This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time Devotions. This is day two of our look
at chapter one of the Gospel of John. We're just beginning our study, today
looking at verses one to eighteen of this chapter.

As we launch into this chapter, you realize from the very beginning there are
some things that you have to dig into to understand this book. It's interesting
that many people say that the Gospel of John is the first book that a new
Christian should read. And sometimes they say it's because it's so easy to
understand.

Maybe you should read it because it's about belief if you're a new believer, but
it's not easy to understand from the beginning. You have to dig into it. Our
research team, we have a research team that reads through the chapters each week
and lets me know what questions they have or what questions they think other
people might have.

The number one question they had was in John chapter one, verse one. They said,
"What is this thing about the Word? " Well that's what John wants you to ask.

He wants you to ask that at the beginning so you have to dig in and read more to
find the answer. In John 1. 1 the Bible says, "In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

" He wants you to ask from the very beginning, "What is this thing about the
Word? " Now to understand what he's talking about when it comes to this idea of
the Word, you have to understand a little bit about John's day. It wasn't an
unfamiliar word to them, this word "word.

" The idea of the Word was very strong in Greek philosophy, and John's writings
of the people who've never believed before, many of them who were very strong in
Greek philosophy, would understand who Jesus really is. For them, the idea of
the Word, or in the Greek language the word logos, here's what the word meant.
It meant the inner connection between man and man, between man and the world,
and between man and God.

It was this spiritual idea. It meant the eternal order behind things. It meant
the source of human reason and human virtue.

One group of Greek philosophers called the Word the thing from which all things
came and to which all things would return. It was the revelation of sacred
truth. It was called the Father, one of the Greek gods was called the Father of
the Logos, so it was even personalized like that.

This idea of the Word, if we had to use it in today's phrase, well, sometimes
you hear people use the phrase "higher power. " That's the idea behind this.
When people say "higher power," they're just saying there's some spiritual
connection in the world that we don't understand.

And when people used the word "word" in that day, capitalized, they were saying
there is a spiritual power at work in this world. And John writes from the
beginning, and he wants them to understand who the Word really is, who the
higher power really is. And so he gives them a series of clues that build toward
the conclusion.

Who is the Word? He says the Word was with God. So you begin asking, who's the
Word?

The Word was God. The world was created by the Word, another clue. John the
Baptist came to testify that this Word is light.

Well, that's another clue. He came to his own but was rejected. You're beginning
to get the idea.

He became flesh and he dwelt among us for a while. He's the one and only Son.
John testifies that he's greater than himself.

And then he reveals it. The law came through Moses, but grace and truth came
through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Word.

And at the beginning of John, he makes it a mystery in the first verse and then
he reveals the mystery in these first 18 verses. Jesus Christ is the Word. Now
here's the question.

What difference does that make? What difference does that make in your life
today? As you walk through these first 18 verses, you see that it makes all the
difference in the world.

Three truths that you can trust that make a difference in your life today. The
truth that Jesus is God, the truth that Jesus is life, and the truth that Jesus
became flesh. First, the truth that you can trust is Jesus is God.

Let me read for you verse one through verse three. In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with 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. John's main point is Jesus is God.

He begins with that point, and then he says it again and again throughout this
entire book. In Jesus' miracles, Jesus is shown to be God. In Jesus' actions,
he's shown to be God.

In his statements, he is shown to be God. Now one question you have as you read
this first verse is, wait a minute, it says that he was God, but also he was
with God. How can both of those be true?

How are Jesus and God one, and yet also separate, with God and also God? Well,
that's the truth of the Trinity. He starts at the very beginning with this truth
of the Trinity.

Jesus is God, but also the Father is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. They are
one, and yet they are also separate. Jesus is God, and he was sent by God.

He's with God, he also is God. Both are true. Now that drives people who have to
figure everything in life out logically crazy.

They just can't get to it. If everything in your life has to be figured out on a
spreadsheet, it has to add up for you mathematically, then this is above that.
But some things in life are above that.

A love for a husband or a wife or a child is above figuring it out on a
spreadsheet too. In the fact that Jesus is in a Trinity with God, there is a
beauty that's above our thoughts. And yet God describes this truth to us so that
we can have a sense of wonder about who he is and what he wants to do in our
lives.

What does this truth that Jesus is God mean to me? What does it mean to me
today? It means that I can trust him even when I don't understand him, because
he's greater than I am.

Control freaks think that you have to understand it to trust it, but that breaks
down when you're trying to understand something that's greater than you are. A
child can't understand a parent's love, and yet a child deserves a parent's
love. Doesn't always get it, but deserves it.

