A DESIRE TO KNOW GOD. It’s something shared by people across all ages and cultures and religions and philosophies. (A common feeling that there’s something, or someone, outside the world we know – beyond what we can recognise with our senses. And a longing to EXPERIENCE that.)
Of course, there are many different opinions about WHAT GOD IS LIKE. And how you can KNOW him. Through following rituals, or keeping a moral code. By offering sacrifices. Or spiritual experiences like meditation or silence or contemplation or prayer. In other religions, taking drugs or having sex or even fighting battles are ways to access the spiritual world. All of these are humanity’s efforts to approach God.
But what sets Christianity apart is that God has approached US. He’s communicated with us. And come close. And so we can KNOW him. And so, we can live the life he’s DESIGNED for us. With purpose and contentment. Without the uncertainty or confusion or mistakes.
That’s the message of John’s Gospel. And especially the introduction – verses 1 to 18 of chapter 1. (We’re going to spend the next three weeks thinking about these verses.)
We’re introduced to someone who’s not named. All we know is his TITLE. “THE WORD.” It’s a title like KING, or JUDGE, or DOCTOR. But it’s MORE than that. It’s A DESCRIPTION OF WHAT HE DOES. So it’s more like a superhero name. “The Flash” obviously he’s QUICK. The Hulk – he’s BIG. And “Spiderman” – he does whatever a spider can. And The Word… COMMUNICATES. THE WORD moves from the SENDER to the RECEIVER, and REVEALS SOMETHING about the sender. By the time we get down to v17 we realise it’s JESUS. And while the other gospels gradually reveal that Jesus has come from God, John tells us the secret from the very first sentence. Look at v1.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Such simple words. But they describe profound mysteries. First, where did the Word COME FROM? Everything has a beginning. Except for GOD. And, it seems, except for THE WORD. In the beginning the word… JUST WAS. He’s ETERNAL. He wasn’t MADE, he didn’t appear, or was born. He just WAS. You might hear people say, “I was there when they opened the Sydney Harbour Bridge, or the Opera House, or when man first walked on the moon in 1969.” It shows you’ve been around for a while. Well, how about, “I was there when Sydney Harbour was first carved out of the earth.” And “I was there when the moon and all the stars were put in place.” That’s Jesus. He’s ALWAYS BEEN.
Second mystery. What’s the Word’s relationship to God? On the one hand, the Word was WITH God – beside, facing, or near God. But ALSO, the Word WAS God. (Of one SUBSTANCE). It seems impossible. A contradiction. Somehow, the Word is both SEPARATE from God, and the SAME as God. It’s not EXPLAINED. It’s just STATED. Then v3 adds some MORE information.
3 THROUGH him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
He’s an agent of creation. God made everything THROUGH him. BY MEANS of him. Later generations will put together all the clues from across the Bible. And name this relationship THE TRINITY. That God is one God, but three PERSONS. Or identities. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each person is FULLY God, not LESS than God. Together they make ONE God, not three. God is THREE in ONE. That comes LATER. But at THIS point that reality is described simply as “the Word was WITH God. And the Word WAS God. And God made all things THROUGH the Word.”
At which point Jewish readers would be reminded of Genesis chapter 1. Where in the beginning God SPOKE and things CAME INTO EXISTENCE. “God said Let there be LIGHT. And THERE WAS.” God’s word had HIS POWER TO CREATE. His word is both PART of him, and SEPARATE from him. And is the AGENT of creation.
I think that’s why John chose the title THE WORD. Because it’s a metaphor, a picture, that shows the relationship between Jesus and God. In some ways SEPARATE, and in other ways THE SAME.
Verses 1-3 describe what happens OUTSIDE of history. Or at the START of history. But from v4 we learn what happens IN HISTORY. How The Word RELATES to the world he helped create. V4 says
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
He didn’t just START the world – he SUSTAINS it. He’s it’s ongoing source of LIFE. And he shines LIGHT on the world. Which is about providing goodness and guidance and life.
