Behold His Glory

 Behold the glory of God. If you have your Bible, you can turn to John 1, which is where we are going to be today. And even as you are turning there, some of you might be thinking, what did the pastor mean when he said behold the glory of God? Maybe you have said that phrase before, maybe you've heard it before, maybe you have sung about it, expressed it. If you have said that phrase before, I'm just curious, I'm wondering how many of you had a good understanding of what you meant when you were using that phrase? And then I'm also curious as to how many of you had no clue what you were saying when you were using that phrase? Generally speaking, it is helpful to know what we mean when we use words or phrases, is it not? I've been in positions before where I have said some things, and really had no idea what I was saying. I'm gonna tell you an embarrassing story of myself for you not to laugh at. No, I'm kidding, you can laugh all you want. So I was, I don't know, a number of years ago, reminiscing, my wife and I, we were kinda just walking through this old church building that we were a part of, and just got to see places where I had learned about Jesus, learned about the gospel, and, you know, when you're kinda walking room to room, you just get all of these, you know, feelings back. Just really, really cool, right? The word I was going for was nostalgic. Makes sense, right? So when I was talking with the pastor afterward, and I'm just, you know, I meant to say it's nostalgic being back here, and just brings back a lot of great feelings, all of that, but, unfortunately, the word that I had used that I thought meant nostalgic, here's what I said. You know, pastor, thank you so much for having us back here. It's great, it is just so lethargic being back here. Yeah. It's helpful to know what we mean when we use words, or phrases 'cause apparently what I said was it is, I feel tired, low in energy, apathetic, all from being back here. Merry Christmas and God bless you. I was going for nostalgic, and I will never confuse the differences of those two words again. I got 'em, I know 'em. Sometimes you gotta learn things the hard way, right? But it is helpful to know what we mean when we use words or phrases. So when we get to the word, or the phrase, rather, behold the glory of God. What does that mean? What does that look like? How does that apply to our lives? You know, thankfully, the Apostle John in his letter will actually help us, I think, have a really deep, rich understanding of what this means for us. So if you would please, we can turn to John 1 beginning in verse 14. Here's what it says. "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." And then just another version of this says this. New King James says. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the one only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth." You hear it? We have beheld his glory, we have seen his glory. This is what John is saying to us. Now just some terms that I think are helpful for our understanding first is behold. What does that word mean? Well, here's what it literally means. To see, to look at, to contemplate, to look at intensely. This is why the NIV in our text here translates this as we have seen his glory, we have seen it, we have beheld it, behold the glory of God. And then, also, when we think of the word glory, this as we learned a couple of weeks ago, it means weight or heaviness. So we can infer this that the glory of God, it is the weight of all that he is. As Jonathan Edwards said, "The weight of all that he is to us," or even as Jonathan Piper said, John Piper, he noted it is the going public of his holiness. And we can behold it, we can see it, we can look at it, we can reflect upon it, we can contemplate, we can behold the weight of who God is to us. That's pretty astounding. So when you put all of this together, and when we look at John 1:14, here's just one main idea that I hope that we wouldn't miss today, and it's this. We can see the glory of God in Jesus. We can see the glory of God in Jesus. I believe this is what John is actually helping us to understand just in this one verse, which we are going to break down in our time together, just John 1:14. Some of you are like, thank you, one verse is helpful for me 'cause I was up late last night celebrating, you know, victory. Victory Sunday today, go Bills, but we're just gonna be breaking down this verse together. And even when you look at Paul's letter, he actually helped us to understand this as we saw a few weeks ago as well. For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ. You see, we can see the glory of God in Jesus. That's remarkable. And I pray that the weight of who God is, the weight of who he is would fall on our hearts again, together today. And so maybe I could ask us a guiding question that I think could be helpful for us, and it's this. What has Jesus revealed to us about God's glory? If we can see the glory of God in Jesus as John helps us to understand, then what is it that we can actually see about the glory of God? What has Jesus revealed to us about it? Well, here's the first truth that I would give us, and it's this. Jesus has revealed to us the glory of God's pursuit. We can see, contemplate, reflect on the glory of God's pursuit. If