Before I get into John’s Gospel tonight, I have to do a lot of historical work for you, to give you some sort of foundational understanding. We’ll talk about Hebrew theology and its history. We’ll talk about Greek philosophy and its history, and seek to bring those together for you guys in some sort of whole.
The Hebrews really, historically, had through thousands of years come to, in John’s day at the end of the first century, this place whereby they had a lot of faith in their pedigree and in their stock and in their racial identity.
They could look back and they could trace their ancestry from Abraham’s call in Chapter 12 of Genesis, forward to Isaac and to Jacob and to Moses and to David and all of the prophets and all the priests and all of the Old Testament Scriptures and the temple. And God’s provision for them, and the giving them of the land, and the delivering of them from evil in Egypt, and the exodus narrative.
God had done so many things, and the Hebrew people had this propensity to look at their life and believe that because of their ancestry, because of their heritage, that somehow they had a privileged position with God. And within that, at the bottom of their theology, was this understanding of the Word of God.
And for the Hebrews, this was tremendously important. They believed that in a miraculous way, God at certain times would speak through men that he would raise up, called prophets. And in addition, sometimes priests. That God would literally speak through men, and his voice would come right through a man, and that those things would be written down and recorded in a divine way, with authority, as if God were in his very essence speaking directly to a people with authority.
And so, for them, the Word of God was paramount and tantamount, and they would memorize Scripture, and they would study Scripture, and their theologians would commit their lives to understanding the books of the Old Testament. In addition, they understood that the Word of God for them was not just what is found in Scripture, but the Word of God was the active agent through which God accomplished his will in the world.
In a sense, God’s Word did things. It was action in orientation. In Genesis, we find that God speaks, and it’s through God’s Word that creation comes into existence. In Isaiah 55, God says that his Word goes out into all the nations of the earth, and it doesn’t return void, that God’s Word has power and authority, and it acts as it is sent. And it always accomplishes what it was sent to accomplish.
And so, for the Hebrew, the foundation of their thinking, the Word of God was paramount. The Word of God, spoken through the prophets, written in the Scripture, and every time God acted in the world, that was his Word.
And now, at the end of the first century, as John is writing, he’s now an elder statements, an older man, he’d seen Jesus’ life and ministry and death and resurrection, John comes from this great lineage. John understands this world. John knows that Scripture.
But there’s this other world that now exists as well, and that’s this Greek world that isn’t bound up with theology – it’s bound up with philosophy. It doesn’t trace it’s root system back to Abraham, but instead, back to a gentleman named Heraclites. And the Greeks at this point, according to William Barclay, probably outnumber the Jews in the early Christian Church, 100,000 to 1.
And the Greeks also had this concept of the Word, the Logos, is what they would have called it in Greek. And for them, that stems out of this thinking of their Abraham, Heraclites.
Heraclites was a philosopher that predated Socrates and Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, and Cicero. Heraclites taught that the world was in a constant change of flux and that there was really tremendous chaos and disorder within the world. His now famous illustration is that you never put your foot into the same river twice, because the river is constantly moving and constantly changing, and so is life. There is nothing constant, just continual change and flux.
And as he looked at the human world, he understood that there was so much change, and there was so much flux, and there was so much chaos, that he tried to find a way to explain how there could still be overarching harmony, how there could be order, how things could still be brought together.
And he came up with this concept of the Word, the Logos, and he said that the Logos was really the essence of the study of philosophy and of all things. And that the Logos created the world by fire. And that in addition, it was the Logos which governed all of human affairs, and governed all things that existed within creation. That any harmony that was brought out of this flux and chaos was because of the Word.
In addition, he taught very clearly that the human soul was eternal in nature only if it was connected and understanding of the Word, the Logos. And so, he developed this very extensive theory of the Logos, particularly in a three-volume book called On Nature that he wrote, in which he addresses philosophy, and he addresses political philosophy, and then he addresses cosmology and theology as well.
And there’s some remaining manuscripts, and as you study his work, you come to the conclusion that he is not a Christian. That is for sure. He still believes in Greek mythology, which understands the world as having lots of gods, and these gods are not loving or benevolent or kind, that these gods are mean and vicious tricksters, and they’re against the created order, that we must defend ourselves against them.
But he did have this one very interesting concept of the Word. He was known as the weeping philosopher, like Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. And he came from a city called Ephesus, where the Apostle Paul, years later, would plant a church.
And he was so foundational in ancient Greek philosophy, that when he died, his face was imprinted on the coins in Ephesus, and they remained in circulation for a couple hundred years after his death. And so, Heraclites’ thinking on the Word came to influence Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Cicero, right up to the time preceding Jesus.
And so, the Greeks had their own pedigree. They had their own history. They had their own pride. And their understanding of God and of life and of death was completely different than the Hebrew people.
I’ll give you an example. The Greeks had no concept of a Messiah. All of the Old Testament, all of the Hebrew longing was that a Messiah would come and would liberate them and deliver them and give them life. The Greeks had never heard of such a concept. They had no understanding of there being any such Savior available.
And so, what has happened now in the early Church is that these two worlds come together. This Greek world and this Hebrew world. And what John is seeking to do is he’s trying to bring these worlds together into one Church. It’s interesting because he comes to the same point that the Greeks did.
