Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer

Introduction:

Please turn with me in your Bibles to John 1:1-14.

Last week, we began our series by looking toward the end of the Gospel of John for the author’s purpose statement.

We found that John wrote, that which we now study, in order that we may believe.

Most likely the last one to be written, the Gospel of John begins in one sense like Matthew and Luke, and in another sense, unlike any of the gospels.

Allow me to explain, Matthew and Luke begin with the Christmas Story.

They tell of the arrival of Jesus, there are stables, wise men, angels, shepherds, and a baby.

In a sense, John is also giving us a story of the arrival of Jesus.

As we will see, he tells us that Jesus was with God in the beginning and that He took on flesh.

The Word of God, becoming a man really is the beginning of the good news, and in that sense, John is similar to the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

In another sense, however, this gospel is unlike the others in that John begins with strong theological statements.

Of course the other gospels get into theology, but John hits the ground running with bold statements regarding the nature and divinity of Jesus.

While he isn’t named until verse 17, Jesus is present all throughout our passage for today.

So let’s look together at what John has given us.

With our time together, we will see that Jesus is the Word made flesh and the Light of the world.

I’d like to read the passage in its entirety, then we’ll break it down.

May use His word to bless us this morning!

What an incredible passage we have here.

While we are not going to do this, we could spend the entire morning just discussing the powerful statement of verse one.

In fact, we could do a series on just John 1:1.

Really, this whole passage could spawn a few different series.

Listen to the themes John either begins or touches on in this passage, which will continue throughout the book:

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Jesus is God

Jesus existed before creation

Jesus is the Light of the World

Life is found in Jesus

Witnesses testify that Jesus is the Messiah

Jesus became a man and lived with us

Belief in Jesus brings salvation

As I said earlier, we have a lot of theology right from the beginning.

John touches on theology proper (including His sovereignty in sending and saving), christology, anthropology, and soteriology among others.

For our purposes today, we want to see what John is telling us regarding the Son.

Before we can begin to discuss the signs and the witnesses that John uses to Present Christ as the Son, we must understand that John is beginning his gospel by making it clear that Jesus is the Son of God, that is, Jesus is divine and therefore truly able to save.

Have you ever had a dream that when you wake up and even though you realize it was just a dream you can’t help but wonder what you should have done differently?

I had a very strange dream the other night.

Something terrible was happening, and I was in a position to save the lives of several people.

When I suddenly woke up, I just laid there thinking about if that was a real situation, could I save more?

Would I handle it well?

How quickly could I act, and how many people could I save.

As I was analyzing my dream, it hit me: I may or may not be able to save lives in a bad situation.

Jesus, on the other hand, is perfectly able to save souls.

I can only delay the inevitable.

Even if I save a life, if the Lord tarries, eventually that person will grow old and pass away.

Jesus can save your soul and give you eternal life.

Only the divine Son of God can give you that, and John writes so that we may believe in Him.

Today, we’re going to see that John tells us Jesus is the Word and the Light.

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He is the Word

John 1:1 “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

There are key words that we need to see here.

This first is “word”, the second is “with.”

Have you noticed that John starts off with an interesting statement, with no real explanation?

“In the beginning was the Word.”

As you read the bible, if you find something that doesn’t make a lot of sense to you but there’s no real explanation in the text, you need to find out what it would have meant to the original readers.

The fact that there was no explanation is a clue that it wasn’t necessary for them.

They would have known exactly what was being discussed.

For the Greek reader, and even many of the Jewish readers, they would have instantly understood John’s use of the Greek word “Logos” or “Word” in English.

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In the early first century, there was a greek philosophy gaining traction and significantly pushed by a Hellenized Jew named Philo.

Philo took Plato’s argument on the Forms of God, in Philosophy, and brought in the idea of “Logos” of God being the highest intermediary form to help bridge the gap between God and the world and creation itself.

The basic idea was that there must have been some form of being that was active in creation but not something we could know.

There had to be something above us, the philosophers thought, but what it is, we can’t know for sure.

I recently heard someone take the Greek concept of the “Logos,” the Word, and match it with the modern concept of Intelligent Design.

As more people begin to realize that the theory of evolution is beginning to collapse in on itself, the concept of intelligent design is gain more traction.

When someone says they believe in an intelligent designer, our response should be, “Would you like me to introduce you to Him?”

You see, we have a relationship with not just an intelligent designer; no, we have a close relationship with the designer, creator, sustainer, and savior of the world.

When John said, “In the beginning was the Word and the word was with God, and the word was God,” he was immediately making a truth claim about who this “Logos” was.

In verse 14, John tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us - clearly not a far off, unknown being.

I think that’s a lesson for us.

Like Paul preaching at the Alter to the Unknown God, we too need to be willing to take a stand and inform others of the truth of who God is.

He is not some unknowable, far off being.

He’s not some absentee intelligent designer, He is the God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

Now, speaking of having a relationship, let’s quickly look at that second word, “with.”

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The word, “with” isn’t a very significant word in English, but the Greeks had three key words which are translated into the English word “With.”

The first conveys a simple togetherness.

It’s the word, “Syn” we get Synagogue, which in the greek means, “to bring together.”

The second word conveys a side by side companionship.

Right now you are attending a worship service “with” the person next to you.

If you like long walks on the beach with your significant other, that’s the idea of the second word for “with” which is “Meta.”

The third word is “Pros.”

This word also conveys a togetherness, but it’s the idea of a face to face relationship.

It means a close, intimate, togetherness where there is a sense of equality being shared.

It was reserved for the closest of relationships, and that’s the word that John used when He said, “The word was with God.”

And he doubled down by adding, the word “was” God.

When I worked as a metal fabricator in North Carolina, I was assigned to work with a guy named Pedro.

I loved working with Pedro because he was funny and he was very good at what he did.

One day, I asked when I would be trained to be a welder (since that’s what I was hired for), and I was told, if you want to know how to be a good welder, just watch Pedro and do exactly what he does.

I had to watch him, learn from him, and then do what he did.

I wasn’t perfect at it, but by doing that I finally became a decent welder, and by the time I left the company I was taking jobs directly from the architects and completing entire welding and fabricating jobs on my own.

There were actually two companies that shared the same facilities.

One worked with primarily aluminum and the other with steel.

You could say that I worked syn “with” the guys from both companies, but I was employed meta “with” the guys from J.D. Wilkins (the steel fabricators), but ultimately I worked most closely pros “with” Pedro.

The second key statement John makes is regarding Jesus being the light.

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He is the Light

John 1:3-9 “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. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.