April 27, 2025 • 26 mins
In this episode, from a chapel service held on Friday 21 March 2025, Mark Thompson, Principal of Moore Theological College, speaks on John 1:1-18 and the Word of God becoming flesh.
He reminds us that the most elemental power in the universe is the word of the Lord: nothing is greater; nothing can stop it, constrict or constrain it; and it cannot be overthrown, derailed or thwarted. It's this Word who crossed the creator/creature divide and became one of us for our good.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Karen Beilharz (00:09):
Welcome to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia that seeks to glorify God through biblically
sound, thought-provoking and challenging talks and interviews. In this episode from a chapel service held on Friday the 21st of March, 2025,
Mark Thompson,
Principal of Moore Theological College, speaks on John 1 verses 1 to 18 and the Word of God becoming flesh.
(00:36):
He reminds us that the most elemental power in the universe is the word of the Lord.
Nothing is greater.
Nothing can stop, constrict, or constrain it, and it cannot be overthrown, derailed or thwarted.
It's this Word that has crossed the creator/creature divide to become one of us for our good.
We hope you find the episode helpful.
Mark Thompson (01:01):
Morning.
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, please open our eyes that we might see open our minds, that we might understand, open our hearts, that we might cherish and believe.
Open our wills, that we might obey your word.
(01:23):
For this, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.
Almost 80 years ago, on the 16th of July, 1945 in Los Alamos, New Mexico, an extraordinary event took place for the very first time in human history.
(01:44):
Nuclear efficient was harnessed into an explosive force, into a weapon.
The first atomic test in the desert of New Mexico confirmed that something astonishing had just happened.
The elemental power of the universe had been unleashed.
If you've seen the movie Oppenheimer, and I must confess, I have not, you will perhaps remember that quite a number of those who worked
(02:13):
on this project were afraid that the chain reaction triggered at the heart of this bomb might just keep going and destroy the world.
They were not entirely sure that they could contain the energy that they were releasing.
Weren't they toying with the most elemental power there is?
(02:34):
And what if the price of doing that was the end of all existence?
Well, in the end existence and the world survived.
The bomb was a success.
And just under three weeks later, it was unleashed with devastating effect on Hiroshima in Japan.
(02:55):
Something invisible to the naked eye, but so powerful it could flatten a city and change life on earth forever.
The elemental power of the universe.
And yet we who read our Bibles know it isn't.
(03:15):
There is something else much more powerful, something else not seen, but which over millennia has shaped the world.
Made it undone.
It remade it, challenged it, redirected it.
Heard again and again, but not seen.
At least not seen until something much more powerful than the atomic bomb broke into the world.
(03:41):
We hear of it in the beginning, in the very first chapter of the Bible, Genesis one, and God
said the word that God speaks that arises from him is and is undoubtedly his self-expression.
He's uttered in some mysterious way, and everything comes into being.
(04:05):
So powerful that it is the true source of everything other than God himself.
And God said, let there be light.
And there was no resistance, no obstacle, no hesitation.
Let there be light.
And there was light.
(04:25):
The source of everything in an important sense, the basic building block of everything.
The elemental power of the universe is the word of the Lord.
The dwe and throughout the entire Bible, old Testament are new.
(04:46):
The driving force will be this word of the Lord.
The Word of the Lord that came to Noah in Genesis six.
Everything that is on Earth will die.
Then a little later in Genesis nine, I will establish my covenant with you and with your offspring after you.
The word of the Lord that comes to Abraham in Genesis 12, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land.
(05:12):
I will show you the word of the Lord that confronted Moses from the bush that did not burn in Exodus three.
I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt.
That is spoken to David in two Samuel seven.
The Lord declares to you that the Lord will build you a house.
The word of the Lord that comes to Elijah, to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest of the writing prophets.
(05:39):
The word of the Lord that drew Jonah kicking and screaming to the gates of Nineveh.
At every point in the biblical narrative, it is driven forward by the word of the Lord, a word of command and a word of promise.
The elemental power of the universe, the most powerful thing there is or could ever be.
(06:03):
It is this word that David writes about in Psalm 33.
By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth or their hosts.
It is this word about which God says in Isaiah 55, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.
