This morning we’re beginning a study of the first four chapters of the Gospel of John.  Which is a study that we anticipate will take us through the summer and beyond - maybe farther.  God knows.

The big idea of what we’re going to be focused on as we go through these four chapters is why we believe what we believe about Jesus and what difference that makes in our lives.

John wrote his Gospel around 85 AD.  Which means that the gospel had spread around the Roman Empire.  Its been about 20 years since Paul went out on his missionary journeys and was martyred in Rome.  John is writing in Ephesus - western Turkey.  The church has been established there for maybe 50 years.

The mindset of the people that John is writing to is different than when the first Gospels were written.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke were gospel tracts - explanations of the gospel for specific audiences - Hebrews and Greeks and Romans (…oh my).  Explaining the history and message of the Gospel and Jesus’ work on the cross to those who had never heard the message.   

John is writing to people who probably had heard that message but had misunderstandings as to who Jesus is.  They had their own skewed understanding of the gospel.  John is writing to the Empire with all of its philosophers and religions.  With all of how that was influencing Christians - what they believed about Jesus.

We live in a society where people - maybe because of the media or from someplace in their background - most people around us have some fuzzy idea about Jesus.  At least that there was someone named Jesus.  Probably a real person.  They may have some idea of connecting Jesus with a religion.  At least that Jesus is connected with a belief system that some people have.  But they’re probably fuzzy on the specifics - the actual facts and what all that may mean for them.

The Church in America is kind of like that.  Most Christians in America have an idea about Jesus.  What they believe.  But if hard pressed to give an answer for why they believe what they believe - their bottom line answer is going to be based on what seems reasonable to them or is based on what someone else has told them or an understanding of Christianity and God and Jesus based on what is culturally acceptable in the American Church.

Point being that a tremendous number of Christians may have the right answer.  They just don’t know why that answer is true. 

One significant reason for that is that while we Christians in America have an astounding access to the Bible - few Christians have actually read the Bible - Genesis to Revelation.  We’re listening to other people talk about the Bible.  But we’ve punted on actually studying it and meditating on it and letting God personally apply it to our lives.

Meaning that - in ways really similar to John’s day writing to the Empire at large - today in America and the Church in America for the most part our understanding of Who Jesus is - what we believe and why - and the implications of that truth - for the most part that basis is grounded on an influence coming from outside the Bible and THE truth of who Jesus really is.

Can we have a saving relationship with Jesus even if we’re not clear on all the fine points of theology and doctrine?  Sure.  Can we share our faith even if we haven’t taken a seminary course in missions.  Sure.  That’s not John’s point.

John is writing about Jesus.  Who He is.  What it means to know Him personally as the Savior.  Which we need to clearly understand for ourselves.

Why? Because there’s a huge danger to us - our missing out on the opportunities and blessings of God - a danger of our living a life that is way less than the abundant life that God has for us.  A huge danger that instead of influencing the world with the Gospel we will be influenced by the world - maybe even led away from the Gospel and our relationship with Jesus.  Something we see in the ineffective - culture driven - witness of the church in America today.  

John gives us his purpose for writing in 20:31.  In 20:30 John writes that “...Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book”  Meaning that John has been selective.  John has edited - choosing from what Jesus did and taught - organizing specific information around his purpose - which comes in verse 31.

Let’s read this together:  “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”

John has written his account of Jesus’ life to clearly reveal the identity of Jesus that we might respond in belief and live the life that God has created us for and calls us to in Him.

Let’s dive into chapter 1.  Verses 1 to 18 - what we’re looking this morning - John in no uncertain terms declaring to us that Jesus is God in human flesh.

His first point comes in verses 1,2:  Jesus Is THE Eternal God.  Jesus has no beginning and Jesus has no end.  

Let’s read verses 1 and 2:  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.

We need to do a short word study here.  (pun intended)  Its crucial for us to get a handle on just how John has crafted what he’s written here.

