Title: The Incarnate Word
Scripture: John 1:14
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
Well, it's a joy to worship Jesus Christ with you all, beloved. Just such a wonderful opportunity to make much of Christ. What a joy.
And for most people, and we talk about this every year, and I think it's a reoccurring theme, but I think it's important that we talk about this, that for most people Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. It's a time where, as the song says, kids are jingle-belling and everyone telling you, be of good cheer, right? Everybody tells you that. That's important.
We talk about traditions, we talk about celebrations, we talk about days off, good food, Christmas music, presents under the tree, all of those things. And that's what most Americans, most Westerners, think of, and that's why they love Christmas so much. But for Christians, it means so much more, and we love it for another reason.
Certainly, the time with family is wonderful. Certainly, the time of celebration is wonderful. All those things.
But there's a greater reason why we, as believers, love this holiday, and it's a time for us to celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ more than 20 centuries ago in Bethlehem. And yet, we can also recognize, just as with all the bells and whistles of cultural tradition, we can very easily get swept up into our own religious tradition as well, where it becomes all about the pilgrimage of Joseph and Mary, it becomes all about the angels visit, and the manger, and the North Star, and the wise men, and the shepherds, and so on and so forth. And yes, all of those things are wonderful.
That's all part of the story, and they are important. But ultimately, Christmas is about celebrating the arrival of Messiah, Jesus Christ, to earth. And yet, it's important to remember that all of this did not begin in a manger in Bethlehem.
That was not the beginning. Rather, the origin of the Savior comes much earlier in the timeline of human history. And so, for that, I want to look at John chapter 1 with you tonight.
So, if you have your copy of Scripture, and you want to go to John 1, we actually providentially read these verses during the Advent reading, which I was grateful for. If you were with us on Sunday, this past Sunday, we were in these verses as well. But I want to sort of broaden the scope of this, so we can tie these two messages together.
And I want to look at these verses together, and then build off of them. And so, to get us up to speed, we're going to go back to John 1. We're going to look at verses 1 through 5 very quickly. I don't want to spend a ton of time on these verses, even though they are marvelous, and are deserving of far more time than I can give them tonight.
But John 1, the Gospel of John chapter 1, verses 1 through 5. "...life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." And so, the introduction here by the Apostle John, writing to the church abroad, is remarkable for lots of reasons. He begins this Gospel very differently than the other Gospel writers begin, but he begins with the words, "...God was in the beginning." And again, most people who are familiar with their Bible know Genesis chapter 1, "...in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." We know that verse, that's very famous.
Of course, we don't have an exact date for the creation. We don't know when that was, to date it on the calendar. But we do know that at the beginning of everything, God was there.
God was there in the beginning before anything came to be. God was already there, and by the word of His mouth, everything came into creation, came into being. He made everything by the word of His mouth.
And so, John starts his Gospel in the same way. In the beginning, even though he doesn't say, God created the heavens and the earth, he says, "...in the beginning was the word." That's different than Genesis 1, isn't it? It's different. Suddenly, he introduces a person that most people in the world have never heard of.
The title, certainly. He calls this person, the Word. The Word.
We saw last time, if you were here Sunday, this word in the original Greek language is the word logos, which can mean word. It can also mean discourse. It can mean reason.
It can also mean wisdom. There's a large range of meanings with this word logos. But here, this word, this logos, was in the beginning with God.
He was in the same place that God was. And so now we have this person, the Word, who's with God in the beginning. And then he adds, "...and the Word was God." He's building here.
Now again, this may seem a little bit confusing, and so to recap, we remember here at the time of creation, there existed this person called the Word who was with God in fellowship and who was referred to as God. And we see it reiterated here in verse 2. He, personal pronoun here, he was in the beginning with God. Now we're talking about a person.
Somebody there with God in the beginning. This is frankly amazing. It's amazing.
I'm consistently blown away by John chapter 1. I don't want to say it's my favorite chapter in the Bible, because every chapter is my favorite chapter in the Bible. But this is probably top thousand chapters in the Bible, alright? Now anyway, the essence of this is that we see here a divine being who's with God in the beginning and predates all of creation. He's already there.
He's a preexistent being. He's an infinite being. He's an eternal being.
