Below are extended notes from a sermon on John 1: 1 - 18 I preached at Stoneleigh Baptist Church, Surrey, on Sunday 3 December 2017.
In his book ‘The Hacking
of the American Mind,’ Robert Lustig tells of whether have happiness or
pleasure: ‘Pleasure is short-lived, happiness is long lived; pleasure is
visceral, happiness is ethereal; pleasure is taking, happiness is giving;
pleasure can be achieved with substances, happiness cannot be achieved with
substances; and, finally, pleasure is experienced alone, happiness is usually
experienced in social groups.’
He then goes on
with the 4 Cs for creating lasting happiness in your life, which we could apply
to the festive period:
· Connect
– most will be experiencing face-to-face (not Facebook, etc.)
·
Contribute
– doing things so others are happy
·
Cope
– might be doing self-care, not multitasking, exercising
·
Cook
– that is non-processed foods (think brussels sprouts!)
This is all well and
good, but there must be more than this.
Some might have
wondered why we have not had the traditional passages from Matthew or Luke this morning, but we need to take it
from different angle.
We can so easily
caught up in time that we forget about eternal perspective, We can be neglectful that both
run parallel to each other, although there will be a moment in time when God will make
time cease to exist.
The consideration of eternity is an essential part
of the nativity narrative – along with Mary, Joseph, the angels, the shepherds,
the magi. If we do not get this, then rest of the events of the nativity narrative will be out of kilter.
In order to demonstrate this fact, I want to show that each
of the Gospel authors were writing to a different community with their own emphasises. Matthew was the author with a Jewish audience to show Jesus as king with wise men bowing, Luke was writing to a Gentile audience to show Jesus as Son of Man with humble adoration of
shepherds.
Mark was again writing to Gentile
readers to show that Jesus was Servant for there is no introduction, he was straight into the
action.
However, John wrote to show
Jesus as Son of God, so he started his book with wider perspective.
Let your imagination run – Christ, the Father and the Holy Spirit together planning for Christ to come
into the world as a baby.
We find it
easier to think about time than about eternity – for we know that the service started
at 10.30 and (desperately) hope that it will not go on for eternity!
When we think
about eternity this morning, it will in these seections:
a.
Who
Jesus is
b.
What
Christmas is about
c.
How
we live our lives
a.
Who
Jesus is
When we think
about baby in the manger, we have to remember that He is also Lord of all creation.
Jesus’ own
words tell us : ‘I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence.’ (John 8:
38)
Also, in the
Great High Priest Prayer, Jesus before He died: ‘And now, Father, glorify me in
your presence with the glory I had with you before the world begun.’ (John 17:
5)
Jesus told His
Jewish listeners, ‘before Abraham was, I am’ (John 8: 58) – followed Jesus
saying that the Son of Man ascending to where He had come from (John 6: 62)
Hebrews 13: 8 –
‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.’ – there is consistency in His attributes.
It blows our minds
that Jesus is fully God and fully man – we can think about one aspect at any one
time, but we find it difficult to think about both at the same time.
We are reminded that Jesus said: ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and
the Last, the Beginning and the End.’ (Revelation 22: 13)
When Jesus came
to earth, human flesh did not become the Word, the eternal Word became flesh.
John tells of
the ‘One and Only’ (verse 14), that is Jesus was literally unique.
He knew the prophesies from
Genesis 3: 16 (about the seed destroying Satan) to Micah (foretelling His birth at Bethlehem Ephrathah).
He looked down
the corridors of time, saw the human list of descendants (mentioned by Matthew
and Luke with some unpronounceable names!) both the good and the bad
He is in control of
history, which has the knock on assertion that He knows all about our lives.
He knew that
outcome would be cross, where we would be responsible for placing Him to die.
He came ‘in the
form of a servant’ (Philippians 2: 6 – 7) to become a ‘ransom for many’
(Matthew 20: 28).
Jesus was our God
‘contracted to a span,’ as Charles Wesley reminds us in his hymn.
It's incredible to think that God loved us from the foundation of the world, looking down through the tunnel of
time, to ‘choose us before the creation of the world’ (Ephesians 1: 4) – what
thoughts and emotions does that evoke in us?
All these
thoughts about eternity can blow our minds, for it is easier to think of Jesus as baby
rather than as Lord of the universe, even more so when we try to think of both
things together, so we shall unpack this in the next section.
b.
What
Christmas is about
‘When the time had fully come, God sent His
Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that
we might receive the full rights of sons.’ (Galatians 4: 4 – 5)
‘Made His
dwelling’ (verse 14) – it literally means that Jesus ‘tabernacled,’ i.e. set up camp. He was willing to
dirty His hands in the world that had rejected Him – in world just like this
one, rejecting the eternal for what we can get now.
How would we
have reacted if Jesus was born in this time? Possibly we would have looked down at Mary the
single mother, not on a nice estate, soon to be a refugee. It is a challenge to our
prejudices.
