Have You Received Jesus?

The Foundation of John’s Prologue and the Coming of the True Light

If you have your copy of God's Word, I want to invite you to turn with me to John chapter 1, and go to verse 9. Reading through verse 13, even though I am in my week of preparing, not certain that I'm actually going to get through verse 13 today, even though I'm not trying to over-labor or belabor these passages, it's just each verse in this, and so much can be gleaned from each one, and yet we ought not, as I've often said, we ought not get so lost in the details that we miss the forest for the trees.

So I don't want that to happen either. So my goal is that we look as deeply as we can, and my attention again is going to be on specifically verses 9 to 13, but I'll be quite honest with you, verse 13 by itself deserves its own message, and that's why I'm thinking of next week, allowing that to roll, because I've been in several moderated public debates, theological debates, and as I was looking at John 1, 9 to 13 this week, I was reminiscent of how many times I have cited John 1, 13 in debate, particularly in the debates I've done on infant mortality.

If I may, I'll explain it to you when we get there, but in other times as well, because that passage also speaks about the fact that our regeneration, the act whereby God gives us new life, is not of our will.

So there's so much in just that verse. It's not by blood, didn't come by family, and that's how it relates to infant baptism, and it's not of the will, it's not by your choice, but it's by God and His infinite mercy who chose.

So again, I don't mean to run ahead of myself, but that's why I don't know that I'll get to all that today. In fact, I'm pretty certain I will not. But sometimes it's good to give you a heads up for what we're going to do maybe next week.

But I've just been swimming in these passages all week. I love John's gospel, and I love the prologue. As I've said, as we have studied it, this prologue, these first 18 verses, set the foundation for all of the book.

If you don't get this right, you will not get the book right. I heard years ago a great illustration. If you walk up to a man who's building a wall, let's say there's a mason and he's laying bricks and he's building a wall, and you look up at the wall and you see that the top layer is not level, and you say to the mason, Sir, that top layer is not level, he will be disappointed, but he can take the top layer back off and start over.

But if you walk up to that man and you say, Sir, the bottom layer is not level, he's not going to be disappointed, he's going to be devastated. Because if the bottom layer is unlevel, that means everything on top of it is not level.

And that's why I think it is so essential that we rightly understand these first 18 verses, because this prologue is the bottom level of John's gospel. This is the foundation. Everything else he builds, all of the miracles, all of the times he's going to identify Christ as Yahweh, all of the times he's going to reference Christ's divinity and his equality with the Father, and yet his work in the incarnation, all of those things are going to be built upon the foundation of these first 18 verses.

And therefore our attention needs to be given to a right understanding of these passages. So that being said, let's stand and today read, beginning at verse 9, and God's word says, the true light, which gives light to 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.

Father, I thank you for your word. I pray now that as I seek to proclaim your word, I pray that you would keep me from error. I pray that every week, Lord, not to be repetitious or because I don't have anything else I could pray, but Lord, I truly mean it, God, keep me from error.

Lord, keep me from preaching bare moralism. Preach me from preaching a false gospel. Keep me from preaching something that would lead your people astray. Keep me from preaching anything that would harm the flock.

Lord, protect your people, even if it be from me. And Lord, may your word be the profound teacher today. May your spirit be the one who gives insight. May I merely be the voice, and may I decrease that Christ may increase.

I pray that as your spirit takes the words of this truth and puts it into the ears of these people, that he would also cause it to go through the ear, down into the heart, Lord, where it might be planted, implanted, and grow and bear fruit.

Lord, help us. Lord, let us see Jesus in his name.

Amen.

Have You Received Jesus?

There are several ways that one might enter into a gospel conversation. Last week I mentioned in my sermon that we have a booth that we have at times in the past gone and set up. It's been a little while since we've done it.

Hopefully we'll do it again soon. We go and set up this booth and we proclaim the gospel by handing out tracts, and one of the things that we have on that booth is a sign above it, and the sign is etched in wood, and it reads, Do you understand the gospel?

