The Powerful Incarnation

I'll take your Bible this morning and turn with me to the book of John, John chapter 1. We are going to be in verses 16 through 18 this morning. And if you have been keeping up with our study through the Gospel of John, you know that we are finishing up this morning the introduction to the book, verses 118, being the introduction and there is so much truth that we have learned thus far and I can only imagine what the Lord is going to show us as we continue in the book. But I want you to see the importance of the introduction.

There is fundamental truth that we really must grasp and digest and have in our minds and hearts because it prepares us for the rest of the book, the remainder of the book that is before us. Now really the end of the introduction is the high point. I said it last week, there are some that call it the crescendo. So the conclusion of the introduction is the high watermark, if I can use that language for John. Now last week we had the subject of the incarnation which we will continue with this morning. And last week the title of the message was the wonderful incarnation. Remember we learn a lot about what is called proper Christology.

The fact that Christ, he was fully God, he was fully man. This is what is called the hypostatic union that God became man. Now the reason I give you some of those terms and phrases is that some of you are studious. You would study and you would read and when you run across these terms like the incarnation, the hypostatic union, you will understand that those are terms that theologians give us, commentators give us to describe what the scripture is teaching us. We understand, we've learned that Christ was fully God, he was fully man. The prophecy of Isaiah tells us this many years before Christ came.

Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 says, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold a virgin will be with child and bear a son and she will call his name Emmanuel." Isn't that what we just saw earlier? Now Matthew quotes this verse, Isaiah's prophecy in chapter 1 verse 23. And Matthew adds to that prophecy by saying, which is translated or it means God with us. That's what that term Emmanuel means. It's just not a Christmas term. That means God with us. What is that talking about? What is Isaiah prophesying? The wonderful incarnation that Christ would come in the form of a child, 100% God and 100% man. Now again, why is this important?

It is important for us to understand proper Christology because if we don't have proper Christology, we will take the Christian faith and we will take the church all the way into heresy. And many people have done that through the years. Now I want to show you something that is very important for you to see as well. And maybe it's something that you've not seen. The verses that we have been in, really starting with verse, really all of these verses, verses 1 through 18. These verses are very theological. I was explaining to Keith yesterday. They're very technical. They're very theological.

Very technical and it is very important for us to grasp certain meanings of words, certain phrases. We're dealing with a lot of heavy theology here. Now a lot of people, when you talk about theology, they will have negative thoughts. They will say, well, a theology will just bore people. It's not applicable to people's lives. Well, I think that you can see so far that that's not true. Now think about last week's message. The main truth out of verse 14 was the physical incarnation, the fact that Christ came. And what did we see at the end of that main truth out of verse 14? That demanded us to ask the question, has Christ come to you?

That's what John the Baptist was a witness of. That's what we're seeing. Christ came to mankind. We saw that in verses 9 and through those verses following verse 9, that he was the light of the world. He was the light that came to men. So the incarnation is theological, but it is also practical for us who are redeemed. It is practical in that it causes us to ask the question, has Christ come to you? Then last week we saw in verse 15 the witness of the incarnation. That John was that wonderful, powerful witness. And it caused us to ask the question, what kind of witness are we?

What kind of witness are we as individual Christians and as church members? And what is the witness of the church today? What am I showing you? A lot of theology, but yet it is so practical. And theology is fundamental for the faith, understanding proper Christology. And it does, and it will, and it can trickle down into everyday life. Now, this morning's message is just really a continuation of last week's message. Because all of these verses, verses 14 through 18, really go together. They come out of the same desire from John to teach about the incarnation.

Now, I said earlier the title of the message last week was the Wonderful Incarnation. And you will see there's a slight difference in the title this morning, and it is the Powerful Incarnation. But again, John is still dealing with the truth of the incarnation. So we see on the screen the title of the message, the Powerful Incarnation. And you see that we're gonna look at three main truths. They come right out of the verses. We're gonna look at the experience of the incarnation, the power or the impact of the incarnation, and the visible incarnation.

