The Christ of Christmas

Heat. Heat. Good evening, Cross Church Phoenix. How are you? >> Good, good, good. This is the nighttime crowd, you know. Uh, but I am DJ, the pastor here at Cross Church Phoenix. And uh, let me say merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas. I'm so glad that you're with us. If you're here for the first time, we welcome you. We're grateful that you're here and come this evening. And I would love to meet with you afterwards. Um, I want to want to invite you right now to open your Bibles to John chapter 1. And if you don't have a Bible, there's one in the seat back uh, in front of you. You can take that, you can highlight it, you can underline it, you can make notes, make it your Bible, and uh if you don't have a a church home on Sundays, you can always bring it back and uh come back worship with us. Over the past few weeks, we've been in our Christmas series. It's a wonderful Christmas. And if you can tell by the bumper video, that is um really cool and beyond my creative ability. Um somebody else does that. uh is we're taking it from it's a wonderful life but it's a wonderful Christmas. And so we've been looking at the first chapter passages from the first chapter of each gospel. So we started in Matthew 1 a few weeks ago the crisis of Christmas. Mark one the choice of Christmas. Luke 1 the community of Christmas. And now John 1 the Christ of Christmas. And after this Sunday's Cross Church Unplugged where we all all the churches come together, meet online, uh we'll be gathering back here normally in person 9:00 a.m. and 10:30 for services January 4th and we will be continuing our study through the book of Nehemiah. So, please come back for that and come on the 28th if you'd like. I'll be here uh opening up the church. In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus is talking with his disciples in a place called Cesaria Philippi. And there's an important question that Jesus poses to the disciples. This is not for his own understanding, right? Jesus knows precisely who he is. But he asked the question in Matthew 16:13-17 which reads this way. Now when Jesus came into the district of Cesaria Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am? I'm sorry. Who do people say that the son of man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Obviously Jesus equating himself, the son of man and Jesus are the same person. Who do you say that I am? In verse 16, Simon Peter, who usually puts his foot in his mouth, but occasionally gets it right, says, verse 16, Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven." Who is Jesus? That's one of the biggest questions in human history. If you were to Google mankind's biggest questions, this is what you'll get. And now Google automatically does this like AI overview, right? Like whether you want to use AI or not, it's like here's your AI overview. So here's the here's the response. And I'm quoting um this response now here through AI. quote, "Mankind's biggest questions span existence, consciousness, and purpose revolving around how did the universe begin?" And then it has parentheses, right? Big bang or before time. What is consciousness, the self? Who am I? What is the meaning slashp purpose of life? Why are we here? Does God slash a higher power exist? And it goes on to say this. Alongside practical practical future challenges like managing AI and ensuring sustainable living, these questions probe our origins, our place in the universe, and how we should live. End quote. What fascinates and kind of scares me is the fact that one of AI's answers to mankind's biggest questions is how it will manage AI. Um, that's a little scary. Um but as we can see historically mankind's biggest questions revolve around existence. How did we get here? Or questions around purpose. So not just how did we get here but why are we even here? Why do we exist? What's the point or purpose of life? And then obviously you have the question does God right is the existence of God and who that God is or would be has permeated human history and since the time of Jesus one of the most if not the most controversial question has been who is Jesus and though there's certainly overlap between these questions the one question that everyone in this room must respond to or if you're joining online, you don't get you don't get out of it scotfree, right? You have to answer this question, too. Every single person has to deal with the same question Jesus asked the disciples. Who do you say Jesus is? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for uh this evening and we thank you for your word. God, I pray that you would help us, help me um to articulate it well. Help me, God, to speak your words and the truth of the word of God, not my um opinions or thoughts, Lord, but um only what comes from your word. And help us to understand and not be hearers only, but doers also in Jesus name. Amen. Well, if you'll read along with me, let's read John 1:1-18. John says this, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him, not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and that life was the light of men." That light shines in the darkness and yet the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This is John the Baptist. He came as a witness to testify about the light so that all might believe through him. He was not the light but he came to testify about the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world. Verse 10. And the world was created through him. And yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God. to those who believe in his name, who were born not of natural descent or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observe his glory, the glory as the one and only son from the father, full of grace and truth. John testified concerning him and exclaimed, "This was the one of whom I said, 'The one coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me." Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the one and only son, who is himself God and is at the father's side. he has revealed him. Now, there's no outline. Um, normally we have an outline and fill in the blanks. There's no outline tonight. We're just going to work through the text together. But the first thing that I want you to see that John wants us to see is that he comes right out and says, "Jesus is God." Jesus is God. The question is why does John use the term or the word word to describe Jesus Christ? Why doesn't he just come out and say, you know, in the beginning was Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ was with God and Jesus Christ was God. It would actually help a lot of debate over Jesus and controversy. But why does John not do that? He uses the word word and the word for word in these verses in Greek is the logos. The logos to Greek philosophers the logos was this impersonal um abstract principle of reason and order in the universe. For example, Plato says that the impersonal and unchanging logos kept the planets on course and determine the seasons. So what are they saying? They're saying that this like force, this energy, this thing creates and sustains the universe. They're acknowledging that they can't figure it out. So Greek philosophy acknowledged that there was this unexplainable force thing that made everything and holds it all together, but they can't figure out what it is. But they called it the logos, the abstract force that creates and sustains everything. And what John is doing is in a culture that is heavily influenced by Greek thought, he's saying, "You know that thing you're trying to figure out? You know that force behind everything that created and sustained everything, that abstract logos thing that you in Greek philosophy can't seem to figure out. Well, let me tell you something. That logos is not a thing. It's a person. It's a person. And that person then is Jesus Christ who is God. All things there's a reason why John immediately goes into creation. All things were created through him and apart from him nothing was created because they would equate the logos with this abstract force of creation. He's saying, "No, Jesus Christ is the one who creates and sustain everything." And John emphasizes his point by saying the same thing both positively and negatively. He says, "Everything came into being by him." And in case that's like confusing or something, he's like, "Let nothing has come into being without him." In case you're wondering, right? The logos is one of John's favorite names for Jesus Christ. In 1 John 1, Jesus is the logos of life, the word of life. 1 John 1:1, he says, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life." What's he doing? He's calling Jesus God again and saying he was human flesh. We hung out with him. And in Revelation 19, John, the same writer of the Gospel of John, wrote Revelation. And in Revelation 19:13, he describes Jesus as the logos of God, the word of God. Revelation 19:13, he Jesus Christ is clothed in a robe dipped with blood. Another sermon, a robe dipped with blood. And the name by which he is called is the word logos of God. And at Christmas, we celebrate Jesus coming as a humble baby boy in Bethlehem. But he will return not the same way. He will return, a conquering king. That's what Revelation 19 describes. The first advent, humble babe in Bethlehem coming to die on the cross for sin. The second time, Revelation 19 coming, conquering king in glory. Same logos though, same word, right? The word of God. The word of life. 1 John 1, Revelation 19, John 1:1, the logos. In the beginning was the word. Jesus is God. And then what's next? In him is life and light. Which means apart from him, what do you have? If you only have light and life in Jesus, apart from him, you have death and darkness. The birth of Christ is the dawning of a new day. Light is breaking forth into a dark world. If you remember after the close of the Old Testament in Malachi, there's approximately 400 years of called the 400 years of silence where God is in like speaking through the prophets and the Makabian era happens and some other things are happening. But God shows up in Jesus Christ in as the babe in Bethlehem. Light is dawning. John the Baptist shows up, right? He's preaching repentance. We've been studying this over the past few weeks that John the Baptist is basically like Jesus bulldozer, right? He is just plowing through, paving the way for Jesus Christ to come. He preaches repentance. He he baptizes a bunch of people bearing witness that light has come into the world. And then Christ comes on scene and he begins his ministry. He's baptized by John the Baptist. And what happens? The father declares, "Behold my son with whom I am well pleased." The spirit descends on Christ as a dove as Christ comes out of the water. And this beautiful picture of the trinity. And you think, "Yes, praise God. All is well. Now Messiah is here. It's going to be great." Except for everyone rejected him. Except for the fact that his own creation turned their nose up at him. The created did not welcome the creator. This baby in Bethlehem is the creator sustainer of the universe. And yet mere men and women like you and I turn their noses up at him. But there are some who receive him. Look at verse 12. Verse 12 says, "But to all who did receive him, he gave them, who's the them?" Well, all who received him. He gave them the right to be children of God. To those who believe, who's the those? Well, those would be those who receive him. To those who believe in his name, have the right to be children of God. Showing up at Christmas Eve service doesn't give you the right to be a child of God. It's not what this says. Um, coming back at Easter doesn't give you the right to be a child of God. Um, aligning yourself with some political movement doesn't give you the right to