MONDAY AUGUST 7, 2023

John 1:1-5, 14-18

Some things you might need to know about me…

Age – old enough; married – 47 yrs as of 8/2;

Two children

Josh – recently retired from USAF as Sr MS Sgt, married to Kalaya – they have two daughters: Sandra and Elizabeth

Megan – working for the NAB in Washington DC…

Without the aid of prescription medications under the close eye of a DR, I would wallow in depression and experience insufferable anxiety every moment of my life. I do not need nor want your sympathy or pity. Somehow up in this complex system of neurons and synapses that comprise my brain, something stopped working properly. With the counsel of family, friends, and Christian physicians I have been on a steady course of prescription meds for a number of years.

Another fact about me – that may not be relevant – I love to read. I have accumulated a library of books, and more than once I have been known to prefer to spend time with a book than real live people. I read lots of different kind of books – history, theology, philosophy, education, early childhood through adolescent development, public policy and city planning. In these books I often find more questions than answers, which prompts me – much to my bank accounts sorrow, and my families fear that when I die I’ll have too many books to move – to purchase more books!

Take your Bible’s – on your phones (try not to be like me…getting distracted with all the other apps……….), or an actual book, and let’s get acquainted with what one of Jesus’ followers named John tells us about this unusual person we call Jesus.

READ John 1:1-5, 14-18

CENTRAL TRUTH:

Let’s try a quiz:

Can you identify these sentences…where are they from?

“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” - Harry Potter And The Sorcerers Stone

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." Star Wars

Nants ingonyama bagithi baba

Which translates (rather underwhelmingly) to:

Here comes a lion, father, Oh yes it’s a lion. Lion King

“You’ve got a friend in me…” Toy Story

“Open your eyes…” Encanto

These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” Star Trek

You know I adore you, I'm crazier for you Than I was at sixteen, lost in a film scene Taylor Swift

Cause I-I-I'm in the stars tonight So watch me bring the fire and set the night alight – BTS

Read John 1:1-5, 14-18

“In the beginning…” is meant to recall the very first words of the first book of the Bible: Genesis. These are the first words of the most significant story you will ever encounter. Not long after those words we read the phrase ‘Then God said, ‘Let there be….’ Light – day one; , sky – day two; , dry land, vegetation – day three; lights in the sky – day four; living creatures in the waters- day five; , living creatures on the earth, and humans – day six. And here we are at Fir Point just out of Glendale OR. Whether or not you were aware, you are part of a story that began long ago.

Genesis - the first book in what Christians call the OT begins with God.

John, having been raised in regular synagogue attendance, learning to read Hebrew (the original language of the OT), memorizing extensive sections Psalms, and thoroughly familiar with the account of all God was doing, begins not with God but with ‘the Word.’

There are several important things John wants us to notice about the ‘Word:’

the Word was with God - one Bible translation phrases it like this: ‘The Word was first, the Word present to God....”

Present - most of you have suffered through years of roll calls - where a teacher calls out names and you answer: HERE or PRESENT.

More than once you and I have lied about that. We may have physically been in the room, but our minds were absent, we were not really present.

Make no mistake - the Word, who we will learn is Jesus Christ - was fully and completely present with God.

the Word was fully God

Pause for a moment. “…fully God....”

In our world there are multiple voices telling us a) there is no God; or b) everyone can find and define God for themselves.

Either choice completely changes how we think and live.

To claim that God - who was in the beginning

Genesis 1:1 HCSB

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

and is now accompanied by the Word - who is fully God tells us that God exists in a relationship.

In vs 14-18 John will go on to explain that God can be known as Father, and the Word, Jesus Christ, is known as the Son.

John will soon introduce his readers to the Holy Spirit later in John 1 as John the Baptist tells the story of Jesus’ baptism:

John 1:32–34 HCSB

And John testified, “I watched the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He rested on Him. I didn’t know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The One you see the Spirit descending and resting on—He is the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and testified that He is the Son of God!”

The Word was with God in the beginning (and) all things were created by/through Him … life was in Him

We are created beings, descended from God’s original creation of Adam and Eve.

