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Grace-based biblical teaching and sermons with Pastor Jason White. Messages that focus on Life in Christ and practical application as New Covenant believers.
Today is the fourth Sunday of this sermon series that we've been in titled God became flesh. We're looking at the Gospel of John, the introduction, the PROLOG, just the first 18 verses where the apostle John gives us this cosmic perspective about the birth of Christ. We've only looked at the first eight verses so far, but there's so much that John has already revealed about who this baby that was born in a manger really was who he is. John's already told us that he was there in the beginning of all things, that he was with God, and not only was he with God, but that he was and is God. He's revealed to us that Jesus was the agent of creation, that everything was made by him. We have learned that in him, in Jesus, was life, and that that life was the light of all mankind. And so what John is revealing to us is this baby that was born in a manger whose name was Jesus. Was no ordinary baby. I mean, he was ordinary in one sense, just like you and I. He was fully human. He experienced what it meant to be human in all the ways that you and I do, but he was unordinary in the fact that he was also fully God, fully God, fully man, Emmanuel, God with us. And so these are the things that John's already revealed. He's going to continue to reveal even more about Jesus today, what he was coming into this world to do, and what that means for you and I today, the difference that it can make in our lives. We're going to be looking at John one, verses nine through 14, and so let's just dive right in. John says in John one, starting in verse nine, the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world, this true light here that he says is a reference to Jesus, and he says that he's the true light. Because if you remember last week, when we were looking at verses six through eight, he began to talk about John the Baptist, the precursor to Christ, this one who was born into this world, who was sent from God, but he was not the light. He was a light, but he wasn't the light. And he made a reference to that in the previous three verses. And so now, as he transitions back into focusing on Jesus, He makes sure to reference him as the true light, and notice that this true light gives light to every one it is. There's no prejudice here. Doesn't matter what race you are, who you are, where you've been, what it is that you've done. And John tells us here that the true light was coming into the world, the Logos, the word of God, the one who was there at the very beginning, the agent of creation, the one who spoke things into existence, the one who's just always been here, the God who exists outside the bounds of time and space and matter was coming into this dark world to bring us light. It's truly fascinating. It's astounding what John is actually saying here. And for those of us who are used to the Christmas story, we need to just pause and reflect for a second on what John is really saying here. I mean, you and I know that if somebody really imported and who had a big name in our world was coming to Tyler, we would make it a big deal. I mean, Donald Trump's coming here, big deal. Tom Brady's coming here. Taylor Swift is coming. I mean, you would lose your ever loving mind, some of you if Taylor Swift was coming to Tyler, right? And so when people who are important and big names are coming into our world, our community right here, we're gonna freak out. We're gonna roll out the red carpet. We're gonna make sure that they're treated well. We're gonna give them the attention. We're gonna follow them around. We're gonna see what they're doing. We're gonna watch and see what they're and John is telling us that the God of the universe, who created all things was coming into this world, Taylor, who? You see what I'm saying. You see what a big deal that John is saying here. The God of the universe is coming into this world. He's the true light being born into this darkness now as. John says this. He's clear to make sure, as he comes to the next verse here, that we don't miss, that he's always been here. Right off the bat, he says he was, this is written in the imperfect tense in the Greek, which means that it's a continuous state. So he just said he was coming into the world. But then John goes, Oh, but wait just a second. Make no mistake about it, even though he was coming into the world to be born fully God and fully man, he's always been here, right? He was here before the world even began, and he continued to be in the world because he's an omnipresent God. He's present everywhere. And so he was already in the world. He was coming into the world to be born into the world fully God and fully man. Now he says, though the world was made through Him. And so again, this reference to Jesus as the agent of creation. What he said in the first three verses, though the world was made through Him. John says that the world
did not recognize him.
