Knowing Him – The Word Dwelling Among Us – John 1:1-18 – December 25, 2011
Series: What’s Jesus Got To Do With Christmas? #3
Rev. Kevin Haley tells a story of a memorable event that happened to him one December day. He says, “When my son was just 5 years old, he and I were standing in line at a card store during the Christmas season. He noticed on the counter a small statue for sale, depicting Santa kneeling at the manger of baby Jesus. Curiously he asked me, "Daddy, did that really happen?"
Knowing it had not happened but not wanting to blow any Santa legend, I simply replied, "No, it did not." Satisfied with my answer, he stepped over to be with his mother, while I remained in line with the card I was going to purchase. The woman standing in front of me in line turned around and snapped, "How dare you, sir?"
I said, "How dare I what, ma’am?" She said, "How dare you tell your little boy that didn’t happen?" I pointed to the statue and said, "This? Well, it didn’t happen." She insisted, "Oh yes it did! It’s in the Bible. You really ought to read it!"
Chuckling to myself, I told her that I did indeed read the Bible and in fact was a Christian minister. She slammed her cards down on the counter without buying them and stormed out of the store. I apologized to the clerk if I had cost her a sale, but she couldn’t stop laughing, saying, "I can’t believe she actually thought that really happened! I guess some people don’t know the truth about Christmas." (Rev. Kevin Haley, Illustrations, www.sermoncentral.com)
And it’s true – there are many people who do not know the truth about Christmas which is why our Christmas series this year has been entitled, “What’s Jesus Got To Do With Christmas?” That’s the question we’ve been answering for the last couple of weeks and we’ve discovered that, first of all, Jesus is living proof of God’s love for us, secondly that in Jesus we’re given an example of how we are to love one another, and then this morning we are going to discover that Jesus is the pendulum, pivot point, fulcrum of your life and mine.
So let’s open our Bibles this morning to the Gospel of John. John, chapter 1, and we’ll begin reading in verse 1 …
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 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 did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” (John 1:1–18, NIV)
Years ago a sign was seen hanging in a store window during the Christmas season. It captures the heart felt sentiments of many people even today. The original message stated, “Let’s make this the best Christmas ever.” And who among us has not thought the same thing at one time or another? But underneath the original wording, some perceptive person had scribbled a legitimate question: “How will we top the first one?” (Davon Huss, Illustrations, www.sermoncentral.com, Adapted)
Indeed, how could we possibly top the events of that very first Christmas for John tells us that something remarkable, and unprecedented in all of time, in all of creation, was taking place on that night so long ago. Under the night sky, as angels proclaimed the goods news to the shepherds watching their sheep, a tiny baby was born to an unassuming young couple. But as precious as each tiny life is, John tells us that there was something even more special about the baby born that night. His name was Jesus and He would be called, “Immanuel,” meaning “God with us.”
And John tells us that this one, who was born in the flesh, did not mark His beginning when He drew His first breath, but that He had, in fact, always been. He has no beginning. Before time as we know it ever began, He was. He was with God and He was God. These verses speak to the doctrine of the Trinity – the fact that God is somehow three in one – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Word, and the Word is the second person of the Trinity, the Son, and all the things that we can see and touch and know have been made through Him.
Verse 14 makes it clear … this child was God in the flesh. “The Word became flesh,” it says, “and made His dwelling among us.” And the term, that is translated, “Word,” is the Greek word, “logos.” It conveys the meaning of not just words, but of a message, and not just of a message but a proclamation of that message, and not just a proclamation, but it wraps up in it all the thought, and the heart, from which that message comes, as well.
Someone once said that the best way to share an idea with someone is not to simply write that idea down on a piece of paper. Rather it’s to send that idea wrapped up in the form of a person who understands the idea you’re trying to share, and who lives it out in their life. That’s what God the Father was doing in Jesus, the Son. Warren Wiersbe has said that, “Just as our words reveal our mind and heart, so Christ reveals the mind and heart of God to men.” (Warren Wiersbe, Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament)
Jesus spoke these words to His disciples one day saying … “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. … The words I say to you I do not speak on My own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His work. Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” (John 14:9–11, NIV) And in Hebrews 1:3 Paul writes, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being.” (Hebrews 1:3, NIV)
Jesus, is the Word of God. He is the very living heart of what God wanted the world to see, and to know and to understand. Jesus is what God wanted “to speak” into the world. He is the revelation of God given unto mankind. He is the living proclamation of all that God has desired to tell us about Himself, for He is the reflection and visible image, of God the Father.
