#TheWordBecameFlesh

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If you’re with us, join us this morning for a new message series. I’m excited you’re here. We’re going to dive into the book of John. John chapter one is where we’re going to be. So give you some time to get there. I’m going to give you a little bit of a, of a backdrop as to why we’re about to start this series together. This series will also mark our start of the connection groups, which we begin next week after, uh, next Sunday service. That’ll begin the week of our connection groups, which I’ll invite you to for where to go to get information to sign up for a connection group. If you’re interested in your connection groups, we’ll be discussing this topic together. Hashtag Jesus. Here’s a few things I hope to accomplish today. I want to leave us with a memorable thought as it relates to Christ in our life and how it impacts us, and one of the things we want to encourage you throughout this series, if there’s a a phrase that we state or a thought that we share to go to Twitter, Facebook, whatever, check in Alpine Bible Church and hashtag or make a statement about what it is that we’re teaching today as it relates to Christ, to give you a platform to promote, um, Jesus and what God’s doing here? Uh, with that, here’s one of the goals I want to hopefully achieve within us today. If we walk away from today and you feel driven to to come to know Christ more and read about him specifically in the Gospels this week, I’m going to consider that a victory for us as a church family.

And here’s why. Probably there’s no greater figure that’s misunderstood and abused in history and what he stood for than than Jesus. As a matter of fact, last week we heard a great encouragement for us here on Sunday talking about taking up your cross and following after him. But you know, one of the thoughts that we carried, coupled with such a statement like that is if if it’s the wrong Jesus that’s propagated, um, that becomes a very dangerous statement for us as individuals because we have this, this thought that we’re pursuing this God in worship or, or Christ in honor to him. And, and, uh, if it’s the wrong Jesus, then, then the pursuit of taking up our cross and following after him can sometimes be more of an abusive statement than anything. For instance, let me just give you an example or a way to think about this. If if you start studying the biblical Jesus and you start looking at him, you’re realizing maybe what someone’s telling you about Jesus isn’t what Scripture say about him. And then they begin to point the finger like, what’s what’s wrong with you? You know, take up your cross and follow him. Just get in line and do this like you’re supposed to. And, uh, without a good picture of who Christ is, we we can really fall on that path in the wrong way.

And so what we’re going to do in these weeks ahead is we’re going to study Jesus. We’re going to let Jesus speak for himself. And as we get out of here on Sunday, my encouragement to you is to pick up the Gospels and like a child. Don’t come with preconceived ideas. Don’t, don’t let don’t speak for Jesus. Let Jesus speak for himself. And start to read and understand him through who he is. I heard a really encouraging, sobering thought just a few weeks ago. I had someone just come up to me and share about their relationship to God and and and their pursuit in life. And they just said this, you know, when I was younger, I was I used to go to to church, but I never had a real clear picture of Jesus and had. Had I had that? I wouldn’t have made the choices that I made in life. I just want to know Jesus for who he is. The Apostle Paul made that his life goal in Philippians chapter three and verse ten. And that I may know him, he said. Throughout that chapter, he talks about all the things of this world that he just laid apart for the desire of coming to know Jesus. And so let me just start with this question. If you were to introduce Jesus to this world. You had a platform in which the world knew that they would.

Listen to you or be able to be here. What you had to say. How would you start by broadcasting who Jesus is to the world? The apostle John faced that question a couple thousand years ago. Knowing that he was about to write a gospel and his gospel. John’s gospel is considered a gospel that’s written to the world. Matthew was primarily addressed to the Jews. Mark primarily addressed to Roman culture. Luke primarily addressed to Greek culture, but John opened the floodgates in his gospel in presenting Jesus to the world. In Greek culture. During the time in which John wrote, there was this popular phrase which was coming about in the first century. It was a phrase that Stoics used philosophers as they they batted this thought around of deity and the forces of deity recognized within Greek culture. There were there were multiple gods. And this word literally word. Began to be used. To describe this force that drove all of nature. They used this this word word w o r d to describe the what governed the laws of nature. It was it was a somewhat ambiguous thought, but it was an inclusive thought which described all of their their gods, or allowed the opportunity for their deities to lie within this force that was recognized as the word which drove life. And to the Jews. They also used this, this expression of word within their writings. But to the Jew it had a slightly different thought or mentality.

