The Word Became Flesh — John 1

0:00 Good morning. It's good to be here. Snowy day in Cleveland with, well, 60% of my family. The other, our oldest two, ages four and two are with grandma and grandpa. There was a time in my life in which I would have said, going to Cleveland in the snow with a kid, you've got to be kidding me.

0:26 And now for those of you who have more than one child, know it's more like going to Cleveland in the snow with just a kid? You've got to be kidding me. It's like a vacation. Things are very restful and peaceful and all is right with the world. But I still miss them.

0:48 But we do have our youngest. Her name is Freda Jane Henning. Anna is holding her back there. She's less than three months old. And if you'd like, you can go see later.

1:00 They don't stay that young for very long. It doesn't take long for a child to look at a little baby and to see its smallness, its newness, and then to ask the question, where do babies come from? After all, I mean, it's clear that they weren't around forever. They had to come from somewhere. And then as we get a little bit older, someday it dawns on us that these ancient figures called our parents, they too had to come from somewhere.

1:39 Believe it or not, they weren't always there. And even our grandparents and Nana Nago, they all come from somewhere. And then we look at the world around us, so we see the trees and the world of nature and that also came from somewhere. All of these things were brought into being, into existence. But a little bit of reflection will show that can't have gone on forever.

2:07 There can't be an infinite regressive cause after cause after cause going back infinitely. There must be as the medieval Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas said, an unmoved mover, an uncaused cause, someone who just at the very beginning simply was. And it causes everything else to come into existence. Well, we're going to read about that person in the Gospel of John. We're going continue on in the study and we'll study the prologue one:one-eighteen.

2:41 And I approach this text with a lot of fear and trepidation. It's so majestically beautiful, but may the Lord use the clay pot that I am to speak His word. So there are several different times that we are told in John one:one-eighteen that something is brought into existence. There's a Greek word that expresses that thought. Sometimes it's translated made, sometimes it's translated born, sometimes it's translated become, but it occurs often in here.

3:14 And it stands in contrast to the one who always simply was. So keep your eye out for those things as I read this passage. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.

3:42 In Him was life. That life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not grasp it. There became, was born, made a man sent from God. His name was John.

4:05 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which gives light to everyone by coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world did not know him. He came onto his own and his own did not receive him, but to as many as received him, to them he gave the power, authority to become, born, be made children of God, to 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.

5:40 The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. Hopefully, as I read that passage, able to catch several things that the one who always was brings into existence. The very first verse, we read that this word just simply was in the beginning. Now, it's pretty much agreed on by people who study these things that John is probably the last of the Gospels that were written. And more arguably, Mark was the first.

6:21 No disagreement? Okay. You could. But Mark was probably the first and he starts his gospel, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And it's as if John reads that and he says, well, let me take you by the hand and let's go to the very, very beginning.

6:39 Like the Genesis one:one beginning. The beginning that it hurts our minds to think about. How could time itself have a beginning? And as far back as you go, at the absolute beginning, the Word simply was. He wasn't made, He didn't come into existence.

6:59 He talks about a being that already was. And John refers to him with this metaphorical title, The Word. There have been a lot of different suggestions as to what does that mean? Why did he pick that? The Word.

7:11 A couple reasons are the most likely because they fit the context of Scripture and also this the context of the prologue here. One reason, you'll remember verses like Psalm 33 where it says, By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, the hosts in the fullness thereof. And God spoke the world into existence. The Word of God speaks of His creative power. When God speaks, that Word creates things.

7:39 And that fits the context here well because the Word, we're told, is the one who brings into existence all things. But also as you read through the Old Testament, you read over and over again, the Word of the Lord, which came to or which happened to Jonah or to Micah or to Malachi or even to Abraham and people like that. The word of the Lord also speaks of revelation. I don't know if the men in this room how much you are like me, but there are sometimes that my wife can tell that I'm doing inordinate amount of muttering and complaining and being short with the kids and she'll say, What's wrong? Nothing's wrong.

8:23 I keep going about my business. And then she'll sit me down and say, No, let's have it. What is wrong? And the idea is she can tell that there's something going on, but words are the thing that make clear what is invisible, what you can't see. And in the same way, the Word, the Son of God is what makes the invisible God known.

