December 10, 2025 • 25 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Here listening to Doctor Jeff'swarzentrau with Pastor Jeff Ministries on
today's program. Pastor Jeff begins his message the Incarnation of
Christ from the series The Only God and shows you
why it matters that the Word became flesh and lived
among us. Our mission is to equip you with solid
(00:24):
biblical truth so you can live boldly for Jesus. We
invite you to check out Pastorjeff dot com, where you'll
find a wealth of resources to help you grow in
your walk with Christ. While you're there, be sure to
sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly devotional emails to get
encouragement right in your inbox. Now here's Pastor Jeff with
today's program.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
There may be nothing more spectacular than seeing new birth,
the life of a new child. There's something about seeing
a new baby, even if it's not your baby. When
you see a child, it's an incredible experience, but when
it's your own, it certainly is. I had the privilege
of being present for all three of my children being born,
got to see them take their first breath, and I
(01:08):
remember even on my first born, when I saw it
for the first time, take our first breath. I thought,
this is amazing, and I had nothing to do with it.
So I got creative and in all that he did.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
And you know what, it.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Means so much to us that even every single year,
what we do is once the year's up, we tell
people what happy birthday, We send them a little congratulation
notes ingredients. And I know this because today's my birthday.
I don't know if you know that, and I figured
that's what you were gonna do. But I want to
let you know thanks for applauding. But I had nothing
(01:41):
to do with it. I didn't get to pick my birthday,
neither did you. None of us get to pick our birthday.
But Jesus Christ picked his. And when he came into
this world, he changed everything. And whether you're a believer
or a non believer, you know that the person and.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Work of Jesus Christ people.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Are aware of all over the world and they have
been for generations and centuries. And so today, as we're
doing the Only God series and we're in Christology talking
about the person and work of Jesus, I want to
continue our study. Last week we talked about the fact
that Jesus Christ is deity, that he's God, that He's
always existed.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
There's never a time that he didn't exist.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
We spent significant time talking about the fact that he's God,
and that he's eternal, and that he's creator and these life,
and that he's unstoppable from John chapter one, in those
first five verses. But today I want to talk to
you about the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God coming to
us and what the significance is of that. And if
you were raised in the church or you've gone to
(02:42):
church for a while, you've heard the story about Jesus' birth,
but there's so much to it that oftentimes we forget
what the significance of that is. And so today I
want to talk about the incarnation of Jesus Christ. So
if you have a Bible, you can follow along in
John chapter one. We're going to be in verses fourteen
to yeah eighteen, but I'd like to set up by
reading the first part of the Gospel of John as well,
(03:05):
just to give us a framework for what we're talking about.
And read what we did last week, starting in verse
one all the way through the end of verse eighteen,
and then we'll unpack those final verses together. He says
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. He was in
the beginning with God. All things came into being through him,
and apart from him, nothing came into being. That has
(03:26):
come into being.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
In him was.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Life, and that life was the light of men. The
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not
comprehend it. Now we hear about the testimony of John
the Baptist. 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
(03:51):
into the world, enlightens every man. 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, nor of the flesh, of the will.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Of man, but of God.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And this is where we get into our text this morning,
and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and
we saw his glory. Glory is of the only begotten
from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified
about him and cried out, saying, this was he whom
I said. He who comes after me has a higher
rank than I, for he existed before me. For of
(04:35):
his fullness we have all received and grace upon grace,
For the law was given through Moses, Grace and truth
were revealed through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God
at any time, the only Begotten God, who is in
the bosom of the Father.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
He has explained him.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And they're in this great passage about the christology of
our God and who Jesus Christ is and how he works.
We're going to focus on verses fourteen to eight eighteen.
I'm gonna talk about the incarnation of Christ, that God
came to us and what the significance of that is.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
I'm only going to use five.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Words today to describe this, but I hope that as
we go through this, this will give you a true
picture of what the Bible wants to reveal about why
Jesus coming to earth is so significant. I think even
for non believers out there, like, why do you gather
every Christmas and just celebrate the birth of Christ. Today
is going to be your answer. And the first word
I'll tell you about the incarnation of Christ is this.
(05:29):
The incarnation of Christ is miraculous. It's nothing shy of miraculous.
As a matter of fact, there's no English word I
could describe.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
We could use the.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Word awesome, spectacular, magnificent, brilliant, beyond word, there's no English
words that we have in.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Our language to describe how marvelous this is.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Notice how the tech starts in verse fourteen and the
word became flesh. The word became flesh. Friends, out of
all of biblical revelation, in those three words, word became
flesh is a mic drop. There may not be three
more powerful words in the entire scriptures. We learned last
(06:10):
week that Jesus Christ is deity, that in the beginning
was the word the lagos, and the word was with God,
and the word was God. He was in the beginning
with God. We learned that everything that came into being
came through him. Nothing that's been created, whether we see
it or don't see it, was created without Jesus Christ.
