Thank you for leading us, Mark and Jake, appreciate that. Good morning to everyone. This is more like Christmastime in Indiana, where I grew up. A little strange that we don't have any snow and cold, but it's kind of nice on the farm. I'm not complaining, I guess. 

Well, this morning we're going to start a new book. I'd planned to start the Gospel of John for our communion services the last Sunday of each month, and Mark pointed out to me when I texted him what I was going to preach on yesterday, that this is not the last Sunday of the month. So I guess we're going to get a head start on John this week, and we'll have communion next week. So my apologies for my calendar confusion. 

Well, this is an amazing book written by the Apostle John, the one Jesus loved. And it is a book written specifically to show us who Jesus is, God in the flesh. I'd like to begin by asking you to turn to 1 John, the epistle of John, in chapter 2, 1 John 2 at verse 21. John writes, “I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either. He who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Therefore, let that abide in you what you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he has promised us, eternal life.”

What does it mean to deny the Son? To deny Jesus is to deny either who he is or to deny what he has done. We see this in the false Christian religions of our world. Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, claim the name of Christ. They claim to believe in Jesus, but they deny that he is God, that he is the creator and the sustainer of all things. Many mainline denominations would affirm that Jesus is God, but they deny the sufficiency and completeness of his death, burial, and resurrection, teaching that we must contribute to what was lacking in the cross by our works, our participation in rites and rituals and sacraments. 

Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished.” He paid the debt in full, suffered the wrath of God in my place for my sins. The work is complete, and my sins are imputed to him, and his righteousness imputed to me through faith in him and what he did alone apart from any work that I do. This is the truth of what Jesus has done, his sufficient work, his death for our sins. 

So denying Jesus means condemnation. Denying Jesus means eternal hell, because there is only one way to salvation, only one way to escape the wrath of God to come, judgment according to our works. And that one way is to know who Jesus is, to know what he has done, and to believe, to trust in him alone. 

John uses the word translated believe exactly 100 times in his gospel. He is most concerned that we believe Jesus and that we believe the truth concerning who Jesus is and what he has done, that we know and affirm those great and powerful truths and take them for ourselves by faith. 

In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which give us a synopsis of the life and work of Jesus on this earth, it is their purpose to chronicle his life, to each from his own perspective tell about the life that he lived and the works that he performed. But John's gospel differs greatly in that his central purpose is to show us who Jesus is, that Jesus is God in the flesh. 

He is the word. He is the revelation of God to man, and the word has taken on flesh to dwell among us. He wants us to be clear and show us who Jesus is in order that we might know him. He wants us to have a right understanding of the person and work of Christ so that we might believe. 

John's intent in writing is made specifically clear in chapter 20 of verse 31. I'd like for you to turn to that verse and mark it, note it, come back to it as we study together over the next many months this tremendous book. John chapter 20, I'll begin reading at verse 30. 

"And truly, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. Now, verse 31 is the key verse for our understanding, but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name." 

This book is an evangelistic book. John wrote it so that we might believe, place our faith in Jesus alone, and that believing we would have eternal life, life in his name, and his name is who he is. His name is what he has accomplished in his work on the cross. We must know who Jesus is and we must believe him because this is the only way to salvation. This is the only way to spend eternity in the Father's house. 

So through our study of this great gospel, we will trust the Lord to guide us into these amazing truths and make them clear to us as we study the person and work of Jesus Christ and learn more about who he is, the greatness of his person, and the work, the salvation he provides through faith in him. 

Let's look at our text, John 1.1. "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." 

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not that light, but he was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 

Well, I've given you four points on your outline this morning. First, the word is God. Second, the word is creator. Third, the word is life and light. And fourth, the word became flesh. 

Well, the beginning verses of John 1 are some of the most powerful in all of the scriptures, and some of the clearest verses concerning who Jesus is. In the beginning, John starts, this is a highly significant phrase that he begins with, in the beginning, the beginning of what? Well, it is the beginning. Genesis 1.1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It says the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. This is the beginning, the beginning of creation, the beginning of time, the beginning of the history of this universe of man, of the creations of the heavens and the earth. 

