The Word Became Flesh

• Pray
• Text –  John 1:1-14

The Word Became Flesh

 

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)   Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

4)   In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

5)   The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood^[a] it.

6)   There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.

7)   He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.

8)   He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9)   The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.^[b]

10)   He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

11)   He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

12)   Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

13)   Children born not of natural descent,^[c] nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.  

14)   The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,^[d] who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 This time of year, we celebrate the coming of Jesus in the flesh, fully God and at the time of His coming and fully man. We celebrate Emmanuel - God with us. We should celebrate. Jesus is with us not only in the spirit world we can't see, but also in the physical, the touch and feel world you and I call reality. He's with us now as surely as He was that night in Bethlehem or that day at Golgotha or when He walked out of that tomb three days later!

John vs.1-14 tells us Jesus is God and the next verses tell us that He came to earth. Think about that...GOD CAME TO EARTH. God came to earth to fix a broken relationship with man. To re-establish His Kingdom on earth. To conquer sin and death - so that you and I, by trusting Emmanuel - God With Us as our Lord and Savior could have right standing with God.

When we consider that Jesus IS God and IS the Word, we know that we have access, through His Word  - the Bible, -  to The God Of The Universe. Through reading the Bible, thinking about what we read and prayer, Jesus will literally speak life changing wisdom into your life.

Takes more faith to believe than not to believe when you consider:

1.    Word of God 66 books written by 40 people. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness – The Bible agrees with itself – from cover to cover

·        In this day and age with fax and email I doubt if we could get 20 of our friends to totally agree on any one point let alone hundreds.

2.    The odds of the prophesy in The Bible that have been fulfilled the are about 17,000,000 to 1.The odds of unfulfilled prophesy in The Bible coming true are exponentially higher.

3.    History has proven – Hittite Empire - (mentioned only in Bible) A Hittite city has been uncovered by archeologist.

4.    Countless ruins and archeological discoveries confirm places and events mentioned in Bible. With these discoveries we confirm much of what is contained in the Bible. We have enough solid evidence that it becomes easy to accept by faith things we don't understand yet.

 Jhn 1:8,9; Jhn 8:12; Jhn 9:5; Jhn 12:35,46; Psa 84:11; Isa 35:4,5; Isa 42:6,7,16; Psa 49:6; Psa 60:1-3; Mal 4:2; Mat 4:16; Luk 1:78,79; Luk 2:32; Act 26:23; Eph 5:14; 1Jo 1:5-7; Rev 22:16

John 3:1 - 18

• Text passage John 3:1-18
• Recap Bible history –  Genesis 1-2 – creation / man for fellowship with god
• Man’s disobedience - Genesis 3
• out of love God delivers Children of Israel
• out of love God punishes  Children of Israel
• this cycle repeats itself many times
• God, for our sake, ends this cycle with Jesus’ sacrifice at cross – “Lamb of God”

redeemed back to God by Jesus

John 3

Born from Above

1-2   There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it."

-          Pharisees num. About 6000 in Israel

-          Very important to them to show outward religion (fasting, praying, ceremonial washing –etc)

-          Knew messiah coming

-          Very opposed to Jesus

-          Jesus very critical of them

-          Many theories on why he went at night but I think so no one would see him

-          Evidently, the Pharisees had drawn a conclusion about Jesus.

-          Called him teacher out of respect / I think he knew who Jesus was (John 7:50,51 & 19:39)

3      Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom."

-          No kidding

-          Very well could have taken the attitude of “don’t even try to think of yourself as equal, but I believe Jesus Knew Nic. knew who Jesus was.

-          Everything Jesus did pointed to God’s Kingdom & He wanted to get across not only to Nic. But to you and I that we must accept the salvation God is giving to us. Eph 2:8-9

-    "born again" or "born from above" is an O.T. doctrine - Nicodemus should not have been surprised

4      "How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this 'born-from-above' talk?"

    5-6 Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the 'wind-hovering-over-the-water' creation,(Gen. 1:1) the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.

 7-8 "So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'born from above'—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God."
 9 Nicodemus asked, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?"
 10-12 Jesus said, "You're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics? Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can't see, the things of God?
 13-15 "No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert (a type of Jesus Num 21:6-9 )so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.
 16-18 "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. (Message)

God’s purpose now is to re-establish Kingdom, in doing, He, sacrificed His Son to “buy back”

            - Jesus came 1^st time as a Savior not a Judge

-          Jews in those days believed Messiah would judge mankind – they had reason to believe that (Psalm 98:9, Isaiah 3:13)

they rejected Jesus, so salvation had to come from non-Jews (gentiles)Jews did not see Church age (we are in now) – Gospel supposed to come through Jews:
16 "For God so ^(W)loved the world, that He ^(X)gave His ^(Y)only begotten Son, that whoever ^(Z)believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 "For God ^(AA)did not send the Son into the world ^(AB)to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

-          notice He does not save by love – loves all unconditionally-saved or not: God will love us even if we choose to go to hell. It is our choice

He saves by Grace – His Grace comes by faith in His Word Eph 2:8-9 – you must be born again (John 3) by accepting and relying on His Word