John 1:1-14 (Audio only)

The following sermon is by Nathan Hargrave, the teaching pastor at 12 Five Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas. We want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. Our prayer is that this message will help you grow in your knowledge of God so that you might be equipped for every good work.

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And now, seeking to equip believers for every good work, here's 12 Five Church teaching pastor, Nathan Hargrave.

Well, last week we were able to look at the Proto-Evangelium. Does anyone remember what I mean when I say that? The Proto-Evangelium, it's what the early church referred to as the first gospel. The first gospel that we see right there in Genesis chapter 3 and that was the passage that we were in.

And we were able to see the reason for what we're celebrating this season of Christmas, the incarnation of the Messiah. The reason that the Messiah had to come, the reason this was necessary. And it was, why?

It was because of the fall. It was because of Adam and Eve's disobedience and they brought sin into the world. And how God, in that moment, right in the midst of laying out the consequences to Adam and Eve of the fall and their disobedience, right there He gives us a glimpse, just a small glimpse of His ultimate plan.

We were also able to see the enemy that we now have because of the fall. That enemy is sin and death and Satan. We now have this enemy that is constantly bombarding and attacking us. But praise God, we also saw that announcement of certain victory, didn't we?

That certain victory as God gave us that glimpse into His plan of redemption for mankind. And we even saw, thankfully, the means of that victory. Right there in verse 21 of chapter 3 where God makes garments of skins for Adam and his wife and clothes their shame.

Right in the midst, what imagery? This beautiful imagery that we saw here, they're covering their shame with a sacrifice just as we, if we're in Christ, have our shame covered by His sacrifice. So this is why the early church referred to this as the first gospel.

Right there at the beginning. So I want us to continue our study as we see this imagery laid out in Genesis and ultimately all throughout Scripture. But I want us to see right there in the gospel accounts when it starts to begin to actually take place and to come to fruition.

And how this promise from God was fulfilled through Christ. And more specifically, because it's Christmas time, I want us to see why the incarnation was necessary. Why was Christ coming, the God-man, why was that necessary that He comes and fulfills this promise?

And really, it was vital. Why it was so vital for this. But in the midst of it, I want us to keep in mind the fact that this plan of redemption, this plan that we're talking about that we see right there in Genesis 3 that goes all throughout Scripture was always God's plan A, wasn't it?

I know I talk about it all the time, but I can't emphasize it enough that this was always God's plan A, because God was not caught off guard by Adam and Eve's disobedience in the garden, was He? It's not as though God would look down the corridor of time and saw, well, Adam and Eve are going to disobey me, so I need to come up with this plan as a backup.

And I can tell you for certain, the God that we worship is not a God who doesn't know the future. And so He had to plan for ultimate outcomes, not knowing the future, because that would be heresy. That is not a God that we could worship.

But God is not that. No, God put the tree in the garden on purpose. He did it on purpose, didn't He? He could have left it out. He could have left that tree out of the garden, but He put it there. He could have allowed the serpent, or He could have stopped the serpent from deceiving Eve.

He could have stopped it at any moment. But nothing happens in this world apart from God's ordaining purposes, and that includes the fall. That's everything in this world that God is in control of. And as we look at our passage in the book of John this morning, I want you to keep that thought in the forefront of your mind.

This plan A in the forefront of your mind in hopes that when we leave today, we will leave with a greater appreciation and a sense of what God set out to do before the foundations of the world. That God had set out to send His Son, born like a man, as a man, to live a life that we couldn't live, to die a death we couldn't die, and to raise from the dead.

This was always God's plan. So for many of you in here, I know I'm not teaching you something either last week or today that you do not already know. It's funny, yeah, after last week's sermon, I asked my wife and my kids, I said, I said, what did you think of the sermon?

And, you know, I'm always trying to, like, try to get some compliments in there. What did you think of the sermon? And all of them were like, oh, Dad, we already know all that stuff. You teach us that all the time.

