The Light Has Come: Week 3

John 1:14; Luke 2: 4-20

Good morning, and Merry Christmas everyone. What a blessing it is for me to be bringing the message of the birth of our savior to you this morning. Next Sunday will be Christmas morning, so we will not have a service next Sunday. But, we will be back up and running the next Sunday (New Years Day). Wednesday evening services will continue though, through the entire month of December-unless something unexpected happens.

Today we continue our series: The Light Has Come. We’ve been looking at the Christmas story according to John 1. The first week of this series we looked at the first 5 verses of John Ch. 1-we talked about the preexistence of Jesus, how Christ existed before time itself and the difference between light and darkness. Last week, week 2, I spoke on vs. 9-13 and Isaiah 53; how Jesus was rejected by society and how we can walk in the light of Christ-which dispels darkness. This week we are examining John 1: 14 as well as Luke 2: 4-20. The previous couple of weeks have set the stage for Christ to be born. We discussed the O.T. prophesies that foretold the coming Messiah. This week, Jesus is born-Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus’s birth is why we celebrate Christmas Let’s pray then take a look at our passages.

PRAY

This morning we are going to start book of John, then we will move over to the book of Luke.

John 1:14

14 And 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.

In the beginning of John 1, the author points out that Christ was the Word, the Logos, and as we’ve already talked about-the Word was the language that God used to create the heavens and earth. Now, in vs. 14, John continues with that line of thought, except now, the Word (Logos) decides to come down from Heaven and dwell amongst His creation; this is why we celebrate Christmas (as you all know). Up to this point in the history of scripture, God appeared as more of a distant figure to the vast majority of people. There were exceptions, like Abraham, Moses, King David, etc., but for the most part, God was viewed as unapproachable. Now, all of a sudden, on one morning, Christ was born; God incarnate; Emmanuel, God with us. Not only was God approachable, He was vulnerable (sort of). He had to rely on His own creation to care for Him while in His earthly form. While it would be goofy not to assume that Christ (as a baby and teen) did not have some divine protection around Him (protecting Him from a premature death), other than that though, Christ experienced all of the things you and I experience. During His childhood, He relied on His earthly mom and dad, no different than you or I. Christ's immaculate conception is one of the most important things that separates Him from all other religious leaders. Imagine the responsibility that Mary and Joseph felt while raising Jesus to be a fully grown man. All parents like to think that their children are special, but in this instance, Jesus was truly special. Did they treat Jesus the same as their other children? My mind has a hard time comprehending just how remarkable it must have been for Mary and Joseph, knowing they were caring for the savior of all mankind. These are some great question to reflect on during this Christmas season.

John says that the Christ dwelt among us. The particular verbiage that John uses here is very specific, and just about every commentary I looked at pointed this out. The idea here is that Jesus pitched His tent among the people, not that He simply arrived. Here, John is pointing to Jesus becoming or living in the tabernacle. Now, to you and I this might not mean much-but to the ancient Israelite, this was very, very significant. The tabernacle was always the most important tent or dwelling in an Israelite camp or city, always residing in the middle of everything else. The tabernacle is where all of these things took place:

The center of Israel’s camp

The place where the Law of Moses was preserved

The dwelling place of God

The place of revelation

The place where sacrifices were made

The center of Israel’s worship

John was saying that Christ, the Word become flesh was the human manifestation of all of these things.

John continues by saying:

and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father

We see this term, “only begotten” a few times in the N.T. and it means “only child” or only son. Earlier on, in vs. 12, John says: 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name. When we receive the Lord, we become children of God, this is a different phrase than the one John uses in vs. 14, where he says: the only begotten from the father. When we accept Christ, we become adopted children, yet, Jesus was the only begotten, the true born and only son of the Father.

John 3:16

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Finishing up vs. 14, the author points out that as the Word came, and they beheld or saw Him, what they saw in Christ was grace and truth.

Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Chapter 1)

The longer I walk with Him and the more I learn about Him, the more I am impressed with Jesus because He is the perfect blending of grace and truth. Some people are very truthful but show little grace. They’re hard to be around because they have a tendency to make you feel guilty. Other people are gracious but not very truthful. They’re fun to be with for a time, but they have a tendency to be a little flaky. Jesus was neither hard nor flaky. He spoke the truth with great candor and honesty. Yet His grace caused people to marvel (Luke 4:22).

In John 1 vs. 14, John is describing what we refer to as the incarnation-where God Himself came down and took human form-in which we was still fully God, yet fully man at the same time. This is a concept that is difficult for us to understand-as our finite minds have a difficult time comprehending how someone can have the attribute of Divinity and Human nature at the same time. They appear in contradiction to one another-but, as I said, the incarnation is what separates Jesus from the other religious leaders in world history. “God with us” was such a departure for the Israelites, who respected…but mostly feared God.

Before we move on to Luke, I want to address a number of popular beliefs, or, for a lack of a better term, a heresies, in regard to the person of Christ, and Him being fully human. We don’t have time to cover these in detail, but I did want to mention them, and give a brief summary of each.

Jesus, the Word made flesh, and dwelt among us.

Arianism

Who taught it? Arius (c. 256–336)

What is it?

The position that Jesus, as the Son of God, was created by God. It was proposed early in the 4th century by the Alexandrian presbyter Arius and was popular throughout much of the Eastern and Western Roman empires, even after it was denounced as a heresy by the Council of Nicaea (325).

Key Text? John 1:14: “The Word [is] the only Son, who came from the Father.”

Where does it show up today? Jehovah’s Witnesses believe Jesus is God’s only direct creation, and that everything else was created by Christ. Jesus died for our sins, but he is not equal with God, who is not part of a Trinity.

Docetism

Who taught it? Docetai, a Gnostic sect (2nd and 3rd centuries)

What is it?

Gnostics believed that the material world was evil and the only way to salvation was through discovering the "secrets" of the universe. This belief flew in the face of Judaism and Christianity, both of which believed that God created the world (Genesis) and that it was good, not evil. Keeping revelation secret wasn't meant to be; rather, it should be shared openly with others.

Docetism, a spin-off from Gnosticism, comes from the Greek word dokesis, meaning appearance. In the first and second centuries a.d., Docetists asserted that Jesus Christ only appeared to be human. They considered the material world, including the human body, so evil and corrupt that God, who is all good, couldn't have assumed a real human body and human nature. He must have pretended.

Key text? Philippians 2:8: “. . . and being found in appearance as a man . . .”

Where does it show up today? Mainly among people who do not fully understand the humanity of Christ.

Adoption-ism

Who taught it? Paul of Samosata (3rd century)

What is it? Jesus was a mere man before his baptism, when the Father adopted him as his Son. The Father and Son are of different natures—the Father preexistent and eternally divine, and the Son born as Jesus and adopted into the Father’s plans, but never one in essence with the Father.

Key text? Luke 3:22 (in some ancient versions): “You are my beloved Son; today I have begotten you.”

Where does it show up today? Adoption-ism by and large has been defeated.

Apollinarianism

Who taught it? Apollinaris of Laodicea (4th century)

What is it?

Apollinarianism was a fourth-century Christian heresy that plagued the early church and that denied the full humanity and perfection of Jesus Christ. It is named after Apollinaris the Younger, who was bishop of the Laodicean church and who originated the teaching c. AD 361. Apollinarianism was rejected in the various early church councils, including the First Council of Constantinople in 381. Apollinarianism taught that Jesus’ two natures, human and divine, could not co-exist in the same person. According to Apollinaris, since Jesus was human, He must have sinned, and a sinful nature could not share the same body with the divine nature. To overcome this “problem” in Jesus, the Logos of God came upon Jesus, replacing His human mind or rational nature with God’s and overwhelming the sinfulness inherent in Jesus’ humanity. The Logos thus became the divine nature of Christ, as opposed to the human nature of Jesus. Apollinaris believed that Jesus had a human body and soul, but Jesus’ mind was replaced by the Logos. He pictured Christ as a “middle ground” between God and man. The resulting blend of divine and human, according to Apollinarianism, was neither fully divine nor fully human.

