January 3, 2025 • 13 mins
John 1.1-18 | Ps Alex Huggett
Christmas 2024
© Bentley Baptist Church Inc.
www.bentleybaptist.org
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
John, chapter 1,.
I'm going to read verses 1 to 5and then skip to verse 14.
In the beginning was the Word,and the Word was with God and
the Word was God.
He was with God in thebeginning.
All things were created throughHim and apart from Him, not one
thing was created.
(00:21):
That has been created In Himwas life, and that life was the
light of men.
That light shines in thedarkness, and yet the darkness
did not overcome it.
The word became flesh and dweltamong us.
We observed his glory, theglory as the one and only son
from the father full of graceand truth.
(00:43):
John testified concerning himand exclaimed this was the one
of whom I said.
The one coming after me ranksahead of me because he existed
before me.
Indeed, we have all receivedgrace upon grace from his
fullness, For the law was giventhrough Moses.
Grace and truth come throughJesus Christ.
(01:03):
No one has ever seen God, theone and only Son, who is himself
God and is at the Father's side.
He has revealed him.
Well, at the heart of Christmaslies a scandal.
And it's not actually thatJesus conceived Jesus.
Sorry that Mary conceived Jesusout of wedlock.
(01:24):
Mary and Joseph wouldn't havebeen the first couple in history
who had to have a quick weddingbecause they couldn't wait, as
everyone around would havepresumed.
Quick wedding nod, nod, wink,wink.
Well done Joseph.
The scandal wasn't even thatMary claimed it was an act of
(01:46):
God.
By marrying her so quickly atGod's command, Joseph made sure
she wouldn't have to rely onthat story.
And who'd have believed itanyway?
You know, the real scandal ofChristmas is that it's true that
God was becoming human, and notthat he'd only appear human,
(02:09):
but he was actually becomingtruly human in the flesh, from
conception to grave.
I want to spend a couple ofminutes this morning just
talking about the incarnation.
It's going to be a little bittheological for a few minutes,
but then I want to get into whythat's important in the
(02:30):
application.
But this is the scandal ofChristmas.
The Word was God and becameflesh.
It's not that the Word becameGod, as if God brought a
counterpart into being.
It's not that God Word becameGod as if God brought a
counterpart into being.
It's not that God bestoweddivinity upon a human being.
(02:52):
The third century theologianArius said there was a time when
Christ was not and he wasthoroughly branded as a heretic.
His brand of Christianity wasrejected a heretic, His brand of
Christianity was rejected.
The Son, the Word, existedbefore his older cousin, John
the Baptist, was born.
The uncreated Word was there atcreation.
(03:16):
The Word became flesh andthat's what we call incarnation.
Modern translations say we,that's the apostles observed his
, that's Christ's glory, theglory as the one and only son
from the father, andtraditionally that one and only
(03:39):
was translated only begotten.
The Greek can go both ways, butonly begotten makes it sound
like the son came into being.
That's what begotten means,isn't it?
Well, if he's eternal, what arewe to make of this?
The Greek word for onlybegotten can mean one and only,
(04:00):
as in unique, and John could bereferring to the unique, special
relationship of the word to theFather.
Or it could refer to theincarnation.
The word was begotten when hebecame flesh.
In either case, the word hasalways and eternally existed.
(04:21):
This speaks of the Son's uniquerelationship to the Father.
The church fathers back in thefirst few centuries of
Christianity understood it tomean not that the Son came into
being, but that the nature ofhis eternal being is that of
(04:42):
being begotten of the Father.
So the Nicene Creed says he wasbegotten, not made, and they
said he is as eternal as theFather and eternally generated
or begotten from the Father.
It's not as an act of theFather's will, but it's the very
nature of God.
(05:03):
But it's the very nature of God.
And again it speaks of theunique relationship of the Son
to the Father.
Now, all agree there is onlyone God, eternally existing in
three persons Father, Son andHoly Spirit.
Or to put it another way, thethree persons of the Godhead
(05:26):
eternally share one divineessence.
Now, if all that goes over yourhead, don't worry too much.
As an infinite and all-powerfulbeing, the reality of God's
nature is not something we'llever fully grasp.
Even the smartest theologiansin history will have got
(05:47):
something about God wrong.
That doesn't mean the theologydoesn't matter, though, because
the relationship of the son tothe father has enormous
implications for the way werelate to God.
In fact, I would say it's arelationship of the son to the
father that allows us to relateto God, and so the point today
(06:12):
isn't so much to do theology.
