Hope Church LV Sermons
The Word Became Flesh
How many of you have already sent or received at least one Christmas card? Let me see your hand. That's what I thought, right? Most of us have already sent or received at least one Christmas card. Did you know that Christmas cards were first commissioned in London in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole? And at the first commissioning of Christmas cards, they only printed 2,000 Christmas cards and sold them for a shilling piece. We've come a long way since 1843, right? Last year in America alone, over two billion Christmas cards and box sets were sold and 1.9 billion Christmas cards were mailed through the United States Postal Service. Christmas cards are a major part of the way that we express our celebration of this season. There's one particular Christmas card though that I've received multiple times over the course of several years and as you open it on the inside, there's something that is written and it's by an author that is unknown and it's simply called one solitary life. Many of you have probably seen that Christmas card. I want to read you what it says on the inside. It says he was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village where he worked in a carpenter's shop until he was 30. Then for three years, he was on a tenorate preacher. He never had a family or owned a home. He never set foot inside a big city. He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born. He never wrote a book or held an office. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. While he was still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends deserted him. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had, his coat. When he was dead, he was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave. 19, now 20 centuries, have come and gone. And today he is the central figure for much of the human race. All the armies that ever marched and all the navies that ever sailed and all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as this one solitary life. From Vietnam to Cuba, from Uganda to America, the birth of Jesus Christ will be celebrated this week all over the globe. I was reading this week in a book called "Because We Love Him" written by Clyde Cranford. In that book, Clyde said this about the incarnation and it just captured my heart and it really captivated my attention and I wanted to share it with you this morning. The incarnation is simply the theological term for the birth of Christ, listen what he said. The incarnation is the most cataclysmic event in all the history of the universe. Every other historical fact pales in comparison to this incomprehensible wonder God has come in the flesh. I'm afraid that many of us have been around Christianity for so long. Some of the truths of Scripture are so familiar to us that we can talk about things like the incarnation of Christ and we can make the statement that God has come in the flesh and it's lost that sense of all and wonder. Is that statement still wow you, Emmanuel, God with us? Imagine if I were to announce this morning that next weekend the sermon will be delivered by God Himself in the flesh. You couldn't do as you normally do and get the church late, right? You'd have to get here early because it would be standing room only. Now, we understand that every week God is with us. Every week God speaks to us through His Word but I'm talking about God in the flesh. There would be a sense of excitement, there would be a sense of awe and wonder. Matter of fact, we probably wouldn't sleep all week as we prepared to get here early and get our seats down at the front because we'd want to see God in the flesh. What we're celebrating this week is exactly that. God in the flesh. If you're visiting with us, we're in a series right now through Hebrews chapter 11 but we've taken a break this weekend and next to celebrate Christmas together and I want you to take your Bible if you happen, have it with you and open it to the first chapter of the gospel of John. John as a gospel writer opens his gospel different than any other of the four gospels. John writes as someone who is captivated with the incarnation of Christ. He writes as someone who is in a sense of awe and wonder over this reality that we celebrate at Christmas. Now, John begins to talk to us about the person of Jesus but he uses a different term. He calls Jesus the Word. Now he uses that term specifically for two reasons. His audience is predominantly Greek and Jewish and to the Greeks, this term the Word was what they used in philosophy to describe the rational principle that governed the universe. So John was borrowing a term from Greek culture that they understood to be the governing principle to introduce the person of Christ to them. But then for the Jews, this term the Word was used in the Old Testament to refer to God Himself. So John uses this term the Word to describe the person of Jesus. Listen to what he says in John chapter one beginning in verse one, we're going to read the first three verses and then we're going to skip down to verse 14. He says 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 came into being through Him and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. Now skip down to verse 14. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and John says, and we saw it. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. And you can see came into being through Him and then He became flesh. And John says, with my eyes, I saw it, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Today begins the mad rush, the last week before Christmas. We know what that looks like in our culture, right? I mean, some of you even now are thinking about the mall that you're headed to this afternoon. You're thinking about the relatives that are going to be arriving. You're thinking about the cleaning and the cooking that's got to be done. You're thinking about some of you guys just went, "Oh my gosh, it's Christmas. I've got to go to the mall today," right? There's nothing wrong with all the ways that we celebrate in our society. I'm not somebody that tries to bash that. That's not what I'm trying to do. There's nothing wrong with all the traditions and customs in our culture. But we can never let those steal away our focus from the real reason we're celebrating this week. And so as we begin this week, I want to try to give you a statement. I'm going to take the verses that we've looked at this morning and I'm going to give you a five-part statement that in the midst of the madness and the craziness this week, if you can just write this statement down on your heart, when things seem to be at their most crazy and you just kind of go to this statement and let it just saturate in your heart, you can remember why we're really celebrating this week. So here's the first part of the statement, Jesus is eternal. Jesus is eternal. John opens this gospel with a familiar phrase. He starts it with three words in the beginning. Does that sound familiar? John did it intentionally to trigger in their minds another phrase that began just like that. What other book of the Bible begins with in the beginning? Genesis, right? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It's interesting, the Holy Spirit of God in Genesis 1-1 uses that phrase in the beginning to point us forward in human history. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It's a statement that points us forward into the stream of human history. But John uses it just the opposite. John uses it as a statement to point us backwards. In the beginning was. It's as if Genesis 1-1 is saying, "Here's how the beginning began." In John 1-1, the Spirit of God is saying, "Here's what was before the beginning began." For one second ever ticked off the clock of time before the first ray of sunlight ever broke across the horizon, before the first bird ever sung in a treetop when there was no earth, no galaxy, no sun, no ocean, no human race, no nothing. There was Jesus. John MacArthur said it this way. Jesus Christ was already in existence when the heavens and the earth were created. Thus, He is not a created being, but existed from all eternity. The word did not begin to be, but at the point at which all else began to be, He already was. I'm going to read that for you again. The word did not begin to be, but at that point at which all else began to be, He already was. In the beginning, place it where you may. The word already existed. In other words, the word is before time, eternal. This week in our teaching team meeting, we were dialoguing around this principle of eternality. And I asked the team, we come together every week and we talk about the text for the week, and I asked them, I said, how do you say eternal without using the word eternal? What's another word in our language that you can substitute in a sentence for the word eternal? And I'll be honest with you. We struggled to come up with one because every word you slide in there refers to something with no ending, everlasting, never ending, perpetual, endless. All of the words in the human language that I could even come up with deal with something that has no ending, and even when we use the word eternal, often we think about something that has no ending, we'll talk about us receiving eternal life. And when we say that, what we mean, we don't fully understand the concept, we think that just means we'll never die. The problem is what the Bible is teaching us here is not just that Jesus has no ending, it's that He has no beginning. Now we struggle with that conceptually because we don't know anything else like that. The Bible says in the book of Colossians chapter 1 and verse 17, Paul says, and He himself existed before all things. It's literally four words. He is before all. And is there that is located in Colossians 1 17 is in the present act of tense, meaning that it describes something that's ongoing and continuous. He is, He am, He always is and always has been. He existed before everything. Listen to what Jesus said describing Himself in Revelation chapter 1 and verse 8. In Revelation chapter 1 and verse 8, Jesus describes Himself in relationship to time. Listen what He says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God. Who is, who was, and who is to come. Interesting thing about this verse, if you and I were to write this verse about ourselves, we would describe ourselves past, present, future. "I was, I am, I will be." Jesus doesn't do it that way. He starts in the present tense and then He goes past tense and then He goes future tense. He said, "Who is present tense? Who was past tense? Who is to come future tense? Present past future." That's backwards. We would say past, present, future. Why do you do it that way? He's describing Himself in relationship to time. He's the one who is, meaning that He always has been existing outside the parameters of time. He's the one who was at a point in time, He entered the human