The Word of God was the expression of God Himself. It was the extension through which God made himself known. In fact, in Proverbs chapter eight, wisdom is described in such a way that it’s a personification of God. When when Moses came down with the laws and the commandments from Mount Sinai. When God wrote his law in Deuteronomy chapter 30 and verse 11, it was seen as God verbally expressing himself to the people. It was the extension of God. In Genesis one. And when God created it, said, in the beginning God said. And throughout chapter one of Genesis over seven times within that passage, God said, and life began. His his word had power. And so when. John. Begins to express this Jesus to the world. He says in John chapter one, verse one. In the beginning was the word. And it didn’t matter what philosophical background you’re coming from, Greek culture, Jewish culture, you would begin to read this statement and resonate with this thought. In the beginning was the word yes, yes, John, this is where life and force and everything that’s important comes into being. And then he says in verse 14, if you were just to skip ahead, something very significant about the power of this word. And so he says, and the word became flesh. And dwelt. Among us. No longer. Was this word? Just words. It was now living an active. In the New Testament.

The Jewish people, as John opened up this book, would have just loved the thoughts that John shared, because history tells us between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Israel had gone 400 years of silence with no prophetic statement from God and and revealing himself to the nation of Israel. And they had been used to the prophets declaring God’s truth, God’s word to them. And God has been silent. And finally, John, when he opens up the New Testament, he says, God is silent no more. The word is being declared. So specifically. And so intimately that no longer is it just a voice. But it has become flesh. And John with this statement begins to introduce exactly who this Jesus is. And so the first 14 verses. John uses these powerful illustrations throughout the gospel that expresses exactly the nature of who this Christ is. And so he says, in the beginning was the word in verse one, and the word was with God, meaning a connection and relationship to the father. And look at this. And the word was God. The beginning of Genesis chapter one and the beginning of John. Chapter one shows these close parallels and describing for us who God is. John is not only calling Jesus God, but he is explaining the the thought of the Triune God. If you were to read Genesis chapter one, you would see that God spoke and creation began. And as God is speaking, the Spirit of God is hovering over the waters while the the father speaks things into existence.

And when you get to verse 26, God says, let us make man in our image in a plurality statement. And then in verse 27 he says, in the image of God, he made them both male and female, in the singularity of who he is and his identity of God. And so John says, in the beginning was the word. They loved this thought of word, and this word was with God, and this word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things came into being through him. Jesus creating. And apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being. And in him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it. John’s second statement parallels parallels well with Colossians chapter one and saying to us that Jesus created all things. And he goes on further and describes just how significant this is in his creation, that all things are in him. That Jesus isn’t isn’t just about life. Jesus is life himself. Of all things exist, and all things continue to exist because Jesus allows them to exist. He creating all things, not only created it, he is the sustainer of them. In him was life. And the life was the light of men. And the light. Shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it.

Not only is he life. But his life is our light. There came one who shared about Jesus’s name was John, it says, and John the Baptist. Not to be confused with John the Apostle who wrote this book, but it says in verse six, there came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. The statement in which John shares is not just simply one that rests with John, but as others come to know this Jesus, it’s a statement in which all of us share. And so he says in verse ten, and on the light, excuse me, it’s not in the passage. He was in the world. Excuse me? He was in the world, and the world was made through him. And the world did not know him. He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him, but as many as received him. To them he gave the right to become children of God, even 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. John says something pretty important about the invitation which Jesus brings in verse 12.

God isn’t a bully. God created you for relationship in him. God desires for you to have that relationship with him. God does not make you have that relationship with him. It says in verse 12 that everyone. Has a choice. What do you do with Jesus? But as many as received him. To them. He gave the right to become the children of God. God gives us the opportunity to belong to that which he presented. To belong to him. To experience a life for which we were created and designed to experience was rest in him. And so he says to those that receive him. Those are his children. And the word became flesh. And it dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the father, full of grace and truth. I want to tell you in the weeks ahead, ahead, we’re going to talk about some important statements that are often misunderstood as it relates to Jesus as he calls himself the Son of Man, Son of God, only begotten of the father. But, John, what he wants us to recognize here is that this flesh, had he has come for us, he has become intimate to us, that we can understand him more personally relating to him and what he is presenting in his Kingdom, which will ultimately be culminated in his death, that we may embrace him and experience life. Because he’s dying on your behalf. And John as he gives this description of what Jesus is like.

