The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.The Word became flesh and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the only born Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.And the Word was made 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.And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.
30 sermons cite this verse
… not of a husband's will, but children born of God. And the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only son sent from the father, full of grace and truth, full of steadfast love and faithfulness. John bears witness about him. He cries out, the one who comes after me is greater than me because he was before me. Later, this guy John, he sees Jesus walking toward him and he says, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The sin of the world. What's that? The sin, the great sin, the sin at the source of all other sins is not to believe, not to trust in Jesus. God's word become human. So Jesus has come to take away this sin and thereby to take away all sins. How? By becoming the Lamb of God. Like the Passover Lamb, whose blood was spilled and painted on the door frames of God's people to set them free from slavery to the darkness, because Jesus sets people free from darkness and doubt and distrust. …
… and without him nothing was made that was made. Wow. Verse 14. And the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten, the only glorified of God the Father, full of grace and truth. That's your Jesus. That's the one that we worship. That is the Lord our God. I was in somewhat of a soft debate the other day regarding Islam and Christianity, and it was fun. But one of the things was this. Regarding Bible prophecy, there's no hope for the Muslim that Muhammad's going to return. Oh, he's going to return. He'll be here soon. There's none of that. There's only one who the Bible says is returning. And it's Jesus Christ. There's nobody else. And I just think that's just so cool because he's so absolute and absolute unique. And it is key that we focus on his greatness as we go into these discussions and these lessons on the dark realm of the spiritual realm that you and I contend with as believers. …
Then at the right time he became human and made his home among us. So we read in John 1.14. In chapters 2 through 5, Jesus, the God-man, demonstrated his deity by turning water into wine, declaring his mission to save the world, healing a lame man, and also proving his divine authority to the Pharisees. And now we come today to chapter 6. By this time, Jesus' ministry was in full swing. People were pouring out of the villages when he came near, running to see him like hungry children sprinting to supper. They held out their hands to receive his healing touch, and they gathered in large crowds to feed on his teaching. However, did they see Jesus for who he really was? Did even his disciples recognize him as the all-powerful God for whom nothing is impossible? The answer, quite simply, is no. They did not grasp his deity yet. Their lack of understanding became clear when the disciples were tested by back-to-back impossibilities. How to feed over 5,000 people with just five loaves and two fish. …
… believing then? John 1 14 We beheld his glory Glory as of the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth Jesus said in John 6.35 or John wrote in John 6.35 I am the bread of life whoever comes to me will not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst so coming to Jesus to eat unto soul satisfaction and believing in Jesus to drink unto soul satisfaction is faith. That's what believing is. Believing is a coming to Jesus as the all satisfying fountain of water and living bread. It is the revelation of the glory of God in Jesus that is what our souls were made for. And only he will satisfy that. Not life and not health. Christ, God, his glory is what will satisfy the soul. And therefore, whatever Jesus has to do in order to satisfy your soul with him above health, with him above life, that's love. That's what love is. there are two great purposes that God has evidently in the world in the universe in creating and running the world two great purposes one is the demonstration the display of his glory he made the world to show his glory and the other is that we might see it and savor it and treasure it above everything. …
… We see this in John 1, 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his, what? Glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. So God's glory did return to the temple, but not in a way that they could have expected or imagined at that time. But it was far better than a cloud. God himself in human flesh walked into that temple. So there's nothing wrong with looking back on the past with fondness. Where you look back and you celebrate what God did in your life. Those moments, 1975, 85, 95, 2005, you name it, you celebrate those moments. God did something special for you. The God of heaven and earth looked down on you, the individual, and he loved you and he cared for you. and he changed your life. Commemorate those moments. But at the same time, don't try to reconstruct your memory of the good old days. Because just because God did something special in your life in a special way, doesn't mean that's how he's always going to move. In fact, I believe that the best days are ahead of us, that God is going to move in better and bigger ways than we've seen before. And I don't want to limit him by my unbelief. I don't want to limit him thinking that he can only do it in a certain way. I don't want to put God in a box that's defined by what he did in my life. So he always has to do it this way. God can do whatever he …
