Hail the Incarnate Deity--John 1:14-18 12/18/2016 Copyright by Mark Vaughan 12/2016 This morning we ve taken extra time to sing songs of Christmas as we celebrate the season of Jesus Christ s arrival as a baby on this earth. We read in Luke 1:26-56 of the angel announcing Jesus conception to the virgin Mary & her response of praise. The profound & exultant descriptions of this promised Child Jesus alert us to His significance far beyond any other child every born. If you paid attention to the words of the songs we ve sung, you would ve noticed references to the details of Jesus humble birth in Bethlehem & events before & after that. Christmas songs burst forth with expressions of joy & hope & gratitude & worship that point to truths far greater than the earthly details that can be found in a manger scene. And in cultural wars for public manger displays & other holiday props, it s easy to wrongly exalt or sentimentalize such things at the expense of truths that matter far more. But if you stop & think about the words to even many popular Christmas songs that are played in public, you find rich & weighty lyrics that aid in worship & are open doors for discussion with others. I was at the gym last night on an elliptical machine trying to hide away & pray for a bit & I was shocked to look up & see the closed captioning of Christmas lyrics on one of the TVs. I was shocked that NBC would air such blatant truth about the deity of Jesus as God s Son who came to save sinners & other related truths. I was thankful that it further proved our need for this message. So today, we re going to look at the theological Christmas story. We re going to turn to the Gospel without a manger scene or angelic announcement that tells of Jesus coming in the flesh. What the Gospel of John describes, particularly in John 1:14, is the wonder of Christmas. John 1:14-18 contain some of the most fascinating and important truth revealed about the Lord Jesus Christ. They state who Jesus Christ is and how and why He is significant. The way John states these truths is majestic inspired by God. So open your Bibles to John 1 & let s read the whole introductory section called the prologue before looking at verses 14-18 today. Follow along as I read John 1:1-18; John 1:1-18. [READ] Verse 14 picks up the name of the 2 nd Person of the Trinity used in verse 1 the Word. The Word is God & the Word was God & the Word was with God in the beginning. All things were created by the Word & nothing exists apart from Him. Verses 1-5 pack so much about the Word & we may dig into that more next week to meditate on Christ at Christmas. But for today we ll dive into verses 14-18 to find 2 lessons regarding the Word who was in the beginning with God and who was God. If you want to worship Jesus Christ this Christmas, these observations are the fuel you need to ignite your spiritual fire. If you are easily swept away in shopping & stuff-giving & traditions & travel, here are some deep anchors to keep you from drifting. 1
I know I need to tie down my thoughts to stop & soak in what Christmas is about & why it matters to me each day. So my prayer is that these 2 lessons from John 1:14-18 will stoke our spiritual passions as we sing & serve & speak of Christ this Christmas. The 1 st of those is in verse 14 about the Incarnation. Point #1 of 2 today 1 st, learn from the Incarnation of the Word. Read John 1:14 again. [READ] The Word BECAME flesh that is called the INCARNATION. Kids what s a A CARNivore? a carnivore is one who eats carne, flesh or meat, as opposed to a herbivore who eats plants or an omnivore who eats everything. The Word became IN-CARN-ATE in flesh incarnate. The uncreated Creator took on the form of a creature. God the Son took on an additional nature He continued existing as God and He also became man. The Word didn t change what He was already He just ALSO added human flesh. Though He was already eternally existing, the Word became everything that flesh is, except for sin and He was called Jesus. Jesus was not a phantom that only APPEARED physically human nor was He a pseudo-human that had physical humanity WITHOUT a human soul. His deity was both distinct from and one with His humanity. One did not swallow up or mix with the other; and neither did they function as 2 separate people. The early church fathers sought to clarify this at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD, stating that the human & divine natures of Christ were (1) without confusion and (2) without change. That is, the human was added to the divine nature without confusing the 2 and without changing either His deity or His humanity. As well, they concluded, Christ s 2 natures are also (3) without division and (4) without separation. That is, Christ s deity and humanity were united perfectly together into 1 Person, not divided into 2 people and not separable to make Him only God sometimes and only man other times. The point is this: Jesus is 100% God and 100% man. So the all-important Christmas truth and clarifying certainty here is that true God became fully man. God has been revealed in flesh & according to 1 st Timothy 3:16, that IS a mystery, but it is our common confession. Often children ask the most powerful & perplexing questions about truths like this as it s complex to ponder how the divine and human natures of Christ functioned. How He could be both infinite & finite at the same time? and both omnipresent & singularly present? & both all-knowing & increasing in knowledge, both fully God & fully man. Jesus really took on body and soul He graciously and drastically took on the frail, decaying condition of humanity. It s deep & complex, but it is ESSENTIAL to our salvation & therefore it is vital for fueling Christmas worship. 2
