April 30 (Thursday) -- Jesus is Older Than Dirt

If you can’t correctly pronounce, “Shibboleth”, you’re dead: Judges 11:1-12:15

Jesus is literally older than dirt: John 1:1-28

Psalm 101:1-8

Proverbs 14:13-14


Book of John:
• Probably written at Ephesus at about 78 A.D. (some say 90-100 A.D.).
• Written after the other gospels.
• Written mainly for Christians.
• Almost two-thirds of the Book of John is devoted to the last 6 months of Jesus’ life.
• Almost one third devoted to the last week of His life.
• Some say that John wrote this book at the request of the ministers of several churches in Asia to counter the teachings of Corinthus and the Ebionites.
o Corinthus: a man who claimed to had revelations written by an apostle and revelations from an angel. He preached that Christianity was supposed to be a thousand years of a big marriage festival, with everyone eating, drinking, & marrying.
o Ebionites: a sect who believed that Christ was an ordinary man, born like an ordinary man, but who has superior values. Because the Christians considered them poor in spiritual knowledge, they were given the name “Ebionites”. “Ebionite” means “poor man”.

Who is John?
• Was a fisherman before becoming Jesus’ servant.
• The disciple “whom Jesus loved”.
• One of the 3 disciples who were part of Jesus’ inner circle, often witnessing really neat stuff the other disciples did not.
• According to tradition, during the persecution under Domitian, John was thrown into boiling oil but wasn’t hurt.
• He was sent to labor in the mines at the isle of Patmos, where he wrote Revelation.
• John was freed from Patmos when Nerva came to power.
• John is the only disciple who wasn’t killed for his faith (although there was an attempt on his life). He died a natural death.

• V. 1:
o Jesus = the Word
 The Word = God
 Jesus = God
 “Word” comes from the Greek word “logos”, which means logic, or reasoning.
 John the Baptist was the “voice”. Jesus is the “Word”. John the Baptist told about the Word, Jesus.
o Jesus is eternal.
 Jesus is literally older than dirt. 
• V.3:
o Jesus = the Creator
o Nothing exists that didn’t come from Jesus.
o The author and founder of the Christian religion (Jesus) is also the author and founder of the world.
• V. 4:
o The life is in Jesus.
o This life is the light of men.
o We can’t see where we’re going without Jesus’ life.
• V.5:
o “Has not understood” in NIV is “never overpowered it” in AMP.
o “Understood” in NIV comes from the Greek word “katalambano”, which means “to take eagerly”, or “seize”.
o The light of Jesus is stronger than the darkness of the world.
o The world can’t conquer Jesus’ light.
o When you’re with Jesus’ team, you’re with the team that wins in the end.
• The other gospels try to prove that Jesus is the Messiah by either stating some of the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled, or by describing His immaculate conception.
• The book of John doesn’t try to prove that Jesus is special. John just simply states that Jesus is God.

• V.6-9:
o John the Baptist understood that the world has a natural blinding keeping them from seeing Jesus.
o Why was John the Baptist testifying about the coming of Jesus?
 “That through Him all men might believe.”
 This is the ultimate goal – the furtherance of the Kingdom of God.
 This is for “all men” -- not just Jews, not just the rich, not just the poor, not just people of a certain color.
• V.10-13:
o John (the gospel writer) wants us to get the point that Jesus is the Creator. He repeats it in verse 10.
o I believe we need to absorb the teachings in the Bible that are repeated.
o Jesus came to dwell among His creation.
o Imagine a car designer willing to live for 30 years in a garage full of cars he created. 
o We are really beneath Jesus. We are the results of His creation.
o Yet, Jesus came to dwell among us.
o What kind of reception did He get?
 The world “did not recognize Him”.
 We, as human beings, think we’re the smartest species on the planet.
 Yet, even a pet recognizes his owner.
 Without the Holy Spirit, we don’t see the true order of things.
o “His own” in verse 11 sounds like it’s referring to everyone – all of Jesus’ creation. But most people believe it’s referring to the Jews.
o The Jews (for the most part) rejected Jesus. But many Gentiles accepted Jesus.
o Believing in Jesus:
 “Believed” in verse 12 literally means “cling to, trust in, rely on” (AMP).
 Context is important. Believing in Jesus, as John wrote about Him, means to believe that Jesus is as described at the beginning of the chapter: that Jesus is the Word, Jesus is God, Jesus is the Creator, Jesus is the Life, and Jesus is the Light.
 So we’ve got to have deep down-sure enough-belief that Jesus is the highest & the utmost. But if we do, we become the sons of God.
o Believers in Jesus basically fill in the gap of the Jews (“His own” in verse 11) and become part of the House of God.
o John lets us know that Christianity is not a club exclusive to Jews.
o Being a believer in Jesus has a tighter linkage to God than being a descendant of Abraham, who was a man.
o This is what God wants. What God wants has greater authority & relevance than what a man (i.e. husband in a family) wants.
o God wants, has planned out, and desires us to be part of His kingdom, His family, His protection, His representation, & His service. (All what it meant to be part of someone’s house/family.)

• Jesus not only came to dwell among us. He also became flesh (v. 14).
o Back to the car designer analogy – it’s like the designer not only living in the garage full of cars for 30 years, but choosing to be a car like his creations for 30 years.
o Jesus’ willingness to live like a much lower being for 30 years is too much of a sacrifice for us to comprehend.
o It’s beyond any possible move on Earth that we can have as man – more than a member of a wealthy royal family living in the lowliest of slums.
o The flesh is the lowliest part of us (in contrast to spirit and soul).
o It was by being flesh that Jesus allowed Himself to have our physical weaknesses.
o Jesus did all of this knowing that it would ultimately lead to mankind being able to crucify Him.
o This is how important it is to God/Jesus for us to get the point of eternal life through Him.
• V.15: John (the gospel writer) backs up Matthew’s writing (Matthew 3:11) of John the Baptist’s testimony contradicting himself to Christ. John the Baptist made sure everybody knew that he was not worth talking about. Jesus is the real deal.
• V. 16: This was done though there was no way we could deserve Jesus’ dwelling among us or His sacrifice.
o This was all done through grace.
• Until Jesus came, only God Himself has seen God.
• Now that God, as Jesus, had walked on the Earth, John and others had seen God, by seeing Jesus.


• By this time, there had been a handful of others who claimed to be the messiah.
o There were so many that there was even a standard procedure to go through.
o Anyone claiming to be the messiah would go to either the priests or the Pharisees and try to convince one of them that he was the messiah.
o If a “messiah” got backing from one of the priests or Pharisees, he would walk around in public and claim to be the messiah, with an esteemed spiritual leader vouching for him.
o So the Pharisees were used to being included in the recognition of the coming messiah.
o Yet, John the Baptist was running around teaching about the coming Messiah without trying to get glory for himself or bring glory to a sidekick Pharisee. 
o To be fair to those around Jesus, they had seen false messiahs so many times it was probably easy to dismiss Jesus with a “yeah, right, we’ve heard it before” attitude.
• V.26 – Again, even John the Baptist, as much as we respect him, was saying to instead respect Jesus.



Summary:
1. Jesus is God.
2. Jesus is the Light.
3. If we believe in Jesus, regardless of whether we’re Jew or Gentile, we become part of God’s family.
4. This was set up through the grace of God, to the point of Jesus coming to dwell in flesh among us.
5. We can’t earn it – it’s through grace.
6. Yet our faith has to be real enough to where we “cling to, trust in, rely on” Jesus.