“Jesus, God with Us” (John 1:1-14)

Jesus the Son of God
The central message of the gospels is not the teaching of Jesus, not the ministry of Jesus, but Jesus himself. For this purpose, as John Stott pointed out, the four gospels portray Jesus in four dimensions: its length, depth, breadth and height.[1] Matthew reveals its length. He starts with Jesus’ genealogy, proving that He is the One – the Messiah, King of the Jews. Mark emphasizes its depth. He depicts the Suffering Servant who humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. Luke reveals its breadth. For him, Jesus is the Savior of the world who sees, loves, and reaches out to all people. Then now, John reveals its height. Jesus is the Son of God, the Word made flesh. As we explore the fourth gospel together, let us join the apostle Paul in his prayer in Ephesians 3:18-19:

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Though it would be impossible to describe Jesus with one word, the apostle John chooses one summarizing title for Jesus: the “Word.” From the very beginning John declares the truth that Jesus is the Word, who is the very nature of God: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (v. 1). Jesus is eternally God. And he is eternally Creator: “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being” (v. 3). Then, John reaches to verse 14, which is one of the most important verses in the Bible: “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.” This verse proclaims two eternal truths about who Jesus is. We will explore them one by one.

Jesus Became Human
First, Jesus Became Human. “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” Incarnation. This great mystery of the incarnation is the core of the Christian message, and a stumbling block to many. Jesus is not just a good man, or wonderful teacher. Instead, Jesus is the Son of God, who became one of us. For our better understanding, let me share the story of Mother Antonia. Tijuana’s notorious La Mesa prison contains six thousand of Mexico’s worst criminals. Drug lords and murderers ferment with anger behind bars and fences, but when the tiny figure of an eighty-year-old nun, Mother Antonia, appears, the men are transformed. “Mamá, mamá!” they shout as they reach their hands through the fence to touch her. “How are you, my sons?” she replies. In September 2008 a riot broke out in the prison when she was not there. The prisoners had taken hostages, fires had been started, and bullets were flying everywhere. The 82-year-old Mother Antonia pleaded with the police, “Let me go in. I love the men there.” Finally, they let her enter. She found the leader and begged him to end the riot, saying, “It’s not right that you’re locked up here, hungry and thirsty. We can take care of those things, but this isn’t the way to do it. I will help you make it better. But first you have to give me the guns. I beg you to put down your weapons.” The leader replied, “Mother, as soon as we heard your voice we dropped the guns out of the window.” How can that be? The answer is this: Mother Antonia voluntarily took up residence at La Mesa. She has lived in the tiny cell for more than thirty years alongside her inmates. She became one of them. She lived among them. She did abide.

That’s what God did for us. Jesus Christ our Savior really took human nature on Him and lived among us for more than 30 years in order to save us. Eugene Peterson translates John 1:14 this way: “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” Like ourselves, Jesus was born of a woman. Like ourselves, he grew from infancy to boyhood, and from boyhood to manhood. Like ourselves, he hungered, thirsted, was wearied, wept, felt pain. He was tempted, really suffered and shed his blood, really died, really buried, really rose again, and really ascended into heaven! The Bible says, “Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested” (Heb 2:18). Jesus, the Son of God, became one of us and lived among us.

Jesus Revealed His Glory
Secondly, Jesus revealed his glory. John, in his gospel, by the Holy Spirit, carefully chose and recorded 7 “signs” or “miracles” to reveal Jesus’ identity – his glory. Sign 1: Jesus turned water (symbol of the old order) into wine (arrival of God’s kingdom). By this, Jesus has introduced a new beginning. Signs 2 and 3: Jesus performed two healing miracles, as a sign that Jesus is life-giver. Sign 4: Jesus fed 5,000 people with five barley loaves and two fish. It’s a sign that Jesus is the bread of life. Sign 5: Jesus walked on water. He controls the powers of nature. The whole creation remembers the voice of their Creator and listens to him. Sign 6: Jesus gave sight to a man born blind, as a sign that he is the light of the world. And finally, sign 7: Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. By this, Jesus claims to be the resurrection and the life.

