Dedicated To The Men of God Who Preach the Word of God As It Is To Men As They Are

"Preach The Word"

Christmas Sermons

Series In the Characters of Christmas----Message #4

Text: Jn. 1:1-14

Introduction:

We have already considered in this series:

Mary- the favored one

Joseph- the faithful one

The Shepherds- the following ones

Now we come to Jesus- the Forever One.

There is no name as sweet as the name of Jesus: His name is a delightful name, a delivering name, a declarative name( for it declares his purpose- to be a Savior), a dandy name, a dazzling name, dear name, decisive name, dominating name, and a durable name.

One thing is sure, when Jesus began his physical, earthly existence, it was not his beginning. No, Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am" (Jn. 8:58). His claim was to have been before Abraham. That would go back multiplied hundreds of years.

It is no wonder that His birth was announced by the angels, wondered after by men, witnessed of by stars and influential in changing human lives. He was Deity(or God) surrounded and enclosed by human flesh.

Nothing has ever affected human beings more in all of the history of man that the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into this world of sorrow and woe.

There is a song that says:

"Out of the ivory palaces, into a world of woe,

only His great, eternal love, made my Savior go."

Christmas is a time we zero in on the birth of Christ. Christ is the dominating and most outstanding character of Christmas, because He is what it is all about. We think of shepherds, wise men, Mary, Joseph, angels and a host of other things but in the very center of it all, is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Living God.

John, in his gospel, presents the Lord Jesus Christ in so many wonderful ways:

1. He is the Word- (1:1-3, 14).

As our words reveal our heart and mind, even so does Christ reveal the heart and mind of the Father.

2. He is the Light- (1:4-13).

He is the true original light from which all other light came.

3. He is the Son of God- (1:15-18, 30-34, 49).

That claim brought about much persecution toward Christ. Seven people in John’s Gospel called Him the Son of God. They are: John the Baptist, Nathanael, Peter, the healed blind man, Martha, Thomas, and the Apostle John.

4. He is the Christ- (1:19-28,35-42).

Christ means "Anointed One" or the "Messiah."

5- He is the Lamb of God- (1:29,35-36).

All of the Old Testament lambs point to the one Great Lamb of all Lambs- Jesus.

6- He is the King of Israel- (1:43-49).

He offered Himself to them as King, but they say, "We have no king but Caesar"(Jn. 19:15).

7- He is the Son of Man- (1:50-51).

He is the God Ladder between heaven and earth, revealing God to men and taking men to God.

What a unique person is Jesus, who could create the world, give men salvation, reveal God, baptize with the Spirit, know every detail about every person, forgive sin, and open the way to heaven, Himself being "The Way." ALL OF THOSE THINGS COULD ONLY BE TRUE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

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Note:

When Daniel Webster was at the prime of his manhood, he was dining out one day with a group of literary men in Boston. During the dinner the conversation turned upon the subject of Christianity. Mr Webster stated his belief in the deity of Christ and his dependence upon Him as Savior.

One man said to him, "Mr. Webster, can you comprehend how Christ could be both God and man?" Mr. Webster promptly replied, "No sir, I cannot comprehend it. If I could comprehend Him, then He would be no greater than myself. I feel that I need a super-human Savior." WE FIND THAT IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

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The main thrusts of the four gospels are these in presenting Christ:

Matthew presents Him as the Sovereign(King).

Mark presents Jesus as the Servant.

Luke presents him as the Son of Man.

But thank God, John presents Him as the Son of God.

Let’s look at Jesus, The Forever One as He is presented here in John’s marvelous Gospel in Chapter 1. The only conclusion a sane and sensible mind can come to is the Jesus had to existed before any matter, that is, before anything that occupied space and had weight, Christ is before it all. He is before every speck of dirt, every blade of grass, every ray of sunlight, every rippling brook and every star that hangs on nothing in the sky.

It is difficult to find words to describe such a unique and wonderful person like Jesus, the Forever One, but one word that rings the bells in my heart, which we can ascribe to all that He is and all that He has done, is the word "special."

The word "special" speaks of "a different kind from others, distinctive, peculiar, or unique. It can mean exceptional or extraordinary. It can be highly regard or valued. He is both special and especial. He has qualities, aspects, or uses, that differentiate him from all others. It can suggest to be singled out for attention. All of that is true of Christ and more!

Let’s get into the heart of the message for this hour.

I. HIS SPECIAL EXISTENCE AS THE FOREVER ONE

Jn. 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word." Word is capitalized in your Bible because it speaks of a special Word that existed in the beginning, that being Christ.

Paul says in Eph. 3:9, "God, who created all things by Christ."

