We return this evening to the Gospel of John 1, verse 14. The Gospel of John 1, verse 14. 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. And our subject this evening is God in the midst of His people. Before we come to this verse, I want you to consider the world at creation. God created a perfect world with a perfect garden, and he placed the man and the woman in that perfect garden, and they lived in perfect harmony with each other and with himself. There was no barrier. There was no enmity, no hostility that existed in that garden between Adam and his maker. But then secondly, we must consider the fall of man and its consequences. After Adam and Eve disobeyed the command of God and took of the fruit of the tree, of the knowledge of good and evil, we read that Adam knew that he was naked. He had a sense of shame and guilt on account of his disobedience toward his maker. And when he heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day, Adam and Eve hid themselves. amongst the trees of the garden. There was now a barrier to that perfect harmony. Man was estranged and would subsequently be banished from the garden with the cherubim at the gates of the garden keeping the way of the tree of life with flaming swords. I want us to consider thirdly Israel in the wilderness. Redeemed from Egypt, the Red Sea parted. Now in the wilderness of Sinai, being led by the Lord. And in that wilderness, God appoints a tabernacle to be built, a tabernacle if you look in the dictionaries, is a sacred tent. A tent devoted to the worship of God. And so it was. And it was to be built by Moses according to the pattern, the exact pattern which God had prescribed. And it would become a symbolic place of God's special presence. It would house the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the Ten Commandments. Above the Ark of the Covenant, there would be a mercy seat, the place, the seat of mercy, from which mercy from God would symbolically at least be extended to those that came before God in worship. It was contained within the Holy of Holies, that inner chamber which was veiled off from the more public part of the tabernacle. And God said that he would dwell there symbolically. If we turn back to Exodus chapter 25, where the Lord here is recorded how the Lord instructed and commissioned Moses to build the tabernacle. We read in verse eight, let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. according to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall you make it. Why did the Lord here insist that Moses made everything in the tabernacle, all the furniture, the altar, the candle, the candlestick, according to the pattern which God would give him? Well, firstly, there is a general principle here that God will be worshipped according to his own prescription. We're not free to say, well, it would be rather nice to show my love and my honour of God in this way or that way. In the Old Testament, there is an established principle here in the commissioning of the tabernacle, this place of worship, but then again in the temple, everything was done to be done exactly as God prescribed. And the old writers would say, it's to train us that God must be worshiped as he, as the object of our worship, wills himself to be worshipped. But there is perhaps an even more significant reason why everything in the tabernacle was to be built, framed according to God's prescription, and that is because everything, almost everything in this tabernacle was to train the people in how an estranged sinner, banished from God, now outside his immediate presence since the days of the fall could be brought back into fellowship with his maker. It would speak of Christ and everything in this tabernacle pointed forward and foreshadowed the coming of Christ. It was veiled off, the holy of holies, and Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 8 tells us that the Holy Spirit is signifying by this very arrangement that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, it was not yet revealed. The Old Testament saints understood that there was still a barrier between them in their sin and a holy God who, in a symbolic way, was present in the holiest of all, the high priest, once a year. would enter beyond the veil into that holy place, having offered on the day of atonement a bullock of sacrifice upon the great altar, and he would take the blood of that sacrifice into the holy place, and he would sprinkle the mercy seat and the ark with the blood of the sacrifice, and he would go into that place as it were as the representative of the people of God. And there would be reconciliation. Why were these things created? Because they illustrate and foreshadow a better day which was yet to come. That's the background to our text in John chapter 1 verse 14 to which I come now and we consider this verse. The word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The word, an official title given here to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we can be in no doubt that it is the Lord Jesus Christ who has given this title. Go back to verse one, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Verse three, all things were made by him. The Word is a person. the second person of the Holy Trinity, eternally divine, equal with God the Father, the executive Word by whom the worlds were made. One who reveals God in all His fullness. Look at verse 18. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. If we would know God, then we must know Him in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is described as the Word because it conveys the divine authority with which he conducted himself upon earth. Whilst here upon earth you think of the miracles which he performed simply by speaking the Word only. There was power in the Word of Christ. He could command Lazarus from the grave. He could speak and devils would flee. He could still the storms of the Sea of Galilee because he was the divine word with divine authority. And we read here, the word was made flesh. He became man. He did not cease to be God. but he became fully man too. Fully God, fully man. It reminds us of those words of Isaac Watts that we sung quite recently. Where reason fails with all her powers, their faith believes and love adores. We cannot fully grasp in our minds how the eternal son with all his divine glory and power could at the same time be made flesh. But why he became flesh? Firstly, that he may die. Secondly, that he may sympathize with his people who themselves are frail flesh. And thirdly, that he may be to us a perfect example of what a man, a woman, should be. But we come then to this third phrase, and dwelt among us. The word in the original is literally tabernacled, or to set up his tent among us. Some say the emphasis here is simply that he made a temporary stay amongst men, and that would be true. He came into this world and for a time, he dwelt in human flesh as if he were setting up his tent amongst the community