Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to John 1. For Christmas this year, I want to look at the Apostle John’s “Infancy Narrative” in John 1:1–18. We’re going to look at that today, and then again on Christmas Eve (during our Christmas Eve Service), and then a third time next Sunday. 

And to that you might say, “Infancy Narrative, Pastor Tony? John doesn’t have an Infancy Narrative.” Well, yes. John doesn’t give us an account of Jesus’s birth like Matthew and Luke. But John does give us an account of Jesus’s origin and Jesus’s incarnation in what’s called John’s “Prologue.” 

One of the things that I appreciate about John’s Gospel is that John doesn’t start in Bethlehem. He doesn’t start with Mary or Joseph or angels visiting them. Neither does he start with Jesus’s genealogy going back to the OT. No, John goes way back even before that. John goes to the very beginning of time. John explains the origins of the Son of God before he was enfleshed and named Jesus.

Most scholars believe that John’s Gospel was the last of the four Gospels written. I agree. And I think that’s why John’s Gospel is so different from the Synoptic Gospels. In other words, John assumed that his original readers already knew about the accounts of Matthew and Luke. So that’s why he starts with an utterly unique statement at the beginning of his book. 

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Wow! What a powerhouse way to start a book! The language here is simple—Word, God, beginning. It repeats similar words and phrasing. It’s simple, but it’s not simplistic. In fact, the ideas here are complex and profound. 

I’ve heard it said that the Gospel of John is like a swimming pool: shallow enough that a child may wade and deep enough that an elephant can swim. I don’t know which one you are in your Christian faith this morning—elephant or child? Probably most of you would rather not be characterized by either of those. But wherever you are in your faith, even if you are on the outside looking in, this book is for you. And this message from John 1 is for you.

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Today I want us to look at the first five verses of John’s “Prologue.” There’s plenty in these five verses for us to chew on. And to aid us in this approach to Scripture, I want to answer a basic question today. It’s this: 

Who is Jesus?

I’ll give you four answers to that question. Here’s the first.   

1) Jesus is the Logos (1:1a)

You might say, “The Logos? What does that mean, Tony?” Well let’s unpack that term. John writes… 

1:1 In the beginning was the Word

Now when John says, “In the beginning…” what does that sound like to you? What does that echo from the OT? Genesis 1:1, right? “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” That verbal correlation is not an accident. John did that on purpose.

John wants you to jump into a time machine. He wants to take you back to the beginning of the beginning of all things. And he wants you to recognize as a reader, that “the Word” was there at the beginning. The Logos was there. 

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Now what is this “Word?” What is the Logos? What does that mean? Well, the Logos in Greek thought was an insuperable force in the world. And it was the essence of all life and meaning. And the Greeks studied this Logos and tried to identify it. 

And there are a lot of ways that this word Logos could be translated. It could be translated “logic,” but it was more than logic. It could be translated “speech,” but it was more than just speech. It could also be translated “message”—as in a message from God, or as a message from the divine beings in the case of the Greeks—but it’s more than a message. It could be translated “wisdom” and that’s possibly how the Jewish readers understood this term. Proverbs speaks about “wisdom” that existed before time, that helped established the world. Surely the Logos was the wisdom of God, but it was more than just wisdom. 

Also the word “word” in Hebrew, the davar (דָּבָר), was the instrument of God’s creative work. He created the world with his “word.” He spoke and said, “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3), and there was light. So Logos has some connection to the Hebrew concept of “word,” the davar of God. 

Some have translated this term Logos as “essence.” I think that’s closer to the mark. In the beginning was the “essence.” The essence of this world was with God. The French use the term “Je ne sais quoi” to express something similar. A person goes up to a piece of art or an architectural feature and says, “This has such a ‘je ne sais quoi’ quality about it.” And in French je ne sais quoi simply means “I don’t know what.” 

What they are saying is that this piece of art has “an unexplainable quality about it.” Its essence is so profound and so pronounced, I can’t even describe it. I can’t express it. That’s how the Greeks described our world with the term Logos. There’s an essence to it, there’s a je ne sais quoi quality about it. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I know there is an essence, a significance behind this world. 

