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This morning we are going to conclude our studies together in this introductory section of the Gospel According to John (1:1-18). As I have said previously, John is introducing us to the subject of His Gospel, which is of course in accordance with his revealed purpose in actually writing this book - ' But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name (John 20:31).'
In our last two sermons we have seen that man is in a state of darkness, unable to perceive spiritual things, unable to even realise his own darkness, and that he needs light - spiritual life.
This is the very state of every person here this morning who is not a christian, regardless of how good you may think you are for being found in church. The reality is that you are darkness, in whom there is no light what-so-ever!
You need someone from outside of yourself to come along and turn on the lights, to grant you spiritual life, that you may no longer be ' dead in tresspasses and sins ... '. And that person is not me, and that person is no other that you can see around about you this morning.
The One who is able, INDEED, the ONLY One who is able to do so, is the Lord Jesus Christ - the Light of the world, who has life in Himself, the Giver of life, both physical and spiritual - He must do this work.
To receive this light - this life, one must receive Christ by faith, that which is the confidence to go to Him, to believe Him, to trust Him, and to rest in Him - all given by God Himself.
You have no ability to do this, remember, ' dead in tresspasses and sins ... '. You can't choose it, you can't be it, you can't make it, ... you just can't!
And so this morning we want to dig a little deeper into all this, to go a little further along, and to ask, ' well, how does Jesus Christ do all this? ' And though we won't answer this question as fully as you might expect this morning, we will begin to grapple with this, and to grow in our understanding of this as we set out in the book that will teach as fully about this - provided of course that you are granted light by the Light!
How? How? How?
I don't want darkness, I want life! I don't want death, I want life! I don't want blindness, I want sight!
To even ask those questions may be an indication of the beginnings of spiritual life, because you can't even see the Kingdom of God without life, let alone enter it.
1. A Temporary Visit - A tent
So how does Jesus Christ go about this business of bringing spiritual life to those who dwell in darkness? He does so by going camping - He sets up a tent. Eh???
Well that's a bit odd - maybe, but I think it gets the point across.
Let me illustrate - when someone goes on holidays, and decides to visit a remote National Park, what sort of shelter does he use? Does he set about constructing a 3 bedroom house for his 3 day visit? Of course not. He is only staying 3 days, so he takes a tent, a temporary shelter, a temporary dwelling to accomplish his purpose.
That's the idea in verse 14 when it speaks about Christ coming to this world, ' And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.' The phrase is literally, ' And the Word became flesh and pitched His tent among us. '
It's mean't to convey the idea of a temporary dwelling - He wasn't going to stay here forever you see. His purpose in coming was to be completed with only a temporary visit. You see, all that was needed that you might have life, was to be accomplished within the time of His earthly dwelling.
' The Word became flesh ' - this is what is known in theology as the incarnation, the Word became flesh.
There is obviously plenty in that - but just a few things.
He became something that He was not before - flesh. And the word flesh does not mean that which is corrupted by sin as it does in other passages, such as in Romans.What is simply mean't, is that he began to be human, taking upon Himself all that it means to be man, apart from sin.
All we experience, He experienced, becoming as we are yet without sin - ' But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law (Gal 4:4).'
But, He did not cease to be what He was before, as verse 18 implies - He was still the Word, very God of very God. So Christ became flesh, and therefore is both man and God - incomprehensible to us.
So the text is telling us that Christ left His usual place,that of glory with the Father, accepted the conditions of human life with all that that means apart from sin, and set up camp in the world - and all that for some 33 years. Why?
' that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich (2 Cor 8:9).'
Why? That you might become rich, not materially, but spiritually. That you might have light and life, ' And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins (Mt 1:21).'
He didn't cease to be God for that period of time, for John and others ' beheld His glory '.
When you and I are trying to work someone out, we look at them, consider them, dwell on what we see. This is the idea in the Greek behind the word translated as beheld.
They carefully scrutinized Him, trying to understand just who He was, and they began to recognize that He was so much more than a man - they saw His glory. His life and deeds gave away who He was, they ' manifested forth his glory (Jn 2:11).'