creation that He spoke into existence and He was. And He's the one who is to come one day bringing all of time as you and I know it to an end. He always has been and He always will be. There's never been a time when Jesus was not. Everything about Him is eternal. His position in the Trinity. His eternal, John 17, 5 says, "Now Father, glorify Me together with Yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was." His redemptive mission is eternal in Revelation chapter 13 and verse 8. The Bible says He was the Lamb of God slain, listen, before the foundation of the world. Here's what that means. The cross was no ambulance sent to an accident. The cross was the predetermined mission and redemptive plan of God from eternity past. His love for us is eternal. The Bible says in Ephesians 1, 4, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. Everything about Jesus is eternal. Jesus is eternal. Let me give you the second part of the statement, Jesus is the eternal God. John says in the beginning was the Word. Then He says, "And the Word was with God and the Word was God." Jesus is very significant. Many religions would give Jesus a place of honor. Many religions would give Jesus a place of prominence. Let me give you some examples. I just returned from Egypt in Egypt at 4.30 every morning, the first of five calls to prayer begins at 4.30, the mosque. You hear it begin to cry out if you're anywhere within several miles of a mosque and they've got them located all over the Middle East. This cry begins to call people to pray to the Islamic God of Allah. Islam would give Jesus a place of honor. Islam would say that Jesus Christ is one of the five major prophets. Islam would say it is right to reverence and revere and honor the person of Jesus. Hinduism, Gandhi, a major proponent of Hinduism, Gandhi was a devoted follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Gandhi would say that the Sermon on the Mount and the Principles of Kingdom Living, Gandhi would say are some of the greatest things ever written in human history. Gandhi wrote books himself about trying to follow the pattern of life of Jesus Christ. Gandhi and Hinduism would give Jesus a place of honor. We live in a city that is in some ways dominated by Mormonism. Mormonism would give Jesus a place of honor. Mormonism would say that you should follow Jesus Christ. They would even say that Jesus Christ is someone who's existed forever. The difference is they would say that Jesus Christ is someone who was man that ultimately became God. All other religions would give Jesus a place of honor, but only the Bible teaches us that Jesus always has been and always will be the eternal God of the universe. Jesus is God. Now John uses two important phrases to describe this. Number one, John says, and the word was with God. It's literally in the Greek prose time Theon. Here's what it means. It means face to face with God. In the beginning was the word and the word was face to face with God. That teaches us three things. Number one, it teaches us personality. It does not say that he was in God. It says he was with God. Distinct from distinct person with God. But also this does not just teach us about personality. It teaches us about equality, because in the Greek culture to say face to face with meant equal, because in Greek culture and in many Eastern cultures, you never approach someone of higher rank equally. You always lower yourself to approach them. You never look face to face. You never look eye to eye with someone of a higher rank. The only time you do that is when you are equal to them. Every other person you bow before them in a display of honor and humility before them. The Bible says the word was face to face with God. Here's what that means. Separate from distinct person yet equal to the same in essence. The third thing it teaches us is intimacy, face to face. For all eternity, Jesus has been in God's presence equal to but separate from the Father and the Spirit enjoying personal, intimate fellowship. There is probably no greater description of the mystery and the wonder of the Trinity that we hold to as evangelical Christians than in John 1-1. In the beginning was the word, eternality, and the word was with God, separate and equal to. But then he says, and the word was God. R. C. H. Linsky, the great Greek scholar, says the word then is not an attribute in hearing in God or a power emanating from God, but a person in the presence of God and turned in loving and separable communion toward God and God turned equally toward him. But just in case we weren't completely clear with the word was with God, John adds this phrase and the word was God. So as not to leave any ambiguity on the table, in the simplest, descriptive manner anywhere in the Scripture, John says the word was God. This simple truth is what distinguishes Christianity from all other faiths. We live in a pluralistic society when it comes to spiritual things. Our pluralistic society would like us to believe that all people are headed in the same direction, that there are many roads and many names and many titles that you can use. But ultimately we all believe the same thing. Listen to me carefully. Jesus said, "I am the way." The implication was, "I am the way to God. I am the truth about God, and I am the very life of God." No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus Christ is the one true eternal God. The reason that this has been so attacked in the history of Christianity is because