Last week we concluded our look at Paul’s letter to the Philippians. It was a great chance for us to look at what a Christian life looks like and just how much we need to cling to Christ. Today, we begin our journey through the Gospel of John. John’s gospel is one of four gospels, or eye-witness accounts of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry. The Greek word for gospel, euangelion, means “good news.” The other 3 gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are called collectively the Synoptic Gospels. These 3 gospel accounts include many similarities and resemble each other to a great degree, hence their title of Synoptic Gospels. John’s gospel, however, is a different account from the other gospels. This difference is seen right from the very beginning. Matthew and Luke’s accounts begin by telling us about the circumstances of Jesus’ conception and birth. Mark’s gospel begins with John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus and then Jesus’ baptism. Now John’s gospel has this prologue, John the Baptist’s foretelling of Jesus, and then immediately moves into Jesus’ earthly ministry. There is no account of Jesus as a boy or his life before His earthly ministry. John’s gospel also differs from the Synoptics in that it downplays Jesus’ parables (none are recorded), downplays his miracles (records only 7), and focuses more on Jesus’ reasons for coming to earth and who He really is. You see, John’s gospel isn’t as much concerned with telling what Jesus did, but with telling us who He is. John’s primary focus is to make it very plain and clear to those reading this gospel that Jesus is God. Today, as we look at the prologue to this different type of gospel account there are several things that I want us to pay special attention to, while keeping in mind that the ultimate goal of this gospel is to show that Jesus is God.
Now I want to start off by saying that there is more information contained in these 18 verses than we could possibly hope to cover this morning. John 1:1-18, or as it is more commonly known: John’s Prologue, has been the subject of study for many scholars over the years. Brilliant biblical scholar James Montgomery Boice actually breaks this text down into 15 different sermons. Well, we don’t have that much time today. Also, while it is very understandable and beneficial to look at each verse in full and examine every little detail, there is a certain beauty that comes from looking at this unit as a whole and not breaking it down into smaller sections. With that being said, let’s look a little closer at the introduction that John gives us to his gospel.
The first thing that I want us to notice this morning as we look at this passage is a similarity that exists between John 1:1 and Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning” should sound very familiar to anyone who has ever attempted a reading of Scripture by starting at the first word. This statement here in John 1 points to Jesus’ divinity. It shows that there has never been a time that He was not. We can tell from v. 14 that the Word that is referred to here in John’s prologue is in fact Jesus Christ who “became flesh and dwelt among us.” We not only find here in the first few verses that Jesus is God, but that He was also with God in the beginning. Here John is making distinct the personalities of Jesus the Son and God the Father. This is an affirmation of our doctrine of the Trinity; made up of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Now aside from this fact that Jesus is God being what adds all efficacy to the crucifixion, you may be asking yourself the all-important “So What?” right about now. You may be saying to yourself, “Yeah, I know Jesus is God, I know about the total divinity of Jesus. I know that because he was God, his death on the cross paid for my sins. ” The so what is that now, we can know God. We can only imagine God the Father, but Jesus, the Son, was an actual living breathing person who we can know. We can know that he experienced all the same pains and joys that you and I feel. We can know that he knows hunger, loss, love, and compassion. Our God is a God who knows us, knows what it is like to be us, and is continuously caring for each and every one of us.
The next thing that I want us to pay close attention to is something that as you read further and further into John’s gospel (which we will) you find more of and that is the terms “light” and “life”. Often, throughout Scripture we find the falleness of the natural sinful world referred to as “darkness” and “death”. Here in the prologue of John’s gospel we find Jesus referred to as the complete opposite. Jesus is everything good in this world. All of the vile and disgusting things that we find in our world and in our very human natures are not in Jesus. I think that these are perhaps two of the most fitting words that we could ever hope to use to describe exactly what we have in Jesus. We hear of people who have “found religion” or who have “seen the light”. Our first thought is honestly to brush off this type of language because it sounds too supernatural. After all, not everyone has a Saul-to-Paul type of conversion. Not everyone sees an actual flash of light while traveling somewhere. But when we think of sin as being darkness, to come to Christ is seeing the light. And how great do we feel when we see the light in the darkness. If you have ever been driving late at night in complete darkness; all buildings are closed and you have only your headlights and the moon to guide you. When you reach your destination and you see even a glimpse of light, think of the relief that you feel. Now put that in life-and-death terms. You have navigated your way through sin and darkness and finally reached the feet of Jesus, the eternal light.
When we turn to the light, what do we find? We find life. The light that shines in the darkness and overtakes it is where we find life, but not just life, eternal life. Just as the darkness cannot overcome the light, death cannot overcome our Savior. He has conquered death. He has risen. To jump back to the context of John’s writing this, this light that has the power to give us life eternal was coming into the world. This light that through Him all things were created was coming. This light that was coming, was greater than all the darkness that was in the world during this time and all the darkness that will ever be.
