Over the last few weeks we have begun our study of the book of John by seeing how John introduces us to Jesus. John doesn’t start with Jesus’ genealogy or birth like Matthew and Luke, he doesn’t begin with John the Baptist as Mark does, John begins with Jesus’ eternal nature. It’s important to John that we see who Jesus is before we begin reading about what Jesus did, that we have a firm grasp on His divinity so that we can understand and submit our humanity to Him not only as Savior but as Creator, Lord and God. John wants us to see that Jesus’ nature reflects His character and His character determines His actions and His actions call for our surrender. John begins by telling us that Jesus is “the Word”. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In this one sentence John reveals the relational nature of the Godhead and the eternal existence of Jesus as the Son of God. John is teaching in one simple statement that the Messiah was not simply born, the Messiah was eternally existent and when He was born it was into our nature not into His. Jesus is uncreated and eternal, He had no beginning and He will have no end, His incarnation was God becoming a man so that men could be redeemed by God. Jesus is more than we understand and greater than we can explain. John then continues that not only was the Word uncreated, eternal and divine, it was the Word that created all things. “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” Not only is Jesus uncreated but Jesus is our Creator. This changes the dynamic of His coming. He is now not someone sent as if He had no power over it, He was not merely chosen to be our Redeemer, He humbled Himself, He chose to put on flesh, He took on our humanity it was not placed upon Him. As I wrote last week, He created us for Himself, we chose ourselves over Him and He then gave Himself to buy us back. Jesus had no obligation to us, He has always been moved by His character of love when He has willingly and eternally directed toward us. As our Creator Jesus is the source of all life, no one has ever lived that Jesus didn’t breathe His breath into to give life. We hear Revelation 1:8 tells us that Jesus is the “Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” and we think of Him and His eternal nature but what I believe Jesus is revealing is that He is the beginning of everything and will be the end of everything, He isn’t just eternal all of eternity is in His hands, if it had a beginning He began it and if it has an end He will end it. The life He breathes into us is the light that witnesses not just to Jesus’ existence but to His character, His heart, His love and ultimately His plans and purposes. To know Him as the Giver of Life is to realize that our lives are a gift from His hands and an act of His love. This is why life is so valuable and precious in all its forms, because it has been given to us by Christ and must be handled, protected, loved and affirmed according to Christ’s character not according to how we perceive value. Life and light are connected, how we value life shines a bright light on the One who gave it in the first place, how the redeemed value, protect and affirm life is our greatest witness of Christ as our Creator and Redeemer. This morning we move from John the Apostle’s descriptions of Jesus based upon what He witnessed and wrote in Revelation to John the Baptist’s announcements of Jesus based upon the prophetic word that God Himself placed in his heart. Today we get to see that the Word and the Light is also the Lamb.