Is there peace beyond Christmas?

"The Word Became Flesh"

(John 1:14-18, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, December 24, 2008)

John 1:14-18 ¹⁴ 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. 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.'") ¹⁶ And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

Introduction – Dangerous Expectations

As I walked through Wal-mart the other day, there was a Christmas song playing quietly. The words of one of the less-frequently sung stanzas of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" got me chuckling. It was something like this: "So let's give thanks to the Lord above, 'cause Santa Claus is comin' tonight." It was just one of those combinations of Christ and culture that make me laugh.

Holiday times make for good memories at certain phases of life, but it is a fact that many people have expectations of holiday blessings that are too high. Christ will not disappoint you, but Christmas definitely may. Many people put more emotional weight on the celebration of Christmas than any holiday can actually bear. Sometimes those expectations seem to be met. My niece sent us a link to a video of her little girl singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" in front of the family Christmas tree that was exceptionally cute. There is something that is frankly adorable about things like that. I know that I have many great memories of my childhood when we all went out Christmas caroling with Dad. Mom always stayed behind and brought us the happy news that a red-faced overweight visitor had come bearing gifts while we were out, and they were all in front of the tree. It was all a wonderful surprise every year. We also have great memories of giving our children different presents, though they told us years later that some of their wonderful reactions were practiced dramas, since they had searched out things days before and did some serious peaking. All of it was fun. Nonetheless, Christmas comes and goes, and people grow up and even move away, sometimes far away. There may be some peace and joy for you at Christmas, but I have to say that this kind of peace is not permanent. The question we need an answer to is this: Is there peace beyond Christmas? Is there something better than joys that are, frankly, temporary?

The miracle of the God/Man (14)

The Word became flesh. We had heard about Him from the Prophets. Then He came in person, and tabernacled or tented among us, and that has made all the difference. We heard about Him when Abraham was commanded to take his son, his only son, and offer him up as a burnt offering to the Lord. Of course, Isaac did not have to die. God provided a ram to take his place, and we heard about Jesus. We heard about Him when Samson was announced by an angel, announced to his parents before his birth, and even when this warrior died as a surprising hint of a Savior to come. We heard about Him when David was told that He would have a Son who would reign on His throne forever, and we wondered how that could be. We heard about Him through prophets like Isaiah who spoke of the Servant of the Lord who would be born to a virgin and who would be "Immanuel," God with us. He would suffer for our sins and somehow be victorious beyond death. At around the same time, another prophet, Micah, told us the detail that this baby would be born in Bethlehem.

If this all sounds more serious than the Wal-mart song, it is because it is very serious. The odd thing is this: All the light-hearted things can leave us strangely disappointed. But the heavy miracle of the God/Man who came to die for us actually satisfies. We had heard of Him, but now He has come. Mary and Joseph got to see Him. So did the shepherds, and later some wise men came from afar. Herod wanted to see Him, because he wanted to kill Him. There were large crowds that seemed to be amazed by His power and His teaching. They saw Him, and they rejected Him. Especially many important spiritual leaders were deeply troubled by Him and envious of Him, and they wanted to kill Him too.

When John says here that Jesus dwelt among us, He is especially speaking about the chosen group of disciples. They were witnesses of the transfiguration of Jesus, when his face was shining like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. They saw Him after His resurrection, when they were behind locked doors for fear of the Jews, and Jesus came and stood among them and spoke peace to them and showed them His hands and His side. They were glad. They had seen His glory. They knew that He was the only Son from the Father. They heard a voice from heaven at His baptism saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." They were witnesses of large numbers of amazing miracles, and even saw Him ascend into heaven on clouds of divine glory.

These disciples knew that He was full of grace and truth. Grace means hope for the guilty. It is more than a pardon. It means sonship for abandoned orphans. It means being heirs of heaven for the formerly hell-bound. It means reigning with the Lord of glory for those who were once prisoners of sin and death. Jesus is full of that grace, and this grace is not mythological, because He is also full of truth. The peace that He brings is for you personally, but it is also for a society of His redeemed, and it is eternal. We have been brought into a true land of everlasting peace.

