10:10 Student handbook

t a h t e m o c student magazine e v a h / d n a , e f i l e v a h y a . l l they m u f e th o t t i e hav

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John 1

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inside: First things first Satisfaction guaranteed

Making history Defeating death

10:10 Exploring Jesus’ offer of life — from John’s Gospel

b y D e b b i e Ta r r a n t

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Contents Who was John?

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Chapter 1 First things first John 1:1–14

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Introduction

Contents

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Chapter 2 Reading the signs 10

John 2:1–11 Chapter 3 The answer is blowing in the wind 16 John 3:1–16

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Chapter 4

Satisfaction guaranteed John 4:1–26

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Chapter 5

All you can eat!

John 6:1–15, 30–35

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Chapter 6 Seeing is believing John 9:1–11

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Chapter 7 Someone worth following John 10:1–18

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P M 22A 28 S34 58 40 Chapter 8 True life 46 John 11:1–46 Chapter 9 Making history 52

John 19:1–30, 41–42

Chapter 10 Defeating death 58

John 20:1–20, 24–31

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Contents

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| C hapter 1 | John 1:1–14 (NIV)

first!

First things

©Valeria Mezzanotti/The New York Times

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t seems humans will never tire of trying to understand how life began here on Earth. In an interview with Andrew Denton on Enough Rope, the physicist, Professor Brian Cox, said, ‘finding out about the universe is not an option for us. It’s essential’.

He went so far as to say: ‘If we stop doing science and we stop trying to find out how the universe works then we’ve had it’. 1

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Some would say, then, that we are no closer to understanding how the particles that make up the world came into existence and why they’re the way they are. John, writing in his Gospel, doesn’t have a scientific explanation like that of CERN, but for him the ‘how’ of the Earth’s creation is answered by who he believes was behind it.

ommitted to their picture of how the universe works, a team of 10,000 scientists from CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, or European Council for Nuclear Research), the planet’s largest particle physics laboratory, which straddles the borders of France and Switzerland, have worked for a decade to produce the world’s biggest machine – the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – at a cost of six billion euros. In September 2008, it was put to the test in an attempt to recreate the conditions present less than a billionth of a second after the universe began. After a very successful start, however, a tonne of liquid helium leaked into the experiment’s 27 kilometre-long tunnel, forcing operations to shut down. (What scientists now hope for is a gradual increase in energy input until the end of 2010, when the LHC will again be shut down to prepare for more tests.)

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Read John 1:1–14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. 6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

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John 1:1–14

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First things first

The Word became flesh, and made his dwelling among us.

John 1:14 (NIV)

What do these verses claim about how the world was created?

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John tells us ‘in the beginning

was the Word’ (John 1:1).

Compare the opening verses of the Gospel of John with those of Genesis. Consider what connection is made with the initial creation.

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t is no coincidence that these passages contain similarities.

John writes, ‘Through him [the Word] all things were made’ and ‘without him nothing was made that has been made’ (John 1:3).

John 1:1–5

Genesis 1:1–5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day.

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f we substitute Jesus’ name for ‘the Word’, how does the passage read (v 1)? In the beginning was [Jesus], and [Jesus] was with God, and [Jesus] was God (v 14). [Jesus] became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

When John chooses the title ‘Word of God’ for Jesus, he is equating Jesus with God – who created the world with his words.

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The Word is undoubtedly significant to the beginning of the world, but who is this ‘Word’?

What clues does the passage give us?

In Genesis 1, we read how God spoke creation into being:

God said, “Let there be light.” (v 3) God said, “ Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” (v 6)

God said, ” Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let dry ground appear.” (v 9)

God said, “Let the land produce vegetation.” (v 11) God said, “ Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night.” (v 14)

God said, “ Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” (v 20)

God said, “ Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds.” (v 24)

God said, “Let us make man in our image.” (v 26).

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Could Jesus have been there at the beginning with God? It,s an idea that is certainly not accepted by all.

Professor Richard Dawkins, the world’s bestknown atheist, states, ‘Most people, I believe, think that you need a God to explain ... the existence of life. They are wrong, but our education system is such that many people don’t know it.’2

JI Packer, in his book Knowing God, points us to some important differences between what atheists and Christians believe about the source of life.

For atheists, ‘everything begins with inanimate matter and energy … They say that impersonal matter and impersonal energy are original.

They are absolute. They are ultimate. Then for billions of years, with no creator, no intelligence, no design, no purpose, no plan, there emerges from mindless, lifeless, random matter and energy … the irreducible complexities of independent biological structures [and] also this … thing called living personhood. For Christians, it’s the other way round: first there was life, then there was physical matter and energy. In the beginning was the Word and in him was life.’ 4

In The Blind Watchmaker, Dawkins asserts: ‘Natural selection, the blind, unconscious, automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation for the existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind and no mind’s eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, nor foresight, no sight at all. If it can be said to play the role of the watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker.’ 3

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Does it matter who, or what, is the source of life?

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Does it make any difference? As you fill out the table below, you will see just how much it matters.

What we believe about the source of life has profound implications for how we live our lives.

John’s explanation of life

Atheist’s explanation of life

What it tells us about ourselves...

What it tells us about ourselves...

What it tells us about the world around us...

What it tells us about the world around us...

What it tells us about Jesus...

What it tells us about Jesus...

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John believes

Jesus is not only the source of all life; he is the key to eternal life: that he was ‘with God in the beginning’ and, at a specific time in history, he ‘became flesh and made his dwelling among us’ (v 14).

Could Jesus be 'God in the flesh’?

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ome people believe God is unknowable.

Others believe we can know God by looking at creation, or through meditation, or by religious practices, or even by looking inside ourselves. But John says if we want to know the eternal God, the Creator, and our life-giver, then we must look to Jesus.

He goes so far as to say that through Jesus we can gain ‘the right to become children of God’ (v 12) – members of God’s family. As such, this means we receive the gift of eternal life!

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The book of Philippians helps us understand what it meant for Jesus to become human.

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Jesus as God

Read the passage and summarise what it says about Jesus as God and Jesus as man.

Philippians 2:5 –11 (NIV)

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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Jesus as Man

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of several billion cells to be YOURspace ‘ Lyouife foris aawhim while.’

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Groucho Marx

What would you write back to a friend who sent you this sentence in an email?

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People Watch

What are some of the ways people try to know or find God?

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If the Word did become flesh … what would you expect him to do?

The following chapters will explore this question.

Keep reading to find out exactly what he does do!

First things first

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