Now we don't know at that point who the logos is,
(06:33):
we don't know. For the Jews, the logos was the
one that through which God created the cosmos. So whoever
the logos is, we understand the logos as whoever.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Created the world. Now we don't know who that is.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
The Jews would say, but God did in some way,
and the Greeks would say the logos was the medium
through whom God created the world and communicated to his creation.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
So for the Jews and the Greeks, the logos was.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
This notion of wiz understanding of creative power, much like
today where people say, we don't know how we got here,
we don't know how it got but it was the logos,
whatever or whoever did, it was the logos, and John
saying that logos in the beginning was with God, and
that logos is God. Now this logos became flesh, this
(07:23):
word became human, the divine became a man. It's a
mic drop, y'all. You study religion all over the world,
you study anyone you want. There is not one that
makes the claim that God came to human beings as
a human. It's significant, and if it doesn't blow you
(07:46):
away to hear the Word became flesh. You don't understand
what it's about. It's miraculous, it's beyond words. It's indescribable,
because the first thing you should say is how, like
I don't get it, And the Bible doesn't say how.
The Bible just says that, and the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory as
(08:07):
of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace
and truth. It means this Word became flesh, that God
became a man, he took it on himself, he arrived
in the scene as It's incredible. It's beyond words. We
don't think of it like that. Now, if we put
(08:28):
the slide back up that I showed last week of
the Trinity, this should help with this because we learned
last week that our God is three distinct persons with
one essence, and there's one God, and that the Father
is not the Son of the Spirit, and the Son
is not the Father of the Spirit, and the Spirit
is not the Father of the Son.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
But they are all three one God. And what we
see in the.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Text is that this second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ,
who is God, who has always been God, who will
always be God chose his date and came to the
world as how how did God want to reveal himself.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
To humankind as a human being.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
You want to know what God's like, you look at
the person of Jesus Christ, because that's God in the flesh.
He chose the exact time he was going to come,
and he's the only one in human history they got
to choose his parents, and it's significant how he chose them. See,
Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. Now some people say, well,
(09:35):
that's not that big of a deal. Why does she
have to be a virgin? Let me tell you why.
Because all the way back in creation, when God created us,
he created us in his image. He created us righteous,
holy good. He created us as image bearers of Him.
But Adam and Eve sinned and messed it up for
all of us, so that when Adam and Eve had children,
they had sinners, and they pro created and they had sinners,
(09:58):
and they had sinners, and you and I I were
born not knowing.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
What it's like to be without sin.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
So if Joseph and Mary had come together and had
a child, this God would have.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Been born in what sin.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
That's why Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah seven, verse fourteen, seven
hundred and fifty years before Jesus was born. Behold, the
virgin will conceive and bear a son. Why did Jesus
have to be born of a virgin? Why did he
have to be conceived by the Holy Spirit so that
he could be conceived sinless? And that's how he came.
(10:36):
And the Bible goes through great links to talk about that,
to talk about how Jesus came. In the first chapter
of the New Testament, in Matthew chapter one, we read
about so and so was the father of, who is
the father of, who's the father of, who's the father of?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Who is the father of?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Until it gets down to Jesus, And then we get
to Methan who is the father of Jacob. And Jacob
was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary by
whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. Why
is Joseph not the father of Jesus because Jesus didn't
have a biological father.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Jesus had his father.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
You're listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries in today's message The
Incarnation of Christ from the series The Only God showing
you why it matters that the Word became flesh and
lived among us. We'll get back to Pastor Jeff in
just a moment, but first, this program is only possible
because of generous listeners like you. In this month, we'd
(11:36):
like to thank you for your gift by sending you
Pastor Jeff's timely resource, the Gift, a twenty five day
Christmas devotional. Whether you're new to the faith or a
seasoned believer, these devotions will remind you that Christmas is
about so much more than a manger scene, and why
believing in the lordship of Jesus Christ is so essential.
Request your copy today when you give it Pastorjeff dot com.
(11:58):
Now let's get back to Pastor Jeff Yeah for the
conclusion of today's message.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And then we get to Methan, who is the father
of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of Joseph, the
husband of Mary by whom Jesus was born, who is
called the Messiah. Why is Joseph not the father of
Jesus because Jesus didn't have a biological father. Jesus had
his father, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit of
(12:26):
Jesus would have been conceived of Joseph and Mary, Jesus
would have been conceived in sin.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
If Jesus conceived in sin, then he's not God.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
And when he dies on the cross, it's not significant
because he can't pay for the sins of humanity and
he can't fulfill what God said. So if Jus isn't
born of a virgin, there's no need to even worship him,
there's no need to even look at him, because he's
no different than me and you. But I'm here to
tell you Jus was born of a virgin. Jesus Christ
is God. Jesus Christ came into the world sinless, and
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although tempted in every way we were, was without sin.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
But keep in mind, especially if you grew up in
a tradition where you celebrate Mary, which in some ways
you should give her credence, because she clearly was a
righteous woman and Joseph clearly was a righteous man. Because
the Holy Spirit picked her to conceive and bear the sun,
she had to be righteous, she had to be willing
(13:20):
to have the baby, and Joseph had to have four
different dreams to follow through on.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
What God said.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
So he certainly was righteous and following God. He had
one dream because his fiance Mary told him, hey, you
need to know some before we get married. I'm pregnant,
but y'a also need to know I didn't do anything.
