Prologue - Part 2 (John 1:6-13)

Introduction

Last week we started in a series working our way through the book of John and of course, since it was the first message, we did speak a lot about some background information to help us understand the purpose of why the book was written and what the purpose of the book actually is. So, we spoke for a little while at the beginning about how John isn’t like the other three Gospels in that it provides unique material that the other Gospels don’t mention and that unlike Luke, John doesn’t write in a chronological way, but rather in a thematic way—John (the author) does this intentionally because John is writing with a specific reason in mind and he tells us that in John 20:30-31, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” Or put differently, John wrote this book under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that those who read the book might believe in Jesus Christ and find salvation through Jesus alone.

And keeping that in mind will allow us to better understand why he wrote the things that he wrote—like his emphasis on the signs that Jesus performed to validate his message, and the I AM statements that John highlights in order for people to connect Jesus to Yahweh and even in last week’s message—the connection of Jesus as the Word and then stating that the Word was with God and the Word was God himself. So, just to get everyone up to date, last week we look at John 1:1-5 and we split up that message into three parts, (1) identifying the Word as Jesus and understanding why John chose to call Jesus the Word, (2) we talked about Jesus’ role in creation—that Jesus was involved with the creation of the universe to the extent that John says that all things were created through Jesus, and (3) we spoke just briefly about this life and light that comes through Jesus Christ—both in a physical sense as Jesus being the light during creation and Jesus giving physical, earthly life, but also in a spiritual sense, that Jesus is the light spiritually and that through Jesus we experience true life.

And of course, you’ve noticed that there was a significant amount of material and I should’ve mentioned this last week, but I forgot to—don’t forget that this is a prologue to the rest of the book and John is giving ideas initially here that he will expound on later in the book—so please don’t feel overwhelmed with the sheer amount of material that John is throwing at you in a rapid succession, later in the book and later in the series, we’ll dig deeper into each topic.

So, turn in your Bibles to John 1:6-13 and while you’re turning there, let me explain a little bit of what is going on in the passage. In Vs. 1-5, the author has connected the Word with God and has explained that the Word made all things and that life is found in him. He makes this statement, that this life that is found in the Word is the light of men and that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. And what you notice, if that’s all that you’ve read from this book so far, that John has yet to tell us who the Word is and who this light is. We only know that he’s referring to Jesus because we’ve read ahead and we’ve connected Vs. 14, to the previous verses—we know that the Word, who is God became flesh and dwelt among us, but to those who would’ve read this for the first time in the first century, they haven’t gotten that far yet. So all they know is that there is the Word and the Word is God and that there is life in the Word. John hasn’t identified him as Jesus yet and he doesn’t in the passage that we’re looking at today either. Rather, John is going to expound a little bit more on the identity of the Word without actually stating who he is and he actually starts it off differently than how we would expect it—he starts by talking about someone else and he explains how this other person wasn’t the light, this other person was simply a witness of the light; the true light came into the world and was rejected by his own people, but saved those who believed in him.

Let’s read John 1:6-13.

John 1:6–13 ESV

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

As we study this passage, we’re going to look at it in three sections: (1) we’re going to look at this man named John who wasn’t the light, but a witness of the light in Vs. 6-8, (2) we’re going to take a closer look at the true light and we’re going to explore a bit as to what John means when he states that his own people didn’t receive him in Vs. 9-11, and (3) we’re going to spend some time talking about what John means by receiving the light and becoming children of God in Vs. 12-13. All of this will help us understand a little bit more about Jesus’ relationship with the world and it’ll help us to understand our relationship with Jesus Christ.

John, the Witness (6-8)

John 1:6–8 ESV

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

The Bible states that a man was sent from God, whose name was John

And we know that this is not the same John that wrote the book—we already determined last week that the book itself was written by the Apostle John who also wrote 1, 2, 3 John, and Revelation. We know that from internal evidence—John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, and 20:20 all describe the disciple whom Jesus loved and then John 21:24 describes that same disciple as the one who wrote all of these things (the book itself) as the disciple whom Jesus loved. And then when you compare that to Mark 3:17, Acts 1:13, Acts 3-4, and 8:14 it connects John the Son of Zebedee to the disciple whom Jesus loved by association with Peter. We also know this from external evidence—in that the early church fathers, particularly Irenaeus and Polycarp both claim that John wrote this book.