All these seven signs point to one greater truth: Jesus is the Son of God, who became human. Jesus is fully God and fully human. At the end of his gospel, the apostle John tells us why he recorded these signs in this way:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name (20:30-31).

That’s the purpose of the signs. That’s the purpose of John’s gospel. John’s purpose is to witness to Christ Jesus by recording his signs, that we may believe in him and have life. Signs/miracles would lead to faith, and faith to life.

The Christmas Candle
Recently, I had a chance to watch the film, titled the Christmas Candle, a story written by Max Lucado. In the fictional village of Gladbury, every twenty-five years an angel visits the candlemaker and bestows a miracle upon whomever lights the Christmas Candle. The whole town believes in the candle except the new pastor, Rev. David Richmond. He tries to convince the town folk to believe in God and not candle miracles. The preacher wants people to pray to God and do good works, and not seek hope and change in a candle. Here in this story the Christmas Candle is a symbol of God’s miracles and signs. But Pastor Richmond doesn’t believe in miracles and signs. And there is a reason for this. Sometime in the past he desperately prayed and asked for God’s miracles when his wife and child were suffering from consumption. But nothing happened. Both of them died. Since then, he doesn’t believe in miracles. But as he ministers to his parishioners, he begins to see God’s miracles in the lives of those who light the candles and pray one by one: the speech-impaired boy can talk, a man got a job, a woman's debts were forgiven, a man's beloved cat is saved, the woman is engaged and the blind man could see just before he died. At the end, even the minister's faith is restored in miracles. Signs and miracles would lead to faith, and faith to life.

Jesus, the Son of God, became human and revealed his glory for us to see and believe and have life. When Jesus revealed his glory, there were two different responses: Some (the world) rejected, and some received. “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” (vv. 11-12).

Jesus is the Light. In verse 5 John testifies, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (v. 5). Here the Greek word phaino translated as “shines” is literally “shines on” or “continually shines.” 2,000 years ago our spiritual ancestors – wise men and shepherds – saw the light, and they came to the light. The light of Christ, still and continually, shines today. The signs of Christ still shine brightly among us. Christ continually shines, continually enlightens, continually penetrates our hearts, our minds, and our conscience through his powerful word and signs. So, come, believe, and have life! Amen.

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[1] John Stott, The Incomparable Christ (Kindle Locations 597-604). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

“Jesus the Savior of the World” (Luke 2:25-38)

Are You Ready for Christmas?
Christmas is fast approaching. Are you ready for Christmas? Author Ann Voskamp writes: “We’re ready for Christmas, not when we have all the gifts, but when we are ready for Christ—when we’re ready to give all of ourselves to Christ.” So, are you ready for Christmas? Thankfully, we have “Advent,” the four weeks leading up to Christmas Eve. Advent is a great time to set aside a bit of space each day to ready our hearts for Christmas — the coming of Christ into the world. My prayer is that we never let the busyness of the season overshadow Christmas, but rather, we may prepare our hearts to respond fully to the ultimate gift of God – Jesus – this Advent season.

Speaking of busyness Jerusalem temple at the time of Jesus was a very busy place. It was filled with all kinds of people from everywhere – from the priests, Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, worshippers, to those selling things. But when Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus – the long-expected Messiah – for the purification to the temple, sadly enough, no one recognized him. They all failed to recognize their Savior. Only two lay people recognized the Messiah – Simeon and Anna. Luke’s understanding of Jesus the Messiah is well captured in the Song of Simeon, who claimed:

“My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” (2:30-32).

So, Luke’s message can be summarized in one phrase: good news of salvation through Christ for the whole world.