The experience of the incarnation, the impact of the incarnation, and the visible incarnation. These come right out of the text. They're easy for you to follow. And I hope and pray that you take notes for your future study so that you would get all that the Lord wants to teach you. So let's look at main truth number one, and we're gonna see this in verse 16. Let's turn our attention to the text. Let's read all of the text together. Notice what John says. For of his fullness we have all received and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

And then verse 18, no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the father, he has explained him. What do we see? Starting with verse 14 all the way to verse 18, John's subject is the incarnation. So let's look at verse 16. Let's look at main truth number one, the experience of the incarnation. Go back to the text. For of his fullness we have all received and grace upon grace. Now you will notice there is a word here in this verse, and that word is we. The new American translation calls it or translates it we all. All of the other translations that are before us this morning use the word we.

Now why do I point that out? This denotes a transition or a separation from verse 15. Verse 15 we have the witness of John the Baptist. I've already told you there are many witnesses that John gives us, the Apostle John, that lend credibility to who Christ is. These are judicial terms. They are witnesses. They testify. But there's a transition here from verse 15 to verse 16. And what do we see? This is different than verse 15. So I want us to notice some truth out of verse 16, and I want to ask us some questions. First the question, who is this we? Who is this we? Go back to the verse. For of this fullness we have all received. Who is the we?

This we is none other than the Apostle John. Now we are familiar with John by now. He was one of the 12. He was one of those who was appointed as a disciple, an apostle. But we also know that John was one of the favorite. One of the ones who was the closest is a better way to explain it to Jesus. It seemed like all through the Gospels, Peter, James, and John were the closest to Jesus. John is the apostle who did go all the way to the cross. John is the apostle who gives us first, second, and third John and the revelation. This is one of the disciples, the last living apostle, because they are all been killed, all been martyred.

They are all deceased. But this we is none other than John, but also those who are part of John's community. We know that he is an Ephesus. First history tells us that the Ephesian Christians are urging John to write this Gospel account to repudiate the heresy that was among them. And what is John saying? I was there. There are some who were with me. We don't know who was still alive, who had walked in talk with Christ. We know that John is older. But what am I showing you? Who this we is? This we is none other than John and those who would have been part of John's spiritual church community. And so look at what John is saying.

For of his fullness, we have all received. John is including himself with a group that have received who Christ is. So that's who the we is. The second question, what is this fullness? Go back to the text. The word fullness really comes before we, but I wanted us to see who the we was first. For of his fullness, we have all received. This word fullness is extremely important. This word fullness is found only once in the Gospel of John, but Paul uses this word in his writings a lot. Now what does this mean?

John is saying that the wholesome of the divine grace and power of God himself appeared in the word who was Christ, the word who became flesh. What is John saying? The wholesome of the divine grace and power and who God is appeared in the form of the word. What is John saying? He is saying that we saw the fullness of God in Christ Jesus. One commentator said it like this. The full resources of God stand behind the incarnate one. So therefore when the word became flesh, when Christ dwelt and walked and talked with those people on earth, both Jew and Gentile, they were able to see the fullness of God.

That is what they witnessed for roughly three years as Jesus was involved in his earthly ministry. The fullness of God in flesh. But notice what they received. Go back to the verse. "For of his fullness we," John and his company, "we of all received." Now remember, John is refuting this intellectual knowledge. This is not an intellectual assent. John has been refuting this from the beginning and he is establishing what it means to receive Christ. That's why he used certain specific words all through starting with verse 9. So what do we see here? What did they receive? They received his fullness. They did not receive a part of who Christ was.

They did not receive what Christ could do for them, but they received Christ in his fullness. They received him in his totality. And that's important for us to see because in our day there are some that will teach and preach in the life of the church that you can receive certain things about Christ. You can receive maybe his attributes or what he will do for you. Some will even teach that you can receive Christ as Savior and never receive Christ as Lord. Well, John contradicts that because what does John say? He says, "We rereceived him in his fullness." They didn't try to dice him up and slice him up.

