Kung Fu on the Darkness

One sentence can change your whole future. We start there and follow John’s opening words to a staggering claim: Jesus is the Word of God, God’s heart spoken out loud, the One who makes the invisible God known.

We walk slowly through John 1:1-5 and John 1:14, including why tiny edits to the text can produce massive theological errors. From “the Word was God” to “the Word became flesh,” we talk about what Christians mean by the Trinity, why Jesus is not merely a teacher or a spiritual guide, and how John anchors the identity of Christ before time, space, and matter ever existed.

Then we connect theology to real life. If Jesus is the Creator, creation ex nihilo and the order of the universe are not random accidents, and “life” means more than biology. John’s zoe life becomes light, and darkness cannot overcome it. That leads straight to the heart of the gospel: forgiveness, reconciliation with God, and becoming a new creation by faith alone, not by religious effort.

If you feel stuck in darkness, distracted by dead things, or unsure what God thinks of you, this message points you back to Jesus as the clearest answer. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs light, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Transcript

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Words are invisible. Right? But they change everything. One sentence can start a war. One sentence can ruin a marriage or heal a marriage. A doctor can walk into a room and say a few words that change your entire future. I love you. You're

Words That Shape A Life

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fired. Cancer. You're forgiven. Welcome home. I'm so proud of you. Those are probably the most powerful sentences people can hear. They really impact us, right? Words reveal what's inside a person. And John says what we're gonna say today is Jesus is the word of God. Meaning Jesus is God's heart spoken out loud to us. That's what he is. He's God's thoughts and his heart walking around in strappy sandals. So this is the identity of the word that we're gonna learn about. John chapter 1, verse 1 says this in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. I'm gonna pause right there. There's a bad church out there that uses their own translation of the Bible that they completely make up and they add the word a right there. The word was a God. There's no reason in any manuscript that they should add that word, but they

John 1:1 And A Dangerous Edit

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do it because it aligns with their theology. And what they are is a giant cult. So if you have them show up at your doorstep and say, we would like to talk to you about Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. No, it is a complete false cult, and they use one word, they use this verse, and they add, they look at our Bible. It says Jesus was a God, and it's a lie. I want you to know it's a lie. Jesus was God. In the beginning was the word. How do you know that Jesus was? This is talking about Jesus. Well, when we look down at 14, verse 14, you'll see the word became flesh and dwelt among us. So that is clearly Jesus. That's what John is talking about here. Okay, verse 2. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him, nothing was made that was made. So John starts his gospel, not with the birth of Jesus, but he backs all the way up to the creation of the world, way back to the book of Genesis. He says, In the beginning was the word, where in the in the book of Genesis it says, in the beginning, God created everything. And then John says Jesus created everything. So what does that mean? Ding

Jesus As Creator Ex Nihilo

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ding ding. Jesus is the creator God. He literally created everything. He spoke five-dollar word right there. Ex nihilo. It means out of nothing. His words can create, he doesn't just form things together like taking some play-doh and some toys and making something. He at the exact same time. If you have matter and time, but no space, where are you gonna put it? If you don't have time, you just have two of them. When are you gonna put it? You have to have all three appear at the exact same time, and that's what God does. That's what Jesus did, that's what exnihilo means. So the point is that Jesus existed before time, space, and matter existed, and that's the beginning of the gospel. The word logos. Logos, okay? And so this just that one word is super important for us to understand because the Jewish rabbis, when they thought referred to God, they would they say that God would refer to himself as the word of God. So, like in Exodus 19, 17, it says, Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and Moses brought the people to meet the word of God, it says in the Hebrew translation.

Logos For Jews And Greeks

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So the rabbis were really big about this idea of God being his own word, was like it could define him. And then Greek philosophers, they would use logos long before the Bible was written, long before this, they would use that word logos to describe the power that puts sense to the world. The power that brings sense or clarity or or description to everything in the world. It's it's it's what it's the opposite of chaos. It's order. It's that's what the logos was. So it's the power that set the world in perfect order and kept it going in perfect order. See, the world back then was smart. They could see the world doesn't didn't just happen. All the birds and the bees didn't just happen, all the stars. They they could they were very smart, and they they attributed that to something called the Word. So when John says the word is Jesus, the Greek people were like, oh, he's God, he's the one that's controlling all things, he is the ultimate reason for all things. So it makes sense to them. So in this one opening, in the beginning was the word. John is saying to both the Jews and the Greeks, you guys have been talking for centuries about God and what runs the world. And I'm gonna tell you right now, in the first sentence, it's Jesus. He is God, he runs the world, he's what makes everything make sense. This logos, this word reveals who God is, even though God's invisible, right? We know that God's invisible. Words are invisible too. But when you hear a word, it inputs truth into your heart, your mind first, but it can go into your heart. So when someone says to you, in truth, I love you, I value you, I'm gonna be there for you, what that's doing is it's it's saying something into your brain, but it's also saying something to your heart. It's putting truth in your heart. But a person's words are distinct from that person, but they embody the mind and the will of the person that spoke those words. And this also describes Jesus because he's not the father, but he accomplishes everything that the father imagines with his mind. So you if you can think about it, the father is like the thought and Jesus the word, and then you can even put the Holy Spirit as the action that gets things done in time and space. Okay, so as we look then at verse 14, it says really clearly, it says, The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So in the beginning it says he was with God. That means they're they were separate beings, but he also was