“In the beginning” in Greek literally reads “in beginning.”  There’s no “the” in John’s wording.  Meaning we can think back as far we can imagine going back.  In the indefinite expanse of timeless existence before anything began - space - time - matter - before anything began “the Word” was.

“Was” is in the Greek imperfect past tense of the verb “to be.”  Meaning:  It just was.

“Word” in Greek is the word “logos.”  “Logos” in the Greek way of thinking could have a number of meanings - not just a specific spoken word.  The emphasis was on the meaning of the word. 

John is using “logos” to appeal to how the Greek philosophers would have understood that word.  The Greek philosophers - when they heard  “logos” - they used that word to describe the logical order of the natural laws of the universe:  gravity - mathematics - morality - and what was behind the ordering of all that.  To the Greeks the universe would be pure chaos without this impersonal divine mind that they called “logos.”

John - writing to the Empire - is stepping that up a notch - John is declaring that the “logos” existed before the natural order of the universe - before any beginning point in the eternal past the Word was already existing.  The Word had no beginning.  The Word has always existed.

Moses in Psalm 90:1,2 writes:  “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

“Everlasting” in Hebrew can have the idea of hiding something.  If something gets moved farther and farther away from us eventually it gets hidden - it vanishes from our sight.  For those of us that are near sighted that vanishing comes pretty quick.

The image in what Moses writes is that from the vanishing point in the past to the vanishing point in the future - Lord - You have existed.

 
A.W. Tozer in his book “The Knowledge of the Holy” - Tozer explains Moses’ point this way:  “The mind looks backward in time till the dim past vanishes, then turns and looks into the future till thought and imagination collapse from exhaustion; and God is at both points, unaffected by either.  Time marks the beginning of created existence, and because God never began to exist it can have no application to Him.  “Began” is a time-word, and can have no personal meaning for the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity.” (1)

Put simply:  God is His own eternity.

John writes that “the Word was with God.”  In Greek, John uses the  preposition “pros” for “with.”  Meaning that “with” has the idea of a close relationship - “face to face” intimacy.  Which implies personality.  Two persons facing each other in very close proximity.  Nose to nose.  The Word was with God - coexistence together.

Then notice that John further defines that “withness” by saying that the intimacy and familiarity of that coexistence is so close that “the Word was God.”

Meaning that the Word and God share the same nature and essence.  Nature meaning what God does.  How God acts.  And essence meaning Who God is.  Meaning that everything that is true of God is also true of the Word.

Are we grabbing John?  John is choosing his words very carefully.  He’s leaving no room for misunderstanding.  And just in case we’re still a tad fuzzy he drives his point home in verse 2:  “He was in the beginning with God.”  Literally:  “He was in beginning with the God.”

Down in verse 14 we learn that “the Word” is Jesus.  In that eternal existence before time -  Jesus and God were together and they were the same Being.  If that’s a mind blower - it is.  The only One who understands that is God.

Chuck Swindoll commenting on John’s statement writes this:  “While the Father and Son are distinct ‘persons,’ sharing the same nature and attributes, they also share the same essence.  And by ‘essence,’ Father and Son exist as one Supreme Being.” (2)

The Evangelical Free Church’s Statement of Faith - our own congregation’s Statement of Faith declares this:  We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons:  the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (3)  What theologians call The Trinity.

What John is describing in no uncertain terms - what we need to hold on to from all that - as a basis for why we believe what we believe - is the reality that Jesus is - no beginning - no end - Jesus exists.  He has always existed.  He is THE eternal God.

John’s next point comes in verse 3.  Jesus Is The Creator Of All Things.  Let’s read together:  All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.

Everything that exists can be put into one of two categories.  Which are…?   “Created” and “Not Created.”  Created means whatever exists, exists because it was created.  Not Created means whatever wasn’t created.  Pretty straight forward.  Right?

The only thing not created by definition is… God.  Right?  The one God who existed before creation.  Do you see John’s logical progression here - from preexistence to creator.

