Essentials Of The Faith /
Sunday Morning Sermon Series
/
John
John 1:1-18
04/03/05
Title: ‘One of
Us’
Main Text: John 1:1-18
Introduction: (silence for one
minute)
Silence…How do you react to silence? Most of you this morning probably were
wondering what was going on…
• did pastor forget what he was going to say?
• did he have a stroke?
• Wait, I know, he took too much cough medicine again.
The reason for the concern on your part is because there was a failure to
communicate on my part.
• What would it be like if God was silent?
• What would it be like if God created the world and everything in it,
then left us on our own, never to communicate with us again?
Read: Heb. 1:1-2a
Praise God! He is not silent. He has spoken to us in the past and continues
to speak to us today.
We live in what’s called ‘the Information Age’. We have so many different
and effective ways to communicate with each other. Think about it:
• face to face speech, phone, cell phone, e-mail, snail mail: letters,
video conferencing, internet chat rooms, instant messenger.
Like the many ways we can communicate with each other today, God also has
communicated with us in many different ways
• angels, burning bush, miraculous signs, storms, kings, prophets, even a
donkey.
As appropriate and effective as they were for the time, none of them
compares to the completeness of God’s last means of communication, his Final
Word, Jesus.
Background to the Gospel of John
And in my opinion, no where is the Word more clearly spoken than in the
Gospel of John.
This is because the Gospel of John was written in what we would call ‘basic
Greek’. It’s simple, plain language, that even those of John’s time with an
elementary understanding of Greek..like young children, could easily read
and understand.
A little background on the Gospel of John.
• The Book was written by John, the beloved disciple. He was in Jesus’
inner circle… Peter, John, James. He was also Jesus cousin: his mother
was Salome,
Mary’s sister. So he knew Jesus better than anyone.
• The Gospel of John is the single most read book in all the Bible.
• It was probably written in Ephesus after the fall of Jerusalem in 70
AD. Matthew, Mark and Luke’s Gospels, as well as Paul and Peters letters
were already
written and circulating around the churches when John wrote his Gospel.
• That’s why John doesn’t repeat what the other writers include in their
Gospels. 93% is new material.
• Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the ‘synoptic’ Gospels. Synoptic
means ‘see-together’. They all present Jesus’ life in a similar way. They
focus on what
Jesus said and did. The Gospel of John focuses on who Jesus was.
• John’s purpose for writing the Gospel is found in Jn. 20:31 ‘But these
are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that by
believing you may have life in his name.’
• John is setting out to give evidence that any person, in any place and
at any age, can believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.
Transition: The Gospel of John is an
exciting book because it reveals God’s love for us in sending Jesus to die
for our sins. And by raising him from the dead, it demonstrates God
continuing love for us in our day to day relationship with him.
We will be looking at the first 18 verses of chapter 1 this morning. Because
the main thoughts are laid out with parenthetic thoughts in between them, I
will not be reading the verses in order. Also, because I have already spoken
on many of these verses in our last sermon series, I will look that them
only briefly.
OK? Turn to John 1:1 (page 809 in the church Bible) and lets begin our
journey through the Gospel of John.
John 1:1-4,14a ‘God With Us’
Read: Jn 1:1-4; 14a
While the other Gospels begin with either Jesus’ birth or his lineage back
to Abraham, John goes back a bit further..to before the creation of the
world. John 1:1 is reminiscent of Gen. 1:1 and John wants the connection to
be made.
The purpose of the first four verses of John’s Gospel is to declare that
Jesus is God. He not only was there before the creation of all that we know,
he was the one who did the creating. All life owes it’s existence to Jesus,
the living Word of God.
What does John mean by the ‘Word’?
• To the Greeks ‘Logos’ (the word) was that which gave meaning and
purpose to all things. It was the creative and stabilizing power in the
universe.
(the ‘force’ in Star Wars is a good example)
• To the Hebrews the ‘Word’ was the Word of God and was connected with
the actions and power of God himself.
Both Greeks and Jews understood that the ‘Word’ or ‘Logos’ was eternal and
responsible for the creation of all things.
They understood that the ‘Word’ ‘Logos’ enlightened people to see truth. By
using the phrase ‘the Word’, John had the attention of both Greeks and
Jews.
John then tells them that the ‘Word’ ‘Logos’ became flesh and lived among
us…he became a living, human being, he became one of us. This is where he
loses them to disbelief. And this is where many today stop in their pursuit
of God. They believe God exists, perhaps, but not that Jesus, a mere man,
was God in the flesh (incarnate).
None the less, John declares that Jesus is God. This has serious
implications.
• You exist, not because your parents had sexual relations. You exist,
because Jesus created you, Jesus gave you life and you remain alive because
Jesus sustains
your life.
