Week 8 Jesus Comes John 1:1 18

Week 8 Jesus Comes John 1:1 18

WEEK 8 - HOOK Jesus Comes John 1:1 18 HOOK NOTES MAIN IDEA: In the person of Jesus, God physically entered into our world. An infinite God came to live in a finite world. The one who knew exactly how things were supposed to be came to a place where things obviously weren t. In Jesus, God and man became one person unlike anyone else the world has ever seen or will ever see. Jesus Christ was, and forever will be, fully God and fully man in one person. And that one person changed the course of history forever. 1 HOOK (Choose One) Q: What would motivate you to take on the burdens and suffering of another? Class Discussion: In the 2009 film Avatar, directed by James Cameron, the character Jake Sully (a human Marine) becomes a Na vi (alien). Under orders from his commanding officer in a diplomatic mission, he enters into the culture and history of the Na vi people. But rather than working for the selfish ends of the men with whom he serves, he ends up serving the Na vi and saving them from the hostility and violence brought into their world by men s selfishness and greed. Sully brings a type of salvation and justice to his people, the Na vi the people of his choice through his incarnation. Interestingly, he must pass through both death and a type of resurrection as well! Discuss as a class your views of the movie Avatar. Ask your class if they found it promoting a belief in nature as supreme or an illustration of Christ s work on this earth. Ask how you could redeem the messages and themes of the movie while not distorting God s truth. Current Event: CBS s 60 Minutes recently interviewed two enthusiasts who have spent 30 years living among lions: Q: Do you think someone this committed to his or her passion is honorable or misled? What about someone who has no passion at all? Dereck and Beverly Joubert have spent the past 30 years living among lions in the African country of Botswana, capturing incredible photographs and footage of the majestic creatures that have garnered widespread praise. They are considered two of the world s preeminent experts on the big cats, having created films, books, scientific papers and articles in National Geographic magazine (along with a list of filmmaking awards, including five Emmys). Through their dedicated work they often spend years tracking individual animals and documenting their lives the Jouberts have made numerous discoveries regarding the wildlife in Africa, and have captured some of the rarest footage of the wild animals the world has ever seen. 2 Discuss as a class why the Jouberts are considered experts on lions and their needs. Ask how living among the lions for more than 30 years would give them a better understanding of these creatures. Now ask your class how this mirrors Christ s interest and mission for humanity. Discuss how He can relate to our every need because He physically witnessed it for more than 30 years. 1 Grudem, Wayne. Christian Beliefs (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 67. 2 Michael Zhang; BTS: Documenting Lions in the African Bush for Over Thirty Years ; www.petapixel.com. 2

WEEK 8 - BOOK Jesus Comes John 1:1 18 BOOK NOTES Main Idea: In the person of Jesus, God physically entered into our world. An infinite God came to live in a finite world. The one who knew exactly how things were supposed to be came to a place where things obviously weren t. In Jesus, God and man became one person unlike anyone else the world has ever seen or will ever see. Jesus Christ was, and forever will be, fully God and fully man in one person. And that one person changed the course of history forever. 3 Background: Jesus comes. God pursues. John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world that He sent His Son. Christ, knowing the suffering set before Him on the Cross, joyfully carried out God s plan by entering into our story. God pursues His children and He does so through His Son. Key to the Passage: God has written Himself into the story of humanity the story that He has been writing since the beginning. Through Christ, God now dwells among the world. Jesus is fully God and fully human. It is the interplay of this reality that allows Him to be the one who fulfills the Old Testament and provides the example of living in the New Testament. Last week we focused on the fact that God judges and in doing so, all humanity is under His wrath. We also say that God has satisfied His own justice through the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Jesus life was just as necessary as His death. His life signified two things: 1) the faithfulness of God in the fulfillment of the law and prophets (Matt. 5:17), 2) providing His own with what the ideal Christian life should look like and giving Him the experience to sympathize with us as we strive to live like Him (Hebrews 4:15; 5:8 10). Exegesis of John 1:1-18 and ESV Study Bible Notes 1:4 5 The references to life, light, and darkness continue to draw on Genesis motifs (cf. Gen. 1:3 5, 14 18, 20 31; 2:7; 3:20; cf. also Isa. 9:2; 42:6 7; 49:6; 60:1 5; Mal. 4:2; Luke 1:78 79). Against this background, Jesus as the light brings to this dark world true knowledge, moral purity, and the light that shows the very presence of God (cf. John 8:12; 1 John 1:5). 1:11 John moves from his own things (see ESV footnote) that is, creation to his own people, the Jews. The Jewish rejection of the Messiah, despite convincing proofs of his messianic identity (esp. the signs ), is one of the major emphases of the Gospel (see esp. 12:37 40). 1:12 13 Receive him implies not merely intellectual agreement with some facts about Jesus but also welcoming and submitting to him in a personal relationship. Believed in (Gk. pisteuō eis) implies personal trust. His name refers to all that is true about him, and therefore the totality of his person. Born, not of blood, but of God makes clear that neither physical birth nor ethnic descent nor human effort can make people children of God, but only God s supernatural work (8:41 47; cf. 3:16). This extends the possibility of becoming God s children to Gentiles and not just Jews (11:51 52; cf. 10:16). See also 3:3 8. To all who believed he gave the right indicates that saving faith precedes becoming members of God s family through adoption as his children. 3 Grudem, Wayne. Christian Beliefs (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 67. 3

