The Son of God [John 1] (Jeslyn George)

Good morning. It's a privilege for me to stand

before you with the Word of God as we look into God's Word.

Even though I have prepared, I request your prayers as we look

to a different topic from what we usually see or what we

usually study before we get into the topic.

Can anyone recognise this person on the screen?

So if you are able to, you can get a chocolate.

OK, James. No, not me.

I can see it's on that screen but he has hair.

The newest, yes. So it goes.

Can I throw it to you? Sorry.

OK, so that is Carlos Actus. That's his name.

He's the first millennial St. I never thought that someone

would recognise him. Good that I got chocolate.

No, he's the first millennial St.

On 7th September 2025, Pope Leo 14 declared yeah, a 15 year old

computer with as the Catholic Church's first Millennial St.

He was born in May 1991 in London to a wealthy family and

soon after he was born they moved back to Italy.

It seems he was interested he was interested in computer

science. He was interested in preaching

in the local parish and he did outreach to homeless.

But in October 20, 2006, at the age of 15, he fell ill and it

was later diagnosed as it was an acute case of leukaemia and

within days he was gone. Now some of you might might

understand what happens to become as a St.

It's a long process, but the unfortunate event is unless you

are dead, the process doesn't start.

So you need to be dead 1st and then the process starts.

So first they would recognise you as the servant of God and

they they gather together and then they decide that you are

venerable. That means you are into the

first step of becoming a St. and then they look at your life.

They do study your life and see what you have done, what all

miracles that you did and if they recognise the first miracle

then you become blessed. OK, that is the third stage.

Now they will again look at your life, they will study, and then

if they find that you have done one more miracle, that is the

second one, then you become the Saint.

So that's how you become a St. They did look at his life even

though he was only 15 years old, they recognised 2 miracles that

he did in his life. I'm not going to into the detail

but they recognised it and then they decided to declare him as

St. Like I said in the beginning,

they started the process once he was gone.

Now follow along as we continue. By the end of this message,

maybe in another 30 minutes, you might have an option to become a

St. even when you're alive now. We have been studying about Son

of Man from the Gospel of Luke for the last few weeks, and we

have been going through the birth of John the Baptist, Jesus

Christ and all that even even that happened surrounding their

birth. From the coming weeks we'll be

going back again to Gospel according to Luke, but for today

we are looking at another topic that is Son of God.

This is in line with what we have been studying for few weeks

at Hucknall before commencing the studying of Gospel according

to Luke. Can someone recollect what we

did study before that again? Chocolates.

OK, so I'll give a clue. We did study the I AM statements

from Gospel according to John. So now the question for the

chocolates are can you identify the I am statements that we did

and who took those topics? Obviously, who took the study

cannot answer. Go ahead, bread of life.

So who took that then? So you can't access our sermons

on our website. Okay, so one I'll give you a

little later on next one, the I am statements mine.

Lee Hanson. OK, so who is that Sam?

OK. That's for you.

OK, anymore and the research. Ohh.

OK, so the first part is right, the second part is wrong.

So still you'll get the chocolate, Yes.

So the I'm the Good Shepherd that was by Andrew Linden.

So the chocolate, I don't know who answered.

Okay, should I give it to you now?

Let's run, okay? Ohh, OK, good answer.

Yeah, that's the right answer. OK, so that that takes that one

out. What did we start off with?

Any idea? Okay, and the light of the

world. So that goes another chocolate.

Now we have one more. That was already covered.

I'm the true wine. That was by Lee.

OK, so chocolate goes to the person who asked the question

itself. I am the resurrection and the

life. Did we cover that?

That was by Billy. So that was that.

I mean just to give the pretext to what we are going to look at

today. That was from the Gospel

according to John. So we are going to look into the

1st chapter of Gospel According to John.

We wouldn't be looking at all the chapters or even the full

chapter of chapter 1. We would look at some portions

of chapter 1. Now.

Gospel according to John is unique in several aspects.

The other three Gospels of life presents the life of Jesus in a

very similar format, explaining what Jesus did and taught.

But John focuses more on who Jesus is, the person of Jesus

Christ. John emphasis is on presenting

Jesus as the eternal Son of God, the true Messiah and the Saviour

of the world. John is also presenting Jesus

Christ as both divine and as a T and historical, that means one

who actually lived on earth. Matthew begins the genealogy of

Jesus that connects him to David and Abraham, presenting to

Jewish audience as the King, the Messiah.

Mark starts with the preaching of John the Baptist, presenting

Jesus as a servant. In Luke.

We saw him. We saw that he came from Adam

presenting him, him as the Son of man, the perfect man.

But however, John, as we get into chapter 1, we can see that

he's direct. He is onto the topic.

