THROUGH THE NEW TESTAMENT
JOHN 1
10-31-99
INTRO: He came from the bosom of the Father to the bosom of a woman;
He put on humanity that He might put on Divinity;
He became the Son of Man that we might become the Sons of God;’
He was born contrary to the laws of nature, lived in poverty, was
raised in obscurity, and only once crossed the boundaries of the land in
which He was born & that in His childhood;
He had no wealth or influence;
He had neither training nor education in the world’s schools;
His relatives were inconspicuous & uninfluential;
In infancy, He startled a king, in boyhood He puzzled the learned doctors,
In manhood He ruled the course of nature.
He walked upon the billows & hushed the seas to sleep;
He healed the multitudes w/out medicine & made no charge for His services
He never wrote a book, yet all the libraries in the country could not hold
all the books written about Him;
He never wrote a song, yet He has furnished the theme for more songs than all the song writers put together;
He never founded a college, yet all the schools combined can not beat the number of students He has;
He never practiced medicine, yet he has healed more broken hearts than doctors have healed broken bodies;
This Jesus is the star of astronomy, the rock of geology, the lion & the lamb
of zoology, the harmonizer of all discord & the healer of all diseases;
And throughout history, great men have come & gone, yet He lives on;
Herod could not kill Him, Satan could not seduce Him, Death could not
destroy Him & the grave could not hold Him. This is our Christ & this
is the Jesus spoken of here in this book.
Now John the gospel writer knew Jesus long before he ever became a follower of Jesus. John’s mother was a lady named Salome and we read over in Mark 15 & John 19 that Salome was the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus. And so that makes John his cousin. Now that’s important for when John declares over and over again that Jesus is God, he knows what he’s talking about. He grew up with him and probably knew Jesus better than anyone else. And that’s why 93% of the gospel of John is material you will find in no other gospel record.
Here are just a few of the things you won’t find in the gospel of John
as in the other gospels. There is no description of His birth in the manger,
no details of the youth of Jesus, no record of His baptism or His temptation
in the wilderness, no account of the Transfiguration or of the Garden of
Gethsemane; John records none of Jesus’ parables. In fact, the Gospel of John
covers only twenty-one days of Jesus’ three and one half years of ministry.
Ten chapters are devoted to describing one week of His ministry; one third
of the verses cover a single twenty-four hour period in the life of Jesus.
The gospel of John is the single most-read book of the Bible. It was written by
the disciple of whom it was said, "Jesus loved him." John was one of the closest
disciples of our Lord during the days of his ministry. As best we can tell, he
wrote the gospel from the city of Ephesus, where he settled after the destruction
of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D., probably, toward the close of the
first century. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke had already been written
by this time.
Now John tells you exactly why he wrote this gospel. So let’s turn over to
John 20:30-31 "And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His
disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you
may believe (The key word in the Gospel of John is "believe," which occurs 98
times.)that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you
may have life in His name." The Gospel of John was written to provoke
unbelievers to receive eternal life… And to provoke believers to enjoy eternal
life!
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VERSES 1-14
1-2 In the beginning. Sounds familiar, right? It should, the book of Genesis starts with
these same words, Gen. 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth. We have here the John’s genealogy of Jesus. It’s a genealogy that
goes back farther than any human genealogy. This genealogy spans back before
time into eternity.
Now who is the Word? The Greek word here is "logos." Now
if you were a first century Jew or Greek, you’d know exactly what
he was referring to. The Greeks referred to "the Word" as that
impersonal force that created and controlled the universe. The Jews
thought of the Word as the creative and controlling force of their
personal God. But John now bursts into their thinking and identifies
the Word as Jesus Christ. For we read over in Revelation that it is
a title of Jesus Christ. Turn over to Rev. 19:11-13
"And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat
upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and
wages war. And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are
many diadems; and He has a name written upon Him which no one
knows except Himself. And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood;
and His name is called The Word of God.
So Jesus is the Word here. But John goes on to say that that Word was with
God & the Word was God. The literal Greek declares "God was the Word."
