John 1, Prologue, One Word
Sermon on John 1:18, "One Word", by John B. Carpenter, Covenant Reformed Baptist Church, Providence, North Carolina, www.covenantcaswell.org
John 1:1-18 约翰福音 1:1-18
Transcript
Please open your Bibles with me to John chapter 1 to 1 starting verse 1 reading to verse 18
Hear the word of the Lord 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 the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it
There was a man sent from God whose name was John He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him
He was not the light came to bear witness about the light the true light which enlightens
Everyone was coming into the world He was in the world and the world was made through him yet.
The world did not know him He came to his own and his own people did not receive him But to all who did receive him who believed in his name
He gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of man
But of God 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
John bore witness about him and cried out. This was he of whom I said he comes after me ranks before me
Because he was before me and from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace
For the law was given through Moses grace and truth came through Jesus Christ No one has ever seen
God the only God who was at the father's side. He has made him known May the
Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Now if you had to describe what you wanted out of life
Whatever it is, you know what holds your life together what drives you might get you up in the morning
Keeps you going through the day gives you something to look forward to, you know When you go to bed if you had to describe that in one word
What would it be? One word that's all you have What would it be?
Money maybe You've you've got to pay the bills right you got to put food on the table That's what you're working for the money right money after all makes the world go around they say
No, of course not. I hope you don't think that what about family? Yeah, that's why you want the money, right?
That's why you're working for that money for your family. What can be what can be greater than family? One thing what is it one idea one cause?
What is it that your life is about Of course many people haven't even bothered to stop and think about that They're just too busy trying to earn a living or to you know to get the next thing they want whatever it is
Maybe it's a good job. Now. Maybe it'll be a spouse next maybe then a child maybe a boat maybe just You know what's for lunch next?
They're like a hamster on a wheel You know not aware of the big picture or the fact that no matter how hard they run they don't still don't get anywhere
Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living in other words He meant, you know stop and think what is the one thing that is worth living for?
there must be one unifying principle that makes sense of Everything else now the ancient
Greeks and the time this gospel of John was written called that one thing The logos
Greek word logos means the word Could be or it could be translated in the way they used it in their culture
The principle what's the principle idea? That is the cause and the purpose of everything including you know
Why you get up in the morning? That lunch that you're planning next They thought that this this word or this principle was a spiritual force
It's an abstract idea and immaterial thing nothing with a body nothing with matter the material world they thought was only a shadow of that word and We're kind of like captives chained in a cave
With the entrance behind us and we're looking in into the cave and we see these shadows on the cave wall and we think the shadows
Which are these material things our bodies and the money whatever it is the things of this world
We think the shadows are other are the real world When they said no, it's the spiritual things the logos.
That's the real thing Now if the ancient Greeks thought the logos was immaterial All spirit and no body
Modern people have fallen into the opposite error The late famous astronomer
Carl Sagan began a series of in PBS in the 80s with a remarkable statement of faith The cosmos is all there ever was all there is and all there ever will be prove that Prove it.
He can't of course. That's just a statement of faith The famous cosmologist Stephen Hawking wrote the eventual goal of science is to provide a single theory that describes the whole universe
Same thing the Greeks were after in their philosophy, right single idea That's a noble goal and Christians should be pro science
Christians have nothing to fear from science but notice what Hawking's assumes by that by assuming that science
Which is the investigation of material things that science then can explain the whole universe
He has assumed that everything is material like Sagan. He has it proved it
He has it found that out by scientific investigation He simply believed it from the start and then everything he does and thinks and says is based on that assumption
Everything is material the modern world says and that being the case then well
The only things worth living for are material things, you know The food in your stomach the clothes you wear the sexual experiences you can get money that you can earn or steal the luxuries that you can have
Of course, that's only if you don't think too much Because after all the same scientists that say the world is only material also tell us is all gonna eventually dissolve anyway
So it's all kind of pretty much meaningless, isn't it? So according to them there really isn't any reason to live at all
Which is why the Bible just mocks them saying, you know According to your philosophy.
We should just eat drink and be merry for tomorrow you die What is this single theory?
