Bible Study in the book of John

John 1:1-5

Welcome back to this weeks study in the book of John.

Last week we had an intro to this book of the bible.
This week we will get started in chapter 1.

John 1:1-3 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

Verse one has been a controversial verse between Christians and different cults.
Why, because it is declaring that Jesus IS God!

"But I don't see Jesus' name anywhere." You may be thinking.
Actually it is there; you just have to understand what John means by the word "Word".

The word, "Word" here in the Greek is Logos. In the book of Revelation chapter 19, we read of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, notice how Jesus is described.

Rev 19:11-13 11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.

Verse 13 clearly states His (meaning Jesus) name is called The Word of God

But here is what you have to understand; His name before He was born here on this earth was not Jesus. That was His earthly name, which was the Name that was given at His birth.

Matt 1:21 "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."

After His birth, the names Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God, Messiah, are all appropriate, they reflect what Jesus came to do. But before the he was born on this earth, He was the Word of God, the One whose going forth were from everlasting, the King immortal.

So why is Jesus called the Word?

In John's day when he was writing this book, there was a way this word Logos (Word) was used. It was kind of the hot spiritual word of the day. Plato had come up with the idea that behind the material world, there had a be a thought. That this world didn't just happen, but that there was a thought behind it. And that the material world is really just a shadow, compared to the solid world of the thought. He called the thought, Logos. So in the Greek mind, the force behind everything was the Logos. The Logos was the reality, the material world, the shadow.

But then the Jews got a hold of this idea and a Jewish thinker named Philo came along and with his background of the Old Testament said, "if there is a thought, there must be a Thinker behind the thought." This Thinker, he called the Logos. So the Logos became thought personified. And in John's day, this was the hot spiritual debate. Is the Logos the thought that produces the material world, or is there more to logos still, is there a thinker behind the Logos.

And what John is saying here is yes there is, He is the Eternal One who is from the beginning. He is the Logos of God, the very expression of God Himself.

Now there would have been something else in John's mind here as well. And that is the way that term "Word" or "The Word of the Lord" was used in the Old Testament. When
God spoke in the Old Testament it would often times be described like this.

Isaiah 38:4 And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying,

1 Kings 21:17 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

When the Children of Israel were delivered from hand of Pharaoh, it was by the Word of the Lord. The heavens and the earth were created by, "The Word of the Lord" God delivered. God created, God saved. God communicated, by His powerful Word. God expressed it, and it happened.

To put this all simply would be; this is what the Word (Jesus) does; The Word (Jesus) is the expression of God. The Word (Jesus) is that part of God that declares Himself to us.

So we now know and it's very rarely disputed that John is talking about Jesus when he uses the word, Word".

John goes on to say, "And the Word was with God" The Greek word "with" here is an important word. This is the word "Pros" and is an action word, which means in communion with and movement towards. It doesn't just mean, close in proximity, it is talking about active communion and fellowship.

Usually when we think of God or Jesus and what they are doing right now; we think of them sitting on their thrones up in heaven.
But even Jesus made it clear that God is not just sitting around up in heaven.

John 5:17 But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working."

When we think of God and Jesus we usually picture Them sitting on Their thrones up in heaven watching all that's going on here on this earth.
But Jesus wants to correct our thinking and realize that God is not just sitting up there waiting for us to die and go to heaven. No, God is at work right now, even as you are reading this, God is working somewhere around the world. Maybe God is speaking to you personally and working on you. God sees your situation and He's not just sitting around wondering what you or He will do about it. No, God may very well be at work on your particular situation right now. You may not see it, but we know by reading the bible that God works in ways we would never think of.

We have talked about Joseph in past studies and how he went through so much, but in the end we saw how God was in control of his whole situation.
God is in control of yours also. Just trust God as Joseph did!

Now for the hot point in verse 1.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Jesus is God!
But the Mormons will change this verse to make it sound like Jesus is the offspring of God. Of which there are many. In fact they will say that Jesus' brother was none other then Lucifer. The Jehovah's Witness change this verse to mean that Jesus is one of many god's with a little "g'' The Unitarians try to ignore it by saying that John didn't know what he was saying here.
But the Greek is very specific and really beyond dispute. John puts this in such a way that it could be read, "And the Word was God" or " And God was the Word" But nothing else will work. You have to add to it, like the JW's have done, to make it read differently.

They have changed it to read, "and the Word was a god."

Do you see how they changed one little word and it changed to whole meaning of this verse.
Why would they do this? Very simply put, satan does not want us to believe in the true Jesus of the bible, no, he wants us to believe in a small little nothing of a man called Jesus. But we know Jesus is so much more then we could ever think He is. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. He is the Creator of all things. He is the perfect example of love. He is our friend, our Lord and our Savior!

As we continue on in the book of John, we will read where the religious leaders tried to stone Jesus on several occasions because He was claiming to be God. The Jews knew exactly what Jesus was saying, to bad the Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses and other cults don't.

In the beginning, sound familiar? It should!

