Introduction
I. One of the things that a good writer or speaker will do at the opening of his work is attempt to capture your mind.
A. Now you may not agree with this assessment, and that is OK, but someone once told me,
1. “Pastor. The best part of your message is your introduction.”
2. At first I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not, but this person then said, “Your introduction makes me want to listen and hear what you are going to talk about.”
B. Now that was a compliment; I think.
II. Quite often, the attempt to capture you mind will come in the form of a tease,
A. Not quite giving you all the information, or even immediately giving you the main point that he or she will make.
B. If you can capture the attention of your listener; if you can you make them want to know more, before you even give the best part, half the battle of communicating is accomplished.
III. Some critics of the gospel of John make a case that a man as simple and uneducated as John could not possibly have written this work, because it is much to a refined work.
A. I believe those critics have probably under estimated the power of the Holy Spirit to move in human life and experience,
B. But it is certainly true that John opens his gospel in a rather refined and exciting way.
IV. In the first few verses of this gospel, John has made an interesting attempt to capture our minds and make us say, “Who is this man writing about?”
V. In the first 16 verses, before he writes the name Jesus Christ, John makes these statements about someone that I would definitely want to know more about.
A. Verse 1 - This man is the word of God.
B. Verse 2 - He was eternally with God.
C. Verse 3 - He was the creator of all
D. Verse 4 - The light and life of man.
E. Verse 5 - Unfathomable.
F. Verse 6-8 - Worthy dying for, for all knew that John had died.
G. Verse 11 - He was rejected by men
H. Verses 12 and 13 - He was a transformer of the beloved of God
I. Verse 14 - He was a revealor of God.
J. Verse 15 - He was a humbler of men, even greatly admired men.
K. Verse 16 - He brought forth “grace upon grace” from God.
VI. And who was John writing about; he was writing about Jesus Christ.
A. We know this to be true, BUT
B. If we didn’t know, his opening would certainly make me want to know.
VII. While some critics argue about why John could not have written this gospel, others argue as to the purpose of the writing.
A. Yes, the Gospel of John points to the deity of Christ, but why?
B. I believe one answer for why John may have written this letter is also found in the first few verses.
VIII. John begins by speaking of the “Words” relation to God, but in the first few sentences there is a rather interesting transition, followed by an immediate return to speaking of Christ.
A. It is almost as if verses 6 to 8 were some kind of parenthesis; but why?
B. I believe at least one reason John wrote this letter is to refute man’s following of anyone except the savior, Jesus Christ.
IX. “Life Worth Living” is not found in following a man, but rather life which is truly worth living, and even dying for is found in faith in Jesus Christ.
A. We know that John the Baptist had a group of committed followers,
B. There is some indication that John the Baptist may have even had a group of what might be called “worshipers.”
X. John the Apostle seems to be saying in part,
A. John the Baptist was not God,
B. As great as he was; as special as he was; John the Baptist was simply a man, a man sent by God to be sure, sent as a witness for Jesus Christ,
C. But still, just a man.
XI. Before we really begin to look at the Gospel of John, I would like to introduce you to the Gospel of John, through the voice of a modern day poet. Life Worth Living Is Found in Christ, Because Christ Is The Beginning of Life (vs. 1-3)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
I. Verse one begins with “In the beginning.”
A. The words “in the beginning” are there for our understanding.
B. God has existed, eternally.
1. God has no beginning,
2. God has no end,
C. Thus, the Word, being God, has no beginning or end.
II. I happen to subscribe to what is called the “New Earth Theory.”
A. In essence, I believe that God created the universe, some 10,000 years ago.
B. That means that in part, creation was created exhibiting age,
1. Adam and Eve were not birthed as infants, but God created them as adults, and they then had infants.
2. Vegetation, in part was not created from sea, but rather spoken into existence by God, with age already in place.
3. And so on and so forth.
C. I believe this in part based on training, and in part based on what I believe scripture reveals about God.
III. Obviously, not everyone agrees with the new earth theory, not even every believer.
A. Some believe the beginning to be perhaps millions of years ago.
B. Some believe the beginning may have been several millions, perhaps 100’s of millions of years ago.
IV. For John’s purposes, it really does not matter what you assume the beginning to be.
A. Whether 10,000 years, or 10 billion years,
B. Life worth living is found in the Word of God, because at the beginning God called life into being.
V. How much meaning does that give to life?
A. Consider, the Word of God, God himself, is the author of all life.
B. What importance does the fact that God called me into being does that give to my life.
VI. We on many occasions hear stories of how an adopted child will expend great sums of money, and vast amounts of time and energy into the process of finding their birth parent or parents.
A. Why?
1. Because they want to ask “Why” or “How” could you abandon me; sometimes.
2. Because they think they will find a better life with the birth parent than with who raised them; perhaps occasionally.
B. But more often because they want to feel connected to what they may consider the author of their existence.
VII. In the beginning was God, and life is found in God.
VIII. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
A. Words are powerful things,
1. I was speaking with someone just a few days ago, and commented on my growing lack of hair.
2. Their response was something along the lines of, “If you weren’t so fat, you’d have more hair.”
a. Now I know that is not true,
b. And I know the person who said it was well intentioned, I want to believe,
c. But the words hurt just the same,
3. By the same token, when someone comments “Have you lost weight” or “You look like those workouts are making a difference” I feel almost elated.