They came to the place where they thought, " He has had to have come from God - only God can do this ". And this is the idea in the text, ' the glory as of the only begotten of the Father ' They are the words of one, this is the life of one, who is one of a kind, unique - He can only have come from God Himself.
So let me suggest to you firstly, that how Jesus Christ brings spiritual light/life to men, is all wrapped up in His coming to dwell among men for that temporary period of 33 or so years, ' that ye through his poverty might be rich (2 Cor 8:9).'
How does Jesus give life to sinners? Part of that answer is, that it involves His temporary visit to this world.
2. A Full Back Pack
When the incarnation took place, remember, the Word becoming flesh, He went to a nation who had lived on the back of the Law of God for centuries, as it had been given through Moses.
It was a law that showed them how God expected them to live, how God expected them to organise their nation, how God expected them to organise their religion, etc.
And although it was good, there being nothing wrong with that law, ' the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good (Rom 7:12),' it could not bring them spiritual life. '... the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death (Rom 7:10).'
It is God's standard of righteousness, and to reach that standard, and thereby be acceptable to God, you must keep it 100% - in mind as well as deed. So no-one could do that, ' being dead in tresspasses and sins '. Yet the Jews thought even the mere possession of the law gave them life, which of course it doesn't, such was their darkness.
So it told people what to do, but men can't do it - they have no life, and the law gives no ability to do so.
Of all the Law in Australia, and though most of it is very good, the mere fact that we have it does not mean that people are going to keep it. It cannot keep people within the speed limits for example - and this is the case with God's Law, it cannot keep you within bounds, only tell you what those bounds are.
So keeping God's Law is not the way to go for acceptance with God, not the way to go for obtaining life - it just simply doesn't possess the ability to do that. But it does do something very important, it points us to one who does have the ability to give that life - even He who is Life.
' Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith (Gal 3:24).'
Through showing you that you are condemned by the law, that you have no ability to keep that law, it thereby points you to someone outside of yourself who is able to give life. It points you to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And He came into this world carrying a Big Back Pack for His temporary stay, and that Big Back Pack has everything you ever need for life. Everything!
There are 3 sub-points to consider briefly here:-
- a supply of grace,
- a supply of truth,
- an overflowing abundance
(a) A supply of Grace
As we rummage through this back pack that the Lord Jesus Christ brought with Him to this world, the first thing we come across is a supply of grace.
What is grace - something you say at meal time? No. Grace is the unmerited favor of God. It is when God looks upon someone with favor, with blessing, even though they don't deserve it.
The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, to make the possession of spiritual life not only a possibility, but a reality - and all that for people that the Law shouts out as being guilty and condemned and worthy of everlasting punishment.
He came to bring people life - that they might be set free from the darkness in which they walk, and all that even though men, women and children deserve to die, eternally for their sin.
' For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3).'
So He came to the world with a supply of grace to give spiritual blessing to those who don't deserve it, who rather are under a judgment of condemnation.
(b) A Supply of Truth
The Lord Jesus Christ also came with a supply of truth, and what the Greek is driving at here, is that He came as the reality. In other words, all that the Law pointed to, in all its laws, rituals, sacrifices, etc; Christ is IT! He is the REALITY of all that.
' For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect... But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God (Heb 10:1,12). '
You see, all that the OT spoke about, its ultimate object and subject was the Lord Jesus Christ. The ark of Noah, pointed to the refuge sinners would find in Jesus Christ at the time of Judgment; The sacrifices pointed to the need for a sacrifice to take away sin; and so on ... it all pointed to Jesus, they were shadows of the reality.
Christ came to fulfill the OT Law and prophesies, and He fulfills all its requirements.
READ ROMANS 3:21-26
Even the righteousness required by the Law is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ, who lived in this world in perfect obedience to the Law, so that sinners could take His obedience as if it were their very own, by faith.
And He also died in this same manner - dying in the place of sinners, He who had no sin, ' the just for the unjust', suffered the punishment for sin, so that sinners could take His suffering for sin in their stead, by faith.
