John 1.1-4 Testify: He is God
Notes
Transcript
Two men once sat on a railroad train, discussing the life of Christ. One of them said, “I think an interesting romance could be written about him.” The other replied, “And you are just the man to write it. Tear down the prevailing sentiment about His divinity, and paint Him as just a man—a man among men.”
The suggestion was taken and the book was written. The man who made the suggestion was Colonel Ingersoll, the noted atheist. The writer was General Lew Wallace, and the book was called Ben Hur.
In the process of constructing the life of Christ, Gen. Wallace found himself facing the greatest life ever lived on earth. The more he studied, the more he was convinced Christ was more than man. Until one day, he was forced to cry “Verily, this was the Son of God!”
Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 276.
This week we are beginning the book of John. It is the last gospel to be written and the most distinct. The other synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are very similiar, with each adding to or completing the picture of the other. But not so with John…John gives us more of the big picture. And he does this right out of the gate with the Prologue.
A Prologue is what many of you did when ever you wrote a paper in school or even college, you would state your main idea or point, or purpose right at the beginning, and then over the course of the paper or dissertation, you would set out to prove it. This is what John does in his gospel. And so over the next couple of weeks we are going to be covering the prologue…which is this “Jesus…is God.”
If I asked for a show of hands, and asked if Jesus was the Messiah? How many of you would raise your hands? What if I asked you if His life, he was a great teacher and taught us how we ought to live, love to God and to others? Maybe some more hands, right? What if I asked you if you believed he was God’s Son?
Born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, performed many miracles, died for our sin, became the substitutionary atonement for our sin and death, rose from the grave and sits at the right hand of God? We’re ok with that too, right? Now what if I asked you the question…Is Jesus God? John, Jesus’s best friend, most loved disciple…the guy that knew him better than anyone…besides his mother:)…this is his Holy Spirit written gospel, his account, his inspired story of the Christ…
Please stand for the reading of God’s Word (READ )
William Gladstone-“All that I think, all that I hope, all that I write, all that I live for, is based upon the divinity of Jesus Christ the central joy of my poor, wayward life.”
A pastor visited a vacant house with a friend who desired to purchase it from him. The friend was particularly struck by the beauty of one of the rooms which he wished to turn into his study; but he objected to a cupboard that was built into the corner.
“I will have to remove it”, said the prospective buyer. “No, you won’t,” was the reply. “You cannot do what you like with that cupboard,” answered the Pastor. “Why not?” he asked, “Is it protected by a clause in the deed?” “No,” said the architect, “it is not on the deed: it’s in the plans. You cannot take away the cupboard without taking down the house; it part of the plans, it’s part of the main structure.”
So it is, if we take away the Deity of Christ, we destroy the whole structure of Christianity. That doctrine is built in. It is central. It is a part of the structure. Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 652–653.
Today we are talking about this cupboard, that is “the main structure of what we believe as Christians. You could say the Cornerstone…So without further ado we are going to open the cupboard, and gaze upon each shelf, look at some of it’s contents…then we are going to close it, knowing that we have a fuller picture of our Savior, the Christ.
“In the Beginning”- To exegete this first phrase, we need to put ourselves among the great philosophers of the day, but also marry it with what was already known of God in that day. What they are referring to is the “stuff” out of which everything has its beginning. You don’t have to be a scientist, to know that even through the somewhat randomness of what has been created…there is a perfection in its design, the randomness doesn’t strip one ounce of it’s perfection. Aristotle quoted “What is the beginning, and what is the origin of the things that are made?”
For those that knew the Old Testament they recognized very quickly in John, there was an allusion to the book of Genesis here“In the beginning, God created…”What we will find is that in this prologue, and I want you to see this…there are other allusions to -Life, Light, Darkness. Where Genesis is describing the first creation, John is telling of the new creation in Christ.
He looked back into the past, nay, he gazed out of time into eternity; he looked up from the miraculous conception to that holy thing which was conceived in the womb of humanity; he endeavoured to set forth that form of God which could alone become “flesh” and tabernacle among men; and which, though it did this, did not destroy the unity of Deity, but confirmed and established it.
H. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed., St. John, vol. 1, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 2.
“In the beginning was the Word”. Many times in modern Christianity, we miss the weight and the authority given to the Word of God, but you can bet that for the Jewish people, they did not. In fact, the Pulpit Commentary tells us one of the names of God-
in numerous places substitutes “the Word of the Lord” for Jehovah, “the Word of Elohim” for Elohim, and “the Word of the Lord” for the angel or messenger of Jehovah. Thus in it is said, “The Lord protected Noah by his Word;” 21:20, “The Word of the Lord was with Ishmael in the wilderness.” In Jacob made a covenant that “the Word of the Lord should be his God;” , “Moses brought forth the people to meet the Word of God.”
H. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed., St. John, vol. 1, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 5–6.
“And the Word was with God”- what I want you to see here is that there is a preposition here “pros” or with, and it isn’t just talking about next to, or beside, but involves a personal intimacy, a personal relationship with. There is also a denoting to standing and yet a distinction from the Father…but I want to talk a little bit about the relational side I think.
This last week, we let go of our son, Cody to boot camp…can I tell you that I wasn’t ready? I haven’t felt that kind of pain since my dad passed. Some of you know what I’m talking about. I thought that I was ready, but I wasn’t at all ready for the pain, the longing, the hurt of my heart, letting my boy go. I’m not sure I was ready for him to serve, to be willing to die for this country.
Can I tell you that I think, that I caught just a glimpse at what the Father allowed and gave for us? I don’t know where I’m going with this…But I’ve known my son for 19 years, just a few years shorter than I’ve known my wife. Some of you have been married much longer than that…But what you need to get is that the text here is referring to the Father and the Son, having since before time and matter, and all the universe, a perfect, deep(and I mean deeeeep) loving relationship, that went back into eternity past… Think of that…now say . I’m not sure we could or will ever comprehend that level of love, this side of eternity.
“And the Word was God”-Everything God was and is in essence, in all His attributes, the Word is as well. Jesus is distinctly separate and at the same time, the same in all His attributes as the Father is. This is one of the verses that in the Baptist Faith and Message, that we come to understand, or study God(theology) in the Trinity.
One translation, because this is hard to grasp, uses the phrase “fully God”. In other words, the Incarnate Word of God“Jesus”, In Him bears all the fullness of the Father. He’s as much God as the Father is God. This is why he tells Thomas…Don’t you know me, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father”.
We also see this (“The Father and I are one”), 17:11 (“so that they may be one just as we are one”), and 8:58 (“before Abraham came into existence, I am”).
Wayne Grudem, in his systematic theology records In , John sees the risen Lord Jesus in heaven and says, “The name by which he is called is The Word of God…that among the members of the Trinity, it is especially God the Son who in his person as well as in his words has the role of communicating the character of God to us and of expressing the will of God for us.
Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 2004), 47.
“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.15 I, even I, have spoken; Yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way will prosper. 16 “Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit Have sent Me.”
For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
Verse 3 (Bible) All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. For the sake of time, we need to get this…Jesus under the Father’s direction is the creator of all. This is going to be important as we progress.
has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;10 And, You, Lord(Jesus), In the beginning laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are they are the works of your hands”
Turn to and read along with me.
Inferring without Christ, without Him being the very spark, the very point at which we all have breath and move, and reason. He is the cause, because it was the Father’s intent that it would be so. We so often think of the spiritual or eternal life and the physical seperate, and we will do that next week. but Now we see that everything, everything…except for sin and rebellion, came into existence from the direction of the Father through the Son, Christ Jesus.
We aren’t fully given how this works but Grudem, in His systematic theology(recommend) says “God the Father was the primary agent in initiating the act of creation. But the Son and the Holy Spirit were also active. The Son is often described as the one “through” whom creation came about. …(In the Bible, we see) a consistent picture of the Son as the active agent carrying out the plans and directions of the Father.
Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 2004), 266.
Now let me read a few more verses-
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—
In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
Now let me ask you…Do you believe Him to be the Son of God, Do you believe He was in the beginning, That He is the Incarnate Everlasting Eternal Word, that He was with God, that He is God. That all things, ALL THINGS have their existence from Him, and that in Him is the light of men? In the Old Testament, there are many times when the name Jehovah and you will see it in all capitals “LORD” is ascribed to Jesus. When we see “the Angel of the Lord” again…you see He has been walking with us all along…
Eternal life in Christ Jesus…that He came from Heaven, from eternity’s past, to live a perfect life, to die a perfect sacrificial death, that He rose again, with that same life, and is sitting once again, next to the Father…that He is returning for us one day, that outside of Christ there is no hope for us. Does YOUR life revolve around THE LIFE? Do you see that there is NO life, there never has been, outside of Christ? Are you a believer today? Have you been redeemed by Christ? Is His Spirit, the third part of the Trinity dwelling and residing in you?
That’s what this study of John is going to do for us I pray. To give us a peak inside the cupboard. Look at all His attributes, compare them with what we know of the Father, that we if we haven’t already, might say along with John the apostle- He is God!! Let’s us Pray…