An Incredible Journey

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Introduction: “Over the river and through the woods...to Grandmother’s house we go”...is a seasonal journey that we sing about and often make at this time of the year. If you have seen or read the Tolkein trilogy of “The Lord of the Rings” you have made a fantastic journey to “Middle Earth.” There are amazing journeys that people have made. Think of the brave journey of the Mayflower in search of the New World. Or, the bold adventurous journey of Lewis and Clark. Or, the brave pioneers with all their belongings in a covered wagon heading west. Or, our first astronauts to leave our atmosphere and then on to the Moon.

The Bible also records some great journeys…Like that of Noah’s ark till it rested on Mt. Ararat. Or, Abraham’s journey of faith from Ur to Canaan. Or, Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt. Or, the journey of pregnant Mary and noble Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Yes, there have been journeys made that have affected the course of human history but none of these remotely compares to the Christmas journey that we will consider this morning...it truly was an incredible journey! We are reminded of this wonderful journey at this time every year. We are so familiar with it and we should be. But, we should also remember that this Amazing Journey began long before the prophets spoke of the Messiah…it began long before Matthew and Luke’s account of the announcement to Mary and Joseph. We are told about the beginning of this journey in the first chapter of John’s Gospel.

I. Jesus Journeyed from Heaven to Earth

1. John provides us with God’s-eye view of Christmas. John records in verse one, “In the beginning was the Word.” “Word” is a term for the pre-existent Jesus. It is the Greek term logos, and it refers to the Son of God, who as the Word lived forever in heaven. To be accurate, we need to say that the Son of God as the Word designed heaven. He created it. He built heaven. The third verse says that “through him all things were made”–including heaven and earth—“Without Him nothing was made that has been made.” So heaven was his home. He owned it. It was his perfect place, a place of satisfaction with the best of everything, more magnificent that all the stars on a cloudless night, more magnificent that the most beautiful sunrise or sunset you have ever seen or the most beautiful music you have ever heard, happier than the happiest days that any of us have experienced in all of life. That was home for him.

1. Notice if you will that John provides us with God’s-eye view of Christmas. John records in verse one, “In the beginning was the Word.” “Word” is a kind of nickname for the Son of God. It is the Greek term logos, and it refers to the Song of God, who as the Word lived forever in heaven. To be accurate, we need to say that the Son of God as the Word designed heaven. He created it. He built heaven. The third verse says that “through him all things were made”–including heaven—“Without Him nothing was made that has been made.” So heaven was his home. He owned it. It was his perfect place, a place of satisfaction with the best of everything, more magnificent that all the stars on a cloudless night, more magnificent that the most beautiful sunrise or sunset you have ever seen or the most beautiful music you have ever heard, happier than the happiest days that any of us have experienced in all of life. That was home for him.

2. But the Christmas journey brought him from there to here. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” He moved to our world. He was born to one of our women, in one of our stables, in one of our villages, in one of our countries, right here on our earth. It’s hard to imagine the contrast between heaven and earth.

3. There was a report awhile back from Manila in the Philippines. If one were to visit the garbage dump of Manila you would see a disturbing sight. On the dump in Manila there are tens of thousands of people who make their homes there. Shacks are constructed out of the things other people have thrown away, and their children are sent out early every morning to scavenge for food out of other people’s garbage, so they can have family meals. People have been born and grown up there on the garbage dump. They have had their families, their children, their shacks, their garbage to eat, finished out their lives, and died there without ever going any place else...not even into the city of Manila. Can you imagine such an existence? But there is more to this story! There are Americans who also live on that garbage dump. They are American missionaries, Christians who have chosen to leave their home country and go there in order to communicate the love of Jesus Christ to people who otherwise would never hear it or have the opportunity to receive it. Can you imagine that kind of commitment? That people would leave what we have to go and live on a garbage dump. That is amazing...but not nearly as amazing as the journey from heaven to earth!

4. The Son of God made that journey...and he knew what he was doing. He knew where he was going. He knew what the sacrifice would be. He journeyed from heaven to earth on a mission to be the savior of the world. He left a totally sinless habitation to come to a fallen world...a world corrupt with sin and evil. Those he had created had turned against God and polluted the earth...once a paradise...now in some respects a dump complete with its stench and dirt. It’s been suggested that if God had consulted with a modern business expert...the advice would have been to cut his losses and forget about this human race and start over someplace else. But that’s not God’s nature. “God so loved the world and us in it that he sent his One and Only Son from heaven to earth.”

