Our scripture reading this evening is from the Gospel of John, chapter 1, the first 18 verses. When I read the Gospel of John, I often get the feeling that John had read the other Gospels and had said to himself, they're good as far as they go, but there's more to be said. And that John read the beginning of Matthew and read the beginning of Luke and said, that's really good, but there's more to be said. And so wants to start at the beginning. And that's what he does in John 1, verse 1. So let us hear God's own word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. He was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, He gave the right to become the children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but were born of God. 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 bore witness about him and cried out, This is he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me. And from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God. Who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. So far, the reading of God's Word. Of all the verses in Scripture, there is perhaps none more profound, more important, more amazing than John 1, verse 14. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His glory. Glory as from the only Son, from the Father, full of grace and truth. We have seen His glory. What exactly does John mean when he writes that? What does it mean to see Jesus' glory? What did it mean for John to see Jesus' glory in the days of his incarnation and earthly ministry? What does it mean for us to see his glory? Well, I think it forces us to reflect that there are different glories of our Lord Jesus Christ. When John writes, we have seen his glory, He's not talking about Jesus' eternal glory. Because the scripture over and over again says, no man has seen God and lived. He's not seen Jesus' heavenly glory. Remember we read in Luke chapter 2 that the glory of the Lord shone around the angels, around the shepherds through the angels, and they were sore afraid. John's not talking about a glory that makes us afraid here in verse 14. So he's not talking about the eternal glory. He's not talking about the heavenly glory. But I think John is thinking, you know, Matthew and Luke so stressed the humility and weakness of the incarnation. They so stressed that there was no room at the inn. They so stressed that the baby was placed in a manger. They so stressed that it was shepherds who came to honor him. I want to also stress that even in his humiliation, even in his weakness, there was a glory. A glory that we could see. And this word, this word is amazing, John says. This word existed forever with the Father. Everything that's true of the Father as God is true of the word that was with him forever. That was a glory. And this word was active in creation. It was this word that said, let there be light, and there was light. That was a glory. But John now is turning our thoughts to this word that didn't just exist in eternity. And didn't just act in creation. But this word, John says, has now become flesh. The Creator has become a creature and lived among us to redeem us. And in that incarnation, in that tenting among us, tabernacling among us, there too we see a glory. a glory manifested, a glory not of halos. Jesus didn't walk the streets of Galilee, Capernaum, with a spotlight on him. It's not that kind of glory. So what was the glory that John saw? What was the glory that John records? What is the glory that John wants us to see? When we think about Jesus becoming flesh and dwelling among us. Well, John was a preacher, so he has three points. What is the glory that we can see? Well, it's the glory of the only Son. It's the glory of one full of grace. It's the glory of one, full of truth. I can't ignore how many times in the last couple of weeks I've heard someone on television say, well, now the real meaning of Christmas is, and then talk about something nice, but has very little to do with Christmas. Giving gifts to people is really nice, has very little to do with Christmas. Being loving is very nice, has very little to do with Christmas. What Christmas is all about is seeing Jesus' glory. That he's full of truth. That he's full of grace. That he's the only son. And that glory is for us. That's what John is saying. I was thinking that we're kind of used to saying Jesus died for us. We're used to saying Jesus lived for us. We're used to saying Jesus rose for us. We're used to saying Jesus intercedes for us. We're used to saying Jesus is coming again for us. Maybe we're not quite so used to saying Jesus was born for us. So that in the Creator becoming a creature, we would see His glory. full of truth, full of grace. The only Son, come for us. So as we think tonight about the glory that we can see, the glory that the church has seen through all ages, the glory that those original disciples saw, Think with me, not too briefly, but kind of briefly, about what it means that Jesus was glorious as being full of truth. Full of truth. It's intriguing, isn't it, what John writes in verse 17 of chapter 1. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Does John want to say that Moses wasn't truthful? Or that Moses wasn't gracious? No, what he wants to say is, however great Moses was, and John thought he was great. John's always positive about Moses in his gospel. However great Moses was as the man of God, as the leader of the people, as the revealer of the will of God, However great Moses was, he doesn't really compare to Jesus. Because Moses was a servant in the house of God, but Jesus was a son. Jesus had the promise of truth. Moses had the promise of truth. Jesus was the embodiment of truth in its fullness. It's amazing when you think about it. There's nothing we need to know spiritually that Jesus hasn't told us. That's why John wants to highlight that he's the word of God. He's the message of God. He's the communication of God. He's what God has to say in its fullness. And this is why it's so tragic when others claim to be a prophet who can add anything to Jesus. Because Jesus is full of truth. He's the complete truth. He's the final truth. You know, it's very interesting to look back on Christian interaction with Islam When Islam arose in the early Middle Ages, Christians said immediately of Islam, it's a heresy because it has a prophet that claims to be superior to Jesus. And Christians said, that can't be. Jesus is the final prophet because he's the eternal word. because he's the Word who was with God, because he's the Word who was God. There can be no truth that he doesn't know exhaustively. There can be no truth beyond him. There can be no truth in contradiction to him. He is the truth in its fullness. One of the things we as Christians have said about God is that God is incomprehensible. What we mean by that is not that we can't know something about God, but we mean we can't know everything about God. We can't exhaustively know God. Our minds, finite, cannot fully grasp all that God is. but because he's the eternal word, Jesus is the eternal word, he can understand everything about God. God is not incomprehensible for Jesus. And that's why he's the final word. He's the glorious word. He's the word that tells us everything we need to know about God. And so we can have such assurance that we know the truth. Because Jesus has ministered the truth to us. You know, one of the things that John stresses in his gospel is that we need to think of God as Father. and John stresses that Jesus came so that we would know God is our Father. We don't know that automatically. We know that God is our creator. We know that God is almighty. We know that God is strong. We know that God is glorious. We know that God is great and majestic, but that that one should be our Father. We need Jesus to tell us. And that's what he tells us. That's part of his glory. And because Jesus has told us that God is our Father because of what Jesus has done, then that can assure us that there's no hidden anger in God against us that will surprise us at the last day. There's no mystery to his love with which he's loved us everlasting. But Jesus has revealed it all and assured us all that we know the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth in what Jesus has come to teach and to show. And so, how wonderful it is that we see this glory of the fullness of truth in the Word who became flesh. We also see the glory of His grace, the fullness of grace. John's very deliberate in the way that he develops his thought here in chapter one of his Gospel. And one of the things he says early about the Word that became flesh is that in him was life. In him was life. One of the interesting things that happens at this time of year, particularly in this week to come, is that various newspapers and magazines and television stations will devote a lot of time to all the people who died this year. There's something kind of nice about that to survey the year. Maybe it's just the historian in there that likes to think about the dead. But there's something nice in going back over the year and thinking, you know, occasionally, I missed that one. Or thinking, I thought that person had been dead a long time. However we react, we realize as we see those images, some of them very famous, some of them very influential, pass across screens. We remember life really isn't in our hands, is it? Life is in God. Life is in God's hands. He's the source of physical life. When in John 1, verse 4, John writes, in the word was life he's thinking particularly of creation there of the dead world that God made first and then brought life into that world that's what Genesis 1 tells us but John 1 wants to go on and say he's also the bringer of spiritual life just as in physical life we do not make ourselves alive So in spiritual life, we do not make ourselves alive. It's a gift of God. To be physically alive, we have to be born of our parents. To be spiritually alive, John says, we have to be born of God. It's God's will. It's God's way. It's God's work that makes us alive. And so the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the fullness of the grace, the glory of the grace that he brings into the world is a grace that brings life, John says, and celebrates for him. Another way of looking at that, John says, is he's light. When God first made the world in Genesis 1, we read that the world was dark. And so one of the very first things God did after making that dark, empty, lifeless world was to create light. And in that original creation, the absence of light was not a moral failing. It was not because of sin, but it was all part of the process by which God was created. But John uses that and turns that idea of darkness to a moral purpose. The problem today is a darkness that is not physical, but moral and spiritual. The light shines in the darkness, John says. And the darkness cannot overcome it. But there are many in that darkness who refuse to see the light. He made the world. And he came to the world. And the world would not receive him, John said. He came to his own. His own people. And they didn't recognize him. That's the tragedy of darkness. But John says, no matter how many people close their eyes and choose the darkness, the light is still shining. and that shining light brings life wherever God is at work. And whoever will believe in that light, John says, will be saved because the true light is so full of grace that his purpose cannot be defeated. Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And he accomplishes that purpose. He's full of grace. He has come with grace upon grace, John says. How much grace do you need? I know some of you. You need a lot of grace. The good news is, there's plenty of grace in Jesus. Enough for you. One of the great discussions that took place around the time of the meeting of the Synod of Dort, it's a topic we don't talk about enough. One of the great debates at the time of the meeting of the Synod of Dort was the topic, how valuable is the death of Christ? Did he die just enough to save the elect? Was there any grace left over? If he'd wanted to save more than the number of the elect, would he have had to suffer more? And one of the great statements of many of our Reformed theologians was this, The value of the death of the Son of God is so great that it could cover every sin of every sinner and of a thousand worlds besides. So if we ever find sinners on another planet, they're not left out. That's kind of a joke. I don't think we're going to find sinners on another planet. But the point here is, Jesus is so full of grace. There's not any sinner that ever needs to fear. There's not enough grace for him or for her. There is no sin, there is no life of sin that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot cover. And that's the glory that John wants us to see. in the word who became flesh. John doesn't say that to encourage sin. The gospel message of salvation for sinners is never to encourage sin. It's never to encourage anybody to think, well, I like sinning, so there's plenty of grace to cover it when I get around to repenting. That's never the message. The message is always this. If you're hurting, if you're wondering, if you're fearing that God couldn't love you, he's come in his son full of grace, grace upon grace. There's plenty of grace for you. What promise, what a glory, what a hope. That's what we see when we look at our Lord Jesus. And John makes clear that it's all ours just for believing. Just by turning to him and trusting him. By believing that he is the word become flesh. That he is the life of men. That he is the light of this dark world. That he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Just believing that, trusting that, means that we know his grace. That as it filled him, it'll fill us. That's a lot of glory, isn't it? The glory of truth in its fullness, the glory of grace in its fullness, and the glory of his sonship. Jesus is, of course, uniquely the Son of God. He was eternally the Son of God. He is the only begotten of the Father. There is no Son like unto Jesus, because he was the Son from eternity. But the Scripture tells us that the Word became flesh as the only begotten of the Father, so that he would be the firstborn of many brothers. so in the family of Jesus there's not only the eternal son but there are all sorts of adopted sons and daughters who are brothers of Jesus that's what he came to do that's what he came to accomplish that's what it meant for the creator to become a creature to live among us so that he would invite us call us act in our hearts that we would become his brothers and sisters that's another glory isn't it almost beyond imagining that we would be not only the children of God, but we would be brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ. Born again into a new family. We know that phrase, don't we, from John, from John chapter 3, that we would be born again. Although, you remember, don't you, you Greek scholars, That there's an ambiguity there. While one good translation is that we're to be born again, equally good is that we're to be born from above. So yes, we have to be born again, but that being born again is being born from above, by the action of God, to incorporate us into his family. And that's what Jesus came to do. To incorporate us into his family. to make sure that we're born again, to make sure that we're born from above, to make sure that we're born from God. And this is the glory that John wants us to see on this Christmas day. The essence of Christmas is not about a baby, because Jesus hasn't been a baby in a very long time. The essence of Christmas is that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and that we beheld His glory, glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. now if I'd written the first chapter of John I'd have left out some verses which clearly sort of spoiled the thing I'm joking again don't look too nervous but you know verses 6 through 8 and verse 15 the chapter would read better without them they seem to interrupt the flow of the thought They turn from the word and from the glory of Jesus to talk about John the Baptist. Why do we need to hear about John the Baptist? We could hear about him later. Don't spoil this wonderful chapter. Well, what are we told about John the Baptist in the middle of this chapter? See, John's smarter than I am. He knew what he was doing. John 1, verse 6. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness. John 1, verse 15, John bore witness about him. And then verse 19, and this is the testimony of John. And John's point, I think, is really very clear. This glorious reality that we're privileged to know demands that we bear witness to it. Demands that we talk about it. demands that we're willing to say when people say, I know the reason for Christmas. We don't have to be too nasty about this, but we can say maybe, well, you know, I know the reason for Christmas. And this is the reason for Christmas. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. May the real glory of Christmas fill us all with hope in believing and with a confidence to bear witness to our Christ. Amen. Let us pray. Father, we can't fully comprehend such glory, but it's a glory given to us to encourage us. A glory given that we should bless you and rejoice in you. And so tonight we pray that every one of us here might have seen that glory, might have experienced that glory, might have believed in that glory. And we pray that we might indeed be a people who bear testimony to the real glory of Jesus. Hear us and bless us, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.