John 1.1-2 - The Word Who Was

Last time we saw that John begins his book at the beginning.  In the first.  THE very beginning.  It’s a very good place to start.  And he repeats that phrase twice, in the beginning, for emphasis, because John wants us to focus here, to grasp this mind-blowing truth, that in the beginning was, always was this One-Who-Was.  And He is the Anchor for our souls.  Our True North.  Because if there is no beginning, then we are literally lost, and we are accidents.  There is no meaning or sense to our lives beyond the here and now.  BUT God says, you and I are not a meaningless accident. [Ps. 139:13-14, 16  For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.  I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well… Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.]. So that every one of our days is filled with potential and purpose.  Time and the universe and each one of us had a beginning, and there was/is a reason for this beginning.  In the beginning.  In the first.  This is of first importance.

And here at the beginning of his book, John is introducing us to Someone.  This One Who was there, Who WAS - in the beginning.  In the first.  Someone inconceivable.  A timeless, unbounded, eternal Being, One Who always was (and always will be).  In the beginning WAS.  The Origin.  The First Cause, the One Who was not only there in the beginning, but also made IT happen.  Made it ALL happen, everything.  The Origin-ator.  This is Who John is going to show us through the rest of his book, and that’s Who we begin to look at today.  In the beginning was… was Who?

In the beginning was…[not a baby].  Now, with Advent coming up, it would be perfect if to start us off, John showed us a baby.  But nope - John doesn’t take us to the manger.  He’s not showing us a baby.  And not, a boy.  Not, a rabbi.  Not even something human, per se.  Nope.  To start us off he zooms right on past the miraculous birth and early life of Jesus and takes us all the way back to The Beginning, and when we get there, we don’t see an infant.  [In the beginning was The Word].  The [Logos].  Why does John go here, first thing?  Why does he call Him “The Word”?  The Logos. [a logo --> identifies an organization or some other entity]

In the Greek, a logos is actually that which is spoken.  A logos, a word is a thought brought to life.  There’s something in my mind, and the act of speaking gives it substance, gives life to this idea - [like the life that springs to mind if someone says, “Thanksgiving dinner”, or better, I love you].  So we see that words give substance, they... create.  The Word, The Logos then is the ultimate creative force.  Let's not underestimate the power of the force of The Word.  Think about it.  Words are the means of creation (How does Genesis read?  God SAID, “Let there be light.”  And what happened?).  Words are also the fruit of creation (ideas brought to life)[what was the first job of man - Gen. 2:19 Out of the ground the LORD God (had) formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. - man participates in the creative process as he uses words/logos to give fuller expression to the identities to the living creatures!].  The means of creation, the fruit of creation - and words actually are the goal of creation (someday every tongue will do what…?).  They’re the end of creation, if you will.  And in the beginning was The Word - HE is the beginning AND the end of creation. [Ps 33:6  By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host.]

Oh how we humans take words for granted… A word, by its very definition, contains meaning.  It’s not simply a grunt, or a growl or a chirp or a squeak.  Or a bark or a meow.  Not even something we “parrot” or mimic.  A true word is intelligence manifested in tangible understandable "bodily" form.  In the beginning was The Word.  And as it turns out, true words are employed only by The Origin-ator Himself, and by those who bear His image.  It’s another thing that sets people apart from all the rest of God’s creatures.  No other creature grows up from its infancy and begins to use true meaningful words.  In the beginning was The Word. [2Pet. 3:5 …by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed…]

And John says this is not just A word, not just any logos - this is THE Logos.   In the beginning was THE Logos.  The Logos is THE Meaning, THE embodiment of intelligence, THE Speaking Creative Force behind the entire universe.  All of existence.  [Heb. 11:3  By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.]  Everything out of nothing, by The Word.  There’s no mistaking what John is saying here about this One Who was.  In the beginning was the Word.  

And this Word Who was in the beginning is responsible not only for the origin of everything in the universe, but also its ongoing existence.  [Heb. 1:1-3a  God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the EXACT REPRESENTAtion of His nature, and upholds all things by THE WORD of His power.].  Not just A logo.  The Logos.  In the beginning was The Word.

[Rev. 19:11-16  Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war.  His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself.  He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God.  The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses.  From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will release the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, like juice flowing from a winepress.  On his robe at his thigh was written this title: King of all kings and Lord of all lords.].  In the beginning was THE Word.

So at this point in his book, John has written just five words in the Greek (six in English), but he’s already made it crystal clear Who this One is he is showing to us.  This One named Jesus, Who walked among John and his friends for 3+ years?  He’s the One Who made the entire universe.  Spoke everything into existence out of nothing.  He made each one of us - and John got a front row seat to see The Logos show up on planet earth and do His thing for three years.  True intelligence, eternal wisdom manifested.  The Word Who was, showing up, doing His thing.  Wondrous words of truth and love and incredible deeds to back them up.  Miracles.  Signs and wonders.

