{"id":476,"date":"2016-12-19T01:06:29","date_gmt":"2016-12-19T00:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=476"},"modified":"2016-12-19T01:06:29","modified_gmt":"2016-12-19T00:06:29","slug":"in-the-beginning-was-the-word-john-11-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=476","title":{"rendered":"In the beginning was the Word John 1:1-5"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is Jesus Christ really like? Who was Jesus, really? Archbishop William Temple said that the other Gospels give us a perfect photograph of Jesus. John\u2019s Gospel gives us a perfect portrait of Jesus.
\nSome stories like to keep the punchline or the twist in the plot to the very end. The stranger who turns out to be the long-lost brother, or the king in disguise. In some ways Mark\u2019s Gospel is like that. We don\u2019t really know who Jesus is until the empty tomb. Matthew and Luke give away more from the beginning, as the nativity accounts reveal Jesus to be Immanuel, God with us, the one who will save His people from their sins, and the Son of the Most High God. But writing His Gospel, the apostle John doesn\u2019t want his readers to be in any doubt who the central character is.
\nSo John begins his Gospel with a Prologue, an Introduction, in which he summarises the whole message of Jesus Christ: who Jesus is, his role in creating the world and how he redeemed the world, and the most fantastic good news of how ordinary people like you and me can become God\u2019s children. This wonderful passage has so much to teach us that we will take three weeks to explore its riches and today I am going to unwrap just the first few verses. John doesn\u2019t begin with the birth of Jesus. He takes us much further back and further away \u2013 outside space and before time, to the beginning of everything that is.
\nJohn 1:1 In the beginning was the Word,
\nIt is no coincidence that John\u2019s Gospel starts just as the Book of Genesis starts the whole Bible with the words \u201cIn the beginning.\u201d John takes us back before the beginning of time and space when there was nothing but God. And he introduces us to a person who he calls \u201cThe Word.\u201d \u201cThe Word\u201d was there right from the beginning.
\nI promise not to use too much Greek in these sermons on John but it will just be less confusing if I tell you now that the Greek word for \u201cThe Word\u201d here is \u201cThe Logos.\u201d Now I can talk about \u201cThe Logos\u201d and you will know that I am talking about this person John calls \u201cThe Word.\u201d Who is \u201cThe Word\u201d? Who is \u201cThe Logos\u201d?
\nSome people think that the background to John talking about \u201cThe Logos\u201d is in Greek philosophy. The Greeks used \u201cThe Logos\u201d to refer to their idea of the rational principle which lies behind the universe. But I think it makes much more sense to look for the background to \u201cThe Logos\u201d in Jewish thinking at the time of Jesus.
\nOur words are the way we communicate with others and reveal ourselves to others. Our words embody our thoughts. We read in Genesis chapter 1 how God spoke into the darkness, and there was light. Whenever God speaks, things happen. Time and again God\u2019s words brought everything into being. It was the Word of God, the Law and the Prophets which gave birth and life to the nation of Israel and sustained them in their faith. And the Word of God was God\u2019s revelation to the prophets who said, \u201cThe Word of the Lord came to me\u201d. So \u201cthe Logos,\u201d \u201cthe Word,\u201d is how God expresses Himself and communicates with the world. The Logos is the embodiment of God\u2019s thoughts. The Logos is how God reveals Himself to the world.
\nMore than that, in Jesus\u2019s time the Jews had a version of the Old Testament which was their equivalent of the Message or the Living Bible. The Targums were a combination of paraphrase and commentary and in the Targums the phrase \u201cThe word of God\u201d was sometimes used to avoid using God\u2019s name. So for example in Genesis 3:8 the Targums said, \u201cThe Word of God used to walk in the garden with Adam and Eve.\u201d
\nSo the Jews already had a sense that the Word of God, the Logos of God, was something very very important. John tells us that the Logos was there at the beginning of everything. But more than that,
\nthe Word was with God,
\nHere and again in verse 2 John tells us that the Logos was with God. But there is significance in the choice of word for \u201cwith.\u201d John said that the Logos is \u201cpros\u201d God, which means more than just two thing being located with or alongside each other. The word is used of two people being together in each other\u2019s presence. So saying that the Logos was \u201cpros\u201d God is not about objects in proximity but about persons in relationship. A good translation would be that \u201cthe Logos was face-to-face with God.\u201d The Logos is revealed to be a Person who was alongside God in the beginning.
