Jesus, The Revealer of God | John 1:1-2

INTRODUCTION

Today, we are beginning a new sermon series from the Gospel of John. This morning, we are going to step back and take a wider view of the Gospel of John. We are going to talk about matters that will help to orient us to the gospel.

John 1:1-18

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

⁶There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

⁹The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹²Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

The Incarnation

¹⁴The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Jesus, The Revealer of God

John 1:1-2

The Gospel of John

• John is one of the 4 gospels.
• The word “gospel” (euaggelion) means “good news.”
• Gospel is a combination of two English words: Good – spel means story. Gospel is a good story. It is good news or good story.
• All the 4 gospels are good news of the story of Jesus.
• Mark 1:1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.
• This good news is now applied to Matthew, Luke and John as well.
• Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels, because they can be seen / studied side by side (syn-optically).
• John’s Gospel is different, giving the “Gospel” still another dimension.

Authorship: John the Apostle.

Dating: 90 CE.

The Gospel according to John has many verses that are people’s favourite:

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:3

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

John 4:24

God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.

John 5:24

“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

John 8:12

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 11:25-26

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.

“Gospel of John is stylistically simple yet symbolically dense.” – T. Johnson, Introduction to the NT

Clement of Alexandria calls it a “spiritual gospel.”

Structure of John’s Gospel

Prologue: 1:1-18; Key 1:11-12

• Jesus is the Word.
• Connects Jesus up to Moses.
• Connects Jesus up to John the Baptist.
• The Lord Jesus has the ultimate exegesis of the glory of God.

Public Ministry: Book of Signs; 1:19-12:50

• Episodic: Light shines in darkness.

Private Ministry: Book of Glory; 13-20

• Farewell: Foot washing, coming Comforter, prayer
• Passion; 18-20
• Victory, Jesus overcome the world: Arrest, trial, death, resurrection

Epilogue; 21:1-25

• Renewal: Appearance to Peter & disciples back in Galilee fishing again.

Key Verse: Purpose of this book

John 20:30-31

³⁰Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹But these are written that you may (continue to) believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

The Oldest Manuscript received of the NT: Ryland Papyrus P 52

In John Rylands University Library, Manchester, UK.

This fragment of the manuscript dating back to 125 CE was found during archaeological excavation of a ruined city in upper Egypt in 1934.

Recto (front)  (ca 125 CE) = John 18:31-33 – Are you the king of the Jews?

Verso (back) (ca 125 CE) = John 18:37-38 – I find no fault in him.

Prologue: John 1:1-18

This prologue section is like walking into a well-designed building. It is like an architect who has designed a beautiful building and the engineers executing the work so skilfully and beautifully so that you enter the lobby of the building or the great hotel and you have pathways to the restaurants, rooms, gym, rooftop from the atrium of a nice building.

It is like a central bus station, where the buses leave from a central point and connects to every street and corner of the city.

The themes from the prologue is well connected to this whole gospel.

John 1:1-18 Introduces the key themes of this Gospel, which later develops in this gospel.

• Jesus’ pre-existence
• Jesus as life
• Jesus as light
• Jesus as the creator.
• John the Baptist
• Receiving vs rejecting Jesus
• Jesus and the glory of God.

John 1:1, 14

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

¹⁴The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The King and the Maiden

Søren Kierkegaard – The 19^th Century Danish Philosopher gave a wonderful parable of the Christian claim. He tells the story of a king. Every statesman trembled before his power. No one dared breathe a word against him, for he had the strength to crush all opponents. This king fell in love with a humble maiden. His intend was to win her love in return. So he began to contemplate what were the options before him.

The first strategy was the direct approach. He would go to her humble cottage, show up with his royal outlook and all the members of his lavish royal entourage. The dazzling crown, luxurious robe, the king’s officials. He would then announce his love and overwhelm her. But the king had a problem, if the maiden accepted the king this way, he would not be sure if it was the king whom she loved or his wealth and promise of great privilege.

So, the king decided on a second strategy. He would approach her in disguise. He would go clothed as a beggar, he approached her cottage with a worn cloak fluttering loose about him. But as the king reflected on this, he realised that this was no answer either, because in the end at best she would fall in love with the beggar. That was a disguise he would have to throw off. That was not who he really was. It was a deception. He was the king.

