grew up in churches where it just, you know, you everyone seemed like they were always perfect and they never failed at all, and everything was always hunky-dory.

And yet, if we're honest, and I don't need you to, you know, stand up and list all your failures, but our life is filled with failure.

If we're honest, are there not many things in our life?

Which when we think we even think about fill us with a sense of shame?

Is that is that true of your life?

I know it's true of my life.

Failure, shame, sin.

Certainly we know our inability.

But what John wants us to understand is that no matter how deep your failure is, no matter how great your shame is, no matter how multiplied your sin is, no matter how much you feel like you could never be a good enough Christian, God's grace will always be deeper than your sin.

It is inexhaustible.

But the important thing that John wants us to know is that this grace is for you.

He says, not only is Jesus full the fullness of God Himself, but from him we have received grace upon grace.

And so listen, when I heard the news this week that Elon Musk has, you know, a new net worth of like$430 billion.

I don't know what you did, but I said, oh, well, great for him.

It doesn't affect me at all.

Sure would be nice, you know.

Doesn't affect me.

But I want you to understand what John is saying here.

That God has, Jesus has the fullness of God in himself, but it does affect you because it pours out into your life grace upon grace.

From his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace.

It is limitless and it is for you.

And so listen, are you here with struggles this morning?

This evening?

So yeah, did it again?

Are you here with wounds?

Are you suffering?

Is there sin in your life?

Like, I don't think I'm ever gonna get rid of it.

Like, this is so deep in my life.

Listen, God's grace is deeper still, it is inexhaustible.

Hey, hey kids, can have you ever been to the ocean?

Can you put your hand up?

You ever seen the ocean, like a picture of it?

You don't have to be there in real life.

Picture, you know, YouTube video, movie.

You seen the ocean?

Could you imagine for a moment?

Hey, just you know, picture this.

Imagine you had a sponge and you went up to the ocean and you told your parents, I've got a mission.

I'd be interested what your parents would say.

You know, I've got a mission.

I'm gonna empty the ocean with this sponge.

I'm gonna put the sponge in, I'm gonna take it out, and I'm gonna wring it out over here, and I'm gonna put the sponge in again, I'm gonna take it out, and I'm gonna wring it over here.

This, by the way, is the rest of the sermon.

I don't have anything else planned, so I just said I'll do this for, you know?

How long would it take?

It would take forever.

How big is the ocean?

And you see, that is God's grace for you.

You are nothing but a sponge in the limitless ocean of God's grace.

So that no matter how much the weight of shame that is on your shoulders this evening, the weight of your sin, your failure, your acknowledgement that you are condemned under the law, God's grace is always deeper for you.

It's grace delivered for you.

Next thing I want you to see is that at Christmas we have grace defined.

Grace defined.

John says this, for the law was given through Moses.

Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

You see, Jesus shows us what grace is.

You want to know what unmerited favor is.

You look at Jesus Christ.

You know, the law, the law is a good thing, isn't it?

You and I love the law.

I love that there is a law that you cannot break into homes.

And that for the most part that that is enforced.

The law keeps us safe by exposing wrongdoing.

But you know what the problem is?

And this is even inherent in our in our system of law as a country, is the problem with the law is that it cannot make something right.

Have you ever thought about that?

I mean, there's a reason that there are jails for those who break the law.

Because even though the law can expose something that you've done that's wrong, it cannot fix the problem.

All that it can do is expose the wrong.

And so we love the law so long as it exposes the wrong that keeps us safe.

But the issue that we find is this is that you and I are lawbreakers.

You and I, as we think about the law of God, we stand condemned.

You say, how?

Well, let me ask you this.

Have you ever lied in your life?

Ever just once?

Maybe you're a good person, and maybe you tell the truth most of the time, but has there ever been a single time where you've lied?

That's a commandment.

Have you ever stolen?

I mean, maybe you'd never walked at a Best Buy with a 60-inch TV, but I'm sure that, you know, you've stolen time from your employer.

Even a small thing that you've stolen throughout the duration of your life.

Well, you know, those are outright acts, but what about the sins of the heart?

What about selfishness?

You ever thought about yourself before thinking about other people?

What about anger?

You see, all of these things God points out in his word are the laws of God, and the penalty is unavoidable because the law not only points at others that have done wrong, it points at us.

It points at us.

And so listen, you know, if we were innocent, we Wouldn't really need to care about Jesus Christ at all.

You understand that?

You know, if you're in a courtroom and you know you're innocent, there's this sense of peace you have.

