Why Come & Let Us Adore Him John 1:1-5 12/25/2016 Copyright by Mark Vaughan 12/2016

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1 Why Come & Let Us Adore Him John 1:1-5 12/25/2016 Copyright by Mark Vaughan 12/2016 We just sang the familiar Christmas carol, O Come, All Ye Faithful where we beckon one another to come & let us adore Him. The Person we are to adore is Christ the Lord. Christ is a title for the Jewish Messiah promised throughout history from Genesis 3 after the fall of mankind into sin. The Christ or Messiah is literally the anointed one, the Savior who would crush sin & Satan s head who is also the King from David s line to rule the nations in righteousness. He is the Prince of Daniel 9 & the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. So please understand that Christ is not the last name of Jesus. Christ is a statement of who Jesus is, of His long-expected & prophesied purpose to save sinners & bring final justice & peace. The reason to be called to Bethlehem to adore the baby Jesus born to the Virgin Mary is because Jesus came to fulfill all God s predictions packaged in that title, the Christ. We come to adore Christ the Lord, where Lord is a title for equality with God with the same OT name as the Creator & Israel s God. He is the Lord, the Master & Sovereign Ruler & Judge. That s why we join choirs of angels who knew better than to worship anyone other than God when they praised the Messiah s birth. The citizens of heaven above adored Jesus & we join them. Jesus is the Word of God who came to earth to be born as a baby & live life in human flesh as a man. That s called the incarnation as we discussed last week from verses of the first chapter of John s Gospel. If you know Spanish or any Latin-based language, you recognize what we said last week that in-carne means in the flesh, in the body or meat & so incarnation is being in flesh. Last week we stoked the fires of worship by studying the incarnation of the Word in John 1:14 & testimony about the Word in verses John 1:14-18 reveals Jesus as the Word of God who became flesh & dwelt among us as the deeper wonder of Christmas. The mind-boggling reality that God became a Man in the lowly state of an infant in a feeding trough shocks us with beauty & simplicity. Yet fully grasping the category explosion of transcendent thought that Christmas is starts with first grasping the character & person who came as Jesus Christ the Lord. So today we re going to continue our Christmas theology lesson from last week with a look at John 1:1-5 to be amazed with who Jesus is. As we join the shepherds from nearby & the wise men from far away & the angels from heaven to come & adore this infant born in Bethlehem, we want to know why to adore Him. We want to know who Jesus is & why He is worthy of adoration. So turn with me to the 1 st chapter of John s Gospel again this week & let s read the prologue, the 1 st 18 verses of the book. That is possible because of another line in, Come, All Ye Faithful because Jesus is the Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing. Follow along as I read John 1:1-18. [READ] 1

2 This prologue introduces many of the rich treasures of this book & the 1 st 5 verses are a power-packed start. We know the first 5 verses are about Jesus because Jesus is named in verse 17 as the Word who became flesh & was full of grace & truth. Before getting to eyewitness testimonies about Jesus, the Apostle John opened this Gospel by framing a right perspective on exactly who Jesus is. So as we look at John 1:1-5 today, we can learn 5 things John wanted to get straight to begin with about Jesus, 5 glorious truths about Jesus that are simply stated here though they are profoundly complex. That will be our outline as we adore Christ the Lord, as we celebrate & appreciate the child who arrived that 1 st Christmas. Though these 5 points may be review, I pray they will strengthen & sustain your devotion & affection for Jesus today & every day. The 1 st point to note is that Jesus is eternally preexistent. 1 st, Jesus is eternally preexistent that is, Jesus has always existed. Read John 1:1 again to note that in eternity past before time existed, Jesus existed & He had no beginning. [READ] What comes to mind with those 1 st 3 words, in the beginning? If you ve read the Bible much, what do you think of? You think of Genesis 1:1, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, which speaks of the beginning of time & space. But what happened before that? Since there was no time, there was no sequence of moments to describe & conceptualize what was happening. We just don t get that idea of no time; no space; & no creation! Before the beginning was just eternity past. Genesis 1 doesn t cover that, but John 1 does. John purposely uses the same language of Genesis 1:1 to draw us back to that beginning & to start before that beginning. John tells us that before creation before God created the heavens and the earth the WORD existed. The Word had no beginning He never did NOT exist there never was a time when He did not exist. He never was not He just always was. That s what I mean when I say the WORD PRE-existed He was already existing & continued existing in the beginning. As Jesus says in John 8:58, Before Abraham was born, I AM, meaning He was the self-existent I AM before Abraham began to exist. So the marvel & majesty of Christmas is found in the mind-blowing movement of the timeless one who entered time. So come let us adore Him. The Word who existed before creation humbly chose to limit Himself to a form that would fit inside of time. So come let us adore the eternally preexistent Jesus. He entered humanity in the womb of a Virgin by taking on a human form that veiled His pre-existent glory. 2

