Well, good morning to you. Please take your copy of God's Word and join me in John chapter 1.
Last week I introduced the Gospel according to John to you. I developed some of its themes with selected text.
Today we're going to look at John chapter 1 verses 1 through 5.
And I have a pretty good feeling this will be part 1 of 2 of our look at this text.
These days are distracted days.
According to a 2015 study released by none other than Microsoft, the average attention span of an American is 8.25 seconds.
Less than that of a goldfish.
I didn't take the time, really care too much, to understand their definition of attention span.
I don't really know what they meant.
But we are undoubtedly distracted people.
The issue affects young and old alike.
Older folks, which I'm starting to count myself one of, like to look at younger generations and point out all the problems with them.
But it doesn't just lie with young folks.
I was having blood work done a couple of weeks ago, as older people do.
And as I waited there, there were 20-something, 60 to 70-somethings, and every single one of them, every single one of them, was staring and scrolling on a phone screen.
It was shocking.
So I decided that day to be a rebel young guy and sat there and did nothing.
I just stared at the wall in rebellion against them.
You need to think about how you can be less distracted.
The church needs to think about how we can help.
The church shouldn't attempt to coddle this problem, but should rather push back against it.
The majority way, I believe, we can help one another is to gather earnestly to fix our attention heavenward.
We also live in very self-centered days.
New technology and all the marketing that comes to us through it places you at the very center of the universe.
It seeks to cater to your every whim when you demand it.
We don't watch TV on a schedule anymore, if you think about that.
When I was a child, you saw the show or you didn't see the show.
Maybe someday they would syndicate it and they'd come back around, but you had to schedule your life around their schedule.
We don't do that any longer.
I was listening to a podcast, and I'll add, at my convenience and on demand,
and one of the guys speaking pointed out that even when we pull up maps these days,
we don't look at a map and then locate ourselves on the map,
but the map locates us at the center of it all the time.
I never had considered that, right?
My map puts me at the middle of everything.
This is a problem.
Everything at our fingertips on demand.
The church should most certainly push back at this point also.
You are not the center of the universe,
and very little in reality revolves around you.
We gather to worship the one who is, in fact, at the center of everything.
Now, I didn't live in John's day.
I'm only living in mine, and I can make commentary on our distractedness and our self-centeredness,
but have no idea the general mentality of John's early readers.
However, if I were to guess, I suggest to you that they also needed their attention fixed beyond themselves
and the den of the world in which they lived.
I would guess that John means to grab their attention and ours in the way that he opens his gospel account.
It's rather striking the way he begins this account of Jesus' life.
Let's push back this morning together against distraction and against self-centered tendencies
in order to behold the Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 1, verses 1 through 5.
Before I read it, beloved, I want to remind you that this is God's word to us.
John wrote it with an original audience in mind as he wrote it,
But God worked in him supernaturally as a word to us, written for his glory and our good,
that we might believe its promises, obey its commands, and have affection for its author.
May we hear it and respond accordingly to it.
I'll begin reading in verse 1.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
In the first five verses, John introduces to us Jesus without using his Hebrew name in the following five ways.
We see Jesus as the Word.
We see that Jesus is pre-existent.
We see that Jesus is the Creator.
We see Jesus is self-existent.
And we see Jesus is the unquenchable light.
And I believe that this is the point that I'll bring up.
I'll save it until next Lord's Day as we consider the resurrection together.
The Puritan John Owen wrote in his book entitled,
The Glory of Christ, which I really commend to you.
It's a difficult read, but it's a great read.
The Glory of Christ, the following, and I quote,
The revelation made of Christ in the blessed gospel is far more excellent, more glorious,
more filled with rays of divine wisdom and goodness than the whole creation.
And the just comprehension of it, if attainable, can contain or afford.
Without this knowledge, the mind of man, priding itself in other inventions and discoveries,
is wrapped up in darkness and confusion.
This, therefore, he's talking about Jesus Christ, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This, therefore, deserves the severest of our thoughts,
the best of our meditations, and our utmost diligence in them.
