Before we begin this morning, I want to just
remind us of something and maybe give you insight
into part of the patterns of our worship. Worship
should be designed for the bookends of life,
okay? Your children and the elder. The more things
that we are able to do in our services every
week, right? Responsive prayers. saying the glory
potray, all of these things that we do again
and again, the confession, all these things that
we do again and again bless our children. They
learn, they memorize, they're drawn to God. And
yes, even too, when you become an older person
and body and mind begin to fail, those patterns
are there instilled in your person by the power
of the Spirit to be a blessing and a comfort.
So if you ever wonder why we repeat things, repeat
things, it's for the bookends of our congregation,
both the children and those who are growing older.
Let us now turn our hearts and minds towards
the preaching of God's word. Let us ask him for
his blessing. Almighty God or Heavenly Father,
we give thanks unto you once again that you have
guided us safely, joyfully through all the tribulations
of this world. We thank you that in all these
things, You have been at work making all things
work together for good for us in Christ Jesus.
Give us therefore as we petition you grateful
hearts that day by day that we thank you as we
ought, that we might know that we are surrounded
not by a world full of evil, but surrounded by
your grace and your providential care, by your
mercy and your love. We ask now that you would
let the words of my mouth and the meditations
of all our hearts acceptable in your sight oh
Lord Jesus our incarnate Redeemer full of grace
and truth amen amen so as we prepare to look
at our gospel reading today I want to give you
three things to think about as we go through
this passage three things to think about as we
go through this passage first of all Jesus Christ
is the creator and Redeemer and he came Jesus
Christ, the Creator and Redeemer, came. Second,
Jesus loves us so much that He dwelt in flesh
with us. Jesus loves us so much that He dwelt
in the flesh with us. And finally, Jesus brought
us grace and truth. Jesus brought us grace and
truth Let's hear our gospel reading once more
John chapter 1 beginning in verse 10 He and of
course he here is Jesus He was in the world and
the world was made through him and the world
did not know him He came to his own and his own
did not receive him But as many as received him
to them he gave the right to become the children
of God to those who believe in his name 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 beheld
His glory, and the glory as the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. John
bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, This
is He of whom I said, He who comes after Me is
preferred before Me, for He was before Me. and
of His fullness we have all received grace for
grace. For the law was given through Moses but
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No
one has seen God at any time. The only begotten
Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has
declared Him. These are the words of Almighty
God. Receive them in your hearts. Greetings this
11th day of Christmas. If we look around, people
have begun taking down their Christmas decorations,
putting away their lights, discarding their Christmas
trees, although some of them, and I heard someone's
planning a big party at their place tonight to
burn your Christmas tree. All the fireworks that
brings. And some folks are boxing up their nativities.
if they've had them at all. The parties are over,
the wrapping paper is long gone. For many, their
world has been restored to its previous state.
If Christmas has any peace for those outside
of the church, it is found in remembering some
type of sentimentality of peace from a little
child born long ago who has no relevance to their
lives. For the unbeliever in our country, the
goodness of the birth of Jesus is countered by
the Herod -like disposition to murder babies
in abortion, simply for these people to have
their own self -preservation and pleasures. For
the Church, however, Jesus Christ and Christmastide
is a season of 12 days of rejoicing. For us,
it's 12 days of the coming of our Lord and Savior
who delivers us from the bondage of sin and death.
12 days of gift giving, feasting, glorifying,
and praising God for His appearance in the flesh
so that our sins may be forgiven. Now for some
of you, you may be very new to the idea of the
church calendar. or that there's 12 days of Christmas.
And my emphasis to you isn't so much how you
do it, right? But you have to understand that
the coming of the Lord Jesus is so spectacular
event, one day will not do. Every day during
the 12 days, you should do something. Sing carols,
eat a piece of candy, drink a glass of wine.
