The Advent of the King’s Son: Part Two

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, in stark and glorious contrast, as many as did believe in him and did receive him, he gave the right to become children of God. In other words, he gave them the kingdom…the vineyard…and they became heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus. The right given to those who believe has to do with authority. It is something like a title deed that shows you now own something you didn’t own before. The wicked tenants forfeited the vineyard because they refused to submit to the owner, but those who received the Son, they became co-inheritors of the kingdom. 

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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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

The Advent of the King’s Son: Introduction

Psalm 145:1-13                            John 1:1-18

The Advent of the King’s Son: Introduction

I would like to begin our series on the Gospel of John with a story that takes place at the end of time.  

Immense crowds of people from every period of history were gathered before the Great White Throne of God. It was an unruly, angry, seething mob of deceased humanity. 

“How dare God judge me!” someone shouted. “What does he know about my sufferings?”

“Look!” a woman cried out. “Look at these numbers on my arm. All of us were branded like this when they put us in those concentration camps! But that’s not all they did. They starved us. They humiliated us. They beat us. And, when we were no longer of any use to them, they gassed us.”

“What about this?” a young man screamed, revealing an ugly rope burn around his neck. “I was dragged behind a horse for miles. I was kicked, spat upon, beaten, and then finally hung from a tree…and there they stood around and laughed as I slowly suffocated…for no crime other than being a member of an oppressed minority.”

And so, one by one, each and every person shouted out their complaints against God. What did God know about life on earth? What did God know about suffering? And if he did know about suffering, why didn’t he do something about it? 

“Before he can stand in judgement over us,” someone yelled, “he must suffer like we suffered!”

“Yes!” they all agreed. “Let us judge him and pronounce a sentence against him! Let him be born in scandalous circumstances…let him be considered illegitimate by his own people! His family must be poverty-stricken laborers under the harsh rule of a powerful colonial force. He must have no rights of his own and he must be homeless. Let his father die when he is a young man and let him be denied any further education because he must take care of his mother and siblings. Let him be repeatedly misunderstood, misused, abused, opposed and slandered and plotted against – betrayed and deserted by those he considered his closest friends – falsely accused and condemned – spat on and ridiculed and mercilessly beaten even though innocent – let him be denied a proper trial – let his innocent life be exchanged for that of a true criminal – let him be executed – condemned to die an excruciatingly painful death usually reserved for the worst criminals. Let him be humiliated, stripped naked of his only possessions – let him be mocked and laughed at while he is slowly suffocating – let him be buried in a borrowed tomb. Let him feel what it is like to be despised and rejected!”

As the last person shrieked out these demands, they all turned to face the one sitting on the throne. But as they beheld him, a great silence descended over the plains. Suddenly everyone realised that he had already served the sentence…he had already paid the penalty.

Now, in our Gospel lesson for today, the Apostle John gives us a glimpse of how God came to share in our sufferings. 

Verse 14 of John chapter 1 is surely one of the most significant and memorable sentences ever written. “The Word became flesh and came to dwell among us. We saw his glory – glory like that of a father’s only son – full of grace and truth.” 

The implications of this statement are limitless. It has provided believers over the centuries with a key to understanding the mystery of Jesus Christ. In many ways, it represents the heart and the climax of the Gospel. Indeed, it could be said that the remaining twenty-one chapters of this book were written to explain its significance. 

In this verse, we have disclosed to us, the mystery of what theologians call the Hypostatic Union. Here Jesus is presented to us as both perfectly divine and perfectly human. The Word took on flesh…two complete and distinct natures at the same time. There is no merging of the two natures…no mingling…two separate natures in one person. Truly God and yet truly human. Never abandoning his infinite “Creatorhood” and yet choosing to live in finite “creaturehood”. God in the very midst of humanity. 

Now, of course, we already have a picture, albeit imperfect and incomplete, of what this looks like in the Old Testament and, I believe, John wanted us to pick up on that connection. The Greek word John used here…a word that our translations usually render “dwelt among us” or “lived among us” or “made his dwelling among us”…is actually the word “tabernacled”…“The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us”. God came and set up his tent among us. Now, where have we heard that before? In Exodus, right? So all sorts of images should be popping around in your heads right now…deliverance from slavery, victory over an enemy, a gracious and abiding Divine presence, God’s law, God’s forgiveness, and so on.

