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. John 1;14 ESV
The apostle John makes one of the most profound statements in all of scripture. "We beheld His glory". We saw Him as He really is! Christmas teaches us that those who saw Jesus were never the same Look at some of the responses to “beholding His glory” in the birth of Jesus Christ.
1. The shepherds- Luke 2:17-20, so they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them... The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
2. The Magi-Matthew 2:11, On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. The Magi brought him gifts and worshipped him.
3. Mary- Luke 2:19, But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Mary responded with worship and quiet reflection.
4. The Apostle Paul- 2 Corinthians 9:15, Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! Romans 11:33-36, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen."
Jonathan Edwards stirs my heart when I read of his experience of seeing Jesus. He speaks of...
the excellent fullness of Christ, and His greatness and suitableness as a Savior; whereby He has appeared to me, far above all, the chief of ten thousands. And His blood and atonement has appeared sweet, and His righteousness sweet; which is always accompanied with an ardency of spirit, and inward strugglings and breathings and groanings, that cannot be uttered, to be emptied of myself, and swallowed up in Christ
He goes on to speak of...
the glory of the Son of God as mediator between God and man, and His wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared to me so calm and sweet appeared great above the heavens. The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent, with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception, . . . which kept me, the bigger part of the time, in a flood of tears and weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of soul to be . . . emptied and annihilated, to lie in the dust and to be full of Christ alone; to love Him with a holy and pure love; to trust in Him; to live upon Him; to serve and follow Him, and to be totally wrapped up in the fullness of Christ, and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure, with a divine and heavenly purity.
When we are delighted with flowery meadows and gentle breezes of wind, we may consider that we see only the emanations of the sweet benevolence of Jesus Christ. When we behold the fragrant rose and lily, we see His love and purity. So the green trees and fields and singing of birds are the emanations of His infinite joy and benignity [that is, kindness]. The easiness and naturalness of trees and vines are shadows of His beauty and loveliness. The crystal rivers and murmuring streams are the footsteps of His favor, grace, and beauty. When we behold the light and brightness of the sun, the golden edges of an evening cloud, or the beauteous rainbow, we behold the adumbrations of His glory and goodness; and in the blue sky of His mildness and gentleness. There are also many things wherein we may behold His awful majesty, in the sun in His strength, in comets, in thunder, in the hovering thunderclouds, in ragged rocks, and the brows of mountains. That beauteous light with which the world is filled in a clear day, is a lively shadow of His spotless holiness, and happiness and delight in communicating Himself."
But will Jesus be enough? The world seems to offer so much more, so much easier, so much faster. Is there in the beauty of all that Jesus is and offers sufficient joy to keep my soul satisfied and to stem its search for other delights? Jesus, and only Jesus, says Edwards,
has true excellency, and so great excellency, that when [weary souls] come to see it they look no further, but the mind rests there. It sees a transcendent glory and an ineffable sweetness in Him; it sees that till now it has been pursuing shadows, but that now it has found the substance; that before it had been seeking happiness in the stream, but that now it has found the ocean. The excellency of Christ is an object adequate to the natural cravings of the soul, and is sufficient to fill the capacity. It is an infinite excellency, such a one as the mind desires, in which it can find no bounds. . . . Every new discovery makes this beauty appear more ravishing, and the mind sees no end; here is room enough for the mind to go deeper and deeper, and never come to the bottom The soul is exceedingly ravished when it first looks on this beauty, and it is never weary of it. The mind never has any satiety, but Christ's excellency is always fresh and new, and tends as much to delight, after it has seen a thousand or ten thousand years, as when it was seen the first moment."
What has the power to transform our desires and reconfigure our longings and stir our emotional chemistry that we might love what God loves and hate what He hates? Only one thing. Jesus, in all His beauty. Jesus, in all that He is for us now and will be tomorrow. Edwards is certain that only Jesus can satisfy our soul's desire. He says:
[In Jesus] the longing soul may be satisfied and the hungry soul may be filled with goodness. The delight and contentment that is to be found here, passeth understanding, and is unspeakable and full of glory. It is impossible for those who ever tasted of this fountain, and know the sweetness of it, ever to forsake it. The soul has found the river of water of life, and it desires no other drink; it has found the tree of life, and it desires no other fruit.
I too, have seen Jesus and this is God's mission in my life: to see Him for who He truly is, to savor Him for all that He is worth; to maximize my "delight and contentment" in Him. Then my mission in ministry: to show, speak, live, exalt, and portray Jesus in such a light that, turning to Him, others will find complete satisfaction and lose their taste for sin. Edwards says:
There is every kind of thing dispensed in Christ that tends to make us excellent and amiable, and every kind of thing that tends to make us happy. There is that which shall fill every faculty of the soul and in a great variety. What a glorious variety is there for the entertainment of the understanding! How many glorious objects set forth, most worthy to be meditated upon and understood! There are all the glorious attributes of God and the beauties of Jesus Christ, and manifold wonders to be seen in the way of salvation, the glories of heaven and the excellency of Christian graces. . . . The blessings are innumerable.
“Oh come let us adore him, Christ the Lord!”
Pastor Bill
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