Theosaurus: “Incarnation” (John 1:1-4, 9-16)
2010.05.16 (Pt 4 of 5, with others to follow) – Scott Wakefield
Good morning! :o) Pass out handouts. Open to John 1 if you haven't already. (Keep thumb there because we'll come back to it in just a minute.)
We’ve listed Scriptures on handouts so you can be prepared to follow along in your Bibles… So that you can be prepared to follow along, we’re gonna be looking up every verse listed in the handout, and in the same order listed there… We live in a Christian culture where people increasingly don’t know the books of the Bible and can’t look up verses, so we may experiment with no Scriptures on the wall during sermons for a bit… We want you to get used to having to actually look up verses and follow along in Scripture… We want you to have to get used to bringing your Bible on Sundays… Some of you may wanna invest in large print Bibles if you need.
Pray some sorta variation of “Speak, O Lord,” by Keith/Kristyn Getty, “Speak, O Lord, as we come to you / To receive the food of Your Holy Word. / Take Your truth, plant it deep in us; / Shape and fashion us in Your likeness.” … For the sake of Your Kingdom and glory. > Put down Bible.
God “With” Us
“WITH” is an incredibly powerful word. It’s a tipping point word. When you add the word “with,” it changes things… a bond is created. “He’s with me.” “She’s with child.” “Play with us.” “With” is a preposition, which means it’s a bridging word that expresses the relationship between two words/clauses… Theologically, “with” is a word that connects people together.
For example, we all know that the best way to show love is not just to say it, but it is to show it… to be with… “with” is personal demonstration of the reality of something. When you like someone, you want to be “with” them… you hold hands, you eat together, you study together (ok, you “study” together), and then she tells you you’re gonna get married and be with her all the time… :o) When you take vows in marriage, to have and to hold, for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health, it’s a vow to be fully “with” that person.
This is why at Christmas we call Jesus “IMMANUEL,” (spell with I or an E… both acceptable)… God With US, because it’s how God as an intellectual concept of truth, purity, and holiness, becomes real… “with” is the personal demonstration of the truth that God loves us… “Immanuel” means “God with us.” That’s what incarnation is all about.
Incarnation is a Latin word that means, “in flesh.” And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with flowers! :o) It means that God comes down to us. You could say he descends to be with us, literally he descends to be on our level… to be “with” us. God, the infinite and holy God who created the Universe… comes down to be “with” us. How crazy is that?! :o)
Us NOT With God
But we do a pretty good job of messing up this God “with” us relationship, don’t we?! :o) Instead of living “with” lives that create bridges, our sin and rebellion against God create “apart” lives… What we might call Us “Not With” God lives… When we live separately from God’s designs for us, we are not living as God intended. And the especially crazy part that illustrates our sin most tangibly is that we don’t have “with” God kind of relationship unless He comes down to us. We can’t make it happen ourselves, in our flesh.
Enter Jesus… Turn to John 1 if you haven’t already. There are lots of passages in Scripture that speak about incarnation. There are lots of other ways to describe what incarnation means and its function and purpose, but we’re going to focus today on its basic meaning as God coming to us “in the flesh” in the form of Jesus as seen in John 1.
“In the beginning was the Word” – v 1a
This phrase here in John, “In the beginning was the Word” echoes the opening phrase of the book of Genesis, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” God created “all things,” which is meant by that Hebrew phrase “the heavens and the earth.”
John uses this phrase, “in the beginning” on purpose… If you were a Jew and you heard these words, “In the beginning,” your ears would perk up because it sounds exactly like Genesis 1:1 and everyone knew this phrase. “In the beginning… In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” These would ring loud and clear to all Jews hearing it as the creation story in Gen 1.
So here comes along the apostle John saying, “In the beginning”… “was the Word.” Later, in v 14, John identifies this word explicitly as Jesus, but for now let’s focus on the meaning of “the Word” here in John 1:1.
The Greeks of the day understood this word “word” (or logos) as an “impersonal principal of Reason that gave order to the universe.”1 The “word”, the logos, was an impersonal principal that ordered the universe. So, to the Greeks of the day, you say, “Who created the world?” “The logos.” “Who made the seas and skies?” “The logos.” “Who will win the World Series?” “The logos.” The secular world of the day thought everything was kinda held together by this logos concept.
So a Greek would hear John 1:1 and their ears would perk up too… “Oh yeah, in the beginning was the logos. I get it.”