… People will often say, you know, I just don't hear his voice, but I feel his peace. in John 1 verse 14 Jesus it says of Jesus he is the word of God made flesh anytime you sense presence the word is there it may not have touched your intellect but it is touching your spirit man sometimes we wait for external voices to affirm, confirm or give clear direction when the Lord is actually revealing himself to us. I just sense his peace. He's speaking. He's engaging with you and he's imparting an awareness of who he is and with him comes clarity concerning the will of God. Sometimes we minister out of the emotion, the emotional response to the anointing. everything that we do in worship is filtered through our soul David said bless the Lord oh my soul our mind our will our emotions the emotional response to God it proves we're alive it's the response to his person response to his voice his word response to a testimony. We are responding to who he is, but that emotion is not the anointing itself. And sometimes we make the mistake of when we're praying for people, we sense this incredible emotion and don't realize that we're not cooperating with the anointing. …
… the answer in God's word is, it sneaks up on you. And there's two qualities we find about Jesus when he came in John 1.14 that tells us this. John said that the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. So the word became flesh. The word is now Jesus. And we've seen his glory. We've seen the glory of Jesus, the glory of the one and only son who came from the father. And it's interesting, Jesus came full of two things. He came full of grace and truth. You think about all the qualities. He could have come full of compassion or justice or mercy or power, but he came full of grace and truth, grace and truth. And where a lot of relationships fall into deception is they have one without the other. And there's some of you, you lean heavier on truth. And so you're in a relationship, you have more truth without grace. and you think, and this is common in Christian, especially conservative areas where the men bows up and say whatever I want, however I want, and call it truth. …
… word was with God and the word was God he was in the beginning with God verse 3 and all things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made verse 14 and the word became flesh and dwelt among us that's the king and we beheld his glory that's the king as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Hebrews chapter 1. I got to go fast. Hebrews 1, verse 3. Who, speaking of Jesus, being in the brightness of his glory and the expressed image of his person. Translation, if you look at Jesus, that is look at him, we can't look at him now, but we can look at him in the word. When you look at him, you're looking at the reflection of the Father, the Godhead, upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. I love that. That's thrilling. …
… he has spoken to us in his Son, his word, his voice, the voice incarnate. and the voice of the Lord 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. And the voice of the Lord broke the cedars, broke the prideful in Galilee, and he made the cedars in Jerusalem to scamper like calves and wild oxen. And the voice of the Lord flashed forth at Calvary, And he cried out from the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? For your sake. And then the voice went silent for three days. And then the voice shook the earth again. And his people cried, glory, he is risen indeed. And the voice of the Lord ascended to heaven. And the voice of the Lord sat at his father's right hand in majesty. And he poured out his spirit who inspired the voice of his apostles and gave us his voice in scripture. …
… Nothing was made that was made. And John 1.14 goes on to tell us later in that chapter that the Word became flesh. He entered into His own creation to save us. Revelation 1.8, this is Jesus speaking to the Apostle John. Jesus says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. That's Jesus, the eternal Christ, the Son of God, uncreated, self-existent. And a personal favorite of mine on this topic of Jesus being eternal is John chapter 8, verses 52 through 59, more specifically verse 58. We see here in John 8, Then the Jews said to him, Now we know you have a demon. Abraham is dead, and the prophets. And you say, If anyone keeps my word, he shall never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead? Who do you make yourself out to be? Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. …
… He is not a baby that was born in a barn. He is the preexisting God who in John 1, verse 14 became flesh, that's incarnation, and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the one who came from the Father. So they said he came from Nazareth. He said he came from the Father. They said he came from a small place. He said, I came from a place that you've never seen, because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and nothing exists without him. And so all I'm saying is, God is bigger than your background. God is bigger than your background. God is bigger than what you think about him. God is bigger than your little tradition about him. God is bigger than what you were taught about him. God will come to places that you were taught he'd stay away from. God will use people that you were taught he hated. …
