We’re going to be in John 1 in a little bit, if you’d like to turn there.

I’m going to first share a short story from a Christian author from the early 1900s, Samuel Gordon. (I’ve made some minor adjustments to it for easier reading.)

It’s about a woman in England whose husband died and was left to raise her little boy on her own. To support them she went to work as a maid for a wealthy family at their estate out in the country. The wealthy family became very fond of her and her little boy. The owner of the estate made a deal with the mother, as long as she worked at his estate he would pay for her boy’s education. So there she worked until her boy was through boarding school, college and medical school, and her boy became a skilled doctor in the big city of London. He remembered his dear old mother, of course, and sent her letters and little gifts on occasion. But he was always so busy, it had been years since he visited his mother.

The sweet old woman treasured the thought that her son was doing good work in London. When neighbors stopped in, her “Laddie,” she called him, was always the topic of conversation. She would tell about what he wrote in his letters and the fancy things he would send her, and she would always end talking into her tea and to no one in particular, saying, “but I wish, I just wish I could see my Laddie.”

Years passed and her son became a famous doctor and very wealthy and had a mansion of his own in the city. And things changed at the old estate. The owner died and the place had to be sold to pay debts. The old woman had to make new arrangements. But she knew immediately what she would do. “I’ll go live with my son. He’s got plenty of space now. And I know I could be helpful at his place. And we’d get to see each other every day.” She decided not to send word of her coming, but rather to surprise him.

And so she went. It was her first train ride ever. When she arrived in London, she had to ask around to find out how to get to the place. Night had fallen by the time she reached his great big house. She could hardly contain the smile on her face, just thinking about the surprise when Laddie opened the door. But it was a butler that opened the door. She said, “Uh… is the doctor in?” The butler said, “I’m sorry ma’am,  it’s after hours. The doctor doesn’t see people at this time.” She said, “He will want to see me. I promise and it’s urgent.” So the butler asked her to wait a minute and went and told the doctor about this strangely insistent woman at the door and the doctor agreed to see her. He was indeed surprised to see his sweet old mother. After a long hug, he said, “Mother, what are you doing here? Why didn’t you send word you were coming?” “I wanted to surprise you,” she said, taking off her coat.

The doctor asked the butler to bring some tea and soon they were sitting by a warm fire sipping English tea and filling in the blank places where years, few visits and letters left gaping holes.

As she sat sipping her tea, she unraveled the story of the estate and ended with, “And now I have come to live with you and help out around here.”

The doctor was poking the fire and listening to his mother talk. He thought of his friends, his civic and work duties, the dinners he held at his home with sophisticated city people. As he listened to his mother’s old country twang, he thought how he’d never really noticed it before, but now it grated strangely. It certainly wouldn’t do to have her come live with him. But as quickly as that thought came, a tide rose in his heart and he realized what a cad he was being. Of course, he thought, she’s my mother, and if my mother wants to come here, then here she comes. But as he continued to think and poke the fire, he could not bring himself to welcome her to his home. “Mother, you know it is not very healthful here in the city. We have bad fogs in London. You are used to the country air. It wouldn’t agree with you here, I’m afraid. I’ll get you a little cottage on the edge of town, and I’ll come and see you often.”

“It’s a bit late tonight, Laddie, I’m thinking, to talk about new plans.” He said, “Forgive me, mother. It’s late, yes.” And he showed her to her room to sleep.

The doctor always rose early, and after some time he expected his mother would excitedly be down for some tea and more conversation. But she had woken much earlier, gathered her things, and left before her Laddie woke. She had thought to herself, It doesn’t suit my Ladie’s plans to have me here. I don’t understand why not, but it isn’t his fault. It just doesn’t suit. I’ll never be a trouble to my Laddie.

The doctor looked at the train station for his mother but did not find her. He continued to search for her in the city and asked about her in the surrounding countryside. He even went back to his home village, expecting to find her there, but people had not seen her since the day she left for London to see her “Laddie.”

Months passed, and a woman came into the hospital after a street accident, and it was the doctor’s mother. Even under the dire circumstances, he was happy to see her, and he attended to his unconscious mother and instructed all his staff to give her the best of care.

She came to her own, and her own received her not. He loved her, but it didn’t suit his plans.

There’s a similar story in John 1. “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” And verse 14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” The sad part verses 10-11, “He was in the world, and the world made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.”

Isaiah 53:3 foretold it this way, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquinted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

It’s a story that has, in a sense, been repeated millions of times. He comes to His own, though unseen, wherever the gospel is preached. He offers to His own His permanent presence and help, but so often His own do not receive Him. It doesn’t suit their plans. They think of their friends, their schedules, the things they like to do for fun, and Jesus just doesn’t suit. They may say, “Jesus, you can be at that cottage and I will visit you on Sundays.” But they don’t want Him to be where He wants to be, on the throne of their hearts, center place in their life, running their business, adjusting their schedule, managing their home.

