God's Last Words

“POWER WORDS”

John 1: 1-18 (NRSV)

 

The Sunday School teacher asked her class to draw pictures of their favorite Bible stories. She was puzzled by 8 year old Kyle's picture, which showed four people on an airplane, so she asked him which story it was meant to represent.

"The flight to Egypt," said Kyle. "I see ... And that must be Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus," the teacher pointed out, but then said, "but who's the fourth person?" "Oh, that's Pontius-the Pilot.

 

We remember names, words, and phrases that make an impact in our memory.

 

A collector of rare books ran into an acquaintance who told him he had just thrown away an old Bible that he found in a dusty, old box. He happened to mention that Guten-somebody-or-other had printed it.
 

"Not Gutenberg?" gasped the collector. "Yep, that was it!" "You idiot! You've thrown away one of the first books with words ever printed. A copy recently sold at auction for half a million dollars!"
      
"Oh, I don't think this book would have been worth anything close to that much," replied the man. "It was scribbled all over in the margins by some guy named Martin Luther."

 

Words have meaning. Words translate into power. Power translates into influence and changing behaviors.

 

A young boy had just gotten his driving permit. He asked his father, who was a minister, if they could discuss the use of the car. His father took him to his study and said to him, "I'll make a deal with you. You bring your grades up, study your bible a little and get your hair cut and we'll talk about it."
  
After about a month the boy came back and again asked his father if they could discuss use of the car. They again went to the father's study where his father said, "Son, I've been real proud of you. You have brought your grades up, you've studied your bible diligently, but you didn't get your hair cut!"

The young man waited a moment and replied, "You know Dad, I've been thinking about that. You know, Samson had long hair, Moses had long hair, Noah had long hair, and even Jesus had long hair...."

To which his father replied...."Yes, and they WALKED everywhere they went!"

 

Have you ever considered how important words are to God? After all He gave us Holy Scriptures that tell us about Him, His ideas and desires, and His will. Listen to the most unique Gospel we have: John 1: 1-18:

 

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 came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being.

 

What has come into being with Him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

 

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

 

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was His own, and his own people did not accept him.

 

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

 

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”)

 

From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.  The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

 

No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

 

A 7 year old went to the revival services on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. He never went forward during any of the invitations.

 

After Friday night’s service he walked up the evangelist in the parking lot and said, “Let me ask you something.  You say I have ask Jesus Christ into my life.” The evangelist replied, “That’s right.”

“I’m 7 years old,” the boy said, “how big is Jesus?” “He pretty good sized,” the evangelist told him, “He was a carpenter.” “That’s what I thought,” the boy told him, “If I were to ask him into me, would he stick out?”

 

The evangelist smiled and told him, “You’ve got the message! More and more he’d stick out.”

 

When you are 7 years old it’s not too hard to take God at His word. This passage in John should simplify our understanding of God. Jesus was sent so we can know God better, and understand His love and grace on a personal level.

 

We try to muck it up with our doctrines, our traditions, and our human habits and desires, but our scriptures remain clear and concise. The incarnation of God into human form may have been mysterious but it resulted in our getting close to His Love and truth. 

 

Matthew Henry wrote in his commentary: "The plainest reason why the Son of God is called the Word, seems to be, that as our words explain our minds to others, so was the Son of God sent in order to reveal his Father's mind to the world."

 

Let’s talk about what calling Jesus God’s Word means.

 

Jesus speaks not a doctrine or a religion, but a reality, namely, that He Himself: "I am the truth." This is a profound transformation of the ordinary meaning of truth.

 

For humanity, statements are true or false; people may have truth or not; but how can they be truth, even the truth? The truth of which John’s Gospel speaks is a true reality—that reality which does not deceive us if we accept it and live with it.

 

Yet it becomes the words of God and not God’s Word when we speak it. We hold Jesus sacred but we can’t do the same for the words of God. They are important only as they truly reflect the truth of God’s Word Jesus. The words of God in our Bible remain only God’s words in human language.

 

Bibles can be burned and we don’t have to get upset. God’s Word can never be altered or destroyed.

 

It cuts through all the crap of human existence outside God.  If Jesus says, "I am the truth," he indicates that in Him the true, the genuine, the ultimate reality is present; or, in other words, that God is present, unveiled, undistorted, in His infinite depth, in His unapproachable mystery, yet now suddenly revealed.

 

Jesus is not the truth because His teachings are true. But His teachings are true because they express the truth which He Himself is. He is more than His words. And He is more than any word said about Him.

 

How do we reach this truth? "By doing it," is the answer of John’s  Gospel. This does not mean being obedient to the commandments, accepting them and fulfilling them. Doing the truth means living out of the reality which is He who is the truth, making Him our world.

But again, we ask, "How can this happen?" "By remaining in Him" is the answer of John’s Gospel, i.e., by participating in His life. "Abide in me and I in you," he says.

 

The truth which liberates is the truth in which we participate, which is a part of us and we a part of it. True discipleship is participation.

 

A man named Jack was walking along a steep cliff one day, when he accidentally got too close to the edge and fell. On the way down he grabbed a branch, which temporarily stopped his fall. He looked down and to his horror saw that the canyon fell straight down for more than a thousand feet.
      
He couldn't hang onto the branch forever, and there was no way for him to climb up the steep wall of the cliff. So Jack began yelling for help, hoping that someone passing by would hear him and lower a rope or something.
      
HELP! HELP! Is anyone up there? "HELP!" He yelled for a long time, but no one heard him. He was about to give up when he heard a voice. “Jack, Jack. Can you hear me?"
      
"Yes, yes! I can hear you. I'm down here!" "I can see you, Jack. Are you all right?"
      
"Yes, but who are you, and where are you?” "I am the Lord, Jack. I'm everywhere."
      
"The Lord? You mean, GOD?"  "That's Me."
      
"God, please help me! I promise if, you'll get me down from here, I'll stop sinning. I'll be a really good person. I'll serve You for the rest of my life." "Easy on the promises, Jack. Let's get you off from there; then we can talk."
  
"Now, here's what I want you to do. Listen carefully." "I'll do anything, Lord. Just tell me what to do." "Okay. Let go of the branch.""What?" "I said, let go of the branch. Just trust Me. Let go."
      
There was a long silence. Finally Jack yelled, "HELP! HELP! IS ANYONE ELSE UP THERE?" //// - You and I both know the answer to that question, don’t we?

 

Listen carefully friends, “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 came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being.”

 

Now those are power words. Believe in Jesus Christ. Amen.