Well, in this world where we don't always act perfectly in our human
relationships, God is perfect towards us, and I can always rely on his love. I
cannot always understand everything about the greatness of God, because he's
greater than I am, but I can trust him. And even if you don't understand
everything about the greatness of God right now, or even what he's doing in your
life right now, you can trust him.

Jesus is God. A second truth that you can trust is Jesus's life. Verse 4 to
verse 13, let me read those verses.

"In him was life, and that life was the light of men, for the light shines in
the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was
sent from God, his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning
that light, so that through him all men might believe.

He himself was not the light, he came only as a witness to the light. The true
light that gives light to every man 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 received 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
of a husband's will, but born of God.

" That's interesting. Many people have noted that at the beginning of the Gospel
of John, there's a parallel to the beginning of Genesis. In the beginning of the
book of Genesis, God said, "Let there be light.

" And here in the beginning of the Gospel of John, he begins with those same
words, "In the beginning," and he talks about the light that Jesus brought into
this world. In the book of Genesis, it's physical light for a physical world.
Here in the book of John, it's spiritual light for a spiritual life that God
wants to give to us.

And he says here that that life that he gives to us, it's all caught up in being
a child of God. Those who received him, to them he gave the right to become
children of God. Not everyone received him, but those who trusted him, he gave
the right to become children of God.

A question a lot of people have is, "Wait a minute, aren't we all God's
children? Didn't God make all of us? " Well, yes, we are all created by God, but
if you read the Bible carefully, we're not all called children of God.

Those who are called children of God in the Bible are those who have a
relationship with God. They trust God as their father. They trust in Jesus
Christ as the way to trust God as their father.

So the question here is, how can you trust Jesus for your life today? And the
answer is, recognize that you're a child of God. Because of what Jesus Christ
has done, you can trust him.

You can rely on him today. The truth I can trust is Jesus is God. The truth you
can trust is Jesus' life.

The truth that you and I can trust is Jesus became flesh. That's the third
truth. In verse 14, John chapter 1 says, "The Word became flesh and made his
dwelling among us.

We've seen his glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father
full of grace and truth. John testifies concerning him. He cries out saying,
"This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he
was before me.

'" Notice it says, "He became flesh and he made his dwelling among us. " The
idea of dwelling there is tent. It literally means he tented amongst us.

It's interesting. When you have this idea of a tent in the Bible, it has a lot
to do in Old and New Testament with the presence of God. Let's walk through this
real briefly with me.

In the Old Testament, God's presence is in a tent. It's in a place called the
Tabernacle. It was a tent to which the people of Israel went to experience God's
presence, to be close to God's presence.

Here, at the beginning of the New Testament, God is present in Jesus Christ and
it says that Jesus came and dwelt or he tented amongst us. What about now? Now,
the Bible says God isn't present in some tent in the Old Testament.

God's presence came into this world in Jesus Christ so that I could enjoy his
presence as a part of my everyday life. God is now present in all believers.
First Corinthians 5.

1 calls our bodies our earthly tent. Now in this tent that is my body, God is
present. Not like with Jesus.

Jesus was God and none of us are gods, not big gods or little gods, any kind of
gods at all, but God's presence is with us in Jesus Christ. Jesus came and he
dwelt among us. God became flesh.

That makes all the difference every day of your life. What difference does that
make? Verse 16 says this, "From the fullness of his grace, we've all received
one blessing after another, for the law was given through Moses.

Grace and truth come through Jesus Christ. " Grace is designed to meet the needs
of the law, the demands of the law. They're not opposing principles.

One fulfills the other. The law is the righteous demand and grace is the
righteous supply. And when it comes to me personally, to you personally, I've
always liked what Ray Stedman said about grace.

Grace is what God does within you, without you. The Bible says you've
experienced the fullness of God's grace. That's your spiritual bank account.

One blessing after another. Grace is an account that you can always draw on.
Don't save up when you might really need it.

We need it every day of our lives. Draw on it today. In fact, let's draw on it
right now as we talk to God.

Let's pray together. Grace and truth. Jesus, empower me to be full of today what
you are full of.

Grace and truth. Strengthen me to stay attached to you so that I will live the
kind of life, bear the kind of fruit that can only come from you, that
inevitably comes from you. Help me not to rely on myself, my works, what I can
do.

Help me to rely on your grace, your love, what you can do. Verse 18 says, "No
one has ever seen God, but God, the one and only who's at the Father's side, he
has made him known. " Jesus, thank you for making God known to me.

In your name I pray. Amen.