[Notes] The Fullness of Glory
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Scripture reading: John 1:14-18
Scripture reading: John 1:14-18
John 1:14–18 (NASB95)
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ ” For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
Idea 1: What you get for Christmas says a lot about who you are.
Idea 2: We are totally lacking in glory. We need more weight to our souls.
Idea 3: Jesus became a hassle.
Idea 4: Jesus’ glory is full of grace and truth.
Idea 5: We receive grace and truth from the fullness of Jesus’ glory.
Idea 6: When we receive the glory of Jesus, we can and should be full of grace and truth.
Idea 7: Those who are full of grace
Everyone has a glory. The Hebrew word is kabod, and the Greek word is doxa, and it means weight, . The heaviness of a person. It’s talking about the weight of your reputation, your status, your identiy. The weight of who you are. But that doesn’t mean that my glory is 90 kilograms.
So let’s say you and I put our souls on a weighing scale. Do you
For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Introduction
Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? There is no question that is greater, heavier or more important than this. And your ‘yes’ is the very key that unlocks the pearly gates of heaven. If you’ve not found your ‘yes’ until now, I pray that you will find it in the next half an hour.
But before getting into today’s passage, I want to share a little of my recent experience of becoming a parent. And the summary is this: newborn babies are a hassle.
My boy is about 70 days old, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier. You have to feed them, burp them, change their diapers, clothe them, and much more. You have to cradle them in your arms until they fall asleep, and once you put them down, there’s a 60% chance they’re going to start crying again, and then you need to cradle them again. And the cycle goes on and on and on for days and months.
And the Apostle John says that Jesus became like this. A hassle. God most high, Creator of all, sovereign Lord over all creation. He became flesh and dwelt among us. That’s the doctrine of the incarnation. Of God becoming man.
You know the hymn that goes, “I need thee every hour.” Jesus became like that. And the shepherds and the three wisemen came and bowed their heads and worshiped this baby who pooes and pees himself and sometimes on his parents. Ladies and gentlemen, behold your God. How strange. How mysterious. But it is in the incarnation that we discover the fullness of the glory of God.
Have you seen the glory of God? The glory of God captures your heart. It’s something so out of this world, that you realize you’ve witnessed that which is divine.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us
So what is the Word? The Apostle John clearly defines it for us at the beginning.
John 1:1–3 (NASB95)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
This tells us three things about the Word.
The Word was in the beginning. The beginning of time? No. Beginning here is used to point to eternity, where there was no time.
The Word was with God and was God.
The Word created all things.
We’re not the only ones looking forward to His return. So is He. He says so many times in Revelation, “I am coming soon.” “I’m coming soon.” “I’m coming soon.” You know when you’re on the way to hangout with your friends and everyone’s already there. And you send them a text, “Guys, I’m coming soon.” It’s that kind of feeling. It’s full of excitement at being able to dwell with His friends.
So the Son is the Word, and the Word is with God, and the Word is God. And that means that Jesus’ glory is God’s glory.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Let’s unpack that and conclude.
Jesus is the only begotten from the Father. There is no one like Him. He is God the Son. And because He is God the Son, His glory is full of grace and truth.
Everyone has some kind of glory. Thomas Edison has the glory of having created the lightbulb. Alexander Graham Bell has the glory of creating the telephone. But what’s unique to Jesus is that His glory is full of grace and truth. What does that mean? The keyword is “full.”
But the Bible tells us that Satan blinds the minds of unbelievers from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.
in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
What does this mean? This means that through the narrated events of the Gospel, we can see the glory of Jesus. In fact, Jesus prayed for all of us here who believe and will believe in Him.
“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;
Jesus prayed that we would see His glory through the written Gospels. And when we see that glory, what do we see? We see glory that is full of grace and truth. What does that mean? That means that you have not truly understood anything
So for those of us who may be feeling sinful or guilty before God, know that Jesus came to reveal the glory, that glory is the truth of all things, and at the heart of that truth is the gracious disposition of God toward us. That is Christmas. God loves you so much. He came to live and die so that you would have eternal life.
And it wasn’t a decision made up on the spot. When John the Baptist declared the coming of the Messiah, it wasn’t anything new. He was the last of a long line of prophets declaring the promise of Immanuel, God with us. Take Isaiah for example.
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
Isaiah 9:6 (NASB95)
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
And the prophet Micah.
Micah 5:2 (NASB95)
“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.”
And the prophet Zechariah.
“Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” declares the Lord.
God keeps His Word. Even at great personal cost to Himself, He still keeps it. For 33 years Jesus walked the earth. God most high, come to serve, come to die.
