The Herald and the Heralded - John 1:6-14

The Herald and The Heralded

John 1:6-14

©September 6th, 2020 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: John

If you have ever been in a situation with a celebrity or a special guest who is to appear before a crowd, you know someone is usually tasked with introducing them to the crowd before they appear. In our country, during the State of the Union address, the Sergeant at Arms comes into the house chambers and says, Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States! The president is introduced and everyone rises to their feet to honor the office (even if they don’t think much of the person holding it).

This morning we turn our attention to two people. The first is the man tasked with introducing Jesus to the world. The second is Jesus himself, as we talk about what it meant that he became a man and why that matters to us. This passage is one of the richest in the Bible, and there’s much to unpack, so let’s get started!

The Herald

John starts by briefly mentioning John the Baptist (which is a different John than the writer of this gospel)

6 God sent a man, John the Baptist, 7 to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8 John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. 9 The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. (John 1:6-9, NLT)

In the gospel of John we get less background information about John the Baptist than we do in the other gospels. John was written last, so he knows this information has already been recorded and is writing with a different emphasis. Nevertheless, we know that John the Baptist was a cousin of Jesus, a few months older than him. Like Jesus, he was a miraculous child and his parents were given specific instructions about him before he was born. John’s purpose was to prepare the way for the Messiah.

John was to point people to the true light, Jesus. There are all sorts of false lights in our world, just as there were in John’s time. Many things claim to illuminate the world for us: news media, education, philosophical thought, scientific inquiry, political pundits, and gurus of all sorts. All these things have some light, but they are not the true light. In some sense, they are like the moon—they may shine to some degree, but the light they have is not their own, it is only a reflection. The Sun, however, is the source of light. By the sun’s light we can see clearly, while the moon’s light is still very dark. Jesus, the Son, is the source of true light. He is the way all things can be seen and understood. He completely overwhelms the lesser “lights” the world holds out to us. This is the message John proclaimed to the people—that they needed to turn away from these lesser lights and toward the true light. John the Baptist was not the true light, but he was pointing to the true light, Jesus.

Like John, we are called to a similar task today. We are supposed to point people to the true light of Jesus Christ. But we must remember a very important truth: Jesus alone is the light, and nothing else! It is easy for Christians to get sidetracked when we start talking to people about Jesus. We can start focusing on getting people to come to our church, to get them to come around to our point of view, to argue with them about theology, or politics, or morality, or any number of other things. We can successfully argue any of those points and fail at pointing people to Jesus. None of those other things are the light. None of those things can save or guide or lead people. Only Jesus can. So we must make our focus sharing with people their need for a savior, and the truth that Jesus alone is that savior. So we need to set aside our agendas and our pride (as John did) and keep our eyes (and our mouths) focused on the Light.

The Rejection

After telling us about the herald (John the Baptist) the apostle John points us to the world’s response to Jesus.

10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. (John 1:10-11, NLT)

If you think about what we saw last week, these verses are jarring to us. Last week we saw that the Word (the second person of the trinity) created the entire world. He sustains the entire world. The world is utterly dependent upon Him, and ought to rejoice and worship Him. But that’s not what happened. The world rejected Him.

How did the world reject the Word? We have rejected Him on several levels. The first is by our sin. All sin, at its core, is a rejection of God. It is us saying to the Lord that we don’t want to be ruled by Him, that we believe we know better than Him, and so we are going to go our own way. It is an act of defiance against our Creator. When we recognize that we owe our creation and continued existence, every breath we take, to the Lord, we see that our rebellion against Him is both foolish and abhorrent.

But there is another sense in which John speaks of rejecting the Word. He is talking about what happened when Jesus arrived on the scene. Jesus was rejected, and His own people didn’t recognize who He was.

Who are His own people? Our first thought ought to be the Jews. They were God’s chosen people, God had clearly told them about the coming of the Messiah, and yet when Jesus arrived on the scene they didn’t recognize Him. They went so far as to have him executed instead of bowing before Him in worship.

But this isn’t just about the Jews—all of us are God’s creation. And many around the world today still reject Jesus. I am often asked by people why God doesn’t just make it obvious that He is real. Why doesn’t He send us a sign so that we can know the Bible is true? My answer to that is simple: He did. He sent Jesus into the world. He gave us the greatest evidence we could ever have; Himself! And yet, our minds and hearts are unwilling to believe. The issue is not a lack of evidence, but our unwillingness to see the truth. Jesus is the light, but we would rather live in darkness. The world has rejected God wholeheartedly and said we want nothing to do with Him. And that is what makes John’s next words that much more amazing.

