John 1:9-14 The
Word became Flesh WC
McCarter
Introduction
Today, we will consider some of the most shocking news in
all of the world. The Word, who we have established as God of very God, became
a man. You would think that it would not get more shocking than that, yet think
of how appalling it is that people would have nothing to do with him. On the
whole, He was despised and rejected. He was crucified as a blasphemer. But this
was the plan of God.
READ Scripture-
This is the Word of God
The True Light (9)
How is He the true light? Christ is the true light in the
sense that He is the genuine/real light. Christ is, “the genuine and ultimate
self-disclosure of God” (Carson, 122).
How does this light shine on every man? This light shines
on every man, and in doing so, it divides humanity into two groups: those who
receive the light and those who reject the light. When the light of Christ
shines into this world, some people walk into that light and will be saved, yet
others run from the light because they do not want their deeds to be exposed.
As one person has said, This light shines
upon every person whether he sees it or not (Barrett).
When Christ came into the world, He was coming into the
orb of His creation. Yet, that creation had gone/continues to go astray. He was
interrupting a rebellious creation.
So, we do not have to wait until verse fourteen to hear
something about the Christmas story. We already saw one verse last week that
told us about Christ’s coming. Verse five says, “And the light shines in the
darkness. . . .” Now we have seen in verse nine, “The true light that gives
light to everyone was coming into the world.” These are verses that tell us
about Christ coming into the world. From a different perspective, without all
of the historical details, we are told about Christ interrupting human history
to enact God’s plan of redemption. We know the details. He did this by being
miraculously born of a virgin in the most humble of ways, growing from infancy
into adulthood, and dying as a sacrifice for sin on the cross. John gives us
the theological Christmas story.
Rejection (10-11)
In the Garden of Eden, God would come and walk with Adam
and Eve in the cool of the day. It was normal and probably expected for God to
come into and relate with His own creation. Yet, when Christ came into the
world, His creation did not even recognize Him. We can see in these words just
how dark the world had become. We can see how dire the problem of sin was.
Although Christ interrupted this rebellious world, the
world continued to rebel. They rejected Him and could see no glory in Him. The
world saw nothing of use in Him and in the end crucified Him. The world washed
its hands of the Word.
Even the Jews, His own people, who were looking for Him,
even they did not seem Him although He was standing right in front of their
faces. The ones who were most intent about finding their Redeemer-Messiah, were
the ones who despised Him the most. They plotted against Him and cried out for
His crucifixion. Of course, this rejection fulfilled all that the Old Testament
Scriptures had to say about the Coming One.
Reception (12-13)
Only those who receive this Light, only those who allow
this Light to shine into their lives will be saved. It may have only been a
few, but as many as did receive Him, to them He gave the right to become
children of God. To become a child of God, two things have to happen: (1) you
have to receive the Word (Christ, the True Light) which you do by believing in
His name, and (2) the Word gives you the right to become a child of God. Let’s
make sure that we are clear on a few things here in verse twelve.
To receive Christ you must believe in His name. Names
were significant in ancient times. A name meant something in that culture. A
name represented everything about a person, his character, history,
accomplishments, and more. Therefore, the name “Jesus Christ” means a whole
lot. To believe in that name means that you have to learn what all that name
represents. Let us state a few things now. His name represents His: eternality,
divinity, virginal conception, ministry of teaching and healing, sinless
perfection, sacrificial death for the sins of the world, resurrection,
ascension, preeminence, and much more. To receive Christ is to believe in His
name and to believe in His name is to trust that He is who He claims to be as
well as to trust that the records we have of Him in the Scriptures are true and
completely reliable.
The second thing that we must be clear on is the fact
that no human being has the right to be a child of God because we are all
sinful and rebellious creatures. We have all sinned and fallen short of the
glory of God, our righteousness is like filthy rags, and there is none
righteous – not even one. God is a holy and righteous God. There is none like
Him. He is perfect in all His ways. God is light and in Him there is no
darkness at all. We, mere creatures, have trespassed against the utterly holy
Creator, God Almighty. Do we think that there is any possibility that we could
pay for our sins against this great God? Do we think that we could make up for
it? Can we redeem ourselves? It is not possible to become a child of God on
your own. God gives you the right. This is grace. It is completely undeserved.
You cannot earn it, and a main point that verse thirteen is making is that you
cannot be born into it. It does not matter who your parents were or anything to
do with your heritage, but what matters is that God be the agent of a second,
new birth.
So, verse thirteen tells us how a person is made a child
of God, and it is closely related to what Jesus will later say in chapter three
about being born again. God shines His Light into a person’s darkness and they
receive it (non-meritorious), God then gives them the right to become His child
and makes it so. Thus, from the beginning to the end of the regeneration
process, God is at work. It is all “of God” as the last two words say of verse
thirteen. You may ask, “How can I be saved” or, “How can I become a child of
God?” I will tell you form this verse, you must be “born of God.” Only God can
do this. You cannot make this happen yourself, and I cannot do this for you.
Cry out to Him, and He will give you the new birth.
The Word became
Flesh (14)
The last verse we will look at today is one of the most
famous in all the Bible and rightly so. This verse tells the Christmas story in
only a few words.
The “we” who beheld the glory of the Word-made-flesh must
be John and the other eyewitnesses. Yet, the glory was not of a completely
revealed nature. It was still very much veiled. To see this glory, one still
had to see it with the eyes of faith. This is obvious because all who saw
Christ did not see His glory or they would have believed. Ultimately in the
Gospel of John, the glory that is seen in Christ is seen in what He did in
dying and being raised from the grave. Of course, only those who receive the
light can look at Jesus on the cross and see glory. Those who are without faith
and without the new birth look at the cross and mock it.
Conclusion and
Christian Application
(1) For those
of you who have experienced the new birth and have been made children of the
living God, do not forget how it happened. It was not of your will, but the
will of the Father. Remember that you did not earn your place in the family of
God, but you were graciously given your place in His family.
(2) For those
of you who are not children of God. Cry out to Him today. Receive the light of
Christ, believe in His name, and the Lord will bring about newness in your
life. He will do a mighty work in you from beginning to end. Jesus fully
immersed Himself into humanity when the Word put on flesh and dwelt among us.
In turn, you may be united with Christ in the waters of baptism, fully associating
with His death and resurrection.