Near the end of v.10 we start to see a shift in John’s language. Verses 10-13 speak of the reactions that the people of that day, and this day, have to Jesus Christ. You see, it’s pretty clear to me how a person reacts to Christ and the good news of the gospel. They either accept it or reject it. Now I fully acknowledge that this is many times not an immediate reaction, but eventually a decision is made as to whether to reject the gospel or not. John tells us here that his own people, meaning the Jews, didn’t accept him. Jesus was rejected. To many, he was a disappointment. He was not quite what they were looking for. Later in this gospel in 3:19 John records the words of Jesus saying, “the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” We ought to tremble at hearing this very phrase “their works were evil.” We could take this very statement and say “our works are evil.” It is from this very idea that Calvinism gets its first point, Total Depravity. Man being corrupt and polluted in some way in every aspect. There is no part of us that has not experienced sin in some way. And this rejection of Jesus should come as no surprise to us really. Look back at the Old Testament. It is quite common for those who proclaim God’s word to be cast out and despised to a certain degree. Why, even the patriarch Abraham had his moment of doubt when it came to God’s promise to give him a son through Sarah. He turned to Hagar to bare him a son instead of trusting in God’s promise. You see it’s quite simple, the reason why the world didn’t know and recognize Jesus as the Lord was because they didn’t want to. We, as well as anyone, can tell you that if we don’t want to see the truth, then we won’t.
Right here I’m going to pick on my alma mater a little bit. One of the great things about going to college in a college town is that you quite often see the prominent personnel of your school around town. When I was in school in Starkville, I would run across major figures from the university on a regular basis around town. I had the “privilege” of running into one of our more prominent football players several times and I must say that I was never impressed. The way he acted, the way he treated women, the way he treated his own body, was not the type of person I wanted leading my football team, much less representing my school. I was telling my dad about it one day on the golf course when a friend of his who was a huge State fan walked up and started chewing me out. He was one of those delusional fans; the type of guy who if it had their college’s name on it then it must be 100 % top quality. He started telling me that I had no idea what it was like to have that kind of pressure on me and that I had no clue what that young man had going on at home and all kinds of other stuff about why I was in the wrong. I listened to him until he nearly passed out from getting so worked up. When he finished he yelled, “Now do you have anything else to say?” I looked at the ground, looked at him, and I said, “Well, that might be true, but the state that I’ve seen him in numerous times isn’t the answer, and answers aren’t written on the bottom of bottles and glasses, and those girls that he was for lack of a better word harassing sure didn’t seem to really care for him or his way of handling his problems.” This friend of my dad’s just couldn’t see it; he didn’t want to see it. He refused to think anything less than good thoughts about this football player.
We know the truth. We know who Jesus is. The question becomes if we want to see it our not. As Christians, we want to receive Him. We long to receive Him. There is no excuse for us just as there was no excuse for those in Jesus’ day. Not only was there the miraculous conception and birth, but Jesus spent 3 years of ministry proving to all that he was who he claimed to be. He was God, come to earth in the form of man. Let this be a reminder to all of us that there are still many people who are out there today who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ because they simply will not believe it.
The second reaction to Jesus and His gospel is described in vv.12 & 13. We are told what awaits those who do receive Him. We are to become children of God. We are set apart. We are to receive that eternal life that Jesus has paid the price for. The ability of the light to overcome the darkness and life to conquer death is ours for all eternity. This is the good news of the gospel. This is our great hope. We are reborn. But being reborn is a much greater transformation than we might think. There is a change that takes place within every fiber of our being. If we make a change on only the intellectual level but never really change anything in our actions or deeds, there is not rebirth. Isaac Watts, the great hymn writer, wrote in “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”:
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far to small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
This rebirth that we are to experience when we truly accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior is our fulfilling of the Great Commandment. We love God with all our heart. We love God with all our soul. We love God with all our mind. We love God with all our strength. When we truly are reborn, we see things in a completely different light. There is more than a surface-level change that takes place.
It’s at this point where I want to challenge each and every one of us here today, myself included. We have seen the divinity of Jesus, His glory. We have seen that even though we are totally depraved and corrupted by sin, there is a light for us in Jesus Christ. This light is greater than all the darkness and can overcome all sin no matter how powerful. All of this being true, there are still those out there who reject the good news of the gospel. There are still those out there who are living in the darkness for one reason or another. There are those that choose to stay at home on Sunday after Sunday instead of gathering with God’s people to worship Him. Now it’s true that you and I can’t change the hearts and minds of those around us, that is something that only God has the power to do. But we can be the tools that He uses to carry out this great work. We do this by growing personally in our own walks with Christ. We do this by growing in grace ourselves. We do this by praying that God will give us the courage to speak when given the opportunity. Don’t be someone who lets others remain in the darkness. Point towards the light. Point others to Christ. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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