And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.—John 1:14

Introduction

What do you see when you look past the presents with shiny wrapping paper and bows and bright decorations and tinsel—the glitter and glamor of Christmas? Look at the manger for a moment. What do you see? There is nothing flashy or glittery. It is not even “ordinary” it is unsanitary. It is a far cry from how babies ought to be born. 

But it was not a fluke. The same pattern continues in his life. He was born among the animals, but later in life he lacked something that even they had: a home. “And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’” (Matthew 8:20).

Look at his death. The same pattern of poverty is there as well. On the cross, they stripped him and even gambled for his garments. He was left with absolutely no earthly material possessions—even the clothes off his back were gone.

Do you feel the surprising scandal? A manger at birth, no home in life, no clothes at death? None of it looks extraordinary or sensational—quite the opposite. This is not something you would wish upon your worst enemy. How could all of this be part of the Father’s plan? If you could control all of history, would you script a story for your Son this way?

Many people miss the meaning of Christmas because they can’t see past the veil of the ordinary to see the extraordinary—the surprising glory of God incarnate. We sing at Christmas: “veiled in flesh, the Godhead see.” John 1:14 perfectly encapsulates that message: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The message of this passage is “veiled in flesh, the glory see.” Those are the two points of my outline.

Sermon Outline

1. Veiled in Flesh (v. 14a–b)
2. The Glory See (v. 14c–e)

1. Veiled in Flesh (v. 14a–b)

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Let us look at three aspects of these affirmations: (1) the meaning of “the Word,” (2) the mystery of the Incarnation, and (3) the meaning of “dwell.”

1. The Word (John 1:14a)

I am going to summarize the illustration I used for the Word. The clearest and most fundamental background is the Old Testament (especially because of the phrase “In the beginning”). In the Old Testament, the word of God is God’s self-disclosure: the revelation of himself. Consider 1 Samuel 3:21 “And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.”

I am working hard here not to speak in abstract Christian lingo. This is not something ethereal and strange that no one can fathom today. You all know this. Your word is the clearest revealing of who you are. I can work out with people at the gym and you might ask me if I know them. I don’t really know much about them by watching them—I get to know them much better by talking to them.

You can figure things out about people, but we can’t really know them unless they speak to us and reveal themselves to us. Let’s take a really basic point (I am modifying here an analogy I first heard from Tim Keller). Let’s say that I am going to try to figure out where someone at the gym works. How would I know? I could watch them for a year and observe their workout clothes. Let’s say that I notice that this person likes to wear a White Bear Lake High School shirt and shorts.

That helps a little, but really doesn’t narrow it down much. Does that mean that this person has a child that goes to school at White Bear Lake or does that mean he is an alumni or an employee? And even if I guessed that he is an employee, that would not get me any nearer to know what specifically he does there (janitor, teacher, coach). If teacher, what does he teach? If coach, what sport does he coach?

There is a simple way to find these things out. I could ask him: “What do you do?” 

“I am a football coach at White Bear Lake High School.”

Now you might wonder if he is a head coach, or assistant coach and if assistant coach then what area (line coach, receivers coach, offensive coordinator, etc). He gets more specific: “I am the DB coach—DB? Yes, defensive backs coach. Here we see that this person’s words are the best expression of himself to me

What does “Word” mean? Jesus is the supreme expression or revelation of God. We know that we are on the right track here because this is the very claim that concludes the prologue: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18). You can’t really know God except through Jesus because supremely reveals who God is as the Word of God.

2. The Mystery of Becoming Flesh (John 1:14a)

The wondrous mystery of the Incarnation is front and center in this amazing phrase. The Word—the One who had no beginning, the One who was with God the Father from all eternity, the One who was God, and created the world—that One came into the world and took on our nature with flesh and blood. The fact that the extraordinary can look ordinary is extraordinary.

The baby in the manger looks ordinary, but he created the womb that carried him, the arms that held him, the angels that sang to him, and the ground that supported him. All things were made by him and for him. 

3. And Dwelt Among us (John 1:14b) = the Tent of Meeting (Exodus 33:7)

The word “dwelt” here is a significant word with an imagery that is rich and deep and sweet. Literally it says, “he tabernacled/tented among us.” 

The imagery from the Exodus 33–34 is thick and rich. Watch how John follows the Exodus account. He begins with the tent of meeting:

 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp … When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.—Exodus 33:7–11 

Where do you go now if you want to meet with God? Is there a temple or a tabernacle or a building? John declares that Jesus is the place where we meet God in the flesh. He is the only way to the Father. Jesus is the ultimate tent of meeting—he speaks to everyone face to face. Jesus is the meeting place between God and man as the God-man. Suddenly the way is opened up for everyone to meet with God through Jesus. 

