2nd Ref:

John 1:14, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

John begins his gospel attempting to be as clear as human language allows, as to the deity of Christ. Jesus Christ is the Word of God! He was the means of creation of all things, and He then took on flesh as a son to become Jesus the Christ. Along with His preincarnate work, in this His era of Grace He has been given a name above all names. Jesus = Saviour and Redeemer + Christ = anointed of God as King of Kings, High Priest, Prophet, and Apostle of our confession.

Philippians 2:9-11, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Because the Word of God is always Grace and truth, He bore those traits for the world in His flesh to allow the fulfilment of the titles He received. It would be more accurate to say, Jesus is not just called the Word of God, He is the Word of God called Jesus Christ.

The purpose for the Word of God becoming Jesus Christ was revealed at His Incarnate birth by the angels, Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

As a perfect, obedient son of man, He brought glory to the Father on high by the fulfilment of God’s word that the flesh of this world was good (see Genesis 1:31). John 17:4, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”

With His victory on the cross, He then as the new high priest forever brought peace on earth for mankind through forgiveness. In short, salvation was won through obedience, suffering and fulfilment of the word by Jesus Christ and is now in place for all mankind. Similarly, goodwill or ‘God’s will’ to be as a Father to His children, is now also available in this restored relationship by Grace.

From that beginning, Christ’s ongoing mission as the head of the church, has been to declare His Father to the earth. John 1:18, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” The Word of God reveals the very heart and mind (will) of God. Hence, without Christ and His promised Holy Ghost no one can truly know God.

Matthew 11:27, “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.”

Apostle Wayne Schneider

North Queensland, Australia.

Apostle Paul explains the true meaning of unity in this text. Unity means that there is a single purpose and direction for all concerned, working towards one goal. The end result of unity is harmony with and among all individuals in a group.

If we step back a little, we will find that to reach the final goal of unity there are many things that have to be in place. In our faith we believe that there is one God who is the Creator of all the things we see in Creation. This gives us a single starting point to work from. We will also see, in faith, that God has provided for all mankind the opportunity and the means to hear and understand the reward that is available to receive salvation and everlasting life with Him in His Kingdom. That should be our ultimate united goal.

There are a number of steps and goals to reach along our journey in this life, and we must realise that our life is indeed a journey with many obstacles to overcome. Individually we should not allow our shortcomings to cause us to lose sight of our goal. If we look around us, we will see many of our family and friends who are on the same journey and, as with all things through life, difficulty can be overcome if we support and encourage each other in tough times. Firstly, however, we look to God. As the Creator, He has power and control over all His Creation including us.

We are encouraged to put off the earthly ways of the ‘Old man’, Colossians 2: 5-11 “For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” We then need to put on the ‘New man’, Colossians 2:12-17 “Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ”, full of the spiritual gifts and understanding shown to us by Christ through His teaching.

Unity with God, unity with Christ, unity with the Holy Spirit and through that, a unified body of people as the children of God, prepared to rejoice at the return of Christ to claim His Bride

We see that Solomon saw a vision of the Bride of Christ. He firstly said that thou art fair, my love, so we see that firstly God loves us and we have to become fair. When a bride is chosen she goes to a great amount of trouble to prepare herself for the wedding day, to make herself look the best she has ever looked, so we see that we have to also make an effort. Solomon saw the eyes and they were as doves’ eyes. Doves are a peaceful bird. Doves do not make a lot of noise. Doves quietly fly around and they are always at peace with the world, so we see that we have to develop “this peace”. It is not the peace of man, but the Peace of God that Christ left for us. Peace between ourselves and God through Jesus Christ, reconciled to God, happy to be His sons and His daughters. He then told us that the teeth must be like a flock of sheep. He was purposely shown the sheep as an example because sheep have to go together in a flock. They have to have a leader, a shepherd. They have to have lots of things done to them. They have to be led to the water. Every year they have to have the wool taken off them because in that wool is all the burrs and the rubbish, or in the summer they would die. So we see that we have to allow ourselves to be watered, to be fed, to have our bad things taken away from us, to be fruitful, and to live close to God. The teeth are all even. Out of our mouth proceeds all of the words that we say, so we have to make sure that our words are always even, that they are not judgemental, that they treat everyone as equal in God’s sight. They washed and we too had to be washed through Baptism, so that we can call on the good shepherd. None of the sheep were barren and they all brought forth twins, so we see that we have to make this effort in our life to serve the Lord at all times, to be fruitful, and help others to this great promise.

