Joy | John 1:14–18

2024 Advent  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  46:22
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Ok 4-5 year olds you guys are dismissed to go upstairs! The rest of you go ahead and grab your Bibles and open them to the book of Luke. That’s right, head towards Luke 1. We’ll get to John, but we’re going to look at a couple verses in Luke before we get there.
If you haven’t been with us the past couple of weeks we are doing an Advent series in which we, like many throughout the world, stop and remember the birth of Jesus—his first advent—and that causes us also to look forward to his second Advent. Over the past two weeks we looked at hope and peace and this week as you have seen our focus has been on joy.
How many of you have seen the Home Alone series of movies? A couple weeks ago Sawyer came home from school and asked why everyone was calling him Kevin. He didn’t remember the movie. Both of our boys have looked something like Kevin at some point in their lives.
Now I bring that movie to memory because in a lot of ways that movie is a depiction of what life around Christmas is like, right? There’s the parents who are stressed and just trying to make sure everything is taken care of. There’s the annoying aunt, uncle, cousin, who just brings about a lot of stress, there’s sibling fighting, there’s excitement of a trip or of what all Christmas day will entail, there’s sorrow because of feeling left out and there’s even a sense of some indifference that it’s just Christmas again and mom will take care of it all and in the end it’ll just be another year.
Now you’re here in church this morning, so I think it’s a pretty safe assumption that you have at least some awareness of “the reason for the season.” We celebrate Christmas because it is when we remember the birth of Jesus. And when you look to the book of Luke, specifically in Luke 1:44 & in Luke 2:10 you actually find what is the proper response to the birth of Jesus. In Luke 1:44 Elizabeth is talking to Mary and describing to her what her baby—John the Baptist—did whenever Mary showed up to their house.
Luke 1:44 ESV
For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
Then in Luke 2:10 the angles come to the shepherd who are out watching their flocks at night and they bring what?
Luke 2:10 ESV
And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
So to an unborn baby, Jesus’ aunt, and lowly shepherds, the arrival of Jesus causes even angels to proclaim the proper response is joy! If that’s true, then the question for us is what’s our response to Christmas? When you think about the advent of his coming, when you think about Christmas day or even Christmas season is what fills your heart joy? Or, like the McAlister’s on Home Alone, are you filled with stress & anxiety, worried about all the things that need to be done and the people you’re going to be around? Or like the McAlister’s are you filled with excitement about what’s to come? Or maybe indifference or apathy towards just another Christmas holiday? Maybe, there’s some in the room that have hearts filled with sorrow for what won’t be. Maybe you see Christmas as a time in which you remember what you used to have, or maybe what you never had, so the holidays then are just a time of hurt and maybe even anger. Joy might be the last thing that’s on your mind or in your heart when it comes to Christmas.
If that’s the case then we’re forced to ask the question, where are we getting our joy from? Because even the most depressed person in the room is going to try to find joy in something. Maybe before we look to that question we might need to just define what joy is. In the video that we just watched they defined joy for us in two different ways:
Joy is an attitude we adopt because of hope in God’s promises
Joy is a profound decision of faith & hope in the power of Jesus’ own life & love.
Notice in both of these the emphasis. It’s an attitude or profound decision. If that’s what joy is then there must be an object of our joy. So if Christmas time then brings about anxiety and stress, what could be the object of our joy? Relational peace? Where everyone would just get along. Is it relational stability—just hoping crazy uncle John doesn’t say anything too off the wall this year? If that’s what I derive my joy from then if everyone just behaves like I want them to then my heart is filled with joy! It’s filled with relief! It’s filled with a sense of peace like we talked about last week.
Maybe our joy is built around seeing how our kids or family members respond to the gifts we give them. Because if they open and love the gifts then what will they have done? They’ll have validated our sense of self-worth in how we’ve spent our time and our treasure.
Or maybe our joy comes from the drive home…done with the in-laws, done with family, now I can return back to my domain where I’m comfortable. In that scenario our joy comes from our comfort or our control.
Or maybe there just is no joy. Maybe this time of year is the pit of despair. Even in that situation we can see what brings recognizing what makes us angry.
Now what is the problem with those responses? Why is finding joy in relational peace or stability, in responses of others, or in our own comfort or control problematic? The church answer is because it’s sinful, which is true. But logically, if that’s what our joy is found in then we’ll either constantly be let down or that our joy will be short lived. Joy then becomes this elusive or fleeting feeling that we’re constantly in pursuit of by placing our hope in the next object—whether that be person, place or thing. We end up like Mrs. McAlister on the flight to Paris just trying to remember what we forgot. We have adopted an attitude or made a profound decision that it’s those things that will satisfy our heart, but in steps John and he tells us in John 1:14-18 that true joy—the joy you’re seeking—can be found because the Word came to us, like us, for us. That’s our main point this morning: True joy can be found because the Word came like us, to us, for us. So take your Bibles now and let’s flip over to John 1:14-18 and let’s see why the arrival of Jesus brings about true joy.
John 1:14–18 ESV
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. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
Having read God’s word, now let’s go to Him and ask Him to help us understand His Word and to see why He brings us joy. Let’s pray.
From this text there I believe there are 3 reasons why we can find true joy in Jesus. Those 3 reasons are what make up the main point, so let’s take them one at a time

