**Transcript:**
Honest. How many of you had Christmas music on the way to church today? Like 12 of us? All right. We're getting there, aren't we?
And I did. I was like turning the radio on, and like one channel I didn't really like. It was like, no, I don't want to hear that one. Like, oh, there we go. The Christmas music. Almost getting there.
It's December, though. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I can't even believe that. Yes, December 1st, and we are starting a Christmas series, so it's kind of that time of year.
And during this time of year, we always get excited because we get to do some pretty amazing things around the world and here in our community. We call it our Christmas causes. Every year in December, people are thinking about year-end giving anyway, and so we say, bring your best gift to Jesus.
You know, Christmas is that time where we're thinking about gift giving, and sometimes we make it all about the people around us or even ourselves, and really, it's not our birthday. It's his birthday. And so we want to bring our best gift to Jesus in December so we can do some important things.
One of the things we did last year, I'll give you a little update on. Some of you have already heard this, but we decided we were going to help build a church building in the Philippines. We've had John and Gina Alcott there for over a decade as our missionaries, and they started a church down in the south in Davao City, and that church was 150, 200 people running strong. They've helped raise up leaders.
They've helped raise up leaders in that church that are now leading the people of that church, and they felt called by God to go north and go to a different part of the country and start another church. And so they've been in process of that.
Our team that went to the Philippines on a mission trip this past year, we walked that land. That land was given to them, so they have a nice piece of land to do something on, and we just prayed over it. There were roosters on that land running around, and we're trying to pray. We're doing a prayer walk, and we're, you know, you're hearing the roosters, and we're praying, and we were praying that God would help raise that church up.
Well, part of our Christmas cause money went to help build that building, and I got a couple pictures to show you here, and you're like, wait, that's not the one I want to see. Let me tell you what they're doing right there before we go to the finished product.
They've had typhoons in the Philippines in that area, in Luna recently, and so they're actually in there cleaning up. They had some damage. They were going to be starting to have services in there this week, and I don't know if they were able to accomplish that because of something like that, but they're going to be the damage that happened, but it was minimal, and they're cleaning it up.
Here's the picture of the completed building. Now, in the Philippines, this is amazing, right? I mean, you don't see this. They rented a spot to have church in Davao City. They never had a building. And so we said, you know what? We want to take some of our Christmas cause money and build a church building so that they can raise up that infant church.
So this year, we said, we want to keep coming alongside. We got a lot of other Christmas cause. I'm going to tell you about them next week. Don't have time to today, okay? But one that I want to tell you about for sure, we're going to work again with John and Gina.
And one of the things that's unique about the Philippines is so cool. Cool, Filipinos can go almost anywhere in the world. Did you know that? Like if you're American, you can't travel to every country. And in fact, you wouldn't want to travel to every country. You could be in danger in some countries. And some people from other countries can't travel outside their country, certainly not to the United States, you know? But Filipinos can almost travel anywhere.
And it's kind of a cool phenomenon. So John decided to do what the Great Commission calls us to do, not just be a charitable, but to be a charitable church that we sent them as missionaries. But because they're a church, they need to send missionaries as well.
So they got two people they're working with. One they're going to send to Japan, and one they're going to send to Thailand. And so it gave us this idea, you know what? They don't just need a building to meet for church. They've got a property there that they want to use now.
So what would it look like for us to build a training center right next to the church that would serve not only as a training center for future missionaries, but it would also be like a fellowship hall for the church so that we could be a church. I mean, where are you going to do your fellowship meal? Out on the grass or in the church building where the seats are?
No, they're going to have a fellowship hall that can serve as a retreat center. Like if we send mission teams over there, there'll be places for them to stay as they're helping John and Gina do the work there in the Philippines. And also it's a place where they can raise up those missionaries.
And so part of our Christmas cause money this year is going to go to add to what's already building, what's already been built up on that property, a retreat training center, fellowship hall for that church. And that's just one of the things we're going to do.
So we get to do some pretty amazing things. It doesn't even cost that much. And it makes a huge difference in countries like the Philippines. So I hope you'll pray about that. Bring your best gift to Jesus in December. And we're going to do some pretty cool things.