He leaves out Jesus birth, baptism, the temptation, the

agony and gets him in several topics.

But he's he's onto it. He's direct and very straight

forward. It is believed that Gospel

according to John is written somewhere between 8085 in

between 85 to 95 and mainly focusing on Jewish and the

Gentile. When we say Gentile, it is the

Greek audience. Now we are going into chapter

one, verse one to three. In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God, and Word was God.

He was with the God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made.

Without him, nothing was made that has been made.

If you read this, it might be confusing in beginning while

John is very straight forward and presenting it direct.

Lots of what's the word was with God, Word was God.

Sometimes it gets difficult to understand.

Now, I'm not too sure whether you're able to go through that.

While I was driving, I got this attention of this particular

truck and then it says, I mean it belongs to the confidential

document destruction company. Okay, And the tagline got my

attention. Are you able to read that?

It says shredding the word. So is it this word that John is

talking about? Is something similar or

different one obviously not just shredding of the word.

Now he's he's talking about the eternal aspect of the world.

When we read through that in the beginning was God and the Word

was with God, and Word was God. What we understand is the

eternal nature of God, the timeless eternity.

In the beginning, it's a very familiar phrase for us.

In Genesis chapter one verse one we read about the beginning of

creation. Our John is making it clear that

even before that beginning there was the Word.

He is further making it clear that the Word was existing even

before the creation of universe, even before the light, even

before the sky, even before the dry land.

There was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

That's what we read in verse 2. John is pointing the readers to

the eternal nature or the existence of God.

He's also emphasising on the foundation of our faith which is

the Trinity as we read in first John verse chapter 5 verse 7.

For there are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father,

the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one God in

three persons, Blessed Trinity. The Word was God and Word was

with God. The another aspect that we need

to consider is the root word which John has used for the word

which is logos. As we saw earlier, John is

writing to both Jewish and Gentile readers.

Gentile mainly consisting of Greek audience.

For the Jewish audience, the phrase Word of God could be used

to refer God himself. For them.

In the Old Testament, whenever it mentioned the word of God, it

meant Yahweh itself. But for a Greek audience, Logos

means the word, the speech. The reasoning or account the

Greek readers would hear in the beginning was the logos.

It's not just a word, but the eternal principle for reason,

order, and life that takes us to the next portion.

That is John chapter one, verse 12 to 14 and verse 18.

Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His

name, He gave the right to become children of God, children

born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's

will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made

His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the

glory of one and only Son who came from the Father, full of

grace and truth. No one has ever seen God but the

one and only Son who Himself God, who is Himself God and is

the closest relationship with the Father has made Him known.

John is bringing to the The second point that takes the

second point is the experience that we had the first eyewitness

account that he brings to us. Now I'm not sure whether you are

able to read all those. How many of us use 2° as the

network that we use? Sometime in last year, they had

come out with this pinata game wherein if you play, you will

get a reward which is free data. Now it is the way of engaging

you into that experience. If they give you data free of

without doing anything, you might not be engaged in that

process. It is one of the sales or a

marketing technique most of these companies use, they use

these days. So you play around on your

natural circumstances. You saw, you see that, you smash

it and then you get data. That was when we came in from

India and then we were, we were in short of data.

And then I started playing it more than several times a day

and they came and told that no, you can play only once in a day.

So, so this is a way of engaging you into that experience.

Now experience hold a lot of value when when you have

multiple accounts about or there are contradicting information

out there. So John is explaining his first

hand experience with his leaders when it is wrote.

In the beginning was the Logos to the Greek.

They understood Jesus is the answer for word, speech and

reasoning. But for the Jews, John says, the

Word that created all things has become flesh in Jesus.

Now in Acts chapter 1411 and 12, we read that when the crowd saw

that Paul had done, they shouted in Laconian language, The gods

have come down to us in human form.

Verse 12, says Barnabas they call Zeus and Paul they call

Hermes because he was the chief speaker.

In Greek mythology, it was common for the so-called gods to

come to Earth in human form, though they did not always do

good for them. There was a myth that connects

zoos and Hermes. They visited the land disguised

as mortals and none of them gave hospitality except for one older

couple. And then they ended up that

angered Zeus and Hummus and they wiped out the whole population.

It is all myth, okay? It's not not a fact, but for a

Jewish reader or an Jewish audience, the moment they

understand this, they know that they have this myth that they

believe that gods might come in human form and they with them

try to understand. But here John is taking their

attention to the living God who became flesh and lived among

them, as we read in first John chapter one verse one, that

which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we

have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands

have touched. This we proclaim concerning the

word of life. The second verse goes like this.

