He Is / Genesis 1:1; John 1:1-3
The Beginning of the Story
Some of you might be wondering who this guy is up here. My name is Christian Warren, and I’m the student ministries director here at The Well. We are kicking off a brand-new series called He Is. We’ve got a fantastic graphics team here at The Well, but the coolest thing about this series is that you are going to hear from a bunch of different teachers over the summer. It’s exciting that you get to see some new faces—you’ll see me a few times along with a couple of other teachers throughout the summer.
Today we are going to be in the gospel of John, starting right at chapter 1, verse 1. We are going to touch briefly on the Old Testament and land in John 1. A couple of things about myself: my wife leads worship here at The Well every once in a while, and she is wonderful. I’ve been on staff here for about four years now, loving every minute with our junior high and high school students. If you have a student in student ministries, they probably have some crazy story about me, and you can ask them later about the weird things we do. It’s an absolute joy to teach students every single week, but I get really excited to speak to adults because you actually nod your heads when I teach!
Before we dive in, by a quick show of hands, how many of you saw the movie The Avengers? That’s quite a few of you! Those who know me well know that if I’m giving a sermon, I will probably mention movies at some point because I simply love them. Most of us can relate to this: superhero movies tend to follow a similar pattern. The first twenty to thirty-five minutes of The Avengers is what filmmakers call the character development piece. When a movie starts, especially a superhero story, the writer and director want to show us the background of these characters before they become fully formed superheroes. We get their history and understand why they are the way they are, so that we actually care about them later in the film.
In most superhero movies, you get that backstory in the opening minutes. Think about Batman: he’s a lonely recluse later in life because early on his parents were taken from him, so he learned to operate as an orphan in the shadows. Or Spider-Man: his Uncle Ben dies, and that tragedy becomes the catalyst for his entire pursuit of justice. The list goes on and on.
Recently, I watched a film that isn’t a superhero movie, but it handled character development in a way that completely blew my mind. The film is called The Tree of Life, directed by Terrence Malick. The central story revolves around a boy and his relationship with his father, framed by an older man reflecting on his childhood. But instead of simply flashing back to the protagonist as a young boy or an infant, the director takes a breathtaking turn. He takes the audience all the way back to the dawn of time—to the very beginning of creation and life itself.
I remember sitting there floored, thinking, What is happening right now? It’s this thirty-minute sequence tracing the cosmic origins of the universe. The director’s point was clear: before you can truly understand the complexities of this young boy and his earthly father, you have to understand where life itself originated.
Starting at the Very Beginning
I couldn’t help but see a powerful parallel between that film and the Gospel of John. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all begin their accounts in a way that feels familiar to historical biography. Matthew starts with the genealogy of Jesus, rooting him in the lineage of Abraham and David. Mark starts with John the Baptist preparing the way in the wilderness. Luke begins with the foretelling of John the Baptist’s birth and the announcement to Mary.
They all begin in a way that introduces the narrative naturally. But John starts completely differently. John essentially says, “Before I show you the teachings, the miracles, and the deeds of Jesus over the next twenty-one chapters, we have to go all the way back to the very beginning.” John wants us to understand the good news of Jesus Christ in its fullest dimension. His opening thesis is unmistakable: Jesus is God manifest in the flesh, and His words and deeds are the very acts of God.
That is what this entire eight-week series, He Is, is all about. We are taking an intentional look at the character development of Jesus—not just starting in Bethlehem, but looking at Him across the entirety of the Scriptures. Over these eight weeks, we are going to explore Jesus in the Old Testament. We are going to see Him as the promise of salvation all the way back in Genesis. We will see Him as Redeemer, as Immanuel, and as both the Lion and the Lamb.
Instead of staying in one specific epistle verse-by-verse, we are going to bounce between the Old and New Testaments to see Christ woven through the whole story of redemption. Today is our foundation: understanding that He is, and always was. He existed from the beginning. My prayer is that our view of Jesus will expand. If we only see Jesus as a good teacher who showed up two thousand years ago, our Jesus is simply too small.
The Pre-Incarnate Christ
Many people mistakenly assume the first three-quarters of the Bible is just a random collection of disconnected ancient stories, and then suddenly Jesus appears in the New Testament when things finally get good. But Jesus did not begin His existence in Matthew chapter 1. He existed before the foundations of the world. He existed eternally as God, the Creator, and entered human history at a specific moment in time as the man Christ Jesus.
To be clear, when we say Jesus existed from the beginning, we are speaking of the pre-incarnate Christ. Before He was born in a manger, the Son was ruling and reigning in heaven in eternal glory as God. He was pre-existent, before all creation.
John explains this grand reality in three foundational verses.
