John 1- In the beginning

The podcast host, Jaylee, discusses the Book of John, focusing on Chapter 1, providing an overview and prayer before delving into the scripture. Key points from John 1 include the Word being God, John's testimony about Jesus as the light of the world, and the baptism of Jesus by John. Jaylee recommends resources like the Bible Handbook, The Bible Project, and Journey Through the Word for studying and understanding the Bible. She emphasizes the themes of Jesus' supremacy and being the only path to salvation in the Book of John. Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Unmasked Podcast. I'm your host, Jaylee, and today we're going to be going over the Book of John. Specifically, John Chapter 1, but I do want to do a little bit of an overview from things that I have gathered from different resources, just kind of going over John as a whole and just giving us a little preview, I guess you could say, of the chapter itself. As you know, I don't like to dive in without having a ready heart and ready ears, so let's go ahead and start this off with a prayer. Dear Holy Father, I just thank you for your goodness. I thank you that you are a Rabbi God, and that you are a teacher and our Savior. But in this moment, we call on just your attribute of being a Rabbi and ask that you just give us ears to listen and hearts that are prepared for your words, and that the Holy Spirit uses me to speak life and to just speak your words and not my own God. And I just ask that you just bless the listeners that are listening to this, and just as we continue down this path of diving into your word and diving into who you are and your promises, that we're just open to listening, receiving, and then doing. In this, I would like to recite James 1, 2, 1, 5. Now, if any of you lack wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to him. So God, we just ask for your wisdom in this moment, God, and just ask that you give us the knowledge that we seek, and just allow us to go to others with this wisdom, and to just be able to spread it like a wildfire, God. And I ask all these things in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. All right, so if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open to John 1. If you don't, I will be reading through the chapter, so you can listen. And I just ask that you open your ears and your hearts to the word of God, as I read through the scripture. John 1. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was God in the beginning, and all things were created through him. And apart from him, not one thing was created that has been created. And him was life, and that life was the light of man. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God who was named John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was created through him. And yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own people, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God. To those who believed in his name, who were born not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified concerning him and exclaimed, This is the one whom I said, the one coming after me ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me. Indeed, we all have received grace upon grace from his faithfulness. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the one and only Son, whom is himself God, and is at the Father's side. He has revealed him. This was John's testimony when the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, Who are you? He didn't deny it, but confessed, I am not the Messiah. Then what? They asked him, Are you Elijah? I am not, he said. Are you the prophet? No, he answered. Then who are you? They asked. We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What can you tell us about yourself? He said, I am a voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. Just as Isaiah the prophet said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. So they asked him, Why do you baptize if you aren't the Messiah or Elijah or the prophet? I baptized with water. John answered them. Someone stands among you, but you do not know him. He is the one coming after me whose sandals straps I am not worthy to untie. All this happened in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day, John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This is the one I told you about. After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me. I didn't know him, but I came baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel. And John testified, I saw the spirit descending from the heavens like a dove and he rested on him. I didn't know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water told me the one you see the spirit descending on and descending and resting on. He is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and testified that this is the son of God. The next day, John was standing with two of his disciples when he saw Jesus passing ahead and said, Look, the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him saying this and follow Jesus. When Jesus turned and noticed them following him, he asked him, What are you looking for? They said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? Come and you'll see, he replied. So they went and saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother was one of the two who heard John and followed him. He first found his own brother, Simon and told him we have found the Messiah, which translates to the Christ. And he brought Simon to Jesus. When Jesus saw him, he said, You are Simon, the son of John, you will be called Cephas, which translates to Peter. The next day, Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. He found Philip and told him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaniel and told him we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law. And so did the prophet Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Nathaniel asked him. Come and see, Philip answered. And then Jesus saw Nathaniel coming towards him and said about him, Here is a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit. How do you know me? Nathaniel asked. Before Philip came to you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Jesus answered, Rabbi Nathaniel replied, You are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Jesus responded to him. Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this. Then he said, Truly I tell you, you will see the heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. All right, so let's break this down. And for that I use, I personally use three resources that I've just come to love. I know that the more resources, the better. And so I'm looking for more. But these are just kind of the three that I have utilized in the past to grow in my faith and my walk and kind of understand the Bible while I was reading through. And those would be the Bible The Bible Handbook from The Grace Company. And I also utilize The Bible Project. They are a wonderful podcast that just really keeps you entertained. And they have an app. Highly recommend getting it. They keep you entertained. They give you visuals and just have all sorts of pretty much. They have everything you need for each chapter of the book and just like your growth in knowledge of the Bible. They have everything that I would say that you would need for any kind of learner that you are. So if you're a visual learner, they've got videos that break down each chapter. If you are an audio learner, they have podcasts that you can listen to. There's all sorts of things. I guess if you're a hands-on learner, I don't, I think that they actually have like books and stuff that you can order. I don't know for certain. I haven't listened to that because I'm more of a visual learner. So the videos and the podcasts actually are really helpful for me personally. And so that is what I use. But I'm sure that they have something for those of you who need to take notes and write things down, which I am becoming more of that. So maybe I will have to look into it. But those are, oh, and then Journey Through the Word. It is a plan on the Bible app. I don't know the YouVersion Bible app. I don't know if they have an app or not. I've just used the YouVersion. But they include a podcast and the scripture reading and they break down each chapter of every book in the Bible. So that's been really nice. And I really apologize if you can hear that. My puppy is making bubbles in his sleep. He's so cute. Anyway, back to this. So with the Bible handbook, they go over just an overview. I say just an overview. It's a really good overview and introduction into each chapter. I highly recommend reading it. I like to read the book first or read the chapter first in the Bible. Just kind of let the Holy Spirit lay on my heart when I feel like I'm getting through that. And then I like to go through each resource and see if what I'm gathering is lining up with scripture. One, because I feel like it's good to know where your heart is originally. And two, just to see where I can grow in knowledge as well and really need to focus on. But the Bible handbook, just some key things I've got from that. I think one, again, this is over mostly the book in its entirety. So some major themes of John that we need to remember is John is trying to establish Jesus' supremacy and that he is the only means of salvation, which I think is very important to remember because when we are faced with questions on those aspects of our belief and our faith, it gives us a key resource to be able to turn back to and be like, okay, this is where I find this. This is why I believe the way that I do because of John, whatever chapter, whatever verse you are needing in that moment. And in chapters one through three, the overview is just kind of the birth of Jesus and John the Baptist. We also get a little bit more detail on the nativity and the circumstances surrounding Jesus' birth, which I think is really cool. And I think it's just really awesome. A lot of the resources I looked into have talked about just the fact that John wants to not only talk about Jesus and talk about his life and things like that. John is trying to get people to see Jesus for who he is. And so he doesn't just go on like Matthew does about his genealogy and things like that. It's not just that. He wants to establish his divinity. If you were in John's shoes, that would be a hard thing to try to find the words to do. But I think God really spoke through him. I think he gave him an amazing way to be able to make it click for us. And so with John 1, we actually begin with a reference back to Genesis 1 in the beginning of time. And he's referencing that God created everything and the God that created everything is the Jesus that he's talking about now. When he states, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was with God, he is breaking down that in the beginning Jesus was there and Jesus was with God and Jesus is God. So that's where I know a lot of denominations get stuck with or have had arguments about, oh, what does this mean? Because this is a very complex subject and I'm not even going to begin to try to act like I know exactly what it means. I personally believe in the Trinity and I believe God is three in one, father, son, and spirit, all wrapped up into one God who are the same God, but also different aspects. And I believe that God has given us that same level, like the same tiers that we have a spirit, a soul, and a flesh. And so I think it's really cool that God mirrors us and that we really truly are created in his, or God mirrors us, that we mirror God and that we truly are made in his image and made in the way that his Trinity is. I just think it's really cool that God, I feel like he's the father of everything. It's crazy because one verse I feel like just means so much and that's to be talked about forever because it's just, it holds so much weight that it's so hard to wrap our head around. We're simple little human minds. But another aspect that I've seen, like a common theme that is brought up is not only is John referencing Genesis, but in the fact that the Trinity and things like that, but he's also referencing Jesus as the life and the light of the world. And he, the way that through the word broke it down, I think it's just so awesome. So he talks about how we need to picture in our own life, the void that was in the beginning, like there was nothing, there was just darkness and there was God, but you couldn't see God, there was nothing. And then God spoke and there was light and there was life and there was just through words. And so when John chooses to use the word, he's not just meaning Jesus, he's giving the divinity to Jesus, but he's also utilizing Jesus as a depiction of