John 1:1-5

Introduction to John and John 1:1-5

Who wrote it? It was definitely written by an eyewitness. Detailed conversations, like the conversation between Rabbi Nicodemus and Yeshua, are recorded in such a way that only an eyewitness could provide. Details about His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and much specific information about His trials and death are recorded. The city of Jerusalem is mentioned in detail. Sheep gate (5:2), pool of Beit-Zata, House of Oils, Beit-Chasda, the House of Mercy, Bethesda (5:2), the Temple (2:14), Temple treasury (8:20), Temple porches (10:23), Pool of Shiloach - Siloam (9:7), The Kidron (18:1), Gat-Sh'manim, the winepress of oils, Gethsemane (18:2), Residences of Annas and Caiaphas (18:15), Praetorium (18:28), Golgotha, the place of the skull (19:17), burial garden (19:41). Tradition says that it was written by Yochanan - John, Yeshua's beloved and intimated disciple, who also wrote the three letters that bear his name, along with the book of Revelation.

To whom was it written? It was written to the whole world. The word "world" is repeated often. It addresses current Greek/Roman philosophical themes, as well as a good deal of messianic prophecies and references to the Tenach. So, it has a universal emphasis - it was written to reach Jews and Gentiles.

Why was it written? The purpose why was it written is given to us in chapter 20:30-31: Many other signs therefore Yeshua also performed in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

It is essential that we believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Anointed Ruler sent by God to help us and save us and atone for us. And, we must also believe that He is the Son of God - that He shares the same nature as God - divine, eternal, uncreated.

We must believe, trust, have confidence that Yeshua of Nazareth, this man, is the Messiah and the Son of God. "Believe" means than mere mental affirmation. It means following, obeying, becoming a persecuted disciple. Belief results in "life." Unbelief, lack of faith in Yeshua, denial that He is the Messiah and the Son of God, results in death - eternal death, forever separated from God - Ha Makor - the Source of Life.

John will give us the interactions that various people have with Yeshua. Watch if people move towards belief or unbelief. And while you are watching, be asking yourself, "Am I moving toward belief or unbelief? Am I following, obeying, becoming a persecuted disciple?"

To help us believe, John selected certain "signs", miracles that point beyond themselves to Yeshua:

Yeshua sees Nathan'el before He comes into His presence demonstrating His foreknowledge, and His power over distance.

Yeshua knows the Samaritan woman's history, showing His supernatural knowledge, and that He is able to know our minds.

Yeshua turns water to wine, and walks on water, proving His power over nature, and that He is the Lord of Creation and the Source of our Joy.

Yeshua heal the official's son, showing that Yeshua is our healer, and that He is not limited by distance.

Yeshua heals the paralyzed man, demonstrating once again that He can restore us from the ruin sin has brought to us.

Yeshua feeds the multitude with five loaves of bread, and two fish, proving that He is our provider.

Yeshua gives sight to the blind man, communicating that He is the One who can help us see God, see truth and spiritual realities.

Yeshua raises Lazarus from the dead, which tells us that this One is the Lord of life and death.

Yeshua's resurrection is the great sign, communicating to the whole world that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, who is faithful and truth, righteous and innocent and just, the One whom God loves and approves of, victorious over sin and death, the Lord of all.

After His resurrection, Yeshua helps His disciples catch a huge load of fish, demonstrating that Yeshua is still the same, the powerful Lord of Creation who provides for His people.

To help us believe, John includes the "I Am" statements:

I am Bread of Life (6:35). If we believe in Him, we will be forever nourished.

I am Light of the World (8:12). If we believe in Him, we will have the knowledge that leads to salvation.

I am the Door (10:9). If we have confidence in Him, God and Heaven will be opened to us.

I am the Good Shepherd (10:11, 14). If we trust Yeshua, we will be safe and protected.

I am the Resurrection and the Life (11:25). If we believe in Him, we will be raised from death and live forever.

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (14:6). If we believe in Him, we will find our way back to God, we will know the truth that saves us and sets us free, and we will live forever. I like what Pastor Gordon Ainsworth said when he was here a few months ago.

"By saying 'I am the Way,' Yeshua eliminated any other way to God; by saying, 'I am the Truth' Yeshua was saying that any other way to God was a lie; and by saying 'I am the Life,' Yeshua was saying that every other way leads to death."

I am the True Vine (15:1). If we confidently trust in Yeshua, we will be fruitful and our lives will be eternally meaningful.

And the greatest of the "I Am statements," before Abraham was, I am (8:58). If we believe in Yeshua, we will know and be forever accepted by God. [Other "I ams" are found in 8:24, 8:28, 13:19].

