DAY FIFTY-ONE:
The Word Became Flesh
Welcome to the New Testament! Four hundred years have passed since Malachi penned the last words of the book that bears his name. He was the last prophet of the Old Testament. What happened during those centuries? Here's a quick summary of what scholars call the Intertestamental Period. In Malachi's time Israel was still under Persian control. The Persian Empire, however, was beginning to weaken. The Greeks beat back three waves of Persian invaders in the fifth century BC. Not long after the end of the Old Testament the Greeks went on the offensive. Alexander the Great unified the city-states of Greece and led them on a ten-year campaign in which he not only conquered Persia but forged on into what is now India. On the way he laid siege to Tyre, just north of Israel, reducing it to rubble. But when Alexander came to Jerusalem he spared the city. The High Priest came out to greet the Greeks to plead for mercy, dressed in his priestly attire. Before the High Priest could speak, Alexander dismounted his horse and bowed to the ground before him! He had seen a man dressed this way in a dream and was told not to destroy this man's city. So Israel came under Greek control. All was well until Alexander died. His vast empire was divided into four parts, each ruled by one of his generals. At first Jerusalem was under the jurisdiction of the Ptolemys, who were based in Egypt. The Seleucids, based in Syria, moved on Palestine and took it. The Seleucids believed that Greek culture was superior and that their mission was to convert the whole world to their way of life. Their king, a man named Antiochus Epiphanes (the revelation of God) decided that the Jews had lived in their backward monotheistic world long enough. He invaded the Temple and sacrificed a pig on its altar. He forbade any worship of God. A priest by the name of Mattathias led a revolt against the Greeks. His son, Judas Maccabeus (from the Hebrew word for hammer) took over after his father died. In time the Maccabees forced the Greeks out of Jerusalem and cleansed the Temple. This began a brief period of self-rule for the Jews for the first time since the Babylonian conquest. This independence ended in 63 BC when the Romans conquered the region. Herod the Great, who was only half-Jewish and not from David's line, was appointed King of the Jews in 37 BC. The stage is now set for our passage today!
John was one of the twelve disciples who followed Jesus during His earthly ministry. The Gospel that he wrote is very different from Matthew, Mark and Luke (which are called the synoptic-"with one eye"- gospels because they relate the same events, often with the same words. John appears to have written after the other three and is concerned to fill in some gaps. Today John tells us what was going on before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
"In the beginning." Those are the very first words of the Bible, from Genesis 1:1. Genesis tells us that God created the world in the beginning. God, of course, had to exist before the beginning so that He could create. John tells us that in the beginning was "the Word." When we hear word we think of what you're reading right now- words on a page. Put a lot of words together and you can say something. That's not what John is talking about here. The Greek word logos refers to reason, and often was used of the Ultimate Reason that created all things. This logos was with God in the beginning, before there was anything else, and is eternal as God is eternal. In fact, John goes on to state what he had just implied: "The Word was God." The Word took part in the creation, and nothing was made without the Word. This gets us into what is perhaps the most difficult doctrine in the Bible- the Trinity. There is one God. That one God, however, exists in three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. How can one be three and three be one? I don't know. The Bible clearly teaches this but offers no further explanation. Some reject the doctrine of the Trinity because it defies logic. Others try too hard to explain it and fall into error. The best thing we can do is accept what God has revealed by faith.
Then John goes on to tell about a man named John. He's referring to John the Baptist, whom we'll consider in more detail on Thursday. This man John came to bear witness to the Word and His light. John is careful to point out that John was not the light, but pointed to its source, the Word.
Even though this true light, which created the world, broke into the creation, the world didn't know Him. The Greek word here is kosmos, from which we get our word cosmos. It refers not just to the creation, but to the world system, how we perceive reality. The world rejected this light- He just didn't fit in its scheme of things. He came to His own, the Jews, but they rejected Him. But those who did receive Him received power (the Greek word is dunamis, from which we get dynamite), the ability to become children of God through the Word's supernatural work.
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." The Word became just like us, a human being! The eternal God became one of us! The word dwelt is used for the pitching of a tent, the setting up of a temporary structure. The Word would not remain flesh forever, but would be so for only a time. "...and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." The word glory is doxa, from which we derive our term doxology (to speak a glorious word). Glory means both weightiness and brightness. Weightiness, in the sense of great worth and value. Brightness, in the sense of being the source of that brightness. John and his fellow disciples, along with many others who lived in their time, beheld the Son and His glory. It was not easy to see, however, as Jesus looked like any other man from that time. Philippians 2:Again we read that John bore witness to Him.
"For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses;grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." These verses have been subject to misinterpretation. Some argue that God saved the people in the Old Testament through their obedience to the Law of Moses, a righteousness based on good works, and that Jesus introduced salvation by grace, received not by good works but through trusting in Him and His work on the cross. This is utterly false! God saved the saints of the Old Testament by His grace through their faith, just as He saves us by grace through faith. The only thing that changed was that while the sacrifices of the Old Testament were signs pointing to Jesus, now Jesus Himself has come.
"No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known." God is invisible, but has revealed Himself to us face to face in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. Jesus told His disciples "If you've seen Me you've seen the Father." (John 14:9) Paul wrote in Colossians 1:15-17, "He is the image of the invisible God,the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." Before Jesus God spoke to prophets who in turn spoke to the people. But in Christ Jesus God appeared in person!
This is all part of God's great plan to set things right again. Philippians 2:5-11 says, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." God had to become man in order to die for our sins! We'll consider this further as we continue our tour through the New Testament.
Jesus Christ is the most amazing and revolutionary figure in history. There's a lot more that I could say, but I'll let someone far more eloquent than I am have the floor. S. M. Lockridge was a prominent African American preacher, and this is a small part of his great sermon "That's My King."
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