A moment ago, Andrew read a portion of Matthew's gospel about the birth of Jesus. Matthew tells us how there was a betrothed couple, Mary and Joseph, how Mary was discovered, to the surprise of Joseph, to be with child, to be pregnant before they were married, Joseph. unwilling to shame her but also uncertain about marrying her, debated within himself what to do, at which point an angel came to Joseph with a divine message. Do not be afraid. to take her as wife. The child is conceived miraculously by the Holy Spirit of God, the same Holy Spirit of God who hovered over the waters of pre-creation to create life, overshadowed Mary in order to create life in her. Joseph received the responsibility of being the adoptive father, right? Don't miss how Joseph would have heard the words, she will bring forth a child and you will call his name Jesus. He will save his people from their sins. Named Jesus as Yahweh saves. Luke's gospel gives us another account about the birth of Jesus. Matthew's gospel was the very first of the gospels written. It was the earliest of the written accounts of the birth of Jesus. But Luke, Luke was a bit of a historian. He took his time to go back and he tells us that he collected first hand accounts from the people who were there and clearly Luke talked to Mary herself. Luke's gospel tells us that the same angel that appeared to Joseph had already come to Mary preparing her for this coming child. He tells us how a decree from the Roman Emperor Augustus required all Jewish people to enter into a census in their hometown, and for Joseph and Mary that meant traveling to Bethlehem, the city of David. On arrival, there was no place for him to stay, and there was no longer that she could wait. She gave birth to Jesus as privately as she could, and the very Lord of glory was ingloriously laid in a manger, an animal's food trough. The birth of Jesus would have passed mostly unnoticed, but an angelic chorus called lowly shepherds to come bear witness of this pivotal moment, this pivotal moment that literally splits human history in half. We date everything according to did it happen before or after this. Luke's Gospel says in Luke 2, verses 8-14, there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were greatly afraid. And the angel said to them, Fear not. For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign to you. You'll find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. Both of those gospel writers, Matthew and Luke, continue the story. Luke tells us how the shepherds going through came and saw the infant Jesus and then went through public telling everyone that they had found this miraculous child whom the angels had come and told them to seek. The Messiah was born. Luke tells us of his naming at the eighth day of his life when he was circumcised and named, and Luke goes on to talk about his presentation at the temple on the 40th day. Matthew tells us how likely months later, wise men from the east arrived seeking the one who was born King of the Jews. So there is a lot of backstory to what's happening, and it's all worth knowing. Matthew's gospel was one of the first books written for the New Testament. Luke took extra time to interview those eyewitnesses to Jesus's life and his book was probably written about 10 years after Matthew. But our text this morning is John's gospel. John was one of the closest disciples to Jesus. He had experienced the ministry of Christ, walking closely by Him and hearing Him preach and seeing His miracles. At the Last Supper, John was even so close he could lean back and put his head on the chest of Jesus, likely hearing the divine heartbeat. But when the Apostle John puts pen to paper, he is an old man. The story of Jesus has been told. But most, if not all, of the other apostles were dead by the time John writes. Both Matthew and Luke's Gospels have been written. They've been well circulated. The birth narratives were well known. I want to be clear, Matthew and Luke's Gospels are both clearly, clear in asserting that Jesus is God in the flesh. But it may be that the Apostle John had a concern that in knowing all these details about how Jesus had been born into the world, some people could still miss who it was who was laid in that manger. Every writer, when you sit down to write, you have to grapple with the question, how far back do I go in order to tell this story? John clearly wants to go all the way back. How far back could John go in order to tell us about Jesus? Well, this morning we read, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, and God said, let there be light, and there was light. Those are, of course, the first words of the book of the Old Testament, Genesis. They're not the first words of John's gospel in the New Testament. But the Bible opens in Genesis with this divine revelation in eternity past, right in the beginning. It contemplates the Creator God, the creation that He made, the life that He put here, the life that He gave. It describes the darkness of the preformed earth in this thundering decree of God when God's words broke out into that darkness and suddenly light exploded where only darkness had been. I am convinced that the Apostle John thinks that, that is the place that I start the story of Jesus. Look at our text this morning and see if you can follow his thinking. John chapter one, starting at verse one, 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, nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. So we take this time of year to contemplate the birth of Jesus, his entrance into the world. I want you to think through this with me from John's perspective. Who was it that was born of a virgin? Who was this infant laid in the manger? Whose birth of all of human history is worthy of an angelic chorus coming to sing about? Whose face did those shepherds gaze into when they looked down into the manger? John's gospel opens with absolute clarity, partially by matching the words of Genesis, and specifically through the inspired truth that John himself pens, that the birth of Jesus was nothing less than the creator stepping into his creation. The child born to Mary, he is the first cause. He is the uncreated creator. He is the divine word who spoke this