John 1:1-5

Structure:

The Logos and God (1-2)

The Logos and Creation (3)

The Logos and us (4-5)

Good Morning again,

Before we begin today, let us turn to God in prayer,

Prayer:

Dear God, we thank you for your word read to us this morning, we pray that you will impress upon our hearts the true identity of Jesus and how his identity should shape how we live, Lord, be at work in our hearts we pray,

Amen,

Well everyone, it’s December! Almost another year done, and I wonder what occupies our minds the most at this time of year?

(Slide) Are we occupied by the Christmas cheer of work parties and social gatherings, plugging events into our calendars and thinking about who else might be there.

(Slide) Or are we focused on the upcoming holiday, planning and preparing all the stops and sites to visit, while we are on our way to visit family on the other side of the state, or as we look forward to some time out of the country.

While we all know it’s a crazy time of year as we count down to Christmas day, I wonder if we are spending the lead up to December 25th, prioritizing the best things.

let me challenge all of us this morning, to consider the words of John, chapter 1:1-5, this week as we lead up to Christmas day, the day that we celebrate the birth of Christ. And to help you think about the passage John teaches us three important truths that shape our lives as we prepare for Christmas day: (Slide)

The Logos and God (1-2) (Slide)

The Logos and Creation (3) (Slide)

The Logos and us (4-5)

To understand the thrust of this Gospel, we ought to first understand a bit of the context of this gospel. (Slide)

Our author, is John and he is a born Jew, which means he knows his Old Testament front and back. John also traveled as one of Jesus’ 12 disciples. So John knows first hand who Jesus is, and he has a thorough understanding of who the God of the Old Testament is.

There’s plenty we know about the life of John, which, by the end of our series in this gospel, I’m sure we will cover much of his life.

The important context to know at this point is that John’s gospel is the last of the four gospels found in our Bibles, written some 20 or so years after the others.

And John’s gospel is certainly the most unique of all four, it is distinctly different. The other three gospels share a more travel journal approach to recording Jesus’ ministry, and they each highlight Jesus’ humanity in some way, which can be seen in each of the other gospels introduction verses. (Slide)

Matthew highlights Jesus as a descendant of Abraham

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Mark highlights Jesus’ earthly role as king of his people, which is what the word Messiah means.

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Luke highlights Jesus as a descendant of Adam in the Garden,

And all of this is to say, the other Gospels do a great job of emphasizing the humanity of Jesus. (Slide) In those gospels, Jesus is with out a doubt a real physical man who walked on earth. He eats, cries, laughs and dies. Jesus is fully human.

Now in John’s Gospel, the opening lines are presenting another truth of Jesus. A profound truth that, while the other gospels certainly affirm this truth. It is Johns gospel that makes explicit the divinity of Jesus. (Slide) By the end of Chapter 1, John has presented Jesus as God fully revealed on earth, the Word has in deed become flesh.

So as we read verses 1-5, know that this is all about Jesus, the context shows that, and John will confirm it to be true by the end of Chapter 1, The Word is indeed Jesus.

(Slide)

So with the context in mind, we now turn to the the first point that John wants us to understand, which is the relationship between...

The Word and God (1-2)

(Slide)Verses 1 and 2: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning

And our first question to John might be something like… What do you mean the word?? What is the word?

Well, it is clearly personified, meaning this Word is some sort of character some sort of person, but we aren’t fully aware of who it is yet. And that’s because John is inviting us to understand the relationship between this Word person and God.

And so to teach us about this relationship, John has written this in poetic structure that accentuates the main point that John is making, it’s called a Chiasm and it accentuates the central point, notice here. (Slide)

a) In the beginning was the word

b) The word was with God

c) The word was God

b) He was with God

a) In the beginning.

Look at how beautiful the phrasing is here in John’s writing as he makes an Abcba structure. Clearly in the center is John’s overall point to be made. The Word was God.

Now, we have to point out the strangeness of this relationship.

How can this Word character be both (Slide)“with God, and was God”. How does one be with someone and at the same time be that actual someone?

And even I tilt my head at working that one out.

But then I remember we are talking about God here. Not just an ordinary person, but the God of the Bible, and so I remember that I’m limited in my understanding and so I ought to adjust my thinking of God according to what is written in the Bible.

Because John is saying this Word person is the second person of God, whom is the same God of creation, the same God that we’ve learned about from the Old Testament.

Which should make us pause for a second to ask, well who is the God of the Old Testament. Because the Old Testament faith has understood God as Father and God as Spirit, yet God is one.

