Chapter 5: Jesus the Word

We use words to express thought, to let others know our feelings, desires, and will. People know us and understand us by what we say. Our words express our character.

Jesus is called the Word. God reveals Himself to us through Jesus. Jesus not only gave us God’s message in His teachings, He is God’s message to us.

God is spirit. We can’t see Him, hear Him, or feel Him with our natural senses. How, then, can we know Him? How can weak, sinful man understand the all-powerful, perfect, invisible God?  How can God show Himself to us? Jesus is the answer. Jesus reveals God to us through a human personality. What is God like?
We can know by looking at Jesus His Son.

John 14:9. Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

John 1:18. No one has ever seen God. The only One, who is the same as God and is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Colossians 1:15. Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God.

God has spoken to people in many ways, but the clearest revelation of His character is in His Son –– God’s living Word. God speaks to us today as we read about Jesus. Jesus life, work, and teachings all express God in terms of man’s experience, in language we can understand.

Hebrews 1:1,3. In the past God spoke to our ancestors many times and in many ways through the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son . . . He is the exact likeness of God’s own being.

John 1:1,14. Before the world was created, the Word already existed; he was with God, and he was the same as God. The Word became a human being and lived among us. We saw his glory, full of grace and truth.

Jesus not only taught people about God; He demonstrated God’s character. He spoke of God’s holiness, goodness, wisdom, justice, mercy, power and love. Men saw these qualities in Him. He proclaimed the highest moral standard the world has ever known and He lived by it. The wisdom of His teachings still amazes the world. He was God’s love in action as He ministered to human needs and gave
His life for others.

On the cross where Jesus died for our sins we see the clearest expression of God’s justice and love. God’s justice demanded the death penalty for sin. God’s love for sinners made Him suffer death in the sinners place. His love made Him pray for forgiveness for those who were crucifying Him. What love! What a wonderful God we have!

Jesus expressed God’s feelings, thoughts, and plans in His teachings and His person. Jesus was a great Teacher but He said:

John 8:28. I do nothing on my own, but say only what the Father has taught me.

John 15:15. I have told you everything I heard from my Father.

We can depend, then, on Jesus teachings in the gospels as a true revelation of God and His truth. We see God as all-wise, loving Father in heaven who cares tenderly for His children. He hates sin and hypocrisy but He loves the sinner. He tells us how to be saved and gives us the rules for a happy life. He longs for His wandering children to leave their sins and come back home to Him. He lets us know about the wonderful life He has planned for us in His eternal kingdom. We have these truths in God’s written Word.

Jesus, the living Word, revealed God’s feelings. In Him, God wept over the grief of His friends, the suffering of humanity, and the blind unbelief of a city that rejected Him and was rushing to destruction. God’s anger blazed against pretense, sham, and the commercialization of religion. God’s pity was stirred as He saw people lost in sin like sheep without a shepherd. God let people know He wanted them to be happy and free from sickness, sin, guilt, and fears.

Jesus showed us what God wants and God’s power to carry out His purpose. Jesus’ life of obedience to God and fellowship with Him shows us the kind of life God wants us to have. Jesus’ miracles are all demonstrations of God’s power and His desire to help people, whatever their need is. Jesus said that He came to do His Father’s will, and that He did the works of His Father. This proves that God wants to heal us, forgive us, and meet all our needs today.

John 5:36. The works my Father gave me to do, these speak on my behalf and show that the Father has sent me.

1 Corinthians 1:24. This message is Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

We find many names for God in the Bible. Jesus the Word helps us understand them because He is the true expression of God.

When God called Moses to lead His people, Moses asked His name. God answered: “I Am that I Am.” He told Moses to tell the people that I Am had sent him. This name tells us that God is eternal, changeless, always present. There is no deceit in Him. He is what He is and does what He purposes to do. We can depend on Him.

But what is it that God is? What will He do? Jesus answers these questions in His sermons recorded in the Gospel of John. Eight times He applies God’s name. I Am, to Himself. Once He used it to describe His own eternal nature, telling us that He existed before Abraham. The other times, Jesus used this name of God to explain God’s character and His own –– to show what God does for those who come to Him. The great I Am will meet all of our needs.

1. I am the bread of life. John 6:35.
2. I am the light of the world. John 8:12.
3. Before Abraham was born, I am. John 8:58.
4. I am the door. John 10:9.
5. I am the good shepherd. John 10:11.
6. I am the resurrection and the life. John 11:25.
7. I am the way, I am the truth. I am the life. John 14:6.
8. I am the real vine. John 15:1.

Jehovah means the Eternal or Self-existent One. It is linked with other words to form several compound names. These are all based on personal revelations of God and tell who He is and what He does for people. Jesus –– the Word who reveals God to us –– demonstrates the truth of these names of God.

1. Jehovah-jireh –– the Lord will provide.

Genesis 22:8. And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.

1 Peter 1:19,20. You were set free by the costly sacrifice of Christ, who was like a lamb without defect or spot. He had been chosen by God before the creation of the world.

Jesus is the lamb God has provided to take our guilt and die in our place.

2. Jehovah–rapheka –– the Lord Our Healer

Exodus 15:26. I am the Lord that healeth thee.

Matthew 8:16. Jesus drove out the evil spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.

Jesus, the Great Physician, heals the body, mind, heart, and broken spirit.

3. Jehovah–shalom –– the Lord Our Peace

Judges 6:24. Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it
Jehovah–shalom.

John 14:23,27. Jesus answered . . . .Peace I leave with you; my own peace I give you.

Jesus gives us inner peace that doesn’t depend on circumstances –– peace with God, peace with ourselves, and peace with other.

4. Jehovah–rohi –– the Lord my Shepherd.

Psalm 23:1. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

John 10:7,11. Jesus said . . . I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd is willing to die for the sheep.

Jesus –– the Good Shepherd –– died to save us and lives now to take care of all who follow Him.

5. Jehovah–tsidkenu –– the Lord Our Righteousness
Jeremiah 23:6. And this is his name whereby he shall be called. THE LORD
OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

2 Corinthians 5:21. Christ was without sin, but God made him share our sin in order that we, in union with him, might share the righteousness of God.
There is only one way to have a clean heart and life. We can have the right kind of life and right relationship with God only by union with Jesus. He is our righteousness.

6. Jehovah–shammah –– the Lord is present.

Ezekiel 48:35. The Lord is there.

Matthew 1:22. He will be called Emmanuel (which means, God is with us).

Jesus has promised to be with us always. He is always near to help us.

7. Jehovah-nissi –– the Lord our Banner

Exodus 17:15. And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah–nissi.

John 16:33. The world will make you suffer. But be brave! I have defeated the world!

This title means that Jesus is our Leader, our Victory, and Strength. With Him we can be strong and victorious in the daily battle of life.

What do these names mean to you? They mean that if you have Jesus as your Savior, the Lord will provide for you. The Lord will heal you. The Lord will be your Peace. The Lord will be your Righteousness, present with you, and your Victory. All this Jesus will be to you, if you submit your life to Him, confessing your sins and accepting Him into your life.