St Nicholas Methodist Church

Link to St Nicholas Methodist Church Online Sunday Service for 11.10.2020

 John 1:1-4 - “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

As we often find on reading the gospel in english, there is no word that corresponds completely with the original Hebrew or Greek and so it is with the introduction to John’s gospel where we read - in the beginning was the Word. 

The term Word (logos in Greek) was familiar to the Jews and in their writings long before a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus used the term Logos around 600 B.C. to designate the divine reason or plan which coordinates a changing universe. So when John says in beginning was the Word, he is describing the divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning.

So John's Gospel opens with a Prologue, a hymn that sums up John's view of who Jesus was. John asserts, in opposition to the synagogue leaders, that Jesus was a divine being. In trying to explain what he meant, he drew on ideas from the Old Testament that spoke of God's Word, or God's Wisdom, present to God before the world was created. God's Wisdom was 'the fashioner of all things.' (Wisdom 7:22) From John's point of view, Jesus was God's Word spoken to the people of Israel.

The word “Word” can be a little confusing. What does it mean? There are two pretty huge points that John is getting at here. First, when we look at the Genesis account we see a repeated phrase: “God said.” God spoke creation. Psalm 33:6 explicitly makes this clear: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made.” John’s gospel takes these seemingly minor details and injects them with meaning. The “word” that made the heavens is a person, and that person came to earth and took on flesh as Jesus. But the greek term for word, l​ogos, ​is also full with meaning—so much so that N. T. Wright says its full meaning is incomprehensible. In Greek and Jewish theology, this term was used for the principle that brings order and life to the universe. It’s that which holds all things together. John says that principle, that thing which others have tried to vaguely point to, is a person Jesus who came to earth.

The Word, the uncreated Son,

When finite things began to be,

Existing, God with God alone,

Thou wast from all eternity!

There, in Thy Father’s bosom laid,

Ineffably begot by Him,

Thou wast, before the worlds were made,

God independent and supreme.

All-wise, all-good, almighty Lord,

God over all Thou always art,

Jehovah’s everlasting Word,

Spoken into Thy creature’s heart;

With God essentially the same,

Distinct in personality,

Thou art the absolute I AM,

And all things made were made by Thee.

Charles Wesley