And I couldn't be mad. I was like, well, at least they're listening, you know. So it's something, I'm not telling you something that you don't already know. Just know that if I were to say something today that most of you don't know, that no one has ever written, no one has ever preached, you can rest assured I would be teaching heresy.

I have no new revelation on this matter. But I do believe that it is of the utmost importance and the practice of the church historically that I remind us of these truths, that I call us to fix our gaze upon this truth.

It's vital to our Christian life and to our understanding as believers. And just like I said last week, some of you were here last week, this time of Christmas is a perfect time for the church universal to hone in in unity and focus on this doctrine of the incarnation all together.

It's a beautiful time, really. It's a great time to be able to focus in on this doctrine together. So with that being said, I want us to look at the Apostle John's prologue to his account of the gospel.

So turn your Bibles to John 1. We're going to be looking at verses 1 through 14 of John 1. I want to read all the way through it, and then we're going to break down and kind of go through it a bit at a time.

Starting there in verse 1, it says, 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 anything 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 enlightens 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.

That's the reading of God's Word this morning. Let's go to the Lord in prayer one more time as we break this down. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to You again, and we thank You. God, we thank You for Your Word.

We thank You that we have access to this life-giving truth. Lord, that You have kept pure and brought to us and allowed us to just read it openly together today. We thank You for that. And God, I pray that You would just open our eyes and our minds and our hearts to this truth.

Use it to sanctify us and grow us and to be more like Your Son. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Well notice that John does not begin his gospel account with the nativity. The other three gospels, they address it.

They address the actual action of the nativity, of Christ being born, and what that looked like. And as a matter of fact, it was Matthew and Luke that give us genealogies even. It gives us this line that comes all throughout from David up to Jesus Himself.

But John leaves that out. John leaves both of those things out. But John has something to say about the birth of Christ. And he definitely has something to say about the incarnation, doesn't he? I mean verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

He definitely has something to say. And what we have to realize is that John wants to take us further back than the nativity story. John wants to take us further back than the genealogies. He even takes us further back than our account in Genesis 3 where we see that proto-evangelium, that first gospel.

He takes us all the way back to the beginning. That's hard to comprehend, isn't it? It's hard to get our brains wrapped around the idea of the beginning because we have to use language that we can comprehend.

And the beginning seems to have a beginning, but there is no beginning. That's the crazy part. It's hard to get our brain wrapped around that. It's eternity. And we're going to see that. And even though John doesn't begin with genealogies or nativity, he tells us an awful lot about Christmas.

And I would argue he tells us the most important thing we need to know about Christmas, the most important thing that we can comprehend this Christmas. And that is the one who is the light of the world, who we're going to be talking about.

The one that we just sang about. Remember, Silent Night loves pure light. This one that we've been singing. You know, I know it's tough sometimes with Christmas songs. They become nostalgic and we lose sight of them.

But I encourage you maybe this week in preparation for Christmas, pull up some of those traditional Christmas songs and read the lyrics. There's a beautiful richness in there. But that's who we just sang about, isn't it?

Is that light of the world. John doesn't lose sight of this incarnation. He's not losing sight of what it truly is and what it's truly about. He is fixing our gaze precisely where it belongs. And the other three Gospels, they give us a beautiful and necessary account of the actual events.

But I believe John captures the essence of the who and the why of the Messiah. He gives us that. He's giving us this understanding of who it is that came. And in conjunction with the other Gospel accounts, this gives us a crystal clear vantage point.

Without the book of John and without these few verses, we would have a limited perspective of who was born. So I want us to see three things about this light of the world. We already have the first one up here.

Three things about the light of the world. The first one is that the light of the world is eternal. And again, like I said, I'm not telling you something that you do not already know, but it is of the utmost importance that I keep it in the forefront of our faith, that we keep looking at it.