Let me try and illustrate this a little. Think of a football match. On the sidelines is a bench of substitutes. When a player is injured or replaced, one of these substitutes goes on and assumes the role of the player who came from the field. If the player was the fullback, then everything to do with being a fullback now falls upon him. He is to fulfill the entire role of the fullback, in the place of the one who came from the field.
Now of course with football, what the substitute actually achieves is not put to the record of the player who left the field - but with Christ as Substitute, this is what happens. The goals that Jesus scores go to the sinners account, and are reckoned or thought of as being scored by the one that Jesus is Substituting for.
So in His temporary visit, He came not only with gracious intent, but He came and accomplished the salvation of sinners, by substituting Himself for them, keeping the law and paying its price - that sinners might have life.His obedience becomes their obedience, and His death becomes their death.
You want life this morning? That's who you must go to - He who died in the sinners place. No-one else was good enough to pay the price of sin - to Him you must go, and receive all that by faith - acknowledging, believing, trusting, resting - in Christ.
And you shall have it - without doubt. '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 (John 1:12).'
(c) An Overflowing Abundance
' And of his fulness have all we received '
The idea in this passage is that of not just enough, but an overflowing abundance of grace and truth, of undeserved blessings and realised salvation.
Of His fulness, of all that He is as Self-existent life - we have received spiritual life from the fountain of life, it just won't run out.
' and grace for grace '
They who receive Christ have found it to be that the life we have, though undeserved, just keeps flowing in upon us, piling up spiritual blessing after spiritual blessing - so that we are overwhelmed by all that He has given to us.
You don't just get some initial spiritual kick as it where, you get the initial work, the on-going blessings, and the everlasting blessings - you get it all.
So much so, that the fullness of His blessings never run out, can reach even to the greatest sinner, the most difficult to reach, the most hardened, the most uncertain - it flows out to all who receive Him.
3.The Revelation of God to Us
In the Lord Jesus Christ we see God, and that ought not to surprise us since He has been with God from all eternity, ' which is in the bosom of the Father', a term carrying with it the idea of a very close and intimate relationship. If anyone knows the Father it must be Christ.
But He is also God as we have clearly seen in the opening verses of the passage.
The passage before us says, ' No man hath seen God at any time ' - and though this obviously refers to His spiritual Being, I think it also means much more than that. It means also that no-one can truly understand or know God.
But in the Lord Jesus Christ you begin to understand God - in His words, deeds, life, death and so on, we learn all about God, from one who is obviously God, who can say, ' he that hath seen me hath seen the Father (John 14:9).'
It is the Lord Jesus Christ who declares the Father, who makes God known to man - the idea in the text is that He interprets Him, explains Him to us.
And what does He declare. Well amny things actually, but this morning in what we have been considering, we learn about God's attitude toward man, and therefore toward you here.
Ezekial 33:11 says, ' Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? '
What is God like? Well Hasn't the Lord Jesus Christ revealed Him to us?
He has no malicious intent toward you - He wants you to go to His Son, to receive Him, and to live; ' that you might have life in His Name '. Yes He will punish, He must, His Righteous and Just nature demands that He does so, but He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
And so it is that He has sent His Son that you might have a way of escape, a way of missing the wrath of God. He too is full of gracious intent toward sinners, to you who deserve nothing from Him, nothing but wrath, He throws His arms open toward you, promise undeserved and real grace, and blessings.
He has sent His Son in fulfillment of all the OT Law and Prophesies, as the answer to the problem of sin, in order to bring the wicked into a right relationship with Himself - and that with super abounding stores of grace, beyond measure!
What is God like? We can see what He is like - love, compassion, mercy, etc. The Lord Jesus Christ reveals so much to us of what the Father is like.
Ans so as we finish this first section of John, we see already the purpose of John being brought to bear upon us - 'these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name (John 20:31).'
So will you believe? Will you receive Him who will give you spiritual life, who will turn on your lights, that you might receive all the blessings of God in Christ?
Then go to Him . Acknowledge His ability and your need, accept His Gift, trust Him and what He has done, and rest in it, and live. Amen.
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