Key text? John 1:14: “The Word became flesh” [and not a human mind].

Where does it show up today? Apollinarianism by and large has been defeated, though many pastors report confusion among their congregants regarding Christ’s full humanity.

So, those are a few of the teachings that were popular in the early Christian church, thankfully, most of them have been debunked rather well.

Now that we’ve read John’s account of Christ’s birth (which is much different than the other Gospel accounts, let’s turn to Luke Ch. 2 and read a more detailed account. Remember, we talked about in week 1 of this series, that John approached Christ’s earthly ministry a bit different than the other 3 gospels-John was more focused on the nature of Christ, rather than some of the details-especially in Ch. 1 Let’s read, starting in :

Luke 2: 4-11

4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5 in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. 6 While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. 8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

We are all very familiar with the story of Christs birth and the circumstances behind it. A number of passages previous to this, God appeared to Mary and told her that she was going to give birth to Christ. Here, Luke describes how Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem; a trip that would have taken about 3 days, it was about 90 miles…perhaps it took longer, because Mary was VERY pregnant at the time…I’m sure she had to use the bathroom many times.

After Mary and Joseph arrive, Mary begins to go into labor. She gives birth to Jesus-it’s for sure that they did not have luxurious accommodations. Mary didn’t have a birthing suite at the local hospital. Imagine for a moment, and put yourself in the shoes of Mary and Joseph in that moment. Mary was a young girl-no older than 13 years old when all of this took place. On one hand, Mary knew she was giving birth to the Savior of the world, but at the same time, she had no idea what she was doing-probably equal parts fear and elation. From this moment in time, it would be another 30 years until Jesus started His public ministry.

Luke doesn’t mention these particular verses when describing Jesus’s birth, but there are a couple of scriptures that foretold the birth of Christ. One in Isaiah, another in Mica.

Isaiah 7:14

14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Emmanuel.

Mica 5: 2-5

“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.” 3 Therefore He will give them up until the time When she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren Will return to the sons of Israel. 4 And He will arise and shepherd His flock In the strength of the Lord, In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. And they will [e]remain, Because at that time He will be great To the ends of the earth. 5 This One will be our peace.

The birth of Christ goes against everything that the ancient Jews would have thought of, in regard to how the Messiah would have been born. In fact, when Joseph first found out that Mary was pregnant, he want to get rid of her. We find this in Matthew’s account.

Matthew 1: 18-25

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. 20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” 24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

Critics often look at the varying accounts of Christ’s birth to criticize the Bible-they claim contradiction between the various accounts-but that is not the case, if you are aware of how the Bible works. We get different accounts, based upon 4 different perspectives, each of which focus on different aspects of Christ’s birth. Let’s keep moving on through the account in Luke.

Around the time that Mary gives birth, we know that the Angel of the Lord appears to some shepherds-somewhere in the region of Bethlehem. We do not know exactly when the Angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds. Over the years people have examined these verses to death, trying to come up with the next great book, but the truth is, we are not sure how all of that happened. Without doing a ton of speculation, there are some interesting things that we can infer from these few passages, in regard to the shepherds. First though, we have to understand ritual cleanness and uncleanness.

Lk. 2 8:11

8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

In the past I’ve spoken about what it was like to be a shepherd in Ancient Israel. It was among the lowest ranks in society, and it still is over in the Middle East. Also, and this is a big part of the reason they are viewed in a lowly way, is because the job is considered unclean, and therefore, makes the person working the job unclean. Being “unclean” was a major thing in Israelite society. If you were unclean, you could not be around other people-you had to go through a cleanness ritual, in order to make yourself clean again. Taking that into account, the fact that the Angels appeared to the shepherds, while they were out tending their flocks would have been unheard of back then. Not only did God choose to notify the lowest rung of society first, but God also chose the unclean-the outcasts, those who were not permitted to mingle among the general population; the lowest of the low.

