The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 99: The Word Became Flesh (2024)

Episode Date: April 8, 2024

Today we begin reading the Gospel of John! Fr. Mike emphasizes the significance of Jesus' divinity, and explains how the story of salvation culminates in Christ as the Messiah. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 99. You guys, you're one day, one day away from 100 days of reading the Bible, listening to the word of God and letting it shape

your mind, your eyes, your heart, every part of you. It is day 99 and we are taking a break. We just finished 1 Samuel 6, 7, and 8. We're taking a break for the next seven days. In the next seven days, we're going to go through the gospel of John. This is what it's called our first messianic checkpoint. And so today we're reading on day 99. We're reading from John chapters one, two, and three. We're also reading from Proverbs, taking a little break from the Psalms for about seven days, eight days or so. And then we're reading Proverbs five verses one through six. As you might know, I'm reading from the revised standard version, second Catholic edition. I'm actually using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to get your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com

slash Bible in a Year. If you've not yet subscribed to this podcast, it's been 99 days. I think it's time to make a commitment. I don't know. I'm not telling you what to do. Just letting you know, you can subscribe in whatever you're listening to this podcast. Okay, here we go. We're launching into the messianic checkpoint. What that means. Gosh, you guys, everything in the Old Testament leads to the New Testament. One of the things we know and believe is Christianity was not a new religion coming after Judaism. What Christians believe is that Christianity is the fulfillment of everything that God had promised in the old covenant. Everything God had promised is the fulfillment of everything he'd been leading up to. So everything we've been reading, plus what we'll be reading for the next, you know, while after this, all points to Jesus. And so it's not a new

religion. In fact, the first Christians, they did not see themselves as leaving Judaism and becoming something else. What they saw was, no, this is the fulfillment of Judaism. And we're going to make a note on that after we read John 1, 2, and 3. But keep that in mind, that as we launch into this messianic checkpoint for the next seven days, we're not leaving the Old Testament behind. What we're doing is we're seeing how the Old Testament has been fulfilled in Jesus and how God's promises have been fulfilled. So without anything further, here we are with John chapter one, two, and three. The gospel according to John chapter one, the word becamelesh. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him,

and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came for testimony to bear witness to the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light. The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name,

he gave power to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. We have beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father. John bore witness to him and cried, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me. And from his fullness have we all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. The testimony of John the Baptist. And this is the testimony of John.

When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. They said to him, then who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, Then why are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet? John answered them, I baptize with water. But among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. This took place in Bethany, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing, the Lamb of God. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me. I myself did not know him, but for this I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel. And John bore witness. I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven and remain on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me,

he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have bore witness that this is the Son of God. The first disciples of Jesus. The next day again, John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked and said, behold, the lamb of God. The two disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following. And he said to them, What do you seek? And they said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?

He said to them, Come and see. They came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, so you are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Kepha, which means Peter. Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael. The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee, and he found Philip and said to him,

Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed,

in whom is no guile. Nathanael said to him, How do you know me? Jesus answered him, Before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Jesus answered him, Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these. And he said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Chapter 2. The Marriage at Cana. On the third day, there was a marriage at

Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the marriage with his disciples. When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, a woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Now, six stone jars were standing there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to them, fill the jars with water. And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, now draw some out and take it to the steward of the feast. So they took it. When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the steward of the feast

called the bridegroom and said to him, every man serves the good wine first, and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana and Galilee, and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him. After this, he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brethren and his disciples, and there they stayed for a few days. The Cleansing of the Temple The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all with the sheep and the oxen out of the temple, and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, Take these things away. You shall not make my father's house a house of trade. His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for your house will consume me.

Then the Jews said to him, What sign have you to show us for doing this? Jesus answered them, Then the Jews said to him, Jesus answered them, The Jews then said, It has taken 46 years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did. But Jesus did not trust himself to them,

because he knew all men, and needed no one to bear witness of man, for he himself knew what was in man. Chapter 3. Nicodemus visits Jesus. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus

answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born anew. The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said to him, how can this be? Jesus answered him, are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand this?