It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that for which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
(06:30):
It is this word before which God expects the one he esteems to tremble in Isaiah 66.
But this is the one to whom I will look.
He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
Now, hold that in your mind for a moment.
(06:52):
So powerful, not containable.
Absolutely, and entirely able to accomplish what God means it to accomplish.
Nothing can stop it.
Nothing can restrict or restrain it.
Nothing can overcome it.
God speaks and it is so that has always been the case and always will be the case.
(07:18):
Unstoppable, whether you understand it or not.
Powerfully effective, whether you believe it or not, the real elemental power of the universe.
The word of the Lord.
The perfect self-expression of God, of his mind and purpose, of his character.
(07:39):
Majesty, power and compassion.
Hold all that in your mind for a moment
and then hear again those remarkable words, which be, begin John's Gospel.
In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
(08:03):
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be by him and apart from him, not one thing that came to be, not one thing has come to be that came to be in him was life.
And the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.
(08:24):
And then the most astonishing words of all, a little further down the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
We have seen his glory glorious of the only begotten from the father full of grace and truth.
Do you really have any idea what happened at that moment?
(08:48):
The scale of it, the magnificence of it, the intensity of it.
The one who holds the universe together?
Not one thing came to be apart from him.
The one who was with God in the beginning and who was God in the beginning, the one who has life in himself
(09:12):
because of this through him, that there is life in the first place, the one who had steered all history
to this point through the exhilarating highs and the devastating lows, but brought it to this point.
Now the word became flesh and drawn among us.
I expect a few, if any of us have seen anything as remotely or inspiring as the explosion of an atomic bomb.
(09:43):
Lightning forking across the sky, perhaps in a fierce thunderstorm.
Splitting trees down the middle.
Or if you're from another part of the world, you might have witnessed a tornado or a hurricane, or a cyclone or a tidal wave.
But even the mushroom clouds in the desert fades into nothing beside this.
(10:04):
The astonishing truth that begins John's gospel that provides the indispensable background for properly understanding.
All that happens in John's gospel is that at this one moment.
God himself crossed the creator creature divide.
(10:24):
When all this boiled down, I'm sure you know there are only two types of reality in the
universe, God and everything else, we can't cross that divide, undo that distinction.
Even at the end, as redeemed and adopted sons of God, we will still be creatures, not the creator.
(10:46):
God himself has crossed that divide.
The word who was with God in the beginning and was God in the beginning, who
created everything there is became flesh and dwelt among us, God in the world.
The light in the midst of darkness, you might call it the ultimate showdown, but not one of the spectators.
(11:10):
They'd be the angels.
Were in any doubt of the outcome.
Yes.
As light came into the world, it was obvious the darkness would oppose it, but the darkness will not overcome it.
Even some of the people he came to save might balk at his presence and not receive him, but
(11:30):
that won't stop him giving to those who do receive him the authority to become sons of God.
The word can't be overthrown or derailed.
Friends, we need these opening verses of John's gospel to set the proper context for everything that comes after it all starts.
(11:52):
Here he is and always has been the perfect self-expression of God's character and purpose.
See me?
And you've seen the Father, Jesus would say to his disciple in chapter 14.
He is the one verse 18 of this chapters tells us who is uniquely able to exe God.
(12:15):
No one's ever seen God, the only begotten God who was at the father's side.
He has made him known.
He is in the beginning, prior to everything and everyone else, Jesus would pray
about his glory he had with the Father before the world was made in John 17.
John the Baptist would tell his disciples that the one who comes after me has become before me because he is prior to me.
(12:42):
He is the one through whom all things were made.
That is why creation itself obeys him.
Water becomes wine, bread and fish are multiplied.
The surface of the water holds him up.
Death cannot resist the demand that it release Lazarus.
He brings life because life is his creation.
(13:07):
He will tell his disciples in this gospel in John five, it is granted to the son to have life in himself.
I am the way and the truth and the life.
Jesus said he brings light because he exposes and dispenses with darkness.
He opens eyes to see.
He is the light of the world.
(13:29):
The light that enlightens every human being.
You see when in this gospel, the religious establishment opposes him and tries to get rid of him.
We who have read these verses know that they're dealing with this one.
