[0:00] Let's throw near to God in prayer. Let's all pray. Loving God, our Heavenly Father, we come into your presence this morning to worship you, to bow down in your presence, to acknowledge you for who you are, the great God who is worthy of all praise and all honour and all glory.
[0:30] Father, we come into your holy presence, recognising that you are so much greater than we are. You are the King of Kings. You are the Lord of Lords.
[0:41] You are the one who reigns in splendour in heaven. The one before whom the angels veil their faces and cry out to you, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.
[0:58] You are the God who reigns supreme over all things. The one who has no rivals. The one who is all-powerful.
[1:10] The one who created all the ends of the earth by the power of your mighty word. The one who rules and reigns over your creation.
[1:20] Father, when we consider that, when we think of all that we can see and the things that we can't see, these galaxies far, far away from us that cannot be seen are hidden.
[1:37] Yet, to realise the vastness of your creation and to realise that by your word, you brought all that into being out of nothing.
[1:52] Father, we marvel at your creating power. Father, as we see it around us, day by day, in all conditions, as we see it and observe it in nature, as we see it with our eyes and we can smell it with our nose.
[2:12] Father, so many things, from great things to the tiny, smallest, minutest thing. Father, you reign over all that and you created all that for us.
[2:24] So, Father, we bow in your presence because of your power, your mighty power. Lord, we bow in your presence because of your kingship, that you do reign over all these things and you reign over us.
[2:38] And as our Lord and our God, we bow and we confess that you are our king, that you are king of kings and Lord of lords.
[2:50] And Father, we are amazed that that should be so. Father, we come into your presence acknowledging who you are and also mindful of who we are ourselves in your mighty presence.
[3:04] And yet you have showered your great love upon us. You have been mindful of us, even in our rebellion and our sinfulness. You prepared a way, you opened up a way for us to be able to come into your presence to worship you like we do this morning.
[3:24] And Father, all that was done because of your amazing love and your great grace towards us. So this morning we thank you for your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, as we travel towards remembering his birth, we thank you that he came into this world to live amongst us.
[3:44] Lord, to be with us. To experience all that we will ever experience and much more. And he came, Lord, not to be glorified, not to be cheered, but to be mocked and to be spat on.
[4:00] And he came to die on a cross. And Father, we thank you for that this morning.
[4:14] And it is through that atoning death and through his incredible and amazing resurrection that we dare to come into your presence today and worship you and offer ourselves to you as we are.
[4:30] And that is how we come, just as we are. We come bearing the name of Jesus Christ. We come giving thanks for all that he has accomplished for us.
[4:42] And Father, we know that in the name of Jesus, that you will accept us, you will receive us, and you will bless us. Because that is your promise.
[4:53] So Lord, we come and we praise you. We bless you. We give you thanks. And Father, as we come, we acknowledge our own sinfulness, our own frailty. Father, we have failed you and we've failed one another.
[5:07] And we ask for your forgiveness anew. We seek that cleansing that can only come from you. And we thank you that because of your grace and because of the merit of Jesus, we can know forgiveness of sins.
[5:21] And we can know peace with you. So Father, descend upon us this morning, we pray. May we know your presence. May we experience your peace. May we hear your still voice speak to us in whatever situation we find ourselves in this morning.
[5:37] And Father, accept our praise. Accept our heartful thanks as we open our hearts and voices to you in praise and in adoration.
[5:48] For all we ask is in and through the name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and our Lord. Amen. Boys and girls, are you wanting to come to the front?
[6:01] Good to see you, boys and girls.
[6:23] I've recently been thinking about Christmas. Christmas. I don't know if you have. Have you been thinking about Christmas recently? No. No? Well, I have.
[6:34] And I was wondering, who is the most important person at Christmas? And I thought, who could that be?
[6:44] And I thought, well, it must be the postmen and the postwomen. They must be really important at Christmas, the most important, because, you know, they've got extra baggage to carry and deliver, all these presents to take to houses and things.
[6:58] And then I thought, well, maybe it is, but maybe it's not. Who could be the most important person at Christmas? I thought, oh, maybe it's Santa. He works one day a year and he's always busy on Christmas Eve and he's getting all the presents ready and he goes around the whole world, and how he does it, it's incredible.
