Jesus, the Creator of All

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Transcript:

My favorite part of our Christmas decor is the nativity scene that sits in the front yard and lights up. My parents had that for as long as I can remember. And then when I got a little older, I took over the outside decorating of the house because Dad got to where he got too dizzy to get on the roof.

It was not a good idea. Isn’t that what happened? Never mind.

Either that or he just said that’s what happened because he didn’t want to get on the roof anymore. And then when I moved out, I kind of stole those nativity people, either that or that you gave them to me. I don’t know.

I don’t remember at this point what happened, but I ended up with the nativity people there at my house, and they’re not going back. I love those. And they’re like little children.

They look like precious moments, people, which I’m not real big on. But I like this nativity set because of the memories. And I love when it’s all set up and looking at Mary and Joseph and Jesus and that beautiful picture of him lying in the manger and remembering the miracle of Christmas and what Jesus really accomplished just with his birth of stepping out of heaven, stepping out of eternity, stepping out of the glorious presence of God the Father and coming down to this and putting on one of these bodies.

and being born in those circumstances and everything that he gave up, not just to come as a baby, but to come and be born and to minister to us and to die for us. Everything that he accomplished there. And so I love that nativity scene.

I love nativity scenes in general because of the reminder that they are. But it occurs to me that there’s a problem when a lot of people, that’s all they see Jesus as. he’s still the baby in the manger he’s still the baby in the in the Christmas card pictures lying there in the manger being taken care of surrounded by a halo and a lot of people never get past that idea they know who Jesus is from the Christmas story and then round about Easter they hear about him rising from the dead but they really don’t make any kind of connection really don’t understand what happened in between and how they’re connected to each other.

And for a lot of people, their main knowledge and their main focus on Jesus is on the Christmas story. As incredible as the Christmas story is, as incredible as what He did just by being born in the way that He was in Bethlehem, as incredible as that is, it’s not the whole story. And we miss out on so much of the story.

And the people around us miss out on so much of the story when we leave the baby in the manger. To have a full biblical perspective, to really understand who Jesus is, we’ve got to take the baby out of the manger at some point and let the baby grow up and let him become everything that God sent him here to be. And so for the next six weeks, I want us to look at the Gospel of John and what it says about his coming.

Now, it doesn’t give us the information like Matthew and Luke about how he came. John is more about what he came to be. Who he was when he was born.

See, here’s another thing. Jesus wasn’t born and then became the Son of God or became the Messiah by accident. God the Father sent him here to be born in that stable in Bethlehem because he was the Son of God, because he was the Messiah.

God the Father had plans that God the Son had agreed to carry out before He was even born. And so as we look through the first chapter of John over the next several weeks, it points out, it tells us in great detail and in beautiful language who He was and who He came to be. And people may think, well, why does it matter?

Why does it matter? Why does it matter that we know the whole story? Can’t you just let us have Christmas?

See, Christmas means so much more if it’s more than just the story about the baby in the manger. I mean, it’s a great story. It means so much more when you realize what it was leading up to.

And it matters immensely. It matters immensely who Jesus is. It matters immensely who He is.

It’s not just so we know the information and not just so we know who we’re worshiping and all of that’s important, but it matters immensely who Jesus is because He is the very heart of the Gospel. He’s the very heart of the Gospel. He’s the very heart of our message.

He’s the very heart of what we’re doing here. He’s the foundation of all of it. If that baby was just born a baby in a manger and that’s all He ever was, then there’s no point to any of it.

The whole point of all of it is that he came to live among us, to live a perfect sinless life, and to die so that we could be reconciled to God. It matters immensely who Jesus is because he is the heart of the gospel, and without him being who he is and who the Bible says that he is, there is no salvation for any of us. There’s no hope for any of us at Christmas time or any other time of the year if Jesus isn’t exactly who the Bible claims he is.