the words that God spoke. Like the word is flesh now. So like Jesus has come down and he is those words. So the word is not just spoken, like the word is now flesh, human being on this earth to dwell with us. And when we are open, when our eyes are opened up to the word, we become like the beginning and we become like that void. That's what we were before Jesus, like before we saw him, before we we got enlightened to the light of the world, we were like the void in the beginning. And then we see Jesus, we believe in Jesus and our whole, our own internal world and life is is like the word spoken in the beginning. We have life, we have creation, like we are made new and we are a new life in him. And I think that that's really important and really just a good way. I thought that was a really interesting way to be able to visualize what those words mean and what that and just what Jesus does in us. Like I thought that was really, really good. And then, you know, we go on and it's really cool because we next see John referencing Exodus when he talks about Jesus. He references the temple that Moses was instructed to make and in that temple. I don't know if you guys know stories about the temple. I've heard several, like really cool. I'm really interested, like I'm really ready to read the Old Testament. I haven't quite read the Bible all the way through, which is again why we're doing this. And the story of Moses and how like it connects with Jesus is just so cool to me. And I'm really looking forward to like reading the Old Testament and just seeing Jesus through that, like in through those scriptures because that, I mean, Jesus isn't just in the New Testament, guys. He's in the whole Bible. That's what I'm trying to get here. He was in the beginning. He's there the whole time. But yeah, when John talks about the Son of Man coming and dwelling on earth, the word dwelt in Hebrew is shanim, shanichal, shanichal something. That's the meaning behind it. Sorry. Go and read or go and listen to the Bible project, John Wine, and you will understand what I was trying to say because this is where I got this information. But the word dwelt in Hebrew that John chose to use actually means to live in a tent, which is a reference to the temple that Moses built or the tent that Moses built. And I think that like I thought that this is just such a cool way that Jesus like taught himself. I think it's so cool how he gives this imagery so that we can connect like the things of this world to be able to actually understand who he is and to try to wrap our little human brains around just like his power and his goodness. But in this tent, Moses was instructed to make, it was covered by the skins of animals. And then inside of the tent was red, blue, and purple cords. And the through the word podcast that in devotion that I went through, I mean, he talks about this. But again, if you're not in health care, that may not seem as, you know, like, be like, Oh, Julie, why are you bringing this up? Like, why is this so cool? I just want you to take a look at your wrist real quick and tell me what color your veins are. And then if you don't know, you also have these things in your heart called arteries. Those are red. And then if you look at your wrist, you'll see the blue and you will see the purple and the red arteries are blood that has been oxygenated. The blue are veins and those are ones that are bringing back the blood that has been all the way through your body and oxygenated your body and then is bringing back the unoxygenated or not as much oxygen in the blood. And then the purple is kind of like that mixture of it has a little bit of or has oxygen, some oxygen, but it's not as much as like your arteries in your in your main, your main valves and port while they're all important. Don't Yeah, you bleed through all of them just so you know. But I just think that's really cool because like the connection between like what the temple was supposed to be for Moses and the Israelites like the temple was supposed to represent like a human form of God for them to be able to come and dwell with him and be with him and um meet with him face to face and then to to see God be like all right obviously that wasn't enough like I'm gonna make myself mad and come down as Jesus who was flesh and who was the temple all in one like he was what the temple was supposed to represent and yet he still was that like it's just oh it's so cool that he and you see God trying over and over and over he's like you guys just don't get it and he just you know like he spoke words and then he gave them a physical place of meeting and then finally like that wasn't enough so he just he's like all right I'll just come down myself do it myself I guess um but I also think it's just really cool because another thing about this temple is um in order to to meet God you actually had to like in to meet with God face to face and enter the temple um you had to take a lamb and you had to slaughter it and that was representing the innocent lamb was you were taking on its innocence so that innocence so that you could come in and and dwell among with God and be face to face with God and just the fact that like the next verses talk about Jesus being the lamb of God and that is what he's called like first we talk about the temple and then we go straight directly into naming Jesus as the lamb of God like that's it's so powerful I think not just I know in my heart like that's so powerful that not only is he the temple but he's also eliminating the sacrifice by becoming the sacrifice and just allowing to allowing us to meet face to face without having to bring the sacrifice anymore because he is it now and that's just I feel like that just shows so much of God's love and grace just within those that little bit of passage um I feel like you can just I mean keep reading with like like let's not just stop there because there's more to the bible than just um I'm not really there but that's the basic that's the overview of of the bible but maybe that's why God decided that we were going to be starting in john is because he's like this is who I am get it down like this is this is what the whole bible is about guys is God's love and mercy and grace and the first chapter just sums it up basically um but yeah that I don't know what else to add to that it's just you serve a good God who cares about us and loves us