May God bless us together this
morning. Throughout the day, as we turn to his word together,
it's always our privilege to turn to his word. We come to
the word of truth, the word of God, and come to a word that
is living and powerful, come to a word which is Christ-centered. And it should be, and I hope
it is, I'm sure it is, our desire to come to the word in that way
this morning. Well, I want us today to turn
to John's gospel in chapter one and to verse 14. So the gospel
according to John chapter one and verse 14. 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. Here we have a well-known verse
and a well-known chapter. Many of us could probably quote
the opening verses of John 1 without our Bibles open. And yet it is
a wonderful chapter. It is a deep chapter and the
opening verses in particular tell us truth about God and truth
about the Lord Jesus Christ in a succinct and yet profound way. We know the words well and yet
when we consider their depth we can see something really wonderful. John tells us in the closing
verse of chapter 20, the purpose for writing his gospel. Of course, we know that the gospel,
as with all of the Bible, is inspired. It is God's word. But John's gospel was written
by John, and John tells us his great concern for the reader. He tells us in the closing verse
of John 20, these are written that ye might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have
life through his name. The great purpose, the great
concern is that those who read this book and by that extension
we could say those who read the whole of the Bible might believe
and that in believing they will have life. The concern is that
we don't just read and forget and we don't just read and understand
in a academic sense but that we read that we understand and
that we believe. That is that the truth of God's
word has an impact on us, that by faith we accept it and we
live in dependence on it. We believe the truth of the gospel
which is found throughout the Bible. So John's concern is that
we might believe and that in believing we will have life.
But he tells us what believing is or who we believe in. That you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the son of God. He is telling us that the central
message of the Word of God is Jesus Christ. That's the central
message of his Gospel, the Gospel of John, but it's the message
of the whole of the Bible. I want you, he says, to believe
that Jesus is the Christ. That he is the Messiah, the promised
Savior, who has come to save his people. And I want you to
know that he is the Son of God. That is that God has come into
this world to save sinners. When he speaks of believing,
he doesn't mean I just want you to understand that there was
someone called Jesus. It doesn't even mean that I want
you to understand that he was the son of God. He says, I want
you to trust in Jesus. I want you to know Him as your
personal Savior whom you depend on for life. This is his great concern in
reading his gospel, that you would believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God. And it's striking that when he
opens the gospel, when he opens in chapter 1, verse 1, it seems
to me, and it may well be true, that John was thinking of Genesis,
chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. And John opens his gospel by
inspiration in the beginning. going right back to the beginning. Because Genesis 1 tells us about
creation, it tells us that God spoke, and that he made light,
and that he made the worlds, and that he made the seas, and
that he made the sun, and the stars, and the earth, and we
know how God spoke in six days and made creation. But Genesis
1 opens with, in the beginning, that was the beginning of the
creation. but the implication is that God was before the beginning. That God was there to speak at
the beginning. So Genesis tells us about beginnings,
but it infers a God who was there before the beginning, an eternal
God. And so John takes those opening
words of Genesis, and he says, in the beginning, In other words,
there at the beginning, but also before the beginning, was the
Word. And the Word was with God. And
the Word was God. And we know from our text, from
verse 14, that the Word was made flesh, that the Word that he's
speaking about is Jesus Christ. And so you remember that his
main message is that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God. And he says, in the beginning,
the God of creation, the God who was there before Genesis
1, is the same God that I'm writing about here. The God of Genesis
is the Jesus that I desire you might believe in. And so John's gospel opens with
a profound and a wonderful truth. That Jesus Christ that he is
going to write about, that the life that he is going to record
in his gospel isn't just the life of an interesting and kind
historical character. It isn't just a miracle maker. It isn't just someone who showed
kindness. It is the living God dwelling
amongst us. And that is what makes John 1
verse 14 one of the most astounding verses in scripture. One of the most wonderful verses,
succinct verses, but wonderful verses. It tells us the Word
was made flesh. the Word. Sometimes you might
get a bit confused by these opening verses. Why does John open the
Gospel with the Word? The Word was in the beginning.
