Malachi 3:1, 4:5-6 John 1:1-18
The Advent of the King’s Son: Part Two
Last week we looked at the connection between the parable of the wicked tenants and the prologue to John’s Gospel. In the parable, the owner of a vineyard repeatedly sent servants to receive his share of the harvest. This, in turn, was repeatedly refused. The servants were either sent away empty handed, or beaten, or even killed.
Finally, the exasperated owner sent his only son thinking that surely, they would respect him. But, as you no doubt remember, the wicked tenants murdered the son, believing that killing the only son and heir would result in them taking full possession of the vineyard for themselves.
When Jesus asked the Pharisees what they thought ought to be done to these wicked tenants, they immediately replied that they should be destroyed, and the vineyard leased to more worthy tenants. With this statement, they pronounced judgement on themselves as Jesus revealed that they were the wicked tenants, and that the kingdom of God would be taken away from them and given to more worthy recipients.
So, this parable, when coupled with John’s opening statements in his Gospel, teaches us that Israel’s repeated rejection of the word of God spoken through the prophets throughout the Old Testament, and their rejection of the Word revealed to us here as Jesus, the Owner’s Son or the King’s son, would ultimately lead to God’s judgement on Old Testament Israel and the birth of the New Testament Israel.
In this light, we looked at the Person of the Son – the identity of the Word made flesh – and we saw that, in effect, the rejection of the Word is a rejection of God. To reject the Word is to reject the very source of all life. In many ways, it is a reversal of creation…the rejection of God’s light plunges us back into chaotic primeval darkness.
Today, I would like us to look at the reason why the Word became incarnate…in other words, the Purpose and the Primary focus of the Son.
Now, it may seem odd to most first-time readers of this Gospel that John began with an awe-inspiring glimpse of eternity and the beginning of creation in verses 1-5, only to rip us away quite suddenly to first century Israel. It is as if he first lifts us up into the mystery of the eternal and then unceremoniously plops us down into the temporal…right in the middle of the wilderness ministry of John the Baptist.
But, in actual fact, what he did was to sweep us from the very first book of the Old Testament Canon (Genesis) all the way through to the very last book in the Old Testament Canon (Malachi). In Malachi we are told that before the Advent of the King, a messenger would come to announce his imminent arrival. “Look!” God said through the prophet Malachi, “I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.”
John the Baptist, whom Jesus later revealed to be the messenger, the voice of one crying in the wilderness (Isaiah 40:3), and one like Elijah returned to call Israel to repentance, came to be a witness to the light – to prepare the people for the arrival of the Word, so that, like the time God came down on Mount Sinai, they too might consecrate themselves and be ready for his coming. Just like Joshua consecrated the people prior to crossing the Jordan to claim the Promised Land, so too John the Baptist would call the people back to covenant faithfulness, ministering in the same area where Joshua and the Israelites had camped so many years before.
Now, I believe that by taking his readers from Genesis through to Malachi, John indicated that the coming of the Light would be a fulfilment of everything revealed to us in what is now known as the Old Testament. Indeed, Jesus said on more than one occasion that the Scriptures (the Old Testament Scriptures) spoke about him and that, as such, he both embodied them and completed them in his life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension. Everything in the Old Testament finds it full meaning in Jesus…the whole sacrificial system, forgiveness, renewal, restoration, purification, holiness, and even the Sabbath rest, which Jesus fulfilled as he rested in the tomb on the day before the resurrection…the 1st day of the new or renewed Creation…all is realized and fulfilled in Jesus.
But John was also quick to point out that the Baptist was not the light. He was a messenger…playing an important role, to be sure…but he was far lesser than the Light. To mistake the messenger for the Messiah is a grave error…we must never confuse the ambassador with the King.
John the Baptist was a witness, and as a witness, his purpose was to point others to Jesus so that they might believe in him. And from what we know about the Baptist, he took his role very seriously even though his witness cost him his life. He was a witness to the light, the truth, the life and a witness he would be, regardless of the consequences. No questioning. No compromise.
After this brief, but necessary, interjection, John continued to talk about this Word that brings both light and life into the world. As this Word brought all things into existence and as this Word also upholds all things by the Word of his power, it stands to reason that all things speak of him…creation cannot but reveal its Creator.
As David said in Psalm 19. “The heavens proclaim the glory of God, the skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.” Creation reveals the Creator.
In Romans 1 Paul also spoke of what is known as “General Revelation” in which the general knowledge of God and spiritual matters can be discerned through the observation of nature, concluding then that no one has a valid excuse to reject God. But general revelation is not specific revelation and therefore Jesus came to demonstrate clearly the character of God.