Apart from God’s specific life-giving power, neither Adam or Eve would have had life.

This life then points to a spiritual reality, a kind of life that exists from eternity to eternity.

In other words, the Word - Jesus Christ - shares an eternal kind of life with God - who exists eternally.

It is this life which God breathed into Adam and Eve, it is this life that they forfeited when they deliberately chose to disobey God.

It is this life that Jesus came to give all who receive Him - a life He describes as abundant.

this ‘life’ is the ‘light’ of humanity.

The very first creative word of God is recorded in Genesis 1:3

Genesis 1:3 HCSB

Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

The light that shines through the life that Jesus shares with God, the life which Jesus came to bring to us…cannot be overcome by darkness.

Throughout John’s gospel he will illustrate how the darkness seeks to overcome the light. Yet the light that is the life that comes to us through Jesus Christ cannot be extinguished.

John is not finished with telling about the Word.

READ vs 14-18

The Word became flesh and took up residence among us...

Just a few sentences earlier, John tells us that Jesus, the Word who was with God, who is God, ‘came to His own people, that is the Jewish nation. These were the descendants of a man named Abraham through whom God promised to make Himself known.

Here in vs 14, we are given explicit information as to how Jesus, the Word, came to us.

He came ‘in’ flesh.

John, the writer of this account of Jesus’ life, does not attempt to explain how. His focus is rather on the consequences of the Word coming to the world which He created and the people He and His Father had set apart.

Jesus, the Son of God, the One who has always been present with God, the One who will always be present with God,

‘took up residence....’

In the original language of the NT, a better translation might be ‘the Word became flesh and ‘encamped,’ ‘pitched a tent,’ ‘moved into the neighborhood.’

If you have had US History, help answer this question:

What founding document was published on July 4, 1776?

That document, the Declaration of Independence, is regarded as the definitive break with Great Britain. That ‘Declaration’ sparked a war (actually the war had already begun) that wasn’t settled till 1783).

For citizens of the USA this marks our ‘birth’ as a nation.

For God’s people - the descendants of Abraham, the Exodus event - 40 years of camping with God in the desert - marks their birth as an independent nation.

One of the remarkable features of that 40 span was called the ‘Tabernacle.’ It was a tent whose dimensions and details were given to Moses by God where God promised to meet His people as they journeyed through the wilderness. Every day a pillar of cloud over the Tabernacle indicate whether or not it was time to leave that particular place and move on. Every night a pillar of fire marked the place where God would make His presence known.

Now, as John explains, Jesus - the Word who is God, who has always been present with God, the Word through whom life comes - now deliberately chose to experience physical life - being born of a virgin, growing up into adulthood, and eventually dying on a cross and experiencing God’s miraculous resurrection.

The consequences of Jesus’ choice to pitch a tent among us:

He reveals the glory of God

The ‘glory of God’ is biblical shorthand to signify the full and majestic presence of God in His splendor and fullness.

He brings the fullness of grace and truth

Moses, the man through whom God gave the Ten Commandments, begged to ‘see’ God. God’s reply

Exodus 33:20–23 HCSB

But He answered, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.” The Lord said, “Here is a place near Me. You are to stand on the rock, and when My glory passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away, and you will see My back, but My face will not be seen.”

As we come to know Jesus, we are given a privilege denied to Moses. We can see the fullness of the Father.

(John 14:6)

Reflect and Respond

In the beginning...

Just as certain as this world in which we live had a specific point in time where everything begins, each of us has a specific point and time of origin.

Some of us don’t have really good stories from our beginnings.

Divorce. Death. Separation. Family trauma.

Some of us have great stories. Caring and attentive families; parents who genuinely care; stable and strong homes which support us.

This week each of us has an opportunity to change our story.

We can’t erase the past - whether it is good or ugly.

What we can do is choose to find ourself in God’s story -

In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God…The Word came to the world which He created, His own people whom He had called and set apart...

Have you received Him or like those to whom John was writing, rejected Him?

If you have received Him, are you discovering new depths of grace and truth because of His eternal presence in your life?

What is the story of your life?