Good morning! Today we are continuing our look into the first chapter of the Gospel of John. In order to have some idea of context and continuity, I want to start with a brief review of what we talked about last week. The book of John begins with this:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. – John 1:1-5
Last week we talked about God’s intriguing choice to explain the story of everything through the use of the word “Word,” logos in Greek. The logos was a main theme of this opening to book of John, and our title last week reflected this, LOGOS.GOD, where I explained last week that the title didn’t refer to a website, but instead borrowed on a type of notation found in a variety of computer programming languages. When one writes firstthing.secondthing, it means that the secondthing is an attribute, or property, of the firstthing. And so the idea was that LOGOS.GOD meant that “God” is an attribute or property of “Logos.”
Why logos? How would this choice of word affect John’s first century listeners and readers? Well, I mentioned four things.
First, I explained that the root or source word for logos is leg, appearing in lego, and it means to lay out, choose, gather, pick up, and put together. Logos means to do this with words. The idea was to collect ideas in one’s mind and then speak them, giving them words, expressing them through the gathered collection of carefully chosen words. John’s listeners would think of this and then think of the other “In the beginning” Bible account, that found in Genesis 1, where God spoke and things came to happen. I mentioned that God didn’t have to do it this way; Genesis 1 didn’t have to be written such that over and over we read “God said…” but it was, and thus the idea of speaking before things coming into being is firmly established as part of the act of creation. John’s use of logos ties this fact (and mystery – it is mysterious, after all, who was God talking to?) into the John 1 account.
Second, I explained that the mystery of the Word of God could be found elsewhere in the Old Testament. We looked at four passages in particular, Isaiah 40:6-8, Psalm 107:17-20, Psalm 147:15-18, and Isaiah 55:10-11. We don’t have time to go into these verses in depth again today, but I encourage you to study them this week if you weren’t here last week; you can also obtain last week’s message as an audio or text transcript from our church website.
Anyway, these passages proclaim a Word that is eternal, a healer, a rescuer even from death, a messenger sent by the Father, a bringer of “spring,” of new life, one that will return to God and achieve God’s purpose, a source of living water, a sower of seed, and a provider of bread, in short, it sounds exactly like Jesus, when you put the verses together. To John’s listeners and readers, however, these verses were shrouded in mystery. Rabbis discussed and debated who this Word was, and John proclaimed He was with God, even from the very beginning, and He was God.
Third, I explained that, beginning with the time after the Jews’ captivity in Babylon, Aramaic translations of the Old Testament replaced God’s name with the word Memra, which means “word.” This practice was continued at the time of Jesus. So in a very literal, as in literary, sense, the Word was God!
And finally, we looked at the Greek ideas of Logos. At the time of Jesus, many Jews had ascribed, to one degree or another, to various aspects of Greek philosophy. They didn’t outright abandon their Jewish beliefs based on the Old Testament, but they tried to add the Greek ideas to them. We talked about the Stoics, who taught that there was “divine animating principle” in the universe, some kind of stuff that gave man life and the ability to reason and think. They called this stuff the logos. Then there were those who followed Plato, later including the Gnostics, who believed that the physical world was bad, imperfect, a shadow of true forms that were not physical but somehow more “real” than the physical stuff.
Some people tried to merge all these ideas together; perhaps the most famous proponent of this was Philo of Alexandria. He viewed the Logos as a kind of godlike being, or maybe more like a godlike robot, a thinking machine that bridged the gap between the imperfect physical world and the perfect world of ideas, bringing life and thought to physical man from the world of ideas.
The use of Logos in John 1:1-5 both triggered these thoughts in listeners who heard of or held to these Greek ideas, but it also refuted and corrected them. Yes, things were made through the Logos, but this Logos was not an intermediate being; it was fully the Creator God, no less. All things, animate and inanimate, living and nonliving, were made through Him.
But just who was this Logos? How could He both be with God and be God? The darkness was not the only thing that did not understand it – John seemed to be speaking in riddles. Let’s look at the following verses:
There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. – John 1:6-9
If you are like me, perhaps your thought is – wait, what? Why are we talking about this John guy? I want to know more about the Logos! Why not finish telling us all about the Logos, and then get back to this John guy?
