Jeff Miller

December 24, 2025

Want for Christmas?

I Want to Be Like God

Jeff Miller

December 24, 2025

Want for Christmas?

Introduction:

Psalm 115:8 – Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

Ephesians 5:1 – Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

Hebrews 10:28 - Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

John 8:1-11

I Want to Be Like God (John 1:14–18)

Grace without TRUTH = Not like Jesus.
Truth without GRACE = Not like Jesus.
GRACE and TRUTH = Like Jesus.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:37-00:39
Turn in your Bibles to John chapter one.
00:41-00:50
And while you're turning there, just gonna ask, we pause for a second, and I would ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's word.
00:51-00:58
And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is God is telling us here tonight, this passage, all right?
00:58-00:58
Let's pray.
01:01-01:02
Father, we thank you for your word.
01:04-01:20
And it's easy tonight to get so caught up in, I guess the decorations and the sentimentality and all of that, but God, this is really no different than what we normally do.
01:21-01:26
We come to worship you, come to know you, come to hear from your word.
01:27-01:32
I just ask, Father, that your spirit be at work with your word today in a profound way.
01:34-01:36
Make us into the people that you've called us to be.
01:37-01:39
We pray in Jesus' name.
01:39-01:43
And all of God's people said, amen.
01:46-01:51
You become like that which you worship.
01:53-01:54
It's a true statement.
01:55-01:57
You become like that which you worship.
01:59-02:02
You know, it's really obvious in children.
02:03-02:19
I mean, just looking back at my life, if you would have found me in the late '70s, early '80s, I would have been walking around with torn pants and a torn shirt because I was the Incredible Hulk.
02:20-02:21
Remember that show, "Leuphorigno"?
02:22-02:22
That was me.
02:23-02:23
(growls)
02:26-02:34
Oh, then you go forward just a couple of years and I would have been running around the house with a sword fighting Skeletor.
02:35-02:39
By the power of Grayskull, I was He-Man, right?
02:40-02:44
And then you go forward a few more years, early '90s.
02:46-02:47
Grunge.
02:49-02:57
Ironically, I once again had ripped pants on and the flannel shirt, the mop hair.
02:59-03:04
And you can laugh and make fun of me all you want, but I know some of you got hammer pants in your closet.
03:07-03:14
Some of you ladies back then had a Debbie Gibson haircut because you become like that what you worship.
03:18-03:20
It wasn't even my idea.
03:20-03:21
Actually, the Bible says this.
03:22-03:30
Psalm 115 verse eight says, regarding idols, says, "Those who make them become like them.
03:31-03:37
So to all who trust in them, you become like that which you worship." And then we come to church.
03:40-03:42
We come to church and the truth is still the same.
03:44-03:56
Because Ephesians 5, one says, "Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children." Like, well, how do we imitate God?
04:00-04:01
by worshiping Him.
04:01-04:02
That's how.
04:04-04:05
It starts with worshiping Him.
04:07-04:16
You're like, okay, all right, but how in the world, even worshiping Him, how can I imitate God?
04:18-04:23
And you know, I think that's one of the most awesome things about the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
04:24-04:40
What we're celebrating at Christmas, God became a man, And I think that's one of the most awesome things, one of the most glorious things, is that we get to see what God's holiness and love looks like in a human on this planet interacting with other humans.
04:41-04:44
It's not conceptual, we've seen it.
04:48-04:50
Yeah, the Christmas story, it's a familiar story, right?
04:53-04:57
You know, you got the manger and the shepherds and the light.
05:00-05:03
But that's Matthew and Luke's version.
05:04-05:12
Matthew and Luke in your Bible give the historical version, but we're looking at John this year, and John gives the theological version.
05:14-05:21
That God became something He's never been without ceasing to be what He's always been.
05:24-05:26
It's the miracle of Christmas.
05:26-05:32
God entered the world through childbirth, becoming a real human being while remaining God.
05:36-05:37
So what do you want for Christmas?
05:39-05:45
We started this series, we said, "I want to know God." The only way you can know God is through Jesus.
05:45-05:47
Jesus is the revelation of God.
05:47-05:50
He is the living word of God, right?
05:50-06:00
And on Sunday, Pastor Taylor gave a message, "I wanna belong to God." The only way you belong to God also is through Jesus Christ.
06:01-06:11
It's through Jesus, through his death and his resurrection, that our sins can be forgiven, that we can have the promise of eternal life, that we can be adopted children of God.
06:12-06:18
Tonight, I wanna be like God.
06:20-06:20
What do you want for Christmas?
06:23-06:25
Really, all I want is to be like God.
06:30-06:34
This section we're looking at talks about the glory of Jesus Christ.
06:34-06:39
Those who received him get to know how glorious our God is.
06:41-06:43
And when we worship him, we do become like him.
06:44-06:48
So look at verse 14, John chapter one.
06:49-07:04
It says, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." Mark that, grace and truth, full of grace and truth.
07:04-07:15
Verse 15, "John bore witness about Him and cried out, this was He of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me because He was before me.
07:17-07:28
"From his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace." I love that last phrase, grace upon grace.
07:30-07:34
It's just waves and waves and waves of grace.
07:35-07:35
That's Jesus.
07:36-07:37
He's not stingy with his grace.
07:40-07:45
And he tells us in verse 16 that we've received from his fullness.
07:47-07:49
We've received from the fullness of grace.
07:49-07:50
You know what that means?
07:52-08:01
We're always in, if you belong to Jesus, you're always in the waves and waves of his grace.
08:01-08:06
Meaning, I can't say, well, I came to Christ in 1995.
08:07-08:08
Boy, you should have seen me back then.
08:09-08:11
I really needed his grace back then.
08:13-08:16
I need his grace just as much today as I did then.
08:18-08:25
And if I live tomorrow, I'm going to need His grace just as much tomorrow as I do today and as I did then.
08:29-08:30
But that's the good news.
08:31-08:37
He says, "Grace upon grace upon grace," that if you're in Christ, you're always in it.
08:38-08:39
He just keeps on giving it to us.
08:40-08:41
On your best day, you're in His grace.
08:42-08:43
On your worst day, you're in His grace.
08:46-08:50
Look at verse 17, he says, "For the law was given through Moses.
08:50-08:58
Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." There it is again, grace and truth, grace and truth.
08:58-09:00
But the law though, he mentions the law.
09:02-09:03
The law came through Moses.
09:03-09:07
There was no grace in the law.
09:09-09:12
Like you read your old testaments, there's only judgment.
09:12-09:14
You break the law, you're guilty.
09:14-09:17
In fact, the New Testament talks about that in Hebrews chapter 10.
09:18-09:24
Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy in the evidence of two or three witnesses.
09:27-09:29
There's no mercy, just guilt.
09:30-09:31
That's what the law does.
09:31-09:32
The law kills.
09:33-09:35
The law only shows you that you are a sinner.
09:39-09:45
Yet through Jesus comes, Did you see it again?
09:46-09:46
Grace and truth.
09:48-09:54
He's showing us that there's a stark contrast to the law with what came in Jesus Christ.
09:57-09:59
Verse 18 kind of sums up the whole passage.
10:01-10:03
Really sums up everything that we're celebrating at Christmas.
10:04-10:05
Here it is.
10:05-10:07
No one has ever seen God.
10:09-10:17
The only God who was at the Father's side, "He has made him known." God the Son has made God known.
10:18-10:26
John is saying we saw everything that is God, we saw that in Jesus Christ.
10:31-10:32
So what's he like?
10:35-10:41
What has God shown us of his character in Jesus Christ?
10:42-10:43
I mean, what's he like?
10:45-10:50
Well you notice in this passage, he said it in verse 14 and he said it in verse 17.
10:51-10:57
If you were to say, "All right, describe God in two words," he does.
10:58-11:18
He says, "Here's what God is like, two words, grace and truth." Those two words exemplified who Jesus Christ is, who is the perfect expression of who God is.
11:20-11:21
Grace and truth.
11:23-11:25
I want to talk about grace and truth for a few minutes.
11:27-11:28
What is grace?
11:28-11:31
Well, grace is compassion.
11:31-11:32
It's mercy.
11:34-11:35
Grace is kindness and patience.
11:38-11:39
Grace is forgiveness.
11:41-11:42
Read your Bibles.
11:42-11:48
Jesus always manifests just a tender, loving grace.
11:51-11:54
So He's full of grace, but it also says He's full of truth.
11:55-11:56
Truth.
11:57-11:59
Jesus always spoke the truth.
12:00-12:00
Read your Bibles.
12:01-12:03
Jesus always upheld the authority of God's word.
12:07-12:09
Jesus never told half truths.
12:10-12:12
Jesus never minimized the truth.
12:12-12:15
Jesus never downplayed scripture, contradicted the Old Testament.
12:16-12:18
Jesus never sugarcoated it.
12:18-12:19
He never watered it down.
12:19-12:24
And he never, not once ever did he apologize for what the Bible says.
12:28-12:29
I wanna be like God.
12:31-12:46
And when we look at this character of Jesus, it is astounding, full of grace and truth, simultaneously full.
12:48-12:56
And we could have this temptation to just kind of step back and admire that, like, wow, isn't that awesome?
12:56-12:59
Isn't that an awesome representation of God?
12:59-13:09
But you know, and we should do that, yes, but the Bible doesn't tell us that we should just admire the character of Jesus.
13:11-13:16
The Bible tells us that Jesus' character isn't something just to impress us.
13:19-13:23
Bible says that we should imitate his character.
13:25-13:29
I mean, so many times, right, We are called to imitate Jesus.
13:30-13:35
Matthew 11, Jesus says, "Learn from me." John 13, he was washing the disciples' grimy feet.
13:36-13:54
And Jesus said, "I'm doing this to show you an example that you should do the same." Philippians 2, Paul says, "Have this mind, which is yours in Christ Jesus." 1 Peter 2.21 that Pastor Rich just read says that Jesus is an example and we should follow in his steps.
13:57-14:11
And then we turn to John 1 here, and it says, verse 16, "From his fullness, we have all received." That we don't worship a distant God.
14:13-14:19
We worship a God, according to this, who is to be received.
14:21-14:26
You see, I can stand up here, and I could talk for hours about grace and truth.
14:26-14:28
Don't worry, I know it's Christmas, I'm not going to.
14:28-14:29
But I could.
14:31-14:37
But unless you've received Jesus Christ, this isn't gonna matter.
14:38-14:48
Because the Bible tells us that when we truly receive him, God puts his spirit in us so that we are able to imitate his character.
14:51-14:53
So that we can truly be his image bearers.
14:56-15:07
So Jesus was full of grace and truth, perfectly full of both, a hundred percent grace and a hundred percent truth.
15:08-15:11
And this is the profound thing.
15:11-15:13
Jesus was never one or the other.
15:17-15:20
Never lopsided, never compromising one over the other.
15:20-15:52
one at the expense of another, John makes it clear. He says, "This is what God is like, Jesus Christ." And if there are two words that sum up the kind of God we worship, it's grace and truth. And we have to get that because if we're to worship God and therefore imitate If we're to represent God to the world, we have to imitate grace and truth as displayed by Jesus.
15:54-15:57
So you know what our problem is.
16:00-16:07
Our problem is we are not perfectly full of grace and truth.
16:07-16:15
and the reality is each of us have a tendency to lean more towards one than the other.
16:17-16:23
Some of you are more grace people, and some of you are more truth people.
16:30-16:42
And I just want to show you tonight that you can't be content to lean in one direction because that's not like Jesus at all.
16:45-16:46
Like, well, can you give me an example?
16:46-16:48
Yeah, there is an example I wanna show you.
16:48-16:52
Look at John 8, just turn over in your Bibles a few pages.
16:52-17:07
I want you to see, we're just gonna read this and reference this, but if there's one story from Jesus' life that demonstrates this full of grace and full of truth at the same time character.
17:07-17:11
If there's one story that would show that, it's this one.
17:12-17:21
John 8, it says, "They went each to his own house, "but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
17:22-17:25
"Early in the morning, He came again to the temple.
17:26-17:29
"All the people came to Him, "and He sat down and taught them.
17:29-17:35
"The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman "who had been caught in adultery.
17:36-17:42
"And placing her in the midst, they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught "in the act of adultery.
17:43-17:49
"Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
17:49-17:57
"What do you say?" This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.
18:00-18:03
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
18:06-18:21
And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." And once more, he bent down and wrote on the ground.
18:23-18:26
But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones.
18:26-18:31
And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
18:31-18:34
Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they?
18:34-18:47
Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, look at this, Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you.
18:49-19:04
Go and from now on, sin no more." So, if you have an outline and you're taking notes, which we always encourage you to do, I want you to jot a couple things down here.
19:05-19:06
I want to be like God.
19:07-19:11
Number one, grace without truth is not like Jesus.
19:12-19:17
Grace without truth, that's not like Jesus.
19:21-19:25
Grace without truth is weak enabling.
19:34-19:35
Never holding people accountable.
19:37-19:39
You ignore the transformation power of the Holy Spirit.
19:39-19:56
You disregard the truth that God says in His Word that we are called to righteousness and holy living, and people who lean more towards grace care more about being liked than they care about what's right and wrong.
19:58-20:04
But I want you to see in this account in John chapter 8, Jesus wasn't just grace.
20:06-20:10
He didn't say to the woman, "I affirm you.
20:12-20:13
You do you, ma'am.
20:13-20:17
"Look, don't worry about what the Bible says.
20:18-20:29
I mean, they're quoting the law of Moses and that was a long time ago and that's not really for us." And I affirm you, ma'am, he didn't say that.
20:30-20:31
He wasn't just grace.
20:32-20:34
You see, Jesus brought truth into it.
20:34-20:40
Jesus says, "Go, and from now on sin no more." What Jesus said was, "Look, adultery dishonors God.
20:40-20:42
Hey, stop living like that, okay?
20:43-20:44
Stop living like that.
20:48-20:59
And church, when we are content to overlook sin, when we're content to avoid the hard conversations, when we're ready to affirm people in their sin, that's not like Jesus.
21:06-21:10
Right now the truth people are like, "Yeah, give it to 'em.
21:10-21:16
"Give it to the grace people." Hang on, truth people, because truth without grace is not like Jesus either.
21:21-21:22
Look, I know the truth people.
21:23-21:25
We've been around some truth people, haven't we, Aaron?
21:26-21:38
Right now the truth people are like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." How in the world could it be?
21:41-21:44
I thought Harvest Bible Chapel, I thought Bible was your middle name.
21:44-21:46
Like truth is all that matters, right?
21:47-21:49
Truth, it's truth that matters.
21:50-21:56
How in the world could you have truth without grace?
21:59-22:01
We realized in John 1:17, he told us.
22:02-22:07
Look at it again, John 1:17, "For the law was given through Moses." Do you know what that is?
22:07-22:08
Do you know what the law is?
22:10-22:12
It's truth without grace.
22:17-22:20
So let me ask you, was the law truth?
22:21-22:25
This is a shouted out verbal reply question.
22:25-22:27
Was the law truth?
22:28-22:29
Yes, it was.
22:29-22:31
It is, not was, it is.
22:32-22:34
The law is truth.
22:34-22:39
100% every letter of God's law in the Old Testament is true.
22:40-22:42
But there was no grace in the law.
22:42-22:43
We referenced this earlier.
22:43-22:45
This is how the law works.
22:46-22:47
Oh, you broke the law, you're guilty.
22:48-22:49
Now it's time for your punishment.
22:49-22:51
Next, that's how the law worked.
22:55-23:04
And truth without grace leads to cold, detached transactions with other people.
23:06-23:08
That's truth without grace.
23:08-23:09
You messed up.
23:09-23:09
You're done.
23:10-23:10
You're done.
23:14-23:15
It leads to harsh judgment.
23:18-23:20
Truth without grace leaves no room for mistakes.
23:22-23:23
There's no second chances.
23:23-23:25
There's no invitation to repent.
23:25-23:28
There's no encouragement to turn it around.
23:28-23:37
Listen, people who lean more towards truth than grace usually care more about their conviction, than they care about actual people.
23:37-23:38
And that is a problem.
23:42-23:49
But you see in this John eight account with the woman caught in adultery, do you notice Jesus wasn't just truth with her?
23:49-23:49
Do you notice that?
23:52-23:55
I mean, Jesus didn't say to the woman, they bring the woman before him.
23:55-24:00
Jesus didn't say, "Hey lady, you know what the law says.
24:00-24:18
You're guilty, there's nothing to discuss." He showed her grace when He says, "Neither do I condemn you, nor will you live differently." That's grace.
24:20-24:30
And church, when we condemn people, when we are one striking you're out, when we refuse to allow people the opportunity to change, that's not like Jesus.
24:34-24:38
So we imperfect people tend to fall on one side or the other.
24:39-24:46
So now that you've heard, I just wanna ask you just for fun, which way do you lean?
24:47-24:52
Show of hands, how many of you would say that you're more grace people?
24:52-24:54
Put your hands up if you're more of a grace person.
24:55-24:55
All right?
24:59-25:54
Now raise your hand if you're more of a truth person. I have a note written from the first service. When I asked you the truth people were they were a lot more bold to put their hands up than the grace people. I think there's something to that. That'll be a sermon for Easter. Anyways, grace people, look, I love you, but you typically care more about the relationship than any sin issue, and that's not good. And truth people, you care more about upholding God's Word than loving someone in the relationship, And that's not complete either.
25:57-26:03
And you know, I've been thinking about this a lot the last couple of weeks, while you do what you do at work, this is what I do at work.
26:04-26:09
I was thinking so much like, what is it that causes people to lean one way or the other?
26:13-26:21
And I was thinking about that like, whether you sit down with a grace person or you sit down with a truth person, either way.
26:21-26:31
But I was just thinking like, if you set them down and said, "What makes you lean in the direction that you lean?" What would they say?
26:35-26:36
And then it hit me.
26:38-26:39
Do you know what it is?
26:39-26:40
And I am sure of this.
26:43-26:44
They think they're being loving.
26:45-26:46
I mean, think about it.
26:47-26:48
You sit down with the grace person.
26:49-26:50
Why do you lean more towards grace?
26:51-26:52
because it's love.
26:52-26:56
I'm loving, that's why my heart is so full of love.
26:56-26:57
I'm so full of love.
26:57-27:03
That's why, and you can't just discard the relationship just because of something the Bible says.
27:04-27:07
I'm just so full of love, deep in my heart of heart of hearts.
27:07-27:08
I'm so full of love.
27:09-27:11
That's why I'm more of a grace person.
27:12-27:19
But then, you know, if you sat down with the truth person and said, "Why do you lean more towards the truth?" Do you know what they'd say?
27:20-27:25
It's love, because what is more loving than giving people the word of our Lord?
27:26-27:31
I mean, come on, Pastor Jeff, you're a pastor, you know this, the most loving thing you can do is tell somebody the truth, right?
27:31-27:32
So that's what I do.
27:33-27:34
I don't mince words, I tell them the truth.
27:34-27:36
That's how I show love, that's how I love them.
27:37-27:38
There's nothing more loving than that.
27:38-27:41
I'm more truth because that's the loving thing to do.
27:50-27:59
There's a huge mistake in that line of thinking, isn't there?
28:00-28:07
It's a mistake to think that grace is love, because it's not.
28:09-28:13
And it's a mistake to think that truth is love, because it's not.
28:14-28:15
You know what is love?
28:18-28:19
God is love.
28:21-28:34
And as a man, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, showed true love by being full of grace and truth both.
28:39-28:41
Well, that's number three.
28:44-28:45
What do you want for Christmas?
28:45-28:45
I want to be like God.
28:46-28:47
Well, grace and truth is like Jesus.
28:50-28:54
And see, that's the point of the story of the woman caught in adultery.
28:54-28:57
Jesus showed her grace and truth at the same time.
28:58-29:00
Grace, He forgave her.
29:00-29:03
He says, "Neither do I condemn you." That's grace.
29:03-29:04
at the same time.
29:05-29:06
Jesus said, "Your lifestyle is wrong.
29:07-29:10
"Go and sin no more." Jesus gave both.
29:10-29:20
He says, "I forgive you, now let's do better." Church, we need to learn this.
29:25-29:33
We need to be people who represent Jesus accurately, full of grace and truth.
29:33-29:46
I'm not a group of people that enable in the name of love, not a group of people who condemn in the name of upholding the Word.
29:48-29:56
We need to be a people who demonstrate acceptance and accountability at the same time.
29:58-30:12
As John Piper put it, people who say, "I love you, but this is wrong." Parents, you've got to get that with your kids.
30:15-30:19
Some of you parents need to sit down with your kids and say, "Look, I love you.
30:19-30:26
I accept you, and nothing will ever change that, but this habit you have is wrong, and you need to stop this.
30:27-30:30
and I'm going to help you stop this because I love you.
30:30-30:30
Do you see that?
30:30-30:32
That's grace and truth both.
30:34-30:38
Some of you have family or friends that are stuck in a sinful lifestyle.
30:38-30:39
Maybe it's an addiction.
30:40-30:50
Maybe they're in an unbiblical relationship regarding marriage and sexuality, and you need to sit down and say, "Look, I care about you, but what you're doing is dishonoring the Lord.
30:50-30:52
Come on, let's get on a better path here.
30:53-31:01
Let's get on track." And for some of you, maybe it's even in church, maybe it's in your small group.
31:02-31:08
Somebody flagrantly in sin and you're like, "I don't know what to do here, "I don't know how to handle them." Here's how you handle them.
31:08-31:28
You pull them aside and you sit down with them and you say, "Look, what you're doing is wrong, "but I'm going to do everything that I can "to help you get on track because I care about you so much." You see, it's grace that refuses to beat people down, but it's truth that refuses to overlook sin.
31:31-31:32
So what do you want for Christmas?
31:35-31:36
I wanna imitate God.
31:40-31:51
And the only way to imitate God, to demonstrate a love for God's word and a love for God's people, is being like Jesus.
31:54-32:03
according to the Bible is full of grace and truth.
32:05-32:16
Our worship team would make their way back up and our candle lighters would come forward.
32:19-32:28
We're going to close our service By singing to candlelight.
32:30-32:35
Why on Christmas Eve do we sing by candlelight?
32:39-32:41
Because it's pretty, right?
32:42-32:43
It's so pretty.
32:46-32:56
And it's a tradition, but this year, there's another reason that we're doing this.
32:58-33:06
This year, thank you, Ashley, this year, it's also an illustration.
33:09-33:18
In anticipation of this service, you know, I was looking at the order of service and thinking about this moment actually right now.
33:19-33:21
And I was thinking about this flame.
33:24-33:26
I thought, you know, what is that flame?
33:27-33:31
But two things perfectly.
33:33-33:41
The flame is light and heat, right?
33:44-33:46
You can see the light, you'll just have to trust me on the heat.
33:46-33:50
I mean, you can try it out if you like, but it's hot.
33:53-33:57
But you see that flame, it's not one or the other.
33:59-34:00
It's light and heat.
34:01-34:05
And it can't be one or the other.
34:05-34:10
If you're gonna have the flame, you're going to have light and heat both.
34:10-35:02
You could say it is full of both aspects, light and heat. And as we sing, I just want you to look down at that flame and recognize how perfectly full it is of both light and heat. And then as you sing, I want you to think about grace and truth. Because like the flame imitating Jesus, you are to be full both at the same time. We want to thank you for coming out and worshiping our Lord, and it is my prayer that your worship is genuine, because then your imitation of Him will also be genuine.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 1:14-18

