Incarnation in John

The Birth Narratives and the Doctrine of the Incarnation

Will take out your Bibles and turn with me to John chapter 1. Over the last two weeks we have been studying the birth narratives of Christ from the Gospels and just to remind you some things that we have learned already, in case either you weren't here or maybe you have forgotten, we have looked at Matthew and Luke because only Matthew and Luke provide to us a birth narrative for Jesus but I said this was going to be a three-part lesson because really we're dealing with more than just the birth of Christ but we are dealing with a theological principle called the Incarnation.

The Incarnation. And so even though the Gospel of John does not provide for us a narrative of Jesus's birth, what the Gospel of John does provide for us is it provides for us one of the clearest, in in all of Scripture.

Now when we say Incarnation we are referring to the word the word Incarnation is it comes from Latin it means to be made flesh. To be made flesh. And so we'll go ahead and put that up here just so we can be reminded if you think of carne as flesh, Incarnation means to be made flesh and that is based on the 14th verse of John's Gospel first chapter 1 verse 14 but we're gonna we're gonna read beginning at verse 1 but I want to mention that the term made flesh or became flesh is actually from the Scripture.

The term became flesh is there in the text so this is not this is not an extra biblical doctrine imposed on the Bible but this is a doctrine drawn directly out of Scripture. The Incarnation is is certainly not something that we have invented.

A lot of people accuse Christianity of stealing its foundational principles from other religions. I talked about this on my podcast today. I talked about how some people accuse Christ's story of being mixed with the story of Horus or the story of Attis or the story of the Egyptian god Ra or any you know the Sun God.

A lot of people accuse Christ's story of being blended in with those. Mithras is another one and you'll hear people say well Mithras was born of a virgin and and you know this one had 12 disciples and this one was died and resurrected.

None of those things are true and again if you want to go back and listen to the podcast I explain a little bit more about that but the point is the foundational truths that we believe about Jesus are right here in the text of the Bible and the the Bible is not stealing from other sources.

The Bible is primary source document. John saw this. John is writing about the man he walked with for three years and so this is primary source document. This is this is the writer having seen Jesus having walked with Jesus and he had disciples that would come later that would testify to him having written this.

So it's not as if some someone else wrote it and just put John's name on it but there are men who came along later that testified to John having written his gospel and having written his epistles and Revelation.

So we have great confidence that John wrote these things. Now over the last two weeks we talked about Matthew and Luke and we said that Matthew and Luke gives us birth narratives and we said they were from two different perspectives.

Does anybody remember where what the perspective of Matthew was? Yes Matthew gives us the perspective from Joseph and in fact it doesn't mention Mary much except for that she was a virgin does point that out but it doesn't really talk it doesn't talk about the angel visiting her doesn't talk about the trip to Bethlehem it just mentions that they were there doesn't talk about being even born in a manger none of that's mentioned or laid in a manger once he was born.

No that's mentioned in Matthew. Matthew focuses primarily on Joseph who was going to separate from Mary he was going to cancel the betrothal because he thought that she had been unfaithful when the angel visited him in the dream told him that she wasn't unfaithful.

We get his perspective his side of it. Luke gives us the perspective then of Mary so we have Matthew's gospel gives us Joseph's perspective. Luke's gospel gives us Mary's perspective. Now I want to I want to throw a an idea out there here this is this is not certainly a something that I would demand but there anyone to believe but I would say this is this is how I I kind of seeing it as I've been thinking today and studying and looking at this text a text I've looked at really more more than probably I've looked at any other text in the New Testament is John 1 1 and I got to thinking I think if we think of if we think of the birth narratives of Christ Matthew gives us Joseph's perspective Luke gives us Mary's perspective.

And if we could think of John as perhaps giving us God's perspective because John doesn't begin in Nazareth and John doesn't begin in Bethlehem but John begins in the beginning. And where else do we have that phrase in the beginning at the very beginning of the Bible it begins with the words in the beginning now that is in Hebrew this is in Greek.

