John 01(01+02)

Introduction

Today we’re beginning a new series of sermons on the Gospel of John. I’ve preached through John before, but it was way back between 2012 and 2015. But since God’s word is so rich, there are always new treasures to discover in it about our God who has revealed himself to us as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We believe this gospel was written by the Apostle John, who was one of the twelve disciples. When we first meet John and his brother James in the gospels, they’re working for their father, Zebedee, who was a fisherman. In fact, they were mending their nets when the Lord passed by and called them. And without delay, they left their father and the hired men and followed him. And some time after the Lord’s resurrection from the dead and ascension to heaven, John wrote this gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

And it’s an amazing book and it’s quite different from the other gospels. Matthew, Mark and Luke contain a lot of the same material: the same stories about what the Lord said and did: the same miracles and the same parables. They share a lot of the same material. And John has recorded some of the same material as the other gospel writers. But he also has lots of other things to tell us about the Lord Jesus Christ. And, as we’ll think about in a minute, the way he begins his gospel is very different from the way Matthew and Mark and Luke begin their gospels.

And this book can be divided into two main parts. So, the first eleven or twelve chapters are sometimes referred to as the Book of Signs, because John records for us the things the Lord said and the things he did which are signs pointing to who he is and why he has come. By the things he said when he taught the disciples and the crowds and by the things he did — and especially by the miracles he performed — he pointed out to us and made clear to us who he really is and what he came to do and why we should believe in him. And then, the remainder of the gospel is sometimes referred to as the Book of the Passion because in this part of the gospel, John records for us the events surrounding the Lord’s passion — that is, his suffering and death on the cross — and then his resurrection afterwards. And so, about half of the gospel is taken up with the Lord’s death and resurrection for us and for our salvation.

And near the end of the gospel, John explains to us why he wrote it. So, if you have your Bible open, please turn with me to John 20 and verses 30 and 31. The risen Lord Jesus has just appeared to doubting Thomas to show Thomas the wounds on his hands and side and to make clear to him that he really has risen from the dead. And when the Lord told Thomas to stop doubting and believe, Thomas responded by saying: ‘My Lord and my God!’ So, he confessed his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Only Begotten Son of God.

And so, Thomas believed. And he believed because he saw. He saw the risen Lord Jesus and believed. But the Lord pronounces a blessing on all those who believe in him without seeing. So, Thomas saw and believed. But blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. The Lord is referring to believers from that time on who would never see the Lord Jesus in this life, but who nevertheless believe in him. People like us. You and I have never seen the Lord Jesus with our own eyes. One day, we will see him when he comes again. But for now, we haven’t seen him. And yet, we believe, don’t we? And we have come to believe in him because, while we haven’t seen him, we have heard about him in the gospels.

And that takes us to the reason John wrote his gospel for us. So, after recording for us the story of Thomas’s confession of faith, John tells us that the Lord Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples. So, he did many other things, other than the things John has recorded for us. But these ones — the miraculous signs recorded for us in this book — they 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.

That’s why John has written this book and this is why he has recorded the miraculous signs which the Lord performed. It’s so that you will believe in him and, by believing, have life in his name.

Notice therefore that, according to John, his gospel is about the Lord Jesus. Sometimes when people read the gospels, they focus on the disciples, because they want to learn how to be a good disciple. Or they’re looking for lessons on life: what does this teach me about how to live my life each day. Or they’re looking for promises to comfort them and to help them cope withe the troubles and trials of life. And, when done properly, there’s nothing wrong with those things. However, we have missed the point of the gospels if we fail to realise that the gospels are first and foremost about the Lord Jesus Christ. John wrote his gospel to tell us about the things the Lord Jesus did. And he wrote his gospel so that we would believe in the Lord Jesus. He wants to convince us that the Lord Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God. Being the Christ means he’s God’s Spirited-Anointed and Conquering King sent to save us from our sin and misery. And being the Son of God means — as we were saying on Wednesday evening when we said the Nicene Creed together — he is begotten of the Father before all ages; and he’s God from God and Light from Light and true God from true God; and he’s begotten, not made, having the same being as the Father. John wrote his gospel so that we will believe these things about the Lord Jesus.

