John 1:1-18

Intro/Chopsticks

Today we are beginning what I think will be a powerful walk though the gospel of John .

The older I get as a pastor…The more I teach the Bible…The more interested I am in getting out of the way and letting the word of God do the heavy lifting

So that is what I am going to try and do for this series…

So before we get into the text I want to try and intro this book just a little bit

One of my favorite quotes about the gospel of John is this:

“The Gospel of John is shallow enough for a child to wade in it, but it's deep enough for an elephant to swim in it”

-St Augustine

It speaks about the both simplicity and the complexity of the text…

That there is something for those who are simple and straight forward with this text and there is something for those who like to dig

It’s actually why you all have chopsticks today

You might be wondering where the California rolls are…Sorry not today

But Whenever you read the book of John, I want you to think of chopsticks….Why?

Well let me tell you about the other gospels.

Matthew is organized around 5 sections to reveal that Jesus is the true king of Israel in the lineage of David…Matthew wants you to know that Jesus is the Jewish messiah

Mark is Peter’s Narrative to John Mark revealing that Jesus is the suffering Servant. He is God and man, who gave his life for you

Luke wants to show you that Jesus isn’t just the messiah of Israel but of the gentiles too. That Jesus is the savior of the whole world.

Actually in the birth narratives of Jesus you can really see the difference

Matthew’s genealogy goes from Abraham: See Jesus is the Jewish Messiah

Mark doesn’t have a genealogy

Luke’s Genealogy goes back to Adam: See Jesus is the savior of all people

But John…John Shows that Jesus existed with God in heaven before he ever became flesh…

So why Chopsticks

Because unlike the other gospels, that are pretty straight forward….

John’s gospel always has a deeper meaning

See in John’s gospel light is light but isn’t just light

and Bread is bread but Bread isn’t just bread

Water is not just water…But it is also water

There is a deeper meaning for everything!

I love that in John’s Gospel that on one hand you can hear all about Jesus and then if you focus on it…Go home and reread the text…It just goes so much deeper

I also give you chopsticks for this reason…

When I was a kid my dad had gone to China a lot and when he came home we went out to a lot of Chinese food…He sort of insisted that we knew how to eat with chopsticks.

We went to his friend Al’s house and he made us a big plate of fried rice…and we had chopsticks…as kids

I was like…Dad you can’t eat rice with chopsticks! Boy was I wrong…

In order to eat…It was a little more work….But the more I used the chopsticks the easier it was for me to eat

Its the same way with the book of John

There is a simple meaning to John, you can read it and it is straight forward in many ways….But also if you do a little extra work you will see deeper than you could imagine….

And the more you look deeper at John, the easier it becomes to see the power of what is happening in the text

So when you think about the book of John…Think Chopsticks!

So there are many more points of introduction that I can give but I’ll let those roll out through the series….

John gave us this great gift…He wrote down why he wrote his gospel…And it is not often times are that we get that from a biblical Author so lets look at this verse

John 20:30–31 NIV

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

So one reason is to catalog the signs of Jesus and we will go though all of those

And the other is the most impotrant reason why he wrote this gospel

is so that

The reason for the Gospel of John:

So the reader of John’s gospel can have eternal life though believing in Jesus as the Messiah (John 20:31)

John over and over again will talk about having life in Jesus

He will talk about it in chapter one…Which we will read in a second

See in the gospel of John life isn’t just life

Life can be defined as biological existence

But John uses this term 36 times which is 40% of all uses in the new testament

In John’s gospel he never used the word life just to denote biological existence but it is a quality of existence…Or a kind of existence because of Jesus

It’s like John realizes that in everyone’s life there is a before Jesus life and an after Jesus life

The before Jesus life is merely biological existence…But after there is a connection with the source of all life..In the gospel of John this will be explained as a new birth …

See in John’s gospel as we are about to see in one minute…It is Jesus and only Jesus that has the ability to grant life to people

To draw them out of darkness to bring them into the light of the father…

See we haven’t even hit the first verse and we need our chopsticks to eat from John

So here is what I want to do…I want to read all 18 verses that we are going to look at today and then pick it apart

John 1:1–18 NIV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

In the beginning was the word

John 1:1–2 NIV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

So Matthew’s Gospel tells us that Jesus is born in the lineage of Abraham…That he is the true child of Abraham…and that he is in the line of David

Luke’s Gospel tells us that Jesus is a son of Adam, in other words the messiah of not just the Jews but all humanity

But John tells us that In the beginning…Not the beginning of the world…But in the cosmic beginning

Before there was a universe, there was relationship (John 1:1-2)

The beginning of everything…There was a beginner and that person who began everything is the “Word”

Relationship was before everything and that relationship…The father and the son presided over creation in relationship.

And that relationship is extended from creation, to you!

