By Tim Johnson
Introduction
When you think of great rescue missions, what do you think of? My mind jumps to the extraordinary rescue of two yachtsmen, Tony Bullimore & Thierry Dubois, from the Southern Ocean off Antarctica in 1997. Both had been competing in a solo around the world race when a massive storm capsized their boats. They were stranded in near freezing water, enduring 12 metre waves and 115km/h winds.
Thierry Dubois spent 24 hours clinging to his upturned yacht Wondering how long it would be before he died. In this dire predicament, he must have wondered how he could possibly be rescued. He was 3,200km from Australia And in such high seas what chance was there of a rescue. Yet in this dire situation a rescue came.
The Australian navy sent the HMAS Adelaide after him and after dropping him a life raft - in which he floated for another two days. Eventually they were able to send out a Seahawk helicopter and lower a rescuer down to Dubois, who winched him to safety.
It has been described as one of the greatest rescue operations of all time! A dire predicament - with little hope of rescue yet help came as someone reached down and plucked Dubois to safety.
Humanity’s Predicament
In this series on ’humanity in focus’ we have seen that our predicament is far worse than that faced by Dubois. Despite the good creation of God, despite being made in the image of God, despite being crowned with glory and honour by God, humanity rebelled against him. So dire is our predicament that the Apostle Paul writes, in Romans 3:
"There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God."
All of us have rebelled against and rejected God, our creator, and that is a far worse situation than even 12 metre-high seas and freezing water God is the one who made and controls the sea! And to rebel against him, puts us under his right judgement.
How can there be any possible rescue from that situation! From such a dire predicament, a radical rescue mission is needed. What is needed is the greatest rescue mission of all time. And that rescue mission is described for us in John 1.
A Human Saviour is born
V.1 starts, ’In the beginning…’ Hang on. That sounds familiar! It sounds exactly like the start of Genesis 1, the start of the bible. It takes us right back to the beginning, to before humanity’s rebellion against God, and shows us the credentials of the great rescuer.
’In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God.’ Humanity’s predicament is so bad that we need the very best person to save us. We actually need God himself to do it. And here we get a glimpse into the majesty of God in Trinity. Here we see God the Son, described as ’the Word’, one who is with God but who also actually is God. And since the Word is God, He is also the agent of creation.
This is put both positively and negatively in v.3
Positively:
’All things came into being through him,
and negatively:
and without him not one thing came into being that has come into being.’
You’ll notice that I’m using the reading of v.3 given in the NRSV footnotes, rather than the main text. Both are possible ways to read the punctuation in vv.3-4 And in the end a decision needs to be made in terms of what makes more sense in the context? That’s why I go with the alternative at the bottom and, in fact, most other English versions of the bible translate it that way too. Again, what is being emphasized is that the word is responsible for creation
’All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being that has come into being.’
So whatever I think of, cows, buttercups, mountains, rivers, Patagonian toothfish… He made it. And without him it wouldn’t exist! That is an impressive CV!
But wait, there’s more (v.4) ’In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. Because the Word is God, he has life in and of himself. That is not true of you and me. We have life because God gives us life. But the Son of God, the Word, has life in him by his very nature. That idea is developed throughout John’s gospel. Can you think of any passages in John where Jesus speaks of himself as life?
Jesus says, ’For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.’ (5:26) ’The Son gives life to whomever he wishes.’ (5:21) ’I am the resurrection and the life.’ (11:25) As we read here, In him was life, and the life was the light of all people
Light too keeps popping up in John.
Jesus says in 8:12, ’I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life."
As here, Jesus says that he is light and that he gives light and life to people. ’In him was life and the life was the light of all people.’
Finally, in v.5, if we have any concerns about this rescuer’s credentials we read, ’The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.’
This rescuer is powerful! Darkness here is more than just the absence of light. Darkness is used in John’s gospel to describe rebellion & opposition to God. The sort of opposition we have been looking at in this series.
But despite this opposition The light is more powerful. The light shines in the darkness. And the darkness has not overcome it.
So these are the credentials of this rescuer. He is the light of the world. He has life in and of himself. All things were created by him. He is God. That is an impressive resume! But if you thought that what we have seen is impressive, jump down to v.14, where our passage concludes. ’And the Word became flesh and lived among us. That is even more amazing! The Word, The one who is God himself, became flesh, became human and lived among us.
I once went along to a meeting put on by the Sydney University Moslem society. The speaker dismissed Christianity saying, "Can you really believe that God became human? Can you imagine God as a baby? God dirtying his nappies? I mean the thought is absolutely ridiculous." For that man the whole idea that God, the Almighty God who made everything could become human could become a child was beyond comprehension.
But that is exactly what John 1 tells us happened ’the Word became flesh and lived among us…’ You see our predicament is so dire, our situation is so hopeless that the only way that we can be rescued is if God the Son takes on human flesh and lives among us in order to save us!
When Thierry Dubois was rescued he needed someone to enter his situation. Someone needed to be lowered down from the chopper to where he was and take him and lift him up to safety.
