Do you recognize your Creator in His day of visitation? Who are you looking at as you gaze in your mind’s eye at the babe in the manger? Are those God’s eyes looking back at you, reaching out to communicate His love for you? I hope you understand that they are.

A ten year old girl went with a group of family and friends to see the Christmas light displays at various locations throughout their city. They stopped at one church building to look more closely at a beautiful nativity scene set up on the front lawn. "Isn’t it beautiful?" said the little girl’s grandmother. "Look at all the animals, Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus." "Yes, Grandma," replied the girl. "It is really nice, but there is one thing that bothers me. Isn’t baby Jesus ever going to grow up? He’s the same size as he was last year."

While the innocent observation of this ten year old girl might seem naïve, for many people, even some who call themselves Christians, though they love the busyness of the season and even love the nativity story, their concept of Jesus has never really "grown up" in their lives or in their understanding. Their comprehension of Him is weak and inadequate, and as a result, they remain lost to God.

It is even possible, unless we stay on top of the issue, that some of us could hold a view of Him that is inadequate for salvation.

Because of the need to keep the truth of Christ ever before us, this morning I want to go to the first chapter of the gospel of John and review the facts about this babe in a manger who grew up to be the Savior of the world. We’ll take a look at the first 18 verses of John’s gospel.

Though not present at Jesus’ birth, John was an eyewitness to His ministry - one of Jesus’ closest companions and disciples. Having walked with the Lord, and talked with Him, observed Him firsthand, and listened to His claims for three and a half years, John wrote what he saw and heard and what was revealed to Him by God. In these 18 verses he tells his readers of at least five truths that comprise a mature, grown up, informed understanding of the Son of God – an understanding, I might add, that is crucial to you and me. I toyed with the idea of calling this message "Jesus 101" but decided instead, because of the season, to call it, The Truth about the Babe in a Manger. Let’s read what John wrote…

There is so much that could be said about John’s words here that I run a great risk in trying to contain it all in a single sermon. Part of the risk, of course, concerns time. But more serious would be that in trying to be brief, I might diminish the impact of John’s words. There is deep theology in this passage. So a deeper study of John’s words would be appropriate, but will have to wait for a later time.

What then is the truth about the babe in the manger? Note first that John speaks of:

Verse 17 says, "…grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ."

Those two words, "Jesus Christ" are some of the most common words in our culture - uttered thoughtfully and respectfully by devout believers in worship and thoughtlessly recklessly by unbelievers in cursing.

The name "Jesus" is special. It was given supernaturally to the Lord through the angel of God. To Mary, Gabriel said in Luke 1:31, "You shall name Him Jesus." To Joseph, the angel said in Matthew 1:21, "You shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." The name "Jesus," given by God, means "Savior," a clear reference to His identity and purpose.

"Christ" was not His name but His title. It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word "Messiah." Andrew told his brother, Peter, in John 1:41, "We have found the Messiah (which translated, means Christ.)"

This word "Christ" or "Messiah" associated Jesus with the hundreds of prophecies given by God in the Bible from Genesis 3 onward that would identify Him as God’s special messenger to the world.

The Gospel of Matthew begins with the words, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ…." (1) The Gospel of Mark begins with the words, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ…."(2)   Luke, in his gospel, uses the name "Jesus’ 89 times and the term "Christ" twelve times. As we see in our text, John’s gospel, in the very first chapter, begins with the mention of Jesus Christ.

The name of Jesus Christ was common and precious to the early believers – sacred, we could say - and it ought to be the same to us today.

John identifies Him by name. He also identifies him by parentage in verse 14: "And we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father."

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,"(3) John would write later in chapter 3 of his gospel. Though Jesus was conceived and birthed by a human mother, His actual Father was God. The angel Gabriel told Mary, Jesus' mother, when she asked how it could be that she, a virgin, would give birth to a child: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God."(4)

Was Jesus just another human being? No. He was born like no other man. He was called, the Son of God, not a son of God. He was, as John says in verse 14, "the only begotten from the Father."

In identifying Him, John in our text also calls Jesus "the Word." "In the beginning was the Word" the apostle wrote in verse 1, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us," he wrote in verse 14.

While there are doubtlessly several facets of meaning associated with John’s designation of Jesus as "the Word," certainly one of them has to do with His role of speaking for God. We read in Hebrews 1:1, "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son…."

