A Word on the Word [F.O.]
Notes
Transcript
John 1:1-18
John 1:1-18
READ
The word that we are about to read is good news for you today.
And listen— let’s not pretend like we don’t drink in a steady deluge of news every day: news from family members, news from friends, news from the kids about school, news from work, news about the economy, news about Sunday night’s football game, news about the election.
Some news we like to hear— other news is hard to hear. This news is altogether different: this is news that overshadows and outlasts all other news.
My prayer is that this good news will truly be received as good today. News that transforms your life and news that you treasure. For some, this news will not be new. My prayer for you is that you will experience it fresh this morning.
And my prayer is that this news would not fall short and simply step on your toes, but rather, it arrives on target and pierces your heart.
Read John 1:1-18
LOVE MOVED LIFE STORY
Last month while my wife, the Autrey’s, and I were in the Dominican Republic, we met this Haitian woman named Dorothy. Thrown under the bus by her friend. Dorothy lived in a small shack with at least half a dozen other people- none of them were family members. We met with her and talked with her outside the curtain to her “house” (which consisted of one room).
Not long into talking with her, Dorothy told us she was not a Christian but was open to hearing us out. After sharing our own stories, telling her about Jesus, and having some interesting conversation, we asked a pointed question: “What keeps you from accepting Jesus?”
Her response: “The pleasures of this world.” At a place where the light met the darkness, Dorothy was confronted with the Person of Jesus. Her response would either be to reject Him or receive Him.
Our passage in John pulls back the curtain to show what was taking place. Light, darkness, reception, and rejection. Clear contrast right before our very eyes. All themes in the passage and in our everyday lives.
BACKGROUND
Background on the Gospel of John: unique among the four Gospels. Personality: Matthew knows everyone: he’s sitting beside you at the potluck asking how your brother’s friends’s uncle is doing. He might bring up his 23 & Me report. Mark gets right to the action. You come over to Mark’s house for the big game recorded on TiVo, he’s jumping to the fourth quarter. Luke is very precise: He is going to explain to you why he mows the yard diagonally on Tuesdays. And John… you avoid John if you are in the grocery store in a hurry. He starts every story from the beginning and consistently goes deeper than anyone else.
While the other three are similar in content and arrangement, The Gospel of John includes a lot of conversations that Jesus had, as well as Seven Divine Titles for Him and Seven Signs that point to His divinity. The Gospel of John is a critical, complimentary piece to the full portrait of Jesus Christ.
The prologue to the Gospel of John, our passage today, is theological (telling us about God), historical (telling us about the past), and practical (telling us about the here and now). It is artful, almost poetic, in its use of repetition, theme, and structure.
Three guiding questions: Who is the Word? What did the Word do? How is the Word impacting you?
WHO IS THE WORD?
Look @ verse 1
As we hear “The Word” — many of us will definitely be asking: what does that even mean?
For Greeks — The Word was an impersonal, universal, life-giving force that governs the cosmos.
For Jews — This opening statement takes hearers back to the Genesis account of creation. By the word of God, the heavens and the earth came into existence. God spoke, and the universe was created.
The Word of God, as used in the OT, is sent forth by God to accomplish God’s purposes and then return back to God.
For John — who is the author — The Word is a title for a Person, God Himself. The Word is Jesus Christ, who is God.
John is challenging Jews and Greeks.
To the Greeks, He is the Unknown God (drawing from Acts 17). That life-giving force? He is a Person.
To the Jews, YHWH is The Word. The God of creation and salvation … He is the One I’m talking about.
Not only was the Word God— but the Word was with God. This speaks about relationship.
The Trinity, revealed
Call it what you may— but God is one God in Three revealed Divine Persons: Father, Spirit, Son. Does this seem hard to grasp? Join the club! Join Christians who have marveled, wondered, and wrestled with this truth for centuries.
Look @ verse 3
The Word who made the world.
Who made everything? The Word. Who is the Word? Jesus is the Word. Who is Jesus? Jesus is God.
The Bible has much more to say about this:
Speaking about Jesus,
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
And in Colossians,
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
On the smallest molecule making up the nucleus that makes up a cell that makes you, “Made by Jesus” inscription or tag.
Matt Chandler does well to point out several things here, from made by Jesus for Jesus. That is truth ought to change everything for you and for me.
Although Elle is an incredible, amazing wife, she will never be what I most deeply need. I have not been made by Elle for Elle. I have been made by Jesus for Jesus.
How about my job? As hard as I may try, it never truly satisfies. I have not been made by my job for my job, but by Jesus and for Jesus.
Although children are a wonderful gift, they will never satisfy your most fundamental longings and needs. You have not been made by them or for them— you have been made by Jesus for Jesus.
Money? Sex? Power? Leisure? Food? Drink? None of them made me. I wasn’t made for them. I was made by Jesus for Jesus.
Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness- our darkness. Our emptiness, our fear, our searching and grasping in the dark— Jesus illuminates. He is the light. And life is only found in Him- beyond Him is darkness and death.