But here’s the complication: v5. The world is DARK. And it doesn’t RECEIVE, or UNDERSTAND, or WELCOME the light. There’s some sort of rejection, or opposition. It’s all fairly abstract and distant. It’s hard to understand exactly what’s being described. But it gets more concrete and personal as we keep reading. Jump down to v9.
9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Word came into the world. SOME people recognised him, but MOST DIDN’T. They SHOULD have. After all the world had been made THROUGH him. He was RESPONSIBLE for it – it BELONGED to him. But those who DID recognise him. Who WELCOMED him. He authorised them to become children of God. As someone closely connected to God, he WELCOMED them into a close connection to God TOO.
Then we come to v14. Which is really the HIGHLIGHT of this section. And it describes most clearly how we can see and know God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Word wrapped himself in skin, bones, hair and blood. Complete with tears and sweat. Sneezes and skinned knees. Willingly chose the limitations of a frail human body. God, the Creator of the universe, has stepped out of heaven, and into his story. The infinite, eternal Spirit bound himself to time and space. Lowered himself to our level. We call it THE INCARNATION. Which just means “became flesh”. God became man.
It’s almost too incredible to imagine. Or understand. But for those of you who know your Old Testament, there’s a number of HINTS here in v14. Hints that can help us begin to understand this mind-blowing truth. There are echoes of God appearing among his people in the Exodus. As they left Egypt and walked through the wilderness. The word for DWELT is related to “TABERNACLE” – the tent Moses built for God. And to “see his glory” is what the Israelites did, when GOD’S glory appeared, like a cloud or a pillar of fire, over the tent. But Jesus is God’s ultimate, complete, absolute GLORY. His visible self-revelation. And Jesus being FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH echoes God’s description of himself to Moses on Mount Sinai that he’s ABOUNDING IN LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS.
All those events, as wonderful as they were, are just pointers and appetisers for the ULTIMATE appearing of God among his people. When Jesus pitches his tent. Not among one nation in a desert. But among one HUMANITY on a whole PLANET. And reveals himself as God’s glory for people to see. When the Creator, who stands apart from his creation, stepped INTO it, so we can KNOW him.
Alfred Hitchcock is famous for making brilliant movies. He’s ALSO famous for making small appearances in his own movies. Cameos. For a brief second, he’d step out from behind the camera to be PART OF THE STORY he was telling. The Creator steps into his creation. His fans love to study his movies to identify him. *Missing a bus during the opening credits of “North by North West”. *Sitting next to Cary Grant on a bus in “To Catch a Thief”. *Sitting with a child on his lap in a hotel foyer in “Torn Curtain”. *He’s even the “Before” and “after” photos in a weight loss ad in a newspaper. 37 appearances identified so far in nearly 50 years of movies. The creator enters his creation. Which is what JESUS did.
For Alfred Hitchcock, it’s cute. And it happened MANY TIMES. But it’s largely IRRELEVANT TO THE STORY. But when GOD did it, in the person of Jesus, he did it ONCE ONLY, and it CHANGED THE FACE OF HUMAN HISTORY.
That’s v14. It INTRODUCES the idea that God walked among us, so we could see him and know him. And as we keep reading, we find plenty of evidence that JESUS HIMSELF understands that he’s God, come in the flesh.
In Ch 3 v12, talking to Nicodemus, he says
12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except THE ONE WHO CAME FROM HEAVEN-the Son of Man.
That’s Jesus. The WORD, who COMES FROM HEAVEN, and communicates heavenly things. A similar idea is in John 6:46
46 No one has seen the Father except THE ONE WHO IS FROM GOD; only he has SEEN THE FATHER.
Because he COMES from God, he’s the only one who’s SEEN him. In 8:58, Jesus reveals something of his understanding of being ETERNALLY with the Father.
56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” the Jews said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
58 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
Always existing. Always with God. But more than that, the only one who can INTRODUCE people to God. 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
But he’s more than a prophet who’s seen and known God. Or a priest who stands in between God and man. He’s somehow EQUAL with God. To see JESUS is to see GOD. In 14:9 he says
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father
And similarly, to KNOW Jesus, is to know GOD. 8:19 “You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”
And probably the clearest of all. Jn 10:30 “The Father and I are one.”
