The Word Became Flesh

January 4, 2026

In "The Word Became Flesh," Pastor Dave Gustavsen introduces the Gospel of John as an intentional, evangelistic journey meant to deepen our belief in who Jesus is and experience true life in His name. Teaching from John 1, he highlights three reasons to believe in Jesus: who He is, how He came, and what He offers. The message calls us to move beyond self-focused goals and personally receive Jesus, discovering the abundant life found in knowing Him.

Good morning Chapel family. Happy New Year! Are you ready for a new beginning? I hope you’re trusting God for new things and good things as we enter this new year.

Can I tell you about one new thing I’m excited about? For the past 16 months I have been leading without an Executive Pastor. Which has been a stretch—that person oversees a huge amount of the work of this church, and it’s really my right-hand man. So I am very happy to say God has brought us the right person. I’d like to introduce you to The Chapel’s next Executive Pastor, Josh Siergey. He’s married to Debra and they have two teenage daughters, Emma and Lilly. He’s originally from Chicago; he has served at churches in Nevada and Texas, and he’ll be starting here on February 1. So as I look ahead to the new year, I’m so looking forward to you meeting Josh.

I am always interested in the New Year’s resolutions people are making. According to yougov, these are the top five resolutions for 2026. You ready? Number five: Improve physical health. Number four: Save more money. Number three: Eat healthier. Number two: Be happy. And the number one resolution for 2026: Exercise more. Did you notice any patterns? Three out of the five relate to physical health; one is about money, and one is about happiness. And there’s nothing wrong with any of that! But you know what stands out to me? Jesus said the two most important commandments are to love God and love people, and there’s no hint of those anywhere on the list.

So let’s allow Jesus to shape the way we dream about this new year. And the way we’re going to do that as a church is by studying the Gospel of John, starting today and ending at the end of the summer. So it’s going to be an eight-month journey through John. John has always been my favorite Gospel, and I love that he wrote with a clear purpose. In John chapter 20, verse 30—look at this—this is almost at the very end of the book: 30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. In other words, John is unapologetically evangelistic. The reason he wrote is so that people who don’t believe in Jesus would be confronted with the truth of who he is, and become believers. Let me ask you a question: do you have people that you love, who don’t know Christ? I do. And it weighs on my heart like nothing else. And this book is going to help us engage those people, maybe in some ways we never thought about before. So John is strongly evangelistic.

But it’s more than that. Because look at those verses again: believing in Jesus, and having life in his name, isn’t just about conversion. If you are already a believer, this is about you. It’s about believing more deeply in Christ, and having more life in his name. Parents, have you ever given your kids a great gift on Christmas, and later in the day you look in the living room, and the gift is nowhere in sight, but they’re playing with the box? Like, you guys are missing the main thing! And we could have saved a lot of money! As believers, we have this priceless gift in Christ, meant to affect every part of our lives, but honestly some of us are still playing with the box. And John is going to help us discover the true value of the gift.

Now: throughout this series, we are recommending a simple method for you to engage with the Scriptures. If you don’t have a journal already, get one. And every week on the sermon page of the web site, we’re going to provide guidance for which passages to look at through the week, using the “SOAP” method of Bible study. It’s really simple—it stands for Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer. It’s a great way to slow down and spend time with the Scripture, rather than just hearing it on Sundays. So take this opportunity to dive deeply into the Word.

Okay—are you ready for a new beginning? Let’s go back to the very beginning. Before time. Before creation. All that existed was God. That’s where John begins his Gospel, and that’s where we begin today—John chapter one, verse 1. This God’s Word for us on this first Sunday of a new year…

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. This is the Word of the Lord, and thanks be to God.

Remember the purpose of John? So people will believe that Jesus is who he says he is. So as he begins, John gives us three big reasons we should believe in Jesus—not just for eternal life, but also for abundant life in 2026.