we were to look at the first part of John 1:14, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. You see, it is the Word that has become flesh, and made his dwelling among us. We can see the weight of God's pursuit toward us. And John wrote that the Word, the Word became flesh referring to Jesus. The Word is referring to Jesus. And this Word became flesh. And it's not the first time that we hear about this Word. In fact, if we were to back up in John 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God. This term Word, here's what it means in the Greek. Logos, Logos, the term Logos. Here's why I mentioned that. It's because this would have, Logos would have a very wide variety of usages in the first century. In fact, the Greeks would use this term in association with reasoning and philosophy because Logos is what helped to keep the universe in its order. And it helped to reason things out, philosophy, philosophical there, Logos for the Greeks, but for the Jews on the other hand, when they would maybe use this term or hear this term, they would probably harken back to creation because when we think about this, God would speak everything in its motion. God would speak the universe into existence. And so even though this term had a wide variety of usages, John appropriated this term to Jesus, here's why. It's because Jesus would be the very message of God to humanity. Jesus would be God's speech to us. Jesus would be the one that would order the universe in its motion. Jesus is God's great revelation and wisdom to us. He's the Logos, he's the Word, he's the Word of God. The very speech and communication of the very Godhead is revealed to us, is seen to us. We can see that in Jesus. So, even as we break that down, John, even when we saw John 1:1 there, it says, "In the beginning." That would harken us back to creation, right? Genesis 1:1. In the beginning God created the heavens, and the earth. We can recognize that just right within that phrase, but John would actually keep going when he talks about the Word, Jesus. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him nothing was made that has been made. We can see the eternal nature of Jesus. Jesus was with God in the beginning. He's the agent of all of creation as all things were made by him and to him and for him. Without him, the Logos, the Word, God's speech, God's revelation to us, nothing was made that has been made. So right within a few verses here we can realize that Jesus is himself God. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He is himself God. And he has always existed from eternity past, and always will exist for eternity future. He is eternal in nature. And this Jesus he is before all things, the agent of all of creation. And without him nothing was made that has been made. And so this, my friends, long precedes Bethlehem. Jesus long precedes Bethlehem even as we learned about last week, but here's what Bethlehem could actually teach us. Here's what this shows us. When we think of the Christmas story, and we think of the story of Bethlehem, and we think about that, it's remarkable because the one who has always existed, the Word, Jesus, who has always been and who always will be, he left the glory of heaven and he put on skin. He became a human being. He put on flesh. And the scripture says that he made his dwelling among us, that he moved into the neighborhood, so to speak, moved into the neighborhood of humanity so that we can see the glory of God, and the glory of God's pursuit toward us. And by the way, when we think of Jesus being fully God and fully man, we have to realize that at exactly the same time he became, he is the God-man, and so fully God, fully man. And when we think about this, the reality that God himself and the person of Jesus Christ became flesh, became a human being, became one of us. That is a miracle. That is a grand miracle. C.S. Lewis even wrote about this, he wrote that this is a grand miracle. Listen to what he wrote. The Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion being that what is beyond all space and time, which is uncreated, eternal, this is who God is, right? He's uncreated, he's eternal, but what happened? He came into nature, into human nature, descended into his own universe, and rose again, bringing nature up with him. You see, this is what we learn when we look at John 1:14, that the word became flesh. That Jesus became one of us. He moved into the neighborhood of humanity, and that is a grand miracle. And then verse 14 continues. He became flesh and made his dwelling among us. When we look at that phrase, and made his dwelling, here's what this means. The Word who is Jesus, we can say literally pitched his tent, lived in his tent, tabernacled among us. Tabernacle literally means dwelling place. Jesus dwelt among us made his dwelling place among us. Tabernacle, pitched his tent lived among us, the very one who is God. And so when we think of the word tabernacle, literally the translation there made his dwelling, or he tabernacled among us. When we think of the idea of the tabernacle, this would have Old Testament connotations to it, does it not? If you're familiar with the Bible, and even maybe the Old Testament, we actually come across this idea of God wanting to dwell, ever since the beginning of time