The Gospel of John
John 1:1 ESV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
1:1 ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος
The Apostle John begins his Gospel prologue with inspired, nearly unparalleled words pointing back to Genesis 1. Every Jew who knew God knew the beginning of the the Pentateuch.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ׃
Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve’et ha’aretz.
John connects creation with logos, literally the word for word in the Greek. Jesus is the Person of the spoken Word of Elohim! אֱלֹהִים
2 He was in the beginning with God.
In essence John proclaimed:
Jesus IS in the beginning, Jesus is with Elohim, Jesus IS Elohim!
Basic Belief: Do you believe in God?
John begins by categorically stating that Jesus IS the One True God.
This is Good News to those who believe. Yet even if you do not believe in the One God, John proclaims this Gospel as challenge to our misconceptions of the Creator.
Every Greek knew the importance of logos. A secondary use of the word logos, familiar to unbelieving Greeks who claimed many gods, is its use as respect to the MIND alone.
Think about this, John tells those who do not know God.
Reason through it and try calculating the logic of this relationship between a Power you cannot measure and a Person whom we have regarded. And again, John points to creation:
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
The First Letter of John
In his first letter to the church John begins in a similar fashion when addressing those who already follow Christ Jesus in the first century.
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life …
The Disciple Jesus loved gives followers of The Way a testimony of his own witness of ‘God in the flesh’ in the Person of the Messiah of God.
John, now a fully mature Elder, tells his churches, gatherings of believers in Christ:
We know that Jesus IS who He says He IS. We are witnesses to the facts and preach our testimony to you you.
Jesus IS God and we have personally seen, heard, observed and touched the Living God!
Good news for believers.
4 ‘We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete,’ John writes to believers.
Jesus, the Christ, a personal Lord who loves and ministers to sinners.
The Beginning and the End
John’s Gospel and three letters reveal Jesus as the Christ, Almighty God as One with the eternal Person of the Son of Man.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John speaks to the beginning of Creation, in addition to providing troubling imagery of the apocalypse of the heavens and earth.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
John’s Vision of the Risen Lord
9 I, John, your brother and partner in the affliction, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
The Apostle John, whom we picture as a young man mentored by Jesus, reveals much more about the Lord.
Almighty God, Creator of the heavens and earth, in whose image man is made, IS; in the Person of Jesus, a Savior to eternal life to those He loves.
Jesus will also judge rebellious sinners and cleanse creation of all unrighteousness. The LORD will make all things right.
John, through Christ, reveals the ending:
Revelation 21:3b Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.
John’s Good News
Jesus loves you. This is John’s message. God is immeasurably more than an understood Power. Jesus shows God as a loving Father who also gives freedom to mankind to choose eternal life or deserved punishment for sin.
Do you believe in One God? Can you relate to Almighty God as a loving Father of a chosen family? In Christ Jesus we have seen the Lord!
John gives us both brief glimpses and detailed accounts of the Logos, the Very Word of God.
No mere mortal can fully fathom the ever-existent Creator of all things and of all men, even in the personal witness of John. Yet John reveals even more of the completeness of the One True God through consideration of the Spirit of God, the subject of our next look at understanding the Lord through the eyes of the Disciple Jesus loved.
To be continued...
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