become a child of God. Being a generally nice person because hey, after all, like we haven't killed anybody, right? So, I'm generally I'm a nice guy because I haven't killed anyone. that doesn't give you the right to be a child of God. Um, you can give all kinds of time, energy, money to charities and just be a a volunteer of volunteers and that doesn't give you the right to become a child of God. The only way that you and I have the right to become a child of God is if you receive Jesus Christ. That's how. That's it. It's plain and simple. to those who believe in his name. Those are the ones who have become the children of God. You know, we have rights as American citizens. Absolutely we do, right? Our Declaration of Independence says, quote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." End quote. which of course we are grateful and thankful for. Thankful for those who fight and die and give their lives for our freedom. Amen and amen. But what you're not going to find in the Declaration of Independence is the right to become a child of God. You may get life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That's what you get when you're born of natural descent, the will of the flesh, the will of man in America. But being born in America doesn't give you the right to be a child of God. Receiving Christ, being born of God, that's what gives you the right to become a child of God. And so John is saying, look, Jesus is God. In him is light and life. John the Baptist pointed to him and he became flesh and dwelt or tabernacled among us. That's Christmas. The eternal son of God humbled himself and became a man, became fully God, but fully also a human being. Jesus stepped down into humanity is a descent that I don't think we can even begin to grasp. It's an eternal eternally greater act of humility than if you or I became a slug. You say you take yourself and and make yourself a slug. Well, that's an act of humility. Make yourself a slug to save slugs. That would be really nice of you. But nothing in comparison to the eternal son of God becoming man. Becoming a man isn't a promotion for God. It was not a promotion. It was a descent that we can't even begin to fully grasp grasp. If you want to know what God is like, if you want to know what the creator and sustainer of the universe is like, you look at Jesus Christ. He reveals God. Why? Because he is God at the father's side. And that's what John is saying. If you go back to verse one where John says the word was with God. The word for with in Greek is this word pros. It comes from the word proapon which means your face, your grill, right? Your face. And it uses this word pros to say with. And I I if I could help you grasp a little bit more of the weight of what that means. Um I'll I'll use a couple other u passages. In 2 John 12, the same writer John uses the word the same word. 2 John 12 says this. Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come to you and talk and he says facetoface with you or face to face you quite literally so that our joy may be complete. And so John uses the word pros to describe that he wants to come talk with them face to face. I want to be right next to you. I'm not going to write you a letter. give you a phone call, send you a text, write you an email. I want to be face to face with you, right next to you and talk to you. And he says it again in 3r John 14. He says, "I hope to see you soon and we will talk face to face." When we look at our text in John 1:1 and 12, we find that what John is communicating is that in the beginning was the word Jesus Christ and this word was with alongside next to literally face to face with God. Verse two, Jesus was in the beginning face to face with God. Verse two just repeats the same thing, only instead of saying the word, it says him. Why? He switches to a pronoun. Why? Because the word is a person, Jesus Christ. That's the difference between verse one and two. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. He where did he come from? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We're talking about the logos. But where what where did this person come in? It's because John is saying that Jesus Christ is the logos. He is God. He's with God. He was God. And that's why Jesus can say later in John 14, "If you've seen me, you've seen the father." Why? Because throughout all eternity, before he became flesh as a baby in Bethlehem, Jesus Christ existed for all eternity alongside face to face with the father and the holy spirit. That's what it means for him to have been with God. It speaks of relationship and equality in that relationship face to face with you for all eternity. You see, all the answers to life's biggest questions are in John 1. It's great. You say, "Does God exist?" Yes. In the beginning, God created. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Yes, God exists. How did the universe begin? Oh, yeah. Yeah. God created it. He made it. All things were made through him. And who are we? Well, we're the created in darkness in need of the light that Christ brings. Verse 9, to who? Everyone. Verse N. Christ brings light. The light, the true light that gives light to everyone. Everyone. That means everyone needed light and Christ brought it to everyone. What is the meaning or purpose in life? Well, it's to glorify God by receiving Christ and becoming a child of God. When we let God be true and every man a liar, we have all the answers to man's biggest questions. You can leave Christmas Eve service and say, "I know all the answers to life's biggest questions." John 1. Plain and simple. And there's so much more to say in John 1. We could I could preach John 1 1-18 like five sermons. But the bottom line is this. When all is said and done, you and I must answer the same questions the disciples did in Matthew 16. Who do you say Jesus is? In fact, I challenge you right now where you sit to answer that question