In the Beginning Was the Word
December 4, 2022 · Harmony of the Gospel
Scripture referenced 23 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Psalm 95 opening call to worship, quoted partially: 'come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let's come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song'
1 Oh come, let’s sing to Yahweh. Let’s shout aloud to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let’s come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let’s extol him with songs!
3 For Yahweh is a great God, a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth. The heights of the mountains are also his.
5 The sea is his, and he made it. His hands formed the dry land.
6 Oh come, let’s worship and bow down. Let’s kneel before Yahweh, our Maker,
7 for he is our God. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep in his care. Today, oh that you would hear his voice!
8 Don’t harden your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work.
10 Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways.”
11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They won’t enter into my rest.”
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2 Thessalonians 3:16
advent reading: 'now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way'
16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with you all.
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Luke 2:32
quoted during offering: Simeon prophesying Jesus as 'a light to reveal God to the nations and the glory of the people'
32 a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.”
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John 1:1
the Word was in the beginning with God and was God, contrasted with Genesis 1:1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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Genesis 1:1
compared to John 1:1 as both beginning with creation, but John pointing to before creation
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
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John 1:4-5
in Jesus was life, and the life was the light of all mankind, and the darkness did not grasp it
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.
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John 1:6-8
John the Baptist sent from God as a witness to testify about the Light so all might believe
6 There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.
7 The same came as a witness, that he might testify about the light, that all might believe through him.
8 He was not the light, but was sent that he might testify about the light.
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John 1:9
the true Light coming into the world enlightens every person
9 The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world.
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John 1:10-11
the world came into being through Him yet did not know Him; He came to His own and His own did not accept Him
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him.
11 He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him.
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John 1:12-13
as many as received Him were given the right to become children of God, born not of blood or flesh but of God
12 But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name:
13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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John 1:14
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, glory as of the only Son from the Father
14 The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
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John 1:15
John the Baptist testifying that the one coming after him existed before him
15 John testified about him. He cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.’”
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John 1:16
of His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace
16 From his fullness we all received grace upon grace.
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John 1:17
the law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ
17 For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
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John 1:18
no one has seen God at any time; the only Son has explained Him
18 No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.
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John 7
Jesus speaking plainly to Pharisees and scribes about himself
1 After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he wouldn’t walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him.
2 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand.
3 His brothers therefore said to him, “Depart from here, and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see your works which you do.
4 For no one does anything in secret, and himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.”
5 For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.
6 Jesus therefore said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.
7 The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil.
8 You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled.”
9 Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee.
10 But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but as it were in secret.
11 The Jews therefore sought him at the feast, and said, “Where is he?”
12 There was much murmuring among the multitudes concerning him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others said, “Not so, but he leads the multitude astray.”
13 Yet no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews.
14 But when it was now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught.
15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How does this man know letters, having never been educated?”
16 Jesus therefore answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.
17 If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or if I am speaking from myself.
18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.
19 Didn’t Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?”
20 The multitude answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?”
21 Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel because of it.
22 Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a boy.
23 If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me, because I made a man completely healthy on the Sabbath?
24 Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”
25 Therefore some of them of Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this he whom they seek to kill?
26 Behold, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is truly the Christ?
27 However we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”
28 Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don’t know.
29 I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
30 They sought therefore to take him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
31 But of the multitude, many believed in him. They said, “When the Christ comes, he won’t do more signs than those which this man has done, will he?”
32 The Pharisees heard the multitude murmuring these things concerning him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
33 Then Jesus said, “I will be with you a little while longer, then I go to him who sent me.
34 You will seek me, and won’t find me; and where I am, you can’t come.”
35 The Jews therefore said among themselves, “Where will this man go that we won’t find him? Will he go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?
36 What is this word that he said, ‘You will seek me, and won’t find me; and where I am, you can’t come’?”
37 Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!
38 He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.”
39 But he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus wasn’t yet glorified.
40 Many of the multitude therefore, when they heard these words, said, “This is truly the prophet.”
41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “What, does the Christ come out of Galilee?
42 Hasn’t the Scripture said that the Christ comes of the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”
43 So there arose a division in the multitude because of him.
44 Some of them would have arrested him, but no one laid hands on him.
45 The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”
46 The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this man!”
47 The Pharisees therefore answered them, “You aren’t also led astray, are you?
48 Have any of the rulers believed in him, or of the Pharisees?
49 But this multitude that doesn’t know the law is accursed.”
50 Nicodemus (he who came to him by night, being one of them) said to them,
51 “Does our law judge a man, unless it first hears from him personally and knows what he does?”
