Text:\u00a0 John 1:1-14<\/p>\n
The prophet Isaiah painted a curious picture:\u00a0 7<\/sup> How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news,<\/span> (Is 52) Think about that picture for a moment.\u00a0 For those watching and waiting and hoping for good news, even the worn and smelly feet of the messenger are a welcome sight. And when we see him, we might ask,\u00a0 What news do you bring?\u00a0 Tell us now.\u00a0 What\u2019s the good word?<\/p>\n But the good WORD for Christmas is not so many words spoken by a messenger.\u00a0 No, the good Word for Christmas is a person, a person like no other, a person who is God\u2019s message to us.\u00a0 So we look to this gospel lesson and say:<\/p>\n What\u2019s the Good Word for Christmas? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Our church in San Jose put on a very impressive living Manger scene this year.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good way to help us picture that first manger scene.\u00a0 We look at Joseph and Mary and the twists and turns their lives had taken.\u00a0 We think of the place we would never choose as a birthing place.\u00a0 Then we fix our eyes on the child.\u00a0 What comes to mind?\u00a0 If we didn\u2019t know any better, we might say:\u00a0 How soft.\u00a0 How helpless.\u00a0 How fragile that small bundle of life. He is flesh and blood like you and me.<\/p>\n If that is what we picture this morning, a little baby, , a fresh new life, we\u2019re picturing right.\u00a0 But that is only part of the picture.\u00a0 We need to see more.\u00a0 But this we can only see through the eyes of faith, eyes that can see in the Christ child what God reveals to us here through the Apostle John. \u00a0Here is the first thing.\u00a0 This tiny infant, born to Mary is the eternal Son of God who made me and all things.<\/p>\n The Son of God is not named here as he was by the angel who spoke to Mary.\u00a0 John instead calls him the Word. It sounds kind of strange at first, but it makes sense.\u00a0 What do words do for us?\u00a0 They describe.\u00a0 They tell us about someone or something.\u00a0 Well Jesus Christ, the Son of God is that Word who makes God known to us.<\/p>\n Listen to what John says about the Son.\u00a0 In the beginning was the Word,<\/span>\u2026 The very first words of John\u2019s Gospel are the first words of Genesis.\u00a0 In the beginning.<\/em>\u00a0 It\u2019s no accident.\u00a0 This takes us back to the dawn of creation.\u00a0 Before anything was made, the Son of God was there.\u00a0 He existed.<\/p>\n John then continues.\u00a0 and the Word was with God, and the Word was God<\/span>.\u00a0 That places us right in the middle of a divine mystery- the Holy Trinity.\u00a0 For the Bible clearly says there is one God.\u00a0 And yet there at creation was the Son who is true God and at the same time was with God<\/span>.\u00a0 My Jewish friend says that\u2019s nonsense.\u00a0 And I admit.\u00a0 This is not something I can understand.\u00a0 But that doesn\u2019t make it any less true.\u00a0 The Son is God who was with <\/span>God the Father and God the \u00a0Holy Spirit and yet they are not three gods, but One.<\/p>\n 3 <\/sup>Through him all things were made<\/span>;\u00a0 He made the solar system that only now are we beginning to explore.\u00a0 He made this unique planet called earth, an oasis of life in a parched desert of lifeless planets.\u00a0 It was all made through him.\u00a0 The earth was placed in its orbit around the sun.\u00a0 It was set on its axis so that we have the seasons we do.\u00a0 Without him nothing was made that has been made.<\/span><\/p>\n Think about that as you picture the child of Mary.\u00a0 Usually we stand, looking down at babies.\u00a0 We can\u2019t help it.\u00a0 We are big.\u00a0 They are small.\u00a0 But don\u2019t let this Child\u2019s size fool you.\u00a0 Meet the tiny infant who created the universe<\/strong>.\u00a0 Meet the Word, the Son God, who became flesh.\u00a0 Then come.\u00a0 Come like the shepherds who came that first night.\u00a0 Come like the magi who came later.\u00a0 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.<\/span>\u00a0 (Ps95:6)<\/p>\n Have you ever witnessed the power of a laser beam?\u00a0 I once lived near White Sands Missile Range.\u00a0 There they developed a laser with light so strong it could knock a missile out of the sky.\u00a0 A laser can also pierce that long stretch of darkness between here and the moon and shine a light on its surface.\u00a0 But a laser cannot compare with this Child born to Mary.\u00a0 He would shine a better and brighter light.\u00a0 So what\u2019s the good Word for Christmas?\u00a0 Meet the bright Son who shines in the darkness.<\/strong><\/p>\n There was a time when the only darkness experienced came when the sun set in the sky and Adam and Eve rested from their work in the Garden.\u00a0 But when sin entered our world in that same Garden, a not so welcome darkness came upon us all.\u00a0 The prophet Isaiah spoke of it:\u00a0 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples.<\/span>\u00a0 (Is 60:2) We once lived in that darkness if you can call it living.\u00a0 That darkness ruled our hearts with sin and unbelief.\u00a0 It cast a terrible shadow of hopelessness and death on us all.<\/p>\n There is only one light that could ever pierce that kind of darkness.\u00a0\u00a0 John the Baptist, pointed Him out to the people of his day.\u00a0 Jesus, the son of Mary, the Son of God is that light.\u00a0 He is that light that shines in the darkness.