I find my understanding limited.
That is due to my perspective as a created being, as a temporal creature, looking at
words that reveal the infinite God to me.
John begins his Gospel in a rather unique way.
Each of the writers does, for that matter.
Matthew begins with a genealogy, connecting Jesus with the Old Testament, tracing his
lineage to David and Abraham, because he wants to present Jesus as the King of Israel who
has the right to reign.
Mark on the other hand begins simply, opening with the ministry of John the Baptist, for
he presents Jesus as the servant, the servant of the Lord.
For a servant, a genealogy is unnecessary, not important.
It's what he does that counts.
Luke begins by dedicating his Gospel to the intended recipient, one Theophilus, to whom
he also wrote the book of Acts.
But then immediately he begins a narration, recording for us the prophecy and fulfillment
of John the Baptist's birth.
He then moves right into the narrative telling of the prophecy and fulfillment of the birth
of Jesus.
You see this physician, Luke, wants to tell us about the true humanity of Jesus.
John takes another tact altogether.
He begins with a prologue, a statement that comes before his narration.
It's the first 18 verses of the first chapter.
John's prologue is a theological statement.
You see, John wants us to understand who this Jesus is that he is going to present.
And so he introduces him by telling us that he is true deity, and in light of that, we
can understand why he says what he does and why he does what he does, as John records
it.
The subject of the prologue is the logos.
That is a Greek word spelled in the English logos.
Logos was a common Greek word in that day.
Logos meant a thought and also the expression of that thought.
The logos is a message which is communicated.
It is a word which is spoken.
The term logos was found in Greek philosophy as well as in Jewish wisdom literature.
It's rather difficult to get a handle on what the logos was to the Greeks because they changed
the meaning of it so frequently.
But basically the logos to the Greek was an abstract bit of logic.
In fact you can see the word logic in the word logos.
That's where we get the word.
To the Greek the logos was intelligence.
It was reason which the Greek felt was the eternal order behind things as they are.
We might say it this way, to the Greek the logos was the cosmic principle that ties everything
together.
Cicero put it this way, logos is the soul of the world.
It pervades the universe as honey fills the honeycomb and links time with eternity.
The Hebrews also had a concept of logos.
It was different than that of the Greek.
It had a theological meaning.
To the Hebrew the logos was the word of God.
The idea was in the logos that this is God in action.
The logos to the Hebrew had personality in it.
It was not just some abstract bit of logic, but to the Hebrew the logos had personality
to it.
It was God.
And by his word, his logos, God acted as they sought.
For example they see God acting by his word in the creation.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And the earth was without form and void.
And darkness was on the surface of the waters.
And the spirit of God was moving on the surface of the waters.
Then verse 3 begins by saying what?
Then what?
God what?
Said.
God spoke.
There's the word.
So you see to the Hebrew mind the logos was God in action.
God in creation speaking.
The logos doing something.
Bringing everything that's in the universe into existence.
This is made even more clear in verses like that in Psalm 33 verse 6 where it says that
by his word God created the heavens and the earth.
Then to the Hebrew the logos was also involved in God's revelation of himself.
A number of the prophets, the writing prophets made statements like that of Isaiah in chapter
38 verse 4 when he says the word of the Lord came unto me saying.
You see what Isaiah is saying there?
He's saying God was in action revealing himself as the logos, the word.
The word of the Lord came to me saying.
So to the Hebrew as he thought of the logos it was God.
God doing something in creation, in revelation and also in delivering his people.
The psalmist refers to this in Psalm 107 and verse 20 where there he says the word of the
Lord delivered the people of God from their captivity.
Notice it wasn't one of the prophets who was preaching but there it was the word of
the Lord it says who delivered them.
God in action you see.
To summarize this, Merrill Tenney puts it this way.
To the Hebrew the word of God, the logos, was the self-assertion of the divine personality.
To the Greek the formulation denoted the rational mind that ruled the universe.
Now John takes this word that we've been talking about logos.
He chooses it purposely for he wants to communicate something to the whole world.
And the whole world at that time had some idea of what logos is.
The Greeks had it in their philosophy, the Jews had it in their understanding of the
word of the Lord.
And so he picks a bridge word that is a word that would bridge into different cultures.
He wants to present Jesus Christ as the son of God to all the world.
Jewish, Greek, whatever.
And so he calls him the logos.
When he chooses this word however he gives it a new meaning that is important to understand.
John is not simply drawing upon a word and using it in the context of those who are used
to it, but he gives it a brand new meaning and significance.
And he begins that in our text today where he tells us that the logos is a person.
A person who not only delivers God's thoughts, but is himself the fullness of God.
Do you understand that?
He is saying that the logos is not just one who delivers God's thoughts to man, but he
is himself the fullness of all that God is.
