John 1:1-5 – God Made Flesh

Today’s Message…

John’s Gospel was written during a time of great persecution. In all likelihood, Jerusalem had fallen and the predictions of Christ in the other gospels had proved true.

The purpose of John’s gospel was to sustain hope in the believer. To keep them believing that Jesus was God the Son.

Unlike the other gospels, John does not sneak up on us regarding this magnificent truth. He declares it outright from the beginning.

Jesus came into the world as God en-fleshed. He came to announce and make possible a New Heaven and Earth for the people of God.

Israel, for all of her privileges had been in the dark. Now, a light had dawned on them. But would they accept it? Could they possibly believe that God had become a man and had come to humanity in order to rise from the dead and establish a New Kingdom?

The God of the Old Testament was a God who could weep over His Brides’ betrayal; become angry at the disobedience of his children and rejoice at their return.

If he became a man, what kind of man would He be? He would be a passionate man. A man whose love for His wife could very well spill over into violence toward anyone who would do her harm. He would be a shrewd man, able to trap His enemies in their own words. He would be a man who loved and enjoyed life and the company of his friends so much that He might be accused of drunkenness. He would be a good man, but certainly not a tame man.

He would be a man who was faithful, who could get furious and yet always gentle with the weak and the young. In short, He would be a man very much like Jesus of Nazareth.

This man was there in the Beginning. He spoke the world into being by a word and upheld the galaxies while in His mothers’ womb. He was the Word and He was God.

Lessons for Little Saints

1. Who is Jesus?

2. What does it mean that He is the Word?

3. Was Jesus a good man with special powers or was He God?

4. Why did God come into the world as a man?