Jesus Christ cannot be the Mediator the go-between for our salvation if He is not BOTH God AND man. If He is not man then He cannot represent us & if He is not God He cannot represent God. If He is not God, then His life & death do not have the infinite value needed to substitute for so many others. And if He is not man, then He cannot truly take our place & be our sympathetic high priest. You must believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. 1 st John 4:1-2 says, test the spirits to see whether they are from God;... By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. The importance & implications of the incarnation are hard to overestimate or overemphasize. And the applications that flow from it are too many to number. Jesus entered our domain of existence & was subjected to the limitations of a human body that s the wonder of Christmas. J.C. Ryle said, Like ourselves, he was born of a woman, though born in a miraculous manner. Like ourselves, he grew up from infancy to boyhood, & from boyhood to man s estate,. Like ourselves, He hungered, thirsted, ate, drank, slept, was wearied, felt pain, wept, rejoiced, marvelled, was moved to anger & to compassion. Having become flesh, & taken a body, He prayed, read the Scriptures, suffered being tempted, & submitted His human will to the will of God the Father. & finally, in the same body, He really suffered & shed His blood, really died, was really buried, really rose again, & really ascended up into heaven. And yet all this time He was God as well as man! [Expository Thoughts on John, v1, p. 25] Think of the grace-filled, humble, love of our Savior to endure such condescension for our helpless, needy souls. Verse 14 says the Word became flesh and He set up camp right in the middle of humanity He DWELT among us. That word dwell means to tabernacle, to live in a tent, to establish camp among us & Jesus tent was His physical body. That should remind us of God dwelling in the tabernacle among Israel. But He dwelt in a far more intimate way in Christ than He had dwelt with the Israelites. God gave Moses explicit descriptions for the tent or tabernacle in which God would dwell with Israel. [Exodus 25:8-9] And when God moved up and out, they were to move their camp up and out and follow Him. [Exodus 33:7-11; 40:34-38] So there was a real sense in which God DWELT among them. But John says God came to dwell again in a far more personal way such that Jesus is called Immanuel God WITH us. Think of it like this all of our experience is in the world of time and space we live in the natural world, the created order. If you draw a box in your mind & inside that box is the created order, the natural world, then you & I are stuck in that box. We are confined in time & space even if we fantasize about time travel or reaching other dimensions like in hit movies, we re still here. I can t get to tomorrow until today is over and I can t get out of up/down, left/right, and back and forth no matter how bad I want or no matter how much science fiction I believe. 3
But God CAN because He s in the supernatural realm outside the box. But the Incarnation means God decided to come into the box. Every other religion tries to beat against the walls of the box to make a crack & reach outside. But the Bible says that doesn t work & therefore God came inside the box. [Analogy from John MacArthur] In immeasurable grace and love, God became a box-dweller. And He didn t come and sit atop the highest mountain or come build a big fortress with unreachable walls. In loving fellowship and infinite grace God lived in a tent just like the tents we live in & He stayed here 33 years. And those who witnessed Jesus life and teaching and presence we, John says saw or beheld His GLORY. When God s glory came & dwelt in the tabernacle with Israel & in Solomon s temple, it was unapproachable. [1 Kings 8] But every believing eyewitness of Jesus could carefully observe and contemplate the glory of God for himself. Whether it was spiritual glory through Jesus acts and words, or physical glory seen by a few on the Mount of Transfiguration [Matthew 17], it was clear that God s glory was on display. And you can sense that just like Moses face glowed after meeting God, so the Apostle John was still glowing about the glory of God in Christ some 50 years later. It was the glory of the one and only from the Father, or as some translate it, the only-begotten from the Father. The term only-begotten or one and only is from the Greek word monogenes, MONO-G-E-N-E-S. It refers to