Christ – Past, Christmas and Future

"Christ - Past, Christmas and Future"

John 1:1-5; 1 John 2:28-3:3

By Sean Kelly

This morning, being December 24, I felt it appropriate to try to preach on something related to Christmas. You have several options on how to do this. The first one is obviously, take a Christmas passage and preach through that.

There are three in the gospels. Mark does not have a Christmas story. Mark begins with the ministry of John the Baptist.

So Mark does not tell that story in his gospel. So it leaves you, Matthew, Luke and John. And now of these three to me, and if you disagree with it, this is fine.

This is Sean talking right now to me. They come from three different viewpoints. So you look at Matthew, and Matthew seems to come from the viewpoint of Joseph's view of what happened.

And it's not exclusively that, but it mainly focuses on him, his vision from the angels, how he was going to divorce Mary. But then the angel said, don't be afraid to take her as your wife. This child is of the Holy Spirit.

And going through that story there, Luke, when you go to Luke, and we read a little bit of Luke this morning, Luke seems to be, from Mary's point of view, what was going through her mind, the visit by the angels, telling her what was going to happen, her expressing that she's the handmaiden of the Lord. And then just the events surrounding that. Even at the end of the story, it talked about that Mary held those things in her heart that happened and that she saw that night.

And then you have John, and John, I think, again, my opinion, this is the Christmas story, I think, from God's point of view. And so it doesn't start with the manger. It starts with something else entirely.

And so I decided to start at this point. But I just didn't want to tell just a Christmas story because I think Christmas is about a little bit more than just a baby in the manger. And as John starts out before the Christmas story, with Christmas, there's a lot that happens before Christ comes to earth, and then there's going to be a lot happening in the future.

Yet it's not over with. The Christmas story is just kind of the middle of the story. It's not the full story of Christmas.

It's not the full story of what's going on. So this morning, I'm going to attempt to take a survey kind of of the full Christmas story, which means that we're not going to go super, extremely in depth, but hopefully it will remind us, and I think most of you know this, but it will remind us of what Christ's coming is really about. It will remind us of what Christ's coming will mean not only today but in the future and hopefully give us some application that we can apply as we celebrate the Christmas season.

So before we dig in, I'd like to go to the Lord in prayer and ask his blessing on this time. Heavenly Father, we praise you, Lord. We thank you for your word.

We know that your desire is to sanctify us through your truth and you have given us your word to do that. Lord, as we open it this morning, we desire to see you in the scriptures. We desire to see your plan and your goals for our life in the scripture.

That we may be the people you want us to be, Lord, that we may grow to be like Christ and that we may accomplish what you would have us to do. What is your will, Lord, as we study this morning, I pray you'd help us to focus on your word. I pray that you'd help us to focus on what is written there, what is being taught, that we may better glimpse visions of you.

Lord, just bless this time. Now may we put aside all other distractions, Lord, and just seek you out this morning in Jesus name. Amen.

So we're going to be in two passages, kind of. And we're going to look at different parts of Christmas. I called this Christ past Christmas and future.

My intent was to call this Christ past, present and future. But my present point is Christmas and for most of us we weren't alive back then so it can't really be present, but it's kind of present in the sense of what has happened already, what we know, what we have seen. And so I changed it a little bit just to make it a little more clear that it's not the present right now.

So as we begin, we're going to start in John chapter one. We're going to read the first five verses, I think maybe on the slides. If not.

Are you guys going to hand those slides for me up there? Thank you, Josiah. That would be a blessing to me. John, chapter one, starting in verse one, we read 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 were made through him and without him nothing was made.

That was made. In him was life. And the life was the light of men.

And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. So we're going to start here and I believe the Christmas story really begins before the baby in the manger. The Christmas story begins a long time back.

So we're going to look at Christ at the beginning and that's the first point there. Letter a, Christ at the beginning or Christ in the past is the first point. Sorry, I'm looking at the wrong part of my notes here.

Christ in the past. And we're going to look at this, and letter a is Christ at the beginning. And we see that in verse one here it talks about in the beginning.

Now when's the beginning? The beginning is before anything else happened. Beginning is at the start of things. The beginning is previous to anything else.

And so this is talking about Christ back in eternity past. And what did we learn about this? Well, we learned a couple things. In the beginning was the word.

