Introduction
Today we begin a study of the gospel of John. Before we dive in, we need
to know a little bit about the background of this book.
AUTHOR & DATE: It was written by John the son of Zebedee, one of
Jesus' disciples, probably between 80-100 AD. Though he does not name
himself, both internal evidence (elimination of the other intimate disciples--Peter
and James) and external evidence (Polycarp; Irenaeus; Papias) confirm
his authorship.
ORIGINAL AUDIENCE: John writes to non-Jews. This is clear because he
explains Jewish customs and terms. After the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD,
John moved to Ephesus and worked primarily with Gentiles. The Gentiles
of John's day were spiritually-oriented, but relativistic (sound familiar?).
PURPOSE: Read 20:31. This is an evangelistic account of Jesus' life.
He selected his material to provide them with evidence that Jesus is the
unique Messiah and Son of God, so that they may believe in him and have
spiritual life through him. This is why we usually recommend that seekers
start with John instead of Genesis, Matthew, etc.
SIMPLICITY & PROFUNDITY: John's gospel has the smallest and simplest
Greek vocabulary of any New Testament book; he uses just over 400 Greek
words. (That's why Greek students usually start with John.) But in spite
of this simplicity, there is incredible spiritual depth and profundity
in this book. One theologian said it is "shallow enough for babies
to wade in, but deep enough for elephants to drown in."
RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER GOSPELS: Written after them, John purposefully
selects material which they did not include (to fill in their gaps, and
to pursue his evangelistic purpose). Whereas as the synoptic gospels begin
with the historical account of Jesus' life and build to a conclusion about
him, John begins with a summary of his conclusions about Jesus, and then
records historical examples from the life of Jesus to validate his conclusions.
We call this summary the prologue of John; it is perhaps the greatest
distillation of Christian theology in the whole New Testament . . .
The Logos Is Ultimate Reality (vs 1-3)
Read vs 1-3. John introduces us to an entity he calls "the Word."
This is the Greek word logos. Since John is writing to Greeks,
he uses their own philosophical term as the starting point for his message.
From their observation of order in the external universe and human rationality,
they believed there must be some universal "reason" which undergirds
reality and provides meaning for the universe. They sometimes called this
"cosmic rationality" (or Ultimate Reality) the logos.
Their problem was that they didn't know where to go from there. There
was endless speculation and disagreement about the nature of this logos:
is it personal or impersonal? is it eternal or temporal? what is its
relationship to the material world? is it interested or disinterested
in individual humans?
Using their own term for Ultimate Reality, John answers their questions
with a series of block-buster assertions. What humans can only guess at
by observation, John reveals to us in this passage.
The logos is eternal (vs 1a). "In any beginning
already was the logos." The logos is the uncaused
Cause, the self-existent Ground of Reality beyond which it is impossible
to go.
The logos is the Creator of the universe (vs 3). The
universe is not eternal (NATURALISTS), nor is it somehow God (ANIMISM
& PANTHEISM). It was "spoken into existence" by the logos
(Gen. 1 >> CONFIRMATION OF BIG-BANG).
The logos is a Person. The logos is not called
"it," but "he" (vs 2) and "him" (vs 3).
The logos is deity, or God (vs 1c). The Greek emphasizes
this. Because of the above, the logos clearly deserves this title.
The logos is also personally distinct from God (vs 1b,2).
He is both God, and was also always "face to face" with God.
This is one of many passages (OT and NT) that reveal that God while
God is a unity in his essence, he exists as more than one Person. We
call this the "Trinity." Here, two of these three Persons
are mentioned: God the Father ("God" and God the Son (called
"the logos").
This sounds very abstract, but it resolves a profound question: How
God can be both personal and self-existent? How can God be personal
without needing to create other persons with whom to relate? But if
God needed to create other persons, God is not truly self-existent.
The biblical answer to this question is the Trinity: God has always
existed as a community of Persons who have always loved one another.
One hundred trillion years before anything or anyone else existed, God
was already there forever before. But he was never lonely because he
related to himselves (read Jn. 17:24).
The logos, of course, is Jesus (vs 14a). The historical Person
Jesus of Nazareth, who was born into the human race at Bethlehem around
4 BC and died around 33 AD, is in fact God, the infinite-personal-eternal
Creator of the whole universe! He created the materials from which his
feeding trough crib was made. He created the angels that announced his
birth, and the sheep the shepherds tended, and the star that guided the
magi . . .
Jesus Is the Savior of Humanity (vs 4,5,14-18)
But John doesn't stop here. Jesus is not only the answer to the most
abstract philosophical questions about Ultimate Reality. He is also the
Savior of humanity. Read vs 4,5.
When John says, "in him was life," he uses a special
Greek word to define a special kind of life. He doesn't use bios
(physical life) or psuche (human consciousness). He uses zoe,
which means the spiritual life of God. It is the word Jesus used when
he said Jn. 10:10b (read). This is the special quality of life which
is personal union and fellowship with God (read Jn. 17:3).