But now here comes John! And he says, I’ll tell you what that essence is. That essence was “in the beginning.” That je ne sais quoi was “with God” in the beginning. And get this—that Logos was God. 

And here’s the real bombshell. This comes later. The Logos isn’t a what; it’s a who. It’s not a thing or an impersonal force; it’s a person. And he’s the second member of the Trinity. Because John says in verse 14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:14). 

Now who is this Logos who became flesh and dwelt among us? Who is he? What’s his name? JESUS! How do we know that? It doesn’t say Jesus in this verse. The name “Jesus” doesn’t show up till verse 17. You know that because you’ve read the Gospel of John before. That’s okay. 

But I just want you to live vicariously right now through a person who hasn’t read this before. Maybe think of yourself as a Jew in John’s day. Maybe think of yourself as a Gentile unbeliever in John’s day who is reading this for the first time. Maybe you’re a Greek-speaking pagan who has been learning about this thing called the Logos your entire life, and now John is blowing your mind! He’s telling you, “The Logos was with God, and the Logos was God!” What??? This is how you grab someone’s attention with literature. If you were a Greek-speaking Gentile in John’s day, your ears would be perking up right now. 

By the way, John likes starting his books this way. He starts out 1 John with, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life…” (1 John 1:1). John doesn’t waste time with pleasantries or introductions. He gets right into it. And that’s what he does here in his Gospel as well.

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Wow! Okay. What else do you have for us, John?

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Write this down as #2. Not only is Jesus the Logos. He’s also the LORD. 

2) Jesus is the LORD (1:1b)

  Make sure you capitalize “L,” “O,” “R,” and “D” with this second point. We’re not talking about a British “Lord” here, who’s married to a “Lady,” and lives on some famous estate. 

 When the English translators first started translating the OT into English, they used the designation “LORD” to translate Yahweh in the OT. And there was another Hebrew word that could be translated “Lord,” namely Adonai (אֲדֹנָי). So to differentiate between Yahweh and Adonai, they capitalized all four letters of L-O-R-D, when the Hebrew Yahweh (i.e. the tetragrammaton) was in the background.   

  Well, John makes clear in his Gospel that Jesus is Yahweh enfleshed. And that starts in verse 1 here, where he writes.

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

You might say, “But John doesn’t use the Greek translation of Yahweh here (κύριος), so how can you say that Jesus is Yahweh, Tony?” 

Well Jesus’s “LORD-ship” is something that’s highlighted throughout John’s Gospel. On eight different occasions in this book, Jesus says, “I AM!” He says, “I am the bread of life” (6:35). He says, “I am the light of the world” (8:12). He says, “I am the good shepherd” (10:11). He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (14:6). 

Each of those designations (“good shepherd,” “light of the world,” “bread of life,” etc.) is significant. But what’s more significant than each of those individual designations is Jesus’s repeated use of the statement “I AM.” Why does Jesus say that so often? Is it because he’s a self-absorbed narcissist who loves talking about himself? No! Jesus is linking his identity back to the “Great I AM” of the OT, Yahweh. 

When God appeared to Moses in the wilderness he said, “I AM Who I AM” (Exod 3:14). That’s all he has to say. Moses asks, “Who should I say sent me?” God says, “You tell them ‘I AM’ sent you.” God says, “I AM Yahweh; that is my Name.” And Jesus self-identifies as the Great I AM (i.e. Yahweh) in the Gospel of John. 

And to that some people might say, “Blasphemy. How could he say that?” Well, that’s exactly what the Pharisees accused Jesus of. Jesus told them, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58). They knew that he was equating himself with deity, and that’s why they picked up stones in John 8 to kill him. They thought that he was blaspheming the name of Yahweh. 

And you know what? It would be blasphemy… if it wasn’t true. Either Jesus is crazy or Jesus is telling the truth. This is part of C.S. Lewis’s trilemma if you’ve ever heard this before. Jesus is a liar, he’s a lunatic, or he’s the LORD. He’s one of those things. The only thing he can’t be is just a good, moral teacher. Either he’s crazy, or it’s true that he is God! John believes it’s true. He believes Jesus is God. 

