Witness the Word, the life, the light, and the glory.

 

Sermon for Christmas Day, December 25, 2024

The Light, who brings light and life to the world, shine upon you, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared for all people.  Amen.

John 1:1-18  In 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 everything was made, and without him not one thing was made that has been made.  ⁴In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.  ⁵The light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  ⁶There was a man, sent from God, whose name was John.  ⁷He came as an eyewitness to testify about the light so that everyone would believe through him.  ⁸He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light.  ⁹The real light that shines on everyone was coming into the world.  ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not recognize him.  ¹¹He came to what was his own, yet his own people did not accept him.  ¹²But to all who did receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.  ¹³They were born, not of blood, or of the desire of the flesh, or of a husband’s will, but born of God.  ¹⁴The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory he has as the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵John testified about him.  He cried out, “This was the one I spoke about when I said, ‘The one coming after me outranks me because he existed before me.’”  ¹⁶For out of his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.  ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  ¹⁸No one has ever seen God.  The only-begotten Son, who is close to the Father’s side, has made him known. (EHV)

Witness the Word, the life, the light, and the glory.

Dear friends of the living Word,

            How do you truly know who a person is?  For instance, you know my name, and my wife’s name, but how do you know whether we are who we say we are?  Did you do a background check?  Would you call those we claim to be related to and ask if we are telling the truth?  For that matter, how do you truly know the person sitting next to you, or across the aisle?  And much more important, by far, how do you know who that Babe in the manger of Bethlehem truly is?

Our Lord God, who wants nothing more than to save you from eternal destruction, wanted to make absolutely certain that you would have no doubt who Jesus is.  Therefore, God had four different Gospel writers tell you about His Son.  Matthew spoke of Christ’s human parentage and how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies God had given to help us recognize the Messiah.  Luke spoke, too, of human parentage, and then showed how this Savior was for all people, and Mark showed Jesus as the power and action of God leading to divine sacrifice for sinners.

The apostle, John, on the other hand, wrote his Gospel a few decades after the other three writers, at a time when many were questioning Jesus’ true nature, and false teachers were spreading half-truths and lies about Christ.  Inspired and empowered by the Holy Spirit, St. John wrote to emphasize the divine nature of Christ Jesus and to Witness the Word, the life, the light, and the glory.

At the time John wrote his Gospel, some teachers were claiming to have special knowledge that allowed only them to enjoy salvation.  They denied much that was true about Jesus, so John countered with his eyewitness testimony, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  In connection with the creation of all things, the Word, that is Jesus Christ, already was.  Before any created thing was brought into existence, Jesus already lived.  Begotten of the Father from eternity, Jesus is the Son of God, and was with His Father before time began, true God in both persons.

Jesus is the Word.  He represents everything God tells us about Himself.  We cannot see God because He is spirit, so God took on human flesh in the person of the Son, so that we could see God’s love and mercy in Jesus and not just fear God as some invisible, angry Judge.

In our time, famous philosophers and scientists theorize about the origins of life.  That question isn’t new.  Secular philosophers of John’s day also pondered that question.  Therefore, the Lord informs and confirms for us that He is the sole source of all life.  John wrote, “The Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him everything was made, and without him not one thing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.”  The Greek emphasizes that not even one thing of creation was made apart from the Word of God.  Every aspect of life came from God and God alone.  Only those still caught in the delusional darkness of unbelief cling to the notion that the source of life remains to be found.

The spiritual life that man enjoyed at creation was lost when Adam and Eve sinned.  They suffered spiritual death as a consequence of their rebellion and, ever since, every one of their descendants is also born spiritually dead.  Without God’s intervention, death would be our eternal condition.  This is why God sent His Son.  Jesus entered this world to restore spiritual life to our fallen race.  “In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.  The light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Being the only source of all life, only God could restore life to the people He had lovingly hand-crafted and into whom He had breathed true life.  Jesus entered this world as the Light who would restore life to men.  Without His light, we would remain entombed in the darkness of eternal separation from God.  Therefore, we needed to Witness the Word, the life, the light, and the glory. 

To restore that original image of God in us, Jesus came to live a perfectly holy life for us.  He came to restore peace between God and mankind so that we could live with God again.  God needed to shine that Good News on those of us trapped in darkness.  We couldn’t see His light on our own.  Indeed, by our nature, we would hide from His light, scurrying around in the darkness that felt familiar and safer to us even though it kept us separated from our Creator and Lord.