So, this isn’t referring to the same John that wrote this book, but rather a man sent by God whose name was John. So who is this man?

Now, we can take hours contemplating who this might be, but let me remind you that this is the prologue of the book, which means everything he mentions now will probably be spoken of again in the book itself and what we find out by reading the rest of the book is that the context tells us who this John is. In John 1:19, we read this, “And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed, and did not deny ‘I am not the Christ.’” and after this brief conversation that he has with the priests and Levites in Vs. 23, he says this, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.’”

Which connects this John to a prophecy in Isaiah 40, which prophesies of the coming Messiah and it identifies this John with the man that’s later referred to again as the one who baptizes. Matthew 3:1-2 calls him John the Baptist who preached repentance because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

This is John the Baptist and Vs. 6, says he was sent from God, which is evident in the simple fact that he was prophesied in Isaiah.

So this man, named John was sent from God Vs. 7, “as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.” and then in Vs. 8 the author makes this emphasis, “[John] was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.”

Well, what does it mean to bear witness to something? To bear witness to something means to testify about something and if you’re like me, the terminology “to bear witness” and “to testify” reminds me of a courtroom setting. When an attorney calls up to the stand a witness, the witness swears to tell the truth and then the attorney questions the witness to gain his account of what occured. In a courtroom setting, the witness is utilized to make apparent what the jury and judge would otherwise not know.

Merriam-webster defines the concept of bearing witness as to show that something exists or is true.

I find it interesting that the Greek word that’s translated as “to bear witness” is μαρτυρεω (martyreo) and its the same word that we get our word martyr from. What is a martyr, again from Merriam-webster, “a person who is killed because of their religious or other beliefs.” Easton’s Bible Dictionary states that a martyr is “one who bears witness of the truth, and suffers death in the cause of Christ” and then of course their example of a martyr would be the first martyr in Acts 7, Stephen who after preaching a long message concerning Jesus Christ being the Messiah was immediately stoned by the people.

Why was he stoned? Because he bore witness or he testified or he showed the people that Jesus truly was and is the Messiah and the people rejected the truth

And what John 1:7 is saying is that John the Baptist came to bear witness or to testify or to show the people about the light

And that by bearing witness about the light, all might believe through him—the reason why John witnessed or testified or showed people about the light was that they would come to believe through him. And then this key point is reiterated in Vs. 8, “He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.”

That they would come to believe in the light through him, which brings up an excellent point. John himself recognized the the point of his ministry was not about him. The point of what he was doing was not for people to know John, for people to depend on John, or for people to praise John and honor him—the point of John’s ministry was so that people would believe in the light or believe in Jesus Christ.

And when we apply this mindset to ourselves it begins to readjust our focus in our lives, in our ministries, and our jobs.

What exactly do I mean by this? Let’s take a step back, when we become believers in Jesus Christ, there’s something that happens to us in status—and I’m not talking about financial status or other socio-economic related statuses, I’m talking about our status with God.

Prior to salvation we are completely and utterly distanced and separated from God. It is Jesus’ substitutionary atonement and our belief in Jesus Christ that allows us to come to know God and be in his presense. That is the status change I’m referring to.

Prior to salvation we are not able to be in the presence of God and put differently it is quite simple, we are not citizen of God’s kingdom. We’re citizens of the world and it isn’t until our salvation through Jesus Christ that we become citizens of God’s kingdom

And as citizens of God’s kingdom, we recognize that this earthly world is not our home. We have a different home, which makes us foreign people on this earth, it makes us ambassadors for Jesus Christ. Paul utilizes this idea in Ephesians 6:19-20 while asking the Ephesians to pray for him, he makes this statement, pray “for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.”

When we come to believe in Jesus, we become ambassadors for Jesus and part of our role as ambassadors is to live lives worthy of the calling to which he called us and in living lives worthy of the calling others might believe.

If we readjust our focus in our lives, in our ministries, our jobs, or at school to do all things as witnesses of Jesus Christ; hopefully, some of the unbelievers that we come into contact with on a daily basis would believe in Jesus Christ. We are witnesses of Jesus Christ, we are not Jesus.

This requires us to work on what I mentioned briefly last week, to work on our frame of thinking or our worldview. We need to stop seeing the world as something that is centered around us, but rather something that is centered around Jesus Christ. And reorienting our thinking towards Jesus being the center of our lives will adjust the way that we live.

