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28th March 2010 PM
God became flesh - Pastor Colin Meadows
Bible Readings: Isaiah 9:6-7, John 1:14-18
♦ See the big picture! In our series on the Bible Scope we have reached the time when Christ came to earth. He appeared as a human being, just like us, so amazing that it caught everyone by surprise. But let’s look at our big perspective again.
Used by permission, Matthais Press
We are thus at the life of Christ, the blue section, after the exile. Christ came to earth and lived amongst humanity. We have thus entered the fulfillment phase of God’s great plan, a plan that was there before the foundation of the world. God was reaching out in Christ to save his people.
Let’s remind ourselves of what the Bible tells us…
♦ Christ was there in the beginning!
John 1:1-2 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.”
Jesus, the Son of God was there at the beginning of all things. He was the Word who became flesh…
Hebrews 1:1-2 “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.”
This means that Jesus is fully God, for God created the heavens and the earth. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus!
Hebrews 1:3 “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”
Yes, Christ was there before the world began, for he is eternal, God the Son. He was there in the beginning.
♦ Christ became flesh and blood! As difficult as it is for us to comprehend, the Creator of the world took on flesh and came to earth as a human being. He stepped out onto the stage of human existence, God with skin on.
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, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
God came down and made his tent amongst us. This amazing truth has always been hard for people to take in and accept. Down through history, people have struggled to try to comprehend this truth. How do we seek to grapple and digest what the Bible is clearly stating here? By faith, we accept God’s revealed word to us. 700 years before this time, the prophet Isaiah has spoken of the coming of the special son.
Isaiah 9:6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
I enjoy reading of the thoughts of Christians down through the ages and have found the writings of Saint Augustine very helpful
St Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, North Africa
He became Bishop of Hippo in what is modern day Algeria in 395AD. St Augustine noted ‘I do not try, Lord, to attain your lofty heights, because my understanding is in no way equal to it. But I do desire to understand your truth a little, that truth that my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand so that I may believe; but I believe so that I may understand. For I believe this also, that ‘unless I believe, I shall not understand’.
Let us hear God’s Word concerning Jesus and by faith receive the truth. Then we will grow in our understanding of who Jesus really is. Believe so that you may understand.
All other world religions have struggled intellectually with the truth that Jesus is God, beginning right back with Judaism. The Jewish authorities at the time wanted Christ to be crucified for he clearly claimed to his bewildered listeners that he was God. Such was blasphemy for them! Jewish people still feel this today. Muslims see Jesus as an honoured prophet or messenger but not as God in the flesh. Hindus see Jesus as a moral principle or an ethical symbol, the supreme human model. Buddhists deny that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Christadelphians, Bahais, Unitarians, Jehovah Witness, Mormons, Scientologists, the list is endless of those religious groups who deny that God came to earth in the form of Jesus.
What about you? Have you by faith believed this wonderful truth? Stand firm on this vital truth! Remember the words of Isaiah…
Isaiah 7:9 “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.’
Yes, stand firm in this amazing truth, Christ became flesh and blood and lived on earth.
♦ Christ has revealed God to the world!
John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”
Jesus has literally ‘led God out onto the stage of life’. He has declared who God is and what he is like. That is what it means to make him known. If we want to know what God is like, look at Jesus! I love that comment of the man who said that he could have seen God, if he had been born at the right time. Jesus is God in the flesh. He has revealed God for all to see.
Let us through the eyes of faith thus see and believe. Look to the life of Jesus and learn who God is. This is why it is so important to study the gospel stories. They are full of revelation of who God is and what he has done. Taking up the words of St Augustine again we are reminded about our quest to discover God. He noted "You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."
We have a deep thirst within each of our hearts to discover who God is and what his purpose for our lives is. Don’t allow that thirst to be quenched by settling for that which is less. When many people began to doubt and turn away, Christ asked his disciples if they wished to walk away too. Peter’s reply is so important.
John 6:68 “Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”’
Seek after Jesus, just like the first disciples did, for he has revealed God to the world. What then must we do?
♦ Let us believe and so become what God intended! In response to the coming of Christ, He calls us to believe in his name and so become adopted children of God.
John 1:12-13 “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, not of human decision or husband’s will, but born of God.”
We are called to believe so that we can become, to believe in Christ and become a child of God. There is no other way to join God’s family! We are to receive Christ by faith, to make him our own and to live in obedience to him.
To believe in a Biblical sense means to put one’s complete trust and confidence in what you have believed. It is a ‘doing’ word. Matthew and Mark use the verb 10 times each, Luke nine times but John uses it 99 times!! It is one of the key words of that gospel. It is a word of action, not of intellectual assent.
I was listening to a discussion amongst doctors who were seeking to encourage their patients to change their eating and lifestyle habits and so improve their health. Studies done over a long period of time have shown that most people struggle to take action to control their health. They know what they should do but just don’t get around to doing it. They are waiting for motivation to arrive, it is suggested. What is needed is action and the motivation will come later! As the Nike ad says, ‘Just do it’.
I recall my journey when I began thinking about running a marathon. I read books, talked with people, but that did not get me on the road! I needed to get out and start training. The hardest part of running a marathon is the first step.
We are not called to have an academic interest in Jesus but rather a rugged gritty personal trust in Him, a deep level commitment, no matter what might happen. It is to be an irreversible commitment, of cutting the ties with the past.
I read recently of the story of Harnando Cortes, the Spanish sea captain of the 16th Century.
In 1519 Cortes, after a difficult journey across the sea from Spain, via Cuba, landed on the shores at Yucatan, Mexico. His mission was to seize the vast gold treasures of the Aztec people. He came with 500 soldiers and 100 sailors on eleven small boats. The task before them was daunting and overwhelming and they were now on the shores of a foreign land, a long way from home. Cortes needed to bring his men to a new level of commitment to the task at hand, to help them realize what they must do. To ensure their complete commitment to the task, he issued an amazing order - burn the boats!
His men must have been dumbfounded on hearing this order. Was Cortes now crazy, seeking to destroy their means of escape? Before their very eyes they thus saw their source of retreat go up in smoke. What he was telling his men was this - there would be no going back. He wanted them to have a full commitment to the task at hand. There was no fall back position. Cortes and his men then went on to conquer the Aztec nation of some 5 million people with his small group, something which for 500 years no one else had been able to achieve.
Jesus calls us to ‘burn our boats’ as we set out to follow him. There is to be no fall back position, no turning around and no going back to the safety of the past.
Luke 9:62 “Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’”
The famous missionary to Africa, C.T. Studd, once said ‘If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.’ Let us not be in two minds about following Jesus. Step out in faith, burn the boats that link you to your past and walk with Christ! You will not regret it. I am so glad that I took that step many years ago! Why don’t you do the same!