uniqueness & special position, not physical birth. It s not the word for the only child born instead, it s the only special child like the Bible describes Isaac s status with Abraham. Though Abraham had other children Ishmael through Hagar & others through his later wife Keturah (Genesis 25), Hebrews 11:17 says that Isaac was his only-begotten, his monogenes. The point was his special status, not his physical birth. The root word speaks of BEING, NOT begetting as in birth. Mono refers to only & genes is where we get genus, which is a kind so He is a one of a kind. Jesus is the only one of His kind from the Father. In middle school science class I can vaguely remember learning the various levels of classification of all the organisms in creation. You started with a certain organism s Kingdom was it an animal, a plant or maybe another kingdom, I don t remember. Then within its kingdom would be its phylum, then its class, then I think it s order & family & then its GENUS, & lastly is species. You ve probably heard it said that humans are Homo sapiens. John lit up thinking of the glory of Christ because it was so special, so unique, so unparalleled and incomparable. Our genus is Homo and our species is sapiens. 4
Well, if there were only one species within a genus, then it would be a mono-genus, an only-genus, a one of a kind. That s what Christ is He s one of a kind the only God incarnate. That s what monogenes means; though the translation onlybegotten often confuses that meaning. Jesus glory was that of the only unique one from the Father. And He was full of grace and truth brimming to overflowing with undeserved favor and genuine reality, with mercy and faithfulness, with love and loyalty. Those terms grace and truth probably point back again to Moses interaction with God in Exodus 33-34 when Moses wanted to see God s glory and God could only show Moses His afterglow. When God did that, He proclaimed His name and attributes and 2 of those grace and truth sum them all up here. Jesus IS the LORD God Yahweh of the OT who appeared to Moses, so just as His glory displayed those attributes then, so He displayed them at His incarnation. That fullness of grace and truth in Jesus is spilled out upon every believer, and John describes that in verse 16. But verse 15 first calls an expert-witness from God to testify about it. So John the Baptist introduces our 2 nd point today to learn from the testimony about the Word. 1 st we learn from the Incarnation of the Word in verse 14 & now 2 nd ly in verses 15-18, learn from the testimony about the Word. Look at verse 15. [READ] John the Baptist speaks concretely from real time & space experience within the box of human existence as we know it. John the Baptist s testimony is added to certify that yes, God DID become a real human. The Light John testified about in verses 6-8 was a REAL historical figure, God in flesh. John was loud & open in his witness about Jesus. He cried out with continual exaltation of Christ as eternally existing & supremely worthy. In a society where coming first particularly in age meant greater honor, John had come first. But John would not have any thoughts of higher honor for himself. Though John was several months older than Jesus & he began ministry before Jesus, he wanted it clear that Jesus was FAR superior, both in status and by preexistence. The Baptist s testimony confirms what s already been said about the Word as eternal God and as real man. Having established this other link of evidence, the next verse returns us to the fullness that appeared in Jesus. John the Baptist isn t alone in his declaration about the Word, every believer after him has joined in that declaration. Notice that in verse 16. [READ] We ALL have received who s that, we all? That s not just John the Baptist or just eyewitnesses of Jesus. 5
It s also those who believe who have NOT physically seen Jesus. John 20:29 says that s who John wrote this book for. Those who could read and believe in Jesus without seeing Him you and I are included in this we all. We ALL have received out of His fullness. This is Jesus in whom all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form as Colossians says it [1:19 and 2:9]. And from that fullness, we receive EVEN grace upon grace. Literally this is grace in exchange for grace. We receive grace in every way, new grace every morning like ocean waves that continually wash upon the shore of our lives. We always get a fresh supply & the more we apply, the more we get. But one big exchange in context here is the full grace of Christ in exchange for the partial grace of OT revelation. To see what I mean, read verse 17. [READ] Verse 17 explains verse 16 by comparing the incomplete nature of the OT with the complete revelation in Christ. In that sense, the grace of FULFILLMENT has come for the grace of PROMISE, the grace of the NT exchanged for the grace of the Old. The law given through Moses is not just the 10 commandments but the whole 1 st 5 books of the OT. So the law includes promises and predictions as well as regulations. Though Paul & other NT writers do contrast law & grace, there s no contrasting