WEBVTT 00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:06.000 It's going to be a lot of joy and a lot of homes tomorrow. 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:11.119 I can feel the anticipation among these children. 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:15.199 The little children and the big kids as well. 00:00:16.879 --> 00:00:21.920 I'd like to think a few more minutes about the light coming into this world. 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:32.479 A few moments we're going to have a candle lighting this Christmas Eve, but I'd like to think for a few minutes about John chapter 1. 00:00:32.719 --> 00:00:37.439 I'd like to read the first few verses of God's Word. 00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:44.479 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:47.439 He was in the beginning with God. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:54.159 All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:59.200 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:05.680 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:08.719 And I go down to verse 14. 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:16.400 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:23.280 Glory is of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:28.560 Let's consider these words tonight. 00:01:29.840 --> 00:01:31.920 The Word became flesh. 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:34.719 The Word was with God. 00:01:34.959 --> 00:01:36.319 The Word was God. 00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:39.120 Verse 2 is pretty clear. 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:41.840 Jesus is eternal life. 00:01:42.159 --> 00:01:46.719 Jesus did not come simply to bring eternal life, although he did. 00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:53.519 But what John is saying is Jesus is eternal life. 00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:56.159 He is eternal light. 00:01:56.319 --> 00:01:59.359 Wherever Jesus goes, he brings light. 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:07.519 Then verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:13.759 This is the mystery of all mysteries that God Himself took on flesh. 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:18.560 Perhaps you know that no other religion teaches this. 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:28.879 Christianity alone teaches that God took on flesh and became a man, a human being like us. 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:32.800 It is the mystery of all mysteries. 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:35.120 And dwelt among us. 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:38.479 In other words, Jesus is more than an idea. 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:40.639 He's more than a philosophy. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:47.439 I think some people today confuse that with, well, he's just a very inspirational being. 00:02:48.879 --> 00:02:50.800 He's a great philosopher. 00:02:51.199 --> 00:02:52.800 Oh, he's more than that. 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:54.560 He's God. 00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:57.599 As if this was not enough. 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:00.479 This was one of John's favorite thoughts. 00:03:00.719 --> 00:03:03.759 We read in 1 John, the same author. 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:36.080 He says in 1 John, talking about this, this truth, this historical fact, 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, the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:44.319 That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us. 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:56.319 Scholar, New Testament scholar Robert Yarbrough says about this language, this striking language that John uses. 00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:02.960 We have seen them with our own eyes, we've heard them with our own ears, we've touched them with our own hands. 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:09.280 These verbs correspond to court language and jurisprudence. 00:04:09.759 --> 00:04:14.000 In other words, John is not just saying these things in a very random way. 00:04:14.479 --> 00:04:17.600 This is court language to testify. 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:25.040 In other words, John, when he wrote these words, was under oath to tell the truth. 00:04:26.399 --> 00:04:36.879 He said, I know he's the Messiah because I saw him, I touched him, I heard him, and all of this after he was raised from the dead. 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:43.279 It would be one thing if he saw and touched and heard simply before his death. 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:46.879 But he said, no, after the resurrection. 00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:50.319 Shocking language. 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:53.120 Back to John chapter 1, verse 14. 00:04:53.279 --> 00:04:56.000 John says, we have seen his glory. 00:04:57.040 --> 00:05:00.560 You remember how God's glory was revealed in the Old Testament? 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:02.720 In the tabernacle first? 00:05:03.279 --> 00:05:07.600 The tabernacle would move whenever God told it to move. 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:12.879 But the glory of God would shine in that tabernacle in the Holy of Holies. 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:16.800 And then later it came to shine in the temple. 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:24.240 The Holy of Holies, where the glory would shine, and nobody could look at it. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:35.680 Because of the sinfulness of men, nobody could look full on on the glory of God until Jesus came. 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:43.920 The Apostle Paul tells us that when we look at Christ, we see the face of God, we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 00:05:44.399 --> 00:05:46.399 And it doesn't have to kill us. 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:50.160 The tabernacle came down. 00:05:53.199 --> 00:06:00.959 I want to share something that John Dunn wrote a poem from the Book of Uncommon Prayer. 00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:05.759 The whole of Christ's life was a continual passion. 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:10.480 Others die martyrs, but Christ was born a martyr. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:17.279 He found a Golgotha where he was crucified, even in Bethlehem where he was born. 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:24.560 For to his tenderness, then the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns. 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:30.399 The manger as uneasy at first as the cross at last. 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:35.600 His birth and his death were but one continual act. 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:44.560 And his Christmas day and his Good Friday are but the evening and the morning of one and the same day. 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:49.759 From the cradle to the cross is an inseparable line. 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:54.319 Christmas only points forward to Good Friday and Easter. 00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:57.120 It can have no meaning apart from that. 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:01.920 Where the Son of God displayed his glory by his death. 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:04.720 Jesus said that before he died on the cross. 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:13.120 My glory is going to be revealed, not by his great preaching and teaching, which it was, but by his very death. 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:22.480 What John Dunn, the poet, is reminding us of is simply this This baby was born to die. 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:29.199 This baby was born to be the substitute for people like you and me. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:31.920 That's the message of Christmas. 00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:37.920 It started in the incarnation, it ended on a cross and the resurrection. 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:44.319 I'd like to illustrate this in another way before we close. 