"THE WORD BECAME FLESH!"
I. WHO IS THE WORD?
A. He existed in the beginning. "In the beginning..."
1. Man has always sought to trace his origins.
a. In the beginning was a gas cloud.
b. In the beginning was a protoplasmic ooze.
c. In the beginning was a big bang.
d. None of these concepts have solved the riddle.
1. Where did the gas cloud come from?
2. What caused the bang?
e. You have order, created by chaos.
f. Intelligence created by confusion.
g. Infinite complexity created by chance.
h. I may not have the education of some of the proponents of these theories, but as the mammy used to say, "Honey, when you don't got an education, you just have to use your brains."
2. You may ask, "But who created God?"
a. I must answer, "He always was. He is the beginning."
B. "And the Word was God."
1. The only personal true and living eternal Creator of all things.
2. People have created many gods.
a. Deified forces of nature.
b. Deified emotions of man.
c. Deified the creatures rather than Creator.
C. The creator of all things. "All things were made."
1. Look out at this vast universe.
a. He established it and watches over it.
2. Look into the complex structure of a cell.
a. He designed it.
3. "He was in the world, the world was made by Him."
a. Imagine how it must have been for Him to walk around and look at the flowers.
b. To observe the life forms.
c. Yet to walk unrecognized by man.
1. The forces of nature recognized Him.
a. The wind ceased at His command.
b. The tree withered at His word.
2. Still man blinded by tradition and prejudice, knew Him not.
D. The Word was named Jesus by His mother at birth, and announced by angels as Christ.
1. Jesus Christ is the Word.
II. "AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US."
A. Verse 1 and 14 linked, separated by a parenthetical phrase.
B. Why was the Word made flesh?
1. That God's light might shine in the darkness of human history.
a. Painting picture of history.
b. Man became confused in darkness and lost his way.
c. The light revealed the true path to God.
2. That man might see the Father, verse 18.
a. Man's concepts of God were born of his own fallen nature.
1. He envisioned God as cruel and unforgiving.
2. Others saw Him obsessed by lust.
b. Now we have a clear revelation of God.
1. When they looked at Jesus, they were looking at God.
2. When they touched Jesus they were touching God.
3. When they heard Jesus weeping they were...
4. When they saw His love for children...
5. When they heard Him speak - the voice of God.
6. When His hands were laid on suffering humanity, they saw His compassion for the needy.
c. He is a God of love, tender, compassionate, touchable, forgiving.
d. "Full of grace and truth."
3. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us for a short time, that we might become spirit and dwell with Him forever.