Well, I'm going to read for us from the beginning of John's gospel, chapter one. I'm gonna read the first few verses, and then we're gonna skip down to verse 14. That's where we're gonna spend most of our time this morning. This is the heart of the Christmas message. This is the truth of the incarnation. So as you hear these words that I'm sure are familiar to many of you, hear them anew, hear them afresh. Let them wash over you and come for you. This is the word of the Lord. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Now verse 14, 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 is he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. Gracious and merciful Father, you did not spare your own son but sent him into the world and he took on our flesh in order to be our savior. You have revealed Your glory to us through Your Son, and in Him we receive grace upon grace. Help us now then by Your Spirit as we hear and consider these words, that we would, at one and the same time, we would marvel at Your majesty, and also fall humbly before Your feet. We pray in Jesus' holy name, amen. Well, I wanna welcome anyone here who might be traveling and visiting this morning. If this is your first time here or first time here in a while, we've been doing this series that we've called God With Us. It's been a series talking about what it means that God is with us. That's, of course, the promise of Emmanuel. That's what that name means. This is the prophecy that Isaiah made. This is the prophecy that the angel reminded Joseph as Mary was with child, that this child she had, this baby in her womb, is the eternal living God. And he is God with us. All of human history has been leading up to this point, all of scripture has been pointing us to this very moment. And this is what this sermon series has been all about. It's been leading us through the broad, big, redemptive story of how God saves his people. We saw, first of all, how God with us, how God with us was lost in the garden because of our sin, but it wasn't lost forever. How is that possible? Well, in that moment, God gives us the promise of this offspring. Genesis 3.15, this promise that there'd be an offspring who would come, the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent. This is a symbol of the serpent's ultimate defeat by the power of this woman's offspring. Well, here, now we see that the woman marries, she is with child. This is the offspring. But we also saw how God had promised this offspring to his people through the calling of Abraham, how God gave Abraham this promised son, Isaac. But then we saw how God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. But it was not his intention, it was not God's intention that Abraham sacrifice his son, but rather it was pointing us to the son, to the offspring, to the sacrifice, the sacrificial lamb who takes away the sin of the world, God's own son. So this offspring, this son in Mary's womb, he was born to die a sinner's death, to save his people. Last week, Cody continued the series and the study, and we looked at the kings of David and Solomon, how both of them ultimately point us to Christ, these two great kings. David, he defeats all of God's enemies, all the enemies of God's people, he defeats them. Solomon is this king of peace, and he brings about peace in the realm, he builds the temple, and God's presence dwells there. But David's son Solomon, he's not the promised offspring because we know that he's a sinner just like his father. Rather, he's pointing us forward to the one who is to come. And that brings us then to our sermon today. This is God with us fulfilled. This is the fulfillment of everything that the Old Testament has been pointing to. This is the culmination of God's redemptive act in history. Jesus is God in the flesh. He is God with us. This is the doctrine of the incarnation. This is the doctrine of Christmas. This is what the message is all about. And you've no doubt heard it before. I'm sure you've studied the incarnation on your own. You know all the Bible verses. You know all the stories. You know all of this. So maybe the question that you're asking this morning is what difference does it make? Or maybe you're asking, how does this help me in the here and now? Is there any comfort? Is there any peace? Is there any assurance that comes through the fact that God is with us? That's what we wanna talk about this morning. Because I want to suggest to us that the truth that God is with us, the truth of the incarnation, it changes everything. And as we consider the fulfillment of God with us in Christ, I want to spend our time this morning looking at three different implications of the incarnation. These are three reasons why God with us is so important. Three applications of this wonderful Christmas message for us that answers the so what question. That's what we want to do this morning. And the first area of application, the first implication we see is this. that the doctrine of the incarnation, first of all, brings great assurance. Emmanuel, God with us, brings assurance to God's people. Assurance of God's love, assurance of our salvation, assurance that God truly is with us in a very real way. Look back at what John says in verse 14. He says so beautifully, so simply, but so dense, so rich. He says the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Remember the first verse of John's gospel is the word, the word was with God and the word was God. So the word, this is God's eternal son, this is God himself. Now, at this point in time, The eternal God who's outside of time, he enters into time through the miracle of the incarnation. The word became flesh. So interesting. It's