And you may look at this and say, I don't know that this is talking about Jesus Christ. It has this word in here. Later on I'll show you that the word is Christ.

So just take that. Just assume that with me here. In the beginning was the word.

So we see Christ was there at the beginning, and what is he doing? A couple of things that tells us here the word was with God. And so we see at the beginning, Christ had fellowship with God the Father. You say, well, I don't see that.

I see that the word was with God. The word with here is the Greek word cross. It's not important for you to know necessarily, but it's a relational word.

It has the idea of facing. And so you could put in there that the word was facing God. And the word being Christ God here, referencing God the Father, they were facing each other.

Now, what happens when people face each other? Well, there's interaction. There's relationship. When you're talking to somebody, you're supposed to be facing them, right? You're supposed to be looking them in the eye and talking to them.

It's the idea here there was interaction between God the Father and God the Son. In the beginning, they had fellowship together. Now this is a good spot to say that, although this doesn't talk about the Trinity here, you can see the Trinity appearing at least partially in this passage.

If you go back to Genesis one, you get in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and the spirit of God hovered over water. So you know that at creation we have the word, we have God the Father, and we have the spirit. So you see that Trinity type of relationship.

But anyways, there was this relationship between God the father and God the son. Now this is a side point. Doesn't really have a lot to do with where I'm going, but it's important to point out because I think it would be helpful.

Some people, at least when I was younger, maybe they don't do this anymore, but they argue that part of creation, part of the reason why God created man was because he needed to have somebody to have fellowship with. And that sounds really nice, except when you start saying God needed somebody to have fellowship with. You see that God wasn't perfect then God had a need that wasn't fulfilled.

Well, does God need to fellowship? I think God desires fellowship, but what he had was perfect fellowship with the son, the son and the father, fellowshipping together for all eternity. So there was no need for God to create man to fellowship with. In fact, I think the reason God created man was for his glory, to glorify him.

And so it wasn't for fellowship. So that's a side point there. I hope that's helpful.

But we see that he had fellowship with the Father, but he also had equality with the Father. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God, and the word was God.

And here you see the three in one emphasis. How can somebody have fellowship with someone else but be the same person? Well, that's a mystery of who God is. We can explain the Trinity.

We can tell you how the Trinity works, but we don't really understand it because we have nothing like it. And people have tried to come up with different analogies, for this is what the Trinity is like, but nothing really fits perfectly right? Because Jesus Christ the son, was with God the Father, but he is also equal with God the Father. He was the same as God the Father.

So we see there's equality with the Father. A couple of verses I want to go to here. Colossians 115 tells us that he, Jesus Christ, is the image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation.

This word image is like an exact representation. This is the idea that when you look at the Son, you're seeing the Father, that there's that equality there. Another passage that talks about that two Corinthians four, three through four.

But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose mind the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, the exact likeness of God, should shine on them. So this idea, this idea of image that the Bible talks about shows us that Jesus Christ is God. As we look at Jesus Christ, we're seeing God the Father.

We're seeing the same person because they are the same. So in the beginning, Christ. At the beginning, he was in fellowship with the Father.

He was equal with the Father. Let her be here. Christ was the creator.

Verse two or verse three tells us all things were made through him. And without him, nothing was made that was made. Christ is the creator.

Now another side point, hopefully helpful. When you interact with people, there's certain cults that don't believe that Christ is the Son of God, that he's equal with God. They make him to be something else.

One of them makes Jesus Christ out to be a created being, and they end up changing this verse here. And they say all other things were made through him. And another passage, I'll share in a second, they do that kind of same thing.

They say all other things were made. So that way Christ can be the first created. Then he helped create everything else.

That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that Christ is the creator. Look at this again.

All things, every single thing was made through him. It goes on to say, and without him, nothing was made that was made. Well, if Christ was made, if he was created, then that statement can't be true.

There is nothing made that was not made by Jesus Christ. That means he has to be an eternally existing God. He has to be one with the father.

He has to be the creator. Another passage you're probably familiar with, Colossians 116 and 17 says, for by him all things were created. Here again, that call puts for him, by him all other things were created.

That's not there. There's no reason to even translate it that way. It's by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible.

Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him. It kind of gives you a sense of his lordship, how everything is for him and he is before all things, and in him all things consist. So Christ not only was he eternally with God and eternally was God, but he was the creator.

