We are doing a series for Advent with Christmas coming up in a week or so. And it's a three-part series. And last week we covered part number one. We said that we're going to center each one of these messages around a verse or phrase that comes out of a great Christmas carol. And so last week we talked about from what song did we use last week?
Oh, come let us the door hit. No, what did we use last week? Joy to the world. That's right. We did.
We talked about joy of the world. And we talked about all of us preparing him room in our heart. Remember? If you missed that, I urge you to pick up the CD or go online and listen. But this week, we're going to use the hymn, Oh, come, all ye faithful.
So we sang it a little earlier. Let's sing part of it again. This is the third verse. Sing with me. Yay, Lord, we greet thee.
Come on, born this happy morning, Jesus to thee be all glory given. Come on, word of the Father, now in flesh appearing. And that's our topic for today. And that's our topic for today. And that's our topic for today.
Praise the Lord. Yeah.
Okay. I am keeping my day job. Our topic for today is Word of the Father now in flesh appearing. And to do this, we are going to go to John's Gospel, chapter 1, verse 14, where the Bible says this. It says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
Glory that belongs to the one and only Son of the Father. Full of grace and truth. And what we want to do today is we want to dissect this wonderful verse of scripture, make sure we really understand what it's saying, and then talk about what difference it makes in your life and in my life.
So, are we ready?
Okay, here we go. Verse 14 starts by saying, and the word.
Now, who exactly is the word?
Well, let's look right back up at verse 1 of this chapter and we find out. In verse 1 of John 1, it says, in the beginning was the what? The word. And the word was with God. And the word.
Was God. That's right. The word in verse 14 is the same as the word in verse 1, namely God the Son, the second person of the Godhead, who is God, always has been God, and always will be God. And look what else the Bible says about the word. Right here in John chapter 1, verse 3, it says, All things were made by him, and no single thing that has been created was created without him.
Number two, Colossians chapter 1, verse 17 says, And in him all things in our universe hold together. Number three, in John chapter one, verse four, the Bible says, in him was life. And it reminds me of what Jesus said in John chapter 5. He said, For as the Father has life in himself, so he is given to the Son to have life in himself. Watch, as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.
Now, this is an incredible thing that Jesus has just said. I mean, look, you and I are alive, friends, but we can't give life to anybody else.
However, Jesus gave life to Lazarus, John chapter 11. He gave life to Jairus's little girl, Luke chapter 8. He gave life to the widow of Nain's son, Luke chapter 7. And my friends, the only reason that you and I are alive here tonight. Is because He, Jesus, decided to give life to you and me today.
Number four, what else does the Bible say about the word? The Bible says Revelation 19:11, and I saw heaven open. And behold, a white horse, and he who sat upon it is called, what are the next four words? The word of God. There he is.
And the armies of heaven followed him. And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And finally, at least for tonight, What else does the Bible tell us about the word?
Well, Revelation 1:18, Jesus said, I am He who lives and was dead, and I'm alive forevermore, and I hold the keys of death and hell. Who are we dealing with here in John chapter 1, verse 14?
Well, we are dealing with God the Son, forever and eternally divine, the creator of the universe, the sustainer of the universe, the giver of all life, the leader of the armies of heaven, the owner of the keys to death and hell, the king of kings and the Lord of lords, to whom every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen. Amen. Now, what What did the word do? We know who he is.
What did he do?
Well, the verse tells us he did four things. Number one, the word became flesh. Philippians chapter 2, verse 6 in the New Testament says, Jesus existed in the form of God, yet he came to earth in the likeness of men. In other words, God, the Son, took on a human body.
Now, when did this happen?
Well, it happened on the very first Christmas Day. And how did this happen?
Well, it happened by means of the virgin birth. Look what Gabriel said to Mary. He said to Mary, the Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High God shall overshadow you, and the holy being that shall be born of you will be called. Say the next four words. What?
The son of B. God, that's right. Friends, what happened is that God the Holy Spirit prepared a body for God the Son inside Mary's womb. It was a real human body, except that it had no sin nature. And then God the Son entered into that body as fully God and as fully man and lived in that body until his death on the cross some 35 years later.
