The Word: John Talk 3 (1:14-28)

0:01 Morning, everybody. We are currently looking at John's introduction to Jesus. So if you're here for the first time this morning, or just an occasional visitor, either here online, that's what we're doing. And there are four written accounts of the life of Christ. Nothing else remotely like it in all of ancient history. It's remarkable we have them, these four detailed accounts of the same historic person written either by eyewitnesses or on the basis of eyewitness testimony. And with that, we have four different introductions to Jesus because each of them begins in a different place. And if you've been reading through John 1, you will already know that John begins in the very beginning.

1:03 Sounds like a song from The Sound of Music, doesn't it? But that's where he begins. He invites us to go back in our imaginations, just as far as we can go back, back beyond the existence of the universe. And once you're back there, as far as you can go, in your imagination, however far you get back, the word was already there. That's where John begins the story. In the beginning was the word. The word was both with God and was God and nothing was made without him. Everything was made through him and in him was life.

1:44 He is the source of life and that life is in turn the light, the light that lights everyone. And John then tells us that that light has come into the world and in particular to Israel, to God's ancient people. And the reception of that light was problematic, to say the least. On one hand, his own people by and large did not receive him, but some did, some still do, many indeed still do. And to those he do, John tells us he gives the right to become what they weren't before, to become children of God. However dark the darkness, ultimately the light wins. But now there's a significant shift that takes place in what we call verse 14. Originally when John wrote this, he didn't put verse numbers in at the side.

2:43 You're probably all aware of that, but just in case you don't know, he didn't, but they're there for our convenience to know where we're got to. So we come down to verse 14 and there's this major shift to tell us how this light came into the world. So let's read from verse 14. The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, this is the one I spoke about when I said, he who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. Out of his fullness, we have all received grace in place of grace already given.

3:39 For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, he has made him known. Now, this was John's testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, I am not the Messiah. They asked him, then, who are you? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet?

4:21 He answered, no. And finally, they said, well, who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? And John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness. Make straight the way for the Lord. And now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, why then do you baptize if you're not the Messiah, or Elijah, or the prophet? I baptize with water, John replied, but among you stands one who you do not know.

4:52 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of his sandals I am not worthy to untie. And this all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan where John was baptizing. So this little part of the introduction contains one of the most famous statements, not just in the Bible, but in all of world literature. The word became flesh. So we need to think about that for a moment. What does that mean? Try to imagine you've never heard this before. You've never read it before.

5:33 What is that saying? What does it mean? We have heard about this word. Already John has told us the one who was with God, who already was when space and time began. And now we're reading that this one has stepped into human history and has taken on human flesh. Now, if we read the other introductions to the life of Jesus, particularly Matthew and Luke, we will find out that this happened at Bethlehem. But John doesn't mention the place. His emphasis is on the fact that the one that we know as Jesus didn't start at Bethlehem.

6:26 That's not his beginning. But rather, at Bethlehem, he became something that he hadn't been before. The word became flesh. He took on real human flesh. Now, if you know anything about religion or theories of God as first causes or whatever way you want to look at that, this idea is just revolutionary. It's staggering that God, the word who always existed, becomes something he wasn't before, takes on real human flesh his humanity was real humanity. He didn't simply seem to be human. He was human.

7:32 He took on human flesh, flesh that would bleed when pierced with thorns. Never only human, but really human. So this staggering, amazing event is known as the incarnation. Literally, if you like, the infleshing. C.S. Lewis writes about this. He says the central miracle asserted by Christians is the incarnation. They say that God became man.

8:16 Every other miracle prepares us for this or exhibits this or results from this. This is central, in other words, to the core of Christianity. So John is telling us that this word, this light that gives light to every man enters our world in the form of human flesh, came as a human being while still being the word, the eternal word who was with God and was God without whom the universe would not exist. In other words, this is the creator himself entering his creation. And I can't find a word big enough to describe this. I mean, words like remarkable, staggering, mind-blowing, awesome, they just all seem to me to be terribly inadequate. And yet it's important to try to let the bigness of this dawn in upon us, especially either if we're coming to it for the first time or if we're so familiar with this that we've sort of taken it for granted. And in John's introduction to Jesus, this is a major step forward.

