John 1:1 14 — John 1

0:01 Can you turn in your bibles please to John chapter one? My goal is to do the first 14 verses. Whether or not we actually achieve that is another question. So, and the reason I chose these 14 verses is because they're between the word and the word. So, in the beginning was the word and the word became flesh.

0:31 So we're gonna try and go through that. I wanna spend a bit of time on verse one, verses one and two because those two verses are, especially verse one, in fact, more specifically the last four words in verse one are things that cults just love to mess around with. Four simple words can create such incredible heresies when they get manipulated. So John begins his gospel

1:09 the way the Bible begins, in the beginning. So John takes us back to before time, before space, before creation, and he introduces us to one who was there before anything came into being. So he was in the beginning because he preceded the beginning. So in the beginning was the word and and you look at different places in in the Bible, both Old and New Testament, make that very clear. Paul in Colossians chapter one says he is before all things.

1:56 In Micah, you know, you'd never think that Micah would say anything like this about the son of god but in Micah five two, a nice Christmas passage, He says, his goings forth were from long ago from the days of eternity. So, the one who would be born in Bethlehem existed from the days of eternity. But our finite minds mean something like that. So he was in the beginning, and he describes him as the word. Why would he describe him as the word?

2:45 Why not call him something else? And this word you probably heard before, this is the logos. And logos has lots of different nuances of meaning. For example, the word logos can mean the act of speaking or the things spoken. And all of these little nuances can be used of Christ.

3:11 So if you take a look at Hebrews chapter one, the writer of Hebrews is telling us, here's God and long ago he spoke in the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us in his son. And that's the idea of the logos there. It's the Father speaking through the one who is the Word. It can also mean if you look over at John chapter eight, the Word is the one who speaks exactly what the Father wants spoken.

3:53 He doesn't make things up. So in John chapter one, chapter eight verse 28, he says, the things which I heard from the father, these things I speak to the world. And he repeats that. John's gospel is loaded with things like that. The father has given me commandment.

4:16 What to say, what to do. And I do exactly what he tells me to do. I I speak exactly what he tells me to say. I don't make things up as I go. We do that all the time.

4:31 He doesn't wing it. Logos also has this idea of reason or rationality. We get our English word logic from it. And when we look at the logos, he is the one who expresses God's intelligence, God's reason, God's wisdom. He explains God.

5:23 So here he's making this distinction, this relational distinction between the Word and God. He's not simply saying that the Word was in the presence of God. Some some people think of that the word with as being in the presence, but there's this there's this interaction, this relationship between the word and God. And you look at, again, the Gospel of John, he explains all of these things. The first 18 verses or so in John chapter one is an introduction to everything he's going to say later on.

6:13 So he talks about he's in the bosom of the Father, so he was with God, the Father. He came forth from God. He's going back to God. And then John says something that the Colstists loved and manipulated. So not only was the word with God, the word was God.

6:39 And there's no contradiction there. People say, well, how can you be with something if you're that something? But here's where you got to get into the difference between being and person. We all are beings that exist as a single person. God is a being that exists as three persons, and we call them father, son, and spirit.

7:20 The old testament, it would be the angel of the lord, the father, the spirit, or the angel of the lord or the lord and the So the word is not only with God, the word is God. And again, this is something you're gonna find throughout the New Testament and throughout the Old Testament. So for example, a nice Christmas passage, Isaiah nine six. All of the Christmas passages talk about the deity of Christ, not just the humanity, but the deity. So you've got the child born, the son given.

7:59 Well, what's he called? Mighty God. So the child born, the son given, is mighty God. The one born in Bethlehem is from the days of eternity. So the Word is God.

8:19 Jesus, he talks about I and the Father are one. Now here you you've gotta be careful. Being in person, you have to make these distinctions. And this is where a lot of the cults don't make distinctions. He's not saying he's one person with the father because he's not.

8:42 He's one being with the father. They share the essence of their being even though they're distinct persons. In Colossians, he talks about all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. Now think about that for a minute. The fullness of deity dwelling in a body.

9:10 Now when we talk about the fullness of deity, we can list some attributes that, yeah, we can see them dwelling in the body. There are certain other attributes. I'm not sure how that dwells in a body. Omnipresence. How does omnipresence dwell in a body?

10:27 You've got a subject, a verb, a direct object in that order. In Greek, you can just toss things around depending on what you want to say. And so John arranged this sentence to say something very specific. He is saying that the word was God. Now some people want to manipulate that and say, well, why can't it say God was the word?

