Dec. 07, 2025

This Christmas season, go beyond the manger scene and encounter the eternal God who stepped into time for you.  Due to technical difficulties we do not have the video of the service but we do have the audio and song lyrics.  Please enjoy as a classic fireside radio broadcast (what is a podcast today).

Pastor Dave's sermon begins at 26:50 min into the video. The music "The First Noel", "Do You Hear What I Hear", "It Came Upon The Midnight Clear (Carol)", "Hark The Herald Angels Sing (Mendelssohn)", "Silent Night (Stille Nacht)", "White As Snow", and "Emmanuel" are licensed under CCLI Copyright #2723035 and Streaming Media #22024223 licenses.

Christ the Word

The Word Became Flesh: Encountering the Eternal God

Pastor Dave opened with John 1:1-18, declaring the sermon's heartbeat in a single breath: Jesus is not just a messenger or teacher—He is God Himself, the eternal Word who became flesh to reveal the Father and offer us life. This Christmas season, the message isn't merely about a baby in a manger but about the Creator of all things stepping into His own creation to reconcile us to God.

1. Jesus Is Eternal and Divine

Pastor Dave began by anchoring us in John's opening words: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Unlike the other Gospels that start with genealogies or angelic announcements, John cuts straight to the truth—Jesus is God. He existed before time, before Abraham, before Adam. As Pastor Dave put it with wonder in his voice, "The one who lay in the manger created the wood or stones that made that manger. He created the star that led the wise men. He created the angels who sang to the shepherds." Jesus wasn't a creation; He was the Creator. He had no beginning and has no ending. He was "face to face" with God—intimate, unified, yet distinct as the Son. This mystery of the Trinity, Pastor Dave admitted, is hard to grasp, but we accept it by faith: Jesus is fully God and fully man.

2. Jesus Reveals the Father

Pastor Dave reminded us that Jesus came to show us who God is. "No one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him" (John 1:18). Through creation, His words, and His actions, Jesus revealed the Father in ways no prophet or angel ever could. Pastor Dave highlighted three truths Jesus made clear: God exists (denying Him is foolishness), God is truth (He is reality itself, and anything opposing His Word is illusion), and God is gracious (even the law was a gift, but grace and truth came fully through Jesus). He paused and said with a grin, "If your neighbor doesn't kill you because they remember 'Thou shalt not kill,' that's grace protecting you." The room chuckled, but the point landed—God's grace reaches into every corner of life.

3. The Word Became Flesh

Then Pastor Dave shifted to verse 14: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." This eternal, timeless God took on human form at a specific moment in history. He "tabernacled" with us—pitched His tent in our neighborhood, as one modern translation puts it. Pastor Dave explained, "Jesus made a way, a place for us to meet with God. If you want to know God, you come through Jesus. If you want to talk to God, you talk through the name of Jesus." Jesus didn't just visit; He moved in close so we could behold His glory—His worth, His majesty. And from His fullness, we've all received "grace for grace"—wave after wave of undeserved favor. Pastor Dave's voice softened as he said, "Grace and grace and grace and grace—on and on and on."

4. Receiving Christ

Pastor Dave closed by pointing us to verse 12: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name." He leaned in and said, "At the moment you place your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, at that moment you become a son or daughter of God. It's instantaneous." No long process, no waiting—just belief and acceptance. He implored anyone who hadn't yet received this gift to do so today, reminding us that rejecting Jesus as God means rejecting the life He offers. For those already believers, he encouraged us to let our faith be strengthened as we celebrate these deep spiritual truths.

As we stood to sing one last Christmas carol, Pastor Dave prayed that our hearts would be filled with expectation for Christ's second coming and that this would be a day of new life for someone present. His message left us thinking about the week ahead, reminded that the baby in the manger is the eternal God who stooped down to give us grace upon grace.