The lips were like a thread of scarlet. Under the Jewish law, if a person was found telling lies, he had to go to the priest and the priest painted his lips a scarlet colour to cure him. We see that we must always be careful of what we say, that we do not tell lies, that we do not go about tale-bearing and causing trouble, but at all times ask the high priest to paint our lips with scarlet to cure us. The neck is like the tower of David on which all the armoury was hung. Our neck connects our head with our body. The head of the church is Christ. We must have strong faith, connecting ourselves as the body of Christ to the head, Christ. Always do in our life all those things that Christ has taught us.

When we listen to those things, perhaps we become depressed, because we ask ourselves how can we do all of those things, and of course we can’t, but through the Grace of Christ he has given us a way when Solomon saw a hill of frankincense and a mountain of myrrh. Frankincense represents the Holy Ghost. We cannot see it but it has been sent to us from God. This Holy Ghost can forgive us our sins. It can comfort us, feed us, give us the Word of God, tell us when we are doing wrong and help us do right, so we must at all times in our life call on this Holy Spirit through the Grace of Christ to forgive our sins. The mountain of myrrh. Myrrh was used to embalm bodies so that they would not deteriorate, and we’ve been given a mountain of myrrh which is the Holy Communion. This will also preserve our bodies, that even if we pass away in this life, when the Lord returns the graves will open and we will be made whole again. This myrrh is used to take away our forgiven sins and replace it with the righteousness of Christ, and it is only by this righteousness of Christ and the Grace of Christ, not by any acts of ourselves, not by fulfilling any laws, only the Grace of Christ that can prepare us for those wonderful words that Solomon saw in verse 7, “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.”

Let us seek the Grace of Christ and His righteousness, and remember Christ’s teaching. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all else will be added unto you.

He named it “Ebenezer” (Rock of Help) not for worship, but as a monument of the victory obtained by the help of God, saying, “This marks the place where God helped us where the Israelites were twice beaten by the Philistines, and the ark taken was this salvation wrought for them”. This was but the beginning of their deliverance from the Philistines, and which was owing to the help of the Lord; and as He had begun to help them, they might hope and encourage themselves that He would go on to help them until their deliverance was completed. However, they with Samuel thought it their duty, which was right, to acknowledge what the Lord had done for them, and perpetuate the memory of it, though they could not be sure what He would do for them hereafter; yet as they were mindful of, and thankful for this instance of His goodness, they hoped for more, and had their dependence on Him for future success against their enemies.

When we look back over times that have been passed through and could count up the total of all disappointments, the weight of all concerns, the number of tests, each unpleasantness and everything that has met us, we can still say, in spite of all this the Lord has helped us to this point. Since the Lord has helped us until now, then He did not do it randomly, but because it lay in His holy Will. From this, we may also derive something else, He will help further, namely until we are at the goal. Then we are conclusively helped. Let us permit this comfort, this confidence, this fountain of strength to work in our souls. Count the gifts of grace, think about daily, what good our Heavenly Father has done.

We experience His help on our way to the heavenly home in a special manner in every divine service. There He offers us food and drink for our soul and new strength to be able to walk the way of faith. Everything that was lost on the way can still be replaced now. The necessary godly means are still at hand. Strengthened and refreshed in this way, we can carry on joyfully and should we once again become wounded, God cares for us through His healing word.

Let me once more seize the thought, what all could we have lost? Patience, peace in the family, understanding for each other, and not lastly, also the confidence. Let us redeem the divine services in our striving to regain all this for ourselves. Thus, may each one find himself under “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us”, and He will help further until we are at the goal.

Our text word is one of the beautiful pieces of prose from the Bible which rings like poetry in our ears. If we have something very important to say and we can manage to say it in a beautiful and forceful manner it is more likely to be remembered by those to whom we speak. The Apostle Paul was writing to the congregation in Rome; A congregation greatly persecuted, meeting secretly in catacombs and in constant danger of being arrested and put to death.

