The Word Become Flesh
John 1:1, 14
A child born, a Son given...Who is this child other than the enigma of the ages – the Word, God made flesh. What does this mean? How does it impact me? What is the message it proclaims?
I. The Mystery of the Word become Flesh
A. John 1:1-3, 14 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made... And the Word was made 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.”
B. Steven Cole says that “John 1:14 is one of the most wonderful and yet unfathomable verses in the Bible! How can God, who is spirit, become human flesh? How can the eternal become temporal? How can the unchangeable God take on a human body, subject to change? How can the immortal die as the substitute for our sins? How can the man, Jesus, whom John saw, also be the eternal Creator of the universe?” – Steven J. Cole, The Eternal Word Made Flesh, 2006
C. God spent His first nine months on earth as a preborn baby. Fully alive. Fully human. Fully God. That is why the ancient creeds affirm that Jesus was “conceived of the Holy Spirit.” He didn’t become the God-man at Bethlehem. He was God incarnate from the moment of conception... The Son did not cease to be God when he became a man. He added manhood but he did not subtract deity. He was fully God and fully man—the God-man. ...Ponder that for a moment. The Almightiness of God moved in a human arm. The love of God now beat in a human heart. The wisdom of God now spoke from human lips. The mercy of God reached forth from human hands. God was always a God of love but when Christ came to the earth, love was wrapped in human flesh. Jesus was God with skin on. - www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/1998-12-20-When-Did-Christmas-Begin
D. Luke 2:40, 52 “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him... And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”
E. Jesus Christ grew up like any child would grow. He had to learn to crawl and then to walk. He had to learn speech. He matured as a human. His body was subject to the same frailties that our bodies are.
F. John 1:3 “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
G. Vincent says, “"He became that which first became through Him."
II. The Implications of the Word become Flesh
A. Hebrews 2:17 (NKJV) “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful (sympathetic) and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
B. Jesus Christ clothed Himself in the same kind of body we are have. His physical body had the same the limitations that our body has. experienced hunger. Jesus Christ stepped into our weakness and frailty with us.
C. Jesus knows what it means to be hungry
• Luke 4:2 tells us that for forty days Jesus went into the wilderness and we read “...and in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.”
• Again in Matthew 21:18 we see Christ hungry.
D. Jesus knows what it means to be tired and become exhausted.
• John 4:6 “Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour”
E. Jesus knows what it meant to be poor.
• One commentator states that Christ grew up in the darkest district of Palestine; in a little country town of proverbial insignificance; in poverty and manual labor; in the obscurity of a carpenter's shop
• Matthew 8:20 “And Jesus saith unto him, ‘The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.’”
F. He knows the sorrow of rejection
• Matthew 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not!”
• John 1:11 “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”
G. He knows the sorrow of having a close friend and family member die
• Nicodemus and Joseph
H. What's more, He tasted of the trials we taste because of the fall of Adam. He experienced the pain and sorrow and suffering that we brought upon ourselves as a result of our sin. He knew what it was like to be tempted.
I. Hebrews 4:15 “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
J. Hebrews 2:18 “For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.”
K. Hebrews 2:18 (AMP) “For because He Himself [in His humanity] has suffered in being tempted (tested and tried), He is able [immediately] to run to the cry of (assist, relieve) those who are being tempted and tested and tried [and who therefore are being exposed to suffering].
III. The Message of the Word become Flesh
A. John 1:14 “And the Word was made 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.”
B. Christ came to reveal God to man – “we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father’
C. Christ came to redeem Man from sin
• Galatians 4:4-5 “''But when the fulness of the was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law"
• You and I have been held captive to sin, but in Christ coming in the flesh and going to the cross, He has purchased our pardon and set us free from the bondage of sin. How marvelous to be able to sing, "Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!"
D. Christ came to reconcile man to God
• Luke 19:10 “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost”
• 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
• Oh! how sweet to view the flowing
Of our Lord's atoning blood,
With divine assurance knowing
He has made my peace with God!—Selected
E. Christ came to rescue man from the power of death and the devil
• Hebrews 2:14-15 “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same [flesh and blood]; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage"
