The background of the true & wonderful Christmas story

Sermon for Christmas Day

Hebrews 1:1-12 + John 1:1-14

Luke’s Gospel set the stage for us last night for the true and wonderful story of Christmas, with the shepherds of Bethlehem out in the fields, and the angels greeting them from the sky, Mary and Joseph huddling together in a cave, or a stable, or a barn, and the newborn baby Jesus wrapped with strips of cloth and lying in a manger. Keep all those images fresh in your minds as we add to them the true and wonderful background to the story, provided by John in his Gospel.

The background to the Christmas story goes back a thousand years before Jesus’ birth, to the time of David. It goes back another thousand years to the time of Abraham. It goes back about another two thousand years to the Garden of Eden. All of that history, along with the parts in between, set the stage for Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. But John takes us back even further, to the very creation of the universe, and beyond.

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 identity of this mysterious “Word” isn’t a secret. John drops hint after hint about who he’s talking about, until he spells it out in v.14, And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

“The Word” is John’s unique name for Jesus. Only he uses it, here in his Gospel, and in his first epistle, and in the book of Revelation. The Word—the “Logos”—is the best word the human language has for the eternal, divine Person of Jesus before He was born and named “Jesus,” before He ever had a human nature at all. He isn’t just “a” word, but “the” Word, the exact expression of the Father’s essence. Or as the writer to the Hebrews put it in the Epistle, He is “the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person.” The Word was already there in the beginning, when God the Father chose to bring this creation into existence. The Word was with God (that is, God the Father), and the Word was God (but not God the Father). He was God the Word, or God the Son. Why not mention the Holy Spirit here? Oh, John will talk about the Spirit at length later in his Gospel. But he wants to begin by focusing on Jesus. Because Jesus is the One whom John saw, and physically interacted with. And just as Jesus is called the Son, not of the Holy Spirit, but of the Father, so Jesus is also called the Word, not of the Spirit, but of the Father. Jesus is the One who was made flesh, who reveals the Father to us, and the Spirit. Jesus is the One whom Mary bore and placed in a manger. Not the Father, not the Spirit, but the Word.

All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. When the Father said, “Let there be light!” it was His Word that created the light. When He commanded the earth to bring forth living creatures, it was the Word of the Father’s command that brought them forth and brought them to life. That same Word is called both “Life” and “Light.” All very lofty terms, all very mysterious. But the point is clear: Jesus is no blip in the radar of history, no minor figure, no mere teacher or prophet. He is the God of all creation, the One who gives life to everything, and the One who reveals all truth to men, because He Himself is the Light and the Truth.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.  He came to bear witness, to testify concerning the Light, that all people might believe through him. He was not the Light, but was sent to testify concerning the Light, that the true Light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. Unlike Matthew and Luke, John the Evangelist doesn’t begin his Gospel with the story of Jesus’ birth. He begins the story in eternity, to reveal the true identity of the Word, then jumps ahead to John the Baptist, and describes his purpose: to testify concerning the Light, to tell all who would listen, the Christ is coming! The Light is coming! And whoever wants to see the truth, about anything, must see it through Jesus, because He is the Light that enlightens every man. No one truly sees the light, or knows the truth about anything apart from Him.

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 people did not receive him. This is the tragedy of the Christmas story. The Creator of the world was born into the world, and the world did not recognize Him, refused to recognize Him, refused to accept that He was their God, their Creator, refused to come to God through Him. Even His own people, the chosen nation of Israel, whom He had been preparing for His arrival for 1,500 years, did not receive Him. And neither has the world today. You know how few there are who care about the true and wonderful Christmas story. You know how few people actually believe that Jesus is God, the Word, and that the Word of God is true. You know how few people acknowledge their sins and seek to be saved through the blood of the Word made flesh. God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved! But the world, for the most part, didn’t want to be saved, still doesn’t want to be saved. And that’s why the Christmas story has always been, from a worldly perspective, a tragedy, ever since the Christ Child was born.

But we Christians don’t view it as a tragedy. Far from it! Because alongside the tragic result of most people remaining in unbelief stands the wonderfully happy ending to the story for some—a happy ending that’s still available and held out to all. But all who did receive him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God. Some have received the Word, have believed in His name. And they didn’t do it by their own will. They didn’t choose to believe, or to be born again. Their earthly birth-parents weren’t responsible for it either, for as much as parents may do what they can to expose their children to the Word of God. No, God alone gets the glory for bringing people to believe in His Son. In fact, here is the hidden role of the Holy Spirit, who hasn’t been mentioned so far in John’s Gospel but who is the very Person of the Godhead who is directly responsible for enabling sinners to believe in the Lord Jesus and for giving them new birth as children of God.

You who have heard and believed the true and wonderful story of Christmas, and of Good Friday, and of Easter, are the success stories that make this story a hero story, where the Hero’s birth in Bethlehem is just the beginning of an epic tale that leads to a cross, and an empty tomb, and a kingly reign at the Father’s right hand, culminating in a return for judgment and for eternal vindication, not just of Himself, but of all who have believed in His name. You Christians, you believers in the Lord Jesus, are the ones for whom the story of Christmas was written. And, until the Lord returns in glory, the story must still be told, by you, by me, by all who have come to believe it, so that others may believe it, too. No other story compares to this one, the story of shepherds out in the fields, and the angels greeting them from the sky, Mary and Joseph huddling together in a cave, or a stable, or a barn, and the newborn baby Jesus wrapped with strips of cloth and lying in a manger. It’s true, and it’s wonderful, and more than that, it carries with it the power to create and strengthen faith in the hearts of men, because it reveals our God to us in the person of the Word who was made flesh and placed in a manger, so that we sinners might be eternally saved. Merry Christmas indeed! Amen.