dwelling with humanity, but even specifically in the Old Testament, we could look at Exodus as we can see this. It says, "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. In all the travels of the Israelites. Whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out, but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out until the day it lifted. So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all of their travels." So we see that the glory of the Lord was in the tabernacle. It filled the tabernacle, the very presence of God dwelling, and living among his people within a physical structure that the Israelites had. And so when we think of that with that understanding, what we have to realize, though, is that, yes, God made his visible presence seen, and known through the tabernacle, but only consecrated priests could go near, specifically, in the holy place, and then only the high priest once a year into the Holy of Holies. So, yes, God's visible presence made known for his people as the tabernacle would fill with the glory of God, but only few could draw near. So when we see what John is saying to us, what we must realize is that Jesus tabernacled among us, in other words, the very presence of God, yes, can be seen, can be realized, can be experienced, but also, we can all draw near to the very glory and presence of God because the scripture says that Jesus, who is our great high priest through what he has done, through his sacrifice on a cross for us, and through his blood, he is our great high priest who allows us to enter the Holy of Holies. He allows us to enter into the very presence of God. And we see through this passage here that God has come to dwell with us. And that's a beautiful thing that Jesus tabernacled among us. He made his presence known to us, God with us, but what we also must understand is this. God has come near to us so that we can draw near to him. We can draw near to God because Jesus tabernacled, made his presence known to us so that we can experience the glory of who he is. If by faith we would turn to him, and trust him for all who would believe. And so with that understanding, with that as the backdrop, how can we not say anything other, but what a glorious pursuit. What a glorious pursuit that God in the person of Jesus left heaven, lived and dwelled among us, so that we can experience and draw near to God himself. What a glorious pursuit. You see, the Christmas story, it's not about when we look at this verse that we're looking at and the Word becoming flesh, and making his dwelling among us, the Christian's story isn't about what you can do to get to God. So often maybe we talk that way, that we have to do enough good things in order to experience God, or in order to experience more of his love for us. Listen, God loves you. His love is consistent through the ages. You see the story of Christmas isn't about what you can do to get to God, but the story's actually about what God has done to get to you. It's about God living and dwelling among us, making his glory known to us so that we can draw near to God who has created us and has come for us. So what a glorious pursuit. And when we look at that, it's lofty, it's rich, it's wonderful to behold, but let me ask a more pointed question to you. As God has gone to these great lengths to pursue us, what does your pursuit of him look like? What does your pursuit of God look like? Maybe we have forgotten the great lengths that God has gone to pursue us, literally dwelling among humanity, literally becoming one of us, literally moving into the neighborhood. Have we gotten to used to that? Have we gotten so familiar with the Christmas story? Because I find that even in my own life that if I drift from pursuing God as priority, it's often because I have failed to remind myself of the glorious pursuit of God toward me. And so I encourage you to remember, to behold, to look at that God loves you, he cares for you, he has pursued you. You're not alone, you're not abandoned, you're not forgotten. God cares for you. He became one of us. If that doesn't scream I love you, if that doesn't scream I got you, if that doesn't scream I care for you, I don't know what does. And maybe we just need to remind ourselves of the glory of that pursuit that God has drawn near to us so that we can draw near to him. You see, it is a grand miracle. It's a grand miracle. And Jesus helps us to see this glorious pursuit. He puts it on display for us all, but, secondly, the second truth I would tell us. Jesus has also revealed to us the glory of God's character. See, it is the glory of God's character that we can see on display in the person of Jesus Christ. If we were to look at John 1 again, it says this. 