Christmas as promoted in our culture is also quite pagan. It’s all about eating and drinking, spending loads of money we can’t afford on presents we don’t need and a mythical person called Santa Claus who does not really exist. None of this has anything to do with the meaning of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection from the dead. Tony Pearce
#Christmas #churchleadership #faith #jesus #Messiah #salvation #sukkot
https://lightforthelastdays.co.uk/video/was-jesus-born-on-the-25th-of-december/
#Christmas #churchleadership #faith #jesus #Messiah #salvation #sukkot
https://lightforthelastdays.co.uk/video/was-jesus-born-on-the-25th-of-december/
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00:00Yeah, you've probably noticed it's sort of Christmas time, sung a few carols.
00:08The other day Stephen had a question to me, he said, I heard about this concert with Tommy
00:13Robinson who's putting Christ back into Christmas and some people got a bit upset with it because
00:17he's sort of far right and they thought well he's far right's appropriating Christmas and
00:21so on and question mark about all this gatherings with Christmas and Stephen asked me well if we
00:28asked if we're putting Christ back into Christmas, was he ever there in the first place?
00:35I'll just explain what I mean by that.
00:38Was the 25th of December actually Jesus' birthday?
00:43And I thought about this and I said, probably not.
00:46And I produced this little leaflet which said, was Jesus born on December the 25th or at
00:52Sukkot in the Hebrew month of Tishrei around the beginning of October?
00:58I don't know if you know this but the early Christians didn't, there's no record of any
01:02celebration of Christmas at December the 25th in the early church writings.
01:07First idea occurred around about 300 years later and the first mention we have of Christmas
01:12celebrations at December the 25th is around about the year 330.
01:17And they sort of had to decide when Jesus was born.
01:21They came up with all sorts of dates, some said March, some said November, some said January.
01:26And they came up with just December the 25th.
01:29January the 6th did actually stick in the Eastern Orthodox Church and December the 25th
01:34came the date for the Western Catholic Church mainly.
01:38And Chris Mass, Mass, got a bit of Catholic scholicism in there.
01:43Why was December the 25th chosen?
01:46It just so happened that this was also a coincidental with a pagan festival called the
01:51Birth of the Unconquerable Sun, S-U-N.
01:56Because at this time of year you have the shortest day which is next week on the 21st of December.
02:01And after the 21st it gets slightly longer so the pagans used to celebrate the Birth of
02:07the Sun with this festival which was a pagan sort of festival.
02:11And it was decided that they would sort of Christianize this pagan festival by saying
02:15this was the time when Jesus was born.
02:18Which happened quite a lot actually in Christianity.
02:22And it occurred to me that actually when you link something pagan with something spiritual
02:27generally actually the pagan style becomes more strong as things go on.
02:33If you look at the way that Christmas is celebrated today, if you look at the ads on the television,
02:37how people are celebrating Christmas, there's virtually nothing about Jesus in it.
02:42It's all about spending your money on things, on presents to give to people.
02:47Spending money you can't afford on presents you don't need.
02:50And it's all about a mythical person called Santa Claus who doesn't really exist.
02:55And about eating and drinking a lot.
02:57None of it got anything to do really with the birth of Jesus and his life, his death,
03:02his resurrection from the dead.
03:05And actually if you look into the New Testament records, I haven't time to go into this but
03:11I've got an article which is on the table there.
03:14There's good evidence to believe that Jesus was born at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles
03:18which is around about October.
03:22It's unlikely that the shepherds would be abiding in the fields in the middle of winter
03:26which can get quite cold in Bethlehem.
03:29Also that the Romans would organize a census at this time because at this time people had
03:34to travel and the roads would become quite clogged up with the rains because this is the rainy season
03:39so they'd be more likely to do it at the time of Sukkot.
03:43Also it does say in the Bible that Mary, the angel came to Mary in the sixth month of Elizabeth's
03:49pregnancy and that's that point when she conceived the baby.
03:53If you go back to the conception of John the Baptist who was in Elizabeth's womb,
04:00you find out that just before Elizabeth became pregnant, her husband Zechariah was serving
04:06in the temple in what was called the Divisions of Abijah.
04:09A little detail which Luke puts in there.
04:12If you go back to the Old Testament, you can work out that there were times when the priests
04:16would serve and the most likely time for these priests to be serving in the Divisions of Abijah
04:22was the Jewish month of Sivan which is roughly about June.
04:27So if he had this message then that his wife was going to conceive a child, you'd think he'd
04:32probably get into the job pretty quickly after he'd come back from his serving.
04:36So it's quite likely that John the Baptist was conceived right about the end of June.
