The Word Made Flesh

Consider your call, brethren. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful.

Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness, and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.

When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in much weakness and in much fear and trembling.

And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Whenever the body of Christ comes together in assembly like this, we have a concentration of people who have been called by God to shape the earth. All of us in this place who have been, who have become, who have made some kind of commitment to Jesus, committed ourselves to Him, have been called to set the captives free, to manifest the kingdom of God with power.

This applies not only to David Coffman, who is ordained today, not only to the missionaries, who are going to be in a very short time scattered all over the earth, who are with us today, not only to Mary Douglas, who made a commitment of her life back to Jesus today, but to every single one of us who names Jesus as Lord. We have been called to break through the gates of death and set the captives free, to get up into a high mountain and say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God! To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedience of the wisdom of the just, to make rain for the Lord, a people prepared. And yet, when we look at ourselves, we can't help but see how totally inadequate we are.

And we wonder whether perhaps God didn't make a mistake choosing us. For consider your call, brethren. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards.

Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence. In other words, God puts His heavenly treasure in earthen vessels that know they're earthen vessels.

He chose us, called us, and anoints us because He knows that we know that we have absolutely nothing to offer the kingdom of God but our own repentance. As long as we are clear about that, God can use us with power. Now the power, the redemptive power by which God sets the captives free, opens the eyes of the blind, and gives hope to the poor is His Word, His living Word and nothing else.

And this living Word of God can't be put on a tape or even printed in a book. This living Word of God can speak and create and redeem and judge in this world only when it is embodied in human flesh. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

The Word, which for centuries and centuries spoke through the prophets, suddenly begins to break through the gates of death and free the captives when Jesus of Nazareth comes out of the wilderness and begins His ministry. He was the Word made flesh. He was God speaking words of judgment and grace to a fallen race.

They tried to ignore that Word. They tried to silence it by nailing it to a cross. But He came back again, stronger than ever, alive from the dead, and embodied Himself in Peter, Mary Magdalene, Barnabas, Paul, and now Jesus, the Word made flesh, embodies Himself in us.

If we are radically committed to Him, then we are the Word made flesh. That's not blasphemy, that's truth. Where He has men and women, people, who are poor in spirit, child men, child women, people who are yielded to Him, Jesus speaks through those people and when He speaks through those people, He shakes the earth.

Example. For years and years, the prophet Jeremiah proclaimed judgment upon Jerusalem and Judah because it would not repent. He said things that were very offensive.

The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, is going to come and he's going to carry away captives. He's going to destroy this city. He's going to burn this temple.

And as you can see, they didn't put him on television. And they didn't send any money to him. They tried to kill this guy.

Somehow or other, the Lord until his words were fulfilled. And it all came to pass. Judah, the nation of Judah and the city of Jerusalem were devastated.

Multitudes were carried off into captivity. Then, after his words were fulfilled, Jeremiah begins to have another word for this devastated, humble, broken, penitent nation of Judah. Now, he comes with a fresh word from God, addressed from God to Judah.

And this is how it goes, taken from Jeremiah 51-20. You are my hammer and weapon of war. With you I break nations in pieces.

With you I destroy kingdoms. With you I break in pieces the horse and his rider. With you I break in pieces the chariot and his charioteer.

With you I break in pieces man and woman. With you I break in pieces old man and youth. With you I break in pieces young man and maiden.

With you I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock. With you I break in pieces the farmer and his team. With you I break in pieces governors and commanders.

It covers everything. Now, it would make more sense if this was a word to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. But it wasn't.

It was a word to this broken down remnant of Jews. You are my hammer and my weapon of war. With you I break nations in pieces.

And I devastate kingdoms because now that you have been broken, I put my word in you. My word will go forth from you with that kind of power. Basically the same message comes in 16, verse 13.

Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do men say the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, others Jeremiah, one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon, son of John, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

And I tell you, you are Peter, the rock. And on this rock, this word which you've spoken, I'm going to build my church and the gates of death aren't going to prevail against it. Another picture of power, a church that has the authority and the power to break through the gates of death, to smash into the region of the dead and free the captives.

Because the church that he is there describing is an incarnation of the word. A church that so yielded to him, so submitted to him, that he can speak through them. What they bind on earth is bound in heaven.

What they loose on earth is... When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling. These are the words of a man who is yielded, who has no confidence in himself, but awesome confidence... My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and power that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

And so, a living word poured out of Paul's mouth, flamed out of his life, broke nations in pieces, destroyed kingdoms, redeemed those who were penitent, and gathered believers into the kingdom of God, into the body of Christ. God did not choose us because we're so highly qualified. He chose us because He knows that we know that if anything of value is going to be accomplished through us for the kingdom of God, it will be because His Word has possession of these earthen vessels.