world into existence and he entered into this world as human. Jesus is the author and the sustainer of all life. He is the true light that dispels darkness. Jesus is God made flesh. Now John makes an intriguing choice in the introduction to his gospel here, because instead of doing what say Matthew does, starts his book. This is the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. Or like Mark does, this is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. John does not name Jesus in the opening verse. And in fact, he doesn't name Jesus in any of the verses until we get down to verse 17. Instead, John gives him a divine title. He calls him The Word. For anyone picking this book up the first time and reading those opening words without any context, it would not be perfectly clear right away who it is that John is writing about. So instead of just assuming this is Jesus, instead of you just taking my word for it, let me show you how we know John is telling us about Jesus. First, the entire gospel that John writes as it continues is about Jesus. And so we would expect the introduction to his gospel to be about Jesus. Second, whomever the Word is, John says in verse 14, look at it, the Word was made flesh. The Word became flesh and dwelt. He lived among us. This fits Jesus perfectly. Third, the Word is able to, in verse 14, relate to God as Father and be known as, verse 18, the Father's only begotten Son. That can only be Jesus. Fourth, in verse 14, again, the word was seen as the glory of God. John uses this phrase, he was full of grace and truth. We saw him as the glory, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And then John brings that phrase, grace and truth, around again at the end of verse 17, and look at what he says. What is grace and truth? Grace and truth comes through Jesus Christ. So without a doubt, Jesus is the word about whom John is writing. But why does he do it this way? Well, I think part of this is because John is intentionally taking us back to the accounts of creation in which the words of God were spoken out into existence, or out into the pre-existence and caused everything to come into being. He wants us to think of this as the voice that thundered out into the silence and darkness of preformed creation. That was the voice of Jesus. All of those references of how God expressed himself in the past, all of that is Jesus. But just as importantly, all of the continued revelation of God, how God expresses himself now and forever is Jesus. Jesus is the word. In fact, he says in verse 18, no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. In other words, how will you know God? You will only know Him through Jesus. that baby born to Mary in Bethlehem, the infant laid in the manger, the child to whom Joseph obediently gave the name Jesus, that He grew into this perfect man who Himself held infants and scolded hypocrites and healed lepers and gave sight to the blind and taught truth and rebuked demons and calmed storms and walked on water and raised the dead in Himself gave his life to die on the cross and rose again from the grave. He is the only way to know God. for Gentile readers in the first century, the Apostle John is likely picking up and exposing and correcting a common pagan superstition of the day. They used this word, word, which is an awkward way to talk. The Greek word is logos, that's what it is. And so they use the term Lagos to describe this impersonal force that they thought governed the universe. John is taking that and saying, no, the Word made the universe and He is far from impersonal. He relates to us because He was made flesh like us. For the Jewish reader of John's Gospel, This truth about Jesus as the word would have given life to the songs that were already in their heart. They had been taught to sing the sacred Psalms of the Old Testament. How quickly after reading John's gospel do you suppose the lyrics would have come to mind like Psalm 33 verse six, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, right? Creation was accomplished through the word. Or Psalm 107 verses 19 and 20, when they cried to the Lord in their trouble, He saved them out of their distress. He sent His Word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction. Salvation and healing from God come through the Word. Think of it like this, if you are gonna know me, if you're gonna grasp something about what I think and what makes me tick and what I hope for you, you're only gonna know it through my words. I mean, I certainly hope that that's the way it works. Otherwise, we are wasting our time this morning. Jesus calls John the word because he is the only way to comprehend God. Jesus reveals the mind of God. He displays the perfection of God. He discloses the will of God. He communicates the truth of God. Jesus expresses the heart of God because Jesus is God. In the first service this morning, we considered in the opening text of Genesis chapter one, how it presented God as eternal, as the creator, as wise and relational. And John does all of those here in this chapter. Jesus is eternal. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. The Word has no beginning. As far back as you can go before everything started, Jesus was there at the beginning. In the beginning, the Word was. He always was. There was never a time when the Word was not. And since only God himself is eternal, this word is described not only by John as existing with God, but as God. See that? The word was with God and the word was God. Jesus is eternally God. Jesus is creator, verse three. All things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made. some folks today, particularly Jehovah's Witnesses, claim that Jesus is not God, but simply He is the first creation of God. So in their view, essentially God made Jesus and then used Jesus as a tool to make everything else. John's point in verse 3 is to say that there was never anything made unless Jesus Himself made it. Without Him, nothing was made that was made. Making Jesus cannot be the first act of God in creation because Jesus is the creator of creation. He is the creator God, John says. In Colossians chapter one, the Apostle Paul says it like this in verses 16 and 17, for