Gospel of John wk 3
Notes
Transcript
Grace and Truth wk 3
Grace and Truth wk 3
This morning is the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and the Sunday that we are celebrating our Harvest meal together.
I did not prepare a specific message specifically for Thanksgiving but I am continuing in the Gospel of John but the text that we have fallen on I believe we can find some things to be thankful for.
We will be in John chapter 1 this morning looking at verse 14-18 and the title of the message is Grace and truth, and I believe we can always be thankful for Grace and truth.
This is our third sermon in this series and we have seen that John uses the term Word for Jesus and last week he also referred to Jesus as the True Light, the John that he is talking about here is John the Baptist but only calls him John.
Will jump into our text then look at three things.
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ ”
16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
Pray
Pray
I. The Word became Flesh
I. The Word became Flesh
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
First, we see that the Word became flesh, that is Jesus became flesh, He became a man.
Jesus was born through the virgin Mary, conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit. Living a perfect life.
6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
We also see in our text that Jesus dwelt among us, and as we also see in Philippians there that not only did He dwell among us, but He came as a carpenters son, Jesus we know was born in a barn laid in a feed trough.
As it says in Philippians He took on the form of a bond-servant.
Jesus humbled Himself, see He left the glory of Heaven, the perfection and paradise behind, to come to earth, but as Philippians says He was obedient unto death.
And through that we can see His glory, through His resurrection, not only do we see His glory but the glory of His Father’s, which is God the Father.
We see the glory of God the Father through the miracles that Jesus did during His earthly ministry also.
Jesus showed grace and truth during His earthly ministry and through His death and resurrection.
II. This was He.
II. This was He.
15 John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ ”
John the Baptist testifies about Jesus, it says he cried out saying, this was He of who I said. John was always pointing others towards Jesus during his ministry.
John the Baptist says, He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.
Now John the Baptist is stating that Jesus has a higher rank than him, they are not in the military, they are not Rabbi's or anything else that has ranks.
But John the Baptist is stating that Jesus is the Lord and Savior, the Messiah without coming out and saying it, because he knows that Jesus is not ready to be pointed out like that yet.
Then John the Baptist says, He existed before me, but John the Baptist was about six months older than Jesus, as his mother Elizabeth was pregnant with him before Mary got pregnant with Jesus.
But we must remember that Jesus has always been, and that is exactly what John the Baptist is referring too here.
III. Grace
III. Grace
16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
There in verse 16 we see that because Jesus came in the flesh, we are able to receive the fullness of God’s resources only because of Jesus become flesh, becoming man, and the Apostle John expresses it in Grace upon Grace.
He then says the Law was given through Moses, now many times we have a negative view of the law, but we must understand that the law is intended to help us see our sins so that we see our need for a Savior.
It is also a great guide in life to help keep us on track morally, spiritually, so that we can better follow Jesus, but through grace Jesus came and fulfilled the law on the cross, by being the ultimate sacrifice.
Jesus is the ultimate gift of God in the unveiling of God’s way of salvation understood in terms of the entire Christ event - the birth, life, death, resurrection, exaltation, and return of Jesus the Christ.
Wow now that is something right there to get excited about and to be thankful for.
Then in verse 18 we are told that no one has seen God at any time, in the Old Testament it was a death certificate to see God.
But then we are told that the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
The bosom of the Father denotes the mutual intimacy, love and knowledge existing in the Godhead.
Explained what John means here is that all that Jesus is and does interprets and explains who God is and what He does.
God is a personal God and wants a personal relationship with each and every person, He loves every person and desires that every person will love Him and will receive the free gift of salvation that He has provided, but God is also not going to force it on you, you must freely receive it.
9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
God is waiting for you to come, will come to day and receive the gift that He has made available to you.
Will you come this morning and make this the greatest thanksgiving of your life.
A thanksgiving that you can truly be thankful for, thankful for the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in your life.
What is holding you back today, there is nothing in this life worth going to hell over.
Ask yourself this morning, if I was to take my last breath today, am I sure without a shadow of a doubt that I would make into heaven, or would I be sent to Hell.
If you cannot answer heaven with a 100% guarantee than we need to talk.