[7:19] He goes around the whole world delivering these presents. So I thought, Santa must have a really good chance of being the most important person at Christmas. And then I thought, who else, who could else could be the most important person at Christmas?
[7:35] Shopkeepers? They're really busy as well. So maybe they're the ones that should be really busy, should be really kind of the most important. Have you any idea who could be the most important person at Christmas?
[7:52] Jesus? Ah, well, I thought about him as well. Why do you think Jesus would be the most important person at Christmas? If Jesus is the most important, why would you think he would be?
[8:04] Because it's his birthday. But it's my birthday in October. And nobody kind of thinks that I'm the most important person in October.
[8:16] Any other reasons why Jesus should be the most important person at Christmas? Yes, ma'am. He came to die for us. He came to die for us. Yeah, that's a really good answer.
[8:27] Any other reasons why Jesus should be the most important one? Well, when I thought about it, I thought about Jesus, and I didn't really think about the post-mintment, I didn't really think about the post-mintment, Saturday, I thought about Jesus, and then I thought, maybe Jesus isn't the most important person at Christmas.
[8:49] Because I think that the most important person at Christmas is me, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and everybody in here, and everybody in the whole world.
[9:08] Because God says, in the Bible, in John chapter 3, verse 16, God says that, Jesus says, God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
[9:25] And when I thought about that, I thought, the reason, Jesus is really, really important, obviously, but the reason Jesus came that first Christmas was because of each one of us.
[9:41] And that must mean that we are really, really special, and that we are the most important people at Christmas time. Any of you got a goldfish?
[9:54] Now, any of you got any fish? No. Well, imagine you've got a goldfish, right? You really need to kind of think hard here. Imagine you've got a goldfish, and this goldfish is on its own in this goldfish bowl.
[10:08] Okay? You know what a goldfish bowl looks like? It looks like the world. Yeah. Okay? It's a globe. So this two goldfish, it's on its own, and he's sitting every day on top of your TV.
[10:20] Well, you can't sit them on TVs now because they're 2. On the mantelpiece. Oh, I can't go there either because of fire. On a table or something. Right? Okay. This poor goldfish is there in this goldfish bowl, and he's swimming around all day on his own.
[10:37] Imagine if you wanted to both show and tell that goldfish that you really loved it.
[10:48] How would you do it? Give it food. Give it food? Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure if you give it food, whether he would realize he loved you or not, or you loved him, I don't know.
[11:00] He would change his water, make sure he had fresh water. Could you speak to it? And say, hey, goldfish, listen to me.
[11:11] I really love you. Do you think he would hear you? No. No. No. If you wrote it on a huge big bit of paper, goldfish, I love you, and you held it up, it probably just kind of can't you?
[11:24] You're swimming around in circles anyway and you didn't look at it, but if you were able to catch its attention, do you think it would be able to read? No. Of course not.
[11:36] That's a problem. So how can you, how do you think, if it was possible, if you could do anything in the world, and anything beyond the world, how do you think you could show and tell that goldfish that you loved it?
[11:52] Do you know? Well, after an idea. Imagine if, for either a moment or for a short period of time or for another, imagine if you had the power to become a goldfish.
[12:11] And you became a goldfish and you were able to jump into the goldfish bowl with a goldfish. Now, I don't know how goldfish communicate or speak to one another. Maybe they show each other that they love each other by grubbing their noses or something.
[12:25] Or maybe they've got a secret kind of language, vocabulary, that they're able to communicate to one another. I don't know. But imagine if you were able to become a goldfish and jump into the goldfish bowl and you'd be able then to be able to speak a goldfish language and say to the goldfish, I really care about you, I really love you.
[12:50] I think that could work, wouldn't it? But it's the only way I think it could happen. So, why are you the most important person at Christmas? Well, you're the most important person at Christmas because that's what Jesus said.
[13:06] Jesus was in heaven and that's what we're going to be looking at this morning in here. He was with God. He was God. And God had tried lots of ways to let us know, let his people know that he loved them.
