The Most Incredible Christmas Miracle

John 1:1-5, 10-14

I begin with an excerpt from a book by one of the finest theological

minds of our time—Dr. Seuss...in the classic, On Beyond Zebra

Said Conrad Cornelius O'Donnell O'Dell, my very young friend who was learning to spell, "The A is for Ape, the B is for Bear, the C is for Camel, the H is for Hair, the M is for Mouse, the R is for Rat ... I know all twenty-six letters like that. Through to Z is for Zebra, I know them all well," said Conrad Cornelius O'Donnell O'Dell. "Now I know everything anyone knows from beginning to end, from the start to the close, because Z is as far as the alphabet goes."

Then he almost fell flat on his face on the floor when I picked up the chalk and drew one letter more. A letter he had never dreamed of before. And I said, "You can stop if you want with the Z, and most people stop with the Z, but not me. In the places I go, there are things that I see that I never could spell if I stopped with a Z.

"I'm telling you this 'cause you're one of my friends, my alphabet starts where your alphabet ends. My alphabet starts with this letter called yezz, it's the letter I use to spell yezzametezz. You'll be sort of surprised what there is to be found, once you go beyond Z and start poking around. So on beyond zebra explore like Columbus, discover new letters like wum, which is for wumbus, my high-spouting whale who lives high on a hill and who never comes down till it's time to refill. So on beyond Z, it's high time you were shown that you really don't know all there is to be known.”

With that in mind...there is a story—the bestest story ever, by the way

—and the story begins before there ever was a beginning to begin

-and it’s so fantastic that it takes far more than a Dr. Seuss

imagination or a theology Ph.D. or letters that go on beyond Z...

to believe this story you must have the simple faith of a child

-somewhere beyond the farthest star...sometime before there were

stars...sometime before there was time...there was God and

there was the Word

--“the Word” is not a series of letters or a language...it’s not

even the Bible—which we often speak of as “God’s written

Word”...but “the Word” refers to a message, a revelation, a

perfect expression of the one associated with it

-and from John 1, we reason that “the Word” can only be Jesus

Read John 1:1-5

Volumes of heavy theology have been written by some heavy

theologians about these five verses alone—and for good reason

-listen to what we learn about Jesus

--in the beginning, He already was à Jesus is eternal

---that means there was never a time when Jesus was not

---He was not created...Jesus was not a good man who

somehow achieved “God” status

--He was with God à Jesus possesses a deep relationship with

God that even the heaviest theologians cannot explain

---“was with God” literally means "was face-to-face with God"

----it’s an expression that implies equality and intimacy

---it means Jesus is equal with God

--Jesus was God à not a past tense “was,” as in “used to be”...

but an imperfect tense “was,” as in “was, is, and always will be”

---a pretty good theologian in his own right, Herschel Hobbs

translates vv. 1-2 literally à In the beginning always was

the Word, and the Word always was with God, and the

Word always was God. The same always was in the

beginning with God.

--all of creation came into existence through Him à listen to

what the Apostle Paul would later be inspired to write about

Jesus in Colossians 1:16 à By Him all things were created:

things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether

thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were

created by Him and for Him.

It’s tough to wrap our minds around Jesus...so let’s consider part of

His creation

-the star we call our sun is a mere 93 million miles away

--but if Antares, another star, were positioned where our sun is,

the earth would be inside of it! (over 93m miles in diameter)

-our sun and Antares are just 2 of the 500 billion stars in our galaxy

we call the Milky Way

--if you were to take a dime and hold it at arm's length, you

would block the light of sight of 15 million stars

-astronomers estimate there are 100 billion galaxies (that's a 1 with

11 zeroes), each of them are filled with billions of stars like our sun

Makes you feel pretty insignificant, doesn't it?

-young children often begin their mealtime prayers, "God is great"

--and He is, no doubt

-and being such a great God, He produced some wonderful miracles

on that night of nights

--an army of angels in the sky

--the appearance of a new, bright star

--the fact that Jesus’ birth was first proclaimed to shepherds

--that Joseph stuck around even though his fiancée was “great

with child” with a child who was not his

--Mary, a virgin, had a baby

-amazingly, none of those...even all of those combined...don’t come

close to the most incredible Christmas miracle of all

Listen to vv. 1 and 14 together...Read John 1:1, 14

-Jesus was and is God—true statement...but an even more amazing

truth is that God became Jesus of Nazareth!

--when God wanted to give the greatest Christmas present of all

time, He wrapped His gift in flesh and blood

--God’s Son shows up in rural Palestine as a baby who could

not speak or eat solid food or control His bladder

--yes, God is great, but Jesus shows us God is also little

Philip Yancey writes about his friend, Kathy, who was using a game to help her six-year-old son learn the different animals. It was his turn: "I'm thinking of a mammal. He's big and He does magic." Kathy thought for a while and then gave up, "I don't know." "It's Jesus!" screamed her son in triumph. Kathy said that at the time his answer seemed irreverent, but later as she thought about it she realized her son had hit upon an unsettling insight into the depth of Jesus' birth. Jesus became a mammal!

When Christmas is described in terms like that it kinda’ takes away

the sugar-coated sentimentality of it all

-Jesus—a mammal

-the Creator—now a creature

-the Mighty God, Rock, Refuge, Tower of Strength—quite helpless

--when Jesus’ birth is stripped of all its Christmas card serenity

and overdone sappiness, there is a dose of stark reality about

the whole thing that makes it even more, well, unbelievable

-as a quaint picture with smiling angels and astonished shepherds

and “little Lord Jesus no crying He makes,” Christmas takes on a

fairy tale quality that many want to believe

--but there’s no land of make believe in Bethlehem that night—

the fact is that the Creator of the universe made Himself so

vulnerable that a donkey could have accidentally backed into

the manger, tipped it over, and stepped on God!

