2. Speaking the Language (John 1:1-5)
===
Jeremy: [00:00:00] Do you ever hear people younger than you say things that make no sense? Now this is especially true if you have kids. I've got five of them and the amount of things that are said in my household is wild. For example, I got a list. Aura, bet, brain rot, glaze, Riz, Sigma, skibbity, suss. I mean, these words are just flying around my house all the time.
And, and maybe you have a similar experience. And it reminds me of something that Douglas Adams once said, anything invented after you're 35 is against the natural order of things. And now it's funny how we can have a language barrier, even in our own culture. And if that is true, it's even more true when we talk about spirituality.
And that's what we're going to dive into as we get into John chapter one, verse one of chapter one says this in the beginning, the word already existed. The [00:01:00] word was with God and the word was God. An incredible opening to the book, such a beautiful beginning and, and John begins his theology about Jesus going all the way back to creation, back to the beginning.
Now, the word, the way that John refers to Jesus is not necessarily a common way to refer to Jesus, but it's unique to John. It's something that John helps us understand. To understand about Jesus. Now, John also wrote the book of revelation, where we see the same terminology used about Jesus and revelation one versus one and two say this, the revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.
He made it known by sending his angel to his servant, John. Who testifies to everything he saw that is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ Here we see a unique [00:02:00] insight that john has to who jesus is So today when you and I refer to the word of god, normally people are using the bible But we should actually use it the way john does to refer to the person Of jesus where all of this is pointing us to You John continues in verse two, he says, he existed in the beginning with God and God created everything through him and nothing was created except through him.
The word gave life to everything that was created and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it. We begin with some key theological points here that Jesus has always been. Jesus was not created, did not enter the scene on some point.
He's always been around. And in addition, everything that was made was [00:03:00] made through Jesus. Now again, this is something that Christians often don't think about, but Jesus is the word of God, the way God created. God spoke everything into existence. The author of Hebrews says it like this in Hebrews 1 2. In these last days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom also he made the universe.
Now this is a significant point for John to make here because John is retelling the Genesis account of creation. So if we take what we're seeing here in John and we go back and we reread Genesis, which is a way you should always read the Old Testament is read it with the New Testament in mind and work backward.
So if we do that, we can discover the entire Trinity in the Genesis narrative. Check this out in Genesis one, one through three, we learned this in the [00:04:00] beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty and darkness covered the deep waters and the spirit part one of God Was hovering over the surface of the waters then God This is the God the Father said through Jesus as we learn in John Let there be light and there was light John is emphasizing Jesus's role in creation the author Diana Butler Bass does it like this In effect, John is telling a very old Jewish story anew, this time through the experience of Christ.
In Genesis, God creates by breathing. The Ruach, the spirit, God breathes. The cosmos comes to be. In John, the Ruach is the word, the logos, truth, and wisdom. You see, Jesus is our opportunity [00:05:00] to see what the Trinity is. is like, and this is incredible. This is the language gap. All of a sudden doesn't exist anymore because of who Jesus is.
Now, let me illustrate this for you with a little diagram. Imagine if you have Kevin and you have Nadia and Kevin speaks only English and Nadia speaks only Russian. And if that's the case, they will have a hard time communicating together. But what if they have a friend named Angelina who speaks both languages fluently?
Then Angelina can talk with Kevin, Angelina can talk with Nadia, and Angelina can translate to allow Kevin and Nadia to talk. What a difference Angelina makes for these two people. And this is an illustration of what Jesus does for you and I. Jesus speaks the divine language, and Jesus also speaks [00:06:00] our language.
And because of that, we are able to experience God in a new way. 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, Paul says, For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. We now have this spiritual mediator to communicate, to bring us together with the very presence of God, as we'll see in the weeks to come.
Now you can illustrate it like this. You have humanity on one side and you have the Trinity on the other side of who God is. And Jesus is the connecting point. Jesus is what brings the two together. Now, the nature of the Trinity is self giving love as opposed to, to self serving love, which is what we often think of.
No, the Trinity is self giving love and Jesus is the self giving love of the Trinity [00:07:00] aimed at humanity. It is literally the Trinity aimed at us in the person of Jesus. Now, here's what's so good, and this is the shocking part. Jesus isn't just like, Oh, he's our ticket to God, and that's why we need him. And then once you punch that ticket, you move on.
No, Jesus is so much more than that. Jesus is the fullness of God. In fact, Hebrews 1, 3 says the sun is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being. Colossians 2 9 says, for in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. So let me ask you this question. What is it about Jesus that best reveals the Trinity to us?
If we had to pinpoint it, what specifically is it? Is it the resurrection? Is it his teachings? Is it the miracles? And I would say it's none of those things. It's the cross. Jesus on the [00:08:00] cross is what best displays the character of God. John Bear says it like this. We cannot begin with an understanding of God or the son of God in whom he is revealed apart from the cross.
If on the other hand, we look through the cross, we see the unchanging identity of the crucified one throughout his life. See, the cross is the sacrifice. the enemy embracing nonviolent love that reveals something unique about this God in comparison to all the other gods the world has shown us. No, no, this God is different.
This God is unique. And so I would say that any view of God without the cross cannot fully show us the character of God. That without the cross, we do not truly see what God is like. The nature of the Trinity Is self giving love the nature of jesus is [00:09:00] self giving love and that is revealed on the cross And it's an invitation for you and I as believers to embody that same self giving Love greg boyd says this there is no aspect of god that is not characterized by the non violent Self sacrificial enemy embracing love that is revealed on the cross The goal for you and I is to represent, to embody the character of the Trinity that we see modeled on the cross in our lives today.
We'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
