The Book of John - 4

Introduction: We will be finishing up with the first section of the book of John over the next several Sundays.

This beginning section is referred to by many as the prologue.

In these first fourteen verses we discover revelation concerning the Word.

Last week we considered that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Light.

The Bible tells us in verse 4 “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”

John in verses 5 through 14 summarizes the entire Gospel record concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and beyond.

He summarizes not only what took place, but also the choice that is before all men as they discover all our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has done.

With that understanding let’s begin reading in verse 5.

So far we have seen:

I. Prologue - The Revelation of the Word 1:1-14

A. The Word vs. 1-5, 9-14

The eternality of the Word. vs. 1a

The co-existence of the Word. vs. 1b-2

The deity of the Word. vs.1c

The Creator God: the Word. v3

5. The Word is life and the Light. v4-9

The Bible tells us in verse 9 that Lord Jesus Christ is the True Light.

We also see a statement that the Lord Jesus, the True Light “lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”

We mused last week at the introduction of a dynamic figure by the name John the Baptist.

We saw that He was a burning light.

And here is verses 6-8 we see that He heralded the truth in preparation for the Savior.

He was a light that shined for a special and particular time to prepare the way of the Lord.

And just a s a side note, as we will come back and consider John the Baptist further, I want you to think in this manner and consider that You and I are chosen by God as peculiar witnesses for Him in this time and in this place.

And truly John the Baptist was a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.

He was a μαρτυρία. Both in the sense of declaring the Lord Jesus, But as we know from the Scriptures He gave His life for the cause of Christ.

He was God’s chosen man to declare the coming of the Son of God.

He exemplified what you and I should be doing as Christians, which is declaring the Lord Jesus Christ to others.

John the Baptist’s purpose was stated in verse 7 “to bear witness of the Light” and the desired result was that “all men through him might believe.”

But then the Holy Spirit declares to us that John the Baptist was not the original Light, as it were, but rather that the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ is the True Light.

May it ever be that you and I are hid behind the cross of our Lord. May it be as John states later, that I must decrease, and He must increase.

Remember in Him, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ is life and His life is the Light of men.

The latter part of verse 9 then is declaring the scope of His Light.

“That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”

This verse is not declaring that all men who are born into this world, will hear the Gospel. — for that responsibility has been given to us.

But it does declare that Salvation wrought by His death, burial and resurrection is available to all men.

It is the Gospel that all men need.

This is evident when we come to verse 12 where the Bible says, “As many as received Him…”

You see Jesus Christ is the Light both to the Jews and the Gentiles.

The Bible says in Romans 10:11-13 “11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

He is a Light to all men.

I Timothy 2:3-4 spells out for us the heart of God… and it states this, “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”

His will is that none should perish.

His will is that all men would be saved.

This however is determined by the choice that man makes.

Notice beginning in verse 10 how this is declared to us.

6. The Word was not recognized by the World. v10

“He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.”

When we continue through this book. This Gospel record, we will see that the world as a whole knew him not.

You and I can trace through the whole record that is given to us in Matthew, Mark Luke and John and see this.

We can begin at His birth and see that He was not heralded as the King of kings and Lord of lords.

We can follow His early life and see that rulers tried to stamp our his life.

We can see through the course of His earthly ministry, how it is that He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief....

And unfortunately we could look out today and see in our own time how this bears out.

John Butler stated it this way, “The world knows many things, education is high in the world’s priorities, yet in all their knowledge they did not know the most important. They did not know Jesus. All the great institutions of learning are condemned in this failure.”

Look again at how amazing and ironic this statement is, v10 states, “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.”

Example: I reminded of being at the Bus Bible Conference that for many years the folks of Sharon Baptist Church has attended.

And while I was there, Pastor and I were selling a book that I had written on personal evangelism, and so we had a table setup to get this book into the hands of people.

At the time, I believe I was teaching or preparing to teach about why we use the KJB.

We thought it was important for the SBC family to understand that subject.

One of the foremost writers on the subject in times past was a man by the name of Dr. William Grady.

And where all the vendors where there was a man selling a new book written by Dr. Grady and so I kindly went over to talk to this fellow that was selling these books.

And I began to declare all that I read in Dr. Grady’s book and then declared my thoughts on the subject and some of particulars of the class I was teaching.

Well in the midst of this, this man looks at me and exclaims loudly…(surprised that I was clueless) “I am Dr. William Grady!”

Talk about a shock! And there I was talking to the man the whole time and had no clue.

Now that is bad enough, but understand the immensity of this statement.

Our Creator, the One True Living God, was in this World, became man without ceasing to be God, and the world knew Him not.

John Philips stated it eloquently this way, “He walked the hedgerow and plucked a blade of grass. He had created it; he knew its structure, about photosynthesis, about the mystery of a plant’s pollination and germination, and all its complex chemistry. He walked beside the sea of Galilee; he knew the topography of that lake; every deep and shallow place, every pebble on the bottom, each and every fish darting through its waves. The world was made by him; he knew all about astronomy and chemistry, physics and biology, mathematics and medicine. He knew every law now known to science, not because he studied them but because he was the author of them all. He looked at the world through the eyes of man somehow, in the mystery of his being, he had infinite understanding of all things. .... He was in the world, the world was made by him, and world knew him not. To John, that was a supreme tragedy and irony. People rubbed shoulders with God, yet were too blind to see.”

