THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST (December 1990)
#574 w 878 THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST
Scripture John 1:1-14 NIV Orig. Date 3/11/1979
Rewr. Dates 6/1985, 12/9/1990
Passage: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it. 6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Purpose: To share a message on the incarnation at Christmas-time, reminding my people of the importance of this Christly intervention.
Keywords: Incarnation of Christ Incarnation Doctrine Word of God
Timeline/Series: Christmas/Sequential
Introduction
A little six-year-old girl was going to her first Sunday School Christmas party. Her mother, remembering some of the joys of her own childhood, wanted the little girl to have similar experiences. She did everything she could to prepare the child for the party. She explained more in detail about Christmas as the time of the birth of Christ. “It is Jesus’ birthday,” she told the little girl, “and you and your friends will be helping Him to celebrate that happy day.”
By party day the expectation and excitement were all she could talk about. Finally, the little neighbor, with whom she was going, came to pick her up, and off she went to the party.
She returned home a few hours later. Her mother asked her about the party. She replied, “Well, it was a very nice party, mother. There were lots of children there, and we had fun. But, mother, Jesus never showed up.”
The essence of the incarnation is that God threw a party, and Jesus was the guest of honor, and, believe it or not, He was there. He did appear! Some may disclaim it, and doubt it, but it did happen. God’s own Son came to live amongst us, and, more important, to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
I. The Incarnation Unfolded. V1 “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” The scripture gives us a clear definition. The essence of God became man. Words are used to communicate reality. That which was not earthly became earthly.
Jesus’ name gives us insight also. Jesus/Joshua: “God is my salvation.” Incarnation means that God intervened to do for me what I could not do for myself.
Scripture open with creation, and its attendant revelation. Ten times (Genesis 1) is the phrase “and God said.” (3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 28, 29). It is a threefold message. It comes from God’s hand. It is intended to bless. Man’s will is the one thing out of God’s control.
We came to the 20th Century to discover the impact of genes on the life of man. Loss of life forms is the loss of genes. New evidence of genetic impact on disease. But it is not genetic mutation that is a threat, it is man’s will.
But in Christ, what had been essence now takes bodily form. To say He is the “word” is to say that He is the creative force of God exposed. Keep in mind that Jesus was the Son of God before He became Jesus of Nazareth. He gave specific personality to word patterns describing God. Active: “My word is like a fire . . . like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces.” Jeremiah 23:29. Passive: “Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.” Psalm 119. Of 176 verses, only five do not refer to God’s law, word, commandment.
“Last eve I passed beside the blacksmith’s door, and heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then, looking in I saw upon the floor, old hammers worn with beating years of time.
‘How many hammers have you had,’ said I, ‘to wear and batter all these hammers so?’
‘Just one,’ said he, and then with twinkling eye, ‘The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.’
And so, thought I, the anvil of God’s Word, for ages skeptic blows have beat upon.
Yet though the noise of falling blows was heard, the anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone.”
II. The Incarnation Understood. V4f “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” Early, of course, there was a lack of understanding. There was a theory of incarnation called adoption.
Acts 2:36 “Let all the House of Israel know that God hath made . . . this Jesus, . . . both Lord and Christ.” (Peter).
Romans 1:3f “declared to be the Son of God with power.”
Acts 13:33 (also in the Psalms) “You are my Son, Today I have begotten you.”
Then emerged a theory called kenosis. The word means “emptying.” Philippians 2:7 (verb) “Made himself of no reputation, but himself emptied, the form of a slave taking.” Deity surrendered His divinity as if He could not be both.
Kenosis begins above (God to man).
Adoption begins below (man to God)
A third theory was called docetism. Means “to seem.” Jesus only appeared to be human. It was the gnostic error, explaining away His humanity.
Understanding dismisses all here for what they are--“misguided theories.”
Jesus was not adopted, He is the Son.
He did not surrender His deity, we have been visited by God. Light and darkness exist together. The light is so pure, the darkness so remote, that they do not mingle. The darkness cannot fathom light. V5 “the darkness comprehended it not.”
Thus, God came in the flesh of DARKNESS. V14 “The word was made flesh and dwelt among us (“and we beheld His glory”). Jesus came to enable the creatures of darkness to comprehend the light. V12 “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God.”
III. Finally, the Incarnation Unfettered. V14 “And the Word was made 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.”
Ultimately, only one thing commends us. There are things that earn prominence: professional status, intellectual accomplishments, social consciousness, wealth. These things can all be disavowed by one character flaw: Many sins of the flesh can be overcome. A person who does not keep their word cannot be trusted.
It is in that sense that Jesus is called the Word. He is the ultimate description of all that God is. His coming to flesh is for man’s benefit. His spoken message is eminently important. His bearing, equally so.
He came as the light in man’s darkness. Think of the inkiest blackness, a cave where lights were briefly turned off. James Weldon Johnson: “Blacker than a thousand midnights down in a cypress swamp.”
Conclusion
Donald Miller, in his book, The People of God, delivers a searing indictment of far-too-many religious people today. “The sentimentalized Jesus of our time is not one before whom men would fall on their faces, and certainly, He would frighten away no devils! He is one whom nobody would crucify, and for whom few, if any, would be willing to die. He could not have brought the church into being, nor could He have sustained it through all the tortuous course of the long centuries.”
The Christ of the New Testament gospel claims our fullest devotion. He is the incarnate One, God in human flesh. He is still in charge. “I am the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me.”