Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison, preached this message on December 15, 2024. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Audio Transcript
Scripture tells us that the Word of God came in the flesh, and Jesus Christ is this Word. And in Him, the Word of God was finally fully revealed. Because in the Old Testament, God had spoken, and it had been written down. But now we have Jesus Christ revealing God’s Word, and He’s actually speaking God’s Word to people.
If you’ve ever read a novel, it’s enjoyable. But if you’ve had a chance to listen to a novel being read by its author, it’s very different in the experience, how they are emphasizing what they want to get across. And so here, the written Word was given in the Old Testament, but now Jesus is actually speaking it so that people can understand it more fully. Also, He was there to interpret the things that they had questions about, because it was the Word of God. He knew what it meant and how it was supposed to be applied to our lives.
By God’s Word, we know how to have a right relationship with God, but we also learn how to have a right relationship with one another. Thus, the whole Word of God, the law, is summed up in that it is about loving God and loving other people. That’s why it’s so important for us to know it and understand it.
What is true of the written Word that we’re going to see today is also true of the living Word, Jesus Christ. What we’re going to do now is just go through Scripture and see all these valuable things that the Word of God is for us and to us. The first thing I want you to see is that the Word of God creates. In Psalm 33:6, we read, “The heavens were made by the Word of the Lord, and all the stars by the breath of His mouth.” God didn’t use hands. God didn’t use tools. He didn’t even have any material to start with. It was by the power of His Word that He was able to create everything that we know today.
That’s emphasized in Genesis 1, verses 1 through 27. I just want to read excerpts from that passage. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Then God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. Then verse six: “Then God said, ‘Let there be an expanse between the waters.’” In verse nine: “Then God said, ‘Let the dry land appear.’” In verse 11: “Then God said, ‘Let the earth produce vegetation.’” And then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky.” Verse 20: “Then God said, ‘Let the water swarm with living creatures. And let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.’” In verse 24: “Then God said, ‘Let the earth produce living creatures.’” And in verse 26: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image.’”
There are three words that are repeated over and over there in the text. Well, actually, there are four. What are they? “Then God said.” Now, if you want your kids to learn how to brush their teeth when they’re about 2 years old, you just have to tell them once, correct? No, you have to tell them over and over. We emphasize the things that are extremely important to us.
What God is emphasizing here is that it was just His spoken Word that brought all of these things into being because His Word is powerful. Not only does God’s Word create, but God’s Word gives us purpose and direction. Going back to the book of Genesis, in chapter one, verse 28, we see that God gave purpose to Adam and Eve. He said, “God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.’”
As human beings, we all desire to have purpose in our life. Maybe you, at some point, or someone you know has felt like, “I have no purpose. There is no reason for my being here.” God’s Word provides the answer for us regarding what our purpose in life is, but it also gives us direction day by day. In Psalm 119, verse 105, we read, “Your Word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.” It shows us step by step, but it also shows us just far enough down the path that we know how and where we are supposed to go.
God’s Word gives purpose and direction, but we also find quickly in Genesis chapter 3 that God’s Word judges. We won’t go into the story completely, but Adam and Eve were commanded to not do only one thing, and that was to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The serpent deceived them. They disobeyed the Lord and ate of that fruit. And it was God’s Word that then came and judged them for what they had done.
“Go,” the Lord said to the serpent, and He placed a curse upon them. Then the Lord spoke by word to the woman and told her what would be the consequences of her sin. He spoke and said to the man the same consequences that would be upon him. God judges people with His Word. In the same way, when we read God’s Word, He judges us. He points out things in our life that we need to change. Ultimately, He will judge the entire earth, and only those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ will be able to bypass the judgment that comes upon them.
The next thing is that the Word of God gives us hope. Again, it’s in Genesis chapter three. He had just cast them out of the garden and placed judgment upon them. They could have left there thinking, “Our lives will be ruined. We can never have any hope.” But God gave them hope that He was going to send one person one day to correct the rights of this world. This is what we read in verse 15. He was speaking to the serpent: “I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
In the Hebrew, it’s talking about one individual offspring, and that’s further emphasized by this singular “he will strike your heel” and “you will strike his singular heel.” This is a prophecy pointing to the coming of Jesus Christ, that He would defeat the serpent one day. It was with that hope that Adam and Eve left the garden, even looking forward to their next child as possibly being the one that would deliver them from this evil world.
The Word of God also personally relates to us. When we have friends, we sit down and talk to them. With our family and our spouses, we’re able to be in the same room. We’re able to see them, hold their hands, and embrace them. But the way that God personally relates with us is through His Word. It is a personal relationship that He desires.