That describes the universe It's not something that science can find it's helpful as science can be in many ways science can't find it because it's not purely material and it's not merely some
Impersonal abstract idea like the Greeks thought the single theory the one word that explains
Everything and is the reason for everything that doesn't leave you ignoring the material world
Because he was in it Materially and doesn't leave you with nothing to live for Because he's eternal that one word is
Jesus John the writer here shows us that one word
Jesus in the prologue to his gospel the first 18 verses introduced the rest of his gospel
But introduced Jesus is far more than just kind of a historical figure that he's writing this biography about He introduces him as the word
Saying to his Gentiles who are reading him, you know raised perhaps and that kind of Greek philosophy that described earlier
Saying to them that this Jesus is the unifying principle that your philosophers were speculating about But he's not immaterial and abstract and out there the logos the principle of the universe is a person the person of God and a person who became a man
Even in Chinese philosophy they to look for one unifying principle They call it the
Tao at the way now the Tao is the principle of creation Determines everything it guides the way everything works
Confucius and Lao Tzu and others looked at nature and saw that there was one ordering principle behind it
Even CS Lewis in his wonderful small book the abolition of man Takes that Chinese idea of the
Tao and says as a Christian there is this ordering principle in nature Lewis calls it the
Tao Here John calls it the logos and art Lewis says in his book is supposed to celebrate that Art is supposed to bring out the beauty of creation in by showing its order
Good literature is supposed to show something wonderful in life Good paintings are supposed to show that you know, there's light and there's there's balance in the world
Good music is supposed to show that there's this beautiful order The music of the spheres a harmony in creation because there is a maestro directing it all
People have tried to rebel against that especially in the modern world, especially over the last century They try to rebel against that idea that there has to be this order this principle
But most of it just find it most of us just rebel recoil at their rebellion
In the art world, you know, we find it ridiculous that with people would pay for paintings
There are just paint kind of randomly splattered on a on a on a canvas You know, you think of a monkey can do that.
Why not? I got to pay for it the 20th century composer music composer met man named by the name of John Cage had a
Composition which he called four minutes and 33 seconds in which for four minutes and 33 seconds.
The musicians just sat I'm gonna try this Brittany for a special one day.
What do you just sit? Yeah, you know, they don't play their instruments People are supposed to listen to whatever sounds
That they're make whatever Raymond happens to be doing at the time, you know doors opening and closing
Babies crying You know, whatever, but we kind of hate that there's no order to it.
It's not music. It's ridiculous We want our art to display the beauty of that one unifying principle call it
Lagos here the Tao and Christians not only support science but art too because science is the exploration of What Christ has created and art is the celebration of that Lagos that Tao?
ultimately of Jesus himself Well, John shows us that one unifying principle here in four parts in his prologue first He says the word is
God second he talks about the words witnesses third the word became flesh and Finally the word received makes children of God So the first three of those
First three of those parts are in two parts each before and after What's really the middle part?
So listed last the word received makes children of God in verses 12 and 13 both before and after verses 13
Are those other three parts that idea the word received make children of God is held up Sort of in the middle of this as the focus and this the summit to which all of this is building now
All of it's important. He begins and ends with the idea First That the word is
God John begins his gospel about Jesus exactly as the book of Genesis begins, of course the whole
Bible, you know in the beginning sounds very You know just like exact same words except that John goes
Really past the beginning to the pre -creation past the creation to the pre -creation in the beginning
He says was That is, you know already it was already he
I should say was already in existence Didn't say in the beginning the logos was created but in the beginning the word
Was he's there already? Already having come from before creation
The word was already there being uncreated and Then he says and the word was with God He was in God's presence.
He was another Distinct person a self with God in The beginning never created because he too is eternal but he is with God and Then it says famous words and the word was
God He too is God He is God with God now.
He's not another God and this gets a little confusing You gotta pay attention to the words here He isn't he is with God first and he is
God But he's not another God because there is only one God and yet he was with God. He was near him
He was relating to him in verse 18 It says he is in the father's side or his bosom, but he's not the same as God.
And so here we have two persons One is God Who the word was with and the other is the word who is also
God All that we need to see Is that the Trinity? I should say all that we need to see is that the
Holy Spirit is also God and He is all and he is a person and then we have three persons and one
God the Trinity Now some have refused to accept this now. I can't say that just That's their idea they just were
Either got to be one God and Jesus is a lesser or he's just another he's just another name for the one
God But John's Greek is clear and simple. His ideas are very profound and deep
His language is very clear and simple. The word was God he begins and ends this prologue
Insisting on that notice he begins in verse 1. He says the same similar thing in verse 18 in verse 18.
He concludes Skip down there No one has ever seen God, right?
