Hope | John 1:1–5
Notes
Transcript
Ok kiddos you guys are dismissed! I hope you learned something about hope as you go upstairs. I’m sure Ms Kelly & Ms Brandis are hoping I don’t go too long this morning. Maybe everyone else is too.
You guys go ahead and grab your Bibles and head over to the book of John. We’re going to spend the next 4 weeks in John 1 as we reflect on/prepare for this Christmas. This series will be a little bit different than what we’ve done the past several months as this will be a bit more topical. I mentioned earlier how traditionally Advent is centered on the lighting of these 4 candles which each symbolize an important word in the Christian vocabulary. Today we’re looking at hope and what we’re going to do is see what John 1:1-5 has to say about hope. Now when we read this text you’ll see that the word “hope” is never used, so you might go, it has nothing to say about hope. But as I hope to show you here in a minute this passage actually points us towards the only thing in life that’s worth hoping in. So with that being said let’s read John 1:1-5 and then we’ll pray and then see what it has to say about hope.
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.
May God bless the reading of His Word. Let’s pray.
Now, I just want to go ahead and address the elephant in the room. There are some of you in here who just read along with me in that passage and you’re looking ahead in your Bibles in John 1 and you aren’t seeing anything about little 7# 6oz baby Jesus being born and you’re wondering what we’re doing here in John. You think that we’re supposed to be in Matthew reading about genealogies, or Luke talking about how an angel showed up and talked to Mary and then Joseph loaded his 9 month pregnant fiancé up on a donkey and had her ride through the wilderness to good ole Nazareth. And I’d say, yeah, that’s a good thing to do, so why in the world are we in John 1?
What is Advent? Advent is the season in which we anticipate the arrival of our long awaited Messiah and King. We know and we do celebrate his birth, but his birth points us forward to his death and his resurrection and his ascension and his promise that He is coming again. Our hope, which what we’re going to look at today, isn’t in the birth of Jesus, it’s in the return of Jesus which his birth assures. So because of that, when we focus on hope, really the Scriptures open up for us and as I prayed through where we should go I felt like the Lord led us to John 1.
If you’ve been with us the past several months then one of the themes I feel like we’ve covered a whole lot is that of hope. We just finished 1 Peter and it started with being born again to a living hope and then I remember preaching on setting our hope on the grace being brought to us at the revelation of Jesus. I don’t know if the Lord is trying to communicate something to me specifically or us generally here about hope.
But hope is a powerful emotion, is it not? In a sense, isn’t that what we’re living on or maybe even living for? I mean Bon Jovi was close, he said we’re living on a prayer, but maybe just because that flows better than living on a hope. No but for real, in times of war, the health of soldiers is measured in morale. If the morale is high, then they tend to fight better, but if it’s low, then defeat is near. And what’s morale based on? It’s based on one’s perspective of the outcome. The same is true in sports, right? Morale is high because we have the momentum which means we have hope. But if that hope is squashed on 4th and goal, then momentum changes and so does morale, and the ability to continue to play hard is diminished. In farming, we hope that we’ll have a successful year and be able to pay our bills and go again next year. In ranching, we hope that calving season doesn’t happen in the middle of a blizzard. In marriage we hope to grow old together. In high school, we hope to graduate and do our own thing. On Sunday morning, we wake up and hope to take a nap this afternoon. Hope drives all that we do.
Well when we take these first 5 verses of the book of John and we think about them and then we lay them next to the word hope and we think about what they have to say about hope we’re always left with the question, what are you hoping in? In these 5 verses John gives us an answer. It’s as if we’re to hold up this passage and place this word hope over it, or maybe to do that in reverse order, hold up these Scriptures and look at the word hope through them what John tells us is that there’s only one thing that’s worth hoping in. And that’s the eternal, life giving God. So this morning, the call for us and the main point of this sermon is to Set your hope in the eternal, life giving God that cannot be overcome. Now there’s 3 observations that I have from this passage. I’ve tried to phrase them in a way so that they can be seen as application statements, but let me give you those 3 points for today:
Our hope is in our creator
Our hope is in the life giver
Our hope cannot be overcome.
Don’t worry, if I went by those too fast I’ll run them past you again as we get to them. But let’s look at the first observation:
Our hope is in our Creator.
Our hope is in our Creator.
