WHAT DID HE SAY?
John 1:1-2
S: Jesus as God
Th: Christmas: It’s About Jesus
Pr: JESUS IS GOD.
?: How? How do we know?
KW: Qualities
TS: We will find in our study of John 1:1-2 three qualities of Jesus that are communicated to us in the description as the Word.
The ____ quality that is communicated to us in the description of the Word is His…
I. CREATIVITY
II. ETERNITY
III. DEITY
RMBC 12/3/00 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Notebook: Communication (C & H—loopholes)
In the comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin is sitting at his desk in school, taking a test. He is quite dismayed when he reads the first question: Explain Newton’s First Law of Motion in your own words.
In the second frame, a big smile comes across his face as it is obvious as he has an idea.
In the third frame, he begins to write: “Yakka foob mog. Grug pubbawup zink wattoom gazork. Chumble spuzz.”
In the final frame, having made the answer in his own words, Calvin sits back with his hands behind his head and says, “I love loopholes.”
Which brings me to this significant question…
1. Isn’t the goal of communication clarity?
Isn’t it true that when we speak, we want to be understood?
And isn’t it tiring to always have a response of, “What?” “What did you say?”
When we speak, we want people to listen.
When we write something down, unlike Calvin, we are not looking for loopholes, we want to our thoughts to be grasped.
And when someone is speaking to us, we want them to speak in a language that we can understand.
It is frustrating when they speak in a coded language or in a mysterious way.
We want to understand.
In fact…
2. We appreciate it when people speak to us directly.
ILL Notebook: Communication (you can talk to me)
Jim Brademas found a new doctor for his 90-year-old mother since her fam-ily physician had died. After examining her, the doctor called them both into his office and, ignoring his mother, proceeded to give Jim the results. His mother interrupted and said, “Doctor, do you do crossword puzzles?” “Yes, I do,” he replied. She then asked, “Do you do them with pencil or pen?” “Why, with a pencil,” replied the doctor. “Well, I do mine with a pen,” said Mother. “So you can talk to me.”
TRANSITION:
1. When it comes to the Christmas story, clarity should be our goal.
This is the reason we have been doing the Pilgrimage.
Since we do it so early in the season, we sometimes fail to get warmed up in our thinking about it.
Simply, Christmas is about Jesus.
It is not about family and friends.
It is not about shopping.
It is not about Santa Claus and reindeer.
It is not about giving and receiving gifts.
It is about Jesus!
Was I clear enough?
ILL Notebook: Christmas (8’ long, 3’ wide)
The pastor of a small town church sent one of his parishioners to the big city to order a Christmas sign to be hung outside on the door of the Church. The parishioner lost the note that the pastor gave him which gave the dimension of the sign and the inscription that was to be printed on it. So he wired the pastor: "Rush copy of motto and dimensions." A new lady clerk in the Western Union office got the reply and almost fainted. It read: "Unto us a child is born. Eight feet long, three feet wide."
That’s some baby!
Well, for certain, that message was not clear to her (but, of course, neither was it intended for her).
But there is a message that we are all to get.
It is found in the gospel of John.
In fact…
2. The first eighteen verses of the gospel of John are clear and eloquent in their description of Jesus.
Specifically, we are considering the first two verses this morning, and especially verse one.
Did you know that…
ILL Notebook: Communication (cabbage)
"The Ten Commandments contain 297 words. The Bill of Rights is stated in 463 words. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address contains 266 words. A recent federal directive to regulate the price of cabbage contains 26,911 words."
--Atlanta Journal
In the Greek, verse one contains 17 words.
Those 17 words, according to one commentary, are the “most compact and pulsating theological statement in all of Scripture.”
Another writer says of the first verse, “…the force of what he says is so staggering that the words almost seem to bend under the weight that are made to bear.”
John is clear about his intention.
For…
3. John’s goal for us is belief (20:31).
He says toward the end of the gospel…
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.
John is setting out to give evidence why any person, in any age, in any place, can fully and wholeheartedly believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God.
We all love telemarketers, don’t we?
We like it when they call during our dinner to persuade us to buy something, right?
I want you to note that John breaks all the rules of telemarketing.
He comes straight out with the message.
He does not begin with easiest thing and work toward the more difficult.
He does not work on the area of universal agreement and then move toward the divisive topic.
He is not trying to please the listener.
What John comes out and says in verse one is the most demanding and potentially divisive message that has ever been given.
He says, simply…
4. JESUS IS GOD.
John communicates this to us in a most interesting way.
He uses the word “Word” as a description of Jesus.
John does not clue us in on this immediately, until verse fourteen when he says that the Word became flesh.