The Blessing

Listen to what John said after talking about how God’s creation rejected Him,

12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. (John 1:12-13, NLT)

It would make sense for God to wipe us all out, to destroy His ungrateful creation. But that’s the opposite of what happens. Instead, He makes it possible for us to have new life, and to be adopted as children of the King! What a wonderful gift this is!

What does it mean to become children of God? It means that we become heirs of everything the Lord has. It means we have an inheritance greater than we can imagine. It means we now belong to the most powerful, most good, most loving family in the entire universe. We do not become gods, but we are adopted as God’s children.

This analogy obviously falls short, but imagine the Queen of England decided to adopt you into her family. That simple act would make you royalty. It wouldn’t matter that you were an American or what your background was. By the declaration of the Queen, you would become royalty. You would enjoy all the benefits of being part of the royal family. You would no longer have to worry about many of the things you had before. You would be set for life.

In a sense, this is what happens for the Christian. We are adopted as sons and daughters of the King of Kings. Our future is certain. We have been given a position we do not deserve, but we get to enjoy the benefits of it.

John also says we are reborn. In other words, we are no longer the same person. The person who utterly rejected God is gone. Instead, God has given us new life as people who understand the foolishness of our sin. We have a new sensitivity that allows us to trust and worship the Lord. We begin to think differently, to live differently, and to have a different outlook on life. This is all because of what Jesus has done for us.

So how do we gain this inheritance? How do we get to experience this rebirth? John says that all who believe and accept Him (or, as older translations say, “trust in His name”) receive these blessings. But what does belief actually look like?

I’m amazed at how often when I talk to people about matters of faith that they tell me they believe in God. I think they think that will keep me from pushing my faith on them or something. I think they hope that ends the conversation. But I always want to ask some follow up questions to this statement (though sometimes the situation doesn’t permit doing so). I want to ask: Who is this god? Is it the God of the Bible or is it a god of your own invention? What difference does this belief in God make in your life?

In James 2:19, we read these words,

19 You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. (James 2:19, NLT)

James tells us that the demons believe in God! They even have the good sense to fear Him! And yet, they continue to rebel against Him. The point here is that simply saying you believe in God is not enough, because genuine belief is much deeper.

That’s where the “trust in His name” part comes in. This means that we not only believe God exists, but we trust in who He is. When you talked about trusting in someone’s name in ancient times, it meant that you understood, respected, and trusted their character, who they are. It would be kind of like someone saying a person has made a good name for themselves. It doesn’t mean they changed their name to something different and chose wisely. Rather it means people have come to respect their character and who they are.

This is an essential part of belief. We must see God for who He is and place our whole trust in Him rather than in ourselves. This means we recognize our sin for what it is instead of trying to rationalize it or explain it away. It means we recognize God knows what is best for our lives and we submit to Him. And it means we come to understand the truth that our only hope is for Him to offer us forgiveness and new life, because we can never merit it on our own. When we internalize these beliefs, they will have a profound impact on the way we live. And John tells us that it is at that point we have forgiveness and new life.

John also reminds us that this inheritance is something that God gives to us, not something we can get by human means. The Jews thought they were good by virtue of being born Jews. John was showing them how wrong they were. Lots of people today seem to believe in what we might call salvation by heritage. The believe: my parents were devout believers, or I was raised in the church, or I live in a Christian nation with Christian ideals, and so I must have this inheritance and new life. But that isn’t true. Our salvation is not transferable. This is something each of us must settle for ourselves. It doesn’t matter who your family is, what your past is, or what other people have done. It ultimately rests with you. The question is simple, will you put your entire faith and trust in the Lord, or will you continue to trust yourself or the other lesser sources of light? Will you truly trust in His name or not? How you answer determines your inheritance.

The Incarnation

John now gives us one of the most profound verses in all of scripture, as it reminds us of the wonder of God’s plan.

14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. (John 1:14, NLT)

What John is saying is astounding. The Word, God Himself, the One who created all things, the One who sustains all things, and who has also been rejected by His creation, came to earth to rescue us. He became a human being to show His love for us. The creator took on the flesh of His creation to save us even though we didn’t deserve it.

