Behold the Son of God in all of His Glory

Introduction

Opening Illustration - Saint Nicholas Gifts: The story is told of Saint Nicholas, the man behind the legend of Santa Claus. Nicholas himself was a Turkish believer in the fourth century AD. Nicholas’s parents died at a young age and left him with a larger inheritance that he lived off of his entire life. He developed habits of giving gifts both to the local children, as well as to those who had need in his community. One story is told that a local family was unable to pay their dowries for their daughter, a shameful situation in that day that could have resulted in the daughter being sold into slavery. Nicholas at night, secretly slipped bags of gold coins into their windows, so that in time the family was able to pay off their debt, and save their daughter from entering slavery. What an extraordinary gift? That family did nothing to earn the gift. Their debt was real. Their rescue was undeserved. And someone outside of them stepped in at great personal cost.

Personal: That story resonates with us because it echoes something deeper. Christmas is the story of a far greater gift, given to those who were in a far greater debt. Christmas reminds us that Christ has stepped on our behalf, done what we could not do on our own.

Context: Today we are completing a short two week sermon series for Advent. Last week Jackson spoke on the topic of an Inconvenient Obedience, as we looked Jesus earthly Dad, Joseph—and what it must have been like to do the right thing, even when the right thing was hard to do. Today, just a few days before Christmas, we focus our attention on Christ and the incarnation. Our passage today is particularly fitting to come towards the end of our longer series in Genesis, as this passage in talking about Jesus as the Son of God weaves creation and Genesis language into it. Today, our aim is simple. It is only a few days before Christmas. We must behold the Son of God in all of his glory. In order to do that, we look at how this passage teaches us about Christ’s two natures, his full divinity, and his full humanity.

John 1:1–18 “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 were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 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.”

Meaning & Application

Recall, today our aim is to Behold the Son of God in all of his glory, by looking at his two natures.

Behold the Son’s Divinity

First, let us behold the Son’s divinity. This text before us is quite remarkable. This is the opening Preamble to John’s Gospel. It’s a sort of window into understanding the entire Gospel of John. And what we see is that this Gospel is about who Christ is. John will come back to this language at the very end to remind us why he wrote this biography of the life of Christ in the first place.

EXAMINING THE TEXT

Look at the first verse with me again.

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

In the Beginning: Let’s take this one little phrase at a time, “In the beginning.” This phrase is the exact same way that our book of Genesis begins.

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Here, in the Gospel of John, John is drawing attention all the way back to the foundational moments of creation.

The Word: And he says that in that space and time was “the word.” While this is a bit of an interesting term that might sound strange to modern ears, it wouldn’t have sounded strange to ancient ears. In Genesis 1, God spoke words, and creation took place. And so the “Word of God” was quite literally God’s word; it was his expressed will; his desire. After Genesis, the Word of God was spoken through the many prophets that foretold Christ’s coming. And so they would have been familiar with this idea of the Word of God. But in the next few verses John describes the “Word of God.” Consider five of his desriptions.

1 The Word is Personal: First, according to John “The Word” is personal. This means, the Word has “personhood.” John speaks about the Word of God not like you and I speak about each other’s words. He speaks about the Word of God using pronouns like “Him” and “He,” referring to the Word of God as a person. John here is not simply saying that God spoke the world into existence, as we know he did. But in fact John is saying that God created the world through a person, that is properly the Word of God.

2 The Word is Eternal: Second, “The Word”is eternal. Verse 2 very clearly reads

John 1:2 “He was in the beginning with God.”

He (the Word) was in the beginning. That language again is connecting us back to Genesis 1, to the very first moments before time and space existed, when God first spoke creation into existence. This person, who John is calling “The Word” was there. All things were made through him. The book of Colossians when it describes this exact same thing says,

Colossians 1:16 “… all things were created through him and for him.”

3 The Word is Divinely Relational: Third, the Word of God is relational. Verse 1 has fascinating language that says that the Word was “with God” and “was God” at the exact same time. And so we see with clarity the Word of God is God. And yet, in the very same breath we can properly say the Word of God was in relationship with God. Another way to interpret that phrase is that the word was “faced towards God.” If we jump down to verse 14 for a moment, we see John offer new language about the relationship of the Word of God to God, and he calls uses the titles Son and Father. What does this language mean.

Not Created: This language does not mean that the Son came into being like other Son’s do. No, this Son has eternally existed as the Son, because He was God. The title “Son” is telling something about the relationship between Him and God the Father.

Not Inferior: It also does not mean that the Son is inferior to the Father. Both, are fully God. The title of Son does not mark inferiority or a natural submission, but it describes the joyful relationship these two members of the Godhead have shared with each other from all eternity past.

Intimacy: Most importantly, the language of Father and Son denotes love, intimacy and relationship. How can a solitary God be eternally and essentially “loving” when love must involve another person. A single unitary God, like the false god of Islam is not essentially loving. Single-person gods like these have spent eternity alone. But in the Trinity, God the Son is in intimate relationship of love with God the Father eternally.

