Telling It Out Loud
Text: John 1:14-18
Introduction
1. When we were pastoring in Yellville, AR I met a group of Christians from another church in town. They were wonderful people but from time to time they would say things that just didn't set well with me. One day one of them said to me, "We don't want to talk about doctrine, we just want to talk about Jesus!" So asked them, "What do you believe about Jesus?" They replied, "Well He is the Son of God!" To which I commented, "So you believe in the doctrine of the Deity of Christ?" The brother looked at me and said, "Well I guess so." Then I asked him what else he believed about Jesus? He said, "I believe that he died for my sins." Then I replied, "Oh, so you believe in the doctrine of the Atonement of Christ?" By this time he was getting a little aggravated with me, but I kindly pushed him a little a bit further and asked him what else he believed about Jesus? He said, "Well I believe that he came to earth and became like one of us!" So I piped up, "Great you believe in the doctrine of the Incarnation!" After a while I think my point was getting across to him that it is impossible to talk about Jesus and not talk about Christine doctrine because it all revolves around Jesus. People get bent out of shape about theological terms, however, if someone takes the time to explain the doctrines to them in ways terms they understand they discover that theology isn't as evil as they suppose. Take for example the doctrine of the Incarnation. Scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer once said "The best way to send an idea is to wrap it up in a person." The theological word for all of that is incarnation, meaning "in the flesh." Jesus was the incarnation of God. Jesus was the way that God sent His "idea" to humanity; there was and is no better way! Like the little girl who said, "Some people couldn't hear God's inside whisper and so He sent Jesus to tell them out loud."
2. In telling it out loud Jesus...
a. Revealed God In Person
b. Revealed God In Character
3. Let's stand together as we read John 1:14-18.
Proposition: In the Incarnation, Jesus, God in the flesh, becomes one of us.
Transition: First of all...
I. Jesus Revealed God In Person (14, 18).
A. The Word Became Human
1. While to many of us these verses cause us to think of Christmas, and they should, but there are greater spiritual truths to found in their words.
2. John begins this section by returning to his reference to the Logos, the Word. He says, "So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son."
a. Verse 14 marks the fourth statement about the Word in this introduction to the presentation of Jesus.
b. Note the contrast between vv. 1 and 14. Verse 1 states that the Word "was," referring to its permanent condition or state, while v. 14 states that the Word "became" flesh, involving a change in state.
c. This is the basic statement of the Incarnation, for Christ entered into a new dimension of existence through the gateway of human birth and took up his residence among men.
d. The verb translated "made his home" means "to pitch a tent, to dwell temporarily" (BAG, p. 762).
e. He left his usual place and accepted the conditions of human life and environment, with the attendant temporal limitations that all humans experience. (Tenney, The Expositor's Bible Commentary – Volume 9: John and Acts, 33).
f. The literal translation of the word "human" (here in the NLT) is "flesh."
g. John does not say, "the Word became man," nor "the Word took a body."
h. He chooses that form of expression which puts what he wants to say most bluntly.
i. Notice that this is the first time that John indicates that the Word and Jesus are to be taken as the same.
j. Up to this point it would have been quite possible for the reader to take "the Word" to refer to some supreme cosmic principle or the like.
k. But in one short, shattering expression John unveils the great idea at the heart of Christianity—that the very Word of God took flesh for our salvation.
(Morris, The New International Commentary on the New Testament – The Gospel According to John, 90-91).
l. That John had in mind the Shekinah and the glory that was associated with it seems further indicated by the express statement that the glory was "the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father."
m. The verb "have seen" is invariably used in John (as, for that matter, in the whole New Testament) of seeing with the bodily eye.
n. It is not used of visions. John is speaking of that glory which was seen in the literal, physical Jesus of Nazareth.
o. Since he came in lowliness we have an example of the paradox that John uses so forcefully later in the Gospel, that true glory is to be seen, not in outward splendor, but in the lowliness with which the Son of God lived among us and suffered for us. (Morris, 92).
