John 1:1, 14 Christ S Coming Into This World As Announced by John

CHRIST’S COMING INTO THE WORLD AS ANNOUNCED BY JOHN.

John 1: 14

A Christmas Sermon by:

Rev. L. Roth

PUBLISHED BY THE

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

OF THE

FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA.

(November 2006).

LITURGY:

Votum

Psalter 374: 1, 2, 3

Law of God

Psalter 67: 1, 2, 5

Scripture Reading: John 1: 1 – 14

Text: John 1: 14

Congregational Prayer

Offerings

Psalter: Song of Mary: 1, 4, 6

Sermon

Psalter 280: 1, 3, 4

Thanksgiving Prayer

Psalter 431: 1, 4, 5

Doxology: Psalter 368: 3

John 1:14 Christ’s Coming into this World as Announced by John

Beloved Congregation.

Although it is not as prevalent today as it once was, when parents received children from the hand of God, whether that was for the first time or for the fifth or tenth time, they made up a birth announcement which was made up in the form of a little white card which was sent to relatives and friends. Well now, this morning we have read the birth announcement of the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal son of God as revealed by the Apostle John through the Holy Spirit. As you know, the Gospel writer Luke makes this announcement from a completely different perspective, that is of this earth, speaking of Rome, Bethlehem, and Ephrata’s fields. In some detail, he reveals to us the conditions and the earthly circumstances of the Savior’s birth. But John goes about announcing this in a very different way. He begins with eternity. 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. And…. the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Well now, let us consider the words of our text concerning these deep things of God simply under the following theme, CHRIST’S COMING INTO THE WORLD AS ANNOUNCED BY JOHN. In the first place let

us consider His Coming to Us. In the second place let us regard His Living With Us. In the third place let us seek to examine His Grace Disclosed to Us.

In the first place let us consider His Coming to Us. In looking at our first thought, congregation, you already sense the immense difficulty with which we, as finite creatures, are confronted with as we contemplate Christ’s very being as announced by John. For, as John through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit reveals to us at the very beginning of his Gospel, Christ Jesus always was. In the beginning the Word was with God. And as the following verses indicate, all things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. And so, as the eternal Word, Christ Jesus was with God the Father before the world was made. How truly amazing this is! But then, in the fullness of time, at the hour of the Father the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Now, when John writes that the Word always was he uses the definite article. In the beginning was the Word. You know, the Lord God our Creator has given us the beautiful means of communicating with words with which we can express our thoughts, our desires, and needs. That is not true of any other creature upon this earth. Only man is able to express ideas and to make plans for the future using words. However, while we can use the gift of words to communicate, we can also abuse this precious gift. In fact, without God’s

grace this precious gift of communication will even testify against us on the day of days.

But here in our text John says, In the beginning was the Word. That can only be said of One, namely, God the Son Who is and was God. God said, Let there be light and there was light. Yes, the eternal Word has made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. That same Word has spoken through the Psalmists and the Prophets. And…that living Word was heard by the people of God to whom it had been sent. But now the world is about to experience something different. John says in our text, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Notice, that God’s servant says ‘among us’. Yes, John too was an eye witness of the Word’s life upon the earth. As He testifies in the opening verses of his first epistle general, Our eyes have seen and our hands have handled, the Word of Life, and Him declare we unto you.

John too saw the Lord Jesus with his own eyes. While he did not see the Christ when He was born like the Shepherds, he saw Him during His ministry. In fact in all probability he was the unnamed disciple who went with Andrew to see where the Lord Jesus dwelt when John the Baptist had cried out saying, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. And as Luke 5 indicates, after receiving a miraculous drought of fish, John and James and Peter and Andrew followed the Lord as His permanent disciples. And so,

as a follower of the Lord, he saw Christ in His humiliation as well as exultation.

Well now, when the aged John writes his Gospel many years later, the truth of the matter concerning the eternal Word of God is beyond dispute. The eternal Word has become flesh in Him Who was referred to as Jesus of Nazareth. No, the eternal Word did not just become a casual observer to all and everything that takes place upon the earth but He has become what He was not, namely, truly man, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh through the virgin Mary’s womb. In a certain sense His glory has been hidden or perhaps we can say, overshadowed, by His humanity. For, the Lord Jesus became one with us in our frailty, our poverty, and our sorrows. Yes, He has experienced the whole realm of life as we know it with all its sorrows and difficulties. He has taken this all to Himself as the Word become flesh!