The creation
did not recognize their Creator. Now, some of your translations, if you're following along in your bone own Bible, you may notice that it doesn't say recognize here. It actually says they didn't come to know Him, or they didn't know him. The Greek word here that's translated recognize is glosso, and this word ganosco actually means not just to come to know or to recognize or perceive, but to acknowledge as one's own, to acknowledge as one's own. The world did not acknowledge their Creator as their own creator. He's saying that the people of this world that Jesus created just continued to walk in darkness rather than welcome the light of the world into their darkness. Not only did that happen at that time, that continues to happen today, many people continue to walk in darkness, even though the true light continues to reveal who he is to people and to expose our sins and our sin nature and the things that we are involved in, but that he has brought hope into this world, to bring forgiveness to us in new life, many of us are aware of those things, and yet we continue to run from Him and try to hide from him and try to cover up our sin rather than receive him. And my hope and prayer is, if that is you today, if you've been running from God, you've been trying to hide from him, and his light is exposing your your sin and the things to you, and you're just ashamed by those and embarrassed by those, and you're trying to run and continuing to find life. I mean, you've gotta be exhausted. You've gotta be exhausted if you are trying to run from God who is pursuing you with His love and His light and the things that he has to offer you. Would you stop running today? Would you be open to what it is that he's trying to reveal to you and he's trying to offer you, and we're going to continue to learn more about that as we go and if that's what the Lord is even saying to you today, whether you're here or watching online, my hope and my prayers that you would just continue to listen to him, listen for what it is that he's saying to you about who he is and what It is that he's offering you today. Okay, so John tells us that Jesus was the true light, and that this true light was coming into this world big deal, because the world that was made through him did not recognize him. And so he's making this incredibly sad statement that was the reality at the time, but what he says next isn't just sad, it's actually tragic, because here's what he says in verse 11, he Jesus came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
Who is Jesus talking about when he says he came to his own well, he's talking to the nation of Israel, right to the Jewish people. He's talking about his own people in that way. We all know that God made Israel His own people, the nation that he would reveal himself to, and then through whom he would reveal himself to the world. And so the Israelite nation, the Jewish people, they knew God. They knew Jesus because Jesus was God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit had been. Walking with them. They understood the prophecies about the Messiah and the rescuer and Redeemer that was foretold about through the prophets. But John says here that even they did not know Him, they didn't recognize him. They didn't Gino him claim them for himself. Now here received isn't the word genosco. He uses a different word here, which is parambano. And parambano means to take to oneself, to receive as being part of your very life. And so John in using this term here, and the way he says it is that the nation of Israel, the Jewish people, made a conscious decision of rejecting Jesus as their Messiah. They had this idea of what the Messiah would be in their own minds and what he should be doing and what he should be about, rather than being open to where his light was shining, whom he was revealing himself to be, in whom he was revealing that what it is that he came to do for them. They thought, no, no, it would be better if you were this rather than who you say you are. They rejected Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life. What a tragedy this really is. And we even see how it impacted Jesus. When we read through the Gospels, in the Gospel of Matthew, we see how it impacted Jesus through what he says in verse 37 of chapter 27 he says, there, think I've got it on here. This is Jesus saying, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you. How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen that gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. God had been walking with the Jewish people for centuries, right leading them out of slavery and into the promised land and into captivity and back out of captivity and providing for them and caring for them and giving them instruction, promising them one day that a light would shine on them, who are living in darkness. And that light was now here. The light was here, and they were not willing to come to him and receive Him as their own and Jesus grieved over it. Can you imagine walking with your own people that you called out for centuries, and then you came in human flesh, were able to be amongst them and with them and reveal more about what it is that you came to do the one that was promised all the way. And they don't just not recognize you, but they reject you. They spit in your face. You created them, walked with them, provided for them. You foretold about what you were going to come do, and you're here and you're doing it. Can't imagine the grief that that caused him. This is what John says in verses 910, and 11, and it's a sad statement. These are tragic statements, but thank God John didn't stop there. The next two verses are the ones that I really want us to lean into and focus on with everything that we have, because John next says yet or but so. So even though the true light came, even though the world didn't recognize him, the world didn't know him, his own people rejected him. Yet, to all who did receive Him, there were at least some, and what happened to those who did receive Him, to those who believed in his name, he says he actually gave the right for them to become children of God. Can you imagine being the child of God, being in God's family? I mean, the exalted status of the title children of God. Talk about a family to belong to, right? I mean, we all want to belong somewhere, into someone, and to be a child of the all powerful, all knowing, all wise, holy and magnificent God of the universe. Wow, to have him as your heavenly Father, to be His child, to be in his family, to have the rights of the family inheritance.
