Rev. Roland J. Wells, Jr. - Pastor

The Second Sunday After Christmas - January 5, 2003

Lessons: Jeremiah 31:7-14; Ephes. 1:3-14; John 1:10-18

"The Word Became Flesh"

Introduction:

Bibles come in all sizes. First were scrolls...then cut up and bound to become books.

Tiny Bibles, big Bibles, scrolls, books; written on stone, leather, paper, wood or woven reeds called 'papyrus.' The Bible has been written on many things. It's been passed on in many forms. It's been translated into thousands of languages, some for more than 2,300 years. But each of these is the same - it's the Bible- it's God's Word.

I) God's Word

Here's the first key point I want to lay out this morning. The Bible is God's Word. Why do we say that? Did people decide that? Did somebody say, 'Wow, what a cool bunch of stories! Let's call this God's Word?" Is that just human tradition? No, the Bible repeatedly claims to both contain and be the Word of God.

Over and over again, the Bible tells us about when God speaks. 856 times in the OT & NT it says "...says the LORD." 10 times it say 'God says' or 'Says God." 11 times 'The LORD says.' When it says that, it's not just telling who is speaking in the narrative. When God speaks, it creates reality. His Word creates the future. God says 'Let there be light' - and it is the beginning of all Creation. As we looked in a sermon a few months back, when God gives his blessing to Abraham, it creates the outline of world history for 4,000 years. It creates the future of both Israelite and Arab. It creates a blessing which has come to all people through the Jews, and continues to shape day-to-day current events. God's Word is alive, and functioning, and continues to guide and create history.

In several places, it says God inspired his Word, like II Tim 3:16: "All scripture is inspired by God and

profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. All of Psalm 119 talks about how God's Word functions.

Jesus tells us that God's Spirit works in that Word when he says, (John 6:63) It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.

The Church, since it began, received Scripture as God's Word. From the beginning the Church accepted the OT as Scripture. Most of the Jews accepted the whole OT as Scripture. Early on the Church wrestled through which writings of the New Testament era would be seen as Scripture. The writings of the Apostles, as well as Luke and Mark were received. So was Hebrews. Some other books, even Gospels, were written in the Second and even Third Centuries, but they didn't meet those criteria, even though sometimes they claimed to be connected to people like Thomas. But the people back then recognized that they were full of late inventions and didn't ring true. We are very certain today that the writings of the NT are all from the Apostolic era. Some think that followers of John or Paul may have finished up their writings, but the teaching is clear and consistent. And from the beginning, Genesis through Revelation was recognized as God's Word. It is clear, it is authoritative; it is true. It is inspired and inerrant in all matters of faith and life.

The Word brings life. It functions as Law to create order, bring conviction of sin, and drive us to Christ; it functions as Gospel to bring us new life and give us new birth. Only the Gospel brings faith: "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the preaching of Christ.' (Rom 10:17) That's God's Word. I'll say again, the Bible is God's Word, because God says it's his Word. God has sought to reveal himself for 4,000 years through dozens of writings by dozens of authors. With that as our first key point, let's look at the second. That is:

II) The Word Became Flesh

As God's final demonstration of himself, his most clear 'revelation,' he sent Jesus to be God's Word with skin on. Just as when God says something, it brings into reality things that are not; when Jesus is born, it's like God speaking out his complete will in this one person. He doesn't need a book. He doesn't need a set of commentaries. He doesn't need a bookshelf or the whole Library of Congress to reveal himself. All he needs is this one person, Jesus. Jesus, in his teaching, his action, is God coming to reveal all we need to know.

How could we understand God? We have a little brain. It's built from a few trillion living cells, each connected to many others. Science tells us that our memories, our ideas, our self-consciousness, our loves, our dreams are all bio-chemical reactions in that mass of cells. All we are fits into the size of a grapefruit. Certainly, much of who we are is tied to this physical reality. If we have a stroke or go through a windshield, we come out as a different person.

Even so, but there is something beyond this, which exists somehow in spirit. It's beyond cells and synapses. We are given a bit of spirit. We understand nothing of this. The Bible tells us very little.

But God is so far beyond our ability to comprehend. The physicists are delving deeper and deeper into a field we call 'cosmology'- the study of what makes up the Universe and how it got there. They speak of tinier and tinier particles- and at the same time a Universe so incredibly huge that no human mind can begin to grasp it. Trillions of light years across. Huge to the point that our solar system, even our whole Milky Way galaxy are like a grain of sand.

And yet our God created it by uttering a Word. Our God is everywhere in it at the same time. God is aware of every thought of every being, every hair on your head, every sparrow in the city. We can't comprehend a God like that, nor a God who could create all that, nor a God who can be aware of it all simultaneously.

