Who Is This One Called Jesus
John 1:1-5
One of the ways that we prepare eulogies is to make an appointment with the family and try to get as many of them present as possible. We then begin to ask them questions about the deceased. We ask things such as give “me a one word description of the person,” “share a special moment that you had with the person”, “what meant a lot to the person”, and “what would the person want to be known for.” We do this for two reasons. The first is that it gives us a more accurate picture of the person and provides us with information for the eulogy, and the second is that it usually brings a time of remembering good moments together for the family. They feel more uplifted with each other. Our goal is to help others at the funeral to get to know, who this person really was.
Whenever ther is a tragedy that is committed by a person or a hero that emerges out of a scene, the news media spends a lot of time trying to find people who knew the person so that they can help us understand just who this person was. All of a sudden you can become important simply because you sat next to somebody in chemistry class 5 years ago. People want to know what you knew about this person so as to give them some kind of an insight as to what was going on in the person’s past or background that made the person take the action that was taken.
How many of you have been in a situation in which you wondered what did the people think of me when I did or was doing such and such. I had one of more humbling moments in my ministry in which I had been asked to do the funeral for an uncle of two little kids ages 5 and 6, a boy and a girl, who were attending our church from VBS. As I was speaking, I wanted the message to be personal so I kept saying things like, we are going to miss John, and we can remember when John did such and such, and John was funny when he did such and such.
All of a sudden one of the two kids, the little boy Andre, stood up and yelled out to me, “His name was Charles.” He was followed by a round of , yes his name was Charles by several adults. I could only imagine what they were thinking about me at that point, but I immediately apologized to the family, and said Charles from there on out. I had gotten one of the main basics wrong, his name, and it prevented people from hearing what I had to say about him.
Did you know that Jesus was also concerned about what people were saying about him. Jesus also was concerned about what people were saying about him. So he asked Peter one day, “Peter, what’s the word on the street. Who do people say that I am. Peter said, “some are saying you are John The Baptist,” “some say you are Elijah,” and still others are saying you are one of the prophets. Then Jesus hits Peter with the question that all of us must ask for ourselves and that is “But who do you say that I am.” What we believe about Jesus makes a tremendous difference in the way we view life, see life, live life and offer life to others.
The theme for this conference is getting back to the basics. When we look at Christianity, nothing is more basic than Christ. Everything rises and falls on who was Jesus and what do we believe about Jesus. Many segments of Christianity today are in confusion over what we believe is true about Jesus. Who is this one we call Jesus? If we could all agree on who Jesus was and is, the other things would begin to line up.
Our thematic verse comes out of the gospel of John. There are four gospel, and the gospel of John is the one that is written by someone who knew Jesus up close and personal. John is referred to as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Matthew’s gospel comes to us through the eyes of a devoted disciple of Jesus. Mark and Luke are very dedicated, but their message comes from the perspective of the eyewitness testimonies of others.
But when you read the gospel of John, you are seeing through the eyes of one who was in the inner circle. You may recall there were twelve disciples, but three of them made up the inner ring. Those three were Peter James and John. John had some direct insight into Jesus that the other 3 gospel writers did not have because they did not share the same kind of relationship with Jesus.
In the King James version Mark has 16 chapters and the name of Jesus is used 92 times, Luke has 21 chapters and the name of Jesus is use 100 times, Matthew has 28 chapters and the name of Jesus is used 172 times, but John has 21 chapters and the name of Jesus is used 256 times.
John’s gospel is the last of the three to be written. Each gospel has a special way of presenting the gospel and the message is tailored to make converts of certain groups. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is presented as the Messiah the King. There is a lot of stress on the authority that Jesus possessed. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus is presented as the Messiah as servant. The humility of Jesus is stressed. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus is presented at Son of Man identifying with the needs of humanity. In John’s gospel, Jesus is the Majestic Son of God who is approachable and condescends from heaven.
Mark begins his gospel with Jesus as full grown man during the time of the preaching of John the Baptist. Matthew begins his gospel with the lineage of Jesus starting with the Old Testament figure Abraham. Luke begins his gospel with the story of the birth of John The Baptist, then the birth of Jesus, and closes chapter 3 taking us through the lineage of Jesus all the way back to Adam.
But John feels compelled to help us understand not only who Jesus is, but who Jesus has always been. John also spells out clearly to us, the reason for why his going to write what it is he writes. He says in John 20:30-31 (NIV)
30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Good hermeneutics take place when we can discover what the writer intended to write instead of making the writing say what we want it to say. John makes it easier for us in that he tells us why it is that he writes what he writes. He makes it clear that there were a lot of other things that Jesus did, that he’s not going to deal with. He wants to get back to the basics. His purpose in getting back to the basics is two fold. He is writing in order to get us to believe and that by believing who Jesus truly is as the Christ, the Son Of God, we will be able to discover the life that flows from making that confession.
