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.