In the Beginning Was the Word (The Gospel of John, Week 1)

Devotional

Day 1: The Cosmic Word Before Bethlehem

John’s gospel pulls back eternity’s curtain to reveal Jesus present at creation’s first breath. This isn’t the Bethlehem baby but the uncreated Word who spoke galaxies into being, who shaped mountains and mitochondria. To know Jesus is to grapple with a Person so vast He holds subatomic particles and supernovas in His hands. The same voice that said “Let there be light” now calls your name. [44:04]

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1-3, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you reduced Jesus to a problem-solver for earthly struggles rather than worshipping Him as the Architect of reality itself?

Day 2: The Pocket-Sized God and Cosmic Re-Creation

We cling to doll-sized deities – manageable comforters for stomachaches – while John introduces a cosmic Re-Creator. Like a child outgrowing stuffed animals, disciples must release domesticated Christs. The real Jesus doesn’t rearrange furniture in your life; He demolishes the house and rebuilds it earthquake-proof. Resurrection, not renovation, is His trade. [54:39]

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14, ESV)

Reflection: What chaos in your life have you deemed “too big” for Jesus, forgetting He scripted the laws of thermodynamics?

Day 3: When Theologians Miss God

Religious experts crucified God because He didn’t match their expectations. Our mental file cabinets labeled “Divine” often lack space for a homeless Messiah who eats with traitors. John warns: worship the Jesus who scandalized synagogues, not the sanitized version that confirms your biases. True Godness looks like calloused hands washing feet. [01:02:07]

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. (John 1:18, ESV)

Reflection: What respectable religious boxes have you constructed that Jesus’ actual words and actions would shatter?

Day 4: Chased by Love Before Our First Breath

The graduation scene flips the script: before children fumble gratitude, parents roar love. So with Christ. While we schemed self-salvation projects, He invaded our Egypts. Not because we recited creeds correctly, but because His nature is relentless pursuit. Every spiritual effort begins as response to His initiating shout across eternity’s canyon. [01:09:15]

The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you. (Deuteronomy 7:7-8, ESV)

Reflection: Where are you still performing for love Jesus shouted over you before your first heartbeat?

Day 5: Faith as Docking in God’s Faithfulness

Aging ships don’t anchor themselves – they drift toward harbors. So faith isn’t our straining to believe harder, but stilling to be found. The same Word that hovered over primordial waters now pilots our chaos. Our task? Stop rowing. Drop anchor. Let His faithfulness become the port that cradles our creaking hulls. [01:05:24]

From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. (John 1:16, NLT)

Reflection: What storm-tossed area of life needs you to stop bailing water and start trusting the Ocean-Maker’s grip?

Sermon Summary

John opens by sending listeners back to Genesis with in the beginning, locating Jesus as the preexistent Word who was with God and was God, the agent of creation whose life is the light that darkness cannot overcome. The prologue insists that identity precedes activity: before any healings or teachings, the Word stands as Creator and Light. The paradox with God and was God is left as holy mystery the church would wrestle with, not a riddle to flatten.

John the Baptist steps in as a witness to the light, not the light himself. His calling is not to build a brand or gather a movement but to point away from himself toward Jesus. The light enters the world he made, comes to his own, and is not received, yet those who do receive him are given the right to become children of God, not by ancestry or human will but by new birth, across every nation. The Word becomes flesh and tabernacles among people, and glory appears, full of grace and truth. Moses gives the law; Jesus Christ brings grace and truth; the Son, who is himself God and near the Father’s heart, makes God known.

From that foundation, three claims land. First, Jesus is big. The Creator does not fit in a pocket. The Snoopy story names how small comforts feel fine until the weight of real sorrow exposes them as powerless. The Creator does not enter a life to tweak it but to resurrect it, to recreate and renarrate the story from the beginning. Jesus the Recreator becomes the right banner for what the prologue promises.

Second, Jesus is God. The confession is not just that Jesus is like God but that God is like Jesus. Religious experts appear as most resistant because fixed notions of God can crowd out the living God when he comes. The searching question follows: when God is imagined, does the picture look like Jesus?

