Well, today, we are going to begin our Christmas message series on this first Sunday of Advent. And of course, we're going to be looking at the birth of Jesus. We're going to look at the meaning of the birth of Jesus, the significance of the birth of Jesus, the impact of the birth of Jesus 2000 years ago, and the impact it still makes in our world and in our own lives today. Now, when doing a Christmas series, you might expect, if you're familiar with your Bibles, that we would be focused on Matthew or that we might be focused on Luke, because it's in those two gospels that we learn the most details about the birth of Jesus. We learn the details of the genealogy of Jesus, and they describe the events of Mary and Joseph and the conception of Jesus and the details surrounding his birth into our world. But we're not going to study either one of those gospels this year. We've looked at those in the past, and no doubt we'll go back to them from time to time, but this year, during this Christmas season, we're going to be focusing on the book of John, and we're only looking at 18 verses, the first 18 verses in the opening chapter of the Gospel of John. And he doesn't give us the historical details of Jesus's birth. He gives us a different perspective. He gives us a perspective of going much further back than even Mary and Joseph. He kind of pulls back the curtain, if you will, to help us see what's really going on when Jesus is birthed into this world, reading a number of commentaries this week, studying and prepping and asking the Lord to reveal to me what he wants me to say to you. And I came across some comments from Edward bloom about this perspective that John writes, and I just thought it would help give some perspective to all of us as we begin to walk through John's Gospel. Here's what he writes in his commentary. He says, Listen, all four gospels Begin by placing Jesus within a historical setting, but the Gospel of John is unique in the way it opens. The Book of Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus that connects him to David and to Abraham. Mark starts with the preaching of John the Baptist. Luke has a dedication of his work to Theophilus and follows with a prediction of the birth of John the Baptist. But John begins with the theological prolog. It is almost as if John had said, I want you to consider Jesus in His teaching and deeds. But listen, you will not understand the good news of Jesus in its fullest sense, unless you view him from this point of view, this point of view that he's going to share with us, especially within this Prolog the first 18 verses of his gospel, he gives us this point of view on Jesus' birth that is almost Well, it is from a cosmic perspective, rather than just a historical perspective. He wants to make sure that you and I do not miss the meaning and the impact in the absolute, ultimate significance of this event. And so we're only looking at three verses today, but there is so much to unpack in even just these three verses, so we need to dive right in. Here is what the apostle John writes in the opening verse, the opening line of his gospel. He says, In the beginning, was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now the first thing that we need to make sure that we understand and see is who or what John is talking about when he references the word, he does it three different times here, and you and I are looking at that going, who's the word and why does he use that particular language, if it's describing someone. Why doesn't he just say their name, if you will? And he is talking about a person. A little bit later in this Prolog that we're going to look at in verse 14, even though we're not looking at this and we'll cover it in more detail later, the apostle John says the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. And so whoever this reference to the word is was born into this world and made his dwelling among the people. And then after John finishes this Prolog in the first 18 verses, he pretty much just talks about the life of Jesus. And so what we come to see is that when he references the word three different times in this opening verse, He's talking about Jesus. Now again, the question is, why, like? Why go to all this trouble of writing that if he was talking about Jesus, why not just use his name? 18 wouldn't have that been so much simpler. Just in the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God. Well, to you and I, it would have been a little bit more simple, but for the audience that John was writing to first and foremost, which remember, he's writing first and foremost, to those within his lifetime, a cultural context, and then the Holy Spirit pulls out the meaning for us that applies to us even today. And in that cultural context, this word had a ton of significance, because this was a title. The word in Greek is logos. He's saying in the beginning was the logos. And the word logos was with God, and the logos was God three different times. He uses this Greek word logos to refer to Jesus. What's the significance of that? What did it mean to them during that particular time? Well, Logos is where we get our English word logic from. And if you know anything about the Greeks or remember studying them in history at any point in time, you know that they loved logic. They loved philosophy. They loved to try