52 They answered him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search, and see that no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”
53 Everyone went to his own house,
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John 8
Jesus telling Pharisees they would die in their sins unless they believed 'I am'; incident of woman caught in adultery; 'before Abraham was, I am'
1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 Now very early in the morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him. He sat down, and taught them.
3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the middle,
4 they told him, “Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act.
5 Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say about her?”
6 They said this testing him, that they might have something to accuse him of. But Jesus stooped down, and wrote on the ground with his finger.
7 But when they continued asking him, he looked up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.”
8 Again he stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground.
9 They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone with the woman where she was, in the middle.
10 Jesus, standing up, saw her and said, “Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?”
11 She said, “No one, Lord.” Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more.”
12 Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”
13 The Pharisees therefore said to him, “You testify about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”
14 Jesus answered them, “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from, and where I am going; but you don’t know where I came from, or where I am going.
15 You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one.
16 Even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me.
17 It’s also written in your law that the testimony of two people is valid.
18 I am one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”
19 They said therefore to him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me, nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”
20 Jesus spoke these words in the treasury, as he taught in the temple. Yet no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.
21 Jesus said therefore again to them, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sins. Where I go, you can’t come.”
22 The Jews therefore said, “Will he kill himself, because he says, ‘Where I am going, you can’t come’?”
23 He said to them, “You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world.
24 I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”
25 They said therefore to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning.
26 I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you. However he who sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these I say to the world.”
27 They didn’t understand that he spoke to them about the Father.
28 Jesus therefore said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I say these things.
29 He who sent me is with me. The Father hasn’t left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”
30 As he spoke these things, many believed in him.
31 Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples.
32 You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How do you say, ‘You will be made free’?”
34 Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin.
35 A bondservant doesn’t live in the house forever. A son remains forever.
36 If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
37 I know that you are Abraham’s offspring, yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you.
38 I say the things which I have seen with my Father; and you also do the things which you have seen with your father.”
39 They answered him, “Our father is Abraham.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.
40 But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham didn’t do this.
41 You do the works of your father.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God.”
42 Therefore Jesus said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven’t come of myself, but he sent me.
43 Why don’t you understand my speech? Because you can’t hear my word.
44 You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.
45 But because I tell the truth, you don’t believe me.
46 Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?
47 He who is of God hears the words of God. For this cause you don’t hear, because you are not of God.”
48 Then the Jews answered him, “Don’t we say well that you are a Samaritan, and have a demon?”
49 Jesus answered, “I don’t have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me.
50 But I don’t seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges.
51 Most certainly, I tell you, if a person keeps my word, he will never see death.”
52 Then the Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets; and you say, ‘If a man keeps my word, he will never taste of death.’
53 Are you greater than our father, Abraham, who died? The prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?”
54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is…
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John 14:6
used as benediction: 'I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me'
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
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John 20:31
John states he wrote so that readers may believe and believing have life in His name
31 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.
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John 3
Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night; 'you must be born again'; 'whoever believes'
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2 The same came to him by night, and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered him, “Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom.”
4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’
8 The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things?
11 Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness.
12 If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13 No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.
14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
17 For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.
18 He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
19 This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.
20 For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.
21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”
22 After these things, Jesus came with his disciples into the land of Judea. He stayed there with them, and baptized.
23 John also was baptizing in Enon near Salim, because there was much water there. They came, and were baptized.
24 For John was not yet thrown into prison.
25 There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John’s disciples with some Jews about purification.
26 They came to John, and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, the same baptizes, and everyone is coming to him.”
27 John answered, “A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven.
28 You yourselves testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before him.’
29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. This, my joy, therefore is made full.
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
32 What he has seen and heard, of that he testifies; and no one receives his witness.
33 He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true.
34 For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for God gives the Spirit without measure.
35 The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.
36 One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
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John 4
woman at the well, belief as central theme
1 Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John
2 (although Jesus himself didn’t baptize, but his disciples),
3 he left Judea, and departed into Galilee.
4 He needed to pass through Samaria.
5 So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph.
6 Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
8 For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
9 The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. So where do you get that living water?
12 Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, as did his children, and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again,
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17 The woman answered, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You said well, ‘I have no husband,’
18 for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father.
