The Prologue of John’s Gospel
Text: John 1:1 – 13
We are going to be continuing with the Gospel of John this morning, and I’m going to warn you right now, there’s a lot of things I’m going to try to cover, so we might run long this morning. / / Ok… So, if you remember from last week we talked about what it means that Jesus is the Word. We talked about how Jesus being given the title of “the Word” or “the Logos” and how that means that He is God, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and He was with them in eternity past.
This morning, we’re going to continue on with John, and we’re going to read verses one and two again, as well as verses 3 – 13… So we’re in John, chapter 1:1 – 13 (READ).
It’s been said that the Gospel of John is so simple that a child can easily paddle around in it and gain understanding and insight, while at the same time, it’s so profound and deep that an elephant could swim in it.
Last Sunday we talked about how Jesus is with God, how He IS God, and how He existed before creation… So Jesus was not a created being… and He was not some alien on a distant planet who somehow achieved godhood… He was there with God, in the beginning, because He is God… and then verse 3 tells us that Jesus is also the Creator of all things.
VERSE 4 says: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
Now when you study John’s Gospel, you’ll find that “Life” is a reoccurring theme. John uses the word “life” 36 times throughout this Gospel account. So John was being intentionally repetitive… and the reason he does that is because he wants us to pick up on something. So… what is life? What is essential for life? Well here’s where John goes with it. He gives us four essential things for life. The first one is light. Think about it – if the sun were to suddenly go out, within a short period of time, everything on this planet would be dead. We’d freeze to death… but even if we managed to somehow not freeze to death, every single plant would die… and if every plant dies, that means every animal would eventually die… it also means that our oxygen would be quickly depleted. We’d be in bad shape. So light is essential to life… In John 8:12 we’re told that Jesus is the light of the world. What about air? Oxygen? The ability to breathe? Well, John 3:8 and John 20:22 we’re told that Jesus, by the Holy Spirit gives us the “breath of life.” We also need water. They say a man can survive a long time without eating. But only about a week (if he’s lucky) without water… Again, John tells us that Jesus gives us the Water of life… the living water (that’s in John 4:10-14, and John 7:37 – 39). And then finally we need food right? Well Jesus says in chapter 6:51 that He is the Living Bread of Life that comes down from heaven. So… think about how John is laying all of this out for us so far…
He begins by telling us that Jesus is the Word. The Logos… And again “Logos” is like the wisdom of God, the plan of God, the reason of God, the logic of God, the revelation of God, and purpose of God… and yet the Logos is not only from God and part of God… it’s beside God. In Jewish thinking, Wisdom stood alongside God, and yet it in no way detracted from God. Just read through the Book of Proverbs and you’ll see how Solomon personifies wisdom. That’s what John has done here. First he did it with the Word… and now he’s doing it with Life. Jesus is the giver of life, and He is Life. And then John does the same thing with Light. And the way John uses the word “Light” here is that its synonymous with truth, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.
Basically what John is saying here is that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life… by bringing light to man, who is stumbling around in darkness, Jesus shows us the Way. And He Himself IS the way, He also gives us truth, and IS truth, and He gives us life, and He IS life. And He does this THROUGH THE WORD. The Word… Which is also Himself.
I told you… an elephant could swim in it.
Now you would think that lost sinners, stumbling around in darkness… devoid of the truth, and who are spiritually dead would welcome a light. You’d think they would welcome the truth.
And you would think that they would want to be spiritually resurrected into new life. You would think that, but that’s not what happens… real quickly turn with me a few pages over in your Bible to chapter 3… John 3:19 – 20 (READ).
So people love darkness rather than the light because they don’t want the light to shine on who they are, and what they do… in a nut shell, people love their sin, more than they love Christ. And so they want to remain in darkness… And what about the truth? You would think that people who are without the truth would want it right? But what does the Bible say?
We’ll go to Paul for this one… Romans 8:5 – “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” So what Paul says (and John says this too, just in a different way), is that people who are still in their sin nature – meaning, people who have not been born again… they set their minds on the things of that sin nature. They set their minds on wrong things, and wicked things, and evil things, and sinful things, and untrue things.
Church, this is why people, who by all accounts are intelligent, and educated, will come out and say that things like homosexuality is actually a good thing. This is why we’ve murdered 60 million babies through abortion. And we sit here and we say, “How in the world could anyone think that murdering babies, or approving of sodomy, is a normal, natural, and good thing?”
It’s because they are in darkness, and their minds are in darkness, and they are incapable of seeing the truth.
And we’re going to see this kind of behavior, and thinking; throughout John’s Gospel. When Jesus teaches people various truths they either interpret it in the wrong way… usually in a material or physical way, or they just disregard it because they can’t understand it.
For example: When Jesus spoke about the temple of His Body in John 2:19 – 21, people thought He was talking about the physical temple. When He spoke to Nicodemus about the new birth in John 3… Nicodemus didn’t initially get it… He couldn’t understand it. When Jesus taught that He was the living water in John 4:11… The Samaritan woman asked Jesus how He was going to draw that water up from the well without a bucket. When He told the crowds that unless they eat of His flesh in John 6, they thought He was talking about cannibalism. Or when He spoke of His purpose and His kingdom to both Pilate and His own disciples, they thought He was talking about a physical kingdom in their lifetimes. There’s even an instance when Jesus is telling His disciples that He’s going to Jerusalem to die, and Peter tries to rebuke Him, but instead Jesus rebukes Peter and calls him Satan… and Jesus tells Peter, “The reason you’re doing this Peter is because your mind is not on the things of God.”
