The Advent of the King's Son: Part One

Isaiah 5:1-7                       John 1:1-18

The Advent of the King’s Son: Part One

In the parallel passages, Matthew 21:33-46 and Luke 20:9-19, Jesus told the Pharisees about an owner of a vineyard who leased his property to certain tenants. When the time for the harvest arrived, the owner sent out his servants to receive his share of the fruit. But the wicked tenants sent the servants away empty handed, beating some and killing others. Finally, the owner decided to send his own son thinking that they would surely respect him. Yet the tenants decided to kill the son reasoning that killing the heir would ensure that they could take possession of the vineyard for themselves. And so, they killed the owner’s only son and heir.

After telling them this parable, Jesus then asked the Pharisees what they thought the owner ought to do with these wicked tenants. They immediately responded: “He will destroy those wicked men miserably (as if there’s another way to destroy people!) and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.” And so, they pronounced their own judgement. Jesus proceeded to explain the meaning of the parable: “Therefore I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.”

Of course, this is not the only reference in Scripture to God as the owner of a vineyard called Israel – we find the same story in the book of Isaiah 5:1-7 and in John 15:1-8. God is portrayed as owner and as vinedresser who prunes the vines so that they might bear more fruit. 

Now, what is important about these parables and stories is that they reveal to us God’s infinite patience when dealing with his rebellious people. In Matthew and in Luke, the owner sent servants over and over and over again, hoping, longing, yearning for a change of heart. And then he sent his son…

This is where we pick up the story in our Gospel lesson for today. In his opening words, the Apostle John addressed three main things about Jesus, the Owner’s Son. He spoke about his Person, his Purpose for coming into our world, and his Primary Focus during his visit. Today, we are just going to look at the first point. The Person of the Son.

John’s wording in the first five verses is somewhat complex, but, I believe very clear, as he sought to portray the King’s Son in a way that would leave no wiggle room for those who would ever wish to doubt his person. There are three essential things that John revealed about Jesus here:

He revealed his Essential Nature – verse 1.

He revealed that he is the essential source of all things – verses 2-3,

And He revealed that he is the essential sustainer of all things – verses 4-5.

John began his Gospel with these words: “In the beginning…” and in doing so, I believe he intentionally meant to transport us back to the opening verse of the first book in the Scriptures. “In the beginning…” 

Why did he do that? Was he merely trying to tell us that Jesus was there in the beginning? Or was he perhaps trying to tell us something more?

I believe that John was trying to alert us to the fact that a new creation or a new beginning began with the Advent or coming of Jesus. Jesus was there in the beginning of creation and Jesus was active in the beginning, but once again he comes, not to create this time, but rather to recreate. With the Advent of Jesus, a new day dawned…one which would ultimately culminate in a renewed heaven and a renewed earth.

But then John wrote: “In the beginning WAS the Word.” With these few words, John brought us to the very root of the universe. The Word is no ordinary Word. This is an eternal Word…this is an eternal story…a story that begins in eternity and will end in eternity.

This Word that John spoke of is uncreated. There has never been a time when the Word was not. Here John presented us with an existence before time. In many ways, created existence can only be understood in terms of the uncreated existence of this uncreated Word. “In the beginning was the Word.” Uncreated and before creation.

But just who was this Word? John told us that this Word was WITH God and that the Word WAS God. But what does that mean?

Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus maintained that apart from God the Father, he could do nothing. So we are to understand that there is and always was and always will be an interdependence between the Father and the Son. 

However, by selecting his words carefully, John demonstrated that while the Word was God, he was also with God, so the two are not identical. There is a difference between the Father and the Son – the Son is not the Father and the Father is not the Son. The two are not identical and yet the two are ONE. “The Word was WITH God and the Word WAS God. 

This means that the Father and the Son share the same essence. In the Nicene Creed we say that we believe in “…the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God; Light of Light; very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.” One substance…in Greek ‘homoousios’…one essence.

The Word was with God and the Word was God –one indivisible God, yet two, or rather, as we shall see later in the series, three distinct Persons. One God, three Persons. As such, the Word can be both WITH God as well as BE God. John made it very clear – there’s a creative fulness within God’s being – a wondrous unity, yet a rich diversity, revealed in all he says and does.

Right in the beginning, in the opening chapter of the Bible, there is this consultation within the Godhead. In Genesis 1:26, God deliberated within himself. “Let US make humans in OUR image…” God conferring within himself as he created us…

“The Word was with God and the Word was God”. The greatest statement John could make about the Word was to say that the Word IS God – all that can be said about God can be said about the Word. The Word partakes of the innermost being of God. He is of the same substance – one in essence.

But in these opening lines, John was saying far more than that the Word is Divine. You must remember that John was a Jew…a member of a group of people who were fiercely monotheistic. Their faith in the one Holy Living God was no academic affair. It was a matter of life and death…remember, they crucified Jesus for claiming to be God! 

So, the confession, “the Word was God”, is a startling affirmation of faith that could only have been made by one who had been thoroughly convinced of the truth! In fact, it could only have been made by one who had beheld his glory, “the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”.

I believe that this is the reason why John described Jesus as the Word. In the Hebrew mind, God and his Word are, in one sense, intrinsically interconnected because it is through his Word that God reveals himself…his Word reflects his being and his character. True, all words identify the speaker, but in this case, the words are eternally true because the eternal God voiced them. In the Hebrew mind, the Word of God had a unique power, a precious quality, a living reality. 

