December 25, 2011

For many children in the world, the most compelling person today is Santa! O Santa! He has been busy, schlepping toys and goodies all over the world in his sleigh pulled by 8 reindeer. Don’t believe in Santa? Well, don’t say it out loud, because you are libel to get an angry stare from a parent who keeps the ruse alive for his or her children. Santa is compelling. Supposedly he compels children to be nice and to be obedient to their parents.

But as compelling as Santa might be, he is nothing more than a cultural myth. He is a myth based upon St. Nicholas, a bishop of Myra (Turkey), who lived from 270-343 A.D. St. Nicholas did many good works for the poor. From St. Nicholas the myth of Santa developed. Santa may be a compelling myth but he does not exist.

However, there is a person who does exist and who is far more compelling than Santa. Of course I’m talking about Jesus. Jesus Christ, the living Word of God, is the most compelling person to ever live.

 

I. JESUS REVEALS GOD IN THE FLESH. Jn.1:14a

The first line of Jn.1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” If you are a reflective kind of person, you will probably find the Gospel of John to be intriguing. Like the other Gospels, the Gospel of John is about the life of Jesus. Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels because they give a synopsis of Jesus’ life. John, on the other hand, gives a more thematic presentation of Jesus’ life. And whereas Matthew and Luke begin with the birth of Jesus, John’s Gospel begins like the book of Genesis with the words, “In the beginning.” You notice that the phrase is not qualified in terms of time. In other words, John doesn’t write, “In the beginning of creation,” or, “in the beginning of time.” He just writes, “In the beginning.” Well, that takes us back to before time and creation.

But then we are faced with the question, who or what exactly is the Word? We read that the Word was with God. So this Word was in some way distinct from God, and yet in the very next phrase we read, “and the Word was God.” Who can understand this? The Word is distinct from God and yet is God. But then we see that the Word is qualified by personal pronouns. It says, “He was with God in the beginning. So the Word is a person.

In his book, “The God Who Is There,” Dr. Don Carson helps us get a handle on what John means by the phrase, “The Word.” He writes, “We might say, ‘In the beginning was God’s self-expression, and this self-expression was with God [that is, God’s own peer], and this self-expression was God [that is, God’s own self]’” In the Old Testament we read how God created the heaven’s and the earth by the word of his mouth. “Let there be light.” The Old Testament prophets spoke the word of the Lord. We often read the phrase, “The word of the Lord came to this or that prophet. God revealed himself through his word. So when John thinks about Jesus, he understands Jesus to be the self-expression of God. And just as a person’s words reveal who the person is, so Jesus reveals who God is.

But we must just stop for a moment and remind ourselves of who John was. John was a Jewish follower of Jesus. If you asked John how many gods there are, he would say, “One.” There is only one God. To suggest that there is more than one God is blasphemy. Can you imagine what it must have been like for John to write that the Word was with God and was God! Clearly with the coming of Jesus, our understanding of God is stretched. God is a complex unity. Christians believe in one God who exists in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

In v.14 we read that the Word became flesh. This is John’s statement on the incarnation of Christ. When Jesus was born, The Word of God, the 2^nd person of the Trinity, became flesh and blood. It’s not that he was no longer God, rather he took on the form of a man. He is the God-man, fully God and fully man. And you notice it says, “he made his dwelling among us.”

The word that is used for “dwelling” can be literally translated, “he tabernacle among us.” Anyone familiar with the Old Testament will recognize the word, “tabernacle.” The tabernacle was a large tent that served as the place of worship up until the time that Solomon built the temple. The tabernacle was where animals were sacrificed for sin. It was where the people of Israel would go to meet God. In fact, another name for the tabernacle is “tent of meeting.” The tabernacle was where God dwelt with his people, Israel. It was divided into two rooms. The first room was the Holy Place, and the second room was the Most Holy Place. Once a year, only the High Priest would go into the Most Holy Place with blood from the sacrifices and make atonement for the sins of the people. The tabernacle was a portable temple for worship. Later the actual temple was built in Jerusalem.

When John writes, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” he is saying something quite profound about Jesus. In Jn.2:19-21 we read, “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’ The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ But the temple he had spoken of was his body.” What’s this? Jesus is referring to himself as the temple?

