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The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
As we head into Christmas we are starting a new series titles, Come let us adore Him.
Today we are talking about The Word Became Flesh.
Prayer
Father, we thank You for sending Your Son to this world for us.
We know that we are undeserving of Him.
Thank you that He came to a humble manger and to a humble people.
May He who so humbly came gloriously live in our hearts.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Text
John 1:14 NKJV
The Word Becomes Flesh
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Scripture Reading
John 1:1-5 NKJV 1 John 1:1-3 NKJV
The Eternal Word
1 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 were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
John 1:14 NKJV
The Word Becomes Flesh
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
1 John 1:1-3 NKJV
What Was Heard, Seen, and Touched
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—
2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—
3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
Introduction
The gospels speak in different ways about Jesus’ birth.
Matthew lists the genealogy of Joseph.
He was interested in the legal and Jewish aspects of Jesus’ birth.
Luke, who apparently had many conversations with Mary and others, told of the visit of the angelic choir.
He spoke of the manger and listed the genealogy of Jesus on Mary’s side.
Mark did not even mention Jesus’ birth.
But he does tell of Jesus’ miracles.
John wrote his gospel from an entirely different perspective than the other three.
He was the youngest of the apostles.
He wrote his gospel, his three epistles, and revelation when he was an old man.
He didn’t give a chronological view of Jesus’ life, but reflected on Jesus’ life in relationship to what had happened to him.
And it wouldn’t be appropriate to simply say that John wrote philosophically about Jesus.
He was more interested in Jesus religiously than historically.
John was saying, “Let me tell you what has happened to me because I know Jesus.”
- Jesus as the Word.
When John called Jesus the Word, he was waiting under inspiration.
“I want to tell you about the Word, the Son of God, who’s name is Jesus.”
He said in John 1:1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
- Before Bethlehem.
Before Bethlehem, the Word existed because God is the Word.
John believed that Jesus was the Son of God.
In fact there is no reason for Christian theology if Jesus is not the Son of God.
B. The Word as authority.
There must be a basis for Jesus’ authority.
Why would John call Jesus the Word?
Because he thought of God as absolute authority.
He thought of God as the source of every existing thing.
So he said, “In the beginning was the Word,” God has always existed.
John then said, “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
He was calling Jesus the Word , and he was saying , “Jesus was with God and, and Jesus was God.”
John had a Trinitarian concept of God.
He was saying, “There is one God, and while there is one God, Jesus, the Word is with God.
The Spirit is with God, and He is God.”
2. Jesus as the source.
John 1:2-3 says, He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
This God who is Christ is the source of all things.
“All things were made by Him.”
Our environment was made by Him.
Our lives were made by Him.
In fact, without Him was not anything made that was made.
Nothing is possible in this life without God.
Without Jesus, people can create nothing.
Without Jesus, people can accomplish nothing.
- The source of life.
Life comes from God, and thus all of life’s meaning comes from God.
Every activity of life comes from God.
Nothing has been made that is not from Him.
We are totally dependant on Him.
John 1:4, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
God did not come to the world as theory.
People have always tried to explain the source of life in some natural way.
People may explain life as coming from the sun, from fire, or from a process of evolution.
People may actually admit they don’t understand life, but they know there must be a source.
B. The source of light.
We are told that John ministered in the city of Ephesus, the ancient city built around the worship of Diana of the Ephesians.
Diana is a form of the ancient Greek god Aphrodite.
The Ephesians believed that the statue of Dians they had had been dropped out of heaven.
There stood this gigantic stone statue of a virgin goddess, and a whole state bowed around her and acclaimed her to be god, but she was dead, she was a stone, nothing else.
God sent His Son, and He is alive.
The life is the source of light for humanity.
Listen to John in John 1:4-5, In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
What is the darkness?
It is the darkness of our sin.
It is the darkness of the despair in our lives.
God says that even the darkness of sin and death cannot hold backache light.
The world says, “We will snuff out the light of Jesus, it must not shine.”
God says, “The darkness cannot hold back the light of the living Son of God.”
Light comes to our souls to change us, to make us new creatures, and this light comes from Jesus.
3. Jesus as a man.
John said, “And the Word was made flesh”
The Word was in the beginning.
The Word was God.
And the Word became flesh.
God came in fleshing the manger of Bethlehem.
It was God in the flesh who walked the streets of Nazareth.
It was God in the flesh who touched blind eyes and deaf ears and healed them.
It was God in the flesh who faced controversy at Jerusalem with the religious powers.
It was God in the flesh on the cross at Calvary, and it was God in the flesh who rose from the dead.
John 1:14 NKJV
The Word Becomes Flesh
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
- The glory of God.
Many people claim the Jesus is not the Son of God, saying that He is an example to be followed but nothing else.
How wrong are they!
He is not just an example.
Any person can be an example.
We see in Jesus the glory of the Father.
We see Him full of grace, full of unmerited favour, and full of truth.
We see Him, the Son of God, willing to die for us though we are sinners.
We see Him paying the price of our sin on Calvary’s cross though we do not deserve it.
B. The glory in humankind.
John testified that the glory of Christ is available to everyone.
He told about his personal experience with Jesus as the Word of Life.
He testified that he had seen Jesus with his eyes and touched Him with his hands.
He is taking about his Christian experience.
He is saying, “Christ was born! Christ came to the world, and He became the ultimate sacrifice for sin.”
But more importantly he is saying, “Christ came to me! I saw Him, I touched Him, and He changed my life!”
Conclusion.
This is what Christmas means.
It is not just a beautiful story, not just a nativity scene.
It is not a star in the sky nd certainly not one on top of your Christmas tree.
It is Christ living in you.
Until next time
Stay in the Blessings
I really want to encourage you to be diligent with your Bible study time, because God has so much more for us than we can get from just going to church once or twice a week and hearing someone else talk about the Word.
When you spend time with God, your life will change in amazing ways, because God is a Redeemer.
Theres nothing thats too hard for Him, and He can make you whole, spirit, soul and body!
You’re important to God, and you’re important to us at www.refinerylife.org
When it comes to prayer, we believe that God wants to meet your needs and reveal His promises to you.
So whatever you’re concerned about and need prayer for we want to be here for you! Or even if you just want to say Hi, you can contact us
2021 IS A YEAR OF REFORMATION
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