Lesson 27 - Junior

Memory Verse

"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good"   (Genesis 1:31).

Notes

In the Beginning

Matthew and Luke tell us the beautiful story of Jesus, the Son of God, being born in the manger of Bethlehem -- coming to earth as a tiny baby -- and then growing up to be a minister and prophet, and finally dying to atone for our sins.

John, the beloved disciple, also tells the story, but in a different way. He takes us back to the beginning, even before the world was made, and says that the Word (which he explains was Jesus) was already there. Then he tells us that the Word was "made flesh, and dwelt among us." That is John's way of telling us that Jesus came to this world as a child, and lived on earth as other men do.

But John tells us more than that. He tries to make us see how great and powerful Jesus was -- even greater than we can understand. He was the Son of God, and was equal with God. We read in Colossians 1:15 that Jesus is the image of God, Whom no man has ever seen; and He existed before any earthly creature was made. The Godhead consists of three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. They all had part in the creation, and John says that without Jesus nothing was made that was made. "For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9).

Pre-existence of Jesus

Micah, an Old Testament prophet, told where Christ should be born and spoke also of His pre-existence: "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Micah 5:2). Jesus Himself spoke of His eternal being when He prayed to God: "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was" (John 17:5).

When we tell small children that God made everything, they often ask, "Who made God?" No one made the Father, the Son nor the Holy Spirit; they always were; they are without beginning and without end. Our minds cannot understand it; we cannot fathom beyond the beginning of time; but we believe it because it is the Word of God.

Think of the mercy of God to send Jesus to earth to suffer for sinners. Some men could not believe that Jesus was really the Son of God, but we remember that, when He came to be baptised in Jordan by John the Baptist, John saw Him coming, and announced with earnest conviction, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." He said, "I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God." He believed, too, that Jesus was from the beginning, because he said, "He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me."

Author of Life

Jesus made everything. More than that, He put life into it. Man in his wisdom has been able to make many wonderful and useful things, but never has he been able to put life into anything. The theory of evolution cannot even tell us where life came from; its exponents must always begin with life already here, and try to reason from that point. Even then, their ideas do not work out convincingly. But the Bible tells us that God spoke, and the plants sprang up, alive. God made the animals, each after his kind, and they lived and reproduced their own kind. No horse ever became a cow; no cat ever turned into a dog; but they have remained each "after his kind," as God made them.

Some wheat was found in an Egyptian tomb that was 3,000 years old, but the germ of life, which God had put into each tiny grain was still there. When it was planted, it grew and produced the same kind of wheat as men had continued to plant each year for those 3,000 years. God made it wheat in the beginning, and it was still wheat.

Man's inability to give us the life we need for our sustenance is illustrated in another way. It has been demonstrated that milk can be made scientifically from the same fodder that the cow eats, and in greater quantities from the same material, but there is no life in it. A baby, which is placed on such a diet will be contented and satisfied, but will starve to death in a few months. That is one of God's mysteries that He has given to the cow, and man cannot duplicate it -- the mystery of life.

Spiritual Life

This natural life is a wonderful phenomenon to us, but Jesus did not consider it nearly as important as our spiritual life. We are compared to the grass, or the flower of the field, which quickly withers and falls away ([ISA:40:6-8]); and to the vapour, "that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away" (James 4:14). He often spoke of sinners as being dead because they had not been saved -- born again.

"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (I John 5:12). We see by that Scripture what Jesus considers life. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), and if we do not have Jesus in us we do not have life. If we receive Jesus into our hearts, He gives us power to become the sons of God, and He gives us life that will never end. We shall live in Heaven with Him throughout the endless ages of eternity.

Light

Jesus called this spiritual life Light. He told His disciples, "I am the light of the world"; and at another time He said, "Ye are the light of the world." The Greek word used for light when it referred to Jesus is phos, the light itself; but light applied to the Christian is phoster, meaning light container. So we see that when Jesus comes into our hearts we are the light containers, which let the light of Jesus shine out through our lives. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).

The light of Jesus shone in the darkness (meaning to the sinners) but few received it, for men loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. You will often notice that a sinner is uncomfortable in the presence of a real child of God, because he does not like the light that is shining from the Christian. The Spirit of God in His children convicts men of their sins. How important it is that we should have an abundance of His Spirit in our lives!

Every man can have eternal life if he will turn to God and confess his sins. Jesus died that "whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." He was the true Light, "which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

God desires His children in these dark, sinful days to let their light shine so that all men might learn the way to Heaven. For that reason we should be sure that our light is shining brightly.

"Let the lower lights be burning!

Send a gleam across the wave!

Some poor fainting, struggling seaman

You may rescue, you may save."

Questions

1. Name the three Persons of the Holy Trinity.

2. What was John's message to the world?

3. Why was Jesus sent to this world?

4. How many people know whether we are saved?

5. How does God speak to us?