What we believe about Jesus, is directly related to what kind of life we will have available to us in his name. We live in a world in which we put more faith in the ability to believe than we do in the truth of what is believed. How often have we heard it said in our society, it does not matter what you believe, so long as you are sincere in your belief. Yet we know there are consequences in life for holding mistaken beliefs no matter how sincerely those beliefs are held. You can sincerely believe that your home is safe, but if it is filling up with carbon monoxide from a faulty furnace, it will kill you no matter how safe you think you are.
Sincerity will not elevate a belief that is wrong to truth no matter how many people hold it to be true. The religious leaders were sincere in their belief that if they had Christ crucified, that would be the end of him and his followers. Their failure to believe in the resurrection, did not keep the resurrection from happening, nor did it exempt them from the consequences of the resurrection. We do not erase God out of our lives simply by choosing to no longer believe in God. God is not dependent on whether we believe in God or not. God simply is.
John begins his gospel with a much more distant past than any of the other other three gospels. In fact, he begins his gospel further back than any book in the bible including Genesis as we shall later see. John begins with the words, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
That phrase in the beginning is made up of two words in the Greek and one compound word in the Hebrew. John takes us to the origin of Christ before Adam, and before creation itself. The Greek words are the same Greek words used in Genesis 1:1 in the Septuagent which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. But John goes back further than Genesis because Genesis starts with what God was doing with Creation, but John starts with when there was just God.
In helping people to understand this passage AW Tozier took them on an imaginary journey. He said think of going back into time, and as you do, everything that you pass disappears. All the nations and kingdoms of the world vanish. Finally you get back to creation and all peoples, animals, plants, flowers and fish disappear. The moon the stars they all vanish. The land, the waters hovering over them disappear. The light is gone. Then the darkness and the void is gone. Heaven and earth also disappears. Time has come to an end. There are no particles, no space, and no nothing. And there is no you. There is nothing but God.
John is saying if you want to know Who Jesus is, you have to go all the way back before everything else existed. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. For the readers of the Old Testament, the Word was connected with the creative power of God. God spoke things into existence. The Word was God’s Revelation of Himself. I t Represented God’s Actions. For the Greeks when they heard the term logos, they would think the beginning of reason. The logos represented the soul of the universe. For you star wars fans it was the like the idea of the force . Let the force be with you.
When John says in the beginning was the Word. He uses the imperfect tense which means it was always there or to put in another way, there was never a time when it was not. In connecting Jesus with the word, John is letting us know, that Jesus did not begin in the manger. Jesus always was and always is and always will be. When we talk about the Incarnation, its not God that is incarnate, but it us Jesus, the second part of the trinity that is incarnate.
That baby that was in the manger was the same God who created the stars that was looking down on the manger, because John goes on to tell us John 1:1-3 (NIV) 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
A proper understanding of Jesus begins with the reality that Jesus is actually God and as God, Jesus is Sovereign over all creation. Any physical image or picture that we have of Jesus does a disservice to who Jesus is and the power that Jesus yields to shape, mold, and change his creation.
John let us know that God created everything from nothing. Jesus Himself was not created because He has always existed and nothing was made without Him. He is the eternal God. We live in a world that wants to insist that Jesus is nothing more than a religious teacher who is one among many choices from which humanity can choose. Some times we so stress the love of God for humanity to the point of actually believing that God somehow needs us to be complete. But God has no needs. If God had a need, God could not be the God of the Bible. God was completely self sustaining before the world was created.
We act as though God is casually leaving it up to people to make decisions on their own as to whether or not they should consider sin as something which needs to repented of. Acts 17:29-31 (NIV) 29 "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."
God did not give the suggestion that people repent, this passage says that He commands all people everywhere to repent. What do we think is meant by all people. Do you honestly think people is only referring to people who grew up in Christian homes or could all mean people of other religions as well.
When John insists that Jesus was God, isn’t he giving Jesus the same authority that is attributed to God in the Old Testament. God says of Himself in Isaiah 46:8-10 (NIV) 8 "Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. 9 Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. 10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.
This passage shows the sovereignty of God. God says my purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. God is the only one who can guarantee that in all things I am working for the good of those who love me. He can do this, because He has stated that His purpose is going to stand and He will do all that He please. God is never surprised by an event that catches him off guard. God never says, “Oh my goodness, that traffic accident just ruined my plans for your life. I have to come up with something else.”
When we start from the view of our problems and work our problems back to God, we find ourselves working with a God that is much smaller than who Jesus is. But if we start with the reality the Jesus is before all else was, then we know that Jesus is still in charge no matter what it is that has come into our lives, and that Jesus has full authority over what comes into our lives.