4. The Son of God made that journey...and he knew what he was doing. He knew where he was going. He knew what the sacrifice would be. He journeyed from heaven to earth on a mission to be the savior of the world. He left a totally sinless habitation to come to a fallen world...a world corrupt with sin and evil. Those he had created had turned against God and polluted the earth...once a paradise...now in some respects a dump complete with its stench and dirt. Probably if God had consulted with a modern business exec...the advice would be to cut his losses and forget about this human race and start over someplace else. But that’s not God’s nature. “God so loved the world and us in it that he sent his One and Only Son from heaven to earth.”

II. Jesus Journeyed from Eternity to Time

1. It was a journey, a grand journey, but not only from heaven to earth but also from eternity to time. For this heavenly telling of the Christmas story says that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” When? When was the beginning? Go back as far as you can possibly imagine. Can you imagine 2,000 years ago or 10,000 or how about ten million or a billion years ago or a trillion or a billion trillion years ago? No matter how far in our wildest imagination any of us can go back in time, the beginning was before that...and the Word was there!

2. In the beginning the Word was. He already lived and existed because he never began. And then he started this journey from eternity to time. He came to our calendars, to our clocks, to our way of thinking and organizing schedules. He counted birthdays and spoke of the days of the week and lived in terms of bedtime and get-up time and work days and days off, and I’m sure he must have felt terribly closed in...restricted...the Son of God who had forever ago lived in all of the expanses of an un-timed eternity. He must have felt caged by the clock.

2. In the beginning the Word was. He already lived and existed because he never began. And then he started this journey from eternity to time. He came to our calendars, to our clocks, to our way of thinking and organizing schedules. He counted birthdays and spoke of the days of the week and lived in terms of bedtime and get-up time and work days and days off, and I’m sure he must have felt terribly closed in...restricted...the Son of God who had forever ago lived in all of the expanses of an untimed eternity. He must have felt caged by the clock.

3. When he came into time, he fit into our schedules. He became part of our history. He came, in fact, at exactly the right time. Even those who are not believers will say that it was the best of times for the gospel of Jesus Christ to be spread throughout the world of that day and beyond. Pax Romana, the Peace of Rome, had brought nations under the rule of a single emperor. People could travel on the Roman roads. There was a common language. And even those outside the Roman Empire saw a new star that moved across the sky from the east, and they too made a journey. It was the very best of times for the Son to come. Paul says it this way: “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” ( NASB) 4. But he came not only from eternity to time. He came, in a sense, to reset the clocks of time. Once our calendars were calculated by the reign of kings or queens. For example, a year could be called “Tenth Year of the Reign of a certain Emperor.” But that is no longer the case. Today calendars of the world are set in terms of the coming of the Son of God. It is 2017 A.D. Anno Domini...which means, “In the Year of Our Lord.” Christians and Jews and Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus and atheists...everybody must set their calendars and clocks by the coming of the Son of God from eternity to time.

3. When he came into time, he fit into our schedules. He became part of our history. He came, in fact, at exactly the right time. Even those who are not believers will say that it was the best of times for the gospel of Jesus Christ to be spread throughout the world of that day and beyond. Pax Romana, the Peace of Rome, had brought nations under the rule of a single emperor. People could travel on the Roman roads. There was a common language. And even those outside the Roman Empire saw a new star that moved across the sky from the east, and they too made a journey. It was the very best of times for the Son to come.

4. But he came not only from eternity to time. He came, in a sense, to reset the clocks of time. Once our calendars were calculated by the reign of kings or queens. For example, a year could be called “Tenth Year of the Reign of a certain Emperor.” But that is no longer the case. Today calendars of the world are set in terms of the coming of the Son of God. It is 2003 A.D. Anno Domini...which means, “In the Year of Our Lord.” Christians and Jews and Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus and atheists...everybody must set their calendars and clocks by the coming of the Son of God from eternity to time.

What a journey and what an impact!

III. Jesus Journeyed from Spirit to Body

III. Jesus Journeyed to Spirit and Body

1. What may be the least understood part of this Christmas journey was the journey that Jesus made from spirit to body. says, “The Word became flesh.” Obviously, the Son of God, called the Word, was not previously flesh, was not previously human–that eternal Son of God was a spirit, and only a spirit. You couldn’t see him. You couldn’t touch him. He was invisible, invisible just as God the Father and God the Holy spirit are today.