The Greeks taught that the Word was that thing which brought opposites together in harmony. It was the Word they taught that brought life and death together, that brought good and evil, that brought light and darkness, that brought the Gods and human beings together.
It was the Word that would reconcile all things together in harmony. And that’s exactly what John was seeking to do. He was looking at his Church, and he understood in the first century that it was crucial that he, as the elder statesman and the leading theologian and the primary teacher, find a way to talk about Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and to articulate that in such a way that these two factions could come together in harmony.
If he could do that, then there was great hope. If he couldn’t, then there would be division, and the Church would likely die at that point. Because the Jews had a claim. They said, “Look, Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Jesus himself was a Jew. Jesus spoke Hebrew. Jesus was the Messiah. We can’t just abandon tradition.”
And the Greeks would have said, “Yes, but now we outnumber you 100,000 to 1, and we don’t know Hebrew. We’ve never heard of a Messiah. And we’re not Jews. But we love Jesus.”
And the question is, “Well, how in the world can these worlds come together?” And so, John seeks to faithfully bring them together. And that’s exactly where we find ourselves as we come to his Gospel. He’s trying to articulate Jesus in such a way that these two worlds can come together and understand.
It’s not unlike our own day, where there’s a multitude of cultures, races, religions, languages, traditions, and trying to bring those together in a way of harmony. John was a missionary doing the exact same thing.
And so, as you pick up the book tonight, that’s where we find ourselves. Matthew had already written his Gospel about Jesus, a biography, and it was written primarily to Jewish people with a perspective that would have particularly been appealing to them, or understood by them.
Mark had written a short, brief Gospel to Roman people. Luke had written the more extensive Gospel, historical in nature, and in chronological order to Gentile people. John knew that all of these were in circulation, and so he comes last. And he’s trying to reconcile these worlds, and he’s trying to speak to Greek people that may not have understood.
And so, what he does is he writes his Gospel, and 90 plus percent of John is unique to John, and not found in the other three Gospels. You’ll notice that if you read Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you’ll see a lot of similar information, teachings, life experience, miracles, healings. If you read John, almost all of it is unique. You didn’t see it in the others.
John’s eye-witness account is different. He doesn’t say different things about Jesus. But he highlights particular things that the others omitted. And so, here’s John’s world, trying to bring Hebrew and Greek, tradition and nationalities and races together. And so John writes his Gospel in what language? Greek. He writes it in Greek.
He articulates it in such a way that people who are Greek can have access to it. And so, that’s when we pick up the story in John 1. Here’s where he begins talking about Jesus, telling the story.
“In the beginning,” – so he goes all the way back to a period of timelessness, before there was time, back in eternity, before there was anything. At this point, the Hebrews would have been with him, and so would have been the Greeks. The Hebrews would have said, “Yes, the Word of God is with God, before creation, and it was through his Word that he created. We believe that.”
The Greeks would have believed that same thing, that the Word existed before creation. They would have understood that as well. So, he begins at this place of common ground between the two. “In the beginning was the Word,” – and then as soon as he gets them joined with them, he departs – “and the Word was God.”
John does this tremendous transition. He has just completely assaulted all of Hebrew history, all of Greek history in one fell swoop. The Word is not just this Greek understanding of a divine force with a rational mind. It’s also not just the Hebrew understanding of God’s action and speech into the world. That the Word of God is not removed from God, but the Word is in and of himself God, its claim to deity, that the Word is God.
“And the Word was with God,” – to the Hebrews, this may have sounded like he was articulating a theology of multiple gods. Well, if the Word is God, and he’s with God, how many Gods are there? We know that there’s one God that exists as God the Father and God the Son, is what he’s articulating here. And we know, as well, as God the Spirit. That there’s one God in three persons, and immediately, John launches into this doctrine of the Trinity.
In the beginning was the Logos, the reason, the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then it goes on in verse 2, and makes this amazing transition, “He was with God in the beginning.” Now he’s taken this concept of the Word that can bring together Hebrew and Greek worlds, he says that that Word is personal in nature. Not only is it divine God, not only is it with God the Father, but that Word is personal, it is a he.
It’s not just this objective, neutral, detached thing like the Hebrews understood. It’s also not this unknowable, unexplainable force as the Greeks understood, but that the Word of God is a person, and he was with God in the beginning, before anything was made, the Word was there with the Father.
It goes on to say in verse 3 something that, again, the Hebrews and the Greeks would have likely agreed to, “Through him, all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made.” All of creation was conducted by the Word of God. The Word is what caused all things to come into being that have been created.
It goes on to say that in addition, “In him was life,” – that life comes out of the Word of God. Creation comes out of the Word of God, and life comes out of the Word of God. He articulates that life and he says, “that life was the light of men.” And he gets into this Greek concept of light. The Hebrews also had a concept of light.
If I get time as we’re going through the book, I may do one week just on John’s thinking on light. It goes all the way back to echoes of Genesis, where in the beginning God created, and he separated light and darkness. And that throughout Scripture, light has this phenomenal interplay, particularly in John’s thinking.
