In Jesus Christ’s day, “most of the masses were careless listeners (much like today) for they were willing to listen to hearsay rather than check out the facts for themselves,” writes R. Dawson Barlow in his 2005 book The Apostasy of the Christian Church.

“Many were willing to quickly dismiss the claims of Christ because hearsay said that Christ was born in Galilee,” Barlow continues. “Here were men who had heard our Lord in the flesh and were disclaiming his authority because, according to the ‘grapevine,’ he was not born in Bethlehem, the city of David; according to the Old Testament prophecies which foretold (centuries earlier) that when the Messiah came, he was to be born in Bethlehem.

“The historical fact is he was born in Bethlehem! That was a matter of legal record and could easily be checked out. Herod was an antagonistic unbeliever, yet he believed the integrity of the Scripture enough to find out where the Messiah would be born by having some under his authority search back to (Micah 5:2).”

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Micah 5:2 reports, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

“If you stepped out of eternity past, folks, you know who you had to be?” says Jordan. “If you come from everlasting—if you come from eternity—can anyone else claim that?!

“We talk about man having an eternal soul in the sense that it goes on forever, but not in the sense that it goes back forever into the past. There was a point in time in which you and I didn’t exist.

“This pagan idea that before you were born you were up there in heaven and, you know, God was just waiting for your mom and dad to decide to have you and they wrapped up the stork and sent him down to earth with you in the diaper—that’s just hallucination.

“There’s a moment in time when you were conceived and you began to exist prior to which you didn’t exist. That’s not so with the Lord Jesus Christ. Not so with this one that’s born in Bethlehem, come to be ruler. You see they expected Him to be God Himself in human form.

When God says in Zechariah 13:6, “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow,” He’s referring to Jesus Christ and the word fellow means someone who’s another person’s equal.

“Think about that, God Jehovah talks about ‘the man who is my equal,’ ” says Jordan. “Well, who would be God’s equal? He’s a man. He’s the Messiah. He’s the shepherd of Israel.”

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In Matthew, Mark and Luke you learn what Christ was—you hear what He said in Matthew, you see what He did in Mark, you see how He felt in Luke. But when you come to John, you shift from looking at what He was to inspecting who He is.

“When John looks at Him, he’s saying, ‘Here He is, that one that the prophets proclaimed was coming—the Messiah, the one to be born in Bethlehem, the one to be the servant of the Lord, the one who was going to be Jehovah.’

“Sometimes we get the idea that John doesn’t present Christ as Israel’s Messiah, but he does. In fact, John uses the term Christ 21 times. Matthew only uses it 15 times.

“John calls him ‘the king’ 15 times. Matthew only calls him king 12 times. John uses the term Messiah twice and it’s not even found once in the Book of Matthew. For Matthew, He’s the king; for John, He’s Emmanuel—He’s God with us.”

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John also presents Christ as the servant. Jordan says, “Probably one of the most touching examples of service in all of the Bible comes in the Upper Room the night before our Lord dies when He has just His apostles with Him.”

As John 13 reports, “And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;
[3] Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;
[4] He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.
[5] After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
[6] Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
[7] Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.
[8] Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.”

Jordan explains, “Simon Peter says, ‘Lord, I don’t want you to do that,’ and Christ gives to His disciples probably what is one of the most clear, touching, startling, demonstrations of what true servanthood is in all of the Word of God.

“John doesn’t miss His humanity. He calls him Jesus of Nazareth. He identifies Him over and over as that ‘Son of man’; the great title in Luke.

“By the way, that term ‘Son of man’—in Daniel 7:13 that’s the title whereby the Lord Jesus Christ goes to ‘the ancient of days’ and gets the title deed for the kingdom.

“That’s a messianic title. That’s the title of Messiah and John says that Son of man is also the Son of God. He’s not just magnificent manhood; He’s demonstrated deity.”