John 1:1-14
Behold His Glory In The Incarnation
Woodlawn Baptist Church
November 26, 2006
Introduction
If I’m counting correctly, after today we’ll have 28 shopping days left until Christmas. Whether we were ready or not, Thanksgiving came and went, leaving us just a few short weeks of holiday madness. The holidays can and should be a great time of celebration and rejoicing for us. From Halloween until the New Year, families are brought together, we are reminded of the many blessings we enjoy and we have the opportunity to reflect on the birth of Christ and God’s desire to reach out to us.
For many though the holiday season is not that. Knowing that there are only 28 days left before Christmas is cause for distress instead of delight. You intended to save up this year, but never got around to it, or never seemed to be able to, and now you’re looking at more credit card debt. Family get-togethers make you tense and anxious instead of happy and relaxed, and for some of you it is but another reminder of good years gone by with a loved one who is no longer here. The closer Christmas gets the more some wish it would just hurry up and be over with.
It doesn’t have to be so. In fact, our distress and discouragement and sometimes even depression are generally indications that we have turned away from what the season really ought to be about. Each year we have the opportunity to behold God’s glory as it was manifested to us in the incarnation of Christ, but if we’re not thinking along those lines then we’ll miss what God has for us. We shouldn’t miss it. This is a time when our hearts and minds ought to be pulled out of the mire of the earthy and into the glories of the heavens, and it is a time to remember where our hearts and minds ought to be year round.
As we spend a few moments in John 1:1-14 this morning our challenge, or God’s invitation to us is to behold His glory in Christ’s incarnation and respond to it as the Holy Spirit leads. If you are one who frets and frowns and wishes the season would hurry up and pass, I want to invite you to stop and consider God’s Word. You may have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior. Today God’s invitation is for you to be saved. Regardless of how you entered the room, God wants to meet with each of you as He shows off His glory as He demonstrated it at the time of Christ’s birth: the incarnation. Let’s read John 1:1-14.
Imagine with me a time before the Creation when there was only the Godhead. God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit, existing in a time when there was no time in a place we cannot comprehend. Jesus, the Word of God, speaks the Creation into existence. He says, “Let there be light,” and there was light. He divided the light and called the light day and the darkness night. In the five days afterward He speaks the word and a glorious place is brought into being: the earth with all its water and land. He says but a word and the mighty oak is planted by rivers of water. Perhaps He created the redwoods to remind us of His majesty. Without the slightest effort an elephant is brought into being, then a lion, a dog, a herd of wild buffalo charging the plains. Hundreds of sparrows feast in fields of bounty while the mighty eagle soars overhead.
John tells us that everything that was made was made by Christ, the Word who was and is God. Paul tells us in Colossians 1:16 that “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…” But Paul goes beyond telling us that Jesus created everything to say that “all things were created by him, and for him…”
Why did God create the earth? To make Him happy. Why did He create a bass, a shark or a stingray? To make Him happy. Why did He create a snail or rock or a rose? Because it made Him happy! All of Creation joined together in a wonderful chorus to sing forth the praises of the God who made them and sustains them. But man destroyed much of that. Adam and Eve determined to be their own gods…the lords of their own lives and cast all of humanity into sin, and from that day all the world walked in darkness. From that day the Creation would no longer sing in harmony. In fact, Scripture tells us it groans and travails in pain as it awaits the return of Christ. That’s why John’s words are so beautiful. Jesus, the Light of the world shined into the darkness that has been cast over all of creation.
Jesus “was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world. He was in the world…He came unto his own...” Why? Why did God purpose in Himself to put on the cloak of flesh? Why would He take upon Himself the limitations of humanity? Why would He make Himself so vulnerable?
To Reveal God To Men
In the past, God had revealed Himself through His works, through His world and through His word. The incarnation was God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 1:1-3a tells us that Jesus is the very image of God.
“God, who at sundry time and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, who he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person…”
Jesus Himself said in John 14:9 that anyone who had seen Him had also seen the Father. That’s why John could say with all authority that “the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Before, God had revealed His standard of righteousness in precept and in principle, but in Christ that standard was revealed in person. Jesus doesn’t just teach us about the glory of God. He doesn’t just talk about it. He doesn’t even just demonstrate it. Jesus is the glory of God and He came to reveal God and His glory to all of humanity.
To restore paradise lost. To redeem a world sold out to sin.
When we consider the glories of heaven, the dwelling place of God, we are filled with hope. I love to read the Scriptures about heaven. Paul told about a man who “was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words that are not lawful to speak.” We love to read in Revelation about a place where “God shall wipe away all tears, and there shall be no death, neither sorrow, nor crying, and no pain.” The last chapter of the revelation says,
“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of the street and on both sides of the river is the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit. There’ll be no more curse…there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever.”
