Wed. Night Bible Study

John 1:12-28

I said we are going to try and take this slow and we are!

Verse 12: As many as received Him (Jesus)- As many that has accepted the benefit

Jesus has given the authority to enter into to the family of God.

“Sons of God” this is a term of endearment meaning “child of God”

“even” is added there by King James translators, it reads in the original manuscript “to them that believe on His Name”

Believe on His Name-We believe not just in the oral name of Jesus, but the very essence of Jesus!

His perfectness, His power while on earth, His teachings, His sacrifice, His resurrection, and His return to the Father.

Everything about Jesus is what we believe in!

Verse 13: Becoming the children of God-This not an earthly function, it is not by man, we believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ and through Jesus Christ we are brought into this family! Through His work we are changed:

Philippians 3:20-21 “For our conversation is in Heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.”

He is able to subdue-just means that He has the power and He will make all things new!

Verse 14: Emmanuel-God with us! He became flesh, just as was prophesied of old! God became flesh, fully God, fully man, the anointed Messiah, the Christ the Son of the Living God!

John and the other disciples, witnessed this glory in every way! 1 John 1:1-4..........

These men were eye and ear witnesses of Jesus the Christ! They saw, they handled, they heard everything that pertains to life and Godliness!

I will ask, what other report do we need? The early church didn’t ask for more they continued in the apostle’s doctrine! The report of Jesus Christ by those that were with Him!

Nothing else is needed!

The glory of the Father, Peter, James, and John saw this glory on the Mt. of transfiguration, The glory of the Only Begotten of the Father!

This glory was and is full of Grace and Truth! Just as Moses saw only part of God’s glory, Jesus reveals everything sufficient for us to know about the Godhead, in Jesus all the fulness of the Godhead bodily dwelled!

Truth of God and His character and of life!

Grace in that we are not able to stand up to the character of God, so Jesus stands for us!

Verse 15: John the Baptist’s testimony of Jesus corroborates John the apostle’s testimony of Jesus!

Preferred before me.......: Matthew 3:11 “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:”

John is just a messenger, Jesus has the power and Jesus has always been!

Verse 16: “Of (or by) His completeness we have all received Grace after Grace after Grace after Grace over and over!

Living without God’s wrath poured upon a sinful people, is Grace upon Grace upon Grace!!

Nobody likes hearing that, but that is the reality of our existence!

Verse 17: The law that was given by Moses, reveals that despair to us!

Romans 7:9 “For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.”

Romans 7:12-13 “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. 13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.”

Paraphrasing verse 13 “Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.”

Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ: The law given by Moses, was not a display of God’s Grace but God’s demand for holiness. God designed the law as a means to demonstrate the unrighteousness of man in order to show a need for a Savior, which is Jesus Christ. The reality or full truth toward which the law pointed came through the person and work of Jesus Christ!

The reality is that Jesus is the perfect representation of God’s moral character and it is revealed in His human walk which was perfect!

Also, Jesus is the perfect representation of God’s lovingkindness, compassion, grace, and forgiveness!

Verse 18: What we said about the last verse is what is meant in verse 18.....Jesus is God manifest in the flesh! You have seen Jesus you have seen the Father, Father God! By the complete working of Jesus Christ, He has declared the existence and nature of the Father!

1. Bosom has a meaning of being closely associated with, but it has a stronger emphasis than that in the Greek. One theologian said it has meaning of that They are folded together!

John 14:8-10........ “Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? 10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”

Verse 19: John the apostle’s record of John the Baptist starts after Jesus was baptized and after Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. It is a 3 day account of the events that John A. witnessed of John B.

Most of us know of John the Baptist. Luke chapter 1 has a very full account of John B and his family.