Janet Oke à On that night so long ago, the tiny baby, wrapped by

Mary in swaddling clothes, waving little arms, hungrily sucking a fist,

was like any other newborn baby. He was helpless and dependent,

and Mary was His hope of survival, His nourishment, His very

lifeline. God entrusted His most priceless gift to a very human, very

young, earthly mother. Why? Because God so loved—that He

gave. He relinquished His hold on His Son and placed Him in fragile

human arms.

At this point, we preachers usually claim that if we were God and we

were sending our Son to earth, then surely we would ensure He’d

be born in a palace surrounded by the best medical care...and

certainly not some stable in Bethlehem

-but that misses the point

--you see, the truth is—if you or I were God, we never would

have even gotten to those details in the planning process

---if you or I were God, we never would have even

considered sending our Son

--that’s because you and I don’t know—and can’t even imagine

the love required for God to send Jesus

Let me link a few verses from John’s Gospel to capture the most

incredible Christmas miracle of all à In the beginning was the

Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...God so

loved the world that He gave His one and only Son—[and] the Word

became flesh and made His dwelling among us—[and] whoever

believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did

not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save

the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned,

but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because

he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. Yet to

all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave

the right to become children of God. (John 1:1, 14; 3:16-18)

Even with those amazing promises, John 1:10-11 describes the

real reaction to Jesus, God-in-the-flesh à He was in the world, and

though the world was made through Him, the world did not

recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own

did not receive him.

-what tragic irony...to reach His creation, the Creator took the

radical, miraculous step of becoming a creature...still but many

refused to believe He could actually be who He claimed to be

Several years ago, an ad for a Visa debit card featured former U.S.

Senator Bob Dole...Bob Dole returns to his hometown of Russell,

Kansas...there's a Bob Dole parade...banners proclaim, "Welcome

home, Bob"...everywhere he walks, people greet him, "Hello, Bob."

-Mr. Dole walks into a diner, and there everyone says, "Hi, Bob."

--he steps up to the cashier and asks, "Take a check?"

---cashier replies, "Sure, Bob. Can I see some I.D.?

-cashier knew he was Bob Dole, but she wanted some proof

because this was important—this involved money

That's how many people are when it comes to Jesus

-it’s easy to believe the baby is Jesus...and I even believe Jesus

died on cross

--I mean, this whole Bethlehem thing makes for a great story, but

you don't really expect me to trust my eternity with Him and to

surrender my life to Him, do you?

An 80’s TV show called Thirtysomething was fairly popular for a while

-one episode had Hope, a Christian, arguing with her Jewish

husband, Michael, about the holidays

--"Why do you even bother with Hanukkah?" she asks. "Do you

really believe a handful of Jews held off a huge army by

using lamps that miraculously didn't run out of oil?"

---incredulous, Michael bursts, "Oh, and Christmas makes more

sense? Do really believe an angel appeared to some

teenage girl who then got pregnant without ever having had

sex and traveled...to Bethlehem where she spent the night in

a barn and had a baby who turned out to be the Savior of the

world?"

Yeah, John has it right...many did not then...and still do not today

recognize Jesus as the Savior, as their Savior

-what about you? do you believe it? do you believe in Him?

--you may have lived a pretty decent life...or you may have

blatantly rejected Jesus for years—either way, what matters

this morning is that you are in desperate need a Savior

---the Bible is unquestionably clear that all of us are

helplessly separated from God because we are all sinners

We’re like a Christmas tree that you buy in the city

-they look so good—perfect, really—and you can picture it gracing

your living room with a scent of pine

--but after you overpay for it, lug it in the house, and try to get it

to stand up straight...you realize there’s a big, big problem

---no matter how you maneuver it in the red and green metal

tree stand, your “perfect” tree keeps falling over

--after parting the branches to inspect it, you see multiple flaws

---the base of the tree begins straight and centered, but by the

middle of the trunk it is contorted into pretzel-like twists,

bending every-which-way, but ending up straight at the top

---despite its good looks, imperfections on the inside will

prevent it from ever standing on its own

You’ve probably already figured out that we are just like that tree

-on the outside we like to show that we have it all together: “joy to

the world; peace on earth” and all that jazz

-but on the inside...on the inside we know the truth...on the inside

we are full of pain, disappointment, grief, bitterness, and regret

--worst of all, we suffer from a deadly infection in our soul that the

Bible calls sin

-and it doesn’t matter how many ornaments we attach to our lives,

we can never be right with God on our own

The Christmas story is not about God seeing how nice we were and

coming down to spend time with sweet people

-Christmas is the story of God seeing twisted, hurting, sinful

people, and coming down to die for us

--Christmas is ultimately a story about love—sacrificial love

-God came to save us from sin...while it includes the joy of a new

baby being born, it also ended up with Jesus taking our sins

upon himself and dying as our substitute

Do you remember at the beginning of this message I read a passage

about Jesus as the Creator from Colossians 1?

Listen now, as we prepare to close, how that passage continues...

Colossians 1:19-22 à For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him [Jesus], and through Him to reconcile to himself all things...by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation.