If you look at your worship guide, we have our text for today, taken from John's Gospel, chapter 1. I'm not going to read the whole passage, but certain selected verses that I'll be preaching from. So let me go ahead and read it, and you can follow along there. John 1, verse 1. 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. Without Him was not anything made that was made. And Him was life. And the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness. The darkness has not overcome it. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, 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. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory. Glory is of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. No one has ever seen God, the only God, who's at the Father's side, he has made him known. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we come now before this awesome passage in your word. Lord, we know that the Apostle John was with Jesus for three years, that he leaned upon his breast there at the Lord's Supper, that he was probably the closest apostle to the Lord Jesus. Lord, he saw Christ. He lived with Christ. He knew Christ's heart. And he was inspired by the Spirit to write these awesome words, descriptions of the Lord Jesus. So now, Lord, we pray you would open up this passage to our understanding. In Christ our Savior's name, we pray. Amen. I want to concentrate today on verse 14. We're also going to be looking at verse 1 as it gives enlightenment on verse 14. Now verse 14 says this, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we've seen His glory. The glory is of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Think about these words. The word became flesh. Suppose you knew nothing about Christianity. And one day you happen to pick up a New Testament that some Christian had given you. And you just opened up the Bible and it opened up to John chapter 1. And your eyes fell upon verse 14. And you read it. Well, I just read to you. And so you would scratch your head and say, What is this word that's being talked about here? So the word became flesh. Now how can a word, words that we speak, become flesh or turn into flesh? How can something that flows from the mind of one human to the mind of another human, through the avenue of speech by human vocal cords, how can a word become flesh? Well, that's a reasonable question to ask. Well let's first of all think about this word, this designation, which is Word, capital W there, in verse 14. What this is, is a translation of the Greek word Logos, which has the basic meaning of word, speech, or message. So the Logos became flesh. Now this word Logos, or word, has a special usage in the New Testament, and it refers exclusively, I would say, to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The reason is because the Word of God is Jesus, in the sense that He Himself, in His person, in His work, reveals to humanity the invisible truth about God, about His nature, and His will that we would not know otherwise. So just as a word from you to me communicates a truth that is in your mind that you want me to hear and understand, so the Lord Jesus communicates to us the knowledge about God that we would not know otherwise. Jesus, in addition to the Holy Spirit, is the agent of communication, the means of communication between God and us. Without the teachings, the words of Jesus Christ that He gave us, our knowledge of God would be greatly deprived. The Word, it says, became flesh and dwelt or lived among us. So what is this Word? Well, if it lived among us, it must be a person. The verse goes on to say we've seen His glory. His glory. So His refers to a person. It doesn't say it's glory, but His glory. Well, so just by looking at these words at the beginning of verse 14, we would have to conclude that this word must be a person because He came to live among people and He enables us to see the glory, His glory, The glory of the Son from the Father. So the Word, as we see here, is a person. He's the Son of the Father. So, since the Son came from the Father, there was a relationship between the Son and the Father. They were together, and the Word came from the Father. So the remainder of verse 14 continues to talk about who the Word is. It's not an object. It's but a person. And some amazing things are said about this person. He's the only son, the only son from the Father. It's because of this son from the Father that he's a marvelous person who's full of grace and truth. Now if you were a person reading this verse 14 for the first time, and you saw that this word, this son from the father is full of grace and truth, and you were from a pagan background, whether a secular non-religious person living in America or Europe, or a person from another culture immersed in a pagan religion, you would note this word grace. And maybe you had some education, and you understood something about the meaning of grace. And you would know that the basic idea is of a free undeserved gift. Something given to a person who hasn't earned it or deserved it. And probably this would be for you a hard concept to grasp. Because everything you ever got in life you had to work hard for. You had to dig and scrape and fight for. You had to outthink, outmaneuver and outperform others to get ahead in your job or in life. Maybe you had to bribe, and deceive people, and shove people out of the way who were in your way. This happens a lot, I think, in culture. But suppose you were a religious person. You were a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist, or even if you were a Mormon, or Jehovah's Witness, or Seventh-day Adventist, and your whole religious mindset was geared to performing right actions that would be acceptable to your God. And you never knew if you had done enough, if you'd been good enough, if your actions were correct enough, if you'd avoided sin enough to be acceptable to your