04:39So the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy would be around about December, maybe even December
04:46the 25th and that's the time when the angel came to Mary and spoke to him, spoke to her
04:53about she was going to conceive in Jesus in her womb.
04:56Okay, so if that happened in our criminal month of December, add nine months to that,
05:01where do you get to?
05:02You get to the Feast of Tabernacles, you get to September, October in the Jewish calendar.
05:09So this is a possibility, not a proof, but if you look at these things together it's quite
05:15likely that Jesus was born at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, which would be significant
05:20because the Feast of Tabernacles in Jewish circles is a reminding of the Exodus from Egypt
05:24and they're traveling through the wilderness and they dwelt in temporary shelters which were
05:30remembered every year so they dwell in little booths which are temporary shelters to remind
05:36of the time when they came out of Egypt into the Promised Land.
05:40So if you think about what Jesus came into the world, he came in a temporary shelter in
05:44a body to bring us to redemption and it'd be quite likely that he came at the time of
05:49the Feast of Tabernacles.
05:50Also, on this same scheme, John the Baptist would then have been born at the time of Passover
05:55and in Jewish circles, the Passover, you remember Elijah coming as a forerunner of the Messiah.
06:04So John the Baptist was that.
06:05So it all fits in.
06:07And it's not a proof, so don't say that this is an attorney's proof that he's actually proving,
06:12but I think it's much more likely that Jesus was born at Sukkot rather than on December
06:18the 25th.
06:18So we don't get too excited about December the 25th.
06:23In fact, we're not having a service here on December the 25th, so if you really want
06:25to go to a Christmas Day service, don't turn up here because there won't be one.
06:31But although we don't get excited about December the 25th, we're very excited about what the
06:35birth of Jesus means.
06:37And it is a good opportunity to share with people about the birth of Jesus and our plaud churches
06:41which are going out and preaching the gospel during this time.
06:44And we're doing the same, and we want to encourage people to look into the real meaning of the
06:50birth of Jesus.
06:51Whether it happened at Christmas makes no difference.
06:54Jesus was born, and it meant something very significant.
06:57It meant that God has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ in order to save us from our
07:01sins so that we can know forgiveness and reconciliation with God.
07:07It also means that the ancient prophecies written in Hebrew scriptures, like in Isaiah and Micah
07:11and Daniel, have come to pass in the person of Jesus the Messiah.
07:16And it means that we can know the love of God and receive new life in the Holy Spirit
07:20through faith in Jesus.
07:23And so I decided we'd do a series of talks this Sunday and next Sunday on the birth of Jesus.
07:31So we're going to start off in the Gospel of John, which is usually where the Christmas
07:37service is in, but I'm going to start with that.
07:39But so if you can turn to your Bibles, we're going to read the first few verses of John's
07:43Gospel, which tells us something very important about who Jesus was and why he came into the
07:50world.
07:54So Lord, we just thank you for your word, pray that you bless the reading and the preaching
07:57of your word, and guide us into all truth as we look at this passage in scripture, in
08:02Jesus' name, amen.
08:06In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
08:09He was in the beginning with God.
08:12All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made.
08:17In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
08:20And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
08:24There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
08:27This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe.
08:33He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.
08:37That was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world.
08:42He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.
08:46He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.
08:49But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, to those
08:53who believe in his name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
08:57of the will of man, but of God.
09:00And the word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of
09:04the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
09:08John bore witness of him, and cried out, saying, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after
09:13me is preferred before me, for he was before me.
09:16And of his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.
09:19For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
09:24No one has seen God at any time.
09:27The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.
09:35You have four Gospels.
09:37Four Gospels tell us about the life of Jesus, and they tell about it from a different perspective,
09:42but with a common theme.
09:43And when you look at the introduction to the Gospels, each one of them has something
09:51to say about Jesus, apart from Mark, actually, being born.
09:57And the question is, why do you have four Gospels?
10:01An early church writer called Oregon, he said, There are not four Gospels, but one four-fold
10:05Gospel.
10:07Each Gospel gives a different perspective on the life of Jesus, and you need all four Gospels
10:12to get the full picture.
10:14If you look at what the Gospels supply us about the information about the birth of Jesus,
10:20you find you go to Matthew.
10:22Matthew's Gospel is very much emphasizing the Jewishness of Jesus.
10:27And it begins with the genealogy, which goes back to Abraham.
10:31It's the first verse of Matthew's Gospel, which is in fact the first verse of the Bible,
10:35tells us that this is the revelation, this is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
10:43the son of David, the son of Abraham.
10:46You put that into Hebrew, it becomes one of the most Jewish things you can say.
10:50It says,
10:50Suffering the connection between Jesus and the Jewish people, begins with the genealogy,
11:01which is a very Jewish thing to do, which builds him the authenticity, the years of
11:06the Lion of David, and he is the Messiah who is promised.
