1
John 1:1-5 THE DEITY OF JESUS CHRIST
Introduction:
Luke
closed out his gospel by giving an account of Jesus
returning to take His place in
heaven. John begin his gospel by
giving account of Jesus being in heaven
before He even came to
earth --- or even before the creation of the world. The Holy
Spirit of God, who inspired John to write
the book, is placing
great emphasis on the fact that Jesus
Christ is Deity God in
human flesh.
You
will note in your Bibles that the title of this book is
written at the very top. The title reads, "The Gospel According
To
as John, one of the apostles of
Jesus. This title is not a part
of the inspired book, is given by men to
distinguish this book
from other books in the Bible. It also serves to identify the
writer of the book. Several very early Christian writers have in
their own writings identified John as the
author of this book.
John was the human author. The Holy Spirit of God, inspired John
to write.
I.
John, his family and some of his friends
I would like to introduce you briefly to John, to his family
and to a few of his friends. The Apostle John is commonly
referred to in Scripture as being a son of
Zebedee. In fact, he
and his brother James together were
referred to as "the sons of
Zebedee." This helped to distinguish
them from several other men
with the same names. Their mother was "Salome" and is
believed
to be a sister of Mary, the mother of
Jesus. If that is so, then
John was a first cousin to Jesus and was
also kin to John the
Baptist.
John
grew up in
to Caiaphas, the high priest. It was his acquaintance with the
servants of Caiaphas that enabled him to
get both himself and the
Apostle Peter into the palace grounds to
witness the trial of
Jesus.
However, by the time of the ministry of Jesus, Zebedee
had moved from
James and John, were operating a fishing
boat on the Sea of
Both
James and John were saved and baptized under the
preaching of John the Baptist along with
their close fishing
companions, Simon Peter and Andrew, his
brother.
Peter
and Andrew, James and John were all called upon by
Jesus as they were washing and mending
their fishing nets on the
shores of
their nets and follow Him and preach the
gospel to men. They
were the very first men who were called
upon to be followers of
Jesus.
Later all four of them were ordained as Apostles of
Jesus.
Salome,
the mother of John, was also saved and became a very
devout follower of Jesus. She, too, was probably baptized by
John the Baptist, but the Scripture does
not specifically say so.
Zebedee, himself, was probably a follower
of Jesus, but neither
does the Scripture does not make mention
of this.
John,
along with Peter and James, were the very closest
companions of Jesus. They were with Him on the Mount of
Transfiguration and they were with Him in
Gethsemene before He
was arrested. John and Simon Peter were the two disciples
who
were sent to prepare the Passover Supper
that last night before
the crucifixion.
John
was the very youngest of the Apostles and yet eventually
he lived longer than any of the
others. It is believed that John
was the only apostle who lived to die a
natural death. All of
the others were put to death by the
enemies of Christ.
The
Gospel which John has written is said to be the greatest
literature ever written by human
hand. It has been called a
diamond which reflects the glory of the
Godhead in the midst of
flesh and blood and a crown of
thorns. It has been said that
John did not place great stress on
revealing the facts about
Jesus, but rather he sought to reveal the
heart of Jesus.
John,
himself, expressed the purpose which God had laid on
his heart in writing this book. In John 20:31 John said, "But
these are written that ye might believe
that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God; and that believing ye
might have life through his
name."
I
want to issue a challenge to you as we study this book
together.
I want to challenge you to ask God to use this study
to lift you to a higher spiritual plane
and to give you a genuine
spiritual revival. I am going to make that prayer concerning
myself and I ask you pray that God would
use me to reach the lost
that they might come to Christ for
salvation.
II.
The pre-existence of Jesus Christ
But
now let us get down to the book itself.
V. 1, "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word
was God." This statement very obviously refers back to
the
beginning of the existence of the world
itself. John speaks of
Jesus existing back in the very beginning
of the world's
existence.
Yet here he does not call Him by the name, "Jesus."
Neither does he call Him "the
Christ." Yet it is impossible to
read the book without reaching the
positive conclusion that he is
talking about Jesus Christ.
John
here calls Jesus "the Word."
This name is chosen for a
reason.
It carries a symbolic meaning.
Words are used for the
purpose of communication between
people. They express thoughts.
They express one's desire or will. They give commands. Jesus is
here called "the Word" because
God the Father used Jesus to
communicate with His creation. When God the Father got ready for
the material universe to exist, it was the
Word who spoke and the
worlds came into existence. When God the Father got ready for
light to shine, it was the Word who spoke,
saying, "Let there be
light" and there was light. When God the Father got ready to
reveal the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai, it
was the Word who spoke
to Moses.
When God the Father got ready to reveal Himself to the
world in human flesh, it was the Word who
stepped down from
heaven and was born in human flesh. When He spoke every word was
in complete obedience to the Father.