I'm still a virgin and God placed the baby in me.
So jose needed more than that. So an angel shows
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up and said, what your fiance is telling you is true.
Take her and let her be your wife. So he
did because he was a righteous man and did what
the Lord ask. After King Herod was going to slay
all the babies, he had another dream to get him
out of Bethlehem. After Herod had died, he had another
dream to bring him back. And after that he had
another dream to say, don't come to Judea, go up north.
So that's why they ended up in Nazareth. Joseph was
(14:12):
a righteous man. We know very little about him, but
we know that he listened to God and followed him.
We don't know a whole lot about Mary, but we
know that she was a righteous woman because God picked
her to be Howse and be the mother and be
the womb of the baby Jesus. So we should say, hey,
Mary was a righteous woman. But Mary's not God, She's
(14:34):
not part of the Trinity. We don't worship Mary, we
don't pray to Mary. We don't thank God for Mary.
We thank God for Jesus. And it's really interesting because
if you remember, when Mary was pregnant with Jesus, who
did she go visit?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
She went and.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Visited her cousin, Elizabeth, and who was pregnant with John
the Baptist.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
John the Baptist is six months older than Jesus.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
What happens when Elizabeth, who's pregnant, stands right next to
Mary who's pregnant, John the Baptist starts doing cartwheels inside
his mother's womb. I mean they're like a womb away
and they're dancing around, which tells you a couple things.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Life begins in you. To row.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
And number two, Jesus, albeit fully divine, is fully human.
He's coming out as both the word, the eternal deity.
God became flesh. Now when we stay flesh, we're not
talking about sinful. We weren't created. I mean, when God
created humankind, he didn't create sinners. We screwed that up.
(15:48):
God created flesh, created humanity. Jesus was born without sin.
But what's unique about his birth is, at no time
did he ever stop being God.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
He's always been God.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
And yet at the time that he was conceived and
then he came out in Utero, he's going to be flesh,
not only for thirty three years, He's going to be
flesh for eternity. Think about that. Some people think, well,
he just came and housed the body. Now, we can
talk about all sorts of heresies in the church, but
they all stem from this. Jesus Christ is truly God
and he's truly man. He's fully God, he's fully man.
(16:22):
He's not God housing a kind of a temporary body.
He's not human with a little bit of divine. He's
all God and all Man all the time, and it
never stops.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
That's who he is.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
That's why when the word becomes flesh, we are looking
at the god man Jesus. The god man Jesus lived
his life. The god man Jesus fulfilled the requirements of
the law. The god man Jesus died on the cross.
The god man Jesus rose from the dead. The god
Man Jesus ascended into heaven and guests who is coming
back to rule and raign on this planet. The god
(16:52):
man Jesus Christ now if you take it time to
think about the humility of God, it's not It would
be humble enough if Jesus was willing to come be
human for thirty three years and then shed humanity and
go back to God.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
But no, no, no, He's going to put it on for
all eternity.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Why because if he ever stops being human, you have
no connection with God. And if he ever stops being God,
then nothing we read about makes any difference at all.
He has to be both for all time. So you
talk about everything that you have as father, son and
Holy Spirit in the Godhead, and you as the second
person of the Trinity, You're going to humble yourself before
your Father and come demonstrate to the world this is
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who I am.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
That's humble. I mean. Think about Philippians chapter two just
for a minute.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Philippians chapter two, where it teaches us to be humble
and preference other people more than ourselves and all those
different things, and it says in second Corinthia or of
Philippians chapter two and verse five, have this same attitude
in yourself, which was also in Christ.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Jesus.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Here's the attitude you should have although he existed in
the form of God. Did not regard a quality with
God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking
the form of a bond servant, and being made in
the likeness of men. Being found in the appearance of
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the
point of death, even death on a cross.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
It's for this reason.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Also God highly exalted him and bestowed upon him the
name which is above every name. So the name of Jesus,
every need will bow of those who are in heaven
and on the earth and under the earth, and every
tongue will confess to Jesus, Christ's Lord, to the glory
of God the Father. Now, if you've been in church
for a while you've heard this, you're like, praise God.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
But think about this. Going from God to man is
a leap. We don't think about it that way. Okay,
God became a man. Have you ever thought about how
downwardly mobile you could become? Most of us don't think
about downward mobility. We think about upward mobility. How can
I grow? How can I have more? How can I
have more money? How can I have a bigger house,
(18:50):
bigger car? How can I have more influence. Jesus considered,
how can I become more downwardly mobile?
Speaker 3 (18:56):
I think about this.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I mean, imagine that you had a love for the
animal king measure, you created all the animals in the world,
and you loved them all so much, but they weren't
listening to you. So you decided you would go become
like one of your creation. So you created the platypus.
