This scripture reading is John chapter 1, the first chapter of the Gospel of John. We're going to read the first 18 verses, and then we'll be taking a closer look at them. As you will see, and you probably already know, this is actually John's version, you might say, of the Christmas story. So let's begin the Gospel of John. Chapter one, beginning with verse one. And I'm reading from the New King James Version because I left my ESV at home this morning, so if there's a little bit of difference there, that's why. 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 nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word became 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. John bore witness of him and cried out, saying, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me is preferred before me. for he was before me. And of his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. That is the word of God, profound words that take us clear back into eternity past and give us that we might say theological or divine peek behind the scenes as to what was happening, who this baby in Bethlehem was and why he was there. Well, we want to look at these verses in more detail. We won't be able to look at all of them in detail. You can find Fuller treatment of, well, the whole, almost the whole gospel of John, certainly these chapters, online at our sermon audio channel and also YouTube channel. Those lessons are all there in place for you. Well, let's ask the Lord's blessing then on the ministry of his word. Father, these are profound scriptures. They are words given to your servant John by inspiration of your Holy Spirit, so that we can be given a look behind the scenes, even into eternity past. And they speak of things that we cannot fully comprehend, which are largely a mystery to us. And yet, your word here reveals to us who Christ is, the God man, who he was before Bethlehem, how he came into this world, how he became flesh and dwelt among us, all for the purposes of revealing you to us and effecting a great and perfect salvation for us. And so Father, as we look more closely at your word now, we pray that you would give us by your spirit a better understanding of these great truths and that we would be thankful that we have such a savior. And we pray this all in Christ's name, amen. I was going to read to you, but I wrote it down wrongly, but that's fine, that we read those verses from John, because those are the ones we're going to be looking at. So I just encourage you, you'll notice on your handout that the scripture reading is listed as Hebrews chapter 10, starting at verse 19. And this relates directly to what we're going to be looking at here in John as well. Speaking of the fact that we have a great high priest, and how that was as only possible if the Word became flesh. Well, Matthew and Luke, both of those Gospels, give us accounts, fairly detailed accounts, each one emphasizing certain points more than another, of the birth of the Son of God. and how he took on human flesh. And Mark, in contrast, Mark just begins with the preaching of John the Baptist, perhaps because he knew that Matthew and Luke had already covered the nativity account. But then, here's John. And John actually does give us a nativity account. It's capsulized in verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And so his account of the birth of Christ is really in ways the most profound of all. He begins before the beginning. He speaks of things that were in eternity past before anything was created. Now you can see on the face of it that there is absolutely no way that we could know anything about that. unless God revealed it to us, and that's what he's doing here. I mean, who would have thought? If we didn't have the Bible, if God had not revealed himself to us in this special and more specific revelation, what would we know about what was before anything was. It would be impossible then to know, you see. But he begins talking about eternity past. Look at it again, verses one through five. In the beginning was the word. In the beginning harkens us back to the beginning. Genesis chapter one, right? In the beginning. In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. He already was, you see. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. Arianism, furthered on by groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses today, want to argue that Christ is a created being, just like the angels and Satan, that Christ is a created being. Well, you can see here If all things, if all created beings, all things were made through Christ and without him was not anything made that was made, he would necessarily have to have created himself, which is logically impossible, of course. Verse four, 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 or comprehended it as the new King James had. So Christ's human nature began in Bethlehem, but his divine nature had no beginning. When the beginning began, that is the creation of the world, the word already was. That's what John is emphasizing to us here. And furthermore, not only was he was, he existed, he was with God and he was God and continues to be God. And so what you have in Bethlehem in this baby is two natures, in one person. He and he is the creator of all things. When the Lord said in Genesis 1, let there be light, this word was that light. You know, if you read the account of creation in Genesis, you'll find out that the very first thing that was created was light. And only later did God create the sun. and the moon and the stars and so on. And I remember in our first church, there was a man who was a physicist. And I told him that, you know, the Bible says, and he was a Christian, but I told him, Genesis 1, it shows us this curious