The Word Became Flesh

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God, so they're one. So how can that happen? They're separate, but they're one. But he's also fellowshipping with God. So how can that all be? In the beginning, he was in the beginning with God. This all speaks of something we call the Trinity, and the Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all one. So John basically he's using logic to try to show us and teach us what the Trinity is. And you'll have some people try to tell you, well, the word Trinity is not in the Bible, so it's not biblical. And that's very much not true. Okay? Well, it's true

Making Sense Of The Trinity

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that the word trinity isn't in the Bible. That's a word we invented to try to explain God's reality, who who God is and what God is really like. So there's this is John's logic. Just go with me here. There is a being known as the Word, and this being is God because he's eternal, he was in the beginning. Okay, so that defines him as God, he's the source of all things. This being is God because he's plainly called God, also. The word was God. At the same time, this being does not encompass all that God is, because God the Father is a distinct being from the Word. It says the Word was God. So the Father and the Son are equally God, yet distinct in their person. So the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father, yet they're both God equally. And you add the Holy Spirit in there, it gets three times as confusing. But it's one God with three distinct persons. It is not something we can understand with our measly little brains, but it's still the truth that's revealed in the Bible. God wants us to understand about him, but we can't literally understand how it all works together. So again, he says, and the word was God. So everything that can be seen about God or known about God is said through the Son. So when people come to you and say, hey, God revealed something to me, you need to be skeptical. It has to line up with everything that Jesus said. If someone says, Well, I love God, but I don't really like Jesus, they don't know God. They don't love God. They love maybe a false God, but it's not the real God. Jesus is the perfect reflection of God, and he gives us the perfect truth about God. So what he says is true about God. So everything we can ever know about God, we can find through Jesus. So you want to know what Jesus thinks and feels about you? What God thinks and feels about you? You can see what Jesus thinks and feels about you. It's written right there for you. Jesus' words are written down for us, and we can investigate it and we can find it. All right, back in verse 3. All things were made through him, and without him, nothing was made that has been made. So if you've met personally with me, you know my one of my favorite things to study is creation science. I love studying about creation and science and mixing them together is amazing. In Colossians chapter 1, verse 16, it says, For by him, Jesus, all things were uh created

Creator God And Real Science

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that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things consist. All right. So Jesus literally knows more about science than any of us. He invented science, he invented everything, he is the source of it all. He is eternal God, he's not some guru, he's not some good guy, he's not just a political leader, he's not just a religious leader, he's literally the source and sustainer of all life, matter, and thought and spiritual things, too. And then it says this in him was life in verse 4. In John chapter 1, verse 4, in him was life, and that life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. In him was life. So this word of God, this Jesus, was the

