Online Study Week # 1 - John Chapter 1

JOHN CHAPTER 1
John chapter 1 is packed full - this chapter sets up who Jesus is, his role, and the beginning of his investment in his disciples along with the background on John the Baptist.

The first couple verses are so powerful - vs1 "In the beginning...(before anything, where there was nothing, God created everything from nothing. Everything we see God spoke into existence - his words are powerful. He spoke into nothing and everything was created. The oceans, the sun, the stars, everything. Our God is powerful, huge, creative, and that God came to Earth in human form - Jesus).

Vs 1-5 are talking about Jesus - he was with God, and he is God. He was there in the very beginning when all was created.

Vs 5 "light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it."
Let's look at light for a second - What does light do? If there is a glimpse of light in the darkest of rooms it shows through. Light exposes things, it brings things into visibility. The light of the world (Jesus) came down into a broken world to show, expose, and bring into visibility the best way to live. Jesus shows us how to respond, how to live, how to be.

Vs 6 Welcome John the Baptist to the story. John's role was to prepare people for Jesus. He testifies to the light (Jesus). His whole life purpose is to point people to God. This is to be our whole life purpose as well. He is a witness to the light v8 - In court what does a witness do?

V14 This verse points out that God became flesh. God in the flesh. No one up to this point had ever seen God but now God came to the Earth in flesh. Now if we want to know what God is like, what he is passionate about, what he cares about, how he reacts- we look to Jesus. Jesus is God in the flesh showing us what God is like. He is the visible image of the invisible God.

v14 Grace and Truth - a little phrase that has a lot in it - full of forgiveness, second chances, redemption, healing but does that in the context of telling the truth about things, not backing down from conflict, and revealing what is really going on. How do we live full of grace and yet still have truth there with it.

v15 -29 talk a lot of baptism. I have come to see baptism a lot like a wedding ceremony. Where you publicly announce that you are committing to the person. You are saying to everyone I belong to them. Baptism also has a lot of symbolism in the fact that you go under the water signifying dying with christ and when you come out of the water signifying new life in Christ. Baptism is a beautiful thing and if you are ready to make that commitment publicly to Christ we have a baptism ceremony coming up in Nov.

v39 The disciples start there journey with Jesus. It's interesting how it all begins - Jesus just says "come and see." No matter who you are or your background - Jesus says - come - be a part of what I'm doing. Start living with me.

v43 Jesus changes Simon's name. We tend to just read over things like that - but let's take a deeper look. Names were a big deal back then - they had meaning they carried symbolism. Jesus changes his name - it would be like me saying your name is now _______ and then rolling with it. He gave Simon a new identity.

v44 to the end of the chapter has this story with Jesus and this guy named Nathanael. When we read it we notice that Jesus was seeing to the heart of Nathanael. Pointing out that he is the real deal through and through not just on the outside. Jesus can look to the core of who we are and where are and speak into the center of us.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE PASSAGE?