The Son

Good morning, welcome to NHCC. Please open your Bibles to John 1.

Back to School Bash- Next Sunday evening- 5-8 PM at the church pavillion.

Three in One sermon series.

Not meant to fully explain the intricacies and mysteries of the triune godhead, but instead is meant to define the persons and explain some of their inter-relationships with one another.

Last week- The Father from John 3:16.

This morning, our attention turns to the person of God the Son, God made flesh, Jesus Christ.

In many ways, the acceptance or rejection of our Christian, biblically-rooted faith rests entirely on what is your belief concerning the person of Jesus.

We are a church who stands on the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, but in whom is such faith?

When you say that you believe in, or have faith in, Jesus Christ- what exactly are you saying?

It is, after all, entirely possible to have complete faith in something that is incorrect.

Illustrated well in children- strong faith, but faith misplaced.

Arguing with adults.

All of this is to say that our faith in Jesus better be placed in who Jesus is in reality, not in our imagination.

Al Mohler- “Jesus asked his disciples, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ In reality there is no more important question than this. It defines who we are. On the Day of Judgement, we will be defined by our Christology. We will meet the Christ either as Savior, or we will meet him as Judge.”

With this in mind, we ought to commit ourselves to rightly understanding and rightly knowing the Son of God.

There is likely no better place to start when looking to rightly understand God the Son than in the beginning of John’s gospel.

Matthew and Luke begin with birth, young life.

John gives a lens through which the rest of His gospel ought to be read. Everything Jesus does will be done in light of His identity, shown at the beginning of John’s gospel.

Let’s find what John has to say concerning the identity of Jesus.

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

Pray.

Approach as though you know nothing about this text.

Much to be found here, let’s focus our attention on the truths that are communicated about Jesus in these five verses.

Our time will be spent on four truths that are explicit in and around our text.

1. The Word is Jesus.

The entirety of the prologue focuses on this entity known only as “the word.”

We make it through all eighteen verses of the prologue without the identity of the Word being explicitly stated, but everything hinges upon the Word’s identity.

Let’s notice what else is said in this prologue that might help us understand who this Word is.

John 1:14- And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Word is the Son of God. It is Jesus, about whom John will write the rest of his gospel.

And if we are not yet convinced, we can see John’s description of Jesus in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 19:13- He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.

This leads to another question- why is Jesus referred here to the Word?

The Greek word “logos”, translated here as Word, is a powder keg of meaning and implication.

This has implications for both the Jew and the Greek, and for us as well.

Jews who read John’s gospel- The Word would immediately be understood as the ‘Word of God’.

Thus, Jesus would be equated with texts like Isaiah 55:11- so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Or perhaps Jeremiah 23:29- “Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”

It is the Word of God that creates, that saves, that gives the law and that reveals the very nature and character of God.

Jesus, then, is equated with all of these works of the Word of God.

For Greeks, the Word meant something else.

The notes of the Faithlife Study Bible state the following, “For Greeks, the idea of ‘the word’ would have resonated with the Greek notion that the Logos was the stabilizing principle of the universe. In Greek, logos can mean reason or rational thought; in Greek philosophy, logos referred to the ordering principle behind the universe, the all-pervasive creative energy at the source of all things. The Logos was ultimate reality, the ever-present wisdom organizing the universe.”

Thus, for Greeks, it was not about the voice and revealing of God, but instead, the Word was whatever held all things together, whatever gave meaning to all of life.

For any Greek reading John’s gospel, they would find that this definition of logos was directly applied to Jesus. Jesus held all things together, Jesus was the ordering principle of the universe.

The concept of logos gave incredible direction as to who it was doing everything else in John’s gospel, but John went further.

Not only was the Word the ordering principle in the universe to the Greeks, and the very authoritative voice of the Father, John communicates even more, leading us to our next truth concerning Jesus.

2. Jesus is God.

State plainly in the text, The Word was God.

Let’s notice a couple principles that can be brought out of such a statement.

First, Jesus is not merely a man, a prophet, a teacher or spiritual man of wisdom.

This is the way that He is held by so many, even if we declare His deity.

How do you see Jesus? Someone who engages in magic tricks and giving advice?

The prologue of John’s gospel will not allow for such an understanding of Jesus.

Second, Jesus was God at the beginning.

He did not gain deity, He was not created.

This was a major source of disagreement in the early church.

Arius- “The Son was not always.”

Arius- “And God, being the cause of all that happens, is absolutely alone without beginning; but the Son, begotten apart from time by the Father, and created and founded before the ages, was not in existence before his generation, but was begotten apart from time before all things, and he alone came into existence from the Father. For he is neither eternal nor co-eternal...”

This revolves around what we discussed last week- the doctrine of eternal generation. The father has always, eternally, generated the Son.

What is Arius stating here? That prior to the creation of all matter, the Father created, or begat, the Son. There was a time in which the Father began generating the Son.

We can likely understand why Arius would go this route.

But consider the implications of such a statement. If, as we saw last week, the Son is the radiance of the glory of the Father, then this would mean that there was a time, prior to the creation of the Son, in which the glory of the Father was not radiating in His Son.

