John 1:14-18
Notes
Transcript
A couple weeks ago, we started looking at the Gospel according to John. John the son of Zebedee, John the apostle, John the beloved disciple had one purpose in mind when writing his account. It’s this:
But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John is writing about the Word, the Creator, the light—the TRUE Light—which is coming into the world. Everything John writes is written that we might believe in Jesus and have life in His name.
That’s the point of all of this.
There’s no reason to gather, no reason for someone to get up and preach if it’s not for the purpose of people believing in Jesus and finding life in Him.
John begins his Gospel by introducing us to Jesus in the most incredible way; here, he writes to tell us about what Jesus did.
If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to John 1. We’re going to read the entirety of the prologue and then focus on verses 14-18.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
May God add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!
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In the prologue to his book, John’s writing about who Jesus is and what the people did with Jesus when He came.
There’s a pretty sad statement of fact in these verses, that Jesus came to His own people and they didn’t recognize Him or receive Him; they rejected Him.
Here at the start of John’s Gospel, we’re presented with the problem.
The True Light came into the world, and the world looked the other way.
The Son of God, who made Himself nothing, was rejected and unrecognized by those who should have received Him most eagerly.
When John wrote this letter, in the mid-late 1st Century, in and amongst the Israelites, the majority of people would have been familiar with the OT (the only part of the Bible there was at the time).
The majority of people knew the OT, and would have understood just exactly what John was saying when he wrote this sentence.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
I haven’t talked much about the date of John’s writing, but I think there’s something important to know here. John wrote his Gospel well after the other three Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke).
There are references in the book that hint that this Gospel (John’s Gospel) was written sometime after AD70 and even as late as AD100—the end of John’s lifetime.
The point is this (there are many things that could be said here), but I was struck by this thought as I was mowing:
The apostle John has ruminated and thought about and meditated on his time with and relationship to Jesus for many years before being led by the Holy Spirit to write his Gospel.
John, certainly toward the middle of his life, and possibly toward the end of his life, writes these words about Jesus.
He’s had a lot of time to think and reflect and grow in his understanding Jesus. I think that—years of reflection and study—that is the only way John could write something as beautiful as verse 14:
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Literally, what it says:
14 And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of an only begotten of a father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus Tabernacled Among Us
Jesus Tabernacled Among Us
Most of us don’t use the word “tabernacled” day to day. Can’t remember the last I used it outside of church or conversations about the Bible.
There’s a good chance the word “tabernacled” has never come out of your mouth.
Likely because tabernacled isn’t a word that’s part of our vocab, those who translated our Bibles swapped it out for a word a little more common, a little more easily understood.
Instead of “tabernacled,” translators chose “dwelt” or “made His dwelling.” A few versions simplify it to “live” or “take up residence.”
Eugene Peterson translates verse 14:
John 1:14 (M:BCL)
14 The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.
I love that, but we miss the bigger picture if we replace the word—ἐσκήνωσεν, tabernacled, lit. pitched His tent. If we don’t consider what that word means and why John used that particular word here, we’ll miss out on the significance of what Jesus has done.
This, that God Himself, in the Second Person of the Trinity, tabernacled among His people is something that God has done before (only in a different way).
In the past, God had made known His presence to His people in/through the tabernacle (the tent of meeting).
In the book of Exodus, the LORD gave exacting specifications (exhausting specifications might be a better phrase) about the construction of a tent of meeting for the people to gather together and meet with the LORD.
Every little detail about the tabernacle—its size and shape, what the tables and lampstands were to look like, what the altar was to be made out of, the courtyard size and what was to happen there, the clothes the priests were to wear (the robes, the ephod, the breastpiece), the altar of incense, basin for washing, anointing oil, and on and on.
Read Exodus 24-40 and you’ll see all these details spoken by the LORD through Moses. And then they’re repeated again for emphasis. The people listened and got to work.
Exodus 39:32 “So all the work on the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, was completed. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses.”
It was there in the tabernacle the LORD met with the people, the place God would dwell in the midst of the people of Israel.
Before there was a temple, it was a tent that went before the Israelites as they made their way to the Promised Land.
Within the tent/tabernacle was the most holy place, the altar of sacrifice; the tabernacle was the center of worship, where worship was directed.
There the glory of God hovered above the Ark of the Covenant.
This—the tabernacle—was where God came to meet with mankind.
This is what’s recorded at the end of the book of Exodus after everything is set up the way the LORD commanded it to be:
34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
35 Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
36 In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out;
37 but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted.
38 So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.
This—the tabernacle—was where God came to meet with mankind. The Israelites got to glimpse the glory of the LORD. They saw a cloud and understood that it was all the glory of God they could handle.
And now John, after decades of considering who Jesus was, why He came, and what He did for us—now John writes:
14 And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of an only begotten of a father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus tabernacled among us. We see, in Jesus, the glory of the LORD. We can know Jesus and, through Him, know the LORD.
Just as God came to meet with the people in the tabernacle, God came in the person Jesus to meet with us—He, the Word, Jesus, took on flesh and tabernacled here among us.
When the temple was built, the tabernacle ceased being the place where people met with God. And then, when Jesus burst onto the scene of history, the temple was no longer the place or the object of worship.
Jesus was. And Jesus is!
Jesus tabernacled among us.
It was before Mary’s baby, the One lying in a manger, all swaddly and smelly—before the baby Jesus, the shepherds worshipped, glorifying and praising God.
It was this child, the One hanging out at home with Mom and Dad, this child both Divine and drooly—to this child, the band of Wise Men came and presented gifts.
