Immanuel – God With Us

Matthew 1:21-23
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ²³ “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

John’s narrative of Jesus begins much earlier than Nazareth or Bethlehem.

Jesus revealed His essential nature in what He taught and did. John wrote about Jesus as fully human and fully God. Although Jesus took upon Himself full humanity and entered history with the limitations of a human being, He never ceased to be the eternal God, eternally existing, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, and the source of eternal life. John’s Gospel tells the truth about Jesus, the foundation of all truth. If we cannot or do not believe in Jesus’ true identity, we will not be able to trust our eternal destiny to Him. John wrote his Gospel to build our faith and confidence in Jesus Christ so that we might believe that Jesus truly was and is the Son of God.

John starts at the “beginning,” with the first eighteen verses of John, called the prologue. Furthermore, the prologue to John’s Gospel provides a miniature of the entire Gospel. John’s goal and guiding purpose in writing can be found in almost every phrase of his work. The prologue highlights most of the insights and truths that we find in the rest of the Gospel.

John introduced key terms: the Word, God, life, light, darkness, witness, the world, rejection/reception, belief, regeneration (becoming a child of God), incarnation (the Word become flesh), the one and only Son of the Father, glory, grace, truth, fullness. In the rest of the Gospel, John expanded and illustrated each of these from Jesus’ life and ministry.

In John’s Gospel, Christ is presented in the following ways:

• the one who expresses God (the Word)
• God himself
• the giver of eternal life to those who believe
• the bringer of light into a dark world
• the giver of grace to those who receive him
• the unique Son sharing an intimate relationship with his Father
• the bearer of heavenly truth
• the expression of God’s glory and fullness.

John 1:1-5
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 any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

1  Christ is eternal (v.1-2)
a. Preexistent (v.1a)
b. Coexistent (v.1b)
c. Self-existent (v.1c-2)

2  Christ is the Creator (v.3)
a. Positive statement (v.3a)
b. Absolute statement (v.3b)

3  Christ is life (v.4-5)
a. The source of light (v.4)
b. The answer to darkness (v.5)
1)  Shines in darkness (v.5a)
2)  Conquers darkness (v.5b)
    
John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

1 John 1:1-2
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— ² the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us

John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

When John wrote of the beginning, he was paralleling the words of the creation account. He stressed that “the Word” already existed at the time of creation. We could translate the first part of the verse as “in eternity the Word existed.”

Each of the Gospel writers chose a different starting point for their accounts of the life of Jesus. Matthew began with Abraham, showing how Jesus came from Abraham’s family and was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. Mark skipped most of the preliminaries and moved right to the action, beginning with the ministry of John the Baptist. Luke began with a review of his research method and rooted Jesus’ life in the wider historical events of his time. But John presented the largest perspective of all, describing Jesus as the very source of everything we understand as beginning.

The Word! John did not identify this person immediately, but described His nature and purpose before revealing His name.

John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:17
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

As the Word, the Son of God fully conveys and communicates God. What does John mean by “the Word”? Theologians and philosophers, both Jews and Greeks, used the term word in a variety of ways. The Greek term is logos. In the Hebrew language of the Old Testament, “the Word” is described as an agent of creation.

Psalm 33:6
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

Also – the source of God’s message to His people through the prophets and God’s law, His standard of holiness.

Psalm 119:11
I have stored up your word (Jesus) in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

The Greeks used “the Word” in two ways. It could mean a person’s thoughts or reason, or it might refer to a person’s speech, the expression of thoughts. As a philosophical term, logos conveyed the rational principle that governed the universe, even the creative energy that generated the universe.

In both the Jewish and Greek conceptions, logos conveyed the idea of beginnings—the world began through the Word  –  “God said” occurs repeatedly.

Genesis 1:3 (ESV)
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Genesis 1:6-7 (ESV)
And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” ⁷….. And it was so.

Genesis 1:9 (ESV)
And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.

Genesis 1:11 (ESV)
And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.

Genesis 1:14-15 (ESV)
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, ¹⁵ and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.

Genesis 1:20 (ESV)
And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.”

Genesis 1:24 (ESV)
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.