God. And then all of a sudden you read this verse and you're confronted with a person, this son of the Father, who's not asking you to perform. He's not asking you to do anything. He's only offering you something as a free gift. As we find out in the rest of John's Gospel, He's offering you salvation, forgiveness of sins, resurrection from death, eternal life. All is a gift, a gift of grace. This Word, this person full of grace, wants to give you something you didn't earn and you don't deserve. And you might think to yourself, well, very few people have ever shown me any kindness in my life. People have often taken advantage of me, mistreated me, but this person that's being talked about in verse 14 is wanting to give me something. He wants to extend to me grace, gifting, undeserved favor. Who is this person? And if that were not enough, we see that this person, the son of the Father, is not only full of grace, but he's full of truth. Now, if you're a typical human, and have been raised in a non-Christian environment, You've probably experienced being deceived by people, being lied to, being tricked, being led astray into bad or dangerous or rebellious behavior. You may have experienced people manipulating you or using you for their own purposes, not looking out for your welfare, but for their own welfare and advantage. But now look at this person, the son of the Father. He's full not only of grace, but also of truth. He doesn't lie to you, or anyone else. He only speaks the truth. He himself is the truth of God, embodied in a person, and he cannot speak anything but truth because that is his nature. He's pure, holy, and righteous. It's quite impossible for him to go against his nature and tell a lie or sin or deceive people. He is, as the end of verse 14 says, full of grace and truth. So, if you were this person reading John 1.14 for the first time, your curiosity would be aroused. In fact, more than that, you would probably be astounded because you never heard of a person like this, who's full of grace and truth. So likely, you'd want to know more about this person. Tell me more about him. Who is he? To answer this question, we have to look at the context of John 1.14. What do the verses before and after verse 14 tell us about the word? To properly understand the meaning of a word or phrase, we have to look at its context. We have to look at the words and phrases and concepts that go before and go after, so that we can understand what the meaning of the word is. So, we need to look at the context here of verse 14. So let's go back to the beginning of John chapter 1 at verse 1, which says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. There are three phrases here. Each one is packed full of instruction and truth about the word, who he is, and his relationship with God. So first of all, let's look at the first phrase. In the beginning was the word. The word beginning is mentioned here, the third word in the sentence. Whenever the beginning began, the word was already there. What beginning is this? The beginning of God's existence? Or the beginning of the universe? Well, it cannot be the beginning of God's existence because God did not have a beginning. He has always existed. There never was a time when He did not exist. He's eternal. We are creatures. We all had a beginning. Before we were born, we did not exist. We were not breathing. thinking or living, not until our mother gave us birth did we exist as a full human being. But God is not like that. As far back as the human mind could possibly reach into the past, at the creation of the universe, God was already there. He was in existence. He's been in existence forever. He didn't need a universe to complete his personhood. He was already complete. He was not lonely. The One True and Living God had fellowship within Himself. God the Father had fellowship with God the Son, and with God the Holy Spirit. There was perfect love and joy between all three persons of the One Eternal God. This is what makes the Christian teaching on God so unique among world religions. In the Christian faith, there's only one God, but within himself, there's a plurality, a threeness. We call these three living realities persons, for lack of a better word to describe them. There's the person of the Father, and there's the person of the Son, and there's the person of the Holy Spirit. There are three persons here, not three gods, only one God. Each of the three persons is exactly equal to the other persons in power, and glory, and eternality, and everything that makes God to be God. The Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. They're not three gods, but one gods. In other words, within God Himself, there is relationship, there's fellowship. But each person, we could say, has a unique role to play within the Godhead, the name of the Triune God. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father. In all eternity, the Father has been the Father, and the Son has been the Son, and the Holy Spirit has been the Holy Spirit. Especially in the Triune God's relationship to humanity, we can see how each person has a special function. The Father is the sender. He sent the Son into the world to rescue God's people from our sins. And the Son is the Redeemer. He came into the world. The Father did not come into the world. The Son came into the world and He took upon Himself our human nature so He could die for our sins and be raised from the dead. What does the Holy Spirit do? The Holy Spirit reveals the truth of the Father and the Son to us humans. He especially glorifies the Son of God and He awakens dead sinners to our sins and to the beauty and glory of the Savior Jesus Christ. So all three persons of God, the one God, work in concert in harmony to bring about the salvation of God's people. God spared no effort to rescue us from the deadness and lostness of our sin and our separation from Him. The mighty God who created