INTRODUCTION...

Q: what is your favorite part of the Christmas season?

-- For me: several personal things…Cecil/Ron birthdays…Rhonda and I 37th Anniversary…Our youngest daughter born dec 18 || so this season has extra special things for our family || THIS YEAR we get to go to Michigan and be with our kids/grandkids all in one house for a week and Rhonda’s mom will be joining us which is extra special || I look forward to that very much
-- I also love all of the festivities that are attached to this season…parties, decorations, lights (especially here with the darkness), gifts given and received…
-- But the main thing, the reason for all of these celebrations…is JESUS.
-- The center piece of Christmas, the anticipation of all that we celebrate is wrapped up in the birth story of Jesus...
---> The Virgin MARY hearing this amazing news and believing what was told to her and then supernaturally conceiving Jesus…it is the original Christmas Miracle
---> JOSEPH hearing and believing and obeying God in light of this revelation about Mary
---> The miraculous story of the Birth of JESUS
---> The ANGELS visitation and proclamation to the SHEPHERDS…they had the chance to experience the new born King
---> The protection of Jesus as a baby as they fled to EGYPT
---> The WISEMEN who followed a supernatural star to find the new born King

-- These are the events that we retell every year in an attempt to be reminded of God’s faithfulness to his promises, confirming his great love for us
-- Our chance to rejoice that the Jesus the Messiah has come, the savior of the world, to forgive us of our sins…and that is exactly what we are going to do over the next few weeks.
-- In light of all of that, I think it is important to understand the full picture of JESUS. The beauty of Christmas isn’t ONLY that Jesus was born, HIS BIRTH WAS NOT HIS BEGINNING!
-- Long before that first Christmas, his story had already been in play—not just in various prophecies, but in an ETERNALLY DIVINE PERSON.
-- Christmas may be the opening of the climactic chapter, but it is certainly not his first.

-- Christmas does mark a conception and birth. For us, conception and birth is how we begin our existence…prior to our earthly beginnings, we simply did not exist.

-- But it is not so with the Son of God. His “coming forth is from of old, from ancient days” [Micah 5:2]. Unlike every other human birth, Jesus’ birth celebrated at Christmas is different.

Christmas wasn’t Jesus’ BEGINNING but His BECOMING || Christmas wasn’t Jesus’ START but His COMMISSION

-- Jesus wasn’t CREATED; He CAME to us. No other human in the history of the world shares this peculiar glory. As remarkable as his virgin conception is, Jesus’ pre-existence sets him apart even more distinctively.
-- Let’s look at the Gospel of John and read his description of the Pre-existent Son of God…Jesus…

[JOHN 1:1-5] “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

-- Jesus, the Word, has always been here, is WITH God and IS God…he made everything…he is the only hope for life…
-- These are amazing truths about Jesus and his eternal existence that we need tell alongside of the nativity story.
-- As we go through this Christmas season, I want us to observe and learn about Jesus and his unmistakable pre-existence…

There are THREE truths that we need to focus on…
1. Jesus Existed Before He Was Born
2. Jesus Existed Before Anything Was Created
3. Jesus Is Eternal God

1. JESUS EXISTED BEFORE HE WAS BORN...

-- Jesus revealed this stunning claim about himself that was extremely offensive to first-century Jewish people…so much so that they wanted to kill him by stoning…this is what John recorded in

[JN 8:48-59] “48 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50 Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” 52 The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” 54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ 55 But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”

-- By using the phrase “I Am”, Jesus was revealing that he is God and proclaiming that he existed before he was born.
-- This is a profound revelation from Jesus.

We see FOUR THINGS in the NT that tell us about his pre existence…Lets take a look…

1a. JESUS CAME TO US...

-- Mark’s Gospel opens with a clear statement proclaiming Jesus is God (son of God is equality) who has come to earth
[MK 1:1-3] “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, 3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”

-- He came from outside the created realm, into our world, to bring God’s long-promised rescue.
[MT 20:28; MK 10:45; LK 19:10]“The Son of Man came…to give his life as a ransom for many”.

