John 1: 1-18 An Intro to the Christ, the Son of God

Read Text: John 1:1-18

Pray

Intro:

Before we get into the text.

As an introduction to the gospel of John, we must ask the same questions we should always ask when we read any book of the bible:

Who is writing it?

Who is the audience?

And why?

And specifically for John’s gospel, how does it compare and contrast with the other gospels?

We already know that the Apostle John is the author of his gospel.

But to answer who the audience is and why John is writing is best answered by looking to the end of his gospel. Specifically chapter 20v30-v31 John gives his purpose here for writing his gospel of Jesus.

In John 20:30-31 it says: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 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.”

Clearly here John is giving two reasons for writing this gospel:

The first, So that you (John’s audience) might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God.

This means here John is less interested in sharing who Jesus is as he is in confirming that he is the Christ. God’s anointed one who was sent to fulfill all the promises made to the people of God in Scripture.

Are we together? John’s theme throughout his gospel is to show why Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

This is different from the theme of the synoptic gospels emphasis Jesus preaching of the coming of God’s Kingdom through his ministry.

The second reason John is writing, is that those who hear would believe and have life in his name.

Again, John’s reason for writing is clear here.

However, though less clear, we can also see who John is writing to in these verses.

Specifically two audiences:

The first, are those who have never received Jesus and rested in him alone by faith before.

The second are those in John’s time who have believed in Jesus, but have fallen under the ridicule and persecution of the non-believing Jewish community.

He is writing to these believers to affirm them in their profession of faith appealing to Jesus life, miracles, death and resurrection.

So to summarize, who is John’s gospel to?

Everyone, John wanted believers and non-believers alike to hear his gospel.

And why did he right it?

to confirm and affirm that Jesus was who he said he was; the Christ the Son of God and that you may have life in is name through faith.

Through our text this morning, we will see John stay true to this theme in two ways

First, in an introduction

And Second, in explaining the incarnation (x2)

1.An introduction -The Word (light and dark)

Explain

So to begin, I think it is helpful to share the first time I read this passage.

Back in 2011, When I was studying in university for my undergraduate degree,

I was not walking with God, in fact, I was running away from God.

I was doing what was right in my own eyes, Idolness, drunkeness and sexual immorality.

Despite the path I had chosen to walk, the Lord had coincidentally paired me with a Christian roommate named Shane.

After a year and a half of developing a friendship Shane,

he invited me to a bible study with some of his mentors.

The passage was John 1.

So when we met, they prayed and had me read part of the passage.

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Then they asked me, “Nathan, who is John talking about when he says ‘the word.’”

So, I ask you the same question this morning: Who is the Word? Who is John talking about?

Well, if you look again further down the passage, in verse 17 John tells us who the Word is

John 1:17 “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

And once we realize, the Jesus is the Word, the rest of the passage makes more sense.

At the same time, in verse 1 through 5, we see very similar language used that is used in our other scripture reading.

John uses the language from genesis 1 like: “in the beginning” “word” “made”, light and darkness.

John is doing a couple of things here.

First, John is affirming Jesus’ deity

So, To say it another way:

Jesus was in the beginning, Jesus was and is God, and everything was made through Jesus.

John is not pulling any punches here.

Right away, John jumps into affirming the doctrine of the trinity.

That Jesus is one of the persons subsisting in the one true God.

Fully God from the beginning.

This is a direct answer to non-believing Jews from John’s time who denied and harassed Jesus’ for claiming to be God.

We’ll see this happen an number of times in John’s Gospel.

The Jews were zealous to affirm God oneness in Deut 6:4 where it says ““Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

This is the same argument of our Muslim friends that say Jesus cannot be God.

However, John is not denying God’s oneness, but bringing more light to the personhood of Jesus in the one Godhead.

So firstly, John is affirming believers here of Jesus’ deity here.

But secondly, John is doing something creative here.

by using Genesis 1 creation language, he is showing us the beginning of the new creation.

In the same way, that God spoke light into the creation,

Jesus the Word, the life and the light of men is now bringing forth new creations by his word.

Just as God said let there be light over the darkness and formlessness of the earth.

The light of the world is coming into a dark world and will not be over come by the darkness.

However, John is not speaking about a literal darkness like in Genesis 1.

John is talking about the darkness that has plagued mankind since the Fall in Genesis three, when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit.

Sin is the darkness that John is talking about.

The same sin even the church wages war against today, that we repent of day after day, Lord’s day after Lord’s day.

But again, Jesus the light shines brighter than even the darkest sin we face in this life.

Application

So, some application questions I have for you this morning are:

Do you know this Light, have you looked to him in faith? Do you walk with him everyday? Do you pray to him? Do you listen to his words? Are you struggling to walk with him in his light?

When I first read this text, I can honestly say no to all these questions.

But after that bible study with those men,

when my eyes were opened by the Holy Spirit that Jesus was the light of men.

My world was turned upside down.

When I understood God’s word that Jesus was the answer to the darkness in my heart,

The things I was pursuing like sex, power, and comfort no longer had power over me like it did.

And I was enabled to say yes to Jesus more and more.

Not without great struggle at times and even now,

but, slowly slowly, more and more.