So that's number one. Then number two, it is week one of Quest 52. We're pretty excited about that. And I'm getting just barely a little bit of response from the 11 o'clock service. I mean, he was up here. He's like, come see the skit. I'm like, I don't know if I'm coming to Merry and Bright.
So we got to kind of wake up and get with it. Hey, let's try that again. Ready? Week one of Quest 52. There you go. All right, that's a little better.
And the reason we should be excited about that, we turn 100 in 2025. Did you know that? Our church is going to be 100 years old. That means two or three things. Number one. Number one, it's our birthday.
And just like at Christmas, we don't need to be giving all the gifts to ourselves. We need to be giving a gift to Jesus. Well, because it's our birthday, we're not going to be receiving gifts in 2025. We're going to do a reverse birthday, and we're going to be giving gifts away all year long.
I can't wait to tell you about some of those projects. It's going to be amazing as well. But one of the things we also decided was, if we're old, man, we need to make sure that we're passing this on to the next generation.
So a lot of the projects that we're going to be talking about in 2025 are going to bless the next generation. I can't wait to tell you about them. But also we said, we need to make sure that we're laser focused. Our mission is to lead people to find and follow Jesus Christ. And so we never want to get off mission.
And one of the ways we thought we could really stay on it is Quest 52. 52 weeks focused on the life of Jesus. It reminds us whose church this is. It reminds us that, man, He's the one who's doing the good work among us. He's the one. He's the one doing the good work among us who's changing lives.
And not only that, my friend Mark Moore, who wrote this book, he is a Bible college professor, was for 20 years, New Testament scholar. So you know it's going to be great content, really deep content. And he called this a 52-week journey into the heart of Jesus.
And so we're basically saying, number one, we want to laser focus on whose church this is in 2025. And number two, man, give us a year focused on Jesus, and it'll change your life. And we say that without even blinking, because we know that's true.
In fact, I could say, give us a week focused on Jesus. Give us a day, give us an hour focused on Jesus, and it'll change your life. Can you imagine what will happen if we all engage for 52 weeks, straight through the Gospels, straight through the life of Jesus?
So if you know how the story starts, you know it starts at Christmas. So we decided, let's go ahead and start this in December, and today is week one.
Now, some people ask, oh, man, I didn't get the book yet. Does that mean I'm behind already? No, it doesn't. You can actually either read the book, chapter one, then come hear the sermon, chapter one, and then go and study with your life group the group discussion questions, chapter one.
Or you can read it after. You can come hear the sermon, then read chapter one after, and then go discuss it with your, you're in a life group, right? You're not? Well, you should get in a life group, because that's how we take this a little deeper.
There's a student edition as well, and we sold many of these already. We got a super great discount from Mark because we ordered so many books. So you can get it today for way cheaper than you can get it on Amazon, and I would encourage you to pick it up, pick one up for a friend.
Let's spend 52 weeks focused on Jesus and watch what he does. It's going to be amazing. So we're calling it Historic. It's a historic year for us, but this is also a story that only God could write, and it is Christmas.
So we're starting our Christmas series, and we're starting Quest 52, and we'll do it on three. You just say go when you're ready. One, two, three. Okay, here we go.
One of the problems with Christmas is that we too easily think we are engaging in the meaningful. You know what I'm saying by that? You go to a Christmas service, or you even go to a Christmas party, and you go to a Christmas party, and you go to a Christmas party, and you go to a Christmas party.
Somebody says a couple words, you're like, oh, this is great. You come and you sing Christmas carols. You should see your faces when you sing Christmas carols. It's so dreamy and happy, and that's good because we're immediately connecting Christmas to family togetherness and gift giving and time off from work and things like that.
But I'd like to suggest to you today as we start our series that we settle for too little because the meaning of Christmas is inexhaustible, and it's filled with powerful, life-changing truths.
You say, well, where do we start when we're starting with the Christmas story? Some people say, go to Matthew or go to Luke. And you know, you could go to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke because they tell you the facts about Christmas. They tell you what happened. They talk about the shepherds. They talk about the baby in the manger.
