God Became Man

All right, well, if you have your Bibles, I’m going to invite you to turn with me to Genesis chapter 3 this morning. I’m very excited. I have a sense that the Lord is wanting to — well, let’s do this, actually. Before we get into it, we’re going to open to Genesis 3, but let’s just invite the Lord in this time. Holy Spirit, wonderful Holy Spirit, break open this Word to us this morning. Feed us. Speak to us. You are life, and we give You praise, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

We’re going to be talking for the next few weeks about the incarnation: God became man. And I believe that this is something that the Lord was bringing to us. We had been in a study of Hebrews, and it’s been really good, and I’ve been really enjoying it. I hope you have too. But I really had the sense that just for the next few weeks we are going to be talking about the incarnation. What does that really mean, that God became man?

And I think sometimes, in this Christmas season, we can dwindle that down to just a story. We can dwindle it down to just a Christmas story: that God loved us, He came for us, and He was born in a manger, and the wise men gave gifts, and isn’t that just precious? Right? But there’s so much power, and so much of the heart of God is conveyed through the incarnation — that Jesus gave of Himself. He gave up His place in heaven, and He came to earth to bring redemption and life to us, to win us back to Himself.

And so I wanted to start off with this definition of the incarnation. The incarnation is the act of God the Son taking on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ to reconcile humanity to God and reveal His love and salvation. And so I want us to understand that we’re not talking about the incarnation just because there are Christmas trees up on stage. We’re not talking about the incarnation because there are Christmas carols on the radio. We’re talking about the incarnation because it is the power and the love of God that will transform your life. Amen.

And so we’re going to talk about the incarnation and really what that fully entails, what that really means. And my heart is that the Holy Spirit would open up the Scriptures, that our minds would be renewed according to the Scriptures this morning.

The gospel in Genesis 3

And so we’re going to start, and we’re going to take a look at Genesis chapter 3. And this is the gospel message out of Genesis chapter 3. Maybe you’re like, well, that’s the Old Testament. Isn’t the gospel in the New Testament? No. The gospel is preached all throughout Scripture. Jesus said all Scripture speaks of Me, and all they had was the Old Testament. And so this is all the gospel.

Genesis chapter 3, and I want us to look at verse 15. This is the Lord speaking to the serpent. This is after sin — Adam and Eve had eaten of the fruit, eaten of the tree that God commanded them not to partake of. And this is the Lord speaking to the serpent, the devil. He says, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed.” Notice the capital S. Everybody say, “Jesus.” “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

Now, the New King James Version here — that’s what we’re reading out of this morning; you might have a different translation — this translation is using the same word, bruise, twice. But I want us to be very clear: this is not the same level of bruising that’s taking place. Yes, Jesus was bruised. He died on the cross, and He actually died. But Jesus did not merely bruise Satan. He did not just interrupt Satan’s plan. He completely destroyed it.

And so there is this promise of a Seed, and we are given the full narrative of Scripture in this one verse. I think sometimes we go through Scripture and we read the Bible as just a bunch of stories: oh, there are some good, wise things, and there are some things we can learn. But we have to understand this is the full story — the redemption of our lives, found in Jesus. All Scripture speaks of Jesus.

And so notice it says a Seed is coming. A man is on the way. Not just a mere man — a Man with a capital M had to come. Why? Because man had failed. And so there is this promise that a Seed is coming, a Man is on the way.

And I think sometimes we look at this situation and we think that God just got caught off guard, right? Man sinned, and then all of a sudden God’s like, oh my gosh, what do we do? Hit the mayday button. We got to figure something out. But how many of you know this was God’s plan all along — to demonstrate His love for us, to win us back to Him?

And so when it says a Seed is coming to earth, we are talking about the power and the plan of God concerning the incarnation. God will become man. Think about that. God will become man. And He didn’t arrive as a 33-year-old man. He humbled Himself and came as a baby. In other words, He came and He tasted life to the fullest. He knew what it was like to be called. He knew what it was like to feel pain. He knew what it was like to be hungry. He knew what it was like to be dependent on someone else, to put His trust in someone. He knew what it was like to be betrayed.

