What is Christmas? (John 1:1-14)

Christmas Day Service, 25 December 2009

Murray Campbell this week wrote a brief and provocative Facebook piece entitled “A Christmas Stir” in which he writes,

‘I have a proposal to make for Aussies: Instead of making a public holiday out of December 25 let’s go to work. After all, is it not somewhat hypocritical to celebrate ‘Christ’mas when the vast majority are not Christian? Do non-Muslims celebrate Ramadan? Do non-Jews take a public holiday for Hanukah? No, and neither should we, so why then do we make a holiday out of Christmas?’

In his piece Murray is trying to point out people’s inconsistent worldview by taking a day off to celebrate an event they don’t believe in. He is not against Christmas or its celebration, but suggests, ‘If you are a Christian then celebrate (after work?). If not, either become a Christian or go to work on December 25 and enjoy all your prawns and beer on Boxing Day.’

I wonder, would it bother you if Christmas day was no longer a holiday, if you could not gather at church on Christmas day morning, and if you had to work and keep your worship or celebration for after work?

Now however you respond to this ‘Stir’, what it does raise is the question of why Christmas should cause a Stir in the first place. Why is it that we Christians are stirred so much by the birth of a child in a remote village so long ago?

I want to stimulate your exploration of that question by looking briefly at 3 points which are highlighted for us in the opening of John’s gospel. What John does is force us to look at the coming of Jesus into the world. When we do so we see

The carol asks, “What Child is this…? And answers ‘Christ the Lord!”

And so does John. In beginning his gospel or account of the person of Jesus he doesn’t start with the birth but with Him before His birth. Now you can’t do that with each one of us apart from the sense that our parents had some hopes of having children and may have had some hopes as to what we would be like. But when it comes to Jesus conceived in Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, the story is different. He was no mere idea or a desire, nor did He begin His life in Bethlehem. He is the eternal Son of God who made all things that are made.

John says if you really want to know who He is then understand this – a truth which the rest of the Gospel is written to demonstrate, using an ‘effect reveals or demonstrates a cause’ argumentation.

Christmas declares that the Child who was born is God. John is unequivocal about this. Look at the way he states it, covering every aspect, leaving us with no room – He is eternally God yet with God. And yet if that was not enough, He became man, and did so without ceasing to be God. You have to twist the text to change the declaration – sadly that is what many do – either deliberately or by indifference.

This is the great mystery, that the eternal Son of God, the Word, should be born into this world and live as a true human person. He is the Creator (verse 1 makes clear), but He lived as a creature among the creatures He had made – “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (v.14a).He became a physical human being and therefore become subject to a finite, physical existence – limited to time and space, subject to temptation, pain, suffering and yes, even to death – a death which was a sacrifice for our sins. And knowing who He was and what He willingly gave up should make all the difference to you and me not only when celebrating His birth but when coming to terms with the enormous magnitude of His sacrifice.

The sheer wonder and audacity of this miracle should not only strike us but compel us to lift our hearts with praise.

Let this be known loud and clear that here at SYPC, and indeed at all true Christian churches, we worship Jesus Christ as God. We fall down with Thomas before Jesus in John 20:28 and confess with joy and wonder, “My Lord and my God!” we are unashamed about our commitment to Jesus Christ. We celebrate it as we declare it every time we gather for worship.

This is what we are here celebrating. This is what the world is being confronted with. In other words, if you want to know God, you have to know Jesus – who Himself said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father”.

We read that He was announced by John the Baptist, and in v.6 we read of his credentials as being “sent from God”. The idea inherent here is that of “from alongside” – not that John went to heaven and stood beside God. Rather it means that what John said has the full weight of divine authority. He knew what he was doing and saying as he pointed out Jesus to people. And he preached so that “all through him might believe”.

In other words this witness to Jesus was clear; and yet despite His presence – “He was in the world…and the world did not know Him” (v.10) indicates He was not hidden away – yet despite all of this we read of His rejection.

John highlights how inexplicable this is. He says “the world did not know Him” and that even “His own,” that is Israel, “did not receive Him”.

There is a defiance highlighted in these words. They should’ve known Him after all He was their Creator. Israel should have received Him, after all He was the fulfilment of the promise given to their forefather Abraham, the very one for whom they were even then looking with expectation. Yet they don’t know Him. Yet He is not received.

