TITLE: Jesus: God In Human Flesh (Sermon # 1)
SERIES: The Apostle John’s Christmas Story
TEXT: John 1:1–18
DATE PREACHED: December 13, 2009
COPYRIGHT © JOE LA RUE, 2009
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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INTRODUCTION
A. When we think of the Christmas story, we tend to think of the accounts in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. We remember the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, and the angel chorus that announced our Savior’s birth. We recall the star that shone in the east and the wise men who followed it to Jerusalem in search of the baby king. We reflect on the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These are the Christmas stories in Matthew and Luke.
B. The apostle John’s account of Christmas is a little different. He doesn’t mention the wise men, or the star, or the shepherds, or the chorus of angels. While Matthew and Luke tell us about the historical circumstances of our Savior’s birth, John tells us about the theological significance of the birth. And so, twice—once in his Gospel, and once in Revelation—John explains Christmas from the perspective of what the birth of Christ means for us.
C. This Sunday and next, we will study John’s account of Christmas. Next week, we’ll consider John’s picture in Revelation of the birth of Jesus Christ as an occurrence of cosmic significance, an event that ushered in the defeat of Satan and the triumph of the kingdom of God. But today, let’s look at the story of Christmas in John’s Gospel. Open your Bibles to John, chapter one, verses one through eighteen. Follow along as I read from the English Standard Version of the Bible. The Word of God says:
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15(John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
(John 1:1-18, English Standard Version)
D. “The Word became flesh” — that’s the incarnation. That’s the Christmas story—God entered our world as a little baby, born to a virgin in Bethlehem, and was laid in a manger in a stable, because there was no room for his family in the inn.
I. THE IDENTITY OF THE BABY: GOD, CLOTHED IN HUMAN FLESH.
A. There can be no doubt that Jesus is God, clothed in human flesh, when we take the first verse with the fourteenth: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. . . . 14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
1. This expression, “the Word,” is the translation of the Greek word logos (λόγος). It was used by the various Greek and Roman philosophical schools to denote “reason.” (F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John at 29 (Grand Rapids: Eerdman’s, 1983); George R. Beasley-Murray, John at 24 (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1989)). And, the pagan peoples of the ancient Near East, while not using the Greek word, had nonetheless associated the expression “word of god” or “word of the gods” with “wisdom.” (Beasley-Murray, John, at 23).
2. But the true backdrop for John’s use of the word logos to describe Jesus is not the Greek philosophical schools, nor the ancient Near Eastern peoples. Rather, the true background is found in the Old Testament, where ‘the word of God’ denotes ‘God in action.’ And, there are three primary activities that this ‘action’ tends to center around—creation, revelation, and deliverance. (Bruce, The Gospel of John, at 29).
a. For instance, when God created our universe and world, He spoke everything into existence. The Bible says that, “God said ‘let there be light,’ and there was light.” (Gen 1:3). “God said, ‘let the waters . . . be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear;’ and it was so.” (Gen 1:9). “God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation . . .,’ and it was so.” (Gen 1:11). Over and over we read that God spoke, and things were created. Similarly, we read in the Psalms, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” (Psa 33:6). The expression, ‘the word of God,’ denotes God in action in creation.
b. It also denotes God in action in revelation. When God spoke to the prophets and gave them his message, the Bible frequently says that “the word of the Lord came” to the prophet. And so, as the Psalmist says, God “declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and rules to Israel.” (Psa 147:19). ‘The word of God’ denotes God in action in revelation, revealing his message to his people.
c. And, ‘the word of God’ also denotes God in action in delivering his people. For instance, one time when some people were sick and were crying out to God for help, the Bible says that God “sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.” (Psa 107:20).
d. So, ‘the word of God’ denotes ‘God in action,’ primarily in the activities of creation, revelation, and deliverance. And, it was with that background that John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In this opening verse, John underscores for us exactly who Jesus is, and what he came to do: he is ‘God in action,’ who came to create for us new life, reveal God to us, and deliver us from our sins. And, these themes are repeated throughout the Gospel, such that from beginning to end we see that these three activities—creating for us new life, revealing God to us, and delivering us—were the primary work of our Savior. So, John used the expression, ‘the Word,’ logos, to describe Jesus, in order to emphasize the type of work he had come to do.
3. And John writes that this Word—Jesus—was with God; and, more than that, he was God. This baby whose birth we celebrate is none other than the Second Person of the Trinity, the one we call “God the Son.” “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This baby who entered our world at Christmastime really was God.
a. We cannot fully grasp this concept that we call “the Trinity”—this idea that God has eternally existed in three persons, yet is one God. We can’t get our minds around that. Yet, that is how the Bible presents God.