However, John indicated that even this revelation was rejected. “He came into the very world he created,” John said about Jesus, “but the world didn’t recognise him.” Ludicrous as it may seem, the creature rejects its Creator.
But it is important to realize that this rejection is deliberate…despite all observable evidence, general and specific revelation, they will not be convinced. It is like a Shakespearian tragedy or a Russian play. Blind to the truth even though it is staring them in the face all the time.
But perhaps the most tragic of all is that the Word, the Light, the Life, the Messiah, the King came to his own people…those who read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested the Scriptures…those who possessed the very oracles of God…Jesus came to his own people and even they rejected him. This is the reality of the parable of the wicked tenants. They rejected and murdered the Owner’s Son and thereby forfeited the Kingdom.
It is amazing to read of the wilful blindness of some in the Gospels. They saw all he did and yet they demanded more signs. The sightless saw, the deaf heard, the sick were healed, the lepers were cleansed, the demoniacs were delivered, the dead were raised to life. But, as Jesus said, theirs was an active blindness…a wilful blindness…a deliberate choice to disregard the truth. If only they had been blind, their sins would have been forgiven, but, as it were, their sin remained.
But, as Stephen pointed out in his speech before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7, the people of God has a long history of stubborn forgetfulness. From the moment of release from slavery in Egypt, they forgot all what God had done for them time after time.
And even when Jesus came into the very world he had created, the world did not recognise him…and when he came to his very own people, they rejected him.
But this is not a right we have earned for ourselves. John made it abundantly clear in verse 13 that what we have received is not based upon anything we have done or possibly could do. In fact, he made his case so air-tight here that no heresy could breathe in there.
He said that those who inherit the kingdom do not inherit it because of bloodline or pedigree or ancestral lineage. In chapter 8 of John’s Gospel, Jesus acknowledged the physical or natural descent of his unbelieving challengers, but he denied that they were children of Abraham in the true sense…in the spiritual sense. Paul said something similar in Romans 2. “He is not a Jew,” he wrote, “who is one outwardly…but he is a Jew who is one inwardly…circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter…” In other words, you cannot enter God’s kingdom based on genealogy…because your parents or grandparents or great-grandparents were believers. No! God has no grandchildren, only children.
Well, if we cannot enter the kingdom through the family bloodline, so to speak, what about human determination? Can we work our way into the Kingdom? Climb the corporate spiritual ladder, so to speak? John used a word here which, in its negative sense is one of the most negative words in the Scriptures. Translated literally he said “children born…not by the will of the flesh.” The word “flesh” when used in its negative sense, represents all that is in opposition to God. Paul said that those who live according to the flesh die…but as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. So, John said, you cannot earn your way into the kingdom by sheer effort.
Then the final possibility John denied is that of human decision. God made it pretty clear in the Old Testament that he chose Israel and not the other way around. He loved them because he loved them (Deuteronomy 7) not because of anything they were or anything they did. And in the New Testament, Jesus said the same thing. You did not choose me, he said, but I chose you. The whole idea that I decide to follow Jesus is contrary to what the Scriptures teach. No one can come to Jesus unless it is granted by the Father. The unregenerated human heart cannot comprehend the things of the Spirit because they are spiritually discerned…so how can we inherit the kingdom through unregenerated human decision? It is not possible. We choose him because he has chosen us. We love him because he first loved us. That’s the way it works.
So, John said, we do not receive the right to become children of God by virtue of human descent, human determination, or by human decision…we are born of God. Could John have made it any clearer? No one can come to Jesus except the Father draw them. No one can come to the Father except through Jesus. Yet all whom the Father gives Jesus will come to him and he will never reject them.
The right we have as Christians is given, not earned. It is given by an amazingly gracious and benevolent Father who chooses to love us despite our pride, our arrogance, our sin, and, indeed, despite the many time we , like Israel of old, forget the great things he has done for us…the many times we forget all his many benefits. The Scriptures tell us that while we still enemies of God…while we were still sinners, Jesus died for the ungodly. That’s you and me. All have sinned…all fall short of the glory of God…no one seeks after God…in fact it is the exact opposite: God relentlessly seeks after us.
That’s why he kept sending those prophets…and that’s why Jesus came into the world. To seek and to save the lost. The lost do not find themselves…they are found. If Jesus did not come to find us, we would still be lost in our trespasses and sins. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us for one reason and one reason only…to give his life as a ransom for many. That was his purpose…that was his primary focus. The Light came to shine in our darkness so that we might have life…and have it in abundance.
In him the law given to Moses was brought to its climax, because in him we receive the grace and the truth it contained. Because of Jesus, we can once more know God and walk with God in sweet fellowship, receiving blessing upon blessing.
The King’s Son has come…let his light sine.
Shall we pray?
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2022
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