It is a bit like that with Jesus, only far, far more amazing. People in their rebellion against God have corrupted their humanity, their very being.
If we are to be saved what we actually need is a completely new start. That is what God does. He himself becomes human, in order to rescue humans. To take our humanity to himself, but with one difference. Where we rebelled against God and corrupted our humanity. Jesus lives the perfect life in perfect obedience to God.
That’s why John can say in v.14, ’And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.’
To rescue us, God himself takes our humanity on himself and lives the way that humans were created to live. In perfect obedience to God rather than rebellion. Reflecting God’s glory, rather than corrupting the image of God. Full of grace and truth, rather than selfishness and lies.
This is the greatest inside job ever! The Word of God, becoming human and living among us. In order to rescue us from our rebellion against God
A Reborn Humanity!
Now of course, Thierry Dubois, stranded in the Southern Ocean, did not have to accept help when it came. It’s crazy, I know, but when the rescuer came down to him he didn’t have to grab hold of him and be winched to safety.
So too with the great rescuer, the Word become flesh and living amongst us.
It’s crazy, I know, but despite the coming of this rescuer some of us do not grab hold of him and allow him to save us. This is despite the strong testimony that there is to this rescuer.
We see something of that testimony in vv.6-9 6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
John the Baptist, goes before Jesus saying, ’he’s coming! The great rescuer is coming’ And, famously, when Jesus steps onto the scene, John declares, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" John acts as a witness, pointing people to Jesus, pointing people to their rescuer.
But John the Baptist is not the only witness in John’s gospel. In addition to him we see the witness of the Samaritan woman (4:39), the witness of the works of Jesus (5:36; 10:25), the witness of the Old Testament (5:39-40), the crowd (12:17), the Holy Spirit (15:26), the apostles (15:27), and God the Father (5:32, 37; 8:18). The entire gospel is filled with testimony to Jesus. Continually, people point to him and say, ’this is the great rescuer.’
Just as Thierry Dubois could be under no illusions that the hovering chopper was his chance of rescue, we are left in no doubt that Jesus is our means, our only means, of salvation.
But not everybody accepts him! Look at vv.10-11 10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.
When God the creator takes on flesh and enters his own world to effect a rescue. The people he has created do not recognize him and reject his rescue! Despite the strong testimony to him, he is rejected by many. not only in his own day but also today.
But despite the rejection of many, there are some who recognize him as the saviour and accept his rescue. And the consequences of this are enormous. Look at vv.12-13 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
At the start of v.12 we see that our only part in the rescue operation is to receive Jesus! He comes to us to rescue us and all we need to do is to receive him, or to put it another way, to believe in his name to believe in him. We have seen what an amazing thing it is for the Word to become flesh for God the creator to become human. But all we have to do in response is to receive, to believe.
Like Thierry Dubois who just had to accept his rescuer and go with him! It is a simple response, but look at the consequences. By belief in Jesus, we receive power to become children of God we are reborn not in an earthly way not of blood not of the will of the flesh not by human will but born of God!
We are going to look more at this in a few weeks time as we look at John 3. But the idea is already introduced here at the start of John. You see, our humanity is so corrupted by our rebellion and sin that we need a completely new start. We need to be reborn. And we need God to do it.
So that is the greatest rescue mission of all time. Humans stranded in our sin and rebellion against God, helpless to save ourselves needing a miracle! But God provides that miracle, in fact he provides two!
Miracle 1:
God himself takes on human flesh and comes to earth to rescue us. Miracle 2:
If we accept this rescuer; if we believe in Jesus, then we are reborn and become children of God. Despite our rebellion and sin; despite the fact that we deserve God’s wrath; instead he makes us his children Through his son Jesus!
Application
These great miracles of God require a response from each one of us.
Firstly, it may be that there are some people here who have never received the great rescuer, Jesus. Despite the fact that he is the one who made you it may be that you have never recognized him for who he is. Can I challenge you this morning to think about the lengths that God has gone to in order to rescue you, and to respond by accepting the rescuer. It may be that you didn’t even realize you needed rescuing! This passage helps us with that too. When we see the lengths that God has gone to, when we see that God himself takes on human flesh in order to effect a rescue, it is clear that there is a problem that needs to be dealt with. God wouldn’t go to such lengths unless there was a serious problem. We need to recognize that we are in a dire predicament. We need to realize that God has done something about it by sending his Son as the rescuer. And we need to respond by accepting him, by believing in his name.
But there are many here this morning, who I know have done that. What is this passage saying to you? I hope that having your minds reminded and perhaps expanded as we have looked at God’s great rescue results in us turning to God in great praise and rejoicing. It is hard to examine the enormity of what God has done, in sending his son as a human in giving us new birth and not to just by struck by God’s love and grace to us. Indeed, I hope that it is impossible for us not to be struck by it. We might have heard it many times before, but we need to be reminded again and again and each time we need to praise God for his grace to us. Will you do that this morning?
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