everything else we believe hinges on this doctrinal truth. Jesus is God. Many would even say today, and I've heard them say it even as recently on television. People will say, "Oh, Christians believe Jesus is God. The Bible never teaches that." I wish sometimes they would just open the book and read it, and the word was God. Not only that, in every way the Bible can teach it, the Bible teaches this principle. Let me let me show you. Number one, Jesus claimed it to be true. Jesus said of himself, "I and the Father are one." Now this morning, if somebody walks in here and steps down front and grabs a microphone and says, "I and the Father are one." I don't know what you would do second, but I know what you would do first. You would grab for your cell phone and dial 911, right? Because if somebody makes that claim, we would not go, "That's a pretty good teacher. Why don't we follow what they have to say?" See, as Lewis wrote a book called "Mear Christianity," in that book, he raised a powerful argument. He said, "You must forever remove the possibility that Jesus is just a good man and a moral teacher. You can't claim to be one with the Father and be lumped in the category of good teachers. You have one of three options at that point. Jesus is either a bold-faced liar or he's a lunatic or he is Lord. You see, once somebody claims divine heritage, once somebody claims Jesus said of himself before Abraham was, "I am." He reached back several thousand years in human history and said, "Hey, before he was alive, I am." He didn't himself was. He said before he was alive, "I am." Present tense, ongoing, continuous action. You cannot make those kinds of assertions and be lumped in the category of somebody you want your kids to grow up and emulate unless you are what you say you are. Jesus claimed deity for himself, number two, the disciples accepted it as true. Those who followed him closest, those that spent three years with him here, John gives his own testimony. He says, "I saw it, glorious of the only begotten from the Father." But then at the end of John's gospel, there's a scene where Thomas comes in and Thomas is allowed to see the nail prints in his hands and the spear in his side and Thomas falls down before him and he cries out, "My Lord and my God." If that was not the understanding of the early disciples, don't you believe they would have pulled Thomas aside, corrected him, and added a note here in John's gospel to say that's what Thomas said, but that's not what Jesus really meant. Paul who gave us all of our doctrine for the early church, Paul prescribed it to be true. In Titus chapter 2 and verse 13, Paul said, "I am looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ." And if all that's not enough, God the Father himself declared it as truth. In Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 8, the Father says of the Son, "Thy, throne, O God is forever and ever." In every way the Bible can teach it, the Bible answers the question forever. Jesus is the eternal God. But just in case we were not convinced with John 1-1, John gives us verses 2 and 3. In John 1-2, John does something in John 1-2 that I don't know you'll find anywhere else in the rest of the New Testament. He basically repeats verse 1 verbatim. He says the same thing again. It's the same Greek construction. He says in John 1-1, "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1-2, "He was in the beginning with God." And John says, "Just in case this isn't sinking in, let me draw, let me, let me connect the dots for you." Look at verse 3, "All things came into being through Him and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being." John said, "Hey, I started with this in the beginning thing, wanting to take you back to Genesis 1-1. When you read Genesis 1-1, let me tell you who it's talking about. Jesus!" Here's what John says. Jesus is the eternal God who created all things. That's the third part of the statement. Jesus is the eternal God who created all things. Paul said the same thing in Colossians 1. Look at verse 16 of Colossians 1. Paul says, "For by Him," speaking about Jesus, "for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens." In case we didn't understand all things, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible. Here's what he's saying. It's been created, Jesus created Him. Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him. And then here's the verse we looked at earlier. He is before all things, before He created everything He already is, and in Him all things hold together. Do you hear what he's saying here? Jesus Christ is not just a baby and a manger. He is the sovereign God of the universe that spoke everything into existence. And Paul says He's now the one who holds everything in place. Jesus is the eternal God who created all things. Now after clearly building this case, John goes to verse 14 and here's what he says. And the word, the sovereign, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, eternal. The sovereign God, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Max Lequato in his powerful book, God Came Near. This is the way he described it. Listen to it. It all happened in a moment, a most remarkable moment. God became a man. While the creatures of earth walked unaware, divinity arrived. Heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in a human womb. The omnipotent in one instant made himself breakable. He who had been spirit became percible. He who was larger than the universe