The Christ of Christmas

So often in Christmas, we are stressed. We are overwhelmed. Maybe we are even ecstatic and caught up with the joy of the stuff of Christmas. And those are so great in so many ways. The presents, the lights, the movies, the songs. But ultimately, what makes this so wonderful is the Jesus Christ who came down for us. It's a wonderful life. It's what they named the movie. But George Bailey, the main character we just saw, would disagree with that for most of the film. Today, we're in the heart of the most wonderful time of the year. But if we were honest, sometimes it doesn't feel that wonderful. This wonderful time of the year sometimes feels more crazy and busy and packed than we can manage. Sometimes this wonderful time of the year feels more financially stressed than any other. Sometimes at this time of the year, you just want to follow a car home to their house and wish them personally merry Christmas. Sometimes in this wonderful time of the year, our family relationships are stressed more than any other. In this time with so much busyness, with so much chaos, but also so much joy and singing and movies and everything else. How do we get to the heart of why is it a wonderful time? Today, I want to dissect that question just a little bit and ask, why is Christmas truly the most wonderful time of the year? My youngest daughter, Alice, she's at a fun age right now. She's about a year and a half years old, and she is really experiencing her first Christmas. Last year, she couldn't crawl or she couldn't crawl, she couldn't walk, she couldn't talk, she couldn't eat anything that was good. She experienced Christmas from a car seat being carried or even on her back looking as the world enjoyed everything else. But this year, she can touch Christmas by ripping ornaments off our tree. They keep moving up and up and up as she becomes more resourceful. She is experiencing the taste of Christmas as grandparents and church workers and strangers give her chocolate and cookies and it's like this is the time of year where it's just like candy to the veins of your children right now. It's like back off, dude. I got to take them home. She's experiencing the joys of Christmas as we go to things like desert farm lights and rushing down the slide. or the nightmare she's still having about last weekend and being placed on the lap of Santa and her screaming wildly about. And as I've been able to watch my young baby daughter, I've seen the wonder and joy of Christmas through her eyes. But is that truly what makes Christmas wonderful? The presents, the candy, the movies, the lights, the experience. Or is it something deeper than that? Maybe is it that Christmas is wonderful because we have this wonderful book containing the wonderful words of a wonderful God that tells us the most wonderful story in history. Tonight, I want us to spend a little bit of time diving into God's word and dissecting this question of what truly is at the heart of this wonderful season. And we start our journey tonight in John chapter 1. If you have a Bible, you can flip there, you can grab the one in front of you, or you can just Google John 1. And we'll be reading out of the Christian Standard Bible, the CSB. These will also be behind me. But as you're flipping there or getting ready for it, let me just tell you a little bit about this book we're going to be reading. John is one of four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which are eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus, of people who told stories, who walked with him or had firsthand knowledge and saw the life and everything that Jesus did while he was here on earth 2,000 years ago. And as John dives into this story in John chapter 1, he is going to show us five truths that Christmas reveals that make it truly wonderful above everything else. And we start today in John chapter 1, starting in verse one. It 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." You see, John starts out with three controversial words in this chapter. He says, "In the beginning." The reason that was so controversial because when he said, "In the beginning," he was telling other people groups, other the thoughts in in other popular methods of seeing the world and worldviews at that time is he was telling them, "Here's how God started the world." And they had their beliefs, but he's like, "No, you're wrong. This is how it all started in the beginning. This was equally controversial thousands of years before this when Moses wrote those same words in the book of Genesis that starts our Bible. That in the beginning was an affront to the Egyptians, the Samarans, and every other worldview at that time. Fast forward to 2025. In the beginning is still a pretty controversial phrase. People have their thoughts of what happens in the beginning. Science has attempted to explain what happens in the beginning and it's becoming increasingly divided about what happened in the beginning. They have come up with phenomenons and theories like the unexplainable phenomenon of the big bang that there was something there but a bang happened and