Making God Known…John 1:1-18

Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason -- December 11, 2005

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. (Verse 1) ~ “The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (verse 14) ~ “No man has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”

These verses are the significant verses in this passage of John’s Gospel that concern us as we begin our consideration of the celebration of Christmas this year.

The first thing we need to note is that the Word already existed in the beginning. Before time began, before the creation of all that exists the Word already existed.

In the beginning was the Word:  the word “was” is in the imperfect tense. Basically that means that it continually was in existence before creation. The Word then is eternal.

The Word was not created.

The Word was continually in relationship with God

The Word is “He”, that is the Word is a person.

John tells us that “He” is the agent of creation.  He created all that exists in the universe around us.

The Word became “flesh” and lived for a while among us. The word for “dwelt” or “lived” literally means “to pitch a tent”. So he pitched his tent among us and lived with people like us for a little while.

The one who was eternal has now limited himself  by becoming one of us…by becoming flesh.

Now, do you remember why John wrote his gospel?

John 20:30, 31 give us the answer:  “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

His purpose in writing is evangelistic.

We tend to think that we have four gospels in our New Testament. But actually we have a four-fold gospel. That is we have one gospel with four phases of revelation given by the Holy Spirit.

Dr. Arthur T. Pierson (Gospel According to John- G. Campbell Morgan, p. 9) suggests that the four gospels in the order in which we have them follow the line of the Old Hebrew encampment. Matthew surveys the theocracy in its entirety – in other words the whole camp is seen surrounding the King.

In Mark we have passed into the outer court in the place of service and sacrifice.

In Luke we have passed into the holy place where stood the seven branched candlestick of witness, the table of showbread or communion.

In John we enter within the veil, into the holiest of all.  And in so doing, John reveals the principle underlying his writing when he speaks of “Many signs are not written in this book…but these are written…” From many signs he has made a selection. He includes some signs, but not all. These particular signs have been selected to produce conviction: “that you may believe, and believing you may have life.”

In our Bibles there are three words that are commonly used to designate the supernatural:

Powers…these are operations producing results

Wonders…describing the effect produced by the powers when they operate.

Signs…which refer to the value of the thing done which produced the wonder.

We often speak of miracles. The word miracle comes from the word miraculum and simply means “to wonder”. Miracles produce wonder or astonishment. For example: water turned to wine or the raising of Lazarus from the dead. And in the midst of the wonder or astonishment, the observer would recognize power manifested. That is the wonder would be created by the ignorance of the power producing the result. Therefore, it is a miracle, a wonderful event beyond the normal experience.

Now the word “sign” as used by John, reveals to us the value of the thing. A sign proves something. Jesus went about and as he did God through Him wrought powers (that is the fact); wonders (that is the effect) and signs (that is the value, the significance). So a sign is something that proves something else and is always a proof of God.

Another interesting thing about John’s Gospel that we should note is that he uses the name Jesus 247 times. Mark only uses the name of Jesus 13 times; Luke uses it 88 times and Matthew only 151 times. The significance of this is that John keeps us face to face with the human Jesus…Jesus, the Word of God, who pitched his tent and lived for a while among us.

So the message of John’s Gospel is this:  When it is all said and done, Peter was right when he said in response to Jesus’ question regarding who he was, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God”.

We should also see that the Word “became” flesh and lived among us for a little while. This is a new manifestation of something already in existence. There is something new afoot here. The Word of verse 1 is the same in verse 14. We have already seen that the imperfect tense tell us that the Word “was” God…a continuous state of being and “was with God”…continuously from an age of existence we cannot measure with time.

What this tells us among other things is that we cannot explain God.

The story is told that after Helen Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, had given her the names of physical objects in sign language, Miss Sullivan attempted to explain God and tapped out the symbols for the name "God." Much to Miss Sullivan's surprise, Helen spelled back, "Thank you for telling me God's name, Teacher, for he has touched me many times before." Helen Keller knew something of God's signature from nature, but it was wordless. Source Unknown

But having become flesh…having taken on an actual human nature…through what we call the incarnation, the Word of God lived for a while among us “full of grace and truth.” This is a new form of existence for the Word which has already existed eternally. Not a new existence, but a new form of existence. Nothing like this had ever taken place before. Paul in Philippians 2 tells us that Jesus emptied himself and took on the form of a servant. This was a new form of existence, being in the likeness of men.

No man has ever seen God, we are told in the scriptures. Well, now with the coming of the Word of God in the flesh…in this new form of existence as the babe born to Mary…the things we could not see, we began to see. The things we could not know, we began to understand.

He lived among us for a little while, “full of grace and truth.” This is Christianity in a flash. No man has ever seen God, but now “the only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father, he has declared him.” This coming of the Word of God in the flesh is a declaration of God. The phrase “who is in the bosom of the father” marks a limitation. What the Son has declared of the father has something to do with “the bosom of the father” whatever that is.

What it means is this:  Jesus came to reveal the heart of God the Father. He did not come to reveal the power or might, wisdom or majesty of God. These were already revealed in what we call nature. This is called natural revelation even though many people miss the point.

Jesus came to declare the father. The word “declare” is an interesting word. He has declared Him, that is he has exegeted the Father. To exegete means: to bring out from into visibility. It is the bringing forth into visibility that which was there all the time, but which was not seen until it was brought forth.

Jesus is the exegesis of God. He is the revealing to us of the heart of the Father. If you want to know what God is like…look to Jesus. He came to make it clear that God is love, that God loves us with an everlasting love and the challenge to believe so that by believing we might have life where death once reigned.

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer; But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior. Unknown.

God sent His son, to reveal Himself to us. John has written his gospel to convince us of that fact and having been convinced enough to believe for us to have eternal life, forgiveness and restoration to what God intended from the very beginning.

And now, it remains for us to do what Jesus did…to declare the Father to the world around us so that the world will know the heart of God…a heart of tenderness, grace, mercy and love. Let’s do our share of it this Christmas season.

 --Dennis Gleason