John 1:1-14

               In this section, we first see the Word. A concept from the Old Testament that was used to describe who God is. John then uses a parallel with Genesis 1 and the creation of the world. That Jesus was there at the beginning. He didn’t have a beginning. He has always existed. Jesus was not a phantom or a spirit. Jesus was not this thing that only a few people could see. Jesus was and is a real Person. The disciples had a personal experience with Jesus.

               Then we see the Witness. This is referring to John the Baptist. This is not the author of the Book of John. John the Baptist is the cousin of Jesus. You can see the birth of John the Baptist in Luke 1. He talked about coming to testify about Jesus, to believe in Him. The word believe means, “to have confidence in” or “be fully persuaded about.” Now, one of the problems in the English language is that the word “believe” does not have the same weight as we see in Greek or Hebrew. In English, someone would say, “I believe in Jesus” is similar to saying, “I believe in Santa Claus.” But we see in the book of John that we need to have full confidence and full trust in Jesus. To have faith in Jesus.

               Finally, we see the Light. How the Light came into the world. That is the incarnation of God. This describes who Jesus is. Jesus was rejected by His own people, the Jews. The Pharisees were some of the main people who rejected Jesus. It was because if anyone who claimed to be the Messiah, then it was blasphemy. However, Jesus was and is the Messiah. He was the only Person to fit who the Messiah is. Jesus was also received by people. He did have people who followed Him, the disciples. More than just accepting that he was a human, but that Jesus is the Messiah that was prophesied.

               We also see that is was Jesus who gave us the ability to be children of God. There is a lot more about this in John 3 about how we need to be born again. This is not a physical birth but spiritual birth.