John 1:14-18 The Word Became Flesh

0:56And we were a Leno house. I don't know why, it's just we were. And there was this one segment of the show that I thought was hilarious as a kid. And I've gone back on YouTube. You can still find the stuff out there. It's called Jay Walking. And what Jay Leno does is he goes out on the street or out on a college campus or wherever else, and he asks people basic questions that they should definitely know the answer to.

1:25So he'll ask stuff like: how many branches are there in the government? And this guy answers, oh, several. There's the Republicans and the Democrats. No. What is the Bill of Rights? Thou shalt not steal? No. Are there any female Supreme Court justices? Yeah, I seen Judge Judy on there, so. No. You watch a few of these and you really start to question the wisdom of this whole by the people, for the people thing. I wonder what kind of answers Jay would get if he walked out on the street and asked people, what is God like?

2:22What is God like? Probably get a variety of answers, and a lot of them would be lists of preferences of things that they would like, what they'd like God to be like if they could make him in their own image. But of course, those answers aren't helpful. They don't reveal much, if anything, about what God is really like. I want you to look at this quote from Tim Keller. He says, Christians believe that the main way we know specifics about God is not through our philosophical reasoning, but through his. Self-revelation, not first through our thinking, but through his speaking to us.

3:09The truth is, we can know what God is like, and we can know what God is like because he has revealed himself to us. And what we're going to see in the word today is that he has revealed himself to us most fully and completely through Jesus Christ, his Son. That is John's main point in verses 14 through 18, which we're covering today. But before we get there, I want to remind you what we covered last week in verses 1 through 13. We learned that the word is the eternal, personal God of the universe who created all things, the source of light and life. John's big idea in those first 13 verses, what he wants us to grasp, is that the word is God.

3:54Remember, that went against both Jewish and Gentile beliefs. The Jews believed that God was personal, but that he was only one God who had expressed himself in only one person, the Father. And the Gentiles, they believed that the Word, the Logos, was this eternal principle of reason that governed all things, but that the Word, the Logos, was not personal. So John's claims would have been met with skepticism and hostility that God is one God who has eternally existed in three persons and who has Revealed himself personally to us. And that skepticism and hostility is exactly what we find in the book of Acts and written about in the epistles. I want you to look now at John's claim in verse 14 of John chapter 1.

4:45And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word, the eternal personal God of the universe, became flesh and dwelt among us. God added humanity to his deity. Without ceasing to become God, he became man. And John uses the word sarks here. It's the word translated flesh. And he picks this word instead of man or a person or a body because that word, flesh, captures humanity in all of its vulnerability and all of its weakness. Our flesh gets scraped and cut and bruised. It ages and it gets old. It gets hungry and tired. And that's what John is conveying to us. Jesus took on human flesh in all of its fullness, with all of its vulnerabilities, all of its frailties, all of its weaknesses. He had the full human experience.

5:52Have you ever noticed when male politicians go to visit workers at farms and in factories? They do that weird thing where they take off their tie and they unbutton their collar and they roll up their sleeves like they're ready to jump in there and get to work in their slacks and wingtips. The reality is, they don't ever really enter into the full lived experience of those ordinary Americans. They're just popping in for a minute, maybe going to give a speech, talk to some of those folks, take a few pictures, and then head back to their life, which for most of them doesn't look anything like these people's everyday lives. But friends, Jesus did not do that. The eternal word actually took on flesh and dwelt among us. That phrase dwelt among us could be rendered pitched his tent.

6:46He came and pitched his tent. He came and took up residence among us, next to us, as one of us. So unlike these politicians, Jesus doesn't just kind of pop in for part of a day as an outsider who's quickly going to return to his very different kind of existence. No, Jesus, his experience is captured by Paul in Philippians 2. Look what Paul writes. 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.

