SERIES: Advent: A Light Has Dawned
TEXT: John 1:1-3
MESSAGE: “In the Beginning”

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” — Isaiah 9:2

• QUESTION: Is there meaning in life?

“In our modern individualistic world, we are taught to look inside ourselves to find out who we really are — live my best life, I’m told I must listen to my heart. I’ll discover who I am by falling down a rabbit hole inside myself. I must follow my dreams and find my bliss. But as we look inside, we’ll find ourselves confronted with two problems. First, we may find our feelings aren’t the compass we hoped for…we will be stuck in rounds of introspection… second, if we take an honest look inside our hearts, we’ll find that everything we see in there is good. If we look long enough, we find ourselves unearthing meanness, selfishness, envy, pride…And all sorts of desires that leave us wondering, if everyone could see in my heart, would anyone still love me?” — Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin 

“No portion of the New Testament captured the imagination and the attention of the Christian intellectual community for the first three centuries more than this brief section of John’s Gospel.” — R. C. Sproul

“The nature of Christ is, I grant it, from one end to another, a web of mysteries; but this mysteriousness does not correspond to the difficulties which all existence contains. Let it be rejected, and the whole world is an enigma; let it be accepted, and we possess a wonderful explanation of the history of man.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

TEXT: John 1:1-3

“I believe the inclusion of the prologue has to do with John’s overriding goal, throughout his Gospel, of making a case for the identity of Christ.” — R. C. Sproul

Q: What do we find out about Jesus’ identity from this text? John highlights Jesus as: (1) The Author (2) The Script (3) The Craftsman

1. The Author (v.1) —“In the beginning…”

• “Since Mark begins his Gospel with the same word, ‘The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ’, it is also possible that John is making an allusion to his colleague’s work, saying in effect, ‘Mark has told you about the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry; I want to show you that the starting point of the gospel can be traced farther back than that, before the beginning of the entire universe.’” — D.A. Carson

Everything starts with God. // Where do we get stuck — when we believe that everything starts with us. 

“(Jesus) immediately stepped in between a holy, infinite, offended majesty and offending mankind, and was accepted in his interposition….Christ began to exercise the office of mediator between God and man as soon as man fell because mercy began to be exercised towards man immediately.” — Jonathan Edwards

2. The Script (v.1b-2) — “…was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.”’

“Jesus shares his nature and being with God—“the Word was God.” He is of the same character and quality as God (v. 1). Everything that can be said about God can be said about Jesus Christ. We call this the Trinity—the understanding that there is one God but that the one God exists as three persons: God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In verse 1 we find a precisely worded statement about Jesus that leads us to only one conclusion: Jesus Christ is God.” — Matt Carter and Josh Wredberg

“…the Prologue summarizes how the ‘Word’ which was with God in the very beginning came into the sphere of time, history, tangibility—in other words, how the Son of God was sent into the world to become the Jesus of history, so that the glory and grace of God might be uniquely and perfectly disclosed. The rest of the book is nothing other than an expansion of this theme.” — D. A. Carson

“He has himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When he was a man, he played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace, and thought it well worthwhile.” — Dorothy Sayers

3. The Craftsman (v.3) — “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

“For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” — Colossians 1:16

“Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” — Luke 12:7

• Who do you believe is the author of your life?

“Not only do we know God by Jesus Christ alone, but we know ourselves only by Jesus Christ. We know life and death only through Jesus Christ. Apart from Jesus Christ, we do not know what is our life, nor our death, nor God, nor ourselves.” — Blaise Pascal

• Do you believe God has an intimate involvement in your script?

• How does Jesus’ arrival impact your life right now?

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” — Isaiah 9:2