\nThe Word was with God,
\nand the Word was God.
\nThis means more than saying \u201cthe Logos was divine.\u201d It would be better to say, \u201cWhat God was, the Logos was.\u201d \u201cThe Word was fully God.\u201d
\nJehovah\u2019s Witnesses will tell you that the Greek only says that \u201cThe Logos was A god.\u201d That is how their New World translation represents John 1:1. It is true that that might conceivably be a permissible translation of the verse. \u201cThe Word was A god.\u201d But from the Greek, that is highly improbable. The much more obvious translation is that the Logos was indeed God.
\nJohn is not saying that the Logos was another God or a different God. He is saying that the Logos is both God, and yet at the same time with God. This Logos is actually God. This is a mystery. We can\u2019t get our heads around the fact that the Logos is both God and at the same time a distinct person present with or alongside God. But that is what the Bible says.
\nJohn clearly believed that Jesus was God. In John 10:30 Jesus said, \u201cI and the Father are one.\u201d Which is pretty clear. Jesus was saying, \u201cI am God.\u201d In John 20:28 Thomas said to Jesus, \u201cMy Lord and my God!\u201d Jesus did not correct Thomas, but accepted the title of God.
\nJohn writing this Prologue definitely believed that Jesus was God. That\u2019s why he wrote, \u201cThe Logos was God.\u201d So here we have this mysterious figure, the Logos, a person who was both with God and also God Himself.
\nJohn 1:2 He was with God in the beginning.
\nFrom the very beginning, before creation, the Logos was there with God. This brings us to the idea of pre-existence. The Logos existed face-to-face with God, before anything else existed.
\nTime for a spoiler. If you don\u2019t want to know the surprise waiting for us in verse 14 turn away now. Later in the prologue, but not until next week\u2019s sermon, John is going to tell us that the Logos, the Word of God, became a human being as Jesus of Nazareth. \u201cThe Word became flesh and dwelt among us.\u201d There, I\u2019ve given the game away. The Logos is going to be revealed to be Jesus Christ. John is going to tell us that Jesus of Nazareth was at the same time the Logos, the Word of God, who was with God in the beginning and was indeed Himself God. What an amazing thing! Is it possible that Jesus knew that he was the Logos, who existed with God before the creation of the world? Did Jesus know that he was pre-existent?
\n`Later on in the Prologue in verse 15 we read this.
\n15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, \u201cThis was he of whom I said, \u2018He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.\u2019 \u201d
\nOn the face of it, \u201che was before me\u201d doesn\u2019t make sense. John was Jesus\u2019s older cousin. He was Elizabeth\u2019s son and Elizabeth was already six months pregnant with John when Mary went to see her to tell her she was also expecting a baby. So when John said, \u201che was before me\u201d, that implies that John recognised something very special indeed about Jesus. John was talking about Jesus\u2019s pre-existence, not his birth date.
\nIn John 8:58 Jesus said, \u201cBefore Abraham was, I am.\u201d Jesus was claiming to have been alive before Abraham. Jesus knew about his pre-existence. Actually, even more than that, Jesus used the name, \u201cI am\u201d which is the Jewish name for God. Hearing that, the Jews took up stones to punish Jesus for blasphemy because they understood by that saying that Jesus was actually claiming to be God. Jesus of Nazareth certainly knew that he was more than just a man.
\nWe get more glimpses of Jesus\u2019s self-knowledge in John 17. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed these words.