John begins by saying, “In the beginning.” Immediately what is your mind drawn to? It’s drawn to Genesis 1, right? Even if you don’t have a whole lot of biblical knowledge then when you hear that phrase you recall that passage and that’s intentional. John wants you to remember the beginning because what he’s going to say to you about Jesus isn’t just based off of a genealogy, like we see in the book of Matthew, or off of a prophet named John the Baptist like we see in mark, or off of the miraculous birth narrative like we see in the book of Luke. What John is doing is he’s tracing his account of Jesus wayy further back then the other Gospel writers; he’s looking back to before creation, to the very beginning. What John is saying is that Jesus has always existed. There was never a time when he was not.
Now we could stop right here and spend a lot of time discussing the importance of Jesus being there “in the beginning.” In fact, John 1 is an incredibly important chapter for our Christology—our understanding of who Jesus is, but John doesn’t stop here, he continues, John 1:1-2
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
Notice, John repeatedly uses the word, “the Word.” In Greek it’s the word logos. There’s actually quite a bit of discussion as to what John was referring to, but I think it’s actually a multi-pronged answer. You see the reigning thought process during Jesus’ day was that of Stoicism. It was the philosophy that influenced all Greek and Roman life. In their philosophy they understood logos to be the rational principle by which everything exists. So if John was addressing in his Gospel here anyone that wasn’t a Jew they would’ve heard that word, logos, and thought God.
But if John was addressing a Jewish audience then they would’ve thought Old Testament language and what does the Old Testament have to say about the Word? I’m glad you asked. While we could look at Gen 1 let’s go to Ps. 33:6
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
By His Word he creates. John echoes this in Jn. 1:3 Then in Ps. 107:20
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
All of creation is made through Him. This makes me think of Paul in Col. 1:15-17
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 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. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
He’s the agent of creation and the sustainer of that creation. The OT also sees the Word as the one who heals and delivers:
He sent out his word and healed them,
and delivered them from their destruction.
Then in. Is. 9:8 we see him condemn Israel for their sin and bring about judgment.
The Lord has sent a word against Jacob,
and it will fall on Israel;
I could keep going looking at the Psalms and prophets, but as D. A. Carson says, “In short, God’s ‘Word’ in the Old Testament is his powerful self-expression in creation, revelation and salvation, and the personification of that ‘Word’ makes it suitable for John to apply it as a title to God’s ultimate self-disclosure, the person of his own Son.” In other words, The Word described in the Old Testament who creates and delivers and heals and condemns and destroys is revealed in the person of Jesus.
So Jesus is eternal, “in the beginning,” and He is God, “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” But it’s important to see here the distinction John made. He emphasizes in in John 1:2
He was in the beginning with God.
While Jesus is God, he’s also with God. This is where we begin to see some of the doctrine of the Trinity emerge. Obviously the Spirit isn’t mentioned here, but John is drawing on the unity yet distinction between the Father and the Son. In fact, what we see here is that there has always existed a unique, intimate relationship between the Father and the Son.
What do we have so far in just these first 3 verses? We have Jesus who is the eternal God that has always existed in a perfect relationship with the Father. We tend to think of time as a linear progression of things. You’ve probably seen someone use the illustration of drawing a line on a board and time progresses from one end to the other. But what this passage tells us is that Jesus exists outside of time. He’s been there from the beginning and he sees all the way to the end. This means that there is nothing outside of his scope. If he sees all things then this means that he knows all things and if he knows all things then the big fancy word we call him is omniscient.
But he’s not just omniscient, He’s the Word by which all things have been created and as we saw in Colossians even today he’s upholding that creation. He is the sustainer of it all. And not just that, but he is the goal of all creation. It all exists through him and for him. If all of that is true about Jesus, then the power that he has is limitless. All power belongs to him. So John 1:1-3 tells us that Jesus is the omniscient, omnipotent God that exists in an intimate relationship with the Father.
Here’s why that produces hope in us: you see the Jesus that we read about in this book, the one who’s birth we celebrate, the one who’s promised to return is neither limited in His knowledge nor in His power. This means that whatever circumstance you’re going through he knows it entirely. And not only does he know the depths of your circumstances and every which perspective that can be had on it, but he’s also not limited in his power to change those circumstances.