Although we may not be threatened physically to the same extent as were the early Christians, the same steadfastness which the Apostle Paul sought to inspire is still required of us in our time, when the threats to our faith are of a more subtle and sophisticated nature. The threat of death continues to hang over all of us, for nobody is immortal. Death marks the end of the period allocated by God to each individual to work out his soul’s salvation. Life poses a greater threat to separate us from our faith, because in life we meet all the temptations and tests which we have to overcome, and which are listed in our text word. Angels. Can Angels separate us from the love of God? Usually, we think of Angels as godly beings who will help us in faith. This is indeed so but let us not forget that a third of all the Angels in Heaven are said to have fallen and the leader of them all was Lucifer, the Angel of Light, whom Jesus referred to as the Prince of Darkness. The Angels were ruled by the Prince of Darkness, and this constitutes a principality. Powers, i.e., influential persons, organizations or even nations can present a threat to our faith.

Height. How can height threaten us?  Promotion, influential and powerful heights which constitute a real threat in swelling the ego and destroying humbleness before God. The Devil took Jesus up to the highest pinnacle of the temple and bade Him behold all the kingdoms of the earth which should be His if only He would fall down and worship him. Jesus did not succumb to the temptation, height.

Next came the temptation of Depth. The Devil told Jesus to throw Himself off the highest pinnacle into the depth, saying God would send His Angles to carry Him so that He would not be injured, but Jesus did not fall for this very subtle temptation, because had He done this it would have been like showing off. What an important person I am, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God specially sends Angels for me so that I will not get hurt. It would be a bolstering of the ego. The Lord Jesus saw straight through this cunning temptation and replied, “Do not tempt the Lord God.” The Depth can frighten us to weaken our faith. We can become fearful if we consider all the things that might or could go wrong. Don’t look down, is the answer. Look up heavenwards and be inspired instead. Any other Creature. The early Christians were threatened with being thrown to the lions. Surely, this was the most severe test of their faith. We don’t get thrown to the lions in this sense any more, but quite often the pursuit of our faith may cause us to be exposed to spirits just as savage as lions.

Nothing whatsoever must be allowed to separate us from the Love of God which is given us through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let me please superscribe our text with the above words; taken out of the story of Naaman the captain. He was an excellent and worthy man before his master the king of Syria, however a leper. This successful man suffered greatly under this disease. Nobody could help him, and many would have turned away from him. Then he heard about a prophet in Israel, who, as it said, seemed to have miraculous power. “Will he also be able to help me? How will it be possible? What will he do?” These questions would not leave him and he started, in company of his servants and with great hope in his heart, the journey to Israel.

Here we pause and look back into our own life. Were we not also already in a similar circumstance? Nobody could help us. We felt lonely and forsaken. The reason to this has not to be only sickness. There are many, seemingly ‘no way out’ situations, in which we feel so helpless. But, are we really alone? Have we not Someone above us, who created us and loves us as His children? Why do we not pray to Him? Is our trust amiss? Let us plead for a remedy from our hopeless confusion. Most times we already have a certain concept, how this remedy would be. How much we would like to advise God and point out things to Him which seem to us most important. But His thoughts are higher than ours! He does not barricade Himself against our please, but He knows the right timing and the degree of His help. He requests of us insight and patience. Oft-times we react disappointed towards His actions: “I had thought, You would …”

With the captain Naaman it happened no differently. He expected a conversation with the prophet or a performance on his part. Finally, he was not just anybody, but a man to whom many had to be obedient to, over which he could execute his authority. But when in need, one accepts every help. Now, that this man of God would not even come to be seen but let it be said through a messenger (2 Kings 5:10): “Go and wash in Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.” This was too much for the Syrian. He became wrath and said: “Behold, I thought, he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over the place and recover the leper.” (2 Kings 5:11)

Don’t we notice the parallels of our thinking? Like we in our life, so had Naaman the concrete conception, how the help should look. Is it then different, there comes the quick reaction: “Nothing makes any sense!”

