WWUTT 782 The True Light?

John 1 -9 says that Jesus is the true light which gives light to everyone, who pierces the darkness in our sinful hearts, and illuminates for us

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Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in the Gospel of John, and as with yesterday, I'll begin by reading chapter 1, verses 6 -13.

The Apostle John wrote, 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 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.

So yesterday I mentioned that there are seven witnesses that John writes about over the course of his

Gospel that testify to the identity of Jesus Christ, and we have the first one mentioned here in verses 6 -8, and that is

John the Baptist. We also have Jesus' own words as one of the witnesses that testifies to who

Jesus is. God the Father testified to who Jesus is at Jesus' very baptism.

We have the voice of the Father that came from heaven, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

We also have the scriptures, or that which came from Moses, that testifies to who

Jesus is. Jesus himself proclaimed who he is. The Holy Spirit gives testimony to the identity of Jesus Christ, and even the disciples, in this case

John himself, the apostle who is writing this particular Gospel, they give testimony to who

Jesus is. And who is it that they testified about? Well, as John writes about in this particular section, it's the light.

John the Baptist came as a witness to bear witness about the light.

And who is the light? Of course, Jesus Christ himself is the light. He is the one who shows us who

God is. Everything that we could ever want to know about God, we see in Jesus Christ.

Who is God? What is he like? What does he say to us? That's what we see in Jesus.

He not only shows us God according to who he is as the

Son of God, but he also points us to the Father. So we see the Father through the

Son. Philip asked Jesus, hey, if you just show us God, that would be enough.

We see him and then we know and we believe. And Jesus replied to Philip, Philip, don't you know me?

If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. So it is Jesus who shows us the

Father. And it is also Jesus who gives us the Holy Spirit. So we know the Holy Spirit as well through Jesus Christ, for he said to his disciples in John chapter 16,

I will send the helper who will come to you and he will reveal more truth to you from the

Holy Spirit. So it is the Holy Spirit that testifies to the identity of Jesus Christ, who also shows us the

Father. This is a Trinitarian work that is done in the heart of a believer that we might know the

Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is why a person who is

Trinitarian has no fellowship with a person who claims to be a follower of Christ but is not

Trinitarian. They are not truly a believer in God, for they do not know the triune

God. They do not know Christ himself, for if they don't know the Father, then they don't know

Jesus, for Jesus reveals the Father. When you have those churches and those denominations that deny or reject a doctrine of the

Trinity, they are rejecting God outright because they deny that he is who he claimed to be in the scriptures and who

Jesus revealed him to be. In Matthew 11, Jesus said, No one knows the

Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone whom the

Son chooses to reveal him. A few years ago, our church left our local ministerial association, and the reason why we left, well there were actually several reasons, but the main reason why we left was because the association was welcoming into membership.

Churches that denied the triune Godhead and their statement of faith, that our one

God is three persons. Now our church had been a part of that association before I became pastor, so I really never questioned or investigated the association's statement of faith.

By the way, let me tell you this, if your church is part of an association, be sure you read that association's statement of faith to see if you actually line up with the beliefs of that association.

But in the association's statement of faith, it does not say anything about Trinity, it just says that a church has to recognize that Jesus Christ is

God, but not that he is the second person of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And so I had a conversation with the president of the association and also a couple of the other officers, they did not see that a rejection of Trinity was a reason to quote unquote break fellowship with these other churches that desired membership with the association.

But I said, we have no association with them. They do not believe in the God of the

Bible. They do not know God as revealed to them by Jesus Christ.

For it says there in Matthew 11 that he reveals the Father. If they do not know the

Father, they don't know the Son. First John 2 .22 says, he who denies the

Father and the Son is an antichrist and the truth is not in him. They don't have the Holy Spirit either.

You know, considering that most of these Trinity denying churches tend to be very Pentecostal, they tend to claim to be full of the

Holy Spirit. Well, they don't have the Spirit either. If they have denied a fundamental doctrine of the

Christian faith, understanding that our one God is three co -equal and eternal persons, the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as Christ has shown him to us.

I was reminded of this recently when somebody within the community had heard a little bit of gossip about our church.

And this happened to be one of those rare circumstances where the person who heard the gossip actually came to me to ask about it.

They said, I heard this was being said of your church. It was something to do with us being very separatist, that we don't associate ourselves with other churches, which isn't true.

We actually do have other ministry things that we do with other ministries and churches, even within our community.