I love the summation of his message. It’s full of grace and full of truth. Meaning Jesus has a standard. But at the same time, knowing we as people in God’s standard can never please God according to a perfect standard, we find that God’s grace is sufficient for us to come to know this God in a personal way. In the New Testament. Acts chapter two, when Paul shares the very first sermon for the New Testament church. He gives this statement about Jesus. He said God raised Jesus from the dead and we are all witnesses of this. You think this morning? Well, how how do we know that Jesus even existed? How do we how do we know that that this isn’t just made up? Or how do we know that he was a real person? And even these stories about Christ within the New Testament can be trusted. The book of acts when Peter’s preaching his first message. And and Luke is recording about this, you’ll find this thought shared throughout Scripture that they’re not just testifying about the statement. They’re not just proclaiming this thought of Jesus that they’ve been told to share. They’re witnesses of it. Peter saying, listen, I’m here to tell you about Jesus, who was dead and raised because I saw it. I’m not just sharing it as some sort of thought in which the Bible communicates, which it does. But I’m telling you because I was the person there and experienced it.

You know, I would agree. At some point in our lives, everyone borrows a belief to some extent, right? Let me give you an example. When you go get your driver’s license and you jump on the road, you kind of know there are some rules that you follow, right? And so you have this intellectual knowledge, having never been behind the wheel, that these rules are what are to be followed. And you carry this knowledge onto the road expecting that people would follow this. And it’s not until you get behind the wheel and you start driving the car that you begin to experience that. Yes, that yellow line is important, right? There are particular thoughts that you borrow as a belief, maybe a product someone’s trying to present to you and they’ll tell you it’ll do this, this and this, and you think, okay, let me just let me, let me experience that for myself and bring it in and see if, if it’s trustworthy, if it sells according to the way everything that’s presented about it. Everyone begins to borrow a belief at some point. And Peter sharing this as a message for us to understand. But Jesus has come in the flesh and he is the witness of it. For us to be able to experience this Christ in our own lives. But there is a point in which a belief. Goes from an intellectual understanding. To a personal embracing with your life.

No longer is it borrowed, but it is a faith, a trust that you’ve put in. One of the things that I’m thankful for. When it comes to Jesus. That when we historically archaeologically study the nature of who Christ is within the Bible as it presents itself, Christianity gives ample verification of the truth in which it proclaims. You know, within the world today, there are certain religious pockets of different faiths. Um. That what oftentimes makes truth claims is might meaning the thought is might makes right. And because it’s the group that has momentum in the area, everyone is expected to be a part of that. But when it comes to Jesus. Might in that sense, isn’t what makes right. The truth of who Christ is to us. We all have to deal with Jesus, and the Bible presents to us this this statement of who Christ is, but not not only the Bible. There are extra sources within history to look at who Jesus is. And I’ll give you some in just a minute. But this is what C.S. Lewis wrote about Christ in his book Mere Christianity. He said this I am really trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus, which is, I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. This is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.

He would either be a lunatic on on a level with a man who says he’s a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. You can shut him up for a fool. You can spit at him and kill him as a demon. You. You can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us and he did not intend to. When you read the Gospels. And Jesus walks around making the claims that he made before his people. You’ll see that the often what is remarked in the stand and which is taken that immediately Jesus will make a statement of being deity, and they will pick up stones to stone him and kill him. And C.S. Lewis is saying within this passage, listen, Jesus doesn’t fall in that middle boundary of just being a good encourager or teacher. Jesus is either one or the other. He is a lunatic. He is the devil himself, or he is Lord God. He didn’t even leave it open for a middle ground. When you look at at history within the first few centuries, the Bible isn’t the only thing that writes about Jesus. Cornelius Tacitus, a Roman historian, said this Christus, the founder of the Christian name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, a procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius.

But the pernicious superstition repressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated by, but through the city of Rome also. Lucian of Samosata said this the Christians, you know, worship a man to this day. The distinguished personage who introduced himself, introduced their novel, writes, and was crucified on that account. It was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers from the moment they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece and worship the crucified sage. Pliny the Younger, who was a Roman ruler, wrote to the emperor Trajan. This was during a time of great persecution within Christianity at one point. This isn’t a statement on here, but at one point Pliny even wrote to the the the emperor and said, listen, I keep killing these Christians. This is an ad lib, by the way. I keep killing these Christians, and every time I kill one, it’s like two more come out. And so Pliny writes this to the emperor Trajan. I ask them directly if they were Christians. Those who persisted, I ordered away those who denied they were or ever have been, had been Christians, and worshipped both your image and the image of the gods and cursed Christ. So he’s saying, listen, the Christians who who said they were following Jesus, I sent away probably to death.