Now that is where a problem arises. For you see, that means that the
Word is distinct from the Father. They are two separate Persons. And a lot
of people have a hard time with that. For this introduces us to the mystery of
the trinity, three persons, one God. Now you might object and say 1+1+1
doesn’t equal 1 but 3. But 1x1x1=1 and such is the mystery of the trinity.
The scriptures declare that there is but one God. (Deut 6:4) Yet we see over
and over again in the bible how Jesus is called God, the Holy Spirit is called
God & the Father is called God. In fact we see the trinity revealed in the very
first verse of the bible. In the beginning....God (Heb. Eloheim-plural)
Later in that same chapter "Let us make man in our image..."
Is Jesus really God? Let’s see what the scriptures say. In John 10,
we see that the Jews accused Him of making that claim. Look at
John 10:33 "...You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God."
Remember also that God told Moses that He was "I AM." Well,
Jesus also claimed that title, which is blasphemy for any but God to
We read in John 8:58-59 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to
you, before Abraham was born, I AM." Therefore they picked up
stones to throw at Him...
Now listen, unless you believe that Jesus Christ is God, you cannot be
saved. Jesus said in John 8:24 "...Unless you believe that I AM,
you shall die in your sins."
3 Jesus was not created as some suggest, He is the creator. Jesus created
everything. If it was created, it was created by Jesus Christ. In Colossians
we read, For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens
and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
rulers or authorities - all things have been created by Him and for
Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Col. 1:16-17
Now "All" means all. "Nothing" was made without Jesus. He is the Creator.
He was not the first created being, as some cults believe; He Himself created
all things.
4 In Him - in Jesus - was and is life. You may be alive, but you don’t have life
without Jesus. You are alive physically, but you don’t have spiritual life
without Jesus. Jesus is the Word Who became flesh to show you life - true
life, eternal life. Someone has well said that doctors may help us live longer,
but they don’t give us a reason to live. Jesus gives us a reason to live.
4-5 Now when John says that "the darkness did not comprehend it," the
word "comprehend" means extinguish. The darkness did not extinguish
the light. Oh, they tried. Perhaps the greatest evidence of this truth is
when they crucified Jesus. As they sought to extuingush the light,
darkness fell upon the land. But for only 3 hours. The light shined
again. The darkness couldn’t comprehend, extuingush it.
You see, the message of Jesus Christ is a light shining in the darkness of
sin and death, a beacon to draw men to God. "Darkness" speaks of the
condition humanity is in apart from Jesus Christ. 2Cor. 4:4 ...the god
of this world, has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they
might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is
the image of God.
Maybe you remember the Simon & Garfunkel song from the 70’s
called "The Sounds of Silence." A verse in that song says..."Hello
darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again." That is a
vivid and accurate description of the way people feel today - they
are living in darkness. Blinded by the devil to the glorious gospel of
Jesus Christ. But Jesus wants to be the light in our lives. He’s come
to deliver us from the darkness.
And I close with the story of a man whom Jesus had delivered from
darkness. His name was Jerry McCauley & he was a drunken bum who
lived in Chicago. He slept in the streets & gutters & drank himself into
oblivion every day of His life. He drank so much that he couldn’t provide
for his family. He had a 2 year old daughter. She died of malnutrition.
He drank all the grocery money up. Jerry came home one day in a drunken
stupor & found his dear wife caressing a dead baby in her arms. Malnutrition
had taken the life of his little one.
Some friends were able to gather together enough money to provide a little funeral service for the child. They bought a lovely new dress & shoes for the child & put them on her before placing her into the casket. The night prior to the funeral, McCauley again in a fit of drunkenness & out of money broke through a window into the mortuary and took the clothes off his dead baby’s body. He too ’em to a pawn shop to get some money to buy a drink.
Sometime later, Jerry stumbled into the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago & heard the message of JC & through the confusion of his mind, God penetrated his heart. Jerry went on to become one of the greatest preachers that God ever knew, that this country ever experienced. Thousands of people came to Christ as a result of his ministry & they said that when he died, his funeral was attended by so many people that they couldn’t fit them all into the building. Most were people he had led to Christ.
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