He created all things. And we see that. One thing I'd like to point out, a lot of times when we talk about being redeemed, they might know what the word redeemed means.

To be purchased, to be bought back. And the idea that we're purchased by God, I like to say that we're doubly purchased by God. As Christians, God purchased us through the blood of his son, Jesus Christ.

Because Christ died for us. He bought us. He owns us for that reason.

But it goes back even further. Because Christ created us. We are doubly purchased by him.

We are his creation and we are his saved people. And so, twice over, he is our Lord, he's our God. He owns us, he's purchased us.

Christ is the creator. Letter C here. Christ is the giver of life.

Verse four, we read in him was life, and the life was the light of men. We're going to get to light in a second. But Christ is the giver of life.

Where does life come from? Scientists would argue that life comes from this evolutionary process, that somewhere some non living thing was maybe struck by lightning in an ocean of water, and suddenly the elements came together and it turned from non life to life. That makes absolutely no sense. What makes sense is that Christ is the author and giver of life.

Again, he's created us. He's made us, and we have life from him. Not only that, but he's the author and creator of eternal life.

One of the things we're going to talk about a little bit later in the sermon is how we are separated from God. The Bible calls us death, for the wages of sin is death. And it's through Christ that we have eternal life through what he's done.

There's no other way but through Christ. In one John, chapter one, verses one through two, it says, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. And this is John writing again.

He's using some same terminology here. He's using the word, but this time he doesn't just call him the word, he calls him the word of life. Because where does life come from? It comes from Jesus.

It says, the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and declared you that eternal life, which was from the father and manifested to us. Eternal life comes only through Jesus Christ. It comes only through Jesus Christ.

So there's no other way. There's no other way to have life with God for all eternity than through what Christ has done for us. Christ is the giver of life, letter d here.

Christ is the originator of truth, the end of verse four. It says, the life was the light of men, and light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. Now you say, I see light there.

What does this mean, truth? Well, light, oftentimes, most of the time in the Bible, is a symbol for what truth is. The light shines in the darkness. The truth shines in the area where there's lack of truth.

He was here to bring us light, to bring us truth. He's the originator of truth. In one John one, six through seven says, if we say that we have fellowship with him, with Christ and walk in darkness again, here's that idea of darkness.

See what says next. If we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. So walking in darkness is equated with lying, with not practicing the truth.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. And so he came not only to give us life, but he came to give us truth, to tell us what is true, what is true about God, what is true about our state before God, what is true about us needing to trust Christ as our savior to believe on him, and what is true about how we're to live and what we're supposed to do for God.

He gave us truth. Verse five. It says, the light shines in darkness and the darkness is not comprehended.

The light shone in the earth. It was given to men. They could see the truth.

They could see Jesus Christ as he lived out the truth, as he spoke the truth, as he taught the truth. But it says that the darkness did not comprehend it. They didn't understand who he was.

And so who is Christ? In the past, Christ was in the beginning. He was with the father, and he was equal with the Father. He's the creator.

He's the giver of life and the giver of truth. Point number two here. So we have Christ in the past.

Now we have Christ at Christmas. Again, I said, I wanted to say present, but that didn't really fit the best. And so I'm not going to try to force it.

I'm going to say Christ at Christmas. We're going to look at one John nine, one nine through 14. Here John writes, that was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

He was in the world who was in the world. This is still talking about the word. He was in the world, and the world was made through him.

But the world did not know him. He came to his own. His own did not receive him, but as many as received him.

To them. He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believed in his name, who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. Verse 14.

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And here I was going to say, how do I know that the word is Jesus Christ? Well, here's telling us the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. So Christ at Christmas here, letter a.

Jesus was the embodiment of truth to mankind. We just talked about how he's the giver of truth, the originator of truth. He's also the embodiment of truth to mankind.

Again, keeping with this concept of light, that was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world. He's the true light. He's the truth of all men, and he comes to give truth to men in the world.

He's the embodiment of truth to mankind. John 14 six. Jesus says, he said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the father except through me. He's the way, he's the only way to the father. He's the truth.

He's the one who embodies, who proclaims truth, and he's the life, he's the giver of life. You see it all in that verse there. But I'm the way, the truth and the life going on here.

