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“In the Beginning was the Word”

“ 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John 1:1-5 (NASB)

“ 9 The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13They are reborn - not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. 14So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. 15John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’” 16From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. John 1:9-16 (NLT)

In notable contrast to Matthew and Luke, John gives His own Christmas account. Christmas or advent gives the historic account of God becoming man in the birth of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He was announced in advance of His birth by Gabriel and announced at His birth by a host of angels to the shepherds. John was aware of the other Gospel accounts. However, seeking to record aspects of Jesus' life that were previously unrecorded, John provided a unique look at the life of Christ. John's incarnation account precedes Luke's and Matthew's by quite a bit. Both Matthew and Luke include a genealogical record of Christ. Both Matthew and Luke began their record of Christ’s life with the announcement of His birth followed with details of His first days as an infant. John predates these accounts by an eternity. He goes back in time prior to Mary and Joseph. He goes back in time prior to the Old Testament prophecies concerning Messiah. He even goes back prior to the genealogical records. He goes all the way back to Genesis 1:1. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." John explained something quite profound about the creation of the universe, the Son of God was there. Not only was He there at the creation of the universe, He was the instrumental cause of everything that has come into existence. Angels may have announced His birth, but He spoke those same angels into being. Shepherds and sheep witnessed His announcement, but He created them in His own image. He is more glorious, more majestic, more splendid than our minds can comprehend. He is the very revelation of God in this world. To capture the significance of God’s self-disclosure as found in His Son, Jesus Christ, John referred to Him as the Logos (Word or Message). God revealed Himself to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. When we look at Jesus we see what God is like. When we observe the life, ministry, teachings, death and resurrection, we see the nature of the God of creation. Jesus Christ is God among and with us. He is the Emmanuel.

The Word Became Human…We Have Seen His Glory

“In the beginning was the Word…” but why does that matter to us? It matters because the Word took on human flesh. He became a human being. However, He was different than any other human being. He was “full of unfailing love and faithfulness.” This “grace and truth” as the NASB calls it, demonstrated something fundamentally different in the Word (Logos) than found in any of us. He lived a radically different life, different than anyone ever has or ever will live. From this verse we may conclude that the only way we would ever be able to see the glory of God is through His miraculous life. “And the Word became a human…and we have seen His glory.” Apart from the incarnation, the glory of God cannot be seen or experienced. But now “we have seen His glory,” a glory that comes from His Father and is communicated to us through the incarnation of His Son. To see, know, experience and delight in the glory of God is why we are here. That is why God made us. That is why we have breath in our lungs. He made us to know Him in the fullness of His glory. Prior to human sin, humanity had access to God in all of His glory. However, human sin obliterated our avenue to Him. The holiness of God requires that we must be holy in order to be in His presence. There is no way back to the glory of God unless God does something to provide a way back. No small intervention will do in this restoration plan. Our violation of God’s character, our rebellion against His sovereignty over us, is far too great. It will require something radical. It necessitates an eternal and infinite rescue. In order to restore our access to our Creator, our Creator must take our life upon Himself. He must walk among us, revealing the nature of the glory of God in His unfailing love and faithfulness. Then, in His absolute perfection, He must bear our sin as if He had rebelled and then He must overcome the finality of death by rising again from the dead. In His incarnation, death, and resurrection, the avenue back to the original intent has opened. As John says in verse 16, “From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.”

~ Daniel

40 Days of Prayer, Day 40

Day 40, Thursday, September 29

This is the final day of the 40 Days of Prayer! Thank you so much for your participation in this focused time of praying for each other, the church and the world. May God bless the prayers of His people. May He hear us and mercifully answer in ways that maximize His glory and maximizes our joy.

