The Wonderful Incarnation

We'll take your Bible this morning and turn with me to the Gospel of John, the Book of John. We are in John chapter 1, as many of you would know. We are in our study in the Gospel of John, verse by verse, word by word, getting all that the Lord wants to teach us. Remember the title of the series is Christ the Son of God, and we know John's heart because we've learned it so far, and that is believe and live. And that helps us understand the primary message of the book, and we're learning, learning a lot, and God is forming us into the people He wants us to be. John chapter 1, we're going to be in verses 14 and 15 this morning.

Now, we are nearing the end of the introduction to the book. Now, by now you know that the introduction of the Gospel of John is verses 1 through 18, and you should know by now, and I really want to emphasize this, that the introduction is foundational information that you need to not just know in your mind, you need to really take it to heart because this foundational information, these truths that we've been learning in verses 1 through 18, prepare us for the main message of the book. They prepare us for the truths. Now, as we progress into the book, we will occasionally revert back to this information.

What I mean is, I will make mention at different times how this foundational information forms the entire message of the Gospel of John. So we are nearing the end of this introductory material verses 1 through 18. Now, our verses this morning, originally I intended to cover verses 14 through 18, but because of time, I wanted to stop with verses 14 and 15. But if you take verses in 14 through 18, these verses are really some of the most important information, especially verse 14. One of the Bible commentators that I like to read called it the crescendo to the introduction of the book. It's the pinnacle.

It's the apex of the introductory material, especially verse 14. In other words, John is going out with a bang with this material, preparing us for the book. Now, with that in mind, knowing that verses 14 through 18 are really going to have a lot of punch, let's just take a step back. And what I mean by taking a step back, let's just quickly notice what we've learned. Verses 1 through 5, when we first got into the book, what did we see? We saw who Christ really was. We see who he is. We see that he came from God. He was pre-existent. He is pre-existent.

Christ, the Messiah, the promised one, is this word that John talks about in verses 1 through 5, verses 6 through 8. What did we see? That first credible witness that came on the scene. I told you that there are many witnesses that we're going to see and encounter in the Gospel of John. John the Baptist was that first very bold, incredible witness to the deity of Christ. And then in verses 9 through 13, we saw Christ's interaction with the world, did we not? We saw that there were some that rejected Christ. They did not know him. That's not intellectual knowledge. They did not know him. They rejected Christ.

But we also saw that there were some who did receive. And in this, we see how man is made right with God. I think I shared this Wednesday at prayer meeting. I know I shared this with Brother Keith through the week and some other friends. But in verses 9 through 13, there is enough Gospel to reach the world. I don't know if you realize that. A man or a woman or a young person who is spirit filled and led of God can take verses 9 through 13 and reach countless multitudes for Christ. That is just how much Gospel is in verses 9 through 13. But it's amazing. John gives us both sides of conversion. Because there is God's side.

There is the work that only God can do. And then there is man's side. That's man's responsibility. We don't always see that. A lot of times the writers will give us God's side or man's side. But John gives us both sides. That's why verses 9 through 13 are very important for us to understand. Now our verses this morning, I've already said, they are part of the conclusion of the introduction. Verses 1 through 18. But this morning we are going to stay in verses 14 through 15. And let's go to the text together. That's chapter 1. Let's see what John tells us. And the Word, remember we learned who that Word was in verses 1 through 5.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten from the Father full of grace and truth. And then verse 15. John, this is John the Baptist. He bore witness of Him and he cried out saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'" He existed before me. Now I will go on and put on the screen for us the title of the message. And the two main truths that we are going to look at this morning. I always want you to get the two main points, the two main truths. They always come out of the text. They come out of the verses.

And then there's a lot of truth that the Lord wants us to digest and flesh out on this skeleton. So if you have your pen in hand, I trust that you do, we're going to see the physical incarnation. The physical incarnation out of verse 14. And then we're going to see the witness of the incarnation out of verse 15. You can abbreviate that by saying the physical and the witness incarnation or the incarnation. Now, before we get into the verses, I need to give you some more introductory material. And I really want you to get this.