Hebrews 1:1 states that “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom also He made the universe.” (Hebrews 1:1–2, NIV) Jesus has come to reveal to the world the very expression of God’s character and the tangible reality of God’s love. This is how God has spoken to the world – through His Son, Jesus.
Isn’t that remarkable? Isn’t it awe inspiring to consider that when Mary held her newborn child in her arms she was holding the Son of God. In her arms lay God’s last Word to the world and that Word was one of Love and Grace and Truth and Life. Wiersbe calls Jesus the “climax of divine revelation,” (Warren Wiersbe, Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament) and he’s right because Jesus is the focus of all of what God has been doing in history from the very beginning of time. Jesus is God in the flesh and Mary held Him in her arms.
Do you see why we can never surpass the greatness of that first Christmas? God did that which had never been done before. That which heart could not fathom nor mind ever dream of – that is the very thing that God did. As we read last week from the book of Philippians, Jesus, “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself.” (Philippians 2:6–8, NIV) He set aside all of His divine prerogatives and entered into our world as the Word that through Him we might see, and know and grasp the very heart, and character and love of God.
In verse 14 John tells us, not just that, “The Word became flesh,” but that He, “made His dwelling among us,” as well. And the word translated as “dwelling” is literally the word, “tabernacled.” Think back to the years that the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness. With them went what was called a “tabernacle.” In essence it was a large tent, made to the specifications God had given to Moses. More importantly the tabernacle was the dwelling place of God amongst His people.
It was divided into two central parts – The Holy Place and The Most Holy of Holies – and in The Most Holy of Holies sat the Ark of the Covenant, and on the Ark of the Covenant, between the two cherubim, was what was called the mercy seat, and it was there that the presence of God dwelt with His people. The tabernacle was the place that God would meet with His people Israel.
In verse 14 John tells us that in the birth of Jesus, the Word became flesh and tabernacled with us. In other words, Jesus is now the one in whom God meets with man. The tabernacle in which God dwelt during the desert wanderings was imperfect in the sense that though God dwelt there, and though He met with the people there, it was really only Moses and a few select others such as the High Priest who had access to Him. But that tabernacle foreshadowed something better that was yet to come – it pointed towards the reality of what would take place when the Word became flesh. For in that day, in the person of Jesus, the entrance to the tabernacle would be thrown wide open, if you will, and it would become possible for each of us to meet with God. And we do that through the person of Christ Jesus. He has become the one – the only one - in whom man can, and must, meet with God.
Let’s look at verse 9 together. John writes this … “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 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 did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:9–12, NIV)
Jesus is the light that has come into the world and what does light do? It exposes the things of darkness. As a child I hated going into the basement of our house. It was dark in places down there. There were boxes stacked there through which the light did not penetrate and which created, to my child’s mind, a deep and pervasive darkness. As far as I was concerned there were monsters in that darkness. And I would try everything I could think of to overcome the darkness and what it hid. I would run fast, because the darkness can’t catch you if you run fast enough, right? And I would sing hoping that my voice would scare the creatures of darkness away. But none of it seemed to work very well. The only thing that worked was to have a light that pushed the darkness back.
In a similar way Jesus is the light that has come into the world. His light is the righteousness of God and it uncovers the deeds of darkness with which mankind wraps itself. His light shines into the darkness of sin and shame and unrighteousness and exposes it for what it really is. And that is why much of the world hates Jesus and reacts so strongly against Him. That is why they want to take God out of our schools and Christ out of Christmas. Because to accept Christ is to accept God – His ways and His truth – and it’s to be delivered from the darkness in which we try to hide ourselves.
In the third chapter of this Gospel John writes these words … “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.” (John 3:19–20, NIV) This is the way of the world and it’s the way in which each of us once walked as well. Far too often we chose the things of darkness in the way we treated one another and responded to God and lived in this world. And let’s be honest – sometimes we still do. We were filled with sin and shame and rebellion and we turned our faces away from the light to cover ourselves with the darkness.
But wonder of wonders is this: In that first Christmas, the word of God, spoken long ago by the prophet Isaiah, became true in the birth of Christ, for Isaiah wrote of the day when it would be said, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” (Isaiah 9:2, NIV) That light was the light of Jesus and it is the life of all mankind. To all who receive the light, who believe upon the Lord Jesus, it is given to become children of God. In them the darkness is replaced by light, sin is forgiven, and it is not the light that becomes unbearable, but the darkness they once reveled in. They become new creations in Christ for in Jesus they have truly tabernacled – that is, they have met with, - God, and in doing so their very nature has been transformed.
