The Word In Glory - New Years Eve - December 31, 2013 - Text: John 1:1-18

Our theme for this year has been The Word. Our text is John 1:1-18. Last week as we celebrated Christmas Day and the birth of our Savior, we continued our theme as we talked about the word fulfilled, that is the Word accomplishing all that was spoken and written about Him including and especially the Word being born in flesh. This evening we take up the topic of the word in glory. As we have made note all along, the Word is Jesus who was at creation with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who was promised through the oral prophecies, and later through the written prophecies. Jesus is the tangible word in His Holy Supper. He is the Word incarnate, in flesh in the person of the baby. He is the Word fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection. And He is the Word in glory, the Lamb of God enthroned in heaven. Again, this evening we take up the topic of the word in glory.
 

As we have reiterated time and again, the way we remember is to teach and reteach, to hear the message and hear it again, thus we begin by hearing again that Jesus is the Spoken and Written Word. We have already identified Jesus as the one spoken and written about in Genesis. He is the One about who God promised to send to reconcile, to redeem, to pay the price, trading His life for the life of all, to bring all people back into a right relationship with God Himself, a relationship broken by disobedience and sin. Jesus is the One who would have His heel bruised, that is He will die on the cross, but in so having His heel bruised, He would bruise Satan’s head, He would completed defeat and destroy Satan.
 

In the beginning God created, soon afterward man sinned and immediately God made a promise. We heard the promise and it is not that we actually heard it with our own ears as we would hear anyone today speak, but we heard the promise of a Messiah through our ears of faith. Just as we hear our Lord continue to speak to us today yet even more so through the written Word, through Holy Scripture, so we have indeed heard our Lord’s promises through our ears of faith.
 

Not only have we heard our Lord’s promises, but because He gave His Word to be written by many and various prophets of old, so today we have also read the promises. As we read through God’s Word we read of the many times the Lord reiterated His promise to send a Savior to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob, to Moses, to King David and so on down through the ages of the Old Testament. We heard the Lord speak His word to Zechariah of the one who would prepare the way and His word to Mary that she would be the mother of the Messiah and to Joseph that it was okay for him to take Mary as his wife.
 

We have heard, we have read and we have seen the promise. Indeed, with eyes of faith we have seen Jesus. As Job reminds us, “25For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 26And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, 27whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another’ (Job 19:25-27). As Job was confident that he would see his Redeemer, but of course he was speaking about being in heaven, yet we have seen our Redeemer through His Word and we are confident we too will see Him in glory.
 

Finally we have tasted the promise. When we come to the Lord’s Table, we come to eat and drink the body and blood of our Lord. Just as the children of Israel would eat the sacrifices they would bring to the temple, thus participating in the sacrifice, so too, we come the Lord’s Table where we dine on our Lord, our Messiah who was sacrificed on the cross for us. We eat His body, we drink His blood, thus we participate in the sacrifice. His life becomes ours. His suffering and death becomes ours. His resurrection becomes ours.
 

Jesus was God and is God in the beginning at creation. He was and is God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. At no time is Jesus not God, and at no time is He separate from the Father and the Spirit. Now certainly we may not have a complete understanding of this relationship of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, yet we do have what He tells us.
 

Jesus is God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit and yet, for our sakes, because of His great love for us, His creatures, He gave up the glory that was His in heaven. As true God He was enjoying all glory, but for our sakes He gave up His glory and came down from heaven.
 

Jesus, true God, took on human flesh and blood, for us. He became one of and one with His creation. He came as one of His creatures in order to do for us what we could not do, yet what we were commanded to do, live perfectly. Jesus lived perfectly for us in our place because we can not. He then, of His own free will, and willingly, took our sins upon Himself and suffered the price for our sins.
 

Jesus died. Yes, our God died. Just as you and I will one day die, so Jesus and so our God in Jesus, died. And yet, death and the grave had no power over Him. He rose from the dead. He rose and He rose for us. His resurrection shows us that His promises are true and that we too will rise again, death and the grave have no power over us.
 

After His resurrection and showing Himself to be alive for forty days, Jesus ascended back into heaven, the place from which He descended. He ascending and there He is at this time in heaven, which does not negate the fact that as true God He is also always with us, as we say He is everywhere present, omnipresent.
 

At this time Jesus is in heaven watching over us, ruling over us, interceding for us. He is watching over our lives and caring for us. He is ruling over us and we find great joy and comfort especially in the fact that He is interceding, He is praying for us, because as we all know we can use all the prayers we can get.
 

Jesus is waiting until the last day when the Lord will send Him, when He will return to gather us and all the saints who have gone on before us. He will gather all people and He will judge the living and the dead. Those who have faith will be judged to eternal life in heaven. Those who have rejected Him will be judge to eternal judgement and hell.
 

We will see Jesus. We will see Him in all His glory. We will see Him with our own eyes, we will see Him and not another. Our hearts yearn.
 

Until our Lord returns, we wait and we spend our waiting time getting ourselves and others ready and being ready. We know we are ready as we live our lives ever expecting and anticipating His return. Which means that we keep our eyes focused not on this world and the temporariness, the fast and fading of this world, but we keep our eyes focused on the real world, the world to come, the everlasting eternal world of heaven.
 