So I want us to start, and we’re just going to look at the first three verses this morning of the book of John, and look at what it says and what it tells us about who he is. It says in John 1. 1, if you haven’t turned there already, if I haven’t told you to turn there already, turn with me to John 1.

1. It says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, And the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

All these things were made by him. I’m sorry, all things were made by him. And without him was not anything made that was made.

And already in these, just these three verses, that was a very quick read, wasn’t it? In these three verses, they are crampacked with information. Where John is laying it out for us, he’s beginning to make the case of who Jesus really is.

and John is writing to people who might not have been as familiar with Jesus you read the other gospel accounts that were written a little bit earlier and Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience he was writing to people there in Jerusalem who might have been familiar with Jesus’ ministry didn’t really know that much about him he’s getting the history of taking them back and explaining his lineage and who he is and the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Messiah that he was coming to be king of the Jews, that he was coming to be the one who would sit on David’s throne. And Mark really wrote from Peter’s perspective. Mark accompanied Paul on his missionary trips.

Mark was related to Barnabas. Mark hung around the apostles. And so what we read in Mark is really Peter’s account of Jesus’ life.

And then Luke was writing to a Gentile audience. And he’s very factual. Being a doctor, he goes into great detail about things. John is writing, I think, to people later on who came up a generation or so later who wouldn’t have been as familiar with Jesus because they weren’t there during his ministry.

And he says, I want to take you back to the very beginning. Let’s go back to the very beginning before there was anything else. It’s wrong to even say take you back to the beginning because it’s before the beginning.

because he says in the beginning was the word when the beginning happened and that beginning being God looking out and saying let there be light in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth when that starting point of the universe happened in the beginning was the word the word was already there in the beginning so he’s taking us back to even before creation the word here used word you may be thinking well he’s the same word not familiar with the passage. How do we know the Word is Jesus? Well, he goes on through the chapter to explain it, but in verse 14 he says, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

That word, Word, in John 1 is a reference to Jesus, all throughout it. And it’s a Greek word, laudos, which means one. Okay?

But it was something that was used in Greek philosophy that John’s readers would have understood that all these Greek philosophers talk about the logos, the logos, the logos. They’re talking about the mind of God. They’re talking about universal principles.

And so when John uses this word logos, he’s borrowing this term to help them understand the connection between Jesus in the flesh and the eternal plans of God. He wasn’t just some accident of history. His coming was God’s purpose throughout all of the ages.

and that he was the fulfillment of God’s plans. So when he’s talking about the beginning here, he’s referring to Genesis 1. 1.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And he’s saying that in that beginning, the Word was already there. The Word was there in the beginning.

He wasn’t created in the beginning. He didn’t start at some point. He was just there.

Jesus existed before he was born in Bethlehem. That was a shocking realization to me as a kid. Wait, you mean he existed before he was born?

How did that work? He’s God. Okay, so many things about God.

That’s the only answer I can come up with. He’s God. He can do what he wants.

But then you start to see that his fingerprints are all over the Old Testament. I believe he was the fourth man in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Some people believe that he was the messenger, the angel, the King James says, but the messenger who wrestled with Jacob.

Some people see him as the king of Salem or Melchizedek who blessed Abraham. And the whole Old Testament points to his coming. His fingerprints are all over it.

Before he was ever born in Bethlehem, Jesus was. He was there. He was part of God’s creative work.

even before Adam and Eve before there was light Jesus already was we’ve got to understand that we don’t really understand what the baby in the manger was all about he didn’t just start being in Bethlehem he already was and it says and the word was with God so Jesus was there in the presence of God the father before there was anything else he didn’t just exist he existed with God the father He was there with Him. He was there in His presence. I mean, think about that.

God is in our presence right now. God is in everybody’s presence right now. But before there was us, before there was anybody else, it was God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

The Word was with God. There’s an intimacy here. That they were the first ones.

It’s not as though Jesus was in the presence of God like we are now. Jesus was in the presence of God the Father when it was only them. And the Holy Spirit, of course, but when it was only them.