The unimaginably, splendid, and powerful word become flesh.
(13:52):
So what they're doing is both perverse and pathetic.
When the woman of Samaria stands at Jacob's well confused, compromised, and dismissive.
We who have read these verses know that she was face-to-face with this one.
God's glorious self-expression become one of us.
(14:15):
He dispels her darkness, overturns the chaos in her life, and tells her all she ever did.
When the man who was lying at the pool of Bethesda for 38 years looked up from his mat
into the face of Jesus, we know he was looking at this one, do you want to be healed?
(14:36):
Jesus asked him, and the crippling disability that had tied him to that spot for so long could
not resist the power and authority of the one who even in the beginning was both with God and God.
When the Sisters of Lazarus tearfully shi to Jesus for staying away when Lazarus was sick, we know they were dealing
(15:00):
with this one, the giver of life and Light who shows them and asked that he himself is the resurrection and the life.
And when Pontius Pilate fudged and delayed and eventually caved into the wishes of his enemies, he was dealing with this one.
Behold, the man Pilate said as he presented him to the crowds, but he was so much more than a man.
(15:28):
He was the word become flesh.
You see the, the whole of the gospel flows out from here.
John's gospel is, you might say, a conflict gospel.
Everything that happens in it is part of the great confrontation between the light and the darkness that we find right here.
And we see that struggle still going on in a different key, don't we?
(15:51):
We're part of it.
The opposition to the light is still real.
The darkness still rages both in the world and inside us.
The Prince of Darkness moves his pieces across the board, and sometimes it looks as if the game is all over.
So we need to remember that the light shines in the darkness.
(16:15):
The darkness does not overcome it.
In John's gospel, that was never in doubt.
For a moment, the frontiers of darkness are pushed back, and then the darkness regroups and tries again.
And when it looked as if the darkness had closed in for good, that the had
(16:37):
finally triumphed over the light, it's the one who is the word become flesh.
Who calls out not.
In desperation, but in triumph, it is finished.
The darkness does not overcome it.
God has given us the key to understand the rest of this gospel in these opening verses.
(16:59):
It's not just a heroic narrative, the story of a good man, the best man who ever lived, perhaps so much more than that.
His story did not begin when he came out of the Jordan after being baptized by John.
It didn't begin when he was born in that stable and placed in that mania.
(17:19):
It began before all human history.
It began in the beginning, and that simple fact changes the scale of what we're dealing with when we read here about Jesus.
We are confronted with God himself, become one of us, and that is jaw dropping, astonishing and even shocking.
(17:45):
Some of the fourth years will remember that Archbishop Anselm once wrote a book entitled Why God Became Man.
His basic argument was very simple.
We have sin, so we must pay the price of sin, but we can't.
Only God can.
So if there is any possibility of us being saved from our sins, God must become a man truly,
(18:11):
genuinely, and fully a man, so that in him we do pay the price and we can pay the price.
And these opening verses of John's gospel made clear that this is exactly what's happened.
God, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and on both ends of that equation, it must be real, really
(18:37):
God, and really one of us, we cannot fudge for a moment on the full, perfect, and equal divinity of Christ.
Nor can we fudge on the genuine, complete flesh and blood, body and soul, humanity of Christ.
(19:00):
But friends, there's something, uh, else we must notice in these first verses, and I don't
mean the comments about John the Baptist that are interlaced with the story of the word.
We'll pick those up next time.
It is rather that right from the beginning, this is all about blessing.
Yes, there is a confrontation and there will be conflict, but all of this happens for our good.
(19:24):
These verses are brimming over with life and light, with fellowship and glory, with grace and truth.
Moses might have brought the very great blessing that comes with revealing God's
law to his people, and certainly the law was a blessing, not just all negative.
(19:45):
Judgment and obligation, but grace and truth, light and life, they come through Jesus Christ.
And that's phenomenally good news.
So the word becoming flesh, what I've clumsily called the release of the real elemental power of the universe into our time and space.
(20:11):
See, I told you.
As monumental a moment as this is, he's not first and foremost destructive.
It is for our good.
The rest of the gospel will spell out the motive behind it all.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
(20:36):
This is nothing remotely like harnessing a new and powerful weapon, so his unequal power is undeniable.
