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The reading and the passage from which most of our teaching is taken this morning is found in John's Gospel, chapter 1, verses 1-14. This is God's Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. And Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through Him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 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. Lord, as we come to Your Word, open our eyes, open our hearts, change us in Jesus' name. Amen. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, He made everything. Who is the Word that John writes about? The Word is the second person of the Trinity, God the Son. So am I saying that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the creator of everything that exists? Yes, I am. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Genesis chapter 1 and verse 16. It says this, God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, the lesser light to govern the night. He made the stars also. Now when I was at Eastern Michigan University, I took a physics class. Because I had to. And this was a physics class for non-math majors, which was a good thing. And I will never forget this illustration that I'm trying to demonstrate for you here on the table. You can see the children's bowling ball and the salt shaker next to, there's a grain of salt there, you'll have to trust me. It's hard to see. It was supposed to be a grapefruit, but I forgot the grapefruit at home. Grapefruit's a little more the color of the sun. I still remember the professor trying to help us understand the expanse of the universe. He probably wasn't thinking theologically or biblically, I don't know what his beliefs were on that subject. But as he explained it, I was a relatively new Christian and that's where my mind went. The grain of salt and the children's bowling ball here are to scale of the sun and the earth. Now if you have a problem with that, you can take it up with the physics department at Eastern Michigan University. I remember I did this illustration once and afterwards, this was for a bunch of students at Campus Crusade, and afterwards there was a couple of them sitting around a table trying to string grains of salt together over the distance and measure to see how accurate it was, as if that was the point. But the grain of salt and the grapefruit, or in this case the little bowling ball, are to scale. Now on this scale, where is the sometimes planet, sometimes not Pluto? On this scale. It's a half a kilometer away. Now on this scale, where is the next closest little bowling ball or star? Somewhere in Mexico. Somewhere in Mexico. Did you imagine? If that's the scale, that star is that big and the next star that's that big or close to that, the next star is in Mexico. That's 4.3 million light years away, Alpha Centauri. Some people think Proxima Centauri is the next closest star, but that's also 4.3 million light years away. Now what is a light year? A light year is how fast light travels. That's 299 kilometers per second. That's pretty fast. What does that mean? That means you could go around the world seven times and then to Vancouver and back in one second. Traveling at that speed, it would take 4.3 years to reach Alpha Centauri to get from there to Mexico on that scale. And the passage in Genesis said, and he made the stars also. It's like he said a few trillion of these would look good. And there they were. Isaiah chapter 40 says, To whom will you compare me? That I would be his equal, says the Holy One. Raise your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the one who brings out their multitude by number. He calls them all by name. And think of that. There's trillions and trillions and trillions of stars. He calls them all by name because of the greatness of his might and the strength of his power. Not one of them is missing. So what the Gospel writer here is saying is that the one who created all of this, the one who spoke this into existence, was, is the Son of God. Verse 3, All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. He is the image of the invisible God we read in Colossians, the firstborn of all creation. 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 and he is before all thing. And in him all things hold together. So even though he's created everything, if he didn't continue to hold it all together, the stars would fly off in all directions. And it would all come to an end. God the Son, the Word here, created everything. And everything is held together by him. Now maybe you prefer your illustrations on a smaller scale than trillions of stars. We'll try this one. The retina, less than one square inch, has 137 light sensitive, 137 million light sensitive cells. That's in your eye. 137 million light sensitive cells. So when you see something, there's 137 million cells that are calibrating all of this. It's a wonder anybody can see anything. One strand of DNA in your body, one strand of DNA, if it were to occur by chance, it would be one to the tenth, one in ten to the hundred and nineteen thousandth hour. So it's impossible even for one strand of DNA to come into existence all by itself. And do you know that all the DNA in your body would fit into two tablespoons? But if you laid it end to end, it would get to the moon and back. That's what it means when it says, and the Word was with God, and all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. But it doesn't end there. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we've seen his glory. Glory is of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. What does it mean? He's one of us. So this one that created the stars calls him all by name. This one that created the trillions of stars, that created your eye with a hundred and thirty-seven million light-sensitive cells, that created your DNA, all of ours. This one became one of us. And he did it in the way any of us become one of us. He became a fertilized egg. He became an embryo, a fetus, and he was born. A helpless child. The transcendent God, the creator of heaven and earth, the one who was, who is, and who is to come, became human. That's what it means that God is incarnate. That's what it means when we talk about the incarnation, the birth of Christ. But why? Why would the God who had the power to create everything that I've described, who could speak and trillions of stars come into existence? Why would that one become one of us? Hebrews chapter 2 explains, Since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same. Why? That through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. Think about that. The God who created everything, the God who spoke stars into existence, became one of us in order to render powerless sin and death in our lives. Verse 16 of Hebrews 2 says, For surely he does not give help to angels, but he gives help to the descendants of Abraham. That's us. Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in all things. That he might become the merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the world, for the sins of the people. So this one who created everything, the moon and the stars also, the one who created all that there is, became one of us, so that we could be freed from sin and death. In verse 18 it says, What does it mean? It means that we are tempted by sin, we are tempted to fall, we are tempted to go outside of the boundary of God's law. And we might think, well, if God knew how hard it was, if God knew how difficult it was, if God knew my unique situation, then he would understand why I fail. Well, he does understand. Because he became one of us and he was tempted just like us, but he didn't fail. God is with us, he became one of us, he experienced the same things that we experience and yet without sin. I'm always confused as to when elections are here. I know they're campaigning, so it must be relatively soon. It's interesting to see the current crop of candidates for the office of Prime Minister. One of the ways they attempt to garner support is to present themselves as those who are in touch with the people. They're not political insiders. And this applies even though some of them have lived their whole lives in politics. Now, why do they try to present themselves as not political insiders? The reason is that people like to be represented by someone who understands them, someone who knows who they are and what they need. Somebody like them, but a little better. Now, God understood us perfectly before he became a man. God knows everything, he understood us perfectly, he didn't need to come to earth to understand us. But we can have confidence in him because he became one of us. Hebrews says, we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who's been tempted in all things. As we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near to the throne of grace so that we might receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. We have a priest, a high priest, one who not only is a representative of us to God, but he's a representative of God to us. He is the perfect high priest. He doesn't bring a sacrifice to the altar of bulls and goats and things like that. He is himself the sacrifice. He is himself the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Philippians says he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men, being found in the appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So Immanuel, which we sing about, O come, O come, Immanuel, God with us means that he is one of us. And when the angel said to Joseph, and you will call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins, and the name, Ishua, or Joshua, Jesus in the other language, means God saves. He will save his people from their sins. He's a merciful and faithful high priest and things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. That's why Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21, he made him who knew no sin to be sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. He exchanged, he became one of us, the word became flesh, he became one of us, he lived the perfect sinless life in our place, he died the death that we deserve to die in our place, so that we might have his righteousness in his place. If anyone sins, then we all do. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation, the one who satisfies justice for our sins. The word became flesh, the one who created the stars, the one who created your DNA, all of that, he became one of us, to save us from our sins and to take us with him to heaven forever. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. We ask that you would continue to impress upon us throughout this Christmas season, and always, the great extent that you went when you became one of us, the incarnation of the Son of God. It's his name we pray. Amen.