thing, that light existed before the sun and before the star. And he scoffed at that. He said, no, no, no, no, it has to, what he was going to do is he wanted to somehow turn the account in Genesis around and try to explain that, no, that, you know, without the sun, you can't, S-U-N, you can't have light. But Christ, the Word, the Logos, the eternal Logos, he is the light, and John tells us that. He's the life and the light and the light of men. So when we read in Genesis 1 that God said, let there be light, and the light shines in the darkness, what's happening is the Word, the eternal Word, who is the light, is coming on the scene. That's what's going on. That's what this, that light, that light was. The sun is only a, you might say, a reminder to us. of who the true light then is, and life as well. So John's telling us here, he begins his gospel with the same words that Genesis begins with, that the Bible begins with, in the beginning, you see. So he's telling us that when that first Christmas occurred, when the Word became flesh there in Bethlehem, and even greater in the beginning was happening. that a new creation was taking place. God said, once again, let there be light. Only the light that he's speaking of here is this light of the world Christ coming into the world, you see, to create life, real life, spiritual life. And so God, wants us, as you read Genesis 1, you want to be sure to remember to make the parallels between Genesis 1 and John 1 because you'll see it will really help you understand what the Lord is doing then in Christ. Just as in, for example, just as in Genesis 1 when God says, let there be light and the light shines in the darkness, Well, here in John, when he's talking about Christ being born in Bethlehem, and God is saying, this world is in darkness. It's in spiritual darkness. There's death that is reigning. And so he's saying, once again, let there be light. And the light of the world, Christ comes into the world then to shine in the darkness. And this light is so powerful, the darkness of this world can't stop it then from shining. That's why we read in Isaiah 9 earlier, that passage that Jesus himself quotes in Isaiah 9, In Matthew 4, the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light. And for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned. If you want to do battle against the attraction of this world to tempt you to love this world and set your heart on just the things of this temporal life and this world, well, give careful consideration to what this verse says. How does it describe this present world? It describes it as darkness. as a region and shadow of death. And that's what it is. John says later in 1 John, his first epistle, he says, do not love this present world. It's passing away. It's going up in smoke. Don't love it. Don't set your heart on it. Don't set your heart on the things of this world because They're coming to an end and you know, as glittery as the world might look sometimes, the truth of the matter is, it is spiritual darkness. It is the region and shadow of death. Apart from Christ, that is exactly the kind of region, territory that a person lives in. Now, and God has given us pictures of these kinds of things in the physical creation. So, for example, we see that as Christ is the light of the world, he's the light and life of men, we also see, well, yeah, physical light coming from the sun, If you shut that light off, if you take a green plant, for instance, and shut it in darkness in a closet, it's gonna die, and pretty quickly. It has to have that light. So it is spiritually. People, because of sin, because of the fall, are shut off from Christ, who is the light and life of men. And unless that light of Christ, who is Christ, shines upon us, we will perish. We live in a dark closet, shut off from the light and life of the Lord. Now, if this light comes into the world, comes into the region of the shadow of death, comes into a place of blackness and darkness, What do you suppose that the people who are living in that darkness, what do you suppose their response is going to be? You would think it would be, oh, right, the lights are back. I mean, if your power goes off for 20 minutes at home at night, right, and there's, you know, what happens when the power comes back on? Yay, it's back on, the lights are back on again, right? I can see, but that's not the response. that this dark world gives to Christ the light of the world as he comes into the world and shines. Here it is, verses nine to 13. The true light, the real light, which gives light to everyone who was coming into the world. He was in the world, the world that was made through him, and yet the world didn't know him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. And it's not just a matter of ignorance, okay? That's not what's going, why didn't they receive him? Why? Well, we learn in John chapter three, why they didn't know him. It's a willful blindness, you see, here it is. Whoever believes in him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he's not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, right? Christ has come into the world. And people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his work should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. You know, wrapped up in this business of faith, in this word believe, whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. Now, trying to pin down, what does the Bible mean by that word believe? Because we know that Satan believes, James tells us that Satan believes that that baby in Bethlehem is the eternal word, that he is the son of God, he is the God man. He knows all kinds of things and yet Satan's not saved. Many, many people who claim to be Christians, they