The Word was with God. The Word was God. And you may
find that confusing. What does he mean by the Word? Well, we can think that God's
Word is a means of revelation. God has showed himself through
his word. He reveals truth to us. And so
this one who's being described as the word is someone who is
going to reveal things, who is going to show God's truth. You can also think of the word
as being God's promises. God spoke words of promise. And so this one being described
as the word is someone who is going to fulfill the promises
that God has spoken. The beginning was the word. And
we know, as I've said already, that the one being referred to
as the word is the eternal word. That is, he is the eternal God. He was in the beginning with
God. And so this one has always been. And this one is the one who created. All things were made by him.
And without him was not anything made that was made in him was
life. And the life was the light of men. And so this one being
referred to here is the one who spoke. Let there be light. Let the ground bring forth the
living creatures. The same God who spoke creation
into being with the power of his voice is the same God here
being spoken of as the word. All things were made by him and
therefore everything is subject to him. Everything is under the
hand and in the control of the great creator God. And so everything
is under the hand and in the control of the word. This one
is the same creator. And so we are all subject. We
are all under the will and commandments of the word of this God. And to emphasize that point,
he is saying that in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. Now this is a remarkable way
of describing the Trinity. The Trinity, which is so difficult
if not impossible for us to grasp, and yet the important points
of the Trinity are being brought out in just a few words here.
Here is one who is with God, and so there is a sense of distinction. He is by the side of God. He
is with Him, like we might be with one another. But as if we
might then fall into a misunderstanding that we have two gods, it clarifies
and says, but he is also God. He is with God, and he was God. And so we see here that the persons
of the Trinity are separate, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
and yet they are fully, entirely, and utterly united as God. Not
that we have three gods, but three in one. And the church
has tried to put that together in our creeds and doctrines in
a way that we can understand. And yet in some ways God's word
put it together in the simplest and the most wonderful way just
in this verse. He was with God, and he was God. And so John in opening his gospel
has shown to us something of the glory of Jesus in this very
simple and yet deep and profound way. And yet we don't go far into
the gospel before we see that he who is so great, he who is
creator, he who is God, he who is eternal, has created a world
that is now fallen. Not that he created it fallen,
but it is fallen in sin. Because the world is in darkness. The light shineth in darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not. He came into the world,
he came unto his own and his own received him not. He was in the world, the world
was made by him, the world knew him not. And so we are immediately
confronted with this thought that we have a great God and
yet the world that he has created does not want him, does not receive
him. The world is fallen in sin. The world, the darkness, it comprehended
him not. This word comprehended, you can
really almost translate this two different ways. And both
are instructive. Firstly, you could see it in
the sense that the world didn't understand him, didn't receive
him, didn't want him. And so it tells us something
about the sadness of a fallen world. that the world that was
created by him has run from him, that his creation, the pinnacle
of his creation, mankind, does not want him, does not grasp
him. But it can also be translated,
and other translations do this, they say that the darkness could
not overcome it. They couldn't overcome him. And therefore we see that in
a slightly different light. We see that although the world
is in darkness, that his light is so bright that ultimately
it will prevail. Ultimately the light of the gospel
will shine into the darkness and the darkness will not be
able to overcome it. So the word. But the wonderful
depth of this verse is not just that he was the Word, but it's
this simple statement, the Word was made flesh. The Word was made flesh. That is that this great God,
this eternal God, has come into this world. He has come as a
real man just like you and me he has been born and he is the
seed of the woman promised way back in genesis to adam and to
eve or he is the seed of abraham promised to abraham that he would
through his seed bless the nations that there would be someone from
his family there would be a person a man a human born into this
world who would be flesh, fully flesh. That is the Lord Jesus
Christ would be fully body and fully soul. He would be what
it is to be a human being, to have body and soul. And so Jesus is not just a human
body who is inhabited by God. He is fully human. and yet also
fully divine, because he is made flesh. But you notice the wording,
he was the word who was made flesh. That is that Jesus didn't
come into existence when he was conceived. That wasn't the beginning
of Jesus' existence. It was the beginning of his earthly
existence, his beginning of being flesh. But he was always the
word. And he was made flesh. And so we can see that God has
come into this world. He was made fully man. And yet,
because he is God, he has something entirely unique about him. That
