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“In The Beginning Was The Word" • 4.14.19 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
Text
• John 1:1,2 : "In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him,
and without Him nothing was made that was made." : The gospel of John begins with a very
peculiar sounding sentence and an extensive prologue.
- By the time the Apostle John pens this, he is
well into his late 80's, perhaps even his early 90's! His perspective regarding
the subject of Christ has widened considerably.
- He has spent more time with Christ in heaven
than he had on Earth! Truly, he did not consider Christ any longer according to
His flesh!
- The other gospels have presented Christ to
other audiences and have circulated among the faithful for years.
- John is writing to a group of churches that
were being heavily bombarded by Gnostic philosophy, which essentially believed
in the separation of soul and body.
- A Gnostic believed that he could sin with his
body and not effect the spiritual side of himself.
- As that teaching became increasingly
pervasive in that late first century culture, John has taken on the challenge
of conveying a perspective about Christ that would answer these challenges.
- "Where does one begin?" John
wonders! Other writers began at Christ's birth, but that was not where he
wanted to begin.
- "In the beginning" harkens back to
the very first words recorded in our Bible and the creation epic that unfolds
there. That is where you begin talking about Jesus, who is "the
Word."
- We get our word "logic" from this
Greek word. The idea of "the Word" first surfaced in 600 B.C., when
the Greek philosopher Heraclitus spoke of their being a divine reason in this
universe.
- He posed that there was a central thought,
logic, direction for all of creation!
- Jesus is not only the center of our
"religion." He is the very center and the purpose behind all of
creation! He is the reason that the universe exists! Everything in all of the
universe points to Him!
- "In the beginning was the Word." By
virtue of His being before the beginning we understand that He, the Word,
Jesus, is eternal. He does not have a beginning. He has always been!
- The Spirit of God reveals through John that
the Word was "with" God. "With" refers to "facing
forward." We might translate it this way: The Word was face to face with
God!
- Jesus is not God's assistant. He is not
subordinate or less than God in any way.
- He is separate from, but equal to God and
lest you miss his point, John declares it plainly by saying that the Word was
God!
- The Word, Jesus, and God the Father are of
equal essence, character, power and activity.
- The Word was in the beginning with God and
was the vehicle through which all things pertaining to creation came into
being! How vital was His presence?
- Without Him, nothing was made that was made!
Without the Word, without Jesus, there is no creation, there is no existence of
the universe! He is the catalyst to it's very being!
- The Word's divine nature brought things into
being and then infused them with life! Verse 4.
• John 1:4,5 : "In Him was life, and the life was
the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend
it." : The Word
bestows life upon the universe!
- The word "zoe," "life," intimates
the animation of a being, the essence that distinguishes between a living being
and a dead one!
- A person who has human life owes it to Him! He
is it's source! He gives it to men!
- Of course, human life is not all that is
intended here, but the fullness of the kind of regenerating life that Christ
possesses and gives to believing mankind!
- That spiritual life which resurrects us from
our spiritually dead condition comes from Him and illuminates our darkness! We
have spiritual understanding and wisdom as a result of His benificence!
- He opens minds and hearts and makes sense of
life! His light counters our darkness and the darkness of our fallen mind
cannot "comprehend it."
- The idea is to seize or to lay hold of it. That
darkness could not "overcome" (NIV, CSB and ESV)
or "extinguish" (NLT) it!
- John is remembering back through all that he
is about to write, remembering the stories of Christ bringing light into
previously darkened hearts.
- He remembers many of the lives that came into
contact with the Lord Jesus and what they were like before they knew Him!
- Just think about the Gadarene Demoniac or
Mary Magdalene, whose lives were dominated by demonic darkness. Think about
them before Jesus and then, after Jesus!
- Better yet, think about your own hearts
before you knew Jesus and then, after Jesus! Nobody will deny that the Lord is
the one that turned the light on in our hearts!
- John can remember the faces and the lives
that had been changed forever by the Word of God, including his own!
- Remember that our author was once a man that
asked God if he could call down fire upon the Samaritans because they did not
receive Jesus! He was a "son of Thunder!"
-
That was what he had been, but by the end of his life, he had a very different
designation.
