Light in Darkness

All right settle down, i hope you all enjoyed that crazyness, and soon you will have me eating some spicy pepper

But tonight we are going to start our next series in the book of JOhn

Now i have lead you guys through the Gospel funmentals with the Romans road, we have seen the vaule of scipture in psalms, and we even saw what redmeptiion looks like in Ruth

Tonight we start the series that i have been the most excited for John

Why? because it so clearly reveals to us the person of Jesus, direclty, in a story

who he is and what he does, what was his personality, what were his teachings, a story that starts with 400 years of scilence for the Israelites who are awaiting their massiah, who is he when will he come

So this study is going to show us who is Jesus?

so before we get into it here is a question

What is the brightest thing you have ever seen?

have two to three students answer

those are all bright things

when you see any of them what happens

it kind of shocks you

espessialy if its in a dark space

light that game we played at camp

when i would shine the light your eyes are stunned

So tonight we are going to talk about how God the father has revelead the light of the word to us and how we should responeded

so if you have your Bible turn to John chapter 1: 1-18

John 1:1–18 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (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.’ ”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Pray in

Who is the WORD? 1-5

So i know that John the apostel here’s writting can seem confussing, but what we see in these first five verese is who is the word and why he is diffrent

1-2 harkens back to Genesis 1, saying that even then the word esixted, nothing was made before genesis 1 and hen boom

400 years of sicelnce then boom a new light takes the stage

The word is said to be with God and to be God, What? that kind of dosnt makes sense

so what would you guys do if you were watching a movie and somthine does make sense?

would you stop watching in the middle?

no you would keep watching

So what should you do when the Bible does not make sense at first keep reading

which we did., and from verse 17 we know that the word is Jesus

So what does this mean he is with God the Father and he himself is God, etarally as v.2 explains

v.3 says that all things were made through Christ, which means he was not made, but also that he is all powerful with God the Father

so from these three verse we know a little more about who Christ is,

he is God and he was with God the Father at the begging of creation, he was not made, but is all powerful to create

(vv.4-5). show us that life is only found in Christ, and John uses the imery of light

life=light

so what is darkness then

Darkeness = death

So what does v.5 mean when it says light shines in the darkness,?

It means the light, the life can be found, and its not suddle its bold clear,

not a glipms

like flahslight in your eyes

and guess what the darkness, sin has not overcome Christ

and it never will, because darkness is not all powerfull

the devil is not all powerful

Chirst is

So take away from this section, that Jesus is God, and he clearly shows life to those in the darkness

Not to receive and to receive 6-13

now a quick little change of focus,

We get introduced to another John, not the author, John the Baptist, we are going to talk more about him next week so stay tuned, but for now, now that he is a normal guy appointed by God to who was borne before Chirst, and told others he was coming. But he is a normal person, actually Jesus cousin we find out in other Gospels such as luke

so what did he tell everyone

(v.9-10) hey the light of the world (Jesus) and he is offering life to every one, so what do you expect these people who were in death and darkenes to respond by

proably not rejecting him

(v.11) What does the text say he came to his own people the Israelites, did they excempt him no they did not

they chose not to recive him

today we have this option, we can know CHirst is the light of the world and then reject him

Ok lets pause, turn to your neigbor, and disscuss amougst yourself what the deffinetion of neutral is

pick one group after 30 second to give their answer.

YEah in the middle or not moving, indiffrent

well can there be a neutral between light and darkness

well no

what i’m getting at is that every person has to respond to Christ either by rejecting him or accepting him

lets see verse

(v.12) those who do accept him or recive him have the right to be called children of God

out of the darkness into the light

(v.13) calls steping inot the light being born, the entirity of a person not a little part all of who you are, but not litartly be born not by our will either, but by the will of God

so if you have recived Christ, you are made new, all of you is changed you have a new idenity, and are a child of the light.

So all of us at some point have to wrestle with this section, will to accept Chirst as who he is in (V.1-3) or will you reject him,

remrmber there is no neural space in between light and darkness.

but if we are children of God, it doesnet just mean we have a new title

no what does a good father want

to know his kids

in the same way

We can know him 14-18

we can know God, the Chritian life, is not justa checklist of to dos and what to beilve its a realitonship

which is way better because checklist are lame compared to a realtionship

quick qeustion who enjoys camping in a tent

i like staying in a tent

you know also who stayed in a tent

God, in the tabernacle after Moses lead the Israelites out of Eygpht

Hold on to that that tought

(v.14) says that the word Jesus took on flesh, what does that mean

he as GOd becacme a man, like you and i but still being truly God yet truly man,

and the text says he dwelt amoung us

the world dwelt here is used in the greek old tesment to mean taberncale, so john is saying that how Jesus took on fleash is the same as God in the tabernalce,

with all the glory, but one large key diffrence we can see him,

in the temple you could not see God but now you can see his glory, moses could not even see his glory

when God’ glory is revaled we see his character often, what is that here grace and truth,

(v.15) John doubles down uses a cleaver wording to say that Jesus is God, because he was born after John yet exsited before.

Ok we really have (v.16-17) together, as it tells us that we have revivec grace upon grace from Christ, but this means that the law given in the old testment was a grace, but the fullfillment of Grace is found in Christ

(v.18) thus we can now be in a relationship with God unlike with a nearness the israelites could never ecperincce,

As through Christ he has made God the father known.

The take ways for this section is that God has always wanted to dwell with his people, while he did tis in a tent tabernacle in the Old testment with moses,

now through Christ we can know him

Main point: To receive Christ is to know him

So what does it mean to be in the light, its to recoive Christ, and we do this by knowing him, to be a christian is not a long list of rules, but it does requires us to respond to Chirst with belive that he is truly God, and know by his grace he took on fleash and dwelt amoung us.

Application

know that Jesus is truly Fully God and Fully man

Respond in belief in Christ

Make intentional time to know him more

Light in Darkness

so the isralesits were wating four hundred year then boom, Christ comes as the light of the world being fully God and man, and those to beilve in him will have life, and get to live knowing him

pray out

a way that we can know him more and more is gathering together, and diving into his word, as each of you is an important peace

so if you remember the puzzle, come up grab a piece, write your name and put it on the board