terminology here. God promised through Moses that a greater prophet would come as Savior to fulfill all the promises & sacrifices & festivals of the OT & that was a promise of grace in the OT. Even the 10 commandments reveal God s grace even law includes grace because it warns us against destroying our lives. But it is not FULL grace because it is also not FULL TRUTH. The law is a tutor to lead us to Christ, to show us we need a Savior, but the Savior was not fully revealed until Christ came. That is the point of verse 17 the OT included grace, but that grace was exchanged for the fully revealed grace that came in Jesus Christ. In greater fullness, grace & truth arrived through Jesus Christ. God revealed the grace and truth of His name and character in the OT and called people to trust in these attributes of God. But it was partial until Jesus personally came as the full revelation of grace and truth. Through Christ the character of God, as summed up in those 2 attributes was put on display. If you want grace if you want blessing greater than you could ever deserve then Jesus Christ is the place to go. And if you want truth if you want certain reality and genuine fact then Jesus Christ is the place to go. Go to Jesus for grace and truth only Jesus is the fullness of God graciously and truthfully revealed to us. 6
Only Jesus Christ could display all the glory of the Father & say if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father, [John 6:46 & 14:9]. And that s because only Jesus is the interpretation of God. Look at verse 18. [READ] With great emphasis, we are reminded that no man has ever seen GOD at any time in history. All visions and appearances were only partial revelations. Even Moses, who spoke to God as a friend, was told he could not see God s face for no man can see Me & live! [Ex33:20] Everyone throughout biblical history understood that seeing God would mean immediate death. Isaiah showed that when he glimpsed at God in a vision and then pronounced a curse on himself so he d go ahead and die. Contrary to our day of foolish irreverence when people claim to see God in everything from a bathroom shaving mirror to a sacred tortilla, biblical saints knew that seeing God was DANGEROUS. Since they knew, as 1 st Timothy 6:16 says, God alone dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, then people knew that every revelation from God was a prized possession at any time in history. Knowing that makes the appearance of Jesus all the more radical. As Hebrews 1:1-2 says it: God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son. He who is the one and only, the only unique one, the onlybegotten, who is Himself God, has explained invisible God. The one who is continually in the intimate timeless fellowship of the bosom of the Father has explicitly interpreted God to man. This description of Christ mirrors that of verse 1. He is God and He is WITH God in the bosom of the Father. This grand Person the 2 nd Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ has expounded deity to humanity. The Lord Jesus is the full narrative, the complete setting forth, the exegesis and exposition of God the Father. John Piper summarizes this by saying: You don t need to be in the dark about God. He has gone beyond parchment and paper. He has gone beyond tapes and cassettes. He has gone beyond videos and even beyond live drama. He has actually come and pitched his tent in our back yard and beckoned us to watch him and get to know him in the person of his Son Jesus. When you watch Jesus in action, you watch God in action. When you hear Jesus teach, you hear God teach. When you come to know what Jesus is like, you know what God is like. [ The Word Became Flesh, sermon transcript from December 24, 1989, www.desiringgod.org] That s the profound & precious wonder of Christmas. Learn from the Incarnation of the Word & the Testimony about the Word from John 1:14-18. Trust Him. Marvel at Him with wonder at His glory & transcendence. After all this other revelation, FINALLY God spoke with the supreme expression of Himself. Worship His abundant worthiness & praise Him for His immeasurable grace & infinite mercy. 7
Seek Him for His certain truth and trustworthy reality. Jesus Christ is the fullness of deity come in the pitiful likeness of humanity & He is fullness of grace and truth. Do you know Him? Are you one of His followers? Trust Him today as you admire His kindness to stoop down to care about tiny creatures like us. And if you do trust Him, then tell someone about Him. When was the last time or how often do you take the time to be like John the Baptist and openly and loudly declare the exceeding greatness of Jesus Christ? That is evangelism simply speaking of the Excellencies of Jesus Christ. Share the majestic significance of Christmas with others. And make applications of this Christmas theology in how you treat others, go after loving others, & much more. Make these truths anchors to keep you from drifting away from the wonder & worship of Christ through Christmas. Pray with me that we will ponder the glory of Christ this Christmas & that it will transform us & many others. 8