3 That s why in John 17:5 Jesus prayed for the Father to restore the glory He had with the Father before the world was. Jesus had existed before everything in glory with the Father. That brings us to the 2 nd point: Jesus is eternally relational. Come let us adore Jesus because He is eternally relational. When we ask why to adore Him, John 1:1 answers by saying Jesus (1) is eternal preexistent & (2) eternally relational. In perfect glory before creation, Jesus the Word was WITH GOD. As Jesus said it in John 17:5, He was WITH the Father. The Word is distinct somehow from God & that refers to God the Father as Jesus prayer in John 17 makes apparent. But as He eternally existed before time, the Word was WITH, or towards or even literally face to face with, God. There was perfect fellowship in the eternal relationship between the Word and God between Jesus and the Father. So the Word & the Father are distinct Persons they experience relational intimacy & perfect union but they are not identically the same Person. They share of themselves as the perfect love within them communicates outward in perfect fellowship. That is the sense of this term WORD that John uses it refers to communication and self-expression. It s not some intangible karma floating around or an indefinable force like the imaginary world of Star Wars movies. The Word explains God, so He is the Word OF God, which is a concept that should ring a bell with Old Testament readers. In the context of Genesis 1, God s Word was actively creating. He SPOKE and it was so is the repeated refrain. Psalm 33:6&9 say: By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, For He spoke, and it was done. And what does the OT often say when a prophet gets a revelation from God? The WORD of the LORD came to Abram [Genesis 15:1, 4] or Samuel [1 Samuel 15:10] or to the prophet Nathan or Gad [2 Samuel 7:4; 24:11] or to Solomon [1 Kings 6:11] or Jeremiah [1:4]. Prophecies & things came BY the Word of the LORD. A seminary classmate of mine wrote his thesis on the Word of the Lord in the OT & concluded that it was often an appearance of the Word Himself, of Jesus before His incarnation, because personal words & actions are described. [Todd Stanton, TMS] Psalm 107:20 is a good example where God sent His word & healed them, And delivered them from their destructions. God sent His Word His own personal self-disclosure who is distinct from the Father & is in eternal relationship with the Father. John s connection with Genesis 1 should make that clear because of God s Word in creating. Genesis 1:26 has further proof of God s eternal relationship because as He was making man, He spoke to Himself using a plural pronoun. Genesis 1:26 says: God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. 3

4 WHO was God talking TO there? And Who was God referring to as US and OUR? Did you ever ask a Jewish person that question? I ll never forget asking an Israeli soldier that question while his M-16 dangled against my leg when I was in Israel. That sounds like I was living dangerously, but in Israel you get used to soldiers with guns brushing against you on crowded streets. We were sitting in Old City Jerusalem overlooking the Temple Mount waiting for part of our group to return from a tour. And so I started talking with an Israeli soldier who was there too. As in most discussions with Jews or Muslims there, I got the same basic answer from this soldier: that God is one. They say that Trinity stuff that Christians believe is nonsense you can t add and still get 1 they say you get 3 gods not 1. So I asked that Israeli soldier about Genesis 1:26 why does it say US and OUR and who is God talking to? He didn t have an answer. There s really only 1 answer there must be some sense of plurality in the unity of God. In God s Oneness, there must be some distinction of more than one and in that distinction, there is relational fellowship. So today on Christmas Day, come let us adore Jesus because He is (1) eternally preexistent AND (2) eternally relational. Come let us adore Him who is the Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing, the preexistent Word who was in the beginning with God. Then 3 rd ly: Come & adore Him because Jesus is eternally God. Come let us adore Jesus point #3 because He is eternally God. Read verse 1 again. [READ] Using the same verb of existence & continuity, John says the Word was God and this is incredible. The precision & exactness of the Greek here is remarkable. The Word is God He s not A god like some cults try to tell you. The grammar doesn t warrant saying the Word was A god because Greek is not like English in its use of the article. We use the and a or an as our articles in English to mark something as either definite THE God, or indefinite A god. But Greek is different there s only 1 article and it s different. So don t let anyone tell you that John 1:1 doesn t have the article & therefore it means the Word was A god. That s wrong that s bad Greek & it s not what the text says. It s true that John 1:1 doesn t have the article before God the last time, but that s because the emphasis by word order is on Him being God. If the article were used, it would have emphasized the Word being IDENTICAL with THAT GOD of verse 2. But if John said that, then he would eliminate the fellowship he just mentioned in the previous phrase, the Word was WITH God. 4

