Are you afraid of heights? As a kid, how far up the ladder at the pool would you climb to dive in? Here's a man who climbed up a crazy, high ladder to dive 177 feet below into the water. My record is only about a tenth of that. Though I'm not afraid climbing ladders, I think I would be terrified to be at the top of that 177' tower contemplating diving down into the water. Good night, a plunge half that high can kill you if not done properly. There's a fine line between being courageous and being crazy. Imagine how you'd feel at the top of that diving tower. (As a pastor friend said, "I'd need to change my underwear :)
Today we are about to climb much higher, up to the heavens, as we dive into the gospel of John. But before we dive in, we need to know a little bit about the background of this book. I found a great introduction to the gospel of John by Gary DeLashmutt of Xenos Ministries http://ift.tt/1JvI1JO. He keeps it short and explains things in a clear manner. I'll add my own comments [ in brackets].
AUTHOR & DATE: It was written by John the son of Zebedee, one of Jesus' disciples, probably between 80-100 AD. [ I believe John was written before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD based on John's own words in 5:2. Bet that really changes your life, doesn't it :] Though he does not name himself, both internal evidence (elimination of the other intimate disciples--Peter and James) and external evidence (Polycarp; Irenaeus; Papias) confirm his authorship.
ORIGINAL AUDIENCE: John writes to non-Jews. This is clear because he explains Jewish customs and terms. After the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, John moved to Ephesus and worked primarily with Gentiles. The Gentiles of John's day were spiritually-oriented, but relativistic. [That means they didn't believe in absolutes. What may be bad for you may be okay for me. Our country is full of "spiritual" people who don't know the truth that can set them free.]
PURPOSE: Read 20:31. This is an evangelistic account of Jesus' life. He selected his material to provide them with evidence that Jesus is the unique Messiah and Son of God, so that they may believe in him and have spiritual life through him. This is why we usually recommend that seekers start with John instead of Genesis, Matthew, etc. [I agree. John is God's evangelistic tract. I've given out many copies in the past. If only we could get them at a discounted price...]
SIMPLICITY & PROFUNDITY: John's gospel has the smallest and simplest Greek vocabulary of any New Testament book; he uses just over 400 Greek words. (That's why Greek students usually start with John.) But in spite of this simplicity, there is incredible spiritual depth and profundity in this book. One theologian said it is "shallow enough for babies to wade in, but deep enough for elephants to drown in." [Consider the short, simple words John uses in just his opening few verses. Little children can read it, but theologians marvel at it- "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God."]
RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER GOSPELS: Written after them, John purposefully selects material which they did not include (to fill in their gaps, and to pursue his evangelistic purpose). Whereas the synoptic gospels begin with the historical account of Jesus' life and build to a conclusion about him, John begins with a summary of his conclusions about Jesus, and then records historical examples from the life of Jesus to validate his conclusions. We call this summary the prologue of John; it is perhaps the greatest distillation of Christian theology in the whole New Testament. [That is why we are going to take only a small portion of chapter 1 to look at today.]
The Logos Is Ultimate Reality (vs 1-3)
Read vs 1-3. John introduces us to an entity he calls "the Word." This is the Greek word logos. Since John is writing to Greeks, he uses their own philosophical term as the starting point for his message. From their observation of order in the external universe and human rationality, they believed there must be some universal "reason" which undergirds reality and provides meaning for the universe. They sometimes called this "cosmic rationality" (or Ultimate Reality) the logos. [Logos is the Greek word John uses which is translated "word" in this passage. In the beginning was the word (logos)...]
Their problem was that they didn't know where to go from there. There was endless speculation and disagreement about the nature of this logos: is it personal or impersonal? Is it eternal or temporal? What is its relationship to the material world? Is it interested or disinterested in individual humans?
Using their own term for Ultimate Reality, [logos, the word] John answers their questions with a series of block-buster assertions. What humans can only guess at by observation, John reveals to us in this passage. [They only had "under the sun" speculation, like guessing what color eyes aliens in UFOs might have. Jesus and John's gospel gives us revelation.]
["In the beginning" is of course also how Genesis begins. So John also begins his book referring back to the beginning of creation on Earth. The Greek language, using the imperfect tense for "was" indicates that the word (logos, whom we know from 1:14 is Christ) "was already" there before the beginning of time. So we could read the verse this way- "In the beginning, already was the word, and the word was already with God and the word already was God. The Living Bible, which is a paraphrase, reflects the meaning- "Before anything else existed, there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is himself God." Let the eternity of God the Son melt your mind! Roger and I discussed this within his comments on the blog just yesterday.]The logos is eternal (vs 1a). "In the beginning already was the logos." The logos is the uncaused Cause, the self-existent Ground of Reality beyond which it is impossible to go.
