The Gospel of John
Chapter One
Over the next few months we will be considering the Gospel of John.
Of all the books in the Bible, I find the ones written by John to be my favorite.
The Apostle John, the son of Zebedee, his brother is James,
Both were in the fishing business together with a man named Simon,
Who we will come to know as the Apostle Peter.
Scholars debate, but tradition holds that the Apostle John wrote
The Gospel according to John,
Three letters that bear his name: 1rst, 2nd, 3rd, John
And the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
If I could completely master one book of the Bible,
And by master not only do I mean know it completely but also do it
completely it would be 1 John.
Instead of starting with 1 John though I want us to put into practice what the
Apostle John reveals to us about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
John’s reason for writing this Gospel,
Gospel by the way means “good news”
Is stated for us near the close this book
John 20:30-31 (NIV)
Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written 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 wrote these 20 chapters that you may believe and live your life to the full.
John carefully selected the events in the earthly ministry of his Rabbi Jesus,
Recorded them in such a fashion that the first eleven chapters give us
enough information so that anyone reading his book could
believe.
And then from chapter 12 on gives those who believe enough
information to become fully devoted followers of Christ.
John tells us how disciples are to live their lives.
Chapter One of the Gospel of John can be divided into three sections,
The first sets the eternal stage,
The second sets the earthly stage,
The third is the start of Jesus’ ministry.
Let’s watch: www.GospelofJohntheFilm.com with Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus
Verses 1-14 John reveals to us the deity of Jesus and the mystery of the of what
will be called the Trinity.
Can you recite the first words of the Bible?
Genesis 1:1 (NIV)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Let’s compare this with John Chapter 1:1-3
John 1:1-3 (NIV)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
The comparison of Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1-3 throws us into an intellectual
Conundrum.
During our Christmas messages we learned that there is no
satisfactory answer as to how The Word, and God can be both
one at the same time yet identifiably different.
Yet we did learn the theological reason as to why this statement of
faith is not a contradiction but rather a paradox.
This may seem confusing to us today, but it is actually a corrective teaching to the
Gnostic Heresy of the first century.
Gnosticism is the belief that
Matter, the physical world and everything in is essentially evil.
Only pure spirit is sinless.
Therefore the body is inherently sinful.
Your spirit is locked in a bodily prison.
Jesus was only quasi-human,
Not genuinely bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh
Gnosticism rejected the deity of Jesus.
They taught the God’s Spirit descended upon the man
Jesus at his baptism and left during the crucifixion.
John says no to the Gnostics.
The Word was already there at the very beginning,
God was eternally like the Word and the Word eternally like God.
The Word is so intimate with God that there are no secrets between the two.
The word is so perfectly the same as God in Mind, Heart, and Being that
when you encounter the Word you encounter God.
Like I said this is intellectually confusing,
Jesus gave us the pattern of Father, Son and Spirit to help us get a handle on
the concept.
John makes the case for the deity of Jesus and also the humanity of Jesus.
John 1:14 (NIV)
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Once again we find our familiar truth—
Jesus fully God and Fully human.
The complete revelation of who God is and who human beings
are supposed to be.
Jesus is life that lights creation.
John 1:4 (NLT)
The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.
If you find yourself in a dark place, run to the light that gives life.
In the light of the Word,
The shadows of doubt about God are dissipated.
The shadows of despair about your life is dispelled
The shadows of the death we fear is dissolved.
Living the life of light drives away the darkness of unbelief and sin.
Here is a quick review of sin.
Original sin is estrangement from God.
Estrangement from God was one result of Adam’s disobedience.
The sin nature is egoism.
The desire to be our own authority.
Ego filled the vacuum left by an estrangement from God.
Instead of loving God with all our heart mind soul and strength,
Egoism demands we love self instead.
Because of original sin and the sin nature—
Because of estrangement and egoism we do things that
Deter, damage and destroy right relationships.
Those things we call the acts or deeds of sin.
So sin is a three fold problem,
Actual deeds done that have ruined relationships.
An attitude of self deification.
And a way of being, estranged from God.
Sin makes you a slave to the god of this age,
The scripture identifies the god of this age as Satan.
2 Corinthians 4:4-5 (NIV)
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Henry David Thoreau in 1854 wrote:
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
It would be more accurate to say that the mass of humanity lead lives
in absolute darkness.
In spiritual darkness we continue to sin.
Everything rises and falls on relationships.
Sin ruins relationships.
The result of living in darkness is a fall.
A fall into an eternal separation from love.
John 1:10-11 (NIV)
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
Do you believe in God?
Most American do.
Our opinions are widely varied as to what we mean by God,
But most Americans believe that there is a higher power.
I think if people would pray “God help me to recognize your salvation”
That God regardless of the false beliefs a person held,
Would eventually bring them to the place where they would
receive into their understanding
The gospel of Jesus Christ.
