“AND THE WORD BECAME FLESH…”
December 9, 2017
By Pastor Kim Hickcox
(All Scripture used in this series will be from the One New Man unless otherwise noted)
Last week we started the Christmas Season with the announcement of His cousin and prophet John the Immerser. We saw how his birth was almost as miraculous as Y’shua’s. And the Apostle John stated his mission in the beginning of his gospel too:
John 1:6-13 “There was a man who was sent from God, his name was John: 7he came in witness so that he could testify concerning the Light, so that all would believe through him. 8He was not that Light, but he came so that he would bear witness concerning the Light. 9When He came into the world, He was the true Light, He gave light to all mankind. 10He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, but the world did not know Him. 11He came among His own people, but His own did not take Him.12And so many as did receive Him, He gave them authority to become children of God, to those who believed in His name,13they are not from blood and not from the desire of flesh and not from the will of man but were begotten from God.” (Bold mine for emphasis.)
The Lord does everything in order. He would never do something as eternity changing as sending His Son down from heaven without letting us know that He was coming first! In Jasher we learned that He assigned Noah to not only build the Ark, but testify to the people that they needed to repent for one hundred twenty years before He sent the Flood! So let no one tell you that the Old Testament God and New Testament God are different. Let no one tell you that One was filled with hate and wrath while the Other seems to be filled with love and grace. Know that He is perfect and holy and unconditional Love and any, any deviation from perfect would make Him imperfect wouldn’t it? Any deviation from holy would make Him unholy. Any deviation from unconditional Love would have to make it conditional. And with ANY of those changes we would all be changed also – from redeemed to unredeemable. (Scary thought.)
So PLEASE always remember and know in your heart of hearts that “The LORD is our God! The LORD is One!” (Deuteronomy 6:4) “Then God said, ‘We will make mankind in our image, after our likeness…’” (Genesis 1:26) “And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, You must guard them by Your name which You have given to Me, so that they would be one just as We are One.” (John 17:11) And because we know that “Y’shua Messiah is the same yesterday and today and forever”, (Hebrews 13:8) we also know that this includes the Father because of John 17:11. AND as the Holy Spirit was the One Who gave mankind life in the first place (Genesis 2:7), He of course is included in the Holy Package that fills us upon redemption (Romans 15:13) as well as John when he was still in his mother’s womb (Luke 1:41), Elizabeth when she first saw her cousin Miriam during her pregnancy (Luke 1:41) and John’s father upon his birth (Luke 1:64-79)…it’s impossible to say that our God can, has or will ever change.
With that settled, let’s get back to Luke’s Gospel: he reports that He (God, through His angel Gabriel) told John’s parents that he (John) would be coming and that he would be His (Y’shua’s) prophet. In Luke 1:57-66 we read about John’s birth and as Gabriel said, his father Zechariah had been mute since he walked out of the Temple nine months ago. However, upon the proclamation of Zechariah’s [public] belief, we see in Luke 1:63 that, “at once his mouth and tongue were opened, and he was speaking, praising God. 65And reverential fear came upon all those who lived around them, and in the whole hill country of Judea they were discussing all these reports, 66and all those who heard kept saying in their hearts, ‘So what will this child be?’ For indeed the hand of the Lord was with him.” (Luke 1:64-66) So the Lord now allowed Zechariah to tell them. And in order to emphasize the total blending of Scripture, I have included all the OT references that he proclaimed to the people – to God’s people:
“Then Zechariah his father was filled with the Holy Spirit and he prophesied saying,
‘68The Lord God of Israel be praised, (Psalms 41:14; 72:18; 106:48)
Because He looked upon and made redemption for His people, (Psalm 111:9)
69and He raised a horn of salvation for us, (Psalm 18:3)
in the house of His child David,
70just as He spoke through the mouth of His holy prophets
from the earliest times,
71salvation from our enemies and out of the hand
of all those who hate us, (Psalm106:10)
72to show mercy with our fathers
and His holy covenant is to be remembered, (Psalm 106:45)
73the oath which He swore to our father Abraham,
(Genesis 17:7, Psalm 105:8-9)
to give us 74when without fear we were
rescued out of the hand of enemies (Genesis 22:16-17)
to serve Him 75in piety and righteousness
before Him all our days.