In I John 2, he tells us that the light is really the revelation and the truth and the understanding that God is, and how God comes to us, and how God is involved actively in our lives. And he talks about in addition to that, there is darkness, and that is the place where there is sin and bondage and death and chaos and separation from God.
And in as much as we live in the darkness, God is light and sends his light into the darkness of our own soul, into the darkness of our own world. And so, John says that the Word of God is life as opposed to the death that exists, and it is light as opposed to the darkness in which we find ourselves.
All of that is summarized in John’s thinking on the Word. And then he says that there was reaction to the Word as it came into the world. That the world didn’t just see the Word of God and then ignore it or haphazardly walk away from it, but there was active resistance.
“The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” There’s a word play there in the Greek text. Its this confusing thing, does John mean that the light has not been understood by the darkness, or that the light has not been overcome by the darkness?
And I would say both are true, that the world is filled with darkness, sin, death, separation from God, hatred, violence, jealousy, selfishness, greed, pride, lust. Whatever it is, there is darkness – complete and utter, total darkness.
And God is light and shines his light into the darkness of that world, that darkness of which we are a part, that darkness that not only are we in, but is in us. And God shines his light. And what happens is, is that darkness doesn’t understand that light. And as a result, it becomes fearful of it and wars against it, seeking to cause its demise.
But fortunately, the light is stronger than the darkness, and the darkness is unable to overcome the light. John lays out this whole theology of Star Wars right there in verse 5. It’s almost as if you’re out in the middle of the night, and there’s just absolute and total pitch darkness, and you can’t see a thing. And then all of a sudden from overhead, an enormous light just shines right on top of you, and you’re exposed, and you’re found.
The question is, is that a blessing or is that a curse? It depends. Are you lost, or are you a criminal? If you’re lost, you’re joyous. You’ve been found. If you’re a criminal, you’re terrified because you’ve been found.
And John said that those basically are the reactions that the world has. As we walk around lost, stumbling in darkness, God shines his light upon us. And for some of us who know we are criminals, we run and hide. We scurry out of the light. But for others of us who are lost and know we are lost and want to be find, we’re overjoyed because we’ve been discovered.
He says the darkness oftentimes doesn’t understand the light, and so it runs away from it, and it tries to overcome it, but it can’t because the light is stronger than the darkness. He talks, then, about this man who comes to talk about and to witness to and to prophesy about this Word of God, this guy named John, and there’s two Johns – John the Beloved disciple who started off as like a beloved, adopted, punk kid brother of Jesus, who writes this book as an old man, and then another man named John, who is the Baptizer.
And John was Jesus’ cousin. Mary, Jesus’ mother, and Elizabeth were related. And the first time that John and Jesus meet is when they’re in their mothers’ wombs, it’s a beautiful story. The women come together. Elizabeth was old, supposed to be too old to have a baby. God allowed her to become pregnant. Mary was a virgin, obviously her odds of getting pregnant are fairly slim.
The women come together and it says that the boys leap in their mothers’ wombs as they meet. That John the Baptizer was a little bit older than Jesus, and they likely knew each other and grew up together. And John shows up on the scene a little bit later in life as a complete freak, walking out of the woods, screaming his lungs out, half dressed, unshaved and stinking, screaming this mandate that God is coming into the world, his cousin.
It’s an amazing story. If you don’t read the Bible with a little bit of irony and sarcasm, you miss the whole funny part. And so, John the Beloved tells this story about John the Baptizer.
“There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.” I love that. It’s like the setup for a great western. “He came as a witness to testify concerning that light,” – John came to talk about the light that was coming into the world, Jesus – “so that through him, all men might believe.” And this concept of belief is intricate to John’s Gospel.
John writes in Chapter 20, verse 31, that he writes to us, the whole function of the book is that we would believe the things that he has to say, particularly concerning Jesus. And so, John the Baptizer comes into the world so that other people, hopefully, would believe in Jesus.
“He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” It’s very interesting here. The Church has oftentimes missed this very important truth. I am a pastor. I am not the light. You are the Church, you are not the light. We are darkness brought under light, but we are not light.
John realizes that he can’t heal anyone; he can’t save anyone; he can’t convince anyone. Only the light can do those things. Healing, love, truth, grace, forgiveness, change – that comes through the light. What is John? John is a lamp that the light comes through, that’s all he is. And he exists as a witness.
All a witness is, is someone who points and says, “Nope, that’s exactly where you’ll find that. Would you like the truth? Go there. Would you like healing? Go there. Would you like friendship? Go there.”
And a witness is simply a sign that’s pointing to the truth; it’s pointing to the light. That’s all John is. John is just a sign in the course of human history that with his mouth and with his life points to Jesus. That’s all he does. Ultimately to the point of laying down his life. And how did John die? They cut his head off, put it on a platter, and John died as Jesus’ cousin and friend, laying down his life as a witness, as a sign pointing to Jesus. That’s all he existed for.
And so, John believes, and John loved Jesus, and John was a witness, but not everyone had that same reaction. Multiple reactions came to Jesus’ existence. Verse 10, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.” The God who spoke creation into existence came as part of his creation, amazing humility.
