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The Shepherd's Church was blessed to have Reverend Harold Guptil to join us this Sunday!
This life is full of blessings.
Amen?
Amen.
I am eternally blessed, or I'm blessed this morning to be able to bring the Word to you. I'm blessed to especially know Pastor Kendall and Derek. I'm very, very grateful for their friendship. We've developed quite a friendship over the last few years as you folks entered into the CREC.
We often drive together to the spring retreat and to the fall retreat, so we've got lots of hours, if you will, together cooped up in a car. But honestly, these trips are what are hours seem like minutes because I really value the time that I have with those men, and I really value the time that I have with Pastor Kendall, and I'm just very, very grateful.
He came up with this idea I think about two years ago. I think he first said to me, he goes, Why don't we swap pulpits sometime? Why don't I come preach up for Tri-City and then you come preach here?
And then it took me, well, the better part of a year and a half to say, All right, let's do it. Let's do it. Let's swap pulpits and let's share the Word with our people. And his idea was basically that we would preach the sermon that we preached the week before at our own church, and then we would come and preach it for you folks here.
So he's preaching up there right now to the saints at Tri-City Covenant Church. My hope at the end of the time, they will give him back to you. That's my hope. So that I will have a home still to go back to.
But he has become a very, very dear friend of mine, and I'm very, very thankful that the Lord has blessed my life with such a faithful friend. Brothers and sisters, this morning we're going to look at a passage of Scripture that you probably are very familiar with, and that is in the Gospel of John.
And we're going to look at his prologue to his Gospel. So we're going to look at John 1, 1 -18. And please hear the Word of God as we take it in this morning. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.
And the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life. The life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but he was sent to bear witness of that light.
That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, and the glory is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bear witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake.
He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was written by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is born in the bosom of the Father. He hath declared him the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Praise be to God. Amen. So, of course, this is the opening of John's gospel.
And really, in his opening here, he introduces us to a lot of subjects, a lot of things that he will unfold in greater depth throughout his gospel. He will unfold the fact that Jesus Christ is life. He'll unfold the fact that Jesus Christ is light.
He'll unfold all of these things, all of these things that we see here, he'll unfold more clearly. Summarizing the opening verses here of John, theologian D .A. Carson said, the emphasis of the prologue is on the revelation of the word as the ultimate disclosure of God himself.
With the manifestation of Jesus Christ, and I'll say this several times throughout my sermon here, is what we have, is we have God coming out from behind the veil. We have God fully revealing himself in the Lord Jesus Christ, coming out in the veil and said, here is God.
This is what we look like. This is God. It's also, as we see, and then, of course, the glorious event on that time when the temple, in the temple, the time that Jesus died from carrying our sins to the cross.
When he died, that temple was torn, even more fully revealing God, giving us access through the man God who came to earth, or the God-man, I should say, who came to earth. John introduces us to many subjects here, of course, like I said.
In this thesis statement, I'll call it, John introduces some of the major themes of Christ's ministry, such as his divinity and his life and light and his grace and truth. And those things, as I already said, he unpacks more in depth throughout his gospel.
He also here introduces us to John the Baptist, who, of course, we know as the forerunner of Jesus Christ, the one that came and said, here he is. Listen to him. Be baptized. Repent. Prepare the way. Prepare yourself to receive him because here he is.
So John begins his gospel, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And of course, John here is introducing in his gospel, he's introducing Christ with creation-type language.
In the beginning. It brings us back to the first words of the Bible. Those words, those beginning words, introducing God and his creation. These words here in John, introducing us to the Word, who is Jesus Christ, the new creation.
The Word, the Word, the Word. Three foundational statements. Three foundational statements about who this gospel is about. And John unfolds again who this gospel is about. But here he says, it's about the Word, the Word, the Word.
The Word, the Word who was in the beginning. John here dispels any notion, any notion that the Word was a creation of God the Father. That at some point God the Father was lonely and he created Jesus and then put him on the earth.
No, he dispels all things. He was there in the beginning, at creation. He was there from eternity and he will be there through eternity. He was with the Father at the beginning of creation, the beginning of the time when God created.