9:48 A step forward in his introduction, a step forward in history in terms of God's engagement with us, in terms of God's communication with us, in terms of the words communicating God to us. He began in eternity past, if that's the right term. In the beginning, the word already was. Then he comes closer. The creation of the universe. This universe had a beginning. First in the mind of the one John calls the word, and then in the actions, Through the agency of that word as the agent of creation, he made everything. And then as we saw last time, there was this period, the coming of John the Baptist, the last and greatest of the prophets, one of a long line of people, all sent by God, not because they were the light, but they were witnesses to the light.

10:54 So eternity past, creation, a period of witnesses to the light, but now this massive step forward, the one who is the light, the source of all life and light steps into human history. The word becomes flesh. This is new. This is unprecedented. This is a major step forward. God is a God who believes in communication, who wants to reveal himself. The word information, we use words to communicate, to explain things. God explaining himself, revealing himself.

11:47 There's certain amount about God that we could know just by looking at creation, as Paul later tells us, the evidence of his power, of his deity, of his genius, of the design. And then we learn even more because God speaks through a series of prophets down through the years, building up the picture, telling us of his character, of his heart, his plans and purposes for human life, things that we simply couldn't possibly know unless God himself revealed them But this is such a leap forward. The word becomes flesh. The creator enters the creation to reveal himself, not simply in words, in concepts, but in person, in a human body. Jesus, the Son of God. And we could spend the rest of the morning thinking about that. I want to encourage you just to do that, to reflect on it, the implications.

13:03 And not just what it tells us about God himself and his desire to communicate and reveal himself to us, but what it tells us about us, about humanity, about God's value and purpose for us as human beings. The word became flesh, human flesh. God is not some remote first cause. He's a person who has now come into this world not as some dazzling, overwhelming source of light, not even in the form of some mighty superpowers some celestial being but in human flesh not dressed up like Superman or Iron Man or any of the other superheroes we call them God revealing himself in human flesh what dignity that gives to being human that God himself has become part of that. Not just created it, but became part of it. What dignity it gives even to our human bodies in a culture that increasingly treats humans as commodities and the human body as merely flesh, meat.

14:39 there is darkness. There is brokenness in this world and in our bodies, but still the word he is God stepped into this dark and broken world and he came in human flesh and in that physical human body, he lived, he laughed, he shared meals, he walked the streets, he slept and ate, he suffered, and he died. And the body was put in a tomb and God raised him bodily from the dead. A body still, a transformed body with different properties, but a body now at the right hand of the majesty on high one day to return. So this giant leap forward isn't reversed. He has a body still.

16:03 The incarnation marks a forever change in the triunity that is God. And what an answer this is to the lie insinuated into humanity at the beginning that God wants to keep us down as human beings. And it is only if we reject God and refuse to accept him and refuse to trust his word that we can be free and rise ourselves to become gods. That's the ancient dream that inspires so many still today. Man becoming God, the homo Deus, to use the title of Yuval Harari's best-selling book. That is through some kind of merger of human life and technology, we will become transhuman, raised to God-like power and status. The truth flows in the opposite direction. Man doesn't become God, although one, according to the New Testament will eventually try and appear to succeed.

17:13 But rather God has become a man in Jesus Christ. He has taken human flesh so that even now in our weakness and our brokenness, We can be, if you like, upgraded from creatures to children of God. As C.S. Lewis again put it, the Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God. And he's using man, of course, in a generic sense. It's amazing. He didn't become a machine. this wasn't a cyborg that visited us from outer space he came in human flesh to live a human life among us to lay down his life for us in that same flesh that would be pierced and battered and put to death on the cross but it wouldn't be the end and on the third day God raised him from the dead not as some concept some easter hope or spirit but as a physical body still the guarantee that those who trusted him will themselves rise with him

18:31 in new transformed physical bodies designed for the world to come. Human death is not some technical problem that will eventually be solved by advances in technology. Death has already been defeated and will ultimately be abolished by the physical coming. and resurrection of Jesus. The incarnation. The word becomes flesh. And John uses another image to describe what happens here. He says he dwelt among us.