John believes that Jesus is God. And so before he says anything else about Jesus’s life, his death, his burial, or his resurrection, he says this…  

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Now some might ask, “How can Jesus be with God and also be God?” There’s a logical fallacy in the first verse. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” I can either be Tony Caffey, or I can be with Tony Caffey. But I can’t be Tony Caffey and also be with Tony Caffey! 

So how can you be with God and also be God? Good question. How can you? The answer is the doctrine of the Trinity—Father, Spirit, Son. The Divine three-in-one. We see both the Father, and the Son here in verse 1. God the Son was God and he was also with God the Father! The Spirit shows up later in John’s Gospel. Those three persons—Father, Son, Spirit—are each God. And yet, they are separate persons. 

Three persons; one God. That is the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity that has been believed throughout the church for twenty centuries. There is both unity and community among the Godhead. And that’s been the case since before time began. 

Some people say, “O the Trinity, that just goes back to Constantine. That goes back to the Council of Nicaea in the fourth century AD!” No it doesn’t. It goes back to John 1:1. It goes back to Jesus who said “I AM.” 

I would argue that it even goes back further than that. It goes back to Genesis 1, where God said, “Let us make man in our own image.” Who’s the “us” in Genesis 1?” I’ll tell you who the “us” is. It’s a reference to Father, Son, and Spirit. Our God is one God in three persons.  

Not one God in three manifestations. That’s Modalism! Not Jesus adopted as God into the Trinity. That’s Adoptionism. Not God the Son consisting of a different substance than God the Father. That’s Arianism. Those are heresies. 

The orthodox doctrine of the Trinity says that God the Son is ὁμοούσιος [homoousios] with the Father. He is of the same substance or essence. He’s not ὁμοιούσιος [homoiousios]. He is not of a similar substance. “Jesus is God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance [ὁμοούσιος] with the Father” (see the Nicene Creed, AD 325).

We sing about the Trinity this way. Tell me if you’ve heard this before.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth, and sky, and sea;

Holy, holy, holy; merciful and mighty!

God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!  

Jesus is God! Jesus is the LORD! Amen? And God is Three-in-one—Father, Son, Spirit. That’s what we believe. That’s what John believes. That’s what the Bible teaches. And you have to do a lot of Scripture-twisting to get to a place where Jesus is not the LORD, and where the Trinity is not affirmed. 

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Write this down as #3. Jesus is the Logos. Jesus is the LORD. And thirdly,   

3) Jesus is the Creator (1:2–3)

John writes this in verse 2. This is a reiteration of what he says in verse 1.

 2 He [that’s the Word. That’s Jesus] was in the beginning with God. 

In other words, he’s an uncreated being. He’s the unmoved mover. There was never a time when Jesus was not in existence. I don’t care what the Jehovah’s Witnesses say. They’re wrong.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are just a modern-day iteration of an ancient heresy called Arianism. Arianism came from a heretic named Arius in the third century AD who said that there was a time when God the Son was not. John says instead that there was never a time when God the Son was not. He was in the beginning with God.    

2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 

Now if you were an English major, and you wrote that on your paper, your teacher would count off for being redundant. But in Greek, repetition was used for emphasis. And John likes to give a positive statement and then reiterate it as a negation. So he says, “by him all things were made.” And then he says, “without him nothing was made.” “With him… everything made. Without him… nothing made.” Everyone got it? That’s the emphasis.

By the way, John calls “the Word” (the Logos), a “him.” See that in verse 3? 

3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 

The Logos is not an “it.” The Logos is a “him.” So even though John doesn’t identify the Logos as Jesus just yet, we know that it’s not an impersonal force. This is not Star Wars. May the [Logos] be with you! The Logos is not an impersonal force. It’s a “him.” It’s Jesus. 

And John says, “He made everything… Jesus made everything in this world.” He’s the Creator of the world. That baby in the manger created the very trees that were used for the wood that made the manger that held that baby. That baby born in Bethlehem created the very stars that led the Magi to him. That baby born in Bethlehem created the very hands of the people who used those hands to crucify him on that cross. That is Jesus. He’s the Logos. He’s the LORD. He’s the Creator of the world. 

