Sermon Tone Analysis

The Incarnation

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This is the 3rd part of our Advent series… if you do not know Advent means the co ming of someone important, more specifically the coming of Christ.

Today we tackle the Incarnation… What does the word Incarnation mean?

Incarnation - by definition means the fixed and permanent physical dwelling of God, in his world, as opposed to the temporary manifestation of the divine presence and power in a theophany.

or a visitation of God to his world… The OT are full of visitations, or Theophanies

The word theophany is a combination of two Greek words, meaning God and appearance.

The word Theophany is a combination of 2 greek words, meaning God and appearance.

A theophany is an appearance of God.

More precisely, it is a visible display to human beings that expresses the presence and character of God.

Examples include the thunderous display at the top of Mount Sinai (); the burning bush (); appearances to Abraham (; ; ), Isaac (), and Jacob (); the cloud of fire in the wilderness (; ; ); Micaiah's vision (); Isaiah's vision (); Ezekiel's vision (); and John's vision of God on his throne ().

Theophanies in the Old Testament anticipate and foreshadow the permanent coming of God into creation in the incarnation of the Son.

Theophanies in the OT anticipate and foreshadow the permanent coming of God into creation in the INCARNATION of the Son.

In the incarnation, the Son of God takes to himself a human nature, while remaining the divine Son.

The Son is the permanent appearance of God among us.

Of all the ways we can understand the Love of of God for his people there are no more powerful and important doctrines then the Incarnation (and the resurrection.)

The fact that God was clothed in flesh and that he was raised from the dead, are the two most powerful distinctive truths to the Christian Faith.

I would venture to say to anyone who is questioning Christianity, “what do you do with the Incarnation and the Resurrection?”

You can be “Jesus friendly” or even religious and still not believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, being a regenerated believer.

The truth is, if you do not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead, there is no Christianity, and likewise, if you do not believe in the Incarnation of Jesus, That he was Fully God and Fully Man, he is God in the flesh… Then you believe a different Gospel which is no Gospel at all.

Early church fathers like Athanasius, would assert to you a proper view of the Incarnation is indispensable to proper views of the Atonement… Translation?

Believing the truth about Jesus being fully God and Fully Man is the only way to make sense of Jesus dying for our sins and taking God’s wrath in our place.

As we look at this text and others this morning we are going to see how Christ Jesus is the ONLY mediator between God and Man.

It was Ignatius of Antioch who emphasized that there was one Christ who was inseparably both human and divine, both spirit and flesh, God in man, authentic life in death, from Mary and from God.

Ignatius emphasized that there was one Christ who was inseparably both human and divine, both spirit and flesh, God in man, authentic life in death, from Mary and from God.

This has been a foundational truth of the church since its beginning some 2,000 yrs ago and yet we are in jeopardy of losing it today.

Let’s look closer at this text from John’s Gospel today...

In many ways we who are familiar with the Bible hear the beginning of Genesis here, don’t we?

“In the Beginning God created...” vs 3 And God SAID...

And here in John we see that “in the Beginning was the WORD”??? What does that mean?

Didn’t God create everything BY his words… And God said… and it was??? Seems like the WORD here is in essence God… In the beginning was the Word and the Word was WITH GOD and WAS GOD...

There are deep thoughts and many sermons that have been preached on this verse alone.

But at its core I want you to see that the WORD is sharing deity with God, it is Divine in nature… It is personified as being pre-existent to everything we know, and being connect to God the Father, but by the end of this verse there is a funny word that we must notice… the word WAS...

The Word WAS God… what does it mean it was God???

That word was is meant to point to some kind of a transfer of quality that we will see happen here.

God is of one kind of essence and now there is something of another kind of essence being talked about...

Yet it is important to understand that the Word is actually Christ… That is what all true Biblically orthodox and historically accurate churches believe...

At no point is Jesus ever not God… We know Jesus is the second member of the trinity, God the Son… OK? Let’s see how we get there...

Notice that the Word is now call HE??? the word was with God in the Beginning in verse 1 but now in vs 2, He was with God...

And again notice the word WAS, something happened that transferred HIM from being with God.

Why is all this important?

Again we are talking about the Incarnation or the fixed and permanent physical dwelling of God in his world.

We are talking about God in human flesh being born into His world.

is the fixed and permanent physical dwelling of God in his world, as opposed to the temporary manifestation of the divine presence and power in a theophany.

