Christmas 2013 #4: an exposition of John 1:1-18. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, December 22, 2013.
Intro:
The trouble with darkness is that, eventually you adjust to it. You get comfortable with it and adapt to it. In fact if you spend too much time in darkness – you won’t want to look at the light. The darkness began centuries before. Adam and Eve lived in a paradise physically, spiritually and emotionally. Man, as the crowning point of creation, enjoyed peace and harmony with God and his creation. Man’s life was happy and fulfilled. What more could he possibly want? Through the temptation of the serpent – man perceived an emptiness. Through an act of rebellion man left the warmth and beauty of the light and plunged into a world of darkness. His relationship with God, once harmonious and loving, became adversarial. A strange mixture of fear, shame and anger consumed him. Yet God continued to love and reach out to man.
God had not been caught off guard or surprised by Adam’s treasonous act. In fact God had already made provision for his rebellion. So God clothed Adam and Eve, covering their shame and nakedness. Through the centuries to come God continued to bring light to man’s dark world. Through covenants with Noah and Abraham, through Moses and the giving of the Law, through the Tabernacle and the prophets God continued to bring light into darkness. With increasing light came an increasing awareness of sin and of the need of a Savior. Until one night when a group of shepherds were startled by a heavenly being declaring that a new day had dawn. The glory of the Lord and a company of the heavenly host accompanied his announcement – at last, the light himself had come. Our text this morning is found in the first chapter of John’s Gospel.
Text: John 1:1-18
It is hard for us, in our enlightened age, to believe that we are still groping in darkness. We have grown so confident of our own ability to achieve greatness. Through advances in science and medicine we are living longer – but are we are not living better. Through our ingenuity and creativity we have created a higher standard of living but the standards by which we live seem to be ever lower. It seems we have not learned that our primary problem is not ignorance – which can be solved through education. It is not poverty, which can be solved through increasing our coffers. Our problem is the ever-increasing darkness of the human soul. Our problem is a sin problem and that is the problem addressed by Christmas.
Christmas is not the quaint, sentimental story of a struggling young couple giving birth to their first child in unfortunate circumstances. It is about the radical invasion of God into a world of perversion and filth. It is about light flooding into a chaotic world gripped in spiritual darkness. Christmas is not about our attempt to get in touch with our spiritual dimension. It is not about our goodwill toward men – it is about God’s incredible, gracious, saving act. As our text so powerfully reminds us:
Thesis: The wonder of Christmas is found in God’s revealing himself to sinful humanity as the loving Savior of the world.
There are three things I want to call to your attention about God’s revelation.
- God can only be known through self-revelation. (1:14a)
- God has perfectly revealed himself in Jesus Christ. (1:1-5, 14-18)
- This God, who has so perfectly revealed himself, offers life to all who will believe on him. (1:10-13)
Conclusion:
The message of Christmas is that the light of the world has come. This dark, sinful world has been penetrated by the light of God’s glory in the person of Jesus Christ.
The wonder of Christmas is found in God’s revealing himself to sinful humanity as the loving Savior of the world.