A new start
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1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
New telling of an old story.
I have often said that new Christians should start reading the bible in the Gospels.
I and I have heard others tell people specifically to start in John.
Mark - Romans (Efficient) In Mark Jesus is preaching and healing people in Chapter 1. Contrast that with
Matthew (Jews) Which starts with the genealogies, where the first two chapters address Jesus’ birth and his first sermon isn’t until chapter 5.
Luke (Greeks) Beauty, Culture, Ideas.
John wrote his gospel to everyone. Because everyone needs to know God and only the Son can reveal the Father.
Opening lines
Opening lines
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
Pride and Prejudice
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
Tale of two cities.
Call me Ishmael
In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit.
The Gospel of John
The Gospel of John
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Job unknown
Gen, Exo, Lev, Num, Deut - 1445—1405 BC.
James 44-49 AD.
Jesus died about 33 AD.
If someone wrote about 9/11 it would further removed than the book of James was to Christ’s ministry.
John 80 - 90.
writing about the Vietnam war or the Son of Sam murders in New York.
The point is there would still be people that remembered Christ’s ministry.
Perspective
I can get caught up reading the bible as if the writer was writing it at the time that it was happening.
Reading through the sermon on the mount. I read it from the perspective of one of the people hearing it. I put myself in the moment.
But we cant lose sight that when John wrote the gospel that carries his name, it was a past event and a lot of things had happened between when it happened and when John wrote it.
There was over 45 years of church history.
In the beginning....
In the beginning....
You can’t read John 1:1 and not be taken back to Gen. 1:1.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
There never was a time when the Word wasn’t.
Word=God
Word=God
a god.
6 “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
‘I am the first and I am the last,
And there is no God besides Me.
35 “To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God; there is no other besides Him.
60 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no one else.
Egg, Water.
2 D vs. 3 D.
Word
Word
Word - Logos. What does that mean? We know it refers to Jesus. but that seems like an odd way to refer to him.
Words reveal ourselves.
For God, His Word creates. God said, let there be light. (So God does with his word)
If you want to know someone, watch what they say and what they do.
And if you want to know God, look at what He says and what He Does. All that can be found in His Word.
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Jesus is the manifestation of God on Earth.
Emanuel - God with Us.
Word is a very good description of Him.
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
God said:
4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
All that in men which is true light—knowledge, integrity, intelligent, willing subjection to God, love to Him and to their fellow creatures, wisdom, purity, holy joy, rational happiness
5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
There are so many people in the darkness. They are to be pitied.
Matthew tells us we are to be the light of the world.