All of that is a setup to lettheology lead us to wonder and
to worship it's so that we cancome and adore him.
We can come and adore him.
(06:33):
John said that the word becameflesh and dwelled among us.
He dwelled among us.
Don't be fooled by that littleword dwell, it's full of
significance.
The Greek word dwell comes fromthe word used for tent.
The word didn't just dwellamong us or live with us, he
(06:54):
pitched his tent among us.
Now, what do you think of?
Maybe your mind goes in severaldirections when you think of
that image of pitching a tent,of the human body being a tent.
The one I want to pick up ishow tent is most commonly used
in the Bible, Because in Exoduswe read of how God instructed
(07:15):
the Israelites to build thesacred tent that's more commonly
known as the tabernacle.
Tabernacle is just a fancyEnglish word for tent.
The sacred tent was in fact amobile temple where God dwelled
among the Israelites as theymoved through the wilderness to
the promised land.
It was the place where theywent to meet with God.
(07:39):
The eternal word had beenworshipped in the sacred tent
and now became flesh and pitchedhis tent among us.
Once again, there was a sacredmobile tent wandering around
Israel where people could go andmeet God and his name was Jesus
(08:03):
, Unlike the temple in Jerusalemwhere only the priest could
enter into the inside of thetemple.
With sacrifices.
Anyone could approach God.
In this tent.
That was Jesus.
Even Gentiles who weren'tallowed anywhere near the temple
came and he received themPeople like you and me, and in
(08:24):
fact, more often than not theydidn't need to go to him, he
came to them.
So we say come, let us adorehim.
You know, one of thecharacteristics of God is his
utter holiness.
The Bible says he's a consumingfire, and just as we can't look
(08:47):
at the sun for too long withoutgoing blind, no one can look at
God and live.
And as I said before, we can'ttruly comprehend God.
Our finest thoughts about himfall short, Just as my dog must
look at us and our actions andour speech in utter bewilderment
sometimes.
What are these humans doing?
(09:08):
I don't understand, except forthe word food.
So we can't comprehend God untilthe one and only Son, who is
himself God and is at thefather's side, revealed him.
The phrase at the father's sidemight be better, but probably
(09:32):
more quaintly rendered in thebosom of the father.
When my children were babies, Iloved to lay them on my chest,
skin to skin, and this Jesusbeing in the bosom of the father
speaks of the utter intimacy,love and communion between the
Father and the Son.
And now he has made known to uswhat only he had known.
(09:58):
Do you want to know what Godlooks like?
What God is like?
I mean, you can't know what helooks like, but what God is like
we find out by looking at Jesus.
Now, this might seem to put usat a little bit of a
disadvantage.
After all, when John pennedthese words, he'd lived with the
(10:19):
son for three years.
He'd actually seen and touchedand heard Jesus.
And so he says we observed hisglory, and he means it very
literally we apostles, we sawthe glory of God in human flesh.
And yet even while the apostleswere with well, Christ was with
(10:41):
them they didn't reallyunderstand.
It wasn't until he rose fromdeath, returned to God's side
and poured out his spirit thatthey started to really get it.
And now we have the word aboutthe word contained in Scripture,
but more than that, we havethat very same Spirit that gave
(11:05):
them understanding, dwelling inus if we've accepted Christ.
And in fact, just as the Fatherdwelled among us in the Son,
Jesus said that the Father andthe Son would make their home in
us by the Spirit.
He hasn't left us.
(11:25):
He's present by his word and byhis Spirit.
Come, let us adore him.
And so is it any wonder, then,that John says we've all
received grace upon grace in him, and not just a little bit of
grace, but grace from hisfullness.
(11:50):
In the opening letter toEphesians, Paul says he lavished
his grace on us in Christ.
He poured it out with allwisdom and understanding.
And what grace is this, butthat he has given us himself?
He brought the heavenlytabernacle to us.
He revealed the Father's heartto you and to me Through his
(12:15):
death and resurrection.
He has given us eternal life,and he poured out his Holy
Spirit on us.
And as the son was in thefather's bosom, so he invites us
into that same intimacy withthe father.
In John 17, he prayed may theyalso be in us.
(12:36):
He's saying may you and I alsobe in God.
Jesus said I am in them, he'sin us and you are in me, God is
in him, so that they may be one,as we are one.
Friends, you don't really haveto understand all the theology,
(12:58):
but this is why the theologymatters, because it helps us
understand God and helps usworship him in wonder.
