“LOVINGLY HE CAME”
JOHN 1:10-17
INTRO: The hymnwriter wrote:
“In lovingkindness Jesus came,
My soul in mercy to reclaim,
And from the depths of sin and shame
Through grace He lifted me…
Chorus:
From sinking sand He lifted me,
With tender hand He lifted me,
From shades of night to planes of light,
O praise His name, He lifted me.”
--Triumphant Service Songs, pg. 3
The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1:14-15—“And the grace of our
Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ
Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am
chief.” Matthew Henry wrote: “This is a faithful saying; these are true
and faithful words, which may be depended on, That the Son of God
came into the world, willingly and purposely to save sinners. No man,
with Paul's example before him, can question the love and power of
Christ to save him, if he really desires to trust in him as the Son of
God, who once died on the cross, and now reigns upon the throne of
glory, to save all that come to God through him. Let us then admire
and praise the grace of God our Saviour; and ascribe to the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, three Persons in the unity of the Godhead, the
glory of all done in, by, and for us” (Matthew Henry’s Concise
Commentary).
In our text, John 1:10-12 we read, “He was in the world, and the
world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto
his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on his name.” The tenth verse declares: (1) That he was in the
world, (2) the world was made by him, (3) it did not recognize him. The
next verse states (1) that he came, personally, to his own. He took
upon himself a fleshly form and came to the race to which he was
united by fleshly ties; (2) his own received him not. The world is
humanity in general, which knew him not; his own is the Jewish
nation, who received him not. (The People’s New Testament
Commentary).
As we near the day that has been set aside to celebrate the birth of
Jesus let us remember how He came and why He came. Jesus didn’t
come merely to show us how to live or to challenge us to become
better people. He came to bring Salvation to sinners without hope.
“He came unto his own…” (v11), “That was the incomparable day.
The people that had once walked in darkness (Isa. 9:2) were by now
sitting in darkness (Matt. 4:16), but God sent the great light to
illuminate the darkness of our hearts and to lift men from the abyss
of eternal darkness. No human eye could pierce those shadows. The
sin of Adam and Eve had caused this darkness to roll over the world
and the night would have been eternal without the coming of the Light
of the world. The prince of darkness reigned; but the Prince of light
was born and sent into this world. The prince of death ruled; but the
Lord of life had come. The power of mortality thrusts every generation
into the graveyard; but the Baby was born who will banish all powers
of the enemy and bring immortality through the Gospel. God’s love
seems all the greater when we realize what He left in order to come
here. Everything that is of earth can be contrasted with that which is
of Heaven. Yet He left it all for our redemption” (1). Dottie Rambo
wrote:
He left the splendor of heaven,
Knowing His destiny,
Was the lonely hill of Golgotha,
There to lay down His life for me.
Chorus:
If that isn’t love;
The ocean is dry,
There’s no stars in the sky,
And the sparrows can’t fly.
If that isn’t love;
Then heaven’s a myth,
There’s no feeling like this,
If that isn’t love!
This morning I want you to notice five things with me as we consider
the subject, “Lovingly He Came”:
(1) LOVINGLY HE CAME TO REVEAL
JOHN 1:14,17-18—“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. For the law
was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared
him.”
*The word Reveal means “to make known, disclose, divulge, to make
visible, expose to view, show” (Funk & Wagnalls Standard Desk
Dictionary, Volume 2, N-Z, p. 570). Jesus Christ came in love to
make known, to make visible, to disclose and to show us God! Christ
came to reveal to us:
A. THE GLORY OF GOD (V14). Jesus Christ was beyond question God
Himself who became man, who partook of the very same flesh as all
other men. Christ was the Shekinah glory of God. The word Shekinah
means that which dwells or dwelling. It refers to the bright cloud that
God used to guide Israel out of Egypt and that rested upon the
tabernacle and above the mercy seat in the Most Holy Place (Exodus 40:34-38). The cloud symbolized God’s presence, and that is just what John was saying. “We beheld,” actually saw the Shekinah glory, God’s very presence “dwelling among us.” Christ was the very embodiment of God, all that God is and does. John said “we beheld,” looked at Him, and could tell He was God. All that Jesus was in His person and being, character and behavior, was so enormously different. In person and behavior, work and ministry He was...
· the very embodiment of “grace and truth.”
· the perfect embodiment of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control.
· the absolute embodiment of all that God could be.
The glory of all that God was stood right before them, right in their very
presence. They beheld Him with their very own eyes. Jesus Christ, the Man who dwelt among them, could be no other than the glory of God among men. It was clearly seen that “in Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9) (Preacher’s Outline and Sermon Bible, New Testament 5, John Commentary). V14 tells us, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…”. Being “made flesh,” the Word
could reveal God to mankind as never before. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son” (Hebrews
1:1-2). “The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he
[the Son] hath declared him [the Father]” (John 1:18). God puts a
premium on our knowing Him. Sending His Son to earth incarnated in
human form to reveal Himself tells us how important it is to God that we know Him (2).