of human beings for a time. Others say it suggests a little more. It means that he came into this world and he lived as it were alongside men, like a fellow tent dweller in this sad world. And people could see him, and John would later write in his first letter, that which we have seen, which our eyes have seen, which our hands have handled, which our ears have heard of the word of life. And that's also true. But surely the sense here is much more. The Apostle John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, uses the word tabernacled. Because here Christ will be the fulfillment of everything that was foreshadowed to Israel. Fallen men there glimpsed in the wilderness and were given that hope, that hook, if you like, for their faith to lay hold upon, that God was making a way whereby the estranged and banished and guilty sinner could be brought back into the very presence of God. And here the Lord Jesus Christ is the fullness. of all that was foreshadowed there in the Old Testament. He came, as it were, as God in the flesh, and the divine presence came and tabernacled among us. Not now the typical presence of God that was seen in Israel of old, but in reality, the Son of God fully The Divine Word comes to this earth and dwells in the midst of men. At the end of our verse, we read here, we beheld His glory, we'll come back to this, as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Leave aside in your mind for a moment that which was in brackets or parentheses, and let's read the first part of this verse with the last phrase. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. Truth here can mean in part reality. People speak of the real thing, the real deal. And it's possible here that part of John's emphasis is something like this. In the Old Testament, God symbolically dwelt amongst his people in that old tabernacle. But when Christ came, it was in truth. It was in reality. We beheld him who is really and truly the son of God, with divine power and wisdom and knowledge and authority, and he was in our midst. How is it possible for God, who had banished man from the garden and had set those cherubim at the gates of the garden, now to come and dwell in the midst of sinners? It was by virtue of the fact that he would be himself made sin. He would be man's vicarious sacrifice. Let me explain that word. People speak of a vicar today and what they mean by the word vicar, it means someone who is a representative of another and ultimately, they would claim to be God's representative. I don't use that word. In nonconformist churches, we don't speak of vicars, but we have one who is our vicar, one who represents us to God and represents God to us, and that is Christ. And when he came to Calvary, he made a vicarious sacrifice, a sacrifice of himself as the representative of another, of all that believe. And God could come and dwell in the midst of his sinful people, in the midst of sinful flesh, because Christ, even in his birth, had pledged himself to that work at Calvary. He would give himself he would reconcile God and man. Please turn to Ephesians chapter two and verse 16. We have to go back to verse 14, verse 13 really. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, estranged from God, are made nigh by the blood of Christ, for he is our peace, who hath made both one, both there meaning Jew and Gentile, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, between Jew and Gentile, having abolished in his flesh the enmity between Jew and Gentile, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain two, Jew and Gentile, one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both, Jew and Gentile, unto God in one body by the cross, having slain, having put to death the enmity between God and man by his death. and therefore came and preached peace to you which were afar off, the Gentiles, and to them that were nigh, the Jews, close to God in that they had his word. Verse 18, for through him, through Christ, we both, Jew and Gentile, have access by one spirit unto the Father. So this passage, if you look at it, it speaks of how Christ is coming into the midst of his people and he is going to destroy the enmity between God, who is holy, and man, who is sinful. And he is going to effect peace between God and the sinner. He is going to reconcile God and the sinner. And he is going to secure a place of access between the sinner and his father in heaven by his spirit. When Christ died, the veil in the temple which represented the same separation between God and the worshipper as the veil in the tabernacle. That veil was torn. It was rent from top to bottom, not from the bottom to the top. not because some man who had taken that giant curtain at the bottom and had torn it asunder, but because God had torn that curtain away because in the death of Christ now there was perfect access, freedom for the blood-cleansed sinner to come into the presence of his maker. And so we come back to John chapter 1. The word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Though he is God, He has made man and he is to be man's perfect representative and therefore he would secure the very union between man and God. A.W. Pink very helpfully reflects upon what the old tabernacle depicted. What did it symbolize? And he suggests that everything it symbolized has in a sense its answer in the coming of Christ here described in our verse. The tabernacle was a temporary appointment. It didn't continue. And Christ came into this world for a time. And then he returned to heaven. His work on earth done. The access that he secured was permanent, but it was a temporary thing. Secondly, the tabernacle was for use in the wilderness. The people lived in those harsh conditions, but God came down. and symbolically dwelt in their midst. What a miserable world it was when Christ came and dwelt in Nazareth, not the most salubrious of towns. He dwelt in a poor carpenter's shop. It was a wilderness, and to a certain extent this world is still a wilderness to the Lord's people. It's a place of sorrow, of pain, of disappointment, of heartache. But the Lord came into it as if to say, I'm coming where you are to meet you in your need. The tabernacle was lowly. It was unattractive. Pink said from the outside, it was just boards and skins. There was nothing particularly glorious or attractive to the exterior of the tabernacle. Within, it was remarkable. But on the outside, it was mundane. When we shall see him, says the prophet Isaiah, there is no beauty that we should desire him. a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. We hid, as it were, our faces from him. The tabernacle depicts Christ, ordinary to the eyes of unbelieving human beings. But for those who glimpse his glory, he is divine. Fourthly, the tabernacle was God's dwelling place, as was Christ's body. He came into this world. His own received him not. The world knew him not. But he came and he tabernacled amongst men. Or we could go on. It