And what John says first is that in the beginning, before anything was, before any creative work, Jesus was already there. In the beginning was the word. This is an interesting way to describe Jesus. He is the logos, the word. Why did John choose this word to describe Jesus? 

Well, the word logos was commonly known to both Jew and Greek, and had a rich meaning for both. In Greek mythology, the word was used to describe the creative force of the universe. They believed that there was some non-personal force out there that was the source of all things. They did not believe that this force was a person, that it was relatable to man, or even a specific being. It was just a force, like the force be with you. So this was a familiar term to the Greeks, speaking of the creative force of the universe. 

And John's going to tell them that this logos, this word, is a personal being, a knowable God, and that this God has taken on flesh and dwelt among us. It's quite a stunning statement for the Greek, but perhaps even more stunning for the Jew. 

Turn over to Hebrews 1. Let's look at Hebrews 1 at verse 1. "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." 

For the Jew, the logos is the word of God in the Old Testament, the revelation of God through his prophets. The word of the Lord came to me. We read that over and over. As we see here in Hebrews 1, God spoke in various times and in various ways in time past to the fathers by the prophets. 

In the Old Testament, God revealed himself; God sent his word, the word of the Lord, in various ways, by direct revelation, by speaking through his servants, by dreams and visions, through the prophets, even through the mouth of a donkey, God spoke. God spoke to men, revealed himself and his will by his word, the word of the Lord. 

What John is saying to the Jew is this, that word, the word of the Lord, has taken on flesh, and now God is speaking exclusively through his Son. John chose the perfect word, logos, the word, a word that has a very full meaning both for Jew and for Greek. And this word is God. 

In verse one, we see in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Jesus is clearly the word; the word is God. Jesus is God. This is perhaps the clearest declaration of the deity of Christ in the scriptures, and this is very important in John's purpose to tell us who Jesus is. 

And notice also, John says the word was with God. Not only is Jesus God, but he was with God. How can this be? This can only be if Jesus is somehow distinct from the Father. And here we have the beginning of our understanding of the Trinitarian nature of the one true God. God is one, but God is one in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

We see this in the beginning at creation. God the Father created, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the earth. And in our text, we see that it was through Jesus that God created. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were there at creation. We see this truth expressed in many scriptures, certainly at the baptism of Christ. 

You know that passage in Matthew 3.13, it says Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you are coming to me.” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed it. 

When he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him. And suddenly, a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 

God is one, but God is three persons, the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So we see that Jesus is the Son, the second person of the Trinity, and yet Jesus is fully God. I want to go back to that Hebrews 1 passage. If you look at that with me again, Hebrews 1.1. Pay attention to these words. 

He says, "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." 

It says that Jesus is the brightness of God's glory. He is the express image, the exact representation of his person, and he upholds all things by his word, by his power. Jesus is God; he is equal with God, face to face, the express image of God. 

We see this in so many passages in Philippians. Paul tells us that Jesus did not hold on; he didn't think it's something to be grasped, to hold on to the attributes of deity, but he laid them aside and took on flesh and became a man in order to die in our place for our sins. He says he was in the form of God; he did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking on the form of a bondservant, coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross, and therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name, which is above every name. 

Jesus is equal to God; he is God, but he humbled himself, he condescended, and became a man in order to accomplish our salvation. 

Turn over to Colossians 1. We'll look at another passage saying these same things, Colossians 1 at verse 15. Paul writes, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn, the prototokos, the reigning one, the first one, the preeminent one. It doesn't mean first in chronology; it means he's first over, we'll see that again in resurrection. He's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for by him all things were created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body of the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross." 

My friends, there's no question that Jesus is God and the Scriptures teach clearly and forcefully that he is God and Jesus himself claimed to be God. The Jews clearly understood this; they called him a blasphemer for claiming to be equal with God and they crucified him. 

Turn over to John 10 with me, John 10 at verse 24. Then the Jews surrounded him and said to him, "How long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name they bear witness of me, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." 

Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, "Many good works I have shown you from my Father, for which of those works do you stone me?" The Jews answered him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, and because you being a man, make yourself God." They clearly understood that Jesus was claiming to be God. He said to the Pharisees, "Before Abraham was, I am." Many times he used the I am statement, claiming to be the I am of the Old Testament, the eternal God. 

So we see that the Word is God. Next we see in our text that the Word is Creator. John 1.1, "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made." We see that the Lord is the Creator. We see this all through the Old Testament from Genesis 1 on, Psalm 33.6 says, "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the hosts of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap, He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him, for He spoke and it was done, He commanded and it stood fast." 

The Lord God is Creator, and as we have seen, Jesus is the Lord God. Listen again to Colossians 1.15, He's the image of the invisible God, the first over all creation. "For by Him all things were created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." 

In our text, John makes a positive and a negative statement to enforce the truth of what he's saying, that Jesus is the Creator. He says all things were made through Him, Hebrews 1 says God created all things by Him, God is the Creator, but He created all things through Jesus. John says all things, all things were created by Him, and then he says without Him, nothing was made that was made. There is no other Creator; there's nothing here that Jesus didn't create. The whole of creation exists and consists, as we see in Colossians 1 and Hebrews 1, by the Word of His power. 

Jesus is God; Jesus is the Creator, and Jesus is the Sustainer. In Acts 17, Paul, preaching, said, "He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwelling, so that they should seek the Lord and hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us." 

Listen to verse 28, "For in Him we live and move and have our being." Jesus created all things; Jesus sustains all things; he upholds all things by the Word of His power, and it is in Him that we live and move and have our being. He is the all in all. 

As we see in our text next, He is light and He is life. John 1, 1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it or overpower it," is what that word means. 

Jesus is life. The word used here is zoe, the essence of life. The word psuche is oftentimes, 40 times in fact, translated life, and it refers to the breath, the breath of life, the thing which animates flesh. The word zoe refers to the essence of life, both animate and ethical. It is most often used in conjunction with the word eternal, or refers to eternal life. It is Jesus who is this life. It is Jesus who gives this life, the very source of life. It's a quality of life that we who believe now possess, and will possess for eternity. It is in union with Christ, from Him, by Him, through Him. 

In John 5.39, Jesus said, "You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of Me." In John 10.28, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand." 

John 12.25 is a good example of the distinction between psuche and zoe. He says, "He who loves his life," he who loves his life, this life, this temporal life, psuche, the earthly, animate, carnal life, he says will lose it. And he who hates his life in this world, psuche again, will keep it for eternal life. Hear the word zoe, eternal life, the essence of life, new life, regeneration, life, eternal. 

In John 17.3, Jesus said, "And this is eternal life, that they may know you and the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Knowing Jesus is life. We must know Jesus, who He is, what He has done, and we must receive that life, eternal life, by faith. 

Jesus is life, and next we see that this life is light. The wording here indicates that life is light; it's the same Greek construction as a couple of verses up where it says the Word was God. Jesus is life, and that life is light, and Jesus is the light that shines into the darkness of this world. Verse 4, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness could not overtake it." 

Look at verse 9, "That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world." In John 8.12, then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world, he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." In John 9.5, He says, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." 

Jesus, fully God, took on flesh and became a man, coming into the world; He is life. He is light that shines and dispels the darkness. He is the light that lights every man coming into the world. 

I'd like for you to look at John 3 with me, John 3 verse 16, a familiar passage. John 3.16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 

"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God." 

The light exposes and expels the darkness. Men who live their sin, who hate the light, who love their sin, who hate the light, remain in darkness so that their works are hidden. But Jesus came to save men from the darkness. Jesus came to save men from the lies, from the schemes of Satan, to shine His light, His life into every man so that every man might come to the knowledge of Christ, believe in Him, and be saved. 

Colossians 1 proclaims this wonderful truth for every man who will believe. It says, "For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power for all patience and longsuffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." 

Men are born into darkness, the darkness of this world and its system and its ruler, the darkness of sin and spiritual death, separation from God, and ultimately eternal death in the lake of fire. Jesus is the life; He is the light that breaks forth in that darkness. When He took on flesh and entered our world, fully God and fully man, the Word became flesh and dwelled among us. 