We live our lives ever expecting and anticipating our going to Him. Our hearts yearn, not of this world and the things of this world, but our hearts yearn of being in heaven with Him. As many of my shut-ins often lament, our yearning is the same, “Why doesn’t Jesus just take me?” And as Paul so well said it, and I am paraphrasing, we would rather be in heaven which is far better, but while He has business for us here on this earth, we will work at the business He has for us, yet eagerly anticipating our going to be with Him in heaven.
 

When our last hour arrives either He will come to take us or we will go to Him, depending on if we are alive when He returns or if we pass on and go to Him. Either way, whether He comes to us or we go to Him, we will be judged and by His grace, which He has given to us, through faith, which He has given to us, we will be judge to eternal life in heaven. He will robe us with His robes of righteousness. He will invite us to be a part of His kingdom forever.
 

As we end this calendar year and are on the verge of a new calendar year, we are reminded once again that every year, yes even each and every day we get one day closer to our Lord’s return. We are reminded that it is imperative to watch and be ready. And we are reminded that God continues to get us ready through His means of grace. Thus we rejoice and look forward to seeing Him in all His glory and we say, to Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

God’s Plan Is Not Coincidence - December 29, 2013 - First Sunday after Christmas - Text: Galatians 4:4-7

It was a cold night. You were on your way home from a friends house. It was late and the road seemed deserted. You had not seen a house or another car for miles. All of a sudden your tire blows, you swerve and find yourself in the ditch. You are not hurt, just a little shaken. You get out to survey the situation. Your mind is racing a hundred miles an hour as you see no way to move your car, and no house within miles. Behind you a car pulls up and stops. It is your neighbors who are on their way home. How relieved you are as you explain to them what happened. You all get in the neighbors car and marvel at the coincidence of the events that took place. I am here to tell you that it was not a coincidence. As a matter of fact, I do not believe in coincidence. God’s ways are not our ways. He works in our lives according to His plan and purposes. As I say that, however, let me remind you that God always has the best in mind for us in our lives. Pain, suffering, struggles, evil happen because we live in a sin filled world. Pain, suffering, struggles, evil happen because of sin. For God’s part, He always works to bring out the best in any and all situations. And the best may not always be what we perceive to be the best. Certainly we might not think of physical death to a very ill person as being the best, but in Godly terms, what is better than the perfect healing of eternal life in heaven? So, this story is not meant to suggest that God intends evil or “bad” things to happen, rather it  illustrates how God works good in our lives and so in our text this morning Paul explains the seeming coincidences of our salvation.
 

From the events at the end of the book of Malachi to the beginning of the events of the gospel of Matthew was a period of over 400 years. From the events of Genesis chapter three to Matthew was a period of over 4000 years. After Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden in Genesis chapter three, God immediately promised to send a Savior. God’s promise was that the Savior would come and would crush Satan, while in turn being crushed, that is in completely defeating Satan, God would suffer death Himself. God did not attach a time to His promise. And as we know, God’s time is not our time. God’s plan was that at the right time, the time He had set, this Savior would be born. Paul’s reference is that Christ’s birth, which we celebrated Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, was the right time, thus Christ Jesus was born. This was not a coincidence but was a part of God’s plan.
 

Joseph had to go to Bethlehem for the census of Caesar Augustus because he was a descendant of David, King David. Joseph was also a descendant of the line of promise of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Mary was pregnant at the time of the news of the census. You remember also that Mary’s relative Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist the fore runner, the way preparer of Jesus, was also pregnant at this time. That all these things were taking place and that Jesus was born at this time was not a coincidence, but was a part of God’s divine plan.
 

One other aspect of this fullness of time is that as Paul says in Romans [5:6-8] “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinner, Christ died for us.” God did not wait until we could work out our own salvation. He did not wait for us to become good people. It was not a coincidence that He came while we were sinners, as a matter of fact this is the reason He came. He came in the fullness of time, while we were sinners, because we are sinners, Because we cannot save ourselves.
 

Paul goes on to add that Christ was born of a woman. Something so obvious seems trivial, but Paul does not write to be trivial. Our Savior is our Savior because He was born of a woman. Only because He was a human being like us could He save us. Only because He was a human being could He be our substitute, trading His perfect life for our imperfect, sin filled lives. And, so that we do not go away mislead I must remind you that Jesus was also truly God, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit as we confess in the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed. He had to be truly God in order to be born in perfection, in order to fulfill the command of God to be perfect and in order to raise Himself from the dead. Before the time had fully come, at which time Christ became a man, He was true God with the Father and the Spirit in heaven enjoying all the glory that was His as God. When the time had fully come, when all of human history was at just the right point, when the nine months of gestation was completed, Jesus took upon Himself to be one of us, a human being. This was not a coincidence, but was part of God’s plan.
 

