Heralding the Word Part 3

forward, John merely looks into
eternity past. But he says so with this obtuse
introduction, and we spent no little time on it. In the beginning
was the Word, and ultimately he’s pointing to the Lord Jesus
Christ. We saw that from verse 14. When John, by the Holy Spirit’s illumination
seized hold of this word, he was grabbing a word, this word
logos, that would draw in not only Jews but Greeks, and would
allow John, as he unfolded his gospel, to really introduce people
for the first time, almost like what Paul did in Athens. telling
people about an unknown God. John does here in drawing in
both Jews and Greeks and telling them, let me tell you about the
Logos. Let me tell you about the Lord
Jesus. Ultimately, John will go on to
say that the word, the Logos, became flesh, verse 14, and dwelt
among us and we saw his glory. Glory as of the only begotten
from the Father, full of grace and truth. It was Jesus Christ
that he was heralding. It was Jesus Christ who was eternal.
It was Jesus Christ who was in existence already when Moses
began to write and articulate that moment of creation, even
as we looked at this morning again. Jesus Christ was already
in existence, point one. But point two, noted that Jesus
Christ was in a relational position with God. Look at verse one again,
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. Now,
there were a number of efforts to describe this, and one attempt
was to say that Jesus Christ was face-to-face with God, but
that really didn’t do it for us. It didn’t go far enough.
It wasn’t merely that Jesus Christ was with God, or even that he
was face-to-face with God, but he was in perfect communion with
God the Father. He was in a relationship. He
was interactive. They were communing together
on the deepest level. Not merely coexistence, but a
deep and abiding interrelationship was the Lord Jesus and with the
Father. Thirdly, we saw that not only
does John herald Jesus Christ’s eternal nature in his relational
position, but third, his divine identity. Look at verse one again. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now again, we spent no little
time on this. We won’t double back and try
to redo everything that we did last week, except to say that
what John was saying is that the nature of the Word was exactly
the same as God’s. He had the same nature. The Word
was God, and God was, in a very real sense, the Word. Whatever
quality was inherent to God himself was also inherent to the Word. John isn’t merely blending those
two beings and making them into one. What he’s saying is that
Jesus Christ was fully God, but he was absolutely distinct from
the Father. And as I suggested to you last
week, we could go all through the scriptures and look at dozens
and dozens, if not hundreds of verses that articulate the divine
nature of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was God. But what we
must grasp What I wanted to show last Lord’s Day was that we absolutely
see the deity of Christ proclaimed in John 1.1. But there’s a fourth. There’s
a fourth quality that John articulates here as he heralds the word.
The word, the Lord Jesus Christ, is heralded not only in his eternal
nature, his relational position, his divine identity, but in his
distinct personality. His distinct personality. Look
at verse two. It just says, quite simply, he
was in the beginning with God. And in that, really, John doesn’t
say anything new. John doesn’t say anything that
he hasn’t already said. In fact, in a sense, he even
simplifies it. Literally, he says, the same
one, or we might even say in the vernacular, that one, that
same one, translated here simply as he. He points back to verse
one in doing so. And we shouldn’t overlook what
is obvious in the Greek here. John says explicitly that the
very same one who was in the beginning, the same one who was
the word, the same one who was with God, the same one who was
God, is the same one referred to here again. J.C. Ryle great godly pastor and commentator
observing this passage notes the gaps that could be allowed
in the information, in the truths that have already been communicated.
