Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Introduction

2

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

The Words relation to God

3

All things came into being through Him,

and apart from Him nothing came into being

that has come into being.

The Words relation to creation

4

5

In Him was life,

and the life was the Light of men.

The Light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness did not comprehend it.

The Words relation to man

Introduction

As we consider this passage, we will soon find one of the clearest and most beautiful Christological passages in all of scripture.

As a result of our firmly held beliefs there will be little if anything of which you will need to be convinced.

We already affirm: the pre-existence of Christ, the deity of Christ, the eternal fellowship between the Father and the Son, the distinction between the Father and the Son, Christ’s creation of all things, and the light that came into the darkened world as a result of Christ’s coming.

Therefore, the purpose is not to convince you of these beliefs, but instead to reassure, solidify, further appreciate, and further understand these beliefs.

ü The pre-existence of Christ

ü The deity of Christ

ü The eternal fellowship between the Father and the Son

ü The distinction between the Father and the Son

ü Christ’s creation of all things

ü The light that came into the darkened world as a result of Christ’s coming

Therefore, the purpose is not to convince you of these beliefs, but instead to reassure, solidify, further appreciate, and further understand these beliefs.

Understanding Terms

In the Beginning.

I would like to acknowledge just one unique point concerning this word beginning, here in .

A translation of “beginning” is perfect for this context but what is interesting is that it doesn’t have a modifier along side of it.

The vast majority of uses, for this word, include a context for the beginning.

For instance, in Judges, when Gideon is alongside his hundred men, they come to the outskirts of the camp “at the beginning of the middle of the watch” (Jud 7:19).

In Ruth, we read about how Ruth and Naomi returned “to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest” ().

There are two passages in which no context or modifier is given for beginning.

Those two passages are here in and in .

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” ().

“In the beginning was the Word” ().

I believe it is John’s intent to draw our minds back to Genesis and the beginning of creation.

He does so successfully.

If I were to start a message with “when in the course of human events” and coupled that with “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” your mind would likely be drawn to the Declaration of Independence.

If I were to start a message with “fourscore and seven years ago” you mind would likely be drawn to Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.

In the same way, when John starts with “in the beginning,” he is intentionally connecting Christ to the initial creative work of God.

Was & Were.

We would likely pass over the word “was” in any normal reading but let me draw our attention to one significant fact.

While the English word “was” is used several times in these first few verses, there are two different Greek words in the text.

The first (eimi) communicates the idea of existence or “the one who is, exists.”[1]

The other Greek word (ginomai) communicates the beginning of something or its’s point of origination.[2]

What then is the point?

Let me draw your attention to verse 3. A literal reading could go as such: “all things were brought into existence through him, and without him nothing was brought into existence that was made.

As well, a few verses later we could read, “A man was brought into existence from God, whose name was John” ().

Yet, those couple instances are different than the word choice in the first two verses.

Let me offer a rough translation.

“In the beginning the Logos already existed, and the Logos already was with God, and the Logos already was God” ().

Creation came into being.

John the Baptist came into being.

The Logos, or Jesus Christ, already existed in the beginning.

The Logos.

The underlying Greek word, here translated as word, is logos.

In this context we should understand logos to refer to God’s divine communication or self-expression.

While we know that logos is referring to Jesus Christ, the passage does not clearly state that until later in the chapter.

Interestingly, John refers to Jesus Christ as “The Word” in the prologue but then never use this term again throughout the gospel.

“The Word” is only used in the prologue and is used two times, verse 1 and verse 14.

It seems likely that John desires to establish a presupposition for the rest of the gospel, that being that Jesus Christ is in fact the Creator God.

The rest of the gospel is to be understood in light of this fact.

Whereas the synoptic gospels discuss to a much greater degree the humanity of Christ, John immediately established Jesus Christ as the revelation of God.

Jesus tells us as much when He says, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” ().

Logos in Greek Philosophy.

We will see shortly that the Jews tied the idea of logos to religious concepts, but for the Greeks logos was found in the world of philosophy.

Around 500 years before Christ incarnation, Greek philosophers were discussing the importance and concept of logos.

One of these philosophers was Heraclitus, who lived from 535-475 BC and was a native of Ephesus.

Let’s pause for a moment to be reminded of the fact that it appears that John wrote his gospel from Ephesus, therefore the understanding and meaning of this word in the mind of those in Ephesus plays an important part.

It was Heraclitus that wrote, “They do not step into the same rivers .

It is other and still other waters that are flowing.”[3]

It appears that the point he was making was that all of life is in continual change, and yet while everything is changing, the world does not seem to be in a constant state of chaos.

Why would this be?

Why is the experience of one generation the same as that of people who have gone before?

The solution for Heraclitus was that there must be some divine reason (or logos) and this logos was the mind of divinity controlling the world and all mankind.

Heraclitus.

Although this Logos is eternally valid, yet men are unable to understand it -- not only before hearing it, but even after they have heard it for the first time.

That is to say, although all things come to pass in accordance with this Logos, men seem to be quite without any experience of it . . .

although the Logos is common to all, most men live as if each of them had a private intelligence of his own.

[4]

The Stoic philosophers, a couple of hundred years after Heraclitus (300 BC), established the principle that the Logos was “the principle through which the universe was formed and is sustained, maintains order in a universe essentially in flux.”[5]

Plato associated logos with discourse or rational explanation.

Hundreds of years later, when John was writing his gospel, the time of Heraclitus was far gone; but his teachings still were alive in the teachings of the Stoics; and his philosophy had engrained itself in the minds of the Grecian people.

The Greeks knew all about the logos.

In fact, they probably would not have struggled much with these first few verses.

They considered the Logos as more of a force than a person, but still their struggle would probably not have come until John acknowledges in verse 14 that the logos had become flesh.

Boice.

Therefore, it was with a stroke of divine genius that John seized upon this word . . .

and said by means of it, “Listen, you Greeks, the very thing that has most occupied your philosophical thought and about which you have all been writing for centuries—the Logos of God, this word, this controlling power of the universe and of man’s mind—this has come to earth as a man and we have seen him.”[6]

Logos in Jewish philosophy.

Philo, a Hellenized Jew (20 BC – 50 AD), used the term Logos to mean an intermediary divine being.

Philo wrote concerning the Logos.

“And the most ancient Logos of the living God is clothed by the world as with a garment ....

For the Logos of the living God is the bond of everything, holding all things together and binding all the parts, and prevents them from being dissolved and separated.”[7]

This same concept is found in extra biblical Jewish literature as well.

In the “Wisdom of Solomon” we read the following:

Wisdom of Solomon.