I’m in the presence of a lot of people during the course of a day. Sometimes more people than I care to be. That’s nobody in this room.

I’m in the presence of a lot of people during the course of the day. But I start and end my day in the presence of my wife. And we talk.

And we know each other. And in the morning, she talks. Why does she talk in the morning?

And in the evening, when I’m trying to wake up, she talks. And in the evening, when she’s trying to go to sleep, I talk. And we.

. . and there’s a fellowship there when it’s just the two of us that isn’t shared by everybody else.

And before everybody else and to the exclusion of everybody else when it was just the Godhead, Jesus was there. There’s an intimacy there together. And when the Father said, let us make man in our own image, Jesus was part of the us and the our.

When God the Father. . .

Think about that. Have you ever thought that was strange that God said, let us make man in our own image? He wasn’t talking to the angels.

The Father was speaking to the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let us, let us make man in our image. Jesus was there.

Before He was the baby in the manger, He was there when the Father said, let’s do these things. When the Father said, let there be light, He was part of that. There’s an intimacy with God that no mere creature can understand.

And that’s because he was no mere creature himself, because it says, and the Word was God. So not only was he with God, but he was also God himself. This bothers me.

He was not, as some people say, the first created being. There’s a verse in the New Testament that talks about him being the firstborn of all creation. That doesn’t mean that He was the first thing born or created.

That points to His preeminence and His dominance over all of creation. The Bible does not teach that Jesus was created, that He was created like everything else or everyone else. Just like God, He is holy, He’s eternal, He’s almighty.

Long before Bethlehem, long before He was born in the manger, He was there, He shared a fellowship with God the Father that our minds can’t comprehend because he was one with God the Father because he was God. Why is this such a big deal? There’s an article I printed off here that I read a couple weeks ago and it came to mind as I was studying this again.

The title says, Survey Finds Most American Christians Are Actually Heretics. And I expected when I saw the link that it was something from the Babylon Bee. and if you don’t know what that is, it’s a very funny Christian satire site where they make fun of the news.

But no, this was serious. A survey of 3,000 people, I’m not going to read the whole article this morning, it doesn’t all matter to this and there’s not time, but it says a survey of 3,000 people conducted by Lifeway, that’s an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, and commissioned by Ligonier Ministries, which is R. C.

Sproul’s ministry, found that although Americans still overwhelmingly identify as Christians, Startling percentages of the nation embrace ancient errors condemned by all major Christian traditions. These are not minor points of doctrine, but core ideas that define Christianity itself. And you scroll down and they explain what one of these heresies is.

And these are people that, again, identify as Christians, and in some of these surveys identify as evangelical or born-again Christians. They’re not out surveying the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses and they call themselves Christians. They’re talking about people in our evangelical churches.

And it says more than half went on to indicate that Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God. That’s a heresy known as Arianism, which was condemned by the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. What’s the problem with Aryanism?

And by the way, Aryanism, it’s spelled differently, has nothing to do with Aryans as in Nazis, something completely different. But what’s the problem with Aryanism? It’s the belief that Jesus is a created being.

And sure, he’s the first and the greatest created being, so he’s still worthy of respect, but still they believe he’s a created being. At some point, he didn’t exist, and then God made him to begin existing. So he’s no longer eternal. And he’s no longer God.

That presents us a real problem because if he is not God, he could not atone for our sins. He could not die for our sins. We are talking about a very different Jesus Christ than what the Bible teaches.

And the Bible here says that he was God. And he was there with God from the beginning. He didn’t just start existing at some point.

He didn’t start existing when he was born in the manger at Bethlehem. And he didn’t start existing when God created the universe. He always has been and always will be.

He even said himself before Abraham was, I am. Now that’s not Jesus being confused about grammar. In saying I am, he’s identifying himself with the God of the Old Testament.