11:10Matthew goes back to Abraham, and he quotes particularly the fulfillment of prophecy and
11:15the birth of Jesus, goes on to speak about the virgin, shall conceive, virgin to be with
11:22child and bear a son, they should call his name Emmanuel, quoting a prophecy in the book
11:27of Isaiah, saying this is fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah.
11:31So Matthew is very much on the Jewish side.
11:35You go to Mark's Gospel, it doesn't actually tell you anything about the birth of Jesus.
11:39So you never hear a reading from the Gospel of Mark in a Christmas service.
11:42It does say actually the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God, first
11:48verse of Mark, and he goes on in verse 14 to say, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching
11:53the Gospel of the kingdom of God, saying the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at
11:57hand, repent and believe the Gospel.
12:00So Mark actually begins with the Gospel, and in fact going through the Gospel of Mark you
12:04see that his emphasis is on the preaching of the Gospel and how Jesus came to bring the
12:08good news, and that we should repent and believe.
12:10So the first verses of Mark do actually set the scene for what he's going to say in his
12:14Gospel.
12:15You go to Luke's Gospel, and he says that he's going to give you an orderly account of the
12:19life of Jesus.
12:23He gives details of the incarnation, which is only to be found in Luke's Gospel, and Luke
12:29actually gives, of the angel coming to Mary to give her the information about the child
12:36he's going to bear, which you only find in Luke's Gospel, and Luke gives very much the
12:40story from Mary's point of view, whereas Matthew gives it very much from Joseph's point
12:45of view.
12:46So in Luke's Gospel you have the verse of the angel speaking to Mary and saying,
12:50Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, which will call his name
12:54Jesus.
12:55He will be great and be called the son of the highest, and the Lord God will give him
12:58the throne of his father David.
13:00He will reign over the house of Jacob forever.
13:02His kingdom there will be no end.
13:03Luke gives very much the story of God becoming man, and he brings very much the son of man
13:10theme in the Gospel of Luke.
13:13It's interesting, if you look in the genealogy in Luke's Gospel, it goes back to Adam.
13:17So he's emphasizing the fact that Jesus is the son of man.
13:20He is the first, he is the ideal man coming, descended from Adam right through to this time.
13:28So you have this kind of difference in the Gospels.
13:31Now when we come to John's Gospel, which we just read, John's theme is the divinity
13:36of Jesus.
13:37And you'll find if you go right through the Gospel of John that that is the great theme
13:41which he's trying to bring to his people, that Jesus is not just a good man or a prophet,
13:46he is the son of God.
13:47He is God himself, becoming man and dwelling amongst us.
13:51And John's Gospel emphasizes very much the divinity of the Lord Jesus.
13:56And we have in the first verses there, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with
14:00God, and the Word was God.
14:02So the Word is Jesus and the Word is God.
14:05So he's saying very much the truth that Jesus is God who was there at the beginning, all things
14:14were made through him, and he was made flesh.
14:17He dwelt amongst us, he became man, he was incarnated, that's what made flesh means.
14:21And you talk here about the incarnation, it means that God came from heaven and became
14:26man and dwelt amongst us.
14:28And so Jesus is unique in this form, that no other time in history when God has become
14:33man and appeared in this way, only through Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
14:37And right through the Gospel you find that the divinity of Jesus is both a strong force
14:44of attack from the people who don't believe this, but also a thing which John is keen to
14:49bring out in his Gospel.
14:52We have a verse where Jesus says, before Abraham was, I am.
14:56In other words, he has existed as God for eternity before Abraham was even conceived.
15:02In his great high priestly prayer in John 17, Jesus says, he's praying to God, he says,
15:07I've glorified you on the earth, I've finished the work which you gave me to do, and now,
15:12O Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before
15:17the world was made.
15:19So Jesus says there, he had the glory of God, he was in God's presence, he was God from
15:25eternity, he has always been God, and he laid aside that glory to become man as well amongst
15:30us.
15:30And now he's returning to God, he's going to return to the position he had from eternity
15:35to eternity, as seated at the right hand of the Father, with the glory of God in his
15:39presence.
15:41That's why if you think about it, if Jesus is the God who was there who made us, to try
15:46to trivialize Christmas and make it into some sort of fantasy with Santa Claus is actually
15:51almost blasphemous, because you're missing the point of who Jesus is and why he came into
15:56this earth.
15:58So Jesus made this, John makes this point very strongly.
16:07We're talking about the Lord of glory who became man in order to lift us up, to be born again,
16:12to eternal life, and be seated with God in heavenly places.
16:15And John gives us the key to understanding the true meaning of Jesus' birth.