This is all part of the wonder of Christmas. Normally when something incredibly large and powerful comes closer, you are overwhelmed by how massive it is. It should be a warning like in side mirrors of cars: “Objects are closer than they appear.” How is it that when the Almighty draws nearer than anyone dreamed possible, he appeared much, much smaller and less intimidating and frightening? He is so much bigger than he appears in that manger. There is a glory here beyond the barrier of the ordinary.

2. The Glory See (v. 14)

And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

1. We Have Seen His Glory (John 1:14a) = ‘Show Me Your Glory’ (Exodus 34:18)

Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”—Exodus 33:12–23

Moses could not see God’s face and live. Yet we sing about Mary—that when she kissed her little baby, she kissed the face of God! She could kiss the face of God and not die. See the glory of Christmas! But what kind of glory do we see in the manger? A fullness of divine glory. 

2. Glory as of the Only Son From the Father (v. 14b)

The glory of the Son is a unique glory. The glory of God is seen in creation. The mountains testify to the majestic glory and beauty of God, as do fire, wind, storms, etc. But those things have drops of glory as they are created things reflecting the glory of the Creator. Jesus is the Creator. Jesus as God is the full glory of God with not one drop missing. Listen to Colossians 2:9: “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”

Here is where the Incarnation is incredibly, mind-blowingly glorious. All the fullness of deity dwells in a body. That would be a little bit like all of the oceans of the world fitting in a communion cup without one drop missing. The implications of the Incarnation are astonishing. If Jesus is the fullness of deity in bodily form, then he will also have the fullness of the attributes of God. 

3. Full of Grace and Truth (V. 14c) = Abounding in Steadfast Love and Faithfulness (Exodus 34:6) 

The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.—Exodus 34:5–6

The Greek version of the Old Testament is identical to John 1:14. Steadfast love and faithfulness are translated as grace and truth. Not only is the whole fullness of deity found in him; the fullness of grace and truth—steadfast love and faithfulness is found in him. Grace and love and faithfulness have come closer than we ever dreamed possible. He did not come with fullness of wrath to destroy us, but fullness of grace to save us. 

Let us review all the reasons we have to rejoice thus far: (1) Jesus is God, (2) Jesus reveals God, (3) Jesus brings us to God, (4) his rejection was our acceptance, (5) he knows our pain, (6) he will return to right every wrong, (7) those who receive him become children of God, (8) family members are miracles. Now we add two more: (9) Jesus is the fullness of God in the flesh and (10) who has drawn near with the fullness of grace and truth to save us.

Transition: Grace and Truth in the Cross and Resurrection

How do we see the glory of Christ in the rest of John? The cross and Resurrection are the place where we see the fullness of God’s grace and truth in the Gospel of John. God told Moses he couldn't see His face and live. At his birth, Mary could kiss his face and not die. At his death, sinners struck his face and crucified his body and didn't die—rather, through it, we live. But that grace does not look impressive. It looks weak and small and even offensive.

Application: Implications

1. The Offense of Salvation

It took humility to bring salvation to us and it will take humility to receive salvation. Think about all of the tough-guys movies and stories we love. They have to do extraordinary things to save the day like slay a dragon.

The great Greek warrior Hercules had to do heroic labors to earn immortality for himself. He had to serve his cousin King Eurystheus for 12 years and perform whatever work Eurystheus would set before him. As a reward, he would receive immortality. Hercules felt great distaste for these tasks because he did not want to serve someone that was far inferior to himself, but he did it because he didn’t want to oppose his father Zeus. He did 10 tasks, but later they were expanded to 12 because Eurystheus did not accept two of them. What types of tasks did Hercules have to perform? They were heroic, extraordinary things like slaying a lion with impenetrable fur, killing a nine-headed hydra, capturing a deer that could outrun an arrow, and even descending to Hades to capture the three-headed hound that was the guardian of the underworld.

Nothing could be a greater contrast than to see the greatness of Jesus. He is the God who takes on flesh and does not come to save himself, but to save others. What great works did he do to save us? He didn’t kill anyone, rather, he submitted to death as our substitute. The only thing he killed was death itself. And he did not feel distaste for us when he came to serve us, though we are so vastly inferior to him. Rather, for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high. He did this for the joy of bringing many sons and daughters to glory.

That is how salvation was accomplished: Jesus humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even the death of the cross. It took humility to accomplish salvation. How do we receive it? We must be humbled. We don’t need to do anything great to earn it. We don’t become moral champions. Quite the contrary, we admit that we are moral failures and cannot earn anything from God, except wrath—but we believe Jesus has done enough to save us and so we rely upon that work alone.

