Priceless: Finding Your Value In God
You are loved by God. You are priceless.
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How can know you are highly valued by God?
7 things God has done for you that prove your worth to Him.
- Adopted in God's Family
- Freed by God's Forgiveness
- Saved by God's Son
- Strengthened by God's Power
- Equipped with God's Gifts
- Used in God's Service
- Cherished in God's Eyes
When have you felt captivated by a rescue mission?
Lesson Point
Jesus came to earth to rescue us.
THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE
“Some assembly required.”
Many of us dread those words. Maybe you’ve known that terrible feeling that comes when you finish assembling some item, only to find you have one part left over. Everything seems to be in working order, but you stare at that unknown piece—wondering. What’s it for? Can I throw it away? Do I start over?
It’s not always easy to determine the purpose of some things. And that goes beyond spare parts. Maybe you’ve even asked yourself that all-important question: What am I here for?
One person who never questioned His purpose was Jesus. The apostle John began his account of Jesus’ life by making sure his readers had a clear understanding of Jesus’ purpose. We could use a lot of good theological terms to express that purpose, but let me state it simply: rescue.
Jesus came to earth to rescue us.
John 1:1-5,9-14 (NIV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Word (v. 1)—In the first century, the Jews used logos to refer to the authoritative word of God, especially as He spoke through the Old Testament. For the Greek philosophers, logos was the principle that guided the order of the world. John used this term to refer to Jesus as the One who brought both God’s power and light to those in the darkness of sin and separation from God.
His own (v. 11)—Jesus was born to Mary, a Jewish mother who was married to Joseph, a man whose lineage included such heroes as Abraham, King David, and King Josiah (see Matt. 1:1‑16). Jesus came as the Messiah God promised through the Old Testament prophecies to send to His people.
John 1:1-5
The first verses of John 1 are all about “the Word.” The Jews of John’s day equated that term with Scripture, which makes sense. Words communicate, and Scripture is one of the major ways God has communicated about Himself. The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself—including His rescue plan for humanity.
“The Word” is also a fitting title for Jesus, because He is the ultimate revelation of God. Everything God wanted to say to humanity, He said through Jesus Christ. As an example, consider what John 1:1-5 reveals about Jesus, the Word. He is:
- Eternal. Before anything was created, Jesus existed. He had no beginning and He has no end.
- Divine. Jesus is God. He is not dependent on anything else, while everything else is dependent on Him for existence. Jesus is unlimited by time, space, knowledge, or power. He is eternal, omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. He is God. Period.
- Life. Creation has been messed up by human sin and rebellion. Yet that’s the very reason Jesus came to earth—to restore life to us. “In him was life” (v. 4). Life is found only in Jesus.
- Light. Like light, Jesus offers many benefits in our lives. Light reveals, for example. In the same way, Jesus shines in the dark places of our hearts to reveal our need for forgiveness. Light also gives guidance when it’s time to take the next step. Similarly, Jesus leads us in the right direction; He is our guide. Finally, light gives assurance when we’re scared of the dark. Jesus brings us peace and assurance when we rest in the promise of His salvation.
John 1:9-13
The central story of the Bible is how God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to rescue us from sin. The Old Testament points to our need for a Savior, the promised Messiah. God planned our rescue, our redemption, before creation. What we celebrate at Christmas is the fulfillment of that plan. God’s Son came as a human—as one of us! He was born of Mary, a virgin. He is Immanuel, God with us (see Matt. 1:23).
God has revealed Himself through His Word, Jesus Christ. And there are only two possible responses to that revelation:
Reject Jesus. The world has already rejected God as Creator (see Rom. 1:20-21), so we shouldn’t be surprised at John’s words in verse 10: “the world did not recognize him.” Yet even “his own” (v. 11)—the Jews who had the Scriptures pointing to the coming Messiah—rejected Him. To reject Jesus as the Word is to continue to live in darkness and spend eternity separated from God.
Accept Jesus. When we accept Jesus for who He is—the revealed Word of God—He gives
us light and life. John used two words to describe the process of accepting Jesus: “receive” and “believe” (v. 12). Receiving Jesus means submitting to His Lordship over your life and believing in your heart that He is your Savior.
Obviously, one of these choices is best!
When we humbly accept Jesus as our Savior, He brings us into His family. We become children of God. All of this happens by His grace; we don’t have to work for it. God gives us a new birth and “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade” (1 Pet. 1:4).
In other words, our rescue from sin and death has come in the form of God’s free gift.
John 1:14
“The Word became flesh.” This is the miracle of the virgin birth. God became flesh. God, the One who is eternal, came into the fullness of time. God, the One who lives “in unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16), became visible for all to see. Jesus, the Lord of lords, left heaven’s throne to be born as a baby in Bethlehem.
Other than an angelic announcement to a few shepherds (see Luke 2:8-14), Jesus came with no fanfare. No baby shower. No baby registry. But even then—and throughout His earthly life—John notes that “We have seen his glory.” Jesus did not set aside His deity. Throughout the Gospels, we see glimpses of Jesus’ divine nature. Consider His miracles and His teachings. John could write about seeing His glory because he was there when Jesus “was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun” (Matt. 17:2). “Transfigured” in the Greek is where we get the word “metamorphosis.” Jesus’ glory that was on the inside came through on the outside.
