The Word part 2

Well take your Bible and turn with me this morning to the Gospel of John. This morning we're going to pick back up where we left off last week in verses 1 through 5 of chapter 1. And I know that we are really just getting started in our verses in our series Christ the Son of God. Believe and live. I trust and pray that you've been studying ahead. I know one of the men of the church this week was talking to me. I think he was text messaging me and he was telling me about things that he was learning in John chapter 10.

And it just reminded me that some of you are faithful to study and study ahead, to read ahead and just marinate your heart and your mind in the book of John that we're just going into in the days and weeks and months to come. Now last week we started these verses, verses 1 through 5, but you know that last week we only got to verse 2 and I did that purposefully because there was a lot of truth that we needed to be a little slower in dealing with in verses 1 through 2. Now you knew, you saw last week that the title of the message was the Word and it was the Word part 1.

Now I am calling verses 1 through 5 the Word because that is the central focus of John's message in these verses, the Word. Now in introducing last week's message you will remember that I told you that verses 1 through 18 are part of what's called the prologue, part of what is called the prologue. Now I don't want to bore you with that word too much. I will move on away from that word prologue to just call it the introduction. That's all a prologue is. If you have a literary work, a book, it will have an introduction to the book and the introduction is important because it sets the stage for what the author is wanting to give.

That's all verses 1 through 18 are. It is a prologue. It is an introduction to the rest of the book and I posed this question to you last week, what is the importance of knowing that? And it's very important for us to get that because if we don't see all that God wants us to see in verses 1 through 18, we will not be able to get the remaining message of the Gospel of John. The introduction is John's way of saying, I'm preparing you for the main message of the book.

And so what I want to say to you is develop a good habit in this Gospel of John of getting all that we can get because if we get the truth that John is trying to teach in verses 1 through 18, it really will help us get all that the Lord wants us to see in the remaining chapters in the Gospel of John. It's very important. So I do encourage you to study your notes in the week, to go back and listen to the message, to ask those questions that might come to your mind.

There's no such thing as a dumb question because we really need to come to the Lord and say feed us and teach us, give us all of the understanding of the truth of the word because we know the focus is Christ. Isn't that right? John is trying to reveal to us the person, the true person of Christ. Now last week in verses 1 through 2, we saw the pre-existence of God. We saw the pre-existence of God. But in this pre-existence, there was the presence of the divine word. If you go back and you look at those verses, verses 1 through 2, we see the word is mentioned so many times. So we see the word is there in verses 1 through 2.

In some of my study this week, I was reading in one of my study resources. It's called Vincent's Word Studies in the New Testament. And he really summarizes verse 1 and 2 well. I want you to listen to this. Vincent says the logos, that's the Greek word for the word, word, the logos of John is the real personal God, the word. Where part of the audience for John was the Gentiles. Those Greeks that had an idea of the logos that was an impersonal God. It was just this force out there. What does Vincent say?

The logos of John, the word, is the real personal God, the word, who was originally before the creation with God and was God in one essence and nature and yet personally distinct. And what Vincent helps us to see is this is the beginnings of the teaching of the Trinity. And I like that because Vincent really summarizes all that we learn in verses 1 through 2. Now I want you to see that this is fundamental. This is fundamental in dealing with proper Christology. You might say that word Christology pastor, it's just kind of a big word. What does that word Christology mean? We're going to use this word Christology a lot through the book.

Christology is nothing more than proper theological interpretation of the person and the work of Christ. Just to help you understand that, if you have incorrect Christology, then you do not understand the person and the work of Christ. Remember John's purpose. There were those who were perverting the teaching of the person and the work of Christ. And John is all about establishing who Christ really was. So fundamentally in verses 1 and 2, we see proper Christology. The word was Christ and is Christ. And he was preexisted with God himself.

And John is beginning to lay the groundwork of a proper understanding of the Godhead because in that we see God the Father and then we see God the Son. He was with God in the beginning and we see that that word here, he dispels the understanding of the Greeks and the faulty information or the incorrect information of the Jews. And what does he do? This word was none other than Christ. Pre-existent with God prior to Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. Now we're moving on in our study and it just gets layer upon layer as John is teaching us the word. Now let's go back to our verses chapter 1 verses 1 through 5. Let me read them together with us.