And he's dwelling with God Almighty, because he himself is God Almighty. And then we see verse 3. Now this begins to sound like Genesis chapter 1. "...All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being." And so now we see the Word here partaking in the creation with God in the beginning. In fact, all things are created through him.
The Word is the creator. And not just the creator of the trees, and the rocks, and the mountains, and the oceans, and the stars, and the planets, but of life itself. The creator of life, verse 4, "...in him was life, and the life was the light of men." So he's the creator of all things, but certainly the creator and giver of life.
To say it another way, if you're alive right now, and I'm going to take a wild guess that all of us here are, if you're alive, it's because the divine Logos, the Word, gave you life. That's what we all share in common. We are partakers of this divine Word bringing forth life and putting it into us.
But even more than just life in general, biological life, bios in the Greek, it's actually a different word, it's zoe, spiritual life. He calls it the light of men. There's a divine spark that God ignites in the hearts and souls of all of us that is specifically and uniquely from God.
Not only did he give us that divine spark, the light of men, but he's also the source of it, verse 5. The light here, he says, shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. And so in a world that is full of darkness, God is the light of the world, and the darkness cannot comprehend or overcome the darkness. And so, again, remarkably we have this divine, eternal, infinite, creative, life-giving, light-producing person called the Word here in the beginning of John's Gospel.
Who is this? I'm going to keep you in suspense for just a few more verses. Look at verse 6. John continues in the narrative, he says, There came a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. And now we're going to talk about who this is here in verse 9. And there was the true light, which coming into the world enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.
He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even those who believe in his name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And so if you know your Bible here, we know that this person, John, it's not the same John who wrote the Gospel.
There's lots of guys in the New Testament named John, but this is John the Baptist. He's the one who came preaching repentance and faith, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He's telling everybody before Jesus gets here, the Lord is coming.
Now, the writer John is making it clear that John the Baptist is only a witness to the true light. But the story is not about John the Baptist, it's about, again, someone else, someone who came to his own people, and yet was ultimately rejected. And when he came to his own people, he offered life, he offered salvation, he offered opportunity for people to have a relationship with God, to become children of God.
We don't just come to God as mere worshippers and servants, we become children. He adopts us as his own children. Remarkable.
Remarkable. Again, who is this amazing person, this divine, infinite, eternal, creative, life-giving person who can make us into children of God? Look down at verse 17. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth were realized through none other than Jesus Christ.
This is all about Jesus Christ. How did this eternal Word become who we know to be Jesus Christ? That's where we jump in at verse 14 tonight. Verse 14.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. And so now you know who this person is, this Word that we've been talking about. Now this infinite Word, this reason of God, the wisdom of God, this seemingly infinite, unknowable, nameless, faceless-seeming kind of person, now takes on flesh and dwells with us.
And so, miraculously, mysteriously, we have now the incarnation of Jesus. The miracle of the birth of Jesus. This is the wonder of Christmas.
Verse 14 is ultimately what Christmas is all about. Again, somehow this eternal, infinite, divine Word became flesh, dwelt among us. The infinite became finite.
The immortal became mortal. The eternal became corporeal. The Creator entered into His creation.
God became man and dwelt with us. How did this happen? How in the world did this happen? Go over to Matthew 1. Matthew 1, these are very familiar verses. But now we're jumping into the narrative here.
This is the story that we know and love so well. Matthew 1, starting in verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.
When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. Now all of this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord to the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us.
And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called His name Jesus. Somehow, in the power of God, the Holy Spirit produced and conceived a divine child in the womb of this woman Mary, this young woman. And although Mary herself was not sinless and perfect in and of herself, she was pure and undefiled in terms of she was not married, she had never been with any man.
And yet this woman, this young woman, becomes pregnant, miraculously, not having been with a husband, and the only way this can happen is through divine miracle. The miracle of miracles. The wonder of wonders that God would place His only begotten Son into this pure womb of the virgin Mary.
This is what takes place here. What's happening inside of her body? We have all kinds of information biologically about what happens. All of you moms in here that have given birth to children, we know that within some level of certainty what is exactly going on inside the womb when a baby's being formed.
But what's happening here? This is unique. There's never been anybody ever who's existed inside of a womb who's been like this. Here in this womb, we have the perfect union of a divine and human child.
