Is There Any Wonder?

2022 - The Heart of Christmas

2023 - The Prophecies of Christ's Birth

2024 -

2025 - The Cast of Christmas Angels and the Birth of Jesus

Start practicing Silent Night (Heavenly Peace)

Michelle - Christmas Canon

December 15, 2013 AM

Is There Any Wonder?

Subject: Worship

Subject 2: Fear of God

Synopsis: As we consider the incarnation of the Son of God may we once again be filled with awe and wonder that He would dwell among us.

Text: John 1:14

Introduction

This year is so-o-o different for me.

I am only preaching ONE Christmas message this year.

I will conduct the Christmas Eve service, but it is not a sermon — it is the reading of the Bible’s account of the birth of Christ, along with singing of Christmas carols, partaking of the Lord’s Supper together and the “lighting” of LED candles.

I encourage you to come, bring friends and family: 5 pm on Tuesday.

But this year was very different, I did not start on the Sunday after Thanksgiving with a series of sermons that look at the birth of Christ.

That is something I have done almost every year for 36 years of pastoring.

For instance…

In 2021

I preached 3 messages on the Promises of Christmas:

In 2022

I preached a 3 message series about the Heart of Christmas (Joy, Peace and Love are at the Heart of Christmas)

Last year, in 2023:

I preached 3 messages on the Prophesies of Messiah’s First Coming: Born the Lion of Judah, Born of a Virgin, Born to fully reveal God

But, this year, we will look at only one aspect of the Christmas account.

If YOU were going to pick one aspect of the Christmas account, what would that be?

Since I have access to a Bible AI — not a secular AI like Google or Microsoft.

I asked Logos AI what the greatest aspect of Christmas was and it said:

Christmas is often described as a time of magic, joy, and wonder, with various aspects contributing to its significance.

One article highlights the sensory experiences associated with Christmas, such as the crunch of snow, spiced apple cider, and tinseled trees, as well as the traditions of giving, meeting friends, and feasting.

For some, the greatest aspect of Christmas is deeply personal and tied to significant life events. One account describes the birth of a child on Christmas Day, emphasizing how this experience enhanced the meaning of Christmas for the parents, connecting their emotions to those of Mary and Joseph.

Another perspective suggests that the FIRST Christmas, marking the birth of Jesus, could be considered the greatest aspect of Christmas.

In any case, the season is also noted for its spiritual significance, with Advent described as a time of awaiting Christ and preparing for God's greatest gift.

Additionally, Christmas is portrayed as a time for acts of kindness and generosity.

To me, the greatest aspect of Christmas is that God became incarnate.

He clothed Himself in human flesh.

The incarnation, is considered one of the seven greatest events in the history of the universe and is a profound doctrine in Christian theology.

It refers to God, in the Person of the Son, fully identifying Himself with humanity by becoming human.

This event is described as the greatest miracle of all God's works, where the divine nature united with human nature in the person of Jesus Christ.

The incarnation demonstrates God's immeasurable love, as He became a kinsman of the human family to lay down His life for their redemption from sin.

It encompasses three key aspects:

the form of humility (exemplified by Christ's birth as an infant),

the proof of love (shown through His sacrificial death),

and the sacrament of redemption (displayed through God’s divine power in creation, renewal, and eternalization).

The doctrine of the incarnation is rooted in biblical passages such as John 1:14, which describes the eternal Word becoming flesh and dwelling among humans.

Despite its complexity and the challenges it poses to human understanding, the incarnation remains a cornerstone of Christian faith, affirming that in Jesus Christ, God has come to humanity in the flesh.

As we think about these things I pray that it inspires us to once again be captivated by the awesomeness and wonder of the Birth of Jesus.

In fact, 11 years ago I preached a message on the Wonder of Christmas

Do you remember that sermon?

If not, let me share it with you again.

That year we had a choir that sang a Christmas cantata.

There was one song in particular that year that asked the question:

i. “Is there any wonder?”

B. I stated at the time that I believed this was a valid question, because Christmas 2013 was being observed:

1. In a technologically advanced world.

Think about how much technology has changed in just 11 years!

How much it is different in 2024.

For instance, we might have had virtual reality goggles in 2013, but they were clunky, heavy and really not as good as what we have today.