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Define “glory” (John 1:14). What did John actually see when he says “we have seen His glory”?
Do you tend to lean more towards “grace” or “truth” when dealing with someone’s sin? Why? What do you need to do to be “full of grace and truth” like Jesus?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Taylor Brown

December 21, 2025

Want for Christmas?

I Want to Belong to God

Taylor Brown

December 21, 2025

Want for Christmas?

Introduction:

I Want to Belong to Jesus… (John 1:4–13)

Because He gives me an UNBEATABLE HOPE. (John 1:4–5)
Because He gives me a MEANINGFUL MISSION. (John 1:6–8)

Isaiah 40:3 – A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

John 3:30 – He must increase, but I must decrease.
Because He gives me a SPOT IN HIS FAMILY THAT I CANNOT EARN. (John 1:9–13)

John 3:19–20 – And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:43-00:50
Well as you turn to John chapter one, I wanna ask you the same exact question that you just heard in the video.
00:51-00:56
I wanna ask you a question that Pastor Jeff brought to your attention last week in his message.
00:56-01:01
It's probably a question that you're tired of hearing and asking this holiday season.
01:02-01:05
What do you want for Christmas?
01:06-01:14
With Christmas being so close, you have asked and heard the answer I've answered that question many times over the past several weeks.
01:15-01:22
And the questions you've, the answers you've heard and the answers you've given include an Awala water bottle.
01:22-01:23
Isn't that popular?
01:23-01:24
Is that still popular?
01:24-01:25
I don't really know.
01:25-01:26
A red light therapy mask.
01:26-01:27
Anybody want that?
01:28-01:29
That's popular on Instagram, isn't it?
01:30-01:32
A massive Lego set.
01:32-01:34
A Nintendo Switch 2.
01:34-01:35
New AirPods.
01:36-01:41
A smart ring, which I guess is kind of like but a ring on your finger, I don't really know.
01:42-01:43
Or fancy golf clubs.
01:44-01:50
But there are many things that you want for Christmas that you cannot write down on a wish list.
01:51-01:56
There are many things you want for Christmas that cannot be bought or wrapped.
01:57-01:58
Maybe you want that big promotion.
02:00-02:04
Maybe you want that bonus this year that you aren't sure is coming.
02:05-02:10
Maybe you want healing in your own body or in the body of a loved one.
02:11-02:11
Here's a big one.
02:12-02:16
Maybe you want to feel like you belong.
02:17-02:20
You want to not be rejected.
02:21-02:25
That is a desire that every single person in this room shares.
02:26-02:32
It's a desire that starts when you're young and it continues on for the rest of your life.
02:33-02:41
As a kid and then a teenager, Every single one of us was desperate to fit in and have a group of friends to belong to.
02:43-02:50
Rejection is painful, and it leaves lasting memories, especially when you're a kid.
02:51-02:56
You know, growing up, my friends and I used to have a sleepover almost every single Friday night.
02:57-03:02
And during 11th grade, there was a month-long stretch where there was no sleepovers.
03:03-03:03
And I was really confused.
03:04-03:06
I didn't know why this routine had been broken.
03:07-03:13
So one day at the lunch table, I said to my friends, hey guys, we haven't had a sleepover in a while, do you guys wanna come to my house this Sunday?
03:14-03:19
And whenever I said that, everyone at the table erupted in uncontrollable laughter.
03:20-03:23
And I was, again, just very, very confused.
03:24-03:27
After they were all done and calmed down, I said, what's so funny?
03:28-03:37
They then proceeded to tell me that they thought it would be hilarious to not invite me to sleepovers for a while, to see how long it would take me to notice and say something.
03:39-03:43
I missed a whole month of sleepovers with my friends.
03:44-03:48
And to be honest, in that moment, externally, I tried to laugh it off.
03:49-03:51
I tried to act like it wasn't a big deal.
03:52-03:54
But internally, I felt rejected.
03:56-03:58
I felt like I didn't belong.
04:00-04:01
You ever felt that way before?
04:04-04:05
A friend stopped talking to you?
04:07-04:11
A family member cut off communication for seemingly no reason?
04:13-04:17
A boyfriend or girlfriend ended the relationship without warning?
04:19-04:24
Your spouse chose to give up on the marriage and leave?
04:26-04:28
You have felt rejected before.
04:29-04:32
You have felt like you don't belong.
04:35-04:36
Do you feel that way right now?
04:37-04:42
Maybe you couldn't care less about what gifts you're gonna get under the Christmas tree this year.
04:43-04:47
Maybe you don't want anything from Amazon or the mall.
04:47-04:51
More than anything this year, you just want to experience that sense of belonging.
04:52-05:00
You want to know that there are people who love you, who care about you, and will never let go of you no matter what you do.
05:03-05:09
I can't guarantee you that sense of belonging with your family and with your friends this Christmas.
05:10-05:11
I wish I could, but I can't.
05:12-05:19
But I can guarantee there is someone infinitely greater who will give you that sense of belonging.
05:19-05:28
I can guarantee there is someone who will not reject you, who will not turn away from you if you truly turn to him, and that person is Jesus Christ.
05:30-05:32
There is no one better to belong to.
05:33-05:36
There is no one better to be loved by.
05:37-05:42
There is no one with a tighter grip in all of existence than him.
05:43-05:58
I want you to walk out of this service this morning if you're a believer with a greater sense of confidence that you were loved by Jesus Christ, that you are safe and secure in his steady hands.
05:58-06:00
There is no better gift than that.
06:02-06:10
And if you're not a Christian this morning, I want you to know that the invitation has been extended to belong to Christ.
06:11-06:13
He commands you to follow him.
06:14-06:21
He invites you to enjoy his acceptance and not fear others' rejection.
06:22-06:29
More than anything, I want all of you in this room to wanna belong to Jesus this Christmas.
06:31-06:34
So before we continue any further, let's go to the Lord and ask for his help.
06:35-06:41
Please pray for me that I will faithfully represent God's word and I will pray for you that you will faithfully receive it.
06:43-06:55
Father, we come to you and we bring all of our pain to you, all of our fears, all of our deepest, darkest worries that we're afraid to admit to other people.
06:58-07:11
Lord, in this room, I'm sure there's many, many stories of rejection, many, many stories of feeling like we don't belong, and I'm sure if we brought everybody up on stage to share how they feel that there wouldn't be a dry eye in the house today.
07:14-07:21
Lord, we ask that you bring the comfort that only you can, that you would challenge us, you would tear us down that you can build us back up again.
07:24-07:27
And Lord, I do ask for myself, Lord, your word is perfect, but I am not.
07:29-07:37
I do not feel up to the task of proclaiming such a glorious passage, but Lord, give me your strength, give me your wisdom.
07:37-07:44
I pray for everyone in this room that you would give them the faith to receive your word today.
07:46-07:49
I pray that you would seek and save the lost.
07:50-07:55
And for the rest of us, Lord, we would walk out of this room with a greater sense of confidence in who we belong to.
07:57-07:59
We ask all this in Jesus' mighty name, amen.
08:01-08:07
Well, as a quick refresher, let's reread the verses that Pastor Jeff covered last week.
08:07-08:11
This will set the table and help us to understand the context of our passage this morning.
08:11-08:14
So John chapter one, verses one through three.
08:14-08:22
"In the beginning was the word, "and the word was with God, and the word was God." He was in the beginning with God.
08:23-08:29
All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
08:30-08:34
These verses are all about who Jesus is.
08:34-08:37
He is the word of God who created all things.
08:38-08:41
Without Jesus, this universe would not exist.
08:41-08:43
This world would not exist.
08:43-08:46
You would not exist.
08:47-08:53
Jesus is the source and sustainer of everything that you can see and everything that you cannot see.
08:55-08:57
Jesus isn't just the word of God.
08:58-09:01
John says that he is God himself.
09:03-09:11
Verses one through three focus on who Jesus is, while verses four through 13 focus on what Jesus gives.
09:13-09:20
If you properly understand who Jesus is and what Jesus gives, you will want to belong to him.
09:21-09:30
You will want to belong to him because no one can compare to who Jesus is and nothing can compare to what Jesus gives.
09:32-09:36
So our outline for this morning, I want to belong to Jesus.
09:37-09:42
I want to belong to Jesus, first reason, because he gives me an unbeatable hope.
09:44-09:47
Because he gives me an unbeatable hope.
09:49-09:51
Let's read chapter one, verse four.
09:51-09:57
In him, in Jesus was life, and the life was the light of men.
09:59-10:04
Life was and is found in Jesus and him alone.
10:05-10:08
As we already discussed, Jesus made all things.
10:08-10:10
He is the source of all life on earth.
10:10-10:12
He is the cause of everything.
10:13-10:17
But He's not just the cause of physical life.
10:17-10:21
He is the only supplier of eternal life as well.
10:22-10:28
There is no other viable option to turn to or to search for besides Jesus.
10:30-10:32
But that doesn't stop us from trying, does it?
10:33-10:38
Billions have tried and billions have failed and trying to find true life apart from Jesus.
10:39-10:44
And you and I have tried our hand at this pointless search as well.
10:45-10:53
Trying to find life in our jobs, in our finances, in our status, our stuff, and even our families.
10:55-10:57
Life cannot be found in your job.
10:57-11:00
You realize that one day you will have to retire.
11:02-11:03
You may get let go from that job.
11:05-11:07
One day that job will belong to someone else.
11:09-11:12
Your life is not found in how much money you have.
11:13-11:14
Let me ask you a question.
11:14-11:18
How much of the money in your various accounts will you be able to take with you when you die?
11:21-11:21
[CAT MEOWS]
11:21-11:22
Do we not know the answer?
11:24-11:26
Not a single dime.
11:27-11:30
Life is not found in your status and popularity.
11:31-11:33
There will always be someone bigger and better than you.
11:35-11:40
In 150 or 200 years, how many people on this planet will be thinking about you?
11:42-11:46
The most likely answer is not a single soul.
11:48-11:50
Life is not even found in your family.
11:51-11:57
As great as your spouse, your kids, your relatives might be, they cannot meet the deepest needs of your soul.
11:58-12:00
Can your spouse forgive you of your sins?
12:01-12:05
Can your kids give you that unbeatable hope that you're looking for?
12:06-12:06
No.
12:07-12:09
Can your family guarantee your eternity?
12:11-12:11
No.
12:12-12:19
All of those needs can only be met by Jesus Christ who is the only source of life.
12:22-12:26
And John goes on to say that this life was the light of men.
12:28-12:29
sounds pretty cool, right?
12:29-12:30
But what does that actually mean?
12:30-12:33
The life was the light of men.
12:34-12:38
I'm no scientist, but let me give you a quick pop quiz in astronomy.
12:38-12:41
What do all the planets in the solar system orbit around?
12:43-12:45
You're all really tired this morning.
12:45-12:46
What is it again?
12:46-12:48
All right, very, very good.
12:48-12:50
Could we survive without the sun?
12:51-12:53
What does the sun do for us?
12:54-13:01
is the major source of life, because it is the major source of light and heat on this planet.
13:02-13:05
Without the sun shining as it does, we would all freeze to death.
13:06-13:10
Without the sun shining as it does, we would not be able to see anything.
13:11-13:13
We would be lost in the darkness.
13:15-13:21
Without the light of Christ shining as it does, we would not be able to see and understand the truth.
13:22-13:27
Without the light of Christ shining as it does, we would not know how to be saved.
13:27-13:31
We would not know how to have a relationship, a friendship with God.
13:31-13:38
Without the light of Christ shining as it does, we would be hopeless and lost in the darkness of our sin.
13:39-13:45
Without the light of Christ shining as it does, none of us would have any spiritual life.
13:48-13:51
Who is the light of the sun offered to?
13:54-14:01
The 8.3 billion people on this planet, who is the light of the Son of God offered to?
14:03-14:07
Same exact answer, the 8.3 billion people on this planet.
14:08-14:16
But as we'll see in a few minutes, many choose to hide from his light, and by doing so, they miss out on the life that he offers.
14:17-14:22
But that does not stop Jesus from shining his light, which we see in verse five, read that with me.
14:23-14:28
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
14:30-14:34
The word overcome in this verse can also be translated as comprehended or understood.
14:35-14:39
And many scholars believe that John picked this word for a very specific reason.
14:39-14:41
He chose this word because it has a double meaning.
14:43-14:47
Each of these words make sense in context and are flip sides of one another.
14:49-14:51
So let's cover one side of the coin first.
14:51-14:55
Let's cover the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
14:57-15:01
You know, I walk my dog Murdoch almost every single night at 10 p.m. after the family is asleep.
15:02-15:05
And my wife hates this plan because she thinks I'm gonna get pancaked by a car.
15:05-15:10
It hasn't happened yet, so please just pray for me that this trend continues and I'm able to be safe.
15:11-15:15
But there is this one house in my neighborhood that fascinates me.
15:16-15:23
This house has a lamppost in the front yard that shines brightly for about 10 to 20 seconds, then it just shuts off.
15:24-15:27
And it comes back on a few seconds later.
15:28-15:31
And it happens every single night for the past year.
15:32-15:37
And this may sound strange to you, but I think about that lamppost almost every single day.
15:38-15:47
Every single time I exit the house to go take Murdoch on this walk, I wonder is tonight gonna be the night when that light is extinguished.
15:48-15:53
Is tonight the night when darkness will overcome that person's yard?
15:55-15:56
'Cause there's something wrong with that lamppost.
15:56-15:58
There's something wrong with the bulb.
15:58-15:59
There's something wrong with the wiring.
16:00-16:02
It's just a matter of time.
16:03-16:05
I don't have much faith in that lamppost.
16:06-16:11
I don't think you would have much faith in that lamppost if you took a field trip to my neighborhood and drove past it.
16:12-16:16
But do you know who you should have total and complete faith in?
16:16-16:22
Do you know whose light you should never wonder or worry about being extinguished?
16:22-16:23
Jesus Christ.
16:24-16:27
The light of his glory never flickers.
16:28-16:31
The light of his gracious love never turns off.
16:31-16:34
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
16:35-16:44
No matter how dark this world gets, no matter how bleak your life looks, Jesus Christ is shining just as brightly as he always has.
16:46-16:53
Sin, injustice, and evil cannot lower the intensity of who he is and what he has done.
16:53-16:59
Nothing and no one can turn the dimmer switch down on the light of the world.
17:01-17:03
Let's flip over to the other side of the coin.
17:04-17:09
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not understood it.
17:10-17:12
You know, Satan and his demons are crafty.
17:12-17:13
I'll give them that.
17:13-17:14
They are intelligent.
17:15-17:23
But at the same time, these evil forces are complete morons in comparison to the all-knowing, all-wise God of the universe.
17:24-17:32
The devil and his demons are fighting a losing battle because they cannot figure out a way to extinguish the light of Christ.
17:33-17:39
They're like a bunch of roided up bodybuilders trying to push over a mountain with their bare hands.
17:39-17:40
It's just not gonna happen.
17:41-17:46
Their attempts to snuff out the light only fan it into flame even more.
17:48-17:51
The harder they try, the harder they fail.
17:52-17:55
No matter what they do, Jesus keeps forgiving more and more people.
17:56-17:58
No matter what they try, the church keeps getting built up.
17:59-18:04
No matter what scheme they hatch, the kingdom of God keeps advancing.
18:05-18:11
Satan and his workers have already been defeated by the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
18:12-18:15
They know that eternal judgment awaits them.
18:16-18:19
Are they gonna go quietly without a fight until Jesus returns?
18:20-18:23
No, they are kicking and screaming like bratty children.
18:25-18:31
And I know that their kicking and screaming causes a lot of pain and hardship to every single person in this room.
18:33-18:36
But they cannot change the ending that God has already written.
18:37-18:42
The light will win because the darkness cannot overcome it or understand it.
18:45-18:46
That is certain.
18:47-18:48
That is a fact.
18:51-18:56
Maybe you've been a believer for months, for years, and maybe even for decades.
18:57-19:00
And you know the truths of verses four and five intellectually.
19:02-19:07
You have a very hard time believing these truths emotionally and experientially.
19:09-19:14
You're in a tough season right now and you feel like the darkness is winning.
19:15-19:18
You feel like the light is losing.
19:19-19:23
You feel like the darkness understands how to overcome the light just fine.
19:24-19:29
You feel like you cannot have victory over that sin pattern in your life.
19:31-19:36
You feel like there is more sin in you There is mercy in Christ.
19:38-19:41
You feel helpless, you feel hopeless.
19:45-19:47
If that's how you feel right now, my heart goes out to you.
19:48-19:49
'Cause I've been there before.
19:50-19:51
And I'm sure I'll be there again.
19:53-19:56
If that's how you feel, I wanna challenge you to stop looking at you.
19:57-20:00
Stop looking at your circumstances.
20:00-20:02
Fix your eyes on Jesus.
20:03-20:06
