The Word Made Flesh

One of the problems with Christmas is that we think we’re getting meaningfulness too easily. You go to a Christmas service or even a Christmas party, and a couple of people say a couple of words. You come and you sing Christmas carols. While that’s good, we settle for too little, because the meaning of Christmas is inexhaustible. But it’s filled with theologically powerful, life-changing truths.

We’re going to look at John 1, because while the beginning of Matthew and the beginning of Luke tell you about the facts of Christmas, tell you what happened (shepherds, angels, baby in the manger, and all that), John 1 doesn’t mention any of those things. What John is concentrating on is what all those things mean, not so much what happened at Christmas but what Christmas means.

What we’ll do is simply meditate on three aspects of the most pregnant part of this famous passage. It’s in verse 14, where it says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us [so we could see his glory].” I just want to break those three things down and talk about them tonight to see how powerful the meaning of Christmas is.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 13, 2009. Series "Christmas 2009". Scripture: Hebrews 2:14-18; Mark 2:5.

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