00:00:00:16 – 00:00:24:05
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Yeah, we have this down to a science. I shouldn’t say we like. I have any idea how any of it works. Glad you’re with us today. As we, remember, close out a week. Won’t be meeting tomorrow on Thursday. But as we continue here, just in the opening words of the gospel of John, the first chapter yesterday, we looked at what’s called the prolog.

00:00:24:05 – 00:01:18:45
Clint Loveall
That beautiful introduction that John gives us in the beginning was the word. And it’s interesting. Michael, Michael, how quickly John transitions from this kind of cosmic scope to the very practical. And it may be surprising if you’ve never thought about it before, that having introduced us to what we will later learn is the cosmic Christ. But before we’ve used the name Jesus, before we’ve done any of that, John is going to introduce us to a person and the the Gospel of John places incredible importance on the character of John the Baptist as the Herald, as the announcer, the forerunner, the one who gets it, who who brings the information.

00:01:18:50 – 00:01:39:32
Clint Loveall
And so John celebrates that role by placing him very, very early in the story here, or at least in his version of the story. So let me just read a couple verses for you and we’ll come back and try to unpack them. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify.

00:01:39:32 – 00:02:14:17
Clint Loveall
The light so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. So we don’t know at this point in the story what any of this means. But we know that here we meet a man named John, who is primarily tasked with witnessing the text, uses the word witness and testify.

00:02:14:22 – 00:02:36:29
Clint Loveall
It makes it very clear this is going to be fleshed out later. Some conflict about is he or isn’t he himself the one? And we start right off with the affirmation that he is not. He himself was not the light. But what does he do? He came to testify. The light to the light. So he has a purpose.

00:02:36:34 – 00:03:02:26
Clint Loveall
And that purpose is to, make others aware of this light, this word. And already we have just in these first nine verses here, these two major components, these major threads, word and light and now we have a person, the first person and the primary person who’s going to understand it and communicate it to others.

00:03:02:31 – 00:03:30:16
Michael Gewecke
So the importance of witness and testimony in the Gospel of John, it can’t really be overestimated. I don’t think this is a central theme. And make no mistake, it’s not an accident that we’re getting there. Within the first seven verses of the book itself, it’s been given the kind of prominence, and John is a prominent and important character because of his witness, the way that he pointed to Jesus selflessly.

00:03:30:21 – 00:03:48:30
Michael Gewecke
And Clint, you know, I think that maybe if you took a survey of Christians and you asked them about the importance of characters in the New Testament, and you ask them, maybe you know, who’s the most important character of the New Testament, you’re going to get, I would think, a variety of answers. Some are going to say, Peter, because, you know, he’s the Rock.

00:03:48:30 – 00:04:19:12
Michael Gewecke
And I think you’re going to have others, maybe talk about John because he’s the beloved disciple. But but it’s interesting here that John the Baptist is given a central role here, a starting note in the gospel of John, because John the Baptizer is the one crying out in the wilderness, paving the way of people’s imaginations, helping them understand that the kind of personal effect that will be required when meeting this Son of God.

00:04:19:12 – 00:04:39:18
Michael Gewecke
And I think what we’re going to discover as we come through this gospel is John the Baptist has a particularly important role in this gospel, because John the Baptist represents an individual who and let’s make sure that we see it right here in the text, who is coming so that others might see the light for what it is.

00:04:39:18 – 00:05:10:24
Michael Gewecke
Right? That he’s the one who’s pointing to the light itself, and the light isn’t coming from John. John isn’t the one who is the gospel. He’s not the Messiah, but he’s helping the people to be able to see it for what it is he’s testifying. He’s witnessing. That’s what you do when you share with another person a truth that you’ve seen when you have encountered something real and you give words describing it, you’re you’re testifying to the truth of that experience that you’ve had in here.

00:05:10:39 – 00:05:23:40
Michael Gewecke
John has experienced John is the one who knows the truth of the Christ. And if we listen to him, he’s that first Harold, that first speaker, first preacher of that truth.