And again I point out the definite article: He is called "the Word," not "a Word." Jesus wasn’t just one spokesman for God among many. He was the Spokesman. But it goes even further. He was the embodiment of the message. He was "the Word" from which all the rest derived their message. Even His apostles spoke only as He revealed to them.

To view Jesus as merely a "great teacher," while perhaps well-intentioned, is to diminish His actual identity as "the Word." He didn’t just teach the word of God – He was the Word of God.

We’re speaking of the baby born in the manger in Bethlehem that so many focus on in this season. I’m showing you that He is far more than a cute story told in the middle of the winter. We need to "grow up" in our understanding of Him. John speaks in this section of Scripture of His identity. He also speaks of:

In verse 15 of our text, John the apostle makes reference to John the Baptist. He says, "John bore witness of Him, and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’"

There is nothing particularly remarkable about that statement until you realized that John the Baptist was born six months before Jesus.(5) Yet he says, "He existed before me." The only way that makes any sense is to understand that Jesus existed prior to His conception in Mary’s womb.

If that sounds extraordinary, it gets even more so. In verses 1 of our text, John says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God…." The Word, Jesus, existed "in the beginning." And perhaps just so we wouldn’t miss his point, John wrote in verse 2, "He was in the beginning with God."

When "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" as we read in Genesis 1:1, Jesus, the Word, was present. It is not true that He came into existence when He was conceived in Mary’s womb.

We find this same truth elsewhere in Scripture. When Jesus was accused by the Jews of making Himself out to be greater than their ancestor, Abraham, He told them, "Before Abraham was born, I am."(6)This was a reference to His preexistence. Did they get the impact of His words? In the next verse they picked up stones to stone Him to death for blasphemy because He was claiming an attribute true only of deity.(7)

This babe in the manger, this one identified as Jesus Christ and the Son of God, existed before He took on flesh and walked among us. He existed even before the Creation. How could He do that? That brings us naturally to:

In verse 1 John says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Could there be a clearer statement of Jesus’ deity? I don’t think so, yet in spite of this clear statement, there are people who try to sidestep this issue. Pointy headed theologians reason, "How could He be God if, as John says, He was with God. You can’t have it both ways. That’s illogical."

It is certainly illogical if your preconceived notion is that Jesus was limited by the confines of humanity. You or I cannot be someone and be with someone at the same time. But neither can you or I speak something that doesn’t exist into existence. We cannot raise the dead. We cannot see the end of history from some point in the beginning of it. If your idea is that Jesus was merely human, you’re going to have trouble all the way through the Bible when it speaks of this One who was born as a babe in the manger, because He claimed to be more than that. He claimed to be God – and if that’s true, then all human logical limits are irrelevant.

When Jesus told the Jews at the Feast of Dedication in John 10:30, "I and the Father are One," the Jews picked up stones to stone Him. Why? Verse 33 of that chapter says, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God." This idea that Jesus was God isn’t something that the church made up sometime after the death of Jesus and the apostles. It was there even when He walked the earth.

Jesus claimed to be God. His disciples, especially John here in our text, claimed He was God and equated Him with God the Father. This wasn’t something dreamed up by Jesus and His followers during their lifetime. It was already there, in the prophecy, before Jesus was born! 750 years before Jesus’ birth, Isaiah wrote of Him in Isaiah 9:6, "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."

When the angel spoke to Joseph in a dream about the coming birth of Jesus, he quoted Isaiah 7:14 in saying, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us."

The deity of the babe in the manger is seen also in John’s words about the role of Jesus in the Creation. In verse 3 of our text John said, "All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being."

Not only then did Jesus exist "in the beginning" of the creation. He existed before the beginning as the One who created all we see around us.

Was this some rogue thought that John conjured up that veered away from the teaching of Jesus’ other apostles? No. Paul said nearly the same thing in Colossians 1:16. Referring to the Son of God, Paul wrote: "For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created by Him and for Him."

The tiny, helpless, baby in the manger, not even room for Him in the inn, was the Creator come to earth! If that is a lie, then it has to be the biggest whopper ever told! But if it’s the truth – well, it has to be the ultimate truth!