John 1:12-13 (MSG)
But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. These are the God-begotten…
Through sincere belief and the life style transformation that is the fruit of that
belief, Jesus changes you into your true self.
Jesus reconciles your relationship with God.
You are no longer estranged, now you are God-begotten.
Jesus forgives you of your actual sins.
The debt of righteousness owed is cancelled.
As you grow in your relationship with Jesus you eventually come to a
time here your egoism will be rectified.
All this on the journey of becoming your true self,
Free to live your life to the full.
Free to love and be loved,
Free to find acceptance and belonging.
Free to experience purpose and meaning for your life.
Free to live a significant life.
To begin this journey requires Acceptance, Belief and Commitment.
Acceptance of the fact that you are living in darkness.
Believing that only Jesus can bring you into the light and give you a
new life.
Committing yourself to discipleship, to obedience, to following
Jesus.
The sincere Acceptance, Believing and Committing is how you
receive the good news of the Gospel.
How do you know its true?
How do you know this Jesus is the real deal?
When a new product comes out on the market—
Here’s one I am waiting for—
Take this pill and it will you reduce you to 5% body fat,
And buff you up like an Olympic gymnast.
In 30 days.
Send $19.95 plus shipping and handling
Let’s say it’s insomnia night and your watching TV and on comes this
add.
The commercial features a well known individual.
A pro athlete, or an academy award winning celebrity,
And they tell you that this product is what you need--
Now what is your first thought going to be?
It might be, wow if that person says it works maybe it really does.
But it’s probably not going to be enough for you to pick up the
phone and dial that 800 number.
Over the next week you start to notice that some of your co-workers are looking
slimmer. So you ask—You look like your losing weight what are you doing?
And they enthusiastically tell about the commercial for this new
miracle drug that reduces your body fat to 5% and buffs
you up like an Olympic gymnast.
Now what is your thought about the pill going to be?
If your cautious you’ll take a wait and see approach.
Well sure enough 3 weeks go bye and your co-workers
are looking trim and fit.
Nothing like results from the people you know to convince you that something is
the real deal.
There is no endorsement of a product as good as the endorsement that
comes from a personal acquaintance that is living proof that of
the effectiveness of the product.
That it works for them just might be enough to convince you to
Commit $19.95 plus shipping and handling.
So you believe the testimony of all these people and you buy the product,
Start taking it and it works---
What are you going to do?
Tell somebody else.
Now with this little story in mind let’s read some more scripture.
John 1:6-8 (NIV)
There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
I find it particularly interesting that all four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and
here as we read in John,
all point to John the Baptist’s endorsement of Jesus as authoritative.
John the Baptist must have had the right credentials for his endorsement be used as
a verification of authenticity for Jesus ministry.
Why is Jesus the real deal?
John the Baptist said so.
John the Baptist must have been highly respected and culturally accepted as a
bonafide prophet of God.
So with our little illustration of the miracle pill,
John the Baptist is like the pro athlete or the celebrity that endorses the
product.
Guess who the co-workers are?
If your are already a believer, then you are in the roll of the co-worker.
You are the one who accepted the endorsement of a respected individual and
became a follower of Jesus.
Now tell me how you are going to convince that person who doesn’t believe that
you found, committed to and are being changed by this miracle gospel?
By the way you manifest the fruit of that relationship in you life.
Every single believer is part of the public relationship team to the world.
Friends right now in the United States Christianity has a PR problem.
There is an increasing number of Americans who think that Jesus is great,
But Christianity is off base.
The label Christian carries with it the stereotypes of right winger extremists,
Homophobia, anti-science, double standard, judgmental, hypocritical,
Religious wacko, intolerant, exclusive,
Publicly prudish-- privately promiscuous
We have a bad PR problem that started with some infamous headliners:
Jim & Tammy Robert Tillton Jimmy Swaggert
Baker
Binny Hinn Ted Haggard Paul and Jan Crouch
Kenneth Copeland Creflo Dollar Pat Robertson
When folks like these morally fail or
Say absolutely stupid things,
Or get rich preaching the gospel—
It’s like the arsonist turning out to be the fireman,
The murder turning out to be the doctor.
It feeds a negative stereotype for being Christian.
John the Baptist has the goods.
All four gospel writers report John the Baptist’s words because the whole
culture new the authenticity of his ministry.
A Billy Graham might get a person thinking,
”maybe this Jesus stuff is the real deal.”
But the person who will convince them that Jesus is the real deal is you.
You will convince them when your life shows results.
You overcome all those stereotypes by living a life of love.
Seeking to meet the need of another at the cost of a
personal sacrifice.
You overcome all those stereotypes by living a life of integrity
and honesty and consistency and compassion.
You overcome those stereotypes not by what you believe but by
what you do.
You are the walking talking advertisement that Jesus is the life that brings light to
everyone.
How good are you at that task?
Don’t be one of our PR problems.