In Awe Over the Incarnation
Notes
Transcript
My dad owns and operates a quail hunting preserve in South Mississippi. When I call and talk to him every couple of weeks, it’s not uncommon that he’ll be on a hunt with a group and I’ll have to call him back. A few weeks ago I called him and he said, “Hey I can’t talk long, Rickie Vernan is over from Texas. He’s a friend of our family who dad goes out to dove hunt with every year. He said, he came over and brought several friends. One of his friends that came over with him is Sundance Head.
That hit you like it hit me. I didn’t have a clue who that was. But I could tell by my dad, I should have known. My dad went on. Yeah, he was the winner of The Voice in Season 11 in 2017. He was on Blake Shelton’s team and toured with him after the season was over. He’s hunting and coming over to eat with us along with several other friends.
I could tell that this was a big deal to Dad. Later he sent me some pictures. Here Sundance Head with his possey. Here’s Sundance Head with my Mom and Dad in their living room. Here’s the write up in the local paper about the whole event with these pictures.
They were in awe of this guy. What a privilege to have the winner of the voice hunting on their land and visiting in their home!
Now magnify that feeling by infinity and that is what John is saying. What a gift, what a privilege to have the Son of God dwelling with us. This text is about the Incarnation of Christ. God coming down to dwell with man. John is in awe that God would come to us himself!
So, let’s look at what fuel John’s awe about the coming of Christ and why we should live in awe over the incarnation. The incarnation is a gift of at least 3 blessings.
The incarnation is
I. Blessing of Presence (v. 14a)
I. Blessing of Presence (v. 14a)
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.
We’ve talked about the Logos, the Word. How God reveals himself. God reveals himself through creation. We looked a couple of weeks ago how Christ was the means through which God created all things. The Word continues to reveal God through putting on flesh. Jesus is God and Jesus is man. We can know understand more fully who God is because he became as we are. And he became as we are so that he could save us from our sins.
The essence of this is he presence. John uses the word “dwelt.” He dwelt among us. It’s a word that literally means something like, “He pitched a tent among us.”
*My wife doesn’t like camping. I love it. That means we never camp. We’ll if you ask her we do. That’s staying in a hotel room while we are on a trip to the mountains.
But the essence of camping or pitching a tent is that you leave a permenant condition to move to a temporary one for a while. Then you go back to your premanent condition.
That describes Jesus’ incarnation and ministry here. He wasn’t coming to stay in physical form here forever. He had a mission to accomplish while here. He lived 33 years a perfect life for us. He died taking on our sins. He rose again to give us eternal life as we trust in him through repentance and faith. And in doing so, he dwelt with humanity in the flesh.
This issue of presence in the incarnation is a fulfillment of God’s presence in the OT.
Tabernacle- Remember during the wilderness journey of 40 years God dwelt with the people in the tabernacle. The tabernacle was just a tent that they would reassembly everywhere they camped where God would dwell and Moses could meet with God.
Tempe-Later on God dwelt with the Jews in the Temple, until the temple was destroyed.
Jesus Christ- In the NT God provided presence to his people through the person of Christ who is the 2nd person of the Trinity.
Church and Christian Body- Now the the Holy Spirit, Christ makes the church in to a temple of his presence and he lives in us in the Christian’s Body.
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
+God has always desired to dwell among his people. If you are a Christian you were made for the presence of God. The question is never, “Is God with us.” The question is simply to we recognize and stand in awe of his presence.
The gospel proclaims that God has dwelt with us for a time in Christ. So that we could forever dwell with him through Christ.
The incarnation is a:
II. Revelation of Glory(v. 14b)
II. Revelation of Glory(v. 14b)
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.
When we talk about glory, we are talking about the idea of the weightiness of God, his greatness, his magnitude, his exaltation, his majesty. That is often revealed in splendor.
We see this in the Old Testament through what theologians call theophanies, the appearances of God.