3. John then bookends this section by making clear and without question what he is saying. He says in v. 18, "No one has ever seen God. But the one and only Son is himself God and is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us."
a. At first sight this verse may seem to be very loosely connected with the preceding if in fact it is connected at all.
b. But in reality it forms the climax to the entire Prologue, stressing as it does that Christ is in the closest possible relationship to the Father.
c. There is also the thought that, though Moses was highly esteemed by all Jews, yet in the system he inaugurated nobody could "see" God.
d. By contrast, Jesus Christ has revealed him. What then does John mean?
e. Surely that in his essential being God has never yet been seen by people.
f. Some had had their visions of God, but these were all partial. The theophany’s of the Old Testament did not and could not reveal God's essential being.
g. But Christ has now made such a revelation.
h. As Calvin puts it, "When he says that none has seen God, it is not to be understood of the outward seeing of the physical eye. He means generally that, since God dwells in inaccessible light, He cannot be known except in Christ, His lively image." (Morris, 100).
i. Obviously the author implies that his writing gives an adequate record of this revelation.
j. The life and words of Jesus are more than an announcement; they are an explanation of God's attitude toward men and of his purpose for them (Tenney, 34).
B. Up Front and Personal
1. Illustration: Pastor Greg Nance, of Signal Mountain Church of Christ tells this story. "Why did Jesus come to us as a baby? To fulfill prophecy? To be one with us, one of us, one we could know and understand, one we could see and believe in, one who takes away our sins through his own body and blood? All this and much more!
Let me share an insight from Brisa, my three year old granddaughter:
She’s my youngest daughter, Rachel’s first-born. Rachel and Hector are missionaries in Costa Rica where Brisa was born. My wife and I live in Tennessee so our visits with them were precious and few. Our phone bill used to be terrible until I discovered "skype." Then we were able to visit by computer and actually see and hear our grand-baby Brisa regularly for free! She calls us Pop and Mimi. She learned to talk in English and Spanish, and by two years old could carry on a conversation with us. She loved for us to read Bible stories or children’s books to her and would always say, "Read me a book!" And one of us would read a book and show her the pictures. She never grew tired of it and we always ended our skype sessions with a prayer and a kiss on the screen. It became our regular ritual.
Hector and Rachel planned a trip to see us and we were so excited. We waited at the airport for them to get through customs and come... then we saw them and Brisa shouted with excitement and gave us all big hugs and kisses. Then she took Mimi’s face in her little three year old hands and said, "Mimi! You’re SOFT!"
She was so used to kissing the screen and this was the real thing! We laughed and cried and held her tight and brought them all home with us.
The next day we were showing Brisa around our home and she noticed pictures of our family on the wall. One picture had our parents in it with us and Brisa, ever curious, wanted to know who we were with. When we explained who they were Brisa wanted to go see them. We had to tell her that they had died and were with God in heaven.
Brisa looked thoughtfully and said, "Oh... then Jesus is SOFT to them."
We both froze and said quietly: Jesus... is.... soft... to them."
Maybe that’s why Jesus came as a baby. So he could be soft to us and we could be soft to him.
2. In coming to earth Jesus brought God to us, up close and personal.
a. Philippians 2:6-7 (NLT)
Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,
b. In the person of Jesus we see God's greatest expression of love.
c. Jesus gave up his divine privileges in order to reveal God to us.
d. He showed us who God is and what he is like.
e. He showed us what it means to sacrifice.
f. He revealed to us what grace means.
g. He revealed to us what mercy means.
h. He revealed to us just how much God loves us!
Transition: Next John shows us that...
II. Jesus Revealed God In Character (16-17).
A. One Gracious Blessing After Another
1. John new shows us that Jesus not only revealed God's person but also God's character.
2. He says in v. 16, "From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another."
a. "Abundance" will have here the active meaning, "that which fills." Christ is the source of all our blessings.
b. There is a hint at the infinite extent of his resources, for "all" receive from him.
c. We might have thought that the receiving of Christ's abundance would be described as continuous.
d. But John uses the same verb and the same tense as he has used of the single act of receiving Christ in verse 12.
e. He prefers to concentrate on our becoming participators in the abundance when we first received Christ (Morris, 97-98).
f. The writer reminds his readers that they have already experienced that grace in increasing measure.
g. "One blessing after another" is an attempt to express in modern English the Greek phrase "grace in exchange for [anti] grace."
h. When one supply of grace is exhausted, another is available (Tenney, 33).
