John pt. 2 | John 1:1-5

The Divine Word in John 1:1-5

If you will turn your Bibles to the Gospel of John, we will focus our time on the first.

Five verses.

The Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 1 through 5.

Let's pray.

Father, Lord, You are the one and true God, and You have revealed Yourself to us in Jesus.

Christ.

Help me, Lord, to accurately walk through this text. In the name of Your beloved Son, Jesus, amen. Alright, so our theme for this Lord's Day is the Divine Word of God. And whatever this Divine Word of God is, it's the first and final word.

So that's what I want us to pay our attention to, right? As we're going through this and we're understanding the Divine Word of God, we need to understand that it's His first and it's His final word, right?

So as we're going through this, what are we going to remember? It's His first and it's His final word, alright? And we will do well to pay attention to this word because as we're engaging, as we're trying to learn about this word here that we're looking at, this word is engaging us.

To say it in a modern lingo, we need to be picking up what it's dropping, right? Whatever it's saying, we need to be focused and trying to understand. We need to understand, again, that as we're engaging the word, the word is engaging us.

So let's look at our text. The Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 1 through 5. The Bible says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

So this is the text that we are going to walk through, and I pray that the Lord has divinely, is divinely speaking through me this day. In our outline, we will see several identity markers concerning the divine Word of God.

The first one is, is that He was in the beginning. The second one is that He was with God. Third, that it was God. The fourth one is, is that the Word was the creator. And the fifth one is that in Him was life and light.

So speaking of the Word, that it was in the beginning, that it was with God, that it was God, that the Word was the creator, and that in Him, speaking of the Word, was life and light. And as we transition, the gospel is this gospel, and I stated this last week, so if you were here last week, I'm going to just say a few things that I said in the opening of this letter.

That this gospel is believed to be written to the Hellenistic Jews. We looked last week, and we saw that Helen means Greece in Greek. Hellenist, this refers to the Greek culture and ideas. So Hellenist, when you hear the word Hellenist, it refers to Greek culture and ideas.

Hellenism is the spread of Greek culture by the conquest of Alexander the Great. A Hellenist is the term to describe, it's used to describe Jews who were influenced by this conquest, by the Greek culture and beliefs.

When Alexander the Great died in 323 BC, his vast empire was split among his generals. So if you study the history of Alexander the Great, when he dies, it's split. So it's kind of like if a land stays with one king, that land is strong.

But if you split the land, the land becomes smaller. So it's like whenever you're studying church history, a lot of the times the king, the leader, would pass on his kingdom to his eldest son. He wouldn't split the kingdom between all of his sons.

He would just pass it to the eldest son. This was so that the kingdom could remain strong. Every time in history where the kingdom was split between children, that kingdom within years would be weakened and other armies would come in and destroy them.

And so that's what we see taking place with Alexander the Great. He gives, he splits the kingdom up between his generals. One of his generals founded a kingdom which was a Hellenistic state that held power over the Palestine, which would be present-day Jerusalem, until 63 BC when Rome took over.

So this, as we're reading, we need to understand that the Hellenistic Jews that this gospel would have been written to were Jews who were impacted by Hellenism and impacted by Greek culture and beliefs.

So again, let's understand that as we're walking through this book, this gospel, yes, he's speaking to Jews, but Jews who were impacted by Greek culture. So let's look at our first point, point number one, that it was in the beginning.

This, speaking of the word, so we're just going to look at verse 1a. In the beginning was the word. So the Greek here is logos. I know last week I mentioned that I prefer using the word logos, but it does not work as you're reading through this in conversation.

And I think it's because, you know, getting the, so there's an app that you can get for your computer, and for the most part, people call it logos, and I've gotten used to calling it logos, but as I was walking through this text, using the word logos, it didn't seem to fit.

So the other word, the way of pronouncing it is logos. And so from now on, as we walk through here, I'm going to refer to it as logos, because it just seems to flow off the tongue better. So the Greek word here for word is logos.

And what I want to do is I want us to look at the concept of logos concerning the Greek philosophers, okay? So the Greek philosophers, to the Greek philosophers, the logos was, listen to this, impersonal, abstract of reason, and the order in the universe.

So to them, the logos was impersonal, it was abstract principle of reason, and the order in the universe. It was in some sense, to them, a creative force. And the source of all wisdom. They understood it to be the thing by which all things are, right?

So they had an understanding of the word, of the logos. They understood it to be the things by which everything else is. John here is using what they know, and he's explaining to them what they don't know.