What I want you to see is, in these verses, there is a fundamental doctrine which we must understand, and that is the doctrine of the incarnation. The incarnation. Now, the word incarnation is not found in these verses, but the doctrine is. You might say, that's kind of one of those high church words. Well, you need to understand it, and you need to write that down, and you need to ponder over this. Now, why the time? Why the effort by me? The incarnation is one of the most important doctrines in the New Testament, and it has been defended from the time of John all the way through the true church age until this day.

The incarnation is sometimes called the hypostatic union. If you do much study, if you read Bible commentators and theologians, you might run across that phrase, the hypostatic union. Now, simply and biblically, what this means is, this is the union of Christ fully God with Christ fully man. The incarnation is God became a man, being fully God and fully man. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, thus he was God, he was deity. He had no earthly father, although Joseph acted as a physical father. God was his father, he was God, he was deity. Also, we know, the scripture teaches that he was born of a virgin. That tells us that he was fully man.

He received his nature from God the Father, 100% God. He received the nature from his mother, he was 100% man. That's why the scripture says he is a manual, which means God with us. Now, remember, I've been telling you that we are learning Christology, the theology of who Christ is and what Christ did. And what I want you to see is, this is proper, proper Christology. Anyone, any person, any church, any denomination that denies that Christ was fully God and fully man, they are propagating an error right out of the heart of hell. Because this is what God wants us to see, the incarnation. There are many cults that propagate these lies.

We must understand these truths because when we come in contact with these heresies, we will know what the word says. So in introduction, I want you to understand we are going to grapple with the incarnation. And if you just want to simplify it by saying the incarnation is the fact that Christ was 100% man and he was 100% God. So let's dive into our verses this morning. I want us to see, number one, the physical incarnation. The physical incarnation. Look back at verse 14 with me. What does the word say?

The word, that's Christ, he became flesh and he dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Now I said to you earlier that verses 14 and 18 are the crescendo, the apex of the introductory material. And I guess if there is a verse in that that is the most important, it is verse 14. Because verse 14 is one of the clearest verses on the incarnation. I guess in our language we can say it like this, John really hits the nail on the head. So I want us to look at some truth out of verse 14. First of all, I want you to see that the word became flesh.

That's exactly what it says in the beginning. And the word became flesh. The King James reads, was made flesh. Now we know who this word is. Verses 1 through 5 establish that for us. The word is none other than Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah. But there is a key word here and that is the verb became. That is this word, this verb became. This is the same verb that is used in verse 3. Remember what does it say in verse 3? It says that all things came into being by Christ. That is an action word, that is a verb. And that is the same word that we see here in verse 14. Now, it's important for us to see.

John is not saying that Christ was created, but John is saying that the Creator entered into a new form of being. It's very important for you to see that. The Bible commentator, Vincent, Vincent's word study says that all things became through him. That's what verse 3 teaches. But yet he in turn became flesh. That's what verse 14 teaches. So we see the word, the promised Messiah, the Christ Jesus, he was made into flesh. He became flesh. The second thing is, the word came to us. Look at John's language. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Now, all of the translations that we look at this morning say dwelt.

Except for the new international version, it reads, "made his dwelling." Now, in the original, it means to literally pitch a tent or to live in a tent. Some have used the word tabernacled. That really means the same thing. In the original, it means to pitch a tent, to live in a tent, to make a tabernacle. So literally that means Christ lived in a tent of flesh among the people of Israel and others. He was tabernacled among men. He lived in a tent of flesh. He pitched a temporary tent of flesh. That means that he lived for over 30 years. We know the scripture teaches us that.

