The Word Became Flesh
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Well first I want to say thank you for coming out tonight. I am excited to be starting Sunday night Bible studies here at Bethlehem. From what I understand it has been a while since we have had regular Sunday night services. But I am glad we can start this up again and my prayer is that our time together on Sunday nights will be more than profitable.
I first started speaking with Brother Paul about doing this study in the book of John back in November and he was all for the idea. We had a hard time deciding whether or not to do it on Sunday or Wednesday or here or at Gamaliel, but I think it is good to do it here at our church and I am excited for it.
Some have asked me how long this study will take? I was having a conversation last weekend with Brother Darrel Bartley from Marrowbone Baptist Church and we were talking about this study and specifically the Gospel of John. He said to me, well, if you are going to do it right you need to spend three weeks in chapter one alone. I told him that was good because I am probably spending four weeks in chapter one.
But in all seriousness, this is not something we want to rush. We want to go thoroughly through this book. There are 21 chapters so at minimum it will take 21 weeks, but as I said we will be spending multiple weeks in some chapters. So, in short, I have no idea how long this will take. We will go until we are done.
The Gospel of John is one of the most important books in all of Scripture. Not that there are any unimportant books in Scripture. But I have often said that the two books that will do you well for a lifetime of study are the Book of Romans and the Gospel of John. These two books have some of the deepest and richest theology in all of Scripture.
When we think of the Gospel of John we think about Christ. The whole book is about Christ. It is about the person of Christ. It is about his Deity. It is about his power, his authority, and his majesty. It is about his saving work on the cross, his redemption of our souls in the resurrection, it is about his glory in his final days on this earth.
The Gospel of John is about the disciples and how they follow Christ through good and bad. It shows their ups and downs and how they were not always perfect. It examines the other followers of Christ as well. We think of Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus in . When we finally get to that chapter it will show us the humanity of Christ when we see Jesus weep and grieve with Mary and Martha over Lazarus’ death. But then we see the glory and power of Christ when he raises Lazarus up.
The book of John has some major themes. The overall theme is the Deity of Christ. We see this theme played out in significant ways. We will see the signs of Christ in John. These are the various miracles that Christ performed to show his power and authority. And we will see the “I Am” statements of Christ in John declaring that he is, in fact, God.
We will be taking this study straight through the Gospel. We will start in chapter one and work methodically through the book all the way to chapter 21.
This will not be your normal Sunday sermon. We will be looking at church history, we will be looking at Greek words, cultural concepts and I promise I will do my best to make it interesting.
The Gospel does not actually name its author. So you may be wondering, why do we attribute it to the Apostle John? There are a few reasons why we can have confidence that John wrote this book.
First, the early church testifies that John wrote this book. Irenaeus who lived during the second century wrote in his work Against Heresies, that John was the author of the Gospel. This is significant because Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp who worked directly under the Apostle John. So we are just one step removed from the Apostle saying that the Apostle wrote the book. There are other examples of those in the early church attributing the Gospel to John but we will not get into them this evening.
Another evidence is the actual manuscript evidence. No manuscript has ever been found attributing the book to anyone other than John. But there is also internal evidence that John wrote the Gospel.
Need to add information about authorship.
It is important to note that John never calls himself by name in the Gospel even when he is part of the scene. When you see the name John mentioned he is talking about John the Baptist. He refers to himself only as a disciple or, more specifically, the disciple that Jesus loved.
I mentioned several themes in John, but the Gospel also has an overall purpose. John actually states this in
31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John wants us to know that Jesus is the Christ, that He is God, and that we can have eternal life by believing in Him. These are the overall themes. You cannot miss these from the first verses of John to the last. It is for these reasons that many people hand out the Gospel of John to unbelievers as their first exposure to the Bible.