the universe by the word of his command does the same thing when he calls a sinner out of death into life. The word of power of the living God is creative. Just like Jesus called forth his friend Lazarus from the tomb after he'd been dead four days. So Jesus by his spirit calls each one of his children out of their spiritual death into his spiritual life. He does this according to His grace and purpose and love. We cannot say why He loved sinners like us. But we can be thankful and grateful and serve Him with joy and devotion all the days of our lives. And we will do that by His grace. Will we not? Let me remind you why we're studying verse 1. wanting to know the context of verse 14. Verse 14 says, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We're trying to learn about the Word. Who is the Word? Back to John 1. The second phrase says, and the Word was with God. This is a simple phrase, but it has special meaning. It describes the existence of relationship, of fellowship between the Word and God. God was not by himself and the Word was not by himself. They were with one another. This implies an equality of personhood and authority. R.C. Sproul says that the Greek preposition used here, translated with in English, literally means face-to-face. The word was face-to-face with God. Now if we're face-to-face with someone, we're equal with them. Usually only family or friends are allowed to be close enough to be face-to-face with us. In fact, the angels weren't face-to-face with God. They were around the throne of God and falling on their faces before Him. but the son was beside the father. Well, so if we look at verse two of John one, this removes any doubt about the relationship of the father and the son. Verse two says, he was in the beginning with God. This was the relationship between God and the word. It existed at the creation of the universe and had been in existence for all eternity. As long as God had been in existence, so the Word has been with Him in fellowship and relationship. And here's the amazing thing, that Jesus Christ wants to bring us, yes, you and me, into that fellowship. Listen to what John 17, 21 says. Jesus is talking to His disciples and He says, He's praying to the father about his disciples. He says that they may all be one Just as you father Are in me and i'm in you May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you've sent me Can you imagine that this eternal relationship of fellowship between within the trium god? He wants to bring us in to that fellowship Amazing God, would you do such a wonderful thing for poor sinners like us to bring you into this kind of fellowship? Indeed, He will. And we can only remain astounded at the depth of relationship and fellowship that He is bringing us into. Well, let's go now to the third phrase in John 1.1. And the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And now the third phrase, and the Word was God. Now, we see here one of the greatest verses in the Bible comes to its climax, its grand declaration, this volcanic explosion of truth. This Word, who was at the beginning of creation, who's always been with God is himself nonetheless than God. We may have suspected this if we were just reading the previous phrases, considering their implications, but now it's crystal clear. This Word is God. He's not an angel. He's not a created being. He's very God of very God. as the Nicene Creed says. Very God of very God. This is the great mystery of the inner nature of the Eternal God. It's now being laid out before us. The only reason the Holy Spirit is not mentioned here is because the Apostle John is trying to focus our attention on Jesus, the second person. Later he's going to talk about the Holy Spirit three chapters. Chapters 14 through 16 of John. Speak of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So the next few verses in John 1. give substantiation, they give reasons why we can know that the Word was God Himself. First of all, He was the very Creator Himself. Look at verse 3. All things were made through Him. Without Him was not anything made that was made. Genesis 1.1 says that God created the heavens and the earth. John 1.3 says, all things were made through Him, through the Word. That means the heavens and the earth were made through Him. We say sometimes, describing this phenomenon, that Jesus Christ was the agent of creation. He's the second person of God through whom the Father created everything. Now actually all three persons are involved in creation, Father, Son and Spirit. But specifically Jesus is the agent of creation as revealed in Scripture. For example, Colossians 1.16 says, For by Him, that is by Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him. He created all things for Himself, for His glory. And then again we read something similar in Hebrews 1, 2. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom we appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. Well, without a doubt, The Word, the Son, is the agent of creation. And secondly, we see in verse 4 that the Word was God because He's the source of all life. Verse 4 says, In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. In other words, Jesus is the source of all life. In John 5.26 he said, For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. An exact equality of the power of giving life. The Father and the Son both have equal power to give life. All living plants animals, and people. Even those who don't know God, don't believe in Him, ignore Him, don't care about Him, even their life comes from Him. Every breath of every human on earth receives their life because of Jesus Christ. Is He worthy of worship? Yes. And thirdly, we see that the Word is revealed to be God because He's the light of men. It says that in verse 4, and him was life, and the life was the light of men. Jesus said in John 8, 12, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. The Word, Jesus Christ, is the source of all the enlightenment and knowledge that humans experience. I believe that's true. I think this refers to all knowledge and truth, science, biology, cooking, gardening, but especially spiritual knowledge, knowledge of the one true God and of His Son, Jesus Christ, and the way of salvation through Christ. So by looking at the first four verses of John 1, we learn who the Word is, who became flesh and dwelt among us. He's the One who has always existed. He was there before the creation of the world. He's been in eternal fellowship with God. And He was God Himself. So, what we see here in John 1.1 is we're given an introduction to the Trinitarian understanding of the nature of God. He's one God, but has within himself a plurality of persons, a relationship between the three persons of the one God. Well, let's go back to verse 14, where we began. 