John 1:1-1:2 — Damian Kyle

The Four Gospels and Their Distinct Portraits of Jesus

John's gospel chapter 1. The gospel according to John was written by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John and the Apostle John ultimately became known as the Apostle of love. He wasn't always that he was a part of the wrestling tag team known as the sons of thunder.

But the Holy Spirit used John in the writing of the gospel the writing of first second and third John and then the writing of the revelation of Jesus Christ final book in the Bible the Apostle Paul just in terms of sheer numbers of books that the Lord used to write he certainly the largest number and in in that way.

But Luke the author of the gospel according to Luke and and then the acts of the Apostle John with all that the Lord wrote and spoke through him in terms of just the quantity of revelation that is there in verses and sentences of a top even what it is that the Lord spoke through Paul.

The gospel of John is unique among all four of the Gospels. Matthew Mark and Luke are known as the synoptic gospel. Synoptic meaning seeing together. They cover much the same territory. They're all necessary.

You never have a complete picture of Jesus by just reading one of the Gospels. We need all of them but they cover largely the same territory. His birth and and the parables and and the miracles and and these different events.

The genealogy. Two of them cover the genealogies and all. And and so because they cover much the same material they're known as the synoptic Gospels. Each one of the Gospels has a little bit of a different emphasis concerning Jesus.

You look at the Gospels and say why would God not do. For why wouldn't he just why would he do. For why wouldn't he just have like the super duper new improved gospel. You know if it contains all of it the reason is because each one of them gives a little different view of Jesus a needed view.

The person can take a look at another person's face from four different angles. And they'll see the face a little differently for the perspective. And if the face that the four angles a picture is taken of in the four angles is a face that you love Jesus is a face that we love.

And someone were to come to you and say listen which one of you know the four. Or which three of the four should we throw away. You're not throwing away any of them. I mean this is what the the people that take pictures cool pictures understand.

They take all these pictures of your kids and then they have you come in and look at it and you're you're set upon only buying $22 worth of pictures. They bring in the $400 set and they lay it out $400 on that $400 to buy this and oh well I guess we'll throw him away little baby you know.

And it's worse if you're a grandparent. They're all precious. So they all look at things a little bit differently. And they show the beauty of the face the beauty of the life for our purposes a little bit differently.

Matthew was written principally with the Jew in mind and it emphasizes Jesus as the King as the Messiah. That's why Matthew repeats over and over again by the Spirit of God that it might be fulfilled.

That it might be fulfilled. That it might be fulfilled. The gospel according to Mark was written with a Roman in mind. The great emphasis of the gospel according to Mark is of a servant. Jesus is a servant.

And Mark he doesn't deal with genealogies. He doesn't deal with births. He doesn't he when he starts that gospel it's right to John the Baptist in the wilderness the temptation the baptism out there at the Jordan River and on we go.

He's a man of action. The Romans were people of action. They were people who understood servanthood. They highly esteemed servanthood. And so the Lord provides them with a gospel that kind of person with a gospel that says you admire servanthood.

Well let me show you the greatest servant who ever lived. And then Luke's gospel the emphasis upon the humanity of Jesus probably written with the Greek in mind who if they did not worship the human body they certainly highly esteemed it.

The Greek could never understand Jewish circumcision. It was the mutilation of the human body. They could never get over it. And if a Jewish boy was circumcised on the eighth day and later became a great athlete and was to to participate in the Grecian games they would reverse the circumcision so that it would that mutilation to them would not appear.

So when Paul writes and says you know if you've been circumcised and come to Christ and stay circumcised and and and and don't be uncircumcised. You think how in the world could you you know undo the the thing they did.

So they they worship the human body they worship in essentially deified the the emotions of man the body of man. And so what does the heaven do provides the Greek in that kind of mind with the greatest life that they'd ever seen.

Here's a life to study here's a human life all God all men all at the same time study this one. Tell me what you think and see. If you don't conclude that he is the only man for God man to be sure that is worthy of your worship then the gospel according to John is written and its great emphasis is upon Jesus as God God the Son the Son of God the deity of Jesus Christ.

So you put the four Gospels together and you have heaven communicating to man. Matthew's gospel behold your King. Mark's gospel behold your servant. Luke's gospel behold the man. John's gospel behold your God of all of them communicating this beautiful message concerning Jesus Christ to us.