I still contend that that is one of the best ways to enter into a gospel conversation is to simply be straightforward and ask someone, Do you understand the gospel? For if they say yes, then you can ask them what they mean and how they understand it, and you can begin that conversation.

But if they say no, you can say, Can I share the gospel with you? But another way that is common, and I remember hearing this a lot when I was younger, was when someone would approach and simply say, Have you accepted Jesus?

If you have accepted Jesus, I must be honest with you, I never cared for the term accept only because it felt like it was like when you accept, I just never liked the word accept. Not saying it's wrong, or if that's the way you, I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying, for me, it just felt like Jesus.

But there is another way of asking that question in our text today, and that is the question, Have you received Jesus? What we're going to see today is John actually defines for us what that means. What does it mean to receive Jesus?

Of that reception, what happens when you receive Jesus? Consider what it means if you reject Jesus. Because we see that in this text as well. It says, He came into the world, the world didn't know Him, He came to His own, they rejected Him, but to as many as received Him.

Of today's text. The juxtaposition, the dividing point of today's text is those who have received and those who have rejected. It builds on the already set of juxtapositions that John has created in his work.

He has made the juxtaposition between light and darkness. The light comes into the darkness, and the darkness is not a juxtaposition between life.

And death.

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. And so now He gives us another juxtaposition, juxtaposition of receiving the light or rejecting.

The light.

And it should cause us a time of genuine introspection, where we honestly and in our heart ask the question, have we received Jesus Christ? As we've said, we are in John's prologue, and we're beginning at verse 9.

So with our Bibles open, let's begin to walk through the text. Verse 9 is intricately connected to verse 8. And if you'll remember two weeks ago when we were in John's gospel, two weeks ago, we looked at verse 8, but then we took a week off because we had a deacon ordination.

So if you don't remember what we talked about, verses 6 -8 talk about John the Baptist. It says, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came to bear witness about the light. And then verse 8 says, he was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light.

Now, just a quick reminder, the word light here is referring to a person. The word light is referring to the Logos. You remember who the Logos is? The Logos is Jesus. The word Logos is translated in English as word.

And the first verse says, in the beginning was the Logos, meaning in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through him, and nothing was made that was not made by him.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. And the light has come into the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. So John goes from identifying the Logos as Logos to light. He goes from identifying him as the word to the light.

And here he goes into saying, John was not the light. John was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. That then leads into verse 9, where verse 9 says, The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

So that is the continuation of verse 8. John is not the light, but the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. I want you to, for a moment, recognize that he identifies the light as the true light.

He adds that descriptive word, true. J .C. Ryle, in his comments on this passage, said that there are four different ways that the word true could be understood in this passage. When it says that the true light has come into the world.

He said first, you could understand the word true as undeceiving light. He is true as opposed to false lights. Aren't we told that there are false lights in this world? I'm asking you, are there false lights in the world?

Does not the Bible say that Satan masquerades as what? An angel of light. Satan has said this before. That you are much more likely to encounter a devil who looks like an angel, than you are to encounter a devil that looks like a devil.

Because devil is devilishly clever. And so one of the ways that Satan tries to fool us, is he presents himself as an angel of light, rather than darkness. Religions will often look very good on the outside.

I've said this before, and I know many of you have heard it, so forgive my repetition, but repetition is the key to learning. It will look very good. If you think of a religion that is very clean cut, very healthy, everyone looks good, everyone does good, it's not easy to get along with.

Everything on the outside looks near perfect. And underneath is a doctrine of devils. Masquerades as an angel of light. So when John says Jesus is the true light, one of the ways that this could be understood, is that he's true as opposed to the false.

Another way that it could reference the idea of true light, is that he is real light, as opposed to the lights of the old covenant, which were all types and shadows. Colossians chapter 2 talks about the ceremonies of the old covenant, and it said those things were a shadow of the things to come, but Christ is the what?

