The life & letters of John
Incarnation – God Comes To Our Neighborhood
This morning we follow Jeff in a study of The Life & Letters of The Apostle John.
I wanna start were Bill Alumbaugh left off in his Communion Thoughts last Sunday...
By examining the INCARNATION...
We'll do this by exploring...
• Jesus' pre-existence...
• His Deity...
• His Humanity...
• And the impact His incarnation has upon us.
The Deity & Humanity of Jesus never comes up that I don't remember Charles Cash... He always said... We must be careful to not make Him more Human or more Divine that He was.
Here it is church... For us to emphasize either the Deity or Humanity of Jesus to the… Neglect... Minimizing… Or Denying… Either is outside of Biblical Truth.
Jesus was... Totally Human.... Totally Divine... He was the God Man.
Let us never deny the fact that Jesus was God in the flesh.
And that the incarnation brought Him to our neighborhood – To our life.
Come... Let's see what we can learn...
First we consider His Pre-Existent State...
The Greek Word Logos... As used here by John... speaks of Jesus.
He uses Logos four times in the first fourteen verses of this Gospel... Again in First John 1.1… And Revelation 19.13... Where the Rider of the White Horse... Jesus... Is identified as the Logos of God... The Word of God.
In the Beginning was… The Logos... the Word...
John takes us beyond the created beginning... Past recorded history...
• Reaching back further…
• Plunging deeper…
Than Genesis chapter one... And finds Jesus already there... Present in the Beginning.
Jesus existed beyond our world of time and space as One who inhabits eternity.
John 17.5... Has Jesus praying to The Father asking Him to glorify Him with the
Glory He had before the world existed.
In verse 24 of John 17... Jesus indicats that God the Father loved Him before the
foundation of the world.
Micah 5.2 reads... Bethlehem... Out of you shall come forth The One to be Ruler in
Israel, Whose goings forth are… From of old… From everlasting.
Peter wrote... He was chosen before the creation of the world... But was revealed in
these last times for our sake.
Revelation 13.3...Speaks of the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God… The Word was God. He was eternal… with God in the beginning.
Secondly... We explore His Deity.
And the Word was with God and was God.
As if we needed any more proof of His Deity... John take us to Genesis one... In the beginning God created... It was through... Him... Logos... The Word... Jesus... that All things were made... Without Him nothing was made that has been made.
You remember in High School or Collage Geometry… Euclid's Geometric Axiom which says... Things equal to the same things are equal to each other... So...
• If God created the world and everything in it...
• And Jesus created all things...
Then Jesus and God must be one in the same.
In verse 18 of this chapter... John concludes... No-one has ever seen God… But God the One and Only… Who is at the Father's side… That's Jesus!!...Has made Him known.
Consider other New Testament verses affirming that Jesus was With God and Was God...
John 14.10 has Jesus saying... Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the
Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father,
living in me, who is doing his work.
Colossians 1.18-20... Affirms this thought... For God was pleased to have all His
FULLNESS… Not just pare but… All His fullness… Dwell in Him, and through Him to
reconcile to Himself all things… On earth or in heaven.
The Hebrews' Writer says... The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the
exact representation of his being.
Philippians 2.6... Another well known passage testifying to the deity of Jesus... Who…
Being in the form of God… Thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
Almost every widely accepted Modern Speech Translation uses the word FORM to describe Jesus... Except the NIV... Which reads... Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.
Paul is saying… In His nature Jesus was God.
The Greek is Morphe... Which speaks of the essential nature of a person or thing that... Does not change... Cannot change.
Morphe describes... His unchangeable... His unalterable… essence.
• Jesus was God before the beginning…
• Jesus was God in the beginning...
• He was God while He was here...
• Was God before and after the resurrection…
• Was God when He ascended...
• Will forever be God...
Because it is His... Nature... form... Essence.
Matthew confirms… His name is Immanuel... God with us.
But listen... The New Testament is not the only portion of the Bible that speaks of Jesus being equal with God...
Isaiah 7.14 contains a remarkable prophecy... The Lord himself will give you a sign:
The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel...
God with us.
Consider Isaiah 9.6... For to us a child is born... To us a son is given... And the
government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called... Wonderful... Counselor...
Mighty God... Everlasting Father... Prince of Peace.
I suppose the best way to sum up what we've said so far this morning is that there's only one word which will adequately describe the... Character... Being... Personage... and attributes... Of Jesus of Nazareth... And that is the word GOD!!... God in the flesh.
Martin Luther once said... If it were only a man who died on the cross we are still in our sins... We are still lost.
A man dying on a cross cannot forgive sins… god dying there can and does.
Indeed... We will never understand God correctly until we understand Jesus is nothing less than Jehovah God… Our creator… Sustainer… Protector… Provider… Savior.
Thirdly... We explore the incarnation... His humanity...
Our word incarnation comes from the Latin... Meaning Embodiment or assumption of humanity.
