We are taking a journey to Bethlehem.  We know where this journey ends, it ends at the cradle in which lies Jesus Christ. 

                    I want every person to understand how unique and how important Jesus is.   Through my stammering lips I pray the Holy Spirit will help you to see Jesus as he really is.  This journey to Bethlehem is really showing us Jesus Christ.

                    This verse is full of great teaching.  Each word is crafted by the Holy Spirit to enlighten us and help us understand the truth about Jesus Christ.  We found last week that the words “in the beginning...”  were not mere words, but brought to the minds of the Jewish people the story of creation.  The word “Word” does not convey mere words, but tells us that Jesus is God’s logo.  Looking at Jesus gives us a visual picture of God.  He shows God both in who he is and in what he says.  We say that “a picture is worth a thousand words.”   Jesus is a thousand, thousand words about God. 

                    Now we come to the next phrase...the Word was with God.  We know by looking ahead to verse 14 that this is speaking of Jesus.  For verse 14 tells us that the word became flesh.  In other words, this Word becomes human.  That refers to Jesus Christ.  So as we study this phrase, “The Word was with God...”  we realize that John makes the claim that before Jesus was born, He was with God.

                    In the Greek, the preposition “prov” (pros) means to “be near or facing.”  In the accusative case, it means “to or towards.”  I do not say this to impress you with my knowledge of Greek, I took this from “A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament” by Dana and Mantey, but to impress on you how careful the Holy Spirit conveyed to John an important truth.

                    The Word and God were not with each other as two people might be on an airplane at the same time.  They might sit in different seats and different aisles and never communicate.  But John is telling us that the Word was near God, was facing God, was moving toward God.  In other words, they were connecting with one another.

                    Let’s stop here and think about what I have just said.  We need to because of John’s purpose in writing this was that 1) we would believe in Jesus and 2) we would have life through His name.

                    What this verse is telling us is that Jesus, who is the Word, was communicating with God.  Before Jesus was every born,  Jesus and God were facing each other.  Before Jesus was a baby, he was interacting with God.  He was with God.

                    This is huge!  If Jesus was with God, if he and God talked before he was born, than wouldn’t it naturally follow that Jesus knows more about God than anyone else who has not been in the presence of God?  Jesus has been around a long time as we saw last week.  But more than his age and his part in creation, John goes on to tell us that Jesus was with God before He was born.

                    This is a tough sell for many.  But once you are able to get over the hurdle that Jesus was not an ordinary person, but was with God, you will be able to believe and experience the life he has for you.

                    What I want to do is look through the book of John and see how this idea that the Word was with God, that Jesus was with God is spelled out in the book of John.

                    Joh 1:18* No-one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.

                     No-one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man.” John 3:13, NIV.

                    “38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” 41 At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”” John 6:38-42, NIV.

                    Joh 16:28* I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

                    Joh 17:5* And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

                    You cannot be a Christian and not believe in the Jesus of the New Testament.  I have not made this up this morning,  the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus was with God.  He was sent by God, he came to do God’s will, the will he knew because he and God talked about this before He came.

                    If this is true, then the connection of Jesus, the Word and God should bring us contentment.

                    Anything Jesus says about anything will carry more weight than the greatest scholars of the day.  If Jesus speaks on eternal life,  believe Him.  If he speaks on human relationships and what they should be like, believe him.  If he speaks on creation or the value of human life, believe Him.  If Jesus says that Jonah and the fish is a true story, believe Him.  He was there and He comes with that message from God.  Jesus will never be outdated or irrelevant to our society because His Word is God’s Word.  He was with God and is accurate about God and His will and His plan.

                    The uniqueness of Jesus in this matter gives us contentment.  If, for example, we cntrast Moses and Jesus,  Jesus wins every time.  Moses had some encounter with God on Mt. Sinai, but nothing like Jesus who was with God from the beginning.

                    Or Muhammad or Joseph Smith makes a clam about a revelation from God.  When we contrast either one with Jesus,  Jesus wins.  He didn’t get a revelation from God, he was with God.

                    And when this connection of the Word with God brings contentment, it should lead us to some important convictions.

1.  The most important decision you can make in your life is to trust Jesus.  He was face to face with God.  God sent Him on a mission.  His words are God’s words to us.  We are called to believe in Him, to trust in Him.

2.  We need to teach our children about Jesus.  The idea that we teach our children nothing, but let them decide when they get older doesn’t work.  If Jesus was with God, then he is the expert on God.  Just as we would send our child to be best coaches to learn a sport, to the best musicians to learn music, to the best schools to be educated, we need to bring them to Jesus to find out about God.

3.  Isn’t it time to start acting on what we believe?  We believe in commitment to Christ, but many of us are stretched so thin that we don’t know what we are committed to.  We know what we should do, but we come up with excuses to disobey God.  We have a sense of the life God would have for us, but do not have enough respect for Jesus to trust Him. 

                    So our marriages are in trouble, we are in debt, we are unforgiving and dealing with issues of anger, greed and the such.  We are spotty in our church attendance, reading our Bibles and praying.  We hesitate to share our faith.  We give as little as possible.  We hold back on using our gifts, talents and expertise for the Kingdom of God. 

                    But if Jesus, the Word, was with God, then we will have a conviction that the most important thing in our life is to follow Jesus, to be his disciple, to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. 

                    Wouldn’t it be something if, as a result of this phrase, “the Word was with God...” that someone here saw the uniqueness of Christ and decided to get off the fence and put their trust in Christ!  Are you the one this morning?

                    And wouldn’t it be exciting if a Christian today, as a result of this phrase in the Bible, “The Word was with God...”  decided that they truly wanted to walk and live with the Word,  that they were going to truly follow Jesus Christ!   Are you the one this morning?

                    I want to let you know that if you make that decision, God will be pleased.  His word is meant to bring forth fruit and your decision would fall under the category of fruit.

                    I also want to let you know that if you decide to trust Christ or to repent and follow Christ, you will inspire other Christians in their walk with God.  We have had many people who are here today who made a public decision to follow Christ and we have other who have been Christians for years who rededicated their lives to Christ.  When we have known it or seen it, it has been a tremendous encouragement for us.