Introducing Jesus: The Word Made Flesh

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.