believe that Christ is the son of God. They can even believe that the Bible's the word of God. They can believe all of these facts, and yet still not know Christ, not be born again. Why? Because in this business of believing in the light, believing in Christ, is this matter of loving him, Believing in Christ for salvation is not just knowing facts about him. That's necessary. You have to know about Christ. You have to know facts about him. But knowing those facts, and knowing who he is, and knowing what the gospel is, the question is, do you love him? Are your affections set upon him so that you receive him? You see the contrast here. Everyone who does wicked things hates the light. Now they can know that this is the light. They can know he is the word, that he is the son of God, but they hate him. Why? They hate him. They don't love him, they hate him because what they love is their sin. They love the darkness. They love the kingdom of darkness. And they hate Christ because he's light, that is, exposing him. So here you have blind people stumbling around. I mean, these are all of your neighbors and family members and people around us every day who are dead in their sins, who don't know Christ. They are stumbling around every second, every moment on the very precipice of hell. And yet, and in fact, that way that they're stumbling around on, as Jonathan Edwards said in that famous sermon he preached, it's greased, it's slick, it's slippery. If you went out when we had the freezing rain at all, and you saw how slick that ice was, and just imagine walking down a narrow, narrow, Two by two, I was gonna say two by four, but two by two, and it's covered with that slick ice. And on each side of you, there's the fires of hell right here. Well, that's the condition that, and you're doing it in the darkness. You're doing it in the dark. And you would think then, the lights came on, I can see. No, shut the lights off. I prefer the darkness. People love darkness. rather than light because their deeds are evil and that's what they love, you see. Verla and I heard a guy on YouTube, what's the name of that channel? Wretched Radio. He's got some pretty good stuff on there. I haven't listened to it all, but he said that he pretended to be a person who was being interviewed by, they had a microphone that looked like Fox News, but it was fax news, you know, it changed a little bit. And it's like he's being interviewed like he's some kind of an expert on, and why do you think that there was not a, the predicted red wave, you know, in the election? Why do you predict that didn't happen? And he said, sin, sin, Men love darkness rather than light. He said, men love their sin. more even than their pocketbook. They love sin more than low gas prices. They love sin better if it means that abortion won't be taken away or something like this, well, then that's what I'm gonna vote for no matter what, you see. And so people voted. That shows you how far our nation has fallen spiritually. People voted for evil. And that's what they wanted. Their deeds were evil. Sin is insanity. It's more logical to be afraid of the dark. When I was a kid, I was afraid of the dark, at least some forms of it. Well, I can remember being afraid of the dark even when I was just in grade school. But my parents would, my job was to take the garbage out, you know, take the garbage out. After dinner, everything is cleaned up and take it out and put it in the garbage can outside by the garage. And by that time, most of the year, it was dark outside. And I never admitted to anybody, but I was afraid, made myself go out there, but I was afraid of the dark. And I bet that some of you can identify with that. But if you think about it, why are you afraid of the dark? I mean, darkness is nothing. Darkness is just an absence of the light. So what's the big deal if people love darkness rather than light? Well, they love the things that are in the darkness. And I was afraid of the dark because you imagine what might be in the darkness out there, right? And you can't see, you can't see it coming, and you can't run from it. But the wicked love the darkness, even though It's fearful. It's the region of the shadow of death. But because their sinful mind is darkened by sinful hearts, they love evil. And so they prefer, then, the darkness. It's insane. Romans 1 points that out. Even though they know that these things are deserving of death, They run after him all the more, and they not only go after him all the more themselves, they tell everybody around him, come on and join me. And you hear people, you know people who will say, ha, I'll see you in hell. And they scoff at that. Those that have already exited this world aren't scoffing anymore. You can count on that. We know from the account of the rich man and Lazarus that when the rich man is in torment in hell, it doesn't say that he's with all of his buddies down there. It shows him to be all alone. I've been reading about narcissism. recently, because it's such a common expression of sin. Here's a definition, this is a good definition. Somehow, I think the word, isn't there a flower named a Narcissomething? Yeah, I think there is. And actually, I think it originates, the name originates from some kind of a Greek goddess, some character in Greek mythology. You can check me on that. But whoever this narcissist, whoever was in Greek mythology must have been a bad character. But it's defined like this. Narcissism is characterized by a grandiose, that's a good word, grandiose sense of self-importance, a lack of empathy for others, a need for excessive admiration, and the belief that one is unique and deserving of special treatment. That's a pretty good definition of the devil right there, and of his followers. Well, what