The Prologue Of John's Gospel Series

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.