Small Town Savior - Week 4 - 12/22/24

John 1:1-18 (ESV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.  9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.  14 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. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. 

Vs. 1-18 of the Gospel of John are a prologue of his recount of the life of Christ. There have been debates as to whether this section of the Gospel was structured as a poem or a hymn. There are even scholars who believe that these first 18 verses were not based on John’s thoughts but those of someone else. That there was the presence of another foundational document by which this text was based on. 

Gerald L. Borchert calls this prologue, “One of the most elevated statements about Jesus found in the New Testament.” He goes on to say, “this Prologue is one of the most complex theological statements in the Bible. An entire seminary semester’s course could be taught on these eighteen verses.” 
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John is making the case that "God with us" was not "God as weak as us" but fully God. John desperately wants the reader to understand that it was Jesus himself that spoke light into existence and now that same power had become flesh and fellowshipped with man. 

Bethlehem is not where Jesus began; it is where he chose to arrive.

John 1:1–3 “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
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The Apostle Paul does not use the same terminology as John but expresses the same thought.
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Colossians 1:15–17 “15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” 

The writer of Hebrews repeats this truth in Hebrews 1:2 “2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”
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Bethlehem is not the place where Christ is created and revealed. It is the place that God chose to be with us. Emmanuel.
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He was before all things.  Matthew and Luke choose to trace Jesus’ beginning through earthly genealogy to prove he was of the right lineage and Mark simply starts with the introduction of John the Baptist. It is John who emphatically states this is God who was before coming to earth as one of us for all of us. 

Do not let the wardrobe fool you.
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John 1:14 “14 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.”
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Romans 1:3 “3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh”
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Romans 8:3 “3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,”
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Galatians 4:4 “4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,”
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Philippians 2:7–8 “7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
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1 Timothy 3:16 “16 Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”
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Hebrews 2:14 “14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,”
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1 John 4:2 “2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,”
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2 John 7 “7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.”
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Jesus came dressed as man but was fully God.
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The baby lying in the manger was the same God who had spoken the solar system into existence that produced the star that magi from the east would follow to find his obscure place of birth.
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Jesus did not come to the common man because he was less, but because it was the common man that needed salvation. 

In Christ resided all the power of creation and redemption.
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John 1:3–5 “3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
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John 1:9–13 “9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
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John 1:14–18 “14 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. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
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All creation was through Christ.  The power of creation and life exist in him and was fully available to him in his incarnation. The power of the word was not comprised by the force or the volume of the proclamation but simply in the fact that it was uttered by him. Power does not need to yell but simply proclaim. When God presented himself to Elijah the prophet, it was not in a loud voice but a whisper.
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Jesus would not arrive with a huge proclamation but to a secluded couple in a small town. At his trial this would also be true. Instead of loudly arguing his identity, he simply said he came into the world as the truth.
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It was through him that deliverance came in the Old Testament and it would be through him that redemption would come in the New.
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While the Old Testament is full of the power of God working in the earth, Jesus in the flesh would display the greatest demonstration of power in history. His resurrection would confirm throughout all history that he was who John, Matthew, Mark, Luke and Paul said he was, and the celebration we are having is not because a god was created on Christmas but that he chose to come as one of us to redeem us.
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Today that same Jesus, full of grace and truth, holds the power to give you new life. To forgive you, give you peace, and the promise of eternal life. In him is life and all power, and he has given himself for you.