Week 1 - John 1:1-18 - The Word

Here John introduces to us to the Second Person of the Trinity, the ever existent Son of God, and His role in creation.  But we need to stop for a moment and grasp the simple thought He is called "the Word" because God created by speaking.

John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

While Einstein famously discovered that all matter is made of light, we knew that already from scripture.

Genesis 1:3
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

But a second thing was necessary, life itself.  This He gave universally.

John 1:4

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

And for anyone and everyone with received that light, a third thing was necessary, that being faith.  

Anyone with faith has the legal "right" to become a child of God.  Anyone who walks down the aisle; Anyone who raises the hand; Anyone who prays the prayer.  Anyone who looked on the Bronze Serpent in the wilderness was healed (Numbers 21:4-9).  For a moment, let go of the doctrine of election and let that sink in, for that is the core of evangelism.

John 1:12-13

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

But, yes God is sovereign and faith is only for the elect, so a fourth thing is necessary and this brings us back to the Word.  During creation our name was spoken and written down in the book of life.

Revelation 13:7-9

Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear:

When we visited my Aunt Marie and Uncle Loyal, there was some times a visit to Lollypop Farm.  

It had an extensive petting zoo, where my bearded Father, then sporting a goatee, was once famously photographed with a goat.  That life-sized and award-winning (Uncle Loyal was a great photographer) hung in our house for years!

One of the last times that we visited the farm, long after Uncle Loyal had passed away, and after the divorce had split our family, we ventured into the Humane Society portion of the farm to see the dogs that were up for adoption.

One little black and white ball of fluff caught our eye and my sister and I began the chant of “Can we?  Can we?”.

All it took was one little word from our mother, and Meisje (“little girl” in Dutch) became part of our family and she heard her name for the first time.

Praise be to the LORD God, that the Word, our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, spoke our name before the foundation of the world!