9:07 And in verse 18, no one has seen God at any time, the only begotten and a lot of manuscripts, early ones and a good case can be made for this reading that we should read, the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father. He has declared Him. I'm not going to go to the stake for that one, but it is an interesting thing to think about. Maybe that was what John had originally penned. The only begotten God.

9:36 The verse 18 also talks about the fact that they were always together. He was with God in verse one and in verse 18, He's in the bosom of the Father. And then it also talks about how the verse 18, how He declares Him. He speaks who that god is out. In fact, verses one and also verse 18 put so beautifully and so simply what will take the church fathers and subsequent theologians volumes and volumes and libraries to try to explain.

10:09 That is the way the Trinity works. But verse one is very clear that the Word is distinguished from God. He was with God. He was in the bosom of the Father. So they're not the same, but yet he is to be identified with God because he was God.

10:30 Verse 18 helps explain how could he be with God and yet be God, well he's with the Father, in the bosom of the Father, always existing as God. I don't know if there's very many people here who like to hash it out with the Jehovah Witnesses. Just a little slight raise of the hand. It's not embarrassing. You can raise your hand.

10:54 There you go. Okay, very good. Perhaps you're familiar with the fact that verse one has been translated by some people like the Jehovah Witnesses who say, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God. Are you familiar with this? Some people translate it that way.

11:14 And my attitude in the past has been, well, it looks like there's a translation difficulty, so maybe this verse wouldn't be the best verse to use to establish the deity of the Lord Jesus. That's ridiculous. It's a beautiful verse and it puts it very clearly. And I'm convinced that as I look out in this room full of people that you're all competent, you're all smart, and you can get what's going on. So, please excuse a three minute, it won't be longer than three minute explanation why that's a bad translation, a god.

11:48 The reason they say that is because the word God usually has that word the in front of it. And here it doesn't have the word the in front of it in the original Greek. And so they deduced that that must mean that he meant a god like a demi god or a lesser god. But all you need is a little bit of courage and an interlinear which has the Greek and the English written on top of it. If you don't own one, just Google it.

12:12 You just say, Okay, Google, Interlinear Bible, and it'll pull it right up. Interlinear Bible, John chapter one. It'll be right there on your phone or your computer or whatever. And you can just go through John and say, Is there any other time when the word God does not have the word the in front of it? And it is.

12:30 Even here, just in chapter one. You don't have to go very far. For example, there's no... The word the doesn't occur in verse 12 before God. But nobody would say, He gave them the right to become the children of a god.

12:43 That wouldn't make any sense. Or verse 13, it's not there either. But nobody says that we were born not of the will of man, but the will of a god. Or more significantly, verse 18. The word doesn't there either, but nobody would say, no one has seen a god at any time, but it's not there either.

13:04 So hopefully that will not just give you ammunition for talking about people who disagree, but if you have any qualms in your own mind that maybe this verse isn't entirely clear that the Word is divine, He absolutely is. As simply as you could possibly put it, the Word was God. Now, this is confirmed in the next few verses because He stands in contrast to the things that have been made, that have been brought into existence and He is their Creator. Verse three talks about specifically that it clarifies that without Him nothing was made that was made. And verse four specifies that what was in Him, what was made by Him is life.

14:19 God sends forth His light into the world of chaos and disorder and darkness. And the darkness is powerless to stop what God is doing. And that's the idea here in verse five. The light shines in the darkness. And now, may be noticed that I read, And the darkness did not grasp it.

14:46 That's a good English word because it communicates the double meaning that's there. You could say, as the Lord Jesus lived His life and the world of darkness looked on, they scratched their heads and they said, Well, I just don't get it. Comprehended it not, the King James says. And we said it today, we couldn't grasp what he was saying. But not only could the darkness not grasp it, as in not understand it, but they couldn't seize it.

15:15 They couldn't overpower it, which is really the idea behind the word there. Just like darkness in its very definition from a scientific point of view is absolutely incapable of stopping light. You can't have so much darkness that there can't be light. Because darkness is the absence of light. It can't stop light.

15:36 In the same way, the world of darkness cannot stop the Word of God. He shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overpower it. Verse six begins a sort of new unit, although it continues talking about this light. First, might sound strange. He's going along.