In Genesis chapter 15, after these events, the Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. He said, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield. Your reward will be very great.” Abram didn’t seek God that day. God came to him through His Word. In the same way, God came in 1 Kings 18:1. He came in His Word after a long time. The Word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year: “Go and present yourself to Ahab. I will send rain on the surface of the land.” So it is to us today. In order to know the Lord, to personally relate with Him, we need to be in God’s Word. It’s through that that we have a personal relationship.
Next thing I want you to see is that God’s Word nourishes. In 1 Peter 2:2-3, we read, “Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the Word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is good.” So here’s a taste. How many of you like to eat? We have 100% here. How many of you like to eat only once a month? How many of you like to eat once a week? How many of you like to eat every day? How many of you like to eat every hour? Now, don’t answer that, okay?
God’s Word nourishes us. That’s why He compares it to food here. In order for us to grow, function, and think, we have to have a regular intake of nourishment. That’s what God is pointing out here. We need a regular intake of God’s Word in our life. Some people only look at it twice a year on Easter and Christmas, or maybe they only come to church, and that’s the only time once a week that they hear from God’s Word. That’s similar to only eating once a week or only eating twice a year. You can’t grow spiritually unless you receive a regular intake of nourishment by spending time in God’s Word.
But not only does it nourish us, but 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us that God’s Word completes us. “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.” God’s Word has everything in it that you definitely have to know in order to have a right relationship with Him and to have a right relationship with people in the world. The more time you spend in it will gradually bring you to completion, to maturity, to the point that God has in mind for you, that you would enjoy your relationship with Him the most and relate to other people in the best way possible.
Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, with 176 verses that God dedicates to talking to us about His Word and its importance. There are many things about God’s Word there that we read, but I want to point out just a few of them that are also mentioned in other parts of Scripture. 2 Samuel 22 and Psalm 18 tell us that the Word of the Lord is pure. Psalm 33:4 tells us that the Word of the Lord is right. Isaiah 48 tells us that the Word of our God remains forever.
I’ve just chosen these three qualities today because I want us to think again. We’re thinking about Christmas today. The Word of God is the gift of God, and He came in the flesh as Jesus Christ. Everything that we read about the Word of God in the Old Testament, the written Word, is also true of the Son. He’s pure. He came and lived a sinless life among us. He was right. He knew exactly what God meant by all of His Scriptures. The Word that He gave us was the right word. He’s also eternal. Just as the written Word of God remains forever, the spoken Word remains forever, and also Jesus Christ is eternal in His nature.
Colossians 3 and Philippians 2 teach us that the Word of God is commanded to us. We are commanded. What is it that we are commanded to do? “Let the Word of Christ dwell richly among you in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your heart.”
If you want to have money in the bank, what do you have to do? You have to put money in the bank. It doesn’t just grow there. If you wait until one year before retirement and dump a lump sum of money into that bank account, you’re going to have that lump sum of money. But if you’re wise enough early in life to start putting just a little bit aside every week, every month, every year, you can put that same amount of money in over a long period of time. We all know you’re going to then have much more than what you put in. You’re going to have the interest from it.
God wants His Word to dwell in us richly. We are like a bank account. We have to continually put God’s Word into our life if it’s going to grow there. We’re not supposed to just wait until the end of our life when we’re retired and have plenty of time to spend in God’s Word. He wants us to be making deposits every day, gradually, so that that will grow. That’s how God’s Word dwells richly among us.
In Philippians 2:14-16, we’re also told to hold firm to the Word of life. You can’t hold firm to something unless you understand it, unless you’re familiar with it and can grip it in your hands. We are commanded to know God’s Word. We are also commended if we study God’s Word. In Acts 17, Paul tells about the Berean believers, and they were more noble in character than those in Thessalonica. He was commending them. And what was it he was commending them for?
Well, number one, they received the Word with eagerness. When Paul came in sharing the Word of God with them, they wanted to hear. They were eager to hear. They were taking time out of their day to hear. They were going out of their way to find him where he was speaking. They were eager to receive it. But he also commended them because they examined the Scriptures not once a year or once a week, but every day. They were examining the Scriptures to see if these things were so. God likewise commends us when we desire to know God’s Word and when we examine God’s Word daily.
Next thing I want us to see in Ephesians 6 is that by the Word of God, we are armed. We still have our adversary, the devil, who is fighting against us. He wants to deceive us, as he did Adam and Eve. He wants to ruin our lives. He wants to cause pain. But God has left us His Word as our sword that we might fend him off. “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” God has not sent us into the battle unarmed. He has sent us into the battle with everything that we need, and it is in His Word.
The next thing I want us to see is that by the Word of God, we come to know God. If we didn’t have God’s Word, we wouldn’t know God. We wouldn’t know what He is like. We wouldn’t know His character. We wouldn’t know the things that He’s done. When we go to Mark chapter four, we read the parable about the sower. For all of those of you that garden or are farmers, in order to have crops, you have to put what in the ground? You have to put seed in the ground. God’s Word is the seed that He has given us to plant in our lives and in the lives of others so that there might be growth, so there might be real life.
