The Three Most Important Words of Christmas
John 1:14

Today I want share with you the three most important words of Christmas; the first is . . .

Incarnation

· John 1:14 - “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

· Incarnation simply means “in the flesh.”

· Jesus left heaven and all that it means to be God and put on flesh and became a human.

· Christmas is not when Christ came into existence, just as the cross is not when He went out of existence.

· The manger was simply when Christ put on flesh and the cross is simply when Christ left the flesh.

· Christ was in heaven before the manger and He is still in existence in heaven after the cross.

· The reasons that Christ came in the flesh is so that He could sympathize with us.

· So that He could understand us.

· So that He could feel what we feel.

· So that He could go through what we go through.

· So that He could experience what we experience.

· There’s no way that God could understand what it means to be human unless He Himself became human. Colossians 1:15

Revelation

· John 1:14 - “ … who came from the Father …”

· Jesus came from the Father to reveal the father to us.

· The word revelation means to reveal or unveil something; to make something known that was previously unknowable.

· We often think of revelation of something that is mysterious, not able to be understood, unknowable.

· When something is revealed is brought to light.

· When something is unveiled, it’s brought to light and is able to be seen and understood.

· God’s revelation was never intended to be something we couldn’t understand; on the contrary, by definition, it was intended to give us understanding.

· Revelation is God telling us about Himself.

· Revelation is God telling us what He is like.

· Revelation is God telling us what He wants.

· Revelation is God telling us what He’s going to do.

·  Jesus came to reveal the Father to us!

There’s a story about a man and his wife who were living on a farm on very snowy Christmas Eve. The church was having a Candle Light Service.
The wife asked the husband to go, but as usual, he refused.
This stuff about God becoming a baby in a manger just didn’t make any sense to him. He said he’d just wait at home for her and the kids to return. After they had left, the man sat down to watch some television.  After a few minutes he heard something outside. He went to the door and there were about a dozen birds out there. They were very cold and trying to find a place to get out of the whether. The man had a barn, so the got his coat and boots on and trudged out through the blowing snow to open the barn door. Even though he had the door open the birds just   didn’t understand that they could get out of the cold in the barn.
And so the man decided to go back up to the house and yell at them to go to the barn. He did scare them away from the house, but the birds still didn’t go into the barn. He then remembered that he had some birdseed in the barn, so he braved the wind again and went to the barn and strew some seeds on the floor. He scattered them out across the yard to where the birds were, leaving a trail up to the barn.

The birds flew right back to the house. By this time the man was freezing and ready to give up. As he closed the barn door, he thought to himself, “I guess the only way I’d be able to get those birds to understand is to become a bird myself.” And as he walked back to the house the man realized that that is exactly what God had done. He had to become a man in order for us to understand Him.

· That man teaches us a valuable lesson:

· God became a man in order for us to understand Him.

· Jesus became a man in order to reveal the Father to us.

· He came to show us the way to the Father.

· He came to tell us what God is going to do

Celebration

· John 1:14 - “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

· Christmas should be a time to celebrate Jesus!

· How DO we celebrate someone’s birth? We have a party; we give gifts.

· What kinds of gifts can you give to Christ?

· How about giving to someone who is not able to have Christmas?

· How about giving a donation to Christian ministry?

· How about giving someone the gift of forgiveness?

·  How about giving yourself to Christ?

What gift will you give to Christ in honor of His birthday?