We cannot even begin to fathom the unspeakable glories of the kingdom of God. Words cannot express how amazing it will be in all its perfection and majesty. And what did Jesus do? He left it. Though He was still fully God “He emptied Himself, made Himself nothing, and took upon himself the form of a common slave, and was made in the likeness of men…”
The Creator of heaven, asleep on the hay. The God of all glory shared a bed with the goats. The Word was made flesh – that’s the Incarnation – to save sinners like you and me. Do you see His glory? Is there any greater love? What kind of love did God have to possess to send His only begotten Son into the world knowing that that world would reject Him…mock Him…beat Him and crucify Him? What king of a love would cause the Great Shepherd to be born in a manger, announced by shepherds, to save just one lost sheep?
It is the kind of love that only the God of heaven could have, and He demonstrated that love by being born in the flesh to walk a mile in your shoes, to know the pain you know, to feel the temptations you feel, to be confronted with the sins that so easily entangle us and to live victoriously over them all! It is the kind of love that, when it didn’t have to, hung on the cross of Calvary for you and me! Was it a great love? It was so great that John said in verse 10 that in spite of being in the world: the very world Jesus created, “the world didn’t know Him. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” And why does that make His love so great? Because He came as the incarnate Christ anyway! He knew the world would reject Him and He still came!
Now at this juncture I am compelled to ask you some questions:
Have you received Him?
If anything is evident in the incarnation it is the infinite love of God and His desire to save you from your sin. While it is usually to the cross that we turn our attention to consider the love of God, we must recognize that, as someone has said, “the wood of the cradle and the wood of the cross are the same.” The cradle was but the first step to the cross. And it is by that cradle that we should seek to consider the willingness and the ability of God to save men from their sins.
The Bible is clear that Jesus came as Light into a world of darkness, the only world you know if you’ve never trusted Christ. Turn the page and read John 3:16-21 with me.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth not on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”
I cannot state it any simpler than Jesus did right there. If you’ve never trusted Him as your Savior I plead with you today to repent of your sins, to turn away from the darkness and step into the light. Put your faith in Christ! And what did John say in John 1:12?
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Are you looking for His second coming?
Titus 2:13 tells us that…
“…the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeard to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ…”
God had foretold His coming. He had promised the incarnation, but Jesus broke forth into an unprepared world: a world that was not waiting or watching. The magi were. A few others like Simeon were, but the world was not. God incarnate broke into a dark and dying world that was not ready. He had told the world through the prophets He was coming and they still were not ready. God had told the world through types and symbols He was coming and they were not ready. God had foretold the incarnation from the time of Adam and still the world was not ready. The world into which Jesus was born wasn’t ready for Him and in fact wasn’t even looking for Him. They didn’t receive Him because He came without the proper fanfare, without the royal garb, and without great riches. In fact, humanly speaking, there was nothing great about it. It was the very epitome of what is commonplace and obscure.
I want you to know the Bible says the world is going to be in the same pitiful shape when Jesus returns, but it ought not to be so. Jesus told us to watch and pray. We ought to look for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
When Jesus comes back it won’t be as a babe in the manger. When He returns there’ll be no meek and lowly Lamb. When Jesus returns there’ll be nothing obscure or common about it. He’s coming with all the fanfare due a King! He’s riding in clouds of glory leading thousands of saints. He’ll be riding in as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, ruling with a rod of iron in righteousness and truth.
My friend in that day there’ll be no time to repent. When kids mess up today they like to say, “My bad,” and then act like everything is okay. But that won’t cut it with Jesus. You’re right, it’ll be your bad all right, but then you’ll have to pay the consequences of that bad choice. Millions of believers are living today like Jesus will never come back – we’re not just not looking, but we’ve forgotten that we’re even supposed to be looking. Are you? Are you living right before Him? If God were to break into your life right now, today, at this very moment, would He be pleased with the offering you are making with your life? Listen, the question may simply need to be this:
Are you surrendered to the will of God for your life?
Jesus knew the outcome would be a cross and He surrendered to the will of God anyway. He knew before He created man what it would cost Him and He did it anyway. He was absolutely surrendered to the will of His Father. Are we? Is God dealing with you along some vein and you are resisting Him? The God of Creation gave up the glories of heaven to do what had to be done. Are you so willing to give up and give in?
I came across the following Christmas poem by Joseph Bayly titled, “Praise God for Christmas” that I want you to hear.
“Praise Him for the incarnation, for the word made flesh.
I will not sing of shepherds watching flocks on frosty nights, or angel choristers.
I will not sing of a stable bare in Bethlehem, or lowing oxen,
wise men trailing star with gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Tonight I will sing praise to the Father who stood on heaven’s threshold and said farewell to his Son as he stepped across the stars to Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
And I will sing praise to the infinite, eternal Son, who became most finite,
a baby who would one day be executed for my crime.
Praise him in the heavens, praise Him in the stable, praise Him in my heart.”
I have no desire for anyone to sing praises to my name. All honor and glory belongs to God, and today it specifically belongs to God for the wonder of His incarnation: God becoming man in the person of Jesus Christ.
I have but a simple desire today: for you to know that Christ is your Savior, for you to rejoice in what He did for you, and for you to share a common concern that our lives are daily offerings to Him as we surrender them to the will of God. “Jesus came unto His own, but they would not receive Him.”
Will you?
