12th February 2012 In the beginning

Today's reading came from John's Gospel (Chapter 1 verses 1-14).
We recalled how the Good News about Jesus and His death and resurrection was passed on orally for about 20 years before the first writings that we can find in the Bible.  These writings were the letters that Paul wrote to the various churches and people he had visited in his travels.  It was not until about AD70 that the first Gospel was written (that of Mark) and the Gospel of John was written even later.
John's purpose in writing was to show WHY Jesus came as well as what He said and did.

From the passage we noticed:
v. 1  "In the beginning..."   (same words as the start of Genesis)
v. 2  With God    (Jesus was there before the creation)
v. 3  No pre-existing stuff  (creation of everything out of nothing)
v. 4  the LIFE was the LIGHT of men  (Jesus is the Light of the world)
v. 5  The light shines in the darkness  (He came into a dark and sinful world)
v. 6-9  Preparation in Israel – John the Baptist
       (John called people to say sorry for the wrongs of the past and be baptised ready
           for the coming of Jesus)
v. 10  the world did not know him  (the Jews did not recognise that He  was the Messiah
              they had been waiting for)
v. 11  His own did not accept him   (the Jewish people did not accept Him)
v. 12  but to all who received him, he gave power to become the children of God
             (but those who accept Him are able to live as God wants us to live)
v. 14  and we have seen his glory
             (various occasions are recorded in the Bible when the glory of Jesus was shown
              - His baptism by John the Baptist being one of those, read about it in John Chapter 1;
                  also the transfiguration which is recorded in Luke Chapter 9)

We emphasised the value of daily reading of the Bible and suggested reading the Gospel of John a little a day over the next month.  Copies were available.