The Word was with God, side by side in eternity. Intimately there, in his bosom as John states later on in this prologue of this introduction here. The one who was with God is now on earth. God becoming man to invade and save his creation.
If you just think about that one thing, and I'm going to talk about this a little bit more, but you think about that one thing, that God, the former, the creator of this world, this creation, took on human flesh and became part of what he created.
And the Word was God, as Calvin wrote. This asserts the eternal divinity of Christ in order to inform us that he is eternal God who was manifested in the flesh, as 1 Timothy 3 .6 tells us. The Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, is a separate person, but intimately with the Father.
The divinity that belongs to the Father belongs to the Word. His divinity was firmly established by John here at the beginning of his gospel accounts. John continues in verses 3 -5,. The Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the agent of creation.
God spoke the creation into existence. Jesus is that agent of creation. He was involved in it all. He knows every part of his creation intimately. And, brothers and sisters, just that fact, just that the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ knows his creation intimately, and we are his creation, individually and corporately, that sort of, that thing right there should just give us this great comfort and rest in everything that ails us, Jesus Christ knows it and knows it intimately.
And John continues, and there's more. He introduces us to two glorious attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ, life and light. And, of course, he unpacks these glorious attributes more fully as the gospel of John unfolds.
But this morning, just a few words of these two attributes. In the beginning, God brought forth life. He brought it forth ex nihilo, meaning out of nothing. And God is the very creator of life. Nothing would exist without God.
Nothing. Life was created by God through his spoken word. In Genesis, we have the repeated phrase, and God said, and God said, and God said, and God said. God spoke creation into existence. The word was Jesus Christ.
John tells us that Jesus, being the word, is the agent of creation, the agent of life itself. All life in the Lord Jesus Christ. All life exists because God created through his son the word of God. Not one thing was created without Jesus Christ, the life.
And the creation, his very intimate creation, the very creation he entered to save from the destruction at the hand of his chief enemy. The very creation that he entered into to save. The apostle Paul wrote, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible, invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things, all things were created by him and for him. Brothers and sisters, we are created by him and for him. He was the agent of life created by him and for him, as I said. And further, he entered the dark, broken, sin-ridden world to give it new life.
He entered the dark, broken, sin world to transform it into his kingdom, which he is carrying out as he sits on his throne of righteousness. He being the very cornerstone of that new creation. So Jesus Christ, we can say here, is the origin of life itself.
This was true at creation and it was true in his manifestation on earth. It was true at recreation, both times. This attribute of light on the first day of creation, God moved upon the dark void. In Genesis 1, 3 and 4 we read,.
And God said, Let there be light. And there was light. And God saw that light, that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. Let us remember what darkness is. It's just not simply the opposite of light.
It is absent of light. A very dark world is absent of light. Darkness has no light. So it's not simply the opposite, but it has no light. In the beginning, God began to separate that light from the darkness.
When Christ came into his creation, he continued that work of separating light from darkness. Every place the Lord Jesus Christ moves, he brings the light. And we could say that every time we move, wherever we are, whether it's in the bathroom getting ready in the morning, or it's coming into our homes at night after a long day, or it's in the office, or it's when we're doing our plumbing work, or any of these things, we are the light.
We are the light of Christ. We bring the light of Christ into a very dark world. From the fall, the fall brought darkness into God's creation. Christ entering into the creation brought the true light of God into his creation.
Christ, the light, shined in the darkness of the world. And here we're told that the darkness did not comprehend it. And this really means that comprehend really means that darkness could not overcome the light.
His enemies were filled with darkness. They tried everything they could do to overcome the light of Christ. They even killed him. But the darkness cannot overcome the light, because we know the Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.
He walked out of that tomb they placed him in. A very dark world placed him in that tomb. But then the light of Christ comes forward out of the tomb. You cannot overcome light. So then John introduces us here now to John the Baptist in verses 6 through 8.
And there was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but he was sent to bear witness of that light.
As prophesied by the prophet Isaiah, God sent this man. He sent his man, John the Baptist, to provide the earthly witness of Christ, the light of God. He's coming. That was his message. And God, when we read it more fully, God found him in the wilderness, or knew him right where he was, but He got him in the wilderness and He said, John, now's the time.
