The Incarnation Series

INTRODUCTION

- Today, we focus the message on a thought that sets Jesus above all others: the Word BECAME FLESH!

- The word INCARNATION means the embodiment of God the Son in human flesh as Jesus Christ.

- Throughout time, humans have looked for ways to see God or connect with Him.

- Throughout time, people have tried all sorts of ways to do it.

- Throughout history, God has reached out to people because He loves them.

- God created Adam and Eve and communicated with them, then they sinned, and God cast them out of the garden.

- God revealed a bit of Himself through Moses and the 10 Commandments.

- During Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s time, God communicated with man through these men.

- In these last days, Hebrews 1:1-3 reminds us that God communicated with us through Jesus!

- Humans have longed to see God and connect with Him.

- This explains the reason that throughout history, people have had a tendency to be religious.

- The emptiness that we experience and the inner desire to see God and connect with Him has driven mankind to be religious.

- God took a step in making the ultimate connection with mankind when Jesus became flesh!

- Today, we begin a new mini-series within Core 52 entitled “Eagle’s Eye”.

- In Classical Christian Art, the Gospel of John is depicted with the symbol of an Eagle.

- Why? Because His theology is lofty.

- He flies closer to the Son.

- We will examine a handful of those “lofty thoughts” that can lift you out of the mundane to new heights.

- Let’s begin our five-week journey through the Gospel of John with John 1:14 as we examine the the blessings of the incarnation!

John 1:14 (NET 2nd ed.)

14 Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.

- Through Jesus…

I. God became like us.

- NOW THE WORD BECAME FLESH!

- Can you imagine someone approaching you and telling you that they are the Son of God, that they are God in the flesh?

- John 1:14 is one of the most extraordinary claims ever made.

- Throughout history, humanity has looked up to “gods" that were not approachable, “gods" that were said to live in places such as Mount Olympus, and “gods" who were not approachable.

- Humans have sought to please the unreachable “gods" not too long after the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden.

- Let’s consider the concept of God in the flesh.

- Why would God do that?

- We will delve into that thought a little later.

- Suffice it to say that the concept of God becoming a human is beyond comprehension.

- This concept is so incredible that some honest, truth-seeking theologians throughout history have tried to explain it away because the idea seems too incredible to grasp.

- Imagine the disciples who walked with Jesus.

- They saw what He did through the miracles, heard the life-changing teaching, they saw compassion and aheart for people, and I know they wanted to believe Jesus was who He said He was.

- Their eyes, ears, and hearts wanted them to believe what He said about Himself, yet when He was being carried off to be crucified, their minds told them their eyes, ears, and hearts deceived them into believing what their minds told them was possible.

- Yet the resurrection proved to them, as evidenced by how these men changed after the resurrection, that Jesus was God in the flesh!

- Jesus was fully human.

- Jesus wasn’t just appearing to be human; He truly became one of us.

- He was born into the world and experienced life with all its physical limitations—hunger, fatigue, emotions, and even pain.

- This was an act of divine humility, that the Creator of the universe would step down into the creation as one of us.

Philippians 2:5–7 (NET 2nd ed.)

5 You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had,

6 who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped,

7 but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature.

Galatians 4:4 (NET 2nd ed.)

4 But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

- By becoming us, Jesus can identify with our weaknesses and struggles.

Hebrews 4:15 (NET 2nd ed.)

15 For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.