As a human being He was born under the Law, the civil law, the moral law and the ceremonial law. We remember that eight days after His birth His mother and father took Him to be circumcised and we remember that at the age of 40 days Mary and Joseph took Him to the Temple to offer the sacrifice to redeem the first born as prescribed by the Law. We remember that at the temple Mary and Joseph met Simeon and Anna. We remember that at the age of twelve Jesus went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of the Passover. He followed all the Jewish Laws, perfectly. This was not a coincidence, but was a part of God’s plan. What the whole nation of Israel could not do; what we cannot do; Jesus did perfectly, for us, in our place. All that the ceremonial laws command, all that the ceremonial laws were intended to point to, Jesus fulfilled, completing and abolishing all the ceremonial laws so that they are no longer necessary. All this He did for us in our place because of His great love for us.
 

He did all of this to redeem us. Redeem, that is a big word. When I hear the word redeem I usually think of trading stamps. You might remember, the S & H Green stamps. You collect the stamps, paste them in a book and then take them to the “redemption” center where you redeemed them or “traded” them for some merchandise. Redeem is a good word to use for Christ’s work. However, Christ did not collect a bunch of trading stamps with which to redeem us. We have been born into this world in sin. Each of us is a sinner. We are conceived in sin and lost and condemned from birth. By ourselves we are lost. There is no way we can save ourselves. By God’s grace, His undeserved love for us, He sent His one and only Son born in the flesh for us. As God, Christ was born perfect. As man, Christ was born as one of us in order to save us. Christ lived the perfect life, under the Law. He suffered, physically, mentally, spiritually and eternally and He died, suffering hell for us. By His suffering He bought us back, redeemed us from sin, Satan, death, and hell. He redeemed us, He traded, His life for ours, His death for ours, His resurrection for our. Purely by His grace for us, not as a coincidence, but as a part of His plan.
 

Because we are redeemed, God’s children, with the Holy Spirit we cry out, “Abba! Father!” Paul is not making reference to some charismatic utterance with which we will respond. What he is saying is that because God has redeemed us, made us His sons and daughters, He has filled us with His Spirit through which we can call upon Him and worship Him. Our worship of God is not something we do of our selves and is not a coincidence, but is from God and is a part of His plan.
 

“So you are no longer a slave, but a son” (v. 7). A slave is subject to a master. In our case we were slaves to sin, ruled by our own sinful desires. Now, because we have been redeemed, we are no longer slaves, but God’s children. We are ruled by God, living our lives to please Him. It is not a coincidence that we live our lives for Him, this is a part of His plan.
 

In all His doings God made us His sons and daughters and heirs of the kingdom of heaven. He did it all. There is nothing left for us to do. As His sons and daughters, His children, we are His heirs. We are the one’s who are given and who receive the inheritance of eternal life in heaven. So that at the right time, when our time has fully come, He will take us to be with Himself in heaven for eternity. This is not a coincidence, but this is a part of His plan.
 

The last two words of verse seven are very important. The last two words are “through God.” It is only through God and God in Christ that we are heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Paul expresses this same idea in Romans [8:15-17], he says, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” Through Christ we are heirs. Through Christ we share in His suffering, death, and resurrection. Through Christ we are redeemed, bought back and made heirs. Through Christ we share in His glory in heaven not by coincidence but by God plan.
 

That you are here today, that you are a redeemed child of God is not a coincidence. As Paul says in First Timothy, “This is good, and pleases god our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth [1 Tim. 2:3-4].” God has chosen you. He has sent His one and only Son to die for you and to rise for you. It did not just happen but is a part of God’s plan. Thanks be to the Lord for He is good for His mercy endures forever. To Him alone be the glory, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.

The Word Fulfilled - Christmas Day - December 25, 2013 - Text: John 1:1-18

Our theme for this year is The Word. Our text is John 1:1-18. Last night as we celebrated Christmas Eve and the birth of our Savior, we continued our theme as we talked about the word incarnate, that is the Word in flesh. Today we take up the topic of the word fulfilled and finally, next week, on New Year’s Eve, the word in glory. As we made note last week and last night, of course, the Word is Jesus who was at creation with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who was promised through the oral prophecies, and later through the written prophecies. Jesus is the tangible word in His Holy Supper. He is the Word incarnate, in flesh in the person of the baby. He is the Word fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection. And He is the Word in glory, the Lamb of God enthroned in heaven. Again, this evening we take up the topic of the word fulfilled.
 

As we have reiterated time and again, the way we remember is to teach and reteach, to hear the message and hear it again, thus we begin by hearing again that Jesus is the Spoken and Written Word. We have already identified Jesus as the one spoken and written about in Genesis. He is the One about who God promised to send to reconcile, to redeem, to pay the price, trading His life for the life of all, to bring all people back into a right relationship with God Himself, a relationship broken by disobedience and sin. Jesus is the One who would have His heel bruised, that is He will die on the cross, but in so having His heel bruised, He would bruise Satan’s head, He would completed defeat and destroy Satan.
 

As John tells us in our text, in the beginning God created all things out of nothing. Of course we normally designate God the Father as the Creator and as the Preserver of all that He created. And yet, John reminds us, as we can read in Genesis as well. In Genesis we read the word “God” in the plural reminding us that our God is a plural God, yet a God who has complete unity and Oneness in His plurality, thus, at the creation of the world is God the Father and also with Him are God the Son and God Holy Spirit, three persons in one divine Godhead as we describe Him in our human language.
 