You love the platypus, you're super excited about it, but
the platypus isn't paying attention. So you decide you're gonna
leave your humanity and become a platypus for all eternity,
(19:21):
and you're gonna go show them how to live.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
And when you do, the.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Majority of them aren't going to listen to you, and
they're gonna kill you.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
But you'll rise, but.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
You're still gonna be a platypus for the rest of
eternity because of your love for the platypus.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
That's nothing.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Jesus is God, and he didn't consider equality with God
a thing to be grassed, but left that and emptying
himself and becoming in the form of a man, and
then as a man, he became a servant, serving to
the point of what death, even death on a cross,
which was the most cruel form of death you could
possibly suffer. So it wasn't just like Jesus was like,
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I'll go be a human. I'll show him how to
do that. We'll have a good time, we'll play games,
we have fun, and I'll go back to Heaven. It's
I'm gonna come. And when I come, I know by
putting on humanity, even though I'm gonna proclaim who I
am and that I created them and that I love
them and that I care for them, and that I'm God,
They're gonna kill me.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
That's humble. That's what it means. When the Word became
flesh and made his dwelling among us. It is so marvelous,
it is beyond belief. I'm not talking about the baby
Mary was holding. That baby Mary was holding had always
been part of the trinity from eternity past.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
That baby Mary's holding is the one that's gonna die
on the cross for the sin of humanity. That baby
that Mary's holding is gonna ascend to heaven. That baby
that Mary's holding is gonna rule the entire universe. That's
the baby and the manger. That's the word that became flesh.
Jesus didn't become a god at his baptism. You're never
(20:56):
gonna become a god. Jesus has always been, and always
is and always will be God. And that God became
a man. It's marvelous, it's miraculous. And it says and
he dwelt among us literally means he pitched his tent
among us literally means he tabernacled among us. In the
Old Testament, where God was was in the tabernacle.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Where is he now? Where is God's presence?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
The full deity of God Classianus two nine says is
in the person of Jesus. So when you see Jesus,
you see the God man. There's no time he ever
ceases being God. But once he puts on flesh, there's
no time he ever ceases being human. That's why the
New Testament writers will tell you in for Timothy too,
for there's one mediator between God and man, the man,
(21:45):
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
If Jesus wasn't human, we have no hope of salvation.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
If Jesus Christ did not come and incarnate himself, we
can't be saved. There's no way to get to God.
God had to come to you unbelievable. That's why I'm
more than dogmatic, because the New Testament writers are dogmatic.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
There is no other way to God.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Jesus is the truth and the life, and no one
comes to the Father except through him. Why because there's
only one God man, there's no others.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Only Jesus can make a way for you to get
to God.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Only Jesus, being fully gotten, fully man, can do anything
that God requires.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Amen. And that's what he's talking about here.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
It's so incredibly miraculous and so marvelous and so beyond
words and knows what he says. And we saw his
glory as the only begotten from the Father, full of
grace and truth. We saw his glory. It was veiled glory.
I mean, they got to see his glory and his
moral character, his glory as it was lived out among people.
But you'll also remember that John was one of three
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of the disciples that in Matthew chapter seventeen, was on
the mount of transfiguration when Jesus Christ was transfigured in.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
All of his glory, and they hit the ground.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Because his clothes were whiter than any of the whiteiness
they'd ever seen. His glory was abounding. All of those things.
We've seen his glory. We can tell you he's fully God.
We can tell you he's fully flesh.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
We've been with him.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And that's why when you read through the Bible, you
will see things like this of Jesus and his humanity.
He wept on the cross, he said, I thirst on
a boat he slept.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Why because he's human. But you also see his divine.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Cares leoprosy, cares people with palsy and crippleness, restore sight
to the blind, raises the dead, calm storms, even the
winds and the waves obeyed. Why because he's the god Man.
He's worthy of worship. He's the only one worthy of worship.
Apart from Jesus Christ. You do not have a relationship
with God, apart from knowing that Jesus is truly God
(23:51):
and truly man, fully god fully man.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
It's interwoven.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Which part of his brain is God all of it,
Which part of his brain is human all of it.
You can't separate who he is. You can't make distinctions.
That's why when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, it
was the god man rising from the dead who said,
I have power over your life too, and I can
raise you from the dead.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Thanks for listening today. That was Pastor Jeff with his
message the Incarnation of Christ from the series The Only God,
showing you why it matters that the Word became flesh
and lived among us. We're glad you joined us today.
Don't forget that you can receive a special Christmas devotional
just in time for the season when you get a
(24:37):
Pastorjeff dot com and request Pastor Jeff's book The Gift,
a twenty five day Christmas devotional. It's our thanks for
your gift to help reach more people through God's Truth
through Pastor Jeff Ministries. And while you're visiting Pastorjeff dot com,
make sure to sign up for his weekly emails so
you'll hear right away about new resources to help you
live boldly for Christ.