16:24And he also tells us that in order to understand this, you must be born again.
16:29It speaks about the fact that those who receive him, he gave the right to become children of
16:34God, who were born not of the blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
16:38but of God.
16:40In order to understand this truth, you actually have to have a transaction yourself with God.
16:44And that's why the people in the world don't understand it.
16:48That's why people in the world miss the point.
16:51That's why many religions miss the point, especially Islam, which relegates Jesus to becoming
16:56just a prophet or a good man.
16:59Only if you are born again of the Holy Spirit can you really understand who Jesus is.
17:05And that's why Jesus said, you must be born again.
17:07You have to receive a new life.
17:08You have to receive the Holy Spirit into your life in order that you can understand who Jesus
17:13really is.
17:14You can come to know who he is and be born, not of the flesh, but born of the Spirit.
17:19So let's go back and look at what this passage tells us about it.
17:24First verse, it says,
17:25In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
17:31He was in the beginning with God.
17:32All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made.
17:39Very clearly he's saying that the Word is more than just what we think of as a Word.
17:45He's speaking about here the Word as some kind of manifestation or revelation of God.
17:49The Greek word he's used is logos.
17:54Also relates to a Hebrew word, which is memra.
17:58And one of the things which you find out when you look in the Old Testament, in the creation story,
18:04see that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,
18:07and God spoke his Word and the things came into being.
18:10It says,
18:10In Hebrew, that's
18:16And the word yomer is taken from a Hebrew word, which is, the root of it is memra,
18:26which is the verb form.
18:29The noun form becomes memra, which means word.
18:35And according to Hebrew thought, when God created the world,
18:37he made the world through a word which he spoke.
18:39And somehow that word actually becomes part of God, if you like.
18:44It's quite a hard concept to get hold of, but even in some Jewish writings,
18:48it's quite hard to see what they're talking about.
18:50They're saying that the Word is some manifestation of God through which God created the heavens and the earth.
18:57So when God calls Jesus the Word here,
19:00he's referring not just to Greek idea of the logos,
19:03but he's also referring to the Hebrew idea of God creating the world through his Word.
19:09And the Word was made manifest and brought amongst us.
19:15So he's saying here that the Word he's talking about here is Jesus because Jesus is the one who was made flesh and brought amongst us.
19:21So he says in the beginning.
19:24So you're going back to the beginning, you're going back to creation, going back to before creation.
19:29Before creation, in the timeless eternity of God, Jesus existed.
19:35He existed in a different form from the form in which the disciples saw him on the earth.
19:40He existed as God himself.
19:44Kind of awesome thought, isn't it?
19:45It means he was pre-existent.
19:49It means when the beginning began, the Word was already there and already been there for all eternity.
19:58That's the Word of God who predates time and predates creation.
20:03There's actually a scripture in the book of Proverbs which kind of indicates this.
20:07It speaks about wisdom.
20:08And wisdom becomes personified in a person.
20:13Just read to you a few verses from Proverbs chapter 8, verse 20.
20:18It says,
20:18The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way before his works of old.
20:22I've been established from everlasting from the beginning before there ever was an earth.
20:27So someone talking here in the first person saying,
20:29I was established, I was there from the beginning before ever the world was created.
20:33For when there were no depths, I was brought forth.
20:36When there were no fountains abounding with water, before the mountains were settled.
20:40Before the hills, I was brought forth.
20:43While as yet he had not made the earth or the fields or the primal dust of the world.
20:47When he prepared the heavens, I was there.
20:50When he drew the circle of the face of the deep.
20:52When he established the clouds above.
20:54When he strengthened the fountains of the deep.
20:56When he assigned to the sea its limit so that the waters would not transgress his command.
20:59When he marked out the foundations of the earth, I was there beside him as a master craftsman.
21:06I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in his inhabited world.
21:11My delight was with the sons of men.
21:14It's an interesting little passage there.
21:17And it gives some insight into a concept that there was one who was there with God
21:21before the worlds were created.
21:23There in the Hebrew Scriptures.
21:25So it's not altogether a Christian idea.
21:27It's there in the Hebrew Scriptures as well.
21:31God was there.
21:34And this word was called the logos.
21:38The idea that God created the world through speaking his word.
21:43It's also a Greek idea of the logos.
21:47Due with Greek philosophy.
21:50And the Greek philosophers saw the logos as the power which put sense into the world.
21:54Making the world orderly instead of chaotic.
21:56The logos was the power that set the world in perfect order and kept it going in perfect order.
22:03So it was the kind of idea that there was some power behind the Greek gods who were just sort of superhumans, if you like,
22:09that was creating the world and that was keeping the world in order.
22:12So both Jews and Greeks had some idea behind this idea of the word.
