MCC Podcasts
Theology Matters - Incarnation
Well, good morning. It is good to be back with you. I'm excited to be here and be a part of this great series that we have going on. Theology matters big words that make a big difference. For many years, one of my pet peeves was when a preacher would get up front and say, "Well, you know, I'm no theologian, but it really drove me crazy because the truth is we're all theologians. We're all studying about who God is and what does he want to do in our lives." And that's really all theology is. It's the study of God. And so I'm really excited to be a part of this, and I'm so glad that our leadership understood that we want to know these big words. And these aren't just for the ivory tower academics, often some remote monastery or in the seminary, but these are words that we need to know and understand because they help deepen our relationship and our walk with God. So it's fun to be here and to be part of this. Today's word, the big word that we have is incarnation. So we're going to be talking about what does that mean and how does that apply to our lives. But before we go any further, I would love to read Scripture with you. So if you will stand, our scripture, our main scripture for today is John 1, 14 through 18. And this is one of my most favorite passages of scripture. It was through this particular scripture that Jesus really captured my heart. And so for me personally, this is a really special scripture, but it has a lot to tell us about the incarnation. So let's read it together. 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. John testified concerning him. He cried out saying, "This is he of whom I said, he who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 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." The word of the Lord. You can be seated. Thank you. And I had us read that together because I think that sometimes it's important for us to feel those words in our mouth and hear them together as a community. Scripture is a communal experience. It doesn't have to be, but that is a part of our understanding of Scripture. So thank you for reading with me. All right. In cardation, let's go to this is our big word and here's the definition. It comes from the Latin in meaning in. Thank you for those easy pieces every now and then. Caro, which means flesh. So the definition of this or this doctrine is that the second person of the Trinity assumed human form in the person of Jesus Christ and is completely both God and human. And that's really a short way to express something that is such a huge idea and is so foundational for us in our salvation and in our hope for eternal life. So I want to go through and unpack that a little bit and then we're going to talk more about what difference does that make to us. So first of all, we see that Jesus was fully human and fully God. Now we've already read this John Scripture which talks both about the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us and also that in verse 18 it says the son who is himself God. So that Scripture tells us that he's human and that he's God both at once. But we also have this in Colossians two nine Paul wrote that for in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. So here we have this understanding that Jesus is God come to earth but he's God come to earth in human form as a human being. And I want to be clear about this. I think sometimes this is a little confusing and I'm not going to give you scientific understandings of molecules and how all that worked. But I think that there are two ways that sometimes we look at this that we can be an error about the incarnation. First of all, I think sometimes people think that this means that that God came to earth in some kind of a costume or an overlay. You remember Independence Day where they had the alien and they opened it up and there was the little guy inside. I think sometimes that's what we think God kind of put on this body and he's kind of inside of it separate from it but wearing it around while he's with us. But that's not what Scripture tells us. Scripture tells us that he became human. So it's not a costume. And the other thing that didn't happen which I have seen people kind of think, oh this makes sense. Some people have the idea that when Jesus was in heaven with the Father he was God. And when he came to earth he became human and he put off all his Godhood. And then once he went back to heaven he was God again. So he kind of did this flip-flop thing about what he was, who he is. But that's not what Scripture tells us either. Scripture tells us that Jesus was God and human all at the same time. And no I don't really understand how that works. It's what we in the faith have to call a mystery because it's something God does and I don't understand a lot of what God does because I'm not God. I don't have God's mind, God's wisdom, God's power. I'll get it. But I know because Scripture tells me that Jesus was God and Jesus was human when he came to earth. This is what happened. The second thing I know is that he experienced all of our human limitations and sufferings. Hebrews tells us that since the children, meaning us, the children of God, have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity, meaning Jesus, so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death, that is Satan, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps but Abraham's descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers and sisters, us, in every way in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people because he himself suffered when he was tempted. He is able to help those being tempted. So Jesus gets it. He knows what it's like to be hungry, to be cold, to be frustrated, to step on a thorn. He knows all of that. He suffered our limitations. Now the key piece is Jesus didn't sin. Hebrews 14 and 15 says, "Therefore since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we have a high priest, we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet he did not sin." So he experienced our weaknesses, our limitations. He knows what it's like to be human but he didn't sin and that's the difference between him and us. Thirdly, here's what we know about the incarnation. Can you give me a C? There you go. I want to read it from the screen. "He returned to heaven with his humanity intact and glorified and he sits at the right hand of the Father still fully human and fully God." Again, he didn't put off his humanity. When Jesus ascended, he ascended in his humanity. We have a couple of scriptures that talk about that. Mark 16 19 says, "After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God." Luke gives us some more details in 24, 50 to 51 where he says, "When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them and while he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven." You notice it doesn't say anything there about he kind of disappeared, turned into a mist, vanished into smoke. He was taken in his body and the reason that we know that this is the case is because we see an axe. Stephen, before he was stoned, full of the Holy Spirit looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He saw Jesus in his bodily, human, although glorified form. And then in 1 Corinthians 15-8, Paul says, "For what I received I passed on to you as first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and then to the twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me." Now none of these people said, "Oh, I saw Jesus, but he was just a spirit. It was like a hologram. I put my hand through him. He wasn't really there." They saw Jesus. They watched with him. Remember Thomas touched his wounds. He physically had contact with Jesus. So Jesus ascended, still has his human incarnation intact. He is fully human, glorified and perfected, and fully God, even now. Okay, so that's nice. But our big question with these things are, so what? What's the difference? Who cares? That's a nice intellectual thought. But what does it have to do with me and with God? Well let me tell you, since I'm here. First of