John 1:1 --- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Today started off with prayer, which is the best way to begin any adventure. Then we went to the second-best place to start an adventure, the beginning!
The first thing that jumps off the page this morning was, "In the beginning". Instantly it brought me back to the first page of the first book of the entire Bible, Genesis 1:1.
Genesis 1:1 --- In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
So, John 1:1 establishes quite a few things in just one sentence but here it establishes a timeline of Jesus. John's Gospel was written after Matthew, Mark, and Luke and what's interesting is each one of the Gospels establishes a timeline for Jesus. It gives a starting point for us humanly to understand Jesus was real. We have great big imaginations, but we always need anchor points to help us grasp and understand pretty much everything.
Mark traces Jesus back to Nazareth, the town He was from.
Matthew traces Jesus back to Abraham.
Luke traces Jesus all the way back to Adam.
John traces Jesus back to "the beginning" or eternity.
In John 1:1 "the beginning" is a single Greek word, "archē" and means: beginning, origin; used absolutely, of the beginning of all things.
So, John rewinds all the way back to before creation! Wow! When John's Gospel was written, the good news had already spread all around the ancient world and now included gentiles, which was basically anyone not Jewish. However, there were still many Jewish Christians, who would've immediately heard this and made the connection back to Genesis. Whereas Matthew, Mark, and Luke really established Jesus' human lineage to show He was the Messiah, John in the first words of the first verse, immediately establishes Jesus as eternal, from the beginning. So, we're already off to a wild and awesome start. This also happens to be as far as the train went this morning. LOL.
Please know my recaps here are written from a follower of Jesus Christ's perspective and to others who follow Him. So as this adventure treads into territory such as eternity, creation, miracles, etc... it is based on the Bible being the Word of God. I'm not a scholar, or I'm not a seminary graduate, and I'm not a historian. I'm just a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, who is a new creation in and through Him. I am not the same man I was before, complete opposite actually. I love Jesus and desire to know Him more and more. I just want to follow the Lord into His Truth and Love in the Word and be obedient to share my quiet time openly. So, whether you agree or disagree it's okay. I just wanted to clarify the foundation my recaps and perspective come from as we move into things like creation, etc…
Well, this was as far as we go today. We'll see what tomorrow holds tomorrow. Be the Berean and don't take my word for anything. Get into your Bible and spend time with God there. See for yourself!
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