Christ Came Down….To Show us the Father!

There are many wonderful experiences we all look forward to celebrating at this time of year…

Traditions…festivities…foods…gifts…gatherings…all of it…can help us celebrate the season.

But we must always come back to WHY Christ came down…remind ourselves what Christmas is all about.

We love celebrating the WHAT of Christmas…angels, shepherds, magi, Mary, Joseph & baby Jesus in a manger etc.

Nothing wrong with celebrating the WHAT of Christmas. (2/4 Gospels birth narratives)

Sometimes when we focus on the WHAT of Christmas we may miss the WHY…Christ came down

So that’s our goal here at Fellowship over the next month.

We’ll still look at the WHAT of Christmas

We will dig into: WHY Christ came down…looking at Christ’s own description why He came to earth

Here is where we are going in the coming few weeks…

To Show us the Father…December 8

To Proclaim (Bear witness) the Truth…December 15

To Give His Life…December 22

To Save the Lost…December 24

To Send us Out…December 29

Today, Christ came down…to show us the Father…to ensure we have a right perspective of who God is

What’s your perspective of God?

What words would you use to describe God?

What’s your experience?

Where does your perspective come from?

If Jesus came to show us the Father it only makes sense that by LOOKING at Jesus…we would get to know who God the Father really is.

John 14:6-9 On one occasion Jesus said to His disciples: “I am the Way the Truth and the Life…no one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Philip (disciple) chimed up and said: “Lord, show us the Father and it is enough?

I.e. We want to know more about Him…Show us it is enough

John 14:9

“Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.”

From Jesus’ own lips: “I have come to show you the Father…and if you have seen Me (the reality of who I am)…then you have seen God the Father.

Get this basic reality: Jesus came…took on flesh to help us better understand who God the Father is.

John begins His gospel helping us understand this reality…that Jesus came to show us the Father.

John is the 4th of 4 gospels that begin the NT in our Bibles…

Matthew, Mark, Luke & John…each are PORTRAITS of the life of Jesus…

Each a little different PERSPECTIVE…PURPOSE & AUDIENCE

Matthew…begins with Jesus’ family tree, looking back at the OT to see where Jesus came from. (Royalty)

Mark…jumps right in to Jesus’ public ministry…no mention of His birth.

Luke…begins with the birth narrative…where we see the what of Christmas.

John…is different…he doesn’t just go back to the OT…He goes to before time begins.

The one story of the Bible is an epic story…

An epic story always needs a prologue or prequel... John gives us a prequel…and John 1:1-18

John is going to tell us…

1. The BACK STORY…John 1:1-8 …of WHY Christ Came Down…

2. The RESPONSE…John 1:9-13 …that the world had to the fact that Christ came down…

3. The REASON…John 1:14-18 …then He will give us the reason why Christ came down.

1. The BACKSTORY of WHY Christ Came Down…John 1:1-8

a. THE BEGINNING…

“In the beginning…” John takes his readers back…to another story that began the same way

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning…” beginning the exact same way Moses did…

The Jewish mind would have known and expected the next word to be…God.

“In the beginning God…was there…

But notice what John does… “In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was with God…and the Word was God”

John 1:1

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:2

“He was in the beginning with God.”

With God…in a relationship with God…and He was God…was God Himself.

Who John is calling the Word…is Jesus Christ. The Word = logos…is a title of Jesus Christ.

So WHY is Jesus called “the WORD”? (glad you asked)

Think about how you and I use WORDS?

WORDS are used to communicate…

To explain meaning…

To help people better understand what we are saying…

Words paint a picture so people understand…

When the invisible God wanted us to better understand who He is…He sent for us…Jesus.

So John refers to Jesus as the Word…because words communicate, explain & help us understand

He doesn’t begin in the first century when Jesus came to earth…

He begins in eternity past to help us understand that Jesus is God. “…the Word was God.”

In relationship with one another…one God..revealed in 3 persons.

What would have happened next as they continued to read John 1.

b. CREATION…

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created…the heavens and the earth…”

Look what John says:

John 1:3

“All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.”

God created the heavens and the earth…Jesus the Word …was there creating with Him.

Isn’t it ironic that John refers to Jesus as the Word?

How did God create?

The most repeated phrase in Genesis 1? “…and God said…”

And God said: “…let there be light…let the earth sprout vegetation…let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens…let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures…let Us make man in our image” etc.

God created through His words….And Jesus as the Word was there creating with God.