(1) Some of the greatest thinkers in the history of Christianity have sought to help us understand this concept.
(a) John Calvin, one of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation, explained it this way: “Since there is but one God, it follows that Christ is of the same essence with the Father, and yet that, in some respect, he is distinct from the Father.” (Calvin’s Commentaries, John Vol. I, John 1:1–5).
(b) Meanwhile, the noted Restoration Movement theologian Jack Cottrell suggests that “it is best to understand ‘person’ as a thinking, willing center of consciousness. That God is three persons means that within the one divine nature are three individual centers of consciousness. Each of the persons is fully conscious of himself as distinct from the other two and as existing in eternal interpersonal relationship with the other two.” (Jack Cottrell, The Faith Once For All at 71 (Joplin, Missouri: College Press, 2002)).
(2) I think that’s the best way we can understand it: Jesus is God the Son, part of this eternal Three-Person Being that is God, just as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are also part. Yet, they are three distinct Persons within God—three distinct ‘centers of consciousness,’ to use Cottrell’s phrase.
b. I know: This concept of the Trinity is confusing. But, that is how the Bible describes God.
(1) For instance, in Genesis chapter 1, when God creates our world, after creating all of nature God says, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.” (Gen 1:26). Notice that God did not say, ‘Let us make man in our images, according to our likenesses.’ Rather, both ‘likeness’ and ‘image’ are singular: “Let us make man in our image and according to our likeness.” God has three persons, but he is one being.
(2) And because God is not three gods but rather one God existing in three persons, God said in that passage of Scripture known as the Shema, which the ancient people of Israel recited as part of their worship, “Shema, Y’israel: Adonai elohenu Adonai echad.” “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deut 6:4). He is not three beings, existing separately. He is one God, eternally existing in three persons.
B. Clothed in Human Flesh . . .
1. And this “Word,” this Second Person of the Trinity, left heaven’s glory, and entered our world as a baby. John describes that event with this beautiful phrase, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The eternal God took on human flesh and became like us.
a. Now, we must not understand this phrase to mean that when Jesus came to our world, he ceased to be God the Son. It is not that he was changed into flesh and gave up his divinity. Rather, the divinity of Christ was united with the humanity of Christ such that he was both fully human and also fully divine. He had two natures—a divine nature and a human nature—and yet, “the two natures constitute only one Christ.” (1 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion at 415 (Book II, Chapter XIV.1) (Henry Beveridge, Trans.) (Grand Rapids: Eerdman’s, 1989)).
b. And so, even though he was fully God, Jesus was fully man, too. This means that when he entered our world in the incarnation, he took on all our weaknesses. He would grow hungry and tired. He would be distressed. He would thirst. But, he would also gain the ability to die, that he might save us.
2. And so, the eternal God the Son took on human flesh, and he dwelt among us.
C. That’s who Jesus is. He is not just a cute little baby, away in a manger. He is God, who took on human flesh—for us. But John doesn’t want to leave us with just the knowledge of who Jesus is. He wants to tell us in his Christmas account why Jesus matters. He wants us to understand what the significance of Jesus’ coming is. And, in a nutshell, it’s this: the act of Jesus entering our world opened for us the doors to heaven, and granted to us access to God.
II. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BABY: HEAVEN’S DOORS ARE OPEN, AND ACCESS TO GOD IS GRANTED.
A. Look again at verses twelve and thirteen: “12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
1. “Not of blood” is a reference to the fact that the new birth does not depend on being part of the ‘right’ racial stock. Many of the Jewish people of Jesus’ day placed enormous confidence in their racial identity as Jews, believing that, because they were the physical descendants of Abraham, they were on good terms with God. But, John says that it is not on the basis of our racial identity that we become the children of God. (Calvin’s Commentaries, John Vol. I, John 1:6–13).
2. Nor is it on the basis of ‘the will of the flesh’ or ‘the will of man.’ Some commentators see these expressions as synonymous; and, they may be. I think, though, that there is a slight difference of meaning. ‘The will of the flesh’ is, I think, better taken as indicating physical desire, while ‘the will of man’ indicates the actual decision of man to engage in the act that would produce a child.
3. Regardless of whether the terms are synonymous or slightly different, John says that those decisions and desires have nothing to do with being born a child of God, any more than being part of a particular race of people has anything to do with it. Rather, the children of God are born because God grants them new birth.
