It’s the Saturday Do It Yourself edition of Scripture for Students. Grab your Bible for some hands-on.
This is Scripture for Students. I’m Steve Whitacre, president of Trinity College and a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. I want to help students build a daily habit for life-long Bible reading. Today is December 21, 2024 and this is a special Saturday DIY episode, so grab your Bible and get a pen and your journal or some paper.
Over the last couple weeks, we’ve looked at Christmas from a bunch of angles. If you’ve been following this podcast throughout December, you may have noticed that we have looked at Christmas from the perspective of the Old Testament prophets, from the book of Revelation, and especially from Luke and Matthew’s gospels, which we normally think of as the Christmas story proper.
Over the next few days, between now and Christmas, we’re going to look at Christmas from a different vantage point: from John’s gospel. John always comes at things a little bit differently than Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
For this Scripture for Students DIY, let’s look at John 1:1–18.
John 1:1–18
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”)
16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
May the Lord bless the reading, hearing, and keeping of God’s Word.
After this episode, I would like you to take a little bit of time and read slowly through John 1:1–18. Write down as many kinds of imagery or metaphor that you can find. How many different images does John use to explain who Jesus is and what he is like? Works like Word, life, light, and more. These are all very significant. For each of these words, answer two questions: how does this imagery help me see man’s need for a Savior? How does this imagery help me see how God provides a Savior?
Let me try to give you one example here of what I mean. John says in verse 5, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” What does John mean here? How does this imagery help me see man’s need for a savior? Darkness is a problem. We could say that the world is a dark place in the sense that there is a lot of evil and wickedness. But we could also think about darkness in relation to the ways that sins blinds people to the truth. If you have ever tried to do anything kind of normal when the power is out at your house, darkness is disorienting. It keeps us from seeing clearly, from knowing where things are and what things are like in relation to other things. Darkness magnifies our fears. That’s what sin is like.
But, first, it says that light shines in the darkness. Did you notice the verb shines? It is present tense, and ongoing. It’s not just that the light shone (past tense) or will shine (future tense), the light has come and is now shining. And it says that the darkness has not overcome it. That’s really great news because it tells us something about the nature of sin. Just as darkness is driven out of a room by turning on a light, so darkness is vanquished in the world as this light—Jesus Christ himself—comes into the world. Isn’t that a beautiful picture? If the lights are on in a room, you can’t add more darkness to the room to somehow overcome the light. But you can add more light so that the darkness is driven out of every corner of that room. Now over to you: think about how Jesus has come into the world as light. How does the gospel shine forth and illuminate the way the world really is so that we can see clearly the ways that we sin and the ways we need salvation?
Now pick 1 or 2 of the other images in John 1. Word, life, light, witness, people, children—there is a lot to work with here.
Take some time thanking God for what we learn about Christmas from John chapter 1.
That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend and follow us on Apple Podcasts.
This content is sponsored by Trinity College of Louisville. We shape young men and young women for Christ and for the church. Learn more at TrinityCollegeLou.com. Until next time, keep growing!