Bible Text: St. John 1:1–14 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christian Preus
If you look at the great Christmas hymns, which are sermons in themselves, literally, I could just get up here and recite Hark the Herald, Now Sing We Now Rejoice, and Of the Father’s Love Begotten, and O Jesus Christ, Thy Manger is, and you would hear the full Gospel of Christmas, so bring these hymns home, make them part of your Christmas tradition, but if you look at these hymns you’ll see that they speak of three different births of the Son of God. And they do that, because the Holy Spirit talks this way in our Gospel for this morning.
The first birth is eternal. “Of the Father’s Love Begotten, ere the worlds began to be. He is Alpha and Omega. He the Source the Ending He, of the things that are that have been and that future years shall see.” The Son is begotten, born of the Father, from eternity, before the worlds began to be, in fact, the worlds were created through Him, and nothing that is would be without Him. He’s the Word that created everything. There’s the first birth. It’s outside of time. Eternal. Never was there a time when the Father did not have His Son. We just confessed this, we confess it every Sunday, and anything we confess by memory constantly we risk mouthing the words without taking in their significance – but not today. It’s Christmas. He is God of God. He is Light of Light. Very God of very God. John begins His Gospel with this foundational fact (“the Word was God”) and the babe in the manger, the virgin birth, the angels singing, mean nothing unless we know this and embrace this, and they mean everything when we do – He is God, your Creator, the eternal, one essence with the Father, through whom the Holy Spirit proceeds. He is the source of all things, the reason all things exist, the goal of all things. And it is this Son of God, eternally born of His Father, who was born a baby for you in Bethlehem.
The eternal Son of God was born a baby in time, in Bethlehem, 2025 years ago. This is the second birth John speaks about, the birth we celebrate on Christmas. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” “O that birth forever blessed, when the virgin full of grace, by the Holy Ghost conceiving, bore the Savior of our race.” “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate Deity, born as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel.” “He from whom joy streameth poor in a manger lies.” “For there O Lord doth lie the Word made flesh for us, herein Thy grace forth shineth.”
When Mary held her baby in her arms, she held God. She placed the Almighty in a manger. The shepherds looked on their Maker wrapped in swaddling clothes. God is not far off. He has joined our human race. He has become our Brother. He will always be our Brother. The union of God and man in Jesus is beautifully permanent. He is forever one of us, and that means that now and forever He is for us.
But Christmas is not simply the celebration, the reality, of God becoming a man. It is also that He has humbled Himself for us. He is born in a stable, not a palace. He is laid in a manger, no crib for a bed. He is worshipped by poor shepherds, not by the great and mighty. It isn’t only that He was made flesh; the joy of Christmas is that He came lowly, took on our poverty, to make us rich.
When John says “we beheld His glory,” don’t think of the transfiguration, don’t think of Jesus’ face glowing with divine light, or a halo over His head. God’s glory is to have mercy on poor sinners. You behold God’s glory when you see God a baby in a manger. You behold God’s glory when you see poor shepherds bow down in a stable. You behold it when this baby grows up to have no place to lay His head. You see it when He suffers on a cross, “nails, spear shall pierce Him through, the cross be borne for me, for you.” There you see God’s glory, because God is love, and that love is poured out for you from lowly manger to the cross. We did not deserve His love. We could not rise to Him because our sins weigh us down. He came to us, and the immortal bore our mortality, the One who is Life became the Light of the world by taking our Death and the darkness of our sin. His glory is to have mercy on us sinners, and that mercy shines brightly from the manger. Precisely because there His divine power and glory is hidden in His humility and weakness. That’s God’s love for you. It is total, complete, and never ending, because forever He is your Brother who has engraved you on the palms of His hands.
And that brings us to the third birth of the Son of God in John’s Gospel. And that is His birth in us. We sing it, “Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.” “Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.” We sing this because the Holy Spirit says it, “And as many as received Him, He gave power to become the children of God, to those who believe on His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” And this really is what we celebrate on Christmas. Not just that Jesus was born. But Jesus was born to be born in us. His manger is our paradise. His birth was perfect. Ours was in sin. He was born righteous, the Son of God. We were born sinners, subject to death and vanity. We needed another birth. Not from the union of our parents, who were sinners like us, not by the choosing of our flesh, as if we could come to God by our own power or works, and not by the will of man, which is bound to sin. “Come from on high to me, I cannot rise to Thee.” We need Jesus to be born in us. And He is. He shares everything He is and has done with us. His status as a child of God becomes ours. His righteousness, all the good He is and does, become ours. God named you His child, gave you His Spirit, united you with Christ. That is your Baptism, that is faith wrought by the finger of God, Jesus was born in you, and it is in every way a miracle as great as the incarnation of the Son of God.
It is so beautiful how Jesus’ birth in you mirrors Jesus’ birth in the stable.
Jesus’ birth didn’t come by the will of man. It came from God. Mary didn’t pray for Gabriel to come to her and announce the happy news that the Son of God would be conceived in her womb. God took all the initiative. And Jesus’ birth in you came not because you willed it and made it happen, not because you searched Him out, but because God came to you, sought you out, and made you His.
And Jesus’ birth took place by the power of the Holy Spirit. A virgin can’t conceive. And our sinful flesh can’t believe. But the Holy Spirit does what we cannot do. He took Mary’s sinful flesh and made from it a sinless babe. And He took your sinful flesh and made you a child of God.
And just as He spoke to Mary and by the speaking of that word the Son of God took on flesh in her womb, so He spoke to you. “As many as received Him He gave power to become children of God.” Mary’s words are ours, “Behold, the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to Your Word.” That’s the faith wrought by the Holy Spirit. Let it be to me according to your Word. Your Word calls me righteous. It joins me to the Son of God. It pronounces forgiveness. It promises eternal life. It tells me I am Your child. Let it be to me according to your Word.
Jesus’ birth was immediately followed by persecution. Herod sought to kill the holy child. Jesus’ birth in us brings persecution. The evil foe hates us. The world ridicules our worship of the crucified God. The sinful flesh in us wars against the faith that saves us. But this suffering is not strange to us. Jesus fought against devil and sin, and we are being conformed to His image day by day. It was by His suffering that our God and Brother rescued us from all evil and reconciled us to God, and it is through our own suffering and battle against evil that God wants to bring us through this world until with our Lord Jesus we rise victorious and live in peace eternally. God is with us through it all. He must be. He is now God with us. Immanuel.
Finally, on that first Christmas the angels could not stay in heaven, could not hold themselves back from praising the Son of God born a baby in Bethlehem. “Glory to God in the highest, and peace, goodwill to men.” Jesus is born in us and we cannot help but praising God for His goodness. Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given. We have seen His glory in the preaching of the manger and the cross, we eat and drink of His victory in His holy body and blood, we sing with the angels Hosannas to our Immanuel who comes to us again and lifts us up to Him, making peace with God and giving us the joy that will never end.
I am no longer amazed that God made heaven, earth, sea, and all that is in them for us, because God himself decided to become a man for the sake of his human creatures. Truly, God, you cannot reject me and turn me away, because you cannot deny You Yourself are a man and therefore my Brother. You can never forget me because you have engraved me on the palms of your hands. Christ’s communion with humanity daily and continually makes you think of me. You cannot forsake me because you, by the closest bond of the personal union, decided to join my human nature to yourself. Therefore, no matter how much my sins hinder me from coming to you for mercy, the communion of the two natures in Christ will not allow me to be driven away. I will depend totally on You, the one who totally assumed my humanity. Amen.
Merry Christmas!