In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. 12 But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Today we contemplate and celebrate the most extraordinary event ever to take place in the history of the world. We’re so familiar with the story of Emmanuel – God with us – so it is good to be reminded of this miracle once more, because when we do stop and think about just what God has done for us, we realise just how wonderful this gift of salvation really is.
There are many questions asked at Christmas time. Some are not that important, while others are deeply profound and searching.
Some of the less important ones are: What do you want for Christmas? Have you been good? What are your plans for the holidays? And of course, one we all want the answer to: Can reindeer really fly?
In the Bible there are many questions about Christmas too.
Mary, when told by the angel that she would give birth to this child asked, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
That’s an excellent question.
The Magi, when they arrived in Bethlehem after following the mysterious star in the sky asked, “Where is He who has been born king of the Jews?” That’s another very good question.
We’re not told what the shepherds had to say when a whole host of angels suddenly appeared to them, but they must have had more than a few questions too.
But there is one question which overshadows them all. It’s a question which was asked then and continues to be asked today. It’s a question on which eternity hangs. And more importantly, it’s a question each of us needs to answer for ourselves. It is the greatest Christmas question, asked in William Dix’s hymn written more than 100 years ago: “What child is this, who laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping. Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds’ watch are keeping?”
What child is this?
That’s the most important question of Christmas.
It’s a question that was both asked and answered at the very first Christmas.
Mary asked, and the answer to her was, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy - the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35)
Joseph asked the question, and he was told, “Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21)
The shepherds asked. Their answer was, “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 Saviour, 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.” (Luke 2:10-12)
What child is this – really? Each year we hear the phrase “Jesus is the reason for the season.” Yes He is, but what does that really mean? Just who is this child who is the heart and soul of Christmas?
William Dix answers that question in his hymn like this: “This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing. This, this is Christ the King, the babe, the Son of Mary.”
I have nothing new to tell you today about the mystery of Christmas that you haven’t heard before – many times. What I can try and do though is to urge us all to just stop for a moment among all the festivities and fun of this day and to try somehow to get to the bottom of such a simple, yet profound question: What child is this?
And what effect is He going to have on your life today and for the rest of your life?
When we begin to ask this question “What child is this” at a deeper, more fundamental level, we soon realise that this is not really a Christmas question. It’s a life question.
We need to ask ourselves just who this Jesus is, and what, if any effect is He going to have on our lives.
It’s good that we’re here on Christmas morning to acknowledge the mystery of God with us in Christ, but what God is more interested in is what this child means for every day of your life. How does a child born in a stable 2000 years ago change every day of your life?
That’s why our reading earlier was from John’s gospel, rather than the usual Christmas stories we find in Matthew and Luke. John doesn’t speak about any of the details we are so used to. He doesn’t mention the visits from the angels, the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the shepherds in the fields, the visit of the Magi, or the manger scene. Instead he gets right to the point of Christmas as he summarises the Christmas message by saying, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Jesus is the Word, and what John is telling us is that Jesus, the Word, existed long before the child was laid in the manger. In fact, there has never been a time when Jesus has not existed, as He is the eternal God. Yet, He came in the flesh. He became one of us. This is such a mystery, and it forces us to ask the question, “What child is this?”
God came near and He walked among us, and in His humanity He experienced the same ups and downs we do, the same temptations, the heartbreaks, even to experience a brutal death on a cross.
Again, we’ve heard it all before. We know the story so well, so maybe we should be asking not what, but why. Why would God do this?
Why would He leave the splendour of heaven where He is worshipped by the angels and come to the darkness of this world, only to suffer abuse, hatred, and ultimately, a form of execution reserved only for the worst of criminals? Why would He do that?
He did this because He loves us. God knew that if He didn’t do what He did, we would never be able to experience a truly full and abundant life, and worse still, we would be separated from Him for all of eternity.
Jesus coming into this world achieved many things, and we’re going to look very briefly at just three results of the Word becoming flesh today.