Focus your attention on what He has given to you.
20:06-20:11
Root your confidence in the new and everlasting life that has been given to you.
20:12-20:19
Ask the Holy Spirit to re-energize you with the light you see when you open up the pages of this book during your daily quiet time.
20:21-20:23
You understand your hope is not found in you.
20:25-20:29
You understand that your hope is not even found in your circumstances changing.
20:30-20:33
Your hope is found in belonging to Christ.
20:35-20:42
When you belong to Christ, you are given an unbeatable hope from an unbeatable savior.
20:45-20:49
I want to belong to Jesus because he gives me an unbeatable hope.
20:49-20:54
I want to belong to Jesus because he gives me a meaningful mission.
20:55-21:00
That's the second reason on your outline, because he gives me a meaningful mission.
21:05-21:08
In verses four through five, John talks about the message of the light.
21:09-21:13
In verses six through eight, John talks about the messenger of the light.
21:13-21:14
Let's read these verses together.
21:15-21:18
There is a man sent from God whose name was John.
21:19-21:24
He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.
21:24-21:28
was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
21:30-21:34
So be clear, John is referencing a totally different John here.
21:34-21:34
That's kind of confusing.
21:35-21:36
What John is he talking about?
21:38-21:39
John the Baptist.
21:40-21:41
Why couldn't it have had a different name?
21:41-21:45
Why couldn't it have been like Bill the Baptist or Barron the Baptist or whatever?
21:45-21:46
Why did it have to be John?
21:46-21:47
Well, don't worry, we'll make it work.
21:48-21:49
We'll deal with it.
21:49-21:59
John the Baptist was sent by God as a messenger to prepare the way for the promised Messiah and Savior who is prophesied about all throughout the Old Testament.
22:00-22:03
And John was prophesied of in the Old Testament as well.
22:04-22:08
Isaiah 40, verse three, a voice cries, "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord.
22:09-22:24
"Make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Malachi 3, 1, "Behold, I send my messenger, "and he will prepare the way before me." John the Baptist came to roll out the red carpet for the coming king.
22:25-22:29
He didn't come so that others would believe in him and believe in his greatness.
22:30-22:34
He came so that others might believe in Christ through him.
22:36-22:42
And John the Baptist's followers once came to him to give him the news that a lot of people were following Jesus.
22:43-22:44
He was getting more popular.
22:45-22:49
And his disciples were even baptizing people, which is kind of like John's main thing.
22:49-22:51
It's his name, right, John the Baptist.
22:51-22:53
Like, John, don't you realize that all this is happening?
22:56-22:57
Jesus is getting more popular than you.
22:59-23:00
Did this frustrate John?
23:02-23:02
Was he jealous?
23:04-23:12
Not at all, he was actually really, really excited because he was successfully carrying out the meaningful mission that God had entrusted to him.
23:13-23:16
Here's the response he gives his disciples.
23:16-23:27
He says, "He, Jesus, must increase, "but I must decrease." That was the slogan of John's life in ministry.
23:28-23:31
That should be the slogan of your life in ministry as well.
23:32-23:36
He must increase, but I must decrease.
23:36-23:38
You realize you're not the point of anything.
23:39-23:40
Jesus is.
23:41-23:43
John the Baptist wasn't the point of anything either.
23:43-24:14
Jesus was his mission was to point everyone to Christ to bear witness to his light And I know what some of you serious students of the Bible may be thinking right now you're internally objecting a bit Hold on a minute pastor Taylor. You're saying that Jesus is the light and John the Baptist wasn't but later on in this gospel didn't Jesus say that John was like a lamp that was shining and And doesn't Jesus tell us that all Christians are the light of the world?
24:15-24:16
How does this all make sense?
24:18-24:22
Well, yeah, Jesus does say that in Matthew 5.14 and in John 5.35.
24:24-24:29
To help answer those great questions, let me slip on my lab coat again and give you another pop quiz in astronomy.
24:31-24:39
When you look up in the night sky and you see the moon shining bright, does that moon actually have any light of its own?
24:40-24:42
Where does its light come from?
24:43-24:48
The sun, the light of the moon is shared and reflected.
24:49-24:52
It's the same for John and it's the same for you and me.
24:52-24:57
We have a shared and reflected light that is given to us by Jesus Christ.
24:58-25:07
All throughout John chapter one, verses four through 13, the Greek word phos is used in reference to Christ and phos is the essence of light.
25:08-25:13
In John 5.35, the Greek word luknos is used to describe John.
25:13-25:15
A luknos is a portable lamp.
25:16-25:21
Jesus is the light, while John is the lamp that displays the light.
25:23-25:24
A candle cannot shine on its own.
25:24-25:26
It needs to be given the light of a flame.
25:28-25:30
A lamp in your house cannot shine on its own.
25:30-25:33
It needs to be given the light of a bulb.
25:35-25:38
Jesus Christ is the sun, and you are the moon.
25:38-25:41
Jesus Christ is the flame, you are the candle.
25:42-25:45
Jesus Christ is the bulb and you are the lamp.
25:46-25:51
You are here on this earth to display his light to everyone.
25:52-25:55
To shine his light in the darkness.
25:55-25:59
To bear witness about his light because you have none of your own.
26:01-26:03
And I know what some of you are thinking at this point.
26:03-26:14
Okay Taylor, I know I need to buckle down, I need to share the gospel, I need to make disciples, I need to shine his light everywhere I go, I'll do that as soon as the holidays are over.
26:15-26:18
Whenever Christmas is in the rear view mirror, I'll get right on that.
26:21-26:21
No you won't.
26:24-26:27
And you're thinking, where's your Christmas cheer, Pastor Taylor, what do you mean no I won't?
26:29-26:29
I mean you won't.
26:31-26:36
If you will not bear witness to the light of Christ today, what makes you think you'll do it tomorrow?
26:37-26:46
If you are unwilling to bear witness to the light of Christ at the end of 2025, what makes you think you'll be willing to do it at the start of 2026?
26:47-26:52
Do you understand that Christmas is the perfect time to bear witness to the light of Christ?
26:53-26:56
This is the time when you're around people you're not usually around.
26:57-27:00
This time of season's all about joy, but most people are miserable.
27:02-27:07
Most people are looking for something that they cannot find because they're looking in the wrong place.
27:09-27:12
Right now is the perfect time to bear witness to the light.
27:13-27:21
Grab a bunch of the Christmas Eve invite cards at the back table and hand them out as if you were given $100 for each one you handed out.
27:22-27:26
I'm not gonna give you $100, but the rewards you get in heaven for that will be infinitely greater.
27:28-27:36
Grab one of those invites, put it in an envelope, put money in that envelope, put a personal note in that envelope and give it to your mailman tomorrow.
27:37-27:45
Take it upon yourself to read scripture at your family get-together this week, and talk about why you're even celebrating Christmas, why Jesus came in the first place.
27:46-27:50
Stop putting off that gospel conversation with that unsaved family member at Christmas.
27:51-27:52
Finally, do it.
27:54-27:58
Invite that unbeliever who has no family in the area to your Christmas dinner.
27:59-28:00
Buy them a Bible.
28:00-28:03
Write a note in that Bible and give it to them.
28:04-28:06
I keep going and going and going.
28:07-28:11
There are so many ways to bear witness to the light of Christ this week.
28:11-28:13
Don't make excuses for why you can't.
28:14-28:17
Don't point to your calendar and say you're too busy.
28:18-28:20
This is the reason why you're here, isn't it?
28:20-28:21
To bear witness to the light.
28:22-28:26
If anything, it's other things get in the way of the most important thing on your calendar.
28:27-28:34
Don't justify your fear and laziness by saying, you don't wanna stir the pot this Christmas, you just wanna have a calm Christmas.
28:37-28:42
Shouldn't you care more about sharing the peace of Christ with your family and friends?
28:44-28:48
When you belong to Christ, you recognize that you've been given a meaningful mission.
28:49-28:54
When you belong to Christ, you value your calling way more than your comfort.
28:55-29:00
When you belong to Christ, you make disciples, you don't make excuses.
29:00-29:06
When you belong to Christ, you bear witness to his light because the darkness is everywhere that you go.
29:09-29:13
I wanna belong to Jesus because he gives me an unbeatable hope.
29:14-29:18
I wanna belong to Jesus because he gives me a meaningful mission.
29:18-29:24
I want to belong to Jesus, final reason, because he gives me a spot in his family that I cannot earn.
29:25-29:28
Because he gives me a spot in his family that I cannot earn.
29:30-29:34
We've talked about the message of the light and the messenger of the light.
29:35-29:40
Now we're gonna wrap up by talking about the two responses to the message of the light.
29:41-29:43
The first response is in verses nine through 11.
29:44-29:49
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
29:49-29:55
He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
29:56-30:00
He came to his own and his own people did not receive him.
30:02-30:06
As I said earlier, the light of the Son of God is offered to everyone.
30:07-30:10
Anyone is welcome to step into the light.
30:10-30:16
Anyone is welcome to receive the life of Christ and be forever changed.
30:17-30:21
but most choose to step out of the light rather than into it.
30:21-30:26
Most choose to reject the life of Christ that is offered.
30:27-30:28
And this is proven by verse 11.
30:28-30:32
He came to his own people and his own people did not receive him.
30:33-30:35
And this verse has two different focuses.
30:36-30:39
When you zoom out, John is talking about mankind.
30:41-30:45
Statistically and biblically, there are way more non-Christians than Christians.
30:46-30:50
There are way more people who reject Christ than receive him.
30:50-30:52
Can we all agree on that basic fact of life?
30:53-30:58
But if you zoom in, John is talking about Israel.
30:59-31:05
Many of Jesus' fellow Jews rejected him, hated him, called for his crucifixion.
31:06-31:10
Many of the Jews rejected the message of Christ when it was shared by the apostles.
31:11-31:16
Even to this day, many Jewish people refuse to accept that Jesus is the light.
31:17-31:18
That's not always gonna be the case.
31:18-31:22
Paul does say in Romans that one day all Israel will be saved.
31:22-31:30
Don't have time to talk about that right now as Pastor Jeff often says, buy me some Pantera bread or Chick-fil-A and we'll talk about it across the street sometime.
31:31-31:32
Here's an important question.
31:34-31:37
Why do most people reject Jesus?
31:38-31:42
Why do most people not receive the light of Christ?
31:44-31:47
John gives us a very simple yet sad answer.
31:48-31:54
Later on in this gospel in chapter three, verses 19 through 20, he writes, "And this is the judgment.
31:55-32:02
"The light has come into the world, "and people love the darkness rather than the light, "because their works were evil.
32:03-32:17
"For everyone who does wicked things hates the light "and does not come to the light, "lest his works should be exposed." Have you ever been sleeping or laying in a dark room and suddenly someone turns the lights on?
32:18-32:19
Are you overjoyed by this?
32:19-32:21
Are you really excited by this?
32:22-32:23
What's your natural human response?
32:23-32:24
What do you do?
32:25-32:36
You close your eyes, you cover your face with your hands and your blanket, you yell, "Turn that light out!" That is the natural human response, physically and spiritually.
32:38-32:43
It is far more comfortable to lay in the darkness than be in the light.
32:45-32:49
It's simpler to be oblivious and not see yourself for who you really are.
32:51-32:56
It's effortless to do nothing about your greatest problem, which is your sinful nature.
32:57-33:01
It's easy to lash out at those who try to pull you into the light.
33:02-33:06
That is why most people do not receive Jesus.
33:08-33:09
They'd rather lay in the darkness.
33:10-33:13
They love their sin more than him.
33:14-33:17
That's the first response to the message of the light.
33:17-33:26
John says there's only one other response, and that's in verses 12 to 13, the best part of this entire passage.
33:28-33:43
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.
33:45-33:49
The first and wrong way to respond to Jesus is rejection.
33:51-33:56
The second and right way to respond to Jesus is receiving and believing.
33:57-34:03
You reach out to receive the gift of eternal life by believing in the name of Jesus Christ.
34:04-34:09
We say that all the time, but what does it mean to believe in the name of Jesus.
34:10-34:18
Well, a name represents all of who a person is and all that a person does.
34:20-34:26
When you believe in the name of Jesus Christ, you are believing that he is who the Bible says that he is.
34:27-34:31
That he has done all the Bible says he has done.
34:32-34:37
You wholeheartedly believe that he is the word of God who created all things.
34:37-34:39
You have faith that he is the light of the world.
34:39-34:42
He is your only source of hope.
34:42-34:50
You trust that he is the Savior who died on the cross for your sins, who took the punishment that you deserve.
34:50-34:58
You submit to the reality that he is the Lord of your life, who has the divine right to tell you what to think, say, and do.
34:59-35:08
When you receive Jesus and believe in his name, John says that you are given the right to become a child of God.
35:11-35:18
There are only two children in this entire world who have the right to claim that they are my kids.
35:20-35:25
I love all the kids in this church, but I love two of those kids the most.
35:26-35:30
Only two of those kids have a legal right to say that I am their father.
35:31-35:35
Only Samuel and Emmie Brown have that legal right.
35:37-35:38
What's the evidence of this?
35:39-35:45
Well, Kate and I have their birth certificates at home as proof that those kids belong to us.
35:46-35:54
And when you belong to Christ, your spiritual birth certificate is signed and sealed by his own blood.
35:55-36:00
You are given the right to claim God as your father and Jesus as your big brother.
36:01-36:07
You have given the right to declare that you belong to the greatest family imaginable.
36:10-36:11
Can you earn this right?
36:14-36:16
Can you work your way into the family of God?
36:18-36:20
Not according to John at the end of verse 13.
36:21-36:37
He says, "Who were born not of blood, "nor the will of the flesh, "nor the will of man, but of God." You are not given the right to become a child of God because you're a good person who does nice things for other people.
36:37-36:44
You are not given the right to become a child of God because your parents are great Christians and raised you in the church.
36:45-36:50
You are not given the right to become a child of God because you come to church every once in a while.
36:50-36:53
You pray regularly and do community service projects.
36:53-37:00
You are not given the right to become a child of God because of your track record and your good works.
37:00-37:07
You are given the right to become a child of God because of the gracious work of God in Christ.
37:07-37:08
That's it.
37:09-37:11
That's the only source.
37:15-37:16
How do you respond to Jesus?
37:18-37:22
Do you reject him or do you receive him?
37:24-37:34
Do you believe in His name, His work, and His reputation, or do you believe in your name, your works, and your reputation?
37:36-37:42
One response leads to eternal destruction, while the other leads to eternal life.
37:42-37:50
One response leads to everything being taken away from you, and the other leads to everything being given to you.
37:52-37:58
Please don't leave this room without considering who Jesus is and what he is offering you.
38:00-38:03
Everything hinges on your response to him.
38:08-38:09
What do you want for Christmas?
38:11-38:12
Do you wanna belong to the world?
38:14-38:15
Or do you wanna belong to Jesus?
38:18-38:26
Do you wanna settle for the flickering hopes of this sinful culture, or do you want the unbeatable hope of an unbeatable savior?
38:27-38:30
Do you want to lead a meaningless existence?
38:31-38:36
Or do you want to carry out the meaningful mission of pointing others to the point of life?
38:38-38:42
Do you want to be a child of the devil who absolutely hates you?
38:43-38:47
Or do you want to be a child of God who unconditionally loves you?
38:49-38:53
If you have not yet believed and received Jesus, now is your chance.
38:53-38:54
Now is your opportunity.
38:55-38:59
You don't know if you're getting another opportunity past this one, so don't waste it.
39:01-39:05
The life of Christ is being offered to you right now.
39:06-39:07
Don't slap the gift away.
39:09-39:11
The light of Christ is shining in this moment.
39:12-39:15
Do not step back into the darkness once again.
39:17-39:18
Now is your time.
39:19-39:20
Now is your chance.
39:21-39:22
You're alive right now.
39:23-39:24
You're not guaranteed tomorrow.
39:28-39:28
Life is hard.
39:30-39:33
Discouragement and disappointments are all around us.
39:34-39:37
It's so easy to lose track of what's important in the darkness.
39:38-39:46
And we need the light of biblical reminders to let us know what is true, what is real, and what is right.
39:48-39:52
This ring I wear on my left hand is a symbol that I belong to my wife.
39:53-39:59
I'm taken, I'm not looking for anybody else to give me that feeling, right, to belong to.
40:01-40:08
The Lord's Supper is a powerful symbol that you belong to Christ and no one else.
40:08-40:13
You're spoken for by the Son of God and you're not looking for anyone else to give your life meaning.
40:13-40:17
You're not looking to anything else to give your life meaning.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 1:4-13