4. And, that birth is one that Jesus has given us the right to experience. The word used here for ‘right’ in the original Greek is exousia (εξουσία), and it means something akin to an “‘ability to perform an action’ to the extent that there are no hindrances in the way.” (Foerster, “ἕξεςτιν, έξουσια,” in 2 Theological Dictionary of the New Testament 562 (Gerhard Kittel, Ed.)). There was another Greek word, dunamis (δύναμις), which meant “intrinsic ability.” Exousia isn’t that. It isn’t a right or ability that we just naturally have, no matter what. Rather, it’s an ability we have because there are no obstacles in the way. It means that we have the ability, because there are no hindrances.
a. This word exousia came to be used by the Greeks to indicate a “right” that was granted by a court or a higher authority, such as a king. It indicated a right to do something, granted by permission of the higher authority, that you ordinarily would not have the right to do. (Id.). In other words, the king takes the hindrances out of the way.
b. So, the word generally can either mean “power to do something, because there are no hindrances,” or “right to do something, granted by a higher authority.”
(1) When we talk about God’s exousia, we normally translate the word as “power,” because there is nothing to hinder God.
(2) But when we talk about our exousia, often we translate it as “right,” because the Bible is talking about a right that God has given us.
(3) And here, when John says that Jesus gave us the exousia to become the children of God, it means that Jesus—as the higher authority—has given us a right that we couldn’t have had otherwise. He has removed the obstacle of our sin for us by his death on the cross. So, we now have the “right,” given by him, to become God’s children.
5. And, how do we exercise this right and become God’s children? The Bible says that it is when we believe in Jesus name.
a. To “believe in the name” of someone means to believe in them; that is, to believe that they are who claim to be. And, who did Jesus claim to be? The Savior—the one who can save us.
b. So, when we believe in Jesus—when we trust him to save us—we become the children of God. It’s what the Bible talks about in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
6. We have been given this wonderful right by Jesus. We can become God’s children. The doors of heaven have been thrown open, and access to God has been granted. Yet, when Jesus came, many refused to believe in him, but rather rejected him. In fact, John tells us that Jesus came to his own people—the Jewish people through whom God had been working for centuries, and who had been given the Bible promising that a Savior was coming—yet many of them did not receive him.
7. Sadly, that’s true today too, isn’t it? For instance, most Americans know about Jesus. They know who he is. But, how many really worship him? How many follow him? How many of us Americans have made Jesus the Lord of our lives? Many of us, today, reject Jesus, just as many people rejected him when he first came into our world.
8. And that’s why John’s account of Christmas is so important. John wants us to know that we don’t have to reject him. In fact, we can receive him, and in receiving him we become the children of God! He is the light, shining in the darkness; and, the darkness cannot conquer him. He is the one who has revealed God to us, so that we can know him. And, he is the one who gives us of his fullness and grace, so we can be accepted by him.
9. He is our Savior, the one who opens heaven’s door for us, and grants us access to God, right now.
B. That’s who Jesus is! That’s what Jesus does! That’s why Christmas matters.
CONCLUSION
A. Let me close this morning with a story by J.B. Phillips called “The Visited Planet.”
Once upon a time a very young angel was being shown round the splendours and glories of the universes by a senior and experienced angel. To tell the truth, the little angel was beginning to be tired and a little bored. He had been shown whirling galaxies and blazing suns, infinite distances in the deathly cold of inter-stellar space, and to his mind there seemed to be an awful lot of it all. Finally he was shown the galaxy of which our planetary system is but a small part. As the two of them drew near to the star which we call our sun and to its circling planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis. It looked as dull as a dirty tennis-ball to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had seen.
“I want you to watch that one particularly," said the senior angel, pointing with his finger.
"Well, it looks very small and rather dirty to me," said the little angel. "What’s special about that one?"
"That," replied his senior solemnly, "is the Visited Planet."
"Visited?" said the little one. "you don’t mean visited by --------?
"Indeed I do. That ball, which I have no doubt looks to you small and insignificant and not perhaps overclean, has been visited by our young Prince of Glory." And at these words he bowed his head reverently.
"But how?" queried the younger one. "Do you mean that our great and glorious Prince, with all these wonders and splendours of His Creation, and millions more that I’m sure I haven’t seen yet, went down in Person to this fifth-rate little ball? Why should He do a thing like that?"
"It isn’t for us," said his senior a little stiffly, "to question His ’why’s’, except that I must point out to you that He is not impressed by size and numbers, as you seem to be. But that He really went I know, and all of us in Heaven who know anything know that. As to why He became one of them - how else do you suppose could He visit them?"
