I'd just like to invite you to bow with me as we ask the Lord's blessing on the word as it's both read and preached here this Christmas Eve. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you've given us this opportunity to gather here this evening to remember and to celebrate, to treasure this great gift that you have given to us in your son, Father, we pray that you would come now and send forth your word in the power of your spirit that it would take captive every thought here and make it obedient to Jesus Christ. Make Christ plain tonight, Lord. Make him glorious. We pray that the gospel would sound forth, that every ear, Lord, would hear and every eye would see him and believe. We just pray these things in Christ's name, amen. Our text this Christmas Eve is found in the Gospel of John, in John chapter one, and if you have your Bible with you, you can turn there if you'd like. John chapter one, and it's in verses one through 14, very familiar text. John one, one through 14. Let's hear the word of the Lord. John writes, 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 came into being through him. And apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness. The darkness did not overtake it. There came a man, having been sent from God, whose name was John, and he came as a witness to bear witness about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. There was the true light, which, coming into the world, enlightens everyone. 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 those who were his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. and the word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." May God bless his word. As John writes these words, he's not just looking for you to have a curiosity about Jesus, just to stir up a bit of interest about Christ. John is writing to explode your mind about who Jesus is. John reveals here in the first verses of his gospel things that are nothing short of jaw dropping truth about Jesus. There are things here that have never been revealed or conceived of in regards to the person of Christ. John brings these truths out and he doesn't fully explain them. He just declares them to be so. And we're left with this view of Jesus after this that cannot get in ways any larger. If you've read these truths in the past or you've heard them, as I'm sure many of you have, You may have heard John and his words here and think, oh, well, that's kind of an interesting way to put it, John. But these are truths that are meant to, not just for you to sort of stroke your chin at and find them interesting, they are meant to upend your world. in light of who Jesus is as John declares him to be the word. John tells us in the beginning, he takes us all the way back to before time began. Matthew in his gospel and Luke, they take us back to the birth of Christ. Mark in his gospel takes us to the baptism of Jesus as Jesus begins his ministry. But John is taking us back to before there was anything at all. Matthew and Luke show us the genealogy of Jesus as it goes back through Joseph and Mary. Mark takes us back to Jesus's Old Testament pedigree. according to Isaiah, and how John the Baptist announced him as the Lord, the I Am, who has come. Matthew goes back to David, shows us Jesus is David's son. Luke goes back all the way to Adam, shows us that Jesus is Adam's son. Here, John, though, is revealing to us Jesus before time, in the beginning. And he reveals something about Jesus here that no one saw coming, no one. He reveals that Jesus is the word, the word. John sort of zooms out and And we see Christ from eternity past. From before there was anything but the triune God, there was the word. The logos in Greek. The logos. No other writer in the Bible reveals this about Jesus. John. alone pulls back the veil and shows us Jesus before time. And he shows us that this Jesus is not just a created being who came on the scene at the beginning, but he was. He was in the beginning. He's not a created being, he was also the word, the logos. It's a strange term, the logos, or to think of Jesus as the word. We might not have ever heard the term logos or used it in any way, but it is a term that John brings to us that has ultimate wonder in it. The second member of the Trinity, the Son, is the word, the logos of God. We might wonder why is John telling us this? Why is he setting this out as this most crucial truth and what in the world does it mean? What does it mean that the word has also become flesh? By Jesus being revealed as the word or the logos, John is at least telling us that all that the Godhead is and all that he has done is expressed in the person of the word. The Son. God is a God who speaks. God is a God who utters things and they come into being. He spoke the world into existence. And he is a God who does all things by his word, by speaking. And the Word, who is the Logos, is the very embodiment of the Word of God, the will of God. And we can't fully unwrap that. You can't explain all these things. And you know what? John doesn't attempt to do so. He just declares it to be so. He just tells us what this is and who he is. But Jesus as the Word at least means this, that all that God desires to do and all that God desires to say and accomplish about himself and through himself He does in the Son His Word. There's just no way you could diagram this. You can't write it on a board. You can't trace it out. John just declares it for us. And he tells us that in the beginning was the Word. It was just, He was just there. Before time. He didn't become the Word. He wasn't created as the Word. He was. You can't, again, you can't unravel that. You can only wonder at it. The Word. The Word was in the beginning. The Word was. And the word was with God, with God. The word is part of the triune God, the Godhead, along with the person of the spirit and the person of the father, and yet he is distinct from them, but not apart from them. You can unravel that. You can only wonder at it. The Word was with God. And then John tells us the Word was God. He was God. He didn't become God. He just existed. He was always. As he goes on to say, always there with God and as God. He is God of very God. You can't unravel that. You just have to wonder at it. And John tells us as well that the Word has brought