What a miracle, congregation. We cannot fathom it. The second person of the Holy Trinity, through Whom all things have their being, is made flesh. Really, when you think of it there is no word better suited to describe Christ’s humbling Himself. For, just think of what the Lord said about man in Noah’s day, My Spirit shall no longer strive with man for that he also is flesh. And as both Isaiah and the Psalmist say, All flesh is as grass, as the flower of the field; the grass whithereth and the flower fadeth and it is gone. In everything

that we are, in all that we do and think and say we are by nature nothing but flesh, of this earth earthy. And that’s what the eternal Word in principle took unto Himself. Christ, the anointed of the Father has become flesh.

Now, through the Holy Spirit, that’s how John also has described the Lord Jesus throughout his whole Gospel. See Him sitting at Jacob’s well, fatigued and thirsty when He meets the Samaritan woman at the well. See Him groaning and weeping at the tomb of Lazarus as He is confronted with the terrible effects of sin. Listen to what He says in Chapter 12:27, And now is My soul troubled and what shall I say? And yes, when the Lord Jesus hung upon the cross it is again John who records the words, I thirst. Yes, of all the Gospel writers John was given particular insight into Christ’s humanity. And with that deep knowledge he writes in the words of our text, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Do you hear it, beloved? The eternal Word, the Son of God the Father became flesh and dwelt among us. Why? So that in an amazing way He might redeem us from our lost fleshy condition! This is so incredible, congregation, that the eternal God has become one with man, in our likeness in all things truly God, but also like unto mankind, and then as a little, newborn child.

Yes, as the second Adam, He has become what we are, but then without

sin. Truly, this is a miracle of God’s grace; for, all those who are of Adam’s posterity are of the flesh. And those who are of the flesh cannot exist before

God! Does this then also apply to the eternal Word? No, not at all. For, though the end of Luke 3 traces Christ’s linage back to Adam, He was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the virgin Mary’s womb. Therefore, thanks be to God all that which is true of you and me does not apply to Christ. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And that also applies to all of us, none excepted. Has that also become the burden of your soul, dear friends? Have you seen that salvation has been cut off from your side due to your sin and guilt? For as Paul testifies, In me dwelleth no good thing. But, yes, thanks be to God for a blessed “but”; but the eternal Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The blessed Savior has come in the flesh to condemn all that is flesh. And there-fore, there is no other name given under heaven by which we can and must be saved. Which brings us to our second thought, The Word Living With Us.

Yes, beloved, as miraculous as this may be, the eternal Word dwelt among us as a human race. And so our amazement should become all the greater. Christ has not only taken upon Himself the very nature of man with all his emotions and weaknesses and sorrows and so on, but He lived as a human being in the midst of society. The original actually say, He tabernacled, that is, pitched His tent among us. This manner of speech is of course derived from the Old Testament. The Lord lived among His people in the tent of meeting, the Tabernacle. And the sign of His presence was a cloud

by day and a pillar of fire by night. Yes, beloved, there the Lord revealed His glory. Just as the Lord gave a particular sign of His presence with His people then, in the fullness of time He does so by becoming the Word made flesh.

Once again, beloved, let us seek to meditate on the wonder of Christmas, God made manifest in the flesh, Immanuel, God with us. The eternal Son of God lived among the children of men; He could be seen with the eyes; he could be handled with one’s hands as John said in his first epistle. He was seen by the Shepherds, lying in Bethlehem’s manger. He was taken up by old Simeon in his arms. He was known as the Nazarene by His fellow countrymen. He first taught in the synagogue of His home town. He performed many miracles in Capernaum. He entered Jerusalem upon a donkey as His peoples’ King. He suffered and died outside the Gate of the HolyCity. He ascended up into heaven from the Mount of Olives. Yes, Christ came unto His own, but, but…..by and large His own received Him not.

