Be Amazed: Love Comes Down
Fourth Sunday of Advent – December 21, 2025
The Longest Night of the Year
December 21 is the winter solstice—the day with the least daylight and the longest night of the year. When the sun goes down in the late afternoon, it can feel a little depressing! And yet, if you step outside and look up at the stars, it’s hard not to wonder about all that space out there, and whether anyone is listening.
When I was a kid, I learned about Voyager 1 and Voyager 2—NASA spacecraft launched in 1977—each carrying a golden record with music, greetings in dozens of languages, and images meant to show what human life is like here on planet Earth. In my mind, that story raises a bigger question: if God truly wanted to be known, how would He reveal Himself? Would he send “facts,” or a list of rules, and expect us to fill in the blanks? We live in a world full of opinions about God, and many people are left wondering what is true, who God is (if He’s there), and how anyone could actually know.
This is why John’s Gospel is such a gift. John isn’t writing as a distant philosopher; he’s writing as an eyewitness to the life of Jesus, saying, “I want you to know what I have seen and heard, because it changed everything for me.” John begins his story in a surprising way; he does not start with shepherds, angels, or wise men. In John 1:1–18, he gives us three pictures of Jesus: Jesus is the Word, Jesus is the Light, and Jesus is the One who brings us into God’s family. Christmas is not only the birth of a baby; it is the story of God coming close.
Three Pictures of Jesus in John 1:1–18
1) Jesus is the Word: God Speaking and Acting
John opens with words that echo Genesis: “In the beginning was the Word…” (John 1:1–2). That phrase is not incidental. John is taking us back to creation, where God speaks, and the world comes into being, and he is telling us that Jesus did not begin in a manger. Jesus pre-existed “in the beginning,” eternally with the Father.
John continues: “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3). In other words, Jesus is not merely a messenger delivering God’s message; He is the co-creator of the world. Christmas is not the beginning of Jesus. Christmas is the moment the eternal Word comes near in a new and personal way—in flesh. This matters because plenty of people admire Jesus as a wise teacher. People will quote something like the Golden Rule—“Do to others what you would have them do to you”—as if Jesus is simply an ancient moral guide with helpful advice. But John does not allow us to reduce Jesus to a life coach. His claim is bigger: Jesus is God’s Word come down to us. Advent is not first about what we do to know God; it is about what God has done to make Himself known.
2) Jesus is the Light: Truth That Pushes Back Darkness
Once John shows us that Jesus is the Word through whom everything was made, the next question becomes unavoidable: when He comes into our world—into our confusion, our pain, our sin—what is He like? John answers: “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4–5). Notice: John does not merely say Jesus brings light, as though He is carrying a lamp. John says that he is the light.
John is pointing us back to Genesis again: “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). Light is not only physical illumination; in Scripture, it becomes a picture of what is true, clean, and life-giving. Darkness is confusion, hiding, guilt, and the evil that twists what is good. So, when John calls Jesus “the true light” (John 1:9), he is saying Jesus is good—completely and consistently—and when He shines, He exposes what is false, guides what is lost, and gives life where there has been death.
This ought to shape how Christians talk about sin. When the Bible says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), it should never be said with superiority. It should be said with honesty and hope: not “you are terrible,” but “I am deeply flawed, and Jesus is so good.” The point is not that we are better; the point is that Jesus is the Light, and we are pointing others to Him.
3) Jesus Brings Us Into God’s Family: Love That Adopts
If Jesus is the Light, how do we come into that light? John’s third picture answers: “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Notice what John does not say. He does not say, “to all who cleaned themselves up,” or “to all who finally got their spiritual act together.” He says, “to all who received him.” Receiving a gift is not the same as earning wages, and believing is not the same as performing. It is grace for those willing to receive it.
And John says the gift is a new status: “the right to become children of God.” That word “right” matters. It is legitimate standing, real belonging—not as a tolerated outsider, but as a true son or daughter welcomed home. But how can God give that kind of belonging to people like us? John’s answer is not that we climb our way up into God’s family; it is that God comes down into our world to bring us in from the inside. That is why Christmas is not only sentimental; it is the incarnation.
The author Dorothy Sayers offers a vivid picture of this. In her Lord Peter Wimsey novels, Wimsey is a brilliant and successful sleuth, but incomplete, and later Sayers introduces Harriet Vane—an Oxford-educated detective novelist, strikingly similar to Sayers herself. Literary commentators suggested that Sayers “wrote herself into the story” to bring it to a resolution from within. That gives us a glimpse of the incarnation: God does not simply send a clue; the Author of life literally wrote Himself into the story. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14).
Application: Don’t Just Look—Receive
So what do we do with this? John’s answer is wonderfully direct: receive Him. Not merely admire Jesus, or approve of Him as a moral teacher, but entrust yourself to Him. You become a child of God by coming to Jesus with empty hands and saying, “I receive you. I trust you. I need you.” This is what love looks like when it comes down.
This Christmas, don’t only look at the manger and think, “What a cute baby.” Look again and realize what it means: the Word became flesh so that sinners could become sons and daughters. Advent is not only remembrance; it is invitation. If you have been curious about Jesus or unsure what to do with Him, John does not ask you to solve every question first. He invites you to receive Christ—because the deepest gift of Christmas is not improved spirituality; it is adoption into God’s family. And if you already believe, this text invites us to live as people in the Light—humble about sin and confident in His grace
Closing Prayer
Sovereign Lord, we thank You that You did not remain distant. You have spoken—not only in words, but in the Word made flesh. Jesus, You are the Light of the world. Shine into our darkness—into our confusion, our guilt, our fear—and expose what is false, heal what is broken, and guide what is lost. Make us Your sons and daughters by grace and as a church, help us to live in the Light with humility and joy, so that others may see Your goodness. In Jesus’ name,
Amen.