The Incarnation - John 1:14
INTRODUCTION:
For the month of December, we have been looking at the prologue to John’s Gospel in view of the Incarnation and Christmas. This morning is the final message in this series, the first 13 verses of John have been building up to verse 14. John has proven to us that the Word is God, that there was a witness who came before Him, to testify about Him. Last week we learned that as the true Light of the World He demands a response and we saw that most reject Him, never fully understanding who He is, but some receive Him and become children of God. All this has built up to verse 14 where in one verse John discloses for us the Incarnation, in this one verse we have summed up all that Luke and Matthew wrote about in the first two chapters of their Gospels.
To set the stage for this verse I would like to read to you an excerpt from Max Lucado’s book God Came Near from the chapter entitled Just a Moment: (Read from book, pgs. 7-8, first 7 paragraphs). Let’s pray and then look at our Scripture.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to John 1:14, one verse that takes in all that we celebrate at Christmas, the totality of the Incarnation. Please stand as I read God’s Word.
John 1:14,
“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14, NASB95)[1]
THE WORD BECAME FLESH (John 1:14a)
The apostle John does not go into the detail about Gabriel appearing to Mary and the struggle that Joseph had when he found out that Mary was pregnant before they had married and the decision that he made and how that decision changed when an angel visited him in a dream and explained how Mary had become pregnant and who this baby was that Mary was carrying in her womb. John does not go into any of that detail, instead he tells us very clearly what happened. John ties this verse back to verse one by using the name by which he first used to describe for us God, the Word. John has already shown us that the Word was in the beginning, actually before the beginning because the Word was the Creator of everything, the Word was with God the Father in the beginning when time began, He was with God in eternity past because not only was He with God, John writes that He was God. John now takes that name that we know to be God and writes, “And the Word became flesh…” (John 1:14a)[2] We read in our Scripture reading a few weeks ago how that happened, because Mary did not understand how it could happen and asked the angel. Listen to Mary’s question and the angel Gabriel’s response in Luke 1:34-35, “Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.’” (Luke 1:34–35, NASB95)[3] Jesus Christ, the Word, God the Son, the second person of the Triune God had taken on human flesh. Here is something that we will never understand, it is beyond our grasp how God became an embryo in a young woman’s womb. How God who created everything that has been created became a single cell and grew in Mary’s womb until He had all the parts that we have when it was time for Him to be born. How God who has always existed could become a baby totally dependent on Mary for all His needs. Jesus Christ took on our humanity, body, soul, and spirit, the only thing lacking was a sin nature, He was born of woman, the seed of the woman, His Father was God so He had no sin nature. He who was Spirit, took on flesh and bones. He became a Man, and yet He was God. This is the mystery, this is God’s great surprise, He came to us in our need in human form. Understand that while He was fully man, He never ceased being fully God. That body that He took on, though now glorified will be His for all eternity, forever we will be reminded of what He did for us by the scars in His hands and feet. The Word became flesh, God became a man.
THE WORD DWELT AMONG US (John 1:14b)
John goes on to tell us that God became flesh and He dwelt among us. Like I read to you from God Came Near the Word did not come in a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, He came just like each of us came into this world through childbirth and He grew up just like each of us grow up. First, He learned to crawl and then He learned to walk, He listened to Mary and Joseph and He learned to talk. He experienced all that we experience as we grow from infant, to toddler, to adolescent, to teen, to adult, He experienced all the things that we experience, but without sin. John writes, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14b, NASB95)[4] He lived on this earth and went through the things we go through, He understood what it meant to be a human, He experienced thirst, hunger, weariness, pain, rejection, love, anger, happiness, sadness, and the list could go on and on. But besides experiencing human life, John had another thing in mind when he wrote that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, you see the word John used that is translated “dwelt” in our English Bibles is the Greek word for the tabernacle. It might be better translated, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us…” No doubt when John penned those words his mind went back to when Moses was leading the people around in the wilderness and God had instructed them to build a tabernacle as a place of worship and God dwelt among them when His glory would fill the tabernacle in the Cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. The Jewish people called this Cloud the Shekinah Glory and this word means “that which dwells” and it is the word used for the visible presence of God among men. For John to say that Jesus tabernacled among us is to say that Jesus is the visible presence of God among men, Jesus is the Shekinah glory of God. Paul said concerning Jesus in Colossians 2:9, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,” (Colossians 2:9, NASB95)[5] Jesus Christ’s mission was two-fold when He became flesh, He came to show us, explain to us God, and to reconcile us to God through His death on the cross. Listen to this dialogue between Jesus and the disciple Philip in John 14 which illustrates Jesus mission to show us God. John 14:7-10, “’If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.’ Philip said to Him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, “Show us the Father”? ‘Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.’” (John 14:7–10, NASB95)[6] Jesus Christ was the visible presence of God among us, but He also became flesh and dwelt among us that He might reconcile us to God. Paul put it this way in Romans 5:6-11, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” (Romans 5:6–11, NASB95)[7] Paul says not only did Christ death reconcile us to God, by His resurrected life we are saved eternally.