You see, He didn’t just come and say, here, take My life. No, He went through everything. And I think sometimes we can look at our own life and think, oh, that’s just not fair, that this is the way that my life has been given to me. But I want you to recognize that you are not alone. Jesus has tasted all of it. Yeah. He tasted life to the full.

And so this is God’s plan. This God-man is coming as the answer to all that Adam and Eve had lost. I want you just to consider for a minute — ponder and think about all of the suffering that has come into this world as a result of the fall. Just think about that. I mean, we were talking about some of those things, right? Every sickness, every disease, every war, every broken family, every terrorist attack, all murder, all sickness. Think of everything that came into this world as a result of the fall. All that is dark finds its origin in sin.

And so here sin entered the world, and the origin of all sin was demonstrated when Adam and Eve turned away from the Lord and began to talk to the serpent. How many of you know that is really sin’s greatest opportunity to enter our life — when we stop talking to God and we begin to entertain a different conversation? We are most susceptible to sin, we are most susceptible to fall, when we stop looking to the Lord and say, there must be a better alternative. That is the beginning of our own destruction. And that’s exactly what happened to Adam and Eve. The serpent came, and rather than being fixed on the Lord, they began to have a different conversation.

The King comes to be bruised

And so God had a strategy to deal a fatal blow to the devil, and the strategy was this: My Son will become a man. And so for every sin symptom — for everything we just talked about, for all the darkness that is in this world — for every sin symptom, the answer according to God is found in the arrival of this Seed. Think about how powerful that is. In other words, your every answer is found in Jesus. Amen. And this is why: because God the Father’s every answer is Jesus. If Jesus is God’s answer for everything, how many of you know He is the answer for everything for you?

And so how did He deal the fatal blow? By God becoming man. What does this mean? What is entailed in God humbling Himself, coming to the earth, becoming man? What does that actually mean? Well, according to verse 15, it results in bruising. It results in pain. You notice how the Father connects the arrival of the Seed with His own bruising.

I don’t know about you — I don’t like pain. Anybody else? And I do everything I can to get comfortable or to avoid it, and sometimes I do that to a detriment. But I want to encourage you: if you don’t know the sting of pain, you don’t know what it is to actually live the Christian life. There is no such thing as heavenly kingdom advancement on this earth without sacrifice and pain, because when Jesus came to this earth, He came to be bruised. The way that this King conquers isn’t through self-promotion, self-exaltation, marketing strategies. The way that this King conquers is through pain and suffering. And so the incarnation includes the Lord going through pain.

Listen to Isaiah 7:14. It says, “Therefore the Lord Himself will” — in other words, the Lord is saying, this is how I’m handling this — “the Lord Himself will give you a sign.” How many of you love signs, right? Are you ready for the greatest sign? Here it is. “The Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel,” which means God with us.

Notice, the Lord will give us a sign, and the sign is this: the Holy Spirit will conceive in Mary the Son of the living God. That is the Lord’s sign. That is the sign of His redemption. That is the sign of His love. That is the sign of His sacrifice. And I think we can devalue the power of the incarnation by just saying, well, this was God’s emergency plan. We had it all good, but we messed it up, and so God had to figure something out. But God has actually done this: He has revealed Himself through Jesus to us, and only through Jesus.

Behold, your King comes lowly

Zechariah 9:9 says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold” — say, “Behold.” What does that mean, to behold something? Think about that. Isn’t that what we do here on Sundays, or we try as best we know how? Behold means to fix your gaze on. Don’t be distracted. Don’t be tempted to look for other solutions or different alternatives. Behold — fix your gaze. It says, “Behold, your King is coming to you.” Say, “Thank You, Jesus.”

Now, how does this King come to us? “He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Now, for those of you that know the Bible a little bit, yes, this is referring to Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But it’s not just limited to this. He’s saying Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming.

