Let's pray.
Father, many of us have just spent our entire life celebrating Christmas.
We have no memory of a time that we didn't celebrate Christmas.
And Father, it can lose its wonder and its mystery and even its grip on us.
And you know that, Father. You know that about us.
And so we ask, Lord, that the Holy Spirit would bring these words deeply into our hearts.
That amidst the ways that we will celebrate today and over the next few days and all the other ways that we've celebrated.
That the wonder of Jesus and who he is and the wonder of the cradle that led to a life, that led to the cross, that led to the grave.
That that would be brought home to our hearts in a deep way.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
It's, I've been thinking a little bit about darkness and over the last little while.
And I guess I've been really struck by two things that have been in the newspaper just recently.
And I have to, of course, qualify all of this, that it's in the newspaper.
So I don't know if the reports are accurate.
I'm just going by the newspaper accounts.
And so that's just a very important caveat.
And the first one is those eight girls, 12, I think some of them were as young as 12 and the oldest were 16,
that met on social media and met somewhere in Toronto area, I believe, and killed a homeless man.
And I've thought about that a fair bit.
It's just, it's really, you know, it illustrates how, like in our culture, we want to maybe try to psychoanalyze that.
And maybe they haven't said anything about the ethnic or cultural backgrounds or, you know,
whether the kids had been traumatized by abusive dads or had been from a war zone.
And maybe if that eventually came out, our natural inclination as a culture is to try to figure out some type of biological or sociological ways to explain something,
which is just part of the evil of it.
It just seems to be just so willful and random.
Like it wasn't as if he attacked one of them and they sprang to that person.
They just seem to think, let's just kill a guy.
And it really reveals that, you know, at the end of the day, our culture doesn't want to acknowledge that there's just this mystery of evil.
That evil is a bit of a mystery.
And it's a mystery that frightens us.
You know, and it's an evil that we type to deny.
The other thing that's, and I've just been thinking about this since I'd missed it in the news.
I think it's Thursday.
It was in, I've discovered about Thursday.
I went and looked it up.
And this, according to the paper, this principle that basically just assumed at a local elementary school here in Ottawa that kid,
and in effect what she did is just that kids were fundamentally basically good,
that there should be no consequences to their action.
There should be no discipline.
That everything should be completely and utterly kid-centered.
And that there just should be nothing, like nothing to limit them or constrain them.
They should, we as adults, the teachers just needed to listen.
And, and, and, and by the way, it seems as if, at least from the press releases,
as if the school boards think this is a very, very good way to do that,
and they haven't disciplined the principal.
But the result was that kids didn't go to class, and bullies terrorized younger kids.
And, and teachers that wanted to bring some accountability to this or stop it got functionally fired.
Like, so on one hand, we have this evil, and we have this other idea that we don't want to,
we don't want to face the fact that there's this darkness, this evil that's in the world.
Like I mentioned last night that, I mean, and this isn't anything new,
that it appears reporting, once again, according to news reports,
that Russia uses indiscriminate bombing and, and raping as a means to try to control the Ukrainian people.
And if you followed what happened in Middle East for decades,
the entire structure of Palestinian, well, it's just they, they target civilians.
Like they target civilians.
Not just accidentally, they, they do it on purpose.
And, you know, if we think about it at all for, for a moment,
if we have any type of self-reflection,
every single one of us, there's a mystery of evil and darkness within every single one of us.
Like not all the time, maybe for some of us it feels like all the time.
But, you know, our friend or somebody just says a very kind word or nice word to us
and we do, we say something back to them that's snarky or puts them down.
Or we, we have a chance to be generous or helpful and, and we, we just knowingly don't do it.
Or we have an opportunity to be more forgiving or more loving
and it's as if we come up to that and then we just walk away from it.
And there's not, and afterwards we might say it's because of this or because of that or because of that.
But the fact of the matter is, is that there's just parts of us that just do bad things.
We just do them.