so important, it's helpful as we study our Bibles, as we read our Bibles, not only to see what scripture does say, but to also see what scripture does not say. And what John does not say here is that the word became a man. Even though it's very true. God became man. He became a man. Jesus was fully God and fully man. He was a human male. But he uses the word flesh. God became flesh. This is a visceral word. It's a word that is used throughout scripture and it can carry a lot of negative connotations with it. And we might think that to describe the incarnation in such a word like this might be somehow degrading or dishonoring to God. It would have been better maybe if God, if it would have said that God became a man, or even better, he became a prince, or he became a king. Something glorious, but that's not what it says. God did not think it was dishonoring to himself. In fact, he graciously, lovingly, willingly became flesh. He took on the same exact flesh that we have. And this word flesh, it includes everything about what it means to be a human, good and bad, all of it. We all know the bad parts about being a human. the aggravating parts, the body aches and the pains, all the weird bumps and bruises we can get. You know, and I know especially, I'm in my 30s now, I know you lay wrong just one night. You lay on the wrong side and your hip hurts for a month for no reason. Being a human is not all that great sometimes. Sometimes your foot just hurts. You didn't do anything to it. This is what the word flesh should invoke in our minds. I know you all might have family in town, you might be traveling to go visit family. Maybe you have that one uncle. We'll call him Uncle Donnie, after mine. Maybe Uncle Donnie's just a little bit smelly. Maybe he always tries to do his best Cousin Eddie impression from Christmas Vacation and he does it just a little too well and you wish that maybe he wouldn't do it this year. That's the flesh. All of that, the good and the bad, all the weird bodily functions, all the common infirmities that go along with being a human in this world. Jesus took on that flesh. God became that flesh. He experienced all of it, from the nagging headache all the way to the severe pain of being nailed to a tree. God experienced all of that because he became flesh. Notice that word too, the word became. This is significant. This is a significant word choice as well because it tells us something else about the incarnation. It's not simply that God appeared in the flesh. It's not simply that God pretended to have flesh. This is not Bruce Wayne putting on the Batman suit, but still being Bruce Wayne underneath, this is not it. But he became, truly, fully, he did not appear, he did not pretend, he became a human being. He did not wear our flesh and our skin like a three-piece suit, but he was and he is flesh. So how does this give us assurance? Well, it's because it means that he's not pretending to know what you're going through. But he actually does know. And he's felt it. He knows exactly what it feels like to be a human being. And we find a great assurance in the word that became flesh for us. As a result of that, we know not only that he became one of us, But because of that, he is dwelt also with us. That's the second part of this first verse. And we have to talk about this as well. That God dwelt with his people. This is God with us. The word for dwell here is the word for tabernacle. Well, why is that word so important? What's John communicating here? Literally it says that God tabernacled among us. Well, we know the tabernacle, we know the temple. This is a very important theme throughout all of scripture. We considered some of that last week. This is the presence of God's glory. When God's people finished, when Moses and the people finished the tabernacle in Exodus chapter 40, God's shekinah glory, his glory came and dwelt in that tabernacle. When the temple was completed in Solomon's day, the same thing, this is the glory of God dwells in this building. But these physical structures only pointed us forward to the temple that was not made with hands. If we were to keep reading John's gospel, we'd see this, and in chapter two I'll read a portion of it. Jesus, he goes and he cleanses the physical temple, so that, in verse 18, the Jews say to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things? And Jesus answered them, destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up. The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days? But, John writes, he was speaking about the temple of his body. This is God with us, God tabernacling with us, God creating a new temple in his body and John adds this explanation in verse 22, that when therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. So Jesus' body then is the new temple of the living God. This is an incredibly important thread in scripture. We're actually gonna pick up this thread next week as we consider how Jesus' body is the temple and how Jesus' body, his church, we also are his temple. Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. But for now, just for this morning, let's notice in the first place Again, the assurance that God with us brings. We can have assurance that God is with us because he has dwelt with his people. He is not distant. Our God is not aloof. This is the wonderful truth of the Christian religion, of our faith. There is no God like our God. He is not far away, but he is near. He came down, He established Himself amongst the lowest of sinners. He is not in some mansion far on high looking down upon us, but He is right here where we are. He is with us. He became one of us. So there's great assurance with God with us. There's also a second thing that we see, and that is that there's also grace. God with us also brings grace, and it's an endless supply of grace. Verse 14 ends by saying that we have seen his glory, glory as the only son from the father. See, this is God's glory now dwelling in the temple of his body. And then he says, full of grace and truth, and then verse 16 picks up that thought and says that from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. There's grace, and then there's more grace, and then there's more grace. There's an overabundance of grace, a limitless supply of grace. From the overflow of God's goodness comes this ocean tidal wave of grace washing over all of his people, all the people that Christ has come to save. Do you need grace this morning? That's a question. Do you need grace? There's more than enough in Christ Jesus. This is good news for us. Because scripture is clear about the bad news. We know the bad news. God created us to be with him, but we rebelled. We sinned against him in the garden. We sinned against our creator. We continue to add unto our sins every day. There are none righteous. We continue in sin. This is why the world is so messed up. This is why the world is so broken. This is why sin and death and everything has been wrecked and marred. Story goes that G.K. Chesterton, that wonderful famous author and writer, he was asked the question, what's wrong with the world today? What's wrong with the world today? And he simply replied, dear sir, I am. We are what's wrong with the world. Our sin has brought this wickedness into the world, and now our world is marred by sin, and we suffer because of it. Scripture teaches us that no one seeks after God, no one does good, not even one. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That's Paul's argument in the beginning of his letter to the Romans. All have sinned. And what's the consequence of this sin against Almighty God? What's the result? Paul says that the wages of sin is death. The wages, the payment, the penalty, the consequence of sin is death. That's the bad news. But there is good news. Because in that same verse, Romans 6, 23, Paul says that for the wages of sin is death, but, that's the best word in the entire Bible, that word but. There's so much hope there. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. And though sin has brought death into the world, God through Christ Jesus has brought grace and grace upon grace. God with us, the incarnation, the word became flesh. This is the assurance that God has provided the means of salvation, that he brings with him grace through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the lamb who takes away the sin of the world. He takes away the sin of the world and you have to believe that that includes your sin. The Apostle John, who wrote this gospel account, he wrote a few letters as well, and his first letter, in the first chapter, he writes that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us. That's the bad news. We cannot be deceived about the bad news. That we have fallen short of what God has required of us, that God will by no means clear the guilty. If we have not put our faith in Christ, that is the wages of our sin. But there's good news. And John writes in the next verse, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is the extent of God's grace. It covers all, not just a little, not just some, not even the majority, but all. If you have put your faith in Christ, Your guilt, your sin is washed away. Because it is grace upon grace. There is no amount of sin. I can measure up, I can even compare. It's a drop in a bucket compared to the vastness of the ocean. That's the comparison. There is none. There's grace upon grace. God with us shows us this endless supply of God's grace for you. It means that you can be assured of his love of your salvation, that he is with you and that he is for you. And finally, God with us also brings immense comfort. God with us brings comfort. If all these things are true, if the incarnation is true, if Christmas is true, and it is, then there is also an endless supply of comfort for God's people, comfort for you, especially in the midst of suffering. Because Christ shares the exact same flesh as we do, that means He also shares in the exact same sufferings that we face. This is what brings us comfort. If the Word became flesh, and He did, then we have an infinite, we have an endless supply of comfort that will be with us as we go through all the things in our lives that we face. This comfort, how can it be so comforting? This comfort brings us and gives us an answer to the question of the problem of our pain. That's what it does. Why do we suffer? Why is there death? Why is there evil in the world? Why doesn't God do something about it? This is the answer to that question, that God has done something about it. I'm so thankful for Tim Keller. He preached a wonderful sermon on this passage, and he made this point so well that it remains true that we don't know. We don't know all the answers. We might never know all the answers in this life of why we suffer, why death exists, why we have to go through these things. So we don't know all those answers, but we do know what it can't mean, and we know that it can't mean and that it can't be that God doesn't care. Because if God didn't care, then He would not have become flesh. If God didn't care, then He would not have sent His Son to suffer with us. But this is what God did. He went all in, He put all His chips on the table. He knew what we needed. He knew what it would cost to save His people, to deliver them, And he sent his son. To take on flesh, to become a