John’s gospel opens with the beautiful but enigmatic truth that Jesus is the Word of God. That’s quite a different opening from Matthew, Mark and Luke – and it’s quite a different kind of book overall.
These opening verses work like a musical overture. If you go to a musical, or listen to something like Handel’s Messiah, you get a performance of different songs. But the first piece is an overture, with loads of musical phrases from later on all brought together in a tiny mosaic.
That’s what these verses do for John’s gospel. You get tasters of themes to come – all of which hang on the truth that Jesus is the Word of God. So what does that mean?
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered in May 2024. You can find more in the series in our Sermon Index.
Jesus is God (1-5)
The universe around us is expanding, and moving forward in time. It didn’t appear without a cause: It was created. God is your creator. Creation reveals his divine nature – no-one created him. And it shows his eternal power – outside of time, able to create at will.
Time itself is part of creation (ask any scientist). So when Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” that includes “the beginning” itself!
So read John 1:1-2.
In simple English, it doesn’t make sense. How can something be with God and be God at the same time? The word used for “with” usually means “towards” and is used for “with” when speaking about two persons. So the Word is a ‘person’ (in some sense) who is with God and yet who is also God.
And why has John used the word “Word”? He uses that word again in v14 but then never again. It’s just the regular Greek word for “word” – nothing fancy.
But this Word is the communication and expression of God. If you would like to know what God is like – if you would like even to see him – then there is one Word for you. And, as will become obvious, Jesus is that Word. Jesus is God. He’s the perfect communication and expression of God – precisely because he is God.
The uncreated Word
Read John 1:3.
Some things are essentially ‘of God’.
- He is good – so goodness wasn’t created.
- He is love – so love wasn’t created either.
- And so on, for life, existence, happiness, righteousness…
But anything that is not ‘of God’ was created by him. All the stuff in the universe – seen and unseen. All of it. And it was all created through the Word, the communication of God’s goodness and power into creation. More: Read John 1:4-5.
- In the Word, in Jesus, is life.
- True life; eternal life with God, as life was meant to be.
- That life shines as light in this world.
- We live in a place of darkness, confusion, and sin.
- The world is full of hope – but is always disappointed.
- Death robs everyone of everything eventually, leaving only the darkness of grief, sorrow, and fading memory.
But Jesus is the Word of God and he shines light and life into the world.
Do people grasp that light?
- John uses a little play on words: “…yet the darkness did not grasp it” – where “grasp” might mean understand, or overcome.
- Either way, you’re in darkness as you reject him – because he is God, and the communication of God to you in light and life. Why would you choose darkness?
Good News for Everyone (6-9)
What comes next is a bit of a gear change: Read John 1:6.
Now James and John were two of Jesus’ disciples, and you can read about them in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But they’re never mentioned in this gospel, and it’s generally acknowledged that it’s that John who wrote it. So when we read “John” in this gospel, he’s speaking about John the Baptist.
Still, why mention John the Baptist just here? We’ve gone from the heights of thought about the nature of God (as Trinity – Father, Son, Holy Spirit), to a man named John.
John (the writer) is taking that infinite thought about God and particularising it, cementing it in a place and a time. There was a moment in time when the Word of God was coming into the world, and John the Baptist was sent by God to say so.
Sent by God
Read John 1:7.
Does God want you to know him? Absolutely: He sent his Son, the Word, to communicate himself to you.
God sent John the Baptist (and many others since) to testify about the light (the light that brings life) to you. How can you know the light? How can you receive life? By believing in Jesus, Son of God, the Word of the Father.
Believing what? That he was real? The word for “believe” is the same as “trust”. You’re to believe that God is calling you – communicating his love and goodness to you – and you’re to trust that that comes to you through the Word, the Son, Jesus.
And see how God is the author of it all: It’s his desire that you enter into this eternal light and life!
Read John 1:8-9.
By “true light” he means “genuine light” – not the false promises you’ll get from adverts on TV, or false religion, or no religion. There is only one Son, one Word of God.
He is the only Saviour
Later in John’s gospel Jesus will claim that no-one comes to the Father but through him.
- If you’ve ever thought that all religions are basically different paths up the same mountain, you’re contradicting Jesus.
- Jesus was either the true and only way, or no way at all.
But because Jesus is the Word, and the Word is God, you can trust him. You must trust him.
And as you trust him, you’re stunningly blessed:
Be born again by faith (10-13)
Read John 1:10.
In John’s gospel, the “world” means people (not the planet). But it’s slightly more specific than that:
- The world of human affairs is part of his creation.
- Even the sin and wickedness around comes from how he created us as morally independent but responsible beings.
- And in John’s gospel, there are no believers in what he describes as “the world” at all!
- Everyone who comes to faith in Christ is no longer ‘of’ this world. We are in it, but we’re not ‘of’ it.
So when we read that God so loved the world, we realise that his love is for sinful humanity in need of a saviour. So he sent Jesus.
Verse 10 says the world didn’t recognise him. Obviously, by and large it still doesn’t. We’re a small group in the midst of this area.