The reason anything exists is because He - the One not created - He made it to exist.  Jesus Who had no beginning - vanishing point past.  Jesus - God - Jesus was not created.  Jesus - God - made what was made.

Are we together with John?  Why is that important?

In John’s day and every day since then - even today - there are many people who will claim that Jesus was a created being.  A human baby born in Bethlehem.  Maybe a spiritual being who took on human flesh.  Maybe an enlightened teacher or a human that achieved some kind of divinity.

That there was a time when Jesus was not.  Some claim that Jesus was the first created being.  That the Father brought the Son into existence.  Then Jesus created everything else.

People today will acknowledge that Jesus was an amazingly unique person in history.  But even people claiming to be Christian will stop at the full divinity of Jesus.  Jesus is not coequal - not coeternal - not coexistent with the Father in eternity past.  Jesus is not THE God.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons modify what John writes here to fit their own theology.  The JW New World Translation says that the word was “a god.”  Meaning created by the God.

Joseph Smith modified what John wrote in such a way that he has Jesus creating Himself before Jesus existed.  Which is a little strange.  But it fits to Mormon doctrine that teaches that Jesus is a creation of God like us.

John is very clear - before anything existed Jesus - who is THE Creator - existed and He Jesus created everything that was made - even us.

John goes on.  Verses 4 to 13:  Jesus Is The Source Of Life And Light.  

Let’s read verses 4 to 8:  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 as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.  He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

John uses two images to describe Jesus.  Life and... light.  We need to be clear on how John is using those two images.

Light is something that happens when we go into a dark room and flip on the light switch.  Light can also be a symbol of enlightenment - gaining truth or wisdom - understanding.  The light bulb coming on in our brain.  When John writes of light He’s using the visual image of light in God’s creation to show us a spiritual truth about Jesus.

In Genesis 1:1 we’re told that God the Creator creates the heavens and the earth.  The earth is without form and its empty.  There’s darkness over the face to the deep.  But, God is there.  Then God speaks and creates light and separates light from darkness.  Day and Night - evening and morning.  Day one.  We’re together?

Then God goes on to start forming the earth and creating living things - plants and trees.  Then - day four God creates stars - the sun - the moon.  Day five - God creates life in the water and birds in the air.  Day six - God creates critters and creatures and man.  (…oh my)  We’re together?

If God creates the stars and sun and moon on day four - where did the light come from on day one?  The same place it comes from in Revelation 21 where John is given a vision of the New Jerusalem:  “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”  (Revelation 21:23; 22:5).

Before God creates light - God has filled all of creation with the light of His presence.  Every atom - every subatomic particle - everything that’s a created thing - is filled with the truth of Who He is so that everything in His creation would testify of Him - Who He is.

Psalm 19:1:  “The heavens declare the glory of... God”

Creation is all about... God.  Who He is.  He - God - illuminates His creation.

And God creates life - us.  Breathes into Adam life.  Creates each of us with life.  How many of you alive this morning?  Some are not sure. 

Then first Adam - then each one of us - have individually and personally confirmed Adam’s choice to sin.  Which is true of all of humanity.  We’re fallen.  We’ve rejected God and the life that He’s given us.  In a very real sense we’ve become the living dead. 

John is saying:  “In the beginning, God the Son created creation - made all that’s been made.  God the Son created humanity.  God the Son fills us with life.  God the Son came to earth as a human to bring life again to humanity which is spiritually dead because of sin.”

The light - the glory of God - the truth of Who God is - God Himself has come to us - in the darkness of our own depravity to restore us to the truth of life in Him.

Then John writes that “the darkness has not overcome the light.”  “Overcome” is a Greek word that can mean “to seize” or “to attack” or “to overpower”  Or it can mean “to comprehend” - “to understand.”  Probably John means both.

Jesus has come into the darkness of where we live our lives.  Even if, we don’t get it - comprehend it - understand it - resist it - reject it.  Even if - to the mind darkened by sin - the truth of God is pure nonsense.  Jesus coming to us - His creation - His work in His creation cannot be stopped - overcome.