John says, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He," that's Christ, that's the word, that's the logos, "was in the beginning with God." Now we stopped there last week and this is where we'll pick up this morning. He says, "All things came into being by him and apart from him nothing came into being that is come into being." And then he moves on to another subject right here in verses 4 through 5. He says, "In him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not comprehend it." What John is doing is he is laying the groundwork for who Christ is.

Now I said earlier that last week the title of the message was the word part 1. This morning we see the word part 2 and when you see the truths that we're going to learn out of verses 1 through 5 on the screen, you see that number 1, God is pre-existent. Now we studied that last week. We took one message to deal with that one truth. This morning we're going to see point number 2, our main truth number 2, God is creator. And then next week we will finish up these verses in looking at God is life or God is life. So the title of this message this morning is the word part 2 and we are going to look at God is creator.

So staying with the main truth that we looked at last week which was number 1, God is pre-existent. We will move on to number 2, God is creator. And we're only going to look at one verse this morning but there's a lot of truth that I think we need to take our time with. So let's look at verse 3. What does the word say? All things came into being by Him and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. John is talking about the creation but John is also helping us understand who we are talking about. Let's just go back to verse 3. There is the word Him and that word Him is used two times. This is nothing more than Jesus.

What we see is we see God the Father and God the Son. We see that in verses 1 and 2 and then in verse 3 he moves on to talk about the Him who is the Word, who is the Logos, who is Christ. This is the first two parts of the Trinity as I have already said. Vincent says one in essence and in nature talking about God the Father and God the Son but then Vincent says yet personally distinct. What does he say about that? We have God the Father, God the Son. They are two different personalities but they are one in essence and one in nature. That's what we see in verses 1 and 2. But in verses 3 the focus is on Christ.

MacArthur says that this is Jesus Christ the eternal Word. So when you look at your scripture, all things came into being by Him. That is Christ. The Logos, the Word. All things came into being by Him and apart from Him nothing came into being. So what do we see? God is Creator. Christ is Creator. Jesus is Creator. Now with this verse 3 in our laps right here, I want us to notice some truth and then I'm going to bring these truths back down to the cultural situation John was facing and also I'm going to bring it into our lap too today. So first and I hope you're taking notes, I want you to see that Christ created. First Christ created.

Now we find that in the middle portion of verse 3. I'm going to take the portions of the verse out of order for a reason. Notice what he says, "All things came into being by Him." I want to focus on that came into being by Him. What is John saying? Christ created in the middle portion of verse 3. Now the new American that I'm reading from reads came into being. The King James reads made by Him. All of the translations are very similar. Now in the original it literally means came into being or became. But notice the wording. It says by Him or through Him. Go back to the verse. All things came into being by Him or through Him.

This refers to Christ but there is more. What I mean by more is earlier or excuse me, last week I've told you that sometimes we need a little help to get them to the original language and to understand what the original language says. John MacArthur kind of helped me this week in understanding the original language. The language in verse 2 that came into being is different than verse 1. What I mean is the language in verse 1 describes a state of being. In other words, Christ was in a state of being. He was in an eternal state. But verse 2, John is speaking of creating the universe.

In verse 1, Christ is a continual being while in verse 2, Christ is the Creator. And so what do we see here? We see that Christ created because what does John say? All things came into being by Him or because of Him and the language is different because in verses 1 and 2, John is saying that Christ was created. John is saying Christ always has been. But in verse 3, John is saying, but Christ did create the creation. But then the second thing I want you to see is that Christ created all things. Again, I said that I was going to take the verse out of order. Now we're going to look at the beginning of verse 3. What does it say?

All things came into being by Him. And what we see is the second truth, Christ created all things. I wanted to take it out of order because I wanted to establish the fact that Christ created first. But now we see an added dimension. Every translation that we have in this room, every translation reads all. And this word all encompasses all. This is a reference not just to all of the creation, but to every detail of the creation. Christ created all of the universe, but in every detail He created. It is very descriptive in the original wording. What do we see? Christ created all things were created through Him and by Him.