Come, let us adore him.
John, chapter 1,.
I'm going to read verses 1 to 5and then skip to verse 14.
In the beginning was the Word,and the Word was with God and
the Word was God.
He was with God in thebeginning.
All things were created throughHim and apart from Him, not one
thing was created.
(00:21):
That has been created In Himwas life, and that life was the
light of men.
That light shines in thedarkness, and yet the darkness
did not overcome it.
The word became flesh and dweltamong us.
We observed his glory, theglory as the one and only son
from the father full of graceand truth.
(00:43):
John testified concerning himand exclaimed this was the one
of whom I said.
The one coming after me ranksahead of me because he existed
before me.
Indeed, we have all receivedgrace upon grace from his
fullness, For the law was giventhrough Moses.
Grace and truth come throughJesus Christ.
(01:03):
No one has ever seen God, theone and only Son, who is himself
God and is at the Father's side.
He has revealed him.
Well, at the heart of Christmaslies a scandal.
And it's not actually thatJesus conceived Jesus.
Sorry that Mary conceived Jesusout of wedlock.
(01:24):
Mary and Joseph wouldn't havebeen the first couple in history
who had to have a quick weddingbecause they couldn't wait, as
everyone around would havepresumed.
Quick wedding nod, nod, wink,wink.
Well done Joseph.
The scandal wasn't even thatMary claimed it was an act of
(01:46):
God.
By marrying her so quickly atGod's command, Joseph made sure
she wouldn't have to rely onthat story.
And who'd have believed itanyway?
You know, the real scandal ofChristmas is that it's true that
God was becoming human, and notthat he'd only appear human,
(02:09):
but he was actually becomingtruly human in the flesh, from
conception to grave.
I want to spend a couple ofminutes this morning just
talking about the incarnation.
It's going to be a little bittheological for a few minutes,
but then I want to get into whythat's important in the
(02:30):
application.
But this is the scandal ofChristmas.
The Word was God and becameflesh.
It's not that the Word becameGod, as if God brought a
counterpart into being.
It's not that God Word becameGod as if God brought a
counterpart into being.
It's not that God bestoweddivinity upon a human being.
(02:52):
The third century theologianArius said there was a time when
Christ was not and he wasthoroughly branded as a heretic.
His brand of Christianity wasrejected a heretic, His brand of
Christianity was rejected.
The Son, the Word, existedbefore his older cousin, John
the Baptist, was born.
The uncreated Word was there atcreation.
(03:16):
The Word became flesh andthat's what we call incarnation.
Modern translations say we,that's the apostles observed his
, that's Christ's glory, theglory as the one and only son
from the father, andtraditionally that one and only
(03:39):
was translated only begotten.
The Greek can go both ways, butonly begotten makes it sound
like the son came into being.
That's what begotten means,isn't it?
Well, if he's eternal, what arewe to make of this?
The Greek word for onlybegotten can mean one and only,
(04:00):
as in unique, and John could bereferring to the unique, special
relationship of the word to theFather.
Or it could refer to theincarnation.
The word was begotten when hebecame flesh.
In either case, the word hasalways and eternally existed.
(04:21):
This speaks of the Son's uniquerelationship to the Father.
The church fathers back in thefirst few centuries of
Christianity understood it tomean not that the Son came into
being, but that the nature ofhis eternal being is that of
(04:42):
being begotten of the Father.
So the Nicene Creed says he wasbegotten, not made, and they
said he is as eternal as theFather and eternally generated
or begotten from the Father.
It's not as an act of theFather's will, but it's the very
nature of God.
(05:03):
But it's the very nature of God.
And again it speaks of theunique relationship of the Son
to the Father.
Now, all agree there is onlyone God, eternally existing in
three persons Father, Son andHoly Spirit.
Or to put it another way, thethree persons of the Godhead
(05:26):
eternally share one divineessence.
Now, if all that goes over yourhead, don't worry too much.
As an infinite and all-powerfulbeing, the reality of God's
nature is not something we'llever fully grasp.
Even the smartest theologiansin history will have got
(05:47):
something about God wrong.
That doesn't mean the theologydoesn't matter, though, because
the relationship of the son tothe father has enormous
implications for the way werelate to God.
In fact, I would say it's arelationship of the son to the
father that allows us to relateto God, and so the point today
(06:12):
isn't so much to do theology.