… purity. He was able to go toe-to-toe with anyone and yet would stoop down to touch the untouchable. John 1.14 says, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory, as of the only begotten of the Father. Notice Jesus is full of grace and truth. He was gracious and yet strong in truth. I mean, think about it. There are times where Jesus literally would make a whip and he would go in for the sake of truth to his father's temple and turntables. And yet there are other times where he would rebuke the disciples for forbidding the little children because he wanted to come and bless them. We must look to Jesus's words and also his example of how to strike this balance when it comes to living in a world of hostility. And so with that, why don't you stand with me for the reading of God's word. I promise you won't stand long because we're only looking at one verse. …
… believe jesus is god the the Muslims don't believe jesus is god I'm going down the list of people but we believe that when jesus came it was god coming to dwell among us john 1 14 says and the word became flesh and dwelled among us I don't know where y'all are but I'm glad about the fact that God left his seed in glory and came down through 42 generations, was born of a virgin, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and hung out with us. That's what's so special about Christmas is when God came and hung out with us. That's great news. And guess what? He didn't stop hanging out with us when he was born in a manger. He hangs out with us when he came into your heart and life. When you called out on him, he came and took residency in you. That's, oh, y'all don't get the point of how powerful it is. That's such a special thing that God would dare hang out with you. That God would dare be with you and go with you wherever you go, when you get there, Jesus is right there with you. …
That's why he could say, I and the father are one. And that word became flesh and dwelt among the sheep. 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? have you heard his voice? Have you tasted and seen that he is good? Have you believed in his great name? Then we'd invite you to come and eat this meal with us as we remember him this morning. If you're not yet a believer in Jesus, we'd ask that you let the bread and the cup pass, but let today be the day that you put down your stones, that you put down your pride, that you come on in with the sheep and that you experience full and abundant and eternal life in this Jesus.
… at the core of our being as believers who have placed our faith in Christ Christ lives in us it's almost like Christ the incarnation in us John chapter 1 verse 14 says the word became flesh God became flesh and dwelt among us and that continues through each of our lives Christ is in us Colossians 1 27 he lives in us he dwells in us his presence dwelling in us and so at the core of our being as believers is the character of Christ. Now, the second circle outside of that, let's call the conscience. And the conscience, if you want to write some notes out by the side there, the way we think, the way we feel, the way we believe, what we believe. Now, all of those things are obviously affected by the character of Christ in us, right? When Christ comes in us, he changes the way we feel. He changes our desires. He changes what we believe. Everything now revolves around the character of Christ that's in us, that affects our conduct, our conscience. Let's go to the third circle. …
… That's talking about Jesus. Verse 14 says, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld His power and His glory, the glory of the one and only, full of grace, only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We beheld His glory. How? Through the Word. God reveals Himself as the Word. Jesus is called the Word of God there in John chapter 1. And Jesus is God, so God is revealing himself as the Word. Second, not only as the Word, but God reveals himself through the Word. All throughout Scripture, we see God revealing himself through the means of his Word. This is an Old Testament thing and New Testament thing alike. Let me show you one example in the Old Testament. Hold your place here in the book of Acts. I want you to turn to the left back to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel 3. Let me remind you that in the future, if you don't have a Bible with you, when you come to Brook Hills, there are some available out in the lobby that you can pick up on your way in. …
In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as the one and only begotten of the Father. That's not a prophet sitting in that room. That's the maker of the stars sitting in that room, and the one who made her made that body that she used in so many broken and sad ways. He is the one offended, and yet he looks at her not with condemnation and love and says, hey, yes, it was not what I made you for, but I forgive you. He has the right to do it because he's the God who was offended, and he says to her, I choose to. You're forgiven. And he's not just the money lender. He's the payment. He's the payment. If I say your debt's been forgiven, Like if you owe me money and I say I forgive you, it doesn't make the debt go away. …
… and the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. The question we have is, is that worth the wait? Like, is what God has done, is that worth the wait? Because think about this, from the beginning of the story, from the actually very first story. Here's Genesis chapter one and two, chapter three, everything falls apart. But in the midst of Genesis chapter three, Genesis chapter three, verse 15, God promises, he promises that there is going to be one who crushes the head of the serpent. There is gonna be one who restores all things. And then the whole rest of the story is people waiting from Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob, to the judges, to the kings, to the divided kingdom, to the civil war, to exile, through all the whole entire story, all the way to Jesus. is that worth the wait? I was thinking about, you know, this, think of right now, Christmas Day. I think a lot of us, we get really excited. …