• With Jesus you can navigate Satan’s sin traps because you are guided by
the light of his presence. And the light of Jesus removes the darkness of
sin from our
lives. Without Jesus, you are at the mercy of Satan…and he is
merciless. And, the darkness of your sin, well it still stains your soul.
• With Jesus you will never be alone for he dwells with us…now and
forever. Without Jesus, you’re on your own, now and forever.
Transition: John begins his Gospel
boldly and right to the point. Jesus is God and he became one of us.
What evidence does John give? Well, the rest of his book is the evidence.
But right up front John gives three principal witnesses…John the Baptist,
the Disciples and Jesus himself.
John 1:6-9, 14b-18 ‘Witnesses to this
glorious event’
John the Baptist: Jn. 1:6-9, 15
Read: Jn. 1:6-9, 15
John the Baptist, another cousin of Jesus, was a pretty popular prophet.
Yet, he recognized and acknowledged that he was not the man, he was not the
Messiah.
John’s role was to reflect the light of Jesus to those around him. As
Christians that’s our responsibility too. Let me illustrate.
ILL: Have you ever used a mirror to
reflect the sun’s light? You can really catch people’s attention with the
reflection of sunlight off of a piece of glass or a mirror. John the Baptist
was an example of one who truly reflected the light of Jesus to those around
him.
• Have someone shine light at me. Use two different sizes of mirror to
reflect the light.
The more we give ourselves to Jesus the greater the reflection of
Jesus we will be to those around us.
• Use dirty mirror.
However, when our lives become dirty with unconfessed sin, we no
longer can accurately or powerfully reflect the light of Jesus to those
around us.
We need to clean our mirror each day by confessing our sin to God.
• We also need to keep our mirrors facing the light of Jesus Christ.
Move mirror so that it doesn’t face the light. While it is easy to
look the other way instead of looking to Jesus, when we do, we no longer
reflect his light to
those around us.
• Finally, we can not allow anything to come between the light of Jesus
and our mirror.
Place someone between the mirror and light. If we place anything or
anyone between us and Jesus, we will not reflect his light to those around
us.
Illustration taken from Jason Duncan
John the Baptist clearly and powerfully reflected the light of Jesus to
those around him and was a witness to the Word becoming flesh and dwelling
among us. So were…
The Disciples: Jn 1:14b, 16
Read: Jn. 1:14b,16
The disciples told all those around them ‘We have seen…we have personally
experienced the glory and grace of God in Jesus Christ. From the fullness of
his grace, we have received blessing after blessing.’ What a testimony!
Christian, can’t you say the same thing? That you have experienced,
personally, the grace and blessing of God in your life. Who are you telling
it to?
The last witness is Jesus himself.
Jesus Christ: Jn. 1:17-18
Read: Jn. 1:17-18
While Moses witnessed to God’s people through the Law of God, Jesus gave
testimony to God’s people that he was God, by his grace and through a life
of complete truth, honesty in all things. He said you can know God when you
know me. There is no better witness!
Transition: John closes by stating
that Jesus demands a response from us..all of us.
John 1:5,10-13 ‘Responses to this glorious
event’
Rejection: Jn. 1:5, 10-11
Read: Jn. 1:5, 10-11
While Jesus is the light shining in a dark world, many people close to their
eyes because it is too bright and they would rather walk in darkness than
deal with what the light of Jesus’ presence reveals in and around their
lives.
Others, flat out reject Jesus. That is what’s meant when John says that ‘his
own did not receive him’.
• To receive Jesus means to make a conscious, intentional decision that
Jesus is God and that he died for your sins.
• To receive Jesus means to accept his death as payment for your sin and
you receive what he offers…forgiveness and eternal life.
Most people in Jesus’ day said…no. The bad news is that most people today
still say no. But, there’s good news.
Reception: Jn. 1:12-13
Read: Jn. 1:12-13
The good news is that some people say yes! Some receive, ask Jesus into
their lives, accept his offer of forgiveness and eternal life. Most, if not
all of you here this morning, have said yes..have received Jesus as your
Savior…Praise God!
• And you know it wasn’t something that your parents did for you, you
made the decision yourself. While you recognized Jesus died for the sins of
the world, you’ve came to believe and trust that Jesus died for you.
Conclusion
The opening of the Gospel of John is filled with great spiritual truth. And
there can be no neutrality when it comes to spiritual truth…either you
accept it or reject it.
One thing we will be constantly reminded of in the Gospel of John…Jesus
demands a response from you, from me…belief or unbelief, accpetance or
rejection.
Since Jesus has become one of us, we must respond to him. What will it be?