22:17And what John is saying is that this one who you see as the one who's behind the creation,
22:21who's the one who is keeping the world in some kind of order and keeping it going,
22:26this one who is God himself was manifested in the person of Jesus, the Messiah.
22:31He became flesh and God amongst us.
22:35If you can get your head around that thought, it is, I don't start to say mind-blowing,
22:39it is incredibly powerful to think about it.
22:43And really we can't even conceive about it because our minds are so limited with time and space and our humanity.
22:49reality to think that one who is God, who is from eternity, could come into our space, our time, and live amongst us.
22:57Yet that's exactly what the Bible is telling us that Jesus is and what he has done.
23:03And he goes on to say that the word was with God and the word was God.
23:07So that's an interesting statement because it means that the word he's talking about here was with God and he was God.
23:14So how can he be with God and was God at the same time?
23:20The only way you can work that out is that if God is a triune person of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
23:27again, is something which many people dispute,
23:31especially the Jewish people and Muslims who say that God is one, he's indivisible one.
23:37And yet when you look into the Bible, the Bible does indicate that God is a plural unity.
23:41Even the very first verse of the Bible, first verse of the Bible in the beginning,
23:46God created the heavens and the earth.
23:48Put into Hebrew,
23:49The word for God is Elohim, which is a plural word.
23:56Literally means gods.
24:00And later on it's going to say, God says, let us make man in our image.
24:05Plural speaking.
24:07The word for created, bara, is in the singular.
24:09So you have a plural word, plural noun, and a singular verb.
24:13It tells you something about the creation, that God is a plural God,
24:16he is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
24:18and that he was coming together as one to create the heavens and the earth.
24:24It doesn't mean there are three gods, it means God is three persons in one.
24:28Now if you can really understand that,
24:30you're doing well.
24:31And it's very hard for us to understand it because it's just hard to understand, basically.
24:40But the Bible teaches that.
24:42And we have to take God at his word, we don't have to take him as how we want to make it up.
24:47And one of the biggest arguments against Christianity is this whole idea.
24:51Muslims go crazy about it, and they say that God cannot be three in one.
24:54And yet the Bible tells us very clearly here that there is a distinction between the one who was God
25:04and the one who was with God.
25:07So that tells you something about the nature of Jesus, that he was with God, but he was also God.
25:12And so God the Father is in heaven, he sends the Son into the world in the person of Jesus,
25:21the Holy Spirit bears witness to Jesus, and the three in one work together for our salvation.
25:26But the Bible is telling us here that there is something unique about Jesus,
25:29something unique about God, and it's been manifested in Jesus.
25:34So this being, to sum up, this being is God, known as the Word.
25:38God, he's eternal, he's existed from eternity in the beginning,
25:43and he's God who is plainly called God.
25:48And he doesn't encompass all that God is, because God is a Father,
25:52is a distinct person from the Word, because the Word was with God.
25:59And the fact that he was in the beginning with God makes the point that the Father
26:03is distinct from the Son, the Son is distinct from the Father,
26:06they are equally God, yet they are separate persons.
26:10It's a mystery, and it's hard to understand, but it's there in the Scriptures.
26:15And if you don't understand this, then the person of Jesus coming into the world becomes relegated.
26:21And that's why people say that Jesus was a good man, or a prophet,
26:25because they don't understand this truth.
26:27And if you come to that conclusion,
26:30actually, John 1 John tells us you're on the side of the Antichrist.
26:34Because it says the Spirit of Antichrist denies the relationship between the Father and the Son.
26:39So any religion which denies the relationship between the Father and the Son
26:42is actually from the Antichrist.
26:44Islam is a supreme example.
26:46But liberal theology of Christianity is the same thing.
26:50If they deny the relationship between the Father and the Son,
26:53then it's actually the Spirit of Antichrist.
26:55The Spirit of God will always tell you that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
26:58are three persons in one.
26:59One God, and we worship one God, through Jesus the Messiah, who has saved us.
27:07It goes on to say that all things were made with him, and without him nothing was made.
27:12In him was life, and the light was the light of men.
27:15So without him nothing was made, that was made.
27:18It means that the Word created all things.
27:22The vast universe, which stretched out for infinity.
27:28We can't even comprehend how large the universe is.
27:31Down to the tiniest cell, which makes up our bodies.
27:35Everything which exists was created by God.
27:38God spoke the Word and brought it into being.
27:40Again, we can't conceive of that, but the Bible tells us that's the truth.
27:43And I believe there are even scientific reasons why you should believe that that is much more likely
27:48as a reason why everything came into being than the Big Bang and evolution and all that kind of stuff.
27:54God created all things.
27:56All things were made through him.
