And I would encourage you now to open your Bibles to the gospel according to John. Today I wanted to read the first 14 verses. But to focus our attention, especially upon verse 14 of Chapter 1. As we're thinking today about the word made flesh. Here now the Word of the Lord as we pick up in the Gospel of John chapter 1 beginning in verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light but he came to bear witness about the light. The true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, his own people, did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, that is, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. This is God's Word. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we do pray that as we open up this glorious chapter in the Gospel of John that you buy your spirit would prepare our hearts to receive the good seed and that the soil of our hearts. Would be receptive that what we hear we will mix with faith. What we hear we will believe and act upon, and so we pray today that the same spirit who inspired the Apostle John to write this gospel. Would do his work in us to help us understand it. And to help us know what to do about it in our lives. In this we pray in Jesus name. I'm in. I think way back in 2004 I preached a series of sermons throughout the Gospel of John when we met in the old synagogue over on Oki. And what I remember specifically about this gospel is that it's an amazing gospel. In the medieval church, the first 18 verses of John's Gospel was so venerated that it was worn as an amulet around the neck of people to ward off disease and evil spirits. And in the Roman Church it was read over those who were baptized and those who were sick as well. And so when we look at this particular passage, I want us to hone in and sort of focus and enlarge, if we could do it, with our Bibles, verse 14. Because one of the things about Christmas that we all long for is to sort of get past sentimentalism Get past all the decorations. Get past all the fun songs that we sing and all the gathering with family that we do, which are all very good things. But we want to get to the heart of what's going on and why we celebrate Christmas. What does it mean? You know, our faces sort of glow when we stand around and sing Christmas carols together. But when we look at John's gospel here, we see some inexhaustible, theologically powerful, life-changing truths. And so that's what I want us to focus on this week and perhaps next week as well. And it's interesting, when you look at the Gospel of John and you compare it to Matthew and Mark and Luke, they're all different. But Matthew and Luke in particular do genealogies. In other words, they ground the coming of Christ in history. And that's a very important thing to do. A very significant thing to do is to ground the coming of Christ in space, time, and history. And the reason why that's important is because the gospel is not good advice to help us lead a better life. The gospel is not steps to do better, but rather the gospel is news. It's news about what someone has done for us outside of us in history. And so both Matthew and Luke do genealogies. Mark just sort of abruptly jumps into the ministry of Jesus. But John does something that's amazing here. He goes back to the pre-existence of Christ. He goes back to what we often call eternity past. And he tells us about the incarnation of Jesus Christ in his gospel. And so John is concentrating on Not so much what happened at Christmas, but what Christmas means. And so what I want to do today is simply meditate on three aspects of the most pregnant part of this famous passage. The word became flesh and dwelt among us with his glory. In other words, I want to focus on the word, I want to focus on his becoming flesh, and I want to focus on his dwelling among us. And I think if we can grasp these three things and sort of tease out the implications of what these three things are, we're going to have a better grasp of the meaning of Christmas and therefore we're going to be able to worship at Christmas. More than schmaltzy little fun songs that we sing, we can actually get at What the New Testament gives us is the essential meaning of it. So first at the beginning and end of the passage, Jesus is the Word of God. Now think about that for a moment. Think about the word, Word. A person's word is the clearest and ultimate revelation of who they are. What people say help us understand who they are, what they think, other things about them. For example, let me just mention something trivial. Suppose I have a friend coming to my home for an afternoon visit and I want to prepare something to drink for that friend and I have seen this friend on some occasions drink hot tea and on other occasions drink coffee but I've never really asked them which one they like so what do I do? Do I prepare hot tea and coffee or do I shoot them a text? and say, you're coming over this afternoon, would you like coffee or hot tea? And they're going to respond. They're going to say something. They're going to tell me something. They're going to communicate using words. In other words, they're going to say, I drink coffee when I want to stay up late, but I really prefer tea. Well, good. maybe a better example will be something like this I've told you often that I go to the gym and work out just so I'll have to keep doing it so I won't be a liar so I do go to the gym and I do work out and I see people every day at the gym and you know I look at them and I go well I wonder what he does he must be retired he's here in the middle of the day and I know he's not a preacher he doesn't look like a preacher you know I can smell I can see a preacher 500 yards away I know what they look like But I