The Word Became Flesh

One of the biggest hit singles of the 1990’s was a song by Joan Osborne called “One of Us.” The song earned 7 Grammy Award nominations. It’s a song of spiritual questioning and about conceiving of God in a modern age. The chorus says, “What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us? Just a stranger on a bus, trying to make his way home.” It was reported that when the song first began playing, radio stations were overwhelmed with calls from listeners who were captivated by the idea that God would become one of us. That God would actually show up on our planet dressed in the frail clothing of our humanity. The full words of that song may seem irreverent, and certainly the lyrics lack theological precision, but they do capture in a secular song, the heart of Christmas and the heart of the Gospel.

This morning, we are going to examine the Christmas story. Not from the earthly perspective of the Shepherds, Wise Men, or Mary and Joseph we find in Matthew or Luke’s Gospel, but from the Heavenly perspective of the Gospel of John. In John 1:1-18, we find a poetic description of what Christmas is all about. It is an explanation of God becoming a man. Theologians call it the incarnation.

This morning, we’ll examine six observations from this passage and discover how these truths can transform our lives, not just at Christmas, but every day that we live.

Prayer

Let’s look at John chapter one, beginning with the first verse. John 1:1-2 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”

1)                  The first observation we can make from this passage is that the Word is God. To the Jewish mind, a word was far more than a sound. A word was something that had an active, independent existence and actually went out from its speaker to do things. It was fearfully alive and as real and deadly as a bullet.

This concept is seen in Isaiah 55:11. God says, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” You could see it as His Word being sent out on a mission and then coming back when it is completed to say, “mission accomplished.” A word almost had a life and identity of its own.

Interesting Side Note:

A fascinating tidbit I found while researching for this message. The Old Testament Scripture was primarily written in the Hebrew language. Yet, the ordinary people of Jesus’ day spoke a development of Hebrew called Aramaic. When they translated the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic, the copies were called Targums. The translators of the Targums were fascinated by the transcendence of God. God was very above and far apart from man. As such, they did not like to speak of God using human terms. In the Targum, they would often translate the name of God as “The Word of God.” For instance, Deuteronomy 9:3 says that God is a consuming fire, but the Targums translate that the Word of God is a consuming fire. They did this to avoid attributing human thoughts and actions to God. As such, Word of God became a common form of Jewish expression. The Word of God became synonymous with God Himself.

John picks up on this understanding when He writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” When the Biblically literate reader hears the phrase “In the beginning,” his mind jumps back to Genesis 1:1, where “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” From the beginning of our universe, the very beginning of time, when the beginning began, the Word already was. There is but one God. He is One in substance but three distinctive persons. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In this passage, the Son is referred to as the Word. Verse two tells us the Word “was in the beginning with God.” Literally, it could be translated, “He Was Face To Face With God.” The Father has always been in Divine loving relationship with the Son and the Son and the Father with the Spirit.

What that means to us is that Jesus is God and deserves our worship. In the twentieth chapter of John, Thomas finally realizes who Jesus is; he then rightly declares, in John 20:28, “My Lord and my God”. Jesus isn’t just a good man or a good teacher or an angelic representative for God. From God Himself, the very Word of God, we see that the Word is Jesus. God (incarnate) in the flesh.

Jesus Christ is God, He is the second member of the Godhead, and He deserves our worship. I hope that this is exactly what each of us did when we partook of the Lord’s Supper a little while ago. I hope We Thanked Him, We Praised Him, We Confessed To Him…Worshiped Him! He deserves our worship in everything we do.

2)      The second observation we can make from this passage is that - The Word Made All Things. 

John 1:3 says, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” John is saying that the uncreated Word created all things. In Colossians 1:16 Paul is writing about the pre-eminence of Christ and says, “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.” In examining the operation of the Godhead, it can be determined that typically the Father is the planner, the Son is the doer, and the Holy Spirit is the revealer. An example is in redemption.

The Father planned our redemption, the Son accomplished it, and the Holy Spirit has revealed it to us. We also see this played out here in creation. The Father planned creation, the Son (Word) actually created all things, and the Spirit revealed it. All three Persons of the Godhead participated in creation, but the New Testament attributes the direct act of creation to the Son (Word).

Illustration

In America, we have patent and copyright laws so that whatever we create, we have the rights to our intellectual property. Jesus created you and has a right to your life. You really can’t say, “I’ll live life however I want to.” Your life is not your own; you were created and redeemed by Jesus Christ. He has absolute right to your life. As such, our response should be to willingly lay down all our own rights. On the Day of Judgment, God will call us all into account on how we used our lives that are rightfully His. Some will be rewarded because they are under contract through His Son, Jesus Christ, and some will be punished for their infringement.

