Word of Salvation – Vol. 22 No. 10 – December 1975

 

Christmas Sermon

 

Sermon by the Rev. P. Koster, B.D. on John 1:14

Scripture Reading: Phil.2:1-11

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

The first eighteen verses of John's gospel, usually known as the prologue, constitute one of the finest pieces of literature that the world has ever known, and is perhaps the best-known introduction to any book ever written.

The passage contains ideas and thoughts deep enough to keep a philosopher occupied for years in their contemplation and yet simple and clear enough to prove a continual blessing to the simplest of believers.

To be thoroughly conversant with these eighteen verses and to comprehend them fully in their context is to be able to grasp the entire content of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

To grasp THAT fully means, in turn, to understand the meaning of time and history, the nature of man, the revelation of God and the ultimate purpose of all things.  Now this may all sound very difficult, as these are subjects over which some of the most able and scholarly minds of all time have been in disagreement throughout the whole history of mankind.

The problems of identity, origin and purpose have produced volumes of books with a warfare of words that most of us wouldn't pretend to begin to understand.  But this doesn't mean that those problems really are so difficult.

Let us give an example.

Imagine that a new craze hits the world.  Everybody begins to wear very tight arm bands.  The result of this is that everybody's arms begin to show strange symptoms such as going numb and blue.  Everybody studies the problem.  Doctors write long dissertations in medical journals.  University professors outdo one another in bold and original theories.  Thousands of dollars are spent on research and experiments.  But nobody wants to take off their armbands, because it is so fashionable.

The real cause of the trouble is rejected on grounds of personal interest and vanity.  Of course, that is absurd.  But so is a great deal of the deliberations of philosophers on the deep problems of identity, origin and destiny of man.

The answer is really quite readily available, and their refusal to look at the answer (because it would be unfashionable), is really what causes their problem.

That answer is today.

Christmas.  The coming of Jesus Christ into the world.

The answer is so simple that it is astonishing.  The most simple child of God is closer to the truth than the most able scholar who shuts his eyes to Jesus Christ.  Yet the answer is so profound that a life-time of study could not exhaust all the ramifications and applications of the entry of God into the world in Jesus Christ.

To us, of course, Christmas is far more than an event in philosophy.  It has always been one of the most joyful celebrations in which the children of God share.  It is something very personal and beautiful to know that God gave us His own son.  But for those who encountered Jesus during His life it was not always so,

As you read through the gospel of John, you may be struck by the continual questioning as to the identity of Jesus.

Who are you?

Where do you come from?

What are you doing?

Where are you going?

What is your intention?  - What have you to do with us?

The people of His age did not understand.  The apostle John intentionally stresses the fact that Jesus is the answer to all of our important questions.  The disciples were perplexed.  The Jews were always demanding a sign.  Nicodemus doesn't understand where Jesus comes from, nor where he himself comes from or is going.

Throughout the gospel John is proclaiming that Jesus is the light that has come into the world of darkness to dispel our hesitant probing of the darkness of life's more serious questions.  He has set out the answers to these questions about Jesus in the prologue.

Jesus is the Word.  He is God.

That is the simple answer as to who Jesus is.

As God, He is the creator of all things, and the origin of life.  And now, this Person, the creator and sustainer of the universe, the sovereign Lord of time and space, has become a part of time and space.

The Word became flesh.  The baby Jesus born in a stable in Bethlehem.  The Word became flesh.  Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.

The Word became flesh.  They laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The Word became flesh.  God became a man.

This is such a stunning claim that we should divest ourselves of all the ordinary ideas about Christmas and the years of unthinking acceptance of the birth of Christ, to let it sink into our minds.

God became a man.

Not the other way around, which was far more usual in other religions of that day and of ours.  Not a man, or a concept of man, being glorified and finally idolized as a god.

But God, being humbled as a man.

The Son of God did not count equality with God something to be GRASPED, to be held onto at all costs, but was willing to be found in the form of a man, a creature of God.

This way of thinking is so far removed from any religion in the world, past, present or future, that it is self-evidently true.  Mankind has never shown the capacity for inventing a religion like this throughout its whole course of existence.

God became man.  The Word became flesh.

And dwelt among us.  This is even more than God becoming man.  He became man and lived with men.  Literally this phrase means "and he pitched his tent among us".  Of course, a tent was not just for holidays, as it is today.  A tent was a home.  To pitch your tent among a certain people meant that you made your home there and BECAME ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE.

That is what Jesus did.

In celebrating Christmas this year, we acknowledge that God became man and became one of us.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
            Jesus was hungry in the wilderness.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
            Jesus, being tired, slept on a small fishing boat during a violent storm.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
            Jesus wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

The grace and truth that this ‘Word become flesh’ shines into the world is just what the world needs so much.  The world is full of self-interest and falsehood.  But the ‘Word become flesh’ is diametrically opposed to this.  He is full of grace and truth.  He is, after all, The Word, the Revelation of God.  Now John goes on to say, in the last part of this text:

            "We have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father".

What does he mean?

In the first place it is already a glorious thing that the Word should become flesh and dwell among us.  And to the Person who does this belongs a certain glory.  Notice that the glory is not said to belong to the strong and powerful, but to the humble and weak.  The glory of Jesus is His humility and suffering in becoming man.  That glory is Christmas.

There is a motive behind all this activity of God which I have not yet mentioned, but which I am sure you will all know.

That motive is the love of God for His people.  This love reveals itself fully in Jesus Christ and His becoming flesh.  Its apex is the cross.  When Jesus speaks of His coming crucifixion He says, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be GLORIFIED" (John 12:23).

  The

The glory of the Word is that He became flesh at Christmas, that He dwelt among us full of grace and truth, and that finally He was willing to die for us on the cross, thereby overcoming death by defeating its cause – sin.  The victory belongs to the humble, to the One who was willing to suffer for others.  Let's just have another quick look at those questions.

Who is Jesus?
            The Son of God, Creator of the universe, Sustainer of life.

Where does He come from?
            From heaven, from the Father.

What is He doing?
            Revealing God and His love for His people.

Where is He going?
            Back to heaven, to sit in glory at the right hand of God

What is His intention?
            To overcome sin and death.

What has He to do with us?
            That's a question we must answer for ourselves.

Throughout John's gospel there run two strands.  There are two differing reactions to Jesus, the Word become flesh.

The reaction of the Jews was a questioning which rapidly developed into firm opposition and finally enmity, which led to their murdering Jesus on the cross.  In the end they knew the answers but wouldn't believe them.  Their arm-band of self-righteousness was cutting off their blood supply, but they didn't want to take it off.  They wanted another solution that would allow them to keep their armband.  John mentions this in the prologue:
            "He came to his own home, and his own people received him not” (vs.11).

If your reaction to the coming of the Word is similar to this stubborn refusal to take Him seriously or to listen to His claims, you may be sure that it will end, not merely in apathy but in enmity against God and His anointed One.

John also speaks of another reaction to what the ‘Word become flesh’ did and said.  He said, "to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God" (vs.12).

Receiving Him means acknowledging that we are created by Him but that we have rebelled against Him.  It means shedding every vestige of self-righteousness and trusting in His righteousness alone.  It means that we shall finally share in His glory.

Is that your reaction?

You must decide.  You cannot close your eyes to Christmas, for that is already making a decision; a decision to reject.

Christmas is here.  The Word has become flesh.

God has become a man because He loves man.

That is the glory, the grace and the truth of Christmas.

Amen.