27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will worship before You. 28 For the kingdom is the LORD’S and He rules over the nations. 29 All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship, all those who go down to the dust will bow before Him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive. 30 Posterity will serve Him; It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. 31 They will come and will declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has performed it. Psalm 22:27-31

The Contrite Heart and the Joy of the Nations
God is a God of relationships. This is primarily expressed in God’s relationship with individuals. However, the Bible also describes God’s relationship to families, nations and people groups. From the beginning, the Book of Genesis presents the interactions between God and individuals. However, God’s redemptive plan involves not just individuals but also His chosen people, the nation of Israel. When Abraham appears on the scene in Genesis 12, it comes on the heels of the Tower of Babel when God scatters the peoples and confuses their languages. Unified as a single language and a single people, the people at Babel created an environment of arrogant rebellion against God. God’s merciful solution was to separate people and languages in order to reduce the organized sin that took place at Babel. Despite this divine judgment at Babel, a few chapters later as God revealed to Abraham the unfolding of His great plan of redemption God said this, “...Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” Genesis 18:18 Within a few chapters of the Tower of Babel, God now speaks of His blessing on all the nations. God reiterates this promise in Genesis 22 and repeats the blessing again later in the book of Genesis to Abraham’s offspring. The promise of blessing to the nations was a promise of the coming Messiah. Through Abraham and His offspring God would bring forth One in whom the blessings of God would be granted to the nations. When Jesus had risen from the dead, He gathered His disciples for a final commissioning, saying to them, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 What Abraham was promised, Christ fulfilled. The resurrection of Jesus Christ provided the way for the nations to experience the blessing promised to Abraham. Four thousand years later we are the benefactors of that Abrahamic promise. Two thousand years after the resurrection of Jesus we are the benefactors of that commissioning of Christ’s disciples.

The completion of the work of God in the nations of the world is still yet future. One day, before the throne of God, all nations and all peoples will be represented as we worship Him. Consider the joyful fulfillment of the Great Commission of Matthew’s Gospel as presented in the Book of Revelation. “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You…for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” Revelation 5:9-10 And “On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him.” Revelation 22:2-3 This hopeful conclusion comes at the beginning of the newly formed the eternal kingdom. This scene depicts the healing and restoration of the nations, with people from every tribe, language and nation at the throne of Christ, worshiping Him together.

In Psalm 22, which has so many Messianic themes, we see this worldwide vision of God’s deliverance. “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will worship before You. For the kingdom is the LORD’S and He rules over the nations.” Psalm 22:27-28 This psalm began with a cry for help from someone who felt completely abandoned. “My God why have you forsaken me?” Now, we see the contrast between the suffering and abandoned one with that of the corporate, joyful worship of God. This worship of God because of His work in salvation goes beyond the individual and even beyond the nation of Israel. Consider this paragraph from the New International Commentary on the Old Testament on this text. “These verses remind us that even God’s act to save the afflicted one has world-wide impact…the nations come to the Lord, not because of sheer power or force, but they stream to God because of God’s justice and equity among the peoples. God is the God of the universe because God is the God of this one abandoned, left alone and shamed…What is clear here is that all will praise God because of this, and all of God’s acts go even beyond the nations that we can see in the present. Both the healthy ones will praise along with those nearing the grave, and even beyond all of them, the story will grow and go on to the new generations, to those not even yet born. Given the scope of Psalm 22, it is no surprise that it was seen by the New Testament writers as applicable to the death of Jesus. The cry of the one who loves the Lord, who is afflicted and shamed and surrounded by enemies, is still heard by God, and God’s act of deliverance of this one has world-wide, earth-shattering consequences.” Those with a contrite heart love God. Those with a contrite heart also love God’s plan for the nations. There is coming a day when the brokenhearted will gather before their forgiving and gracious God where we will worship Him in joyful song. They will worship Him because of His saving grace offered freely through this Abandoned One on our behalf. On that day, we will look around to see the gathering of the nations, people from every nation, language and tribe. This is what God promised Abraham. This is what is presented in Psalm 22. This is what God provided in Christ Jesus. This is what Christ commissioned the initial followers. This is what Christ still calls on us today. His message of grace to the nations of the world. May our hearts be moved for the nations, that they may know Him, the One Abandoned by God on their behalf. May they know Him, the One Abandoned by God but now resurrected for their salvation.

Prayer Focus
God, thank You for this sustaining promise. I believe You are coming again. I believe we will get to be in Your presence forever. I believe Your joy will fill my soul forever. Thank You for banishing all this misery that our own hands have made. Thank You for bringing the message of Christ to the nations. Move within me to seek the good of others by taking this word to every people, nation, tribe and language group. I love You! Thank You for loving me and bringing me into such an amazing, everlasting family. Amen.

