In this first chapter of John, I feel like John is laying out his thesis. His argument being that Jesus is not only man but God. Not just a form of God, but the very presence of God. That is why the claim of creator yet not created, flesh yet divine. Something that I also find fascinating about this passage is the way we as believers are described. Our spiritual birth as children of God is described as very similar to the flesh birth of Jesus; “children not born of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
In verse 19 of chapter 1 John begins the defense of his thesis. Remember in the earlier verses that John the Baptist is not the light of the world. Now the Apostle John shows that John the Baptist agreed with that assessment.
A verse that I need to call your attention to is one that could be understood in two separate ways. The traditional one that most of us understand is the derogatory slight given to Nazareth as a town that nothing good could come from. This is supported by scriptural evidence of Jesus being rejected there on more than one occasion, by the citation in John 1:11, and by the lack of miracles performed because of the peoples lack of belief.
The other possibility for this mention of Nazareth not being able to produce good, may lie in the fact that Nazareth is not mentioned in any of the prophecies concerning the coming or teaching of the Messiah, and for that matter was not even in existence during much of the time before Christ, having been believed to be abandon after destruction by the Assyrians. Thus the lack of biblical prophecy concerning the village and the lack of its existence for as much as 700 years before Christ might lead one to believe that nothing of importance (good) could come from Nazareth.
What did you discover about Jesus as you read the first Chapter?
I wanted to throw out a question re: the title of “Son of God” vs. “Son of Man”. Pastor, maybe you were the one from whom I’ve heard tell of the difference. When Jesus is called the Son of God it is used in reference to Him as the entity who resides in Heaven. When Jesus is called the Son of Man, it refers to Jesus during the physical time he spent as a man on earth. Do you think this is accurate?
This is a great question that like many gets a little sticky when we try to come up with a simple answer that divides the two descriptions as they sometimes intersect. What you are recalling tends to be true (except for the part that I had taught it), however Jesus is never called the Son of Man in the Gospels as it is always Jesus who uses the term to describe Himself. The other occurrences in the New Testament are mostly quotes of the Old Testament in referring to a Messiah figure. These are in Revelation. The only other New Testament occurrence is in Acts when Steven talks about seeing the heavens opened and seeing the Son of Man standing in the place of honor.
The only Old Testament use of the term that could be directed toward the Messiah would be from Daniel 7:13, “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.” This is similar to the language in revelation, “one like a son of man”
Another note that might shed some light on this is that Ezekiel is called son of man many times by God as God tells him what to say to the people of Israel, as is Daniel in chapter 8. Is Jesus making sure to help the people connect to this mission of redemption and returning to following God?
To get back to your specific question it might be more accurate to say that Son of Man is used when we are thinking about the mission of Jesus which is an earthly mission with Mankind of redemption and bringing people into relationship with God. However that is even incomplete as Jesus does refer to His divine nature, His heavenly nature, when using Son of Man.
Here are just a few examples:
Mt. 12:8 – “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Mt 13:41 – “The Son of Man will send forth His angels”
Mt 19:28 – “the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne”
So we see it really gets hard to make a blanket statement that Son of Man is only about earthly things and Son of God is only about heavenly or divine things. But the great thing is that when we ask these questions and search for answers we learn so much more about Jesus and the Kingdom.