For if our future blessedness shall consist in living where he is and beholding his glory,
what better preparation can there be for it
than a constant previous contemplation of that glory as revealed in the gospel,
that by a view of it we may gradually be transformed into the same glory.
The Christian eternity will be filled with the wonderment of Christ.
So, Owen is arguing, we should seek to know him now,
that he might be exalted in our minds and in our lives.
Perhaps in some small measure, the Lord will use this time to bless us to that wonderful end.
Let's look first that Jesus is introduced as the Word.
John says in the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Word, Word, was an interesting choice for John to make as an introductory title for Jesus.
The Greek word logos was packed full of meaning for John's Gentile readers.
Greek philosophers used this word to refer to the abstract principle of reason and order in the universe.
With something out there kind of a furial, the logos,
the source from which all of this comes is the way they used that word.
It was an unknown source of creation and wisdom.
So, John, in this opening verse, presents Jesus as the personification of creative power and reason.
He's about to say, this logos that you use in your thinking can, in fact, be known.
John's Jewish readers would have also understood this word to be packed full of meaning.
They knew that God spoke the world into existence with mighty words.
That He made covenants with His people with words,
gave them wisdom through the written law,
counseled prophets and kings,
and revealed the Scripture, the Old Testament Scripture,
through spoken words.
So, to John's first century Jewish readers,
John introduces Jesus as the incarnation of divine power and revelation.
I would have loved to have sat with a Gentile believer who had just read this opening phrase,
and a Jewish believer who had just read this opening phrase,
and hear them talk about all that it meant to them
as they think about Jesus as the word,
the logos of God.
John, in introducing Jesus as the word,
draws straight lines to His divinity,
but lest anyone might be confused,
he tells us that He was with God in the beginning,
and that He is God.
I won't take the time this morning to plumb the depths of Trinitarian theology.
John's going to give us plenty of chances for that in the coming months together.
However, for now, I want you to see that Jesus,
before time as we know it and understand it,
dwelt as God in Trinitarian unity.
The author of Hebrews says in chapter 1 and verse 3 of Hebrews,
He is the radiance of the glory of God
and the exact imprint of His nature.
The exact imprint.
He is God Himself.
It is a great wonder that Jesus should humble Himself
to take the form of a man in order to suffer His Father's wrath
for our sin.
We ought to think and think and think
about the innate nature of Christ.
Charles Wesley gives us some hint of this wonder in his song,
And Can It Be That I Should Gain,
that I'm about to read to you.
It's verse 2, I believe.
It's on the back of your bulletin
with a rather unfortunate typo,
but I'll read it without the typo.
Charles Wesley wrote this,
He left his Father's throne above,
so free, so infinite, His grace,
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam's helpless race.
Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for, oh my God, it found out me.
Amazing love, how can it be
that thou, my God, should die for me?
Jesus is the Word.
The personification of creative power and reason.
The incarnation of divine power and revelation.
Jesus is God.
Secondly, and it follows,
that Jesus is preexistent.
We see at the very beginning of verse 1,
John tells us,
As God, Jesus was in the beginning.
And then he repeats it again in verse 2.
Do not be confused.
He was in the beginning,
and He was in the beginning,
is what John does.
The Greek word for beginning means source or origin.
It's meant to draw our minds back to Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1.
In the beginning God created,
it's referring to the time before the universe began.
The verb was in the imperfect tense
describes continual action in the past.
And so we could render,
verse 2,
He was always being in the beginning with God.
These two verses in no way suggest
that Jesus was created.
And if anybody tells you otherwise,
you should stop listening to the following things they say.
Jesus was not created.
He was.
Jesus just is.
Marcus Dodds,
in the Expositors Bible Commentary,
says this,
quote,
The word did not then begin to be,
but at that point at which all else began to be,
He already was.
In the beginning,
place it where you may,
the word already existed.
In other words,
the logos,
before time,
eternal.
Paul writes in the first part of Colossians chapter 1,
verse 17,
Jesus is before all things.
He preexisted everything we know to be as God.
