Advent Sermon-John 1:14

[This is more a Biblical Theology of God dwelling with his people than an exposition of John 1:14.]

During our weeks in John 1, we have seen that Jesus Christ is the divine, uncreated, eternal Word who has always been with the Father and through whom all things were created. These are words that can be said of no other human being in the history of the world. It is impossible to speak too much of Jesus’ greatness and centrality to everything. And John opens his gospel by infusing all Jesus’ greatness into one title: the Word.

This is what gives great weight to the words in John 1:14—“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” This is not just any old Joe that came to dwell among humans. This is the Word that came. John doesn’t merely say, “Some carpenter from Galilee hung out with us…” He says, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

These phrases—the Word became flesh and dwelt among us—are great enough for an entire sermon. But they are part of an even greater story. It’s like we just walked into the middle of a conversation or turned on the TV during the middle of a movie and experienced a climax in the story, but we’re not quite sure what has already taken place. And in this morning’s text, with the Word becoming flesh and dwelling with humans, we find ourselves in the middle of a story that began in the Garden of Eden and will continue on for eternity, that is, the story of God dwelling with his people.

Back in December of 2002, did any of you see the newspaper headlines or lead story on the 7 o’clock news when I traveled to an obscure village in West Africa? No? Do you know why? Because there was no story. So why was there a story when Audrey Hepburn or Princess Diana or Angelina Jolie or Bono visited obscure African villages? Because these are people our media deems to be great. They are superstars of one sort or another that lowered themselves to spend time with the poorest of the poor, and that is something that makes our ears perk up.

I believe the reason we are impressed with superstars in obscure villages is because we have a built in yearning to see something great break into our mundane lives. And that yearning finds its greatest fulfillment in the story I am about to tell—the story of God Almighty dwelling in the midst of his people.

The story of God dwelling with humans began at the Garden of Eden. We are told very little about what went on in the Garden before the fall, but the fact that Genesis 3 mentions the Lord God walking in the Garden in the cool of the day suggests that he and Adam and Eve enjoyed fellowship together. And after Adam and Eve sinned, one of the first consequences they suffered was a shame that made them hide from the presence of the Lord God.

I don’t want to psychoanalyze the Bible, but is this not the case in our closest relationships? When we lash out or speak behind the back of a close friend or roommate or spouse, it throws up a wall of separation so that we cannot simply enjoy their presence. And that is the greatest benefit of friendship and marriage, isn’t it? The joy of being with someone that you appreciate and who appreciates you? The greatest tragedy of the fall was not pain in childbirth or difficulty in working the ground. The greatest tragedy of the fall was the broken fellowship between God and man.

Thus the rest of the story of the Bible is the story of mercy. The Bible could have ended with Genesis 3 if God’s destroyed of Adam and Eve because of their sin. But as Stevo said last week, our God is not one to take his ball and go home when he is rejected. His mercy is more persistent than our rebellion. And thus the story continues.

Turn with me to Exodus 25. The next part of the story comes on the heels of the Exodus—God’s great redemptive work in the Old Testament. Here we find Israel at Mt. Sinai where they received the law that showed them how to relate to this God that had redeemed them from Egypt. In the first 7 verses of Exodus 25 God tells Moses to ask the people for contributions of all kinds of materials, then read with me in verse 8 he says, “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.”

Now, put yourselves in the Israelites’, um, sandals for a moment. These people had just watched YHWH bare his mighty arm against the Egyptians. They watched him turn the Nile into blood. They watched him send flies and frogs and lice to afflict the land. They experienced the darkness he sent over Egypt. And they heard the wailing of a thousand Egyptian mothers who woke to find their firstborn son dead. Then they had the dramatic experience of being stuck between a big sea and a bad army, only to watch God part the sea in two so they could walk to the other side on dry ground, and then see him obliterate Pharaoh’s army as he allowed the walls of water to crash in over them. And this is the God that has now said, “let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.”