We're going to talk about some of that in the next few weeks. Talking about the angels. They share all that. But the scripture that we're going to start with today doesn't mention any of those things.
We're going to go to John's Gospel, the fourth book in the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. So if you've got your Bible, turn to John chapter one because John is going to concentrate on what all those things actually mean.
It answers the question we ought to be asking before we start a series like this, and it's just a one-word question. You with me? Here's the question. Why?
Why spend 52 weeks focused on Jesus? In the first place. Why would we do that? Well, let's start here for a moment. Mark Moore in chapter one writes this. If Jesus is whom he claimed to be, God, if he did what the Bible says he did, then he is the perfect place to begin our quest to know our creator.
He says, I believe Jesus is God. Nevertheless, beyond bias or opinion, anyone would have to admit that Jesus of Nazareth has had more impact on humanity than anyone else. Any other person in history. So people searching for God would do well to start their quest with the person of Jesus. He may be the answer to this foundational question, who is God?
So if you're here for the very first time, man, you arrived right on time to get started with us on our quest. You know, H.G. Wells, the historian over a hundred years ago, said something similar to what Mark said. He said more than 1900 years later, a historian said, a historian like myself, who doesn't even call himself a Christian, finds the picture centering irresistibly around the life and character of this most significant man.
The historian's test of an individual's greatness is what did he leave to grow? Did he start men thinking along fresh lines with a vigor that persisted long after him? And then he says this, by this test, Jesus stands first.
Now that's all good, but it goes way back to the beginning of the book of Mark. Mark says, I believe Jesus is God. It goes way beyond Jesus as a great historical figure, doesn't it? I mean, it goes way beyond that.
I want to ask you the question as we start our quest today, what are you going to do with Jesus? Who is he to you? What picture do you have of Jesus? Is it one that maybe came back from your childhood, you know, those vacation Bible school days, if you ever went to one of those VBS or in Sunday school, that flannel board Jesus?
What is your picture of Jesus? Is Jesus a stern disciplinarian or is he a Mr. Rogers type? Won't you be my neighbor, right? He's warm around the edges, really nice.
Artists for hundreds of centuries have attempted to capture their image of Jesus. What is your picture of Jesus? Who is he really? You know, there's generally no problem today with people acknowledging Jesus as a great teacher, Jesus as a prophet, even Jesus as a healer, somebody that we would do well to emulate.
Those facts are accepted by almost every religion. These facts have been given by historians who lived in Jesus' day. These views carry over into our 21st-century society as well. Very rarely will you find someone who has a problem with Jesus the man, Jesus the moral teacher, Jesus even the prophet from God.
There's even a group called Atheists for Jesus. Atheists for Jesus, which endorses what it calls Jesus' message of love and kindness without embracing him as God or the church as his institution.
I suppose today if we were to ask the question and hear our answers, who is Jesus, we'd get all kinds of answers, wouldn't we? Here are just a few of the thousands that are out there. Some people say Jesus was a mystic. Some people say Jesus was a good moral teacher who knew values. Some say, well, he was a religious leader. Others say, well, he was a skilled marketer, all right.
Some say Jesus is just a myth. Others say he was the son of God. Some say he was a political activist or even a miracle worker. Or the popular American view, Jesus is just one option on your way to get to God.
Jesus is just one option in our spiritual smorgasbord. That kind of grabs where we are today, doesn't it? In the midst of a lot of things related to getting to God, we kind of pick and choose. I'll take a little bit of this, take a little bit of that, a little bit of this, and it makes us feel better.
Some people say Jesus is a good prophet. He's a good teacher, one of many. The Muslim religion states there is one God, Allah is his name, and Muhammad is his prophet. Who is Jesus? Jesus may be a great teacher and prophet, but not as great as Muhammad.
Who is Jesus? Jesus is just one of the prophets. Some years back, the U.S. Army redefined its chaplain's crest. The cross, which is a symbol of Christianity, was removed, and in its place, the depiction of the sun and its rays, which referred to the presence of God in nature.