-- In John, the language of “coming" is found in the word “descending”...humans don’t descend; they begin.
[JN 3:13] “The Son of Man descended from heaven”
...that was where he was before he was born and he came down to us

-- Paul and Hebrews say the same thing…
[HEB 10:5] “Christ came into the world”

-- And in one of the most succinct and powerful gospel summaries
[1 TIM 1:15] “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”.

1b. JESUS BECAME ONE OF US
[mind blowing to comprehend]

-- On its own, “becoming” wouldn’t necessitate pre-existence. The key is to ask “what he was BEFORE He BECAME.”

A. He was divinely rich --> and became humanly poor
[2 COR 8:9] “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

B. He was in “the form of God” --> and then took “the form of a servant”
[PHP 2:6-7] “6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

-- His becoming was not a ceasing to be what he had been previously but a taking on of human flesh and blood. The fully divine Son added full humanity to his person and thus became man as well.

C. One who was infinitely higher because he was God --> and became a little lower than the angels because he became man
[HEB 2:9] “9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

1c. JESUS WAS SENT TO US
[God sent God]

-- The Old Testament prophets were SENT without pre-existing but not so with God’s own Son. He was SENT from outside the world of flesh, into it, for a purpose…to redeem his people.
-- The Father sending his Son was fundamentally different than all of the others sent before.

-- In the parable of the tenants, the owner of the vineyard sends his “beloved son”
[MK 12:1-12] “And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. 2 When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6 He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this Scripture: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; 11 this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” 12 And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.”

-- Jesus was saying he is that ‘beloved Son’ and they were rejecting him…he is decisively distinct from all of the other servants that the Father had sent previously.
-- Paul writes in [GAL 4:4-5] “4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons…”

-- God didn’t take an already-living human and then send him to do a special work; he sent his own divine Son to be human so that we might be redeemed, forgiven, adopted!

1d. JESUS WAS GIVEN FOR US
[the Father gave His Son for us)

-- Finally, and especially personal for you and me, the pre-existent Jesus was GIVEN.

[JN 3:16-17] “16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

-- The sacrifice of Jesus loses its force as an expression of God’s love if Jesus did not pre-exist his birth. So, the huge promises given to us of forgiveness & redemption, reinforces the Son’s pre-existence in saying that God…

[ROM 8:32] “did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all.”

WHAT A GIFT!

2. JESUS EXISTED BEFORE ANYTHING WAS CREATED...

-- Not only did JESUS pre-exist the first Christmas; he also pre-existed all of creation. The Bible couldn’t be more clear on this account.
-- John’s Gospel opens with the declaration:

[JN 1:1-3] "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."

-- Human flesh didn’t become the Word. The eternal Word became flesh

[JN 1:14] “14 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.”

-- So also [COL 1:16-17] “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 though him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

-- So Jesus prays in [JN 17:5] “Now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

God's Glory Defined...
God’s glory is the magnificence, worth, loveliness, and grandeur of his many perfections which he displays in his creative and redemptive acts in order to make his glory known. God communicates his glory through his creation, His image-bearers (mankind), providence, and redemptive acts. God receives glory and, by uniting us to Jesus, shares his glory with us. And all of this contributes to his glory, as God in his innumerable perfections is shown, known, celebrated in, and valued.

3. JESUS EXISTED BEFORE EVERYTHING BECAUSE HE IS ETERNAL GOD...

-- That JESUS existed before his BIRTH, and even before the THE UNIVERSE WAS CREATED, is because HE IS GOD. Eternally Divine

-- He is the FIRST & LAST, Alpha and Omega because he is God.
(REV 1:5b-8) “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

-- Christmas is far more than the celebration of a great man’s birth. God himself, Jesus, the second Person of the Godhead, entered into our space and into our frail humanity, surrounded by our sin, to rescue us. That is worth a party! That is worth the whole earth celebrating Jesus! Don’t forget this part of the Story of Jesus!

--> Jesus existed before he was born
He came. He became one of us. God sent God. The Father gave his own Son for us and for our salvation.

--> Jesus existed before anything was created
And was the creator of everything.

--> Jesus existed before everything because He is Eternal God!
Worthy to be remembered, celebrated and worshiped…all glory!