If we believe in the unchangeability of God, or God’s immutability, then it leaves no room for us to believe that God suddenly changed to begin radiating His glory through the creation of His Son.

The well-known and orthodox doctrines of the global Church begin falling like dominoes as the doctrine of eternal generation is removed.

What does all of this history have to do with today?

We are not immune to such heresies. As stated earlier, to worship rightly, we must have an accurate vision of the object of our worship.

So what do we believe of the eternity and immortality of Jesus?

Perhaps we believe that Jesus had a beginning, that He was created and born in the same way as you and me.

Or, maybe we believe that the Son is somehow inferior to the Father.

Or, maybe we believe that the Son somehow exists apart from the generation of the Father.

Or, maybe we say that we believe the right things about Jesus but behave in a way that makes Him less than He truly is.

All of these unbiblical beliefs are corrected when we find the words, “The Word was God.”

While we hold to the deity of Christ, we must also observe that the Son is NOT the Father, which leads us to point three.

3. Jesus is distinct from the Father.

The temptation would be to say, if Jesus is God, then the Son is the Father. But once again, the apostle John keeps us from making such a mistake.

Not only was the Word God, but also the Word was with God. In fact, the Word was with God from the beginning, meaning that the Word has always been distinct from the Father, but also with the Father.

Why is it necessary to make the distinction between the Father and the Son?

Aside from Scripture making the distinction clear, we also are helped in our understanding of how the Father and Son relate to one another.

Notice the language that John uses. All things were made through Him, that is, the Word.

This is an interesting concept, but it ought to be one that we are familiar with.

God spoke, and creation was brought into being. There was nothing, and then God spoke, and creation began. The creative agent in the text of Genesis 1 was God’s Word.

Thus, in a passage that echoes Genesis, John’s prologue makes the claim that all things were created through His Word. In fact, as we saw last week, there is nothing in existence that was not created through the person of God the Son, Jesus Christ.

Here is where things get interesting for me. The Father creates through the Son. In other words, the Son is the creating agent of the Father.

Some have stated it this way- The Son is the expression of the Father. Or the Son reveals the nature, character, heart and mind of the Father.

God the Father and God the Son are perfect in their being, and if they are perfect, then they are unchanging. Change requires a gaining or losing of something. The Father and the Son can neither gain anything nor lose anything in their being, because of their perfection.

This means that the Son, eternally generated by the Father, has always been the expression of the Father. Remember, He is the radiance of the glory of the Father, the heat and light that comes from the flame.

So, the Son reveals the Father. The character of the Father, the priorities of the Father, the nature of the Father, are all to be found in the Son.

Thus, when we see Jesus, we see the Father. This allows Jesus to say in John 10:30- “I and the Father are one.”

Or John 14:8-9- Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 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’?

Jesus, in both of these texts, is not saying that the Father and Son are merely the same person, but instead is saying that He is a perfect reflection, and expression of the Father.

It allows for no division between the Father and Son. We cannot say Jesus feels one way but the Father must feel another way.

We cannot say the God of the OT was one way but the God of the NT was different.

Jesus, while distinct from the Father, is the perfect radiation of the Father’s glory.

Again, the Word was with God and the Word was God.

All of this has been about who Jesus is, now, in our final point, we see what difference all of this makes for us. If Jesus is the Word, and the Word was with God, distinct from the person of the Father, and the Word was God, then this is good news for all who are looking for salvation in Jesus Christ.

4. True life is found in Jesus alone.

Notice what is written in the text- In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Here are a couple of really important points to be made.

First, in Jesus is life eternal.

Only in Jesus. Peter makes it clear in speaking to the religious leaders in Acts 4:12- And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

We have to pause here for a moment- many will say they can find salvation in no one else, but will look inward for their own saving strength. Peter is quite clear: no one. Self included.

That is the point of John’s prologue, this light of men, this inspiration and illumination that takes place to bring someone from spiritual death to life is all made possible only through Jesus Christ.

Not only is life found only in Christ, but the light of Christ challenges and defeats the darkness.

Notice the imagery of light shining in the darkness.

Imagine a room that is pitch black. What happens when a flashlight is turned on? There is no darkness where the light is shining. The darkness has been overcome completely.

Some translations have a different word instead of overcome- instead it might say something like understand or comprehend.

Think of having a mastery over something. It can be via knowledge of something, or via strength over something.

Both of these meanings make sense, but it is likely overcome that makes the most sense. The darkness will not defeat the light. Now, what is the light?

John 8:12- 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.”

Matthew 5:14-16- “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

So which is it? Both. Jesus gives his light. The darkness of the world will not overcome Jesus, but there is more to John’s words. The darkness of the world will also not overcome the light in those who have received salvation. Your salvation will not, indeed cannot, be snuffed out.

True life in Jesus Christ cannot be defeated, or overcome.

Are you weary?

Sure feels like people are weary.

Political strife, societal rage, pandemic in which our understanding is constantly changing.

Hurts of family members and friends.

Our own temptations toward sin and worldliness.

Don’t we sometimes feel as though the darkness has overcome the light? May we know this to never be true.

May you find peace in the words of John concerning the identity of God the Son, Jesus Christ.