The Story Starts Here
Advent Series
Part 4: John 1:1-18
Introduction:
Here we are just three days from Christmas…I hope you’ve gotten most of everything done by now. And this is the fourth and final message in our Advent Series…in which we’ve been taking a look at how each of the Gospel writers chose to introduce Jesus to the world.
So…why? Why keep looking at these stories year after year? Haven’t we told these stories enough? Well, no. We haven’t told these stories “enough”…you can’t tell these stories “enough”. Fact is that outside of the Christmas season, and more specifically, outside of the Church, you’re gonna hear these stories little, if at all.
Look…the stories you don’t tell will be the stories you forget. The untold stories are the ones that aren’t passed on…they represent ideas that are no longer important. The stories you stop telling will no longer frame your worldview. Other stories will begin to slip in to fill the empty spaces…and they’ll frame your worldview. So, we keep telling these stories year after year because the stories themselves matter and shouldn’t be forgotten. We keep telling these stories because we want them to continue to frame our worldview.
We’re going to tell these stories yet again because if we don’t do it here, where will it be done? If we’re not reminded of the purpose and significance of Jesus’ arrival here, in this place, then where will we be reminded? If you don’t hear it from this pulpit, then who will you hear it from?
In all of the craziness of these last few days before Christmas, and in our observations of the holiday itself, we need to be reminded of what matters most. And what matters most is the fact of Christ’s advent and the purpose of his advent. That’s what each of the Gospel writers told the story for; to establish the fact of Jesus’ coming and the reason for Jesus’ coming. We’re hearing these stories again…one final time…so that we don’t lose sight of what Christmas is about for us.
So…in each message we’ve learned a bit about how each of the Gospels have a unique way of introducing Jesus to the world, how each introduction was shaped by the author’s audience, and the way each author wished to represent Jesus’ character. John’s Gospel is different in that his intention isn’t to provide a synopsis of Jesus’ life but to help his readers understand Jesus in connection with the God of Israel, and how Jesus fulfilled the role of Messiah of Israel. So, you could say that John’s focus is theological and Christological…and it makes the Gospel of John the most profound and thought provoking of the Gospels.
This is deliberate, not accidental. You see, this book is probably John’s swan song; the last thing he is to write before he passes from this life. He’s a very old man by the time of this writing, and he’s thought very deeply about Jesus for a long, long time. He’s the last of the twelve…he’s even outlived the later apostle, Paul. He’s endured exile to Ephesus, banishment to Patmos, and now he’s back in Ephesus again. In all this time and experience since he first was called to be a disciple, Jesus has been his primary thought…for around 60 years.
Now, let’s add to the context the knowledge that Jerusalem has been destroyed. The entire Roman province of Judea had been put to fire and sword by the Roman army due to a massive Jewish revolt. Before the revolt, persecution of the followers of Jesus by the priestly elite had resulted in Christians being scattered from Jerusalem.
Then, the revolt itself found followers of Jesus being killed by Romans because they were Jewish, and being killed by the revolutionaries because they refused to bear arms. So, another wave of Christian exile occurred…with the country we now call Turkey becoming home to thousands of fleeing Christians. Ephesus became a center for these refugees, and that’s probably why John was based there.
It’s in this period that the Jewish followers of Jesus experience the rejection of Jewish religious authorities more than ever before. Jewish Christianity starts to be treated as something quite different from the evolving rabbinic Judaism, with Jewish believers in Jesus being expelled from synagogues with some frequency. In some communities, feelings against Jewish Christians were running high. All this means that John’s audience is probably 2nd generation Jewish Christians who are experiencing…not only the hostility of their Gentile neighbors…but also the hostility of those with whom they shared ethnicity, culture, language, customs, and worldview.
Everything except belief in Jesus as the Messiah. So, John writes his Gospel…filled with theological musings about the person and work of Jesus Christ…so that they, these 2nd generation Jewish Christians, would “believe and have life in Jesus name.”
Why does any of this matter? Well, it helps us understand why John introduces Jesus to the world as he does. In the 18 verses that have been read to you this morning, John poses and answers three questions that would serve as touchstones for the rest of his Gospel. Those three questions are; 1. Who is Jesus? 2. Who are You? And 3. What did Jesus do?
I. “Who Is Jesus?”
One of the most ancient questions regarding Christian belief has concerned the identity of Jesus…and by identity I mean, who he really was behind the name and where he was from. Countless hours of theological discussion and debate have never been able to bring any more clarity to the question than provided by John himself: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
The Twelve had walked with Jesus personally, and they’d pondered the question. Even with all they’d seen and heard, even they only seemed to catch on by dribs and drabs. So sixty years later? Among traumatized, second generation Jewish Christian refugees? Under the bombardment of family and friends for their acceptance of Jesus as Messiah? The question of “Who is Jesus?” hasn’t gone away, by any means. It’s still very much alive to them.