15:59 We're getting into exactly what he's talking about, how God was there in the beginning. He's the Word. He makes the life and the light. Then, does it strike you like he just stops? He says, Well, let's start talking about John now.

16:13 There was a man, and again there's that word became, sent from God, his name was John. But, this section, his introduction of John plays a really important role in understanding what we call this John, John the Baptist, just for the sake of clarity. John John is just the John who wrote the book. When he talks about John the Baptist, he's doing something very important. He's established the Son of God as the Word.

16:44 He is the one who communicates God's truth. And of all the great prophets in the Old Testament, in fact, the Lord Jesus said that none of, no one born of a woman was greater than John the Baptist. The law and the prophets were until John. He is the great prophet par excellence. He's the great prophet.

17:09 But the Lord Jesus also is a prophet and that He's the Word of God. But comparing even John with the Lord Jesus is like comparing a candle with the sun. There are similarities, but he's in a way completely different category. John spoke the Word. The Lord Jesus is the Word.

17:35 Another prophet, as I stand up here and preach, I could talk to you about the bread of life. But he said, I am the bread of life. I could stand up here and I could talk to you about the door. He said, I am the door. We could talk about the good shepherd.

17:52 He said, I am the good shepherd. We could talk about resurrection and life. But the Lord Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the true vine.

18:34 Certainly John is not saying that John the Baptist was a false light and the Lord was a true light. Instead the word true can often mean genuine or like the real or the full light. Like, what a body is to a shadow or what a person is to a picture. He's the true light, the real thing. And He's the one who gives light.

18:59 He actually, it says that He lightens every man coming into the world. The Lord Jesus, by coming into the world, He revealed not only who God was and God is, He Himself said, He who has seen me has seen the Father. We were told just a couple chapters later in chapter three, that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil and that's why they do not come to the deep, come to the light, lest their deeds be exposed. The Lord Jesus as the light not only shows us God, but He also shows us ourself. And so He lightens every man.

19:45 That's what that verse says. And so, as you continue on and you read it through John, He's declaring who the Father is, but He'll say to Nicodemus, You're the teacher of Israel and you don't understand these things. You're correct to say that you've had five husbands and the man that you're now with is not your husband and so on. And it's this aspect about the Lord Jesus that really sets the stage for what we're going to read next. Because as beautiful and majestic as this light is, it does have personal implications.

20:18 And a lot of people don't like the light because of what it says about them and that is why they reject it, which is what the next couple verses are about. He was in the world, John says in verse 10, and the world was made through him. Again there's that word became, brought into existence, and the world did not know Him. At first, that might seem like the world didn't know Him as in it wasn't clear or they just didn't understand or that the Lord Jesus wasn't clear enough but he did not hide his light under a bushel. Everyone could see.

20:55 The problem is explained later on in the next verse. It's clarified. He came unto his own and his own did not receive him. They didn't want him. By and large, he was rejected not only by the nation of Israel, but also by the world.

21:17 But this is not what happened with everyone. There are some who did not reject him but instead received him. And that's what verse 12 says, But as many as received him, to them He gave the power to become the children of God. Now, this great Word, the Creator, the great Begetter, the one who brings things into existence will bring something else into existence. He brings people who are dead in their sins into existence.

21:53 He makes them children of God as He makes them born again. And He does that to those who receive Him. Now this can be... This is a fascinating verse here, verse 12. I'm sure most of us have memorized it.

22:09 If you don't, if you haven't, put that on the top of your to do list. Memorize John one twelve. But a lot of people are confused about receiving Christ. A lot of people talk about, I've received Christ. And in fact, I think receiving Christ is all that a person needs to do to go to heaven.

22:56 That's how I take Him in. Or I receive him through baptism. Or I receive him through prayer. Or I receive him through some experience, something that I do. John is very clear in his explanation of what it means to receive him.

23:13 He explains the concept at the end of verse 12 to those who believe in His name. It's those who trust Him for eternal life who receive him. And those who receive him, he does another great work and he he creates them and he makes them alive as god's children. Verse 13 stresses this. It's like what he says in in John three, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

23:45 He's not talking about a fleshly birth, but a spiritual birth. They were born not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor the will of a husband. In other words, this is not something that we can create on our own. John isn't trying to say anything here about the nature of free will or determinism or something like that. All he's saying is that this is not a human thing.

