Incarnation; God With Us

THE PASTOR’S POINTS

sermon ministry of

CEDAR LODGE BAPTIST CHURCH

Thomasville, NC

December 14, 2003

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 (NIV)

14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 (NIV)

Logos is the Greek word we translate as "word". Logos is God’s translation for a world that couldn’t understand Him. It is a demonstration of God in Christ, so we could know God. It is the Word of gracious condescension for people who can’t speak heaven’s language. We are far from His level, so He came down to ours!

In the first few verses of John’s Gospel, there is symmetry of thought which -- when coupled appropriately -- expresses critical truth about the incarnation of Jesus. To understand this, a brief word about or word is in order. The old saying has it, What’s in a name? The answer is: Everything if it is your name, and it describes who you are, your nature, and your character.

To the ancients, and even modern Easterners, a word is not simply head knowledge transferred to sound waves, indicating a concept or nominative designation. The word is seen as an active event -- inherently powerful. A word is the same as a deed.

In that way, Jesus Christ, described as the Word of God, is expressing that He is indeed God. Jesus describes -- displays the very character (logos) of God. Men didn’t really know what to think of God -- and so God explained himself. As G. Campbell Morgan put it, In Christ, the long long silence became speech.

On a human level, my Uncle Marlen, knew how to do that. When he was explaining something, he frequently asked a one-word question; he would say, Catch? He wanted to know if we were catching-on to his idea. At pick-up football games he always knew what to do. In the huddle he’d describe some elaborate play. The instructions included things like running to the oak tree, and cutting over to the old Chevy (awaiting overhaul in the back yard). Be sure you fake left, he’d warn -- Don’t let Tommy get in front of you. I’ll throw you the ball when you zig right -- CATCH? Catch? Catch what? Sure I’ll catch the ball -- just -- what’s a fake left and a zig right?

Uncle Marlen would look at those blank stares in our faces -- we must have looked like does in the headlights -- then he would say, I’ll do it one time so you can see it. Just throw me the ball when I holler ’NOW!’ He would run some intricate pass pattern, gliding with that Jamaica shuffle of his -- and yell, Now - C’mon, hit me. The plans seldom worked -- but we saw with our own eyes the best left fakes and zigs ever!

That is the way with logos; Jesus was God’s way of saying "catch?" Jesus showed us The Father.

Investigate with me the couplets of John 1:1 and 1:14. These words which fit-together describe the speech; they tell us who this Word (Jesus) was, is, will be...

JESUS WAS ETERNITY ENTERING TIME

Verse 1: In the beginning was the Word

Verse 14: And the Word was made flesh,

The Bible here states an unqualified fact -- Jesus is eternal God! He is The Word, and He has always existed. When he became flesh, it was eternity entering the realm of time. One author put it this way:

Jesus’ incarnation was...He who never began to be, but eternally existed, and who continued to be what he eternally was, began to be what he eternally was not. [1]

Jesus said to the Pharisees:

"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" John 8:58 (NIV)

Christ used the same expression as when the Father spoke to Moses at the burning bush...I AM. The eternal nature of Jesus was prophesied by the prophets:

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Micah 5:2 (KJV)

Besides the eternal nature, there is the creative nature of Jesus:

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or Principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Colossians 1:16-17 (KJV)

Cloning is one of the hot items in the news these days. Many speak of creating life. What a textbook case of missing the mark! Man may mess around with DNA, rearranging the order of things -- but only God can create. The Bible says that God created ex-nihilo (something out of nothing). As the old country preacher put it -- In the beginnin’ there weren’t nothin’. God catched Hisself a bit o’ that nothin’ an’ flung it out there in the heavens, an’ made Hisself a bit o’ somthin’. Lousy grammar -- great theology!