Now that starts to get us all giddy and think, when we run to Jesus our circumstances will be changed by the omnipotent Savior. But what’s even more encouraging than him knowing and having the ability to change your circumstances is that he knows you. He sees you and what you’re afraid of. He knows your tendencies; he knows your shortcomings; he knows your lack of knowledge of your circumstances, and in the midst of all of that knowledge he isn’t repulsed by you; he isn’t disappointed in you, no in his love and in his power he wants to change you and he wants to use whatever it is in your life that you’re walking through to shape you not to be a better version of yourself, but to be more like him and to draw you near to him.
In fact, he’s so committed to knowing you and changing you that he came after you. Here in just a few weeks we’ll look at this more closely, but in just a few verses we see John say, 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.
He came and dwelt among us, but for what purpose? John 1:29
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
The omniscient, omnipotent God came and dwelt among us to bear our sin. To carry our shortcomings and our failures. To wipe away the guilt & shame that we have not just for our inabilities, but for our failure trust and obey him in the midst of those inabilities; for our idolatry. His coming toward us to bear our sin made a way for us to draw near to him.
So church you can have hope in the one who is omniscient and omnipotent and who draws near to us. You can have hope in our creator. But John isn’t done describing this Jesus. This leads to our second observation:
Our hope is in the life giver.
Our hope is in the life giver.
Look back with me to John 1:4
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Throughout the book of John he uses the words life and light to describe Jesus and here in a minute we’ll spend a little more time looking at light, but here when we see John say that in Jesus was life we have to ask the question, what does that mean? What does it mean for life to be found in Jesus? Throughout the book John explains that. We’ve already seen that he is the agent of creation, so all of life is created through him and by him and for him, but that’s not all John has to say about the life Jesus has. The most famous verse in the whole bible—John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Eternal life is found in believing in/having faith in Jesus.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Again, believing in Jesus brings eternal life and in doing so it saves us from God’s wrath. John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Abundant life is found in Jesus.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
What did we just see in v2? Jesus existed in a relationship with the Father before all time and now what Jesus is saying is that life in him consists of that same relationship with the Father. In other words, to know God is possible through the Son. So life in Jesus consists of eternal life delivered from God’s wrath, in other words, in perfect peace; it’s abundant life in perfect relationship with the omnipotent, omniscient God.
But notice what life is like outside of Jesus..Let’s roll back through those slides. JN. 3:16 “perish”. Life without Jesus results in death. Jn. 3:36 “shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Life without Jesus results in the wrath of God. Jn. 10:10 What’s the inverse of abundant life? Empty life. Life that’s been robbed & destroyed. But ultimately, what’s life without Jesus? Jn. 14:6 “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Life without Jesus is life in isolation; it’s life without knowing and being known.
But what do we spend all of our life doing? We spend the entirety of our lives looking for abundant life, peaceful life, life in relationship with the hope of eternity. We hope that the education we get; we hope that the jobs we take; we hope the spouses we marry or the kids that we have will lead us to live the good life. We try to find life in earthly things because we hope that they will satisfy our deepest desire to be known and loved or to have purpose and matter. Our hope drives our life and our life reveals our hope.
And in steps John and he says, “In HIM is life.” Your deepest desires and longings aren’t found in anything other than Him. In fact those longings and desires are actually all pointers to your need for Him. SO then don’t place your hope in other things for life, place your hope in the one who is the giver of life and when you do that you’ll find the life that you were created for.
You see here’s the thing about putting our hope in the creator of life, when we do that we find our purpose for life. Since he is the creator of life and it exists for him and through him, then he has a purpose and a plan for all of our lives. And that’s not just to grow up and get married and have a good job and 2.5 kids and then work for 30 years and retire and hopefully travel. The American Dream isn’t God’s plan for your life or mine. No, He’s the creator and sustainer and goal of life. This means that all of life is for him. It’s to know him and make him known. The beauty of the gospel is that it’s possible. Because Jesus came as a baby and lived the life we were supposed to live and died the death we deserved to die we can now know him, live with him and live for him.
So then what are you living for? What are you placing your hope in? Are you living for the brevity of the American dream, or are you living for something much longer than that? As I thought through this what kept coming to my mind was my time. How I spend my time is a revealing indicator as to what I’ve placed my hope in or what’s driving my life. Now I want to be careful here because I don’t want to heap on some sort of legalism that says if you aren’t doing XYZ then you aren’t following Jesus. No, life is found in believing, but as we saw in Jn. 3:36 believing leads to doing. It leads to action. So when I go back and I look at what I do with my time I see how much of that is spent in pursuit of knowing and obeying Jesus.