goes along with narcissism, with the person who is a narcissist, is a fear of the light, because they fear exposure. of who and what they really are and what they're really doing in the darkness. You see, the sinner thinks that what he does in the darkness isn't seen by anybody, especially God, that he can do his evil in the darkness and God won't even know it. Jesus dispels that kind of false thinking. He said something, and I'm just kind of paraphrasing, isn't it? What is done in the darkness will be proclaimed in the light for everybody then to see, you see. So the narcissist, and you could say then just the sinner, just wants to be told lies. He wants to be told how great he is, how good he is, how much he deserves admiration, you see. But this is all darkness, it's all lies. And Christ exposes all of that. And that's why when the light comes, the fangs come out. And the sinner hates the light and does everything that he can do to extinguish it. Romans chapter one. The sinner suppresses that he knows that God exists. He knows that God is God. And he knows that he isn't. He knows that he owes God acknowledgement and thanksgiving. But what does he do? Even though God has made his existence very plain, to everybody through the creation. And everyone sees that. What does the sinner do with that revelation of God? He suppresses it. He holds it down. He pushes it down. And the way that he does that is he tells himself lies. He listens to lies. That's what he wants. That's what he wants to hear. That's why Paul tells Timothy that in the last days, people, and he's talking about people who claim to be Christians, people in the churches, that they will, they just wanna hire preachers that'll preach things that tickle their ears. Because they don't want to be exposed. They don't want the light shining then upon them. You know, I've probably told you this before. I've been here for 30 years. I can't think of any original stories, I don't think, that you probably haven't heard before. But when I was in high school, in the summers, I lived on my uncle's, aunt and uncle's farm, and I worked for them. And one of the things that I would do after work was, I had my .22 rifle there and sometimes I'd go down to the pond and shoot nutria. A nutria, if you don't know, it's pretty much like a beaver. There's some around here. A beaver with a, it's got a big long rat's tail. But other times I'd wait until dark and I'd try to go find some rats to shoot. in the chicken house, because they'd get in there and try to raid the food and so forth. And the way they got in, there were some knotholes in the floor of the chicken house. And so anyway, but you had to be fast, because the moment you threw the door open and threw the light, you hold a light with one hand and the rifle with the other. And I mean, these rats are fast, and they're scurrying away So once in a while I'd get one and once in a while I'd get a chicken. But that's a good picture, that's a really good picture of the sinner when the light shines in the darkness, when Christ comes in the darkness, just like rats. Scatter, get out, get out of it, run, run from it, hide, get back then into the darkness and woe to anybody that's standing in their way. You've heard me say this over and over, and I don't say it by some way of self-justification. It is a fact. The reason there's not more people in this church is because they hated the light. They were not of us. They were not of the light, and they hated the light. God's word is light. It shines, it exposes, and either you come to the light and you repent of your sin and you're delivered out of the darkness, or you hate it and you run from it. Now, the sinner is never going to say, Well, I fled because I couldn't tolerate the light of Christ, all right? I was being exposed. My sins were being exposed, and so I fled. They'll never say that. But in fact, that's what God's word tells us is really then going on. Paul reminds us in 1 Thessalonians 5, but you, you, Christian, are not in darkness. For that day, the day when Christ comes again to surprise you like a thief, for you are all children of light, children of the day. We're not of the night or of the darkness. We've been delivered from that in Christ. So be who you are. Live as children of the day. Don't be drawn into the sins and wickedness of the darkness, you see. How do you know that you belong to Christ? How do you know that you're born again? Well, we know this then from verses just like that. If you're born again, you are light. Now, what is your experience going to be in the region or the land of the shadow of death? What's your experience going to be there? The great majority of people in this world, because they are of the darkness, are going to hate the fact that you are shining on them. You are the light of the world. We're to be light, and we're not to hide it under a bushel basket, right? We're to be light, then, in the world, and they hate it. So when a person gets saved, oftentimes, and when a person gets saved, especially if they came to Christ later in life, right? What's gonna happen? Well, one of the things that'll often happen is you think you're better than us. So you got religion. All these mocking attitudes. Why is that? Because they see Christ in you and they hate him. Because their deeds are being exposed. They want you to return to the darkness. They want you to be who you used to be. And we're called out of that. and not to be that. Suddenly people are going to hate you and for no stated reason. I heard another sermon by R.C. Sproul last week in which he said that when he was saved, when he came to Christ, when he was born again, he went home and he told his mother, he says, I've come to know Christ. as my savior, I'm a