John's Purpose: Believing in Jesus for Life

Now the purpose of the Holy Spirit and the writing of the gospel according to John is found almost at the end of the book and I'd like you to turn with me to it. In John chapter 20 verse 30 the purpose clearly stated at the conclusion of the book and John declares by the Spirit of God.

And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. John later writes and says listen if we if we included everything the world couldn't contain the books.

But he said these are written these signs are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the promised Messiah the Son of God that is in his deity and that believing you may have life in his name.

And we're going to see in just a couple of minutes that this word believe. He repeats it twice in verse 31 or some version of it all the way through. There is this concern on the part of the Apostle John that every single person would believe in Jesus as the Messiah that is as the Christ and that he is the Son of God.

That's what he's concerned about. Why he states it there. Because in believing this about Jesus that's where it is that we find life in his name. That's where everlasting life is going to be found. And so continually he brings up this word believing believe believe believe all the way through through the book as he's concerned that everyone would believe in him and have the everlasting life that's found there his method he stated his purpose there in chapter 20 but the method by which he has chosen by the Spirit of God to get people to believe this about Jesus is all built around seven miracles of Jesus and seven great I am statements of Jesus.

The whole gospel is built around seven miracles. He could have put a hundred miracles in there a thousand miracles ten thousand miracles. But he doesn't do it. He chooses seven by the Spirit. They're carefully chosen so that as a person looks at those miracles realizes Jesus did those miracles that you can only come to one conclusion about him.

He is the promised Messiah and he is God the Son. And also with the seven I am statements I am was a name for God. In the Old Testament God would come remember when when Moses the Lord met with him in the burning bush and Moses and he commissions him to go to the children of Israel.

And Moses said what's your name. Who should I say sent me. And the Lord said I am that I am I am. I have always been I am now I always will be. In fact there is no past tense present tense with me. I am the self-existent one.

I always live in the present tense. That's who sent. You have fun explaining it to him. But it's the name for God in Jesus. Seven times through this gospel he says I am I am the way the truth and the life.

I am the Good Shepherd. I am the door over and over again. What is he communicating. He is communicating clearly understood by the Jewish mind that he's divine but he said be understood as being divine.

The Word Was God: Christ's Eternal Deity

So chapter 1 verse 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God great whoever whatever this word is they're pretty important. I want to know who who is this. I remember when I read this for the first time as a Christian I saw it in capitalization so I knew from the Bible I had that this had something to do with God.

Then you keep reading down in the verse 24 and notice and the word see here's where the word is identified and the word became flesh may dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.

And Jesus bore witness of this word of him and cried out saying and who is this speaking of. It's all speaking of Jesus. Jesus is the word. And so verse 1 very important to John is a declaration of the deity of Jesus.

So he begins by saying in the beginning was the word. When the beginning began Jesus was already there known as the pre-existence of God the pre-existence of Jesus. Whenever the beginning of everything that has a beginning began he did not begin at that time he already existed at that time.

So it's a way of saying that Jesus is eternal. In other words when he came into that manger on that Christmas morning he didn't begin to exist at that point in time he's always existed the pre-existence of Jesus the fact that he's eternal.

And so the Holy Spirit declares concerning him. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God. The second thing that John reveals about Jesus and about God and revealing this about Jesus is that the word was with God.

And then in just one the rest of the sentence and the word was God. In other words Jesus he's received just a moment Jesus is God. And so you have Jesus as God with God Jesus as God with the Father. Well the only way you can have Jesus being God and at the same time with the Father who is also God.

What that requires or necessitates is a plurality in the Godhead. You must have more than one person within the Godhead. And when it speaks here of the fact that the word was with God the word there literally means face-to-face.

The face-to-face to one another. Now concerning God the Bible teaches that there is one God manifested in three persons God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. One God three persons. When Jesus gave the Great Commission and he spoke to the disciples and he told them to go out make disciples baptizing them in the name singular in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

One name one God. But three persons within the Godhead. The person says Elizabeth doesn't one plus one plus one equal three. You can't use addition in dealing with the Godhead you have to use multiplication one times one times one equals one.

Then the next thing the person does is start to twitch just slightly on that smoke starts to come out of there. When a person says I don't understand how there can be one God and three persons welcome to the club.

And it's a club that has some very highly esteemed members including the Apostle Paul who wrote to Timothy and said great is the mystery of godliness that God was manifested in the flesh. And then he goes on in that verse to speak of Jesus it's a mystery.

And this is one of the things that everyone must accept. If you're going to have or we're going to have a personal relationship with God is that whenever you have the finite you and I in relationship with the infinite that is God then there is going to be a point in that relationship where there's going to be mystery.

