Sermon25-11 Jn1 Guide

John 1:1-14 theme verse John 1:1

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

In this sixth Sunday of 2025, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, we looked at the Trinity of God, yet this week, we would like to look at the Divinity and Attributes of Jesus Christ, the Son of God together.

1)    The Gospel of John in which we read today’s text is the fourth Gospel to exhort Johannine community in Asia Minor to protect truth and endure the persecution when the heresies arose and the persecutions was increasing in the late first century. The apostle John proclaims in today’s text regarding the second person of God that “He is the Word which was translated as tao in Chinese character, who was in the beginning, that is, in the eternity and has glory as of the only Son from the Father. And all things were made through Him, in Him was life which is the light of people. And the Word became flesh and is full of grace and truth, so that all who accept Him as Savior and Lord, in order words, all who believe in His name, will be children of God.

2)    To summarize, as Thomas confessed in John 20:28 that Jesus was “my Lord and my God,” Jesus is God and also the Word, that is Tao in the older translation in Chinese, and this Son of God became flesh to accomplish the vicarious redemption ministry and ascended to heaven, to sit in the right hand of God the Father, and reigns all the universe. In order words, this mediator as true God, by the power of His divinity, might bear the weight of God’s wrath in His humanity and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life as Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 17 taught us. As such, God the Son has two Natures, I mean, divinity and humanity in His One Person and we, reformers, believe in that His two natures communicate through His Person, not directly communicated each other.

3)    In regard to this God the Son, Belgic confession article 10 confesses that “We believe that Jesus Christ, according to his divine nature, is the only Son of God—eternally begotten, not made or created, for then he would be a creature. He is one in essence with the Father; coeternal; the exact image of the person of the Father and the “reflection of God’s glory,” being like the Father in all things. Jesus Christ is the Son of God not only from the time he assumed our nature but from all eternity, as the following testimonies teach us when they are taken together. Moses says that God created the world; and John says that all things were created through the Word, which he calls God. The apostle says that God created the world through the Son. He also says that God created all things through Jesus Christ. And so it must follow that the one who is called God, the Word, the Son, and Jesus Christ already existed before creating all things. Therefore the prophet Micah says that Christ’s origin is “from ancient days.” And the apostle says that the Son has “neither beginning of days nor end of life.” So then, he is the true eternal God, the Almighty, whom we invoke, worship, and serve.”

4)    To summarize it, the Belgic confession article 10 confesses about the name, the ministry and the attributes of God the Son. First, it is confessed that God the Son has the name of God, the Word, the Son of God, and also Jesus Christ as Jn 20:28, Rom 9:5, Titus 2:13, Heb 1:8, and 1 Jn 5:20 confesses that He is God, and also as verse 18 of today’s text calls Him as the only begotten Son as His very unique name since He is not made nor created, rather, begotten of God the Father eternally, so that He share the same essence and eternity and and also as Jesus which means Savior, and Christ, which means the anointed One, and the Mediator who reconciles God and His people and the Lord. For His ministry, it is confessed that all things were made through Him (Jn 1:3), He upholds the universe (Heb 1:3; Col 1:17), and redeems (Jn 3:17) and judge the world in the end (Jn 5:27). And also it is confessed that He has the same attributes; truth(Jn 14:6; Rev 3:7), eternity (Jn 1:1; 8:58; Col 1:17; Rev 21:6), life (Jn 1:4; 14:6), self-existence (Jn 5:26; Heb 7:16), immutability (Heb 13:8), love (1 Jn 3:16), holiness (Lk 1:35; Jn 6:69; Heb 7:26), omni-science (Mt 9:4; Jn 2:24, 16:30; Eph 1:23), omni-potence (Rev 1:8), Omni-presence (Mt 28:20; Eph 1:23), and glory (Jn 1:14).

5)    As such, the benefits of confessing Christ’s deity is first that we have a Savior that we can worship truly because He is also the Son and the Lord. In other words, He is the object of our prayer, our worship, and our honor, as Belgic confession states “He therefore is that true, eternal, and almighty God whom we invoke, worship, and serve.” And other benefit is that through the true divinity, we nourish our souls so that we not merely see these truths as doctrines, but also we are required to understand, believe and apply to us. That’s why our Lord said in Jn 17:17 that since the Word of the Father is truth and sanctify them in the truth, as He is the way, and the truth, and the life as Jn 14:6 says. As such, the Word of Jesus Christ, came from God the Father, nurture us and make us holy.

6)    By the way, since our Lord is God, so that in principle, we can pray directly to Jesus and ask for, but, our Lord said in Jn 16:23-24 that “Ask of the Father in My name, because as Bavinck said in the volume 3 of “Reformed dogmatics,” that “All the grace that is extended to the creation after the fall comes to it from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit”, we have to pray in the Holy Spirit, to God the Father, in the name of Christ Jesus.

7)    In that sense, He, God the Son, shares the same essence with God the Father, yet, in economically, He will be subjected to God the Father as 1 Cor 15:28 says “When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. That’s why Jesus introduced Himself that “I am gentle and humble” in Mt 11:29.

8)    And also Philippians 2:6-11 said that “though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of human beings. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” so that “God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” So, I believe that all His followers have to follow His example, being clothed with His meekness and humility, and submit ourselves to God the Father. Therefore, I pray that this year, we may obey to God our Father, as our Lord, who became flesh to accomplish His kingdom ministry on earth and vicarious redemptive ministry on the cross, to show us the way of the righteousness, said us to learn His humility and gentleness from Him, even though He was also God.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through Today’s message, we became to know that God the God also share the same essence of God the Father so that we have our Savior whom we worship, pray and serve. So for a while, after thinking about what kinds of comfort and confidence this knowledge that God is with us gives us, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Q2 And also we became to know that this second Person of God who is truth and the Word, nourishes us. So after reviewing how He who is with us nourishes us, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.