WEEK 8 Jesus Comes John 1:1 18 BOOK NOTES Q: How does Jesus life and ministry complete and clarify the OT? Q: How does the reality that Christ experienced pain, lose, joy, love, friendship, trials, temptation, and hope as fully human bring you comfort? 1:14 The Word continues the opening words of the prologue in v. 1. Became flesh does not mean the Word ceased being God; rather, the Word, who was God, also took on humanity (cf. Phil. 2:6-7). This is the most amazing event in all of history: the eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, infinitely holy Son of God took on a human nature and lived among humanity as one who was both God and man at the same time, in one person. Dwelt among us means more literally pitched his tent (Gk. skenoo), an allusion to God s dwelling among the Israelites in the tabernacle (cf. Ex. 25:8-9; 33:7). In the past, God hand manifested his presence to his people in the tabernacle and the temple. Now God takes up residence among his people in the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ (cf. John 1:17).Thus, the coming of Christ fulfills the OT symbolism for God s dwelling with man in the tabernacle and the temple. Later, through the Holy Spirit, Christ will make into a temple both the church (1 Cor. 3:16) and a Christian s body (1 Cor. 6:19). The references to God s glory refer back to OT passages narrating the manifestation of the presence and glory of God in theophanies (appearances of God), the tabernacle, or the temple (e.g. Ex. 33:22; Num. 14:10; Deut. 5:22). the only Son from the Father. Jesus is the Son of God, not in the sense of being created or born (see John 1:3), but in the sense of being the Son who is exactly like his Father in all attributes, and in the sense of having a Father-Son relationship with God the Father. The Greek word underlying only, monogenes, means one of a kind, unique, as in the case of Isaac, who is called Abraham s one-of-a-kind son in Heb. 11:17 Cross References: Matthew 5:17 abolish the Law or the Prophets. The Law or Torah refers to the first five books of the OT, while the Prophets includes the rest of the OT, all of which was held to have been written by prophets (cf. Matt. 13:35, which cites Ps. 78:2; on Law [and the] Prophets, cf. Matt. 7:12; 11:13; 22:40; Rom. 3:21). but to fulfill them. Jesus fulfills all of the OT in that it all points to him, not only in its specific predictions of a Messiah but also in its sacrificial system, which looked forward to his great sacrifice of himself, in many events in the history of Israel which foreshadowed his life as God s true Son, in the laws which only he perfectly obeyed, and in the Wisdom Literature, which sets forth a behavioral pattern that his life exemplified (cf. Matt. 2:15; 11:13; 12:3-6, 39-41, 42; also Luke 24:27). Jesus gospel of the kingdom does not replace the OT but rather fulfills it as Jesus life and ministry, coupled with his interpretation, complete and clarify God s intent and meaning in the entire OT. Hebrews 4:15 sympathize. Jesus is able to identity with his people (cf. 10:34) because of his human experience and the sufferings he endured while being tempted (2:10 18, esp. vv. 17 18). tempted. The Greek (peirazo) can refer either to temptation intended to bring one down or to testing designed to build one up; both connotations probably apply here (cf. Matt. 4:1-11; Luke 22:28). without sin. Though Jesus was tempted in every respect, that is, in every area of personal life, he (unlike every other human) remained sinless, and thus he is truly the holy high priest (Heb. 7:26; cf. 5:2-3). In their temptations, Christians can be comforted with the truth that nothing that entices them is foreign to their Lord. He, too, has felt the tug of sin, and yet he never gave in to such temptations. 4

