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January 3, 2010 – John 1.1-12

Open It

1.             What are some of the slang expressions you used growing up?

2.            In what ways are words different from visual images?

Explore It

3.            Who is the Word? (1:1)

4.            What is the relationship between the Word and God? (1:1-2)

5.            What was the Word’s role in creation? (1:3)

6.            How is the "life" the light of men? (1:4)

7.            What was John’s role in relation to the light? (1:6)

8.            How did the light give light to every person? (1:9)

9.            Why didn’t the world recognize the light? (1:10)

10.        What is the benefit of receiving or believing in the Word? (1:12)

11.         How and why did the Word make His dwelling among us? (1:14)

12.         Whose glory did the Word reveal? (1:14)

13.         What did God give us through Moses? (1:17)

14.        What did God give us through Jesus? (1:18)

15.         Why is it significant that no one has seen God but "God the One and Only"? (1:18)

Get It

16.         Why did the Word become flesh and live among us?

17.         How does a person receive the Word?

18.         What happens when we receive or believe in the Word?

19.         In what way can you receive or welcome Christ into your life?

20.        What insights can you gain from seeing Jesus as God’s Word?

21.         How should being a child of God affect our lives?

22.        In what way is John an example for us to follow?

23.        How did Jesus reveal God’s glory to us?

Apply It

24.        What do you need to do to be certain of your relationship with God?

25.        What will you do this week to better enjoy your status as a child of God?

26.        How should the reality that God became a man affect your life today?

NOTES

Notes for 1:1: What Jesus taught and what he did are tied inseparably to who he is. John shows Jesus as fully human and fully God. Although Jesus took upon himself full humanity and lived as a man, he never ceased to be the eternal God who has always existed, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, and the source of eternal life. This is the truth about Jesus, and the foundation of all truth. If we cannot or do not believe this basic truth, we will not have enough faith to trust our eternal destiny to him. That is why John wrote this Gospel — to build faith and confidence in Jesus Christ so that we may believe that he truly was and is the Son of God (John 20:30,31).

1:1: John wrote to believers everywhere, both Jews and non-Jews (Gentiles). As one of Jesus' 12 disciples, John was an eyewitness, so his story is accurate. His book is not a biography (like the book of Luke); it is a thematic presentation of Jesus' life. Many in John's original audience had a Greek background. Greek culture encouraged worship of many mythological gods, whose supernatural characteristics were as important to Greeks as genealogies were to Jews. John shows that Jesus is not only different from but superior to these gods of mythology.

1:1ff: What does John mean by the Word? The Word was a term used by theologians and philosophers, both Jews and Greeks, in many different ways. In Hebrew Scripture, the Word was an agent of creation (Psalm 33:6), the source of God's message to his people through the prophets (Hosea 1:2), and God's law, his standard of holiness (Psalm 119:11). In Greek philosophy, the Word was the principle of reason that governed the world, or the thought still in the mind, while in Hebrew thought, the Word was another expression for God. John's description shows clearly that he is speaking of Jesus (see especially John 1:14) — a human being he knew and loved, but at the same time the Creator of the universe, the ultimate revelation of God, the living picture of God's holiness, the One in whom "all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17). To Jewish readers, "the Word was God" was blasphemous. To Greek readers, "the Word became flesh" (John 1:14) was unthinkable. To John, this new understanding of the Word was gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Notes for 1:3: When God created, he made something from nothing. Because we are created beings, we have no basis for pride. Remember that you exist only because God made you, and you have special gifts only because God gave them to you. With God you are something valuable and unique; apart from God you are nothing, and if you try to live without him, you will be abandoning the purpose for which you were made.

1:3-5 Do you ever feel that your life is too complex for God to understand? Remember, God created the entire universe, and nothing is too difficult for him. God created you; he is alive today, and his love is bigger than any problem you may face.

Notes for 1:4,5: "The darkness has not understood it" means the darkness of evil never has and never will overcome or extinguish God's light. Jesus Christ is the Creator of life, and his life brings light to mankind. In his light, we see ourselves as we really are (sinners in need of a Savior). When we follow Jesus, the true Light, we can avoid walking blindly and falling into sin. He lights the path ahead of us so we can see how to live. He removes the darkness of sin from our lives. Have you allowed the light of Christ to shine into your life? Let Christ guide your life, and you'll never need to stumble in darkness.

Notes for 1:6-8: In this book, the name John refers to John the Baptist. For more information on John the Baptist, see his Profile in this chapter.

Notes for 1:8: We, like John the Baptist, are not the source of God's light; we merely reflect that light. Jesus Christ is the true Light; he helps us see our way to God and shows us how to walk along that way. But Christ has chosen to reflect his light through his followers to an unbelieving world, perhaps because unbelievers are not able to bear the full blazing glory of his light firsthand. The word witness indicates our role as reflectors of Christ's light. We are never to present ourselves as the light to others, but are always to point them to Christ, the Light.

Notes for 1:10,11: Although Christ created the world, the people he created didn't recognize him (John 1:10). Even the people chosen by God to prepare the rest of the world for the Messiah rejected him (John 1:11), although the entire Old Testament pointed to his coming.

Notes for 1:12,13: All who welcome Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives are reborn spiritually, receiving new life from God. Through faith in Christ, this new birth changes us from the inside out — rearranging our attitudes, desires, and motives. Being born makes you physically alive and places you in your parents' family (John 1:13). Being born of God makes you spiritually alive and puts you in God's family (John 1:12). Have you asked Christ to make you a new person? This fresh start in life is available to all who believe in Christ.