Incarnate

Has anyone noticed, maybe it's just me, but in the last, say, 30 years, it seems like there are more Christmas lights in your typical suburb in Sydney.

Is that true?

Do you think?

I remember growing up, I guess, in the 70s as a young kid and going around the streets.

You'd have to travel quite a bit and find this one little location that was full of Christmas streetlights, but now it seems a much more popular thing.

Here are some solar-empowered, I hope, Christmas lights.

Sometimes people, you know, maybe you could say they go over the top.

They're pretty excited about it.

That's a power bill, isn't it?

Christmas lights.

Apparently, it began back with the Lutherans in the 1500s, where they first introduced Christmas trees.

And apparently, I don't know if this is the truth or not, but I read this week that Martin Luther, the great reformer, began hanging candles on these German Lutheran Christmas trees.

And then Albert, Queen Victoria's Albert, found them in Germany and brought them back in 1841 to England.

And they had quite a few house fires, apparently, tragically, from candles hanging on Christmas trees.

The first electric light on a Christmas tree was in the 19th century.

Christmas lights, though sometimes maybe even garish, they do bring a sense of mystique with the bokeh, don't they?

The nostalgia, a sense of coming together as community.

Well, in December, as you can see by the logo that Ben has done, we are in 1 John or 1 John.

And the title of our series leading up to Christmas is Christmas light, as in the Christmas light.

Who is the light of the world?

The Lord Jesus Christ, who was born at Christmas to be the Saviour of the world.

And our hope this year is as we look at the Christmas lights that are prolific and we see them plural, we will think, maybe you already do this, you'll think singular and you'll think the light, the Christmas light, as we sing in our little town of Bethlehem, yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light.

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

As we sing songs like this and look at the lights, again, we will think, the Christmas light.

Who is the light Jesus?

The book of 1 John was probably written by the Apostle John.

We don't know for sure, but it's a very high likelihood.

This is John, who was a significant human being, isn't he?

He leaned on Jesus at the Last Supper.

That's the John we're talking about.

This is the John who was at the cross when Jesus died.

And looking up, his friend Jesus looked down at him and said, look after my mother.

This is John, who outlived all the other disciples, writing probably between 70 and 80 AD.

1 John is a letter written about the struggles involved in pastoring a dynamic and influential church in Ephesus, or he is maybe in Ephesus as a pastor, writing to issues in another church nearby.

1 John is richly influenced by John's Gospel, and as such, many of the most important themes in the Gospel of John, so Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, that book, you find in this short letter.

And since, as I just said, 1 John is a letter addressing difficult issues.

You might call it a defensive letter against aberrant doctrinal error.

It uses on the surface language that is very abrupt, really quite rigid and maybe even shocking, hard to understand.

It says things like, if you've ever sinned, well, you can't be saved.

It's a field that sound like that.

One of the keys with 1 John is to treat it like the book of Proverbs.

John is stating truth in its clearest form, the way things normally are.

But they have to be held in tension with nuance of life's theological complexities.

And when you think about it like that and see that it's picking up themes from John, it's just a wonderful little book.

With glorious echoes of John's gospel, 1 John begins by stating that the primary subject of his letter is the one who was from the beginning, 1 John 1, that which was from the beginning.

I didn't ask you to move to it, but if you have a Bible, please turn to 1 John.

We're in that first chapter and first verse.

That which was from the beginning.

John is studying exactly what he declared in the gospel of John.

Let me read those first four verses.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

Through him, all things were made.

Without him, nothing was made that has been made.

In him was life.

And that life was the light of all mankind.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The first idea from our text is Christmas light created.

The Christmas light created.

In the beginning, that which was from the beginning.

Can you think of a more wonderful, all-encompassing way to start a description of Jesus, the light of Christmas, than that which was from the beginning?

And then John's Gospel tells us what happened in the beginning.

The always existing word of God, and the word of God is Jesus, the Logos.

He created from nothing.

Through him, all things were made.

Doesn't that just flow off the tongue?

Is it possible that there could be a being who was human in the Incarnation, which we'll get to in a moment, who truly spoke all things into existence?

It's an amazing concept.

We just sort of say it in church.

But can I encourage you to stop and just recalibrate?

Question yourself.

Do you believe that through him, all things were made?

The light, which is Jesus, creates.

Not only does the light do what we know what light does, it shines in the darkness and reveals what is already there, hidden in the darkness.