look at them and I watch them and I see their body language. I watch their routine. I see how they're dressed. I can draw a lot of information about a person simply by looking outside of them. But if you ask me, do I know them? No, I don't. Not unless I have spoken to them. Not unless they have spoken back to me. And if a person never speaks to you, you don't really even think you've ever really met them. Because words, that is speaking, are ultimate, the ultimate clearest expression of who we are. You reveal yourself through words. So when it says that Jesus Christ is the Word of God, that is a profoundly amazing statement. It is saying this, we cannot know God except through Jesus Christ. Now that doesn't mean you can't know anything about God at all except through Christ. Just like I can know all kinds of things about those people I see, even though they've never spoken to me and I've never heard them speak, but you can learn a lot about God. You can know all sorts of things about God. You can even believe in him. You can do all sorts of things you believe God wants you to do, but to know him, to know him, takes Jesus because Jesus is the ultimate revelation of who God is and that's why John calls him the Word. But there's even a little bit more if you want to think a little further with me about this concept of the Word. One commentator in John chapter 1 says, this is what John is saying. Jesus is the supreme revelation. If we are to know the real God, then something more than rationalism or mysticism will suffice. God has chosen to make himself known finally and ultimately in a real, live, historical man. Now we don't have time to break that down, but what that commentator said is that neither rationalism, that is using reason primarily and alone, or mysticism, spiritualizing everything so to speak, are the way to find God and to know him. The way to find God and to know God is through Jesus. Let me give you an illustration of this that I think may help. Many people often say to me, I want to believe in Christianity, Pastor. I want to believe it's true, but I need to see reasons why it is true. I need some rationality here. I mean, I'm a thinking person, and I carefully weigh out everything logically, so to speak, and so I want to know reasons for me to believe that Christianity is true, or as you say, the truth. Of course, properly understood, there are plenty of reasons to believe Christianity. There are lots of them. And we could go through them. But if a person goes past that and says, what I really want is a slam dunk, airtight argument that proves Christianity is true beyond doubt, then he's headed down the wrong path. Absolutely down the wrong path. And there are two reasons why. The first one has to do with philosophy. It's what you learn in philosophy 101. The problem with philosophy 101 is a lot of you took it but you didn't take philosophy 201 and 202 and 30 and so a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. And so philosophy 101 might equip you to understand the matrix a little bit but it doesn't help you necessarily when it comes to knowing God. For example, if you go into any philosophy 101 class, the professor there is going to show you that there are absolutely no slam-dunk, watertight, airtight arguments to prove anything at all. There aren't any. One of the things the professor is going to say is, there's no way for me to prove I'm not a butterfly dreaming I'm a philosophy professor. Do you know why there's no way to prove things like that? Because when you say, well, I know who I am, and I know where I'm standing, you're using cognitive faculties. You're using your brain, right? And the philosophy professor will say to you, you're using your cognitive faculties, your brain. Prove your cognitive faculties work, that what you really see is what's really out there. I know this sounds like the matrix, but stay with me. So the philosophy professor is going to say there is no way to argue your cognitive faculties work without using the cognitive faculties you're trying to prove work. Which means you're begging the question. You might even be into circular reasoning. You're assuming the thing you're supposed to be proving. You can't really prove much of anything, and it's true at a certain point when people say, I want a slam-dunk argument that proves Christianity is true, you can always say, well, why are you doubting? Why is it that you're doubting Christianity is true? And usually they'll say, well, I doubt it because of this, this, and this. And usually these people are assuming themselves certain beliefs that they don't have watertight, airtight arguments for anyway. And so the philosophy professor will tell you that's not the way to achieve true knowledge or epistemology. There are plenty of reasons to believe what we believe, but there are no slam dunk, watertight arguments. But that's not actually the reason why we shouldn't go there. Here's the reason why. The text is telling us God has spoken rationally. In fact, where it says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, do you know what the Greek word is that our English word translates? Anybody know what that word is? Well, if you ever went to Greek class, you would learn that logos is not the correct pronunciation of that word. What is it? Logos. I knew Kevin would know that, he's just taking Greek. You say logos and they're gonna go, no, it's logos. We get the word what from logos? Logic, yeah. Rational thought, order. Order and rational thought. So, the Bible is telling us The Greek word there is logos from which we get our word logic. And what does it mean to say that Jesus is the logic of God? Here's what it is. God has not given us a watertight argument to prove