Incarnation of Jesus

Jonathan McGuire

Christmas 2020 • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Among Us

Innersloth released a video game in 2018 called Among us.

How many know what the game among us is?

How many have ever played the game among us?

Among us was not very popular upon release and this year it has exploded due to popular youtubers playing the game. The game takes place in a space-themed setting, in which players each take on one of two roles, most being Crewmates, and a predetermined number being Impostors.

The goal of the Crewmates is to identify the Impostors, eliminate them, and complete tasks around the map; the Impostors' goal is to covertly sabotage and kill the Crewmates before they complete all of their tasks. Players suspected to be Impostors may be eliminated via a plurality vote, which any player may initiate by calling an emergency meeting or reporting a dead body.

Crewmates win if all Impostors are eliminated or all tasks are completed whereas Impostors win if there is an equal number of Impostors and Crewmates, or if a critical sabotage goes unresolved.

If you have ever played the card game mafia growing up, then among us is much like the game mafia.

My kids have got me to play this game. When I have played with them, I have never been an imposter. I will tell you though that Macy has been an imposter. Macy immediately killed me first so that way I could not report to the group that it was her. Ruthless!

So once an imposter makes a kill, then chat happens to vote who the imposter is. The imposter often lies and tries to convince others that they are not the imposter. It is the goal of the crewmates to find out who the imposters are and vote them off.

Christmas 2020 is quickly approaching. This is a time that we as Christ followers set aside to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior.

Christmas time is more than giving and receiving presents, more than family get togethers and more than special events. Christmas, Jesus coming in the flesh as God and living among us, is essential to the Christian faith.

Jesus coming in the flesh as God is called the Incarnation

Incarnation: comes from the Latin word (in carne) and means in flesh.

This belief or Doctrine is essential to the Christian faith.

Doctrine: a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a church, political party, or other group

It is essential for us as Christ followers to believe in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

We are living in a time where doctrine is everywhere. You see it every day people are trying to convince you of a belief or set of beliefs from their political party or agenda.

This is called Indoctrinate

Indoctrinate: teach (a person or group) to accept a set of beliefs uncritically.

Test the Spirits

Open your Bible to 1 John 4.

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Historical Development > Incarnation

Historical Development. The first group to challenge the traditional doctrine of the incarnation was the Gnostics, who in the 2nd century denied that Jesus was truly human. Their Greek belief that the physical creation was evil led them to deny the incarnation. They believed Christ to be a quasi-spiritual being who merely appeared human.

Mission drift in believing that Christ could not come as fully human because humanity is evil and so Jesus could not be fully human.

You can see how it is essential that we believe the Christ came as God in human flesh.

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Historical Development > Incarnation

The next challenge to the orthodox view came through the Arian, Apollinarian, and Nestorian controversies in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Arianism held that the incarnation was total, so that Christ the “Logos” was no longer fully God. At the same time he was not fully human, so Christ was someone between two natures

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Historical Development > Incarnation

In the 8th century, Spain and France were centers of the “adoptionist” controversy. Adoptionism taught that at birth Jesus was human, but at his baptism he underwent a “second birth” and was “adopted” as Son of God.

Throughout history you can see that people questioned the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

Many have asked the question is Jesus the Messiah or is he an imposter.

1 John 4:1–3 HCSB

1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. 3 But every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.

This letter of John says there is one essential piece to testing the spirits to see if they are really from God or not.

What is that piece?

Every Spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come “In the Flesh” is from God.

In the same way there are many people who recognize Jesus as a historical figure. These people will not argue that Jesus came to this earth and that his name should be in the history books. They believe Jesus was just like you and I and that he was just simply a man and he was not God. He was a Ghandi type figure that lived counter culture and loved people but he was not God. He was a man.

False Beliefs About Jesus

Jews believe that Jesus is not the Messiah and they are waiting for the Messiah to come.

JeHovah’s witness believe Jesus was one of God’s son just like you and I and he was not God in the flesh.

Islam recognizes Jesus to be a prophet and that he was not God incarnate or in the flesh.

What do you believe about Jesus?

The answer to this question is essential to your faith! Is Jesus the real deal? Or to you is Jesus just an imposter of the real deal?

Introduction and commentary

The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary 1. The Content of the Teaching (4:1–3)

There is need for Christian discernment. For many are too gullible, and exhibit a naïve readiness to credit messages and teachings which purport to come from the spirit world. There is such a thing, however, as a misguided tolerance of false doctrine. Unbelief (do not believe every spirit) can be as much a mark of spiritual maturity as belief. We should avoid both extremes, the superstition which believes everything and suspicion which believes nothing.

1 John 4:2 HCSB

2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

Again the letter of John says that you can test the Spirits and know if they are from God if they believe that Jesus is God in flesh.

Christmas is here. The first 4 books of The New Testament begin to tell about Jesus.

It is interesting to see the different approaches each writer takes as Jesus comes to Earth.