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." Full of grace and truth. If the first truth told us something about what God has done to draw near to us, this truth, I believe tells us something about what God is like, his character. And John talks about it being grace and truth, that Jesus is filled with grace and truth. This tells us something about the nature, and the character of God, right? And this balance of grace and truth is revealed to us. And even when we think about it, grace and truth, it's not the first time that we hear of it, or at least of hearing about God's glory being in relationship to his character. We actually hear some references to God revealing his glory to humanity through revealing his character. In fact, when Moses was talking to the Lord, God had revealed himself to him, and talked about how his glory, and seeing his glory, would be consistent with seeing his character. In fact, listen to it in Exodus. Then Moses said, here's what Moses says. "Show me your glory God." And the Lord said, "I will cause all of my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Did you hear it? Moses says to the Lord, show me your glory God. And God says, "I will pass all of my goodness in front of you." You see, a part of seeing the glory of God, and the weight of who God is is seeing his character on display. And here's what I'll tell you, he's good. He is a good God. And this is what Moses is experiencing. He's experiencing the goodness of God passing right in front of him. And then shortly thereafter, we can see this in Exodus 34. And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in faithfulness and truth." Sound familiar? We're gonna come back to that. "Who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of his law and sin, yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children, and the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

- When we look at this phrase, abounding in faithfulness and truth, this word here, faithfulness. It's actually the Hebrew word hesed. Now my Hebrew is not good by any stretch, but I point it out because it's important for us. Hesed actually is probably in our context in English better described maybe than it is translated word for word. Sometimes when you're translating from different languages, you don't maybe get the full grasp of what is being said in that particular word. So hesed actually means God's covenant love. That's what the word literally means. God's covenant love that he has demonstrated towards his people. How can we fully describe that? This is why we see many contexts as translated mercy. God is faithful in his covenant love. So faithfulness as we saw. He's steadfast, he's kind, and over and over we see this description about God, hesed, hesed, right? And we see that over and over again throughout the scripture, but here's as one commentator said that this could be translated, or at least here's something we can describe this as. One scholar said it this way. We can describe the Word as the graciousness of love that is at stake. The graciousness of love. In other words, God's covenant love is an act of such grace. So we see there that even as God is describing himself, we see that he is full of love, faithfulness, mercy, which we can see as such an act of grace. And then God also said, and truth. And so this phrase even when we think of the scripture, and seeing whether scripture writers would refer to God this way, or even as we saw there, God describing his character for humanity, we see that God is full of hesed, mercy, love, kindness, grace and truth. And so over and over and over again, we will see throughout the scripture that this is God's description of his character. So when we get to John, and John likely borrows that understanding and says, Jesus has revealed the character of God to us, full of grace and truth. This is how he describes the character of Jesus. So in other words, just as God passed in front of Moses, and revealed the glory of his character, the weight of what his character is like, his goodness, abounding in love, abounding in grace, abounding in truth, John is also helping us to see that this is the same God, the same God who has always existed. And do you know what he's like? He's full of grace. He is full of truth. Grace and truth. When we think of those words, Jesus is the perfect balance of that. We can see God's grace. I mean even throughout the gospel of John, even John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. Grace. How about John 14:6? Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." Could anything be more straightforward? He is the truth. He is the perfect balance of grace and truth. So, anything shy of Jesus in terms of how we talk about grace, or how we talk about truth is a cheapened view. And anything shy of Jesus in terms of how we talk about grace or truth is a cheapened view. You see, Jesus, he is fully gracious to us. His grace made us alive. His grace has changed us. His grace came to us when we were undeserving. And the truth is not defined by you and me, friends, it's not defined by our culture. It's not defined by our news media of choice. It's not defined by any of those things. It's defined by Jesus. And we need this balance because truth without grace will lead to legalism, self-righteousness. Look at me, I'm better than you. No one would ever say that ever, but that's what it could lead to. Grace without truth. Grace without truth, and maybe sometimes we just wanna always talk about grace. We need truth because grace without truth, here's what it leads to. I don't need God. I could do whatever I want. And there's just grace. Paul would argue against that. Sinning increases grace, increases all the more. Because we've experienced this grace, should we keep on sinning? Of course not. You see, when we boil these things down, these terms down, we need grace, we