became an embryo. And he who sustains the world with a word chose to be dependent upon the nourishment of a young girl, God as a fetus, holiness, sleeping in a womb. The creator of life being created, 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. Let me give you the fourth part of the statement, Jesus is the eternal God who created all things and entered the world he created. Wow, that is what we celebrate. God with us. John describes it in three phrases. First of all, he says the word became flesh. It's very important to note that Greek scholars say that the word did not cease to be what it was before, but it became what it was not before. It's not that he ceased to be God and became man. No, as God, he became man. God took on humanity, the infinite became finite, eternity entered time, the invisible became visible, the creator entered his creation. God became a man and yet continued to be fully God. He was 100% God and 100% man. The theologians call it the hypostatic union. It simply means he was so much God as if he were not man at all and yet he was so much man as if he were not God at all. The wonderful miracle of the incarnation, Emmanuel, God with us. God became flesh. And then the Bible says and dwelt among us, God did not become a man and sit on the throne for all to see him. The Scripture tells us that he so clothed himself in humanity according to Philippians chapter 2. He laid aside the privileges of being God. He humbled himself. He was such an ordinary man that if he was sitting in this room, you would not even notice anything special about him. As a matter of fact, what I've described for you this morning, God becoming a man happened and most of the world didn't even know he came. Think about that. The president of the United States visits our city and our airport shuts down. God becomes a man and most of the world doesn't even know it. The Bible says dwelt among us. It's an interesting phrase in the Greek language. It literally means to pitch your tent. God became a man. Here's what he did and he just hung out with us. The word dwelt is a word in the Greek language. We get an English word from it. We get the word skin, God with skin. And then John says, and we saw it. It's important because in the Greek language there are four different words that you can use that we translate with the English word see. We see something. One of them, for example, is the word blepho. It means just to see. Meaning you can look around the room and you see everybody, but you don't see anybody. You know what I mean? You just look around and you see everybody, but you don't see anybody. Well, that's not the word that's used here in John 1.14. The word used here is the Greek word fe-- oh my. We get our English word theater from it. When you go to the theater, you watch the movie or you watch the play. You're observing the details. You're watching with intent to draw a conclusion. You're paying careful attention. John says, for three years, I heard every word he spoke. John said, for three years, I saw every deed that he performed. John said, for three years, I saw every reaction to somebody else. And John said, after three years, let me tell you what I saw, glory, as from the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth, God with us. There would be no sinless life without the incarnation. There would be no crucifixion without the incarnation. There would be no resurrection without the incarnation. There would be no salvation without the incarnation. The most cataclysmic event in human history, God became a man. William Hendrickson said it this way, "Thus while Jesus was walking among them, the eye and mind of the evangelists and the other witnesses had rested on the incarnate word until some extent they had penetrated the mystery. They had seen his glory. The radiance of his grace and the majesty of his truth manifested in all his works and words. The attributes of deity shining through the veil of his human nature." Let me give you the fifth and final part of the statement. Jesus is the eternal God who created all things and entered the world he created that we might know him. For the next 20 chapters, John describes the life of Jesus. For the next 20 chapters, John gives us detail about the sinless life that he lived. Then John tells us about a series of mock trials that he was run through. John, the only one present at the crucifixion. The only disciple that showed up, John tells us about the details of his crucifixion on a cross, how Jesus took the sin of the world, your sin, and my sin on himself. And John tells us how he died because John watched it happen. And then John tells us that he did not stay dead, but that he rose again from the dead as a testimony that God had accepted his sacrifice for our sins. And then at the end of his gospel, listen to what John writes, in John chapter 20 and verse 31, "These have been written." So that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his man. God became a man that you and I might know him. The only question that remains this week, it's not is Jesus God, he is. The question is, is he the God of your life? Have you believed on his name? To believe means to surrender. It means to yield the control of your life to him. It means to acknowledge that he is who he said he is and receive his gracious salvation into your life. Now, if you have already done that, what are you celebrating this week? What's at the forefront for you? The Word became flesh. [BLANK_AUDIO]