to reason things out and to study philosophy and logic and that kind of thing. But even more than that. The Logos had come to define, and for them was kind of the Soul of the Universe, if you will. It was a term that they used to describe this all pervading principle, this creative energy that all things come from and get their logic, their wisdom. From it was this rational principle of the entire universe, this concept of the Logos even goes back six centuries before we're reading about it, when the apostle John uses this particular term, there was a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus. And Heraclitus kind of looked out at the world and was trying to reason things out, trying to logically make sense of the world around him. And what he noticed is that the world seemed to be changing, like events happen and things happen within the world that you can see changing, and from the studying that they were doing, things just don't always stay the same. But even though the world that we live in is constantly changing, it never seemed to completely unravel. It never comes apart. It seems to still be in order. And so he rationalized that this can't just be random. It can't just be happening by chance. There's got to be some sort of principle, some kind of force out there that originated and permeated and is directing all things. And so for the Greek reader, when they opened up John's gospel, if they happen to be reading it and they saw the words in the beginning was the logos. The Logos was with God, and the logos was God. Their minds would have understood exactly what he was talking about. He's trying to make the connection that this is what is responsible for the rational order that we see within our world today, the way it has been put together. But John is trying to go beyond this idea that they had of it being just a rational principle, it being some kind of creative energy out there. He was putting a name to the logos in that name, of course, was Jesus, because that's who this gospel is. He's making the connection right off the bat that the logos that they saw as the one responsible for the order in the world is none other than Jesus. This would have gotten their attention right off the bat. But it wasn't just the Greeks that would have read the word logos and gone, oh, I know what they're referring to. It was also for the Jewish audience as well, because the Jewish audience was certainly familiar with the word right. I mean, it goes all the way back to right here, what it is that he says in the beginning. Where else do we see that language, Genesis, right? I mean the opening pages of the Bible, Genesis. One, one in the beginning, God created, and so they're seeing this reference here. We also know, as we read the Genesis account that the way that God created the world was how,through the spoken word, right, he spoke things into existence. And so they were familiar with this idea of the word and who it was. As a matter of fact, the Psalmist even declared this in Psalm. Psalm, 33 six, by the Word of the Lord. The word of the Lord were the heavens made. They associated the word with, of course, God. But it wasn't just the creation account. All throughout the Old Testament, they would have seen references to this. It's kind of the way that they even viewed the law of the Old Testament and the Wisdom literature in the Old Testament, and what about the prophets? How many times, if you've ever read the Old Testament, have you been or read the words, the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, the word of the Lord, came to Jeremiah, any of the prophets, it was the word of the Lord. And so if the Jewish reader was looking at this and saw that the apostle John says, In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, the logos, then it wasn't just the Greek, but the Jew would go, Oh, I know who you're talking about. You're making the connection. You're talking about God. And so now all of a sudden, they've had to sit up in their seat a little bit more because they were familiar with God. They were familiar with the word, but they understood and knew that John, of course, was writing about Jesus, and now he's connecting that with the God of the Old Testament. And so it had something to say to everyone during John's day, to the Greek who was looking out at the world and trying to make sense of it. It just seems to be in order. Things just seem to be organized in some way. And it's never falling apart. That can't just happen randomly. And so John is saying, You're right, it's the logos, it's Jesus, right? And for the Jew who understood who God was, but wouldn't really quite put it together with who Jesus was when he was there, because this is written after Jesus's birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension. John's writing back to describing these events. Now he's helping them see that this is Jesus is more clear about who he was and associating him with it being at the beginning, and the word being with God. And the Word was God, which is what we're going to dive into a little bit deeper now, because now we understand the context, we understand the significance between between the word and white. And just go in the beginning, was Jesus, right? I mean, they wouldn't have necessarily drawn that, but you go logos, and the Greek goes, oh, oh, I see what