The third thing that we see John introduce Jesus as
is the Creator in verse 3.
He says here,
All things were made through Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made.
And I love,
there's a carefulness,
there's an economy of words going on here,
but he repeats things that seem to matter so very much.
Right?
He's not going to leave us unclear at this point.
All things made through Him,
and without Him,
not anything made that was made.
All of it,
every bit of it,
made by Jesus.
Travel with me at this point over to Colossians chapter 1.
I think you'll appreciate seeing a few things I'd like to mention here.
I just read the beginning of verse 17.
I think the text that those words are set in will serve us well at this point.
A bit of an expansion on what John is communicating here.
Colossians 1,
verse 16 and 17.
For by Him,
Paul writes,
Christ,
for by Him all things were created,
in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities,
all things were created through Him.
So a bit of an expansion on the idea.
Less economic in his use of words.
All things created through Him,
and then at the end of verse 16,
and for Him.
And He is before all things,
and in Him all things hold together.
Jesus Christ,
Paul and John tell us,
is the Creator and the Sustainer of all things.
Everything that we can see,
and everything that we cannot see,
were created by Jesus and for Jesus.
This is a magnificent thought.
This is a thought,
I think an undistracted person
would spend a lot of time considering.
It should absolutely capture our minds.
Everything made by Him and for Him.
The entire universe was created
to what end?
To what end?
To the end of His praise.
Maybe the reason that we are so tempted
to worship paltry things
is that we don't...
Verse 1,
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.
Lift your eyes up from your screen.
This is a novel idea.
Go outside when it's dark.
Pay attention to all that has been created
and be in awe.
This universe was made by Christ
and it was made for Him.
Paul goes on to tell us
that He's the Sustainer of all things.
He says at the end of verse 17,
And in Him all things hold together.
The author of Hebrews says in chapter 1, verse 3,
He upholds the universe
by the word of His power.
And if sometime you want to
muse entertainingly with me,
ask me about Jonathan Edwards
and his theory of continual creation.
I'd love to talk with you about it.
It's fascinating.
Not only were all things created by Jesus Christ
and set into motion by Him,
but all things are also sustained by Him.
Everything goes until He says,
Stop.
And everything stops until He says,
Go.
It's all happening by His command.
Now, everything in the universe
is made of atoms.
Protons, electrons, neutrons.
If you've not learned this yet, you will.
If you've learned it,
you've probably long forgotten it.
It's incredible.
Everything is made of atoms.
Scientists have labored over the past century
to explain away the existence of God.
It sometimes seems like the whole point of science these days
is to explain away God.
But they have failed to explain
how it is that the atom remains in its orbital state.
How does an atom remain an atom?
Carl K. Darula, physicist,
is cited in a book entitled
The Atom Speaks
in reference to what scientists are calling
the strong nuclear force.
This is what they call that power
that holds an atom together.
The strong nuclear force.
He says this, quote,
Do you grasp what this implies?
It implies that all the nuclei
have no right to be alive at all.
Indeed, they should never have been created.
And if created,
they should have blown up instantly.
Yet, here they all are.
Some inflexible inhibition
is holding them relentlessly together.
The nature of the inhibition
is also a secret.
One thus far reserved
by nature herself.
What he's saying is,
we don't have any scientific reason
to understand why it is
that anything holds together.
Why do I hold together?
Why does anything you're viewing right now
stay in the shape that it's in
and not just burst into atoms
flying everywhere?
It's a secret, he says,
one thus far reserved
by nature herself.
Science hasn't answered this question,
but the Bible has.
If you'll allow,
the strong nuclear force
is Jesus Christ
and the word of his power.
Jesus is the creator
and he is the sustainer
of all things.
Back in John 1, verse 3,
all things made through him
and without him
was not anything made
that was made.
Ah.
We should stand in awe
of this truth.
Fourthly,
Jesus is self-existent.
self-existent.
We see this in the first part
of verse 4.
In him was life.
In him.
He possessed life.
Ontology is the study
of the nature of being.