4 The Word Gives Life: Fourth, the Word of God is Gives Life. Verse 4 reads “In Him was life and the life was the light of man.” John here is playing with language from Genesis 1 when God said “Let there be light.” But he’s not speaking about physical light. He’s speaking about the illumination of the soul. Where the Word of God goes, light goes. All that is God, his goodness, his love, his glory, his majesty.

Classic Definition: John 1 is one of those key classical passages that tell us about the divinity of Jesus Christ. Let me read to you a helpful section of the classic Westminster Confession of Faith that describes Christ’s divinity.

“The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance, and equal with the Father, did, when the fulness of time was come, take upon him man’s nature…”

Behold, the Divinity of Christ. Our tri-une God, is one God in three persons. And at the right moment in time, God the Son—the second person of the Trinity—did not cease to be God, but He took on flesh and lived among us. But before we discuss Christ’s humanity, I want us to behold his divinity.

Illustration Richard Sibbes: Richard Sibbes was known as the “Honey Mouthed Preacher” because he was joyful in the Lord. He used to say that we “become like what we worship.” We either revere the world and are conformed to the sinful patterns of the world, or we revere God and are progressively conformed into his likeness.

Richard was overwhelmed by the goodness and the love and the grace of the tri-une God, and it came out not only in the way he spoke about God, but in the way he loved others.

“If God had not a communicative, spreading goodness, he would never have created the world. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were happy in themselves, and enjoyed one another before the world was. Apart from the fact that God delights to communicate and spread his goodness, there had never been a creation or redemption.”

Before the Word of God took on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, He was and always will be the eternal Son of God, who is fully God, in an overwhelmingly pure and perfect and loving relationship with God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit. One God, in three persons. One God, so overflowing with purity of love, that both creation and redemption are the wonderful fruit of that relationship.

APPLYING THE TEXT

For what practical use is our knowledge is our knowledge of God the Son in all of his divinity? Let me give you three:

Proper Worship: The first is proper worship. At Christmas, what we are celebrating is Divinity made flesh in the infant Christ. If we are going to worship God correctly in our thoughts, in our prayers, in our singing congregationally, then we must have an accurate understanding of Christ’s nature. The prophetic name assigned was Emmanuel, God With Us. Let this shape your worship. Do not let the incarnation become common or expected. Outside of the resurrection, this is the single greatest miracle in human history.

The Great Cost of Rejection: Second, I want you to understand fully the great cost of rejecting Jesus Christ. We are free in this life to reject many teachers who other men call great. You can receive or reject many of Aristotle’s teachings based on your own discernment. Not so with Christ. To reject Christ is to reject God, because Christ is God. If He is God, then He holds utter and infinite truth. There is no falsehood in him. This means we are not free to cherry pick Christ’s teachings as we please. If we find our hearts feel differently than God’s Word, it is us who are wrong and need correction, not God.

Certainty of Love: Third, is what I would call a certainty of love. If that Son, who has the ear of the Father in such a precious and intimate and perfect way, is interceding for you, then you can be sure the Father will not turn you away. The Son was never denied anything that he asked. Though you and I are not worthy, Christ is, and according to Hebrews 7:25, if you have placed your faith in Jesus, then the Son lives to make intercession for you.

Behold the Divinity of Christ!

Behold the Son’s Humanity

We have beheld the Son’s Divinity. I want to spend the remainder of our time beholding the Son’s Humanity. At the center of the Christmas story is a newborn infant, who grew in the womb of young Mary. A true human child, in every sense of the Word, except without the sin nature that you and I have been born with.

Verse 14: Verse 14 and what follows are extraordinary words.

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.”

The word became flesh. God did not simply shout down from heaven his commands. He entered the story. He entered our weakness of humanity.

He took lungs that could breathe air,

and a heart that could pump blood,

and skin that could bruise and break and bleed.

He took feet that harden and blister.

He took hands that could feel splinters, and nails.

He took a mind that could think and process information.

He took a soul that could worship and feel and desire and love.

His humanity was not illusion, as if he were just secretly relying on his divinity. No, expereinced a full human nature.

Dwelt: “And dwelt among us.” John uses a very special word here that quite literally means “tabernacled.” The word became human and tabernacled among us. John is drawing our attention back to the days of Moses and the wilderness years in the book of Exodus. John is saying that Jesus living among us is similar to how God tabernacled among the Israelites in the days of Moses. The presence of God was in their midst then, and the presence of God was in their midst through Christ.

Seen His Glory: John says, “we have seen his glory.” John was an eye witness to the life of Jesus Christ, a disciple. And he is speaking about his personal experience witnessing glory of the person Jesus Christ. That word glory means brightness, splendor, shining radiance The Old Testament word for glory means “weighty”, “heaviness.” John says we have seen his glory, as of the only son from the Father. This language is wonderful. In one sense, the fact that he’s connecting this to the word “tabernacle” makes us remember that story in the Old Testament when God’s glory filled the tabernacle in Exodus 40.

