John 1:1-14
Introduction
: Just a couple of more Sundays and Christmas is here. What a wonderful time. What a wonderful season. What a wonderful message.
I want to speak about what is called and understood as the incarnation of Christ.
1 John 1:1-14 is a very familiar passage for most.
John 1:1
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2
He was in the beginning with God.
3
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
4
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5
And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
6
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7
This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.
8
He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
9
That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
10
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
11
He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
12
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
13
who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14
And the Word became 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.”
NKJ)
The Word
Logos
The word, “word” logos is the name or title of Jesus Christ, seen as the pre-existent second person of the Trinity.
R.C. Sproul,
“In Greek
philosophy
, the logos remains an impersonal force, a lifeless and abstract philosophical concept that is a necessary postulate for the cause of order and purpose in the universe.
In Hebrew thought, the Logos is personal
. He indeed has the power of unity, coherence, and purpose, but the distinctive point is that the biblical Logos is a He, not an it.
All attempts to translate the word Logos have suffered from some degree of inadequacy. No English word is able to capture the fullness of John’s Logos when he declared that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Attempts have been made by philosophers to translate Logos as logic, act, or deed—all of which are inadequate definitions.
God’s Logos does include action. The Logos is the eternal Word in action
. But it is no irrational action or sheer expression of feeling. It is the divine Actor, acting in creation and redemption in a coherent way, who is announced in John’s Gospel
.”
Transition
: So we have Jesus, the Logos, who is incarnate!
Question
:
“What does
incarnate
mean? How was Jesus God
incarnate
?”
Answer: The Latin verb
incarnare
meant “to make flesh.”
* When we say that Jesus Christ is God “Incarnate,” we mean that the Son of God took on a fleshly, bodily form (
John 1:14
).
presenting His fulfillment of numerous Old Testament prophecies (
Isaiah 7:14
;
Psalm 2:7
),
His eternal existence (
John 1:1–3
;
John 8:58
),
His miraculous virgin birth (
Luke 1:26–31
),
His miracles (
Matthew 9:24–25
),
His authority to forgive sin (
Matthew 9:6
),
His acceptance of worship (
Matthew 14:33
),
His ability to predict the future (
Matthew 24:1–2
), and His resurrection from the dead (
Luke 24:36–39
).
The writer of Hebrews tells us Jesus is superior to angels (
Hebrews 1:4–5
) and angels are to worship Him (
Hebrews 1:6
).
The Bible also teaches the Incarnation—Jesus became fully human by taking on human flesh.
When Christ took on the form of a human, His nature did not change, but His position did.
The doctrine of the Incarnation says that Jesus, while remaining fully God, became fully man.
Transition: There are 6 other verses that we should look at before concluding our study this morning.
Four verses from Philippians, two from Hebrews
.
Each describe the voluntary act of Jesus humbling himself to the Father’s will. Each describe him as smaller, weaker or lower than his original state, and each ends in death. But as far as we are concerned, his death was his greatest moment. He tasted death so that none of us have to.
Death that is separation from the body maybe, but not the death that is total separation from God. And he defeated the one with the power of death, that is the devil.
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
(Philippians 2:5-8 ESV)
“But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”
(Hebrews 2:9 ESV)
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,”
(Hebrews 2:14 ESV)
Heaven is the realm of the Godhead, earth is the realm of Satan. Jesus has light and life, Satan has darkness and death. Jesus came from heaven and entered the realm of Satan and his angels, the world of sin and death. Jesus, through his death and resurrection, defeated death, hell and the grave. He has the words of life and has defeated death. He is the light that entered darkness; and the darkness could not overcome it. Satan will be cast into the pit to which Jesus holds the key.
Conclusion
: So, what does that mean for me on the most practical of levels?
(1)The Doctrine of the Incarnation Informs us of the Depravity of Man and of His Desperate Condition Apart from Divine Intervention.
(2) The Doctrine of the Incarnation Informs us of God’s Desire and His Ability to Save Fallen Man.
(3) The Doctrine of the Incarnation Warns us of the Folly of Rejecting Salvation in Christ and Substituting Our Own Efforts.
At it’s simplest for me today?
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