The Canadian author Alan Bradley has written eleven books. His first two didn’t amount to much. But then in 2009 he came up with a delightful new character. Flavia de Luce is a precocious thirteen-year-old who stumbles onto mysteries which she then solves – despite the opposition of her sisters and the ambivalence of her father. When Flavia’s “Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie” became a hit, she became the protagonist in nine additional novels. Eventually, Flavia de Luce became the only person of interest to author Alan Bradley. She was all that he could write about.
This First Epistle of John the Apostle, is filled with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is scattered – taught, highlighted, referenced and glorified – in all five chapters. Furthermore, we could say that He is the “protagonist” in all five of the Apostle John’s books and letters. This Bible penman is obsessed with Christ Jesus.
While using others, John uses one term to speak of Christ which is unique to him; no other Bible writer uses it. He calls Christ – the Son Jesus Christ. And elsewhere he speaks of the Lamb of God, the Alpha and Omega, and a couple other names. But here and in a few other places, John has something special to say about Christ Jesus. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of THE WORD OF LIFE…” To the best of my knowledge, neither Peter nor Paul, not Isaiah nor Jeremiah speak of the “Word of Life.” But John begins both his Gospel and his First Epistle with the title: “the Word of Life.” “And the WORD was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth” – John 1:14. Later in this epistle John says – “There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, THE WORD, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one.” And even when John was privileged to look into the future, he said in Revelation 19:12 – “I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war… And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and his name is called THE WORD OF GOD.” John is the only Bible penman whom the Spirit led to use the name “the Word,” but he did so consistently.
It is this title and this person, that I’d like to explore in the message.
We’ve already touched on it, but again, “Who is this Word of Life?”
The words: “Word” and “life” may provide clues, but they don’t supply any definitive answers. They are common New Testament terms – “logos” and “zoe.” “Logos” refers to something spoken, or to someone speaking, and it is used in many different ways. “Zoe” is the source of the scientific word “zoology” and the common word “zoo.” So they don’t tell us much in themselves, but there is a clue in the definite article – “THE Word of Life.” John is speaking about something or someone SPECIFIC – someone SPECIAL – “THE Word of Life.”
Whoever He is, John tells us that “the Word of Life” was there in the BEGINNING. Someone might say this refers to the beginning of Christian era, the beginning of Matthew, Mark and Luke. But as I tried to point out in an earlier message: John is reaching back before THAT particular beginning. At the beginning of beginnings, “was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life…” Whoever this Word is, He was present at the commencement of Creation. The Word was there when God said, “Let there be light, and there was light” – Genesis 1:3. So this Word was not created; He predates creation.
And the Word of life was both WITH God and at the same time He WAS God. I know, and admit, that this is deep stuff; this is the stuff of which theologians are made. But then all things were made by this Word of Life, and “without him was not anything made that was made.”
With these words, John takes us into the wonderfully sublime subject of the nature of God. The Bible teaches that Jehovah exists as one God in three persons – the Father, the Son and the Spirit. Point six in Spurgeon’s catechism – to which I referred in our last message, rightly declares – “There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one God, the same in essence, equal in power and glory.” When John says “the Word was with GOD,” he was saying that the “Word was with GOD THE FATHER.”
And all three persons of the Godhead were involved in the original creation. This is why Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, could speak about Christ, God’s Son, saying… “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins; Who is the image of the invisible God, the first born every creature; For by HIM were all things CREATED, that are in heaven, and that are in earth… all things were created by him, and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist” – Colossians 1:13-17. Hebrews 1 begins with the words: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the father by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.” God, the Father, created the worlds through His Son, whom we know as “the Lord Jesus Christ.” And Ephesians 3:9 adds, “God… created all things by Jesus Christ.”
John also tells us that God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was from the beginning, became incarnate. John and many others, got to know Him as a man. They heard his voice, they listened to his sermons, they studied his life. And John even laid his head upon the heart of the Lord; his hands handled the Son of God. Christ is the one John here calls “the Word of life.” But why again, did he use this title?”
What was it that God the Son SAID, which brought this title “WORD” into the heart of John?
I apologize for being redundant, but I need to take you back to Genesis 1 and the original creation. Verse 3 tells us – “And God SAID, Let there be light; and there was light.” He who is the Word, spoke and light appeared out of nothing. “And God SAID, Let there be a firmament… and it was so.” Eventually, the Word said, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life…” “And God SAID, let the earth bring forth the living creature… and it was so.” Why does John call the One he knew as “the Lord Jesus” – “the WORD of life?” Because Christ Jesus, the Son of God, spoke saying, “Let there be life and there was life.”
A few minutes ago we read the first half of Psalm 33. Did you notice verse 4 – “For the WORD of the Lord is right; and all his works are done in truth.” Verse 6 says, “By the WORD of the Lord were the heavens made…” And verse 9 – “For he spake, and it was done; he COMMANDED, and it stood fast.” We could multiply verses like these. For example there is Psalm 148:5 – “Let them praise the name of the Lord; for he commanded, and they were created.” WHO was it that commanded and they were created? The One who is elsewhere called “the Word.”