Zoe Life And Light Wins

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source of all life, and not just biological life, because that in Greek is the word bios. And that's not the word that he uses here. Yes, he is the source of all biological life, he created it all, but the word that he uses here is the word Zoe. And the word Zoe, Z-O-E. Pretty easy. In Greek, that means the life principle, the source of all the all our idea, all our passion, all our identity, all of life. He is the source of that life, as well as biological life. So is it profitable to study science and all the biological stuff? Yeah, it's great. And Jesus absolutely loves that stuff. He invented it, he thinks it's great. As you are living in this world, you know that everything about the world, they want you to think that science is somehow against Jesus or against God. I was watching this movie Greenland 2 this week. You guys seen that movie? It's new on Netflix or something. And in this movie, there was this ridiculous example. I like making fun of movies when they are dumb. And there was this ridiculous scene where they're okay, those so the world has been destroyed by a meteor, and so they're their place is falling into the ocean with earthquakes, and so they have to find a new place to live. And so there's this scientist, and you know she's a scientist because she's a scientist, and she just is trying to say, okay, the place where the the thing landed, it's all destroyed. Like there's all these terrible things there. There's fire, there's earthquakes. She lists all these ingredients of natural disasters, and then she's like, so maybe that's what could create life. And literally she says, not just like we could live there, but she her point was maybe you just add all the ingredients in this blender and it will magically produce life. And I was like, how can they put this in a movie because it's so stupid? It's like saying, here's a bunch of trash and destructive stuff. Let's see if it makes the Empire State Building. By doing nothing except adding more chaos to it. It's like, it's like saying, here's a bunch of sand, make an iPhone just by dancing around on the sand. It's it's like saying, put all your clothes in a dryer and put it on for a million years and see if one day when you open it, it's all it doesn't happen. It's impossible. Once things are going towards chaotic, it it always is gonna go more chaotic. You only intelligent life can produce order. Jesus made everything, he knows what he's doing, and it's just the world is so backwards when it's thinking that it created or chaos created everything that we see around us, all the order that we see around us. Only Jesus can produce life, but not just this biological life. I know that was my example, but our purpose in life. Jesus is the only one that that does that. You see, in Mark 10, 6, Jesus says, From the beginning of creation, God, which is me, made them male and female. What is he doing there? He's creating the institution of marriage, he's creating something that is invisible, but is gonna impact every single person. He's saying, I created, I also created Adam and Eve, and I created them to get married. And by the way, I did all that at the beginning. So if you think Adam and Eve and Eve didn't live at the beginning of creation, you're disagreeing with what Jesus clearly says. So what is going on here? Jesus is saying, I give not only all of life life, I give your life meaning and purpose. This is what we call light in our life. So when you have life, your life can either be a light filled with light or a light filled with a life filled with darkness. So creation itself is proof of Jesus' power and authority. But even more than that, it's like a setup. Because if all things were made through him in the beginning, then there's a recreation possible. There, he can remake our lives after we've screwed them up. After we've walked in darkness, he is able to recreate or bring new life to us. Your new life doesn't come from lawkeeping or your own efforts to produce light in and of yourself, it comes from the one who creates it, which is Jesus. And it's a free gift that he's offering to every person. So it says, This life was the light of men. This is talking about that spiritual light, as well as natural light, right? He's the light of the world. So when Jesus gets crucified, what happens to the sun? It stops shining for three hours when Jesus is crucified. But our life is darkness without Christ. We are already without Jesus, we are already in darkness. We are fearfully lost if we are without Christ. Significantly, we are all born in fear of, like we're all afraid of the dark at some point in our life. We we just have this inborn fear of darkness. And it says that the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it. And that's what it says in in this version. And um the word comprehend is actually not the best translation for that Greek word. It's it would be better as overcome. The darkness could not overcome the light. In other words, the light cannot lose against the darkness. Jesus' light is like kung fu on the darkness. Okay, he's not gonna lose, he he's always gonna overcome. So the and I'll explain the word to you. So the Greek verb that's used is not easy to translate. So it has the idea of laying hold of something as to make it your own. And so that's why some translators use the word comprehend, because like you're laying hold of a concept to make it your own. But this can um, but the verb we're discussing has a different meaning, uh, an additional meaning that's actually more applicable here, which is to overcome it. And that's actually what's best here. So why does that matter? Well, in the first creation, darkness was on the face of the deep. You remember back in Genesis chapter one, it says darkness was over the face of the deep, and then God spoke, and there was light. Remember that? Spoke, Word Kung Fu on the darkness. So God brought the light into being through his word in the book of Genesis at the beginning of our creation of our world, and so the exact same thing is what Jesus, the point of the gospel, is that he is gonna banish spiritual darkness in our lives by the light that he is gonna give to the world through his own power. He is the light of the world, so that's what that means. The light, the darkness will not overcome the light that Jesus is the light in both situations, he's the word in both situations. In creation, he banished the dark, and in our spiritually dark world, he banishes the works of the devil in our lives, that he has brought darkness to us with his power and love. And this is the heart of the gospel, guys. This is the eternal creator who becomes our savior. So, because of this light, what it means is God is full. You not against you. He sees that you're you were in darkness and he does not want to leave you there. He's gonna do everything in his power to give you light and to rescue you from darkness. That is his sure intention. The second thing, not only is he your friend, he's for you. Forgiveness is secured by this work of grace that God, the way that God gives light to us is he says, I'm gonna forgive you. And that's why Jesus died on the cross for us, is because he had to pay our debt. What debt? The debt of sin that we all owed to God, which was Him. He created us, we rebelled against Him, He loves us enough to pay the debt for us and invite us back into a love relationship with Him, which we should have been in from the beginning, but we messed it all up. So you're brought into God's family by His life, not by your life, by His performance, not by your performance, by His light. That's the light of the gospel. So what does this mean for us? Well, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, it says this Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. What's the old creation? The first creation, right? Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. So the requirement is that we be in Christ. Well, great. Guys, how do we get in Christ? This is a very simple answer.