They didn't divorce him in any way, shape, form or fashion. They received him in his fullness. Then the fourth question, what is this grace? Go back to verse 16. What does it say? "Of his fullness we have all received and grace upon grace." This simply means that they received, they were a witness to, a limited supply of grace. They received and they were a witness to and they were involved in as he was here on earth a limited supply of grace, unlimited supply of grace. The amplified version. I like it sometimes it can be rather wordy, but it helps us see this because it really communicates with a lot of words.

Listen to what the amplified says. And we, talking about John, we were supplied with one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor, gift heaped upon gift. That's what John is saying. John is saying we, those who are with me, we receive Christ in his fullness. We receive Christ in all of his grace and as we walk with him and as we listen to him and as we experienced him, we experience grace upon grace upon grace, spiritual blessing after spiritual blessing, gift after gift as they walk with Christ.

Listen, this is the, and I did this purposefully, the experience of the incarnation because that's all John is talking about, how he has experienced the word that had become flesh. And this is a great example. Now listen to this term of experiential Christianity. John, yes, he is setting himself up as a witness just like John the Baptist and others as well, but we need to see that his witness was experiential. That word received is so important. That word full is so important. The grace upon grace is so important because it shows us that it was not an intellectual experience.

It was an experiential walk with God and experiential knowledge is a whole lot different than intellectual knowledge. And John is really making a difference. And see, we must know the difference. Now listen close between experiential Christianity and intellectual inner Christianity because intellectual Christianity comes in many forms and can be experienced and seen and explained in many different ways. But intellectual Christianity is not the same as experiential Christianity. Let me give you some examples. Many of you know that one of the last presidents that we had that would have been considered Southern Baptist was Bill Clinton.

Bill Clinton was a member of a Southern Baptist church. He was born and raised in the South in Arkansas. He was considered Baptist, claimed to be Baptist, claimed to be Southern Baptist and claimed to be Christian. Some of you might say, well, you can't say these things you're going to say because you're being judgmental, but the scripture says you will know them and you will know them by their fruit. But what I'm showing you is by the way he has lived his life in private and in public, it is obvious for us to say he has never experienced and received the fullness of who Christ is.

He has never experienced and he is not experiencing grace upon grace upon grace because John is describing an experiential Christianity, not just professing Christianity. As someone, whether they're famous or not, they can profess, they can explain, they can articulate a faith, but if it's not a possessed faith, a received faith, a faith that includes the totality of who Christ is, experiencing grace after grace, spiritual blessing after spiritual blessing, yes, gift upon gift as they walk with God and live for God and experience God, then it's just head knowledge. And there is a huge and gigantic difference.

Now remember the title of the sermon. There is power in the incarnation and there is power in knowing Christ. There is power in experiencing Christ when we know Christ, we receive Christ, we are born again and then as we continue to walk with Christ, there is power in that. There is a phrase that is rather common. Some preachers use it. I've heard different preachers use it and it's been used in the secular world as well as from the pulpit, but it really fits this and the phrase is this, "A man with an argument is no match for a man with an experience." We see that in Acts chapter three.

I don't know if you know that story, but Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer and there was a lame beggar there. And what did they do? They said silver or gold, we don't have it. But what we do have, we give you and what did they do? Peter stepped out and through the power of the spirit, that lame beggar was healed. Now there was a big uproar and there were thousands of people that heard the gospel as a result of that miracle.

And in Acts chapter four, they are arrested by the elders and the rulers and the teachers of the law and they begin to inquire and examine them by what power they had performed this miracle because the lame beggar was there. They could not refute the miracle. And then they commanded them not to preach and teach in the name of Jesus, but in chapter four verse 13 and 14, now listen to this, "The rulers and the elders who were not born again, they had not experienced the fullness of Christ, it said that they recognized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, but they took note that they had been with Jesus." What is that?

That is experiential Christianity. Even the lost world could recognize it. Even men who were enemies of the cross could say, "We know these men have been walking with Christ." And that's what John is saying. We have experienced the incarnation. We received it in its fullness and we experienced grace upon grace upon grace. And I want to ask you this morning, do you have experiential Christianity as described and given to us right here in the scripture? Or do you merely have intellectual Christianity? You know, and a lot of people will have intellectual Christianity and they'll move a little closer and then they'll have spectator Christianity.