The Tabernacle was set up slap bang in the centre of the Israelites encampment. All the tribes pitched their tents around it to indicate that all of life revolved around God’s presence with his people. The pillar of cloud and of fire hovered over the Tabernacle…the ten commandments were kept in the Tabernacle…sacrifice for sin was made in the Tabernacle…atonement, forgiveness, judgements…the whole of life was regulated by what happened in and around the Tabernacle. 

The Tabernacle was a focus…a daily reminder of who they were as a people in terms of who their God was. 

The same is true of Solomon’s Temple. The same cloud of glory covered the Temple as it did the Tabernacle and the Temple served as the same central focus for belief and for behaviour. 

It is interesting to note at this point, that later in the Gospel of John, Jesus referred himself as the Temple. Remember? “Destroy this temple,” he said, “and in three days I will raise it up.” And John tells us that Jesus meant his body…

Now, let’s just pause here for a moment to allow this to sink in. Everything the Tabernacle and Temple represented…deliverance, victory, presence, power, glory…everything now rests on Jesus. 

John deliberately used words to describe Jesus that would recall all these images because he wanted to make it clear that Jesus is the reality and fulfilment of what these pictures represented. Just as God was with the Israelites in the wilderness…just as God was with his people in the Promised Land…so God is with us in Jesus.

That’s why this same Apostle John, in another book, spoke of Jesus as a Temple standing in the midst of his people…set in the New Jerusalem…a place where there is no need for sun or moon or any other such light as the glory of God is its light…the glory that reveals who God is as surely as light reveals whatever it shines upon.

Remember, in Exodus 33 when Moses asked to see the glory of God? How did God respond? How did God show Moses his glory? “I,” God said to Moses, “I will cause my goodness to pass in front of you…I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in love and faithfulness.” God’s glory is revealed through his nature…his character…and this glory is now, John said, made manifest in Jesus.

By choosing his words deliberately and carefully, the Apostle John caused his readers to recall all the relevant imagery of the Old Testament regarding God’s self-manifestation to his people as well as his gracious and merciful and powerfully protective presence with his people…all now focussed in on the person of Jesus.

Some philosophers, known as Docetists, once insisted that as matter was essentially evil and Jesus was holy and pure, then his body must have been purely phantasmal…not real. In other words, according to these men, Jesus only seemed to be human. His human form was nothing more than an illusion. 

But this flies in the face of what John was saying in this verse. John insisted that the eternal Word took on flesh…in other words, he took on human form…a real body This is a truth that flows through the rest of the New Testament as well. Paul said in Romans 8 that God sent “his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh.” In Philippians 2 he said that while Jesus was God, he chose to take upon himself the form of a human. In 1 Timothy 2 he referred to Jesus as the “Man Christ Jesus.” There was no doubt in the minds of the New Testament authors that Jesus was both fully God and fully human. 

But then we also must contend with the opposite extreme. The denial of Jesus’ divinity. In the so-called search for the historical Jesus, the godhead of Jesus is often denied and the humanhood is affirmed. Jesus is demoted, if you will, to a mere creature – a man…a good man, but a man, nonetheless. No more than a moral teacher or a philosopher. But both these extremes are challenged by John’s words. 

For John and the other New Testament authors, the powerful creative Word…the one who is both with God and who is God…the one who has always been there even from before  the beginning…this one…he took upon his divine person the nature of one of his own creations…God took on the form of a human being and he came and Tabernacled here on this planet for one purpose only…to deliver us from slavery, to conquer our enemy, and to bring us to himself. 

As such, the doctrine of the incarnation…the Hypostatic Union…is the climax of salvation history. If the Old Testament teaches us anything it is that we cannot save ourselves. We are as powerless as were the Israelite slaves in Egypt. We were bound and enslaved and imprisoned by one far stronger than ourselves. Only someone greater than ourselves…indeed, someone greater than what has enslaved us…can rescue us. 

