Recently, I preached a message on why I believe Jesus is 100% God and 100% human. I have been requested to share the basics of this message here. The passage I shared from is John’s Gospel, chapter 1, verses 1-18.

I want you to begin a journey with me. I want you to discover on this journey that your life is not an accident. I want you to know, there is a purpose for you; you have meaning. Your life is important to us and your life is important to God. But I also want you to know that it takes work to find the life’s meaning. Not because our meanings are hidden like a treasure buried and always just out of reach. But because our lives are a treasure which God wants us to uncover through diligent effort as we journey together. Why all the hard work to grow spiritually? We rarely appreciate that which is just handed to us. When we work to experience all God has planned for us, we will enjoy the meaning discovered, both with God and with each other here on earth.

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach said, "Full experiences of God can never be planned or achieved. They are spontaneous moments of grace, almost accidental."
Author Bo Lozoff responded, "Rabbi, if God-realization is just accidental, why do we work so hard doing all these spiritual practices?"
Rabbi Carlebach answered, "To be as accident-prone as possible."

I want us to journey through John’s Gospel. Together, I want us to become as accident-prone as possible, working hard to attain a spontaneously appearing connection with God.

Let’s begin this journey. John’s Gospel opens telling us that…

Your Life has a Source: Jesus (Read John 1-4a, 14; compare with Genesis 1)
John copies the precise language of Genesis 1 so there will be no doubt as to his meaning:
Genesis 1: 1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

 John 1:1    In the beginning the Word already existed.
    The Word was with God,
    and the Word was God.
2    He existed in the beginning with God.
3    God created everything through him,
    and nothing was created except through him.
4    The Word gave life to everything that was created…14So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. 

1.       Jesus, the Source, has all knowledge (1)
John 1:1  In the beginning the Word…

This is a Theological/Philosophical WORD, which in Greek is the word “Logos”. It means “God expressed”.

        Look at the Hebrew usage of this concept :
Genesis 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 
Psalm 33:6 The LORD merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. In both passages,  the WORD is an agent of creation.
Psalm 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. God’s law, & standard of holiness.
Hosea 1:2 The LORD gave this message (WORD) to Hosea… The source of God’s message to his people through the prophets.

        Now look at the Greek concept: WORD (LOGOS) here means “logic that governs the physical universe”.
The Greek word LOGOS  comes to us in English as the root of our word, "logic," and of the "-ology" suffix (e.g., geology, sociology, theology); (study of these sciences).

Logos is usually translated as "the Word" in English Bibles.

Gordon Clark , expert on pre-Socratic philosophy, translated Logos as "Logic": "In the beginning was the Logic, and the Logic was with God and the Logic was God." He meant to imply by this translation that the laws of logic were contained in the Bible itself and were therefore not a secular principle imposed on the Christian world view.

Some Chinese translations of the Gospel of John have used the word "Tao (道)".

While the character itself translates as 'way', 'path', or 'route', or sometimes more loosely as 'doctrine' or 'principle', it is often used philosophically to signify the fundamental or true nature of the world.

The term Logos also reflects the term dabar Yahweh ("Word of God") in the Hebrew Bible, what we refer to as the Old Testament.

In the beginning the Tao, the dabar Yaweh, the Word already existed…was with God… was God.

So what does it mean for us that Jesus is the Logos, the Word? John is telling us that Jesus is the creative energy Who generated the universe. Jesus is the logic Who governs the universe. Jesus is the source of all the universe’s knowledge.

2.       Jesus, the Source, is eternal (1-2)
In the beginning the Word already existed…He existed in the beginning with God.

3.       Jesus, the Source, is God (1, 3-4) - note: the Tri-unity of God
The Word was with God, and the Word was God… God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created…

To strict monotheistic Jewish readers, when John writes “the Word was God”, it sounds like blasphemy. The Bible clearly teaches there is ONE God. But John, in this passage, starts sounding like there are more than one God. In John’s day as is still true today, Jewish people find it difficult to even speak about God without fear of offending Deity. Certainly, they agree, that God “spoke words”, but to say “the Word was God” made these two ideas somehow equal. For them, this was heresy! Their minds resisted any such thinking about God.

The idea that Jesus is somehow God is also a stumbling block for our Islamic friends.  Like Jewish people, they want a God they can understand. When God says that God is ONE, they do not want any complications! They will not embrace the Christian understanding that while we agree that God is one. God is best described as three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: a Tri-unity.