00:05:23:45 – 00:05:54:45
Clint Loveall
I think. I don’t know if I’ve ever thought about it in these terms, Michael, but I think a case could be made that other than Jesus, John is the most important story. Character in this version of the gospel, in John’s gospel, that John the Baptist is probably the second most important character in the in the context of this gospel.

00:05:54:50 – 00:06:16:53
Clint Loveall
We’ll have some opportunity to reflect on that. We we will see. And part of it may prove the point, or at least speak to the point that will have multiple opportunities to have that conversation in in most of the other gospels, John kind of on the scene at the surface, but John the Baptist is going to stay in some ways longer.

00:06:16:53 – 00:06:53:39
Clint Loveall
And I think, again, arguably having a more pronounced role in the Gospel of John. And that’s one of the distinctive of this gospel. We also see here, as you pointed out, the idea of testify, the idea of witness. These are massive themes in this gospel. They’re going to be constantly before us as people hear a report, as they tell what they’ve seen, as the disciples are sent out to testify and to witness.

00:06:53:43 – 00:07:15:21
Clint Loveall
These are words that are going to come back around again and again. These are bells that John is going to ring frequently. And and as you, I think wisely point out, no accident that they show up so early. Notice we’re also still here balancing the themes of light and dark. Now we’re adding notes to that, that song.

00:07:15:21 – 00:07:41:47
Clint Loveall
We’re adding the idea of witnessing. We’re adding the idea of testifying to the light. And this is the true light. And notice what does the light do enlightens everyone. And that light is coming into the world. So we’re still in the prolog of the story. Kind of an explanation of where the story is going to begin and what’s at least initially going to happen.

00:07:41:47 – 00:08:11:17
Clint Loveall
But, really interesting. I think that, John, after yesterday’s kind of very high theological, beautiful prose, now says, let me tell you about this man, or at least introduce you to this man who understood what was happening and came to tell others about it so that they would know as well. Really interesting themes that John is, is streaming together here in the early part of this chapter.

00:08:11:22 – 00:08:35:22
Michael Gewecke
So I’m not going to rush ahead. You’re going to want to join us when we continue the conversation and keep traveling through this book. But what is happening up to this point has the way of setting up the character Jesus and the people who in this case is John, that the character John who testifies to the truth, light, and power of that person.

00:08:35:36 – 00:09:00:14
Michael Gewecke
But this is the cosmic genesis, part of the the beginning of John. It’s the it’s the set up of of who is Jesus? He’s creator. How is Jesus creator? Because he’s the world. He’s the one who gives order to all of the universe, both philosophically and realistically. How do we know the truth of who Jesus is? Because he’s the light.

00:09:00:14 – 00:09:26:47
Michael Gewecke
Because the light of Christ. When given witness and testimony, it illuminates darkness. It shows us things that we did not know it. It moves us out of a place of unknowing and essentially, the prison of self. And it reveals for us a whole new reality, an invitation, salvation, redemption that this, this gift of a whole nother spiritual reality.

00:09:26:56 – 00:10:00:54
Michael Gewecke
Jesus Christ is the one who does that illuminate, illuminating so what you have here is the encapsulation of the creation of all things physical, but also the revelation of all things spiritual. And it sets the story off, providing us a kind of context for how Jesus is the center of all of it. That being said, continue with us next study and you’re going to discover how quickly John introduces the problems that come with that.

00:10:00:54 – 00:10:17:34
Michael Gewecke
And you can already intuit it. The problem is, if Jesus is the light in the world of Jesus, it’s illuminating so much. Then why is there darkness? Why are people still living in darkness? Why are there people who haven’t seen his light even though he lived among them? And these are the things that John’s going to tackle headlong.

00:10:17:49 – 00:10:44:38
Michael Gewecke
But the point for today is when you see Jesus, you see God, and when you see God, you see everything rightly, because we live in darkness, but there is no darkness. Light dispels darkness, and that theme is woven from the very start. The first framing of this book makes that clear. And Clint, I know that there’s a lot of words there, and maybe not all that lands for for those who are with us here that day.

