Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

What John Says About Jesus - John 1:1-5
Jul 29th, 2007
Weekly Bible StudyHugh Davidson
Categories: Commentary;Book Study;Inspirational

John 1:1-5 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”

In the very first verse of this book John begins by telling us that Jesus is God when he says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And here he says, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” The all things refer to creation and to all of its individual parts. And that tell us that everything we can see through a telescope and everything we can look at through a microscope are all made by Him. Paul repeats this idea over in Colossians 1:16 where he writes, “For in Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him.” Did you get that? Everything came from Jesus.

And having said that there’s no room for evolution or a big bang theory or any other kind of chance creation because the scripture is very clear, God created something out of nothing. I remember when I first got saved I had attended a charismatic fellowship that brought in a highly educated man to explain creation for us and he taught what was known as the gap theory and it really made sense. As a matter of fact, it took away the need to believe in a God who can create things with the appearance of age.

And basically, the gap theory taught that between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 there was a rebellion in the heavens that affected earth and God started creation all over again using the same materials as the original creation and that not only explained the fossil record but it also gave us helps us understand what happened to the lost city of Atlantis. The more I studied his ideas the more I realized the only gap was the one between his ears. Listen, God created the world with a sense of history.

Imagine if you will that you were in the garden of Eden on the first day of history. Would the ground be bare waiting for the plants to grow? Would there be any trees? Would Adam and Eve have to wait a couple of years to have something to eat?

If God created food for them to eat then the trees would have rings denoting growth even though they were a day old and they would also have fruit containing seeds.

We could even take this a step further and ask about Adam himself. On the day he was created how old did he look? In Genesis 2 God gave him some basic instructions and equipped him to live but said it was not good that he be alone and created a woman from one of his ribs. So, on the first day of his life God not only gave him basic dietary information, had him name all the animals and then married him to his wife and he was only one day old. He was created with a sense of history in that he could function as an adult and understand language.

Let me take you back to John 1 and ask you a simple question. It says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Now, look down the page to verse 18 and see where it says, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” So, if no one has ever seen God the Father then who met with Adam in the garden? It had to be Jesus.

I believe that all men everywhere have life in them and this can open up into eternal life but only if they repent and surrender themselves to Jesus. It says, “In Him was life” and this tells us that the only true source of life is the God of the word and the word of God. We are told that men love darkness because their deeds are evil and hate the light because it exposes their sin. We know that Jesus exposes the sin of man and we come to Him because He reveals Himself to us.

Darkness is a key word in the book of John and he uses it seven times. The word implies a moral darkness and this darkness is like midnight rather than the darkness associated with evening. We tend to think of unsaved people from a human perspective and see them all as either very good right down to the evil but God sees all the unsaved for what they are as committed to sin whatever their preference happens to be because everyone has a different way of expressing their sin.

And then He tells us that “the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehend it not.” And literally this means that the darkness did not put out the light. And there are three ways of interpreting this. First, is that darkness never understood the light. And when you think about it, the words of Jesus make no sense to the world. Every once in a while someone will say to me, “Don’t talk to me about the Bible, I know all about it.” And I say, “Name five of the ten commandments.” And they can’t, they reject it because it’s the word of God. Second, it can also mean that darkness never overcame the light. Just think, the powers of darkness thought they were getting rid of Jesus on the cross and all they did is fulfill the plan of salvation. And then third, it could also mean ‘to put it out’ like extinguishing a flame. And the world has been trying since the beginning of time to get rid of the light of God but in every generation God has those who faithfully serve Him. I am here because someone was faithful and because of my faithfulness there will be those who serve God behind me. How about you? Are you saved? Are you faithfully doing your part for God?

I like how Warren Weirsbe said, “John did not write a book, He painted pictures and these pages are filled with images such as the lamb, the door, the shepherd, the new birth, the light and darkness, the water of life, bread, blindness, seeds and many more.”

The book of John seems so simple that even a little child can understand it and yet it can also be so deep that some of the smartest people in this world miss it completely. And the problem isn’t with the book. I’m afraid it’s with us because there are times when we hear a simple fact but try so hard to understand it that we miss it altogether. And all John is trying to say, is that Jesus is God and He came into this world by becoming one of us and He had one intention in mind and that was to pay the price for your sins and mine so when our time comes to leave this world we can go to the home He created for us. Are you ready?