But now we see the emphasis that all things were created even into the very smallest of detail. Then the third thing I want us to see is only Christ created all things. Go back to the verse. All things came into being by Him and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. Now I want you to notice something about the verse. In the first portion of the verse John is very positive. Go back to the verse. All things came into being by Him. But now He changes a little and He has a negative tone. And apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. What do we see here?

By going from positive to negative John is adding an emphasis. He is using a negative tone to emphasize a truth and that truth is only Christ created. All things came into being only because of Christ. This word nothing, now again I'm using the new American, in the original is translated not even one thing, not even one thing. There is an emphasis there but there is more. He has come into being from the new American or that was made is in the perfect tense. What I mean by that is the construction of this negative portion is in the perfect tense meaning that there is a continuance of the created.

What that means is that which was created is continuing. What that means is only Christ created all things and when He did create that creation is a continual creation. Therefore we can look out of our windows, ride down our roads and observe the creation and that which we see is a continuum of that original creation. Now I want to pause here a moment and I want to say something. We do know those of us who are Bible literate understand that the creation that we see and we have now is been affected by the fall, by sin. When Adam and Eve chose to sin it affected all of the creation, not just them.

But that truth still remains and I hope you understand that. What John is saying is only Christ created all things and we see an emphasis in that negative portion at the end of verse 3. So I want to kind of summarize that point because I want us to really get it. Using negative language John, he emphasizes only Christ created. One of the Bible commentators said it like this. The language in the original can be translated. All things were made by Him and what was made was in no way made without Him. See the negative which emphasizes? But also the present tense of the language indicates a continual creation. It was an ongoing creation.

Not that creation is continually being created but it is alive and that which we see testifies to the fact that God created through His Son Jesus. So what I want you to see is Christ created in the middle portion of verse 3. Second, Christ created all things. In every little detail from the beginning of verse 3 and then at the end of verse 3 He changes and He uses a negative tone to explain that only Christ created all things. He emphasizes by saying all things came into being only by Christ. Now I want to give you some more scriptural evidence.

I have told you this before that the best way to interpret scripture is in light of other scripture. Always remember this. If you translate one scripture and it contradicts another scripture, your original translation or interpretation is wrong. Scripture interprets scripture and properly understood one scripture sheds light on another scripture, on another scripture, on another scripture until we have what is called, now listen, full revelation. I'm going to touch on that again in a minute. But let me give you some scriptural evidence that Christ is creator exactly like John describes.

Now I want you to mark your place in John and I want you to turn with me to the book of Colossians. To the book of Colossians. Go to your right and get over into Paul's writings. If you see Ephesians and Philippians keep going to that little book of Colossians. It's before 1st and 2nd Thessalonians if you have trouble finding it. The book of Colossians. Now Colossians was written by Paul. Paul had never visited that church in Colossae. Paul had only heard about Colossae through a layman named Epipharus and most Bible theologians believe that Epipharus started that church and he heard about this church and he wrote a letter to them.

This letter called the letter to the Epipharus. Is pastoral in nature and it does have some encouragement but it also has some correction. But in this book I want you to notice what Paul says about Christ the creator. In chapter 1 verse 16 and verse 17. Paul says and you need to mark this. For by him your translation will have a capital H there I would imagine. For by him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created by him and for him. I'll stop right there. Now I want you to notice some truths out of this Colossian passage.

First of all we see that by him all things were created. Isn't that what he says? For by him all things were created. Does not not echo exactly what John said in his gospel? So we see that Paul says the very same thing that Christ the Logos the living word was with God in the beginning and at that creative time we see that Christ created all things. But I want you to notice that Paul gives a description of the all things. As a matter of fact he gives more language than John gives or more of a description than John gives. First of all what does he say? He says that Christ created the heavens and the earth. What does he say?

He says that he also created the visible and the invisible. What that tells me is that those planets and those galaxies and those stars and those things in the sky that we cannot understand all those things that are visible and un-invisible Christ did create. Also we see that Christ created powers and rulers. Those who have dominion over us. Romans chapter 13 talks about that as well. And what do we see here? Why it was all created. It was created by him and all things visible and invisible were created. But notice at the end of the verse, verse 16, it was created by him and for him. All things were created for Christ Jesus.