In the book Jesus Calling The author writes. “Do not resist or run from the difficulties in your life. These problems are not random mistakes; they are hand tailored blessings designed for your benefit and growth. Embrace all the circumstances that I allow in your life, trusting Me to bring good out of them. View problems as opportunities to rely more fully on Me….Thank Me for the difficulties in your life, since they provide protection from the idolatry of self reliance.
We are nervously afraid to say that God sends disasters or even that God allows disasters to take place. Yet we see God’s sovereignty over everything. He stopped the sun moving for Joshua. He turned dust into gnats for Moses. He stopped the raging sea of Gallliee. He caused a donkey to speak, a fish to swallow a coin and deliver it to pay a tax. We see he sent an angel to deliver Peter, he sent and evil spirit to Saul, and he limited the work of Satan. He used the actions of others to carry out His will. There was Nebuchanezzar, Pharoah, Judas, and those who crucified Christ. All of them were doing things that God had said were going to happen. No disaster comes, without God knowing about it. No God will not always warn us.
The sovereignty of God is what actually gives us a hope and a confidence no matter what happens. Because God is sovereign, God can keep his promise that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. God sees before things happen therefore God allows all that takes place. We think that all God is interested in is our safety and comfort, but what God considers safety and comfort for us is far different than what we might imagine. We may be trying to keep safe from the wrong thing. Was the cross a safe place for Jesus?
Look at the difference between what John teaches about the beginning and what the world teaches about the beginning. Science teaches us that in the beginning everything happened by chance. Nothing created everything. The Big Bang theory leads to order coming out of disorder. It says nothing created everything. Chance is the only basis for having hope. If everything is given by chance, then no one can have hope for a planned future.
The word Bara for created not only means that God created from nothing, it also carries the idea of sustaining what was created. What God creates, God sustains. Since God is self sustaining, we can have hope in the middle of our trials. When the bible says that God not one sparrow falls, the idea is that of a sparrow hopping around on the ground. God sees each sparrow hopping. God knows the number of hairs on our head because God put them there and on average there are about 140,000 hairs. He knows them all.
John is writing for us to know the true Christ. He states in1 John 2:18 (NIV)
18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. John was concerned about us following a different Christ. He even indicates there will be different Christ’s being put forward.
When the bible predicts that there will be a large falling way in the last days, some people think it’s a talking about a decline in church attendance. In reality what may be predicted is an increase in attendance but a loss of the truth. The falling away may be because of the heresy that slips into the church. You have people making a profession of faith in Jesus, but not in the Jesus that is found in John 1:1.
More and more, the Jesus in some of our churches is without t power to fully transform lives. He becomes a nice fellow who accepts everybody that comes to him without any conditions. His goal is to make us all happy and feel good about ourselves and about God. We get to pick and choose what we like and don’t like about him without any consequences at all.
Forget all that talk about a need for repentance and the presence of sin in all of our lives. Instead of being the Almighty Creator who can change anything about us, we say that he created us the best that he could, and now we have to live with whatever our situation is. Our problems define the size of our God, rather than God being able to overrule our problems in order to work out things for our own good.
John spent time with Jesus in the most intimate of settings. He saw how Jesus dealt with people. He knew when Jesus demonstrated compassion. He knew when he rebuked those leading others astray. He saw the demands that Jesus made on people if they were to follow him. He saw people turn away from Jesus because they thought he was either too stern or had lost his mind by claiming to be equal to God. This John who saw all of this was convinced that this same Jesus was the Word who existed before all creation and was with God and was God.
John is not talking about a mythical character he imagined after the resurrection. He said in 1 John 1 John 1:1-3 (NIV) 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
John is providing a first hand account of his relationship to Jesus and came to the conclusion that Jesus is God, with authority over everything. Now we have a few choices of how we can handle this verse. We can say that John was a flat our liar and he made all this stuff up. He really didn’t believe that Jesus was God. We can say that John may have been delusional in that he believed what he wrote, but he was not coherent and was suffering from a form of altheimiers or something, yet the rest of his writings seem to make a lot of sense.
Or we can believe that John was telling the truth as the Holy Spirit revealed it to Him. John wrote it down so that we could believe. John wanted us to know who Jesus is and why we should believe on him. John knew that if we knew that Jesus was there even before the beginning, then Jesus could be with us no matter what we go through in life and Jesus has the power to conquer any created thing that enters our lives, because He created all things. He knows how to fix us. If we believe in this kind of a Jesus, we are going to alienate people and develop enemies who despise our message.
If we deny the deity of Christ, deny the redemptive work of Christ, and deny the bodily resurrection of Christ, we are no longer talking about the Christ that is found in the gospels, particularly the gospel of John. If we agree on who Christ is and the power that He has over his creation we can begin to focus once again on proclaiming to the world the power of Christ to change lives and to bring us all into a right relationship with God. So I ask you once again. Who do you say that Jesus is? How much life we have to offer the world, is dependent on what power we believe that Jesus actually has.
