NEW ERA'S DAY

John 1:1-14

INTRODUCTION:

Words are symbols for the communication of thoughts and ideas from one to another.  Communication through words is BIG business:

·         authors & publishers,

·         typists & typesetters,

·         printers & binders,

·         TV & radio announcers,

·         writers & producers,

·         telephonists & technicians,

·         operators & linemen,

·         on, and on and on it goes. 

Communication with words is BIG business.  And over the years there have been tremendous advances in the tools for communication.

·         The Phoenicians developed the first alphabet in about 3500 B.C.

·         The Syrians produced the first encyclopedia in 1270 B.C.

·         The Chinese created the first postal service in 900 B.C.  (I wonder if any of those early Chinese payments are still in the mail.)

·         And in the early 1400s, Gutenberg developed the process of printing with moveable type.

And just think of the advances in the tools for communication within our own lifetimes.  I was born in 1949. 

·         That was the year after the LP record and the transistor were invented.

·         In 1949, the 45 RPM record was introduced and network television was begun.

·         The first computer to be available commercially was sold in 1951.

·         In 1958, Chester Carlson invented the photocopy machine (the Xerox).

·         Zip codes were developed in 1963.

·         The first internet was developed in 1969 (when Al Gore was 21 years old; the year he graduated with honors from Harvard.  He was a busy little fellow back then, wasn’t he?)

·         In 1979 the first cellular telephone network was begun…in Japan.

·         The first laptop computer was sold in 1981.

·         In 1994, the US government released control of the internet and the “www.” world was born.

·         And now we are facing a High Definition revolution with HD TV and the Federal Government having imposed a February 2009 deadline for all broadcasting to be digital.

Yet for all the advances in tools of communication, we don’t communicate much better – we just communicate more…and, perhaps, listen less.  That is in spite of the fact that most people would agree that effective communication is essential for a successful business; or a successful church; or a successful family; or a successful friendship.  I do not think it would be wide of the mark to propose that effective communication is the most vital ingredient in any successful relationship.

God seeks a relationship with people.  The Bible records the history of God’s communication with people.  On the first pages of Scripture, we read that God walked in the cool of the garden and communicated with Adam and Eve in person.  

But sin disrupted that relationship and God, Who is righteous, pure and holy, could not be in the presence of sin so He could no longer fellowship personally with people.  God had to develop new means of communication with man.

So God began to speak to mankind through chosen and gifted intermediaries who could communicate on His behalf.  And again I would assert that the Bible records the history of God’s communication with people.  One of the earliest periods we see is that when:

I.                    GOD’S WORD WAS NOT HEARD BECAUSE OF THE STUBBORNNESS OF THE PEOPLE (The period of the Old Testament)

“Can you fathom the mysteries of God?  Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?” asked Zophar scornfully.  Job’s friend obviously expected a negative answer.  Of course mere mortals cannot know the mind of God.

Knowing the mind of God is not the achievement of philosophical argument.  It is not the product of meditation or the result of extrapolation or a result of location.  Biblically, knowing the mind of God is a consequence of revelation. 

That is an important first truth to grasp: we may know the mind of God only because he has chosen to reveal Himself to us.  Man cannot, by seeking, find God for himself.  But God can reveal Himself to man.  And He has.

But an important second truth to grasp is that God has chosen to reveal Himself only to those who will receive His revelation and He will fellowship only with those who desire Him.  God is too much of a gentleman to force Himself on anyone.

During that period of time covered by the Old Testament record, God regularly offered Himself to people.  He communicated directly with patriarchs such as Noah, telling him that He was displeased with mankind because of his rebellion and sinfulness and revealing to Noah that he was going to send a flood to cleanse the earth of man and his wickedness.  God told Noah to build and ark and to bring animals into it to preserve a remnant of each species to repopulate the earth when the flood receded.

God spoke directly to Abram and told him to leave his country and his relatives and go to a land that God would show him.  God told Abram that he would father an entire race of people who would be God’s chosen instruments to bring blessing to all nations.

At other times, God used intermediaries to bring His message to individuals such as when he sent angels to warn Lot that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah would be destroyed.  But typically, in the early pages of the Old Testament, God spoke to one person about His will for that one.

With the coming of Moses, God’s communication took on a new dimension as He gave one person a message that was to be told to others.  In that sense, Moses might be considered the first Old Testament prophet because God told Moses what He wanted the Hebrew people to know and Moses had the responsibility of passing that message along to the people.

But from the time of Moses in about 1500 B.C. to the message of Malachi over 1000 years later, there was a major failure to communicate.  And the failure was not because God was not speaking but the failure was because the people were not listening.  People had learned that God did not always tell them what they wanted to hear so they stopped listening to Him.

As a result, after 1000 years of speaking to people directly and 1000 years of speaking to people through designated intermediaries and people not paying any attention to what He was saying, God reached a point where He just quit talking to people. 

II.                  GOD’S WORD WAS NOT SPOKEN BECAUSE OF THE SILENCE OF THE LORD (The period between the testaments)

There is a period of some 400 years between the close of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New and during that time, God’s Word was not heard because God had stopped communicating with Man.  We have no inspired writings that represent that era because no one received a revelation from God during that time.

There are ancient books that were written during this period.  Some of these are included in a category of antiquities called “apocryphal” books.  The term “apocrypha” means hidden or concealed and it is applied to these writings because their origins and authorship are uncertain or doubtful.  They provide useful history but down through the centuries, scholars have expressed doubt about their authenticity and their inspiration by the Holy Spirit. 

The various authors of New Testament books quote almost 300 passages from the Old Testament but not once from any of these apocryphal books.  And Jesus never quoted from them, either.

All of which is to say that the period of time between the writing of the prophet Malachi and the era of the New Testament was a 400 year long silence when God did not speak to the people because the people had not listened to Him.

III.                GOD’S WORD WAS NOW FLESH BECAUSE OF THE SON OF GOD (The period of the New Testament)

So, after 400 years of Divine silence, God spoke.  And oh, how He spoke.

The author of the book of Hebrews put it this way at the beginning of that epistle:

¹ In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ^2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. ^3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

And John put it this way at the beginning of his Gospel:

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ^2 He was with God in the beginning.

^3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ^4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. ^5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

^6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. ^7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. ^8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. ^9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

^10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ^11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ^12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ^13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

^14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

You see, Jesus was the Word through whom God broke 400 years of Divine silence.  And with the birth of Jesus, God’s communication with man entered a new era.  No longer would He tell man His will.  No longer would He rely on intermediaries to tell man His will.  With the coming of Jesus, God has now demonstrated His will to man by becoming a man, living among us and showing us His will.

Communication entered a new era when Gutenberg developed the moveable type printing press.  Communication entered a new era when Samuel Morse invented the first long distance electronic telegraph line.  Communication entered a new era when Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone.  Communication entered a new era when Marconi figured out how to broadcast radio signals, when John Logie Baird figured out how to broadcast television signals, when NASA launched the first Telstar and Syncom satellites.

But all of these breakthrough innovations pale into insignificance in comparison to the new era that began when God’s Word became flesh and lived among us and we beheld his glory: glory as of the only begotten of the Father.

CONCLUSION:      

The Hebrew language has a vocabulary of 10,000 words.  Greek has a vocabulary of 200,000 words.  English has a vocabulary of 500,000 words.  But God’s vocabulary only has one: JESUS!

There was a time when the Word was not heard, a time when the Word was not spoken and a time when the Word became flesh.  But all of that is merely ancient history until and unless the Word becomes flesh in us and people see Christians who are living examples of the Word of God.

INVITATION:            #407 – “God Has Spoken By His Prophet”

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