God revealed himself first to Moses in a glory of what Moses called a burning bush that wasn’t consumed.
Later on Moses asked to see God’s glory and this is what happened.
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.
After this encounter, Moses had wear a veil to cover his face because his faced glowed with the remnants of God’s glory on him.
Moses spoke of how God revealed himself to the people from the mountain of God.
22 “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
So, when John says, “we have seen his glory, glory as of the Only Son from the Father” he is probably talking about is encounter with this glorious majesty seen in splendor on the Mountain of Transfiguration.
2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.
3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.
4 And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
There you see the combination of the OT skinah glory of God being seen in the divinity of Christ and the declaration from the Father of exactly who Christ is. “His beloved Son.”
John describes Jesus in v.14 as “the only Son from the Father.” He heard the Father declare Christ as such.
What does that mean “only Son.” It doesn’t simply mean that the Father didn’t have several children. It speaks of the uniqueness of Christ. There word used there is “mongenes” which is derived from the word genos, which means “kind” or “species.” John is saying that Jesus is one of a kind, unique. There is no other like him. That’s actually what John 3:16 means when it uses “he gave his only begotten son.”
God’s revelation of himself has no equal anywhere other than Christ.
+So don’t come with this ridiculous notion that you have found God more meaningful to you nature or some other faith outside of Christ. God is not found revealed more fully than in Christ. For he is God wrapped in flesh.
In the incarnation is found an:
III. Abundance of Providence (vv. 15-18)
III. Abundance of Providence (vv. 15-18)
v. 14 ends by saying that Christ’s glory is “full of grace and truth.” (v.14)
That most like a reference to the OT description of God’s “steadfast love and faithfulness.”
This speaks to the completeness of God’s glory in Christ. There is nothing lacking in Christ. In fact, he is so full of the glory of God and the attributes of God that is because of his fullness that we find abundance of blessing in him.
And v. 16 continues,
16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
Christ is so full of God’s grace that he is overflowing. Out of Christ comes grace on top of grace. Like a waterfall of grace cascading down in the lives of believers. The vessel of Christ can’t contain all the grace flowing from the love of God.
Concerning all of the cold the nation has been experiencing this last week, I read this advice.
“If you rarely drive on snow, just pretend you’re taking your grandma to church. There’s a platter of biscuits and 2 gallons f sweet tea in glass jars in the back seat. She’s wearing a new dress and holding a crock pot full of gravy.”
Something is going to spill out. That’s what John is saying about Jesus. He is so full grace and truth, he spills over and the overflow brings us blessing on top of blessing.
John tells believers to notice all of the blessings they have already received. Justification, on top of Sanctification, on top of Glorification and top of Redemption, on top of Adoption as children. Think about the fact that after providing work for the gospel. And God does the work to change our hearts so that the faith he requires is a gift.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
The church Father Augustine framed the truth in a prayer this way, “O Lord, command what you will and give what you command.”
Going back to his fullness contains “grace and truth.” That speaks to God standard of righteousness that is required of all people. Of which we have all failed to meet. But, he meets that standard for us through grace and mercy.
Christ can do this because he himself is the fulfillment of all of the OT promises.
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
It’s not the law was bad. The law articulated truth. And it pointed to our failure to keep the truth. Grace comes through Christ to makes us righteous before God.
That’s seen in the fact that Christ is superior to Moses. John the Baptist pointed to it:
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.’ ”)
Jesus ranks before John because is the the preexistent Son of God. Moses could deliver the law of God as a servant. But, Christ could fulfill the law of God as a Son and make us children of God in the process.
He ends by saying,
18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
No one has seen “deity.” God is spirit. You can’t see a word. But now you can. God explained himself to humanity by becoming part of humanity. Now we have the opportunity to enjoy the righteousness and holiness of the divine forever. The Word has become flesh and is now here with his children forever.
In him truly is grace upon grace.
God is with us. May we never cease to be in awe of his presence!