Let me just read a cross reference for you for this passage from Colossians 1. Whenever I defend the deity of Christ with folks, I typically use three passages: 1) John 1:1-18 (John’s “Prologue” here), 2) Also John 8:58, where Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” That’s the coup de grâce for the mistaken argument that people put forth that Jesus never called himself God. 3) And also Colossians 1. Those are my go-to passages. And Colossians 1 says, “He [Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together (1:15–17). 

Also in Colossians 2:9, Paul says, “For in him [Christ] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” Jesus is God. Jesus is Creator. Jesus is deity enfleshed. 

Paul says that Jesus is the sustainer of all things. “He is before all things and in him all things hold together.” That is an amazing statement about our Lord. You can’t say, “Oh, Jesus never called himself God.” You can’t say, “the NT never affirms Jesus’s deity.” You’re not being honest with what the Bible says. You can disbelieve the Bible. But you can’t pretend that the Bible didn’t say these things. 

And you can’t say either, “Oh Jesus he was just a good moral teacher.” The NT doesn’t allow you to reduce Jesus to that. Of course he was a good teacher, but he was so much more than that. 

We sing a Christmas carol every year around this time that perfectly encapsulates this truth. It’s a song written by Charles Wesley almost 300 years ago. You might even say that this hymn-writer had a Johannine understanding of Christ. Here’s what he wrote. 

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Hail th’incarnate Deity,

Pleased as man with man to dwell

Jesus, our Emmanuel. 

Hark the Herald Angel Sing

Glory to the Newborn King.

It’s really sad how people sing this song every year around this time of year and they never grapple with what the lyricist was saying. They never come to terms with who Jesus our Emannuel really is. Charles Wesley knew who Jesus was. We know who Jesus was. We know who Jesus is! He is God in the flesh. He’s the incarnate deity!

And what’s really sad in our day… and this grieves my heart … is how ambivalent we are as a people towards Jesus as our LORD and our Creator. One of the most popular refrains in our day is “I am the master of my own fate.” “I am the captain of my own soul.” “I am the author of my own life.” “I am the creator of my own reality.” 

But here’s the question—are you, really? Did you create yourself? Did you create sexuality? How can you self-determine? Did you create marriage? How can you self-define? Did you create life? Can you regulate it? Jesus Christ is the Creator of life. He’s the author of life? He has the authority over our life, our being, and our sexuality! In fact, the word “authority” is derived from the word “author.” Jesus is the author of our lives, and he’s the author of our salvation, so he has authority over our lives.

If you are in a class, let’s say an English class, and a bunch of people are sitting around analyzing a piece of poetry. And they’re all saying, “What does this poem mean?” And everyone is giving their take on what the poem means. “I think it means this.” “No, no, I think it means that.” And no matter how weird or wild the interpretation, the teacher says, “Yes, you are all correct. Everyone’s opinion is of equal authority.” 

But then the author of the poem walks in and says, “You know I wrote this poem twenty years ago, and this is what I meant when I wrote it.” That’s the end of discussion, right? Why? Because when the author speaks, nobody has anything else to say. You can’t say to the poet, “No you didn’t really mean that; this is what you meant.” You can’t do that. The author has the authority.

Here’s the point. Jesus Christ is the author of your life. You can’t say, “No one has the right to tell me what to do with my body but me?” You can’t say that. Did you make yourself? The truth for most of us is that our own souls and our own bodies are mysteries that we barely understand. Even scientists barely understand our bodies, let alone the metaphysical souls that God has created in us. 

But Jesus created our bodies. Jesus created our souls. And Jesus ordained them for his purposes. And as the author of our bodies he gets to decide how we use them. He’s the Logos. He’s the Author of life and we submit to his truth.

Everybody with me? This is a hard thing to say in our day. But we need to say it. Everyone in our day wants to self-determine. Everyone wants to create their own reality. But it’s a delusion. Jesus is our Authority. Jesus is our Creator. 