silently to yourself. I even want to give you a few minutes to process it and I'll stop talking for a minute and I'll close the sermon a little bit after that. But in all seriousness and transparency, I want you where you sit, answer this question silently to yourself. Who do you say that Jesus is? Cuz ultimately, as you think about it, right, it's not who your it's not about who your parents say Jesus is or your grandparents say Jesus is. Although they might have good and accurate things to say about who Jesus is to you. It's not about who your friends or co-workers or other family members say Jesus is. Because you don't become a child of God by association, right? Well, I'm a child of God because my mom and dad are. I was born into a Christian family. No. Well, I'm a child of God because my grandma was. No, it doesn't work that way either. You become a Christian by receiving Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior personally, individually. It says what? To all who receive him, he gave the right to become children of God. And what better night to come to Christ than Christmas Eve. I mean, it's great to come to Christ any day, but Christmas Eve, you can come to know Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. Because whether we like it or not, we have to answer that question. Whether you acknowledge it or not, we have to answer that question. If you say, "Well, I don't really care to think about who Jesus is." That's your answer. He's not worth your time. Okay, answer. Or you say, "Well, he's a nice teacher, like another Gandhi." You know, he was good. He taught nice things, cool and all, but he he died and his bones are somewhere buried in the desert somewhere in some tomb. Okay? Or is Jesus God and your personal Lord and Savior? What better night to come before Christ? Acknowledge that he is God. He is the creator. He's the giver of light and life to fallen humanity living in darkness. Because the fact of the matter is you and I have sinned against a holy, righteous, and just God. The scriptures are clear. Romans 3:23, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is death. There's a cost to it. The wages, what is that? Your payment. So you take all your whole life, all your works and everything you did to get saved, everything that you did um in your life apart from Jesus Christ. Here's your paycheck. Here's what you've earned. Death. That's what that's saying. Because we can't earn salvation. We can't earn becoming a child of God by ourselves. If we could, why would Jesus have come? He wouldn't need to. You can save yourself. But you can't. We can't. We have all sinned and fall short of a holy, righteous and just God. And that sin results the the product of that is death. It brings the opposite of what God offers which is life. Sin is living in darkness and you need light. We've all sinned. I use my son as an example in in uh at 4:30. Um I have a 5-year-old son named Elijah. Do you think I have to teach him how to tell a lie? Son, come here. Let me show you how to lie. It's going to be great. How many Did anyone do that with your kids? If you have kids, I don't know. What do you have to do? Your kids come pre-programmed knowing how to lie. What do you have to do? Teach them how to tell the truth. Right? It's just one example. But you and I have a sin bent. We are born sinners and we cannot save ourselves. But because of Christmas, because Christ came, the free gift of God is eternal life through who? Jesus Christ our Lord. God, Romans 5, demonstrated his love for us. Not only by becoming a man, not only through the incarnation has God demonstrated his love for us, though that is an extreme demonstration of love and humility and grace and mercy to humanity. But not only did he become a man, he lived a perfect life on behalf of you and I. And he went to the cross. Romans 5 says God demonstrated his love for us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's the point of Christmas. What did the angel say to Mary? You will name him Jesus. Why Jesus? Because he will save his people from their sins. That's why. That's the point. You take all the wonderful miracles, all the casting out of demons is great. It's wonderful. None of that could save us. It demanded a payment. It demanded that Christ die on the cross. A death he didn't deserve. You and I did. We deserve that. And Christ took it. Christ did nothing deserving of death. We did. Yet he died for our sin. The just for the unjust. What does that mean? It means that Christ is perfect and just and holy and righteous and awesome and great. You're not. Neither is DJ, the just for the unjust. And then Romans 3, he he dies on the cross for our sins. Why? So that he might be both the just and the justifier of the one who puts his faith in Jesus Christ. What does that mean? It means that God's justice demanded Christ's death on the cross. People ask like, could God have could there have been any other way? Could God just have, you know, said, "I'm going to write you a certificate of forgiveness, hand it to you, but I ain't sending my son, father, son, and holy spirit. We hanging out up here in heaven. We ain't coming down there." Could God have forgiven humanity any other way than the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Theologically, study the scriptures, no. because sin demanded it. The death of Jesus Christ. There was no other way. If you remember in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus himself is praying to the father. Father, is there any other way? Can this cup pass from me? Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be will be done. Don't you think that if there was any other way, the father would have said, "Yes, son. There's another way. Let's do this instead." Because if you think about it, the father has loved the son perfectly for all of eternity. Perfect love between the father, the son, the son to the father, father to the son, and the holy spirit is all involved with this. Perfect love between the whole trinity for all of eternity before you and I ever even existed. Perfect love. Don't you think that the father who loves the son perfectly, if there was another way that this could get done, the father would have said so that Jesus would have done that. But what happened? No, there was no other way. The cross was the only way. What is happening in the womb of Mary? She's conceived by the Holy Spirit. He's developing hands for nails, feet for nails. He's developing a side for what? A sword. He's develop his head is de for what? A crown of thorns. He was created. I'm sorry and I repent. Jesus Christ was not created. He was born to die. Again, I will say he's not created. I take this very seriously. And God's like, you better clarify. No, he Jesus is not created. I apologize for my mis uh step there. Um he was born um as as Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. Christ dies on the cross and he rose from the grave. He didn't stay dead showing his power over sin and death. And he ascends into heaven where he continues to be with the father at his right hand. We could say he's pro the father now. He is side by side, face to face with the father now as the ascended Jesus Christ who is Lord. He is with the father just as he was with the father in John 1:1. And since Christ is risen, the invitation is open, right? The invitation is wide open for all who will receive him. Is Jesus your personal Lord and Savior? Or is he just a nice good teacher, a cool guy, historical figure who lived a couple thousand years ago and nothing more because he is Lord. He is the Savior. He is God. Whether you agree with it or not, he is. It doesn't change his status. But is he your personal Lord and Savior tonight, Christmas Eve 2025? At this time, I'm going to close us in a word of prayer. And um if you would, you can grab your candle in your chair and we're going to prepare for for lighting the candles in our last song. And we also do have for the little ones, if you want, they can use the candle at the parents discretion or we have battery operated candles uh in the back on the center um center table there that you can grab for your child if you'd like. But as we light these candles and prepare to sing our closing song, I want to ask that you would continue to reflect who is Jesus Christ. Who do you say Jesus is? Cuz the answer to that question is I is everything in your life is more important than what you're getting or what you got someone for Christmas tomorrow. Who you say Jesus is matters most. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your love and grace and mercy. I pray that these your people would continue to reflect on who Jesus is. Maybe um we've been walking with you for a while. We say, "Yes, he is my Lord and Savior. He is Christ the Lord. He is the Messiah. He's my Savior. Praise God." I pray that we would not grow tired of that truth. That we would reflect on on the fact that God saved you and I from sin, past, present, and future. But if you're here and you're listening to my voice, or if you're joining us online and he isn't Lord and Savior of your life, please come talk with me. I'd love to go over the gospel with you, introduce you to the savior of the world, Jesus Christ. There's nothing nothing more important this season. Our plans after service are less important. Our plans for tomorrow morning are less important. Everything is secondary to who we say Jesus is. And we are confronted with that question whether we like it or not. We are truthfully we are. I pray God that you would impress upon the hearts of your people that they need Jesus Christ to save them from their sin. that we must repent, turn away to say, "God, I don't want my sin anymore. I want Christ. I want you. Devote my life to you, our Lord." Pray God that if there is anyone listening to my voice who needs to have that discussion tonight, that they would not leave here without having it. God, I pray that if anyone does not know you as personal Lord and Savior, God, that this would be the last night that that's true about them. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Well, if looks like we're ready, we'll stand and sing um our last song together. Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright. Brown young virgin mother and child. Holy so tender and m sleep in heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly peace. Silent night, holy night, shepherd the sight, glorious streams from heaven. Heavenly host sing halleluah. Christ the savior is born. Christ the savior is born. Silent night, holy night, son of God's love, pure life, radant streams from thy holy face with the dawn of redeeming grace. Jesus Christ thy birth. Jesus Lord at thy birth. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this evening. Thank you, God, for your son, Jesus Christ, who became a man, a man that you could shake hands with and walk and talk with and hang out with by the fire and be taught. I can only imagine what it was like to be the disciples just walking around with God and ultimately Lord, you must go as it as it was written that Christ must die and on the third day be raised. We thank you for Christmas because it was the beginning of the mission to save humanity from themselves. Save us from our sin. God, we thank you that you were born, that you came, and that you died on the cross for our sins. Help us to never never get past that we've been saved, rescued from the pit of hell and darkness, called out of darkness into your marvelous light. I thank you, Lord Jesus. In your name I pray. Amen. Well, we will uh yeah, you can blow your candle out if you want. Be careful. Don't blow wax on your partner. And we'll turn up the lights here. And um thank you guys. Merry Christmas. And all God's people said, "Amen." You are dismissed. Thank you. Thank you