[13:22] He gave them food. He looked after them. He cared for them. But people never noticed, never agreed to get any notice of it. And the way that God really showed us that he loves us was that he came to be one of us at Christmas.
[13:38] And he became one of us. God became a human being. That's incredible. Just like I was becoming a goldfish, God became a human being. But he continued to be God.
[13:51] But of course, he doesn't end at Christmas. That was only the beginning. Because then Jesus made his way to Calvary, to the cross, and died for us.
[14:03] And that's where God proved that he loves us. And that's where God proved that you are the most important person to God. And you're the most important person to God at Christmas.
[14:17] God sends Jesus into the world to become one of us, to live amongst us, not to swim with us like the goldfish, but to live amongst us, to walk amongst us, to get to know us, and then to show his great love for us by dying on the cross.
[14:32] So when we think of Christmas, we need to think of Jesus, but we also need to think of Easter, where God showed his great love for us, that God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever will use him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
[14:51] And I think that's a great reason to praise God and to give him all the glory, and we're going to do that now. Our song is O Come, Let Us Adore.
[15:02] And the tune is very familiar, and we give praise to God for his existence. So enjoy your Sunday club, and I hope you have a really great Christmas, and that you remember that you are the most important person at Christmas, because God became one of us, and stayed with us and lived with us, and died with us.
[15:22] Okay, let's sing together. Thank you. Come now to bed, we have.
[15:58] Love and beholden, Lord, the King of angels, O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.
[16:28] To God, O to God, light of light eternal, he who have washed the birds' blood.
[16:48] Son of the Father, begotten, not created, O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.
[17:18] Sing like the angels, sing in exultation, sing with the citizens of heaven, sing with the citizens of heaven.
[17:36] Come on, glory to God, glory in the highest, O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.
[18:08] Yes, Lord, he greased he, Lord, God's happy morning, Jesus, to you be glory, God's happy morning.
[18:29] The word of the Father, through fifteen things that O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him, Let us adore him, O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.
[19:15] Our reading this morning is from John's Gospel, and it's John's Gospel, Chapter 1, the first 18 verses of John, Chapter 1.
[20:01] Throughout the Old Testament and throughout, indeed, ancient history, the desire of all humanity was to commune and to see God.
[20:18] But, of course, that couldn't happen because you couldn't see God and live. But God did reveal himself in different ways. Remember Moses, when he asked Moses to hide in the cleft of the rock and he would pass his glory by him.
[20:35] The same in the temple when King Josiah died. Isaiah went into the temple to pray, and there he had an experience of God that literally floored him.
[20:48] But he couldn't see God. He didn't see God. But he was aware of the mighty presence of God. And in the history of Israel, during their journey in the wilderness, they were accompanied by the Shekinah glory, which was God's presence with them both day and night.
[21:05] And this glory, the radiance of God, the glory of God dwelling with them in the midst of the people, was often accompanied by supernatural events, by thunder and lightning and clouds.
[21:19] And here we come into the New Testament, and we read of a God who reveals himself, who no longer hides behind clouds and in temples, but a God who has come to reveal himself.
[21:40] And that's what John is writing about here, the beginning of his gospel. In the beginning was a word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
[21:52] He was with God in the beginning. Through him, that's through Jesus, all things were made. Without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
[22:07] The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God. His name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him, that's through the light, through Jesus, all men might believe.
[22:26] He himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
[22:43] He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband's will, but born of God.
[23:03] The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
[23:17] John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me has surpassed me, because he was before me.
[23:28] From the fullness of his grace, we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
[23:40] No one has ever seen God, but God, the one and only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known. Amen.
[23:52] May the Lord bless to us. This reading from his own holy and inspired word. We're now going to sing a couple of verses of Psalm 89, verses 3 to 4 in Gaelic.
[24:03] I, with my chosen one, have made a covenant graciously, and to my servant, to my love, to David, sworn have I, that I, thy seed established, shall forever to remain, and will to generations old, thy throne build and maintain.