And the creation looked at him and said, “That can’t be God. That’s not very impressive.” And you think about it, does it not make sense that many people would miss God? If God was coming, you’ve got to ask yourself in your mind, “What would you anticipate his resume looking like?”
Prior to his resurrection, especially up to age 30, before his public ministry, is not that impressive – unemployed, homeless, single – hasn’t even settled down yet.
And Jesus comes from where? Nazareth. Okay, now help me, we will mock some town tonight. In Washington, or in our region, what is the most backwoods, backwater, hick place you can think of?
(Laughter)
Like Buckley, Duval – I’m talking out there. I’m talking where people marry their relatives, and the neighbors don’t even mind. I’m talking way out there. Aberdeen? Aberdeen’s good.
(Laughter)
We’ll take Aberdeen – Aberdeen’s a winner.
(Laughter)
Anyone from Aberdeen? Don’t raise your hand.
(Laughter)
Don’t raise your hand. Let’s say that God came from Aberdeen.
(Laughter)
God shows up. “So where are you from?” “Aberdeen.”
(Laughter)
Now, Jesus being from a dumpy, little, rural town likely had a major hick accent, which means he probably sounded in Jewish ears, something like this, “Blessed are y’all if yore poor in yore Spirit.”
(Laughter)
“So, who are you?” “My name is Jesus Christ, Exalted Lord of the Universe.”
(Laughter)
“Really? Where were you born?” “Aberdeen.”
(Laughter)
“Aberdeen.” “Well, tell me about your family.” “My mama was a teenage virgin.”
(Laughter)
“Really? How do you know she was a teenage virgin?” “She told me so. She told me herself she had not touched a man before I was born.” “Oh, yeah, they say that, but that’s not true.” “I’m telling ya, that’s the way it was.”
“Well, really? Okay, so what do you do?” “Well, I’m unemployed, but I work a lot. And sometimes I teach, and if people are hungry, I got a neat trick with fishes and loaves.”
(Laughter)
“Really? Amazing. So you rule and reign over the entire –” “I am the Lord of all creation. One day I spoke, it all came into existence. It was amazing.” “Oh, really? How old are you?” “Well, I got 30 candles on my birthday cake, but I’m eternal, so I’m not sure how old that would make me.”
(Laughter)
“Really? Really? Where do you live?” “I’m homeless. That unemployment thing has really affected my residence.”
(Laughter)
“Oh, okay. Well, have you written much? Maybe it’d be good if you wrote. You know, some –” “One day I wrote something in the sand, but I don’t think it’s there no more. That’s about all I gotten around to.”
(Laughter)
“Really? So you rule over all of creation?” “All creation’s mine.” “Okay, well, wonderful. How much have you seen?” “I seen about 30 miles of it. I seen most of Aberdeen, and a little of the outlying areas.”
(Laughter)
“But the rest is all mine.”
(Laughter)
You guys believe that? That’s God. Jesus comes from a backwater, hick town, born to a teenage girl who claims to be a virgin, blue-collar family, works with his hands, homeless, unemployed. Has a major kinda mountain drawl. Comes into the world, and I love how John says it, “Though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.” Well, of course. “Hello, I am God.”
(Laughter)
“No, you’re not. You’re crazy. What in the world?”
(Laughter)
You think about that, well, of course the world didn’t recognize him. If you knocked, “Hello, I am the Sovereign God of the Universe.” Like, “No, no you’re not.”
(Laughter)
“I don’t know what God’s like, but I know when he comes, he’s gonna be more impressive than that.” Isaiah says there was no beauty or majesty in him. He looked normal, very normal. Thick accent, from Aberdeen.
(Laughter)
God – that’s what they said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” It’s like, certainly – if God had to pick – I mean, it’s bad enough that God would come into his own creation and be a man. If he was gonna be born, certainly he wouldn’t be born in Aberdeen. I mean, of course God would – he would come from a nice family with a nice line. And he’d go to a prep school. And he’d get a good job. And he’s have a beautiful wife and a few kids in a big house and a nice resume. And he would have something to show.
No, he wouldn’t. I love that, that God comes in this unexpected way. So the Word of God came, and nobody even knew it was him. That’s what John says. Didn’t expect him to come that way. And I love that great twist of irony.
In addition to the people who didn’t recognize him as he came to be part of creation, it’s amazing. God who was eternal comes in time. God who was Spirit takes on human flesh. God humbles himself and comes into the darkness.
It says that in addition that he came to the Jews, “He came to that which was his own,” – verse 11 – “but his own did not receive him.” You say, “Man, they’ve been waiting for a Messiah for all these years.” They got all the prophesies. They know what God says. They’re waiting. They’re anticipating. Jesus comes, they say, “That can’t be the guy. That cannot be him.”
See, ‘cause the Jews also struggled with this issue of, “What would God look like if he came as a Messiah?” I love it, Soren Kierkegaard says, and I think Kierkegaard’s onto something – great philosopher – he tells this great story. I’ll adjust it a little bit, tell it off of memory.
He says that what has happened is it’s like there was a king. He tells this story of God coming into the world. That there was this great and marvelous king that had an enormous kingdom, was tremendously wealthy. He had phenomenal authority.