fleshy human being like us, to dwell among us so that he might suffer and he might die for his people. In him, then we can have comfort, we can know that not only does he understand and sympathize with our sufferings, but that he is preparing for us a heavenly glory that cannot even compare. So what are we suffering with? What are you suffering with today? You can bring all those things to Christ because he knows you. He can sympathize with you perfectly. I'm sure we all know what that feels like or we've had those questions of nobody understands what I'm going through. Nobody knows how I feel. And sometimes we try to comfort people and we don't always know what to say and often it's best just to not say anything, but we say something not knowing what to say exactly, but we try to comfort people and we say, I know how you feel. I know what you're going through. And if you're on the receiving end of that, you don't want to think it, you certainly try not to say it out loud, but you think you have no idea. You don't know what I'm going through. And it can be painful, and it can be extremely frustrating, especially if you're getting unsolicited advice about, well, here's what you should do in your situation. It's like, I don't wanna hear this. You don't know how I feel. But what if there was someone who did know? What if there was someone who had suffered in that way, had gone through what you're going through, but even more so, to the 10th, 100th, to 1,000 times more? What if that person came and sat with you and talked with you and told you, here's what's going on, here's what you should do about it? This is what Christ does. This is the comfort that Christmas brings. Hebrews 4.15 says that we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. This is the comfort that God with us brings. This is the comfort of the Christian message. Do you feel beaten down? Are you weighed down by temptation? You don't know how to combat and fight against this indwelling sin, whatever it is. Well, Christ, he was perfect. He had no indwelling sin, but he was tempted in every way that you are, and even more so. Yet he never sinned. He knows what you're going through. Are you suffering under grief? Is your Christmas celebration later today and tomorrow, is it gonna be full of sadness? Are you gonna be celebrating and missing someone who should be there? Well, Jesus knows. And Jesus weeps. And Jesus weeps not in a way that says, I'm sorry for your loss. That's not how he weeps. But he weeps as one who says, it's my loss too. He took on flesh. So he has all the same feelings that we feel. The gut-wrenching sorrow and pain. There's comfort in Christ. Do you feel abandoned by God? Do you feel forsaken by God, alone? So did Christ. Do you pray, how long, oh Lord? Do you pray, take this pain, this suffering away from me? So did Christ. Do you feel abandoned, betrayed by friends? Are you lonely, are you tired, do you want to give up? Do you feel like God is not answering your prayers? Jesus, he feels the same. He knows what it's like. Yeah, he prayed, not my will, but thine, O Lord, my father be done. But he knows, he feels, he understands. This is the God of the incarnation. This is the promise of God with us. This is the comfort that comes through Christ. The Christian faith, this is not... What I love about the Christian faith is that we're not idealistic, but we're also not realistic either. We're both at once. Because we know that we live in the real world and there's pain here. But we also know that this world is not all there is. And we are looking forward to that day when Christ makes all things new. And so we're able to live in that tension now where there's true pain, there's true suffering, but there's also true joy. And there's true comfort that can be found in Christ because He is God and He is man. He is one of us. He's fully God, yet He is fully flesh and bones. He brings comfort to His people. There's an endless supply of comfort for you. So if God is with us, and really we shouldn't be talking in ifs, it's true, since God is with us, since God became flesh and dwelt among us, there is an endless supply of comfort for you, comfort for God's people in the midst of suffering, because God in the flesh suffered for you. God is with us. There's an endless supply of grace, grace upon grace, to wash away all your sins, to wash away all your past, to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, to clear away all the guilt because he bore it all on the cross. And since, because God is with us, there's an endless supply of assurance, assurance of his love, assurance of your salvation, assurance that God truly is with you because he became one of us. Just like we sang earlier in that wonderful hymn, it says, come to earth to taste our sadness, he who glories knew no end, by his life he brings us gladness, our redeemer, shepherd, and friend. Look to your friend, look to your shepherd, look to your Redeemer in Christ Jesus. He is with you. Let's pray. Lord Jesus God in the flesh, our words fail to give you adequate praise and glory for all that you've done. There is no God like you. There is no God like our God. A God who is perfect in majesty and glory and yet who humbled himself to become a poor human like us. Thank you for the promise of the incarnation. Thank you for the Christmas message that you are with us. Thank you for the assurance and comfort that you bring to weary people. Thank you for the grace extended to sinners through your life and death on the cross. Bless us with your own self. Bless us with your presence today. Bless us today and tonight and every day. And we pray all of this in your holy name. In Jesus' name, amen.