The Word

Jn 1:1-14

Throughout this week we are going to look at the life of Jesus through the gospel of John. We’ll be concentrating in the first few chapters.

Some people ask why we need to study about Jesus life. They say we need to be concerned about the theology set in motion by Jesus in the Epistles. To really understand the theology, you need to understand the subject of the theology.

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to do a funeral for a woman I had met once very briefly in the hospital. Let me tell you, it is very hard to do a funeral for someone you don’t know. What I did was spend a few hours with the family learning about the woman, and then I was better able to do the funeral service in a way that touched the lives of the people who came to the funeral.

That really has the same application with Christ. How can we adequately talk about who Christ is if we don’t really know him. To really know what is important to him, you need to spend time with Him or those who know him best. John was Jesus’ closest friend. The gospel of John gives us a look at who Jesus was. The epistles give us an understanding of what Jesus was about. For a complete picture you need to know the Man as well as the Plan. That’s why John can be a very important book to study as new Christians or mature Christians who need to get reconnected with their savior.

PRAYER

I. The Word Was God

A. Does it matter?

1. Last year we did a study on beliefs that you cannot compromise on.

2. One of the first beliefs I dealt with was that Jesus is God.

3. Someone asked why does that matter?

4. It matters because salvation cannot exist without Christ being God.

a) If just being a sinless created being was good enough for the atonement of sin, God could have used a perfect lamb or an angel, but he didn’t.

b) The only atoning sacrifice able to cover the sins of man was to sacrifice the holiest of holies.

c) Only God himself could be holy enough that when he looked at man through Christ, he saw only the purity of Christ and the individual face of each person.

5. It also matters because God said Jesus was God.

a) Jesus said it personally

b) READ Jn 10:22-33

c) If Jesus is not God, then he is a liar.

d) If he is a liar, he his not perfect,

e) If he is not perfect, He cannot be our atoning sacrifice,

f) If he cannot be our sacrifice, we are lost.

g) Yes, it matters very much.

h) Rom 9:5 echoes it as clearly as anyone can: READ Rom 9:1-5

B. Mutual Understanding

1. God became man so he could understand us more fully.

a) He lived life as we live life.

b) Now he empathizes with our struggles, our human weaknesses.

2. We also understand God better because he was a man for a time.

a) When you read the Bible and look at Jesus, what becomes clear is that the Jesus the word is the Bible in the flesh.

b) Dr. A. B. Simpson said that he once saw a reproduction of the Constitution of the United States which had been skillfully engraved on a copper plate. At first glance it seemed to be nothing more than a piece of noble writing. When he looked at it from the proper perspective, however, he could discern the portrait of America's renowned President George Washington artistically etched in minute detail. Simpson adds, "His face was revealed in the shading of the letters and I saw his person, not just a flow of words or lofty principles. Then I thought: that's the way we should look at the Bible if we are to understand its deeper meaning. We must see in it a 'Face of love shining through,' not merely ideas, not just doctrines, but Jesus himself-- sufficient for all our needs."

c) The Word or scripture is God in written expression.

d) We see the face of God in the Scripture.

C. That is why John’s use of Jesus as “The Word” is so intriguing.

1. It shows the correlation between the Bible and God.

2. The two represent each other.

3. They are intertwined.

II. The Life and Light

A. John uses two other words to describe Jesus READ vs 3-5

B. Life

1. first he ties Jesus to creation, the beginning of physical life as we know it.

2. Then he says, Jesus is life.

3. John uses the word more than any other writer in a single book. 37 times.

4. The greatest gift of Jesus is life.

5. He is life itself.

6. He was responsible for physical life in the beginning and for spiritual life at his death and resurrection.

C. Light

1. Robert Louis Stevenson tells a story about when he was a boy and watched a street light man lighting all the lamps on their street. As he came near he shouted to his parents, “look mom and dad, he punching holes in the darkness.”

2. If that doesn’t define what Christ and Christianity is all about I don’t know what does.

3. Scientifically, there is no such thing as darkness.

a) Darkness is an absence of light.

b) You cannot turn on a darkness.

c) You extinguish light.

4. Spiritually worldly living is darkness because Christ is not there.

a) His is constantly punching holes in the darkness of a world that has rejected him.

(1) vs 10 tells us the world did not recognize him.

(2) They couldn’t even see the light when it was right there before their eyes.

(3) Too many today continue to refuse to recognize the light and who he is.

b) Every time a new soul gives their life to God a hole is punched in the darkness.

(1) When you read vs 12 you see that all who received him became Children of God.

(2) You weren’t born that way.

(3) You weren’t adopted into a Christian family.

(4) You cannot marry into Christ.

(5) God himself makes you his children.

III. The Word Became Flesh

A. Vs 14 ties John’s whole thought together.

1. The Word was not only God, but also became flesh.

2. Jesus is God, but lowered himself to also become man.

3. And he dwelled among us.

4. We would be incredibly impressed if the president came and lived just like us for a while.

a) Yet so many people blow off the fact that the King of Kings came and lived just like us.