JOHN - Chapter 1: 1-14 - THE WORD BECAME FLESH
JOHN – Chapter 1: 1-14
THE WORD BECAME FLESH
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
January 31, 2017, the year of our Lord.
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word
The Word is eternal and not originating when God made heaven and earth. Since Jesus already existed, it is a reference to His super-natural pre-existence.
It is written of His angels that they are mighty in strength that perform His word (Ps. 102:18), meaning, His commands. But the very Word Himself is divine essence existent in a Person.
1b. The word was with God and the Word was God. The son is co-eternal with the Father. It is impossible that God could ever be without Word, reason, wisdom or power. Since the Son is the Word, the wisdom, and the power of God (1 Cor. 1:24), He always was with God.
Because the Son is the brightness of the Father (Heb. 1:3), He has always shone with the Father.
John states clearly that Word is one Person, and God the Father another Person. Because the Word was together with God, it is evident that two persons are introduced, though they share one nature.
The Word was God. Therefore, the Father and the Son have one nature, because there is one divinity.
John proclaims that the Word and the Father are different from each other, but not in kind. They are different in their persons, but one and the same in nature.
2. The same was in the beginning with God. God the Word never was separated from God the Father.
John called the Son of God, Word. He is Word, not work or creation. In the created realm “the word” is twofold. There is the latent word, the faculty of speech we possess even when we are not speaking. When a man is silent, and even when he sleeps, the power of word and speech is still within him.
There is also the outward word, evident when we articulate with out lips the potential power of speech and put it into action.
Neither aspect adequately describes the Son of God. Outward and inner speech exists only in reference to us and the physical world, not to that which is beyond nature. The Father, Son and Spirit, do not descend to material and carnal understanding.
All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made which was made. The Word is the maker of everything, both what is perceived by the mind and by the senses. All things were made by the Son and He was the instrument God used. God the Father is the maker who uses the Son as One of equal power, able to carry out the great command.
David prophesied of the Only-begotten Son in Psalm 102:19-20: the Lord has looked upon the earth, to hear the groaning of them who are in fetters, to loose the sons of the slain, to declare in Zion the name of the Lord.
It is Jesus who looked upon the earth or our nature. He took this earthly flesh upon Himself and loosed us who were bound by our own sins. He freed us the sons of the slain, Adam and Even, and declared in Zion the name of the Lord. For he stood in the temple and taught concerning His Father.
Jn. 17:6: I have manifested your name unto the men which you gave Me.
After saying these things, David adds the word In the beginning, O Lord, you did lay the foundation of the earth, ad the heavens are the works of your hands.
On Sunday evening, we were studying when the apostles were threatened, (Acts 4:20-27) they prayed the prayer of David in Psa. 2:1-2: Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed…
They did not pray verse 3: Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
They knew the chords of the Kingdom of God were upon them and their bond with the King of the Kingdom of God was unbreakable.
Psa. 2:4: He that sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision.
They were no longer subject to the chains, bonds, bondage and bands of Satan. The King of Glory had totally defeated Satan and had apprehended all power in Heaven and earth for them as well as His Kingdom. They had crossed into the realm of Supernatural power and the authority of that Kingdom.
All things were made by Him, both the visible and the noetic. And without Him was not anything made that was made.
no•et•ic: From the Greek noēsis/ noētikos, meaning inner wisdom, direct knowing, or subjective understanding. As defined by the philosopher William James in 1902, noetic refers to “states of insight into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect. They are illuminations, revelations, full of significance and importance, all inarticulate though they remain; and as a rule they carry with them a curious sense of authority...”
As Christians, we know this is the realm of the Spirit or the realm of the Kingdom of God, i.e. the realm of the supernatural.
The Holy Spirit is not part of a created nature and, therefore, was not made by the Son. Without the power of the Word was not any thing made that was made, which means, “that which belongs to the class of created things.”
The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. John says the Lord did not simply create the world and then withdraw from it, but that He sustains the life of everything created. For in Him was life. It is Jesus who sustains life. He is light—not light perceivable by the senses, but noetic light that enlightens the soul for those who will receive Him, the logos of the Word.
I have seen this light who is Jesus. He is all light. In each one of us is His light. When we are in Christ, our light is one with His light.
Sin and the fall didn’t damage the light in man. It damaged the man. So now the damage done to man by sin is revealed by the light.
5. And the light shines in the darkness; and the darkness comprehends it not. The Light, the Word of God, (Logos), the Son of God shines in the darkness, which means it shines amid death and deception. Even when He was dead, the Word of God so completely vanquished death that He compelled death to disgorge those whom it had swallowed. Likewise, the preaching of the Word shines in the darkness. Neither death nor deception could overcome it, for this light, God the word, is unconquerable.
The Word shone forth while in the flesh and in this life; and the darkness, that is, the opposing power of Satan tempted and persecuted the light, but found it to be invincible.
Flesh contains absolutely nothing evil when the will directs it in accordance with its created nature. However, when directed in a manner contrary to its nature and made to serve sin, the flesh is called, and indeed becomes, darkness.
6. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. Apostle John has declared to us the existence of God the Word from before the ages. He now inserts an account of the forerunner. Since John the Baptist is the forerunner of the Lord, it is fitting that an account of the forerunners nativity should precede that of the Lord’s nativity in the flesh.
John says the forerunner was sent from God. When you hear that he was sent from God, be assured that he spoke nothing of himself, or that was merely human---all was divine. This is why John is called an angel (messenger – Strong’s angelos/angel Mat. 11:10; and messenger - malak – angel – Mal. 3:1).
A virtue of an angel is that he speaks nothing of himself. When we hear John the Baptist called an angel, it does not mean he was an angel by nature, or that he came down from heaven. He is called an angel on account of his work and ministry; to announce the coming of the Lord, and to be a servant of the proclamation of the Gospel. John said, There was a man sent from God.
7. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe. John was sent to bear witness of the light. We know that all men have not believed. John is not to blame for those who did not believe. He did what he was sent to do. If a man shuts himself up in a dark room to avoid the sun’s rays, is the sun at fault?
8. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. Every saint is indeed a light; but none of us are The Light.
9. He was the true light, which enlightens every man that comes into the world. The Only-begotten came unto His own and became flesh. John leads our mind upwards to that existence which is beyond every beginning, and says, “Even before He took flesh, he was the true light.” He gives light to all---but coerces no one to accept it. If a man makes poor use of this Logos, he darkens himself.
10. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.
He is Omnipresent. He sustains the world by His providence and care. The Evangelist shows the Word to be the Creator.
Psa. 53:1: The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
He silences the ravings of the Manichees (Iranian false prophet who claimed and evil demiurge (being) produced the universe.)
He refutes the Arians, who say the Son of God is a created being.
He refutes the modern theology of evolution and the Big bang theory.
The world knew him not –Spiritually coarse people in the kosmos who are attached to the things of this world reject Him.
All the saints and prophets (those who have an ear) know Him.
11. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. The true light was already in the world without flesh, but was not recognized. Then He came in the flesh unto His own. His own, we understand to be the Jews, God’s chosen people to birth the Messiah and be the carriers and care-givers of the Word of God revealed by the light of the Old Testament.
Neither the Jews, nor the rest of mankind who were created by Him knew Him except for the wise men, shepherds, Anna, Simeon, Mary, Joseph and His disciples.
12. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God, even to them that believe in His name. Whether slaves or free, children or elders, barbarians, Greeks, or Jews, He has given us power to become the Sons of God. Those who receive the Word and the true light are they who received and accepted Him through faith. The Evangelist does not say He made us sons of God, but gave us power to become sons of God.
We must continually guard the purity of the soul and body. Yes, when we receive Jesus Christ we are saved. However, to fulfill what the Lord has called us to as Sons of God, we must zealously exert ourselves to preserve unspotted the image of adoption imprinted on us. Many who receive the grace of adoption through Baptism have proven lazy.
Even if we receive the grace of adoption through Baptism, we will receive the completion and perfection of this grace only when we see Jesus. For when we see Him, we shall be like Him.
As Paul says, And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the Firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
We the church of the 21st century have come to a time in the Lord’s divine grace where our support and stay is His unchanging Word. His immutable promises, brought to life by His grace are enough for whatever we experience on this earth. His Kingdom has come, and we are called to step up and posses it. The present season upon the Church is not for the half-hearted or double-minded. “The just shall live by faith, or they shall die by doubt.”
13. Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
“It is said that seed of the man first becomes blood, and then is formed into the flesh and the rest of the body of an infant.” (Theophylact)
Lev. 17:11: For the life of the flesh is in the blood…
We have been Born Again who have received the Spirit of God through Baptism and the Blood of Jesus; and we cry, Abba Father. We have been born from above. The seed of our conception is not founding man, but in God.
1 Jo. 5: 5-8: Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that bears witness because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three agree in one.
14a. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us. Do you wish to learn what enabled us to be adopted as sons of God? It is this---that the Word was made flesh. God for our salvation assumed what was completely alien to His divine nature, out of ineffable, astonishing love for man. If the Word had not assumed a human soul when He took flesh, our souls would still remain unhealed. What He did not assume, He did not sanctify. The soul was the first to fall, for it was the soul that first succumbed to the words of the serpent and was deceived in paradise.
1 Pet. 1:9: “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”
Jesus was both man and God from the time of His inception, through the Virgin birth. He is the incarnate Word of God.
We beheld the most gracious individual anyone could know, Who was in His Person, the full revealed truth of God and man.
He arrived with the divine acquiring the human by physical birth. He didn’t need to be born again, we do. He already had the divine nature. We don’t.
14b. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
God has blessed us to be partaker of His glory. “Christ in an among us” is the divine expectation, the hope of glory. It is God’s own hope, the Father’s dream---Christ fully formed in a people. Let Him interpret Himself as the Word of God in this season. Our corporate destiny is to be conformed into the image and likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ, fully expressing His nature and glory. The Father’s ultimate intention is that He may inhabit, subdue, and exercise dominion in the earth through His corporate Son, the Body of Christ.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church