But I think we have talked enough about the context and history of the book. I think it is time we actually begin to look at the text. We are in the first chapter of John’s Gospel tonight. Specifically, we will be in . So let’s read the text together.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 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 bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
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. 15 (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.’ ”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
The title of tonight’s message is the Word Became Flesh. This is the single most glorious passage in all of Scripture in my opinion. You might object and say, “What about the crucifixion and resurrection? What about the birth of Christ in Luke? What about ?” Yes, those are all wonderful sections of Scripture. But the reason I single out this passage is this, none of those other passages would be possible without the truth that is contained in these 18 verses. The truth and the hope of the Gospel rises and falls on the Deity of Christ. The reason for this is that no man could take away our sin. tells us:
10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
There is not one righteous man. Therefore, God had to become man to stand in our place. The word became flesh.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
This is one of the single most attacked doctrines of Scripture in the church today. There are people who claim to be Christian all over the country today that adamantly deny the Deity of Christ. In fact, in a 2016 survey taken by Lifeway Research and Ligonier Ministries only 68% of Evangelicals strongly affirmed the Deity of Christ. That means over 30% either denied or were not sure of his status as Deity. Yet, in this chapter, we see the Deity of Christ plainly stated.
So just to have some sort of outline or direction we are going in, we want to see the first point.
The Deity of the Word
The Deity of the Word
The Deity of the Word.
Verse one states, “In the beginning, was the Word.” The phrase, “In the beginning” is used ten times in the English Standard Version. That is significant. Of those ten times, four are in reference to the beginning of the reign of a king. Two are in reference to the beginning of a work. The other four refer to the beginning of creation. Those are found in , Here in , and in .
Of course we all know , In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. states,
10 And,
“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
And then of course here in John we see the beginning had the Word. But the next phrase is crucial. The word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
Now, it is important to note that in verse two the original Greek does not say “He was in the beginning with God.” It actually states, “This one was in the beginning with God.” So why is it translated as He in the ESV and other translations? It is because the context dictates who this one is. This one is Jesus as we see later in this passage. Verses 15-17 explain to us that Jesus is the Word that is being discussed here in the prologue of John. And in verse three it actually does begin using the Greek word for “he” or “him” clarifying that the Word is talking about a person.
The Word being with God also shows two distinct and personal beings. The Father and the Son, as well are the Spirit, are three, yet they are one. Now we may not fully understand the intricacies of the Trinity and how God is fully within each of the three persons of the Trinity. Much of this is a mystery to us and we could be here all night discussing it and never get to the bottom of it. It is simply beyond human comprehension. But it is important to note that John is affirming the Trinity at its most basic nature. That there are distinct persons within the Godhead.
The fact that John calls Jesus the Word also has cultural significance of the time. The Greeks would have understood the word logos to mean the source of logic, creative force, and principle reason in the universe. We should not confuse this to say that Jesus is the Word of God as some sort of idea or abstract way of saying Jesus was somehow the personification of the words that God spoke. There are those today that state this in order to deny His deity. But that ignores the cultural context of the passage.
Jewish readers would have understood the Word of the Lord to be the source of divine power. So in a real sense, the audience understood, whether Jew or Greek, that Christ is more than just a human. He is the source of divine authority and power. And, as John emphatically states, He is God.
But John goes even further to not just state that Jesus was God. He emphasizes it in the next verse.
Verses 15-17 explain to us that Jesus is the Word that is being discussed here in the prologue of John.
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Again, we must look at , In the beginning God created. And here in it says all things were made through Christ and nothing was made without Him. He is doubling down on the fact that Jesus is God. This is undeniable.
This also speaks against another idea that we often see creeping into the church. Jesus was not created. He is not the first created being. He has always been and always will be. He has made everything, and therefore, He Himself was not made but has always been.
Verses 4-5 continue the majesty and Deity of Christ.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
This closes the opening of the declaration of John to the Deity of Christ. He is not finished here, this goes on through verse 18. But I want to point out something important here. I mentioned earlier that we are going to be seeing “I Am” statements in the book of John where Jesus will assert his Divine authority. We see foreshadow of this here in the first five verses.
And this brings us to our second point that the Word is the light of the world.
The Word is the Light of the World
The Word is the Light of the World
Verse 4 John states that in Christ was life. This will be one of the “I Am” statements of Christ.
