“The Word”
[John 1:1-14]
December 26, 2010 Second Reformed Church
Matthew and Luke gave us the history of Mary and Joseph and the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. John introduces to Jesus, God the Son, beginning before the Creation in his Gospel.
John begins “In the beginning was the Word.” We immediately think of Genesis 1:1 when Moses tells us, “In the beginning God.” John stretches us beyond comprehension into the time before time when God alone existed. And he tells us that in that timeless time, the Word was.
We come to find out in the first chapter of John that he is telling us about God the Son Who came to earth in Jesus of Nazareth. So, why does John call Him “the Word”? “The Word” (or “the Speech” as some translate it) is the active revelation – or revealing of God. Just as we know God and His Salvation through the Word of God, in history, God’s Salvation through Jesus Alone was revealed through God Who came to earth in the Person of Jesus – the Birth of the Little Baby we celebrated yesterday. We only know God and His Salvation through His Word Who is Jesus, God the Son, Incarnate.
What does John tells us about the Word?
The Word was before the creation of time and space recorded by Moses in Genesis. The Word was with God where God was before time and space existed. And before we start to stray into thinking there is more than one god or some other heresy, John tells us that the Word is God.
We are treading on the grounds of the Mystery of the Trinity: there is One and Only One God. Yet, God exists in more than one person. God and the Word are two distinct Persons, but they are the same One God. That is what the Scripture tells us, hard as it is to wrap our minds around. Paul writes, “For in [Jesus] all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:19, ESV)
John continues by telling us that the Word created everything that is. Paul concurs, “For by [Jesus] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16, ESV).
This makes sense because we know that “in the beginning God created,” and now we have been told that the Word is God. So, in the beginning the Word created. John is showing the Persons Who is the One God as all being involved in the creation.
In the Word, there is life. We are, we will remember, born dead in our sins: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among who we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:1-3, ESV). He is the Word Who provides the Only Way through Him to be right with God – to be made spiritually alive.
We are born dead and blind to the things of God, but through the Word Who came to earth two thousand years ago, we can see. Isaiah prophesied, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwell in a land of deep darkness; on them has light shined” (Isaiah 9:2, ESV). Jesus is the Light Who shatters out darkness and becomes our Lamp. The Light shines in our birth darkness and gives us life in Him. Through the Resurrection of the Word, Jesus, we are also raised from our spiritual death to spiritual life, as the Light sweeps away the darkness and makes our way clear in Him.
Before Jesus made it clear that He is the Word, God sent His cousin, John the Baptist, on before Him to prepare the people and to prepare the way for Jesus. That is not to say that Jesus needed a human to announce Him – Jesus could have just appeared as He did to the Apostle Paul and announce Himself – but for our sake, He sent a herald to bear witness to Jesus and the fact that He is God the Son, the Word, the Long-Awaited Savior. John announced Him “that all might believe through him.”
John was not the Light – he had no authority or ability in-and-of himself to help anyone. But his calling as herald was confirmed by Jesus, showing that John was given a call and an authority by God Himself to announce the Savior.
John announced that the True Light which enlightens everyone who will believe was coming into the world. It is only through the Word that a person might be made right with God – not through the Law, not through being descendants of Abraham, not through the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes.
And that certainly sounds wonderful – that the Word was coming with Good News – that Jesus would make all those who believe in Him Alone right with God – that Jesus is the Savior that Israel had longed for for thousands of years – but John changes tense in the next verse and says that not only was the Word coming into the world, the Word was already in the world, and though He created the world, the world didn’t know Him, and though the Jews had been waiting for the Savior, when He came, they didn’t recognize Him.
Yesterday was Christmas. We celebrated with friends and family. It’s the one day it’s alright to say, “Merry Christmas, “ and many, many people said it – especially if you just made a purchase from their store. How many people in the mall and in the shops and in our family and among our friends believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior – God in the flesh? Most of my relatives don’t believe.
It’s a heart-breaking report to know that Jesus came to earth – the Creator of all came and lived among us. He came with Good News – that God was with us – come to make us right with Him. And so many said, “Who are You?” or worse.