True joy can be found because the Word came like us.

John begins by saying, “The Word became flesh.” The past couple weeks we’ve seen that when John talks about the Word he’s talking about Jesus, but this is the first time in the book where he makes that direct connection and once again the significance of that statement is worth meditating on. Remember, the Word is the eternal God who has always existed and by whom all things have been created. This same Word, according to John, has now taken on our flesh. He has become like us and assumed our very nature.
Do you know how different this would have been compared to all the gods of the original readers of this book? In the Greek culture the gods of their pantheons were all formed by human hands and were nothing more than figures of wood and stone. The same can be said of all other gods that have ever existed. Buddhism, hinduism, all worship a god made by hands or in creation. But in Jesus the creator God took on our flesh. He became like us.
Can you see how that would change the way in which you relate to him? He’s not a God who is far off, or who has no sense of life as we know it. In fact Hebrews 4:15 tells us that in Jesus we find a God who can relate to us because he came like us.
Hebrews 4:15 ESV
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Because God took on our flesh in the person of Jesus we can relate to a God who knows what it’s like to feel the pressure of having to perform for others. I think of Jesus’ first miracles where his mother called on him to turn the water into wine.
We can relate to a God who knows what relational stress, and disunity feels like. Think for a minute what it was like to try and unify Simon the Zealot who wanted to overthrow the Roman government & Matthew the tax collector who worked for the Roman government. Can’t imagine those two guys got along all that well.
We can relate to a God who knows what it’s like to suffer loss and abandonment. Think about the death of his friend Lazarus or the disappointment Mary & Martha would’ve shown towards him when he showed up too late. Or think about Judas Iscariot who we poured his life into for three years only to be betrayed by him. Or think of all of his disciples who fled at his arrest and abandoned him. Or worst of all, think of his very own Father turning his back on him and finding him to be insignificant, even despicable.
But Jesus didn’t just suffer those things, he endured them without sin. He walked through all the heartache, temptation, and letdowns that we have and he lived perfectly. So in his coming like us he set an example for us. Now not only can we relate to him but we can know how to live like him.
So how then does Jesus coming like us enable joy in us? How does it enable us to adopt an attitude or make a profound decision of faith and hope? Jesus coming like us is really the only worthy object of our faith and hope, he’s the only worthy thing to derive joy from because he’s the only one that knows what it’s like to be in our shoes, because he was like us, and yet be perfect. Every other thing that we seek joy in is either elusive or fleeting. But Jesus coming like us—not elusive—and he is eternally perfect—not fleeting. The Word came like us because the Word became flesh and true joy can be found in that, but John doesn’t stop there. That leads us to our second point:

True joy can be found because the word came to us.