Over and over again, things like this happen in John’s Gospel… and it’s because people’s minds are darkened by sin, and they love darkness rather than light. Paul says it like this – “There are none who seek God, there are none who understand. We all like sheep have gone astray. There are none righteous; NO, NOT ONE.” Because of sin, and because of our sin nature, God has to move on the hearts of men. Later on in John’s Gospel we actually see Jesus explain it very clearly… I’ll just read it to you. It’s John 6:44 – 65 (READ)
Remember, last Sunday I said to you that one of the reason we encourage people to faithfully gather with the Church, is so that through the hearing of the Word of God, we can be strengthened in our faith, and equipped? Well here’s another reason. People who are not faithfully and consistently hearing and reading and studying the Word of God, are not getting their mind’s renewed.
Now when we get a grasp of all this, it really helps us understand the pushback that Jesus gets in His earthly ministry, and that we who are Christians still get today… let’s go back to our text and look at verses 6, 7, & 8 (READ).
Remember; John the Beloved is writing this… not John the Baptist. Two different guys. John the Beloved is writing about John the Baptist, and John the Baptist is Jesus’ cousin, and He’s been sent by God to be the forerunner for the Lord.
In other words, he’s been called by God to go out and tell people that the Light, the One, true Light has come into the world. It’s like priming before you paint. So John the Baptist is the voice of one crying in the wilderness… He and his ministry are the fulfilment of a prophecy given by Isaiah 700 years prior to Jesus’ birth.
But in these verses (6 – 8) all we’re getting is an intro to John the Baptist. We’ll learn more about him when we get to verse 19, next Sunday.
So we get this brief introduction to John the Baptist, but then the text goes right back to talking about Jesus being the light. Look at verses 9 – 11 (READ).
This is John reiterating what we’ve already talked about – men love darkness rather than the light. The True Light (which is Jesus) was coming into the world, and He was bringing with Him that illumination, that sin exposing truth, to people from every tribe, and nation. But that doesn’t matter to sinful man. It doesn’t matter to them that Jesus is the Maker and Creator of the world. It doesn’t matter to them that He brings Light and understanding, and truth. They love darkness… even Jesus’ own people – the Jews… the people of Israel. The people who God had given the Law and the Prophets… the one group of all the people in the world that you would think would get it… don’t. They reject Jesus. Their promised and prophesied Messiah.
So it’s a world of darkness… nobody seeks God, nobody wants God. Man is spiritually blind, spiritually deaf, and spiritually dead – in trespasses and sin.
But this is the Gospel… and Gospel means – “Good News”!
So John says; in verses 12 and 13, “But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God… who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man… BUT OF GOD.”
Now Church, like I said this is good news… but before we get too far into this… I want to ask you three very serious questions. Listen carefully, because how you answer these three questions will shape your entire theology.
QUESTION #1. To whom does Jesus give the right to become children of God? - What’s the text say? It says that itt is given to those who believe. So only those who believe are given the right to become children of God…
QUESTION #2. How are those who are given the right to become children of God born? Or we might say born again? It’s not by blood, or by ancestry, or by who your earthly parents are… it’s not by the will of the flesh. We’ve already talked about how because of our sin nature, we are spiritually blind, deaf, and dead. It’s not by the will of man… our own will. Because of our sin nature, we set our will against God, and against Jesus, and there are none who seek God. It happens because of God, and by God. God gets the glory – He saves us. He is the One who brings life… Remember – In Jesus is life. He is the giver of life. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father, but by Him.
So… we know it’s to those who believe, and we know its from God and because of God. So that brings us to QUESTION #3. Do these verses say anything about HOW one comes to believe? If you have to believe to become a child of God… how do you come to believe? How does faith come to someone? Romans 10:17 – “So faith comes from hearing…” And the hearing that produces faith, “comes through the Word of Christ.” Let me just show you a couple more, so that you can get it… Please don’t tune out, this is a matter of eternal life or death…
Acts 13:48 (READ). As many as were appointed to eternal life – believed…
Philippians 1:29 (READ). “For it has been granted to you; for the sake of Christ… that you should believe.”
So if you are here this morning, and you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was sent as a man, and who died for your sins, and you’ve accepted Him as Lord and Savior, it’s all because of the grace of God. Salvation belongs to the Lord from beginning to end. And you should praise Him with everything that is in you. You should go tell it on the mountain. You should shout it from the rooftops.
And we all should share it with everyone we know – because how shall they believe unless they hear? And if you are here this morning and you’ve never made a public profession of faith in Christ, but in your heart, God is doing that work… He’s bringing faith into you. He’s causing you to be spiritually reborn, and open your eyes and your ears and your understanding. I want to give you that opportunity to come forward this morning and profess Him publicly in front of this entire congregation. To come forward and say, “I am not ashamed.” To come forward and acknowledge Him before men. Now coming forward does not save you – God does that. God alone gets the glory for your salvation. But the act of coming forward allows you to profess what God has done in your heart. So if you would like to do that this morning, please do it as Joel comes forward and sings. And if you’re here this morning, and you are a Christian… as Joel is singing, I want you to pray for someone you know that is lost. Pray that God would work faith in their heart as well. If you’re here this morning, and you would like to become a member of this Church, I also want to invite you to come forward. Or if you want to be obedient to the Lord’s command and be baptized, we’d love for you to come.
CLOSING
