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Sermon for Sunday, January 3, 2010

“Transforming Word”

John 1:10-14

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” Whoever said that never had a word said to them. Sticks and stones will break bones and words will hurt.  We all know this. Words can change. Words have power. Words can be good and right. Words can change the world. Oprah can utter a few words about a book or product and make a person famous, rich. In 1985 Allen Carr wrote “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking” and 25 million people kicked the habit. Two years later, Randy Shilts wrote “And the Band Played On” forcing the world to pay attention to AIDS.  We use twitter, text and email with words and they fly with lightning speed throughout the world.  The fact is words have real power.

We as Christians should get this. From beginning to end, the bible gives testimony to the power of what God accomplishes through a word. “In the beginning was the Word,” says John’s gospel. In the beginning was the Word, not the deed. Genesis reports that “God said, ‘let there be light and there was light.’” God didn’t build a machine to bring light or anything else into creation, but instead spoke light into being. He did it for the sky, the land, the seas, the plants, the animals and even people. The significance of God’s word reaches its peak in the New Testament where we hear these beautiful, powerful words that God’s “word became flesh and lived among us” as Jesus. No longer limited to speech, God’s word took on human form.  The Word began to walk among us as a living and breathing expression of God’s grace and truth.  It all came together in Jesus to show us most clearly who God is and what He desires for us.

What we are talking about through this Word becoming flesh is transformation. That is the purpose of what God did through giving us Jesus, the belief that God can really do something in our lives.

I think that is one of the reasons we celebrate the ending of one year and the beginning of a new year, that deep down inside, we really do hope the new year will be just that---new. In the past we have made mistakes. There are things we wish we could go back and do over differently. We have had dead ends, disappointments, mistakes. No wonder we long for a new year and the new year isn’t even religious!

And new isn’t easy either. It is not easy because we carry ourselves with us into the new year. We carry our habits, our behavior, our lifestyles into a new year. 2010 may be a new year, but we are the same old people with a year behind us as we were in 2009. It is tough being new.

That is one of the reasons we love to hear stories of people who have been converted, done over, “born again” we say after some encounter with Jesus Christ.  They were living one way and through that encounter, they really have changed. They had what that tv show calls, “An Extreme Makeover.”  We love those stories because that is what we long for in one way or the other, to be made new.

The opening words of John’s gospel says that newness is possible. We’re talking about transformation. “But to all who received him,” says John, “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.” (vv. 12-13)

Transformation….the belief that God can really do something in each of our lives.  When we receive what God is saying to us through Jesus and believe in Him, then our lives are changed forever.

Receiving and believing. That is what begins the transformation, once we’ve opened ourselves up to the Word. When we received Jesus and believe in him, transformation is possible, powerful and good. Jesus brings God’s grace and truth into the world and shares it with us and with all who believe.

Grace and truth. Those aren’t just words but the reality that God is creating something new in Jesus.

How do we receive these words, believe them and put them to work to change the world? It may be the most important focus for us in this new year.

Receiving grace means accepting God’s love as pure gift, one that comes to us, undeserved and unearned. God accepts us simply because he wants to accept us and he offers us unconditional love.  As children of God there is nothing we can do to make God love us any more and no evil we can do to make god love us any less. The love that comes to us through Jesus Christ is overflowing and unconditional, “grace upon grace.” (v. 16)

But along with receiving God’s grace is believing God’s truth.—a truth that can change the world. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a sermon at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church was preaching about the Sermon on the Mount. He concluded with the words, “As I look into your eyes and into the eyes of all my brothers in Alabama and all over America and all over the world, I say to you, ‘I love you. I would rather die than hate you.’  Isn’t that beautiful statement for any person who wants to be a follower of Jesus?  “I love you. I would rather die than hate you.”

Believing….Receiving.

So here we are at the beginning of a new year. I don’t know what transformation God needs to do in your life this year. Maybe this past year has been a year where life has fallen apart in some ways. Maybe this is the year you need to trust more than ever in God’s transforming word.

His word is a word that is active.  The Word became flesh….Jesus. It is this same Jesus that invites you and me to His table this morning. It is this God who can do all things new that invites us to this table…the table of broken body and spilled blood. The table that reaffirms that Jesus would not have died for us had he not believed that we could be transformed. Take a deep breath, a breath of thanks…and come to the table.

Contact Us

Address
First Baptist Church, Ashland
800 Thompson Street
Ashland, VA 23005

Phone
(804) 798-9014

Fax
(804) 798-9043

E-mail
fbcashland@verizon.net

Sunday Worship

  8:30 a.m. -  Worship Service
  9:45 a.m. -  Sunday School
11:00 a.m. -  Worship Service