January 2, 2016

Epiphany Is Divine Glory!

Epiphany Sunday, 1/3/16
John 1:14


Epiphany Is Divine Glory!
I. Glory revealed
II. Glory shared


Tomorrow it’s back to your daily routine, at least for most of us. Children, your winter break is almost over. At this time tomorrow you’ll be sitting at your desks in school, surrounded by your friends and classmates once again, learning the wonders of God’s creation. The majority of you adults will be back at work and I can “hear” the in audible groans coming from your hearts. You’ve enjoyed the time off with family and friends.

And things won’t be much different this week no matter which day of the week it is. For most of us, each day of the next seven will be pretty much the same thing. Routine. Even Wednesday.

Even this Wednesday, which is a red letter day on my pastor’s calendar. In fact, there are still some churches which will hold a special service on Wednesday. That’s because it’s the day of Epiphany. It’s the day when the Christian church celebrates the truth that Jesus reveals himself as the Savior of the world. In fact, we dedicate an entire season of the church year to celebrate that truth.

How does the season of Epiphany rank for you? My guess is, not that high. In fact, you might even be able to forego celebrating Epiphany and not miss it all that much.

And that would be a shame. It would be unfortunate because during Epiphany we highlight the only answer to all our world’s problems. There’s only one person who can truly make everything right for us and that one person is Jesus. During Epiphany he reveals himself to the world as that Savior.

So then, what a blessed opportunity we have this morning to pause to celebrate what Epiphany is. Listen to it in these familiar words from John chapter one: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Just what is Epiphany? What does it mean for us? Epiphany is divine glory. That’s exactly what you, what the whole world, needs to see and know.

Part I.

How many of you have been to the Holy Land? Raise your hands. I see a few of you have. I have not been there, but I want to get there some day. And when I do, I want to do what those of you who have already been there probably did—I want to stand in various places and imagine what it looked like and what it sounded like as Jesus spoke and performed miracles. I want to stand on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and imagine Peter walking on the water or Peter, James and John emptying their boats of the miraculous catch of fish. I’d like to stroll through Cana and see in my mind’s eye our Lord’s first miracle—changing the water into wine. I’d like to kneel and pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. I’d like to stand where Jesus supposedly ascended into heaven and picture that glorious event as if it were happening right then before me. Wouldn’t you like to do the same?

As wonderful as that would be, imagine being one of the disciples and actually seeing not only those glorious events in our Savior’s life as they happened, but actually seeing his divine glory itself. That’s what John had in mind when he wrote, “The Word became flesh.” Do you realize that, up until Jesus was actually born, no sinner had ever laid eyes on God? A chosen few—someone such as Moses—had seen representations of his glory, but no sinner had ever seen God. But here he was. John refers to God as “the Word.” That sounds odd, but actually it’s divinely appropriate. Words reveal things to us. God reveals who he is to us in Jesus.

People such as John not only caught a glimpse of God for a moment, they saw him day after day. John states that he “made his dwelling among us.” The Greek word actually says he “tented among us.” That sounds much more temporary to our ears than “made his dwelling among us.” But to the Jewish ear, that expression quickly brought to mind how the Lord originally made his special dwelling with his Old Testament people in the Tabernacle, which was a movable tent. The Bible states that, when the Tabernacle was finished being built, the glory of the Lord filled it.

The revelation of that glory reached its fullness in the person and the works of Jesus. John states, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only.” For the most part, during Jesus’ life here on this earth he looked and lived like every other Jewish person, except without sin. But occasionally, his divine glory was revealed. We think of his baptism, when he was anointed with the Holy Spirit and his Father spoke from heaven his words of love and approval of Jesus as the Son of God and Savior of the world. John himself heard those words late in Jesus’ ministry on the Mount of Transfiguration. Even more so, on that same mountain, John saw with his own eyes the divine glory shining forth from Jesus. We wait to see that glory when we’re called home to heaven.

John, along with the rest of the disciples and countless other people, also witnessed that glory in every one of the miracles Jesus performed. Here’s John’s closing comment on the account of Jesus’ first miracle, “He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him” (Jn. 2:11). Every one of his miracles was meant to cause people to see Jesus for who he really was—the eternal Son of God and the Savior of the world.

By the grace of God, that’s exactly what you see when you look at Jesus with the eyes of faith. You see him not as some itinerant preacher, some popular rabbi, some wise and loving prophet. You see him for who he truly was, is and always will be—the world’s Savior from sin, and, by God’s grace, your own personal Savior from sin. And that, my dear Christian friends, is seeing divine glory.

Epiphany is divine glory! Glory revealed.

Perhaps you spent some time on New Year’s Eve or Day contemplating how you spent your life in the past year and what you hope to accomplish in this new year. And, if you’re honest, there were more than a few regrets about the past and more than a few fears about the future. Last year’s landscape looks no different than any other—marred and stained with sins, failures, unmet expectations. We failed to treat even the people we love in a way that honors our God. And, in this case, past performance is a very real indicator of future performance. Our lives aren’t as tidy as we would have others believe. In some area, each of our lives is a mess. So what hope do we have? Epiphany. Epiphany is divine glory, a glory that your God has revealed to you. While the sinful analysis of our lives doesn’t change from one year to the next, there was a time when God reached down and revealed his glory to you as your Savior from sin. It was the day he called you by his name, a child of God. That remains true no matter what happens in your earthly life. Yes, we’ve made a mess of things and we’re prone to do so again, but we live in the forgiveness our Savior won for us by his sacrifice on the cross for us. Those are truths that nothing can change. And it’s all because Epiphany is divine glory—glory revealed.

Part II.

There was a time in Old Testament Israel’s history, during the days of Elisha the prophet, that the city of Samaria was under siege by the Arameans. Conditions became so terrible, that people were resorting to cannibalism. Four men with leprosy decided that they would die if they stayed inside the city. If they surrendered to the Arameans, however, they might spare their lives. So they left the city and headed towards the Aramean camp. As they got closer, they could see that the camp was deserted and all the belongings, including loads of food, had been left there by the army. The Lord had thrown them into confusion and they fled headlong back home. As the four men feasted on what was there, they came to the realization that keeping this news to themselves wasn’t right. They felt obligated to return to Samaria and inform their fellow citizens.

Like those four men, you’ve come across an abundance in your life—not of food or clothing or gold or silver. It’s something far more valuable than that. You have seen divine glory. You know with all your heart the only truth that will last forever—Jesus Christ is your Savior and the world’s Savior.

That’s the truth that the rest of our world needs to embrace. Bombing ISIS into oblivion isn’t going to stop terrorism, but changing hearts with the gospel of Jesus Christ will. Social programs will never eliminate poverty, but sharing the gospel of Jesus will enrich every sinner who comes to faith in him. We’ll never completely clean up our environment, but the good news of Jesus will cleanse the sinner’s heart. Medical science will never attain immortality, but the good news is that Jesus already has. We live in a hopeless and desperate world and you have seen exactly what our hopeless and desperate world needs—divine glory.

John states, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” God’s grace—his undeserved favor—comes to you through Christ and through you to others. God’s truth is yours in Jesus Christ and God uses you and me to share it with others.

Epiphany is divine glory—glory shared.

One of your fellow Christians once told me, “I hear pastors telling me what Jesus has done for me, and that’s all good. But I don’t hear enough about what I’m supposed to do now that I know Jesus has done it all for me.” So here it is. Share divine glory. Ask yourself this week what you can do to share God’s glory with as many people as possible. What can you do to make an eternal difference is someone’s life? Share God’s glory. That, my dear Christians friends, is what our world needs most of all. You have it. Share it. Amen.