Colossians chapter 2, verse 9 says, For in Jesus All the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.
So, this is the first thing the Word did. The Word, God the Son, became flesh.
Now, watch, here's the second thing He did: the Word became flesh, and He dwelt. Among us. This God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, lived here on earth right alongside of all of us human beings. He ate with people. He drank with people.
He wept with people. He slept right alongside of his disciples. He laughed with them. He cried with them right here among us. That's where he stayed.
Third, what did the word do?
Well, the Bible says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. Glory that belongs to the one and only Son of the Father. Now, the word we here, we beheld his glory, is referring to the apostles, John, who's writing this, and Peter and James, those guys. They saw his glory first of all. on the Mount of Transfiguration.
The Bible says Matthew 17, verse 1, and Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before him. And his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. You say, What happened here? What happened here is Jesus took them up on the Mount of Transfiguration and for just a moment peeled back just a little bit his human nature so they could really see the glory of God the Son that was behind that human nature.
But they also saw his glory in all the miracles that he did. Look what John chapter 2 says when he turned water into wine. It says, This was the first miracle that Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, thus revealing his glory. His glory. And in John chapter 11, as Jesus is just about to raise Lazarus from being dead after four days, he turns to Martha and he says to her, Martha, did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?
Now watch this, girl. Just watch what I'm going to do now. And he said, Lazarus, come out. And out walks this man who's been dead for four days. Then on and on it went.
Day after day after day, healing the sick and healing the lame, and healing the blind, and healing the disabled, and healing lepers, and casting out demons, and raising people from the dead. Is it any wonder in Mark chapter 3, the Bible says a great multitude from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Edumea, and Transjordan, and from all the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon? Matthew even repeats it: a great multitude. When they heard what great things Jesus was doing, they came to see him.
Now, can I show you a map? Do you see what a huge area this is that Mark has just described to us? And the Bible says people in all of this geographical area heard about the miracles Jesus was doing. His fame spread far and wide, the glory that he was displaying. And may I remind you folks That the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Only Record for us. 31 days of Jesus' life. Do you understand that? One month out of 36 of his public ministry is all that's recorded in the Gospels.
So you take everything Jesus did in the Gospels and you multiply them by 35 more months that we don't even have recorded in the Bible. And we understand now what John said: that Jesus displayed a glory which could only be displayed by the one and only Son of God the Father. And finally, What did the word do?
Well, fourth and finally, and the word became flesh. And dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory that belongs to the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. First of all, friends, Jesus. Was full of truth. He told us the truth.
The truth about everything. The truth about life, the truth about death, the truth about heaven, the truth about hell, the truth about God, the truth about ourselves and where we stand with God? That's what the Word did. He told us the truth. And listen.
What this means. is friends if any person or any religion. ever tells you anything different Than what Jesus tells you in the Bible, they are telling you a lie. Do you understand that? Because Jesus told us the truth.
Anything that doesn't agree with what Jesus said is a lie. And don't you listen to them. Because those lies will land your soul in hell for all of eternity, and those lies will rob you of the rich and rewarding plan that God has laid out for your life. You believe what Jesus says in the Bible. He was full of truth.
He told us the truth. And anything that other people say that don't agree with him is not the truth. And if you're here and you've never trusted Jesus as your personal Savior, just let me say to you, one of the things Jesus said is, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody comes to the Father. Nobody gets into heaven except through me.
Now, if Jesus is telling the truth, it means every other ism, every other ology in the world, all your good works, all your religious activity being bar mitzvah, being confirmed. None of that stuff's going to do you one bit of good. When you go into the afterlife, The only thing that's going to do you any good at all is whether or not you've given your heart to Jesus Christ.
Now, that is the truth. You can believe it if you want to. But that is the truth. And you would be wise, my friends. You would be wise, my friends.
to pay attention to the truth. And reject all that other stuff you've been hoping to get you into heaven and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did for you on the cross.
