GOODNEWS BIBLE STUDY - PART TWO

1 John 1:1,2

Thank you for the introduction comments. We still have some comments that express overview. Now we move to the text itself. Please concentrate on the first four verses one at a time.

Try to extract everything you can from the first two verses. I have chosen two methods to illustrate what we want to do. You, of course, are free to study using any method.

Expository:
We look for a theme in the first four verses. Let's say after reading the verses over and over that we come up with a Word that is concise and comprehensive to describe John's main idea.

Chapter 1 - verses 1-4:
The word is REALITY. We see the REALITY of Jesus Christ.

A. John starts with Christ as "That" Person who was before anything - He is Creator :
Christ is Creator God; Gen. 1:1, Jn. 1:1

B. John is an eye witness to God incarnate (in human flesh). John was there when Jesus spoke to Philip in the passover chamber. "... he that hath seen me hath seen the Father"
(Jn. 14:9 b). b is second part of verse.

1) John heard God in His Son. Every word and act came from the Father. Jesus was the perfect Representative of God the Father anointed by God the Holy Spirit. "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do... (Jn. 5:19).

2) John saw God in the flesh and he saw God spiritually by faith.

3) John handled God by touching him.

These are some of the spokes of our wheel. Remember we are drawing out thoughts (spokes) of our passage the (wheel). We are letting the Word of God speak for itself. Scripture calls out to Scripture.

A WITNESS tells what he/she was seen, heard, and touched. John was faithful to do this.

WORD STUDY:
It is extremely important to study the VERBS in this letter. Try to look them up in the Greek.
More on that later.

WORD is our first word to study. We get it from "Word of life" in verse one.

Greek: Λογος - ζοε are the two principle words.
Logos - From Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. " the expression of thought--not the mere name of an object. This is part of our first word in verse one, "THAT."

Word is a name of the Creator God; but it is MORE... MUCH MORE. It is the collective THOUGHT of God manifest in the Christ incarnate.

" Logos," the Word is the WHOLE DEITY - not just a part of the nature of God.

LIFE: Our second word for study is in the title - Word of Life. Life is ζοε in Greek.
Zoe is pronounced( zoon). We get our English word zoo and zoology from this word meaning life. All life is meant, animals and men.

In our verse we are looking at "That" which was before anything that was made. We are seeing the LIFE. "Life as God has it, "that" which the Father has in Himself, and which He gave to the Incarnate Son to have in Himself (Jn. 5:26), and which the Son manifested in the world (1 Jn. 1:2)." Vine's .

ANNOUNCE: Our last word for study comes from "shew unto you" in verse two. It is one of those EXTREMELY important GREEK VERBS. Announce comes from two words, ana, up, and angello, to report. John has a GREAT announcement.

He has Someone to DECLARE. He is excited to "report up" a Heavenly Message. Christ Jesus is REAL. He is our ultimate REALITY!