everything into existence. Everything. The Word is so in front of everything that all things find their existence in him. You are here in this moment thinking and breathing because the Word has brought you into existence. No other reason. He has spoken you into being. You didn't arise out of some primordial slime. You didn't come flying out of the Big Bang ages ago. You're here in this moment because the one who is the word spoke you into being and everything else, everything. John is looking to grab hold of our view of life here and drive us to see at least that our lives are not our own. They're not our own. We are not the masters of our own fate. We can't just look at Jesus and see him as sort of this nice religious figure, a helpful teacher, Someone there who can just make our lives go better if, well, if we just try really hard to do the things that he talks about. Now we're faced here with someone. Someone who staggers the imagination with his being. And if we are to deal with him as though he were simply a nice person, a helpful man, but not staggering in his person, really, that's to go through life living the worst lie possible. You know, if you're living life as though Jesus can be followed occasionally, conveniently, sporadically, in a way that maybe fits your schedule with everything else going on, in a way that leaves you a bit comfortable still with your sin. It reveals that we're just playing, we're just playing with the most glorious and dangerous truths in the universe. You know, if you're one who does claim Christ, and yet Christ is not one who's driving your decisions every day. In regards to life and work and relationships and your commitment to a faithful body of believers. We're playing games with the one who is the word. The word. The word who is, John goes on to say, life, life itself. In him was life. Jesus just doesn't come in and sort of give us this substance or this power or this force called life. John reveals to us that Jesus is life himself. Jesus later in John chapter 14 in verse 3 will say, there I am the way, the truth, and the life. The life. All that lives is alive because of the word. In him was life. In him, Paul says, we move and live and have our being. And the word is the light of men. The word is the light of men. It lets us see. He lets us see and understand. Anything we know, anything that's true, We know only because the word, he has made it known. This is the one again that John is declaring to us and revealing to us that in the end we might know him and believe in him. He goes on to tell us that the word became flesh. As if John had not given us enough already to glory at and then to tremble at. John now tells us that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The one who is the very will of God. the very will of God done and the will of God said in his own being. He has now taken on a body like ours. A body like ours. What is infinite and eternal has taken on created flesh. You just need to wonder at that. Early church leader in the fourth century there, John Chrysostom, said of Jesus, he remained what he was and became what he was not. That is, he remained what he was, the word. And he became what he was not, a man. And he did it all that we might know him and that we might be redeemed from sin and death by him. The word. The word was there in the beginning. The word was with God. The word was God. All things have come into being by him. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. He has come, taken on flesh and bone, that you might know the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Let me ask, is your life a reflection of the glories of the word made flesh? Is your life a reflection of the glories of the word made flesh? Or is Jesus just a religious thing that you sort of try to tack on to life? Maybe to try to help it Go better, a nice bonus to life, a helpful addition. Someone maybe you think, well, I should probably give more attention to him, but well, life's busy and all. Or have you come to the one who John here reveals really, you could say, with shock and awe as the word? The word made flesh, the one who comes as the very will of God in all of its aspects in the flesh. He is not one to be trifled with or played with. He will not be played the fool in our lives. John tells us, even though he came to the world and the world did not know him, his own did not receive him, but as many as received him, he says, to those who understand that is, who he is, as the word made flesh. who understand that with great awe and trembling. To them he gave the right to become the very children of God. That's just unbelievable. The word has become flesh that you might be brought to God through him. All of this John reveals. that you and I might believe and by believing we will have life in his name, that we might know the forgiveness of sins, that by the death of the word made flesh, by his dying, we might know his life in us by faith as we trust him. not playing with him, but following him. As the word, the very will of God, through whom God does all things. This is the one who gives you life, who promises, you life eternal from the grave. If, if you look to him as John sets him out, the word made flesh. Let's close with prayer. Father, we thank you for revealing Jesus in this way through John. We confess it is beyond us, Lord. It's wonderful. It's glorious. And Father, we thank you that all that you have revealed in Jesus has come to us in the flesh. We thank you, Father, that all that you desire to say to us, all that you desire to accomplish, Lord, for us, you have said and done in your son. We thank you for that finished work that he has accomplished on our behalf at Calvary. For he bore our sins in his body on that tree, and you raised him up, Lord. And he now sits at your right hand, where you have put everything under his feet, ruling and reigning as the word made flesh for those who believe. We thank you for all this now in Jesus' name, amen. As we come to our closing and the candle lighting time, I'd like to invite you to stand and we'll be lighting the candles here from the front and just ask that you turn the unlit candle into the lit candle and light it as it goes down the aisle. You can turn your hand almost to 181. Joy to the world. Santa... Santa...