Yes, my dear friends, while He went around doing good so that the people were amazed at His divine power and declared that no man spoke as He spoke because He spoke with authority and not as the Scribes, in the end, He was despised and rejected of men. Amazing, is it not? He gathered the children unto Himself and blessed them. He healed the woman with issue of

blood who had spent her whole living to be healed over a period of twelve years. He called Thomas to put his finger into the nail prints of His hands that he might believe. Yes, Christ Jesus stooped so low so that sinners might receive life in abundance. He dwelt among the children of men. What a display of love for sinners! Christ left the glories of heaven to do all this.

And yet, if this is all that we can say, then we are still unspeakably poor and of all men most miserable. For if that is all that we know, then we do not have a covering for our guilty hearts and lives. But the Lord Jesus has laid down His life as the one and only propitiation for all manner of sin. He arose again from the dead as victor over death and hell so that His people might be raised up unto newness of life. And yet, if this is all we can say, we may declare many good things and still come short receiving God’s favor. Why? Because, though we may say much concerning the redemption the eternal Word has accomplished, that blessed work also needs to be applied to your and my heart!

Well now, thanks be to God once more that God the Son has not only become flesh and dwelt among us but that He still dwells among the children of men. How? someone asks. By His Word and Spirit. For, wherever that Word of the living God is, there the eternal Spirit continues to fulfill the work of Christ the eternal Word. No, the Spirit need not add anything to the

finished work of the Lord Jesus. He has performed a most complete work which is able to save to the uttermost. But the blessed Spirit of Christ receives of the Savior’s merits and applies them to sinners’ hearts and lives. Where ever that blessed name of the Savior is lifted up, there His atoning blood drips upon sinners’ hearts, upon those who are made recipients of it by the Spirit. In this way they are washed and cleansed from all their iniquities. And therefore it is so important, beloved, that we gather around the blessed Word of the living God again and again and again, never leaving our place empty. For the blood of the Word made flesh alone is able to make all things oh so new in our lives. How precious that indeed is!

Has that already become true in your life, congregation? Has the precious Savior become near and dear to you? John declared that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among them. But the question is, Has that already become a living reality in your life? You know, there are some people who wistfully think to themselves, If only the Lord Jesus was still here upon earth. Then I could meet with Him personally even as John and the other disciples did. But if these are your thoughts you are terribly mistaken. For, what do you think your chances would be of meeting the Lord if He was still in the flesh upon this earth? How many people would be able to meet the Savior in person? Only a small fraction of the world’s population. If the Lord Jesus would meet with a person every two minutes for ten hours a day then He

would see about 1800 people per week which works out to about 90,000 per year and about 6 million people in a life time of 70 years.

But you know, because the Lord Jesus still dwells upon this earth through His Word and Spirit, He is able to meet with sinners of every nation and tongue, yes literally with thousands of people at one and the same time. Has He not promised, where two or three are gathered together in My name, I will be in the midst of them? Oh how foolish people are when they would leave their place empty in God’s House. For who can tell, if precisely on one of those times that you choose to remain home without a lawful excuse, the Lord may have been willing to bless you with His Word. Yes, beloved, we need to take this admonition seriously. Whether we are present here in the sanctuary and practically never miss or not, we need to attend to God’s Word prayerfully, pleading God’s grace that it may be true what we read in Romans 10:8- The word of God is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that is the word of faith, which we preach. Oh, how near and dear the Lord is then. Well now, John has written in our text, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.

We have tried to look at the fact that the eternal Word, the only begotten Son of the Father became flesh. This is just beyond our comprehension. And

then to think that the eternal, blessed Savior literally lived among us as a human race, experiencing the physical pains and the emotional sorrows and much more of the human race, but then all without sin. But, now there is one other thing John adds, And, we have seen His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. These are remarkable words which, normally speaking, should fill us with alarm and even anxiety. For no man can see God’s glory and live. And yet John says, We have seen His glory. How can that be? Moreover, although we again hope to celebrate Christmas, what’s so glorious about a Christ Child being laid in a feeding trough for animals? The Prophet Isaiah even prophesied, that when the Messiah would come, He would have no form nor comeliness and when we shall see Him, there will be no beauty in Him that we should desire Him. What does John mean then when he speaks of beholding Christ’s glory? That’s what we wish to discover in our third thought, His Grace Disclosed.