And notice that John wrote his gospel so that we might have life. And when he refers in this verse to life, he’s not referring to life in this world, but to life in the world to come. He’s referring not to our natural life, but to eternal life in the presence of God. Last week we were thinking again about the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden which held out to Adam the promise of a higher and greater and eternal life which he and his descendants would possess in the presence of God. By his disobedience, Adam forfeited for himself and for us the right to eat from the Tree of Life. But John has written his gospel so that we will believe in the Lord Jesus; and by believing, we will have that higher, greater, eternal life in the presence of God.

And so, he wrote this gospel so that we will have life. And that means his gospel is about salvation: the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Saviour of the world. He’s the only one who can save us from our sin and misery in this life and from condemnation and eternal punishment in the life to come. He’s the only one who can save us and who can give us eternal life so that though we die, and our bodies are buried in the ground, yet we will live with God for ever.

John’s wrote this gospel because he wanted to tell us about the Lord Jesus so that we will believe in him. And by believing in him, we will be saved from condemnation and will instead enjoy eternal life in the presence of God who made us for himself.

And so, now that we know why John wrote this gospel, let’s turn to it. But we’re not going to get very far this evening. John’s gospel is so rich that it deserves to be read slowly. And so, we’re going to focus on the first two verses this evening.

The Word

And in verse 1 John refers to the Word. Now, anyone who is familiar with John’s gospel knows that the Word is John’s title for the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. And if you’re familiar with the opening to the gospel, you’ll know that in verse 14 John tells us that the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. That is to say, the Son of God came into the world as one of us. And in verse 17 he refers to him by the name Jesus and in verse 18 he refers to him as God the Only Begotten. And so, when John refers to the Word, he means God’s Only Begotten Son, who came into the world as one of us and received the name Jesus.

But why did John refer to God’s Only Begotten Son in this way? Why did he not begin his gospel by saying ‘In the beginning was the Son’? Why did he begin his gospel by saying, ‘In the beginning was the Word’? Well, think about how we use words. We use words to express ourselves, don’t we? When we meet someone for the first time, we get to know one another by speaking to each other. And when I want to communicate something about myself, I’ll use words to do so. Or if you’ve ever been on a Zoom call, you know how frustrating it is when the people you’re trying to communicate with has their cameras on, but their microphones off. So, you can see them, but you can’t hear them. We can see that they’re moving their lips and they’re trying to speak to you. But because their microphones are off, you can’t hear their words. And that’s no good.

We use words to express ourselves. And that means that ‘the Word’ is a perfect title for God the Son, because the Son of God is the perfect expression or revelation of the Father. The Word perfectly captures who God is and what he’s like. So, sometimes when I try to communicate something about myself to another person, I can’t quite find the right words. I stumble. I stammer. I pause. I lose track of what I’ve saying. I use the wrong word. I miscommunicate. But God is perfect and his Word, the Son of God, perfectly captures and expresses and reveals what God is like. As it says in Hebrews 1, in the past God spoke to our forefathers in various ways and at various times through the prophets. But now he has spoken to us by his Son. And since his Son is the radiance of God’s glory; and since he’s the exact representation or imprint of the Fathers’ being; since he’s not different from the Father, but is a repetition of the Father; then who better to tell us about God than the Word who is God the Son? Since he is God from God and Light from Light and true God from true God, then who better to reveal who God is and what he’s like than God himself.

And so, John refers to the Son of God as the Word because the Son of God expresses perfectly who God is. But then, if we think about God’s word in the Old Testament, we’ll remember that God’s word is powerful. In the beginning, God created all things by his powerful word. Isn’t that right? And the Word who is the Son of God is powerful, because God the Father made all things through him; and when he came into the world, he performed mighty deeds of power among us. From the Old Testament, we learn that God’s word is powerful. And when God the Father sent his Son into the world as the Word, he was powerful too.

And do you remember what else it says about God’s word in the Old Testament? It says that God’s word never returns to him empty, but it always accomplishes God’s will. God’s word always does what God wants it to do. And God the Father sent his Son into the world as his Word to accomplish his will and to do everything he wanted him to do before returning to God in heaven. The Father sent him to do his will; and that’s what he did when he was on the earth. And when he had finished the work he was sent to do, he returned to his Father.