John, inspired by the Holy Spirit to word His gospel exactly as the Holy Spirit desired, did not do this. It seems like an extremely important point is being made. What is it?
I think it is that God chose to reveal Himself through human witnesses.I think this is tremendously profound. It didn’t have to be this way. God could have continued to use angels, as He did when He announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. He could have prepared the people for Jesus through angels. He could have even had the gospel go forth throughout the earth through angels. He didn’t do this, though, and that’s not an accident. God chose to do it this way. God chose to use human witnesses at the very beginning, and He continues to choose to do so today. God didn’t tell angels to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything Jesus had commanded them;” he told this to His disciples, an assorted motley group of fishermen, tax collectors, and so forth. And if disciples are people who make disciples, then we are disciples too, and this command applies to us. God chose and still chooses to use people – even us – as His witnesses “so that through us all would believe.”
This may seem obvious, but I think it is worth dwelling on. The reason God sent John, and the reason God desires to use us, is so that people would believe. The Greek word is pisteuo, from the root pistis, faith. Pisteuo appears 86 times in the Gospel of John. Included in the way John uses this word is not just mere intellectual assent, but trust. The way John uses this word it implies a relationship with a person. It’s personal. It’s not “yes, I know that 2+2=4,” but “yes, I trust you; I believe you; I put my faith in you.” God sent John, and God sends us, so the people everywhere could have this kind of trusting relationship with God.
Just like John, we are not the light, but we are witnesses to that light. What light? The true Light that gives light to every man.
Just as with logos, the idea of light was filled with meaning for a Jewish listener. Look at just these passages in Isaiah:
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. – Isaiah 9:2
Thus to a Jewish listener, the light was seen as a great hope, an antidote perhaps even to death.
The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame… - Isaiah 10:17a
Here the light is seen as another name for the Holy One, whoever that might be. Again, this is not a mystery to us, but imagine what it was like for the Jewish listener who did not know about Jesus, who had not heard the New Testament.
This is what God the Lord says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness; I will take hold of Your hand. I will keep You and will make You to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. – Isaiah 42:5-7
Again the light is a person; again it is associated with one who is righteous, holy. Also, here the light is associated with a New Covenant, in fact it is the New Covenant, one that involves bringing sight to the blind and freedom to captives and those who are in “darkness.” And not just to Jews, but to the Gentiles as well.
It is too small a thing for You to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make You a light for the Gentiles, that You may bring My salvation to the ends of the earth. – Isaiah 49:6
Again the light is to the Gentiles, in this case even to the far reaches of the earth. And the light is salvation, saving, rescuing, redeeming – this is what the light does. And from Isaiah 60:
“Arise, shine, for your Light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your Light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. – Isaiah 60:1-3
Here the light is tied to God’s glory, and it will affect nations and kings of the world.
The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you,
for the Lord will be your everlasting Light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting Light, and your days of sorrow will end. Then will all your people be righteous and they will possess the land forever. – Isaiah 60:9-11
These verses, which are so similar to ones near the end of the book of Revelations, tie this light to God Himself, to glory, to the end of days of sorrow, to making people righteous, and to giving them a place for eternity. Just as we saw with the word logos, this word light in the Old Testament describes so many things that Jesus is and does! Again, a word that was shrouded in mystery has begun to be revealed with just a few words in the first chapter of John.
And to be clear, John the gospel writer tells us, this light was about to enter the world, and it wasn’t John the baptizer. But by telling us this, John the gospel writer is hinting at the most astounding thing of all – that this light, this logos, is or will soon be a man! The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. John goes on:
He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. – John 1:10-13
This is a summary of so much that is in the book of John, and indeed, the entire Bible, both New Testament and Old. The Bible is a story of man’s failure to acknowledge God, to trust God, to recognize God, to receive God, to believe God, to obey God. Only punctuated by short exceptions in which people turned to God, most of the Old Testament history as well as the gospel accounts describe people rejecting their God.