First, because of Who He Is. Look again at John 1:1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. One Bible commentator said this verse “is the most compact and pulsating theological statement in all of Scripture.” Because in very few words, it tells us a tremendous amount about Jesus. But to get what this verse means, there’s a particular word we need to understand. You know what the word is? Word. In the beginning was the Word. In Greek, this is the word logos.

If you were a Jewish person, and you heard, “The Word,” you would immediately think of the spoken word of God. When God speaks, things happen. Which isn’t true for us, right? I can walk into a room and say, “Let there be light,” and nothing will happen—unless my words are accompanied by actions. I need to reach for the light switch, or go over to a lamp, and turn it on. I know what some of you are thinking: “No, no—because I have Alexa! I can just speak.” I knew you’d say that. But even then, you need to make sure Alexa is set up, and plugged into power. It’s never just the force of our words that makes things happen. But it is with God. God spoke into the darkness, “Let there be light,” and there was light. So when a Jewish person heard logos, they would think of God’s power and authority to make things happen with just a word.

If you were a Greek person, that word would mean something different. Because the Greeks believed there was a universal principle that governed the universe, and they called it the logos. Not a personal God; more like a principle or a force that held things together. Which I think resonates with us, because even if people don’t believe in God, they have a natural sense of what’s fair and logical and reasonable. And that’s what the Greeks called the logos, or “the word.”

So look what John is doing—this is brilliant! He uses a term—logos—that Jewish people and Greek people both understood. He’s going to show the Jewish people that God’s powerful Word became a person, and walked the earth. Shocking to a Jew! He’s going to show the Greek thinkers that yes—there is something that holds the universe together…but it’s not a impersonal force! It’s a man. Amazing! The Word—the logos—is a Person! John’s life has been changed by this person, and he wants his readers to experience the same thing.

So here’s what John tells us about the Word, Jesus:

First of all, He is Eternal. It starts out In the beginning… Does that remind you of any other place in the Bible? Genesis 1:1—In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Here’s what John is saying: all the way back then—in eternity past—before creation—Jesus was there. There was never a time that Jesus didn’t exist. People get confused, because they think that at Christmas, we’re celebrating the day Jesus came into existence. No! We’re celebrating the day that Jesus became human. But he had already existed for eternity past.

A few chapters ahead, John chapter 8, Jesus is talking to a group of Jewish people, and he says, Before Abraham was born, I am. Just for context, Abraham lived around 1,800 years earlier. And Jesus says, “Yeah—I was around before him.” And the people who hear him say that pick up stones to stone him, because they realize he’s claiming for himself something that’s only true of God.

So if you’re wondering why Christians believe Jesus is so unique among leaders, this is one of the reasons: he claims to be eternal.

Secondly, he is Creator. Look at verse 3: Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. Notice—it doesn’t say: “Jesus was created first, and then he helped to create everything else.” It says, without him, nothing was made that has been made. In other words, Jesus—God the Son—collaborated with God the Father to create the world. And the New Testament continues to echo that truth. Colossians 1:16 says this about Jesus: For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. Jesus is the Creator!

I realize some of you disagree with that. Because you believe that we are here by accident. And I’m not going to get into scientific reasons why I believe in a Creator, but I will say this: the conditions on our planet that make life possible are so precise, and so unlikely to occur by accident, that scientists have to come up with an explanation of how this could have possibly happened. Some scientists believe in a multiverse—in other words, so many universes exist, and one of them worked out to be just right for human life. Other scientists think that’s too much of a stretch, so it’s becoming more popular to believe we are living in a computer simulation. I’m serious. Like The Matrix. Neil deGrasse Tyson—the popular scientist, said he believes it’s 50-50 possibility you and I aren’t really here; we’re living in a computer simulation. Elon Musk said he believes it too. Because you have to explain this somehow.

And I want to challenge you to consider that believing in a personal Creator is actually less of a stretch of the imagination. And if that’s true—that the Jesus who walked this earth is the one who created us—think of how much he must understand who we are and what we need.

