Whereas Matthew and Luke give us the facts of the story of Christmas, the prologue of John’s gospel opens the curtain to help us see the meaning of the story of Christmas. We have seen that John makes the astounding claim that Jesus is God Embodied. Now we will see that he teaches us that Jesus is the source of light and (new) life itself.

When we look for the Christmas story in the Bible, we find it in Matthew and Luke. But what about John? Does John’s gospel teach us anything about Christmas? Absolutely! Let’s take a look at what John has to say in this, the first of a 5-part series on Christmas from John’s perspective.

One of the most amazing – and neglected – promises of the Bible is this: “The Lord Jesus Christ … will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body….” Can it be true that our bodies will one day be transformed into bodies like Jesus’? And if so, how does that future reality affect our day-to-day lives?

When once we discover that righteous is not a reward to achieve, but rather, a gift to receive, we are set free from living like a bookkeeper, seeking to improve our “net worth” before God. It is a glorious freedom! But does that mean we simply coast toward death? By no means! Like an athlete training for a race, we “press on toward the goal.”

What is it that gives you confidence before God? Many of us are like Paul in his early life: he had confidence in his religious heritage, and in his moral character. However, this "confidence in the flesh," as he calls it, fell by the wayside when he had a life-changing encounter with the Risen Jesus Christ. Now he considered all that as "rubbish." What was it that he embraced instead? Let's find out together.

Despite its reputation, joy is not the primary theme of the letter to the Philippians. Paul wrote it for two reasons: to thank them for their gift of love, and to admonish them to live as a community of love and unity. In this section, of the book, we are given three examples of how that works out in real life.

As a colony of Rome, Philippi was a city of unique distinction, enjoying all the rights of Roman citizenship despite being in faraway Greece. They were proud of their heritage, and eager to show themselves worthy of the honor. Paul, knowing this, challenged them to affirm an even higher calling: as citizens of God’s kingdom, they were to live a life “worthy of the gospel of Christ.” What did this mean for them? What does it mean for us?

Problems. Everyone has them. Some of us are able to maintain our balance (our “poise”) in the midst of them; others of us lose our balance when life throws us a curve. The apostle Paul kept his poise in the midst of his problems. What was his secret?

It is a consistent theme in Paul’s writings: unity and purity. The body of Christ must not be divided; the body of Christ must not be polluted. These values were as countercultural in Paul’s day as they are in ours. How do we nurture and uphold these ideals in the midst of our “anything goes” culture? Or, given contemporary realities, are these values outdated?

The church in Philippi was very near to Paul’s heart. Perhaps it was because he never intended to plant a church there. But after several stops and starts, he and his friends arrived and met a few women praying by the river. This small beginning led to a thriving church whose ministry influence extended around the world. It was, after all, the first European church.