He says it this way. I mean, we’ve been given a ton
of information in verse one. In the beginning was the word,
the word was with God, the word was God, profound truths. But what J.C. Ryle says is, that’s
not the total story, that’s not everything. And there are gaps
there that John still wants to close by the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
J.C. Ryle said it this way, John anticipates
the possible objection that perhaps there was a time when Christ,
the Word, was not a distinct person in the Trinity. The Word
was also from all eternity a person in the Godhead distinct from
the Father. In other words, what he says
is you could read verse one, in the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. You might also
look at those verses and come to the reasonable conclusion
that God was the Word, they’re one and the same, they’re all
melded together, and Jesus Christ is not, or at least not yet,
distinct from the Father. Now, what John does here in verse
2 is to combine those thoughts that he has already expressed,
but not merely for just repetition. It was interesting to read this
past week how many commentators really just kind of brushed this
verse 2 aside as being just mere repetition, just repeating, just
kind of snowballing as it were. It is repetition. He doesn’t
say anything new, but he does so for a purpose. John frequently
repeats things. And in that sense, one might
even say, well, he is almost 100 years old, he should be repeating
himself. That’s not at all what’s going
on here. Sometimes he repeats things merely
for the sense of emphasis. But here, there is a specific
purpose beyond just some kind of mere emphasis. In verse one,
just as he does here, John tells us that the word was in the beginning. Then he tells us that this word
was, just as he does here, with God. But the point that emerges
here is that these two things were true at the same time. That
Jesus Christ was in eternity past, existing with God the Father,
as God, Simply put, the Word was separate and distinct from
the Father. We haven’t observed that point
yet. The point could have been made in the second phrase or
second sentence of verse one. The Word was with God. You could
come up with some degree of distinctness there. But the point that emerges is
absolutely true here. is that Jesus Christ was already
existing in eternity past with God the Father as God. The word,
simply put, was separate and distinct from God the Father. As one Puritan so clearly stated
this profound truth, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
are the one God. Now, you and I would all hold
to that, but the church didn’t always have a complete grasp
of that. In fact, at many seasons in the
church, the doctrine of the Trinity was very fuzzy, very undefined
yet. Remember, in the first several
hundred years of the existence of the church, letters were being
gathered. We’ll look at more of that today
in Sunday school. Letters were being gathered,
letters from Paul, and Gospels were being written. John’s Gospel
written almost near the end of the first century. And so not
only gleaning and gathering these documents, but sifting through
and sorting through the theologies therein and the doctrines that
were taught was a process. But now standing, standing as
it were on their shoulders, we can look back and we can say
unequivocally there is the doctrine of the Trinity plainly evident
in the scriptures. We hold to it truly. But for
this 14th century Puritan, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit are the one God, and that nevertheless, God the Son is
not the Father, nor the Spirit the Son. They are three distinct
parts of one God. They are distinguished from each
other by some peculiar properties, each member of the Godhead has
properties distinct and separate to them, and yet we can never
say that those properties decrease their godness, if you will, their
quality as deity. And so what, not only was Jesus
Christ distinct from the Father as a personality, He was so from
eternity. This was always the case. This
has always been the case in the Godhead. There has always been
that triune membership of the Godhead. And even though the
Holy Spirit isn’t in view here, we can conclude that now. What
John merely says here is that Jesus Christ was separate and
distinct throughout all eternity. And yet, Even though he was distinct,
the Word and the Father, they functioned as one in the Godhead.
Remember, that’s the communion that we saw last Lord’s Day. They were with one another. They
were functioning together. That as God, they were absolutely
together. As one commentator summarized
so aptly, The relationship with deity implied, with that little
prepositional phrase, with God. The relationship with deity implied
was eternal. A summary statement of the three
propositions laid down in verse one, all of which were true in
the beginning, that Jesus Christ was there, Jesus Christ was God,
he was with God, communing with God, and he was distinct from
all eternity. And so John takes verse one and
he gathers up all those thoughts and drives home the point that
the word was distinct from the Father from all eternity. So John’s purpose here is really
to mark a real distinction between the word, between the Father. That as we approach the one,
And the scriptures, especially in the Gospel of John, will point
to the fact that when we come to the Father, we do so through
the Son. That no one can approach the Father except through the
Son. There is no other means of salvation. There is no other
way to be saved. There are no alternate ways of
accessing the Father. That is a very controversial
point in our world right now, isn’t it? that almost everybody
would say, well, there’s no one true religion. There’s no one
right way. There are many ways to God. Well, that’s not what
God’s word says. That Jesus Christ is separate
and distinct, and he is unique. He is unique above all others.
And that it is only through Christ that we are saved. It is only
through Christ that God can be accessed. And so this thought, this thought
ought to bewilder us. This thought of God being one
and yet three, this thought of God being three parts and yet
one God, it ought to humble us. It ought to astound us. As that
godly Scottish pastor Thomas Chalmers humbly acknowledged
more than 200 years ago. The Father is God. The Son is
God. The Holy Spirit is God. God is one. If you ask me to
reconcile the four propositions I answer, I cannot. We can boldly
but humbly come before God and know that he is That He is God,
but that He is also distinct in three persons, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That’s John’s fourth point, but
he makes a fifth. In heralding the word, and Jesus
Christ had been heralded on numerous occasions. He was heralded by
the angels at his birth. He was heralded by even the people
in the city of Jerusalem. He was heralded by God himself
as he stood on the Mount of Transfiguration. He’s heralded in the gospel accounts.
