This is the third book

The Word was made Flesh

Ihave found a fewwords in the first chapte�r of John's Gospel to be a special blessing to me, not only at Christmas time,.I remember our dear Lord first blessed them to me when I was in my late teens, I think of them often.The text is And the Word was made flesh, dwelt amongst us and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth'' - what a thought!

The first few words of this quote are The Word was made flesh', the way this was written in Scriptureas we couple it with the first few words of the same chapter, In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God'' teaches that the decision for our Lord Jesus to come into time was made in the eternal counsels.The words we are considering is the record of the incarnation recorded in a wonderful , classical way, we do not read in John's Gospel anything about the angels, the shepherds,the mangeror the wise men, nowthese are all important but we rea�d in John's Gospel what happened from our God's point of view.The verse we are considering makes mention of one of the greatest miracles that ever took place, when Time and eternity met, Spirit and flesh converged,Visible and invisible combined and man was brought back to God.When our Lord Jesus came into timeHe was not just a general expression of God but He was God Himself in human form, God expressed Himself to mankind through none other than our Lord Jesus.We have it recorded in the first chapter of the Hebrews, in classical language, that our God had expressed Himself to mankind through the men of old, but now, in the fullness of time, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, who was the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of His person, upholding all things by the Word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Father and that is what started to happen from Bet'hlehem onwards.As I understand the verse I have quoted from the book of Hebrews is that our God has finally spoken through our Lord Jesus, such was the perfect expression of Himself that our God has no more to say to mankind as far as man's salvation is concerned, than what He has said in Jesus.Yes at Bethlehem our God came into time through our dear Lord Jesus, He became the Son of Man but still being the Son of God, He was and is the great God-Man.This is too difficult for us to fully understand as we are finite beings but it happened, through the person of our Lord Jesus, God walked on Planet Earth.Our great God-Man knew what pain was, He entered into the depth of human grief and wept, He was hungry and needed to eat, He gotthirsty and drank, He got tired and slept, at the Cross there was a very wonderful touch as far as our Lord Jesus was concerned, He looked at Mary and in pointing to John said, 'Behold thy son', and to John, Behold thy mother'.Yes {Jesus was indeed the Son of Man but was also the Son of God and He was made flesh'.We must always keep together the teaching from Scripture regarding our Lord Jesus as the Son of God and the Son of Man, He was and still is the great God-Man, these two words must be hyphenated together.The Word was made flesh by an act of our great God,our Lord Jesus was begotten by our God and not by Joseph, He was born of the seed of the woman and notof the man as we are taught in Genesis, Jesus came into the world because of the love of our Father God had for us and not as a result of the love betwixt Joseph and Mary.At the birth of Jesus Joseph was told that His name should be Emmanuel, this means God with us' and that indeed was so

We are now told in the text that He dwelt amongst us' and He did just that.Jesus was not born in a lovely palace to live apart from mankind, He was not a hermit but was with mankind.Our Lord lived here on Planet Earth and knew full well about all the problems and difficulties that mankind go through.Jesus' foster father died when Jesus was in His early teens, Jesus had four brothers, two sisters, we are told that He grew and waxed bold in the things of God, He had to work hard in the carpenter's shop, so that the ends of the family budget would meet, Yes he worked with what was, in those days, the equivalent of the plane, saw and the other tools of the then carpenter's shop, He knew what hard work was all about.The humanity is touched upon so much in the Scriptures, it cannot be denied.In the ministry of Jesus, as He walked amongst mankind.He knew what suffering was and healed many, yes very many folk of their diseases and He also entered into the grief of loved ones who had suffered bereavement, yes He dwelt amongst us'.The way many of His miracles were done was just by the spoken Word, we are told in Isaiah that My Word shall not return� to me void, but it shall accomplish that for which it was sent' and this was so very true in the life of our Lord while He was on planet earth.The man was cured of his leprosy by the spoken word, the storm was stilled by the word of Jesus and at the grave of Lazarus Jesus just spoke the words Lazarus come forth' and he did, yes there was power within the words to accomplish that for which they were sentand on The Cross Jesus said to the thief,Today thou shalt be with me in paradise' and he was in that eternal day

