Do You Believe? – May 3, 2026

Genesis 1:1-?, John 1:1-18
May 3, 2026

I love this passage from John’s Gospel!  In fact, it’s one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible!  And yes, I know I always say that!  And it’s not that others aren’t some of my favorites, too!  But I do love this one!  I also recognize that this is a big passage!  These are some of the greatest words in the whole Bible.  And a lot of people have said that!  And some have even said that this is some of the greatest writings of all time!

So, I recognize that this is a tall order!  And I don’t think I’ve ever preached a sermon on this passage.  I’ve referred to it on Christmas Eve many times.  That’s when “The word became flesh and dwelt among us!”  But this may be the first I’ve dealt with it on a regular Sunday morning.  And it seemed appropriate, considering all of the passages and stories we’ve been dealing with recently from the end of John’s Gospel.

So, here we are back at the beginning.  This first part of John’s Gospel has been called the “Prologue.”  And in this “Prologue” John gives us an explanation of who Jesus was and is – before getting into all the narratives of his life and ministry.  Here, John gives us some of the major concepts of the Christian faith.  And he uses examples from the faith of those who first read these words.

He starts out, “In the beginning.”  Now, think about that.  The Jewish people who first read this – way back when – would have known exactly what John was getting at when he began his Gospel with those words.  And that was quite an audacious thing to do!  It was like the Maundy Thursday story where Jesus introduced a “new Commandment!”  Do you remember that?  Well here, he was starting his Gospel with the same words that they knew were the words from the start of their scriptures – their Torah!  They would have thought immediately of Genesis!  “In the beginning… God created!”  And those were some of the most important religious words ever written!

If you remember, those were also the words chosen by the crew of Apollo 8, which they read from lunar orbit.  It was Christmas Eve, 1968.  They were the first people ever to fly away from the earth – like the Artemis crew did recently.  They had traveled 240,000 miles, and they were asked, at that time, to say something that would be significant and important to the people of the world.  It was estimated that there were around 1 billion people listening at that moment!  So, Borman, Lovell, and Anders chose those words from Genesis!  They knew they were words that were important to all the Jewish and Christian listeners – and even to the Muslims, who share that same view of God as creator.

So here, John did a similar thing.  This was his Apollo 8 moment!  Here John used those same words from Genesis – the words from their Torah.  And then he had the audacity to put Jesus into those sacred words.  He told them that Jesus was the “Word,” or here in the Greek, the great “Logos.”

That was a big part of the Jewish belief!  They believed that it was by the “Word” of God that the world was created.  But of course they understood that to be the spoken word of God!  In other words, God “said,” and it “was.”  John states that here, too.  Except that he changes it.  He personifies “the Word.”  He said, “He” – the word – “was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through him.”  And the understanding he gave here is that Jesus is that “Word.”

Think about it!  That would have been a powerful challenge to their understanding of God and of creation!  And I think it challenges ours, too.  Because it’s too easy for us to believe that Jesus came into existence when he was born – that first Christmas!  (Or that the Holy Spirit came into existence that first Pentecost!)  But here, John places Jesus back at the moment of creation!  He tells us that “the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  And all things were made through him!”

As I said, that would have been a huge challenge to their way of thinking!  John was also challenging the world around them.  Because the world around them was a Greek world.  And in the Greek world, many of their philosophers saw the “Logos” – the “Word” – as the “understanding” of God.  It was like an inner “spiritual knowledge.”  And they believed that, if you had that “spiritual knowledge,” then the body – the “flesh” – meant nothing.  So, in their understanding, you could be very “spiritual” – but then you could do anything you wanted with your physical body.  It didn’t matter!

Now, as crazy as that sounds, that false understanding would soon creep into the Church.  Later on, it would find its way into a sect of early Christianity that was known as “Gnosticism.”  Have you ever heard that word before?  Those who followed that belief – the Gnostics – would come to believe the same thing.  They would say that, if you had that “spiritual knowledge,” then the body – the flesh – didn’t matter!  You could do anything!  In some cases, that even included visiting the prostitutes in the pagan temples!  The body – the flesh – didn’t matter!