WEEK 8 Jesus Comes John 1:1 18 BOOK NOTES John 5:8 Although he was a son. See 1:1-14 and 5:5. Jesus, though fully divine, was also fully human. he learned obedience through what he suffered. Though always without sin (4:15; 7:26) and thus always obedient, Jesus nevertheless acquired knowledge and experience by living as a human being (cf. Luke 2:40, 52), and he especially came to know firsthand what it cost to maintain obedience in the midst of suffering (see notes on Heb. 2:9, 10, 18; 4:15). As Jesus increased in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52), successive temptations were, no doubt, more difficult to deal with (cf. Luke 4:12), and as he obeyed the Father in the face of each temptation, he learned obedience, so that his human moral ability was strengthened. John 5:9-10 being made perfect. During his childhood, Jesus was not lacking in any Godly character, but he was lacking in the full experience of having lived a perfect human life, obeying the Father in everything, without sin. The lifelong perfect obedience of Jesus (v. 8; 7:26-28) provides the basis for eternal salvation (2:10; 9:23-28) and for the ultimate perfection of those who respond in faith and obedience (10:14; 11:40; 12:23; cf. 7:19; 9:9; 10:1). Additional Helps: Thoughts from Wayne Grudem 4 Jesus humanity (as well as his deity) allows him to serve as the one mediator between God and men (1 Tim. 2:5). It also means that as a man, he was in every respect tempted as we are and so is able to sympathize with our weakness (Heb. 4:15). Because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted (Heb. 2:18) Jesus was fully God. In him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (Col. 1:19). If Jesus wasn t fully God, he could not have borne the full penalty of sin for the world as a sinless man, there would be no valid payment for anyone s sins, and nobody could be saved Jesus was fully God. Jesus was also fully man. He was fully both at the same time. The eternal Son of God took to himself a truly human nature. His divine and human natures are forever distinct and retain their own properties even though they are eternally and inseparably united together in one person. This is probably the most amazing miracle of the entire Bible the eternal Son of God, himself fully God, became fully man and in doing so joined himself to a human nature forever. Jesus, a man unlike anyone else the world will ever see again, by eternally bringing together both the infinite and the finite, changed the course of history forever. 4 Grudem, Wayne. Christian Beliefs (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 69-70. 5