The language intentionally takes from the first verse of the Bible

Genesis 1:1–2 NIV

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.

See in Genesis 1 we see God and then His spirit hovering over the formless and empty earth

John is making a claim here…And this claim is so impotrant…

That this word…who he reveals as Jesus, pre-exists humanity!

That Jesus was with God in the beginning…

That Jesus isn’t just a mere human. That he has existed before everything

But there is more to the in the beginning…We need our chopsticks here…Because John wants you to know that before Jesus there was an old world…After Jesus there is a new beginning

That because Jesus took on flesh and came into this world, he is ushering in a period of new creation!

John depicts a world where it was before Jesus then after Jesus…And once you come in contact with him you will forever be changed

That describes my life…How many of you can say the same thing? That there is like a before Jesus period of your life and an after Jesus portion of your life?

Why? because when you come into contact with the son of God and you experience the love and forgiveness that he has to offer, you can have a new beginning too!

Then John calls Jesus the “Word”

By the way this isn’t the last time that John will look at Jesus and say he is the word!

Revelation 19:13 NIV

He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.

So this if we are not careful we can spend the entire time on this…I just want you to see the genius of what John is doing here because incase you had questions about “In the beginning” John is going to get really specific with “the word”

Stoic philosophers at the time believed that the Logos or the “word” was the rational principles by which everything on earth worked

Now we talked a little about this last week.

John’s Greek here is the word Logos and in Greek the word Logos is interchangeable with the word for wisdom. So what John is trying to communicate to us is that all of God’s substance exists in another member of the godhead. That he is calling “the word”

The use of the word Logos is so Brilliant because it captures John’s Greek audience who would have noticed that yes, the world seems to operate by laws and principles and by using this world John is saying, look the world has reason and logic behind it…It is evidence of intelligent design and guess what, that Designer is Jesus

John is absolutely making the case that Jesus is the Creator God who has taken on flesh.

To understand this, we need to talk about the word “Word.”

John’s original audience lived in a world shaped by Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek.

While John wrote in Greek, many of his Jewish readers thought in Aramaic categories.

In the Old Testament, when you see “LORD” in all capitals, that represents the divine name YHWH.

In the Aramaic Targums — the Scriptures many Jews heard read aloud — God is often referred to as the Memra, which means “the Word.”

This wasn’t just a translation choice; it was a theological one. The Memra is how God creates, reveals, saves, and dwells with his people.

For example,

Genesis 39:2

“The LORD was with Joseph.”

The Aramaic tradition: “the Memra of the LORD was with Joseph.”

So when John opens his Gospel with “In the beginning was the Word,” he is saying something shocking:

The God we have been worshiping our entire lives has come to life in Jesus

John 1:14 NIV

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

the divine Memra — the very presence and power of God — has become flesh in Jesus.

The Memra you’ve read about your whole life put skin on

Do you see how this book is both shallow enough for a child but deep enough for an elephant?

Do you see how we need chopsticks to eat from this book? ‘

Its powerful!

Since there are more than two verses in the book of John we have to keep moving

John 1:3–4 NIV

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

You guys this is what we read last week

Proverbs 3:19 NIV

By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place;

It turns out John is saying…Look that wisdom has a name…That wisdom is Jesus

Jesus was present with God in creation. He contains all life

Here is what I think John wants you to see and what I want you to see

Everything that exists owes its existence to Jesus (John 1:3-4)

Jesus’ hand is on all creation and when you experience his life, you experience true light

What does the word “everything” include…The trees the earth the birds and your baby in the womb…Everything!

We use the words light and life all the time

We understand them as almost universal religious words

In the Torah…The Jewish texts Both Wisdom and Torah are commonly associated with life and light in the Jewish sources; John ties them in with Christ, the Word

Later on Jesus claims that he is both the light of the world (8:12; 9:5) and the life (11:25; 14:6).

We will talk a lot about these concepts in he book of John

In the gospel of John there are 7 huge “I Am” statements

Two of the seven are I am the light of the world and I am the way the truth and the life!

John is saying look to Jesus…His life will shed light on everything in your life

Look to Jesus he will take you beyond biological existence…He will help you experience life the way the creator meant for it!

Because in jesus is life

So many people hate their life

I have met people who want to take their lives. I have met people who feel stuck in life…People who hate their jobs who feel stuck with a spouse they don’t want

But Guys I truly believe that the picture John is painting is of Jesus who is intensely personal

God speaks by his word

He is Light and life

He is the beginning

He has personally created all things…His touch is already on your life, all life gets created by him!