Third, Jesus loves. Deuteronomy’s logic still holds: God pursues not because people are impressive but because he loves. Grace in place of grace names a life lived from generous abundance, gift after gift. Miroslav Volf’s line reframes assurance: salvation rests on God’s faithfulness, with faith as its fruit. The eighth grade moment where parents shout I love you first pictures how Christ calls a name before a response. Worship, then, becomes response, because he first came.

Key Takeaways

1. Jesus is big, not pocket-sized [55:50] The Word who created all things refuses to be a mascot or a life upgrade. When the crisis hits, a shrunken god is exposed as powerless, but the Creator is able to reframe the whole scene. Inviting Jesus means welcoming resurrection, not rearranged furniture. The new beginning of John signals a whole-life renarration under the Maker of heaven and earth. [55:50]
2. God is like Jesus [01:01:17] The claim that Jesus is God unsettles tidy logic and cherished categories. The surprise is not that Jesus resembles God but that God’s heart, glory, and way look like Jesus. The safest theology can become the most closed if it cannot make room for the Son. Real knowledge of God takes shape by looking at Jesus. [61:17]
3. Grace upon grace remakes a life [01:07:08] From his fullness comes gift after gift, a cadence of generosity that does not run dry. Faith itself grows as fruit of God’s prior faithfulness, which steadies the soul when faith feels thin. Adoption, new birth, and daily mercies come as undeserved abundance. Life under that abundance learns to receive before it tries to achieve. [67:08]
4. True witness points away from self [46:13] John the Baptist models a vocation that refuses spotlight and trades status for testimony. His joy is to decrease so that the Light is seen. The church learns here that credibility grows as self-importance shrinks. Real influence is the clarity with which Jesus is named and seen. [46:13]
5. The Word tabernacles to recreate [50:13] God’s glory no longer hides in a tent but dwells among and in people. The presence that filled the tabernacle now fills a people Jesus remakes from the ground up. In the beginning returns as a present tense, as the Creator writes a new chapter. Redemption is not a patch but a new creation. [50:13]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[37:05] - Series kickoff with Larry
[37:25] - Soccer Nights and city invite
[39:14] - Multi-year journey through John
[41:25] - John as the maverick Gospel
[42:31] - In the beginning: the Word
[46:13] - John the Baptist bears witness
[47:26] - Rejection and adoption as children
[49:14] - The Word tabernacles among us
[55:50] - Jesus is big, not small
[57:38] - Creation renarrated and recreated
[60:02] - Jesus is God, scandal and claim
[64:55] - God’s faithfulness before human faith
[67:31] - Love speaks first: graduation scene
[70:12] - Worship as response to initiative

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
John 1:1-14 (ESV)
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.

Observation Questions

What does John 1:1-3 reveal about Jesus’ role in creation, and how does this connect to the opening words of Genesis?
According to John 1:6-8, what was John the Baptist’s purpose, and how does this contrast with how people often view leadership or influence today?
The sermon mentions a story about a Snoopy doll being powerless against life’s bigger struggles. How does this analogy illustrate the difference between a “pocket-sized god” and the Jesus described in John 1? [55:50]
What does it mean that the Word “dwelt among us” (John 1:14), and how does this relate to the Old Testament tabernacle?

Interpretation Questions

Why does John emphasize that Jesus was both “with God” and “was God” (John 1:1)? How might this paradox challenge or deepen someone’s understanding of who Jesus is?
The sermon states, “The safest theology can become the most closed if it cannot make room for the Son.” What does this mean, and how might religious experts or traditions today struggle with this? [01:01:17]
In John 1:12-13, becoming a child of God is described as a result of “new birth,” not human effort. How does this redefine belonging or identity compared to cultural or familial expectations?
The tabernacle in Exodus was a physical dwelling place for God’s glory. How does Jesus “tabernacling among us” redefine where and how God’s presence is experienced? [50:13]

