The Incarnation: Grace Upon Grace | Associate Pastor: Matt Armstrong

Morning, everybody.

Merry Christmas.

Good, you're learning.

When I preach, I want you to talk, talk back.

Quick word to the parents.

I I spoke to like three parents of young kids today, and they all mentioned that they're nervous about having their kids in the sanctuary today.

Let's just take that off the table.

If your kid makes noise, you don't even have to get up and leave.

We want you to stay.

We want your kids here.

And if you're someone who's annoyed by other people's kids, you know, just breathe.

You'll be fine.

Well, again, Merry Christmas.

This is the first Christmas, not first Christmas, first Sunday in Christmas.

I love to teach on this a little bit every year.

Christmas is actually a season of 12 days.

That's where the song comes from.

It always goes from December 25th to January 5th.

And there's often one or two Sundays in Christmas.

This year there are two.

This is why I love the church calendar.

It teaches us about the gospel and interweaves it into the rhythms of our life.

Advent, that we just finished, the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, is a time of anticipation.

It's actually a time to look into our hearts and see the longing that's there.

It's very similar to Lent leading up to Easter.

And if you study Advent, there's actually kind of an emphasis on the darkness and kind of the need for the coming of Messiah to bring the light into the world.

And that's why it's such a wise thing to observe and to meditate on.

But now we're in Christmas.

Christmas is a time of celebration.

The darkness has been pierced by the light.

And so this morning I want to invite you, invite all of us, to join with the angels who appeared to the shepherds on Christmas morning and rang out Glory to God in the highest.

Christmas calls us to lift our eyes to the heavens and remember that as dark as the world still is, the light shines triumphant over heaven and earth, even as we await for our Savior's second advent.

This morning, we're just going to spend a few minutes meditating on what Christmas is about.

And in one word, Christmas is about the incarnation.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Let's look again at our sermon passage, first few verses.

John writes for us, 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 were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

Our first point is that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

John begins his gospel as a knowledgeable Jew, echoing the book of Genesis.

These are the very same words that begin Genesis chapter 1, in the beginning.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

But John does something different than Moses.

He does something quite audacious.

Where Moses goes back to the creation, right?

He writes, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

But John speaks of what was before creation.

In the beginning, was.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God.

Before creation, there was God and there was the Word.

Now this might strike us as a little odd.

Since Judaism was a monotheistic, was and is a monotheistic religion, as is Christianity, of course.

There was nothing other than God before the beginning.

Isn't that right?

And it even the Old Testament tells us that someone was there with God before the creation and in fact participated in the process of creation.

It is wisdom.

This is what Proverbs chapter 8 says, the embodiment of wisdom speaking.

Proverbs 8 · chapter mention

When he created the heavens, I was there, says wisdom.

When he drew the circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the foundations of the deep, when he assigned to the seas its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command.

When he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him.

Like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him, always rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.

This shadow, this kind of mysterious figure of wisdom, John points us back to and says, This was the word, the Lagos of God.

And he says he was the word, the light, the life that was coming into the world.

John tells us about what was with God at creation.

The word created all things.

Nothing was created apart from the word.

And in fact, he reveals to us that this word was God Himself.

And then we're told in verse 14 that this word became flesh and dwelt among us.

I love the way Eugene Peterson translates this verse in the message.

He says, the word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.

God was not high and lifted up.

He didn't remain in a gated community on the other side of the tracks.

He moved into our neighborhood, full of brokenness, poverty, and conflict.

This is the incarnation, divinity wrapped itself within humanity.

And this is the stumbling block that Paul talked about, both among the Jews and the Romans.

The idea that God would take on flesh was a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles.

And it remains so to this very day.

The idea that perfect divinity might denigrate itself and take on flesh is too much for some.

But this is where John, right at the beginning, begins to move us toward understanding the gospel.

The God of the universe, who is in fact holy and lifted up, perfection by definition, willingly stepped down into our mess, into our brokenness, into our sin.

God got his hands dirty in this amazing act of humility.

Paul himself meditates on this idea, this very idea in Philippians chapter 2, when he writes, To the church, in fact, instructing us based on God's own action in the incarnation.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

But in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Kenosis is kind of the theological term, the emptying.