I was talking with someone this week and she said that if there is a god, then everything that is is God’s fault – that God caused sin and evil. I said that is that were true, then God would be evil. And she asked me if God wasn’t evil – that God would allow or cause all the horrible things that happen on earth – God must be evil – if He even exists. I explained that humans chose to bring sin and evil into the world, and that the point of Christmas is that God sent His Son, Jesus, to earth so that everyone who believes in Him Alone for salvation would be made right with God. And she cursed me out.
Isaiah spoke for God, saying, “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey it’s master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand” (Isaiah 1:3, ESV).
“He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” How can such a horrible thing be true? The only way is to acknowledge that the Bible is right, the Word is right, God is right – we are born blind and dead in our sin.
“But” – one of the most wonderful words in such a context ”But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” If you and I have believed savingly on Jesus, we are now sons and daughters of God – brothers and sisters of Jesus – co-heirs with Jesus of His Father’s Kingdom – we are now made right in the Eyes of the Father and we are assured everlasting life with Jesus – the Word – in His Kingdom. Paul writes, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9, ESV).
All a person dead in his sins has to do is confess faith in Jesus Alone for salvation and he shall be saved. Do we see a problem? How can a dead person choose to live? He can’t. That’s why John tells us that the children of God – those who believe savingly in Jesus – the Word – are those “who were born, not of the blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” In other words, no one can choose to believe – God has to choose to give us faith and belief – then we are alive and then we can respond to what God has done for us – as a gift – in pure mercy and grace.
We may well ask ourselves then, how shall we live? If God has made us His sons and daughters, how ought we to live? Ought we to live as though we are blind and without knowledge of the Word? Or ought people be able to look at us and see something of our royal heritage?
I heard a number of people say this past week that “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.” Why is that? Why do we give gifts at Christmas? We tend to think of the magi and their gifts, but that is not the reason, the reason is that God gave us the greatest and only eternally valuable Gift in sending His Son to earth on that first Christmas to be our Savior.
John says “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” We remember that the Baby Jesus was to be called “Immanuel” which means, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). God the Son – the Word – the revelation of God and His Salvation – came to earth from Heaven. He took on the real human being Jesus, and He is One Person – fully God and fully human.
“And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
We know from the Scripture that no mere human can look at the Face of God and live (Exodus 33:20) What John is telling us is that through the lense of the Person of Jesus – for the first and only time – humans can look upon the Face of God and see His Glory – His Grace – His Truth – not the full-on revealing of glory and grace and truth, but enough – what we can stand as mere humans.
In knowing Jesus, Who is the Word of God, we behold the Glory of God. Isn’t that amazing? You and I can look at Jesus, through the Scripture, and see something of the Glory of God. It is only a small glimpse of what we will see in the Kingdom, but it is something so wonderful – so powerful – that it cause the proud to be humble and the wise to acknowledge their foolishness.
Have you seen the Glory of God?
In knowing Jesus, Who is the Word of God, He Who was sent from God His Father to His people, we experience the Grace and Truth of God. God reaches down into our chest and removes our hearts of stone and gives us hearts of flesh that we might rejoice and believe in Him savingly. We can understand something of why God had to come to earth and live among us and then die and rise and ascend again to His Throne in order to make us right with Him. The fact that God took that work on Himself is Grace. And it is the Truth of the Gospel.
Have you received the Word of God? Have you believed in His Son, Jesus? Is that why you celebrated Christmas yesterday?
Then let us praise God the Father, God the Son – His Word, and God the Holy Spirit for revealing God’s Word – our Savior, Jesus Christ – to us and all who believe. And let us live as the children of God that God might use us to be the means through which other come to know the Word and believe in Him Alone for salvation.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You that Christmas is not about the presents we get, or even the presents we give, nor is it about what good people we are. We thank You that Christmas is about the revealing of the Word – Your Son, Jesus – to all those who will believe. Help us to be Your sons and daughters, and may all who see us find a reason to look for You and find You. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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