[24:24] Verses 3 and 4 of Psalm 89 in Gaelic. diesem Ù„ hanem classe reading MADAMheard granting i che maid Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji
[25:52] Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji
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[28:24] Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji we pray that through your word we might indeed be blessed and come to know you better and to love you more. Father we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. It's very easy for us especially when we've kind of thought about Christmas over all the years of our lives. It's very easy for us to kind of lose focus on what that is really all about. It's not really Christmas it's incarnation.
[29:17] It's God becoming one of us and it's easy for us to really kind of lose sight of that great truth because that great truth is so important. And in John's gospel at the beginning of John's gospel that is what John is trying to to explain to us the mystery and the awesomeness of the incarnation.
[29:43] Our minds of course can't fully grapple with it and can't fully grasp it because it's beyond us. It's a bit like us imagining that we could become goldfishes and that we somehow could communicate with goldfish. But that actually would be a lot easier than what happened that first Christmas with the incarnation. God becoming one of us. And John in his first few verses there of his gospel he reveals something to us about who Jesus is. What the passion of Jesus is like. And in verses 1 and 2 he begins, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. That's the person who came. This Word, the Word of God who was there at the beginning, who was there with God and who was God. Now that's enough to kind of blow your mind away.
[30:59] John begins his gospel by talking of Jesus as the Word of God. It's a description of Jesus that John only uses here in the prologue of John's gospel, the introduction to the gospel. It's not used anywhere else in the New Testament or in the Bible. Yes, he uses other names to describe Jesus and to refer to him. He's the Christ. He's the Lamb of God. He's God himself by the end of the book. He's Lord.
[31:30] But Jesus as a Word is only mentioned here in this chapter. It's as if John in beginning his book is summing up everything that there is to know about Jesus in one word, in one title, the Word. So what does that mean? Well, John reflects the very first words of the Bible here, Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning, God made heaven and earth. And what is it that first thing that God does? God speaks. That's how he creates.
[32:13] God said, let there be light. And there was light. He speaks it into being. And throughout the Bible, when God speaks, something happens. And that's how he reveals himself to us, by speaking.
[32:27] He reveals who he is and what kind of God he is by speaking. And so when we read John 1, that Jesus is a Word of God, then we're being told by John 1, that Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God himself.
[32:45] He is God's ultimate communication. His total and his final self-expression of who he is. Remember Jesus said, on one occasion, he who has seen me has seen the Father.
[33:03] So if we want to know what God is like, we need to look at Jesus. Because in Jesus, in Christ, we see God.
[33:16] So what does John say about this word? Well, there are three things he highlights at the beginning of the chapter. First of all, Jesus is from the beginning. In the beginning was the Word. Now that doesn't mean that he was just there from the beginning of creation. Rather, he was there at the beginning of all things.
[33:40] In other words, he's saying that Jesus, this Jesus, this Word, that he is eternal. He is from before time began. He's saying that he was there at the very start of the universe and beyond that too.
[33:56] He's saying that there is no time when Jesus was not. Now that is so different to us. You know, I was born on the 29th of October, 1958.
[34:10] Before that, I wasn't. We can't say that about Jesus. There is never a time when Jesus was not. He's always been there. As a writer to the Hebrews puts it, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
[34:31] And secondly, John is saying to us that this Jesus is with God. The Word was with God. And what is insinuating here is that there's been an intimate, loving relationship with God and the Word for all time.
[34:51] This mutual, loving relationship is at the very heart of who God is. And it's at the very heart of his relationship with the Word, Jesus. Now, how can that be?
[35:04] Well, thirdly, not only is he with God, but this Jesus who is in this relationship, loving relationship with God, is also God.
[35:20] Jesus is God. The Word was God, he tells us. Now, at this point, our feeble minds just can't even begin to struggle to cope with this incredible concept that John is showing us.
[35:35] John is saying that Jesus is God, that he's been with God from the beginning, and that he's also God. How can that be?
[35:47] Well, the question can only be answered by saying that God is triune God, he is Trinity. He is three persons, yet he is one God.
[36:01] That's effectively the doctrine of the Trinity. And unless we say both these things, we fail to do justice to what John is saying here.