And I want you to notice how Jesus came to this earth. He comes in a lowly way. He comes in humility. I think a lot of times, especially in our culture, we view humility as a weakness. We see someone turn the other cheek, and we would say, why would you do that? An eye for an eye. It’s a sign of strength. You got to be independent. You got to make something of yourself. You have to rise above the rest, and if you don’t, you’re a failure. But I want you to notice how Jesus came to the earth. He came low. He came lowly.

If Jesus came into this room right now and revealed Himself to us, draped in glory and fire — number one, we would all be freaking out, and we’d be on the ground. But even if you saw Him in all of His power, you would be blown away by His humility. Think about this. We gather in our times of worship, and as you’re worshiping and you’re beholding the Lord and you’re fixing your eyes on Him and you’re lifting your voice, you sense the presence of the Lord flowing and moving. The fact that He has made Himself available to you in that moment is a revelation of His humility — that He would go out of His way to meet you. The King of the universe, the Creator of all things, makes Himself available to you. Somebody say amen.

Available to be hurt

And so the Lord comes with a certain characteristic. It’s lowliness. It’s lowliness. And this is what I believe is oftentimes being attacked in churches at large: the beauty of lowliness, the beauty of serving people. Somebody might say, well, you know, I want to serve the Lord, but I don’t want to serve people. But how many of you know that doesn’t work, because the Lord is married to His people, right?

I’ve heard many people say, I’ve been hurt in other churches. Let me tell you — and if you’re new here, I apologize — the only way to attend church properly is to make yourself available to be hurt. You will be hurt in every church you attend if you actually attend properly. If you actually make yourself available to be known, there will be pain. Yes. But I want to encourage you in this: you need it. Yeah, you need it. Why? If Jesus came to be bruised, you too will need to be bruised. You need disagreement. You need hurt. You need bruising, so that Christ can be formed in you through the reconciliation process.

It’s very easy for us in times of prayer to lift our voice and say, Lord, make me more like You. Jesus, do whatever You want to do. And then all of a sudden — at least for me — I go through something, and I’m like, Lord, deliver me, not realizing that’s exactly what I prayed for. And what we do is we point the finger and we say, see, the church is full of imperfect people. Which is absolutely true.

But can we just trust the scripture that says God will use all things for good to those who love Him? Can we actually trust that, even when someone actually does wrong you, and someone does say something to you that offends you — that you can recognize, no, there’s something greater that the Lord’s doing in me? That I can actually go out of my way and release forgiveness? That I can actually look beyond their imperfection and still love them? Yes, even though they might talk about me or gossip about me or slander my name, I’m not defined by what they say. I’m defined by the Lord Himself and His righteousness. Okay? You guys with me? But we avoid, we avoid, and we miss the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

Conformed to the image of Jesus

I’ve said it before, but what is the Holy Spirit’s number one goal for our lives? Somebody knows — otherwise I have to retire, and I’m like 42. What’s the Holy Spirit’s number one goal for our life? Somebody say it, please. To make us more like Jesus, right? To be conformed into the image of Jesus.

You see, the fall happened, sin entered, and there was corruption in our hearts. We have a fallen way of thinking. We don’t think the way that the Lord thinks. Why? Because it was broken. When sin entered the world, sickness entered the world because of sin, right? There are all these things that were broken. But then, when you are found in Jesus, all of a sudden the wires are reconnected, and you are brought back to life. But there are still broken areas. And the Lord is saying, I want to bring redemption to those things, but I will use those broken areas for My glory, because I’m going to bring healing and reconciliation and wholeness to those areas in your life.

But so often as the church we avoid, we avoid, we avoid, and we miss the work of God in our lives. You want to be used by God? Prepare to be uncomfortable. And so what we need in the church is more lowliness. The King comes lowly. And we’ve got to see Christmas, the Nativity, as one massive declaration of the humility of God. How precious it is. Yes, a virgin shall be with child. His name will be Immanuel. He is God with us.

And so what is God after? What is He trying to do? What is the end of this whole thing? We just started in Genesis 3; there are a lot more pages in this book. What is God’s purpose? What is His goal for your life? We just said it: to conform you to the image of Jesus. Everything starts to make sense in life when you start there. If you’re just treating this as a whole bunch of stories and trying to make sense of your situation, it’s not going to make sense. It only makes sense if you recognize there is a greater work that the Lord is wanting to do in my life, that the Holy Spirit wants to do, and it only happens when I yield to His process and put my trust in Him, recognizing He’s making me more like Him.