James 118. Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that when we kind of first fruits of his creatures, so the whole concept that we can only be saved through his truth. He's the one who brings that truth.

He's the embodiment of truth to mankind. Letter b. Jesus is the creator, was rejected by men.

So he comes into the world, he brings truth, he brings light to men, but men rejected him. We see that in verse ten. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him, so he was rejected by men.

He was in the world, he was around them. He is surrounded by them. Everybody could see who Jesus was.

In fact, he was the one who created them, but the world did not know him. This word know here has the idea of coming to know, coming to understand. It's like learning about them.

It wasn't that Christ came into the world, and they already knew who he was. It was Christ came into the world, and they had a chance to learn who he was. They had a chance to see him.

They had a chance to hear him speak. They had a chance to see the miracles he did. They had a chance to understand who Christ was, but they did not do that.

They did not know him. They rejected Jesus Christ. In one Peter, two, seven and eight.

It says, therefore, to you who believe, he is precious. Christ is precious. But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected have become the chief cornerstone.

And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble, being disobedient to the word to which they were also appointed. So many people have rejected Christ.

Many people in the world have rejected Christ. It's not that they haven't seen the truth. They haven't understood it.

They haven't embraced the truth that Jesus Christ is God, that he is the savior of mankind, and they've rejected him. But they're not the only ones. In verse eleven, it says, he came to his own, and his own did not receive him.

And we see that Jesus, the king of Israel, was rejected by Israel. You see, when an unsafe person who has no knowledge of the word of God, has no knowledge of the truth, they can see the truth. They can see the truth when it's presented to them.

But maybe they don't know Israel had been given Moses and the prophets and the writings and everything that pointed them to Christ. They had the knowledge, they had the tools to know who Jesus Christ is, and yet they still rejected him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.

The word receive has the idea of they did not accept him. They had knowledge of who Christ was, but they did not accept that Jesus was the Christ, the messiah, and they rejected their own messiah. Romans 931 and 32 says, but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.

Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Interestingly enough, we just read in first, Peter how the stone that the builders, the stone that the builders rejected became the chief cornerstone.

Paul, in that passage, uses that same reference there. After that, the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. The builders here, probably being Israel, that they saw Christ, they saw their messiah come, but they rejected it because they didn't want faith.

They wanted to do it their own way. They wanted to do it by works of the law, and so they rejected him. Romans ten, two and four says, for I bear witness that they have a zeal for God.

This is Israel again, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant, I think it's them making themselves ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

So they didn't accept Christ's righteousness. They didn't accept that Christ had offered them salvation, but they wanted to do it their own way. They wanted to live by their righteousness, and they rejected Christ.

So Christ was rejected by the world. He was rejected by his own people, by Israel. But Jesus the savior was believed on by the elect.

That's point. D Jesus the savior was believed on by the elect. Verse twelve of John one, it says, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believed in his name, who were born not of blood, nor the will of flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.

We just read that Israel did not receive him. But Christians have received him. They've accepted him.

They've trusted him. And as man has received him, to them he gave the right. He gave him the authority to be called children of God.

It's not because of anything we did. It's because of what God's done. And then he brings us into his family, makes us his children.

And how do we do that is to those who believe in his name, those who believe in the name of Jesus Christ. Verse 13, it establishes not who were born, not of blood, so not just being born into a group of people, nor of the will of the flesh, not by anything we do, nor the will of man, not by somebody else confirming on this title to us, but of God. God's the one who does the work.

In one Peter two, six and seven says, therefore, it is also contained in scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone. Elect precious.

And he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. You believe on Christ, it does something, it means something. It's the way of salvation.

Therefore, to you believe he is precious. But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. So to us who believe he's precious, he's everything to us, because he's the only way to life, he's the only source of truth.

And by believing on the person work of Jesus Christ, we can be saved. So Jesus the savior was believed on by the elect letter e. Jesus displayed God's glory to mankind.

In verse 14, it says that the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. When we beheld hold Jesus glory, we're seeing the glory of God again. He is God.

Now, I think here John is one of those three people who was on the mountain at the transfiguration, right? So he saw Christ in all his glory. He remembers that Peter talks about it in his epistle, how he was there when Jesus was glorified. And when they saw Jesus' glory, they saw the glory of God, the glory of God the Father.