They'll be right on the pew. They'll just be spectators at a distance. Neither of the two will say, neither of the two are scriptural and biblical. And so I want to ask you, do you have experiential Christianity where you have received the fullness of his grace? We have learned about that starting in verse 9 in the previous sermons. Let's move on to the second main truth that I want us to see right out of verse 17. I want us to see the impact of the incarnation, the impact of the incarnation. Look at verse 17, "For the law was given through Moses." Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

Now you might think this strange that all of a sudden we see John going from John the Baptist and the word became flesh in verse 14, John the Baptist and then John as a witness, John as experiencing experiential, experiencing the incarnation and then now he gets into the law. What's the meaning of this? Now before we can explain this, I think that we need to establish a little understanding about the law. What is meant by the law here? This is referring to the law or the Levitical law. In a brief explanation, this consists of the 10 commandments that are found in Exodus chapter 20.

But not only does this describe the 10 commandments, what would have been described here was the Levitical law that was given by Moses and there were over 600 laws that we can find in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Now what am I showing you? For Israel, for the Jews, they had the law which was the 10 commandments and that was the basis of the Levitical law, over 600 laws that were given through the book of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

And for those Jews, for the nation of Israel, as they lived in that Old Testament time, the law was given to reveal God's holiness, God's purity and God's righteous character and to instruct them as the chosen people of God how to live according to God's plan. You might not know it, but God's purpose for Israel was that they would be a holy people, a separate people, a unique people who did not live like the world so that they would be a light to the lost world. And the law was given as instruction as the how to live. That was the purpose of the law.

But notice what John's saying, "For the law was given through Moses and then immediately he says grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ." What do we see here? We see the impact of the incarnation. Now let me explain. First, I want you to notice the law, it has power, but yet it is powerless. The law has power, but it is powerless. Let me explain what I mean and you're going to have to notice some things and follow me. Notice that the law is powerless to save mankind. I'm going to refer to several scriptures. I don't want you to turn there, but I want you to get what the scripture is teaching.

Romans chapter 3 verse 20, Paul tells us, "Because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight." What is Paul saying? No man, no woman can ever be justified in God's sight by keeping the law. Galatians 4, 10 says, "For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse for it is written." Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them. In the two verses, there are so many others in scripture, what do they do? They tell us that the law is powerless to save mankind.

I'll give you one more, Hebrews 10, 4, "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin." Now what is this blood of bulls and goats? That refers to the sacrificial system that came out of the Levitical law. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, "No matter how much blood you spill, it will not take away sin." What is that telling us? The law is powerless to save mankind. Cursed is anyone who cannot keep all of the law. But notice, the law did have power to reveal man's condition.

Romans 3, 20 says, "Because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight." And it goes on to say, I didn't read this earlier, "For through the law comes the knowledge of sin." So what does Romans tell us? The power that is within the law is to reveal man's condition. Hebrews 10, 4 says, "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin." What are we seeing? The law was powerless and is powerless to save man, but the power that is within the law is to reveal man's true condition. Jew and Gentile alike. I like what John MacArthur says in describing this, talking about the law.

He says, "It merely convicts sinners of their inability to keep perfectly God's righteous standards and condemns them to the eternal punishment of divine justice." The law is powerless to save, but the power within the law is to show that all men, all mankind, Jew and Gentile alike cannot keep God's perfect law. And man is cursed because of that. But second, notice Christ, grace and power. We notice first the law, power and powerlessness. Now second, notice Christ, grace and power. Go back to the verse, "For the law was given through Moses, but immediately John says grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ." What do we see here?

What the law could never do, which was save man, Christ could do through grace and truth. You must get that. What the law could never do, grace and truth did through Christ. Christ could save mankind. So what I want you to see, notice two things. Christ came in grace. That word's just not stuck there in verse 17 in a haphazard manner. Christ came in grace. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, "For by what? Grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves." Not keeping the law is what he's saying. It is a gift from God, not as a result of works, not keeping the law that no one should boast. Two times he uses the word grace. How?