And yeah, maybe sometimes we could psychoanalyze them
and sometimes we could say there's context.
But the fact of the matter is that if you were at all self-reflective,
you know that there is something that is dark and chooses evil within you.
Now this might seem like a very odd thing to talk about on Christmas morning,
but actually the gospel text is going to talk about it in a way which brings great hope.
In fact, in a way that if you are present or watching
and you don't call yourself a follower of Jesus,
I, I would hope that by the end of it, you want it to be true.
Your mind might still think it's impossible to be true,
but that you actually could see it and say, I'd love that to be true.
Now we're going to be looking at very abstract things.
And before we go any further, we want to get the details of the story straight.
So if we, we're going to watch a short little video
called The Wrong Christmas that'll just get the fundamental parts of the story straight up for us.
And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night.
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them,
and the glory of the Lord shone around them.
And they were filled with great fear.
And the angel said to them, Fear not,
for behold, I bring you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,
who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you.
You will find a king wearing a magnificent crown.
No, Dad, that's not it.
Oh, really?
Let me try it again.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,
who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you.
You will find a powerful, well-trained soldier.
No, Dad, you did it again.
That's not right.
Okay, how about this?
And this will be a sign for you.
You will find a democratically elected president.
What? No.
A trendy motivational speaker.
No way.
A big tech CEO.
A movie star.
Time-traveling cyborg.
No, no, none of those are right.
The shepherds, we couldn't find any of those.
Okay, then, little Miss Noah doll.
What did they find?
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,
who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you.
You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.
Oh, that's right.
A baby.
Does that even make sense?
A baby is totally helpless.
Yeah, but if Jesus didn't come as a baby,
then he would have known what it was like to grow up.
Ah, but wait.
Why did he have to grow up?
That's easy.
To save us.
Ah, well then that means that the best part about Christmas is...
The baby.
Right, the baby.
Oh, well, I guess it's time you get some sleep.
We got a big day ahead of us tomorrow.
No, we're not done with the story.
Okay, just a little longer.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God and saying glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace among those with whom he was.
One of the things which is so wonderful and powerful about the Christian faith
is that not only there's very simple stories,
but at the same time those stories are connected to very profound
and beautiful and wise and true ideas.
And in fact, you know, we're going to read John 1 verses...
If you have your Bibles, you can turn to John chapter 1.
We're going to begin reading it in a moment.
But if Jesus hadn't risen from the dead,
if the grave hadn't been empty, we wouldn't know anything about Jesus.
He would have just been one of the hundreds of thousands of people
who died by crucifixion.
Completely irrelevant.
And even if Jesus had risen from the dead,
if he had risen from the dead and it was just like a random event,
like Louise rose from the dead or I rose from the dead or something like that,
that would just be weird.
But the fact is that the resurrection,
his death upon the cross and his resurrection
was connected to this long story and series of writings.
And it was connected to these very, very, very profound ideas.
And it's because of that that we recognize that...
I mean, that's why these things are written,
because it's not just some, like, random weird thing.
It's connected to these centuries of prophecies
and these profound and wise ideas.
And as I've shared before,
they are, in fact, the basis of human rights.
They are the basis of justice.
They are the basis of the dignity of human beings.
They are the basis for science.
These are very profound ideas,
and it's within this very big context
that we have Jesus dying and rising from the dead,
and then people looking back and thinking about Jesus
and what he taught,
and then telling the story.
And out of all of the ways that the story of Jesus was told,
there's four ancient biographies.
John is the one who most nests this story
and these profound ideas.
So let's listen to how he begins the story of Jesus.
Chapter 1, verse 1 of John.
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him,
and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life,
and the life was the light of men,
of the human race.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness is not overcoming.
Now, you see there a little bit for a moment
why I was reflecting upon darkness,
and we're going to get back to it in a moment,
because part of our deep hope
is that on one hand there's darkness within us
that we don't want light to shine into it.
