Lesson #3 in the Gospel of John series

Sunday, March 5, 2000

CHRIST, THE LOGOS .... JOHN, THE WITNESS...

John 1:1-8 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 sent to bear witness of that Light."

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THE GOSPEL OF JOHN......that is the title given to this marvelous portion of God's Eternal Word! The Gospel....the Good News! Paul writes in Romans 1:16-17 (Amplified Bible): "For I am not ashamed of the GOSPEL of Christ, for it is God's power working unto salvation [for deliverance from eternal death] to everyone who believes with a personal trust and a confident surrender and firm reliance, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in the GOSPEL a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith]. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith."

Paul begins this letter written to the Romans by saying that he was proud of the GOSPEL which it was his privilege to preach. It is amazing to think of the background of that statement. Paul had been imprisoned in Philippi, chased out of Thessalonica, smuggled out of Berea, laughed at in Athens, and in Corinth his message was foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling-block to the Jews. Out of that background he declared that he was proud of the GOSPEL. There was something in the GOSPEL which made Paul triumphantly victorious over all that men could do to him.

When John wrote his GOSPEL, and Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, the conception of salvation was something of extreme importance...something for which men were searching.

There had been a time when Greek philosophy was speculative. Four or five hundred years before John and Paul, philosophers had spent their time discussing the problem---What is the one basic element of which the world is composed?

But as the world around them changed...tyrants and conquerors and perils surrounded men; degeneracy and weakness haunted them; and philosophy changed its emphasis from the speculative to the practical, from the natural to the moral. There can seldom have been a time in history when men were more universally seeking for salvation.

Epictetus called his lecture room..."the hospital for the sick soul." Seneca, who was contemporary with Paul, said that all men were looking, AD SALUTEM, towards salvation. Epictetus called his teaching..."the medicine of salvation." "What we need," he said, "was a hand let down to lift us up." "Men," he said, "were overwhelmingly conscious of their weakness and their inefficiency in necessary things."

"In that desperate world," Epictetus said, "men were seeking a peace not Caesar's proclamation, but of God. IT IS PRECISELY THAT SALVATION, THAT POWER, THAT ESCAPE, THAT CHRISTIANITY CAME TO OFFER MEN AND WOMEN! And John makes it very clear (20:30-31) that his gospel is written that men might believe in, Jesus Christ and that in believing might have life!

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John's Gospel opens magnificently! It begins by portraying the life of Christ in eternity, before the world was. That life was rich and glorious, filled with infinite delight and serene blessedness in the presence of the Father.

IN THE BEGINNING...these words are probably a conscious reminiscence of the first words of the Bible. The first book of the Hebrew Bible was named "In the beginning" (from its opening words) so the expression would be widely known.

John is writing about a new beginning, a new creation, so he uses words which recall the first creation. When the heavens and the earth were created (Gen. 1:1) the Word already existed.

From the beginning of beginnings, before beginning began--- GOD!

Isaiah 40:21-28 "Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth. And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless. Scarcely shall they be planted, scarcely shall they be shown, scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, when He will also blow on them, and they will wither, and the whirlwind will take them away like stubble. To whom then will you liken Me, or to whom shall I be equal?" says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things. Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing. Why do you say, 0 Jacob, and speak, 0 Israel; "My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God"? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable."

"IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD" ......

What is John seeking to say when he described Jesus as the Word?

In both Greek and Jewish thought there existed the conception of THE WORD. In the early days of the Church, most of the converts were Jewish. When John writes his Gospel, most of the converts were Gentile. John uses a concept which both Jew and Greek could understand.

So, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John's seeks to explain the great truths of the Christian faith, not from the mindset of the Jew, but from that of one taught in Greek philosophy and thought.

The Greeks had the conception of the LOGOS. It meant two things to them...WORD and REASON. The Jews were entirely familiar with the all-powerful word of God. "God said, Let there be light and there was light" (Gen. 1:3). The Greek was entirely familiar with the thought of reason. He looked at the world and he saw a magnificent order...night followed day, and the years kept their season in unvarying course. But, what produces this order? That was the search of the philosophers! And their answer...the LOGOS. What gives man power to think, to reason, to know? What makes him a rational, thinking creature? Again their answer...the LOGOS! It is the mind of God dwelling within a man that makes him a thinking, reasoning being.

So John seized on this!

He said to the Greeks, "All your lives you have been fascinated by this great, guiding, controlling mind of God you have called the LOGOS. That LOGOS has come to earth in the man Christ Jesus. Look at Him and you will

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see what the mind and thought of God are like." Secondly, the Greeks had a concept of two worlds, the world is a world of shadows and copies and unrealities, but the unseen was the real world. It was Plato who systematized this way of thinking in his doctrine of form and ideas. He held that in the unseen world there was the perfect pattern of everything, and somewhere there was the perfect pattern of the good and the beautiful of which all earthly goodness and earthly beauty are imperfect and inadequate copies. And the great reality, how to get out of our shadows into the eternal truths.

