Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00004B
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00:01 And welcome back to our study of the Gospel of John.
00:03 We are with Dr. Jon Paulien. 00:06 Now, Dr. Jon, we're talking about the word. 00:10 I'm gonna read a few verses 00:11 and then I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions. Okay. 00:13 We read that the first verse in chapter 1 says that, 00:17 "In the beginning was the Word, 00:19 the Word was God-- was with God, 00:22 and the Word was God." 00:23 Now later in chapter 10 in verse 33, it says that, 00:28 "The Jews answered him, saying, 00:32 for a good work we do not stone you, 00:36 but for blasphemy 00:37 and because you, being a man, make yourself God." 00:42 So my two questions are, is Jesus God 00:47 and did Jesus ever claim that He was God? 00:52 Because apparently that's the reason why He was crucified. 00:56 So did He claim? 00:58 Now it says verse here, it says that He-- 00:59 the word was God, so-- 01:01 John clearly claims that for Jesus, 01:04 but it's a tougher question when you say, 01:06 what the Jesus claim for Himself? 01:08 'Cause in chapter 10 have you said, 01:10 they understood Him to be claiming that He s God, 01:12 then He kind of deflexed a little bit. 01:13 Well, you know, judges can be called gods, too. 01:16 And so--so I think it's important to understand 01:20 the dilemma that's going on here. 01:24 If God becomes human, 01:25 He is doing that to communicate with us, 01:28 but the minute He becomes human, 01:29 it's hard for us to believe that He is God, you see. 01:32 So there is that dilemma. 01:33 So Jesus in addressing this, He says, 01:37 "I have many things to tell you, but you can't handle it now." 01:41 Jesus understands that people can only handle 01:44 so much about Him at one time. 01:46 So there's a tendency sometimes 01:48 Jesus backs off from these claims. 01:51 And as well they're not ready for this yet, 01:53 and so He comes in a little bit softer. 01:56 But the reality is that in the prologue 02:00 John is very clear that Jesus is God. 02:03 First of all, He calls Him the word "Logos." 02:06 The word is not a Jewish word. 02:09 There's--you know, doesn't talk in the Old Testament 02:12 about the creator is being the Logos 02:15 or anything, the Word of God. 02:17 That's actually a Greek concept that Plato applied to God 02:22 that you have the God who is out there 02:26 and so spectacular that nobody can touch Him. 02:28 He is so great, He can't even be involved in creation, 02:31 but He as an intermediary God who interacts with creation 02:35 and who is a mediator between God and creation. 02:38 He called Him Logos, word, you see. 02:41 So when using this term, 02:43 John is not using it in a Jewish way, 02:46 but he is using it in a Greek, philosophical way. 02:49 So he spoken to the Christians using Him form. 02:53 He spoken to the Jews using a chiasm 02:56 and now he is speaking to the Greeks 02:59 using their God language to describe Jesus. 03:02 So if a Greek picks up this book and says, "You know, 03:05 Jesus is the son of man or He is the Messiah." 03:07 They say, "Who cares?" 03:09 They'll say, "He is the Logos." 03:10 Who? Hey, I want to know about this. 03:14 So in the very choice of language, 03:16 John is opening this book up to every imaginable reader 03:22 in the early period in which the gospel was written. 03:26 So Jesus Himself is cautious in the way He presents Himself 03:31 even in this gospel at times. 03:34 But the author of the gospel 03:36 at the time that he writes is very clear that Jesus is God 03:40 and that's found in the early verses of this prologue. 03:44 Because they were looking for ways to crucify Jesus, 03:47 so He knew that His time was not yet. Yeah. 03:52 And so He held back. You're absolutely right. 03:55 In the Gospel of John itself, "My time hasn't come yet." 03:58 The cross, you see, 03:59 He is putting it off until the time when it's right. 04:02 And it tells us by the way 04:06 that if Jesus could put off the cross 04:10 then He could have put it off infinitely. 04:14 Which means, that in the end, 04:15 the cross is something that He allows. 04:18 He allows people to abuse Him. 04:21 And what is that tell us about God? 04:24 The God who cares so deeply about us 04:27 that He'd even put Himself 04:28 in the hands of His abusers to demonstrate that. 04:31 He doesn't resolve issues by force. 04:35 He doesn't resolve issues by striking people dead 04:38 like the Pagan's gods used to do. 04:40 But He is appealing to us to accept Him as He really is. 04:44 And this is the concept that not many people accept 04:47 because if Jesus is God 04:50 then how can God allow Himself to be murdered. 04:56 "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." 05:01 At the cross, we see what God is really like. 05:04 Powerful? Yes. 05:06 God has the power to create the universe, 05:10 but in character it is not His desire 05:13 that anyone would perish 05:15 that all would come to repentance. 05:17 And so He comes to us in softness 05:20 and in weakness as the strength. 05:24 You know, it's such a remarkable picture of God 05:26 that you get in the New Testament. 05:29 And one even that Christians struggled with, I think. 05:32 Well, let's get to the prolog itself. 05:34 And why don't you read just the very first phrase? 05:38 And we're in verses? Chapter 1:1. 05:42 "In the beginning was the Word, 05:44 and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." 05:48 Does that in the beginning remind you of anything? 05:50 Sure, does. What? 05:51 Genesis 1:1. Genesis 1:1. 05:54 You have the first words of the gospel 05:57 and it goes right back to Genesis 1:1. 05:59 So the reader immediately goes back to the creation. 06:03 In the beginning was the word. 06:07 Now there is where it gets interesting. 06:09 English is limited in its expression. 06:12 We basically have, you know, one verbal form for past tense. 06:17 Greek has four completely different past tenses. 