God created a perfect world. God created a perfect man and a perfect woman. God created a perfect Garden so that in the beginning everything was perfect. God gave Adam and Eve the ability to respond in faith by obeying Him, by not eating of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Satan, a fallen angel, kicked out of heaven, one hating God and all that is good, took the form of a serpent, tempted Eve and Adam so that they disobeyed God and ate of the fruit. Thus, sin entered and as a result, God cursed the world, yet, because of His love for us, God promised to send a Savior. This first promise was a spoken or an oral promise.
 

Later in history, God chosen Moses and in foreshadowing His salvation of the world, Moses lead the children of Israel out of their bondage of slavery in Egypt. Later, God moved Moses and had him write the spoken promises down so that now the promise was a written Word of promise. Throughout the Old Testament prophets came and went and their words of prophecy and promise concerning the Messiah, the Savior of the world were written down for all the world to read.
 

After many years, even some five hundred years of silence and having no word from the Lord, God appeared to Zechariah and announced the birth of a son, John the Baptist. The Lord sent an angel to announce to Mary that she would be the mother of the Messiah and also to Joseph that he would be the adopted earthly father of the Messiah. John the Baptist was born and came to announce the birth of the Messiah.
 

As the Gospel writer John tells us, John was not the Messiah, but pointed to the Messiah. In his words John writes, “6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light” (v. 6-8).
 

John the Baptist came to prepare the world for the Messiah. As for this Messiah He is the one who is truly God and truly human. Jesus is God and yet because of His great love for us, His creation, He gave up the glory of being God in heaven in order to take on human flesh and blood.
 

Jesus is the light of the world, born with Jewish roots, yet not recognized, but denied by His own Jewish family. The Gospel writer John says it this way, “9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (v. 9-11).
 

And finally John tells us, “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” (v. 14). Jesus is the Word, the spoken word and the written Word born in flesh fulfilling all of Holy Scripture.
 

This morning we celebrate. We celebrate God’s promises and especially His promises fulfilled in Jesus’ birth. The promises of the Old Testament pointed to this and to the subsequent events of Jesus’ life.
 

About this One of whom we celebrate His birth, this One is Jesus whose name means the Lord Saves. This Jesus is true God, along with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, having been conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. This One Jesus is also truly human, true man, born of the human woman, the Virgin Mary. This One Jesus, came to fulfill all the Law and the Prophets. He came to fulfill all the promises concerning the coming Messiah. He came both in passive and in active obedience. He actively obeyed all of God’s laws perfectly and He actively took all our sins upon Himself. He passively allowed Himself to suffer the punishment for our sins and for the sins of all people of all places of all times.
 

Jesus is true God and true man. He had to be truly God in order to be born in perfection, in order to obey God’s commands to be perfect. And He had to be truly human in order to be our substitute, in order to make an equal trade of lives, His perfect life for our sin filled lives. He is the One who came to pay the price for our sin.
 

Jesus birth reminds us that the price for sin is death. Jesus was born to die. Yet, as we know the whole story, Jesus did not stay dead, but He rose from the dead. His resurrection defeated sin, death and the devil.
 

So now, by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ alone, we have been adopted as His children and as children of Abraham. The Gospel writer John reminds us that the children of Abraham, the true Israel are not those who are descendants by birth, by DNA, by genetics, but those of faith as he says, “to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (v. 12-13). We are the new Israel, by God’s grace through faith in Jesus which He gives to us and works in us.
 

This morning we are reminded once again and assured that our salvation is dependent on Jesus, just Jesus. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot look inside ourselves for help. We must always look outside ourselves and when we look outside ourselves we see Jesus.
 

Today we celebrate faith, forgiveness and life. We celebrate that our God loves us so much. That our God created us to love us. That He gave His promise and fulfilled that promise to take care of our sin for us, because of His great love for us. That Jesus is our salvation and that there is no other name on earth, given among men whereby we must be saved. We celebrate our salvation and we are moved to say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Word Incarnate - Christmas Eve - December 24, 2013 - Text: John 1:1-18

Our theme for this year is The Word. Our text is John 1:1-18. Last week we talked about the tangible word. This evening, as we celebrate Christmas Eve and the birth of our Savior, we continue our theme as we talk about the word incarnate, that is the Word in flesh. Tomorrow we will take up the topic of the word fulfilled and finally on New Year’s Eve, the word in glory. As we made note last week, of course, the Word is Jesus who was at creation with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who was promised through the oral prophecies, and later through the written prophecies. Jesus is the tangible word in His Holy Supper. He is the Word incarnate, in flesh in the person of the baby. He is the Word fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection. And He is the Word in glory, the Lamb of God enthroned in heaven. Again, this evening we take up the topic of the word incarnate.
 

