The Word

John 1:1-5

INTRO: Good morning church. Today we will continue our look at the prologue to John’s gospel. In our last lesson on we noticed John’s foundational teaching that Jesus is God. John proves Jesus is God by showing that Jesus created all things and that in Him is the light and the life. Paul puts it this way in Colossians 1:13-23 – “13. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14. in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. 19. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20. and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 21. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22. in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and irreproachable in His sight 23. if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard…”

First I’ll quickly mention some of the background I gave last week. In our lesson we said that this gospel is filled with signs and symbols. John uses these in talking about spiritual life. As we read and study this gospel, it is important to ask ourselves why John is using the sign we read about. It is just as important to consider the distinctiveness of this gospel. John omits many things that are in the other gospel records. Perhaps the most notable of missing elements in this gospel is that there are no parables. While Matthew and Luke are filled with parables, the Gospel of John is not.

John’s gospel records events that the other gospels do not record. Only John records the miracle of changing water to wine. Only John records Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus. Only John records the woman at the well in Samaria. Consider that only John records the raising of Lazarus from the dead. While the other gospels focus mainly on the teachings and movements of Jesus outside of Jerusalem, John’s gospel keeps its focus on Jesus primarily, in Jerusalem.

John’s gospel contains seven signs, most of which are unique to his gospel. Those seven signs are the water turned to wine, the healing of the official’s son, the healing at the pool, the feeding of the 5000, walking on water, healing a blind man, and raising Lazarus from the dead. The ultimate and final sign is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. There are also seven “I AM” statements made by Jesus that John records. This gospel reflects a great deal of symmetry in its unique way of bringing about faith in those who read it.

The prologue to John’s gospel sets the tone for what John is presenting. We are going to read so much about life and light in this gospel. John’s effort is to prove that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, by showing that Jesus does what God the Father does. This will be a theme throughout the gospel. In these first five verses we see that Jesus is God because He did what God can do: create, give life, and give light. These are activities reserved only for the power of God. Since Jesus did these things, then He is also God.

This theme becomes the lens by which we must study John’s gospel. We should ask ourselves how Jesus’ teachings or actions parallel what we see God doing in the Old Testament; therefore proving that Jesus is God. D.A. Carson makes the same point: “John intends that the whole of his gospel shall be read in light of this verse. The deeds and words of Jesus are the deeds and words of God” (Pillar New Testament Commentary, 117).

As I said, there is great symmetry here, there's clearly an intention behind this writing. I really want to place weight on that. When you approach John's gospel, you are intended to ask why. Why is that story there? What are you trying to tell me with that event or that teaching or that saying?

I. Jesus Is The Word: Let’s begin by examining this – Jesus is called “The Word.” Consider that there are many descriptive terms that the Holy Spirit could have used through John to describe Jesus. He could have been called the light, the life, or some other term. But the term given to the Son of God is the “Word”. What is being communicated by calling Jesus the Word? Last time we mentioned that the term “word” is defined as the basic unit of speech that communicates… has meaning.

A. In keeping with the theme of this gospel, God’s word is what brings things into existence… and brought the world into being. To call the Son of God by the term “the Word” denotes that creative power of God that must have been there in the beginning. The Word must have been there before creation because it is through the Word that the whole universe was spoken into existence.
B. The other important aspect of the Son of God being called the Word is that the Word reflects the one who speaks.

1. A person’s words are the means by which people reveal what they are thinking. You do not know what is in my mind unless I communicate my thoughts to you. What we say and how we say it reveals things about us. Therefore, “The Word” is the revelation of the mind of God. The Word reveals the very nature of God.
2. Jesus is God’s Word for us. Because Jesus is the eternal Word of God, and because that Word became flesh and dwelt among us, we are able to know God. When you see Jesus you know who God is. God is not a “far away”, “we don’t know what he wants”, kind of deity.
3. This is the point the writer of Hebrews makes as he begins his letter. Hebrews 1:1-3 – “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…”[ESV]

C. I notice the parallels in the beginning of John’s gospel. God has spoken by His Son. The Son is the revelation of God. Through the Son the world was created. Through the Son we are able to see God. He is the radiance of God’s glory. He is the exact imprint of God’s nature. He upholds the whole world by His powerful word. Jesus is the Word because He is the revelation of the mind of God.

1. We can know God because we have the life and teachings of Jesus. This is why Jesus could say, “…Whoever has seen me has seen the Father…” (John 14:9). Could Jesus have stated the fact of His deity any more clearly than here? That is what is being presented in the first 3 verses of John… the Word is God.
2. If we want to know God and know what God is like, then we need to know Jesus. One writer stated it this way, “What Jesus did was to open a window in time that we might see the eternal and unchanging love of God.” Jesus is God’s message to the world. Jesus is God’s teaching, commands, and direction to the world. You can not separate knowledge of Jesus and knowledge of God.
3. You can't see God, but when you see Jesus and get to know Him, only then have you seen the invisible God and know Him. To put it another way, to call Him “The Word”, is to say that Jesus is God's message to the world. It's the revelation of His will, it is the representation of who God is, it is a declaration to all people for all time—this is the very nature, character and will of God Himself. It's a very important beginning point.