So the next logical question to ask is about His mission. What was the Creator doing lying in a manger in a stable being cared for by peasant parents – one who wasn’t even his real father? John tells us in our text of:

John hints at His mission in verse 14:

Jesus, the Word, was God. We see that in verse 1. Now we begin to see why He came. John says He came to dwell among us. Why would He do that? John says, in essence, "to enlighten us." Look at verse 4-5:

How did Jesus shine light into darkness? Verse 17 hints at the answer: "For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ."

Light and darkness are often juxtaposed in Scripture to speak of truth and falsehood. Jesus brought the light of truth to a world saturated with the darkness of falsehood.

"The truth about what?" you ask.

The truth about God. Verse 18 says, "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him."

Man has been misunderstanding God from the beginning of time. I could give you so many examples of that, starting from Satan’s confusion of the issue about what God said in the Garden of Eden, but time does not permit. Suffice it to say that if you wish to know about God, look at Jesus. Study His life. Learn what made him "tick." You’ll know about God.

At Jesus’ last supper with His 12 disciples, the Lord spoke to prepare them for what was about to happen – that is, for His unjust condemnation and crucifixion. In the midst of it all, as the twelve men struggled with understanding, Philip blurted out in John 14:8, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus responded in no uncertain terms in verse 9: "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father…."

Jesus came to show us what God is like. Look at Jesus and you’ll understand the Father. But there is one more thing. He came also to offer to adopt us into God’s family. That’s what John said in verse 12-13: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God…."

As I said to you in the beginning of this message, there is deep theology here. But for our less than profound approach, there is still a measure of truth to be had. It is clear here to the shallowest reader that God wants to adopt us into His family! But He doesn’t want to do that if we don’t want Him! That’s why John said that this matchless privilege is reserved for those who are willing to "receive Him."

If I bought an expensive gift for someone I thought was my friend and when I offered it, the person turned away and rejected me and my gift, I would take it back! I wouldn’t force it on them. If you and I are to receive God’s gift we have to want it. We have to accept it. If we don’t He will take it back and let us go off on our own.

How do we "receive Him?" John doesn’t give the entire picture here. There is more specific instructions in chapter 3 of John’s book, in his instruction about being "born again"(8) or "born of water and the spirit."(9) Suffice it to say here what John said in verse 13 of our text: "Even those who believe on His name, who were born not of blood [not a physical birth] nor of the will of the flesh, but of God."

Adoption into God’s family is not by physical birth. It isn’t determined by who gave you and me physical birth. It is determined by God in the New Birth.

We’re addressing in this message the truth about the babe in the manger – and we have one more thing to consider:

Verse 5 of our text says, "And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."

This has to be the ultimate irony! The God of the universe stooping all the way down to become a babe in a manger in an all out effort to communicate with those created in His image and they are so caught up in the willful darkness of their lives that they don’t even recognize Him! John states that very clearly in verse 10: "He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him."

Then verse 11 says, "He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him."

Not even the people of His birth, the Jews, received Him! (Notice that it doesn’t say they did not know Him. They knew enough to recognize Him but refused to receive Him.)

Was it God’s fault that the world He created failed to recognize Him? John doesn’t say here, but Paul does elsewhere. In Romans 1:20-23 Paul wrote: "…They are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures."

When man "creates" a god in his own image, exchanging "the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man," then he believes he is free to do as he pleases without a God who is greater than he. When he "creates" a god in the image of animals, he is even greater than his god (in his own mind). Following his own willfulness, man became so confused about the truth of God that he did not recognize his day of visitation by his Creator.

So was all this an exercise in futility on God’s part? No, because a few did respond and a few have continued to respond down to our day – just as many of you have responded. "As many as received Him [there were some!] He gave the right to become children of God…."

Do you recognize your Creator in His day of visitation? Who are you looking at as you gaze in your mind’s eye at the babe in the manger? Are those God’s eyes looking back at you, reaching out to communicate His love for you? I hope you understand that they are.

Jesus, the Son of God, came to this earth for you, but you must reach out to Him to receive His offer of adoption. Will you accept Him as the few have done down through the ages since his advent or will you follow the majority into the darkness of their own making?

The choice for your life is yours and yours alone. Today God is calling you out of darkness and into His light. Will you accept His offer?

Footnotes: Please use your back button to return to your place.

1. Matthew 1:1
2. Mark 1:1
3. John 3:16
4. Luke 1:35
5. Luke 1:36
6. John 8:58
7. John 8:59
8. John 3:3
9. John 3:5

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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