And the ones who denied I made them worship and bow to the Emperor. He says. They used to gather on a state of day before dawn and sing to Christ as if he were a God. All the more I believed it necessary to find out what was the truth from two servant maids, which were called deaconesses by means of torture. Nothing more did I find than than a disgusting, fanatical, fanatical. Excuse me. Superstition. Therefore, I stopped the examination and hastened to consult you. So applying, he found out as he keeps killing these people. And they’re not denying that Jesus was God. They were witnesses. They some of them had experienced it and were still living. And so planning just finally got to the place where he didn’t even he didn’t even know what to do. So he was writing the Emperor for advice as they’re persecuting the Christian church. Flavius Josephus was a Jewish historian from the first century. He wrote an extensive book in his Antiquities, and you’ll see within this statement that that Josephus writes, there are a couple of places that are in parentheses. And, and so in this statement, there’s an early record of what Josephus wrote. There’s a later record of what Josephus wrote in History Today. The later record has what’s in parentheses. The early record doesn’t. But this is what Josephus said about Jesus. Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as received the truth with pleasure.

He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him. For he appeared to them alive again the third day. As the divine prophets had foretold. These and 10,000 other wonderful things concerning him and the tribe of Christians so named for him, are not extinct to this day. These historical statements I’m just sharing with you this morning. The first century. The remarks from individuals who recognize that those who were witnesses to Jesus and within the first century of of Christ, worshiped Jesus as God. This isn’t a thought invented later in history. This isn’t something that that man concocted later and called it a Bible. The manuscripts of Scripture have preserved since the first century. As a matter of fact, if you wanted further validation, there are other people you could read like Celsus and the Babylonian Talmud and Gaius, Suetonius and Marlborough. And he’s a, he’s a, a man that was in jail in 70 AD writing about Israel to his son from inside the jail, about his experience as it related to Jesus. There’s apocryphal gospels, which aren’t biblical gospels, but they do record the facts or some of the thoughts of Jesus, I should say.

Early church fathers like Clement of Rome, who came to Christ, Polycarp and Ignatius, who put their faith in Christ, have works from the first centuries and writing all about Jesus. When the Gospels themselves. Write about Christ. You know, you read the Old Testament. In the Old Testament is the foreshadowing, the prophetic statement, the significance of who Jesus is, how all of history culminates in who Christ is, and understanding of that. How significant it becomes for us to know the word became flesh. If the whole Old Testament points to him. And the entire New Testament reverts back to him. How important is he? The Old Testament is the foreshadowing of everything Jesus would be. Down to the point of the ceremonies which took place in the temple, reflected everything Jesus would fulfill. It was all a symbolic foreshadowing of Christ. In the New Testament. When you pick up the epistles, it’s in light of who Jesus is having placed your faith in him. God writes to the church through his apostles and those connected to the apostles and how how we’re to respond in the epistles. But, you know, one of the interesting things is in between the Old Testament and the epistles, you find the Gospels. In the Bible is 66 manuscripts for us written about about the the Lord and the significance of who he is in our lives and the Gospels. The Gospels carry the slightly different tone than the epistles.

Matthew, Mark and Luke and John would be the Gospels. And after that we find the epistles, and the epistles are for the church. The epistles are for those who have come to know Christ and living in in him but the Gospels. And that’s the invitation to the world. Come and take a look at the Jesus. And the word has become flesh. You know, one of the interesting things about the Gospels is when it comes to Jesus’s life, you really don’t have a whole lot of detail, even described as it relates to Christ. This this gap of his life really isn’t even recorded. You have one account of him as a young boy going to the temple with his parents, but really nothing else until he begins his ministry somewhere around the age of 30. Why? Because the ministry of Jesus leading to the death of Christ. That’s where the significance of who Christ is culminates for us. The Gospel of John especially, is an invitation to the world. Come and take a look at this. Christ. You know, when the Bible was written, there was two forms of the Greek language. There was the classical Greek, and there was the Koine Greek. You know, one of the one of the reasons that that scripture is just, I think, so inviting to everyone in this world, no matter where you are, is that the Bible wasn’t written in the classical Greek. It was written in the Koine Greek, which is which is the common language for everyone.

