The Beginning, the Baby, and the Beholding
By Pastor Matt Black
24
December 2006
Lord's Day morning
John 1:1-14
Open your Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 1, and let’s read verses 1-14. The title of this morning’s message is “The Beginning, the Baby, and the Beholding”. The title is also an outline for our study today.
Let’s read John 1:1-14, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word was made 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.”
Introduction: Have you ever contemplated the vastness of the universe? When I was a child we were told about the Milky Way within our own solar system. Today we know that most of what we see in the night skies are not simply stars, but clusters of universes. Even after we’ve sent out our satellite telescopes and explored as far as human technology will allow us, there are still unimaginable mysteries beyond our finite capabilities. The scientists tell us that we’ve just barely scratched the surface as to what is out there. It is absolutely mind boggling!
You don’t need to simply look up to be amazed. Today, we know the smallest living organisms known to man are making believers out of many scientists today. Did you know that the nucleus of the most basic cell has a digitally organized database with information content larger than the 30 volume set of the Encyclopedia Britannica?[1] This database of information is called DNA. DNA is written in a form of highly intelligent words—there are even grammatical rules. If you took the information in just a pinhead’s worth of DNA and put it in books, it would take a stack of books 500 times as high as the distance from here to the moon.[2] We don’t have computers that can do that.
And yet we have tiny-brained professors telling us that there is no evidence that there is a God!
Friend, let’s be clear, all of these unfathomable universes and mysteries of molecular biology were created and fashioned by the little Baby born of a pure and untouched virgin 2000 years ago!
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
I. We need to go back to the Beginning. When you see Jesus, you are seeing God! “In the beginning was the Word…” Before the heavens and earth were created (Genesis 1:1), the Word already existed. John goes on and tells us, “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Before the world was brought into being, Christ, as a distinct Person of the Godhead, was always face to face with the Father. He was and is the eternally existing Word of God constantly in loving fellowship with the Father. This Word came to earth. They called His name Jesus. The Word that became flesh has existed from all eternity.
John says in verse 2, “The same was in the beginning with God.” Jesus was “in the beginning with God.” Jesus said, “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). Paul said, “Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). Jesus said, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). Listen, that Baby, born 2000 years ago in Bethlehem was the one who was “in the beginning with God”.
What do we learn knowing that Jesus was “in the beginning with God”. What conclusions do we come to knowing that before heaven and earth were created, Jesus already existed?
A. We first learn that Baby in the manger of Bethlehem is God’s Full Expression of Himself.
It is absolutely absurd to compare Jesus Christ with the founder of other religions. Jesus stands alone as God’s only revelation of Himself. The Bible says, God’s Word (His full expression of Himself) became human flesh. A word is an expression of oneself. God’s Word is Jesus. The Bible says, “God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). The Bible says in Colossians 1:17 that Jesus alone is “image of the invisible God”.
The whole world stumbles on the fact that God was manifest in the flesh. They cannot understand how God could reveal Himself in one person born in a manger 2000 years ago.
· The humanists say that God is in everyone and everyone is in God.
· The Hindus say: God is in the trees and in nature and He is in three million manifestations and forms that we have all around us.
But God Himself says that He became human flesh in the Person of His only begotten Son! God has revealed Himself fully in the Person of Jesus Christ. God expressed Himself completely only in the virgin born Son of Mary.
B. Secondly, we learn that if you see Jesus, you are looking at God. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Jesus is “the brightness of his [God’s] glory, and the express image of his person”. Jesus came to earth to be the expression of God to us. God has chosen to reveal Himself to all men exclusively through one Person, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. When God decided to show us what His character and nature and mercy and grace and justice were like, He sent His Son. You want to see God? Then take a good look at Jesus! Jesus said “if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father”.
C. Thirdly, we learn that when Mary looked into the eyes of her virgin born Son, She was looking into the eyes of her Creator.
Verse 3 of our text says, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” Jesus is the one who not only created all of these universes, but His all things Hebrews 1:3 says are constantly upheld and sustained “by the word of His power”. Do you see that the Creator God was manifested in the flesh in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ? This is the message of Christmas! This is the message of the Christian faith and the Gospel.