For his purposes, for his glory, for his honor. Although I've already said this is a fallen world, the creation is fallen just like mankind is fallen but yet still it is by him and for him. The Lord Jesus Christ isn't responsible for the sin that we see out there but he did create. And what we see in Colossians is, Paul says exactly what John says but he gives us a little more detail. What is that? Scriptural evidence from Paul that what John said is right. Christ Jesus, the living Logos, the Word, he is the one that created.

So I want to give you some more scriptural evidence and I want you to turn all the way back over to the book of Genesis. This is one that I would imagine many of you have never seen and this might even surprise you. Turn to Genesis chapter 1 and we're going to look at chapter 1 and chapter 3. Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 3. If you know your Bible you will know that Genesis chapter 1 is the creation account. What does it say in verse 1? In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. But in the beginning John just echoed that language there out of Genesis 1. And then we see this beautiful creation account. Verse 3, then God said.

What do we see? Verse 6, then God said. Verse 9, then God said. All the way through. Then God said. Then God said. Then God said. This is the literal 6 day creation account. This is the creation when God created everything that we know. Then we see things change. Because in chapter 1 verse 26 what does God say? Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. You will notice that that language is pluralistic. Now what I want you to see is although Moses and those original Jews did not understand this like we do. Because remember I talked about full revelation.

We have the full revelation of God because we have the full written word of God. Now Moses when he penned these words they did not have the full revelation. So they did not fully understand the language that was before them. But because Moses was inspired by God. Moses wrote it accurately and properly. And in the original Hebrew it was written plural. Moses wrote, then God said let us make man in our image according to our likeness. And this is by no accident because if you turn over into chapter 3 after the fall verse 22 notice what God said. Then the Lord God said behold the man has become like one of us.

Again in the original language it is plural. Moses did not understand the ramifications of what he is writing. But because we have full revelation we know exactly what Moses was writing. Because who is the us? It is God the Father and it is God the Son. It is God and the Logos. It is the Word. And I want to go back to what we looked at last week. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. There you go just like Genesis says and the Word was God. That's why God said let us create man in our image.

It is plural and it is plural for a reason because in Genesis chapter 1 and in chapter 3 God is clearly speaking to someone and that someone is Christ the living Word the Logos. Now did Moses see this as God the Father and God the Son? No he did not. That would read something into the text. But we have full revelation and we know that John says that on that day when God created man the living Word the Logos Christ was there. That's why it says in verse 2 he was with God in the beginning. On that day Christ was there. And then Paul quite a few years later what does he say? And by the way Christ was there. Isn't that awesome?

Because we see the full revelation. And what do we see? John is telling us who this Christ is but now he's telling us in verse 3 what the Christ did because God is creator and it's not just God the Father it is God the Son and what does Paul say? "For by Him all things were created both the seen and the unseen, heavens and the earth whether it's throne or dominion it was created by Him and for Him." And what I wanted us to see is what John said and what Paul said and what Moses said. We saw Jesus prior to Genesis 1.1 last week and now we see Him in the creation and not only is He there but we see Him as the Creator.

John, Paul, Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 3 tell us. I like what author Pink says. A.W. Pink he says, "Just as He was before all things and therefore eternal so was He the originator of all things and therefore omnipotent." Now why do I use that word omnipotent? That word omnipotent is used a lot in preaching and teaching and theological circles and what we see is John is just teaching that Christ is omnipotent. He is not only eternal but Christ is Creator. Now you might say what is the purpose of John writing this? Why so much in verses 1, 2 and 3? Why would you take so much time with verse 1? Why does John need to do this?

Why can't he start off the gospel maybe like Matthew? What did Matthew do? Matthew gives us the genealogy. Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience. Matthew is trying to establish just how Jewish Jesus is. He is trying to prove that He is a true descendant of David but what is John's purpose? What is John doing? John is trying to establish proper Christology but remember what I told you. When John is writing this gospel account, what was taking place in the culture?

Because see culture and context help us understand the purpose of any writing in Scripture and therefore we can take these timeless principles and bring them to our day and our time so that you can walk out the door and say what? So what? What does it mean to me today? But let me tell you what was going on. On John's day, there was the beginning of a heresy that was called Gnosticism. Gnosticism is a strange word. It starts with a G but at John's time or during John's time and when John is writing to these Christians in these churches, there was a Christian heretic of Greek origin named Corinthians.