3. Furthermore, John not only shows that Jesus revealed that God is a God of grace, but also a God of love and faithfulness. In v. 17 he says, "For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ."
a. The law represented God's standard of righteousness; grace exhibited his attitude to human beings who found that they could not keep the law.
b. This attitude was depicted in the person and life of Jesus (Tenney, 33).
c. This is John's first use of the human name Jesus (though the idea of the Word made flesh came earlier).
d. He is fond of this name, using it 237 times in all (Matthew has it 150 times, Mark 81 times, and Luke 89 times).
e. This is more than a quarter of the total New Testament occurrences of the word (905 times).
f. But it is otherwise with the compound title Jesus Christ, found elsewhere in this Gospel only in 17:3 .
g. John uses the term "Christ," however, more often than the other Evangelists (19 times; Matthew has it 17 times, Mark 7, and Luke 12).
h. This will accord with his aim of writing so that people may believe that Jesus is the Christ (Morris, 98).
i. John introduced one of the central questions Jesus would answer: Because law and God’s unfailing love seem to contradict, what action should people take?
j. Both law and love express God’s nature. Moses emphasized God’s law and justice, while Jesus Christ came to highlight God’s mercy, love, and forgiveness.
k. Moses could only be the giver of the law, while Christ came to fulfill perfectly the law.
l. The law revealed the nature and will of God; now Jesus Christ reveals the nature and will of God.
m. Rather than coming through cold stone tablets, God’s revelation now comes through a person’s life.
n. As we get to know Christ better, our understanding of God will increase (Barton, Life Application New Testament Commentary, 375).
B. Jesus Showed Us God's Nature
1. Illustration: Richard Armstrong, in Make Your Life Worthwhile, reports the story about a man in Wales who sought to win the affection of a certain lady for 42 years before she finally said "Yes." The couple, both 74, recently became "Mr. and Mrs." For more than 40 years, the persistent, but rather shy man slipped a weekly love letter under his neighbor's door. But she continually refused to speak and mend the spat that had parted them many years before. After writing 2,184 love letters without ever getting a spoken or written answer, the single-hearted old man eventually summoned up enough courage to present himself in person. He knocked on the door of the reluctant lady's house and asked for her hand. To his delight and surprise, she accepted.
Imagine God's dilemma. Time and time again He has tried to get His message of love through to His human creation with little response. Finally, when there was no other way, He wrapped up His message and came in person. What a revelation of the incarnation, of God's love to you and me!
2. In Jesus God has revealed His character to us.
a. Micah 7:19-20 (NLT)
Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean! 20 You will show us your faithfulness and unfailing love as you promised to our ancestors Abraham and Jacob long ago.
b. In the coming of Jesus God fulfilled this promise.
c. In Jesus we see that God is a God of grace.
d. That he doesn't give what we do deserve, but instead he gives us what we do not deserve.
e. We deserve judgment and punishment, but through Jesus we receive forgiveness and grace.
f. In Jesus we also see that God is a God of love and faithfulness.
g. We wouldn't know what love is except for Jesus.
h. We love because he first loved us.
i. He loves us in spite of ourselves and regardless of what we have done.
j. He is faithful in all he does.
k. He doesn't know how to be faithless, and he doesn't know how to let you down.
l. He will be there when you need him
m. He will be there when you fall.
n. He will be there when you call him.
o. He is Jesus, the Word who became flesh!
Conclusion
1. In telling it out loud Jesus...
a. Revealed God In Person
b. Revealed God In Character
2. The question I want to ask you this morning is what are you going to do with Jesus?