We are saying that Jesus is God and he made his home in human flesh and lived among us...

Yet we need to understand that he existed before the Baby that was born to Mary and Joseph, in fact what this means is that he existed before the creation of the world because he is God in essence...

And so if he preexisted before anything was created because he is One with God, then scripture should tell us that, right?

Now I understand that this sentence seems to read a little funny, but what is it saying?

There is nothing before God, specifically Jesus.

The Triune God made everything and nothing was around before he made it.

In fact when we build the Doctrine of the trinity, which is a word we use to say that God exists in three distinct persons - The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit; this passage from the Gospel of John is essential to understanding who God was talking to during Creation...

Who was God the Father talking to?

Who shares his Image and Likeness?

God the Son and God the Spirit.

The Incarnation helps us understand the mystery of the Trinity

John’s Gospel gives us a glimpse of who God really is, and specifically how God the Son, Jesus, is preeminent in all of creation.

In fact we see this all over the NT.

Jesus is God and he is central to creation and existed before creation.

We have to stop just seeing Jesus as a person who came into the story at his birth.

Jesus is God and by him all things were created...

and in his flesh, the fullness of God was pleased to dwell...

And we are reconciled to God by his body of FLESH… Do you see it???

In his flesh he made peace on the cross with God, and this was for US to be made Holy and blameless!

The Incarnation brought us Forgiveness from God

Without Jesus coming in flesh, sin would not be punished.

The promise was a King, the fulfillment was a Manger, and the Incarnation was how God would accomplish his victory.

John’s gospel is telling us a story that shows us a beginning that happened before the actual birth of Jesus.

Christmas celebrations are about Life from the Beginning… in fact look at the next verse.

Where does mankind get the light of life?

Only from Jesus!

Meaning those who do not have salvation through Jesus Christ do not have life and light.

What do I mean by life, aren’t we all alive?

I would submit to you that the life being talked about here is Eternal Life that is given to those who believe.

Where do I get this from?

From Jesus...

It is clear that this is a picture of eternal life that comes from receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In Jesus is Life, and that Life is the light of men, but this can only happen as the Gospel is preached and heard and believed.

Every time someone believes in the Gospel and is saved, the Darkness of this world is overcome.

Because Jesus is that Light and Life… And no matter how bad this world gets, the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ will; continue to shine brighter and brighter.

This is more than just a statement of God’s power to save, it begins what is a theme of the Gospel of John… Contrast; light and darkness, Faith and Unbelief, Love and Hate, Life and Death, etc...

Yet God’s word not only tell us what the Light is but what the darkness is… The Darkness is evil and sin...

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So while Jesus is the light people are stuck in Darkness, and yet that Darkness is what makes the Light of Christ so glorious, because his light cannot be overcome...

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When we celebrate the Baby being born into the world we are declaring the light that cannot be overcome!

We celebrate true light and true life in Christ.

And during this Christmas season, can I encourage to look at all the lights this world puts up on their homes and remember that the incarnation is a light that cannot be overcome by Darkness!

The Incarnation is a Light that Darkness cannot overcome!

And this is the beauty of knowing the truth about what Advent is… this is the beauty we can enjoy in our fallen world when people who do not know the light and reject the light are still celebrating the light.

That is because Jesus is a light that gives hope… Hope of eternal Life brings light to everyone in the world, and we get to celebrate it openly!

What a joy this season should be to us who know the light of the world and the lIfe of men!

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Now John mentions John the baptist, how he was also sent by God, but not as the light, rather his job was to tell people about this light.

Now I do not want to spend much time on this since we are talking about the Incarnation, but suffice it to say that John baptist called people to repentance and faith in the true light, Jesu Christ… That is exactly what our job is as believer today, to bear witness to the Light of the world that gives Hope of Eternal life!

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Back to the Christmas story, back to our Advent calendars, back to the picture we painted for you last week of a couple of young poor parents having a baby in an animal stable.

That amazing night was not just a night when Jesus was born but it was the night when true Light came into the world!

And it truly is for everyone… here is how… First that word True in true light is meant to mean everlasting or eternal light… it is true light as opposed to temporal light that will eventually go out! and second - to say it is for everyone does not mean everyone will receive this light, but it means that this light is not just for one people group, but rather it is true light that people from everywhere will receive!

this is the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ!

It would seem as though that was the most momentous occasion to ever happen in the world up to that point… And yet the next verse makes this triumphant sounding light of the world sound so sad… and a tension begins...