Go forward and introduce, prepare the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to announce that the light of God would soon light the very dark world. And we have to remember that the covenant people of God here or at the time of receiving John, they had been waiting for over 700 years from the Isaiah's prophecy.
Where is this Christ? Where is this Messiah? John comes and says, here He is. We can say too also that they have been waiting since the promise in the Garden of Eden for the final arrival of the one who would crush Satan's head.
So what is the stated goal of the ministry of John the Baptist? That all men through him might believe. John was sent there to say, go tell them, go call them to repentance, go prepare them. And what was his goal?
That they would all believe him. And as we bring the light of Christ into the homes, different homes, our workplace, all these things, what should our goal be? That all men, all women might believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That all would believe John the Baptist, believing the promised one had arrived. John made it clear that he was not that promised light. Rather he was sent to bear witness, to get them ready for the arrival of the true light.
Now we can say that John the Baptist was a light, just as we are here. He was sent from God to bear witness to the greater light. We can also say that John the Baptist's light was limited to the regions surrounding Judea and Jerusalem.
John's exposure would be minimal, and he would give light to all those that were in that territory. And his light, of course, is nothing like the light that was to come. That one, that light, would enter the light of the entire world.
It would bring light to the entire world. His light would not be contained to one region or another. His light would shine all over the world. And praise the Lord that his light shines here amongst us.
So then John introduces us to word a little bit more fully, making further instructions and comments as he unfolded in more depth in the gospel. In verses 9 through 13, John writes,. The word is the true light.
True here means real or genuine. So the Lord Jesus Christ is the real or the genuine light. John repeats what he said at the beginning. The one who created is the one who came into the world. And again, this ought to strike us.
This ought to really grip us. The one who created is the one who came into the world to bring the light. He brought light again at the beginning of creation. He brought it out of nothing, but here he came into the world, into the very dark world to bring the light of God.
The one who was the agent of creation submitted himself to creation. As creation, God created light and introduced it to the dark, empty void. And when Christ entered the creation, he brought light into a dark world, a world that was full of sin and disobedience.
In 10 through 13, John unfolds the world's response. First, he unfolds the negative side. The negative side of the world's response. And the world knew him not. He came unto his own and his own received him not.
The bad news for the world is that many did not know that the light had come upon it. We see that as we look at all the scriptures. Every time when the light comes, he finds rejection. He doesn't find this full of, Glad you're finally here.
He did on some cases. He came to his own, meaning the Jews of Israel, and they did not receive him. In fact, they were the ones responsible for his death. Get rid of that light. Of course, that's not what they said.
We love our darkness. Don't bring that light along here. We love our darkness. We love being our own people. We don't need that light. Well, to their shame, they lost the light. To some, he was like a meteor in the sky.
You think about a meteor in the sky, what happens? A meteor comes, bright light, and it's gone. And that's kind of a picture of how Jesus came. Yes, he was there for a while, but yet it was like some, that for a moment he was a bright light, but then he's gone.
So many missed the great light of Jesus Christ. Even those who waited, again, with great anticipation for his arrival on earth. Brothers and sisters, we cannot follow their lead. We have been exposed to the light of Christ.
We have been exposed to the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we need to be those, surely, that grab a hold, grab a hold of that light and never let it depart from us. We want to be like those we see in verses 12 and 13, the positive side of the world's response.
The good news, many did receive him. And all received him, in turn, received something from him. And is that not the way? Of course, we receive something right away from him when we receive him, because he moves upon us.
They received his grace and truth, we're told here. The power to become God's sons and daughters. Here we're told, not receiving it by blood. Well, you've got to be in this bloodline. If you're in this bloodline, you're saved.
If you're in this bloodline here, this is the way it is. No, it wasn't like that. Nor receiving them because we have superior wills, because we can will it, that we can make the right choice. Not because their flesh was superior to those rejected Christ.
They were no more superior than those scribes and Pharisees that rejected Christ. It wasn't because they received or heard a great sermon. But solely, we're told here, it was from God. Truth and grace extended.
