John 1:1-18 // The Word became flesh

[Music] today we're going to be jumping into john chapter 1 verse 1 to 18. i encourage you if you haven't already done so to take some time and read through these 18 verses which really set the scene for the whole of john's gospel all the themes that we pick up in these opening verses are fleshed out as we continue in this glorious gospel i also encourage you to spend some time praying asking god to open your eyes to see wonderful truths about him so that you might grasp the truths in this passage better for yourself that you might believe them more fully and find the life that is on offer through the evidence that john presents to us here as we saw in the overview video if you haven't watched that i do encourage you to go watch that video first but we saw that john as a whole is about evidence belief and life now we get this from john chapter 20 verse 30 and 31 31 which set the scene for us in this gospel in those verses john says that jesus performed many other signs the evidence in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in the this book but these are written that you may believe that jesus is the messiah the son of god and that by believing you may have life in his name so that is john 20 verse 30 to 31 and that's the purpose statement of the whole book but these verses the preamble as it were give you the main themes of the whole book and i'm just going to highlight some of those that we see in this section john starts with three big words in the beginning and those should cause us to think back to genesis one verse one it's an intentional reference to genesis 1 verse 1 where it says in the beginning god created and john wants to take us back there and set the fact that in the beginning was the word and we see a couple of repetitions about the word in verse 14 key verse which we'll look at so in the beginning was the word what are we told about the word well the word was with god and the word was god and then we see the word became flesh and [Music] we know at the beginning of this gospel that the word that john is talking about is our lord jesus christ and he tells us a whole lot of evidence about him he was with god in the beginning through him all things were made without him nothing was made in him was life [Music] he was in the world and we see in verse 10 11 that the world didn't recognize him he came to those which were his own [Music] but his own did not receive him but we hear in verse 12 that some did receive him some did believe in his name [Music] so explicitly told we've got the word who was with god who was god the word became flesh and then we're told here that this word is jesus christ the only son of god the one and only son we see that twice the one and only son so what is what john is doing here is giving us a whole lot of evidence about the word about jesus the one and only son and about what he came to do so our lord jesus was with god in the beginning and that's very important to hold on to that he wasn't the first of the created beings as the jehovah's witnesses believe and he was god he is in closest relationship he is himself god that he was god he is god and all things were made through him so for some cross references here you can go to john's other book the book of revelation 4 1 5 11 sorry and you can look at colossians 1 verse 16 or 1 corinthians 8 6 or hebrews 1 verse two all things were made through him without him nothing was made that has been made and then we see here he says in him was life and that life was the light of all mankind and john introduces this idea of light light that shines in the darkness and light is a light and darkness are contrasted the whole way through this litter we've got light and darkness [Music] that's important to see here that the light shines not the light shine the light shines it's a present reality and the darkness has not overcome it now linking in with how john is showing us evidence we see that he speaks about john the baptist who came as a witness a witness to the light and then so he holds up john as a witness showing evidence and then from verse 14 he speaks of himself we have seen so he himself is a testimony and john again testified that john the baptist concerning jesus no one has ever seen god but the one and only son who is himself god and his in closest relationship with the father has made him known so there's evidence all the way through this section it's evidence which calls for belief and we see that in these opening verses that all might believe through him again verse 12 yet to those who did receive him who believed in his name and to believe in his name is to believe who he is his name refers to all that is true about him and the totality of his person so to believe in jesus name is to believe in jesus the one who was with god in the beginning who was god who made all things so he's truly 100 god but he came in the flesh and he is the one who we are to believe in so we've got this evidence scattered throughout here evidence which calls for belief in jesus and that belief then leads to life in him was life and that life was the light of all mankind [Music] now verse 14 is an absolutely wonderful verse where we see the word became flesh he dwelt among us and this word for dwell here [Music] is pitched as tent [Music] so tabernacled and must have been an amazing thing for john the writer the disciple to have literally been in a tent with the word he became flesh to while they were on the road pitching a tent and there he could have said well i've seen his glory the one who made all things when he made the stars pitched a tent under those stars and as he slept john could look at him and say i've seen his glory the glory of the one and only son who came from the father full of grace and truth and that's something else that we'll see this gospel the whole of the bible is a story of god's grace to his people and when jesus came we have all received grace in place of the grace already given so the grace that was given through moses the the law that told god's people how to live his way when our lord jesus came he we received grace in place of that grace because we couldn't actually obey the law that came through moses but grace and truth came through jesus he did what we couldn't do and he saved us so grace and truth have come through him the sad truth is told in verse 10 and 11 where he came to the world the world that was made through him but the world didn't recognize him and his own did not receive him so straight from the beginning of this gospel we are given the reality that this one who made all things who came to bring salvation to people he was rejected they didn't recognize him they didn't receive him so the shadow of the god the cross the darkness hangs over the gospel from these opening verses but then we are told that all who did receive him so some did receive him some did believe in his name and they were given the right to become children of god this is the life that's on offer it's it's life as god's children children who it's not because of who you belong to it's not because of some decision you've made it's children who are born of god it's a miraculous thing to belong to this great god and all the evidence is saying that what john has seen this word who became flesh who bought who showed god's glory who who is full of grace and truth he is the only one who can make this new birth possible this is pointing us ahead to john 3 16 which we'll look at in a few weeks time john 3 16 is probably the most well known of the verses in john which is 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 we get to be born again as god's children that whoever believes in him get life through jesus it's important not to miss the significance of the glory that is that john saw here because if you go and read about the the tabernacle and the temple we see the glory of the lord filled the tabernacle and the temple but when god's people built the new temple in ezra's day the glory never returned and this is the first time if you're going to read ezekiel's prophecies or the prophecies in haggai where it says that the glory of this new temple will be greater than the glory of the previous one that's being fulfilled now jesus is coming to show god's glory in the most magnificent way and so as we dig into this opening section which shows us evidence which is just going to be fleshed out in the rest of the letter um the signs that we'll see the light shining in the darkness as the letter continues or the gospel continues all of this evidence calls for belief in his name in this lord jesus who came the only son of the father he is the christ and that by believing that jesus is the messiah the son of god we may have life in his name that is full life eternal life life that begins now and continues forever so as you dig into this glorious open sea opening section i pray that it would thrill your heart to see these wonderful truths about jesus and that they would cause you to love him more to serve him more wholeheartedly to believe in him and to keep believing because the light shines it continues to shine in the darkness the darkness has not overcome it and will never overcome it and when that day comes when our lord jesus returns we will be with him for all eternity in the life that he has won for us so as you continue to dig in as you teach this to others i pray that the truths in this passage will thrill your heart god [Music] you

Channel: David Hill

Views: 8,340

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Id: UFwewe5E-wI

Length: 14min 8sec (848 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021