The book of John was written specifically to bring us to believe in Jesus Christ and that through that faith, we would have life in His name.  Anything John included in this book was for that purpose. 

                    He starts off on the first verse of the book giving a larger picture of what he will illustrate during the rest of the book.  And for the most part, this verse is clear.  We know from verse 14 that “the Word” is another phrase for “Jesus.”  We take this journey to Bethlehem and we are finding out who Jesus really is.

                    We found that 1) He existed before He was born.  As a matter of face, he was present before creation.  “In the beginning”, a reference to Genesis, “was the Word.”

                    2.  He was “with God.”  Jesus was with God before He was born.  He is the world’s reigning expert on God because he was with God and knows him personally.  He is not giving us ideas about what God might be like, he was with God and what he tells us is true.

                    This week we come to an expression that is harder to understand.  This phrase is one of the major reasons for a number of the denominations we find in the religious world.

                    Just a side note, a woman went to the post office to get some stamps for Christmas.  The clerk asked, “What denominations do you want?”  The lady said, “I didn’t know it had come to this, but I guess I will take 50 Baptist, 25 Catholic and 17 Presbyterian stamps.”

                    The phrase is “the Word was God.”  I am going to go back a little into the Greek language.  The reason I do this is simple.  The more complex the question, the more detailed the answer must be.  If I go to a doctor and I ask him, “What has happened to my hand, he will tell me, ‘You have a sprained finger.”  If I ask him, “What shall I do?” he could say, “Take some drugs for it.”  But because I have asked a more technical question, he might say, “Take some anti-inflammatory medication such as...”  and off I go.  The more technical question elicits a more technical answer.

                    On first glance, one would say, “Jesus is God.”  By that, they would mean,  Jesus is God and God is Jesus.  We have a group of people who are unitarians.  They believe in the unity of God, that God is one.  One group, the United Pentecostals, believe that the one God is Jesus.  There really is no Father nor the Holy Spirit, but Jesus only.  They would say that Jesus, the Word, was God and that God was the Word.

                    But this creates a problem for us.  For in the previous phrase, we saw last week that the Word was with God.  This meant that the Word was facing or near or moving toward God.  If the Word was with God, then to say that the Word was God and that God was the Word would bring a contradiction in terms.

                    So we go to the Greek and we find it listed, The Word was God.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses and others picked up on this and said that, “Because there is no “the” in front of God, we will place the word “a”.  So now they read it, “The Word was a god.” 

                    But Greek scholars, liberal and conservative,  are almost unified in their rejection of this interpretation.  This also contradicts the teaching of the Bible that there is one God.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses would tell you that Jesus is a lesser God, an angel.  But God, as it is used in this verse speaks of the one true God that we love and serve.

                    So what does this mean?  I believe that the word “god”  speaks of Jesus’ essence.  What do you mean by essence?  I would say, “God is what Jesus is made of.”  In other words,  “The word is divine.”  I like to use the phrase here,  The Word is made of God stuff.  As we have common humanity, we are all flesh and blood, we are human, so the Word is deity, God stuff, in essence God.

                    This fits in well with the entire verse.  In the beginning was the Word.  We look back at creation and we see God’s Word speaking and acting.  The Word was with God.  Two persons are here.  Then the Word was deity.  Whatever God is made of, Jesus is made of the same thing.

                    This is why we have the doctrine of the trinity.  There is only one being who is made of God stuff.  That is God.  This divinity, this deity, is not like humans.  We are totally separate.  But in the trinity, they are both separate and apart.  I believe that when John refers to God, he is usually making reference to God the Father.  If so, then Jesus was not God the Father.  But both were deity.  Both were made of God stuff.

                    This not only fits in well with the verse, but it fits in well with what John and Jesus are saying in the book of John.     

                    Let’s look in John 5.  “18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” John 5:18, NIV.

                    When we call God our Father, we are not making ourselves equal with God.  Why?  Because God is our spiritual father.  He is still God and we are still people.

                    The Jews, however, sensed the physical connection.  When they heard Jesus say that God was his Father, they heard him say that in the same way a human son is made like his father in that he is flesh, blood, brain, hands, eyes and even equal in being part of the family;  so Jesus was made of the same stuff as God, which would make Him equal with God.  They sensed a physical connection in the words Jesus said.

                    Now look at John 10.

Joh 10:30* I and the Father are one.”

                    What does this mean?  That Jesus was saying that he and the Father were together?  Were they working for the same end, for the same means?  Or were he saying that they were one in both being deity?

Joh 10:31* Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him,

Joh 10:32* but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

Joh 10:33* “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” John 14

                    It’s pretty clear that the Jews wanted to stone him for claiming to be God, for claiming to be deity.  They would have argued that if Jesus was God, then there would be two Gods.  That would be blasphemy.  In John 5 they here him say that he is equal with God, but now they sense a deeper meaning.  Jesus is saying that he is God!

                    This is one reason John is so careful in the Greek he uses in chaper 1.  He cannot say that the Word was with God and the Word was The God.  No, Jesus was with the Father and both were deity, both were part of this God stuff that I can’t describe.

                    Thomas comes to the same conclusion in John 20:

Joh 20:28* Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”  Some would say that Thomas is speaking to Jesus in the phrase, “My Lord” and to God in heaven when he said, “and my God.”  But the text tells us that he is speaking to Jesus for it tells us that “Thomas said to him.”  that is, “Jesus.”

                    And then we go to Isaiah.  In a prophecy about the coming Messiah, Isaiah writes:

Isa 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

                    To conclude this part let me just say this about Jesus.  He is divine.  He is deity.  He is part of the Trinity.  He is God. 

                    We make that claim about no other religious leader.  But we do about Jesus.  He is God.

                    So I come back to last weeks theme.  Who on earth knows more about God than someone who was with God?  No one knows more about God than Jesus.  But in the heavenly realm who would know more about God than someone who is with God?  For the angels were with God.  The saints who die are with God?  How knows more about God than they do?  God knows more about Himself than any heavenly being.  And the Word, Jesus is deity.  Jesus is God.

  When we make this journey to Bethlehem and come to the manger, we find not just a baby that was named Jesus, but we find God!

                    Listen to what Jesus says in John 14: “8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” John 14:8, 9, NIV.

                    When we see Jesus we see God.  That is what is really meant by the letters “W.O.R.D” used here.  You see Jesus, you see God.  When you see Jesus going through baptism because he wanted to fulfill all righteousness, you see God’s view of baptism.  When we see the woman taken in adultery standing before Jesus and you hear him say, “““Woman, where are they[ your accusers] ? Has no-one condemned you?” 11 “No-one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”” John 8:10, 11, NIV.  you hear God speaking to you in your sin.  If Jesus does not condemn you, then God does not condemn you.  If Jesus tells you to go and leave your life of sin, then God is speaking to you.  For Jesus is The Word.

                    Why do we say all of this?  I am saying this to you for the same reason that John does.  I want you to trust Jesus because he is someone you can trust.  He is the Word of God.  He was with God.  He is God. 

                    If you have never put your trust in Jesus, but you say you trust God, then you need to trust Jesus, for He is God.  If you deny Jesus, you are denying God.  But if you receive Jesus, then God is in your life.

                    How many Christians need to come back to Jesus.  The Christian life is not about church and meeting on Sundays, taking offerings and singing songs.  The Christian life is about Christ.  All the things I have mentioned we should do.  But we should do them because “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand.  All other ground is sinking sand.  All other ground is sinking sand.”

                    We say “Not my will but thine be done.”  Why?  Because the will of Jesus is the will of God.  The word of Jesus is the Word of God.