C S Lewis wrote: ‘The
central miracle asserted by Christmas is the Incarnation…Every other miracle
prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this…It was the central
event in the history of the Earth – the very thing that the whole story has
been about.’
When we look at a baby, we often wonder what his/her life will be like. Jesus was the only one in
Nativity that knew what was before Him. He knew that the centre of history points to the cross,
it was also the centre of His purpose.
Even in crib, Jesus was author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12: 2). He knew that the cross lay
before Him.
C S Lewis commented: ‘God has landed on this enemy-occupied
world in human form. The perfect surrender and humiliation was undergone by
Christ: perfect because He was God, surrender and humiliation because He was
man.’
When we look at the Christmas cards and stable depictions, we can forget that Jesus was only a baby but God Almighty.
In the song , 'Mary did you know?' are these words:
Did you
know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God
And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God
Paul wrote (1
Timothy 6: 15 – 15): ‘God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and
Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom
no-one has seen or can see.’ – He became the babe among the animals, worshipped
by men.
Christmas can
be sentimentalised so what songs dominate your Christmas? Is it 'Walking in a Winter Wonderland or 'Rocking around the Christmas tree'? Or is it 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing or 'From the Squalor of a Borrowed Stable'? What we sing tells where hearts lie and our viewpoint. Have we focused on the eternal or just on the here and now?
c.
How
we live our lives
It said that
the first candle in an Advent wreath represents expectation – what are we
expecting? How limited are our expectations?
Where eternity
and time converge is now, in the present moment.
Can we see
beyond the sweater that the recipient doesn’t want? They will inevitably take it back in the January sales.
Ecclesiastes 3:
11 – ‘[God] has [also] set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot
fathom what God has done from beginning to end.’ – God has called us to be people of destiny.
God became
flesh – He became the greatest Gift, so our worship should be our only response, like the shepherds, the magi, Mary herself who sang ‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my
spirit rejoices in God my Saviour’ (her song, Luke 1: 46 – 47)
We need to live
life in the tension of time and eternity. As the old spiritual song reminds us that here is not our home, we are just passing
through.
We can bow our
knees before the infant in the manger, but being with God around His throne
should be our motivation.
Even as
evangelical Christians, we can sort of bow towards materialism and secularism – we can think of presents and parties (although can be nothing bad about those in
themselves) so that we forget to wholly bow our knees before the Holy One. It can be
an indication of how we live our lives in the other eleven months of the year.
If we put down
roots here on earth, we will be reluctant to let go and move onto eternal home.
‘Adventus’ is the Latin translation of the Greek word Parousia,
which New Testament mostly referred to Second Coming. In ancient writings,
Parousia was usually associated with the arrival of royalty, when the city leaders went
outside the city gates to meet the emperor and escort him back to the city.
At Christmas, our first encounter is with the heavenly King, who wants us to submit our lives to Him,
come into relationship . The words in the hymn ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel’ should apply to our lives.
The 7th
century Advent hymn, ‘Creator of the Stars of the Night’ has both first and
second comings: ‘Thou, grieving that the ancient curse should doom to death a
universe, hast found the medicine, full of grace, to save and heal a ruined
race.’
Then goes on:
‘At whose dread Name, majestic now, all knees must bend, all hearts must bow;
and things celestial Thee shall own, and things terrestrial Lord alone.’
When thinking
of priorities in our lives, especially at Christmas, remember words of a
leading evangelist of 20th century, Keith Green: ‘If your heart
takes more pleasure in reading novels, or watching TV, or going to the movies,
or talking to friends, rather than just sitting with God and embracing Him,
sharing His cares and His burdens, weeping and rejoicing with Him, then how are you going to handle forever and ever
in His presence? You’d be bored to tears in heaven, if you’re not ecstatic
about God now!’
The Bible states that we are to live for 70 years
(Psalm 90: 10); but come what may, our time on earth will inevitably cease.
Elisabeth
Elliot wrote: ‘God is God. Because He is worthy of my trust and obedience, I will
find rest nowhere but in His holy will that is unspeakable beyond my largest
notions of what He is up to.’
Conclusion
Advent is not
meant to take us to Christmas and leave us there – it is to move us on in our lives,
and onto Jesus’ Second Coming.
We live in
materialist society where seek the lights and laughter, trees and trimmings,
gadget and gismos – but we have to be reminded of the priority and preciousness of Jesus.
Before kneeling
before the tree to get our presents, we are to kneel before Almighty God who came to be
the biggest Gift of all.
a.
How
does Christ being God and man give you confidence? – salvation rooted in
eternity, planned before time began.
b.
What
difference will it make to our Christmas? – before bewitched by world’s
interpretation, make Jesus the priority, ‘the reason for the season’
c.
Does
this impact on how we live our lives? – Christmas comes once a year, important
how we also live for the other eleven months of the year
Could be that
do not know Jesus or not walking closely with Him, today you can change all
that today – get the eternal perspective
Having the eternal perspective should make a
difference so we should be introducing others to the Eternal One.
We are exhorted to lift up your
eyes and heart to the One who came down to save us for His glory.
Comments