Can you imagine for just a second if I got married and then told my wife, hey, see you at the holidays! Or hey, i’ll touch base with you this weekend. How’s that marriage going to go? It definitely won’t grow into what it’s supposed to be. But so often we treat our relationship and knowing of Jesus like that. Jesus, I believe in you, so I’ll go to church at Christmas and Easter. Or maybe it’s, Jesus, I believe in you so I’ll go to church every weekend. But is that all that Jesus really calls us to? No! Believing in Jesus leads to all of life with him. It reorients everything we do so that it’s done in light of knowing him and being shaped by him. It’s not just in what we spend our time doing, but how we spend our time doing things. So the goal isn’t to spend every waking minute reading our Bible’s, fasting, and in prayer. But it does mean we do spend considerable amounts of time doing those things, because it’s in doing the spiritual disciplines that we come to know him and they help change the way we see all of life so that all of life is lived in light of him. It’s about taking the moments of every day and surrendering them to him. It’s acknowledging his presence in you and with you before you make that phone call or have that conversation or put those kids to bed. So when you look at your week and how you spend your time, what does your time say about where your hope is?
The Christians hope is in the giver of life. It’s not in things, it’s not in abilities, it’s in a person. Our hope for life abundantly, life at peace, life in eternal relationship is in Jesus. Our hope is in our creator. Our hope is in the life giver, and lastly,
Our hope cannot be overcome
Our hope cannot be overcome
Look back with me to the last verse of our text today. John 1:5
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Now notice how the tense of the verbs changes all of the sudden. In 1-4 “In the beginning was, was, was” but here now all of the sudden it’s the light shines. That’s a present active indicative verb. It’s currently now happening and indicates something. But what’s it indicating?
As one commentator summed this verse up he said, “this verse is a masterpiece of planned ambiguity.” If a Jew or pagan Greek were to pick up John’s gospel and read v1-5 they would get to v5 and think John is talking about creation. Gen 1:2-3
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Because he has been talking about creation—we just looked at our hope in is in our creator and life giver—he can describe the victory of the light, but what he’s doing in verse 5 is he’s pulling us out of Genesis and into the rest of what he’s going to talk about in this Gospel. Just like when God spoke and through the Word light shone and darkness fled at creation, now his Word has become flesh and his light will shine and the darkness will flee. Light now is not just tied to creation but to something more. John 3:19 I think is the key
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
You see when the light of God shines in our life we have to respond. We are either going to love the darkness because we fear our works being exposed, or we’re going allow the light to expose our works and save us from them. So when the light shines in your life you either flee with darkness or flee from darkness.
So in other words, when God through His word exposes sin in your life you’re going to do one of two things. You’re either going to say to God, no, I love that sin and I don’t want to let go of it. I’m going to hold on to it. Or you’re going to see that sin for what it is, by the grace of the light of God, and you’re going to then say to God I love you more than that sin so help me to flee from it and towards you.
Now this doesn’t mean that you don’t struggle with sin anymore. No week by week and day by day we allow the gospel light to shine in our lives and it continually reveals sins that are hiding in the darkness of our heart, but that darkness continues to try and creep in and overtake us. Darkness is going to try to win. That’s what it’s been doing since Genesis 3 and that’s what darkness tried to do to Jesus. In John 19 we see the living Word, the light crucified and placed in a dark tomb. Darkness did it’s worst to the light, but 3 days later the stone was rolled away and light shone forth into the darkness. Even death could stop it. So darkness tries to creep in every which way, but our hope is in the light that cannot be overcome, not even by a dark tomb. Our hope isn’t in our ability to flee darkness. It’s in the light’s ability to shine into darkness and not be overcome.
So church the question for us this morning is what are you setting your hope in? Is it in your ability to overcome the darkness? Is it in your works to prove your value and your worth? Or is it in the light of the gospel that says your abilities fall short and your value and worth are found in who he declares you to be? Are you hoping that those dark sins of life will bring you the joy and satisfaction that you desire, or is your hope in the light of the world, the life giving Word who’s existed for all of eternity? What does your time declare your hope to be in? The call for us this morning is to set our hope in the eternal, life giving God who cannot be overcome.
What we’re going to do now is transition into a time of observing the Lord’s Supper. I want to go ahead and ask the music team to come on and get into place. As they do so I want to give you a time to reflect and where you’ve placed your hope.