11:01 Saying the same thing? Is it the word was God and God was the word the same thing? Those who teach that God was the word are saying that the entire being of God is limited to the word. So when I say God was the word, I'm saying all that God is is in the word. What about the father?

11:35 Well, all that God is is also in the father, but the father and the word don't exist at the same time. This is where you get a heresy called sebellianism. They they they say that there is one being who is God that exists as one person. So... And this person exists in different modes.

12:00 So at one moment, he's the father, and then another moment, he becomes the word, and another moment, he becomes the spirit, which makes communication between it really awkward. So, when the father says, this is my beloved son, you don't have two being or two persons here. You've got the father speaking it and then suddenly becoming the word to receive what was spoken. Same thing with the spirit. The father...

12:36 Jesus prays to the father that he sends the spirit. So Jesus asks the father, and then he becomes the father, and then the father said... It just gets really weird. I don't know if you've ever heard of oneness Pentecostals. That's essentially what they teach.

12:56 There's one being who exists as one person and that person becomes... Becomes the father, becomes the son, becomes the spirit. They they just rotate modes. Another heresy that is manipulated here is known as Arianism. The word was a god.

13:22 And who can tell me the group that today teaches Arianism? The JWs. And what's what's funny about the JWs is that they claim to be monotheists. Well, how can you be a monotheist if you're saying the word was a god? That means there's multiple gods.

13:44 Oh, no. No. There's just one one supreme god and then there's lesser god. There's still multiple gods. You can't claim to be a monotheist if you still have multiple gods.

13:58 So they they manipulate that. The way John wrote this can only be translated one way. It cannot be translated, God was the Word. It cannot be translated, The Word was a God. It can only be translated, the word was God, and the father is God, and the spirit is God.

14:44 And so when the Jews... When Jesus is is teaching, the Jews, they understood what was going on here. They didn't like it. Understood it. So John says, he was in the beginning with God.

15:01 Sort of a summary of verse one. And so you've got, he was in the beginning with God. He was God. And John is gonna spend his gospel proving that. So John takes seven statements essentially from Jesus prove that point.

15:27 And we call them the I am statements. I am the living bread. Come down from heaven. I am the light of the world. I'm the door.

15:38 You wanna be saved? You go through me. I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life and takes it up again. I'm the resurrection and the light.

15:52 And Mary and Martha understood that. You're the Christ, the son of god. I'm the way, the truth, and the life. You want to come to the father, you go through me. I'm the true vine.

16:06 John also spends his gospel proving that with miracles. So... And and John doesn't even call them miracles. What does John call the miraculous things that they place in his gospel? Signs.

16:23 He never calls them miracles. They're always signs. What does a sign point to? In this case, it points to the fact that Jesus is God. So John selects seven miracles before the resurrection and then just a really odd one after it, 153 ish, to prove that Jesus is God.

16:52 And this this issue of he was in the beginning with God, he is God, this is the issue that's gonna form the basis of all of the confrontations of Jesus with the Jews. So just very quickly, turn to John chapter five. Jesus heals a man at the Pool Of Bethesda on the Sabbath, and he says, my father's working until now, and I myself have been working, and and the Jews knew exactly what he was saying when he said that. If you look at verse 18, they were seeking to kill him. Why?

17:34 Well, he was not only breaking the Sabbath but was calling God his father, making himself equal with God. In John chapter eight, Jesus makes a simple statement, Before Abraham was born, I am. They knew exactly what he meant. Verse 59, they picked up stones to stone him. In John chapter 10, I and the father are one.

18:03 They knew exactly what he meant. They picked up stones to stone him. John chapter 19, verse seven. They say to Pilate, we have a law, and by that law he ought to die because he made himself to be the son of God. So John's statement is going to be the basis of all of the confrontations with the Jews throughout his gospel.

18:34 This man is claiming to be God. He needs to die. Even though we can prove it, he is God. He still needs to die. So back in chapter one verse three, all things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being.

19:37 The father said, son, let there be light. The son makes light. The father said, son, let the earth sprout vegetation. The son makes the earth sprout vegetation. Hebrews chapter one again.

19:57 In these last days he has spoken to us in his son. This is verse two. Whom he appointed heir of all things through whom also this is we're talking about the father here, through whom also he, the father, made the world. The father created through the son. And so John brings that up.