7:29In the modern world, People have a hard time believing that Jesus was really God. But you have to understand, in the ancient world, their problem was the opposite. They had a hard time believing that Jesus was really a man, was actually a human being. And in the introduction to his gospel, John affirms that Jesus, the Word of God, was both fully God and fully man, both of which were absolutely essential for our salvation. Look what Paul writes in 1 Timothy: For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

8:12In the 11th century, Anselm said this: Since no one but God can make satisfaction for our sins, and no one but man ought to make it, it is necessary for a God-man to make it. So, if you've ever wondered if the Bible really teaches that Jesus is both fully God and fully man, the answer is yes, because it's absolutely essential to our salvation. In order to save us, Jesus had to become the mediator that we needed, which meant that he had to take on flesh and dwell among us. There was no other way for us to be saved.

8:53Back to verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Now, I said just a minute ago that dwelt among us could also be translated pitched his tent. And now, John is saying that he and the other witnesses saw Jesus' glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. Well, you may remember back in the Old Testament, after the Israelites left Egypt, God instructed Moses to erect a tabernacle or a tent of meeting where he would meet with Moses and where the nation of Israel would assemble to worship and offer sacrifices. And I want you to look on the screen at Exodus 40. Moses records what happened once they finished building the tabernacle. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

10:08So do you see this? The tabernacle is a tent where God would manifest his presence, where his glory would be displayed. But it was so awesome and terrifying that Moses could not enter in and the people could not approach. What John is saying is that when Jesus came and took on flesh, when he pitched his tent and dwelt in the tent, Among us, they beheld the glory of God, the glory as of the only Son from the Father.

10:39And you may remember that Moses once asked to see God's glory. Take a look at Exodus 33. Moses said, Please show me your glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But, he said, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.

11:15Moses, the one who spoke to God as a man speaks to a friend, asked to see God's glory. And God said, Moses, nobody can see my glory and live. The only thing that you can see and live is my back. I mean, think about in that culture, to turn your back on someone was one of the greatest offenses. And he's saying, the only thing you can handle is looking at my back. But in Jesus, the Word made flesh, he revealed his glory to his disciples, the glory as of the only Son from the Father. This is what Luke records in chapter 9, for example. Take a look. Now, about eight days after these sayings, he took with him Peter and John and James. And he went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him: Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now, Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep. But when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.

12:32Peter, James, and John had an experience that nobody else had. They saw the glory of God in Christ and actually lived to tell about it. In fact, that's a big part of what John is going to do in the rest of his gospel. He's going to recount how Jesus revealed his glory through his life and his miracles, and especially in his resurrection from the dead. And we're going to come back in a minute to John's statement that he was full of grace and truth. But right now I want to focus on the testimony of John the Baptist in verses 6-8, the one who came to bear witness about the light. So let's pick up here in verse 15.

13:17Verse 15, John bore witness about him and cried out, This was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me. Now, when John the Baptist says that Jesus was before him, he's not talking about birth order, because John was born about six months before Jesus was born. What he's saying is that Jesus was before him in the sense that he outranked him, that he takes precedence over him, that he has the preeminence, a truth that Jesus himself affirmed. You may remember that at one point the Jews got into a big debate with Jesus, and he tells them that their father Abraham saw his day and rejoiced. And take a look at what happens after that, John chapter 8.

14:15So the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old, and have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Now with this statement, Jesus was claiming to be God. He said, I am. He took the name of the Lord for himself. And there is no doubt that the Jews absolutely understood what he was doing, because in the next moment they pick up stones to stone him for blasphemy, because they knew what he was doing. They knew what he was claiming and saying.

14:51And that's what John is saying, that Jesus is before him in the sense that he is God in the flesh, and therefore his ministry takes precedence. His ministry and not John the Baptist is the one that really mattered in the end. And that is an incredible testimony from a man who had a very successful ministry. Thousands and thousands of people, seemingly the whole nation, flocked to John to be baptized by him. Matthew notes that Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him.

15:25And yet, John never claimed final significance for his ministry. He came to prepare the way. He said, I have to decrease so that Jesus can increase. John understood that his role was the voice of one crying out in the wilderness to prepare the way for the Lord. John the Apostle is showing us that his testimony here in his gospel agrees with that of John the Baptist, who is regarded by nearly every Jew as a holy man and as a prophet of the Lord.