You can easily imagine them facing this question at every turn. “Who is Jesus? A real messiah would have stepped in to defeat the Romans. Who is Jesus? A real messiah would have prevented the destruction of the Land, of Jerusalem, and the Temple. Who is Jesus? He’s an imposter! Show him to us in the Scriptures! We are learned and you are not! We have knowledge and you do not! We are scholars and you are not!” And it’s this aspect of the identity question that John is addressing more than anything else. In these first few verses of John 1, the writer is addressing the issue of authority.
Yes, Jesus is God…John establishes this in fewer than 20 words. And if you’re not sure of what he means, just refer to the book he wrote just previous to this one; Revelation. In that book the glorified Christ proclaims himself to be Alpha, Omega, Beginning, and End, the First, the Last, Who is, was, and is to come, the Almighty. To John, the one God of Israel had manifested Himself among humankind in the person of Jesus Christ.
Just follow the language of John 1 and you realize that cannot separate “God” and “the Word” any more than you can separate a man from his word. A man’s word has no distinctive personhood and existence apart from himself! My word is a manifestation of myself; it is not other-than-me. My word reveals me, grants you the ability to know me. My word is my communication of myself to you, my expression of myself to you.
But that’s not what John’s really driving at. As I said, he establishes all that in fewer than 20 words and the moves on to spend time on what his focus really is. We focus on Godhead questions because of our context of theological debate regarding the Godhead. But John wasn’t writing from that context, and that wasn’t the question that concerned him.
What John is addressing is the question of authority regarding the Scriptures. Who has the authority to interpret and apply the Scriptures? Whose teachings and declarations are central to understanding the Scriptures? Who has the right to express the Divine will and purpose? And in these first few verses John says that all of that authority rests in Jesus, not in the leaders of the synagogues and not in the evolving rabbinical authorities.
John is telling his audience of second-generation Jewish believers in Jesus…in exile, under pressure, and facing expulsion from their community; “Don’t be intimidated! Don’t be cowed! Don’t be too impressed with their pedigree, or too awed by their vocabulary and degree. They have knowledge of letters on a parchment scroll, but you know Jesus. And when you know Jesus, you know the authority behind the letters; you know the One Who Is the Word! So if they put you out of their midst and no longer count you as one of their number, don’t be too dismayed. They have scholarship, but you have relationship.”
II. “Who Are You?”
Then, the second question John poses and answers in this prologue to his Gospel flows from the first…and this second question is “Who are you?” Once again, the question is framed by the context of John’s audience; second-generation Jewish believers in Jesus, refugees from war ravaged Judea, facing not only the hostility of the Gentiles, but also of their own Jewish kinsmen who don’t believe in Jesus.
The answer to the “Who are you” question mattered to John’s audience because in their world, religion, ethnicity, and culture were all bound tightly together. Being a Jew referred to all three. And the golden thread that tied all of this together was an incredible sense of being the Children of God. All told, this made for a powerful sense of identity.
But what if that golden thread that bound it all together…that sense of being the Children of God…is thrown into question? What if the religious authorities that you’d depended upon and trusted to instruct you in Scriptures, began to publicly inform the community that you…and those like you who believe in Jesus…are not, in fact, Children of God? That you’ve gone “heretic”?
Understand that these Jewish Christians are not only suffering the crisis of war and exile, they’re also experiencing a crisis of identity. “If we’re not Children of God, then who are we? Does that mean we’re not Jewish? If we don’t have the right to engage in the practice of our religion, and if these customs are not our customs, then who are we?” All of their identity…ethnicity, religion, culture…all of it was bound up in being the Children of God. And expulsion from the synagogue was the practical banishment that threw it all into question. So, let’s see how John addresses it.
First, he tells them that Jesus was unknown and unrecognized by his own creation. The created world was visited in person by it’s Creator, and it did not know him.
Next, he tells them that Jesus’ own people…the People of Israel…didn’t receive him. He came among those he belonged to…those who belonged to him…and was not welcomed. He came to the place where he had right of claim, and his claim was rejected. He was not received.
But, John says, those do did receive him were given power to become the Children of God. And the real Children of God aren’t an ethnic group that lays claim to the title. The real children of God as those who are “born of God”…they are Children of God by spiritual birth.