you're saying now. And the Jew is going, Oh, you're making that connection. I see it as well. So now that we kind of have that context, let's just focus in on the three things that John is saying here in the beginning was the Word in what beginning? What beginning is John actually talking about? The beginning of eternity? Well, no, I mean, that doesn't really make any sense. We know if something is eternal, there is no beginning and there is no end. It just always is right. So he's certainly not talking about that. What this could be paraphrased as is what John is saying here is before even time began was the word in the beginning. Before even time began was the word. And so what we're talking about here is the inception of creation. At the inception of creation was the logos the word Jesus. He was there at the very beginning of everything that was created. This is what John is making sure that they don't miss. Now, the second thing that he says is, not only was the logos there, Jesus there, but the Word was with God. If you were reading this in Greek, the literal Greek would say toward it would read this way. And the Word of God was towards God. What in the world does that mean? Why would John say the word the logos Jesus was toward God. Well, what John is trying to get at here is that there was this face to face relationship. It wasn't as if God was here and Jesus was here and his back was turned, he was facing toward God. They were in this face to face relationship with each other, they were existing in the closest possible connection with each other that someone could have with God the Father. And so not only did the Word of God exist in the beginning, he existed in the closest possible connection that one could have with God the Father. So again, the Logos is not some philosophical principle, but in essence, is a person. Now, the other thing that we see here is that this person is distinct from God. To be toward God or with God, is to say that he's distinct. From God. So what we see here is the beginning of the the outworking of the Trinity, or what we see in the Bible about the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, isn't mentioned here, but we see that with this language here, that there's this talk about how God the Son Jesus, the logos, was different than God the Father, in some way, but then he comes right back at the very end and says in the Word was God. So they're distinct and they're different, but they're also the same. So this is what we begin to learn again, that the God of the Bible is a Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Now the spirit isn't mentioned here, but he certainly is in other places, and this is what the very opening lines of John is showing us about who Jesus really is. So again, if you're kind of studying these things. You're wondering about these things. You hear about Jesus. You've been thinking about maybe there being a god, and you've heard people say good things about the word about Jesus. And trying to make this connection, you have your own thoughts about who Jesus is and what kind of person he was, and what he came to do. What John is trying to communicate is you don't get to decide that. He's defining who you for you exactly who Jesus is. Jesus was there at the very beginning of creation. He was toward God, and existed in a face to face relationship with him, so much so that he is God, not three gods, three distinct persons who exist as one God. They have one essence, one God. This is the God of the Bible. Now this is also in the imperfect tense, just to make sure we're clear about things in the Greek. And when that's written in the imperfect tense, and he was saying the word was God, he's outlining or declaring here that he has eternal existence. Again, Jesus has just always been. There's never been a time when Jesus was not we're thinking about Christmas and the birth of Jesus here. And John is making sure that you and I understand that when Jesus was born 2000 years ago, that was not his beginning. He's been here long before that. He's just always been. So this is what John is saying in the first we just made it through the first verse. I don't know how long I've been going so far, but thank goodness we're only covering three of these verses today, because that was a lot. As a matter of fact, I probably could have even divided that up into four different sermons, one just on the logos, and one in each one of these statements, but you begin to at least get the general idea of what the apostle John is saying in a very opening line of his gospel.When we get to, oh, this is a greatquote. Can I just read this to you?William Temple summarizes, kind of what the logos meant for the Jew and for the Gentile, right? A lot of things we just said there, and this just kind of simplifies it to make sure, again, we're all on the same page as we get ready to jump to what he says next. Once again, he says the logos here says a like for Jew and Gentile, represents the ruling fact of the universe and represents the fact that as the self expression of God, the Jew will remember that by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, the Greek will think of the rational principle of which all natural laws are particular expression. But both will agree that this logos is the starting point of all things. And so again, you think, okay, Jesus