And the technology keeps improving.

Technology that wants to stretch our senses to the limit:

1. It seems that if an experience is going to register in our brains…

2. It will have include visuals that seer our retinas

3. It will have to blare at us with fidelity that was unparalled just a few years ago.

4. It will have taste so intense that we think our taste buds are about to be raptured.

5. And the smell will have to be so exquisite that any more would cause our noses to fall off our face.

E. Now I recognize:

1. That some of us have gotten older and that our senses tend to be a little worn out from years of use.

But, in the past 11 years we have seen …

The rise of AI

AI is so good at manipulating images that we can’t tell what (if anything!) is real anymore.

A form of AI, ChatGPT, sounds so real we can’t tell if we are talking to a computer or a real person

F. But I think the greater problem is that advertisers and manufacturers have so inundated us with a stronger, bigger, better, more intense experiences…

1. That maybe everything else tends to seem so… ordinary … by comparison.

G. And maybe, just maybe, we have begun to feel that way about the birth of Jesus.

1. Somehow we have lost the wonder, the mystery, the awe that should always accompany our thoughts of the incarnation.

H. You don’t hear “ho-hum” in our text this morning:

1. In John 1:14 (NASB95) the Apostle John says: … the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

2. Eugene Peterson in his Message translation says it this way: John 1:14 (The Message) The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.

He Dwelt Among Us

A. We should be awed that Jesus dwelt among us.

1. As Eugene Peterson says it, He moved into our neighborhood.

B. That is the true Christmas story

1. Not Santa Claus, or presents, or even Christmas light displays — and talk about extreme experiences! …

2. But rather the REAL wonder is that Jesus came.

3. That ought to inspire excitement and awe right there!

C. Author and pastor Leith Anderson writes about how that :

1. Several years ago he visited Manila in the Philippines and was taken, of all places, to the Manila garbage dump where he saw something beyond belief.

2. [He saw] Tens of thousands of people making their homes on that dump site.

3. They constructed shacks out of the things other people have thrown away.

4. And they sent their children out early every morning to scavenge for food out of other people’s garbage, so they could have family meals.

5. People have been born and grown up there on the garbage dump.

6. They have had their families, their children, their shacks, their garbage to eat, finished out their lives, and died there without ever going anywhere else, even in the nearby city of Manila. It is an astonishing thing….

D. Amazing, [he says], but not as amazing as the journey of the Son of God from heaven to earth.

1. From glory to the human wasteland that we call home.

E. The Son of God made that journey, and He knew what he was doing.

1. He knew where He was going.

2. He knew what the sacrifice would be.

F. He journeyed from heaven to earth on a mission to save the human race.

1. He came to the dump to live among us and to die a substitutionary death — to die in our place so that we can have life.

2. He rose from the dead and has ascended back to the Father where He makes intercession for us.

G. But the thing is …

1. He came!

H. Jesus came to this earth.

1. He came as a baby in a manger.

2. He came to illustrate the Kingdom of God.

3. He came to institute the Kingdom by dying on the Cross.

4. He came to illuminate our need for the Kingdom and our utter inability to grasp it apart from coming through Him.

I. He came to be the sovereign King of the Kingdom that has been birthed on this planet.

A Kingdom that is alive and well and doing incredible things in the here and now.

AND, He came to make US children of the Kingdom with all of the privileges of royalty.

J. To institute the Kingdom meant that He put on the robes of flesh and … He came.

1. He lived among us.

K. Incredible!

1. Awesome!

Became Flesh

A. But in order for us to truly appreciate that He came and moved into the neighborhood we have to try to understand what our text is saying when it says: “the Word became flesh.”

1. I say try, because this is truly inconceivable to us.

2. We just don’t have the capacity.

B. We could talk about a comparison:

1. What if we went from being humans to being a slug?

C. But we still can’t grasp even that comparison.

1. We just don’t have the capability.

D. But we must accept it even if we don’t understand it.

E. That the Son of God became flesh is not an optional belief:

1. 1 John 4:2-3 (NASB) By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

F. Jesus willingly laid aside the prerogatives of divinity to become Emmanuel, God with us.

1. Philippians 2:3–11 (NASB95) Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

G. The Word became flesh

Beholding His Glory

A. Our text goes on to say that

… we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of God.

