The Word Became Flesh

When you’ve lived as long as I have, and when you’ve been in church since before you can remember, you’ve heard a lot of sermons. I don’t know the original date of the sermon of which I speak, but without a doubt, it is the most profound I have ever heard. I repeat – EVER.

It’s by Dr. John MacArthur, and its title is The Word Became Flesh. He cites The Gospel of John 1:1-14, so be sure to read that prior to reading this post.

Dr. MacArthur begins by asking us to imagine the Christmas story without all the normal things we associate with the Christmas story. Would it still be the Christmas story? How would one tell such a story? He tells us to go to the Gospel of John, where the story is told without any of those things. And yet, it is the complete story without anything left out. It’s the Christmas story.

THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS

Four words jump off the page and tell us all we need to know about Christmas. The angels, shepherds, the star, the manger in the stable, even Mary and Joseph pale when we consider the heart of Christmas – The Word became flesh.

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Pastor John goes on to ask us just who is the Word? John has given us the answer right there in the opening of this first chapter of his gospel message. The Word was God.

IT’S JESUS

And God became flesh. That’s Jesus. Jesus was born of a virgin, a woman, and He was fully human, yet He was fully God. John goes further to underscore this truth—and dwelt among us.

Again, this was Jesus. The One who was in the Temple teaching, the One who raised Lazarus from the dead, the One who died on the cross for our sins, the One who was buried in a rich man’s tomb. The One who rose from the dead and who was seen by over 500 people after having done so. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

So much of this story is so remarkable, that it’s hard for our mere human minds to understand it. But when we invite God—Jesus into our hearts to be the Sovereign over every aspect of our lives, He comes to dwell within our hearts. At that moment, we finally come to understand just how vast God’s love for us truly is.

Matthew 1:23 (ESV) repeats the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14—Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us). That was Jesus. God with us. Which takes us right back, full circle, to the 14th verse of John. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

BUT WAIT – THERE’S MORE TO COME

And that’s the beginning of the gospel of John. This is so deep and so powerful, that I’m going to break this into about 3-4 blog posts. It gets much more complicated, and yet so simple a child can understand it. That’s the beauty of God’s Word.  I hope you’ll stick around for all of them. Until then . . .

Blessings, y’all!

I know many of you won’t particularly care for this kind of music, but this is what my husband and I sang for many, many years. It doesn’t get much better than Handel’s Messiah at Christmas time. I hope you’ll at least give this a try. Just reading about how Handel came to write this entire work in just days is in itself a miracle.