January 5, 2025 Sermon
Guest Minister: Rev. Drakar Druella
Sermon Title: “Children by Grace”
Scripture: John 1:10-18
John 1:10-1
10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14And 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. 15(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.’ ”) 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
To fully understand what is written in John 1:10-18, it helps to know what John wrote in the first nine verses. But for now, let’s just start by exploring the first four verses. The first verse says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This first verse of John 1 seems quite simple, but in fact, is complex and deep. “In the beginning” is about more than just the start of something, for it alludes to God’s actual creation, itself. Meanwhile, the next three verses say this: “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 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” These next few verses essentially secure Jesus’ role as creator with God and set the table of understanding for us surrounding his creation and role as a creator.
But it’s about more than just creation and Jesus’ role as a creator with God, for it says that God has actually chosen to recreate God’s very self in Jesus. God has been reborn into the world, now as God’s creating Word in the flesh. The verse “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” reveals the origin of Jesus, his relationship with God, and his identity as God. These are three essential and inseparable truths about Jesus that paint John’s portrait of Jesus and the meaning of the incarnation. Even more importantly, though, they also speak directly to our own humanity. And if you’re wondering how they speak to our humanity, we make sense of our humanity through the categories of origin, relationship, and identity. Our past experiences, our friends and relationships in life, and our sense of identity are all tied together. They create our own personal sense of identity and purpose in this world, so through understanding these aspects of Jesus, we also have a deeper sense of our connection to God and God’s relationship to us. They remind us of God’s truth and ours in connection to God. And through what John has written, it’s clear that God actually lived these truths through Jesus while on earth, something I find remarkable when I really think about it.
Yes, God lived these truths through Jesus in a way that is still palpable and real for us. In fact, as it says in verse 14, “the word became flesh, and he lived among us.” Not only did he dwell among us, but he lived as one of us. He had the same hurts and pains, joys and triumphs, and frustrations as we all do. He had enduring friendships with his disciples and personal connections with those he loved. He was a child at one point and had to learn how to put on his sandals, wash his face, and get dressed like the rest of us. He had to learn to read and write, to work with his father in his father’s workshop doing carpentry, to help around the house... It’s easy to overlook Jesus’ humanity, but if you think about it, that is truly the miracle of who he was and why he still is able to bring so much healing into the world. He was divinity incarnate, and he was also one of us.
So, if you think about it, the dwelling of God is a deeply intimate and personal claim. In the Word made flesh and dwelling among us, now God not only goes where God’s people go, but actually is who they are. What this means is that God dwelled with us by taking on our form as a living human being – as a part of our humanity – through Jesus. This “different,” or shall we say “new” dwelling of God is not just God being present among where God’s people are, but now being who God’s people are. Just this, alone, is a remarkable miracle. Jesus is God revealing God’s self in a new and profoundly different way as a part of humanity – in a way that made him relevant and real, so that God could touch us in a way that would otherwise not be possible.
There is an intimate and powerful significance in Jesus living as a human being among us. Because he experienced the same hurts, joys, triumphs, and intimate connections that all human beings ultimately experience, he had an immense amount of love, compassion, and understanding for humanity. He understood what it meant to be betrayed and to endure an incredible amount of physical and emotional pain, and yet, to still remain loving throughout it all. This, I believe, is where his divinity and humanity intersected and where God was able to convey love for humanity. He was able to endure what he did and still remain in a place of love, compassion, and grace throughout it all. This was God’s most creative means of expressing compassion and love for humanity in a way that we could touch. God’s understanding was expressed through a human being who understood humanity from both a divine and a human standpoint. And because Jesus had such a profound empathy, compassion, and love for humanity, naturally, he had much grace to bestow upon us. And this was one of God’s many gifts conveyed to us through Jesus.