New Creation And Reconciliation

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By faith alone. All you have to do is put your faith, your trust in Him alone. And that is all that's required. We talked about baptism. Baptism is a great good deed that we do after we're saved to shout and praise God for our salvation, but it's a good deed nonetheless. It's something we do afterwards. So the result of trusting in God, it says here in 2 Corinthians, is that you become a new creation. You have a new life, which means new light in you. How does that happen? Well, he says, old things pass away, old things are dead and destroyed on the cross. They're even buried with him, and we're given this new life that's filled with something called resurrection power. And it's all this new life. Jesus coming to life again is new life, and he shares new life with us, and none of it is dependent on you and how hard you try. It's all simply entered by faith. God gives his grace to those who put their trust in him with humility. All we do is throw ourselves exclusively on him and wait upon him, and it's all yours. Now look what he says. The next verse, he says, Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ. So we as believers, we live in this light, we live through this light, and we let this light of the gospel shine out from us. What is the light again? You guys are a new creation, you are saved, you are good, you're healed, you're forgiven, and God loves you so we can share that love with other people. Then he says, and he's given to us this ministry of reconciliation. That is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Does the world have to pay for all their sins? No, they can't. We didn't have to pay. We were let off free by the grace of God. And he says, That's the mission, is that we give this grace to every person in the world. We love unlovable people. We forgive even when they don't ask. We will act exactly like Jesus because it's Jesus who lives inside us and has created a new heart inside us that is literally his heart. We're like, we have little Jesus hearts inside us. That's what you really want. It's what the who you are in your deepest identity. You are one with him. He shares his life with you. Nothing matters. And so it says, now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. It couldn't be any more clear. Nothing else matters besides this. The focus is all on Jesus. So what are we learning today? I want you to count the cost. Count the cost. What is your life about? If you count it up, what you're spending your life on, what are you spending your life on? Is your life a light, a life of light? Or are you messing around with the darkness? In Luke chapter 9, verse 60, Jesus said,

Count The Cost And Trust Jesus

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Let the dead bury their own dead. You go preach the kingdom of God. So this guy came up to Jesus and he said, I'll follow you. You're awesome, but I'm gonna bury my dad first. And here's the thing. You're like, and Jesus is like, don't mess around with that. And you're like, that's mean of Jesus. He's telling him not to go to his dad's funeral. No, his dad wasn't even dead yet. He's saying, I want to get my dad's inheritance and be set financially before I commit anything to you, Jesus. I want to have my inheritance before I give everything to you, Jesus. And Jesus is saying, bro, you need to count the cost. Follow me first and let the dead bury their own dead. But what he means by dead, he uses a different word. He uses the word spiritually inert, spiritually dead, spiritually lifeless. He says, Don't mess around with spiritually bankrupt things. Your money is a spiritually bankrupt, it can be a spiritually bankrupt thing if you're putting your hope in it. But anything you put your hope in that's not me is not light, it's darkness. And so that's what he means. Anything that's not about him and his gospel and the light that he gives, which is love and caring about other people, it's a distraction. And Jesus is saying to us, I'm asking you, follow me. And do what? Preach the gospel. All you have to do is be yourself because the gospel lives in you, the gospel lives in your heart. That's what we believe. Jesus Himself is the gospel, he is the light, he is the word. So all you gotta do is look at someone and say, God, give me a heart of love for that person, and then go talk to them. Go talk to them, go listen to them, and do whatever the Lord puts on your heart to meet their needs and care for them. That's what it means. And what's gonna happen when we do that is you're basically begging people to be reconciled to God, to be connected back with God. Are you reconciled with God? There's only one way for that to happen. That's I put my faith in the death and the life resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not my own works, not my own deeds, not my own efforts. It's just him. This is really clear in scripture. It's not about what I do, it's about what he did, and I put my hope in him completely. Then what happens is he shares his life with us. In Galatians 2.20, it says, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The one thing needed for all of your daily life with Jesus is faith. The same thing that started your relationship with Jesus was faith. And that's all that's needed daily today is faith. So today is an encouragement, an exhortation to put our faith in the word of God and trust in what he does, what he did, and what he's going to do in and through you. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand and we'll pray. Jesus, you are life, you are light, you are everything. I need you and you alone. I turn control of my life over to you in every way.

Closing Prayer Of Surrender

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I turn control in my life over to you in every way. Not out of religious obligation, but as a response of love. I choose to receive your love. I choose to believe it. And I choose to let your life and your love shine through me as light coming out of a lantern. I choose to turn my back on all the dead ways, all the dead things that I have done in my life that I that I am still tempted to partake in. All the stuff that isn't of you. It's dead, and you are life. And Jesus, I receive your life as the free gift it is. And then my only response today is that I I give my life back to you because Jesus, it belongs to you. You have bought me with a price, and I give you my words, my thoughts, my hopes. Jesus, let your light shine in my heart. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.