Yet… what a wonderful word! Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. What does it mean to receive Him? I love the way John Piper puts it – he says that to receive Him means “to welcome Him into your life for what He is.” Well, you can find verses that say He is Savior, so you welcome Him into your life as the Person who saves you. Other verses call Him Provider, so you welcome Him into your life, that is, you trust Him, to provide for you. Other verses call Him Counselor, so you welcome Him into your life as one who provides you good counsel; for example, if through His Word you learn that He says certain things are important and other things are not, then you take Him at His Word and re-order your life so as to make the important things truly important and the unimportant things truly unimportant. Other verses say He is Leader, Authority, and King. This means you welcome Him into your life as the one who leads you; that is, you follow Him, you seek to obey Him, you choose to do what He says to do – not in your own strength, but in His, because He also says He is your Strength. To use the analogy of a guest in your house, to really receive Him is to let Him have free reign in your house, to visit any room, to let Him see what’s really there, using our light analogy, to let Him shine light into all the corners and cobwebs.
The opposite of this is what we see again and again in the gospels. A vivid example is in Luke 4, where, in a synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah, saying that it has been fulfilled in their hearing. Verse 22 says:
All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. – Luke 4:22a
It sounds like maybe they are receiving Him, right? But after Jesus tells them a few things, only 6 verses later we have this:
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. – Luke 4:28-29
Did they really receive Him? No. Receiving is more than just lip service. It is surrender. It is giving up on yourself. It is admitting you need Him. It is admitting your weakness and failure and that He is the only one that can rescue you, save you, or change you. It is admitting that He is right and you are wrong, and that He needs to completely change you if you are going to obey Him going forward.
The “light” analogy in the earlier verses is quite interesting. It was about month ago that we had a power outage in Clemson. When that happened, we turned on a flashlight and then lit some candles. When light shined in the darkness, we knew it! How could we not know it? There is only one way someone with us could have not known when the light began to shine – they would have to have been completely blind. These people in the synagogue were blind. All who saw Jesus and did not receive Him, both when Jesus walked on the earth and ever since, have been blind. For those of us who have received Him, we too were blind until He opened our eyes. As the great hymn goes, I was blind but now I see.
We, like John, are to be witnesses, but it is God that opens the eyes of the blind, it is He that makes us see the light of Jesus. Receiving Him is only possible by God making us able to see. And as John goes on to say, it is also like a new birth: children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
This theme of being born again is brought out further in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. I’m not going to go through that passage today, but instead simply point out that when Jesus talked with this supposed expert in the Old Testament, He was surprised that Nicodemus didn’t understand what He was talking about. “How can you not know this?” was the essence of what Jesus asked him. Does the Old Testament point to this need for something new to be replaced or replanted in us? Yes. Here are a few examples just taken from the book of Ezekiel:
This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again. They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. – Ezekiel 11:17-20
Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. – Ezekiel 18:30-31
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. – Ezekiel 36:26-27
A new heart and a new spirit is what John is talking about when he talks about being born of God. We receive Him, and He makes us new in Him. John continues:
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1:14
Finally John goes back to the Logos. For both the Greek and the Jew, the last several verses were probably confusing, with all this talk about a witness, and then this “light” who was in the world but the world did not receive Him, and then something about receiving and believing, and becoming children of God – after all this John gets back to the logos and says a shocking thing to both Jew and Gentile. This Logos, who was with God and was God, was also a man. He wasn’t a man in the beginning, but He became a man; He became flesh and He lived among us. As the title of this message states, here was LOGOS.MAN.
Wow! God became a man! How can this be? There is only one God. Yes, and yet this one God is three-in-one, and the Logos, who was there with God in the beginning, who was God, clothed Himself with flesh, stepping down from the joys of heaven and intimate connection with the rest of the godhead and entered into our messed-up world to live among us. Both the Jew and the Greek would say, He can’t do that!
For most of us, having grown up on the truth that the Word became flesh, we don’t grasp how extreme, how insane it really is. No analogy we have compares to it. It’s not like a grown-up getting down on his knees and talking to a 3-year old child. It’s not like President Lincoln talking to some anonymous poor person. It’s not even like you or me becoming an amoeba and hanging out with other amoebas. All of these are finite talking with finite. God is infinite – infinitely good, infinitely holy, infinitely powerful, infinitely wise, infinitely loving, and on and on. We are made in His image, but that is like saying we have one atom’s worth of what He is in us. The statement “The Word became flesh” is one of the most, if not the most, explosive, profound, and overwhelming statements ever made in history.