19:12 And literally, it is he tabernacled among us. Or, in modern English, he pitched his tent among us. It's a lovely image, a metaphor, but he didn't just pluck it from his imagination. He chose it because it was an image that had a huge history. It meant something to every single Jew who would read this. It goes back to the time of the people's liberation as a nation from slavery in Egypt. And you can read about this way back in Exodus 25, that after the people had been liberated, But before they set out on the journey, God instructed Moses to get the people to gather a variety of materials together. And I quote, let them make a sanctuary for me and I will dwell among them.

20:04 Make this tabernacle, i.e. this tent and all its furnishing. Exactly like the pattern I will show you. God went camping with his people. He designed the tent. And it was a very specific design because every aspect of it, every bit of furniture that was in that tent was symbolic. It told people something about the God who was dwelling among them. This was God's way of revealing himself to the people of teaching them about him, of drawing closer so that they could draw closer to him. But now, here's a different kind of pitching of tents.

20:54 Not a symbol tent, but human flesh. He pitched his tent among us. Far more wonderful, far more personal than a symbolic tent. This is the word coming and communicating with us in terms that we can best understand, not in commands, not in symbols, not in theological theories or slogans or soundbites. It's God coming and communicating in person as a human being up close and personal. And we listen to the weight of that. He pitched his tent among us, not simply us as a term for us humans, all of humanity, but us in the sense that John is writing had witnessed this in person. He had been with Jesus.

21:59 He had followed him. He had stayed with him, eaten with him, traveled with him for around three years. John is writing about the incarnation of the word of God from his own personal experience. And in the rest of his gospel, he will share evidence upon evidence upon evidence for his conclusion that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, that the word did indeed become flesh in Jesus. But for the moment, this is just his introduction. And so he provides a key highlight, a concept that captures the experience. And he puts it this way. We saw his glory.

22:46 Now, what do you think of when you think of glory? Well, I'm a photographer, so I just tend to think of a glorious sunset. That's something they know about, you know, the color, the shining, magnificent. It's something that is magnificent, that shines out. That's the idea of the word in English. But John fills it out. This is a particular kind of glory. This is the glory as the only begotten of the Father.

23:16 That is the Son, Jesus, the Son of God, fully expressing the Father's nature and character and mind. The sheer glory of that coming up close and personal with the magnificence of God himself in Jesus. And what was he like? Well, he was full of grace and truth. It's not always the impression that people get, is it? that the person we follow is characterized as being full of grace and truth. Sometimes the way we live, we might give the impression that he's full of condemnation and judgment and all the rest of it. What an amazing statement to make after you've lived someone for three years, watched them, had meals with them, seen them tired, hungry, thirsty.

24:32 And your conclusion is, he's full of grace and truth. That's what characterized him, grace and truth. And to highlight the uniqueness of this person, John then returns to something that John the Baptist had said. An intriguing statement. Jesus is unique in his relationship to time. Because John the Baptist said he who comes after me has surpassed me because he was, now what would you expect him to say? Well, because he was a better preacher.

25:24 Well, he didn't say that. Because he did better miracles. He didn't say that either. Because he was a nicer man. Well, he doesn't say that either. Because he was before me. It sounds Irish a bit, doesn't it? You know, I mix up after, before.

25:44 How does this work? Jesus, historically, came after John by a few months. But Bethlehem was not the beginning of this person. He was before John, eternally before. So he's unique in terms of his relationship with time. Well, he needs to be, if he is indeed the word, become flesh. And secondly, he is unique as the source of grace and truth. From the fullness of his grace, we have all received, and the NIV translates it rather clumsily, grace in place of grace already given.