But John writes this gospel to persuade us to give Jesus all the place He wants in our hearts and lives. He writes to show us more of His glory, more of how worthy and deserving, how good and wonderful and how necessary Jesus is, and to give us more evidence that it’s true, more eyewitness testimony, more ways He fulfilled the ancient Scriptures, more signs and wonders. I plan to do several sermons in the upcoming weeks from the gospel of John. For this lesson, I’d like to talk a little about the purpose of the book and a couple titles given to Jesus in the opening paragraph.

Purpose of the Gospel of John

I say that John wants to show us more of His glory and more evidence, because this gospel, about every scholar would agree, was written toward the end of the 1st century, 85-90 A.D. John is an old man, the last apostle of Jesus still alive. The other three gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark and Luke, were becoming very well known. So 92% of the content of this gospel is unique, not found in any of the other gospel accounts. I think John is intentionally telling other stuff not found in the earlier gospels.

And I say “us,” in the sense of us believers, because I really think the gospel of John was written primarily to those who already believe in Jesus. There’s some debate about that in the scholarly world. Was the gospel of John written to unbelievers to persuade them to believe or was it written to believers to strengthen their faith and deepen their understanding of Jesus? Probably in a sense, both are true. But who was John’s primary audience in his mind when he was writing this? The purpose statement of the book in 20:30-31 can be taken in either of those ways, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name.”

Among the ancient manuscripts we have of John’s gospel, there is a little difference among them in verse 31. There’s a difference in the tense of the verb in the phrase “that you may believe.” Some manuscripts have it as what’s called an aorist subjunctive, which has the sense “that you may come to believe”. And if that’s the case, then it would sound like the gospel was written to unbelievers, that they may come to believe. But the other reading has this phrase as what’s called a present subjunctive, which would have more the sense of “that you may continue to believe” or “that you may keep on believing.” And if that’s the reading then it would appear that John was writing primarily to believers to strengthen their convictions. Well, the manuscript evidence is pretty equally balanced for both readings. So it’s hard to tell from just the manuscript evidence. But there are a couple things about this book that lead me to believe it was written primarily to believers that they might keep on believing.

First, sometimes in this book it appears John assumes his readers are already familiar with the gospel.

Like 2:22, “When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remember that he had said this…” Now, that would be the biggest story spoiler ever if John’s readers didn’t know about the resurrection… to just causally mention, “When he was raised from the dead…” It appears to me John assumed his readers knew where the story was headed, that they knew about the resurrection.

6:67, “So Jesus said to the twelve…” But you don’t read anywhere in the book of John about Jesus gathering a group of twelve special disciples. You read of Him gathering a few of them in John 1, but never that He had twelve special disciples. So John assumes His readers already know about “the twelve.”

11:1-2, “Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.” You see how he identifies this Mary. He says she’s the one who anointed the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. That’s a story he hasn’t told yet. It sounds to me like he assumes his readers already know that story about Mary.

21:2 we have the phrase “the sons of Zebedee” but John’s gospel nowhere identifies who “the sons of Zebedee” were, as the other gospels do. Why? I suspect because John’s readers already knew who they were.

Also, this gospel is deep. I mean there are multiple layers of meaning often in the statements and stories. And there are many difficult statements in the gospel, challenging to understand. It does not seem to me to be basic milk kind of teaching that you’d give to unbelievers. It seems more designed for believers to help them come to a deeper knowledge and appreciation of Jesus.

So let’s talk about the first title Jesus is given as the book begins,

The word

Verse1, “In the beginning…” It draws our minds back to Genesis 1. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And the way we’re told God created, was by means of His word. God said, “Let there be light and there was light.” God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters” and there was, and so on. And John says Jesus was in the beginning and was like that word of God through which everything was created. In fact, John says there is nothing that has been made that was not made by Jesus. From the depths of the oceans to the peaks of the mountains, from the tinniest particle to the biggest star, from the ugliest little bug to the most beautiful person, Christ made every bit of it.

He was with God in the beginning, which sounds like there were two. It sounds like there was God and then another. But then John says “and He was God,” which sounds like the two were in fact a one. And when you figure out exactly how that works, let me know. I have theories. But I’m not sure.

But I know John wants us to understand that all we are, these wonderful bodies, this experience of life, and all that we have and all that we see around us, we owe it all to Jesus. He is not just a man, He is not just a heavenly being. In Jesus, our Creator became flesh. Our Creator humbled Himself to become one of us.

