Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and
from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (John
1:1-18)
And the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of
the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Prayer: Heavenly
Father, send us the Holy Spirit so that I may preach well and that we all may
hear well, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
St John writes: In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Pastors are called to preach God’s Word. They are not
called to preach God’s thoughts or his ideas. The thoughts of God, and the mind
of God, and the ideas of God are completely inaccessible to us. They are
outside of our knowledge. And anyone who presumes to know God’s mind, or to
know what God thinks is a liar. It is the difference between saying, “Thus says
the Lord”, and “Did God really say.” The true prophets say, “Thus says the
Lord”, and Satan says, “Did God really say.”
We read in the bible that in the beginning God did not
imagine or think the world into existence. He spoke. His voice rang out. “Let there be light”. And there was
light.
The only way you can get to know a person is by what they
say. You have no idea what a person is thinking. It is their mouth that reveals
to you their heart. As Jesus says: “Out of the abundance of the heart, the
mouth speaks.”
In the book of Proverbs we read: “The plans of the heart
belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.”
Families are not governed by what parents think about their children. They are
shaped and formed by what parents say
to their children. Governments, nations, civilisations have nothing to do with
the thoughts of politicians, kings,
queens, leaders, dictators—they are ruled by what the leaders say.
Jesus does not rule his church through what pastors and
Christians think, but he rules it
through what they say. Jesus doesn’t
rule the church through his thoughts,
he rules the church through his Word.
At the heart and centre of Christianity is the Word of
God, God’s speech, his voice, his living words. God’s Word is not first of all
written on a page, they are spoken out loud by the church. The bible is not a
book of words on a page, they are the sermons of God himself to be read out
loud to his church. And so, St Paul says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
through the word of Christ.”
And so, it’s so important what we say. Jesus says, “I tell
you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.” But the forgiveness
of sins is not an idea of God, a thought in his mind, a concept, but it is
his word that is spoken in the
church on the earth. As Jesus says: “If you forgive anyone their sins, they are
forgiven.” Do you see how important it is for us as Christians to speak?
The deterioration of a society and a culture has to do
with the deterioration of the words
that we speak. People don’t listen to each other anymore, but they presume to
know what people are thinking. If a person disagrees with a person, they always
presume to know what they are thinking, and they don’t listen to their words.
We wouldn’t know anything about God at all unless he
speaks. And as long as Christians are concerned with God’s thoughts and not
with his words, then the church joins forces with the devil and destroys its
own living soul. Jesus doesn’t say, “Teach them to observe everything I think”,
but “Teach them to observe everything I have commanded you”, that is,
everything I have said.
And at the same time, there are so many words that God
speaks to us. But at the same time, they are one unified word, one golden ring
where everything fits together in a perfect unity. We don’t teach the words of
God, as if they are individual pieces stuck together with sticky-tape—we teach
the word of God, as a unified whole.
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Why is it so important to speak the Word of God?
Because: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God.”
St John speaks about the Word of God as being eternal. The
Word of God was in the beginning. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but
the Word of God remains forever.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God. If we separate God from his Word, then we are not
talking about God anymore. The Word was God.
But then in verse 2, St John says: “He was in the
beginning with God.” All of a sudden, St John talks about the Word of God as if
it is person. And it is a person.
And we wouldn’t know that the Word of God is a person, if the bible didn’t say,
“He [the Word] was in the beginning
with God.”
And so, it is so important that we say what we mean and
mean what we say. The further we move away from God, the more our thoughts and
our words and divorced, the more we rely on people to do what we mean and not
what we say. This never happens with God: his Word is always an exact
reflection of his mind. And his Word is in fact a separate person, but also
truly God together with him.
St John says: All
things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was
made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in
the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
This Word that God speaks is a great light. It is a
brilliant sunshine that shines all throughout the world. It brightens up rooms,
and hearts, and minds. It gives clarity and wisdom and joy. It is powerful and
gives life! The light shines in the
darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
So listen to what we have read so far: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All
things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was
made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in
the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
And then we read: There
was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear
witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the
light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which
enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
What is this light which enlightens everyone? Who is he?
How was he coming into the world? How does he enlighten everyone?
St John says: 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.
Now we are starting to become more clear. We can see Jesus
Christ here, though his name has not been mentioned. John is drawing you
further and further into the great mystery he is describing. Jesus Christ is
the same person as the Word we are talking about, yet the words of John haven’t
told us this yet. Jesus was in the world,
and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
Think about Isaiah chapter 1: The ox knows its owner, and donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does
not know, my people do not understand. See how at Christmas the ox and the
donkeys and the sheep look into their feed trough and see their maker there.
What a great mystery, that the animals should see their creator lying in a
manger!
And yet, St John says: The
world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. See how the
world rejects words, and rejects truth, and idolises ideas and thoughts, and
wants to read people’s minds instead of speaking well of them, and at the same
time they reject the Word of God when it is spoken, and they reject the Word of
God, who created them, and lies in a manger at Christmas.