need truth. We need the balance of this reality, and we can see it in the person of Jesus Christ. And by the way, is there anything more grace-filled, anything more truth-filled than the fact that there was an announcement of good news that a Savior would be born? Is there anything more grace-filled, and truth-filled than that? Because here's the truth. Sin has left us separated from a holy God. You and I cannot earn our way to God. And because of that we deserve death. We deserve the condemnation. We deserved shame, we deserved separation from God. That is the truth, but the truth is also this. The grace of God has appeared to us, and we have received grace. We have because of that have received mercy, fellowship with God. Our shame being scorn, death, being defeated, and resurrection life. You see where grace and truth meet, you meet Jesus. And anything shy of that is a cheapened view. So Jesus, he reveals to us the character of God, that he is the same God. We can see the weight of his goodness, the weight of his character on display for us being full of grace and full of truth, but then also John will tell us this. That not only can we see the glory of God's pursuit, the glory of God's character, but we can see the glory of God himself. We can see the glory of God himself. If we were to look back at John 1:14, here's what it says. "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." You see, Jesus, we have seen his glory, John says. The glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father. So far we have seen what God has done that he put on flesh, he moved into the neighborhood, he tabernacled among us. We have seen the glory of his character being full of grace and truth, but we cannot miss that Jesus helps us to actually see God himself, and listen to this, and live. We can see the glory of God himself and live because when we think of this. A little bit later in John's gospel in verse 18, listen to what it says. 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. Did you hear that? No one has ever seen God. In fact, when we think of that, do you know why no one could actually see God? It's because the weight of his glory would be so heavy. The weight of his glory would be so heavy that it would consume you. The weight of his holiness and righteousness it would consume a mere human being. And so when we think of right after the Lord addressed Moses, and the glory of the Lord passed in front of Moses, listen to what God said. But you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. Then the Lord said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock where my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock, and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back, but my face must not be seen." Moses and even by extension everyone else within the Israelite community, but Moses was not able to look directly at God. He was not able to see his face and live because his glory would be so majestic, so wondrous, so heavy. And even for some context after that, when God would meet with Moses at Mount Sinai, and speak to him, when Moses came down from the mountain, do you know what he had to put over his face? A veil would have to cover his face because the glory after meeting with God on a mountain, and just talking with him, the glory that would radiate forth from Moses' face would be so glorious, so weighty, that they couldn't even see Moses' face after Moses met with God. And so what we see in our context here, this is astounding to us because what was impossible has now become possible. Meaning this, John says, "We have seen his glory. Who is the one who is himself God." God becoming a human being actually allows us to see God himself and live. You see the eyes of our hearts can see Jesus because of the Spirit of God in us. And we can approach God's glory. We can approach Jesus. We can approach the ministry of the Spirit who points us to Jesus Christ. We can approach him with boldness, with unveiled faces. Moses' face had to be veiled to cover the glory, but Paul actually says that we can approach God's glory with unveiled faces. Listen to it. 2 Corinthians 3. We are not like Moses, who had put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away, but their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts, but whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is a Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate, reflect, look at, behold the glory of God, the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. So we all with unveiled faces can contemplate, can look at, can reflect upon God's glory in Jesus Christ. And when we do, Paul says that we are transformed into ever-increasing glory. We are ever-increasing, we will become ever-increasing in radiance. We go from glory to glory until we are glorified with Christ. And when that day comes, do you know what John says in another place, 1 John 3? When that day comes when we are glorified with Christ, we will see Jesus face to face, and listen, and we will be made like him. You see, we can see God in Jesus. And when we do that, when we contemplate his glory in Christ, when we reflect on it, when we see it, look at, behold it, Paul says, we are being transformed into ever-increasing glory. How remarkable is it? We go from sinner to