So that when he speaks he speaks as God himself.
And the message that he delivers reveals God to us.
The logos expresses the mind of God and reveals it to man.
Here's my basic thesis for this morning.
The word, the logos, is presented as the perfect expression of all that God is.
Now that being true we must listen closely to what the logos says to us.
John makes three statements about the logos in this verse that it's important for us
to understand.
The statements are very easily picked out as you look at your verse in your Bible.
In the beginning was the word, statement number one.
The word was in the beginning.
Now obviously John begins here with an intentional allusion to Genesis chapter one which begins
as we quoted earlier, in the beginning God created.
Now John says in the beginning the word was.
Just as Genesis one records the old creation, John is suggesting that what he is going to
talk about is the beginning of the new creation.
Just as the logos was present in the first creation, the old creation, then God said
let there be light and there was light.
So he says the logos is the agent of the new creation, the spiritual creation in the heart
of man.
This phrase in the beginning refers to that which characterizes the beginning of all that
is, that is the universe.
It's an expression that's worth for us to think about.
Again let me quote Dr. Tenney to you.
The expression does not refer to a particular moment of time, but assumes a timeless eternity.
In other words, this phrase in the beginning refers to that state that was before time
began with the creation.
Can you think back that far?
It's hard enough for us to think of time stopping in the future, for God to take a
hold of the pendulum of the clock and stop it and for there to be no more time.
That's hard enough for us to grasp.
But to think back the other direction, into the past, beyond the very start of the clock
in the first place, before there was time, that's almost impossible for me at least.
But what John is saying, when that state existed, that was before time began, in the beginning,
the Word already was.
That's what he says.
This is a powerful statement and assertion of the eternal nature of the Word.
When God created in the beginning, the Word already existed.
This statement totally undercuts that false teaching of the Jehovah's Witnesses that
Jesus Christ, the Word, is the first thing that was created.
Because what this says is that when God created, the Word already had been.
The Word already existed.
So far from being the first thing created, actually, He is the creator.
In fact, John says that, doesn't he, in verse 3?
We'll talk about this next week.
All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has
come into being.
So is He the first thing created?
Absolutely not.
He is the creator.
He is the agent of creation.
Dr. F.F. Bruce says, so when heaven and earth were created, there was the Word of God already
existing in the closest association with God and partaking of the essence of God.
And then he says this, no matter how far back we may try to push our imagination, we can
never reach a point at which we could say of the divine Word as Arius did, there was
once when He was not.
Now Arius may be a new name to many of you, but Arius was one of the first major false
teachers within Christendom, early on in church history.
And one of his major problems was that he made that statement, there was a time when
the Word was not.
But that is in direct contradiction to exactly what this verse says.
In the beginning, that is when everything started, that we call the universe.
The Word already had been.
And the tense of the verb means He always had been.
So we cannot push our imaginations to the point, as did that false teacher, to say that
there was a time when the Word was not, because He always has been.
By the way, the Jehovah's Witnesses are the modern day counterparts to Arius.
They fall into the same heresy that we call the Arian heresy, because of their teaching,
denying the eternality of Jesus Christ.
Now there's a second statement that John makes.
And the Word was with God.
The Word was with God, he says.
In the beginning, the Word already was, and secondly, the Word was pros God.
That word pros, P-R-O-S, as we would write it in the English, is an important preposition.
It means toward.
The Word was toward God.
The idea is the Word was face to face with God.
And so suddenly John introduces the idea that the Word and God are not identical.
How can that be?
Well, John is beginning to tell us here that God as He exists, exists in three persons,
although John only talks about two in the context of his prologue, the Father and the
Son.
He wants us to understand that the Word was with God, we can put in parentheses the Father.
The Word, the Son, was face to face with God, the Father.
There are two thoughts that come from this phrase.
This phrase that emphasizes the personal relationship between the Word and God.
The two thoughts are, number one, intimate communion, and number two, personal distinction.
Let's talk about intimate communion for just a moment.
When he says that the Word was face to face with God, he is telling us that there is an
intimate communion between these two.
You cannot be more intimate with another person than to be face to face with that individual.
If you want to communicate something to another individual, what do you do?
You get right into the face of that other person, you look right into the eyes and you
say what you want to say.
The Word was face to face with God, and it implies the idea of equality.
The Logos, the Word, the Son of God, whichever phrase you choose to think of for the moment,
and God the Father are co-equal.
That's John's point.
We cannot say, however, they are co-dependent because there is no dependency in God whatsoever
in any form or fashion, but there is co-equality.
John is telling us very simply that the Word was an intimate fellowship with God as an
equal.
But there is another thought in that phrase, it is personal distinction.