Jesus came to his
own people—the Jews: Jesus was born from a Jewish family—and his own people did not receive him.
St John says: But to
all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become
children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor
of the will of man, but of God. We receive Jesus not by our free will, not
because we are born into a particular family, but from God’s action—he saved
us, and he baptises us. And we receive Jesus and become children of God simply
by believing in his name.
And then we come to the heart of our text: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among
us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full
of grace and truth.
The Word became flesh. This Word of God, who was in the
beginning with God, who was with God and who is God, has now become a human
being in such a way that his human body, his mouth, his face, his soul, his
spirit, his blood, his bones, his flesh are the Word of God, who was with God
and is God. This is what happens at Christmas. Jesus Christ is the Word of God
that has existed from the very beginning of time. Now the Father is God, the
Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, but there are not three gods but one
God.
The Father did not become flesh. The Holy Spirit did not
become flesh. Only the Son became flesh. The Word became flesh, and dwelt among
us. He lived a human life on this earth.
And St John says: We
have seen his glory. Listen to that word “glory”! It’s the same “Glory”
that the angels sang: “Glory to God in the highest!”
And what kind of glory is it? It is the glory as of the only Son of the Father, full
of grace and truth.
Do you see? The relationship between God and his Word is
the same relationship as a Father and his Son. They are both truly God, and yet
one is a Father and one is a Son. And the apostles say that they saw this
glory. They saw the great brilliance of Jesus when his body was transfigured
with holy light on the mountain, when they heard God the Father speak: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well
pleased.
This is the great miracle of Christmas! Jesus is God’s
Son, and yet he is a human being! He is just like us, and shares our human
nature with us, and yet when we look at Jesus’ face we see the face of God
himself.
And St John says: And
from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given
through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Now, in our text, Jesus Christ’s name is finally
mentioned. We realise now that He is
the Word of God. St John has told us. And we do not receive from him what Moses
brought through the law—punishment upon punishment, sadness upon sadness,
despair upon despair—but grace upon grace, forgiveness upon forgiveness, love
upon love, hope upon hope, joy upon joy.
Do you see how the Christian faith always become richer
and richer? The more we stick with it, the more we learn, the more we are
forgiven, the more we are drawn closer to Jesus’ own heart, the more he lifts
up our heads and encourages us.
And then in the last verse of our text, we learn one of
the greatest mysteries of all. No one has
ever seen God; the only God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him
known.
Do you see? Jesus makes God the Father known to us. Jesus
is God’s only beloved Son—he is at
the Father’s bosom, close to his heart, listening to his heartbeat. Jesus says:
“He who has seen me has seen the Father.” If you listen to Jesus, you listen to
the Father. They are of one mind and one voice together with the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit takes what belongs to Jesus and declares it to you. And the
text says: The only God, who is in the
bosom of the Father, he has made him known.
The text says: The
only God. Jesus is the only God. What about the Father and the Holy Spirit?
Aren’t they God too? How is Jesus the only God.
Jesus says: Nobody
comes to the Father except by me. The apostles say: There is no other name, except the name of Jesus, given under heaven by which we can be saved.
The Father dwells in Jesus and the
Holy Spirit is given only by Jesus. If we want a god, the only one we can have
is Jesus Christ, who was born in Bethlehem. We can’t even have the Father and
the Holy Spirit without Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ is our brother in
the flesh. It is Jesus who teaches us to call God “Father”. He is the Word
become flesh. Every time we hear his words of grace and of truth, Jesus is
present in his flesh speaking these words into our ears, and preaching to us
himself.
The only God, Jesus Christ, baptises children in the name
of Father who is in him, in the name of the Son who is himself, and the Holy
Spirit whom he gives.
The only God, Jesus Christ, speaks to us in the church the
forgiving judgment of his Father through the pastor, and breathes out upon us
the Holy Spirit.
The only God, Jesus Christ, gives his body and blood to us
to eat and drink, and nothing less than his flesh and blood, in whom his Father
dwells, and through which the Holy Spirit is poured out and given to us to
drink from deeply and richly.
And all of this happens through the power of his Word. And this is the Word that has become flesh.
So enter God’s holy sanctuary today, this Christmas, to
listen to God’s Word, to pray in the name of Jesus, and the receive his holy
gifts in the Lord’s Supper, and be surrounded by the heavenly glory of Jesus
Christ, together with the angels and the archangels and all the company heaven,
to enter into the glory of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
This is the glory that the apostles saw with their eyes, and which we hear with
our ears and believe.
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, the Father’s Son
and Mary’s Son, the Word who has become flesh and dwells among us, let us sing
your glory with the angels today, just as they did at the first Christmas. Let
us receive you in our church today through your Word, let us receive your
grace, your truth, your light, your life. Glory to God in the highest and on
earth peace! Amen.
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