“The light shines” actually more accurately means “the light keeps on shining”
The light conquered the darkness. The light drives out the darkness, even now. The light will not be overcome by darkness. The light wins- more on that later.
WHAT DID THE WORD DO?
Look @ verses 6-8
John the Baptist, the man sent from God who came to bear witness about the light.
“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
The Word of God had long been waited for.
Luke 3:2 tells us the word of God came to John in the wilderness.
After silence for over 400 years, John came onto the scene as a prophet.
After centuries of anticipation, he came with an announcement about the coming messiah. John was not the light, but came to point to the light coming into the world
Looking @ verses 9-11, we find some of the saddest verses in the Bible.
God Himself came into the world that He created, yet the world did not know Him.
He came to His own, the Jewish people. These were the people He took by the hand and carried out His promises and plans through. He delivered them from slavery in Egypt. He guided them through the Red Sea. He tabernacled with them in the wilderness. He loved them through their apostacy.
Yet His own did not receive Him.
However, the good news we have all been waiting for is right here in verses 12 and 13
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.
Who? All
What? All who did receive Him and believed in His name… He gave the right to become children of God
How? Who were not born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
This is the gospel. Hear the good news.
The almighty, all-knowing God created all things through Him out of His endless goodness, beauty, and truth.
Yet we have rejected Him and belittled His glory. Every single one of us has chosen our own way and not His. We have sinned against Him by not giving Him the rightful place as King of the Universe and Precious One in our lives.
God, being just and holy, is not able to let cosmic crime go unpunished. So He sends His Son Jesus.
Hear the good news. God the Son came to earth and took on flesh. He lived a sinless, blameless life.
Although He was innocent, Jesus dies the death of a criminal on the Cross to pay the price of a crime He did not commit. It was the Father’s good pleasure to crush Him. God Himself took on the punishment we deserved because of sin.
Hear the good news. Through the Cross, Jesus bought for Himself a people.
Then God raises the Son from the dead on the third day. And that same power that raised Jesus from the dead now lives in those who believe.
The Word who is an invitation from God. The gospel message.
John 3:16
For today, resurrection power and light. You can’t resurrect anything! But He can.
Jesus drives out darkness and brings light. You can’t illuminate anything! But He can.
You can be born of God
Called a son. Called a daughter.
Disciples could get the flesh beat off their backs and still yet be glad. They are a child of God. To live is Christ, to die is gain.
Purpose today. Hope today.
Pleasures forevermore.
Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise / Thou mine inheritance, now and always
Jesus is God who became man, and He invites all who believe in His name to become children of God.
HOW DOES THIS IMPACT YOU?
Jesus is God, who must be received or rejected. Notice in verses 14-18, John shifts to using “us” and “we.” He just made things personal.
Your reality: here’s where the rubber meets the road for you.
Word became flesh. Shocking statement: God became a Person.
Wonder what God is like?
Moses in Ex 33:18
Ex 33:20
Ex 34:1-9
He who dwells in approachable light has come near. God has made his glory known in Jesus. He has made Himself known.
He loves you. He wants to bring you light and life. For you: scattering darkness. Let there be light! He declares. You are a new creation. You receive grace upon grace. Mercy new every morning.
V 17
Law and grace
Pilgrim’s Progress: Moses beating up Christian. “That’s not my job.”
There is no grace— no favor with God— except for those who believe the truth of the gospel.
You don’t earn this. God gives this. Receive it.
JESUS MOVED GOSPEL STORY
Going back to Dorothy, we were able to give reason for the hope within each us us sitting with her. If you have riches here on earth, moths and rust destroy them, thieves break in and steal them, fire consumes them, and ultimately you die to depart from them forever. If God gives you gifts in this life here, thank Him and use them to serve Him by loving others. They cannot satisfy, but they can be your supply to help others know Him who truly satisfies. Person, not possessions. Riches now and to come.
Dorothy got down onto her knees and prayed for Jesus to save her and bring light into her life. She repented and believed in the name of Jesus.
All that she longed for, she found in Jesus.
LOVE MOVING LIFE APPLICATION
Receive Jesus today.
If you reject the light, you'll miss your purpose now and forfeit your future with Him forever. Receive the light.
Remain in Him from here on out.
Carry this light to others. Is this worth one awkward moment? Is this worth simply assuming “they already know”?
How can you leverage your life to bear witness about the light?
Redeem your marriage. Redeem your parenting. Redeem your job. Redeem your leisure and pleasures.
Do you count all that you are and everything you own as actually belonging to Jesus?
Don't miss the point of existing. Why are you breathing? Why are you living? From Him, through Him, to Him. Only to be like Him. Leave a legacy by loving Jesus and invest your life into something that lasts.
WILL YOU MOVE?
“Come into union with the Word who made you, and you will come to Life! You came from Him; please come back to Him. You were made for Him. The result of this reunion will be more than human existence; it will be human ‘Life.’” Frederick Bruner
PRAY