We're just not part of the association, the county association anymore. So he said,

I heard that you guys broke fellowship with the association. You're not joining us for this event that we've got coming up. And it was because you're separatist and because you're

Southern Baptist and nobody else is and all this. So I wanted to hear it from you. Why is it that you're not part of the local association?

And I said, it's because the local association accepts Trinity -denying churches, and we cannot associate with churches that deny a fundamental doctrine like that, that our one

God is triune, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And even he said, yeah,

I could see why you would leave the association over that. So I'm thankful this person decided to go to the source rather than listen to the gossip.

But anyway, as we have Jesus described here in John 1, 9, as the true light, which gives light to everyone.

This is what Jesus does. He reveals to us the truth about God.

He has shown us the Father. He has given us the Holy Spirit.

He has come to us in the flesh, bridging the gap that exists between man and God because of our sinfulness and his holiness.

As we'll go on to read in verse 14, he, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only Son from the

Father, full of grace and truth. Jesus shows us this as he is the true light.

Light comes from God. We go back to this creation motif that John began with at the start of his gospel.

You go back to Genesis 1, the first words that Jesus spoke into creation that caused things to be were these words, let there be light.

And there was light. Jesus is the light giver. He is the light bearer.

He is the one who is the true light, which gives light to everyone.

He shows us God. He shows us the truth that has been hidden from us because of our sin.

Part of the curse that was placed upon man when we rebelled against God all the way back in the garden of Eden.

And as Augustine has said, all of mankind was present with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden because we're all descended from Adam and Eve.

So we're all willing participants in that sin that was perpetrated against God in Adam and Eve's rebellion.

So going back to the garden of Eden, when we rebelled against God, part of the curse that God gave to mankind because of Adam's sin was that we would lose sight of God.

We were separated from God. He is holy. We are not.

As I mentioned several times before, Habakkuk 1 .13, God's eyes are so holy, he cannot even look upon sin.

So God has hidden himself from us as part of the curse because we're sinners that we don't see

God. Now, no man has any excuse. As we read about in Romans 1 .19

-20, no man has any excuse to say that God doesn't exist for his eternal nature, his eternal qualities and divine nature have been clearly perceived in all that has been made.

Not just evidence that God exists, but that he is divine and eternal. We even know that about God in all things that have been made so that man is without excuse.

No one is going to be able to stand before God and say, why did you take such great pains to remain so hidden? As Bertrand Russell tried so desperately to quip, he was once asked, if God does exist and when you die, you have to appear before him, what are you going to say to him?

And Bertrand Russell said, why did you take such great pains to remain so hidden? But he won't have any excuse on that day to blame

God for the fact that Bertrand Russell didn't know God. Very clearly Bertrand Russell knew about God.

He talked about him all the time. Even as an atheist, he just talked about God, spent his whole life, his whole career doing that.

So he absolutely knew of God and he absolutely hated him.

The truth about God was hidden from Bertrand Russell because of his rebellion and his sin against the

Lord. But Jesus Christ shows us God at a time when

God had been so hidden. And especially at the time that Jesus appeared, it had been over 400 years since the last prophet had said anything to the people of God, that God had said something to a prophet and the prophet spoke to the people.

It had been over 400 years, so they had not heard from God in a long time.

And then Jesus comes and the way that the picture is given to us in Matthew chapter 5, he sits down on a mountain and he speaks to the people.

We have the Sermon on the Mount, just as when God spoke to his people

Israel in Exodus chapter 20 and gave them the 10 commandments, he spoke to them from a mountain.

Jesus speaks to his people on a mountain showing that he is God who who is speaking to his people once again through the person and the work of Jesus Christ, the true light which gives light to everyone.

We get to know God because Jesus shows us God. The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

That's John one nine. So John the Baptist, as a forerunner to the coming of that light, bears witness about the coming light before Jesus came.

So the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. John the Baptist spoke about this.

He prepared the people for the coming of this Messiah that had been prophesied about in the

Old Testament 400 years. No prophet had spoken. John the Baptist shows up.

He is the first prophet in over 400 years and also the last prophet before the greatest prophet who is

Jesus Christ. So John the Baptist prepares the way of Christ, says he is coming into the world.

He baptized with water that they might cleanse themselves of their uncleanness is so they would be properly conditioned to be in the presence of this king who was coming.

Verse 10. He was in the world. Jesus was in the world and the world was made through him.

Yet the world did not know him. The world didn't know him because they were sinful, because they were rebellious against God.

So when God himself comes to them, they don't recognize him because they're sinners, because they're unholy, because they hate

God. So that even when God comes to them, they don't know who he is.