Jesus will say that in verse in chapter 4. God is spirit No one's ever seen him.
But here in now in verse 18 The only God that's the next phrase here at ESV.
It's translated. The only God that term only Here in the ESV could be translated the one -of -a -kind
God or in the NIV. It's the one and only That's the same term used there
I think here is only at using John chapter John 3 16 famously in the King James Version as the only begotten
Now I think one -of -a -kind is probably a good translation. And so look at verse 18 No one has ever seen
God, right? And then there's another the only God The one -of -a -kind
God who is at the Father's side He's the same one in verse 1 who is the word this one -of -a -kind
God in verse 18 is the same one who is the word In verse 1 who is with God in the beginning?
Here he is at the Father's side in verse 18 he has made him known
Jesus the one -of -a -kind God has made the father whom no one has ever seen
No, and you notice that verse 18 he introduces it The term a term for that one got from that for that God that no one has ever seen.
He calls him the father The father no one has ever seen the one -of -a -kind
God the logos has made him known Understand so now some say we can't really know
God, you know, he's infinite and we're finite. He's so far beyond us He's just above us we can't really understand him in Chinese philosophy
Lao Tzu described the Taoist is unknowable You can't know this principle the
Tao that can be described is not the Tao He said if you can explain it, it's not what we call here. The word is not the
Tao He described defined the Tao is the sound of one hand clapping Other words, it's an absurdity.
It's just beyond our imagination It's a mysterious thing and while it's true that by our minds alone by our logic and logic is a
Word based on the Greek word here logos by that alone we can't
Know the word We can't know God But what John tells us here is not that we ascend to God with our knowledge with our mind
With our studying with our logic Somehow using logic to know the logos
No, Jesus is he says the one -of -a -kind God in verse 18
He has made the father known the father that we could not see He has revealed to us the one -of -a -kind
God Jesus has he reveals to us what we couldn't know on our own
God reveals God God reveals himself in verses 16 and 17 and he reveals himself as a bountiful generous
God He is good and he is blessing to his people he says there verses 16 verse 16 from his fullness
This is his bounty his his great generosity all that he has we have all received grace upon grace
It's like grace after grace in other words he has this abundance and From it he gives us grace and then grace and then more grace
It's like waves of grace One after another each bigger and better than before grace upon grace
And we see this in history as he describes and here first week. He saved his people from slavery
Right Moses came and he gave the that grace gift. God gave the grace gift of his law through Moses The law came through Moses.
He says he doesn't mean to put that law down at all That's God's ways that lead to a better life if you follow it
Which even now make clear to us our need for salvation so that we will
Once we see that we need salvation turn to God for grace and then after God Then after that after giving us the law to show us our need then
God met that need By giving us grace grace and truth
Through Jesus Christ notice in verse 17 and notice that also verse 17, by the way
Jesus Christ is is named. He's the word. He's the one -of -a -kind
God who reveals the Father the word the one -of -a -kind God is Jesus Christ Now as God in verse 2 skipping back down there
He was in the beginning with God and at least so far we see two persons of both
God But only one God they both existed eternally They were there already at creation in verse 3 all things were made through him
Through Jesus Christ the one -of -a -kind God the logos. It doesn't say that he made all things by himself
It it implies that that God really all of God created the universe But the word
Jesus was the creative mediator. He was the one through whom
God created everything and He was the means which
God created the universe as as psalm 33 verse 6 says by the word of the
Lord the heavens were made You know you read that first you think it's just by his speaking, but we hear in John the word is more than just word spoken
He's Jesus Christ and through him the heavens that the universe It was made and then here back in John 1 without him was not anything made
That was made In other words, Jesus was involved in it all the stars the galaxies, you know the black holes
This planet earth the mountains the trees the birds The single cells takes a microscope to see the molecules the
DNA You know the God particles there's some scientists think that's gonna be it that's gonna contain a single theory that explains everything these little subatomic particles
Except they'll never be able to explain where those subatomic particles came from God explains that and Jesus the one -of -a -kind
God was involved even in that Because the word was
God in verse 4 Because he's God in him was life
That's in Jesus Christ physical life Spiritual life, you know scientists still haven't been able to explain where physical life comes from How did it just arise
Out of a sterile planet and even if they somehow do explain that that is not all the life that there is there is the spiritual life which scientists can't study and that life is the light of People it that it
Shines and it shows them God and the darkness in verse 5
That's the conspiracy of people that darkness they conspire because they hate the light and they choose the darkness
They want to destroy the dark the light because they prefer the darkness, but that darkness has not overcome the light
Even though the darkness tries to destroy the light as we see this in this gospel, you know when Judas Finally chooses to betray
Jesus He chooses money 30 pieces of silver over the light and it says he went out away from Jesus He went out and it says and it was night in John chapter 13 verse 30.