Here listening to Doctor Jeff'swarzentrau with Pastor Jeff Ministries on
today's program. Pastor Jeff begins his message the Incarnation of
Christ from the series The Only God and shows you
why it matters that the Word became flesh and lived
among us. Our mission is to equip you with solid
(00:24):
biblical truth so you can live boldly for Jesus. We
invite you to check out Pastorjeff dot com, where you'll
find a wealth of resources to help you grow in
your walk with Christ. While you're there, be sure to
sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly devotional emails to get
encouragement right in your inbox. Now here's Pastor Jeff with
today's program.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
There may be nothing more spectacular than seeing new birth,
the life of a new child. There's something about seeing
a new baby, even if it's not your baby. When
you see a child, it's an incredible experience, but when
it's your own, it certainly is. I had the privilege
of being present for all three of my children being born,
got to see them take their first breath, and I
(01:08):
remember even on my first born, when I saw it
for the first time, take our first breath. I thought,
this is amazing, and I had nothing to do with it.
So I got creative and in all that he did.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
And you know what, it.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Means so much to us that even every single year,
what we do is once the year's up, we tell
people what happy birthday, We send them a little congratulation
notes ingredients. And I know this because today's my birthday.
I don't know if you know that, and I figured
that's what you were gonna do. But I want to
let you know thanks for applauding. But I had nothing
(01:41):
to do with it. I didn't get to pick my birthday,
neither did you. None of us get to pick our birthday.
But Jesus Christ picked his. And when he came into
this world, he changed everything. And whether you're a believer
or a non believer, you know that the person and.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Work of Jesus Christ people.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Are aware of all over the world and they have
been for generations and centuries. And so today, as we're
doing the Only God series and we're in Christology talking
about the person and work of Jesus, I want to
continue our study. Last week we talked about the fact
that Jesus Christ is deity, that he's God, that He's
always existed.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
There's never a time that he didn't exist.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
We spent significant time talking about the fact that he's God,
and that he's eternal, and that he's creator and these life,
and that he's unstoppable from John chapter one, in those
first five verses. But today I want to talk to
you about the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God coming to
us and what the significance is of that. And if
you were raised in the church or you've gone to
(02:42):
church for a while, you've heard the story about Jesus' birth,
but there's so much to it that oftentimes we forget
what the significance of that is. And so today I
want to talk about the incarnation of Jesus Christ. So
if you have a Bible, you can follow along in
John chapter one. We're going to be in verses fourteen
to yeah eighteen, but I'd like to set up by
reading the first part of the Gospel of John as well,
(03:05):
just to give us a framework for what we're talking about.
And read what we did last week, starting in verse
one all the way through the end of verse eighteen,
and then we'll unpack those final verses together. He says
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. He was in
the beginning with God. All things came into being through him,
and apart from him, nothing came into being. That has
(03:26):
come into being.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
In him was.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Life, and that life was the light of men. The
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not
comprehend it. Now we hear about the testimony of John
the Baptist. 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
(03:51):
into the world, enlightens every man. 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, nor of the flesh, of the will.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Of man, but of God.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And this is where we get into our text this morning,
and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and
we saw his glory. Glory is of the only begotten
from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified
about him and cried out, saying, this was he whom
I said. He who comes after me has a higher
rank than I, for he existed before me. For of
(04:35):
his fullness we have all received and grace upon grace,
For the law was given through Moses, Grace and truth
were revealed through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God
at any time, the only Begotten God, who is in
the bosom of the Father.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
He has explained him.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And they're in this great passage about the christology of
our God and who Jesus Christ is and how he works.
We're going to focus on verses fourteen to eight eighteen.
I'm gonna talk about the incarnation of Christ, that God
came to us and what the significance of that is.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
I'm only going to use five.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Words today to describe this, but I hope that as
we go through this, this will give you a true
picture of what the Bible wants to reveal about why
Jesus coming to earth is so significant. I think even
for non believers out there, like, why do you gather
every Christmas and just celebrate the birth of Christ. Today
is going to be your answer. And the first word
I'll tell you about the incarnation of Christ is this.
(05:29):
The incarnation of Christ is miraculous. It's nothing shy of miraculous.
As a matter of fact, there's no English word I
could describe.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
We could use the.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Word awesome, spectacular, magnificent, brilliant, beyond word, there's no English
words that we have in.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Our language to describe how marvelous this is.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Notice how the tech starts in verse fourteen and the
word became flesh. The word became flesh. Friends, out of
all of biblical revelation, in those three words, word became
flesh is a mic drop. There may not be three
more powerful words in the entire scriptures. We learned last
(06:10):
week that Jesus Christ is deity, that in the beginning
was the word the lagos, and the word was with God,
and the word was God. He was in the beginning
with God. We learned that everything that came into being
came through him. Nothing that's been created, whether we see
it or don't see it, was created without Jesus Christ.
