"The Incarnate Word of God" (John 1:1-5 & 14)

The Word is God (v.1-5)

Held to His Word

His word is His bond

Much like when we give our word. “I give you my word”/ To be a “Man of his word”

Says a lot about us.

We can know the heart of God by knowing His word

What comes out of our mouth comes from our hearts (Matthew 15)

What comes out of God’s mouth is holy, revealing His heart is holy. Righteousness revealing His heart is righteous. Good and pure revealing His heart is good and pure. Always.

2 Timothy 2:13 “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”

He has been revealed to us according to His word and will not go back or change in what He has revealed of Himself.

James 1:17 “...with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

We can know what kind of God Yahweh is by reading His word.

In the Beginning was the Word (Logos)

Logos - Greek word for “word”

Where words showed order and intelligence, the Greeks used this as their rational understanding of the universe, the divine force which governed all things.

John taps into the common understanding his audience had of this word “Logos” and signifies that Yahweh is the driving force behind, above and in the universe.

Also, to his Jewish audience, to show the significance of Jesus and just exactly who Jesus is by bringing to their minds the well known phrase, “In the beginning”

“And the Word was God”

“Then God said...” (Genesis)

We can see the cooperative work of the Triune God within the first three verses of the Holy Scriptures.

v.1; God the Father creates the Heavens and the Earth.

v.2; God the Holy Spirit hovers over all that He has made.

v.3; God the Son brings forth light and establishes it in existence.

We know that in the beginning God spoke His word and created all things.

Through the power of His word everything came into being. (We discussed this already)

His Word was there in the beginning bringing forth all things.

v.3 (John reiterates)

Nothing came into being that was not brought into being THROUGH HIM.

The “Him” here refers to the Word; the same Word mentioned in the first two verses who was with God and who was God.

Of whom he then says, “In Him was life, and the life was the LIGHT of men.” (v.4) Let there be light...

Jesus is God (Hebrews 1:8)

Not part of the creation but the Creator Himself.

Not just a good teacher/ faithful prophet but the second Person of the Holy Trinity, King and Ruler over all things.

He, Himself testifies to this:

Before Abraham was, I Am. (John 8:58)

I and the Father are one. (John 10:30)

He even accepts worship (Matthew 14:33)

God the Father and God the Holy Spirit testified to this: (Hebrews 1:8-9 & Psalm 45:6-7)

The writer of Hebrews recognizes that it was God the Holy Spirit who spoke through the Psalmist and brought to him the words of God in his song.

And the words of God proclaim that the Messiah, which is Christ our Lord, is God who is the anointed of God, seated on an eternal throne.

When God raised this Man from the dead He testified undoubtedly of the claims Christ made during His ministry on Earth.

And in the hearts of all believers throughout history the Spirit of God testifies to us of the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Word Became Flesh (v.14)

God Took on Flesh

The Word who was in the beginning, with God and was God became flesh!

The infinite God limited Himself in a body like ours.

The One who is at all times in all places now could be said to have stood in a single location.

The One who could not be seen by human eyes, now human eyes have “beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

This was difficult for the people to understand/ This was a really big deal.

The flesh was seen by all world views of the day as filthy and wretched and it would be unthinkable that the perfect God of heaven would dare lower Himself to take on such infirmity. This was agreed upon by Jews and Greeks alike.

People always bleed for the gods, not the other way around. Christianity is the only worldview in history that speaks of how God came down and bled for His people.

And Dwelt Among Us

He dwelt among us sinners.

The lowly and the despised by men.

The outcasts and the poor.

He did not come and elevated Himself to a high position where the common man could not reach Him.

He dwelt among us. Not in palaces with riches and the comforts of kings and royalty.

He ate food with His people on the ground, worked with His people till He would sweat, danced with His people at weddings and walked with His people across deserts.

He sat and listened to His people and conversed with them. Paid attention to them.

He did not come to be served by His people but to serve His people. (Matthew 20:28 & Mark 10:45)

It was His pleasure to dwell among His people.

He chose to do so; He was not obligated or driven by anything other than His love for us.

Even though His own did not receive Him but rather handed Him over to be crucified, He never once regretted leaving His throne in glory to dwell among us.

And our God intends to dwell among us again. (Revelation 21:3 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,”)

Sympathizing High Priest

He took on in full all infirmities of the flesh.

Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,...”

He felt hunger, pain, weariness, fatigue.

Anxiety, depression, anger and sadness.

He knew how it felt to be alone, despised and rejected. Full of grief and sorrow. (Isaiah 53:3)

He understands completely how difficult this life can be.

Hebrews 4:15 “... but One who has been tempted in all things like we are,”

He knows our struggle with sin and how tempting it can be/ how persuading/ how promising/ how deceptive/ how destructive

We are tempted by our own sinful desires of the flesh, He was tempted by Satan, the devil himself while He stood in flesh. (We would have crumbled under the first temptation)

He is not unaware of our burden and its weight.

He overcame and did for us what we could not do ourselves.

Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin.”

The Word Became Sin

The Radiance of the Glory of God (Hebrews 1:3)

He is 100% Man in His human nature and 100% Deity in His divine nature.

He is the EXACT representation of the nature of God. (Hebrews 1:3)

He is the Word of God (Revelation 19:13)

God’s heart is revealed through His Word, who is Jesus, our Christ.

He is holy, glorious, righteous, perfect and pure.

He reflects the glory of His Father perfectly and without diminishment.

Lived a Righteous Life, Died a Sinner’s Death

Lived perfectly according to the law of God, the written word of God.

Followed it absolutely with no deviation. Something the religious leaders were unable to do nor any man ever since the garden to the present day.

Christ is the complete embodiment of the Word of God. (Scriptures in human flesh/ The word of God, spoken, written and incarnate)

He bore our sins, our failures to the word of God, He carried to the cross in His body and died there the sinners death. (1 Peter 2:24)

By His wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

Just so that we might be the righteousness of God.

Shares His Righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21)

The Word of God lived out the word of God and received the righteousness that comes from obeying the word of God.

So that we who did not obey the word of God might receive that righteousness that comes to us by faith in the Word of God. (Which is Christ our Lord)

The greatest act of grace in history.

The evidence that such righteousness has been imputed to us is our love for the Word of God and the word of God.

John 14:15 ““If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

Hebrews 1:1–2 “God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days spoke to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds,”

God’s last word to mankind was given to us through His Son, Christ Jesus our Lord. The last revelation of Himself.

You want to know God, then get to know Jesus. You want to see the Father, then look upon His Son who He sent, the incarnate Word of God. Amen.