I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord...

...who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.

John 1. 1-18

Imagine John sitting down, with three Gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – and figuring out how to introduce Jesus. (Maybe he didn't have the books, but he knew the teaching that was being passed around.) Mark starts with Jesus grown up being baptised by that other John. For John, that wasn’t good enough. “People might think Jesus was just an ordinary man who had a special encounter with God.” Matthew and Luke start with the virgin birth. For John, that wasn’t good enough. “People might just enjoy the story but miss the big truth.” John wants to show who Jesus is and the only possible backdrop for him is eternity. So he begins with the same words as the Greek Old Testament – “in the beginning!”

The Word: the Son is fully God.

And in the beginning, says John, was the Word. About three hundred years before John, some ancient Greek philosophers (they were called Stoics) had the idea of “Word” as the rational principle that holds the universe together. But seven hundred years earlier, Psalm 33. 6 says “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made” because in Genesis 1 God spoke, and the universe began to take shape. And later in the Old Testament “The Word of the Lord came” to prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Amos. And in the Old Testament Wisdom is something that existed even before the world did. (Prov 8. 22)

So when John says “In the beginning was the Word” – he means more than just an idea (thought or spoken). He means something that creates everything that exists, holds everything together, reveals the purposes of God to his people, and something that is from eternity: from before the beginning of everything. Isn’t that amazing? And just to be sure that we understand, just in case we think that somehow this “Word” is merely the thought or speech of God, he adds, “The Word was God”

As we think about God the father, the creator – totally distinct from his creation – then Jesus, the Word, is right up there, distinct from creation. In him is life and light. Both Life and Light are creation words in Genesis 1. Psalm 36. 9 says “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”

So when John talks about Jesus as the Word, the Life, the Light, he means that Jesus, God’s son, is Fully God. Not godlike. Not a god.

• He is emphasising the pre-existence of the Son. The very nature of his existence is absolute. John uses two different words for “was:” one in verses 1-4, and another one in verse 6. “The Word” was and is, in an absolute sense. But in verse 6, “There was a man called John.” Literally “there became a man named John. The word always existed. John, and all of us “become.” God is. We just happen.
• He is emphasising the unity of the Son with the Father. The Word was God, in the beginning with the Father.
• He is emphasising the Uniqueness of the Son (v 14, 18) he is the only-begotten, the one and only. The word refers to a tribe that has only one member in it. Jesus is that unique.

Becoming Flesh: The Son is fully human

The word became flesh. (v. 14) The human life of Jesus happened at a point in time. “Flesh” is the natural order. In verse 13 John talks about the new birth that happens to those who receive Jesus, not being about an inherited bloodline or the will of the flesh (the desires of human nature ) or the will of a husband. “Flesh” is that natural created order. The word became flesh. He became part of the natural order, part of creation. He became human.

The word became flesh. He became .... Not like a human being. Not partly human, with some human characteristics. He became fully human. And that “becoming” as Matthew and Luke tell us and the Creed confirms, that happening, began when he was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Remember, last time, we discovered that there is God – Father Son and holy Spirit – and everything else. Creator and created. God the Son, is on the God side of the equation. Without him nothing was made that has been made (verse 3). We cannot rise up and cross over that line to get onto the “god” side of the equation. We are creatures. But the Word became Flesh. God can enter our side, the created side. He made us, we didn’t make him.

John is pointing out

• The Son gives God’s gift of life. He came to his own property (verse 11 – either Israel, or the whole world) and people didn’t want him. But when people did welcome him he gave the right to become god’s children, who have experienced a birth, that is not inherited from your parents; it is not physical; we are not naturally God’s children, but Jesus makes us God’s children.
• The Son brings God’s presence, his touch. He dwelt among us and we saw his glory. Literally pitched his tent in our campsite, or found lodgings in our village. He moved into the neighbourhood. In the Old Testament, God’s presence was associated with the tent and later the temple, where his glory was sometimes seen and his power touched people’s lives.
• The Son makes God visible. No-one has seen God. The one of a kind Son, Jesus has made him known. (verse 18) there is a mystery in all of this, and I hope you have a sense of that mystery this morning. But mystery is not the same as ignorance. Jesus has made the father knows, yet the relationship between them is mysterious, that is, beyond our understanding.

And all that has implications.

Remember, to say “I believe” means more than simply saying “I think this is true.” It is the life-transforming solidness of things hoped for.

The writers of the Creed sum up the practical implications of believing in Jesus, in two words: “Our Lord.” “Jesus is Lord” was the earliest Christian Creed. Nothing else matters. The Christian life is all about full and total surrender to this amazing person, eternal, transcendent, whom to know is to love. For John a number of things follow on from that.

1. Receiving him. We need to accept Jesus in obedience and faith. And when we do that, a miracle happens inside us. It is a god-given second birth (see John 3. 3, 5-7)
2. On earth as in Heaven. The incarnation meant thirty years of living the Kingdom of god, for Jesus. Perfect life. Showing what it means to live voluntarily and intentionally in and under the reign of God the Father…so

• in our life together as a community;
• In our worship;
• in our life in the world

… our theme must be “On earth as in Heaven”. Dwelling among one another and among our neighbours to show God’s glory. Incarnation and the Kingdom. That is God’s way of reaching people, loving people, touching people, winning people·

3. Grace upon grace. Jesus is full of grace – the joy-bringing, thanks-provoking, goodness of God – and truth. In fact he is full of the fulness of God (Col 1.19) of everything that God is. And from his fulness – we have all received, grace upon grace. That joy-bringing, life transforming, gentleness and utter goodness of God. We keep receiving grace. If we are going to live out this incarnate life, we need to start by receiving grace. And we need to keep on receiving grace upon grace. Daily to come to him, and daily to receive his forgiveness, power, affirmation, joy, presence into our lives.

© Gilmour Lilly January 2017