All Things Through Christ

Intro V 2

pray for Israel

Good morning chuch

Let us turn to Johns Gospel, Chapter 1

We are going to embark on a journey this morning

As we will start a treck through the Gospel of John

For the next several weeks and or months we are going walk faithfully through this outstanding gospel verse, by verse,

One would argue that Johns Gospel is absolutly something special

in fact each of the gospels is signfied with an animal

and Johns gospel was given the Eagle

Why the Eagle, becuase it is able to fly higher and see furhter than anyother animal

Also because it can look directly at the Sun

And isnt that exactly what we find in the Gospel

It very likely that Johns Gospel is the most loved and the most used of the 4

So let us begin by reading the first 5 verses of the Prologue

as that is where we will be camping out today

John 1:1–5 “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 was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

There is probaly more theogicial materpiece in the 5 verses then I will ever be able to conjure up in my lifetime

But that is what we have come to expect from John

John wrote other books

Whom, despite some outlandish accusations, I belive is the author of this boook

And I like John, he seemed to be a mans man.

He was most likely the youngest of the 12 but no doubt he had the heart and eye of Jesus

Jesus welcomed John into his inner circle

Why, I am not sure

It probably had something to do with his zeal

See Peter gets a lot of credit for his zeal

But we see that in John as well

In fact he is nicknamed one of the sons of thunder by Jesus!

He argued with others over who is the greatest

and even asked Jesus if he wasnted them to call down fire on the samaratins!

But it with this zeal, and with the insisde perspective that we see Christ working in the life of John

John includes much more intimate stories into his gospel while leaving things that we think should be there

for example John leaves out things such as the birth of Jesus

his temptation, no casting out demons, no Lords prayer

it does not include his baptism

parables

or the ascention

But we do gain his galilean ministry

we gain him turning water to wiine

we gain his conversation with Nicodemus which resulted in the most used verse in scripture

we gain the woman at the well

we gain the intimacy of his substantial upper room discourse

we gain the washing of the feet

actually almost 2/3 of Johns Gospel takes place in Jesus’ final week

the only disciple that I can recall was there at the feet of jesus during his crucifiction

and the very one that jesus asked to take care of his mother

John is the only Apostle not to be martyrd for his faith

That does not mean that John was not persicuted, we know all to well that he was

But when they finally couldnt kill him they exiled him to the island of Patmos

All of this points to the fact that Johns gospel is all about evagelism

All about pointing us to the son of God Christ Jesus

In fact, we can sum up the book of John with one verse, one theme verse if you will

John 20:31 “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

So, with out further delay, lets dive into this first part of Johns prologue

I promice we will encorporate more intro each week

but for now, lets dig into the text

V1 In the begining was the WORD, and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was God

This is Johns Christmas story if you will

While the other Gospels begin with either a geneology or the birth of Christ

Johns Gospel takes a differant approach

As we discussed Johns gospel is more of a spiritual gospel

And John wants to make no quams about it. He is here to make a statement

With just these few words John gives 3 powerfull P’s

He gives us the past, the power, and the person of Chist Jesus our Lord

It says “In the begining was the word” - This is the past

Jesus is eternal, he was there before time, and therefore he exists outside of time.

2 Power - “ And the word was WITH God”

Jesus has a special relationship with God, He preexisted alongside God

The greek work for WITH here is pros

which is the idea that Jesus is side by side with God

They are together, side by side, in this special relationship

Thus posessing the power of God and acting as the agent in which God created all things

And the Word was God - the person

Jesus is God! Our very faith is based upon Jesus being God, the God man!

By his very nature, Jesus is God, thus confriming the 2nd person of the triune God or Trinity which we know consists of the Father, the son, and the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost

Another thing I love about these few simple words is how they parralell the creation accout

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Here John is saying in the beginning, when God created the universe, the word / Jesus was there

Now, as we piece this together we see the word WORD mentioned 3 times in just this one sentence.

Now anytime we see a word repeated this many times we know it means something

So why the focus on the word WORD?

Why does John place such emphasis on the fact that Jesus is the word

well we actually have a few reasons

First is that John is preaching to both the Jews and the Gentiles

He knows the significance of the WORD or LOGOS

See to the Greek Logos means their life force if you will. It is what they would say brings order to the chaos, brings unity to the cosmos.