James MacDonald refers to glory as God’s fingerprint. Glory is His signature. Jesus’ life radiated glory! And He did this by exhibiting two of the most important qualities of God: His grace and His truth. Jesus displayed both of these perfectly.
During His earthly life, Jesus’ truth did not lessen His grace, and His grace did not lessen His truth. We should follow Christ’s example. We who have experienced God’s grace should be “truth” people. And we who believe God’s truth should also be growing in grace. We need both clarity and charity. Too often we choose one to the exclusion of the other, but Christ never did. As Paul wrote: “Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Eph. 4:15).
At Christmas, parents get great joy out of giving gifts to their children. God delights in giving us gifts, as well. He has given us His grace and truth. He has blessed us with His glory. And He did all this when He sent His Son to rescue us. Now that’s a gift!
LIVE IT OUT
Jesus has come. How will you respond to that simple and profound truth in the days to come? Consider the following options:
- Consider the impact. Make a list of ways Jesus’ coming to earth impacts you today. Thank Him for leaving Heaven, taking on flesh, and giving His life so that you might be adopted into His family.
- Show grace. Be on the lookout for ways to show grace to others around you. Represent Christ well in the way you interact with others.
- Speak truth. Stand for truth in today’s culture, but let the truth be immersed in God’s grace.
Jesus rescues us and gives our lives purpose. And that purpose is to follow Jesus and bring glory to God.
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Our Lesson Sunday:
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SAVED BY GOD’S SON
Matthew and Luke, in particular, began their Gospels with narratives about the birth of Jesus. John, on the other hand, began his Gospel by stepping back into eternity before time or place. John was less focused on historical details and chronological events as he was in presenting the theological meaning of Jesus’ coming into the world.
This is where we will visit this morning. Because we can lose sight of the deeper meaning of Christmas as it’s more than just a baby in a manger. Jesus is Christmas!
I. Jesus: The Eternal One
John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
What did the Jews of John’s day equate “the Word” to mean?
- The Jews of John’s day equated that term with Scripture, which makes sense. Words communicate, and Scripture is one of the major ways God has communicated about Himself. The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself—including His rescue plan for humanity.
Why is the Word a fitting title for Jesus?
- “The Word” is also a fitting title for Jesus, because He is the ultimate revelation of God. Everything God wanted to say to humanity, He said through Jesus Christ.
What does John 1:1-5 reveal about Jesus, the Word? He is:
- Eternal. What does this mean? Before anything was created, Jesus existed. He had no beginning and He has no end.
- Divine. What does this mean? Jesus is God. He is not dependent on anything else, while everything else is dependent on Him for existence. Jesus is unlimited by time, space, knowledge, or power. He is eternal, omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. He is God. Period.
- Life. What does this mean? Creation has been messed up by human sin and rebellion. Yet that’s the very reason Jesus came to earth—to restore life to us. “In him was life” (v. 4). Life is found only in Jesus.
- Light. What does this mean? Like light, Jesus offers many benefits in our lives. Light reveals, for example. In the same way, Jesus shines in the dark places of our hearts to reveal our need for forgiveness. Light also gives guidance when it’s time to take the next step. Similarly, Jesus leads us in the right direction; He is our guide. Finally, light gives assurance when we’re scared of the dark. Jesus brings us peace and assurance when we rest in the promise of His salvation.
Just as John links life with Christ, he links light with Christ. Just as the first Creation began with “Let there be light!” so the New Creation begins with the entrance of light into the heart of the believer. The coming of Jesus Christ into the world was the dawning of a new day for sinful man.
To the people of John’s day, light was symbolic of deity. The Rabbis used light as a name for the Messiah that was promised to come. When John said Jesus is the light, he is claiming that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. It was another way he was saying that Jesus is God.
What are some ways you depend on light in your everyday life?
In what ways do you depend on Jesus as a Light in your life?
II. Jesus: The Only Way to Become a Child of God
John 1:9-13
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
How is Christmas a celebration of God’s central story in the Bible?
- The central story of the Bible is how God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to rescue us from sin. The Old Testament points to our need for a Savior, the promised Messiah. God planned our rescue, our redemption, before creation. What we celebrate at Christmas is the fulfillment of that plan. God’s Son came as a human—as one of us! He was born of Mary, a virgin. He is Immanuel, God with us (see Matt. 1:23).
God has revealed Himself through His Word, Jesus Christ. And there are only two possible responses to that revelation – what are they?
1. Reject Jesus. The world has already rejected God as Creator (see Rom. 1:20-21), so we shouldn’t be surprised at John’s words in verse 10: “the world did not recognize him.” Yet even “his own” (v. 11)—the Jews who had the Scriptures pointing to the coming Messiah—rejected Him. To reject Jesus as the Word is to continue to live in darkness and spend eternity separated from God. “Did not recognize” means did not know. It is more than intellectual knowledge. It is more than knowing facts. It means failing to know intimately, like a brother would know a brother. Knowing is a relational idea in this Gospel. The people missed a profound opportunity when Jesus visited planet Earth. The world missed its great opportunity. It did not know the Word when the Word was in its very midst. The world did not recognize Jesus. But, the world never does.