By using the word “Word,” he is pointing to the truth that it is the very nature of God to reveal Himself.
Just as a man’s word is the means whereby he reveals what he is thinking, so Jesus reveals God to us.
God is not aloof and indifferent.
He reveals Himself.
John is also deliberate in what he is trying to eliminate as possible conclusions about Jesus.
His statement flies in the face of those that say Jesus was a nice man, or an outstanding teacher, or as the wisest man who ever lived.
Those are all inadequate descriptions of the “Word.”
So…
5. We will find in our study of John 1:1-2 three qualities of Jesus that are communicated to us in the description as the Word.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first quality that is communicated to us in the description of the Word is His CREATIVITY.
1. John starts out the text so that we will think of Genesis.
John is deliberately reminding us of the first words in the Bible.
Genesis 1:1 says,
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…”
John is going to bring out other key Genesis words in the verses that we will look at next week: life (4), light (4) and darkness (5).
He wants us to see that there is continuity between what is observed in Genesis and what is observed in Jesus.
But John wants us to do more than think of Genesis.
You see…
2. At the same time, we are being pointed to a new beginning (3:3).
There is a new start that is happening.
There is this thing called a new creation that is happening.
This is the very thing that Jesus is saying to Nicodemus:
In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
The Word is creative.
He is able to begin a new work that is absolutely consistent with His previous work.
So…
3. God reveals Himself in His workmanship.
And He shows us that there never was a thing that did not depend on Him for its very existence.
You know, there are many scientists in our time that believe that the universe started with a big bang.
After the big bang, the atoms and the physical laws of nature interacted with one another.
And after billions of years of the concourse of these atoms and physical laws, they produced the complex universe with all the plants and animals that we see today.
In essence, they are saying everything happens by chance and there is no such thing as a great thought behind the universe.
John’s testimony is vastly different.
He says there is a great mind behind the universe.
There is a “big banger” if you will.
There is an original thinker.
There is a genius that lies behind every law in the physical universe.
It is the Word.
God is personally and creatively communicating.
Are you listening?
II. The second quality that is communicated to us in the description of the Word is His ETERNITY.
1. There has never been a time when the Word did not exist.
Forgive me here, but to fully understand this verse, we have to give a quick Greek lesson.
The words “was” appears three times in verse one and once in verse two.
It is not, as it appears in English, to be a simple past tense.
In Greek, it is the imperfect tense, which gives a sense of continuing.
So if we are going to give the more accurate translation, it would go like this: “In the beginning was continuing the Word, and the Word was continuing with God, and the Word was continually God.”
To put it wrong grammatically, we would say, “Jesus always was wasing.”
To establish the eternity of the Word, John is saying that the Word existed before creation.
He was not created and He is not to be included with created things.
There is no start.
There is only a state of being.
So when we think of Jesus, we do not start in the manger, or the announcement to Mary, or with the prophets.
We begin (so to speak) in eternity.
Not only that…
2. Within the Godhead, there is equality and intimacy.
The wording is interesting here, for it tells us that God and the Word were continually face to face.
There is a nearness with no opposition.
There is accompaniment and relationship.
III. The third quality that is communicated to us in the description of the Word is His DEITY.
ILL Notebook: God (Aslan)
In the book, Prince Caspian, the second book of C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, Lucy reencounters Aslan, who symbolizes the person of Christ. As Lucy again gazes into large wise face, he says, “Welcome, child.” “Aslan,” says Lucy, “You’re bigger.” “That is because you are older, little one,” answered he. “Not because you are?” “I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”
The serious student of the gospel of John will find that each time he returns to the gospel, Jesus will be a little bigger.
And that is certainly true as we come to this last quality, for…
1. The Word is the same as God in essence and character.
He was and is God in every way.
And though they are separate and not identical, they are one.
They are one in essence.
They are one in character.
When you see the Word, when you see Jesus, you see God.
2. The Word was (is, will be) God constantly.
All that may be said about God may fitly be said about the Word.
John is not saying that there is something divine about Jesus.
He is affirming that He is God and doing so emphatically.
He is saying that when you look into the face of Jesus, you look in the face of God.
And if you want to know what God is thinking, listen to Jesus.
So…are you listening?
APPLICATION:
1. Through the ages, who Jesus would be has been communicated (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6-7; Micah 5:2).
I had the privilege the last three nights to quote these next three verses over and over again.
There is wonderful power in these verses!
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.
The Scripture is so definite.
At times, we wonder how it could be missed!
Yet, let ‘s not be too condemning.
For…
2. The Incarnation is definitely a mystery.
For the thought of God becoming man is mysteriously difficult.
But the thought of God becoming a baby is even more so.