5 John doesn t use the article because that would leave no distinction to allow for relationship. And there must be relationship and fellowship if the Word was WITH God in the beginning he can t contradict what he just said. There must be distinction AND unity between the Word and God and John says it the best way it can be said. The Word was WITH God, but the Word also was God. So there s distinction of Persons for fellowship within the whole Oneness of God & yet the Word also IS God. The point is not that the Word is just divine or god-like. There is another word for that if John wanted to say that. John said exactly & precisely what he wanted: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And lest there be any doubt, verse 2 reiterates & emphasizes all this, saying that THIS SAME ONE this Word who is God was in the beginning with God. Knowing we ll stop and go back and read it again, John says it again for clarity & certainty read verse 2. [READ] Yes, the Word who eternally WAS God was also in the beginning WITH GOD. He says it in verse 1, then says it again in verse 2 Jesus is God. Seeing the deity of Christ is crucial to grasping the message of this book. Turn to John 20:27-28 after Thomas had doubted Jesus resurrection & read that climactic point of the whole book. Read John 20: [READ] Thomas called Jesus his Lord & God he called Jesus God! Having reached that exclamation of Jesus as God, John began to close his gospel account in verses & gave his purpose for the book. Read John 20:29-31 next. [READ] John wrote so that those who have not seen can believe. That means this book is for you & me. This is God s revelation that Jesus is God & man, God the Son, the Son of God, the Promised Messiah & Glorious Christ. And our response should be to believe, to trust this Jesus. Of course, it may be easy to argue against this saying, Time out. Hold on. This doesn t make total sense so something must be wrong. But just because these simple & straightforward words communicate mind-boggling truths does not mean we should throw out what they clearly say. If you & I are not God, we should expect God to be bigger than us. Difficulties should be expected when we try to explain GOD! So we should not be surprised by the biblical revelation of the Trinity 3 Persons in 1 God. The book begins by stating that Jesus is God & climaxes with Thomas confession that Jesus is God. The Trinity is simply stated but it is NOT simple. 5

6 And that s OK because that means God is not simple He s not finite and miniscule enough for me to pack into my little head. That s good He must be bigger than I am if I can t fully grasp Him and adequately explain Him. And that s why we come & ADORE Him. When we study Him & His coming in Christ at Christmas & we realize who Jesus really is, then we must worship Him. And receiving this verse by faith protects us from 3 dangerous errors. 1 st, we re protected from the error that says Jesus is A god inferior to THE God, which in church history was called Arianism & is still taught by Jehovah s Witnesses, Mormons & others who deny the Trinity. 2 nd ly, we re protected from the error that says Jesus is identical with the Father & the Spirit with no distinction, that they are just different appearances of the same Person. That s called modalism, like God can be in Father mode & change costumes & come out in Son mode or Spirit mode, as opposed to being all 3 at the same time & yet still somehow 1. And the 3 rd dangerous error we re protected from is that Jesus is just a good man but not God, which is the lie of liberalism & other religions. But the truth of John 1:1-2 beckons us to come & adore Him as eternally preexistent, eternally relational, & eternally God. Doing so involves more than merely honoring these ideas today & then moving on with your life with few thoughts of Him later. John s introduction of Jesus does not allow you to brush Him aside as if you can be neutral about Him & feel ok about it. Who Jesus is demands that we join the shepherds from nearby & the wise men from far away & the angels from heaven & the believers throughout church history to come & adore Him. He is real & not a fairy tale invented by imagination. He is perfectly relational & came to share what He enjoys in the Godhead & to bring others into that love & joy. And He is God who is worthy of worship. So come let us adore Jesus today on Christmas & every day. Now let s move on to a 4 th reason to come & adore Him. Turn back to John 1:3 & let s read John 1:3 as we continue. [READ] Come adore Jesus is the uncreated Creator that s our 4 th truth about Jesus today: He is the uncreated Creator. The 1 st part of verse 3 is simple & it s similar to Colossians 1:16-17, which says by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities -- all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. All things every single thing came into being through Him. To which a child may ask, but I thought Mommy made lunch; didn t she make the casserole or whatever we re having for lunch today? And didn t the store make the toys we bought? And so on. To which we answer that people do make casseroles & toys & other things, but God made everything that used to make those things. Everything we create with, make, & have, came into being through the Word. 6

