Monday, October 19 –
As we continue our reading through the New Testament, we are
going back to the Gospels. We have
finished reading all of Paul’s letters, and the General Epistles, and our remaining
New Testament Readings are all from the disciple John. We will begin by reading John’s Gospel, and
then his three letters – 1, 2, 3 John – and the last book in the Bible,
Revelation. For today, begin by reading
John 1:1 – 18. Several months ago, I
invited my brother Edward to join me in writing these Gospel of John devotions.
Please read first, and then come back
and we’ll walk through it a second time, and thanks.
The Gospel of John is unique in four ways.
First, while the other Gospel accounts are detailed as to his earthly
ministry, John shows Jesus and his public ministry as it revolves around visits
to Jerusalem during times of the Jewish annual feasts. Secondly, John speaks of the “signs’ that
authenticate Jesus as the Messiah, which are important. Third, John highlights
the various “I Am” statements that Jesus uses to reveal his true identity.
Finally, John details the intimate time Jesus spent with his disciples on the
night of his betrayal and arrest. During this time, John includes Jesus’ words
about the Holy Spirit who would come to them after his departure back to the
Father (John 13 – 16).
The Gospel of John is different from the Gospels of Matthew,
Mark, & Luke in the way it begins. The prologue is unusual in that John’s
Gospel begins not at his birth but in eternity.
John begins with Jesus as the ‘Word’ or logos who existed in eternity past before time began.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (1:1-2)
John speaks of Jesus as Moses wrote of Creation – “in the
beginning”. God has no beginning, and
thus, Jesus is “the Word (that) was with God and was God”. The “word” is a ‘He’ (not an idea, a
philosophy, a religious concept). The
word was “with God”, which literally means “towards”. John is reminding us that Jesus is face to
face with God. Jesus “was” God, one with
God – he had no beginning and he will have no end. This opening of John’s
Gospel lays the foundation for the Christian belief in the tri-unity of God:
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
The opening verses tell us that Jesus was with God the
Father and God the Spirit in creation. Jesus
was life, light, two images Moses used in reference to God’s creation in
Genesis 1. The “word” spoke the creation
into existence – all of it, and breathed his life and light into it all.
“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 any thing 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” (1:1-5).
Whereas the other Gospel writers take us back to Jesus’
birth, John takes us to Jesus in eternity past before time began. This is what
the Nicene Creed affirmed regarding Christ Jesus –
“And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father
before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father.
John not only introduces Jesus as “the Word”, but
says of Jesus, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (1:4).
We know that light is necessary in order to have life. Scripture reminds us that unless we “see”, we
are blind to God’s word. This helps us understand
John the Baptist’s ministry.
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might
believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about
the light” (1:6-8).
John the Baptist came as a “witness”, a “martys”, a title
given by Jesus later to his disciples in Acts. 1:8. He was “sent from God” and he came to point to
Jesus as the light and life. John the Baptist
stands in contrast to Jesus. While a
godly man, he came to “bear witness” to Jesus, and the disciple John reminds us
that Jesus was the ‘true light’ in verse 9 that was to be for the “world”. It is the world that needed the Gospel Jesus proclaims
– not just the Jews. It is the world
that has a choice concerning who Jesus is, and what he has done for them. Not all chose Jesus.
“He was in the world, and the world was made through him,
yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people
did not receive him” (1:10-11).
The significance of Jesus’ being was unknown, and not
received, but in stands in contrast to those who saw Jesus as light and life
and welcomed him as their Savior.
“But to all who receive him, who believed in his name, he
gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of
the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (1:12).
It is important for us to see that “life” is in Jesus, and
it is He in us that gives us life. Belief or faith in Jesus is an
important theme found in John’s Gospel. That kind of faith is always ‘active’,
not passive. In essence, it is a trusting faith. In and of ourselves, we do not
have life, but in Jesus,
we do have life. In essence, we were “dead men walking” until Jesus came. John
is led to write this Gospel account in order to present Jesus as the One who all
people must put an active trust in for their salvation, which is life eternal. At
the end of John’s Gospel he writes –
“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples,
which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may
have life in his name” John 20:30-31.
We notice that John says, “…believe that Jesus is the
Christ.” We normally would say, Jesus Christ. We know ‘Christ’ is
not his last name but his title as the Anointed One, The Messiah. Jesus is the
promised fulfillment of God, that the Messiah would come to redeem the earth. The Messiah, Jesus, is unique because he was
not just a godly person, but was “incarnated” – God and Man.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we
have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace
and truth” (1:14).
John reminds us that “God took on humanity”. Later in his first letter, he would write:
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with
our hands, concerning the word of life— (1 John 1:1).
John said, “we heard him, we saw him, we looked at him, and
touched him”. God is no abstract
religious idea – he is a person. He is the
Son of God, the Messiah, the Christ. The
name given by God the Father, yet born of Mary – the Christ – means “the
Anointed One” that God promised to send.
Uniqueness is an overused word. Unique means “being the only one or one
without equal.” There is only One Christ - Jesus. The Son of God has always existed and, in
time, was sent by God the Father. Jesus tells this to people throughout John’s
gospel, and it is an affront to some and believed by others.
Jesus came to make God known to us (revealing God to us). People have often wondered “what’s God
like?” The answer is to look at Jesus. He later tells the disciple Andrew “come
and see” (1:39). God became flesh, or as the Message translates his
incarnation – “he became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood”.
John the Baptist introduces Jesus to the Jews – “John
bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who
comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ For from his
fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given
through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (1:15-17).
Jesus came as “God-in-flesh”. He was from eternity, “he was before me”, which
not only means “from eternity”, but also in priority. John would have a temporary
ministry, while Jesus’ life and ministry would live on into eternity. John the Baptist saw Jesus as the fullness of
God, Jesus displayed the Father’s fullness in grace that lead to more grace –
i.e., “one blessing after another”.
We asked it before – people often wonder “what is God like?” The answer is Jesus. “No one has ever seen God; the only God,
who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (1:18).
Bruce Milne says it so well in his commentary: “In Jesus
Christ God is known to us; in Jesus Christ God himself has come to us. He is in
the bosom of the Father (18, RSV), the literal wording of at the Father’s side
(NIV). It is as if God has reached into his very being and plucked out his own
heart in sending Christ to us”. [1]
Neither the disciples, nor John the Baptist, nor the Jewish religious leaders, nor anyone at that time understood Jesus’ coming. John reminds us 1:10-13, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Jesus came to us so that we could “see” and “meet” God, and so that we could come to him.
Peace
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