And welcome back to our
study of the Gospel of John.
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We are with Dr. Jon Paulien.
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Now, Dr. Jon, we're
talking about the word.
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I'm gonna read a few verses
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and then I'm gonna ask you
a couple of questions. Okay.
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We read that the first
verse in chapter 1 says that,
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"In the beginning was the Word,
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the Word was God-- was with God,
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and the Word was God."
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Now later in chapter 10
in verse 33, it says that,
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"The Jews answered him, saying,
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for a good work
we do not stone you,
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but for blasphemy
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and because you, being
a man, make yourself God."
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So my two
questions are, is Jesus God
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and did Jesus ever
claim that He was God?
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Because apparently that's
the reason why He was crucified.
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So did He claim?
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Now it says verse
here, it says that He--
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the word was God, so--
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John clearly
claims that for Jesus,
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but it's a tougher
question when you say,
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what the Jesus
claim for Himself?
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'Cause in
chapter 10 have you said,
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they understood Him to
be claiming that He s God,
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then He kind of
deflexed a little bit.
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Well, you know, judges
can be called gods, too.
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And so--so I think
it's important to understand
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the dilemma
that's going on here.
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If God becomes human,
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He is doing that to
communicate with us,
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but the minute He becomes human,
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it's hard for us to
believe that He is God, you see.
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So there is that dilemma.
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So Jesus in
addressing this, He says,
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"I have many things to tell you,
but you can't handle it now."
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Jesus understands
that people can only handle
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so much about Him at one time.
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So there's a tendency sometimes
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Jesus backs off
from these claims.
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And as well they're
not ready for this yet,
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and so He comes in
a little bit softer.
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But the reality is
that in the prologue
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John is very
clear that Jesus is God.
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First of all, He
calls Him the word "Logos."
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The word is not a Jewish word.
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There's--you know, doesn't
talk in the Old Testament
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about the creator
is being the Logos
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or anything, the Word of God.
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That's actually a Greek concept
that Plato applied to God
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that you have the
God who is out there
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and so spectacular
that nobody can touch Him.
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He is so great, He can't
even be involved in creation,
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but He as an intermediary
God who interacts with creation
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and who is a mediator
between God and creation.
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He called Him
Logos, word, you see.
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So when using this term,
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John is not using
it in a Jewish way,
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but he is using it in a
Greek, philosophical way.
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So he spoken to the
Christians using Him form.
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He spoken to the
Jews using a chiasm
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and now he is
speaking to the Greeks
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using their God
language to describe Jesus.
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So if a Greek picks up
this book and says, "You know,
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Jesus is the son of
man or He is the Messiah."
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They say, "Who cares?"
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They'll say, "He is the Logos."
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Who? Hey, I want
to know about this.
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So in the very
choice of language,
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John is opening this book
up to every imaginable reader
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in the early period in
which the gospel was written.
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So Jesus Himself is cautious
in the way He presents Himself
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even in this gospel at times.
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But the author of the gospel
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at the time that he writes
is very clear that Jesus is God
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and that's found in the
early verses of this prologue.
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Because they were looking
for ways to crucify Jesus,
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so He knew that His
time was not yet. Yeah.
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And so He held back.
You're absolutely right.
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In the Gospel of John itself,
"My time hasn't come yet."
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The cross, you see,
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He is putting it off
until the time when it's right.
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And it tells us by the way
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that if Jesus
could put off the cross
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then He could have
put it off infinitely.
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Which means, that in the end,
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the cross is
something that He allows.
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He allows people to abuse Him.
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And what is that
tell us about God?
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The God who cares
so deeply about us
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that He'd even put Himself
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in the hands of His
abusers to demonstrate that.
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He doesn't
resolve issues by force.
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He doesn't resolve
issues by striking people dead
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like the
Pagan's gods used to do.
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But He is appealing to us
to accept Him as He really is.
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And this is the concept
that not many people accept
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because if Jesus is God
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then how can God allow
Himself to be murdered.
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"If you have seen me,
you have seen the Father."
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At the cross, we see
what God is really like.
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Powerful? Yes.
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God has the power
to create the universe,
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but in character
it is not His desire
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that anyone would perish
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that all would
come to repentance.
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And so He comes
to us in softness
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and in weakness as the strength.
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You know, it's such a
remarkable picture of God
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that you get in
the New Testament.
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And one even that Christians
struggled with, I think.
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Well, let's get
to the prolog itself.
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And why don't you read
just the very first phrase?
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And we're in
verses? Chapter 1:1.
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"In the beginning was the Word,
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and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God."
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Does that in the beginning
remind you of anything?
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Sure, does. What?
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Genesis 1:1. Genesis 1:1.
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You have the first
words of the gospel
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and it goes right
back to Genesis 1:1.
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So the reader immediately
goes back to the creation.
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In the beginning was the word.
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Now there is where
it gets interesting.
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English is
limited in its expression.
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We basically have, you know,
one verbal form for past tense.
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Greek has four completely
different past tenses.