And one day, the king was out on his horse, and he was surveying all of his fields, and he saw a very common, peasant girl working out, laboring in his vineyards, dirt all over her hands, sweat all over her brow, very common, working-class kind of gal.
And as he saw her, he fell in love with her. He just thought she was gorgeous. And just something in her just attracted him. And he so wanted to marry her and to be with her. He started to enquire about her, and everything he could find out is that she was a noble woman. She was poor in finances, but she was rich in character. That she was just wonderful.
And he wanted to be with her. But he knew, for a fact, that if he went to her and said, “I’m the king, would you like to marry me,” that if she said, “Yes,” that he would continually wonder whether or not she loved him because she loved him, or if she loved him because he was the king.
And so, what the king did, the king devised a scheme to go and get his bride. The king decided that he would put on commoner’s clothes. He would go undercover as a poor man. That he would take a job working in the vineyard right alongside that woman, and he would put his hands in the dirt, and he would sow seed with her, and he would reap harvest with her. And every day for a long period of time, he would go work and labor alongside of her, strike up conversation, get to know her.
And over time, what happened was, that she fell in love with him. She adored him. And she believed in all of her heart that he was poor, and that he was simple, and he was common, and she loved him like that. And so, one day he proposed marriage, and she accepted. He still didn’t tell her he was the king.
He told her to put on a beautiful dress, and on a particular day, he would come and pick her up, and then he would take her to the wedding – and not to worry about it, that he would set up the wedding, and that he would surprise her.
So she was there with her family and her friends, and what showed up was an army of chariots and soldiers and banners and musicians – thousands upon thousands. And they picked up this poor country girl from her little rural town, and they carried her into the city, right through the gates, right into the palace – trumpets blaring, right down the aisle.
And seated on the throne, she saw the king. And that was gonna be her husband. She got off of her chariot. She walked up to the king. The king explained to her, he said, “I wanted you to love me not because I was the king, but I wanted you to love me simply for the sake of loving me, so that then I could show you that I was the king, and I would know that your love for me was always true.”
I believe God did that same thing for us. God came in this unexpected way, in this humble, simple, regular, normal way, as a regular guy, from a regular town, with a regular mom and a regular dad, who lived a regular life, who happened to be God.
He came in this very simple way, that we would have never expected. It says the world didn’t even recognize him, and the Jews rejected him. They looked and said, “No, we’re waiting for a king. You’re no king.” Jesus says, “Well, I am a king, and if you love me, I’ll take you to the palace. But you gotta love me first.”
And that’s John’s understanding of Jesus’ incarnation, Jesus coming to earth, Jesus’ humility. It’s this beautiful, beautiful picture. “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” They said, “No, we won’t marry just a common, poor, simple guy like you. We’re waiting for a king.”
Then, he rises from the dead, “Oh, my gosh. That was the king.” Yet some believed. “Yet to all those who received him, to those who believed” – those who trusted him. They trusted in his name, and the name is not just your identification, it’s the totality of your character and your person. Your name is your identity. That’s who you are.
If you trust in Jesus’ name, that means you completely trust in the totality of who Jesus is, what Jesus says, and what Jesus has done. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave them the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
Here’s what happens. God comes in the world. God comes in a common and regular way. To those who believe that Jesus is God, the Word of God became flesh. To those who believe that, he gives us this great adoption into a new family. He gives this concept that we’re all orphans, and that God adopts us in as his kids, and he becomes our dad. Don’t you love that?
And spiritually, we all come into the world as orphans in that way. And then God adopts us. He says, “I will take you in. I will be your Father. I will love you. You’ll be part of my family.”
He says that’s exactly what Jesus has done for us. Jesus comes as a brother, seeking his brothers and sisters, to bring us back in as part of the family of the Father. And so, it goes from this enormous concept of the Logos, the Word of God and creation and light and darkness and good and evil, all the way down to, “What is the Logos about? What is the Word about?” He’s about making a family, and about taking people who are orphaned and adopting them into a family spiritually.
And he says, “You know, all of us were born in this world physically because a man and a woman got together and decided of their own volition to consummate some sort of relationship.” He says, “We don’t come into spiritual relationship with God that way. God chooses us to be his kids. He adopts us in. He gives us the rights that come with being a child.”
So, we’re not second-class citizens. We’re full heirs and children of God. And he goes on to talk about exactly what happens when Jesus comes and becomes one of us in this humble way. Classic verse in verse 14, “The Word” – this great concept of the totality of Greek thinking, the totality of Hebrew thinking, the two, I would argue, greatest, the most rigorous minds of academia of that day, the most advanced and developed cultures, they’re seeking to understand the Word of God.
The Hebrews are understanding it as God speaking to them and calling them to obedience and morality and righteousness. The Greeks are seeing it as a call to wisdom and insight. Heraclites went so far to say that true wisdom, the ultimate aim of Greek living was not knowledge of a great number of things, but a deep and keen awareness of one thing, the Word of God. They both have committed themselves to understanding the Word of God.
