Sermon Tone Analysis
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WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT JESUS?
(John 1:15-18)
Date: ____________________
Read John 1:15-18 - Neil Armstrong once visited Jerusalem.
Told he was standing on stones where Jesus walked, Armstrong, a deist - said, "I have to tell you, I am more excited stepping on these stones than I was stepping on the moon."
Amazing!
Why would he say that?
What's so great about Jesus?
You'll never know His greatness if you see Him as only a man.
He was so much more.
Erwin Lutzer says, "If the Christ of the NT had not existed, no one would have invented Him; indeed, no one could have invented Him.
When the chief priests sent officers to arrest Christ, they returned empty-handed, explaining, "Never has a man spoken in the way this man speaks" (Jn 7:46).
Either we are judged by this man, or we judge Him.
The choice we make determines our destiny."
What is so great about Jesus?
How about that He determines the eternal destiny of every person who ever lived.
How can we say that?
That's the subject of John's wrap-up to this amazing prologue - perhaps the greatest words ever written.
He wants us to see the greatness of Christ based on the fact that He is none other than God in the flesh come to save lost people.
What's so great about Jesus?
Here's what!
I. Jesus is Superior to John
The apostle John starts with his original discipler, John the Baptist: 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.' ")."
We don't get the impact of this bc we're used to thinking of John as a minor player.
Not the people of John's time.
Israel had been 400 years without a prophet.
They were starved for an authoritative message.
When John arrived on the scene with clear divine credentials, people flocked to him, even though his message was a strong call to repentance.
People revered him, even after Jesus arrived.
It reminds me how US Grant, as the winning general in the CW, was revered by many Americans, even above Lincoln for much of the 19th century.
It took time for people to put the two in perspective.
John had a high standing with people in Jesus' day.
So the Apostle John's insertion of v. 15 is not misplaced.
It is establishing in everyone's mind Jesus' superiority to John.
John knew it: "John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'"
Chronological rank was very important in Bible times.
Leon Morris: "It was widely held that chronological priority meant superiority.
People were humble about their own generation and really thought that their fathers were wiser than they - incredible as this may sound to our generation."
That was the common belief.
John could have said, "I came first.
I outrank Him."
But he chose another route altogether.
He says, 15) "[Jesus] who comes after me [nevertheless] ranks before me, because he was before me."
But, "Wait a minute, John.
If He came after you, how could He also be before you?
You're speaking in riddles."
And it would be a riddle if we didn't have John's prologue.
Jesus was "after" John in that He was born 6 months later.
But He was "before" John in that by virtue of His divine nature He never had any beginning at all.
"In the beginning [already] was the Word."
How is that possible?
"Because "the Word was God."
In His human nature, Jesus was after John; in His divine nature, He wasn't just "before" John - He was before anything!
In fact, "All things were made through him."
In indicating Jesus's superiority, the Baptist is pointing to the deity of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is superior to John - because Jesus is God.
The Jews of Jesus's time could not get that Messiah would actually be God in the flesh - that was not part of the expectation.
They faced the same dilemma we all do.
Who is Jesus?
How is it possible for a man to also be God?
Some deny it.
Prosperity gospel preacher, Kenneth Copeland, claims he had a vision where Jesus told him, "I didn't claim that I was God; I just claimed I walked with him, and that he was in me.
Hallelujah!
That's just what you're doing."
Thus, in one fell swoop, Copeland denies the deity of Christ and puts himself on the same plane with him.
It is grotesque heresy of the worst kind.
John never went there.
He knew he ranked far below Jesus bc Jesus was God.
That fact is the linchpin for salvation.
Jn 8:23-24: "You are from below; I am from above.
You are of this world; I am not of this world.
24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins."
That He is who?
The One who came from above; God in the flesh.
Deny that and there's no hope.
I Jn 2:23: "No one who denies the Son has the Father."
You can't get to God except thru Jesus.
John knew that.
So must we.
II.
Jesus is Superior to Moses
Now, having established Jesus is greater than the Baptist, the John turns to the greatest Israelite of all, Moses.
To Jews, he ranked with Abe as greatest of all.
But someone infinitely greater than Moses has arrived.
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
Now most people see this as a contrast between Law and Grace - between OT times represented by Moses and NT times represented by Christ.
The condemning law came by Moses; saving grace through Christ.
Law is bad; grace is good.
Law condemns; grace saves!
Law is bad; grace is good.
But that's not John's point at all.
Follow closely.
John's already told us that Jesus was "full of grace and truth" -- the ultimate of both.
But now, he says, out of that fullness, He shares.
For "16) from his fullness we have all (all believers) received grace upon grace."
What does it mean that we received "grace upon grace."
The usual explanation is out of the ever-flowing grace available in Christ, we keep getting more grace as the need arises.
The grace sufficient for one trial is replaced by more grace as a greater trial arises.
James 4:6, "He gives more grace."
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