Now we don't know at that point who the logos is,
(06:33):
we don't know. For the Jews, the logos was the
one that through which God created the cosmos. So whoever
the logos is, we understand the logos as whoever.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Created the world. Now we don't know who that is.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
The Jews would say, but God did in some way,
and the Greeks would say the logos was the medium
through whom God created the world and communicated to his creation.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
So for the Jews and the Greeks, the logos was.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
This notion of wiz understanding of creative power, much like
today where people say, we don't know how we got here,
we don't know how it got but it was the logos,
whatever or whoever did, it was the logos, and John
saying that logos in the beginning was with God, and
that logos is God. Now this logos became flesh, this
(07:23):
word became human, the divine became a man. It's a
mic drop, y'all. You study religion all over the world,
you study anyone you want. There is not one that
makes the claim that God came to human beings as
a human. It's significant, and if it doesn't blow you
(07:46):
away to hear the Word became flesh. You don't understand
what it's about. It's miraculous, it's beyond words. It's indescribable,
because the first thing you should say is how, like
I don't get it, And the Bible doesn't say how.
The Bible just says that, and the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory as
(08:07):
of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace
and truth. It means this Word became flesh, that God
became a man, he took it on himself, he arrived
in the scene as It's incredible. It's beyond words. We
don't think of it like that. Now, if we put
(08:28):
the slide back up that I showed last week of
the Trinity, this should help with this because we learned
last week that our God is three distinct persons with
one essence, and there's one God, and that the Father
is not the Son of the Spirit, and the Son
is not the Father of the Spirit, and the Spirit
is not the Father of the Son.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
But they are all three one God. And what we
see in the.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Text is that this second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ,
who is God, who has always been God, who will
always be God chose his date and came to the
world as how how did God want to reveal himself.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
To humankind as a human being.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
You want to know what God's like, you look at
the person of Jesus Christ, because that's God in the flesh.
He chose the exact time he was going to come,
and he's the only one in human history they got
to choose his parents, and it's significant how he chose them. See,
Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. Now some people say, well,
(09:35):
that's not that big of a deal. Why does she
have to be a virgin? Let me tell you why.
Because all the way back in creation, when God created us,
he created us in his image. He created us righteous,
holy good. He created us as image bearers of Him.
But Adam and Eve sinned and messed it up for
all of us, so that when Adam and Eve had children,
they had sinners, and they pro created and they had sinners,
(09:58):
and they had sinners, and you and I I were
born not knowing.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
What it's like to be without sin.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
So if Joseph and Mary had come together and had
a child, this God would have.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Been born in what sin.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
That's why Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah seven, verse fourteen, seven
hundred and fifty years before Jesus was born. Behold, the
virgin will conceive and bear a son. Why did Jesus
have to be born of a virgin? Why did he
have to be conceived by the Holy Spirit so that
he could be conceived sinless? And that's how he came.
(10:36):
And the Bible goes through great links to talk about that,
to talk about how Jesus came. In the first chapter
of the New Testament, in Matthew chapter one, we read
about so and so was the father of, who is
the father of, who's the father of, who's the father of?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Who is the father of?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Until it gets down to Jesus, And then we get
to Methan who is the father of Jacob. And Jacob
was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary by
whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. Why
is Joseph not the father of Jesus because Jesus didn't
have a biological father.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Jesus had his father.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
You're listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries in today's message The
Incarnation of Christ from the series The Only God showing
you why it matters that the Word became flesh and
lived among us. We'll get back to Pastor Jeff in
just a moment, but first, this program is only possible
because of generous listeners like you. In this month, we'd
(11:36):
like to thank you for your gift by sending you
Pastor Jeff's timely resource, the Gift, a twenty five day
Christmas devotional. Whether you're new to the faith or a
seasoned believer, these devotions will remind you that Christmas is
about so much more than a manger scene, and why
believing in the lordship of Jesus Christ is so essential.
Request your copy today when you give it Pastorjeff dot com.
(11:58):
Now let's get back to Pastor Jeff Yeah for the
conclusion of today's message.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And then we get to Methan, who is the father
of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of Joseph, the
husband of Mary by whom Jesus was born, who is
called the Messiah. Why is Joseph not the father of
Jesus because Jesus didn't have a biological father. Jesus had
his father, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit of
(12:26):
Jesus would have been conceived of Joseph and Mary, Jesus
would have been conceived in sin.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
If Jesus conceived in sin, then he's not God.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
And when he dies on the cross, it's not significant
because he can't pay for the sins of humanity and
he can't fulfill what God said. So if Jus isn't
born of a virgin, there's no need to even worship him,
there's no need to even look at him, because he's
no different than me and you. But I'm here to
tell you Jus was born of a virgin. Jesus Christ
is God. Jesus Christ came into the world sinless, and
(12:53):
although tempted in every way we were, was without sin.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
But keep in mind, especially if you grew up in
a tradition where you celebrate Mary, which in some ways
you should give her credence, because she clearly was a
righteous woman and Joseph clearly was a righteous man. Because
the Holy Spirit picked her to conceive and bear the sun,
she had to be righteous, she had to be willing
(13:20):
to have the baby, and Joseph had to have four
different dreams to follow through on.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
What God said.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
So he certainly was righteous and following God. He had
one dream because his fiance Mary told him, hey, you
need to know some before we get married. I'm pregnant,
but y'a also need to know I didn't do anything.