it spread it out and all of a sudden creation the universe was formed. All of a sudden the earth and the stars and people came about and they attempt to explain what happened in the beginning. But John as he writes, he says, "In the beginning there was the word." He says, "You know what was in the beginning? Jesus was in the beginning." The son of God next to God the father next to the holy spirit. This three inone God is we weren't there. But let me tell you who was there. God was there for eternity past and will be there for eternity future. John first starts and shows how Christmas is so wonderful because it shows us and reveals to us the phenomenon of Christ that Jesus is eternal. Jesus always has been. Jesus always will be forever. And you think about this and this will actually drive you crazy. I hope you go home tonight and you lay your head on your pillow and you think about the presence in the morning. What you shouldn't think about is the eternality of God because it will make your mind explode. All right. Uh I could not sleep last night and then I started thinking about my sermon. I'm like don't think about that part. Then I got stuck on it. Then my brain was twirling. Then I woke up at 5:30 to go to the Boyer Bakery to get cinnamon rolls which was probably a mistake as well. But it will drive you crazy if you think about this idea that we can't process in our mortal minds. But the Bible tells us this God, this Jesus is eternal. He is so big. He is beyond what we can explain. But he's not done there. He keeps talking about this God. Verse three, he says, "All things were created through him, this word, this Jesus, this God. 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." As John continues in here, he starts explaining some of what Jesus does. That he contains life and he contains light that also a life that leads to light that that kind of shows the world something they cannot see anywhere else. Recently, I discovered I have a growing problem in my household that as my kids are getting older, they're now 9, 7, 4, and one. that all of a sudden as they're getting more devices, as I'm adding more smart devices to our houses, I am running out of power. I think APS is going to put me on a blacklist. They're just going to do rolling blackouts on my house. But my kids have Kindle tablets. They have little Yodo players that play audio books and a little podcast with a dude with a British voice. It's fun. Um, and then they tell me interesting facts. But I go into our junk drawer that's supposed to have all the power cords to charge my phone and everything else. And I go there and there's no power blocks to plug into my wall. And I wonder where they are. They're all in my kids' rooms cuz they all stole them, right? And there's no power blocks to actually power my devices. Instead, there's like six, seven cords all laying in there. All right, elementary kids. Just making sure you're awake. Okay. Um in there. And the problem is that I'm literally running out of power in my house. I I heard on a podcast recently that if the world's power grid went down, we have 8 hours of backup power. 8 hours of Google Maps, 8 hours of scrolling social media, that will actually all go down, too. But 8 hours to power all of that. I was thinking about that. I was like, man, if that happens, like, Jesus, take me home. Okay, I know there's some rednecks in here. You got food. You got a bunker. Like, you're like, you can come over. No, bro. Jesus, take me home. All right. I'm not wearing cowboy boots. I'm wearing Devon Bookers and I don't even play basketball. All right? Like I am not that guy. The problem is in humanity, we have a power problem. Not just energy power, but power to change things. We have a lack of power to change our past. We have a lack of power to chart our own present. We have a lack of power to control what we want the future to be. But that is not the case with the God we serve. Instead, John continues and tells us that we see Christmas reveals the power of Christ. That in Christ is life and that life is the light of men. What he's saying is Jesus is not just one of those power blocks you stick into your wall and then powers your device. Jesus is the grid himself. >> He is the very life that flows through us. He is the light that casts out the darkness. He is the power that makes this whole universe go. And John, as he starts to leak in Christmas, there's this phenomenon of Christ. There's this power of Christ. But skip down to verse 10 as he tells us more about this Jesus. He says, "He was in the world and the world was created through him. Yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own and his people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be the 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 the will of man, but of God. You see, John, as he continues in this, he writes some crazy words. You read this in the context and in the context of this passage is in the first century Rome when Rome is at the height of their power and he reads this and talks about identity, talks about your family, talks about being a citizen and he said