But if if you were to go to the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible which is called the Septuagint which is I mentioned it a lot. It's a very important document. And you were to read the first opening line of Genesis in Greek in the beginning it reads the same as John's in the beginning.

The the phrase in Greek is in our K in the beginning and where we get the word archetype or archaeology studying things that are from the past from the beginning. And so when we see this phrase in the beginning we know this John and the other Apostles had access to the Septuagint.

In fact many of their quotations we know are direct quotations of the Septuagint not of the Hebrew Bible. And you say well how can you know that. Because the Septuagint makes some specific ways of translating things that the Apostles copy as they're translating and so we can tell that they're they're citing the Septuagint.

So we know that not only did the Septuagint exist but we know the Septuagint was used by the Apostles in citing scripture. So they considered it to be just as good as the Hebrew Bible. They consider you know people wonder is the English just as good as the Hebrew.

Well the disciples were okay with the translation. We should be okay with the translation especially if we don't speak Hebrew or Greek. We should we should understand that a translation can be used by God.

And the Apostles use the translation. They use the and they use the Septuagint. And when they wrote when when John wrote in our K he was he was following the same pattern as the translators of Moses. And what's what's something about Moses and John that they have in common regarding what they're writing.

Neither one of them were there. Moses writes in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He weren't there. You know Moses wasn't there when God created the world. Moses wasn't there when Adam was created.

Moses wasn't there when Abraham walked the earth. Moses wasn't there when Isaac or Jacob walked the earth. In fact all of Genesis is narrative is written from the perspective of God because God has to reveal this to Moses to write.

Moses is writing revelation from God because he wasn't there to witness any of it. So when Moses writes in the beginning God created the only person who could have told him that was God. Because God was the only one there to see it.

There wasn't like it wasn't like God had witnesses watching. You know it was him and God created. And he told Moses. This is how I did it. Day one I did this. Day two I did this. Day three I did this.

Well later John is dealing with the same situation. He's writing about something that he didn't see. He didn't see in the beginning he wasn't there in the beginning. That's why I'm saying I believe it's God's perspective.

Because it's not John's perspective. It's God's perspective. You've got John's perspective in certain parts of the gospel because he'll talk about himself and he talks about situations. But this prologue of John is revelation from God.

This is it's all revelation from God. But this is revealing something John could not have known outside of God revealing it to him. And what does he tell us. He says in the beginning was the word. Now the word is the Greek word logos.

And that word has been a lot has been said about the term logos that it has a very strong Greek foundation used a lot in in Greek philosophy to reference not only words because it can mean simply just words but it also had the idea of wisdom and philosophy.

The logos was higher than just words. It was it was ideas it was thoughts. It was philosophy. And some have thought that John was trying to in a sense bring in the idea that Jesus is he he is the encapsulation of wisdom he's the encapsulation of knowledge.

He's the encapsulation of all of these things. And so rather than saying in the beginning was Jesus which would have been in a sense accurate but odd to say it that way because Jesus of Nazareth as a man came into being in Bethlehem.

But the word made flesh has always been. And so John is making a distinction here between the divine nature of Christ which is eternal and the human nature of Jesus of Nazareth which did come into being in a point in time.

Jesus has always existed as the divine word but he's not always existed as the carpenter from Nazareth. We understand that the that's the the theological distinction there is known as the hypostatic Union.

You were. You've probably heard that Jackie. We've talked about that some in our in our class. I know Daisy. And what we've talked about in here for our theology class when we went to and wisdom. That's right.

That's right. And so there and there were times where Jesus admitted to not knowing things from a human perspective. Hey the date of his return and things like that. So yes we have to make a distinction between the human nature and the divine nature while while still maintaining their their inseparability.

Christ is inseparably divine and human. And but the human nature comes into existence in Bethlehem the divine nature has always been. So the point I'm making is when when when. When John says in the beginning he doesn't say in the beginning Jesus he says in the beginning was the word because he's making a distinction between the divine nature and the human nature.