This is an area that confuses lots of people, as people seem to have all sorts of wrong-headed ideas about the nature of Jesus. John gives us one of the clearest explanations in all of scripture, so there should be no ambiguity. Let’s talk briefly about some of the wrong ways people view Jesus.

First, Jesus was merely a man. Many people recognize there was a person named Jesus who existed and made a significant impact in the world. They see him as a great human teacher but nothing more. John’s gospel does not leave that option open to us. It says that Jesus was not merely a man, He was God in the flesh.

Second, Jesus was like God, but not actually God. This one is tempting for many people who struggle with the doctrine of the trinity, which we talked about last week. But if Jesus was merely godlike, then he isn’t able to deliver on the promises John has just declared. The scriptures are clear, Jesus wasn’t like God, He was God!

Third, Jesus was only partly man or only partly God. People have tried to explain this concept in various ways. They claim that Jesus’ human spirit was replaced by a divine one so that he wasn’t fully human. Or they say that Jesus stopped being God in order to become a human (I’m not even sure how that works). But neither of these things fit with what John says. John says God became a human and lived among us.

The right way to view Jesus is found in Colossians 2:9,

For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. (Colossians 2:9, NLT)

Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. The fullness of God the Son dwelt within the person of Jesus. The Son, who existed from before the creation of the world, who was active in creation, took on flesh and became a human being. He didn’t stop being God, and he wasn’t pretending to be a man. He was fully human and fully divine.

So how do we explain how this worked? Jesus didn’t stop being God, nor did He somehow lose His powers as God. Rather, Jesus chose to limit himself so he could live life the same way as us. He chose to live in human frailty. He could get hurt, he could get sick, he could get tired and hungry, and he could even die. Throughout his ministry, Jesus still possessed the power to do all things, but He chose not to exercise that power, and instead chose to live according the same power as every other human being—because He knew what it would accomplish.

The analogy I like to use is this. Suppose I decided to play basketball with my daughter who is in Kindergarten. I’m 6’6” tall and at one time actually played basketball. Needless to say, the odds are stacked against my daughter. But what if I decided to level the playing field? What if I said I would play on my knees and keep one hand behind my back? I would still be a 6’6” man with two arms, but I would be choosing to limit myself. I still have the ability to exercise my full power at any time, but I choose to only act within the confines I have chosen. In a sense, this is what Jesus did while on earth. He still had all His powers as God at His disposal, but He chose to limit himself to the power of a human being. What an astounding display of humility and love.

What’s amazing about this is that even as Jesus limited His own power, He continued to exhibit the character of God. He showed unfailing love and faithfulness. And because of that, when we look at Jesus we can say that we have seen God.

Anything that falls short of this conception of Jesus is false teaching. John makes it very clear in these verses that Jesus was the eternal Son of God come to earth in human form and living according to the same rules as human beings. This understanding is earth-shattering to us. It shows us the depths of God’s love and the lengths to which He was willing to go to redeem His people. What an amazing gift!

Conclusion

The question is what do we do with this knowledge? It is great to know the ins and outs of theology, but if it does not impact our lives it is worthless. I’ve got a couple closing applications I think we need to take away from this.

First, we must ask whether we really believe these things or not. Genuine belief goes beyond just saying we think something is true. Real belief affects the way we live. If this is true, if Jesus Christ is God come to earth in the flesh, then it demands a response. If it is true, we should submit to Him. We should follow His commands and honor Him with our lives. If Jesus is who He said, then we should trust His message of salvation, trusting in Him to save us instead of our devices or schemes or anything else. Jesus alone becomes our source of truth and our source of hope.

Second, we must tell others about Him. Like John, we are tasked with preparing the way for Jesus. We are to point others to their need for a Savior and then point them to the only One who can save them. This means we have to put aside a lot of the other things we deem important in this life and focus on making sure people understand the truth of who Jesus is, what He has done, and how they can receive the inheritance He makes possible. This must be our chief end in all things.

The promise of the story of Jesus is astounding. God, who created the world was rejected by those He created. Rather than abandoning us to our own just desserts, He came to the earth, lowering Himself to become a human being like us, for one specific purpose; to make it possible for us to know Him and have our inheritance with Him restored. Nowhere is God’s love for you more clearly demonstrated than in the person and life of Jesus Christ. John was a witness of these things firsthand. He experienced this new life and forgiveness himself. He wrote his gospel for a very simple purpose, so you would have everything you need to experience it as well.

©September 6th, 2020 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: John