John 1:1-5
The Declaration Gospel
There are four gospels in the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
(The word "gospel" means "good news" so there are four books in the
Bible which relate the specifics of God’s "good news" to mankind.
Lu 2:10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not:
for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great
joy, which shall be to all people.
John’s gospel is the most unique. While Matthew, Mark, and Luke all
give us details of Jesus’ life, John chose to emphasize God’s
declarations - that is, God’s statements or truths. God has made some
extraordinary statements on a variety of topics - some of them were
about Jesus, some about the Father, some about the Holy Spirit, some
about heaven, some about hell, some about us, and so forth. This book
records some of those statements. Hence, for whatever length of time
we spend looking at this book, I will refer to it as "The Declaration
Gospel."
This is immediately seen in how John starts his gospel. He does not
start with a narrative or story. He starts by giving us a variety
of names or titles or perhaps clues as to the identity of the One he
is presenting to us. It will be chapter 2 before John starts to give
us the narrative of Jesus’ life. Why does John choose to do this?
I don’t have an answer for that. Perhaps one will come while we
study the book.
By way of introduction…
1. DATE - John’s gospel is believed to have been the last one
written. Most place the date from around 85 to 100 AD. If
that date is correct, all of the other Bible writers would
have been dead by the time John wrote this gospel and their
writings would have been in circulation.
2. PURPOSE - John’s purpose seems obvious. God laid it upon
John’s heart to write not about the particulars of Jesus’
life but about the unique person of Jesus. We know that
Jesus was the Son of Man. Matthew and Mark make that clear
in giving us the details of Jesus’ earthly birth. We know
that He was the Servant of Man. Matthew, Mark and Luke all
make that clear by recording His miracles. John wanted us to
better understand that Jesus was God.
3. AUTHOR - The writer was John the Apostle.
a. It is believed that John was the youngest of the apostles.
I suppose that is because it is believed that he outlived
all the others.
b. John never mentions himself by name in his own book. We
believe that when he does speak of himself he used the
term "the disciple whom Jesus loved" \\#John 13:23\\
\\#John 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 21:20\\.
(1) That term would seem to indicate that Jesus had a
special relationship with John.
(2) Did Jesus love John more than the others?
(a) If He did, that is up to God. God is sovereign
can do what He desires. He chose Jacob above
Esau, Joseph above the eleven, David above all
the other men of Israel, and if God the Son
chose John above the other eleven, praise the
Lord for it.
(b) However, it could also be something as simple as
the fact that John was the youngest and needed
more guidance and attention.
John’s gospel being largely a collection of statements made by God is
going to be full and deep, full of truth and deeper than we will ever
be able to understand. Let’ see what we can understand.
I. Jesus is the Word.
A. Here is our first declaration.
1. If you know the Bible, you might have some understanding
of this statement.
2. If not, you are probably confused by the first six words.
B. Let’s go from the bigger picture to the smaller.
1. Big picture - Who or What is this Word?
a. John never directly tells us. Not here. Not in his
epistles.
b. Let’s look at the clues.
(1) \\#1\\ The Word was "in the beginning."
(a) We will not presently ask "In the beginning
of what?" right now for we are looking at
the bigger picture.
(b) Let’s just say that when things began, the
Word was there.
(2) The Word was with God.
(a) "With" means "near." It is a location word
meaning the Word was in the same proximately
as God.
(b) Some say it indicates on the same plain or
level with God.
(c) To be near God would demand holiness, purity.
(3) The Word WAS God.
(a) Here the Word is equated to being God.
(b) The English word that equates the Word to
being God is translated WAS.
(c) Some say that the wording here leaves open
the possibility that the Word became God
AT the beginning.
i. Their view is that if Word was God
before the beginning, that God should
have said something like "BEFORE the
beginning, the Word was God."
ii. However, they fail to understand the
word God used when He selected "was."
(d) The word translated "was" is not a simple
past tense verb as it is in our language.
(e) Strangely enough, I am told that simple past
tense is the one thing that this Greek word
CAN NOT be.
(f) It is in the imperfect tense which means a
continuous past action.
(g) My understanding of the imperfect tense is
that it may or may not be true of the
present for the present is not in view; but
it was continuously true in the past.
(h) We do not have a verb tense exactly like
that.
(i) What it means here is that, "When things
began, the Word had been and was God."
(j) "was" does not tell us that the Word was
always God and it does not tell us that the
Word is presently God, but it does tell us
that the Word was continuously God at the
beginning.
(k) IF you agree with me at the end of these
clues that the Word is Jesus, then you must
understand that this one word "was" means
that Jesus did not become God AT the
beginning.
(l) From other verses, I believe we can also
build the case that Jesus did not cease to
be God after the beginning and then become
God again at His birth or sometime there-
after.
(m) In my opinion, the one and the only truth
that can be arrived at is that before God
ever started "the beginning" Jesus was God
and since that time, He has always been
God.
(n) Of course, we could also make the case that
Jesus is forever God both in the past and
the future!
(4) \\#2\\ "The same was in the beginning with God."
Just in case you did not get it from verse 1,
John repeats it again in verse 2.
(5) \\#John 1:14\\ The Word became flesh. Let’s take
that clue along with the next one.
(6) The Word walked among men.
(a) Whoever or Whatever the Word was, it became
flesh.
i. Since John has already told us that the
Word is older than the beginning and
that the Word is God, that is
something to ponder.
ii. Maybe this is some kind of symbolism?
iii. No. John made it pretty clean in his
epistle that this really happened.
1John 1:1 That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2 (For the life was manifested, and we have
seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you
that eternal life, which was with the Father,
and was manifested unto us;)
(b) I would think that when John said the Word
was God and became flesh, the possibilities
of his identity would shrink enormously.
(c) But let’s keep following the clues.
(7) \\#John 1:15\\ John the Baptist bore record of
the Word.
(a) That means that John identified who the Word
was that was God in the beginning and
became flesh and dwelt among us.
(b) So who did John the Baptist point out?
John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming
unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world.
30 This is he of whom I said, After me cometh
a man which is preferred before me: for he was
before me.
(c) We will not look at other verses right now
but as we study through this book we will
see that with every fiber of John’s being
he pointed out Jesus!
(d) So who is the Word that was God before and
at the beginning, that became flesh, dwelt
with mankind, and was identified by John?
JESUS.
2. Why did God call Himself "the Word?" As in so many of the
questions we ask, we don’t know for certain for the Bible
never tells us.
a. The word "word" in the Greek is "logos" from which we
get our word logic.
(a) If so, God may be saying something like, "In the
beginning was Logic, Intelligence,
Understanding, Wisdom, and that Logic was with
God and that Logic was God.
(b) Foolish people want to say that there is no God,
no intelligent Designer, that the world and all
that is in it is one freak accident.
(c) Nobody with a logical, knowledgeable, thinking,
intelligence could possibly believe that unless
they were driven by a blinding hatred for that
Designer.
Pro 11:21 Though hand join in hand, the wicked
shall not be unpunished: but the seed of the
righteous shall be delivered.
b. Perhaps God did it to equate the written Word with
deity.
(a) We certainly do.
(b) We say that Jesus is the living Word while the
Bible is the written Word.
(c) Jesus being God and the Bible coming from God,
means both are divine in nature - without spot,
without blemish, eternal, holy, pure.
(d) While calling Jesus the Word can in no wise lower
Jesus is certainly does elevate the Bible.
(e) Hence, God may have referred to Himself as the
Word to boaster our confidence in the Bible.
So here is the bigger picture. Jesus is the Word and every statement
that is true of the Word is true of Jesus.
<OutlineIndex> <Close Window>