27:57Without him, nothing was made that was made.
28:00But he himself is uncreated.
28:02That's what this scripture tells you.
28:03That there was not a point when Jesus began his existence, when God began his existence.
28:08Again, another thought which you can't get into your heads.
28:10Can you understand how a being can be there forever?
28:13Everything in our thinking is determined by space and time.
28:17We think about how long we've been alive for, how long we may be still alive for.
28:22We think about how long Tony's going to go on speaking.
28:25Maybe you hope he's going to come to an end soon, but I'm not.
28:28But basically, we think in terms of time and space.
28:32We can't even conceive in our minds eternity.
28:36And yet, the Bible tells us that eternity exists.
28:39There is eternal time and eternal space.
28:42And that one day we're going to be in one place, a good place or a bad place.
28:47And God wants us to be in a good place for all eternity.
28:51But God himself has existed from eternity to eternity.
28:54He has never ceased to exist.
28:57Again, you can't conceive it.
28:59I can't conceive it.
29:00But the Bible tells us it's true.
29:02And because God has always been there, he is able to create life out of non-life.
29:06He's able to create evil things.
29:08And he's able to bring life into this world.
29:12It says that the word is the source of life.
29:14In him was life.
29:16The word used there in Greek is the word zoe.
29:20Zoe, which means actually the life principle.
29:23There's another word bios, which just means alive.
29:25But zoe means a life principle, a principle which gives life.
29:29And one who has life in himself is able to give life to someone else.
29:38One of the big problems with evolution is how did life come into being?
29:43How did life emerge out of non-life?
29:45Not just life, but also consciousness, understanding of good and evil, all these kind of things.
29:50How did they come into being if it was just a naturalistic process?
29:55It's actually impossible.
29:56Even the smallest cell has billions of pieces of information in it.
30:00So how did life come from non-life?
30:04Life can only come from life itself.
30:05So if God exists and he can give life to what he created, then he can give life to you and me.
30:10He can give life to the ants and all the things which exist on the earth.
30:14Because God is able to create all things through his name and through his power.
30:17And it says here, in him was life, the life was the light of men.
30:23So only one who can create life out of non-life is himself alive and is God.
30:30It also says the life was the light of men.
30:33Speaking here about spiritual life as well as natural light as well as natural light.
30:40Now it isn't that the word contains life and light.
30:42He is life and light.
30:43So he is able to produce it and reproduce it and give it to us.
30:48So without the word, without the revelation of Jesus, we are actually dead and in the darkness.
30:55And God says actually that is the condition of the human race without the enlightenment of being born again.
31:01You are dead in trespasses and sins and you are in the darkness of the power of darkness who is actually the devil.
31:07That is why you need to be born again, to receive new life.
31:13And without light, there is no life.
31:16The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend or overcome it.
31:22So when light comes into a dark place, then the darkness vanishes.
31:25But if you don't have any light in the first place, then you are going to remain in the dark.
31:32Light and darkness actually can't coexist.
31:35So if, say we are at night and all the lights go out and someone comes in with a torch, they bring light into the darkness.
31:42But if they don't, then you remain in the dark.
31:45Light itself is something which gives life.
31:48And to be in the dark is not a good place.
31:53You need to be enlightened.
31:55And again, God is the source of light.
31:57He is the source of life.
31:58And all this comes through Jesus Christ, uniquely because he is the light of the world.
32:03And he is the one who gives you life, physical life and eternal life, spiritual life, through faith in him.
32:11Now it goes on to say that John bore witness to the light.
32:14John was the forerunner preparing the way for the light to come.
32:18And he goes on to say also that this coming of the light is going to cause a division in humanity.
32:24Division between those who receive it and those who reject it.
32:28It says, this was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
32:33He was in the world and the world was made through him.
32:35And the world did not know him.
32:37He came to his own and his own did not receive him.
32:40But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God.
32:43To those who believe in his name, who were born, not of the blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
32:52So again, the world was made by him.
32:55But the world doesn't know him.
32:57His own people did not receive him.
33:01Through the Gospels you find that there were Jewish religious leaders who argued and condemned him.
33:06But also many of the people did receive him.
33:09And I don't want to get this point that some people, churches, say the Jews rejected Jesus.
33:13It's not true.
33:14It says many of the people believed in him.
33:16It says the common people hurt him gladly.
33:19But there was a division, as there is with all peoples.
33:22When Jesus comes into a situation, there is always a division between those who accept him and those who reject him.
33:29Sometimes the people who reject him the most are the religious people.
33:33And the clever people who've got all sorts of arguments to fight against him.
33:37But there is always going to be a division, whether it's the English or the Africans or the Chinese or whatever.