You can only track with God so far. And then you have what is known as the vanishing point where your mind goes out across the flat you know Bonneville salt flats out there and as far as you can see out there they plant the flag.

That's as far as you can see as far as you can understand. And yet it goes on way beyond that and that's the way that it is. So if a person is going to have a relationship with God there just has to be this acceptance of the fact that there's going to be mystery involved.

I can only track with him so far. Otherwise you'll become a Jehovah Witness. So you'll become some other kind of group who cannot and will not accept mystery concerning God. They want to solve every kind of mystery even if it means error in doing so.

And so here you have this without controversy. Great is the mystery of God. Now the foundation for the plurality of the Godhead began very very early in the Bible. In fact the foundation for the plurality of the Godhead was laid as early as Genesis chapter 1 verse 1.

You can't get earlier than that where God declares in the beginning and notice the similarities here with with the start of John here in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the interesting thing about that word God and Genesis 1 1 is the word that's used there is the word Elohim.

And in the Hebrew it that is Elohim is is Hebrew for God. Now in the Hebrew the word in the singular for God is L. The word for dual as it relates to God is Ella. And then the God the word that's used the Hebrew word for three or more as it relates to God is the word Elohim.

That's the word that's used here. Now don't let me leave you there in Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 and 27 the Lord speaks and says let us make man in our image according to our likeness plural pronouns.

You have a conversation going on as it relates to the creation of man and and they invent this as God is saying this and notice it's God saying let us. So whoever saying this is is God and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So people say well listen. That isn't speaking of try you and God or some kind of a conversation there among the Father Son and the Holy Spirit there that's that's that's the father talking to angels.

It can't be because then in verse 27 it says. And so God created man in his own image in the image of God. If he was talking to angels then we would be in created in the image of God and angels. The only people that are talking in this conversation are God.

Is God. The plurality there in the conversation. Then you go to Deuteronomy chapter 6 and then Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4 you have what is known as the great command the great command of the Jews of the great Shema.

And then that Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 6 it declares hero Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one. The Bible teaches clearly that there is one God. That verse alone wipes Mormonism off of the map in terms of something to be considered seriously.

That's why with Mormonism you have this pearl of great doctrine and covenants. You have the Book of Mormon every effort made to keep you out of the Bible. The problem is is that anytime you have subsequent revelation that you claim has come from God it must always be tested by prior revelation.

And if it violates the prior revelation then you hold to the prior revelation and you reject the subsequent revelation. And so when you head into these books is it of Mormonism or and all they can completely fail the previous previous revelation.

Well that's another study. The Hebrew word that is used in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4 for one is an interesting one hero Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one teaches one God. But the word that's used for one is interesting.

It is in the Hebrew the word a hob and it means one. It absolutely means one but it refers to a compound unity. There is another word in the Hebrew language for one and it is the Hebrew word yahid. And yahid refers to an absolute indivisible one.

If the Lord had given in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4 here oh Israel the Lord our God the Lord is yahid an indivisible one. Then we would come to John's gospel and we would close up our Bibles and we would go home because this revelation would violate the prior revelation.

But yahid is not the word that's used echad is the word that is used and in using that word God is quietly even in the book of Genesis and then in the book of Deuteronomy making room for the truth that he knew that he would yet reveal through Jesus.

John 1:1 Against Oneness Theology and Jehovah's Witnesses

Now this in John chapter 1 verse 1 and we will get out of it when it says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. Here you have God the Son facing God the Father. I think of a religious system that is very very big in the valley and that portion of Pentecostalism known as oneness oneness theology or God can only manifest himself in one person of the Godhead or that he only does in one person of the Godhead at a time.

And yet here you have the Son face to face with the Father in John chapter 1 verse 1 and so in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And so not only was Jesus with God but then we're told that he was and is God the word was God.

You cannot make a stronger statement for the deity of Jesus Christ than the one that John does here the word was God. In fact it is so clear and the statement is so strong that those that don't want to believe in the deity of Jesus Christ as is the case with the Jehovah Witnesses they must resort to horrible things to try and distort the verse or to confuse the verse to confuse the clear teaching of the verse.

And so what they have done in their new world translation is they have inserted in violation of all manuscripts that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the and they insert the word a a God so they say Jesus was a God in the same way that the judges of the Old Testament were gods in that they took a position in which they represented God.