2. Accept Jesus. When we accept Jesus for who He is—the revealed Word of God—He gives us light and life.
John used two words to describe the process of accepting Jesus – what were they?
To “receive” and “believe” (v. 12). Receiving Jesus means submitting to His Lordship over your life and believing in your heart that He is your Savior.
Obviously, one of these choices is best!
What do these verses teach us about salvation?
- Salvation is a gift of God, not something a person earns, merits, or wills for himself or herself.
- When we humbly accept Jesus as our Savior, He brings us into His family. We become children of God. All of this happens by His grace; we don’t have to work for it. God gives us a new birth and “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade” (1 Pet. 1:4).
- In other words, our rescue from sin and death has come in the form of God’s free gift.
In a few short verses John has takes us from eternity past to the beginning of time and creation and now to the present. He turns the corner in his grand introduction of Jesus from telling us about Jesus to our personal response to Him. The two key words in this verse are believe and become.
Tied up in these words are the response that Jesus wants and the result that we desire. If we believe in Him we will become all that we were intended to become.
What does it mean to believe?
- Believing means trusting that Jesus is God in flesh that came to earth to die for your sins. It means resting on Him so completely that He is your only hope of salvation. It means committing your all to Jesus knowing that He alone can save you. It means yielding yourself up to be possessed by the One in whom you believe. The New English Bible makes this thought clear, “To those who have yielded Him their allegiance, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12 NEB).
What does it mean to become?
- While the words, gave, right, and children are important; the key word is become. This says something about the status of believers. Because people have received Jesus and believed on His name, they now are raised to a new position. They become children of God. While all people are created by God, not everyone is a child of God. Sometimes people carelessly say, “We’re all God’s children,” but the Bible says no such thing. We are not naturally children of God. God only gives the privilege of being His children to those who by personal faith receive Jesus as Lord and believe in who He is.
III. Jesus: God Himself Dwelling Among Us
John 1:14
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Praise the Lord!
Story: One country preacher recognized how important worship is and even trained his mule with words of worship. The day came when he had to sell the mule. The preacher told the new owner the mule was trained to go when the rider said “Praise the Lord,” and to stop when the rider said, “Amen.” The buyer mounted the beast and commanded, “Praise the Lord,” and the mule shot off like a rocket. The startled rider panicked. “Whoa!” he screamed. The mule was headed straight for a cliff, “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” At the last second he remembered the minister’s instructions. “Amen!” he shouted, and the mule screeched to a halt right at the edge of the cliff. As the owner peered over the precipice, he wiped his brow and sighed, “Praise the Lord.” … At least, he entered heaven with praise on his lips.
Praise toward Jesus is the most appropriate message that can be on our lips this Christmas.
What did “The Word became flesh” point to?
- This is the miracle of the virgin birth. God became flesh. God, the One who is eternal, came into the fullness of time. God, the One who lives “in unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16), became visible for all to see. Jesus, the Lord of lords, left heaven’s throne to be born as a baby in Bethlehem.
When John said, “We have seen His glory” what was he referring to?
- Other than an angelic announcement to a few shepherds (see Luke 2:8-14), Jesus came with no fanfare. No baby shower. No baby registry. But even then—and throughout His earthly life—John notes that “We have seen his glory.” Jesus did not set aside His deity. Throughout the Gospels, we see glimpses of Jesus’ divine nature. Consider His miracles and His teachings. John could write about seeing His glory because he was there when Jesus “was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun” (Matt. 17:2). “Transfigured” in the Greek is where we get the word “metamorphosis.” Jesus’ glory that was on the inside came through on the outside.
How can we this Christmas be full of grace and truth?
- During His earthly life, Jesus’ truth did not lessen His grace, and His grace did not lessen His truth. We should follow Christ’s example. We who have experienced God’s grace should be “truth” people. And we who believe God’s truth should also be growing in grace. We need both clarity and charity. Too often we choose one to the exclusion of the other, but Christ never did. As Paul wrote: “Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Eph. 4:15).
At Christmas, parents get great joy out of giving gifts to their children. God delights in giving us gifts, as well. He has given us His grace and truth. He has blessed us with His glory. And He did all this when He sent His Son to rescue us. Now that’s a gift!
LIVE IT OUT
At this point in the season, the beautiful story of Christmas has already been told many times through readings, musicals, carols, drama, and other forms of media. However, as beautiful and well-known as the story is, this lesson reminds us that Christmas is more than a sweet story about a baby in a cradle, an image so typical of this season. We must move beyond it to recognize who the Baby is and what He had come to make possible.
God wanted to communicate who He is, what He is like, and the great blessing He has for all humankind.
Merry Christmas to you all and remember:
Prayer of Commitment
Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your Son into the world that I could be saved and have eternal life. Knowing that is true gives me great cause to celebrate this blessed season. Amen.
Hope to see you on Sunday!
In His Love,
David & Susan