To help us believe, John gives us various titles for Yeshua, that help us better know who He is:

He is the Word: the way that the invisible God, who is Spirit, who is infinite, whom no man has ever fully seen, is able to communicate to mankind, and reveal Himself to us.

He is the Rabbi: Our Teacher and the supreme authority in all matters of religious truth, who knows what He is talking about, whose every word is faithful and true.

He is the Messiah and the King of Israel: the Anointed Ruler, the descendant of David and the eternal heir to his throne, whom God sent to rule over Israel and the nations, bringing salvation and order and peace and prosperity and justice and righteousness.

He is the Lamb of God: the One who died on Passover so that God can passover all of our iniquities brings us out of our Egypts of sin and death, and provide full and final atonement.

He is the Savior of the world: He is the One - the only One, who can solve the world's problems. He can reconcile the whole world back to the God from whom mankind is estranged. He can reverse the curse brought about by sin. He can triumph over sin, sickness, Satan, death and Hell. He can end our alienation from God and bring us peace - peace with God, peace with one another, peace with nature and creation, and peace within ourselves.

He is the Son of Man: fully Man, unfallen, sinless, good, obedient, faithful, pure, holy, man. And He has eternally joined Himself to humanity, so that He is forever bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.

He is the Son of God, and the only begotten God: That does not mean that God created Him, or that He is younger than God. Exactly the opposite! It means that He shares the very same nature as God. He is deity, divine, eternal, uncreated, with life within Himself, sharing all the attributes of God.

He is the Lord and God: Doubting Thomas, seeing the Resurrected Messiah, and finally understanding who He is, declared, "My Lord and My God!" He is Adonai, the Lord of the universe, and the true God.

When was it written? We're not exactly sure when it was written. Some say it is the latest of the first four books of the New Testament, while others say it may be the earliest. Tradition says it was written by John between 45 to 90 AD.

How was it written? It is written chronologically, around the Biblical holidays: Passover, Sukkot, Hanukkah.

It was written with fairly simple language, yet with a profundity, a deepness of meaning. It can be read and understood by a child, and yet the greatest scholars can read it over a lifetime and never plumb its depths.

It was written with an emphasis on Yeshua's deity and His humanity, showing that He is fully God and yet fully man. His hunger, thirst, weariness, pain, death are specifically mentioned.

It was written using contrasts. There are contrasts between God and Satan, good and evil, light and darkness, love and hate, life and death, flesh and spirit, slavery and liberty, truth and lie.

Commenting on these contrasts, Merrill Tenney observed: "Although He was virtuous, He suffered all possible indignities; majestic, He died in ignominy; powerful, He expired in weakness ... He claimed to possess the water of life, and He died thirsting. He claimed to be the light of the world, and He died in darkness. He claimed to be the Good Shepherd, and He died in the fangs of the wolves. He claimed to be the truth, and He was crucified as an impostor. He claimed to be the resurrection and the life, and He expired sooner than most victims of crucifixion usually did" (page 52 of John - The Gospel of Belief).

John 1:1-5

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 came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

In the beginning, before the universe was created, was the Logos. Logos is the Word, the Reason, the Ultimate Fact behind the universe. This Word is the final Communication of God to mankind. He is the ultimate Messenger, the Final Prophet, The Living Torah, the Word of God. He is the personification of all that God the Father wants to say to mankind.

He is the Logos - the reason behind the order in the universe. If you are lacking order, and things don't make sense to you, you need to understand more, and draw closer to Yeshua.

In the beginning was the Word. The Word always was. He existed before the universe. He is Eternal.

The Word was with God. God and the Word co-existed, in eternal association. The Word was God. He is fully identified as God. He is fully God. And yet, the Word is distinct from God. It can be said that He was with God, and yet also was God. We have a distinction of Persons, with a oneness of nature. What else happened "In The Beginning"?

In the beginning God had been in eternal loving relationship with His Son: The Father eternally loved the Messiah, who testified at His last Passover Seder: You loved Me before the foundation of the world (John 17:24).

In the beginning eternal glory was shared between God and Messiah Yeshua: He also prayed during that last Seder: Father, glorify Me alongside Yourself. Give me the same glory I had with You before the world existed (John 17:5).

In the beginning God created the angels: The angels were witnesses to the creation of the universe. Therefore God says to Job: Where were you when I founded the Earth... when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7). How else could ha Nachash - the Serpent - already be so evil and corrupt, if the creation of the angels and the fall of some of them, hadn't already taken place?

