“Christmas Book by Book – Sermon Four: John 1:1-3, 14 “The Incarnation of GOD in the Person of JESUS CHRIST!”

INTRODUCTION:

1. All through the Old Testament, we are promised over and over again that God, HIMSELF, will come to earth and do many wonderful things!

2. All through the Four Gospels, we are given a description of Jesus Christ and the many wonderful things that HE did:

–      HE saved and discipled hundreds of people!

–      In addition to 20 mass healings recorded in the Four Gospels, Jesus healed 31 specific individuals!

–      The writers of the Four Gospels reveal to us that in addition to the many who were raised from the dead at the time of HIS resurrection, Jesus Christ raised three people from the dead…

(The daughter of the Widow in the Village of Nain!) Luke 7:13-15

(The son of Jarius!)  Mark 5:42; Luke 8:55

(Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary!)  John 11:38-44

–      The writers of the Four Gospels also tell us that Jesus cast demons out of at least 24 different people!

–      Jesus fed 5,000 hungry people on one occasion and 4,000 more a few days later!

–      Jesus Christ allowed HIMSELF to be arrested, beaten, nailed to a Cross, speared through the heart, wrapped in burial cloths, and thrown in a grave in order to pay for our sins!

–      Three days later, Jesus Christ willed HIMSELF back to life and rose from the dead!

–      Forty days later, Jesus Christ ascended back to heaven where HE serves HIS people today as our Great High Priest!

3. In the New Testament Epistles, the Apostles explain to us what the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ mean to the world!

4. In the Book of Revelation, we are shown all of the wonderful things that Jesus Christ is going to do in the future!

5. BUT… the greatest thing JESUS ever did was come to this earth in a human body through which HE accomplished all of these things!

6. “What is Christmas all about?” Christmas is about the incarnation of JESUS, the SON of GOD, taking on human flesh to live, serve, teach, and die!

Romans 8:3 “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh…”

“Likeness” is ὁμοίωμα (ho-moy-o-mah) and it literally means “like” OR “resemblance.” JESUS came in a Body that was like (or resembled, i.e., existed in the form of) our sinful bodies, but HIS Body was without sin!

EXPOSITION: John 1:1-4, 14

 (1:1a) At the beginning of humanity at Creation our relationship both to and with GOD, JESUS already existed!

“In the beginning was the Word…”

(1:1b) As JESUS already existed at the time of Creation, HE was, is, and will always be GOD!

“and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

(1:2) John repeats this theological statement a second time for clarity and impact!

“He was in the beginning with God.”               

(1:3) JESUS, HIMSELF, is the Creator of Creation!

“All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”

Cf. Colossians 1:15-17

(15) “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. (16) For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. (17) And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

(1:4a) JESUS, the Creator GOD, is the source of life, both physical and eternal!

“In him was life…”

(1:4b) JESUS, the Creator GOD, is the source of light, both physical and divine!

“and the life was the light of men.”

(1:14a) JESUS, the eternal LOGOS, came to exist in a human body with a human nature – yet without sin!

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”

Cf. Philippians 2:5-8

(5) “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, (6) who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, (7) but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness (ὁμοίωμα)  (ho-moy-o-mah) of men.

(8) And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

(1:14b) John, along with James and Peter, beheld the glory of n JESUS in their flesh and we behold HIS glory in HIS Word!

“and we have seen his glory…”

Cf. Matthew 17:1-3

(1) “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. (2) And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. (3) And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.”

Cf. 2^nd Peter 1:16

“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

(1:14c) The glory of JESUS they saw in their flesh and we see in HIS Word is the glory of GOD!

“glory as of the only Son from the Father…”

Cf. John 17:4-5

(4) “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. (5) And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

(1:14d) When JESUS came to this world, HE brought the grace we need and the truth that we desperately need the grace that HE brought!  

“full of grace and truth.”