was, of course, the place where God was worshipped. And if we would worship God, then we must come and we must approach God through Jesus Christ alone. I am the way. All that come to God, the Father, must come by me. There is no other way. It's through Christ, the Word made flesh, who dwelt amongst us, that we may approach unto a holy God. The ark was the place housed within the tabernacle where the law of God was perfectly preserved. Those 10 commandments were placed in the ark for safekeeping. And there is only one person who has ever kept perfectly the law of God, the 10 commandments, the Lord Jesus Christ. He who is God made flesh. But let's move on. We beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father. The suggestion here is that the disciples, John himself especially, they beheld something in Christ which was a glory fitting to one who is the only begotten Son of the Father, the Son of the King of kings, the most holy God. They glimpsed something of the glory that recommended him as such. What was that glory? Well, the writers describe the glory of Christ as being suggested under many different headings. You have his essential glory, as they would call it, his omnipotence, his omniscience, his perfect knowledge. When Nathanael first encounters Christ and Christ says, I saw you under the fig tree, Nathanael says, Rabbi, thou art the King of Israel. Why does he say that? He sensed this is no ordinary man. What a glorious attribute it is that despite me being concealed under that fig tree far off, There's one who can say, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. You think of Christ stilling that storm upon Galilee. And they said, what manner of man is this, that even the wind and the waves obey him? They glimpsed something of the essential glory that belonged to Christ as the word. the eternal Son of God, equal with the Father. We can speak of his moral perfections and the glory of them. None loved like Christ. None displayed meekness in the manner that Christ displayed it. They are, in one sense, part of his moral perfection, his glory. He was so different to all other men. And then the writers speak of his official glory, the glory that was associated with his offices. For example, his office as the high priest of his people. I wonder if when they reflected, the disciples considered how when Christ was about to be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and he said to the soldiers, if it is me that you seek, let these go their way. Such was his love, such was his concern that he stepped forward And there was something in his person at that point such that the soldiers fell to the ground before him. But I wonder if those disciples went away and later would reflect how their master had given himself and secured their release. Yes, it was release from Roman soldiers. from those that came with swords and staves and so on. But it's a picture. It typifies what Christ himself has done for our lost souls before the demands of a holy divine justice that says this sinner deserves the wrath of God. This individual. deserves to be eternally banished. And really at Calvary, Christ stood forth before his own father and said, take me and let these go their way. Tremendous glory in his substitutionary work as our great high priest offering himself, but surely The glory here referred to must include what we call the Shekinah. The Jews referred to the glory which descended in a cloud upon the tabernacle when Moses first set up that tabernacle. And we read the glory of the Lord filled the sanctuary. And when Moses appeared at the gates of the tabernacle, his face shone. There was there an expression of the glory of the divine presence. When Solomon later completed the temple, and at the opening ceremony, the glory of the Lord descended upon that temple. the same Shekinah glory. Where do we next read of it? There were shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And the glory of the Lord appeared on the mountains of Bethlehem. And the angels of God announced the birth of Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter 17, the Mount of Transfiguration, we read of the Lord Jesus Christ that his face shone as the sun and his raiment was white as the light. And whilst Peter spoke, Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. Peter would speak of this himself, writing in his second letter, chapter one and verse 16, I think it is, he says this. We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty, for he received from God the Father honour and glory. When there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. and this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. And it was entirely fitting that Christ should know this Shekinah cloud resting upon him because all that that old tabernacle symbolically expressed about man being brought back into union with his maker, was repeated in the furniture, the sacrifices, the priesthood of the temple, both anticipated and trained the people of old in the truths of Christ. And when Christ came, he was full of grace and truth. He was the real thing. and the glory of God rested upon him. In Acts chapter 1 and verse 9, Luke tells us that after his resurrection, he took them out as far as Bethany, and as he blessed them, a cloud received him out of their sight. Was it the Shekinah? Was there something glorious as He was conveyed from earth to heaven to be seen on earth no more until He shall return? We beheld His glory. As we close, just look at Revelation Chapter 21. Time has gone but we must finish the picture. Revelation Chapter 1. And verse 2 to 4, I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them. and be their God, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. We started in the garden. In our minds we visualized the misery of the fall, the separation between God and men. We see the tabernacle set up to invite the faith and the hope of believers that God would one day restore fully that fellowship between himself and those that seek him. Christ fulfilled all that was necessary, but the fullness of that Union between a holy God, a God of love and grace, and man, fully redeemed, will only be known in its completeness at the end of time, when God, not simply Christ the Son, but God, will tabernacle forever. with his people and all the effects of the fall, the curse, the tears, the pain, the death, the sorrow will be no more because God will be the redeemer of his people. So John chapter 1 and verse 14, it conveys to us more than appears on the surface. It speaks of Christ coming down to redeem his people, to dwell in their midst, to be their great representative. and ultimately in a glorious fashion to secure eternal salvation for all that come unto God by him. May God bless these thoughts to our souls this evening. We close our worship with Hymn 298. 298. Lo, what a glorious sight appears to our believing eyes! The earth and seas are passed away, and all the spreading skies. 298.