Whenever we think of Jesus, and gifts, and Christmas time, most of us probably think of the gifts that the Magi brought Jesus in Matthew 2: “gold, frankincense and myrrh.” In imitation of that, as many of you know, we are encouraging everyone to celebrate Jesus’ birthday by giving to HIM the biggest gifts we give anyone this Christmas time, through the Lottie Moon offering for our missionaries. And yet the truth is that the greatest gifts of Christmas are not those that are brought TO Jesus — by us or even by the Magi — but those that were brought BY Jesus!
This morning, we are finishing our study of “The Christ of Christmas.” We have seen in John 1 over the last couple of weeks that the Christ of Christmas is 100% God, and that without giving up His Deity, He became a 100% flesh and blood man, like us. Now this morning, scattered throughout verses 4-14, we see some of the gifts that Jesus brought to us when He came:
— Verse 4 says “in Him was LIFE, and the life was the LIGHT of men.”
— Verse 12 says “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God” — so He gave us the gift of RELATIONSHIP in a Heavenly family.
— Then at the end of :14 it says that when He came, He was “full of grace and truth.”
So some of the gifts that Jesus brought us when He came are: life, light, grace, truth, and an eternal family relationship. I would submit to you that “light” and “truth” are basically two words for the same gift, so let’s look together at 4 gifts that Jesus came to bring us: LIFE, LIGHT/TRUTH, AN ETERNAL FAMILY and GRACE: Continue reading →
shawnethomas 