Who is Jesus? Well, he's just one of the prophets. He's a good teacher. Some people wanted the Pledge of Allegiance changed to remove the line, one nation under God. But maybe if we were more accurate to our culture today, we would change it to say, one nation under gods.
But friends, there's a huge problem, huge problem with all these ideas, huge. And here it is. Are you ready? In John chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus himself said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.
Friends, Jesus made bold claims about himself. He claimed to be God, the Son. He said that I am the way and the truth and the life. He did not claim to be a way, but the way. He did not claim to be a truth, but the truth. He did not claim to be a life, but the life. And he said that he was the only way to get to God, the Father.
This is what Jesus claimed for himself. He certainly claimed to be more than merely a man. C.S. Lewis, the great author and theologian, picked up on this. He was once an agnostic, and he later became a Christian and a teacher at Cambridge University.
And here's what he wrote about this. He said, I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus. I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God.
He said, that is one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level of a man who says he's a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell.
You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. He goes on to add this. You can shut him up for a fool. You can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord, but let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
Lewis has correctly stated that considering the claims of Christ, he's either a liar or he's a lunatic or he's the Lord. You gotta choose one.
So turn with me now to John chapter one and let's read the scripture together as we begin the quest, Quest 52. Ready, one more time, deep breath. Here we go. John one, one through 14.
In the beginning was the Word, capital W, 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 men.
The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God. His name was John. This is John the Baptist that John the Apostle's talking about. He came as a witness to testify concerning the light so that through him all men might believe.
He himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
He came to that which was his own. But his own did not receive him. Yet, to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent nor of human decision, nor of a husband's will, but born of God.
And then verse 14. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Now let's camp out on this passage for a moment. I want to give you three points. You can write these down in your note sheet. That'd be helpful for later.
First, we're told at the beginning of this passage, Jesus is the Word, capital W, Word of God. Now, here's why that's significant. A person's word is their clearest and ultimate revelation of who they are.
And I can give you a little trivial example to help you understand what I mean by this. There are a number of people that I see in our community that I know live near me. And the reason I know they live near me is because I see them often. I see them at the gym, which is a mile from my house, Eos.
Or I see them at Fry's, or I see them at Sprouts, or at the gas station there. And I see these people often, and I don't know exactly where they live, but I know they live near me because they're always at these places. Sometimes I see them walking, you know.
And I can infer a lot of things about them by the way they dress, by their facial expressions, by what they're reading, things like that. And you might ask me though, well, have you met him? Have you met her? Do you know him? Do you know her?
And you know what? If they've never spoken to me, and I've never spoken to them, you know what I would say in reply to that question? Nope. Nope, I don't know them.
If a person has never spoken to you, you don't think you've really met them, you don't think you really know them, because your words are the ultimate and clearest expression of who you are. You reveal yourself to people through your word.
So when it says that Jesus Christ is the word of God, that's an amazing statement. Because John is saying, you can't know God except through his word, except through Christ.
Now, it doesn't mean you can't know anything about God except through Christ. Just like I can know all kinds of things about the people I've seen, though I've never spoken to them, and they've never spoken to me. You can learn a lot of things, a lot of things about God.
You can know all sorts of things about God. You can believe in him. You can do all sorts of things in his name because you think he's called you to do it. But to know him, it takes Jesus.
Because Jesus is the ultimate revelation of who God is. One commentator on John chapter one says, this is what John one is saying. Jesus is the supreme revelation. God chose to make himself known finally and ultimately in the name of Jesus Christ.
He's been a real historical man. Verse 18 in our passage today goes on to say this. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only, the son, who himself is God, has made him known.
So that's what we're talking about today. The text is telling us God has spoken. And not only that, God has spoken rationally. In fact, where it says in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God.
You know the Greek word that is translated into our English word, word? You know what that word is? The Greek word is logos. That's where we get our word logic.
So the Greek word there, logos, is saying Jesus is the logic of God. That God has not given us some watertight argument to prove Christianity. There are many arguments that you could use to make sense of the world and make sense of Christianity, and we can go back and forth on those all day long.