Verse fourteen of our text says... The Word... JESUS... 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.
Jesus didn't put on a mask of humanity... He was... Fully God and Fully Man... This is the mystery of the incarnation.
The Historical Life of Jesus demonstrates His humanity.
• He was born of a human mother...
• He grew and developed in normal way as humans do...
• He demonstrated human attributes both physically and emotionally...
• He had no Halo over His head...
• No glorified aura around Him...
• Didn't walk five feet off the ground...
• He looked like us...
• Suffered as we suffer... Things that cause us pain... Pained Him...
• He became... Sad… Thirsty… Hungry... Tired... Angry... Sleepy…
• He mourned and cried...
• When you slapped Him... It would sting...
• When you spit in His face... It made Him sick...
• When you whipped Him with a scourge... It hurt...
• When you drove nails in His hands... He bled...
• When you crucified Him He died.
He was in appearance as a man.
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be... Grasped... Horded... Held-On-To... But made himself nothing... Most Modern Speech translations say... EMPTIED HIMSELF... Taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man… He humbled Himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!
Here we see there is such a thing as… Emptying… Subtracting… By Adding something.
Let's say you went into a Acura Dealership… Test drove a brand new eggshell white car through… Dirt… Water… Mud… Until it was caked on it everywhere…
When you returned… The salesman would say… What have you done to my car?
You have lessoned its value by adding something.
Listen church... When Jehovah God... Our creator God… puts on Humanity...
• That's making oneself less...
• That's empting oneself… Amen?
Jesus empties himself by add Humanity to… His Nature… His Essence… His being!
Now… We must point out that Jesus did not could not give up His deity... Because that was His essence... His nature.... But he did put on humanity... Being make in appearance as a man... God in the flesh... The God man!!
At the cross... When we unmask Jesus of Nazareth... We see that the One there is none other than our Creator God!!
Incarnation... We may not understand it... May not be able to explain it... But we must accept as it as fact... GOD BECOMES FLESH... Jesus is the God man... Who came to die on our behalf... Can we grasp it?
Amazing love!!!...
How can it be????...
That thou...My God!
Did'st die for me?
Well… What difference does the incarnation make in our life?
First... His incarnation allow us to become Children of God by faith.
To all who received Him… to those who believed in his name… He gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will… but born of God.
Jesus will speak of this new birth in John chapter three… Born again… from above.
We're able to see God for who He really is...
No-one has ever seen God… But God the One and Only… Who is at the Father's side… has made him known.
John tells us…
• Jesus came to exegete God...
• To declare Him...
• To demonstrate... His essence... His nature… His Being...
Two thousand years ago you could point to a man walking down the street... And say... There goes God... And be telling the truth.
• You see… The Old Testament tells us about the Divine Nature of God...
• The New Testament gives us a glimpse of… His personality traits... His attitude...
Heart... And disposition... Behavior… As seen in Jesus the Word!!
Thirdly... The incarnation levels the playing field... It lets us know that...
• God understands our frailties...
• Our short comings...
• Our doubts and fears...
• And our sin tendencies...
Not just because He created us... But because He came... Lived and died… as one of us.
He was tempted and tried in all ways as we.
He took on our humanity... Our flesh nature... Yet overcame our sin tendency.
Not only is Jesus the Written Word... He's the Living Word
John says... In Him... In the Word… Was life...
We hear Jesus say…
• I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly.
• I am the Way the Truth and the life
• This same John end his gospel saying… Believing… We might have life in His Name.
Not only is the Word Life... He is LIGHT!!
Jesus is not just any light...
He is the Light that overcomes sin's darkness.
John writes… If we walk in the light... As he is in the light... We have fellowship with one another... And the blood of Jesus... His Son... Continues to cleanse us from all sin… if we will acknowledge our sin… He is faithful to forgive.
• He's the One who gives us hope...
• The One who provides sin forgiveness And eternal salvation…
• He's the One in that provides access to the Father.
No wonder Peter said... There is no other name under heaven... Given among men... Whereby we can be saved.
So... This morning… The question becomes...
What will we do with Jesus?...
Is His name above every name... Or is Jesus Christ just another name among names?
Has Jesus... His incarnation... Made any significant difference in the way we live?
The invitation this morning is for us to come to Jesus...
• Make Him our GOD
• Our Word...
• Our Light…
• Our Forgiveness and SALVATION…
• Our Life daily....
By faith... Repentance... Confession... And New Birth in water baptism.
Perhaps as a child of God...
• We need once again to acknowledge Jesus as God in the Flesh...
• That He is... Our Word... Our Light... Our Way... Our truth and Life.
What better time to personally recommit to Jesus…
• Striving to be like Him...
• Conforming to His image…
• Having His... Heart... Attitude... Disposition... And behavior.
His invitation... His challenge... Awaits our response... As we stand and sing together.
