Christmas Incarnation

The Incarnation

As this is the Christmas season, I thought we should take this Sunday and focus on the Incarnation.  To begin with I want you to turn with me to John 7.

To set the context, Jesus’s  life can be divided into sections:

1. Time of Preparation: this would include his birth, childhood, and hidden years.  It is the period from his birth to his time at the temple around age 12.
2. Introduction to Ministry: which starts with John the Baptist and includes events such as Christ’s baptism, his temptation, his first miracles, his gathering followers, and first coming to Jerusalem to cleanse the temple.  It ends with his coming back to Galilee and meeting with the Samaritan woman. This period lasts about 6 months.
3. The Galilean Ministry.  Jesus spends roughly 12-18 months in Galilee and traverses it three times. It is here the gospels lay out the many miracles Christ performed. 
4. Season of withdrawal from Galilee.  This period lasts about 6 months and is characterized by more miracles, increasing opposition, and a focus on his deity, death,  and resurrection.
5. Judean Ministry.  Jesus leaves Galilee and comes to Judea (where Jerusalem is located).  Jesus continues to teach and perform miracles. This period lasts about 3 months.
6. Perean Ministry.  Jesus encounters much opposition in Judea and moves eastward to Perea, which is just east of the lower Jordan river.  This period lasts about 3 months and concludes with Jesus going back to Jerusalem a week before Passover, and his death.
7. Passion week.  This is the time before and including Christ’s death.
8. Resurrection and Appearances. 

John 7 is written as Jesus leaves Galilee for Judea.  He is going to the Feast of Tabernacles, one of the three major Jewish feasts, the other two being Passover, and the Day of Atonement.  There are four spring feasts: Passover, Unleavened bread, First fruits, and the Feast of Weeks. There are three fall feasts: Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.  The Feast of Tabernacles concluded the fall feasts and lasted seven days.  Its purpose was to commemorate God’s care and protection during the Israelites 40 year wandering in the Wilderness. 

We pick up the narrative in Jn 7:1 -44, note the questions asked.

1. Christ the magician, vs 3-4
2. Christ the good man, vs 12
3. Christ the deceiver, vs 12
4. Christ, the demon possessed, vs 20.
5. Christ the Prophet, vs 40
6. Christ the Messiah, vs 41

This is still the question of our age today. Who is Jesus? Is he a commercial magic man, a good person worth emulating, a deceiver out to establish his own cult, a demon possessed man doing all sorts of spiritual quackery to entice followers, or is he a prophet in the line of Moses, or Elijah, or Isaiah, or is he the true messiah, the promised one to Israel?

The apostle John, who wrote chapter 7, gives an answer to the question of who Jesus is in Jn 1 and in 1 Jn 1:1-3.  In Jn 1, John notes Jesus is fully God and in Jn 1:14, and 1 Jn 1:1-3, he notes Jesus is fully man.

The Deity of Christ, Jn 1:1-5

Let us examine the first claim.  Note the Bible makes clear that Jesus was not a man with supernatural powers, nor was he a man invested with divine qualities.  Rather in his earthly life he was fully God. 

Jn 1 is an apologetic written to both Jews and Gentiles (primarily Greeks) to make a case for the deity of Jesus. 

We need a bit of context before reading Jn 1. The idea of the “Logos” the word, was in the Greek mind the force that held the universe together.  Originated by the philosopher Heraclitus, the Logos was not personal or knowable but was simply the organizing energy that ran the universe. 

John will play on this idea, and much like Paul in Acts 17, when he referred to the Athenians “idol to the unknown God”, John will make known the True Word or Logos that is the personal God who is self-existent and created the universe.

For the Jew, the word “Logos” would immediately be identified with God.  The Jew would recognize the Word in the OT as God’s creative utterance, the actual statement of His purpose, having power within itself, to effect God’s will.  Gen 1:1 Let there be light, and there was light, or Ps 33:6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,  He spoke, and it was done.  So, the Jewish mind would identify with John’s use of the Word, as God’s effective purpose.

So, now for our text: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.

In these 5 verses, John will give us 6 attributes of the Logos.

1. The Logos is eternal, vs 1a, vs 2.
2. The Logo is a person, vs 1b.
3. The Logos is God , vs 1c.
4. The Logos created the world, vs 3.
5. The Logos Animates Life, vs 4a.
6. The Logos has revealed Himself, vs 4b, vs 5.

The Logos is eternal, vs 1a and vs 2.

Vs 1a, In the beginning was the Word, and vs 2: He was with God in the beginning.

Here John declares the Word’s eternity.  In the beginning was the Word and He was with God in the beginning.  The Word pre-existed at the beginning.  Three quick thoughts on this:

1. The Word is without beginning or end. The Word had no beginning. It was there before time began, and the world existed.  Ps 90:2 From everlasting to everlasting thou art God.  Is 57:15 The high and lofty one who inhabits eternity. The Word exists, has always existed, and will continue to exist, because the Word, the God whom John is describing to his readers is eternal.
2. Since the Word had no beginning, the Word is free from the succession of time.  Time is measured by succession; one thing occurs after another. There is a sequence. But John is saying God is neither constrained nor bound by time. The whole of divine knowledge and experience is ever before Him.  One may use the analogy of viewing a procession.  One can either be in a high place, a tower or skyscraper,  and see the whole thing, or be on the street corner, and only see one small part at any given time.  God sees time from the former perspective.  He sees time, and its events in all its entirety, yet he is equally aware of the sequence of its procession.
3. God is the cause of time.  The Word created time and space.  It is the cause of its existence.  Heb 11:3 by faith, we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command.  The Word created time and space, and this is the reality of our own existence.  As Paul said the Athenians, for in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).