The beginning of verse 4
is a brilliant ontological statement.
In him was life.
The word translated life
is used all throughout
John's gospel
and always refers
to spiritual
and eternal life.
Jesus possesses
within himself
life.
This is something
often referred to
as
auseity.
His auseity.
Jesus is
ause,
which is from the Latin.
It just means
of
self.
And it's
an incredibly
important doctrine
and a doctrine
that is constantly
under attack.
You want to be discerning
as you listen
and read
all of the wonderful
resources that are out there.
If people are attacking
the auseity of God,
his self-existence,
you should be very cautious
about what follows.
Everything
that has been created
needs
some
power source
to sustain it.
the plant
needs
nutrients
and water
and sunlight.
Our cars
need
fuel
and tragically
expensive
maintenance.
We need
food
and water
and shelter
and some of us
need
tragically expensive
maintenance.
I could go on
and on
and on,
but I hope
that you see
the point.
Everything
created,
all of it,
cannot sustain
itself.
It tends
toward
entropy.
It needs
something to
input into it
for it to
continue
on.
Not so
with Jesus.
He is
self-existent.
His divine
nature needs
no inputs
to go on.
No fuel,
no energy
input,
always
existing,
never
created.
He
just
is.
everything
created
is in
some
form
of
process.
And
very
tragically,
there are
theologians
today that
have invented
a thing
called
process
theology
that
suggests
that
God
is
responding
to us
and that
his
very
nature
is at
change.
Does
God
respond
to us?
Of course
he does.
But is
who he
is
responding
to us?
No,
not
ever.
Once
again,
be very
careful
if anybody
seems to
be promoting
process
theology.
John
tells us
in no
uncertain
terms,
Jesus
is.
He
exists.
In
him
was
life.
Later
in John,
John records
these
astounding
words.
This is
John 8
and verse
58.
Jesus
says this,
Truly,
truly,
I say
to you,
before
Abraham
was,
I
am.
This
is a
reference
to
Exodus
3.14
where God
responds to
a fearful
question that
Moses asked
him.
He says,
Who shall
I say
sent
me?
And God
says to
Moses,
I am
who
I
am.
And he
said,
Say this
to the
people of
Israel,
I
am
has
sent
me
to
you.
This
is this
idea
of
aseity.
I
need
not
appeal
to
some
other
authority.
Tell
them
my
name
is
I
exist.
I
am.
Nothing
changes
me.
I
am
who
I
am.
This
is an
astonishing
thing for
Jesus to
say because
he rightly
was claiming
to be
God.
Unchanging,
immovable
God.
Everything
in the
universe
is
becoming
moving from
one state
to another.
If you
can recognize
this about
yourself,
you will be
so glad
to know
that Jesus
is.
John
goes on
to say,
Jesus
possesses
life and
he says,
the life
was the
light
of men.
And we'll
pick up
more of
this,
I think,
next week.
But the
themes of
life and
light are
prominent
in John's
gospel.
Here we
see the
two
clearly
connected
in a
metaphor
that speaks
to the
contrast
of Jesus
against
all
that is
evil
in the
world.
We,
I think,
take
light for
granted.
We have
light in
abundance.
It is
everywhere.
But if you
lived in a
time when
the only
source of
light was
from a
flame,
oil,
wood,
you had
to produce,
this
metaphor would
likely have
had a
more felt
impact on
you.
Just a
couple weeks
ago, I
took my
middle son,
Judah, on
his ride
of passage
trip.
He turned
13 this
year.
And he
wanted to
go to the
Okefenokee
swamp and
camp out
in the
swamp.
And so
the first
night we
paddled
some 10
miles to
an island
called
Floyd's
Island and
had
the
noisiest
night of
camping I
have ever
experienced.
There are
a lot of
critters in
the woods,
in the
swamp.
I am
fairly
confident that
an orangutan
lives out
there somewhere.
It was
loud.
And we
were in a
tent and we
had the
rain fly on
and there
were noises
I just
would have
loved to
have seen
what in
the world
they were.