00:10:44:38 – 00:11:11:16
Michael Gewecke
But I think a note that you could bring to John is that John is never going to have Jesus build up like his. His miracles don’t need to get bigger. The revelation of who he is never needs to be given more fully. Jesus is God full stop. Jesus is the light. That is the way that it is. John simply testifies to the truth of the divinity of Christ.

00:11:11:16 – 00:11:30:18
Michael Gewecke
So this is deep theology of Christ. It is a full package idea. It doesn’t need to grow or incubate that. John just delivers it. Within the first nine verses, we have everything that we need to know about who Jesus is and the full creative power. Son of God.

00:11:30:23 – 00:11:58:04
Clint Loveall
Yeah, and that’s true. But I also find it interesting that one of the assumptions of the story is that there’s also an announcer of this, right? That that it’s not always self-evident that, that the the task of those who will learn the truth becomes to share the truth. Those who have seen the light are to take a role in enlightening others.

00:11:58:04 – 00:12:25:42
Clint Loveall
And so already there’s a kind of divine human partnership that John is leaning toward as we see that this man, John the Baptist, is a witness, he knows something that he will then try to share with others. And there is an interesting pattern in that, that that this isn’t a truth just writ large in the clouds, in flaming letters.

00:12:25:42 – 00:12:48:22
Clint Loveall
Right? This is a delivered truth that is shared by people who have understood it and seen it and discovered it and uncovered it, and that they then share with others. And so there’s a there’s an evangelistic flavor or flavor to this already here that is only going to to be more pronounced as we continue.

00:12:48:27 – 00:13:27:01
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, I think that’s really wise. There is a kind of divine partnership to use that language. There’s a way that God condescends that’s the theological frame for this. But but God humbles God’s self to come down and to to rely upon witnesses like John to helps hearers to know the truth of what has been seen. And I, I do think that sometimes when you come to biblical characters, we put them on pedestals and we fail to remember that that God calls us to the same task as as God calls John.

00:13:27:01 – 00:13:55:13
Michael Gewecke
There is a way in which your experience of the light is unique to you and to your life, and your ability to share that with others is unique in the voice that you have and the encounters that you have. And I do think that sometimes we lose the force of our calling to be evangelists, to be good news sharers, because we think that that means something in particular.

00:13:55:13 – 00:14:24:21
Michael Gewecke
We think that it needs to look a particular way, or that we would have a particular kind of voice or vocabulary or that we’d be more comfortable with spiritual things. John here, the way that John testifies is uninteresting in the text. Right? It’s just glossed over. He’s he’s doing the witnessing because when something has happened to you, when you’ve experienced something, you generally don’t need to think about how to tell the story.

00:14:24:21 – 00:14:46:22
Michael Gewecke
And I think that’s a much better understanding already. I mean, we’ve only got nine verses in here, Clint, but already that’s that’s a better image of evangelism for a Christian than the idea of, well, you have to have a tract and walk a person through oil, or you need to sound a particular way, or you need it like, this isn’t about what you understand theologically.

00:14:46:22 – 00:15:06:42
Michael Gewecke
It’s about you simply sharing the truth of what you’ve seen. John is just telling the story. And so you tell your story, particularly your God story, how God has intersected in your life or how God has redirected your life. And as you’re doing that task, you’re doing the biblical work that we see John laying out for us here.

00:15:06:46 – 00:15:31:40
Clint Loveall
We’ll have a number of opportunities to have these conversations. But I think already what we see in John, the writer of the gospel, is an assumption that light and truth are to be disseminated there, to be shared there, to move out and be given and spread. And so, that, that already begins to characterize the, the tone of this gospel.

00:15:31:40 – 00:15:35:31
Clint Loveall
And we’ll come back to it again and again and again.

00:15:35:36 – 00:15:55:13
Michael Gewecke
That that’s maybe the danger of a book like John with such prominent themes. We are going to see it again. So let’s move on. If you found this video helpful, give it a like if it helps others find it their own study. Subscribe. If you’d like to be with us for this study and studies like it. And friends, we look forward to seeing you as we continue the live study next Monday.

00:15:55:13 – 00:15:56:29
Michael Gewecke
Until then, be blessed.