GOD Became Man

John’s Christmas Story

When we think of the Christmas Story we think of the accounts of Matthew and Luke.

Wise men, shepherds, Mary and Joseph in a barn surrounded by animals with Jesus in a feeding trough.

Those are seemingly the only accounts of the Christmas story in the gospels.

Mark starts with John the baptist and Jesus as an adult at the beginning of his ministry.

And then there is John’s gospel...

At first is may seem John starts out much like Mark, but in reality, John’s Christmas story uncovers the true significance of what happened that first Christmas, when the baby who would be names Jesus was born.

He was like no other baby ever born, because this baby, born of a virgin, brought about through the power of the Holy Spirit, would also be named Immanuel, which means “God with us”

And yet He was also just like every baby who has ever been born.

The God who created the universe, who sustains it all by His power, and who is above all, in all, and over all things, He was knit together inside of Mary’s womb over 9 months, born just like each and everyone of us, grew, developed and matured, and yet He was God.

God become Man...

The theological term for this is Incarnation, God in Christ taking on flesh, joining His divine nature with our human nature.

It is a mystery in that we cannot explain it in a way that could really be understood.

Jesus is 100% God while also being 100% man.

But this incredibly gracious act separates Christianity from all other faiths.

Our God is not some distant, uninvolved being who expects us to bring him things and do things to make him happy.

Our God, driven by His character, divine purpose, and deep love, came to us, and became LIKE us in ALL ways, yet without sin.

John’s Christmas story shows us just how incredible, powerful, and transformational the event we celebrate every December actually is.

It shows how Christmas reveals the nature and character of our God in the incarnation of Christ.

So let’s go to John chapter 1 as we seek to understand the significance of our Immanuel.

John 1:1–14 CSB

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. 9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13 who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. 14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Christmas Reveals...

God’s UNMATCHED CREATIVE POWER.

John brings us back, not to the beginning of Jesus’s life on earth, but back to the beginning of everything.

He intentionally echos the words of Genesis 1:1 as he begins to tell the story of Jesus.

It isn’t a story that started in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, that really was just the climax of the story.

John wants us to understand that the baby born in a manger, to a poor teenage virgin, in a stable in a small Jewish town, was not just any old baby.

He was the one that existed before everything existed. He was IN THE BEGINNING.

John uses the word “Logos” which is translated “Word” as a name for Jesus.

“Logos” referred to the spoken word, especially the meaning in the words being spoken.

By calling Jesus “logos” he is pointing to the word of God that was used to create the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:3 CSB

3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Genesis 1:6 CSB

6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters, separating water from water.”

Genesis 1:9 CSB

9 Then God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.

Over and over in Genesis 1 we are told “God spoke and another thing came into existence.”

God the Father was the architect and designer of all creation and God the Son was the builder.

John’s choice of the Word “Logos” was intentional in order to make clear just how incredible Jesus was and is.

We have seen the intentionality John took in describing who Jesus is.

He is the one who created everything that exists, without Him nothing that exists would exist.

We can step back and look around at all that is and we can begin to understand just how incredible it is that the one who literally brought this universe into existence, became a man.

And how he became a man is incredible as well.

God chose to bring Christ to earth is a way that best accomplishes His purpose and displays His creative power;

through a young teenage virgin named Mary, who was engaged to an honest, hardworking guy named Joseph.

It was hard for Mary to understand how this would be done:

Luke 1:34 ESV

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

Luke 1:35 CSB

35 The angel replied to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

God’s creative power on display.

Wayne Grudem is helpful here in uncovering God’s creative wisdom:

“It probably would have been possible for God to create Jesus as a complete human being in heaven and send him to descend from heaven to earth without the benefit of any human parent. But then it would have been very hard for us to see how Jesus could be fully human as we are...

On the other hand, it probably would have been possible for God to have Jesus come into the world with two human parents,both a father and a mother, and with his full divine nature miraculously united to his human nature at some point early in his life. But then it would have been hard for us to understand how Jesus was fully God, since his origin was like ours in every way.

When we think of these two other possibilities, it helps us to understand how God, in his wisdom, ordained a combination of human and divine influence in the birth of Christ, so that his full humanity would be evident to us from the fact of his ordinary human birth from a human mother,and his full deity would be evident from the fact of his conception in Mary’s womb by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.”

Christmas is a reminder of just how powerful our God is.

There truly is nothing our God cannot do.

God’s UNWAVERING FAITHFULNESS.

Listen to John 1:14 in the NLT:

John 1:14 NLT

14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

Full of “unfailing love and faithfulness”

The incarnation is fulfillment of what God promised all the way back in Genesis 3 after the sin of Adam and Eve.

The Son of God would crush the head of the serpent, Satan.

It is the fulfillment of the promises He made to Abraham and Moses and David to bless and multiply His people.

It is a fulfillment of the promises he made through the Prophets that He would do by sending a Messiah, a Deliverer, a Savior.

Matthew helps us see how God was faithful to His promises by writing:

Matthew 1:21–23 CSB

21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.”

Christmas is a reminder that:

God is a promise making and a promise keeping God.

He is faithful to His promises, for when He says He is going to do something He does it.

God’s UNIMAGINABLE GENEROSITY .

John 1:9–13 CSB

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13 who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

I think we often believe Jesus came to earth because He had to. Like He didn’t have a choice.

But that isn’t true, He wasn’t obligated or even forced to become a man.

He was compelled by love.

John 3:16 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

1 John 4:9 CSB

9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.

Christmas is a gift giving holiday and that is not a new phenomenon

For the past 200 years gift giving on Christmas has been the norm.

And the roots for giving gifts on Christmas can partially be traced back to a 3rd century Saint named Nicholas, who was often referred by his dutch nickname Sinter Klaas, now translated Santa Claus.

Tradition tells that Nicholas, a monk, had inherited a lot of money after the death of his parents.

He was known for giving generously to many folks in need and often did so secretly and anonymously.

It is believed Nicholas gave away most of, if not all of, his wealth by the end of his life.

Many years later, folks started remembering Nicholas on the day he died, December 6th.

It makes sense then why the birth of Jesus came to be celebrated in December.

Nicholas seemed to grasp the vital importance of generosity.

We don’t know how faithful he was to Christ, but it seems clear that Nicholas knew a kind of generosity that made the things of this world seem pointless to hold on to.

2 Corinthians 8:9 ESV

9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

The incarnation was an act of God extending grace to a ruined and lost humanity desperately in need of His grace.

He was not obligated, rather He was compelled by love and driven by purpose.

And without the generosity of God, if He did not come, did not live, did not die, and did not rise, then we would be left is a hopelessly condemned state.\

But “Joy to the World, our Savior reigns!”

Look Deeper at Christmas this Year