Sometimes I wonder if that Gnosticism isn’t still alive today!  How many Christians live as though being “spiritual“ is all that matters!  And whatever they do “in the flesh” is irrelevant!

John challenged all of them – and us – by putting those two things together!  And his challenge stands for all time!  John said, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us!”  And in that statement, he was saying that the spirit and the flesh are one!  We can’t separate them!  They are intertwined!  One affects the other!  There’s no way around that!  Later, the Apostle Paul would beg his people to “present their bodies as living sacrifices!”  “Because,” he said, “That is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12)  That is what our faith calls us to do and to be!

John continues to emphasize that here by going on to say that the Word “dwelt among us full of Grace and truth.”  And remember that Grace is the “unmerited favor” of God.  We don’t “deserve” God’s favor – because of our sin.  Because of the things we have done “in the flesh” – in our earthly bodies.  And in those words, we know that we need that Grace!  And we need the truth – the truth of our need for Grace!  John would go on to say in his first letter, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us!” (I John 1:8)

Do you see how every phrase in this passage is important!  And don’t worry, we won’t go through every phrase!  However, I would like to emphasize one further part of this.  It comes right after “The Word became flesh.”  That part ends with these words.  “And we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only son from the father.”

That’s another place where the first readers of this would have thought of their own scriptures – their Torah.  They would have thought of the passage (we read) from Exodus 33, where Moses asked to see God’s “glory.”  Moses was going through a tough time, and he needed some assurance that God was with him.  And in that story, God said, “Ok.  I’ll show you my glory.  But you can’t see my face!”  The people in those days believed that no one could see the face of God, or they would die!  So, as the story goes,  God passed by Moses, covering him with his hand, and then allowing Moses to see his glory from behind.

The Jewish people would have known that passage!  It was important to them!  And here again, John had the audacity to bring that into the story of Jesus!  “We have beheld his glory!”  They would also have remembered the story!  And the story from Exodus 40, where the people were in the wilderness and they saw of the glory of God in the Tabernacle.  That’s been called the “Shekinah” glory.  That was the way they knew that God was with them!

No doubt the people reading this would have known all of that.  And they would have been astonished as they read John’s words about Jesus!  I hope you see that these are truly some of the greatest words ever written!

But!  What does all of this mean to us?  (I hear you ask!)  Well, I believe John answers that question, too!  First, he tells us all this about Jesus, then he gives us a little of the story.  “He came to his own people, and his own people received him not.”  We know that part!  And the readers would learn that as they read the rest of this Gospel.  But then John gives us the connection!  And this is where this hits home!  “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the power to become children of God!” (John 1:11-12)

That’s the connection!  We can know all these great things about Jesus.  We can even accept that they’re true about him.  He came, he lived, he died, he rose.  But then there’s the personal part.  “To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God!”  There it is!  Lots of people today – and throughout history – have known about Jesus.  They may even have accepted these amazing things John is saying about him.  But do they receive him?  Do they believe?  Do they trust?

I know I’ve said this before.  The two words that define John’s Gospel are “belief” and “life.”  John said that himself.  “These things I have written that you may believe, and in believing have life.”  That’s the reason he wrote his Gospel.  That’s his message to all of history – and to us!

So, I ask you the question I’m asking in this sermon title.  Do you believe?  Have you received the atonement and reconciliation God freely offers in Jesus?  Do you trust your life to him?

We can ask ourselves that question every day!  And maybe we should!  That’s what this is about.  And I think John spells it out better than all the other Gospel writers!  Do we believe?  Do you believe?  That’s essence of our faith!  It’s not about the learning.  It’s not about what we accept to be fact – or not.  It’s about believing!  It’s about knowing what that means in our lives!  And we need to know that, to those who believe, “he gave” – and he still gives – “the power to become children of God!”

If you know that – and I hope you do – you can be sure of the great truth here in John’s Gospel, that “In him was life.  And the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never conquer it!”

Prayer

Eternal God, help us, not just to accept the facts about Jesus, but to receive him and to believe in his name!  Help us to know that we are your children, born of the spirit, subjects in your kingdom!  Help us always to be moving forward in our faith, seeking to grow closer to you in all that we do, always learning more and more what it means to be your people.  For we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen!