Sermon Tone Analysis

Also the last verse ties back to the first verse…you almost have two pictures….you

have the Word of God being with God and God…….and also you have this picture of a Son on the lap of the Father.

Both images you have an image of something being very close yet distinct from the thing.

V18: KJV: “He has declared Him…” In the original Greek: ‘That one has made known’ - that one explained.

The sense of our English translations is correct.

There is a sense that each one of us wants to see God - we just want to see Him with our eyes.

John is saying: ‘if you want to know what God is like - take a good look at Jesus of Nazareth.

He is God!

Exogamia - greek word used in Luke/Acts - to know God/see Him

What really stands out to me and the point that I think John is making is Jesus is full of Gods famous characteristic list in Ex. 34…which is the most repeated referenced text in the Hebrew Scriptures….Jesus is fully those things (compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…) and out of that fullness we get gift upon gift….we

had the law which was great and now we get the one and only son!

Or the last verse….Jesus, who is fully human and fully divine, makes known the invisible God.

Verse 17 is the first time we read the name of Jesus and the title…because now the Word has become flesh, we are given a name.

So that is kinda cool, and I hadn’t really noticed that before.

There is a lot of focus on Jesus being God - (rightly so) but the first verse of this section starts with a revolutionary idea: GOD BECAME FLESH!

What does it look like to focus on God being a man, He is among us/with us.

We tend to view Jesus as superman - He is like an alien that we don’t know/can’t touch/etc… He’s 100% dependent on His mother.

(Nicene Creed: truly God and truly man because there wasn’t a percentage of Him not being God and man)

An image of a father with a baby son on his lap.

I know that kids tend to struggle with the idea of God because they can’t see him….adults are resigned to that fact…And John is going straight to that.

John is echoing a core claim of the biblical authors: humans can’t see God. (Think of Exodus 33, when Moses asks God to show himself.

God only allows Moses to see his back, and he reveals his glory to him.)

This is John’s way of saying that while no one can ultimately see God, there is one who is God, who we can see, (and we touched - 1 John 1) and HE will also reveal the Father to us.

This phrase (in the bosom) is used in John 13:23 - to describe Jesus’ closeness to John…

Heavy emphasis in these last verses on the relational nature of God - we have seen the glory “as of the only Son from the Father” - and it follows up with Jesus at the Father’s side.

It emphasizes the relational nature of God.

2 Cor 4:4-6 ‘Blinding the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing’ ‘God shining light to show the light of the glory of God’