… and grace people don't get along with the truth people because they think they're mean Jesus is full of grace and truth. Last night we went to my son's football game. And his football coach, he's 12. His football coach was yelling at the boys. You think I'm going to be soft on you? Because it's the day after Halloween? I said, my guy's full of truth. He has zero grace in his speech. Jesus came full of grace and truth. John chapter 1. Watch what the Bible says. The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. and we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from the father, full of grace and truth. He came full of love, acceptance, and forgiveness. And at the same time, the power to transform, the power to free and the power to deliver. Jesus didn't say to this woman, Oh, I'm so sorry. You're innocent. No, he didn't. No, he did not. He said, I don't condemn you. …
… this is how John is introducing us to who? To Jesus, the word, the revelation of God. And we keep reading until we get to verse 14. And it says, 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. Are you serious? Do you know what that word dwelt means? It's the same word that's translated in the Old Testament. Anybody wanna guess? Tabernacle. Jesus is the tabernacle. He is the dwelling place of God in the world such that when you see Jesus, you see the glory of God face to face. This is what Colossians 1.15 makes crystal clear. Jesus is not made in the image of God. He is the image of the invisible God. Jesus is the epitome of humanity, God in the flesh, Hebrews 1.3. He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature, and he's the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power. He is Emmanuel, God with us. …
… we would see predictions and patterns and the presence of Jesus, as you indicate through the tabernacle in John 1.14, the word tabernacled among us, right? So we see the presence of Christ through the tabernacle and the pillar of fire and pillar of cloud, even through the Ark of the covenant at the end of Numbers chapter 10. We also see one of the most stellar events in the Old Testament, which then is going to be the foundation for the most famous verse in the Bible, right? John 3.16, God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Well, what's the background of that? What's the context. It would be Numbers chapter 21, or chapter 21, verses 4 through 9, where Moses lifts up the serpent in the wilderness, and all who look at this serpent are saved from the snake bites. The last time we talked, we were talking about blessings and curses. Here it is again. …
… John is introducing us to Jesus as the Word, the revelation of God. And it all becomes clear when we get to verse 14. And John writes, 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. What? Do you know what this word dwelt means? It's the same word that is translated tabernacle in the Old Testament. You realize what this is saying? Jesus is the tabernacle. He's the dwelling place of God in the world. God has come to us such that when you see Jesus, you see the glory of the Father face to face. This is what, this is revolutionary. Jesus is not just a prophet. He's not just a great human teacher. He is the image of the invisible God. He's not made in the image of God. He is the image of God. He's the epitome of humanity. God in the flesh, Hebrews 1, 3. He is the radiance of the glory of God. He's the exact imprint of his nature. He's the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power. He is Emmanuel, God with us. Who, so now just come back to the book of John here, which just so happens to be our church's Bible reading right now, and you're not going to be able to write all these down, so just sit back and just soak it in. All the ways John points us back to this whole picture. John tells us that Jesus has come to offer his life …
… the embodiment and the price of the grace of God. We beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. One more clarification for our closing application. I haven't said anything about the word praise. Unto the praise of the glory of the grace, the free and unconditional, lavish grace of God. We exist and will always exist to the praise. What is praise? It is not mere words. Do you remember how Jesus said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship or praise me. So I asked ChatGPT. I typed in, please compose a 30-second prayer to God in the spirit and theology of Don Carson in praise to the glory of God's grace. Click. three seconds later, this is what I was given. Gracious Father, we bow before you, the sovereign Lord of history and redemption. From eternity past, you purposed to lavish grace upon undeserving sinners through the blood of your beloved Son. …
… The Bible says, I love this in the message, John chapter 1, verse 14, it says, the word became flesh and blood and moved into our neighborhood. Jesus set aside his glory and stepped into our story. He walked and lived life fully God, fully man. We have his behavior. We have his perfect righteousness. We have the pristine path. He walked from the cradle to the cross. Absolutely unbelievable. Jesus came down. C.S. Lewis says it's the greatest miracle. Jesus coming down is the incarnation. My wife's sister is named Laurie. She lives in Columbia, South Carolina. And years ago, she received an heirloom, a beautiful diamond ring. One day, the diamond ring was missing, and she figured out who had stolen it, the exterminator. So they hired some authorities, and they tracked down the exterminator, and sure enough, he confessed, okay, I took the heirloom. But he said, I got nervous and walked out on the dock, and I threw the ring into Lake Murray. Just Google Lake Murray. …
