#01 The Word made flesh

[AI translation] The Mission Committee of our parish has met in recent days to discuss the plan for the next year's mission work in the church. For the Sunday morning services, we agreed to try to go through the Gospel of John in a series of sermons. Lord willing and living, we will study chapter by chapter, verse by verse, the precious mysteries of God revealed to us in the Gospel of John.Let me begin by saying a few words about the Gospel itself. If there is any ranking of the books of the Bible, it has been the most beloved and respected book of Scripture from the beginning. An old church father, Origen, said of it: 'The Gospels are first among the sacred writings, and the Gospel of John is first among the Gospels. Throughout, the joyful, astonished testimony of the witness, the testimony of the witness, the reverence of the disciple's recollection, is evident. The writer's hand almost trembles when he writes: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, as the glory of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." (Jn1,14) This is the disciple whom Jesus "loved", who also rested on the Saviour's bosom at the Last Supper. The main characteristic of this testimony, written at the end of the first century, around the year 90, is that it emphasizes the divine side of Jesus Christ, who is true man and God. He looks at Jesus in the light of the Resurrection and Pentecost and cannot get enough of the amazement of seeing the Son of God! It was in this awe that John wrote this gospel, the gospel of the divinity of Christ, towards the end of his life! The so-called prologue of this great document has just been read among us! He tells us precious secrets about our Saviour, secrets which are a great blessing, a great strength, a great consolation to us! Let us take it in turn!
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word." (Jn1,1) This verse presents Jesus Christ to us in the perspective of eternity. For Jesus Christ is the Word spoken of here, who was in the beginning and was with God and was God, and because the same Word who was in the beginning became flesh in the fullness of time in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
So we are talking here about the so-called pre-existence of Jesus, his pre-existence before his existence on earth, his pre-existence before history. The apostle is looking back here into dizzying horizons. "In the beginning was the Word", he says. This is the very first word of the Bible: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) So, when God created the world, in the beginning, the Word was already there, so to speak. It wasn't created, it wasn't generated, like other things, but it was. It was never made, it was never created, but it was always, from eternity, and there is no time, nor has there ever been a time, when it was not. In the beginning, therefore, was the Word, and the Word alone was, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. That is to say, Jesus Christ is the eternal God, coeternal with the Father, eternal from everlasting, before the creation of the world.
It is good to dissect these strange words to try to see something of the immeasurable greatness of Christ. The lifetime of another man begins with his birth. But not so with Christ. He lived before he was born on earth. He was already at work as creator and redeemer long before the world knew it. Jesus Christ is older than mankind's knowledge of Him!
Do you feel how deep the cross of Christ is, how deeply rooted the fact of redemption is, how firmly grounded the reality and certainty of forgiveness of sins and eternal life is?! You do not put your trust in a fallible man against death and sin, who was born, lived and died like all other men, but in one who before He was born: was already alive, and even in the beginning, when there was nothing at all of the created universe, nothing existed, He already was, - and after He died here on earth, He still is. So you can take what He said with confidence, you can count on what He promised; you can build your salvation on what He has done for you, because He is the same yesterday and today and forever.
"In the beginning was the Word." From here the light shines back to the story of creation. We are talking, of course, about the Word with which God created the world in the beginning, when He spoke it: "Let there be" - and there was! This word of God, this Word of creation, was already the same powerful One who then became flesh in Jesus Christ. So far, then, is our Saviour above all that exists, that "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." (Jn1,3) All things came into being through the Word. Christ could not be a true Saviour if there were not powers in the world which He possessed, which were not subject to Him, which could independently of Him dispose of the destiny of man. The Word embodied in Christ could and did become the Saviour of the world, because all things were created through Him, and the whole created world is without remainder and absolutely under His power. It is a comforting and encouraging thing to look around this world and see that everything that has been made has been made by Him, - that is, that everything from the blade of grass to the powers of the world, from the milk to my child sleeping in the cradle, from my heart to your heart, owes its existence to Him. How many frightening shadows disappear from this world all at once, if one can say, as the author of Hebrews says, "By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, that what is visible came out of what is invisible." (Heb 11:3)
(Jn1,14a) The Word, in Greek: the Logos. John designates the eternal Christ by this common Greek term: Logos. This is the name given by the Greek philosophers to the divine spirit that created the world. Logos means reason, intellect, law, norm, spirit, some ultimate, intangible reality that stands behind and above the universe. Even today, human science speculates and speaks of a so-called natural order, a primordial force, a world-ordering principle, a lawfulness operating in the world, something that sustains and operates the universe. Well, says the apostle John to his Greek-educated readers, we know the Logos of whom you only dream! In fact, we know Him personally! Yes, we personally know the Eternal Word whom you are calling by all sorts of fancy scientific names: for He is none other than He who became our Saviour in the person of Christ, who dwelt among us, whose glory we have seen as the glory of the only begotten of the Father. (Jn1,14) Let us not stammer in the language of science unintelligible and meaningless words, let us not speak of primeval matter, or primordial power, or world-virtue, let us not shun the great mystery, for it is revealed to us. There is that eternal Logos, beyond all that is, who became flesh, who dwelt among us as man, Jesus Christ.
