The Man Behind the Curtain
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Yanni’s
Yanni’s
Introduction
Introduction
I always say that music is ruined for me
If you’re a musician you might relate
I don’t listen to a song to just enjoy it
1, 5, 6, 4 progression, lemme guess verse chorus bridge chorus, too much autotune
Sometimes the mystery is a beautiful thing
Not knowing why that symphony was so beautiful, but clearly seeing that it is
But is there something to learning about music? The behind the scenes?
Sweet Child O’ Mine: Slash was playing a string skipping exercise
When it came time to record the bridge, Axl didn’t have lyrics
Listening to the demo on loop
He was thinking out loud, “Where do we go? Where do we go now?”
Their producer Spencer Proffer said, “Just sing that!”
Knowing that, does that cheapen the song? Or does it make it more special?
At Christmas, everyone knows we’re here to celebrate the birth of Jesus
We usually look at that from our viewpoint - and it’s beautiful!
But what if we look at Christmas from God’s perspective?
If we see the background will it cheapen it, or will it make it more special?
We’re about to find out!
YouVersion: The Man Behind the Curtain
John 1:1-2, 13-45; and 17:5 as well as Luke 2:2-15
Who is Christ?
Britannica: Jesus, also called Jesus Christ, Jesus of Galilee, or Jesus of Nazareth, is a religious leader revered in Christianity, one of the world's major religions. He is regarded by most Christians as the Incarnation of God.
NT memory lesson
We’re in the book of John; it is a book with special perspective!
This is why it was written:
31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
This book helps us believe!
We have fragments as far away from Jerusalem as Egypt from 150AD!
It was helping people believe only shortly after Jesus ascended
This book is so simple it’s easy to understand, but so complex you’ll never understand!
Erdman: “Its stories are so simple that even a child will love them, but its statements are so profound that no philosopher can fathom them.”
It is said that the book of John is a pool in which a child may wade and an elephant may swim
John the beloved disciple is writing what he knows of Jesus
He’s going to talk about the supernatural side of Christ
How does he know? I like to think Jesus TOLD HIM!
He begins the book very different from the other synoptic gospels:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.
So simple, and so profound!
4 important words here we’re going to look at:
Beginning
Word
With
Was
Start with beginning
Where else do we see the beginning?
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
When John says the beginning, he’s talking about BEFORE CREATION
The Hebrew word bara means “created out of nothing”
This is something we cannot do!
We can assa, which means to form or shape out of matter, but not out of nothing
So Jesus was created at the beginning of the universe?
NO! At the beginning of the universe, Jesus already WAS!
Jesus was not created with time, matter, Adam, on December 25th or any time!
Jesus has always existed outside of all time, space and matter
2. Word
And according to John 1, we have the Word...
Greek word for “Word” is logos
Means word, reason or plan
Read John 1:1 again:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Essentially, when the beginning began, the Word was already there!
These are some great movies:
The Usual Suspects
Fight Club
The Prestige
Psycho
I love these movies because they have twists at the end
SPOILER ALERT! I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Planet of the Apes
Astronauts crash land on some distant planet
They have hibernated all the way to 3978
There, humans are mute and uncivilized and apes are advanced
Taylor, the main astronaut, proves he is intelligent and escapes with an ape scientist
He then finds remnants of a civilization when humans were the smart ones!
They then ride horses along the beach where they see the head of the Statue of Liberty
Turns out, they were on earth all along!
Humans had destroyed the planet and apes later evolved to take over
We often view Jesus’ birth through a certain lens
Through the eyes of the Jews
The eyes of Joseph and Mary
Even our own eyes; what Jesus means for us
But the truth is, Jesus’ birth is NOT the start of Jesus’ story!
Jesus has been around the whole time
Jesus has been behind everything since before the world began!
To paraphrase John 1:1: Before anything in the universe existed, God had a reason and a plan
This plan, this Word, was Jesus Christ!
But wait, how do you know Jesus is the “Word” being talked about?
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.
Jesus has always existed outside time, matter and space...
But Christmas marks the beginning of Jesus’ flesh as a human...
That means that this heavenly being became flesh; became human!
It’s like creating a universe in a video game...
But then you turn yourself into code and live in the game
Like Tron!
Except this is real life...
God really did become human...
How do you know that?
Let’s look at the last two words:
3. With
4. Was
The Word AKA Jesus has two relationships to God at the same time:
He was WITH God… meaning there is a distinction
And He WAS God… meaning they are the same
This is where we get the theology of the Trinity
We have Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Three DISTINCT beings
But also the SAME Godhead
I’ve said before, you can’t describe this with an analogy
Not water, steam and ice
No yolk, white and shell of an egg
No three leaf clovers
and no father, brother and son for a man
“The Trinity is a mystery that cannot be comprehended by human reason but is understood only through faith and is best confessed by stating that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity; neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance and that we are compelled by the Christian truth to confess that each distinct person is God and Lord and that the deity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is One. Equal in glory and co-equal in majesty.
You need to know this: Jesus is distinct from God the Father
As we said, He is also God, but His person is different
That means that the human Jesus left heaven and came to earth
And for THAT moment, the angels celebrated!
9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was 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 those with whom he is pleased!”
15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
We think of how awesome it would be to see these enormous and beautiful angels
But thats not what these beautiful angels are thinking about
They have a view from the other side of Christmas!
They’re excited because God Himself has become flesh and has gone to mankind
Emmanuel, God with us!
Can you fathom that?!
Mark always describes Jesus as like us humans shrinking down to help the cockroaches
I think that’s a little rude to the cockroaches!
And generous to us!
It makes no earthly sense that God would leave His throne for us...
And yet, He does
In all His power, majesty and glory...
He becomes one of the most frail things in existence - a baby
And all these angels show up, praising God!
These shepherds look into the throne room of heaven to see the best celebration!!
What are they celebrating?!
Come and see what God has done for you.
You see, our side of Christmas looks pretty boring
A poor laborer travelling with his young wife
Pregnant without a place to stay
Stuck in a barn with her baby in a feeding trough
Nothing special - as ordinary and uninteresting as possible
But what about the other side of Christmas?
The side where God has left His throne
To live amongst His creation
To eat with them, talk with them, work with them...
And ultimately die for them
So they can be rescued...
THAT is what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown...