Note: This sermon is an update to this one.

Sermon Audio

“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 nothing was made that was made.”

Is that not an interesting way to begin a Gospel? St. John points to the very beginning, using words that would have us look at the very beginning of our Scriptures—Genesis. More than that however, he tells you that your Savior was there when the heavens and the earth were created: “In the beginning was the Word...” Jesus is the Word! He was with God in the beginning, and He is God.

He may not be mentioned by the name He was given when he was circumcised, but the Son of God is most certainly present in Genesis 1, throughout all creation, for “[a]ll things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” A reading of Genesis 1 reveals His presence; why, He’s right there in verse three: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Did you hear Him? Jesus is there. God said...and it was; it was by His Word. God speaks, and by His Word, things come into being. Light, earth, water, trees and plants, fish, birds, animals, and man were all created by God when He spoke, and through and by Jesus, they were all made.

“In the beginning was the Word,” St. John says. Now, the Word isn’t just about Jesus, nor is Jesus simply an idea such as a word formed by our mouths. Jesus is the Word of God—the Word which actually does and effects—He is the second person of the Holy Trinity...the Word is God! This Word has a nature and a substance—a divine nature and substance.

Now, do you get it? Well, me neither. Scripture is filled with teachings such as this—teachings that we know to be true because the Bible says they are—because God said they are—but that we cannot begin to comprehend.

And so it went. In the beginning was the Word; in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God created everything through His Word—through Jesus. Part of the creation was Adam and Eve. And they walked freely in the company of God. Unfortunately, this creation did not receive Him; Adam and Eve fell into sin. Wanting to be like God, they broke God’s command and separated themselves from Him. They moved themselves further away from God, but out of His great love, God came near to them. He gifted them with clothes that would not wear out like fig leaves, but, more importantly, He gave them His Word and promise: from the Seed of the woman would come salvation. (cf. Genesis 3:15, 21; et al)

And thus, it continued. The Hebrew people found themselves as slaves in Egypt. God came near to them to lead them, as His Word declares, by the hand out of bondage in Egypt and to take them to Himself as His holy people. (cf. Exodus 13:3, et al) He was present with them in the forms of a cloud or pillar of fire; the Hebrew people could see Him with their own eyes, so to speak. (cf. Exodus 13:21) God sent His Word to them, in the form of His Law. Yet again, His own people did not receive Him. Seeing the smoke and lightning and heard the thunder and the sound of trumpet coming from the mountain, they called to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” (Exodus 20:19) Eventually, this resulted in the tent of meeting being erected (the tent of meeting would become the tabernacle, which would become the temple). So God would descend to this tent, erected outside of the camp, by the way, and speak words to Moses to speak to the people. And the people found pleasure and comfort in this arrangement: God close, but not too close.

But God made a promise, and He is faithful to that promise, so He kept on sending His Word...He kept on drawing near. Now, God dwelt among His people behind the veil of the heavy curtain in the temple, which was the center of Jerusalem. From the Most Holy Place, God would bless the people. He would give His Word to the people through the mouth and hands of the temple priests. To the people, God was still close, but not too close. So, they thought, it would be easy to do what they wanted to do. Gradually, they would no longer listen to the Word of God from the priests and chase after other, false gods. They erected idols to these false gods in order to worship them, even placing them in God’s temple. Isn’t it ironic that they did not want the one, true God near them, but they gladly accepted and cherished the nearness of the idols of these false gods?

But God was still faithful to them. He had made a promise, and He is faithful to that promise. Though He would eventually leave the temple, and the temple would be destroyed, He would continue to come near to His people. He would continue to send His Word to them. He called prophets to speak to the people His Law, to bring them to repentance and bring them back to Him and away from their false gods and idols. Still, His people would not receive Him—they did not like His Word being preached among them; His Law was not to their liking. So, they killed the prophets God had sent.

So it is as God revealed through the Word given John: “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him." God and His Word were continually among His people, yet they did not know Him, they did not want to know Him, and they rejected Him. But God is faithful to the promise He made. Though the world continue to reject Him, He would not reject the world. He would send His Word to them like He has never been sent before.