This is no ordinary being.  And this is the One Who loves.  He loved John, He made John.  He made you, and He loves you.  And He wants you to believe in Him.  The amazing truth is that if we want to know this same One Who was, His glory is seen on display everywhere if we will open our eyes.  He is found in the pages of this Book.  And He can be found right outside the door of our heart, if we will simply open the door and invite Him in.  Will you receive Him?  Will your heart prepare Him room?

John 1:1-2 - In The First

In the beginning…  This is just two words in the Greek.

Last time we saw, THIS book of John is a book unlike any other.  And his book is not primarily about an event.  It’s not just a compilation of historical happenings.  John was given a front row seat to show us a Person, and THIS Person is a Being unlike any other.  And as we will see, He is the God•send.  Unequaled.  Unsurpassed.  Unparalleled.  Unprecedented.

Notice how John begins: [In the beginning]… There’s another book in the Bible - one other book - which begins the exact same way, with these same three words, in the beginning.  [Genesis 1:1  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.]  Both the Hebrew and the Greek literally mean the same thing: In the first.  In the first.  And this is not a coincidence - John uses this phrase twice here in these first two verses: in the first, in the beginning.  He clearly wants to begin by focusing us all the way back to the very beginning.

“InTheFirst” IS a matter of sequence.  This was the first happening in history.  The first of many.  THE first cause that caused everything else.  It all began here.  In the first.  But “InTheFirst” is also a matter of priority.  In first place.  God is telling us through Moses AND thru John that this is our all-important starting point.  [InTheBeginning]  Your life and mine today points back to this point, THE origin.  Our origin story.  How we got here.  How we got to this.  Who we are, who we were always meant to be - all points back to this.  In the first.  This is the vital key to understanding our direction in life.  Our True North.  In the first is our anchor-point, without which we are truly lost.  Tossed here and there by wind and waves of culture and feelings.  Adrift on the seas of life.  That’s where the world is today.  Cut loose from the Anchor.  Adrift.  Lost.  So many divine image-bearers, desperate to remove the Divine Origin-ator from their life.  From their origin story.  And the most popular theory posits that there WAS no beginning.  No Begin-or.  No First Cause.  Everything always just was, and what is today is only the result of billions of years of random mutations.  A long series of hopeful accidents.  You and I are an accident.  There’s NO good reason for us to be here.  We just are.  And someday soon, we won’t.  End of story.  This is what so many “UNbelievers” choose to believe.  This unproven theory.  It cannot be proven, full of gaps, yet it prevails in so many places, throughout institutions of learning and halls of power. [where talking about a Begin-or is forbidden!]

What can we say about The Accident?  When I tell you, “it was an accident”, what am I saying (besides the fact that something went fundamentally wrong)?  Even if I caused it, if I say it was an accident, I’m saying, it’s not my fault.  Don’t blame me.  I.e. No blame.  Do not hold me accountable.  This is why the theory of the accident is so attractive to so many.  The world is so desperate to reject the concept of a First Cause because it is so desperate to remove the prospect of accountability.  No accountability.  No blame.  We’d all like to be blameless, wouldn’t we?  We’re wired this way.  We shift blame, try to avoid accountability.  No consequences.  Don’t blame me.  And what kind of world do I get if I remove accountability?  If I’m NOT accountable, then basically I’m in charge.  I’ve made myself out to be... god.  Cuz now I think I can do whatever I want, with no consequences.  With IMPUNITY. Rejecting the First Cause/Cause-ator.

What else do we get with the accident?  This idea that everything always just was, that there was no first cause, is what is called an infinite regress.  Which is logical nonsense [i.e. “This sentence is false”].  So, we get [no sense].  Now some suppose that the theory of what is called the Big Bang is a pseudo-beginning, where at one point all the matter in the universe was somehow contained in a massive ball of sorts, and somehow it all exploded into these tiny little bits with a really big bang and flung out all matter throughout the universe, some of which has now reformed into planets and living people and such.  But even if all of that could happen, it still leaves us with the question, what caused the Big Bang?  And where did the BIG ball come from?  You still go back and back and never arrive at a first cause, at a sensible explanation.  Even if you convince yourself that there’s solid footing on this shifting sand of no sense, you’re still left with the accident.  We’re all just a bunch of accidents. 