That’s one sense in which He is the word of God. Through Him all things were created. But He’s THE Word of God, also in the sense that He is the ultimate communication and revelation of God to us. Words are the way we reveal to others our thoughts and feelings and plans and character and will. By words we reveal what is going on inside of us.

Let’s look at 1:18, it begins: “No one has seen God at any time…”

In the OT, it sounds sometimes like some people were seeing God. In Genesis 18 Abraham saw three men coming his way, but it turns out, two of them were angels and one was the Lord. Abraham walked and talked with the Lord. But he wasn’t really seeing God as God really is. He is spirit says John 4:24. I Timothy 1:17 says God is invisible. I Timothy 6:16 says He dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see.

Exodus 33 says Moses would speak with God face to face like a man speaks with his friend. But then later in the same chapter, Moses says to God “I pray You, show me Your glory.” (“God let me see you as you really are. Not just this physical symbol of yourself.”  And God tells him, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” People of old knew some about God, some of His power and character, but no one has seen God as He truly is.

But then in this verse John says, “the only God, who is at the Father’s side,” or some versions say, “the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father.”

When you hear that phrase you may at first feel like it’s wrong, like it should be “the only begotten Son.” If he’s begotten, it’s got to be son. So you might feel like there is a mistake here. Some of the scribes who were commissioned with the task of making the copies of the original text of John’s gospel had that problem. And so they supplied the word Son. So in some later manuscripts you find the word Son instead of God. And that’s why the KJV and NKJV have son, because they are based on later manuscripts. But since the KJV we have found many many much earlier manuscripts of John’s gospel and they just have the word God and not Son. So most translations today read “the only begotten God” or “one and only God, who is at the Father’s side.”

Then it says, “He has made Him known.” Jesus has made Him known.

When they bring a woman caught in the sin of adultery and you see Jesus stooping down and writing in the dirt instead of condemning her, you are seeing something about God. You are seeing that God is merciful. When you see Jesus give strength and usefulness to the legs of a man who had been paralyzed from his birth and telling this man “Your sins are forgiven,” you’re seeing something of the grace of God. When you see Jesus weeping outside the tomb of Lazarus because of how much people were hurting over his death, you’re seeing something of the compassion of God. When you see Jesus eating with and befriending tax collectors and sinners, and washing the feet of these disciples who were so slow to learn, not understanding or believing things He’d been telling them, and washing the feet of Judas who would betray Him that very night, you’re seeing something of the kindness and patience of God. When you see Jesus making a scourge of cords and driving the money changers and animals out of the temple, you are seeing something of the wrath of God and the righteousness of God.  When you see Jesus suspended between heaven and earth, nailed to a cross and asking the Father to forgive the people who did it to Him, you are seeing the love of God. And when you go to the empty tomb or you go to that room with the eleven and you see the imprints of the nails and the hole in His side, you are seeing the very power of God over our greatest enemy, death.

I read a story about a little boy who was drawing pictures on the floor one day as his mother was working. She said to him, “What are you drawing?” He said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” She said, “But no one knows what God looks like.” The little boy said, “They will when I get through!” There’s a profound truth in that story when it’s applied to Jesus. As a baby in a Bethlehem manger, a picture began to be drawn. And when that baby got through with His life’s work, men could know better than ever before what God is like. (Adapted from a sermon by Ray Stedman.)

He is the word of God, the ultimate communication and revelation of God to us. And then John says,

He is the Life

Something Jesus is called several times, 1:4, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

Don’t you love life? I tell you, it’s my favorite stuff. I love to wake up and see the sunrise and marvel at God’s creation. I love a cup of coffee in the morning. Actually I love several cups of coffee in the morning. I love to work and accomplish things and have a sense of accomplishment. I love to read and learn. I love to play with my kids and see them laugh, and go for walks with my wife. I love to watch my dogs and cat try to eat the red laser dot on the floor. I love to watch my chickens chase bugs. I love to sit down for a meal and have conversation, especially with others who love God and want to do His will like I do. I love the smells of seasons changing and the smell of food and of campfire and rain and fresh cut grass. Life is awesome! And all of it is from Jesus. He is the source of this awesome stuff, life.

And He came that we might have more. 10:10, Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” This life is just a sample. It’s just a taste. There’s plenty more where this came from. Jesus doesn’t have any less life to give after giving us this sample. And Jesus came that we might have tons of it.

So it’s heartbreaking when His own do not receive Him, when they don’t give Him the place He wants in their hearts and lives; because not only does He so deserve that place as our creator, but they are rejecting the life. He’s given us the sample, and He comes and says, “There’s more, receive me, I want to be in your life, and I’ll give you life abundantly.”

May God open the eyes of our hearts to see His glory, to see His surpassing value over all earthly things.

-James Williams