The Logos and Incarnation
The Gospel of John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewFor four thousand years God has been promising a Savior and now the Savior, He in the flesh, the Incarnation, has come.
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Introduction
As one looks at the 4 Gospels, three of the Gospels seem fairly simular in order and fashion. These three Gospels are referred to as the synoptic Gospels. Then there is the one Gospel that stands out among the four and that Gospel is the Gospel of John. The central theme of John is the word, Life. He wants his reader/hearer to understand that Life is found in Christ Jesus alone. There is no other true source of life. The word life appears no fewer than thirty-six times in this Gospel (Kenneth O. Gangel, John, vol. 4, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 8.) In the first eighteen verses of his book, John goes through great details to introduce the truest picture of Jesus that he can. He wants all those that read/hear his book to know that Jesus is God in the flesh, that Jesus is the promised Messiah, that Jesus is God. Throughout his work, John later details seven signs that point to this truth.
As one looks over the four gospels, they will see that each Gospel presents a central focus for who Jesus is. In Matthew, Jesus is king. In Mark, Jesus is the suffering servant. In Luke, Jesus is the promised Messiah. In John, Jesus is the Word of God (Logos) and God in the flesh (incarnate deity).
As Charles Wesley wrote
John (John 1: The Lamb of God)
Veiled in flesh the godhead see;
Hail the incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Focus Passage
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Outline
Jesus is the eternal word (v.1-2)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.
Jesus, the Son of God and yet also God Himself. He truly is the God man. John, when writing His Gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wanted to address who Jesus was at the front end. He wanted all those who read or heard his Gospel to know that Jesus was God and God was Jesus. One could not separate the two. He identifies this point in the first three words of His gospel, In the beginning.
Jesus was, is, and will always be - ‘…In the beginning…He was in the beginning with God...’
John identifies Jesus as beginning of all things. He is not referring to one being created, but rather being beyond time space. He is referring to Jesus’ eternal being and state. This is very similar to John’s opening to his first epistle to the unknown lady (local church).
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—
He is defining the preeminence of Christ to all things. I remember the first time I walked into Mid-America as I was going for my A.Div. I had walked to the administrative side of the seminary and above the desk was the following Scripture that brings to the light the preeminence of Christ.
18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
As Mid-America made this verse their theme first then and now, we must make this truth our truth. That in all things Jesus should have preeminence. Jesus is eternal. He is an immutable part of the eternal Godhead. He is the triune God fleshed out.
Jesus is God’s Word being lived out - ‘…was the Word…the Word was with God…and the Word was God...’
The theological title for Jesus being the literal Word of God is Logos. It is Gk word simply meaning Word. However, for the Jew this signified greater significance and should for us too. When John, being a Jew, wrote, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, He signified a truth of utmost importance to you and I today. He was pointing to the deity of Christ. For us today, we must emphasize just as John then, this core doctrine to our faith. If Jesus was not God, then our whole faith is based on a lie. Jesus Himself claims to be God.
58 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
Word... is not a strange term to describe one that is God. For the Jew, God was the Word. With words one communicates with others. With words one describes traits and characteristics of others. With words one reveals a vivid picture that cannot be seen otherwise. This is how Jesus refers to Himself when speaking with Thomas. He reveals that He has been a Word revealing who God was.
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
John later uses letters to reveal who God is.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Even the author of Hebrews writes that Jesus is the final word of prophecy to you and I.
1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Jesus is emphatically the eternal Word. He is not only the eternal Word though...
Jesus is the creative word (v. 3)
3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
Jesus is not just the eternal word of God, but He is also the creative Word of God. Just as we find written as the first four Words of the Bible, In the beginning God, we find repeated, In the beginning was the Word. All of creation hinges on the work of God. All creation hinges on the work of Christ. Both were together and yet separate at the same time during Creation. As we find, In the beginning God created (Gen. 1:1 NKJV), we find All things were made through Him (the Word), and without Him (the Word) nothing was made that was made.
Jesus is the spoken word of creation fleshed out
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
9 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.
It was Jesus whom God was speaking to when He stated, Let us create man in our image (Gen. 1:26).
Jesus was God’s creative act being lived out among His creation, man - ‘…and without Him nothing was made that was made...’
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
The emphasis for all of this is that Jesus was God, is God, and will always be God. He is God in the flesh. Which is our next point...
Jesus is the incarnate word (v. 14)
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus was God in the flesh, the incarnation - ‘And the Word became flesh...’
God for four-thousand years had promised a Messiah. He had promised a Savior. Jesus was that Savior. He was truly God with us. He was God in the flesh.
23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
Jesus was God in the flesh, taking residence with His creation man - ‘…and dwelt among us...’
The Gk word for ‘dwelt’ is defined as to camp, to tent, to occupy. Jesus was God moving in next door as our neighbor. In this way, Jesus would be tempted in every way that we are but would not fall to that temptation being the perfect sacrifice and securing our victory.
15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
As we look at the Scriptures, Jesus, God in the flesh, understood what it means to hunger, thirst, get fatigued, be homeless, feel loss, helplessness, desperate, and morn. Yet, through it all, He gave us a valuable truth, God is faithful.
Jesus was God in the flesh and gave us a perfect picture of the Father - ‘…and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth’
Jesus was one hundred percent man and one hundred percent God. When one saw Jesus, they saw and observed the words and actions of the Father. They saw the glory of the Father fleshed out. We find that Paul describes Jesus as an exact carbon copy of God, that is a blue print of who God is.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
Jesus, being the image of the invisible, revealed the heart, word, and glory of God. He and the Father are One.
Conclusion
Jesus is God and God is Jesus. They are one. They cannot be separated. John believed this to be pivotal to our faith and the truth, the Gospel, we proclaim. He dealt with those were Gnostic. They believe in a spiritual God not a physical God. They believed that all flesh was evil. Although God is a Spirit and those that worship Him in spirit and truth, may be it be known, Jesus was God in the flesh. When one saw, heard, and touched Jesus, they were seeing, hearing, and touching God Himself.
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—
There is no room for atheism at the foot of the cross or according to the Word of God. Let us know that Jesus was the eternal Word, Creative Word, and most assuredly the Incarnate Word.