John: The Begining
John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 31:44
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· 26 viewsIn this special outdoor church service, we are serenaded by cockatoo calls while we look at the Prologue of John. We ask the question, why did John write this book?
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Intro
Intro
Where do you start when you tell people about Jesus?
Imagine you have made a new friend at work or school and you’re chatting about life and the opportunity to talk about your faith comes up.
They say: “You’re a Christian right? Why do you believe all that stuff?”
“Well...”
Where do you go from there?
I’m sure many of us have had experiences where we get stumped when the crunch moment comes!
How far back do you go? Where do you start?
Start talking about the authenticity of the bible, no, no no, we need to go back further and talk about the church being founded on eye witness testimony...
...but then you go back further to what Jesus actually said and did
...but in or to understand that you have to go back to the exile, and then the Law & promised land
...but to understand that you have to go back to Abraham and the forefathers,
...but to understand that you have to go back to Creation and fall… and so on!
But then how do you crunch all that down into manageable pieces to you can communicate the Gospel clearly?
It’s even a challenge for the most gifted evangelists to communicate the epic story of redemption through Jesus Christ in bite size amounts.
This is also the situation for even those who lived with Jesus, those who saw his life, death, burial and resurrection!
The Apostle John, who wrote this book that we are looking at today, he was trying to help people believe in Jesus and receive eternal life.
He had to start somewhere!
He had to make editorial decisions about what he would leave out! He couldn’t fit it all in!
He tells us as much at the end of the book where he summarizes everything he wrote:
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
So this book that we call the Gospel of John was written so that you can believe that Jesus was the anointed one of God. It helps people who don’t believe in Jesus to hear about Jesus and have faith in him.
It helps newer disciples to grow in their faith, love and knowledge of Jesus.
It helps mature Christians to keep their faith on track with the true Jesus.
And all this belief, all this faith, has the goal of having Life!
What a wonderful reasons to write! TO help people have live - new life, eternal life.
To do that John gives us a kind of biography of Jesus’s life called a Gospel. These are not a strict blow-by-blow account, but a structured account of historical events that lead you to believe in Jesus. We call these biographies “Gospels” which means “Good News” - This book is the Good News about the life death burial and resurrection of Jesus as recorded by John.
If you have read the other Gospels in the New Testament, you will see that the Gospel of John stands out for being a slightly different style. The other three all seem to quote each other a fair bit, and are structured in a similar way, where as John does his own thing.
As we shall see over the coming weeks, John has written in this way to show different aspects of the Gospel of Jesus. He brings themes and ideas to the front that are sometimes in the background with the other Gospels.
John the Apostle was there with Jesus. He saw him. He walked with him. He shared meals with him. He was taught by Jesus. He was a witness to everything.
But now he wants to share what he has seen and heard and knows. But where is he going to start? He is he going to set the scene for us?
With a prologue.
That what these first 18 verses are traditionally called. It is a prologue to what is to come. It sets the stage. Many of the ideas and themes that are introduced in this passage will come up again in future chapters. So whatever we gloss over here, we have a opportunity to cover it again in greater detail in coming weeks.
So how does this prologue set the stage for the book?
I’m suggesting that this passage answers 4 stage-setting questions for us.
v1-18 will answer 4 questions that will get us in the zone for everything else to come.
1. Who is this book about? v1-5
2. Who can corroborate this? v6-8 & 15
3. Why did he come? v9-13
4. How did he do it? v14-18
Lets answer each of those questions in turn.
1. Who is this book about? v1-5
1. Who is this book about? v1-5
I can see it now - imagine John sitting down to write and trying to think of where to start!
How can you do justice to the creator-sustainer-savior of the universe? How do you describe someone who is outside time and space coming into time and space? How do you describe the beginning of someone with no beginning?
John decides to go back to the beginning!
He goes back to the opening words of the Bible to help us wrap our minds around it. SO lets go there ourselves
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
In the beginning there was God.
In the beginning God spoke.
In the beginning there was creation.
In the beginning God spoke light into reality.
In the beginning God spoke humanity into reality.
So, coming back to John 1, what do we see? John lifts all that imagery out of Genesis 1 to tell us who his book is about. But he changes key words to paint the picture:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Do you see all those connections?
In the beginning there was God, yes, but there was someone there with Him. This Word.
Not only was the Word with God in the beginning, but the word was God himself. There is some connection between God and this Word that makes them inseparable yet identifiably different.
Now, the Word with God was a conduit for creation. God made all things through this Word, and this is reflected in Genesis: God spoke and creation happened. John is saying making a intrinsic connection between the speech, the expression, the logic, the wisdom of God and this Word.
