The Gospel of John: The Prologue

John 1:1-18 The Gospel of John (The Prologue) Introduction: Have you ever made the mistake of opening up a book and starting at chapter one without having read the preface or the introduction? Sometimes this makes for quite a bit of confusion. I remember doing this with Fahrenheit 451. I think I got a few page in before I looked at the back and reminded myself of what this book was all about. After that I was clear and the book was totally enjoyable. Purpose and intent make for great clarity. John the Apostle did this with his Gospel. But John puts his purpose statement near the end of his story. John brings a lot of clarity about what he isn’t doing and what he is doing. Reading this will help us get a clear understanding of what John is trying to accomplish through this book. "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." John 20:30-31 John makes it clear this is not a biography, this is not an exhaustive account of the life and work of Jesus (as if there could exist any such thing..). What is recorded, is recorded so that we might believe that Jesus is Messiah, the anointed promised King of Israel, the Son of God, and that by believing we might share in the life that is in his name (or person). You see, each of us is believing in something, trusting in something, and that is taking us somewhere, either further into life or further into death, now and forever. You might have the perfect plan for your life, a great education, career, marriage, family, and if these things don’t happen something inside of you dies. And that mini-experience of death is a warning sign. “Beliefs that let us down are prophetic whispers, saying, “Don’t you see where this is going?”” -Ray Ortlund Jr What do you believe in, what are you trusting in? And do you realize that what you believe is a matter of life-and-death? What you believe, whatever it is, is either killing you or enlivening you. You might be a skeptic or a nihilist. But by believing it, you do not have life in its name. John writes that we might have life by trusting/believing in Jesus. This is John’s purpose. 1. The Word a. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” -John 1:1-5 b. The first words of Johns‘s gospel are undoubtably an echo of Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. As John Begins his account of the life, words, and works of Jesus he takes us back further than any of the other writers he takes us back before the beginning. When there was only God. i. “Whatever else John is going to tell us, he wants us to see his book as The Story of God and the World, not just the story of one character in one place and time. This book is about the creator God acting in a new way within his much loved creation. It is about the way in which the long story which began in Genesis reached the climax the creator had always intended. In Genesis 1 the climax is the creation of humans, made in God’s image. In John 1 the climax is the arrival of a human being, the Word become flesh.” -N.T. Wright c. John introduces us to the “Word”. The Word he says, was in the beginning, was with God or toward God, he was God, and all things were made through him and nothing was made apart from him. In the Word was life, and that life is the light of men. i. In the Old Testament, God regularly acts by means of his word. He speaks and it comes to pass. We see this in the creation of the world and from there on out. God’s word is his dynamic creative power. 1. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” -Psalm 33:6 2. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” -Isaiah 40:8 3. God’s word will go out of his mouth and bring life, healing and hope to Israel and the whole creation (paraphrase) - Isaiah 55:10-11 4. This is part of what lies behind John describing Jesus as the “Word”. ii. John here also says about Jesus the “Word” what many had already said about wisdom. Many Jewish teachers had grappled with the age old questions: How can the one true God be both different from the world and active, within the world? How can he be remote, holy, and detached, and also intimately present? 1. “Some had already spoken of the “word” and “wisdom” as ways of answering these questions. Some had already combined them within the belief that the one true God had promised to put his own “presence” within the Temple at Jerusalem. Others saw them enshrined in the Jewish law, the Torah. All of this, is present in John’s mind when he writes about the “Word”. -N.T. Wright iii. But the idea of the “Word” would also make some of his readers think of the ideas that pagan philosophers had discussed. They spoke of the “word” as a kind of principle of rationality, lying deep within the whole cosmos, and within all human beings. If you could get in touch with that principle, they said, your life will find it’s true meaning. Well, perhaps John is saying to them, but the “Word” isn’t an abstract principle it is a person, and I’m going to introduce you to him. iv. Later in scripture Jesus Christ is described in this way: 1. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Colossians 1:15-20 2. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. -Hebrews 1:1-3 d. The Dance i. There is something else that John wants to draw to our attention. It is not just that the “Word is God” but that the “Word was with (or toward) God”. This expression does not mean that the Word was merely in the presence of God, but that there existed a kind of interactive exchange between the Word and God. John wants us to know about the relationship between the Word and God. ii. Christianity, alone among the world faiths, teaches that God is triune. The doctrine of the trinity is that God is one being who exists eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The trinity means that God is, in essence, relational. iii. John describes the Son as living from all eternity in the “bosom” or side of the Father, which is an ancient metaphor for love and intimacy. Later in this gospel Jesus describes the Spirit as living to Glorify him. In turn, the Son glorifies the Father, and the Father, the Son. This has been going on for all eternity. 1. “To glorify someone means to praise, to enjoy, and delight in them. What this means is that the inner life of the Trinity is characterized by mutual self-giving love. Each of the divine persons centers upon the other. None demands that the others revolve around him. each voluntarily cycles the other two, pouring love, delight, and adoration into them. Each person of the Trinity loves, adores, defers to, and rejoices in the others. That creates a dynamic dance of Joy and love. The early leaders of the Greek Church had a word for this perichoresis - its where we get our word choreography. It means literally to dance or flow around.” -Tim Keller iv. “The words ‘God is love’ have no real meaning unless God contains at least two Persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, He was not love.....that is something quite different from what Christians mean by the statement ‘God is love’. They believe that the living, dynamic activity of love has been going on in God forever and has created everything else....And that, by the way, is perhaps the most important difference between Christianity and all other religions: that in Christianity God is not a static thing—not even a person—but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance.” -C.S Lewis (Mere Christianity, Good Infections) 2. The Indictment and The Invitation. a. “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. b. We Lost the Dance. i. The Fall -we failed to obey God, we failed to glory in him. We became stationary, self-centered. That self-centeredness leads to social disintegration. It is at the root of the breakdown in relationships between nations, races and classes, and individuals. 1. John says, that no one has seen God at anytime, but the only God who is at the Fathers side has made him known. This is a statement of the revelatory work of Christ, but it is also a statement about man. God made it clear throughout the Old Testament that no one could see him and live. The reason is because God is holy, we are sinful; he is light we are darkness; we cannot approach God it would destroy us. Examples: Moses, Isaiah ii. John is telling us that God has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, in order to remove the barrier of sin and darkness, to bring us back into fellowship with God, back into the dance of God. This is a sheer act of God’s goodness and grace. iii. The reason John starts his gospel this way is to show us what God wants for us... He wants to bring us into this glorious dance of Joy. 1. The son of God was born into this world to begin a new humanity, a new community of people who could lose their self-centeredness, begin a God-centered life, and, as a result, have all other relationships put right. iv. "The ultimate reason that God creates, said Edwards, is not to remedy some lack in God, but to extend that perfect internal communication of the triune God’s goodness and love….The ultimate end of creation, then, is union in love between God and loving creatures.” -George Marsden v. You see God did not create us, and nor does he save us, to get the cosmic, infinite joy of mutual love and glorification, but to share it. We were made to share in the life of God. John’s story is how the Eternal Word was sent to bring us back into the dance of infinite joy and love. Conclusion: John’s story is how the True Bread came down from heaven to give life to the world. It’s the story of the giver of living water , that if we drink we will never thirst again. It is the story of the Light of the World, through whom we will have the light of life. It is the story of the Door by whom we enter for true rest and safety. It is the story of the Good Shepherd, who comes for his lost and abused sheep, and who gives his life for his sheep. It is the story of the Resurrection and the Life, through whom we shall receive resurrection life. It is the story of the Way, the Truth and the Life, by whom we come to the Father, and finally it is the story of the True Vine- if we abide in him we will bear fruit. John’s story is written that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, the true and better, the Beginning and the End, the hope of every longing heart, and that by believing we might have life in his name.