But I think, too, then, when we glorify Jesus Christ, we're glorifying God the Father. In fact, we shouldn't study in Philippians. In Philippians two, it says, after it talks about Christ's sacrifice for us, it says, therefore, God gave him a name which is above every other name, that the name of Jesus.

Every niche should bow of those in heaven, of those on earth and those under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Acknowledging and worshiping and putting Jesus in the place where he deserves brings glory to God the Father. Two Corinthians four six says, for as God who commanded light to shine on the darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, how do we see the glory of God? We see it in the face of Jesus.

So we look at Jesus, we see God's glory. Now here he ends this verse here, talking about that he is full of grace and truth. If you're here, I think it was about a year and a half ago, Dr.

Taylor did an excellent message on what this means. The grace and truth. Actually did a whole series, I believe, on Wednesday nights.

So I'm not going to go a whole lot into this, but grace comes from God. Only grace comes from him. And Christ showed that to us.

And especially in his death on the cross, his sacrifice for our sins. He displayed God's grace to us as we talked about over and over already this morning. He shows truth to us.

He shows us who God truly is, what we need to do, how we need to please him. So that's the Christ of Christmas now. .3.

I'm going to go to a different passage here, but we're going to look at Christ in the future, and we're going to be in one John, chapter two and three. So Christ in the future, one John, chapter two, starting verse 28. And now, little children abide in him, abide in Christ, that when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. Behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him.

Beloved, now we are children of God. It has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.

Now, I know this isn't necessarily a Christmas passage, but like I said, the story I believe goes on. It's not just about Christmas, it's not even just about the cross and the resurrection. But Christ is returning.

And as we think about a lot of times, Christmas is called the first advent. There's going to be a second advent, there's going to be a time where Christ returns to earth again, and it's going to be a little bit different than the first time. He's not going to come as a baby, he's not going to be a suffering servant, he's not going to have to die again for our sins.

He's going to come as Lord, he's going to come as ruler, he's going to come as the authority over all things, and that ought to have an effect on who we are and what we do. So, a couple of points here. First one is Christ will return.

This is a guarantee. I want to say, bank your money. I don't want you to gamble, so I'm not going to tell you to gamble on it, but this is a guarantee.

I've been listening to these sports shows and when I'm at work to kind of have something in my ear, and oftentimes they'll talk about gambling and who they should bet on and stuff, and I think it's absolutely ridiculous. I think it's one of the worst things that's gone on is that our country has embraced betting on sports. I think it's absolutely ridiculous.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to have an opinion on this, but I do have an opinion on it. But if you were giving odds on Christ returning, it would be a one to one ods. It's guaranteed.

It's coming. We don't know when, we don't know a lot about who's going to be alive, who's not going to be all this stuff, but Christ is going to return. That is a guarantee.

First, Thessalonians 416 and seven says, for the Lord himself, Jesus Christ himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together.

With them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. This is a guarantee.

This will happen. It will happen exactly how Thessalonians describes it, that he's going to descend from heaven. There's going to be a shout, a large shout, and the dead in Christ, those who have died before us who are saved, are going to be caught up with him, and then we're going to follow and we're going to be with him forever.

It says, this is going to happen. This is real. This is not fiction.

This is not some movie plot. This is real life reality. Christ will return.

Letter B. Christ will transform us when he returns. We're not going to be the same.

In verse two of chapter three of first John, here it says, beloved, now we are children of God. We just read in John that we have been given the authority, the right to be called children of God. And John reiterates that you are children of God.

If you trusted Christ as your savior, you're a child of God. But look at what he goes on to say. We don't know yet what we're going to be.

What does that mean? Are we going to not be children of God? No, we're still going to be children of God, but we're not going to be the same children of God. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him. So why don't we know what we're going to be? Well, we don't know exactly what Christ is like right now.

We have some indication. You can go to revelation, you can see some of that, but we don't know everything about what it's going to be like. I've heard a lot of people preach and talk about what heaven's going to be like, and I think there's some things the Bible indicates.

Again, if you go through revelation, you can pick up some of what's going on. But a lot of revelation doesn't deal with heaven. It deals with what's happening on the earth in the tribulation.

So there's not a lot of detail. But what we do know is that when we go to be with him, we're going to see him as he is and we're going to be transformed and be like him. When he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

It's going to happen that you and I are not going to be the same. Now, the one thing I do look forward to, I know there's going to be no tears. So there's going to be no pain.