For over 30 years, he lived in this temporary tabernacle of the flesh. He traveled hundreds of miles in his ministry. He came in contact with Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, sick and healthy, religious and non-religious. He interacted with the Jewish leadership as well as the Roman leadership. And he dwelt in this tent of flesh among mankind as 100% man and 100% God, 100% of the time. The word, verse 1, we learned that. Verses 1 through 5, the word, the eternal one, he put on flesh and he dwelt among us. That's if I can add to what John says. Go back to the text. And the word became flesh and he dwelt among us. I want to add to that.

John can say, for over 30 years, he dwelt among us. See for the Jews who would have been seeing this, these are pictures in the Old Testament that foreshadow this tabernacling among men. I don't know if you know it, but in Exodus chapter 25 and the following chapters, God gives Moses the instruction. How about how to build the tabernacle? We don't have too much time for that. But if you go back and study, you will learn that God gave Moses specific instruction and they were to take animal skins. So they were to make a tent. And in the center of that tent was to, they were to place the Ark of the Covenant.

And there at the Ark of the Covenant, between the two cherubim, those angelic figures made of pure gold, the very presence of God would come down and reside there. And what did those Israelites have? They had the very presence of God among them. They had the tabernacle, the presence of God inside that little tent. And all through their wilderness wonderings, what did they have? God among them. They would literally camp out as the 12 tribes around the tabernacle. Then the other Old Testament picture is the temple. I love that 2 Chronicles telling of how Solomon built the temple.

Many of you might not know it, but it was David, King David, who was a man after God's own heart, who had it in his heart. He had it in his desire to build a temple for God. But it was the prophet Samuel who said, "No, you're a warrior king. You cannot build the temple." But yet David loved God so much that he amassed all of the building materials and even received much of the instruction. And it fell upon Solomon, David's son, to build the temple. And in 2 Chronicles what we have is the temple is complete, and Solomon stands up to offer that prayer of dedication. The priests and the Levites are in their place.

The sacrifice is there on the altar. And before Solomon can get through praying, the very fire of God, the presence of God failed, and the presence of God wicked up that sacrifice, and they had what? The presence of God in that earthly tabernacle, even as ornate as it was. And all of those things are but types and shadows of what was to come. The Word came and dwelt. He had a tent of flesh, he tabernacled, among men for 30-plus years. The third thing I want us to see is that they saw his glory.

Go back to the verse, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory." Now, notice that the text says, "We beheld his glory." The English Standard Version says that they had seen his glory. Now, who is this "we"? John uses pluralistic language here. John is representing those apostles who had died and passed away, some martyred. He represents those first Christians who walked and talked and followed Jesus. John is the last living apostle. He is almost the last one to have seen him with his own eyes. And what does he say? "We beheld his glory." He was the last representative.

He was the last one who had heard him speak and teach. He was the last living link to what Jesus did. He saw it all. And what did he say? "Listen, we beheld his glory." But let me tell you, this is a key phrase. Because those of you who are very Bible literate, you'll know that no man can see his glory and live. But what is John talking about? John did not see the full picture of his glory, but while Jesus was here on earth, he had little grace, mercy drops of God's glory.

As Jesus was walking and talking and performing his ministry, every now and then there would just be a ray of sunshine, of the glory of God, that would come down and they were able to see and behold that glory. I'll give you two examples. First of all, in the miracles. I don't know if you know it, but the first miracle that John records is in John chapter 2. It was when Jesus was at that wedding feast and they ran out of wine and what did he do? He changed water into wine. And at the end of that event in verse 11, what does it say? It says that the disciples, they beheld his glory and they believed. That was a mercy drop.

That was just a ray of sunshine of the glory of God for those disciples and others to see. Another example is a transfiguration. Matthew gives us that account in verse 17. What did Peter, James and John see? Those chosen disciples who went up on that mountain. They saw the old prophets, Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus and they saw his glory. What did Peter say? "Lord, it's good for us to be here. Let's build some tents and just stay here." Jesus knew they couldn't stay there. They had a job to do. But what am I showing you? They beheld his glory. They did not see him fully.