24:13 The thing that counts before God is not your family lineage. We should have been able to get that from verse 11. He came to his own and his own received him not. It doesn't matter about your family lineage. As great and as important as that is, as I look back in my history, does anybody else here have a godly history?

24:33 Parents and grandparents and great grandparents and great great grandparents? My mother-in-law has helped me do some genealogy work and I I can trace my line to to people back who were who were who were martyred in the reformation by Queen Anne. Think like hundreds of years of believers have been in my family line. But does that do anything for me as far as giving me new life? No.

25:02 As it's been well said, God does not have grandchildren or great grandchildren. He only has children. What matters is not your physical descent, but your whether or not you've received Christ by believing in Him. It's not about the flesh or about our bloodline. Sort of.

25:26 It's not about our flesh. We shouldn't take that to mean that it's for those who are familiar with this term, like a Gnostic idea or this thing that it's only spiritual and there was no fleshly component at all. It is not true that all God had to do is send down His revelation, send down His message, we believe it, and then we're saved. If that was the case, then all of the prophets would have been fine. Or God wouldn't have had need of a prophet, He could just speak from heaven.

26:04 There was a flesh component. We're not born out of our flesh but there was a flesh component. And that's what verse 14 says. That same word flesh occurs again there, doesn't it? There is this component of the flesh, of being a real person that was necessary.

26:29 And wonder of all wonders, the one who takes care of that is the Word. The great begetter is begotten. The great maker, we're told here, was made. We spent a long time trying to wrap our little brains around that. He became flesh.

26:52 It's kind of like what He says in John six, where He says, The words that I speak to you, they are... I don't speak about... I'm not speaking according to the flesh, but the words that I speak to you, are spirit and they are life. But then he also said, unless you eat and drink the flesh and blood of the son of man, you don't have life in you. It was important that He became flesh so He could die in our place as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

27:19 If that component was not in there, there could be no salvation. But He is the one who took care of that flesh component. We're then told that we John says, We beheld His glory as He dwelt among us. Literally, tabernacled among us. That's the word that's used of the tabernacle.

28:23 But it's not completely finished. Remember in John 17, the Lord's great prayer, his great desire and his high priestly prayer, he said, Father, I want them to be with me so that way they can behold my glory. What John saw in part, the Lord wanted him to do more fully with him in person, in glory. Now, for the sake of time, we'll have to move on to this next unit here. We've seen how the Word is the one who made everything.

28:56 The Word is the one who makes us when we believe in Him by Himself being made flesh. And then in 15 through 18, we're told that he makes one more thing. He creates one more thing and it's grace and truth. Verse 12 says that we have received him as many as received him and here, in verse 16, we're told that we have received his fullness and grace for grace Before diving into this, let's talk just a little bit about who is saying these words. You really can make this sound different depending on the way that you read the passage and maybe you noticed a strange way that I read the passage and I did it on purpose.

29:46 Remember that there are no quotation marks in the original language. So, we kind of have to follow along. Who's saying all of these words? In verses 15 through 18. Well, John bore witness.

29:59 Now, not John the writer, John himself, John the Baptist. And this is a public testimony. He cries out. And I don't see any reason to have his testimony stop before verse 18. Most modern commentators and translators have him stop at the end of verse 15 but older commentators like Origin and Luther have him go all the way through verse 18 and really as you read the other things that John says, John John the Baptist in the gospel, he says things like, behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world.

30:33 He says things like, the father loves the son and has committed all things into his hand. This sounds like something John the Baptist would say. Now, if you're like a like a liberal scholar, you won't like that that John the Baptist thought of Jesus as divine but we should have no problem with that. He clearly was and John the Baptist knew all these things. There's no reason to not understand all of this is being spoken of by John the Baptist.

30:59 And he says, a thing that we have received from him is the Messiah's fullness and grace for grace. And then he gives this explanatory comment, this explanation in verse 17, For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth were made, or they came, through Jesus Christ. There have been a lot of different ideas as to what this means. Let me say that there are many able, fine commentaries that have different views on this and expositors of God's Word. The best thing I can do is call it as I see it, give you my reasons and let you be good breeds.