I truly believe that we have two existences…A biological existence and then a Life…A life where Jesus is at the center and everything is touched by the God who created the world

Lets keep moving

John 1:5 NIV

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

One commentator calls this line “a masterpiece of planned ambiguity”

Because this line means different things to Greeks steeped in dualism and Hebrews who read the Bible

It is again another line where we need chopsticks

I will not get as in depth with this one but I want to show you this

At the first creation. Darkness was over the face of the deep and before there were ever the sun moon and stars God spoke by his WORD and said let their be light!

And God overcame the darkness with what?

Speech! HIS WORD! He spoke everything into existence!

And now this word is becoming flesh in the person of Jesus

Now the light of Jesus shines in all the dark corners of your life. the parts of your life you don’t want anyone to see…The private browsing tab on your phone the secret addictions…

The secret dating profile…The repressed anger..the loneliness that you are experiencing…The light shines in the group text that you would get fired if anyone saw

The light shines on the secret hate in your heart

The light shines on your dual allegiances

Whatever it is. God’s light both shines in the darkness of creation but in the darkness of our lives!

New creation begins when we let God’s light into our darkness. The darkness can not overcome it!

And this is what it means to be a new creation.

That we allow God’s light to shine in our darkness and then we allow him to overcome it!

Here is what I mean by allow: You can grieve and thwart the Holy Spirit. God does not Go where he is not wanted…So maybe God has been revealing to you stuff in your life that is darkness and you have said “Nope” and walked away

Now here is where John shifts a little bit

John 1:6–13 NIV

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

We first find out about John the baptist here…Now next week we will cover John so I won’t say much today but just that Jesus had someone who recognized who he really was so that he could tell everyone

Except for this is not the same John who writes the gospel of John…This is a different guy

But here is what I want to focus on

In the gospel of John there are categories that become characters

here is what I mean

“The World” is a character….

We are told right away that the world did not recognize Jesus

John 3:16 NIV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God loves those who do not recognize him!

John 6:51 NIV

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

God feeds those in the world with his body…By dying for the world

and then there is a plot to kill Jesus WHY?

John 12:19 NIV

So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”

So here is my point:

Even though Jesus brings light from another world

Even though he loves this world

Even though Jesus feeds the words spiritual hunger

Even though he is bringing healing to this world

The pharisees want to kill Jesus because the whole world begins to go after Jesus

So the category become a character…The World is a prominent player in the gospel of John

John 1:14 NIV

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The word for Dwelling here is “Tabernacle”

The idea is that God indwells with humanity and tabernacles with humanity…he pitches a tent

It is supposed to remind the reader of when God came down and dwelt with his people in the middle of their camp

It is meant to make you think of the whole chapters of Exodus 33 and 34

In these chapters Moses would set up a tent out side of the camp and anyone inquiring of the Lord would come out there and talk to moses

This is what we are supposed to think of

Exodus 33:11 NIV

The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.

John wants us to see that just in the same way that God spoke with one guy face to face he is now available to all of humanity though his son

If I were to draw a picture of the biblical tabernacle I would draw God’s camp right in the middle and everyone else lives around God

Jesus comes to dwell in the center of humanity!

There are no barriers

you don’t have to go though me to get to Jesus

He is available to you right where you are!

I love that the text says we have seen his Glory…

If you were following God around in the dessert you were following around the Glory cloud of the Lord.

There is so much here and John wants us to know that Jesus is the one and only son of the father and that full of grace and truth

I dont know where you're at today…Maybe you have had a bad experience with Christians because sometimes we are full of hypocrisy and judgment

But not jesus

He is just full of grace for you

He tells the truth

he has steadfast love and faithfulness

Here is the point I really want you to get and I think John wanted you to get: Christianity is not about humanity reaching God — it’s about God coming to us.

He wanted you to understand in the first pages of his gospel that God stepped out of Heaven for relationship with you!

John 1:15–18 NIV

(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

I will go more into what John says next week but what We need to know is that Jesus comes from the father

John wants us to know that when we have seen the father we have seen God

Moses showed us the law. Jesus shows us the father

The last thing before we close is this

The Gospel of John invites us to move from knowing about Jesus to experiencing life in Jesus.

John 1:18 talks about jesus being in the closest relationship with the father….Translated literally it says

“the one who is in the bosom of the Father.”

Or the Chest…It is a word picture…Jesus comes from the heart of the father…

In other words…Pay attention in the book of John because Jesus is the very heart of God…he is the character of God! and he wants you!

Closing

There is a reason we talk about letting Jesus into your heart…It is because he came from the heart of the father

Yellow Yes Cards!

We all know about Jesus. But I believe he wants you to experience him

Maybe youre here and you are already a believer but there are some dark places in your life that you have been pushing Jesus away from..>Some secrets..>Some brokeness….

Its time to let that go before the Lord. To let Jesus in to that space…He will transform it!

Its’s time to Confess the darkest parts of your life

Let Jesus in

Let’s pray