The Bible Knowledge commentary says this,

The Book of Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus that connects Him to David and Abraham. Mark starts with the preaching of John the Baptist. Luke has a dedication of his work to Theophilus and follows that with a prediction of the birth of John the Baptist. But John begins with a theological prologue. It is almost as if John had said, “I want you to consider Jesus in His teaching and deeds. But you will not understand the good news of Jesus in its fullest sense unless you view Him from this point of view. Jesus is God manifest in the flesh, and His words and deeds are those of the God-Man.”[1]

Turn to the Gospel of John

John 1:1–3 HCSB

1 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 All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created.

In the beginning was the Word.

As far back as man can think the Word always existed. God is eternal. John chose the word Word because this was familiar with his readers. You can see as the chapter progresses he establishes that this is speaking of Jesus.

The Word was with God in the beginning

The word with here suggests in company with. This is a special relationship of eternal fellowship in the trinity.

The Word was God

Jehovah’s witnesses translate this clause, “The word was a God”. They actually bought a version of the Bible so that they could change this to fit their beliefs that Jesus was one of God’s sons and not actually the God in flesh.

Verse 1 here says, The Word is eternal; the Word is in relationship to God (the Father); and the Word is God.

He was with God in the beginning.

Jesus is not an after thought. God knew what Adam and Eve would do. He gave them the opportunity to obey and they did not choose this and so they sinned. At this moment of sin, God did not say uh oh wait now what do we do and create Jesus.

It should bring us great peace that Jesus was not some after thought to our sin. Jesus has always been in the beginning with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit making up the trinity. Jesus is God and he has been there from the beginning.

All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created.

Jesus came to reveal the work of the Father and the work of revelation began in Creation. Creation reveals God.

Psalm 19:1 HCSB

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands.

Why did Jesus come in the flesh?

Genesis chapter 1 tells us the story of creation. We say that everything was created through Jesus. God loved his work and called it good. He had created man and made him a help mate and called her woman. He placed them in this perfect place in the garden with everything they needed. He gave them one instruction not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

What happened next?

The serpent came along and enticed them to choose to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil and they ate it.

God knew this would happen and God had a plan.

Genesis 3:15 HCSB

15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

Again your sin that has been dealt with by Jesus on the cross was not some after thought or plan the Lord came up with.

He knew what he had created and he knew that man would disobey so he had a plan to send Jesus in the flesh to deal with this sin

Notice Genesis 3:15 says the seed of a woman and Jesus was born of a virgin. God had a plan to deal with your sin.

So after the fall why doesn’t God just forgive everyone’s sin.

Redemption: to buy back

If God simply forgave everyone’s sin, then there would not be a buy back. I have said and continue to say that God removing Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden was a major act of grace because had they eaten from the tree of life they would have lived forever with the guilt of sin, pain, brokenness, addiction, worry, fear and in a fallen world not as God had designed it.

Jesus coming in the flesh is God’s buy back

John 1:4 HCSB

4 Life was in Him, and that life was the light of men.

God’s plan for Jesus to come in the flesh does not just show that God wanted us back but that he also has power over sin and he can renew his original plan.

God sent His son Jesus in the flesh so that we could be made new again.

John 1:14 HCSB

14 The Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus fully God came to us in the flesh.

This single belief has the potential to change everything for us this Christmas.

If we believe that Jesus was just a good man and not God who came in the flesh, then this Christmas we will strive to live up to his standards and long to be like the good man he displayed in scripture only to fall short because we can’t attain that. We will try to give all the right gifts, say all the right things, do our best to receive gifts and sometimes be disappointed. Things may slow from work and we find a lack of peace because we lose our purpose and long to be like Jesus in scripture simply because he was a good man.

Perhaps this Christmas can be different…

We can see that Jesus is God in the flesh who had a plan to deal with our sin.

It was not some after thought or quick witted plan that was put together but that at the fall of man God had a plan for us.

This plan involved Jesus coming in the flesh being fully God in the flesh. This plan was that God would redeem or buy back you and I.

A desire for him to restore things back to their original design and set us free from our sin and death.

This Christmas can look different. This Christmas can be about God’s plan for you and I.

Yes we can give gifts, receive gifts, have downtime, experience peace because God had a plan and his plan was that Jesus would come in the flesh and Isaiah prophesied about this.

Isaiah 7:14 HCSB

14 Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.

Immanuel: God with us

We see this take place in the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew 1:18–24 HCSB

18 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After His mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit. 19 So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly. 20 But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name Him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.” 24 When Joseph got up from sleeping, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her

Jesus was not created.

Jesus is not made up from the DNA of Joseph and Mary. Jesus was with God in the beginning. Jesus was fully God and fully man.

Jesus became fully God in the flesh to buy you back. We have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. Jesus came and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. God, through Jesus, had a plan to buy you back.

Jesus being God in the flesh. He was fully God and fully human. He was the perfect lamb of God that died for you.

God wanted to restore us to who he created us to be. He, through Jesus, is making all things knew.

Jesus was not an imposter. Jesus was fully God and fully man. Keep Jesus the center of Christmas.

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