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John 1:1-18

The arrival of the Son of God to this world is a new beginning for fallen humanity.
John started his book using language similar to the book of beginnings - Genesis.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. He was with God in the beginning.

What does “in the beginning mean”?

Where does this same phrase occur?

Why did John use that same phrase? Why is that important? What is John trying to
communicate to us by using that same phrase?

In the beginning was the Word.

What do words do? In what ways does Yeshua do what words do for us? Why is
He the Word?

The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Who does “God” refer to?

What does “the Word was with God and the Word was God” mean? Why with
God and was God?

Yeshua was with God, and He also was God - deity, divine, divinity, fully God,
possessing all the attributes of God.
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Yeshua was with God in the beginning. He was always with God. There was never
a time when Yeshua was not with God.

What does this teach us about the relationship of the Son and the Father?

What does this mean? All things came into being through Him, and apart from
Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

What does light do?

What does light represent?

Why is Yeshua called the Light?

Life and light are related. Yeshua is the source of life and He is the light of all of
humanity. Whatever truth or life a human being has, comes to him from Yeshua.

What does this mean? The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not
overcome it.

Along with the arrival of the great light, was the arrival of a smaller light - John
the Baptist. John, our author, wants us to know that John the Baptist, who made a
tremendous impact on the Jewish people, was not the great light. There was a man
sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning
that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he
came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was
coming into the world.

The John who was sent from God is not the same John who wrote this book. Why
was the John who was sent from God important?
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I love this next part. I enjoy irony. An irony is an incongruity between the actual
result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result. This is the
greatest of ironies.

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not
know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

Why is this an irony?

But not everyone rejected Him. There was a remnant who were given the grace to
recognize Him and receive Him. Great things happened to them, and those same
great things will happen to anyone who receives Yeshua. Yet to all who did
receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become
children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a
husband’s will, but born of God.

Isn’t every human being a child of God?

How do we become children of God?

What does this tell us about people who are only born of blood or the will of the
flesh or the will of man?

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory,
the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and
truth.

How did the Word come human?

Why is Yeshua God’s one and only Son?

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What is grace?

What is truth and why is it important?

John testified concerning Him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke
about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because He was
before me.’” John, the greatest of the prophets, understood that Yeshua was before
him. Even though John was older than Yeshua and came before Yeshua, John
understood that Yeshua existed before him and was greater than him.

Out of His fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.
Yeshua is so full of grace that when one grace runs out, another grace is there to
take its place. The grace in place of grace that is flowing from Yeshua reminds me
of the story of Elisha and the poor widow who was so in debt that her two children
were about to be taken from her and sold as slaves to pay off her debt. Her only
possession was a jar of oil. Elisha told her and her children to gather a lot of empty
containers. They did, and from the one jar of oil, oil flowed and flowed and flowed
until all the empty containers were filled with oil. The oil was sold and her debts
were able to be paid. Yeshua is like that jar of oil. There is a continual supply of
grace flowing from Him that can fill every available vessel. When one unmerited
favor is finished, there is another undeserved good thing that can come from
Yeshua to take its place. Get connected to Him and you will receive that unending
supply of grace.

John wanted us to know that John the Baptist was great, but Yeshua is much
greater than John. And Moses was great, but Yeshua is much greater than Moses.
The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Messiah
Yeshua.

What is the Law?

What else is it called?

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John affirmed that the Law was given through Moses - not through other men
centuries later like some wrongly claim.

John is not telling us to disrespect Moses or the Torah. John is telling us that
Yeshua is greater than Moses, and His New Covenant is greater than the Sinai
Covenant that came through Moses.

The Law was given through Moses - and that’s a very good thing. The Law is
wonderful. It has many things to teach us. It has a very important place in the life
of Israel and Messiah’s Community.

There is grace and truth in Moses and the Law, but that grace and truth are
incomplete. Yeshua is the completion and the fullness of the grace and truth found
there.

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in
closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known.

To whom does God refer to here?

Why is the Son of God closer to the Father than anyone else?

Why has no one ever seen God?

So, who is Yeshua according to this first part of the first chapter of the divinely
inspired book of John?