Why All the Excitement?

Jesus Christ is the most remarkable and fascinating person in history. He has
inspired more hope, taught more compassion, and shown more love than any
other man who has ever lived.

When He walked on earth, Jesus stirred people wherever He went. Crowds
followed Him; hands reached out to Him; voices called to Him; people pushed
and sometimes trampled one another just to see Him, to hear Him teach, to bring
their sick to be healed.

Jesus' popularity grew until many wanted to make Him king of the Jews. Once,
when He entered Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel, crowds lining the wayside
pulled off their cloaks and broke off palm branches to throw in front of Him.
Voices shouted:

"Hosanna to the Son of David!"
"Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Hosanna in the highest!"
When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city took notice.
People gathered asking, "Who is this man?"
Others answered, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth"
(Matthew 21:9-11).

What was there about this man that caused a stir wherever He went? Down
through the centuries, countless millions of people have considered the historical
person of Jesus of Nazareth. Today men and women everywhere are excited
about Him.

[1]

Indeed, there has never been anyone who could compare with Jesus of Nazareth.
Philip Schaff, well-known historian and author of The History of the Christian
Church, said:

Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than
Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed and Napoleon; without science and learning, He
shed more light on things human and divine than all the philosophers and scholars
combined; without the eloquence of the school, He spoke words of life such as
were never spoken before, nor since, and produced effects which lie beyond the
reach of orator or poet.

Without writing a single line, He has set more pens in motion and furnished
themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, works of art, learned volumes,
and sweet songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and
modern times.

Born in a manger and crucified as a malefactor, He now controls the destinies of
the civilized world and rules a spiritual empire which embraces one-third of the
inhabitants of the globe.1

Indeed, without fear of contradiction, we can regard Jesus Christ as history's
greatest revolutionary. Everything about Him was unique: the prophecies of His
coming. His birth. His life. His teachings. His miracles. His death. His
resurrection. His influence on history and in the lives of hundreds of millions of
people.

What does all this mean to us today? The Bible tells us:

Christ is the exact likeness of the unseen God. He existed before God made
anything at all, and, in fact, Christ himself is the Creator who made everything in
heaven and earth, the things we can see and the things we can'<%%12>t...He was
before all else began and it is his power that holds everything together (Colossians
1:15-17, TLB).

His creation includes you. Since we are created by Jesus Christ, He alone holds
the answer to the basic questions of life: Who am I? Where did I come from?
Why am I here? Where am I going?

[2]

What does John mean when he calls Jesus the Word or Logos?

Background. Why is Jesus called the Word?

In John's day when he was writing this book, there was a way this word Logos
(Word) was used. It was kind of the hot spiritual word of the day. Plato had
come up with the idea that behind the material world, there had to be a thought.
That this world didn't just happen, but that there was a thought behind it. And
that the material world is really just a shadow, compared to the solid world of the
thought. He called the thought, Logos. So in the Greek mind, the force behind
everything was the Logos. The Logos was the reality, the material world, the
shadow.

But then the Jews got a hold of this idea and a Jewish thinker named Philo came
along and with his background of the Old Testament said, "if there is a thought,
there must be a Thinker behind the thought." This Thinker, he called the Logos.
So the Logos became thought personified. And in John's day, this was the hot
spiritual debate. Is the Logos the thought that produces the material world, or is
there more to logos still, is there a thinker behind the Logos.

And what John is saying here is yes there is, He is the Eternal One who is from
the beginning. He is the Logos of God, the very expression of God Himself.

Now there would have been something else in John's mind here as well. And that
is the way that term "Word" or "The Word of the Lord" was used in the Old
Testament. When

God spoke in the Old Testament it would often times be described like this.

Exegesis. The word, "Word" here in the Greek is Logos. In the book of
Revelation chapter 19, we read of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, notice
how Jesus is described

From the OT: To bring deliverance; to create

When - already existed (always existed)
When - fellowship
Was - was God; Word shares in coequality; demonstrates
the deity of Jesus

v 1 Word = remember, God created the world by His word.

Developing Old Testament ideas (e.g., Ps 33:6; Prov 8:30), Jewish teachers
emphasized that God had created all things through his Wisdom/Word/Law and
sustained them because the righteous practiced the law. (Some even pointed out
that Gen 1 declared "And God said" ten times when he was creating, and this
meant that God created all things with his Ten Commandments.) Ancient Jewish
teachers would have agreed with verse 3.[3]

Reference.

(Psalm 33:6 NASB)

6 By the ?a?word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And ?b?by the breath of His mouth ?c?all their host.[4]

(Proverbs 8:30 NASB)

30 Then ?a?I was beside Him, as a master workman;
And I was daily His delight,
?1?Rejoicing always before Him, .[5]

(2 Peter 3:5 NASB)

?5? For this they willfully forget: that ?f?by the word of God the heavens were of
old, and the earth ?g?standing out of water and in the water, [6]

The heavens were created and the earth was composed out of water and through
water; and through these waters the ancient world perished, when it was
overwhelmed in a deluge of water.

v 2 He = this one; i.e., the Word.
v 3 were made = became (i.e., came into existence through Him).

When the world had its beginning, the Word was already there; and the Word
was with God; and the Word was God. This Word was in the beginning with
God. He was the agent through whom all things were made; there is not a single
thing which exists in this world which came into being without him.

v 10 this verse identifies the Word ('?Logos') as the Creator.

Also: (Proverbs 8:23 NASB)

23 ?m?I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before
there was ever an earth.[7]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1]Bright, B. (1994). 10 Basic Steps : The Christian Adventure, Step 1. Orlando,
FL: NewLife Publications.

[2]Bright, B. (1994). 10 Basic Steps : The Christian Adventure, Step 1. Orlando,
FL: NewLife Publications.

Law *?Law. "Torah" (the Hebrew word behind the Greek word translated
"law") means literally "instruction" and "teaching," not just regulations. It was also
used as a title for the first five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch, the
books of Moses) and sometimes for the whole Old Testament. This commentary
uses the translation "law" because it is familiar to readers of most translations,
even though the English term's semantic range is much narrower than the Jewish
concept.

[3]Keener, C. S., & InterVarsity Press. (1993). The IVP Bible background
commentary : New Testament (Jn 1:3). Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.

?a? Gen 1:6; Ps 148:5; Heb 11:3
?b? Ps 104:30
?c? Gen 2:1

[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995 (Ps 33:6). LaHabra, CA:
The Lockman Foundation.

?a? John 1:2, 3
?1? Or Playing

[5]New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995 (Pr 8:29). LaHabra, CA:
The Lockman Foundation.

f ?Gen. 1:6?, ?9?; ?Heb. 11:3?
g ?Ps. 24:2?; ?136:6?

[6]The New King James Version. 1996, c1982 . Thomas Nelson: Nashville

m [?Ps. 2:6?]

[7]The New King James Version. 1996, c1982 (Pr 8:22). Nashville: Thomas
Nelson.

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