“[T]he Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” God was now closer to people than He has ever been since He walked in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day. And, get this, while our translations say that the Word dwelt among us, St. John actually says He pitched His tent among us, He tabernacled among us! God had come near to His people once again to save them.

Do you think they received Him any differently then? No, they did not! Many times the Jews sought to get their hands on Jesus in order that they might kill Him. Many times the Jews picked up stones to hurl at Him, accusing Him of blasphemy. And, in the final act of rebellion, they brought Him before their Roman rulers and demanded that He be crucified. Such an affront; the Word became flesh to give life to man, and man put the Word-made-flesh to death in “gratitude.”

Yet, this is all the fulfillment of the promise God gave way back in Genesis. God gave His Word that He would come to save; upon the cross, God sent His Word in order to save. God’s promise has been fulfilled, He has kept His Word. Gaze again upon the cross, though, Jesus is not only the fulfillment of the promise, but He is also the Promise! He is not only the Word that was kept, but He is the Word who keeps.

The cross was an effort to silence the Word of God once and for all. After all, He has been murdered, and dead men can’t talk. But their attempt wasn’t good enough—no attempt can ever be—as He rose again on the third day. He rises and forgives sins. He gathers His disciples and sends them out to teach and baptize. Do you recall what He says to them? “[L]o, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) That is the promise He has made to the disciples, and it is the same promise He has made to you and me. In other words, the Word still comes and dwells among us; He still comes near to us, to grace us with His presence, and give us His blessings: forgiveness, life, and salvation.

God still loves His creation, and He still loves to come and dwell among it. Despite His creation’s track record—and you have to admit, things don’t look good for His creation—God still chooses to come near His creation in order to save them.

He does this through His means of grace. God is truly present in the Word proclaimed. As the Scriptures are read and taught and preached and as the pastor announces the forgiveness of sins, God is present in His Word—His Word is among men and working on them. As water is applied to people under Jesus’ institution, the Word is truly present giving faith and His Spirit to the newly baptized. In the Lord’s Supper simple bread and wine are joined by the Word’s flesh; there is real presence there!

God is gracious enough to come near to His creation again. He is gracious enough to dwell among us once more. He is gracious enough to be in the world even now. Does the world now recognize Him? Does the world now receive Him? Well, not many. History continues to repeat itself: God comes to His own, and his own do not receive Him.

The heathen rejects this outright. That a god is present in mere words and and simple water, bread, and wine is ludicrous. It doesn’t make sense. That a god would be conceived and assume flesh like ours, walk among man in flesh like ours, die with flesh like ours, rise again with flesh like ours, and ascend back to his heavenly throne with flesh like ours is not acceptable—a god just wouldn’t do that outside of a temporary manifestation. However, His presence is real and truthful because His Word declares it to be so—because He declares it true—it is not dependent on whether we understand it or not—whether or not it falls into our notions of what a god does or does not do.

There are Christians who reject the means of grace. They go to church. They read their Bibles. They go to Sunday School. They even practice baptism and communion, or what they call baptism and communion. But, they refuse to believe that God is truly present in all of it. To them, despite what Scripture teaches, God is transcendent; mere words, water, bread, and wine (sometimes grape juice) cannot contain this transcendent God. I mean, the finite is not capable of containing the infinite, they say. It is up to us to ascend to God somehow—it us up to us get near to God. God comes to them too, but they do not recognize it...do they even know it? Again, His presence is real and truthful because his Word declares it to be so—the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and He is found, flesh-and-blood, in Word, water, bread, and wine is true whether or not we think it capable of happening.

There are those who recognize the Word’s presence in His means. They hear the Word proclaimed, and recognize the real presence of the Word among them. They witness the baptism of a child in the faith, and see the Word at work. As they go to communion, they recognize the true body and true blood of the Word-made-flesh. People in the church catholic, we who would call ourselves Lutherans, would fall into this group.