31:45 Sound good? What does this mean? Grace for grace, grace and truth. Well, like I said, 17 explains the idea. It has that word for in it.

32:16 It doesn't mean kindness and factually true information. Because there's lots of kindness in the law of Moses. There's a whole pile of verses that talk about how gracious God was at Mount Sinai in doing what he did. Who is a people as blessed as the Lord to whom God has appeared and given him his law? Nehemiah says.

32:36 It's Nehemiah, right? Yeah. And even worse, was there a truth in the Old Testament? You can nod your head. Yes, all of the Old Testament is absolutely true.

32:51 All the Law of Moses is completely true. So, we can't mean factually true information wasn't in the Law of Moses, but it did come by Jesus Christ. Instead, remember how we just talked about what the word true means here, and with the true light, the real light. It's like when the lord Jesus says in John six, the true bread is he who comes down from heaven and gives his gives himself for the life of the world. The real, the fullness.

33:22 There's that word. That word occurs two times in this passage also. The fullness. Like what the substance is to a shadow. What the reality is to a picture.

33:32 That fullness came by Jesus Christ. This allows grace for grace. Usually that word for there means instead of. When it says Christ died for us, in our place, instead of us. With this understanding, it would be that we have received the fullness of Him and the gift of the reality instead of the gift of the shadows.

34:03 That's the idea. The gift of the reality instead of the gift of the shadows. And then he explains, because we had the law through Moses, but the reality came, true grace came through Jesus Christ. That expression grace and truth, I think should be understood as true grace. If anybody remembers, maybe Carolyn remembers what a Hendiadus is.

34:29 She did this Bible study class with me a while ago, it's a figure of speech in which this and this means the second thing modifies the first. Do you remember that? Okay, put you on the spot, that's alright. Grace and truth could mean true grace. Now, whether or not I've convinced you in the three minutes that it took for me to briefly explain that idea or not, certainly it occurs in the Gospel of John over and over again, which I think is another reason you should believe it.

34:55 For example, chapter one, what does John the Baptist say again? He says, Behold the Lamb of God. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In Chapter two, he replaces the ceremonial washing with the new wine of who He is. He speaks in chapter two of the temple of His body.

35:21 In chapter three, He talks about how He is the real serpent who is lifted up. He is the true bread that came down from heaven. He is the true vine as opposed to the vine in in Isaiah and on and on it goes. He is the fulfillment. He says in chapter five, if you had believed Moses' writings, would have believed me.

35:42 There's that name Moses again because Moses wrote about me. Moses foreshadowed who he is. We started by thinking about the question, where does life come from? Where does it all begin? Where does everything come from?

36:10 How can we get life? There's nothing we can do to really create life. Imagine a little thought experiment. Let's say you had a perfectly healthy person, you open them up and you took out their heart, put it into mice, you came back a day later, you took it back in, you put the heart back in the body and you sealed up all the arteries, things like that. Is there any you have all the right pieces, right?

36:44 Perfectly healthy individual, all the pieces are intact. Could you give that person life? Even in that situation, you started off with everything you need. There's nothing you can do to breathe the breath of life into them and create them. That is something that only God can do.

37:05 And this passage says that it is only the Word of God who creates. He created everything we see. When we trust Him for eternal life, He creates us. That's something we were completely incapable of doing. And we were completely incapable of bringing true grace, grace and truth into the world.

37:25 These are things that can only be done and were only done by the lord Jesus Christ. We owe everything to him. Why not trust him? Why not worship him? Why not praise him?

37:44 The great God that He is, what He's done for us. It reminds me of that hymn, Thou Son of God, eternal Word, who heaven and earth foundations laid, upholding by Thy Word and power, Let's pray. Our Father, we come before you in the name of the Lord Jesus, and I ask you that you would enlarge our minds that we would think bigger thoughts about the one who is the eternal Word, the light of the world, who shone in the darkness, and whether we think of physical or human beings or the demonic hosts, the world of darkness, Well, they would try as hard as they could, they could not stop him. The light shined in the darkness and the darkness could not grasp it. And it shines on everyone, revealing both who you are and who we are.

39:49 We have a greater appreciation and a love for who he is and for him himself. We pray these things in his name. Amen.