Princeton Presbyterian Church

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1710

December 7, 2025

John 1.1-5               Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)

 

“The Word”

 

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 were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 

 

• In The Beginning

 

One of the things that I appreciate about a church calendar is the focus that is given to events and themes in the Bible. While the culture is fully engaged in Christmas for nearly two months, we hold off, as much as possible, while we contemplate the season of Advent. Now I know it is easy to mix and mingle Advent and Christmas together and we do that to a certain degree, but we also know that Advent is focused on more than just the birth of Christ. Advent is a time to consider the coming of Christ in Bethlehem, yes, but it is a time of waiting to celebrate that day, that event, that first Advent.

Secondly, Advent is a season of anticipation and waiting for the Second Advent, Christ coming again. There is this wonderful promise given to the disciples and the church that He would return in the same manner in which He ascended. Acts 1.9-11, “And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

This is the story of God’s coming into the world, through Christ’s birth and through Christ’s return. In John’s gospel, we see an even larger picture, a grand narrative, a cosmic message of, not beginning to end, but beginning to fulfillment. We see Jesus Christ before His physical birth and the vital significance of His having come into the world and giving the Promise of His return. We see the Creator, we see the Savior, we see the light and the life, and the power of the Word.

I have selected to preach today and through the rest of Advent in John 1. John begins just as Genesis begins, “In the beginning…” The Word of God was spoken in the beginning and all of creation came to be. Paul says in Romans 4:17, “[God] gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” God calls things into existence, with the Word, and still with a Word that brings new possibilities not yet imagined. The Word of God changes things. When Jesus spoke, when Jesus spoke a Word, storms were stilled, the blind could see, the deaf could hear, the imagination was opened wide to possibilities that one could love God, love neighbor, even love one’s enemies. We read in John’s gospel that the Word became flesh and in this flesh was life. We do not understand all there is to know about the mysterious power of the Word of God, but we trust in the revealing nature of the Word and the reviving character that the Word brings.

All this has been from the beginning – God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, the mystery of the Trinity, from the beginning and into history and into eternity.

 

 

• All Things Made Through Him

 

John also reveals that all things were made through Jesus. John takes us back to the beginning, to the creation story. In the beginning God spoke all things into existence. It was by His Word that there was light, by His Word that there was waters, plants, and animals. By His Word there came man and woman. By His Word all things were made through that Word. And what John connects for us is that the Word was Jesus Christ. All things were made through Him and nothing that was made without Him. Paul further reveals this truth in Colossians 1.15-17, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

By Christ all things were created, through Him, for Him, and all things hold together in Him. Advent is all about Jesus, and Colossians 1 is all about Jesus. This is not to set God the Father or the Holy Spirit aside in any way, but it is to narrow our focus to the One who came as a baby and lived and died and rose again for the sake of reconciling us to God the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. All of it is clearly visible and yet not as clearly comprehended in our limited abilities to fathom. But we take it by faith, with understanding enough to know for certain that Jesus is the Word made flesh and He is Lord and Savior of all who believe.

 

• The Life

 

Jesus is the Life! He is the source of life! As John writes, In him was life, and the life was the light of men. John’s gospel also tells us many other times that Jesus is the life.

John 14.6, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

John 11.25, “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.’”

John 6.35, “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’”

Jesus is the Life. We seek to live in that reality. But, our tendency is to bind ourselves to other realities, to drift away from God, away from the Bible, and away from the Life as our lives become rutted in the status quo of cultural expectations. Sometimes it is a pattern of work, home for supper, watch TV, go to bed. Then we get up the next day and do it all over again. Our patterns may differ, but the false “reality” of the world seeps unto our routines. We begin to miss the Life that is Christ. The Word draws us back into the Life. Let’s consider an example: We might read the words in Luke about a man who had two sons. Those of us who hear “two sons” and know the Bible a little bit will know the beginning of the parable of the Prodigal Son.

But the point I want to raise is that the story takes us on a journey of life. When we start to take in the story we may start to imagine that if the son who left and squandered all his inheritance can come home again, maybe we can come home too. We begin to imagine that if the father still loves his son, maybe we could be loved as well. Through one story we are given the power to break out of the routine of an empty life, to come to God for an abundant life of newness and possibility. That is the power of the Word of God, to spark the imagination of God's people to see the world through the lens called the Word. It is to see the Life that is Jesus. We can see the Life that trusts God will receive us home with open arms like the loving father of Luke 15.

Let us consider spending time with serious reading of the Word. By "serious" I mean thinking, life shaping, reflective experiences in God's word. The Word does not have to be a huge task to master, but it can be a gentle stream of living water giving us drink along the way. John speaks of the Life and Light, Light that enables us to see. The Holy Spirit opens our eyes, Jesus is the Light shining in the darkness of this world a world that seeks to extinguish the Light. That ain’t happnin’! In Jesus, in the Word made flesh, is the life and the light. In Him we learn and grow and find life. We are challenged, called to imagine and think, to rejoice and meditate, to pray and change, to repent and reflect, to wait and read, to study and question, to cry and complain, to sing and wonder in amazement. That is to say, to live in the Life that is Jesus.

 

• The Word

 

The Word is one of our greatest resources for life in Christ (along with prayer and worship and service and the like). The Bible itself speaks of the word reviving the soul, according to Psalm 119:25, “My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to your word.” That is what Mary said when the angel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus; she says at the end of that scene, “Let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). “According to your word,” revive me, let is be with me! Did Mary have in mind that phrase from Psalm 119? I do not know, but I imagine that her life was so shaped by obedience to the Word of God that her thoughts and attitudes were just like that of the Psalmist who sought revival in his life according to God’s Word.

Psalm 19 reminds us, “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul.” It is this Word, this speech, this utterance of truth to which we focus our attention today and every day of our lives because in this word is truth, and life, and a way to peace, hope, love, belonging, and a host of other life giving moments. But this Word can do very little in our lives if it is not in our lives!

Advent is a wonderful time of the year to reflect on our pursuit of life in Christ. The Word is our story and it shapes who we are as a church and as a people. The Word is like a river that, over extended flow and time, shapes the rock, shapes the very path it follows. The Word is the Life that offers us an alternative to the legion of voices we have coming to us from TV, radio, magazines, internet, social media, and the clamor of other voices in the world trying to shape us in other ways. The story of the Bible is the power to say to us that we do not have to live in bondage, we do not have to live in darkness, we do not have to live in a fixed world. Instead we live with freedom for alternatives, freedom to change, freedom to be transformed, freedom to serve Christ. There are always options; good options for believers because God’s word brings into existence things that do not exist.

Well, you know, most of us, our field of imagination is sort of defined by what we have always done, what we have always believed, and there is no changing it now. But then the Word comes and we begin to wonder where we ever got such a notion in the first place. Now I understand that we come to worship on a lot of Sundays and we don't want to be changed, we want to be reconfirmed exactly the way we are, except that Jesus did not do that for many people. To the Pharisees He said you better get with the program, and to the sinners He said repent, get up and walk! To us today, He is saying, “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 were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” The Word has come and will come again. Let us walk in the Light as He is in the light. The Word has come to us in the flesh and that Word brings new life. Trust in that as we wait and as we believe and as we follow. Amen.