But really, for those of us
who've had our darkness exposed by the true light,
there is nothing more freeing
than having the darkness exposed
and dealt with by the true light.
Like, we don't want it,
but after it's happened,
we're very deeply grateful that it's happened.
And it also expresses this profound hope
that the darkness within us won't consume us,
that the darkness in the world won't win,
that there is, in fact, a darkness in the world,
but there is a true light
that will never be overcome by the darkness.
But let's look just again,
just before to get that,
just very briefly.
Look at verse 1 again.
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
You know, it's very interesting.
I was thinking about this week again,
and, you know,
so scientists have put different things out,
hoping that if there's aliens out there,
they'll hear our messages
or they'll see something.
And it would be interesting to figure out
how scientists try to come up with something
that's language
that an alien would recognize as language.
And I'm sure there's some type of an intentional pattern
that can't be random.
It can't just be noise.
And so it's the very, very same thing here.
Like, our brightest scientists
are trying to figure out the same type of things
that John uses 2,000 years earlier
to describe,
to try to begin to describe the Trinity
and who Jesus is.
And it's very clever if you think about it.
If you were to go up
and you were to be God's advisor,
and God said to you,
I want to try to communicate in simple language
something about who Jesus is
and the reality of the Trinity.
And I want you to try to do it in such a way
that the Politburo in China,
that a semi-nomadic bushman in the,
or semi-nomadic tribes people in the Kalahari,
that they'll all be able to grasp it.
And you'd go, wow, like, that's quite a task.
And then he says, oh, and by the way,
it has to be something that will work,
like, in the second century,
and it has to be something that will work
in every century.
And you'd think, wow, that's really quite a task.
But what John says is he uses word.
Word.
Human beings use words.
A word shows intention.
It shows a desire to communicate.
It shows a desire to connect.
It sends a message.
It's personal.
And you could go on and on and on
and just reflect it.
And for those of you who are musicians or poets,
you could probably write,
or philosophers or theologians,
you could write a long type of things
about how brilliant it was
to try to communicate something
about the nature of the Trinity.
That there's, and that's how we look at it again.
First one, in the beginning,
that's before there's anything,
before the Big Bang was the Word.
And then the Word was with God.
And the original language, the word with,
there's more than two different ways,
but there's two different words
that can, in the original language,
communicate with.
One would be that I've put this cup with a table,
that two impersonal objects.
And the other word is,
Louise is with me at the service
of two persons.
And the word which is used here for with
is not the word to say that the cup is with the table,
but is the way of expressing that Louise is with me
or I am with Louise.
It's communicating that the word
is a person who's with God,
who's a person.
The word is God,
and the word was with God,
and the word was God.
And then again, he says it again,
verse two, look at that.
He was in the beginning with God.
Just to make sure we understand it,
it's all very simple.
All things that were made,
all things were made through him,
and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life,
and the life was the light of humanity.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
Claire, if you could put up that little image for me.
So once again, as with last night,
the church gave me permission to hire
the most expensive graphic designers imaginable
to come up with this image.
We spent tens of thousands of dollars,
as you can tell.
And you just look at this for a second.
Just like it's one of the things,
even if you get nothing else other than this diagram,
just to puzzle over.
You think about it for a second,
how human thought works,
and what our longings and yearnings are like.
And I think if you think about this for a moment,
in these very simple categories
that the Gospel of John has given here,
you'd come to the conclusion
that you might say,
you know, I'm an agnostic,
or I'm a Muslim,
or I'm a Buddhist,
or I'm just a secular person.
I'm just a person who likes to go to drag shows.
Like, I'm just a secular person.
But if you understand this,
you'd say, you know what,
I don't know if Christianity is true,
but you know what,
for the first time,
I wish it was true.
Because look at what he does.
There's two different ways
to think about things.
It's like, you look at B,
and B is that life exists,
but it's not connected to light.
And that's, in a sense,
like what secularism is in many, many ways,
that we have life that's created
in one particular,
you know, through evolutionary processes.
