[AI translation] Advent is known as the time to await the coming of Jesus Christ. Yes, we are waiting for Jesus Christ, we talk about preparing for His coming. But we do not wait for our Lord as the people of the Old Testament waited for the Messiah, because we already know that the Word has become flesh, the Son of God has been born, the kingdom of God has come to us in Him. The Advent expectation of the Old Testament has already been fulfilled. We also know that Christ, already born, dead, risen and ascended, will come again to this earth, but differently from the first: with great power and glory, to judge the living and the dead. We await this coming of our Lord, always, not only at Advent. But it is not this expectation of Christ and His coming that we are talking about here, but between the coming fulfilled in the past and the coming hoped for in the future, there is a third kind of coming of our Lord, a coming that is always actual, that is here and now, and that is repeated every day: the coming of our Lord in His Word, when He comes to us, when He seeks us with His Word, when His presence becomes real in His Word. This is what the apostle speaks of in the passage we read:"...having received the word of God which we preached, you received it, not as the word of men, but as the word of God (for it is the word of God), which also is at work in you who believe." (verse 13b)
So it is the word of God. Let us try to understand in the context of the whole Bible, what is the word of God? In our Hungarian language we have a special word to denote just that, so: The Word of God. The word of God, the Word of God, is nothing other than the manifestation of God's power, of God's might, of God's power as we perceive it. He created the heavens and the earth by the power of His Word. What he said, let it be, it has become! By the word of Moses and the prophets, by his word, by his speech, he chose, gathered and formed a people, by his word he governed, educated, blessed and punished them.
And this same divine word, this same divine power that created and governed the world, was made flesh in Jesus Christ, in whom the word of God, seeking, finding, leading, blessing and judging man, was incarnate on earth. In the earthly person of Jesus Christ we can sense something of the power that is the word of God. Wherever he appears, the sick are healed, the devils flee wailing, even the dead are raised, the raging waves of the sea are smoothed, the sin-contaminated heart of man is cleansed. His person, work, death, resurrection, ascension are the mightiest divine word, with the power of saving and redeeming from damnation.
And the same word of God by which he created the world, which was made flesh in Jesus Christ, continues to speak through the lips of the apostles as a testimony about Jesus, and by its very result churches are raised, sick people are healed, dead people are raised, human lives are transformed, sinful lives are cleansed - as if Christ himself were walking where the word of God is preached. As if?
No! In reality, He Himself, the living Jesus Christ, is walking and working where the Word of God is preached! That is why Paul writes to the Thessalonians that you did not receive the word of God which we preach as the word of men, but as the word of God, and he remarks, "as it is true that it is also the same which is at work among you who believe.
The word of God is different from the word of men; it is not an empty word, but a living, active word, full of divine power and authority. The Word of God has a power that surpasses anything human words can do. In the living Word of God comes and works that divine love, mercy, forgiveness, that divine power, force, energy, the reality of which we see in the historical person of Jesus: in the Word, Jesus himself comes and works and works among us and in us! Have we not had such an experience? Have we not experienced that, while reading the Bible or listening to the preached Word, that Word suddenly seemed to look at us, as if it had become an outstretched hand, pointing to a sore or weak spot in our lives, or grabbing us and embracing us? Or have we not experienced a Word that has acted like a balm on the wound of our heart, touching it, soothing the pain and healing it? Have we not experienced, in suffering, in pain, in grief, in a temptation that you could not overcome, that a Word came to you, a word of God, a word of God, and a Word that was full of strength, full of help, a Word that could bring you new strength, new confidence, new faith?
Yes: the Word of God is at work, it is not a mere word. A word that is awakening, comforting, powerful! Christ himself at work through the Holy Spirit! A few days ago I visited an old man who was dying. He was full of fear of death. He asked for the Lord's Supper. I told him about Jesus, the Saviour, who on the cross paid all our debts in heaven for us, and I preached to him the word of God, in which he tells us that he forgives us, loves us and welcomes us home. The old man's tortured face lit up. 'I die more peacefully now,' he said, reconciled. Here I saw again the power of God's word. After all, what can we ourselves say to a dying man that is comforting in the face of death? Only lies, only lies! But the word of God worked, breaking through the terrifying darkness of death, driving away fear, creating peace in an anxious human heart, slamming the door to eternal life.