We call this in theological terms the hypostatic union. The union of these two natures into one. They're not halves of themselves.
They're not intermixed. They're not commingled. There's some kind of mystery, some divine mystery about how the God-man can exist as one person.
And over the course of nine months, he grew and developed until one day this divine, eternal Word of God came into the world. Flip over to Luke 2. We're hitting all the good ones tonight, guys. Luke 2. This is the other half of the story here.
Now in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him and who was with child.
While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And so now, friends, now God, the divine Word, who was with God in the beginning and created all things and gave life to all people, now this divine Word is here in the flesh in the person of Jesus.
And He's born into the world. This was a monumental event. This isn't just about some baby coming into the world.
It's not just about some random miracle. No, this is the connection of heaven and earth. This is a bridging from the infinite to the finite.
This is the eternal God coming into the creation and dwelling with us. This is the fulfillment of John 1.14. I'm excited. Are you excited about this? This is so amazing.
We tend to think about baby Jesus meek and mild, and yes, but in reality here, we have the eternal Word who's God and man who's coming into the world. And John 1.14, John says, and we saw His glory. Glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The disciples saw this. When they first encountered Jesus as an adult man, and He began to talk and perform miracles and teach them with authority and do all these amazing things, they began to behold His glory. And then when He went up on the mountain of transfiguration and He peeled back His humanity for just a minute, and they saw the Shekinah glory radiating from Him, they saw His glory.
And when they saw Him die and be buried in the ground, and then the third day resurrect, and they saw Him post-resurrection, they beheld His glory. They saw His glory. See, John's writing that verse in the Gospel of John we've been talking about, he wrote that 60 years later after encountering Jesus on earth.
But there were others who saw His glory. Luke 2, verse 8, in the same region, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And the angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened.
But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you.
You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased. And when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, Let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.
So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger. And when they had seen this, they made known the statement which they had been told them about the child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.
But Mary treasured all these things pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen just as it had been told to them. They beheld the glory of Jesus only as a baby in the manger.
I mean there was so much more to be seen but even then they were glorifying God and praising God and rejoicing. And we could even keep on reading and find the story of the wise men coming and seeing this vision and going and worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. But again it was enough for them to give glory to God even with just that.
And yet we have had far more than even they did. Now we might think about a sentiment like that and say well yeah but they got to see the angels in heaven and the glory and all those things. But here's the thing, they didn't know what it meant.
We have the testimony of the life of Jesus recorded in the Gospels. We have more now than they ever had then in terms of understanding. Even people who saw him on earth they didn't know what all of this meant.
The Gospel of John tells us what his life and ministry, death, burial, resurrection and ascension means. We have more. We have the Gospels and all of their New Testament writings.
But even more than that beloved, even more than that, we have the testimony of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us as believers and draws us near to Christ and every day so more and more by faith. It's good for us to be living in the time that we are. I think sometimes we romanticize.
I'd love to go back in time and live when Jesus was a baby in the manger. I'd love to see that. And you know what? I'd love to see that too.
But you and I can know him in a personal way. Not just to behold him in a manger. But to see him in our mind's eye.
To see him by faith. To see him manifested and revealed in the Scriptures. And one day we will behold him face to face in glory.
We will see him. We will see him as he really is. It's a miracle.
We have such a relationship with him. But why did Jesus come to earth? Why was he born in a manger through the womb of a virgin in Bethlehem? Why? Why did the Word become flesh and dwell among us? Well, Matthew 1.21 tells us, doesn't it? That Jesus would come to save his people from their sins. That's why he came.
See, after God created everything in the garden to be good, they entered into the world through Adam and Eve and they rebelled and they disobeyed against God. And sin came in and destroyed everything. And even now, the curse of the fall, it stalks all of us.
We're sinners by nature. It's inside of us. But we also have sins that we commit by choice.
It's everywhere we go. Even the creation itself is tainted by sin. And their punishment, Adam and Eve's punishment, and ours, is death.
We live in the kingdom of God forever because of sin. Yet even as far back as Genesis 3.15, there was a prophecy given to our first parents, Adam and Eve, that by a woman, by a woman, her seed, although bruised on the heel, would ultimately crush the serpent's head. What does that mean? There would be a child that would come into the world.