When God expressed himself in the world, even from the beginning, it was through the Word.
This word has life in himself, just like God does, because he is God. “In him was life”
And just as God brought light into the world in creation through His word - he brings light to all mankind with this life. Where there is darkness the Light of the Word will shine forth!
So this is who John is writing about: the Word. The Logos. The Word with God and yet God himself.
This is the word that the Psalmist Speaks of!
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.
John had to start somewhere, and he started at the very beginning, giving us a summary of the true nature of who he was writing about. He tried to condense the intense reality of the cosmic and infinite into limited but tangible words.
1. Who is this book about? The Word of God
2. Who can corroborate this? v6-8 & 15
2. Who can corroborate this? v6-8 & 15
Now, how do we know that the Apostle John had his head on straight? Is there any way at all to corroborate this story about the Word with God in the beginning? Couldn’t he just be making up a story? Or perhaps he’s just a patsy who was swindled?
Nope.
There was a forerunner - someone who came to prepare people for the arrival of the Word and to validate his authenticity. God sent him into the world - a man named John.
Now we’re reading the Gospel of John, but we’re going to talk about a different John. The Book was written by the Apostle John, but the John in this passage, the forerunner is John the Baptist. That wasn’t his denomination - Baptist, that was His job description - he was the one who Baptized. Lets look:
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
God sent someone ahead to prepare the way. To get things ready. He was to do the ground work.
Like a civil contractor, he made a road so that the Word could drive straight on in.
John the Baptist was a prophet of God, and so when people recognized that he spoke truth from God, many came to listen to him. He started to amass a following of disciples who wanted to know God and be faithful. Despite his quirky nature and hard message to many, he was a popular prophet.
But, he didn’t come to bring people to himself, to build up his own profile and make a mega-church of his own, no! He came to point people to the Word, the Light.
John the Baptist wanted people to believe in the Light!
There are people, even today, a bunch of them living in Sydney, who follow John the baptist. They’re called Mandaeans. They hold him as their greatest prophet and teacher, but they have fundamentally missed the boat by holding up John the Baptist so highly, because John came to point to Jesus!
This is reiterated in v15:
(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”)
The Word, the Light who followed John surpassed him, because John came to endorse the Light. He was the herald, and when the main event arrived, John faded into the background because his job was done!
1. Who is this book about? The Word, the Light of All mankind,
2. Who can corroborate this? John the Baptist, the herald who prepared the way.
3. Why did he come? v9-13
3. Why did he come? v9-13
Next we see something mind blowing! This light, the Word who was God, came into the world!
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
Now hold up! This Light, this Word of God was the conduit of creation. The world was made through this person, now, this person was coming into the world that he made!
How does that work?
Can an artist enter their painting?
Can a musician enter their music?
Can a programmer enter their program?
How can the agent of creation enter into creation?
This is unheard of!
Just as God spoke light into the darkness in the beginning of the world, now the Word brings light into world by becoming part of the world!
Even though the world was made though him, the world itself couldn’t recognize him...
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
We have been darkened in our understanding.
Yet, he had some of his own people, some special, chosen, people who he had loved and protected through history, but even they couldn’t see the Light. The People of Israel were chosen and protected and loved. They were taught to know God yet they couldn’t see him.
They rejected him.
There were a scarce few, who had their eyes opened - they received their God:
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
So, why did this light come into the world? To make children of God. Not in the traditional way of making children, but through God himself. They need to be born spiritually - Born again!
And this rebirth, this right to become Gods Child was for those who received the Light.
Aside: Why would I want to become a Child of God?
1. Who is this book about? v1-5
2. Who can corroborate this? v6-8 & 15
3. Why did he come? v9-13
4. How did he do it? v14-18
4. How did he do it? v14-18
He took on Flesh - became human. God-man:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
God dwelt in temples, but now he came by flesh
He showed himself to be the Son of God the Father - full of grace and truth. The source.
So now this person - the main character of the Book is described as: Word, God, Light, Son of God.
Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
He came to bring grace
there was some grace in the Old Covenant under the Law, but it was ultimately unable to keep them as God’s children. The Apostle Apul would say the that Law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Jesus.
They needed more grace, they needed Jesus! The Christ! He’s the Word made flesh!
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
To see Jesus is to See God, to know him is to Know the Father.
The Son Exegeted the Father - reveals him.
The Son can do this because he is intrisiclaly unified with the Father - in closest rel
What now?
What now?
1. Who is this book about? The Logos - God made flesh
2. Who can corroborate this? John the baptist - the forerunner
3. Why did he come? To make believers children of God
4. How did he do it? Became flesh, revealed the father, gave grace and truth.
Become a child of GOd.
Receive Him