2.1.4 12.28.2025 John 1.1-5 A Word about the Word

Start:

Series preface:  

This year, beginning today, we will do a detailed study of John’s Gospel. There will be a few other things interspersed to break things up a bit, but 2026 will be all about John’s testimony to Jesus.

Entice: Mark begins his story at the start of Jesus’ ministry. Matthew and Luke begin their respective stories with tales of His conception and birth. John goes even further back. So far back does John go that like the book of Genesis he begins his story before the beginning. I know you can’t read greek but I do think that you can recognize that the first two words of Genesis and John are the same

Genesis =Ἐν ἀρχῇ

John=Ἐν ἀρχῇ

John 1:1–5 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Like Genesis, John’s Gospel tells a beginning story. Not the beginning of the world—Genesis does that, or the beginning of the Word—He was already in the presence of God before the universe was created. Joh’s story is about the beginning of the Word’s

saving,

incarnate,

intervening

work.

Engage: The prologue to John is a poem, and today we look at the most poetic part. It has rhythm and meter. Maybe you studied poetry in school. And, maybe you disliked it. Well, Like it or not, poetry has a way of stuffing a lot of information into a little space. John does that here as he begins to tell Jesus’ story. Do not be confused. The economy of the words does not detract from their significance. These words can change your life. 

Expand: It doesn’t sound like how Mark or Luke tells Jesus’ story, does it? It sounds kind of fancy, above our heads. There are different ways to tell virtually every story. John wants us to know that to save our fallen world…to save us, the Word, whom we will come to know as Jesus, and who we will be told is God’s own son—John wants us to know that He was there in heaven at the start. He spent time on earth veiled in flesh to save us, and He returned to His rightful station. There are at least two kinds truths we learn in scripture.

1. Very specific, timely truths. (Love your neighbor as yourself, for example.)We might call these behavioral truths.

and,

2. More abstract truths. (Knowledge we need to know.)

Or, belief truths. The specific behavior truths—love your neighbor as yourself—help us learn how to live. The more abstract, timeless belief truths explain why we should listen to Jesus, How it is that He is God’s final message to His fallen creation—why when He says something we should listen and obey.

Excite: Beginning in these words this morning we learn what it means to have God Himself, in the person of Jesus come among us. These facts still resonate today and form the heart of our Gospel.

Explore:

In Jesus God is fully disclosed to us. 

If you have ever wondered who God is, what He is “like”, what attributes He approaches us with—and no one ever pointed you to Jesus…First of all on behalf of Jesus and His Church—I apologize. Our job in preaching, teaching, and Christian living is to show you Jesus. In Jesus the Word who was face to face with God comes face to face with us to show us God. We will learn more about this process in the coming weeks but let me tell you clearly what I intend to do. Sermons that do not point you to Jesus, that do not exalt Jesus, that are not in the end Jesus-focused are not what the Church needs.

Expand: So in today’s text, John begins his story of Jesus, by telling us some truths about God that we can only get through Jesus, the Word here among us. 

Body of Sermon: First, the truth about 

1 God’s Presence.

1.1 Fellowship.

1.2 Focus.

Once we understand that the presence of God came to us in the incarnate Word, then we can understand the profound truth of

2 God’s Power.

2.1 Creative.

2.2 Durable

2.3 Sufficient.

Jesus, God’s presence and power among us gives us access to the truth of

3 God’s Promise. 

3.1 Real Life.

3.2 Real Light

3.3 Real Liberty.

Shut Down

That is fairly deep theology and that is OK. You’re up to it. More importantly it gives a clear path for us to understand what Jesus came to do. The creative presence of God brings real relationship to us.—God did not stay in heaven and “Ghost” us. In the Word, God became present. The enduring power of God makes it possible for us to be changed. He made the world—He can remake us! And the unfailing promise of God dispels the hopeless deception of our own sinful condition, Jesus redefines what passes for life, light and liberty. 

And these things are not merely words written on paper, but in the Word taking on human flesh. 

In a sense the story of the Word coming to His world is like a fairy tale becoming real. Yet the witness of Scripture is that this was God’s plan all along and that at one specific point in human history the dream of salvation became as real as a man in Galilee.

As Christians our job is to live this story, to tell this story, and to make it our story. He’s still present. He’s still powerful. He still keeps His promises. Are they your promises? Are these your truths? Is He your Savior? It’s time to decide where you will fit into this story.