I mean, look at verses one and two of our passage here. Notice the thing that He does. He takes us back before the creation. And what does He do? He shows us the light was shining even then. Verse one, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. This Word, I want you to notice, I think we have it up on the screen. This Word that Paul, or John, I say Paul, that John uses in here, the Greek word is logos. This word logos that he uses here was used very intentionally by John.

John uses this Word with great purpose when he uses it. Because remember, at the time that John is writing this account of the gospel, people really kind of fell into two categories. You had Jews and you had Gentiles.

It's the same dichotomy that we have today, right? But back then, if you wanted to speak to these two groups, you had to speak to both of them very differently. I know that's still the same right now.

I know Pastor Jeremiah has been witnessing to a man right now that's in the Jewish religion, and it is a little bit different. But back then, these two things were very opposite. These two groups of people did not co-mingle.

They did not come together for the most part. So, John had to speak to each group very differently, and John does that masterfully right here in verse 1. Because at that time, the Gentiles were immersed in Greek culture.

And we've talked about that, about Rome, and how Rome had conquered the whole known world, and they had just permeated everything. So, for the most part, Gentiles were immersed in this Greek culture. And this word logos had a very different meaning to the Greeks, especially the Greek philosophers, which made its way out into the culture and into the people.

But this word logos really carried this understanding of an abstract principle, this reason and order in the universe. And what do I mean by that? It was kind of this unknown source of all wisdom. So, when a Greek or a Gentile would have read John's account here and read that word, they would have understood that word from that perspective, that this is some sort of an unknown.

I can't help but think of the Apostle Paul when he sees the inscription on the wall to the unknown God. That was kind of the Greek culture at the time, was these people knew there had to be a creator.

There had to be an ultimate source of wisdom. There had to be an ultimate source of all power. But they knew what they didn't know. Do you get that? They knew what they didn't know. They knew that they didn't understand, and they didn't comprehend.

So, John, again, uses it very purposefully with them. They would have read this and gone, what he's saying is that is that source, that this is that source. But again, like I said, he had to speak to these groups in different ways.

To the Jews, this word logos was completely different. This word logos to the Jewish culture would have been the divine power and wisdom. You see the contrast? Two polar opposites. Both knew that this was the ultimate wisdom and power, that this had to be the ultimate creator.

And one didn't know who it was, and the other one claimed to know who it was. And what John is telling the Jewish reader is that this is the very God that you worship, or at least your ancestors worshipped.

That this is that very God. Do you see how he uses that word very intentionally? There were other words he could have used, but he uses logos. So, here in this phrase, John is presenting them to the incarnation of divine power to the Jewish readers.

He's telling them right up front, before he gets to Nativity, before he gets to any genealogies, before he gets to the life of Jesus, before he gets to the death of Jesus, he says, make no mistake, this is God.

And if this is God, he is eternal. He is forever. And then to the Gentiles, he is bringing to light what has currently been in the darkness. He's bringing to the light. And this word logos is the light.

And he clarifies that in verses four and five, where he says the light of men, the light shines in the darkness, that true light that, that who enlightens everyone as we see in verse nine in our passage today.

And what he's telling the original reader is that the word who is the true light has always been shining. He is eternal. He is before creation. Hey, buddy. He is before creation. We also know that by the fact that he tells us that this light is the very agent of creation.

This light, not only is he eternal, but he is the very agent of the creation. Look at verse three with me. It says, all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made.

I mean, in other words, what he's telling us, what John is telling us is that this light, he was shining in creation. That, that everything that is not God was created through and by him. That includes him.

That squashes are, uh, uh, the Jehovah's witness and some other groups that claim Jesus in some fashion, but deny his eternality and believe that he was a created being. John tells us right here, that's not the case.

He's eternal. Everything was created through him. And that would even include himself if he happened to have been a created being. So Jesus is eternal and he was the creator. Not only was he shining before and during the creation though, I think John wants us to see that he has always been shining even throughout the old Testament.

Even throughout the old Testament, the true light was shining. Look at verse four with me says 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.