[36:13] No human mind can fathom the Trinity. We've tried. We can't do it. It's beyond our comprehension. We've nothing to compare it with. We use some simple illustrations.
[36:24] For example, we use the egg. You know, the egg is a shell, the yolk, and the white. Three different components, but still it's an egg. That doesn't even go near, kind of, even trying to help us understand what the Trinity is like.
[36:42] One Christian preacher and writer, Don Carson, was once asked by a Muslim who, and they don't believe in the Trinity, he was asked by a Muslim friend to explain the doctrine of the Trinity.
[36:54] And he says, tell me, Don, he said, if I have one apple and add another apple and then add another apple, how many apples do I have? Three, said Don Carson.
[37:05] So his friend went on. If I have one God, the Father, plus one God, Jesus, plus one God, the Holy Spirit, how many gods do I have? So expecting the answer.
[37:17] Three, he continued, how then can you believe in one God? And Don Carson thought for a moment. And then he said, OK, you want maths?
[37:29] Let me ask you, if you have infinity, plus infinity, plus infinity, what are you left with? Infinity. Infinity. In other words, simple maths, he says, doesn't explain it.
[37:44] Indeed, if we were able to explain it, we would be God himself. And there's something in our humanity, our fallen humanity, that doesn't like that.
[37:58] That there are things that we just cannot comprehend. Things that we cannot understand. We want everything. And we want to be able to work it out. And that's a big barrier for some people from becoming Christians.
[38:12] Oh, I can't believe that because I don't understand that. I can't believe Christianity because how could God become a child, a baby? How could a virgin conceive? I'm just closing my mind completely to the Christian faith because I can't understand that.
[38:27] I can't understand the Trinity. And it's this human pride to think that we are above everything. Whereas actually, in humility, we need to acknowledge God is God.
[38:39] God knows. And that's enough. Another preacher once was asked how he could believe in the Trinity in what seems to be unbelievable.
[38:52] And he said, if I could understand God, he would be no greater than myself. And such is my sense of sinfulness before him and my knowledge of my own inability to save myself that I feel I need a superhuman saviour.
[39:09] In other words, a saviour who is far greater than I am. And that's, of course, what God is. That God calls us to trust in him.
[39:22] In Jesus' word, God has shown himself to us. He's eternal. He's with God. And he is God. And that's a Jesus we worship.
[39:33] That's a triune God that we worship. He is nothing less than the awesome, eternal God who has been forever and will be forever.
[39:44] And that person is Jesus. And that is staggering. One of the most staggering thoughts, I think, that I've ever had was thinking of Mary with the baby Jesus.
[40:04] And Mary looking into his eyes. And Mary there is staring into the eyes of God. that is staggering.
[40:15] I think that is amazing. She held God, this vulnerable child, in her arms.
[40:27] And as she gazed into that child, that infant, that baby's eyes, she was looking into the eyes of God. The second thing that John teaches us is the power that Jesus has.
[40:45] Verses 3 to 5. And Jesus' identity means that he does hold extraordinary power. He has power in creation. See in John verse 3, through him all things were made.
[40:59] Without him nothing was made that has been made. God the Father created everything that exists by and through Jesus Christ, his Son.
[41:10] nothing exists that was not created by Jesus himself. Every time God said, let there be, he was doing it through the Son. The Word that was with God from the very beginning.
[41:26] All things were created by Jesus and for Jesus. Paul writing to the Colossians in chapter 1 verse 16 says, for in him all things were created things in heaven and on earth and at the end of that passage all things have been created through him and for him.
[41:47] Now it's no surprise that if Jesus is the architect along with God the Father of creation, it's no surprise then that when the Bible talks about the end of creation, when the world is going to finish and the world is going to end, who is it that appears on the scene again?
[42:08] It's Jesus. The second coming of Jesus to come to wrap up history as we know it. And the reason for that is that he was the one who put it into place and he's the one who's going to finish it off, who's going to be there at the end.
[42:24] The Word that became flesh, the entire universe was created through the Word of God, Jesus. You see, Jesus has incredible power.
[42:38] It's not like the way you and I create things. If we ever create things, we need something to create it with. If you want to build a table, you need wood, you need nails or glue or something.