Col 1:16-17 tells us "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:And he is before all things, and by him all things consist."

Jesus said in Rev. 1:18, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." Jesus said I am the beginning and the ending. He said He was the one "which was." Was before what? Before anything else. There was the time that God was alone in the universe. Christ calls himself the "Almighty." Only the "Almighty" could create as Christ did.

A. His durability

He was before Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Abraham, Moses, Joshua or any other person you could possibly name.

Note:

We all have a birth certificate somewhere in a court house that says we were born. It has our name, address, weight, length, and other information about us. It tells us that we were born, although that should be pretty obvious to us all, without a birth certificate. Jesus, as to his eternal existence, has no birth certificate, because He has nothing to prove. The Bible declares his existence even back in the beginning. If He existed before anything else was created, then He was not created Himself, rather, all creation owes its existence to Him.

B. His declaration

"The Word"(v.1).

It is the word "logos" which means to speak a message or words. John chose a term that would be very familiar to the readers of his day, but when it used it, it was not in the normal sense of that day.

Words reveal our mind and heart, so Christ reveals the heart and mind of the Eternal and Almighty God to man. A word is composed of letters. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, everything from the first letter of the Greek alphabet to the last one. When you take the letters, they spell out God’s wonderful love to us.

God can only be know in part through His dealings in history and through nature, but He can be known in fulness in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible is the written Word of God, but Christ is the living, incarnate(enfleshed) Word of God.

In Rev. 22:13 Christ calls Himself, the first and the last. When he uses the term "first" to describe Himself, He is telling us that He was not caused, but He was the cause of all things being or existing. God just was before anything else was. In Jesus birth, God merely stepped out of eternity into time to provide redemption for human beings.

Jn. 1:2 says, "the same was in the beginning with God."

If you look up that little word "with" you will find that it is a word that in our context here in Jn. 1 suggest— "in company with."

Jesus on one occasion prayed, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was" (Jn.17:5). He spoke of the glory that He had with the Father, "before the world was."

Note:

A person is judged by the kind of company that he or she chooses. We have always heard the saying, "Birds of a feather flock together." That is so true. We will tend to hang around people who are like we are. That is just a natural tendency.

Holy people hang around holy people.
Kind people want to be around kind people.
Principled people like to be around others with principles.
Loving people like to speak well of others hang around others who want to do the same thing.
Critics hang around criticizers.
Back-stabbers hand around other back-stabbers.
People who want to try to run things in the church hang around with others who want to do the same thing.

WHO YOU PAL WITH TELLS WHAT YOU ARE!

Think about what company the Son of God had known in eternity past before the foundations of the earth were laid.

Note:

If we want to get to know someone, we do not ask a casual acquaintance of that person about him, and expect to receive much information . We ask someone who has been a close friend for many years not one who has just known that person for a short time. The Father and the Son had been with one another from all the way back into eternity past. How do you explain that? I can’t but that is what the Bible teaches and what I believe.

Only in Jesus can you perfectly see God. Others should be able to see God through our lives, but no one has revealed Him as clearly as the only begotten Son who came from the bosom of the Father.

John 1:18 emphatically reveals, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Jesus perfectly declared or manifested the Heavenly Father.

III. HIS SPECIAL IDENTITY AS THE FOREVER ONE

Jn. 1:1 says, "And the Word was God."

The Jehovah’s false witnesses in their New World Translation renders that same clause as, "And the Word was a god." That is incorrect and would actually teach polytheism, that there are many real gods. Stay away from the JW’s teaching because their Christ is one that is less than god. To them He is a demi-god or one of many true gods.

It is not enough to even translate that clause, "And the Word was God, as "And the Word was divine." There are those who suggest that Jesus was divine but that He was not deity or God.

When John says, the Word was God is in this order in the Greek NT from which our English Bible came: : "And God was the Word." Whoever the Word John is speaking of is God. The Word is unmistakably Christ.

 A. He is God as predicted by the prophets

Isa. 9:6 "Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

B. He is God as interpreted by the epistles

He is present in the epistles as the Creator and Sustain of All Things.

C. He is God as experienced by the Christian.

I know He is God because of what He has done in my life since I accepted Him as my personal Savior. He has completely changed my life. He has given me new desires, new goals, new ambition for my life.

Jn. 1:3 says, "All things were made by Him."

He spoke everything into existence. Only Jesus could say, "Let there be light", and there was light---firmament--waters to gather in one place--let dry land appear--let earth bring forth grass, seed and trees--let there be lights in the firmament--let there be a sun and moon---let earth bring forth living creatures they came in sea, on land and in the air--only God could take the dust of the earth, breath into it the breath of life and it become a person, a living soul.

