Exploring the Depths: A 10,000-Foot Overview of John Chapter One

I don't even know if this is possible, but I'm going to try to give you a synopsis of chapter one in the Gospel of John. There is so much here that, honestly, in just the first four verses, you could literally take a lifetime just studying this and chewing on this and trying to uncover its depths and still hardly even scratch the surface.

But we're not here for depth. We're here for a 10,000 foot overview. So let's do this.

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Understanding the Purpose of John's Gospel

You can't understand John chapter one unless you understand the purpose of John. The purpose of John is threefold and it's found in John chapter 20, verses 30 through 31.

John wrote his gospel so that we would:

1. Know that Jesus is Messiah or Christ

2. Know that Jesus is the son of God

3. Have life in His name through believing in the character of the one who has come in the form of humanity

Not death in Adam any longer, but life in Christ.

The Beginning: God's Genealogy

It's amazing. John begins this gospel in a way that just blows my mind. He doesn't begin with the genealogy of man. He begins with the genealogy of God, which is God is God.

In the beginning, the Word—who is Jesus, as John declares to us in John 1:14—became flesh and dwelt among us. This Word was God. He was in the beginning. The beginning of what? Well, it's certainly the beginning of creation, the beginning of time, but it goes further than that. The Word was with God and the Word was God.

We're taking this beyond time and into eternity, which is a concept of just endless existence. That was the Word in the beginning, who then came and wrapped himself in the form of humanity to display the character of God to the people, to work the works of God before the people, ultimately to deliver the people—doing the work that only God could do as fully God and fully man—to deliver people from the penalty and power, and eventually the presence of sin as He did that on the cross.

The Word as Creator and Life

We see in the beginning that the Word existed. The Word was God. Through the Word, the world came into existence. There's nothing that you can put eyes on that you can see that has not been created by the Son of God.

In Him is life. In fact, in 1 John, he records twice—in the beginning and at the end of that epistle—that Jesus himself is eternal life. So He is life and He is truth, for in Him is life and nothing else. You can't have life in Adam. You can't have life in your works. You can't have life in your will. You can't have life in any other way but in Christ, in Messiah, in the Word who has come to pierce the darkness with the light of God, displaying the truth of God—who He really is, what He really does, what His purposes really are—to the world.

The Light Comes to His Own

Jesus was born at a very specific time. God took on flesh at a very specific time in human history, fully God and fully human, to walk as a human on this earth, displaying in perfection the character of God to His people.

He came to His own to give light to His people and so to all men, to enlighten every man of who God is—the specific revelation of the character and work of God. He came. But His own did not receive Him. In fact, His own crucified Him on a tree, putting to death the Son of God. They rejected Him.

The Right to Become Children of God

But the beautiful thing is that whosoever receives the Messiah, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, they shall be taken from death and placed into life—not by the works of hand, not by the will of the flesh, but as a work of God Himself.

Through the Son, the only begotten of the Father, we are given the right to become children of God. As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name (John 1:12). Those who believe upon the person and work of Jesus, who is fully God and fully man, and is Messiah—the Savior, liberating King, that long expected one—will be born not because they worked for it, not because they earned it, not because they willed it, but because God said so.

God does a work in their hearts, and through belief they're born as children of God.

The Testimony of John the Baptizer

This testimony is true because it's testified throughout the Book of John by John the apostle. But it's also true of John the Baptizer, who was sent as a forerunner for Christ—actually spoken of back in Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. After it was written, there was a 400-year span of silence where God did not speak to His people and they did not hear from Him, until the announcement of the Messiah coming through to Zacharia (John the Baptizer's father), and then to Mary, and then to Joseph, then eventually to the world.

In Hebrews 1, it says that God has spoken to us in these last days—and we've been in the last days since Christ has come—in His Son.

John the Baptizer says, "Listen, I'm nothing. I'm just here to announce to you the coming one, the Messiah, the long expected, anticipated one is here. And I wish for you to have your eyes open so that you can behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). "He is higher than I. He existed before me because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. He was in the beginning with God."

Testified by the Father and Spirit

This Messiah was not just testified by John the apostle and John the Baptizer, but also the Father by the Spirit. In John 1:33, John says, "I did not recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.' I myself have seen and testified that this is the Son of God."

When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove resting upon Him, testifying that He is the sent one of God.

The First Disciples: Come and See

John continues in chapter one, giving us the first examples of those who receive this testimony—those who receive the Lamb of God.

It begins in John 1:35: "The next day John was standing with two of his disciples. He looked at Jesus as he walked and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God'—the sacrifice, the one who was coming to be that one-time sacrifice for sin on behalf of sinners."

Two disciples heard him speak and they heard that testimony and followed Jesus. What's amazing is Jesus doesn't just look at them and say, "Well, come on." Jesus looks at them and He says, "What do you seek?"

And their answer is profound. They said, "Rabbi" (or teacher), "where are you staying?" What do you seek? And the answer is, where are you staying? A question with a question. He said to them, "Come and you will see." So they went and they saw.

I think that the disciples here, those two that were standing there, didn't know what they sought. They knew they were eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come, but they had enough humility to say, "I don't really know what that looks like. I seek you. If you are the Lamb of God that John the Baptizer has said, 'Behold,' then I seek you and I seek to be with you."

Following the Lamb

That's the nature of His followers then, and it's the nature of His followers now. In Revelation 14, it says that those who are His are those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Though we today don't follow Him around physically, we follow Him around through the Spirit of Christ, which richly dwells in us as His Word reveals to us His character, as His Word continues to show us what He requires of us. We do not follow Him geographically, but follow Him spiritually.

A missionary friend once told me, "When we're in the Word of God, we're with the God who speaks," and I want that to stick with you.

Jesus found those first disciples from the testimony of John the Baptizer, and then more disciples came and He issued the call: "Follow me."

Disciples Making Disciples

Those who followed Him were truly those who recognized that He is Messiah. Philip, in verse 45, found Nathaniel and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

And Nathaniel says to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

And Philip says, "Come and see."

We see the nature of even disciples already—disciples making disciples. You've got to come and you've got to taste and you've got to see for yourself. And Nathaniel does come and he does taste, and he does see.

Greater Things Than These

The chapter concludes with Jesus's answer to Nathaniel: "Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these."

And they did. They saw great, marvelous miracles and displays of the character and work of God.

He said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man" (John 1:51).

You'll see the testimony of God upon me, Jesus the Christ, over and over and over again. You will see that I am who I claim to be. You will see that the testimony of John the Baptizer is true. You will see that the testimony that you heard from Philip is true.

Come and See

You will see. Come and see. Follow me and behold great and marvelous things—the mystery of God revealed to us in Messiah, in Christ.

That's His invitation to you: Come and see. Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Are you tasting and are you seeing that the Lord is good?

At Immersed Disciple, we seek to magnify Christ in such a way that gives you the desire to go to the scriptures and read of this marvelous person who is Messiah Himself. I give away my weekly commentary notes for free in exchange for your email, and you can find the information at immerseddisciple.com.