Yet even people who hold to such a confession have difficulty with it. I mean, you confess it, but do you understand it? And does your lack of understanding cause you to doubt it. Just because you are Lutheran in that you attend a Lutheran church—just because you have a seat in a congregation of the church catholic—doesn’t automatically guarantee that you believe, teach, and confess what she believes, teaches, and confesses. Nor does that mean that you are incapable of ever doubting His Word as your Old Adam is constantly at war with your New Man and seeks to cause you to doubt God and His grace. It may go something like this:

• “If you forgive anyone their sins, they are forgiven them.” (cf. John 20:23) Can mere men who are called pastors speak in God’s stead by His command? Can you really trust that your sins are truly forgiven by God through the words that they speak?
• “Baptism now saves you.” (cf. 1 Peter 3:21) Can simple washing really do that? Can the Word of God really combine with the water to become a washing of regeneration? Did Peter mean something else when he wrote that?
• “This is my body...This is my blood” (cf. Matthew 26:26, 28) Are you sure Jesus meant “is?” It looks like a piece of bread, smells like a piece of bread, tastes like a piece of bread (well, maybe not), therefore it must be a piece of bread...likewise the wine, right?

And God says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Infant in the manger, the 12-year old Boy teaching in the temple, the Man being baptized, the Teacher dying on the cross is the Word of God who was with God in the beginning, who is God. Do you believe this? Can you believe this?

These all the Church has taught throughout Her history, because God has given Her this doctrine. These all are the teachings of the Word of God, written for our learning and come to us in the flesh, and so throughout Her history, the church as taught the following:

• “[O]ur Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at the same time both God and man. He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages; and He is man, born from the substance of His mother in this age: perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh; equal to the Father with respect to His divinity, less than the Father with respect to His humanity.” (Athanasian Creed)
• “That we may obtain this faith, the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given, who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel, to wit, that God, not for our own merits, but for Christ’s sake, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake.” (ACV, Triglotta)
• “Of Baptism they teach that it is necessary to salvation, and that through Baptism is offered the grace of God, and that children are to be baptized who, being offered to God through Baptism are received into God’s grace.” (ACIX, Triglotta)
• “Of the Supper of the Lord they teach that the Body and Blood of Christ are truly present, and are distributed to those who eat the Supper of the Lord.” (ACX, Triglotta)

The pattern of history continues to repeat itself. God draws near; God sends His Word to His people. God goes to those who are His own, yet His own do not recognize Him or receive Him. What's left for God to do?

True to His promise, He still draws near! He still sends His Word to be proclaimed and given in His means of grace. He sends in order that we may receive! And here’s the word of comfort, as we have already heard it: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” What marvelous grace! And this grace is to and for you!

“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24) The Word of God declares what is true. Thankfully, the truth of the Word depends not on our own understanding. He bids us to lean not on our understanding, but to trust in Him. (cf. Proverbs 3:5) And He gives us faith to trust in Him: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) He answers that prayer—“Help my unbelief.” How? By sending His Son in the flesh to you and into you—in Word and Sacraments, through His Holy Office. And in your receiving of the Word, again and again, you are given faith to believe His Word—to take Him at His Word.

And so, you have been claimed by God in the waters of Holy Baptism; you have received the Word! You are here this morning listening to the Word proclaimed; you are receiving the Word. The Word is alive and active, proclaiming to you the forgiveness of your sins by the merits of Jesus Christ—the Word-made-flesh—born in the flesh, crucified, and risen...for you! You who receive the Word are children of God, “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

“In the beginning was the Word.” You heard the Word as He was active in creation. You heard of the Word proclaimed to the Hebrews as they journeyed out of Egypt. You heard of the Word proclaimed to the Israelites from the temple. You heard of the Word proclaimed to the Israelites from the mouths of the prophets. During Christmastide, you rejoice to hear of the Word becoming flesh, and pitching His tent among you. You rejoice because you hear once again that the Word has drawn near to you, to bring you to repentance and faith—confession and absolution. You rejoice because the Word draws near to you in His means as often as He comes to proclaim to you that you are forgiven of your sins.