22 You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews.
23 But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah comes, he who is called Christ. When he has come, he will declare to us all things.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.”
27 At this, his disciples came. They marveled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, “What are you looking for?” or, “Why do you speak with her?”
28 So the woman left her water pot, and went away into the city, and said to the people,
29 “Come, see a man who told me everything that I did. Can this be the Christ?”
30 They went out of the city, and were coming to him.
31 In the meanwhile, the disciples urged him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”
33 The disciples therefore said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”
34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.
35 Don’t you say, ‘There are yet four months until the harvest?’ Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already.
36 He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit to eternal life; that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
37 For in this the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’
38 I sent you to reap that for which you haven’t labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 From that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, “He told me everything that I did.”
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two days.
41 Many more believed because of his word.
42 They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
43 After the two days he went out from there and went into Galilee.
44 For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
45 So when he came into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast.
46 Jesus came therefore again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water into wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.
47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him, and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
48 Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.”
49 The nobleman said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
50 Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.
51 As he was now going down, his servants met him and reported, saying “Your child lives!”
52 So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.”
53 So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” He believed, as did his whole house.
54 This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.
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Malachi
referenced regarding John the Baptist turning hearts of fathers to children and children to fathers
Keep this verseRecap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
The pastor opened Advent by walking the congregation through the prologue of John's Gospel, the first eighteen verses, as a way into the Christmas story. He traced how those verses frame everything that follows: who Jesus is, where he came from, and what it means that he entered the world in human flesh.
What was said
John's Gospel, the pastor noted, is short enough to read in a sitting but starts with eighteen verses that are genuinely hard to absorb. He described them the way a film's opening credits work: enormous in scope, then narrowing down to something you can follow. The prologue begins before Genesis begins, before creation itself, and it restates its central claim more than once because the claim is so difficult to hold onto.
That claim is that Jesus, the Logos, the divine Word, was present with God and was God before anything existed, and that everything which came into being came into being through him. The pastor connected this directly to the exchange in John 8 from the previous weeks, where Jesus tells the Pharisees, "Before Abraham was born, I am," and where he asks them, "What have I been saying to you from the very beginning?" The answer, John's prologue insists, is that God has been making himself known from the start.
The prologue then steps down from that height to introduce John the Baptist, a man with two eyes and a mouth, someone you can understand. His role was not to be the Light but to point to it, so that all might believe. The pastor kept returning to the word "believe" as the thread running through the entire Gospel, chapter by chapter, from the disciples at Cana to Nicodemus to the woman at the well.
Verse 14 is where the prologue becomes Christmas: the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us. The pastor used the word "tabernacled" there, noting that for John this was not metaphor. John had literally camped with Jesus. The transcendent God made himself imminent, close enough to see and to know, full of grace and truth. That is the movement the whole prologue makes, from before time into a specific human life.
The pastor then walked through what it means to receive Jesus, drawing on verses 12 and 13. Receiving him is the same thing as believing in his name. It is not a checklist. The right that comes with it, to become a child of God, is given, not earned. He compared it to the suspension of disbelief that happens at the movies, except that here what gets suspended is the disbelief a person has been holding onto, and what replaces it is trust in a God who is genuinely good.
He closed the sermon's argument with three stories from his own ministry: a friend who had been suicidal and who broke down weeping in John 8 and said, "I'll take that." A man from Pinedale who called the church on a Wednesday saying he knew he needed to be baptized. And a homeless man who walked down from the Ranch Home parking lot on a Friday, could barely read because his eyes had been burned, and ended up with a 243-page large-print Gospel of John printed in the church office. All three stories carried the same point: the story of Jesus, taken in willingly, changes people. The gospel is not only transcendent. It is imminent, available, and it works.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Aaron described the prologue of John's Gospel as transcendent but said it becomes more accessible as we get to know Jesus in an immediate, personal way. Has there been a moment in your own life when something that once seemed too hard to grasp about who Jesus is suddenly became clearer? What changed for you?
- John the Apostle tells us he wrote his Gospel 'so that you may believe, and believing have life in his name.' Pastor Aaron said belief and receiving Jesus are the same thing, not a checklist of do's and don'ts but simply trusting Him. What does trusting Jesus actually look like in the ordinary decisions of a regular week?
and 3 more questions in the guide