This God as Father and God as Spirit in the Old Testament was especially felt in the days of the Exodus story with Israel living in the desert. Because God’s spirit would rest on the tent of meeting as a cloud all year round for all to see (Numbers 9:15). But God the Father was only met inside the inner most part of the tent called the Holy of Holies once a year and only by the High Priest.

And John makes his point by getting us to turn the pages of our Bibles back to the beginning, all the way back to Genesis 1.

Because we ought to notice that John starts his Gospel with the exact words of Genesis 1: (Slide)

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

John’s using the same words as Genesis because he’s showing us how to interpret God’s word based on what God has now revealed. Greek writers would often use the first few words of an Old Testament writer to show how God’s revelation works with Old Testament thinking.

So let’s first see what John is communicating about this complicated relationship of the Word person and God using Genesis.

Well, there it is, God creating the World, and the Spirit of God hovering over the waters. God and his Spirit.

The Spirit here is distinct from God like our Word Person in John, and yet, the Spirit of God in the Old Testament is God, that’s a truth of the Jewish faith.

Now, John is saying in his gospel that there is in fact another person of God in the words of Genesis, yet still God is just one God. God is not 3 separate Gods, and God is not 1 God acting in three different modes. No, John is saying in his gospel that God the Father, God the Word (who is Jesus), and God the Spirit are all one.

So (Slide) John’s statement here is most profound indeed, he is stating that there is 1 God, who is also in relationship with himself as 3 distinct persons, we have a fancy word for that, which is the Trinity. and this Trinity, is eternally together, eternally one God.

Eternally one God, because John is saying in the beginning, which is before the heavens and the earth were made, before time began, the Word was with God and the Word was God, always has been.

Ok, thats a lot to take in.

but that’s not all we learn about in these first two verses,

(Slide)interestingly John uses the Greek word Logos, to describe the type of word that this word person is. (Slide)Now there is another word in Greek if you want express the written word, you would write Rhema.

But to use Logos is to use a broader category. See Logo’s is words on a page and words spoken through the mouth, but most importantly it’s also the thinking and application of those words.

(Slide)And so John’s use of Logo’s in this verse, is to say that not only is this Word person the words spoken by God but this word person is really God’s thought and application as well.

At which point I say, Wow, 2 verses in, and John has communicated so much about this Word person and the complex Trinitarian relationship that exists within God!

So lets have a look at verse three and see what kind of relationship this Word has with creation.(Slide)

2. The Logos and Creation (3)

(Slide)Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made

Through the Word all things were made. And just in case we had any questions about what was created by the Word,(Slide) John writes out the same thing but in the negative. Nothing was made that has been made.

by saying the same thing twice, John is being deliberately explicit that this Word person is the agent of creation. The one who made all things.

And I wonder if when we read the whole chapter of Genesis 1. We notice the Word person in action (Slide)

Genesis 1:3,6,9,11,14,20,24,28,29 all start with “God said”

John is really saying to us, Look, he’s there! He was there all along, the Word person who is both with God and is God, was there in the beginning.

And what we are seeing is that this Word is not only intimately in relationship with God, but this word is the agent of creating all that we see on earth. (Slide)All things were made through the Word.

which leads us to verses 4-5 where John describes how this Word character interacts with his creation. (Slide)

Our third point

3) The Logos and us (4-5) (Slide)

(Slide)In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it

In him was life.

Now lets quickly jump back to John’s key text of the Genesis account again and see what God is doing at creation.

(Slide)Genesis 2:7, Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

God breathes the breath of life into mankind, and so all of mankind has life on account of the creative action of this Word person.

But it’s not the life of mankind we are to focus on here in the Gospel of John, but rather it is the source of life that John is emphasizing.

Because that source of life, which is both Spiritual and Physical. is the life that is given to mankind. Spiritual and physical. We live and breathe, with both a body and a soul. Such is the image of God in us.

But (Slide) what is John talking about when he says that life was the light of all mankind? what does he mean about the light?

Well,

John uses light and darkness as a metaphor for us to understand this relationship that we have with God. John loves this metaphor, he will use it often.

Because we all know, we were made to live in the light, society and life has always, since the dawn of time, operated it’s main functions during the sunlight hours, we even get good vitamins from sunlight, it’s good for us.

And John is saying that God is the true light that we should be chasing to life in. Because God is the source of life.

This Word person is the origin of our existence. Therefore, as society lives in day time hours with the sun overhead. Mankind is made to live in God’s light with the Word overhead.