It's kind of a reverse order of what we see Paul doing in Acts chapter 17, right? Speaking of the unknown God. So Paul in Athens, he's going there, he's witnessing, and he sees all these images of gods, and they all had an ascriptic name given to them.

And he comes up to this one image, this one statue, and it says, to the unknown God. So Paul uses what they didn't know to explain to them what they didn't know. John, however, when it comes to using the word logos, he is explaining to them what they know, well, he's using what they know to explain to them what they don't know.

And that is about the logos, about this word, about Jesus, in fact, being this word. Although we don't see that explicitly here in the text. The main thing I believe him to be expressing is that the logos, who they believe was not an impersonal force, that he is an impersonal force.

So they believe that the logos was not an impersonal force. John is saying, no, no, no, the logos is a personal force.

Right?

In my prayer, I said, I was talking about the only true God who has revealed himself to us, right? God condescended, we couldn't get to him, he came to us, he condescended, and just so happens there was a hymn that we sung that mentioned that as well.

God condescended to us. And that's what John is trying to explain to them, that God has condescended, that God is not impersonal, he's personal. He came to us, he has revealed himself to us. He starts with the fact that the logos was in the beginning.

Although he was speaking to a Hellenistic Jews, they are Jews nonetheless, right? So they would be very familiar with the Old Testament. And at this time, the Bible of the day would have been what's called a Greek Septuagint, a Greek Septuagint.

The Greek Septuagint was a translation of the Old Testament scriptures at this time. So this would have been the Bible that Jesus, like when Jesus quotes scripture, he's quoting from the Greek Septuagint.

So when they heard in the beginning, their minds would have went where? Genesis chapter 1, which reads, you don't have to turn there, it reads, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. We also see the same language in 1 John.

1 John chapter 1, verse 1a. So this text that I'm breaking down is the Gospel of John, verse 1a, 1 John verse 1a, it opens the same way. But it says, that which was from the beginning. When you continue to read, it says, we have heard that which was from the beginning, we, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, which we have touched with our hands concerning the word of life, personal.

That this God is personal. This, this word, this logos, it's, it's personal. It's not an impersonal force. You see, they was right about the logos in a lot of ways. It's the things by which all things are.

So what he is doing is he is outlining, in my opinion, from scripture, John here is outlining the pre-existence of the word, the pre-existence of the logos. The pre-existence of Jesus Christ by calling him the logos.

That the referent that they claim to understand was from the very beginning, and that it was God, the God that is in control of all things, the God that holds all things in his hands. That this logos whom they had knowledge of, so he's, he's saying that that referent is who I am bringing to you and explaining to you deeper.

All right, so let's look at our next point, you know, kind of bring things together. So our next point is that which was with God. And we see this in 1 John 1b, but we'll read it in totality. In the beginning was the word, right here, and the word was with God.

So right above it, it says, and that the referent that they claim to understand was from the beginning and that it was God. Here he is pointing out that it was with God. Before he outlines that the word was God, he places the word in the beginning with God.

And the actual Greek here is talking about that it's face to face. The Greek here is logos in prostantion, logos in prostantion, that there was a togetherness in the beginning with the word and with God.

So right now he is separating, if you can imagine my left hand, so I'm looking at you, my left hand being, I'm trying to get left to right for y 'all. For me it's the opposite. So, you know, the left hand being the word and then he's saying, and then there's God because he says that the word was with, like my right hand is with my left hand, right, that we're here, we're here together with each other.

And he's explaining it in such a way that he says, and that the word was with God. And he goes, logos in prostantion means that they're face to face. So there's a togetherness, but there seems to be a separateness also.

Now let's just look for a moment. So we looked at the Greek concept. So let's look for a moment at the Jewish concept of the word of God. The Jewish concept of the word of God was well known, right? Like, as I'm explaining this to you, it's like, well, I already knew that.

Well, you should. If you read the Bible, you should, right?

The word of God, the word of the Lord, excuse me, the word of the Lord was an expression of divine power and wisdom. By the word of God, we are introduced to the Abrahamic covenant. By the word of God, Israel is given the 10 commandments.

The word of God attended the building of Solomon's temple. The word of God pronounced judgment on the house of Eli. The word of God counseled Elijah. The word of God directs Israel through the prophets.

And the word of God is the agent of creation. And we all know that the word of God has revealed to us scripture from the prophets. And there's so many other scriptures that I can point to that the word of God has done.