Jesus becomes Lamb of God to take away our sins. But we have to confess we are sinners (moral failures); he is Savior. He came as Living Water to satisfy our souls forever. But we have to confess that we have looked to satisfy our thirst in many other places and failed. He took on flesh as the Bread of Life to feed our hungry souls forever. But we have to confess that we cannot feed ourselves. We have tried to feast at the world’s table and it left us feeling more empty than before. He came as the Light of Life to shine into our darkness and death. We have to confess that we have no light and life. We are dark and dead in transgressions and sin. He came as the good shepherd to lay down his life for the sheep who had wandered and were lost. He came as the only Son of God who was rejected for a moment on the cross so that we could be accepted as adopted sons and daughters forever. We have to confess that nothing we did morally could make us his children. 

Full of grace and truth! Truth—he was so full of truth that truth was not something he just said, but something he was. “I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Do you see the glory of grace and truth? Grace is seen in the victory over sin at the cross—saying “it is finished” (John 19:30). Grace is seen in defeating the grave. When grace defeats the grave, Jesus says, “I am going to my Father and your Father” (John 20:17).

There is something deeply offensive here. The world says: “It can’t be. It ought to be dramatic and big and impressive and overpowering and spectacular. We want the extraordinary to prove itself. Prove that you are extraordinary with the spectacular. Wow us and prove yourself.”

It is offensive to say to someone, “You could try to live a moral life, be a great neighbor, help people in need, never swear, never drink, never cheat on your taxes or on your wife, and you would go to the same fiery place of judgment forever as the person that did the opposite—lived an immoral life, was a terrible neighbor, never helped people in need, swore like a sailor, got drunk every night, cheated on his taxes, spouse, and employer. And that same person could be saved forever and brought into the family of God by simply receiving all that Jesus did to save him. And it would be enough. Yes, his life would change after meeting Jesus, but that change would not save him or her.

The gospel is not for moral achievers (they are proud enough to think they have done something great for God). The gospel is for the humble (those who know they are moral failures and can’t earn anything from God).

So we are going to close this service with singing. We are going to pray for people who perhaps see for the first time that they are far from God and can be saved because he came near to us and has all the grace we need. Then we are going to go to our different places of celebration. What should it all look like? Are you offended that it may look ordinary?

2. The Offense of the Ordinary

C.S. Lewis has a way of saying things in an attention-getting way. He wrote a book about what demons do to tempt people away from God. What an uncommon book! But there are some suggestions in there for what demons do to draw our attention to the ordinary as an annoying reminder that something can’t be both supernatural and ordinary. 

One of the demons writes a letter to his nephew after his “patient” has become a professing Christian. He tells his nephew not to lose heart and hope because many have been turned away from Christianity by taking the focus off of Christ and replacing it with focusing on the flaws and peculiarities of Christians.

One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle that makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But, fortunately, it is quite invisible to these humans. All your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic erection on the new building estate. When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather an oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in very small print. When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbors whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbors. Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like “the body of Christ” and the actual faces in the next pew. … Provided that any of those neighbors sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous. (C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters—I owe this reference to Tim Keller)

Are you offended by how ordinary life can seem? Shouldn’t the Christian life be more spectacular? Maybe you feel like all you do is make meals or change diapers or answer phone calls. You might wonder where God is in it all. God incarnate has done mundane things like that—and glorified God in all of it. He never said, “I am the Son of God, why should I have to clean my room or help with meals or work with my hands?” Whether you eat or drink or whatever mundane thing you do, do it all for the glory of God. God has graced the ordinary by entering into our world and experiencing it. You can glorify God in all of it as well, even singing off tune (no Grammy winning voices here), but with hearts tuned to sing his grace.

O Come All Ye Faithful

Yea, Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning;
Jesus, to Thee be the glory giv'n;
Word of the Father,
Now in the flesh appearing

O come let us adore him, O come let us adore Him.
O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

Sermon Discussion Questions

Outline

• The Incarnation (v. 14)
• The Glory (v. 14)

Main Point: The Word became flesh.

Discussion Questions

• What does John mean by the word “Word” in John 1:1–5 and John 1:14. How does the Old Testament background help establish the meaning?
• Explain the three references to Exodus 33–34 in John 1:14: (1) “tented,” (2) “we have seen his glory,” and (3) “full of grace and truth.”
• Why do people struggle to see through the veil of the ordinary at Christmas? What is ordinary? What is extraordinary? Why do people struggle with the offensiveness of salvation and the ordinary aspects of the Christian life?

Application Questions

• Do you have personal areas of struggle with Christmas or Christianity? Are you sometimes tempted to doubt the reality of the truth when it is not as big and dramatic and impressive as you would expect?
• Do you ever struggle with the offensive freeness of salvation? Does it seem too easy or unimpressive? Why is humility essential for accomplishing salvation and receiving salvation?
• What areas in your own life cause you to struggle when it comes to the ordinary nature of your life as a Christian? What do you do when your life is not big and dramatic and impressive?

Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to believe and humbly receive the grace of God in the Christmas message. Pray for a grace to see and savor and sing of his wondrous love and mercy. Come let us adore Him!