My songs have focused on God the Creator and Sustainer of the universe and the kaleidoscope of meaning that brings, ending with the focus on “Jesus humble and holy” as the visible representation of God and everything about him.
“You will never appreciate Jesus fully if you don’t see him and experience him and his love against the backdrop of Me – Yahweh, the Great I Am the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. As I have chosen to communicate with you My creation, so I bring my Son as the ultimate communicator with you, walking among you and speaking to you as He represents My very presence with you. However, even as He has given His life to set you free from your bondage to sin – your mind is still clouded by the remnants of that sin within you. This is the main obstacle to hearing Me speak to you clearly through My son who is My Word incarnate. Your desire to hear Me speak and willingness to obey draws that curtain aside to a large degree. Yes, I want to communicate with you – do you want to hear and are you prepared to obey?”
Just a few words on John’s gospel so that we can set the scene. Even a superficial reading will show that this gospel is different to the other three. Without going into great detail, the main differences are that he focuses much more on personal relationships. There are no parables used for teaching. The main backdrop are the seven miracles or signs that make up the bulk of the material. Ultimately, they are gathered together in the statement in John 20:30 : “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have eternal life”. Keep this purpose in mind all the time you are reading this gospel.
We will read the gospel slowly as we digest the material, with the aim of getting to know our Lord and Saviour better and more intimately. This week I will focus on the 5 introductory vv.
The first sentence describing Jesus as the Word have opened a new understanding for me of the whole question of communication. To communicate we firstly need a language. So, God created a language which He calls His word. He has used this tool from the very beginning, even to the creation of the universe. Remember Genesis “and God spoke…..” and it was so. What has happened to this means of communication over the years. Firstly, we are reminded of Babel, where God confused the languages and we have reaped the effect of that with thousands of languages spoken throughout the world.
During the OT time there have been many prophets who spoke God’s word, but Jesus brought a new dimension: “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us through His Son whom He appointed heir over everything….” Heb 1:1,2
In that first vs in John we also read that this “Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God from the beginning”. Hebrews puts it this way in 13 “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word” Nixon says that this does not mean that the Word is the same person as God, but has the same nature as God.
Gathering this together before your head explodes, explores the fact of the very intimate relationship which exists between God and Jesus. Now without taking too great a leap we can see that God has and is using this relationship with Jesus who came to the earth to open the way to make relationships with his people possible and desirable, seeking to draw each one of us into a deeper relationship with Him.
Taking this a bit further, each one of us has a language that we speak to ourselves in. How does that fit with the Logos of God? How does His influence bear on this inner conversation.
There is so much to think about in these vv in John and the parallel in Hebrews, why don’t you spend some time considering the various aspects of what these vv are speaking about. I am going to leave it there and pick up next week again.
Father, as we are meditating on John, Hebrews and Paul, open our spiritual eyes, so that we may see the unspeakable Glory and beauty of Your Son Jesus Christ and that He alone therefore is the greatest treasure of our hearts in all eternity. Only when we trust the One who holds everything together with His powerful Word with our whole heart in these dark times on this fallen world, will we be justified through faith in Him and saved. I humbly ask for Your grace. I pray in Jesus precious Name.Amen 🙏 .. …… …….. He is the image of the invisible God , the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were createdd in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers, all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things and in Him all things hold together . And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the first-born from.the dead, that in everything He might be pre-eminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things , whether un each or in heaven, making peace by rhe blood of His cross. Colossians 1. 15. All Glory, authority, power and dominion be to our Holy Lord forever and ever 🙏 Amen
Corr and on earth