20:21 All things came into being through him. Now the cults, the JWs in particular, like to add a little word. All other things came into being through him. See, they see him as a created deity So, they say all other things. So, god created Jesus and Jesus created all other things.

20:56 That's not what it says. It says all things and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life. Life is part of the essence of his being. It's inherent.

21:14 And he, God, is the only one that can possess in inherent life. We don't possess inherent life. Life is something that is given to us. Life is not given to him. In him is life.

21:35 Life is part of the essence of his being and he gives it. And this life was the light of man. And we're not talking about photons here. We're talking about the light that is in the sun is what provides illumination of mankind. We possess no light ourselves.

22:03 We possess no light, the light within ourselves. Our light, our light comes from him. And then he says, the light shines in the darkness. And this is the darkness of the world, the spiritual darkness that Paul talks about. The darkness did not comprehend it.

22:37 Darkness refused to receive the light. It's really a sad commentary on the state of mankind. There came a man sent from God, so this is kind of a parenthetical thing, whose name was John. Lots of John's. Which one is this?

23:32 This is John the Baptist. This is not John the Apostle. John came from God and he came as a witness to testify about the light so that all might believe through him. That's an important statement. Even though John's testimony was somewhat incomplete, it was enough to bring people to faith.

24:12 John John died well before Jesus was crucified, but what John testified was enough to lead people to faith Christ. And in fact, we have the lamb of God who takes away the sin. There's a man in the book of Acts. His name is Apollos. Acts eighteen twenty four.

24:49 He's an Alexandrian by birth. He's from North Africa. He's an eloquent man, comes to Ephesus, He's mighty in the scriptures, very much like the Apostle Paul. Paul could take the Old Testament and expound the Gospel from the Old Testament. In the beginning of Acts chapter 17, he goes to the synagogue and reasons with them from the Old Testament showing that the Messiah had to suffer and die.

25:23 From the Old Testament. And then once he's proven that, he goes and he shows them from the Old Testament that this Jesus is that Messiah. So, Apollos is very much like him and Luke writes, he, verse 25, he had been instructed in the way of the Lord and being fervent in spirit. So he had been instructed up to the baptism of John. He was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus being acquainted only with the baptism of John.

26:07 So John testified that all about the light so that all might believe through him. Chapter three, the end of chapter three in John's gospel is is the testimony of John. It's not a red letter section. It's a black letter section. It's John's words.

26:55 He enlightens every man. No one can stand before God and say, I'm here. In chapter 12, Jesus says, if I lift it up, I will draw all men myself. Chapter six, they shall all be taught of God. The spirit convicts the world.

27:30 No one can say they weren't enlightened, drawn, taught, convicted. No one can say that. Now the question really becomes, well, what about people that we meet that just don't know? Well, it's probably because the, like, hasn't begun yet. We we we sometimes get this idea that the moment somebody's born, you know, they they have the gospel, or they...

28:00 The moment they meet us, they've got the gospel. That's not how it works. The enlightenment, the drawing, the teaching, the conviction, it has a beginning point. At some point in every person's life, they will begin to be in light taught, drawn, convicted. How they respond to that determines whether or not it actually continues.

28:35 If the response is to reject it, then it's going to become less and less over time. If the response is to receive it, then the enlightenment, the teaching, the drawing, the convicting will increase until the person actually makes a decision to receive or reject Christ. And it doesn't continue every moment of every day. I mean, I look at my own testimony and it certainly didn't. I I remember back in high school, there was two brothers.

29:19 I used to sit... I I like to sit by myself and watch. So I used to sit off in the corner of the of the cafeteria, and these two brothers, for whatever reason, made it their mission to come and sit by me. And at first, it was really annoying. Really, there's there's a 100...

29:44 200 empty spots, you have to choose the one right in front of me? It's like you park... You get your new car, and you park it in the corner of the parking lot so it doesn't get dinged up. And you come out, and somebody's parked right next to you. There's a thousand other spots.

30:00 They have to choose the one right next to you. Same thing with these two brothers. They they they had to come and pester me, and they started sharing the gospel with me. And they were annoying at times, but they were persistent. And they shared the gospel, and they shared the gospel, and they shared the gospel.

30:24 And I didn't reject it, but I also didn't receive it. I listened. Summer came. We all went our separate ways. Next year, never saw it again.