In other words, he is saying that the Logos is not the Father, and the Father is not the
Logos.
They are distinctive, equal, but they are separate.
They are not the same thing in close communion, but not the same.
What John is saying here ties in together with what we call the doctrine of the triunity
of God.
That God is one, and yet he reveals himself as eternally existing in three persons, God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Again, I say in this context, John is concerned in his explanation only about the first two
persons, the Father and the Son, or the Logos, the Word.
The Logos eternally existed in relation to the Father.
We can put it this way, and the Word always has been face to face with God.
You see, John wants us to understand the uniqueness of this one Jesus Christ, that he is true
deity.
Now, he makes a third statement that underscores that even more, if that's possible.
For he says, not only was the Word with God, but he says the Word was God.
In the original language, the predicate here precedes the subject.
Literally the phrase says, and God was the Word.
Now, why does John write it that way?
Because he wants to emphasize the fact that the Word was God, and so he puts that Word
first in the phrase.
But if we write it into the English, the best way to understand it is just how it is probably
in your translation, as in mine, the Word was God.
Then underscore God if you want to, because that's really the thrust of the way that
John writes it.
The Word was God.
He was not merely divine, whatever that may mean, but he himself is deity.
He is deity.
The Word is not identical with God the first person, or God the Father.
But nonetheless, he says he is of the same essence, or the same being, or the same nature
as God.
I think it's the New English Bible that puts it this way, what God was, the Word was.
That's sort of an understanding of it.
B.K. Barrett, in his book The Gospel According to John, says it this way.
John intends that the whole of his gospel shall be read in light of this verse.
The deeds and words of Jesus are the deeds and words of God.
If this be not true, the book is blasphemous.
Now as you may know, the Jehovah's Witnesses are slain by this verse.
It absolutely destroys their whole theology.
And so they have conveniently done their own translation of the Bible called the New World
Translation.
And in that translation, they do everything that they can, including the breaking of Greek
grammar and syntax, in order to pull out of the New Testament the deity of Jesus Christ.
And this verse is one that they twist.
How they write the verse is, and the Word was a God, as though the Word were one of
many gods.
If they really mean that, then they are polytheists, not monotheists.
The Word was a God, is the way they write it, with a small g, in the same sense that
all of us, I suppose, can become gods.
That same idea would be very acceptable to the New Age movement.
That says all of us have God within, and we can all become God.
All we have to do is enlighten the Christ consciousness within us, and we can all become
gods like Christ was a God.
I'm sure they would find the New World Translation most acceptable.
Unfortunately, for them, however, that's not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible clearly teaches that the Word, the logos, was and always has been deity, God,
in a very unique sense.
The Word was God.
Now, there are some implications for you and for me, if what I've just said is true.
And we need to think about those.
If we truly believe that the Word was in the beginning, and that the Word was with God
in closest, most intimate communion, and that the Word, in fact, is God Himself, if we truly
believe that, and may I say we must, if we would be saved, then there are some implications
for us.
The first one is this, a wonderful implication.
God has taken the initiative that we might know Him.
Isn't that super?
God must do that, you see, for we are finite in the first place.
We are but creatures.
The most brilliant amongst us is yet finite.
And not only are we finite, but we are darkened in our understanding by our sin, so that we
do not have the brilliance of Adam, our grandfather.
We do not have the intellectual capacity of Eve, as they were created by God, because
you see there is an accumulative effect of sin.
It has darkened our understanding, therefore, because we are finite to begin with and to
complicate things, we are sinners with darkened minds, we could never discover God on our
own.
Never.
Oh, somebody says, but doesn't Romans 1 say that we can see God in the heavens?
Yes.
It says that God has revealed Himself in the heavens, that we may behold something of His
power and His divinity.
But what we could see there in the order of the heavens and the majesty of it is never
enough knowledge that we could be saved from it.
We cannot discover God on our own.
I heard a story a number of years ago about some boys and girls that were at a camp in
New England, a liberal Baptist camp, and one of the assignments in the afternoon was that
they should go out into the woods surrounding there and see if they could find God somewhere.
And so they went out into nature to find God.
How sad that the teachers of the camp did not know enough to open the Bible and show
them God.
We don't have to go out and look under rocks to find God, because God has taken the initiative
to reveal Himself to us.
That's an implication that's important.
God desires, you see, to be known, and God desires to be worshipped by His creatures.
This being so, there is no knowledge in all of the world that is so important as that
which may be known about God.
Is it important to study physics, mathematics?
Yes, it's important to study those subjects.
Is it important to study medicine?
Is it important for every intellectual pursuit?
Well, let's say most of them at least.
There are some courses I had in college I wonder about.