7 Everything exists by the Father through the Son Jesus. And in case there s any doubt, read the 2 nd part of v 3. [READ] If there was any doubt whether Jesus was just a created being that God used in creating other things, John added that 2 nd part. Literally it says, and apart from Him, NOT EVEN ONE THING came into being that has come into being. So Jesus is the Creator GOD & He most certainly was NOT created. Come let us adore Jesus because He is the uncreated Creator. If you like receiving gifts at Christmas, realize the greatest gift of all! Every other gift was made by someone else & it can break or get old or be lost or stolen or destroyed or lose value. But the highest motive behind giving gifts to others is that Christmas is the time when God the Father gave His greatest gift to us. He gave God the Son He gave the fullest expression of Himself & the greatest experience of His glory. So the greatest Christmas gift is God Himself it s Jesus as God the Son coming to give Himself as a ransom for many, to be the free offer of righteousness for those whose lives could never measure up. Jesus is the free gift of knowing God in Christ forever. No one made Jesus & nothing exists apart from Jesus & so when He gave Himself to the world at Christmas, He was giving the best. Point #5 today, come let us adore Him because Jesus is the source of life & light. Read John 1:4-5. [READ] The essence & quality of life come from the Word. Since He is eternally existing on His own, He is life & therefore He can give life to others. In the context of creation, this 1 st refers to physical life & light. As Creator, Jesus is the source of physical life and the Word was spoken to bring physical light into existence. But John has a double meaning to transition from physical life & light of creation to spiritual life & light of the new creation. Jesus is also the source of spiritual life and spiritual light. Just as He had a part in the original creation, so also Jesus is central to the new creation, the spiritual creation of new life. And whether referring to the spiritual light of nature and conscience or the spiritual light of the Scriptures, Jesus is the source of that light. When Isaiah 9 begins the prophesy of Jesus coming, it speaks first of those in darkness seeing a great light. Jesus came even as a light of revelation for the Gentiles as Simeon said in Luke 2:32 when Jesus was presented at the Temple as a child. John 1:5 says that light is continually shining in the darkness. So come let us adore Jesus who is the Uncreated Creator. Then lastly today, as Creator, Jesus is also the source of life & light. With that statement, John was definitely speaking spiritually about light and darkness, about good and evil. 7

8 Evil darkness did not & has not understood the light, even though it shines into the environment of darkness. And the darkness also did not OVERCOME the light. The ESV translation or the marginal reading in other versions probably better explains this point. The word translated comprehend means to take hold of, like grasping intellectually to understand or grasping aggressively to overcome. Since darkness never seeks light or wants to understand, this likely means darkness did not overpower or overcome light. Evil has been defeated and has not overcome the light. Jesus is the light of the world and the darkness did not and cannot overcome Him. He came as the light of God s revelation & His glory will never be shut out completely even though the Devil may try. Jesus overcame the darkness by dying to pay sin s penalty & rise again in victory over sin & death. John had seen that & he wrote to testify of it. As a disciple of Jesus, John was shining the light of Christ even decades after Jesus had returned to heaven. And if we are followers of Jesus, we are little lights with power from the true Light of Christ & we can always shine & never be overcome. We may feel like smoldering flickers shrouded in dark caves of evil, but a tiny light can still be seen in the darkest of places. So if you know Jesus as the source of life & light, then shine for Him. Speaking of Jesus to others & walking in Jesus ways are ways we can adore Him. He is worthy to be trusted, worshipped & shared with others. So come let us adore Him today. Jesus Christ the Lord is to be adored not merely because the Christmas story is sentimentally heartwarming with its beauty of simplicity. He is to be adored for who He is & what He has done in coming to earth. Come adore Jesus because He is (1) eternally preexistent, (2) eternally relational, & (3) eternally God & so it s shockingly loving & gracious that He reaches out to you today to come enjoy worshipping Him. And then also come adore Jesus because He is (#4) the uncreated Creator & (#5) the source of light & life. So bow before your Maker in worship & find light for your path & life to fill the empty longings of your eternal soul. John wrote this so you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, & that believing you may have life in His name. Will you trust Jesus today maybe trust Him for the 1 st time as your Lord & God or trust Him yet again today with increasing faith? If you have never trusted Jesus as Lord and Savior, then please give us the chance to help you. The greater we know He is, the more amazing it is that He condescended so much to come to earth for poor sinners like us. Pray with me that we ll all come & adore Him now & forever. 8