The God willingly emptied himself of his glory and took on our flesh so that he might be and live among us.

This idea of a hidden king or a powerful person disguised has become a favorite theme of storytelling in our culture.

Shakespeare's Henry V, Twain's The Prince and the Pauper.

One of my favorite stories, The Lord of the Rings, has the character of Strider, who is really Aragorn, who is really the returning king.

We love this theme of power being hidden in plain sight.

The idea of the most powerful coming to the most lowly to understand their plight, moved to compassion.

On a lighter note, if you've ever seen the SNL skit, the parody of Undercover Boss with Kylo Wren.

Have you ever seen this?

Outstanding.

If you've seen it, you should watch it again.

If you've never seen it, you should go on YouTube and watch it.

It's hilarious.

The idea that one would come down and dwell among the lowly.

All these stories flow from the true story that has been woven into the creation itself, that God would become a human being out of love to save us from the darkness.

This is what John goes on to tell us why the word became flesh.

He said, In him was life.

And that life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.

This is our second point that the darkness has not overcome this light, which he kind of subtly inserts, right?

The light came to shine into the darkness, and he says that the darkness pushed back, foreshadowing what he would unfold in his gospel, the fact that Messiah did come into the world.

He came to his own.

He came to love and to serve and to save, and yet his own did not receive him.

Let's actually continue reading in our passage.

The true light, which was which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world and the world that was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

So John begins here at its largest scope, right?

All of the world belongs to Jesus because he created all things, whether Jew or Gentile, but the world didn't know him.

But he came to his own, and his own people, the Jews, themselves did not receive him.

As we trace the story of Israel, God's own people, through the Old Testament, we see a deeply imperfect people who are themselves also mistreated and oppressed, often by neighboring nations.

They cry out to the Lord for relief, and the Lord promised to send one in the lineage of King David, their kind of quintessential king of the past.

He said this anointed one, this Messiah, would come and sit upon his father's throne forever, and he would cast off their enemies.

And yet, what do we find when we actually read the story of the gospels, the story of Messiah come to this people?

We get those sweet stories of when Mary and Joseph bring Jesus in to be dedicated in the temple, they come across two prophets, a man and a woman.

And they they prophesy these beautiful words of anticipation and celebration that God's Savior, God's rightful and true King has come into the world.

They've anticipated, they've longed, they're excited and they celebrate.

And yet, in an ironic twist of horror, what do we find in the story?

That those he came to save actually end up partnering with their own oppressors in order to overthrow and murder this king who has come to save them.

He is their rightful king.

And yet they could not and were unwilling to receive him.

I love this podcast called The Rest is History.

I don't know if you've ever seen this.

Um it's it's kind of blown up in the last year, but I've been listening to it for like three years.

So I I knew I liked it before it was cool.

Um over this the last few weeks, they've been doing a number of episodes on Jack the Ripper.

And uh I don't know what, I don't know why they chose Christmas time to talk about Jack the Ripper, but anyway.

Uh fascinating, they always make history uh interesting, and and I can't get enough of it.

But as one uh a point that comes up in multiple episodes is that the English people, uh, if you if you've you know we know about Jack the Ripper in general, but if you read about the actual malicious acts he perpetrated on women, they are uh they're evil incarnate, right?

And and they're just um they're they're kind of beyond words appalling.

And what you notice in the English press is that as reporters are are reporting on these acts of violence and horror, they're struggling to grapple with the fact that an Englishman was actually capable of doing such evil things.

And so all the theories early on are well, this must be someone from another country.

Some immigrant, some alien who's come and brought evil into our midst.

They believed that their English culture had actually rooted out such evil.

But of course, the Bible tells us something very different that uh that sin and evil infect every human heart.

And as I listened to the podcast, it reminded me of the famous quote of Alexander Soltsonitson, who every self-respecting pastor tries to quote at least once a year.

He wrote this famous line.

The line separating good and evil passes through, passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart and through all human hearts.

The darkness that Jesus came to shine into isn't something out there.