15:59So John the Baptist's ministry, as we're going to see over the next three chapters, serves as a model for every believer. Because our calling is not to build a platform for ourselves. Our calling is not to build a personal brand of some kind. Our calling is the same as John's. We are called to bear witness about the light, Jesus Christ, who took on flesh and dwelt among us, so that all might believe through our testimony that he is the Christ.

16:30So, you might ask yourself today: am I bearing witness to Jesus, the Word made flesh? Or am I spending my time, my energy, my effort to build my own platform, to build my own brand, to make a name for myself? Verse 16. And from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Back in verse 14, John wrote that Jesus was full of grace and truth. And after this interjection about John the Baptist, he returns to that thought: Jesus is full of grace and truth.

17:27He's full. There is no empty space. He's filled to the top with grace and truth. And because he is infinite, we could say that he overflows permanently with grace and truth. And out of that fullness, we have received an inexhaustible supply of grace. John captures that at the end of that sentence where he says, grace upon grace. Grace flows out of Christ like a waterfall. It just keeps on coming. We receive grace, and then we receive. Grace upon the grace that we have just received. What a phrase. What a beautiful reality.

18:09And, friends, the reason that that is all so wonderful is because we have the law. It's given to us by God through Moses. And what the law does is it reveals God's perfect standard of holiness. It reveals His requirements for all who desire to be received by God. The requirement is nothing less than perfection. We don't call them the ten suggestions, they're the ten commandments. And those are just the first ten of well over 600. Two of the best known are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Those are not new teachings of Jesus.

18:57That's not the nice God of the New Testament as opposed to the old, mean God of the Old Testament. Those come right out of Leviticus. They come right out of God's law. Jesus says, in fact, they are a summary of the whole law. The whole law can be boiled down to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. That's all you have to do. That's it. It's as simple as loving God perfectly and loving your neighbor perfectly. That's the only standard you have to meet up to. Isn't that encouraging?

19:30That's why Paul wrote in Galatians chapter 3, take a look at this, for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. James 2 says this, for whoever keeps the whole law, but fails in one point, has become guilty of all of it. Because the same God who gave command number 637 is the same God who gave the Ten Commandments and who said, You shall love me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. It's all the same God. We break any of his law, we're guilty of the whole thing. The law of the Lord is perfect. It reveals God's perfect character and perfect will, and it represents what we must do if we are to be received by God.

20:32But as we all know, the bad news is that we have not kept the law perfectly and completely. We have not kept the whole law perfectly and completely every day, every moment of our lives. And because of that, we've become guilty of all of it. That means that we're under a curse. That is the truth. But thankfully, Jesus came with both grace and truth full of both of them. And look at what he says in Matthew chapter 4. 5.

21:02Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Jesus comes full of the truth. Don't think that I came to get rid of God's law. I didn't come to do that. Not the smallest character is going to pass away from God's law.

21:33That's the truth. But here's the grace. I haven't come to abolish the law. I have come to fulfill it. The law is here until I have accomplished everything that I've set out to accomplish. Because, friends, all Moses could do is give the law. He was just the messenger. He was simply communicating God's standard to God's people. He could not help them actually meet the standard that God requires. But grace and truth came through Jesus. He upheld every last word of the law. He didn't come to abolish it. He came to fulfill it. He came to actually do what it requires to suffer in our place, we who failed to keep the law. Because all the law could do is reveal sin, it could never remove it. Only Jesus could do that through his perfect life. Life through his sacrifice in our place and through his resurrection from the dead. Grace comes through Jesus, but we have to receive him as a person in order to receive his grace.

22:47That's what John wrote earlier. If you look back at verse 12, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. That is an incredible truth. That all who receive Jesus receive the right to become children of God. It's true for all people. People of every nation, every social class, every ethnicity, every background, no matter what you've done in your life, if you receive Jesus, you receive the right to become a child of God. Moses can help you know the truth, but only Jesus can save you. Not because he said that the law didn't matter, but because he said he alone was able to fulfill it. And he did it for you.