Christianity is true, but what he has given us is a watertight person, not an abstract argument that begs the question. Now, one of the things that's often said to us as Christians. is you are engaging in circular reasoning. You're using presuppositions that you haven't proven to make your point. And all you got to say back to them is, so do you. That's exactly and precisely what everyone does. But God doesn't give us an argument. He gives us a person. A watertight person is the compelling proof that the God of the Bible and Christianity are true. And it's not anti-rational to say that Jesus Christ is a watertight person. And that the compelling proof we're giving, rather than a watertight argument, is to say that you have to look at Jesus. You have to look at the accounts about Jesus, His life. You have to look at what He claimed. You have to look at what He taught. You have to compare that to the way He behaved. You have to look at the accounts of the resurrection. You've got to use your mind. You've got to think. You have to say, how does this fit, and how does that fit, and how do I explain this or that? I will say to you that if you're willing to do that with an open mind, you will find in the end Jesus Christ is a watertight person against whom in the end there can be no argument because he is perfect. His life towers above all others. He is inexplicable. that takes thinking does it not you have to read you have to study that's how you find compelling proof of God giving you that Christianity is true it's not an argument it's not an abstraction it is a watertight person and so you have to look at him and the data of his life and the data of his teaching and his claims and you got to process it and you have to do it with your mind Have you done that? Have you really taken it seriously? Then that's where you know this is true. Looking at Him because He is the Word of God. Do you want to know God? Do you want to know God is real? Do you want to know Him personally? It can only happen through the Word. Because that's how people work. You know them through their Word. Jesus is the Word, the ultimate, clearest revelation of who God is. That's not all. Christmas is not just about Jesus as the Word, but it is about that. And that's what John's calling to our attention. Jesus is the Word, the clearest revelation of who God is. Jesus makes the invisible God visible. So if you want to know what God is like and what knowing God is like, look at the Word. He reveals Him and He is God's final and ultimate revelation of who He is. Now the whole point of Christmas is this, the Word made flesh. What does that mean? The Word made soft? The divine made human? More than that, and hear me carefully, That means that the Word is made vulnerable. That means that the Word is made killable. Did you hear that? The Word was made flesh. That is, He is made something that is vulnerable. He is made something that is killable. And that is precisely John's meaning here. When it says the word became flesh, it means a couple of things, and one of them means God has become vulnerable. Christmas is so radical because it highlights the fact that only Christianity of all the religions of the world says the divine creator of the world has become human, therefore is vulnerable. He has come down. I remember years ago in a sociology class. I read about a woman named Kitty Genovese in New York City who was 28. You've heard this too, I'm sure. She was going home to her apartment and she was assaulted on the street by an assailant. And she cried out as loud as she could, he's stabbing me, help me! Now there's still a lot of debate over what happened, but one thing I can tell from reading everything is up, I can tell from reading everything is up in the apartments, the lights came on and people looked out their windows. She was screaming. She was saying, help me. I'm being stabbed. All we know is this, nobody, not one single person came down to see or came down to help her. Not one single person. Do you know why? Because when somebody is stabbing somebody, you're risking your life to help. You're vulnerable if you come down. Nobody came down. When the lights first came on, the assailant ran away thinking somebody's going to come down and stop me. But when nobody came back in about five minutes, he came back and he killed her right there on the street. It's a pretty famous incident, and I'm sure that some of you remember that. Do you know what Christmas is telling us? Christmas is telling us that when Jesus, the Lord of heaven, heard us crying, he came down. Just as God in the Old Testament before the Exodus heard the cries of His people and sent Moses to them to lead them out of Egypt into ultimately the Promised Land, Jesus heard our cries and the Lord of Heaven, the Lord of Glory, made Himself vulnerable. He didn't just come down the way those people would have come down at the risk of their lives. He didn't come down at the risk of His life. When the Lord of the Universe came down, He came down knowing it would cost him his life. But he came because the Word became fleshy. The Word became vulnerable. The Word became killable. And that's what Christmas means. Hebrews 2, someone read this, draws out the implication of this idea, the word became flesh. Hebrews 2 says, 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. One of the most fascinating implications, and the book of Hebrews is drawing this out, is that if it's true that the God of heaven has become flesh, then he understands you because he has been where you are. He has been where you have been. He knows everything about you. Why is it so often at Christmas we sing wonderful counselor? These are the words from Isaiah the prophet. Have you ever