And in Chapter 1, verse 14, John says something amazing about that Word, “The Word became flesh” – the Word became flesh. The Word was born into his own creation. The Word suffered under his own creation. The Word participated in his own creation. The Word became flesh, with all of its frailty, humanity, temptation, weakness, hunger, sickness, sorrow and grief, the Word became flesh.
For what purpose? To make his dwelling among us. I love that. See, what happened as we looked at the end of the book of Exodus, what happened was that the children of God were liberated from bondage and slavery and death in Egypt. They were sent on this great pilgrimage in Exodus. A few million people, packing up their tents, functioning basically like a refugee camp.
They would stop and they would all construct their tents, and then they would live in their tents for however long, until they continued their journey to their ultimate home. And what it says in the Exodus narrative, as you guys studied with me this last year, that God wanted a tent, too. God decided that he would have a tent pitched right alongside everybody else’s tent. His tent was going to be nicer – multimillion dollar tent, but a tent, nonetheless.
And what would happen, then, is that God’s tent would be packed up, and God would go on journey and be in the midst of his people and go on in their life with them. And that what happens then is the tabernacle is constructed. God’s tent is built. God’s glory descends upon the tabernacle, and then all of a sudden, God’s glory is present among God’s people – tabernacling, dwelling, living in a tent.
It says that same thing has happened in Jesus. The glory of God, which is the presence and the holiness and the action of God, comes down and dwells among us. God throws his lot with ours and walks around on the dust of the earth with his creation. He says that’s done in the body of Jesus. That’s God’s tent. The Word became flesh and pitched his tent, made his dwelling among us.
That’s why I think Kierkegaard’s illustration is so appropriate. It’s exactly what God did. He says, “And we have seen his glory,” – the glory of God, the very presence of God in the body of Jesus – “the glory of the One and Only.”
It’s amazing to me because what he takes is all of Greek philosophy and history, and he says, “The answer is Jesus.” He takes all of Hebrew theology, speculation, and morality, and says it all points to Jesus. If you understand Jesus, he is the One and Only. That is where everything goes. Everything goes to Jesus – “who came from the Father,” – full of two beautiful things – “grace and truth.”
Jesus comes to bring us the truth about God, about us, about everything. Jesus speaks the truth. And he also speaks grace. And he is grace. That he brings us God’s grace. He comes from the Father, just overflowing with two-handed grace and truth. That he strongly, sternly, honestly speaks the truth into our lives, into the darkness of our world, into the darkness of our own soul. He confronts us at our points of arrogance, at our points of sin, at our points of self-sufficiency, at our points of error.
He is completely truthful. But he also comes overflowing with grace, which is loving kindness and mercy and compassion and affection and devotion, demonstrated in action. And so, Jesus comes bearing gifts of grace and truth, directly from the Father.
“John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.”’” What John is saying is this: John the Baptizer was born a few months before Jesus. He was a little older. And in that culture, it was customary that the younger would serve the older, and that the older would get a position of prominence and respect.
John says, “You know, it looks like I was born first, ‘cause I’m a few months older. But I now recognize that my cousin, Jesus,” – how difficult is this for John? – “my cousin, Jesus, is Almighty God from eternity to eternity, timeless, born in human flesh. And since I am about 30 something, and he is eternal, it appears as though I am a little older. I’m not. He is greater than me because he is God, and in every way, he is considerably older than I.”
Imagine you’re John the Baptizer. You come to the conclusion one day that God has come as your cousin. Do you have any cousins? I have never had a cousin that I mistook for God. Never.
(Laughter)
Never. Satan? Yes.
(Laughter)
God? No. I have never had a cousin that I looked at and said, “That might be God.” Nope, never had that. That’s John’s world. John dies, gets his head cut off because he worships his cousin. Now, John’s not a knucklehead. John knows better. But John knows the truth. And John gives proper honor and dignity and love and affection and respect to Jesus.
Even though John’s a little older and could pull rank in the family, John says, “I am nothing.” John says at another point, “I’m not even worthy to take the shoes off his feet.” John comes with tremendous humility.
It goes on in verse 16, “From the fullness of Jesus’ grace we have all received one blessing after another.” It’s this picture of blessing upon blessing, grace upon grace, mercy upon mercy, love upon love, affection upon affection.
See, people who live in darkness, they don’t even see God’s grace. They don’t see God’s loving kindness in their life. That does not mean it is not present. That means that they do not have eyes to see it, that there is so much darkness, that they are incapable of even seeing the light of God’s love.
But he says that he has come to the conclusion that it is God’s kind, merciful, loving grace that continues to flow, one on top of the other, into the midst of a dying, dark, dead world. “For the law was given through Moses;” – James says if you transgress any little portion of the law, you’ve blown the whole thing. The problem with the law, it comes as a one-package deal. It’s all or nothing, perfect or imperfect. That’s God’s world according to the law.
God sees two kinds of people – perfect and imperfect. There is no graded scale. And that law came through Moses. And that law tells us that we are in tremendous trouble thinking if we can earn our relationship with God through doing the stuff, because we will never do the stuff. We’re all hypocrites, we all fall short.
So, what do we do? He says the law came through Moses. The law is not God. The law had a purposeful function to show us who we are, to expose our own darkness, to show the darkness of our own heart and our own world. The law is good and did its job.
