January 30, 2000 Jn 1:1-4, 14
Jesus – the Word of God
INTRODUCTION
[begin with one full minute of silence standing completely still] Silence. How do you react to silence? Most of you were probably wondering what in the world was going on. “Did Chris forget was he was going to say? Has he had a stroke? Has he lost the voluntary control of his tongue?” The reason that you had to wonder about what was going on was because there was no communication going on between you and me. Almost a month ago now, we faced a world-wide scare. The scare wasn’t based on a dreaded disease or on a famine or because of the threat of an invading army. The world was scared because they feared that communication from the different computers of the world to one another and the machinery that they control would cease. If that had happened – if this communication had ceased – our world would be a very different place than it is today. Our world relies heavily on communication.
This age that we are now a part of is known as the information age. I would almost guess that the explosion in information is not because we have gotten smarter, but because we have increased the speed at which we can communicate with each other. Think about the changes that have taken place in the field of communication over the past century or so. In the early 1800’s, if you wanted to send a message somewhere, you had to send it by Pony Express or smoke signals. On the morning of the first atomic bomb test near White Sands, New Mexico, two Indian brothers sat looking across the Mesa. Observing the great blast and the resultant mushroom shaped cloud, the one said to the other: "Man, I wish I’d said that!" Then came the telegraph and the telephone. Then came cars and airplanes which can move us and information quickly from place to place so that we can communicate in person with people on the other side of the world in a matter of hours rather than in a matter of weeks. Today, we have e-mail and chat rooms and video conferencing which allows me to not only hear your words but see you as I speak with you even though you may be hundreds of miles away. Advances in communication techniques have brought about tremendous technological and lifestyle changes for all of us.
What would it be like if God was silent? What would it be like if God never took it upon Himself to communicate with us? What if God started the world spinning and then left us to ourselves never to speak with us ever again? There may have been times in your life when you felt like that God was being silent. You were going through some pain or really needed some wisdom on what decision to make. You cried out to God, but as far as you could tell, He was silent. When David wrote Psalm 35, he must have felt like that. (Psa 35:22-23 KJV) This thou hast seen, O LORD: keep not silence: O LORD, be not far from me. Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord. But the fact is that God is not silent. He has spoken to us, and He continues to speak to us today. (Heb 1:1-2a NIV) In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son. . . Like mankind, God has used many different methods to communicate with his people. He has used angels, burning bushes, signs in the heavens, giant fish, storms, prophets - He even used a donkey. And as appropriate as each of these means of communication was for the time and place, none of them compares to the excellency of the last means of communication – the Son, Jesus. God the Father sent His only Son into the world to bridge the communication gap that separated us from Him in order that the relationship which sin had destroyed might be renewed. Jesus is God’s Final Word to mankind. (Rev 19:13 NIV) He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. He is the completion of the message that the Father had been communicating since the day of creation.
What I want us to do this morning is to see 6 characteristics of Jesus that qualify Him to be the one who finally bridges the communication gap between us and the Father. Turn with me to John 1:1.
Jesus is qualified to be the bridge of communication with the Father because:
1. He is eternal – “In the beginning was the Word”
Significance: The message never changes.
(Psa 119:89 NIV) Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.
(Heb 13:8 NIV) Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Jerry Zezima with the Stamford Advocate describes the average Parent Child dialog exchange...
Parent: How was school today?
Child: Fine.
Parent: What did you do?
Child: Nothing.
Parent: Do you have any homework?
Child: I don’t know.
Ask your child about any subject directly involving him or her and you’ll probably get one of three responses:
(a) "Fine,"
(b) "Nothing,"
(c) "I don’t know."
It’s alarming to know that even though every thing is "fine," absolutely nothing" happens in school, and no one "knows" it. If this pattern continues for 20 or 30 years, when our kids are the leaders of this country, we may hear this:
Reporter: Mr. President, how did the summit go today?
President: Fine.
Reporter: What did you discuss?
President: Nothing.
Reporter: Does this mean that the world is on the brink of nuclear disaster?
President: I don’t know.
(Rev 13:8 KJV) And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
2. He has been eternally present with the Father – “Word was with God”
Significance: He knows the Message – giver better than anyone.
3. He and the Father are one – “the Word was God”
Significance: There is no possibility of the messenger delivering a message that is different than the one the Father sent.