Now the other thing he was full of was grace. Grace here on earth. Showing kindness and mercy and forgiveness and compassion to everybody he met. and grace in his death. On the cross, where he died in our place to redeem us and reconcile us to God.
So, can we summarize? What did the Carol say? It said, Word of the Father, now in flesh, appearing. Who is this word of the Father? He is none other than the second person of the Godhead, the eternal, immortal Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
And what did He do? Four things. Number one, He took on a sinless human body. Number two, He Dwelt among us. Number three, he showed us his glory as God's unique and only Son.
And number four, he told us the truth about ourselves. And then, in his life and in his death, he extended to us the undeserved mercy and grace of God. This is who the Carol is talking about, and this is what he did.
Now That's as far as we're going to go in treating our passage and our Christmas Carol because we want to stop now and we want to ask our most important question for the evening.
So, are you ready? Ready? All right, here we go. Nice and loud. One, two, three.
Okay. You say, Lon, so what? You said you're going to talk about what difference this makes for me, right? I am. Folks, listen.
John 1:14 said, The word became flesh and dwelt where? Among Us.
Now there's a beautiful word picture here in the Greek New Testament that I want you to see. The Greek word used here for the word dwell. He dwelt among us is the word skenao. It literally means to pitch a tent. And it's the very same Greek word that's used for the Old Testament tabernacle, which was essentially just a big tent.
The tabernacle was the place where the Israelites would go before the temple in Jerusalem was built by King Solomon hundreds of years later, where they would go to worship God, where they would go to pray, where they would go to ask God for help. And where did God put the tabernacle, my friends?
Well, Numbers chapter 2 says, And the tabernacle God commands shall be set up in the what? in the middle of the camp. You see a slide to show you how God instructed the camp to be set up with the tabernacle right in the middle. Listen, God could have put the tabernacle outside of the camp, separated from the Israelites, off by itself, and thereby he could have communicated that he was willing, he was interested in helping us so long as he doesn't have to get too close to us, so long as he could maintain a safe distance from us. But God didn't do that, did he?
No, no. What did he do?
He plopped that tabernacle right smack dab in the middle of all those Israelites, up close to the murmurers and the complainers and the rebels, up close also to the weak and the sick and the elderly and the disabled, up close to people who needed his help in every way. He put that tabernacle right up close to them. And folks, Jesus, the Bible says in John 1:14, did the same thing. Jesus didn't say, well, I'll die on the cross for these people, but I really don't want to be around them. No, no, no.
The Bible says that Jesus tabernacled his incarnate deity right in the middle of all us sinners. Why? Because he wants to be close to us. Why? Because he wants to be involved in our lives.
Why? Because he wants to enter into our heartaches and our problems right along with us. That's why he dwelt on the side. Among us. You know, a number of years ago, my wife Brenda and I had the chance for the first time to go to England.
And I wanted to go to Buckingham Palace and, you know, see the changing of the guard and everything. And so we were there along with about a million other people. And it is impressive, you know. Red's my favorite color.
So, you know, I should be British, really, almost. But anyway, and they did all that, you know. And then I thought to myself, how cool would it be to go in and meet the Queen? And have tea with the queen, and maybe some of them little crumpets that she eats, or whatever those things are, and just sit and have a conversation with her. I thought that'd be so much fun.
I thought, you know, maybe as a pastor, I could even give her some advice about all those dysfunctional relatives that she's got. But anyway, that's another issue. But you know what? You try to get into Buckingham Palace and get near the Queen sometime. Friend, you're not doing that.
Not as a commoner. She is separated from commoners. You're never going to find her out in the street like Mary Poppins and Bert. That's just not going to happen. And you know, the English people don't think anything is strange about that.
I mean, because she's royalty, and as royalty, she is meant to be separated from common people.
Now look. That might be okay for a queen. But folks, that is not okay for a Savior. No, no. When we need help, When we're facing trouble and pain and heartache and struggles, we don't need to go to some palace somewhere and watch the changing of the guard.