Christian." And she looked at him and said, what are you talking about? You've always been a Christian. And she didn't He didn't register with her as to what in the world he was talking about. It was foolish. He said later in life, before she died, she did come to faith in Christ. But if I remember correctly, in another account he gave, if I'm not mistaken, he used to be real popular with, I think, his baseball team that he played on. And he said, The decision to turn to Christ, to follow Christ, he said, cost me more than anything in my life ever has. And that's why I often ask myself, and I ask you, has our profession of faith in Christ, we profess to be Christians, all right? Well, has that profession ever cost us anything? Has it? Because if it's never cost us anything, we'd better take a very serious and hard look. Woe to you when all men speak well of you. Look out, you see. Cain killed Abel. Why? Because Abel just kept doing stuff that he didn't like, whatever he was doing. No, Cain killed Abel just because Abel was righteous. And Cain wasn't. Cain was of the darkness. Abel was of the light. And Cain hated the light. Now John tells us there's some exceptions. The majority of the creation of Christ's people, of the people in the world, rejected Christ. But there were some exceptions, verse 12. But to all who did receive him, because some did, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, born of God. Now, how did that happen? It happened because God said, he declared in regard to them, those that received Christ, God had said, let there be light. And the lights came on. And they were born again, a new creation. Genesis creation has to happen in us. if we're going to be born again. God has to declare, let there be light. God has to give us eyes to see, as the Bible says, and ears to hear. That's why Jesus, in so many of his miracles, they were healing miracles. He gave sight to the blind, and he gave hearing ears to the deaf. Why? to show us that spiritually that's what has to happen. He has to open our eyes. He has to open our ears. Otherwise, what happens is you remain blind, person remains deaf, here you are walking along in the darkness, stumbling over things, precipice of hell, you can't see where you're going, you can't hear any warnings at all. Unless God says, let there be light, there won't be any light. But in the case of his elect, in the case of his people, he turns on the light. Now, how did this light, how did this word, this logos, come into the world. And here it is pinned down in verse 14. The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we've seen his glory. Glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. John, that is John the Baptist, 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. And if you have read the other gospels, you know that John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus. And yet here he's saying, no, Jesus, he came before me. And he's talking about the word being eternal. Verse 16, for from his fullness, we've 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's at the, I read that wrong. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side has made him known. So here it is. Bethlehem, the Word, the Eternal Word, the Creator, became flesh and dwelt among us. And that's Christmas. That's what we remember at Christmas. The Word became flesh. This is what we mean by incarnation, right? In carne, in flesh. The word was incarnate. He became flesh. Listen to the Westminster Confession stated here. The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, being very, that means truly, an eternal God of one substance. Whatever God is, the stuff that God is, there's one, okay? Of one substance, and equal with the Father did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon him man's nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities, weaknesses thereof, yet without sin, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary of her substance, of her humanity, so that two whole, not two halves, but two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, the divine and the human, were inseparably joined, and they're still joined today, as our high priest in heaven were inseparably joined together in one person without conversion, composition, or confusion. That just means when these two natures were brought together in this mystery by God into one person, two natures, one person, neither nature was changed, they weren't like merged, they weren't like homogenized milk mixed together, okay? They both retained. In other words, Christ having a divine nature and a human nature does not mean that somehow the divine nature merged with the human nature in a way so that it changed. in any regard, because God cannot, he cannot change, you see. That's what all those words mean, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is truly God and truly man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man. and man. So it is a mystery. That's the best we can do to describe it and to understand it. This is the one who ascended into heaven and is at the Father's right hand. Does Christ right now have a body? Yes, and he always will. because and therefore he will eternally be able to represent us before God. He's the perfect high priest because he's God and can represent God to us, but he's also one of us yet without sin so that he can represent us to God. There's only one like that. And Mary's not one, all right? She would, Mary, if she wasn't dead already, well, she's with the Lord, but I say, Mary would die if she found out what people are teaching about her virtual deity, you see. Christ then, is the temple. And we see that in this 14th verse where the word became flesh and what? The verb there means, it's