As we said last week, the way we remember is to teach and reteach, to hear the message and hear it again, thus we begin by hearing again that Jesus is the Spoken and Written Word. We have already identified Jesus as the one spoken and written about in Genesis. He is the One about who God promised to send to reconcile, to redeem, to pay the price, trading His life for the life of all, to bring all people back into a right relationship with God Himself, a relationship broken by disobedience and sin. Jesus is the One who would have His heel bruised, that is He will die on the cross, but in so having His heel bruised, He would bruise Satan’s head, He would completed defeat and destroy Satan.
 

Jesus is the Word spoken by God and He is the Word God moved Moses to write speaking of the promise of a Messiah. God gave to Moses to write the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, those words which give us the history of the world, God’s promise of a Messiah, the civil and moral law as well as the ceremonial laws which all pointed to the one Lamb of God that would be slain, that would be sacrificed, crucified on the cross to pay the price for sin.
 

God sent the angels to announce to the shepherds that the birth of the Messiah had taken place. The angels made a spoken announcement that the One about whom all of Holy Scripture speaks was born in Bethlehem.
 

Jesus is the spoken word, the written word, the tangible word and now we begin to celebrate that He is the Word incarnate, that is the Word made flesh. As John tells us, “1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God” (v. 1,2). Jesus was there at the creation of the world, with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, the trinity in unity and the unity in the trinity.
 

Jesus, the Word, is true God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, was in heaven enjoying all that it means to be true God in heaven, and yet He gave up the glory that was His in heaven in order to take on human flesh and blood. He was conceived in the human woman, the virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit so that what was conceived in her was truly human and truly divine as we confess in the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed.
 

Thus, the Word, spoken and written, the One promised from the fall into sin, became in carinate, in carnal, in flesh in the person of Jesus. As John tells us in his version of the nativity story, “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 (v. 14).
 

John fills us in on the details of the Messiah as he says, “9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14And 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. 15( 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.”’) 16And from 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 God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known (v. 9-18).
 

Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness. Jesus is the light of truth, of perfection shining in the darkness of an imperfect world infected with sin and death. Jesus is the light which came into the world to expose the darkness of sin. And yet, even as is the case in our world today when those living in sin would rather continue living sin, so even in Jesus day, those exposed as living in sin rejected the One who came to save them, to bring them forgiveness and life.
 

Jesus, the light was born through the line of those promised, the Jewish nation, the children of Israel, and yet His own nation, His own culture, His own people refused and rejected Him, at least many of His own nation did, especially the ruling counsel of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.
 

Too many of His own people did not recognize Him. His own family, His brothers and sisters, and even at times it seemed His own mother did not recognize Him, at least not as the Messiah. Many rejected Him and yet many also did believe, not simply of His own people, but of the various cultures and nations to whom He came into contact in His life on this earth those He also came to save.
 

As Jesus spoke so well, to those who believe in Him, we are all a part of His family. It is not flesh and blood, it is not DNA, it is not genetics that make us brothers and sisters of Christ, and a part of His family. It is not our being born, nor our own human will that make us a part of His family. It is God who makes us a part of His family. It is God who gives us faith, forgiveness and life. It is God who has given His Son, even His own life, to be born as a human being in order to trade His life for ours.
 

This evening we begin our celebration of the Word, spoken, written, tangible, becoming flesh for the purpose of fulfilling our salvation. We begin our celebration of God taking on human flesh and blood, obeying all of God’s laws perfectly as our substitute, because we cannot. We begin celebrating that Jesus is the Messiah and He showed Himself to be the Messiah by fulfilling all God’s promises and prophecies concerning the Messiah, who He would be and what He would do. We being celebrating the fact that this child is God in flesh who was born for a purpose, to die, to reconcile our account with Himself, to give His life so that we might not die but have eternal life.
 

Yes, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word took on human flesh in order to fulfill the spoken and written Word concerning Himself. We rejoice and give thanks that this Word became flesh, became incarnate because of His great love for us. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Tangible Word - Advent Midweek 3 - December 18, 2013 - Text: John 1:1-18

Our theme for this year is The Word. Our text is John 1:1-18. Last week we talked about the written word. This week we continue our theme as we talk about the tangible word. Next week we will take up the topic of the word incarnate, followed by the word fulfilled and on New Year’s Eve, the word in glory. As we made note last week, of course, the Word is Jesus who was at creation with the Father and the Spirit, who was promised through the oral prophecies, and later through the written prophecies. Jesus is the tangible word in His Holy Supper. He is the Word incarnate, in flesh in the person of the baby. He is the Word fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection. And He is the Word in glory, the Lamb of God enthroned in heaven. Again, this evening we take up the topic of the tangible word.
 

As we said last week, the way we remember is to teach and reteach, to hear the message and hear it again, thus we begin by hearing again that Jesus is the Spoken and Written Word. We have already identified Jesus as the one spoken and written about in Genesis. He is the One about who God promised to send to reconcile, to redeem, to pay the price, trading His life for the life of all, to bring all people back into a right relationship with God Himself, a relationship broken by disobedience and sin. Jesus is the One who would have His heel bruised, that is He will die on the cross, but in so having His heel bruised, He would bruise Satan’s head, He would completely defeat and destroy Satan.
 