and just done many things to get us to where um we can be with him and so let's move on to the next part um in the next part we talk about john the baptist who um um and mind you another thing that I left out about the the book of john is these aren't just stories these aren't just it's a different it's a different perspective than the rest of the gospels like this is the one that doesn't necessarily line up with every like it does but it's not the same structure um as the other gospels like it's it's kind of the oddball but it's it's good that it's that way um because john was really trying to focus on bringing the story of who God is and um what he's done in others lives and what he can do in your life and I think that that's so important um and we'll learn more about this later like and especially like at the end of john like he just if you don't know the ending of john we're gonna get there and I don't want to spoil it so don't spoil it for yourself but it is so good like every time I read it I'm gonna try not to cry it's it's just so powerful um but john is a list of testimonies and if you don't know I should have told you or just um gave my own testimony and again maybe that's another reason why God wanted me to start in john I it's all beginning to come to light it's so funny because I've read this book several times I've read through the gospels several times and I feel like this time is just so different like I have such a different perspective on it and it's really it's really beautiful um so the testimony of john the baptist is is after we go through establishing who Jesus is and um almost all the way like john the baptist is who tells us this is the son of God like this is the lamb of God um who has come down for our sins and I think that's so powerful if you don't know the story behind john um john the baptist so he we'll get to that more but um he was sent from God to um just make a way and that's what he tells the pharisees that's what he writes like he tells the pharisee or the the people that the pharisees sent to um question him he tells them like I'm not the messiah I'm not the Elijah I'm not the prophet I'm just the one screaming in the wilderness saying hey like the son of man is coming prepare your hearts and I think that that's a very important message that we need to hear because it it gives us it his message was to open our eyes it wasn't um it wasn't that he was the one saving people it wasn't that he was the one saving people it was to be like all right like hey this is this is real this is coming like this is here for us this is here this is now and you need to prepare your heart because you're gonna want to receive this and um um yeah but with that I feel like it brings just the message that and it was an important message for us who are Christians to to call on because that's who we're supposed to be we're supposed to be like John the Baptist yelling in the in the wilderness which isn't necessarily all the wilderness now but like yelling in our our town squares or wherever like in our job and our place of um of work in our schools wherever we find ourselves in Walmart in Target wherever we um wherever we are we are supposed to be the ones yelling into the wilderness into the darkness of this world and calling out people who are blind to the lights and um the people whose hearts have not been who have not been prepared to receive this news but we are we are to call on them to plant seeds and to be like hey open your ears open your eyes the Lord is here the Lord is seeking you and he wants to know he wants a relationship with you this isn't just for Christians this isn't just for Americans this isn't just for the Jewish praise the Lord it's not just for the Jewish because that would mean so many of us would not be where we are um we would not be included in that if um if that were the case but it is for every single person it is for the people who just can sit there and tarnish the name of God and just use it in vain and it's for those people it's for the people that are living in sin because um mooshalas that was one for you it's for it's for everyone it's for the Christians and this one's gonna be a rough one to hear but it's for the Christians who say that they're a Christian and this is a personal like at this this is talking about myself too so um don't get too angry i guess or i mean if it hits you in the heart then hey maybe that's conviction um but it's for the Christians who say that they're maybe that's conviction um but it's for the Christians who say that they're Christians but aren't living their faith those are the ones that need to hear it too and that i feel like is the hardest thing to do is to call out a brother and sister in Christ in love aren't you we've got to do this in love again that's later on in the books but it's there and um it's important you can't just be you know calling out things and and stuff and being rude and hateful that goes for brothers brothers and sisters in Christ and that goes for people who aren't believers that have nothing to do with the faith um we've got to do all of this in love and remember that you know without the Holy Spirit they don't have conviction they don't have the things that we have um so we need to go in grace and peace like Jesus did and talk to these people and call out these things um because all they have is the devil feeding them lies and deceit um and we were once there too so it's important to remember that um without somebody coming to us and in opening our eyes like john the baptist we would be in those same positions so um that's a little bit about john the baptist and then later we we see the account of um we see the account of uh simon who we also see that he is later known as um peter and then his brother andrew who was a follower of john the baptist and was one of the first followers of jesus which can you imagine like that would be so cool to be like all right like i was the first all right like i was the first but the first will become last so the last will become first so remember that but no um yeah and then we learn about nathaniel who um jesus you know revealed himself to him and he he said you know you are the messiah you are the chosen like you are the son of god and jesus is like dude i just told you that i saw you under the sanctuary like dude anybody could have told you that if you think that's cool like you're