The Gospel of John 1:1-18 [NLTse]

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He existed in the beginning with God. ³ God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him. ⁴ The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

⁶ God sent a man, John the Baptist, ⁷ to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. ⁸ John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. ⁹ The One Who is the true light, Who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

¹⁰ He came into the very world He created, but the world didn’t recognize Him. ¹¹ He came to His Own people, and even they rejected Him. ¹² But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. ¹³ They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

¹⁴ So the Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

¹⁵ John testified about Him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the One I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me Who is far greater than I am, for He existed long before me.’”

¹⁶ From His abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. ¹⁷ For the Law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, Who is Himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

Sermon

If you really wanted to explain to someone how much you love them, what would you do?

Rent a billboard? Send a video? Flood the community with leaflets? Send someone you trusted to explain on your behalf? Or would you go yourself?

Anybody remember the movie “TRON”? It first came out in 1982? It didn’t make much of a splash when it first came out, other than some – for that time – groundbreaking visual affects. But, overtime, it developed a kind of “cult” following that spawned a bunch of video games, comic books, an animated TV show, and even a movie-sequel that came out in 2010.

As you may remember, in the movie, a computer game programmer is able to digitize himself and enter into his own computer game to fight off a virus that has entered the game’s system and is twisting its programming from being a fun, engaging, adventure game into a game of violence, slavery, and world domination.

I’ve watched the movie (it’s not very good, and is crude and immoral on top of that) and I’ve never perceived any evidence that it’s writers, directors, or producers saw it as any kind of Christian flick, but with our reading from John 1 this past week and this morning in mind, it sure gives a brilliantly modern portrayal of the gospel: Jesus Christ of Nazareth – the spoken Word of God, the heart and mind of God, the will and plans of God – born into humanity – the creation and desire and beloved of God.

John writes that the world and everything that exists was created through the Word, Jesus. And sure enough, Genesis 1 tells us that God spoke, “Let there be light,” and light came into existence. And God spoke, “Let the waters separate and have dry land appear,” and it happened. And God spoke, and it was created. And God spoke and it appeared. God’s Word was the agent of creation. Everything that exists has come into being by God speaking it into existence. Nothing was created except through God’s speaking. Nothing was created except through His Word. And John writes that, like in the movie “TRON”, that the Word came into the very world He created and used His intimate knowledge of the “program” to overcome the virus and undo its work…

We shouldn’t be surprised that Jesus knew the tricks necessary to overcome the devil. And we shouldn’t be surprised when we follow after Him, seeking to be full of unfailing love and faithfulness ourselves – full of grace and truth, just like He was (and is) – that we find ourselves overcoming the world, as well. After all, Jesus knit the world – all of reality – together. He knew (knows) all the ancient machinery. It’s His Own handiwork; His Own ideas; His Own design. The devil and his demons are created beings. They are ancient, but not as ancient as the One Who created them.

C. S. Lewis put it this way in The Chronicles of Narnia’s “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”. After being killed and coming back from the dead, Aslan, the Jesus figure in the story, says of the White Witch, the devil figure, he says, “Though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of Time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”

As followers of Jesus, we Christians are not simply striving to be like Christ because being loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled are all the ways He was (and is). No. These characteristics of grace and truth, these fruits of unfailing love and faithfulness are the ways human beings were originally created to be. And when we live these ways, although there may be opposition and resistance from the non-Christians around us, these are the ways that grow our fellowship and communion with the Father, cause us to live in deepest harmony with the rest of creation, and will lead us to rich and deep abundance in our souls, continuing on into everlasting life once our death is past.

That’s why John can say in another place that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. (14:6) He’s not a way, a truth, a life. He is the way life was meant to be. He is the truth about everything that exists and how it all interrelates. He is the life that God has wanted for each and every human soul: A life that has no fear of death because it is stronger than death and will live beyond the one death that the devil is due.

Because Jesus is the Maker; because He not only knows the “deeper magic” that’s at the heart of creation and all existence, but is Himself the power and authority behind that so-called “magic”; because He not only knows everything but because He knows everything about everything, you and I can have hope in the face of the impossible!

Under the Lord’s guidance, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam led the Israelites to a No-Win situation: The 20-mile wide Red Sea’s Gulf of Aquba on the one side and the fearsome Egyptian army on the other. But the God Who created it all provided a way where there was no way! Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90, and because they had no child of their own one of their slaves was going to inherit all their wealth and their covenant with God. But God knows the deeper magic, and He gave a 100 year old husband and his 90 year old wife a son! (Along with the joys and hard work of being parents. J) Elijah was alone up against the king’s priesthood: They were well-trained in the popular theology of their day, and there were many of them, and they had all the power and resources of the kingdom of Israel backing them. There was no way! But lighting came down and ignited Elijah’s offering, not theirs.

And Lazarus was in the tomb: The ultimate end. No way back. Until the One through Whom all things were made called him back from death: Just as He’d called creation into being He called Lazarus out from behind the gates of Hell. There was no struggle. There was no contest. The Word Who was with God and Who Himself was God spoke, and Death had to give Lazarus up!

The world, the darkness, non-Christians say, “It’s impossible!” But nothing’s impossible for the Word!

And so it is for your and my impossible situations: Cancer; no job; a lousy job that doesn’t provide; a troubled marriage; or troubles with your kids or with your parents; … God has a Way: Jesus is God’s Way. It may not be the Way we want. Even us Christians tend to want the ways of the world. But Jesus is the “still deeper” Way, the Way of Him Who designed it all, the Way of the One Who gave life to everything and brought light to everyone.

Because the cancer may get worse, and instead of healing you get peace. A job may appear that keeps you living paycheck to paycheck, but you find that you love the work and the people and that you come home each day like you’ve done something that mattered! Maybe your wife never comes around to our way of thinking, but instead you learn to grow in surrender and self-sacrifice as you go forward committing to loving and serving her. Maybe your kids never completely wake-up to the gospel and treating us the way they should, but instead we become prayer warriors as we battle on our knees in desperation for them day after day and year after year, and find ourselves being better parents than we ever thought we would be otherwise, full of grace and truth, full of unfailing love and faithfulness, as we follow Him in the Way.

The Way that was before the beginning. The Way that only God knows, that only the Creator knows, that only the Word knows…