<\/p>\n But the darkness has not understood it<\/span>.\u00a0 The darkness of unbelief is blind to it. It is utter foolishness to the world.\u00a0 The Christopher Hitchens try to extinguish the light \u00a0and yet the Son still shines.\u00a0 The Son shines in heaven and on earth in the hearts of million s of people.\u00a0 The darkness of evil and the evil one have tried to overcome it.\u00a0 Sometimes by attacking the truth.\u00a0 Other times by attacking God\u2019s people.\u00a0 But the Son still shines.<\/p>\n He shines He sines Hon a world lost in darkness, looking everywhere for God, in nature, inside themselves, in man-made religions, \u00a0but not finding him.\u00a0\u00a0 The Son lights the way.\u00a0 For He is the Way to God.\u00a0 He is the way to know God, to know his mercy and forgiveness.\u00a0 And he is the way to life\u00a0To a world dying and decaying, a world so full of violence and hatred, he brings life, real life, life with God, the hope of eternal life. \u00a0\u00a04 <\/sup>In him was life, and that life was the light of men.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n So what\u2019s the good word for Christmas?\u00a0 <\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Remember what we sang on Christmas Eve by candlelight.\u00a0 Radiant beams from thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace.<\/em>\u00a0 So what\u2019s the good word for Christmas?\u00a0 <\/strong>Meet the bright Son who shines in the darkness<\/strong>.<\/p>\n A boy heard a knock on the front door on.\u00a0 He ran to the door as children are prone to do.\u00a0 Who could it be?\u00a0 It was his dad, finally home from the war.\u00a0 That boy did not say, what did you bring me?<\/em>\u00a0 Instead he wrapped his arms around the greatest gift his dad could bring:\u00a0 himself.\u00a0 His father had come home to live with his family once more.\u00a0\u00a0 And \u00a0here again let\u2019s think about the good Word of Christmas<\/strong>.\u00a0 For here we meet the glorious Son who came to live among us.<\/strong><\/p>\n This Child is one of a kind.\u00a0 He is God, the Father\u2019s one and only Son.\u00a0 And John tells us here.\u00a0 We have seen his glory.<\/span>\u00a0 That glory that was his from all eternity.\u00a0 The Apostles saw it when he changed\u00a0 the water into wine, when he raised the widow\u2019s son back to life, when he stood on that mountain transfigured before them,\u00a0 They saw his glory when he conquered death and ascended to the right hand of God.<\/p>\n Well this glorious Son came to live among us.\u00a0 The Word became flesh, Jesus, our Immanuel.\u00a0 God with us.\u00a0 And he came full of grace and truth.<\/span>\u00a0 For this we cannot thank the Lord enough.\u00a0 For like him, I was born a child.\u00a0 But not holy like him.\u00a0 Sinful.\u00a0 And once more this season we\u2019ve proved it to be the case. I don\u2019t have to point it out.\u00a0 You know and so do I. We know the kind of words, the kind of thoughts that can show up in our lives.<\/p>\n But he is full of grace, not half full, but full to overflowing.\u00a0 He is full of that grace that would move him to make that life\u2019s journey from a manger to a cross to die for us all.\u00a0 He is full of grace, full of God\u2019s amazing love that would move him to wear my shame, my sorrow, my guilt.\u00a0 And why?\u00a0\u00a0 So I could wear his perfect robe of righteousness and sit at the wedding feast of heaven.<\/p>\n And he lives among us now.\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0 When the Israelites made their way across the desert, God promised to be with them.\u00a0 If you could not sleep at night, you could always step outside your tent and look to the tent of tabernacle.\u00a0 There you would see that pillar of fire.\u00a0 Yes, God is still among us.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 In the daytime, if you wondered where this day would take you, you could always look up to that pillar of cloud out front above the tabernacle.\u00a0 It\u2019s Ok, God is leading us. <\/em><\/p>\n But God promised his people something far better than a pillar of blazing fire.\u00a0 He promised them something far better than a tent in which he promised to dwell.\u00a0 He promised a child, born of a virgin, Immanuel, God with us, the Word now become flesh.\u00a0 And so how can he not be with us?\u00a0 In fact, how can God draw any closer to you and me?\u00a0 For the Son of God has become our brother.\u00a0 What a friend we have in Jesus.\u00a0 What a friend as we begin a new year.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s the good word for Christmas?\u00a0 An iPad, a bike, a pretty piece of jewelry, an engagement ring?\u00a0 All those things are nice, even exciting but none can compare with the good WORD that God gives.\u00a0 Hail, hail, the Word made flesh, the babe, the Son of Mary. \u00a0AMEN.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 John 1:1-14 The prophet Isaiah painted a curious picture:\u00a0 7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, (Is 52) Think about that picture for a moment.\u00a0 For those watching and waiting and hoping for good news, even the worn and smelly feet of the messenger are a welcome sight. 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\n<\/strong>I.\u00a0 Meet the tiny infant who created the universe
\nII. Meet the bright Son who shines in the darkness
\nIII. Meet the glorious Son who came to live among us<\/strong><\/p>\n