all, I want to remind you what we said at the beginning of this series. At the beginning of this series, we said we're talking about these crucial truths, because truth matters, because it leads to how we live. These truths aren't just nice things to know and store somewhere in a book or in a file. They're things that have power and application in our lives. So the first thing that matters in this truth, the first thing that we see, is it shows us that God is still keeping his promises to us. Lately, I have been struck by this progression of a particular promise that God gave us. You can see it here in Leviticus 26.12, where God says, "I will walk among you and I will be your God and you will be my people." Now here's the thing. We make promises and covenants with God. And a covenant is a lasting promise. That means we are going to keep it forever, except we don't, because we're broken human beings. The thing is, God is always keeping his side of the covenant. He never stops keeping his promises. So he continually finds ways to keep that promise. Do you know how many times that promise occurs in Scripture? It's all over Jeremiah, over and over again. It's in Zechariah, and it's even quoted in the New Testament. 2 Corinthians 6 is all about God being with us, us being his people, him being our God. And what do we call Jesus? What's a name for Jesus? Immanuel, God with us. This is another piece of this promise of God coming and being with us and walking with us among us in our presence. That's what Jesus did. And then when he left, God sent his spirit to live inside us, to walk with us, to be our God. While we are his people, he can't stay away from us. He loves us so much, and he's continually keeping that promise. So this incarnation, it's God keeping his promise to us. Secondly, the incarnation shows us what we should think about or how we should see our future eternal life. 2 Peter 3.13 says, "But in keeping with his promise," another promise, "we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells." God has promised to redeem all of creation, and he's going to create a material, new heaven, and new earth. Listen to Isaiah 65, 17 to 25. God says, "See, I will create a new heaven and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered nor will they come to mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create. For I will create Jerusalem to be a delight in its people, a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people. The sound of weeping and crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be in it infants who live but a few days, or older people who do not live out their years. Those who die at a hundred will be fought mere youth. Those who fail to reach a hundred will be considered a curse. They will build houses and dwell in them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit no longer will they build houses and others live in them or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people. My chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor in vain. They will be a people blessed by the Lord. The wolf and the lamb will feed together and the lion will eat. Do you see what this is going? Do you see what kind of a renewal is happening here? God isn't saying that creation is going to disappear. He's saying that it's going to be perfected. Remember when God created the world what did he say? It is good. Creation started as good. So we're not looking forward to going to some ethereal heaven where we sit on clouds and float around and play harps as little myths or mere wisps and not even just as souls. God has promised that we will be remade restored that our bodies will be made new. That's part of what the incarnation tells us. And it's because of this promise that he gave us that he wants to walk among us and have us be together. We as people, he or God. Finally, what the incarnation shows us is how we should live our present life. You know, sometimes the church gets caught up in this idea that now that we know Jesus, now that we are saved in and through him, we're just kind of waiting. Come. Come, Lord Jesus, let's go to heaven. This is the veil of tears. It's imperfect. Kind of don't like it. Bad things happen. We're waiting. But that's not how Scripture tells us to live right now. In Romans 8, Paul says, "Creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For creation was subjected to frustration not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God." See, God loves not just creation, but he loves our humanity. Only in and of itself as it was originally created is not bad, but it's broken. We're really broken, and that brokenness has corrupted us. We're now nothing close to what God planned for us, for the way He made us. So we're not just waiting to die and go to heaven right now because we are in Christ and we are human. We are part of the work of bringing His kingdom into being. We're God's agents in this world. And it's important for us to know, sometimes I think we feel like we're fighting the world. Do you feel that sometimes that you're fighting the world? But the truth is we're called to fight for the world because we're fighting for this redemption and restoration and renewal of creation to come about. That's what God's kingdom is. God's kingdom is this renewal. And one of the things that are going to happen is that heaven and earth will no longer be separated. When Jesus died on the cross, one of the things that happened was the veil in the temple that came between where the people came to worship and that inner holy of holies where the Spirit of God dwelt was torn. It was torn, right? So that veil, that partition was no longer there. On the last day, God is going to rip away the veil that separates us from His kingdom, which is a kingdom where Jesus resides, physically incarnate. That's the veil that's going to be torn away and heaven and earth are going to come together. And we will be renewed and purified, completely and glorified. And we will live in this creation that God intended us to have from the beginning. And we will walk with Him and we will be His people and He will be our God. That's what we're waiting for. Each and every one of us, because we follow Christ, are His agents in this world of spreading that kingdom renewal, He works through us to do that. So that's how we're living our present life. And here's what I think is so wonderful. Sometimes we think about the idea that things are going to be changed, right? And all the old stuff is going to pass away. But what passes away will be the corrupt, the broken, the evil. The work that you and I do for God's kingdom will remain. Paul tells this to us. Paul says, "Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm, let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because why? Because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Every time you give a cup of water to someone who's thirsty, every time you're merciful to someone, you sacrifice and give to someone, you care for someone, you talk to someone about Christ, that work will not go away. It will not disappear. It is part of the kingdom of God that's being brought into the world. Now one day that work will be complete, God will finish it, and we'll see that new heaven and new earth Christ will return. But until then, know that the kingdom is breaking in. That world that we can't see is breaking in. And the work that you do for Christ is part of that. Today we're going to, as part of this, receive the sacrament of communion. And I have a video, I discovered a video by actually one of my favorite seminary professors, Darrell Johnson, loved this man. He is such a wise and gentle man. He did a series that was about the ascension of Christ, and we talked a little bit about that, that Jesus went to heaven, in his incarnate state. So just know he's going to refer to the ascension, but mostly what he's talking about is communion, the Lord's Supper. And I want you to hear what he has to say about that. And once we've seen that video, then we're going to move on and celebrate this meal together. [BLANK_AUDIO]