II. Jesus Creator, Not Created: The first part of our text has come under great scrutiny, especially by those who claim that Jesus is not the eternal God.

A. The Muslims claim Jesus was not God but a created human being like a prophet. The Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that all of our Bibles are mistranslated.

1. They claim the text should say that “the Word was a god.” In fact, their translation, the New World Translation, has this rendering.
2. The point they make is that there is no definite article in the Greek in front of the word “God.” In the English, "the" is the only definite article; meaning there is only one word used to indicate a specific noun already known. Nouns in English are preceded by the definite article when the speaker believes that the listener already knows what is being referred to.
3. Greek scholars will tell you that there being no definite article is an unacceptable argument because the Greek does not work like the English language. In Romans people try make a difference between “law” and “the law” by looking for the definite articles. That is not a valid approach.
4. By way of reference, John 1:6,12,13, and 18 also do not have a definite article in front of the word “God” but no one renders those verses as “a god.” No one reads, “There was a man sent from a god, whose name was John.” No one argues that John the Baptizer was sent from “a god”. He was sent from God the Father. The argument from Greek is invalid. Rather than take us down the road of Greek, we can defeat this false teaching just by using the text itself because John is making an emphatic argument.

B. John writes in verse 3, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” If the Word was made or created, as some groups contend, then He had to create Himself. All things were made through Him. This is an important argument that John makes to cinch this up because there was a Gnostic issue in John's day that wanted to try to make this separation.

1. If Jesus, the Word, is a created being, then He must have created himself. If you do not exist, you cannot bring yourself into being. This is a pretty simple idea. How can you make yourself if you do not exist to make yourself? Therefore, if He made everything that was made, then He cannot be made. If He made everything, then He cannot fall into the “made” category. He must be the maker.
2. If He created everything, then He does not fall into the “created” group. He is the creator. It does not matter what Greek you know or what Greek arguments a person may want to present. To say that the Word was created is a direct contradiction of the clear words of this verse. Everything that was made was made by the Word. Therefore, the Word was not made.
3. The typical argument goes something like this; “He was created by God the Father, and then He in turn created everything else.” That is absolutely not what John is saying. John is making an absolute statement, “and without Him nothing was made that was made”.

III. Life, Light, and Darkness: To call Jesus “the light” and “the life” is another way to declare that Jesus is God. These terms were used in the scriptures to describe what God does. The concept of light and life in the Old Testament is extremely important in how it ties to the very nature and character of God.

A. In Psalm 36:7-9 we read, “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.”[ESV]

1. God alone possesses the fountain of life. We are only able to see because of the light of God. Light and darkness are contrasted in a number of symbolic ways in the scriptures.
2. Light refers to truth (Psalm 119:105) and darkness refers to falsehood (Romans 2:19).
3. Light symbolizes holiness (1st John 1:7; Romans 13:12; 2nd Corinthians 6:14) and darkness symbolizes sin (Isaiah 5:20; Acts 26:18). Satan’s kingdom is called the domain of darkness (Colossians 1:13) but Christ dwells in unapproachable light (1st Timothy 6:16). Darkness stands for death while light stands for life (2nd Timothy 1:10; Ephesians 5:13).

B. The word of God is often pictured as the light.

1. Proverbs 6:23 – “For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,”
2. In Psalm 18:28 it says, “For it is you who light my lamp; the LORD my God lightens my darkness.”[ESV] God's lighting His lamp is a reference to the constant enlightenment available to the faithful in God's Word.
3. You probably recall Psalm 119:105 – “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

C. Until the arrival of Jesus, the light had been put out. Not only was the world full of sin, but the nation of Israel had lost its way and no longer represented the light to the nations as it had been instructed to be. For more than 400 years God did not send a prophet. No one was speaking the inspired word of the Lord. The Jewish nation had been left in darkness because they had turned away from the Lord. Jewish writers of the first century understood themselves to be lacking the light of God.

1. In the Babylonian Talmud, Yomah 9b: “After the latter prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi had died, the Holy Spirit departed from Israel…”
2. Josephus wrote, Against Apion: “It is true, our history hath been written since Artaxerxes very particularly, but hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of prophets since that time;”
3. The Jews returned to Jerusalem after the Temple altar had been defiled and we can read of their actions in 1st Maccabees 4:45-46 “… So they tore down the altar and stored the stones in a convenient place on the temple hill until there should come a prophet to tell what to do with them.”