They didn't see the totality of his glory, but every now and then they got a glimpse of that glory. But let me fast forward. What does Revelation chapter 1 say? John beheld his glory. What does Revelation tell us? That John, he looked up and he had this great heavenly vision of the glory of the Lamb of God on his throne. And what does verse 17 say? That he fell as a dead man. Why? Because he beheld his glory. Let me pause here for a minute. That's why I don't believe all those books about people who die and go to heaven. And they chum up with Jesus. That contradicts the Scriptures. No man sees the glory and chums up with Jesus.

As a matter of fact, the Scripture says after death, man faces judgment. Hebrews. But what do we see? They beheld his glory. They saw these mercy drops. And John is speaking for those who traveled with him. The fourth thing I want us to see is they saw the only begotten. Go back again to the verse. And the Word became flesh. He pitched his tent. He dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory. Glory as of. Now notice, the only begotten from the Father. The English Standard reads, "The only son from the Father." The King James uses the Word begotten. But this is extremely important for us to see. This does not speak of Christ's origin.

John's already told us about his origin. But verses 1 through 5 says he has no origin. He is the eternal God. He has always been. Isn't that right? So this does not speak about his origin. He was not a created being. Because in verse 1, what does it say? That the Word was with God. He was preexistent. But what does this tell us? He was not created. This speaks of Christ, the only one of his kind. There was only one Christ. There is only one Messiah. He was unique in every way. The English Standard is very accurate in saying, "The only son from the Father. There will never be another son." There has been only one.

And there only will be one Messiah. And that is Jesus. And the fifth thing I want you to see is that they saw his grace and truth. What does it say? "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory." Glory as of. The only begotten from the Father. And I notice, "full of grace and truth." What is John saying? That word "grace" alludes to Christ's purpose. Christ came to seek and saved that which was lost. To offer the free gift of salvation. We learned last week that no man can be born. No man can be born again by a decision of their own flesh. By a decision of their own will. Man is only born from God, born from above.

What is John talking about? They saw his grace. That free gift that he offered mankind. And then they also saw his truth. Because in Christ Jesus is the totality of all truth. There is no truth outside of Christ. And John, they saw that in action. They saw that in word. They saw that in deed. So what do we see out of verse 14? There is so much truth. "The Word became flesh. The Word dwelt among men for thirty plus years." They were able to see little mercy drops of his glory. They saw the unique only Son of God. And they saw his grace, his mercy and his truth. Christ Jesus came to John. Christ Jesus came to the world according to verse 9.

Isn't that beautiful? John is saying he came to us. He came to the world. But for me, that dictates a question. Has Christ come to you? John is speaking of his personal testimony. John is saying, "I experienced all these things. I received, I believed and I know this Christ. So I want to ask you, has Christ come to you?" Now listen, I'm not talking about a profession of faith. There are thousands upon millions of people who've made professions of faith throughout the history and they're in hell right now. I'm not talking about your theology. There are people that are in a devil's hell right now that have better theology than you and me.

And I'm not talking about your church membership. You can go to hell from a church pew just like you can from the bar stool. You've heard that old phrase. I'm not talking about your good works. I'm not talking about your spiritual heritage. Isn't that what John dealt with last week in verse 13? "We are not born of blood nor of descent." John's debunking all of that. And the question must be asked, "Has Christ come to you?" John personalizes all these words, all these phrases. Why? Because he was right in the middle. He knew this word, this Christ Jesus. This is evangelistic in nature. Didn't we not see that John has two purposes?

To evangelize. See, we must sound the cry in the church today. We have so many people involved in the life of the church. They've made profession. Their names are on the church roll. They've been through our Babish trees. But they do not know God. They don't have the very nature of God living within them. They've never received and believed. They have intellectual knowledge. They've jumped through all the right hoops. But I want to ask you, "Has Christ come to you?" See, that's why when we sing songs like we did earlier, it just grabs a hold of me. Why?