As astounding as this statement is and as perplexing as it may seem notice number 7 in your notes:

7. The Word was rejected by His own. v11

It is one thing to be ignored by the world, but to be rejected by those who should be closest to you is even worse.

This is a summary of all that we will find in this Gospel record.

There is a period in which the Lord of glory presented Himself to His people the nation of Israel.

The prophets had all foretold of His coming.

As we read the progressive revelation of God as far back as Genesis 3:15, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the promised One had been over and over again heralded throughout the pages of Scripture.

There was an expectation among God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel concerning His coming.

They anticipated it, they looked for it, they longed for His coming.

And yet, as the Lord Jesus Christ presented Himself, His people rejected Him.

The Bible tells us of this circumstance in Isaiah 53:1-7 “1 Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, And as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: And we hid as it were our faces from him; He was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, And carried our sorrows: Yet we did esteem him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: The chastisement of our peace was upon him; And with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned every one to his own way; And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, Yet he opened not his mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before her shearers…”

This is what we will see as we consider the rest of this Gospel record.

The two facts will be shown: that the world knew Him not and that His own received Him not.

“John 1:4–13 (BEC): Throughout the Gospel of John, you will see both attitudes revealed: people will not understand what the Lord is saying and doing and, as a result, they will oppose Him… Whenever Jesus taught a spiritual truth, His listeners interpreted it in a material or physical way. The light was unable to penetrate the darkness in their minds. This was true when He spoke about the temple of His body (John 2:19–21), the new birth (John 3:4), the living water (John 4:11), eating His flesh (John 6:51ff), spiritual freedom (John 8:30–36), death as sleep (John 11:11–13), and many other spiritual truths.”

Despite all the signs that are presented by the Lord, despite all of the preaching and teaching, despite all the miracles that the Lord performed, the Bible says He came unto his own and his own received him not.

“Christ was accepted by the Samaritans (chap. 4), was sought by the Greek Gentiles (12:20), but was spurned by the official representatives of His own people.” Merril C Tenney.

Charles Spurgeon stated this, “John 1:11–12 (SSB:N): The people you would have thought would have eagerly welcomed Christ did not do so. But here and there a man stood apart from the rest, or a woman came out from her surroundings, and each of these said, “I receive Christ as the Messiah.” You will never go to heaven in a crowd. The crowd goes down the broad road to destruction, but the way that leads to eternal life is a narrow way.”

But notice the high note in the next verse, the note of rejoicing! The note of joy that causes us to shout Hallelujah!

8. The Word is received by some. v12-13

Did the world receive Him? In totality No.

Did His own chosen people receive Him…? In totality No.

But thanks be to God, as many as did receive Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.

Notice the inclusiveness of this statement.

“....as many...”

This is the barn door swung wide open.

This is statement for all to enter in…

It is conditional upon man receiving the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is available to as many as would.

In other words, it is open to all…

You and I live in a world today where we are encountering shortages, availability of certain items is scarce.

Supplies are limited.

Its a different world. I guess in times to come, should the Lord tarry we will be telling folks of the time when we use to go into Walmart when all the shelves were full and stuff was cheap....

But thanks be to God that our Lord and Savior has written in stone this holy truth which cannot be erased, “as many as received Him…”

I dont know about you, but I am thankful, as long as the Lord tarries there is still opportunity for men everywhere to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior!

We see not only the inclusiveness of this statement, but also there is an exclusiveness in this statement.

This inclusiveness comes with a clause.

What is the requirement to enter into this phrase that is so broad?

The Bible says, “But as many as received Him, gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name.”

We are living in a day and time where men are trying to compel others to believe that all men are the children of God.

Ephesians 2:3 tells us that we were all by nature or you might say naturally not the children of God but the children of wrath.

Ephesians 2:3 “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

The Lord Himself stated in Matthew 13:38 that there were children of His kingdom and children of the wicked One. “The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;”

We are living in a day and time where men are trying to compel others to believe that all roads lead to God and that all religions and forms of religion are of God.

Does that make sense, seeing the God sent forth His only begotten Son to be crucified in shame being made sin for us on the cross of Calvary?

You see it is evident from this passage and from the testimony of God’s word, and the preciousness of the One who died for us, that there but one entrance into eternal life, and that is be receiving the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice the Bible says, “…as many as recieved Him...”

Who is the Him? The Him is the Lord Jesus Christ.

There were many who were looking for the Messiah, but they did not receive Him.

In other words, they wanted a Savior of their own making and their own way.

They wanted a god of their own fashioning and making.

We see not only the inclusiveness and exclusiveness, but also the result of receiving the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible says, “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”

The word that is used here translated as “power” is the same word we find in Matthew 28 where the Lord Jesus states, “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.”

It is the word exousia and it gives the idea of authority, and privilege or right, even the idea of capacity.

So it is that we are give the power for what to become the Sons of God through being born again!

When we come back next week we will finish out this prologue by unpacking this statement in verses 12 -14.