The Real Purpose of ChristmasSample

The Word Becomes Flesh Believers all over the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ — a time when God Almighty laid aside His glory to appear temporarily in the earth as a man. How wonderful, how beautifully marvelous , to think that God would momentarily discard His divine appearance to actually take on the flesh of man! Yet this is precisely the miracle that manifested the day Jesus was born in Bethlehem. This amazing miracle is called the Incarnation — a word that describes the mystery of when the Word was made flesh. In John 1:1, we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The “Word” in this verse is referring to Christ in His pre-incarnate existence. Notice the verse also says, “...the Word was with God….” This phrase is a translation of the words pros ton theon , which pictures a face-to-face relationship and portrays the unity that existed in the Godhead before Jesus’ manifestation as a baby in Bethlehem. This emphatically means that Jesus is not merely a component of God or a symbol of God, but He is God. And just as the Father has always existed, Jesus, who is called the Word , has always existed. John continued his description of Christ in verse 3, saying, “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” Thus, we find that Jesus Himself is the Creator. But John 1:10 says that Jesus was in the world that He made, and “the world knew him not .” This amazingly means that when Jesus came into the very world He created, the people He created did not recognize Him. However...creation did! In the Gospels, we see miracle after miracle where creation recognized the voice of its Creator and obeyed. John 1:14 also tells us Jesus “dwelt among us.” The word “dwelt” in the original text describes a tent or a tabernacle . Jesus’ physical body was a “tent” that God lived in during His earthly life. God literally pitched a tent of human flesh in the form of Jesus Christ and tabernacled Himself among us. When Mary pushed for her baby to be born, God Himself entered the very earthly realm He had created. As unfathomable as it is, God Almighty reached into the material world, clothed Himself in flesh as He grew in the womb of the Virgin Mary and, finally, was birthed into the realm of the human race — tabernacled among His creation — for a moment in time. Questions to Discuss: Even if you knew that Jesus is God, had you ever realized He is the Creator? Imagine what it might have been like for Jesus to live among the people He created without being recognized.