So, the king continued to agonize over it and came up with a third alternative. Rather than showing his power or lowering himself to a beggar, he thought he would elevate her to himself. He would arrange through some secret benefaction to bestow on her fabulous wealth. He would raise her to true nobility that would allow her to be a member in good standing of the highest class. Then he would approach her and would hope that that she would respond in kind for his love. But the danger of this he soon realized that it would imply that the humble maiden was not good enough for the king to love. But the opposite was in fact the truth, that as a humble maiden that he loved her.

So at last he came up with his final strategy, the only way that would succeed in enabling the love that he sought. He would do that which for any king would be unthinkable, that which no earthly king had ever done. He would descend from his throne, empty himself of all his wealth and privilege and in this way he would identify with the humble maiden, not by pretending to be poor but by actually becoming poor. The King would share her lot, her suffering, her poverty. He would take the initiative and become truly equal to her if in that way he would then be able to secure her love.

Kierkegaard wrote, “For this is the unfathomable nature of incarnate love that it desires equality with the beloved, not merely unjust but in earnest and in truth.”

Jesus’ Pre-existence

Structure of John 1:1-2

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning.

We see:

• The pre-existence of the Word.
• The relationship of the Word with God.
• The identity of the Word as God.

Jesus pre-existed before he came to the world as human incarnation of the divine message for humanity.

John 8, we have Jesus’ conversation with the Jews. Jesus said:

John 8:58

“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

John 16:28

I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.

John 17:5

And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Jesus as the Word

Other wrings of John also presents Jesus as the Word.

1 John 1:1

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

Revelation 19:11-13

¹¹I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. ¹²His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. ¹³He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.

Themes of Creation

John 1:1

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning.

This echoes the themes of creation in Genesis 1.

The Word was with intimate proximity with God before creation began. This Word was present with God during creation. The Word is portrayed as God’s companion and co-worker in creation. There is a continuous engagement of the divine creator with his creation.

The word is present and active in creation on “the first day.”

See how John brings parallel to the Genesis creative narrative:

• In the beginning; 1:1
• The next day; 1:29
• The next day; 1:35
• The next day; 1:43
• Jesus creating wine out of water; John 2
• Jesus creating life; Lazarus; 11:25

So the Word is what God is and the Word does what God does.

Now in this gospel: The Word comes from God, dwells with humanity, returns to God.

John 1:14

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Word – Logos in Greek.

Usage of Logos in the Greek culture

• John wanted the Greeks to understand Jesus and logos was a big part of Greek philosophy.
• According to the Greek philosophy Logos is the word or speech that brought order in the world. Logos is impersonal according to the world or the Greeks.
• John says Jesus is the logos. John said, “Everything that you summed up to what logos was, Jesus is truly that person.”

In Genesis when God said let there be light, it was the Logos, the Word brining life.

Usage of logos in the Hellenistic Judaism.

• The word logos found its way into the Jewish culture because of the Hellenistic influence in the 2^nd temple period.
• In Hellenistic Judaism logos was personification of wisdom.
• Logos and wisdom were viewed as interrelated topics.

So for the Greek the word logos was connected to ‘the impersonal power that brought order in the world,’ but for the Jews the word logos the Greek work ‘Sophia’ which means wisdom.

John is attempting to bring both the Greek and Jewish understanding of the word ‘logos’ in the person of Jesus Christ.

Wisdom or Sophia in proverbs is the logos.

Proverbs 8:12

for wisdom is more precious than rubies,

and nothing you desire can compare with her.

Proverbs 8:22-32

²²“The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works,

before his deeds of old;

²³I was formed long ages ago,

at the very beginning, when the world came to be.

²⁴When there were no watery depths, I was given birth,

when there were no springs overflowing with water;

²⁵before the mountains were settled in place,

before the hills, I was given birth,

²⁶before he made the world or its fields

or any of the dust of the earth.

²⁷I was there when he set the heavens in place,

when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,

when he gave the sea its boundary

so the waters would not overstep his command,

and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.

³⁰Then I was constantly at his side.

I was filled with delight day after day,

rejoicing always in his presence,

³¹rejoicing in his whole world

and delighting in mankind.