But this means that no human being, even the best of us, could rescue us simply because everyone of us is in the same predicament…we are all enslaved. All have sinned, the Scriptures tell us. Even our best deeds are flawed. Not one of us is perfect. And, as such, we all bear the same penalty. We are all alienated from our only source of life because of our collective and individual sin. And therefore, we all live in the inescapable shadow of death. 

So, we are presented with a dilemma. The penalty is ours and we must pay it. But the penalty is death and, as we only have one life to live, we perish in the fulfilment of our sentence. We cannot pay our own penalty as we are guilty. No one else can pay our penalty as they are equally guilty. So, how can we be rescued?

 We can only be rescued if the one who alone can pay the penalty can pay it as a human being…and for this reason, the incarnation…the Hypostatic Union…the Creator taking on the form of the created…is the only solution. 

Of course, the incarnation itself does not save us, but it makes deliverance possible. In other words, without the incarnation we cannot have the crucifixion or the resurrection. The author of the letter to the Hebrews says that Jesus became human so that as a human he could pay the penalty for humans, thereby defeating and destroying the one who had the power of death – that is the devil – our jailer or our enslaver, if you will. 

But it is also true that the incarnation of the eternal Word demonstrates God’s identification with us in our human existence…particularly in our weakness and our suffering. There is no parallel anywhere in any other religion or ideology or philosophy. There is no god like our God…who comes to share our misery with us. There is no god who understands all the uncertainties of life as does our God. He bore it all. He came to show us that God understands, and that God cares, and that God was willing to do something about our predicament…to take a penalty he imposed on other, upon himself…to pay our penalty on our behalf…as our substitute. 

Who could ever judge such a God as our God? Who could ever point a finger at him and accuse him of not understanding our situation or of not being willing to do something about it?

When we look at Jesus we see that God specifically chose to come into a world that had effectively rejected him to live as we live…to struggle as we struggle…to suffer as we suffer…all so that he might reconcile us to himself. It boggles the mind, doesn’t it? God didn’t sin. God didn’t mess up his perfect creation. We sinned. We messed it up and we continue to mess it up. And yet…God was not only gracious enough to send us help, but he came to do what we could not. 

And, as such, Jesus, both God and human, reveals to us the very heart of God. From the beginning, God desired to walk with us…to dwell with us…to tabernacle among us. And at the cross, Jesus showed us what steps he was prepared to take to make that possible – there at the cross he demonstrated the immeasurable depths of the love God has for us. 

We remember this every time we participate in the Lord’s Supper…this is my body broken for you…this is my blood shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. In the bread and in the wine we see his glory…we see his grace…we see his truth.

Here we see a reminder that God knows…that God understands…that God cares…and that God is with us…always.