We know the word of God. We read the word of God. And so this Jewish concept was, you know, the word of God has not only brought in creation, but the word of God has led his people. And the Jews wrote this word down, and now we have it in our Old Testament.

So the Jewish understanding of the logos would have been the voice of God. God speaking. God leading his people by speaking to them, whether it's through a dream, a vision, or through prophets, this is what the logos would have meant to a Jew.

The voice of God. And as we transition, what John here is doing is he has given us an image of the word of God and God being face to face. Logos in prostan, theon. Point number three. That it, speaking of the word, was God.

So let's, this is portion C of verse one. Let's read it all together though. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The word was in the beginning, the word was with, face to face, remember?

And the word was God. Now remember, John here is showing a togetherness between the word of God. The word and God. So logos in prostan, theon. They are together, kind of like in the same room, but they're separate.

But now he is saying that they are, there's a sameness. They're together, not separate, but sameness. He is telling the recipients of this letter that the gospel, that this gospel, that the logos is, in fact, God.

And he'll go on in verse 14 to tell us that the word, this logos, became flesh. Look at verse 14 real quick. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son, from the Father, full of grace and truth.

So notice, right here, there's a togetherness and a separation. It says, and the word, the logos, which was in the beginning, which was with God, and which was God, became flesh and dwelt among us, personal, and we have seen his glory.

Go back to 1 John, glory as of the only Son, from the Father. So there's a separation there, full of grace and truth. So it's the idea of how are they together in sameness, and how are they together and separate, right?

It's kind of a confusing thought if you're not steeped into theology. That the word was in the beginning, it was with God, and it was God. This verse gives rise, gives power, in my opinion, to the doctrine of the Trinity.

Though this verse does not implicitly spell it out, and there is no mention of the Holy Spirit, though he will show up later, but in fact, it does let us know that there's only one God, and yet, at least at this moment, we see two persons.

Once we go through the scriptures, we'll see more evidence of the Holy Spirit, which is the third person of this Godhead. So what is the Trinity, right? In my opinion, the best way to understand it is a way that I heard from R .C. Sproul, and I'm sure R .C. Sproul heard it from someone else, right?

And it's the three what's and the one who, or the three who's and the one what. Yeah, the three who's and the one what. The one what is God, the deity. The three who's is the personage, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So the doctrine of the Trinity, we state that there's one God, and yet there's three different persons in this one God. As we're reading the scriptures, we see that the Father is called God, the Son announces himself to be God, and they pick up stones to stone him for blaspheming, and we see that the Holy Spirit, in Acts chapter 5, is called God.

And so the understanding of, okay, well, if the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and the Father is God, how do we understand this, and yet there be one God? What makes the doctrine of the Trinity unique is that each person of the Godhead is God in and of themselves, and yet there is only one God.

We go back to the Shemot, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. There is only one God. But again, all three persons are called God. One of the biggest problems when it comes to trying to explain the Godhead is falling into heresy.

Right, I think we've all been, I'm about to explain something, and if we're honest, I think we've probably all been guilty of this when it comes to explaining the Godhead. The first would be called modalism.

Modalism. So if you've ever used the analogy, ice, water, and steam, if you say, well, you know, it's kind of like, God is kind of like ice, water, and steam, right? All of it is water. You can take some ice, you know, fill a pot up with ice, put it on the stove, the ice melts, turns into water, eventually you'll see steam.

And I say, well, that's kind of like how God is. Well, that's modalism. I'm saying that God is playing hypocrite. So if you've ever watched one of those plays to where someone plays several different parts, that's modalism.

That's hypocrite. So you have a man playing three different parts. And if you were with me when I was going through the book of Galatians, I explained to you that there was a time that I used to do, I was playing in a play that was about the passion of Christ.

And in this, I played three different parts. Like I had three different outfits that I had to throw on, right? So I'd go backstage, one person playing three different parts. And many, many subcult Christian faiths hold to this view of God.

So if you know of a Oneness Pentecostal, Apostolic Pentecostal, most any kind of Pentecostal that's not Trinitarian, such as Assemblies of God, Church of God, any other Pentecostal outside of these two are going to be modalists.

They're going to believe that there's only one God. But at different times, God has appeared. He appears as the Father. He appears as the Son. But he also appears as the Holy Spirit. So the one God is all three persons, ice, water, and steam.

Now, this one was really confusing to me in my walk, and it's partialism. And I'm going to give you a bad analogy in order to explain to you the doctrine of the Trinity. Now, this analogy I'm going to give you, it's a bad analogy.

