Beginnings
The Gospel
of John is such a unique Gospel to read.
When you compare it to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) it
seems completely different. So many of
the traditional “Gospel Stories” simply aren’t present in the Gospel of John. All that being said, there are so many things
in the Gospel of John that are beyond cool.
I’m going to have to contain myself because I know I won’t be able to
hit on everything.
Jesus Is The Word
I have
always loved the beginning of the Gospel of John. Jesus is the Word of God. Literally, Jesus is the utterances of
God. {I’m
not meaning to fall into a modalistic heresy here, so please don’t read too
deeply.} God spoke the world into
creation … and that speaking is … well … Jesus.
All things were brought into existence through Jesus. Without Him nothing was made. I don’t even know if I can actually wrap my
head around these statements.
All things
were brought into existence through Jesus.
He was there. He was
present. His hand was in everything. He was a part of creation. The one who would be sent to redeem creation
was there when creation was being formed.
Imagine the emotion involved in God knowing that this very thing which
is being brought into existence by His hand will also have to be redeemed by
His hand through the Son. That’s
mind-blowing tonight. Like I said, I’m
not sure if I can even wrap my head around that.
The Light Shines
Then we
get the statement: the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not
overcome it. Wow. Talk about a bold statement. There are days when I feel like the world is
totally overcoming the proclamation of the Gospel. There are days when I feel like the world is
getting better and better at closing their ears. Perhaps there is some truth to those
thoughts. But the reality is that even
if the world is becoming better and better and closing off their ears – it
still has not overcome Christ! Amen!
Authority Given
Then we
have this great line in verse 12. To as
many as received him – to believe in His name – He gave authority to become the
children of God. We have authority to
become children of God. We – sinners all
of us – have the authority to become children of God. That is simply amazing. We who are born of the flesh and born into a
life dominated by our sinful self-mongerism can actually become children of God
– born of God! We deserve none of it,
yet receive it all!
John’s Witness
Then we
meet John the Baptizer. He is the voice
crying out in the wilderness (literally: en te eremo!). What is it that John says? John baptizes with water. But one is coming that we do not know. One is
coming that we are not even worthy to serve at His feet. One is coming with power and authority that
is so utterly incomprehensible to us.
But how is it that John identifies with Jesus? “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the
sin of the world.”
We think
of power and we immediately think of control.
We think of power and we immediately think of what we would do with our
power. God in Jesus receives power and
uses that power to die for our sake.
Behold … the Lamb of God. Behold
… the man who receives what we all desire and in turn is able to do something
with it that none of us would ever think to do.
Behold … He is the Son of God because He is able to demonstrate God’s
love in unfathomable ways.
To
contemplate what Christ did and what He received blows my mind.
Discipleship
But He
didn’t just die for us. He made us
disciples! He prepares us to receive the
keys of the kingdom. He wants to make us
fishers for people! And how does He do
it? Three simple words is all He needs
to say: Come and see. Come and see! Yes!
Oh, how God has revealed Himself in my life simply because I looked with
interest when He said “Come and see!”
Oh, the stories I would love to hear about how God has revealed Himself
to you because you were willing to look when He said “Come and see” to you as
well. These are three simple words;
these are three simple words that do not disappoint.
Jesus
didn’t just die for us. He could have,
and that would have been enough. He
could have, and that would have been more than we deserve. But no.
Jesus looks to us and invites us to follow. Jesus looks to us and says, “Not only will I
die for you, but I want you to learn how to be in a relationship with God. Not only that, but I want you to learn how
you can help other people get into a better relationship with God, too.” That’s incredible! We are not only recipients of grace but
graciously invited to participate in His plan!
You see,
this is why I love the Gospel of John.
It’s so easy to be absolutely blown away by the story that John
weaves. For the record, it is easy to be
blown away by Matthew’s story, Mark’s story, and Luke’s story. But the way we get blown away by John’s story
is in a completely different way.
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