God has not given us that to prove that Christianity is true. He's given us a watertight person, not an abstract argument. So you have to actually look at the accounts of Jesus's life. You have to look, if you're an honest seeker, you have to look at his claims.
You have to look at his teaching. Then you have to compare that to the world. You have to look at the world. The way he lived. You have to look at the accounts about his resurrection. You have to use your mind. You have to think. You have to say, how does that fit? And how does that fit? And how do I explain that?
And I will say to you today, as we start our quest, if you are willing to do that as an honest seeker, not with an agenda coming to the text, but with an open mind and an open heart, what you will find in the end is that Jesus Christ is a watertight person against whom in the end there can be no argument.
There can be no argument because he's perfect. His life powers above all other lives. He's inexplicable. And that's how you find the compelling proof that God has given you. You have to look at him. You have to look at the historicity of his life. You have to look at the data of his teaching, his claims, and you have to process it. You have to do it with your mind.
And I want to just ask you today, have you done that? Have you done that yet? Have you really taken it seriously? Well, if not, welcome to Compass. We're going to do this for 52 weeks. Quest 52, we're calling it. That's what we're going to be doing.
So do you want to know God? Do you want to know that God is real? Do you want to know him in a personal way? It can only happen through the word. That's how people work. You know them through their word.
And Jesus is the word of God, the ultimate clearest revelation of who God is. That's not all though. Christmas is not just about Jesus as the word. Here's point number two, the whole point of Christmas is number two. Jesus is the word, but Jesus is the word made flesh, right?
So what does that mean? What does it mean that the divine is made flesh? The word is made soft. The divine is made human. Well, it means something pretty important here. It means the word, God himself was made vulnerable.
The word was made killable. When it says the word became flesh, it means the word was made vulnerable. When it says the word became flesh, it's a big idea here that means a couple of things.
In Quest 52, Mark says it like this. First of all, it means God is near. He says, many religions have deities such as gods of water and wind and fire that are present, but not personal.
However, when a deity is personal, Yahweh or Allah, for example, that deity is viewed as distanced from humanity. Isn't that how when you just mentioned God in a general conversation, people think, oh yeah, he's out there somewhere. I can't really get to know him. He's in heaven. He's exalted. He's untouchable and hence he's unknowable.
Christianity though, is the only global religion, Mark says, where God is both personal and knowable. Both. We're invited into a relationship with him.
In fact, to this point, John says in verse 12, to all who receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God. He gave the right to become the children of God. He gave the right to become the children of God. He gave the right to become the children of God.
So first, it means God is near. Secondly, it means God has become vulnerable. God suffers. Mark Moore says, now there's a crazy idea. How could the divine suffer?
Scour the Old Testament and you'll find only scant suggestions of a suffering God. Isaiah 53, Zechariah 12. He says, this is actually an offensive idea in many religions. Yet in Jesus Christ, there is no such thing as a suffering God.
He says, this is actually just a God who suffers. We see a God who suffers for those he loves, even though they are ultimately unlovely. That's a God worth worshiping, right?
It's a God we could have never imagined, never even understood without the incarnation of Jesus, without the word becoming flesh. So Christmas is so radical because it highlights the fact that only Christianity of all the religions out there in the world says the divine creator of the world has become human and therefore He has come down.
Christmas is telling us that when Jesus, the Lord of heaven, heard our cries, he raised his hand and said yes to the rescue mission, and he came down. Now, friends, listen. Don't misunderstand. He didn't just come down at the risk of his life.
He actually came down knowing it would cost him his life. He knew ahead of time that he would have to give his life for sinful human beings. But he came, and the word became flesh, became vulnerable, became killable.
Wow, Christmas means that. Hebrews 2 kind of draws out the implications of this when it says this. Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity. For this reason, he had to be made like his brothers in every way in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest because he himself suffered when he was tempted.
He is able to help those who are being tempted. So friends, listen, if it's true that the God of heaven put on flesh and he came down, you know what that means? He understands you because he's been where you've been. He knows everything about you.