So, “The law came through Moses; but grace and truth came through Jesus.” Don’t you love that? Every point you fall short, Jesus gives grace. And he also gives truth. He tells you that you’ve fallen short of the law, and then he forgives you, so that then you can become a new person.
And ultimately, you will begin to change. And by grace, you’ll begin to obey the law – not to receive salvation, but because it’s been given to you as a gift. And now you’re showing it through obedience.
Grace and truth came through Jesus. It’s this whole picture that when Jesus died, upon him as he hung on the cross was placed your sin, was placed my sin, as a substitute. God the Father knew our sins, past, present, and future, placed those on Jesus. He was punished in our place, where we deserved the full, holy, hot, angry justice of God, Jesus got it in our place – God, in a human body, in human flesh.
And then, what he gives us is truth. He speaks to us and says, “You’re not good, but you’re loved.” And he gives grace. He gives grace upon grace is the picture that we’re given. Just this unending well of kind, loving, merciful, affection for the children of God.
He concludes by saying, “No one has ever seen God,” – none of us can see God, at least not in this present state – “but God the One and Only,” – there’s only one God – “who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” Jesus is God, and here’s what he’s done for us: He’s shown us God.
You say, “I wish I knew what God was like.” Look at Jesus; that’s God. Jesus is the clearest picture we have. He is the most focused revelation that we have of who God is. What that means is there is not this mean God in the Old Testament, and this nice Jesus God in the New Testament. That Jesus reveals the heart of the Father as well. That there is one God, and that Jesus has made the Father known.
It’s this image that Jesus is this window that we look through, and we see the Father. What is the Father like? Look at Jesus. What is God like? Look at Jesus. And we live in a world, groping around for darkness, wondering who God is. John’s answer is, “Look at Jesus, you’ll see everything that you need to see. You’ll know everything you need to know.”
If you understand Jesus, you understand everything. The totality of the entire Old Testament, the entire Hebrew religion, all of their concept of law, all of their concept of Word, all of their longing for morality and justice and righteousness – Jesus.
Greek desire for wisdom, for insight, for learning, for understanding. To understand the spiritual world and the physical world, the human soul, life after death – all of those great Greek questions – Jesus. Jesus answers every question that any human being could possibly ask about God.
If it can’t be answered in Jesus, it cannot be answered. So, there’s no reason to believe that there are multiple religions, multiple gods, multiple – there’s Jesus, just Jesus. And God did that because God loves us, and God knows that there’s so much darkness, that he sent one clean, pure light. And all we need to do is fix our eyes upon it, and it will take us back to the Father.
It’s almost like you’re completely lost in a dark woods. It’s the middle of the night, and you’re frantic. And you see one light off in the distance, and you know that if you can simply get to that, there is life, there is a home, that is another world. That’s Jesus. We live in this dark world, wandering and lost, orphans, and we know that God is light, and he has revealed himself in Jesus, and he is calling us to be his children and take us home and adopt us as his own, speak the truth to us, give us grace – Jesus.
And so, if you’re here tonight, if you’re not a Christian, John writes that he writes these things that we would believe. He says that in Chapter 20, verse 31. He says, “I write the book so you may believe in Jesus.” And belief there is not just assenting in your heart or in your mind. It is trusting down in the foundation of your identity, that in Christ, everything is made known that there is to be known about God.
And so, I would invite you tonight to believe. I had a friend in college one time when I was a new Christian. He was an atheist. He said, “That is a crazy story.” I said, “I know.” He’s like, “Why would someone make that up?” I said, “It is so crazy, I don’t think anyone would make that up. No human being would have invented that story – it’s too insane.”
He’s like, “You sound crazy.” I said, “I know, that’s why I keep telling it. You don’t think I know that I sound crazy? That there’s one God and he spoke and everything came into existence. And that we sinned and rebelled, and now we live in utter spiritual darkness, and death is our destiny. And we don’t see God, and we don’t know God, and we’re lost, and we’re orphans.
“And so, God came as a kid born to a virgin in a dumpy, rural town, with a really thick accent. Didn’t get a chance to write anything down except a few lines in the sand. That he died, and he rose from the dead, and he reconciled the whole world to himself, and forgives all of our sin, and is in the process of healing us from all the sin that was committed against us.
“And the answer to every philosopher, theologian, religion, perspective, and desire in the totality of the history of mankind comes down to one guy named Jesus.” I said, “But wouldn’t it be great if that was true? Wouldn’t that just cut through all the junk and just bottom line everything?” I said, “You know what? It’s true. It’s true.”
And John was there. John started out as a 20-something punk kid and saw it all firsthand. And he wrote it down so that we would believe. And he says that we would believe, and the consequence would be that we would have life in Jesus. Life – that’s John’s goal. John’s’ concept of salvation isn’t just that we die and we go to Heaven.
John’s concept is that we come into a relationship with God, that the Word of God is a person, and that as a result of that, we begin to live in eternal life. And eternal life begins the moment that your eyes are opened, that your heart is receptive. It is the moment that you understand. It is the moment that you are embraced, and the moment that you embrace back.