And I think of old Testament passages like in Isaiah nine two, it says the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in a land of deep darkness on them has light shown. We see Christ there in the prophets.

Not only did we see them right in Genesis, right there in Genesis chapter three, that we saw Christ in that first gospel, but we see him all throughout the Old Testament because they were foretelling of this coming Messiah.

They knew it was there. And these obvious references to Christ throughout the Old Testament, they shed light in the darkness. The darkness has not overcome it. It never has. It never has. It always has been shining.

And this light, it possesses a clear view of the light. Then we can even begin to comprehend for the Old Testament saints. And what I mean by that is, do we have a clearer, do we have a clearer view of that light this side of the resurrection?

Of course we do. Of course we have a clearer view. We have a bigger picture. We have more revelation. We have that progressive revelation that has shown us absolutely what has happened in the incarnation and through the death and resurrection of Christ.

But make no mistake, that light was shining bright enough, even in the Old Testament, before Christ appeared, that light was shining bright enough that those that were his, those saints that were his in the Old Testament, men like Abraham and even David and countless others that we read about that loved God, it was clear enough for them for saving faith.

Because remember, they weren't saved by their sacrifices. They weren't saved because of carrying out all of these requirements from God. Those were just a picture of the coming Messiah. They were saved by faith just as we are by looking to the Messiah.

So that's what John is saying is this light has never gone out. This light has never been covered. This light has never not been. It's always, it's eternal. And so now John has shown us that, that it is eternal.

He's shown us that he is the creator and that he has spoken, been spoken about in the Old Testament. So who fits that description? Only God, right? Only God fits that description. And so you can imagine, even for us today as we read it, we understand it, but even the original readers would have understood that and that they would have, there would have been no mistaking that fact.

The early church had no question as to who Christ is. They had no question as to the Christ being eternal and divine. That was never in question. Read some of the church history of the very early church.

That was never brought out. It wasn't brought out till later that people had questions about that. The early church knew because John is saying that only God is eternal, right? I think we have it up here so we can kind of get a visual.

Only God is eternal. JD, I think the boys are back there playing, sorry. Only God is eternal. The word is eternal, right? The word is eternal. Only God creates, the word creates. But he also says that the only one and only true God, that this God that the people of Israel have seen all throughout the Old Testament and they have been worshiping, he is the only one to be worshiped.

This word is to be worshiped. So he is telling us who Christ is right here at the beginning. So again, instead of starting off with genealogies and the nativity, John starts off with the very essence of the word, the very essence of the true light, and that's Jesus, isn't it?

So do you see how John is telling us what I would say is the most important thing about Christmas, the most important thing that we're celebrating now? Some people in religion still believe that Jesus was just a great man, don't they?

You've probably met people like that where they say, yeah, Jesus was obviously a person and he had some really good things to say. He was a wise man. I mean, I think all of us have known great men before, right?

We've read biographies, we've watched documentaries. Some of us have even been in the presence or even known personally some great people, some people that have done amazing things. But I would assume that none of us in this room have ever once looked at those people and said, I think they're God.

Never once. But just as I said a moment ago, the early church had no question as to embracing who he is. So it was so clear. And now here we are and some people in religions, other religions, they want us to think that this idea about Jesus is something that the church conjured up.

Something that the church has really just kind of come up with over the years, but that wasn't originally what the first Christians really believed. But that's not true. That's absolutely not true. And that somehow Jesus never claimed to be God, which by the way, we can squash that even outside of here, but we're not going to jump into that today.

But praise God that by the power of the Holy Spirit, inspiring men like John to write even just these few verses, and not only these verses, but countless others. I mean, I think of other passages in the New Testament that point to the fact of who Christ truly is.

Think of Colossians 2 .9, for in him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. But we know that God doesn't share his glory with anyone, does he? He doesn't share his deity with anyone, no created being, only God.

Deity dwells bodily. I would even argue that we see it throughout the Old Testament. Think of passages like Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6, for unto us a child is born. We all know this one this season, don't we?

