AFTER THE SERMON-God’s Incredible Love Personified: Part 2

We hope today’s message was encouraging and helpful. These notes are meant to help you remember and reflect on the message, help you go deeper into study on the subject, or to be used for a Bible/sermon group study. Enjoy!

Main Scripture: John 1:1-18

Other scripture mentioned: John 3:18-21, 1 John 1:5-7, Isaiah 53, and Philippians 2:5-11.

(If you’re going through this discussion with a community group this week consider taking the time to read or paraphrase through some of the provided scripture to catch everyone up!)

Overview:

We talked today again about God’s incredible love personified through His son, Jesus. When Jesus was born, they called him Emmanuel which means “God with us”. What a wonderful thing to reflect on this Christmas season as well as every day of our lives. We looked today on how God is always proactive in being in our lives. We see that every time in scripture, when humans needed anything or were facing the impossible, God came through for them. We serve the same God today who wants the best for us.

We read John 1:1-18 and focused on what Jesus did in becoming like one of us. He did it to redeem us so that when we leave this life, we will have an eternal home with Jesus. We looked at Jesus being the light of all mankind. Light has some interesting characteristics which we talked about. The main points are as follows:

Takeaways:

• Light overpowers darkness but darkness cannot overpower the light.

• Light is an entity. Darkness is merely the absence of light.

• Light breeds confidence. We can see where we are going. Darkness breeds uncertainty and fear. We cannot see what is ahead in the dark.

• Light is beautiful. Slowed down by a prism, we can see that light is made up of many colors. We only see white because light moves too fast for our eyes to discern. Imagine what we will see when we are God and removed from our physical restraints.

• Other scriptures we looked at is John 3:18-21 and 1 John 1:5-7. In essence, God is light and in Him, there is no darkness at all. If we live in the light, we too can reduce the darkness within us. That is what Jesus’ birth and life were all about. We have fellowship with the Light of the universe and it perfects the fellowship we have with each other.

• We also read Isaiah 53 that talks about what Jesus experienced when he got here. He was despised and rejected, pierced for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities. We are all like sheep who have gone our own way, but the Lord laid on Him that iniquity of us all. What a wonderful part of the Christmas story. Think about these points:

  • No other god in the universe did what Jesus did. He lived with us to understand and have compassion for what we go through.

  • Look at what Jesus did to abandon His position in heaven to be like us:

    • He had everything, but made Himself nothing (Philippians 2:5-11) to take the form of a servant for us.

  • Everything Jesus did was personal.

    • He did everything for every one of us personally. No one is outside of His reach and everyone has access to the same grace given to us by God. He sacrificed himself just for you and me.

      When you are celebrating Christmas this year and every year and even every day of the year, always remember what Jesus really did for us. It’s not about the worldly trappings, it is about what God did through His son Jesus.

Discussion:

• What does what Jesus did for you in His birth, life, death, and resurrection mean to you personally?

• How can we get excited enough about the life of Jesus to tell others how he changed our own lives in order to plant seeds of change in them?

• How has the Light of God changed you personally since you came to know Him? Share that with others who have not yet known the Light of the universe.

• What other points impacted you the most regarding this message?

Pray:

Dear Lord, thank you so much for being willing to live a life on this earth like we do so you can identify with us. Thank you that you are still very invested to see that I have a place with you in eternity. Help me spread this light in this dark world so that others may know that light and also be with you in all eternity. Thank you so much for what you did for me and help me to serve you all the rest of my days on this earth. In Jesus name, Amen!

We hoped you found this AFTER THE SERMON discussion helpful for your walk with Jesus. We pray you can find ways to apply it this week!