It is about the creator crossing the threshold of creation in order to save us as we'll see in this gospel bearing the cost
(20:57):
of doing that, it is all too easy for us who spend each weekday together studying it to reduce the scope of the gospel.
We believe we can turn it into a purely personal message.
A call to transformed living the motive and method of holiness.
And it certainly is all of those things, but it is those things because first it is this, the news of something monumental that has taken place.
(21:30):
The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we've seen his glory.
Glory as of the only begotten from the father.
Well, there's lots of ways of responding to this part of God's word this morning.
Stop being afraid of the darkness.
(21:52):
It cannot overcome the light that's come into the world.
Receive the one who came in order that you might be given authority to become a child of God.
I think first and foremost, we must be astonished that this was even possible.
That the word who made everything that exists could himself enter the world.
(22:16):
He's made with the deliberate purpose of giving us, who receive him the right to be children of God.
The word, the unique sun.
The only begotten son, I still like using that word.
All the early church fathers thought that's what it meant.
(22:38):
The word who is uniquely with the father in the beginning come to make God known to us, to you, and to me as only he can.
That is something truly astonishing, isn't it?
Let's pray again.
(23:01):
Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that all of this was done for us, and we pray that you
might keep us wandering, wandering, astonished, rejoicing in what it is that you've done.
Keep us from reducing the gospel down to a personal message of morality or something else.
(23:24):
Keep us from being distracted, but let us remember that you did this.
And you did it for us, so thank you, Father, in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Karen Beilharz (23:45):
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(24:06):
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(24:28):
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(25:12):
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(25:38):
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Until next time.
Welcome to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia that seeks to glorify God through biblically
sound, thought-provoking and challenging talks and interviews. In this episode from a chapel service held on Friday the 21st of March, 2025,
Mark Thompson,
Principal of Moore Theological College, speaks on John 1 verses 1 to 18 and the Word of God becoming flesh.
(00:36):
He reminds us that the most elemental power in the universe is the word of the Lord.
Nothing is greater.
Nothing can stop, constrict, or constrain it, and it cannot be overthrown, derailed or thwarted.
It's this Word that has crossed the creator/creature divide to become one of us for our good.
We hope you find the episode helpful.
Mark Thompson (01:01):
Morning.
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, please open our eyes that we might see open our minds, that we might understand, open our hearts, that we might cherish and believe.
Open our wills, that we might obey your word.
(01:23):
For this, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.
Almost 80 years ago, on the 16th of July, 1945 in Los Alamos, New Mexico, an extraordinary event took place for the very first time in human history.
(01:44):
Nuclear efficient was harnessed into an explosive force, into a weapon.
The first atomic test in the desert of New Mexico confirmed that something astonishing had just happened.
The elemental power of the universe had been unleashed.
If you've seen the movie Oppenheimer, and I must confess, I have not, you will perhaps remember that quite a number of those who worked
(02:13):
on this project were afraid that the chain reaction triggered at the heart of this bomb might just keep going and destroy the world.
They were not entirely sure that they could contain the energy that they were releasing.
Weren't they toying with the most elemental power there is?
(02:34):
And what if the price of doing that was the end of all existence?
Well, in the end existence and the world survived.
The bomb was a success.
And just under three weeks later, it was unleashed with devastating effect on Hiroshima in Japan.
(02:55):
Something invisible to the naked eye, but so powerful it could flatten a city and change life on earth forever.
The elemental power of the universe.
And yet we who read our Bibles know it isn't.
(03:15):
There is something else much more powerful, something else not seen, but which over millennia has shaped the world.
Made it undone.
It remade it, challenged it, redirected it.
Heard again and again, but not seen.
At least not seen until something much more powerful than the atomic bomb broke into the world.
(03:41):
We hear of it in the beginning, in the very first chapter of the Bible, Genesis one, and God
said the word that God speaks that arises from him is and is undoubtedly his self-expression.
He's uttered in some mysterious way, and everything comes into being.
(04:05):
So powerful that it is the true source of everything other than God himself.
And God said, let there be light.
And there was no resistance, no obstacle, no hesitation.
Let there be light.
