In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3
All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing
came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and
the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not comprehend it. 6 There came a man sent
from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to testify
about the Light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was
not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. 9 There was
the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the
world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and those who were
His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to
them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who
believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will
of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word
became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of
the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John
testified about Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I
said, 'He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He
existed before me.'" 16 For of His fullness we have all received,
and grace upon grace. 17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace
and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen
God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the
Father, He has explained Him.

In the spring of 1974 I was completing my studies in Germany. My
main professor had died and to take his place in one of his
courses, a great New Testament scholar named Oscar Cullmann came
from Basel to Munich to teach the Gospel of John. In the first 13
weeks of that 18-week term we covered, as I recall, only the first
14 verses of the book of John. That's how rich these verses
are.

A Christmas Message of Particular Truths about Christ

So I have chosen this text with some fear and trembling that I
would do an injustice to it by treating it with one sermon. But I
choose it for two reasons. One is that it is a great Christmas
passage. The key verse that shows this Christmas orientation is
verse 14: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." This is
the meaning of Christmas. God has come into the world, born of
virgin, in the person of Jesus Christ. The second reason I have
chosen this text is because it is so full of particular truths
about Jesus Christ that we desperately need to know and
embrace.

This is especially important today he because, as I said last
week during my welcome, even the major non-Christian religions of
the world are speaking these days as though they esteem and honor
and, in some sense, believe in Jesus. You hear this especially,
these days, from Muslim leaders who want to draw the fact that they
even honor Jesus more than we do because they do not think God
would allow him to suffer the ignominious death of a criminal on
the cross. So it is crucial that Christians know Jesus Christ very
well, and can tell the difference between the Christ of the Bible
and the Christ which other religions claim to honor.

So what I would like to do with this great paragraph about Jesus
Christ, written by the one who knew him on earth more intimately
than anyone else, the apostle John, is to point out and explain and
exult over five truths concerning the Word made flesh, and then
contrast two starkly different responses that you might give to him
this morning. My aim is that you might see him for who he is and be
moved to receive Him as your Lord and your God and your
all-surpassing Treasure. And if you have already received Him, I
pray that you will embrace him, and treasure him and delight in him
and follow him and display Him more than you ever have.

So let's begin with five truths about the "Word-Made-Flesh" in
this passage.

• The Name of the Word-Made-Flesh on Earth Is Jesus Christ

Verse 17: "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came
through Jesus Christ."

"Jesus" was the name Joseph was told to give the child by the
angel of the Lord because it means "savior." "An angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not
be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been
conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and
you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people
from their sins.'"

"Christ" was the title that referred to the long-awaited king of
the Jews who would give victory to the people and bear the
government of the world on his shoulders. When Andrew, Peter's
brother, told him that he had met Jesus he said (in John 1:41),
"'We have found the Messiah' [and John adds] (which means
Christ)."

So the person we are speaking of in these verses is known in the
Bible and throughout the world as "Jesus Christ." And each name
carries tremendous meaning: He is Savior and King.

• The Word-Made-Flesh Existed as God and with God before He Was
  Born as a Man on Earth

Verse 1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God."

They have always been sectarian groups who have resisted the
mystery implied in these two phrases: "the Word was with God," and
"the Word was God." They say, in their bondage to merely human
conceptuality, you can't have it both ways. Either he was
God, or he was with God. If he was with God, he
wasn't God. And if he was God, he wasn't with God. So to
escape the truth of these two sentences, sometimes they change the
translation (as the Jehovah's Witnesses do) so that it reads, "The
Word was with God, and the Word was a god." But there are
good grammatical reasons as well as contextual reasons from other
parts of the Gospel of John and other books of the Bible for why
the Christian Church has never accepted such teaching as true and
orthodox.

What verse one teaches is that the one we know as Jesus Christ,
before he was made flesh, was God, and that the Father was also
God. There are two persons and one God. This is part of the truth
which we know as the Trinity. This is why we worship Jesus Christ
and say with Thomas in John 20:28, "My Lord and my God."

• Before He Became Flesh, John Called Him "The Word"

John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Why was he called "the Word"? One way to answer this is to
ponder what he might have been called and why this would have been
inadequate in relationship to "the Word." For example, he might
been called "the Deed": "In beginning was the deed and the deed was
with God and the deed was God." One of the differences between a
deed and the Word is that a deed is more ambiguous. If we think our
words are sometimes unclear and subject to various
interpretations, our deeds are far more unclear and
ambiguous. That's why we so often explain ourselves with words.
Words capture the meaning of what we do more clearly than the deeds
themselves. God did many mighty deeds in history, but he gave a
certain priority to the Word. One of the reasons, I think, is that
he puts a high value on clarity and communication.

Another example is that John might have called him "the
Thought." "In the beginning was the Thought, and the Thought was
with God and the Thought was God." But one of the differences
between a thought and a word is that a word is generally pictured
as moving outward from the thinker for the sake of establishing
communication. I think John wanted us to conceive of the Son of God
as existing both for the sake of communication between him and the
Father, and for the sake of appearing in history as God's
communication to us.