And as our lives are readjusted to having Jesus at the center of our lives, our mindset about work, school, family, and the very people that we see everyday changes; and we no longer think of life as a drudgery that we have to get through, but as an opportunity to be ambassadors for Jesus

And while we have to keep going to work or we have to keep going to school; and when we spend time with people around us our midset ought to be that “I, as a believer in Jesus Christ, am an ambassador and everything that I do ought to reflect what Jesus has done for me.”

Our lives stop being mundane and instead our lives become mission-oriented—we’re seeking to do what John did and bear witness to who Jesus is and what he has done for us.

Only then will we be able to lead people to Jesus Christ—when they recognize that we are different because Jesus has made us different.

So John is the witness for the light and in hindsight we know that the light is Jesus Christ, but John hasn’t explicitly said that yet, in fact, he takes the next three verses to give more details of who this light is. Let’s read John 1:9-11.

Jesus, the true Light (9-11)

John 1:9–11 ESV

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

So the author is talking about this light again and he makes some key points about the light that will connect the light to John 1:1-5 and ultimately towards God himself.

He states that the true light, which gives light to everyone was coming.

If you remember back with me to John 1:1-5, we’ve read about this light before. We read in 1-5 that “in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This Word created all things and in this Word is life and that life is the light of men. In Vs. 5, we’re then told that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.

And through some study (and by looking ahead at Vs. 14), we realized that this Word, which is equal to God and provides life that is the light is Jesus Christ.

So, in essence, John is saying that Jesus, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world that he himself made—and I can’t express how awesome just this concept is, that the creator of all things humbled himself and became flesh and was born as a child into his creation.

And the author then makes this almost gut-wrenching statement, “he was in the world [that he created], yet the world did not know him.” And Vs. 11, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

Now when the author speaks about Jesus coming to his own people, he’s specifically referring to the Jewish people—because remember, Jesus as a man was Jewish and Yahweh had a covenant through Abraham with the Jewish people that all the nations would be blessed through them so naturally Jesus would go to the Jewish people first.

And yet we know that the Jewish people particularly the Pharisees and Saduccees who led the religious worship rejected Jesus. In some sense, its a little ironic that the very people who had the Scriptures—the prophets, the law, and all the writings that propesied about Jesus Christ; and they completely missed the very person that they were supposed to be looking for.

Now as we reflect on the fact that the Jewish people missed out in whom Jesus is, part of us almost always wonders “how could they have been so foolish?” How do you go from being the most educated people in the world at the time concerning the OT law, prophets, and writings and completely miss the Messiah that’s being pointed to even at the beginning of Genesis?

And yet, we do the exact same thing—we’ve been entrusted with the Word of God, we all have copies of it and yet how many of us get so distracted with other things that we completely miss Jesus Christ? How many of us get distracted with the daily parts of life that we don’t even pick up our Bibles to hear from God? How many of us are seeking him day to day? How many of us are so focused on just living our lives that we don’t give any time to knowing Jesus, speaking to Jesus, and seeking Jesus?

Now if we do actually spend time trying to do those things, the problems don’t end there: If we are studying Scripture, from an individual stand-point, we can get so focused on learning what the Bible says, which is a good thing and still miss out on Jesus Christ (like the Pharisees). We can memorize every verse, we can know every Scripture, and we can read and re-read this book, but if we don’t know Jesus Christ, we’ve missed the point. While having knowledge of Jesus is good; it is utterly meaningless if you don’t actually know Jesus himself. We exist to not only know Scripture, but to know Jesus and to bear witness of who he is to those around us.

From a church stand-point—it is easy as a church to get so caught up in programs that we forget about the Gospel and Jesus Christ because the programming becomes more important that the ministry of the Word of God. Of course we would say that we believe these things—we believe the Gospel and we believe that Jesus is Lord, but we can get so caught up in having an awesome children’s ministry, and having an amazing musical band, and we can get caught up in a million different things and we can get caught up in the fact that we’ve created a church that’s welcoming and people are showing up that we completely miss the point of why the church exists. The church exists to worship Jesus authentically, equip believers for the work of the ministry, and to make disciples of Jesus Christ. The church exists to know Jesus and to bear witness of who Jesus is to those around us.