In 1 Samuel 3:7, Samuel was a little boy, and God had come to him in the night. It tells us that Samuel did not yet know the Lord. And why was it he didn’t know the Lord? It’s because the Word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. God reveals Himself to us by His Word. We need to put it into our lives. But we also need to plant the seeds of God’s Word in other people’s lives so that they might come to know Him also.
Finally, we see today where we started. The Word of God is Jesus. We go back to the theological Christmas story in John chapter 1, verses 1 through 18. “In the beginning was The Word,” means that Jesus was already there. He was preexistent with God the Father. He was never created. He always had been there. He always will be there. Not only was He there in the beginning, but it tells us that the Word, Jesus, was there with God. It combines that with the fact that the Word was also God.
So Jesus is with God. Jesus is God. We have this picture here of what the Trinity is supposed to look like—that there’s this separation, but there’s also this oneness. In verse two, it says that He was with God in the beginning. His work there at creation was that all things were created through Him. Apart from Him, not one thing was created that has been created. Because Jesus Christ created everything, He created all of us. He continues to bring about creation in this world. With every baby that is born, we all belong to Him.
But He not only gives physical life, but in verse four, we find out that He gives life and light. “In Him was life, and that life then became the light of men.” So that we can understand what God’s relationship is to be to us—a light that shines in the darkness. We’re promised that the darkness did not overcome it, and the darkness, we know, never will.
Throughout God’s Word, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light so that all might believe through him. It’s through the Word of God, it’s through Jesus Christ that we can actually have belief in God so that we might have a right relationship with Him. This promise is made to all of us in verse 12: “To all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God—to those who believe in His name.”
It doesn’t require us to do anything. It doesn’t require us to give anything. It doesn’t require us to be anything in order to have a right relationship with God. It’s strictly promised here that if we believe in Jesus Christ, who He is and what He did, then we become children of God.
Verse 14 says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” We could dwell a lot on that. Jesus left the glories of heaven, where He was worshiped by myriads of angels, the Creator of all things, and He came down and was born in a stable so that He could live a life experiencing everything that we do—from wet diapers to death. He went through all of it. Whatever problems or joys or struggles you have, Jesus Christ had to confront those and deal with them in His life. He did that so that He can understand us.
He dwelt among us, and while He was among us, we observed His glory, the glory as the one and the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. There’s only one Jesus Christ. He affirms us that there is only one way to the Father, one way to salvation, and that is through Him alone.
In verse 16, we have all received grace upon grace from His fullness. He continues to give to us everything that we need. He compares this to the law of the Old Testament, which was given through Moses. It was a heavy burden on the people, but as opposed to a burden, Jesus brought grace and truth.
We learn that no one has ever seen God but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side. Because He has seen the Father, He was able to reveal Him to us. So the written Word of God became the living Word of God with us.
Why did Jesus come into the world? John 3:16-17 tells us He came as a gift for us. At Christmas time, we all like to give gifts. We all like to receive gifts. It’s all in celebration of the gift that God the Father gave to us. “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His one and only Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
Jesus Christ was here at the beginning. He was here before the beginning. He came in the flesh about 2,000 years ago. He lived a sinless life. He died on the cross and was raised from the dead so that if all we do is place our faith in Him, we can have eternal salvation. Beginning, middle. He’s going to be here at the end. He’s still called the Word of God in Revelation 19:13, where it speaks of Him coming on a horse to finally make everything right in this world and to restore everything to a perfect creation—to get rid of all evil, to get rid of all sin, to get rid of all death, to get rid of all suffering.
There, He’s depicted as this: He was wearing a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God.
We come to a closing today, and the way for you to respond is if you’ve never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, all you have to do is express to Him in your heart, “God, I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, that He rose from the dead, and I want Him to be the Lord of my life today,” which means that you’re letting Him take control. You’re giving yourself over to Him. The next step would just be to let somebody know that you made that decision today.
I’d love for you to talk to me about it or anybody else that you see with a name tag. They would love to explain that more fully to you. But if you’re already a believer, the challenge to you today should be that you need to commit to feed yourself more of God’s Word. I don’t know how much of that you need, but I know it’s more than what you’re doing right now, because I need more of God’s Word, and I spend time studying it every week quite a bit.
So those are your two proper responses. Kelly Jo’s going to come and lead us in a song. Either commit to spend more time in God’s Word or give your life to Him by faith in Jesus Christ.
May we pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for all that it is for us. We thank You that it is sufficient. We thank You that it is powerful. We thank You that it gives hope, that it provides light and life for us, that we might have eternal salvation. Father, work in our hearts today to bring about the proper response that You have for us. In Your Son’s name, we pray. Amen.