I'm still a virgin and God placed the baby in me.
So jose needed more than that. So an angel shows
(13:50):
up and said, what your fiance is telling you is true.
Take her and let her be your wife. So he
did because he was a righteous man and did what
the Lord ask. After King Herod was going to slay
all the babies, he had another dream to get him
out of Bethlehem. After Herod had died, he had another
dream to bring him back. And after that he had
another dream to say, don't come to Judea, go up north.
So that's why they ended up in Nazareth. Joseph was
(14:12):
a righteous man. We know very little about him, but
we know that he listened to God and followed him.
We don't know a whole lot about Mary, but we
know that she was a righteous woman because God picked
her to be Howse and be the mother and be
the womb of the baby Jesus. So we should say, hey,
Mary was a righteous woman. But Mary's not God, She's
(14:34):
not part of the Trinity. We don't worship Mary, we
don't pray to Mary. We don't thank God for Mary.
We thank God for Jesus. And it's really interesting because
if you remember, when Mary was pregnant with Jesus, who
did she go visit?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
She went and.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Visited her cousin, Elizabeth, and who was pregnant with John
the Baptist.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
John the Baptist is six months older than Jesus.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
What happens when Elizabeth, who's pregnant, stands right next to
Mary who's pregnant, John the Baptist starts doing cartwheels inside
his mother's womb. I mean they're like a womb away
and they're dancing around, which tells you a couple things.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Life begins in you. To row.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
And number two, Jesus, albeit fully divine, is fully human.
He's coming out as both the word, the eternal deity.
God became flesh. Now when we stay flesh, we're not
talking about sinful. We weren't created. I mean, when God
created humankind, he didn't create sinners. We screwed that up.
(15:48):
God created flesh, created humanity. Jesus was born without sin.
But what's unique about his birth is, at no time
did he ever stop being God.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
He's always been God.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
And yet at the time that he was conceived and
then he came out in Utero, he's going to be flesh,
not only for thirty three years, He's going to be
flesh for eternity. Think about that. Some people think, well,
he just came and housed the body. Now, we can
talk about all sorts of heresies in the church, but
they all stem from this. Jesus Christ is truly God
and he's truly man. He's fully God, he's fully man.
(16:22):
He's not God housing a kind of a temporary body.
He's not human with a little bit of divine. He's
all God and all Man all the time, and it
never stops.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
That's who he is.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
That's why when the word becomes flesh, we are looking
at the god man Jesus. The god man Jesus lived
his life. The god man Jesus fulfilled the requirements of
the law. The god man Jesus died on the cross.
The god man Jesus rose from the dead. The god
Man Jesus ascended into heaven and guests who is coming
back to rule and raign on this planet. The god
(16:52):
man Jesus Christ now if you take it time to
think about the humility of God, it's not It would
be humble enough if Jesus was willing to come be
human for thirty three years and then shed humanity and
go back to God.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
But no, no, no, He's going to put it on for
all eternity.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Why because if he ever stops being human, you have
no connection with God. And if he ever stops being God,
then nothing we read about makes any difference at all.
He has to be both for all time. So you
talk about everything that you have as father, son and
Holy Spirit in the Godhead, and you as the second
person of the Trinity, You're going to humble yourself before
your Father and come demonstrate to the world this is
(17:35):
who I am.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
That's humble. I mean. Think about Philippians chapter two just
for a minute.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Philippians chapter two, where it teaches us to be humble
and preference other people more than ourselves and all those
different things, and it says in second Corinthia or of
Philippians chapter two and verse five, have this same attitude
in yourself, which was also in Christ.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Jesus.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Here's the attitude you should have although he existed in
the form of God. Did not regard a quality with
God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking
the form of a bond servant, and being made in
the likeness of men. Being found in the appearance of
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the
point of death, even death on a cross.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
It's for this reason.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Also God highly exalted him and bestowed upon him the
name which is above every name. So the name of Jesus,
every need will bow of those who are in heaven
and on the earth and under the earth, and every
tongue will confess to Jesus, Christ's Lord, to the glory
of God the Father. Now, if you've been in church
for a while you've heard this, you're like, praise God.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
But think about this. Going from God to man is
a leap. We don't think about it that way. Okay,
God became a man. Have you ever thought about how
downwardly mobile you could become? Most of us don't think
about downward mobility. We think about upward mobility. How can
I grow? How can I have more? How can I
have more money? How can I have a bigger house,
(18:50):
bigger car? How can I have more influence. Jesus considered,
how can I become more downwardly mobile?
Speaker 3 (18:56):
I think about this.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I mean, imagine that you had a love for the
animal king measure, you created all the animals in the world,
and you loved them all so much, but they weren't
listening to you. So you decided you would go become
like one of your creation. So you created the platypus.