That is not going to help us. We need A savior. who will pitch his tent. Right in there with us, and love us, and help us, and comfort us, and care about us. And this is exactly what Jesus does.
My friends. In fact, that's why the Bible says, Matthew chapter 1, verse 23: the virgins shall conceive and give birth to a son. And they will call his name Emmanuel, which means God. What? With us, yeah, with us in heart, with us in soul, with us in empathy, with us in sympathy, with us in the hospital room, with us in the office, with us in our pain, with us in our sorrows, with us in our tears, with us in our needs.
And this is why Peter said, 1 Peter 5, verse 7, he said, cast all your cares on him. The Lord Jesus, why? Because he cares for you. Amazing. You know, let me say uh In closing.
It's December. And it's almost Christmas, and so all of us are kind of supposed to be full of joy and full of celebration. But you know For many of us, this is just not the way it is. We got problems. this month of December.
We've got heavy hearts. this month of December, many of us. Many of us here have lost loved ones this year, and Christmas is going to be really hard for us this year. Many of us here are alienated from a child who's not coming to be with us this Christmas. Or many of us here have children that are walking away from the Lord, and our heart is just broken because they're away from the Lord.
Many of us here. Or undergoing chemotherapy or other treatment for diseases, and we're struggling, and many of us here. have marriages that are in trouble. Or we've got financial problems, or we're a single-parent mom that's carrying the burden. Of making a living and caring for the children.
Look, folks, there is a heavy heart in every row here tonight. And I need to tell you, there's a heavy heart. In the pulpit here. Tonight. I got problems too.
And you know, there's a picture here in our church, and with this, I'm done. It's right down by the cafe if you've never noticed it. I love this picture. It's a picture, if you can see it well, of Jesus. behind this gentleman who is utterly and completely exhausted.
Spent. And Jesus has his arms. under the man's arms. And he is literally holding him up and carrying him while the man, in complete exhaustion, is just leaning back. on Jesus.
You know, I had us buy that picture. Because after the first time I saw it, I said, you know, Lord, that's exactly. How I am so many times. And I'm sure that's exactly how so many of the people. and our church family are so many times.
I mean, we are spent. And our hearts are broken. And we need Jesus. to hold us up and sometimes we need Jesus to carry us, folks. And that's what he offers to do.
And that's why I love the verse. It was the verse that led me to Christ. where Jesus says, come to me. Lon, you completely spent, you're heartbroken. You have a heavy heart.
Lord, go on, come to me. I'm not. I'm not a far off like Queen Elizabeth lawn. I'm right here with you. Come to me.
Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. Jesus said, now I will give you rest. Cast your burdens on the Lord. And he will hold you up. My friends, this is the great news of Christmas.
And the word. became flesh. Praise the Lord. And he dwelt right among us because he loves us and he cares about us. And any time you need him.
He's right there for you. Cast all your cares on him. Because he cares about you. Let's pray. With our hearts open and our heads bowed.
This would be a great moment. For all of us with heavy hearts to transfer that burden. on to the Lord Jesus. Cast your burdens on the Lord. And he will sustain you.
Cast all of your cares on him. Even if you have to do it 20 times a day. Because he cares about you. This is the marvelous truth of Christmas. Huh.
That Almighty God cares about you and me. As astounding as that is. Let's take a moment. And if we need to cast some cares on Jesus. Let's do it tonight.
Lord Jesus, I thank you that the rest of that verse in Matthew 11 says. That your burden is easy. Your load is light. You can handle our burdens, Lord. better than we can.
So teach us this evening, this Christmas season. for the rest of our life. As Psalm 55 says, to cast our burden upon you, not to try to carry it ourselves. And you will. Hold us up.
You will sustain us. God, how many times I've come to you And you've done that for me. Teach me to do it quicker and more often. Teach us all that. Lord, thank you we don't have The Queen of England.
as our Savior. But we have the living Risen Christ. who dwelt Among us. Thank you for this great news at Christmas. Lift the burdens from our heart tonight, Lord.
And we pray these things in Jesus' name. What do God's people say? Amen.