He knows the struggles you face. You know, why is it so often at Christmas that we sing this phrase, wonderful counselor? Remember that? Comes from the book of Isaiah, one of the terms for Jesus. He's the wonderful counselor.
You ever thought about what that means and why we sing it at Christmas? You know, if you think about counselors, the best counselors are people who have gone through stuff and then they've come out on the other side, right? And they're kind of okay now. And they can talk to people going through the same thing and help them navigate similar struggles. They're counselors who understand.
You see what this means? Jesus is the wonderful counselor. Because the word became flesh, then he can understand. Remember that movie years ago called The Doctor? The Doctor. It was loosely based on Dr. Edward Rosenbaum's 1988 memoir, A Taste of My Own Medicine.
The film stars William Hurt. He's a doctor who, you know, he's kind of got poor bedside manner. It's pretty terrible, honestly. And then he gets sick and he becomes a patient and he has to lay on the table. And guess what? He gets treated the same way. Terrible bedside manner. They treat him poorly.
He's on the table. He doesn't like being there as a patient. And at the end of it, he comes to say, I've never, ever treated you like this. I've never treated people again the way I had before because now I've been on the table.
And again, what is Christmas? Christmas is saying something no other religion can say, no other religion dares to say. The God who created the universe has been on the table. Hunger, loneliness, homelessness, grief, rejection, betrayal, torture, injustice.
He has experienced it all. What does that mean? Well, have you ever been betrayed? So has he. You ever been lonely? So has he. You ever been treated unjustly? So has he. You ever been rejected by people that you love? He understands. He's been there.
Have you ever had to face death? Look it straight in the eyes? He's done it. He's been there. You can go to him. He's a wonderful counselor. So you need to trust him. You need to go to him with what you have.
So I know somebody might be in the audience today that was saying, well, listen, wait a minute. I have gone to him. I was in trouble. I went to God. I prayed and I prayed. I poured my heart out to him. He didn't listen to me. He denied my prayer. I feel like God has abandoned me.
Don't you understand the meaning of Christmas? God has experienced that too. Wait, what? God knows what it's like to be abandoned by God? God? Had a big prayer turned down? Yes.
Because in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said, Father, if there's some other way we can save the world without me having to go to the cross and experience this infinite agony, please let this cup pass from me. And he was turned down.
Christmas means that when you're in trouble and when you're struggling and when you have problems and you feel like God isn't listening and in fact, maybe not even listening, even answering your prayers, don't you realize, Jesus, your wonderful counselor has been there too?
Christmas means you can't just rail at God. Why, God? Why are you allowing all this suffering in the world? Because he has experienced the suffering himself. He even knows what it means to be seemingly abandoned by God.
You ever thought about that? You gotta frame your struggles with the knowledge that, listen, the word became flesh. You can go to him with anything because he knows, he understands. He's been there. Do you trust him like that?
The last and most amazing thing that's said here is the word became flesh. And number three, made his dwelling among us. Write that down. Jesus made his dwelling among us.
If you're reading this in Greek, one more Greek lesson, it's really applicable though, okay? You see something you can't see in English and it's kind of astounding because John the writer could have used any number of very common words that mean reside or live or dwell when it says the word became flesh and lived among us dwelt among us resided among us.
That's how we translate in English but he didn't use any of those words, friends. What he literally said if you read the text in its original version is the word became flesh and tabernacled among us.
Now what's the difference and what in the world does that mean? John is deliberately taking that Greek word that readers of the Old Testament in the Greek language, the Septuagint they called it would have seen as a very common word back then and he uses the word for tabernacle on purpose.
And he used that to remind people of the tabernacle that Moses set up in the wilderness. Do you know the story? So let me help you with that just to make it absolutely clear what he's talking about.
He says the word became flesh and tabernacled among us and now we beheld his glory. So he's making us remember the fact that Moses when he was up on the mountain he's talking to God he's having a conversation with God and he says I want to know you. I want to know you, God. I want to know you with intimacy. I want power. I want connection. I want to see your glory.