And his self-existence, his eternality, his everlasting character. And when he says, before Abraham was, I am, he’s saying, even before there was an Abraham, I was, am, and will be the eternal God that Abraham worshipped. The word was God.

In verse 2, it says, the same was in the beginning with God. The same was in the beginning with God. He’s basically repeated himself.

So there’s not a need to explain in great detail what he’s talking about here. He’s summing up what he said in verse 1. The same was in the beginning with God.

The word was in the beginning with God. He’s repeating himself. This happens sometimes in the Bible.

One of the most striking examples for me is in Galatians chapter 1, where Paul tells the people, if anybody comes preaching any other gospel than what you’ve received, whether it’s us or some other preacher or an angel from heaven, if somebody comes to you with any other gospel than what you’ve received, let him be accursed. And then Paul says it again a couple of verses later. Let him be cursed.

Now Paul is not forgetful. Oh wait, I said that already? You’re kidding.

Okay, John here is not forgetful. Wait a minute, you already said that. He was in the beginning with God.

He’s repeating himself on purpose. Because you know how sometimes we talk and we’ll say things and we speak a little too rashly? I do this sometimes when disciplining my kids.

I say things without thinking them through quite the way I ought to. We see this with politicians all the time, too, don’t we? They’ll throw out some really hard statement, some really forceful rhetoric, and then they’re invited to come back on the news shows and say, well, explain to us what you really meant.

And we’ll spend the next news cycle walking back what they said to what they supposedly actually meant. Because they opened their mouth before their brain was engaged. John is saying here, this is not what I’m doing.

I’m pointing out Jesus was there from eternity past. Jesus was there in the presence of God the Father in perfect fellowship with Him. Jesus was Himself God in human flesh. And by the way, just so you don’t think that I spoke too soon or too rashly because I was excited and praised Jesus too much and tried to make too big a deal out of Jesus, he repeats it because I meant what I said.

I know what I said and that’s what I meant. The same was in the beginning with God. And just so you don’t think that I’m just getting carried away here, let me say it again for you.

That’s what he meant when he said the same was in the beginning with God. He’s repeating it so we know. I know what I said and I know what I meant.

John really believes this and by the way a lot of people believe a lot of things about their religious leaders but John is saying this as someone who spent three years every day with Jesus y’all may think the pastor’s great you may not think that but y’all may think the pastor’s great talk to his wife sometime no don’t giving me that look. Don’t. There’s no telling what she might tell you.

See, she knows the man behind the pulpit, and he’s not always so great. So for this to be coming from somebody who spent time with Jesus, he says, if anybody ought to know who this man is, I do. And I meant what I said.

Verse 3, all things were made by him. Everything was made by him. God is creation.

And John is making sure again that we understand who Jesus is. That when he’s saying he made everything, he’s pointing out that Jesus was there and involved in creation and he wasn’t just some junior partner. He was co-equal with God the Father in creation.

He’s a member of the Trinity and we can see his fingerprints on the world all around us. When the Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God, When the Bible says that the stones would cry out, every time we read something in Scripture that indicates nature itself points to the existence and glory of God, it’s not just talking about God the Father. The Son’s fingerprints are all over that creation as well.

And John says here, He made everything. All things were made by Him. Everything created by God.

Now this is hard to explain to kids. I was talking to Benjamin about it. So did God make our car?

No, okay, God made people who made our car. God made people, people made Detroit. That’s where the car came from.

But everything created by God was created by Jesus. He was there. He was involved.

And it’s also pointing us again to him not being anything less than God himself. It doesn’t say he created all other things. See, if he created all other things and he himself was created, then God created him and he’s not God.

He was involved in the creation of all things that were created. And the only way that he was able to do that is he was God and he was never created, he always just has been, and so he would have been there for everything to be created. And again, John repeats himself for emphasis in verse 3.

He does this twice here. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. That’s what you said in the beginning of verse 3.

