Pastor Prince

Our cultural Christmas is largely sweet and soft.  Like a "Precious Moments" nativity.  But the real Christmas story told in the scriptures has rough edges!  Luke 1 says that as Mary contemplates the birth of her son, she composes a song of revolution.  It speaks of the exalted being humbled, the humble being exalted, the hungry getting full, and the full left hungry!  Jesus is born in a barn.  His visitors are shepherds, who were social outcasts. These rough edges are on full display in Luke's account of Jesus' appearance at the temple in 2:25-38.  When Joseph, Mary, and Jesus go to the temple, an "old saint" named Simeon takes Jesus in his arms, praises God because he has seen the Messiah, and prophesies that the child is destined to cause the rising and falling of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed.  Not sweet and soft! Finally, Simeon says that a sword will pierce Mary as well.  This is the first time pain is mentioned in re

In the magnificent prologue of John 1:1-18, John begins the story of Jesus in the eternal past.  He starts with the Word, who was with God and was God.  He continues by saying the Word became a real human being and lived in the world, showing us what God is like. In verses 10-13 and 16-18, he tells us that the Word came to his own, and his own didn't receive him. This is one of the greatest ironies of history, because God created the world through the Word,.  Yet when he came, the world turned him away.  Killed him, in fact.   But not everyone rejected him.  Some believed him, put their faith in him.  To those, God gave the power to be his children.  Through faith in Christ, they were "born from above" (John 3:3), or spiritually born.  In this way, they came into God's eternal family.   John concludes the chapter by saying that the law came through Moses.  Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  We who have put our faith in Christ and followed him

The first five verses of John 1 take us to the eternal cosmic plane, as they talk about the Word that was with God and was God.  Then in verses 6-9, we move to the human world of time and history, as John says that God sent a man named John into the world.  He wasn't the light, but was a witness to the light God was sending to the world in the Word who became flesh: Jesus Christ. This John was John the Baptist.  His more accurate title was "the Baptizer."  He wasn't the first Baptist, though we would love to claim him! Some in the early church era believed the Baptizer was equal to Jesus.  Maybe even superior!  But the gospel of John wants people to know clearly that John wasn't the light.  He wasn't the Word who became flesh.  Nonetheless, he was important.  He was a witness to the light.  He pointed to Jesus and identified him as the Messiah, the Savior. These words about John remind us that God calls us Christ followers to a similar mission: to poi

Last week, we thought about the mind-stretching and mind-bending truth of the eternal Word, who was God, and was with God in the eternal past.  John 1:1 reflects the truth of the Trinity, that God is three persons in one being: Father, Son (Word), and Holy Spirit.  We also saw that the eternal Word had life, and in him was the light of humanity.  His light shines in the darkness of our broken world, and the darkness hasn't overcome it. This week, we explore something equally mind-stretching and mind-bending!  John 1:14 says that this Word that was God, and was with God in the eternal past, became flesh and lived among us!  This is the great miracle we celebrate at Christmas: God became a real human being in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Why did he do that?  He had many reasons, but one of them was to reveal himself to humanity.  John suggests this truth when he says in the latter part of verse 14 that we've seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, full of