The MESSAGE for September 25, 2022

When The Word Became Flesh

John 1:1; 14

Live Broadcast

By: Pastor, Rev. Dr. Cullian W. Hill

Greater Concord Missionary Baptist Church

 

 

Allow me this morning to share with us some facts about Jesus before He became flesh. Jesus was eternally God. The Lord Jesus, in other words, was pre-existent before the creation of the universe. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, is a mode of existence that transcends time. The one John calls “the Word” belongs to a realm where time does not exist. But, says John, when we think of Jesus, that is where we must begin. We must go back to the dateless past, to a time before time.

 

We must think of Jesus as never having begun at all. He is eternally God. In other words, there is more than one person within the godhead, and Jesus was one of those persons.

Now, allow me to share with us the impacts that when the W

ord became flesh, it assumed a new form of existence; although He did not cease to be God. He remained the same person as before, but, “He became flesh.” John ignores all the wonderful stories of the Lord’s birth recounted by Matthew and Luke. He tells us, instead, of the mysterious significance of Christ’s birth. He says, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” The fact is that although He never ceased to be God, He walked this earth as though He were not more than human, a fact that many of John’s statements were explained. He had to come as He came in order to be what He was, a perfect man inhabited by God. He had to be what He was in order to do what He did, die to redeem us. He had to do what He did so that we might have what He has; His life, all that we lost in Adam. We have to have what He has in order to be what he was perfect: man inhabited by God.”

 

After Jesus was born in the flesh, John the Baptist came on the scene. John was six months older than Jesus. While still in the womb, John had acknowledged the pre-eminence of the coming Christ. (Luke 1:41) Since Adam’s fall, the Spirit of God has moved on the face of the waters, brooding over a ruined race, looking for one on whom He could come to rest. The ages rolled on; Kingdoms waxed and waned; generation after generation came and went, and not one child of Adam’s kin could the Spirit find to give Him rest.

 

Then Jesus came. For thirty years the Holy Spirit was with Him. Then, at His baptism, came the Father’s benediction: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” With that, the holy dove of God came down and abode upon Him. At least he had found one on whom he could rest. After the baptism He went into the wilderness and was tempted of the devil for forty days and nights. But He never gave in. Things began to happen!

 

There were many triumphs. He triumphed over life’s sudden disappointments. The first was connected with life’s gladdest hour; the last was connected with life’s saddest hour, when the river was turned to blood. The happiest hour was when He turned water to wine at the wedding. When the Word became flesh, He went to the temple and drove out the money changers. Alone and single-handed, he had taken on the establishment, including the Sanhedrin and the powerful Sadduceean party, which both sponsored and doubtless, profited from the traffic.

 

He had overthrown an entrenched system of evil that posed as a public benefit. In doing so, He had proclaimed Himself the Son of His Father, whose house these profane intruders were defiling. The incident made an impression on His disciples, who remembered Psalm 69:9. “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” The cleansing of the temple had its impact on a member of the ruling Sanhedrin (Nicodemus). He was rich, respected, religious. He was a ruler but none of these things brought the peace and joy for which he longed.

 

Nicodemus sets before us the world’s greatest tragedy John 3:1-10; the world’s greatest truths, John 3:11-15; the world’s greatest text, John 3:16; and the world’s greatest test, John 3:17-21. Nicodemus was face-to-face with omniscient genius, incarnate wisdom – truth that was pure, simple and divine. Jesus placed before Nicodemus eternal verities, unwavering certainty, uncompromising assurance. The Lord was not setting before Nicodemus some fine philosophy, the fruit of reasoning and high-sounding speculation. He was setting before him hard facts, the kind of facts any eyewitness could present in a court of law.

 

“For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The Lord Jesus, the source of salvation, had come down from heaven and so knew about heavenly things.” What a comfort it is to know about heavenly things because it is better than speculations and unfounded philosophies of religious dreamers; the deceptions of physics and spiritist, the delusions of those whose hopes originate from satanic sources.

 

Well, good morning church. Moses lifted up the serpent (Numbers 21:8-9) and they looked and lived. Christ was lifted up on the cross of Calvary and there is life for a look at the crucified one.

 

Pastor, Rev. Cullian W. Hill