Earlier I read a portion of Philippians 2, verses 6-8 for you. I’m going to read it again but in it’s entirety for it tells us that Jesus, though, “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6–8, NIV) Folks, the baby in the manger grew to become the man upon the cross. And remember that this was not just a man – this was the Word become flesh – the Son of God, in whom all the essence of God dwells and who has come to tabernacle with us, He willingly died on the cross that we might have forgiveness of sins and eternal life in, and with, Him.
So what’s Jesus got to do with Christmas? Absolutely everything! The Word coming in the flesh and dwelling with us is the very heart of Christmas and is our reason for celebration this morning and, beyond that, in every morning! In just a few moments we are going to share the Lord’s Supper together. This is a remembrance, not just of the death of Jesus, but also of the birth, the resurrection and of His coming again. But before we do that I am going to share with you a story which some of you I’m sure have heard before, but I invite you to hear it with fresh ears this morning in light of the things we have spoken of.
Many years ago, there was a very wealthy man who shared a passion for art collecting with his son. They had priceless works adorning the walls of their family estate. One day, the nation was at war and the young man left to serve his country. After only a few short weeks, his father received a telegram. His son had died. Distraught and lonely, the old man faced the upcoming Christmas holidays with sadness. The joy of the season had vanished with the death of his son.
On Christmas morning, a knock on the door awakened the depressed old man. He opened the door and a soldier, with a large package in his hands greeted him, “I was a friend of your son. I was the one he was rescuing when he died. May I come in for a few moments? I have something to show you.”
The soldier mentioned that he was an artist and then gave the old man the package. It was a portrait of the man’s son. Though the world would never consider it the work of a genius, the painting featured the young man’s face in striking detail. Overcome with emotion, the man hung the portrait over the fireplace, pushing aside millions of dollars worth of art [to do so].
His task completed, the old man sat in his chair and spent Christmas gazing at the gift he had been given. The painting of his son soon became his most prized possession, far eclipsing any interest in the pieces of art for which museums around the world clamoured.
Half a year later, the old man died. The art world waited with anticipation for the upcoming auction. According to the will of the old man, all the art works would be auctioned on Christmas Day, the day he had received the greatest gift. The day soon arrived and art collectors from around the world gathered to bid on some of the world’s most spectacular paintings. Dreams would be fulfilled that day.
The auction began with a painting that was not on anyone’s museum list. It was the painting of the man’s son. The auctioneer asked for an opening bid, but the room was silent. “Who will open the bidding with $100?” No one spoke. Finally someone said, “Who cares about that painting. It’s just a picture of his son. Let’s move on to the good stuff.”
The auctioneer responded, “No, we have to sell this one first. Now, who will take the son?” Finally, a neighbour of the old man offered $50 dollars. “That’s all I have. I knew the boy, so I’d like to have it.” The auctioneer said, “Going once, going twice…gone.” The gavel fell. Cheers filled the room and someone exclaimed, “Now we can bid on the real treasures!”
The auctioneer looked at the room filled with people and announced that the auction was over. Everyone was stunned. Someone spoke up and said, “What do you mean, it’s over? We didn’t come here for a painting of someone’s son. There are millions of dollars worth of art here! What’s going on?” The auctioneer replied, “It’s very simple. According to the will of the Father, whoever takes the son … gets it all.” [Folks] The message is the same this Christmas. Because of the Father’s love … whoever takes the Son gets it all. [And the only question that remains to be answered is this:] Will you take [the Son], this Christmas? (As told by Christian Cheung, Illustrations, www.sermoncentral.com)
Let’s pray …
Communion
I’ll invite the servers to join me now. In just a few moments they will bring to you the bread and the cup and if you’ve received the Son we invite you to take a piece of bread and a cup as they come to you this morning. Hold on to them for a few minutes and we will eat and drink them together shortly and as they are being distributed we have a video clip for you to watch as you consider the wonder of that first Christmas and the life we have in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[Start Video and hand out elements as video is being watched.]
Pastor David Rogne once wrote, “Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, if He is not born in thee, thy soul is still forlorn.” (Advent Services, David Rogne, pg. vii) This Christmas, as we eat of the bread and drink of the cup, let us do so with great gratitude and joy in our hearts that Christ be born in us. Praise be to God! Amen!
[Eat and Drink].
Closing Song.
Benediction: Thank you for joining us as we worshipped the Lord this morning. Let me leave you with these words: May the joy of the Lord and the peace of Christ fill your hearts and homes this Christmas! Now and forever more, Amen!
