Title: Words
Text: John 1:1-18
Thesis: Our text is the Christmas story. There is no Mary and Joseph. There are no shepherds and sheep. There are no angels singing on high. There are no magi following yonder star. There is neither manger nor stable. Yet it is another way of telling the Christmas story.
Introduction:
When Bonnie and I were in college there was a popular place to eat on North Snelling Avenue in St. Paul. It was about a block or so north of University Avenue, on the west side of the street. It was called Sweden House and it was famous for its smorgasbord. The buffet was a veritable feast of breads, salads, sides, entrees and desserts. The great temptation, of course, was to load your plate and chow down but a more measured and wiser way to approach it was to take a sampling of several of the offerings. Rather than gobble ones way through the smorgasbord, consequently stuffing yourself early on… you could nibble your way enjoying a little of this and a little of that.
We are going to nibble our way through the text today. We could fill our plates with any one of the words we are going to talk about but rather than stuffing ourselves on one word, we will nibble on several.
The first word is Word.
I. The Word: Word
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. John 1:1-3
I am afraid that most of us have probably created Jesus into an image that appeals to our sentiments.
• There’s the Republican Jesus—who is against tax increases and activist judges, for family values and owning firearms.
• There’s Democrat Jesus—who is against Wall Street and Wal-Mart, for reducing our carbon footprint and printing money.
• There’s Therapist Jesus—who helps us cope with life’s problems, heals our past, tells us how valuable we are and not to be so hard on ourselves.
• There’s Starbucks Jesus—who drinks fair trade coffee, loves spiritual conversations, drives a hybrid, and goes to film festivals.
• There’s Open-minded Jesus—who loves everyone all the time no matter what (except for people who are not as open-minded as you).
• There’s Touchdown Jesus—who helps athletes run faster and jump higher than non-Christians and determines the outcomes of Super Bowls.
• There’s Good Example Jesus—who shows you how to help people, change the planet, and become a better you. ("Who Do You Say That I Am?" from his DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed blog, 6-10-09)
But Jesus defies those limitations. The Bible says that Jesus was with God in the beginning and that Jesus was the agent responsible for creating and sustaining the universe.
This is what the bible says about Jesus in Colossians 1:15-21: He is the image of the invisible God… for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. He is before all things and in him all things hold together or are sustained. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him…”
The Word in our text refers to what we think of as the pre-existent Christ or Christ before he became the baby in the manger in Bethlehem who grew up to be the Savior of the world. The Christmas story is about how the Word of God, i.e., the pre-existent Christ who existed in time an eternity with God and one with God, humbled himself making himself nothing by being made in human likeness. Philippians 2:5-11
The image we are to have of Jesus is not that of a super Democrat or Republlican or patriot or therapist or sports enthusiast… but the creator and sustainer of the universe. This is the Word of God revealed to us as the expression of God. This Word came down from his glory to live among us and die for us.
The second word is received.
II. The Word: Received
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor human decision, but born of God. John 1:10-13
A. Rejection
Verses 10-13 present us with an antithesis or a contrast. It says that the Word or Jesus was in the world but the world did not know him and did not receive him. In other words, the world rejected him. The people to whom he came, i.e., the people of Israel, rejected him.
We turn people away for any number of reasons. If you have a Facebook page you may be asked to be friended by someone. When that happens you are presented with two little boxes: One box says, “Confirm” and the other says, “Ignore” If you do not want to be a Facebook friend with someone you can simply ignore the request or in other words, reject the invitation.
When Jesus came into the world he found that many of the people, whom you would have thought would be open to his friendship, were not and either ignored, rejected or even resisted him.
B. Reception
The text also says that though there were those who rejected him, others received him and believed in him. Those who believe in and receive Christ “confirm” him as their friend and savior, so to speak. And it is in receiving Christ that we are granted the supreme privilege of being called Children of God.
So as we graze our way through the smorgasbord we have had a taste of the Word of God or the expression of God in Christ, whom we may either reject or receive.
Interestingly enough God does not just leave it there in the realm of the surreal. He lets us see the Word as the expression of God in the person of Jesus Christ.
The third word is seen.