Truly, truly I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world might

be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned. He who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world. And men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God. Jesus and John the Baptist. After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea.

There he remained with them and baptized. John also was baptizing at Anon near Salim, because there was much water there, and people came and were baptized. For John had not yet been put in prison. Now a discussion arose between John's disciples and a Jew over purifying, and they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan to whom you bore witness, here he is baptizing and all are going to him. John answered, no one can receive anything except what is given him from

heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from heaven. He who comes from above is above all. He who is of earth belongs to the earth, and of the earth he speaks. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears

witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. He who receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for it is not by measure that he gives the Spirit. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life. He who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him. The book of Proverbs chapter 5 verses 1 through 6. My son, be attentive to my wisdom,

incline your ear to my understanding, that you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. For the lips of a loose woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil. But in the end, she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps follow the path to Sheol. She does not take heed to the path of life. Her ways wander, and she does not take heed to the path of life. Her ways wander, and she does not know it. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. Oh my gosh, Father, thank you so much for revealing your Son to us, revealing your love to the heart.

The Son is, Father, the Son is your heart given to us. We're so grateful. We are so thankful for even these first three chapters of the Gospel of John. Proclaim to us that you, Father in heaven, so loved the world that you gave. You've given your only beloved Son, your only beloved Son, so that we would not have to die, but so that we could have life, so that we could have you, so that we can know that you know us, that we matter to you. My gosh, Lord God, thank you so much. Thank you so, so much. Help us to receive that gift. Father, you gave, you gave, and you keep giving. Help us to receive this gift with everything we are and everything we have.

In the mighty name of the gift and the mighty name of the one who was given, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Golly, man. Okay, you guys, I'm sorry. I need to stop gushing. But just what a massive, massive gift to be able to be into the gospel.

And not only any gospel, but the gospel of John. A couple things we need to highlight. Okay, so this is called the gospel of John. And it's believed to have been written by the apostle John, right? The beloved disciple. Now, he doesn't refer to himself by his name throughout the course of this gospel. In fact, the tradition is that John refers to himself as the beloved disciple. That's going to be more on this later.

That the beloved disciple was there from the very beginning, right? He is one of those who was following John the Baptist. There's some confusion. We have a couple of Johns here. The Gospel of John written by John the Beloved or John the Apostle and John the Baptist. And they're in these scenes right here because the very beginning is not only the prelude, right? In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God.

But also we have John the Baptist baptizing and who's there, but John the beloved. So it can be a little bit confusing, but just that's what we got. There's so much to say. Okay. Father Mike, calm down. Here we go. Number one, from the very beginning, the very, literally the first words of John's gospel, he's establishing Jesus's most deep identity. And that is that he is truly God. The very first verse of the very first chapter in this first gospel that we hear today in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God massively important that John is making. And the word became flesh and dwelt among

us in verse 14. So he's talking about Jesus himself, which is so important that Jesus isn't just another teacher. He's not just another healer or a prophet, that Jesus actually is the word made flesh, God himself. We say it in the creed, we say God from God, light from light, true God from true God. And in John chapter three, we hear that he was given to us, that God himself was given to us by God himself, that the father so loved the world that he gave his only beloved son, his only begotten son, that we might not perish, but might have eternal life. Oh my goodness. Okay.

A couple of things to keep in mind. John the Baptist is being established now as not the Messiah. He's making it very clear that he was there to prepare for the Messiah. He's the last of the prophets leading up to Jesus. He's the last of the Old Testament prophets who point the way to Jesus. And not only does he point to Jesus, but he calls Jesus a very specific thing, which is going to be so important for us tomorrow and the days following. When John the Baptist sees Jesus coming towards him, he says it twice. He says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now we hear that and we might think, you know, as first 21st century Christians, 21st century Westerners, wherever we