is, he has been made flesh, but he has not been made sinful flesh. He is not under the curse of
Adam. He has not fallen in his nature. And his life, therefore, will
be a life of holiness and perfection. So the Lord Jesus Christ, the
word, comes into the world to be a suitable substitute for
sinners. He will be flesh. That is, he
will be a real man, able to stand in the place of real people. But he will also be sinless flesh. able to bear the sins of others. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
amongst us. He dwelt among us. He came near. He drew near. In his life, didn't he? You think
of the many characters that we read of in the Gospels. Think
of the lepers who he touched, or the sick who he healed, or
the sinners who he welcomed and ate with. And he lived amongst
them. He moved amongst them. He was
near to them. Not far off and remote, but drawing
close. And in dwelling amongst them,
he showed them something of his glory. We beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of his father. And we see his
glory very often shrouded, veiled, because we also see a man of
sorrows. We see a man of weakness. We
see a man of hunger, of tiredness. And yet sometimes that glory
shines. It's so evident. As he raises Lazarus from the
dead, or as he feeds the 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes,
we see his glory. and perhaps most wonderfully
at the Mount of Transfiguration as he is transfigured in front
of the disciples and they see him shining as the brightness
of the sun with clothes as white as the sun and he is in his glory. And so they knew that he was
flesh and bone but they also knew that he is glorious, he
is God. dwelling with them. Not like some idol who is locked
away in a temple somewhere and you must go on your pilgrimage
and climb the mountain or whatever or make your sacrifices known
so that you can gradually somehow make your way into the presence
of this idol which is hidden away in the temple. But rather
God amongst us God drawing near to us, God coming amongst his
people. The word was made flesh and dwelt
amongst us. And the wonderful thing is that
we might think, well, that's true of Jesus those years ago
in Jerusalem and Galilee, but this is true today. Not true
in the sense that Jesus in his flesh is walking amongst us,
of course, but true in the sense that this same Jesus in his true
living body lives today. That he was crucified and buried,
yet risen again, and that the word who was made flesh is still
flesh. He is still a real man. He is still that one who lived
and walked in this earth. And he still draws near to people
today. Of course, not in that physical
way, not like the two on the road to Emmaus where Jesus literally
drew near and walked with them. But he has promised us the sending
of the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit reveals Christ. That is the ministry of the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes Christ known to us, the living
Christ, not just the concept of Christ, not just the idea
of Christ, but he brings the living Christ to us, to our experience,
so that the apostle could say, Christ is in you, the hope of
glory. And so this isn't just a word
which describes a historical moment that the word was made
flesh and dwelt amongst people. This is a word which is absolutely
relevant and living today because every true Christian knows the
word, the eternal son of God is with them. He is their God
and their savior. The word was made flesh. and
dwelt among us we beheld his glory the glory as of the only
begotten of the father so can you see something of the wonder
of these words what they are telling us that God in his grace
has come to sinners but where is this glory or where
does the verse at least say this glory is principally seen and
that's really what I want to focus on through the day today
we beheld his glory How do we see? Where do we see the glory
of God? Well, we can think, as I've said,
of his works or of his transfiguration, and we can think of many, many
things that we see the glory of God. But we are drawn here
to two particular elements, full of grace and truth. Or, to put it another way, full
of grace and full of truth. We beheld his glory. And this
is where we see the glory of Jesus Christ for the sinner. And so in the rest of our time
this morning, I want to look at this first one. The word has
made flesh and dwelt amongst us full of grace. Full of grace. I'm sure you know the simple
definition of grace, the unmerited or the undeserved or the unearned
favor of God. But to understand grace, sometimes
it's helpful to see it being worked out or see a picture of
it to see what it really means. And one picture where we see
grace is back in the Old Testament. of an account of King David and
the descendants of Saul, or the son of Jonathan, Mephibosheth. And we found that account in
2 Samuel and chapter 9. And we read of how the King David
wanted to show kindness to the household of Jonathan for Jonathan's
sake, for the sake of the love that he had for Jonathan. And
so he makes inquiries, and he is told that Jonathan had a son,
is one named Mephibosheth, and that this son was still living,
and that this son is described as being lame on his feet. He
can't walk. So this son, well, he is unable
to do many things. He can't walk. But this son is
also, in the circumstances of the day, or at least could be,
in a place of great danger. Traditionally, or in many of
the countries in those days, not really in Israel, but in
some countries those days, if a new king came in place, and
had usurped the place of another king, then they would want to