John went on, “We saw Him! We saw His glory! He was glorious! He was the One-and-Only, or the Only-Begotten, and He came from the Father, and we saw Him!” And not just a quick glance, but really saw Him. Spent 3 years with Him!
The phrase made His dwelling among us is quite literally pitched a tent with us. I think the emphasis here is not on the fact that a tent is a temporary shelter, but that it is an accessible shelter. He didn’t make a castle among us. He didn’t make a fortress among us. He pitched a tent with us. Just like us. Isn’t that awesome? And that is exactly what Jesus did while here on earth. He picked some regular guys and spent day in and day out with them. He ate with them and ate what they ate. He slept where they slept. Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, became like a poor person, even a homeless person, assuming none of the authority that was rightly His.
He pitched a tent with us. If you have ever gone camping with someone else, you know that it takes your relationship with those you are camping with to a more familiar level. They see you when you get up in the morning. They smell you. It’s quite different from how we usually live in our culture, in our isolated apartments and houses. Jesus did this with His disciples for 3 years.
Why would He do that? Why would He clothe Himself with flesh? Why would He come down to our level? John answers – because He was full of grace and full of truth.
Truth – Jesus knew our condition, that we had separated ourselves from God because of our sin, that we were blind, that we were foolish and worse. And grace – although we deserved nothing, Jesus chose to rescue us even though we didn’t know we needed rescuing, even though many wouldn’t even allow Him to rescue them, even though some would hate Him, spit on Him, and even crucify Him. It was His grace that made Him come to us, to serve among us, to wash our feet, and to die for us. He loved us before we loved Him. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
John testifies concerning Him. He cries out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me.’” From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known. – John 1:15-18
John here is again John the Baptist. The “He who comes after me” is Christ. It is literally true in that Jesus was born after John, and John began his ministry before Jesus. John the Baptist cries out, “That’s nothing! What Jesus is doing far surpasses anything I have done.” And the reason in part is that, although Jesus was born after John, Jesus as God, as the Logos, has been around before the prophet Daniel was born, before King David was born, before Moses was born, before Abraham was born, before Adam was, well, formed from the dust. Before the animals were made, before the plants were made, before the land and waters were made, before the heavens and earth were separated, before there was anything, Jesus was.
Now, do you believe the next sentence? From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another. Do you know how blessed you are? The theme of the recent Faithwalkers’ conference was blessed. On January 1, we went through an A to Z of 26 blessings we have in Christ. Here is a quick summary: We are…
Alive in Christ.
Blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.
Complete in Christ.
Dead to sin.
Elected by God.
Forgiven of all transgressions.
Glorified in Christ.
Holy partakers of a heavenly calling.
In Christ.
Justified in Christ.
Kingdom of God citizens.
Light in the Lord.
Members of the Body of Christ.
New creations in Christ.
Owners of all things.
Predestined.
Qualified to share in Christ’s inheritance.
Raised up with Christ.
Sealed by the Spirit.
The Temple of the Holy Spirit.
United with the Lord in His death and resurrection.
Victorious in Christ.
Workmanship of God.
Xenos (strangers) and pilgrims on this earth.
Yoked to Christ.
No zenith – it will take eternity to understand all the riches we have in Christ.
From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another. If it feels overwhelming, if you feel a little numb, good – you should! And it’s all Him; it’s all His grace. We deserve nothing except the penalty of being lawbreakers. But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
And the final idea in this passage – no one has ever seen God. Indeed the Old Testament tells us that no one can look on God and live. But Jesus, God in the tent of flesh, made God known to us. To learn from Jesus is to learn from God Himself. In Jesus is the fulfillment of all that was hinted at in the Old Testament. And if you are a believer, one of those born again, a day is coming when we will be with Him; we will see Him at the Father’s side. We will look on God and experience a love so strong, so fierce, we will be certain it will undo us, but we will remain. We will look on God and truly live.
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