In the Beginning

We love a story! And as I was thinking this week about some of my favorite stories, a pattern began to show itself. In a lot of our favorite stories, the one who will later become a hero is introduced from humble beginnings.

Luke Skywalker is the orphaned nephew of a couple of moisture farmers on a backwoods planet.

Jean Valjean is Prisoner 24601 in a French prison.

Frodo Baggins is a simple hobbit living with his uncle in the Shire.

Harry Potter, a boy who lives under the stairs.

In the beginning, these characters don’t have much going for them. But, as the story develops, it turns out that our heroes aren’t what they seemed. They was something more than we were told in the beginning.

Turn, please, to John 1. That’s page 603 of the pew Bible. We are continuing our journey into the Gospel of John, the second of 5 sermons in Season 1 of the Book of John.

If you remember, last week we looked at the end of the book, at John’s thesis statement. His purpose for writing his gospel. John says:

John 20:30–31 CSB

30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

That’s John’s whole purpose, that we might believe that Jesus is the Messiah and son of God and by believing have life in Jesus’ name.

Now, we are going back to the beginning of the gospel, where we will spend three weeks looking at John’s prologue. The first 18 verses of the book.

In the prologue, John reveals several key themes that he will develop throughout the rest of the book — kind of like the overture in a symphony. So we would do well to spend time here and find each of them, so we know what we’re looking for in the rest of the gospel.

Let me read our text this morning, verses 1-5:

John 1:1–5 CSB

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

Big Idea:

Jesus is God, who came to deliver mankind from death and darkness.

PRAY: Father, as we open your Word, we pray that you would revive our hearts by the life in Jesus and let our souls see by his light. Amen.

Jesus is God

In the Beginning

There can be no mistaking that John intends — when we read the prologue to his gospel — for our minds to be taken back to the first words of the Scriptures:

“In the beginning...”

If we look at the other Gospels, Matthew traces Jesus’ genealogy back to Abraham, the one with whom God made his covenant to save a people. Jesus was the True Israel, Matthew says.

Luke takes us a step further back and traces Jesus all the way back to being the son of Adam, the son of God. Jesus was the True Human, Luke says.

But John takes us all the way back. Before man, before beasts and birds and fish, before trees, before land and sky, before day and night, before dark and light. “In the beginning...”

In fact, John takes us even further than the beginning, because he says, “In the beginning, was...” At the moment of beginning, something was already.

And we aren’t surprised by this if we know Genesis because we know that Genesis says, “In the beginning, God...” Before the beginning, God is.

Before the beginning, God is eternal.

Before the beginning, God is all-powerful.

Before the beginning, God is all-knowing.

Before the beginning, God is self-existent.

We are not surprised when we read “in the beginning was,” because we know that in the beginning, God is. And yet, we might be surprised because when we read John, we read, “In the beginning was the Word.”

Where Genesis says God is, John says the Word was.

The Word was in the beginning. In the beginning, the Word was already in existence. No matter how far you may stretch your imagination back, there will not come a time where the Word was not. The Word was in the beginning.

What is this Word?

So what is this Word that was in the beginning? We have a couple of options to define it as we consider the historical and cultural contexts from which John is writing.

John, of course, is a Jewish man, and so we shouldn’t separate his writings from their history in the Old Testament. There, God’s word stands in reference as his powerful action. God’s power is in His Word, so to speak.

In Genesis 1, when God is creating all things, He does so by His word. He speaks creation into existence. 10 times in Genesis 1 we read the words, “And God said…and there was.” God’s creative action is connected with his word.

God also reveals himself by his word in the Old Testament. When the prophets of God were commissioned to reveal God’s person and His will to the people, their words were always, “Thus saith the Lord...” God self-revelation is connected with his word.

And it is by God’s Word in the Old Testament that people are healed and ultimately saved.

Psalm 107:20 CSB

20 He sent his word and healed them; he rescued them from their traps.

It is by God’s Word that he brought his saints back from death. God’s salvation is connected to His Word.

From the Old Testament, then, we can see that the Word is God’s self-expression as He creates, reveals, and saves.

Repeat that

And so, we ought not be surprised when John uses the personification of this Word to introduce Jesus to his readers. If the Word is God’s self-expression of creation, revelation, and salvation…then it is on purpose that John says this Word…this is Jesus, the one who created all things. The one who is God’s light shining in darkness - God’s revelation. And Jesus, this Word I’m writing about is God’s salvation - the life.