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2022  

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November Newsletter

Johann and Louise: Training Disciples to Make Disciples in the Netherlands As children growing up during the sunset years of colonial South-West-Africa/Namibia, we celebrated Guy Fawkes Day on November 5. The macabre spectacle of cheering children burning an effigy of the Guy and then roasting marshmallows over his embers still strikes me as rather odd. Guy or Guido Fawkes was an historical figure…an ex-soldier recruited to stand guard over a carefully hidden stash of 36 barrels of gunpowder stacked up under the House of Lords. In many was he was a fall guy, if you will, for a group of so-called gentlemen who, for religious reasons, were plotting to blow-up the British Parliament buildings while King James and his government were assembled within it. Had the gunpowder plot succeeded, more than a structure would have been reduced to rubble. This sad tale comes to mind as I reflect on what is happening in the Church at present. Like the barrels of gunpowder hidden under the House of Lords, foreign ideologies and philosophies are being carefully hidden under that which is foundational to our faith…the very Word of God. In many ways, it is the same plot of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Has God really said? But if one tugs and keeps on tugging at the threads of Scripture, the whole fabric of what it means to be a follower of the God revealed to us in the Bible will come undone. The worst part of it all is that the scheme is not only being hatched outside the hallowed halls of Christendom, but from within. And this is the most agonising thing of all. As King David once wrote: “It is not an enemy who taunts me – I could bear that. It is not my foes who so arrogantly insult me – I could have hidden from them. Instead, it is you – my equal, my companion and close friend. What good fellowship we once enjoyed as we walked together to the house of God.” Yet now, it seems we are no longer walking together. Our paths lead in different directions.   Let us not fool ourselves. The red-hot emotional buttons being relentlessly pushed by our explosive plotters are not single items issues. They are united by one common goal and that is to destroy all that is revealed as Truth in the Word. Has God really said? To affirm that, “yes, he has indeed said, and, in fact, it is written”, is to invite a hail of charges against us akin to the allegation brought against our Lord of being in league with Beelzebub. And there we stand, in the dock, with the Word. Thankfully, here at Christ Church, Heiloo, we do not stand alone. Our parishioners love the Word and seek to know it and hold it to be the foundation for their faith and practice. While dark clouds gather on the horizon, we continue to build on our one sure Foundation. What he has said, we will do, and where he leads, we will follow. This past month, Louise helped start up two Women’s Bible studies…these are in addition to a mixed home fellowship group and a Men’s Bible study…all meeting by-weekly on different days of the alternate weeks.  Johann continues to preach at Christ Church on Sundays and has also been preaching at several other churches within our Diocese when needed. He has also started confirmation classes with two young men. We are both still enjoying our Dutch language lessons and are also doing what is required to get Dutch driver’s licenses. Neither of these tasks are easy, but we can see some improvement, so we keep moving forward. “For the Life of the World: The Multiplication of Simon Peter” will be published at the end of November. It is currently available for pre-order (https://langhamliterature.org/books/for-the-life-of-the-world). Johann is also working on a series of books on the life of Paul written as narrative commentaries on his letters as they were written. Thankfully, he has just received a library card from Tyndale, a local seminary, so he will have access to more information. The first book in the series, on Galatians, is just about complete. Johann is also meeting with local pastors for prayer and encouragement and is exploring ways to help with the training of young church leaders in Africa through an internet mission organization called GlobalRize (https://www.globalrize.org/). Praise Items: For a wonderful time with our US family and friends this past September. For a good, restorative and productive time at the SAMS-USA Retreat and the New Wineskins Missions Conference. For our residency cards. We will be collecting them in early January. That was the first appointment date available! For good health and happiness. That most things necessary for living in the Netherlands are just about all in place. That our children, grandchildren, and Louise’s mum are all doing well. That we continue to attract quite a few visitors to our Sunday Services. Prayer Items: Please pray that Christ Church, Heiloo will be a beacon of light in our community. Pray for increasing depth in spiritual growth and outreach. Pray that all efforts to erode the foundation upon which our faith is founded will come to nothing. Pray that we may gain additional supporters whose hearts burn for revival in a largely secular Europe. Our support has taken a bit of a dip of late. Finally, allow us to thank you all for your continued participation in the ministry our Lord has called us into. Without you…without your prayers and encouragement and support…we would not be able to do what we do. You remain in our thoughts and prayers. Johann and Louise Support Us Johann and Louise spent two years helping to develop the St. Frumentius Seminary in Gambella, Ethiopia. They then worked in Southern Africa, serving in seven southern African countries, while continuing to work with the Diocese of Egypt, North Africa through engaging in a disciple making movement in order to grow the body of Christ. They are now serving in Heiloo, the Netherlands. We are sent  through the Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders, a missionary sending community, engaging in building relationships with the worldwide church to experience the broken restored, the wounded healed, the hungry fed, and the lost found through the love and power of Jesus Christ.  Support SAMS Copyright © 2016 Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders, All rights reserved. www.sams-usa.org      Our mailing address is: PO Box 399 Ambridge PA 15003 Attention to: Johann and Louise van der Bijl Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

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The Hope of all the Ends of the Earth

Psalm 65                     Joel 2:23-32                  2 Timothy 4:6-8; 16-18                      Luke 18:9-14

The Hope of all the Ends of the Earth

Wonders in the heavens and on the earth…blood and fire and billows of smoke…the sun turned into darkness, the moon into blood…the imminent appearance of a great and terrible day! Our Old Testament reading for today sounds a lot like lines taken from an apocalyptic or horror or science fiction movie script…The Exorcist, The Night of the Dead, Zombieland, The Return of the Jedi, The Matrix Reloaded…

Christian doomsday and end-of-the-world alarmists often latch on to such images whenever there is an eclipse or a blood moon or a stray asteroid in space. “You see,” they cry! “Just as Joel predicted! It’s the final countdown. Are you ready? Don’t get left behind!”