So they insert an a that is a deliberate willful known act on the part of the leadership of Jehovah Witnesses to deliberately distort and come against the clear teaching of John chapter 1 verse 1. Most people that come to your door they don't have the slightest idea that this has been done.

John chapter 1 verse 1 alone completely dismantles the entire religious system known as Jehovah. You cannot believe John chapter 1 verse 1 and remain a Jehovah Witness because the two things are absolutely contrary to themselves.

I know that sometimes when we're taught to witness to the Jehovah Witnesses and I'm spending time here in this area because these folks are very very active and part of my responsibility as a pastor is to make sure that all of us are equipped to be able to stand our own biblically as it relates to these things not be pulled in into this stuff.

You know the the in terms of Mormonism the greatest number of their converts into Mormonism are with a Christian background. The Christians are untaught learning the word. Now sometimes when they say well listen they have so muddied John chapter 1 verse 1 that you can't even use it in a discussion with them on your doorstep.

I refuse to give them the verse. It may be rebellion on my part but I refuse to lose so clear a statement. And so when they're on my doorstep I take and they come and they and the opening statement is isn't the world terrible and stuff.

It certainly is. I'm tracking with you so far and I'm not fishing for a quarter but but you do this it is it's a mess and all. Then they say the things and they have the little opening lines and stuff and you know and people do all that stuff and somewhere in the course of that I will say listen I am a born-again believer in Jesus Christ the Bible has a position of authority within my life.

Let's not go all around and all of the tangents and all you and I disagree in in the place that is most important as it relates to Jesus Christ and the fact that he is God in human flesh. So let's go there and I go to this verse here and I read it there for them and they say well there's an a here in our translation I say go to any translation other than yours or any manuscripts that you can find in the world.

And you will find nothing that supports the insertion of an a there because you have done it you alone have done it. This verse teaches by the spirit of God the deity of Jesus Christ. And so I hold on to the verse and I go there.

The Father's Testimony in Hebrews 1

And then the second place I go let's just tell you how I witnessed the witnesses and I love them. I tell you I they're both on my doorstep and I know who the the discipler is and the disciple is and I'm after both of them.

But I'm really after that. I'm really after that that person I want to plant things in their heart in a loving way and in a biblical way that by the time they leave my doorstep go down the street get in the car and that older person tries to talk them out of the things that I have said before they even leave the neighborhood that that will not be able to leave their heart because they're a true seeker after God.

So the second place I always take them is to Hebrews chapter one. I don't know where I heard it initially but I've adopted it as my own and I say to them I say if I could show you in the Bible where the father calls Jesus God would you believe that Jesus is God.

And without variation they say well that's not in the Bible. Is it. If I could show you in the Bible where the father calls the son God would you believe that Jesus is God. Well it's it's not it. It's not in there it's nowhere.

Let me show you in a psalm you know they're trying to pull you off the if I could show you in the Bible if I could show you in the Bible where the father calls the son God would you believe me. I believe you if you showed me where the father called him called the son God.

But it isn't in the Bible. So we go to Hebrews chapter one. And in Hebrews chapter one we read God who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the worlds who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sin sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high having become so much better than the angels speaking of Jesus and the Jehovah Witnesses teach that Jesus is an angel.

And so having become so much better than the angels you can't be better than the angels and an angel. But I don't really bog down there. I could I do that with you. But I don't do that with others as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

For to which of the angels did he that is the father ever say you are my son today I have begotten you. And again I will be to him a father and he will be to me a son. But the father never said that concerning an angel he said it concerning his son.

And when verse six he again brings the firstborn into the world he said law let all of the angels of God worship him Jesus superior to the angels. In that the angels worship Jesus. It is birth and the end of the angels.

The father says who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. But to the son and here we are. But to the son he that is the father says your throne. Oh God you have the father calling the son.

God is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions.

Now the really sharp folks on the doorstep there they'll look. And they'll say well you know the term God that is used there. I mean didn't the father call by the spirit of God in the psalms the judges of the old testament gods.

Didn't he call them that again in that sense that they were representing God in their judgments. And so this is just speaking of Jesus in that capacity. And when they say that to me I know I've got a sharp one that I'm talking about.

And I don't say that I love sharp ones because then I'm able to say all right. I don't need to build my case even on the strength of that argument. Notice in verse 10 and the father says to the son you lord and lord is in all capital letters which is a name for Jehovah or Yahweh in the old testament.

And you lord in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. Everything gets quiet right there. And there is then at that point an attempt to go to another passage someplace.

And I stop here and I look and I say here you have the father telling us calling the son God. You have to believe what the father says. And in fact Hebrews chapter 1 verses 8 and 10 is so damaging to the false position of the Jehovah witnesses that I am told that when they are prepped to go door to door they're never shown that passage because if they saw it on their own it would stumble them out of their faith.

And so when you speak it on your doorstep to them most often through the years the 20 some years that I have done that I am speaking to someone who is seeing that passage in that light for the first time that's a time to pray time to pray for them.

Jesus' Own Testimony in Revelation 1

And then I go to revelation chapter 1 final book of the bible where you have Jesus ascribing deity to himself. And john 1 1 you have the holy spirit ascribing deity to Jesus. And in Hebrews chapter 1 you have the father ascribing deity to Jesus.

And then in revelation chapter 1 you have Jesus ascribing deity to himself. In chapter 1 verse 10 where John writes and says. And I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. And I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet.

And here's what he heard the voice saying I am alpha and omega the first and the last for those of you who are note takers. You write in your margin Isaiah 41 chapter 41 verse 4. Because that's where the term alpha and omega is something that Jehovah uses to describe himself.

It's a name for Jehovah in the old testament. So here you have someone who is ascribing deity to themselves. I am alpha and omega the first and the last they are calling themselves God. And then declaring to John what you see write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia to Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamos to Thyatira to Sardis to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.

And then John verse 12 he turns to see the voice that spoke with him. And when he turned he saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the seven lampstands there was one like the son of God clothed with a garment down to his feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.

The Physical Description of Jesus in Revelation

His head and his hair were white like wool as white as snow. And his eyes were a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass as if refined in a furnace. And his voice as the sound of many waters. Here you have one of the two physical descriptions of Jesus in all of the bible one in the old testament one in the new testament.

And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. And his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead.

But he laid his right hand on me saying to me do not be afraid I am the first and the last I am he who lives was dead. And behold I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of death.

Walter Martin's Witness to Jehovah's Witnesses

Now Walter Martin tells a story about this. How many of you just a show of hands heard or saw Walter Martin before he went to be with the Lord all the way up if you see was he something man talk about this in Napa where Karen's parents my wife's parents live and they live out in the country.

And there's a walk that I take when I go there once in a while. And one of the ranches on that walk it has in these big you know poles up and then this title across the ranch as you enter in. And and the name of the ranch is never give an inch ranch.

You could use a few more Christians that didn't give up an inch let alone the miles that are being given up today in some circles in terms of doctrine. But Walter Martin wouldn't give up an inch. He knew that by I mean he would quote this Bible by the chapter and then all of their books.

I know he had a reputation. They called him casually you know old iron jaws because I mean when when you would not face facts I mean when he made it as clear as clear could be I mean he could make it clear still to everyone's embarrassment I mean you're listening in the car you know.

Oh man I feel bad and I'm not even there. I'm not. I didn't make the phone call anybody else. You're looking at the other traffic. Oh man I'm glad I'm not that guy. But I mean he could really really do it.

And I don't. I don't think to this day we have people who are different than Walter Martin but I don't think we have anyone quite like him at this point on these issues. And Walter Martin when he was a young man just coming out of Bible college and Bible school he went to visit the watchtower organization in Brooklyn New York and he knew he was going to head into apologetics.

So he he I guess he began to visit all of these headquarters while he could anonymously. So he goes in there and he just asked for kind of a tour of the place and they show him where everything's being printed and all this.

They gave him a fabulous tour. And he's heading out and there's a man that's sitting at the desk there in the reception area and as he walks out he says to the man that's sitting at the desk he said if I could show you oh that's where I got it.

There we go. I told you I like this guy where Jesus declared himself to be. It's very adaptable as you as you as I testified to now. But if I could show you where Jesus called himself divine in the scriptures would you believe it.

And and so that whole conversation went on back and forth and all that. And then and then he sits in as will happen with you as you go there and and the guy said well if you could show me then fine. But it's not there in the Bible and Walter Martin and those of you who knew him I mean you can picture it.

He the desk is right there the guy's down there. The Bible's opened up and Walter Martin not content to just read the verse he pounds the desk. I am alpha and omega the first and the last and with every word kaboom kaboom kaboom you know you know he just lays the thing out and then he walks out of the place.

Many years later true story many years later he's at a place speaking at a church and he always had these strict rules. Nobody could take over a meeting that Walter Martin was bad up. You could ask questions but you didn't.