And the fact that the Bible was written that way says again to the world that Jesus just wants us to take a look at who he is. One of the reasons maybe you in your life, if you’ve come to know Christ, are so encouraged by the Gospels because that is the launching pad for you, where everything starts and your relationship with God, and it’s just a good place for your soul just to take time to set before the presence of God and see how the word became flesh and lived in this world for you, dying for your sins. When John starts his statement in John one. He just wants us to see this invitation of who Christ is. Greek culture, Jewish culture, it doesn’t matter. In the beginning was the word and the word became flesh. And we had opportunity. To behold his glory. The Apostle John. Very early in chapter one writes about John the Baptist. John the Baptist was prophesied as the one who would come in the last book of the Old Testament. In the book of Malachi, he would be the forerunner of Jesus, proclaiming the coming of Jesus. And so John, now at the end of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi, prophetically stating, John the Baptist would come, he starts John chapter one, referring to this John the Baptist that would come to reveal the Messiah. And John was a prophet.

400 years Israel had been in this silence, and now God is speaking again in John comes to proclaim the arrival of Jesus in the minds of Israel. This prophet would have been one in high position, one who who should be honored. One if you ask the people of Israel, who do you respect among your people? They would say the prophets, although they often slaughtered them. The prophet. John, he would be one to be honored. And look what John says about the significance of Jesus. John says, it is he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. In Israel’s mind, John is elevated, but in John’s mind, compared to Jesus, the way John describes himself, he’s saying to us, listen, if there’s something you’ve got to get right in Jesus, it’s exactly who Jesus is. And so John describes himself in this passage as a slave and not just any slave, the lowest slave within a household serving individuals. So within a home, if there are multiple slaves, the slave that was considered the lowest on the totem pole and serving in that household had the duty of caring for the feet of the individual when they walked into a home. And John saying, do you know culturally that position, the way we view it? Well, you may be honoring me in your culture. But compared to the importance of this Jesus. I just want you to get this message. I am not worthy to even untie.

And sandals. When Paul carried on his ministry. He goes to Corinth and he says this thought for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Getting this Jesus right is paramount to what the entire Bible shares for us. He’s just not a piece of our lives. He is life itself. One of the things I think John’s saying to us. As if we could just get focused. On the powerful thought that he is just expressing in John chapter one over the significance of Jesus. Nothing can stop you from where God desires to lead you. I think what John the Baptist is saying to Israel and Paul to us in passages like this this morning. You think in this society, Paul’s likely speaking to religious people in Corinth. There’s a lot of religious teaching there. You think John the Baptist is certainly speaking to religious leaders? As he shares a message for Israel. And like most people of religious background. And we would often describe it. You know, it’s good. It’s a good thing, right? I mean, this religion, uh, makes me a good person, therefore, because it makes me a good person. There, there. Therefore, it must be true. Good makes true right and might makes right. And so therefore, it must be. Must be right. Right. I think John saying no. I think John’s looking into religious culture and he’s saying this. Men. Women. Don’t let good things.

Keep you from God things. Good isn’t godly. Good could be godly. But it doesn’t necessitate it is according to whoever’s description of what is good. And sometimes in our lives we just settle for good and we stick our head in the sand thinking that’s enough. But good isn’t godly. You know, one of the best enemies of great things. It’s a good things. Don’t let good things keep you from godly things. And the message of who Jesus is. An understanding what it means that the word became flesh for you. That is the place where God gives you an invitation just to let go of good things and just come to what is godly and grab a hold of Jesus as Jesus has been in pursuit of you. The most important years in all of human history. The most important event in all of human history is unfolding in Christ. Hashtag this. The word became flesh. His pursuit as you. That you may understand him and walk with him, that no longer would good things get in the way of godly things. But in your life you can grab hold of Jesus and follow him. So let me encourage you. Take some time this week. Let’s open up the Gospels. Maybe open up. John. This is the place where John is just presenting to the world exactly who this Jesus is. And the weeks ahead. We’re going to come to know him. And not just use a borrowed belief. But see how our faith can trust in the one that is the true and biblical Christ.

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