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” John continues. That word dwelt is the same word as tabernacled or to pitch a tent. It would’ve immediately recalled to any Jewish readers mind the tabernacle of the Old Testament or the tent that God dwelled in with the Jewish people as they went to the Promised Land.
Now the idea of pitching a tent can carry with it a couple different connotations. You might think that of pitching a tent so that you can temporarily experience life outside of the comfort of your home. Maybe it brings with you the nostalgia of what life used to be like before the modern comforts we all experience.
The other reason you might pitch a tent is for proximity. You might set up a tent out in the mountains so that you can fully experience the mountains. You want that fresh mountain air as you sleep. You want to hear the wind blow through the trees and them sway back and forth. You might want to hear the ripple of the creek nearby as is flows down river. You don’t want to just go to the mountains, you want to be in and among the mountains. You want to be near them. This is more like what John is getting at here when he says the Word dwelt among us.
John then is saying that God has chosen to dwell amongst his people now in a more personal way. He is saying that the God who manifested himself through the a pillar of smoke and fire has now come in the person of Jesus for the purpose of drawing near to His people.
But this is how it had to be. God had to draw near to us, because we are unable to draw near to him. God is perfectly holy and we are not. We have in our sinful hearts rejected God’s word and God’s ways. We have lived in His world determining what is best. We have sought joy from things other than him and in doing so we’ve made those things be the god that our hearts worship and the purpose of our lives. This is as true for you and me as it is for every person that has ever walked planet. So, God in his mercy and kindness took on flesh and dwelt among us. He came like us to us so that we could come to him. The only way this was possible though was through what is called the substitutionary atonement of Jesus. Without that those who reject God—which is all mankind—deserves the wrath of God or punishment from him.
This also helps us see why he had to come like us. The only suitable substitute for man was a man. The one’s who fell short of God’s glory were man. So the one’s who were liable for God’s judgment was man. There was no other substitute that could pay the penalty for our sin.
However, the debt was so deep the only payment that could ever satisfy God’s righteous requirement was God. So the word became flesh and dwelt among us to draw near to us and for us to draw near to him. This was only possible through his receiving the punishment that we deserve and paying the debt we never could. You see, we were so bad that the relationship between God and man could only be restored by God. No attempt by man would ever get it done.
But don’t you see how this enables joy?? Now, because he drew near to us we can now draw near to him. The sin that prevented us from knowing God and living according to the example that he set before us has been dealt with. The price for our sins has been paid on the cross because Jesus came to us like us. Now our relationship has not only been reconciled, but restored. This isn’t by anything we’ve done. It’s solely a work of God.
This means that since it’s something God has done and not something we’ve done, then we don’t have to work for his approval. He’s already given it to us in Jesus. This means that we also don’t have to fret about keeping his approval, because his satisfaction with us is not based on us. It’s based on the work of Jesus.
So our sin has been paid for, our debt has been paid, we’ve been given approval through Jesus, and the relational harmony that we desire and seek can always be found in our relationship with the Father. Jesus coming to us enables joy because he fixes things for us with the Father. True joy can be found because the Word came like us to us but this leaves the question, why? Why would the eternal God who has always existed in perfect harmony want to come and redeem and restore a rebellious people? That’s our last prepositional phrase of our main point:

True joy can be found because the Word came for us.