Do you want to know where everything came from? I’ll tell you. Before that Baby was born in Bethlehem, before the Word became flesh, He was “in the beginning with God.” And “all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
People would rather believe anything but that! Science has demonstrated over and over again the unfathomable mysteries of our Creator God, yet man stubbornly suppresses the truth. Men today are so dreadfully afraid that their might be an accounting at the end of our lives that they would rather believe a LIE than speak the truth that Jesus is Lord.
Illustration: George Wald, a Harvard professor and Nobel Prize winner said that there are only two possibilities for the origin of life. Either spontaneous generation occurred, and life came from dead material or we have to believe in a “supernatural creative act of God”. Then this Harvard professor said, “There is no third possibility. Spontaneous generation, that life arose from non-living matter, was scientifically disproved…by Louis Pasteur and others. That leaves us with the only possible conclusion that life arose as a supernatural creative act of God.” Yet this man testified that he purposely chose “to believe in that which [he knew to be] scientifically impossible...” because he could not bear to imagine that there was a God.[3]
Friend, not only is there a God, but He has revealed Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ. That virgin born Child in Mary’s arms is the full expression of deity. And yet Christ is not only fully God, He is also fully man. You see we not only need to go back to the Beginning and see Christ’s divinity; we need to go back to Bethlehem, back to the birth of the Virgin-born Baby and see that the Second Person of the Trinity became fully human.
II. We need to go back to Bethlehem and see the virgin-born Baby. Skip down to verse 14. We read, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…" When you look at Jesus, you are looking someone who is fully God and fully man, and He has to be fully God and fully man in order to be the substitute for your sin and mine. He is the Perfect Saviour!
A. His Virgin birth demonstrates that He is the Perfect Saviour. Think on Jesus right now. He is here. He is present everywhere as God. He knows your thoughts “afar off”. He is very god of very God. When that Baby was born from the virgin 2000 years ago, God Himself was born! Long ago the prophets told of His birth. Isaiah spoke much of the time when God would become a man.
He said in Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
He says again in Isaiah 9:6, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
Brethren, when that Baby was born, Paul tells us that it was at that time that “God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). A virgin conceived. Mary had never had relations with a man. She was miraculously impregnated by the very Holy Ghost. Don’t worship the virgin. She was simply a “handmaiden of the Lord” who needed a Saviour! Look at the Virgin born Son of God! He is God in the flesh! He is the “Mighty God”. The Mighty God was born as a human being. Yet even though He was made in every way like us, He never once broke the holy law of God, but reflected the character of God infallibly! He had to do that to be a Perfect Saviour.
B. You see, His Sinless life also demonstrates that He is the Perfect Saviour.
Yes, Jesus is the Creator God who brought the universe into being out of nothing. All things are “upheld by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:3). “Without him was not anything made that was made.” And yet, this eternally existing Word, co-eternal with the Father, was “touched with the feeling of our infirmities”. In all things it “behoved him to be made like unto his brethren” (Hebrews 2:17), yet He was “without sin”. Jesus felt exactly how you feel and how I feel, but He lived above His feelings. Jesus was tempted in every way like you are tempted and I am tempted, but he never sinned. He never gave into that temptation. Hebrews 4:15 tells us He was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin”.
You see Jesus is the Sinless Son of God! That’s the only way that God could be satisfied. He could only reconcile with us on the basis of someone else who kept His Law and reflected His character perfectly. God accepts nothing less than perfection. And Christ kept the Law to redeem a people for Himself. He kept the Law so that He could “save His people from their sin” (Matthew 1:21).
C. Finally, His Substitutionary death demonstrates that He is the Perfect Saviour. We learn in Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
III. Finally we need to Behold Jesus as He is in trust and faith and love! Look again at verse 14. We read, “And the Word was made 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.” If Jesus Christ is the full expression and message of God to us, and if God has revealed Him through His Virgin birth, His Sinless life, and His Substitutionary death that fully satisfies God’s wrath against our sins, then you need to look to Him in faith and trust!