We miss out on who Jesus is in almost every aspect of our lives because just like the Pharisees did, we get distracted from Jesus. And let’s be honest, in an era when we can have a Bible on our smartphones and we have access to hard copies of the Bible, how foolish would we be if we had all of these resources and still miss Jesus?

John makes the statement that Jesus, the creator came into the world and he went to his own people and his own people rejected him, but then he makes this profound statement that ought to shock us a little bit, but also provide us with a great amount of hope and a great amount of thanksgiving.

Believers, the Recipients (12-13)

John 1:12–13 ESV

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

He finishes this sentence with a profound statement of hope, because despite the fact that his own people rejected him, to those that received him, who believed in Jesus, he gave them the right to be children of God.

Now I do want to take a few minutes on these two verses, because sometimes these verses are taken out of context and that has resulted in what I’ve called “easy believism” and what I mean by that is that some people will look at this verse and utilize it as an argument for the bare minimum that we must do to be saved. For instance, some of us might have experienced a time in which we were told that if we just say a little prayer, we’ll be saed.

But that isn’t what this verse is saying, there are clearly some specific requirements here that we need to meet in order to be saved:

We need to receive him—there’s two implications in this statement: (1) we actually have to accept him. The idea in receiving is that we need to take him; and that involves the idea of knowing Jesus and accepting the free gift of salvation that he gives us and (2) the implication is that we have to receive all of him and not just part of him. We can’t pick and choose what we want to believe about Jesus anymore than us picking and choosing what we want to believe out of the Bible. Nowhere in John 1:12 does John write that we can choose to receive only the things that we like about Jesus nor does he say that we can choose not to believe the things in the Bible that we don’t like. The implication is that we take all of Jesus and since Jesus is God and the Bible is the word of God, if we don’t like something that Jesus says or if we don’t like something that the Bible says, we’re wrong—and we need to adjust the way we think to match up with what Scripture says.

In many ways, this is doing the same thing that Romans 10:9 says is necessary for salvation that we need to confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord. Well what does that mean? Whether or not I make the statement that Jesus is Lord doesn’t actually change the fact that Jesus is the Lord over all things. We know that from Psalm 110:1 in which God the Father says to Jesus: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” Hebrews 1:3 states that “after Jesus made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” or in other words, Jesus is already Lord of all things, so what does it mean to receive him and what does Romans 10:9 mean to confess that Jesus is Lord? It means that you need to put yourself in submission of Jesus’ reign.

In order to be saved, you must repent from your former manner of living, you must submit to Jesus Christ as the Lord—which involves your confessing, your believing, and your depending on him and then you can be a child of God.

That one phrase, child of God brings up multiple questions, for instance, “What exactly does the Bible mean, “a child of God?”” And “isn’t everyone a child of God?”

Let’s start with the second question, “isn’t everyone a child of God?” And the question comes because we rightly think, “aren’t we all created in the image of God?” Yes, we are created in the image of God and God loves all of his creation—so every person is designed by God and loved by God, but we can only be children of God when we are adopted by Him. Until we are adopted by him, we aren’t children of God and our adoption as heirs of God occurs when we are saved by Jesus Christ—Romans 8:12 says that if we are actually saved by Jesus Christ, we shouldn’t keep sinning because we’re no longer enslaved to sin, but rather led by the Spirit and Romans 8:14-15 continues that statement by saying “for all who are led by the SPirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry “abba! Father!” and then in Vs. 17, “and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” So no, not everybody is a child of God. Adoption into the family of God only occurs after we repent and believe in Jesus Christ.

Now the first question, what does the Bible mean by “child of God?” 2 Corinthians 5:17 makes a great statement of what happens when we become children of God, it says, “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Jesus himself taught that becoming children of God means we have to experience what he calls a new birth. To be a child of God means that our old sin nature is replaced with the desire to please the Lord. Now of course, we still struggle with sin, but now we have as 1 John 2:1 says, “an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous.” Being a child of God means that we are covered by the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, but not only that, being a child of God means:

that we now have access to the throne of grace at any time, from any place

We have been assured that we can receive mercy and find grace in our times of need

that we can trust God, our father to supply all our needs

that our eternity in heaven is guaranteed—because Jesus has already paid our debt

that we can live in hope and have faith that God will keep his word

Being a child of God brings us into a family (and here’s where the remaining verse comes into play; John 1:13) in which, “[we] were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but [the will] of God.”