But when you know that you're guilty, there is only one thing you care about.

And that is to be to be declared innocent.

Listen, when you stand in that courtroom facing the death penalty, the the score of the Leafs game doesn't matter to you.

You know, the type of car you drive, it doesn't matter to you.

And listen, the reason why the gift of Christmas is so undervalued by so many in our day and age is because we have missed this vital point that we have broken the law and we stand condemned.

It's as though a person with their body is riddled with cancer were to walk into a doctor's office and the doctor were to look at them and say, Hey, listen, I found a cure for your cold.

That person would like, are you kidding me?

I don't care about the cold.

I want the cancer to get away.

And this is what Jesus has come to do.

And it's possible that this evening you are in here and you have rejected Jesus because he hasn't answered your prayer for something that is so much infinitely smaller than the thing that he has done in living a righteous life for you, dying, the death that you needed to die, and then being raised with new life that you needed in order to inherit eternal life yourself.

Jesus defines grace for us, and we have received in him grace upon grace.

The last thing I want you to see here is that Jesus has shown us grace displayed.

Grace displayed.

Verse 18 no one has ever seen God.

The only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

Do you loved one?

You know that God wants you to know this gift.

God is on a mission.

I'm talking like this, this will blow your mind if you truly understand and believe what I'm saying.

The God who created the heavens and the earth, his finger this evening is pointing at you, and he is saying this.

I want you to hear this.

I want you to see this.

Listen, you you thought you came just as sort of a casual observer to this Christmas Eve service that you, you know, could just kind of stand, and I want you to know it's more than that.

God, the God of this universe, has you here for a specific purpose.

You say, well, how do you know?

Well, first I know because he sent his only son.

And it is an undeniable fact of history.

More proven is the historicity of Jesus Christ of Nazareth than even people who have lived recently, like Shakespeare.

We have more on Jesus Christ than we have on anyone else throughout all of history.

He was a man who walked this earth.

And not only do we have a historical proof of his existence, we have an undeniable record of his resurrection.

You know, the most skeptical religion in all of human history were those Jewish people that Jesus came to.

In fact, all throughout his life, Jesus was rejected.

So that when he hung on the cross, there was nothing but a handful of women who stood by his side.

Everybody rejected them.

You think our century, our people, our culture is skeptical?

Let me tell you, these people were even more skeptical.

Like in a in a lot of ways, we are kind of like a gullible bunch, right?

Have you ever turned to like the shopping channel and seen the things that people are obviously buying because the shopping channel exists?

You ever thought about that for a moment?

We really are a gullible bunch.

And these people were so skeptical that not even a single person was with Jesus at the end.

But then something significant happened between the moment that Jesus was crucified and the moment that Peter preached a sermon in Acts 2.

And then from that moment on, thousands and thousands and thousands of these skeptical Jewish people then began to turn to Christ in the greatest religious revolution that ever happened in the history of humanity.

What was it?

It was the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It was undeniable evidence that Jesus had been resurrected.

And listen, he was resurrected for you.

If that's not enough evidence, I want you to understand that you are here for a reason.

The Father has brought you here so that he can make known to you his son.

You know, our church, we love Jesus.

And it's no mistake, I believe it's divine appointment and sovereignty that God has brought you here.

So that you might see his son.

God has one message to declare to the world, and it is the message of the gospel.

It is grace that is not only available but abundant for you.

So what do we do?

Three things I want you to see in light of this reality of what grace is.

The first is that we receive him.

There's a beautiful promise that Joel read in verse 12 that to all who receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

And do you understand that this evening, if you receive Jesus and all that he said about who he was, if you believe in his name, that he is Jesus, the only person who can deliver us from our sins, and that he is the Messiah, the one who is anointed by God to save us, you can become a child of God.

Need to receive him.

Church, the second thing we need to do is rest in him.

So many of us strive for something that we can never attain.

Running on the treadmill of works righteousness, never feeling like we are good enough to be close to God.

But the message of grace is this: a message that you can rest.

That God has got you covered.

The last thing we then do is reflect him.

Reflect him.

If this grace is true, if Jesus is truly as great as John the Baptist said he was, then there's nothing left for us to do than to sing of his glory.

And in light of that, I'm going to invite the worship team back up as we continue to sing of the grace of Jesus Christ that has been shown to us at Christmas.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for this gift that you have given.

Thank you for the gift that is Jesus Christ that has been so clearly presented to us in Him.

And God, we continue to turn our hearts to you with a posture of worship.

God asking that He would be exalted in this place.