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One of them is continuous.
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One of them is a point
in time, a specific event.
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Another one is a past
event that affects the present.
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And the fourth one is a past
event that affected the past
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and we're now
looking back at it.
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Don't worry, it's
not gonna be on the text.
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Just tell me the answer,
which one of those four tenses--
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But you see, it's crucial here.
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Because if he had
used to point in time
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then he would be
saying, in the beginning
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God created the Word, you see.
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In the beginning,
the Word came to be.
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That's the word
he uses in verse 3.
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The world came to be
at the time of creation.
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He doesn't use that of
the Word here of Jesus here.
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In the beginning, at that
point as far back as you can go,
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the word already
was continuously.
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In other words, He is eternal.
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So right here you realize
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that Jesus doesn't
go back to creation,
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Jesus goes back to eternity.
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He is way, way
bigger than any angel.
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Way, way bigger
than human beings.
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Way bigger than
all creation combined.
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Like, Jesus is the one
through whom creation happened.
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So right there at the beginning,
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in the beginning,
the Word already was.
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Which means that Jesus
was not a creative being?
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Exactly, exactly.
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When you understand
that the Greek language here,
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there is no doubts about it.
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In the beginning was the Word.
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But then, is the
Word the Father? No.
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He says, "The
word was with God."
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So it's distinguishing
Jesus from the Father.
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There are two
aspects of the same reality,
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but they are not the same.
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They can have relationship.
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From the beginning, they were
in relationship with each other.
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And then it says,
'The word was God."
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And in the Greek, that's
a qualitative expression.
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The word qualitatively was God.
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It wasn't that the
word was one God among many,
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but the word
qualitatively was God.
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What the Father is, Jesus is.
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It's already saying the idea
that He later on speaks plainly.
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You know, "If you've seen
me, you've seen the Father."
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So in chapter 1:1,
there is no question
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that for John, Jesus is eternal,
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He is completely
equal with the Father,
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you've seen Him,
you've seen the Father,
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and yet they're distinct.
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He can pray to
His Father in heaven.
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They're not the same entity.
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So right at the beginning
it's clear, Jesus is God.
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And not only that, verse 3,
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"Through thing-- him
all things were made."
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There is that word, came to be.
There is you're point in time.
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Verse 1 is a continuous.
Verse 3 is a point in time.
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So Jesus who was-- who
did not come to be made--
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made things to be is
what I'm understanding? Yes.
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So He is not
part of that creation.
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Everything that was
made was made by Him,
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which mean He wasn't made.
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If He made everything
that was made, He wasn't made.
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Right. You see.
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So He is eternal with God.
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I mean, it's mind
blowing when you think about it.
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The person who walked here on
this earth was the eternal God.
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Came down with us. I
mean, that blows your mind.
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It's no wonder that people
walking down the road with Him,
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you know, watching Him,
get sweaty and dirty and tired.
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You know might have struggled
with how great He truly was,
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and it took the church
maybe decades after the time
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just to fully grasp
what all of that meant.
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It's unimaginable
to me to, you know,
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if I were living in
those times to see Jesus
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and to think you, you
know, here you are created me.
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You're the creator, created
me, but that's what it says.
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And you care
about me. That's right.
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Creator cares, you see.
So we are valuable to God.
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And I think the best
source of value is that.
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You know, we're not valuable
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because some Judah on
the street thinks we're cool.
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We're valuable because
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the king of the
universe thinks we're amazing
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and He's willing to
come here and die for us.
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But there it comes, verse 14.
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That word, what
happened? Became flesh.
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He "became flesh and
made his dwelling among us."
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So on the one hand,
the word was in verse 1,
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continuous in eternity,
but here He became flesh.
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It's the creating word.
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So God created something new
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when He sent
Jesus to this earth.
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That baby, that human
being was a new creation of God.
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The eternal word came into
time, came into flesh here.
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So the word became human.
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He was in eternity with
God, but now He became with us.
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He was equal with
God. Now He became flesh.
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So this God from
eternity who was with God
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has become flesh and is with us.
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The two sides of
Jesus just amazing.
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And when you go through
the rest of this prologue,
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you see that Jesus is
the absolute greatest.
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The sanctuary
language here in verse 14.
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He lived. He dwelt. Yeah.
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He dwelt among
us, that sanctuary,
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you know, that Shekinah,
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the word for tent and the word
for dwelling is the same word.
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The glory, you know, reminds
you the glory in the temple.
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He is greater
than John the Baptist.
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We'll find out next
time that a lot of people saw
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John the Baptist was a Messiah,
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and now he is greater than that.
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He is greater than Moses.
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See, everyone that people
could put right at the pinnacle,
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the sanctuary,
John the Baptist, Moses,
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all the greats of His time
He is greater than all of those
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'cause He came down from
the throne of heaven. Amen.
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Well, that is very encouraging.
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And I pray and hope, friends,
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that you too take
courage that Jesus is great
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and He wants to do great things
in your lives, till next time.
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