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Who or what do you often set your hopes on? Why can’t these people and things satisfy you as Jesus can?
What excuses are holding you back from bearing witness to the light? How will you bear witness to the light this week and next?
How does Jesus give us the right to become children of God? Why can’t this right be deserved or earned?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

December 14, 2025

Want for Christmas?

I Want to Know God

Jeff Miller

December 14, 2025

Want for Christmas?

Introduction:

John 17:3 – And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

John 1:18 – No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

I Want to Know God (John 1:1–3):

The REALITY: Jesus is GOD.

Colossians 2:9 – For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

Zechariah 12:10 – And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced…

Acts 20:28 – Pay careful attention to yourselves... to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Hebrews 1:2 – But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
The RESPONSE: FAITH in Jesus.

Hebrews 11:6 – And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

How Can I Grow in Knowing Jesus?
1. CONFESS with your mouth.
  
  Romans 10:9 – If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
2. HEAR the Word.
  
  Romans 10:17 – So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
3. KEEP His commandments.
  
  John 15:10 – If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:41-00:42
Stegosaurus.
00:45-00:47
Nobody asks, so I'm just going to tell you.
00:49-00:50
Game show host.
00:52-00:52
And gray.
00:54-00:57
Oh, oh, and what I want for Christmas.
01:02-01:04
I just want to know God.
01:09-01:18
Did you ever ask for something like for Christmas or whatever and somebody got you the generic version?
01:18-01:20
Has that ever happened to anybody else?
01:20-01:24
Show of hands, you wanted something and you got the generic version?
01:26-01:27
That happened to me when I was a kid.
01:28-01:33
When I was a kid, they came out with this wacky thing.
01:33-01:34
It was called a pogo ball.
01:35-01:37
How many people, show of hands, remember the pogo balls?
01:38-01:47
Okay, a few of you, one person in the first service did, or about half of the first service's attendants, remembers what a pogo ball was.
01:47-01:52
If you don't know, just imagine like a snowman with the head cut off.
01:52-01:54
It was that kind of shape, right?
01:56-02:05
And it had this hard plastic like ring that went in between these two like balls, right?
02:05-02:07
That were kind of fused together.
02:07-02:14
And you were supposed to like stand on the plastic disc and squeeze your feet on the top ball.
02:15-02:19
And then you would bounce on the pogo ball.
02:19-02:27
And the pogo ball would let you jump almost as high as you could jump if you weren't on a pogo ball.
02:31-02:33
But it was the hot item the one year.
02:34-02:36
And I wanted a pogo ball.
02:37-02:39
You know what my parents got me?
02:41-02:42
The Saturn ball.
02:46-02:51
Pogo balls, generic cousin, the Saturn ball.
02:55-03:03
And not only was it actually not fun to use, but my family was making fun of me when I did use it.
03:03-03:08
When I would jump on it, they'd be like, Here we go on our Saturn ball, our Saturn ball, our Saturn ball.
03:09-03:10
And that really hurt my feelings.
03:11-03:17
So the Saturn ball got thrown into a closet and it's probably still there until today.
03:19-03:28
But look, I know we've had this conversation before, but there's just some things you can't go generic, right?
03:28-03:38
Like ketchup, Pop-Tarts, Oreos, the generic's not the same.
03:41-03:44
Don't try to tell me that it is because you're just lying to yourself.
03:47-03:55
But nothing has been made more generic than God.
03:57-04:03
We live in a culture that is okay with the generic concept of God.
04:05-04:10
But when you get specific, people get squirrely about that.
04:12-04:20
You're like, when people say, "God bless America, "God bless America." Yeah, you can ask, "Well, which God?
04:22-04:42
"Do you mean the God of the Bible, "the one who created us, the one who judges sin, "the one who commands us to repent and believe, "the one who calls us to live our lives "according to his wisdom?" And it's like, "Oh no, not that God." But we're just okay with the generic concept.
04:42-04:48
But you see, the problem with that line of thinking is God isn't a generic concept.
04:50-04:54
In fact, God's not a concept at all.
04:56-04:57
God is a person.
05:00-05:26
God is a specific person. And as we enter into the Christmas season, you know, we know the Christmas story from Matthew and from Luke, right? We know that version of the Christmas story well with the census and Bethlehem and Mary and Joseph and angels and shepherds and mangers and the star and the magi and...
05:26-05:34
Well, Matthew and Luke sort of tell the story of the incarnation like looking over people's shoulders, right?
05:34-05:39
But we're going to be looking at the gospel of John because his Christmas story is a little different.
05:40-05:44
In John's Christmas story, we are looking over God's shoulder.
05:47-05:49
That's really the theme of the whole book of John.
05:51-06:08
We studied this some years back, but the theme of John is this, the God of the universe has revealed Himself by coming into this world as a man to not just save you, but to have a relationship with you.
06:10-06:15
The God wants you to know Him.
06:20-06:23
In fact, this is what Jesus Christ was praying.
06:24-06:43
John 17.3, Jesus said, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." Eternal life.
06:45-06:53
more important than eternal life because you are either going to live forever with God or you're going to die forever apart from God.
06:56-06:57
So what do you want for Christmas?
07:02-07:04
Top of your list should be eternal life.
07:06-07:10
And according to Jesus, that comes from knowing Him, from knowing God.
07:11-07:21
And I do have to remind you that knowing about God is not the same as actually knowing God.
07:21-07:29
You realize those are two completely different concepts, knowing about God and knowing God, not the same.
07:30-07:31
Think of it this way.
07:31-07:46
Imagine a young man comes to church, a single man, and he's been coming here for a while when all of a sudden one day he notices there is a beautiful young single woman.
07:48-07:56
And he's like, "I don't think I met her, but who is that?" But he gets his friend, he's like, "Hey, find out who that girl is." Right?
07:56-08:02
And his friend comes back with the information and he says, "Oh, you asked about that girl.
08:03-08:03
Here's what I know.
08:04-08:06
She loves missions, right?
08:06-08:08
And she loves working with children.
08:09-08:15
She enjoys traveling and get this, she's a big Steelers fan.
08:18-08:20
But she also loves rom-coms.
08:23-08:37
Now, if this friend goes back to the dude and gives this report on what this woman is like, do you think this man would be like, all right, now that I have the information about her, I am satisfied, thank you.
08:38-08:38
That is all.
08:41-08:42
Is that the end of the story?
08:44-08:51
No, you see, now that he knows about her, that makes him all the more want to know her personally.
08:52-08:55
You see, that's how it is with God.
08:55-08:57
That's how it is with Jesus Christ.
08:58-09:05
The more you know about Him, the more you want to know Him personally.
09:08-09:10
The fact should lead you to the relationship.
09:12-09:14
Well, how do I know God personally?
09:14-09:20
Well, John 1:18 tells us that no one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side.
09:21-09:22
He has made him known.
09:23-09:32
And folks, this is a fundamental truth, that the only way that we can know God is he has to make himself known.
09:33-09:42
And that's what we celebrate every Christmas, that God has made Himself known because He did it in the most personal way possible.
09:42-09:45
He showed up and introduced Himself.
09:47-09:53
So look at John 1, picking up in verse 1.
09:53-09:55
We're just gonna look at the first three verses today.
09:55-10:04
And this might feel more like a Bible study than a sermon, but these are important truths that we gotta wrestle down here.
10:05-10:16
John 1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, "and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." He was in the beginning with God.
10:19-10:26
All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
10:31-10:39
Notice that John, in introducing our Lord, He's using this word, word, a lot.
10:39-10:42
Why does he use the word, word?
10:44-10:53
Well, he doesn't really explain that, but I promise you that the audience that he wrote to in the first century would have known exactly what he was talking about.
10:54-10:59
'Cause John primarily would have been writing to the Greeks and the Jews.
11:00-11:20
And the word, word in the Greek is logos, and to the Greeks that Logos was like this impersonal force, this impersonal energy source, because the Greek philosophers were like, look, all of this had to come from somewhere.
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You know, the world didn't happen by accident.
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There has to be some force out there that it's behind the structure of the earth and all logic and reason.
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And they had this idea, it was an impersonal force, and they called it the word, the logos.
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And see, so John is writing to the Greeks, and he goes, "Hey, you guys talk about the logos, right?
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"Did you know the logos is a person?
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"It's not a thing, it's a person.
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"It's a person that was with God, "it's a person that was God, "and it's a person," according to John 1:14, that became flesh and dwelt among us." So that's how the Greeks would have heard this.
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You know how the Jews would have heard this?
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I mean, probably you don't have to guess, right?
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When the Jews would have heard the word "word," what would they have thought of?
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They immediately would have thought of the law and the prophets, what we call the Old Testament.
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You see, you go through the Old Testament over and over and over.
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The word of the Lord came to the word of the Lord came to the word of the Lord came to that all of the law and the prophets, it's it's known as the word of God.
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So the Jews would have picked up on this concept immediately.
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Oh, you know what the purpose of words is?
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Words are to communicate something.
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Words are to be deliberately chosen and used to convey information to another person.
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That's what John is saying to the Jews.
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The Word became flesh.
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Jesus Christ is God's communication to man.
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a living, breathing word.
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So, God isn't some impersonal force.
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God's not a generic concept.
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According to God's word, He is a person.
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And He has revealed who exactly He is in Jesus.
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Let's just pause for a second.
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I'm going to ask that you would pray for me as we do this little study together that I would accurately represent God's Word.
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Let me pray for you to have a heart open to receive this absolutely essential truth that God is teaching us today.
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So let's pray.
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Father in heaven, we live in a culture that is fine to think of you in general terms, but to call you a person, a father, the sovereign of the universe, it's tough for some people to grasp.
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And I just pray, Father, today, especially over these next few minutes, that we would really have our hearts and minds open to what it is that Your Word wants to teach us about the way that You've revealed Yourself through Your Son. It's in Jesus' name that we pray.
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Amen.
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So on your outline, I want you to write some things down. I want to know God. Here's where it starts, number one, the reality.
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This is the reality.
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Jesus is God.
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Jesus is God.
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Let's look at these verses here.
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Look at verse one again.
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He says, "In the beginning was the Word, "and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." In the beginning, does that sound familiar at all?
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That phrase, in the beginning, where have we heard that?
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Genesis 1, 1, right?
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That's how the whole Bible starts.
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And John is starting in the same place.
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John is saying, by saying in the beginning, John is saying before anything was created, the Word existed.
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The Word, and notice he says two things about the Word.
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First of all, the Word was with God.
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And secondly, the word was God.
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First of all, let's talk about the word was God.
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This claim is nothing less than Jesus Christ is almighty God.
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This is all through the New Testament, all right?
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If we were to just do a Bible study today, looking at the verses of the New Testament that talk about Jesus being God, we would be here long after the snow melted, okay?
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But the New Testament is so full of this truth.
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Like for example, Colossians 2.9 says, "For in Him, in Jesus, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." Most concise statement of Jesus' deity is probably right here in John 1.14.
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It says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
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The Word became flesh and dwelt, dwelt, that word dwelt in the Greek is the word tabernacled.
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The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.
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You heard of the tabernacle?
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In the Old Testament, it was this portable structure that as Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt, God told Moses to build this structure and it had this tent with the holy place and the holy of holies.
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And this was the place where God's unique presence dwelt among his people.
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So when John says the word became flesh and tabernacled among us, if you were in the Old Testament times, if you lived with Old Testament Israel He said, "Hey, can you point to the place "where God's unique presence lives on the earth?" You would point to the building, the tabernacle.
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You would say, "Yeah, God's unique presence "on earth is right there." Fast forward to 2025, right now, if I were to say, "Can you point to the place "where God's unique presence dwells on earth?" Where would you point?
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It's right here, right?
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Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
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temple was just the permanent version of the tabernacle.
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This is where God lives.
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This is God's unique presence here.
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So what John is saying in John 1:14 is for about 33 years of earth's history, when you would ask, "Where is God's unique presence on the earth?" You'd point to a man, and that man's name is Jesus Christ.
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You would point to him and say, "Right there.
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That man is the unique presence of God on the earth.
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This is where he is.
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All right?
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Jesus is not an exalted angel.
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Jesus is not some special enlightened human.
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According to this verse, Jesus is the God.
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And every false religion denies this, by the way.
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And I can just tell you personally, you would be shocked at how many times I've had to have this conversation with people over the course of my ministry, but people who actually say, "Jesus never said He was God." You heard that argument?
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"Jesus never said it." What the argument is this.
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That's something the church kind of came up with.
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You know, we kind of, like some religions like us, we sort of hitched that idea onto Jesus, but Jesus himself, they say, "Oh, if you study the words of Jesus, he never said he was God." Well, do you remember back in Exodus chapter three, God called Moses through the burning bush.
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You know, you're gonna lead my people out of Egypt.
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You're gonna lead them to the promised land.
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And do you remember Moses says to God, "Well, what if Israel asks who sent me?
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What if Israel is like, what is his name?" Do you remember in that moment, God told Moses what his name is.
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You remember?
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God told Moses his name is I Am, who I am.
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That's God's name.
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His name is I Am.
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I love that.
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God didn't say to Moses, "My name is I Was." Like Moses, like, "What's your name?" And God's like, "Moses, I Was.
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"Oh Moses, you should have seen me back in high school.
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"Oh Moses, I was so good looking "and I was such a good athlete.
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"Back in the day Moses, back in the day "I was really something." No, he's not the I was.
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But nor did God tell Moses that he's the I will be.
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Right?
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Like Moses is like, "What's your name?" And God's like, "Well Moses, you tell the Israelites, "I might not be nothing special now, but I'm taking my vitamins and I'm drinking my milk and I'm doing my palates and I'm jumping on my pogo ball and someday, someday I'm going to be something great.
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I will be. God's not the I was and He's not the I will be. God is, He is I am.
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From eternity past, He is infinite, majestic holiness. He is the I am.
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and in eternity future, He will still be infinite, majestic holiness.
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He is the I Am.
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You're like, well, what does that have to do with Jesus?
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Because Jesus repeatedly claimed that He is the I Am.
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It's all through the Gospel of John, what, like seven times.
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I am the bread of life.
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I am the light of the world.
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I am the way and the truth and the life.
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I am the good shepherd.
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I am the door." All through Jesus made this claim.
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John chapter 8, Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am." John chapter 10, Jesus said, "I and the Father are one." And in that moment, the Jews picked up stones, they were going to kill him for saying that.
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And Jesus says, "I did a lot of good works.
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For which of them are you going to stone me?" And they said, "Oh, no.
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You're making yourself out to be God the way you're talking." You see, they knew exactly what He was saying.
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They knew exactly what He meant when He said, "I and the Father are one." Oh, and by the way, not only does the Bible say that Jesus is God, did you know that the The Bible also says that God is Jesus.
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Here's what I mean, look at Zechariah 12, 10.
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This is before the incarnation, the Christmas story.
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This is before the baby in the manger story.
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This is Old Testament.
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Look at what God says.