John and the Messiah (15)

Beyond the witness of the disciples who beheld His resurrection glory, there was one additional witness mentioned here, John the Baptist, who had the particular role of pointing to the Messiah. The former prophets like Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel wrote of the Messiah. John went further than them. He was able to see Him, and to touch Him. He was able to accurately testify to the fact of Him, the amazing Him of Christmas. The Him who, even though His ministry began after John's, the fact is that He Himself was before John. This Him is the Word, the eternal God. Of course He ranks before John, because He was way before John. He is the I Am. Later in His ministry there were those listening to Him who were beginning to wonder whether He was somehow claiming to be greater than the patriarch Abraham who live two millennia before the birth of Jesus. His answer to the skeptics: "Before Abraham was, I Am."

Grace upon grace (16-17)

Note to self: Is the reason why I have so little peace because I am trying to gain peace through Law?

This great Jesus Christ is the One who brings us every blessed thing from His abundant eternal divine fullness. From His fullness we are told that we have all received. Just think of those words: "from His fullness." What do you suppose that Jesus has stored for you right now in all His fullness? And by the way, He really is coming to town at just the right time. Until that day, while there are things that we must suffer, we don't have to do it without peace, and we don't have to do it without grace. In fact He has growth in peace for us, and growth in grace for us, and the suffering fits into that growth somehow in ways that we may get a glimpse of, but which are hard for us to see when everyone seems happier than we feel at a holiday party.

So why is it that you may not have the peace that you would like to have at Christmas. I want to leave you with two thoughts. First, your lack of contentment could be perfectly reasonable. It could be that your past memories are better than your present moments, and you don't see how that will ever change, and maybe you are feeling a little sorry for yourself. That's fine too, and it may just have to be that way for a little while. But don't forget that He is there to add peace to your peace, and to give grace to your grace, so that even now you can grow in grace and peace, not through Christmas, but through Christ.

But there is one more thing that could be the problem, and this is the second thought of the two I just mentioned. You may be trying to get peace through some system of law, or some way of trying to win the praise and admiration of people. Remember this: The Law came through Moses, and it cannot bring anyone peace, because we have violated the Law, and that is the whole reason that Christ had to suffer. If we were Law-Keepers then we would not have needed someone to die on a cross for us. But we did need the cross. From the Law came, not peace, but the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20). But grace and truth have come to us through Jesus Christ.

Peace with God through knowing God (18)

This Jesus is the only God, because there is only one God. It's just that He exists eternally in three persons. We see some of that complexity very clearly in our final verse. Verse 18 speaks plainly about the Father and the Son, indicating that they are both God, and also affirming that there is only one God. John has not forgotten the Holy Spirit either, but that is a story that will become very clear in later chapters. For now, let's just rejoice in the wonder of these facts of the One Godhead: The invisible Father is God. There is a God who is at the side of God the Father, and that God is the Son of God. This God the Son is the only God, just as surely as God the Father is the only God, because there is only one Godhead. This is not simple, but it is also not irrational or simple wishful thinking.

One more thing: The Son of God has made God known to us. If God has grace and truth for us consistent with the fullest, most wonderful, and lasting peace, what better person to make that grace and peace known to us than Jesus, God the Son. Is there someone who knew God better than Jesus? Jesus has made the unseen God known. Because of that fact we have not only the birth of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ, and the miracles of Christ. We actually have Christ. He is our grace. He is our truth. He is our peace. And so we have peace with God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Is there peace beyond Christmas? Most definitely, for there is Christ beyond Christmas.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. "The Word became flesh." What is the significance of this phrase for our faith?

2. In what ways were glory, grace, and truth made manifest to the disciples of Jesus Christ?

3. What does "From His goodness we have all received, grace upon grace" tell us about the Christian life?

4. What should our expectation be concerning the benefits of Law? What more is ours through the grace of Christ?