But it's not connected to light.
It's not connected to insight or revelation.
You can have life without light.
I mean, animals have life,
but don't have light.
They don't have an ability to understand,
to discern,
to see into the mystery of reality,
into the mystery of themselves.
They're just animals.
And many people in our culture
struggle with the idea
that really, at the end of the day,
a human being is just an animal.
In fact, even not that,
we're just a clump of cells.
And consider for a second number,
you know, C.
C.
That's this idea that there is light,
that there is ways to see
and understand everything,
but it's not connected to life.
Because at the end of the day,
we all die.
And part of the tragedy
of being a human being
is that we have the light
to understand that
everything will just end in death.
And life is just something
that's borrowed for a short season.
And for some human beings,
a very, very, very short season.
And then at the end of the day,
you die.
And then consider
the most despairing of all,
which is the letter D.
That, you know,
at the end of the day,
you know,
if you were to really take
evolutionary theory
and the naturalism
which creates it,
at the end of the day,
you can't really believe
there is such a thing
as mind or reason.
You believe things
just because
that's just the processes
that have led you
to think.
The cognitions
are just mental events
that happen
inside of you
that are caused
by physical
and other types of events.
And they're just,
they just,
they're not really connected
to the real.
And at the end of the day,
we all die.
And in fact,
the matter is,
is that given that
there's just matter in motion,
there's not really
any fundamental difference
between life and death.
If you think about it
in terms of,
you know,
philosophical types of things,
at the end,
in the Eastern religions,
light is,
or conscious,
moral conscience
and mental insight
is something that
is a bit of an illusion
because everything
is just one.
And when everything
is just one,
it's not really
any different than death.
But we as human beings,
what do we really hope?
We really hope for A.
We really hope
that life
is connected to light,
that life is good,
that it's a value,
that it's something
to be celebrated,
that it's right
to celebrate
the birth of a baby
and to celebrate birthdays.
And that there is
such a thing as light,
there is such a thing
as insight,
and that these two things
are connected.
They're not at war
with each other,
they're not
sort of two random things
that might come together,
just like two random cars
that meet at an intersection
and have a traffic accident.
They're not just random,
that there must be
something connected to life
that's connected to light.
And that's what we long for.
And then look again
at verse four.
In him was life,
and the life
was the light
of men.
The light shines
in the darkness,
and the darkness
has not overcome it.
Now,
this is going to make
a very profound story
about who is in the cradle.
And to help us
to understand,
we're going to watch
another mini-movie,
The Silence
and the Fury.
It was that silent night
when the stars
turned their gaze
to marvel at the earth,
when the heavens
gathered breathless
round a lowly stable,
when a young mother
wept tears of worship
falling on the baby
in her arms,
and the song
of the earth
arose in Bethlehem,
soft as the tender
beating of his heart.
And all was calm,
all was bright.
Yet could this be
the same God of Abraham,
the conqueror of Israel,
this baby,
this fragile life?
Is this child
the one who burned
his name in rapture,
across the gasping skies?
Whose voice spoke
the oceans
into crashing rhythms?
Who crafted the mountains
into guardians
of the firmament?
Whose hand ignited
the thirst of the deserts
and the warring surge
of the elemental hosts?
Who breathed life
from dust?
Broke the oppressor's rule,
scattered the chains
of his people like sand,
and led them
through the wilderness
with the pillar of flame?
Is this child
the one whose presence
billowed thunderous
on Sinai's peak?
Who surrounded Job
with the roaring wind,
stood defiant
in the raging furnace,
wrote judgment
against tyrants,
emblazed on the lips
of the prophets,
scorching history's pages
with the fury
of his might?
God's death,
could this be the same God
who chose to come
as the vulnerable king,
setting his throne
on straw and manger,
drawing forth the tears
of shepherds,
receiving the gifts
of wandering travelers,
his fame unknown
in this world?