But it's going to explain, I'm going to use a bad analogy to explain to you the doctrine of the Trinity. And I'm going to use sky, sea, and land. So we have one earth. And in this one earth, we have sky, sea, and land.

Right?

It takes the sky, it takes the sea, and it takes the land to make one earth. So this is what you call, this is what you call partialism, that it takes all three of these components to make one earth. That's a heresy.

When we're saying Trinity, when we're saying that God is a Trinity, we're saying that each person, each person is God in and of themself. If the land by itself was earth, then we're owned to something.

If the sea by itself was earth, then we're owned to something. But if the sky by itself is earth, then and only then are we owned to something. But as long as it takes three components combined together to make one earth, we're not owned to anything.

There's no way to explain in an analogy what the doctrine of the Trinity is. We're saying that there is one God and each person represents in and of themselves that one God. They are not dependent upon one another to be God.

The son is not dependent upon the father to give him deity in life to be God. He is God in and of himself. And if you have some other twisted view of Jesus Christ, you are in heresy. You are outside of the Christian faith.

And that's why there has to be mystery. We can't explain it. There's nothing to, there's nothing to equal it to. And so when you explain the doctrine of the Trinity, you just got to be biblical. We believe there's one God, the Shema, Herod, Israel, the Lord of God, the Lord is one.

And that this one God has revealed himself in scripture in three separate persons. And each person is God in and of themselves. If they don't understand it, don't, don't go to water, ice, and steam and don't go to partialism.

Just leave it at that. That's what it is. That's what's been given to us. There's, there's nothing to compare God to. There has to be mystery. And here in the text where it says the word was God, the literal Greek would say God was the word.

Theos in ton logos, theos in ton logos. That's the way the Greek spells it out. But notice in your Bible, it says, and the word was with God. I think that this is a bad translation. Not the ESV. Every translation does the same thing.

This is why when we get people like the Jehovah's Witnesses come into your door and you point to this verse and in their Bible, and it says in the word was a God. So they have a definite article there to show that it's a God.

The word is a God. But if they would just translate it the way that the Greek structure is, you cannot manipulate.

The wording.

It should say, and God was the word. God was the word. Theos in ton logos. That's the Greek. That's how it's spelled out. In ton, in ton logos. I mean, theos in ton logos. Excuse me. This Greek can be very confusing.

Theos in ton logos. Imagine saying God. So if you look at the way that they have their definite article, it would say God was a logos. It doesn't work. But as long as we're translating it and the word was God, they can have the definite article.

But if you just go to the Greek, you can't bring the definite article or you discredit, you belittle God. It's theos in ton logos. God was the word. I think you can just stop it right there. God, the word was in the beginning with God and God was the word.

God was the logos. And as we transition, just remember, I told you to remember in the beginning, the divine word of God is the first and final word. Point number four, that the word was the creator. Look at verse three.

All things were made through him.

Who's this him?

The word.

All things were made through him. And without him, the logos, the word was not anything made that was made. The Jewish understanding. I mean, the Jews understood that God created all things. How did he create it?

By the word of his mouth. Right, we saw this in Hebrews. We saw this in Galatians, like this has been the theme, you read Genesis, and God said, let there be light. Let there be trees. Let there be, like, just walk through it.

There's the, it's the seven, the, okay, you heard me talk about the 10 words, right? When I talk about the 10 words, what am I talking about?

The 10 commandments.

Well, those are original 10 words before the 10 commandments. And it's the 10 words given in Genesis chapter, chapters one. The 10 words, immediately, God gave the 10 words. And then we see the 10 words appear again through the Decalogue, the 10 commandments.

John is telling us, telling them, telling you and I that the word spoken by God, that this word that was given by God in the beginning is Jesus. It's the word of God. The word, Jesus is the word of God.

This was John's understanding of who Jesus is, right? So if you ask John, John, who's Jesus? It's the very word of God. So this is John's understanding and this should be our understanding as well. That the text is telling us without Jesus was not anything made that was made.

And then right here, we get into some other false theologies concerning like Jehovah's Witnesses. Well, Jehovah's Witnesses would say that God created Michael, the archangel, and that this Michael, the archangel is Jesus.

And that through Jesus, after he created Jesus, Jesus created all things. Seventh, not Seventh Adventist, but Mormons would say something very similar. That Jesus is pre-existence, but he was created, he was begotten in the pre-existence by the Father God and Heavenly Mother, Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother, that Jesus was created.