The Word — Jesus — is God’s self-expression of creation, revelation, and salvation. Through Jesus all things were created. Though Jesus God is revealed. Through Jesus, God saves. Jesus is the Word.

But, that’s not all. John isn’t just writing from his Jewish background. He is also writing into a culture heavily influenced by Greek philosophy. And so, he grabs onto a foundational piece of that philosophy — something called the Logos.

One of the earliest Greek philosophers was a man named Heraclitus. His major contribution to philosophy was the idea that things in the world constantly change.

He had a famous illustration that you can never step twice into the same river; the water from before it now gone and new water is in its place. And Heraclitus said everything is like that; everything is changing. But, he asked, if that is true, how can there be order in the world?

His answer was the Logos, the divine reason or the cosmic ordering. The Logos was the principle that held everything together in a world of change. Heraclitus said there is a purpose and design to the world and this is divine purpose the Logos.

The later Greek philosophers were fascinated by this idea of the Logos. When Anaximander asked what keeps the stars in order? The Logos. When Theophrastus asked what controls the seasons? The Logos. The Greeks came to find order and purpose revealed everywhere in the world through the Logos, the divine logic.

John’s gospel was originally written in Greek and these opening lines, In the beginning was the word in Greek are: Ἐν ἀρχῇ (in the beginning) ἦν ὁ λόγος.

Plato, one of the most famous Greek philosophers wrote this some 400 years before John wrote his gospel. He wrote: “It may be that some day there will come forth from God a Word, a Logos, who will reveal all mysteries and make everything plain.”

And John says, “That time has come!” He grabs onto their idea of the Logos and says, “Listen, the thing that has occupied your philosophical thought for centuries—the Logos, the thing that gives meaning and order to life… it has come to earth as a man and we have seen him and his name is Jesus.”

The Word, for the Jews, was God’s self-expression of his creativity, his revelation, and his salvation. For the Greeks, the Logos was the ultimate purpose and order of life.

And John opens his gospel with a word to both:

You Jews who have been waiting for the one who is God revealed, see and believe, for he is here.

You Greeks who are seeking the divine order and the divine logic, looking for the meaning of life, see and believe, for he is here.

And that is a word for us today, is it not? How many of us despair at the apparent lack of meaning in our lives? What is all this for? Why am I here? What is the point of this life? If you’ve ever asked those questions, come and see Jesus, for he is the Word.

Can God really handle this thing that’s going on in my life? When is he going to show up and set the wrongs right? O When will we see justice done, like we sang this morning? If you’ve ever asked those questions, come and see Jesus, for He is the Word.

Now, when we read John’s opening line that in the beginning was this Word, this one who is God’s self-expression of his creativity, his revelation, and his salvation. This one who is the divine order of the universe, we might be inclined to make one of two assumptions:

First, we might think that this was some sort of divinity that was distinct from but with God in the beginning.

Or, we might think that this Word was the Almighty God himself.

And John hits us again — still in his first sentence! — and says, no you cannot believe either of those things about the Word. To believe one or the other is to sell this Word short.

In fact, you must believe both. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John says the Word was with God — he is a person, distinguishable from God and enjoying personal relationship with God. The Word is a unique companion of God.

But He also says that the Word was God. If we make any claim other than the Word is God himself, then we have strayed into heresy. Every bit of divinity that belongs God also belongs to the Word.

The Word was with God and the Word was God. He is unique and distinct, yet fully one with God. He was God’s eternal companion and God’s own self.

That’s why Martin Luther said this of John’s opening line:

This text is a strong and valid attestation of the divinity of Christ.… Everything depends on this doctrine. It serves to maintain and support all other doctrines of our Christian faith.

And he was absolutely right. From the beginning, John is working hard toward his thesis: These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

John is writing so that we understand Jesus’ deity, his god-ness, and his unique relationship to the Father. It is because Jesus is the unique son of God that he is able to procure our salvation. None other could do it.

And throughout John’s gospel we will see that he presents Jesus as the one who does God’s own work and speaks God’s own words.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Believe in this one, this Jesus, God himself revealed and come to save.

Jesus Brought God’s Light and Life

For the rest of our time, I want to camp on the last part of what I just said — that God came to save.

We can imagine someone asking John, “OK, so if this carpenter from Nazareth is God himself…why exactly is he here? Why did God become a man? What’s going on here?”

John gives us two answers in verses 4-5, life and light.

