He is the Light
Notes
Transcript
Introduction: Who here likes birthdays or other celebrations where the giving of gifts is customary? It could be a birthday, Wedding, anniversary, Christmas - I guess that’s a birthday, graduation, housewarming, holidays, engagement party, baby shower or even just to say thank you.
The point is we all love to receive gifts. Some people even love giving them. It shows that we love and care about someone and want to show it in a tangible way. The gift can be big or small, expensive or cheap, store bought or even a wonderful hand made gift. Generally the gift is based on how we feel about the person and the specific occasion that the gift was purchased to celebrate. Sometimes exactly what the gift is matters and sometimes just giving a gift means more than the gift itself. The great thing about gifts is that there really aren’t any rules about giving a gift. Sure we can make up things that say you have to give a certain gift for a certain anniversary, or you can’t give something to expensive to your sweetheart on the third date or other such things. But it’s a gift, give it simply because you want to.
But then there is God. Do you know that God will give everyone a gift? All that has to happen is the person needs to ask. This mornings passage points to that gift and it tells you how it can become yours.
Scripture: John 1:6-13
6 There came a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.
8 He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.
9 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Transitional Sentence: This passage begins with the simple introduction of a man who has a big job to perform for God, and it goes like this.
John 1:6 “There came a man sent from God, whose name was John.”
a. This is how the Apostle John introduces John the Baptist to his readers! No special details here, only the one simple fact that he came from God. He had a specific part to play in God’s plan of redemption for the world. The beginning of John’s story is told by Luke in the beginning of his gospel. Check it out, Luke 1:5-25. It gives all the details of how an angel told his father Zacharias that his aged and barren wife would bear a child. It also has some details about how he would live and what he would do.
Luke 1:17 gives the details of the part he would play in God’s great plan. “It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.””
There is one other special bit of information about John that I must tell you. He is a cousin of Jesus. John’s mother Elizabeth is a relative of Mary the mother of Jesus. Even though Mary is young and Elizabeth is old.
b. So what is this task that he has been given by God? Go as a forerunner before Him? Basically it means that John is going to testify about Jesus. But John calls Jesus by something other than His name.
8 He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.
To testify is to bear witness; to solemnly assert something, offering firsthand authentication of the fact; often concerning grave or important matters. Is Jesus a grave or important matter?
John is to be a Witness. The:
Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary Witness, Martyr
Says this about being a witness. To witness refers generally to something or someone that bears testimony to things seen, heard, transacted, or experienced. The bearing of testimony can be either passive (as when one is present as a spectator or bystander or active (as when one gives evidence as a witness). The conventional meaning and usage pertains to the legal sphere but can also refer to the moral sphere. Bearing witness may also denote the content and/or the significance of the testimony. Additionally, a witness may refer to facts about which a person is firmly convinced by faith and for which that person would willingly die. In this last sense such a person would be referred to as a martyr.
So what does it mean for John to be a witness? It means he is going to make himself a nobody. He isn’t going to try and glorify himself or make a name for himself. He isn’t going to try and be some big important super star preacher. He’s going to point people to someone else. He’s going to point people to Jesus. “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John will be a nobody, trying to tell everybody about somebody who will save their souls.
c. As a nobody:
7 He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.
So that all might believe through him.
So John came to bear witness that all might believe. That all might put their trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. He is leading them to have faith in Jesus that they might have eternal life.
He came to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. He pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God, he called on the masses to repent of their sins, be baptized and turn them back to God; and he called out the hypocrisy of the spiritual leaders of the time. Everything he did was meant to turn others to God. Everything he did was to prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah.
Everything he did was meant to lead the people to have faith in Jesus, because Jesus is:
2. The True Light.
a.
9 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
To enlighten means to illuminate or to cast light upon something so that it becomes illuminated.
Jesus is the True Light because He shines in the darkness. He is truth and light, He is Life. The world is darkness, the world is held hostage by sin and death. The world is held hostage by Satan. John calls Jesus the True Light because there is no darkness in Him. He is True Light because He has life in Himself and the darkness seeks to mimic Him. The darkness seeks to subvert His truth through lies and deceit. Because the darkness can wrap sin and death up in a pretty package and lead people to believe it is the truth. But in reality it is still sin and death. This is possible because those who do not know the true light are easily deceived.
14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
If Satan can disguise himself as light then he can certainly wrap sin and death into a pretty package. That is why you must know the True Light. You must know Jesus. The True Light seeks to save people from the darkness and bring them into the Light. Jesus is that Light seeking to save the lost and give them eternal life. Jesus wants you to walk out of the darkness and into His glorious light. The light that saves, the light that reconciles people to God and makes them a part of the Kingdom of God.
b. This True light came into the darkness to glorify God.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
John 1:3 says He created all things. Then John 1:14 says He came to dwell in the world. But the world didn’t know Him. His own creation and all the created things ignored Him.
Do you know the story of Pinocchio? Pinocchio was a puppet but he knew his creator and he wanted to be like his creator. He wanted to be a human boy not just a puppet. He wanted this so much that he went on a wild adventure to earn the right to be a real boy. He succeeded. He became a real boy.
But in this case the world doesn’t want to be like Jesus or even to have anything to do with Him. It certainly doesn’t want to believe in Him. Just like John 1:5 says, He was shining in the darkness but the darkness didn’t understand or accept the Light. The world turned away and ignored Him. The darkness wants to remain darkness. The darkness continues to try to extinguish the light.
c. John goes on to say:
11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.