A. When we Behold Christ, we are to behold Him as God!
The prophets foretold of this One who would bring the Good News—the Gospel to earth—that God in human flesh would come to earth (Zion, Jerusalem). Isaiah begins in his ancient prophecy telling us of that voice in the wilderness John the Baptist, but we are not to look to some prophet like John the Baptist. We are to look to God Himself in the Person of His Son! Listen to Isaiah 40:3-9, “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: 5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” Now look down to verse 9, “O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!”
B. When we behold Christ, we are to behold Him as the Lamb!
When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)! From all eternity Christ’s identity has been to plead for you to purchase a people for Himself, and to be the propitiation for our sins! He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). That means that Christ has from eternity, for all time (for Christ exists outside of time) that He has always willed your redemption. He has always from all eternity knew He would create you, knew you would sin wickedly against Him, and knowing all that, He has always been before the face of the Father as one slain for His people, glorifying His mercy and justice, and grace. Christ made you! Do you know He can destroy you in the torments of hell forever? He is the Mighty God! Yet, do not come to Him because you are afraid of hell. Yes, you should be afraid of hell! But come to Christ because He alone can take away your sin. Look to Him! “Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17)! “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)!
C. Behold His Glory!
Friend you need to behold His glory! Jesus glory shines through the entire world. His grace is available to ANY ONE today! Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world!” Look back at our text in John chapter 1. Verses 9-13 tell us that Jesus “was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Conclusion: Many millions of people know the Christmas story today. Many will read it tomorrow morning from the Gospels. Yet, I must ask you the question. I’m not asking if you know about Jesus. I want to know, have you known Him like a child knows his mother and father? Have you entered into a union with God through Christ? You may be trying to come to God today through your good works or through your church or your baptism. Perhaps you are hoping your good will outweigh your bad. None of that counts on Judgment Day. The Bible says you will be judged according to your works, and if God judges you according to your works, if you have even one tiny little sin, you will be forever cast away from His presence. Psalm 130:3 says it perfectly, “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” Friend, “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5). He cannot have sin in His presence.
Listen, your only hope is Jesus! 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us that “there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”. Behold Him! He was in the beginning! All things were made by Him! Behold Him! See Him made flesh in Bethelhem. See Him as your Substitute. He will cover you from the wrath of God, and then He will cover you with His own love forever! Behold Him! Behold His glory. He is the only begotten of the Father “full of grace and truth.” Christ tells you the truth today. You cannot come on your own merits. He says “I am the way the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Your sin is weighting you down to hell, but Christ is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world! Behold the Lamb! Behold Him in His grace! Come to Him and let Him blot out all your sins forever! Line up behind Him and tell God let me into your heaven because I trust in your Son! That is the only basis you will enter into heaven!
Do you trust in the Word who became flesh? That is the only basis you will have your sins forgiven! Jesus is not simply a good man! Acts 4:12, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” The baby in the manger grew up and became a man. He lived a perfect life, and at the age of 33, he died criminal death in order to satisfy the justice of God. No man can come to the Father unless they submit to Jesus as Lord and Master by grace through faith. That is the Gospel message, and that is the Christmas message!
Friends, “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. The Word became flesh.” Will you turn from you sin today, and turn to Jesus Christ today—not for religion, but for a relationship? Today receive the greatest give—your eyes enlightened—Blindness removed and sight given! Turn to the Lord of Heaven and Earth who lived and died and rose again! Turn to Him today!
Closing Hymn: 199 Hark! the Herald Angels Sing (First and Second stanzas)
[1] Even Richard Dawkins, one of the world’s leading evolutionists, acknowledges this in his book The Blind Watchmaker, (W. W. Norton: New York, 1996).
[2] W. Gitt, Dazzling design in miniature, Creation 20(1):6, 1997.as accessed on the Answers in Genesis website: http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v25/i2/dna.asp. Accessed on 23 December 2006.
[3] ‘Scientific American’ 199, September 1958, p.100 as quoted in The Revised Quote Book, Creation Science Foundation, Brisbane (Australia), 1990.