A sermon on John 1:1-14
This is my sermon for Christmas Day. It's actually the final part of my Advent series called "Introducing Jesus" each week we focused on how Matthew, Mark, and Luke introduced Jesus. It was only fitting to complete the series on Christmas Day with John 1:1-14
In the name of Jesus, the light of the
world, born for you, dear fellow redeemed,
Christmas
lights are one of the most wonderful parts of our celebration of Christmas. The
days leading up to Christmas are the darkest days of the year. But they are
brightened by all sorts of festive lights hung on everything imaginable. As you’ve
been driving around this month you’ve seen how much of a difference it makes to
have one house on a street lit up. It makes even more of a difference to have a
bunch of houses lit up.
We
hang up lights because “it’s what we do every year” and we go to great peril to
do it. Each year we pull out the ladder and ascend to the heights of our roves.
We risk life and limb each year for a display that’s only on for a few weeks.
That is, unless, you’ve just decided to leave the lights up all year round.
But we forget how
appropriate this is. Not only are the nights long and dark, but our lives are
also filled with darkness. In this reading before us we hear about how Jesus,
the light of the world, breaks into our darkness and comes to be with us as the
Word made flesh.
John
starts his gospel way back in the beginning—and even before. Jesus was there
with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Together, God created the world. The first
thing God created was light. Genesis tells us that God made light simply by
saying, “Let there be light.” And so it was. God’s Word created everything for
each of the five following days so that “without Him nothing was made that has been
made.”
God
not only created, He gave life. That life was good. But what did we do with it?
We know what Adam and Eve did, but have we done any better? We’ve rejected the
value of life. We’ve belittled other people. We’ve loved the deeds of darkness
and shut ourselves out from the light. Our life was in serious danger!
When life is at stake,
the creator must step in! Even though we filled the world with darkness, the
darkness doesn’t get to win. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a
great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light
shined,” says Isaiah. This is what Jesus’ coming into the world means!
Jesus has come for
people who still sit in darkness. That darkness takes all sorts of forms. It’s
the people who don’t have God’s word as a lamp to their feet or a light to
their path. It’s the darkness we bring to the world with our own sins. It’s
also the darkness of death because the shadow of the grave still threatens us
every day.
No matter what your
darkness looks like, Jesus is here to bring light. To those who do not know
Him, He gives the light of His Word by the proclamation of the Gospel. To those
who have filled their lives with darkness He gives forgiveness and brings us
into the light. To those who sit in the shadow of death He gives the light of
His resurrection from the dead. Those are Christmas presents that’ll never perish,
spoil or fade!
Jesus
does this for you because, you see, He came to His own, but they didn’t receive
Him. Instead they nailed Him to the cross. That was for you. That was His
glory! John says, “We have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the
Father, full of grace and truth.” As you read through the Gospel of John, each
time Jesus refers to His glory or being lifted up, He’s referring to His
crucifixion. Here’s why: God was glorified when Jesus went to the cross for
you. That’s the greatest expression of love that the world has ever seen. Jesus
was pleased to do it and He did it for you. All who receive Him get the benefit
of what Jesus won for us in His death and resurrection—forgiveness life and
salvation.
The light shines into
the darkness and this is what it does. Jesus becomes one of us. He makes His
home with us. The word used here to describe God’s dwelling with us is related
to the word for tent. You remember that in the Old Testament the people of
Israel worshiped God at a tent—the tabernacle. As the people wandered in the
wilderness they took the tent with them wherever they went. That’s where God
promised to locate His presence. This is where the people went to pray, to
receive forgiveness, to celebrate, and gather as a community.
Since
Jesus was born as a human being, we have God’s presence with us again. This
time it’s a much more powerful and personal way. God dwells with us as a human
being—a little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in manger. This is
at the same time the Word of God who was there in the beginning—and indeed from
all eternity—and a human being just like you and me.
He
hasn’t lost any part of His divinity! He is still just as much God as He was
before, but now is also a human being. It’s not like Jesus is some 50-50
mixture of God and man—He’s fully and completely both. This makes Jesus the
perfect one to save us. He has to be a human being so that He can die (God can’t
die). But He has to be God so that He can rise from the dead (Humans can’t
resurrect themselves). Since He is both, it’s no problem for Him at all!
In
this child, we saw God’s presence once again. So we come to Jesus for the same
things the people of Israel came to the tabernacle for: we pray in Jesus’ name,
receive forgiveness from Him, celebrated the events of His life (as we’re doing
today), and we gather together because He’s made us a community.
He
promises still to be with us. Here today, the Word made flesh is dwelling among
us for you. He’s with you as you open His Word and read it. (He is the Word
after all.) He’s here when you encourage one another with His promises. He’s
here when you pray to Him.
He’s here today as we
celebrate the Lord’s Supper. How wonderful is it that we get to celebrate the
Lord’s Supper today? This is the best Christmas present you will receive today.
How can you get better than everlasting life?
Today we celebrate
Jesus coming to us as a child. Now, in just a few minutes, He also pledges to
you that He is just as present here today with His body and blood in the bread
and wine as He was in the manger. Jesus comes to you today in the Lord’s Supper
to shatter the darkness in your life with the light of His forgiveness.
Jesus is here today
because He has made you a child of God. Here at Christmas we don’t celebrate
Jesus becoming God’s Son—He had been that from the beginning. Instead we
celebrate this: God has made you His child! This didn’t happen because some
human decided to make it happen. It happened because God made it happen.
God gave you this gift
in the waters of baptism. In this birth of water and the Spirit, God connects
you with Jesus. The darkness is drowned and flushed away and Jesus brings His
light to us. We get to live as children of God. If we are God’s children then
we can be certain that we are forgiven because Jesus, our big brother, died in
our place and rose again.
Jesus’ appearance for
us shows us that we are children of God. It shows us that we have the light
wherever we go. This is good news because there are many people today—even many
members of our congregation—who’s Christmas celebration is not what they would
like it to be. They are at home alone, they are out on the battle field, they
are in the hospital or nursing home, they are still morning one whom they love.
They may not have a tree or any lights hung up where they are. But the light of
Christ still shines for them. Jesus comes to them in the darkness of their
trouble and gives light. It was exactly for people like this, and people like
us, that Jesus came into the world.
Know this: should
Christmas ever leave you feeling alone or forsaken, Jesus’ light is still for
you. You are still God’s child.
So, since we are God’s
children, we get to live in the light that He has given us. What does that look
like? Be that street filled with Christmas lights. The darkness is still here
even though Christ has defeated it. As you wait with eager expectation for the
morning to dawn and Christ to appear again, live in His light. There is
forgiveness, warmth, love, and security with Him. These are the things you need
everyday. May God fill you with them today and forever. Amen.
