John 1:1-
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1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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Here we have, just 17 words. But never have just 17 words said so much.
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Now… before we begin, even the first word of verse one, we need to set the context of this entire Gospel by reading from
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30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
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From the first verse, to the last verse… this is the ultimate context of the Gospel of John.
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Every word written here… the life events of Jesus… are written with a purpose. that we who read it, will believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God… and that by this belief… we will have life in His name.
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So… this is a book about Jesus… who He is, and what He has done…
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And so, John starts out with a verse that lays a pretty impressive foundation.
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This is the Greek word ‘Logos’.. - Which, in the Greek language, isn’t an uncommon word. It is often interpreted as a ‘saying’ or ‘a question’… It generally refers to something that spoken…
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It’s from a root word that means ‘to gather together’… which is often used in a mathematical sense. And, in fact, the word ‘logos’ is translated with the words ‘ computation or reckoning… and many times in the New Testament, when you see the phrase, ‘take account’… the Greek word behind it is logos.
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So in one sense… if Jesus is the Logos… then we might be able to say… that He is the final accounting… that He is the standard by which a reckoning is made.. I was getting input on this from a pastor friend this morning and he suggest that maybe Jesus is the sum of all that God is.
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In a more common sense… the word Logos had philosophical meaning to the Greeks… Logos was the impersonal, abstract principle of reason and order in the universe. They considered logos to be a type of creative force, and also a source of wisdom.
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If this is what the HS intended to say, through John to the Greek audience… then they would been impacted in a unique way…
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The only difference would be… that Jesus was not an impersonal source, force, principle or emanation. In Him, the true logos who was God became a man. What they saw as being a philosophical idea… John presented, as being a deity in human form.
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To the Jews… this would have had an impact also. - To them, the term ‘The Word Of The Lord’ was an expression of divine power and revelation.
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So… obviously… John presented Jesus to his Jewish readers as the incarnation of divine power and revelation.
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We don’t fully find out who Jesus was before ‘the beginning’… but we do find out, that Jesus always was… He pre-existed the beginning. We don’t have that part of Him recorded… but we do have ‘the beginning’ as the point where Jesus comes on the scene.
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Every good story has background… and ‘The Beginning’ serves as some significant background for who Jesus is, and what Jesus has done.
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Before anything was..
Before anything was known...
The WORD was already there...
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Now, the language of these first five verses thrusts us back to . You cannot read verses 1-5 without the creation story popping into your head, unless you are completely unaware of the creation story.
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In , this time period… known as ‘the beginning’ is described.
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1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 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.
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Verse 1… God created the heavens and the earth… - this serves as an overview of what is about to happen… for the earth is formed in vss 9-10 and the heavens… or the sky, is formed in vss 6-8.
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In verse 2… we find out what the starting point of this story is.
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The earth was without form and void… letting us know… that a thing… which eventually was created into the earth that we know… pre-existed that specific and defined creation.
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Two other things were present… One: darkness… and Two: water
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At some point, God created the void and formless earth, most likely… speaking it into existence.. At some point… God created the water… also, most likely… speaking it into existence. But… we don’t get a record of those events.
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The first three words of begin to tell us about a very specific miracle that Jesus took part in. And… it’s uniquely complex.
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If you read the first 2 chapters of Genesis… you will find five unique methods by which God, along with Jesus, fulfilled the work of creation. And we are going to consider this.... because, according to … these are works of Jesus…
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The Five methods are as follows:
God spoke something into existence.
God used water to form or reveal something.
God used earth to form or veal something.
God used His breath to bring something into existence.
God used a part of man to bring something into existence.
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In many of these cases, God, along with Jesus, used a combination of these methods.
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You’ll want to have your Bibles open to and 2 for this part.
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First off… LIGHT - () - God, along with JX, spoke it into existence.
Secondly: Day and Night () God, along with JX, spoke this distinction into existence.
Next: The Sky ()… God, along with Jesus.. used water to form or reveal this… by taking what was already there, and by separating it… He revealed a space in between… called The Heavens… or… the sky.
Next: The Land and Seas ()- God, along with JX, used water… and the movement of water, to bring distinction to the areas called land, and the areas called seas.