With the coming of Jesus there was a significant change in the way a person meets God. Jesus is the way a person meets God. Later Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

There’s lots more that could be said about this, but this is sufficient for now. Do not think for a moment that we can define our own pathway to God. Do not think for a moment that all religions lead to God. The fact that these ideas are most common among men should help us realize that they are probably not correct. The Bible makes it clear that Jesus came to make it possible for us to actually know God personally. To know God is to have life. Jn.1:4 says about Jesus, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” Jesus is God in the flesh, who gives life. He is the light of the world. It is through Jesus that we know God

 

II. JESUS REVEALS THE GLORY OF GOD. Jn.1:14b

The second phrase of v.14 says, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father....” If you google the word, “glory” you will find beautiful pictures of nature and people. There was a picture of a hockey player lifting the Stanley Cup. He was in his glory as a victor. The dictionary defines glory with the words, praise, honor, distinction, beauty, magnificence, and splendor. That’s what comes into our mind when we think of glory.

John writes a lot about glory. When we read about Jesus in v.14, we expect to see someone filled with beauty, power, and grandeur. But in the Gospel of John it’s not quite that way. The glory of Jesus does not seem to be all that glorious. It’s true, we see many miracles, but those miracles are just as apt to get him into trouble with the religious authorities. In Jn.2:11, when Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding in Cana, we read, “This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.”

One would think that upon seeing his miracles, many would put their faith in him, but we read about the general response to Jesus in Jn.1:10-11, “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.” Despite his miracles, he was largely rejected. At one point his own brothers said to him, “You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” The glory of Jesus was not revealed in the way we would expect. The glory, the greatness of Jesus was seen in lowly, humble service to the poor and needy. New Testament scholar, Leon Morris, writes, “...as applied to Jesus, [John] is saying that real glory is not to be found in splendor but in humility."

In fact, in Jn.12:23, referring to his crucifixion, Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” To a first century person, there was nothing glorious about crucifixion. It was reserved only for the worst criminals. But it was only through the crucifixion that victory over death and sin could be achieved. The glory of Jesus, is seen in the fact that he willingly laid aside the glory he shared with the Father in heaven, to come to this earth to humbly serve others and to die for our sins. So glorious is the person of Jesus, that even lowly service, rejection, and a sacrificial death can be called glorious because of what he accomplished through it all. Without this understanding of Jesus’ glory, you will not understand who Jesus is. And more than likely you will dismiss and reject Jesus as, at best, a well-intentioned failure. But in the last part of Jn.1:14, we see that...

 

III. JESUS REVEALS THE GRACE OF GOD. Jn.1:14c

John writes, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” In Ex.33 Moses is on Mt. Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments. He says to God, “Now show me your glory.” God responds, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence.” Then God says, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen. In Ex.34:6 we read, “And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,...” Dr. Don Carson, points out that the Hebrew words for “love and faithfulness” are just as aptly translated, “grace and truth.”

In Jesus we see the glory of God and it is full of grace and truth. Grace is unmerited favor. Truth carries the idea of faithfulness. Men and women, if we look at the religions of the world, they are all based upon performance and merit. You have to somehow earn salvation or eternal lfie. In fact, the whole world operates on the basis of performance and merit. You have to earn your way. There’s no free lunch. And if you have broken the law, you are going to pay for a long time. Even after a person has served his prison sentence, he still pays for his crime because many are loath to hire someone who has been in jail.

But Jesus is full of grace and truth. We must come to Jesus. He is the key for having salvation and life. In Jn.5:38-40 Jesus is teaching and he says to the people, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” In Jn.7:37-38, we read, “Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

Men and women, because we have broken the moral laws of God, we stand guilty and condemned before him. We can try to earn his forgiveness. We can try to earn a place in heaven, except that forgiveness and eternal life cannot be earned. Forgiveness of sin and eternal life is a gift of God’s grace that is received through Jesus Christ by faith. This is what Christmas is all about. It’s all about receiving Jesus, God’s gift to the world.

 

Maybe you hear this and you wonder, “How does this work? How can a person receive Jesus and enter into a relationship with God? Do you join a religion? Is there some kind of initiation ceremony to go through? Do you recite a prayer? How can you come to a person you can’t even see?” Well, this is why we talk about receiving Christ by faith. Faith is having confidence in someone. Jesus died on the cross, taking the guilt of our sins upon himself, paying the penalty of death. Then he rose from the dead. He is alive. He is in heaven with God the Father. If we come to him in faith asking him to forgive our sins and to be our Savior and Lord, he has promised to come into our lives and give us his eternal life. By calling out to Jesus you are saying, “I am no longer trusting in my own ability to earn salvation, eternal life. I am trusting in Jesus to give me his eternal life. Jesus is the most compelling person to ever live, because only Jesus can forgive our sins and give us eternal life with God. Amen