Because right there in my worship and in my love for the Lord, God reminded me that he redeemed me as a lost 20-year-old. And that's something that you never get over. And it wasn't about what I did. It was about what God did. And he redeemed me off the slave block of sin. And I made the choice to put myself there. And when he redeemed me, I became his own. And just like John can say, "We, I, we, I," I can say the same because Christ has come to me. Maybe Christ has come to you. But also, we see some foundational, doctrinal truth here. Remember, John is apologetic. He is making the case for the proper Christ.

This is foundational, doctrinal truth that you must know, because if you don't have a proper Christology, you will fall for the lies and the tricks of the cults and the heretics. So it's evangelistic, but yet it is doctrinal. It's foundational. I like what John MacArthur says. He sums up. He wraps up this verse. He says that in the incarnation, God took on humanity. The infinite became the finite. Eternity entered time. The invisible became visible. The creation entered the world. And I would say this, that he came to man. He came to the world. And that brings me right back to the question, has he come to you?

See, I believe there are people here this morning who need Christ and through circumstances and things that you don't understand now, God has brought you to a place to hear the gospel, the truth, and to reveal to you that he's never come to you and he's desiring to come to you now. That's the evangelistic message in this verse. So let's move on. Let's see the next truth that I want us to study this morning, and that is the witness of the incarnation. The witness of the incarnation. Look at verse 15. You'll notice a natural transition here because he goes back to this witness of John. What does he say?

John, he bore witness of him, and he cried out saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me.'" The new American that I preach from and the English standard uses the phrase bore witness. The King James says, "Bear witness." And the new international says, "Testify." These are accurate words and accurate translations. Remember, we learned of this language in our study in verses 6 through 8. I ran across a Bible commentator that said it like this.

This is courtroom language, this word witness and testimony, and it is common all throughout the New Testament, but it is especially common in the Gospel of John. Now, why is that important? John is using courtroom language, courtroom words, and this applies to one of the first credible witnesses. That is John the Baptist, and he is a witness of the incarnation. So let's break down this verse. There are two things I want you to see. First, John declared him. What does it say? John bore witness of him. There's that courtroom language, but now it says that he cried out. Excuse me. He cried out. This is John declaring him.

The King James says that he cried saying. Now, this word cried out. It speaks of the nature of John's message. John's message was very bold. He cried out in the wilderness, but his message was so bold, and his message was so powerful, that his impact was felt all the way to Jerusalem. I've painted this picture for you before, and I want you to get it again. Where does John begin his ministry? He's in the wilderness. He is on the Jordan. That is not a resort area. It is a dirty river. It is a nasty river, a muddy river. So what does he do? It says that he was a voice in the wilderness. He was baptizing at the Jordan.

The Gospel of Luke says that the people around Judea, that's the country, folks. They came to see John. The people of Jerusalem, that's the city, folks. They came to see John. Then it says that the religious leaders came to see John, and what does that tell us? The boldness of his message, the impact of his message, was felt all the way up the chain of command of the religious leaders there in Jerusalem. But again, this term "bear witness." This courtroom language, in the original language it is in the present tense, which means that his witness was ongoing, and it was continual.

And I want to pull those two together to show you that he didn't have a soft message. He didn't have a sisified message. He had a bold message, and it was ongoing. It was continual. It wasn't just one time. Now, remember what I've taught you before out of the Book of Luke. The Book of Luke chapter 3 verse 4 teaches us that he was the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, the prophecy of Isaiah. Now, why is that word "voice" important? There is a difference between a man who was a voice from God and an echo. What were the religious leaders in John's day? They were none other than echoes.

They were parroting what they had been taught, and they were saying the same thing that their fathers said and their fathers' fathers had said. They were saying the same thing that the religious leaders had said, but they had no boldness. They had no impact on the people. But John burst on the scene, and he was a voice of God, a voice from God, a voice from on high, and there was a distinct difference, and there was an impact all the way to Jerusalem. So I want you to see, John declared him.