D. In John 1:5 there is a change. Up to this point the author has used past tenses (imperfects or aorists); now he switches to a present tense. “And the light shines in the darkness,”. The light continually shines and even as John writes, it is shining. It expresses the timeless truth that the “light of the world” never ceases to shine.

1. John 8:12 – “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.””
2. John 9:5 – “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
3. John 12:46 – “"I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.”

E. We stand in a great time in human history, along with everyone who has lived once Christ came to the earth. The eternal message of God has been revealed through the life and teachings of Jesus. Further, Christ sent the Holy Spirit to guide His apostles into the full revelation of God’s truth, and they wrote that message down for us.

1. We must not look at the scriptures that we hold in our hands as words on a page. As Peter would confess, “You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). You are holding God’s light in your hands. You are holding life in your hands. The light continues to shine in the darkness. The eyes of your heart can be enlightened and you can comprehend the will of the Lord. Give your full devotion to the word of God. It is the light you need in this dark world. It will restore your soul and give you life if you will let the Spirit’s words reach your heart.
2. This imagery should capture our hearts in understanding when Jesus, who called Himself light, then calls His disciples “lights in the world.” Not only did Jesus preach that we are “the light of the world” in the Sermon on the Mount, but listen to the words of His apostle, Paul.

a. “Do all things without murmuring and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.”[NKJV] Philippians 2:14–16.
b. We have a great charge to be kept. Shine as lights in the darkness of this world by holding fast to the word of life. Live in a way that shows you are lights. Do not let your light be made dim by sin and by the weights of the world that hold us back from shining bright.

CONCLUSION:
In the text we start to see what John wants us to take away from this Gospel. The intention of John right from the very first words is that we will be struck by the recognition that Jesus is God. He is the eternal God. He created everything. That means we are responsible to Him because He is our creator.

Jesus Christ is life. Not only the Giver of life, but He is life. If we are not in Him, if our relationship is not with Him, if we are not pursuing Him, we do not have life. We are pursuing death. We are wasting our time in the things of the world when we do not pursue the ways of God.

He is the light. The Scriptures so often remind us that we were in darkness. We were lost in our sins. We didn't know which way to go. With Jesus, we now can receive light and life. We can now know the way to God. Jesus reveals everything about where we stand before God and what we need to do to be in a relationship with God. I think the biggest point about light throughout the scriptures is that it is the word of God that's light. Again, there is a play on words here; John wants us to understand that by seeing Jesus as the “word”, rather than calling Him some other name or title, is because it is the word of God that is light.

One final thought. With this symbolism of light, we need to consider Paul’s words in Philippians 2:14-16, “Do all things without murmuring and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.”[NKJV]

Jesus in His sermon on the mount says, “You are the light of the world.” Paul connects that to us saying “…you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life …”.

This tells us that we are to be the image bearers of Christ. We are to reflect the glory of God. We are shining lights in this world, not because of who we are, not because of anything innately within us. We shine as lights in this world because we are reflecting the light of God.

We are reflecting the light of Jesus, the word of God who brings life. We are reflections of His light into darkness. God, through His word, tells us how to do that. You notice Paul says, “Holding fast to the word of life”. We do that when we hold on to the word of God tenaciously. When we recognize that our light only comes from the light, the true light, that light is not about us.

Light is not derived from us. We can't come up with what God says. We can't come up with God's rules. We can't come up with, “This is how I want to worship or how I want to do things.” The true light we are going to reflect is the very message and very word of God. We are told at the start of verse 14, “Do all things without murmuring and disputing”. We are to be blameless and innocent.

We are to live out life in a way that we are not obscuring the light of Christ. Through sin, through our various weights and issues that we endure in this life, it is so easy for us to block the light, so easy it is for us to obscure that light.

The light still shines, and we are to be mirrors of that light, reflecting it in every aspect of this world, in every aspect that we reach out, in every area and sphere of influence that we have, we are to be the resounding light that this world needs to come out of darkness.

Pull your songbooks out, and in a moment we'll sing the invitation song. We invite you to come to the light. We invite you to see Jesus is the light of life. He's everything that we need. We are to reflect Him. We are to obey Him and serve Him.
John, in such simple words, with such magnificent imagery, shows us how great a savior we serve, what He has done to draw us out of the darkness and into the light, so that we then in turn shine as lights in the world.
We beg you to come to the light, to turn away from your sins and be immersed in water for the forgiveness of your sins, and then serve Him with all of your heart. Serve Him fully, thinking about how we reflect Him as children of light in this world. That is our focus, and that must be our eternal goal until we are with Him.

Anyway you respond to that invitation to come to Jesus, to obey him and serve him, the opportunity is given to you. Would you come while we stand and sing?

# 642 - I Am Resolved
Reference Sermon: Brent Kercherville