He says show me your glory. Let me see your face. And you remember what God said? I can't. It'll kill you. All right? He says I can't do that. You will not survive. But here's what I will do. Let's build a tabernacle. Let's build a great tent in the desert and that will be my dwelling place.
And in there you'll have sacrifices, you'll have the priests, but I will dwell in the holy of holies behind the veil because my glory must be concealed. You can't behold it. You can't have it. You can't know it. You can't touch it. It'll be there, but it'll be concealed in the tabernacle.
Yet look what we're told here when Jesus is the tabernacle we behold the glory that Moses couldn't have. You see that? What does that mean? It means two things, one general, one specific.
Here's the general. It means Jesus Christ is the end of religion as we know it, right? Aren't we glad about that? End of religion. Thank goodness, right? Christmas is the end of religion.
As what kind of religion is this, pastor? The answer is it's no kind of religion at all because all religions say if you do something, you're not going to be accepted by God. Christianity says because you're accepted in Christ, you do these things.
All religions say live this way and you'll be approved of and you'll be accepted by God. Christianity says no, you're accepted because of what Jesus Christ has already done and now you live this way. It's exactly the opposite.
All the working of religion is gone because Jesus is the tabernacle. He himself is the end of tabernacles and temples and churches and sacrifices and all that. He's the end of it.
So first, Christmas means the end of religion as we know it. We don't get a religion; we get a relational person. No one has ever seen God but the one and only son who himself is God has made him known.
Here's the second thing though, and I just read it to you with that verse. Jesus is the glory of God embodied. He is the word, so he's the ultimate expression of who God is.
And it doesn't just say he's the word of God. He says he's the word who was God, right? And that's getting us into the Trinity, right? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Jesus is claiming all through the gospels to be God. He says things like I'm going to judge the world. You can't do that if you're a mere man. Only God can do that.
He says things like I'm going to forgive you of all your sins. You can't do that if you're a mere man. You have to be God. Only God can do that.
He's claiming to be God. Unlike the founders of all the other religions, unlike the other figures in the Bible, Jesus is not just one more prophet or sage pointing to God. He is the God to whom all the prophets and sages are pointing.
If you have a man, if you have a human being claiming to be the judge of the world, the ultimate God, the living true God, you either say he's a fool or he's wicked and you run away from him, or like C.S. Lewis said, on the other hand, you throw everything at his feet and you say I surrender, command me.
I'm going to build my whole life around you. You can't go halfway, friends. You can't just like and think he's a good man who talks like that. You can't just like Jesus when these claims are made about him.
It's either all or nothing. And this is actually great news because coming to Jesus as your master and Lord doesn't mean slavery; it means freedom, right?
It means freedom. You can go to him as your wonderful counselor. Whatever ails you, he has a medicine for it in his chest, and he wants to put it in your chest.
I was thinking about Mark chapter 2. It's a story we're going to study in Quest 52 on May 4th, by the way. Pretty good, huh? May 4th, we're talking about the man who was crippled and his friends loved him so much they wanted to get him to Jesus.
Remember this story? So they put him on a stretcher and they take him up on the roof of this house and they tear the roof apart. It's crumbling down on everybody. Jesus is teaching below, and they lower the man down to Jesus, and there he is on his stretcher. He can't even walk.
And Jesus walks up to him, and do you remember what Jesus says? Get up, rise up, walk. No, that's not what he says, not at first. Remember the first thing Jesus said to him? Son, your sins are forgiven.
Boy, the religious leaders didn't like that. He's claiming to be God. Only God can forgive sins. And I want you to notice in that story, and we'll get to this when we get to the story, but just a little sneak peek here, that man didn't say anything in the Bible.
The man doesn't say anything, and in the Bible, there is no place where God ever gives forgiveness where there's no repentance. God does not give forgiveness to people unless they say I want to repent and turn the other way and leave my life of sin.
So why in the world would Jesus have done that? The man doesn't say anything in the Bible. There's no place where God ever gives anything, and the answer is that there must have been some inarticulate, unexpressed, fragmentary yearning for grace and mercy inside of this man.
And Jesus, being God, was so sensitive to it that before he even said get up and walk, take your mat and go home, he responded to his need for forgiveness. He was eager to give him grace.