thought about what that means and why we sing them at Christmas? The best counselors we know of are people who have been through a problem and they come out on the other end and they're okay now. And you can talk to those people and the same people who are going through a very similar problem can benefit from their counsel. Do you know what it means when we say Jesus is the wonderful counselor? because the word became flesh. Years ago I got my my thyroid x-rayed and it's probably one of the most uncomfortable things I've ever been through in my life outside of the biopsy that preceded it but they put this heavy thing and it made me lay in a really awkward position and the guy that was the x-ray technician did not have bedside manner. He just made me want to slug him. He made me want to throw the thing off and pop him because he was just grabbing me and twisting me and turning me. And so I relayed this experience to an x-ray tech friend of mine, and I said, what do you think of that? He said, oh, I was the same way until I had to do it. He said, he said, I found myself on that same table being x-rayed, he said, for a lower GI kind of stuff. And they made him drink a lot of water. And he said he was in pain the whole time. And he said, you know, the person was saying to him, hurry up. Wait a minute. Hold on. Of course you're in pain and agony. They're brusque. They're matter of fact. He said he was like that until one year, he got a really bad kidney stone. And they put him on the table and he went through it. He had never been through it before and he said, oh my, I will never ever treat people like this again the way I did before because I've been on the table. Again, what is Christmas? Christmas is saying something no other religion even wants to say. No other religion even 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? Have you been betrayed? So has he. Have you been broke? Are you broke? So was he. Are you lonely? So was he. Are you facing death? So did he. You can go to him. He is the wonderful counselor. You need to trust him. You need to go to him with what you have. As somebody says, and you might and I understand this, wait a minute I've gone to him when I was in trouble pastor. I went to God and I prayed and I poured out my heart and He didn't listen to me. He denied my prayer. I feel like He's abandoned me. Don't you understand the meaning of Christmas? God has experienced that too. What? God knows what it's like to be abandoned by God. God knows what it's like to have a big prayer turned down. Because in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was sweating, as it were, great drops of blood, and he prayed, Father, if it be any way possible, let this cup pass from me. He did not get that prayer answered. Are you aware of that? Even Jesus did not get all his prayers answered. He was in infinite agony praying that. Christmas means that when you're in trouble, when you're struggling, when you have problems and you feel like God is not listening to you, he's not answering your prayers, don't you realize Jesus, the wonderful counselor, has been there. He's been there. Christmas means that you just can't rail at God saying why are you allowing all of this suffering because He experienced it in Himself. He even knows what it's like to be abandoned by God, something that if you're a believer you will never experience. Have you ever thought about that? Then we have to frame our struggles with the knowledge that the Word became flesh. This is some of the practical implications of the Incarnation. You can go to Him with anything because He knows, He understands, He has been there. Do you know Him like that? Do you trust Him like that? Do you take your stuff to Him? He knows. He understands. He's been there. The last and the most amazing thing that's said here is that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us so we could see His glory. Now, if you're reading that in Greek, you see something you can't see in English, and it's astounding, because John the writer could have chosen a number of Greek words to communicate this idea of dwelling. He could have used a word for reside, or live, or dwell, but he doesn't do that. He chooses a Greek word, skeinao, skeinao. And you say, okay, what does that mean? Dwell? No. If you take your Bible and you turn back to the book of Exodus, and you take the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which is called the Septuagint, and you look at the Greek word for the word tabernacle, it is exactly the same word that is used here in John 1, 14. Jesus tabernacled among us now John is not choosing that word idly or just to fill space he's choosing that word because the tabernacle was what Moses set up in the wilderness and just to make it absolutely clear what he's trying to talk about he says this word the logos became flesh human physical body and tabernacled among us and now we beheld his glory He's making us remember the fact that when Moses was on the mountain, he said to God the Father, I want to know you. I want to see you. I want to hear you. I want intimacy with you. I want power. I want connection. I want you to show me your glory. Let me see your face. And do you remember what God says? I can't. It will kill you. You will not survive it, but here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to build a tabernacle, a great big tent. that will be my dwelling place. In there you'll have sacrifices and the priest and you'll have a place where I dwell called the Holy of Holies behind the veil because my glory must be concealed. You can't behold it or you can't have it you can't know it you can't touch it but it will be there it'll be concealed in the tabernacle which is exactly the opposite