And for the Jews the Logos meant the word of God. or the Force of God in which things were done.

Psalm 33:6 “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.”

Isaiah 55:11 “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Therefore, to the Greeks John is saying this Jesus, this Christ, is your Logos. in a world where Greeks are encouraged to worship many Gods, each with thier own flaws and back stories. John is telling them that this word, this logos is differant than any gods they may know or worship. This God, this Jesus is far superior!

And the Jews he is planting his flag in the ground saying. Yes, Jesus is God!

See the word Logos meant so much to both the camps or audiances that john was attempting to reach. And by using this word he reimphorses his mission of showing that Jesus is God, that Jesus is that devine force

Jesus is the agent that God used put creation into effect and bring order to chaos

V 2 and 3 He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made

Again, John is really driving home the fact that Jesus was present at the creation of the world

He reiterates the fact by combining the first 2 P’s we found in V 1

That Jesus was in there, and in special relationship with God the father during the creation of the universe as described in Gensis 1:1

He says that all things were created through Jesus. And by all things he is not meaning the genereic universe. He is meaning all things in detail

As in you, me, the grasshoppers outside and those beutiful trees that may soon start changin colors. Everything, everyone, God through Christ made

now thing about that for a second. We are that special to our creator that he specifically made each and everyone of us.

Psalm 139:13–14 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

Jesus did this!

He created us and knows us.

he made us so intricatly and intelegently designed the knows how many times our hearts will beat

how many times we will breath air in our lungs

I mean just think about how perfect machines our bodies are

Do you really think that we are a product of evolution?

That we are some type of accident,

No I know all of us have some distant uncle that we swear may have come from a monkey I can promise you that isnt the case

God created us! from nothing!

And he created us for his Glory, so that we may know that he is God

Because with God we are valuable, we are unique, we are loved.

But without God, we are but a shell, if we turn from God we are turning from our very creator. Thus turning from the very reason we were created!

Because as V4 tells us. “ In him was life, and the life was the light of men”

Here we move from learning that Jesus is the eternal and creative word

to the fact that he is the life giving word

we will see these key words throughout the Gospel of John

life, and light

in fact Life is used 36 times in this gospel alone

Life and light are not only attributes or qualities shared by God the father, God the son, and God the holy spirit

They are qualities that are offered to us thorugh His gift of grace through faith.

See not only does God through Christ give us physical life,

God thorugh Christ gives us spiritual life

and this spiritual life that Christ gives to us freely is the ligth of men

physical death, which is a guarentee for all of us, that and taxes, can only end one of 2 ways.

If we reject the light of life here, Christ, then we will end up in darkness not only here on earth. But in eternity

as so many in our nation and world have done

Because honostly, thanks to the sin of adam and eve, we are all in a state of darkess

I mean just think about it

Think about the thoughts we can have

the anger we can posess

the jealousy

the greed

and this list goes on and on but the point here is that in our deepest darkest moments, we are at our utter worst, we can think and do some pretty mean and bad things. even within our thoughts

and we just discussed that God knows our thoughts, he knows what we do when no one is around,

and even just one of these thoughts is enough to become unrightouchous and unholy in front of a perfect God

but thats the point, God knows this about us, and he knows that apart from his Son we will not have life in his prescense.

So he sent his son, his eternal, relational, perfect, son. to bridge that gap for us. to make us Holy when we cannot be

V 5 says “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it:

Where Jesus is, where God is, there is light.

and no amount of darkness can withstand the light

Just think about lighting the smallest match or candle in the darkest room

That candle glows brightly

And that is what Jesus did

God sent his son

sent him

THe very one thate created the world

Jesus, to come to a dark world and be the light

jesus steped down from his throne

from next to the father

jesus stepped out of his rightousness

and jesus stepped into our world

Unlike any other religion in existance

where Gods are seperate and people must do things and deeds to win their gods approval.

Our god, the one true God. Came to us..

To save us

To become us

To put aside his glory, to put aside his heavenly place next to the father

and to put on our flesh

to experiance what we experiance here on earth

Hebrews 2:17–18 “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”