Each of the Gospel writers chooses a different starting point from which they begin their account of Jesus’ life. John reaches beyond the boundaries of time and into eternity before the world ever existed. John starts his Gospel much like Moses started the book of Genesis, “in the beginning.” Wait a minute, in the beginning what? Isn’t that the logical question? Well as John pulls back the curtain on the drama of the ages two figures are already at center stage. God and the Word are there. However, it is difficult to tell if these are two individuals or just one. The Word is with God, standing with Him, but the Word is also God. How can that be? I am so confused. Look real close and you will see that they are not identical but they are still one. Who is John introducing us to? Who is this Word that is with God? John is introducing us to Jesus, who really is higher than the heavens and older than the universe. The portrait of Jesus that John paints in this text will literally knock your socks off but it is essential for us to see if we are going to really get to know Jesus.
I. Jesus is God.
A. Have you ever truly thought about the idea of a human being embodying God?
1. These words have very huge implications. The creator actually became a part of the creation.
2. Jesus was not simply an illusion; His body was flesh and blood allowing His disciples to have a personal experience with Him.
3. Jesus revealed to mankind not only the mind of God but His holiness and love.
4. John is making quite a claim for a Jew; in fact the majority of Jews would consider this blasphemy to give mere man equality with God.
5. John holds fast to the idea that the Creator lived among His creation as the man Jesus.
B. John leaves no doubt that Jesus is the Word of God.
1. The Greek word logos which is translated word is very rich in meaning.
a. This is a philosophical term that was used in Jewish, Greek and Roman intellectual circles.
b. The general meaning of the term is spoken word but the focus of the term is on the meaning being conveyed not just the sound.
c. To the Greek mind the logos is what lies behind the universe and maintains its order.
d. In the Jewish mind creation took place through God speaking.
2. So John is right on target with his audience because to both the Jew and Greek logos conveyed the idea of beginnings.
3. John moves on to show that the Word was with God in the beginning. The Greek word for with (pros) means more than just being in the same location. In this context it is used to indicate a personal relationship.
4. This logic is easy to follow until John states that the Word was not only with God but was God.
5. Jesus alludes to this fact. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58—NIV)
6. So Jesus is literally the will, purpose and power of God revealed in human form.
7. One has to stand amazed at the fact that John who was a simple Galilean fisherman was able to express such a deep theological concept so eloquently.
II. Jesus is not only God but the Creator.
A. Throughout the New Testament Jesus is presented as the agent of creation.
1. The Word is revealed to be divine by being identified as the agent of creation. No one else could make a universe but God.
2. Paul’s shares the same sentiment that Jesus was the power that was sent forth from God to bring the universe into existence.
3. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. (Colossians 1:15-16—NIV)
4. John makes sure that his readers understand that absolutely everything that was created came into existence by this Word.
B. John makes things interesting when he shows that with the Word comes life.
1. The Genesis account of Creation makes it clear that God is the creator and source of all life. This is exactly what Jesus brings according to John.
2. When John says that Jesus brings life the Greek word is zoe. Why did John choose this word?
a. He could have used bios which refers to biological life.
b. He could have used psuche which refers to the presences of a living soul.
c. John shows that Jesus brings life on a deeper level which he will refer to as eternal life throughout his book.
3. The life that Jesus brings is the type that originates in the deepest regions of our being and expresses itself in our passion, purpose and vision. So in reality zoe is the reason for living.
4. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10—NIV)
5. Beauford Bryant in his commentary on John writes, That Jesus was the life of human beings meant that he was and is the basic energy that makes possible the entire world, not only the existence and activity of human individuals.
C. Not only is the Word the source of life it is the light of men.
1. When John speaks of light, he is speaking of moral insight or spiritual vision. Perhaps it might be more simply stated as understanding.
2. The light that Jesus brought revealed divine truth and exposed the sin that existed within the hearts of men.
3. As the Creator Jesus not only provides people with light, He makes them aware of its existence.
4. So John in showing that Jesus is the source of light and life he reveals that central truth of the Gospel message. Jesus is the Son of God who brings salvation to the world.
III. The Creator had compassion on this ball of dirt known as earth.
A. God loved His rebellious creation and desired to have the broken relationship restored.
1. As if everything that John has written was not confusing enough, he expresses the great lengths that God went to in order to express His love to His creation.
2. Jesus became like us, He spoke in a language that we could understand; He spoke to us with the language of love.
3. John highlights God’s love in chapter 3. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17—NIV)
4. Why would God send His own son to a world that consistently turned their back on Him time and time again?
B. The greatest tragedy in Scripture is the fact that when the Creator came to His creation, the creation did not recognize Him.
1. The creation had been blinded by sin and could not recognize its Creator failing to give Him the general acknowledgement that was due Him.
2. Blaise Pascal wrote, “Man does not recognize the place he should fill. He has obviously gone astray. He has fallen from the true status, and he cannot find it again. So he searches everywhere anxiously but in vain, in the midst of great darkness.”
3. The Jews who were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Messiah surprisingly rejected the very one for whom they were waiting.
4. Although many rejected Him, there are so many who received Him and found new life in Him.
C. John provides great hope that in His visit God has provided us with the opportunity to become His children.
1. God through Jesus has given us the right to become His children. This arrangement is not of our doing, it was God who worked to make this a reality.
2. Through Jesus Christ God has made it possible for us to participate in the new birth.
3. When we receive Jesus Christ through repentance, confession and baptism we are literally born again. The difference with the new birth is that we are born into the family of God.
4. When we become a child of God we are accepting the reality of the Word (logos) coming into the world and believing that the same power that created the universe is able to touch and change your life.
Bill Wilson had been stabbed twice, shot at, and had a member of his team killed while working with a Sunday School ministry in a part of New York city that had been voted the most likely place to get killed. One Puerto Rican land after becoming a Christian came to Wilson with an urgent request. She did not speak English but through an interpreter told him, “I want to do something for God, please.” Wilson answered, “I don’t know what you can do.” In Spanish she replied, “Please, let me do something.” After a few moments Wilson said, “Okay, we’ll put you on a bus. Ride a different bus every week and just love the kids.”
So every week she rode a different bus. There were fifty of them in all. She would find the worst looking kid on the bus, put him on her lap and whisper over and over the only words of English she knew, “I love you and Jesus loves you.” One day to her amazement, a little boy turned and stammered, “I-I love you too.” Then he put his arms around her and gave her a big hug,
That was 2:30 on a Saturday afternoon. At 6:30 that evening the boy was found dead in a garbage bag under a fire escape. His mother had beaten him to death and had thrown his body in the trash. “I love you and Jesus loves you.” Those were some of the last words he heard in his short life. Words spoken by a Puerto Rican lady who could barely speak any English.