1. What may be the least understood part of this Christmas journey was the journey that Jesus made from spirit to body. says, “The Word became flesh.” Obviously, the Son of God, nicknamed the Word, was not previously flesh, was not previously human–that eternal Son of God was a spirit, and only a spirit. You couldn’t see him. You couldn’t touch him. He was invisible, invisible just as God the Father and God the Holy spirit are today.

2. But being invisible does not make anything or anyone less real. And if any generation knows that, surely ours does, because even in this room right now there is radiation. There are radio signals passing through. There are television signals passing through. There are all kinds of things we know to be not only real but also powerful–even though we cannot physically touch them or see them. The eternal Son of God was invisible as a spirit.

3. He didn’t have a body...and he really didn’t have a name, at least not in the sense we think of a name. He may have been called Son, or he may have simply been called God. But when he embarked on this amazing Christmas journey, he gained both a body and a name, for he was given the name Jesus. The name he was given was not the least unusual. It is the Hebrew word for Savior, and there were hundreds, thousands of Jewish boys and men who had the name Jesus. It was a common name. Even one of the Old Testament heroes had the name. Joshua, is the Hebrew form of the Greek name. In the Greek New Testament it is pronounced ihasus. Even today we have many who answer to the name Hesues. Jesus was a good name...not only because of what it meant...but also because there were lots of men and boys with that name. It wasn’t the name that made him special...rather He made the name special.

3. He didn’t have a body...and he really didn’t have a name, at least not in the sense we think of a name. He may have been called Son, or he may have simply been called God. But when he embarked on this amazing Christmas journey, he gained both a body and a name, for he was given the name Jesus. The name he was given was not the least unusual. It is the Hebrew word for Savior, and there were hundreds, thousands of Jewish boys and men who had the name Jesus. It was a common name. In the Greek New Testament it is pronounced ihasues. Even today we have many who answer to the name Hesues. Jesus was a good name...not only because of what it meant...but also because there were lots of people with that name. It wasn’t the name that made him special...rather He made the name special.

4. He gained not only a name but, far more importantly, he gained a body, a body he had never had before. The Son of God became limited by space. He became human not at Christmas but at conception nine months earlier. This eternal, powerful Son of God left heaven and became contained in a microscopic human embryo. He had not yet formed eyes or hands or feet or brain. God was contained. God, who is described in as the light, and yet for nine months was in total darkness. And, on the day he was born, he looked like any other human baby—six, maybe seven pounds in weight, unable to feed himself, with eyes slow to focus, hands not quite able to grasp, certainly unable to speak, wearing diapers...swaddling cloths...totally dependent upon a recently married couple for every necessity of life. Mary held in her arms the very Son of God!...the Creator of the Universe!

4. He gained not only a name but, far more importantly, he gained a body, a body he had never had before. The Son of God became limited by space. He became human not at Christmas but at conception nine months earlier. This eternal, powerful Son of God left heaven and became contained in a microscopic human embryo. He had not yet formed eyes or hands or feet or brain. God was contained. God, who is described in as the light, and yet for nine months was in total darkness. And, when he was finally born on Christmas day, he looked like any other human baby—six, maybe seven pounds in weight, unable to feed himself, with eyes slow to focus, hands not quite able to grasp, certainly unable to speak, wearing diapers...swaddling cloths...totally dependent upon a recently married couple for ever necessity of life. And he was the Son of God...the Creator of the Universe!

5. What an incredible journey that he became human, a body for us in order to reach us, in order to communicate with us in our language...in our way, in order to save us from sin and death. This eternal Son of God came from spirit to body. “The Word became flesh and moved into our neighborhood.” Now with a human body he would grow and develop just like we do. With that body he would labor side by side with Joseph in the Carpenter Shop. He hands would get callouses. He would get tired and need to rest. That was the same body that walked among men healing their diseases and forgiving their sins...the same body that was flogged in Pilate’s court and crucified on the cross...the same body that was laid in the grave...the same body that rose from the dead on Easter Morning...the same body that ascended into heaven and is there now at the right hand of God, the Father. It is the same body now glorified that the Bible predicts, and Jesus promises, will come back again to earth.

5. What an incredible journey that he became human, a body for us in order to reach us, in order to communicate to us in our language...in our way, in order to save us from sin and death. This eternal Son of God came from spirit to body.