"For by grace you've been saved." And it is a grace gift from God. So what we see is Christ came to offer that free gift of salvation that no man, no woman could work for, least they should boast. Christ came in grace. And also Christ came in power. Christ was able to do what the law could never do, which was save men from the law. Galatians 3, 24 says, "Therefore the law has become our tutor." Some translations say, "Schoolmaster," what? "To lead us to Christ that we may be justified by faith." What is that teaching us? Christ has the power to save. The law does not. There was a Jewish audience here.

One of the problems that the Jews had was to revert back to keeping the law. Part of the beginnings of Gnosticism was taking Jewish law and weaving it into this system of works. That's what was going on in the Galatian problem. This system of works and what John is saying is, "The law was powerless to save, but yet with Christ there is grace and power to save." Let me read you the rest of John MacArthur's quote.

"The law merely convicts sinners of their inability to keep perfectly God's righteous standards and condemns them to the eternal punishment of divine justice." He goes on to say, "And thus reveals their need for grace and forgiveness." What is John saying? The impact of the incarnation is what the law could never do, Christ can do. This is extremely important because no man, no woman, no people will ever be made right with God by keeping the law. Let me give you an example. This example demands a question. What about Abraham? Was Abraham not a man who lived under the law? Yes, he was. Was not Abraham God's chosen? Yes, he was.

Well if Abraham had to live under the law, how was he justified? How was he right with God? Did he have Christ? No, the incarnation had not happened yet. But what do we have? Romans chapter 4 verses 1 through 3 says, "What then shall we say that Abraham our forefather, according to the flesh, was found?" In other words, how did he measure up according to the law? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. Paul goes on to say, "For what does the Scripture say?

And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Now I don't know how to explain it to you, but just as we are made right with God by grace through faith, so was Abraham. He believed God, and that is an accounting term. He was reckoned or deemed righteous before God. So Abraham was right with God by grace through faith, not by keeping the law. And what we see is the impact of the incarnation. Man does not have to live by the law. This came to fulfill the law, but what do we see? Some come today in the same manner, by rules and regulations, by convictions.

I've even known people that had harsh theological convictions, and I have seen so many people through the years. They live by rules. They live by convictions. They live by theologies. They live in the parameter of rules and regulations that they have come up with, and they don't come to God, now listen, through Christ, through grace, through the power of conversion. And they can only relate to God by their laws, their rules, and their regulations. And that is exactly what the Jews did. They could not move away from their laws and the Levitical law.

And that's why when Christ was here on earth, as he was walking and talking, they always many times would come to him on the basis of the Levitical law. Now we do know that the Ten Commandments do have implication and meaning for us in the New Testament times. We don't have time to get into that. But what is the point? The impact of the incarnation. The blood of bulls and goats will not save. The Levitical law will not save. Christ came to do what the law could not do. And so for us, for you, for me, it causes us to ask ourselves a question.

Do we come before God through Christ by grace and the power and the impact of the incarnation in our life? Isn't that what John said? We've received him in his fullness. And it has impacted our lives. It is experiential as we have experienced Christ day by day, by day, by day. Grace upon grace. But yet we know that they're some, they try to make themselves right with God and live out their Christian life by rules and convictions and regulations. And there's no power in that. And there's no grace in that. So we see the impact of the incarnation. Let's move on to main truth number three out of verse 18. What do we see? The visible incarnation.

What does John say? No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten of God who is in the bosom of the father, he has explained him. Now verse 18 is another way in which John describes the incarnation. You might not have realized it from the beginning of our study starting in verse one of chapter one, but John describes the incarnation in many different ways all through these verses in verses four and nine. What do we see? He was the light of men that is alluding to, it is pointing us to the incarnation in verse 10 and 11. He came to his own, both Jew and Gentile. That's referring to the incarnation.

