The First Word about the Eternal Word

This Sunday we began a new series in the Gospel of John with a look at the first 18 verses. These verses are known as John’s Prologue, and they serve as an introduction to the whole book.

In this sermon, I showed the shape and substance of John’s Prologue. The shape of John’s introduction centers on verse 12 and leads us to consider who can believe in Christ. This is the main point of John’s whole Gospel (see 20:30–31) and it is helpful to see how the prologue captures that main point too.

The substance of the prologue is devoted to a glorious vision of Christ and all the ways John will identify him. In short order, I outlined 12 “posters” displaying who this Christ is. John’s Gospel is very visual (as it employs all manner of signs and symbols) and I tried to show that in this message.

You can listen to the sermon online. You can find response questions and an introduction to John’s Gospel in this blogpost. As with our last sermon series through Joshua, I will aim to post a weekly “ten things” blog to help identify key literary, biblical, and theological themes in each passage. Follow along if you want to learn more about John’s Gospel.

Response Questions

1. What does the opening of John’s Gospel teach us? 
2. How does seeing the structure of the prologue help us see the main point of the passage? How does it help read the whole Gospel?
3. How does the beginning of the Gospel of John compare with Genesis 1? What about the other Gospels?
4. What ought we to conclude from John’s testimony (v. 6–8, 15)?
5. How does comparing John 1:14–18 to Exodus 33–34 help us understand who Jesus is?
6. What should be learned from the comparison of the law with grace and truth?  Why is the NIV translation better than the ESV? And why is the KJV wrong? What difference does this make?
7. Which truths about Jesus do you find encouraging? Why? 
8. How ought we to respond to this text?

Soli Deo Gloria, ds