My back gets really sore now. Part of it is my weight. Part of it is I don't sleep well.

Part of it is whatever. There could be other parts of it, but I'm tired of my back being sore. Now, as I complain about this, I think about Randy, whose back is always sore and nothing compared to what I mean more than what mine is.

But I think about that kind of soreness this morning. I have a little bit of a migraine going on, and it's something I've learned to deal with. That's not going to be like that in heaven anymore.

There's going to be a change. You're going to be transformed. Now, that's going to be a minor change compared to the fact that God's going to take the sin away from us, that sin nature, and we're going to have his righteousness, his holy nature in us.

We won't have to deal with sin. We won't have to deal with relationship issues. We won't have to deal with temptation, to lie, to cheat, to do other things.

That's all going to be gone because God's going to transform us. We're going to be like him. One Corinthians 15 and verse 51 says, behold, I tell you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep. This idea of sleep here is the idea. We're not all going to die, but we shall all be changed.

We're not all going to die. Some people aren't going to die when Christ returns, they're going to be the ones that are remaining and are carried up without dying. But we're all going to be changed, no matter if you sleep or if you don't sleep in a moment, in the twinkling of the eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead in Christ will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruption has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the same that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory.

So there's going to be a change in us, this corruptible flesh. One of the laws of nature is that everything is going from a state of complexity to a state of simplicity. It's getting run down, everything's falling apart.

You look at your cars, how many of your cars are rusting out? Well, that's what happens. You go from a nice, perfectly brand new car. It gets rusted out, it falls apart.

The engine stops running, nothing's increasing and good. We're all running down. We're all heading to that point of dying.

If Christ doesn't return, our bodies are running down, the world is running down. It's falling apart. That's mortality.

But Christ says when he comes, we're going to put on the immortal. That's going to stop happening. We're going to be perfect.

We're going to have eternal life with him. So Christ will transform us. Letter C.

Christ should be transforming us. Now, this is a little bit different, transforming. This is not having to do with our body, our mortality or immortality.

This is Christ transforming us. Verse three says, everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure, just as Christ is pure. There ought to be a transforming of who we are, the type of person we are, that we're going from what the world is like to being the type of people that Christ wants us to be.

In Ephesians four, it says, to put off the old man and to renew your mind and to put on the new man. We're supposed to be changing. We're supposed to be growing in Christ.

Titus two, one of my favorite passages, verses eleven, says, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. So God's grace has appeared to us. Christ has shown that to us.

It says, teaching us. So who's the US? The US is Christians. He's writing to Titus.

Titus is a pastoral type. He's woman who's saved. And so the grace of God is teaching us to do certain things is to deny ungodliness and worldly lust.

Those old things that we used to be. We need to get rid of. We need to stop doing that.

We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, and we ought to start living the way that God wants us to live. We're not to be the old type of person anymore. We're supposed to be a new type of person.

And verse 13 says, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ. If you have the hope that Christ is coming back, if you have the hope that he's going to come back, he's going to take you, he's going to transform you, and you're going to be with him forever, and you're going to live for him forever. That ought to change the way you live right now.

You shouldn't be the same person you were when you first saved you shouldn't be the same person you were when you used to lie and cheat and steal and all these other things. You ought to be somebody different. You ought to be more like Christ.

You ought to be going that direction. Christ should be transforming us. That ought to be happening.

And a lot of that is based on the fact that we look forward to Christ's return. We know he's coming back for us. We know he's going to change us.

I was trying to think of an analogy. When I can't think of great analogies, I fall back on what I know. I know football, so I'm going to fall back on that.

Has anybody heard of Caleb Williams at all? Some of you have. This is a USC quarterback. Everybody thinks he's going to be drafted first in the draft right now, the Chicago Bears, a team that I despise and hate very much.

Owens, the first pick in the draft. If things continue the way they're going. So let's say Caleb Williams gets drafted by the Bears.

Now, if he gets drafted, he's not signed to the team yet. He's not part of the still. He's just drafted.

So let's say he gets up on the podium, he gets drafted by the Bears and he comes out wearing a Green Bay packers uniform. He has a Green Bay packers jersey after he just got drafted by the Bears. People be like, that's just not right.