3)                  The third observation we can make from this passage is that – the word is life. John 1:4a “In Him was life.” That life is eternal life. All spirit beings live forever, so this is not referring to the duration of life but a quality of life. This life is the kind of life God lives. It is found in the Word, Jesus Christ. When you look at the life of Jesus Christ, you see how life was to be lived. Jesus lived life to the fullest. In John 10:10, Jesus announced, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Jesus came to give us that life and showed us in His life how to experience it. You could say that Jesus showed us what man was always meant to be. He was submitted to the Father, he fully loved his Father, and genuinely loved people. In fact, that’s what heaven is going to be about. Being submitted to God, loving God, and living in a loving community of others who submit to and love God.

In this verse, we see that Jesus is life, and he makes your life worth living. A self-focused, self-centered life, that is all about making yourself happy, is not a life worth living. A life worth living has God at the center. It is a life submitted to God. A life worth living is focused on glorifying God, loving God, and loving people. Part of our decision to become Christians is the proclamation that we will not live a life that is all about me, myself, and I anymore. Our lives are not our own. It is now and forevermore about God and others.

The Word is life. In Jesus, we find life. Jesus came to show us what true life was really like. In the life of Jesus, we see how to have a life worth living.

4)                  The fourth observation we can make from this passage is that the Word is light. John 1:4b-5 “…and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” We see this light in creation. In Genesis 1:1-3, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”, and there was light.  This was not the sun. The sun, moon, and stars were not created until day four. On day one, God spoke the Word, “Let there be light.”  Vs 3 The world apart from Jesus Christ is completely void of any substance and in total darkness.

Illustration

It can be challenging to navigate in the dark. Have you ever tried walking through an unfamiliar room without any light? I have vivid memories of this experience: when Dawn and I bought our house, I stayed there alone until we got married. We rushed to get everything moved in because the weather was similar to what we've had recently—cold, windy, and snowy. Boxes were scattered everywhere. On that first morning after moving in, I got up for work and immediately began bumping into things. After taking another step, I muttered, "Hmph." With another step, I sighed, "Ungh." And with yet another step, "Argh!" Finally, I made it to the light switch, revealing the chaotic mess around me.

That is a pretty good picture of us apart from Christ. We try to navigate through life, attempting to find what will make us happy and what will satisfy our deepest needs. We may try drugs, sex, recreation, achievements, or enlightenment from false religions. We bump into one thing after another, groaning from the pain of disappointment, until we can find the light. When Jesus came, he declared, John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” ). If you will follow Jesus, you will avoid the pitfalls and traps of life. You won’t run into dead ends in your pursuit of fullness. The problem is that, as a whole, the human race has failed to see that Christ’s way to live is the right way to live. Wherever the Gospel of Christ has gone it has brought light into darkness. When mankind rejects the light or turns from it, darkness begins to prevail.

Look at John 1:6-9: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.” John the baptist’s whole purpose was to point to Jesus. We are not to make disciples of ourselves because we aren’t their answer. Jesus is going to be the source of what they are looking for. Any time someone’s ministry draws attention to itself and away from Christ, it’s missed its purpose. Like the moon has no light of its own but reflects the sun's light, we have no light of our own but are to reflect the Son of God. Jesus said He was the light of the world, but later says that we are to be the light of the world. Our light is to be a reflection of Him and help point people to Him. The only way we can do that is if we follow him with all of our hearts.

Jesus is light, and you must follow Him. Apart from God’s way, you are always going to be groping in the darkness. Anytime in your life when you abandon Christ’s way of living, you are going to experience the confusion and dangers of darkness. The Word is light. Jesus is the light of the world and the one to follow. A decision needs to be made today, to follow Jesus. Obey His Word, follow the Spirits divine prompting, and walk in the light, living a life that reflects enough of His light that it will direct others to him.

5)                  The fifth observation we can make from this passage is that the Word makes an impact when it is received. John 1:10-13 “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” When God came into the world in the person of Christ, mankind didn’t recognize him. He just looked like any other man. He came first to the Jewish people, God’s people of the Old Testament. Because of Old Testament Scripture, they should have recognized him better than anyone, but they did not receive him. As a whole, the Jewish nation rejected Jesus. In a few weeks, people all over the world will be celebrating Christmas without honoring the Christ it is all about. The vast majority of people in the world have rejected Him. In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” There are far more people who have rejected God than have received Him. But those who do receive Him (Jews or Gentiles) are given the right to become the children of God. There are false philosophies that teach the universal Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man. That there is one God but many paths that lead to God. That is not what Jesus told us. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Only when you receive Jesus do you have the right to be a child of God. It didn’t come by the flesh. You can’t work for it, you can’t earn it, and none of us certainly deserves it. It comes only by obedient faith in Christ, and it is a miracle of God.

