Please open your Bibles with me to John chapter one. Now we are beginning a new sermon series. We're going to be looking at the first 18 verses this morning. As we begin a new series into this profound gospel that gives us such a clear picture of who Jesus is. We will, read our passage to get started, John, Chapter one verses one through 18. Here are the word of the Lord.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
John 1:1-18, ESV

This is the word of the Lord. This last weekend was a pretty big weekend in my world. I think I've mentioned once or maybe twice that I'm a pretty big Cornhuskers fan, maybe three times. And this was a pretty big, newsworthy event where we had a defensive coordinator fired and defensive coordinator hired. And one of a particularly talented young man committed to play for for Nebraska yesterday. So it was a pretty big, newsworthy week. This is a subject again that I find interesting and so that I follow pretty closely. In fact, I spend a lot of time reading about this. I try to read everything I can get my hands on about such newsworthy events.

I look at all of the professional journalists and what they say. I read the amateur bloggers and what they say. I even scour the message boards, which, you know, you find some interesting material there. I read posts by people named Husker Hot Sauce and Skunk Man One, I guess, because Skunk Man without the numeral one was apparently already taken. Not exactly the eminent philosophers of our day, but there are a lot of interesting insights and rumors and and information that might be classified as gossip that you can glean if you if you look at all of these sources as you try to put together a composite picture of what's going on and what's going to happen next.

Now, one of the questions that we have to ask when we come to the gospel of John is why is the gospel of John necessary, especially when we have three other gospels, three other books that give us the story of Jesus's life?

Well, you see in any subject, whether you're talking about politics or sports or business, whatever it is, no one vantage point, no one perspective, no one author, no one single document, no one article, no one book can ever exhaust the truth about any subject. If I'm gobbling down information about the three-four defensive scheme that our new defensive coordinator is going to bring and I get more information with every new resource I find, how much more is that the case when we are coming to the most extraordinary event in human history, the coming of the true light into the world. The word which was in the beginning with God, which is himself God. Who became flesh and dwelt among us.

This is an extraordinary story. Now the other three gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke all kind of give more or less the same picture of who Jesus Christ is. In fact, for that reason, the most biblical scholars call those the Synoptic Gospels, which is a Greek word optics that means to see. You know, if you go to your optometrist, you're getting an eye exam, hopefully. Then the word syn, which is a Greek preposition that means with or together or in other words. The whole thing together means a shared vision because the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, you really feel like you're reading the same story with slightly different emphases.

In John, it's something totally different that God gives to us. Not because he wants to to be confused, not because he wants us to be misled. It isn't that John has fabricated this totally different account, different perspective, different optic on Jesus. It's because God loves us. God wants us to have as complete of information about our savior as possible. If we care enough about this subject, about Jesus Christ, we will look to get our hands on anything we possibly can that will give us better light, better insight, a better perspective.

What's unique about the gospel of John more than just the fact that it doesn't contain any parables, more than just the fact that it doesn't really follow all the right chronology that we see in this synoptic gospels, because John does freely move things around to make his case. What's interesting and what's unique about the gospel of John is that John was an eyewitness in a way that Mark and Luke certainly weren't. But even Matthew, who was also a disciple of Jesus, was not.

John was in the inner circle with John, his brother James, both the sons of Zebedee and Peter, the inner circle of three. John was there. He had conversations and interactions with Jesus that Matthew didn't, that Mark and Luke didn't. There is something going on here that God wants us to see and know about Jesus Christ.

So if that's the case, then we might ask, what is this prologue doing specifically? The prologue is the term that scholars give to these first 18 verses. I like what D.A. Carson says, he calls this the foyer to the gospel. Which means that as you come into this foyer, you are getting all of the themes, all of what John wants to say eventually, in this gospel, he's hinting at and just dropping seeds that are going to blossom over the course of reading this gospel.

This may be a frustrating sermon, perhaps for you, because I'm going to have to just hit it and quit it a lot. I'm going to have to mention things that we will explore in more detail later because I don't want to steal the thunder of a later sermon. I don't want to make my job harder than it needs to be. Also because John is trying to give us at a glance everything he's going to tell us over the course of this gospel in these 18 verses.

This gospel, as I mentioned, is uniquely arranged in what I think Mary Thompson says this is kind of like a documentary or a docudrama, where it's not like you're watching the Six O'Clock news. If you've ever seen a documentary where someone's just going through the headlines and the sources of information. This is someone who is giving an editorial shaping to this. John is taking all of the events, I mean, again, in chapter two, we're going to see a story of Jesus cleansing the temple. Well, that doesn't happen until the very end of Jesus's life, but John purposefully wants us to read that right from the outset because it has an important message about what Jesus has come to accomplish.