Note:

Have you noticed most of the time when you buy something in a department store is says, "Made in Japan, made in China, made in Korea, made in Singapore," and occasionally it might say, "made in USA." Everything around it has the label of God upon it--it was all made by and through His Son--the Lord Jesus Christ.

Note:

Man can make things, using existing materials, but only God can create---that is to bring something out of nothing.

Illustration:

You could speak to a bush for it to begin to burn and for it not to burn up until you are blue in the face, but you could not start it burning without some kind of a spark. God could make a bush burn, out of which to call Moses, simply by the command of His word(Ex.3:2). He had to have no match or pre-existing fire.

The one lying in Bethlehem’s manger before Joseph and Mary some 2,000 years ago was the only who created everything that existed, yet there was no room for Him in inn. He created it all!

Christ did for a while lay aside the "independent exercise" of some of his powers but in his some 3-3 ½ years of earthly ministry he unleashed many of them, for the eyes of man to behold.

 V. HIS SPECIAL QUALITY AS THE FOREVER ONE

Verse 5 says, "In Him was Life." That is a special quality that is a special kind of sense that only God possesses.

Note:

We have life because someone gave us life through the union of a man and a woman. No one had to give Jesus his existence, because He has Life in Himself. We do not have to wonder who gave God life. No one did---He is life--He has it in Himself.

The Bible says in Jn. 5:26, "For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." His life is one that begets lift in another being.

In I Jn 5:12 John states: "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."

Illustration:

The reason Jesus could command Lazarus to come forth from the dead is because He had life to offer to the dead. I was dead in trespasses and sins, but Christ became my Life and gave me Life because of my faith in Him and my relationship to Him. TO HAVE JESUS IS TO HAVE LIFE!

Note:

Some folks think they are really living but if they do not have the Son of God, the wrath of God hangs over them, ready to fall at any moment.

VI. HIS SPECIAL LOVE AS THE FOREVER ONE

Jn. 1:14 says, "He was made flesh and dwelt among us."

Why did he take on humanity? Did God have something to learn by being incarnate? We say God is all knowing. Is there something that He did not know, that He needed to learn by taking on human flesh? I hardly think not.

He became flesh because of His love for humanity. Someone had to die for the sins of the human race.

It was love that brought Him down. He saw man’s plight.

It was love that held Him to the cross.That is why He didn’t call ten thousand angels.

It was love that brought Him out of the tomb.(He must come from the dead for us to come forth one day)

Christmas, incarnation, the virgin birth, all tells us that God loves us and did not stand back, doing nothing, when we were on our way to hell, fallen, depraved and sin sick.

The Bible gives us a special offer.

John 1:11-12, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not.But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:"

This is a day when people want to get something for nothing. That is why when the sweepstakes applications come in, so many of you fill them out, because you think that you might strike it rich or at least be better off financially than you are right now.

A. The offer of life--v.4 "In him was life"

Man’s greatest need is eternal life.

C. The offer of sonship v.5 "as many as received Him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name."

The greatest offer I even had was to leave the devil’s family and be birthed into God’s family. The King of heaven sent me an invitation by the blessed Holy Ghost. What a day when I took Christ as Lord and Savior! ]

His offer was legitimate and real.

Illustration:

I heard about a man years ago who received a phone call about buying a new product supposedly out on the market. The person calling said, "It is only 50.00. You can pay 10.00 and 5.00 a month for eight months with no interest." The fellow was all excited about getting his new product described to him on the telephone. He waited for days, weeks, and finally did some investigating. He came to find out that several others in his community were in the same dilemma. On the TV evening news, there was a word put out about a phone scam that had taken place recently. The man began to realize, "Hey, I have been taken. It was not a real, genuine, legitimate offer."

If Christ offers life, He will give it.

If Christ offers light, He will make sure you receive it.

If He offers son-ship, when you believe, He will provide it.

CONCLUSION:

The main reason Jesus is so special is that He is forever.

He is the Forever One.

We are not dealing with a "had been" when it comes to Jesus, for since He is the Eternal God, He is what He has been forever and will be as far as we can go into the future, the same as He is today.

Issac Watts wrote in a song called Jesus shall reign:

"Jesus shall reign, where e’er the sun,

Does his successive journeys run,

His kingdom spread from shore to shore,

Till moos shall wax and wane no more."

JESUS SHALL REIGN.

Men live and die, kingdoms rise and fall, but Jesus is the one who rose from the dead and said to John on the Isle of Patmos:

Rev 1:18, "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."

SERMON FROM DR. TOM WALKER- PASTOR ZION HILL BAPTIST CHURCH-  MARION, NC- USA

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