We talk about this one. I think there's a song in there. For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Again, that light was shining even then, wasn't it? You could see that the Messiah that was to come was the true light. And during this time of Christmas, I think there are many of us and many people.

I know there's a lot of people in our culture and around our world that are worshiping a sentiment. We're worshiping the baby Jesus. So cute. He was in a manger, in a stall in Bethlehem, and he was swaddled.

We kind of get that feeling, that good feeling. It's like there's this sentiment that we're worshiping. And so many of us and so many people today are worshiping this sentiment. But that baby isn't just a special person.

Jesus was not someone who represents something bigger than us. That's not who this was. He was God himself, wasn't he? Think about that for a second. The moment he was conceived in his mother's womb, he was the very God that was holding the entirety of the universe in his hands.

That causes us to worship him, doesn't it? That causes us this season, a time of Christmas, when we can think of the incarnation of the Messiah. That puts it into some perspective, hopefully. So not only does John want us to see that the light of the world is eternal, second thing he wants us to see is that the light of the world was rejected.

This light has always been shining, right? We see that clearly. And we even saw it clearly last week in Genesis 3. Yet the light is more often than not rejected. Look at verse 10 of our passage here in John.

He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. Don't you find it interesting that people can see such intricacy in the creation in the universe? I mean, especially today.

Especially today. You know, I know people say, well, with the onset of science and that sort of thing, it kind of undermines the idea of a creator. I think it does the opposite. I think when we look at things like DNA and what we know about DNA now, and we see the intricacy of it, and I'm not going to pretend like I know what I'm talking about.

We'll let Dr. Adam over there talk to us about that later. I don't know. But it blows my mind. I mean, just thinking of the intricacy of the human eye. I read an article about that one time and just how complex that is.

And what is it? They just realized not too long ago that they have found billions of more galaxies. Billions. And each one containing billions and billions of stars that they didn't know about. To me, this seems, hey, buddy.

To me, this just seems like it's mind-blowing why people cannot comprehend or understand or see this. They look at this vast universe and they never see the light of the world. They never see that light of the world that is the creator of all of this intricacy.

They never seem to see the creator who is Christ. He's Christ, the one that we're worshiping. Now, I can't help but think of some of the reasons, but Romans chapter 1, can you? Romans chapter 1. As a matter of fact, turn there with me.

I know we'll have it up here on the screen, but Romans chapter 1, starting in verse 19. Let's see here. I want you to see this. Romans chapter 1, verse 19 on. It says, for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.

God has shown them this vast universe, hasn't he? He's just allowing them small glimpses of who he is. Verse 20, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature. Well, we've just been talking about that.

That's Christ right there, isn't it? Have been clearly perceived even since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. There's all of that amazing complexity. God is showing himself in it, isn't he?

And he goes on, he says, so they are without excuse. They're without excuse. That's why we fall under that judgment, right? We have no excuse. We've seen God for who he is. And we'll talk about later why we reject him.

But look at verse 21 there. It says, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. This is why they can't see it.

Do you see the contrasting language here? The light, the true light, darkness. The true light and darkness. And they become futile in their thinking. Their foolish hearts were left in that darkness. They were darkened.

This is why John said that the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. The eternal creator appears in the darkness, shining his perfect light. And his creation, mere men can't even recognize him.

We don't even recognize it. We don't see it. And it's because the world is in darkness. John writes later in his book, 1 John 1, verse 5, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. That's why we can't have fellowship with him because light has no fellowship with darkness.

God cannot be in darkness and we can't be in the presence of light because we are darkness left to ourselves. And what's the reason for that? Because of what we talked about last week in Genesis 3. Man is now dead in his sins.

Man is now enslaved to sin because of what Adam did. Because of that fall, we are trapped in it. You find it interesting that Paul used that language, dead in your sins. Dead men can do nothing, can they?