And in case we might not connect with the fact that this was a big deal—that God wanted to dwell with his people—we have details ad nauseam about the dimensions of the tabernacle, what kind of wood was supposed to be used for which part, what types of metals should overlay the wood, how the priests’ garments should be made, the type of candles and oil to use, etc., etc. It’s the type of material that challenges peoples’ hope of reading through the Bible in a year, because there you are, clipping away through Creation and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, then this great story of Joseph closes out Genesis, then Exodus opens with this fantastic act of God to redeeming his people from Egypt, them BAM—7 chapters worth of instructions on how to build the tabernacle. And we loose steam because we can’t understand how lampstands and alters could be as exciting as the 10 plagues. But that’s because we don’t understand what this tabernacle was all about: this was the place where God would dwell in the midst of his people.

Many of you have designed your own homes, and consequently, many of your friends and family members have had to endure your countless details on how things were going to be constructed. That’s the point here: people go into great detail about things they are excited about—like how Rachael and I got together—and the same is true for the tabernacle. Here the Israelites were so excited about the fact that God was going to dwell in their midst that they wrote chapter upon chapter not only of how the tabernacle was to be built, but recounting the actual building of it. For the sake of time I will skip over those chapters, but turn with me to Exodus 40 as we see what happened once the tabernacle was built:

“Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.”(Ex. 40:34-35)

The next phase in the story comes when Israel is established in the Promised Land, and the traveling tabernacle is replaced by the permanent temple under King Solomon. Again, we are treated to myriad details of how many tens of thousands of laborers worked on wood and stone and metal, of how high the pillars were, and how many basins, pots, and shovels there were. But amid all the details there was one reason this temple was being built: it was the place where God would dwell with his people. Listen to what happened on the day the temple was dedicated, and see if you aren’t reminded of what happened at the inauguration of the tabernacle:

“And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.” (1Kings 8:11)

Solomon’s temple was one of the wonders of the ancient world. But it’s splendor was not its architectural glory—it was the glory of God as he dwelled with his people.

While there is much more that could be said about the Tabernacle and Temple of the Old Testament, I want to return to this morning’s text in John 1:14 and see how this verse continues the story of the Old Testament. John 1:14 says, “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 connection might not leap off the page at first, but if you were a first century Jew, you would know exactly what John is doing. About 250 years before Jesus was born, Jewish scholars translated the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek. And the Jewish people of Jesus’ day were familiar with this translation. So when a first century Jew read John 1:14 in Greek they would have seen that when John talks about Jesus dwelling among us, he uses the verb, “to set up a tabernacle.” That is, we could accurately translate the verse, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”

And if that is not enough of a connection, what did we see about the tabernacle and the temple when they were inaugurated? The glory of God filled those places. And what does John say about Jesus? “And the Word became flesh and set up his tabernacle among us, and we have seen his glory.” Jesus Christ was Immanuel—God with us—the presence of God in the midst of his people. And this was not merely God’s presence in a building; it was God’s presence in a person.

Think of all the references Jesus makes to the temple. In Matthew 12 Jesus tells the Pharisees, “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here,” speaking of himself. When the disciples marveled to Jesus about how beautiful the stones and buildings of the temple were, Jesus told them that before their generation passed the temple would be destroyed. And he was right, for in 70 AD Titus came and leveled the temple, so that not one stone was left on top of another. In John 2, after Jesus cleansed the temple, he told the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body.”

Finally, when Jesus died, what happened to the veil of the temple? Torn in two, from top to bottom. Jesus opened the way for us to come to God. Everything about the temple—the sacrifices, the priesthood, the annual visit to the holy of holies—these are all fulfilled in the person of Jesus! He is the great high priest. He is the sacrifice for the sins of God’s people. He is the presence of God in the midst of his people. He is the temple. All that the prophets said about a new temple that would be more glorious than Solomon’s temple was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. All of God’s promises are Yes in him.