God's death,
He is Jesus,
the one who thunders
through the heavens,
yet whispers
to our hearts,
who reigns victorious,
yet bows
to serve the broken.
He is God
in the fury,
God in the silence.
He holds this mystery
balanced in His hands,
holds our questions
till they lose their need,
until all we see
is Him.
Jumping ahead a little bit,
but many of you know this,
that this whole beginning bit,
the first five verses,
is going to culminate
in verse 14,
where John will say
the Word became flesh.
And it's making this claim
that in the cradle
was the Word.
And on the cross,
there was the Word.
And it's also in this video
very helpfully saying
that this Word
is part of a bigger story.
It's not just God,
but it's a story
that began thousands of years
before the birth of the Word.
Let's look at verse 6
of John chapter 1.
There was a man sent from God
whose name was John.
He came as a witness,
to bear witness about the light,
that all might believe through Him.
Right?
So now,
one of the ways to describe
this word is light.
That's another name
for Jesus.
Light.
When you see the cradle,
you're seeing light
entering our fallen world.
when you see the cross,
you're seeing light
dying for darkness.
And then verse 8,
He was not the light,
but came to bear witness
about the light.
And one of the things,
if you go on to read
the rest of the Gospel of John,
and if you read
the other ancient biographies
of Jesus,
you'll see that Jesus
makes the claim
that John was the last
of the prophets,
that he is the greatest
of the prophets.
And the reason he is
the greatest of the prophets
is actually going to come
a little bit later on,
if you go on and read
another 20 or so verses
in the Gospel of John,
is that,
you know,
John,
Jesus in John chapter 12
says that Isaiah,
over 700 years before Jesus,
that Isaiah saw Jesus' glory
and spoke of it.
We talked about,
we read that in Isaiah chapter 9.
But Isaiah sees it in some ways.
He sees a word,
he sees a vision
700 plus years before.
But John,
out of all of the prophets,
John is the one
who's standing there one day
and he watches Jesus come by
and he points to Jesus
and says,
behold the Lamb of God
who takes away
the sin of the world.
Like,
that's,
you see that guy there?
You see that guy there?
He still has a little bit
of tabouli in his beard.
He missed after lunch.
You see that guy?
That,
that's the Lamb of God
who takes away
the sin of the world.
That's,
that's the one
who God shouts from heaven,
this is my beloved son
with whom I am well pleased.
That's him right there.
That's the,
the claim
that
John the Apostle
is making about
John the Baptist.
And it's not just
that we have these,
remember I said
at the beginning,
maybe you don't,
that we have these
like very profound ideas
and so the life and death
and resurrection of Jesus
are connected
to these profound ideas
but it's not just ideas,
it's a profound story
and it's a very important story
because,
well actually,
if you could put up the slide
the true and greater story,
that would be very helpful.
Once again,
you can see that I,
we hired the same group
of graphic designers
to come up with
a cutting edge design
and I think I,
the one I have up there,
yeah,
I didn't,
I didn't put chapter numbers.
This is in a sense
the story of the world.
It's the story of the Bible
and the,
and the Bible claims
this is the true story
of the world.
It's the true story
of the universe
that you have
all those,
however you want
to understand it,
you have all these eons
and you have God
having a good creation
and that's chapter one
and two.
It comes out of the fact
that the triune God,
the word was with God
and the word was God
and together
they made everything that is
and they made everything that is
and it's very good.
That's the first two chapters
of the book of Genesis
and then you have the fall.
This is where evil
enters into our world
and evil is a type of absence.
It's a type of a brokenness.
It's a type of a shielding the light
so that the light can't,
in a sense,
or at least they think foolishly
that it can't penetrate
and it touches everything
in a human being
and some,
even if it's just
the tiniest of ways
and sometimes in very,
very deep ways
that there is now
this part within us
that is bent,
that's broken,
that's dark
and it touches everything
about what it means
to be a human being
and that God,
seeing our great need,
right back in Genesis 3,
he makes the promise
that we cannot fix ourselves
so he is going to provide
a means by which
we can be,
you know,
we've broken ourselves
by trying to be God
and that still fundamentally
describes human experience
that we act at different times
as if we're God
and that's a profound brokenness.