What power can a word have that can strengthen a man in the face of the reality of death?! What power? Jesus Christ! He comes to us, He is here among us in His Word, in His Word, in His Word. It does not require some mystical drifting away, some great experience, some unnatural, extraordinary spiritual torture to meet Jesus, but only to hear His word, as Paul says: to receive the word of God, because Jesus comes and is here in the word of God, in the Word!
But how does the word of God come to us? It is not by some unnatural means, but very simply: by human mediation. This is what Paul says: You have received the word of God which we preached, not as the word of men, but as the word of God, as it really is! God communicates his word to us through men. Thus the whole Bible came into being as a document of God's direct word. In it is His written word, the written Word. In it, through the word of Paul, or the writing of Matthew, or the book of Samuel, the living God Himself speaks personally to the one who reads it.
I have heard of believers who take this so seriously that they read their Bibles on their knees, because they consider this the most dignified attitude before the Lord who is present in their Word. Human speech expounding the written Word is also the Word of God, the Word of God - it is the preached Word. It is precisely in this that the tremendous responsibility of preaching lies, so that that human speech may truly be the bearer of the word of God, the divine word at work in you. The secret of all preparation for preaching is that the more obediently the preacher can pass on the divine word he has heard from the Bible. Paul also asked the churches to pray for this. I know that many of you are praying with me for the same thing. I also ask the congregation to pray again and again for the grace to make the presence of Christ among us real and audible in the Word proclaimed here!
But something more is needed. The apostle gives thanks that the Word he preached was not received as the word of man, but as the word of God. So the power of the Word at work in us, its effect, its reality, depends to a great extent on how we receive it!
Even the most faithfully proclaimed Word remains ineffective, ineffectual, if our silence is stuck at the human speech, if we receive it as a human performance. When I received this robe from the congregation for the 10th anniversary a few years ago, I told them, and have repeated several times since, what I saw as the significance of this garment. Only that it helps to cover the man who brought the message from God. In the words of the apostle: that the congregation may not receive the sermon as the word of man, but as the word of God, which it is! For those who are concerned about who preaches the Word, they do not receive it as the word of God. When the postman comes and delivers a letter to us, does no one refuse it because the person who delivers it may not be pleasant? Perhaps we don't even notice what he looks like, we're only interested in the paper in his hand. Because that's the main thing, and the intermediary is incidental.
And it is the same in the kingdom of God: the gospel, the word of God, is the main thing, and then it is unimportant who brings it. Let us be very careful not to make the hearing of God's word dependent on the sympathy or antipathy we feel for the mediator of the message.
Christ comes to us in his Word, not magically, but spiritually, spiritually. He does not strike us down like a thunderbolt, but invites us to stay, like a guest knocking at the door. The apostle rejoices that the Thessalonians have received the word of God. The divine word of God, received, let into our lives, begins to work in us!
Whoever receives by faith the divine word heard or read, Jesus himself is admitted into his heart, into his life, Jesus who pours out his blessed powers, his divine life, where he has been received. The word of God can also be not received. The apostle also writes: "Who also have killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and persecute us, and are displeasing to God, and are enemies of all men; who forbid us not to preach to the Gentiles, that they may be saved; that they may always be filled with their sins; but at last the wrath of God hath overtaken them." (vv. 15-16.) The power of God's Word works on such also, not as a blessing, but as a curse, not for their salvation, but as wrath. The word of God is not to be listened to irresponsibly! Those who will not become followers of Christ will become enemies of Him, and this may only be revealed at the judgment - but it will be too late.
Let us therefore take note that our Lord is coming. He is coming towards us, He is coming to us. He is coming to pour His helping, healing energy into our lives. He comes in the living word of God, in the written and preached Word. Still coming, coming again! How do we receive him?
If only we could wait as this song expresses:
With spiritual joy renewed We adore your holy Majesty,
That turning to us again We may gaze on thy old delight,
We open our hearts,
Open our bosoms,
To receive our Jesus in this image,
We give ourselves to Him in faith.
Song 308 verse 4
Amen
Date: 20 December 1953.
Lesson
Jn 1,1-14