The word became Flesh. John 1. 1-18

Last Talk of 2013 on the subject  "The word became Flesh" from John 1. 1-18. 

1. What is a word?
Interaction time.  Discuss in family/friend groups what a word is and write on a “post-it” note.  Then we will collect the answers and collate them.
I'm looking for two elements in the answer: 
(a) A basic idea, thought or feeling. Something inside a person's head.
(b) A basic form of expression.  Something “out there”.
A word is the most basic way of getting something from “inside our heads” to “out there”. 

2. Who is “The Word”?
Basically, Jesus!   He was “in the beginning with the Father.”  John deliberately takes us back to Genesis 1, and shows us that “The Word”, Jesus was there.

He was “with God.”  Not just “inside God's head” but alongside God.  That shows he is more than just an idea or a thought that came from inside God's head.  He is a person.  The Message translates it “the Word present to God, God present to the Word.”  

Nothing was made without him.  Everything that exists, came because of Him.   That shows that this “Word”, this Truth that was present with God, is powerful.  He was and is God.

When we are talking about “The word”, we are talking about Jesus.  Whenever we are talking about Jesus, we are talking about this amazing, powerful, mysterious “Word”!

3. How does ”The Word” come”
He came in flesh.  That amazing, mysterious Word, who has always been there, spoke, shouted, cried, whispered, sang, in human form, into human ears, so that could hear.

That is amazing.  John loves to talk about opposites, like “light and darkness”, “life and death” or “Flesh and spirit”  (He begins to do that in verse 13, and does it more in chapter 3 v 6.  Paul says “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God...”  (1 Cor 15. 50) Isn't that amazing?  Jesus took on something that cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, in order to bring us into the Kingdom of God.   Then he took on something else that cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, our sin.  “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5. 21)

The “Word” became flesh.  Incarnate.  God reveals himself through and in the midst of ordinariness.   The Christmas story is full of ordinary people doing what ordinary people do – but always with God's surprises added in.  So a teenage girl is told she's going to have a baby; That's where her young life was expected to lead to – but she knew this wasn't just ordinary so she asks “How can this be?” (Lk 1. 43)  Joseph is trying to get out of a relationship that looks as if it's gone wrong.  Priests are opening up the temple and burning incense day by day. Shepherds are out looking after sheep.  Eastern mystics are tracking the movement of the stars, government is gathering statistics (and generally ruining people’s lives!; soldiers are obeying orders.  And in all of that, God breaks through. The Word became flesh.

And as the Word comes, two things happen
(a)    Creation: to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God –  born of God.  The Word brings an amazing transformation in to the lives of those who put their trust in him.
(b)     Revelation: No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son,  has made him known. The Word Enables us to know what we need to know about the God who is too big for us to understand.

4. Do you hear the “The Word?”
Last week Pam and I visited a church member in a nursing home, who hadn't got hearing aids in.  This person couldn't hear what we were saying.  Now I have a special voice I use on these occasions.  I hope that by speaking very loud, and very deep, and very slow, and using familiar words from Scripture, or perhaps sharing communion, the listener may be able to understand some of what I am saying.  It's a great way of speaking out the Gospel in residential homes!  God doesn’t shout the word. He becomes flesh.  Do you hear the Word? 

Do you hear the Word spoken to us in Christ?  Do you really hear it? Do you listen to it?  Do you understand it? Do you respond to it?    John tells us what we need to do....

Receive him, “to those who did receive him, to those who believed...” (v. 12)
That is a key word of John's. It means “take by the hand, welcome someone, or to accept hospitality; to conceive a child, or to eat food”. He uses variations of the word “Receive” in verses

• 5, “darkness hasn't received, caught, grasped, understood, or tied up the light”
• 11, “his own people didn't receive, associate with him”
• 12 “to those who did receive him, welcome him, accept his welcome...”
• 16.  “From his fulness we have received, welcomed, grace upon grace.”

Sarah learned a poem at School, that my Grandpa used to say to me when I was little. It's called “The boy on the train”.  He's going to Kirkcaldy to see his Gran and one couplet says
I'll sune be ringin' ma Gran'ma's bell, 
She'll cry, 'Come ben [come in], my laddie'

I love that line – that speaks of wide open arms and welcome.  We need to say to Jesus “Come away in...”  and to make him welcome in our lives. 

To be transformed.   In receiving The Word, living, powerful and creative into our lives, we allow him to work out his new creation in our lives., to transform us.   Jesus was scathing about people who are hearers of the word and not doers.  

And Pass it on!  John  “came as a witness to the light”.  We want to be witnesses to Jesus.  We want to speak out “The Word” who was in the Father with God.  And because we are new creatures  we can make God's Word incarnate in the ordinariness of the lives we live today in the surprising ways that God's spirit leads in our lives.

And so we go... we have friends leaving today for Iraq.  We pray for them, as they go to serve there.  In the ordinary things of life, God's surprises come.  “Love incarnate”.   And so we go...  out to our own neighbourhood of Rosyth.  Through our ordinary lives, we expect God' surprises to happen.  “Love incarnate”

There was a report on “The Sunday Programme” this morning about Food-banks.  One volunteer from Nottingham talked about her own life.  She had drifted away from faith, but now she's a regular at Sunday worship and helping out at her Church's Food bank. Why? Because during the year when she hit rock bottom financially, the Food bank. was there for her.  Ordinary things, but God is at work.  “Love incarnate”

Matthis is a five-year-old boy who lived in Montpelier. For a year his Grandfather had been taking him to Church.  Then one  day he walked in with his Dad, Mum and baby brother. His parents were obviously finding faith in Jesus.  Our friend asked the boy's Mum what made the difference.  She answered “Matthis.  All year we have been sharing our lives with a boy who always talks about his friend Jesus, prays to him, sings to him.  That got to us in the end.” Ordinary people, ordinary things, and an extraordinary God.  “Love incarnate”.  And so we go...

© Gilmour Lilly December  2013