about to like get your like your mind's gonna be blown like of all the things that we're about to do and i just think that's so cool like could you imagine having the faith that jesus literally is i know he probably wasn't shocked by it like i know he know like he knew nathaniel would believe but just that jesus would say something like that to you just having so much faith in him it's like dude that's all it took there's so much more coming and i'm just seeing you under the picture that was it man that i hope that one day i mean my story is nothing like that my story took a lot of i feel like convincing and prayer from other people for my own soul i wish it would have been just like oh you heard about jesus and you just believed that would have been awesome testimony honestly um but yeah each testimony is is uh used for the goodness of god though because each one of those disciples we will read about um their testimonies and you know other individuals testimonies in john and each one i feel like talks to somebody um and is used to speak to somebody and just reveal jesus and that includes your own um so make sure that you're going out and spreading the word and sharing your testimony um another thing that through the word actually brought up about john and just the power of testimonies and we discussed this a little bit in last episode but um we'll go ahead and bring it back up since you know that's what we're reading about people's testimonies but testimonies are powerful because jesus jesus gave us imagery um which is great in his words but sometimes even that is like hard to understand and confusing to people and so john's purpose for writing his book is to give testimonial accounts of what jesus has done in people's lives so that you may believe and be able to have a story of how jesus changed your life or is changing your life and is working in your life um and our testimony does the same like it doesn't end and we'll discuss this later but it doesn't end like john doesn't end um it's a continual call it's for our life and it's for for us to remember that like our testimonies are additions to the bible in addition to the kingdom of god and they help people visualize and get first-hand accounts of what god has done in in our lives and um that helps them like being able to have something in the human sense that we can connect to and relate to and understand a little bit more because god knows that his divinity and his like the first book of john like we discussed is just so much and so hard to just wrap our heads around that there are still scholars today arguing about what it means like people who have studied the bible are like stuck on certain aspects and arguing about what that aspect means because we do not have the divine power that god has and like the comprehension that he has and of how powerful in and just divine he is and so we will continue to read and learn these testimonies um um and i just hope that it it gives you empowerment to be able to go and speak your testimony and just share what god has done in your life so that people can connect and and see that god's not just a thing that we read about god's not just a bible it's not just words that have lasted for many many years bible's living and changes and changes people and speaks to everyone differently and that is why it is so powerful and that is why it has lasted so long because it's not a the end it's a continuation from generation to generation until jesus comes back like it's not done it's there's a there's an end chapter but there is not an end to the bible and you can read it over and over and over again and get something different every single time because it is the spirit the same spirit that is within those words is within you and that is the spirit of god and we have that power and he has the power to reveal whatever we need in each and every moment of our lives through scripture and so father god i just thank you for your power and your spirit and your wisdom and your divinity god i just thank you for for just all your attributes i wish i could list them all off by just memory but unfortunately i think i do not have them memorized that's something else i'm working on but just thank you for how good you are to us and how you have given us the power to speak life into others and i just ask that you reveal to us this week somebody that we can be a john the baptist for and just be able to speak into them and share our testimony or just share share the things that you're doing in our life right now that has been revealed um to just make us closer to you and to help lead people to be closer to you god and to give them the peace and joy and satisfaction in life that you have given us um because it is not ours to hostage it is ours to share and to bring others it's our mission to bring others closer to you so i just i just pray that you reveal someone in our life that we can be that person for and to just plant seeds or peel light in there and reveal um reveal the light to them god i just ask that you bless everyone who is listening to this um bless their weeks god and just let them grow closer to you and just to feel you and to experience your peace if they need that or experience your joy and just to feel revelations in their life and healing and i just ask that you be with them walk with them and talk with them and let their eyes and ears and hearts be open to everything that you're trying to show them god and that your spirit just move within their life and i thank you for the bible i thank you that it's the living word of god and not just a book that ends has a beginning and an end no it is constant and it is ongoing i thank you for that and i thank you for allowing it to speak into our lives and that it's your words speaking to us and that you're not just some distant god that we can't hear from but that we can if we seek and if we open both up and we try to look for answers you have them god you have all the answers and i praise you for that i praise you for the promise keeper that you are god and i thank you for just being who you are being holy and loving us through through our trials and through our darkness and bringing life into our lives after we seek you and find you and i just ask that you continue to feed us as we go about our week and i pray that everyone has a blessed sunday and i pray all these things in jesus mighty name amen