We doubt, like Naaman, our helper. We would be in a bad way, if there were no people on our side, who can support us and awaken in us the hope. They know the power of prayer and trust in their God. They also know, what they are speaking about, when they advise us: “Keep praying, have patience, God loves you and knows best, how He can help you!”

So the servants also urged their captain, at least to try, what the prophet asked of him. Yes, if one would have had to compensate the help with gold, it would have been quite credible. But God, like here through His prophet does not accept payment. His love is priceless!

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not onto thine own understanding,” (Prov 3:5). It did cost Naaman much effort, to overcome his own understanding, to dive under the water of the river Jordan. But he experienced the miracle on himself and knew from then on, that he wanted to sacrifice to and serve only this great God.

What does this event tell us? It is not the miracle, which at once comes to our notice, of which there are many in the Holy scripture, but:

• God’s help no-one can buy!
• God’s help does not come according to our own notion!
• God’s help can one experience only, if one does, what He says!

Our Lord Jesus Christ was victorious over Satan withstanding the temptation of sin all His life. Sin was the first enemy of God and He conquered that and took it into captivity, but the other enemies of God remained – Hell and Death. Until Christ’s sacrifice when He made available the new place called Paradise, the destination for all souls (except those under the Golden Altar who had sacrificed their life for their faith and were martyred) was Hell or Sheol which, although meaning a place of waiting for judgement, is often wrongly depicted as a place of torment. This then had to be taken captive.

Jesus, after He had told His disciples that He would have to leave them, John 13:31-33 “Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come”; but in words of comfort He continued in John 14:1-3 “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where l am, there ye may be also.”

After Jesus’ crucifixion and death on the cross, and after He said to the malefactor crucified beside Him that – Luke 23:43 “And Jesus said unto him, verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”, from that time forward, believing Christians and all those that acknowledged Jesus as the only begotten Son of God and prepared through His grace and righteousness, now had no fear at the death of the body.

Jesus would suffer the death of His natural body but was able to enter into Hell, and Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4:6 “For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.”

Jesus would then rise from the grave in bodily form completing His victory. Apostle John would record that Jesus said to him in Revelation 1:18 “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen: and have the keys of hell and of death.” Death was now also captive.

What a great blessing and comfort Christ has given us, that we should have no fear or dread at the death of this earthly body we have today but have His reassurance that we will all have a place in the Kingdom of God and with Him when He returns and then Eternal Life.

The Philip mentioned in our text word was not the Apostle but one of the first seven Deacons of the Church in Jerusalem. Acts 6:5. Deacon Philip was very active in the Evangelist ministry in spite of the great persecution suffered by the Christians at that time, and even after the martyrdom of Deacon Stephen he testified in Samaria to Simon the magician, who was later on baptized and sealed, but being a magician thought it was magic by which the Apostles could give the Holy Ghost, therefore he offered money to buy the trick from them, but the Apostles were very annoyed with him and told him to repent his wickedness. Acts 8: 3-22.

Philip was quite evidently a very courageous and godly man, to such an extent that the Lord sent an angel to Philip specially to tell him to go to Gaza in the desert so that he might meet an important emissary, an Eunuch from Ethiopia, who was treasurer to Candace Queen of the Ethiopians. Philip testified to this gentleman who was struggling to read and understand the book of Esaias, which is the same as Isaiah, where it is written, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” Isaiah 53:7. Philip explained this text to the Eunuch and its connection with Jesus Christ of whom the Prophet Isaiah had been prophesying. Philip must have explained a great deal about the Lord’s work and the Apostles ministry, because the Eunuch was so completely convinced that he asked to be baptized, and even though they were in the desert, the Lord led them to a small oasis where there was a spring where the baptism took place.

Immediately after the work was done Philip vanished and the Eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing, probably it was by this means that Ethiopia became one of the earliest countries to embrace Christianity, so we can understand why the Lord took so much trouble sending an angel specially to Philip.

How did Philip suddenly vanish from the Eunuch’s presence the moment his work was done and appear far away in another place called Azotus, where he continued his preaching until he came to Caesarea? It was a miracle. God took Philip from Gaza and transported him to Azotus where he should continue with his work. This whole story about Philip is a faith strengthener for us because it shows us how, if we do our part, God will not let us down but will support and uphold us all the way.