But what happened when Jesus ascended to the Father? Does that mean the temple is no longer with us? That God’s presence is gone from his people? That the story has ended? Absolutely not. One of the most humbling and bewildering and glorious truths of the New Testament is that we, God’s people, now that Jesus has sent us the Spirit, we are the place of God’s dwelling on the earth. Listen to these texts from the New Testament epistles:

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” (1Cor. 3:16-17)

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For…what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (2 Cor. 6:14-16)

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
(Eph. 2:19-22)

I want us to feel the enormous weight of these words. If a person wanted to experience the special presence of God 3,500 years ago, they would go to the tabernacle. If a person wanted to experience the special presence of God 3,000 years ago, they would go to the temple in Jerusalem. If a person wanted to experience the special presence of God 2,000 years ago, they would go to Jesus of Nazareth. But if someone wants to experience the special presence of God today, all they have to do is come to a gathering of God’s people. It could be a Sunday morning service, a Saturday night steak fry, a Tuesday morning prayer meeting, or a Friday night hang-out. But wherever we are, we are the place of God’s dwelling on this earth.

So how are we doing, Whitton Avenue? When people come to your home, do they experience the presence of God? When you hang out with your Christian friends, is there something different about that fellowship than when non-believers get together? I want to clarify that God is not confined to any one place. He is everywhere—omnipresent. But his special dwelling place is among his people by the indwelling Holy Spirit. That means the den where Rachael and I worked on this sermon is as holy a place as the sanctuary where I preach it.

This would be an anticlimactic place for the story to end, wouldn’t it? We are such an imperfect dwelling place for the Creator of the universe. Will this symphony end on a stronger note, or are we it? Turn with me to Revelation 21 and let’s read the good news about how this story will continue for eternity.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.””
(Rev. 21:1-4)

Then skip down to verse 22:

“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.”

For all eternity we will dwell in resurrection bodies in the new heaven and the new earth, and in this New Jerusalem there will be no need for a temple, because God’s presence will so permeate everything that we will always, everywhere experience the fullness of his presence.

It is difficult to imagine what this eternal dwelling place will be like, but one thing is clear: God is there. And if you take the most potent, intimate, real experience of God that you have ever had and multiply it by 1,000, that is only the starting point of your experience in New Jerusalem, where your awareness of God’s presence will grow increasing, exponentially every moment, whether you’re working the land or helping a friend put up a shed in the back yard or playing a game of soccer. That’s what will characterize life in the New Jerusalem—an always-increasing awareness of the sweet, satisfying presence of our eternal, infinite God.

And that is what this whole story is about. God knows that he is the greatest gift we can ever have, so when we were cut off from his presence he himself came to us in the person of Jesus Christ so the fellowship might be restored. If you have never been reconciled to God—if you have never confessed your sins before him and believed that Jesus died in your place and rose again—then do that today. Come to Jesus to be saved from your sin and alienation from God so that you can be with him forever. And for those of us who are believers, let us not forget that the point of salvation is not merely to get us out of hell, but that we might enjoy fellowship with God both now and forever. Let us celebrate Jesus Christ—God with us—who came to give us that eternal life.

Advent Sermon-John 1:1-5

[Audio available here.]

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 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."

As we finish leftover turkey and enter the world of green and red, it feels unnecessary and repetitive to talk about how Christmas is over-commercialized, how we focus too much on presents, and how our nations misses the real “reason for the season.” It feels repetitive because preachers were talking about that when I was an ankle-biter, and everybody knows it is true, even many non-believers. Still, the fact remains that our “Christmas” celebrations usually resemble a birthday party where the games and prizes and cake have become such a big deal that most of the kids forget why the party was even being thrown.

As we celebrate this Advent season, when we put ourselves in the shoes of those who were anticipating the arrival of the Messiah, one noble goal would be to return Christ to the center of Christmas. But I want to take it a step further and say that Christmas is merely a reminder to us that Christ is the center of the universe. It would be a good thing to stand up on a chair in the middle of the party and say, “Hey! Don’t forget that this is Jesus’ birthday! That’s why we’re all here!” But what about January through November? Christmas should not merely be our tithe to think about Jesus 10% of the year. It is a reminder that Christ is the center of the universe, and to marvel that he visited us as a lowly servant 2,000 years ago.