26:30 Others put a grace upon grace or one grace after another. We'll not get bogged down in the translation. This is about grace upon grace. And grace is God's undeserved kindness. Not something we can possibly earn. John the Baptist, the apostles, everyone else owed everything to Jesus. He owed nothing to them. He was the source of any and all grace that they had experienced, not just in terms of spiritual help or gifts for service, but fundamentally grace in terms of forgiveness and salvation.

27:13 And then John elaborates his introduction. What do you mean by this, John? And he puts a big contrast out. And the contrast is between Jesus and Moses. Now that might not mean an awful lot to a Gentile audience, but certainly to a Jewish audience, I meant a lot. Because Moses was a great historical figure and hero through whom God had liberated his people and established them as a nation. the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus. Do you see what he's saying?

27:52 Notice the different verbs. The law was given through Moses. Moses was the intermediary. God gave the law through Moses to the people. Is that how grace was done? No. Grace and truth came through Jesus. In him,

28:15 he is, if you like, the personification of grace. And then notice the contrast John makes between the law on one side and grace and truth on the other. Is this going to be another repetition? Is Jesus coming just another, an updated version of Moses, you know, another law, another, that kind of thing. Well, it isn't that. The contrast is very clear. There's nothing wrong with the law, but it couldn't save anybody.

28:56 It couldn't make anybody holy. It couldn't deal with the fundamental problem of human life. The laws simply expose what's there, show you how far short you fall. But no matter how hard you try, you'll never keep them perfectly. And if you break one, you've broken the lot. It's like a chain, a link chain. When you break one link in the chain or 50, it doesn't matter. You've broken the law.

29:26 You're under condemnation of the law. There is no way around that. So the law comes in to expose sin and show how much we need salvation, but it doesn't give us that salvation. Is this going to be another repetition, John? Are you just saying Jesus is the latest manifestation of Moses? No. Jesus came and in himself with grace to provide salvation for sinful and law-breaking people. And truth, not in the sense of truth as opposed to error.

30:06 The law wasn't wrong. But fullness of truth. The real thing, as opposed to the shadow that we have up to now. So this is establishing that Jesus's uniqueness, his vast superiority, even to Moses, he's in a different category, not simply a messenger, but the message himself. Nobody has seen God at any time, says John. But the one and only, in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known. That's the point. To make him known, to expound him literally, to tell him out.

30:55 God coming in person, the person of Jesus, to express to us who God is like. that's the significance or part of the significance of this great event and I finally I think where my time is oh yes we're doing quite well are we finally what John does in this is to move again to the witness of John the Baptist and it's really good he does this because people have questions. And you know, when we try to explain the incarnation, everybody has questions. Of course we do. I love the fact that the New Testament is full of questions. That Jesus taught so much through questions that he allowed people to ask questions. So important to give people the space to ask questions. And John the Baptist, he gave the space.

31:59 There was an expert delegation, we read, sent to John the Baptist on behalf of the Jewish religious authorities to find out who are you, basically. Now, they didn't mean what's your name. I mean, if you hear of somebody who's doing amazing things out in the countryside, you'll want to find out their name and maybe where they're from. but that's not what's going on here it's not just his name it's who are you in terms of the expectations that have been built up over the years for the coming of Messiah you see this is crucial if you're clever enough if you have enough creative imagination and good timing and can read the culture, well, you can invent a new religion. It's not in the end particularly hard to do. But that isn't what Christianity is. It wasn't thought up by a single individual who had a dream or a group of bright analysts of culture who realized that Judaism was getting a bit tired and all these mystery religions are a bit last year.

33:24 They need a new kind of religion, a religion where we love one another. So let's invent that. It wasn't that at all. Loads of people think it was, but it wasn't that. There was a road led out in history. There was a program set down in history through key interventions, and particularly through a long series in history of prophets who came and gave a little piece of the picture of what was one day going to happen. And as the years went by, that picture built and built and built and built. And they knew that there were certain things they needed to expect to happen.

