The Word Became Flesh

THE WORD BECAME FLESH

(John 1:14)

Immanuel God with us

Introduction

Well, it has officially begun Christmas or, as the world calls it the Holiday Season. We will have plenty to eat, parties and family get togethers.

That’s o.k. After all this country has been through the last three years, we need some celebration. However, let’s be careful this year not to forget,

as most of world has, “The Reason for the Season-Jesus.”

Matthew in his gospel devotes two chapters to the birth of Jesus, Luke almost as much. Mark doesn’t say anything about the Advent. John doesn’t

say a lot about the birth of Jesus or the Advent. In fact, this one statement here in verse fourteen of chapter one, is John’s only direct reference to the

birth our Lord, but this one brief statement says volumes. You see.

1. This statement puts God in a different perspective.

After Michael Angelo had finished his famous painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, people begin to come in to see his work. When they

tried to look up to see the work of art, they would become dizzy, and their necks and backs would hurt. Then someone came up with the ideal of

putting a highly polish mirror under the painting. Then people could look in the mirror and admire the beauty of the painting.

All through the Old Testament men looked up and tried and to understand what God was like. The scripture says, “God, who at sundry (different)

times and in divers (various) manners spoke in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by [His] Son.”

(Hebrews 1:1-2) Jesus is not just a reflection of God He is God. If you had known Me, you have known the Father Jesus told His disciples.

(John 14:7) If you really want to know what God is like, just look at Jesus. In Jesus God is no longer someone way up there, He’s God down here.

A mother trying to help her young son learn to sleep in his room alone assured him that God was right there with him. Yes, mother I know, the

child said, but I need a God I can touch. I think there are times when each of us need a God we can touch. When God stooped to become man, He

became a God we could touch. This same John in another one of his books says, in reference to Jesus “That which was from the beginning, which we

have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life”. (1John 1:1)

Think about it.

Not only can we know God better, in Jesus, we have the assurance, that God understands us. Jesus even understands our temptations. The scripture

says, “For we have not a high priest (Jesus) which cannot be touched (sympathize) with the feeling of our infirmities (weakness); but was in all points tempted

like as we are (Hebrews 4:15) For thirty-three years He lived among us. He knows what it is like to be tired. He knows what it is like to be hungry and

cold. Thirty of those years He spent as a carpenter. I believe He knows what it is like to have someone cheat on a business deal. He knows what it is

like to be misunderstood by His loved ones and friends. He is a God that lived among us.

2. This statement puts life in a proper perspective.

Paul Harvey made famous the story about the agnostic who stayed home from the Christmas Eve service because he refused to believe in the

Incarnation, so he built a fire, sat down in a comfortable chair, with a good book. No sooner than he sat down, he began to hear a thumping noise

against his living room window. When he investigated, he found that a flock of birds had become lost in the storm and were trying to fly through the

glass into the warmth of his living room. He quickly put on his coat and boots and went and turned on the lights and opened his barn door, hoping the

birds would fly into the warmth and safety of the barn. However, they just kept flying against the window and injuring themselves. He tried getting

behind them and shooing them into the barn, but to no avail. He tried baiting them with corn, again to no avail. The birds were frightened of him.

Then he thought if somehow, I could become one of them, then, I could lead them into the safety of the barn. That moment the agnostic became a

believer.

In Jesus God became a man to show us how to live. Listen, do you want to live life to its fullest? Just live, as best you know how, like Jesus lived.