by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things consist. Jesus made everything you can see. Paul says, Jesus made everything you can't see. Creation is not a product of random processes brought on by billions of years of evolutionary nonsense. There is no mystical, impersonal mother nature who rules the tides and controls the weather. There is one God and one creator of all things, and that is Jesus Christ himself. It is Jesus the creator who could cause a bush to burn and not be consumed in Exodus 3. It's Jesus the creator who split the Red Sea and held back the walls of water. It's Jesus the creator who comes in the flesh, shouts into a storm and says, peace, be still. And the storm listens to his voice because that is the voice that spoke them into existence. Every part of creation that is or has ever been exists because Jesus made it. It exists by the word of Jesus, it bows to the will of Jesus, and it serves the purpose of Jesus. Paul even went on to say, by him all things consist, and that word consist literally means they're held together. So the creator God who entered into humanity, even at that moment, the infant was in the food trough, was the intergalactic glue that holds everything and keeps it from falling apart. Jesus is the creator. Jesus is wise and relational. Look at verses four and five. In him was life. And the life was the light of men, and the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. Light and life are two essential features of creation, back in Genesis chapter one. Here, because Jesus is born into the world, the apostle John connects the life-giving work of Jesus with the light-shining work of Jesus. He tells us Jesus shines light into spiritually dark places. Throughout the Gospels, we see the ministry of Jesus as this struggle between light and darkness. In just a couple of chapters in John chapter three, we're gonna read this. It'll say, this is the condemnation of mankind. It is that light has come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Jesus is the light of the world. He illuminates the world in wisdom. He informs the world with the brilliant light of truth. But listen again in verse five, the light shined in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. I wanna note a couple of words there. One is unfortunately poorly translated in the New King James Version. It reads as past tense. When the original language John wrote in present tense, Jesus is the light, and he says the light shines, present tense, in the darkness. The other word of note is the word comprehend in verse five. That literally comes from the Greek word which means to grasp or take a hold of. Now you can see how this works because if John means this word grasp, take a hold of, if he means it intellectually, then he's saying the darkness, it just can't grasp, it just cannot understand the true light of Jesus. But if John means it physically, the darkness he's saying is trying to overpower or overcome the light, but it's not capable of it. Can I maybe paraphrase what John is saying here? The spiritual darkness of this world did everything it could to overcome the light, but the light still shines. John writing in his old age after Jesus had died and rose again and ascended to heaven after his friends, the apostles mostly died and joined the Lord there. John as an old man writes, the light is still shining. Do you prefer the darkness of your life of sin or do you embrace the light that Jesus brings? Because what Jesus has to say about this in John 8, verse 12, is he stands and he says, I am the light of the world and he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but he will have the light of life. The light of life. Listen, Jesus doesn't just shine light in spiritually dark places, Jesus gives life to spiritually dead people. Unless God intervenes, the Bible says we are dead in our trespasses and sins. John tells us that life can be found in him, in verse four. In him is life. is the word Jesus not only is the creator of physical life, he is also the source of spiritual life. This world created by God and declared to be good by God soon descended into sin and rebellion against our creator. We face eternal destruction for the darkness and death that we have embraced. We need a savior, and the savior, God himself, has come. And if you remain in darkness and death, listen, John says, look, that's on you. Look down at verses 10 through 12 in his first chapter. As he speaks of Jesus, he was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believed in his name. You can have life by, John says, receiving Jesus. You can enjoy this divine light by believing in Jesus. So what is it that you believe about him? We live in this world that claims to celebrate the birth of Jesus, but the vast majority have no concept of what the birth of Jesus truly represents. If all you embrace about Jesus is, well, he was a baby born and he was laid in a manger. Listen, you've got about as much illumination as a tangled string of burnt out twinkle bulbs that aren't even plugged into any electricity. The birth of Jesus, seen through physical eyes, appears to be of very little consequence. Listen, a young couple and some shepherds and a new baby in a manger, that is a good story. That is not the whole story. The same moment seen through spiritual eyes represents a moment of earth-shattering proportions. That's what John wants us to understand. When you picture the baby in a manger, think this, that the same divine word that thundered out in Genesis chapter one into the empty nothingness, speaking the world into existence, he was willing to enter into that world that he created. It represents a moment of illumination more dramatic than light exploding into the darkness of preformed creation. He came as the life-giving light dispersing the darkness of sin. He presents a crossroads for every one of us. You either reject Him and remain in darkness and death, or you receive Him, you believe in Him, you trust in Him, and you find life and light. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, the divine light still shines today. Eternal life is still available today. Know him for who he is. Hear the word, see the light, and receive the eternal life that he brings.