Jesus is eternal, he’s the Creator, and third, he is Divine. Of all the claims this makes about Jesus, this is the most shocking. Not only was Jesus with God in the beginning; not only did he take part in creation; look at that last phrase: and the Word was God. When Jesus walked the earth, it was this claim that got him in the most trouble. And today, people still struggle with this. If you get a knock on your door from a friendly pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses, they will try to convince you that the Greek really says “the Word was a god.” Don’t believe it. Not only because of this verse, but because all throughout the Gospels Jesus makes claims to divinity: he forgives sin; he performs miracles; he lets people worship him; and the rest of the New Testament confirms his deity. When Doubting Thomas refuses to believe that Jesus has risen from the dead, and then Jesus steps into the room, remember what Thomas says? “My Lord and my God.” If you read the New Testament honestly, you have to conclude that it presents Jesus as God.

And because of all this, look how John sums up this whole section in the last verse—verse 18: No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. In other words, if you want to know what the invisible God looks like, look at Jesus. If all your goals for 2026 are self-focused, and you realize you need spiritual meaning, look at Jesus. He’s the key that unlocks the treasure.

So: why should we believe in Jesus? First of all, because of who he is.

Second, because of How He Came. Verse 14 says The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. That phrase “made his dwelling among us” literally says “pitched his tent.” Which is clearly a reference to the Jewish tabernacle. The tabernacle was like a big tent that the Israelites would set up during their travels, and it was the place that God manifested his presence among the people. If you wanted to meet with God, you would go to the tabernacle. So John is saying, “It’s different now. God no longer shows up in a tabernacle or a temple; now he has shown up in a person named Jesus.”

So just think about this: the eternal, all-powerful God, now walking around in a frail human body. Why would he do that? Tim Keller said this:

There is no way to have a real relationship without becoming vulnerable to hurt. Christmas tells us that God became breakable and fragile. God became someone we could hurt. Why? To get us back. No other religion—whether secularism, Greco-Roman paganism, Eastern religion, Judaism, or Islam—believes God became breakable or suffered or had a body.

The Word became flesh—became vulnerable—so he could have a relationship with us.

But look at the rest of the verse: We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Somehow, even though people encountered Jesus came as a regular man, if they had eyes to see, they saw something else. They saw glory. They saw something heavenly and powerful and radiant in this simple man. And look how John describes the glory of Jesus at the end of this verse: he says Jesus was full of two things. Can we say them together? Jesus was full of grace and truth.

Grace means God’s undeserved favor. Generous treatment that we don’t deserve. Like the Prodigal Son who ran away from home and wasted his inheritance, and when he crawls back home his father embraces him and puts a robe on him and welcomes him back to the family. Jesus was full of that. That’s why lepers and tax collector and prostitutes felt shut out by the synagogue, but they felt welcomed by Jesus. Grace is a beautiful, powerful force. Jesus was full of grace.

But you can’t stop there. Because the full glory of Jesus isn’t just grace. It’s also truth. Jesus didn’t soften his message to protect our feelings. He spoke truth.

At the 2018 Golden Globe awards, Oprah Winfrey was given a lifetime achievement award. In her acceptance speech she said, "What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have." About that phrase, “your truth,” author Brett McCracken wrote this:

“Your truth.” Those two words are so entrenched in our lexicon today that we hardly recognize them for the incoherent nightmare that they are. Among other things, the philosophy of "your truth" destroys families when a dad suddenly decides "his truth" is calling him to a new lover, a new family, or maybe even a new gender. It's a philosophy that can destroy entire societies, because invariably one person's truth will go to battle with another person's truth, and devoid of reason, only power decides the victor.

“Your truth” autonomy invariably leads to loneliness. It erroneously suggests we can live unencumbered and uninfluenced by the various structures that surround us (families, churches, cultures, biology, etc.). But it becomes impossible to form community when everyone is their own island, with no necessary reliance upon larger truths or embeddedness within a bigger story.

One of the reasons that so many 20-somethings are turning to Jesus today is because they are so tired of a culture that tells them to come up with their own truth. They have tasted the confusion and loneliness of that kind of life. And in Jesus they see an alternative to culture—not only someone who spoke true, but who had the boldness to say, “I am the truth.”

