The Sent Eyewitness (John 1:6-13)

John 1:6-13

The True Light

Sunday, December 4, 2022

Pastoral Prayer:

Church: Bethel Baptist Church (Kevin Cox)

IMB: Turks of Istanbul: “It's the most wonderful time of the year . . . except that many Turks do not know the true meaning of Christmas or Jesus as the Savior.”

Rec. of the Word

Introduction

Lights in the city vs lights in the country

Main Idea: The right to become a child of God is given to those who believe the eyewitness testimony about the true light who has entered the world.

The Sent Eyewitness

The True Light

The Sent Eyewitness

As John goes about his purpose to help us as his readers to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, he turns to the help of an eyewitness’s account.

His Identity: the Sent Witness

But this is not just an eyewitness who happened to be present in the days of Jesus. This isn’t like the eyewitness that stumbles upon a wreck and has to talk with the police about what happened. This isn’t an eyewitness who happened to stumble across a crime. No, the eyewitness that the beloved disciple, John, turns to is an eyewitness who was sent from God himself. We read in verse 6…

This John is that of John the Baptist. The one who in two weeks we will see says that he is a voice crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’ as Isaiah prophesied. This is the witness that God had sent to prepare the way for his King who was coming. Preparing the way so that all might believe through him that Jesus is the Son of God who had come to dwell among us.

It is made clear though that John was not the light. In verse 8, we read, “He (being John) was not the light.” But John the Baptist was sent as a witness about the light. He therefore lived as one who was sent for a purpose, for a mission.

His Purpose: To persuade others to believe in the light

And his mission was not to point to himself, but to point others towards the light. For the job of an eyewitness is to tell what their eyes have seen, what they saw with their own eyes. To give account in the best of details as they can of what they saw happen. In these cases, eyewitnesses are typically kept separated to get as accurate of an account as possible. Then it is the job of those who hear the eyewitness accounts to put the pieces together as accurately as possible.

Which, by the way, is what we have in the four gospels. Eyewitness accounts from 4 different perspectives. All four are telling us about the same one who has come to be born and dwell among mankind for the purpose of sacrificially laying down his life on the cross to save sinners. Sure, each account might capture different parts slightly different on the aiding details, just like collecting eyewitness stories of an automobile accident. But the story as a whole lines up, and that is what the four gospels are doing. And together, they give a detailed account of who Jesus is and why he came to dwell among men. To be laid as a baby in a manger.

Yet, while the four gospels collectively give evidence of multiple eyewitness accounts, the beloved disciple, John, the author of this gospel, he doesn’t leave it to chance. He points us to another eyewitness besides himself. He points us to the witness sent by God of John the Baptist, the one to bear witness concerning the light. He gives us the two eyewitness accounts needed from the law.

Deuteronomy 19:15 says, “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.”

The beloved disciple, John, points us to John the Baptist, so that John the Baptist can help support his claims and persuasion that Jesus is the Son of God who has come to save sinners. That Jesus is the true light who has entered the world.

The very light long promised to come and shine! For Isaiah had prophesied about this, recording in Isaiah 60:1-3:

Arise, shine for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

This was no ordinary light that John the Baptist was bearing witness about then, it was the LORD’s light that was bringing light to the nations to see and to turn to. For Jesus has come to show the glory of the LORD so that nations and kings and peoples may come out of darkness and enter the marvelous light, the presence of the LORD.

This is why John the Baptist is persistent that he is not the light, but has come to bear witness about the light. For he wants to take our eyes and point them towards Jesus, the true radiance of the glory of the Father! For it is Jesus who has shown the light of the Father as he walked in perfect obedience to the Father as creation had always been intended to. It was Jesus who remained dependent upon the Father. It was Jesus, though he faced the same trials, temptations, and sufferings we do, remained without sin. It was Jesus who showed compassion for the least of these, loving his neighbor as himself. Jesus indeed is the true light in displaying what God’s creation was always intended to look like. And it is to Jesus then that John the Baptist directs our eyes and hearts to.

So as John the Baptist bears witness about the light, he is to function like the moon. For the moon has no light of its own. The light reflected from the moon belongs to the Sun. So John reflects the light of the Son, the S-O-N who was coming into the world. He points to the true light, bearing witness to who he is, the light who has life in him. The light who shines in the darkness. And the light that is not overcome by darkness.