He's the substance. Those lights were dim lights pointing to the greater light. Understand this, every Old Testament sacrifice, every Old Testament ceremony, every Old Testament position, every Old Testament building, when we think of the tabernacle and the temple, all of it pointed forward to one person, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the fulfillment of the sacrifices. He is the fulfillment of the priesthood. He is the fulfillment of the purpose of the temple. It all points forward to him and his finished work. All of those lights are mere arrows, pointing to the one true light.

So he is true as opposed to the false. He is true as opposed to those lights which pointed to him. He is also underrived light. Underrived, he himself is the source of light. Whereas John, we talked about last time, John is called a light, but the light that John is called is more like a lamp.

A lamp gets its light from something else, but Jesus is true light. On the Mount of Transfiguration, there was a removal of the veil, slightly, so that the light of Christ could shine through. And what does it say?

Looking at his face was like looking at the sun. Looking at his clothes were as white, more white than any bleacher could ever bleach them. He was true light, not derived light. He's not a mere reflector like the moon, but he, like the sun, is radiant in its source.

And finally, Ryle says he is also supereminent light. I had to look that one up. I kind of had the idea. I know what preeminent means, and I know what it means when we put super at the beginning of something, but what it simply means is he is the greatest light.

He is true in the sense that nothing else compares to his light. And so, when we step back and say, well, which of these is most likely to be the one that John is referring to? I think that John, in this case, while all four of those are true of Christ, I think he's underrived because he's comparing him to John.

John was not light, but he wasn't the true light. Jesus is the true light. Underrived in focus in this verse. And it says the true light, which gives light to everyone. As I was examining the construction of this text, I was interested in the phrase, was coming.

And I began to think, but wait a minute. Almost strange phrase, was coming into the world. Well, we have to understand this is referring back to verse 8, which has to do with John. John is in the world, and it's referring to the fact that John came before Jesus.

Does that make sense? Because in the very next verse, it says he is in the world, right? But in verse 9, because it's connected to verse 8, it's talking about John's perspective. John came into the world.

The true light was coming. And that's why John was there. The true light was coming. And that was John's message. I am not the light coming. And bless God, we get to verse 9. He was in the world. He's here.

So, it says, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming. About that phrase, was coming, is that that phrase is used several times in John's gospel as a referent to the idea that the one who was coming into the world was the Messiah.

Just for a few moments, consider just a few verses. You don't have to turn there, but I'll read them to you. John 6, 14. When the people saw the sign that he had done, speaking of Jesus, they said, this indeed is the prophet who is coming into the world.

This is him.

This is the one who we've been waiting for. John 11, 27. This is the sister of Lazarus. And she said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.

This idea of coming, this idea of the expected arrival.

You are him.

You are the one who was coming, and look, you're here. And then John chapter 12. Jesus speaking of himself. He says, I have come into the world, so that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness.

Understand, this idea of coming into the world, this idea of, this was expectation. This was about who he is. He was coming. We only say that about something that's expected. We say, this is coming, or that's coming, or this person's coming.

Jesus was the one who was expected. He was the one who was coming. He was the promised one. Beloved, he is the fulfillment of all the hopes of Israel. And yet, we're going to see in just a moment, even though they knew he was coming, they rejected him.

We'll talk about that more in a moment, but just consider that. They knew he was coming. They were told he was coming. They expected he was coming. Even the woman at the well, we know Messiah is coming.

She wasn't even in Israel, and she knew. And so John, in verse 9 here, is saying, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. Now that phrase, gives light to everyone, has to be considered as well.

How is it that Christ gives light to everyone? Well, there's different ways we could think on how that might be understood. Because in one sense, when Christ came into the world, he came into the world unknown.

We're going to see in a moment, it says in verse 10, the world did not know him. But yet, he is still the one who gives light to the world. Why is he the one who gives light to the world? Because there's no other light.

He is the source. He is the foundation. He's the only one who can give light. Beloved, if you have been illuminated, if you have been brought to life from death, it is because of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did.