\nJohn 17:5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
\n24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
\n So here is the incredible truth. The Logos was there with God before the universe was created, and Jesus of Nazareth knew that He was that Logos, living as a human being.
\nBut John has much more to tell us about the Logos, the Word of God.<\/p>\n

John 1:3 Through him all things were made;
\nNot only was the Logos present with God when the universe was created. The Logos was the agent of creation. That would be no surprise to the Jews. In the acts of creation in Genesis 1 we find repeated, \u201cGod said\u201d, \u201cGod said.\u201d Psalm 33 declares that God created the world through His mighty Word.
\n6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.
\n7 He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses.
\n8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere him.
\n9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.<\/p>\n

God made the world THROUGH His Word, the Logos. We can see here the three persons of the Holy Trinity working together in Creation. God the Father spoke the Word, God the Son was the Word that was spoken, and God the Holy Spirit was the breath which carried the Word and brought the whole of creation into existence.
\nwithout him nothing was made that has been made.
\nEVERYTHING was made by the Word \u2013 nothing excluded \u2013 no exceptions.
\nColossians 1 contains a very early Christian hymn which repeats these glorious truths about the Logos who became a human being as the Lord Jesus Christ.
\nColossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And 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. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
\nJesus is the visible image of the invisible God. And Jesus Himself knew that was true. On John 14 He said this.
\n\u201cI am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.\u201d
\n8 Philip said, \u201cLord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.\u201d
\n9 Jesus answered: \u201cDon\u2019t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
\nThe visible image of the invisible God. Just as our words reveal and embody our unseen thoughts, so the Logos reveals and embodies the unseen God. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. Then the Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ was the agent by which God created not only the earth but absolutely everything that exists. Everything was created not only BY him but also FOR Him. He is before all things \u2013 not only in a temporal sense that he existed when they did not, but also in the sense of pre-eminence. He is more important than everything else put together \u2013 supreme over the whole of creation.
\n19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him. So Jesus was indeed completely God. He was there with God in the beginning. Indeed He was God Himself.
\nIn him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1:4-5)
\nJohn moves on from telling us who the Logos is to explaining how he brought salvation, light and eternal life to this dark world. We will come back to the rest of the story until next week. So I will just leave you with this taster from the end of the Prologue.
\n16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father\u2019s side, has made him known.
\nJohn makes clear that this Logos he has been talking about is indeed Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter\u2019s son. This is who Jesus Christ is. He is God the One and Only. He is The Logos, the Word of God, who is at the Father\u2019s side, who was and is with God and who was and is Himself God. Who better to reveal God than God the Son \u2013 the agent of creation? Only God the One and Only, who is at the Father\u2019s side, could make him known. Who else could reveal God but God Himself, born as a human being? Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Who better and who else could bring light into the darkness and give eternal life to a lost world. That is the person was born in that stable in Bethlehem and laid in a manger.
\nJohn 1 14 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. \u2026.
\nBack in Tunbridge Wells Donald Eddison was a retired Church of England Vicar. Donald couldn\u2019t get on with people who referred to our Lord in a familiar way as just \u201cJesus\u201d. Instead he insisted that we should always use the full title of \u201cThe Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d From the very first verses, John\u2019s Gospel starts off by reminding us that whenever we are reading about Jesus of Nazareth we should always bear in mind that we are thinking about the Logos, the Word, the Creator of the Universe, God\u2019s One and Only, the Light of the World and the source of our eternal life. The New Living Translation puts it this way.
\n1 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
\n2 He existed in the beginning with God.
\n3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.
\n4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.
\nThat is who Jesus is! This is whose birthday we are preparing to celebrate!
\nO come let us adore Him.
\nO come let us adore Him.
\nO come let us adore Him.
\nChrist the Lord<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is Jesus Christ really like? Who was Jesus, really? Archbishop William Temple said that the other Gospels give us a perfect photograph of…<\/span><\/p>\n

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