But John takes this opportunity, this profound opportunity to
herald the world, to herald rather, the word as he had never before
been heralded. To tell us about his nature,
to tell us about his character, to articulate the specifics of
who Jesus Christ is. Not only was the word eternal,
and in a relational position with God, owning a divine identity,
maintaining a distinct personality. Fifthly, the word, the Lord Jesus Christ
is heralded in his creational power, in his creational power. I want to pause and just look
down at verse three now. John is unfolding these truths
in rapid succession, and we do well to meditate upon them. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God. All things came into being through
him. And apart from him, nothing came
into being that has come into being. Note right away. If you glance
at that verse, there is a deliberate contrast here. We spent some
time on it when we looked at that word was in verse one. That word was just simply speaks
of existence. It doesn’t talk about generation.
It doesn’t talk about creation. It doesn’t talk about becoming
anything. It just simply looks at the word
and say that he was in existence. He was always in existence. He
didn’t come to be. But there’s a contrast here with
what is said in verses one and two about the word, the Lord
Jesus Christ. In verses one and two, we’re
told four times that the word simply was. It didn’t come to
be, it didn’t come about, it wasn’t born, in a sense, as God. But here of creation, we’re told
three times in this one little verse that it clearly came into
being. It didn’t always exist. It wasn’t
always here. It was created. But not only was Jesus in existence
when everything came into being, but that it was through him that
the world was created. We’ll pick that up in a moment.
Now you also can’t help but notice also that distinctive flavor
of Genesis, which we just reviewed in the context of God’s creation
of woman, the distinctive flavor of Genesis chapter one is still
here. When we first learned of it,
that opening phrase, in the beginning, it clearly hearkens back to what
Moses said, how he began the book of Genesis, in the beginning,
God, And John seizing hold of this takes us back in our minds
to that moment, to that beginning of creation. Genesis is here,
but it’s here again. And it’s here again in verse
three in a profound measure. As we saw two weeks ago, Both
books start with that same phrase in the beginning. Both books
also focus on God’s act of creation. Genesis starts with that very
detailed moment by moment, day by day, accounting of all that
God did in creating. And here in John, with this particular
revelation of Christ’s personal involvement in that act of creation,
Not only was the Logos, not only was the word as he’s translated
there, the Lord Jesus Christ, not only was he present in the
beginning, since we discovered first of
all that he was eternal, not only was he in a relational position
with the Father, he was with him as we saw in verse one, But
here we learn that this eternal being, referred to as the Word,
was the active agent in the divine act of creation. He was the agent. He was the means that God used
to create. Genesis tells us a great deal.
It’s an amazing account. Turn, if you would, to the book
of Genesis. Genesis chapter one. Where Moses records in the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless
and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the
spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then
God said, let there be light. There was light. God saw that
the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light day and the darkness he called night.
There was evening and there was morning. One day, day one of
creation. Then God said let there be an
expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate from the
waters from the waters God made the expanse and separated the
waters which were below and the expanse from the waters which
were above the expanse and it was so He created the atmosphere
if you will Where there was moisture in the heavens and yet there
was water obvious water on the earth There was evening and there
was morning a second day day two of creation Then God said,
let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place and
let the dry land appear. And it was so, and God called
the dry land to earth. In the gathering of the waters,
he called seas, and God saw that it was good. Then God said, let
the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit
trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in
them. And it was so. It’s amazing to
me that God created food before he even created mankind. Amazing. The earth brought forth vegetation,
plants yielding seed after their kind, trees bearing fruit with
seed in them after their kind, and God saw that it was good,
there was evening and there was morning, a third day, day three
of creation. Then God said, let there be lights
in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the
night, and for the days and years and let them be for lights in
the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth and it
was so. God made two great lights, the
greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern
the night. He made the stars also. God placed them in the
expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth and to govern
the day and the night and to separate the light from the darkness
and God saw that it was good. There was evening. There was
morning, the fourth day, the fourth day of creation. Then
God said, let the waters team with swarms of living creatures,
and let the birds fly above the earth in the opening expanse
of the heavens. God created the great sea monsters
and every living creature that moves, which the waters swarmed
after their kind, and every winged creature, every winged bird after
its kind, and God saw that it was good. God blessed them and
saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas
and let birds multiply in the earth. It was evening and morning,
a fifth day. Then God said, let the earth
bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle and
creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind. And
it was so. God made the beasts of the earth
after their kind and the cattle after their kind and everything
that creeps on the ground after its kind and God saw. that it
was good. Then God said, let us make God,
let us, bear with me. Then God said, let us make man
in our image according to our likeness and let them rule over
the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over
the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing
that creeps on the earth. God created man in his own image.