There is a lot that I could say about this last verse, but I really only want to focus on one thing, this family of God in which we are children of God if we all believe in Jesus Christ is not a family that we can force ourselves into

We cannot wish ourselves into the family of God

We cannot try harder, work harder, or study harder to get into this family—it does not work like that.

The only way into this family is by the will of God—and it is God’s will for us to do as Romans 10:9 says, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

God wants you in his family, but until you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, you are not in the family.

And if you don’t confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, you’re just like the Pharisees and Saducees mentioned in John 1:12, who despite seeing the physical person of Jesus Christ, completely missed the point.

Before we run out of time, let me wrap everything up with some application. Starting with those of you that are unbelievers and working towards those of you that are believers.

Application

This again, is specifically for unbelievers, in Vs. 11-13, we’re told that the light came to his own people and his own people rejected him, but to those who believed, they had the right to become children of God.

If you are not a believer this morning, which means that you have yet to repent of your sins, you haven’t called on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you don’t believe that Jesus was raised from the dead—let me ask you to contemplate why you’re refusing to call out to Jesus. It could be that you’ve never heard the Gospel before, in which case let me help you with that—the Bible teaches us that all are sinners that are seperated from God because of our sin and His holiness. However, God because of the great love that he has for us and the great grace in which he gives us, sent his Son Jesus Christ to live a perfect, sinless life and to die on a Roman cross, be buried, and resurrected three days later for the remission of your sins. That by simply repenting from your former sinful lifestyle and believing in Jesus Christ, you can be saved and you can have a relationship with the God who loves you and wants to have a relationship with you for all eternity. Will you repent of your sins and turn to Jesus Christ?

Perhaps you’ve heard the gospel before, but you just didn’t give it your time because you didn’t think it was worth your time. Perhaps you grew up in the church and you’ve heard all the stories, but you just simply didn’t care enough to come to know Jesus Christ. Let me encourage you to not be like the Pharisees and Saduccess who knew what the Scriptures said and yet completely missed the point and missed Jesus Christ. Would you consider repenting from your sins and turning to Jesus Christ?

If you repent, call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved and God has given you the right to become children of God.

Now, let me turn my attention to those of you that are truly believers in Jesus Christ

The application for Vs. 12-13 is quite simple:

take time to reflect on your position as a child of God.

Reflect on what it means to be a child of God and how that affects your life or how it should affect your life

Reflect on what it means to not be enslaved in sin anymore—that our gracious and loving God has provided a means for you to leave sin and know him

And then give thanks to God for adopting you as a child of God—be thankful for the mercy and grace that he has shown us and give thanks for his adopting you every day.

The application for Vs. 9-11 is:

to make sure that you aren’t too distracted by other things that you miss out on Jesus Christ—of course, if you’re already a believer, I’m not talking about this in a salvation manner.

What I mean is that as we live our daily lives, going to work, going to school, and whatever else we have to do, don’t let life distract us from Jesus Christ.

Make time to develop your relationship with him through studying Scripture, prayer, and fellowshiping with other like-minded believers. Don’t get so focused on the mundane aspects of life that you completely miss out on the relationship that you were created to have with God. Take advantage of the fact that we live in the modern-era and we have God’s Word all around us.

And if you need help understanding God’s word, take advantage of the fact that we live in the modern-era and ask for help from Bible-believing, men and women that are knowledgable in the Scriptures.

And lastly, the application for Vs. 6-8 is:

To remember that you are not the light, you are not the word, and you are not Jesus—so stop acting like it and stop thinking like that

This world is not about you, its about Jesus; the church is not about you, its about Jesus; your family is not about you, its about Jesus; your life really is not about you, its about Jesus.

So stop making everything about you and start making everything about Jesus, because the world, the church, your family, and your life exists to bear witness of who Jesus Christ is—and you cannot do that if you’re more focused on you and what you want than on Jesus.

Let me call all of us to repent and readjust our lives to bear witness about Jesus Christ.

Put simply, if you truly believe, give thanks for God’s grace and mercy to allow you to be a child of God; make time to develop your relationship with him intentionally; and readjust and reorient your life to be all about Jesus Christ.