get rid of anyone and everyone who might possibly be able to
take their throne. Meshvibosheth could potentially
have a claim on the throne. He was the grandson of King Saul,
who was dead. He was the son of Jonathan, who
was dead. There could be, through the line
hereditary, a claim on the throne from Mephibosheth. It could be
in David's interest to get rid of Mephibosheth, so that he cannot
take his throne. But King David sends for him. Now, we don't know. Mephibosheth
hath thought that that was going to be his end. Perhaps he was
going to face that treatment. And so he comes into the presence
of David. And he comes and falls before
him. He fell on his face and did reverence. And he said, behold,
thy servant, I'm willing to serve you. I am in your presence. I'm
yielding myself to you, King David. Now, David turns to him. This man who could be very fearful
because of the circumstances, this man who is lame and disabled
and unable to do anything or bring anything or promise anything
really. But David says, fear not. I will
surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake. We'll
restore thee all the land of Saul thy father. Thou shalt eat
bread at my table continually. That is grace. That is David
showing immeasurable kindness, not just saying, I won't harm
you, not just saying, I will let you live and carry on where
you are, but saying, you are welcome to my table. You are
welcome to eat with me. You are welcome to enjoy the
bounty that I have here as King of Israel. Come and be with me. That is grace. Undeserved, unearned
favor. And here John tells us that Jesus
Christ is full of grace. Full of grace. Or he is complete
in grace. Or he is covered over with grace. You know how David wrote in Psalm
23, my cup runneth over. And what he's setting before
us there is a picture of a cup there and it's like some liquid
or wine or whatever, some drink is being constantly poured into
the cup. And so the cup is full. And in
fact the cup is so full it is starting to spill over because
more and more is being poured into the cup. It is a continual
filling to the point that it is flowing over with whatever
is being poured into it. And David is speaking of the
God is continually pouring in his blessing. He's continually
pouring in his goodness. That he is overflowing with the
blessing of God. And it's like we've got that
picture here. That Jesus Christ is so full of grace. It's as
if it is overflowing with the fullness of his grace. And so
we are like that cup. And we are being blessed with
a continual blessing of grace that it flows over. Full of grace. Well, where do we see this grace
then? Well, we see this grace firstly in the fact that he has
come. We thought already this morning
something of the wonder of the word being made flesh, the wonder
of the son of God being born into this world and dwelling
amongst us. So when we consider who he is
and his glory and his holiness and his wonder that he has come
amongst us, that is grace. It was of God's will and choice
to come. And in eternity past, he chose,
he decreed that his son would come. He would come not to a
people who deserved him, to a people who had deserved or earned his
favor, but he would come to a people who had rejected him and despised
him. But he would come amongst them
nonetheless in grace. Think of the characters that
the Lord Jesus Christ came to. You remember Zacchaeus up in
the tree outside of Jericho. Come down, for I must dwell at
thy house this day. That's grace. I'll come to the end of Jesus's
life and the man, the thief nailed to the cross, turning to the
Lord Jesus Christ in his moments before his death. And Jesus says,
today thou shalt be with me in paradise because Jesus had come
to dwell beside him. That's grace. That was God's
moving to his people. He has come. And we see the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ most wonderful in what John was able
to say later on in this chapter, when he says in verse 29, behold
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Because
he has not just come to dwell amongst us, he has come to die,
to suffer, to be that Lamb in the place of sinners. That is
grace. And when we grasp something of
the sadness, the darkness of the world that we've thought
about already this morning, and then we see that on the other
hand, on one hand we have the darkness, but on the other hand
we have the Lamb of God who has come to save his people, who
has come to bear their sins for them. That is grace. The apostle writes of this in
the second epistle to the Corinthians in chapter eight. Really, here
is grace. Ye know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. How do you know it? Well, here
it is on display, he says, that though he was rich, yet for your
sakes he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might be
rich. Do you want a portrait? Do you
want a description of grace? Here it is. He was rich. Riches of glory, riches of the
eternal son of God. Yet for you, for your sake, he
became poor, immeasurably poor, even to the death, the humiliation
of the cross. so that you, through that, might
be rich. This, he says, is grace. And so we can see his grace in
his coming. We can see his grace in his coming
to sinners, to individuals. We read of some. Remember those
two who were followers they were disciples of John the Baptist
and they heard John say behold the Lamb of God and they went
and they followed Jesus and he said to them what do you seek
or they said where dwellest thou? And he saith unto them come and
see. Come and see. Come and dwell
with me. Come and be where I am. I will
receive you and you can hear my words and you can see my works.