From Bunyan’s The Acceptable Sacrifice
Another reason why a broken heart is to God such an excellent thing is this, a broken heart prizes Christ, and has a high esteem for him. The whole have no need of a physician, but the sick; this sick man is the broken-hearted in the text; for God makes men sick by smiting of them, by breaking of their hearts. Hence sickness and wounds are put together; for that the one is a true effect of the other (Mark 2:17; Micah 6:13; Hosea 5:13). Can any think that God should be pleased, when men despise his Son, saying, He has no form nor attraction, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him? And yet so say they of him whose hearts God has not mollified; yea, the elect themselves confess, that before their hearts were broken, they set light by him also. He is, say they, 'despised and rejected of men, - and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not' (Isa 53:2, 3). He is indeed the great deliverer; but what is a deliverer to them that never saw themselves in bondage? But what is that to them that never saw beauty, and that never tasted anything but sweetness in sin? It is he that holds by his intercession the hands of God, and that causes him to forbear to cut off the drunkard, the liar, and unclean person, even when they are in the very act and work of their abomination; but their hard heart, their stupefied heart, has no sense of such kindness as this, and therefore they take no notice of it. How many times has God said to this dresser of his vineyard, 'Cut down the barren fig-tree, ' while he yet, by his intercession, has prevailed for a reprieve for another year! But no notice is taken of this, no thanks is from them returned to him for such kindness of Christ. Wherefore such ungrateful, unthankful, inconsiderate wretches as these must needs be a continual eye-sore, as I may say, and great provocation to God; and yet thus men will do before their hearts are broken (Luke 13:6-9).

40 Days of Prayer, Day 39

Day 39, Wednesday, September 28

19 But You, O LORD, be not far off; O You my help, hasten to my assistance. 20 Deliver my soul from the sword, My only life from the power of the dog. 21 Save me from the lion’s mouth; From the horns of the wild oxen You answer me. 22 I will tell of Your name to my brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You. 23 You who fear the LORD, praise Him; All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, and stand in awe of Him, all you descendants of Israel. 24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard. 25 From You comes my praise in the great assembly; I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him. Psalm 22:19-25

The Joyful Gathering of the Contrite
As we have been reflecting on Psalm 22, we now turn our attention to the joyful conclusion. This psalm opens with such despair. However, the mournful cry of the psalmist now comes full circle in this Messianic poem. Psalm 22 opens with a dramatic weight of feeling abandoned by God. The psalmist feels alone as trouble encircles his experience. There is a plea for help from God. The psalm recounts God’s character and God’s deliverance in the past as a source of comfort. God’s essential trustworthiness becomes the source of calming assurance. The writer reflected on the historical help from God for the nation of Israel. If God saved the nation from their troubles, then He can and will save me too. Psalm 22:21 contains a very brief but climatic conclusion to the first 21 verses, “You answered me!” Now, the psalmist, having been rescued, turns our attention to the proper response to our God because of His deliverance. Our proper response is praise. Sorrow has been turned to rejoicing. The sense of abandonment transforms into a sense of God’s faithfulness in rescuing those who seek Him. The isolation of the psalmist is now juxtaposed with the corporate gathering. The psalmist cried out in isolation. Now God is present and so are God’s people as they gather together. And though we may worship God in private for His deliverance in our times of trouble, this writer takes this opportunity for sharing all that God has done with the community of believers. “I will tell of Your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You.” When God provides for our needs and rescues us from trouble, we should instinctively praise Him. We should also instinctively share of His faithfulness. The scene turns from the mournful cry to God in private to the joyful praise of God in public.