It's a profound,
it leads to all sorts of evil.
It leads to failure
to do what we should
and it leads to doing
what we shouldn't
and God sees
that we can't fix ourselves
so he promises
and prepares the means
by which God
will come into our world
and fix what we cannot
fix of ourselves
and that's in a sense,
it begins with Genesis 3
at the end
and it goes right
to the end of Malachi.
It's the time of promise
and preparation
and in a sense,
it ends with John the Baptist
and when John the Baptist
points at Jesus
and says,
you see that guy there?
He's the one
that God the Father said,
this is my beloved son,
you know,
listen to him.
This is the Lamb of God
who will take away
the sin of the world.
This is the one
that prophets
have been prophesying
about for centuries
and centuries
and centuries.
2,000 years
they've been prophesying,
1,400 years
they've been prophesying
that this is the one,
this is the one
and his name is Jesus
and so when we see the cradle
and we see his life
and we see the cross,
this is God's
keeping his promise.
This is the end
of preparation has come
and God has provided
the means by which
human beings
can be made right
with him
and then after Jesus
we are in the time
right now,
we are in what they call
the last days
and I describe it
as the already not yet
and it's the already not yet
because on one hand
when you put your faith
and trust in Jesus
as we're going to see
in a moment,
he gives us the right
to become God's children
and Jesus,
Jesus' death
is a purification
for our sins,
we now belong to him,
we become his children
by adoption and grace,
we have the Holy Spirit
present in our lives
and so on one hand
we have the already
of what is going to be
the final thing
but on the other hand
it's still the not yet
because the not yet
won't come until Jesus returns
and that is both
the end of all things
and the beginning
of all things
and this is the true story
of the universe,
it's the story
of the Bible
and it's very important
because we live our lives
in Canada
as if we are characters
in the movie Inception
and many of you
maybe haven't seen
that movie Inception
but it's a movie
from Christopher Nolan
about 12 years ago,
it's a very fascinating movie
and some of you
have seen it,
you know there's a big debate
about the end
which I'm not going
to enter into
but what the movie
is about
is the movie
is about
entering into dreams
and using dreams
to change things
in people's consciousness
and so they have
this device
that they can enter
into a dream
and the fellow
is trying to explain
to a young woman
who has this ability
to do it
like what is a dream
and how do you know
whether you're in a dream
or not in a dream
and one of the ways
that they describe
that you know
you're in a dream
and you think about it
in fact my daughter
was telling me
about a dream
she had last night
and in a dream
we're just there
we don't know
how we got in that house
we don't know
you know
why we have goats
we don't know
why we're doing things
all of a sudden
we're just there
and all of a sudden
it's just over
and there's in a sense
no beginning
and no end
and that fundamentally
is what secular Canada
is like
we have no real beginning
and if that actually
if you think about it
a lot of the stuff
that's going on
around identity
and identity politics
on one hand
there's one aspect
of our culture
that wants to try
to trace everything
back to
being some type
of mechanistic
mechanistic product
of our race
just as
you know
a few years ago
it used to be
that you trace
everything back
to whether your mother
treated you
the right way
or the wrong way
and that could explain
all your problems
and there's always
been that aspect
of us
of trying to discover
something to explain
the darkness within us
and the darkness
of the world
but at the end of the day
it doesn't work
because evil is a mystery
we just choose it
and only this bigger story
of the fall
explains it
but for most of us
we just
it's as if we have
no beginning
we're just there
and we don't think about
evolution
we don't think about
what comes next
we just have this present
and the Bible
gives us
the true story
of the world
and what the Bible
says is that
every single one of us
when we are born
every one of us
we were born
in the already not yet
and this is where we are
like in a sense
if I was able
to be put
a little arrow
about where are you
you know
like in a mall
where are you
that little dot
