God with Us (2)

Good morning, welcome to New Horizon. Please open your Bibles to John 1.

Importance of preparation.

Read John 1:14- “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Defining incarnation.

Louis Berkhof- “The pre-existent Son of God assumes human nature and takes to Himself human flesh and blood, a miracle that passes our limited understanding.”

Difference between saying that God was born and the Son takes on human nature, flesh and blood.

Pray.

Introducing John’s prologue.

This is the lens through which John wants the rest of His gospel to be read.

1. The Word became flesh.

The Word has been described in the prologue of John’s gospel already.

John 1:1- “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:3- “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

John 1:4- “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

John 1:5- “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

This Word comes to mankind.

This is the incarnation- The Word became flesh.

Back to v. 14- This Word became flesh. A few important things to note in these words.

Became- not turning into something entirely different, forgetting what was before.

Chrysostom- “By no means did he diminish his own nature by his condescension, but he raised us, who had always sat in disgrace and darkness, to unspeakable glory. It may be said that a king, conversing with interest and kindness with a poor person of lower social status, does not shame himself at all but makes the other illustrious and observed by all.”

Instead, the pre-existing and eternally existing Son of God, the second person of the godhead, adds to His person humanity.

Marvin Richardson Vincent- “The phrase ‘became flesh’ means more than that He assumed a human body. He assumed human nature entirely, identifying Himself with the race of man, having a human body, a human soul, and a human spirit.”

The Son of God becomes man. And doesn’t lose His divinity in the process.

In Jesus is God, and in Jesus is man.

J.I. Packer- “All the qualities and powers that are in us, as well as all the qualities and powers that are in God, were, are, and ever will be really and distinguishably present in the one person of the man from Galilee.”

This is fascinating to behold. The Word of God assumes human nature.

As we consider celebrating Christmas, we do well to remember exactly who it is that lays in the manger of all of our nativity sets.

Edward Caswall in “See, Amid the Winter’s Snow”- “Lo, within a manger lies; He who built the starry skies… Thus to come from highest bliss; Down to such a world as this.”

2. The Word dwelt among us.

The incarnation communicates not only who Jesus is, but what Jesus came in order to do and accomplish.

Tabernacled among us.

Call back to the Exodus.

The tabernacle known as the meeting place between God and man- it is where God came to dwell among His people.

In the same way, Jesus is the better tabernacle- God come to man to dwell among us.

God in the midst of a worn down people.

The value of the people in the wilderness came not from their own strength or glory, but instead from what was in their midst.

People who could live a life of complete trust and dependence.

God at the center.

Tabernacle placed in the midst of Israel.

Everything done has God in the center of mind.

In all that Israel did, God was among them. And they were meant to understand such a reality.

3. We have seen the glory of the Word.

John writes that what has been seen in Jesus is His glory. If we connect the dots a little bit, we find that Jesus’ glory is the glory of the Father, His radiance.

Who is Jesus? As God made man, we recognize the dual nature of Jesus- both God and man.

Fully God and fully man.

Truly God and truly man.

Truly God.

All of our false assumptions of who God is must be laid aside.

Remember the warnings of Romans 1- We love to create our own God in our own image.

Here, in Jesus Christ, we see with clarity the very nature and behavior of the godhead.

Truly man.

Jesus is man as man is meant to live.

Not only in relation to one another, but more importantly, in relation to God.

Shows us how we ought to live.

What is this glory?

J.R.R. Tolkien- “All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.”

Leon Morris- “He preached to a few people in an outlying province of an ancient, long since vanished empire. Even there he was not often in the capital, the center of affairs, but in a remote country area. He taught a few people, did an uncertain number of miracles, aroused a great number of enemies, was betrayed by one close follower and disowned by another, and died on a cross. Where is the glory?”

If we are to define glory in the various ways that our world does so, we will not find glory accompanying the life and ministry of Jesus.

Jesus didn’t live a life of fame, or wealth, or even to some level influence, at least not as is measured today.

If Jesus was glorious, and shone the glory and radiance of the Father, than glory must look a bit different.

So we scour the life of Jesus, searching it out.

Leon Morris- “Where people needed help, he helped them. Where they were sick, he healed them. Where there were ignorant folk, he taught them. Where there were hungry people, he fed them. All the time, he was seeking the needy. He did not haunt the palaces of kings and governors. He was not found in the high places of the earth. All his life he was among God’s little people, those who in one way or another felt their need. And wherever there was need, he was found doing lowly service. That is what Christ came to do. And that is his glory.”

The glory of God, found expressed perfectly in the Son of God, was shown in the sort of life lived by Jesus.

All of His power and might, His majesty, His brilliance, shown through His condescension, His love and affection, His willing service for those who were in need.

C.S. Lewis- “The central miracle asserted by Christians is the incarnation. They say that God became man. He goes down to come up again, and bring the whole ruined world up with him.”

4. The Word is full of grace and truth.

When God becomes man, what sort of man will He be?

Full of grace and truth.

The embodiment of grace and truth.

Grace- Goodwill, favor, loving kindness.

John 1:16- “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”

Jesus is the embodiment of grace.

In Jesus, we learn what grace is.

Kindness and goodwill must be defined according to seeing it displayed in the life and love of Jesus Christ.

Truth- Reality

John 14:6- “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Jesus is the embodiment of truth and reality.

If everything has been created by God through Jesus, then it stands that everything in existence revolves around Him.

In a world in which truth is hard to come by and know rightly, we find in Jesus real truth, absent of falsehood.

Grace and Truth both to their full extent and held perfectly together in the person of Jesus Christ.

Here is our example, that toward which we are growing- Grace and Truth.

Truth tempered by grace, grace motivated by truth.

5. What happens when the Word enters your life?

How might we prepare room for God incarnate this advent season?

Jesus at the center of everything.

Why do we gather as families?

Why do we give gifts?

Why do we feast?

Not just opportunities to teach children, but opportunities to remind ourselves.

Live incarnationally.

See the need, enter the suffering.

Search for the lives that need your touch.

Jesus and the woman who touched his garment.

Live boldly rather than brightly.

Remember the Israelites in the wilderness.

In many ways, our lives reflect the wilderness wandering.

Slavery behind, promised land ahead.

Presence of God in our midst.

Live with hope.