live right now, we might think that and think, oh yeah, he's saying that because Jesus is gentle. Jesus is meek. He's humble of heart, quite furry, woolly, but no. When John says, behold, the lamb of God, remember he's saying this to Jews. What is the connection that you and I have gone through when it comes to Exodus, when it comes to Numbers and Leviticus and Deuteronomy, when it comes to the Lamb, a Lamb is what? A Lamb is the sacrifice. A Lamb is what's offered up to the Father in worship. So keep this in mind, that when John says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world about Jesus, he is not pointing out that Jesus is gentle and humble of heart,

although Jesus is gentle and humble of heart. He is saying that's the sacrifice. That is the sacrifice. If you remember this, remember back in Genesis where God tells Abraham, take your only son, your son whom you love, and go to a high place that I'll point out to you. And there offer up your son as a sacrifice. And on the way up, what happens? Isaac asks his father the question. He says, Father, here's the knife, here's the fire, but where's the lamb for the sacrifice? And then Abraham has this prophetic word that echoes to this moment. And he says, God will provide himself a lamb, my son.

God will provide himself a lamb, my son. God will provide himself a lamb, my son. And here is John the Baptist, here in these first chapters of the gospel of John, and he sees Jesus and he says, that's the lamb. This is the lamb. Oh my gosh, this is the lamb of sacrifice. This is the lamb that when, we're going to get this tomorrow, but just prep yourself, prep your heart to be completely blown away tomorrow when we hear the gospel. This is the lamb that just like the Jews in slavery in Egypt, when they ate the flesh

of the lamb and their homes were marked by the blood of the lamb, what were they given? They were given freedom and they were given life. They were given freedom from slavery. They were given freedom and they were given life. They were given freedom from slavery. They were given new life. And just like Jesus even points out, he says, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, the serpent in the desert, and all those who had been bit by the serpents were set free because the sign, the bronze serpent, right? The sign of their slavery, the sign of their sin, the sign of the thing that was killing them became the symbol of their hope. Just like that, Jesus on the cross becomes

the sign, the sign of our sin, the sign of our brokenness. He on the cross is the symbol of our hope. Man, oh man. Okay, so one last thing. I know this is 24 minutes or whatever we are into it right now, but here's the last thing. I was talking with some of our students who've been going through the Bible in a year and they said, we love, this is so good to be able to hear what God is doing in the Old Testament, what he's doing with the Jewish people, and just what a gift that is. But doesn't God love everybody? Like, doesn't God, yes, of course he loves the Jews, absolutely. But didn't he love people who are in different parts of the world as well? Why didn't, why is he just choosing the Jews? And remember, what was God's promise to Abraham? He said, I promise you a dynasty, right? I promise you land. And I promise that

through you, the entire world will be blessed. So what happened was God had to pick, well, he willed to pick one person. Here's Abraham and then his family, which expanded, expanded, expanded. This is why they need to be faithful because what's going to happen is ultimately, yes, everyone whom God has created, he loves. And it's through the Jewish people that God is going to bless the entire world. And now here we are in John's Gospels, chapter one, two, and three. We see the beginning of God saying, yes, this is how I'm going to bless the entire world. Why?

For God so loved the world, not just the Jewish people, although, of course, he has entered into a unique covenant with them. But God has so loved the world that he gave his only beloved, only begotten son, so that all those who believe in him would not have to perish, but have eternal life. See, God, playing the slow game, is loving everybody. And now, in Jesus, what do you have? You have every, in the church, you have every nationality. In the church, you have every language.

In the church, you have every race. In the church, you have every continent. Every people is what? Is invited into the church because God has, through the Jewish people, ultimately through becoming a Jewish person, a Jewish man in Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, he has established his church so that the whole world can know that it is loved.

So every person can know that they are loved and that the whole world will know that God knows their name and he calls them, calls us, calls you, calls me into covenant relationship with him, that we might be saved and might not perish, but might have eternal life. Man, oh man, it's like six man on mans today, but I'm so grateful. You guys, let's keep praying for each other. We have six more days of this, six more days of the gospel of John. Tomorrow is an incredible day as we read John 4, 5, and 6. I cannot wait. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.