Jesus was also the Son of God, please now consider the matter I am going to write about.At thetime Scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman who had committed adultery, saying that according to the law, she should be stoned, those men knew the Law of Moses, would have known about Mount Sinai that God gave to Moses the law, indeed He wrote it with His finger.No where is it recorded that Moses in going to Mount Sinaitook masonry tools, it was n�ot like that and the men accusing this woman would have knownthis.As the woman was accused Jesus just Wrote on the ground', Jesus spoke and then wrote again.Now in a Home Group one could spend many an hour drinking cups of tea with the hope it could be decided what Jesus wrote, that isnot necessary, had it been so then the record would have been made.But we are told twice about the action Jesus took, what does this teach?It teaches that this Jesus was very God of very God, the only Begotten Son of The Father, Jesus said, He that hath seen Me, hath seen The Father' and I and The Father are One'.In the action we are considering we note what Jesus said, He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone', those men walked away in silence and I would clearly state that they were involved in the very act they were accusing this woman of.They also clearly understood who this Jesus was as He wrote with His finger

Then the text tells us that we beheld His glory', nowthese words were written by the apostle John when he was an old man and he wrote them as he looked back on his life with Jesus.There was the glory when Jesus was born, when the skies were shot through with the glory of the angelic beings as our Lord came into time, and I believe, that even as a babe there was something very special about Him, He was quite a remarkable One to behold.Just think of the Wise Men who came to see Jesus as a tiny little baby, when they saw Him they fell down and worshipped, He must have been very special even at that early age.These Wise Men were looking for someone very special, they got in touch with Herod and drew a blank as they made enquiries aboutthe babe to be born.They finished up going to where Jesus was, a very h�umble place indeed, they had very expensive gifts to give, so after being rejected by Herod they gave them to the child of a peasant couple, they were Wise Men so if this child had not been very special indeed I would suggest that thegold, frankincense and myrrh would have remained in their possession.But they saw that this child, the Jesus was very special, indeed I would suggest that in The Babe they could see something of what God was like.Consider for a moment the effect He had on Anna and on seeing Him she gave thanks to God, then there was Simeon as he saw the Christ child he said this day mine eyes have seen Thy salvation', he was a fulfilled, satisfied man and said now let thy servant depart in peace'.We nowmove forward noting all the miracles that were done through Him and see something further of His glory, in the miracles taking place they taught who our Jesus was, none other that the eternal Son of God.Now we move to the transfiguration, when our Lord Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John, the curtains were rolled back a little and they saw something, very special, they saw something of the eternal glory of our Lord Jesus and what a remarkable time it must have been for them and for our Lord.In the transfiguration we are told that Jesus' face did shine as the sun, His raiment was white as the light, and again His raiment became became shining, exceedingly white like snow so that no fuller on earth could whiten them more so.The transfiguration was a crowning point in the life of Jesus as far as His humanity was concerned, if He had had any sin, which He did not, the the transfiguration would never have taken place.One would even dare to ask the question of the transfiguration, why did not our Father God take our Lord Jesus back to be with Himself at this very point?No this could not be as Jesus had to go through the transfiguration that He might also go
� through The Cross that heaven might be peopled.Now one day we are going to see our Lord in all the fullness of His glory when we go to be with Him, we will see and understand God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in a way that we never understood while here in time.We will worship our great eternal God also in a way that wedo not understand now, we will sing our eternal praise to Him, maybe picking up the praises as referred to in the book of the Revelation that salvation be

longeth to our God and the Lamb, and then, at that point we will be with our loved ones again, who have gone before, and understand them also in a way that we never understood them while here in time - what a day that will be!

We now move forward to the Garden of the Resurrection, when some of the women folk and the men who saw our Lord Jesus in His resurrected glory, He had passed through death to the glory and wonder of the resurrection on the third day, Jesus defeated sin and death on the Cross.After the Cross the disciples were fearful men, they were quite young, their Master had been taken and they thought that they were the next for the chop so they bared themselves in a room for fear of the Jews but Jesus, in His resurrected body came into that bared room and said to them Peace be unto you'.Our Lord could move about, talk, prepareda meal of tilapia fish and bread, so these folk at that time beheld His glory'.Now all this was very wonderful for them but where does it leave us?

