John 1:1-14 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Summer Series: Joy for Our Journeys 5 Sunday, August 4, 2019 “The Journey from Heaven to Earth”
I’m guessing that you have caught on, even though I haven’t really said it. Yes, today we are celebrating Christmas! Perhaps you have heard of Christmas in July, but we didn’t even quite make that. We are celebrating Christmas in August. In other words, we’re still almost half a year removed from our customary celebration of Christmas, I guess you could call it the standard celebration, which would take place in late December. It is fitting for us to celebrate Christmas even now, because as we are often reminded in December, what happened at Christmas has year-round importance and significance. Indeed, it has eternal significance. And Christmas fits our August this year because in our journey through God’s Word and his plan of salvation, we have come to the point of celebrating the great journey of Christmas. Think with me about how we have come to this point. The first journey in our series reminded us of God’s promise to Adam and Eve. In the second, we heard that promise repeated to Abraham. The third journey preserved that promise by preserving the people of the promise in the land of Egypt, and just last week we heard how another journey kept that promise in view when God rescued his people out of Egypt. Now, that brief journey through the Old Testament surely does not exhaust the earlier stages salvation history. There would be other aspects for us to consider, but those several do bring us to really a central point in that salvation history, in God’s plan of salvation. They bring us in our series to the place where all those promises are set to be acted on. God was about to keep his promise to Adam and Eve and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all of Israel. The promise was kept in the person of Jesus Christ, about whom we hear in the Gospels, including the Gospel of John which provides today’s sermon text. And the great journey of Christmas is found at the very start of the Gospel of John: the journey from heaven to earth. So let’s begin that journey in the same place that the journey begins in John’s Gospel: in heaven with God himself. John’s words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, echo the very first words of the entire Bible, of the Old Testament book of Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). John also begins the Gospel that bears his name with “In the beginning.” Before anything else, before the creation of the world, before time could be reckoned as we know it, there is God. And there is “The Word,” who is with God and who is God. In these words, John is describing the complexity of God. We use the term “Trinity” to describe what the Bible says about God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In this first verse of his Gospel, John is focused on the Son, the second person of the Trinity. He is not less than God, he is God. He is the Creator. Apart from him nothing has been created. He is God from the beginning. No descriptions are too expansive for talking about the power and majesty of God, and therefore also the power and majesty of the Word as John speaks about him. But we also immediately find in John’s Gospel the strong contrast, the other end of the spectrum, and the other extreme of the journey. On earth, we find the darkness of sin. We know that God created the world perfect. He created perfect people within that perfect world. But the world, the earth, that John describes is not perfect. It is ruined by sin. It is full of darkness and unbelief. The light of God’s word and promises have been shining forth in the darkness, but the darkness remains. You and I have seen that darkness. We have seen and heard what people are willing to do to each other and how people are willing and even eager to turn their backs on God. We have seen how our own lives are stained by sin, our own sins and the sins of others. We have seen how darkness shows up in so many aspects of our lives. But that is the earth to which the Son of God journeyed. John reminds us that God sent ahead of his Son another John, John the Baptist, who testified about the Savior. While some mistook him and his message, “He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light.” Many people have journeyed on this earth,
John the Baptist included. Many, like John, have had important roles to play in God’s plan of salvation. But only one is the primary focus of that plan, the one who carried it out to completion. Only one person journeyed on this earth after first making his journey from heaven to earth. John says it this way: “The Word became flesh and dwelled among us. We have seen his glory, the glory he has as the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” So, yes, I understand that this is not a simple journey, it is much more than someone moving from one place to another. This is the only begotten Son of God full of grace, full of glory, full of truth. And without sacrificing any bit of his glory or grace or truth, he took to himself the true fleshy nature of a human being. He became one of us, and he came to live with us. He was born as a baby, and John doesn’t give us all the details that we often hear at Christmas time: he was born in Bethlehem. He was laid in a manger. He was visited by shepherds, and his birth was proclaimed by angels. And as amazing as all these things are, what is even more amazing is why this was all done. It was done for a world of sinners. It was done for a world of people who could not help or save themselves. So instead, the God who created them also stepped in to save them. He became our brother so that he could live under the same expectations and commands under which we live. He became one of us so that along with us he could experience temptation… and defeat it. He united himself with us, came to live with us, in order to do perfectly what we have done wrong. And yes, he came to live with us so that he could die for us. That is the amazing news of this journey. That is the amazing news of Christmas. And the amazing result is that we poor sinners have become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Many failed to recognize him when he walked on the earth. Many lived in darkness even as the light of the world walked among them. Many still today refuse to recognize the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. But listen again to John describing those who do see that light: “But to all who did receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. They were born, not of blood, or of the desire of the flesh, or of a husband’s will, but born of God.” Apart from anything that we have done and in spite of everything we have done, God undertook this rescue journey in order to make us his own. Even our birth into his family is his gracious gift to us as he has worked through his Holy Spirit to change our hearts and to give us that faith. No more than a child is responsible for his own birth are we responsible for becoming God’s children. And it is not a human arrangement. It is not based on who we are or who our parents are. It has nothing to do with our race or ethnicity or blood. It has nothing to do with our own choice or that of our earthly parents. It is from God and God alone. But now, through his great Christmas journey, he has made us his children. He has promised that he will never abandon us but will ultimately bring us to our family home, our heavenly home. That’s why we are celebrating Christmas in August. We don’t have a tree, and we don’t need it. We may not have presents to give each other here or at home, and that is fine. We don’t have decorations around church and around our homes, but we can still celebrate. And we will celebrate Christmas not just in August but also in July and in September and in every month and every year. We will celebrate now and forever. We will celebrate that the Word himself, God himself made the journey from heaven to earth for you and for me.
The Text: John 1:1-14 EHV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him everything was made, and without him not one thing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. 5 The light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There
was a man, sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as an eyewitness to testify about the light so that everyone would believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. 9 The
real light that shines on everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to what was his own, yet his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who did receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They were born, not of blood, or of the desire of the flesh, or of a husband’s will, but born of God. 14 The
Word became flesh and dwelled among us. We have seen his glory, the glory he has as the onlybegotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.