And we have already identified Jesus as the one spoken and written about in the Old Testament prophecies and promises. The promise of a Savior was reiterated to Noah after the flood and the ark landed. The promise was reiterated and the line of the fulfillment of the promise was made to Abraham. The promise was reiterated to Moses as he was chosen, not only to lead the children of Israel out of bondage of slavery, but also to write down the words and promises of God which He did in the first five books of the Bible.
 

We have already identified Jesus as the one who came to fulfill all the law and the promises perfectly. Not only did Jesus fulfill and obey all of the civil and moral laws perfectly, never being disobedient even once, but He also fulfilled all the ceremonial laws perfectly as well. It was these ceremonial laws which were given to remind the people that the price for sin was death, that blood had to be shed and it was these laws that in fulfilling, Jesus made them obsolete. No longer do we have the ceremonial law which simply pointed to Jesus on the cross, because Jesus has already died on the cross, thus completely fulfilling those laws making them no longer necessary.
 

And, we have already identified Jesus as the one who came to be our substitute. In order to save us, in order to be our substitute, Jesus had to be truly human and He was, being born of the human woman, the virgin Mary, as we confess in the second article of the Apostles’ creed.
 

This evening we want to talk about the fact that today, Jesus is the tangible Word. What does tangible mean? To be tangible means to be something we can handle, or hold. God is Spirit. Jesus is God in flesh. After His life, suffering, death and resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven. If Jesus has ascended into heaven, how then can we handle and hold Jesus? How can Jesus be tangible for us today?
 

To understand the tangibleness of Jesus we must first go back to the first Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. On Maundy Thursday Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples. Jesus celebrated the same festival that the Jews celebrated since the angel of death passed over the blood marked houses in Egypt. Jesus ate the bitter herbs, the matzah, the lamb, and drank of the four cups of wine as prescribed by the Passover celebration. But Jesus did not simply celebrate the Passover with His disciples, rather, from the Passover He gave them and us His Holy Supper.
 

In the Passover, the family slaughtered the lamb, put the blood on the door post and lintel, the up and down motion and the side to side motion making the sign of the cross, a foreshadowing of the cross of Christ. The family then ate the lamb as well as the unleavened bread, standing and in haste, ready to leave Egypt. The houses that were marked with the blood of the lamb were so marked so that the angel of death passed over their houses.
 

Out of this Passover Seder Celebration Jesus gave His disciples and us His Holy Supper, the Lord’s Supper. In the Lord’s Supper, the slaughtered Lamb of God is Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus is the Lamb of God who shed His blood on the cross. He won forgiveness of sins for us, paying the price for sin on the cross. Now at His Holy Table He gives us His body to eat and blood to drink for forgiveness of sins so that the angel of eternal spiritual death will pass over us.
 

Jesus is the Word. He is the Spoken Word as we hear about Jesus, the promises and prophecies. He is the Written Word as we read about Jesus, the promises and prophecies. There truly is no denying that the one spoken about in the Old Testament is none other than the One spoken about in the New Testament, Jesus Himself, the very Word of God
 

Jesus is the spoken Word, the Written Word and now we understand, we see, we know that Jesus gives us Himself to handle, to hold, to eat and drink, not symbolically, but in a real presence, in, with and under the very ordinary means of the bread and wine way, connected to the very Word of God so that through our eating and drinking we participate in His life, death and resurrection. Just as the Children of Israel participated in the sacrifice by eating the sacrifice, so we participate in Jesus life, death and resurrection by eating Jesus. We participate in the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. We participate in Jesus so that His life becomes our life. His suffering and death become our suffering and death. His resurrection and life become our resurrection and life.
 

We get it right, we get our theology right, we get God’s Word right, spoken, written and tangible, when we get Jesus right. It is God in flesh, God in Jesus who gives us Himself to eat and to drink. And even more than our receiving these gifts from God is the fact that we are given to. Receiving implies an act on our part, a none rejecting, which is our only option. So, take yourself out of the proposition, take yourself out of the equation. God gives and we are given to.
 

This recognizing, acknowledging and celebrating of the tangible Word this evening is what our whole Advent season of looking to and preparing ourselves for is all about. This evening we recognize that the celebration for which we are preparing is what the people throughout Old Testament times were awaiting. This evening we recognize that our celebration is to be a celebration of God taking on human flesh, and even more a celebration of our God giving Himself to us to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of sins, which is the greatest need we have and the greatest gift our Lord gives. Jesus is the Word, the spoken Word, the Written Word, the tangible Word in flesh. God gives us Himself in the person of Jesus. Jesus gives Himself to eat and drink, to handle and hold, to partake for the forgiveness of sins. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Word Written - Advent Midweek 2 - December 11, 2013 - Text: John 1:1-18

Our theme for this year is The Word. Our text is John 1:1-18. Last week we talked about the spoken word. This week we continue our theme as we talk about the written word. Next week we will take up the topic of the tangible word, followed by the word incarnate, the word fulfilled and the word in glory. As we made note last week, of course, the Word is Jesus who was at creation with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who was promised through the oral prophecies, and later through the written prophecies. Jesus is the tangible word in His Holy Supper. He is the Word incarnate, in flesh in the person of the baby. He is the Word fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection. And He is the Word in glory, the Lamb of God enthroned in heaven. Again, this evening we take up the topic of written word.
 

