Friday’s Featured Sermon: “The Word Became Flesh”
The gospel of John has never been a prominent part of most Christmas celebrations. It contains no birth story, no manger scene, no shepherds or wise men, and Mary doesn’t appear until Christ’s first miracle—turning water into wine—at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1). We rely on the narratives in Matthew and Luke to piece together the actual events surrounding the Lord’s birth. Yet John’s account is crucial in order to understand the true meaning, significance, and implications of Christ’s entry into this world.
It is in John’s gospel that we see behind the veil of the incarnation and know the Lord as He is and always has been. Jesus appears in the opening passage (John 1:1–18) as the eternal Word and God of all creation. John describes His entry into our world by saying, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).
In his sermon “The Word Became Flesh,” John MacArthur labels those four words “the most profound truth of all truth” and the fundamental reason we celebrate Christmas.
There is a supernatural reality going on here that John explains, and it is critical for us to understand. The non-negotiable reality that we celebrate at this time of the year is that the eternal God, the infinite, transcendent, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present, everlastingly unchanging, eternal God of the universe became a human being. That is the message.
John’s sermon taps into the profound riches found in the prologue to the fourth gospel account (John 1:1–14). “The Word Became Flesh” emphasizes Christ’s three key attributes decribed in that passage: His eternality, His equality with the Father, and His essence as the source of all life. Jesus stooped down to dwell among us without ceasing to be who He has always been. And that is how we should know and worship Him.
The apostle Peter’s desire for his readers was that they would “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Jesus, in His high priestly prayer, said that knowing Him is synonymous with eternal life (John 17:3). If we share in that desire to know Christ, “The Word Became Flesh” is a powerful and convicting sermon to that end—revealing Christ as eternal, supreme in His sovereign reign, and exclusive in His unsurpassed power. Understanding Christmas is all about knowing the Word made flesh.