In the beginning, before the universe was made, God had already had a plan to save certain chosen human beings. God chose us in His love before the creation of the universe to be holy and without defect in His presence. He determined in advance that through Yeshua the Messiah we would be His sons (Ephesians 1:4-5).

In 2 Timothy 1:8-9 Rabbi Paul informs us that God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Messiah Yeshua from all eternity.

Twice in the book of Revelation we are told that before the foundation of the world, God had already written our names in the Lamb's Book of Life, the Messiah who was slain, sacrificed for us (Revelation 13:8, 17:8). Our salvation had already been decided and written!

In the beginning God had appointed Messiah Yeshua to be the Savior in His pre-determined plan for mankind's salvation. We weren't redeemed with gold or silver, writes Simon Peter, but something far more precious, with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Messiah. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:18-20).

In Peter's great sermon on the day of Shavuot, he proclaimed to Israel that Yeshua was delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23).

In the beginning God had already prepared the Messiah's Kingdom for His chosen ones: Therefore the King will say to those on His right hand, "Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34).

Erich Sauer eloquently writes: "All these mighty words stand in the Scripture not for the satisfaction of curious inquisitiveness, nor even for the intellectual completion of our picture of the history of the world's salvation, but in order to show us the greatness of the Divine love. Even before all the ages of time the Highest concerned Himself with your glory and with mine. Before the sea raged and swelled, before the Earth was built or its foundations were sunk, yea, before those morning stars exulted and those sons of God shouted for joy, God, the Almighty, even then had thoughts on me. On me, the worm of the Earth, who have given Him so much trouble and labor with all my sins; on me, He Who is God, the Ancient of days. Truly these are depths not to be fathomed, and which the heart of every man despairs of being able to describe in words. Here we can only bow and worship, and lay our life at the feet of Him, the All-loving."

As soon as we hear the words, "In the beginning", we immediately should be reminded of Genesis 1:1: B're-sheet - In the Beginning. Just as B're-sheet begins the original creation, in Sefer Yochanan, the book of John, Yeshua is also the focus of the B're-sheet. Yochanan is trying to tell us that with Yeshua there is a new beginning for mankind.

According to the book of B're-sheet - Genesis, very soon after the beginning our first parents sinned, and sin, death and the curse entered into the world. Mankind was corrupted and ruined. Even God's Chosen Nation failed time after time after time. But now, God has a new B're-sheet - a new beginning, through His Word, His Son, the Messiah. In Yeshua, there is a new beginning, a new hope for all of mankind.

Let's continue with verse 3: All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. On the first day, God said, "Let there be light''; and the Word, Yeshua, God's agent, created light.

On the second day, God said, "Let there be a "rah-kee-ah" - an expanse in the midst of the waters and the Word, Yeshua, God's Executor, carried out that command and made it so.

On the third day God said, "Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear''; and the Word of God, made it so. Then God said, "Let the Earth sprout vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the Earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them''; and again, the Word made it so.

On the fourth day God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the Earth''; and the Word, Yeshua, made it so. He made the sun to govern the day, and the moon to govern the night; He made the stars also.

On the fifth day God said, "Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the Earth in the open expanse of the heavens.'' And the Word of God obeyed and the Son of God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind.

On the sixth day God said, "Let the Earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the Earth after their kind;'' and the Word of God heard, obeyed, and with the power of God, and it was so. Then God said, "Let Us - plural - make man in Our image - plural, according to Our likeness - plural; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the Earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the Earth.'' And the Word All things came into being through the Word of God, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being., Yeshua, the Son of God, heard the command of God the Father, and made us in their image.

We will finish our introduction to Sefer Yochanan with verses 4 and 5: In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

The Word is the source of life and light. In Him, in Yeshua is Life. He is haMakor - the Source of Life. Like God, He has life, existence, being, inherent within Himself.

And He is the Light of God - Light stands for truth, knowledge, victory, salvation, life. Yeshua is ultimate Wisdom, the Highest Truth, Victory, Salvation. And He is the Light of men. If you want light - wisdom, truth, victory, salvation, life, you must come to Him, turn to Him, believe in Him, join yourself by faith to Him. He is what makes things work. He is what makes sense out of everything. If you don't, you will remain part of the darkness, the chaos, the sin, the death, the alienation, the estrangement, the curse; you will continue to be part of sinful humanity which is at war with the Light, with God, with His Word.

It is the nature of light to shine, and it is nature of darkness to reject it, and so, the Light went on the offensive into the darkness. "But when that light and life came amongst us as a human being, the darkness did not grasp, or master, the light; it neither comprehended it nor overcame it" (IVP Commentary on John), since the light is stronger than the darkness.