WEEK 8 Jesus Comes John 1:1 18 BOOK NOTES Q: Why did Jesus have to be both fully God and fully human in order to satisfy God s just wrath toward sin and sinners? How Have Others Gone Wrong? 5 The divinity and humanity of Jesus was the major dividing doctrine of the early church. The responses to the various errors regarding Christ shaped the church that we know today. The four major errors that the early church faced were: 1) Adoptionism, 2) Arianism, 3) Nestorianism, and 4) Apollinarianism. Adoptionism claimed that Jesus was born only human but was adopted by God later; He was divine only in a metaphorical way. Arianism argued that Jesus does not share the same essence of divinity with God; at best He was a lesser divine. Nestorianism attempted to explain Jesus two natures as separate but in doing so actually argued for two separate persons; a divine Jesus and a human Jesus. Apollinarianism, opposite of Nestorianism, argued that Jesus had only one nature, human but had divine reason. Each of these errors failed to account for the admittedly complex reality that Jesus is fully God and fully man at the same time and without confusion. How Does This Point to Jesus? Jesus comes. He enters into our story and in so doing accomplishes two things. The first is that He fulfills all the Law and Prophets. The entire movement of history has led to this moment, the moment when God comes to dwell with His creation. At the fall, God promised to crush what the serpent started (Gen. 3:15). God chose Abraham and his descendents as the ones through whom He would fulfill this promise (Gen. 12; 15). The remainder of the OT is the story of God rising up a people, those people failing, yet God remaining faithful. The birth of Jesus and His subsequent life marks the beginning of the fulfillment of God s promise to redeem. Secondly, Jesus coming also provides His children with the model for how to live. Jesus lived the perfect human life and He did so through temptation, suffering, joy, sadness, fear, doubt, hope and love. He lived the life we are to live and sympathetically intercedes for us as we strive to do so. Thoughts from Danny Akin 6 Referring to John 1:1, Dr. Aiken comments: Although verbally parallel with Gen. 1:1 and 1 John 1:1, the contexts assign temporal differences. Whereas Gen. 1:1 speaks of the beginning of creation and 1 John 1:1 emphasizes the incarnate manifestation of God in Christ, John in this verse establishes the preexistence of Christ in eternity past. He already was when the beginning took place. Indeed He is affirmed as being: 1) Coequal, 2) Coeternal, 3) Coexistent and 4) Consubstantial with the Father. Jesus is called word (Logos, Gk.). The idea of the Logos was a philosophical concept in John s day, but John uses the word in a larger sense that would include Hebrew ideas also. He also personalizes the term in the person of Jesus. 5 Galan, Benjamin. What Christians Believe at a Glance, (Torrance, CA: Rose Publishing, 2010). 24-25. 6 Excerpt from Christian Theology: An Overview, by Dr. Daniel Akin, used with permission. 6

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WEEK 8 - TOOK Jesus Comes John 1:1 18 Took Notes Q: Why did God send His Only Son to enter into our broken, human existence? Remind yourself of verses from Scripture or put it into your own words. Q: What does it mean for us to be His incarnation or the incarnate message of Jesus Christ? What might that look like in your life? Q: What truth or truths enable us to love incarnationally? Main Idea: In the person of Jesus, God physically entered into our world. An infinite God came to live in a finite world. The one who knew exactly how things were supposed to be came to a place where things obviously weren t. In Jesus, God and man became one person unlike anyone else the world has ever seen or will ever see. Jesus Christ was, and forever will be, fully God and fully man in one person. And that one person changed the course of history forever. 7 So What? Applying the Essentials to Our Life Today Jesus comes. This essential truth gives us great hope. For in Christ s coming we see also His death and Resurrection. The Gospel begins with this reality, that God has come and made a way for us to know His salvation. Just as Christ has come and lived among us, so too are we now to live among the world. He came so that we might know the Good News of the kingdom. Now we go and live out His kingdom in our homes, our workplaces and our neighborhoods. We cannot separate from the world, we must enter it just as Christ did; full of the Spirit and in submission to the Father. TOOK (Choose One) Why Should I Care? How Will This Impact Me? God plays by His own rules. Did God create a universe that He knew was going to fall? Yep; and then He jumped right in with both feet, and both hands, and His side, and His brow; and He became a victim of the world He created. This is unparalleled in any worldview: That God would actually avail Himself and become a victim of the creation. The Biblical answer to personal suffering is the God who suffers with us. Jesus weeps too. And the whole narrative of scripture is the narrative of God coming down, God with us, and entering the real human predicament of the ones He created to bear His image. John Stonestreet How Can I Live Out This Essential Tomorrow? Live incarnationally. As Tim Keller states, We relate to God as Hamlet does to Shakespeare. Hamlet's only way to know Shakespeare is if Shakespeare writes himself into the play. God has more than written himself into the story of this world. We are His incarnation. Don t simply serve others in another part of town. Be present and available for those God has placed nearest to you. Be involved in your community s life so that you might have a chance to redeem it. 7 Grudem, Wayne. Christian Beliefs (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 67. 8