Look…I’m gonna oversimplify here for the purpose of time…but John is probably saying something like this;
“So you’re not recognized. Neither was Jesus. So you’re not accepted. Neither was Jesus. But don’t doubt for a moment that you’re Children of God…because being a child of God has nothing to do with Jewish ethnicity, culture, or religion. You’re a Child of God because you’ve experienced a spiritual regeneration that made you God’s children! Doesn’t matter what they say! Doesn’t matter what they do! You’ve been washed by the water and sanctified by the Spirit; you are a Child of God!”
III. “What Did Jesus Do?”
Then the third question that John poses and answers in his prologue is the question of “What did Jesus do?”
John wraps up his introduction to the Jesus story by telling his audience of second-generation Jewish-Christian refugees being marginalized by the Jewish community that, in Jesus, God became us.
The whole evolving rabbinical approach focused on the perfectibility of man, on the practical sanctification of man as key to approaching God. “God is holy (and He is!) so do this and this, and abstain from this, this, and this. And just to be sure that you aren’t doing this, this, and this, you should also abstain from X, Y, & Z…because X, Y, & Z may lead you to doing this, this, and this.”
Even though such an approach recognizes the holiness of God, it very easily becomes a list-based system that relies upon achievement as key to approaching God. And this kind of system almost always descends into self-righteousness and judgmentalism.
So, John is telling his audience that even though they’re being told by certain religious authorities that they aren’t doing the right thing, that they don’t have the right approach to God, that there was something they needed to understand; that God approached them.
Again, this isn’t a lesson in argumentative theology…he’s not trying to prove our view of the Godhead. He’s assuring his audience that their relationship with God is not anchored in their perfection or perfectibility. Instead, their relationship with God is anchored to the fact that God drew near to them in the person of Jesus Christ. He’s saying, “You couldn’t get to God, so God came to you.”
Then John tells them that not only did God come among them in the person of Jesus Christ, but that he also shared himself with them. And John drove that point home by contrasting what Moses shared with what Jesus shared. “Moses shared the Law with you, but Jesus (God incarnate) shared grace & truth with you.” The Law revealed your sinfulness. The Law revealed your weakness. But Jesus brought grace & truth!
Grace; the favor of God that brings well-being, the favor that empowers you and enables you. Truth; not simply doctrinal truth, but truth-as-being…the ability to be faithful & true. The Law reveals your weakness, but Jesus empowers you and affects your nature. The contrast here isn’t accidental! John is saying, “They have Moses, you have Jesus. From Moses they learn their frailty and propensity to sin. From Jesus you gain empowerment and a transformed nature.”
Finally, John says, “None of them have ever seen God. None of them. Not Moses. Not Elijah. Not Isaiah. And not even Ezekiel with his incredible visions. None of the spiritual giants that are held out as paragons of Jewish spirituality have ever seen God. In fact, you know far more about the nature and character of God than they do…because you know Jesus…and Jesus reveals God to us. To them, God is veiled in mystical splendor. But to us, God is made known in the life of Jesus Christ. And in knowing Jesus, you know everything you need to know about God.
Summary:
You may wonder what any of this theological stuff has to do with Christmas. Well, let me sum up what John is telling us by introducing Jesus to the world as he does.
We learn that our relationship with Jesus is the most important relationship, the most important element of our lives. Your relationship with Jesus should serve as the foundation for everything else you will build into your life. And it should serve as the filter through which all knowledge and experience pass to you. Your relationships with other people, academic pursuits, and career efforts should all be mediated by your relationship with Jesus. No aspect of your life should be outside the transformative affect of your relationship with Jesus.
If believers abandon their faith to be with someone, if education causes them to lose faith, and if career becomes god to them, it’s always because their relationship with Jesus was neglected and cast aside first.
John’s introduction of Jesus reminds that that our relationship with Jesus has its inception in the New Birth…in a spiritual regeneration that makes us a child of God.
You’re not a Christian because you were born in a “Christian nation”. Or a “Christian family”. Or even because you were “raised in church”. You can attend church every Sunday until Jesus comes and not be a child of God. Ethnicity, religion, and culture have no bearing on it.
To be a child of God you must bow yourself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in faith & repentance. You need to be washed in the waters of baptism in Jesus’ name & under His authority.
And finally, John’s introduction of Jesus reminds us that the relationship we have with Him isn’t a static thing…a one-and-done experience. Not at all! It’s a living, dynamic relationship in which God shares his life with you via the indwelling Holy Spirit.
It’s a relationship that empowers you, that grants you insight, understanding, and that brings the character of God to bear on your nature. It’s a living relationship through which God reveals more and more of himself to you…as you grow in grace & in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
Closing:
This sounds to me like a pretty amazing gift. And that’s just what it all is; God’s gift to us, wrapped up in a human form. It’s no wonder that John would write just a couple of chapters later those immortal words that even many unbelievers can recall; “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” There can be no better Christmas than this.
