Introducing the Son of God
So That You May Believe • Sermon • Submitted
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· 7 viewsJesus is God through whom all things where created and through whom all things find redemption.
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No doubt one of the most difficult challenges I have to face as a pastor is not teaching parents. But, it’s teaching children. Children as simple questions and they expect simple straight forward answers. With adults you can kind of use $3 seminary words to make you sound like you have some deep theological insight or that you know more than you do. But not with children. They won’t let you get away with that.
One of our elders asked me this week, “Bradley, how do you explain to a child the concept of the Trinity. That Jesus is God and the Father is God, but they are different persons?” I’ve had it asked of me. “What does God look like?” The right answer is that God is Spirit and we can’t see God. Then how do we know what God looks like? Of course, we can’t give a complete answer to that question. But the most complete answer to that is that, “He looks like Jesus.”
John’s intention is to introduce us to Jesus Christ.
It’s really important to understand that for Christians, everything doesn’t center simply around a system of beliefs or practices like in most religions. But everything centers around a person, the person Jesus Christ. And our relationship to him. Jesus is at the core and center of everything we believe and experience. So, John helps us see Jesus as the central and most important person in history.
John starts by redefining our view of Jesus in terms larger than we tend to think of him.
A. Jesus is the Preexisent Word
A. Jesus is the Preexisent Word
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John wants us to understand that Jesus is not bound by time. He makes that clear by basing his first verses in Genesis 1:1. You can’t read John 1:1-5 without thinking of Genesis 1:1.
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
One preacher of old referred to “the beginning” as “the dateless date.” The idea of beginning is not to point to a moment in time, but to speak to eternity.
It’s interesting that John does begin by calling Jesus by his name, but he calls him “the Word,” the “Logos.” In the language of the New Testament, “Logos or the Word” can have several meanings. The first would be an emphasis on communication. We communicate what we mean through words. So, Logos is the meaning conveyed by a spoken word. So, John says that Jesus is God’s communication of who he is. He is revealing himself to us in a way that we an understand.
In the first epistle of John, John communicates in a similar way.
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—
That which was eternal and timeless has stepped into time and allowed us to see him, touch him, and know him. And by knowing him we can know life. So, Jesus is God’s expression of his personality.
Scripture also tells us that there is a creative power that is associated with the divine word.
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
In the Scripture, the Word of God is equated to the divine himself. So being the expressed communication and revelation of God to us, being the Word is the same as being divine. Being the Word of God is the same as being God.
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Nothing gets created without Jesus. John could not have been clearer that Jesus is God our divine Creator.
*The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, smashes atoms together to see the smallest subatomic particles that we can study. To the Hubble Telescope positioned in the earth’s orbit to study the largest stars and galaxies in our universe. John says that our Lord created them all.
Hebrews 1 ties all these concepts together very well.
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
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,
So John presents Jesus as God. The one through whom all things was created. Here’s what that means. Jesus wasn’t just a Jewish Messiah. He has claims of authority not over just the Jews. But John is saying that all people, both Jew and Greeks should bow to his authority and rights as our Creator over our lives.
And because he is preexistent and timeless. He is superior to all created things, all governments, and all other authorities.
So, John leaves no room for any form of atheism. No room of any notion of unbelief. Or any idea that we don’t have the responsibility to adore and glorify our creator.
We also see that, “the word was with God.” (v.1b)
2 He was in the beginning with God.
What does John mean for the Word to be “with God?” Literally it reads something like, “the word was toward God.” Implying a face-to-face relationship with God.
So what we see is that the universe is not some cold place ruled by rational thought. But at the heart of all there is, is relationship. Relationship between the Father and the Son. Now later in John we are going to learn about the third person of this God-head relationship, the Spirit. But even now we see that Atheism has to be cast aside and Unitarianism, the idea that God can’t be 3 in 1.
And, if there at the heart of all things the relationship between the Father and the Son, the heartbeat of the gospel is that in Christ God is drawing us into a relationship with him.
All of the book of John should be read through the lens of John 1:3. Jesus is timeless and eternal. Jesus is in perfect relationship with God the Father. And, Jesus himself is God through which all things were created. And all creation owes him glory.
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Why do you think that John starts with creation in a book primarily about redemption found in the person of Christ? It’s because every other aspect of our theology rests upon our understanding of God as the origin of all life and the role of Jesus as the Word which produces creation. Here’s why: only the God that created all things can redeem all things from the ravages of sin. Creation is foundational to the gospel.
That reality of the divinity of Christ has implications on our trusting what we have in Christ.
*Several years ago a group of Christian missionaries met in Delhi, India, with representatives of other religions to discuss their beliefs. In the course of their talks, a member of a major non-Christian religion said to a missionary, “Tell me one thing your religion can offer the Indians that mine can't.” The missionary thought for a moment and replied, “Forgiveness! Forgiveness!” Unlike the followers of all other world religions, those who put their hope in Christ have full assurance that their sins are forgiven. British Bible teacher and lecturer David Pawson says, “I have talked to the most devout Muslims who pray five times a day, have journeyed to Mecca, have fasted during Ramadan, and are more devout than many Christians. But when I ask, ‘Do you know if your sins are forgiven?’ they've said, ‘We don't. We just have to hope for the best.’” In Colossians 1, Paul gave us the basis on which forgiveness rests—the redemption Christ secured through His death on the cross. But Christ is not merely the founder of a major religion. He is the “image of the invisible God” by whom all things were created (Col 1:15, 16-note). The forgiveness He offers, therefore, is an offer from God Himself. – D J De Haan
Because there can only be redemption in the God that created all things, he’s the only source for life for created things. Which is why John goes on to present Christ this way.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
This is the first time that we see the word life. It is a key theme found in the book of John. The world life is found no less than 36 times in this book.
Jesus Christ the Creator provides physical life. Jesus Christ as the Redeemer provides spiritual life. Jesus Christ the Savior provides eternal life.
John then goes on to say that “the life was the light of men.” (v.4) Notice these images “life and light.” Notice how they contrast “death and darkness.”
Let’s go back to Genesis for a moment.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.
5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
The first act of creation through Christ was the creation of light on the first day. God didn’t make the sun, moon, and the stars until the fourth day. What then was the light of the first day? Listen to Jesus describe himself in John 8:12.
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.”
God and light are tied together as one. When God created light in the first day, he was saying I’m not only creating all thing, but I’m stepping into my creation. So that we not only have what God has created to enjoy. We have God himself to enjoy. We have Christ himself to enjoy.
What is the light doing? It’s doing what all light does. It drives away darkness. In the Bible, Light is usually a metaphor for good and darkness a metaphor for evil. Listen to John.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
That’s him saying, we feel the darkness. We feel the darkness of sin in our souls. We feel the darkness of the temptations of the devil. We see the darkness of the chaos and brokenness of our world. But, the darkness doesn’t win! Why? Because Jesus is here with us!
I one went on a field trip to the Mariana Caverens in Marianah, FL. The took us down into the caves. At one point the guide had us turn off all our lights. It was so dark that you could taste the darkness. Then he struck a match and with one point of light drove out the darkness in an instant and lit up the entire cavern.
Sin does not win. The light is here. He is our Creator. He is our Redeemer. He is our Savior. He is our Hope. He is our Peace. And the light that drives our the darkness is the life that gives up purpose in life, forgiveness of sin, and forever fellowship with God. He is God and God’s message to us!