Those things that are set before you as things
to rejoice. Do those things. Rejoice in the great
coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's
not something to just be put away There is no
cross without the birth. There is no deliverance
from sins So don't celebrate it get rid of all
the signs of it act as if it was nothing Now
the gospel of John unlike the other Gospels gets
right down to it about who Jesus is Think about
this now Matthew begins with the genealogy of
Jesus showing that he is both the son of Abraham
and of David in Abraham the son of promise Jesus
is the son of promise who would bring blessings
to all the families of the earth we see that
in Genesis 12 and Jesus as the son of David is
the king whom David calls Lord right David who
who so many of Israelite descendants. They think
David, he was the epitome of everything. He's
the greatest king we ever had. And David says
in Psalm 110, he calls Jesus his Lord. The Gospel
of Mark begins with Jesus as the Son of God,
the messenger of the covenant in whom the Father
delights. Look it up. And that is quoting Malachi
chapter 3. Luke begins his gospel with the emphasis
of a priest who has a barren wife, who has given
a child, the forerunner of the Messiah, whose
name would be John. John's name means Yahweh
is a gracious giver. He's come to proclaim the
greatest gift that Yahweh has ever given. Jesus
Christ. Luke goes on to unfold the wonder and
majesty of the virgin conception of Jesus in
Mary by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit
as predicted in Isaiah 11. These first three
gospels point to Jesus' birth as the fulfillment
of 4 ,000 years of promises of the coming Savior
who would be wounded by the serpent but would
crush the serpent's head. Though the wound from
the great serpent looked like a crushing and
devastating blow and defeat Jesus delivers the
head -crushing blow and his atoning death on
the cross resurrection and ascension Even in
the midst of darkness and trouble we talked about
this last week all of the things stacked against
Mary and Joseph all the plottings by Herod all
of those things that just looked like it wasn't
working out and yet God showed us as we looked
at portions of Matthew last week on the first
Sunday of Christmas we saw that despite how everything
didn't look like it was coming together God Himself
had ordained these and predicted all of these
things in His Word. In Jesus coming the people
of Israel And all the families of the earth had
the fulfillment of all of the promises of God
to his people. In Jesus is found the fulfillment
of the great and winding story of Israel. In
Jesus' coming is found the end of the old creation
bound in sin and death under the covenant head
of Adam. In Christ Jesus, the second Adam, the
firstborn of the new creation, He so was now
our new covenant head and so the new heavens
and earth are brought to his people What a time
of rejoicing and it's rejoicing after a long
and tumultuous wait I Remember when I was a young
man How much I look forward to getting married
At first it was just this vague idea this hope
that I would find a good woman Then I met Rachel
and then my hope had substance But the reality
of marriage was prolonged by a lengthy 18 month
engagement filled with distance trials and hardships
Even when we were able to be reunited and live
in the same city. We didn't get married for another
nine months Sometimes it felt as if the wedding
day would never come. Life was a blur during
the last six weeks before the wedding. Rachel
returned back to her parents three hours away.
So what I did is I took my days off and I packed
them together. And so I was working shift work
at McDonald's. I'd get off at two o 'clock in
the morning, drop all my employees off, and then
hightail it driving three hours. And of course,
the hardest part of that trip every week Was
connected with the last 15 minutes Before the
Sun comes up. I've been working all day. I'm
tired Right up. It's now halfway through the
night and that 445 to about five o 'clock. It
was a drag I'd be turn the music up chewing gum
singing as loud as I could to stay awake All
that so I could see my beloved for a couple of
days Then on Friday morning at 11 .30 a .m. I
jump in the car and drive straight three hours
back to work. By the time we got to the week
of the wedding, I was exhausted. I was drained.
When I came back to town to get married, I showed
up where I was told, I wore what I was told,
and I was so drained. that I even took a nap
right before my rehearsal dinner. Well, the day
finally did come. And when my bride came down
the aisle, I was absolutely overwhelmed. The
reality of the wedding ceremony brought the feasting
and rejoicing not only to me, but to the whole
community. I never experienced a wedding quite
like this, because when we were all done, The
wedding we're having the reception and this is
tells you no older community In a farming area
all the women especially the older women came
around and we opened up every single gift so
they could all see what we got They were they
were so excited to see the gifts we were getting
a great rejoicing For Israel the coming of Christ
should have been this way Instead they say busy
in their darkened minds living under the rule
of the serpent. Jesus is going to find as he
goes out in his ministry that the synagogues,
the places of prayer and instruction in God's
Word are full of demons. There's little serpents
everywhere. So here in our text today we see
this difference. We see that God John's gospel
does away with the subtle tactics used in the
other three gospels You know the other three
gospels you get in pieces And it's sort of like
you have to build on it to totally get the picture
of who Jesus is and what's happening John does
away with the subtle tactics It reminds me of
Mike Tyson many of you might not know who he
was but he was quite the boxer in the day And
after a few of his fights went public The question
of fighting of his bouts was this. How many seconds
in the first round before Mike Tyson knocked
the guy out? Right? His punch was, if he got
you with that left hook, boy, you're out. I don't
care how tough you were. That's what John's gospel
is right here. He comes out and he just, pow,
here it is. John 1 -1. In the beginning was the
Word. The Word. was with God. The Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. If there was
any doubt in a person hearing and understanding
who Jesus is in the first three Gospels, John
clears up who Jesus is. He's the Son of God.