[42:53] Jesus creates everything out of nothing. He simply brought everything into being by the power of his Word because he is the Word.
[43:08] And he keeps everything ticking by nicely because he is the Word. He sustains everything by his all-powerful Word.
[43:19] That's power, isn't it? it's not just in creation that Jesus shows his incredible power. It's also in salvation.
[43:31] Verse 4. In this Jesus, in the Word, was life and that life was the light of men. Jesus is the light and the life of the world.
[43:47] Apart from him, we're nothing. Apart from him, we wouldn't exist and we wouldn't exist. And as we read on in John's Gospel, we discover that only if Jesus is through life and through light that he is the light of the world.
[44:04] We're told that he is the resurrection and the life. He alone can give life beyond the grave. He alone can give life with God forever.
[44:17] It's because of his power. His power over life and his power over death. Do you not think he is the one who is perfectly able to keep us despite everything we go through, despite all our ups and downs?
[44:37] He is the one who yields that power of salvation, who is able to keep us through every situation. He doesn't promise to take us from our difficulty, but he promises never to leave us and to bring us safely through it.
[44:55] For he is the power to create life and light. Jesus is totally trustworthy and he has the power to fulfil all his promises in the good times and also in the bad times.
[45:16] Jesus is the one who gives life. He gives light. Life in creation and also life in the new creation when people come to faith in him. When they come to the cross and they bow before him and they accept him.
[45:33] Oh, the darkness doesn't receive that. Those who want to remain in darkness don't receive the light of Jesus. But for those who did and who do, he is the light of the world.
[45:50] Then John shows us the purpose that Jesus came for into the world. He says that the word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from the father full of grace and truth.
[46:09] The God who is God from all eternity, the one who made the universe that he should take frail human flesh and confine himself to time here on this world and space in this place.
[46:32] We cannot fully understand that, can we? And yet John says it's happened. The word became flesh, the incarnation. God became one of us in the person of Jesus.
[46:46] And then he says something rather strange. He says he lived for a while among us or literally he tended a while among us. It's as if he pitched his tent for a while with us as a human being.
[47:03] But it's only when we read the Old Testament that we see the full significance of that amazing statement. Remember I said in the Old Testament God met with his people. He met with them in the tabernacle going through the wilderness.
[47:18] He met with them in the tent of meetings under Moses. He met with them in the temple when they settled in the promised land. And what John is saying here is that Jesus is that presence.
[47:33] He is that tent. He is that temple. And the word literally means here is that he tabernacled amongst us.
[47:46] He lived amongst us. He was God's presence with us in our vicinity. God is saying that it's in Jesus that we meet God himself.
[48:00] No one can come through the Father Jesus says but through me. That's how it happens. It's because of the incarnation.
[48:11] Were it not for the incarnation we would never ever know God. We would never ever know salvation. We would never ever know eternal life. it is so crucial.
[48:24] No one has ever seen God but God the one and only who is at the father's right side. He has made him known. We know God because of Jesus.
[48:36] We know God because God humbled himself and became one of us in the person of Jesus. That is the only way we can know God. We know God through Jesus. We can read scriptures as much as we want.
[48:50] We can search the scriptures as much as we want. But until we meet this Jesus Christ until we build the need to him we will never ever know God and we will never ever know salvation.
[49:04] You see the book is much more than just a history book. It is the book of salvation. It is a book where God reveals great truths about himself. His great plan for us.
[49:15] His great plan for the world. And the reason he sent Jesus was because he wants to restore that relationship with us.
[49:29] With humanity that we once had. Remember in the garden before the fall we were told that Adam and Eve they walked in the garden and they enjoyed the presence of God.
[49:43] And they enjoyed not just the presence of God they enjoyed the company of God. God was there with them. God was their companion. God was their friend.
[49:55] And of course all that stops when they're cast out. When they sin and they're cast out of the garden. When paradise has fallen all that stops. And that's why through the whole of the Old Testament even God's people who are called by God.
[50:13] They don't see God. They're aware of his presence at times but they don't see him. And then of course we have the ending of the prophets when Malachi when his demise comes and he dies.