of what we're told here. When Jesus is the tabernacle, we behold the glory Moses couldn't have. What does that mean? It means two things. One very general and one very specific. Here's the general. It means Jesus Christ is the end of religion as we know it. There is not a more anti-religious teacher in the history of the universe than Jesus. Isn't that odd to say? And yet people don't understand this at all. Let me see if I can help you understand it. Here's what he's saying. He's saying that Jesus Christ is the end of religion as we know it. Christmas is the end of religion as we know it. A London pastor by the name of Dick Lucas, who is a great teacher and somebody I've read a lot and listened to some, had an imaginary dialogue that he wrote between a Christian in the earliest days of the church and a pagan neighbor to get this point across. And here's what he said. It's a wonderful dialogue which epitomizes the teaching here. He says something like, imagine a Christian talking to a pagan neighbor. and the pagan neighbor says, oh, I hear you're a Christian, great, a new religion, well, tell me, where's your temple? And the Christian would say, well, we don't have any tabernacle or temples because Jesus is our temple. Oh, says the pagan, but where do your priests do their thing? He says, priests have to have a place to do their thing. And the Christian says, well, I'm sorry, we don't have any priest. Jesus is our priest. What says the neighbor? But where do you do your sacrifices? You know, you have to curry favor with the gods. You got to do all kinds of things to get their acceptance and their favor. You have to do this ritual and that ritual and this observance and their rules and their regulations and their sacrifices. Where do you do all that? And Christian says, we don't do any sacrifices anymore. because Jesus is our sacrifice. And finally the neighbor would say, well what kind of religion is that? And the Christian would say it's no kind of religion at all. All other religions say if you do all this stuff you'll find some sort of acceptance with your God. Christianity says because you're accepted in Christ now you do all those things. The religious say, live this way and you'll be accepted. Christianity says, no, you're already accepted because of what Jesus has done on your behalf. Now live this way. What I see in the church today is a radical, I see this all the time, the gospel's been rediscovered by many and the concept of grace has been writ large in our church culture these days, but there's always a backlash, a reaction of the radical discipleship crowd. The radical discipleship crowd gets upset with these grace people because they're just walking around, I'm accepted, I'm accepted, I'm loved. God smiles at me, you know, and you're just sort of an irritant to people who take discipleship seriously. And they say, I don't want to hear all this grace business. Let's get into real discipleship. And here's what happens. If you emphasize either one to the exclusion of other, extravagant grace on the one hand, radical discipleship on the other, you're going to lose the gospel. If you emphasize radical, I mean extravagant grace to such a point, people become lawless. And their commitment level shrinks to nothing. And they don't understand the demands. Salvation cost us nothing, but once we come to Christ, it cost us everything. they forget that. But the radical discipleship so oppresses the demands of Christ on discipleship that they make you think you earn grace by doing it. That somehow God loves you more and likes you better and will bless you and reward you if you simply do it. But the gospel, the good news, is both extravagant grace and radical discipleship. And so Jesus is the end of religion as we know it. All the stuff that of religion is gone because Jesus is the tabernacle. He himself is the end of tabernacles, temples, sacrifices, and all of that. He's the end of it. First, Christmas means the end of religion as we know it. We don't get a religion, we get a person. And that is the point. The Word, that's who we get. Then there's something more specific. How is it possible that we can behold the glory that Moses didn't? And the answer is this. Why wasn't Moses able to see the glory? Why did God say it will kill you? Well, it's a long story. But if you have ever been seriously wronged by another person, I don't mean just slighted. You've experienced a life affecting injustice and evil. Someone has done something to you. A gap opens up between you and the perpetrator. You are no longer huggable to each other. You ever have a really good fight with your spouse? You know what I noticed goes first when she has a big fight with me. I never fight, but when she fights with me. What goes first is eye contact. She'll walk right into the room and not even notice me. I've been married to the woman 37 years. Come on. I'm sitting here. I deserve to be noticed, right? But if I've done something that has really wounded her, or she's done something that wounded me, I won't look at her either. Why? Because there's a gap. There's a hurt. There's an offense. There's a debt. And if the perpetrator walks up and says, you know, I'm sorry that that happened, you know, taking no responsibility or accountability, I'm sorry you feel that way, you know, that's sort of condescending, isn't it? That doesn't close the gap. It's a very serious thing. And so action has to happen to close the gap. And it's not usually obvious what that would be. Do you know why you feel the gap? Because you and I are made in the image of God. And that's how people in the image of God experience injustice and evil. It's such a serious thing, it cannot be simply shrugged off. Something has to happen