Apart from that Word in us, apart from the Spirit in us, apart from Jesus in us, we can do nothing. When we're clear on that, then the Word that is in us, embodied, incarnate in our flesh, living on our tongues and in our living, will accomplish more than we can ask or think. To us, He says, you are my hammer, my weapon of war.

With you I break nations in pieces. With you I destroy kingdoms. Through you, I will break down human pride.

I will open up the human heart by the power of my Word, provided my Word has possession of your life. So how does the Word get possession of our lives? How does the Word become flesh in us? First of all, the Word becomes flesh in us when, listen to it, take it in. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of Man.

Those who hear, who listen, who take it in, who receive it, shall live. It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh is of no avail.

The words that I speak to you, they are Spirit and they are life. Jesus spoke those words to a handful of disciples that were left after the vast majority turned and walked away from Jesus, offended, they didn't want to hear Him anymore, they didn't want to listen anymore, but to this little remnant that was left who listened and kept on listening, Jesus spoke a word that brought these people to life. And He speaks that word to us.

And will continue to speak it if we listen and continue to listen to Him. We will only have a word for that world out there if we're listening to that word ourselves. Constantly listening, always getting a fresh word, always, daily getting a fresh word from Him.

The word becomes flesh in us when we submit to it, put ourselves under it. For instance, when He speaks a word of hope to us. When you walk through the waters, I will be with you, and the river shall not overwhelm you.

When you walk through fire, you won't get burned, and the flame won't consume you. When He gives us a word like that, telling us that He'll be with us in the waters of uncertainty, walk with us through the fires of trial. We need to submit to that word, put ourselves under it, believe it.

Don't be afraid from now on, you're going to be catching men. We take that in, we believe it, we put ourselves under it. And when He speaks a word of judgment to us, and judgment doesn't start by telling everybody else out there what's wrong, what's wrong with the people in Nicaragua and South Africa and everywhere else in the world and forgetting ourselves, it starts here.

When He speaks a word of judgment to us, nails us because of our hypocrisy and our hardness of heart, even toward each other, and toward the world around us and the needs that are crying right under our noses, when we hear that word, we put ourselves under that word. We will only get people to believe that word that we speak out there if we're in submission to that word ourselves, believing it. We will only bring people to repentance out there if we're continuously repenting ourselves.

Repentance doesn't happen once and done, it goes on all the time, joyfully, gladly, freely, repenting before the Lord, conforming our lives to Him in repentance. The word becomes flesh in us when we live it. Do it, act on it.

You are the light of the world. The city set on the hill cannot be hid, nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, your action, your living, and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

We often make the mistake of speaking the word. In fact, we often even think that speaking the word is the same as doing it. For instance, the Lord talks to me, Bieber, about forgiveness.

I want you to forgive. And so now, instead of acting on that, I turn around and tell Bill Ziegler he has to forgive. I get after Leroy, tell him he has to forgive.

It's not going to do him any good until I take care of business. But if I take that word which God has first spoken to me, and turn that into action in my own life, and I deal with my own grudges, and my own hang-ups, and my own resentments, and repent of those things, and change, and live it, then when I speak about forgiveness, I bring hope. My words have power.

And sometimes people say, but I don't know what the Lord wants me to do. When you guys hear voices, I don't hear anything. Don't listen for voices.

But if you don't have any idea what the next step is, you go back to the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Face it. There's enough in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, enough call for action and change in our lives to keep us going for the rest of our days on this earth. And as we move into that, as we attempt to be obedient to that, the Word becomes flesh and dwells in us.

And finally, the Word becomes flesh, Acts chapter 4, 29. And now, Lord, look upon their threats. Grant Thy servants to speak Thy Word with all boldness, while Thou stretchest out Thy hand to heal.

And signs and wonders are performed in the name of Thy Holy Servant, Jesus. When they had prayed, the place where they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God with boldness. Now they lived the Word.

They really did. But they didn't just live it. They spoke it.

They didn't get persecuted because they lived such good Christian lives. They got persecuted because they spoke the Word with boldness. They spoke the Word with boldness, knowing that the Lord would come in behind them and confirm the Word to the people who listened, who had any integrity at all.

This tongue, this unruly member of our body, so that now it can first give praise to God, and second, a living Word to the world. And every one of us is called to use the tongue for that purpose. And we're talking particularly now about speaking that Word.

Every one of us. We are to throw off the bushel, which is the fear of man, and speak the Word that burns within us, that consumes our hearts, speaking to them of the One who alone is the way to God. We need to repent of our fear of man and speak the Word.

You are my hammer and my weapon of war. With you I break nations in pieces. With you I destroy kingdoms because I have put my Word in you.

And if you will continuously receive that Word, submit to that Word, live that Word, speak that Word, it will not come back to me empty. It will break through the gates of death, and it will free those captives whose cries, even now, are coming before my face. Let's take a moment of silence.

Let Him speak to our hearts.