33:43However, when Jesus comes into any people group or any situation, there are going to be those who accept him and those who will reject him.
33:52And those who reject him remain under the power of the God of this world, who is Satan.
33:59And they don't have spiritual life and they don't have spiritual light.
34:02Therefore, they're in the dark.
34:05And that's not a good condition to be in, because one day we're going to stand before God and we're going to give account to God for what we've done with our lives.
34:10And if we come before God and say, well, sorry, I couldn't believe on you because I believe the theory of evolution or I was born a Muslim and I remained a Muslim.
34:20God says, okay, well, did you hear about Jesus?
34:24Now, sadly, not everyone has heard about Jesus.
34:27But if you heard about Jesus, then you have to recognize that you didn't accept the truth.
34:32And that's why it's important that now when we hear about Jesus, we all accept him as Savior and Lord.
34:37Because one day we're going to stand before God, all of us.
34:39There's an appointment everyone has with God.
34:43And the only way you're going to stand before God in a good place is if you're under the blood of Jesus.
34:50If you have Jesus as your advocate, who's going to stand for you and is going to say, yes, this person believes in me.
34:57Receive forgiveness of sin and put their trust in me.
35:00Therefore, enter into the joy of the Lord.
35:02If you don't, then he's going to say, depart from me, you cursed into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
35:11So there is a stark choice which is before us.
35:14And we have to make the choice to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
35:17And sadly, more people reject than accept.
35:23You go out on the street and you hand out leaflets and you try and talk to people.
35:26Then a lot of people just look at you like you're some sort of dirt that's crawled out of the place and they don't want to know about it.
35:32And there are some who may stop and talk.
35:34Not many, I have to say.
35:35But there is a rejection, a spirit of rejection, which is over the majority of people in this world.
35:42And the powers of darkness have got control of much of the media and the education system and are indoctrinating people with ideas which will put them against Jesus Christ.
35:52So if you've accepted Jesus and you've come to believe in him, you're in a privileged position and you can thank God and praise God throughout your life that you've accepted Jesus as your Savior and Lord.
36:02If you haven't, then do so now, because now is the day of salvation.
36:09So the Word was made flesh and became man.
36:13It goes on to say in verse 14,
36:16The Word became flesh and brought amongst us.
36:18We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
36:26The Word became man.
36:27That's speaking of what we call the incarnation.
36:29He who was God became man and dwelt amongst us.
36:34He who had been forever, for eternity, in glory, in a place of light and truth and wonder and love,
36:44came to this poor, sin-soaked earth in order to lift us up from our condition of sin and alienation from God
36:52into being sons and daughters of the living God.
36:55What a wonderful privilege we have to be children of God.
37:00What a wonderful God we have who is willing to leave the glories of heaven to come to this earth in order to redeem you and me.
37:07And even to go to the worst place of all, to the cross, to suffer and to have the sin of the world placed upon him
37:13in order to redeem people like you and me.
37:16And what a wonder that God should see value in people like you and me.
37:23Because he does.
37:24God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
37:32That means that God sees value and importance in every single person who comes into this world.
37:38And he wants them to be redeemed through faith in Jesus.
37:42And he sees a special value in those who have accepted him.
37:46Because we are the children of the living God.
37:50So the Word became flesh and brought amongst us.
37:54And we beheld his glory.
37:56Now John could say we beheld his glory because he was one of the disciples of Jesus.
38:01We can't say that because at the moment we don't behold his glory.
38:04If we believe in him one day we're going to go before him and we will behold his glory in heaven.
38:12But John could say that.
38:14And he emphasizes the fact that Jesus was really a physical human being in that form whom we could see and touch.
38:23Go to his first epistle.
38:251 John chapter 1.
38:27Verse 1 it says,
38:28That which was from the beginning which we've heard, which we've seen with our eyes and we have looked upon,
38:33and our eyes have handled concerning the word of life.
38:37The life was manifested and we've seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us.
38:45That which we have seen and heard we declare to you that we may also have fellowship with us.
38:49And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
38:54He emphasizes the physicality there that we saw him, we touched him, we handled him.
38:58He emphasizes another great truth which is implicit in these scriptures that not only is Jesus the Son of God, he's also the Son of Man.
39:05He also was fully human.
39:08He didn't come in some sort of airy-fairy form of some being which was not like us.
39:14He came with a fully human body.
39:16He experienced the things which we experienced.
39:18He could experience hunger, thirst.
39:20He could experience being tired.
39:22And all those things were part of his normal human life.
39:27Yet all the time he was also God.
39:29One thing he couldn't experience was sin.
39:31Because he was without sin.
39:34But apart from that, he was in the form of a normal human being.
39:39And the disciples said that they saw him, they touched him.
