Year of the Bible — Week 43

Week 43 of our reading brought us through Ezekiel, several Psalms, and the first five chapters of John. There is so much in those pages, but John 1 is simply hard to pass by. John tells us plainly near the end of his book why he wrote it: "These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." (John 20:30-31) Everything in John 1 is there to build that faith — or to deepen the faith we already have.

The Word Who Was God

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1)

That opening sentence is staggering. Jesus existed before creation. He was with God — a distinct person — and yet He was God. John is describing the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And he adds that nothing was made without Him. Not one thing. That is who we are placing our faith in. The Jehovah's Witnesses change that verse in their own translation to read "the Word was a god," treating Jesus as a created being. But the Scripture will not bend that way. Jesus was no more created in the beginning than the Father was. They were simply both there.

The Word Became Flesh

John does not leave Jesus in eternity. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)

God took on an ordinary human body. He walked dusty roads. He ate meals with His disciples. John reinforces this in his first epistle, saying that which was from the beginning is what "we have heard, we have seen with our eyes, we have looked upon, and our hands have handled." There was a movement in the early church — called Gnosticism — that taught Jesus only appeared to have a body, because all physical matter was considered evil. John spent enormous energy fighting that error. If Jesus did not truly come in the flesh, then His suffering on the cross was an illusion, and we have no real Savior. But He did come. He lived as we live, and He gave that life to take away the sin of the world.

Behold the Lamb — and Go Get Somebody

John the Baptist spotted Jesus walking by and cried out, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" The Old Testament sacrifices — the blood of bulls and goats — had to be offered over and over because they could never finally remove sin (Heb 9–10). But this Lamb is different. One offering. The sin of the whole world.

Two of John's disciples heard that declaration and immediately followed Jesus. One of them was Andrew — and the first thing Andrew did was find his brother Simon and say, "We have found the Messiah." Then Jesus called Philip, and Philip went straight to Nathaniel: "We have found Him of whom Moses and the prophets wrote." Nathaniel was skeptical. Philip's answer was perfect: "Come and see." That is discipleship at its most basic. We get excited about what we have found, and we go get somebody. Andrew got Peter. Philip got Nathaniel. Cornelius gathered his whole household when Peter came. Those scattered by persecution in Acts 8 went everywhere preaching the Word. The pattern is always person to person.

The Father Is Seeking Worshippers

The reading in John 4 brought us to the woman at the well, and Jesus used that conversation to say something the Father deeply wants us to hear: "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." (John 4:23)

The Father is seeking people. He is not indifferent. He wants worshippers who bring both the right heart and the right teaching — spirit and truth together. That is our goal every time we gather.

Is the Father seeking you? Perhaps He has been calling through the gospel for some time now. Do not put up a flimsy excuse and turn away. The Word became flesh, gave His life, and was declared the Son of God — all so that you might believe and have life in His name. Come and see. Worship Him in spirit and truth.