It’s a metaphor. John is not saying that God is the sun. John is using what all mankind understands to make the point that we were made to live in the light and life that is found in the Word of God.

And then John drives this point home with verse 5 (Slide) The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

And notice here, that John is continuing his personification of this light and darkness metaphor. The Light is clearly the Word, who is Jesus. And so therefore the darkness too is a person. A person who has evidently tried to fight against Jesus and lost.

And John uses this light metaphor because it perfectly describes the power imbalance of the battle between light and darkness.

See, we all know, that when the sun comes up, the darkness disappears.

Well mostly, there are shadows and things that obstruct the light, but in all reality wherever the light is.... darkness is not.

And that’s because darkness really has no power against the light. There’s simply nothing that darkness can do to resist the light on it’s own strength and power.

This image John is giving us is no yin yang, star wars Jedi type power struggle. No, Darkness is completely undone by light. It has no power against it.

This dynamic therefore, should compel us to consider who is being personified by darkness?

Well we aren’t told an identity explicitly, but we are told that they could not overcome the light. And so presumably these two have had some sort of battle or conflict in which light won.

At which point we should well be aware that John as a disciple of Jesus is really compelling us to remember the greatest battle the world has seen which is the battle of Jesus’ death on a cross,(Slide) where he died, and defeated death to rise again to life.

Death could not hold Jesus!

The light could not be overcome by darkness.

John our author was there. Along with the other disciples, Mary Magdalene and many more. They all saw this crucial moment where darkness was thought to have overcome the light.

Except,

darkness did not win.

Verse 5, (Slide) is stating boldly that even on the darkest day of history, the day of Jesus’ death. Darkness could not overcome the light. The light shone through all the powers of darkness and rose to life on earth, and life eternal.

In a couple verses time, John will confirm all of what I’ve said as he reveals that the Word is in fact the man named Jesus. but for now as we sit in the first 5 verses, we are simply struck by the power and status of this Word, the second person of the trinity. The one God.

And this passage is really exciting from both a knowledge perspective, and a practical perspective, as we look at how this all functions in our lives today.

Hopefully you all remember the kids talk I gave earlier.

And you’ll remember that light shines best when it is unobstructed.

And our sin only serves to shade the light that shines from our lives, but it cannot put the light out.

So therefore, in response to this passage we are really being called (Slide) to live the life we were made to live.

God made us to live in the light of his Word, that to live in his Word is to live in his life, as he is the source of all life. which to say to opposite, is to say, living in darkness is really to live in death. Not darkness, as in night time, but darkness as in not living in the truth of God’s word. God’s word is life and light.

And so as we head towards Christmas this year, let us consider how we might live in the light, John has shown us that first we are to. (Slide)Know that The word is God, and know also that Jesus is the Word. This is fundamental to living in the light because the more we think about Jesus as both with God and is God, the more we understand how precious the baby born on Christmas day really is.

Second,(Slide) we shine God’s light by knowing that the Word made all things. As we understand that Jesus, the Word, made all things, we know that there is nothing that can exist that isn’t known by Jesus. Therefore we also know that Jesus is above all things, nothing can hurt him, except that which he allows.

And thirdly,(Slide) we shine God’s light by knowing that the Word of God is the source of all life. So that ought to compel us to listen to God’s word each and everyday. As the sun shine above, so too should the words of God, so too should Jesus.

So as we approach Christmas this year, let us approach the birth of Jesus knowing his true identity as the Word of God that is both with God and is God. And let us live a life that shines his light for all to see. Because each day, as we approach Christmas day, is a great day to give thanks to God for life, and live a life that his light shine bright.

Because here’s the real kicker for us.

(Slide)Our lives are not for us, our lives are for the benefit of those who do not yet know the life and light of this world.

Because we live in a world with sin and darkness, where John’s darkness person is not completely destroyed. This world still has dark places, shadows and obstructions to the light of the Word.

But we know that dark places that are no match for God’s light,

So shine God’s light for the benefit of others. Because those around you who are living in darkness will be forever grateful that you shone God’s light onto their path that they too may follow the path of light and to life in Jesus name.

But a quick warning before we go rushing off to shine our lives in everyone's face this Christmas. This light we shine is not ours. It’s God’s light. God shines his light through our lives. So do what you can to shine the light of the Word but do it with God’s help, do it in prayer with his Spirit, because it is only through God that others will receive the life and light of God,

so please let’s not argue with our families and loved about the love of Jesus this Christmas, instead let us love others with the same grace and mercy that Jesus loves us with. and may we all pray that God would shine his light in the hearts of all those we love.

So Let’s pray.