They can do nothing. I think of Romans chapter 3, 10 and 11 says, none is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. And they don't seek for God because they're dead. Because they're dead in their sins.

Jesus himself said, later on in our book, the gospel account here in chapter 3 of John, verse 20, that for everyone who does wicked things hates the light. Us dead men, we hate the light and does not come to the light.

So why is that? Why does he not come to the light? He goes on, he says, lest his work should be exposed. Lest his work should be exposed. And just like Adam and Eve, if you remember from last week or if you're familiar with that story, hid themselves in the garden when God came to walk with them as he normally did.

And they hid themselves because their nakedness was exposed. Their nakedness was exposed and men hate that. They hide themselves from God. They get away from the light. They get away from the presence of God.

Because if we're not clothed in the righteousness of Christ, we know our shame is exposed, don't we? Men, even though they're dead, they know their shame is exposed. They know their nakedness is exposed.

Now here's the funny part, is just like Adam and Eve with their fig leaf covering, man is able to cover his shame sufficiently enough for other men, isn't he? We seem to walk around with such pride with our fig leaf bikinis saying, see, my shame is covered.

My nakedness is covered. And we don't think anything of it when it's just us, when we're all left in the darkness and we can't see anything and no one knows the truth and no one knows what's happening.

No one can be exposed for what they truly are. But when the presence of a holy and just God appears, what happens? The very thing that Adam and Eve did, they hid themselves. Because the reality of a man's shame and nakedness not only causes him to run from the light, but make no mistake, he doesn't only run from the light, he hates the light.

He despises that light. With everything in his being, that's why he won't come to God. He won't rush to God because he hates that light that is exposing him for who he is. Man is never indifferent to God.

I'm going to say that again, man is never indifferent to God. Now, you might be confused because you know some people that seem indifferent, but they're only indifferent to the God of their perspective.

This God that they've conceived in their minds, or the God that even the churches have laid out before them, this weak, anemic God who is a white bearded, white robe wearing, rocking chair, front porch God that would never harm or hurt anyone, who would never pour judgment on anyone.

They are not afraid of that God and they don't hate that God. They might even be okay with that God. But the true God of the Bible, you will either run to the light or you will despise it. There is no indifference.

There is no common ground. There is no neutrality in man. Man hates the light. Man rejected the light. This rejection goes even deeper with Christ. Look back at our passage in John 1 verse 11. It says, he came to his own and his own people did not receive him.

Who's he speaking of? Well, the Jewish people, of course. These are the people that God had set aside apart for himself. These were his people that he had set apart and he had given them the prophets.

He had given them all of the practices that were signs of that coming Messiah and they rejected him. The very people who had been looking for this Messiah, who'd been longing for this Messiah for thousands of years, he finally appears and not only do they reject him, they kill him.

That's what man thinks of the light. That's what man thinks of his shame being exposed. So what does John mean by and his own people did not receive him? How was he rejected by the people of Israel? Obviously, no, that they rejected who he was and they killed him.

But John goes on and he tells us there in the next verse, verse 12, but to all who did receive him, there's a contrast here. It shows what it means to accept Christ. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

This is what it means to receive him, isn't it? To believe in his name, to believe in who he truly is, to believe who Christ really was, to put your faith and trust in him and rest in him alone. That's receiving Christ.

And that's what the Jewish people did not do. And most people, even today, most people will not and cannot accept Christ. They don't believe in his name. They don't trust in him. They cannot. They reject the true light.

And this is what the Jewish people did at the time. And most people today, like I said. So who are the ones that did receive him? I think it's important that we look and see who is it that does receive Christ?

Well, look at verse 13. Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Well, we see a reference to regeneration here, being born again, born again by the Holy Spirit.

Just know that to accept this true light does not in any way depend on you being born into it. Just because your father is a pastor, just because you grew up in a Christian home, just because you grew up in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the belt buckle of the Bible belt and went to church every single Sunday, just because you were born into it doesn't mean that you accepted the true light.