In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created
them. God blessed them and said to
them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue
it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of
the sky and every living thing that moves on the earth. Then
God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed
that is on the surface of all the earth, every tree which has
fruit yielding seed, it shall be as food for you. And to every
beast of the earth and every bird of the sky, and to everything
that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every
green plant for food, and it was so. God saw all that he had
made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening,
and there was morning, a sixth day. Genesis gives us this incredibly
detailed account Day by day, moment by moment, the very things
that were created on each of those particular days. I remember
during my ordination, someone posed the question asking me
if I believed in a literal seven day creation. And I said, I thought
it was a trick question. I said, no. I believe in six
day creation. And then on the seventh day,
God rested. That detailed account that’s given there. Genesis tells us a great, great
deal, but it doesn’t tell us, at least not as plainly as John
does here, about the Word and about the
role that Jesus Christ played in creation. Glance, if you would,
back at John chapter one. In John chapter one, that’s John’s
goal. He is taking us back to the moment
of creation, but he’s telling us here what is only veiled and
suggested there in Genesis 3. By that phrase, let us make man
in our image, as the Hebrew so clearly translates it. John chapter 1 verse 3 says,
all things came into being through him. And apart from him, nothing
came into being that has come into being. Paul and others echo
the same thought elsewhere, that all things came into being through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Just in your mind’s eye, listen
briefly. Romans 11.36 says that from him, speaking of God, and
through him and to him are all things. Now that doesn’t specifically
point to Christ, but we will know from Paul’s letters that
he absolutely is including the Lord Jesus Christ in that equation.
When Paul wrote to the Corinthians in one of his first epistles,
Paul said, yet for us there is but one God, 1 Corinthians 8.6.
For us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all
things, and we exist for him.” He basically says what he says
elsewhere, that we exist for God, our whole goal is to glorify
God, glorify God and enjoy him forever. But he goes on. There is but one God, the Father,
from whom are all things, and we exist for him. You might even
say that God is the God of creation. Everything comes from him. Except
that Paul goes on to say, and there’s one Lord, Jesus Christ,
by whom are all things. And we exist through him. The Lord Jesus Christ is seen
not only in his role in the church, that we exist for him. He saved
us, he died for us, but he’s also seen here in eternity past. He’s also seen here at the moment
of creation as God worked through him to create all things. Everything in the world, the
entire universe was created through the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s
energy was there. God was exercising his energy,
but he did it. through the word, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul says the same exact thing
in Colossians. Jot these down if you’re interested.
First Corinthians 8.6, Colossians 1.16. Colossians 1.16 says it
very straightforwardly. By him all things were created,
both in the heavens and on earth, visible, invisible, whether thrones
or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created
through him and for him. The Lord Jesus Christ is absolutely
paramount. But I want you to see something.
In each of those verses just quoted, the writers refer to
the totality of the things that Jesus created with two words,
ta panta. Now if you were here last week,
you know that that first word is merely the definite article.
But in verse 3 here in John, John uses just one word, panta,
all things, without the definite article. And as we saw last week,
the absence of the article only serves to intensify the significance
of that word. Paul says elsewhere that Jesus
Christ stood in creating every little thing. He created this
tree, he created that, he created every little thing, and he points,
it’s almost as if he points to them individually when he says
ta, panta, all things. But as we said, the absence of
the article intensifies it, and when John says that Jesus Christ
was instrumental that all things came into being through him.
