A recent survey of teenagers asked them; what was the key to life? What was the key to happiness? The results in reverse order were: 5. Friends, 4. good health, 3. Lots of money, 2. Good looks, 1. Being a celebrity.

If we asked our friends I don’t think the list would vary too much would it?

One of the key concerns in John is just that. John writes his gospel (20:31) "that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." and his contention is that the real key to having life is to believe in Jesus. By having life John means eternal life in the new creation, but he also means that life anticipated and enjoyed now as we live life in the Spirit.

If we don’t understand who Jesus is we can’t put our faith in him and without believing in him we cannot have life. As we turn to John 1 he reveals to us exactly who Jesus is not by giving us the details of the nativity but by taking us back to see Jesus pre-incarnation.

So who is Jesus?

1. The Word made Flesh
As John begins his gospel what do his opening words call to mind? It is deliberate echo of the beginning of Genesis, the book of origins. John shows us that Jesus origins go back beyond the origins of the earth. In the beginning "was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God."

How do we use words? Spin, to wriggle out of things, to hype things, etc... We live in a world where we weigh words, where we search for hidden meanings, where we trap with words. The Bible doesn’t use words like this.

When the bible talks of ‘word’ it is linked with the idea of power and revelation. It is through his word that God powerfully reveals himself in creation; he creates by his word, he rules by his word, he calls by his word. Throughout the Old Testament God’s word reveals - he uses his word to call Abram and Moses and others. In John the word is personified - it is a person equal with and in relationship with God the Father. The word is the second person of the Trinity, God the Son who acts and creates and who exists from eternity past(2-3).

John doesn’t begin with a gentle introduction, he doesn’t show us a cute baby in a manger but God the Son in all his power, creativity and majesty. John begins with the nature of the Trinity and the divinity of Christ. He goes on "The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."(14) Literally God the Son pitched his tent among us. Its the image of the tent of meeting where (Ex 25:12) "I may dwell in their midst."

But God is no long in a tent which requires all kinds of sacrifices and has all sorts of limitations on who can enter and when but he is enfleshed, he is a person, he lives among men. As such he is the ultimate revelation of God, revealing his glory and his steadfast love and faithfulness.

That is amazing isn’t it? It should make us amazed every year at Christmas!

2. The Light of the World
John’s gospel has a number of key words; life, light, witness, true, truth, world, glory and truth are among the most significant. Here we’re introduced to some of them. Again the challenge is to understand and define Bible words in Bible ways.

In John darkness is not just absence of light but it is the pitch blackness of evil, and (3:19)John says people love darkness because their deeds are evil. But just as in creation God speaks and light shines amidst the darkness so Christ as ‘the Word’ brings light and life which the darkness cannot overcome.

But the question is what does the light do and how?

John sees the world not as neutral but as the creative order in rebellion against God. It is into the darkness of a world in rebellion that the light comes. And as the light comes into the world as God the Son takes on humanity we see that whilst it will not be overcome neither will it be universally welcomed.

So there are two reactions to this light, what are they? Acceptance and rejection.

Rejection: The creator will step into his creation and not be recognised(10) people won’t see him for who he is, and as he comes to his own people - to the Jews who supposedly look and long for the Messiah - he will not be received(11) they won’t welcome him as the Messiah.

Acceptance: But there will be those who receive and believe, who welcome and submit to him, and they will become children of God by faith. Children not born of natural desire or means but born by the power of God and of his will.

Jesus is the light come into a world of rebellion and darkness and that searching revealing light will cause some to react with horror and shrink back from it and what it reveals about them and their standing before God. But others will hear God’s call and by the Spirit be born again through the work of God in their hearts.

We have to expect both reactions as we share the gospel with people.

3. The Giver of Grace
Imagine I offered you a ticket to go and see U2. But someone else offered you a ticket to go and see a U2 tribute band. Which would you accept and why? You’d accept the ticket to see the original wouldn’t you! It is them, you’d see the real thing.

This baby is the eternal God the Son who becomes the Jesus of history so that he can perfectly and uniquely reveal the glory and grace of God to the world. If he supremely shows us what God is like it would be foolish to go anywhere else. (18)Emphasises that "No-one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known."

It is an astonishing claim that John makes, in one sentence John sums up the uniqueness of Christ and one of the things the world finds most offensive about the gospel. Only Jesus can fully reveal God to us - not Mohammed or Buddah, or any other revelation. Even within the Bible there is a difference between the way a character like Moses - who is allowed to glimpse God’s back but not his face - knows God and the way Jesus knows God.

The word John uses which is translated "made him known"(18) is where we get our word exegesis from. When you carry out exegesis you seek to understand the meaning inherent in the text. Jesus is the exegesis of God, he alone can reveal God to us as God is because he is God.

(16)Jesus is the giver of "grace in place of grace already given." What does that mean? Well it is followed by (17)which helps clarify it. There is a grace given in the law which came through Moses, but in Christ we are given extra or more grace. In the incarnation we see a revealed grace that replaces the promised grace of the law.

The grace of the Old Testament anticipates the coming of the word, with Jesus arrival what was anticipated has come. The grace of the glory of the Son is now here.

Jesus the baby in the manger is the ultimate revelation of God. Without him we cannot know God, we cannot understand how we relate to God or God’s plan to save us.

There is a danger with Christmas - it is that we become over familiar with it, but John calls us to wonder again at the incarnation. God the Son becomes human. God the Son comes to bring us grace, God the Son comes to shine light into the darkness of the world.

How can we not be amazed about it. There are efforts being made to tone down Christmas - but we should be proclaiming its wonder to all who hear us.

Lighthouse