Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Jesus At The Beginning | New Testament | John 1

Episode Date: December 1, 2023

"In the beginning..." is found both in Genesis 1 AND in John 1. What other parallels are there between these two chapters? Was Jesus with God at the beginning? In today's episode, Jensen explores the similarities between John 1 and Genesis 1. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Prepare your heart to celebrate Jesus. Sign up to have the 'I Am Your God' Advent Devotional delivered directly to your inbox starting Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: John 1

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt-McNair. In the beginning, if I read that and ask you where in the Bible I was reading from, what would you say? Probably you'd say Genesis. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. But you'd be wrong. Because today, I'm reading from John Chapter 1.

And yes, that was a trick question, because the first verse of the Bible, does famously say in the beginning as well, which is something that John knew when he began to write his opening statement for his gospel. See, John chooses to mirror the language in Genesis 1. Instead of telling us that in the beginning God created, John tells us, in the beginning was the word, and the word was God. You see, John is tasked with writing a book that will detail the life and message of Jesus, and he chooses from the very beginning of his book to make it clear exactly who this Jesus is. Let's continue reading the first five verses of John 1. In the beginning was the word, and the word was God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him, all things

were made, without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. In the beginning, in Genesis, God creates the heavens and the earth. And do you know how he does that? He speaks. Through the word of God, God creates everything. And the very first thing he creates through his word is light. And that light is separate from the darkness. And God continues in his work to create all life through the word of his mouth. He speaks and there is life. Can you see the parallels that John is creating between the first chapter of Genesis and his first chapter here? See, Jesus is the word. He has always been. All of creation was made through him. And through Jesus, all things have been given

life. John is making it clear by calling back to Genesis that Jesus has been around since the very very beginning. He is God. And now John is claiming that the same God who made the entire universe, who has been around since the very beginning, is doing something new, something just as big, just as important as the something he did in Genesis 1. Verse 9. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own. but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent,

nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only son, who came from the father full of grace and truth. John testified concerning him. He cried out saying, this is the one I spoke about when I said, He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. Out of his fullness, we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only son, who is himself God,

and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made Him know. The light is coming into the world. The word is making his dwelling place among us. In Genesis 1, God creates a perfect world. In Genesis 2, we see God dwelling with man in the Garden of Eden, enjoying his creation and his relationship with man. And spoiler alert, in Genesis 3, a curse is brought upon all of creation. There's discord between God and man. A holy God and a broken people could not be in relationship with one another anymore. But that wasn't the end of the story. In Genesis 3, at the moment when everything was breaking, God promised. He promised that someone was coming who would restore the broken and fractured world back to what it was created to be. This person

would crush the snake who attempted Eve and free creation from the bondage of sin. Throughout the Old Testament, we get hints of who this person would be. He would be a good king. He would be a conquering Savior. He would be a shepherd. He would be the son of God. And until the promised Messiah would come, we see clearly a God who is working to be near his people.

He calls Abraham. He promises to make his descendants into a great nation. He saves them from slavery. He dwells with them through the tabernacle. and eventually in the temple. He gives them the law and the sacrificial system so that they can be made right before God. The entire Old Testament is pointing forward

to the one who will come and restore everything back to the way it was meant to be. The one who would save God's people, the one who would be the perfect king, the one who would fulfill the covenant with God that his people failed to uphold again and again. And then, finally, John gets to tell the world, that this long-awaited Messiah has come. But he isn't merely a man. He's the one who has been

from the very beginning. The world was made through him. He is God. Where humanity failed to restore their relationship with God, God, God steped in and became a man, fully God, fully human, and did what Adam, what the kings of Israel, what the nations of Israel could not do. He lived a sinless life. He was rejected by his very creation. He became the sacrificial lamb, and he, through his resurrection, redeemed all of creation. In Genesis 3, a rift was formed. God could not be in perfect right relationship with humanity because of its brokenness. And in the person of Jesus, God and humanity are brought back together again. God came down to dwell among his people. to live as one of them and to do what they could not do. See, Jesus's life offers us grace and truth.

The person of Jesus reveals the infinite God and creator of the universe to the watching world, and through his life, we, you, and I can be counted as children of God. To live under his care, to live in obedience to his call because he created us to live for his glory. In the beginning, God created everything through Jesus. And through the life and death and resurrection of King Jesus, God incarnate, fully man, fully God, everything can be set free from the curse of sin. God can once again dwell with his people. What John is saying here is revolutionary. It changes everything. It offers ultimate hope to all people and it tells us that God has been writing his redemption story from the very beginning.

As we continue on in the book of John, as we hear about his firsthand accounts with Jesus, John wants us to remember who Jesus is. He wasn't just a good teacher. He wasn't just a nice guy with a moral code. He is God. And we know that the God we follow is a God who desires to dwell with his people. He was willing to become man, to redeem his people. And he has promised to come back to us.

He is promised to usher in a kingdom of love, justice, and mercy, to break the chains of sin once and for all, and to free the earth from the burden of the curse. One day, King Jesus will return to us, and with his return, we will be given resurrection life as sons and daughters of God. John reminds us of the good news that God was faithful to send his promised one who would redeem his people. As we await Jesus's return, as we hope for his good kingdom, as we look forward to once again dwelling alongside him on this earth, we can have confidence that our hope is secure. God is not finished writing his story. Let's partner with him today in the small ways that we can to bring his kingdom into the world around us, to show love, to fight for justice and to offer mercy in the spheres of influence we have been given.

May it be so in the lives of those who faithfully follow King Jesus as we await His coming kingdom.