The word is John's way of describing the divine nature of the Son of God. The word is John's way of describing the second person of the Trinity. In fact he does this in his his epistle. He refers to him as the word right.

And when you get to Revelation as John is writing Revelation it's clear that he sees that the the person of Jesus as being divine because he calls him the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end.

The one who was and is and is to come he is divine. John clearly teaches us that. But the the the first writing of his of his gospel is the absolute clearest in the beginning was the word. And I want to.

I didn't mean to stick with verse 1 this whole time but I guess we will because what he is saying when he uses the word was is he is indicating that when the beginning happened and that would be the beginning of time.

He's saying that when the beginning happened the word already was. In fact the the New English translation which is the net Bible NET net Bible it's available online for free. I like it. It's very good translation.

I don't ever use it when I'm preaching because there's not many people have the paper version on most people only have the online version. But the NET Bible is good. Plus we've all kind of you know we've got the pulpit translation which is ESV and that's kind of got me trapped.

Not that it's bad it just sort of is what it is you know. But the NET Bible that's the way it translates it. It translates in the beginning the word already was and and and I think it I think that's the that's the essence of to the Greek is in our K and ha lagas ain is the preposition was right in our K in the beginning and ha lagas ain is the preposition was the word and the was there is is indicating was already.

So the idea is that when the beginning happened the word already existed he was already there. It's not saying that in the beginning he came into existence. That's what the Jehovah Witnesses believe. Jehovah Witnesses believe that the second person is not the second person the Trinity because they don't believe in the Trinity.

They believe that Jesus came into existence first and they believe he was Michael the Archangel. That's another point that Jehovah Witnesses believe that God created this figure Michael the Archangel and through Michael created everything else.

And then Michael became Jesus in the incarnation. But it was an incarnation because it wasn't God becoming flesh but it was a it was a divine being becoming flesh and but an angel not God. And and so there is kind of an obscure view there.

But they try to prove that with John 1 and and they can't because John 1 actually proves the opposite. When John 1 says in the beginning was the word it's saying the word already was and notice what it says it says in the word was with God and the word was God.

See that sounds like a contradiction in the minds of many people because if I said I was with Jackie and I am Jackie that's weird less my name's Jack and it ain't. But if if we say Jesus was with God and he was God then we have to step out and try to understand how those two lines can both be accurate and yet not contradictory.

The first thing it does help a little bit to know the original language here because the word God in the first instance of this of this clause it says and the word was with God that word God has a has an article an article that means it makes it an articular noun.

And so in in Greek it actually says Chi halagas pros tan theon pros is with ha is thee and theon is God. So it actually would read and the word was with thee God. Okay. So when when the God is used next to the word who are we referring to the father.

I think that I think that's very clear when the definite article is being used with Theos and it's in in this relationship with the word we are referring to the father. So could we read it this way. In the beginning was the word and the word was with the father.

Yes I think I think we could accurately read it that way even though that's not what it says it says the word was with the God but in this sense John's understanding of the God is referring to the father.

And so we have in the beginning was the word and the word was with the father or was with God. But then what has the next clause the third clause it says and the word was God. Now this time the word God is an in our in our Theus is the term that means basically without the article the noun is simply fae fae us and and and what it says am I losing you guys my is this is this are we good.

A little bit a little bit I could write it all out but I don't know if that would help. Yeah that helped a little. Ultimately the point is in the third clause is this it says in Greek it actually says in God was the word it says kai theos and halas.

But because the word there is the predicate nominative we or the word is the is the subject. So in English we put that first. So it should be. And the word was God. No no the Jehovah Witnesses say you can't they say you can't the problem with using the little the the a the little a to say and the word was a God is the is is as the theos there is in our Theus it's it's in like if I said if I said Lee you are a man I'd be referring to you are a man among many men.

If I said you are the man that's a little more specific like you're the man. You did it. I'm gonna be preaching Psalm 51 this week. What did Nathan say to David. Thou art the man. Right. You are the man.

You're the one who did the sin. Right. So you have a man the man. But if I looked at you and I said Lee you are man that would be that would be a the way that noun is being used is qualitative not quantitative.