this amidst a Roman Empire where to be a Roman citizen was the pinnacle of mankind. You did not have the same fates as other people groups did. But to be a Roman citizen, you had to be born into it. You had to do rigorous military service to earn it. You had to buy your way into it or you had to have dirt on Caesar and call in a bribe. Being a Roman citizen was harder than being an American citizen today. You can take that how you will. I hope that makes both sides mad. That was a design of that joke. All right. But the point of this, what John says that is so different here is he's saying this is not the case with God. That we can become children of God. We can become sons and daughters of God. Not by being born into a Christian family, not by giving money to church, not by doing good deeds, but instead by professing that Jesus is Lord. John says that Christmas reveals the profession of Christ, that he is God, that he is Lord, that he is savior. And he tells us here that we get into this family. We become children of God. We get this right to be him when we believe in his name. When we believe this God who is a phenomenon that we can't explain, when we believe that he has a power to change the world around us, when we profess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord, it changes everything. But I love that John does not stop there. Instead, John keeps going down this journey and he's like, "I'm going to tell you a little bit more about what this Jesus looks like." Pick up at verse 14. And he says, "The word that is Jesus became flesh and he dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only son from the father, full of grace and full of truth." John, this is John the Baptist, 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." Verse 16, "Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth, however, came through Jesus Christ. You see, John continues and he talks about who Jesus was when he came here. You know what I've learned is as I've gotten more kids, um, I remember a lot less things. All right? I got four of them. It's hard to remember stuff, but with each kid, there are key moments that I remember and I will never forget. When I think of my oldest daughter, my nine-year-old, uh, one of the key moments I remember is we first met her at 3 months old when she came into our home as a foster child. And as a three-month-old, actually 9 years ago, very similar time of year, just a couple weeks before Christmas, we got this little baby girl. This baby girl who was the size of a newborn, who we just got to hold in our arms. It It was just a couple weeks before I preached my first Christmas Eve service. This one is way better. I guarantee it. All right. Um, it was not good. A and then it was in that time me and my wife looked at each other. We're like, "How do we keep a human alive?" All right, that's why we did foster care so we could practice on other people's kids before uh we got our own. Year and a half later, see how this works? Uh fast forward a year and a half, another moment I remember was sitting in on a bench just like this, a little more uncomfortable, a little more wooden in a courtroom where it was decided that the my daughter would be part of our family forever. And when we adopted my daughter, when I got to hold my daughter, when all of a sudden me and my wife said, "This is our little girl." Our dreams of her being part of our family became tangible. And what John tells us is when Jesus came down to earth, instead God was not just a dream. God was not just a vivid concept. God was not just some heavenly talk that was separated from us. Instead, he came down to become flesh, to dwell among us, to become tangible, to be touched, to be felt, to be done, community around. Jesus entered into our neighborhood to understand what we were going through in Christmas. It reveals the person of Christ. The Christ who came down for us. The Christ who became among us. The Christ who wrapped himself in human flesh so that he could understand what we go through. When we cry this Christmas, Jesus knows what it feels like to shed tears. When we are stressed beyond belief, Jesus knows what it feels like to have pressure on our lives. When we feel overwhelmed and like we're hurting, Jesus knows what suffering feels like because he didn't stay a distant God, but because of his love for us, he came down to dwell in flesh among us. And John, as he shows us why this holiday, why this Christmas is so wonderful, he shows us the phenomenon that Jesus is eternal. He shows us the power that he is the one who powers the entire universe. He shows us the way to him that we profess with our mouth. He shows him what he looks like that he wrapped himself in flesh. And it all leads to verse seven verse uh 18 as he wraps this up. He says this that no one has ever seen God but the one and only son who is himself God is at the father's side. And it says this about Jesus and who is being God who has has never been seen. It says Jesus has revealed him. Jesus has revealed God to us. You see, when Jesus came to us, he didn't come for no reason. He didn't come without