Rev Gav

What does it mean that The Word became flesh?

John 1.1-18

When you write an essay or research paper for publication, you include, at the beginning, an abstract which is a short summary of the larger work. Well, the Gospel of John has exactly the same thing, and the passage that we number as John 1.1-18 is an abstract of, and prologue to, the whole gospel. In other words, in this introduction you will find themes that are expressed throughout the rest of the book, for example, the pre-existence of the Word, God’s love for the world, The Word being revealed as Jesus — the bringer of life and light, the revealing of God’s glory through the cross, our response of faith, and our adoption as children of God.

The gospel, or ‘good news’ of John is about one character who has multiple names and titles; the Messiah or Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God, and so on, but the first title used by John is, the Word.

Before anything in the created order existed, before time and space, before the universe was formed, before the big bang, and certainly before humanity began running around on two legs, there was God. Because God is eternal, we tend to simply say God… ‘was’.

Philosophy is the study of the nature of knowledge, reality, and existence and so, as you read or listen to this, today, you are going to be a philosopher. Are you ready? (If it helps, scratch your chin and look wistfully into the distance).

How do you know something exists? Or, more explicitly, how could you know an invisible and eternal God exists? To consciously communicate the existence from one entity to another there has to be some kind of self-disclosure, a manifestation, revealing, or revelation, and this is where the Word comes in.

If you are in a room and you close your eyes, how do you know if someone else is there? Sure, they could make a sound, but you would not know it is another person until they speak. The speaking reveals that they are there, and this is why God is described as the Word. The Word is the self-disclosure of God.

How are you getting on with your philosophy? All good so far? Excellent! Now, we are going to jump to the prologue of another book, the book of Genesis, and I want you to think about how the writer describes how creation came into being. Let me read to you Genesis 1.1-3:

“When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.”

Creation itself is the expression, manifestation, or revelation of God. When God speaks, creation happens, and if we now read the beginning of John, we understand that you cannot separate the Word from God for the Word is God. In the same way that if my wife Helen speaks to me, I don’t treat her voice as disembodied, I say, “That is Helen!” Therefore, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

If you were a Greek-speaking person living in the first century, you would be familiar with Greek philosophy, and you would have understood the philosophical idea of God being the ‘Word’, but when you got to Verse 14 of John’s gospel, your eyes would have grown wide, your jaw would have dropped, and you would have thought to yourself, what??? “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” Now this, I have to know about!

The very first self-disclosure of God in the book of Genesis was light, and therefore light was a wonderful metaphor for the self-disclosure of God in the world through Jesus. John describes Jesus as the light, for we have moved from the spoken word to that which is visible. Jesus was, quite literally, the visibility of God.

The rest of John’s gospel is about this person, Jesus, and his life, and the interactions between Jesus and people — what he did and what he talked about — reveal what God is like. Therefore, if you want to know what God is like, then look at Jesus. Read about him or listen about him for yourselves. The person of Jesus was the revelation of God to the world, and the gospel of John is the revelation of Jesus to us.

But (and this is a massive but) here is the really exciting thing. The whole gospel of John itself is like the prologue to a much bigger story. It is Part 1 of a series of books that are being written by ourselves in the world. It is the opening act in a whole new play, and an invitation to believe and participate in the greatest story ever to be told. You mean I can be made holy? You mean the Spirit of Jesus can fill me? You mean I can experience inner peace and joy in the here and now? You mean my life can be forever changed? You mean I have a purpose and role to play in God’s plan for the world? And the answer is yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes!

I have just one job, and that is to point to Jesus. I cannot force anyone to follow, and I hope in some way that you will walk away from reading or listening to this, just a bit more encouraged to do so, but please, please, read or listen to John’s gospel. I am sure you have read bits of it or listened to bits of it, but have you actually read or listened to the whole gospel of John?

I am reminded of the recent passing of President Jimmy Carter. Every night, before bed, he and his wife Rosalynn would take turns reading a chapter of the Bible to each other. As I publish this message there are 23 days left in January and there are 21 chapters in John’s gospel. If you haven’t got a Bible app on your phone, iPad, or kindle then get one, or If you haven’t got a Bible on your nightstand, then put one there. Perhaps, you could make it your new year’s resolution to read a chapter a day? If Helen and I do it, will you?

Amen