Why is he doing that? That's not who he is. He's going to be a bear. Why is he wearing a packer uniform? In our life, we're going to be immortal.

We're going to be perfect. We're going to be without sin. We're going to be serving Christ forever.

That's who we're going to be. If we're going to be like that, then why do we keep living like we're someone else? If we're going to the bears, I hope none of you have to go to the bears. I really do.

Why are wearing Packer uniforms? No, you're going to be a child of God. You're going to be changed to be like Christ. You ought to be living like that right now.

And some of you are probably saying I'm doing pretty well. I'm trying hard. That's good.

I'm glad. I'm not really yelling at you about this. I'm just saying it just doesn't make any sense for a child of God to be living like the world.

That's not the team you're on. That's not who you play for. That's not what you're going to be.

We need to be working to be like Christ. I understand nobody's going to be perfect. We all deal with our sin nature.

We all have issues in our lives that we have to work on. But we ought to be growing in that direction, that we're more and more like Christ each day, from one day to the other, we ought to be a little bit more the way God wants us to be. Now, another reason relating to Christ's return is that there's going to be accountability for what we do.

There's going to be judgment. And I want to take two groups of people. First of all, for people who have not trusted Christ as savior, they face a judgment and it's based on Christ returning, Christ coming to rule.

He's going to judge us. We see this in revelation, chapter 20, in verse eleven. Revelation 20, verse eleven says, then I saw a great white throne and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away.

And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.

Then death and Hades were cast into the Lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found in the book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.

Now why did I say this is judgment for unbelievers? Because everyone who's at this judgment is going to be cast into the Lake of fire. Those whose names were not found in the book of Life. And people are going to be judged.

And you look here, there's books and there's the Book of Life. They're going to be judged based on their works. Their works are going to condemn them.

But the ultimate condemnation comes from not having trusted Christ as savior. And they're going to have to stand before Jesus Christ and give account for that. Now if you read this and you've trusted Christ, you're probably thinking, that's great.

I'm glad I'm not part of know God's showing his justice, but I've been saved. I'm fine, right? Well, for the believer, guess what? When Christ returns, there's going to be judgment. You said what? You just read that and you said that was a judgment for unbelievers how are we going to be judged? Well, for one, Corinthians 311 through 15 says, for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

So this is talking about people who have Jesus Christ as a foundation in their life. What does that mean? That means people have trusted him as their savior, people who have put their faith in Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver and precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear for the day.

And if you were reading in your bibles, you'll see in the new King James version, they capitalize the word day here. This is the day when Christ returns. When Christ returns, the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is.

Now, who's the each one in this one talk about the people who have Jesus Christ as their foundation, who have trusted Christ as their savior. This is believers. Their work is going to be tested.

And if anyone's work which he has built on and endures, he will receive a reward. So if you as a believer, are doing the things you're supposed to be doing, the things that have eternal consequence, the things that please God, when you stand before Christ in judgment, you're going to have things that remain, and you're going to receive a reward for that. Verse 15.

If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved yet as through fire. So if you don't do anything for Christ, if you don't grow, but you've trusted Christ as your savior, you're going to show no reward. It says you're going to suffer loss, you're going to loss of your reward, you're going to be saved, but yet, as through fire, you're going to get in, but with nothing to show for it.

So there's going to be a judgment for believers, too. And knowing that Christ is going to return, that Christ is going to hold us accountable for what we've done, that ought to motivate us to be pleasing to him. Jesus talked about when some get to heaven, that some are going to hear, well done, my good and faithful servant.

You want to hear that? You want to be serving Christ as you should. So Christmas future Christ is going to return. He's going to transform us, and he should be transforming us.

Let me give you a couple of applications this morning. First of all, looking at Christ being eternal God, Jesus Christ was, is, and always will be God. And he was, is, and always will be worthy of our worship.

And when I say worship, I don't mean what we did this morning, the singing or whatever. Our worship involves ascribing Christ the worth that he deserves through every part of our day, through everything we do, that all our actions, all our thoughts are bringing worship to him, are acknowledging who he is. Christ deserves that he is eternally God.

Secondly here, Jesus second coming should motivate us to live righteously for him. I think I showed that in the last point there that we ought to be motivated to live for Christ now because we are going to be like him someday and we're working in that direction. So I'm not going to say a whole lot more on that third application.