We're told here in John's gospel, the light created everything.

The light conceptualised, designed, and then instantaneously fashioned and produced the created order.

Now, we only have two options, if you think about it, about where everything in the Cosmos came from.

It's either from matter and ultimately what would seem to be an accident, a big bang and death, but there has to be matter there.

So there is this idea of eternal matter or the Christian worldview is eternal personhood.

Amen?

You know, eternal matter at the very beginning or eternal community.

Christianity teaches not only was there a God who was eternal, but Father, Son and Holy Spirit, they're together in community.

Not an accident, but an eternal plan.

Christmas light created.

Do you know who invented the light bulb?

Thinking about creations.

It's a trick question, isn't it?

Humphry Davy.

Humphry Davy invented the light bulb in 1802.

Certainly didn't get the credit for it, did he?

But Thomas Edison, after we are told a thousand attempts, commercialized it in 1878.

Jesus, the light of the world, created all things from nothing, and he got it right first time.

He created out of the formless void.

He spoke, the Father spoke, and it came to be.

Now, he gave humanity the option to disobey, freedom to sin.

That's not on him, that's on us.

So, some things went bad in his good earth, but this Christmas light created, and you know, an amazing truth is, the Christmas light still creates.

He created everything.

Through him, all things have been made.

And yet, this Christmas, can I encourage you to remember, he is the same creative, active God who creates, today, order out of chaos.

When we see the Christmas lights, I wonder if we could see the Christmas light, and remember, Jesus, my Lord, creates good out of that which is not good.

He creates order out of chaos in our bodies.

He can heal our brokenness in any way we need to be healed.

He can do it in our communities.

He is the light who creates.

He creates unity out of our dysfunction.

The light, Christmas light, in our families.

Have you found this, that he can create reconciliation and restoration out of hurt and disconnection?

Christmas light can do it.

So can I encourage you, don't come to Christmas this year and fail to bring your needs of recreation and restoration to the Father, amen?

Bring them in prayer and say, Lord Jesus, light of the world, who created once and still creates, would you create harmony in my family, in my workplace, in my relationships, that matter that I'm stewarding?

Extraordinarily, Christmas light created, and Christmas light incarnated.

That which was from the beginning, John writes, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the word of life.

The life appeared, we have seen it and testified to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.

John is nearing the end of his life, and he's dealing with a group of people in the church who are not sure.

They don't believe that Jesus was God in the flesh, God in human flesh.

It's what incarnation means.

What do you think about this statement?

The incarnation is the most seemingly fantastical, and that is a word, fantastical aspect of theology.

I'm trying to think.

I don't know if there's anything more.

I mean, maybe God dying on a cross.

That's pretty, pretty wonderful and crazy, too.

But I think God, who is eternal, who is all powerful, unmatched, all knowing, who is spirit?

The Incarnation tells us, the Christmas story tells us that God became human.

It's amazing.

It's an idea that brings into mind a theological term that I really appreciate.

It's one of my favourite theological terms.

Ineffable.

Ineffable.

The Incarnation reminds us that our God is ineffable.

The Gospel is ineffable.

It means this, too great or extreme to be described in words.

Isn't it?

The Incarnation, Christmas light, the light of the world who created everything, became human at Christmas.

And not just like a robust, fit, ready to go human, like Adam and Eve, maybe, without a bellybutton.

A baby with a bellybutton.

A baby.

Incarnation.

John is at pains to express.

This is what he wants us to know today.

I saw him.

I touched him.

I heard him.

I ate with him.

God in human flesh.

I saw him raise dead people to life.

Lame people stand.

Deaf people hear.

Blind people see.

I saw him rise from the dead.

God has tabernacled among us.

And he's still tabernacled in heaven at the right hand of the Father.

Stephen saw him.

He's still one of us.

Hark!

The Herald Angels sing.

I wonder if you realize this is one of the most wonderful carols about the theology of the Incarnation.

Look at these words.

Christ, by highest heaven adored.

Christ, the everlasting Lord.

Late in time, behold him come.

Remember, there was 400 years between Malachi and Matthew.

They were waiting.

He said, is he ever going to come?

Is Messiah going to come?

Yeah.

Offspring of a virgin's womb.

God.

God yet born of a woman.

Veiled in flesh, the Godhead.

See, hail the Incarnate deity.

Pleased as man with man to dwell.

Jesus, our God with us, Emmanuel.