Salvation
First, “salvation” is a key word in Luke’s Gospel. What is then salvation? Salvation includes two components. Negatively, salvation means freedom from all evil, including sin, eternal death, disease, oppression, and bondage (“The Gospel of Luke”). Positively, salvation means promise of new birth, eternal life by the power of the Holy Spirit (“Book of Acts”). At Jesus’ time Israel was under the rule of the Roman emperor. But in a spiritual sense the Israelites were in bondage to sin and death. But they didn’t know that they were in bondage. So the mission of John the Baptist was to go and tell this spiritual reality to the people, “You are in bondage. Repent and be saved.” Missionary Horace Underwood was one of the first missionaries to Korea about 135 years ago. Part of his prayer is like this: “Lord, nothing is visible in this land… Only stubbornly stained darkness can be seen. Only Korean people chained with poverty and superstition can be seen. They don’t even know why they are chained, what suffering is. They just distrust us and express anger to us as we tell them how to take away their suffering, which is not suffering to them.” It is all by God’s grace that we come to realize, “I am helpless. I am in bondage. I need help to be saved.”

God’s salvation brings healing, liberation, freedom, removal of guilt. But there is more! Salvation brings new life. As Jesus began his ministry, he went to the synagogue, opened the scriptures, and read from Isaiah 61:

The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners… to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit (61:1, 3).

God heals, restores, liberates, forgives, removes our guilt and our past. But not only that, God transforms, empowers, gives new life. That is good news of salvation.

Through Jesus
Secondly, God brings his salvation through Christ. This truth is clear in the story of Simeon. When Simeon took the baby Jesus in his arms, he said, “My eyes have seen your salvation!” (v. 30). Jesus is God’s salvation. Salvation comes through Christ. The Bible says “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

There are countless people who accept Jesus as Savior and surrender their lives to him. Each one has a unique story. But They all have one thing in common. They acknowledge Jesus Christ to be at the center of their conversion experience. Sundar Singh is one of many examples. He was born in 1889 into a rich family in India, and he grew up to hate Christianity as a foreign religion. He even expressed his hostility at the age of fifteen. He publicly burned a Gospel book. But three days later he was converted through a vision of Christ, and in his late teens, he determined to become an itinerary preacher. On one occasion Sundar Singh visited a Hindu college, and a professor accosted him aggressively and asked, “What have you found in Christianity that you don’t have in your old religion?” Sundar Singh replied, “I have Christ.” The professor continued impatiently, “Yes, I know, but what particular principle or doctrine have you found that you did not have before?” Sundar Singh replied, “The particular thing I have found is Christ.”[1] Christianity is not about institution or doctrine. It is all about one person, Christ. What we must have to be saved is the person Christ. What we must preach is good news of salvation “through Christ,” nothing more nothing less.

For the Whole World
Thirdly, Luke’s message is good news of salvation through Christ for the whole world. Luke was a Gentile. As a Gentile, he deliberately includes the stories how Jesus reaches out to “all people.” Jesus touches a leper and says, “I do choose. Be made clean” (5:12-13). Jesus goes to see a widow who just lost her son and touches the coffin and says, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” (7:14). Jesus forgives a sinful woman, who was weeping, anointing his feet with the ointment, and says, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (7:50). Jesus includes and blesses children, saying, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs” (18:15-17). Jesus visits Zacchaeus, a hated tax collector and sinner, and says, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today” (19:5). Jesus sees all people. Jesus reaches out to all people. Jesus loves all people. God brings his salvation through Christ for the whole world.

Preparing for Christ’s Coming
Lastly, Luke’s message, good news of salvation, is personal as well as universal. Simeon, by the Holy Spirit, presents Jesus as the Savior of the world. But at the same time, both Simeon and Anna see Jesus, receive Jesus, experience Jesus in a personal way. They were obscure, ordinary people. We don’t find their names any other books in the Bible. But, they lived an extraordinary life in God’s eyes. They were ready for the coming of Christ into their lives.