06:20 One of them is continuous. 06:23 One of them is a point in time, a specific event. 06:26 Another one is a past event that affects the present. 06:29 And the fourth one is a past event that affected the past 06:33 and we're now looking back at it. 06:36 Don't worry, it's not gonna be on the text. 06:39 Just tell me the answer, which one of those four tenses-- 06:41 But you see, it's crucial here. 06:44 Because if he had used to point in time 06:47 then he would be saying, in the beginning 06:50 God created the Word, you see. 06:53 In the beginning, the Word came to be. 06:56 That's the word he uses in verse 3. 07:00 The world came to be at the time of creation. 07:03 He doesn't use that of the Word here of Jesus here. 07:08 In the beginning, at that point as far back as you can go, 07:12 the word already was continuously. 07:17 In other words, He is eternal. 07:18 So right here you realize 07:20 that Jesus doesn't go back to creation, 07:23 Jesus goes back to eternity. 07:25 He is way, way bigger than any angel. 07:27 Way, way bigger than human beings. 07:29 Way bigger than all creation combined. 07:32 Like, Jesus is the one through whom creation happened. 07:36 So right there at the beginning, 07:37 in the beginning, the Word already was. 07:42 Which means that Jesus was not a creative being? 07:44 Exactly, exactly. 07:46 When you understand that the Greek language here, 07:49 there is no doubts about it. 07:51 In the beginning was the Word. 07:53 But then, is the Word the Father? No. 08:00 He says, "The word was with God." 08:03 So it's distinguishing Jesus from the Father. 08:07 There are two aspects of the same reality, 08:10 but they are not the same. 08:11 They can have relationship. 08:13 From the beginning, they were in relationship with each other. 08:17 And then it says, 'The word was God." 08:21 And in the Greek, that's a qualitative expression. 08:25 The word qualitatively was God. 08:28 It wasn't that the word was one God among many, 08:31 but the word qualitatively was God. 08:34 What the Father is, Jesus is. 08:37 It's already saying the idea that He later on speaks plainly. 08:40 You know, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." 08:43 So in chapter 1:1, there is no question 08:47 that for John, Jesus is eternal, 08:51 He is completely equal with the Father, 08:55 you've seen Him, you've seen the Father, 08:57 and yet they're distinct. 08:58 He can pray to His Father in heaven. 09:02 They're not the same entity. 09:05 So right at the beginning it's clear, Jesus is God. 09:08 And not only that, verse 3, 09:10 "Through thing-- him all things were made." 09:14 There is that word, came to be. There is you're point in time. 09:20 Verse 1 is a continuous. Verse 3 is a point in time. 09:26 So Jesus who was-- who did not come to be made-- 09:30 made things to be is what I'm understanding? Yes. 09:34 So He is not part of that creation. 09:37 Everything that was made was made by Him, 09:42 which mean He wasn't made. 09:45 If He made everything that was made, He wasn't made. 09:47 Right. You see. 09:49 So He is eternal with God. 09:53 I mean, it's mind blowing when you think about it. 09:57 The person who walked here on this earth was the eternal God. 10:03 Came down with us. I mean, that blows your mind. 10:06 It's no wonder that people walking down the road with Him, 10:10 you know, watching Him, get sweaty and dirty and tired. 10:14 You know might have struggled with how great He truly was, 10:17 and it took the church maybe decades after the time 10:21 just to fully grasp what all of that meant. 10:25 It's unimaginable to me to, you know, 10:28 if I were living in those times to see Jesus 10:31 and to think you, you know, here you are created me. 10:36 You're the creator, created me, but that's what it says. 10:42 And you care about me. That's right. 10:44 Creator cares, you see. So we are valuable to God. 10:49 And I think the best source of value is that. 10:52 You know, we're not valuable 10:54 because some Judah on the street thinks we're cool. 10:56 We're valuable because 10:57 the king of the universe thinks we're amazing 11:01 and He's willing to come here and die for us. 11:04 But there it comes, verse 14. 11:08 That word, what happened? Became flesh. 11:12 He "became flesh and made his dwelling among us." 11:18 So on the one hand, the word was in verse 1, 11:23 continuous in eternity, but here He became flesh. 11:29 It's the creating word. 11:31 So God created something new 11:33 when He sent Jesus to this earth. 11:35 That baby, that human being was a new creation of God. 11:40 The eternal word came into time, came into flesh here. 11:46 So the word became human. 11:51 He was in eternity with God, but now He became with us. 11:57 He was equal with God. Now He became flesh. 12:01 So this God from eternity who was with God 12:06 has become flesh and is with us. 12:09 The two sides of Jesus just amazing. 12:12 And when you go through the rest of this prologue, 12:15 you see that Jesus is the absolute greatest. 12:19 The sanctuary language here in verse 14. 12:22 He lived. He dwelt. Yeah. 12:24 He dwelt among us, that sanctuary, 12:25 you know, that Shekinah, 12:27 the word for tent and the word for dwelling is the same word. 12:33 The glory, you know, reminds you the glory in the temple. 12:36 He is greater than John the Baptist. 12:38 We'll find out next time that a lot of people saw 12:41 John the Baptist was a Messiah, 12:43 and now he is greater than that. 12:45 He is greater than Moses. 12:48 See, everyone that people could put right at the pinnacle, 12:51 the sanctuary, John the Baptist, Moses, 12:54 all the greats of His time He is greater than all of those 12:57 'cause He came down from the throne of heaven. Amen. 13:01 Well, that is very encouraging. 13:02 And I pray and hope, friends, 13:04 that you too take courage that Jesus is great 13:07 and He wants to do great things in your lives, till next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17