He came to His own. His own were the Jewish people. Just like the world His own didn’t receive Him either. He preached a message that was contrary to the traditions of the Jewish people. His message would rip the fabric of the sacrificial system to shreds. The priestly order that governed every aspect of life and stood between the people and God would be destroyed. And so He had to be dealt with.
33 saying, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles.
That’s exactly what happened to Him. He was delivered to the chief priests and they handed Him over to the gentiles to be crucified. But that was the plan all along and that wasn’t the end of the story. Through His death on the cross and His resurrection He became the atoning sacrifice that brings forgiveness to those who do believe in His name.
Even though most did not receive Him, some did.
3. To those who did they became Children of God.
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
This right is a privilege (of a social or legal nature) reserved exclusively to a particular person or group. The wonderful thing about it, is that, it is a gift from God. Romans 6:23 says: “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Eternal life is given to the children of God.
a. All you have to do is Believe in Him.
To believe is to trust. To believe is to have faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This Greek word is pistĕuō; to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), it is to entrust something especially one’s spiritual well-being to Christ.
John 3:16 says “whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” If we are to believe, have trust, in this one verse all you have to do is believe in Him to have eternal life. This matches this verse which says even those who believe in His name are given the right to become a child of God. What an awesome privilege. You get to be a child of God just by trusting in Him. Does that sound right to you? Don’t we have to do something to receive that right. Don’t we have to repent and be baptized, give lot’s of money away, love everyone, forgive everyone, live like Jesus for the rest of our lives? This makes me wonder. Who’s really going to be there at the end when all things are made new?
But that is how verse 12 ends. It begins with But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God. What’s the difference between believing in Him and receiving Him? Is there a difference or is John simply following up his statement about His own not receiving Him with the idea that there were some who did receive Him.
b. So what does it mean to Receive Him?
to receive a person is to willingly permit access to one’s company.
lambanō, is to take, to get a hold of or to seize.
Do you see the difference? To receive is to make Him a part of your life. You've probably heard it explained by using the idea of believing is head knowledge and receiving is heart knowledge.
But I’m going to use a different analogy. Since Romans 6:23 says that eternal life is a free gift I’m going to make it just that, a gift.
Here’s the gift from God. It’s a gift because it’s free. No strings attached. I know it is from God because it says so right here. From: God - To: David. Since it’s a gift I can do what ever I want with it. Maybe I don’t want it, maybe I don’t want to open it right now and maybe I want to open it right now.
Either way I know this is eternal life because it says so here on the box. If I’m not interested in what God is offering me I’m just going to chuck this box in the rubbish bin. I don’t need it, I don’t need anything from God.
On the other hand if I am interested in this gift then I am going to set it on my shelf and keep an eye on it. Maybe every once in a while I will take it down and think about opening it. But the gift is right there, I know what it is and I know who it came from and I know all about it. I believe it is eternal life and I believe in the one who provided the gift, but I’m not ready to open it yet.
But then, what if I want eternal life right now. I want it bad. I want what God has for me and I believe that it will do wonderful things in my life if I take the time to open the gift. I’m not waiting, I’m going to open this gift and set it free in my life. (Open it)
Do you see the difference? If I were to throw the gift away then I would not believe in the giver of the gift or in His Son Jesus Christ. If I accept the gift and merely set it on the shelf and don’t open it then I believe in His name but I’m going to keep it from really changing my life. This is the head knowledge. But then I opened the gift. I received it, I received Him into my life and will allow and even expect Him to change me as I continue to learn and grow because the gift, when opened or received, brings me into a relationship with Him. That’s the heart knowledge. Don’t be the one who throws away the gift or simply leaves it on the shelf. Open it. Let Him change you through the power of the Holy Spirit who will come to dwell in you.
So, what happens when you open the gift?
c. That’s where verse 13 comes into play.
13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
According to this verse you will be born of God, not of blood, flesh or man. You see being born of blood is the natural way to be born. Being born of the will of the flesh means that a man and a woman came together and chose to produce a human life. And the will of man also means that some people choose to have children. But this is not how you are born of God. John 3:3-6 says:
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Being born again is not about the flesh. Because that which is born of the flesh is flesh. But this is about being born of the Spirit. This is about God taking your cold dead heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh. A heart that is driven by the Holy Spirit. The rebirth of the Spirit that reconciles you to God and will bring you into His family.
This is the free gift. This is what is in the box. Don’t throw it away. At the very least believe in the name of the one who gave you the box and can give you so much more if you simply open it. Receive the gift, receive eternal life and be reborn in the Spirit.
Exit: So what about You? Do you like to give and receive gifts? What’s the last gift that you gave someone and what was the occasion for giving the gift?
Have you received your gift of eternal life from God? Did you accept the gift by believing in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and then set it on the shelf for later? Or did you receive the gift. Did you take hold of it and rip it open and let the contents of the box change you?
You can keep the gift and believe in Jesus; you probably won’t have to change too much. But, I’m sure He’s going to change you in some way anyhow. You just can’t stop it. But if you receive the gift. If you open it, get ready, because things are going to be different. Things are going to change in your life. Things may get harder, things may get easier but things will change. Receiving the gift is accepting that change will come. Receiving the gift means that you want to be more like Jesus. Change isn’t the only thing that comes with receiving the gift.
Receiving the gift means that you are willing to stop pointing to yourself. Receiving the gift means that you will be like John the baptizer. Receiving the gift means that you are going to be a nobody, that should be trying to tell everybody about somebody who saved your soul.
Receive the gift, go forth and be a witness and give others the gift. The gift that comes from God and is for all those who receive Him and even those who believe in His name.
Pray:
