church

INI
The First Sunday in Advent
November 29, 2009
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

The Name Which is Above Every Name
"THE WORD"
John 1:1-5
* * Rev. Caleb Schaller, Guest Speaker * *

May God’s love for you rest on your hearts. And may the undeserved mercy of
His Son fill you with peace. Amen.

I’m going to read off a list of names. These names don’t have a connection to
each other, except for the fact that I thought you might have heard of them
before.

As I read off this list of names, I want you to think of ONE word for each
name. What do you think of when you hear the name….

Brittany Spears.
Martin Luther.
Stephen King.
Barack Obama.
Mother Teresa.
Elvis Presley.

Names are more than titles. More than labels, or handles. To other people, your
name represents WHO you are, and WHAT you do. Your personality and your
actions.

There are some names you’d never choose for a son or daughter simply because
you knew someone with that name. And that someone was very unkind to you.

Yet you might have another name that isn’t really a pretty name. But it’s special
to you because someone with that name helped you through a real hard time in
your life.

Today we’re starting a series of sermon meditations called, “The Name Which
is Above Every Name”. In this series we’ll be looking at some of the different
names that the Bible uses to describe our Savior.

Today’s name is “The Word”.

Turn to John 1, verse 1. The book of John was written by John the apostle. He
was a fisherman by trade, along with his brother James. John was a follower of
John the Baptizer until Jesus was pointed out to him. He was chosen to be one
of Jesus’ twelve apostles, and came to be a close friend of Jesus. So close in
fact, that before Jesus died, He asked John to take care of His mother Mary as if
she was John’s own mother.

Here is the description of Jesus that John wrote down at the Holy Spirit’s
direction. John verse 1…

“1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has
been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light
shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it” (John 1:1-5
NIV).

To begin with, I’d like to just take you through the first two verses of this text
and explain exactly what John is communicating here. If you have a pencil to
write in your Bible with, that will help.

First of all, I’d like you to circle the word “WAS” in the first two verses. It
occurs four times.

“1In the beginning WAS the Word, and the Word WAS with God, and the
Word WAS God. 2He WAS with God in the beginning” (John 1:1-2 NIV).

When you see that word “was” here I want you to think of an on-going line. In
Biblical Greek the verbs have tenses. These tenses express action in different
ways. The aorist tense expresses an action like a dot. The perfect tense
expresses action that has been completed but has results that continue on.

The imperfect tense express “on-going action in past time”. Each occurrence of
“was” in these first two verses is in the imperfect tense. In other words, John is
saying, When the beginning happened JESUS WAS ALREADY IN
EXISTENCE.

John continues. He says, and the Word was WITH God. Underline the first
“God” in verse 1. Sometimes when the Bible says “God” it is referring to God
the Father specifically. This is one of those places. God = God the Father. We
can tell this by looking ahead at verse 14.

“14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his
glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace
and truth” (John 1:14 NIV).

In verse 2, John continues with one more detail about the Word. In the
beginning, the Word WAS God. Now here it’s not saying that Jesus is the
Father. It’s talking about Jesus’ substance. In “substance” Jesus is God.

For example. You hold up any two items. Say, a book and an apple. And you
say, “This is book, and this is apple”. That’s what they are in substance. That’s
what John is doing here. He’s holding up Jesus and saying, He is not a created
thing, He is THE CREATOR.

Let’s recap. In verse 1-2 John is saying, In the beginning, Jesus was already
existing. He was existing beside God the Father. He Himself was in substance,
God.

Then John goes on to describe Jesus in two other ways. In verse three John
describes Jesus as the creator of all things. Verse three says,

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has
been made” (John 1:3 NIV).

I still remember when I first came to the realization that, the Bible says that
Jesus created everything. There’s nothing that exists that didn’t Jesus didn’t
touch. Wow. That’s amazing. That puts Jesus on a different plane doesn’t it?
He’s not a created thing, He’s the channel through which the Father created
everything.

The Bible mentions this fact in various places.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 8, verse 6.

“6yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and
for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all
things came and through whom we live” (1 Corinthians 8:6 NIV).

Turn to Colossians 1, verse 16.

“16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible
and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were
created by him and for him” (Colossians 1:16 NIV).

One more. Turn to Hebrews 1, verse 1.

“1In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times
and in various ways, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,
whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the
universe.” (Hebrews 1:1-2 NIV).

So far, John has said, Jesus is God. Always has been with the Father. Jesus even
created the universe with the Father.

Then, John gets to his last description of Jesus. Verse four.

“4In him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4 NIV).

That’s poetic. But what in the world does it mean? In Jesus was existing “life”
and “light”? If I were to say that about someone, “I met Rick the other day, and
he is just full of life and light”. First you’d think I was a little odd. Maybe you’d
think that I meant Rick was an upbeat and positive person. But John is saying
more than that here.

If you look at the rest of John’s Gospel you’ll see that he talks about “life” a lot.
But he’s obviously not just talking about mere biological life. He’s talking about
a right relationship between a person and the God that created them. That is
truly life.

All people are going to exist forever. But not all will LIVE forever. Only those
people who have a right relationship with the true God will truly LIVE forever.
Turn to John 17. Here Jesus is praying to His Father in heaven.

“1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
2For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to
all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4I have brought you
glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father,
glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world
began” (John 17:1-5 NIV).

This relationship with God is like turning on the lights in a dark room. It helps
you to see everything more clearly. Knowing God and His Bible helps us to
truly understand the world around us. It reveals to us things about the spiritual
world also. Things about God that we would be incapable of knowing
otherwise.

Jesus is life and light, because He establishes a relationship between us and
God. You experienced Christians out there know HOW Jesus did this. Jesus
joins people to God by taking away their sins.

Look ahead again to John 1, verse 14. We could study all about stars in distance
galaxies and how they turn into huge supernovas that destroy everything around
them. We might think, Oh, that’s sort of interesting. But if we were told that
tomorrow our star, the sun, was going to go supernova, that would be slightly
more significant to us, wouldn’t it?

We could read about now NASA’s space programs have produced technologies
that are used by hospitals around the country. And again we might think, Oh,
that’s neat. But if that new technology actually saved our life, or took our pain
away, that fact would be more significant wouldn’t it?

We can admire things from a distance, but if they never actually impact our
lives, they’re nothing more than trivia.

Here’s the point. The Word has always been. The Word was with God. The
Word is God. The Word created all things. The Word is full of life and light.

And verse 14…

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…” (John 1:14a
NIV).

The Word became Human.

When sin separated mankind from God, God the Son came to separate us from
sin. He did so by becoming human Himself. He did so to place Himself under
the Father’s Law. Then He kept every command of that Law perfectly.

He then offered His own flesh and soul to suffer and be sacrificed in our place.
He died in our place, and restore us to the Father, giving us life and light for
this life and beyond.

And John’s Gospel was written to communicate the truth of “The Word” to us.
Turn to the end of John’s Gospel. Turn to John 20, verse 31. There John closes
his Gospel with these words…

“30Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which
are not recorded in this book. 31But 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.” (John 20:31 NIV).

As you think ahead to Christmas, and celebrating the birth of Jesus in the flesh.
Think of where He came from. From eternity. From the Father’s side. And
remember why. For you. To earn your forgiveness. To restore you to God.

That’s who He is and what He does. The Word.

Amen.