In the Beginning
Christmas • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 14:54
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· 7 viewsThe sermon explores the profound significance of the Word made flesh as presented in the opening verses of John's Gospel, emphasizing the relationship between Jesus, grace, and truth. Listeners will gain a deeper understanding of Jesus as the true light that reveals God and invites them into a transformative relationship as children of God.
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Introduction
Introduction
Each of the Gospels has a beginning. The Gospel of Mark begins with an ancient prophecy from Isaiah and Malachi about the messenger who would precede the Lord as he makes his way back to Zion. The Gospel of Matthew begins with a genealogy that moves through the major plot points of Israel’s story, namely Abraham, David, the Exile, and finally the Messiah. The Gospel of Luke, after a brief dedication to Theophilus, begins with the foretelling of the birth of John the Baptist to his father Zechariah. But the Gospel of John does something different than his Synoptic counterparts. The Gospel of John begins in the beginning.
The opening words of John’s Gospel are an obvious allusion to the first words of the first book of the Hebrew Bible. The Old Testament begins with the words, “In the beginning,” and I often wonder how the constructors of our New Testament canon resisted the urge to begin our New Testament with the same words.
Genesis 1 begins with creation.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
John 1 goes back a step further.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Even before there was creation, there was “the Word.” In Genesis 1, God creates all that is, but God did not create the word, for even before creation, there was the word, and the Word was with God, and (most remarkably) the Word was God.
The story of the Bible begins with the words “in the beginning,” and John says:
He was in the beginning with God.
What God did at the beginning was create the heavens and the earth, so John clarifies what the Word was doing in this moment. The Word was not made, but rather:
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
The natural form of the world apart from God is chaos. Genesis says:
Genesis 1:2 (ESV)
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.
Into that darkness, God said:
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
And so John writes:
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The Bible is not unaware that there is both darkness and light in this world. What matters, ultimately, is that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John the Evangelist turns his attention for the moment from creation to John the Baptist.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
After this christological introduction, John the Evangelist is going to begin his story with John the Baptist much like his Synoptic counterparts. But the Evangelist wants us to be clear from the outset that the Baptist is not the light, but rather he is the one who has come to bear witness about the light.
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
Even worse. ..
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
It might understandable for the world not to recognize him, but even his own people did not receive him.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
I do not know if we mere humans are capable of comprehending this gift. Jesus, whose name has not yet been mentioned by John, is the only begotten Son of God. He is light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father. But, wondrously, to those who receive him, that is, to those who believe in his name, he gives the right to become children of God with him. In Him, we become his adopted brothers and sisters invited into familial relationship with our creator so that we may rightly speak those incredible words, “our Father.” In him we become children of God, children born
who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
We become children of God not by sharing in Abraham’s blood, nor by circumcision, nor even by our own choice, but rather by the will of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Word that was in the beginning, was with God, and is God has become flesh. This is the miracle of the incarnation. He not only dwelt among us, but he tabernacled among us. The Temple was stationary. But the tabernacle was moveable. The Word became flesh and a movable tabernacle of God’s presence with his people. Where he went, God went. John adds to this his testimony. He says, “We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John probably has in mind the glory he saw at the transfiguration, but I suspect he also has in mind the glory of the Word-made-flesh’s resurrection. John says, essentially, “What we have seen could only be the glory of the only Son of the Father.”
For a moment, the Evangelist’s thoughts return to the Baptist again.
(John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”)
But after this brief aside, John returns to his main theme.
For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
When Paul writes:
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
and
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
this is the same word John uses here in v. 16
For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
The Word is the fullness of God, and it is from his fullness that we receive a never ending stream of grace.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Finally, the Word is given a name: Jesus the Messiah. John’s opening words drew on the first words of the books of Moses; now John names Moses directly as well. The law, with all his possibilities and all its deficiencies, was given through Moses. But the Law could not save. Something more was necessary.
What John says here in verse seventeen is shorthand for what Paul says in Romans 8.
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Paul’s version is more robust and trinitarian, but he is making the same point as John. The law, which ultimately could only condemn, was given through Moses, but now, grace and truth have come through Jesus the Messiah.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
I love the pairing of those two words. God’s truth is not distinct from his grace, nor is his grace distinct from his truth. If Jesus brought only truth, he would have brought only condemnation. If he brought only grace, it would have been cheap grace where God just forgave us with the wave of a hand. But Jesus brought grace and truth, which means that he knows the truth of who you are and the truth of what you’ve done and he has grace for you anyways. Not cheap grace. It is grace purchased by his blood on the cross. But it is truth and grace. The light of the world brings to light the truth about God and the truth about us, and mercifully, he has grace for us to bridge that gap.
Lastly then, John writes:
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
I will say again, if you want to know who God is, look to Jesus. Yes, look to the rest of the Bible, but what you find in the the Old Testament are shadows of the things to come, and after the Gospels, the remainder of the New Testament is like commentary on what it means to live as a child of God after the death and resurrection of Christ. Jesus alone is the fullness of God. He alone has made the Father known. So, this Christmas, set your eyes upon him. Jesus will say later in John’s Gospel:
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Set your eyes upon him, for he has made the Father known, and the one who follows him will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
Amen.