Two different ways here of saying he made everything. Everything created by God was created by Jesus. And he says it again.

Because once again, we have a sweeping statement that might have sounded shocking to some of the people. Wait a minute, you believe this guy who died on the cross, you believe he made everything? Come on our show and explain to us what you really meant by that.

No, I know what I said, and I know what I meant. And so he reiterates, there was nothing that was made. Nothing God created was created without Jesus Christ. That’s what I said, and that’s what I meant.

So John, all through this, John, all through this, is somebody who knows Jesus, who knows what he’s talking about, and he knows what he said, and he knows what he meant, And he is determined that Jesus Christ is God in the human flesh. He wasn’t just a baby born in a manger. He was the God of all creation.

Jesus is the God of all creation. And three things that he points out in here that three characteristics of the God of creation that he keeps talking about all throughout this passage is, first of all, Jesus shares the Father’s eternal existence. He shares the Father’s eternal existence.

Just as the Father has no beginning and will have no end, so Christ, God the Son, has no beginning and no end. He had a beginning and end to His earthly life and His earthly ministry, but as far as His existence, there’s no beginning and no end. He shares the Father’s eternal existence.

If God is eternal, then God the Son is eternal.Ó He shares the Father’S divine nature. He shares the Father’s divine nature. He is every bit as much God as the Father is.

And as a kid, I think I had a wrong. . .

Well, I know I had a wrong idea about this. Somehow thought Jesus was a little bit less God than the Father was. It was because I grew up in Sunday school hearing the stories of Jesus’ ministry and how he always looked to the Father and obeyed the Father and did what the Father commanded him to.

I didn’t realize that he came in human flesh and he voluntarily made himself obedient to those things, but that he was part of the planning for this all along and that he was no less God than God the Father. Jesus, this whole thing about sharing the Father’s divine nature, means that he’s every bit as much God as the Father. When he was in heaven in eternity past, he was every bit as much God as God the Father.

When he judges all of mankind, at the end of the end, he’ll be every bit as much God as God the Father. And when he was a helpless little baby in the manger, he was every bit as much God in his nature as God the Father. I don’t begin to understand how all that works.

But John says the Word was God. And third of all, he shares the Father’s power and authority. He’s not somehow less powerful than God the Father.

Again, during his earthly ministry, did he voluntarily restrain some of that power and submit to the will of God the Father? Yes, he did. In his human form, he submitted to the will of God the Father, but it didn’t mean he was any less powerful.

Did he not say at the end of his earthly ministry, all power is given to me? When he was given the Great Commission, all power in heaven and earth is mine. And on that basis, he said, go ye therefore.

he shares the power and authority of God the Father that’s why he was involved in creation and when God said when the Father said let there be light Jesus was right there with him creating light and when God the Father said let us make man in our own image Jesus again was part of the our and the us he’s so much more than just a baby in a manger, as we’ll see over the next few weeks. And please don’t think I’m knocking the story of the baby in a manger. It’s an incredible story.

It’s an incredible part of God’s overall message and God’s overall plan. My problem is when we can’t get past that. And when the world can’t get past that.

And we have an open door over the next few weeks. As people’s minds, some of them maybe for the only time in the year, turn towards spiritual things. We have a more open door than we have at other times during the year.

And as we talk about this Christmas story, to say, but wait, it doesn’t stop there. Because here’s who this baby in the manger actually is. And here’s what He came to do.

It’s more than a beautiful Christmas card. He’s more than just the baby in the manger. In His birth, He’s.

. . Folks, He’s not just a story to cherish.

He’s a God to obey. Because this passage teaches that even when he came to be born, and even when he was born to look like us, and to walk among us, and be one of us, and when he was born in such Spartan conditions, even then he was the God of creation. Even then he was the voice who said, let there be light.

And that’s part of the beauty of the story of the manger. is that a God that powerful would step down out of His throne room and put on one of these bodies so that He could die for us.