Jesus as God of God and Light of light that we confessed this morning is more than able to overcome the darkness in you too.

whether you are a believer or God is working faith in you for the first time.

Jesus will slowly slowly bring an end to the darkness into life eternal by his recreating power as God.

We know this because of the important promise John is emphasizing in verses John 1:11-13 “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

So wether you have received Jesus as the Christ the Son of God,

or you are believing Jesus is your God and Savior for the first time.

God has recreated into a child of God!

Not because you willed it, or were born into the right family, but because God alone gave you the right, purely out of his love for sinners.

Therefore, You are no longer ruled by darkness, but by the Light of men, the Lord Jesus Christ!

This is good news! Amen!?

But, for those of you who are still wrestling with this testimony of the apostle John and John the Baptist, the witness to the Light of men,

You are probably wondering how this is possible?

Maybe you have seen great darkness in this world,

maybe even dark spiritual forces in your life that are scary and are hard to explain.

Maybe you are thinking, “how then was Jesus able to overcome the darkness we rightly deserve for our sin?”

Well, John tells us how through explaining the incarnation in verse 14-18.

2. On the Incarnation

So, in order to overcome our sin in God’s work of salvation,

In order to for God to overcome the darkness in us and around us,

God himself had to come into the darkness.

John says it in verse 14 John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

These first five words were very controversial in John’s time.

The greek and roman culture of the time after the thinking of Plato,

Considered the flesh, or our physical bodies to be an evil thing, even a prison cell. (Soma sema)

So it was a disgusting idea that the divine would put on the despicable prison cell of the soul.

However, Plato did not look to scripture as his authority final authority in life.

When know God tells us through his words that he created the heavens above, the land, the sea and all that is in them.

And he called it all very good.

Therefore, our bodies are also good not evil.

And so when Jesus took on flesh, he did not become evil.

And he did not become less divine in his earthly presence.

Col 2:9 says, “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,”

Jesus was not diminished in his divinity, but took on a human nature in his person.

Jesus was fully God and fully man, the God man, yet without sin.

though his divine nature was concealed for most of his earthly ministry.

But, what is just as amazing as the infinite taking on a finite body and soul,

Is that he dwelt among us!!

This is word dwelt can also be translated, ‘pitched a tent’ or tabernacled among them.

John is clearly making an allusion back to Exodus 40 when God’s glorious presence filled the tent of meeting when Moses had finished constructing it.

In the same way the Lord Jesus Christ took on an earthly dwelling in the flesh.

And in the same way that God made his glory known to Moses and spoke to him like a friend in the tent of meeting,

So has Jesus shown the glory of the Father as light in a dark world of sin bound creatures, even making friends with sinners.

John describes Jesus’ glory as being full of grace and truth.

Grace and truth also find a connection Exodus 34 when God goes past Moses revealing part of himself to him.

When God passed by Moses, he was proclaiming Exodus 34:6-7 “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.””

The words grace and truth come from these very words steadfast love and faithfulness used in this passage.

However, John makes the distinction between the grace administered in the law to Moses and the grace of Christ that literally replaces it.

This is not to say that we are to throw out the law, but rather look to what the truth always pointed to in Jesus.

Are we together? The bible speaks of the law as perfect and beautiful, but Jesus Christ is the true embodiment of the grace found in the law.

The Law is still perfect and right, but it is like comparing a picture of my daughter with my living breathing daughter.

My daughter is far greater than her photo no matter how good the camera.

In the same way, Jesus is the far greater living and breathing law of God than the law on its own.

Let’s pause here and return to John’s theme and the question of how it is possible for Jesus to over come the darkness of our sin.

Well, if Jesus is the full of grace and truth or steadfast love and faithfulness and he supersedes the grace of the law.

Then it follows in John’s argument that if no one has ever seen God, and Jesus has made him known.

Then, Jesus is also the fulfilment of God’s promise to forgive transgression, iniquity and sin.

And the only way for God to forgive sin is to take the penalty upon himself.

God is not unjust and will by no means clear the guilty.

But at the same time, Jesus is the fulfilment of forgiveness.

For those who have received him and believed him to be the Christ, the Son of God.

He gives his body for you.

To reflect on the song we sang “in Christ alone”.

“There in the ground His body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain”

If God has given it to you to receive, The Light of the world was slain for you.

for what you have done and what you have failed to do.

But, the Song lyrics don’t end there.

“Then bursting forth in glorious Day Up from the grave He rose again And as He stands in victory Sin's curse has lost its grip on me For I am His and He is mine Bought with the precious blood of Christ”

Though the power of darkness overcame Jesus for a time.

It could not ultimately over come the Light of the world.

This is the victory we stand in as believers with Christ.

Therefore, in conclusion,

though we face darkness in ourselves, and the world around us

All the children of God in Christ Jesus are not ultimately overcome by the darkness.

There are times when we feel like there is nothing but darkness,

However, it is imperative that we look again and again, back to the light of men

The Word who is the God-man who bore the church out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light.

We wait for the full consummation of this kingdom with anticipation.

But, in the meantime, as we continue to look to the Light,

We ourselves grow brighter and brighter like him and we bare witness to his light and give glory to God.

Amen?

Let’s Pray

Conclusion