1. We become adopted as God’s children.
John 1:12 says, “To all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” God wants every person on earth, including each of you sitting here today, to be His child. That is why you exist, and why He created you in the first place. The problem we have is that because of our sin, we are not automatically God’s children. We are born with three strikes against us, and that is why we must be born again, born of His Spirit to become one of His children. That is why God, who is Spirit, became a human child, so that we could be one of God’s spiritual children. As we put our faith in Jesus and believe in what He accomplished at Calvary, we are given the rights to become children of God. When we believe in Him and accept Him, we are adopted into His family and we receive all the benefits of being children of God.
Romans 8:16-17 gives us a glimpse of some of those benefits. “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.”
When we are adopted as children of God we receive gifts, and these gifts include forgiveness, eternal and abundant life, light, blessings of love, joy, peace – the list is quite literally, endless.
2. We receive His life.
The second result we experience because God came to earth is life. Verse 4 says, “In Him was life.” In this child was life. Here was the Creator of the universe who brought life to the earth, and now He has come in the flesh to bring life back to us. In fact, John repeats this over and over in his gospel, that Jesus has come so that we might have life. At the end of his gospel John writes, “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:31)
God came to earth because He wants us to experience life, and by that He means two things. Firstly, He wants us to experience eternal life. He wants us to live forever with Him in heaven. Jesus repeated many times that no one would experience eternal life without Him. In John 14:6 He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Secondly, having life not only refers to the eternal future, as wonderful as that promise is, but also to a present reality. We can live a full abundant life here and now because of Jesus. We don’t need to live our lives without hope and without purpose. We weren’t created for emptiness and nothingness, which is the very definition of a life lived separate from God. Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)
The point is that despite what the non-believing world tells us, a life lived without God will always have something missing. Without Jesus, we cannot live the abundant life here, and we certainly will not receive eternal life beyond the grave.
God came in the flesh two thousand years ago so you could experience His joy, His peace, and His love right now and forever. That was why He came. There is no other way for us to receive His life except for Him to come in the flesh.
Are you able to say that you’re truly living the abundant life? If not maybe it means your Christmas is only one day a year, and not all year round.
3. He lights up the darkness
John 1:4-5 says, “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.”
The truth is that our world is shrouded in darkness. It has been shrouded in darkness since the moment sin entered the world in the days of Adam and Eve.
We like to think the world is getting better, but it is getting worse. Darkness remains and will always remain until we receive Jesus, who is the light.
There is only one way to eradicate darkness, evil, sin or whatever you want to call it, from our own lives and from our world, and that is Jesus, the Word made flesh.
He came to into our world to offer us an escape from the darkness, even the darkness which is inside of us. There is no other way. There is no power inside of us strong enough to resist evil and temptation all of the time. We will always fail, but God loves us too much to allow that to happen to us, so the light came into the world so that we who receive the light need never to walk in darkness ever again.
Part of receiving God’s light into our life is allowing Him to enter and light up all areas of our life, including the ugly stuff, those things which we are particularly ashamed of. The power of darkness is when it stays in the dark. Once it comes into the light it loses its power. One of the ways we open ourselves to the light is to ask God for forgiveness by admitting to Him the dark areas we struggle with. It’s no mystery to Him. He won’t be shocked because He already knows. All He wants is for you to allow Him to free you from those things.
Light always overcomes darkness. Light a candle in pitch darkness, and what happens? On the other hand, open a box of darkness in a brightly lit room and what happens? Does the darkness spread, or does it just simply vanish?
That’s the power of light over darkness. That’s the power of Jesus over sin.
Living Christmas every day means we receive the light of Jesus as we follow Him daily. And His promise to you is that the darkness will not overcome us, because darkness cannot overcome light.
“What child is this, who laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping. Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds’ watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing. This, this is Christ the King, the babe, the Son of Mary.”
“What child is this?” This is a baby born in a barn, destined to be ridiculed, called a failure, and defeated. “What child is this?” This is the Prince of Peace of whom angels sing, who will teach the whole world what love means.
“What child is this?” This is the one who not only taught us what love is, but He demonstrated it in the most dramatic and graphic way possible. This child gave His life for you.