B. THE GRACE OF GOD (V17b). “…Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ.” Christ came in love and He was the very embodiment of grace
and truth. Before Christ came men were bound under the Law. No
one could perfectly keep the law. The law could not impart grace.
Grace does not come by the law because no man can keep the law
perfectly. The law served only to point man to his failure and reveal to
him and condemn him for his sin. Man is a sinner and if he is to be
made acceptable to God it must be from God’s grace. V16 tells us,
“And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.” Matthew
Henry said, “Our receivings by Christ are all summed up in this one
word, grace; we have received "even grace," a gift so great, so rich, so
invaluable; the good will of God towards us, and the good work of God
in us. The law of God is holy, just, and good; and we should make the
proper use of it. But we cannot derive from it pardon, righteousness, or
strength. It teaches us to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, but it
cannot supply the place of that doctrine. As no mercy comes from God
to sinners but through Jesus Christ, no man can come to the Father
but by him; no man can know God, except as he is made known in the
only begotten and beloved Son (Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary).
ILLUS: In Jesus we discover all of God we can know; in Jesus we have
all of God we can need. Martin Luther said, “Whoever sees
Christ as a mirror of the Father’s heart, actually walks through
the world with new eyes” (3).
(2) LOVINGLY HE CAME TO RELEASE
JOHN 8:31-32, 36—“Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed
On him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples
indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you free. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be
free indeed.”
ACTS 2:24—“Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of
death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of
it.”
REVELATION 1:5—“And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful
witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of
the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us and washed us
from our sins in his own blood.”
*Man is a slave to sin. Jesus said in John 8:34-35—“Verily, verily, I say
unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant
abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.” The words
“committeth sin” are continuous action. Man continues to commit sin. It
is his habit, his practice to sin. He cannot keep from sinning; therefore,
he is a slave to sin. The word “servant” (doulos) means slave or bond-
slave. The bond-slave was purchased and bound to the person who
bought him. The idea is that man is bought by sin. When a man sins, he
is giving himself over to sin. He becomes enslaved to sin; he is a sinner
forever: in a condition, a state, a being of sin. Very simply, he is unable to
keep from sinning, no matter how hard he tries. Jesus warned man. A
slave is not a permanent member of a family, but the Son is. The slave
has no rights and no claims to privileges within the family. He is a slave
and can be rejected and cast out of the house anytime, but not the Son.
The Son is always the Son. It is He that has all the rights and privileges to
the house. However, there is a way the slave can become a member of the
house. The Son can free the slave and ask the Father to adopt him, and if
the Son makes the slave free, the slave is free indeed (Preacher’s Outline
and Sermon Bible, New Testament 5, John Commentary).
*Lovingly He came to release us from:
A. THE CORRUPTION OF SIN. The angel told Joseph in Matthew 1:21--
“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS:
for he shall save his people from their sins.” The name Jesus means
“Savior” and is a Gk. Version of the Heb. Name “Joshua.” In the OT,
there are two well-known Joshuas: the soldier who led Israel into
Canaan, and the high priest mentioned in Zech. 3. Christ is Our
Captain of Salvation, leading us to victory. He is our Great High Priest,
representing us before the throne of God (4). Before Christ lovingly
came the whole world wallowed in mire and corruption of sin, but He
came to free man from the corruption of sin. Samuel Shaw said, “Sin
itself is hell, and death, and misery to the soul…” (5). Christ lovingly
came to free us from this hell, death and misery!
ILLUS: The root of the human problem is the dynamic disease of sin
operating within the soul and manifesting itself. We look at the
dreadful things other people do and excuse ourselves. Human
beings are not unlike volcanoes. Inside a volcano, the pressure
builds until the top blows with a dramatic eruption of lava. At
other times, cracks slowly and insidiously appear on the side
of the volcano, and the lava flows out in a different manner.
So it is with human beings. We can never say that the
circumstances in which a young person's character was
formed did not have some impact on the way that he behaves.
But inside each of us, there's a thing called sin. No matter
what way our volcano was formed, whether we blow the top or
leak streams of lava, it's the lava inside that's the problem. The
ultimate disease is the problem, and there's nothing human
beings can do about it. -- Stuart Briscoe, "The Love That
Compels," Preaching Today, Tape No. 126.
B. THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN. Romans 6:23 tells us, “For the wages
of sin is death…”and Ezekiel 18:20 says, “The soul that sinneth, it
shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither the
father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous
shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”
All of us are sinners by nature and by birth. And because that is true,