Lesson 1- John 1: 1-18

 

If you are a first time Bible reader, where should you start reading? Genesis?

The Gospel of John is often suggested because it answers so many of the key questions of life.

 

Who is Jesus? v. 1-3, 14

He is the Word,

He goes back to the beginning of time,

He was then with God,

He is God,

He created all things,

He became human and lived with us as a real man,

 

What has Jesus brought? v.4

Life itself is in Him – that Life is the “light” of men

That light shines in darkness and cannot be put out. (or “the darkness cannot comprehend it”)

 

Was Jesus accepted? v. 10-11

His own creation did not recognize Him.

His own people did not receive Him.

 

What of those that did accept Him? v. 12, 16

Those that accepted Him have the right to become children of God.

-          Not by heredity, but by rebirth.

We who have accepted him have received one blessing after another.

We have seen his Glory, his grace and truth

 

Who is John (the Baptist)? v. 6-8,15

He was sent by God to testify that the true “light” was coming into the world.

John said that Jesus surpasses him and comes before him.

 

Even though these verses answer some questions, they raise some as well. I have picked a few that were my questions to look at in some depth.

 

Question #1 -Why does John the writer, use “Word” to describe Jesus?

 

John was writing to Jews (righteous, tradition bound, they lived under the law, a closed society) and Greeks (philosophic, curious and sophisticated, and worldly). “Word” had important but different meaning for each:

-          Jews: God’s Word was powerful-

o        In Genesis, God said -“Let there be light”, etc. Creation was by his word.

o        Psalms 33:6 – by the word of the Lord were the heavens made.

o        The Jewish scriptures were in Hebrew, however their spoken language was Aramaic.  Their translations used “the word of God” in place of the “familiar” name of God – 320 times.

 

-          Greeks – “Word” is translated as “Logos” – meaning not only “word” but reason or logic. The Greeks searched for logical answers to life’s questions. They saw in Logos the power of a god to create and provide order to the universe. It gave power by which men reason and know.  Now Logos has come to earth.

 

L. Ogilvie writes: “ ---- we have much to learn from John. We have been so domesticated and institutionalized within the ghetto of the religious establishment that we have been cut off and alienated from the very people we have been eager to reach.”  (OUCH)

 

Are there words that have power in our culture? Then what word(s) should we use describe Jesus? Spend some time with these questions in your group.

 

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Question #2 How can Jesus be God?

This troubles the Muslims, the Jews and others. We use the concept of the Trinity to explain it, but to understand it?

In the Gospels, Jesus, as a living human being, defers to his Father, prays to Him, and says (paraphrased) “only God can grant who sits on my right hand, and only the Father knows when the end will come”. John, in Revelation certainly reports that God the Father is distinct from Jesus. What then does this verse mean?

 

  1. Jesus has been, before his earthly birth, present with the Father, (His earthly birth was not his beginning – only the beginning humans experienced)

 

  1. Because of Jesus relationship with God – before and during his earthly life, he knew the mind of God. They shared a common understanding and purpose.  Thus to know Jesus is to know God. 

 

How do you find out what a non-accessible person is like or believes?  Ask someone that knows them well.

 

We know what God is like because we know Jesus. We have “seen God” through Jesus even though we, as John says “have not seen God”.

 

3.       L. Ogilvie and William Barclay – explain that the Greek word used by John is “theos”, not “ho theos”.  The latter (ho theos) one would use to say that God and Jesus are an identity. John did not use that form! Barclay says we might say “of the same character and quality and essence and being as God.  When John said “the word was God” he was not saying that Jesus was identical with God - he was saying that Jesus was so perfectly the same as God in mind, and heart, in being that in him we perfectly see what God is like.”

 

Thus, though Jesus and God are not an identity, if we have seen Jesus and know Him, we know God.

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Question 3 – Why did John make this connection between Light and Life?

 

Our source of Life on earth is the sun. Shut of this light and all life on earth would end.

 

Have you ever been in the dark – not metaphorically but actually?  What was your reaction?  Was it fear?  Or was this a chance to do something devious that you would not do in daylight?

 

We have some expressions that deal with intellectual and emotional darkness –

“he is still in the dark”, “that subject needs some light on it”, or “that is like the blind leading the blind”. Or maybe, “I wouldn’t trust that man in the dark, or “that is not a good neighborhood after dark”

 

When do we realize we are “in the dark?” Discuss specific ways in which Jesus provides light that breaks through our darkness. 

 

 

This life that John speaks of is mentioned many times by Jesus.  What does he mean? 

In John 3:16, “--should not perish but have eternal life”

John 10:10 “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full”

 

In verse 16 John says – “From the fullness of his grace we have received one blessing after another.”

 

From LIGHT comes understanding, from understanding the acceptance of Jesus, and with that comes a new and better LIFE, and the opportunity to be a child of God.

 

Think about the directions Jesus gave.  Can you name some specific ways in which the LIGHT of Jesus has produced LIFE for you?  How do we share that experience with others?

 

 

 

Question 4: Why did John make such a big deal about John the Baptist?

 

It is clear that John wrote in part to deal with Heresies that had developed – specifically two.

-          Idolization of John the Baptist

-          Gnosticism – the concept that the physical is evil and the spiritual is good.  God is not involved in physical – Jesus was just a spirit.

 

John did not propose that those following these ideas be burned at the stake (heresy treatment in the middle ages). Rather his words declare the truth clearly. 

 

If John were to write the gospel today, would he find any heresies to deal with? How should we deal with heresy?

 

 

Note:  W. Barclay says: “A heresy is seldom a complete untruth: it usually results when one facet of the truth is unduly emphasized.”