Well, if that's the case, and I think that's a really helpful way to think about this gospel, what's happening here in the prologue is John from the very beginning wants us to know the identity of Jesus. This is deductive if you want to say reasoning rather than inductive. Inductive is where you ask a lot of questions. You, gain a lot of information. You sort of build upon that and ask more questions and clear questions until finally at the end, you get to the answer that you're seeking.

John doesn't mess around. He gives us exactly who the identity of Jesus Christ is as the word who became flesh because he wants us to have that in mind as we read through the rest of the gospel. So what's the identity that John wants us to see? Well, today we're going to look at the fact that Jesus of Nazareth, a Middle Eastern Jewish man who lived two thousand years ago, is God the creator. He is God the Redeemer. He is God, the mediator. Creator, redeemer and mediator.

So let's look at the first eight verses to begin. The first thing that John wants us to know. The first thing he tells us is that Jesus of Nazareth is God. Now it takes a little bit to figure out that the word he is talking about is in fact Jesus. But for the sake of understanding what exactly we're talking about as we go. I'll sort of give you a spoiler there. So the word is Jesus?

To give us information about Jesus, John he says in the beginning was the word. Now it's important we don't think that John is saying when the beginning happened, well, then the word came along. No, he's saying when the beginning happened, the word was already there. Clearly, John wants us to go back to Genesis 1:1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. And John is saying, well, there's a little bit more to the story. In the beginning when God created the heavens in the Earth, the word was there already. And the word was with God.

Now, if you read the creation account, which we just studied a few weeks ago in Genesis one, it's not surprising that John would say that the word is the means by which God created all things in the beginning, was the word. Because again and again, we read and God said, "Let there be" something and it was. So obviously, that's not a surprise to say that in the beginning was the word that's how God created the world. But then.

John says and the word was with God, and that word with is not the common word for with. The common word for with is the word syn, like synoptic seeing with. Right? Well, this is not that word with. It's the word pross. Which is more like our English word facing, because the word for process related to the Greek word for face. It's this idea not of just being present with something else, but the idea of persons facing one another. You can use this word as with, but you wouldn't use it as an inanimate object almost any of the times it's used in the New Testament. I wouldn't say I'm with this pulpit right now, but I would say I'm with you if I'm in a meeting with you. It describes a kind of personal face to face interaction.

It's not just that the word was in the beginning or the word was with God. John then makes it explicit. The word was God. Now, the word was doesn't mean this is something that happened, and then it sort of changed at some point in time. It's an idea of continuing ongoing action. This word was God. You didn't know about it, John is saying, you didn't know that this word who was with God was all so God himself. But that begins to make a lot of sense of a lot of Old Testament passages where we read about the word of the Lord.

We read about God speaking his word in the Old Testament. But then we also read, "and the word of the Lord came to so-and-so". That's an odd thing for me to say. If I called you up and say my word is coming to you now, you would think I was a weirdo. But the reason the word of God says sad is because the word of God is more dynamic than my word. The word of God is a person who is himself God.

Now John is going to unfold that, John is going to expand upon that. John's going to give us more insight into the trinitarian nature of God. That we serve one God, not multiple gods, one God who exists not as one person, but as three persons Father, sSn and Holy Spirit. But not yet. We have to move on.

The next aspect of saying that he is God is to give a little context to that. And John again focuses, as I mentioned on the creation. The word created all things. Verse three, "all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made." That's a categorical absolute statement. There's not a way to make this clearer. The word created all things.

Not only that, but he gives us some example of the things that the word created verse four, "in him was life". Well, in Genesis chapter one, the whole chapter is filled with God creating living creatures. Who gives life, who creates living things? God the creator does. Not only life, but light in him was life, and the life was the light of men. And God said, let there be ligh and there was lights, and God saw that the light was good. First thing God created on the first day was light. And John is saying, don't miss it. It's the word who created these things.

Also, again, John is introducing us to themes. John 5:26, we will read later, "Just as the father has life in himself, so the father has granted the son also to have life in himself."

But what about light? John 8:12, Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." The way Jesus has life in himself and light in himself is going to be a subject that John will hit again and again through the rest of this gospel.

However, the third aspect to Jesus of Nazareth being God, the creator is that this isn't going to be readily, abundantly clearly apparent to everyone. Not everyone is going to see this. Another theme that we will see again and again in this gospel is the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is fundamentally misunderstood again and again and again. Sometimes in big ways, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in relatively innocent ways of people who are trying to understand, sometimes in wicked ways of people who will eventually misunderstand him so greatly that they will nail him to a cross.