Yes we still, by faith, behold His glory, as He, the resurrected Christ, conqueror of sin and death now sits, in His resplendent glory, at the right hand of our Father God interceding for us and He is coming again to take us to be with Him and what a glorious moment that will be, when every knee will bow, one way or another,and confessthat He is Lord to the glory of God the Father,Yes, yes and yes again The Word was made flesh, dwelt amongst us and we beheld His glory, the glory of the ONLY begotten of the Father full of grace
�and truth'.Now our Lord Jesus was the only' begotten of the Father, Jesus is the only' one of His kind, He was and is unique.No mere man could feed four thousand men folk together with their wives and families with a few pieces of bread and fishes but Jesus did so, no ordinary person could still a storm by a few spoken words, but Jesus did it and certainly no mortal could speak just three words at the grave of Lazarus and for him to come back to life.Now our Jesus did thesethings because of who He was, He was the only begotten of the Father, the very Son of the ever lasting God.Then we understand He was begotten' of the Father, now Jesus came into the world in accordance with the will of His Father God, He was not born of man, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, Jesus came into the world as a result of the love of our Father God for us, not as a result of the love between Joseph and Mary, so He was begotten of the Father

Jesus was full of grace and that grace has so wonderfully been expressed to ourselves, we do not deserve the grace of our Lord Jesus, it is something that we cannot merit in any way, we cannot earn it as taught against this in the Scriptures; in cannot be bought as it is not for sale, it cannot be earnt as there are no wage paidIn and through the grace of our Lord Jesus we are forgiven of our sins, we are put right with our Father God, through His grace we have the fellowship of His Holy Spirit as we walk along the Christian highway while we are here in time and through H
is grace our eternal destiny is sealed.Now as we have had the grace of our Lord Jesus so wonderfully expressed to us in our lives so that grace should be expressed in our lives also, as we meet with our families, our neighbours and friends so there should be something about us which declares the grace of our Lord, in the Acts we are told of Peter and John that They took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus', if that could only be said of ourselves what a testimony that would be.Now consider t�he cost of grace as far as our God was and is concerned, this cost is well put in the acrostic on the word grace, just consider it for a moment

God's

Riches

At

Christ's

Expense

The great eternal, holy, righteous God has expresses His grace to us, His Tender, Loving Care' to us in our Lord Jesus, this same T.L.C.�should be expressed in my,�in our lives, is it???

Now we are told that our Jesus was full of truth, indeed He is the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by Him.Jesus always spoke the truth, He told mankind, told us about the truth of our Holy God, He spoke the truth about ourselves and� our sin and declared the way back to God only through Himself in the work that He did for us on The Cross - what a God we have!

Finally to see it recorded in the verse that we are considering that Jesus was FULL of grace and truth, He was full so that there could not be any room for anything else, in our Lord Jesus there was no sin in any way, He was in all points tested as we are yet without sin, He was, and still is the impeccable Christ.We come to our Father God through our Lord Jesus, if He had any sin in any way then this would not have been possible, our Father God cannot, because of His holiness, give any consideration to sin in any way so it is through, and only through our Lord Jesus that we can have acceptance with our Father God.Now considering this should we not, in our lives, keep our dear Lord Jesus central more so, as believers we should task far more about Him than we do, it was our Lord Jesus who pain the penalty of my, of our sins on the Cross, it is through our Lord Jesus that �our sins are separated from us as far as the East is from the West, it is our Lord Jesus who is coming again in all His gloryAs we put on one side, while here in time, our mortal bodies, we will die and wake up in paradise in the arms of Jesus, we will go tobe with Him which is far better as we are taught in the Scriptures.At that time we will see our God in all the fullness of His glory, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, we will then worship our God in a way that we have never understood while here in time, we will sing the songs of the Revelation, that our God created the worlds in all their fullness, that we are redeemed by Him and we will sing that salvation belongeth to our God and the Lamb.'Then at that time we will also meet our loved ones who have gone before, we will understand them in a way that we never did while here it time - what a day that will; be!

DSETz
��&H


��������
��

/

�
�
,6
��*

/
DSETz
��&H

������1�



�
�
�

7
"6
��*

/
FNTM���H
�Arial��MS Serif��

MS Sans Serif

This is the third book