He just points to the entirety of creation in doing so. Every last thing, every seemingly
insignificant, infinitesimal, obscure, unnoticed, unobservable
by the human eye, every last little thing, Panta, was created
by the word, the Lord Jesus Christ. So John is not only saying that
Jesus Christ created the whole world, but that he created every
little thing in it down to the most minute detail. The various
translators and commentators have taken great pains to try
and capture this. One said all things in the most
absolute sense. Another said the most unlimited
universality. That really does it for me. The
grandeur of unmistakable array of units. Rather wouldn’t. The bottom line is there wasn’t
anything, not anything in the whole world that was made, not
in the heaven and the earth, not that we can see with the
naked eye or invisible to it, were made without the Lord Jesus
Christ. As one pastor said, far from
holding that blind principle such as matter cooperated in
the existence of the universe, and if you go to a secular school,
that’s what you’re going to be taught. is that matter essentially
cooperated and came in, and things came into existence that didn’t
previously exist. The Word did it. Not an insect,
not a blade of grass, does not bear this trace of divine intervention. The Lord Jesus Christ did it.
Look how plainly it says it. All things, first of all it says
as big as you can get, everything. You can’t use a word more superlative
than that. All things came into being through
Him. Let’s begin by acknowledging
one thing. Let’s acknowledge that God created the universe.
We’ve already seen that. We saw it in Genesis. We saw
it in the rest of scripture. They all attest to that fact,
but here John points out that while God created the world,
he did so through the agency of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
other words, in some way, Jesus was the instrument through which
God operated. God didn’t act without the Son,
and the Son didn’t take matters into his own hand. The Father
spoke by means of the Word, and we saw over and over in Genesis,
and it was so. But it should be acknowledged
here, though, when we speak of the Word, Jesus being the agent,
it’s not simply to imply that he was inferior, like a mere
helper, like a lackey to the Father, like a conduit through
which God simply worked. When God says all things came
into being through him, it’s not just that Jesus was idly
standing by. The point is that Jesus was much
more than just a passive means, a mere instrument for the Father
to use. As one characterized it, every
created thing passed through the intelligence and will of
the Son of God. He was intimately involved. in the act of creation. And what
this shows is that God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ were
effectively co-creators. It was God, God the Father, God
the Son, and yes, God the Spirit, all of whom were active participants
in creation. The point gleaned here particularly
with regard to the word the Lord Jesus Christ is that if he was
the creator, If all things originated in and through him, then he is
absolutely uncreated, the omnipotent God. As J.C. Ryle so effectively reasoned,
if not even the slightest thing was created without him, then
it is plain he cannot possibly be a creature himself. God of
the universe. He is all-powerful, sovereign,
and eternal, cannot possibly be conceived of as having an
origin, a beginning of being created. So what verse 3 uncovers
for us here, simply, is that not only was the Word in existence
throughout all eternity in fellowship with God the Father as the Son,
but it was He who gave birth and existence to every created
thing. as we’ve already seen. Paul,
speaking of that same idea in 1 Corinthians, is very careful
to maintain a distinctive yet blended participation. There
is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist
for him. And one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things,
and we exist through him. So if we say that every created
thing is from God the Father, we are biblically accurate. Every
created thing is from God the Father. But we could also say,
with equal biblical accuracy, that every created thing by means
of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the Lord Jesus Christ. As one
pastor declared, creation was not the solitary act of either. Both were at work, and for that
matter still are. The Father created, but he did
it through the Word. But I want you to look at the
verse one more time. All things came into being through him. Came into being. It’s a powerful
phrase. It just speaks of creation, and
that’s the word, that’s the way that word is always used, at
least in the New Testament. Ephesians 2.10 summarizes it
quite plainly when it says, for we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus for good works. It uses that same word. There’s an interesting thing
here, though, in verse three. Glance down at it again. John just says, all things came
into being through him. And that would have been enough.
That would have been enough. We would have, we’d be done right
now, except that he says the same thing a different way. All things came into being through
him. And apart from him, nothing came into being that has come
into being. This second part of verse three is more than just
a repetition of the first portion. It’s somewhat of a repetition. But it’s essentially the negative
of what is stated in the positive initially here in this verse.
