NEXT

“Do you want to see what God looks like? Study Jesus, the Word made flesh.”

Notes from Session 2 of Next 2009.
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John 1:1-18.
The opening line of John’s gospel is strange in many ways. The “word of God” is used only in these first 18 verses. The question is, why introduce it at all? Why not say “in the beginning was the Son of God”? That is a phrase that’s used throughout the entire book. Why use a title that is used only here?

If he had used “Son of God,” it would be a flag at the beginning of the book that the most important thing about Jesus is that he is the Son of God. But you can almost hear the gears in John’s head as he writes the book…he may be thinking “should I call him Son of God, Christ, Messiah? I want something that captures the whole.” He can’t use one that is the rest of the book because it makes it the super word.  This “word,” we understand, is connected with creation, (Psalm 33, Genesis 1), connected with revelation (Is. 9). It is connected with deliverance, salvation.

John decides that this word is capturing it. The one whom John is speaking of is God’s very agent of creation. He is not just the spoken word, but God’s own disclosure. More commonly in John’s usage, it means “the self expression” or “the expression of something.” God’s ultimate expression of himself is Jesus.

In the beginning God expressed himself. His self expression was God. Wherever God was, God’s self expression was there. Jesus is “God’s own fellow.”

The ultimate revelation is not more words, the ultimate revelation is Jesus.

1) The Word Creates us
This Word, this self-expression, or self-disclosure, was God’s own agent in creation. That too is also picked up in Hebrews 1. Creation, including you and me, was made for Him (Colossians 1). It is all by Him and for Him. That is an immense claim and it grounds everything in the entire Bible.

It is the doctrine of creation that grounds all human responsibility in the Bible. The Bible says that I don’t give a rip what kind of God you believe it, I only care about the God who is there. So when you read of the rebellion called the fall, it is a rebellion against the creator himself. God is not simply a souped-up human being. He made us. We are accountable to him. Responsibility is locked and rooted in scripture.

This gives us a picture of the sheer grandeur, the greatness of God. Sometimes we don’t pause to think about how spectacular the notion is. In eternity past, God was entirely content with what he had. He didn’t think “it’s lonely doing this God thing. I need to make a universe so they can break out their guitars and worship me.” We have to understand that God doesn’t need anything. The term “Aseity” means God doesn’t need us. I need him, he doesn’t need me.

God is not a trading partner. He doesn’t need to be praised and stroked while I need blessings. If God was a god who needed stuff, he couldn’t have been big enough to make the stuff.

2) The Word Gives us Light and Life

All good writers give you a good read the first time through, but they also write in layers so that you see more when you read it the second time. This was how John was writing. At first read, we see the Word was God, the word is God, and he created all people, so you read the rest of the verses in light of creation. In him there was life, he put life into all things. At first, one may think that it is only referring to creation. However, this life is not just creation, it is eternal l life. The word not only creates us, he gives us life and light – eternal life.

The Glory Theme

Exodus 23-24

The glory theme in the 1st 12 chapters is bound up in the signs of Jesus. The disciples saw his glory. When Jesus knows he is headed toward the cross it changes in 12. Jesus is then going to be glorified in the abomination of the cross. The greatest display of glory is not in the water turning to wine – it is in that wretched cross.

Do you want to see what God looks like? Study Jesus. We can see Jesus, the Word made flesh. The Word did not become a junior God, or hide out in Jesus, or that there are two persons (added to the flesh). The Word became the flesh. He was God and human being at the same time.

3) The word Confronts us and divides us (The Fall)

John 3:16 – the world is the human created order and their rebellion. His love is not awesome because the world is not so big, it is because the object of his love is so bad. The world did not recognize him – the world he had made – and this is unthinkably bad. The most heinous that we do are not rape, genocide, or lying. It is ignoring our maker. The first sin is to not love God with our heart, mind, and soul. It happens every time you sin. It is the sin of idolatry. The de-Godding of God. Absolutely everything that is evil comes from this. We become so corroded in our thinking that we can’t see him. We justify our need for diversity because we are still at the center of the universe. We think we can choose our own gods.

Human lostness begins with idolatry, the de-godding of God. The world we live in doesn’t know him nor does it want to know him. Mysteriously some still do receive him and are born again. We must understand that this happened because of the Incarnation: God becoming flesh.

Jesus tabernacles among us. Jesus will be presented as the tabernacle, or the temple, of God. The tabernacle is the great meeting place of God and sinful people. It was a place of Sacrifice. Jesus himself is that temple.  No other temple is needed.

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*Note: The notes are approximate. Forgive misspellings and typos. We’ll clean all the message notes and have them edited next week.