But…was that what Joel was predicting? 

The first indication that our Last Days Madness promoters may be wrong in their fearmongering assumptions is the Spirt-filled Apostle Peter’s interpretation of this specific prophetic word as being fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost…more about that later…but first some background.

In the Ancient Near East, the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars either represented gods and goddesses or earthly kings and rulers. One still sees remnants of this ancient pagan religious belief today in the use of astrological signs or the so-called “Signs of the Zodiac” to predict the future or to define personality traits. 

Just as an aside, I saw a wonderful meme the other day in which the one person asks the other, “So, what’s your zodiac sign?” to which the other person answers, “Dinosaur.” “But that one doesn’t even exists,” the enquirer replies. The comeback is classic. “None of them exist.” The natural celestial objects were created by God and have no independent power of their own, so it is a monumental waste of time asking an alignment of planets to predict my personal life.

Now, unlike the other nations around Israel, the people of God were expressly forbidden to worship the heavenly bodies, but, like the other nations, they did often use them as symbols or images to describe authority figures or even empires. 

For instance, in Genesis 37:9-10 Joseph told his brothers about a dream he had had. “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” His father immediately interpreted this dream as referring to Joseph’s family. “Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 

Then, in Isaiah 13 the overthrow of Babylon was portrayed in terms of stars and their constellations not giving their light; the sun being darkened and the moon no longer shining; and the heavens being shaken, and the earth being moved out of its place. 

None of these things happened literally at the time of the fall of the Babylon, nor did anyone at the time expect them to be literal events – everyone understood that they were metaphors used to describe the overthrow of an empire.  

Here’s another example: In Ezekiel 32 the prophet depicted the demise of Pharaoh of Egypt in terms of his light being extinguished, the heavens covered, the stars, the sun, and the moon darkened. 

Earlier in Joel 2, the prophet spoke of the earth quaking, the heavens trembling; the sun and moon growing dark, and the stars diminishing their brightness in his description of an imminent invasion of Israel by their enemies.

Now, bearing all this in mind, let’s go back to the Apostle Peter and his sermon on the day of Pentecost. Without any explanation, Peter simply stated that what the Jerusalemites had just witnessed with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was a fulfilment of what Joel had prophesied, complete with blood, fire, smoke, dark sun, and red moon. Some scholars have indicated that the sky was darkened at some point during the crucifixion and that there may well have been a blood moon that Passover, but I think they are barking up the wrong tree.

Why do I say that? 

Well, because I think Peter was simply repeating what he had heard Jesus say when describing the period between the crucifixion in AD 33 and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. In Luke 21, Jesus warned his disciples that when they saw Jerusalem being surrounding by the Roman armies, then they would know that Joel’s prophecy (among others) was about to become reality.  “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” 

You can also find this in the parallel passages in Matthew 24 and Mark 13. 

A careful reading of the context of each of these parallel passages, together with the cultural understanding of what was meant by these cataclysmic images, shows that Jesus was speaking of the destruction of the vestiges of the Old Covenant, the collapse of the old regime and the old system, symbolised by the razing of Jerusalem and the Temple by Roman armies in AD 70. The “sun, moon, and stars” that would fall were the members of the governing body of Israel who had rejected and crucified Christ, as well as the system they upheld. Their house, Jesus said, would be left desolate.

Now, if you remember, the major outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit in Israel’s history (besides his coming on various individuals like Moses and the prophets) occurred during the opening ceremonies of the Tabernacle and the first Temple. In Exodus 40 we are told that the pillar of cloud that had led the Israelites out of Egypt, covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle…a cloud by day and fire by night…” (Not to mention the fire and smoke and loud sounds that accompanied God’s presence on Mount Sinai!) 