["The great Creator became my Savior and all God's fullness dwelleth in him!"]The logos is the Creator of the universe (vs 3). The universe is not eternal (NATURALISTS) [There are atheistic evolutionists that claim the universe must be eternal because they don't want to admit that there must be a Creator of creation. That is a fairy tale for gullible adults], nor is it somehow God (ANIMISM & PANTHEISM). [There are environmentalist today that worship the creation rather than the Creator.] It was "spoken into existence" by the logos.The logos is a Person. The logos is not called "it," but "he" (vs 2) and "him" (vs 3).
The logos is deity, or God (vs 1c). The Greek emphasizes this. Because of the above, the logos clearly deserves this title. [The word already was God. he didn't become a God as Mormons believe and He isn't "a god" as the Jehovah's Witnesses New World Translation perverts that verse. Their Bible is not a version it is a perversion and their authors will face the worst of God's pronounced judgments for changing God's sacred words. Examine as many translations as you can find, I've looked at more than 20, no Greek scholar has rendered the passage their way- "the word was a god." No, "the word was God." Jesus already was and forever is God. A little god, Michael the archangel cannot save us. Only almighty God can save us.]The logos is also personally distinct from God (vs 1b,2). He is both God, and was also always "face to face" with God. This is one of many passages (OT and NT) that reveal that while God is a unity in his essence, he exists as more than one Person. We call this the "Trinity." [Some rightly call the trinity a tri-unity.] Here, two of these three Persons are mentioned: God the Father ("God" and God the Son (called "the logos"). [Later on in chapter one, we will see the Father, Son and Spirit all referred to- 1:33.]This sounds very abstract, but it resolves a profound question: How God can be both personal and self-existent? How can God be personal without needing to create other persons with whom to relate? But if God needed to create other persons, God is not truly self-existent. The biblical answer to this question is the Trinity: God has always existed as a community of Persons who have always loved one another. One hundred trillion years before anything or anyone else existed, God was already there forever before. But he was never lonely because he related to himselves (read Jn. 17:24). [The Lord did not create you out of loneliness, but fullness of joy. The Trinity was so full of love abd that love desired to express itself to others. I once got a birth announcement from friends that read something like this- "Out of our overflowing love for each other, we look forward to pouring it out on our expected child." That's how the triune God feels about you and me. Wow!]
The logos, of course, is Jesus (vs 14a). The historical Person Jesus of Nazareth, who was born into the human race at Bethlehem around 4 BC and died around 33 AD, is in fact God, the infinite-personal-eternal Creator of the whole universe! He created the materials from which his feeding trough crib was made. He created the angels that announced his birth, and the sheep the shepherds tended, and the star that guided the magi . . .[And you! Thank You Lord Jesus for coming to rescue and relate to us. Open our hearts to love you back all the more and share this overflowing love with others.]
1.- Read John 1:1-18, but focus your attention on v.1-3. Share some of your thoughts from it or anything written above. Then write out John 1:1 on your MP3 card (phone, etc.) and look for opportunities to share it with others.Where in the Bible does it say that Jesus is God? You will surely be asked that. Note: John 1, Col.1, and Heb.1 all present Jesus as God, the co-Creator and Redeemer. But just ask that person to read through the gospel of John. If they can't see Jesus as God in it, then they are willfully blind.
2.- As I mentioned above, the gospel of John is God's evangelistic tract. It could be costly, but how would you like to be able to give copies of the gospel of John to others? You already have been! The gospel of John is the first item listed under our Resources tab. So please go to our http://ift.tt/1NbCp6o site; then click the word "Resources" located in the upper right corner. When you turn it's pages, it even makes the sound for it. Pretty cool :) Now you now where to direct people to find it. Just write "Did it" when you checked out our site.
Speaking of evangelism, Horacio had a great evangelistic opportunity that he told me about. He also wrote about it a couple days ago- "On Monday I met a neighbor that I have seen for 11 years, but we never had the opportunity to introduce ourselves. Currently he is going thru a difficult time and opened up. I thank the Lord for the Holy Spirit talking to him thru me. I gave him a card and during a short drive, he was watching the videos in my car. I explained to him how much God loves him, and he said he would like to attend service this week." Wow! Thank you Lord and way to go Horacio! Please pray for this man to come to Christ in the midst of his trials.
Thanks for the very encouraging comments from two days ago, when I asked, "How'm I doin?" I was also given helpful suggestions to lighten my load. I actually enjoy writing the blogs, but you lighten my load and that of your teammates just by being unstoppable each day. So as you go from here to the scoreboard, be on the lookout for any of your brothers in your fire team or squad who haven't been scoring. Take that as a sign from God to contact them :) Thanks!
Imagine seeing the gold of Fort Knox. What's that, and doing a double-take, have to do with tomorrow's post. You'll see :)
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