Isn’t that why Jesus said, blessed are you when you are persecuted, when you are reviled? Why? Because I was persecuted. Because I was reviled. See, when you say, Jesus, make me more like You, He’ll do it. The Lord is good. But what does it mean to become the image of Jesus? You know, it’s not, well, I have legs and He has legs, right? I have emotions and He has emotions. That’s not what the image of Jesus is. Biblically, the image of God is Jesus. Listen to Hebrews 1: He is the express image of the glory of God. Listen to Colossians 2. It says He is the image of the invisible God. So the image of God is Jesus Himself. And Jesus is saying, I want to make you into My image.

And so when we’re talking about being conformed to the image of Jesus, we’re talking about allowing the Holy Spirit, through partnership with Him and His people, to make us like Jesus. You cannot be like Jesus and not be a part of the church. That’s good. You can’t. And that’s a trap many believers have fallen into: I can love the Lord, but I don’t have to be a part of His church. And while that’s true — you can love Him, and He loves you — you are missing the full expression of His plan and purpose for your life. I’m going to sit and let you think with that and drink some coffee. It’s so good. Honey, you make the best coffee. It’s so good.

God became man. His entrance into this world was lowly, because the King crushes the serpent through bruising — not through exaltation, not through self-promotion, self-gratification, self-infatuation, self. We win by dying. Amen. We want to see a move of God. We pray for revival, but yet we want to be comfortable. The way we see the kingdom advance, the way you see your family change, the way you see your friends’ lives change, the way you transform and see the power of God move in your workplace — you can say it’s impossible — give of yourself, and the Lord will move. Amen.

Thank you. We’re going to wrap up here in just a moment. Can you come on out? We’re going to close with a song here in just a moment. More singing, more worship. I don’t know about you, but I love worshiping with you guys. I really do. I can’t get enough. And this is a praise God moment: somebody texted me this last week saying, “We got to worship an extra 10 minutes this Sunday.” How wonderful is that? And I told them, come to worship and prayer on Wednesdays. That’s all we do is worship.

The humility of God

So when you think of the incarnation, I want us to leave with this: He comes humbly. He comes willing to be bruised, to suffer, to go through pain, because it’s who He is. Let me ask you: when God asked about Sodom — should I destroy Sodom? — He said, would I ever do this without first talking to My friend? How many of you know God absolutely can destroy or do anything He wants? He doesn’t need to ask our permission. But it’s His humility. It’s who He is.

When God told David, you’ll know when to advance into battle when you hear the sound of men marching on top of the trees, God was saying, I want to help you in the battle that you are about to experience. Let Me fight for you. Let Me fight the battle for you, and then you can take the credit. It will be your victory. That’s the humility of God.

When Jesus was about to be crucified, the reason He answered the high priest was because the high priest had adjured Him by the living God. The fact that Jesus answered the high priest — that was lowly, because this was God standing in front of Pontius Pilate, and yet Jesus humbled Himself, because He recognized the honor that was on the high priest. This was somebody that was to be honored and to be revered. And He honored the honor that was on the high priest, because the high priest represented the Father. But Jesus was quiet until the high priest adjured Him by the living God, and that revealed who Jesus has always been: if My Father wants this, then I will do it. Think about this: Jesus saw the authority on those who wanted to kill Him, and He still yielded to that. That’s the Christian life.

Don’t believe another gospel. That’s why we say, have you given your life to the Lord? Because that’s not just a saying. You’re literally saying, Lord, I’m dying to myself — my preferences, my ways, my plans, my purposes, my dreams, my goals. That’s hard to say. What’s celebrated today is, you have to have a dream. But may your dream be His dream for your life.

The God who fills all things

I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes. Thank You, Lord, for Your presence. Wonderful Holy Spirit, come and speak. Just repeat this after me. Say, “The Father is eager to conform me into the image of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, and I must cooperate.” I cooperate. Thank You, Lord.