Jorge Rodgriguez was the orneriest bandit on the Texas-Mexico border. The guy would often slip across the line, raid the banks of South Texas, and steal ‘em blind. Before they could catch him, he would race back into Mexico and hide out. No matter how hard the law tried, they could never catch him. Finally the Texans got fed up with this nonsense and decided to put the toughest Texas Ranger they had on the case. After only a few days of searching, the Ranger found Jorge in a dusty, dingy saloon south of the border. He bolted into the bar, pulled both guns, and yelled, “Okay, stick ‘em up Jorge; you’re under arrest! I know that you’ve got the money!” Suddenly, a little guy over in the corner butted in. “Wait, wait . . . just a minute, senor,” he said. “Jorge does not speak English. He’s my amigo, so I’ll translate for you.” The Ranger explained, “Look, we know that Jorge is the bandit who has taken 100’s of thousands – about a million bucks actually – from our banks. We want it back NOW! If he doesn’t give it back, I’ll fill him full of lead. You tell him that!” “Okay, okay, I’ll tell him.” So the little boy turned to Jorge and repeated everything the Ranger had said. The Ranger, not knowing any Spanish, waited for Jorge’s reply. Jorge, listened, frowned, then responded in Spanish, “Okay, they got me. Tell him to go down to the well at the end of town, count four stones down from the top of the well, then pull out the loose stone. All the money I’ve stolen is hidden behind that stone.” Then the clever little translator turned to the Texas Ranger and translated with a shrug, “Jorge says, ‘Go ahead, you big mouth; go ahead and shoot ‘cause I’m not telling you where the money is.’”
4. He created us – “Through Him, all things were made . . .”
Significance: He knows our inner workings better than anyone ; He knows our needs and what it will take to reach us
A doctor had hired a new secretary. She was pretty and thin. Part of her responsibilities was mailing out the bills to all the doctor’s patients. The doctor began to notice that it was taking more time than should be necessary for her to fulfill this task, and so he observed her one day. He discovered that rather than using the wet sponge to seal the envelopes, she was licking each one. This took a long time. The doctor asked her to use the sponge instead of licking each one, but the new secretary said that she would rather do it the other way. The doctor tried all kinds of motivations to try and convince her to do things his way. He tried telling her how much quicker it would be, he told her that her mouth wouldn’t get so dry, he even tried switching the type of envelopes that he used to one of those kind that had nasty-tasting glue. Nothing worked. One day, a patient came to her window to pay her bill and noticed that the secretary was licking the envelopes. She said to her, “Did you know that each envelope has about 1 ½ calories?” The secretary immediately stopped and began using a wet sponge. Sometimes it takes a woman to communicate in a woman’s language.
Part of the art of communication is knowing the character and temperament of the person that you are talking with. The same message delivered the same way to different people will have different results. Some people want you to be totally straightforward with them and not beat around the bush. With other people you have to use a little more tact. One husband had not yet learned that his wife was that kind. She needed to be told things in a tactful way. This husband and wife had a poodle that they loved very much. The dog was the object of their affection. One day, the wife began a trip that would take her to Europe on some business. The first stop of her trip was in NY because she was to fly out of the airport there. When she arrived, she called home and asked her husband how everything was at home. The man replied, “The dog’s dead!” The wife was devastated. After collecting her thoughts, she asked her husband, “Why do you do that? Why can’t you be more tactful?” He said, “Well, what do you mean by that? The dog died. How many other ways are there to say that?” The wife then said, “Well, you could give it to me in stages. For example, you could say when I call from NY, ‘The dog is on the roof’. And then when I travel to London the next day and call, you could tell me, ‘Honey, the dog fell off the roof’. And when I call from Paris, you could add, ‘Honey, the dog had to be taken to the vet. In fact, he’s in the hospital, not doing well.’ And finally when I call you from Rome, ‘Honey, brace yourself. Our dog died’. I could handle that.” The husband responded, “Oh, I see.” Then she asked, “By the way, how is mother?” After a moment’s pause, the husband responded, “She’s on the roof.”
(Psa 139:13,15 NIV) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
5. He is the source of life and light – “In Him was life . . . light of men”
Significance: He gives meaning and understanding to the message
There was a preacher who, while visiting some of his "flock," knocked on the door of a church member but got no answer. He was a bit put out because he could hear footsteps and knew the lady of the house must be there. So he went around to her garden door and knocked again. When she didn’t answer this time he left his card with a note that read: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him" (Rev. 3:20). As the pastor drove away, all kinds of reasons of why no one would come to the door were running through his head. He couldn’t understand why no one responded to his knocks. He thought that surely, he must have offended someone in the family, and they would never be back at church. To his surprise, the family was present the next Sunday. As the members were leaving the church, the woman who had refused to answer the door handed the preacher a note that had Gen. 3:10 on it: "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself".
- Paul W. Powell, Basic Sermons on Handling Conflict, (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992) 68
A very deep thinker of the past had some ideas that he really wanted to communicate to the general public, but he figured that he had better try them out on some other well-educated people first. So he wrote down his ideas in the clearest form that he could and sent them to a trusted friend. The friend promised that he would read them and deliver his opinion about them. The friend read the work of the deep thinker and wrote back this reply: “Dear Mr. Niebuhr, I understand every word that you have written, but I do not understand one sentence."
6. He became one of us – “And the Word became flesh . . . “ (Jn. 1:14)
Significance: He got down to our level to bring us the message ; He brought it to us on our turf.
(Isa 55:8-11 NIV) "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
(John 1:18 NIV) No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known., whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