Genesis 1:26 “Let us make man in our image…after our likeness…man comes on the scene.

John 1:4

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

c. SIN & DARKNESS…

Shortly after humanity was created…something went wrong in the world… Adam & Eve disobeyed God…bringing sin and darkness into the world (Genesis 3)

Genesis 3:11 God says to Adam & Eve: “have you eaten of the tree…

We were supposed to be in a right relationship with God…

Adam & Eve said “No, we don’t want to be in relationship with You…we want to do our own thing…

So sin & darkness entered the world.

Look at what John said in:

John 1:5 (ESV)

“The light (Jesus) shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

[No matter how broken, sinful the world seems…the light of Jesus Christ will not be overcome by that darkness.]

So in these first verses of John 1 John gives the BACK STORY…telling us what we need to know to understand the reality of why Christ came down.

He recounts for us the creation story…

He tells us about…God…creation…humanity…sin, all in the first 5 verses.

[SEE SIDE BY SIDE GRAPHIC…]

d. GOD’S RESCUE PLAN…

TWIST…John 1:6-7

John 1:6–7

“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.

…you’d think John would give us more detail…maybe give us the reason why Jesus came etc.

But he doesn’t write about Jesus …instead he writes about John the Baptist!

Why are you going there John? referring to John the Baptist Jesus cousin.

You just gave us an account of eternity past why are you now talking about John the Baptist?

Here we need to understand the ONE STORY of our Bibles…

When sin & darkness entered the world…God established a RESCUE PLAN and made a promise

That a RESCUER would come…a Messiah…Saviour…Christ would come to RESCUE His people…and

Through all the OT…God provided people…pointing forward as signposts/witnesses towards that Rescuer…towards that Messiah/Deliverer…

People like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph & Moses…David, Solomon and all the prophets…

All served as witnesses pointing us forward to God’s solution that would come in Jesus Christ.

This is not a stray path in v.6-7…he is saying the last signpost/witness pointing to the Rescuer is John the Baptist.

He comes as a witness of the Light…to the one true light.

In v.1-8 John basically summarizes about 800 pages of OT history.

To bring us to this moment in v.9. John has given to us the BACKSTORY.

2. The RESPONSE…that People had to this reality…John 1:9-13

John 1:9 A Christmas verse…we celebrate the coming of Christ…Jesus coming on to the scene.

John 1:9

“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.”

John 1:10-11 The response of the world?

John 1:10–11

“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.”

Jesus came…in an unexpected way…They did not know Him…nor recognize Him.

They did not see or understand recognize the signposts provided…witnesses that pointed them to Jesus.

Even His own people who had the Scriptures & prophecies…had the texts that point us to Jesus …they did not receive Him…the very One who was sent to rescue them… was rejected!

However, there is always a remnant, a glimmer, always hope…Look at John 1:12

John 1:12 (ESV)

“But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God…”

But to all…not to some…to ALL who received Him…

He gave the right to be restored again into a right relationship with God…which is what He wanted from the very beginning.

You and I have the invitation as well.

Have you received Jesus Christ?

Are you believing in His name?

Believing in your heart…In all of who He stands for…what His name describes Him to be?

Not a Jesus you have created to be in your own imagination…but the Jesus here in the Scriptures.

Have you received and believed in Jesus as He is presented to us in God’s written word?

What has you response to Jesus been?

John gave us the BACK STORY in v.1-8…v.9-13 he gives the RESPONSE…of people to the Light

3. The REASON Why Jesus Came…John 1:14-18

Beginning in v.14 he gives us the REASON why Jesus came.

If you are reading this …you might think these two should be flipped. John, give us the REASON first…then we will RESPOND.

But that’s not what he does. He shows the RESPONSE people had to Him and then shows us the REASON WHY Christ came down.

The reason…we should be celebrating at Christmas.

The reason for the season that we need to make sure that we don’t miss.

John 1:14

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

“The Word…” who we were introduced to in v.1

“became flesh…” this is how we we know this person is Jesus, the second person of the Godhead the pre-existent one…the One who was with God…and was God…

God Himself took on human flesh…

He added humanity to His deity and stepped into time…

Stepped down onto planet earth The INSTRUCTIONS became a PICTURE so we can see clearly.

On Christmas day, parents…the 3 most dreaded words that many of you face on Christmas morning.