A third example is that John might have called him "the
Feeling." "In the beginning was the Feeling, and the Feeling was
with God and the Feeling was God." But again, I would say, feelings
do not carry any clear conception or intention or meaning.
Feelings, like deeds, our ambiguous and need to be explained
– with words. So it seems to me that calling Jesus "the Word"
is John's way of emphasizing that the very existence of the Son of
God is for the sake of communication. First, and foremost, he
exists, and has always existed, from all eternity for the sake of
communication with the Father. Secondarily, but infinitely
important for us, the Son of God became divine communication to us.
One might say, in summary, calling Jesus "the Word" implies that he
is "God-Expressing-Himself."

• All That Is not God Was Created through the Word

John 1:3: "All things were made through him, and without him was
not any thing made that was made."

There are at least two reasons John says this about the Word
here. One is that it underscores that he is God. When we think of
God, we think immediately of Creator. God is the origin and
explanation of all that is except God. So when John says, "All
things were made through him, and without him was not anything made
that was made," means he is God and he is not created.

The other reason comes out in verse 10: "He was in the world,
and the world was made through
him, yet the world did not
know him." The point here seems to underline the seriousness of the
world's guilty blindness, and the greatness of the world's evil in
rejecting Jesus. He comes to us as our Maker, and
still the world will not receive him.

So far then what have we seen about the Word-Made-Flesh? 1) He
is Jesus Christ, Savior and anointed King. 2) He is God, the second
person of the Trinity. 3) He is the Word –
God-in-Communication, God-Expressing-Himself. 4) He is the Creator
of all things.

• The Word-Made-Flesh Has Life in Himself, and That Life Becomes
  the Light of Men

John 1:4: "In Him was life, and the life was the Light of
men."

All life originates in the Word. That is obvious because, as we
have seen already, he is the Creator of all things. But here the
focus is probably on spiritual life. In other words, there are two
overwhelming problems we humans face: we are spiritually dead and
therefore spiritually blind. John is saying here: Jesus is the
remedy to both of these problems: He has the life we need, and this
life becomes the Light we need.

John 5:21 says, "The Son gives life to whom he will." In other
words, he does for us spiritually what he did for Lazarus when he
stood before Lazarus' tomb and said to the dead man, "Lazarus, come
forth" (John 11:43).

And how does that life, given by Jesus, relate to light? In two
ways. One is that it enables us to see. When dead people are given
life, they see. Or, to change the image, when you are born, you
see. So it is spiritually. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Truly, truly,
I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot
see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). So first Jesus gives
life and then that life becomes light – the
ability to see spiritual reality.

The other way that the life Jesus gives relates to the light is
not that it enables you to see, but that Jesus himself is the Light
that is seen. What, after all, are we blind to, when we are
unbelievers? We are blind to the truth and beauty and worth –
the glory – of Jesus. So when John says, "In him was life and
that life was the Light of men," he probably means that Jesus
Christ, the Word-Made-Flesh, is both the power to see spiritual
splendor and the splendor seen.

That's what verse 14 says, "The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we have seen his glory." And that is what
Jesus prayed for in John 17:24, "Father, I desire that they also,
whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my
glory." And that's what he claimed when he said twice, "I am the
Light of the world" (John 8:12; 9:5). So the Word-Made-Flesh has
life in himself, and that life becomes the Light of men. He is the
power to see and the splendor seen.

Summing up, what five truths about the Word-Made-Flesh have we
seen?

1. He is Jesus Christ after he is made flesh: Savior and
   God-anointed King of all.
2. He is God: He was with God and was God.
3. He was called the Word: God-in-communication,
   God-Expressing-Himself.
4. He is the Creator: all things were made through him, but he
   himself was not made.
5. He is life and Light: the living power to see and the
   all-satisfying splendor to be seen.

Finally, then what are the responses you might give to all this
revelation about Jesus Christ, the Word-Made-Flesh?

One Response: I Do not Know Him and I Do not Receive Him

One is described in verses 10-11, "He was in the world, and the
world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. (11) He
came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him."
You might here this and say, "I do not know him and I do not
receive him." That is a very frightening things so say about your
Maker and your Life and your Light. At the very least I plead with
you, Don't do say that lightly this Christmas.

Another Response: I Know Him and I Receive Him

The other response is found in verses 12-13, "But as many as
received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God,
even to those who believe in His name, (13) who were born, not of
blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of
God." This is the response I pray for this morning. Receive this
great Word-Made-Flesh. Receive him as Savior and King and God and
Word and Creator and Life and Light. And all that God is for you in
him!

Christmas is like God sending his Son into the world to find all
the Bin Ladens of the world, hiding in the caves of darkness and
death. Instead of throwing flames into the caves, he first stands
at the mouth of the caves and says, "Come out into the light for I
have died on the cross for sinners; if you will receive me as your
God and your Substitute and your Treasure, my death counts for your
death and my righteousness counts as your righteousness, and you
will have eternal life."