As I close, I would like to share the story of Brother Lawrence. He entered the priory at Paris in 1666 as a lay brother. Because he was lame and had no education, he was assigned to the kitchen. He had naturally a great aversion to the kitchen. But, he determined to live as if there was none but God and he in the world. He began to do all the kitchen work for the love of God with prayer in all occasions. He prayed before and after the work, and also prayed all the intervals of his time. In his book The Practice the Presence of God Brother Lawrence said, “For the first ten years I suffered much. During this time I fell often, and rose again presently… But later I found myself changed all at once. My soul felt a profound inward peace.” Every morning as he started a day, he practiced the presence of God. He considered himself as a stone before a carver. He truly desired God to form His perfect image in his soul, and make him entirely like Himself. He did every common business and little things for the love of God. He said, "Nor is it needful that we should have great things to do. . . We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God." He did seek God only, and nothing else, not even His gifts. As time went by, more and more visitors came to seek spiritual guidance from him. From Brother Lawrence’s life, I think we can learn what it means to be ready for Christ in our everyday lives.

Are you ready for Christmas – Christ’s coming – into your life? As we journey toward Christmas, may we clear the path in our hearts and be ready for Christ. May we be ready to give all of ourselves to Christ. Amen.

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[1] E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Indian Road (Hodder & Stoughton, 1926), 64.

“Christ the Suffering Servant” (Mark 8:27-38)

Turning Point
Many of us have heroes in our lives – heroes who risk their lives and save the lives of others. For me personally, my grandfather comes first on the list. Recently, he celebrated his 95th birthday. He has been through a lot for all those years. He was born in North Korea. But then he had to escape for his life to the South by crossing the river by swimming. Then he joined the army fighting the Korean War. Though he is very fragile now, when he was younger, he was quite athletic. He was healthy, strong, and fast. But one day in his 70s my grandfather said something like this: “I used to cross the river by swimming easily, but now I am afraid of crossing the street. I used to enjoy riding in the trunk of the military truck, but now I can hardly sit on the chair without a cushion.” To be honest, I was taken aback, because I thought that he would be always healthy and strong. It was a turning point in how I see my grandfather.

I shared this because today’s passage is also a turning point in the Gospel. It’s a turning point in the ministry of Jesus. Before this incident (chs. 1-8) Jesus had been admired by the public as a popular teacher, healer, and miracle worker. But from now on (chs. 9-16) Jesus steeled himself for the journey to Jerusalem – journey to the cross as a suffering servant.

People’s Messiah
In today’s passage we can see tensions between two different concepts of Messiah – people’s Messiah and God’s messiah. Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets.” Then he asked them, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” And strangely enough, Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. Why? It is because the people had false political notions of the Messiah. For more than 700 years Israel had been oppressed by foreign powers. So they were anxiously watching and waiting for their Messiah who would come, destroy their enemies, and liberate Israel. When the people saw Jesus teach with authority (like John the Baptist), and heal the sick and perform miracles (like Elijah), they were excited, thinking, ‘This man must be the Messiah.’

On another occasion, after Jesus fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, in their enthusiasm the people were about to force him to be their king. Again, they were excited and said, “Lord, give us this bread always” (John 6:34). Here they were saying, “Lord, come and fix all the problems of our lives and the world. Make us healthy and wealthy.”

God’s Messiah
But now, in today’s crucial passage, Jesus openly began to teach his disciples about the kind of Messiah he had come to be. He said, “The Son of Man must suffer and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.” According to Mark, that’s God’s Messiah, who had come to die, and through his death to bring salvation and spiritual liberation for his people. For Matthew, Jesus is King of the kings, Lord of the lords. But as for Mark, Jesus is Servant – the suffering servant. At the center of Mark’s Gospel is the cross. From today’s passage, on three more separate occasions Jesus plainly said to the disciples, “The Son of Man must suffer and die” (9:31; 10:33, 45). In fact, a third of Mark’s Gospel is devoted to the story of the cross.

