Sermon Tone Analysis
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Prayer
As you can see from our title today, we’re not going to be in Ecclesiastes today...
We’re actually going to be coming out of Ecclesiastes, and beginning to make our way through the gospel of John.
I had given much thought into continuing with Ecclesiastes, but as I looked ahead...
…i continued to see Solomon go back to topics that he had already covered...
…and in some cases, it be the 3rd time he visited those topics...
And so, I feel like ending last week where we did, was a good ending point.
The theme throughout the book - as we kept seeing was - Everything under the sun is - Vanity!
and then last week, summing it up with the Fear of the Lord...
We were able to see OVER the SUN…and see Christ - the one we serve...
And so - this week, we’ll begin making our way through our first gospel together…the gospel of John.
Of the 4 gospels, John was written last…around A.D. 85...
…whereas the other 3 were written in the 50’s and 60’s timeframe.
I think it’s interesting to note that in chapter 20 of this book, we can actually read why this book was written...
This book was written to persuade people to believe in Jesus!
And so let’s get to it...
This section of Scripture, really verses 1-18, are some of the most important, Christianity-distinguishing verses in all the Bible...
John begins his book here with a bang!
If we get this wrong...
If we don’t understand, theologically, what these verses are teaching...
We will come away - NOT knowing the true God...
NOT knowing who Jesus Christ is...
And we’ll walk away with a different religion all together.
If you think that’s an overstatement, then you don’t know how other religions HANDLE this text.
Certainly there are aspects within the Christian Theology that we are NOT to quarrel over...
what type of music should we sing in church (old hymns, new contemporary)
what color carpet should we have in church
what should we wear to church
There are PLENTY of NON-ESSENTIAL things that should not take up space in our brains, or find themselves spewing from our opinionated lips...
BUT - there ARE truths which we SHOULD defend...
SHOULD stand up for...
And our text today is ONE of THESE types of truths...
As Dr. Walter Martin once said...
“If you get your doctrine of God wrong, then it doesn’t matter wherever else you are right.
If you have the wrong God, then you have a God that cannot save you”
~ Dr. Walter Martin
And so these verse we’re walking through today are VITALLY important.
If you ever plan on spending any time at all speaking with Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses...
you will at some point come to these verses…to defend who Jesus Christ really is.
And so - one of the most quoted verses in the Bible...
When we look at this verse here, and we see “the WORD” being the main subject...
It’s important to know what “the WORD” means in this verse.
On the surface, it may seem difficult to understand what this verse is referring to, but if we just glance down quickly to verse 14, we find out rather quickly what “the WORD” is referring to...
The WORD became flesh.
SO - pretty obvious here that “the WORD” is actually referring to Jesus Christ...
NOW - back to verse 1 - what do we find out about the WORD - Jesus Christ...
Ok, “In the beginning was the Word”...
What we see from this is - point 1
SLIDE: Jesus Christ as The Word: Had No Beginning
Jesus Christ as The Word
The phrase that we see here....”In the beginning”...
is a phrase that we’ve seen before…specifically in Genesis 1:1
where it says that - “In the beginning, God created...”
In Genesis 1:1 - that phrase (in the beginning) is pointing to a SPECIFIC point in history...
Why do we know that - Because tied to that phrase in Gen 1:1 is CREATION itself...
Tied to that phrase (in the beginning) is the creation of TIME ITSELF!
So in Genesis 1:1 - we see (In the beginning - at a SPECIFIC point in the past)…God created EVERYTHING!
But here in John 1:1 - there is NO reference to specific point in the past...
It’s just - In the beginning - and the next word is HUGE - WAS…the Word.
It doesn’t say - In the beginning - the Word CAME into being...
It doesn’t say - In the beginning - BEGAN the Word...
NO - in the beginning WAS - the Word...
In the beginning - THERE - was the Word...
This is saying that the WORD - Jesus Christ - was NOT created!
He had NO BEGINNING!
from Everlasting...
What else do we see?
SLIDE: Jesus Christ as The Word: Fully Distinct
Jesus Christ as The Word
And the Word was - WITH God...
So we had just seen that Jesus Christ - the Word - has always existed…fully eternal....
And HERE we see that Jesus - eternally - COEXISTED…with God the Father!
We see this truth throughout Scripture...
And so, it’s crystal clear that Jesus…in Scripture…is DISTINCT from the Father!
Jesus is NOT the Father...
But what else...
SLIDE: Jesus Christ as The Word: Is God
Jesus Christ as The Word
And so here’s the thing…other religions in this world…will get the book ends of this verse wrong...
They’ll misinterpret (In the beginning was the Word)
And they misinterpret (and the Word was God)...
We’ve seen so far that Jesus Christ is ETERNAL…from everlasting...
We’ve also seen that Jesus Christ is DISTINCT from the Father...
And finally....
we see that Jesus Christ (the Word) is God.
Now:
Muslims
Mormons
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Hindu’s
Scientologists
JUST to name a few....do NOT believe that Jesus Christ IS God...
Every other RELIGION will do their best to UNDERMINE the deity of Jesus Christ...
And they will add words to this verse…specifically - - they will ignore this verse…specifically
But what they fail to understand is - there is AMPLE evidence, outside of this verse to show Jesus Christ IS GOD...
Let’s go OT -
Think about who wrote this...
Isaiah wrote this - a monotheistic Jew wrote this…he believed that there was ONE God...
For to us a CHILD is BORN…(what does that mean)?
A human being - someone like you....like me...
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