Let’s look at the next few verses in

Luke 2: 12-20

12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” 15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they 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. 19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

We can see from these passages that the shepherd’s hurried off to see the new born Christ. It is very safe to assume that the shepherds did not have the time or materials in order to perform the cleanliness ritual. So, more than likely, it’s safe to assume that the very first people to see Christ, other than Mary and Joseph would have been considered “unclean.” Even at Christ’s birth, God was beginning to establish the New Covenant-that there is no longer “clean and unclean”, Jew or Gentile, Slave or Free; as the Apostle Paul would write many years later. We also see from these passages that the shepherds told Mary about the visit from the Angel-vs. 19 says that Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. It is very possible that years later, when writing His gospel account, that Luke spoke with Mary to learn these events, directly from her. We do not know that for sure, but Luke did take the time to say that Mary treasured these things, pondering them in her heart, meaning that she stored them in her memory.

Because of these events 2000 years ago, all of mankind has the opportunity to receive Christ. Our biggest national holiday is centered around this story-whether society wants to realize it or not. If not for the birth, earthly ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, you and I would be lost.

Conclusion:

To wrap up this morning, I want to give you 3 reasons why the birth of Christ is important to you and I today. Over the last few minutes we’ve talked about some of the details, but why is Christ’s birth important to us today-rather than it simply being a nice story? I’ve already alluded to some of these things, now I want to bring them all together.

1. Christ had to be born to reveal the glory and nature of God.

Way back in the book of Genesis, God created Adam and Eve. They were made in the likeness of God-not the physical likeness, but the spiritual likeness. The original plan was for Adam and Eve to be the vessels through which God’s glory and Nature be revealed. As we know, they failed and sinned. Of course, God knew that was going to happen-so God had already planned for it. Thousands of years later, Christ was born-the second and greater Adam. Christ was God in human form, born, not through conception (like Adam). Through Christ’s birth, the true Glory and Nature of God was revealed to the world, His glory is Christ, and His nature is grace and truth.

14 And 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. Christ had to be born to fulfill prophesy

There are numerous O.T. passages that point to Christ. Some of them talk about His eventual death and resurrection, and some talk about His birth. I read a couple of examples earlier. Christ had to be born at a specific time and place, in order to fulfill those passages. If you think about how God ordered the steps of so many, in order to make it happen, just as the O.T. predicted. The only reason that Mary and Joseph were going to Bethlehem was because Cesar Augustus had ordered a census. To Cesar, this was purely a political thing, but it’s clear that God had moved upon Cesar to issue the census, exactly when it needed to happen. Only God could have caused all of these things to happen, just at the perfectly appointed time, in order for scripture (written hundreds of years prior) to be properly fulfilled.

3. Christ had to be born, in order to die, that the Holy Spirit might be sent.

John 3:16

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Not only was the birth of Christ necessary to reveal the glory and nature of God, to fulfill prophesy, but His birth was also necessary, in order for Him to eventually die. Of all 3 things I mentioned, this one is the most important. If not for Christmas, we would not have Easter. Later on in the book of John, Jesus is talking with his disciples, explaining to them that He must go away.

John 16: 5-15

5 “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.

It is the death and resurrection of Christ that brings salvation, but it’s the Holy Spirit that brings conviction of sin. Jesus makes this very clear in John 16. The Death of Christ separated us from the old covenant, but it’s the Holy Spirit that illuminates our hearts and minds, so we can understand the significance of both, His birth and death. If it were not for the birth of Christ, we would not have the death of Christ; this is why the birth of Christ is so special and important in our lives today. Let us never take these things for granted, or forget the significance.

Let’s Pray.