Jesus tabernacled among us.
In the OT times, you couldn’t think of the tabernacle without being reminded of the glory of God (that’s where the glory of God resided).
As Israel marched through the wilderness, the glory of the Lord appearing like a cloud went with them, regularly descending upon the tabernacle.
That glory was the “visible manifestation of the excellence of God’s character.”
The glory of God, in other words, is the greatness of God seen visibly.
The tabernacle was, for all its grandeur and awe-inspiring touches, only a partial and incomplete picture of the glory of God.
John teaches when Jesus came to earth as a man to dwell with men—to tabernacle among us—the glory of God was seen in all its fullness.
The truthfulness of God to keep His promises and the grace of God to rescue His people found their ultimate expression when God sent His Son.
As John was writing this, he’s basically saying, “Our forefathers experienced the grace and faithfulness of God, but if you want an even greater demonstration of it, look to Jesus—the true and better tabernacle!”
This “tabernacling” of Jesus, the incarnation of Christ, Jesus born unto us is one of the top-three events in all of history (the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection).
The eternal, all-powerful, ever-present Son of God took on human nature and living among humanity as one who was both God and man at the same time, in One person.
Max Lucado writes this:
“It all happened in a moment, a most remarkable moment that was like none other. For through that segment of time a spectacular thing occurred. God became a man. While the creatures of earth walked unaware, Divinity arrived. Heaven opened and placed this most precious One in a human womb.
God as a fetus. Holiness sleeping in a womb. God was given eyebrows, elbows, two kidneys, and a spleen. He stretched against the walls and floated in the amniotic fluids of his mother.
God had come near. [Now] it is much easier to keep the humanity out of the incarnation.
But don’t do it. For heaven’s sake, don’t. Let Him be as human as He intended to be. Let Jesus into the mire and muck of our world. For only if He comes to us can He pull us out.”
Jesus Tabernacled Among Us.
God has come down. Reflect on that today. But don’t stop.
Think about it tomorrow, and the next day. And every day after that. Wonder and Worship. Be amazed that He would do this and adore Him for doing it.
15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”)
John the Baptist was witness to this Jesus, continually pointing people to Him (here and at every opportunity).
Even though John the Baptist beat Jesus to the scene, Jesus existed long before John and created John.
That’s some mind-blowing stuff that really ticked-off the religious leaders of the day. But just because it offends doesn’t make it untrue.
John continues, writing about grace.
It’s God’s unmerited favor—GRACE—by which Jesus has come to dwell among us. Jesus has moved into the neighborhood. He is full of grace and truth.
16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Grace and truth most likely is an echo of the Hebrew phrase steadfast love and faithfulness. It’s hesed and emet—an expression referring to God’s covenant faithfulness.
6 The Lord passed before [Moses] and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
According to John, who’s borrowing yet another phrase from the OT, according to John, God’s faithfulness to His covenant found its ultimate expression in the sending of Jesus Christ, His Son.
In the law, given through Moses, God revealed His character and righteous requirements.
Through Jesus, we have the definitive and final revelation of God’s grace and truth.
Jesus is superior to Abraham, to Jacob, to Moses, to the tabernacle. Jesus is the true and better.
18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
Jesus is described here as the One and Only Son who is Himself God.
This rounds out the prologue, echoing verse 1—the Word was God.
Jesus is the One and Only God and is in closest relationship with God.
We’re not going to untangle the mystery of the Trinity here this morning (as if we could).
What we need to know is who Jesus is.
Eternally existing.
The Creator.
Light and Life.
The Word of God who came and pitched His tent among us.
The One and Only God—God’s Son and the full expression of grace and truth.
Consider from these opening verses of John’s Gospel what Jesus has done:
Jesus has revealed to us the grace and truth of God.
Jesus has shown to us the glory of God.
Jesus has explained God to humanity.
The only way to know God is through His Son, Jesus.
There are a lot of counterfeit teachings, worthless religions, and mistaken people.
The apostle John holds out to us—to you and to me and to everyone else—Jesus as the One and Only.
Only through Jesus can you know the Father.
Jesus is Grace and Truth, the Glory of the LORD, the One in closest relation to God who invites us to come to the Father and live!
31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
I want to close with morning with a poem entitled “The Word” written by my good friend, the late Right Reverend, Philip J. Fox.
He wrote this in 2013, based on John 1:
Word with God, Beginning of all.
Word of Creation and Maker of all.
Both Word and Wisdom, the One Word of God.
The Life and Light that enlightens us all,
In the darkness He shines. Does it seem odd
That in His presence the darkness must flee?
It can’t understand Him; how else could it be,
For over Him darkness can never hold sway.
The darkness of ignorance fades away -
Can never resist when He comes to stay.
The Light that enlightens came down to man.
John pointed to Him. Did they understand?
He came to His own; they received Him not,
Could not bear His presence in their small land.
They cast Him aside without a thought.
They knew not their Maker - they could not see,
But to those who could He gave the power to be
The Sons of God, made by God’s own will -
By faith (not by flesh or by human will),
For God is creating His children still.
So the Word became flesh. We saw His face
Filled with God’s glory and God’s own grace.
By Moses’ hands God delivered the Law,
But His grace and truth have taken its place.
The Word lifts us up and mends every flaw,
For the grace of God is found in His Son
(The One who preceded and followed John).
The Father is ever on Heaven’s throne,
And who can claim to have seen Him? No one;
Only through His Son is the Father made known.