You love the platypus, you're super excited about it, but
the platypus isn't paying attention. So you decide you're gonna
leave your humanity and become a platypus for all eternity,
(19:21):
and you're gonna go show them how to live.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
And when you do, the.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Majority of them aren't going to listen to you, and
they're gonna kill you.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
But you'll rise, but.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
You're still gonna be a platypus for the rest of
eternity because of your love for the platypus.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
That's nothing.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Jesus is God, and he didn't consider equality with God
a thing to be grassed, but left that and emptying
himself and becoming in the form of a man, and
then as a man, he became a servant, serving to
the point of what death, even death on a cross,
which was the most cruel form of death you could
possibly suffer. So it wasn't just like Jesus was like,
(19:58):
I'll go be a human. I'll show him how to
do that. We'll have a good time, we'll play games,
we have fun, and I'll go back to Heaven. It's
I'm gonna come. And when I come, I know by
putting on humanity, even though I'm gonna proclaim who I
am and that I created them and that I love
them and that I care for them, and that I'm God,
They're gonna kill me.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
That's humble. That's what it means. When the Word became
flesh and made his dwelling among us. It is so marvelous,
it is beyond belief. I'm not talking about the baby
Mary was holding. That baby Mary was holding had always
been part of the trinity from eternity past.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
That baby Mary's holding is the one that's gonna die
on the cross for the sin of humanity. That baby
that Mary's holding is gonna ascend to heaven. That baby
that Mary's holding is gonna rule the entire universe. That's
the baby and the manger. That's the word that became flesh.
Jesus didn't become a god at his baptism. You're never
(20:56):
gonna become a god. Jesus has always been, and always
is and always will be God. And that God became
a man. It's marvelous, it's miraculous. And it says and
he dwelt among us literally means he pitched his tent
among us literally means he tabernacled among us. In the
Old Testament, where God was was in the tabernacle.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Where is he now? Where is God's presence?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
The full deity of God Classianus two nine says is
in the person of Jesus. So when you see Jesus,
you see the God man. There's no time he ever
ceases being God. But once he puts on flesh, there's
no time he ever ceases being human. That's why the
New Testament writers will tell you in for Timothy too,
for there's one mediator between God and man, the man,
(21:45):
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
If Jesus wasn't human, we have no hope of salvation.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
If Jesus Christ did not come and incarnate himself, we
can't be saved. There's no way to get to God.
God had to come to you unbelievable. That's why I'm
more than dogmatic, because the New Testament writers are dogmatic.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
There is no other way to God.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Jesus is the truth and the life, and no one
comes to the Father except through him. Why because there's
only one God man, there's no others.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Only Jesus can make a way for you to get
to God.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Only Jesus, being fully gotten, fully man, can do anything
that God requires.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Amen. And that's what he's talking about here.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
It's so incredibly miraculous and so marvelous and so beyond
words and knows what he says. And we saw his
glory as the only begotten from the Father, full of
grace and truth. We saw his glory. It was veiled glory.
I mean, they got to see his glory and his
moral character, his glory as it was lived out among people.
But you'll also remember that John was one of three
(22:49):
of the disciples that in Matthew chapter seventeen, was on
the mount of transfiguration when Jesus Christ was transfigured in.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
All of his glory, and they hit the ground.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Because his clothes were whiter than any of the whiteiness
they'd ever seen. His glory was abounding. All of those things.
We've seen his glory. We can tell you he's fully God.
We can tell you he's fully flesh.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
We've been with him.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And that's why when you read through the Bible, you
will see things like this of Jesus and his humanity.
He wept on the cross, he said, I thirst on
a boat he slept.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Why because he's human. But you also see his divine.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Cares leoprosy, cares people with palsy and crippleness, restore sight
to the blind, raises the dead, calm storms, even the
winds and the waves obeyed. Why because he's the god Man.
He's worthy of worship. He's the only one worthy of worship.
Apart from Jesus Christ. You do not have a relationship
with God, apart from knowing that Jesus is truly God
(23:51):
and truly man, fully god fully man.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
It's interwoven.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Which part of his brain is God all of it,
Which part of his brain is human all of it.
You can't separate who he is. You can't make distinctions.
That's why when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, it
was the god man rising from the dead who said,
I have power over your life too, and I can
raise you from the dead.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Thanks for listening today. That was Pastor Jeff with his
message the Incarnation of Christ from the series The Only God,
showing you why it matters that the Word became flesh
and lived among us. We're glad you joined us today.
Don't forget that you can receive a special Christmas devotional
just in time for the season when you get a
(24:37):
Pastorjeff dot com and request Pastor Jeff's book The Gift,
a twenty five day Christmas devotional. It's our thanks for
your gift to help reach more people through God's Truth
through Pastor Jeff Ministries. And while you're visiting Pastorjeff dot com,
make sure to sign up for his weekly emails so
you'll hear right away about new resources to help you
live boldly for Christ.
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