And so, the Word of God is John’s title for God’s Only Begotten Son and it’s an entirely fitting title for him, because the Word expresses perfectly who God the Father is. And just as God’s word in the Old Testament is powerful and accomplishes God’s will, so the Word of God powerfully accomplishes God’s will.

In the beginning

Having thought a little about who the Word is, and why John chose that title for the Son of God, let’s think about the rest of verse 1.

And I mentioned earlier that the beginning of John’s gospel is very different from the beginning of the other gospels. Matthew begins with the Lord Jesus’s family tree, going back to Abraham. And then he goes straight into the Christmas story of the Saviour’s birth. Luke also begins with the Christmas story of the Saviour’s birth. Mark begins with John the Baptist, preparing the way for the coming Saviour. And after only nine verses, Mark introduces to the Saviour who came to John to be baptised. So, we might say that Matthew and Luke begin with the beginning of the Lord’s life on earth and Mark begins with the beginning of the Lord’s public ministry. But John begins at the very beginning of all things.

John’s opening words recall the opening words of the book of Genesis. So, Genesis begins: ‘In the beginning God…’ and John begins: ‘In the beginning was the Word’. And when Moses and John refer to the beginning, they’re thinking of the beginning of history. And so, according to John, before anything was created, before the heavens and the earth existed, before time itself, there was the Word. And the verb ‘was’ is interesting, because it means that the Word was already in existence in the very beginning. It’s not that he came into existence, but that he was already in existence.

On Wednesday evening, we said the Nicene Creed together to confess our faith in God the Father and in God the Son and in God the Holy Spirit. And the creed was written to make clear that the teaching of Arius about the Son of God was wrong and we should not believe what he taught. Arius was a bishop who taught that ‘there was once when he was not’. That is to say, there was once a time when the Son of God was not. He said that God the Son was not eternal, but had come into existence. There was once a time when he did not exist; and then he was created. And so, the Council of Nicaea was convened and the bishops thought about these things and they concluded that Arius was wrong and that there never was a time when the Son was not. He has always existed. He exists eternally. The Son of God was begotten of the Father before all ages. That is, he was begotten of the Father eternally.

And so, in the beginning, before there was anything apart from God, there was the Word of God.

With God and was God

And according to John, the Word was with God. He means they were together in the beginning. So, before there was anything else, before anything had been created, there was God and there was the Word. And they were with one another in the beginning.

And John immediately goes on to tell us something else about the Word who was with God in the beginning. He tells us that the Word was God. So, not only was the Word with God, but the Word is God.

And the way John writes this is very interesting. When he says that the Word was with God, he literally says that ‘the Word was with the God’. John uses the definite article — the — when he refers to God. So, the Word was with the God. But when he says ‘the Word was God’, he doesn’t use the definite article. He doesn’t say ‘the Word was the God.’ Instead he says ‘the Word was God’. And some people — including Jehovah’s Witnesses — say that John’s words should be translated ‘The Word was a god’. And in that case, they argue, what John is saying to us is that the Word is a kind of god. He’s not really God, but he’s sort of a god. He’s not true God, but he’s a kind of god.

But those who argue that way have got it wrong, because John’s point is that the Word is God, but there’s more to God than the Word. If John had used the definite article, then what he would be saying is that the Word and the Word alone is God. So, when we say that ‘Charles is the king’, we mean that Charles and Charles alone is king. There’s no other king but Charles. But John doesn’t want to say that the Word and the Word alone is God. He wants to teach us that the Word is God, but that there’s more to God than the Word.

So, the Word is God. He’s fully divine. He’s not a lesser being than God. He’s not a creature. He’s not part of creation. He’s not an angel. He is God. But there’s more to God than the Word.

And so, there’s a distinction in God, because there’s the Word who is God, but the Word who is God is also with God. There’s the Word who is God; and then there’s another person who is also God. And the other person who is God is the Father. And later we’ll hear about the Spirit too. All three are God, because all three have the same divine being. But they are distinct persons, because there’s the Father and there’s the Son — who is also known as the Word — and there’s the Holy Spirit. There’s one God, but the one God we worship is three persons.

