And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” — in 9 words, the apostle John has captured the Identity, Incarnation, and Mission of the Word. Jesus Christ is to be praised and worshiped as God’s Son, made flesh, to bring us to God!
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The Word Made Flesh
John 1:14
It is a rather unusual occurrence for Christmas to arrive on a Sunday. It won’t happen again until 2022, and after that it will be 2033! I think we are very blessed this year to be get gather and worship Jesus Christ on Christmas morning. This morning I would like to meditate on John 1:14 with you – “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” We’re going to stop right there, and not even go on to the rest of the verse. I want to meditate on just those 9 words – “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.”
This morning let’s just ask four simple questions of our text.
1. Who is this Word?
You have to admit that “the Word” is a kind of strange title to give to someone! Well, just exactly who is He? We know that the Word must refer to Jesus, because our text says that the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Since Jesus is the only begotten from the Father, we know that this title “The Word” refers to Him. But what else can we learn about The Word?
John 1:1-3 gives us that information.
“In the beginning was the Word.” This means that Jesus Christ existed from the beginning. Before there was a created universe, He was there. That is why Jesus could say, “Before Abraham was born, I am” in John 8:58. In Revelation 22:13 Jesus is called the Alpha and the Omega. In Greek, Alpha was the first letter, and Omega was the last. If Jesus were speaking in our language he would say, “I am the A and the Z.” He is the first and the last. That is why in John 1:15 it says, “John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.” Wait a minute! How could John say that Jesus existed before him, when Jesus was born six months after John? The answer of course, is Christ’s pre-existence. Sometimes people are shocked when I tell them that Jesus existed before he was born in Bethlehem. But it is true. He existed as the second person of the Trinity from all eternity.
“And the Word was with God.” Now, this tells us something else important about the Word. He is distinct person from the Father. Although He existed from everlasting just like the Father, He is not the Father. They are two distinct persons. There are some who deny that Jesus is a separate person from the Father. They are called “Modalists”, and they believe that God is one person who throughout history has revealed Himself in three forms consecutively and never simultaneously. Today, the United Pentecostal Church has embraced this view of God. However, the Scripture teaches here that Jesus was with God in the beginning.
“And the Word was God.” Now we are getting to the heart of the issue. Not only is the Word from everlasting, and with God, but He is God! This verse to my mind is the strongest affirmation of the Deity of Jesus Christ in the Bible. I know the Jehovah’s Witnesses have changed their translation to read, “and the Word was a God” but there is no good reason to do so, and no translation but theirs have rendered it that way. Jesus is God Almighty, Lord of heaven and earth! That is why the disciples worshiped Jesus after He rose from the dead. It is why Thomas addressed Him as “my Lord and my God.” It is why Paul says in Philippians 2 that He existed in the form of God. It’s why Paul says in Colossians 2:9 “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” It’s why the author of Hebrews says “He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.”
“All things came into being through Him.” Not only does this text tell us that Jesus is from everlasting, a separate person from the Father, and is God Himself, but He is the creator of all things. Of course, we should have known that from the statement that He is God, but verse three makes it explicit. When you think of God creating this universe, you should think of Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:16 says, “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for Him.”
2. Why Is He Called The Word?
Well, let’s stop and think about the word “word”. What is the purpose of words? They are used to communicate, aren’t they? A person uses words to reveal His mind to another. Words are what we use to make our thoughts known to another. This is what God did. He had already used the written word – the Old Testament Scriptures, but now He used the living Word. Why? Because God’s people needed to see and hear and touch God, not just read about Him. That’s why John says in John 1:18, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” Jesus came to show people what the invisible God was like. He could say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” The invisible God wanted to reveal Himself full to His creatures, and the way He chose, was to become one of them. This same John wrote the letter of 1 John. He opens that letter this way, “What as from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life – and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.”
Aren’t you glad that God showed us what He is really like by sending Jesus Christ?!
3. What Did The Word Do?
Our text says “And the Word became flesh.” What does this mean? Well, we’ve already discovered that the Word is God. God became flesh. God became human. Now, this does not mean that when Jesus was born into the world, that He ceased being God. Some people imagine that Jesus was God all the way up until He was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. Then they think He stopped being God, and started existing as man. Then they imagine that He remained man all the way up until He died on the cross, but at the resurrection He stopped being man and began existing as God again. No! The Word became flesh. Jesus has always possessed the Divine nature. When He came into the world, He didn’t stop being God. He just started existing as man. In other words, He added another nature to His divine nature. When He rose from the dead, He did not stop being man. Today, at the right hand of the Father, is the God-Man.
When Jesus came into the world, He was in disguise. He was incognito. John 1:10 says “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” It was as though God put on a fake beard and mustache and some sunglasses, and walked among His creatures, and they never even knew He had visited them. Most people never knew they were rubbing shoulders with God. But there were a few that knew. John says in John 1:14, “and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John saw His glory at the Transfiguration when His face shone as the sun. He saw it in Him raising the dead, cleansing lepers, and healing the sick. He saw it in His amazing teaching and preaching. And He saw it in His resurrected appearances. But most of the world was blinded to the glory of Christ. And so it is today. Paul says in 2 Cor. 4:4, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” This is what must have inspired Charles Wesley to write:
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”
4. After the Word Became Flesh What Did He Do?
“and dwelt among us.” The Greek literally reads, “and tabernacled among us.” The word means He pitched His tent among us. God came into the world and camped among His creatures. Well, what was God’s tent that He lived in? The flesh of Jesus. The human body of Jesus was the tent that God lived and dwelt in for 33 years. The body of Jesus was God’s tabernacle.
Remember the Tabernacle in the Old Testament. It was basically a large tent in which God dwelt. The glory of the Tabernacle was the Shekinah. This was an uncreated bright light that emanated beneath the wings of the cherubim and on top of the mercy seat. It proceeded up through the tent and provided light to guide the children of Israel by night, and appeared as a large mushroom like cloud during the day to protect from the heat. The Tabernacle was the place where God met with man. In Exodus 25:22, after describing how He wanted the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat fashioned, God said, “There I will meet with you.”
My friends, Jesus is the only meeting place between God and sinners. He is God’s Tabernacle. If you want to meet with God, and commune with God, then you must go to Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.
Now, why could man meet with God at the Mercy Seat? It was only because an innocent animal had been slain, and its blood had been sprinkled on top of the Mercy Seat. Why can we come to God through Jesus? Only because His precious blood was shed to reconcile us to God.
Conclusion
What should we consider today on Christmas day? That God came into our world in the person of Jesus Christ. He who was from everlasting, the Creator of all things, visited His creation! He did so, by the incarnation. He became flesh. He became truly one of us. He was a real man, and subjected Himself to all of the temptations that we experience. And, He dwelt among us as in a Tabernacle. He is the meeting place between God and man. There is no other place.
My friends, two brief words of application.
- Worship Him. If He is God, then it is right to worship Jesus Christ. On this day above every other day, we especially remember that He came into the world to save sinners. O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!
- Come to Him. If He is the Tabernacle, then He has done all that is necessary to purge away your defilement. He is not only the Tabernacle, but He is the lamb slain who takes away the sin of the world. He is the High Priest who enters the Tabernacle to make atonement for sin. And He is the Mercy Seat who makes propitiation to God so He can show mercy. Come to Him for mercy. Come to Him for forgiveness and grace. This Christmas come to Him and worship Him!
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