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
In the last part of verse 4 and all of verse 5, John shows Christ is the light of the world. Jesus claims this as well as another “I Am” statement.
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
But let’s not overlook the majesty of this verses four and five. In Christ was life. Remember that the purpose John is writing this for is so that you may believe and that you may have life. We are born dead without Christ. We have no hope without Jesus Christ. We are in complete darkness without Jesus Christ. There is no good in us, there is no good in this world. Good only comes from Jesus Christ, good only comes from God.
Jesus Christ is that light that shines through the darkness of this world. We see darkness all around us. We heard just this week of the air strike that killed Iran’s top general. And while that may give us the reaction to applause we need to think about this. The only reason people like that general, people like bin Laden, people like Stalin and Hitler exist is because of the total darkness of humanity. The fall in was so damaging, so complete, that we are in a radical state of hopeless depravity and we need a savior.
But what did verse five say?
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
In these dark times, and they are dark, we need to cling to this passage. The light of Christ shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome that light, and will not overcome that light. We need to hold on to what Jesus said in
33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Verse six begins a transition because John goes into more detail about this light.
John 1:
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
These verses seem insignificant at first. But John the Baptist is not insignificant. He was prophesied about in and this is verified later in this chapter. But it is of note that John, the Apostle, not Baptist, completely changes gears from the majesty of the Deity of Christ to talking about a man proclaiming him. But John the Baptist was significant as I said. He was divinely sent and appointed by God from birth. Before John was even conceived, God told John the Baptist’s Father what he would do.
Luke 1:13-
13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
John had a divine appointment to turn people towards Christ, the Messiah. John himself was not the messiah, he was not the savior.
8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
But just as quickly as John shifted from the Majesty of Christ to John the Baptist, he shifts back to the light of Christ. But we have a problem.
The third point this evening is that the light was rejected.
The Light Rejected
The Light Rejected
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
John 1:9
He, God, Christ, was in the world, yet the world did not know him. His own people did not receive them. This is a tragedy. For centuries the Jews had been looking and hoping for their Messiah and when He came, they rejected Him.
This is the ultimate rejection. God’s chosen people, the Jews, did not receive the Messiah they were trusting in. This is a group of people who had special revelation. It was through the Jews that God decided to enact his redemptive purposes for mankind. It was through the Jews that we had the writings of the prophets and the great kings of old. It was through the Jews that would be the royal bloodline to bring the King of Kings but they missed it. It wasn’t how they imagined it being and so they rejected it.
This points us to a sobering fact. Man, left to his own ways, his own thoughts, his own judgments, will never choose God. Sinful man wants nothing to do with God or the ways of God. He wants nothing to do with what God has planned and wants it to be in his own way. This has been true from Adam all the way down to you and me.
We will see as we go through John’s Gospel that God has a people. He has sheep, those sheep are the ones who hear him. They are the ones that know Christ. They have been given to Christ by the Father. And we begin to see this in verses 12 and 13.
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Not all reject the light. Those who have been given grace by God to have a change of heart and mind receive it. They become children of God. But verse 13 gave us something that we must understand, a crucial concept.
Those who receive God, those who are born again are not born of blood or will of the flesh. We are not little gods, we are not some racial heritage, bloodline, of God. Nor were we born of the will of man. This is key. Man does not desire God in his fallen state. Paul tells us this in Romans as we saw earlier this evening. We do not come to God through personal desire. It is not our will to choose God. It was God’s will to choose us. We were born not of the flesh or will of man, but of God.
We will see this over and over again in John’s Gospel. It is not we who choose God, but God is his sovereign authority chooses us and says come to me, I will give you rest. Salvation is 100% totally of God and not of anything we do.
But I also want to hit on this word believed. Those who believed in his name he gave the right. This is not a head knowledge. It is not enough to just believe and say, “Yes, I believe in Christ.” Even Satan believes in Christ. No, the word in Greek is pisteuo. It not just means believe in head knowledge, like I said, it means to entrust oneself to an entity in complete confidence. It literally has implications of full submission, total commitment. We lose a lot in the English translations sometimes and this is one thing I fear.