39:43He was fully human.
39:45And being fully human and being God as well, he was able to do the most incredible thing,
39:50which was to bear the sin of the world upon himself when he died on the cross.
39:54And took your sin and my sin upon himself.
39:56And suffered that agonizing death in order that we could be redeemed and brought to God.
40:01And so, the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.
40:05We beheld his glory.
40:06The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
40:12So he beheld his glory.
40:13And his glory was full of grace.
40:15Which means the undeserved favor of God.
40:18Which is visited to us.
40:20The love of God.
40:20The unconditional love of God for his people.
40:23And truth.
40:24Because he is the one way to God.
40:25He is carrying us the truth of the Word of God.
40:28He could say, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
40:33No one comes to the Father except by me.
40:34He could say, legitimately, that he is the one who bears the full truth of God.
40:39And has revealed it to the human race.
40:42It's full of grace and truth.
40:45So John bore witness and said, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me is preferred before me.
40:51For he was before me.
40:52Interesting little statement.
40:55Because actually you can work out that John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus as far as his natural life was concerned.
41:03But he's saying, here he was before me.
41:04He recognizes that Jesus existed from eternity to eternity.
41:08Again, this truth, which I've been trying to get across to you, that Jesus came from eternity to this earth in order to redeem us.
41:15He's always existed.
41:16He was there before the worlds were made.
41:19And he'll be there after the end of this world and the new heavens and the new earth are created.
41:24He has always existed.
41:26He always will exist.
41:27He is there now.
41:30And he says, out of his fullness, we have all received and grace for grace.
41:35So anything that we have received about God comes through Jesus Christ.
41:38There's no other name you can receive the truth of God through.
41:44People who are religious, they look to Buddha, they look to Muhammad, they look to a form of nominal Christianity.
41:49And they can't receive anything unless they're born again of the Holy Spirit.
41:53You must be born again to receive all this.
41:56Your natural body, your natural life is not good enough.
42:00You've inherited a sinful human nature from your first parents.
42:02And it's been passed on from generation to generation.
42:06And the Bible tells us all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
42:10There's no one on earth who is righteous enough to make it to God.
42:14We must be born again.
42:16And God is offering us the opportunity to be born again, to receive new life through faith in Jesus.
42:23Only through Jesus.
42:25No one else has done the things which Jesus has done.
42:27No one else even compares remotely to Jesus Christ.
42:32He is unique.
42:34And John is telling us here that we can all receive grace and truth through Jesus Christ.
42:41That grace and truth will redeem us from the law which came through Moses because all of us fail to keep the law of God.
42:48All of us fall short of his glory.
42:51Therefore we need the grace and truth through Jesus Christ.
42:54And the wonder is that it's all available.
42:56Thank God, 50 years ago, I sat in a room in West Hampstead after a very drunken and decadent New Year's Eve party.
43:05Recognized that I was a sinner and recognized that Jesus was there and he was telling me to change my life.
43:11And on New Year's Day, 1970, I sat in that room and said,
43:14Jesus, I've gone away from you.
43:17I know I've done things which are wrong.
43:19Please forgive me.
43:20Please come into my life.
43:21And he did.
43:23And for 50 years he's been with, or over 50 years, been with me.
43:27And he'll be with me until I die.
43:29And when I die, I should go to be with him forever in glory.
43:33So you can't lose.
43:36Well, you can lose.
43:37You can lose your salvation.
43:38You can lose your relationship with God.
43:40But if you stay close to Jesus, you can't lose because you're on the winning side.
43:45So believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
43:49Put your trust in him.
43:50And as we face Christmas, whatever it means to anyone here,
43:55do remember the meaning behind what this world is supposed to be celebrating,
44:01which is that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ
44:04and was born in that supernatural way and has redeemed us to God through faith in him.
44:09Amen.
44:11Praise the Lord.
44:12Father, we do thank you for the wonder of your birth.
44:14We thank you for the wonder of creation
44:16and the wonder of the new birth which we have in Jesus Christ.
44:21May each one of us here know the fullness of God through Jesus Christ.
44:26May we live to your praise and glory.
44:29And we pray for our world and its sin and its darkness.
44:32Pray for the people who are going to be just eating and drinking at Christmas time
44:36and having no thought about you.
44:38Remind them, Lord, of what they're supposed to be celebrating.
44:42Remind them of what happened in Jesus being born.
44:45And remind also what Jesus has done for each one of us in his death and resurrection.
44:51Pray for our families, for those who are unsaved amongst us.
44:54Pray for our families, that they may come to faith in Jesus Christ.
44:59And we pray for the world in its darkness, that you'll turn people from darkness to light.
45:02In Jesus' name, amen.
45:04Amen.
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