One of the things we are taught in teacher education is that the way to get people to remember is to teach and reteach, in other words to say the same thing over and over in as many ways as possible and using as many of your senses as possible so that we remember what we are being taught. It is for this reason, so that you will remember, that you will keep hearing me say and reiterate the same thing over and over again. With that said, I will, again, remind you that last week we talked about the spoken Word of God. We have already identified Jesus as the one who was with and is God at the creation of the world. And concerning the spoken Word of God, I think it is amazing that it was simply by speaking that God created all things out of nothing, simply by speaking them into existence.
 

Along with identifying Jesus as God, we have also already identified Jesus as the one spoken of as the one to be the Messiah, the Savior of the world. As John tells us, “4In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world (v. 4,5,9). And this light, this Messiah, the Savior is the one promised in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden immediately after Adam and Eve sinned.
 

And, we have already identified Jesus as the spoken Word becoming flesh at His birth. Again, John’s own words, “11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14And 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 (v. 11-14).
 

We have identified Jesus as the spoken word of God, the word of promise and the word of prophecy first spoken by God in the Garden of Eden and also later to Abraham, at which time God narrowed the line of fulfillment of the prophecy. This evening we move to a later point in Israelite history at which time God calls Moses to lead His people Israel and to give them His Law and His written Word.
 

Following the Garden of Eden, man continued to sin. God sent a flood to wash the world. God reiterated His promise of a Savior to Noah. And the world continued to sin. At the tower of Babel the people of the world disobeyed God and instead of being fruitful and multiplying and spreading out into the world, they remained and thought themselves as gods. God confused their languages so they had to separate into the world. Later God reiterated His spoken promise to send a Savior through Abraham and even later to Moses.
 

Not only did God use Moses to lead His people Israel from their bondage of slavery in Egypt, He also moved Moses to write the first five books of the Bible, what is called the Pentateuch; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Now the spoken, the oral promises of God have become a permanent record, a written Word promising a Savior for God’s people.
 

When God gave Moses His Word and promises to write down, God gave to Moses the Law, the written Word which included the ceremonial, the civil and the moral law.
 

The civil and moral law were given for the protection of all people. The civil law is much like the civil law we have in our world today. The civil law regulates how we are to be in relationship with others in public, and most civil law is based on the moral law which is the Ten Commandments. In other words, it is the moral law which is at the heart of the civil law and which regulates the fact that we are obedient to those in authority over us, as stated in the fourth commandment. We do not hurt or harm our neighbor physically, mentally or emotionally, nor do we actually murder our neighbor, as stated in the fifth commandment. We do not lust after another man’s wife, nor fornicate with any unmarried people, as stated in the sixth commandment. We do not scheme, take or steal from our neighbor, as stated in the seventh commandment. We do not speak evil of others nor repeat gossip, we do not defame another’s character, as stated in the eighth commandment. And we do not covet anything that is our neighbors, nor begrudge them of what they have, as stated in the ninth and tenth commandments. As for the moral law, neither do we have other god’s before our one true God, we do not misuse His name, nor do we fail to be in divine service on the day of rest, as stated in the first, second and third commandments. Now, as I have listed these civil and moral laws, we must all admit that certainly we daily transgress all of these if not in action, we do so in thought and word and that is why we need a Savior.
 

Certainly many of you have heard it said that Jesus came to fulfill the law so that we are no longer bound by the law. While that statement is true, we must clarify that we are still under the civil and moral law. It is the ceremonial law which pointed to the Savior, which said that blood must be shed for sin. Although Jesus fulfilled all the law, civil, moral and ceremonial, it was this ceremonial law that Jesus fulfilled of which we are no longer under. We no longer offer sacrifices because Jesus has already offered Himself as the once for all sacrifice.
 

Jesus is the Word. He is the spoken, the oral word first promised by God, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. He is the one who came to fulfill all the spoken promises and all the written promises. He is the one who is God in human flesh, born as one of us, as one of His creatures in order to be a substitute for us.
 

Jesus was born to fulfill all the law, all the civil law, all the moral law and all the ceremonial laws and He did, perfectly. All that the law requires Jesus fulfilled. All the promises and prophecies about the Messiah, Jesus fulfilled, perfectly.
 

The fulness of the Gospel is that Jesus lived perfectly for us in our place as our substitute. Jesus then, freely took our sins, suffered and died, paying the complete price for our sins, for us in our place. He died and was buried, but death and the grave had no hold over Him as He rose on the third day. He ascended into heaven where He continues even today to watch over us, rule over us and intercede for us. He is awaiting the time that He will return to gather us and all the saints to take us to be with Himself in heaven for eternity. And we will gather and stand before the Lord’s throne and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Word Spoken - Advent Midweek 1 - December 4, 2013 - Text: John 1:1-18

Our theme for this year is The Word. Our text is John 1:1-18 and we will talk about the spoken word, the written word, the tangible word, the word incarnate, the word fulfilled and the word in glory. Of course, the Word is Jesus, God the Son, who was at creation with the Father, who was promised through the oral prophecies, and later through the written prophecies. Jesus is the tangible word in His Holy Supper. He is the Word incarnate, in flesh in the person of the baby. He is the Word fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection. And He is the Word in glory, the Lamb of God enthroned in heaven. This evening we begin by talking about the spoken word.
 

