The Three 'was's Series

JOHN 1 SERIES: THREE ‘WAS’s

John 1:1-3

#John1

INTRODUCTION… ONLY THE ORIGINAL BUILDER CAN RESTORE IT James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) pp. 244-245.

In a remote Swiss village stands a beautiful church - Mountain Valley Cathedral. It has high pillars and magnificent stained glass windows, but what makes it special is the most beautiful pipe organ in the whole region. People would come from far off lands just to hear the lovely tunes of this organ.

Once something went wrong with the pipe organ. It releases the wrong tones and sounds of disharmony. Musicians and experts from around the world had tried to repair it. No one could find the fault. It was made unique, customized and no one really knows how to fit it. They gave up.

After some time, one old man came. "Why wasn’t the pipe organ used?"

"It’s not playing right," says the church staff.

"Let me try." Since it has been lying there, the staff reluctantly agreed to let the old man try his hand.

For two days the old man worked in almost total silence. The church worker was, in fact, getting a bit nervous. Then on the third day - at noon – suddenly the music came. The pipe organ gives off the best music after so many years. The people in the village heard the beautiful music. They came to the church to see.

This old man was playing at the organ. After he finished, one man asked, "How did you fix it? How did you manage to restore this magnificent instrument when even the world’s experts could not?"

The old man said, "It was I who built this organ fifty years ago. I created it, and now I have restored it."

JOHN 1

John 1 is very much a statement in the New Testament all about how God, the Creator of the Universe, came and fixed humanity’s sin Himself because He was the One Who created us in the first place. God created us and restored us through Christ. That is a theme very much present in all the Gospels, but very much in the Gospel of John. Today we are beginning a journey through John 1 that will take us from now all the way to Easter. One chapter from now all the way to Easter! Yep; that is indeed what I said. There is much in John 1 to talk about and apply and get right in our minds as believers in Jesus Christ. John 1 is deep and we are going to dive in! The truth is that God came and saved us because He was the only One who could.

READ JOHN 1:1-3

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.

In these opening verses of John 1, my eye caught the three “was” statements in verse 1. These “was” statements are significant as we talk about Jesus Christ our Savior. These “was” statements are worth our time to think on, pray on, and apply what we can to our lives. Make no mistake John 1, even the first verse of John 1, is a deep theological statement all about Jesus Christ Who is identified as “the Word.” We are going to chop up a small verse into three parts in a minute, but it is important that we know exactly what the Apostle John is describing to us as he begins the Gospel.

WAS THE WORD

The first “was” statement is: “In the beginning was the Word.”

The Greek word for “word” here is “logos.” Maybe you have heard that term maybe not. “Logos” is a word that not only stands for “word,” but also for “thought” and also most importantly for “the divine order that rules the universe.” Calling Jesus “the word” implies that He is the One Who plans the seasons and keeps the planets in orbit and keeps everything together. Jesus orders the universe. Jesus is the Word made flesh, the incarnate Word that runs everything we see and hear and experience.

Notice that the verse opens that “in the beginning” “was the Word.” You might say, yeah, so what? Well the verse is telling us that when the beginning of everything happened, the Word… already… was. The Word already existed. The past tense is used for the Word existing when creation and the beginning of things we understand began. It is the same thought present in Genesis 1:1 which says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God already existed before the creation of the heavens and earth. God preceded the creation of everything. God is the uncreated Creator. Same thought here. The Word was already present and existing when the beginning of everything came around.