So eager is our great high priest to give him grace, give us grace. Why wouldn't you want to trust somebody like that?
So bottom line is that Christmas means anything can change. Doesn't matter where you are right now, no matter what you're going through, doesn't matter how many roads you've walked down that you wish you'd never walked down, no matter what your circumstance is this moment, Christmas means anything can change because the incarnation, God, the word became flesh, made his dwelling among us.
It made us, and you will. God came near. Your life can change if you embrace that Jesus, the Jesus of our quest.
We're talking about a personal experience of Jesus, and that's precisely the way we come to a revelation of who Jesus is, right? Not just listening to a sermon and getting a lot of information, and we can't rely on other people's opinions out there in the culture.
We must come to experience Christ for ourselves. So what about us? What about you? Mark Moore summarizes chapter one by saying this. Some of you have already read it, but let me read it to the rest of you.
He says, even if I didn't believe in the incarnation, I would still teach it as an indispensable foundation of human decency, social justice, and human rights. This image of God as near and loving and suffering is not merely a theological idea; it's a practical model of being human.
These qualities are what make for the best CEOs, coaches, parents, and pastors. Jesus shows us the most important attributes of God, and for this reason, rather than asking is Jesus God, we should ask is God Jesus?
You see the difference? The clearest revelation you could ever get of God himself came in Jesus, and so you and I have to decide what are we going to do with Jesus because nobody made the claims that Jesus made.
If what Jesus said about himself is true, it should radically change our lives. You cannot ignore him.
Reminds me of the old Christmas story since we're in a Christmas series and all about the man who would call himself an atheist, and his wife was a Christian.
So you know what would happen every time there was a church service, especially Christmas Eve? She would want to ask him to go, and he would say no. He adamantly said no on Christmas Eve. I'm not going to stay home.
So she took the kids and she went on out to the Christmas service. He's sitting there reading the paper, and it starts snowing, and it's snowing pretty hard.
And all of a sudden, he hears some thud against his window, and he thinks, man, those kids are already throwing snowballs at my window. So he goes over, and it's not kids throwing snowballs; it's birds that are cold hitting the window.
And in his heart, he feels compassion for these little birds, and so he's thinking, I gotta do something. And so he goes outside, and he tries to, he opens the barn door and turns the light on, and he hopes that they'll just come into where the warm barn is and where the light is, but they don't go in.
And then he gets a broom out, and he tries shooing them into the barn, and that doesn't work. He says, they just think I'm a terrifying creature.
And then he puts breadcrumbs out, and he tries to lead them into the barn, and they won't go into the barn. And they just keep thudding into that window.
And finally, he says, man, there's no way to get these birds into that barn. All they see me as some big, terrifying creature. I would have to become like one of them.
And then it hits him that that's exactly what Jesus did. Instead of being some distant, disinterested deity that we can't understand, God said, I'm going to come down. I'm going to come near.
The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us so that we can have a wonderful counselor. Somebody who's been there, done that. Somebody who understands what we're going through.
The clearest revelation of the God who's calling you home to be a part of his family is seen in the word made flesh, Jesus himself.
That's why we go on this quest for 52 weeks. And I would encourage you, if you're an honest seeker, to keep asking questions.
Keep seeking. Thank you for this season. This season just reminds us that you didn't leave us on our own to figure out life in this evil world full of suffering.
You didn't stay distant from us and hope that somehow we could work our way to you. Your word says that you love the world so much that you sent your only son.
That Jesus, you raised your hand and said yes to the rescue mission. In front of you. And you came to this world knowing, not at risk of your life, but knowing it would cost you your life.
And out of so that we could be a part of the family. So that we could know you in a real and personal way.
Give us courage to do what you're calling us to do, even in these moments now, we pray. In Jesus' name,
Well, friends, we got our prayer partners up front already. We're going to stand together, so let's go ahead and stand. We're going to sing this song. It's an invitation song. If you're ready to receive the gift that's available to you and to know him personally, we want to invite you.
on Dec 01, 2024