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God says, "And I will pour out on the house of David "and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, "a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, "so that when they look on me, "On him whom they have pierced." Do you see how God identifies himself?
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He identifies himself as the one who was pierced, and who was the one that was pierced?
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It's Jesus Christ on the cross.
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Do you see that?
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Do a little word study there.
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That's exactly what he's saying.
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They will look on the one whom they've stabbed, right?
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It's also in the New Testament.
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God is Jesus.
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Look at Acts 20, for example.
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Paul says to the Ephesian elders, "Pay careful attention to yourselves to care for the church of God, which He obtained with His own blood." Who bought the church with His blood?
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He says God.
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You're like, "I thought it was Jesus that shed His blood." Paul's saying that as Jesus shed His blood, that was God obtaining the church with His own blood.
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So Jesus is God, yes, and the Bible also says that God is Jesus.
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The Word was God, but the Bible also says here that the Word was with God.
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The Word was with God.
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In case you missed it, in case you didn't quite catch it in verse one, verse two, he just says the exact same thing.
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He was in the beginning with God.
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So somehow Jesus is God, but being with God, somehow he is distinct from the Father.
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Yeah, like if I said to you, Yeah, yesterday I was with my buddy, Nathaniel, and I was my buddy, Nathaniel.
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You would say, were you and Nathaniel smoking something?
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Like what was going on there?
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That doesn't make sense, does it?
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How can you be with somebody and be somebody at the same time?
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But that's exactly what the Bible says about Jesus and his relationship with God.
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He's not only God, but He's also with God.
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And people want that explained all the time.
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We get, Pastor Taylor had that, well, a couple weeks ago, the little children's back there had like a Q&A thing with him.
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And wasn't that one of the questions they were asking about the Trinity?
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And look, do you wanna know about the Trinity?
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Here's the reality.
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Nobody can figure that out.
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That's the truth.
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You can't do it.
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Because from the moment you were born, you've only ever known two things in your life.
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Your whole life, you've only ever known two things.
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And that's time and space.
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You can't fathom an existence outside of time and space.
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This is where we are.
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And now we have a God who lives and exists and rules outside of time and space.
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God is not bound by time and space.
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And somehow we think that we're going to be able to explain everything about Him.
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Here's what I know.
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The Word was with God and the Word was God.
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The Bible says God exists.
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He's one God, but He exists as three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
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Jesus is eternal, but distinct, and you don't have to explain it to believe it, okay?
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I can't explain to you how my car works, but I believe that it does when I get in and drive it.
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All right, look at verse three.
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He says, "All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made." Okay, this is just theology 101.
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It's all through the Old Testament.
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God is creator.
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And John here is saying Jesus is God, he's with God, and then John takes another step and says Jesus is creator, he made all things.
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And somehow, again, the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all involved in creation at the same time.
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You're like, can you explain that?
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I just told you I could not explain that.
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But somehow God the Father created through God the Son, and the Genesis tells us that the Spirit of God hovered above the waters.
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All three members of the Trinity were involved.
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And somehow Jesus is the agent of creation.
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The Bible says in Hebrews 1:2 that, "In these last days, God has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world." Through whom he created the world.
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That's all John's saying here in verse 3.
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Every living thing gets life from something else.
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A tree, your dog, a woodpecker, you.
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You got life from something else.
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The only person who has never received life from someone else is God Himself.
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That's what John's saying.
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Since Jesus already existed before creation, and because Jesus didn't get His life from something else, then He must be God.
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Those are the biblical facts about Jesus.
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And listen, even if you're sitting here today or listening to the podcast later or whatever, even if you don't agree with that, can we take an honest look at what the Bible says and stop trying to twist it?
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"Oh, it doesn't really say that." The Bible overwhelmingly says that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
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That's the truth that you have to reckon with.
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He is God.
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So if you want to know God, number two, the response.
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The response.
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You want to know God?
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The response is faith in Jesus.
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The reality is Jesus is God.
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The response is we have to have faith in Jesus.
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You see, God took the initiative.
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God did His part in revealing Himself as Jesus, so the question is, "What's my part in knowing Him?" It's faith.
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Faith is the only way to know God.
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Oh, and speaking of generic, not only do people use the name of God in a generic sense, but you'll find that people use the concept of faith in a generic sense.
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There is a true biblical sense and definition of faith, but we live in a culture that just throws that word "faith" around all the time and uses it in all kinds of ways.
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Here's what I mean.
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Some people use faith like it means wishful thinking.
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Faith is just wishful thinking.
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Like, "Well, I just kind of have faith "that everything's gonna work out." Like, what does that even mean?
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For some people, they think faith is just the way of the ignorant.
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Like, "Well, you believe in science, "or you believe in faith, rather.
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"I believe in science, and they're condescending.
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You're just some backwoods redneck.
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You're ignorant.
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I believe in science, but you have your little fairy tale faith.
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And still other people look at faith as some kind of ambiguous spirituality.
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You hear people say, "I'm a person of faith." Do you know who else is a person of faith?
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Literally everybody.
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Everybody believes in something.
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What is your faith in?
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Because you can have faith in the wrong thing.
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So listen, my friends, God is not a generic concept, and neither is faith.
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Faith is a specific disposition towards a specific person.
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That's why Hebrews 11:6 says, "Without faith, impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God," that's the knowing God piece, "whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him." It starts with obviously an acknowledgment of His existence, but it doesn't stop there.
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You have to seek Him.
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You have a responsibility.
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took the initiative, he revealed himself in Jesus, what is my responsibility in this relationship?
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Or how can I grow in knowing Jesus? I want you to jot these three things down. How can I grow in knowing Jesus? Letter A, you have to confess with your mouth. Romans 10.9 says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
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And you are not going to grow in your relationship with Him if you don't have one to begin with.
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So have you made that confession?
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Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins, that He rose from the dead to give you eternal life?
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Do you believe that?
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People have this idea that, "Well, we're all children of God in the creative sense, yes, but not in the adoptive sense." Yes, we do all have a relationship with Jesus.
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The question is, do you have a good relationship with Him or a bad relationship with Him?
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You have to confess with your mouth.
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It has to start there, letter B.
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You have to hear the Word.
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You have to hear the Word.
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Romans 10:17 says, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ." The only way your faith grows is through the Word of God.
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Because this is the only truly reliable source of information about Jesus because this is the source of information that was given to us by God.
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You have to be in the Word if you're going to know Jesus.
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Any relationship involves time and communication.
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And some people, they spend no time in His Word, no time praying His Word, and reading and studying and meditating, and they spend no time at all in the Word, and then they wonder why they feel so distant.
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Relationships grow when time is spent together.
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You need to prioritize spending time and praying the Word of God.
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And finally, letter C, "Keep His commandments." Keep His commandments.
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Jesus says in John 15.10, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." That's how you abide.
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It's through obedience.
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Now listen, if you're a Christian and you're in sin, sin is not going to end your relationship with Jesus, but you're obviously going to feel distant from God if you have unrepentant sin.
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Any area of disobedience in your life that you refuse to deal with, you're gonna feel distant, and that's not on God, that's on you.
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God hasn't gone anywhere.
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You have.
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So what is it in your life right now that you're like, I know, I know that this is what God wants me to stop doing or maybe something God wants you to start doing, but you know exactly what it is.
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You need to turn from that sin.
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You need to obey whatever Jesus is calling you to, and you're going to enjoy the freedom that repentance brings in your walk with Christ.
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This is what keeps people from coming to Christ in the first place, by the way.
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Jesus will take you just as you are, but he won't leave you that way.
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Jesus wants to transform you.
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He wants to change you.
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And some people just don't want to be changed.
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Keep His commandments.
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The Word became flesh.
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God became a man.
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Our worship team will come back up.
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You know, I came to Christ when I was 20.
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And it's an amazing thing to grow up in a church as a kid, and all those days, all those years sitting in the church, how little I really understood.
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But when I was led to Christ, this whole new world, right?
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And I remember I was trying to understand, and I had this Bible that my parents got me.
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You know, some Bibles have the little story inserts, little devotional things, like kind of built into the Bible.
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Well, this Bible had those, and it had this story in it.
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And the story goes something like this.
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There was this farmer and his wife, it was Christmas Eve, and the farmer's wife was going to church.
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And she asked her husband if he wanted to go with her.
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He goes, "No, I don't get that church stuff.
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"It doesn't, that makes no sense to me.
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"I'm not interested at all, but you go have fun." Well, she went to church, and while he was home, he saw that there were birds trying to get into his barn.
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This really bad deep freeze came over, kind of like what happened here.
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And these birds were trying to get in the barn, seeking shelter from the cold.
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The farmer says, "Well, I can help those birds." So he goes, "I'll just go out and open the door and let them in the barn.
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And when he went out there, you know what birds do, right?
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They just kind of scattered everywhere.
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The farmer's like, "Well, that sure didn't help anything." So he thought, "Well, maybe if I just leave breadcrumbs, "I can like guide them in there somehow." Didn't work.
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No matter what the farmer did, he couldn't get the birds into the barn to get shelter.
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And as the story goes, I don't think it's a true story, but as the story goes, he stood and looked out the kitchen window and he saw the birds back flying around the outside of the barn, not able to get in.
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And the farmer thought to himself, "Those birds are going to die.
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And as badly as I want to save them, I don't know how I can get them in the barn." But then the farmer had a thought.
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The farmer thought, "You know, if I could become a bird for like five minutes, I could approach them, they wouldn't be scared of me, I could speak their language, and I could and show them the way that they could be saved.
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And right when he had the thought, the story goes, off in the distance he heard the church's bells ringing.
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And that's when it connected.
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It's a dumb story.
42:12-42:22
Admittedly, what I've got to tell you as a young Christian, When I read that, that's what made everything click for me.
42:23-42:26
Yes, that's the purpose of the incarnation.
42:27-42:35
That God became one of us to save us.
42:38-42:39
So what do you want for Christmas?
42:43-42:44
I wanna know God.
42:46-42:52
Not the generic knockoff, but the real person.
42:55-43:00
Because knowing God is eternal life.
43:02-43:07
We're going to have our elders and members of our prayer team up front here.
43:10-43:17
And in just a moment, Ashley's going to sing a song over you to have a good old-fashioned altar call.
43:18-43:20
You can stay in your seat, you can pray right where you are.
43:22-43:27
But I want you to know there's people that are up here that would love to pray with you and for you.
43:29-43:34
So as Ashley sings over you, we're going to invite you to come.
43:35-43:38
Maybe there's somebody here that today you're like, "You know what?
43:40-43:48
"I don't really know God, I know about Him, but I don't really have a relationship with Him.
43:50-43:50
Today's the day.
43:52-43:58
Today's the day that you can go from knowing about God to knowing God.
44:00-44:01
So please come.
44:05-44:21
Our Father in Heaven, we thank You for the way that You have demonstrated Your holiness and love by taking on flesh and blood.
44:25-44:30
Father, I pray against all of the distractions.
44:30-44:35
It's that time of year that there's more to do than we have time to do.
44:35-44:39
And there's so many things We're just vying for our attention.
44:43-44:52
Father, I pray that we would take a real close examination at the person of Jesus Christ and examine our own hearts.
44:53-44:55
Are we truly walking with Him?
44:55-45:04
Do we truly have a relationship with Him that we're spending time together and knowing and growing?
45:05-45:09
Or are we just churchgoers?
45:13-45:13
Father I thank You.
45:13-45:15
You've revealed Your heart.
45:15-45:16
You want us to know You.
45:18-45:20
You've done everything.
45:22-45:28
And have just simply called us to receive what You have accomplished.
45:32-45:33
Father, thank You.
45:35-45:45
We praise You and ask that You would continue to manifest Your goodness and presence in us by the power of Your Spirit through the wisdom of Your Word.
45:47-45:49
We praise You in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
45:51-45:51
Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 1:1-3

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do you think the deity of Jesus is denied by so many cults? Why is that such a common point of contention?
How would you explain the Trinity to a 7 year old?
Define “faith”. Why do you think faith is the God-ordained way of knowing Him?
What’s your favorite dinosaur?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Taylor Brown

December 24, 2024

Divine Intervention

The Natural Response

Taylor Brown

December 24, 2024

Divine Intervention

Introduction:

The ONLY Two Responses to Christ (Matthew 2:1-12)

Reject Christ to worship Myself .
Reject Myself to worship Christ .
John 3:19 - "And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil."

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

01:07-01:11
I turn to Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 through 12.
01:11-01:15
Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 through 12.
01:16-01:21
You know, at Christmas we all hope and pray for a sense of family unity and togetherness, right?
01:23-01:26
All the moms and grandmas in the room are nodding their heads in agreement.
01:27-01:35
Well, please allow me to drive a wedge between all of us for a few minutes, but don't worry, we're all gonna come back together and have a bunch of Christmas hugs.
01:36-01:40
But until then, we're going to fight over a very controversial poll.
01:41-01:43
The AV team is going to put up pictures on the screen.
01:43-01:49
With each picture, you're going to have one of two responses-- thumbs up or thumbs down.
01:50-01:53
And to be clear on the rules, you can't have an undecided thumb.
01:53-01:54
There's no fence setting.
01:54-01:56
I'm not going to accept any of those responses.
01:56-01:57
All right?
01:57-01:59
I'll be clear on the rules.
01:59-02:02
All right, first picture-- snow on Christmas morning.
02:02-02:03
Thumbs up.
02:04-02:05
You wanna see a white Christmas?
02:06-02:08
Who's thumbs down on greenest brown Christmas?
02:09-02:10
Who wants that?
02:11-02:14
'Cause that's what we're getting tomorrow, so hopefully some of us want that.
02:14-02:15
Next one.
02:16-02:19
An artificial Christmas tree instead of a real Christmas tree.
02:19-02:20
Who gives that a thumbs up?
02:21-02:22
You are my people.
02:23-02:24
Who are the thumbs down on that?
02:25-02:33
You're the people who love the trudge in the cold for a sappy shedding Christmas tree that you're just gonna kick to the curb on January 1st.
02:34-02:35
Let's move beyond Christmas to the next one.
02:36-02:36
Crocs.
02:38-02:40
Who picks comfort over style?
02:40-02:41
Thumbs up.
02:41-02:41
Me.
02:42-02:43
Who's thumbs down on Crocs?
02:43-02:45
Kade gave two big thumbs up.
02:45-02:46
Me too.
02:46-02:47
Alright, thanks Luke.
02:48-02:48
Next one.
02:50-02:51
Pineapple on pizza.
02:51-02:52
Who gives that a big thumbs up?
02:52-02:53
Me.
02:54-02:54
Thumbs down?
02:55-02:59
Wow, there's a lot more pineapple on pizza fans than the last service.
02:59-03:00
Next one.
03:01-03:02
Last one.
03:02-03:05
Pastor Jeff's favorite condiment, mayonnaise.
03:06-03:06
Who's with me?
03:06-03:07
Thumbs up for mayonnaise.
03:08-03:10
Wait, who's a Pastor Jeff and gives a thumbs down?
03:11-03:13
It's not that many of you.
03:13-03:14
I don't know.
03:16-03:27
You know, these are all silly examples that don't really matter, but isn't it funny how strong of responses we have to even questions like this, to items like this?
03:29-03:41
I'm not gonna put up any pictures of presidential candidates thumbs up or thumbs down for the sake of Christmas cheer, but can we all agree there are very strong, passionate responses to that area of life?
03:43-03:54
You know, isn't it interesting that the same item, the same person can elicit such different and equally strong responses?
03:57-04:02
Well, let's move beyond Christmas opinions, politicians, and food preferences for a minute.
04:03-04:09
Do you know who elicits the strongest reactions from both sides of the spectrum?
04:10-04:15
Yes, without a contest or a close second, the answer is Jesus Christ.
04:16-04:24
There are thousands upon thousands of opinions about who Jesus is, what he taught, and what he stands for.
04:25-04:38
But if you boil all these opinions down, it's crystal clear that there are only two responses to Jesus Christ, and they are in sharp opposition to one another.
04:38-04:42
One response is wrong, and the other is right.
04:43-04:49
One response hates the truth, and the other embraces the truth.
04:50-04:56
One response leads to eternal damnation, and the other response leads to everlasting life.
04:58-05:08
These two responses are on full display in Matthew chapter two, verses one through 12, which we will study this evening as we conclude our latest series, Divine Intervention.
05:09-05:21
And I have been praying all week that the Lord would make the right response, appealing, evident, and inescapable for every single person in this room.
05:22-05:24
So let's stop to ask for God's help.
05:25-05:32
Please pray for me, that I'll faithfully communicate God's word, and I will pray for you, that you faithfully receive it.
05:38-05:41
Father, I pray against any distractions.
05:41-05:47
I pray against thinking about what's for dinner after this, thinking about what's gonna be the schedule tomorrow.
05:47-05:52
I pray that everyone in this room would dial in on what your word has to say.
05:53-05:56
would tune in to the person and work of Jesus Christ.
05:58-06:01
I pray that we would all have the right response to him.
06:02-06:06
I ask all these things in the precious name of Jesus Christ, amen.
06:08-06:10
So I wanna read our entire passage this evening.
06:10-06:15
I wanna zoom out and get the big picture, and then we're gonna zoom in on the specific details.
06:16-06:18
Matthew chapter two, verses one through 12.
06:18-06:19
Matthew writes this.
06:20-06:31
"Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea "in the days of Herod the king, "behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, "saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews?
06:31-06:35
"For we saw his star when it rose "and have come to worship him.
06:36-06:38
"When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled.
06:38-06:39
"And all Jerusalem with him.
06:40-06:46
"And assembling all the chief priests "and scribes of the people, "he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
06:46-06:56
"They told him in Bethlehem of Judea, "For so it was written by the prophet, "and you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, "are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.
06:56-07:00
"For from you shall come a ruler "who will shepherd my people Israel.
07:01-07:06
"That Herod summoned the wise men secretly "and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.
07:07-07:11
"And he sent them to Bethlehem saying, "Go and search diligently for the child.
07:11-07:17
"And when you have found him, "bring me word that I too may come and worship him.
07:18-07:20
After listening to the king, they were sent on their way.
07:20-07:28
And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.
07:29-07:40
When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy, and going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.
07:42-07:52
Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh, and being warned in the dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.
07:54-08:00
So before we continue on, let's be sure that we know who the key players in this story are.
08:00-08:02
First up is Herod.
08:02-08:06
Herod the Great was established as the King of Judea by the Roman government.
08:07-08:12
His main job was to keep the peace and crush any rebellions that popped up.
08:12-08:18
Basically, he was a glorified babysitter, But he wasn't the babysitter that kids know and love.
08:18-08:21
He was the babysitter that no one wanted.
08:22-08:25
Just listen to some of his murderous resume within his own family.
08:26-08:29
He killed his own brother-in-law, strike one.
08:30-08:35
He murdered his wife, her mother, and her grandfather, strike two.
08:35-08:40
And he even murdered three of his own sons, massive strike three.
08:40-08:45
And we'll talk even more about his murderous activities later on in the message.
08:46-08:48
Next up is the magi or the wise men.
08:49-08:55
You know, the funny thing is, most of what we think we know about the wise men is actually not true at all.
08:56-08:59
You know, what do people often think the wise men were named?
09:00-09:02
Like Balthazar, that's the only one I even remember.
09:02-09:03
I can't remember the other two.
09:03-09:04
Anyone know?
09:05-09:06
Jasper, you said Jasper?
09:07-09:08
Are you sure?
09:09-09:09
All right.
09:11-09:13
And how many wise men do we typically think that there were?
09:15-09:16
Did the text say that there were three?
09:17-09:21
No, we just think that because three gifts were given.
09:22-09:32
And in every nativity Christmas book you have to read to your children, the wise men always arrive in the nick of time to see Jesus in the manger, right?
09:33-09:34
But is that what happened?
09:35-09:42
No, they arrived much later, after Jesus was already born and with Mary and Joseph in their house.
09:44-09:54
You know, I could unpack all my research about the wise men and tell you about scholars, educated guesses about these guys, but I don't really want to because it doesn't really matter.
09:55-09:58
What matters is what the text clearly tells us.
09:59-10:02
The wise men were from somewhere east of Israel.
10:02-10:14
They were somehow aware of the Old Testament prophecies of a coming Messiah and King, and they left the comfort of their home when they saw a glorious star in the sky.
10:15-10:17
Are we clear on the key players?
10:18-10:21
Herod the not so great, and the mysterious number of wise men.
10:22-10:26
All right, let's talk about what these two opposing sides represent.
10:27-10:34
So the only two responses to Christ, first response, reject Christ to worship myself.
10:36-10:39
Reject Christ to worship myself.
10:41-10:48
And we're told in verses one through three that the wise men show up to Jerusalem, pumped up, excited to find this newborn king.
10:48-10:51
They grab everyone they could find, ask where is the king?
10:51-10:53
We want to worship the king.
10:54-10:58
They think that everyone else is just as excited as they are.
10:59-11:03
But this troubles Herod, and it troubles the entire city of Jerusalem.
11:04-11:06
This isn't gonna make Herod look very good.
11:06-11:13
Remember, his job is to make Rome happy, and a newborn king vying for his throne isn't good for him.
11:13-11:18
And the rest of Jerusalem is troubled because if Herod isn't happy, we're all in danger.
11:19-11:23
If his own family isn't safe, we definitely are not safe.
11:24-11:32
And so Herod calls all the religious leaders together to ask them about this prophecy about the coming Messiah and king.
11:33-11:37
And the religious leaders reference Micah 5, too, which we studied a few months ago.
11:37-11:50
"And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, "are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, "for from you shall come a ruler." This clearly refers to Jesus Christ who was born in Bethlehem.
11:51-12:01
You know, isn't it so sad that the religious leaders who taught Herod about the Messiah would eventually reject the Messiah?
12:03-12:10
They know all the facts about this king, but they pass on him when they meet Jesus Christ face to face.
12:11-12:16
You know, this proves that head knowledge does not equal heart acceptance.
12:17-12:20
Information does not equal transformation.
12:21-12:28
After this quick Bible lesson, Herod calls the wise men to join him for a top secret meeting in verses seven through eight.
12:28-12:30
Let's read those again together.
12:31-12:37
Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.
12:37-12:41
And he sent them to Bethlehem saying, "Go and search diligently for the child.
12:41-12:51
"And when you have found him, bring me word "that I too may come and worship him." You know, on their own, these verses seem to tell us that Herod's a pretty good guy, right?
12:52-12:53
He's a genuine seeker.
12:53-12:55
And he's just as excited as the wise men.
12:57-12:57
Is that true?
12:58-13:03
No, he's just a sociopathic actor who plays along to get what he really wants.
13:04-13:07
This newborn King, dead and gone.
13:08-13:11
And we know this because of verse 12 and beyond.
13:11-13:25
In verse 12, after the wise men encounter Christ, they receive a dream that warns them to hide tailed out of Israel and beeline it back home, instead of going back, giving Herod the report that he wanted.
13:26-13:29
This dream is given to protect the wise men and the lives of Jesus' family.
13:32-13:36
You know, Herod eventually realizes that he has been tricked by the wise men, he is not happy.
13:37-13:42
And he takes drastic measures in chapter two, verses 16 through 18, let's read that together.
13:43-13:58
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem, and all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that had been ascertained from the wise men.
13:59-14:01
Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah.
14:02-14:07
A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping in loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children.
14:08-14:11
She refused to be comforted because they are no more.
14:13-14:19
What a sickening response to the greatest news the world has ever heard.
14:20-14:24
You know, what led Herod to this rejection of Christ?
14:24-14:27
Why did he respond in this way?
14:29-14:35
Because Herod viewed Christ as a threat and not as a treasure.
14:36-14:42
Because Herod treated Christ as a competitor to challenge and not as a champion to crown.
14:43-14:48
Because Herod wanted to worship himself instead of his maker.
14:49-14:53
And everyone who reads this account of Herod is repulsed by him.
14:55-15:01
But his response is not much different anyone else who rejects Christ for any reason.
15:02-15:07
Because regardless of the reason, rejecting Christ leads to the same exact result.
15:07-15:10
Jesus Christ on one side and you on the other.
15:12-15:18
Atheists and agnostics place themselves in the position of the God they claim to not believe in.
15:18-15:20
They are the source of authority.
15:20-15:23
They are the source of their own morality.
15:24-15:34
Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Mormons, reject the real person of Christ in favor of a God made in their own image.
15:36-15:48
And those who sit on the religious sidelines and refuse to make a choice about Jesus have actually made a choice about Jesus because indifference to Christ is hatred of Christ.
15:51-15:56
This rejecting response is fueled by love for sin and self.
15:57-16:00
Jesus talks about this in John 3:19.
16:01-16:17
"The light has come into the world, "and people love the darkness rather than the light "because their works were evil." Apart from Christ, we are like cockroaches that scurry the nearest shadow when the basement door is open and the light is turned on.
16:17-16:23
We are like pouty children who dig in our heels When we are told to do something we don't want to do.
16:24-16:32
In and of ourselves, we naturally worship our wants, our desires, our dreams, our opinions.
16:35-16:39
Some of you in this room are currently rejecting Jesus Christ.
16:41-16:44
Either purposefully or without even realizing it.
16:46-16:50
Maybe you were dragged here by a relative and you don't even want to be here tonight.
16:52-16:58
Maybe you think you're a good person deep down and there's no way that God could possibly turn you away from heaven.
17:01-17:05
Maybe you haven't really even given much thought to what you believe and why you believe it.
17:08-17:11
That describes you, I'm so glad you're here tonight.
17:12-17:21
And I hope that you will seriously consider how you have responded to Christ in the past how you will respond to him moving forward.
17:22-17:24
This isn't a matter of opinion.
17:25-17:27
This isn't a matter of religious debate.
17:27-17:31
This is a matter of life or death, heaven or hell.
17:34-17:37
Please do not follow in Herod's footsteps any longer.
17:39-17:45
Choose the right response of the wise men, which we'll talk about for the rest of this message.
17:46-17:47
The only two responses to Christ.
17:49-17:52
First response, reject Christ to worship myself.
17:53-17:57
Second response, reject myself to worship Christ.
17:58-18:00
Reject myself to worship Christ.
18:03-18:12
After the wise men leaves Herod's palace, the star reappears once again to show them the exact spot in Bethlehem where the Messiah is.
18:12-18:15
Listen again to their response in verse 10.
18:15-18:18
They rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
18:19-18:22
They are beside themselves with excitement.
18:22-18:31
I imagine them high-fiving each other, hugging and rushing as fast as humanly possible to the house of Mary and Joseph.
18:32-18:37
The wise men can barely contain the joy they are experiencing.
18:39-18:42
And this highlights a really important point that most people completely miss.
18:43-18:46
Jesus is exciting and not boring.
18:48-18:55
If you become a Christian, you're not resigning yourself to a life of frowning, crossing your arms and knocking ice cream cones out of children's hands.
18:57-19:01
The most joyful life of all should be the life of the Christian.
19:03-19:08
What could be better than having a personal relationship with the God of the universe?
19:08-19:17
What could be more fulfilling than being set free from the power and penalty of sin to lead a life that makes the eternal impact.
19:19-19:24
If the gospel of Jesus Christ doesn't move you, then it most likely hasn't saved you.
19:26-19:32
If knowing Jesus doesn't even give you an ounce of joy, then you probably don't even know Jesus.
19:35-19:51
The joy of the wise men keeps climbing higher and higher and it reaches its crescendo when they finally come to see this child king in verse 11, "And going into the house, "they saw the child with Mary his mother, "and they fell down and worshiped him.
19:52-20:05
"Then opening their treasures, "they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh." You know, we have become so numb to this story 'cause we've heard it over and over again, year after year, Christmas after Christmas.
20:06-20:09
But if you look at it with fresh eyes, it is astounding.
20:10-20:11
Just think about it.
20:11-20:21
These rich and scholarly men from a foreign nation are bowing down before a child they just met and worshiping him as God.
20:24-20:28
One pastor from 200 years ago gave the wise men the ultimate gold star.
20:29-20:34
We read of no greater faith than this in the whole of the Bible.
20:36-20:41
These men denied their exalted positions to humble themselves.
20:42-20:49
They denied their worldly and religious upbringing to submit themselves to the true savior of the world.
20:51-20:57
They sacrificed of their own treasure to give gifts to the king of kings and lord of lords.
20:59-21:06
You know, the wise men don't cheap out and offer McDonald's coupons, a novelty coffee mug and a Hello Kitty key chain to Jesus.
21:07-21:09
They go all out.
21:10-21:21
They give him gold, one of the most precious metals on the planet, frankincense, a costly incense, and myrrh, a spice, anointing oil that would be used in Jesus' burial.
21:23-21:28
You know, I read a lot of articles this past week that try to guesstimate the dollar amount of these gifts.
21:28-21:32
And I read some from several thousand to several million, so it was very inconclusive.
21:32-21:36
But it doesn't really matter what the dollar amount is.
21:37-21:47
What really matters is their pure desire to offer gifts to Christ that genuinely express the joy and awe that filled their hearts.
21:49-21:55
You know, I am by far the cheapest member of my family, which is a fact they constantly make fun of me for.
21:55-21:55
Right, Dad?
21:57-21:59
I have one suit and I'm wearing it right now.
22:01-22:07
I recently bought an expensive pair of Nikes because I bought it with a gift card and didn't spend a dime of my own money.
22:07-22:09
I still have an iPhone 8 with the home button.
22:10-22:11
Anybody else have this?
22:13-22:14
Okay, Rachel Gray, awesome.
22:15-22:17
One other person, two other people had in the last service.
22:18-22:19
Luke, do you have with the home button?
22:19-22:21
No, you have the newfangled model, Luke.
22:22-22:22
You have the better model.
22:23-22:27
But I don't need all that fancy new, no home button screens.
22:28-22:34
This one's paid off and it's doing me just fine, even though my wife doesn't really agree with that at all.
22:34-22:38
I don't like buying stuff, especially for myself.
22:40-22:53
But there's one item that I purchased several years ago that I bought with no hint of reservation or buyer's remorse, my wife's engagement ring.
22:55-23:00
I wasn't exactly a rich person back in seminary swimming in vaults of cash.
23:00-23:02
So I was even cheaper than I am now.
23:04-23:06
But I didn't cheap out on my wife's engagement ring.
23:07-23:12
I picked the best one, the perfect one for her, even though it was pricey.
23:13-23:24
I was a full-time seminary student making ends meet at a call center, but I would set aside money every single paycheck and send checks to the jewelry store to pay off that ring in monthly installments.
23:26-23:36
And I can honestly say I wrote every single one with those checks, with the biggest smile on my face, because Kate was and is more than worth it.
23:38-23:44
The only right response to being a woman like Kate was giving her the very best that I had to offer.
23:46-23:52
And as great as my wife is, and she's pretty great, Jesus Christ is infinitely greater.
23:53-24:00
The only right response to encountering Jesus is to give him your very best every single second every single day.
24:01-24:05
The one who has given us everything deserves nothing less.
24:06-24:08
Just think about what Jesus has given.
24:09-24:14
He stepped way down out of heaven to become like one of us.
24:15-24:20
He endured all the pain, annoyances, and frustrations that come along with being human.
24:20-24:26
He lived the perfect life we couldn't live and then died the death that we deserve to die on the cross.
24:27-24:31
and He rose again to give us new and everlasting life.
24:33-24:38
Why wouldn't you give all of your life to the one who has given you all of eternity?
24:39-24:45
Why would you waste even one more second focusing on yourself when someone infinitely greater is before you?
24:48-24:52
Your praise does not belong to a football team, a cause or a political party.
24:52-24:54
It belongs to Jesus.
24:55-25:00
Your devotion does not belong to your passion project or your hobby, it belongs to Jesus.
25:01-25:05
Your net worth does not belong to you, it belongs to Jesus.
25:05-25:10
Your affection does not belong to this world, it belongs to Jesus.
25:12-25:19
Every single thought that you think, every single word that you say, and every single decision that you make is an act of worship.
25:21-25:25
The only question is this, who are you worshiping?
25:27-25:30
We know Herod's response to Christ's rejection.
25:31-25:35
We know the wise men's response to Jesus, worship.
25:37-25:41
Those responses are fixed and unchanging.
25:41-25:44
They are things of the past, they cannot be changed.
25:45-25:53
My major concern tonight is how you personally respond Jesus Christ because there is still time for you to change.
25:54-26:04
If you have not yet turned from your sin and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, please do not neglect to open the greatest gift ever given this Christmas.
26:05-26:16
The free gift of forgiveness in Jesus Christ is offered to you right now, but you must accept it by faith in order to receive it.
26:18-26:19
What will you do?
26:21-26:24
Will you choose the wrong response and reject it yet again?
26:26-26:30
Or will you choose the right response of worshiping Jesus Christ?
26:32-26:35
I wish I could make that choice for you, but I can't.
26:36-26:39
It is your choice and yours alone.
26:41-26:58
If you wanna learn more about Jesus and talk about what next steps with him look like, please do not leave this evening without talking to me, Pastor Jeff, Pastor Rich, we would love nothing more than to tell you more about Jesus and serve you in any way that we can.
26:59-27:06
Don't be distracted by trying to get back home to make dinner, there's nothing more important than making the most important decision of your life.
27:08-27:17
And for the rest of you who have chosen the right response of worshiping Christ, please do not lift your foot off the gas pedal and just coast the rest of your life.
27:18-27:22
Daily deny yourself and exalt Christ.
27:23-27:28
Choose to take the spotlight off of yourself and put it onto him.
27:30-27:34
This is such a me-centered and consumeristic time of year.
27:36-27:39
Don't make it about you, make it about him.
27:41-27:50
Stop concerning yourself with what you want to start worrying about what he expects and what he has commanded.
27:51-28:04
This Christmas, will you choose to model to your family and friends what it looks like to truly worship Christ, or will you opt out to just focus on yourself, your wants, your preferences?
28:06-28:09
Again, the choice is yours and yours alone.
28:09-28:10
Let's pray.
28:13-28:25
Father, as Pastor Jeff prayed earlier, it's so easy on Christmas Eve and Christmas just to have this atmosphere of nostalgia and sentimentality and not even really consider what this holiday is about.
28:26-28:29
It's about your son and what he has sacrificed for us.
28:32-28:46
Or for anyone in this room who doesn't know you, Lord, I pray that you would give them restlessness until they find rest in you, that they couldn't sleep until they make this important choice of responding to Christ in faith and worship.
28:47-28:55
For the rest of us, Lord, help us to daily respond in the right way of worshiping you and not ourselves.
28:57-29:01
We ask all this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 2:1-12