He was with God. He is God. He's the creator
of all things. That is the beauty, the majesty.
the greatest thing in the incarnation that He
came for us. Verse 10 declares of John 1 that
Jesus was in the world and that the world was
made through Him. The Creator came into the world
and in their sinfulness the world did not know
Him. The scripture tells us that the heart is
deceitful above all things. The sinful heart
loves the darkness. We like Adam don't want to
present ourselves before God with our sinfulness
exposed. Yes, Adam and Eve had no clothes, but
more than that, nakedness means in the Bible
exposure. When God called them, they didn't want
to present themselves because their sinfulness
was exposed. All of their excuses. all of their
rebellion, all of the abdication, all of the
ways in which their hearts wanted to do evil.
I mean, we think about this for a second, right?
We find ourselves drawn to do wrong, and our
sinfulness is exposed. Jesus, it says in John
1, came to his own. Those who had over and over
again for generations heard and experienced and
seen the mercy of God and his faithfulness and
then his mercy and grace time and time again
not receive him in spite of God's Word given
his care his mercies and all the times that God
delivered his people Israel did not receive their
creator Redeemer if there's any warning for us
Sitting here today the church It should be this
You can have the right theology you can be part
of The best group of people you can be part of
the best church in town You can know everything
you can have the best library and have read them
all If you don't trust in Jesus, if your trust
is in your church, in your theology, in your
school of thought, in anything other than Jesus
Christ, you're lost. As a matter of fact, Isaiah,
right in chapter 1, beginning of verse 3, he
says this of the people of Israel. Right so right
in the beginning all these promises that are
fulfilled in Christ Jesus that you see in the
book of Isaiah Right there in verse 3 at the
very beginning Says the ox knows its owner and
the donkey his master's crib in other words the
place where he eats But Israel does not know
My people do not consider later on in chapter
1 God Calls Israel a sinful nation totally turned
backward They're facing away from all of God's
promises God comes and what do they do they turn
their back One of my brother Stephen he was deaf
and When he got to be a teenager one of the things
that he would do if he was being corrected by
my mom She'd be talking to him And if he didn't
want to hear it, he'd just do this. He'd close
his eyes. And I'd be in the corner kind of laughing.
But I'm like, well, he can shut her out. You
know, that's what Israel was doing. The Son of
Promise, God Himself, the Redeemer of the world,
He comes. And He brings all this grace, all this
truth, all this blessing, all this mercy. This
is what they do I'm turning away. I want to do
my own thing John declares that the word the
second person of the Trinity who was with God
from the beginning and is God became flesh and
dwelt among us God so loved the world that is
planned for deliverance and reconciliation was
having Jesus reveal God by being here on earth.
By Jesus speaking, touching, and mourning, and
laughing, and living, and dying, and yes, being
raised from the dead. Jesus in His coming in
the flesh revealed the glory of God. Jesus was
full of grace and truth. 1st Colossians 1 reminds
us that as Christians we know the grace of God
in truth Now here's here's the thing truth is
a wonderful thing but truth alone Leaves us in
the despair of our regrets and guilt and sin
After all if all you have is truth, you know
who God is And you know he's holy and you know
you're not There's no hope Jesus though he brings
forth hope and assurance in the fullness of grace
that makes truth a way to life and not a lock
on the coffin we hear in the middle of John's
proclamation of who Jesus is, a reminder of the
witness of John the baptizer, the greatest and
last prophet who cried out that Jesus was greater
than he because Jesus existed before him. If
you look at the story, you see that Elizabeth
was pregnant with John before Jesus. That's not
his point. His point is he recognized that Jesus
had always been. but now he had come in the flesh
dearly beloved in Christ's divinity and humanity
dwelling here on earth in real time in history
Jesus has brought us out of the fullness brought
us out of sin by the fullness of His grace and
we have received grace for grace now when we
read that in English translation we're like what
in the world is this? Some kind of weird thing
going on here, but must be extra good because
it's twice right well Augustine had his view
on it, which was a good one Calvin said that's
good, but I think it's more All right here it
is In Christ Jesus incarnation we receive out
of the overflowing abundance of his grace the
goodwill loving kindness and the favor of our
God. I want to say that for you one more time.
In Christ Jesus incarnation we receive the overflowing
abundance of His grace. That is His goodwill,
His loving kindness, and the favor of our God.
Now we receive both grace in the once and for
all atoning work Christ Jesus on the cross for
the remission of our sins. That's the first grace
and praise God for that He doesn't leave it there
We also continue in the overflowing abundance
of his grace as he sanctifies us by conforming
us to himself Increasingly more and more every
day. So we have the first grace The atoning work
of Jesus on the cross, we're justified. But His
grace doesn't end there. He doesn't leave us
to just be barely getting by, but rather He gives
us more grace. That's still abundant grace, overflowing
grace, as He sanctifies us, as He blesses us,
as He draws us in. In verse 17 of John 1, it
says this. For the law was given through Moses,
but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
You see, law or truth alone does not deliver
us. Right? So Moses coming, bringing the word,
bringing the law, it's not enough. All it does
is show us our shortcomings. Right? Romans 7
reminds us. that we would not have known sin
except for the law. So when God gives us the
law, it's to help us understand what's in our
hearts. That's actually what God says to the
people of Israel. He says, I put you in the wilderness.
Would I do that for? To show you what was in
your hearts. And Romans 7 continues and says,
but sin taking the opportunity by the commandment
produced in me all manner of evil desires. Now,
here's the thing. Once we know what we're supposed
to do, the temptation grows immensely to do that
thing we're prohibited from. I love little children,
because little children just show us who we are.
If parents, if you want to know what your greatest
weaknesses are, look to your children, and it
is your sin magnified. So if you take a small
child, and they're walking over there, and you
see the socket in the wall, And they pause and
they look at it. You say, no, no, don't touch
that. What do they want to do above all else?
They want to touch that socket. They don't know
what it does. You can tell them it'll hurt you.
They're like, yeah, but what level hurt? It'll
kill you. I don't even know what that means.
That's what they want to do. That's what the
law does to us. If all you have is the law, if
all you have is the truth, all you do is desire
to do that. If we know the law, but do not know
Jesus, we cannot know grace and truth. That's
the order of things, grace and truth. You see,
we have to have God's grace at work on our heart
for truth to be a way of life. By God's providence,
God in Christ Jesus chose His elect. God's gracious
will in Christ Jesus delivers us from all sin
and guilt. Now John finishes this passage out
by making it clear that no one has seen God.
But the only begotten Son, Jesus, who came in
the flesh as a man, has declared God to us. That's
really important. You want to know God? Read
what Jesus said. Wait a minute. More than that,
read the whole Bible. For the whole Bible is
the Word. Jesus is the Word. So every word of
the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, Old Testament,
New Testament, is all Jesus declaring God the
Father to us. The only way to be reconciled and
to know God is in Jesus. During these final days
of Christmastide rejoicing, rejoice. Jesus, the
eternal Son of God, came to bring grace and truth
to us, His people. We are His people. That abundant
loving kindness of our God Jesus came to bring
us this He is the creator the lifegiver the Prince
of Peace the only begotten Son of God and he
came and Marvelously dwelt here on earth He was
resurrected and is ascended to the right hand
of the Father until what? So as the feasting
comes to an end, as you put your final decorations
away, as you put the last pieces of your nativity
set in the box, you may have fears, you may have
worries, and you may have uncertainties in what
the future brings. Every one of us, or as we
like to say here, all y 'all, We would be well
advised to remember that Jesus Christ the creator
and Redeemer came and That he loved us so much
that he dwelt with us in the flesh So here it
is So rest in Christ You finished work of Christ
Jesus on the cross and because you're resting
in him Share the hope the peace the joy and the
love that is only found in the incarnation of
Jesus. Let us pray. Our Father, how great and
marvelous is Your work, Your word and Your grace
and mercy to us in Christ Jesus. Make us strong
in Him that we might be communicators of the
word of life, even as the world, having separated
itself from the Lord of glory, goes dumb in its
speechlessness. and in its isolation from the
Lord. Bless us in your service. In Christ's name
we pray, amen.