Well, I'm going to ask you a rather strange question, but it needs to be asked. What glorious thing right now, right here, captures your heart? One thing that's true about we human beings is we are hardwired for glory. We love glorious things! That's why we like the triple overtime NBA Championship game, or why we like the seven-layer dark rich chocolate cake, or an awesome piece of music, or a dramatic movie, or a captivating novel. We love glory!
Animals are not like that. Penguins don't score one another as they dive off the ice into the water. The rhinoceros isn't jealous of the zebra's cool coat because animals aren't like that, but we are--we're wired for glory.
Let me read for you.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from 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.'")
Wow! There is so much packed in a few words here; John's words are so explosive that I want to help you get a hold of them. There's a part one and part two of what John says. Part one is captured by four words; "Word...flesh...dwelt...glory." The Word is God himself. God himself became a man, and in doing that, he did not cease to be God. Let yourself be amazed! The eternal, perfectly holy, all-knowing, almighty God became a living, breathing human being, fully God, fully man.
"Word," "flesh," "dwelt." The word actually means "pitched his tent." It's meant to make you remember that Jesus came, left the splendor of eternity, that the God we worship is not God off in the distance, but one who comes near.
"Glory." To make God's glory visible, God sent His Son because the Father and the Son are one. He is what the Father is. To see him is to see the Father; to know him is to know the Father. This is so important. Because of our hardwiring for glory, God wants to display his glory in front of us so that glory would be the thing that captures our hearts, because all of us live in pursuit of glory. And it's important to say that one of the things sin does to us is makes us "glory thieves." We want our glory to be "the glory," rather than God's glory. That's part one.
Part two then, not so much, talks about Jesus' identity and mission, but it talks about his eternality. When John the Baptist says Jesus "was before him," he can't mean his physical birth because John was born before Jesus. He was talking about the fact that Jesus is the preexistent Son of God. He existed in eternity before the earth was formed and time began. How is it that we can have eternal hope? By placing our faith in the eternal Son, who humbled himself and became a man, not only revealing the glory of God to us, but living the life we could not have lived, dying the death we should have died, rising again in victory over sin and death, and ascending to the right hand of the Father as the royal Son to reign forever.
John gives us five words then that can change your life forever. "Eternal," "Word," "flesh," "dwelt," "glory." These words capture the identity and the mission of Jesus. May these words capture our hearts!
Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Discussion
1. What glorious thing right now, right here, captures your heart? In what ways have you noticed your heart drawn to the idea that your own glory is the most important kind of glory? In other words, in what ways are you tempted to be a glory thief? How has the glory of God captured your heart and attention in ways that make other glorious things pale by comparison?
2. Why is it such a big deal that Jesus dwelt (pitched his tent) among us? How does this help us understand that God is not distant, but near?
3. Why does the eternality of Jesus matter? How does the eternality of Jesus provide you with eternal hope? In what ways does the defined identity of Jesus in John 1:14-15 help you to understand your own identity in him?
4. Take some time to meditate on these five words: Eternal, Word, flesh, dwelt, and glory. How do those five words capture your heart? If they don't capture your heart in the way you'd like them to, take some time to pray right now and ask the Lord to increase your affection for Christ. Ask God to allow the truth of who Christ is to arrest your heart and dwell on the glory of Jesus in ways you've never been able to before. And ask him to turn that heart affection of Jesus into practical life change that pleases God and serves others.
Conversation Prompts to Use with Children
For Younger Children:
• What most excites you right now? What do you think it is about human beings that makes us excited about certain things in this world? Why don't you think animals get excited the way humans do? What does that say about humans that makes us different from animals?
• Why do you think God is more exciting and interesting than anything else? If he's not to you, why do you think other things capture your attention and excitement more than him?
For Older Children:
• What do you think captures your heart more than anything else in the world right now? In what ways are you tempted to make life more about you than about God? In what ways have you noticed that I make life more about me than about God? How can we help one another with that?
• Why is Jesus more important than anything else that might try to capture our hearts and attention? How can we remind one another of that in grace and love?
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