God made it so before the creation of the world. Before he even brought the light upon creation. And many would receive him, and they did receive much from him. So in verse 14, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory and the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Again, the one who created life willingly and freely became the form of his creation. He became man. He became man which was the pinnacle of his created works. He came to earth to claim that it was his.
Matthew Henry wrote,. He had long proclaimed war with the seed of the woman, and now he takes the field in person, sets up his standard, and pitches his tent to prosecute this war. The Lord Jesus Christ dwelt among us.
God took on the flesh, the flesh he created, and became man. And he came with a purpose. He came with light and life. He came to do battle. He came to take back what was his. Those things that have been corrupted by sin.
He came to conquer the world. He came to bring light to the very dark world. And what were or are his weapons? His lowly estate. His grace and mercy. His body and blood. Those are the weapons of the Savior of the world.
What was the power that he used to defeat the seed of the serpent? The power to lay down his life. The power to take on the sins of the world. The power to give up his body and blood as the propitiation for those sins.
The power to make things right with the holy and just God. And the power to take life from death.
With all that power, what was the battle plan of the Lord Jesus Christ? To leave the bosom of his father. To enter the created order in the likeness of his pinnacle created work. And ultimately to take on responsibility for the sins of his bride.
What was his battle plan? To leave his father. To enter into creation. And ultimately to take on the responsibility for the sins of his bride. Praise ye the Lord. What a battle plan. That is not one that we would script.
Right? We want to get out the AK -47. Maybe the howitzers. We want to get out the nuclear bombs. But what did the Lord Jesus Christ do? He laid his life down for his bride. The word was made flesh. Here's another consideration for us this morning.
Something I said in my opening remarks. God lived in Israel's tabernacle and then in the temple behind the veil. Hidden from the presence of man. It truly is a most glorious undertaking by Christ to become man.
To leave his throne and take on the form of his creation. To enter his creation with the entire purpose of redeeming it. In Christ, God moved out of the temple. Became man and dwelled on earth. What a miracle.
And at that moment of his death, the veil of the temple was torn. How was it torn? Directionally. Top to bottom. Who tore the temple? God. God the Father, I believe, tore that temple because he said, my son has satisfied your penalty.
Here I am. And I think we see that more fully. We see that in Christ our Lord. Because now we have access directly to the Father. Not through some man. Not through some animal. But through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
John continues and says, We beheld his glory and the glory is the only begotten of the Father. R .C. Sproul noted that John was most likely referring to the transfiguration here. That John had the great privilege of being there on the mountain on transfiguration.
And he saw the true full light of Christ. Sproul wrote, at that time, the time of his transfiguration, Jesus' light was real and visible. The light of truth that he brought was displayed throughout his ministry.
He brought truth. He brought life every place he was. And he brought light into a darkness. Wherever he went, his light was on display. Healing the sick, the blind, the infirmed. Washing the disciples' feet.
How was that light? It was light. That he was willing as the savior of the world. As the king of creation. To take off his robe. To get down and wash those ugly, dirty feet. Raising Lazarus from the dead.
The confrontations with the scribes and the Pharisees. Light upon light upon light. His trial before Pilate saying nothing. And most certainly during his suffering and crucifixion. Light upon light throughout his ministry.
He was full of grace and truth. Christ would manifest grace and truth throughout his entire ministry. His truth and grace reaching the pinnacle on the cross. It doesn't get any more true and full of grace than his time on that cross.
It being the most gracious undertaking of any man. To take upon him the sins of the world. For its redemption and restoration with God. In verses 15 -18, John now returns to a little bit more about John the Baptist.
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now no man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. John the Baptist here records his own testimony here in verse 15.
Passed on to us by John, the writer of the gospel. Christ is the one whom I have spoken about. He is the one that is preferred before me because he was before me. John's testimony to reveal Christ, to show his glory and honor.
And just like Christ, his purpose was for another. And that another was none other than Christ. We call the best loved Son of God. In part here he's pointing to two natures of Christ. As man, Christ came after him.
He was born in a womb, from a womb, came after him. But as God, he came before him. He was there at the beginning of creation. As God was there from eternity before all things, creating all things, sustaining all things.
In his fullness, everything received was from God, from his Son, from his Holy Spirit. Everything that's been received can be summed up in one word, grace. Unmerited favor. This world deserved destruction until the Lord Jesus Christ came with the life and light to recreate it and bring the light of God.