Application

The Word must be received. Jesus is eternal life, and you must receive Him to obtain it. It’s not enough to simply believe in God or to believe in a man of history named Jesus. You must receive Him as your Lord and Savior. You can’t save yourself. You can’t make yourself good enough for God. Have you received Jesus Christ as God and as your personal Lord and Savior? If you have, you are now part of God’s very own family. If not, you’ll have a chance to before this service is over.

Jesus Christ is eternal life, and you must receive him to obtain it.

6)                   The sixth observation we can make from this passage is that the Word is Jesus. John 1:14-18 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, ’He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’" And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” We won’t have time this morning to go through a thorough explanation of these verses, but it is important that we understand basically what they are saying. We are told that when Jesus came, He came to show us what God was like. The Word, the message from God, is Jesus. Moses gave the law. It helped man to see the character of God, but there is no way that the full grace and truth of God could be revealed through the law. No one had ever seen God. Man was afraid of God. God was so distant, so awesome, that man could not really comprehend Him. As such, God took on humanity to show us what He was like. This is God’s ultimate self-expression. In Jesus the invisible, all-powerful, distant God became reachable. The awesome glory of God became resident in the person Jesus Christ. This was not God wearing a disguise. He actually became flesh and took on our humanity so we could relate to each other better. He suffered hunger, pain, weariness, rejection, and everything that is part of being human. God became one of us. Grace and truth now was embodied in a person. If man wants to see what God is like, He only needs to look at Jesus. Through Jesus we have found that God is not just a tight fisted, mean, killjoy. Rather, God is loving, God is compassionate, God is merciful, God is generous, Sin grieves Him deeply, and God is absolutely head over heals in love with His creation, mankind. So much so that he healed, and delivered, and taught, and even sacrificed His own life for the human beings he had created.

Illustration:

Soren Kierkegaard, the great Danish theologian of the 18th century, ( Kierkegaard was to the 18^{th century what C.S. Lewis is to the 20th century),} tells the story of a prince who was running an errand for his father one day in the local village. As he did so, he passed through a very poor section of the town. Looking through the window of his carriage, he saw a beautiful young peasant girl walking along the street. He could not get her off his mind. He continued to come to the town, day after day, just to see her and to feel as though he was near her. His heart yearned for her, but there was a problem. How could he develop a relationship with her? He could order her to marry him. It was in his power to do so. But he wanted this girl to love him from the heart, willingly. He could put on his royal garments and impress her with his regal entourage, and drive up to her front door with soldiers and a carriage drawn by six horses. But if he did this, he would never be certain that the girl loved him or was simply overwhelmed with his power, position, and wealth. The prince came up with another solution. As you may have guessed, he gave up his kingly robe and symbols of power and privilege. He moved into the village dressed only as a peasant. He lived among the people, shared their interests and concerns, and talked their language. In time, the young peasant girl grew to know him, and then to love him.

This is precisely what God did through His Son Jesus. The Word (GOD) became flesh. The King of heaven put aside His heavenly robes and divine privileges. He came to us as one of us. He lived among us; ate with us; drank with us; felt with us — all to win our love. He could have forced us. He could have overwhelmed us, but He chose to romance us.

Jesus (the Word of God) is God incarnate (in the flesh). As such, he shows us what He is like. That He is in love with us and wants us to be in love with Him. Don’t confuse God with mean, ruthless, stingy, and cruel religious people. God isn’t at all like that. He is the one we see in Jesus. He is someone who has time for little children and grieving widows. He is the one not afraid to touch us who are unclean. He loves and wants to help hurting, broken, and lost people. Someone who was willing to lay His life down for ours. That is our God. Is God in bodily form. The God you always wanted to believe in. He has been revealed in Jesus through the Word. I challenge us all to truly believe it. Most of all I challenge us to experience God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ and receive His Spirit to dwell within you for the rest of your life.

Invitation

This morning, we have uncovered six observations from the prologue to John’s Gospel, and we’ve seen how it applies to our lives. First, we’ve learned that Jesus is God and deserves our worship. So let’s worship him. Second, he created us and has a right to our lives. So let’s give our lives to him. Third, he makes our life worth living, so we need to get our focus off of ourselves and realize it’s really about God. Fourth, he provides light in our darkness, so we need to follow him. Fifth, Jesus offers us eternal life, but we must receive Him to have it. Finally, Jesus reveals to us who God really is. Now that we know, let’s develop a vital relationship with Him. This isn’t just a Christmas message; it is a message that can and should shape every day of our lives.

If anyone is here today and you would like to accept God’s call to come into a covenant relationship with Him through the washing and rebirth of the water grave of baptism, we invite you to come as we sing our song of invitation.