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John 1:1-21:25

The World Could Not Contain

Lyrics · John

The World Could Not Contain

John 1:1-21:25

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About this song

About this song

This song belongs to the John collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book
John
Collection
John
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Uncategorized
[Intro] Before the first morning, before there was light to name. Whatever God has always been, the Word was that, and was there. And the dark has reached for it ever since and never closed its hand. [Verse 1] He came down a road you'd never look twice at, No crown on the morning, no name on the door. A wild man stood shouting waist-deep in the Jordan - Look at Him, he said. The Lamb. The One I came before. Two men turned and followed him up the water, One in the fig shade said, what could be good? - Then He called him by name, and he stood. [Verse 2] Six jars cut from stone at a wedding in Kayna, Filled to the brim and poured out as wine. Up at the temple, the tables went over, Coins in the air and the doves cutting free - Forty-six years, they said. And He said, three. [Pre-Chorus] A man came by night with his questions, A woman came at noon to a well in the sun. He told her all her life and He never turned away - And she left the jar behind her, and she ran. [Chorus] The world could not contain Him - Not the ocean, not the sky, Not the books of all the nations, Not if every hand should try. The grave gave up its dead - And He called us out instead. [Verse 3] A father begged for his boy on the Kayna road, And the fever broke that hour, and the child came round. By the five porches a man lay thirty-eight winters - He told him to stand, and he stood off the ground. Five loaves, two fishes, a hillside of thousands, Twelve baskets left when they all were fed. Then He came walking the water where the storm was. [Chorus] The world could not contain Him - Not the ocean, not the sky, Not the books of all the nations, Not if every hand should try. The grave gave up its dead - And He called us out instead. [Verse 4] In the hall at Capernaum He called Himself the bread, And the room that would have crowned Him went cold. They walked down the hill in twos and threes Till only twelve were left in the road - Where would we go? said the fisherman. Who else has words? [Bridge 1] At the feast, when the gold pitcher poured, He stood up and told them that He was the river. Under four burning lamps He said He was the light, And they bent for the stones, and He walked out of sight. He laid mud on the eyes of a man born in the dark, And he washed at Siloam and came up with his sight. [Chorus] The world could not contain Him - Not the ocean, not the sky, Not the books of all the nations, Not if every hand should try. The grave gave up its dead - And He called us out instead. [Verse 5] Four days in the ground, and the sisters came running, And the shortest verse there is: He wept. They rolled back the stone on the smell of the dying, And He called the dead man's name, and the dead man stepped. Then a council met in lamplight and decided it was better That one man should die than a nation should fall - A week out from Passover, they cut palms from the wall. [Bridge 2] He knelt with a basin and a towel at His waist And washed the road off the feet of His own. One got up from the table and walked into the dark, And the door stood open, and the night took him home. He lifted a vine in the starlight and prayed they be one. [Verse 6] They came through the olives with torches and iron, He asked who they came for, and the front rank went down. By a fire of coals in the high priest's courtyard A fisherman swore that he'd never been found. What is truth? said the governor, and turned away, And they brought Him out bleeding to the stone pavement. Three languages nailed on a board overhead, And soldiers threw dice for the coat with no seam - It is finished, He said. And He bowed down His head. [Instrumental] [Verse 7] First light, and the stone was already rolled back, And the linen lay flat where a body had been - The face cloth apart, folded, set in its place, Not torn and not hurried. Just clean. She turned and took Him for the gardener Until He said her name, and she knew. And the man who wanted proof got his hand put through. [Final Chorus] The world could not contain Him - Not the ocean, not the sky, Not the books of all the nations, Not if every hand should try. The grave gave up its dead - And He called us out instead. [Chorus Tag] On a beach at first light, by a fire of coals, He asked it three times, once for each denial - And He gave him the flock, and He gave him back his name. [Outro] If every book were written of all He had done, The world could not contain them. Not one.

Named in this songJordanFive loavesCapernaum

About the passage

John 1: The Word enters the world he made

The Book of John opens farther back than Bethlehem, placing the Word before creation and on the creator’s side of everything that came into being. That immense claim then moves steadily into human scale. The Word becomes flesh, John the Baptist refuses titles that would distract from his witness, and disciples begin following through invitations as ordinary as “Come and see.” Recognition grows, but never all at once. Jesus is called Lamb of God, Messiah, Son of God, King of Israel, and Son of man, yet each title opens more than it closes. The chapter’s rhythm is therefore one of disclosure without exhaustion. The one through whom all things were made can be encountered beside a river, during an afternoon visit, and in a conversation about Nazareth. Heaven and earth meet in a person people are only beginning to know.

Study John 1 in depth

John 2: A wedding sign and a temple argument

A wedding and a temple could hardly look less alike, yet the Book of John uses both to test what people recognize in Jesus. At Cana, the sign happens quietly. Servants know where the wine came from, the feast governor does not, and the bridegroom receives credit he never earned. In Jerusalem, Jesus acts publicly, naming the temple “my Father’s house” and provoking a demand for authority. His answer shifts the meaning of temple toward his own body and a resurrection nobody present yet understands. The chapter closes by complicating belief itself. Many respond to signs, but Jesus does not entrust himself to their enthusiasm because he knows what is in people. Seeing a work, understanding what it discloses, and receiving the person who performs it are not treated as the same thing.

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John 3: Birth from above and the witness who steps aside

Nicodemus enters with status, learning, and a conclusion based on signs, but Jesus speaks of a birth no pedigree can produce. The conversation moves from flesh and Spirit to heavenly testimony, then to the lifted Son of man and the life received through belief. God’s love is directed toward the world, while the coming of light also exposes what people prefer to keep hidden. The second half of the chapter turns to John the Baptist, whose disciples worry about Jesus drawing the larger following. John refuses the rivalry. His joy is fulfilled when attention moves toward the one he was sent to announce: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” The Book of John closes the chapter by making origin decisive. The Son comes from above, carries the Father’s testimony, and holds everlasting life in relation to himself.

Study John 3 in depth