What's the Word?

Jesus the Word

Our words don’t always come out as we intend them to.

Jesse’s wedding: Marriage is sacred. Don’t take it seriously.

Today we are talking about JEsus the Word

Normally, when we hear the term, The Word of God, what do we think about?

The Bible, right?

This morning when we are going to talk about the Word of God. And this morning we will be talking about “who”, not “what”.

The question that Bible students always ask and debate about is this:

Is the Bible the word of God, or does it contain the word of God?

If the Bible IS the word of God, then we are obligated to follow and emulate everything that is in it. We may become like the guy who was struggling to find out what God’s will for his life was and so he decided to open his bible and do the first thing that he saw.

So he opened his bible and the first thing that he saw was (NIV)

5 So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

Well, he figured that he didn’t want to do that, so he decided to try again. This time his bible fell open to (NIV)

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

We have seen our Bible change over the years, be translated into hundreds or thousands of different languages, different versions and styles

But that’s not the question in front of us this morning

Read passage

John starts out his gospel echoing the same words and thoughts that we read in Genesis “In the beginning GOD”

We read how GOD created all things by speaking it into existence

BTW, there has been a long debate raging about the length of creation. Was it 7 literal 24-hour days? Or was it 7 periods of time.

I’m going to stick my neck out a little bit (or a whole lot) and say that I tend to distance myself from that debate

I’m not saying that it’s not an interesting debate and that there isn’t any validity to it. But I think it’s the wrong debate to stake our faith on.

Because I think that debate distracts me from the wonder of what happened here.

That is, that God spoke all that was created into existence by the power of His word. That all He had to do was say, “Let it be” and it was so.

All except for mankind who he formed with His hand

I am not willing to live and die by a belief in a 7 day creation. But I am willing to stand firm on the fact that God, by just His spoken word, brought everything that we see and everything that we don’t see into existence.

(You are welcome to disagree with me…I won’t be offended at all)

But we see right from the beginning pages of our Bible, the absolute power of the word of God

John says, “In the beginning was the Word”

This is the first time that we see the word “Word” capitalized.

in the OT, whenever we read reference to God’s word or the word of the Lord, it is not captitalized. For example the first time we read it is in where it says that the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a dream. It was a message from the Lord.

And we read this over and over again, especially in regards to the prophets; the spoken word of the LORD coming to someone.

The same spoken word out of the mouth of God which established the world and hung the heavens in place would come to people with messages of revelation and mission

D.A. Carson in his commentary on the Gospel of John says, “…God’s “Word” in the Old Testament is his powerful self expression in creation, revelation, and salvation.

So when the OT speaks of the word of the Lord, or something that God said, it is the revelation of God.

And it seems fitting that the things that HE spoke into existence continue to speak for him or reveal him. (NIV)

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2 Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal knowledge.

Do you see the wonder of what is happening here? God spoke these things into existence. And they were part of His revelation.

They continue to reveal Him or, in a sense, speak about Him, just by existing for us to see and marvel at.

I think this is important because of how John starts out his gospel

Because instead of saying “IN the beginning God,”

John says, “In the beginning was the Word”

This is the first time that we see the word “Word” capitalized.

Now John comes along and speaks of the Word our English translations capitalize this because it is quickly apparent that John is speaking of something or someone besides the spoken word of God. as the OT did

In the beginning was the Word

John begins His quest for showing us the glory and the deity of Christ by telling us that Christ was present at the very foundations of creation.

And just as God’s word (small w) was God’s revelation in the OT, Jesus the Word (capital W) was God’s revelation to His people in the NT

“The word was with God”

The Greek word for with is “pros”. Deniers and doubters trying to cast suspicion on the deity of Christ like to point out that “pros” can also mean “toward”. e.g. that perhaps God’s word supported him or something like that

But John, in case you miss it or start to doubt what he is implying, says,

“The the Word WAS God”

So John opens his book with about as much of a bombshell as you could possibly imagine by stating without question his foundational idea that the rest of the book hangs on.

If you dismiss this idea then you might as well stop reading and close the book because the rest of it isn’t going to make any sense and it’s just going to be words.

Not only was the Word with God, a Being apart from God, the Word was God Himself.

If this is making your head spin, I don’t blame you. It is headspinning material

Here is the foundation of the doctrine of the Trinity, our belief that God is one being revealed in 3 distinct Persons.

But here it is. The Word was God

In fact, the Word was so at one with God that John identifies the Word as intimately involved in the creation.

So intimately involved, in fact, that John says

“All things were made through. Him” (ESV). Some translations say “by”.

Not a word to quibble over. It is the same Greek word , “dia” and it means the same thing. In Portuguese, you have the same dynamic. “Por” means through or by.

So John is saying that the Word, being both separate and the same as God was the Creator of all that has been made.

And just so you don’t miss it, John says it again: “Without Him was not anything made that was made”.

The Word was Life and Light

Because the Word was the Creator of all things, He brought life.

He gave life to the living creatures and to the plant species. But he breathed life into mankind

He does not just bring life. He doesn’t just breathe life. He IS life. By partaking of Him, by clothing ourselves with Him, by abiding in Him, we receive His life.

And His life brings light. which is the fulfillment of prophecy.

(NIV)

2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.

have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.

a light has dawned.

(NIV)

The Glory of Zion

60 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. 2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.

2 See, darkness covers the earth

and thick darkness is over the peoples,

but the Lord rises upon you

And here is the fulfillment of that prophecy as the WORD of God is revealed in the Person of Jesus Christ

and his glory appears over you.

3 Nations will come to your light,

The WORD is with God

and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

The WORD is God

The WORD is the Creator

The WORD is life and the WORD is light

These are all themes which John is establishing and which appear in His book as He reveals this WORD to us

So as we walk through this prologue to the gospel of John, we are starting to see the themes that John will develop over the next 21 chapters.

And as we read and study, any doubt that Jesus is absolutely one with the Father and equal to Him should vanish from our minds

Jesus the Light and Life