Sunday, March 11, 2012

Sunday School Lesson for March 11, 2012: The Word Became Flesh (John 1:1-18)

Allow me a moment to thank everyone who gave to ‘Baby Lyra’ over the last two weeks. We collected $380.00, which I will send to Lee Ross next week via Western Union. Pedro’s trip to Clark was delayed and he wanted to have the money be available to Lee Ross and his family as soon as possible. I have to get the logistics pinned down and I’ll get it sent. Allow me this observation. I witnessed the ‘blessing’ of giving in this effort. I observed in the faces and demeanor of some of you the very real God like quality of ‘joy in giving’. It’s as though the gift was in the gift. It’s difficult to explain, but I hope you understand what I’m trying to say. May God richly bless you. I’m honored to call you ‘friends’.



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Strong’s number: 3056 - Lo/gov



Translated word: Logos





1. its use as respect to the MIND alone

a. reason, the mental faculty of thinking, meditating, reasoning, calculating

b. account, i.e. regard, consideration

c. account, i.e. reckoning, score

d. account, i.e. answer or explanation in reference to judgment

e. relation, i.e. with whom as judge we stand in relation

1. reason would

f. reason, cause, ground

2. In John, denotes the essential Word of God, Jesus Christ, the personal wisdom and power in union with God, his minister in creation and government of the universe, the cause of all the world's life both physical and ethical, which for the procurement of man's salvation put on human nature in the person of Jesus the Messiah, the second person in the Godhead, and shone forth conspicuously from His words and deeds.



A Greek philosopher named Heraclitus first used the term Logos around 600 B.C. to designate the divine reason or plan which coordinates a changing universe. This word was well suited to John's purpose in John 1





John 1:1 (Amplified)
IN THE beginning [before all time] was the Logos ( Christ), and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God Himself.





I was blessed by last week’s lesson. Last week, Lady Wisdom offered an eyewitness account of the miracle of Creation. She peeled back the veil and revealed to us the person of Christ and his direct involvement in bringing about all that we can see and comprehend, as well as all that we cannot. This week John, the Revelator does the same. In this brief opening verse, John introduces his readers to the Messiah. John is writing to Gentiles of Greek and Roman heritage who were steeped in a culture of reason and philosophy. Their culture had begun to evolve away from polytheism of one sort or another toward a concept of reason as the force of order in nature. They correctly concluded that there must be some overarching all powerful law of order, thus the term: Logic. John, in one deft statement, introduces Christ, the Messiah of Judaism, as the Logos: the very personification of the source of all that is. He proclaims that Christ is the author of order and reason, that he (Christ) is the source of ultimate truth, thus the title: The Logos.

The very elements for the preaching of the Good News reside in these few verses. ‘In the beginning’ points to Christ’s deity and absolute authority. The terms light and life identify Christ as the singular source for life and truth. The reference to darkness and mankind’s love for it identifies our predicament without Christ: We were born in sin and shaped in iniquity, hopelessly separated from right standing with God and hopelessly adrift in a never ending search for meaning.

But the Logos came in the flesh in the person of Jesus and dwelt among us. He provided a path whereby all might be saved. The requirement: believe in Him. Then He did one more thing: He sent a preacher. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Logos. But how will we hear without a preacher. God chose to save the world through the foolishness of preaching the Gospel.

Why does this matter to you? Beloved, God loves us. He loves us so much that He devised a plan to save us that was so absolute that it would take His Son to carry it out. Jesus left the pinnacle of Heaven to come here and redeem us unto Himself. That’s love. No matter what we’ve done, how low we’ve fallen, Jesus can reach us. No matter our hurt, our problems, our unanswered questions, Jesus is the answer. He is the life. He is the light (truth). That He is identified as the Logos means He is absolutely capable of meeting our every need, no matter how dire. It also means, remarkably, that He cares so deeply for us that He wants to. His great desire is that all might come to Him and be saved. Welcome to the Gospel of John.



.wb





John 6:29
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”





John 6:68
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.





Hebrews 7:25
Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them

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