Message Two

By Dr. Michael Guido, D.D.
John 1:1

Here's an astounding statement. A friend said, "Jesus is the only Somebody you can't match."
Look at His duration. You can't match it. You began when you were born, but Jesus didn't! And He didn't cease to be when He died. He has duration without beginning or end. There never was a time when He was not. In addressing His contemporaries He said, "Before Abraham was, I am." In talking to God, He said, "Father, reveal My glory as I stand in Your presence, the glory we shared before the world began." One day a little boy asked his mother, "Who made Christ?" Taking off her wedding ring she gave it to him and asked, "Where does this ring begin and where does it end?" "There's no starting place," he replied, "and there's no stopping place." Beamed the mother, "That's the way it is with the Lord Jesus."

Look at this designation. In John 1:1 He's called the "Word." Do you wonder why? Well, for an answer let's go to the Bible. It's written in Hebrews 1:1 and 2, "God, spoke in many different ways to our fathers through the prophets...but now in these days He has spoken to us through His Son." What does that mean? He's the Spokesman for God. In a palace in Rome there's a famous fresco called the Aurora. It's painted on the ceiling. It's hard to gaze upon it. Your neck becomes stiff, and your head dizzy. So the owner of the palace put a mirror on the floor. Now if you look into the mirror you'll see the painting. So you want to see God? Look at the Lord Jesus. He reveals and reflects God to us.

Look at His distinctiveness. It's written in John 1:1, "The Word was with God." It doesn't say, "The Word was the God." That would signify that He had absorbed all Deity into Himself. Neither does it say, "The Word was a God." That would signify that He wasn't co-equal with the Father. Nor does it say, "God was with God." That would signify that there are two Gods. But it does say, "The Word was with God." That shows there's a distinction between the Father and the Son, and throughout all eternity there was communion and cooperation between the Father and the Son.

Look at His Deity. The Bible says, "The Word was God." Jesus wasn't merely a revealer of God, but God Himself revealed. He proved His Deity by accepting worship when Thomas fell at His feet, saying, "My Lord and my God." He proved His Deity by forgiving sins, saying to the paralytic, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." He proved His Deity by saying, "I and My Father are one." He proved His Deity by dying at will. He died as no other man ever died. Others have died sacrificial deaths. But Jesus died to save men from their sins and to bring them home to heaven. He didn't have to die. He said that He had power to lay down His life and to take it up again. And He laid down His life for you and me. I saw where a big lump of something - a stone supposedly - lay for centuries in a shallow brook in North Carolina. People passing that way saw only an ugly lump, and passed on. A poor man passing one day saw a heavy lump - a good thing to hold his door open - and he took it home. A geologist who stopped at the door of this poor man's house one day saw a lump of gold - the biggest lump of gold ever found east of the Rockies. Many people looked upon Jesus. Some saw only a Galilean peasant, and turned away. Some saw a prophet, and stopped to listen. When you look upon Jesus what do you see? O that you'd see Him as the Lamb of God and say,
"Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come."

copyright 2000 Guido Evangelistic Association
All Scripture verses are quoted from the New King James Version.

This series of messages on the books of the Bible were originally written for broadcast on Dr. Guido's radio program, "The Sower." They are collected and reprinted here for your enjoyment and spiritual edification. Go to the Sower's site for more at www.TheSower.com.