All of that is a setup to lettheology lead us to wonder and
to worship it's so that we cancome and adore him.
We can come and adore him.
(06:33):
John said that the word becameflesh and dwelled among us.
He dwelled among us.
Don't be fooled by that littleword dwell, it's full of
significance.
The Greek word dwell comes fromthe word used for tent.
The word didn't just dwellamong us or live with us, he
(06:54):
pitched his tent among us.
Now, what do you think of?
Maybe your mind goes in severaldirections when you think of
that image of pitching a tent,of the human body being a tent.
The one I want to pick up ishow tent is most commonly used
in the Bible, Because in Exoduswe read of how God instructed
(07:15):
the Israelites to build thesacred tent that's more commonly
known as the tabernacle.
Tabernacle is just a fancyEnglish word for tent.
The sacred tent was in fact amobile temple where God dwelled
among the Israelites as theymoved through the wilderness to
the promised land.
It was the place where theywent to meet with God.
(07:39):
The eternal word had beenworshipped in the sacred tent
and now became flesh and pitchedhis tent among us.
Once again, there was a sacredmobile tent wandering around
Israel where people could go andmeet God and his name was Jesus
(08:03):
, Unlike the temple in Jerusalemwhere only the priest could
enter into the inside of thetemple.
With sacrifices.
Anyone could approach God.
In this tent.
That was Jesus.
Even Gentiles who weren'tallowed anywhere near the temple
came and he received themPeople like you and me, and in
(08:24):
fact, more often than not theydidn't need to go to him, he
came to them.
So we say come, let us adorehim.
You know, one of thecharacteristics of God is his
utter holiness.
The Bible says he's a consumingfire, and just as we can't look
(08:47):
at the sun for too long withoutgoing blind, no one can look at
God and live.
And as I said before, we can'ttruly comprehend God.
Our finest thoughts about himfall short, Just as my dog must
look at us and our actions andour speech in utter bewilderment
sometimes.
What are these humans doing?
(09:08):
I don't understand, except forthe word food.
So we can't comprehend God untilthe one and only Son, who is
himself God and is at thefather's side, revealed him.
The phrase at the father's sidemight be better, but probably
(09:32):
more quaintly rendered in thebosom of the father.
When my children were babies, Iloved to lay them on my chest,
skin to skin, and this Jesusbeing in the bosom of the father
speaks of the utter intimacy,love and communion between the
Father and the Son.
And now he has made known to uswhat only he had known.
(09:58):
Do you want to know what Godlooks like?
What God is like?
I mean, you can't know what helooks like, but what God is like
we find out by looking at Jesus.
Now, this might seem to put usat a little bit of a
disadvantage.
After all, when John pennedthese words, he'd lived with the
(10:19):
son for three years.
He'd actually seen and touchedand heard Jesus.
And so he says we observed hisglory, and he means it very
literally we apostles, we sawthe glory of God in human flesh.
And yet even while the apostleswere with well, Christ was with
(10:41):
them they didn't reallyunderstand.
It wasn't until he rose fromdeath, returned to God's side
and poured out his spirit thatthey started to really get it.
And now we have the word aboutthe word contained in Scripture,
but more than that, we havethat very same Spirit that gave
(11:05):
them understanding, dwelling inus if we've accepted Christ.
And in fact, just as the Fatherdwelled among us in the Son,
Jesus said that the Father andthe Son would make their home in
us by the Spirit.
He hasn't left us.
(11:25):
He's present by his word and byhis Spirit.
Come, let us adore him.
And so is it any wonder, then,that John says we've all
received grace upon grace in him, and not just a little bit of
grace, but grace from hisfullness.
(11:50):
In the opening letter toEphesians, Paul says he lavished
his grace on us in Christ.
He poured it out with allwisdom and understanding.
And what grace is this, butthat he has given us himself?
He brought the heavenlytabernacle to us.
He revealed the Father's heartto you and to me Through his
(12:15):
death and resurrection.
He has given us eternal life,and he poured out his Holy
Spirit on us.
And as the son was in thefather's bosom, so he invites us
into that same intimacy withthe father.
In John 17, he prayed may theyalso be in us.
(12:36):
He's saying may you and I alsobe in God.
Jesus said I am in them, he'sin us and you are in me, God is
in him, so that they may be one,as we are one.
Friends, you don't really haveto understand all the theology,
(12:58):
but this is why the theologymatters, because it helps us
understand God and helps usworship him in wonder.
Come, let us adore him.
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