See if I say you're a man or the man that is quantitative it's either one of many or it's the one. But if I say you are man she is woman. I am man. And that's sadly difficult with for a lot of people nowadays don't really know the difference.

But take me on a wrong turn there. But that makes it qualitative. And FF Bruce made a good point. He said when the Jehovah Witnesses add the the the the a there to to this they are demonstrating a lack of understanding of the grammar.

Yeah yeah. And it's a if you've ever seen the New World Translation that is the Jehovah Witnesses translation that specifically translated and used by the Jehovah Witnesses and their Bible does say in the beginning was the word.

The word was with Jehovah I think is what it says. And the word was a God because they'll say Jesus is a God. He's just not the God. He's a God. He's not the God. What's the problem with that. It creates it creates a form of either polytheism where there are many gods or a something called henna theism.

Henna theism is the idea that there is one primary God and there are lesser divinities lesser gods that a lot of a lot of old pagan religions were henna theistic. They had their God of their tribe who was the greatest.

And then you had all the other gods of the other religions and they were sort of subservient to their God. Some people have accused the ancient Jewish religion of being henna theistic because they would say that the Jews believed in Baal and they believed in all these other gods but they just believe Jehovah was greater.

The problem is the Bible doesn't allow for that because if you read Isaiah it says very clearly before me there was no God formed after me. There's no God formed. I am God. There is no other. There's none like me.

There's none. You know the whole point of scripture is Deuteronomy 6 right. Hero Israel the Lord thy God is one. There's only one God and you shall worship him. What's the first commandment. Have no other gods before me.

The second commandment do not make any images and call them God. The whole idea of Christianity or excuse me the whole idea of the biblical faith is there's only one God. And therefore when you come to John's prologue and he says in the beginning was the word the word was with the God or God the Father and the word was God.

Then you have to know you're still talking about the same God because John's whole background would not have allowed for a second God and certainly not three gods. People who say Christianity believes in three gods does not understand the Trinity.

We believe in one God who has eternally existed in three persons. And you say well what's the difference. The difference is those three persons share the one being which is God and there is only one being which is God shared by the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit.

This is why when we baptize we baptize in the name singular of the Father and of the Son and of the Spirit. Three names one God. In fact I believe that when we talk about God's name you know everybody wants to make a big deal about Jehovah and Yahweh.

And what should we call God. We call him Father Son and Holy Spirit. Because on this side of the New Covenant revelation that is the name by which he is called praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise him. All creatures here below praise him above all ye heavenly hosts praise Jehovah. No praise Yahweh. No praise Father Son and Holy Ghost. Because the one God has revealed himself he has demonstrated himself to be a Trinity and he is the only being that exists as one being and three persons three distinct co-equal co-eternal and yet able to interact with one another persons.

So that was all verse 1. We got two chapters to do so. I love John 1 1. I've spent I have spent a lot of time in this passage so I just love to talk about it. Yes yeah. So let's look quickly and try to get there because that's where I wanted to get to.

Of course. But verse 1 is the is is John is showing this is God's perspective. Verse 2 he that is the word was with in the beginning with God that is the Father all things were made through him and without him was not anything made.

That was made in him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. You say okay. What do we learn from verses 2 through 5. We learn that Jesus the the second person to the word shouldn't say Jesus at this point but the word is not only with the father at creation but he is the agent of creation.

Notice it says not only was he with the the father that's verse 2 but all things were made through him. So I can look at Christ and I can say Christ is my God and Christ is my creator because the word is my creator and he is my life.

Verse 4 in him was life and that life was a lot of men and the light shines in the darkness the dark heart of sin and the darkness has not overcome it. There's a lot to unpack there but for the sake of time I'm going to move on.

But ultimately Christ is the light of the world. Now verse 6 goes into talking about John and it talks about him not being the light of the world. And the point of that is John. Remember what we talked about over the last couple weeks.