a plan. He didn't come without a mission. He came knowing what he was to do. We watched at the beginning of this sermon a clip from It's a Wonderful Life. It's a great movie. Just know you're going to be depressed for 90% of it uh until the end. All right. It's like a really sad life actually until the very end. Then it's wonderful. But in that George Bailey uh my great great-grandfather, I'm Andrew Bailey, by the way, just to let you know. And not really. He's a fictional character. But George Bailey, when he gets to that scene on the bridge and a terrible overwhelming thoughts start entering into his head, he gets to a purpose where he or he gets to a place where he forgot his purpose in life. He forgot his purpose as a father and a husband, as a community member, as a business owner. He felt like his life had no purpose and he had to go on a journey that God walked him through to see what truly mattered around him. And you see Jesus when he came down Jesus knew he had a mission to do. He had to reveal God. Paul Paul expands upon this in Ephesians chapter 1 9 and 10. It says this that he made known to us the mystery of his will. God's will was a mystery but he makes it known that with us and he makes it known the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure listen to this that he purposed in Christ the purpose that he gave Christ as a plan for the right time he this plan this purpose was to bring everything together in Jesus Christ both things in heaven and things on earth in him you see what John is doing what Paul is expanding upon is that Jesus came. Christmas comes. Christmas reveals the fact that Christ has a purpose. And Christmas reveals the purpose of Christ to us. That he came down here to reveal God to us. To reveal how holy God is, how amazing God is, how we are sinful and God is so gracious. But he also not only revealed him, but he brought them together by his perfect life. By his death on a cross in our place, taking on our sins. By his resurrection from the grave, defeating those sins. What Jesus did as achieving his purpose is he showed us that heaven and earth can come together in Jesus Christ because he has saved us from our sins. And the purpose of Christ is that he loves us so much that he came down here to change everything in our lives. I love this passage because it just introduces us to how amazing this God is that we have. So often in Christmas we are stressed. We are overwhelmed. Maybe we are even ecstatic and caught up with the joy of the stuff of Christmas. And those are so great in so many ways. The presents, the lights, the movies, the songs. But ultimately what makes this so wonderful is the Jesus Christ who came down for us, who has revealed God to us, who came down, wrapped himself in flesh as a little baby Emmanuel, God with us to pave a path so that we could have a relationship with God, that we could have a wonderful life that would not be available outside of him. And you see, it's pretty easy to answer the question, why this holiday, why this season is so wonderful. It's pretty easy that as you're and road rage in the rain on your way back home and you're angry and want to wish someone merry Christmas and tell them Jesus loves you, but don't do it at their house, you will get a felony. It It's so easy to get distracted by that. But when we come back to the center and see this wonderful Jesus, it really makes us appreciate how wonderful this season really is. But here's the true million-doll question. Not why is Christmas so wonderful, but do you know the wonderful Christ of Christmas? Christmas is wonderful because of Jesus. It always has been and it always will be. But is it wonderful for you? Do you know him? Do you follow him? Is he Lord of your life? My prayer is as you leave this room today, as you go into your Christmas celebration, I hope it is everything you want that is filled with joy and laughter and presents and fun and everything else, but that ultimately your heart stir. And you ask this question, do you know the wonderful Christ of Christmas? And maybe you do know him. Like, I've known him for decades. I've known him for so long. I know Jesus. Me and Jesus, we are good. But maybe in this new year, you need to focus on how can you know him more. What is your next step? And not just knowing a far away Jesus, but knowing the Jesus that lived and died for you, knowing the Jesus that's still alive through the Holy Spirit in us, knowing the Jesus that brings a community and a church together. And we lock arms and live day by day together. Knowing the Jesus that not only changes your lives, but changes the community around you. Do you know him? And will you get to know him better next year? Or maybe you just need to start at step one and you need to know him for the first time. And to know him, all you do, all you have to do is profess him as Lord. Profess that we are sinners. We are broken. But he is perfect. He is good. He has saved us. He loves us. and he has promised us a wonderful life for all of eternity. As we go out today, my prayer is we live a wonderful life because we know a wonderful Christ.