I fear that a lot of people today believe they are saved simply because they said a prayer, filled out a card, walked down an aisle or raised their hand. But they are not committed to actually trusting Christ for their salvation. That is the message that we need to be bringing to people. The thing to remember is that it is not of anything man does or has done or will do, it is of God and God alone. This is why we say that salvation is by Grace alone, through Faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. It is his choice, not ours.
But now John transitions again. We have seen him talk about Christ as the Word, The Word as the Light, the Light rejected and now we see the Word became flesh.
In theology we have what we call the five solas.
The Word Became Flesh
The Word Became Flesh
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.
This is perhaps the single greatest verse in all of Scripture because of what it implies. God, the creator, the word, became flesh and came to live among us. You have to understand the magnitude of what this meant. Christ left His glorious throne, His place with the father, a place of holiness and purity, and he came in the flesh to live as we lived. To walk where we walk. To see what we see and to experience what we experience.
The difference between Christ and us is that Christ lived the perfect human life. He was able to keep the fullness of God’s law and live without sin. He was the second Adam.
45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
He did what the first Adam could not do. He lived perfectly and because of that he gives each of us life. The mystery is how Christ can be both truly God and truly man. But verse 14, when it says became flesh, confirms his humanity after John has already established his Deity.
The word became in verse 14 is the Greek word ginomai. It has the sense of taking on something new, a new nature or condition. Christ was God, and he took on the flesh of man and became like us. He did not give up his Deity, but gave up his place in glory for a time to live like us.
This is important because there were a group of people that believed Jesus was not actually human but only appeared as such. This is a heresy called Docetism. He was more of a phantom of sorts, just an image, in today’s technology like a hologram. But that is not what the text says. Christ became flesh.
Paul discusses this in Philippians chapter two:
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Equality with God was not something to be grasped because he already was God.
The verse continues to say that we have seen his glory. Now glory is used to describe several types of things. The glory of a kingdom, the glory of flowers in the fields, the glory of a king. But John clarifies this glory. It is not just any glory, it is glory as of the one from the Father full of grace and truth. This is the glory of God in human form. We will see this explained more as we get to verse 18.
The fact that people today still deny the Deity of Christ is astounding. There is no excuse for it if they say they follow the Bible. It is clear as it can be throughout the entire New Testament as we have seen tonight. And, as I said, without the Deity of Christ we are hopeless.
The last thing that we see in the prologue of the John’s Gospel is the Word identified.
The Word Identified
The Word Identified
15 (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.’ ”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
We already spoke earlier that the sole purpose of the life of John the Baptist was to proclaim the coming of the Messiah. He had already amassed a following for himself and had disciples of his own. Yet John understood his place. Jesus Christ ranks before him even though he came after him. John knew Christ was coming. They were first cousins. They knew each other from the time they were kids. But John knew exactly who Jesus was and what His purpose was and he declared that mission and identity.
And John, the Apostle, writes the identity of Christ as identified by the Baptist.
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Moses was a type of foreshadow to Christ. He led Israel out of bondage just as Christ leads us out of spiritual bondage. Moses gave the truth of the Law of God. Christ gave us the grace of God that fulfills the Law.
The last verse of this section, verse 18, puts the final stamp on the identity of Christ.
18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
This verse builds on the comparison between Moses and Christ. If you look back in Exodus chapter 33 we see a hint of this verse.
18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 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. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
Exodus 33:18-
Moses could not see the full glory of God, and could not see God’s face. This is what John is alluding to here in verse 18. Nobody has ever seen God, but Jesus Christ has made him known. Jesus has made God known because he is God. He holds the full glory of God. He could be seen because just as God had to shield his glory from us, Christ’s full glory was shielded by his human flesh.
So what do we have as far as application from John’s Prologue?
The application is this, Jesus Christ deserves all worship and glory because of the majesty of His Deity. He is above all things and has created all things and deserves and demands our full submission because without Him, we are without any hope and condemned.
Let’s pray.