John’s opening words tell us immediately that he dealing with something deep. “In the beginning…” he says. When John wants to tell us about Jesus Christ, he begins with some of the most memorable words for the Jewish mind, the words that open the Old Testament, “In the beginning.” Imagine if I began this sermon with the words, “Fourscore and seven years ago…” or “I have a dream…” or “We the people of the United States…” You would know that I was about to get into something really big, because those words loom large in most American minds. John could not have picked more profound words to begin his biography of Jesus.

But when we compare John 1:1 to Genesis 1:1, we find that the water is deeper than we expected. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” It uses the phrase “in the beginning” to mark when God started doing something. It refers to God’s activity when time began. But John says, “In the beginning was the Word.” He reaches back to before time began. He doesn’t begin by talking about something that Jesus did, he talks about who Jesus is.
John tells us why he is writing all this at the end of his gospel—“these are written so 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) So as we look at the beginning of John’s gospel, when he focuses on who Jesus is, don’t think that this is a bunch of philosophical rambling. John is presenting Jesus Christ as the most important person in the universe so that we will believe in Jesus and allow our lives to orbit around him like the planets orbit the sun. How we respond to Jesus affects everything about us from finances to sexuality to relationships to what you do on Thursday night.

Let’s look at who this Jesus is. John begins, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” For those of us who are less practical and more head-in-the-clouds and theoretical, certainly the question has gone through our minds, “what were God the Father and Jesus, whom John calls the Word, doing before God created the world?” The book of John has some of the rare verses in the Bible that give us a peek into what was true of God before creation.

First of all, these verses establish that there was a season where God was all there was. There was no sun or ocean or tree or anything created—only God, who is uncreated. But it would not be right to say that, since it was only God, that God was alone. John says here that the Word was with God. I want us to be careful not to glaze over these words too quickly. Part of what makes God so tremendous is that he is a community. There is only one God, and he is three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When John says, “the Word was with God,” he means God the Son was with God the Father. So God is never alone; he is always in fellowship.

John’s gospel highlights this frequently in the life of Jesus. One of my favorite verses concerning the intimacy between Jesus and God the Father is John 16:32, where Jesus tells his disciples, “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” Is that not a powerful relationship? Even when Jesus’ own followers deserted him, his Father was still with him, and that meant he was not alone.

But this relationship was not a 33-year old relationship for the 33 year-old God-man, Jesus Christ. It was a relationship that reached back into eternity; one that had no beginning but is as eternal as God is eternal. Turn with me to John 17, which is Jesus’ prayer before being betrayed by Judas. Two verses in particular highlight this eternal relationship between Jesus and the Father:

“And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” (John 17:5)
“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24)

It is impossible to overstate the intensity of Jesus’ love for the Father and the Father’s love for his only begotten Son. There for ages upon ages before the world was created, the Father and Son dwelled in sweet communion together, ever appreciating each others’ glory and excellencies, with profound love for one another. And all this summarized by the words, “And the Word was with God.”

Most of you can have tasted this in some measure with a close friend or a relative or a spouse—where the sweetness of fellowship is so rich that you could stay there forever and enjoy this person’s company. Our yearnings for experiences like those are rooted in our being made in God’s image—made to be in community like God is in community.

These first two verses in John 1 deal with the question of who Jesus is, and this is enough to display his absolute centrality in the universe. Jesus Christ is the divine, uncreated, eternal Word that has been with God forever. He is divine (he is God), uncreated (he was not made), eternal (he has always existed) Word that has been in fellowship with God forever.

But the centrality of Jesus is not only wrapped up in who he is but what he has done. Look at verse 3—“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” I love John’s persistence. He wants so badly to drive home the centrality of Christ that he repeats himself just so we won’t miss it. “All things were made through him,” he says. And just in case that is ambiguous, he says it in reverse, “without him was not any thing made that was made.” Another way to say that is, “not even one thing came into existence apart from Jesus.”

Here Jesus’ role in creation is the highlight. And if we are familiar with the Genesis creation account, this should make perfect sense. How is it that God created? He spoke. God said, “Let their be light.” He didn’t have to speak; he could have thought it or snapped his divine finger, or done anything he wanted. But he chose to make creation a community effort. So he created through the Word, his Son, Jesus Christ.