Grace. We cannot earn grace, we cannot purchase grace. There is only one source of true grace, only one source of heavenly grace. Only one source of eternal grace, and that one source is God. The grace and truth imparted by Christ is received by his people.
Christ does not hold back his grace and truth, rather he gives it, here we're told, grace upon grace. This also can be interpreted as blessing upon blessing. Where one blessing received replaces the previous blessing.
Or maybe we receive it more fully. But grace upon grace, blessing upon blessing. Some theologians here interpret this grace for grace to mean grace instead of grace. And what they mean by that is that the new grace, the grace that we've received before was great.
But this new grace surpasses the old grace. The grace that we received this moment is more glorious than the grace that we receive in the moments preceding it. Grace upon grace. Grace sufficient for every situation in this life.
Here John uses the example of Moses gave the law, which was a gracious outpouring of God. But the greater grace was the Christ. The one who fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law. The one who paid our penalty for breaking the law.
The one who paid our penalty of death. Grace upon grace. Jesus as our covenant head took the blame for things he did not do. That is grace in overdrive. You think about that. Jesus took the blame for the things he did not do.
He did took the blame for the things that we do and have done. No man has ever seen God except his only begotten Son, who was at his side before entering his creation as man, which is the bosom of the Father.
This, of course, is describing the very intimate relationship that Jesus Christ has with his Father. Even more intimate than John, the writer of this gospel, who, of course, we know, at least at the Last Supper and one other time that I can't think of off the top of my head, we find him, where is he laying?
On the breast of Christ. So very intimate. You think about that setting. So very intimate. That is the intimacy between Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ, pardon me, and his Father, of course, is superior to that.
We see this manifesting through the Lord's baptism. And again, his transfiguration with God spoke and said, this is, or he said at his baptism, you are my beloved, well-beloved Son. And then at the transfiguration, it was, this is my beloved Son from heaven, declaring just the intimate relationship.
Jesus left the bosom of his Father, but never his connection to him. Coming to earth to the ministry, the grace of God. Coming to earth to minister, pardon me, to the grace of God. And ultimately giving his life because of their love for their creation.
Verses 16 through 18, just close God's, John's prologue of his gospel. He has introduced the Messiah. He's introduced him as the agent of creation, the agent of life. He's introduced him as the light that came in the darkness of creation.
The light that came in the darkness of sin and death. And the very things that are looking to destroy his wonderful works of creation. The capstone to this opening of John is that Jesus Christ coming out from behind the veil.
That in all his fullness, grace upon grace, and all who receive his light will receive their way, will find their way in this life and the next. Brothers and sisters, we should find great comfort and rest in John's prologue.
Our rest and comfort comes from the fact that he is our God. And we are his people. He entered, the divine creator entered his creation. He has redeemed his creation. He has walked our walk. For as many as receive him, he gives the power to become the people of God.
And we have received him. So therefore we need to be the people who are bent on receiving him more fully. Grab a hold of that grace. Grab a hold of the fact that we've received the Lord Jesus Christ. Grab a hold of the fact that he's given us life.
And he's given it anew. And he's given it to us in light. Just like those who saw Christ in the flesh, we are people of grace upon grace. Again, we have received the light. We need to be those who continually respond to that light.
Doug Wilson wrote this, The most important thing that ever happened on this planet was the Messiah taking responsibility for the things he did not do. Grace upon grace. The Messiah came, took responsibility for the sin and for the sin and for our sin.
We could receive no greater grace than that. We need to take that responsibly. We need to receive that grace responsibly. We need to live in that grace. We need to spread that grace. We've got a tough job here in New England.
This place is dead. New Hampshire is, I might have said this the last time I was here, New Hampshire is one of the least churched people in the nation. We're either 49th or 50th on how many people, percentage of population that go to church.
We live in a dead area. The light of Christ, we are given that. We need to spread that. Brothers and sisters, let's change this area. And I do hope in 2025, I do hope the manifestation of the Lord in your life will be seen more clearly as you carry out responsibility to be the light of Christ everywhere you are.
In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.