The Gospel writer John is an amazing writer. He uses simple, down to earth words that are easy to understand and yet out of his simple words is amazing meaning. Rather than speak of the virgin birth in down to earth words, like conceived and born, John speaks of the nativity in words such as Light and Word. So, we begin with a little identification of the Word. John says, “1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (v. 1-3). So, from these first three verses we know that whoever or whatever the “Word” is, He was at the creation of the world, meaning that He either was God the Father or is One in unity with God the Father.
 

Further, John says that this Word, was with God, and was God. Here again, as God has revealed Himself to us as a God who is three persons in one Godhead, and understanding that the three persons of the One Godhead are never divided, this means that whoever or whatever the “Word,” is, He was indeed God, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
 

Again, still further, John says that this Word was the one who made all things and that there is nothing that was made that was not made except that He made it. We have attributed the Creation of the world to the person of God the Father and so here if the “Word,” is not God the Father, we at least know that He was there with God the Father at the creation of the world and that He is One with God the Father.
 

So, putting all this together, therefore we would understand John to be telling us that this “Word,” about whom he is speaking is One with God the Creator, that is that the “Word,” is One with God the Father making the “Word,” truly God and we would say, as we will continue to follow John that Jesus is God and Jesus is the Word.
 

In the beginning God created all things out of nothing and when God created all things all things were created perfect. God created a perfect world, a perfect garden, a perfect man and a perfect woman. God placed the perfect man and perfect woman He created into the perfect garden He created, the Garden of Eden. God gave the man work to do to care for the garden, not as toilsome labor, but good work as a response of faith. God also gave the man and woman another way to respond to all He had done for and given to them in that they were to obey Him by not eating of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
 

Sometime prior to these events, after God had created the angels, one angel, Lucifer, rebelled against God, thinking himself to be equal to and perhaps a god, and was cast out of heaven. This evil angel whom we refer to as Satan, hates everything that is good and from God and so, he came into the perfect garden taking on the form of a serpent and tempted Eve and Adam to disobey God. Satan tempted Eve and Adam with a false truth and a word of doubt concerning what God had given to them and said to them. They listened to Satan, disobeyed God and brought sin into the perfect world so that it was no longer perfect. As a matter of fact, because of their sin the world was cursed, so that it is no longer perfect.
 

At the same time that their sin brought a curse on the world, in His great love, God spoke a word of promise, that is that He would send a Savior, someone who would pay the ultimate price for their sin. Oh, I forgot to tell you, the price for disobedience had been set by God as death, that is that they would begin to die a physical death and ultimately, apart from God, they would die an eternal spiritual death of hell. God’s promise was not to keep them from a physical death, but that He would send a Savior to keep them from an eternal spiritual death in hell.
 

Although they did not know it specifically at the time, today we know that Jesus is the one that was being spoken of as the promised Savior. This is the one being spoken of in our text as John calls Him the Word.
 

Thus, in Jesus the spoken word of a promise made in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve and to all people was fulfilled at His birth. As John says it later in our text, “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” (v. 14). More concerning this becoming flesh, dwelling among us, and seeing His glory later.
 

Thus, Jesus is the Word made flesh, He is the Word that was born as the one promised to Adam and Eve, the One who would take care of their sin of disobedience, the One who would take care of paying the price for their eternal spiritual death, in other words the One who would suffer the punishment of hell for them. This Jesus is the Word who would also defeat the power of death that is physical death so that following the final day of judgement, when we reach heaven there would be no more threat of physical death. Yes, this Word made flesh in Jesus is the one promised to save Adam and Eve, His own people to whom He would be born, again as we will take up later, us and all people.
 

Finally, this Word, this Jesus brings grace and truth. Jesus brings truth because apart from Jesus there is and can be no truth. Satan brought, and continues today to bring, lies and deception, Jesus brings truth and forgiveness. This Word in Jesus also brings grace, God’s riches, God’s undeserved love. It is this Word of promise, first spoken in the Garden of Eden, made flesh in Jesus, who is Jesus, who is the Messiah, the Savior of the world who would reconcile, make right the world with Himself, God in flesh who created all things out of nothing.
 

What a great, holy, loving, almighty God we have. We have a God who created all things and us included, even though in His omniscience He knew that we would mess everything up. He then promised and fulfilled His promise to make everything better, which He did by taking on the very substance, by becoming one with and one of the creatures He created, by becoming incarnate, in flesh and living for us, by taking our sins, our mess upon Himself, by suffering and dying a physical death and an eternal spiritual death of hell for us, because of His great love for us. It is the birth of this Word, our God in flesh that we prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate. Greater love can no one have than our God has for us. And He even gives us the opportunity and moves in us to respond in faith, to give praise and glory to His Holy Name. To Him be all glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.