It was darkness That's what Judas was going into but even the crucifixion didn't overcome the light and it tells us why here because in him was life
The word is God Well, the word has witnesses in verses 6 to 8 and then in verse 15
We hear about one of the most important witnesses to the word is John the Baptist He was a man sent from God It says that's like the prophets the prophets are sent from God all of the
Gospels Began by mentioning something about John and so does this one? And this one focuses in on the fact that he's a witness
That's his primary mission is to bear witness to the light to that one word who makes sense of it all
To Jesus John came that more people would believe in Jesus not that they would believe in him
Now when it is in his time John was a you know, very notable figure. He was a celebrity He was widely known thought to be a prophet by the people
We know even in Acts chapter 16 that several years after his death that there was still groups of people who believed in John You know who tried to follow
John the Baptist But we're here We're told in verse 8 that he was not the light became witness came for the purpose of bearing witness
To the light for testifying pointing away from itself to Jesus in verse 15.
He's even he's even quoted there Jesus is not the one Jesus is the one he says who comes after me
John says he ranks before me. He's higher than me because he was before me
And of course, it's foolish isn't it to follow someone or follow something that is supposed to be a witness to someone greater
Why would you follow John when he's trying to tell you to follow Jesus? Just make much sense
Why follow who someone's ranked less? When he's trying to tell you about the one who's ranked more than him that he's trying when he's trying to draw your attention away from himself
To Jesus what the church to is a witness like John, you know, we're not the light
We're supposed to bear witness to the light now Sure, the Lord Jesus said to speaking to the church to us that you know, you are the light of the world
But we are only the light If we're like the moon Reflecting the
Sun. I got that from Brittany's Facebook page But some people are more concerned with following their following their church, you know believing in it and glorifying it is
I guess it's easier They can just ask them questions and do what the church says But they're more concerned with believing the church glorifying their church
Than they are in following Jesus and believing him and glorifying him some churches or cults
Even put themselves in the place of Jesus and Telling their people that you don't if you
Believe us because we speak for Jesus basically the same Believing in us is the same as believing in Jesus, but instead we should be like John here.
We're not the light We're bearing witness to the light to him who ranks higher than us who was before us
Because he was with God in the beginning to Jesus who is the one -of -a -kind
God And so we don't use church this assembly to draw attention to ourselves, you know to celebrate ourselves our traditions or our citizenship our nationality our culture, but to point
To someone is high above all of that to Jesus. We should be a witness to the word
The word became flesh in verses 9 to 11 and verse 14
We see that the word is the logos the Tao the one uniting principle.
He came into this world The very planet he had made hosted him and This is why
I'm believing in Jesus is not merely about You know just kind of abstract doctrines and theories and ideas
Sound good, maybe get excited about them nice to sing about but but You know, they really can't be practiced and we go out we live no differently but this is why our world because the word became flesh is why our world are even our physical world of bodies and Jobs and and school and relationships and money
It isn't merely a shadow on the wall That God doesn't really care about as long as our hearts are somehow good we can send all we want
No, God came into this world into a body like ours The grand miracle see us
Lewis called it the word becoming flesh with flesh here meaning all of our human existence and it's it is frailty in his vulnerability
He was tired and thirsty at a well He was able to be killed at a cross
Well, just like our human lives which Isaiah describes in chapter 40 all flesh is grass the one -of -a -kind
God Came into that kind of flesh and he dwelt
He lived among us literally They're Tabernacled not a word we commonly use tabernacled just as God lived among Israel in the
Old Testament You know in that tabernacle Remember in Joshua, they brought the tabernacle into the promised land and God lived in that tabernacle in the middle of his people
And so he's saying here in Jesus God was living in a body in the middle of his people, but who are his people?
You know verse 10 says that the world world of people At least those who he came to Didn't recognize him.