It is John's answer that this is what Jesus enables us to do! Jesus is reality come to earth. Jesus is the real light (1:9), Jesus is the real bread (6:32), Jesus is the real vine (15:1), to Jesus belongs the real judgment (8:16). Thus, every action that Jesus did was, therefore, not only an act in time, but a window which allows us to see into reality!

In verse 3, John declares Jesus Christ to be the CREATOR. Every detail of creation, each element and saying, each being and person--whether material or spiritual, angelic or human--has come into being by Christ!

1 Corinthians 8:6 "But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him."

God is not off in some distant place far removed from the world, unconcerned and disinterested in what happens to the world. God cares about the world...He cares deeply. But the problems of the world are not due to God and His attitude...the problems of the world are due to sin, to the attitude and evil of man's heart. The answer to the world's problems is not man and his technical skill. The answer is Christ: for men to turn to Christ, surrendering and giving their lives to know Christ in the most personal and intimate way possible. Then, and only then, can men set their lives and world in order as God intends.

In verse 4, John says: "In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."

William Barclay, in his commentary writes: In a great piece of music the composer often begins by stating the themes which he is going to work out and elaborate in the course of the composition. That is what John does here. In the Fourth Gospel, LIFE and LIGHT are two of the great basic words on which the gospel is built up.

WE HAVE MET CHRIST, THE LOGOS....NOW LET US MEET JOHN, THE WITNESS

(1) There was a man sent from God! John is immediately introduced as 'only a man' in contrast to the person of Jesus Christ who was introduced as the pre-existent Word, the Lord of eternity and Creator of all that exists! John was the son of a human father, whereas Jesus Christ was the only begotten Son of God. All through the Fourth Gospel, John is careful to point out again and again that the place of John the Baptist in the scheme of things was high, but that nonetheless, it was still subordinate to the place of Jesus Christ. Verse 7 tells us that John was sent as a WITNESS...and this is one of the key words of the Gospel. In fact, witness after witness is presented throughout John which give witness to the supreme place of Jesus Christ. Let's note some of them:

(a) There is the witness of the FATHER. Jesus said: "The Father Himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me" (5:37). In His heart the inner voice of God spoke and that voice of God left Him in no doubt as to who He was and what He was sent to do. Jesus did not regard Himself as having Himself chosen His task. When persons were confronted with Christ there came to them the inner conviction that this was none other than the Son of God.

(b) There is the witness of JESUS HIMSELF. "I am one" He said, "that beareth witness of myself" (8:18). "Though I bear record of myself, yet is my record true."

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(8:14). What Jesus was proved to be His best witness. Unless His life and His character had been what they were, such claims as...I am the Light of the world...I am the Way...I am one with the Father...these claims would have been merely shocking and blasphemous.

(c) There was the witness of HIS WORKS. He said: "The works that the Father hath given me to do...bear witness of me" (5:36). He tells Philip of His complete identity with the Father, and then goes on to say: "Believe me for the very works' sake" (14:11). No man could have done the mighty works that Jesus did unless He was closer to God than any other man ever was: but equally, no man could have lived that life of love and pity, compassion and forgiveness, service and health in the life of the every day, unless He had been in God and God in Him.

(d) There is the witness which the SCRIPTURES bear to Him. Jesus said: "Search the scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me" (5:39). All through the history of Israel men had dreamed of the day when God's Messiah would come. They had drawn their pictures and set down their ideas of Him. And now in Jesus all these dreams and pictures and hopes were finally and fully realized and fulfilled. He for whom the world was waiting had come!

(e) There is the witness of the LAST OF THE PROPHETS, JOHN THE BAPTIST. "He came for a witness to bear witness of that light" (1:7-8).

(f) There is the witness of THE HOLY SPIRIT. "when the Comforter is come...even the Spirit of truth...He will bear witness of me (15:26). In the First Epistle John writes: "It is the Spirit that beareth witness, for the Spirit is truth" (1 John 5:6). To the Jew the Spirit had two functions. The Spirit brought God's truth to men, and the Spirit enabled men to recognize that truth when they saw it. It is the work of the spirit within our hearts which enables us to recognize Jesus for what He is and to trust Him for what He can do.

John wrote his gospel to put before the world the unanswerable witness that Jesus Christ is the mind of God fully revealed to men. John the Baptist was sent from the very heart of God with the high calling and mission of introducing Jesus to His public ministry. And when you think of it...every believer, every Christian is, a person with a mission!

John 15: 16 "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he will give it you."

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we prayed you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."

John had a message...to bear witness of the Light. His purpose was not even to preach...his purpose was to lead men and women to believe in the Light.

Observation! The servant of God has one primary purpose: to lead men and women to believe in Jesus Christ, the Light of the world! The servant's purpose is not to organize, to administer, to oversee, to manage, to teach or preach...his purpose is to lead people to Jesus! Everything else is method, not purpose. And far too frequently, man becomes so involved in method, or perfecting the method, that the purpose gets lost! All of that we do should have just one purpose...helping people to know and love Jesus.

Of John the Baptist, Jesus said: "Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (Matthew 11:11). John the Baptist's greatness was lifting Jesus up and reducing his posture and importance! "He must increase, and I must decrease" (John 3:30).