God so loved the world that he sent his son into it. That's what we celebrate this week, the birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the incarnation of God in the flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. So, of course, we can ask the question, "Why?" Why was the eternal Son of God born in a manger?

Why was he enfleshed? Why did he need a body? This obviously is at the very heart of the incarnation, and to explain, here is a sermon clip from John Piper as we find him preaching his way through the Gospel of John, and particularly as he and the church approach the Christmas season of 2009.

Here he is to explain the purpose of Christ's incarnation. There is no Christmas story, no traditional birth of Jesus story in the Gospel of John. We're still in the Gospel of John, still in chapter 6, but we're stepping back to get a bigger picture now of how Christmas is woven into this Gospel.

It doesn't have a story at the beginning like Luke does and Matthew does. Instead, the Christmas story is woven through the Gospel, and its meaning is given repeatedly in the Gospel. So it begins, the first verse of the book, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." So all the way back into eternity, there was the Word, and this mysterious statement, "The Word was God," and paradoxically, "The Word was with God." Was God with God?

And immediately you're into weighty Trinitarian matters, aren't you? I mean, you don't have to go reading theology books to know that's strange. How can you be God and be with God at the same time? Well, that's why we are who we are. In Trinitarian, he is God, and the Son is God, and the Spirit is God, and the Father is God.

There's one God and three persons. They're with each other, and they're one. And then verse 14, Christmas, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." Verse 16, "And from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace." So the eternal Word that had no beginning, never came into being, now, in the fullness of time, becomes flesh.

And in that way, the Son of God becomes flesh. The Son of God, Word, same person, becomes flesh, and in becoming flesh, reveals God like He had never been revealed before. So here we have God, He was God, clothing Himself with flesh, and the glory of God, the glory as of the only Son from the Father, is being revealed, like that glory had never been revealed before.

That's John's understanding of Christmas. God the Son comes, He is God, He's with God, He reveals God, and now that revelation is dominant by grace, in grace, full of grace and truth. "And from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace." So Christmas is the eternal Word, the eternal Son, clothing Himself with flesh, in order that grace might come to sinners, truth might come to sinners.

Go a little farther, John chapter 3, verse 16. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son," that's Christmas, and Good Friday, all in one, "that whoever believes," this is the purpose for Christmas, "that whoever believes in Him might not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world." So Christmas is not for condemnation.

God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. So Christmas is for salvation. That's why He came, not to condemn, but to save. At the end of the book, near the end of the book, in chapter 18, Jesus is standing before Pilate.

This is a weighty interchange between Jesus and Pilate. Chapter 18, verse 36 and 37, Pilate, "So you are a king?" And Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born." So here's Christmas. Why were you born? "For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.

Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice." So another way to say it is that the Son of God, the Word of God, has come into the world, He says here, "to bear witness to the truth." Now what's the effect in Jesus' life and ministry of bearing witness to the truth?

In chapter 8, verse 31 and 32, He says very plainly what the effect is. He says in John 8, 31, "If you abide in my Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." So the meaning of Christmas is the Son of God comes, and He is the truth.

I am the way, the truth, and the life, and He speaks the truth. I came to bear witness with my person and my words to what is true, what is ultimately real and true, and its effect is freedom, liberty, from the guilt of sin, the power of sin, death, Satan, hell, meaningless life.

Oh, the liberty that comes into the life of a person who discovers that Jesus is the truth. See, He was the way, the truth, and the life. You will know the truth, the truth will set you free. Now the question is, how does that happen? How does He do that?

How is it that the truth, the spoken truth of God and the personal truth of God in Jesus, set people free from sin and condemnation? And now we're in chapter 6, okay? This is all leading to chapter 6. One more sermon on chapter 6. You recall, don't you, that in verse 51, we read this, 651, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven." That's Christmas.

"I came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, me, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." Now link that with chapter 1, verse 14. "And the word became flesh." Why? So that verse 51 could happen.

He came to give His flesh. He came to give His flesh for the life of the world. He came to have flesh that could be pierced by nails. He came to have flesh that could be pierced with a sword and lacerated on His back and a crown of thorns pressed somewhere in the universe, namely on the fleshy head of the Son of God, and cheeks that could be slapped around and beard that could be pulled and eyes that could be spit upon so that the saliva would drip down.

That's why He came. That's why He needed flesh, so that He would have something with which to die, something with which to suffer. That's the only way grace can come to sinners. And He came full of grace. And from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace. And the reason we have received grace upon grace from the fullness of the incarnate Word is that the incarnate Word came to have flesh so that He could die for sinners.

Had He not died for sinners, we wouldn't have grace. We would have only judgment. And therefore, Christmas is massively and mainly preparation for Good Friday. Don't isolate this holiday. It's all of a piece with what He came to do. So the meaning of Christmas in the Gospel of John is that there was an eternal God in more than one person.

We know three when we take all the Bible into account--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Son, the Word, takes on flesh that He might have flesh with which to die. And in giving His flesh for the world, the world can have life because now sins can be forgiven, righteousness can be provided, and a substitute is there.

And by faith in Him, that is by eating Him, symbolically we consume Him. He becomes our treasure, our food, our life. His life is now in us. Our sins are covered, and we have eternal joy with Him. That's moving, very moving. All of that is for our eternal joy in God.

That was from John Piper's sermon preached almost exactly 11 years ago today. The sermon is titled, "You Have the Words of Eternal Life," on John 6, verses 60-71. You can download the entire message right now at DesiringGod.org. Well, speaking of Christmas, our most asked about Christmas question of all time is about Santa.

Yes, Santa. No surprise there. We've addressed Santa in the podcast twice already, back in 2016 and in 2018, in episodes 978 and episode number 1288. You can check those out. And that episode 978 ends with a mic drop paragraph you don't want to miss. 978, check that out. But here's the second most common Christmas question, and it's represented by at least 35 emails in the inbox that I could find.

The question is over how the church got to celebrating the birth of Christ on December 25th. Is this because our Christmas Day date emerged from a pagan Germanic holiday, the holiday of Yule or Yule Tide? If that's the case, doesn't the Bible condemn the accommodation of the feasts of the world for the people of God?

We actually get this question all the time. Maybe Christmas Day is the exact wrong day to address it. I don't know. Maybe not. I guess it all depends on Pastor John and where his answer goes. Wise or not, that's the question. Up next time on Friday, I'm Tony Reinke.

We'll see you then.