translated dwelt among us, tabernacled among us. He tented among us. And this is a huge theme of the Bible. God tabernacling among us. You can go to our sermon audio channel and look under the series, In My Father's House. I think there's 16 sermons there on this subject of the temple, God tabernacling. If you understand that theme, God tabernacling among us, and you can follow it from Genesis to Revelation, and you will understand the Bible a whole lot better than before you got a hold of that. The word became flesh and tabernacled among us. That means that Christ became the temple. What is a temple? What is a temple? Any kind, when we call a building a temple, well, it's usually a temple to what? Some God, right? It might be a temple to Zeus, some pagan temple or something like that. But of course, in scripture, we're talking about the temple of God. A temple is a place where man meets God, all right? And that's what the tabernacle, the tabernacle in the wilderness in the Old Testament was also called what? The tent of meeting, the tent of meeting. It's where man and God meet. Two men went up to the temple to pray. They went up to the temple to meet God. You make my father's house a den of thieves. The temple was God's house. The burning bush was a temple because it's where God met Moses and appeared to him. And there's other examples as well. You can say in a sense, and only in a sense, that this building, here that we meet in every Lord's Day is a temple in regard to this. I hope that the reason that we gather together on the Lord's Day is not just so that it can be some kind of a social It's the interaction of some kind. Many churches have become nothing more than a social club, that's all. But our purpose, our purpose when we come here needs to be that we come here to meet God. That's why, to hear his word, to worship him, to pray to him, to come to his table, to the Lord's temple, to meet God. Now sometimes that's going to encourage us, and sometimes it's going to make us shudder and be convicted. But all of those things are good things, you see. So we should come here with this sense of a holy, reverential fear, and yet eagerly come with the expectation of hearing from God and worshiping him, you see. Well, the temple of God, then, what is the temple of God today? It isn't, in that sense, fully and properly a church building. It is, however, the church. That's the temple today. Here's some examples. 1 Corinthians 3, do you not know that you, Christians, are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you. Now you'll see in this theme in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation in regard to Christ coming and God tabernacling among us. In the process, he draws closer and closer and closer to us. so that in the wilderness he was in that tent where he met Moses and so on. But the people stood afar off. And then you have the building of the temple in Jerusalem, you see, and visions of God's spirit coming and residing there in the temple, still separated, very separate from the people. They could enter the holy of holies and so on, separated off. Only a priesthood could go in, and them only in certain ways. But then, when Christ came, When Christ came, he speaks of what? The temple of his body. That's why verse 14 here in John one says, the word became flesh and tabernacle or templed among us. And so while he was here in this world, he was the temple. Destroy this temple, I'll raise it up in three days. He was the temple. But when he ascended into heaven, what did he do? He sent his spirit on Pentecost. And what did this spirit do? Indwelled his people. And at that point, his people, individually and corporately as the church, became the temple of God. 1 Corinthians 6, do you not know? that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, you're not your own. What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said, I will make my dwelling among them, and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And if you listen to that series of messages in my father's house, it'll remind you that in that series, I maintain that that verse that starts in Leviticus is really, I think, the major theme of the Bible. This is what God is doing all through redemption. I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, just like it was in Eden before the fall, and I will be their God. and they shall be my people. And lo and behold, that is exactly what's going to happen in the new creation. There's another verse I listed there in your handout for Ephesians 2, how we are the holy temple of the Lord. In him, you also are being built together into, here it is, a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Now, when Christ returns, When he comes and he ushers in the new heavens and the new earth, the book of Revelation tells us what? It says, there will be no temple. Now that's interesting because you think, well, wait a minute. The temple theme has been increasing, increasing, increasing. How is it that at the end of the story, there's no temple? Well, what John means is, there's no localized temple. That's kind of what Jesus told the woman at the well. The day is going to come when My father's not going to be seeking worshipers to worship in Samaria or in Jerusalem, but he seeks worshipers who will worship in spirit and in truth. Not in a local, but the reason there will be no localized temple as such in the new heavens and the new earth, the whole thing will be the temple of God. Wherever you go, there is God the Father, and God, and God the Son constantly and fully in our presence. And literally then, and fully as it should be, the whole earth will be filled with his glory. And all of that is made possible because the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Now