But John redefines this logos concept both for the Jew and the Greek… He infuses it with deeper meaning and says that this “Word”, this logos, is far superior. This logos lives with us. Can you imagine how crazy that sounded to them?! It’s not possible. Many of them thought it blasphemous.
So first, as we’ve noted, John says that this word has always EXISTED… “In the beginning was the Word.” As we said, John identifies this Word as Jesus (look down v. 14 – “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”… literally the text says he “tented” among us), but here, in v 1, he locates the word’s existence in eternity past with God.
“And the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” – vv 1b-2
Slowly, because this sounds nerdy… This expression should not be read merely as connoting/implying that the Word was in the presence of God but rather that there existed a kind of INTERACTIVE RECIPROCITY between the Word and God. (I think I got that last line from the New American Commentary on John, but am not sure.) Repeat last sentence again slowly.
ILL – It’s like in any meaningful relationship… Interactive reciprocity means that when you mess with one, you’ve messed with the other. It’s how the parent feels when another kid at school starts bullying their kid. It’s how a team member feels when someone on the other team commits a flagrant foul against one of his team members. When someone starts talking about a family member, the hair on your neck starts to stand up a bit. When someone starts talking about my wife, I just refer them to her because she’s a big girl who can take care of herself and who hasn’t the slightest problem telling you straight herself! :o)
So, to say “the Word was with God and the Word was God” was like saying God the Father and God the Son are a team. They’re an interactive reciprocity! Feel free to summarize the sermon to your family and friends like that… So when they ask, “What’d you learn in Sunday’s sermon?” You can just say, “Oh, we learned that God the Father and God the Son are an interactive reciprocity” and enjoy the blank stare on their faces! :o)
So the second way John infuses this logos concept with deeper meaning (1st being that the Word is eternal) is that this word/logos relates personally to himself in this reciprocal kind of way.
That’s significant because, if God is going to relate to humanity, He’s gonna have to do it through a mediator because God is Spirit.
So here John is setting it up so we see the truth that God wants to relate this way with his people. God as Spirit wants to relate to His created people through His Son Jesus because, well, you can’t see and relate to Spirit. So John takes this impersonal Greek concept and infuses it with a personal meaning and relationship.
You see, if you asked the Greeks of the day if the logos who brought order and reason to creation loved them, they’d laugh. The idea that the Creator had anything to do with them was a crazy idea. In fact, logos to them wasn’t really a Creator but just an idea… a philosophical proposition.
So John has established these two things: (1) That the Word has always existed, and (2) That the word/logos is a personal relationship and not just an idea.
Read v 3 – “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that has been made” – v 3
Lemme show you briefly from Scripture how Jesus (and not just the Word) was not just present but also participated in CREATION. Turn to Gen 1:26 & Colossians 1:15. I’ll give you just a second here… I’m turning with ya… First go to Gen 1:26, where it says, during the crowning achievement of his creating, on day 6, “Let us (notice the plural) make man in our (plural) image (or likeness), after our (again, the plural) likeness.” 3 times we see the use of the plural here. And yes, God is speaking to Himself. (Apparently you’re not the only one who talks to yourself?! Looks like we’re (I mean, you’re) in good company.) :o)
Now turn over to Colossians 1:15. It says that “He (meaning Jesus) is the image (same word in Gen 1:26) of the invisible God (invisible because He is Spirit), the firstborn over all creation.” So Jesus is the image/likeness of God, but not like we are. You see, he is the firstborn over all creation.
But wait, you say… ‘I thought you said he wasn’t created! :o) If he’s the first one born, he’s a created being.’ Well yes, but Paul isn’t speaking of Christ as simply the first one born, but as the firstborn Son (capital S) who has firstborn rights over all creation. He’s saying that Christ is like a firstborn son, having all the rights and privileges of Sonship. The rest of this passage proves that being “firstborn over all creation” means more than just physical birth. Just look at vv 16-17, “[16] For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. [17] And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
Now remember Gen 1:26… God is making man in whose image? “Our” image. Remember that God is talking to Himself, so that means that the “man” will look like “us” (that is, God, the Trinity) and when that “man” is human, that assumes that one of “us” is like that. Clear as mud? Lemme say that again slowly… REPEAT… In other words, if God makes you and me in His image, and that image was present at creation (in the form of Jesus), then you and I
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in him” – 2 Corinthians 2:6-12
So, if Christ was present in eternity past and was participated in creation, then He is the image of the invisible God, then His presence among us as a human is the single most important event in the history of the universe.
