WORD OF LIFE

Sermon Summary, “Word of Life” (John 1 (selected verses))

 

We’re beginning a new series on the Gospel of John.  John, the youngest, the disciple whom Jesus loved.  John who 30 years following the resurrection became leader of the church of Ephesus in the midst of Greek culture.  While the other three Gospels are similar, in many ways a historical narrative, John chose to write a spiritual biography of Jesus and to do so in a way that would touch the Greek culture.

He struck on an approach that bridged the divide between Jewish and Greek culture, “word,” a creative force in Jewish literature, “And God said, “let there be light….,” and Wisdom and Reason in Greek culture.  The Greek word was “Logos.”  John begins his prologue with “In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the word was with God, and the word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.  What has come into being in him was life, and life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.”

Jesus became the Creative Personification of Logos.  And not only that, he was about to live among us!  “The Word (Logos) became flesh and dwelt among us!”  John concludes his prologue by saying, “No one has ever seen God.  It is God the only Son who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” (Emphasis added.) 

You could say that the purpose, the reason that Christ came was to make God known. You want to know what God is like? Look to Jesus?  You want to know what life in God is like?  Look to Jesus.  You want to know want life, eternal life is like?  Look to Jesus.

Life is a major theme of John.  John tells us that the reason he wrote was that we might come to believe, and that through believing we may have life in his name!  Eternal life.

Jesus wants us to believe in him.  Jesus wants us to love him, and through that love Jesus wants to change the world. Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandment.” There is no Great Commandment in John, no Golden Rule, only a New Commandment that we “Love one another.”  “Love one another.” These are the words of God from the Word of God.

We are simply asked in everything we do, every personal relationship and transaction, to ask “What does love require of us?”  With that, Jesus will change the world!  So be it with all of us!