Here is John writing half a century later and it still stuns him. Even the Christ by the apostles and early church the world was still in ‘darkness’, was still rejecting Jesus.

This rejection is seen in many ways today – from the “Happy holidays” greetings, changing the Christmas season to a “Winter Solstice Festival”. It is seen even in those who say they have a high regard of Jesus and His teaching, but just don’t believe He is the Son of God, who say that he is perhaps the wisest man that lived, or a good man and a marvellous teacher. Whether tinkering at the edges of what the Bile declares about Him and His life, death and resurrection or engaging in dispassionate indifference through to outride denial and even aggressive assault on anything to do with Jesus it is but the rejection which Jesus found from the outset. It is all there in the Christmas narrative, and it sadly finds repeated expression today inside and outside the church.

Christ still comes to His own through the Scriptures read and preached in a million churches – and yet there is a turning away in unbelief and disobedience, even among those who as children were raised under it.

Jesus is better known of and more has been written of Him than any other individual in history. It was and it remains a scandal, displaying the depth and unreasonableness of human wickedness.

But this story of rejection is not the whole story for as we turn to v.12 we are filled with greater wonder. The surprise is not really that Jesus was and is rejected, for that is is only the natural entail of humanity’s sinful condition and condemned state before God. The real surprise, secondary only to the surprise of God becoming man so as to redeem such people, is that among that number some do believe. John writes, with celebratory joy, “But to as many who received Him…to those who believed in His name”.

Here are a people, called Christians for this is how you define them, who embraced with a living and active faith Jesus and all He represents. They have yielded allegiance to the Word, trust Him completely. Acknowledge His claims and confess His with gratitude – that is what it means to receive Him, to believe in His name. (D A Carson)

In v.13 John responds to the obvious question of how it is that some out of such widespread and until then universal rejection and opposition that some saw the truth and welcomed Him, trusting in His work, and have gone on to follow Him as Lord including witnessing to Him. He indicates that it is not self-generated. It is not because there is something in them that was missing in the others. They were like the others, but a change took place. Behind the movement of their heart and mind, behind the turning to Jesus in repentant faith and in believing acceptance lies the mighty act of God – “who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”. They came from the world as well as Israel, or in today’s terms they come from among those who have never had much if at all to do with the church as well as some from among those raised within a church context. Location and connection is not the key – it is the sovereign work of God which John calls “born of God”, and which Jesus calls being “born again…born of the Spirit” (John 3:5-8).

The very coming of Jesus into the world is a demonstration of the grace of God, as is when Jesus comes into the heart and life of any individual who receives Him, believing in Him.

John says that we see that grace in Jesus coming not condemn but to bring light into the darkness, life into the spiritual death of ‘living’ mankind. We see that grace according to v.14 in that Jesus was not kept secret but that His “glory” was seen, which speaks of the majesty and dignity of God and draws attention to His transparent perfection and untainted righteousness – that He is “full of grace and truth”.

“Full of grace and truth” This is really good news! This is not a wishy-washy, unprincipled, sentimental grace. It is joined with truth. It will in other words be a righteous, God-exalting, costly grace that will lead to Jesus’ death on the cross. This is why He became human; in order to die as a God-man in our place (Hebrews 2:14-15). The cross is where the fullness of grace and truth shone most brightly.

We see that grace in God making Him known through the witness of John the Baptist, and by many others who make known the authoritative Scriptures. Notice how John writes “we beheld…” (cf 1 John 1:1ff).

We are not surprised by the general reaction to Jesus, saddened but not surprised, for we know the impact of sin on our own hearts. What surprises us and fills us with great joy is the evidence of the grace of God in the lives of those who come to faith in Jesus and in the continuing grace of God in our own lives.

This is the One who still stands before the world today, who by the Holy Spirit is still active in making sure that the testimony is protected and proclaimed, but is also met by a living faith in the hearts of people both outside and within the church.

The great American theologian of the twentieth century, J. Gresham Machen said, ‘From the beginning Christianity was the religion of the broken heart; it is based on the conviction that there is an awful gulf between man and God which none but God can bridge.’ God has done exactly that through the coming of Jesus Christ.

That’s what Christmas is – Christ with us and for us.