Science fiction, even Star Trek, has helped us to think a bit about the expanse of this universe, full of mystery, power and things too impossible for us to comprehend. Now we know light can go faster than the speed of light. We know that an electron can be in two places at exactly the same time. Even the basic laws of science become bent at the some of the special edges of the universe. And it is so incredible to see!

Some have said that if we study 'cosmology' we will inevitably be forced to study 'theology.' The most basic questions about how the Universe works finally comes down to- Wow, who could have made all this?" What would that God have been like?

And exactly right there, John tells us, 'The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.'

The remarkable story of the New Testament is that this Very God, who has created all this, who is unlimited and all-powerful, came and emptied himself of his God-ness, emptied himself of all of his prerogatives, his power, his rights, his control, his domination, his power, his freedom, his privilege, to come and enter your world.

Not only that, but he entered more and more deeply, aiming deeper and deeper into the human situation.

In a futuristic science fiction movie a couple years ago, Matrix, the normal people are forced to live in hiding in a horrible, underground, persecuted, dangerous world. They are forced to eat horrid food and encounter danger daily because of the persecution of the powerful. It's destroyed, polluted, broken, toxic world, compared to what we live in. But our world is just as broken as that, compared to what God created it to be. We live in a world just as broken as the world in Matrix.

Jesus entered into our human existence to identify with the brokenness of human existence that we all experience. He was born in to a powerless family, in deep poverty, as refugees, as aliens, in the midst of the worst political repression of his age. In his public ministry, he continually came to the folks nobody else wanted, and identified with them. He sought out the prostitute, the leper, the person with the unrespectable job, the person from the group everybody hates; he identified more and more fully with them, even eating with them, a sign of great intimacy in that culture. Then he watched a good friend die, and he wept- then he raised him from the dead. He entered our human pain and loss. Then his own friends betrayed and deserted him, and he was tortured to death. He spent his last hours being punished with the worst of the worst of the worst. Then he experienced out death. Deeper and deeper and deeper he entered into our human pain. And God's Word took on flesh, so that God could come and meet us right where we're at.

The Word has so many other ramifications- the Word for the Word is Jesus- all that Jesus is and does is summed up by his Name- 'Jesus'- 'The Lord is Salvation.' So everything in the NT is done 'in the Name of Jesus'- According to my count, 121 times in the NT it talks about the 'Name of Jesus.' Just about everything in the Book of Acts happens because they do all they do 'in the Name' of Jesus. The Name is the Word; The Word is Jesus. The Word has come in the flesh, and now continues to come in the Word, and we experience that as we name his Name. 1 Peter 4:16: Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name. Rev. 19:13:sums it up: He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his Name is called The Word of God.

Summary:

God has always revealed himself through his Word. That Word spoke and became reality in a tangible way in history over and over again. Finally, God revealed himself fully as that Word come with skin on, as a human being. Emptying himself, he came and entered fully into all of the brokenness of human existence, and took it all on himself. He died, rose, and went back to the Father. Now we have his written Word, in which the Holy Spirit dwells and works to bring us Jesus on every page. And his Word is not only a story, but it's a Name, one Name in which God makes everything happen. And you can carry that precious name with you. As Luther wrote: (In his hymn, 'A Mighty Fortress is our God') concerning the Devil:

One little Word shall fell Him. That Word above all earthly powers,No thanks to them, abideth;

That one 'little Word' is Jesus. He has come in the flesh, and now we carry forth his Word and the Word of his Name. What more do we need? This morning, that Word of promise comes to you in a way you can taste and swallow. Hear his Word, which comes to us in his Supper: John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." John 6:53-57: "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. [54] Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; [55] for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. [56] Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. [57] Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. Come and receive him, receive his Word, receive his promise. Amen.

Christmas 2 - January 5, 2002

Jeremiah 31:7-14

This is what the LORD says:

"Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the foremost of the nations.

Make your praises heard, and say, 'O LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel.'

[8] See, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the ends of the earth.

Among them will be the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor;

a great throng will return.

[9] They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back.

I will lead them beside streams of water on a level path where they will not stumble,

because I am Israel's father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son.

[10] "Hear the word of the LORD, O nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands:

'He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.'

11] For the LORD will ransom Jacob and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they. [12] They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion;

they will rejoice in the bounty of the LORD--

the grain, the new wine and the oil, the young of the flocks and herds.

They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more.

[13] Then maidens will dance and be glad, young men and old as well.

I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.

[14] I will satisfy the priests with abundance, and my people will be filled with my bounty,"

declares the LORD.

Ephes. 1:3-14

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. [4] For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love [5] he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- [6] to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. [7] In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace [8] that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. [9] And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, [10] to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

[11] In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, [12] in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. [13] And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, [14] who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory.

John 1:10-18

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. [11] He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. [12] Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- [13] children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

[14] 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.

[15] John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' " [16] From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. [17] For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. [18] No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.