- Most that knew him at the end of his life
referred to him as the "apostle of love!" Jesus hadn't just changed other's
lives. He had changed his! Verse 6.
• John 1:6-9 : "There was a man sent from God,
whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that
all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
That was
the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world." : Before John the Apostle, the writer
of this book knew Him, John the Baptist bore witness of Him!
- John the Baptist didn't come on his own
authority. John uses the verb form of the word "Apostle" to designate
the ministry of John the Baptist as one of delegated authority.
- He came bearing the message of God Almighty
that Jesus was the Light! Let there be no confusion, even though there was
during John's ministry.
- At one time, people did believe John to be
the Messiah and at Caesarea Philippi, the disciples noted that men thought
Jesus was the reincarnation of John the Baptist!
- John clears that up immediately: He was not
that Light, but was the true witness to the true Light that gives light to
every man coming into the world!
- Interestingly though, John the author notes
that despite His deity and His power to illuminate the minds of men, and the
ministry of John the Baptist, not all recognized Him. Verse 10.
• John 1:10-13 : "He was in the world, and the world
was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did
not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become
children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." : Jesus, the One who was with God and
who was God in the beginning, came into the world that He created!
- He subjected Himself to it's laws, in terms
of physicality. He added humanity to His deity, hiding His deity behind His
humanity! John witnessed this!
- He touched Him, laughed with Him, saw Him
sleep in the back of a boat in the middle of a storm, watched Him eat! Now, as
he considers this, he is awestruck!
- "He was in the world that He made! He
sits on His throne, above it all today, but, He was once in this world!"
He physically walked on this planet and John walked along with Him!
- Not surprisingly, the world did not recognize
Him, but shockingly, neither did His own! He came to them, the Jews, directly
and they did not receive Him.
- They, as a nation of people, did not take Him
in, accept or acknowledge His claims regarding His mission or personhood. That
is all that is said about them.
- They are left to their own choice. They did
not receive Him, so He did not do anything on their behalf. That is underscored
by what He does for those that do!
- Those that did take Him in, who accepted and
acknowledged His claims in the face of religious persecution and at least
regional bias, were granted exclusive and extraordinary status.
- Think of what it meant to believe upon Jesus
then, in the context of His world.
- These people believed in a carpenter's son
from Nazareth, whose life ended on a Roman cross at just 33 years old! They
received His claims and Jesus gave them a new privilege!
- In fact, He extended His authority to them!
As the Son of God, He gave those that received Him the power to become something
that they were not before! They became children of God!
- Can't you hear the objections now from the
unbeliever? "Aren't we all children of God by virtue of being human?"
Certainly, we are, as Paul says, "His offspring."
- There are attributes that each human has that
are remnant pieces of the "Image of God."
- Sin has badly marred the appearance of the
image of God, but it is there nonetheless. That is what makes this profound:
Jesus has given us the authority to see that image fully restored!
- It is for those that have received His claim,
who have believed, trusted in His Name!
- This cannot be handed down via blood
relation. There are only children of God. There are no Grandchildren or cousins
of God! You are either His child by His authority or you are not!
- Additionally, this cannot be a matter of a
person's will exclusively. There is a willing aspect toward receiving Christ
and believing in His Name, but not by itself!
- No man on Earth ever simply willed himself
into the Kingdom! It cannot be done that way according to this verse.
- Finally, it cannot be that a Man's will is
exerted on behalf of another! No matter how clever a person is and no matter
how persuasive a person can be, that will cannot make a permanent dent!
- No matter how badly I want to see a person
saved, I will never be able to will a person to Christ! It can only happen by
the power, the will of God! Verse 14.
• John 1:14 : "And the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth." : It's really as if John just keeps waking up to the astonishing
reality that he witnessed.
- The Word that was in the beginning with God,
who gave light to men, who authorized salvation, became flesh! This is an interesting
concept.
- It seems that the word used can be translated
"He appeared in history as flesh." He walked around in flesh. His
spirit carried a body and dwelt among the disciples.
- The concept behind "dwelt" is quite
evocative. It means to "encamp," to set up a tent or as the Jews will
have heard it, to erect a tabernacle!