Genesis 1:26 (ESV)
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Genesis 1:29-30 (ESV)
And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. ³⁰ And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

John may have had these ideas in mind, but his description shows clearly that he spoke of Jesus as a human being he knew and loved (especially 1 John), who was at the same time the Creator of the universe, the ultimate revelation of God, and also the living picture of God’s holiness, the one in whom “all things hold together” (Col. 1:17).

Colossians 1:15-20
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Big Idea: Jesus, as the logos, reveals God’s heart and mind to us

Jesus revealed the truth in the light of His identity. He is the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15), the express image of God’s substance, the revealer of God, and the reality of God.

Hebrews 1:1-3
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. ³ He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high

The theme of the real identity of Jesus dominates the Gospel of John. We should be grateful that the Son of God has expressed the Father to us and made Him real to us. Otherwise, we could not know God intimately and personally.

John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Word was with God. By using this expression, John was explaining that the Word (the Son) and God (the Father) already enjoyed an intimate, personal relationship in the beginning.

John 1:18
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

His final Word’s – John 17:1-5
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, ² since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. ⁴ I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Word was God. Not only was the Son with God, he was himself God. According to the Greek, this phrase could be translated “the Word was divine.” John’s Gospel, more than most books in the New Testament, asserts Jesus’ divinity. The I AM Gospel!

John 1:2
He was in the beginning with God.

The Word coexisted with the Father from the beginning. John’s Gospel proclaims simply and clearly that the Son of God is coeternal with the Father. – Heb. 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same…….

John 1:3
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Everything came into being through Christ and ultimately depends upon him.

1 Corinthians 8:6
yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

Colossians 1:16
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

Hebrews 1:2
but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

When God created, he made something from nothing. Because he created us, we have no basis for pride. We must remember that we exist only because God made us, and we have special gifts only because God gave them to us. With God we have value and uniqueness; apart from God we have nothing, and if we try to live without him, we will miss the purpose he designed us to fulfill.

John 1:4
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Creation needs to receive life from the Word—for He is the source of life. Christ gives physical life to all. But He also gives eternal life to all those who believe in him. The Greek term used for “life” is zoe; it is always used to describe the divine, eternal life in the Gospel of John.

John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the (eternal) life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 1:4
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The divine life embodied in Christ brought unique light to people—revealing divine truth and exposing their sin. Everywhere Christ went, he brought light.

John 3:21
But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John 8:12
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Light means understanding and moral insight, spiritual vision. But more than just shining or reflecting, the light of Jesus penetrates and enlightens hearts and minds.

Christ is the one universal light. There is no other. As Creator, Jesus not only provides light but He also makes people light sensitive. We see this blindness when Jesus later attributes it to the Pharisees (9:35-41).

What is seen by the light of Jesus?

When Christ’s light shines, we see our sin and His glory. (Luke 5) We can refuse to see the light and remain in darkness. But whoever responds will be enlightened by Christ. By the Holy Spirit He will fill our minds with God’s thoughts. He will guide our path, give us God’s perspective, and drive out the darkness of sin.

John 1:5
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John used the past tense in the previous verse, saying that Jesus was the light of all people by virtue of being their Creator; but John shifted to the present tense: the light shines in the darkness. The timeless light has invaded our time, and we can see it in our darkness, for Christ’s light still shines in our dark world. As the light shines, it drives away the darkness for the unsaved world is blinded by the prince of this world.

2 Corinthians 4:4
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Ephesians 5:8
for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.

C. S. Lewis

John 1:5
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome (mastered) it (Him).

Christ’s light shined to a hardened, darkened humanity (just like in creation)—and he continues to shine. But the darkness did not overcome it—the darkness could not grasp, comprehend, or extinguish the light.

Unbelievers did not comprehend Christ’s true identity and tried to conquer him. Thus, darkness failed on both counts to master Christ!

Here we see the struggle between the darkness and the light. The darkness—unregenerate humanity under the influence of Satan, the prince of darkness—has not accepted the light and even resists the light. Thus, “darkness” indicates ignorance and sin and active rejection of God’s will. This is how we are born!

Those in darkness reject Christ, His light, and His followers. But no matter how deep the darkness, even a small light can drive it back. The power of Christ’s light overcomes any darkness in the world.

There is enough light for those who only desire to see the light, and enough darkness for those who only desire the contrary.

Blaise Pascal

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