Sermon Tone Analysis

\\ Chapter 1

 

 

*Christmas  2008*

 

The Word Was Made Flesh

John 1:1-18[1]

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I.     Introduction

| I.  IntroductionA.

Views of ChristmasB.

Scripture perspectiveII.

Five truths About Word-Made-FleshA.

His NameB.

His Pre-existenceC.

His IdentityD.

His PowerE.

He Is Life & LightIII.

Point of ActionA.

No ResponseB.

Positive ResponseC.

It’s all goodV.

Point of Action |

I would like to draw your attention to the first chapter of the gospel of John as we begin a minnie series focusing on Christmas.

!! A.     There are many views of Christmas.

§         A little child sees Christmas as bright lights, trees, Santa, sort of a mystical magical time full of fun, full of anticipation and excitement like no other time during the year...a time to receive gifts.

§         Teenagers look at Christmas as a time to be with friends, go to parties, be out of school, and get new cloths.

§         Adults see Christmas as a time with family and friends, a time of overdrawn checkbooks and overcharged credit cards...shopping malls, trying to imagine whether all your relatives have gained weight or lost weight and what size they should be given without being insulted.

§         Businesses see Christmas as a time to deplete the inventory and raise the profits.

!! B.    Scripture perspective

As we turn to the pages of Scripture Christmas takes a different twist:

§         Romans 1:2-3 Paul sees the birth of Christ as the time that the word of the prophets in the holy Scripture came to pass.[2]

§         Philippians 2 Paul sees Christmas as a time when God condescends in great humiliation to come into the world.

§         The writer of Hebrews, in 2:14 sees it as the time when Satan is going to be destroyed,[3]

§         In Hebrews 10 the writer sees Christmas as the great event in which God provides a sacrificial offering for the sins of men.

§         1 John in his epistle, 4:14 talks about it being the birth of the Savior of the world.[4]

§         In 1 Timothy 1:15 Paul says it is the time when Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

And then he adds a very personal note: "Of whom I am chief."[5]

!! C.     John 1:1-18

That brings us to John’s Gospel, another great Christmas passage.

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. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

6 There came a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7 He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.

8 He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.

9 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12 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, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 John testified about Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’"

16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

I picked this passage for two reasons:

§         One, it is a great Christmas passage.

The key verse is v14: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

This is the meaning of Christmas--God coming into the world, born of virgin, in the person of Jesus Christ.

§         The second reason that I want us to look at this passage is that it is full of truths about Jesus that we desperately need to embrace.

This is especially important because there are a lot of non-Christian groups giving the impression that Jesus mixes well with all religions.

You hear this especially from Muslim leaders who point out that they honor Jesus more than we do because they do not think God would allow him to suffer the awful death of a criminal on the cross.

So it is crucial that Christians know Jesus Christ very well, and can tell the difference between the Christ of the Bible and the Christ which other religious groups say about Him.

What I would like us to do is take a closer look at Jesus from one who knew him on earth more intimately than anyone else, the apostle John . . .

! II.

Five truths about the "Word-Made-Flesh" in this passage.

I have picked out five truths concerning Jesus, “the Word made flesh”, and then well contrast two starkly different responses that you might give to him this morning.

My aim is that you might see Jesus for who he is and treasure Him as your all-surpassing Treasure.

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| II.

IntroductionA.

Views of ChristmasB.

Scripture perspectiveII.

Five truths About Word-Made-FleshA.

His NameB.

His Pre-existenceC.

His IdentityD.

His PowerE.

He Is Life & LightIII.

Point of ActionD.

No ResponseE.

Positive Response |

So let’s begin with five truths about the "Word-Made-Flesh" in this passage.

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!! A.     His Name: The Name of the Word-Made-Flesh on Earth Is Jesus Christ

V17: "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through /Jesus Christ/."

!!! 1.      His Name: Jesus

In Matthew 1:20ff "Jesus" was the name Joseph was told to give the child by the angel of the Lord because it means "savior."

"An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name /Jesus/, for He will save His people from their sins.’"

!!! 2.      His Title: Christ

"Christ" was the title that referred to the long-awaited king of the Jews who would give victory to the people and bear the government of the world on his shoulders.

When Andrew, Peter’s brother, told him that he had met Jesus he said (in John 1:41), "‘We have found the Messiah’ [and John adds, which means Christ)."

So the person we are speaking of in these verses is known in the Bible and throughout the world as "Jesus Christ."

And each name carries tremendous meaning--He is Savior and King.

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!! B.    | Robertson’s Word Pictures Three times in this sentence John uses this imperfect of eimi [was] to be which conveys no idea of origin for God or for the Logos, simply continuous existence.

Quite a different verb (egeneto, became) appears in verse 14 for the beginning of the Incarnation of the Logos.

See the distinction sharply drawn in 8:58 "before Abraham came (genestai) I am" (eimi, timeless existence |

His pre-extence:  The Word-Made-Flesh Existed as God and with God before He Was Born as a Man on Earth

V1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

!!! 1.

In The Beginning

John’s opening words, ‘In the Beginning . . .

“  force us to ask the question, what does John mean?

What “beginning” is He referring to?

I think John is taking us back to the beginning in Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created..."  In that beginning, the only beginning we can know about because before the creation there was no beginning, there was only God.

So in the beginning, the only beginning we know, the beginning of God's creation, was the Word.

| John evidently has allusion here, and means to apply to "the Word" an expression which is there applied /to God/.

In both places it clearly means "before creation," "before the world was made," "when as yet there was nothing."

The meaning is, that the /Word/ had an existence before the world was created.