This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to seeing
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s
happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his gospel.

Let’s jump in.

The Gospel of John opens with
the words, “In the beginning.”

These words echo back to Genesis, when
God created the world with his words.

John tells us that God’s Words are so
powerful, so concrete, that they're more
than sounds; God’s Word is a person.

And this Word was with God and is God.

Just as God spoke Light into darkness,
God speaks Light into a dark world again.

His name is Jesus.

And though we expect God’s Light and
Word to be obvious when he appears,

most people neither see the
Light nor hear God’s voice.

So, God sends a man named
John to prepare his people

to understand that Jesus
is the Word made flesh.

John was humble, never drawing attention
to himself but instead defining his ministry

with the words of Isaiah, “I’m the voice
of the one crying out in the wilderness,

‘Make straight the way of the Lord’”.

John was known for his practice of baptizing
people as a sign of repentance and renewal.

He understood his prophetic
practice only pointed

towards a greater renewal that
would be brought by Jesus.

John’s baptism was a symbol of internal
cleansing, but Jesus would bring

true renewal opening eyes to
his light and ears to his word.

And when John finally sees Jesus, he
declares that he is the Lamb of God.

It was his way of saying that Jesus
would remove the darkness of our sin

and give us the light of
life by his sacrificial death.

While the world was blind to what
was happening in front of them,

John saw and testified that
Jesus was the Son of God.

One of the most shocking claims of
Christianity is that God becomes human.

While some gods in ancient mythologies
take the form of a human,

Jesus is God's very words and
very life himself.

Some see this as blasphemous
while others find it confusing—

how can someone be
fully human and fully God?

But John the Baptist recognized
what no one else saw.

When Light and Life become flesh and bone we
have real hope for freedom from the dominion
of darkness and the silence of death.

That's because Light can't be sacrificed.

Words alone can't take away the
painful consequences of our sins.

The only way our sins can be removed is if the Word
can bleed, if the Light can be cut, and if the Life can die.

In God seeing a world under
threat of darkness and death,

sends himself to die like the passover lamb
and secure Light and Life for all his people.

So, I pray that the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to see the
God who creates all things by his powerful Word.

And may you see Jesus as the creating Word
who became flesh to be the lamb of God for us.