My preferred way to preach is to week by week preach through a book of the Bible, paragraph after paragraph, in light of its historical and grammatical context. It is the way the Bible was written and provides the clearest understanding of the text.  This Sunday, I’m excited to start preaching through the Gospel of John in that way. I will occasionally insert a short sermon series on different passages, but the Gospel of John will be our staple for many months ahead of us. 

John’s Gospel is the last of the four Gospels to be written and provides not only different content about the life of Jesus from the other three Gospels, but it also approaches the life of Jesus from a much more personal perspective. While Jesus is fully God, John also shows that he was fully human, with real human relationships as well as the physical, emotional and spiritual struggles similar to what we face as humans. The big difference is Jesus faced all those human struggles perfectly and without sin.  Jesus is the ultimate revelation of who God is: there is no better way to know God than by knowing Jesus. Jesus is also the perfect example of what it means to be a human being: if you want to be a better human being, get to know Jesus better.

The opening 18 verses of this book are often referred to as “The Prologue,” or the introduction. It is more than an introduction to the book, they are John’s introduction to Jesus. This Sunday we will consider the first five verses of the prologue where John refers to Jesus as “The Word”. “Word” in Greek is Logos, which was a well known concept at the time. The Logos was considered to be the source of all that could be known both in the material and philosophical spheres. The opening words of John’s Gospel invite people, from all different backgrounds, to see Jesus as The Logos – The Word – the source of everything. Join me this Sunday for the first message in this series, “Introducing Jesus”.