Isn't that a wonderful hymn of praise that touches on the Incarnation?

John 14, Jesus said, If you really know me, you will know my father as well.

From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

Philip said, Lord, show us the father and that will be enough for us.

Jesus answered, Don't you know me, Philip?

Even after I've been among you such a long time, anyone who has seen me has seen the father.

Because Jesus is God, Incarnate.

The light of the world became human.

How does eternity get squished into a human?

How does creator get compacted into creation?

How?

When I wrote that question down, an answer came to me that I haven't thought of before, but I think is true.

Through love and humility.

That's how you squish eternity into a human being.

Through the greatest demonstration of love with humility.

Don't you agree?

Love and humility, that is our God.

So what does it mean for me and for you that the living God has become human in Jesus, that he has become incarnate?

It means that he knows what it is to walk your walk and my walk.

He knows.

Some of us might remember that show years ago, Undercover Boss, where the CEO of the big company dressed as a rank-and-file worker and saw what it was like on the street front.

Jesus did far more than that.

He walked among us and he experienced our temptation but didn't give in.

He knows our weakness.

He walked in our shoes, and most of all, he suffered with us.

If you or someone you love are suffering in this thing called humanity, you probably at some point have asked the question, why does God allow suffering?

And if you've thought about it long enough, you will have reached the answer.

And the answer is, we do not know.

There is a mystery about the level of suffering that we encounter as human beings.

There's an answer in the fall of humanity.

Sin causes suffering, but it is a great mystery.

But what is not a mystery is the question, is God ambivalent to your suffering and mine?

And what is the answer?

Just look at Jesus.

The Incarnation.

He's not ambivalent.

He's not disinterested.

He knows what it is to live the human life and experience suffering.

And in an extraordinary way, carefully using the word, because it's a powerful theological word for the one-off, God becoming human.

But he sort of incarnates himself through his spirit in the body of Christ the Church.

He incarnated and he incarnates.

God comes through us as we speak and live the life that Jesus wants to live through us.

That's why Jesus says, you are the light of the world.

You are the light of the world when I am in you by my spirit.

Christmas light, that's Jesus created.

Christmas light incarnated and Christmas light stated.

We proclaim, John says, we proclaim concerning the word of life.

He appeared.

We've seen it and testified to it.

We proclaim to you, we state to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.

We proclaim that we might have fellowship and our joy might be complete.

The word of God was with God from the beginning and he who was life spoke and life began.

And he didn't stop speaking, did he?

When he came to earth, he kept proclaiming the truth of the light moving into the darkness.

He speaks this Christmas light.

And one of the verses he said, that is recorded in John's Gospel, is the well-known verse John 3.16.

Jesus said, God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

The light stated the truth.

There is a consequence for how we live our life.

We need to be saved.

We are mortal.

We don't just get to live forever because we are human.

We have to believe in the one who paid for our sin, shed his blood to cover our penalty, died our death so that we would not have to die the second death in the lake of fire.

God loved the world so much that he made a way for us to be saved and live forever.

John 14, 6, Jesus again, in John's Gospel, he says, the light speaks.

He says, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

The light states the truth.

There is no other way.

There's no other way to the Father than through faith in Christ.

So the light of Christmas stated, communicated, and then after his death and resurrection and the giving of his spirit at Pentecost, Jesus returned to the Father that his body, the church, might continue to state the truth.

And that's what John is saying here, isn't it?

Multiple times, he says, we proclaim what we saw.

Jesus came as the word, the light, and he stated truth into the darkness.

And then he went back to heaven, filled us with his spirit, and he said, you tell everyone what I have done.

And so we do.

We proclaim so that others might come into this deep fellowship with the Father, that others might hear the amazing truth that there is eternal life available in Jesus.

Amen?

That's the job of the church.

He states through us, through his church, the truth of the good news.

One young man, who I've got to know, and he's a lovely bloke with so much potential in the Lord.

I look forward to seeing his life unfold and what God wants to do with him and through him.

His name is Pat.

Would you give him a warm welcome as he comes up?

Pat became a Christian last year, and I asked him to share.

He got baptized earlier this year.

And please tell us about how you found life in Jesus.

Thank you, man.

Yeah, sure.

Good morning, everyone.

Yeah, I'm Pat.

I normally go to the evening service, so there's probably a few people who haven't had the chance to meet me.

But yeah, so I became a Christian last year.