He didn't come to rescue his holy and innocent people.

Rather, the darkness he came to shine into is within our own hearts, each and every one of us.

In fact, learning to observe the church calendar that I mentioned at the beginning, especially at then in Lent, has taught me how important it is to pay attention to the darkness.

Every year during the holidays, we kind of get receive or experience conflicting messages.

There's a tension in the air.

The fact that we're supposed to be, we're told to be, and rightfully so, we're to be joyous and celebratory and happy.

Because light has broken into the darkness.

And yet, because of that, it is often easy to be overcome by the contrast of the darkness that remains in the world.

The darkness in us and around us can often drag us down and cause us confusion and even lead many into depression.

But blessedly, what the church calendar teaches us is that Christmas is not a distraction from the darkness.

It's not something to cast our eyes on so that we don't have to think about the evil in the world for a few minutes or a few days.

Rather, it is a light of hope that is lit for us in the midst of the darkness.

That our God knows that the darkness is real.

He knows the evil in the world.

He knows the evil inside us.

And that is the darkness he came to save us from.

Let's keep looking at our passage, jumping to verse 14.

He said, In the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

We have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

For from him, his fullness we have received grace upon grace.

For the law came through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father's side.

He has made him known.

That's point three.

Grace upon grace.

Beloved, this is the wonder of Christmas.

No matter how dark the darkness, the light shines brighter.

Jesus knew his people would reject him, both Jews and Greeks.

And yet he came.

Knowing he would be rejected, knowing he would be despised, knowing that he would be placed upon a cross.

This is the grace upon grace that the child and the manger brought to us.

It's enough to draw us into awe and wonder when we desire to behold him.

He came to his enemies.

What are we talking about?

Grace.

This is the wonder of Christmas that though we can look the darkness full in the face.

Darkness in the world, the darkness in ourselves.

The world is a mess.

We are a mess.

And if the God of the universe came to rescue us and all of the creation, grace upon grace.

He saved us by his life and by his death.

And more than that, through faith, we are now adopted sons and daughters of God.

We are the beloved.

And nothing can change that.

Amen?

The last line of our passage tells us something deeply profound as well.

No one has ever seen God, ever.

But the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him be.

Again, the question we ask this morning is what does it mean that the Word became flesh?

Early in our marriage, or not so early, you know, when Stacey and I would be having a serious discussion, perhaps an argument, sometimes she would she would say, What are you thinking?

I can't tell what you're thinking by your face.

And I was like, oh, all right.

That's when I learned, you know, that body language also communicates.

From my perspective, I was listening intently.

I was considering her words, but but from her perspective, you know, my face was emotionless.

It was at the stark.

She needed my words to know what was going on in my heart and in my mind.

And in a sense, this is exactly what is happening in the incarnation.

Theologian Frederick Bruner echoes this idea well.

He says, we long to know what people important to us are thinking.

We get this deeply desired knowledge when they talk to us.

We all know how important conversation is.

The great God talks to the human race most specifically and especially in Jesus.

We long to know who God is and what he thinks and does.

In Jesus, his most personal word, God has spoken to us in the most human way possible.

Giving us his innermost thoughts and heart in deeds that are as profound as his word.

And the believing human race has experienced a deep help and everything.

Beloved, this is what Christmas is about, the God whom we long to know and we wonder what does he think about us?

All we need to do is look to Jesus.

We look to Jesus, the baby in the manger, willing to become helpless and small.

This is what Christmas is about.

That the word became flesh.

Divinity came to walk among us, to live in our neighborhood, to save us from sin and death, and to bring us to new light.

So this Christmas, let us celebrate, let us rejoice, let us revel in the truth that the darkness has not overcome us, nor has it overcome the light that continues to shine today.

And we worship our Lord and King until he comes again to get a second attitude.

Let his church shine forth into the glory of our God and King.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Lord, it is beyond our understanding that you became flesh and dwelt among us.

Lord, thank you for what you have done for us in Christ.

Thank you for what you are doing in us even now.

Thank you that we, your beloved, await the coming of the new heavens and the new earth, and we will be with you as we were always intended to be.

Amen.