Welcome to BGO's Bible Study on the Gospel of John. Each week new questions and passages from the book of John will be posted. Please post your answers using the following format: Question # - Answer/Response. The purpose of this Bible Study is to provide an informal setting for the communal study of the Word of God. Please accord due respect to all participants. We are excited to begin this new journey together! God bless you.
John 1:1-18
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
6There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
14The 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.
15John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' " 16From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.
Questions
1. What characteristics of Jesus can we learn about from these passages?
2. What does it mean to be a child born of God?
3. What is the significance of the Word becoming flesh and making His dwelling among us?
3 comments:
Q1: "In the beginning was the Word..." Jesus was there from the beginning. Jesus is the Word, and to get to know Him we should read the Bible. He loves us so much that He made a way for us to have a relationship with Him. Jesus died to save us.
Q2: I recieved Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and know I can have a relationship with Him. There is no greater joy than knowing Jesus.
Q3: Because He came to earth and suffered for us we know that He understands our pains and struggles. We have a God that went through it all.
Q1: Jesus is God. He is the Truth, the Way and the Life. He is our Redeemer.
Q2: As a child born of God I am a new person in Christ. I have been convicted by the Holy Spirit and have repented of my sin. I now approach life as a newborn and wish to turn away from my old ways and yield to God's mandate for my life. I realize that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and I acknowledge that my salvation is through Jesus Christ who paid the price so that I could be forgiven and may inherit eternal life.
Q3: When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, He became like us in all things except sin. He therefore knows that we experience trials and tribulations and understands our struggles. By becoming flesh He demonstrated His humility, in that He chose to come to the earth under humble circumstances. His presence among us shows the extent to which God loves us, by choosing to send His only begotten Son. It also established the path for the "good news" ie. after life and death, there is the resurrection and the promise of eternal life through Jesus.
Q1: He is the beginning of knowledge ... before anything at all existed, He was. He is the Son of God, yet was always one with God. He personifies beauty ... everything wonderful that we have ever seen or admired came directly from Him and as a result of Him. He is our life, and He is our light ... He shines brighter than any darkness in which the world can find itself. He transcends every culture, and every stage of history.He is humble ... He came to the earth to bring light, but in a way that didn't overwhelm or force people to honour Him. He came humbly to us who owed Him everything, but who rejected Him instead ... yet He remained humble and faithful in His purpose to redeem those who would receive Him. He is full of grace and truth. He knows what is right, but doesn't Lord it over us aggressively.
Q2: To be a child born of God means to be a person who has received Jesus, and believed on His name ... one who has been given the right to be a co-heir with Christ, not because of our geneology, our desire or our own will, but because of God's mercy.
Q3: By becoming flesh and dwelling among us, Jesus showed us that God the Father wanted to be accessible to us ... wanted His love to be known ... wanted us to know that He is holy, yet approachable. The significance is also that through Jesus, the Father tenderly gave us an example of how to live for Him ... showed us that it is possible to live for Him in spite of being in an evil world. The Father and the Son can relate to all that we go through ... because Jesus was/is fully God and fully man... and He was completely human and therefore vulnerable to the same frustrations and temptations we face while He was on earth.
Thank you for this inspiring topic and the answers you have shared ... it has given me much to think about as I wrote!
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