And there was light.
(04:25):
The source of everything in an important sense, the basic building block of everything.
The elemental power of the universe is the word of the Lord.
The dwe and throughout the entire Bible, old Testament are new.
(04:46):
The driving force will be this word of the Lord.
The Word of the Lord that came to Noah in Genesis six.
Everything that is on Earth will die.
Then a little later in Genesis nine, I will establish my covenant with you and with your offspring after you.
The word of the Lord that comes to Abraham in Genesis 12, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land.
(05:12):
I will show you the word of the Lord that confronted Moses from the bush that did not burn in Exodus three.
I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt.
That is spoken to David in two Samuel seven.
The Lord declares to you that the Lord will build you a house.
The word of the Lord that comes to Elijah, to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest of the writing prophets.
(05:39):
The word of the Lord that drew Jonah kicking and screaming to the gates of Nineveh.
At every point in the biblical narrative, it is driven forward by the word of the Lord, a word of command and a word of promise.
The elemental power of the universe, the most powerful thing there is or could ever be.
(06:03):
It is this word that David writes about in Psalm 33.
By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth or their hosts.
It is this word about which God says in Isaiah 55, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.
It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that for which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
(06:30):
It is this word before which God expects the one he esteems to tremble in Isaiah 66.
But this is the one to whom I will look.
He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
Now, hold that in your mind for a moment.
(06:52):
So powerful, not containable.
Absolutely, and entirely able to accomplish what God means it to accomplish.
Nothing can stop it.
Nothing can restrict or restrain it.
Nothing can overcome it.
God speaks and it is so that has always been the case and always will be the case.
(07:18):
Unstoppable, whether you understand it or not.
Powerfully effective, whether you believe it or not, the real elemental power of the universe.
The word of the Lord.
The perfect self-expression of God, of his mind and purpose, of his character.
(07:39):
Majesty, power and compassion.
Hold all that in your mind for a moment
and then hear again those remarkable words, which be, begin John's Gospel.
In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
(08:03):
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be by him and apart from him, not one thing that came to be, not one thing has come to be that came to be in him was life.
And the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.
(08:24):
And then the most astonishing words of all, a little further down the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
We have seen his glory glorious of the only begotten from the father full of grace and truth.
Do you really have any idea what happened at that moment?
(08:48):
The scale of it, the magnificence of it, the intensity of it.
The one who holds the universe together?
Not one thing came to be apart from him.
The one who was with God in the beginning and who was God in the beginning, the one who has life in himself
(09:12):
because of this through him, that there is life in the first place, the one who had steered all history
to this point through the exhilarating highs and the devastating lows, but brought it to this point.
Now the word became flesh and drawn among us.
I expect a few, if any of us have seen anything as remotely or inspiring as the explosion of an atomic bomb.
(09:43):
Lightning forking across the sky, perhaps in a fierce thunderstorm.
Splitting trees down the middle.
Or if you're from another part of the world, you might have witnessed a tornado or a hurricane, or a cyclone or a tidal wave.
But even the mushroom clouds in the desert fades into nothing beside this.
(10:04):
The astonishing truth that begins John's gospel that provides the indispensable background for properly understanding.
All that happens in John's gospel is that at this one moment.
God himself crossed the creator creature divide.
(10:24):
When all this boiled down, I'm sure you know there are only two types of reality in the
universe, God and everything else, we can't cross that divide, undo that distinction.
Even at the end, as redeemed and adopted sons of God, we will still be creatures, not the creator.
(10:46):
God himself has crossed that divide.
The word who was with God in the beginning and was God in the beginning, who
created everything there is became flesh and dwelt among us, God in the world.
The light in the midst of darkness, you might call it the ultimate showdown, but not one of the spectators.
(11:10):
They'd be the angels.
Were in any doubt of the outcome.
Yes.
As light came into the world, it was obvious the darkness would oppose it, but the darkness will not overcome it.
Even some of the people he came to save might balk at his presence and not receive him, but
(11:30):
that won't stop him giving to those who do receive him the authority to become sons of God.
The word can't be overthrown or derailed.
Friends, we need these opening verses of John's gospel to set the proper context for everything that comes after it all starts.