Yes, knowledge is good and we ought to pursue it, but there is no knowledge in all of the
world that surpasses in its importance the knowledge of God.
But isn't that the very knowledge that our world today tries to deny?
It tries to avoid.
The knowledge of God is the most important study that one can undertake.
God has revealed Himself to us through His Son, the Logos, the Word, and just as Jesus
is the living Word, so this is the written Word or Logos of God.
This is where we come to find God.
Rather this is where God reveals Himself to us.
So as you undertake whatever you're studying, whatever it is you're pursuing in your life,
let me urge upon you that study which is above every study, the study of the Word of God,
coming to know God who has revealed Himself to us.
There's a second implication.
Because Jesus is the Logos of the Father, the Word of the Father, to hear Him is to
hear God.
Now Jesus Himself said this.
Jesus said, I only speak those things that are given to me by my Father.
He also said, He who has seen me has seen the Father.
Did the Jews understand what He was saying when He made claims like that?
Absolutely.
That's why they took up stones to kill Him because they knew that when He made those
statements He was claiming to be God Himself and the perfect revelation of God.
And they did not want to accept that.
But because He is the Logos, the Word of the Father, to hear Him is to hear God.
In the Gospel of John, let me show you what that means.
Chapter 5 verse 24.
Because He is the Logos of God, His words bring life to those who believe.
Verse 24, John 5.
Truly, truly I say to you, Jesus says, He who hears my word and believes in Him who
sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has already passed out
of death into life.
Isn't that great news?
It means that those of us who believe His words, who receive Him, at that moment of
our faith already pass out of death into life.
There is no judgment with respect to our sin beyond that point.
For our sins, our death is dealt with at the cross.
But when we believe in Him, we have life.
Because He is the Logos of the Father, His word brings life to those who believe.
But there is another side to the coin.
And I invite you to look at chapter 12 verse 44, again at the words of Jesus, to see a
second implication of this.
Jesus cried out and said, He who believes in me does not believe in me, but in Him who
sent me.
That means does not believe in me only, but also in Him who sent me.
And He who beholds me beholds the one who sent me.
I have come as light into the world, that everyone who believes in me may not remain
in darkness.
And if anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not
come to judge the world, but to save the world.
He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him.
The word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.
For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent me has given
me commandment what to say and what to speak.
And I know that His commandment is eternal life, therefore the things I speak, I speak
just as the Father has told me.
Because He is the perfect expression of all that God wants to say, His word brings life
to those who believe, and His word brings judgment to those who do not believe.
It works both ways.
The word is like a two-edged sword, one blade on one side and one on another.
To those who believe Him and receive Him, life.
To those who reject Him and disobey Him, judgment.
So you see, when we talk about Jesus being the logos of God, this is a very serious subject.
It is one that involves every human being, as we're going to see in the Word next week.
All of us are affected because the Word came, because He is the perfect expression of all
that God is.
And because He is that perfect expression of God, we must listen and take heed to what
He says.
Let's bow together.
Actually, there are only two choices that we have with respect to the logos of God.
We can receive or we can reject.
We can believe or we can disobey.
And we're responsible for what decision we make.
To reject Jesus Christ is to reject God and to cut oneself off without hope of eternal
life.
It means to come into judgment.
It means to pass eventually into the second death, the lake of fire.
How important it is then that we choose wisely and choose to believe.
If that's a decision you would like to make, you can do it right where you're seated if
you feel that you're ready to do that.
If you sense the call of God upon your heart to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to receive
Him as God come in the flesh who paid the price for your sin, you may do that right
there.
If you would like to have someone pray with you or explain something further to you or
to help you with your questions, there's a box you can check on the registration form
asking someone to be in touch with you.
Check that box and we'll be in touch, I promise you, this week.
Lord Jesus, log off so the Father, we worship you.
And because you are the perfect expression of all that God is, being God, our heart's
desire is to know you and to obey you.
And we give ourselves to you and all that we are.
In Jesus' name, amen.
I think you know the chorus, Oh come let us adore Him.
I'd like for us to sing that a cappella.
Sing it with me.
Oh come let us adore Him.
Christ the Lord.
As I thought about that chorus and the text this morning, several phrases came to mind
that I'd like to use right in that chorus.
I'll give you each phrase as we sing it and we'll close it, Christ the Lord, just as we
sang it the first time.
The first one goes, He is the Word of God.
He is the Word of God.
Christ the Lord.
He was in the beginning.
Christ the Lord.
He was the father of all and was with the father.
He was the father and he was with the father.
Christ the Lord.
And the Word is God Himself.
Christ the Lord.
So I'll obey the Word.
Christ the Lord.
Amen.
We'd like to welcome all of you to the service this morning.
I'm glad that you've come to worship.