Jesus' second coming should us to reach the lost. We talked about those last judgments, the one for the unbelievers, those who have not trusted Christ as their savior, those who have not put their faith in him. They're going to be in the lake of fire for eternity.

There's no escape from that eternal torment and judgment. Knowing that Christ is going to return and knowing that people who don't know the Lord, that's what they're going to suffer, ought to move us with compassion, ought to move us with a desire to share the gospel with them. If it doesn't do that, there's something wrong with us.

There's something wrong with the way we think and how we view Jesus Christ. We ought to be sharing the gospel. Finally, my last application point here is salvation itself.

You might be here this morning and you might be in that group that's going to face the believer's judgment someday. And you can say to yourself, I've trusted Christ as my savior. That's good.

I'm glad. I would just encourage you to continue to live for him, continue to grow in him. But perhaps you're here and you're like, I think I'm in that group of the unbelievers that are going to stand before Christ and be judged.

And my name's not written in the book of life. What do I need to do? Well, you need to realize that God is holy, God is perfect, God is righteous, and because of that, he demands us to be righteous. As I mentioned already at least a couple of times this morning, we're not that way.

We're sinners. We have not met God's perfect standard. Bible tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

There's not a single one of us that meets God's standard of righteousness. And that's a problem because we have a righteous God who demands righteousness, but we can't be righteous. So what do we do with that? Well, that's where the whole Christmas story comes in.

You see, we can't make ourselves righteous, but God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to be born as a human, to be born as a babe in Bethlehem, but not just to be born, but to go to the cross, to die on the cross for our sins, to pay the price, the sacrifice to our sins. God demands righteousness. And the cost of not being righteous is death, for the wages of sin is death.

But Christ died in our place to take our place on the cross. And what Christ can provide on the cross is he can forgive us of our sins and he can give us that eternal life. He is the originator of life.

He's the one who gives out life. And we know this is true because Christ rose from the dead. He was resurrected.

In fact, it says that he rose again. He's now with God the Father, and we know that he's coming back. We talked about that.

So what do we need to do? Well, thankfully, the Bible's very clear on that. A story that I enjoy. Paul was in jail in Philippi.

Him and Silas were there. They were in jail. They were chained.

They were praising God. They were singing and glorifying him. Then about midnight, there's an earthquake that happened, and all the prisoners were freed from their chains, freed from the prison.

And the Philippian jailer, the guy in charge, realizing that this happened and realizing that if the prisoners escaped that he would earn their punishment, decides he's going to kill himself, because doing that would be far better than facing roman punishment. So he's about to do that, and Paul says, stop. Don't do that.

We're all here. Philippian Jr. Turns on a light, which probably would have been good in the first place, to see who was gone or not.

But this is how he was thinking, turns on a light and sees that's true. And he's been hearing Paul and Silas glorify God. Sing to him.

He probably heard the gospel over and over that night. And he asks the question, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And Paul gives a very simple answer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you and your household, and you will be saved.

It's simply by belief. We don't have to do anything. We don't have to work for our salvation.

God has provided that for us. All we have to do is believe Jesus Christ, what he's done for us, on the cross that he died and rose again for us. It's that simple.

And if you truly believe, you go from death to life. You go from darkness to light. You go from being an enemy of God to being a child of God.

You go from being in that lake of fire judgment to being a judgment where you can be rewarded for what you've done for Christ. It's that simple. It's a choice that I hope if you have not made that, that you see the truth of who Christ is and you choose to trust him.

This morning Christmas story. It doesn't just happen on Christmas Day. Starts with an eternal God who came born as a man, died for us, rose again, and is going to be coming back someday.

Let's go ahead and pray. Heavenly Father, we do praise you and thank you. We thank you for the chance to look at your words.

You remembered what Christmas is about. That while we celebrate the babe in the manger, we celebrate your son coming to earth. We realize that that wasn't the sole purpose, that his purpose was to provide salvation and that we know that he's coming back again.

We thank you for this truth and the word. I pray that if any do not know Christ as their savior, that they would trust him as their savior. I pray that you would help us who are saved, to be walking in your ways, to be doing what is right, to be sharing the gospel with those around us.

Help us now as we conclude this service to continue to live for you, to glorify you, to honor and bless you in Jesus name we pray. Amen.