- Jesus appeared in time as flesh and "Tabernacled"
among us! When the Tabernacle was constructed and the first sacrifice was complete,
God's glory came to rest upon the Tabernacle.
- It was literally a show stopping moment, as
Moses was unable to enter the Tabernacle because of God's presence above and
within the Tabernacle! (Exodus 40:34,35)
- John is telling us that the same experience
took place with Jesus! He is the greater Tabernacle and all of His glory, that
same glory which reveals relation to the Father, was beheld!
- The word intones that they were able to look
closely upon the glory that Christ Jesus manifested and discovered that it was
full of grace and truth!
- He is not merely mostly full of grace and
truth. The entirety of His being, all that He was to the disciples and to the
other humans that He encountered, was gracious and true!
- The two concepts are found in perfect balance
with Him. If He were all grace, then there would be no concern for the truth.
If He were all truth, there would be no hope for us!
- With the Lord, there is a perfect blend and
it flows from an eternal and interminable source! He will never fail to respond
this way! Verse 15.
• John 1:15-17 : "John bore witness of Him and cried
out, saying, 'This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred
before me, for He was before me.’ And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses,
but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." : If you wanted the endorsement of the
greatest prophet, you had it in John's words about Christ.
- We miss a little of the impact of John's
words in the NKJV. Listen to it in the NLT: "Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I
am, for he existed long before me."
- John was the Lord's "older" cousin,
but Jesus was John's Creator! Sort of hard to pull rank in that instance! Our
author is telling us this because of the greatness of John.
- God's people revered the wilderness prophet!
He was the first of his kind for roughly four hundred years! The people wanted
to prop him up as the Messiah, but John wouldn't hear of it.
- He did exactly what he was sent to do. He
came to point to Jesus and John the Apostle received that and it led him to
receiving everything that Christ offered!
- All of the fullness of Christ was received by
all that believed upon Him. Everything that Jesus is, is available to everyone
that Jesus fills! John describes it like this: It's grace for grace!
- John is communicating that the Lord who is
full of grace and truth, keeps dispensing grace. Grace to trust Him, grace to
follow Him, grace to live, grace to love and grace to remain!
- Everything that God gives us through Christ
is flavored with grace! You can't get that through any other vehicle! Think of
Moses.
- John compares the ministry of Moses with that
of the Lord. Why would that be important?
- For the Jewish believer, Moses himself had
prophesied in Deuteronomy 18:15-19 that God would send another like him that
would speak to the nation. that
- God commanded the nation to hear, lest He
require it of them! Jesus is that prophetic voice!
- This prophet that Moses spoke of, has come! Unlike
Moses who delivered the law of the Lord, Jesus delivered to His people grace
and truth! What a refreshing and defining statement!
- Moses, the law, cannot dispense grace to you.
He can only prepare you, reveal to you that you need grace! Jesus is the One
with the other side of that message!
- He will only dispense grace and the truth of
God! He will be the portrait, the focal point of grace. His life will always be
the presentation of God's truth, but that isn't enough. Verse 18.
• John 1:18 : "No one has seen God at any time. The
only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." : Of all the people that have had
direct access to God, there has been one consistent truth: Nobody has seen Him!
- There isn't a person on Earth or in history,
who has seen God. Guess what? If you had seen the only begotten Son, the One
that came from the heart of the Father, you have seen Him!
- He is the "only begotten,"
literally, of the same genes as God! When God has a Son, that Son is God and Jesus
visually "declared" Him.
- "Declared" is where we get our word
"exegesis" from! The explanation of God's character comes out from
the life of Jesus! He is the explanation, He is what God looks like!
Conclusion
- Jesus, the
eternal God has taken on human flesh and offered grace and truth to the World.
To those that have received Him, He gave the authority to become children of
God!
- To receive
Him is to accept His claim, to believe upon Him, to leave all other notions of
self-righteousness at the door and embrace Him as your only hope!
- Nobody else
has the authority to offer you access! There is no other way to obtain His
life! If you would ever see God, it must be through Jesus, the One who shows us
perfectly what He is like!
- As we walk
through John's gospel, His purpose will be to reveal to you the nature of God
through Christ and call you and I continually to believe upon His Name!
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