"This life was the light of mankind." This spiritual
life is what gives human existence meaning and direction. Unlike the
animals, we were created to know God personally, to fellowship with
him and experience his direction for our lives.
"And the light shines in the darkness." The problem
is that we don't possess this life/light. We have physical life and
light, we have incredible intelligence and resourcefulness, but we live
in spiritual death and darkness. If human history (and the 6:00 news)
teaches us anything, it teaches us that people are lost, adrift from
the purpose of their existence, stumbling around in the darkness, hurting
themselves and others in the process. But Jesus has come into this darkness
to make God's light and life available . . .
What would it be like to have this light/life? John provides his own
testimony in vs 14-18 (read). God actually became part of the human race
(vs 14) so that people could have this. John sums up his own personal
experience with Jesus by saying he was full of "grace and truth."
Jesus was full of truth. "Truth" means reality, the way things
really are. As they got to know Jesus, they learned who God really was
because Jesus "exegeted" God to them (vs 18; Jn. 14:9). As
we study John's gospel, we will learn this also. And as they came to
know Jesus, he inevitably exposed people for who they really were. When
he exposed the pretense and hypocrisy of the Jewish religious leaders,
his disciples loved it. But he also had an unnerving way of peering
into the deepest recesses of their hearts and laying bare their
weaknesses and sins and foolishness . . .
But he was also full of grace. "Grace" means God's unmerited
favor. It means God showing up in Christ to pay for our sins himself
so we can have the free gift of his love and mercy and forgiveness and
power to transform our lives. The same Jesus who knew and exposed their
sinfulness was also an inexhaustible source of grace (vs 16). No matter
how badly they blew it, no matter how foolish and sinful they realized
they were, he always made more grace available to them. No wonder they
were never the same . . .
How different this was from the Old Testament religion in which they
had been raised (vs 17)! The Law, as great as it was, was only a dim
reflection of Jesus. Like the MOON, it got its light from the SUN, and
once the sun comes up, the moon fades into relative insignificance.
God's Law gave them an outline of his moral character and a foreshadowing
of his mercy. But Jesus showed them all they could understand about
God's character and made God's mercy and transforming power accessible
to them.
Where can we get this spiritual light/life? Not from Buddha, not from
Mohammed, not from any other avatar or guru--only from Jesus. To
a spiritually relativistic culture like our own, he keeps reminding them
that Jesus is the only source: "In him (alone) was life . . . "
(vs 4). "There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens
every person . . . " (vs 9). Only in Jesus has "the logos
become flesh" (vs 14). Only Jesus is "the only begotten God"
(vs 18). As Jesus himself claims in Jn. 14:6, "I am the way,
the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father but by me."
There is no room here for the popular view that Jesus was one of many
spiritually enlightened masters, one of many ways to God. He is either
God incarnate and the sole provider of spiritual life--or he is a liar,
a fake, a scam artist.
How Will You Respond To Jesus? (vs 9-13)
Jesus is who he is regardless of how you respond to him. But that doesn't
make your response to him unimportant. In fact, your response to Jesus
is the most important decision you will ever make--because God has decided
to let it be the basis for whether you benefit from him or not.
Read vs 9-11. What an incredible and tragic irony! God visited the creatures
who were designed to know him, and most didn't even recognize him. He
visited his chosen people and fulfilled hundreds of prophecies, but they
didn't receive him. Why? It wasn't because of inadequate evidence (as
we'll see), but because of an unwillingness to humble themselves and admit
their need for his light and life . . .
But not everyone responded to him this way. Read vs 12,13. Some responded
differently, and he gave them the right to become part of God's own family
(another synonym for "light," "life," "grace,"
and "truth"). And we can get in on this, too (remind of Jn.
20:31). But there is only one way to get this--by personally receiving
Jesus. To make sure we get this, John tells us what won't suffice:
"blood"--family/ethnic background. Being a Jew (God's chosen
people) didn't prevent most of them from rejecting Jesus, and being
non-Jewish didn't prevent many Gentiles from receiving him. Likewise,
it doesn't matter how many people in your family are Christians--you
still have to receive Christ. And it doesn't matter if none of your
family members have ever been Christians--you still can receive Christ.
"the will of the flesh"--human moral achievement. Being morally
better than most people doesn't qualify you to be a member of God's
family--you have to receive Christ. And being morally worse than most
people doesn't disqualify you from becoming a child of God--you can
still do so by receiving Christ.
"the will of a husband"--other people's decisions about Jesus.
You have to make your own decision. Just because your spouse believes
in Jesus doesn't make you a Christian--you still have to receive Christ.
And just because your spouse doesn't believe doesn't mean you can't--you
can still receive Christ.
Some of you have never received Christ. I challenge you to come back
to learn about this Jesus and come to a decision about whether or not
you will receive him. Some of you may be ready now . . .