from WL Worcester (H Blackmer, ed.), 
The Sower.  Helps to the Study of the Bible in Home and Sunday School
 
(Boston: Massachusetts New-Church Union, n.d.)

Table of Contents
 

 

Lesson 1

John 1: 1-18  One Lord Creates and Saves

The Story

Junior

You know there are four Gospels. That is, the Lord chose four people to write the story of His life in the world. They were Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. No two of the stories are told in quite the same way, nor for quite the same purpose. Matthew especially shows how the Scriptures are fulfilled in the Lord's life, and gives the Christian law. Mark tells most simply and briefly the story of the Lord's ministry. Luke gives at length the Lord's teaching as He journeyed with His disciples. John tells especially of the ministry in Judea, and reveals most fully the Lord's love.

Now we are to study the story as John tells it. You remember, perhaps, that John was a fisherman, and that the Lord called him and his brother James as they were in a boat with their father Zebedee on the Sea of Galilee, and from this time on John was with the Lord until the end. How precious this nearness to the Lord was to John, you can see as you read the first verses of his First Epistle: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; . . that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you." (John 1:1) He had seen all the wonderful things the Lord had done. He had heard His words of love and kindness, His parables and His stern reproofs; and he wrote the story with the sense of the infiniteness of His life, which is expressed in the last chapter of John's Gospel; "and there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." (John 21:25; 20:30)

John knew that people would learn from the other Gospels much of the history of the Lord's life, and so for his story the Lord led him to choose those things which tell of the Lord's loving care of us, that we may believe in Him as our Lord and Master.

John seems to have been bold and strong in fighting against evil, for he and his brother James were called "the sons of thunder." He was also "the disciple whom Jesus loved." And he and his brother James were (with Peter) the ones chosen to be nearest the Lord in some of the most holy times, showing that they were able to understand more than the others the lessons of His life. It was John who leaned on Jesus' breast at the Last Supper, and it was John who at the last was asked by the Lord to care for Mary His mother, as he stood sorrowing with her at the cross, faithful to the end. Strong and tempestuous in his love at first, John's last words to his friends were the gentle command, "Little children, love one another." It was this same John who wrote the Book of Revelation at the end of our Bible.

John begins his Gospel by telling us that the same Lord had lived always; He had made the world and men, and had given them life, and He came into His world to help men to live good, happy lives. Many of the people He had made did not know Him and would not listen to Him; but those who did know Him and believe Him were saved from their evil enemies and could be happy children of the Heavenly Father.

The Heavenly Father came to the earth a little child, as other little children, and grew up with all the temptations to do wrong that other children have; but He never once did the wrong thing, and so gave us an example of a perfect child. And having thus lived the life of a little child, and having met all our trials, He can help us when we ask His help in our temptations - that is to do right and feel right when it is very hard to do it. So He came to show us the way we should live, as a light in the dark shows us the path we should walk in.

The Lord not only made us, and made the beautiful world we live in and our fathers and mothers and our homes; not only told us what not to do because those things would make us and other people unhappy, and what to do to make our lives and other people's happy; but He came and lived with us, showing us the way by walking in it Himself. A few walked with Him and followed Him. Many went their own ways and did not care. And others made His life and His path as hard as they could. Do you ever think whether you are walking the path with Him? Or whether you are going off into other paths of your own, not caring much what you do? Or worse still, do you ever do things that grieve Him? For we can walk with Him every day of our lives more truly than the children long ago walked with Him over the hills of Palestine.

The way was prepared for the Lord's coming by John the Baptist, who told the people of the coming of the everlasting Father who would show them how to live perfect, happy lives. Although no one had ever seen the Heavenly Father before they would now see Him in Jesus Christ.


1. What can you tell me about the John who wrote this Gospel? What else have we that was written by the same disciple?

2. Who is the John mentioned in verses 6 and 15?

3. What verses in this lesson plainly teach that the same Lord who made men came into the world to save them?

4. What is "the Word" which was in the beginning?

5. How was the Word made flesh in the Lord's life with men?

6. How is it true in our experience, that John the Baptist must go before the true Light?

Spiritual Study

Intermediate

Note that the three Gospels, Matthew, Luke, and John, testify to the Divine birth of the Lord. They do not repeat the same account; they give different accounts, yet agree in declaring the Divine birth. They are independent witnesses to this fact, fundamental to true knowledge of the Lord.