The Hebrew word “Dawar”, can be translated as “word” or as “thing” …as such it is far more than a simple utterance…it means something that has been put in motion and that cannot be reversed. Remember, in the opening chapter of the first book of the Scriptures words are the creative energy behind the creation of the universe. 

This is one reason why vocalised oaths were taken so seriously – they could not easily be revoked. The act of speaking, in the Hebrew mind, was just as good as the deed…there was a correspondence between the words spoken and whatever those words referred to.  Oaths uttered were, in many ways, irrevocable unless undone by a superior. (You see this most clearly when Jesus reversed the threefold words of denial by Peter.)

Now, unfortunately, words tend to mean very little in our society. We make vows and utter promises which we very easily break – in fact, we seem to find it very easy to dismiss God’s Word when it suits us. 

“Has God really said?” The statement that prefaced the first temptation still trips us up today. Indeed, the question must be asked…do we really care what God said? If so, why do we find it so easy to challenge it or to change it?

God’s Words and God’s actions reveal God’s character. You cannot separate God from his Word. This is why he can guarantee his Word and why we can trust his Word and live by his Word. God's Word is truth. What God has said is true and not false. We cannot simply discard it because we disagree with it. To challenge his Word is to challenge him…God does not evolve and neither does his Word. He does not waver between opinions. What he has said is and always will be true.

It is this understanding of God’s Word that lays the foundation upon which John will build his case for Jesus – it is the basis upon which he will reveal the identity of Jesus. For John, Jesus was the living action of God both in creating the world as well as in sustaining the world and in renewing or giving life back to the world. 

This same Word, John wrote, was with God in the beginning of creation and all things were made through him. Creation is God’s work through his Word. He spoke all things into existence. God is the source of all life, and the Word is the living agent, the vehicle, through whom he created and recreated.

In Colossians 1:16 Paul said, “For by him (Jesus) all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones and dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him.”

Everything owes its existence and its continuing existence to the Word of God. “Without him nothing was made that was made.”  Yet not only was the Word instrumental in the beginning of creation, but the Word is also instrumental in the preservation of creation. He upholds all things by the word of his power. That’s why Jesus could say in John 5:17, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” Jesus is and always has been intimately involved in every aspect of his creation.

God is not like a gigantic clock maker who made the world, wound it up only to let it tick away on its own, slowly running itself down. No. God created everything, he sustains everything, and is intimately involved with everything. This is the basis of our relationship with God. In Jesus, God is with us. Without him there can be no relationship because without him there can be no life. He is the source of all things…he is the beginning of all things and because he is the beginning of all things, he is obviously also the end of all things. He holds all things together. If God was to withdraw, everything would implode…everything would collapse. There’s just no way anything could continue without his sustaining Word.

The relationship we have with God finds it essence and its zenith in the Word of God because the Word creates, sustains, and recreates. Humans cannot live by bread alone, the Scripture tells us, but by every WORD that proceeds from the mouth of God. Jesus, John said, is the Word and in the Word is life and that life is the light of all humanity.

In John 10:10 Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” As such, Jesus is the only way, he is the only truth, and he is the only source of life – that is why no man can gain access to the Father except through him. He alone is the life – every other way is the way of death. No other way can be life because he alone is the source of life – if you want life, Jesus is where you will find it.

Of course, darkness will always try to extinguish the light. Darkness is as darkness does. But sadly, darkness is not confined to the world out there…darkness can and has and will relentlessly seek to creep into places of light. Ever since the Fall of humanity, this has been Satan’s goal. To extinguish, blot out, remove the light…or, at least to dim it or defile it. But this Light, John said, shines in the darkness and the darkness is both unable to comprehend it as well as unable to overcome it. How can it ever overcome the light? If the Light is overcome everything will cease to exist. 

So, the light continually pierces the darkness…the portals of hell cannot stand against it because wherever the light shines the darkness is dispelled and there is life. Every one of us was once dead in trespasses and sins…every one of us once walked in darkness…but because the light has shone in our hearts, we have light and we have life. A life that cannot be extinguished even though all hell should break loose upon it, because our life is guaranteed by the very word of God.

In the parable of the wicked vinedressers, it is the son’s murder that triggers both the removal of the vineyard as well as the giving of the vineyard. Jesus came to his own, John wrote…he came to his own place, to his own people…he came to his own vineyard…but the tenants of his vineyard did not receive him. In fact, they killed him.

One wonders how the tenants could have lost their reason so badly so as to forget who truly owned the vineyard! Could anyone ever be so blind as to think that they could do as they pleased with someone else’s property? How could they ever have thought that they would not be held accountable for their deeds? Were they so busy playing owners that they forgot that they were merely tenants? 

Yet, amazing as it may seem to us, the people of God seem to suffer from this deplorable lack of reality from time to time. We forget that we are not owners here to do with the Church as we see fit. We are here to tend a vineyard that is not our own. Is it possible that the Church could forget who is our Master, our Lord, our Shepherd, our God? Is it possible that we may have lost our focus?

Yes, unfortunately, it is possible. We have seen such forgetfulness creep into the Church throughout history…today is no different…and it usually begins with us straying from God’s Word. Not surprisingly, as that is how sin first entered the world. 

“Has God really said?” 

But the Word of God continues to shine in the darkness of this age as well as in the darkness we, his own people, seem so eager to embrace…but, we have his Word. In the end, he will overcome it.

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2022