Sermon Tone Analysis

O come, all ye faithful,

Joyful and triumphant,

O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.

Come and behold Him,

Born the King of Angels!

Sing, alleluia,

All ye choirs of angels;

O sing, all ye blissful ones of heav'n above.

Glory to God

In the highest glory!

Yea, Lord, we greet Thee,

Born this happy morning;

Jesus, to Thee be the glory giv'n;

Word of the Father,

Now in the flesh appearing,

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

Christ the Lord.

The third verse of this song comes right out of , Word of the Father…- In the beginning was the Word.

Now if flesh appearing…- And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

And of course the constant refrain and point of this song,

O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

This too is John’s point and purpose in .

John’s purpose is for you to understand, to behold, to see the glory of the Son of God and to adore Him.

John beheld the glory of the Son, and He invites you to do the same.

Beheld- Generally means to look at something intently with an implication that you are especially impressed by what you see.

Here the word is used more narrowly and it takes on the idea of perceiving something above and beyond what is merely seen with the eye.

To see intently and be left with the impression of transcendence.

John said, we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

If you are to adore Him, Christ the Lord, then you must also behold the glory of the Word, Jesus Christ, the God-Man, the Incarnation.

What does John want us to understand about the glory of the Word?

Three truths, that will cause us to see intently Jesus Christ with awe and adoration.

O come let us adore Him…Why?

Because

I. Jesus Christ is the Eternal One (1:1a)

*Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος,

In beginning was THE Word,

A. Jesus Christ has no beginning

Here is a clear statement of the eternality of the Word.

Just as the presence of God is assumed in

There, God-Elohim, in the beginning already was.

So in , the word in the beginning already was.

In fact the way John words this in the original, he doesn’t specify which beginning he is talking about- the text literally says, “In beginning.”

That means that you can pick any beginning you would like, it doesn’t matter.

Perhaps you might think about the Children of Israel being led out of Egypt through the Red Sea, if that is your beginning, the Word already was.

Perhaps you might go further back to Joseph being elevated to 2nd in command of all Egypt under only Pharaoh himself.

The Word already was.

Or you could go back to Abraham, when God told Him to get up and to depart out of his homeland.

The Word already was.

Or you could go all the way back to Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden.

The Word already was.

It doesn’t matter which beginning you choose, the Word already was.

In fact you could choose eternity past itself where God alone existed, even in that beginning, the Word already was.

Jesus Christ, the Word, is the Eternal One.

Folks when we focus our hearts on Jesus Christ this Christmas season, and we think about the little babe in a manger, we must not simply see a small child, we must see the only eternal Word.

The one who has no beginning and no end, the Alpha and Omega, the first and last, the beginning and end.

Have you ever tried to understand or imagine that?

Have you ever tried to imagine or perceive in your mind something that has no beginning?

When I was a kid I used to try to picture a line that I would draw on a piece of paper.

Imagine in your mind a timeline.

Image of timeline

Now imagine the line of that timeline going back in time 10,000 years (most likely past the creation of the world), now throw the line backward another 10,000 years (we are getting into the realm of speculation/technically time didn’t exist before God created the cosmos, but for sake of the argument humor me), now throw it back another 10,000 years, or 100,000, or 1 million, throw it back as far as you can imagine- I’ll wait.

No matter how far back you go there is still a beginning to the line.

I cannot even begin to comprehend something without a beginning no matter how hard I try.

But God has no beginning, He always was, He is eternal.

And in beginning (pick any beginning you want) the Word, Jesus Christ was.

He is the eternal one.

Excursus:

Now, some might argue- “wait a minute, does the Bible talk about Jesus as the only begotten son of God? Doesn’t that imply that Jesus has a beginning?”

Yes, there are texts that state that Jesus is begotten of the Father.

The question is what does that mean.

Does begotten mean beginning?

Or, does it mean something else?

Does Scripture tells us what begetting means?

The answer is yes.

Turn to .

In Paul is at the synagogue at Anticoch in Pisidia.

He is preaching a sermon to the Jews and he is proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.

He begins his sermon in v. 17 and he recounts the history of the nation of Israel from the captivity in Egypt all the way to King David.

Paul’s main point is found in v. 23- that Jesus is of the lineage of David, that He is the Savior that God had promised to His people.

Pick up Paul’s sermon then in v. 26

Acts 13.26

V. 33- it central to our question.

What does begetting mean?

Paul connects - Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee, with God raising Jesus from the dead.

So begetting does not mean beginning, begetting is connected with the resurrection.

Jesus was begotten when he was raised from the dead.

Now does anyone want to argue that Jesus came into existence when he was resurrected?

No, that is nonsense.

So, begetting does not mean beginning.

Begetting, according to is connected with resurrection.

Actually, what God is doing is publically declaring Jesus Christ to be the Messiah, the Savior that was promised in the OT.

And God demonstrates this fact, by begetting His Son, by raising Him from the dead.

Acts 13.34

B. Jesus Christ is self-existent

Jesus Christ is self existent.

He does not need anyone else to cause Him to be.

He is not dependent on any other source for life.

He is His own source for life.

None of us has this quality.