The introduction to John's Gospel (John 1: 1-14) shows the purpose of the Gospel, to prove to us the truth of the Divine birth and of the Divine nature of the Lord. The purpose is again asserted in John 20:30, 31, which was probably originally the close of the Gospel. There is no mistaking the purpose to identify the Lord who came into the world with Him who made the world. See verses 1 and 10. The term "Word," in Greek "Logos," is applied to the Lord in His work of creation and in His coming into the world. The term meant first of all an activity of mind, and then of speech. The term in our doctrines is "the Divine truth" in which Divine love takes form and by which it becomes effective. When we read "In the beginning was the Word" and that by the Word all things were made, we think of the Divine truth which indeed was later given expression in the Scriptures, but which from the beginning and always is the means of expression of the Divine love in all its works. Notice in the account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis the similar thought expressed in the words "And God said, Let there be light," etc. Every reaching-out of the Divine in a Divine work for men is by the Divine truth, the Word. The fact that the Word means the Divine truth is confirmed by calling the Lord in His coming the light. (Verses 4-9) "Divine truth has such power that by it all things in the universe were created. . . . It is commonly believed that it is only speech from Jehovah, or a command, whereas it is the very essential from which and by which are all things." (A. 7678)

If the world and all things were made by the Word, or the Divine truth, truth must be a very real and powerful thing. It is more than a spoken or written sentence, it is more than an idea in the mind. Truth itself is the activity of love, and the Divine truth is the activity of the Divine love in carrying out its purpose. If we see how Divine love is working in the silent moving of the stars, in the growth of plants, or in the life of a man or of the human race, we see so much of truth; if we tell it, we tell the truth; but the truth itself is the Divine activity untiring in its operation and infinite in its power. This is the Word, the truth, which was in the beginning with God, and by which all things were made. And this same Divine truth is in wonderful ways expressed and embodied in the Scriptures giving them a power above every other power on earth. (T. 224)

In the Lord's coming the Word was made flesh. The Lord fulfilled the prophecies of Scripture; He said that Moses wrote of Him (John 5:39, 46) and He expounded to the disciples in Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms, and in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself. (Luke 24:27, 44) By fulfilling the Scripture the Lord made His Humanity the embodiment of all Divine truth, and this made Him able to receive also the Divine love. We learn how to do some use, and in doing it we love it. In general, we must learn the truth of life and live it before we love it. So with the Lord: by compelling Himself to think the truth of perfect life and to live it, He could also love it and so could bring forth the Divine love in all its tenderness and power into the world. John's Gospel is especially the revelation and expression of the Divine love in the Lord's life with men. But we need to know that this great love was the result of patient, faithful thinking and doing of the Divine truth, even in the most outward things of life in the world. And so the Gospel of love first tells us that "in the beginning was the Word," and that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." The Lord's love is more wonderful when we know the labor and the patience with which He brought it into the world. We can be patient with the learning of truth and the obedience which must be the beginning of heavenly life with us. (L. 1, 2; A. 10076)

In keeping the Word, we must keep it first in the letter, with its stern thou-shalt-nots and its calls to repentance. This literal truth is John the Baptist who is not the Light, but is sent to bear witness of it. Obedience to this truth prepares the way for more spiritual understanding and obedience, and for loving and happy life from the Lord. (A. 9372)

We must all take away from this chapter the truth that is expressed in the title of our lesson: One Lord creates and saves. Even if we do not understand every word of the chapter, we see that it emphasizes this truth: The same Lord who made the world to be the home of men, where they could live useful, happy lives and prepare for heaven, came into the world to save men when they had come under the power of evil, and to lead them back into good ways. How plainly John tells us that it was the same Lord, when he says, "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." The words are wonderfully pathetic. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God." This is the story which is expanded in the Gospel we are to study. The great love and patience of the Lord! The indifference and ingratitude of men! Our opportunity to find the Lord's great love and the blessing of it! (L. 1)

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