Next: Plants () - God, along with JX, used a combination here… between the earth to form, and the voice to create.
Next: Sun, Moon and Stars: ()… God, along with JX, spoke these things into existence
next: The animals of the air and of the se () - God, along with Jesus, spoke these into existence.
Next. The land animals ( and )… God, along with JX, use a combination of speaking and the earth… For, as He spoke, the animals came forth, from the earth.
Next. Man () God, along with Jesus, used the dirt of the earth, and His breath, to bring about our creation.
Finally: Woman (), God, along with Jesus, used a part of man, to bring her into existence.
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This term, “In The Beginning”… describes the wonderful and complex miracle of creation… and Jesus was part of the whole thing. -He was WITH GOD...
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Not just present… but active as a co-creator.
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Something that stands out to us in verse one, is the word WORD.
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This is the Greek word ‘Logos’.. - Which, in the Greek language, isn’t an uncommon word. It is often interpreted as a ‘saying’ or ‘a question’… It generally refers to something that spoken…
++
It’s from a root word that means ‘to gather together’… which is often used in a mathematical sense. And, in fact, the word ‘logos’ is translated with the words ‘ computation or reckoning… and many times in the New Testament, when you see the phrase, ‘take account’… the Greek word behind it is logos.
++
So in one sense… if Jesus is the Logos… then we might be able to say… that He is the final accounting… that He is the standard by which a reckoning is made.. I was getting input on this from a pastor friend this morning and he suggest that maybe Jesus is the sum of all that God is.
++
In a more common sense… the word Logos had philosophical meaning to the Greeks… Logos was the impersonal, abstract principle of reason and order in the universe. They considered logos to be a type of creative force, and also a source of wisdom.
++
If this is what the HS intended to say, through John to the Greek audience… then they would been impacted in a unique way…
++
The only difference would be… that Jesus was not an impersonal source, force, principle or emanation. In Him, the true logos who was God became a man. What they saw as being a philosophical idea… John presented, as being a deity in human form.
++
To the Jews… this would have had an impact also. - To them, the term ‘The Word Of The Lord’ was an expression of divine power and revelation.
++
So… obviously… John presented Jesus to his Jewish readers as the incarnation of divine power and revelation
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The Word, was with God...
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This doesn’t simply mean: Jesus was present… Jesus was in the room… Jesus was in the same house. - No… the word ‘with’ comes from a Greek expression which means far more than common existence. - The picture this expression gives, is of two people facing each other and engaging in conversation or work.
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Some have suggest that this expression can be translated… - face to face -
In the beginning was the Word… the Word was face to face, involved in common work and discourse with God...
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And finally, the third part of verse one… that part that many people… and many religious sects struggle with.. - It says of Logos… the Word… Jesus… that HE WAS GOD.
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Now, sometimes you might find small groups of nice people knocking at your door, and they love to make reference to this verse. They claim, that in the original Greek… this actually says “he was a god”… and that term god, as they say, is a general term used of a spiritual being..
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… in the same way that Elohim is used in the OT to speak of God… but is also used to speak of divine angelic beings.
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It’s really important to many religious groups… that Jesus not be God. Because, if Jesus actually isn’t God, in spite of His own testimony of such… then they are given a lot of room to mess around with the message of the Bible.
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30 I and the Father are one.”
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58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
John
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9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
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And of course… the testimony of the rest of the NT lends credence.
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13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
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9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
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3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
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16 Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
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W/O a doubt, the testimony of the NT confirms the third statement of …
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2 He was in the beginning with God.
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Why does John re-state this? Two reasons… to emphasize and to clarify. If anyone disputed the identity of the Word in verse 1, John clarifies here by attaching a masculine pronoun. As of yet, Jesus has not been named, but there is a trail being laid out… between THE WORD… to the masculine pronoun ‘he’ in this verse… and in the next verse… it’s light… and if we follow the trail of light, we find out that the light is someone that John the Baptist bears witness to
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If you continue to follow this trail… it’s impossible to identify the Word from verse one, as being anyone other than Jesus Christ.
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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.
John 1.,
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
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John doesn’t want to leave any room for doubt.
Have you ever told someone something that they don’t want to hear… or tell them something that they don’t agree with...