What else do we get with the accident?  So-and-so had an accident.  What does that usually entail?  Accidents & mutations do not produce order - much less beauty.  Not better.  Not usually.  Pretty much you get something worse.  Disorder.  And what else do we get?  “It was an accident. I didn’t mean to do it".  In other words, there’s [no meaning].  It was unintended.  A fluke.  IF we are accidents that means there is NO meaning to our existence.  Just do the best you can, cuz tomorrow you die and that’s all she wrote.  Aka "Survival of the fittest".  A need to be ruthless [see Gould below].  Look out for number one.  Do what you want.  Is it any wonder then that there’s so much selfishness today?  And so much confusion about life, obsession with death?  With sex?  It’s. No. Accident.  It’s the natural reasonable by-product of The Accident, what you get if there is no beginning.  No First Cause.  With The Accident, without a beginning, we get non sense, not better, and no meaning.

To which John says, In the beginning...  He says it twice!  In the beginning, in the first.  There WAS a beginning.  That’s the message of the whole Bible, from beginning to end - there was a beginning.  Which is intuitively obvious to the open minded person - everything in this sphere has a beginning.  Every effect has a cause.  This is how the known universe works.  And so we trace back all things, all these effects, to either this infinite regress (the non-sensical meaningless accident), or better, to a First Cause, an uncaused First Cause.  The Origin.  The Origin-ator (more on that next time).  THAT is what John is saying.

He says, [in The beginning WAS] (the Word).  The Word already was.  This is the imperfect tense.  It’s the [present tense, an ongoing line, but shifted into the past].  So, this is a line in the past with no explicit beginning or endpoint.  This Word simply was, and always had been, ongoing, eternally existent.  This is THE Uncaused First Cause.  This Word WAS, in the beginning.  Back then.  Always was.  Always had been.  Always will be.  A Being unbounded, not bound by time - out of time.  In the beginning WAS.  Something was.  What was?

We’ll get into this next time.  John is about to introduce us to this SomeOne Who is far beyond our finite ability to truly comprehend.  A Being of Perfect Perfection, Timeless and Outside of Time.  In the beginning was.  Barely describable, mostly inconceivable, wholly inexplicable.  Words fall short.  We cannot fully understand or conceive of such a Being because our finite brains are inescapably bound to this mortal plane, limited by time and space - and the only way that John is able to even begin to show us this One-Who-Was is that there was this Divine Intersect.  This One Who Was, in the first, stepped out of eternity and He revealed Himself.  John met Him and journeyed with Him in His immediate presence for three years.  Front row seat.

John’s encounter with this One-Who-Was changed the course of his life, cuz he found his anchor.  Transformed him from the Son of Thunder into the Disciple Who Jesus Loved.  From the son of a fisherman into a child of God.  We know this One-Who-Was as Jesus, Emmanuel - God with us - and for John, meeting Jesus was the beginning of the rest of his life, eternal life, life as it was always meant to be. [see Piper below]   Have you met Jesus yet?  [HINT: He's standing at the door of your heart right now...]

“Only one causal force produces evolutionary change in Darwin’s world: the unconscious struggle among individual organisms to promote their own personal reproductive success…” -Stephen Gould

If we are cut loose from the anchor of God's Word, we will not be free. We will be slaves of personal passions and popular trends.

John Piper

(i.e. When we cut ourselves loose from the anchor of the One-Who-Was, the uncaused First Cause, we are not free.  We become slaves of personal passions and popular trends...)

John (Part 2) - Front row seats?

There is so much in this book of John [there’s much more that John did NOT include in this book - 21.25].  But again, my hope is that as we study through John together, that we will get a much clearer picture of Jesus.  Get to know Him better together.  Because when it comes to seeing Jesus, John had a front row seat.  So my thought for today is, first let’s take a closer look at the guy who wrote this book.

John.  Brother of James, son of Zebedee.  A fisherman.  Jesus called him a “Son of Thunder” (who with his older? brother wanted to call down fire on the Samaritans, Lk 9.54 [skadoosh]).  One of “the three” who Jesus included on multiple occasions when the others were not (Raising the synagogue official’s daughter, Transfiguration, Gethsemane).  His brother and he famously asked Jesus to give them [VIP front-row seats] in His kingdom.  I’m thinking that was James idea.  Cuz John clearly does not enjoy the spotlight.  He never mentions himself in his book.  Not once, not by name.  He names most of the other disciples (7/11), but never himself.  John apparently prefers the place of anonymity - even tho he is front and center from the very beginning.  We see him show up repeatedly as “the other disciple”, and “the disciple who Jesus loved”.  

The first time we spot John he is a disciple of John the Witness [1.35-37,40].  Turns out John is one of the first two to follow Jesus.  So his book is a first-rate first-hand account.  Everything we read in John’s book is eyewitness testimony.  He was there, he does have a front row seat.  [1.41] Interestingly, Andrew, the other first disciple, goes and gets his brother, Simon BarJonas (son of John), but there’s no mention of John going to get his (older?) brother, James.