John the Baptist - verse 6 - John the Baptist who Jesus called the greatest of all the prophets.  Imagine:  John the Baptist is greater than Moses and Samuel and Elijah and Elisha and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and on and on.  Even John the Baptist - greatest of all the prophets - was no match for the darkness.  He testified and was martyred.  (Matthew 11:9-13; 14:1-12)

But Jesus will not be overcome.  He’s our only hope.  He’s the only source of the life and the light that we desperately need in the darkness of our lives because He is more than just a created man.  He is the eternal creator God.

Verse 9:  The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him.  He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.  But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right 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.  

Every one of us - hopefully - lives in a house or an apartment that’s connected to the electric grid.  Even if we’ve got solar - we’re still plugged in.  That connection provides all the energy necessary so that we have at our disposal what we need to illuminate every dark corner of our homes.

We know the grid is there.  All that’s offered to us by that grid is available.  Its there offered to us.  But as people living where we live we can choose to not flip the switch.  We can choose to live in the dark.  The light is available.  But its not compulsory.  No one is going to force us to flip the switch.

The Source of life and light has come and everyone of us has a choice to make - how we will respond.

Jesus - on the night of His betrayal and arrest - Jesus told His disciples:  “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.  Whoever hates Me hates My Father also.  If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father.”  (John 15:22-24)

Now that Jesus has come no one can claim ignorance.  To believe or not to believe is not a question of intellect - what we know or don’t know.  It’s a choice of the will.  When we choose to remain in darkness we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Many people choose to close the drapes and live in the dark.  The Jews made that choice.  Jesus’ own people did not receive Him.  Clearly rejected Him.

John writes that others have chosen to flip the switch of faith.  To receive Jesus is to believe in His name - Who He is and His saving work on our behalf.

John writes that - when we choose to believe in Jesus - God gives to us life as His child.  God gives to us not a physical birth of the flesh - 9 months of pregnancy and a delivery - or a birth because of something we will to happen - our own efforts a spirituality and righteousness.  But a spiritual rebirth that comes only because He - God - wills it to be so. 

When we receive Jesus by believing - by faith - God wills to give us the right to be His children.  We become heirs of His eternal promises - forgiven - restored in our relationship before Him - for now and forever.

Are we clear on John giving us reasons and an invitation to plug in.  Why we believe what we believe and what difference that will make in our lives if we choose to receive what God wills for us in Jesus.  The choice we need to make.  Jesus is the source of life and light that we desperately need in the death and darkness of our lives.

Let’s go on.  Verses 14 to 18 - Jesus Is God Incarnate.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.’”)  And from His fullness we have 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 God, Who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known. 

And the Word - God the eternal Creator - Jesus - became “flesh.”  Jesus chooses to set aside His prerogative to use His divine attributes and takes on what it means to be human.  God incarnate - in carne - carne asada - chili con carne - God in the flesh of humanity.

Which is a mind blower.  Yes?

One way that theologians describe that is that Jesus is fully God and fully man.  Everything that God is - Jesus is.  Everything that man is - Jesus is.  Minus the sin part.  That doesn’t mean that Jesus has a split personality or that He’s bipolar or something.  He is both fully God and fully man.

Back in John’s day - John writing to the Empire - they had trouble with that because one of the prevailing beliefs of the time - something that Plato had pushed - was that anything that we could see was inherently evil.

The great hope of humanity was to escape what was this evil - foul - physical reality in order to move closer to what they saw as the divine - the purity of existence that all this physical evil was farther and farther removed from.

In other words - our bodies are evil.  We need to deny the physical in order to get reconnected with their idea of god.  Death is liberation from all this crud - the prison of the evil physical flesh.

So, God becoming a man - taking on human flesh - was just weird - inconceivable.  They came up with ideas like Jesus only seeming to be tangible but in fact He was just a kind of divine apparition.  He only seemed to do things like eating and drinking.