Some people outside and even inside the Church misread the Gospel and see in it something other than incarnation. They read into it a God who stands far off and judges from above, weighing us on scales of acceptability and whether we are good enough. Others read in the Gospel a God who is so like us that he is too weak to live a sinless life that makes up for our sins on the cross.
When we read this Gospel of incarnation, which is perfect God descending to helpless and sinful humanity, it calls us to be a different people. It calls us to live likewise… Col 2:6 says, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in him…” So walk with him.
The Gospel is about living externally focused lives where our heart beats with the same things that move God. What moved God was our lostness. So the gospel of incarnation doesn’t allow us to sit in our pews and stay in our homes behind nicely landscaped gardens. It demands that we are called to work hard and pray fervently for the Kingdom of God to be displayed and illustrated, in the flesh, in reality.
Too often we do the opposite of illustrating the Kingdom of God in the flesh. We are prone to the opposite of incarnation, which is manipulation. And that’s what happens when we live “apart” from God lives instead of “with” God lives. It’s what happens when we have relationships with people that are based on our selfish terms and what we get out of it. It’s what happens when we hurt others in relationships by acting out of selfish ambition and judgment instead of selfless grace and love.
We in the church are an incredibly hypocritical lot, aren’t we?! :o) We are really good at manipulation and acting out of selfish ambition, and proving ourselves right, and judgment and sacrifice instead of mercy and grace and love. I mean, really, think about it… We are really good at creating environments where we manipulate people to look like what we want them to look like. We are WAY more worried about making sure people fit into OUR molds than we are about encouraging a vibrant spiritual life with God, aren’t we?! Think about it… We are more apt to hear someone say something like, “Wish he could’ve dressed up a bit” than you are to hear someone say, “Wish we had more time to study the Scriptures during the sermon or sing those wonderful songs.” Are we preaching yet?! We are so good at incarnating our own human-centered versions of the Gospel that we hardly know how to do the Christian life and incarnate grace in a way that can be likened to God’s own example that he set for us in Christ. Sometimes our patterns of human-centered manipulation become the ruts beyond which we can’t see.
Closing ILL
I s’pose that’s fitting, though… Even the grace we know must come down from above… Because the beauty of incarnation is that God Himself doesn’t weigh us on our scales or even His own scales of perfection. He gets down to our level so we would know and love Him and be known and loved by Him… We get to share in the "interactive reciprocity" that the Father and Son experience! :o) How crazy is that?! :o)
In an article for Christian Standard magazine, preacher and college president Matt Proctor reflects on the Incarnation:
My 5-year-old, Carl, and my 3-year-old, Conrad, love it when I dress like them. After they put on jeans and a blue T-shirt, they'll come ask me to wear jeans and a blue T-shirt. When I do, they have a saying. They will survey me, survey themselves, and say, "Look, Dad—same, same." For my birthday, Carl bought me a North Carolina blue mesh shirt … because he has a North Carolina blue mesh shirt. We could be "same, same."
When I play living room football with my boys, Conrad will not let me play standing—so big and scary and towering above him. The theological term for this is "completely Other." Instead he insists I get on my knees. When I am down at eye-level, Conrad puts his hand on my shoulder and says, "There. See, Dad—same, same." They like it when I enter their world ….
This summer, I scraped my leg working on my house. When Conrad fell down and scraped his leg, he pointed at my scab, then showed me his and said, “Hey, Dad—same, same.”
Here's the point … God himself has felt what we feel. In the Incarnation, he chose not to stay "completely Other." He got down at eye-level, and in the Incarnation, God experienced what it's like to be tired and discouraged. He knows what it's like to hurt and bleed. On the cross, Jesus himself prayed a psalm of lament: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1).
In your pain, you may be tempted to say, "God, you have no idea what I'm going through. You have no idea how bad I'm hurting." But God can respond, "Yes, I do." He can point to your wounds and then to his own and say, "Look: same, same. Me too. I have entered your world, and I know how you feel. I have been there, I am with you now, I care, and I can help."
That is what incarnation is all about.
––––––––––––––––––––
Communion Transition/Meditation
The word “Communion” means “union with.” It’s a fitting word on a day when we talk about “incarnation,” Christ in the flesh. During communion, we figuratively eat the flesh of Christ because he laid down his very body for our sins and we have “union with” him because he came to earth.
You see, incarnation wasn’t just an idea… He wasn’t a far-off God who judges nor was He just an especially capable human who just did cool miracles. He was a person who makes relationship with God possible. Today, during the Lord’s Supper, we eat and drink to celebrate relationship with God.
Praise Him today for the wonder of knowing & loving Him!