Matthew's gospel and Luke's gospel and even Mark's gospel to an extent they all start the same way. Here's Jesus here's John. Here's these two guys and they both have a role to fill. Both of them had a miraculous birth.

Jesus born a virgin. John was born to a barren woman in old age. Right. Both are both have miraculous birth. Both are related to one another. They both come into the world at the same time. One is the forerunner to the other.

And here is the is. The point John is making is even though John has a miraculous entrance into the world and even though he is a forerunner he is not the same. John is not the same as Jesus. He's not God in the flesh.

He's not the Savior. When Jesus came to him to be baptized what did he say. I'm I'm not even worthy to stoop down and tie your shoes. You know that's the point is people would have seen Jesus and John as being contemporaries.

They were not. I mean think about how many times in the Gospels people says well the disciples of John are doing this. Why are your disciples doing that. As if to compare the two as if to say there's two Messiahs or there's two men.

What did John say. I must decrease and he must increase. So even though John had a specific important ministry it must never be allowed to overtake the ministry of Christ. It had one purpose paved the way for the ministry of Christ.

And when Christ came on the picture John's ministry faded into the background and then he was quickly disposed of by Herod. And that evil scheme. But the point is all of the gospel writers talk about Jesus and John.

But John makes John. The gospel writer makes a strong point to distinguish. He was not the light. He was not the light. He came to bear witness to the light. The light was Christ. Now verse 11 probably one of the saddest verses in the Bible he came unto his own and his own received him not.

But to as many as did receive him who believed in his name he gave them the right to become children of God who were born not of the will the flesh nor the will of man but of God. Now that that is a sermon in itself.

But ultimately what it reminds us is Christ came to the Jewish people and that's his own when it says he came to his own and the it says his own received him not. They did not receive him as Messiah. And because of that and even to this day there are many lost people who share the blood of Abraham in their veins but not the faith of Abraham in their hearts.

Those who have a faith of Abraham trust in Christ. Keep you always keep that in mind the people because because there are three groups of people in the world who believe that they they share the faith of Abraham.

Jewish people believe they share the faith of Abraham. Muslims believe they share the faith of Abraham. And Christians believe they share the faith of Abraham. But Jesus said this he said if if Abraham longed to see my day.

And if you believe like Abraham you believe in me. If you believe like Abraham you believe in me. That's the key. Who's right. We are. Well I gotta be shamed. I gotta be shamed. Say that who's right. Those who trust in Christ because Abraham looked forward to Christ and when Christ came from there on out it was Christ or nothing.

There's not another way he said that. And it's not ugly talk to say that those who trust in another way other than Jesus Christ do not bear the faith of Abraham. So moving on to finally to our verse for the evening.

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory. Glory is the only son from the father full of grace and truth. Just a beautiful phrase. But I want you to think about all that that verse says it says in the word became flesh.

This is the word from verse 1. This is Jesus in his divine nature. The divine nature took on flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory. Glory is the only got son from the father full of grace and truth.

The word became flesh. That's again where we get the concept of incarnation. How did the word become flesh. Through the virgin birth. Through what we have already. And it's actually not a virgin birth.

I guess I should be clearer. It's a virginal conception because Jesus's birth was a natural birth as far as we know Roman Catholics believe he exited the womb in a miraculous way there as maintaining Mary's virginal integrity even in birth.

I don't see any reason to believe that. But she was a virgin at conception. And when the word became flesh it was through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit on the womb of Mary. Now interestingly enough he mentions nothing about that here.

John does not tell the story of Mary again. He doesn't tell the story of Joseph. He doesn't tell anything about the betrothal. He doesn't tell anything about the march to Bethlehem or the the the decree from Caesar.

He doesn't say anything about that. All he says is the word became flesh. But I want to tell you that's just as much a Christmas passage as Luke chapter 2 or Matthew chapter 1 because those passages are telling us the external perspective of what happened to Mary and to Joseph.

But verse 14 is telling us the internal perspective of God. The word the one who has always existed as the second person of the Trinity. The one who has always existed as the the for here's that here's a phrase that I'll have to unpack the monogamy stay us.

