Worship the Word Made Flesh

December 25, 2007 by admin.

There are a number of things that happen in life that I don’t understand. For example, I don’t know how you can take a seed that has been in a bag or on a shelf or in a drawer, and put that seed in the ground and add a little water, and it immediately turns into a plant or flower. I know that there is a scientific explanation to what happens, but I’ve never really been that concerned about it that I would look into it any deeper. I’m just amazed that soil dirt and water can make a seed begin to grow.

 

Wouldn’t it be foolish for me to say that dirt and water can’t make a seed grow because I don’t know exactly how it works? There are a lot of other things that would be affected if they could only happen when I understand them. It wouldn’t make any sense for me to deny things just because I don’t understand them. It has been said that “Seeing is believing.” And it is impossible to deny something that you see happen. Just because you might not understand it doesn’t mean that it isn’t true.

 

In our text for this Christmas, the Apostle John tells us about something that is impossible for us to understand. Because of that, many people deny that it is true. But we are going to look at these two verses from John’s gospel through the eyes of faith, not the eyes of reason or rationale. As we do, we will be lead, once again, to the true reason for the joy and happiness of the Christmas season.

 

So let’s look at these verses to see why we are joining Christians around the world today to

 

“Worship the Word Made Flesh”

1. The Son of God

2. The Savior of the World

 

 

As we consider this text, keep in mind who it is that wrote these words. This is the gospel that was written by John, one of the 3 “inner circle” disciples of Jesus. I always picture John as the quiet and contemplative disciple. Unlike Peter who often spoke before he thought things through, I see John as being one who was quicker to listen than to talk. He spent three years with Jesus and saw and heard many amazing, and even mind-boggling, things. After Jesus returned to heaven, John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote the gospel from which our text for today is taken.

 

John wrote what the Holy Spirit led him to write, not what he believed took place or what he thought may have happened. He reports it as fact, even though much of it is just to complex and complicated for the human mind to fully grasp. For John, “seeing was believing,” and he had seen the power and godly nature of his Savior. It was about that Savior that John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

 

Verse one is made up of three ascending thoughts. It begins by stating that “the Word,” existed “in the beginning.” John will make it clear later in his gospel that “the Word” is a reference to Jesus. This term is unique to John and his gospel. But John was inspired to use that term for Jesus to teach us something very important about him. One commentator explains it this way, “What is then in John the meaning of ‘Logos’? (Logos is Greek for Word) He is that person in the Trinity who declares or expresses the personality of God…The Logos is then Jesus as the One in whom God reveals and expresses his inmost character.” (Ylvisaker)

 

John tells us that the Word, Jesus, was there “in the beginning.” That phrase should direct your thoughts back to the first words of the Bible. Genesis 1:1 begins, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” John confesses, though he couldn’t understand it with his limited human mind and reasoning, that Jesus is eternal. He has always been there. He was there before God created the world, and he was there when God created the world.

 

John takes that thought one step further in the second phrase of this verse. He said, “…and the Word was with God.” Again we turn to a Bible commentary to help us understand the whole realm of what this phrase conveys. “’With’ is the expression used to denote not only the general relationship, but more particularly the personal and the inward relationship in his devotion and association with the Father.” (Ylvisaker)

 

John proclaims the individuality of Jesus. He was a separate person from God the Father. We believe and teach that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all exist as separate persons. But we believe and teach that there is only one God. We have used the word “Trinity” to express that thought. It means 3 in 1. Don’t try to understand it. Your head might explode. Just believe it. John couldn’t understand it, but he believed it.

 

Even though they exist as separate persons, God the Father and God the Son share a unique unity. John says that Jesus was “with” God, expressing the perfect unity of thought and action that existed between God the Father and his Son.

 

That thought is taken even one step further as John writes, “…and the Word was God.” In this final phrase from verse 1, John makes a bold and dramatic statement. He proclaims that Jesus is God. He proclaims, from the beginning of his gospel, what many today deny and oppose. I have taken the time to talk with some of the JW’s who have come to my door. And I always begin by telling them that we have to agree on some Bible basics before we can continue our conversation. At that point I take them to this verse. I ask them to explain to me what that means if it doesn’t mean that Jesus is God. Needless to say, I’ve never had to go any further in my conversations with them.

 

John shows us the true nature of Jesus. Although our human reason cannot grasp it, Jesus is the true Son of God. And what is perhaps even more amazing than that is the thought of Christmas. That true Son of God loved us enough to become one of us to save us from our sins.

 

3. The Savior of the World

 

 

Moving to verse 14 of our text, John says, “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 tells us that the Word who was with God in all eternity, at one point in time “became flesh.” Bear in mind, Jesus never stopped being God. He didn’t transform from one being into another. He didn’t lose his godly attributes and qualities. He simply “became flesh,” he was “born of a woman, born under law,” (Gal. 4:4) as Paul wrote to the Galatians. He became one of us on that quiet night so long ago.

 

John reports that “we have seen his glory.” And indeed John did. During his three years with Jesus he heard the powerful words that Jesus spoke and he saw the incredible miracles that Jesus performed. He saw powerful men brought to their knees by Jesus’ message, and he saw sickness and death yield to the power of Jesus’ miracles. To top it all off, John was an eyewitness to the resurrection of Jesus, being one of the very first people that Jesus appeared to when he rose from the dead.

 

We have also seen the glory of Jesus. This Christmas we have seen it in the message of the angel to the shepherds. We have seen it in the joy that filled Mary’s heart as she “kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Lk. 2:19) We have seen his glory in the love of God who protected his Son from the wicked plan of King Herod.

 

And today we continue to see the glory of our Savior in the forgiveness of sins that he brought to the world. John said that Jesus came “…full of grace and truth.” Jesus came to us with an overabundance of God’s love. He came to us to reveal the truth of God’s love in the great sacrifice that he willingly made for us. We see the glory of our Lord, hidden in his humble Christmas appearance in Bethlehem’s manger, in the hope that we have for our eternal life in heaven. Our Lord “…became flesh and made his dwelling among us…” so that he could suffer and die for us and save us from our sins. We celebrate his birthday today because it marked the beginning of God’s fulfillment of his promise given first to Adam and Eve.

 

I cannot begin to understand how an eternal God could take on human form and become one of us. My mind is not big enough to wrap itself around that godly concept. No matter what human arguments might be presented to me, I simply point to the words of Scripture. When I hear what God used his servants to write, I respond without hesitation, “I believe.” We do it each week in our Creeds—“I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary…” (Apostles Creed)

 

If you want to be convinced that God can do the impossible, put a seed in the ground and pour some water on it. Then watch what happens. Better yet, spend some time reading the Christmas story from Luke 2, or singing the Christmas hymns which praise our Savior. Then the Holy Spirit will “water” what has been planted, and all doubts will disappear as faith grows in your heart. May God continue to nurture that faith which has been planted in your heart which enables you to “Worship the Word Made Flesh.”

Amen.

 

“The peace of God….”

 

–Rev Roger Rockhoff

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