And this heretic began to propagate false teaching and the false teaching or the heresy that he propagated said that the world was created by angels and not by the supreme God. And he goes on to teach that Jesus was the real offspring of Joseph and Mary. In other words, Joseph was his father and that Jesus received Christ at His baptism as the divine power and that Christ left Jesus before the crucifixion and the resurrection. Now how do we know this? There is a very trusted theologian named Arrhenius from the second century.

I talked about Arrhenius already because it was Arrhenius who tells us that John is the one who wrote this gospel account and Arrhenius got it from his mentor named, my mind just left me, excuse me. It was his mentor that studied under John who told and taught Arrhenius. Now what am I trying to show you? Arrhenius from the second century tells us of this heretic that was propagating this beginnings of what's called Gnosticism in John's day. Now what's the big deal? Why the history lesson? Gnosticism went on to infect several churches.

As a matter of fact, the beginnings of Gnosticism affected the Colossian church and the Galatian church and it wasn't until the second and third century that Gnosticism really developed into this full blown heresy. But what do we see? In John's day, there was a man who did what? He attacked God as creator and he attacked Christ as the supreme God. He attacked Christology and Christ as creator. What does he do? He is attacking the Christology of who Christ really is and that's why John writes what he writes. He says, "Let me tell you who Jesus is.

He is the eternal God who was with God in the beginning and it was Christ who created." John is establishing a proper Christology in the hearts and the lives of the churches of the people who are being influenced by this garbage. And it went on to influence so many churches and faults and so many Christians and affected so many people in the second and the third century. Now what is this to today? What does this have to do with you and me? You know most of us, if we were to get honest and study the subject, we would notice that I don't really see any Gnosticism around us today. But you know what?

The devil, all he does is repackage the same old lies. Let me explain what I mean. I want to show you some places of fault. I want to show you some belief which is attacked openly. Now listen, Christ as deity, as God and Christ as creator. I want to give you just two. First evolution. Evolution. Some of you know this, that in the mid 1800s it was Charles Darwin who formulated the scientific theory of evolution by natural selection. And he published his works which became so famous, very controversial at the time, on the origin of species in 1859. Now I'm not going to stand here and bore you by explaining to you all of what evolution teaches.

But basically evolution denies that God is the creator. And evolution teaches that we have evolved and that species have evolved and changed through the millennia. And species came from one species. Evolution teaches that our forefathers were primates. And evolution teaches that primates came from other life. And it all goes back to some pond somewhere or some mud hole somewhere where there was a little bitty form of life and therefore evolution sprang into existence. What is that? We laugh. Those of us who are bible believing scoff. But that thought has affected how many millions of people since Darwin postulated his lies. What does it do?

It attacks God as creator and it attacks Christ as the supreme being. It dethrones God. It dethrones God as creator because Colossians says that all things were created by him and for him. And we laugh and we scoff. But if we are to really get sober about the situation, we will know that thousands upon millions of people have believed these lies and they have died and they have gone down and they have stood before the living word. Evolution. It's in our public school systems. It's in our public thought. It's on television. I'll give you an example. I like to watch documentaries with one of my daughters.

We will watch television together and we'll watch stories of animals and animals that she's never seen. In any of those documentaries that you listen to and you watch, what do they do? Propagate evolution. It's inescapable. Now not every school teacher teaches that. I'm thankful that I know school teachers in the public school system in Brookhaven who refuse to teach it. When they get to that chapter in the book, they close it and they talk about the creation and what God said. But what am I showing you? Evolution is nothing more than a cousin, dynasticism. And look, John attacked it in his day.

He refused to let them dethrone Christ as creator. The second place of thought and belief which attacks openly Christ as creator and God. This might sound strange at first, but I think you'll see where I'm going, is religious pluralism. Religious pluralism. We live in a day of religious pluralism. Now let me define for you in a very simplistic manner, religious pluralism. Religious pluralism is an attitude or an approach towards the diversity of religious beliefs and religions.