"The Word made flesh". We stand above astonishing depths. It could almost be said that this is a proof-reading account of the greatest scientific achievements of recent decades, of what Heisenberg, James, Rutherford and other scientists have discovered in their research, that matter is nothing but energy in the final analysis and nothing but thought in the final analysis of energy. Matter in scientific research is now almost spiritualised. And this is taken seriously today by the most serious scientists. And if this is true, then this line: matter-energy-thought is also true in reverse: thought-energy-matter. That is, thought becomes energy, and thought becomes matter. So, if before it was said that matter is spiritualized, now it is said that thought, Logos, Word is materialized. John writes: the Word became flesh, material, the divine Logos was made man! The most spiritual Someone into matter!
It is strange that it is the latest technical discovery, the atomic explosion, that brings us closer to the knowledge of the great mystery of the Word made flesh. In the history of World War II, nuclear energy was used as a bomb at the most critical moment. What was the atomic bomb? Matter turned into energy. Well, the Creator God also "deployed" His "wonder weapon" at the most critical, the darkest moment in the history of the world. What was it? Jesus Christ: the Logos made material, the Word made flesh! But while matter made flesh killed and brought death to hundreds of thousands, the Logos made flesh, the Word made flesh, quickened and brought life to millions, radiated eternal life. Thus says the prologue to the Gospel of John: "In him was life, and the life was the light of men." (Jn1,4) While matter reduced to energy was the darkness of death, thought condensed into matter, the Word made flesh, became the light of life. "For God so loved this world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (Jn3,16).
"The Word made flesh!" is the great message. But: why incarnate? Surely also because He had to accomplish something in this body of a man like us. So that he might suffer, have his blood shed, be nailed, be crucified, and in so doing bear the sins of the world, make atonement for us all, and show the atoning power of his once-for-all and perfect sacrifice for us. So he became flesh to die for us. But not only to die, but to rise from the dead on the third day, to ascend into glory, and from there to rule his people, whom the Father has given him from eternity! He became flesh, therefore, that He might redeem you and me from the sin and death which is most conspicuous in the very flesh of man. Our body is the place where sin and death most quickly make their sad reality felt. And it is into this body that God clings to fight his mighty battle for our salvation at the most perilous point of our human lives.
And the Eternal Word was made flesh because it went after what was lost. God became our brother! He took on human form so that He could come very close to sinful man, right here with us! I read about a missionary in the West Indies who preached the gospel among slaves. When he began to feel that he could not reach these wretched people as a free man, he became a slave himself, and he did his slave work among them, fellowshipping with them in all their pain, hardship and suffering. And then the slaves listened to him. Perhaps this gives us a sense of the great great compassionate love proclaimed in this message: 'The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us' (Jn1,14a) What could we understand, what could we comprehend of the invisible glory of God? Behold, the divine Logos came, lived out his divine life in human form, showing us God's thoughts, being, feelings, and above all God's grace and love for sinful man. That is why the Word was made flesh, so that it revealed the invisible things of God in a way that man could understand!
And surely the Word was made flesh so that He Himself could experience it directly, so that He could live through human life. Incarnation is the assumption of human destiny. He Himself was born human, lived human, and died human in this world. He knew what temptation, fatigue, struggle and sorrow meant. His eyes welled up, his heart ached! Do you see what kind of Saviour we have? You can be sure that when you come to Jesus with any need, with any problem, there is no one who understands you better than Him, and who knows how to help you better than Him! "For we have not a high priest who cannot be moved by our infirmities, but one who is tempted in all things, even as we are, except sin. Let us therefore come with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help us in due time." (Heb 4:15-16) This Jesus remembers what He suffered, being tempted, and when He sees His children in all their struggles, He remembers His own sufferings and is ready to show mercy and help!
Let all human stammering be silenced now, and let the Lord Himself speak to us in today's Hungarian translation with His revelation:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was with God. All things came into being through Him, and without Him nothing came into being that was created. In it was life, and life was the light of men, and light shines in darkness, and darkness did not receive it. There was a man sent from God, his name was John. He came to testify, to bear witness to the light, so that everyone might believe through him. He was not the light, but he had to testify to the light. The true light that enlightens all men came into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world did not know him: he came into theirs, and theirs did not receive him. But to those who received him, he gave the power to become children of God: to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, as the glory of the only begotten is of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness to him, and thus he cried out: This was he of whom I said, He who came after me is before me, for he was before me. For we have all received of his fullness, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and righteousness came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten God, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed himself." (John 1:1-18)
Date: 3 September 1950 Amen.