He made the world, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, verse 11, and his own people did not receive him.

Now we're talking very specifically here in context, we're talking about the Jews. Jesus came to his own and his own people did not receive him.

The Jews did not receive him. The Jews were the people that God had chosen for himself that he would bring about the salvation of all people from the

Jews. Now the Jews thought the way that was going to work was that there was going to be this great king who was going to come along like David and he was going to sit on the throne of Israel and he was going to deliver

Israel from the hands of whatever kingdom or empire was oppressing them in this particular day and age.

It would have been the Romans and whoever blessed Israel would be blessed and whoever came against Israel would be cursed.

So this was the way that the people of Israel, the Jews, thought that salvation would come to all nations.

It would be by those who bless Israel, therefore salvation would come to them. And by the way, that's not a foreign thought that's relegated only to the past 2 ,000 years ago.

Plenty of people still think that now, that as long as we side with Israel in the

Middle East, God will bless us. But if we turn against Israel over there in the

Middle East, you know, this country that's only been a nation for 70 years, if we turn against them, then

God will curse us. So we think that salvation is just as long as we side with Israel.

There are people today that even believe that, but our only salvation is through Jesus Christ. So Jesus came to his own, those people who were descended from Abraham, whom

God called out to be his own from slavery in Egypt. And when

Jesus came to his own people, they did not receive him. You know, I kind of have to wonder here, this is speculative on my part, but John 1, 11, he came to his own and his own people did not receive him.

I have to wonder if John had Matthew 2 in mind, not necessarily Matthew 2 literally, but the events that we read about in Matthew 2, which is the

Magi who came to Jerusalem to worship he who had been born King of the

Jews, for we've seen his star in the East and we have come to worship him. And no one knew what they were talking about.

What? The King of the Jews, you've seen his star, you've come to worship him?

And Herod was even threatened by this. He asked his wise men, what in the world are they talking about?

And the wise men said, oh yeah, there does happen to be a prophecy about this. And this King of the Jews is going to be born in Bethlehem, which was just four miles down the road.

So Herod sends the Magi onto Bethlehem and then says that he's going to kill all the babies, all the baby boys, two years old and younger, because he felt threatened by this prophecy about this

King who was going to be born. But they were looking for a literal King, not a child that was going to be born in a lowly place like Bethlehem.

They just didn't get it. They didn't understand. His own people did not receive him and said it was strangers from a far off land that traveled all this way to come and worship the

King who had been prophesied was going to be born. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him.

So, again, I just wonder if that's what John has in mind here in John 1 11, not just that Jesus was crucified, but from the very beginning when

Jesus was born, when the word became flesh and dwelt among us, he was not received by his people.

They did not know him, but anyone who believed in him would be saved.

He was a Messiah that came not just for the deliverance of the Jews, but he came to deliver anyone who believed in him and anyone who believed in him would be his people.

Their true Israel, according to what we read in the scriptures. So, again, the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

Jesus not only reveals God to believers, but there will come a time when eventually even unbelievers will see

God for who he really is. And it's Jesus Christ who is going to reveal him at the final judgment.

Jesus is the one that God the Father has given all authority to. And he is the one who is going to judge the nations, who sits down on his glorious throne in Matthew 25, who rules the nations with a rod of iron.

This is Jesus Christ. So even everyone is going to see who

God is, the light that had come into the world through Jesus Christ. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord. But for now, it is those who receive him and believe in his name who are his people, whom he gives the right to become the children of God.

Verse 12, who were born not of the blood, nor of the will of the flesh.

I'm sorry, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And that's the portion of this passage that we will be talking about tomorrow. Let us pray.

Our wonderful God and father, we thank you for the salvation that we have been given through Jesus Christ, our

Lord, that we are able to discern spiritual things through the

Holy Spirit who dwells within us, that this light has been shown to us and we know who you are because Christ has revealed you to us.

So seeing God in his glory and his righteousness as revealed in the pages of scripture through the person and work of Jesus Christ, may we desire to worship you and obey you for the perfect God that you are and the wonderful commands that you have given to us, which are our delight to follow and obey.

Lord, we pray that you continue to shape us in the image of your son, that we are conformed to Christ, that we might be more like him, that we have hope in this hopeless world through Jesus Christ, for he delivers us from the world as the one who overcame the world.

He came to us in the world as a light to show us the truth of God and we know you because of Jesus Christ.

We are known by you because of the righteousness of your son and we praise you for these things in his name, amen.

Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .utt