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Book: John
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John 1:14 The Incarnate Word
I. What does John tell us about the Word?
A. That He was in the beginning with God.
1. This Greek word Logos translated Word has an
interesting history in Greek thought.
a. In about 560 B.C. there lived a Greek
philosopher named Heraclitus.
b. He taught that the world was in a constant
state of flux, everything was constantly
changing.
c. If you stepped into the river and stepped out,
then stepped back in, you would not be
stepping in the same river that you stepped in
a moment ago. The current is constantly
flowing.
d. If things are in the state of constant change,
then how can you avoid chaos? His answer was
the logos. The word or reason. The logos was
the mind that kept order in the universe.
e. He taught that in our lives there is also a
pattern, that nothing really happened by
happenstance, that there was an order and
pattern in all things. This order and pattern
he also called the logos.
f. He taught that in each man there was a sense of
what is right and wrong, and that the logos was
that which dictated to us the sense of right
and wrong.
g. Later the Stoics looking at the order in the
Universe, the fact that the stars were not
colliding with each other, the ebb and flow of
the tides, the seasons of the year, all spoke
of order which they called the word.
2. John was writing his gospel to the Greeks. He was
living in the city of Ephesus, the same city in which
Heraclitus had lived some 600 years earlier.
a. That John was writing to the Greeks was evident
from the fact that whenever he used a Hebrew
word, he always translated it into Greek.
vs. 38 Rabbi which is interpreted Master
vs. 41 Messias which being interpreted is
Christ.
b. To the Greek who thought of the logos as that
order behind the universe, that which gives
meaning to life, that which tells us what is
right and wrong, he declares, In the beginning
was the Logos, and the Logos was with God and
the Word was God.
3. The Bible opens with these words, "In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth."
a. The word God here, in Hebrew, is Elohim which
is the plural form of the word El which is God,
singular.
b. The Jewish Rabbi's in seeking to offer an
explanation why a plural noun is used for God,
declare that the plural form can also indicate
emphasis. It can also mean more than one, as in
the commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods
before Me."
c. I choose to believe that God is giving to us in
the very beginning the hint of the triunity of
the Godhead.
d. This would certainly be confirmed by John
declaring In the beginning was the Word and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God.
B. The second thing that John declared about the Word was that He
was God.
1. Here is where the Jehovah Witnesses get very confused
in their seeking to maintain that Jesus was not God,
but a created being of God known as Michael the arch
angel.
2. They try to solve their dilemma by mistranslating the
verse to read, and the Word was a god, inserting the
article a before god. Saying that Jesus was a god. That
really does not help their cause, for their main
contention is that their is only one God and that is
Jehovah. If Jesus is a god, and Jehovah is God, then
you have two gods.
3. Their real problem is one of mathematics, they seek to
add, one plus one plus one equals 3. However one times
one times one equals one.
C. He tells us that all things were made by Him, and without Him
was not anything made that was made.
1. Go back again to Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth." "All things were
made by Him and without Him was not anything made that
was made."
2. Paul confirms this in Colossians as he declares
concerning Jesus,
COL 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every
creature:
COL 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be]
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all
things were created by him, and for him:
COL 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
D. John speaks further concerning the Word and tells us that in
Him was life and the life was the light of man.
1. Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life and
have it more abundantly." John 10:10
2. Jesus said, "You do search the scriptures because in
them you think you have life, but they testify of Me,
but you will not come to Me that you might have life.
John 5:40
3. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life."
14:6
4. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world, he that
followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have
the light of life." John 8:12
5. Jesus said that the Father did not send Him in the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through
Him might be saved, He said that He that believeth is
not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned
already, seeing he has not believed in the only
begotten Son of God, and this is the condemnation, that
light is come into the world, but men loved darkness
rather than life because their deeds were evil.
6. John tells us several things about the Light.
a. That the light shone in the darkness, but the
darkness comprehended it not, or did not put it
out. They tried to put it out, they nailed Him
on a tree and thought they had put it out for
two days, but on the third day the light began
to shine brighter than ever. It seems that men
who love the darkness more than the light are
constantly trying to put the light out.
b. That the Logos is the true light that lights
every man that comes into the world.
E. That the Logos was in the world, and the world was made by Him
but that the world knew Him not.
1. Think of Jesus walking on the earth that He had made.
2. He often called their attention to the wonders of
creation.
a. Consider the lilies of the field.
b. Consider the birds of the air.
3. The tragic words, "But the world knew Him not."
4. But even worse,
F. He came to His own, and His own received Him not.
1. His own would refer to the people of Israel who
received Him not.
2. The prophecy concerning the Messiah was fulfilled,
"He was despised and rejected by men"
G. "As many as received Him to them He gave the power to become
the sons of God, even to those who believe on His name."
1. John wrote in his first epistle,
1JO 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world
knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
1JO 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet
appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall
appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
2. This power to become a son of God comes by believing
on His name.
3. Peter said, that there is no other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved.
H. But finally He tells us that "The Word (Logos) became flesh and
dwelt among us."
1. Again in the first letter of John he begins with these
words
1JO 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which
we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon,
and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2. When they saw Him with their eyes, what did they see?
a. They saw His glory.
b. The glory as of the only begotten of the
Father.
c. They saw grace and truth.
I. Conclusion: Jesus was the eternal God incarnate, the creator of
the Universe who came to this world which He had created to
bring light to those who were perishing in the darkness. Those
who believe in Him will receive the power to become the sons of
God, by being born by the will of the Father into the family of
God.
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