His Example: A call for us to imitate

John the Baptist labored to be a faithful eyewitness to the light, Christ Jesus himself. And therefore he serves as an example for us who believe in Christ. For while John the Baptist was sent by God to bear witness about the light, the light himself has sent us on mission as well. Before his ascension, the LORD Jesus himself commissioned his disciples, his people, his followers to go and make disciples of all nations. This mission, known as the Great Commission, is the very task that every Christian is called to take part in.

To follow in the steps of John in living sent, we are to bear witness to who Jesus is to the world, starting right where we live in the day to day. Being a great witness of Jesus doesn’t mean you take 100’s of mission trips throughout your lifetime. Being a great witness of Jesus doesn’t mean you must pack up your belongings and family to leave your home and move overseas. Though for some, it might.

Being a great witness of Jesus means you are faithful in the ordinary, mundane moments of life to talk about Jesus with others. Being a great witness of Jesus means that you intentionally build relationships with non-believers and through time tell them about who Jesus is and why he came. Being a great witness of Jesus means inviting people to join in with you at the coffee or dinner table to talk about Jesus with them. Being a great witness of Jesus means talking about him and allowing his light to shine brightly! Being a great witness means being like John the Baptist in realizing that we have no light of our own, only the light of Jesus to shine to others.

Brothers, sisters, see the example of John the Baptist and imitate his example of bearing witness about the true light of the world who has entered into the world to rescue sinners. Talk about Jesus as you go throughout your days, whether it be when we are together to encourage one another in pointing one another back to Jesus. Talk about him as you are out and about whether in the beauty or barber shop. Or when you are doing your grocery shopping, take that strategic stop to check your list or catch your breath near an employee and check in with them and turn the conversation to Jesus. Find bridges to the gospel. When someone says you should toss salt over your shoulder for good luck after it spilling, run to the gospel in sharing why you don’t need superstitions when you trust in the Sovereign LORD who has Sovereignly orchestrated the greatest rescue in history in Jesus! When someone talks to you about sports, run to the gospel in pointing to athletes who love Jesus. Bridge to the gospel when talking to young and struggling parents in the midst of raising children. You can point them to one they can find rest in in the midst of their weariness.

Brothers and sisters, bearing witness about the light is not nearly as complicated about it. The goal is to point others to the true light which is where we now turn in our second point this morning.

The True Light

The true light was coming into the world, he was going to come and tabernacle with his people. We will look more at his tabernacling next week as we look at John 1:14-18. But for now, we need to consider who this light shines upon, as we too have just seen how Jesus is the true light.

Gives Light to everyone

Verse 9, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” The true light gives light to everyone! But what does it mean by saying everyone? The true light gives light to everyone, but not everyone receives the light or accepts the light. We see this truth unfold in the following two verses. First, in verse 10, we read, “He (the True Light) was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to the world which was made through him, yet the world, his creation, did not know him.

Though the true light gives light to everyone, not everyone will come to know the light. For while they may see glimmers of the light shining, they will not see the light in its fullness. It will be like trying to see the night sky in the city. The lights of the city distract from the stars and the moon's reflection of the sun’s light. In the same way, there will be those who are too distracted by the false lights of the world to see the true light. Their eyes and hearts remain too hardened as they reject the light.

But the world was not the only one to not know the light. For verse 11 then adds, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” Jesus began his ministry among his own people, the Jews. The very people who had the law and the prophets. And yet, they did not receive the light. They did not receive Jesus as the second person of the Trinity. They did not accept that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. They did not receive Jesus even as one of their own, instead they condemned him by demanding he be crucified.

So when it says that Jesus gives light to everyone, we need to understand that does not mean that all will receive him or know him as the light. There will be many who reject Jesus. Many Jews rejected Jesus as the light, this is why there are still many Jewish people today. They reject Jesus as the Messiah who was promised. Still others will reject Jesus thinking him as nothing more than a Prophet, others as only a good moral teacher. Even still others will reject Jesus. Some will be hostile in their rejection, but many more will seem indifferent in their rejection of Jesus as the light of the world. Some of them even in our own families and circles of friends will feel this indifference about Jesus.

This is the sad reality of the effects of sin. And yet, there is good news found here in this statement that “the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” For though not all will receive and know the true light, the true light does not discriminate.