III. The Word: Seen
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
I am kind of a sap for a good love story… especially one of those where a really nerdy guy is madly in love but hasn’t the courage to let his feelings be known. So he loves her from a distance. Finally he gets up the nerve to send her flowers and when the flowers are delivered, she carefully opens the little envelope and it says, “From a Secret Admirer.” Then it’s a box of really fine dark chocolates and the little card reads, “From a Secret Admirer.” A few days later she receives a syrupy love poem and it is signed, “From a Secret Admirer.” Then through some quirky set of circumstances he realizes that she thinks someone else is the “secret admirer” and he sees that she is making overtures to that guy who cares not a whit for her and unable to contain himself any longer he confesses, “I am your secret admirer.” He makes himself known.
That is what God has done for us in Christ. That is what Immanuel means… God with us. Jesus gave God a face, ears, eyes, hands, feet and a heart. When we see Jesus, we see the One and Only who came from the Father.
In the classic conversation between Jesus and his disciples when he told them he was going away to prepare a place for them, he told them that when it was ready he would come again and take them to that place. Then he said, “You know the way to the place I am going.”
Thomas immediately took exception and said, “Lord, we haven’t a clue as to where you are going, so how can we know the way?” And Jesus replied, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip, unable to contain himself, jumped into the conversation and said to Jesus, “Show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
And then, seeming to take exception, Jesus says, “Philip, don’t you know me? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father… I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” John 14:1-9 (1-14)
So we have the expressed Word of God, incarnate or made flesh in Christ, whom we may reject or receive… and through receiving him we are granted the supreme privilege of being called Children of God.
The fourth word is grace.
IV. The Word: Grace
From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:16-17
Behind the coming of the expression of God in the person of Jesus Christ, whom we may receive and in so doing experience the New Birth making us Children of God, is the source of it all. God’s immeasurable grace.
I love the water. I would love to live on the water… on a shoreline. I enjoy watching Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. When we lived in California I enjoyed the pounding of the surf as the Pacific came ashore. One a couple of occasions, Bonnie and I have been able to connect visiting her parents in North Carolina with an overnight trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. In the off-season we can get a very reasonably priced ocean front hotel suite where we can just walk out onto the Atlantic shore. We walk up and down the beach or we sit and listen to the roar and watch the incoming waves.
This is how the ocean works. A wave will break some distance from the shore and it will rise up and rush up onto the sand where it just seems to die and slip back into the Atlantic. And then another wave will break and rise up and rush up on the sand where it seems to die and slip back into the Atlantic. And then another and another and another and another and another…
That is the image God wants us to have of his grace and truth. His grace and truth are like the fullness of an ocean that comes rushing ashore in wave after wave after wave. “From the fullness of his grace we have received one blessing after another.” Another way to say it is that, “we have received grace upon grace upon grace upon grace” from the abundance of God’s mercy and love.
The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ whose mercy continues to wash over us wave after wave after wave…”
Conclusion
There was a time when the bread-winner of the family worked a night shift in a low paying job and relied on food stamps to feed their large family. But that all changed after the Saint Louis Rams won the Super Bowl in 2000. And from those humble beginnings that man and his family are now known as the most generous supporters of charitable causes of any NFL player. But apart from that, the Warner family makes it a point, knowing that they are blessed, to be generous in many other ways.
Kurt Warner, the two-time NFL MVP quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals, started a family tradition he calls The Restaurant Game. The night before he heads out for a road game, Kurt and his wife Brenda take their seven children out to a restaurant to eat a family dinner. One they are seated, one of the children will scan the dining area like a quarterback scans the field looking for potential receivers. When the child picks a table, Kurt asks the waiter to add that table’s dinner tab to his own – anonymously. So on any given pre-game night a family eats freely because of the goodness of a family that knows it is blessed beyond measure. (Karen Crouse, “Warner Sets Example for His Family and the Cardinals,” www.nytimes.com, 9/26/08)
We too eat freely from the smorgasbord of God’s grace extended to us in the birth of the Son of God, who became flesh and blood and body and soul and lived among us and died for us that we might receive the free gift of salvation and be called Children of God.
And so:
• We have sampled the Word who is Christ
• We have Received the Word who is Christ
• We have Seen the Word who is Christ
• And we have recognized the Word as the Grace of God in Christ.
And so the biblical writer declares, How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! I John 3:1