would point to right here
we're in the already not yet
and so when I'm born
I'm born as one
who comes into a story
that begins with a good creation
that has the fall
and I am implicated
in the fall
there is a darkness
and an evil
and a brokenness
and a privation
that touches everything
that is within me
and I cannot fix myself
and it is just there
and there has been a time
of promise and preparation
which I can read about
and I can hear about
when I read the Bible
and there has been God's
keeping his promise
and ending his preparation
and providing a means
by which we can become
God's children
by adoption of grace
and that's Jesus
and we live here
in the already and not yet
and we don't know
if maybe even before
the end of this service
the end of all things
will come with the return
of Jesus
and it's the end of all things
the judging of the living
and the dead
and then there's the beginning
of the new heaven
and the new earth
it is both the end
and the beginning
and every single one of us
the meaning of our life
is that we are born
in the already not yet
and in every single human being
there comes a fork in the road
and because God
is a gracious God
he doesn't just give us
one fork
because after we choose
the wrong fork in the road
he gives us another fork
and another fork
because his desire is
that we will realize
that if we continue
in our way
our end will be
God's judgment
and his desire for us
is God desires
not the death of a sinner
but rather that he would
turn from his wickedness
and live
and time and time again
even today
even at this moment
I am saying
there's a fork in the road
and God is calling you
to choose that fork
that involves turning
from
you've spent your life
keeping God at a distance
and turning your back to him
and God is calling you
to stop
to turn
to lay down your sword
and shield
and to kneel
and to say to Jesus
not go away
but come
and when you do that
he will come
and the end of your story
is one
where the father
smiles at you
and says
you are the one
who accepted my son
I have loved you
with an everlasting
and eternal love
and I am so glad
that you have come
to be with me
and welcome
into my new creation
why does Jesus do this?
he does it for love
let's look at another
short mini movie
the spoken word
Christmas
why?
why
did Jesus
come to earth
why
forsake the majesty
and fellowship
of heaven
exchanging
a palace
for a stable
immortal comforts
for a feeding trough
and robes
of glory
for the feeble
body
of an infant
an unparalleled
irony
this supreme
unrivaled nobility
experiencing absolute
and total
humility
our sovereign God
Emmanuel
as a baby
he didn't come
to heap shame
upon sinners
or to judge
and cast out
the impious
but to break bread
with those called
unrighteous
he didn't come
to illuminate
every mystery
of the cosmos
or to enlighten
the intellectual
but to fulfill
the testimony
of prophets
clothed in rags
he didn't come
to elevate
a single nation
or to advocate
a particular
political affiliation
he came because
he saw you
broken
in need of salvation
he saw you
lost
and abandoned
crying out
surrounded
by deaf ears
fighting through
the tears
but beaten down
by the torments
of this world
and unable
to bear
your distress
he renounced
his eternal throne
walked the earth
bore the stripes
accepted the nails
and gave up
his last breath
so that you
could receive
the breath
of life
our God
our holy
infinite God
beheld your pain
perceived
your heart
and determined
that your soul
was worth dying for
from the manger
to the cross
to the empty tomb
it is all
a story
of profound
love
of a savior
who rescued
his children
from darkness
of a blameless
king
who declared
that no sacrifice
was too great
for the sake
of his beloved
creation
why did Jesus
come to earth
he came
for you
as we bring
things to a
close
mindful of that
let's listen
to the last
few words
of John's
introduction
to the
biography
of Jesus
verse 9
the true light
which gives
light to everyone
was coming
into the world
that's why
John the Baptist
was here
to prepare
people
for the fact
that the true light
was going to
actually enter
into our world
he was in the world
verse 10
in other words
he actually did come
and in a moment
you'll see
if you were to go back
and read John 1
that moment
that first moment
where Jesus
where John says
look at that guy there
that's the lamb of God
that takes away
the sin of the world
that's who he is
right there
