2019.04.27 Hopewell @Home ▫ John 1:1-5

Read John 1:1-5

Questions for Littles: When was the Word already there (John 1:1)? With whom was the Word at that time? Who was He at that time? Who was with (literally, “toward,” or “facing”) God in the beginning (John 1:2)? What was made through Him (John 1:3)? What wasn’t made through Him? What was in Him (John 1:4)? What did men receive from this light? What does the light do now (John 1:5)? What has the former light of men become? What can’t the darkness grasp? 

In the Scripture for tomorrow’s sermon, we will hear an astonishing introduction to Jesus Christ. It doesn’t start in Bethlehem. It doesn’t start in the womb of Mary. In fact, it doesn’t even start in time. In the beginning, the Word already was. From all eternity. How? The Word was God. And Jesus’s mission was one that began outside of time.

The Gospel of John is the story of God, the eternally glorious Son, breaking into time to retrieve the adoptive children, and bring them home to Father, where they will enjoy Him (Christ) as the very glory of the Father Himself, forever and ever.

So John begins by taking us literally to the beginning: the glory that Jesus had with God before the world began—from all eternity, the Father and the Son (with the Spirit, who is not explicitly mentioned here) in perfect and equal glory and power, of the same substance.

This glory, God displayed by creating, and of course the Son is the Creator every bit as much as the Father is. Because the Word was God. So everything else that is not God is created by the Word. He is, therefore, very God of very God from the beginning. No wonder various cults either deny or rewrite this portion of Scripture!

And what a glorious beginning for man: the life of the Word Himself was given to men to be their light. Man was made in His image. Nothing else in creation can make that claim.

Sadly, man fell quickly. His light became darkness—so dark, in fact, that when the Word Himself came and shined in the darkness, men were unable to grasp His light. But to those who, by the will of God, receive the new birth and come to believe in Him, He gives them, too, the amazing right to be called the children of God!

What were you created to be? What would you be by yourself? What has God done about that?

Suggested Songs: ARP110B “The Lord Has Spoken to My Lord” or TPH270 “At the Name of Jesus”