(11:52):
Here he is and always has been the perfect self-expression of God's character and purpose.
See me?
And you've seen the Father, Jesus would say to his disciple in chapter 14.
He is the one verse 18 of this chapters tells us who is uniquely able to exe God.
(12:15):
No one's ever seen God, the only begotten God who was at the father's side.
He has made him known.
He is in the beginning, prior to everything and everyone else, Jesus would pray
about his glory he had with the Father before the world was made in John 17.
John the Baptist would tell his disciples that the one who comes after me has become before me because he is prior to me.
(12:42):
He is the one through whom all things were made.
That is why creation itself obeys him.
Water becomes wine, bread and fish are multiplied.
The surface of the water holds him up.
Death cannot resist the demand that it release Lazarus.
He brings life because life is his creation.
(13:07):
He will tell his disciples in this gospel in John five, it is granted to the son to have life in himself.
I am the way and the truth and the life.
Jesus said he brings light because he exposes and dispenses with darkness.
He opens eyes to see.
He is the light of the world.
(13:29):
The light that enlightens every human being.
You see when in this gospel, the religious establishment opposes him and tries to get rid of him.
We who have read these verses know that they're dealing with this one.
The unimaginably, splendid, and powerful word become flesh.
(13:52):
So what they're doing is both perverse and pathetic.
When the woman of Samaria stands at Jacob's well confused, compromised, and dismissive.
We who have read these verses know that she was face-to-face with this one.
God's glorious self-expression become one of us.
(14:15):
He dispels her darkness, overturns the chaos in her life, and tells her all she ever did.
When the man who was lying at the pool of Bethesda for 38 years looked up from his mat
into the face of Jesus, we know he was looking at this one, do you want to be healed?
(14:36):
Jesus asked him, and the crippling disability that had tied him to that spot for so long could
not resist the power and authority of the one who even in the beginning was both with God and God.
When the Sisters of Lazarus tearfully shi to Jesus for staying away when Lazarus was sick, we know they were dealing
(15:00):
with this one, the giver of life and Light who shows them and asked that he himself is the resurrection and the life.
And when Pontius Pilate fudged and delayed and eventually caved into the wishes of his enemies, he was dealing with this one.
Behold, the man Pilate said as he presented him to the crowds, but he was so much more than a man.
(15:28):
He was the word become flesh.
You see the, the whole of the gospel flows out from here.
John's gospel is, you might say, a conflict gospel.
Everything that happens in it is part of the great confrontation between the light and the darkness that we find right here.
And we see that struggle still going on in a different key, don't we?
(15:51):
We're part of it.
The opposition to the light is still real.
The darkness still rages both in the world and inside us.
The Prince of Darkness moves his pieces across the board, and sometimes it looks as if the game is all over.
So we need to remember that the light shines in the darkness.
(16:15):
The darkness does not overcome it.
In John's gospel, that was never in doubt.
For a moment, the frontiers of darkness are pushed back, and then the darkness regroups and tries again.
And when it looked as if the darkness had closed in for good, that the had
(16:37):
finally triumphed over the light, it's the one who is the word become flesh.
Who calls out not.
In desperation, but in triumph, it is finished.
The darkness does not overcome it.
God has given us the key to understand the rest of this gospel in these opening verses.
(16:59):
It's not just a heroic narrative, the story of a good man, the best man who ever lived, perhaps so much more than that.
His story did not begin when he came out of the Jordan after being baptized by John.
It didn't begin when he was born in that stable and placed in that mania.
(17:19):
It began before all human history.
It began in the beginning, and that simple fact changes the scale of what we're dealing with when we read here about Jesus.
We are confronted with God himself, become one of us, and that is jaw dropping, astonishing and even shocking.
(17:45):
Some of the fourth years will remember that Archbishop Anselm once wrote a book entitled Why God Became Man.
His basic argument was very simple.
We have sin, so we must pay the price of sin, but we can't.
Only God can.
So if there is any possibility of us being saved from our sins, God must become a man truly,
(18:11):
genuinely, and fully a man, so that in him we do pay the price and we can pay the price.
And these opening verses of John's gospel made clear that this is exactly what's happened.
God, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and on both ends of that equation, it must be real, really
(18:37):
God, and really one of us, we cannot fudge for a moment on the full, perfect, and equal divinity of Christ.
Nor can we fudge on the genuine, complete flesh and blood, body and soul, humanity of Christ.
(19:00):
But friends, there's something, uh, else we must notice in these first verses, and I don't
mean the comments about John the Baptist that are interlaced with the story of the word.
We'll pick those up next time.
It is rather that right from the beginning, this is all about blessing.
Yes, there is a confrontation and there will be conflict, but all of this happens for our good.
(19:24):
These verses are brimming over with life and light, with fellowship and glory, with grace and truth.
Moses might have brought the very great blessing that comes with revealing God's
law to his people, and certainly the law was a blessing, not just all negative.
(19:45):
Judgment and obligation, but grace and truth, light and life, they come through Jesus Christ.
And that's phenomenally good news.
So the word becoming flesh, what I've clumsily called the release of the real elemental power of the universe into our time and space.
(20:11):
See, I told you.
As monumental a moment as this is, he's not first and foremost destructive.
It is for our good.
The rest of the gospel will spell out the motive behind it all.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
(20:36):
This is nothing remotely like harnessing a new and powerful weapon, so his unequal power is undeniable.
It is about the creator crossing the threshold of creation in order to save us as we'll see in this gospel bearing the cost
(20:57):
of doing that, it is all too easy for us who spend each weekday together studying it to reduce the scope of the gospel.
We believe we can turn it into a purely personal message.
A call to transformed living the motive and method of holiness.
And it certainly is all of those things, but it is those things because first it is this, the news of something monumental that has taken place.
(21:30):
The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we've seen his glory.
Glory as of the only begotten from the father.
Well, there's lots of ways of responding to this part of God's word this morning.
Stop being afraid of the darkness.
(21:52):
It cannot overcome the light that's come into the world.
Receive the one who came in order that you might be given authority to become a child of God.
I think first and foremost, we must be astonished that this was even possible.
That the word who made everything that exists could himself enter the world.
(22:16):
He's made with the deliberate purpose of giving us, who receive him the right to be children of God.
The word, the unique sun.
The only begotten son, I still like using that word.
All the early church fathers thought that's what it meant.
(22:38):
The word who is uniquely with the father in the beginning come to make God known to us, to you, and to me as only he can.
That is something truly astonishing, isn't it?
Let's pray again.
(23:01):
Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that all of this was done for us, and we pray that you
might keep us wandering, wandering, astonished, rejoicing in what it is that you've done.
Keep us from reducing the gospel down to a personal message of morality or something else.
(23:24):
Keep us from being distracted, but let us remember that you did this.
And you did it for us, so thank you, Father, in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Karen Beilharz (23:45):
Thank you for listening to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College.
Our vision as a College is to see God glorified by men and women living for
and proclaiming Jesus Christ, growing healthy churches and reaching the lost.
Do you want to deepen your knowledge of God's word or increase in confidence as you teach the Bible to others?
(24:06):
For over 60 years, the PTC, Moore College's Preliminary Theological Certificate has been helping believers
discover the riches of God's word and grow their understanding of the foundations of the Christian faith.
The PTC has been fundamental in the transformation of people, churches and communities across the world.
If you are looking for a biblically sound course that is both flexible and affordable,
(24:28):
find out more about the online or correspondence options and even try a sample lesson.
Visit moore.edu.au/ptc.
That's moore.edu.au/ptc.
(24:50):
You can find out more and register by going to the Moore College website.
moore.edu.au
That's moore.edu.au.
If you have not already done so, we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast
through your favourite podcast platform so that you'll never miss an episode.
For past episodes, further resources and to make a tax deductible donation to support
(25:12):
the work at the College and its mission, please visit our website at moore.edu.au.
If you found this episode helpful, please share it with a friend and leave a review on your platform of choice.
We always benefit from feedback from our listeners, so if you'd like to get in touch, you can email us at comms@moore.edu.au.
(25:38):
The Moore in the Word podcast was edited and produced by me, Karen Beilharz and the Communications Team at Moore Theological College.
The music for our podcast was provided by MarkJuly from Pixabay.
Until next time.
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