It is God’s glory that overpowers darkness.  In His divine Sonship, Jesus lived perfect holiness for you and me and for every sinner of every time period of this world’s eventual history.  To demonstrate the glory of God’s mercy and grace, Jesus took all the sins of the world upon Himself.  He who had no sin of His own, became the ultimate sin for us all.  His Father then poured out the absolute worst punishment of eternal death upon Jesus.  This Babe in the manger, God’s own dear Son, came into the world to endure the complete separation from God that we deserved, laying down His life in sacrifice for the whole human race, so that we can be restored to life through faith in Him. 

In his rebellious uprising that led mankind astray, Satan schemed and lied trying to overthrow God, but God cannot be overpowered.  Jesus surely laid down His life then to His glory took it up again.  His glory shines through any battle, against any evil foe.  Jesus said, “This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.  I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again.  This is the commission I received from my Father." (John 10:17-18)  Because Jesus lives after having experienced our death, we have the Witness of the Word, the life, the light, and the glory to show us who Jesus really is.  He is the Son of God, begotten of the Father, conceived by the Holy Spirit in His human mother, Mary.

St. John also told us of a man who was chosen by God to bear witness to Jesus’ true nature.  As an eyewitness, John was there to recognize the Son, to store that knowledge in his heart and mind, and to testify to the court of world opinion that Jesus had, indeed, demonstrated His true nature.  “There was a man, sent from God, whose name was John.  He came as an eyewitness to testify about the light so that everyone would believe through him.”  This is testimony to God’s glory.  God didn’t send a Savior for only those who deserved to be saved (which is none of us), or even only for those who would gladly believe (again, not one of us).  Rather, it is God’s greatest desire that every soul on earth would believe in Jesus and receive the light that gives life everlasting.  John testified to the people of his day with a fervor that few have ever matched.  His testimony remains a witness to the truth that Jesus is “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

Not one person on earth deserved a Savior, “because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) With our sins we each earned God’s eternal wrath and punishment.  Because of sin in us, not one of us, by nature, even desired to be given Jesus’ light and life, for the undeniable truth is that even though Jesus “was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not recognize him.  He came to what was his own, yet his own people did not accept him.”  This is our natural condition.  Satan had so deceived us and robbed mankind of any spark of life or truth that we had no power or ability to change on our own.  However, through the love of God, as shown to man by the Holy Spirit, the Witness of the Word, the life, the light, and the glory allowed many to see the Light of Christ, believe in Him, and receive eternal life and glory.

Therefore, we have true hope of salvation because “to all who did receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.  They were born, not of blood, or of the desire of the flesh, or of a husband’s will, but born of God.”  Forgiveness and salvation is never something that we achieve on our own.  We do not inherit it from our parents.  We cannot attain it by anything we strive to do or any decision we make.  Forgiveness is granted to us by the sole grace and good will of God.  He sent the Son.  The Son suffered, died, and rose again for us.  He sent His Spirit through the Word and witnesses.  The Spirit turned our stone-dead hearts to the light and life that only Christ can give, and He made the decision to adopt us into His beloved family through the water and Word of Baptism.

This morning, we are celebrating the most wonderful event in human history, the birth of the Savior.  John affirmed this for us saying, “The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory he has as the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  John testified to what he saw happen in his lifetime—that Jesus, God’s One and only Son, entered this world of sorrow and death, and gave new life that will never end to all those who will believe in Him.

That, dear friends, is also our story.  Through the testimony of the Holy Spirit through His appointed apostles and prophets, you and I see Christ in the Word of God.  By the Word, you and I behold His glory—that though we were sinners and enemies of the One who created us, God’s Son came into our world to cleanse us from all sin and save us from eternal death.  By the power of the Spirit in the Word, we beheld His glory and believed.  Therefore, we have been given the right to be children of God, and we have the sure hope of an everlasting inheritance in heaven.

Because we have this tremendous gift of a Savior, we have the opportunity, and the call, to Witness the Word, the life, the light, and the glory to those around us.  We have this command not to glorify ourselves, for that glory has already been given to us, but so that others, also, might see the Light of Christ and receive the life He gives through the Word. 

For much of the world in our times, a baby born in a manger some two thousand years ago seems like a quaint myth without importance in our times, but that is no different today than it was back then.  To those who reject Jesus, the whole salvation story is a silly fantasy, a waste of time.  However, it is only through our witness to an unbelieving world of His virgin birth, and His life, death, and resurrection that any of those who now are lost can be saved.  Like for John the Baptist, it may cost us our physical life to be His witnesses, and like the Apostle John, it might bring us ridicule and rejection from those still walking in darkness.  However, today and every day, we rejoice, because “to all who did receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”  Beloved friends, that is you and me: children of God, and Witnesses to the world of the Word, the life, the light, and the glory.  Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.