There's no other light.

There's no other prophet that you can trust in. There is no other religion that you can find hope in. There is no other light that you can go and bask in. Only the light of Jesus Christ is the light that will illumine your dead soul.

He is the light for everyone because there is no other. And he's the light that all men have to reckon with. Some men will receive him and others will reject him. But there's no other light. There are three major monotheistic religions in the world.

All three of these major monotheistic religions claim to worship the God of Abraham. The three religions are Muslims, Jews, and Christians. Only Christians worship the God of Abraham. And before you freak out on me and say, But the Jews worship the God of Abraham.

Jesus said to the Jews of his day, If you believed in Abraham, you'd believe in me. And when you reject me, you reject the Father. The modern Jew is not worshiping Yahweh because Jesus is the light, the only light that lights the hearts of men.

And if they reject the light, where are they? In darkness. They are in darkness. Jesus is the true light which gives light to everyone. And this verse says he was coming into the world. Now, let's move on to verses 10, 11, and 12.

10, 11, and 12 provide for us the relationship of the light to three other things. Verse 10 gives us the relationship of the light to the world. Verse 11 gives us the relationship of the light to Israel.

And verses 12 and 13 give us the relationship of the light to believers. That's our outline for today. The relationship of the light to the world, the relationship of the light to Israel, and the relationship of the light to believers.

I'm sorry, I don't have a screen for you on that as I was preparing the screens this morning I just didn't put that in but it's a simple outline if you want to write it down and as always If you don't want to sit writing during the sermon and you just want to focus on listening Just email me and I'll just send you my notes.

That's the easiest way you can have everything that I have. And by the way on that last one, he's the light to the world. He's the light to Israel. He's the light or the relationship of light to the world the relationship of light to Israel in the relationship of light to believers originally, I said the relationship of the light to the elect and I didn't change it because I was afraid y 'all know I was a Calvinist but because I think that ship has sailed but But I changed it.

Because believers are the elect. It's the same. It's it's honestly and and hopefully if I don't get to it today, I'm gonna get to it next week. The reason why you believe is because God has chosen to open your heart to believe.

So when you see the word elect it is synonymous with believer because you if If a person goes his whole life in unbelief and dies in unbelief.

He's not elect.

That's it. But if he believes it's because he is elect. It's just that simple. Now we can talk more about that. We will. But let's go into verse 10 his relationship to the world. It says in verse 10 he was in the world and The world was made through him.

Yet the world did not know him. Again, notice the contrast between verses 9 and verse 10. Verse 9 says he was coming into the world. Verse 10 Says he was in the world. He was in the world refers to the fact that he has come.

From John's perspective he's going through the timeline. John came first to tell people Jesus was coming and After John came and announced his coming Jesus then came and there is where we are in verse 10.

John the Baptist made the way. John said he is coming and he came. John said the light is coming and he did. When it says he was in the world this is referring to the incarnation. I really look forward to getting to verse 14.

Because verse 14 is the most powerful and profound verse on the incarnation in the whole Bible. Verse 14 says the word became what? Flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.

What a tremendous truth to consider that Jesus came into the world. The logos came into the world through flesh. He took on flesh. He didn't just take on flesh though. He wasn't a he wasn't God in a skin suit.

But he was truly man, and I don't want to get into this now.

Oh Okay.

The true I Don't want to get into too much about the incarnation because when we get to verse 14 I'm going to have an entire message on it, but but just understand when it says he was in the world It's referring to the incarnation.

Because prior to the incarnation The logos and his divinity Was in the world, but not as a man. And When we say God is in the world We actually have to step back and say wait a minute. God is actually not in the world.

God is distinct from creation God is not a part of creation.

God is outside of.

Creation he creates and It's not intricately part of him but when he comes through the virgin womb in the person of Jesus Christ he enters into his creation as.

A man.