THE WORD OFFERS US SALVATION (John 1:14c)
The apostle John does not want us to miss the fact that Jesus is the Shekinah Glory of God, that He is the visible presence of God among us, so after he writes that Jesus tabernacled among us, if we did not get the hint from that that Jesus is God among us, John spells it out very clearly for us and writes, “and we saw His glory…” (John 1:14c, NASB95)[8] John lets us know that the Shekinah glory was among us, because he was an eye-witness to His glory. John had lived with Him, walked with Him, prayed with Him, watched Him live a sinless life and listened to Him speak the truth, saw Him turn water into wine, heal the sick, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, and raise the dead to life, and the final display of His glory was when John saw Him resurrected from the dead. John says Jesus tabernacled among us and we saw His glory. John finishes this verse by writing, “glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14d, NASB95)[9] John says that this glory that Jesus displayed could only be the glory of one who was unique, the only begotten from the Father, this phrase is used by John to show us that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in a sense totally different from a human who believes in Jesus Christ and becomes a child of God. Jesus’ Sonship is unique for He is eternal and is of the same essence as the Father. This is why Jesus could say, “He who has seen me has seen the Father. The Father’s glory and the glory that John said they saw in Jesus is one and the same.
John finishes this verse by saying that this glory displayed by Jesus was full of grace and truth. Often at Christmas we focus on the birth of Christ and we walk away leaving Him as a baby in the manger. We cannot do that, because when we do that we leave the grace and truth out of the picture. Why did Jesus become flesh and dwell among us? Not so we could feel good about Him being born, but so that He could give us grace and truth. Grace is God’s favor toward us that we do not deserve, Jesus Christ becoming flesh was God’s grace, because Jesus came to die and pay the penalty for our sin, He died in our place, so that we could have God’s grace and be reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ, so our sins could be forgiven and we can have eternal life, guaranteed to us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the truth that came through the glory of Jesus, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” (John 3:16–21, NASB95)[10] The truth is that sin must be judged and the judgment of sin is death. The grace (God’s unmerited favor) in the truth is that God loves you and through His Son, Jesus Christ, He has made a way for you to escape judgment and enter into eternal life. You must choose to believe that Jesus died for you, was buried and rose from the dead to pay the penalty for your sin, or choose to live apart from Jesus and be eternally separated from God and condemned to the Lake of Fire. If you chose life, then you will one day spend all eternity in the presence of Jesus. You will be transformed and be like Him, you will be free from sin and have a glorified body that will live forever, and you will forever enjoy the goodness of God. This is why the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, that we might dwell with Him for eternity.
CONCLUSION:
Let me close by reading another excerpt from God Came Near by Max Lucado, again from the chapter entitled Just A Moment… (read from book, page 8, paragraphs 5-8, page 9, paragraphs 1-3) Will you be a part of the next transformation? You can by agreeing with God that you are a sinner, agreeing that there is nothing you can do to make yourself acceptable to God, believing that Jesus alone could pay the penalty for your sins when He died on the cross, that He was buried, and three days later rose from the dead so that His death and resurrection could make you acceptable to God. When you believe this, when Christ returns for those who believe in Him, you will be a part of the next transformation, the transformation of your corruptible body into an incorruptible body, of your mortal body into and eternal, glorified body.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[5]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[6]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[7]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[8]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[9]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[10]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995