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Good CHRISTMAS EVE morning to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends! Oh I pray today and tomorrow are very special days indeed for each of you, scattered all over the world, where God has placed you according to His Sovereign and Strategic Plan. I urge us all to be especially alert in these next 48 hours, looking for God’s reach into our lives, our relationships and the circumstances in which we find ourselves.
Today let’s look at another view of the Christmas story. John’s Gospel, chapter 1, verses 1-9. The author of this book is John the son of Zebedee whose brother was James. They lived in Bethesda, a village very near the Sea of Galilee. They were a father & sons fishing business family. Their good friends were brothers Peter & Andrew who also were fishermen on that lake Galilee. Jesus called all four of them to leave their fishing business and follow Him as His disciples and they did. We find that story in Mark 1:16-20.
It appears John became Jesus’ best friend. As you read the Gospel accounts, they were almost inseparable, John wrote his story about Jesus’ life in a very personal way, giving us stories about Jesus not found anywhere else. John does not write about the Christmas story like Matthew & Luke did. Rather John challenges us to look at the whole Christmas story asking one question: Who is the Baby?
And then John challenges us to consider: If the Baby is God, WHY did He come to earth to live among us and what difference should HE make in our lives?
May I stop right here for a moment and ask all 350 of us who receive “Walking with Jesus” every morning: What is your answer to John’s three questions?
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” (John 1:1,2) Books, poems and songs have been written about those 24 words. The word “Word”, appears 3 times in verse 1 and is capitalized in your Bible for lots of reasons. It is linked with the word “He” in second verse. That means the “Word” is a person!!
This word “Word” was “Logos” in the original language in which John wrote, Greek.
To the Romans, “Logos” meant ‘final authority’, like when the Caesar would write an edict, declare it to be law, and sign the document with both signature & seal of Rome indicating his supreme authority.
To the Greeks “Logos” meant ‘ultimate intelligence and wisdom’ as they were so focused on education and intellectual advancement. They loved debate and highly respected people with great education who could think deeply and speak wisely.
To the Jews “Logos” meant “God’s ultimate truth”, the foundation of all existence and all truth. To the Jew there was no great authority or wisdom then when God spoke. The Jewish people treasured their ancient scrolls which held the written words of God. Their prophets often wrote “This is what the LORD says…”
So my friends… What does it mean to you?
John begins his story of Jesus by calling us to consider that Jesus WAS… before Gabriel’s visit to Mary, before the creation of the star that led the Magi, before there was even a planet earth! John’s Christmas story begins BEFORE Genesis 1, before the creation of the Universe, way back. . .to where there was ONLY God, in eternity past.
John demands that we understand this: when there was ONLY God, Jesus was there in all His authority, all His wisdom, all His truth. John writes: “…the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
With his first verse John challenges us to wrestle with one of the most complex attributes of God: the TRINITY. That eternal GOD is ONE God in THREE persons! John digs deeply into this reality throughout his Gospel. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Over and over John calls us to understand and engage this remarkable reality. In fact John’s Gospel calls each of us human beings to enter into a personal relationship with each person of Tri-une God.
John and Paul both show us it is God the Father who came up with the Christmas idea, the Plan of Redemption for sinful humanity. But that plan required God the Son to come to incarnate in human flesh and come live on earth, and die an atonement death to pay for our sin, and rise again victorious over death, sin and Satan so He could reign supreme and save any and all humans who repent of their sin and trust God’s Redemption Plan! And John shows us all the important roles of God the Holy Spirit in helping us understand all this, helping us repent of our sin, trust God to save us and then live with the Holy Spirit alive within us! And all that begins right here in John 1.
John makes it very clear in his first few words. Jesus, God the Son was WITH God the Father and God the Holy Spirit in their oneness from eternity past. No beginning. And Jesus WAS fully God from eternity past.
So this eliminates any idea that Jesus was created by God and began His existence in that manger in Bethlehem. Oh no! John wants us to understand the Christmas incarnation was God the Son, Jesus, leaving His great glory which had existed from all eternity past, to come and wrap Himself in human flesh inside a young women, and be born like a peasant in a smelly stable in overcrowded Bethlehem WOW that’s mind blowing isn’t it? Can you grasp it all? How do you explain the incarnation of Jesus?
And then John keeps going, look what he writes next: “Through Him (Jesus) all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.” Perhaps you remember me saying this: “Everything you and I see with our eyes, touch with our fingers, taste with our tongues, hear with our ears, smell with our noses has either been made by God or fabricated by mankind from something God made.” Now you may need to read that over a time or two and ponder it… it’s powerful and it’s fundamental truth to all that exists.
Paul says the same thing and actually expands it one more step when he writes “By Him (Jesus) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible… all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17) Wow, that’s powerful. Do you see John and Paul are writing the same remarkable things about Jesus? They claim Jesus is CREATOR and Jesus Sustains, by His power, EVERYTHING God has created!
Now step again into the stable behind the crowded Inn. Look around. Those animals… created by the baby in the manger. Mary & Joseph…created by the baby in the manger. That smell you smell in the stable… your ability to smell is created by the baby in manger and even the process that produced the dung… created by the baby in the manger. Oh… step aside, here comes some shepherds saying they’ve seen angels in the sky… guess who created the angels so far back in time? Your right, the baby in the manger! And when the Magi come and say they followed a star… you guessed it, that little infant created that star in the sky! Do you see why John started his version of the Christmas story the way he did?
But then John does it again… another mind blowing truth: “In Him (Jesus) was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” (John 1:4,5) John wants us to understand anything that is alive was created by Jesus and given life by Him. Nothing created itself. Even procreation, the ability to reproduce is designed and put into motion by Jesus. Every life, all life, is Jesus created! Life does not exist without Jesus’ involvement! That’s important when in our lifetime courts in America and elsewhere declare it lawful to destroy life in the womb of a woman and not be held responsible for destroying life Jesus has created!
When John uses the word “light” he’s almost always talking about truth, God’s truth. So Jesus came as God’s living truth into the world He had created, populated by humanity, that He had created… but the darkness. John uses that word to describe the absence of truth, and also the absence of moral right and good. That is the effect of rejecting God. Darkness fills the void when God is rejected by humanity.
Finally today please see in verse 6-8 John is NOT describing himself. John is telling the Christmas story.
The man John is talking about is the miracle son of Zechariah & Elizabeth. The one Gabriel promised when he met Zechariah in the Temple in Jerusalem, and you’ll recall that encounter closed the 400 years of silence, represented by that white page in your Bible between Old & New Testaments. That encounter started the Christmas story, and that John, the son of Zechariah & Elizabeth, was John the Baptist, the friend and forerunner of Jesus. You see John writes: “He was sent from God. He came as a witness to testify concerning the light (Jesus) so that through him all humanity might believe. He (John the Baptist) was not the light; he came as a witness to the light.” (John 1:6-8)
Isn’t it magnificent my friends… on this Christmas Eve, John helps us both step in to the stable to see the miracle baby in the manger, but he also helps us step out into the shepherd fields and look up and realize that baby created this universe… Jesus, God the Son… and we therefore call Him “Immanuel”, God with us! (Matt. 1:23)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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