THE MAN WHO GOD BECAME

JOHN 1:1-18

What is there in your life that you have always wanted to do, but have never gotten around to doing? If you had the opportunity to become anything, what would you become? God had such an opportunity. He became a man.

 THE WORD

"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. (John 1:1-2).

This passage echoes with a resounding reverberation from the Old Testament. It takes us back to the creation. But there is a difference. Here the emphasis here is not upon God CREATING, but rather upon His BEING.

Here we read that in the beginning, something already WAS. When you go back in time as far as you can possible imagine, before anything else ever exists, God WAS. And yet, it is not God who is the primary subject of this passage, but One who is known as "the Word."

1. The Identity of the Word.

This One known as "the Word" is identified in two different ways. This does not mean that He is two separate persons, but merely that there are two separate aspects to His being.

The Word was God

The Word became Flesh

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1).

"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14).

It is evident from this second passage that "the Word" is a reference to Jesus of Nazareth. It is equally evident from the first passage that we are meant to regard the man Jesus as being God.

2. The Pre-Existence of the Word.

John 1:1 does NOT say that "in the beginning the Word came into being." Instead, it tells us that at the time of the beginning, the Word ALREADY WAS. The Word pre-existed. This is seen in the three statements of John 1:1.

m The Word pre-existed.

m The Word pre-existed with God.

m The Word pre-existed as God.

3. The Significance of the Word.

What is the significance of the term "Word"? It signifies communication. That’s what a word does. It communicates an idea. If man was ever going to learn of God, it would have be God who first revealed Himself. Why is this? Because there is a communication gap between God and man.

That is why Jesus came. He is the communication of God to man. When God wanted to get "up-close and personal" with mankind, He did it by becoming a man Himself.

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. (Hebrews 1:1-2).

The Bible is the history of God communicating to man. He started this communication all the way back in the Garden of Eden. But He did not stop there. He continued to speak to man.

m In dreams and visions.

m Through a burning bush.

m In smoke and in fire.

m Through patriarchs and prophets.

But He saved the best till last. Ultimately, God spoke to us in the person of His Son.

THE WORD BECAME FLESH

"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14).

God moved in time and space. The One who was from the beginning; who was with God and who was God did something marvelous. He became flesh.

Why? Why did God become flesh? Why would an infinite, eternal and unchangeable God stoop down to lay aside His glory and majesty in order to be born to a humble peasant girl in a backwoods town? Why would Creator take the form of the Created? I want to suggest several reasons:

1. He Became Flesh that We Might Know God.

The story is told of a little girl who cried out to her mother from her bedroom, "Mommy, I’m afraid to be in my dark room alone." Her mother replied, "It’s okay, Honey. The Lord is with you." She called back, "Yes, but I want someone with skin on." Jesus is God "with skin on." And He has come so that we never have to be afraid again.

In the Old Testament, God had manifested Himself in thunder and lightning, a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He had approached men through a sacrificial system - by the blood of bulls and of goats. There was a mediator in the priesthood and a holy place in the Temple - and before that, the Tabernacle.

This passage says that "the Word dwelt among us." It reads literally, "He TABERNACLED among us." In the same way that people used to have to come to the Tabernacle and later to the Temple to meet God, it is now through Jesus that we must come to meet God.

His own death is the supreme sacrifice for sins of which all of the other Old Testament sacrifices were only a type. He is both sacrifice and high priest and temple. When you look at Him, you see God.

No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. (John 1:18).

One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament is where Moses goes to the Lord and says, "Lord, I want to see your glory." God says to him, "Moses, you can’t do that. For to see me is to die. But here is what I will do, Moses. I will have you stand in a cleft of this rock and I will cover you with My hand and I will cause My goodness to pass by and then, after I have passed, I will remove My hand and you will see my afterglow."

The coming of Jesus is the answer to the prayer of Moses: "Show me your glory." The disciples saw the glory of Jesus and recognized it for what it was - the glory of the only begotten from the Father.

2. He Became Flesh that We Might See Truth.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:4-5).

There was the true light which coming into the world, enlightens every man. (John 1:9).

Imagine yourself in a dark room. Not merely dimly lit, but totally dark. The only place where I have ever seen such total darkness has been in the bowels of the earth. In such a place, having keen eyesight doesn’t help a bit. Without light, we are all blind. And without Jesus, we are all spiritually blind. Were it not for Him, we would live our lives completely oblivious to the spiritual realities around us.

Those who live in darkness cannot see. It does not matter how hard they look, they cannot see without the Light. But that is not the tragedy. The tragedy is that, after a while, they grow to like the darkness.

"And this is the judgment that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who practices the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." (John 3:19-21).

Why don’t people come to Jesus? Because He is like a light turned on in a dark closet - you can see all of the mess. And when He comes into a life, sin is exposed for that which is really bad.

No one likes to have their sins exposed. But Jesus does exactly that. He exposes your sins to yourself. And He deals with them. He nails them to His cross. And He says to you, "They don’t belong to you anymore. Go and sin no more!"

3. He Became Flesh to Die for Sins.

The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29).

Why was Jesus called a "Lamb?" There are a lot of other things that He might have been called.

m The Lion who reigns over sin

m The Elephant who crushes sin

m The Bear who destroys sin

m The Eagle who sees sin

m The.... Lamb?

Why a Lamb? I think that there are several reasons.

"Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things... but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18-19).

When a Hebrew living in Biblical times heard the word "lamb," he thought immediately of a sacrifice. An innocent substitute. He knew that the only way he could ever approach God was upon the basis of a sacrifice. And that sacrifice was usually a lamb.

m One lamb for a man.

m One lamb for a family.

m One lamb for the nation.

m One Lamb for the world.

The lamb was an innocent substitute. It had done no sin. But it was put to death for the sins of another. Jesus did that, too. He is the substitute for sin. He died instead of us.

4. He Became Flesh to Communicate His Love to Us.

There is a story of a housewife who came to the point where she couldn’t wash another dish or change another diaper and so she got in the family car and took off for parts unknown. That night, she called her husband and he was frantic. "Where are you? Why have you left?" She asked about the children and then she hung up. She called a few nights later and he was a bit calmer. After she asked about the children, he said to her, "Honey, we miss you and we love you. Won’t you please come home?" She was silent and hung up. This began a pattern of occasional calls. Each time ended the same as he would tell her that he loved her and she would then softly and quietly hang up.

Finally, he could take it no longer and he took the meager family savings and hired a private detective to locate his missing wife. She was quickly located and he was given an address in Des Moines, Iowa.

He left the children with the in-laws and rented a car and drove to the city where she was staying. The address was a room in a seedy hotel. He paused outside her door with a speech prepared on his lips. He knocked at the door and when she opened it the speech was forgotten in a tender embrace. "Let’s go home."

It was a few nights later after the children had been put to bed that the young husband finally broached the subject that had been haunting him. "Honey, each time you called and I told you that I love you and wanted you to come home. Why didn’t you return?" She replied, "All those times it was only words. But then you came."

That is was the Lord did in the person of Jesus. In times past He had spoken to the fathers through the prophets. But then He came. And that makes all the difference.


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