And then really the pinnacle, he gets to the, the high crescendo of the incarnation in verse 14, that the word became flesh and John is still on that pinnacle in describing the incarnation in verse 18. So let's break this verse down. First we see the word who is Christ, he has seen God. What does it say? No man has seen God, but we know that the word that came, that came flesh, who is Christ Jesus, he has seen God. If we are astute in the New Testament, we know that many times Jesus equated himself with God and he placed himself with God. In verses one through five, John shows us that Jesus the word was with God in the beginning.

Right there in verse one, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. What is John showing us? Jesus was with God, he came from God and he is God and he has seen God. So the word Christ has seen God. Second, the word has a special relationship to God. Now the King James reads the only begotten son. The English Standard version, some of you have that version, reads the only God. Now let's notice what's being taught here. Notice that he is the only one. Now the best translation of this particular portion of verse from the original is the only begotten of God.

Remember last week we learned that Jesus was not created but that he is the only one of his kind. He was not created, he is unique in every way and that is exactly what John is saying. He has a special relationship to God because why? He is the unique one, the only one and then also he was with God. The English Standard version says that he was by the Father's side. Jesus speaks of Christ's intimacy with the Father. Go back to the verse, verse 18, "No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten of God who was in the bosom of the Father." That speaks of an intimate relationship that he has with the Father.

So we see that the word has a special relationship to God not only and as well as seeing God. And then third, the word, he has explained God. What does it say? No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten of God who was in the bosom of the Father. Now notice four words in the New American, he has explained him. The word, the word in flesh, the incarnated Christ, he has explained God. The King James reads, "He hath declared him." The English Standard reads, "He has made him known." The God who cannot be seen or known has been made known through Christ the Word who became flesh.

The word, now listen, as we have learned through these verses, this word comes and what Christ Jesus, the word who became flesh, has come to interpret and to explain in a methodical fashion who God is. This is where we get our English word exegete from, which means to explain, to teach, to preach, to unfold what the word says. Then since word study says this word explain or hath declared, it means to relate in full, to interpret or to translate and that is exactly what Jesus did. Jesus came in the form of a man, 100% God, 100% man and all through his ministry he explained, he translated for mankind who God is.

No man can see God but yet Christ Jesus has explained who God is. Simply put, Jesus, the only full, true explanation of the Father was made known. All other explanations or interpretations of God outside of Jesus are false. I was reminded this morning, I guess partly because of my conversation with our friend Luke in India, of an illustration that will help us understand. A year ago or so when I was in India, when I would preach and I would teach, I always had someone next to me and that would be an interpreter.

And I noticed that Luke and the other Indians who would travel with us who could speak English and speak the native language, no matter what language that was, they would listen, now listen close, for accurate interpretation and then I began to notice not only did they translate my words, a good interpreter could translate my intentions. It is more than just interpreting words, a good translator could interpret all that I was trying to express. As a matter of fact, when I would get through preaching and teaching, I would sit down and ask some of the other Indian brothers how the translation work went.

And I remember one time when I was preaching in the state of Manipur and I really felt God was using me. The brother there who was interpreting was extremely good and I remember the other brothers there, the other Christians that were saying he did a fantastic job because they could hear me in English, they understood all that I was trying to communicate but then they could listen to this brother interpret in another tongue not just my words but my intentions, my actions, my attitude, my voice inflection, my example, even speaking with my hands because the interpreter would move as well.

That's not a complete example but in every word, in every deed, in every action, Christ, now listen, interpreted the Father to us. He has explained the Father, now listen perfectly. That's why near the end of the Gospel of John when he's going away, one of those disciples who was doubting and struggling looked at Jesus and said, "Jesus, show us the Father." And he said, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." Why? Because he was saying, "I have interpreted who the Father is perfectly to you." So what do we see? Jesus is the perfect interpretation of who God is.

Somebody that tells us that we, now listen close, we must be very careful where we get our information about God. You know there are some people that have these experiences. Now when I say experiential Christianity, I don't mean anything outside of the Scriptures. But you know you'll have people that will have these experiences. I've known people who have literally related to spiritual truth by rainbows in the sky, birds that fly past. That might not be an accurate interpretation of what God is saying. There is another God, little gee. There is the God of this world.