³²“Now then, my children, listen to me;

blessed are those who keep my ways.

The wisdom of God is one of God’s attributes and characteristics and how God’s wisdom informed the way he created and maintained the world providentially. There is a problem with Proverbs because Wisdom will be then the creation of God; Pro. 8:22. But John goes ahead and says that this logos was with God in the beginning and this logos was God. In John 1 Jesus is the creator.

So Jesus was not simply wisdom, but more than that. Jesus was God. He is the creator.

Apostle Paul, much before John writes in the same lines in his writing to the Colossians:

Colossians 2: 3

Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Colossians 1:15-20

¹⁵The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Jesus is God

• Image of the invisible God, v15a
  • Jesus is the embodiment of the divine.
  • Jesus has made the invisible God visible.
  • Jesus is the portrait of God revealing the character and attributes of God.

John is using wisdom with its use in the Hebrew bible TANAKH [(Torah (law), Neviim (prophets), Ketuvim (writings)].

In the Hebrew Scripture, God created the world by his word.

Genesis 1:1-3

¹In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ²Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

³And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Psalm 33:6-9

⁶By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

⁷ He gathers the waters of the sea into jars;

he puts the deep into storehouses.

⁸Let all the earth fear the Lord;

let all the people of the world revere him.

⁹For he spoke, and it came to be;

he commanded, and it stood firm.

Isaiah 55:9-11

⁹“As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰As the rain and the snow

come down from heaven,

and do not return to it

without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish,

so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

¹¹so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

• Genesis 1:3 God spoke the world into existence.
• God’s speech is active.
• God’s speech is performative.
• God’s speech is a creative force in the world.

In this sense:

• Jesus is the word of God.
• He is the creative breath of God.
• He is the one who shows the message of God in a personified way.
• Jesus is the one who performs all the will of God.

Jesus is a distinct person sharing in the unified essence of God with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Word was with God: Word was in intimate relationship with the Father; v18

John 1:18

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Meaning bosom. Like a hollow place in a shoreline of the bay where harbour has hands to get the waves and water in. It is like you raise your hands to hug someone. It is a community relationship. What one person of the Trinity does the other two are involved with as well.

CONCLUSION

We have just looked at Jesus as the Word. He is the divine logos, the wisdom and the creator. Jesus is pre-existent. The Word comes from God, dwells with humanity, returns to God.

John 1:4-5

⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The Word bears both life and light. Life and light are primal metaphors for the very essence of God. We see as well that the light is locked up in conflict with a darkness that can neither “accept” nor “overcome” the light.

John 1:11-12

¹¹He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹²Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

In contemplating the profound revelation of Jesus as the Word, the divine Logos, the wisdom, and the Creator, we are confronted with the sobering reality expressed in John 1:11-12. Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah, came to His own people, but tragically, many did not receive Him. However, for those who did receive Him, who believed in His name, a transformational promise unfolds.

John 1:12 declares that through faith in Jesus, we are granted the extraordinary privilege of becoming children of God. This divine adoption is not contingent on human lineage, decisions, or will but is a miraculous birth orchestrated by God Himself. The invitation to be children of God is extended to all who welcome Jesus into their lives and place their trust in Him.

APPLICATION

Jesus is God Incarnate:

Jesus is not merely a historical figure or a wise teacher but God incarnate—the Word made flesh. In invite you to examine you belief in Jesus as the divine Son of God and to affirm His lordship in your life.

Make a commitment to receive Jesus.

If you have not yet committed your life to Jesus, I encourage them to make a conscious decision to receive Him, believe in His name, and experience the transformative power of becoming a child of God.

Have A Personal Relationship with Jesus.

Develop a personal relationship with Jesus. Can you reflect on the nature of your connection with the Saviour. Let’s draw closer to Him through prayer, study of the Scriptures, and intentional moments of worship.

Jesus is the Assurance of God’s Unconditional Love.

The unconditional love of God is demonstrated through the gift of His Son. Let us find security and peace in our identity as children of God, knowing that this status is not earned but graciously bestowed through faith in Jesus.

Live Out the Identity as Children of God.

Challenge believers to live out their identity as children of God in their daily lives. This involves embodying the values and principles taught by Jesus, extending love and grace to others, and being bearers of the light in a world often overshadowed by darkness.