00:07:45.519 --> 00:07:51.839 This is a true story of a man named Father Damien. 00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:59.920 Father Damien was a priest on one of the islands of Hawaii back in the 19th century. 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:02.720 Let me just read a little background. 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:09.519 He moved to a leper colony in Hawaii that had been quarantined to serve as a leper colony. 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:16.319 For 16 years, this priest lived right there in the midst of all these lepers. 00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:20.879 He learned how to speak their language, he bandaged their wounds. 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:26.879 He embraced the bodies nobody else would want to touch lest they contract the leprosy. 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:30.720 He preached to hearts that otherwise would have been left alone. 00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:34.320 He organized schools, bands, and choirs. 00:08:34.639 --> 00:08:37.919 He built homes so that the lepers could have shelter. 00:08:38.639 --> 00:08:48.159 He built over 2,000 coffins by hand so that when these lepers died, they could be buried with dignity. 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:54.320 Slowly it was said the island became a place to live rather than a place to die. 00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:58.799 For Father Damien had come among them. 00:08:59.519 --> 00:09:04.080 Father Damien was not careful about keeping his distance from these lepers. 00:09:04.799 --> 00:09:07.679 He did nothing to separate himself from the people. 00:09:07.919 --> 00:09:12.000 He ate from the same bowls of food along with the patients. 00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:14.399 He shared his pipe. 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:18.799 He did not always wash his hands after bandaging open sores. 00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:21.200 He got close. 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:32.080 One morning before he was to lead worship, he was pouring some hot water into a cup when the water swirled out and fell into his bare foot. 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:38.320 It took him a moment to realize that he had not felt any sensation by the hot water. 00:09:38.879 --> 00:09:48.960 Gripped by the sudden fear of what this could mean, he poured out more hot water on the same spot on his foot and felt nothing. 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:52.399 He immediately knew what had happened. 00:09:53.919 --> 00:10:05.120 The next time he got into his pulpit, which he had been doing for 16 years, as he walked tearfully to deliver his sermon, no one at first noticed the difference. 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:08.960 He normally began every sermon with my fellow believers. 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:13.919 But that morning he began with my fellow lepers. 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:16.559 And then they knew. 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:52.879 Because it's the only solution. 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:56.399 It's the only way that the light can dispel the darkness. 00:10:57.840 --> 00:11:06.639 If Jesus came to this earth and he kept his distance and he said, I'm not going to mingle with sinners, I'm just going to keep to myself. 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:13.840 I'm not going to, I'm just going to visit this planet for a while, and I'm going to go back to my father. 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:17.759 You know there would be no solution for your sin. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:37.759 I've been thinking about this story this week, pondering it, with a growing appreciation for what the son knew full well before he took on this mission. 00:11:38.720 --> 00:11:47.840 He knew he was going to get our disease, your disease, my disease. 00:11:49.039 --> 00:11:50.720 And yet he came. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:56.240 He wasn't like Father Damien, he wasn't there just to help him. 00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:58.159 Now he was one of them. 00:11:58.559 --> 00:12:03.039 From that day forward, the priest wasn't just on their island. 00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:04.960 He was in their skin. 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:07.919 First he had chosen to live as they lived. 00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:10.399 Now he would die as they died. 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:17.200 One day God came to earth in the form of his son and he said, We lepers. 00:12:19.919 --> 00:12:21.840 That's why we're here tonight. 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:29.519 What God but our God would take on our sin so that we could have real joy. 00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:32.320 The joy that comes from the good news. 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:36.320 The good news is that God loves sinners. 00:12:38.879 --> 00:13:03.039 God sent his son to save sinners so that we could find our joy not in our circumstances, not in the events of our life, not in our successes or anything else, that we could find real joy in a person, not a philosophy, not simply an idea, the Son of God. 00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:19.519 May we all find that joy this Christmas and the God who left heaven to become a sin offering for us. 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:21.440 For me. 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:25.360 We can thank him. 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:27.440 We can praise him. 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:29.919 We can adore him. 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:40.559 And we can take that same love that we receive from him and that light and be the light to a city that desperately needs to see and experience this kind of love. 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:44.159 In us, through us. 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:46.720 He's the light. 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:54.799 Can you say this Christmas? 00:13:55.360 --> 00:13:57.600 Because he came, I am forgiven. 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:00.080 Because he came, I am loved. 00:14:00.639 --> 00:14:04.960 Because he came, I have a home in heaven forever. 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:15.039 That was the mission of our Savior who came to do what we could never do for ourselves. 00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:21.360 If you understand this and you believe this, you will have a good Christmas. 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:24.720 No matter what else is going on in your life. 00:14:25.679 --> 00:14:34.320 No matter what the story may be, no matter what the circumstances may be, you take this message into your heart by faith. 00:14:35.039 --> 00:14:38.399 And to know that God is with you by faith. 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:48.320 And you will see his light, and you will walk by his light, and his light will shine through you to others. 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:57.200 Father, I pray now that you would please, please just reveal your truth to us tonight. 00:14:57.840 --> 00:15:06.320 Lord, some of us have heard this story for many years, perhaps, and it just feels like maybe something's still been missing. 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:14.240 Oh God, I pray, reveal your truth to us tonight, from the youngest to the oldest. 00:15:14.399 --> 00:15:15.919 Reveal your truth. 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:19.519 Shine the light of your son into our hearts tonight. 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:32.320 Thank you, Jesus, for leaving heaven to take on our disease, becoming a sin offering that the Father would accept. 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:38.320 Thank you for paying the price that we could be forgiven, that we could be loved. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.720 Lord, accept our worship, accept our gratitude this Christmas, we pray. 00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:46.320 In the name of Christ. 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:47.360 Amen.