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do most people respond so poorly and negatively to Christ?
What does it look like to reject yourself to worship Christ? How can you mature in your desire and ability to worship the Lord?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

December 22, 2024

Divine Intervention

A Miraculous Entrance

Jeff Miller

December 22, 2024

Divine Intervention

Introduction:

John 8:41 - "You are doing the works your father did." They said to him, "We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father--even God."

Why I believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ (and why it matters) (Matthew 1:18-25):

It is the Straightforward Teaching of scripture.
It is Certainly Possible with God.
Luke 1:34 - How will this be, since I am a virgin?

Luke 1:37 - Nothing will be impossible with God.
It is Essential for Salvation.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

01:08-01:10
Open up those Bibles to Matthew chapter one.
01:12-01:18
And for today and on Tuesday night, Pastor Taylor and I will be talking about divine intervention.
01:19-01:20
So what is that?
01:20-01:22
What does that mean, divine intervention?
01:24-01:25
Well, it just simply means this.
01:26-01:35
It's when God shows up in the world, causing or preventing something from happening.
01:36-01:37
We say that's divine intervention.
01:39-01:49
And there are some people that deny that there's any divine intervention and anything that looks like divine intervention is explained away.
01:51-01:57
When I was in community college, I took an ancient history class.
01:58-02:01
And this was before I was saved.
02:01-02:07
But I remember in this history class, They were talking about the events of the Exodus.
02:08-02:14
And the professor was systematically just denying every single thing that happened, like with the plagues.
02:16-02:24
They said, "Well, the Bible says that God, "through Moses turned the water into blood, "but it wasn't really blood.
02:24-02:36
"It just looked red because it was an unusually "high iron content in the water suddenly." And they went on and on, they talked about the frogs.
02:37-02:38
Do you know how they explained the frogs?
02:40-02:45
It was an unusually high mating season for frogs.
02:48-02:59
Like I said, this was before I was a Christian, but I remember sitting in this class going, I think it takes more faith to believe what the professor's saying than to believe what God said.
03:00-03:11
But there's some people that just deny that there's any divine intervention, we wanna intellectualize it, and we wanna explain it away in the name of science, which isn't really science.
03:13-03:17
And as people do, we swing to the other end of that spectrum.
03:17-03:21
Some people see everything as divine intervention, right?
03:22-03:24
Like, you're not gonna believe this.
03:25-03:27
I went to Pantera Bread today.
03:28-03:30
I got the last Cinna Crunch bagel.
03:32-03:33
That was a God wink.
03:35-03:36
Please don't use that term.
03:39-03:41
And look, do I believe God's sovereign over everything?
03:42-03:50
Absolutely, but I do think sometimes there's just a danger of reading hidden meaning into every little thing.
03:52-03:53
Well, what does the Bible say?
03:55-03:58
The Bible says that divine intervention is a real thing.
03:59-04:00
You wanna proof text?
04:02-04:08
Genesis through Revelation. Okay, don't look now, but there's your proof text.
04:08-04:54
But today what we are going to look at is what is the ultimate example of divine intervention, and that is the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. That the Bible says that God who created everything, God became a man. And the Bible says that he became a man through a woman who was never with a man. Let's bow our heads and I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to proclaim God's Word, and I will pray for you to believe what He said. Let's just take a moment and pray.
05:00-05:43
Father, as we turn to your Word, I pray that your Holy Spirit meet us all where we are, because there are some people that are sitting here that maybe they've heard this story 10,000 times. Father, I pray that we would look at it with fresh eyes. And I'm sure, Father, there are people that are listening to this, whether sitting here now or in the next service or listening to a podcast later, that they don't believe what you actually said. And I pray, Father, that you would once again prove that faith comes by hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ, that Father, you would do something supernatural.
05:46-05:52
That it would be, maybe for those who doubt, Father, maybe it would be a divine intervention for them.
05:53-05:55
Father, glorify your name through your word.
05:56-05:58
We pray in Jesus' name.
05:58-06:01
And all of God's people said, amen.
06:01-06:03
Let's look at Matthew chapter 1.
06:03-06:05
We're going to start in verse 18.
06:05-06:12
It says, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ "took place in this way.
06:14-06:22
"When his mother, Mary, had been betrothed to Joseph "before they came together." Let's stop there for a second.
06:23-06:27
It says here that Mary was betrothed.
06:28-06:33
Now in those days, a wedding was a little different than the way we do things today.
06:33-06:36
There are actually two stages of a Jewish wedding.
06:37-06:40
The first stage was called the Kedushim.
06:40-06:44
That's the engagement or the betrothal.
06:45-07:00
And what happened in this stage is the families would actually come together and they would draw up a contract so that the couple was legally married, but they had no contact with one another.
07:01-07:04
for a significant period of time.
07:05-07:05
Why?
07:06-07:07
Well, it was to prove a couple of things.
07:09-07:16
First, it was to prove the faithfulness of the wife that she wasn't pregnant.
07:17-07:25
And it would also prove the commitment of the husband as he was setting up a place for them to live.
07:26-07:31
But you see, this was much more serious than engagements in our culture.
07:32-07:36
Or it's just like, oh, we don't wanna be engaged anymore, I'm gonna give you your ring back.
07:36-07:43
It was much more serious because to break off an engagement in this culture meant you had to get a divorce.
07:46-07:48
You needed a divorce to end the betrothal.
07:49-07:51
But the second stage of the Jewish wedding was the chuppah.
07:54-07:55
And what was that?
07:56-08:06
Well, at an unexpected time, the groom would come back to receive the bride and have the wedding.
08:08-08:10
And their weddings were seven days.
08:10-08:12
You've been to some weddings you thought were long?
08:13-08:19
Seven days of wedding and wedding feast and wedding reception.
08:20-08:22
And I know you're thinking, did they have a cookie table?
08:23-08:23
I don't know.
08:24-08:25
I don't know.
08:26-08:28
The Bible doesn't speak to that.
08:32-08:35
But it says they were yet betrothed, okay?
08:35-08:42
So it's important to understand that Mary and Joseph here were in the first stage of the Jewish wedding.
08:43-09:02
Look at verse 18, the rest of it, it says, "Before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit." Look, I gotta admit, that was a tough one.
09:03-09:09
For Joseph, you're gonna see here in a second, but that would be tough for any man, really, if you think about it.
09:10-09:32
You're engaged, you're excited, and your bride-to-be says, "Hey, I need to tell you something." "What?" "I'm pregnant." "Why?" And you know the first natural question you have.
09:33-09:35
Well, who's the father?
09:37-09:40
And she's like, "You're not gonna believe this.
09:41-09:45
"It's God." Oh, oh.
09:46-09:47
Oh, okay.
09:47-09:48
Well, that explains it.
09:49-09:50
Look at verse 19.
09:50-10:05
It says, "And her husband Joseph, being a just man, "and unwilling to put her to shame, "resolved to divorce her quietly." Okay, so Joseph was like, okay, we were engaged, we're gonna get married, she's pregnant.
10:07-10:10
There's only one course of action, and that's divorce.
10:11-10:13
But you see, in those days, you had two options for divorce.
10:13-10:22
You could do the public option, which you could understand, a man who felt betrayed would go for that, right?
10:23-10:27
Like, oh, okay, you're gonna mess around on me while we're engaged, okay.
10:28-10:30
You're gonna embarrass me, I'm going to publicly embarrass you.
10:30-10:32
You can see why men would take that option.
10:36-10:38
Joseph, what does your Bible say?
10:38-10:40
He was a just man.
10:41-10:45
There was a private option where you could just have two or three witnesses.
10:46-10:52
It was done in secret, the divorce, and no one needed to know.
10:53-10:55
And Joseph was a just man.
10:55-11:00
He obviously loved Mary very much, and he decided, he goes, "I'm gonna do this quietly.
11:02-11:07
"I'm not gonna shame her." The Bible says he resolved.
11:09-11:10
He resolved.
11:10-11:14
Like, okay, this is what has to happen.
11:14-11:15
It's over.
11:17-11:24
And at this point, you would think, Man, it would have to take a message from God himself to change Joseph's mind.
11:26-11:28
Oh, good, because that's what he got.
11:28-11:29
Look at verse 20.
11:29-11:50
It says, "But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
11:55-12:05
So Mary's condition was confirmed and God spoke to Joseph in a dream through an angel.
12:06-12:06
Why?
12:06-12:08
Well, these were the days before Maury Povich.
12:12-12:13
Look at verse 21.
12:14-12:17
says, "She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus.
12:20-12:24
For he will save his people from their sins." So interesting here.
12:25-12:30
You know, one of the exciting things about having a baby is naming the baby, right?
12:31-12:33
Well, this wasn't Joseph's baby to name.
12:34-12:40
God says, "Here is what you're going to be calling this child." God told him the name.
12:40-12:47
And if you know your Bibles, when God names someone, the name defines the person, right?
12:48-12:58
God's not looking at a list of popular baby names and saying, "Well, I'll just pick one from that." God names someone with divine purpose.
13:01-13:06
You're gonna call this baby Jesus, which means Jehovah saves.
13:09-13:15
So Mary was told that God would deliver a baby through her and Joseph was informed of the fact.
13:16-13:25
And Matthew reminds us that we were all told about this a long time ago, back in Isaiah chapter seven and verse 14.
13:25-13:26
Look at these next couple of verses.
13:28-13:41
Matthew says, "All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophets." Again, Isaiah 7, 14, "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel.
13:44-13:47
Emmanuel, that's a compound word.
13:48-13:54
It's not really a name as much as it is a description or a title.
13:56-14:04
Emmanuel, Emmanuel means with us and El is the power name of God.
14:07-14:15
So this child means God is literally physically with us.
14:18-14:24
Look at verse 24, it says, "When Joseph woke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
14:26-14:33
He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.
14:35-14:37
And he called his name Jesus.
14:40-14:41
So Joseph was obedient.
14:41-14:46
He didn't know her until after Jesus was born.
14:47-14:53
That dispels the perpetual virginity of Mary myth that some churches hold on to.
14:55-15:00
And he gave this child the God assigned name.
15:03-15:06
This is the ultimate example of divine intervention.
15:08-15:15
And like we said at the top of the message, some people, they deny that there's any divine intervention at all.
15:15-15:30
They wanna explain it away when it looks like God intervened in worldly affairs, and unsurprisingly, the virgin birth gets explained away a lot.
15:31-15:40
You're like, "Well, how do people explain away the virgin birth?" Well, people say, "You know, Joseph was the father.
15:41-15:50
And Joseph and Mary had relations before the wedding was finalized as they were not supposed to do.
15:51-15:55
And this story was just a big coverup." Like, "Oh no, she's pregnant.
15:55-15:57
What are we gonna do?" "Oh, I know.
15:58-16:06
We'll just tell everybody that God did it." It's nothing new, right?
16:08-16:15
I wish that I could tell you that, yeah, there is a bit of an issue on the front end, but eventually it went away, but that's not the case.
16:16-16:41
Because you see, even when Jesus, as an adult was doing ministry, John 8, 41, Jesus was having an exchange with the Pharisees, And Jesus said, "You are doing the works your father did." And they said to him, "Look at this, we were not born of sexual immorality." What do you think they meant by that?
16:43-16:47
I think that they intended for that to be a burn on Jesus.
16:47-16:50
Like, "Oh, oh, you're telling us about daddy.
16:52-16:59
We weren't born of sexual morality, parentheses, like you were.
17:00-17:02
We have one Father, even God.
17:05-17:17
I wish I could tell you that after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the issue kind of went away and people embraced what the Bible actually says about the virgin birth, but it's still an issue even until today.
17:20-17:25
I was looking up the latest statistics on this 'cause these kinds of things fascinate me.
17:28-17:37
They said the most recent that I found, 34% of Americans do not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, 34%.
17:39-17:43
That's one out of three people just don't believe it.
17:43-17:59
And that was shocking to me, but that wasn't near as shocking as what I saw in another poll that said 66% of clergy expressed doubts about the virgin birth.
18:00-18:01
You know what clergy is?
18:02-18:10
Those are people that are supposed to be standing up, representing God, speaking the word of the Lord.
18:11-18:14
That's what a clergy is supposed to be.
18:17-18:22
But two thirds of them said, "Eh, I don't really believe.
18:23-18:34
I don't really believe this, that Jesus was born of a virgin." You're like, "Oh, I know, you're talking about like, these are fringe people, right?
18:35-18:43
A wackadoos, you know, snake jugglers or whatever you call them." Oh, I wish I could say that.
18:44-19:02
I wish I could say it was just the fringe weirdos, but I read an article about an extremely well-known pastor, I'm not gonna say his name, but somebody that has a huge popular following among people that would call themselves conservative evangelicals.