They didn't receive him in verse 11. He came to his own That is he came to the nation the ethnic group to which he naturally belonged to which physically he was descended
Him and his family to Israel He lived among the Jews just as the tabernacle had been literally among the
Jews among Israel But they didn't receive him his natural people according to the flesh at least not most of them
Those natural people according to the flesh according to birth according to ethnicity didn't accept him
That's what it means. They're his own did not receive him but those Weren't really his people
People who don't receive him aren't really his they aren't children of God Well, who are his people?
you know, it doesn't doesn't depend on Ancestry or on race or a nationality or on family
God's people have never been about a nation or a race or You know an ethnic group but about faith his people are those who have seen his glory
They've seen that Jesus is full of Grace and truth in verse 14.
He has grace For their sins So that they can be right with God not a kind of sloppy excusing of sin
So they keep on sinning but truth to set us straight truth
That sets us free the light shines It exposes the truth the truth that we're sinners and that we need grace the truth that Jesus Christ gives us grace upon grace in Verse 14 the word who became flesh and set up his tent in this world is again described as the only son
That's the same term. We were looking at earlier. The only the one and only the only begotten
The one of a kind here. He is named as the son Right.
We've seen the father named here. We see the son named He is the son the one of a kind God from the father
God whom no one has ever seen and he is Jesus Christ is you know, not just Have a little bit of grace and truth, but mixed in with some severity and legalism and darkness
But he is it says full full of grace and truth the word became flesh
To but to be the word who makes children of God Who are
God's people? Not everyone Some as it says here receive him not they don't accept him
But starting in verse 12 to all who receive him what's it mean to receive him?
It means to believe in his name to believe in the revelation of himself who he has made himself known to be
To believe that he has been given the name that is above every name Greater than every other so -called
God everything that we we tend to put our trust in and hope for greater than money
Greater even than family greater than even science, you know when science has concluded people
Listen people bow and obey science says so it's okay, but to receive him
Jesus is to believe in Jesus to believe that at that name
Every knee will bow and Everyone will finally admit that he is the one to obey
To those who receive him Jesus gives the right it says the authority the right to become children of God He came to his own to the people who should have been should have been his family
And found that they were not his family, you know for a time literally even his own immediate family didn't accept him
Eventually they did but for a time Even his brother scoffed at him and this got very gospel and John they mock him
He make fun of him his mother and brothers Come at one point to try to take him away from teaching
But he pointed to those who are around him listening to him who had received him who believed him pointed to them and Said this is my family and he gives them he gives them believers the right the authority
To be children of God now sure It's not exactly like Jesus because Jesus is the one -of -a -kind son to the father
But by the power given to us by the Word of God the Word made flesh we become
Children of God we become God's family Now if it stopped right there at the end of verse 12
Some would conclude well, then, you know, we become God's people His family by our choice the decision we make by our choosing to believe it's up to us then
It's in the power of our free will and we get to congratulate ourselves if we think we made the right choice
But it doesn't stop right there verse 13 says we the children of God Became Children of God we were born again.
That is he's determined to use in chapter 3. We were born again not of blood
It's not by physical birth because we were born into the right family The right bloodline is though faith is just you know, just faith just kind of runs in the blood
No, he says not of blood nor Look at that carefully
Verse 13 Nor of the will of the flesh our will or of the will of man
What Paul says in Romans chapter 9 verse 16? This salvation does not depend on human will both here
In John chapter 1 verse 13 and in Romans 9 the Bible Says directly that being born again does not come about by an act of our will
We cannot choose to make it happen Someone once joked that a book entitled how to be born again
Must have been written for God Because he's the only one who can make people born again It's not dependent on anything we do or anything.
We choose here, but of God we are born again, but of God God's choice
Well, that's the peak That's the focus To which all of this prologue has been building up and then flows down from Jesus gives to those who receive him power to become children of God the word
The one that everything is about came to the world to gather a family
That family believed him That family received him Because they were past tense born of God because God willed it they were born of God because Jesus gave them life
He shined his light into there really into our dark hearts that quickening ray
The light that makes alive shown into our dark hearts that light was life and we were born again
By God's life by God's will and finally finally then we saw ah
He's full of grace and truth. We're not the light. No, it's not us
He is and so we believed and and then we knew we were now
Children of God he had given us that right as that great hymn puts it
He left his father's throne above so free so infinite his grace
He emptied himself of all but love and bled for Adams helpless race
Tis mercy all immense and free for oh my god, it found out me
Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night thine
I Diffused a quickening ray I woke the dungeon flamed with light
My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose with forth and followed thee