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

If you went through the study in Genesis you will remember that we studied this verse and determined that the word for God was a plural word, meaning more then one. Not more then one God, but God in three persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit (for more on this go to the study in Genesis).

John is going back to Genesis, which the Jews knew very well and we are all familiar with this verse. And john expounds on this verse by telling us what we learned.

2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

Jesus was there before creation and was part of creating the heavens and the earth.
We all think of God and how in all His majesty he created the heavens and the earth. But we seem to forget that Jesus did it also.
Instead we think of Jesus as a little baby in a manger, but you must realize that even though Jesus was a baby in the manger, those little tiny hands that Joseph and Mary touched when He was born, where the same hands that created all things, including Joseph and Mary.

Luke 2:7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Isaiah 40:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
Measured heaven with a span
And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure?
Weighed the mountains in scales
And the hills in a balance?

We read of Jesus touching the leaper or the blind or even the dead and bringing them back to life.
These same hands that picked up dirt and made it into clay to heal the eyes of the blind created the earth.

John 9:6-7 6 When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. 7 And He said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.

Gen 1:9-10 9 Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

The nail that was put through Jesus' feet when He was crucified are the same feet that rest upon this earth.

Psalms 22:16 For dogs have surrounded Me;
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet;

Isaiah 66:1a Thus says the LORD:
"Heaven is My throne,
And earth is My footstool.

But we seem to forget Who Jesus really is, instead we worship a cross, or a statue, or even a picture that someone painted and call it Jesus. We will pray to this picture thinking that Jesus looks just like that and He will hear us. Some will have statues of saints or Mary on the dashboard of their car thinking it will protect them. They will bow down and pray to it.
We hold the cross that hangs around our neck tightly thinking that by holding onto it God will hear us better.

In the flesh we all want something that we can see and hold onto.
But to serve the Lord we must not be in the flesh.

John 4:23-24 23 "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

To serve God is not to worship a picture, a statue or even a cross. But to worship the God Whom you cannot see.
We can't see the wind, but we see the affects of the wind.

John 3:8 "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Just as we can't see God but we see the affects of God as we pray and seek Him!

John 1:4-5 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

In Jesus was life.

Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

When God created Adam, he was perfect and sinless until he ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil

Gen 2:17 "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

Not only would Adam now die, but also darkness started to creep in, and we see darkness creeping more and more into man everyday.

If you are a Christian, then you know how bad off you were and how full of darkness and sin you were full of. But when you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you also know that you felt different, if you were like me it was like a ton of bricks that had been upon you were just removed and you felt as light as a feather.
That is what light does, it chases away the darkness.

The NLT puts it this way.

John 1:5 (NLT) The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

Jesus explains it like this.

John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."

John 10:28-30 28 "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. 30 "I and My Father are one."

We wont get into "once saved always saved" in this study. But notice if Jesus is your Lord and Savior, the darkness will not take control of you again. He is the light shining in you and through you.
The darkness (sin) may torment and tempt you, but not have control of you, only if you allow it to.

To end this weeks study the question now is, Is the light in you and shining through you, or are you full of darkness possibly even afraid of the light?

When you walk in a dark room, you run into things and hurt yourself. But when you walk in a room that is full of light, you avoid the obstacles that were there in the dark and no longer hurt yourself.

So do you want to continue walking in darkness and hurting yourself and others, or are you ready to walk in the light?

John 12:35-36 35 Then Jesus said to them, "A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. 36 "While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.

You can read my words all day, but salvation comes from the word of God, not my words.

Psalms 56:13 For You have delivered my soul from death.
Have You not kept my feet from falling,
That I may walk before God
In the light of the living?

God wants to deliver your soul from death and He wants you to walk in the light of the living.
The choice is yours! If you choose to walk in the light all it takes is a prayer by faith, just like this one.

Jesus, I admit I am a sinner. I have been walking in the dark all my life. I am ready to accept You as my Lord and Savior and walk in the light. Please forgive me for my sins! I turn from these sins and choose to follow you from this moment forward. May Your light shine through me that others may see You and not me. Please fill me with Your Holy Spirit and may I tell others about You. I ask this in Your name Jesus. AMEN!

If you just prayed that prayer, you are now a Christian and have started walking the rest of your life in the light of Jesus Christ. Welcome to the family of God. I would encourage you to read the bible and pray everyday, find a good bible teaching church to go to and tell someone what you just did.

Maybe you are not ready to walk in the light. You can feel the light switch but you just wont turn it in. I will tell you that every time you reject the message of salvation in Jesus, your heart becomes harder and harder, and if you continue to reject Jesus, someday you will decided never to turn that light on and you will be in darkness for all eternity.

Matt 8:12 "But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

But know and realize this, it's not God's choice but yours!

Well, we made it through the first 5 verses and you may think at this rate it will take us years. I don't think so, we will find that some weeks we will get through a lot and others we will get through a few, just like we did in Genesis.

May God richly bless you with the light of Jesus Christ shining through you!

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