John also adds this, at the latter part of verse 14, the word became flesh and dwelled among us, and we've seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. You know, that word glory, I mean it's five letters in English, it's only four in Greek, it's a little word. It's where we get doxology from. The Greek word is doxa. It means glory. But that word is a really hard one to pin down in its essence. And so when we read things like that, we've seen his glory. Glory as the only son from the father. What does that mean? What exactly is it talking about? When Christ came, He came with his glory veiled. Otherwise, we'd all be dead. I mean, he couldn't stand in the presence of God. You've got it in one of the Christmas hymns, right? Veiled in flesh. the Godhead see, hail the incarnate deity, please with us in flesh to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel, our God with us, you see. But once in a while, you see in the Gospels, once in a while, the glory of Christ would break through. The first thing that jumps into your mind is the Mount of Transfiguration, when he began to to shine and they wouldn't have been able to even look at him, we think, in the Old Testament of Moses' shining face. But interestingly, we read verses like this. Here's one from John 2, verse 11. It's when he changed the water into wine. This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory. There's no record of Jesus shining in some brilliant light or something at the wedding. He changes the water into wine, but it's said to manifest his glory. And then again in John 11, when he raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? So in these miracles, his glory is being revealed. Doxa, glory, fundamentally means the condition of being bright or shining, brightness, splendor, radiance. That's what Paul saw on the road to Damascus and it blinded him, you see. So this glory is what speaks of God's magnificence, his greatness, his splendor, his fame, renown, honor, and prestige. And when Christ was on earth, he manifested just snippets of God's glory, telling us that in Christ, heaven had invaded this world. All right, you see the glory of God being manifest then. You see Christ displayed that glory. So we wanna see the glory of God, look then at Christ. By the way, just one little note and then we'll end. And that is that by way of illustration regard to this, I encouraged people this last week on my Facebook page and put a, You ever write something on there and you figure, well, surely all the people that are friends with you will agree, right? But anyway, I put on there, look, essentially it was this. If you want to see Christ, if you want to know Christ, if you want to see Him and meet with Him, pick up your Bible. Pick up your Bible and go to the Gospels and meet Christ there. That's what, that's how God has revealed Christ then to us. And then I said, don't, don't go watch. The current movies like The Chosen, and you're seeing previews of this kind of stuff all over, I noticed Fox News as well, but don't take your theology from Fox News. But there's another one, I think, that they've been pushing that they're coming out with, and boy, if you wanna really appreciate Christ, and here it is, and we're gonna depict the Gospels. Think this through carefully. We are told not to make any kind of an image of God, for one thing. But secondly, it is necessarily impossible. It is impossible for any human being to make a visual, a video, a movie of Christ. and his work. It will necessarily be wrong because the whole thing, even the person, the Bible says he had no beauty or there's no appeal that we should regard him, right? Well, guess what? If you just look at the previews of these things, the guy that's playing Jesus is this handsome actor guy, you see. It will, it will, and one gal took offense that I put that on. Well, this is a great thing, this is just, it's an effort, another way to tell people about Christ. Well, if you wanna tell them about Christ, point him to Christ, point him to Christ that we have been given by the Lord. You know, if God had wanted to give us a video Bible, he could have done that. He could have done that, right? He could have, well, you say, well, they didn't have cameras and stuff back then. He could have done it. He could have recorded it. He could have had Jesus come now. There's lots of things that he could have done, but he chose not to give us any other picture of Christ than what we have in the word. This is where we have to go, and it is by his spirit that he will reveal Christ then to us, you see. He says also, John also says to us that in Christ, we not only saw his glory, but he came full of grace and truth. What does that mean? It means this. The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The law was given through Moses, and that's a good thing, but what does the law do? It condemns us. That's all that it does. It's the power of sin. It only causes us to sin more. The law shows us our sinfulness. It condemns us. And its purpose is to drive, because it also contains hints and pictures and shadows of Christ, of the Messiah, but it drives us to Christ. That is its purpose. And when Christ came, it is in Christ that we find God's grace and the fullness of his truth and salvation. And that is what was happening. in that manger in Bethlehem when the Word became flesh. Father, we thank you for all of these wonderful truths. Thank you for Christ. Thank you for calling us out of darkness and into the light of your Son. We pray, Father, that by your spirit, through your word, you would reveal more and more of yourself to us, that we might know you better, love you better, and serve you better. And we pray this in Christ's name, amen.