I've been going to NorthernLife for about a year as well, so I'd say I was a Christian a few weeks before I joined NorthernLife.

My first exposure to the church was I was actually baptized as an infant into the Catholic Church, but I'd go along for the first 12, 13 years of my life, and it was pretty much obligatory.

Like I went because my mom made me go, basically.

My relationship with God wasn't great, and as I got a little bit older and entered high school, I found myself considering myself an atheist.

Like if you'd asked me anything about God, you know, on the outside, I was pretty, I guess, amicable.

I was, I'm glad that works for you, you know.

I'm glad that you're a Christian.

I'm glad that gives you peace.

But for me, it's not for me personally.

That was sort of my opinion back then, like my point of view.

And I think on the inside, I was actually quite bitter looking back on it.

I think I was quite spiteful and maybe looked down on people who practiced faith at that time.

That all changed a few years ago with quite a dramatic event in my life where I had a dream.

And for me to be talking about a dream, you know, I'm not someone who assigns a heap of value to dreams or mystical events.

You know, like my family was a little more in tune with that.

But for me, I'm studying medical science.

I was going into my first year of university.

I thought, you know, I thought that I knew everything basically.

Yeah.

But in this dream, I was standing in a shallow basin of water with my family.

And this woman walked in.

And I didn't recognize her physically because she was young.

But I knew it was my great aunt who had passed a few years earlier.

And she walked up to me, and she walked up to my family, and then we were just walking together.

And then she started talking to me about heaven, about angels, about God, about Jesus.

And I interrupted her with my standard response of the time, I'm glad that works for you.

You know, it's not for me, but you know, it's great.

It works for you.

But she interrupted me, and she looked directly at me, and she sort of looked through me, and she said, then how are we having this conversation?

And I sat up, right?

I woke up, my heart was pounding out of my chest, and in my head was just this voice, God is real, God is real, God is real.

I quite literally went from an atheist to an agnostic overnight.

Yeah, literally.

And I started talking to people about this dream.

I had this tremendous dream.

I couldn't put it aside.

I couldn't just assign it to, you know, to science, to just random brain chemistry.

I knew it was more than that.

And around this time, I believe God put a few Christians in my life.

I'd started a new job.

And they started answering these questions that I had about faith.

They started talking to me, clarifying misconceptions I had.

And I really got to learn about the person of Jesus, about Christ.

Then I found myself reading Christian literature.

I found myself listening to Christian podcasts.

And before I knew it, I was here at NorthernLife.

And it really feels like Jesus just grabbed hold of me and he hasn't let go.

As John I said, I was baptized earlier this year.

I stood before a crowd of people, and I proclaimed that Jesus is my Lord and Saviour.

And that is more true to this day than ever.

Jesus is my Lord and Saviour.

You know, he is the way, the truth and the life.

He is the light of the world, the light of Christmas.

And yeah, I'm standing here as a former atheist, as someone who thought I knew everything, who had my world totally flipped upside down by Jesus.

Who has come into my life and he's improved it.

He's made my life so much more than it could have been apart from him.

And I am saved.

I stand before you, saved, knowing that there is life after death, and that it's for me because Jesus has died on the cross for me, and for you, and for everyone.

So yeah, I just, if you haven't given your life over to Christ, you know, I stand here beseeching that you do.

It has been a wonderful, revolutionary change in my life, and it's something that I hope to carry with me until I die.

Amen.

As I said, I think Pat has a bit of a calling to discover.

I asked him to give his testimony and he couldn't help but do an altar call.

Praise God.

Praise God for that.

Because that's what the truth does, the truth through the Spirit of God.

The light of Jesus proclaims the gospel through us.

Amen.

And it's a wonderful thing.

Thank you, Pat, so much.

I really appreciate you sharing, and praise God for His grace in your life.

Christmas lights.

You'll see lots of them this year.

Can I encourage you to think of what they point us to?

The Christmas light, the light of the world, who created all things, who is God incarnate, and who proclaims His truth through us to the world, which is news that is surely good.

Amen.

Thank you, Lord God, for this incredible truth that you have entrusted to us, the hope of glory found in Christ and even Christ in us, that we would believe and you would seal us by your spirit, fill us with your spirit, give us a new heart, change our mind, and give us the hope of eternal glory with a resurrected body in the new earth and the new heavens.

Thank you.

Thank you for this good news that we have heard, and we want to be people who have found faithful in sharing it with the world.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

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