I don’t want to move on before making sure that we all feel the weight of this phrase, “all things were made through him.” Your left thumb was made through Jesus. The grass in your front yard—or rocks if you prefer desert landscaping—was made through Jesus. Clouds were made through Jesus. Oxygen and nitrogen and hydrogen were made through Jesus. Light particles were made through Jesus. Your co-worker or next-door neighbor who doesn’t believe in Jesus was made through Jesus. Apart from him, not even one thing came into existence; without Jesus there is nothing.

But John takes it a step further. Look at verse 4—“In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Not only is Jesus the source of human existence, he is the source of human understanding. Without Jesus there is no light, whether physical, intellectual, or spiritual. His very life provides the light for our eyes, our minds, and our hearts.

Without Jesus there is no light for our eyes to see a tree. Without Jesus there is no light for our minds to see that the tree blooms in season and sheds leaves in the fall. And without Jesus there is no light for our hearts to see that the tree functions so amazingly because a loving God created it and created me to know him. In other words, without Jesus, intellectual life is impossible, and spiritual life is non-existent.

There is great irony here, because this means that your atheistic professor in college is using his Christ-dependent intellect to reject Christ. The scientists who write God out of the equation are depending on intellectual light that comes from Jesus. Christ is so central to the universe that without him, humans would not have the capacity to say he doesn’t exist.

So John has used two things—who the Word is and what he has done—to show that Jesus Christ is the center of the universe. He is the divine, uncreated, eternal Word through whom all things were created. The divine, uncreated, eternal Word through whom all things were created.

I want to use verse 5 as a launching pad to apply this to our lives. In verse 5 John says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Jesus is the light of the world that always shines. The following verses elaborate on this more, so I will leave it to Stevo to develop this next week. But what John is getting at in verse 5 is the fact that there is darkness in this world, namely, all that is anti-light, or anti-Christ. But for all the Pharisees and Sadducees that rejected Christ; for all the villages that didn’t believe in him; for all the conspirators that had him falsely accused and crucified, the darkness did not overcome the light. The light continued shining in resurrection strength and still shines today.

Where this intersects our lives is the fact that Jesus is the light of the world whether or not you live by it. He is the sun at the center of the solar system whether or not your life orbits around him. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness will never overcome it.

But the darkness is trying its best to overcome it today. We live in a culture that wants Christ out. The most counter-cultural thing a person can say is that Christ is the center of the universe.
When I think about the forces in our society that threaten the gospel, what concerns me most is not wild-eyed atheists who go around saying that Jesus never existed or this da Vinci Code nonsense that says he was married to Mary Magdalene and had children. What concerns me most is the subtle gravity our Christ-less culture has on the way we think, talk, and spend our time.

If nothing else, look at the fact that our December greetings have become more “tolerant” every year. We have gone from “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays” to “Seasons Greetings” to “Merry Winter.” You know things have eroded when it feels like you’re evangelizing for saying “Merry Christmas” to somebody.

I want to begin where we started this morning. Our calling is not merely to put Christ at the center of Christmas. That’s a good start, but the greater calling is to use Christmas as a reminder that Christ is the center of the universe. I remember when the Passion movie came out, one of my friends said, “this is a rare time American pop culture, when you are considered out of touch with reality if you are not talking about Jesus.”

But the day is coming when Jesus will return as the reigning King and we will reign with him forever in the New Heavens and the New Earth. In that day everyone will always be talking about the greatness and centrality of Christ—everyone will be in orbit around him. So church, let us live that life today. Let us live the lifestyle of the future here in 2005. Let us examine our priorities individually and as a church to make sure Christ is central to everything about us. And yes, let us say “Merry Christmas” with all boldness, but beyond that, let us seek creative ways to make sure our conversations, our artistic endeavors, our checkbooks, our family gatherings, our business dealings, and our daily lives reflect the reality that Jesus Christ, the divine, uncreated, eternal Word, is the center of the universe.