Passage: John 1:14

The Big Idea

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” literally means God pitched His tent among us. John connects Jesus to the tabernacle, the tent where God lived among Israel. The tabernacle was a detailed picture of Jesus, and in Him we see God’s glory: full of grace and truth. And out of His fullness, we all receive.

Camping

How many of you like to go camping?

Some people hear “camping” and think: beautiful mountains, campfire, stars, fresh air.

Other people hear “camping” and think: sleeping on rocks, mosquitoes, sweating in a tent, and wondering why they paid money to pretend they’re homeless.

But camping has one thing houses don’t: you’re right there with the people you’re with. Close. Shared life, shared meals, shared stories, shared space.

When John says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, he literally says God pitched His tent among us. The Creator of galaxies moved into the campground. The infinite God moved into our neighborhood. (Jesus probably burned a few s’mores.)

That’s the miracle of John 1:14.

The Text (John 1:14)

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

The Word Became Flesh

The Word, the Logos, Jesus, became flesh.

He humbled Himself.
He never stopped being fully God.
He also became fully man.
He had the real God experience and the real human experience.
He will forever be human.

Two audiences, one Messiah

The Greeks generally thought of God too low. To them, gods like Zeus and Hermes were basically supermen, nowhere near the order and reason of the Logos. So John told them: the Logos you know, the One who made and ordered the universe, actually became flesh.
The Jews generally thought of God too high. They had a hard time accepting that the great God of the Old Testament could take on human form. So John told them: the Word of God became flesh and lived among us.

Jesus is God’s message in person, and He took on a real human body. Christianity isn’t a vague spiritual idea. God entered flesh and lived in it.

He Tabernacled Among Us

The phrase “dwelt among us” literally means “pitched His tent among us.” It could be translated, “and tabernacled among us.”

John is connecting Jesus with the tabernacle, the tent where God came to live with Israel (Exodus 25-40).

Scripture spends more space describing the tabernacle than almost any other single thing. Genesis takes two chapters to describe God making the whole world fit for people to live in. Exodus takes more than a dozen chapters to describe the tabernacle, a place where God would be pleased to live with His people.

Why? Because the tabernacle is a multi-layered picture of the person and work of Jesus. Many people never study those chapters, yet the New Testament teaches that we can’t fully understand the way of Jesus without understanding the tabernacle (Hebrews 8-10).

Three Levels of Meaning

The tabernacle pictures three things for God’s children:

Heaven, where God dwells. It was patterned after heavenly realities (Hebrews 8:5).
Jesus on earth, the meeting place of God and man. Israel didn’t come up with this idea. God did. And it foreshadowed Jesus living as a man in His human “tent.”
Jesus with His church. How God and His people meet and commune. John hears a voice from heaven announce that God’s dwelling (His tabernacle) is now with people. He will live with them, they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them (Revelation 21:3).

It’s all about relationship. Nearness. Shared life.

So the key to understanding the tabernacle is always Jesus: His person and His work. Each part describes something about His character or ministry. None of it was a waste of paper. It isn’t just Jewish history. God always teaches with pictures before words, and these pictures teach much of the same truth we find in John, Romans and Ephesians.

We Beheld His Glory

The word beheld is stronger than “saw” or “looked at.” John and the other disciples carefully studied the glory of the Word made flesh.

And if the tabernacle is a long description of Jesus, it’s going to be full of pictures of God’s grace and truth.

Truth: Jesus is the honest Doctor. He tells us exactly what’s wrong.
Grace: Jesus is the life-saving prescription. His own life given to us. That’s grace!

How do we study it?

With humility and faith. God gives grace to the humble (James 4:6), and we access grace by faith (Romans 5:2). If we come with teachable, humble hearts, believing that Jesus is the real thing all of God’s Word points to, we’ll be blessed. We’ll receive the grace God longs to pour out. Used rightly, this is a relationship-building tool.

So, how’s your relationship with God?

Did you answer with outward measurements, things you’re doing? Or do you judge your relationship with God by inward realities, like humility before Christ and faith in Christ? As opposed to outward performance, or even inward performance?

Designed from the Inside Out

Exodus 25-31, the design of the tabernacle: God’s perspective. It’s described from the Most Holy Place outward to the courtyard. From in to out. That’s how grace works. First He changes the heart, then the actions follow. The opposite of law, rules and religion. (No wonder In-N-Out makes the best burgers.)
Exodus 32-33, the people’s rebellion.
Exodus 34-40, the construction: man’s perspective. Built from the courtyard inward to the Most Holy Place. From out to in.

How does it end? The cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34).

The outside of the tent wasn’t fancy. Yet it was filled with the glory of God.

Just like Jesus. He wasn’t fancy on the outside. Isaiah said He would grow up like a tender shoot from dry ground, with no special beauty or majesty to attract us (Isaiah 53:2). Yet all the fullness of God was in Him, full of grace and truth.

How the Tabernacle Pictures Jesus

It was a temporary, portable tent. Just like Jesus’ first coming. The tabernacle pictures His humble first coming; Solomon’s glorious temple pictures Jesus in His glory.
It was pitched in the wilderness. Jesus lived as a traveler who had no place to lay His head (Matthew 8:20).
It wasn’t fancy. Unlike Solomon’s temple. It pictures Jesus’ first coming, when His glory was hidden in a tent of flesh.
God’s presence lived there. God’s glory rested between the cherubim in the Most Holy Place, deep inside, where not everyone could see it. Jesus was filled with the Spirit and glory of God on the inside. The word Shekinah means “that which dwells” and describes God’s visible presence among people. Jesus showed us the substance of that glory: grace and truth.
People met with God there. Jesus is where we meet and commune with God. A high priest mediated between God and people, another picture of Jesus.
The Law was kept there, safe inside the ark. Jesus kept the Law in His heart. He didn’t come to abolish it, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17).
Sacrifice was made there. Sin was forgiven by the blood shed there. Just like Jesus.
It was a place of worship. God was the center of attention and was glorified by all that happened there. Just like Jesus, who always glorified His Father.
It had only one door. Jesus said, “I am the door,” the only way to the Father (John 10:9; 14:6).
Judah camped at its entrance. The tribe of Judah was stationed on the east side, by the tabernacle’s only door (Numbers 2:3). A clue to the tribe the Messiah would come from.

Full of Grace and Truth

How full? Infinitely. He is the source of all truth, and all grace.

What does that mean for me? Look ahead to verse 16: out of His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

How do I receive what He’s full of? Humility and faith. God gives grace to the humble, and we put our faith in His truth.

Receive grace as a gift. Truth says your sins were dealt with once for all, not repeatedly (Hebrews 10:10-14). And He has changed your heart.
Feed your mind with truth. Grace doesn’t just cover you; it re-educates you. As you keep hearing and believing truth, your mind is rewired (Romans 12:2).
Let grace produce the right response. Not law-pressure. Grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness, training us from the inside (Titus 2:11-12).
Be honest without begging to be forgiven. When you mess up, grace isn’t waiting to punish you. It gives you clarity and a future. For believers, confession is agreeing with God, not a cleansing ritual to regain your status.
Live from union. You don’t draw closer to God to become loved. You start from the fact that you’re already loved and secure in Christ.

Glamping

A friend told me he was planning to go “glamping,” camping in a fancy camper with all the comforts. It made me think: when the Word pitched His tent among us, it was camping with glory.

Glory camping. Glamping. Now that’s something I’d be into.

Grace Takeaway

God didn’t stay distant. He pitched His tent right in our campground and showed us His glory: full of grace and truth. Everything the tabernacle pictured is fulfilled in Jesus, and out of His fullness, you receive grace upon grace.

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