And the Word became flesh…

Steve Brown:
And the Word became flesh… Wow. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
The deepest message of Jesus and the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and sufferers. That’s what Key Life is all about. So, if you’re hungry for the hopeful truth that God isn’t mad at you, keep listening. Steve Brown is a professor and our teacher on Key Life.

Steve Brown:
Hey Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey.

Steve Brown:
It’s been a great week.

Pete Alwinson:
Oh man. We are ready for Christmas almost, huh?

Steve Brown:
Yeah, don’t tell everybody that, but I’m far, a long ways from being a scrooge this year because of this week. What we’ve been doing, if you’re just joining us, is that we’re looking at Scripture and we’re kind of just talking around the Scripture and what God seems to be saying. And we’ve looked at Matthew and we’ve looked at Luke. And now we’re going to go to the Gospel of John and become less story oriented and more theologically oriented.

Pete Alwinson:
All right. John chapter 1.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, and believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'”) And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. But the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Steve Brown:
You know Pete, we could go to a lot of places to put an explanation. Why don’t you read the opening part of Hebrews because that’s kind of a different way of putting, then we will talk some about it.

Pete Alwinson:
All right.

Steve Brown:
I’m loving just listening to Scripture. I may speak in tongues, you don’t know.

Pete Alwinson:
It has its own power. All right. Here we go, Hebrews 1.

Long ago, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Steve Brown:
Oh man. That’s something, you know, we won’t spend a lot of time on this, but one of the interesting things when you study history. And the sociology involved in history is how God prepared for the big Incarnation act, the biggest act of his action with human beings. Did you know that the Greek and Roman philosophers believe, they believed in molecular physics before they knew what that was, they said everything was coming apart. And some glued it together, you know what they said glued it together?

Pete Alwinson:
What?

Steve Brown:
Logos. The word.

Pete Alwinson:
The word.

Steve Brown:
How about that? And so, and did you know, and another thing that’s fun is to trace the idea of wisdom in the Scripture. The wisdom that gets personified in the book of Proverbs. And then in the wisdom literature and that was called by the rabbis, the word. And then all of a sudden you find Jews and Greeks and all over the world, for instance, a sacrificial system. Every culture, primitive practice sacrifice. And so, when God entered time and space as a baby, and then later the Word of God, and then later as the lamb that take away the sin of the world, every culture on the face of the earth was prepared. Is that cool?

Pete Alwinson:
It’s just, it’s so cool. And we lose some of that because we are Americans living at the beginning of the 21st century, we forget that.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. We really do sometimes.

Pete Alwinson:
You know, entering into that logos is interesting because john and these disciples were from Northern Israel that had heavy, heavy influence from the Greco Roman world in particular. And so, to use a Greek concept, but that really, many of those people were really, they were bilingual. And it may well have been that some of these guys were bilingual. John might have been able to Greek as well.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, that’s good.

Pete Alwinson:
And so, this Greek concept here, comes in, but it hearkens back to the Hebrew idea. And God spoke and it came into being. Right?

Steve Brown:
Yeah, that’s right.

Pete Alwinson:
You know, the Creation.

Steve Brown:
That is so good. And theologically, you know, this, looking at things like this outside of the Christmas story itself makes the Christmas story even greater. You know, when you realize that, not only did God enter time in space, but the logos was also the Creator God of everything that is. And so, the one who hung the stars, who hollowed out the valleys, who built up the mountains, who made the rivers and the oceans, and the sun, and the moon and the stars, the one who did all that, is a baby in a manger. How about that sports fans.

Pete Alwinson:
This is so unbelievable that no other religion ever came up with this idea. This is revealed truth. And it just blows your mind and you’ve got to enter into that. You know, we often say when somebody first comes to Christ, what, what should I read? Read John. Yes, but John is heavily theological.

Steve Brown:
It really is.

Pete Alwinson:
Of all of the gospels, I’d probably actually say read Mark. You know, it’s short, especially to a guy, read Mark, but John is great, but it’s deeply theological. And it shows the years of thought and depth that he put into understanding the gospel cause he wrote it maybe between 90 and 100 A.D.

Steve Brown:
There you go. And beginning, and it was coming. And I, after every paragraph John went, wow, cause this is heavy. This is, and we need to remember that too. You know, it’s very easy to do little things at Christmas and think of it as a little thing, and it’s not, it’s not about a baby and it’s not about cattle and it’s not about Santa Claus kneeling before the manger. I mean, those things are nice and they are nice references, but this is bigger than we think. And bigger than we can think.

Pete Alwinson:
Absolutely. Thank you for that because so many people say, you know, Christmas is for kids, that’s what it’s all about, it’s for kids.

Steve Brown:
No it’s not.

Pete Alwinson:
And so, kids barely understand, gifts are for kids. But Christmas is for those that can cognitively and spiritually grasp that something absolutely monumental to, even to the Philippians 2 idea that the Creator of the world emptied himself and took on the form of a bond servant and came among us.

Steve Brown:
Oh man. You know, when you start thinking about it, it’s so explosive in your mind and it leads to all kinds of thoughts, which by the way, God ought to do. I mean, when we think about God, we need to say, Lord, let me see how big this thing is. Let me see how amazing this is, how real it is. And it has worldwide implications. And, you know, on Christmas Eve after you’ve done all the presents that you, and if you forgot one, it’s too late. And that’s coming up fast. Go to the Christmas Eve service, set aside everything, the music, the shopping, the parties, every bit of it and think, wow, this really happened. And I’m forgiven and I am loved and I’m going to live forever because this God entered time and space and came as a baby and we haven’t mentioned that, isn’t it cool that God would do the baby thing? Who’s mad at the baby? I mean, God could have done the trumpets and the thunder and the lightning, but he did it with a baby. That is so God emptying himself.

Pete Alwinson:
And you know that phrase carries that idea of laying aside his privileges. Not that he ceased to be God, very God of very God, but he laid aside his right to the throne, that he could take the cross.

Steve Brown:
Oh Pete, this has been fun. This has been fun for you and I, a couple of old preachers.

Pete Alwinson:
Love it.

Steve Brown:
Remembering the story and rejoicing in them. Listen, before we go, let me say from all of us at Key Life, to all of you who are a part of this ministry, have a very Merry Christmas.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve and thank you Pete. What a great week of teaching as we lead up to Christmas and beyond just teaching, remembering the wonder of God with us. It is so easy to forget when we’re so familiar with the story. And next Monday we will get back into our study of Acts so be sure to join us for that. So, we touched on this earlier in the week, but given the season, I think it merits revisiting, the question of what God is like. Well, obviously God has answered that question, and Christmas is part of that answer. Steve gave a sermon called Grace: The Heart of the Incarnation. And it speaks to the subject, what is God like? What does it mean to live by God’s grace? And what are the practical implications when we do so? Well, all of this is based on the powerful first chapter of John, and we put that classic sermon on a CD. And just because we like you, we would be happy to mail it to you, for free. Just claim your copy now by calling us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that CD. And if you’d like to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our U.S. And Canadian mailing addresses. Again, just ask for your free copy of the CD called Grace: The Heart of the Incarnation. It’s our gift to you. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada both of those organizations assure financial accountability, so you can be sure we’re not wasting your money. And as always, Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network. Oh, and Merry Christmas.