The Pre-Incarnet Christ

The Prologue

Intro:

“It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet. Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy.....”

What I just read for you is the prologue to Ep 4 of Star Wars: A New Hope. The begining crawl that brings you up to speed concerning what happened before the movie.

I am an avid reader. I love to read, however, while reading I tend to run into a thing called a prologue. Often I tend to skip the prologues at the begining of the book and then I make it to the second chapter and I have no Idea what is going on.

In non-fiction books often times the prologues contain a decent summery of events that bring the reader up to speed on the historical events before and where the author is taking the book.

In the first 18 verses of the gospel of John we have a prologue. John is writing this gospel so that, well as he puts it in John 20:30–31 “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.”

In every essence the writing of the prologue and after is evangelistic in nature. It tells us of the risen Christ so that we may believe in Jesus and have life.

I have titled this series Encountering Christ. That is my desire as we study through the gospel of John for the next couple of weeks. That we would encounter our savior and learn about him in a much deeper level and we would in turn see Jesus as much more beautiful than before.

MP: Jesus, became flesh and dwelt among us, receive his grace today.

The Word (1:1-5 )

The Witness (1:6-8)

The Why (1:9-13)

seen throughout the gospel of John

He came that people might have life and have it more abundantly (10:10)

He died so that people might have everlasting life (3:16).

He gave his flesh for the life of the world (6.51).

Only those who eat his flesh and drink his blood will have life (6:53-54), and similarly only those who come to him have life (S40,

When he gives life people perish no more (10:28).

He said that he had power to lay down his life and to take it again (10:18), and he did just that.

As Lord of life he raised Lazarus from the dead (ch. 11). Twice he said that he is "the life" (11:25; 14:6),

The basic source of all life is the Father, who "has life in himself" (5:26). But the Father “granted the Son to have life in himself" (5:26)

The Wonder (1:14-18)