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED…a favourite part of Christmas day….tiny screw driver, alan wrenches…

Watch Out! Construction takes place…instruction manual set aside…until your wife says: “What’s this piece for?”

Illust: IKEA…no written instructions…the instructions are all pictures…only word…name of the item.

IKEA has recognized…words no longer do…words are often misinterpreted.

So instead…they give pictures…making it as clear and simple as possible.

Friends…That’s what God does at Christmas…

The Word became flesh…the Instruction became a Picture

So that we can’t misinterpret…misunderstand…

So that we can’t miss the clarity of who God is…

By looking at the picture presented to us in the person of Jesus Christ….the image of the invisible God.

Do not look at a church for an accurate picture of God…look to Jesus

Colossians 1:15 “He is the image of the invisible God…”

Hebrews 1:3 “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of Hiso nature…”

Michael Card…The Final Word… “…eternity stepped into time so we could understand.”

We look to the Picture and the reality of who Jesus is…in order to understand who God truly is

The Word became flesh…John says …and dwelt/tabernacled among us…

John is drawing readers back to the OT…God was revealed…His presence was a reality in the tabernacle.

God has always wanted to dwell with His people…

Now John says…in the coming of Jesus Christ that’s what God is doing.

God Himself…is DWELLING amongst, with His people so it gives us an opportunity to see Him first hand

And then…we have seen His glory…His essence…attributes on display in picture form…

What we have seen is the glory of the only Son from the Father…one of a kind Son, that came from the Father

full of grace and truth…

Two words John used to describe what the people saw…GRACE and TRUTH.

I believe he was taking his readers back to the OT again…

To the time where God comes and reveals who He is to Moses…by describing Himself this way:

Exodus 34:6

“The Lord passed before him (Moses) and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

These are the words God used to describe Himself: The love…the grace and…the mercy…

Part of His very nature & character…

The covenant faithfulness of our God coming and making a promise to His people.

And He is a covenant keeping God who will be true to the promises He has made…

The covenant keeping faithfulness of God…finds its ultimate expression the coming of Jesus Christ.

The two ‘words he used to describe the Word GRACE and TRUTH…

He does not say…Jesus was a balance of grace and truth…it says He is full of grace and truth.

Jesus is not a balance of grace and truth…Jesus is the full measure of both.

He is the full measure…filled up to the brim with both grace and truth.

As you read the gospels it comes out over and over and over again…

When He spoke to the woman caught in adultery…He said to her “Neither do I condemn you…grace

Then He said to her: Go and sin no more…that’s truth. In one sentence Jesus was full of both grace and truth.

John 1:16–17

16 “For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John says “For from His (Jesus) fullness we have all received grace upon grace

We’ve all read about? Learned about? Understood? No!

We have all received grace upon grace upon grace from Him.

He was here in the flesh and we received it from Him…we lived it with Him.

It is interesting how we use the word “full” in today’s context.

When someone they are full of themselves…prideful boast full

When someone is lying…we say they are full of it…not telling the truth.

The fullness of Jesus…it is grace and truth upon grace upon grace upon grace.

He ends his prologue by telling us one of the main reasons why Jesus came down…and what we celebrate at Christmas:

John 1:18

“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known.

Jesus, the only God…at the Father’s side…has made Him known. Jesus has made God known to us.

If you want to understand and have a right perspective of who God the Father is…

Read about Jesus in the Gospels…

Read and listen to His words…

See how He interacts with other people…

Allow that to shape and form how you perceive and how you think of God.

Whatever you do…Do not create God in your own image…

Instead know God… in the image of Jesus because Jesus is the PICTURE of who God the Father is

Jesus CHRIST CAME DOWN…To show us the Father…

And as you and I have received grace upon grace upon grace upon grace…

Just as the Father has sent Jesus He sent…

I am sending you…we look to Jesus to see God…people should look to us and see Jesus and God the Father as well

PERSONAL REFLECTION & ACTION…

This Christmas season…let’s extend to others the grace which has been extended to us.

Some do not look forward to the Christmas gatherings ahead…these next couple weeks…

But let’s come in with a mindset of grace…

A mindset of giving other people the benefit of the doubt…

A mindset of being others centred and others first…flexible instead of rigid…a mind set of being slow too speak and quick to listen…

And as we come with a gracious and grace filled attitude of the grace upon grace upon grace upon grace that we have received allow that grace to overflow into the lives otter’s

Because everyone this time of year needs to understand why CHRIST CAME DOWN.