Then in 2 Chronicles 7 we read that when Solomon had finished praying, “fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the Temple.” 

God poured out His Holy Spirit on the Tabernacle and then later, on the Temple to indicate his presence with his people. God was with them. 

But what is interesting to note is that we don’t see this happening again…not with the rebuilding of the Temple under Zerubbabel, nor with the rebuilding or renovation of the Temple by King Herod. 

Until Pentecost…the Holy Spirit of God came down upon the 120 members of believers gathered together in the Upper Room in the visible form of fire…but this time the fire did not fall on a building or on any one, single individual. No, rather it divided and came upon every believer. In other words, from Pentecost onward, believers are the New Temple. The old order has passed away. The new has come.

Paul said as much in 1 Corinthians 3. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” 

So, what does this mean for us living in the 21st Century? 

Well, first, it means that with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit – God in us – the effects of the Fall have been reversed. The gates of Paradise have been flung wide open and we can once more walk with God as did Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. (Remember Jesus’ words to the thief on the cross – TODAY you will be with me in Paradise.) The full meaning of Immanuel or “God with us” has been fulfilled. The Tabernacle or Temple of God is us. God is not far off…God is near…God lives with us and in us. 

But it also means that the promise made to Abraham, that in his Seed all the families of the earth would be blessed…that his offspring would be as numerous as the sand on the seashore, the stars in the night sky…this is being fulfilled in and through us. The Israel of God has now become what it was intended to be…a light to the nations…all nations are being drawn into Israel. In Galatians, Paul called the church both the Jerusalem from above, as well as the Israel of God. Jesus rules over and in and through us. We are the New Israel and Jesus reigns over us as the Davidic King from his throne at the right hand of God…and through us, he is reconciling the world to God.

Consequently, all the distinctions from the past…all the divisions between sons and daughters, old men and young men, servants and masters…all dividing walls have been broken down. All who have been baptised into Jesus are all sons and daughters of God…there is no more division between Jew and Gentile, slave or free, male or female…we are all one in Christ Jesus…we are all members of Abraham’s family because we have been united in the family of God by the indwelling Holy Spirit. As the Psalmist said, God, our Saviour, is the hope of all the ends of the earth.

All…all who call on the name of the Lord Jesus…all are delivered from death…all are saved from a transitory lifeless life…we have been given the eternal life-giving breath of God…all who believe are filled with the Holy Spirit. In fact, the fulness of the Godhead is resident within us…according to Jesus, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit come to make their home with us. All that is required, according to Peter and the other New Testament authors, is a turning away from the old and an embracing of the new…repentance and incorporation into Jesus. In Jesus all are united as one…one family…one Body.

This is the beauty of what Jesus taught us in our Gospel parable. Notice, it is the outcaste…the rejected…the despised tax collector who returned home from the Temple justified by God rather than that self-proclaimed squeaky-clean Pharisee. Why? Because the tax collector realised his sin…he realised his need for forgiveness…he realised that he could not earn his righteousness…that only God could forgive him, cleanse him, and bring him back into the family. 

As Paul said, the crown of righteousness is awarded to everyone who fights the good fight, who finishes the race, everyone who keeps the faith…

Blood, fire, and billows of smoke…the destruction of Jerusalem served both as the final sign of judgement on apostate Israel as well as the vindication of all believers in Jesus. Deliverance has come. So live out your freedom in Jesus…your trust and reliance on the righteousness and mercy of God…live it out before the world so that those who are blind might see and be attracted to your light – the light of Jesus shining in and through you. 

You, dearest beloved brethren, you are filled with the greatest power in the universe! So, live like you are! Live like you are filled with the Holy Spirit of God – live like you are the means through which Jesus the King of kings is reconciling the world to God – live out your true identity as sons and daughters of the Most High and Almighty Creator God – live in this reality so that all who encounter you might see and experience the power and goodness and mercy and love of God and be added into our family as well.

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2022