Not just that he talked about Christ, not just that he declared Christ, it was the manner in which he declared Christ because he was a voice from heaven, and he left a big footprint. The second thing I want you to see is that John was below him. Go back to the verse. John bore witness of him, cried out, saying, "This was he of whom I said." He prophesied about Christ. "He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me." If you know the timeline of John and Jesus' birth, you know that John was approximately six months older than Jesus. They were physical, earthly cousins. But in this verse, what do we see?

John did not put himself in the wrong relationship to Christ. He put himself in his right relationship to Christ because what does he say? He has a higher rank than me. I am not the Messiah. I am a voice. I am the one who prepared the way for the Messiah. I am a man. He is the God-man. He is of a higher rank than me. He automatically, with those words, put himself in the right relationship to Christ. But also, what does he say? He existed before me, meaning that John knew of Christ's pre-existence. That tells us that John the Baptist had proper Christology.

He is saying the one who is coming after me is the eternal Christ, the promised Messiah. He is of higher rank than me, and all I am is just a man. Isn't that good? But for us today, to me, that dictates another question. What is the witness of the church today? We see John's witness, one verse, but yet so powerful, especially understanding in the context of all that John did, looking at the other gospel accounts. What did John do? John was not dressed in the right garb of the day. He didn't have the right education of the day. He didn't have the right manners of the day. He didn't have the right church building of the day.

He was not on Main Street. He had everything working against him. But what did he have that the others didn't have? He had a work of God. He was the voice of God. And as he loudly proclaimed the work of Christ and who Christ was, the impact was felt all the way to Jerusalem. That was his witness. So I want to ask us, what is the witness of the average church today? Is it just words? Is it just words? I was talking to a gentleman this week, and I asked him why he had quit attending church so many years ago. And he just looked down and he said, "Well, preacher, I know it's not right, but it was just dead." It was just dead. There was no life.

What was he doing? He was issuing an indictment on the life of the church. It was just words, no life. So what is the witness of the church today? Our witness should be exactly that of John the Baptist. It should be about Christ, solely Christ, not about us, and there should be an impact that is felt all over. What is the witness of the average church member today? That gets a little closer to home, does it not? We all see the hypocrisy in the lives of many church people today. I'm not advocating sinless perfection, no.

But I'm ashamed to say that the testimony and the witness of most church members today is scandalous, unbiblical, even heretical. I've worked in the lost world, and most lost people look at the lives of most Christians, so-called Christians and people alive for the church, and they just sneer and they laugh and they scoff, especially of church leaders. I've been around meetings of lost people, and they begin to describe leaders in particular churches, and they begin to describe their actions and deeds and what's going on in the life of the church. You would think they've been to the lightest deacons meetings, business meetings.

What does that speak of? The witness of the average church member today. But I must even bring it a little closer to home and ask you, what is your witness today? Is your witness just words? Is your witness just the Sunday School answers? Is your witness just regurgitating that which you've learned out of a book or what was handed down to you by a Sunday School teacher or your mother and your father? That's not enough. That won't suffice. John was not an echo. He was not a parrot. He didn't give the Sunday School answers that came out of the Sunday School hour. No, he was a voice from on high. He had the heart and the words of God.

Three things about John's message we need to note. His message was bold. We live in a day when the church does not want to offend. Now, I want to preface this. I am not for offending people. I am not for insulting people. I am for loving people. But if the message of the truth of the Word of God offends people, we cannot help that. John the Baptist's message was bold. And yes, it did offend some. But yet it did lead multitudes to the feet of Christ. The religious leaders were offended. As a matter of fact, the political leaders were offended, and it cost John his life. But he would not compromise the bold message of the Word of God.