John and the other disciples beheld the glory of Jesus.

WE need to pray for a revelation or a FRESH revelation of God’s glory.

B. So that as we see the glory of the only begotten of God we would be able to tell others like the shepherds did on the night of His birth:

1. Luke 2:16–18 (NASB95) So they [the shepherds] came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. 17 When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.

2. All who heard it wondered…

C. Let’s pray for a fresh outpouring of the glory of God upon His church.

1. Not just this church, but every church that exalts Jesus.

D. Let’s pray for a fresh outpouring of glory such as happened:

1. On Wednesday August 17, 1727 when the Moravian colony in Germany was overwhelmed and filled with the Holy Spirit at their communion service.

i. Their leader, 27 year old Count Nicholas Zinzendorf, said it was like being in heaven.

ii. That month they began a continuous prayer meeting called the Hourly Intercession with people praying in teams for an hour at a time day and night.

iii. That non-stop prayer meeting went for 100 years.

iv. Within 25 years they had sent out 200 missionaries, more than all the Protestants had done in two centuries.

v. Why?

vi. Because the Glory of God came down.

2. David Brainerd, missionary to the North American Indians from 1743 to his death at 29 in 1749 saw a powerful visitation of God in October 1745.

i. Whole communities were changed by the power of the Spirit.

ii. Crime and drunkenness dropped, idolatry was abandoned and marriages repaired.

iii. Why?

iv. Because the glory of God came down.

3. In October 1904 Evan Roberts in his twenties, formerly a miner and blacksmith, saw God move powerfully during the Welsh revival in answer to his and others' persistent prayers.

i. 100,000 were converted in Wales during 1904 and 1905.

ii. Churches filled from 10 a.m. till after midnight every day for two years, bringing profound social change to Wales.

iii. Why?

iv. Because the glory of God came down.

4. The Holy Spirit fell dramatically on a small prayer group of 8 people in Argentina in 1948, and their church immediately exploded with many signs and wonders and healings.

i. Some converts in that move of God were in Bible College in June 1951 when the Spirit fell on them there.

ii. The college prayed for 4 months with intense weeping, and many astounding prophecies including that the largest stadiums in Argentina would be filled soon for Christian meetings.

iii. That happened in 1954 with the visit of Tommy Hicks.

iv. The largest stadium seating 110,000 was filled for weeks as 300,000 made commitments and hundreds were healed each night for three months.

v. Why?

vi. Because the glory of God came down.

5. God moved upon the mountain town of Soe in Timor on Sunday September 26,1965.

i. That night people heard the sound of a tornado wind and flames above the Reformed Church building prompted police to set off the fire alarm.

ii. Healings and evangelism increased dramatically.

iii. Hundreds of thousands were converted.

iv. About 90 evangelistic teams were formed which functioned powerfully with spiritual gifts.

v. The first team saw 9,000 people converted in two weeks in one town alone.

vi. In the first three years of this revival 200,000 became Christians in Timor, and on another small island where few had been Christians 20,000 became believers.

E. Let’s pray in a fresh revelation of God’s glory.

1. And then let’s tell of it as people listen in wonder at what God is doing.

Have You Experienced the Wonder?

A. Folks, the birth of Jesus should inspire wonder, amazement and awe in our lives.

B. That God would become flesh.

1. That He would dwell among us.

2. That He would reveal His glory.

A. Have YOU experienced that wonder?

1. Jesus wants to give you more than an intellectual experience.

2. He wants to fill your soul to overflowing with wonder and awe.

B. How do you receive that experience?

1. Through repentance

2. Through surrender.

C. Have you done that?

D. Maybe you did at one time,

1. But your relationship with God has grown stale and lifeless.

2. How does that happen?

3. Through neglect.

4. Hebrews 2:1-3a (The Message) It’s crucial that we keep a firm grip on what we’ve heard so that we don’t drift off. 2 If the old message delivered by the angels was valid and nobody got away with anything, 3 do you think we can risk neglecting this latest message, this magnificent salvation? …

E. Maybe that describes you:

1. You have neglected this magnificent salvation brought to us because the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us.

2. Repent and let God give you a refreshing this morning.