Looking at and Listening to the Word (John 1:1-18)

Jesus is given numerous names in the Bible and we are familiar with some of them because of their frequent use. We can narrow them down in this sermon by asking if different names are mentioned by John in his Gospel. They are, and in this Gospel, for example, he is called the Son of God, the Lamb of God and the Light of the World. In the prologue of the Gospel he is also called the Word, a name which we might not understand when first we read it, but which would have been important to John’s initial readers.

Literally, the term is logos, which was commonly used at the time to describe reason or a rational statement. It was used to describe the governing principle behind the existence of the universe. Here John uses it as a name for the Son of God as the Creator, and there is an obvious connection between saying that he is the source of reason and the one who gives light to every person. Yet there is more to light than intellectual understanding. Perhaps, by light, John is referring to a natural awareness or revelation that God exists, as described by Paul in Romans 1, which Jesus as the Word gave to every person.

John commences his Gospel with the phrase ‘in the beginning’. I suspect he is referring to the same date as Genesis 1:1 refers to – the beginning of the creation. It was not the beginning of the Word, however. Rather, John says that he was already in existence when the universe began. But what was he doing at that time and before then? John reveals the answer to that question as well.

The Word with the Father

John points out that the Word was with God and the Word was God. That is a very profound statement because in it John tells his readers that God is plural in persons and that the two persons he mentions in the verse were in communion with one another. The idea of communion is seen in the particular preposition pros, translated as ‘with’, which has the meaning of ‘face to face’. As Ryle observes, this means ‘that from all eternity there was a most intimate and ineffable union between the first and second Persons in the blessed Trinity.’

Of course, we know from elsewhere in the Bible that there are three divine persons in the one God, with the third divine person being the Holy Spirit and the three, as our catechism says, are the same in substance and equal in power and glory. We do not know why John does not mention the Holy Spirit in this passage, but the rest of the Bible makes clear that the Holy Spirit was present with the Father and the Son throughout eternity.

As noted, many suggestions have been made about why Jesus is here called the Word. We could say tentatively that the Son of God has that name because he is the One that the Father spoke to and spoke through. The idea of speaking through the Word is mentioned in verse 3 with regard to all things that were created. In Genesis 1, we are told in the account of each day that ‘God said, ‘Let there be…’ and the identified object, whether inanimate or animate, came into existence. In that creation week, the Father spoke to the Son and through him brought the cosmos into existence.

Two ideas come from that activity of the Word. One is that he possesses the power to bring those things into existence, whether a planet or a fly, or a galaxy and a swarm of flies. All he has to do is say the word and the object appears. The other idea is that he knows how to create exactly what the Father desires. There is not only power but precision in the divine work of creation, and we could deduce from their presence the existence of pleasure, a deduction confirmed by the repetition in Genesis 1 that all was good or very good.

We can now consider what the Father would have been saying to the Son in their communion with one another throughout eternity. One detail would be the plan of salvation that the triune God planned for sinners. We know that the Father chose a large number of sinners to be his people and gave them to the Son as a gift of love, and connected to that giving was the fact that the Son would need to redeem them from their sins. This redemption would include the fact that the Son would become a man without ceasing to be the Son of God, and as a man he would live in this world and pay the penalty for sin required by divine justice.

Following on from his redeeming work accomplished on the cross, this saving work included his resurrection from the dead and his subsequent ascension to God’s right hand in heaven. In heaven he represents his people as their prophet, priest and king as he builds his church composed of sinners from all the tribes and nations of the world. After the day of judgement, he will bring into existence the new heavens and new earth. All these details were part of the eternal communion of the Father and the Word.

The Word with people

John mentions two different responses that were made to the Word when he came into this world. First, he points out that the Word ‘came to his own, and his own people did not receive him’ (v. 11). The nation with which he identified was the Jewish nation, but although they had been his people in Old Testament times they did not recognise his claims when he came and refused to receive him. Second, and in contrast, others did receive him (v. 12).

John describes the appearing of the Word in verse 14. Along with being one of the divine Three, he also became one of the human race when he became flesh and dwelt among them. He became a real man and lived here, but not in isolation from us although he was sinless, but with us. John says that he and others saw Jesus in a special way. Many people saw him, but as Isaiah says in chapter 53, when they saw him they saw no beauty that they should desire him. But what was it that John and his friends saw in Jesus?

First, they saw the invisible God (v. 18). Jesus himself said later in this Gospel that those who had seen him in this special manner had seen the Father. The Holy Spirit had enabled them to see the identity of Jesus, that he was both the Son of God and man. Although since then he had ascended to heaven and gone to the Father’s side, he had made known to them the invisible God through what he taught and did while on earth.

Second, they saw that there was something greater about the presence of Jesus than the event that until then had been regarded as the greatest revelation of God by devout Israelites. The previous event was the giving of the Decalogue and other requirements at Mount Sinai and it was a momentous, majestic occasion as the God of glory revealed who he was, what he required from his people, and how he should be worshipped by them. What could be greater than that? The coming of the Son of God and what was revealed about God through his words and works. In what ways was this the case?

John describes the communication given by Jesus as being ‘full of grace and truth’. We know that the words and works of the Word greatly pleased the Father even before his years of public ministry as the cry from heaven at the baptism of Jesus reveals. And we can say that he spoke as powerfully and precisely during his three years of public ministry as he did when he spoke in Genesis 1.

Think of the grace of Jesus in his works of mercy shown to undeserving sinners. Some of those works brought healing to their bodies as he revealed through those actions his ability to cure lepers and those suffering from other diseases, to deliver those suffering from demonic oppression, and even raise some from the dead. He spoke powerfully and precisely and brought pleasure to God as he did those works, even as he did when engaged in the work of creation.

In addition to his physical works of mercy, there were also what we can call his spiritual acts of mercy, always bearing in mind that sometimes both kinds happened to the same individuals. Think of how he spiritually instructed Nicodemus, the woman of Sychar, Zaccheus, and many other people about entry into the kingdom of God. And then we can consider how he enabled disciples to understand the kingdom of God and what blessings and responsibilities were connected to it. This was the Word with people, often face to face with them as they received out of his fullness. There was and is abundant grace and endless grace in his fullness. He spoke powerfully and precisely and brought pleasure to God as he did those spiritual works, even as he did when engaged in the work of creation.

A third matter that they saw in addition to seeing the invisible God and experiencing the depths of grace that Jesus possesses was the astonishing fact that the Word is now God and man for ever. He did not cease to be human when he completed his work on the cross. His resurrection and ascension testify to his endless possession of a human nature although it now is a human nature glorified and developed far beyond what is anticipated of the best of humans on earth. What that means we cannot now say, as John reminds us in his letter when he affirms that when believers see the glorified Saviour they will be transformed into his likeness.

The blessing John stresses

John could have highlighted several blessings that were given to sinners by the coming of the Word in human flesh. The one he mentions is membership of the family of God. All who received him through believing in him were given an amazing privilege, a right to belong to the heavenly family, with access to the Father’s presence guaranteed. Although much in this passage is complex, yet the required response is simple and straightforward – believe in Jesus and the blessings become ours. 

Everything God said when speaking to and through the Word, in eternity and in time, has this outcome of family membership as one of the blessings that heaven desired to share with sinners forever. We can see this even in the Old Testament verse cited in Hebrews that when the family is complete the Word will say to the Father, ‘Behold, I and the children that you have given me.’