John spends the rest of these verses detailing what happened when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Let’s look back to John 1:14
John 1:14 ESV
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.
Why did the Word become flesh and dwell among us? So that we could see his glory. The awesome glory of God that was seen in the tabernacle is now seen fully in the meek person of Jesus. It’s actually kind of interesting—I’m going to get a little nerdy on you here for a minute—but the Greek word for dwelt used here shares the same root as the word shekinah. “This word, strictly speaking, means ‘residence’, but most commonly refers to the glory of God who made himself present in the tabernacle and temple. The bright cloud of the presence of God settled (shakina) on the tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord filled it.” It’s interesting then that John ties Jesus’ dwelling among us directly to glory. What does this glory look like?
We can look to the life of Jesus and see His glory in a manger. The creator God became a man—miraculous by his very coming. Then We can look miracles he performed and in the way he responded those around him and see his glory. We can see His glory on the cross as he bore a punishment that he did not deserve. And we can see his glory in his resurrection from the dead. This isn’t glory that comes from making a buzzer beater shot or a hail mary pass. It’s the glory as of the only Son from the Father. “The glory displayed in the incarnate Word is the kind of glory a father grants his only son.” Heb. 1:3 helps us see what that means:
Hebrews 1:3 (ESV)
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
In Jesus we see the exact imprint of his nature. Everything that can be said of God can be said of Jesus. But the glory of Jesus isn’t just found in his being God. The next way John describes his glory is that it’s full of grace and truth.
John was most certainly directing his readers back to Exodus 33-34. Remember there Moses asked for God to show him his glory as an affirmation of God’s presence going with them as they journey to the Promised Land. In Ex. 33:19-20
Exodus 33:19–20 ESV
And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”
So Moses hid in the cleft of the rock and God placed his hand over Moses and passed by him so that Moses could not see his face. “God’s glory, then, is supremely his goodness.” Then in Ex. 34 God descends on the mountain to proclaim his name. Ex. 34:6
Exodus 34:6 ESV
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
As one commentary says, “the two crucial words in that verse are steadfast love (hesed) & faithfulness (emet) because those two expressions recur again and again in the OT.” What John is doing when he says “full of grace & truth” is he is summing up the same ideas as steadfast love & faithfulness. “The glory revealed to Moses when the Lord passed in front of him and sounded his name, displaying that divine goodness characterized by ineffable grace & truth, was the very same glory John and his friends saw in the Word made flesh.”
This is the one who outranks John the Baptist because he came before John the Baptist as we see in verse 15. He has existed from the very beginning as we saw in verse 1. And out of the fullness of his glory which is full of grace and truth what all has we received? Grace upon grace. John 1:16-17
John 1:16–17 ESV
For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
I asked small group Wednesday night what they thought grace upon grace meant and one brilliant theologian responded, “a double bacon cheeseburger.” To which if this was written to a Jewish audience is really true. No, John explains grace upon grace in verse 17. God in his grace gave the law through Moses. We don’t tend to think of the law as a grace of God toward us, but it was because it shows how to live in God’s world according to God’s ways. No one deserved that, but according to His character God gave that law.
The truth is though that we couldn’t live that out. We couldn’t meet God’s righteous standard, because we aren’t God. God in his grace came to us through Jesus Christ and fulfilled that law. That’s the second grace. Grace is the giving of the law, and grace in place of that grace is the giving of the Son. In doing so, Jesus has made known to us the God that no one has ever seen because no one could see him—verse 18. If they did, what would’ve happened?
So why did Jesus come like us to us? So that we could see the glory of God. So that we might know him by receiving grace upon grace. Now, you and I stand on this side of the cross of Christ and go, that’s great! But I haven’t seen Jesus. John got to see him. He got to watch the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, but I haven’t. So how does this help or even apply to me? Paul in 2 Cor. 4:4 give us the answer
2 Corinthians 4:4 ESV
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The first thing we see here is that not everyone will see the glory of God because they’ve been blinded by the god of this world. Those people are called unbelievers. Second, “seeing the light of the gospel” what is gospel? It’s news. It’s a story; a narrative. Specifically, of the glory of Christ. So in other words we can see the glory of Christ through the gospel or the news of Christ. We may not see fully but we can know truly the glory of God in the message of Jesus. This is what Paul says in 1 Cor. 13:12
1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
And in this we find the purpose of Advent. Advent is to cause us to stop and remember his first coming which causes us to leap for joy because he came to restore what was broken between God & man. He came to reveal to us his glory, and now through the hearing of his word and believing in Jesus we can see his glory dimly, but we’re reminded that his first advent also points towards his second advent in which we shall know him fully and we shall see him face to face. So then we can adopt an attitude and place our hope in something that is certain. we can find joy knowing that He will return and he will make all things right.
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