ILL Notebook: Christmas (Augustine)
I like how the ancient theologian Augustine has put it in this poem written some sixteen centuries ago:
Maker of the sun,
He is made under the sun.
In the Father he remains,
From his mother he goes forth.
Creator of heaven and earth,
He was born on earth under heaven.
Unspeakably wise,
He is wisely speechless.
Filling the world,
He lies in a manger.
Ruler of the stars,
He nurses at his mother’s bosom.
He is both great in the nature of God,
and small in the form of a servant.
Oh the mystery of it all!
3. We rejoice, though, that He has come and revealed Himself as our Savior (Luke 2:11).
As the angel announced to the shepherds:
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
The prophecies were finally being fulfilled.
Jesus was born.
God, as Jesus, was born.
He was born because we needed help.
You see, this baby had to be God, for a natural Savior provided no supernatural help.
He would be useless in times of our gravest emergencies unless He was God.
A human savior offers no divine hope.
But Jesus, as fully God and fully man is the perfect representative of heaven and an ideal representative of man.
This tiny baby that we celebrate is the Word, God in the flesh.
ILL Notebook: Christmas (TWO BABES IN A MANGER)
In 1994, two Americans answered an invitation from the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics (based on biblical principles) in the public schools. They were invited to teach at prisons, businesses, the fire and police departments and a large orphanage.
About 100 boys and girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program were in the orphanage. These Americans relate the following story in their own words:
It was nearing the holiday season, 1994, time for our orphans to hear, for the first time, the traditional story of Christmas. We told them about Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem. Finding no room in the inn, the couple went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger.
Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word. Completing the story, we gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a crude manger. Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins I had brought with me. No colored paper was available in the city.
Following instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the manger for straw. Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out nightgown an American lady was throwing away as she left Russia, were used for the baby’s blanket. A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt we had brought from the United States.
The orphans were busy assembling their manger as I walked among them to see if they needed any help. All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat. He looked to be about 6 years old and had finished his project. As I looked at the little boy’s manger, was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. Quickly, I called for the translator to ask the lad why there were two babies in the manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story very seriously. For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately - until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger.
Then Misha started to ad-lib. He made up his own ending to the story as he said, "And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I don’t have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn’t, because I didn’t have a gift to give him like everybody else did. But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift.
So I asked Jesus, "If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?" And Jesus told me, "If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me." "So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him for always."
As little Misha finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that splashed down his little cheeks. Putting his hand over his face, his head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed. The little orphan had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would stay with him - FOR ALWAYS. I’ve learned that it’s not what you have in your life, but who you have in your life that counts.
…a Savior.
COMMUNION:
We come to this table because we celebrate that we have a Savior.
The message of the angel to the shepherds rings true to us.
And as a result, we have a relationship with the “With-Us God.”
We know Immanuel—God with us.
We agree with the hymn writer, Cecil Alexander, who wrote “Once in Royal David’s City.”
In the second verse, he writes:
He came down to earth from heaven
Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable,
And His cradle was a stall:
With the poor and meek and lowly
Lived on earth, our Savior holy.
And those of us that know Jesus are invited to share in the elements of the table.
He told us to come together for this fellowship and to do this in remembrance of Him.
Yearly, we take this time of the year to remember His coming—a coming that would eventually lead to the cross.
But this coming, a humble, humiliating and even scandalous coming is an invitation to know the power of God.
You are invited to know Jesus today, even at this very moment, by recognizing and repenting of your sin, receiving Jesus as your Savior and Lord.
It is that simple.
It is a statement of faith.
You can have a new start.
Jesus can be born in you today.
The table is for believers of the Lord Jesus.
We come to remember that the babe in the manger cries out for us to remember the God who became like us—to save us.
The God of all creation humbled Himself.
God Himself became a fragile baby to understand our weakness and to show us the way to overcome the world by the power of His Spirit, even unto death on the cross.
Angels announced His being vulnerable for our sakes.
The manger is a sign of the Savior and His amazing grace!
Let us take a moment and meditate on these great truths for us…
(Prayer—Dan Miller)
The apostle Paul writes, "The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me."
Let’s partake together.
(Prayer—Alan Graffam)
Again, the apostle Paul writes, "In the same way, after supper he took the cup saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
Let’s partake together.
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Celebrate the creativity of God…for you are His workmanship as is the world around you—and listen as the Word speaks of His genius in creation;
Celebrate the eternity of God…for there is nothing that exists outside His power and control—and listen as the Word speaks of His eternal for you;
Celebrate the deity of God…for there exists perfect union and relationship in the Godhead—and listen as the Word speak, for He is the supernatural and satisfying Savior that each one of us needs.
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