Why the cross? Why must Jesus suffer and die? The answer is because the Scriptures must be fulfilled. Because that’s God’s way of salvation. Isaiah, by the Holy Spirit, describes God’s Messiah as the suffering servant as follows:

He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (53:3-6, NRSV)

Then, the Lord God said, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain… The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities” (vv. 10-11). By God’s will Jesus the Messiah suffered and died in our place on the cross, so that we might be set free from sin and death. Jesus is God’s Messiah, the suffering servant.

My Messiah
After revealing himself, Jesus now moved from his cross to ours. He said to the crowds, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). In other words, Jesus has to be my Messiah as well as God’s Messiah. And if Jesus is my Messiah, we too must deny ourselves and take up our cross and die to self. We all wanted to be honored and respected, rather than humiliated. But it is humiliation that leads us to humility, leads us to our humble Christ. At one of the ordination services Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, preached on humility, and the following was one of his advice:[1]

Be ready to accept humiliations. They can hurt terribly, but they help you to be humble. There can be the trivial humiliations. Accept them. There can be the bigger humiliations... All these can be so many chances to be a little nearer to our humble and crucified Lord...

Raising children can be a humiliating experience. Married life can be a humiliating experience. Fighting disease can be a humiliating experience. Aging can be a humiliating experience. All these can be great “means of grace” that draws us closer to our Savior. Sometimes we hear people say, “I don’t want to be a burden to anybody. As soon as I become a burden I would rather die.” But that is not biblical. We are all designed to be a burden to others. The Bible says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). By being a burden (depending on others) as well as carrying others’ burdens, by this humiliating experience, we can learn to be humble. We can learn to deny ourselves and die to self.

Our Lord Jesus Christ himself accepts humiliations. He is born a baby – totally dependent and vulnerable. He has to be fed. He has to be washed. He has to be taken care of. He has never skipped any part of human life. He doesn’t turn stones into bread. He doesn’t take a short cut. And at the end, on the cross, he again becomes totally dependent and vulnerable, totally humiliated. He accepts humiliations. But at any point in his life Jesus never loses his divine and human dignity. In some circumstances independence is important quality, but as disciples of Jesus, learning to be dependent and accept humiliations is a mark of maturity. When Peter was reinstated in John 21, Jesus said to him: “Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go” (v. 18).

Granddaughter
Aging is a universal experience. It’s part of God’s design. As we get old, we become more dependent, more vulnerable. It can be a humiliating experience. But at the same time, it can be a wonderful opportunity to become more like Christ, our humble Messiah.

I would like to close today’s message with Missy Buchanan’s prayer, titled, “Granddaughter”:[2]

Not so long ago I carried her in my arms 

and read her favorite good-night story to her. 

I held her small hand as ocean waves lapped our bare feet, 

making us giggle with unbelievable joy. 

But now she steadies my stooped body as I move from bed to chair. 

It’s so humbling to accept help, 

especially from a granddaughter who once thought 

I would always be able to chase after fireflies on a summer night. 

God, where are you when the generational tables are turned, 

when the young care for the old? 

Is it your plan that we learn to serve each other and accept being served? 

Give me grace to surrender my pride, 

to delight in my granddaughter’s compassion. 

Let me teach her the truth about faithfulness in the trenches of life. 

In this curious season where old and young intersect, 

may we look in each other’s eyes and see the eyes of Christ peering back. 

My prayer is that the Lord give us grace to receive God’s Messiah, humble and crucified Lord, and that we be always ready to accept humiliations – big and small, so that we too may become more like Christ. Amen.



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[1] John Stott, The Radical Disciple: Some Neglected Aspects of Our Calling (Kindle Locations 894-896). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
[2] Missy Buchanan, Living with Purpose in a Worn–Out Body (p. 12). Upper Room Books. Kindle Edition.