In verse five, "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it." More like has not understood it, grasped it. And so the counteracting theme to the misunderstanding of Jesus is going to be the theme of witnesses. Again and again, John will tell us about the witnesses who tell us, who correct our misunderstandings of Jesus, beginning with John the Baptist, in versus six to eight. Now we will spend more time lord willing on John the Baptist next week. So I will simply say that the John the Baptist mentioned here in verse six is not John the Evangelist, John the Apostle, John the disciple of Jesus, who was written this gospel. It's a different John, but we'll look more at him next week. The main thing, though, is to say that John, this first witness. He's not the word, he's not the light, but he came to bear witness concerning the light.

Jesus of Nazareth is God the creator.. Now, why is it so important, why is it the first thing out of the gate that John wants us absolutely to know? It's because if Jesus is your creator. Then you owe him absolute allegiance. You cannot, you have never, you will not exist apart from him if he's your creator. Not only that, but this totally removes Jesus from the category of merely a good human teacher. He's not a philosopher. He's not Husker Hot Sauce or Skunk Man One, he's something categorically different. He is the Creator.

If you want to know about life, if you want to know about light, if you want to know about creation, he's the one to turn to. Listen to him. Jesus of Nazareth is God the creator.

Second factor as we move swiftly forward through this prologue. Is that Jesus of Nazareth did not simply create and leave his creation. John wants us to know that he's the creator, but now he tells us the way in which Jesus, the creator interacts with his creation, which is the Jesus of Nazareth, comes to be God the redeemer. God, the one who redeems and saves his creation.

In versus 9 through 13 John writes, "the true light, which enlightens everyone was coming into the world." Now John's vague right now, he doesn't tell us exactly what it means for this light, the true light which enlightened everyone to come into the world, he simply says that the light is coming. It's going to enlighten everyone. The light is going to bounce off the faces of everyone whom Jesus meets, but not everyone is going to be able to see it.

Jesus will show us an example of that later when he heals a blind man for whom physical light has been bouncing off his face the entire his entire life, and he's never been able to see it until Jesus heals him of his blindness so that he sees and he believes in Jesus. But the Pharisees, who have been seeing the physical light their entire life, physical life have been bouncing off their face, now has the true light in the world bouncing off their face. They're seeing him in their midst and they don't believe him. They don't believe in him. The true light lightens everyone, just not everyone will receive it.

Part of the mission of Jesus, part of what Jesus comes to do. Again, is to be misunderstood. To be despised and rejected. This is such an odd thing. If Jesus is the word who existed from the beginning, why on earth would he come anywhere where he was going to be despised and rejected? Creation owes him everything and he comes explicitly into a vulnerable situation.

John says that this is a key part of his glory. That he was sent into the world to be lifted up, not to be adored by all, but to be crucified. And that it's there in the humility, in the weakness, in the suffering, in the death of Jesus, where we behold the glory of God. More on that in a moment.

Verses 10 and 11. "He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him." But of course, the rejection of Jesus, the misunderstanding of Jesus is not the main part of the story. It's the backdrop in front of which the real story takes place. Which is that Jesus, the mission of Jesus, the redemptive work of Jesus is to give all those who receive him, who believe in his name, the right to become children of God. Verse 12, "who were born not of blood nor of will the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."Jesus the Redeemer came to make us God's children.

Now, this is critical because John is telling us right here, right now what he wants from you. What Jesus came into the world to accomplish is for you to believe in him. It's not for you to try to replicate his life, to replicate his good deeds, to replicate his miracles. It's not for you to do something great to prove your worth. Jesus came into the world that you might believe in him. It's through faith that God makes you his child. You're born of God.

Now, if that's a complicated, weird thought, that's OK, you're in good company. A man named Nicodemus shares your reservations about that thought. We'll look at his interaction with Jesus in John chapter three and a few weeks, Lord willing. Jesus of Nazareth is God the creator. And he came to be God the Redeemer, who would save all those who believe in him.

But the final aspect of this final aspect is that Jesus of Nazareth came to be God, the mediator. Now a mediator, is someone who goes between two different parties, because that mediator has something in common with both parties. Now, sometimes the mediator only has in common with both parties that the mediator has nothing in common with both parties. That is that he's not biased to one side or the other. But more often, and most of the cases in life when someone mediates between us to make an introduction, to resolve a conflict, to do something along those lines, the way a mediator works is that the mediator has commonalities with both sides. Related, already know both sides, whatever it is, the mediator steps in to go between the two parties.

Well, if Jesus of Nazareth, the word, is exclusively only God, there's really no touch point. There's no point of commonality for him to be a mediator between God and humankind. But, John says that the way in which Jesus came to be a mediator is by becoming flesh. John, chapter one verse 14, this is a one of the most profound things ever written, and yet it is one of the most simple, elegant Greek sentences you'll ever read. "And the word became flesh."