But someone might say – millions of people say – “Pastor Oldfield, I don’t believe any of this.” I understand; I was brought up in that same mind-set. I too was taught atheistic evolution from an early age, and I accepted it hook, line and sinker. But you know what? The Bible essentially prophesied that misdirected education of ours.
Hebrews 11 declares that FAITH is something foreign to the natural mind. “It is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Those of us who were taught “seeing is believing,” often find it impossible to believe without seeing. Many people just can’s see how the Triune God could exist all by himself and then one day create all things by nothing more than His will or His voice. And to us faithless people, God says in Hebrews 11:2, it is “through FAITH we understand that the worlds were framed – by – the – WORD – of God…” II Peter 3 adds to this thought: “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the WORD of God the heavens were of old…” It takes faith – a faith administered to the unbeliever by God – to believe that God created all things. It takes faith to believe that “the worlds were framed by the WORD of God.” BUT – it takes even more faith to believe that all things came into existence without God.
Man and his mind have accomplished unbelievable things over the last hundred years or so . For example, people used to say that man would never fly like the bird; now we fly better than the birds. People laughed at the idea of rockets carrying people to the moon and beyond. I remember when Christian Barnard performed the first heart transplant – impossible they said. During the 1940’s computers the size of rooms were being used to think through enigma puzzles. Now we have computers a hundred times more powerful, sitting in our pockets and purses. And during those 125 years of scientific study, men as smart and smarter as those people, have been working night and day to prove that they can create life. But they haven’t even come close to success. Life is beyond the capability of man, machine or millions of years.
However, the Son of God – the Word of life – spoke and life was established. The Word of life spoke, and life as varied as the fish in the sea sprang into existence. The Word of life spoke and earthly creatures from bees to bears and worms to wombats instantly appeared. And in referring to that Creator, John said, “these things write we unto you, that your JOY may be full.” In fellowship with the Creator – the Word – there is joy, and purpose, peace and hope.
But that fulness of joy is impossible for the one who denies or rejects the Word of life.
In this title of Christ, which is the more important part: “WORD” or “LIFE?”
We’ve already considered the fact that the Second Person of the Godhead spoke and CREATION appeared. As practical and important as that this, there is another aspect of this which is more important. God spoke and the lifeless moon and an innumerable number of stars appeared. God spoke and natural laws came into existence; rocks were formed and seas were gathered. But then the Word spoke again and there was LIFE.
We all should be able to recognize that life exists in different forms. About eighteen years ago, my daughter and I went out onto the property of a friend, and dug up four small trees to bring home and replant in our back yard. We selected four healthy, good looking saplings – full of life and promise. But after the second or third year, two of the four were dead. The two which remain are very much alive and trying their best to take over the back yard. Trees have life, roses have life and so do pansies. We know when they are alive, because we can see and even smell the life within them. And when they die, we know they are dead. But isn’t the life of a plant different from the life of a pet? Isn’t our sorrow different? Isn’t our life changed somewhat when a pet dies? And isn’t the life of a pet quite different from that of a parent – another person?
One summer in about the year 32 AD the Lord Jesus was in the region of Perea, preaching repentance and faith. Off in the distance His disciples could see someone running toward them; it was a Christian friend of theirs. Running right up to Christ, the man breathlessly sputtered, “Lord, behold he whom thou lovest is sick.” He was referring to Jesus’ friend Lazarus of Bethany – just outside of Jerusalem. Bethany was two, three or perhaps four days journey away. “When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified” – that the Word of Life might be glorified. When the last of His Perean appointments were met, Jesus and the disciples made their way to Bethany.
Condensing a familiar story, Jesus went to the tomb where the decaying body of Lazarus lay. And then the Word spoke. The same Word which said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, then said “Let there be life,” and there was life. More precisely the Word said, “Lazarus, come forth.” “And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with gravesclothes…” The Lord commanded and life was created.
A cedar tree has life, and so does a beautiful, prickly rose; a puppy has life and so does a human baby. A thirty-year-old man has one kind of life. But a thirty-year-old who has died and days later has had his life restored by the power of God – has another kind of life. He has resurrected life. And going one step farther, a thieving, perhaps murdering, malefactor has one kind of dying life. But a malefactor who is clinging by faith to the Word of Life, possesses a different kind of life. That humble believer possess a life which will carry him into paradise with his Saviour.
John says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
Why was John obsessed with Christ Jesus, the Word of Life? Why was He the theme of all his books and letters? Why was Christ almost the first word in the first, second and fifth of John’s works? Because without Him no one can have the most important kind of life – eternal life. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” – Acts 4:12. “He that believeth on the son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son of God hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him” – John 3:36. Christ Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the father but by him.” Again John said in I John 5:11 – “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
John’s obsession with the Word of Life, should draw our attention. It should demand that we pay attention and look to Him as well. There is no fellowship with God without the fellowship and the life provided by the Word of life. “No man cometh unto the father but by him.”
Have you come to God through the salvation provided by the Lord Jesus Christ? Is your faith in the Christ of Calvary? If you have not, I would love to talk with you more about this critical need of yours. As we sing a closing hymn, I invite you to step forward and take a seat on this front pew. Give me the opportunity to share with you the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.