being a great guy. He's a wise person. He's a good teacher. He did some good things. No, no. John is declaring, in this moment, by referencing him as the logos here, for all of his readers, that this baby that was born in a manger 2000 years ago, is the actual starting point of all things, all things that we see. And he will get into that and make sure we don't miss thatat the end of thesection that we're looking at today, verse two. He doesn't really give anything new to us. He just repeats what He says He was with God, the word Jesus was with God in the beginning. We don't know exactly why he repeats himself here and says it again, but we certainly know that when things are important to us, we repeat them. We repeat things to our kids to make sure that they get the things that are important. Teachers repeat things that. Are important. John is saying this is super important that you understand that He was with God in the beginning. He was the God man, right? He was not just a human that was born. He was the eternal Son of God that was being birthed into a human existence, the man, God in the flesh, as we read in verse 14 earlier. The last thing that we'll look at today in this opening section is that John says this through Him, through the Word, through the logos, through Jesus. All things were made without Jesus, the logos, nothing was made that has been made. What we see John declaring here is that Jesus is the agent of creation. He's the agent of creation. Scripture testify to this in a number of places. You can read about it in Hebrews, in Colossians, one around verses 15 through 18 and that kind of thing. Again, this little baby born in a manger 2000 years ago was the one who created all things. He's not a principle, he's not a force, he's not a creative energy. He's a personal God who existed outside the bounds of time. He's an eternal being who created all things. When John writes this here, and he says that through Him, all things were made, this is written in the aorist tents in the Greek saying that there was a point in time that all things were created in its totality, right there, in that moment, right that's when it all began, and it continues to move forward because of what this guy, the logos Jesus, did in that moment to create all things. Nothing has been made without him making it at this point in time and continuing and holding it all together in and through his name.So nothingthat you and I see today in the year 2024 has been made that wasn't made by Jesus. Nothing came into being apart from Jesus. This is what the God of the Bible teaches us through the inspired writers of Scripture. Now, some today will try to convince you otherwise. Some will try to convince you today that everything just happened to come together in a way that was conducive for life. It just happened to be by chance that the Earth ended up exactly the right distance from the Sun, that we weren't too close to it that we would burn up, and we weren't far enough away from it that we would all freeze to death. It things just happened to randomly come and blow up and then appear here with the exact ratio of oxygen to nitrogen that is needed to support life. It just so happened that the constant values that are necessary for life to exist just happen to randomly be there through some big bang that maybe occurred millions of years ago, things like the gravitational consonant and the cosmological consonant constant and the Hubble constant. All things that you know and are familiar with, right? These are things that the scientists have determined that the ratios or the values are off by just a hair's leak. There would be no physical or interactive life of any kind that could exist anywhere. It wouldn't be able to happen now, honestly, when I think about that, and I think about some of the things that are declared today as to what actually happened in some random sense, I can't help but think that it takes more faith to believe that than it does to believe that there is an intelligent designer, that a God sits above all things and created things in A way that they're designed and orchestrated to work together. I mean, when I think about that, and all of these things that are declared today, it's like, you know, this promethium board TV screen that I'm using here, and all these different parts that are here that somehow just all of a sudden, just randomly came together and formed themselves and is responsible for all of this technology that I can use in touchscreen and do it just happened to randomly come together, and there it was like that takes more faith to believe that happened than it does to believe that someone created it took all the parts and knit it together in such a way that it would work in an orderly Fashion, or at least most of the time, right? That's the thing, though. And so what we're seeing here is we're we're seeing that John, the author of one of the Gospels, is making sure that we understand that Jesus is a creator, that he is the intelligent designer, the one who is all. Knowing knew enough things to know how to make the world work, to be wise enough to know how to put it all together, and to be powerful enough to be able to do so whenever he made the plans to create the world through Him, all things were made without him. Nothing that has been made has been made. This is really important. The doctrine of creation is something that you and I need to understand, because it is the starting point for who Jesus really is and what it is that he came to do. Again, when I was reading through a number of commentaries, I like the way that this was worded here. Says creation is a foundational doctrine of the Christian faith. Virtually every other aspect of theology rests upon our understanding of God as the origin of life and of and of the role Jesus Christ, the Word in creation, John could hardly say it more clearly. Without him, nothing was made that has been made, everything from subatomic particles to galaxies, only God who created all things can redeem them. Creation is the foundation stone of the gospel. Christ could not have been created for He created all things. There was a historical Jesus. But this terminology refers only to his 33 years on earth. His life had no beginning and it will have no end. Leon Morris says that only God who created all thingscan redeem them.You cannot redeem yourself. The God of the world had to come in to redeem you. And this is what Jesus was being born in this world to do. John gives us this cosmic perspective of the eternal Son of God that existed before all things that just always was the creator of the world being born as a human baby to grow up and to redeem his creation. Redeem us from what? What did we need to be redeemed from sin? Of course, sin messed everything up. You and I were created not to live independently from God. He didn't create the world and us and he's sitting up in heaven and US left to our own down here, you and I were meant to be in a spiritual union with Him, operating with him as our source in experiencing abundant life and eternal life in and only through Him, because He is the one who is life and is an eternal being. This is how he created us. But sin messed all of that up. A holy and a perfect God cannot be in a relationship with sinful man. And a just God cannot just let sin go. Well, it just doesn't matter. It's not that big of a deal. I'll just let it go. If he's a just God, he can't let sin go, and he is a just God, sin cannot go unpunished. It must be dealt with. So what does the God of the universe do? He squeezes himself into humanity. He became flesh, the word who was there in the beginning and was with God, and was God became flesh, took on an additional nature and was born into this world. Why? So that he could redeem you from your sin, so that he could take the punishment for your sin for you, so that you could then be forgiven and be brought back into an eternal relationship that you were always meant to have with him. Only God, who created all things, can redeem them again. You can't redeem yourself. You can't follow the seven steps to become your best self and redeem yourself from the situation that you are in. No matter how good of a self you think you become after following those seven steps, you're never going to be good enough to stand before a holy and a perfect God, but because the word who was there in the beginning and was with God, and was God was birthed into this world and eventually died on a cross for your sins, was raised from the dead. The purchase price for your salvation has been paid in full, and Jesus offers you that salvation as a gift, and all you have to do is receive it. You receive it by placing your faith and trust in Him, and may give you a chance in just a moment, if you've never done that, to pray and receive His forgiveness and the eternal life today before you leave. But for those of us who are here today and you've put your faith and trust in Jesus, you've a. Understood that only a God who created all things can redeem them, and that's what Jesus was birthed into this world for, and you've put your faith and trust in Him for your salvation. My hope and my prayer is that you will be reminded of today, of much of what Emily was trying to communicate before we sang the song. Who you say, that I am, that you are valuable to God, that you matter to him, right? I mean, if Jesus is the creator responsible for everything that's ever been created, nothing has ever been made that he hasn't made, that includes you. You are valuable to him. You matter to him. You have meaning in him. You have purpose in him. And not only that, but you're loved so much by him that the God of the universe was born into this world to suffer, which he did not have to do. He chose to do out of his love for you, and suffered so that he would die for your sins so that you wouldn't have to and you could experience abundant life now and forever more. So as you begin to focus on this Christmas season, be reminded today that Jesus is your Creator and as your Creator, He came into this world to redeem you. Evidently, he thought that you were worth it. Whatever it was that he was going to have to go through, however much it would hurt, the pain it would cause him, the humiliation that he it would cause him that he couldlook at your face oneof his prized creations, say it's going to hurt and I'm going to hate every second of it, but you my friend. You're worth it. You matter to me. You're valuable. Do not let Satan convince you otherwise you are valuable to the God of the universe. You have meaning, you have purpose. He loves and cherishes you so much so rest in Him today in all that you have in him. Let's pray