The logos has always been. But now the logos is here. This is John's point. He was in the world and guess what? He was unrecognized. Notice what it says he was in the world. I'm sorry. I'm jumping one and the world was made through him.

Let me let me step back because sometimes my brain outruns my mouth. Or the other way around my mouth that remember he was in the world. And what does it say and the world was made through him? Why is John?

Reiterating that he's telling us again that it's the creator who's come into the world. It's the one who created that stepped into time. The one from all eternity has taken on flesh. Remember the song Mary did you know?

Some people love it. Some people hate it. I Remember when it was written. Mark Lowry wrote it one thing. I think it does in a positive. Is it references.

The fact that the feet of.

The one who walked on the earth is the very feet of the one who created the earth. He walked on those little baby toes of.

Jesus as.

Mary looked at that, baby. That was the incarnation.

Of.

God he was in the world and the world was made through him. That is so profound it should cause us to have a brain hiccup. Because there's so much there. He was in the world that he made. What an amazing and profound truth and yet the world did not know him.

He did not come through Royal doors. He was not born among the elite. He lived his life in most or mostly in obscurity. For 30 years of his life all we know. Is that on one trip to Jericho. On one trip to Jerusalem.

He confounded the teachers. When he was just a boy, we don't know anything else until his baptism. That bothers a lot of people. In fact in the ancient world there were men who took to writing Extra biblical accounts of Jesus's life just to fill in the gaps.

The Quran actually has Stories about Jesus's life that are not in the Bible that are taken from some of those extra biblical accounts. The Quran tells the story of Jesus making clay pigeons and then giving them life and they fly away.

Well, that's taken from an extra biblical Gnostic text. There's no indication that Jesus ever did anything like that. But this was part of the Gnostic sect that was outside of Orthodox Christianity and they had created these stories about the life of Jesus.

That were not true. There's no indication of their accuracy. But why do men do that. Because they asked the question how could God come into the world and nobody noticed? I mean we know that on the night he was born there were some shepherds who came but how many could it have been.

We have no idea.

Every manger scene I've ever said it was saw it was three. That's probably just because that's all they could afford to put. Even if it were three dozen, it's still not that many. He came into the world in relative obscurity.

He came into the world and the world did not know him. For 30 years the world did not know him. John the Baptist. This is this blows my mind. Mike and I were talking about this two weeks ago. Cuz it says John didn't even know him.

And you say but wait a minute John was the one that he leapt in his mother's belly when he got close to Mary when Mary was pregnant with Jesus. But John says even I didn't know. Until the Holy Spirit of God told me the one on whom you baptize and the Spirit descends upon him.

That is the Son of God. So there's this.

Obscurity in.

Christ's life, but there's something else to be said For the word no. When the Bible uses the word no It is rarely in the context of mere intellectual knowledge. When the Bible uses the word no, it is almost always Related to intimate experience.

The most intimate of course is Adam knew Eve and They had a child. That's what we call carnal knowledge. It's an old phrase which simply means the Intimate interaction of the sexual intercourse which produces a child carnal knowledge.

But the word knowledge is there to know someone in that sense means to be intimate. But also the word no speaks of relationship. Amos the prophet speaking to Israel Speaking for.

God.

Says to Israel you have I known of all the nations of the world. Does that mean God doesn't know the Canaanites?

Intellectually.

Does that mean. God doesn't know the Amorites and every one of them by name God knows everything.

Amen.

We call that God's omniscience His all-knowingness. He you're about to teach on this one y 'all is are Are about to teach on the doctrine of God's knowledge. God knows Everyone, but he's not in relation with everyone.

Amen. God is not in relationship with everyone in this world people who say there is a universal fatherhood of man I'm sorry universal fatherhood of God and a universal brotherhood of man. There's a Greek word for that is baloney.

God is not the universal father of all mankind. He's the universal creator of all mankind, but those two are not equal. God created all men, but you are not part of the creation of all men God's family simply because you were created by him and we'll see in a moment how you're made part of God's family.