You can be my disciples. You see, this was grace shown
just to these two individuals. You come and see. And you can
read through, of course, the accounts of those who came to
know the Lord Jesus and his word. You can think of that preeminent
account of Saul of Tarsus. he came personally to know the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that he would know the fullness
of forgiveness the forgiveness of his sin the forgiveness of
his unbelief and of his persecution of the church and will be brought
to be a follower even a preacher and apostle of the Lord Jesus
Christ and he describes that When he writes to Timothy, he
says, the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith
and love, which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ was exceeding abundant because he knew that Because
he had received that grace. I'm the chief of sinners, he
says. But Christ came into the world to save sinners. And so there was grace in his
coming. There is grace in him coming
to individuals. But is the grace for you? Is the grace still for sinners
this morning? Is this one who is full of grace
still one who you and I can know and be blessed by? We know the
word of God teaches us so clearly that no one can ever earn or
deserve God's favor or God's grace. We know that no one can
save themselves No one can give themselves eternal life, and
however much you may be trying and striving to make yourself
a Christian, you cannot do it. John tells us in the chapter
that we read, of those who were sons of God. It's those which
were born, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not
of the will of man, but of God. Those who are spiritually alive,
those who have become sons of God, are those who have been
born of God. It wasn't something they could
do, or something that anyone else could do for them. And so
that in itself tells us that without the work of God, without
Him, we are not spiritually alive. We are lost. Do you realize that this morning?
Do you acknowledge that? Are you trying to be a Christian
in your own strength? Are you trying to live the Christian
life without Christ? You may say, well, of course
I'm not. I'm thinking of Jesus. I'm reading his word. But really,
when it comes to how you live, it comes to what you think, it
comes to what you do, are you living with no communion with
Christ? no desire for Christ, no dependence on Christ, no feeding
on his truth and his word, apart from perhaps trying to just fit
yourself in line with what he teaches. But you don't know him. You're not alive. You're not spiritually living
for Christ. But the Lord tells us that that
is the state of everyone by nature, and some may be trying And some
may be not trying, some may be not even thinking of the Lord
Jesus Christ as they live out their lives. But the state is
we cannot save ourselves. But we do know, because we've
seen it already this morning, that there are those who are
saved by grace. They are saved by the work of God. They are
saved because he can save them. So you might ask me this morning,
well, then what can I do? These two things are really telling
me that there's nothing I can do and that God must do everything.
What can you do? Well, can I exhort you to take
the example of these two disciples? They heard the message of John.
John said, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin
of the world. Or he said, though John the Baptist didn't say this,
but John the Apostle is saying to us this morning, Jesus is
full of grace. In other words, this is the Savior. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is who he is. This is what he has come to do.
This is what he did for others. It was his work, not theirs. It was his power, not theirs.
It was his grace, not their ability. But these two who heard John
speak didn't turn back and say to John, well, there's nothing
I can do, John. Jesus has got to go to the cross,
so he's the Lamb of God, he's going to go and do it, and then
he will go and do it, and, well, he might save some people through
that, but there's nothing I can do, John, let's just hope that
Jesus comes and finds me. They didn't say that. They heard
him speak, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned to them
and said, what is it, what seek ye? And they said, Master, where
dwellest thou? Could it be that we could be
with you? Come and see. Come and see. Ask and it shall be given you.
Seek and ye shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened
to you. Come and see. Seek Him. Seek Him yourself,
personally. Seek that the Lamb of God might
be your Saviour, and that in looking to Him only you may know
the fullness of His grace. He said to the Apostle Paul,
My grace is sufficient for thee. sufficient, or in the words of
our text, overflowing, full. It is sufficient. My grace is
sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. There's a hymn that we sometimes
sing, Hymn 1060, which tells us something of this grace. It
says, Oh Jesus, full of truth and grace, more full of grace
than I of sin. Just think about that. Do you
know something of the fullness of your sin? The greatness of
your sin, the mountain of your sin, your own sinful heart, all
about you that is sin, and yet we read that he is more full
of grace than you are full of sin. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. And so here is grace. Here is the word that was made
flesh and dwelt amongst us. We beheld his glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. May God bless the thoughts of
his word this morning.