And though we might risk imprisonment one day, though we might risk being ostracized by our friends and family, the message of the church must be the message of the Word of God. And we cannot worry about how it makes people feel. John's message was impacting. What does it say? It says that all of Judea and all of Jerusalem was impacted. The religious leaders sent representatives to come find out who John was. And look, this wild man in the desert who didn't look the part and act the part, he had an impact that was ongoing. It wasn't just words. And he had a lasting legacy, if I can say it that way.

And I want to ask us, are we making an impact in people's lives today? It does not matter about numbers in our pews. It does not matter about offerings in our offering plates. It does not matter about our activities. What matters is if we reach people for Christ and we build saints who love the living Lord Jesus. That's what impacts people. But John's message was Christ, was it not? Follow all of the accounts about John in the words. Now, he would direct harsh criticism of the religious leaders, yes. He demanded repentance. He demanded fruit that came from repentance. But his message was all about Christ.

And the modern church needs to hear that desperately today. Our message must not be man-centered. It must be Christ-centered. The witness, the incarnation. Now as I close, I want to give you two examples. Several years ago, I was looking at a particular church website. I don't do this that often. I don't have that much time. But several years ago, I was looking at a particular church website and I found myself looking at one of the staff members at this church and he was giving an explanation of his ministry. He happened to be working with children.

And he said in that interview, that recording that was meant for all to see and understand his philosophy of ministry, he said, "We here are about introducing children and people to the concept of Jesus Christ." Now I will be honest with you at how I felt instantaneously. Jesus angered. Why? Jesus Christ is not a concept. He is not an idea. He is not a philosophy. He is not a set of rules. He is not a system of theology. No, Jesus Christ is the living Lord Jesus, God and man. God and man in complete form. And what that gentleman did was completely and totally strip verse 14 of its power. Christ will never be used as a concept.

Christ can never be preached as a concept. He can never be preached as anything but Christ, the Son of God with all power and all authority. And that was John's message. He did not waver from that in one way at all. That must be the message of the church. Listen, from the nursery all the way to the grave. This is not some namby-pamby message. It is the message of the incarnation. And it's sad because many so-called trained seminary educated men are out there trying to lead people through lies.

The second thing, our story that I want to relate to you is is occasionally I will see publications or hear about events that people do in the life of the church. And it's led me to believe that most people are choking to death in the four walls of the church on entertainment. I'm for fellowship, yes. I'm for meeting together, yes. I'm for providing things especially sometimes for the lost to minister to them, especially loved ones, yes. But what I want you to see is the mission of the church is not to entertain you from the nursery to the grave. The mission of the church is to give what? Christ, the son of the living God.

And I'm afraid so many churches are entertaining the multitudes all the way down the conveyor belt to hell. And I'm afraid there are multitudes who are burning today who have been entertained in the four walls of our churches. And you might say, "Well preacher, if you embrace that idea of ministry, you will never reach a soul." Well, if I'm never going to reach a soul, John's never going to reach a soul and Jesus was never going to reach a soul. I will put myself in their company any day. What am I showing you? The incarnation matters. In our view of verse 14 and verse 15 matters.

Our understanding of what Jesus is teaching us through John and the witness. Why is the witness there? The witness is to lend credibility to the deity of Christ, the message of John, and the witness is there as an example to show us how to do this thing called ministry. So what do I want us to see? The wonderful incarnation, verses 14 and 15. Let's read the text together and then we'll close. "The Word became flesh, and He," Jesus, "dwelt among us," "living in that temporary tent." "We beheld His glory." Every now and then these mercy drops of glory.

"The glory of the only," the unique, the only Son of God from the Father, "full of grace to reach the lost and truth," 100% truth. And then verse 15, "And John, he bore witness of Him," "with that bold crying out message that had lasting effects." "This is He whom I have said." "He who comes after me is higher rank than I." Why? Because He always has been. He is God. And that must be our message in the life of the church today. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I ask You to help us to digest the truths that we've been exploring. Lord, I know that it is one thing to listen to truth. It's one thing to write notes down.

Lord, I know it's one thing to hear a message.