And it just serves to give it this emphasis, this power, that
outside or apart from Jesus Christ, not one single thing was created
out of all creation. Outside of Christ, nothing came
to be. What John uses here is a kind of Hebrew poetry called
antithetical parallelism, and it’s very common. It’s very common
in the Psalms, listen. Psalm 89, if his sons forsake
my law and do not walk in my judgments, if they violate my
statutes and do not keep my commandments, he says the same thing, he just
flips it. John uses this literary device
very frequently. We’ll see it again and again
in John’s gospel. Listen to John 1.20. And he confessed, and he
did not deny, and he confessed. I am not the Christ. John 3.16. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son that whoever believes shall not perish
but have eternal life. Antithetical parallelism. And
you’ll see it over and over again in John’s gospel. And so here
at the end of John 1 3, all John does is repeat for effect and
emphasis what he said at the outset. It says, one pastor paraphrased,
all that from nothing rose, rose not without him. Did you get
that? Very simple paraphrase of what
he’s saying. All that from nothing rose, rose not without him. One pastor noted, there are about
100 billion stars in the average galaxy. And there are at least
100 million galaxies in known space. Are you following the
math here? Einstein believed that we have
scanned with our largest telescopes only one billionth of theoretical
space. This means that there are probably
something like 10 octillion stars in space. How many is that? He does the math for us. 1,000,000,000
is a million. 1,000,000,000 is a billion. 1,000,000,000,000
is a trillion. 1,000,000,000,000 is a quadrillion. I’ll slow down if you’re writing. One quadrillion, 1,000 quadrillions
is a septillion, and 1,000 septillions is an octillion. You follow? That’s a one followed by 27 zeros. That’s a rough estimate of how
many stars there are. And Jesus Christ created them
all. A lot of times, I have the privilege
of reading these rich quotes that really warm and encourage
my own heart. I take you to a summary that
John Eady, one of my favorite commentators, Scottish pastor
from bygone day, this is how he characterized it. Creation is here in the fullest
and most unqualified sense ascribed to Christ. The work of the six
days displayed vast creative energy. But it was to a great
extent the in bringing of furnishings and population to a planet already
made and in daily revolution. for it comprehended the formation
of balanced atmosphere, the enclosure of the ocean within proper limits,
the clothing of the soil with lush green vegetation, shrubs,
trees, and grasses, the exhibition of the sun, moon, and stars as
lights in the firmament, the introduction of birds, beasts,
reptiles, and fish into their appropriate haunts and elements.
the organization and endowment of man with Eden for his heritage
and the world for his home. It is not, therefore, the wise
and tasteful arrangement of preexistent materials or the reduction of
chaos to order, beauty and life, which is here ascribed to Jesus,
but the summoning of universal nature into original existence. what had no being before was
brought into being by Him. The universe was not till He
commanded it to be. Every form of matter in life
owes its origin to the Son of God, no matter in what sphere
it may be found or with what qualities it may be invested.
Christ’s creative work was no local or limited operation. It was not bounded by this little
orb. It sweeps around the universe
which is named heaven and earth. Every form and every kind of
matter, simple or complex, the atom and the star, the sun and
the clod, every grade of life from the worm to the angel, every
order of intellect and every being around us and above us.
The splendors of heaven and the nearer phenomena of earth are
the product of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s humble ourselves
before him. Our merciful King, we thank you
for this faithful servant that did such a great and effective
God as heralding. such a glorious God. Lord, we
thank you for John and for his efforts in these opening words,
this prologue to this great gospel. Lord God, we humble ourselves
in your presence and we find you not to be some subject bandied
about and debated as to whether you are God, you are indeed God. You are the creator of the world.
Lord God, you stood in an eternal relationship with God the Father,
and you functioned in that capacity as God and creator. Lord Jesus
Christ, we humble ourselves before you. Because in that capacity,
we cannot conceive of laying aside that relationship to come
and take on human flesh. much less to die on a cross for
sinners. But you’ve done that. You who
are God took on flesh to pay for the sin of humanity. And I am among them. We are among
them. We are among those for whom you
died. Lord God, we are humbled. that
God would do this for us. Grant us the grace to respond
in faith. If there are any who do not know
the Lord Jesus Christ today, today is the day of salvation.
Yield yourself. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.
Amen. You would take your bulletins
as we close and we’ll stand and sing Creator King. Echoes of a voice that calls
from the hills to me Whisper of the ages and you speak to
me My Creator, King of all