We have seen the glory of the One who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. If you have grace without truth, you just have a big softy. If you have truth without grace, you have a tyrant. But Jesus was full of grace and truth—in perfect balance—and that’s why his influence has been so vast.

Why should be believe in Jesus? Because of who he is, because of how he came, and then lastly…

Because of What He Offers. Verse 11 says He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. As we study John, we’re going to see that the most common response to Jesus was rejection. People saw him, they heard him teach, and they said, “I’ll pass.” And the scary thing is, when we reject Jesus, he honors our choice. He clearly warns us that if we spend our lives rejecting him, we’ll spend eternity separated from God. But he never forces himself on anyone. He treats us like adults and honors our dignity. For the most part, people rejected him.

But not everyone. Look at verse 12: 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. If you miss this, you’re missing the whole reason this book was written. Jesus did not come to increase our knowledge or give us some inspiring thoughts. Jesus came to this earth to make us children of God. And just like natural children start out by being born, children of God start out by being born of God.

How do you get that? Well, verse 12 says, “to those who believed in his name.” And you say, “Well, I believe in Jesus. I believe he existed. So I guess I’m a child of God.” But notice the other phrase in verse 12: to all who received him. See, it’s not just about acknowledging a set of facts about Jesus; it’s about opening your life to him and receiving him personally. Embracing with your heart and mind and will the person of Jesus—putting all your trust in him. And when you make that giant step of faith, you are reborn as a child of God.

This past year at The Chapel, we saw that change happening in so many lives. We baptized almost twice as many people as we did the previous year; every week I met people who’d been invited to church by their friends for the first time; our people were going deeper through fasting and prayer and studying doctrine; we had to add a third service to accommodate the growth God was bringing. Through The Chapel, by God’s grace, people experienced eternal life and abundant life. And it was awesome. And I believe God is just getting started.

The purpose for John’s Gospel is for people to believe in Christ and experience life in his name. So let me mention three ways, this winter, that we are partnering with God in that same goal.

The first one is coming up this Wednesday night. We have the incredible privilege of hosting a world-renowned author and Christian apologist named Rebecca McLaughlin. She’s really smart, but she’s also very gracious, and it’s a safe place to invite your spiritually skeptical friends to come and ask anything. We decided to make this event free, and it’s filling up fast. So make sure you register under the “events” page on our web site.

That event leads right into our January J-term course, which begins the following Tuesday. It’s going to be a three-week course in Christian Apologetics, which means giving reasons for the truth of Christianity. That’s filling up quickly as well, so you can register for that at thechapel.org.

And then in February, we kick off Alpha. Alpha is a conversational group, built around food and conversation, for people who are exploring the Christian faith. It’s a great group for you to attend with a friend who’s searching. Or if you’re searching, just show up. And you can register for Alpha on our Small Groups page. So it’s going to be an exciting winter at The Chapel. And of course in about six weeks we’re hosting our tenth annual Night to Shine, our prom for people with special needs, which is a great demonstration of how we live when we’re being transformed by Christ.

I’ve shared with you before the story of Joshua Bell, the world-famous violinist. A few years ago he took his 3.5 million dollar Stradivarius violin into the Washington DC subway station. He was dressed in a T-shirt and a baseball cap. And he played for 43 minutes. Over a thousand people passed by, and he earned $32 in change thrown into his violin case. But only recently did I hear this part of the story: exactly one person realized who he was. Her name was Stacy. She stood there, ten feet away from Bell, front row, center, with this huge grin on her face. She later said, “It was the most astonishing thing I’ve ever seen in Washington. Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him. Quarters! I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, what kind of city do I live in that this could happen?’”

It’s so much like the story of Jesus! He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. The majority of people walked right by, oblivious to the treasure right in front of them. But not everyone. To those who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Those people were in the minority, but that little minority started a movement that continues to this day. And as we enter 2026, we have the privilege of taking this treasure of Jesus, and making him known to this world who has no idea what they’re missing.