But for now, let us just simply say To be known by God and to know God speaks of relationship. So when it says of Jesus He was in the world and the world was created by him. But the world did not know him.

Certainly it speaks of his obscurity. But it also speaks of the fact that the world Was not in this relationship with him because he's about to say how that relationship is established and It's established by receiving him now.

That's his relationship to the world. Now let's look at his relationship to Israel look at verse 11. He came to his own and his own people Did not receive him. I remember years ago When I was sitting in a seminary class and I believe it was dr. Stanford Cruz who was teaching and he said There is no more sad verse in all the Bible than John 1 11.

He came unto his own and his own Received him not. There are some who think that the phrase Came unto his own speaks of all men and just general creation. But that is not What this text is referring to?

When the text says he came to his own It's referring to Israel because Jesus Was the promised Messiah to Israel amen that is who he was. He was the one That was to come. That's what we just read a few moments ago.

They knew he was coming. We just talked about that and now he has come and has been rejected by them. Now it is not a universal rejection. For the first men who trusted Jesus were of Israel all of his disciples were Israelites.

The early church was considered to be a Jewish set. Because it was made up so much of by Jewish converts to Christ. But it was very quick in the history of the church. That the majority shifted to the Gentiles.

We even read in Romans where Paul is speaking and he talks about a Partial hardening that has come over the minds of Israel the Jewish people and it talks about The fact that we who were not Israel as I don't know anybody in here that is Jewish by descent.

Maybe there are some of you. But those of us who are not Have been grafted in That there is this root and We who were the wild olive branch have been grafted in to the tree and Those who rejected the Sun were what cut off from the tree.

Jesus came.

To his own.

He came To Israel and for the most part They received him not. Praise God for the but because. Verse 12. But to all who did Receive him. That's the. That's the beautiful verse that follows the ugly verse.

The sad verse he came unto his own and his own received him not but to all who did Receive him and then as if he knew We were going to need an interpretation of what that meant. He says it says to all who did receive him who believed on his name.

Now some of you I think the KJV if I remember correctly actually puts that at the end, right? It says to all who did receive him He gave the right to become children of God who believed on his name, right?

So so but that's there the Interpretation of what it means to receive Jesus is given to us in the text. What does it mean to receive Jesus? It means to believe on his name and you step back and you say wait a minute, what does that mean?

To believe on his name means to believe in who he truly is and to trust in what he has Accomplished. That's what it means to believe on his name to trust in who he truly is and believe in what he has accomplished.

That's what it means to receive Jesus.

And if.

We have done that. We are then given the right to become the children of God. So we stand in this passage. Verses 11 and 12. We stand in this passage at the great crossroad of human history. Because here is the crossroad receive or reject.

Believe on his name. Reject who he is. Trust in what he has done. Trust in anything else. This is The crossroad of life. You will either. Receive him in all of his fullness In all of his beauty in all that he has done.

In trust.

Or.

You will trust in something else That will lead only to destruction and so the question that must come After we read verse 12 is the title of today's message. Have you? received Jesus. Have you trusted in his name?

Have you Placed your faith in his work and not your own friends. We're going to see next week That trusting in Jesus is Actually a work of God. We're going to see the sovereignty of God. But understand this.

We are called to trust in him. By his power we are commanded to receive him. That's the command and so we must honestly Evaluate and ask ourselves have we trusted in him? Have we received him. And here's the beautiful part.

If you have received him he gave you.

The right.

To become the child of God if you've received Christ. You are part of the family of God. In a moment while we're handing out communion We're going to sing the family of God. If you have received him you are part of his family, but if you remain rejecting him.

Let me for a moment speak to you and Remind you there is no other.

Person.

There is no other system There is no other plan There is no other hope Than the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Imagination of men That will tell you that there are many roads to God. Jesus from his own words said There is a broad way That leads to destruction and a narrow way that leads to life and Jesus is that way He said I am the way and the truth and the life.