But in this lies the full glory of God. Can you believe this? As we prepare for Christmas, we need to bring our minds back to the manger, and marvel at the mystery, that God became man, and still is a man. Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, but He’s still human. The incarnation wasn’t a temporary thing. It wasn’t God being a shapeshifter. No. The Word of God became flesh. Permanently. It’s not something that God decided on a whim. From the very beginning, God determined to be like us. Why? Because He wants to dwell among us. Because He likes us. Because He loves us.
that anyone who says that the physical body is evil is a liar. Jesus is the Word who created all things.
All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
It also means that the Word of God
What does that mean? The Greek word for glory is doxa, meaning ‘brightness’ or ‘splendor.’ But then comes the question, how can you see glory? That’s what we want right? We want to see God’s glory. And now we know it’s in the incarnation, how can we see it?
Moses asked the exact same thing to God.
Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!”
And what did God say?
And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”
God said I will make all My glory– no, that’s not what He said. I will make all My goodness pass before you. So God’s saying here that His goodness is His glory.
Back to our passage in John 1:14. We saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. So to see the glory of God in Jesus, we need to see His goodness of character.
The fullness of glory is in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. And this is important because glory is the answer to our sluggishness in the spiritual walk. Glory is what draws out the energy within us we didn’t know we had. God is so good. Even better than what many of us dare to believe. And the incarnation challenges us to dare. Dare to believe that God is more awesome, more loving, more righteous, more just than we could ever imagine. And the keyword in this passage is the word pleres, which means ‘full’ or ‘complete.’ In the incarnation we can see glory that is complete.
The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 1989-2011 Mary’s Son
God emptied himself of power. God emptied himself eventually of life. God emptied himself. God came down. What it’s saying is we are so bad off nothing less than the sacrifice of the Son of God could save us.
But there’s a saying, “Never meet your heroes.” Because everyone’s got darkness in them.
Look at the Old Testament stories. The great leaders of Israel. Not one person goes exposing their inner darkness. Moses strikes the rock. Aaron builds a golden calf. David kills a man and takes his wife. Elijah falls into depression. Even John the Baptist, the last prophet and close cousin of Jesus, he lands himself in doubt and bitterness.
What about the darkness inside of us? That part that we wish others wouldn’t know about.
The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
And the fullness of that Shekinah glory dwelled in the baby Jesus as He suckled at His mother’s breast and as He pooed and peed.
For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,
Are you excited to go Christmas caroling? Or perhaps decorating the Christmas tree? What about the gifts and presents? Did you know, what you get for Christmas often says something about who you are? No one’s giving me football boots, but someone might get me books. What about you? What’s going to be under your Christmas tree? What if there’s a box of breath mints? Or perhaps an alarm clock?
What if, among those many gifts, there’s Jesus, the Son of God, born to die for you and me? What does that say about us? We were in such dire straits that nothing less than the sacrifice of God the Son could redeem us. And so let us come to this passage with hearts full of thanksgiving, knowing that the Word has become flesh. And for those of us who have yet to believe in Him, that gift is already there under your Christmas tree, if only you’ll open it and make it yours. And what makes this gift effective, what makes it save us, is nothing but the glory of Jesus. And that’s what we’re going to look at today. We’re going to look at what glory is, the glory that Jesus has, and the glory we have. And here’s the conclusion: God glorifies Himself among us, through us, and in spite of us.
So what this means is that God’s dwelling place is a place filled with His glory. And that’s the church today. It’s the new garden of Eden, where once God dwelled and walked with Adam, He now dwells and walks with us. The blessing of Immanuel was not made up on the spot. God always intended to dwell with us, and the birth of Jesus is the fulfilment of that blessing.
Now, when the Apostle John writes “The Word became flesh,” he’s saying three things. The Word was not flesh, the Word became flesh, and the Word will always be flesh. Woah. What do you mean the Word will always be flesh? That’s what the Bible teaches.
Philippians 3:20–21 (NASB95)
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
The body of His glory. So the incarnation was a major once and for all permanent thing. Jesus is still flesh, now and forevermore. After He resurrected, He ascended into heaven as a man. It’s permanent. He’s not going back to spirit form. That’s how much God loves us. That’s how much God desires to dwell among us. And when He returns, He will transform our mortal body to an immortal body, like the radiant glory of His transfigured state.
Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves.
And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.
“You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory.
What happens when we see God’s glory?
We build the church (Heb. 11:7)
We unite the church (Jn. 17:21-23; Eph. 4:13).
We become the church (Rev. 21:23)
All groups, organizations, businesses, and empires will fall. But there is only one group that remains past the judgement day, and that is the church.
The church is the dwelling place of God.
“However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:
So long as we receive Jesus, the Son of God, as our gift, we become the dwelling place of God.
having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,
in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,
in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
Don’t hate on Jesus just because the church can’t show you the fullness of His glory. If someone plays Bethoven badly, do you start to hate Bethoven? So why would you hate on Jesus? If all of us could bring the full glory of Jesus, then there’s no need for any of us to be in church.
For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God,
that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints,
to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.