And I
wasn't terribly
frightened,
but I will
admit there
are some
noises I
would have
really liked
to know.
what they
were.
But just
before we
went to
bed,
one of the
things reported,
as a caution
to put your
food up safely
because bears
do make it
out onto
this island.
Somehow they
travel through
the swamp and
they make it
out onto
this island.
And so you
want to be
mindful of
that kind
of thing.
And something
large came
through the
woods.
And I've
done a lot
of camping,
I've done
a lot of
hunting,
you know,
there's the
squirrel pouncing
around,
makes a lot
of noise.
This was not
a squirrel.
It was
large.
And Judah
and I both
were very glad
for all the
lights that we
had on us.
We were able
to illuminate
the woods
which noise
was coming
from and
never saw
what was
making the
noise.
But boy,
were we glad
that we
weren't huddled
around a
campfire,
wondering what
was coming
through the
woods our
way.
I think we
take light
for granted.
And this
idea of
the life
that's in
Jesus being
the light
of men
may take
a little
more careful
thoughtfulness
on our
part.
Light
scatters
the unseen.
Light
brings
security.
The themes
of life
and light
are seen
connected
elsewhere in
the Bible.
Psalm 36
verse 9
For with you
is the fountain
of life.
In your
light do we
see light.
In Corinthians
chapter 4
and verse 4
there Paul
talks about
the light
of the gospel
of the glory
of Christ
who is
the image
of God.
And then
Jesus in
John chapter 8
verse 12
says I am
the light
of the world.
whoever
follows me
will not
walk in
darkness
but will
have
the light
of life.
So
Jesus
is
self
existent
and we're
going to see
next week
that the
light that he
brings
most certainly
was not
conquered
by
the darkness.
Jesus
is the
word.
Jesus
is
preexistent.
Jesus
is the
creator
and Jesus
is
self
existent.
So what?
What do we
do?
Jesus
is just
being
introduced
to us.
Let's
move on.
Let's
get quickly
to the
application.
There's
so much
to be
considered
here though.
First,
if you
have not
placed
faith
in
Christ's
person
and
work,
if you
dwell
in
darkness,
if you
understand
the weight
of your
sin,
your
offense
against
the
holy
God,
repent and
believe.
Turn
by faith
in
Christ.
The
whole
point
of
the
book
of
John
is
that
you
might
believe
that
Jesus
is
the
Christ
and
have
eternal
life
in
him.
If
you
have
placed
faith
in
Christ's
person
and
his
work,
worship.
Worship.
Praise
him.
Beloved,
what we
think about
the most
and talk
about the
most
and spend
our money
and our
energy
on,
says a
lot
about what
we
worship.
And we
ought to
take the
time to
think about
our week.
Just think
about last
week.
Start at
Monday and
go through
now and
think about
how you
spent the
things you
have, the
resources you
have.
What did
you spend
them on?
It may
communicate
much to
you that
needs to
be repented
of.
Our minds
should be
full of
the glories
of Christ.
I think
John intends
to really
capture us
in these
opening
verses,
to work
to that
very end
before he
gets biographical
at all.
Because of
who Jesus
is, we
can cast
all our
anxieties,
our fears,
our doubts,
our troubles,
our depressions
on him.
There's no
situation that
escapes his
attention or
his power.
There is no
circumstance that
surprises him or
evades his
providential
control.
He is our
confidence in
life and
in death.
The reality of
who Jesus
is makes
sure all
the promises
of God to
those of us
who have
believed in
him.
We should
worship.
And as part
of that
worship, we
should share.
He is
the reason
we boldly
share the
good news
of his
kingdom.
If our
affections are
rightly turned
toward him,
we will want
to talk
about him.
We will look
for every
opportunity we
have to tell
people about
this Christ,
this Lord
and Savior
of our
souls.
Maybe we
be a
people who
are told
to shut
up.
They don't
want to hear
this anymore.
We should
be talking
that much
about this
person that
we love
so dearly.
The reality
of who Jesus
is demands
our affections
and it
demands our
obedience.
Let's pray
together.