God Made Known - John 1:1-18Sample

Read John 1:14-15

How is it possible that anyone, whatever their background, can become a child of God? How can a God who is outside time and space connect with us? John’s amazing claim is that the Word, the one who is God, who was before the beginning, who is the light, became a person: flesh and blood like us. He lived at a real time and in a real place. He had an address, a job and a family. If we read on in John’s Gospel, we’ll see that just like us He felt sadness, hunger and pain.

There’s another layer of meaning to this. In the original Greek that John wrote in, the word he uses for ‘dwelling’ means ‘tented’ or ‘tabernacled’. This looks back to Old Testament times, when a tent called the Tabernacle was the way that God showed His presence with His people. So the arrival of the Word is the arrival of God’s presence with people.

What evidence does John give to back this up? He says that he was there! He says that he saw the glory of the Word firsthand. John became convinced that this glory could only be because the Word was the Son, the one sent by God the Father. John describes Him as full of grace, God’s undeserved kindness, and truth, the answer to all our searching.

This is who John the Baptist was speaking about. What he says is mind-blowing. In one sense, the Word came after John – John spoke about Jesus before His public life and ministry began. But the Word is much greater even than John the Baptist... because He existed before John was even born.