The Word Moved Into The Neighborhood

The Word Moved Into The Neighborhood

John 1.14

The Word became flesh and blood,
    and moved into the neighborhood.

The Old Testament shows us God on Mount Sinai, speaking from Heaven, speaking through His prophets.
The New Covenant is God with us, taking on flesh and blood, being born of a woman.

In the Old Testament we see God speaking from heaven.
In the Gospels it it through His Son on earth in a human body.

Hebrews 1.1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, Whom He appointed heir of all things, and through Whom also He made the universe.

The Hymn Love Divine, All Love Excelling
“Joy of Heaven to earth come down...”

Christmas is:
Christ is born.
God in the flesh.
God with man is now residing.

Making His dwelling among us.

The Word became flesh and blood,
    and moved into the neighborhood. John 1.14


1. The Word

Thoughts of God
Sayings of God
Expression of God

Hebrews 1.3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.
He is the image of God.
Colossians 1.15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him,20 and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.

We are told here in this opening of John’s Gospel certain things about the Word, God’s Son:
*In the beginning the Word was. Eternal Nature of the Son of God
*The Word was with God.
*The Word is God.
*He made everything. We know from Genesis that creation came about through the  Spoken Word, God spoke the worlds into existence. Psalm 33.9 For when He spoke, the world began! It appeared at His command.
*In Him was life.
*That life was the light of men..

We know Him as Jesus, the name the Angel Gabriel told Joseph to give Him.(Matthew 1.25)
Mary was His mother.
She became pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

The Word became flesh.


2. Flesh and  Blood
There is the flesh.
There is the Spirit.

When Jesus asked the disciples Whom men said He was, Peter gave the great confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” What a confession that was! So great that Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” (Matthew ‪16.17-18‬)

Flesh and blood= man, human
Spirit= God

Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Genesis 2.7
He has  set eternity in the hearts of men. Ecclesiastes 3.11

The LORD put His Spirit in man in the beginning.
In the New Testament He sent His Spirit to a virgin in Nazareth of Galilee so He could become flesh and blood.

He gave two emblems representing flesh and blood to remember Him by.
This is My Body. Broken for you
This is My Blood. Shed for you

The Lamb of God, The Word of God, Jesus, was laid in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes... what the Shepherds in Bethlehem did with the new born lambs. They were raising temple sacrifices and they had to be perfect, no blemish or spot. So they would take them to a cave when their mother was ready to give birth and after she did they would make sure they were kept from harm so they could be used in the temple.

So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. I Corinthians 15.45



3. The Move Into The Neighborhood.

From Heaven
God
With God before the beginning


Earth
Born of a virgin

The Word was born of a woman by God’s Spirit.
We are born again, we who are flesh and blood, of God’s Spirit.

Ecclesiastes 3.11
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Christ became like us, in our bodies.

II Corinthians 5.1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.  Dwelling in John 1.14
This is the idea of camping, of pitching a tent, a temporary place to live in.
Jesus did that.
Spurgeon: Great commanders have readily won the hearts of their soldiers by sharing their hardships and roughing it as if they belonged to the ranks.
We do that.
Peter spoke of departure in thise terms... Breaking camp.
II Peter 1.12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.
Put is aside= put off or away
Tent= tabernacle.... folding up the tent when we are about to break camp... My Dad and camping. The Israelites
Departure= exodus, exit, close of one’s life’s work The end.

Here on earth...
In the new birth His Spirit  is regenerating us.


Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings
Mild He lays his glory by,
Born that man no more may die:
Born to raise the son of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the new-born King !"


He was born in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem. Bethlehem was a place of shepherds, low end of the social scale. Jerusalem, place of scholars, Yeshivas, Sanhedrin, royalty.

He grew up in Nazareth, “Can anything good come from there?”
He worked in Galilee as prophesied.
You only have to read the Gospels with an open heart and you will behold the LORD Jesus!

Jerusalem

Long Island
He is in your neighborhood!
Light, Life, Love
Jesus is the exact representation of God (Hebrews 1.3)
*God is Light.
*God is Life. (Life giving Spirit)
*God is Love. (John 3.16.  )


Love moving into your neighborhood!
It is already there! Move out more and more into it.
There are 100’s of ways the Love of God can be shown where you live. Make it where you live, where you love!
Ask the LORD to use you to show His love in your neighborhood. He will show you.

Christ in you, the Hope of Glory.