Application Questions

The sermon warns against treating Jesus as a “pocket-sized god” for minor life tweaks. What areas of your life do you tend to minimize Jesus’ role in, and what would it look like to invite Him to “recreate” those areas instead? [55:50]
If “God is like Jesus,” how might your view of God’s character or priorities need to shift? What specific traits of Jesus (e.g., grace, humility, sacrifice) challenge your assumptions about God? [01:01:17]
The sermon says faith is a “fruit of God’s faithfulness,” not a condition for His love. How could trusting this truth change how you respond to seasons when your faith feels weak or uncertain? [01:07:08]
John the Baptist’s joy was to “decrease so the Light is seen.” Where in your life (work, relationships, social media) do you struggle to point away from yourself and toward Jesus? What practical step could you take this week? [46:13]
The analogy of parents shouting “I love you” first at a graduation illustrates God’s initiative in loving us. How can you actively receive His love this week instead of striving to “achieve” His approval? [01:07:31]
The sermon describes redemption as “a new creation, not a patch.” What broken area in your life or community needs Jesus’ recreating power rather than a quick fix? How can you surrender it to Him?

Sermon Clips

45s

#JesusIsBig

“``The gospel of John is trying to get us to understand the scope and the scale of who god is and the scope and scale of who Jesus is. Jesus is big. And when you come up against that big thing that comes into your life that threatens to throw you overboard, remember that the Jesus that you call to is the very one who created all things. The gospel of John is telling us that when you invite Jesus into your life, don't invite don't follow a pocket sized, domesticated Jesus that conforms to your agenda and your desires.”

66s

#JesusRecreates

“And it all makes sense. Of course, when you invite the creator of the entire universe into your life, he's gonna do more than just rearrange the furniture. When Jesus comes into our lives, Jesus comes to recreate and re narrate everything in our lives. This is why the gospel of John opens with those words, in the beginning. John, when he says in the beginning, yes, it's meant to evoke the creation narrative in the book of Genesis. But what John is also doing here is that he is renarrating. He's telling the story all over again. He's renarrating the Genesis account. And instead of having Adam and Eve in Genesis one who disobey and fall, you swap them out with Jesus who will obey and save. We're renarrating everything. It's like we're being told that when Jesus enters the system, all of creation, all of our lives get a second chance. They get a reboot. And when Jesus enters the system, Jesus begins to recreate everything.”

80s

#JesusLovesYou

“But that whole moment, it reminded me that when you're in the church, even outside the church, we tell people, hey, you need to love Jesus. You need to tell Jesus that you will follow Jesus. You need to tell Jesus thank you. You need to tell Jesus that you love him. But before a single word comes out of your mouth, Jesus yells out first, I love you. Before he before we even think about doing anything, Jesus is out there saying, I love you. I love you. It's gift after gift after gift. Do you wanna know who God is? Look at Jesus. Do you wanna know who Jesus is? It all begins here in John chapter one. What does Jesus look like? Jesus is out there. Jesus is big. Jesus is God, but Jesus loves you. And Jesus is calling your name and saying, I love you, before you can even think about doing anything.”

78s

#JesusChasesYou

“This is what god does. This is what God does through Christ, through the incarnate Christ, dwells with us and dwells in us. Why does any of this matter? Because I've been told my entire life that when it comes to faith, when it comes to God, when it comes to things of this nature, that I need to try harder. I need to be a better person. I need to have more faith. And all of that might be true, but growing up with those messages, at times, they felt pretty oppressive. And it made me feel like just made me feel like I never measured up ever. I'd always be comparing myself to all the other people I went to church with or other religious people. I'm like, wow. Like, I'm a complete disaster compared to all these other people. And so my only solution was to try harder and to be better and to act better and to have more faith. This is what I was told over and over and over and over again. And it wasn't until that I was older that someone had to tell me that even when I am prone to wander, Jesus chases me. Even when I wander, Jesus chases me. Why? Not because of anything that I've done. It's just because Jesus loves me, and that's that's it.”

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In the Beginning Was the Word (The Gospel of John, Week 1) | Pastor Larry