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And when you speak your words, their defensive system instantly goes into gear… and before your words reach the center of reason in their brain… it’s already been processed a unique way…
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It’s almost like the effects board that Rob plays his guitar through… it translates the sound of a vibrating string through a bunch of different circuits… so that… w/o any lag or delay… the end result is something that sounds quite different than just a vibrating string.
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This is what it’s like to talk with some people…
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I suspect John knew that this letter would be read by people like this… By those who rejected the idea of Jesus actually being God… to the Gnostics… to the Philosophers… to the Jews… and to Pagans…
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So… if they quickly re-translated verse one… they processed these words… and concluded… ‘John is talking about some force called Logos… not the person of Jesus...
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So, right away… in vs. 2… he hits them again with the same information…
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The same information has to run through the same filters… the same circuits again.. - Ok, He was in the beginning with God… well, that can mean a lot of things… so, maybe in the beginning of His life He was with God or something… and then … he hits them again.
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Everything that was made, was made through him. - “Okay… the circuits are getting overheated… don’t know what to do with this information.”
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Then… it comes at them again… w/o Him was not any thing made that was made.
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So… the reader is getting hit… time and time again… to the point where, they can’t just keep on justifying their conclusions… there comes a point where they have to get mad and rebel, or flat out ignore it… or maybe… accept it.
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Remember… this is the purpose of this book.. that they would believe that Jesus is the Christ… or literally… that Jesus is the Messiah… the Son of God… that that they would have life (that is, eternal life) in His name.
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Verse four starts with some new content… the repeating emphasis as sufficiently been made… now we have a transition… from THE WORD… to LIFE and LIGHT.
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JESUS is the Word… In the Word was life… and that life, which is in Jesus… is the light of men. - So now, the definition of Jesus has moved on. He is life… and that life… is Light… and this light… is the light of men.
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It is not strange that John would refer to Jesus as light.
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19 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.
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12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
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5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
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So.. The Word who pre-existed creation and who participated in creation... who has life in Him… a life that is a light to men… demonstrates, as a testimony to men… great power in verse 5…
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5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
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Anyone who has ever lit a candle in pitch black darkness knows… that darkness cannot quench light… but light can certainly cut into darkness.
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In fact… darkness isn’t even a real thing… Light is. Its speed can be measured… it can present itself to us in differing degrees.. It can be bright… it can be dim… - But darkness can only be a thing that fills the void when light leaves the room.
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You’ve never heard a scientist talk about the speed of darkness…
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That’s because it’s not, in and of itself a thing… It’s simply… the emptiness left behind.. when the light is not present.
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Symbolically… light and darkness meant the same thing then as it does now. One represents good and one represents evil. It could be said… that darkness is everything that light is not. It is evil and sin and death. And that is what the absence of goodness… and righteousness… and holiness… and love… and grace… and truth… and integrity… and all the characteristics of Jesus…
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All that is in Him… all that is good… - If He were gone - then there would be no righteousness… no holiness… no love… no grace… no truth… no integrity.
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W/o Jesus, everything that isn’t Jesus… would be the darkness that we would be left with.
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21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
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This kind of contrast runs throughout the Bible… And it’s not just a means of communication and emphasis… - These drastic comparisons exist, because Jesus automatically sets the contrast. He is perfect and holy… therefore… since nothing comes close to that… it’s easy to see… why in Him we are made alive… but in Adam… or, in the curse passed on to humanity through Adam… we all die.
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In Him, is all that is good… but in His absence… is all that is bad..
In Him.. is light… w/o Him… there is is darkness…
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There are no good and perfect things apart from Jesus.
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17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
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I love the way John introduces this book… He doesn’t build up to anything… He starts BIG. Jesus is the eternal god of all creation and nothing would exist apart from Him and no light of life would extend to humanity apart from Him..
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One final thought...
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The light that shines in verse 5… - the verb ‘shines’ is the present tense and it refers to an eternal quality of light. - That means… it hasn’t stopped shining.
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If it was aorist tense… it would have only shined in a specific moment in time… but not this light… this light continues to shine… and it continues to confuse, confound, and overcome darkness..
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thought? questions?
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