Merry Christmas

The Little White Community Church

Scripture: John 1: 1-14 Dec.24, 2024

Message: “The Word that Became Flesh!”

by Pastor George Gnade

Intro: 1. In Gen. 1, we have the recurring phrase: “The evening and the morning” was the first day. That is how every “evening and morning” is described. 

a. That is how the Jews in Jesus’ day kept time. So from the setting of the sun on what we call Christmas Eve till the sun set again on Christmas Day, would be an accurate description of the first Christmas.

b. On that first Christmas, we are told in John 1:14 that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

2. Let us consider John’s story of Christmas for a few minutes this evening.

A. We can’t understand John 1:14 until we consider verse 1 where John wrote: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” 

1. So “the Word that became flesh” is a person. That person was with God in the very beginning. In fact, the “Word was with God and the Word was God.”

a. The gospel of John teaches us that Jesus was “the Word that became flesh.” But before He became flesh as a baby on Christmas morning, He was with God and was God. 

b. So if we take the 1st verse and the 14th verse seriously, we are faced with three mysteries that are hard to understand. 

2. The fact that Jesus was with God and yet at the same time was God is based on vs. 1 that scholars believe is describing to us how the Father and the Son make up the first two persons in the trinity. 

a. There is a sense in which they are one God; but in another sense, they are two persons. 

b. In John 14, Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit to live within His disciples. But to have the Holy Spirit in your heart is just like having the Father and the Son in your heart too! The Holy Spirit is the third person in the trinity. 

c. This is the first mystery that is hard to understand.

3. The second mystery that is equally hard to understand concerns Jesus Himself. How could Jesus be God and at the same time be born as a man? 

a. Even more astonishing, how could He be born as a baby and grow up like an ordinary child? These mysteries can only be accepted and believed by faith.

b. Not only that, but this leads to the third mystery that is very hard to understand. 

4. The Bible teaches us that the Holy Spirit entered into Mary and caused her to become pregnant with Jesus. 

a. Her husband Joseph took her to be his wife, but never had sex with her until after Jesus was born.

b. This mystery must also be accepted by faith. We call this the mystery of the virgin birth.

5. We call these three truths mysteries simply because they are miracles that our human minds can’t comprehend. But they are all clearly taught in God’s Word.  They are all part of the miracle of Christmas. 

B. In light of what we have discussed, consider other truths the apostle John shares with us in these first 14 verses. 

1. In vs. 2, it says: “All things were created by Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made.”

a. In Gen. 1, we are told God created the world. But we are also told the “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” When God spoke, it happened! So God the Father and the Holy Spirit were involved in the creation.

b. Now in John 1: 1-14, Jesus is called “the Word,” and immediately we are told “all things were created by Him.”

In Col. 1: 15, the Holy Spirit revealed to Paul that Jesus “created all things, visible and invisible.”

c. So nothing is excluded, not even the angels. But the Bible clearly has revealed to us that the Father, the Son who is equated with the Word’s God spoke, plus the Holy Spirit were all in some way involved in the creation.

2. So while there is only one true God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are always at work together, never against each other, but always in perfect harmony.

C. Thirdly, in John 1:14, we are told that Jesus, the Word that became flesh, “dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

1. The disciples saw all the miracles that Jesus did. They even saw His glory when He was transformed on the Mt. of transfiguration. 

a. They also witnessed His cruel death as well as His awesome resurrection.   

b. It is no wonder that Jesus told His disciples in John 14:9 that “anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!”

2. And it is no wonder that Thomas, when he finally saw Jesus in His resurrected body and was invited to put his fingers into the nail holes and his hand into His side, cried out: “My Lord and my God!”

D. Finally, in John 1:5, Jesus is called “the light that shines into the darkness.”

1. Then in vs. 6-9, we are told how John the Baptist told the crowds that he was not that light, but he came to bear witness “to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” 

a. Then he adds: “He was in the world, and though the world was made by Him, the world did not recognize Him.  He came to His own (people), but His own did not receive Him” (vs. 10).

b. “Yet to all who do receive Him, to those who believe in His name, He gave the right to become the children of God” (vs. 12). 

2. Beloved, when we ask Jesus to forgive our sins and to come and live in our hearts, He gives us the Holy Spirit; and we become the spiritual children of God.

a. Before we come to know and believe in Jesus, the Bible says we are in darkness. We are blind to the truth.

We are blind to how sinful we really are.

b. But when we come to know and truly believe in Him, our spiritual eyes are opened. If we sincerely ask Him into our lives, we who were spiritually blind are given the ability to see and understand the spiritual truths we have been discussing today.

In conclusion: 

1. Once you come to understand that Jesus is the truth of God who reveals to us the Word of God, then spiritual truths begin to make sense. 

2. Christmas is the story of how God chose to become a man so that we could come to know and believe in His Son and receive His Holy Spirit, and begin a new life centered on all He has taught us. 

3. May God open your mind to understand and receive this wonderful gift of His Son. That is what Christmas is all about.