Verse 15 says, “From his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace.” The word “grace” is used only four times in the Gospel of John, but three of those times are in verses 14, 16, and 17 of the first chapter here, and only once in the Prologue. Once the Word became flesh, that is, once God expressed God’s self through the living being and experience of Jesus, grace was then incarnated for the rest of humanity to experience in person through example. You know, it’s one thing to read about the concept of grace, but it’s another to actually experience it through the example of another person, especially when it’s through a personal interaction in which grace is extended to you. I think that God understood this need for humanity to experience true compassion and grace, then extended the gift of Jesus’ presence to humanity to convey it at a deeper level that could be more readily grasped and understood.
Because we will not meet Jesus face to face as a living person as his disciples and the people he touched while he was living did, we get to know what grace looks like through the living example of Jesus that is written about in the Gospels. For John, God taking on the human expression and experience as Jesus was a commitment of God’s self not only to revealing what God’s grace looks like, but also God’s wanting to know grace and feel it, as well. God chose this experience from a place of complete fullness and abundance.
And what is grace? Grace is God’s absolute favor toward everybody, whether we consider ourselves worthy or not, based upon a love and mercy that is whole and complete. His grace is like that of a father to a child. I found a story written by a minister, Pastor Tim Burt, that sums it up sweetly.
“My friend Lee came home from work one night after a very long day. He was bushed. All he could think about was lying down on the couch and taking a nap. But, just about that time, his four-year old son came up to him and said, “Dad, can we go outside and play catch?” Lee is a great dad and did what any good dad would do. He said, “Yes, let’s do it,” and headed outside with Logan. Logan didn’t really know how to use his baseball mitt and catch a ball, yet, but was eager to learn. Lee helped him get all the fingers in the right holes in the mitt and then strategically placed Logan just a few feet away. “Logan,” called Lee, “Lift your glove just like this,” as Lee showed him what to do. “Okay, dad, I’m ready,” replied Logan with great anticipation. With Logan standing just a short distance away, Lee, with great precision, tossed the ball right into the center of Logan’s glove.
The look on Logan’s face told the story when he saw the ball in his glove. “I caught it! I caught it, dad!” Suddenly, Logan took off into the house. “Mom! Mom!” he yelled, searching for his mother. When he found her, he said, “I am playing catch with dad, and I CAUGHT THE BALL!” They high-fived each other, and Logan ripped back outside to catch another. His dad was waiting and again with great precision, placed another one right into the center of Logan’s glove. Logan beamed and Lee enjoyed the joy of his son experiencing his great new accomplishment.
When Lee told me this story, I couldn’t help but think about all the times the Lord helps us with something in our life, as Lee helped his son Logan. The Lord leads us to do something and then helps us accomplish it. It was really all God’s doing but we are quick to run off and tell someone how great our accomplishment was. He helps us because He loves us AND because He does not want us to get so discouraged that we give up and quit.”
For us to experience this kind of grace in its entirety and from a place of empathetic compassion, God moved through the experience of Jesus and threw the ball straight into the mitt of our lives. God experienced the humanity of its creation through the experience of Jesus, and if you consider it, it could be the most powerful way that God experienced what mercy is for us.
In the last verse, John talks about how nobody has seen God, and that it is only through his son, Jesus, who is close to his heart that God has been made known. The location of Jesus at God’s heart can also be interpreted as at God’s “side” or “bosom” – like a son at the bosom of his father. The meaning conveyed in this picture of Jesus at the bosom of God is one of extraordinary tenderness and intimacy, and one suggesting the nursing of a child. There is no other more intimate and tender relationship than that. In considering this, God’s mercy and tender compassion experienced for us are made real not only through Jesus, but God’s actual intimate relationship with Jesus. Can you imagine how much more grace and mercy God has for us through the lived experience of Jesus?
Imagine this: everything that we need for life, God will give, over and over again from a place of extended grace and remarkable love. For God has experienced what it is to be a child through Jesus and has extended infinite grace to humanity through him. We are God’s children by grace. With God, it’s always a home run.
Rev. Drakar Druella