And by the time we get to Ch 20 v28, Thomas sees the resurrected Jesus, and exclaims, “My Lord and my God.” And Jesus ACCEPTS the worship. He bows before GOD IN THE FLESH.
Jesus is fully God, AND fully man. More than God INDWELLING a good man. More than God LOOKING LIKE a man. But God BECOMING a man. Jesus, both God AND man.
Let’s finish our quick tour of John’s Gospel by returning to the opening section. And chapter 1 v16-18.
16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, , who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
If there was ANYONE who was thought to have seen God – it was Moses. At Mt Sinai God put him in the cleft of a rock, and then passed by, so Moses saw his glory. And we’re told that Moses spoke with God face-to-face. And when he came down from the mountain, his face SHONE, so the people couldn’t look at him. But EVEN MOSES never saw God. But WE’RE EVEN MORE PRIVILEGED THAN MOSES. Because God has come near. God the one and only, or only begotten, who is at the Father’s side. (that’s Jesus) has MADE HIM KNOWN. He’s EXPLAINED, or given a detailed report about, HIM. A personal explanation. V16 says from his fullness we’ve all received one blessing after another. Or GRACE PILED ON TOP OF GRACE.
We’ve received MORE GRACE than Moses. Because we can meet JESUS. He’s God the one and only Son. We can KNOW GOD through him. Know him, see him, experience him, understand him BETTER THAN MOSES DID.
So what?
So what should we do in response? Because you HAVE to do SOMETHING with an act like that. To do NOTHING is an insult. It diminishes its importance.
1. Accept
First. ACCEPT. God’s reached out to you. He’s COME NEAR. Accept the approach. Many people DON’T. (V5 says that the darkness has NOT UNDERSTOOD the light. V10 says that the world did not RECOGNISE the light. V11 says his own people did not RECEIVE him.) Don’t let that be you.
Instead, v12 says to RECEIVE him. BELIEVE IN HIS NAME. Become a child of God. And, v14, SEE HIS GLORY. And, v16, RECEIVE HIS BLESSINGS. And, v18, KNOW THE FATHER. If you’ve already DONE that. What ELSE?
2. Be comforted.
Second, BE COMFORTED. Because Jesus is fully MAN, it means he fully understands you. And because he’s fully God, he’s got the power to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Hebrews 4:15 says
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have ONE WHO HAS BEEN TEMPTED IN EVERY WAY, JUST AS WE ARE-yet was without sin.
Be comforted because Jesus understands the human condition MORE than you. He experienced far greater temptation than you, but never gave in. He knows what you go through. And he presents that experience to his Father, with SYMPATHY for us.
3. Be confident
Which means, thirdly, that we should BE CONFIDENT. Hebrews 4:16 continues.
16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with CONFIDENCE, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
We can trust that we’ll be treated favourably by the Father, because the Son is saying to him, “I understand. I know. Show them mercy and grace.”
4. Reflect the incarnation.
Fourthly, we respond to the incarnation by SHARING IN THE INCARNATION. By following the example of Jesus in the way we minister to others. Jesus was not aloof. He gave up everything. He got his hands dirty. He didn’t just SPEAK FROM HEAVEN. He lived AMONG us. And he calls us to do the same.
In Mark 10:43-45 he says
Whoever wants to become great among you must be your SERVANT, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be SLAVE OF ALL. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
And in John 13, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and said,
14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
Incarnational ministry means getting your hands dirty. Sharing your LIFE with people. Becoming LIKE them. Are you looking to SERVE? Or are you expecting to BE served? Respond to the incarnation by being a servant to all like Jesus.
Jesus is the GLORY of God – his visible presence. If you’ve SEEN the glory of God in Jesus, then he calls you to BE the glory. To be the visible presence of God in the world. In John 15 Jesus promises the disciples
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 THIS IS TO MY FATHER’S GLORY, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
In the beginning was the WORD and the word was WITH GOD and the Word WAS God. The Word became FLESH and DWELT among us. We’ve seen God’s glory.
Accept it. Be comforted by it. Be CONFIDENT in it. And REFLECT it. So that OTHERS would do the same.
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