Eternal life is this state of being, where you go, “I know the truth. I know the grace. I know the light. I know the darkness. And I know Jesus, and Jesus knows me. And I begin to live as an eternal person in that reality, and that is something that begins in this life and continues forever. That is eternal life, to know Jesus – not just go to Heaven, but to know Jesus.
And so, my invitation to everyone tonight is to believe. For those of us whom are already Christians, that already believe, I would give us two things to look at. One is John the Baptizer. You and I are not the light, we are only witnesses to the light. We can’t heal, we can’t forgive, we cannot fix anyone or anything. We do not have the authority, the strength, the power, or the grace.
We are lamps, though, that point to Jesus. That is our totality of our goal, is to take people to Jesus, and to be witnesses to him like John the Baptizer. The second is John the Beloved. We live in the most pathetic city spiritually in the United States of America. I love Seattle. I grew up here; this is my home. My kids were born here. My wife was born here, but it’s terrible. It’s sick.
This is the least likely place in the United States of America that anyone under the age of 30 would ever go to church – least likely. Every year in this country, 3,500 churches die, 1,200 churches are planted. Up to 80 percent of those fail. That means we’re losing 3,000 churches a year. We’re losing 60 churches a week – a week, just dying and getting buried, every year.
What is desperately needed in our world that has multiple cultures and multiple understandings and multiple realities, and some people like the Greeks that have no concept of an Old Testament God or a promised Messiah, or Jesus coming into the world, what it desperately needs is people like John the Beloved, people who understand Jesus well enough and can understand the world well enough to be able to take a simple concept like the Logos and use that as a means of articulating the whole that brings the parts together.
And so, that’s what we exist for. Mars Hill is a (little w) word of God. You are a (little w) word of God. Not that you are divine, but that you are a speech, you are a statement sent into the darkness of this world to communicate the truth that there is light. God has sent you into the world as a (little w) word of God to speak about grace and to show it, and to speak about truth and to show it, and to speak about Jesus, and to be a witness pointing to him.
How does God get his things done in this world? How does God get his word spoken in this world? That would be through us. That would be through you and me, just like he did it through John the Beloved.
And so, that’s what we do tonight. That’s what we are about. And I guess as your pastor, as we sit in this half-empty, enormous room, in a dark and pathetic city that desperately needs light, that we begin tonight with a moment of realization, “Do I believe?” That’s the most important thing.
If I don’t, then I need to be honest about that. If I do believe, then to whom and to where has God asked me to be a witness, and to whom and to where has God asked me to take this story and speak it in my own words, as John has, so that the people there would understand God’s truth and God’s grace in Jesus, the one true God who brings it all together?
And then begin to pray for these empty seats. To begin to pray for the darkness of this city, and to be honest about the darkness in our own life, and asking God to clean us up, so that we would be lamps through which light could come.
And so where we always go at this point in our service, we respond to what God has said by collecting our offering. If you are not a Christian, do not worry about giving. That’s not your obligation. We respond through partaking of communion on the sides. You could take a piece of bread and you can dip it in wine or juice. We do that to remember Jesus.
At Jesus’ last supper, John set the table. It was beautiful. John sat at his right side. John was in the seat of friendship and loved him. He laid his head on Jesus’ chest as a dear friend. And Jesus took a loaf of bread, and he broke it, and he said, “This is my body, broken for you. When you eat it, remember me.”
He took a cup at the end of the meal. He said, “This is my blood which will be shed for you. Remember me.” Jesus asked that we remember him. So, John writes that down, to remind us to remember Jesus. And I come today, telling you that I’m asking you to come and to remember Jesus and take communion. And then we’ll respond through singing and through prayer.
And so, God, we come to you tonight, thank you. You are a God with a tremendous sense of humor. To actually think that you would speak and the world would come into existence, and then you would come as part of that creation. God, to think that in the midst of complete darkness, you would come to bring light. In a world of lies, you would bring truth. In a world of karma, you would bring grace.
God, thank you that you came in such an unexpected way. That the Word became flesh and dwelt among us – pitched his tent with his kids, and that we have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only.
Jesus, we thank you so much that you are God, and that if we see you, we see all that there is to be seen about God. And God, we come tonight, thanking you, that you have offered us belief and invited us to be your children. That we don’t have to be orphans, that we can have God as our Father. That’s a tremendous gift.
And that we can have life in your name. God, that we can live an eternal life in this present dark world, an eternal life that continues on without end, in Christ. That one day we’ll rise like him, and we’ll see you face to face. We haven’t seen you yet, but we thank you – because of Jesus, one day we will.
And God, it is my prayer for everyone here that they would believe and experience that life. And God, in addition, that for those of us who believe, we would be like John the Baptizer, humble, knowing that we’re not the solution, but we’re here simply to point other people to a wonderful place and a wonderful God.
And like John the disciple, God, seeking to bring the good news of Jesus in our own language and our own words to our own world that is dark and so desperately needed, in a very spiritually impoverished city that is filled with primarily orphans, wandering around in darkness, not understanding the light.
And so, God, we love you and we thank you that you’ve sent us into this world. And God, I pray that we would live there in Christ’s name, amen.