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. Verse 14 is an amazing statement. Think about it in relation to what we saw in the first four verses of John. In the first four verses of John, we saw that the Word, Jesus Christ, had eternal existence. In this eternal existence, He was face-to-face in relationship with God. He was, in fact, no less than God Himself. He was the creator of all things. He was the source of life for all living creatures. He's the light who brings truth and knowledge to humanity. This is the Word. All these things are true of the Word. But look at what verse 14 says, and the Word became flesh. This great, glorious, eternal God took upon Himself our flesh. The word did not remain in heaven, aloof, out of our sight and hearing, but it came down and became flesh. The flesh word here refers to human nature, it's bodily nature, it's physical flesh. The eternal word became physical flesh. It's what you've pinched between your fingers and it hurts. It's getting tired after walking all day and needing to sit down. at a well and rest a while as Jesus did in Samaria in John chapter 4. It's blood that flows from your finger when you cut it while you're peeling potatoes. The Word left heaven, took upon Himself our full human nature, experienced all these things that we experience. How did this happen? How did the eternal Word of God leave heaven and enter our world? Did God really become a man? The answer is yes, he did. This is the amazing truth of the incarnation that is a cornerstone of the Christian faith. How did this happen? It's recorded in the historical record how it happened. Let's go back. Let's go back to Luke chapter 1. The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a virgin, this is beginning about verse 33 of Luke 1, to a virgin named Mary and announced to her that she would become pregnant and bear a son. would be called the Son of the Most High, and whose kingdom would last forever. And Mary said to the angel, How will this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. This is how the eternal Word became a man. The Holy Spirit impregnated, the eternal word of God, into the womb of the Virgin Mary. Nine months later, she bore a male child. When he was born, he cried like all other babies, he pooped in his diapers, and he cried when he was hungry. He was exactly like every other child born on planet Earth. The neighbors in the community came and saw him and said how precious he looked. just like they said for all the other babies born in their community. But although they could not detect it, this baby was different from all other babies because he was not only fully human, but he was also fully God. How God had humbled himself, the creator of the universe, to be kept in a cow's feeding trough in the hay. God humbled himself and became a man. His deity, His divinity, His eternal attributes and divine nature were veiled. They were hidden by His humanity. We can understand how this happened if we look at Philippians 2, which we read earlier. Beginning at verse 5, Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped. but he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So what this text is saying here in Philippians 2 is that Jesus Christ, the Word, although He existed in the form of God, that is, He had the exact nature of God, He did not cling to His rights as God, but He instead took the form, the nature of a servant. As He was fully in the nature of God, He was fully in the nature of a servant. He became fully man to the extent that He could die on the cross. The Word became flesh, says John 1.14. He became human so He could live among us, live a perfectly sinless life, and offer up Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of His people. Now the amazing thing here is that although Christ took upon Himself our human nature, He did not give up, He did not lose not one ounce of His deity. He did not compromise his godhood to take up humanity. What he did do is he veiled, he hid his deity, but he did not lay it aside. It's impossible for God to give up being God. He's God forever. He's unchangeable. So he could in no way give up or lose any of his deity. Now if you saw Jesus of Nazareth on the street, if you were one of the hometown boys there, you would have noticed nothing unusual about him. You knew he was a carpenter, the son of Mary and Joseph, he had brothers and sisters. If you sat down and ate a meal with him, you would have not noticed anything unhuman about him. You would have had no clue that he was God in the flesh. You may have noticed, however, that he had a very keen knowledge of scripture. He was a very humble, kind, and gracious man, and that when he prayed, his prayers were deep and spiritual. But otherwise, you probably wouldn't have thought him to be unusual. John 1.14 says, The word became flesh and he dwelt among us. He lived among us. The actual word in the original Greek language is that he tabernacled among us. Now, why is that word used? It's a reference to what happened when the Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt. After they passed through the Red Sea, Moses appeared to God on the mountain and told him to build a tent for his presence. animal skins and things that was set up. And when it was all completed, God's presence entered that tabernacle, that tent. And he dwelled there in the midst of his people. That tabernacle was in the midst of all the other twelve tribes' tents all around him. And as they moved during those forty years, several times, the tabernacle was torn down by the priest and set up, and God's presence stayed there with them. He moved with the people. Now later, King Solomon had a permanent temple built and the presence of God tabernacled there. It was there in the midst of Jerusalem. So, Christ in the incarnation, He tabernacled among us. His presence was here among us. The word incarnation literally means in the body or in the flesh. The Christian doctrine of the incarnation is that the second person of the Triune God, the Word, came and took upon himself a human body. By taking up this body, he did not lose or give up any of his deity. Jesus Christ was 100% God and 100% man. He had two natures, a divine nature and a human nature, and his one person. John 1.14 goes on to say, we've seen His glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. He came, the eternal Word came to tabernacle among us, and He came to reveal His glory. If we look at the rest of John's Gospel, we see His glory revealed. At the wedding, and Cana of Galilee. John chapter 2 verse 11 Jesus changed the big vats of water into wine at the wedding and we read in John 2 11 this is the first of his signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. There's a manifestation of the glory of Jesus Christ. He commanded the water to turn into wine, and it did. In John chapter 6, we read that he fed 5,000 men plus their families with only five barley loaves and two fish. So he was graphically illustrating the fact that he was the true bread who'd come down from heaven. John 6.35, he said, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall never hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst. eat of Jesus Christ. To believe in Him by faith brings us into union with Him in eternal life. In John chapter 8, the woman was caught in the act of adultery. She was thrown down in front of Jesus and these men said, the law says a woman caught in the act of adultery needs to be stoned to death. Jesus, what are you going to do? Jesus talked to the woman and said, okay, who among you is free of sin? Let him cast the first stone. They all look down, and they begin to leave. The oldest, beginning with the oldest. And so Jesus looks at the woman. He says, Woman, do none condemn you? She said, No, Lord, no one condemns me. He said, Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on, sin no more. So we see his compassion, his forgiveness. This reveals the glory of God. Now one of the most dramatic revelations of the glory of God in John's Gospel, well actually it's in Matthew, Luke and Mark's Gospel, the Transfiguration. On that day when Jesus took John, Peter and James with him up on the mountain. And a cloud came down, and it says in Matthew 17, verse 2, he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him. Through the glory of God, it was revealed there. The curtain was drawn back, and they were able to see something of the glory of Christ on the mountain. than after his death, his burial, and his resurrection. In his victorious triumph over death, he appeared to his disciples on 10 different occasions over a period of 40 days. And when he appeared to Thomas, who had doubted that Christ had been resurrected, he invited Thomas to touch his hands and feet. And Thomas realized Jesus was risen from the dead physically, and he cried out, my Lord and my God. And then after those 40 days of appearances to the disciples, they were in Jerusalem. And Jesus was taken up before them and disappeared into a cloud. It says in Acts 1. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. He'll come with on the clouds with glory as was prophesied. and Daniel chapter 7, verse 13 and 14. So when John, the apostle, is writing his gospel, he says in John 1, 14, we have seen his glory. He doesn't say I have seen his glory, he says we have seen his glory. Because all the apostles had witnessed the glory of the Son of God for three years as they walked with him, learned from him, fellowship with him for three years, beginning with a baptism by John in the Jordan River until his resurrection as an ascension. So when John says, we have seen his glory, he's talking about he and the other apostles. They had been with Jesus. They had seen his glory many times. So here's the great news, the good news for this Christmas season in the year 2023. Here's the message for us today from the Living God. John 1.14, the Word became flesh and He dwelt among us and we have seen His glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Have you seen His glory? Do you know who He is? He's the eternal word who became flesh to reveal God to us and to die for our sins. How do we respond to this greatest of all acts that God has done in human history? Let us worship. Let us give thanks. There's no other proper response. Let's pray. Gracious Father, you have done amazing things in the history of the world. You've not deserted a sinful race of humans, but you've extended your mercy, your love, in sending your Son, who is willing to come and to suffer to purchase our salvation. We thank you that this word came to reveal your glory, to take upon himself our human nature, our full humanity, so that he could die for us and then rise for us. We rejoice, O God, in your kindness, your mercy, your power, revealed in Jesus Christ, your son. We exalt in him. We thank you for the revelation of yourself given to us in your scriptures. We worship you today and we thank you. In Jesus' name we pray.