23:45Friends, God's infinite grace is available, but we have to receive Jesus in order to receive that grace. Have you received Jesus through faith? Verse 18. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. What a statement. Who has seen God? Nobody. Nobody. But the only God, that is, the Word who took on flesh, the Son who has been at the Father's side from all eternity, he has made him known. And that phrase, made him known, is a translation of this Greek word exegeomai. And that's a complicated thing, but it's where we get our word exegesis.

24:44And exegesis is the process of taking a text and revealing its meaning, clarifying its meaning. So that's what we are trying to do every week up here. And when we teach in other contexts, we're trying to do exegesis, where we take a text and we reveal the meaning and we clarify the meaning so we can all understand it, we'll believe it, and we'll apply it to our lives. What John is saying here is that Jesus Christ is the exegesis of God. He is the one who reveals God the Father and clarifies who the Father is for us.

25:27Look at Colossians 1. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Look what the author of Hebrews says. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. No one has ever seen God. As children learn in the shorter catechism, God is a spirit and he does not have a body like men. That is perfectly true, but God the Son, the eternal word, does have a body like men because he took on flesh and dwelt among us.

26:16Because of that, Jesus has made known God to us in a way that we could have never known him before the incarnation. And if this is puzzling to you, you're not alone. This puzzled the disciples as well. And Philip and Jesus have this interaction in John 14. Take a look at this. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I Say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

27:18Whoever has seen Jesus has seen the Father because Jesus, the only God who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known. So many people say that if God exists, they want to know Him, they want to have a relationship with Him. Well, friends, Jesus came to reveal God to us, and when He came, He came full of grace and truth. Grace without truth leads to apathy because you only need grace when you don't deserve it and when you can't earn it.

28:06So, if you think that you deserve God's favor or if you've done something in your life to earn it, then it's easy to refuse it, it's easy to ignore it. Grace without truth leads to apathy, but truth without grace leads to despair because the truth is hard to hear. Titus 3. Captures this so well. Take a look. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

28:52Paul says elsewhere that we are all children of wrath. That is the bad news, the truth that would lead to despair because it's a message devoid of hope. We have all sinned. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. We have sinned against God and we've sinned against each other. We hate each other and we've been hated by each other because we're enslaved to our sin. That is the bad news. That as a result of all of these things, we are under God's wrath.

29:25But take a look at the rest of that passage where Paul follows the truth of verse 3 with the grace of verses 4 through 7. And then we will have quoted the whole Bible this morning. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

30:01So that, being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Friends, that is the gospel message. That is the good news. That is the message of both truth and grace. Jesus is the image of God, the radiance of his glory, and the exact imprint of his nature. If you want to know God, you must know Jesus Christ. And we come to know him by hearing and believing and receiving his word.

30:41The truth is hard to hear, and grace sounds too good to be true. But Jesus came in the flesh to dwell among us, full of grace and truth, to save all of those who believe in him, who receive him through faith. So trust him today. Let's pray. God, we pray this morning. Morning for all of those among us and those among our family and friends and the people that we work with and go to school with who are apathetic about the message of the gospel.

31:49And they may be apathetic because they don't think that they need your favor, your grace, because they consider themselves to be pretty good people, or because they think they've done enough to earn, to merit your favor. I pray this morning that your law would have its effect, that it would be, as Paul talks about in Galatians 3, a schoolmaster, a tutor that leads us to Christ. Because we see how we have failed and how we do fail every day to keep it perfectly and completely.

32:36And that once we understand that, God, I pray that we would come to Jesus, who is full of grace, grace upon grace, who eagerly receives all who come to Him. God, we thank you for receiving us, who have come to your Son in repentant faith. We thank you that we have access with boldness and confidence to your throne because of Jesus and his work. And so, God, we pray this morning for ourselves that we would cast ourselves afresh on your mercy and grace.

33:18We pray for those among us and those among whom we know who are trusting in anything other than the person and work of Jesus for salvation and reconciliation with you. Would you reveal yourself to them? Bring them to repentance and faith. Bring them into your family. God, thank you for your word to us today. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.