Exodus 40:34–35 “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”

But there’s more than just that image.

Illustration - Veiled King: Imagine for a moment a kingdom with a wonderful King. Stories are told about his valor in battle, his goodness to this people, his justice. Those who are around speak of his joy and his presence. The commoners in the Kingdom have heard these stories, they’ve seen the coins with his image on them. They know the castle where he lives and operates, but they’ve never seen the king Himself. He lives behind the castle walls.

Then one day, the king leaves the palace. He removes his royal robes and dresses in the clothes of the common people. He listens. He eats. He helps. He allows himself to misunderstood at times. Most people do not realize who he is. But over time those who are close to him begin to get a sense of the glory of this man. They see his consistent justice. They experience his humility. They have a strange sense of his nobility and his kingship even though he makes no demands on them as a king. There is a glory to the man.

John is saying that he is an eye witness to the glory of Jesus Christ. He experienced the weight of Kingship. He witnessed his miracles. He witness his justice. He witnessed his inner strength. He witnessed his love. He witnessed his death and his resurrection. This precious infant, is not a King out from behind the castle walls. He is the King of Kings, out from behind the spiritual walls of heaven.

Emptied Himself: Philippians 2 speaks of God the Son coming out from behind the walls of heaven this way.

Philippians 2:5–7 “… Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

God the Son “emptied himself” not by becoming less. He did not cease to be God when he was in the form of Christ. But he “emptied himself” by adding something new, humanity.

What This Means: What does it mean Christ was fully human?

A Child: In our passage today, we see that he was a child, a newborn infant, who cried and needed milk from his mom. Think of the humility. The King didn’t just step out from behind the wall. He became an infant! A real infant who cried and had to grow in wisdom and understanding as fully human.

Know All Things: As a human, in his human nature, there were things he did know. He could truly say about his future return that he did know the day or the hour. His divine nature, knew all things. His human nature was limited by common human limitations.

Changeable Human Emotions: He experienced changeable human emotions. He was angry and grieved at the hardness of men’s hearts (Mark 3:5). He rejoiced at the Father’s sovereign granting of salvation to whom he please (Luke 10:21). He marvelled at the faith fo the centurion (Matt 8:10). And he was stunned at the lack of faith of his own hometown (Mark 6:6). When the Pharisees tested him we are told he “sighed deeply in his spirit” (Mark 8:12). When his father’s house was made a dean of thieves he grew angry a godly zeal and drove the merchants out with a whip (John 2:14-17). Christ experienced all the sinless human emotions that humanity experiences as part of his human nature.

Verses 16-17: Read verses 16-17 with me again:

John 1:16–17 “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.”

These verses are telling us what Christ came to do. Why did he incarnate himself. “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” That’s why he came.

Law Through Moses: John says that the “law came through Moses.” And here John is describing to us the need of Christ. The law, given by God, through Moses condemns all of us. Every one of us stands guilty underneath the law. Our sin has separated us from God eternally. Our sin is measured by the law given through Moses. And all of us are guilty.

Grace Through Jesus: The only way to escape it would be if God himself stepped into our place! If God took on flesh and stood under his own law. If he lived the life that the law requires and we have failed to live. Jesus did not come merely to teach the law more clearly or to lower its demands. He came to fulfill it. This is why Christmas happened. Not sentiment. Not tradition. Rescue. The law condemned us. Grace clothed itself in flesh. And the Son of God stood where we could not stand.

Because he was fully human, he was legally justified in taking our place under the wrath of God. But because he was fully divine, though he died, he rose from the grave. This is grace upon grace. God’s divine rescue plan. Grace upon grace!

Applications: Behold the Humanity of Christ. Let’s apply this. What ought this do for you.

Marvel at the infant Christ this Christmas: First, marvel at the infant Christ this Christmas. Fully God, and yet fully man. Glory unimaginable, veiled in human flesh. Love so divine and so overwhelming to the soul for you and for me. Give yourself time at some point in the next few days, to put every distraction aside, and just reflect on the incarnation. Let yourself be overwhelmed. Sit long enough, that your thoughts on the incarnation move you to worship, move you to praise.

Seek After Christ through the Gospel: Second, make it your life ambition to seek after Christ through the gospel. Christ became incarnate to rescue you from sin, and to save you for life eternal with God. He is altogether wonderful. Our response to Christ’s humanity should be a whole hearted pursuit. Think of it this way. Christ took on flesh, to become like you, to rescue you. And now you are called to become like him, molded and conformed to his image.

Conclusion

I began by telling you a bit about the story of Nicholas of Myra, commonly known as Saint Nicholas, that great defender of the Trinity. Why was Nicholas such an extraordinary gift giver? He had endured hardship in his life. He had excuses why he could have been less generous. Nicholas extended unbelievable grace to others, because he was a man who had received unbelievable grace through Jesus Christ. “We become like the God we worship.” Who are you becoming like?

Behold the Son of God in all of his glory