Tag: Stoicism

Photo Cred: (1) | Updated: 5/18/2026

Sermon Prep

This message I delivered the day before my short term medical leave started. Felt incredibly prepared and consider it one of my best. One of these days I’ll do my best sermons as a separate blogpost, but that’s for another day. I also treated this as an overview of John, as well as a sermon on John 1:1-5 so played double-duty here too. For now, here’s the YouTube recording and my notes below.

Sermon Notes

Opening Prayer

• Father God, lead us this morning as we search the scriptures. Thank you for your Son whose sacrifice is our salvation. Dwell with us, Holy Spirit, as you teach us today. Amen.

Intro

• Famous film prologues = Dune: Part Two, The Lord of the Rings, The World’s End, and UP.
  • A prologue is like an abstract or movie trailer that hints at a greater story.

Main Point

• John wrote to comfort others by reaffirming the personal union of Christ (enfleshment).
  • That he’s an earthly human and God eternal, not just a teacher. → Why comfort?

Context of John’s Gospel

• Background: Written in Ephesus, Asia Minor around 90 CE to the Greco-Roman world.
• Who: John w/ Prochorus (Tradition) vs John w/ Johannine collaboration (Scholarship).

“Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper… This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true.” (John 21:20a, 24)

“John, the disciple of our Lord, who also had leaned upon his breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia.” – Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses [Against Heresies], 3.1.1. Discipled by Polycarp who was discipled by John.

• John was the eyewitness at the least and at most the author, yet he had additional help. 
• Before John’s Gospel, others attempted to write down the Apostles’ testimony of Jesus.

“Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I, too, decided, as one having a grasp of everything from the start, to write a well-ordered account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may have a firm grasp of the words in which you have been instructed.” (Luke 1:1-4)

→ Show Timeline Slide

• Nero persecuted the early church causing communal disruption and martyrdom.
  • Great Fire (Rome), Jewish-Roman War (Syria); Second Temple (Jerusalem).
    • Disruptions inspired Christians to write Synoptics before Apostles all died.
• When John wrote his Gospel, he was the last Apostle with Christians looking to him now.
  • Most likely written to comfort Diaspora Christians and Jews post-Second Temple.
    • With heresy rising and Christians/Jews heartbroken, they needed hope.

Structure of John’s Gospel

• Themes: 7 “I am” statements, belief, witness, Jerusalem, life/light, love, and the signs.
  • Structured by 3 Passovers, so 3 years of Jesus’ ministry (John 1-5, 6-10; 11-21).
  • The midpoint of John’s Gospel is the resurrection of Lazarus, the greatest sign.
• John’s Gospel shares 8-10% with the Synoptic Gospels, making it independent by design.

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31)

• John is meant to be read meditatively multiple times, not fully understood in one sitting.

“What John wants you to do is not gain the maximum amount of info about Jesus. What he wants you to do is sit with these handful of carefully crafted portraits of Jesus.” – Tim Mackie

Let There Be Light | John 1:1-5 (NRSVue)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.”

• There’s a lot of influences in John’s Gospel, but Genesis stands out most in John 1:1-5.
  • “In the beginning” (Dynamic) vs “When God began to create” (Formal).
  • Genesis 1:1-5 (creation),  John 1:1-5 (creator); 1 John 1:1-5 (created in Christ).
• The Word in Koine Greek is logos, which was a well-known term in gnosticism/Stoicism.

“commonly used as an expression for the way God or the gods self-disclosed and communicated with humanity… But it was nevertheless an unprecedented step forward to equate the logos (or any other key background concept such as Wisdom or Torah) with a God-man.” – Craig L. Blomberg, A New Testament Theology (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2018), 585. See Sirach 4:12, 24:8-9 and Wisdom of Solomon 7:22-30, 8:5, 9:1-9 for more on how Jesus dwells among us as Torah/Wisdom.

• The Word is Jesus the Son and he is with the Father and Spirit in a tri-unity (John 1:1-2).
  • God the Son shares the same essence with God the Father and God the Spirit.
  • These three persons are one God who have intimate belonging to each other.
  • Yet God the Son is personally distinct from God the Father and God the Spirit.
• John argues Jesus is our covenant mediator since he’s the creator of all things (John 1:3).

“John views creation as the first, inaugural act of salvation history and bases his account of Jesus’ coming into the world on this primal act… everything was made through the Word, and, conversely, that nothing was made apart from the Word.” – Andreas J. Köstenberger, A Theology of John’s Gospel and Letters: The Word, the Christ, the Son of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 179–80.

• For Christians/Jews post-Second Temple, knowing Jesus as creator is comforting.

• Some Bibles put “eternal life” instead of “life” by itself, given it’s implied (John 1:4).
• Darkness and light motif alludes to the Qumran War Scroll from the Essenes (John 1:5).
  • Cosmic dualism (darkness vs light) is the ANE concept of two spirits theology.
    • Judaism has yetzer hara and yetzer hatov (i.e. evil and good impulse).
      • This concept is radically changed subverting expectations.

“The word translated comprehend [or “overtake”] means both “understand” and “overcome.” Thus, darkness can never overpower the light of Christ, nor can it understand the way of love.” –  The Orthodox Study Bible, ed. Peter A. Gillquist (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008), 1421.

Why It Matters

• What kind of story are we entering? A comforting story for people who need Christ.
  • A.W. Tozer describes John’s Gospel as mystical and personal, yet not theological.
    • Like the initial audience, we too need a comforting story in today’s chaos.

Power Text

“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” (Psalm 36:9)

• Jesus doesn’t just illuminate lives causing shadows to shrink, but he is the light of life.

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”” (John 8:12)

Outro

• In your darkest night, let there be light. Find comfort in Jesus Christ and his eternal life.

Final Thoughts

Very engaging, yet fun message. Used the new pulpit for the first time because Joseph Morrison broke the old one. The new sound system Nate set-up in school worked great for the first time outside of one funny burst of noise. Very well received overall, but I did feel like I stuttered more than normal. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.

Footnotes

1. https://denverseminary.edu/giving/focused-giving/dr-craig-l-blomberg-endowed-chair-of-new-testament/