saint, and then the Spirit of God continues to work in our lives making us look more and more like Jesus until one day we are made like him, and we will see him. What glorious truth that Jesus has revealed to us that we can see God himself, and live and dwell with him. And so when I think about this, I know I had mentioned earlier that we can see the glory of God in Jesus. I wanna also say this. When we see God's glory in Jesus, we will be forever changed. When we see God's glory in Jesus, we will be forever changed. So maybe I could ask us a few questions by way of application, maybe just some things to think about. Here's the first. Whose glory am I beholding? Whose glory am I beholding? Are we living for the glory of ourselves, or are we living for the glory of God? Are we living for what is our destiny of eternal glory being glorified with Christ? Are we cooperating with that, with the Spirit's activity in our lives, or are we living for our own glory? Because what you behold, friends, what you behold you will be shaped by what you behold. Listen to how Tim Keller wrote about this. Author, pastor, he said, "To behold the glory of Jesus means that we begin to find Christ beautiful for who he is in himself. It means a kind of prayer in which we are not simply coming to him to get his forgiveness, his help for our needs, his favor and blessing. Rather, the consideration of his character, words, and work on our behalf becomes inherently satisfying, enjoyable, comforting, and strengthening. John Owen insisted that it was crucial that Christians be enabled to do this. He reasoned that if the beauty and glory of Christ do not capture our imaginations, dominate our waking thought, and fill our hearts with longing and desire, then something else will. We will be continually ruminating on something, or some things as our hope and joy. What those things are, they will frame our souls, and transform us into their likeness. If we don't behold the glory of God in the face of Christ, then something else will rule our lives." You will become like what you behold. You will be shaped around what you are beholding. What are you looking at intensely? What are you fixing your eyes on? Are your eyes fixed on Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith? Who shares this glory with us. Who brings us from glory to glory, or are we living for the glory of ourself? Are we living just for the glory of what we want, and wanting to make ourselves feel good, and let everybody else know how great we are? Is that what we're living for? Because here's the difference. When we live for the glory of God, and we're beholding the glory of God, it will lead to ever-increasing radiance because you're with God and making his glory known, but if you're living for the glory of self, here is where that will lead to. Ever-increasing darkness. And so what would it look like for us to continually behold, set our gaze and our affection on the glory of God in Christ? Question is is whose glory are you beholding? Are you looking at? Are you reflecting? Are you contemplating? Second question I would ask is this. How can I better reflect the glory of God in my life? How could I better reflect the glory of God in my life? When you see the glory of God in Jesus you will be changed. You will be changed, so is your life a reflection of the glory of God? With unveiled faces, we can contemplate and behold God's glory. There is access for all to come, for all to draw near through what Jesus has done. And with unveiled faces, we can shine the radiance of the glory of God within the places and spaces that we are in. Our businesses, our schools, our workplaces, wherever we go we can shine the radiance of God's glory with an unveiled face because of Jesus making himself known, because of Jesus moving into the neighborhood of humanity. And so the question becomes when people see you, do they see the hope of glory in your life? Even maybe around the Christmas dinner table coming up, what would it look like for friends and family to see the glory of God radiate forth from your life? This is what we're made to do. This is how God has designed for us to live. And so when people see you, do they see God's glory? How can I better reflect the glory of God in my life? But, thirdly, I would ask, what would it look like to never stop gazing at the beauty of God's glory? What would it look like to never stop gazing at the beauty of God's glory? Maybe I could just tell you this. Never take your eyes off of Jesus. Never take your eyes off of him who makes God's glory known to us because as our eyes are on him, we will become more and more like him. So may our only response be worship and adoration, and praise for what God has done in the person of Jesus to make his glory known to us. Never stop gazing. Never take your eyes off of him. You can't see the glory of God and not be changed. So let's keep our eyes on him. Let's fix our minds on the things of God, the things of heaven. Let's look to the Lord our God and seek his strength, and his face always in the person of Jesus because when we see God's glory we will be forever changed. So this Christmas season, let me say it again. Behold the glory of God. It is helpful to know what we mean when we say that because when we do, we might just in fact be changed.