The apostle Paul speaks of Jesus’ amazing journey this way: “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” ( NASB)

6. Now, as astounding as that was, be even more astounded that this was not a temporary change. It is not that he took a body for the 33 years of his biography that we have presented in the four Gospels. This body was not just for the one generation from Bethlehem’s manger to Calvary’s cross. This body was not just for the journey from the womb to the tomb. This was permanent. The body that was conceived inside of Mary is the same body that was born on Christmas day...the same body that grew up in Nazareth...the same body that walked among men healing their diseases and forgiving their sins...the same body that was crucified on the cross...the same body that was laid in the grave...the same body that rose from the dead on Easter Morning...the same body that ascended into heaven and is there now at the right hand of God, the Father. It is the same body that the Bible predicts, and Jesus promises, will come back again to earth.

Please, don’t miss the wonder and amazement of this Christmas truth: that God became human, that spirit became flesh, not only that he came to us, but that he became one of us forever. What an amazing journey!!

Jesus knew why he made that Amazing Journey. He said it himself, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” “I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly.” John knew why Jesus came, he wrote, “The Son of God has appeared to destroy the works of the devil” and, “He appeared in order to take away sin and in Him there is no sin.” Please, don’t miss the wonder and amazement of this Christmas truth: that God became human, that spirit became flesh, not only that he came to us, but that he became one of us forever. What an amazing journey!!

Please, don’t miss the wonder and amazement of this Christmas truth: that God became human, that spirit became flesh, not only that he came to us, but that he became one of us forever. What an amazing journey!!

Conclusion: The Christmas story is a story of journeys. It is the journey of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It is the journey of the angels with a birth announcement to lowly shepherds. It is the journey of those shepherds from the fields to the stable to see the baby lying in a feed trough. It is the journey of wise men from the east to worship the newborn king.

IV. Jesus Journeyed to Deity and Humanity

1. There is one more part of this Christmas journey for us to consider. It is the amazing fact that deity became humanity...this is the most amazing part of this story. says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” He was God, fully God, 100 percent God. Everything that God is...all powerful, all present, anywhere, everywhere at the same time, all knowing, not a secret withheld from him, God, holy, powerful, God of very God. And he became human?!

But His journey from heaven to earth…from eternity into time…from spirit to body was to your heart and mine. “Should Christ be born a thousand times anew…despair O man until He’s born in you!” Has Christ made the journey into your heart? Have you made the journey of surrender to His Lordship?

2. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us so that with the name Jesus, the Son of God became fully human. He gained a body with human organs, a human appearance...he felt human emotions...disappointment and delight, all the feelings we have. He had human thoughts structured the way our brain structures thoughts...as fully human as any and all of us. Now here is the miracle: when he became human...he was no less God, 100 percent God and 100 percent human at the same time. He is unique. He is absolutely one of a kind, and he made this journey so that he could become our Savior.

This wonderful journey is not over…one day Jesus will travel back here for those who are His own…to take them on their fantastic journey to their eternal home where they will be forever with the Lord! Have you made ready for that journey???

Conclusion: The Christmas story is a story of journeys. It is the journey of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It is the journey of the angels from heaven to shepherds in the field. It is the journey of the shepherds from the fields to the village of Bethlehem. It is the journey of sages from the east to worship the newborn king. But the greatest journey of all is the journey of the Son of God from heaven to earth, from eternity to time, from spirit to body, as deity into humanity.

Conclusion: The Christmas story is a story of journeys. It is the journey of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It is the journey of the angels from heaven to shepherds in the field. It is the journey of the shepherds from the hills to the village of Bethlehem. It is the journey of sages from the east to worship the newborn king. But the greatest journey of all is the journey of the Son of God from heaven to earth, from eternity to time, from spirit to body, from deity to humanity.

There is much to enjoy about the human side of Christmas...God wants us to enjoy it and love it...from decorations to all of the season’s festivities and the music and the celebration and the family time and the sharing. What a wonderful time of the year!

But let us not forget about God’s viewpoint of Christmas...the journey that God’s Son made to our world. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son...” He made that journey from heaven to here so that you and I could make our journey from here to heaven! But there is only one way for us to make the journey from here to heaven. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to be Father except by Me.”

But let us not forget about God’s viewpoint of Christmas...the journey that God’s Son made to our world. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son...” He made that journey from heaven to here so that you and I could make our journey from here to heaven!

An Incredible Journey

An Amazing Journey