And if you seek after some strange experience or some experience that will make you get goosebumps, the little gee of this world who masquerades as an angel of light can give you that experience. I've known people who have been at graveside services and they would just believe that their loved one really loved God no matter how they lived because it was a beautiful rainbow in the sky. Be careful where you get your interpretations of who God is. I never forget years ago, and this is going to sound comical, years ago I had a family member who came to me and he had one of the tabloids.

And on the front cover of the tabloid was one of those hit stories where they had found other laws written by God. They were adding to the Ten Commandments. I think maybe there were 12 according to the tabloid or 15. And he was holding that piece of paper and he was saying, "Oh, there's more to what we find in the Bible." But the only problem is that is a faulty interpretation of who God is. One thing that has really hurt many "American Christians" is movies about God, movies about the Scriptures. Those can be entertaining, but they also can be harmful.

How many people have developed their view on the end times by the movies called the Left Behind? They might be well intentioned, but if they're not biblically accurate, it is not a proper interpretation of God. What am I showing you? Be careful where you look for God. If you want to know what God said, what God did, if you want to know what God wants to say to humanity, look at Jesus Christ. Because what do we see? He is the visible incarnation. He has seen God. He has a unique special relationship to God. And he came in perfection. He explained and he interpreted God.

And all we need to know about God can be found in the person of Jesus Christ. Right here in the Scriptures. Now as we conclude these verses, we've looked for some weeks at verses 1 through 18. What we see in this introduction to the book, we see a synopsis of the Gospel of John. I guess if we can put it in our language today, this is the cliff notes of the Gospel. This is the introduction of what John is going to give us. And John, as we continue in the book, John will develop teaching all throughout the book which he introduced in verses 1 through 18. So as we close, let's just take a step back. Notice some wonderful truths that we learn.

Jesus was pre-existent with God in the beginning, was he not? That's why the writer of Genesis said, in pluralistic language, that God said, "Let us make man in our image." Christ Jesus was there. He always has been. And then we see in these introductory verses that the word Christ Jesus became flesh and he dwelt among men. Verse 8, 14, leads to the crescendo of the book or the introduction. And he was the true like, verse 9 tells us. Some rejected and some received. He was the full expression of God's grace, God's truth and God's power, verse 17 says, and that full expression came to man. Isn't that good? So what do we see?

The powerful incarnation. But you know, I am so happy that that incarnation came to me. I must end this message this morning by asking you, have you experienced this incarnation the way John has? The way he explains it in the scriptures? Have you received him? Have you believed in him? Have you trusted in him? Not something that you've done of your own will, but because of the work that God has done in you. Have you experienced that type of Christianity? Because remember one of the purposes of John, John writing this book is even evangelistic.

And I'm so thankful as I've studied through this to preach and studied from my own growth and edification that I always go back to the fact that Christ came to me. Yes, I was a hopeless and wondering and rebellious and very sinful 20 year old, but because of the sovereign work of God in my life, he brought me to a place where he revealed himself to me and it was not of an act of my own will, but I received and I believe and I trusted by faith and I received a new heart and I received a new nature. I received a new mind. I received a new direction in life.

I experienced the fullness because listen, when I accepted Christ, there were no strings attached. There were no buts involved. I didn't say, Lord, I want this and I want that Lord. I'll do this and I'll do that. But there were no buts involved in my heart of hearts. You know what I said? Or my life is a mess and it's my fault. I've rebelled against you. I've gone my own way. It's my fault. If you want it, you can have it. I received him in his fullness and I want to ask you if that has not happened to you the way John is described. You're not a Bible Christian. Cultural? Maybe. Intellectual? Maybe.

Maybe a spectator, but not a biblical Christianity, not a biblical Christian. Let's pray and then we'll close. Thank you for what we have learned in these wonderful verses. Lord, I know that I have not done them justice nor will I ever do them justice. Lord, I've just simply, in the way in which you have led me, I've desired to just communicate the truth of what is found in the verses.