And, of course, this was a remarkable thing for John to write, because until the coming of the Lord Jesus, God’s people used to confess from Deuteronomy 6 that the Lord their God is one: there’s only one God and he is one. But with the coming of the Lord Jesus, and with the coming of the Holy Spirit, God’s people discovered that the one God they worship is also three, because the Father is God and the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God. But these three are not three Gods, because there’s only one God.

And this is the God we believe. Lots of people around the world will claim that they believe in God. But the question is: Do they believe in this God? Do they believe in the God of the Bible who has revealed himself as the triune God: the Father; the Son; and the Holy Spirit. If they don’t believe in this God, then they don’t believe in the true God. And John is writing to us about the true God, because he’s telling us about the Word who was with God the Father in the beginning and who is himself God. And later he’ll tell us about the Holy Spirit.

With God in the beginning

And in the second verse, John repeats what he’s been saying: ‘He [the Word] was with God in the beginning.’ So, he was with God the Father in the beginning. And in this way, John underlines for us that the Word is not part of God’s creation, because the Word was with God before there was anything else. Since he existed before the creation, then he’s not part of the creation.

So, imagine a line. On one side of the line, there’s the whole of the created universe: the heavens and the earth and all that they contain, the visible and invisible. And on the other side of the line, there’s God the Father. But with God the Father, on his side of the line, there’s also the Word. He’s not part of God’s creation, because he is in fact God.

Conclusion

And as we make our way through the opening verses of John’s gospel, we’ll see that God the Father created all things through the Word. So, through him all things were made and without him nothing was made that has been made. God the Father created all things, the visible and the invisible, through the Word.

And then John will tell us that in him was life. God the Father has all life in himself and he has given all life in himself to the Word. And as well as having all life in himself, the Word is also the light which shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it. And we’ll think about these things in the weeks to follow.

And then we’ll reach the climax of these opening verses when John tells us in verse 14 that the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. And this is the wonder of the gospel: that the Eternal Word, the Son of God, was prepared to come down from heaven as one of us; and he came down from heaven as one of us for us and for our salvation. Without ceasing to be God, he took to himself our human nature and he became like us in every way apart from sin. And as one of us he suffered under Pontius Pilate and he was crucified and he died and he was buried for us and for our salvation before rising from the dead on the third day.

The Eternal Word of God, the Son of God, was willing to go through all of this for us. If we were lovely people and if we lived in a lovely world, we might understand it. If we were lovely people and if we lived in a lovely world, we might understand his willingness to enter this world as one of us. But he didn’t enter a lovely world full of lovely people. He entered a sinful world, a broken world, a world or trouble and war and disease and dirt and death and weeping, and he dwelt among sinful people who hated him and who rejected him and who killed him. He entered that kind of world for us.

And we too are sinners who sin against him continually in thought and word and deed. And even though some of us having been following him for most of our lives, we still disobey him all the time and we dishonour him by the things we say and do and by the way we treat one another. If we were lovely people, full of grace and truth, living in a lovely world, we could understand why he might come down to earth for us. But that he should come down from heaven to this sinful world for people like us is beyond our understanding.

And yet this is what he did. And he did it because he loved us. He loved us and he wanted to deliver us from our sin and misery in this life and to bring us to God. And so, because he loved us, he came down to earth to do what was necessary to reconcile God and sinners; and to restore us to what we were meant to be; and to give us the hope of eternal life in the presence of God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

This really is wonderful. Many of us like to read. We like to sit down with a good book and spend a quiet hour or two reading. And perhaps we like to read novels and the author has created a wonderful story which delights our imagination and which moves us and affects us. But every novel pales in comparison to this story about how the Eternal Word of God came down to earth as one of us to do what is necessary to bring us up to God. Every novel pales in comparison to this story. And what makes this story even better is that it’s true.

And Sunday by Sunday, we get to come to church to hear this wonderful, true story over and over and over again. And when we hear it, it makes us yearn for the ending, when the Eternal Word of God, the Son of God, will comes again to gather his people together and to bring us to our eternal home, where we’ll be made perfectly holy and happy for ever as we gaze upon the glory of our God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.