In many ways this portrait depicts each and every person who comes to saving faith in Christ. We are pressed in our hearts with the trouble that has come to us. The trouble ultimately comes from the works of our own hands. We have created this crisis in our rebellion against Him. Our sin destroys our relationship with God and damages our relationship with others. Then we discover that Jesus Christ has taken that trouble on Himself. He cried out from this very psalm, “My God why have You forsaken Me?” He cried out with the words of this psalm in our place. We were forsaken by God because God is holy and we are sinful. But Christ became forsaken for us. We read of God’s deliverance and hear of His victory over sin and death because Christ took on our brokenness. We then cry out to God to save us from our sin, shame and condemnation. He hears our cry. He saves us. He transfers our sin from our account to that of Christ. Jesus Christ bears the just punishment for our sin. Were it not for Christ, we would be abandoned by God because of His holy character. He cannot and will not allow the unrighteous to be in His presence. However, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News of His life and ministry, is the rescue mission by God for sinners. God is a God of relationships. He created us for the purpose of seeing, knowing and experiencing a life with Him both now and forever. Our sin creates a massive barrier to that purpose. He has moved heaven and earth in order to save us. He did beyond what any could even comprehend. He sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. Christ is the Savior of the world; however, He saves each one of us as an individual. Each person must come to Him on the basis of faith in Christ. Each person must come to a place of knowing and sensing the weight of the impact of our sin. Each one of us must receive God’s gracious offering of forgiveness, grace, mercy and eternal life by receiving Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. No one else can do that for us. There is no group entrance into the relationship. There is no earning entrance into the relationship by good works or religious acts. God restores the relationship in the way that maximizes His glory and maximizes our joy. He rescues us by His own power. We simply receive His offer of salvation on the basis of faith in Christ. Out of our brokenness we come to a place in our life were we believe in His faithfulness. Out of His faithfulness He makes the broken ones whole.

God is faithful. He hears the tender cry of the heart, the cry for help and mercy. He has proven His faithfulness over and over throughout the history of Israel. He has proven His faithfulness throughout the ministry of Christ. He has proven His faithfulness in His receiving of the death of Christ for our sin. He demonstratively declared His acceptance of the offering of Christ in our place by raising Christ from the dead and seating Christ at His right hand. Anyone who believes in Christ, just as this psalmist, can say “Please Save me…and you answered me! For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard.” God brings the repentant sinner into the assembly. The family of God, the church, is the gathering of forgiven individuals. We are saved by individually putting our faith in Christ, but God brings each individual into a community. The church now provides the contrite ones a place to share with one another concerning the rescue mission of God. Thus comes the call to worship from the psalmist. “You who fear the Lord, praise Him!”

Prayer Focus
You, O God, have rescued me. I was desperately needing Your rescue of my life. Sin, shame, guilt and separation from You all dominated my world. But God, I see Your faithfulness in Christ. He has paid my debt. He has been abandoned for me so that I might come into a relationship with You. I praise You God for who You are and for what You have done. May Your rescue of my life be ever on my lips as a theme of my praise of Your great name. May the church gather week after week with this goal in mind, that all who fear You will praise You, Amen.

From Bunyan’s The Acceptable Sacrifice
Here can be no concord, no communion, no agreement, no fellowship. Here is enmity on the one side, and flaming justice on the other (2 Cor 6:14-16; Zech 11:8). And what delight, what pleasure, can God take in such men. None at all; no, though they should be mingled with the best of the saints of God; yes, though the best of saints should supplicate for them. Thus, says Jeremiah, 'Then said the Lord to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, ' that is, to pray for them, 'yet my mind could not be toward this people; cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth' (Jer 15:1). Here is nothing but open war, acts of hostility, and shameful rebellion, on the sinner's side; and what delight can God take in that? If God will bend and buckle the spirit of such a one, he must shoot an arrow at him, a bearded arrow, such as may not be plucked out of the wound: an arrow that will stick fast, and cause that the sinner falls down as dead at God's foot (Psa 33:1, 2). Then will the sinner deliver up his arms, and surrender up himself as one conquered, into the hand of, and beg for the Lord's pardon, and not till then; I mean not sincerely. And now God has overcome, and his right hand and his holy arm has gotten him the victory. Now he rides in triumph with his captive at his chariot wheel; now he glories; now the bells in heaven do ring; now the angels shout for joy, yea, are bid to do so, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost' (Luke 15:1-10). Now also the sinner, as a token of being overcome, lies groveling at his foot, saying, 'Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under thee' (Psa 45:3-5).