I’m going to close with this scripture, and you keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed, but let me read this to you. Ephesians 1:22 and 23 says, “And He put all things under His feet” — talking about Jesus — “and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

Jesus has revealed His desire to fill all humanity by becoming human Himself. Jesus is the God who fills. He’s the one who fills all things, including you. He’s the God who wants to fill your home. He’s the God who wants to fill your children. He wants to fill your thoughts, your passions, your broken areas — those places where we put a sign that says, Do Not Enter. He wants to fill our worship times. He wants to fill our marriages, our families. He wants to fill our preaching. He wants into our perspective, because He is the God who comes in and fills all with Himself. Why? Because He is the Incarnate One.

He doesn’t just stay in a far-off place and say, you messed up; I’ll just coach you from heaven, and good luck. No, He literally chose to be one of us. The Lord is fully identified with us. He knows everything that you’re facing. He sees the fears, the doubt, the discouragement, the hurt. And He fully identifies, because He too became man.

But I want you to know that every time the Father looks at Jesus, He sees His people in Him. And every time the Father looks at you, He sees His Son in you. That is the beauty of the incarnate life. God did not just put on a human body. He came and experienced humanity to the fullest.

Hebrews 2:14 says, “Inasmuch then as the children” — that’s us — “have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself” — Jesus — “likewise shared in the same” — this is the incarnation — “that through death” — that is the bruising — “He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” You see, Jesus assumed actual humanity to deliver us from the power of death.

Come to Him lowly

Can we stand and just lift our hands to the Lord, every eye closed? This is so important, because I believe the Lord is wanting to show us something, with our eyes closed and with our hands lifted to the Lord.

I want you to know that this morning you have the great privilege of determining how you will follow Jesus, how you will come His way. He’s already come for you, and He came lowly. And He’s saying, will you now come to Me lowly? Or will you come filled with opinion and filled with self?

And so this morning you know in your heart if you are truly living a life of freedom. You know in your heart if you are here living a life that is free from sin. Maybe you’re just visiting. Maybe you’re just in town. Maybe you’ve never really walked with the Lord. But I don’t believe that we’re here just for a mere meal today. He brought you here for a bigger reason, and that is to wash you, to cleanse you, to wash every stain away and deliver you from darkness, and bring you to the lowly one of Calvary, the lowly one of the cross.

And so if you are here today and you’re saying, I want to be free, I want to live for Him — this is your morning. If you’re here today and you’ve fallen out of love with Jesus, and you know it — if that soft heart has been tainted, if you’ve taken up opinions that have distracted you, and the flame of your heart has dwindled — I believe the Lord brought you here for a reason.

And what I can tell you is this: based on the authority of the Word of God, Jesus loves you. And He said, I have loved you with an everlasting love. And if you are here today and you want to respond to that loving one — the one who is in the room, who’s literally staring at each and every one of us because He loves us — if you’re saying, I want that love, I want that fire, I want to yield myself to Him, I’m going to ask again, with every eye closed, just lift up your hand and look at me. Amen. Thank You, Lord.

And so I’m going to ask that we repeat this out loud, loud enough for the person next to you to hear. Let’s say this. Say, “Heavenly Father, I’ve sinned against You. Cleanse my sin. Wash me in the holy blood of Jesus. Today I turn from my sin, and I turn to the Lord Himself. I repent. Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. Jesus, You died on the cross. You shed Your blood. You were bruised. You were buried, and You rose again. You are the King of glory, the Holy One, and I give my life to You, in the name of Jesus.”

Lord Jesus, we thank You. We love You because You first loved us. We give You our hearts, Lord. We give You our lives. And Holy Spirit, we say, come and do what only You can do. Fill us, Lord. It is Your heart. Now fill us, Lord, we ask. And You say, if you ask, it will be given. And so Lord, that’s what we do today. Lord, we simply ask to receive of Your goodness. It’s who You are. We honor You, and we worship You, in Jesus’ name. Amen. The Lord is wonderful, isn’t He?

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.