30:39 But that was the beginning of enlightenment, conviction, and and, you know, the spirit was certainly convicting me. I did listen to what they said. I I took it in. I didn't make any decision one way or the other. And another year or two went by and somebody else started sharing the gospel with me and all of these things came back in my mind and eventually I received Christ.

31:12 And and that's how this works. It doesn't happen all at once. It it takes place over time. No one can stand before God and say, I didn't know because they did know. God reveals things through creation, through conscience, through the special revelation of his word, how we respond to that.

32:12 He came to his own. His own people, the Jews, those who were his own did not receive him. They rejected him And and you see that throughout the gospels. They crucified him. As many as received him.

32:37 Now this word receive, a lot of times we talk about have you accepted Christ? Accepting and receiving something are very different. Even though it's a little nuance, accepting something has a passive connotation to it. Receiving something, the Greek word is actually take. Take him.

33:11 It it's an active word. It's not something that happens to us. It's something we do. As many as have taken him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. Kind of interesting, John never refers to believers as sons of God.

33:35 He always refers to believers as children of God. He reserves the word even. As many as received him, to them he came to the right to become children of god even to them who believe in his name. That word even in most Bibles is italicized. It be.

34:03 It's kind of added there because in English it makes more sense. Essentially, John is saying, as many as received him to those who believe in his name. Receiving and believing in his name are synonymous terms. When I receive him, I believed in him. I placed my faith in him.

34:29 It's not something that happens to us. It's something that I do. I believe. And the moment I believe, the moment I've received him, I become a child of God. And I also become a son of God.

34:46 That's adoption. That's a little different story then. He goes on and he says in verse 13, This new birth becoming a child of God, being born again, is not of blood. Literally not of bloods. In other words, it has nothing to do with my bloodline.

35:15 My my physical lineage, my my family descent has nothing to do with that. Just because my great grandparents were Christians does not mean I'm a Christian, or just because my parents are Christians does not mean I'm a Christian. The new birth has nothing to do with my bloodline, nor is it of the will of the flesh. So I believe but I cannot will myself a new birth. I place my faith in Christ, the new birth comes from God.

35:59 I'm born again from him. I believe he gives me new life nor the will of man. So I can't will you a new birth. You have to believe and when you believe, God gives you. Life.

36:23 I can't will it for myself. I can't will it for you. It doesn't come from my family lineage. We each individually place our faith in Christ. Receive him, God gives us the life.

36:38 We are born, essentially what John is saying in verse 13, if you remove all of the explanatory comments, who were born of God. As many as received him to those who believe in his name, did he gain the right to become children of God, who were born of God. New birth, new life comes completely from him. And then he finishes the book in. He began in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God, and the word became flesh.

37:50 The one who was God became a man. He dwelt among us. We saw his glory. It's it's kind of like the tabernacle in the wilderness. That was the dwelling place of God.

38:04 We saw the glory. Tabernacle among us. The temple, Solomon's temple. Glory of God filled the temple. The son of God comes.

38:15 He saw his glory. How do they see his glory? What he did. Chapter two. Water to wine, Jesus manifested his glory.

38:29 Interesting little deity at the end of John chapter 19. The Jews come to... Or... Yeah. The Jews come to arrest Jesus, and Jesus says, whom do you seek?

38:46 Well, looking for Jesus of Nazareth. And he says, I am. What was their response? The moment he said, I am. They fell down.

39:00 Why? Why would they fall on their faces? I mean, he just said, I am. My theory? For for that split second, there was an unveiling of his glory, like a blink of glory, and they fell on their faces.

39:57 And John is essentially presenting a choice. And and there's only two choices. There aren't multiple choices here. You can either receive him or reject him. Think of acts chapter two.

40:11 They were pierced to the heart. What should we do? We cut to believe. Okay. Chapter seven.

40:17 They were cut to the quick. But the stone did. One chapter received him, one chapter rejected him. John is essentially doing the same thing. Here you've got the person of Christ.

40:31 Here you've got what he's doing, what he's going to do, what he's done. Two choices. Received him, rejected. Just like Moses in the wilderness. I set before you the blessing of the curse, life and death.

40:47 Take what? Father, thank you again for your word. We thank you for who the Lord Jesus is, for what he has done. We thank you for the enlightenment we have for the thoughts throughout our... Pray that you would encourage us with them, that you would build us up in our most holy name.

41:28 We pray in Jesus' name.