Now, let's word flesh here is important because there were a lot of people living in John's day who believed that what was truly good was the spiritual. That you really wanted to escape, the whole goal of religion and philosophy at that time was to try to escape the material world, to get out of the body, to be simply spiritual. Now, John doesn't write here, even something like and the word became man, because that could be, well, maybe he just looked like a man or seemed like a man. John uses the craziest, crudest word possible. The word became flesh.

A word that is so crass and crude that in other places in the New Testament, Paul can even use it to describe our sinful nature. That's not what John is talking about here. It can mean that, but here he's saying he became a human being in even the crudest and crassist ways all of humanity sin accepted. Jesus became flesh. The word became flesh. He became material. He entered into our world. There was nothing of human nature, except for sin, that Jesus did not take upon himself.For the purpose, John writes of mediating.

John says Jesus of Nazareth, the word made flesh became flesh in order to mediate to us three things. First, the presence of God. Look at verse 14, "The word, became flesh and dwelt among us." That word for dwelt is the word he tabernacle among us. Just like in the Old Testament, there was a tabernacle, a tent that the Israelites could tear down and move to the next campsite and set up again, and they would meet with God in that tabernacle. So Jesus became the tabernacle. Mediating God's presence to other human beings. Since now, Jesus is not only God, but God and man, he has a commonality to mediate between the two.

Not only the presence of God, but also the glory of God. Look at the rest of verse 14, "and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth." And in verse 18, John writes again, "no one has ever seen God." Well, Moses did, right? In Exodus chapter thirty-four. John is actually interacting quite a bit with that. He's talks about Moses explicitly in verse 17, but he's saying no one has ever seen the glory of God, not even Moses. Moses saw a glimpse of the goodness of the Lord, as God proclaimed that he is a God who is merciful and faithful. That is true.

Well, look at what he says here. "Jesus is the only son from the Father full of grace and truth." What Moses heard God proclaim about his goodness as God passed by him in the cleft of the rock, Jesus embodies. So that the flesh of Jesus, the body of Jesus, doesn't obscure our vision of the glory of God. But in a humble carpenter's son, a Middle Eastern Jew, who had body odor, who had everything that every human being goes through in terms of life and development and puberty and everything else, that Jesus is where we behold the glory of God. We see it. He's in our midst. John was an eyewitness to it.

More than that in verse 18, John says, "no one has ever seen God, but the only God who was at the Father's side. He has made him known." The verb there is the Greek word that we get our verb, our word exegete from. Which if you've done any exegesis, is when you go deeply into the text and you try to translate it, you try to understand it, you try to wrestle with the meaning of it. Jesus is the exeget of the Father. He makes the Father known. He doesn't mediate only the presence of God, only the glory of God, he actually mediates God to us.

Jesus, as we will see, another theme developed over the course of this book is greater than Moses, but not in an antithetical way. What Moses began, what Moses started, what Moses anticipated is Jesus, as we will see. Because what Moses could only glimpse a piece of, Jesus stands in the presence of people exegeting the Father. Jesus of Nazareth is God the creator, God the redeemer and God the mediator, a better mediator than Moses, who gives us God.

Now, why does John tell us this? Well, John thankfully gives us a purpose statement with which we can work. In John 20:31, He tells us exactly why he is writing this to us. He says, "these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."

John starts here by outlining that Jesus is not just a Middle Eastern Jew who lived for roughly 30 years and then passed away. That Jesus existed from the beginning, when the beginning happened He was already there, creating all of the all things up, holding all things, beginning the process of redeeming all things when sin entered the world, mediating between fallen humanity and God for us.

And the reason John tells you this, the reason John signposts his conclusion at the beginning of this book is because he wants you to believe. Because apart from Jesus, there is no life. Apart from Jesus there is death, there is corruption, there is chaos there is every wicked thing that has entered the world through sin. That's what remains outside of Jesus.

Jesus, he's the light. He has life in him. Jesus is the one who can give you God. John, through this text, is calling you to believe. Including and calling to his aid the witness that we will read about later, the Holy Spirit. Who opens our eyes, who gives us ears to hear and hearts to believe the good news of the gospel of Jesus who is the Christ and the son of God.

Do you believe? Is he your hope? Is he your light and your life? Is he the word about which you cannot get enough? Let's give ourselves to the careful attention and reading of this book over the next, Lord will, in coming months. But most of all, let's ask God to open our faith to this Jesus of Nazareth.

Pray with me. Father, what a scandal that your son entered into this world and became a human just like us. In all the crass crude ways we can imagine, apart from sin, Jesus became one of us so that we could get you. Oh, God, don't let there be an evil, unbelieving hard among us. I pray that your Holy Spirit would knocked down every barrier to faith that we have, that I have, so that we might lay hold of Jesus Christ through faith by the power of your Holy Spirit. So that he might make you known. We pray this in the name. Of your great son, our savior. Amen.