76And also you, child, will be called “Prophet of the Most High:”
for you will go before the Lord to prepare His Ways,
(Isaiah 40:3, Malachi 3:1)
77to give knowledge of salvation to His people
in forgiveness of their sins,
78because of the inner kindness of mercies of our God,
with which mercies the rising sun looks down upon us
from on high, (Malachi 3:20)
79to bring light those in darkness and sitting on the shadow of death, to
direct our feet into the way of peace.’ (Isaiah 9:2; 58:8; 60:1-2)”
Now Luke also tells us that the Angel Gabriel also appeared to Miriam (Mary, in English) the mother of Y’shua to give her the news that will forever change her life too. However it was “in the sixth month” of her Cousin Elizabeth’s pregnancy:
“And in the sixth month of her pregnancy the angel Gabriel was sent down from God to a city of Galilee by the name of Nazareth,27to a virgin betrothed to a man by the name of Joseph out of the house of David, and the name of the virgin was Miriam. 28And when he came to her he said, ‘Hail, highly favored one, the Lord is with you.’ 29But she was confused over the message and was wondering what sort of greeting this might be.” (Luke 1:26-29)
CONFUSED?! I’m thinking that Gabriel didn’t appear to her in all his angelic glory or her reaction would have been a little more than confused – more like a splash of cold water to wake her up after she fainted. However, we see that Miriam was nothing if not calm and faith filled: “And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Miriam, for you have found favor with God. 31And behold you will conceive in your womb and you will bear a Son and will call His name Y’shua. 32This One will be great and He will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of David His father, 33and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will not end.’” (Luke 1:30-33)
Her response, unlike her cousin-in-law Zechariah, who said, “How will I know this?” (vs 18 bold mine), which is a statement of unbelief, was “How will this be, since I have not had intimacy with a husband?” (vs 34 bold mine) Note the difference: Zechariah wanted to proof, Miriam just was curious as to how it would happen, but instantly knew that it would happen. And so she was told how it would happen:
“Then the angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you and power of the Most High will cover you: for this reason then the Holy One Who is birthed will be called the Son of God. 36And behold your kin Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age and this is her sixth month from her being called barren:37because with God nothing is impossible. 38And Miriam said, ‘Behold the servant of the Lord: may it be according to your word.’ Then the angel left from her.” (Luke 1:35-38)
Now my thought is that Miriam conceived six months after Elizabeth for three reasons:
1. It was custom at that time that a woman would have complete rest during the first three months of pregnancy. So visiting her cousin would allow her to not only be a guest and therefore not be laden with the household chores she undoubtedly had at home, BUT
2. it would also give her time to bolster her confidence as to what had happened to her. Because not only did she go to a house where a miracle had just occurred, but it was out of town too, which would give her time to pray about telling Joseph. She knew of course that all would be well eventually, but the custom at the time for losing one’s virginity before marriage was family disgrace as well as stoning. So it wouldn’t surprise me if she needed a little time to regroup and do a lot of praying.
3. AND as we mentioned earlier that God does everything in order, I truly believe that John came first so he would have a six month lead on his public ministry. It was custom then that a Rabbi or Prophet or any other man called into public ministry, would make his debut at the age of 30.
Therefore, John could emerge on the scene six months before Y’shua did as he was His prophet. “During the High Priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, a message from God came upon John, the son of Zechariah, in the desert. 3And he came into all the neighboring region of the Jordon preaching the immersion of repentance for forgiveness of sins, 4as it has been written in a scroll of the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘A voice crying in the wilderness, you must immediately prepare the way of the Lord, you must continually make His paths straight: 5every ravine will be filled and every mountain and ill will be made low, and the crooked will be straight and the rough into smooth ways 6and all flesh will see the salvation of God.’” (Luke 3:2-6, quoting Isaiah 40:3-5)
In fact, he was the last of the Old Testament Prophets. And we know that Y’shua was born within the time of the Law because Galatians 3:13 tells us that “Messiah redeemed us from the curse of legalism when He became a curse instead of us, because it has been written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’” Quoted from Deuteronomy 21:23.
All along “the Torah (Teaching) has become our custodial guide to Messiah, so that we could be made righteous by faith: 25and since faith has come we are no longer under custody.” (Galatians 3:24-25)
In all actuality, the New Testament didn’t start until His resurrection and the New Testament Church didn’t start until John 20:22, “And after He said this He breathed upon them and said to them, ‘You must immediately take the Holy Spirit.’” THAT was when the Holy Spirit was released and they were born-again and that was when the Church was born!
So now the stage has been set and the Messiah is on His way!!
SHALOM!!
