Sermon - Christmas Day 2019 - John 1:1-18

Merry Christmas! 

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” What’s in a word? What’s happening when you speak? I’ve heard it argued that words are only words and the only thing that matters is what you do with those words. As such, I’ve also heard people defend and argue for their small children using cuss words in daily parlance. Since after all, it’s argued that they’re only words, and the only important thing is that those words are used at appropriate times. Thus, words themselves are emptied of any innate value they might have. 

However such is not the case. Words are more than just empty shells with which we impute meaning and significance. Words and the language that we employ are pictures into the heart. As St. Basil writes: “Our word is a reflection of all that we are thinking.” The words you use, your choice of language, reveals the inner workings of your heart and mind. 

Our Lord Jesus teaches this to us when He says: “Hear and understand: It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person… What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.” So when you fill your language with curses and filthy, profane, vile, crude words, you’re revealing the inner workings of your own depraved heart. Your words aren’t empty shells waiting to be filled, but they carry with them meanings all of their own, and those words expose you for who you are.

It works the same way for our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, who is made known to us as the Word made flesh. If the words we use daily reveal our hearts, then likewise does the Word of God, Jesus, reveal to us the intentions of the heart of the Father. Jesus, the Word made flesh, is the complete revelation of the Father’s grace and truth for us.

“For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Everything that we see in Jesus, from His lowly conception by the virgin Mary to His birth in a stable, from His lowly social station in life to His crucifixion as a criminal on the cross, all of it reveals God’s heart for His people. And God’s heart is filled not only with laws, and commandments, and statues we must obey, but with grace and truth for every sinner.

From our own mouths we learn that we are wicked sinners deserving of the torments of hell. The words that come out of our mouths, either blurted out or intentionally spoken, reveal that our hearts are unclean. From the heart comes every form of evil and wickedness. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Brothers and sisters in Christ, is this not revealed to us day by day when we open our mouths and reveal the intentions of our hearts? We are sinners who dwell in deep darkness.

 But lo! “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Jesus, the light of the world, the Word of God made flesh, has come only for sinners like us. From Jesus we see that He doesn’t come as one who is filled with wrath for us, but with mercy and compassion. He was born as a babe, grew as a child, submitted to His earthly parents’ authority, performed miracles upon the sick, preached freedom and forgiveness to those in bondage to sin, became a servant to the servants, was tortured and died in the place of others, and triumphantly rose from the grave in order to ascend to heaven. All this that Jesus does reveals to us that the Father’s heart for sinful man is indeed grace upon grace.

Jesus, the enfleshed Word of God, says of Himself in Revelation: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of water of life without payment.” Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, so it’s as if Jesus says that He is the A to Z, and all language finds its fulfillment in Jesus. He is the first Word of life spoken at creation and He is the last Word who writes our names into the book of life. From the Word of God you were made and created. From the Word of God you were redeemed and bought back from sin. With the Word of God you are baptized, absolved, and recipients of the Lord’s Supper. With the Word of God you will be raised from the grave and receive immortality.

The reason all language and every word exists is because God sanctifies our filthy lips and hearts through that Word. The reason it’s so exciting when a small child says their first word, is because Jesus is the Word of God. Even when a person cannot speak, the Lord perfects praise through their lips! When babies cry and wail, it is as Jesus says: “Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies” the Lord has perfected praise. The reason we’re given lips is so that we might proclaim that Word of grace upon grace to all who would hear us!

The reason small children are taught to speak and understand is so that they might join their voices with the congregation and sing forth the praises of God! So that they too might hear and believe that Jesus came for them! The reason we have Children’s Christmas programs is so that they might fill their lips with the grace and truth of God’s promises which are theirs in Christ. The reason we together speak the words of God in this assembly is so that our voices would join the angels in heaven in proclaiming the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light!

Everytime we join our voices with the Word of God, everytime we exclaim “Amen!” we are being united with Jesus, the fleshy Word of God. From the mouths of sinners spew forth disgusting words, but from the mouths of Christians ring forth the Word of God because it is Christ is who comes to dwell within our hearts and fill our lips with His body and blood.

Jesus reveals to us everything that the Father has in store for His beloved children. Jesus is the “goodness and loving kindness of God...He saved us… by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

When Jesus speaks He delivers comfort: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Jesus kneels down at your feet and says, “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and give His life as a ransom for many.” Jesus proclaims to all the world: “God loved the world thusly, namely that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” He consoles those who are dying by saying, “I came that you may have life.” He feeds those who starve, saying “I am the bread of life.” He wets the parched tongue saying “The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

Jesus is the manifestation of all that God desires for you! Jesus is the Word of God, not just some empty husk, but He is the very good news, the Gospel, the grace and the truth for you! We call Him the Word of God because everything He does shows us the Father’s loving heart for His people! 

He knows your hearts and he hears all of its uncleanness spew out of you. So the Father sent the Word of God to dwell richly in your hearts, cleansing you of that wickedness, so that you might receive grace upon grace. The Word matters, not only your words, but most especially God’s Word for you revealed in Jesus. Merry Christmas.