The little angels face wrinkled in disgust.
"Do you mean to tell me," he said, "that He stooped so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures of that floating ball?"
"I do, and I don’t think He would like you to call them ’creeping, crawling creatures’ in that tone of voice. For, strange as it may seem to us, He loves them. He went down to visit them to lift them up to become like Him."
The little angel looked blank. Such a thought was almost beyond his comprehension.
"Close your eyes for a moment," said the senior angel, "and we will go back in what they call Time."
While the little angels eyes were closed and the two of them moved nearer to the spinning ball, it stopped its spinning, spun backwards quite fast for a while, and then slowly resumed its usual rotation.
"Now look!" And as the little angel did as he was told, there appeared here and there on the dull surface of the globe little flashes of light, some merely momentary and some persisting for quite a time.
"Well, what am I seeing now?" queried the little angel.
"You are watching this little world as it was some thousands of years ago," returned his companion. "Every flash and glow of light that you see is something of the Father’s knowledge and wisdom breaking into the minds and hearts of people who live upon the earth. Not many people, you see, can hear His Voice or understand what He says, even though He is speaking gently and quietly to them all the time."
"Why are they so blind and deaf and stupid?" asked the junior angel rather crossly.
"It is not for us to judge them. We who live in the Splendour have no idea what it is like to live in the dark. We hear the music and the Voice like the sound of many waters every day of over lives, but to them - well, there is much darkness and much noise and much distraction upon the earth. Only a few who are quiet and humble and wise hear His Voice. But watch, for in a moment you will see something truly wonderful."
The Earth went on turning and circling round the sun, and then quite suddenly, in the upper half of the globe, there appeared a light, tiny but so bright in its intensity that both the angels hid their eyes.
"I think I can guess," said the little angel in a low voice. "That was the Visit, wasn’t it?"
"Yes, that was the Visit. The Light Himself went down there and lived among them; but in a moment, and you will be able to tell that even with your eyes closed, the light will go out."
"But why? Could He not bear their darkness and stupidity? Did He have to return here?"
"No, it wasn’t that" returned the senior angel. His voice was stern and sad. "They failed to recognise Him for Who He was - or at least only a handful knew Him. For the most part they preferred their darkness to His Light, and in the end they killed Him."
"The fools, the crazy fools! They don’t deserve ----"
"Neither you nor I, nor any other angel, knows why they were so foolish and so wicked. Nor can we say what they deserve or don’t deserve. But the fact remains, they killed our Prince of Glory while He was Man amongst them."
"And that I suppose was the end? I see the whole Earth has gone black and dark. All right, I won’t judge them, but surely that is all they could expect?"
"Wait, we are still far from the end of the story of the Visited Planet. Watch now, but be ready to cover your eyes again."
In utter blackness the earth turned round three times, and then there blazed with unbearable radiance a point of light.
"What now?" asked the little angel, shielding his eyes.
"They killed Him all right, but He conquered death. The thing most of them dread and fear all their lives He broke and conquered. He rose again, and a few of them saw Him and from then on became His utterly devoted slaves."
"Thank God for that," said the little angel.
"Amen. Open your eyes now, the dazzling light has gone. The Prince has returned to His Home of Light. But watch the Earth now."
As they looked, in place of the dazzling light there was a bright glow which throbbed and pulsated. And then as the Earth turned many times little points of light spread out. A few flickered and died; but for the most part the lights burned steadily, and as they continued to watch, in many parts of the globe there was a glow over many areas.
"You see what is happening?" asked the senior angel. "The bright glow is the company of loyal men and women He left behind, and with His help they spread the glow and now lights begin to shine all over the Earth."
"Yes, yes," said the little angel impatiently, "but how does it end? Will the little lights join up with each other? Will it all be light, as it is in Heaven?"
His senior shook his head. "We simply do not know," he replied. "It is in the Father’s hands. Sometimes it is agony to watch and sometimes it is joy unspeakable. The end is not yet. But now I am sure you can see why this little ball is so important. He has visited it; He is working out His Plan upon it."
"Yes, I see, though I don’t understand. I shall never forget that this is the Visited Planet."
B. I don’t know about you, but I feel sort of like the little angel. I don’t understand why God chose to love me. I don’t understand why the Father sent the Son to save me. I don’t understand why Jesus left heaven’s glory, and came down here, for me. But, I’m so thankful that he did. I don’t understand. But, I shall never forget: this is the visited planet.
C. Invitation to receive Christ and become a child of God.