But what about Israel, the Jews who had been promised a Messiah? Did they recognise him? Read John 1:11.
That’s a theme you’ll see throughout the gospels. The very people who were promised him, rejected him. But not everyone, obviously. The first disciples were Jewish.
But the arrival of Jesus brought something remarkable. Read John 1:12-13.
There’s so much to unpack – but remember this is the overture, and these themes will be unpacked later in John’s gospel. But for now…
Children of God! Born again!
Given that God is your great creator, and that you and I naturally live in a world damaged by sin, darkness and death, these promises are amazing: “The right to be children of God… who were born…” Being ‘born again’ will come up in chapter 3, and the question of who is your father (God or Satan) comes up notably in chapter 8 (and elsewhere).
But look what God is offering to the world: Adoption. You can go from hopeless darkness to the breathtaking light of being a child of God. Would God cast off his children or get bored of them? Won’t he rather love and cherish and care for them in the perfection of infinite love and tenderness forever??
Does he offer his parenthood grudgingly? No way! He sent his eternal Son, the Word, to achieve it for you. He offers you his parenthood as a new reality for your life. Not by the will of your blood parents; not by the will of any person; but it’s God’s own will that you enter in.
And he doesn’t call on you to undo your sin, or to jump through hoops of penance or pilgrimage.
He calls you to trust in Jesus, the Word, the Son of God.
All this is by faith
So v12, “But to all who did receive him… to those who believe in his name…”
- God himself desires your salvation, your forgiveness.
- Jesus, the eternal Word, the Son of God, came to bring you life and light in the darkness.
- Turn from your sin, from your darkness.
- Call on him to forgive you, and you will be forgiven.
- Trust his death to atone for your sins – that’s what it means to trust Jesus.
- Trust him for righteousness to be credited to you.
Receive Jesus, believe in his name (which means, “He saves”).
And you will be a child of God, with an inheritance of life beyond all your hopes and dreams in this life.
How can you know that Jesus has done all this for you?
Know Jesus, Know God (14-18)
These last verses reach back into the Old Testament:
- Under Moses, God gave instruction for the construction of a tabernacle – a mobile tent-temple.
- When Israel were moving around, they’d move the tabernacle wherever they went.
- The crucial thing was what it represented:
- God’s special presence – his glory – dwelt in the tabernacle; God was present among his people.
- More, because there was a system of sacrifice that atoned for sin, sinful people could approach God.
- And because it was all God’s plan, you can see that it was God’s clear desire to dwell among his people.
- In Exodus 33, Moses actually asked God if he could see God’s glory!
- So God caused all his goodness to pass in front of Moses, proclaiming his name the LORD as he went.
So, with all that in mind, read John 1:14.
Again, it’s another packed-out verse. Some Bibles have a footnote by the word “dwelt”. Literally: “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”
Get that: The eternal, creating, Word of God who was with God and who was God became flesh. Didn’t “take on a cloak of flesh” or “looked human”. He became flesh. God the Son became human.
And having done so, he tabernacled among us. God dwelt on the earth among his people. And this time, he would provide a new and living way to approach him, replacing that old system of sacrifice by dying himself to take your punishment.
“We observed his glory” – something Moses only glimpsed.
And later in John’s gospel it’s clear that his glory is revealed in his procession to the cross, his sacrifice for you.
Old becomes New; Grace instead of Grace
There’s a sense in which John the Baptist was the last Old Testament prophet, and he knew that new things were coming. Read John 1:15.
That Old Testament system of sacrifice and worship was an incredible act of grace from God: That he would dwell among his people and give them a way to approach him.
But Christ brought in something new: Read John 1:16-17.
- “Grace upon grace” is more naturally read “grace in place of grace” (as in the CSB footnote).
- The grace of the Old Covenant (Testament) was being replaced by an even greater grace: Jesus.
It was a privilege to approach God in his tabernacle. But now, by faith, you can be in Christ and Christ in you forever. He is the vine, and you are the branches.
And this is all God’s design, his desire:
For you to approach him for forgiveness, for life, for adoption, for infinite love and blessing.
- Will you receive him? Will you believe in his name?
- He desires it; God himself invites you.
We began with the idea that Jesus is the Word of God, the communication and expression of God to you.
The Father revealed in the Son
And so the overture wraps up with this: Read John 1:18.
- Jesus “has revealed him” (the Father).
- Jesus has expounded the Father to you; declared him thoroughly.
In what way? What of the Father have you seen here as we’ve contemplated the Word, the Son?
- God the Father is the uncreated source of all.
- He is light and life, brought to you by the Son.
- The Father loves you so much that he sent the Son into the world, and then sent people like John the Baptist (and even me) to tell you about his love for you.
- This is news for all the world because God loves all the world, despite the depravity and brokenness.
- God the Father is graciously offering you his parenthood – you can become a child of God by receiving Jesus and trusting him!
- And as you do that, Jesus dwells with you. He offered himself to death for your sins, and now lives and dwells among his people.
- Where else could you go, but to God in Christ?