The Logos is a Person, vs 1b.

Vs 1b,  and the Word was with God. 

Here John makes the case for The Personality of God.  John is telling us the power that fulfills God’s purpose is the power of a distinct personal being who stands in relationship to God.  The Word is separate yet closely and intimately allied to God.  In contrast to Heraclitus’s idea of an inanimate force, the Word is a distinct being, who shares God’s presence. 

The Logos is God, vs 1c.

Vs 1c, and the Word was God.

Here John makes the claim for Christ’s deity.  The Word was God.  Though personally distinct from the Father the Word is not a created being, but rather, is Divine in himself.  John reveals to his readers the mystery of the Godhead: That God is Divine, yet has distinct personalities, each their own person, each with their own function, yet still one. 

The Logos created all things, vs 3.

Vs 3,  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Here is the Word creating.  John is declaring to his readers; The Word is responsible for the creation of the world and universe. He was the Father’s agent in every act of creation.

Heb 1:1-2, In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.

Heb 1:10 (quoting Ps 102:25), He also says, “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands. ¹¹ They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. ¹² You will roll them up like a robe;  like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.

Col 1::15, The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

John’s argument is Jesus was the creator of the universe, and since only God has the power to create, Jesus must be God.

The Logos Animates Life to All Things, vs 4a.

Vs 4a,  in him was life,

Here is the Word animating.  John is saying, look at the world around you.  Where did all this life come from? How is it perpetuated? John is declaring, it is the Logos, the divine Word, who created life, gives life, sustains life, and is sovereign over life. 

Heb 1:3 He sustains all things by his powerful word.

Acts 17: 28, For in him we live and move and have our being.

John is answering the age-old question of the origin and sustenance of life.  Life is given and sustained by God’s Word. 

The Logos has revealed Himself, vs 4b, vs 5.

Vs 4b, and that life was the light of all mankind. Vs 5, The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Here is the Word revealing.  John declares that God has revealed Himself through Christ. The phrase, in him was life, means Jesus is the source of life, and that life is the light of men.  In other words, John is saying the fact you have life, is a witness or intimation (which means to make known), of God’s presence.  Paul picks up this theme in Romans 1:20, For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.  God has placed in each of us a God consciousness, an inquisitiveness about spiritual things, to lead us to Him, as Romans 1:19 says,  since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  John goes on to say, this witness shall not be overcome. God’s revealing light can never be extinguished.

The Humanity of Christ, Jn 1:14, 1 Jn 1:1-3.

Now John pivots and makes the incredible claim that the Logos, the Word,

1. Who is Eternal, apart from time, free from its succession, and sovereign over its procession.
2. Who is personal and in unique relationship to God.
3. Who is the creator of the universe.
4. Who is the source and sustainer of life.
5. Who has revealed himself through nature, and the fact of your existence.

This Word has now inhabited human flesh and is fully man.

Jn 1:14, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

1 Jn 1-3, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. ² The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. ³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

Note the words: that which was from the beginning, which we have heard and which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched. 

John notes the beginning, the eternal life: themes he noted in Jn 1, and now connects them to the physical world as here was someone who appeared: someone we heard, we saw, and we touched.

So, John lays out the case Jesus is fully God and the answer to the question of who is Jesus?  posed by the people of John 7 is that Jesus is the Messiah, God incarnate in human flesh.

Jesus was not God minus the elements of his deity, nor was he a man with supernatural God-like powers.

Rather as the Athanasian Creed states,

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of substance of His mother, born in the world. Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood. Who, although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ.

1. Jesus had a human birth. It was with blood, sweat, tears, cries, and pain.
2. He who created the universe soiled his diaper and nursed his mother’s breast. 
3. He who sustains all things by the word of his power, struggled to roll over, crawl and walk.
4. He, who had an eternal relationship with His Father and the HS, cried when his dad left for work.
5. He, who is perfect, skinned his knees, calloused his hands, and bruised his fingers learning his trade.

Christ had a human nature, a body, and a soul as ours.  As Hebrews 2:14-18 says,  Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. ¹⁶ For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. ¹⁷ For this reason he had to be made like them,^[k] fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

The Bible says Jesus,

1. got weary, Jn 4:6
2. got hungry, Mt 4:2
3. got thirsty, Jn 19:28
4. he slept, Mt 8:27
5. he was tempted, Heb 4:15

He experienced every human emotion and need that we do because he was fully human in every way. Jesus was fully man, yet fully God.

Thus, the question to each of us is what will we do with Him?

1. As believers we may imitate John’s example, which is to proclaim and testify.
2. As an unbeliever there are only two choices. You may embrace Him as your savior or reject him and accept him as your judge.