to close the gap. And the gap you and I experienced between each other when we hurt each other is nothing compared to the infinite gap between the human race and God because of what we've done to Him. Because of what we've done to his creation. Because of what we have done to each other. There's a gap. And that's the reason why God says something has to close the gap. There has to be atonement. There has to be something that closes the gap. You just can't come cavalierly rushing into my presence. The tabernacle was pointing to it because there were sacrifices and priests. Now when it says the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and the tabernacle is the place of sacrifice, here's what we're being told. Jesus came to the earth to become vulnerable. Why? So he could be killable. Why? So he could pay the price and close the gap. That is the reason why at Christmas you have the glory of God becoming a baby. In the Old Testament, do you know what the glory of God is? You've got mountains on fire and smoking. You've got pillars of fire. You've got consuming fire. But we're being told at Christmas time, the unscalable majesty of God and the transcendent holiness of God has become a baby. What does that mean? A baby is accessible. A baby is safe. A baby is embraceable. A baby is huggable. And what this means is that because Jesus Christ has died on the cross, paid your debt, closed the gap, now just as God came into history, so now the glory of God can come right into your heart and life. The life-transforming glory of God can come to you, and that's what Christmas means. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, so we now behold glory that Moses was not able to see. And let me, in conclusion, say, and I want to be very practical, first, if everything I have just said is true about John 1, verse 14, there can be no halfway measures with following Christ. Do you know why? Do you know what this is saying? Jesus is the glory of God embodied. He is the Word of God, the ultimate expression of who God is. It doesn't just say he's the Word of God, it says he's the Word who was God. In the very opening verse of John's Gospel, he begins to show us the Trinity, the threeness and oneness of God. One in substance, essence and being, and three in person. And the main point is that Jesus is claiming all through the Gospels to be God. He says, I'm going to judge the world. Only God can do that. I can forgive your sins. Only God can do that. He's claiming to be God. And unlike founders of every other religion, unlike other figures in the Bible, Jesus is not just one more prophet or sage pointing the way to God. He is the God to whom all the prophets point. That forces our hand, doesn't it? I have to say this every Christmas. It forces your hand. If you have a man, a human being claiming to be the judge of the world, the ultimate God, the living and true God, either he's a fool and he's wicked and you run away from him as fast as you possibly can, or you throw everything down at his feet and you worship him. And you say, command me and I'm going to build my whole life around you. You can't go halfway. You can't just like a man who talks like this. You can't just like Jesus when these claims are made about him. It's all or nothing. Second, you can go to him as your counselor. Whatever it is that ails you, whatever it is that breaks your heart. Whatever it is that causes you to lose sleep. You can go to him. And receive wisdom. Because he is the real God. And He is a God who has been there. As I said earlier, He has been on the table. But finally, you can go to Him because He's your Savior. And the most difficult thing in the world to get people to see is that they need to be saved. I mean, most of the population of the world is walking around thinking, I don't need to be saved. I'm not in any imminent danger. mean you know I know some people believe in hell and stuff like that but I'm okay I don't really need to be saved and I don't have any real big problems in my life the hardest thing for some people to see that's why John earlier in this passage talks about Jesus being the light in the darkness you see when you live in the darkness you're ignorant that you don't see the light you're ignorant you don't see reality you don't see anything But when Jesus comes, the floodlight comes and you see for the first time in your life what reality is. He enlightens us. Not like some guru or sage or wise man. He comes and He gives us light. The Word has become flesh and that means that the real has smashed a hole into our darkness and we now see things as they really are. And so Jesus becomes for us life. Christmas means anything can change. Christmas means you can trust Jesus. Christmas means you follow Him with all your heart. Christmas means a lot. And if you come back next week, you're going to hear more about what Christmas means. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for a passage like this. That Chris Christmas is inexhaustible and what it means and we thank you that we've had a chance to look at just a couple of things tonight. We pray that you would help us obey and trust and love the one who became vulnerable for us. We ask that you change our very lives with the theology of Christmas. Change our lives with the truth of Christmas. Lord, I pray that this Christmas we won't settle for just feeling warm and inspired. We pray that you'll make us more like your son. And now, Father, as we continue to worship, may we participate in giving back to you a portion of that which you have entrusted to us. And may we do so with glee and joy, recognizing the source from whence it came and the grace it expresses. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.