The the life appeared. We have seen it and testified to

it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the

Father and has appeared to us. The writer is proclaiming that

it's not a myth, it's not a fairy tale.

We have heard it with our own ears, have seen it with our

eyes, have looked at it, have touched him with our own hands.

We have seen Him to testify about Him.

It is the word of life. The eternal life which was with

the Father has appeared to us. To them.

The first hand experience of John carries the weight as it is

relevant. It is a direct observation which

is authentic and has emotions attached to it.

So John is bringing the the life witness, his eyewitness.

So if someone talks about something that they have heard

or a second person description, you might not give them the

needed wait. But when John says that I have

seen him, I have been with him, I have touched him, it carries a

lot of weight for Jews to understand.

And even for a Gentile audience who used to believe in all types

of mythology, this is very relevant and it captures their

attention. That takes us to the the last

portion. That is John chapter one verse 9

to 11 and in verse 949 the true light that gives light to

everyone was coming into the world.

He was in the world and through the world, and though the world

was made through him, the world did not recognise him.

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive

him. There's 49, says.

Then Nathaniel declared, Rabbi, you are the son of God.

You are the king of Israel. Here John is directly addressing

about the expectation what the Jewish audience had.

You might have read this news. This came out on September 9.

Apple launched their latest iPhone, iPhone 17.

How many of us have pre booked it or got it in your hands?

OK, maybe we don't want to declare it, but soon after they

they launched it, the market share or the market price, the

shareholders were not happy with what they what they revealed and

then it went down by $50 billion.

But soon after that, two days later, they recovered.

But what the idea was, they were expecting something.

Even though the person came out on the stage and said that this

is the best ever iPhone, that never met the expectations of

the shareholders, it went down. And that's what they termed it

as Hype to wipe. That's what this the news read

for a Jewish audience. They were expecting a king, a

political leader to take them out of the Roman rule.

But Jesus never met their expectation.

In Isaiah 7 verse 14, we read that the virgin will conceive a

Isaiah 7:14

child. She will give birth to a son and

we'll call him Manuel, which means God with us.

And I say A-96 says for us to a child is born to us, son is

given, the government will be on his shoulders and he will be

called wonderful councillor, mighty God, everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace. Even though they were given all

these promises in advance, they never understood what it really

meant. If we recollect last Sunday's

message in which Barry used a particular term, that they were

looking for a remarkable individual, but when the King

was born in the Manger, it didn't meet their expectation.

When he was called Jesus of Nazareth, the response was

Nazareth. Can anything good come from

there? We don't want this man to rule

over us. We have no king but Cesar.

They failed to recognise the Messiah, as their expectation

was a king sitting on the throne, but he came as a

servant. For even the Son of Man did not

come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom

for many. We looked at 3 aspects, 3

points. And that is the eternal the

experience and the expectation. I'm not too sure whether you

have come today with certain expectation or have been coming

here with certain expectation. The moment you have an

expectation, it becomes conditional.

God loved us unconditionally, no strings attached.

First John chapter 4 verse 9 Intel says this is how God

1 John 4:9

showed His love among us. He sent his only, his one and

only Son into the world that we might live through him.

This is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and

sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Using his first hand experiences, eyewitness John

explained the timeless, the eternal aspect of Jesus.

I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.

No one shall snatch them out of my hand.

What we see on the screen, that is John 134.

I have seen and testified that this is God's chosen one.

This is the testimony by John the Baptist in chapter 20 verse

21. John himself, the writer

testifies or his desire says, but these are written, that you

may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and

that by believing you may have life in His name.

As I have explained in the beginning, you don't need the

approval of another mortal man or an organisation or an

individual to declare you as a St. as we read in efficient

chapter 2, verse 19. Now, therefore, you are no

longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with Saints

and members of the household of God, as we read in John 316.

For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son,

that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but has an

everlasting life. If you understand that you are a

Sinner, you need a Saviour. If you confess with your mouth

that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised

him from the dead, you will be saved.

For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified,

and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

Once you are saved, you are a child of God with an everlasting

eternal life and you are a St. I'm not too sure whether anyone

who is here doesn't have this experience.

God came into this world. He dwelt among us and he was

with God. That's what we read in verse

one. And he was God.

But when he looked down, when he saw each one of us, he decided

to come into this world to be our Saviour.

And that's what we are here today.

We need. We don't need anyone else to

come and declare that you are a St.

You don't have to go through all those processes, but we have to

come into His presence. Accept Him as your personal

saviour. May this time help us to

introspect. And if you are away, if you're

working far away, May God help you to come closer to His Word.

And as we read as Logos, that's the root word.

He is the author. He is the alpha and the Omega

and that's why we are here. Make his name.