John 1:4–5 CSB

4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

Back in the 1960’s, there was a psychologist named Erich Fromm; he was a Jew who fled Nazi Germany in the 40’s, and he proposed that humans are faced with what he considered to be three unsolvable dilemmas. And, by the way, I don’t endorse Fromm’s methods or conclusions, so don’t take this as me telling you to go out and read him. But, I think his proposed problems are things that we often wrestle with.

The first was, essentially, life and death. We all want to live, but we die.

And in Ephesians 2, the Bible says that, without Jesus, not only will we die but that we are already dead:

Ephesians 2:1–3 CSB

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. 3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

Without Jesus, we are dead in our sins. Death is fundamentally separation. At death the spiritual part of us—our soul—is separated from the physical part of us—our body.

We feel this separation when we attend a funeral, right? You walk into the room, greet the family who are mourning over the separation that has taken place between them and the one they love.

And then we walk to the front of the room and look into the coffin. In that coffin there is a body. And though the body is there, the person—the part of that person that really makes her who she is — the soul—is no longer there. It’s gone. The soul has been separated from the body.

Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body. And spiritual death is separation of the soul from God. Physical death is painful, but really, it is merely a picture of the more terrifying reality of spiritual death.

And without Jesus, we are dead spiritually. Right now, without Jesus, we are separated from God. And that separation becomes permanent when we die physically.

And that’s why John says, “in him was life.” Jesus came to give us life — to reconcile us with God, to end the separation, both right now and for all of eternity. In Jesus is life. Jesus is the answer to Fromm’s unsolvable dilemma. What do we do about death? Believe and have life in his name.

Jesus reconciles us with God. By believing on Jesus, you will not longer be separated from God and counted as an enemy, but be welcomed as a beloved child.

Jesus came to call people from death to life—to a living, vibrant relationship with God—through faith in him. He didn’t come to make good people better. He didn’t even come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive.

And those who believe he makes alive and gathers into a living community — the church — which is called to bear the fruit of his life flowing through them. Together we demonstrate and declare his life. That’s why we say that church isn’t something we do, but rather something we are. It’s not just a place to come on Sunday morning and get a little Jesus for the week. We are the commune that Jesus brought to life through his death and when we gather we declare the life that is in his name. Jesus brought life to the spiritually dead.

Jesus also came to bring light to the spiritually darkened, as we read in verse 5. This is kind of the same truth as bringing life — slightly different angle but the same reality.

We have a great need we cannot meet. We need to be rescued from the domain of darkness, and we’re powerless to do anything about it. Jesus, the son of God and Messiah, came to earth because only he could meet that need. On our own, we could never come to know what God desires and expects from us. Sure, anyone is physically capable of reading the Bible and comprehending the language in it. But without Jesus our eyes are darkened to the spiritual realities of God. Without Jesus to bring the light of God’s revelation, we would be staggering about in the darkness of our own opinions.

Hundreds of years before Jesus came, his coming was predicted with these words from the prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 9:2 CSB

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

When Jesus came, he said, “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

The gospel is the good news that you no longer have to wander about in the darkness and despair of sin, but you can enjoy the light of righteousness through Jesus Christ.

John is not suggesting we need more religion. Jesus came into a very religious world—a world where the religious leaders had memorized lengthy portions of the Bible and worked very hard to keep the law. But they were in the dark. They stumbled around spiritually, trying to please God by doing a good job and through their own self-righteousness. Jesus offers light and life.

Throughout John’s Gospel we’re going to find an ongoing struggle between light and darkness. Jesus, the light of the world, is opposing and being opposed by those who are in darkness. The scribes and Pharisees, the Roman leaders, at the end even one of his own disciples is revealed to be an agent of that darkness.

After his death, Jesus is placed into the tomb. As the great hymn says:

There in the ground, his body lay,

Light of the world, by darkness, slain

If John’s gospel ended in chapter 19, we could say to John, “John, you’re wrong. Jesus was not God. He did not bring life. We’re all doomed to death and darkness.”

But, it doesn’t and he isn’t and we aren’t. In chapter 20 we read about the most wonderful event to ever take place on this earth—the resurrection.

Then bursting forth in glorious day

Up from the grave he rose again!

After his death on the cross, Jesus did not stay buried because he is the life, and the life could not remain dead. He arose, conquering forever the sting of death and hell.

And here in our text, John describes this wonderful scene—this amazing resurrection—with this simple phrase: “That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.” The Apostle’s Creed says, “He was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. n the third day he rose again from the dead.”

That light shines in the darkness, right now. Darkness did everything it could to overcome it, and yet the darkness failed, the light still shines, and we can see it.

Believe and have life in his name.

Let’s pray.

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