Point being that in John’s day they had a problem with Jesus’ humanity.  In our day we seem to have a problem with Jesus’ divinity.

But John declares the truth - whether we understand it or not isn’t the issue.  Jesus is fully God and fully man.  When we see Jesus we see the Father.  Jesus reveals the Father to us in the material world in which we live.

John the Baptist testified of that truth.  John the Baptist said - verse 15:  “He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.” 

Which is confusing because John was born before Jesus.  John precedes Jesus in ministry.  But not confusing when we realize that the timing of the incarnation - the births of John and Jesus - are not random events but purposeful acts of God designed to introduce the Son and make known the Father.

John was conceived to testify of Jesus.  Even in the womb - when Mary visited Elizabeth - John moved.  John testified of Jesus.  John’s ministry at the Jordan River was about preparing people and pointing people to Jesus.  Even in death John was testifying of Jesus.  And when we see Jesus - we see… the Father - God.

John writes that in Jesus - verse 14 - we saw the glory - the testimony - of God.  In Jesus we received - verse 16 - God’s fullness.  Because - verse 18 - Jesus has made Him known.

If we were to ask John the Baptist, “What color were Jesus’ eyes?  What did His voice sound like?  What was His favorite food?  Was He really that good as a carpenter?”  John would have known.

Meaning that God did not remain some abstract - out there - unknowable Being.  God had revealed Himself through Moses - dreams and visions and burning bushes and mountain tops getting blasted - pillars of fire and clouds - and angels coming as messengers.  But in Jesus - God at the time of God’s choosing - God steps into the flesh and blood of bone and sinew of humanity - able to be touched and heard and even crucified. 

Are we seeing John move from the eternal Word to the incarnate personal Jesus dwelling among us?  Why we believe what we believe and what that means for our lives?  If people we share with struggle to know God and what He’s like - if we have trouble understanding God - all we need to know about Him and what it means to know Him and have a saving relationship with Him - all we need to know is found in Jesus.

What John writes prompts a number of questions that we could be asking ourselves.  Let me suggest just (briefly) two as something for us be thinking about as we head out of here.

Question number one:  How well do you know Jesus?  What Scripture reveals about Him.  Not just what we hear about Him from others.

There are a tremendous number of opportunities for us in life - that we can engage ourselves in - and pursue - and devote ourselves to.  Sports - politics - career - medicine - literature - media - family - and so on.  For the most they’re not bad things.  Some of them may even draw us closer to God - science - literature - art.

But - in what John writes is this truth - that the only key that opens the door to understanding life is Jesus.  Jesus is THE Word that orders all of creation - that brings together what life is all about - that declares to us what it means to be known by God and to know Him.

So, how are you doing at pursuing Jesus?  Knowing Him more intimately?  Being devoted to Him?  Loving Him with the totality of who you are?

Let me suggest - as I’m wrestling with this question for myself - that I do not love Jesus.  Not as I should.  I do not know Him as I should.  And, in fact, I struggle to even pursue Him as I should.

Maybe there comes a point when we need to not blow by a passage like John 1 - been there done that - and with humility thank God for His coming to us - for His choosing to know us and to allow us to know Him - and to ask Him to cause us to pursue Him - to pursue Him in His Bible - to pursue Him with the total devotion of our lives.

Second question:  How well do those around you know Jesus?  What will we do this week to testify of Him?  To encourage others to know Him more deeply?  

_________________________

1. A.W.Tozer, “The Knowledge of The Holy,” Harper & Row, 1961. page 45

2. Charles R. Swindoll, “Insights On John:  Swindoll’s New Testament Insights,”  Zondervan, 2010, page 26

3. EFCA Statement of Faith, Article 1

General Reference for this series:  Charles R. Swindoll, “Insights On John:  Swindoll’s New Testament Insights,”  Zondervan, 2010

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®  (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.