19:03-19:22
He said this, he said, "If somebody can predict their own death and resurrection, "I'm not at all concerned about how they got into the world." This pastor said in a Christmas sermon at his church, which draws somewhere around 50,000 attendees every week.
19:24-19:46
This pastor said, "Christianity doesn't hinge on the truth or even the stories around the birth of Jesus, it hinges on the resurrection of Jesus." You see, so many people like this pastor, They think that the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, it's just a minor issue.
19:46-19:49
It's really not that important, is it?
19:51-20:03
And I would suggest to you of everything that you celebrate this Christmas, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ is the most important point.
20:05-20:07
Like, well, can you defend that?
20:08-20:13
I want you to write some things down, why I believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and why it matters.
20:15-20:16
Are you a little skeptical?
20:19-20:22
I'm just gonna tell you why I believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
20:22-20:26
Number one, it is the straightforward teaching of Scripture.
20:30-20:52
Look, if we're going to read the Bible straightforwardly, if we're going to understand what God said as God presented it, it says that the Savior, Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, it says that he was born to a woman that was never with a man before he was born.
20:56-21:05
I watched a video this past week of this preacher, and I use that word very loosely.
21:06-21:11
But this video was, his sermon was about denying the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
21:13-21:16
And this pastor was scoffing at Matthew.
21:18-21:34
And he said this, "Matthew based the virgin birth story on a mistranslation of scripture." Is it time out for a second?
21:37-21:38
Just time out for a second.
21:39-21:41
I would love to sit down with this pastor.
21:44-21:47
I don't wanna ask him about the virgin birth, I know what he thinks about that.
21:48-21:49
You know what I'd like to ask him?
21:51-21:53
I'd like to ask him why he got into ministry.
21:55-22:02
Did you really get into ministry to stand in front of people and say, "This is why God's wrong"?
22:02-22:05
Was that your dream about going into ministry?
22:08-22:10
To deny the word of God.
22:14-22:25
Anyways, he said that Matthew was basing the virgin birth story off of a mistranslation.
22:26-22:26
Like, what does he mean?
22:27-22:36
Well, here's the thing, like, okay, in Isaiah 7:14, The Hebrew word is a young woman.
22:37-22:40
That's what a young woman, this is the sign of young woman.
22:40-22:50
And when they translated the Hebrew to Greek, they took a Greek word for this translation and that word means virgin.
22:51-22:54
So he's saying there was this mistranslation from the Hebrew to Greek.
22:54-23:03
It went from young woman to virgin because of the words And that is a really popular argument among foolish people.
23:07-23:25
I'm sure you've heard it, but people say, "Well, you know, Isaiah 7:14, virgin, "could mean maiden, it could mean young woman." Okay, Hebrew scholars, do you know what else that word can mean?
23:28-23:29
Yeah, it could mean virgin.
23:31-23:32
Shocker.
23:35-23:38
But look at Matthew's commentary on the issue.
23:38-23:40
Look at verse 18 again real quick.
23:40-24:04
Matthew's commentary, it says, "Before they came together," and then jump down to verse 25, "But he knew her not." Like Matthew was making a point that she was never with a man when she was pregnant with Jesus.
24:06-24:08
I think Matthew knew what he was talking about.
24:10-24:16
And by the way, this reference to Isaiah 7:14, you're like, what's the original context of the passage?
24:16-24:19
Well, the short version is this.
24:19-24:24
Israel was afraid Syria was going to wipe out Israel's royal line.
24:25-24:47
And God says, "No, no, no, here's a sign "that the royal line's going to continue." Well, let me ask you this, if virgin, if the word virgin in Isaiah 7:14 just means young woman, then what kind of a sign is that?
24:50-24:51
God's like, "Here's a sign.
24:53-24:54
"A young woman will have a baby.
24:59-25:01
That would be like, some of you aren't on board yet.
25:01-25:04
It would be like if God says, I'm gonna give you a sign.
25:04-25:08
In 2024, a teenager will wear Crocs.
25:09-25:10
(congregation laughing)
25:11-25:13
Now you get it, right?
25:14-25:15
What kind of a sign is this?
25:16-25:24
I don't know if you noticed, but you can go back to the children's wing after service, but young women give birth all the time.
25:24-25:27
That's not really a sign, right?
25:27-25:29
Here's your sign, a young woman's gonna give birth.
25:29-25:30
(gasps)
25:32-25:34
No, this sign has to be something unique.
25:34-25:45
This sign has to be something unlike anything else, which would be a virgin giving birth.
25:47-25:53
Now look, I totally get why people believe the Bible.
25:53-25:54
I get that.
25:56-25:58
The Bible has satisfied the greatest minds in history.
25:58-26:09
People that have taken an honest look into what the Bible says, verifying it with science, archeology, history, looking at fulfilled predictive prophecy.
26:09-26:11
I get why people believe the Bible.
26:11-26:12
I totally get that.
26:15-26:20
I also get why people don't believe the Bible.
26:21-26:28
because when somebody doesn't want God speaking into their life, they don't wanna hear anything that God has to say.
26:28-26:31
So I get why people would reject the Bible.
26:33-26:35
But do you know what I don't get?
26:36-26:38
Maybe you can explain this to me sometime.
26:40-26:45
I don't get why people choose to only believe parts of the Bible.
26:46-26:47
I just don't understand that.
26:50-26:55
because faith in God necessarily means believing in what he said in his word.
26:59-27:12
But you know, if you don't wanna trust God, but you don't wanna outright deny the Bible, you're gonna try to intellectualize it by trying to reinterpret what are very clear passages.
27:16-27:24
In other words, If you don't wanna believe the Bible, don't try to make it say something else.
27:27-27:28
He said what he meant.
27:29-27:35
And what he said is the Savior was born to a virgin woman.
27:35-27:36
All right?
27:37-27:38
So it's a straightforward teaching of Scripture.
27:39-27:40
That's just what it says, all right?
27:41-27:53
Number two, why I believe in the virgin birth Jesus Christ, it is certainly possible with God." You're like, "I don't know.
27:53-27:55
I don't know, Pastor Jeff.
27:55-28:09
The story seems a little far-fetched." I'm like, "How do you think Mary felt?" I don't think anybody thought it was more far-fetched at first than her.
28:09-28:09
Like what?
28:10-28:10
What?
28:10-28:10
I'm...
28:11-28:12
She believed.
28:13-28:15
I gotta tell you, that had to have been shocking to hear.
28:18-28:23
Luke 1:34, this was Mary's response when she was told this.
28:24-28:30
She says, "How will this be since I am a virgin?" You know that word virgin can mean young woman.
28:32-28:34
And Mary's like, "How can I be pregnant?
28:34-28:38
"I'm a young woman." Oh, we already talked about that.
28:39-28:41
You see how foolish that argument is there, right?
28:43-28:44
Look at Gabriel's response.
28:45-28:54
Gabriel's response, Luke 1:37, he says, "Nothing will be impossible with God." And my friends, that's just theology 101.
28:55-28:58
God can do anything.
28:59-29:00
He can do anything.
29:03-29:04
And he always does what he promises.
29:06-29:08
I love the story of C.S. Lewis.
29:08-29:16
He was sitting in his office with an unbelieving friend, and there were carolers down in the street below singing their Christmas carols.
29:16-29:22
And there was a song they were singing that mentions the virgin birth.
29:23-29:33
And C.S. Lewis's unbelieving friend was like, "Aren't you glad now that we know better?" And C.S. Lewis is like, "What are you talking about?
29:33-29:39
"What do you mean?" He goes, "Well, we know better now, you know what I mean?" And C.S. Lewis was like, "Now you're gonna explain what you mean.
29:39-29:50
"I don't understand what you're saying." And his unbelieving friend says, "Isn't it great that now we know that virgins don't give birth?" And C.S. Lewis pointed to the Carolers.
29:50-29:57
He goes, "You don't think they know that?" He goes, "That's the whole point." Right?
29:58-29:59
That's the whole point.
30:00-30:01
Yeah, they don't.
30:01-30:03
Virgins don't give birth.
30:07-30:11
unless God shows up and miraculously makes it happen.
30:14-30:25
So for these people, especially these preachers that wanna deny the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, it's astounding to me because, do you believe that Jesus Christ resurrected?
30:26-30:32
Do you believe that he fed 5,000 men plus women and children with the two little fishes and the five little loaves of bread?
30:32-30:37
Do you believe that Jesus walked on water and he healed the sick and he evicted demons.
30:37-30:40
And we believe that Jesus did these miracles.
30:43-30:51
But I would suggest to you that a man who performed so many miracles, it would only make sense that he also had a miraculous entrance into the world.
30:53-31:12
If Jesus had a human father, if Joseph was Jesus' dad, Well, not only would that make the Bible untrustworthy, but we wouldn't have any explanation for the supernatural life that Jesus lived.
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Do you believe in a virgin birth?
31:17-31:21
I would say, well, it's certainly possible with God.
31:24-31:28
And then finally, number three, it's essential for salvation.
31:29-31:31
Why do I believe in a virgin birth?
31:31-31:33
because it's essential for salvation.
31:36-31:44
Understand that Jesus Christ had to be fully God and fully man at the same time.
31:45-31:46
He had to.
31:47-31:47
Why?
31:49-31:53
Well, it was man who brought sin into the world.
31:55-32:00
So a man had to bear the punishment for sin.
32:00-32:16
But he also had to be God to be a sinless and perfect once and for all sacrifice that would save all who would believe.
32:18-32:23
So if Jesus just simply had two human parents, then he was just another human being.
32:24-32:30
Oh, and that really popular preacher that was sort of poo-pooing the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
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Remember the guy who said, Christianity doesn't hinge on the truth or even the stories around the birth of Jesus, it hinges on the resurrection of Jesus.
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My response to that is, if Jesus Christ wasn't fully God and fully man in the manger, he wasn't fully God and fully man on the cross.
32:50-32:56
And if Jesus Christ wasn't fully God and fully man on the cross, then the cross means nothing.
32:57-33:02
and Jesus was just another martyr cut down in his prime.
33:05-33:10
Now, the virgin birth isn't some peripheral doctrine.
33:13-33:15
It's central to who Jesus is.
33:20-33:28
And the sacrifice of Jesus only has power if Jesus is who the Bible says he is.
33:29-33:32
Our worship team would make their way back up front.
33:37-33:43
Listen, your sin has separated you from God.
33:43-33:44
We're all born with it.
33:46-33:49
We're sinners by birth and we're sinners by choice.
33:49-33:53
And the bad news is trying to be good can't help you.
33:55-34:25
because you still stand condemned. Feeling sorry about the wrong things you've done can't take away your sin. And doing good works and being religious isn't going to make up for it. What you need is a divine intervention. And thanks to the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
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That's exactly what we got.
34:29-34:29
Let's pray.
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Our Father in heaven, we believe your word.
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And yeah, there's parts of your word that maybe we can't wrap our brains around because we've never seen it personally.
34:48-34:55
that we don't know somebody that these things have happened to personally.
35:00-35:01
But God, we trust you.
35:03-35:07
And we believe that it went down exactly as you said.
35:10-35:27
Father, we believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, because you've said that, because you're certainly able to make that happen, Father, and because we believe that the same God-man in the manger is the same God-man who was on the cross.
35:29-35:44
So Father, I just wanna pray specifically for those who maybe are on the skeptic side, because if the statistics are anywhere near true, there are a lot of people that would just flat out deny what you've clearly said.
35:47-36:01
Father, I pray that they would wrestle with who Jesus is, and they'd wrestle with what Jesus has done, and they would truly understand why that had to happen for our salvation.
36:03-36:05
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 1:18-25

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do you think the doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ is so consistently denied?
Why is believing in the virgin birth an important doctrine to embrace? What are the implications if Jesus was just naturally Joseph and Mary’s son?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

I Want to Be Like God

Introduction:

I Want to Be Like God (John 1:14–18)

I Want to Belong to God

Introduction:

I Want to Belong to Jesus… (John 1:4–13)

I Want to Know God

Introduction:

I Want to Know God (John 1:1–3):

The Natural Response

Introduction:

The ONLY Two Responses to Christ (Matthew 2:1-12)

A Miraculous Entrance

Introduction:

Why I believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ (and why it matters) (Matthew 1:18-25):

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Introduction:

I Want to Be Like God (John 1:14–18)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

I Want to Belong to Jesus… (John 1:4–13)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

I Want to Know God (John 1:1–3):

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

The ONLY Two Responses to Christ (Matthew 2:1-12)

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

Why I believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ (and why it matters) (Matthew 1:18-25):

Audio Transcript