The Word Was God (4 of 4)
Series: So This Is Christmas?
Jeff Strite
John 1:1-5
WE OPENED WITH VIDEO ''O, What A Gift'' (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=562729207881472)
''I read the story of a woman who saw her friend at church and then, without thinking, said: ''Happy Christmas!'' The problem was... it was Easter.
So, she quickly corrected herself and said, ''I'm sorry. I meant to say, Happy Easter.''
Her friend smiled back and said: ''Well, you can't have one without the other.''
(Cindy Hess Kasper, Our Daily Bread, 4/8/07)
The video we started out with for this sermon said it this way: ''Humbly He came... in a manger, born to die. Just a babe... fully human; fully God. The Word made flesh, God's only Son. Sent to save us... Died on a cross, rose from the grave. All because He loved us.''
That phrase: BORN TO DIE caught my attention.
You can't have Easter without Christmas, and you can't have Christmas without Easter. There're kinda like a matched set. So, when Jesus was born in the manger, He was literally ''born to die.'' That's why He came.
Now, when preachers do ''Christmas Sermons'' they rarely use John 1 as their text. I mean, there's nothing in the Gospel of John about shepherds, or wisemen, or angels. And there's no mention of Mary and Joseph and the manger. There's no Nativity Scene at all!!!
But the first chapter of John explains WHY we have Christmas. It explains why the birth of Christ matters: ''In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the WORD WAS GOD.'' (John 1:1) The entire Gospel of John is dedicated to helping us understand that one concept: Jesus IS God.
Now the other Gospels point to that too. For example, the Gospel of Matthew 1:23 tells us that the angel declared: ''Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means, GOD WITH US.'' But John comes out - right out of the box - saying ''The Word (Jesus) was God.'' John was ...
Series: So This Is Christmas?
Jeff Strite
John 1:1-5
WE OPENED WITH VIDEO ''O, What A Gift'' (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=562729207881472)
''I read the story of a woman who saw her friend at church and then, without thinking, said: ''Happy Christmas!'' The problem was... it was Easter.
So, she quickly corrected herself and said, ''I'm sorry. I meant to say, Happy Easter.''
Her friend smiled back and said: ''Well, you can't have one without the other.''
(Cindy Hess Kasper, Our Daily Bread, 4/8/07)
The video we started out with for this sermon said it this way: ''Humbly He came... in a manger, born to die. Just a babe... fully human; fully God. The Word made flesh, God's only Son. Sent to save us... Died on a cross, rose from the grave. All because He loved us.''
That phrase: BORN TO DIE caught my attention.
You can't have Easter without Christmas, and you can't have Christmas without Easter. There're kinda like a matched set. So, when Jesus was born in the manger, He was literally ''born to die.'' That's why He came.
Now, when preachers do ''Christmas Sermons'' they rarely use John 1 as their text. I mean, there's nothing in the Gospel of John about shepherds, or wisemen, or angels. And there's no mention of Mary and Joseph and the manger. There's no Nativity Scene at all!!!
But the first chapter of John explains WHY we have Christmas. It explains why the birth of Christ matters: ''In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the WORD WAS GOD.'' (John 1:1) The entire Gospel of John is dedicated to helping us understand that one concept: Jesus IS God.
Now the other Gospels point to that too. For example, the Gospel of Matthew 1:23 tells us that the angel declared: ''Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means, GOD WITH US.'' But John comes out - right out of the box - saying ''The Word (Jesus) was God.'' John was ...
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