That is to say, in Jesus’ coming into the world, he did not come discriminating who he came to. Yes, he first came to the Jews as they were his people. But he did not turn away the foreigners. Consider the faith of the Syrophoenician woman from Mark 7. She was a Gentile, and she came and begged Jesus to cast a demon out of her daughter. But listen to how this story goes from Mark 7:27-30:

And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

Sure, Jesus questioned the Syrophoenician woman, but because of her humble faith in Jesus he did not turn her away. He did what she asked for. By faith, her daughter was free of the demon. Jesus came to the most marginalized of society. He came to the helpless, the forgotten. He came to those cast out by society. He showed compassion to those grieved and ashamed of their sin.

The religious people of Jesus’ day had no compassion. They thought Jesus was a fool for allowing a woman with a sinful past to wash and anoint his feet. They couldn’t understand why Jesus would have dinner with sinners and tax collectors. They presumed only those of a certain status were capable of being saved. And this is part of why John makes it so pointed in verses 10 and 11 that the world did not know him and that his own people did not receive him.

Jesus came to shine his light to the furthest corners of the earth. There is no favoritism shown with Jesus. There is no partiality. That means no matter how bad you think you are, no matter how messed up you think you are. No matter your background, the light of Jesus is shining, inviting you to come and believe in him. For we have seen that many rejected Jesus as the true light. The question is, will we or will we not believe in Jesus as the true light?

He brings adoption to all who believe

For it is this belief that is essential as we see in verses 12 and 13 this morning. Verse 12 tells us, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”. Not all will fail to know the light. Not all will reject the light. For those of us here this morning, who have received Jesus as the light, who have believed in his name, we are given the right to become children of God. That is, those who believe are adopted by God as his children as a result of their faith.

Now, let it be made clear what it means to receive and believe in the name of Jesus. To receive him and to believe in his name isn’t merely acknowledging facts about Jesus, even facts about who Jesus is. For example, one can affirm Jesus as the Son of God and still not receive him. Consider the demons who believe and still are not transformed by that belief, that knowledge.

To receive Jesus, to believe in his name is a call to welcoming and submitting to Jesus in all of who he is. To receive him means both affirming that he is the true light who has entered the world and allowing that light to guide our feet and our paths, like that of Psalm 119:105 which says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

But this verse is also redefining who the people of God are. Do you see this? “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” The family of God will no longer be defined by belonging to the nation of Israel. The family of God is to be defined as those who receive Jesus, those who believe in his name in its fullness. Believing him to be God of God, light of light. Believing him to be the Son of God, the Messiah King. This is now the foundation to belonging to God’s family.

Verse 13, it drives this point home even further. “Who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Being an Israelite is not the grounds for salvation, belief in the True Light who has come into the world is the grounds for salvation, for adoption into God’s family, as his child. The family of God is made up of those who have believed in the promised Messiah of God, the one who was promised to come immediately in the aftermath of the fall.

The right to become a child of God is now dependent on one’s faith and new birth. John will go on to elaborate on this further in chapter 3 in the story of Jesus and Nicodemus. But for now we need to see that faith and new birth are the grounds for our salvation and our adoption. And that new birth is a work of the Word and the Spirit bringing new life. And this new life is brought about as the Spirit works in tandem with God’s word to cut deep into the heart of man, into that heart of stone and replacing it with a new heart.

Without new birth, one cannot believe. Without new birth, one cannot be adopted into the family of God. Yet, for those who have been transformed by the power of the gospel, the good news of Jesus, they receive the right to be adopted as God’s children!

Beloved, consider the beauty of that statement, that all who receive Jesus as the true light, who believe in his name are given the right to become children of God, to be adopted into his family. Though we had rejected the Father in our sin, he invites us back to him through the light, through his Son, Jesus. He makes us his children and grants us entrance to his Holy City, the City of God which he is preparing for us even now.

Friend if your understanding of conversion and salvation does not include that of faith and a new birth, you have no grounds for salvation. I plead that today you would turn from whatever you are trusting in for your salvation and turn to believe in Jesus alone for salvation. Believing that new life alone is found in him. Will you believe this today and come and rest in it? I’ll be up front here on the floor after the service, come and let’s talk.

And my dear brothers and sisters, you who have already believed, who are leaning on Jesus alone for your salvation, see the wonderful gift we have of being adopted into the family of God. That it was not of our doing, but the grace of God. Treasure that gift and go and proclaim what Jesus has done so that all may hear.

Let’s pray….