26 December 2021: “The Word became flesh”

Welcome

The Christmas Day Service is on Zoom at 10.30am

Boxing Day Service, 10.30am, in the building.

The next Cell Group meeting will be on Wednesday 12^th January.

Please pray for Harry as he has Covid again.

Testimony

I was reading a testimony, in Premier, about a lady called Helen, from Cambridgeshire, and thought of all the amazing ways God has at His disposal to reach people with the Good-News. Her husband just happened to buy her a radio for Christmas: “And very early one morning, as I was getting ready for work, I turned on the radio and noticed there was a Christian station. I remember feeling excited, and immediately drawn in, as I listened to the best Bible teaching I had ever heard.” Praise the Lord for all His ways, Amen!

(Helen)

Worship

Word

Read: John 1:1-18

The Word became flesh.

John 1:14

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Whereas Mark’s Gospel starts with:

The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God:

Mark 1:1

and Matthew and Luke begin with the birth narratives, and take us back to Abraham and Adam, respectively in their genealogies;

“John takes us back … to the eternal purpose of God”

Leon Morris

“In the beginning …” (John 1:1) –  words that remind us of the very first words of the Bible “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” – the beginning of God’s original creation. However, John is writing about God’s new creation, (also through His Son) (cf. John 1:12-13; John 3:3-8).

When I was a young believer I always wished that the Lord had inspired John to use the phrase, ‘the Son of God’ instead of using ‘the Word’ (‘Logos’ in Greek) – hence “In the beginning was the Son of God, and the Son of God was with God, and the Son of God was God … The Son of God became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (cf. John 1:1 and 14). However, the more I looked into the reason why John used “the Word” instead of say, “the Son of God” I started to understand. “The Word” was in frequent use among the Greeks and the Jews who both had different understandings of it. John in using “the Word” would immediately get their attention, and then teach them the correct meaning of “the Word” –

“John’s ‘Logos’ [‘the Word’] does not show us a God who is serenely detached, [as the Greeks believed], but a God who is passionately involved”.

Leon Morris

And John’s purpose is to show that this Word became the babe at Bethlehem, Jesus of Nazareth, and tabernacled amongst us (John 1:14); that He was the Messiah, the Son of God and that all who believe in Him may have eternal life, in His Name (John 20:30-31), Amen!                                                                                                                                                     

Quote of the week

“He became one with us so that we might become one with Him”

Kevin De Young

Verse of the week

Jesus, … being in very nature God …. made in human likeness.                                                           

Phil. 2:5-7

Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to make known the Christmas Story of Your Son being made in human likeness, in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, Amen!