The Word Is Jesus Series

Video: Bible Connection (available on SermonCentral.com - 2:10 min)

The Bible, it’s not just for Sunday anymore.

The problem is people don’t know the Bible or the truth of the Bible if it hit them square in the middle of their face. In our nation today, we have great Biblical illiteracy rate.

(Opening Illustration) On a cold winter day, January 12, 2007, A man wearing blue jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington National ball Cap, went into a metro (subway) station in Washington DC and near the entrance next to some garbage cans opened his violin case, took out his violin and began to play, laying open his violin case to collect tips. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, over a thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on. In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32.17. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the absolute best violinist in the world. His violin was a rare Stradivarius made in 1713, and worth 3.5 million dollars. Three days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell played at a sold out Boston’s stately Symphony Hall where the seats average $100 each. This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context? [1]

Jesus experience much the same thing:

John 1:10 (NKJV) He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

Jesus, who made the world, came into the world, but the world did not know Him and even today still does not know Him, but He left us his Word.

Why Trust the Word? Why should we believe? Because: Jesus is the Word

John 1:1–5 (NKJV)

The Gospel of John introduces Jesus far different from the other Gospels. Matthew and Luke list Jesus’ genealogy and prophecies and describes the events surrounding His incarnation as a baby, born of Mary, in the little town of Bethlehem. Mark starts off by introducing John the Baptist who prepared the way for Jesus’ public ministry.

But John is way different. Through the John’s Gospel, it was clearly John’s purpose to let people know in no uncertain terms that Jesus came from God and that Jesus is God.

John 20:31 (NKJV) but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

In fact, even to the most casual observer, John’s Gospel starts off in a very familiar way.

John 1:1a (NKJV)

In the beginning

We know these words from Genesis 1:1 – “In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Jesus was in the beginning. Time has a beginning and it is clearly documented in Genesis 1:1. Jesus was there at that beginning point in time. Like God, Jesus was present before there was time.

We would say eternity past, but what is eternity? Our mind cannot comprehend the non-existence of time. But the scriptures are clear. Time itself is a creation of God and time had a beginning and time will have end. So eternity is not so much as time without end, but timelessness. And there was Jesus before time began.

Isn’t it interesting that John introduces Jesus as the Word.

“In the Beginning [was the Word]” In the Greek the word is “logos”. In Greek culture, the Stoics understood “logos” to be the rational principle by which everything exists, and which is of the essence of the rational human soul. More generally, “logos” can refer to inner thought, hence ‘reason’, even ‘science’. “logos” can refer to outward expression, hence ‘speech’ or ‘message’, which is why ‘Word’ is still thought by many to be the most appropriate term, provided it does not narrowly refer to a mere linguistic sign but is understood to mean something like ‘message’ as in the following. [2]