[50:31] Then there is no word from God at all for 400 years. God's presence is not felt. God's word is not heard. God doesn't communicate with his people these 400 years and then John the Baptist appears on the scene and God comes with this message.
[50:54] I'm going to reveal myself. I'm going to become one of you. I'm going to start talking to you again. I'm going to open up a way for you to reverse the effects of the fall and his plans and his purposes unfold for us in the Gospels as this word this Jesus appears in the sea full of grace and truth.
[51:23] And that's why we can have a divorce Christmas from Easter because our salvation wasn't won that first Christmas amazing as that was incredible as that was of God becoming one of us it didn't happen there because this Jesus this God man had to journey for 33 years towards a cross he lived amongst us he revealed God to us but then he died on a cross in our place and it is through that great event he could only do it because he was God remember we sing the hymn there was no other good enough to bear the price of sin he only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in and the only reason the only way he could do that is because he was both God and he was man he was perfect full of grace and truth that's why at this trial they had no word against him they couldn't raise any actions against him and he went and he died on a cross for us and that is why at
[52:38] Christmas time we are the most important person at Christmas and if we understand what Christmas is all about we'll understand the truth of that because that's the start of the journey to Calvary to the cross but not just to death it is to resurrection because the cross couldn't hold him death has no dominion over God and he rose again and he's alive and he reigns forever and ever it's a bit like father Damien father Damien was a priest who in 1873 was sent at his own request to a leper colony in the Pacific Island and without any help he gave himself to those 600 poor lepers bandaging their wounds building their houses digging their graves in his letter home to his family after a while his friends noticed a chilling change from speaking about these lepers he now wrote about as lepers we lepers he himself had contracted leprosy and he carried on until he was too weak and he died of that disease and when
[54:14] Jesus speaks he says we humans he became one of us he became one of us why to die for us so that he could rescue us is this Jesus you know and you adore we sang earlier on come let us adore him do you adore him that way because he became one of us and he died for us he died to save us can we sing that great car come let us adore him well if we trust in what Jesus has done for us then we can because he's washed us he's made us clean he has given us rights to be sons and daughters of
[55:16] God he's adopted us into the family that's what John is saying here and you know that's a promise that God has kept for millions and millions of people down through the centuries isn't that amazing from that baby well over 2000 years ago now from that child century after century after century God has kept his promise people have come to faith people have been saved right after their own day people are coming to faith they're being saved they're entering into this new relationship with God through Jesus and down through the centuries these people who have come to faith have died and risen again and are in glory now all because of what he's done all because he came to live amongst us and to die for us to die in our place well
[56:19] I'm glad all this happened I'm glad of Christmas because it shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that God desires to reach down to me to where I am I know that God he's outwith my rich and he's outwith the rich of everyone here this morning but I'm not beyond his rich and so it is with you you are not beyond the reach of God because of Jesus Christ because of what he has done because of the incarnation because he became flesh just like you just like me but for me he made himself understandable revealed God to us he revealed to us what God is like what about you this morning do you yet know what
[57:25] Christmas is all about do you yet know that it's Jesus the reason why he came the reason why he died you see the whole of salvation is tied up in that there is no salvation out with that from the cradle to the grave Jesus lived for you Jesus became one of you and Jesus died for you amen may God bless to us these thoughts on his word this morning and to him be all the praise and all the honour and all the glory amen our closing hymn is number 243 in
[58:27] Mission Praise and it's the hymn You're the Word of God the Father the Word of God the Father from before the world began every star and every planet must be fashioned by your hands all creation holds together by the power of your voice and the skies you bear your glory and the land and seas rejoice you're the author of creation you're the Lord of every man and your cry of love rings out across the land and you lift the gates of angels came to seek and save the lost and exchange the joy of heaven for the anguish of a cross saved i m magic and all make and die in before the Father interceding for your own for your tribe and tongue and nation you are leading sinners home, you're the author of creation you're the Lord of every man and your cry of love rings out across the land go in peace and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest and abide with us all and with all those who we love now and forevermore, Amen