The Word, God, who was with God in the beginning, before creation, before time and space and matter, the eternal Son of God, second person of the Trinity, the Creator of all things, the fullness of God, became a man and took on flesh. He tabernacled among us and this for the very purpose of bringing life to dead men, of shining light into the darkness so that men might believe and be saved. 

This is our weapon as believers in this world, isn't it? Truth, light, as opposed to error and darkness. We expose the darkness. We expose the evil works by speaking the truth, by being the light in this world. This is the purpose of the book of John, to tell us who Jesus is, to tell us what He has done, to know Him so that we might believe Him and have eternal life, real abundant life, spiritual life, out from among the dead. 

We see that this only comes by faith in Jesus alone. Look at John 1, verse 4 of our text, "...in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness could not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 

He was in the world, this dark world, the world of Satan and his ministers, and the world did not know Him. Imagine that, the Creator that made everything, that spoke it into existence, that holds it up and sustains it by the word of His power. He came to that world, and the world didn't know Him, and even though He created all things and is the sustainer, men did not recognize Him. 

And the sadder truth is that He came to His own, and they would not receive Him. He came as the Messiah, King of the Jews, to offer the kingdom, but His own people rejected Him and would not believe, and crucified Him. But, do you love the adversative? But for everyone who would believe, for those who would turn from their own self-righteousness and religion and works, for those who receive Jesus, that is, those who believe on His name, to them... he gave the right to become children of God. 

This is God's will. This is God's plan. This is God's purpose in sending Christ to become a man and die in our place for our sins so that we might believe and be saved from the wrath of God to come. 

Turn to Hebrews 2. Mark read that passage this morning appropriately. I'd like to look at that again. Hebrews 2.10. "For it was fitting for him, for Jesus, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, 'I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly, I will sing praise to you,' and again, 'I will put my trust in him,' and again, 'Here am I in the children whom God has given me.' 

And as much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." 

Amazing truth, what an amazing promise. Jesus, God the Son, took on flesh and became a man for the express purpose of saving those who would believe in destroying the power of darkness, of Satan, and of death, so that we would no longer walk in darkness, we would no longer live as dead men on this earth destined for eternal hell, that we would no longer be in bondage to fear of death. Praise the Lord, we no longer fear death. 

Jesus is life; he gives us life, eternal life, through faith in him; he is not ashamed to call me his brother. I don't understand that, but I'm thankful for it. There's a fascinating passage in Matthew 12: they came to Jesus, he was teaching, and they said, "Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak with you." But he answered and said to the one who told him, "Who is my mother and who are my brothers?" And he stretched out his hand toward his disciples and he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers, for whoever does the will of the Father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother." 

John 6 tells us that the will of God is this, that we believe in the one whom he sent. First John 3 tells us that the command of the new covenant is to believe Jesus and love one another. 100 times in this great gospel of John he writes the word believe. His very intention in writing, according to chapter 20 verse 31, is that we would believe Jesus and believing we would have eternal life. 

What a promise; he's not ashamed to call me his brother. God has given me the right to become his child because I believe Jesus. That's the message, my friends. Jesus summed it up in John 5:24, he said, "Most assuredly, verily, verily, listen, you can take this to the bank, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment but has passed from death unto life." 

The Word is God. The Word is Creator. The Word is life and light, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is the Word, my friends, and if you believe Him, if you put your trust in Him, you will have eternal life now, today, forever. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. 

This is the message of this great book of John and I know the Lord will bless us immensely as we seek together to know Him, to believe Him, to abide in Him one day at a time. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for the great gift, the indescribable gift of Jesus, one who became flesh, lived as a man, a perfect life, and died a death He didn't deserve. He died that death in our place, in our stead, for our sins in order to satisfy your wrath that I deserved. Thank you, Father, for your love demonstrated at the cross. Thank you for your plan of salvation from before the world began, and thank you that through faith any man can be saved, can be given the right to become your child, can be secure for eternity, possessing eternal life through faith in Jesus. It's in His name we pray. Amen.