… The Word became flesh. The one that was with God and was God became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We've seen his glory. the glory of the one and only son who came from the father full of grace and truth. we love Bible translation at Passion City Church and have done a lot to help fund the translation of scripture into the heart language of a billion people who are yet to have scripture in the language they best understand. And I love getting to meet recently some young men who are translating a copy of scripture into some languages in the Middle East that we actually funded through the generosity of students at Passion Conferences. And just to see these guys that look like us giving their lives to translating the word for the people of the nation that they are refugees from. And I thought when I'm reading this again today, the original Bible translator, Jesus. Because the word became flesh. he translated himself into humanity. …
… John said it this way in chapter one. The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his what? His glory. The glory of the one and only son who came from the father full. So when Jesus arrived, he was full when he got here. And he was full of grace. Praise God. And truth. From his fullness we have all received, hello, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Praise God. then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the praetorium we're getting close to the finish here and gather the whole company and I'm skipping over huge chunks of scripture in multiple hundreds of verses about grace the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him and they stripped him and they put a Thank you. scarlet robe on him. and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. The same grace that chose us before the foundation of the world in eternity past wove a robe. …
… Matter of fact, the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, that when we see Jesus, we see God clearly. He fixes our clarity problem. He fixes our continuity problem. But he also fixes the contamination problem. Because when you find out that the preacher is just a person, and when it goes live that the soloist is still a sinner, and when you find out the musician is all messed up and when you're ready to throw in the towel and walk away because church folk are just church folk, here's the good news, that when your preacher, your priest, and your pastor has failed, we have another high priest. According to the order of Melchizedek, who was in all points tempted, but yet without sin, and his name is Jesus. So watch this. So when Jesus is in my life, I don't need a preacher in the pulpit to know what God's doing with me. …
… the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ we're told in John chapter 1 the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the word became flesh and tabernacled among us is what John actually says in the Greek he pitched his tent. In John chapter 2, Jesus comes into the temple, and he looks around, and he sees all the people there, the money changers and the cattle sellers, and he gets out a whip, and he throws everybody out, and he says, my temple should be a holy place, a house of prayer. That's my father's house. The Jewish leaders come to him and say, by what right do you do this? They don't say he's wrong to demand holiness in the temple, does he? No, no. The temple's got to be a holy place. Nobody but the holy can come before the presence of God. They say, by what right do you do this? And Jesus says, tear this temple down in three days and I'll build it up. …
… displaying His glory, not the reflected glory, but His internal glory. That's why the disciples, and even John himself says, you know, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as the only begotten of the Father. Now, though it's not until chapter 8 in John's gospel that we have a record of Jesus calling Himself the light of the world. He's already described in those terms earlier by the author of the gospel himself. I take you back to the very beginning of John's gospel, to these words. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and 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. Now, there's no passage in all of Scripture that more clearly affirms the deity of Christ than the prologue of John's gospel that says of the second person, the Logos, that He was with God in the beginning and that He was God, and that He is also the Creator of all things, that nothing comes to be except through the power of the Logos. …
… John is saying, we saw it. We saw His glory, the glory of the monogamous, the glory of the only begotten God Himself. In Him is life. And, beloved, conversely, outside of Him, there is no life. There may be biological life, but not this kind of life that He came that we might have. And this life, he says, was the light of men. In the second century, when the Christian philosophers and apologists sought to define the Christian faith over and against the pagan world and to answer the critics from Greek philosophy, Justin Martyr, for example, argued the point that the great truths that were discovered in the genius of Plato and of an Aristotle were not there by their own power. But even the pagan philosophers, whatever light they found was borrowed light from the light that comes into the world that has its basis and origin and fountainhead in Christ, who is the fountain of all truth. And the light shines in the darkness. But the darkness did not comprehend it. …