It is a system of coexisting in society and culture which carried through to its fullest, deny one religion exclusive in truth and acknowledging some truth from other religions. When one group claims exclusive truth, these truths are explained as variations of universal truths which have always been taught. I'll try to explain that a little further. Religious pluralism basically carries tolerance to the next step. What I believe and what you believe can coexist, but yet if I believe what I believe, it cannot be exclusive. I must accept what you believe and I cannot claim to have exclusive truth. What is exclusive truth?

If we as Bible believe in Christians stand up and we say in the culture, Jesus is the way and the truth and the life that no man comes to the Father but by Him. That is exclusive. If we say that Bible Christianity is the only way, the one way and all of the other religions of the world are nothing more than lies, that is an exclusivism. But religious pluralism says not only do I tolerate the other religions, but I cannot say that my religion is exclusive. A lot of people call it universalism. And if you think about what I have told you and you pay attention to culture, this is everywhere.

It is a crime if you stand up and say Christ is the only way. It does not matter if you're a good and honest Hindu or a good and honest Buddhist or a good and honest Mormon or a good and honest Muslim, it does not matter what you believe. If you do not believe in the Christ of the Bible, you are wrong. That is religious, listen, exclusivism. And it's not put up with today. And what does pluralism do? Pluralism seeks to dethrone Christ as creator and Christ as God. It is nothing more to a cousin than Gnosticism. It's just the same old lie repackaged. I will let you in on something that Keith and I say together.

This is rather comical, but if it will help you remember these things, I will use it. Y'all know that I have small children and, you know, they're growing, but we watch kids movies and television shows, things that are true and clean and good. Hard to find these days, but we are all familiar with the movie that is so popular in American culture, The Wizard of Oz. A lot of make believe. I never had a problem with those things just because I watched The Road Runner didn't mean I went out and committed violence against someone.

But if you remember in the movie, The Wizard of Oz, when they get to Oz and they get into carriage, the carriage was pulled by the horse of another color. Remember that? As the camera would pan away, obviously they had a horse colored and it went from green to orange. It was the horse of another color. And see all of these lies, they're nothing more than the same old lie, but they're just another color. Now, what am I trying to show you? Satan repackages the same lie with the same goal and the same purpose.

If he can get mankind to believe some system of thought, some religion that will dethrone Christ as God, Christ as the eternal creator, Christ the living God, that all things were created by him and for him, it doesn't matter what color that lie is. Oh, he's been successful because he has dethrone Christ. And see all of John's purpose is, is right here, he is going to establish that Christ is eternal. He was with God in the beginning and all things were created by him and for him. And all John is doing is putting Christ right back where he always has been in the hearts and the minds of those readers.

Now, as I conclude with the message this morning, why this much time on one verse? This is crucial to proper Christology. See some of you in here, you might have already known that Christ was eternal, but some of you might have never truly seen that Christ is creator. It was Christ Jesus who uttered those words. What did God say? Let us create man in our image. That was God the father and God the son. Some of you might not have ever seen Christ as the creator like that before. And what is that doing? That is establishing in your heart proper Christology.

And therefore one day when you're going along in life and some system of thought or some religion or some thoughts come along or ideals come along that contradict that, you'll say, "No, I know what the Bible says, Christ created." Second, we have here Christ not only before creation but in creation, but also all of creation. And notice there is one thing that maybe you've never seen and that is this creation is for Him. In the end, this is all going to be used for His glory and honor, even the fallen creation that we deal with today. So in conclusion, we see that this establishes the proper Christology in our heart.

We see that Colossians helps us see that all of this crew is created not just by Him but for Him. But also we see this is part of the introduction of the book because if we don't have these truths right, we will never understand how Christ could do what He did later on in the book. How could He stand before Nicodemus and said, "You are Israel's teacher, but yes, you must be born again." How could He ever say those words with authority if you don't understand who Christ really is? So the introduction is important. There's one Bible commentator that I like. I haven't used him until recently as I've gotten into the book of John.

It's a writer named D.A. Carson. I'm not familiar with him, but I used his commentary in seminary years ago and he said this, "John intends that the whole of his gospel be read in light of this verse." You get it? We're going to see Christ do some fabulous things in the gospel, but unless we see who He really is, it won't quite make sense. So what do we see this morning? The Word. The Word part two. pray.