34:08 Otherwise, the chances were that they would get deceived. I see, this is a problem. If you think that it just sort of happened, revealed out of the sky, just, oh, goodness, look what's happened. Wow, God's just revealed this to me, and off we go. Well, it's happened so many times, even within professing Christianity, and people get sucked in. Why? Because they don't ask questions. Where's this from?

34:35 Where does it fit in? How does this work? You don't expect us to believe this simply because you said it, do you? These are good questions. Encourage people to ask the questions. The questions they had may be different from the questions that folks that you're talking to have. But it's interesting to see the questions they had because they guide us as to how to think. Notice the term, are you the prophet?

35:01 And that's a reference to Deuteronomy 18, where Moses said that there would be a prophet like him who would be raised up. They were expecting that prophet to come. Elijah, according to Malachi 4, 5, and 6, Elijah would come. Were these, was the prophet and Elijah different people? Were they the same? And then most importantly, was John the Messiah? Or Elijah or the prophet? So they're trying to find out how did he fit into this program?

35:42 Well, John the Baptist was a sensation, which is why they were asking questions in the first place. And if you read the other gospels, you find his strange dress, wonderful eating habits, the bare grills of his day, you know, living in the desert. And then the message to repent and prepare the way for the king was electrifying because there'd be nobody talking like this for at least 400 years. This long period of silence. And so it began to stir people's mind. Could it possibly be that God is on the move? Could Aslan be back? You remember the C.S.

36:26 Lewis stories that he read as a child? Is this possible? I mean, how do you fit in? What are the signs of his coming? Where do you fit in, John? And many Jews still believed that Messiah would come, but 400 years is a long time to wait, isn't it? And pass on the message to your children and grandchildren, he's definitely going to come. Maybe some of you feel like that.

36:52 We're talking about the second coming of Jesus and it keeps going on. Granda used to talk, great granda, and they're still talking about it and it's never going to come. And some of them thought it's never going to come, but there were others who believed it. And so John the Baptist This is very, very clear. I'm not the Messiah. I need to be clear about this. I'm not the Messiah. I am the one calling in the wilderness.

37:25 Prepare the way for the Lord. That was his role. The ideas of an ancient king visiting Ballyclare. or wherever and sends a message in advance, I'm coming, and sends a forerunner to make sure the streets are all cleaned up, all the old buildings are either torn down or repaired and painted, and everything looks ship-shape and wonderful for the king to come in and all this. That's the idea, but not physically, but morally and spiritually. Repent. Get the people ready for the king by repentance. Now exactly what this was going to involve?

38:14 Well, that's going to be next week. Because we come to the heart of John's introduction, John the Baptist's introduction, and John the writer's introduction to Jesus. But this is an initial stage, identifying who he is. The prophetic program. Jesus just didn't appear out of nowhere. Christianity wasn't invented in a cafe in Athens or Jerusalem. It is rooted and embedded in history. And these are things that we can share with those that we're sharing this with.

38:58 But as I finish, And we pray. What we're talking about here is just something totally amazing. The word became flesh. And made his dwelling amongst us. And we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only son of a father. perfectly displaying the character and heart and mind and love of the Father. And we sum it up that he's full of grace and truth.

39:46 Let's pray. Lord, we pray that the weight of these words will weigh on us and expand our imagination. To have a God like you, not some distant concept, some abstract first cause, some impersonal superpower, but a God who believes in communication, who comes so close to us, who creates the world in order to have us and then in order to have us. He comes himself and takes on flesh and blood to live with us and die for us and be raised again in the power of an endless life. This is the center point of history. This is the center point of all truth, of all life, of all meaning. and may we in the struggles that we have in our own flesh perhaps as we get older as we see the weaknesses and flaws as we think of the way life might have been and could have been but hasn't turned out that way for us

41:42 may we not lose hope because the word became flesh dwelt among us and now is raised and seated at the right hand of the majesty on high from where he will return and take us forever to be with him we thank you in Jesus name Amen