The monogamy stay us that term is often disputed. But it is in Scripture the monogamy stay us is the only begotten God. See Christ is referred to as begotten but not made. He is begotten of the Father but not made by the Father because he has always existed.

That is a very difficult concept. I've tried in the past to explain my very finite understanding of it. As I say that the son is from the father but is not after the father not after. Because there's with God is as things are timeless so is the begetting of the son.

That's why he's the eternally begotten son or the the only begotten God. The monogamous say us the only begotten God it's. It's if you've ever read the Nicene Creed this is what the Nicene Creed says.

It says he was begotten but not made. And they make a distinction between coming from the father but not having a point in time where he was not. That's the whole point. Because in his divinity there was never a time when he was not in his divinity has always been but he has always been the second person of the Trinity.

He's never been Michael the Archangel or any of those things. He has always been the second person of the Trinity. And that word which always existed became flesh. And here's that here's the interesting.

And he tabernacled among us. I know it says in the ESV dwelt the word there is for tabernacles. And there's actually an argument that's made by some that Jesus was born not in December but that he was born during the Feast of Tabernacles because he was God making his tents with man.

There is no evidence for that. I think that's just a I think that's one of those things that somebody thought of it and thought it was cool and decided to run with it. There's no evidence that it didn't happen.

So you know what it was Christ born during the Feast of Tabernacles. We don't know. But the point is this text does say the word became flesh and like a tent he put on flesh but he didn't just put on flesh.

And this is the key when Christ came as a man he came as a man both as flesh and soul. He was fully man. He wasn't just God in a man suit. He wasn't just the Spirit of God walking around in a flesh-covered outfit.

He was fully God and fully man. He is as the Latin fathers said vera homos vera deus truly God truly man. And so when we worship we worship the God man Jesus. And that is the one who was born in the manger.

There's this. There's a song we sing at Christmas time. We're going to sing it this Sunday night. And by the way please don't forget we have a very special service Sunday night Vesper service six o 'clock Sunday evening.

And we're going to have special music and sermon. I'm probably going to be preaching very similar. Well not this is more Bible study but I'm going to be preaching on the incarnation on Jesus the God man.

But there's a song it talks about when Jesus in the manger radiant beams from thy holy face. I don't I don't know that the baby had genuinely radiant beams coming off of him. I think that's I think that's more of a just poetic language.

But I do know this the baby in the manger was the same was the same divine being who created the world. The hands that held the finger of Mary were the hands that created in the beginning all things. That's right coming into the world.

And the most humble. Yeah. Yeah. Yes absolutely. And I've often thought about that the humility of God to come not in in the palace but in the stable to come not through the the womb of a queen but through the womb of a maiden not born to a king but to a carpenter.

It's a wonderful wonderful truth. So I hope I hope that tonight has helped you. I did want to get to chapter two and I'll finish with this because we're not going to read it but I just John tells us Jesus's first miracle.

And Jesus's first miracle according to the John was the turning water into wine. And if you look at that story and you can go home and read it. But one of the most interesting things that I have ever seen that a lot of people miss in this narrative is when you get to that story we do see Mary there.

And it says in verse 6 it says there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification each holding 20 to 30 gallons. And Jesus said to the servants fill the jars with water and they filled them to the brim.

He said now draw out some and take the master to take it to the master of the feast. So they took it in the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from. So Jesus took six water pots and he created wine out of that water.

And it reminds me that we're dealing with God in the flesh because God took six days and created all things out of nothing. Jesus took six water pots and for his first miracle created wine out of the simple element of water.

And so again John is reminding us that we are dealing not only with a man but we're dealing with the God man. All right. So absolutely absolutely. Colossians is the highest Christology of the short shorter letters.

For sure. Absolutely all right. Let's pray father. Thank you for your word. Thank you for this time to for us to study tonight I'm so grateful to have gotten to look at John's gospel again and I pray that you would bless us as we go to our homes tonight with a with a deeper and greater understanding of who it is that we worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And it's in his name we pray amen.