And although he would be hurt and ultimately would die on the cross, he would ultimately have victory over sin and over Satan. Genesis 3.15 is the very first gospel promise that points forward to everything. The prophecy was fulfilled not by any sinful person.
No human among us could ever do it. Again, even our first parents couldn't overcome the devil and overcome the darkness. But the true light, the true light, the light of the world and he would extinguish and overcome that darkness.
And he would do so by paying sin's penalty, by paying for death. And he would die on the cross to pay for sins. And by his death, the wrath of God would be satisfied.
The payment for our sin would be paid. Satan's head would be broken and crushed. Jesus died and was buried in the ground.
But then like shaking off a bruise, he rose again the third day. To bring new life. So that everyone who turns away, who repents of their sins and trusts in Jesus Christ will have eternal life granted to them.
It is not by works. It's not by church attendance. It's not by Bible reading plans.
It's not by anything external. The way a person comes to Christ and receives eternal life is by faith. And by faith alone.
That's why he came. That's why he came. Only God could do.
Only God could come to earth as a man and rescue and redeem his people. Only God could do it. And only God did it.
Of course, this amazing act of sacrifice was a work of love. Jesus loved us so much that he sacrificed himself. He served us by doing this.
We read about this in Philippians 2. Let me just read these verses to you. Jesus Christ, although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking on the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man.
This is the incarnation now. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Jesus in the highest heaven, worthy of the most exultant glory, condescended and came down and lowered himself beneath every person and died the death that all of us deserve to die.
And died the death of a curse. He was cursed for us. And yet, verse 9 in Philippians 2, for this reason also, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow and every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
That is the wonderful message of Christmas. Yes, the birth of Jesus is wonderful. We take nothing away from that.
The birth of Christ is amazing. And like the shepherds, we stand in awe. We behold him by faith and we stand in awe.
But this Christmas, I want you to contemplate the deeper mysteries. How God could transcend space and time. How the infinite could become finite.
How the eternal, divine, pre-incarnate Word, perfect in every possible way, would come into the world and take on human flesh. That he would trap himself, as it were, in a body like ours. And he would give himself willingly.
He says in John 10, no one takes my life from me. I give it of my own accord. But not only did he die on the cross, but he rose victorious from the grave.
And he ascended back to the Father, where he dwells in unapproachable light. And he makes intercession for his saints. And he reigns as king.
And one day he will return to reconcile all things to himself, bringing us with him to himself. And he will reign forevermore. He is truly, wonderful counselor, mighty God, eternal Father, Prince of Peace, Lord of all.
Amen and Amen. Merry Christmas, beloved. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your Word. Thank you even just for a few minutes to stand in your presence by faith and to peel back the vision and see before time was even time that you were already there. You were already working.
Not just to create and give life, but even before the worlds were made, you had a plan in motion to reconcile us to yourself, Lord. In perfect divine knowledge, you knew. You ordained that things would happen this way.
And yet all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And by ourselves, we are condemned. And yet we have hope.
Yet we have life in Christ. And so Lord, I pray that we would seize on these promises this Christmas, O Lord. That as believers, we would cling to these and rejoice and find new joy and new hope in our hearts.
And Lord, if there's those who are here tonight and maybe this is brand new or maybe they've heard this before and just never thought about it this way before or maybe they've heard about this and they've just been running away. Maybe there's somebody here, Lord, who this is their last opportunity. Maybe they've just come here because I have nowhere else to go, nothing else to do.
I need answers. I need hope. I need life.
And so Father in Heaven, would you grant life to them through Jesus Christ that they would turn away from their sins, turn away from rebellion, turn away from a life lived without You and fall on their knees and pray to You, O Lord, and thank You for Your salvation, confessing their sins and believing in Jesus Christ that You would regenerate and give them new life, that they would walk out of here a new creation in Christ. What a marvelous gift that would be. And Lord, I know that You do it all the time.
And so we entreat You, O Father, to be merciful, to be gracious to us. We know You are and we thank You for giving us the greatest gift You could have ever given. The Bible says, For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.
Thank You, Lord, for the gift of everlasting life. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.