Yet, one of the most compelling reasons to believe the doctrine of the Tri-unity of God is the fact that it was revealed through people who were the least likely to believe it. In a world populated by many gods, it took the tough-minded Hebrews to clarify the revelation of God’s oneness expressed through Three-in-oneness which we refer to as the Trinity or Tri-unity of God. We must never presume to comprehend simply the essential nature of God. Those who want a God they can easily understand do not want the God of the universe.

4.       Jesus, the Source, is Man (14)
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. 

Jesus Gives Direction to Your Life (4b-5)
1.       Jesus gives life a purpose (4b)
 …and his life brought light to everyone.

2.       Jesus gives life a sparkle (5)
    The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness can never extinguish it.

John McCain (a recent candidate for USA President) shared an experience that illustrates how light can never be overcome by darkness:
                When I was a prisoner of war in Vietnam…my captors would tie my arms behind my back and then loop the rope around my neck and ankles so that my head was pulled down between my knees. I was often left like that throughout the night. One night a guard came into my cell. He put his finger to his lips signaling for me to be quiet and then loosened my ropes to relieve my pain. The next morning, when his shift ended, the guard returned and retightened the ropes, never saying a word to me.
                A month or so later, on Christmas Day, I was standing in the dirt courtyard when I saw that same guard approach me. He walked up and stood silently next to me, not looking or smiling at me. Then he used his sandaled foot to draw a cross in the dirt. We stood wordlessly looking at the cross, remembering the true light of Christmas, even in the darkness of a Vietnamese prison camp.

  The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness can never extinguish it.

C. S. Lewis wrote: I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else. 

Christ’s light has shined on a hardened, darkened humanity—and Jesus continues to shine. But the darkness can never extinguish it. This word EXTINGUISH has two meanings. On one hand, this word can refer to controlling, or conquering someone or something. On the other hand, the word can mean to understand. I think that both definitions are meant by John. Unbelievers did not understand Jesus Christ’s true identity and therefore, they tried to conquer or to control Him. But the darkness failed on both counts to master Christ! As Pascal said, There is enough light for those who only desire to see the light, and enough darkness for those who only desire the contrary.

Jesus Alone Knows Life’s Meaning (6-8, 15)
1.       John’s witness to Jesus’ humanity means Jesus understands our life (6-8)
6God sent a man, John the Baptist, 7to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony.  8John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light.

2.       John’s witnesses to Jesus’ Deity means Jesus has the power to fulfill our life (15)
John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.”

Jesus Gives You the Choice About Life (9-13)
                Jesus will be known by all (9)
The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

         Some will reject Jesus (10-11)
10He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him.  11He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 

         Some will receive Jesus  (12-13)
12But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.  13They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. 

Jesus Gives Your Life Purpose (16-18)
1.       Life’s meaning comes through embracing Jesus (16)
From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.

2.       Grace and forgiveness come through Jesus (17)
For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. 

3.       God’s face is seen in Jesus (18)
No one has ever seen God. But the one and only Son is himself God and is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us. 

What Does Jesus Mean to You?
1.       Jesus chooses you intentionally, not accidentally (You aren’t junk, you aren’t an accidental formation of meaningless protoplasm. Instead, you are known by name by the Architect of the Universe!) 

2.       Jesus is the architect of your life  (He designed you, knows why you are the way you are, understands how to make you happy)

3.       Jesus has plans for your life (Similar to a CEO, Jesus has a purpose for you to attain, Jesus wants to give your life meaning; there’s a task for  to accomplish and if you don’t do it, it won’t get done)

4.       Jesus reveals the face of God (relationship) (Want to understand God? Look into the face of Jesus)

While we pretend to others we have it all together, deep inside, we fear the worst, or we fear our own potential for evil; that we are the worst of all the worst. This Table reminds us that the worst has already been experienced by Christ and paid for on the cross.

Some of us appear to have achieved great success. But in reality, our failures have tended to define what we believe about ourselves. This Table says differently. This table reminds us that we are not who we think we are. We are not whom others claim we are. We are who God says we are. God, and God alone defines our lives and gives us meaning.

We may be broken, damaged people, but together we are invited to embrace Jesus, the One who is 100% God and 100% human.

When we are apart from each other, we truly are are small and insignificant, scared by heartache - just fractured images of what we know we could have been. But together we become whole and healed as we come to the Communion Table, strengthened by His presence in His Broken Body and Shed Blood.

At this Table, we are nourished, we are washed, and we are rejuvenated. We become fully human and fully alive. We experience the depth of our meaning all because when coming to this Table, together we share Communion with our Lord, the human who is  God.