B. Words are extremely powerful, but Johns use of “Word” goes even beyond that power.
IX. “In the beginning was the word... and the word was God.”
A. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus first used the word “Logos” around 600 BC.
B. For Heraclitus and for John “logos” speaks of a “divine reason or plan”
X. “In the beginning” as we would understand beginning was the divine reason and/or plan of God Himself.
A. Life worth living in found in Jesus Christ, why
B. Because Jesus Christ, who in fact is God, is the very reason and plan of God.
XI. It is in Christ that we find real life, and it is in Christ that we find even a meaning for life.
A. As much as I love my family, if what I experience in life, apart from Christ is all there is, then there is not really much reason for life.
B. John’s initial statement is, “Life is worth living, because only Christ gives meaning and purpose to life.”
Life Worth Living is Found Only In Christ, For Christ Gives Abundant Life (vs. 4-5)
4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
I. I was listening to some news show the day after President Bush’s State of the Union address this week.
A. The commentator was asking his interviewee if he thought there might be some significance to the amount of time spent, and the number of times President Bush used the word “Iraq.”
B. They made a decision that most certainly that was significant, because anytime a word or thought is repeated, it is always significant.
II. The word “life” in one form or another is found in John’s gospel some 45 times.
A. We can assume then that life, and more specifically, life found in Christ is a significant fact.
B. When we hear the word “life” we most often think of physical life; but John is not really speaking about just a physical existence in this world when he speaks of life.
C. But he is also not simply speaking of spiritual life either.
III. The Greek word translated as life is “zoe”
A. My dictionary gives these definitions for zoe.
1. life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ,
2. but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last for ever.
IV. Most people I know really do not want to simply exist.
A. How many people are really content to simply “get by.”
1. Most people are striving to get a better life.
2. Most people want more,
B. I’m no physiologists or doctor, but I believe that most things like depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, and maybe even some physical illness is a direct result of a dissatisfaction with their current place in life.
C. But most people live in the dark as to what real life is or can be.
V. So what if I suddenly found myself with the answer to a quality of life?
A. Wouldn’t people climb over themselves to get that secret from me?
B. Wouldn’t most people make whatever sacrifice was required to acquire the answer to life.
VI. John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and that Word brought zoe, a true quality of life to man”
A. And yet rather than clamor for life,
B. Man clung to the darkness, that which only pretends to be life.
VII. But that word “comprehend” in the NAS and King James, and “understand” in the NIV better means “overcome” or “overpower”
A. The word brings light and life to man,
B. Yet the darkness influenced man to reject that life,
C. Yet ultimately, that same darkness will not overpower Christ.
VIII. I recently was doing some research around the percentage of people that regularly attend religious services in Bucks County.
A. Now I know that simply attending church does not mean a person truly possesses zoe.
B. But I have become increasingly frustrated with the body of Christ simply exchanging members, and then getting excited because their particular church is growing.
IX. I forget where I got this number, but this is what I found,
A. According to my source, only 20% of Bucks Countians attend a worship service on a regular basis.
1. 20%
2. And that includes non-biblical churches.
B. I don’t know what that number 20% represents, but I do know that if only 20% are attending church, then most evangelical church growth occurs not because of evangelism, but because somebody got mad at their church and decided to go someplace else, and that should not be acceptable to any believer.
C. I also know that there is a lot of darkness out there that needs to be exposed to the light of Jesus Christ.
X. And according to John; the darkness of Satan cannot overcome the lightness of Christ.
XI. Life worth living is found in Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ has the light of life for man.
Life Worth Living Is Found In Pointing Them To Christ
6 There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came for a witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light.
I. Consider,
A. In the beginning was the Word, ...The Word was and brought light and life to men,...and yet men rejected God in the flesh.
B. How could that be
1. We as Christian’s do not understand how anyone could miss it, and yet,
2. We, as Christian’s regularly miss those parts of the light and life that we do not want to accept ourselves.
C. TRUE.
II. But God had a plan,
A. Considering that the darkness missed the Light in the first place, it seems like a rather strange plan to me.
B. But here is the plan in a nutshell,
1. “They didn’t see the light of the Creator, even as the Creator walked among them, so I am going to send forth one of the created to carry forth the message of salvation.”
III. Who was John the Baptist?
A. He was a man sent forth to carry the message of the light into the darkness.
B. And who are we?
1. As those that have come to faith in Jesus Christ, we are no different than John the Baptist.
2. By accepting the message of salvation, we have willingly entered into and increased the number of those that have been “sent from God.”
IV. And how can I live a life worth living?
A. I can pray for those in the darkness
B. I can regularly talk with those in the darkness
C. I can become a blessing to those lost in the darkness
D. I can be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit to be a witness of Light to the darkness
E. I can invite those in the darkness to experience life in the light.
V. I can “Win One by One.”