he was in the world
verse 10
and the world
was made through him
just to be clear
and yet the world
did not know him
he came to his own
and his own people
did not receive him
that's that time
of preparation
and promise
but verse 12
this is now
talking about
Jesus
and the already
not yet
those of us
look what it says
verse 12
but to all who did
receive him
who believed in his name
that's how we become
a Christian
we receive him
into us
we believe
we trust in him
and receive him
inside
verse 12
but to all who did
receive him
who believed in his name
he gave the right
to become
the children of God
the adopted child
of the triune God
how were we born
into this
not of blood
nor of the will
of the flesh
in other words
it's not something
natural
it's not something
that comes
out of my will
nor is it something
social
the will of man
that's bestowed upon us
the only way
that we have that
is of God
God gives it
God's accomplished it
verse 14
and the word
became flesh
and dwelt among us
and we have seen
his glory
glory as the only
son from the father
full of grace
and truth
that is the gospel
we're going to watch
one more mini movie
and then I'll ask you
to stand
and we'll close
in prayer
and while they were there
the time came
for the baby
to be born
she gave birth
to her firstborn
a son
and she wrapped him
in cloths
and placed him
in a manger
because there was
no room for them
in the inn
where does the
creator of the universe
send his son
where does the
prince of peace
make his entrance
a barn
a stable
a manger
of all places
certainly no place
fit for a king
but then again
this was no ordinary king
the savior is born
in a stable
so there are animals
and uh
animal stuff
manure
mud
a pitiful place
for a human
much less
the king of kings
so
why
why would he do that
because
the shepherd
was coming
to care for his sheep
to make a way
for his sheep
and that's what
shepherds do
they
live where the sheep
are
they eat where they eat
and they sleep
where they sleep
and this will be
a sign to you
you will find the babe
wrapped in cloths
and lying in a manger
you ever thought
about that sign
sign for what
maybe
it is a sign
that Jesus
is accessible
to everyone
maybe it's a sign
that
the God
who owns
the cattle
on a thousand hills
can relate
to a homeless person
that God
will have nothing
to do
with the social
status
of mankind
either way
it's a sign
for all of us
to go
and do
likewise
you see
later
Paul would write
these words
that you should
have the same
attitude
as Jesus Christ
who being
in the nature
God
did not consider
equality
with God
something to be grasped
but he humbled himself
he made himself
nothing
becoming a servant
becoming a human
likeness
creator
who had been served
since before the dawn
of time
stepped out of heaven
to become a servant
who does that
the God
who's laid in a manger
a messy
feeding trough
yeah
why such a messy place
because he came
to save messy people
so
that first Christmas
was dirty
grimy
filthy
it was messy
but
thank God
it was
because without it
what a mess
we'd be in
I want to invite you
to stand
and close
in closing
let's pray
father we give you
thanks and praise
that in Christ
we can have hope
that in Christ
we know
that the darkness
will not overcome
the light
that death
will not win
that life
will win
that you know us
in all of our
particularity
and all of
those parts of us
that are very good
and bright and shiny
and those parts
that are very very dark
and from which we look away
you even see
when we get so fascinated
with the light
of our accomplishments
that it becomes
a darkness of pride
and narcissism
and you knew all these things
until you came
to be born in a manger
to live amongst us
to die on a cross
to taste all there is
to taste of death
to defeat sin
and death
and hell itself
and your death
and resurrection
and we thank you
that you did it all
out of love for us
and we ask father
that you would help
to make this gospel
this good news
more real to us
at a deeper
and deeper level
that it might be
the story
that we live out of
that we might know
that the end
of our story
in you
is to be welcomed
by our father
in heaven
and that this is his world
that you hear our prayers
that you want us
to have more light
and life
as we walk
day by day
until he returns
or until we see you
face to face in death
father grant us this hope
make it deep within
and we ask these things
in the name of Jesus
your son and our savior
amen