And that then after him being created, being begotten in eternity past, then through him, he created all things. If your theology doesn't understand that is Jesus as creator of all things. All things will be included in himself, like if he was created, then he would have had to create himself because he falls into the understanding of all things.

In order to create all things and not have been created yourself, then you would have to pre-exist. You would have to be from eternity past and have always been. Look at Hebrews chapter 1, which if you remember, if you were here, we walked through this and there's sermons on this portion on our YouTube channel.

Hebrews 1. Remember what I said earlier, he is the first and he is the final word. So he's the first word because when God spoke in the beginning, when God spoke the 10 words, it was Jesus. Now listen to this.

Long ago at many times in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us, how? By his son. Remember that the word of God was given to the prophets to write down scripture.

Who is this word of God? Jesus, right? And in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. How did he do that? By condescending. Long ago at many times in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us, this is his final word, by his son. Whom he appointed the heir of all things, listen, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance and the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

And he upholds, speaking of Jesus, he upholds the universe by the word of his power. Never did he ever stop holding up the universe by the word of his power. Imagine infant Jesus after being born of the Virgin Mary.

That little bitty infant weak in his humanity was holding the world together by the word of his power. He never ceased being deity. If what John is saying is true and it is, and Jesus is the word of God and he is, then in scripture where God speaks, we are hearing the voice of our savior.

The word of God is the agent by which he created all things. Remember, whatever he's dropping, we need to be picking up, right? He is what, it's through him that everything is. And maybe whenever we get to the doctrine of God, we'll kind of walk through that more.

So this means that Jesus has to be eternal. There is no beginning and there will be no end. If this is true, and I believe it is, if you're, in order to be orthodox, you must hold to this Christian faith.

Jesus has no beginning and he has no end. In the doctrine of the Trinity, Jesus is the eternal son of God. And right now I want to read a small portion of the Athanasian Creed, which we read every four weeks.

I just want to read the first part of it. Listen, I mean, with what you have brought to your understanding this day, listen. Now the universal faith is this, that we worship one God. How many gods? One God in Trinity, in unity, in Trinity, in unity.

For there is one person of the father, another of the son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the father, of the son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one. The glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.

The father eternal, the son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. So the father is God, the son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. And yet there are not three gods, but one God. That's the doctrine of the Trinity.

Go, go beyond that in your heretic. Point number five, that in him was life and light. So this is found in verse four and five of our chapter, John 1, verses four and five. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

That light shines in darkness, in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Let me read that again. In him, speaking of the word, was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

So what does this mean, right? As I'm studying for this, I heard so many things. I even, a lot of people don't do this, but I try to listen to what people say against us. I want to know the best arguments against us.

And even those, like it just, it falls so short, it doesn't even represent what we represent. So our opponents don't even articulate what it is that we are talking about. A big problem with that is probably because of us, Christians, who don't know how to explain what it is that we are talking about, right?

And so I wanted to use scripture. I don't want to give you an opinion, I just want to use scripture to try to explain to you what is he talking about when he says, in him was life, and this life was the light of men, and that light shines in darkness, but darkness has not overcome it.

What in the world is this talking about? Look in your Bibles to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy. We're going to look at verses 8 through 10, but I believe the answer to this is found in verse 10. We'll begin with 8 to give some context.

Paul, writing to Timothy, says this, Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share in the suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who has, I mean, who saved us and has called us to a holy calling, not because of works, of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace.

The purpose here goes back to the covenant of redemption, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, right here, listen, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

Look back at our text, in him was life, and the life was the light of men, and that light shines in darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it. Second Timothy 110, and which has now been manifested through the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ,.

What has he done?

Who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. John is telling us that life is only in Jesus Christ. There is no life outside of Jesus Christ. Life is only in Jesus Christ, and that light to that life is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What he has done, not what we have done. We are not saved by works done in our flesh, but we are saved by the works of the word becoming flesh. The word became flesh. God condescended. He took on flesh, and it's by his work he has abolished death, and he has brought life and immortality to light through that gospel.

That gospel is the light of life. Jesus keeping the law in our place and dying in our place, both as a substitute. That's the light of life. Look at John 3, 16. I know we can all quote it from memory.

It says, for God, and as we walk through this, we'll kind of see the Greek structure. So right now, we're just going to read it as it is. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish.

But have eternal life. Remember, he has abolished death. If you believe in him, death has been abolished. You will have eternal life. John 11, verse 25. John 11, 25 and 26. So this is in the context of Lazarus has died.