John 1:1-18 - Watch Video and Read Pastor Manny Olivas' Notes

John 1:1-18 from Skyline Church - TO on Vimeo.
The Gospel of John - Prologue

The moment we pick up John’s gospel we are aware that it is different from the others.
There is no genealogy, no manger scene, no boyhood, no baptism, no temptation, no mount of transfiguration, no Gethsemane.
There are only a few special miracles chosen by John as “signs.”
We have the famous I AM sayings of Jesus and many discourses found no where else.
There are no Scribes, no publicans, no lepers, and no demoniacs.
There are no parables.
Graham Scroggie said, It would almost seem, as others have pointed out, that John sits with a copy of Luke’s gospel open before him, deliberately leaving out things Luke puts in and putting things in that Luke leaves out. Luke had written to show that Jesus was the Son of Man; John is writing to show that Jesus is the Son of God.

John’s language is Greek but his thoughts are Hebrew. His language is simple, his vocabulary small. There are about six hundred words in John’s vocabulary. It is the vocabulary of a seven-year-old child. (Because a child supposedly adds 100 new words to his vocabulary each year.)

But if John’s coins are few, their denomination is large; they are golden coins.
John uses the word Father 121 times, My Father 35 times
Believe 99 times
World 79 times
Jews 71 times
Know (oida 61 times and ginosko 56 times)
Abide 41 times
life 36 times
light 23 times
love 57 times
truth 66 time
But his favorite word by FAR is Jesus -

Matthew uses his name 151 times, Mark 13 times, Luke 88 times, John 256 times!!!

The Gospel opens with one of the most elevated statements about Jesus found in the New Testament. Only the texts of Col 1:15–20 and Heb 1:1–13 come close to approximating the profound view of God’s Son presented in John 1:1–18. These first eighteen verses of the Gospel, which have a wonderful poetic ring, have been labeled by scholars with the unpoetic title “The Prologue.” But in spite of its poetic ring, the reader should be forewarned that this Prologue is one of the most complex theological statements in the Bible. An entire seminary semester’s course could be taught on these
eighteen verses.
Study of this text takes time, but those who ponder these magnificent words will learn that God will reward his children who diligently and prayerfully seek for understanding. The reader is welcomed to an intellectual, spiritual, and life-challenging pilgrimage with an evangelist who continues to call us to new dimensions of believing. (New American Commentary.)