But as best we can tell, from the moment he begins to follow Jesus, John is by Jesus’ side as much if not more than any other.  Literally.  The next time we clearly see him in his book is three years later, at the Last Supper, lying back on Jesus’ chest [13.23].  John’s affection for Jesus runs deep [Jesus is approachable, clearly fond of people - John gets this side of Jesus].  Later that same evening, when Jesus is arrested, all the disciples flee [Mt 26.56] - except two: Peter, who we know all about - and how that went for him; and this other disciple [18.15-17].  First-hand account.  Peter is accused, and denies Jesus, and John just stays in the background, keeps his mouth shut.  

But let’s not assume that John is fearful.  John looks like he’s the only apostle who stays by Jesus all thru His arrest and execution - without denying Him.  John IS the only apostle we see at the Crucifixion [19.26-27].  First-hand account.  And as it turns out, hanging there dying, Jesus entrusts the care of His earthly mother not to her other sons, as would be the normal custom, but to John, this disciple who He so loved.  Front row seat.  First-hand account.

On the third day, Mary brings word of the empty tomb to Peter and the “other disciple” [20.1-8].  John then runs ahead of Peter to see the empty tomb (even tho he doesn't enter right away - Peter does that).  First-hand account.  Then later some of the disciples go fishing [21.1-3].  The now-resurrected Jesus shows up on the shore, tells them specifically to try the right side of the boat [21.4-6] and who recognizes Him first?  John, but he doesn’t dive in the water after Him [21.7].  Who does dive right in?  Peter.  Still later, when Jesus is exhorting Peter to follow Me and tend My sheep, who is there, following behind (at some distance)[21.20]? John.  Front row seat.  Devoted follower.  And first-hand account after first-hand account.

John definitely does not enjoy the limelight, he hangs back a bit sometimes - altho clearly not for lack of speed.  He rarely says anything.  John’s only recorded spoken words in his entire book are the one line to Jesus [Last Supper] and the one to Peter [fishing].  John does show up with Peter a lot.  Unlike Peter, John thinks before he leaps.  Stays out of the limelight.  After his brother, James, is martyred in Acts 8 we never see John again - until (decades later) he writes his 3 letters and this book, this first-hand account, and then Revelation.  Think about this: John calls himself the “disciple who Jesus loved” (13.23).  He never calls himself the disciple who loves Jesus.  That’s not his idiom.  But I think his self-titled persona - [The disciple who Jesus loved] - is a reflection of HIS extreme love for his Lord.  John knew Jesus so loved him.  He watched Jesus wash his feet - he’s the only one who records the footwashing [ch 13].  Check out what John records as the intro to that occasion [13.1].  Peter on that occasion of course famously sticks his unwashed foot in his mouth.  But John’s just soaking it all in.  John knows that Jesus loves him.  Beloved witness.  First-hand account.

So John, this one-time disciple of John the Witness, and first one to follow the One Who was the true Lamb of God, Messiah, the only begotten Son of God, now he is writing as a witness of all these things that Jesus said and did [21.24].  And he’s not even coming close to covering them all!  There's SO much more John could tell us about Jesus.  But make no mistake - John is a witness.  He is THE first-hand witness.  Front row seat for all of it!  And we know (the royal we - John includes himself), we ALL know that what this witness is saying - is true.

And why is John writing this book?  Most believing commentators have this book being written towards the end of John’s life.  Which was near the end of the first century AD.  Some 40-60 years after Jesus ascended back to heaven.  By this time, the church has been planted in many places.  But John is the sole survivor.  His brother was the first martyr.  All the other apostles have been executed for their faith in Jesus.  Most have been dead for years?  John is the sole surviving apostolic witness of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  And John tells us explicitly why he is taking the time after all these years to write down all these things that Jesus did [20.30-31]: so that, in order that, you all, all of us, will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.  You, my readers, none of you saw any of these things.  But I had a front-row seat for all of it… And you need to know - so that you can believe too…

In this respect those of us who fall into this category of “did-not-see” have the opportunity for a special blessing [20.27-29].  Happy are those who believe even tho they didn’t see, who believe with Thomas and John that Jesus is Lord and God.  THAT is why John is writing this book - his purpose - and it’s a powerful purpose: so that, in order that you should believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.  The verb tense there is aorist subjunctive.  “So that you should believe”.  But the aorist subjunctive is very close to the future indicative, or future fact.  The language of future certainty.  There’s more certainty here than the English translation suggests.  "So that you WILL believe".  John is fairly certain that the one who reads his book, his first-hand account, with an open mind WILL believe.  AND will have life, with Jesus, forever.  He/she/you and I will join the happy assembly of those who have been persuaded and have trusted that Jesus really is Who He says He is.  That His Words are true.  That He is really out-of-this-world amazing.  That He really does love us.  He really does love you.  And He really did do all these signs, all these things that prove Who He claims to be.  And He wants us to be with Him forever.

Starting next week, we’ll begin digging deeper into all that John lays before us in his book, this first-hand account of the life of Jesus.