John 1:1-3 (NASB)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
John begins with those iconic words: “In the beginning.” When modern readers see that phrase, we might think of ancient history a couple thousand years ago. But John was writing two thousand years ago, and his frame of reference goes all the way back to the very first verse of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Genesis 1:1 (NASB)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
John intentionally echoes Genesis so that his readers—both Jewish and Greek—would immediately connect Jesus to the sovereign purpose of God throughout history. He writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
What does John mean by “the Word”? In Greek, the term is Logos. In the ancient world, Logos carried immense philosophical and theological weight. For Greek thinkers, it represented the ultimate divine principle of reason and order that governs the universe. For Jewish readers, the Word of the Lord was the powerful agent of creation and revelation. John takes this rich term and says that this Logos is eternal, uncreated, and pre-existent.
Think back to Genesis 1:1. The Hebrew name used for God there is Elohim. While it signifies the Mighty One, it is grammatically plural. That is why later in Genesis 1 we read, “Let us make man in our image.” From the very opening chapter of the Bible, there is a mystery of plurality within the unity of the Godhead.
John provides clarity on who this eternal Logos is.
John 1:14 (NASB)
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
This Logos took on human flesh and dwelt among us. This Logos is Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word—Christ was and is eternal. The Word was with God—meaning Christ has enjoyed unbroken, face-to-face fellowship within the Trinity from all eternity. And the Word was God. Jesus is not merely a god or an elevated creature; He is fully and truly God. In verse 1, John establishes that Christ is eternal, Christ is in relationship with the Father, and Christ is God.
Then verses 2 and 3 drive the point home: all things were made through Him. If we miss this reality, our entire theological foundation collapses. In eternity past, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit existed in perfect, loving communion. Jesus did not suddenly come into being; He is the Creator of all things, all-powerful and all-knowing.
Scripture’s Unbroken Testimony
All throughout the Scriptures, this truth echoes with undeniable clarity. When God revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush, He declared His eternal self-existence.
Exodus 3:14-15 (NASB)
God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM’; and He said, ’Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’’ God, furthermore, said to Moses, ’Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.
Centuries later, Jesus stood before the religious leaders and boldly applied that very divine name to Himself.
John 8:58 (NASB)
Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.’
He didn’t say, “Before Abraham was, I came into existence.” He said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” He identified Himself as the God of the burning bush.
The Apostle Paul reinforces this exact truth when writing to the church in Colossae.
Colossians 1:16 (NASB)
For by Him all things were created, [both] in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him.
Peter confirms the same reality in his first epistle.
1 Peter 1:20-21 (NASB)
For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
We read these passages and readily agree with the theology. Yet in our everyday lives, it is so easy to reduce Jesus to something far smaller than He truly is. We reduce Him to a bumper sticker, a WWJD wristband, a historical prophet, or just a moral teacher who makes us feel better on a Sunday morning.
Even during His earthly ministry, people struggled to grasp His true identity. The religious leaders understood what He was claiming, and it scandalized them.
John 10:33 (NASB)
The Jews answered Him, ‘For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out [to be] God.’
They recognized His good deeds, but they could not accept that this man claimed to be God. Even His own disciples wrestled to see Him clearly.
John 14:8-9 (NASB)
Philip said to Him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ’Have I been so long with you, and [yet] you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how [can] you say, ’Show us the Father ’?
Philip wanted to see the Father, and Jesus gently corrected him: “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” When we fail to see Jesus in His full divine glory, we shrink Him down to our own manageable dimensions.
Is Your Jesus Too Small?
Do we see Christ as the eternal God incarnate, the Creator of the cosmos who commands our complete allegiance? Or do we view Him merely as a comforting figure who pats us on the back when we make mistakes?
On our best days, we affirm that Jesus is the sovereign Lord of all creation. But on difficult days, we easily slip into treating Him like a casual companion or a good luck charm. Our Jesus is often far too small. We must learn to see Him across the whole tapestry of Scripture.
When you open your Bible and work through your reading plan—even when you hit the complex laws of Leviticus or the censuses in Numbers—you can read with eyes wide open, looking for glimpses of Christ. He is the substance casting every shadow in the Old Testament. He is the divine Creator who stepped into His own creation to rescue us.
When we diminish Jesus, it distorts our entire theology and weakens our faith. But when we see Him as John presents Him—as the eternal Logos, God from the beginning—it demands our reverence, our worship, and the total surrender of our lives.
This week, a well-known worship song kept playing in my mind. The lyrics declare:
Water You turned into wine, Opened the eyes of the blind, There’s no one like You, none like You. Into the darkness You shine, Out of the ashes we rise, There’s no one like You, none like You.
And then the chorus lifts our eyes to His greatness:
Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God, You are higher than any other. Our God is healer, awesome in power, our God, our God.
That is who Jesus is. He is greater than anything we could ever imagine. As we pray, read, and walk with Him, let us worship Jesus Christ—the eternal Creator of the universe, who was in the beginning, who is God, and who holds all things together.
Closing Prayer
Lord, my prayer is that we would truly comprehend how great You are. We thank You for the Gospel of John and for showing us that Jesus has existed from the very beginning. Forgive us for the times we have reduced You to something smaller, more convenient, or ordinary.
Open our eyes to see Jesus clearly throughout all of Scripture—in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and in our lives today. We thank You for the cross, and we worship You as our Creator, Sustainer, and Lord. May our view of You grow higher and deeper each day. It is in the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen.