The Fruit of Fellowship with Christ
A Series on the Fruit, Benefit,
& the Joy of Walking With Christ
The Prologue:
The Reality of the Incarnation
John 1:1a
(Part I)
The Appetizer – let’s stimulate interest
·
What is a
cornerstone?
·
What does a
cornerstone do?
·
Have you ever
been part of the laying of a cornerstone?
·
Why is a
cornerstone significant?
The Adaptation – let’s adapt the appetizer to our
lesson
Tonight I intend to share
with you what the Apostle John considered to be the cornerstone, or the very heart
of the gospel, namely, that eternal life has been made manifest in
the historical incarnate Son of God.
The Argument – let’s discover the main idea of our
lesson
This prologue sets as a
cardinal truth the cornerstone of the Christian Faith as the means by which to
test and expose false doctrine as John declares the reality of the apostolic
encounter with the incarnate Word of Life.
The Aim – the change you need to make as a
result of this lesson
To challenge you to
confidently accept John’s assertion that Jesus was truly incarnated in the
flesh
Since he was real and not an
allusion he is the only mediator between God and man – accept him as your
mediator
INTRODUCTION
The last weeks we examined
four key elements of an introduction that help us understand the purpose and
meaning of the writing of this letter. We examined the author, determined from external and internal evidence that the
author was John the Apostle. The same John who wrote the Gospel according to
John wrote this epistle or letter.
The second element that we
examined was the audience. We saw
that John wrote to primarily Gentile churches in Asia.
The third element that we
examined was the age. From external
and internal factors we determined this letter to have been written around AD
90-95.
The fourth and final element
that we examined was the argument of
the epistle. John wrote for four (4) reasons:
·
To enhance both
his, as their spiritual advisor and their joy in their Christian life. John was
anxious that his audience enjoy their Christian life.
·
To keep his
readers from sin. John knew that sin robs believers of joy. Christ promised a
deep seated, rich, overflowing and sustaining joy in this life. Sin steals joy.
·
To ground them in
their assurance of salvation. The flesh and the enemy both attempt to rob us of
our assurance of salvation by accusing us of sin, unworthiness, negligence, and
ignorance.
·
To warn his
readers against false doctrine and teaching. John is clearly intent on refuting
doctrinal errors which threaten the churches he has been overseeing from
Ephesus. The doctrinal safety of John’s readers is his chief aim. John writes
for the practical edification of his children in the true faith.
Now we move from the introduction of this letter to
John’s opening prologue in verses
1-4.
But before we do, before we
dive into these first four verses, let me draw your attention to three very
important thoughts:
[The First thought is this…]
A. John by-passes all the
form of a letter and jumps right in with a very
profound prologue.
[How does he do this” He does
this two ways. The first way…]
1. John reiterates
the cornerstone of the Christian message
[What is that cornerstone?]
The cornerstone of the Christian message is that eternal life has been revealed in the incarnate Son of God. In other words, Eternal life is not and cannot
be found in any other source.
[Second way…]
2. John reinforces the cornerstone of the
Christian faith
[How does John reinforce the cornerstone
of our Christian faith?]
The cornerstone of our Christian faith
is the cardinal truth that if the
incarnation is not real then there is no Christian faith or message! We would be as Paul said, “Men
most miserable!”
So, the first thought to
keep in mind is that John by-passes all the forms of a letter and jumps right
into this extremely important and profound prologue
[The Second thought is
this…]
B. John by-passes all the
form of a letter and jumps right in with a very
powerful prologue.
[I want you to notice two
things about the power of this prologue. The first thing…]
1. This prologue
forms a very long sentence.
Depending on the manuscript that is used for
translation, these four verses are one very long sentence
or possibly two long sentences
in the Greek.
The first three verses form one long sentence and
verse 4 forms a
second sentence in some translations.
[This is unusual for John for
a couple of reasons.]
o
First – this is
very unusual for John to be so complicated
John is not a complicated writer. He is very
simplistic. This is why we love his writings so much and
why we usually start new
believers with John’s writings. He takes very profound topics and expresses them so simplistically.
He is an easy read. Not
here, we have a long, intense, an complicated sentence.
o
Second – it seems
he just got caught up in the subject matter
Harvey Blaney made this statement, “This prologue gives the impression that the author was so full of his subject, so overwhelmed by the truth he sought to express, that his thoughts became crowded and his expression complicated.” [1]
J. L. Houlden wrote, “…as formally at least, bordering on incoherence...” [2] (In other words…)
Houlden thinks John got so caught up
in his topic that he almost became so
complex that he didn’t make sense.
[The second thing to
notice about this prologue is the fact that…]
2. The Prologue is very deep with
information that we need to grasp
[Finally, the third
thought I want to draw your attention to, is that…]
C. John by-passes all the
form of a letter and jumps right in with a very
purposeful prologue.
John’s purpose is to refute the error and false teaching of
the false teachers who have been
troubling the churches with the denial of the factual
and actual incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, in this very profound, very
powerful and very purposeful prologue John declares the reality of the
incarnation to be truly real.
This passage describes three
(3) aspects of John’s declaration of the reality of the incarnation as very
real. These three (3) aspects are The Encounter by John, The Evidence of
Jesus, and The Expectation for Jurors
Our theme is the reality of
the incarnation. The source of eternal life
has been revealed in the incarnation of the Son of God. With this subject and proposition,
John demonstrates that the Father can only be known through the Son.
[So, without further ado
let’s begin by looking at…]
1A The
Encounter by John (VS 1)
O hn apo arkns o akhkoamen, o ewrakamen tois ofqalmois
hmwn, o eqeasameqa kai ai ceires hmwn eyhlafwqh peri tou
logou ths zwhs
That which
was from beginning, that which we
have heard, that we have seen with our eyes, that which we gazed upon and hands
our handled concerning the Word of Life;
This
sentence has four clauses that begin with the word “which.” The word “which”
is a neuter relative pronoun. It is used by John to declare or state the
reality of the incarnation.
Which
was from [the] beginning
Which
we heard [verb is 2nd per act ind]
Which
we have seen [with] our eyes [vb – per act ind]
Which
we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of
life [v-aor m.d. ind act] [v-aor act ind]
All
four of these phrases are the direct object of the verb “declare.” We don’t get to this verb until we reach verse three.
The
first clause is related to the fact
or the reality of the incarnation.
The
other three clauses are related to John’s
personal experience with the incarnation, in other words, his personal
experience with Jesus Christ.
[So, let’s begin by looking
at the first clause…]
1B ...which was from [the] beginning (vs 1)
The first thing this clause tells us is that John is
not writing about any
new or recent discovery.
These words sound similar to the opening words in John
1:1.
“In the
beginning was the Word…” (John 1:1a, ESV)
So, you have to ask yourself what beginning is
John referring to here? What
does he mean by beginning?
In
John 1:1 the point John makes is that the Word, Jesus Christ, existed before
the world was created. It was important for John in his gospel to establish the
eternality of Jesus Christ. Jesus existed eternally before God created
anything.
John
uses the word “which” to show he was thinking about the comprehensive reality
of the historical manifestation of eternal life in the incarnate Christ.
Here
in I John 1:1 the point John makes is that Word, Jesus the Christ, existed
before the incarnation.
There
is a slight difference. Jesus could have existed before the incarnation but possibly
not before creation.
John’s
focus is not creation – his focus is
the incarnation of Jesus
Christ. John’s focus is that Jesus
already exsisted and then was revealed
in a human form by the incarnation.
John does this because of the attack by false teachers on the reality of Jesus
being born a man of Mary
John
is establishing that Jesus was really born of a virgin in Bethlehem as a man.
Remember, the false teachers are saying that “the Christ” wasn’t really real.
They said that He just seemed to be real. Jesus just seemed to have an
appearance.
What
John has in mind here are the events that took place in Luke 1-2 which records
the events of the actual incarnation.
Don’t
forget John took care of and provided for Mary for a number of years, he had direct
access to her about those events.
John
is reasserting the truth of John 1:14 – “And
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The 33 or so years of Jesus’
life made the incarnation an abiding reality.
The reason this becomes
important is found in I Timothy 2:5; “For
there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus.” (ESV)
Listen, if you are to be
saved, if you are to be the recipient of eternal life it is because of the only
viable go-between God and man – Jesus Christ. You, your good works, your
baptism, your lineage, your church membership cannot appease God. If Christ
wasn’t real and if he didn’t empty himself of His God-head, or God-ship and
enter into the human form of a man through the virgin birth then you and I are
out of luck, and we have no viable mediator.
With this first clause – John
establishes that the beginning of Jesus or the incarnation is a reality and it
cannot be dismissed or minimized.
The remaining three clauses of
verse one tell us of the various aspects of John’s experience with this
incarnate being, known as Jesus Christ. These clauses are given to prove that
the fact of the incarnation as a true and real reality.
These clauses contain three
verbs that are used in the first person and two first person pronouns.
John includes himself with
the people that actually saw, touched and heard Jesus speak. John says that he was among the apostles, those
early disciples that had firsthand knowledge of the incarnation.
CONCLUSION
Tonight we looked at the
first clause of this long and complicated sentence .
Our theme has been “the
beginning.” The beginning is not the beginning of time or of an event such as
creation, but John uses it to point to the incarnation.
The message of the
prologue which proclaims the appearing of eternal life in visible form starts
at Bethlehem. This is a new beginning in God’s manner of speaking to mankind.
(Heb 1:1-2)
This is John’s way of
marking the continuing reality of the incarnation. James Morgan wrote, “The assumption of human nature by the Son
of God is the most stupendous fact in the history of providence.” [3]
During the first 30 years
of Jesus earthly life the fact of the incarnation was an abiding reality, the
same as that openly displayed during his public ministry.
[1] Harvey
J. S. Blaney, The First Epistle of John, in
Beacon Bible Commentary (Kansas City,
MO: Beacon Hill Press, 1969), 10:349
[2] J. L.
Houlden, A Commentary on the Johannine
Epistles, Harpers New Testament Commentaries (New York: Harper and Row,
1973), p.45
[3] James
Morgan, The Epistles of John (1865;
reprint ed., Minneapolis: Klock & Klock Christian Publishers, 1982), p. 4
1 comment:
My, this was quite a write, most interesting to read and something for me to think about later on.
Yvonne.
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