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Finally write this down as #4. Jesus is the Logos. Jesus is the LORD. Jesus is the Creator. And… 

4) Jesus is the light of life (1:4–5) 

John writes in verse 3:

3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 

I wasn’t sure how to frame this last point. Should I say Jesus is the Light? Or Jesus is the Life? Should I have two points or just one? It’s interesting because both “life” (the Greek word ζωή) and “light” (the Greek word φῶς) are important themes in John. Jesus says, “I Am the Light [φῶς] of the World” (8:12). And Jesus says, “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life [ζωή] (14:6).”

Here, at the beginning of his Gospel, John emphasizes both terms. And he presents the Word as the Light of Life. In Greek, there are actually two words for “life.” There’s the word βίος, and then there’s the word ζωή. And more often than not when John uses ζωή, he’s not talking about biological life, he’s talking about “eternal life.” And that life, that eternity, is found in Christ.

What’s the most popular, well-known verse in the Gospel of John? John 3:16, right? And what does John 3:16 say? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life [ζωή].”

John says at the end of his Gospel, as a kind of purpose statement for his book in John 20:31, “[These things] are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life [ζωή] in his name.” Not βίος, you’ve already got that. You’ve been created. John wants you to have more than just βίος! He wants you to have ζωή. He wants you to have eternal life. John wants you to get saved! 

And where is that salvation found? Jesus is your salvation. Jesus is your eternal life. If you have Jesus you have life. If you don’t have him, you don’t have life. 

 And that life is the light of men. John says, 

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 

 The darkness came about in Genesis 3. Our world is covered in darkness. That’s a reference to evil and the shadow that has been cast upon our world due to sin. And yet there is a light that shines in that darkness. There is a light that overcomes darkness. And that light is Jesus. 

 Paul says it this way, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). That’s good. Do you know this light? Do you know the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?” Or are you stuck in darkness? 

 Let me ask it this way. Do you know this Logos that John is talking about here? Do you know this light, this life, this Logos, this Jesus… who existed in eternity past and created the universe but yet came into this present world to save you from sin and establish an eternal future for you? Do you know him?

Who is Jesus? He’s the Logos. He’s the Lord. He’s the Creator. And he is the light of life. If you know him, if you believe in him, you have salvation. If you don’t know him; then you are stuck in darkness. John wants you to have life, and he shows you how right here. It’s through Jesus Christ. 

You might say, “How did this Logos take on flesh, Pastor Tony? What’s the next part of this Prologue to John’s Gospel?” Good question. Come back on Christmas Eve, and I’ll tell you. 

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I’ll close with this, though. Paul Harvey told the following story once. He says, “On a raw winter night one day, a farmer heard a thumping sound against the kitchen door. He went to a window and watched as tiny, shivering sparrows, attracted to the warmth inside, beat in vain against the glass storm door. The farmer bundled up and trudged through fresh snow to open the barn for the struggling birds. He turned on the lights, tossed some hay in a corner, and sprinkled a trail of saltine crackers to direct them to the barn. But the sparrows hid in the darkness, afraid of him. 

This farmer tried various tactics: circling behind the birds to drive them toward the barn, tossing crumbs in the air toward them, retreating to his house to see if they would flutter into the barn on their own. Nothing worked. He had terrified them; the birds could not understand that he was trying to help them. 

Well the farmer withdrew to his house and watched the doomed sparrows through a window. As he stared, a thought hit him like lightning from a clear blue sky: If only I could become a bird—one of them—just for a moment, then I would not frighten them so. I could show them the way to warmth and safety. 

At the same moment, another thought dawned on him: He had grasped the whole principle of the incarnation. A man’s becoming a bird is nothing compared to God’s becoming a man. The concept of a sovereign being as big as the universe confining himself to a human body is too much for some people to believe.” 

And yet that’s exactly what Jesus did. That’s exactly what John, his disciple and his best friend, relays to us. Jesus Christ, the Logos, the “Word” took on flesh and lived among us. And that Word was crucified on a cross, paying the penalty for our sins, so that we might have life. This is Jesus. Do you know him? Is he your Savior?