Congregational Bible Experience Day #27: John 1-3

Right from the opening verses we sense that John's Gospel is somehow different to the others.  Matthew and Luke begin their accounts of Jesus' story by narrating some of the events associated with his human birth; Mark begins his Gospel with the beginning of Jesus' public ministry; while John goes back into the depths of eternity, back to the true "beginning" of all things (John 1:1-2), because that was when the Gospel was first conceived in the heart and mind of God.  Jesus is the Word, the One who faithfully communicates the truth of God to us as and enlightens our darkened minds to understand and grasp it (v4-5,9).  He was not only there at the beginning of creation (hear the echoes of the first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1), John tells us He was the One who brought creation into existence (v3).  And so now, at the beginning of this Gospel, John is letting us know that it is all about God's new re-creation through Jesus. What was ruined by our sin, Jesus has come to rescue, redeem and restore so that we might know God personally, intimately and lovingly as Jesus knows Him, as our Father (v12). 

At the start of this Gospel, allow me to point out a couple of keys that will help you unlock the book and so see something of John's plan in writing. First, from towards the end of the book, John tells us that so much more about Jesus could easily have been included but there just wasn't the space (John 20:30; 21;25).  However, the record we do hold in our hands was "written that you [the reader] might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God [remember Mark 1:1?], and that by believing you may have life in his name" (20:31).  John's evangelistic intention for his Gospel is clear:  the Gospel was written to help introduce unbelievers to Christ so that they may become 'believers in Christ' and so experience the very life of God by coming to know Him.  It's the greatest Gospel tract ever written.  So encourage your unbelieving friends and family to read it.

But secondly, John 20:31 also tells us that this Gospel is written to help believers grow in their faith (a deeper 'believing in Jesus') so that they may more fully experience this spiritual life lived in relationship with God, what John calls "eternal life" - which he repeatedly tells us doesn't simply refer to what lies beyond our graves but which begins now through trusting in Jesus (see 3:36; 5:24).  This is more fully spelled out in the opening section of the Gospel where he writes of those who (a) "received Jesus - [meaning] to those who believed in His name" (John 1:12); those who "were born of God" and who now are the 'children of God' (v13); and those who "have seen [or beheld] His glory" (v14). So, as you read the Gospel remember that every passage, every page in John's Gospel is written to help us understand more fully and so experience more fully what it means to believe in Jesus (see for example 2:23-24; 3:15-16,18), the life-changing transformation of the 'new birth' (see 3:5-6, 21), and the importance of what it means to see or behold the glory of the 'grace and truth' of Jesus (see for example 1:29; 2:24; 3:3). 

So as you read this amazing book over the next numbers of days, each time ask yourself:  in this chapter, what do I learn about what it means to believe? What do I learn about the living the new life? And what does this passage reveal to me of Jesus' glory?