John
said that the Word was in the beginning with God. He
also said that the Word was God. This does not mean that there
were two Gods. Rather it means that there were two persons
in
the Godhead. In fact, the number was not limited to
two. There
were actually three in the Godhead, but
the third party in the
Godhead is not mentioned by John at this
time. The point is that
God the Father and God the Word are two
separate Persons and God
the Word was with God the Father in the
beginning.
The Word was with God and the Word was God. That is, the
Word was equally as much God and God the
Father. The Word is
Almighty as God the Father is
Almighty. The Word is All Knowing
just as God the Father is All
Knowing. The Word is Deity God in
every respect just as God the Father is
Deity God.
V. 2, "The same was in the beginning with God." John has
already said. Hasn't he?
He repeats it for emphasis.
Jesus,
the Word, was in the beginning with
God. He did not come into
being when He was born in human
flesh. He was in the beginning
with God and He was God. He was separate from God the Father,
but He was with God the Father in the
beginning. Although John
does not mention it here, He was also with God the Holy Spirit
in the beginning.
III.
The work of Christ in creation
Jesus was not only with God in the beginning, but He was
active in creating the world. V. 3, "All things were made by
him; and without him was not any thing
made that was made." John
states positively that it was God, the
Word, who actually did the
creative act in the beginning which
brought the world into
existence.
It was Jesus Christ, the Second Person in the
Trinity, who created everything. He created the earth. He
created the universe. He created all the heavenly bodies. He
created all vegetation. He created all the fishes and the birds.
He
created all the animals. Jesus is the
One who created man.
The
doctrine of creation by the power of God is strongly
opposed in the world today. Satan wages war on this doctrine.
He wages war on this doctrine because he
wants to undermine
people's confidence in the Bible. Satan does not want people to
believe in the Bible because he does not
want them to believe in
God.
He especially does not want men to believe in Jesus Christ
the Son of God and get saved.
However,
John declares in no uncertain terms that God is real
and that the Word is the Creator of all
things.
IV.
The eternal life of Christ
V. 4, "In him was life..."
You will note that John did not
say that life came into Him. Rather, John said that life was in
Him.
That is, He was already alive before the creation of the
world.
If HE had not already been alive before the creation of
the world, He could not have created it.
In
Him was life. Life was in Him long long
long time before
the world was ever created. Actually, in Him was eternal life.
The Psalmist said that He is from
everlasting to everlasting.
Just as God the Father is eternal, even so
God the Word is
eternal.
There never has been a time when He did not exist.
During His personal ministry on earth,
Jesus said, "Before
Abraham was, I am." Now John tells us that before the world was
formed He existed. He has always existed. He has always had
life in Himself
V.
The Christ, the Light of men
(V. 4), "...and the life was the light of men." Light is
used here to express illumination
concerning the truth of God.
The Word is God's means of communicating
to men the truth of God.
He is God's way of communicating to men
the way of salvation and
that God desires for men to turn to the
light and be saved. The
Word is the Mediator between God and man
to show men the way to
heaven.
He would say to men, "I am the way, the truth and the
Life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me."
V. 5, "And the light shineth in darkness..." Even before He
was born into the world in human flesh,
the Word was the Light of
the world.
Through the patriarchal priesthood the Word did shine
for to men. Through the Old Testament law, the Word did
shine
forth His light to the world. Through the Old Testament prophets
the Word did He informed men that they
were sinners and by the
types and shadows He promised cleansing
from sin through His own
blood.
He revealed to men, that they could not get to heaven
through keeping the law, because no man
could keep it. No man
did keep it. He revealed that salvation would be by the
grace of
God.
God would forgive the guilty sinner through the cleansing
power of the blood.
Even
before He was born in human flesh, through writings of
the Old Testament Scriptures, He revealed
to the world the way of
salvation.
He promised that He would be born in Bethlehem of
Judea.
He promised that He would suffer and die for lost
sinners.
He promised that through His stripes lost sinners could
be healed.
That is, through His stripes sinners would be saved.
He promised that He would die on the
cross. He promised that He
would arise from the grave. He promised salvation to all who
would place their faith in Him.
VI.
The world's unfavorable reception of the Light
(V. 5), "...and the darkness comprehended it not." But the
world was in darkness. The world as a whole did not receive the
truth of God in Old Testament times. Neither would the world as
a whole receive the truths of God in New
Testament times.
Never-the-less, the Word of God is still
the light of men.
John
will now proceed in the remaining part of his book to
declare that Jesus of Nazareth is the Word
that He has written
about in this first part of the book. The Bible is the written
word of God, but Jesus is the Living Word
of God. The Bible is
the message of God's truth written in the
pages of a Book. But
Jesus is the truth of God revealed in His
Son. He is the Living
Word of God who spoke the worlds into
existence. He is the
Living Word of God who is the Savior of
the world. Jesus is
man's only hope of staying out of hell ---
man's only hope of
going to heaven.
John
wrote that men might believe in Jesus.
John preached
that men might believe in Jesus.
Conclusion:
Does
the Light of God shine in your heart?
Have you every
been saved? Would you like to be saved now? If so, would you
come this morning and place your faith in
Jesus?