This is no small statement
by John,
but I do want you to notice several things here. The very first thing I want you to notice about what John is saying here is to notice this word become. To say that they became children of God means that they were not children of God. Before this happened, many of us seem to think that everyone's a child of God. Well, we're all children of. God, aren't we? No, there's certainly a sense where God is the Creator of all people, but just because he is the creator of all people does not mean that we are all part of his family and have the authority to the family inheritance. Again, because this word right here does talk about authority and power that He gave them the right and authority to now become children. They weren't, and they didn't have that right because of sin, because sin separates them and all of us from a holy and a perfect God, and because of that, we were removed from the family in the garden. Adam and Eve were removed. They were part of the family. They got kicked out of the family because a holy and a perfect God cannot be in the presence of God, and that's the state that every single one of ourselves born after them find ourselves in yet. John says here that some people actually were given the authority and power and privilege to then go from not being children of God to actually becoming children of God. How does that happen? Well, let's look at this word right here. Next he gave it to him. In other words, it was a gift, something that he gifted to them. This was not something that they earned. They didn't achieve the status or the title of child of God and become that way because of how they performed or in obeying the 10 Commandments or any other actual way, it was a gift. God gave it to them now, just like any gift, they had to receive it, which is actually what he even said here, right to all who, what? Who did receive him? He gave so you have a gift, you have to receive the gift, and then when you receive it, then you have the right to become children of God. Now he elaborates and says, Well, how do I receive it? Well, he tells you to all who did receive Him, to those he explains it further, to those who believed in his name, that's how they received the gift, to have the right to then become and change the status from one thing to the next. But what does that mean? What does it really mean to believe in his name, that's not something we talk a lot about today. In ancient times, someone's name represented the entire kind of expressed the entire person. It represented in every way, who you were and what it is that you did your character and so to believe in Jesus's name means to put your trust first and foremost in who Jesus is, but then secondly, what it is that he did. To believe in Jesus' names mean to believe first and foremost that He is God. To believe in his name means to believe that he's the word, he's the true light, he's the logos. He's the life of the world, the light and life of the world. Guys, there are many people who believe Jesus is a good person, that he's a wise man, that he's a good teacher, that he's one of many ways. He's a light, among many lights. To get to the end, but this is not what it means to believe in his name. To believe in his name means to believe who he actually is and who he said he was. He said he was God. He said that he was the Messiah, the rescuer. He's the way, he's the truth, he's the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. And so that means to believe in his name and what it is that he said, then we have to believe in Him as the way, as the truth and the life, and the only way that someone gets to the Father. The other thing it means is to believe in what it is that he had done. Not only, of course, we're focusing during this season on on Jesus being born into the world, but you have to tie the Christmas story with the Easter story. And after Jesus grew up and eventually became an adult, and after he started and launched his ministry, we know that he went to the cross to take all of the sins of the world onto him to pay the penalty for them. And as he was hanging on the cross, he took his final breath and he declared it is finished. All of the work that was necessary to forgive sins and to bring people or give them the right to become children of God had been. And accomplished. And so to believe in his name means to believe in who Jesus is, and to believe in His finished work on the cross, to actually do what He said that he came to do in and through that. And when you believe that, that's how you receive the gift and actually have the right and authority and privilege and power to then become you're not a children of God until that happens, but when it does, this becomes your title as well. He says yet to all who received, this happened to those who received in John's time, you flip over to the very end of the gospel in John 20, he says, and I'm writing all these things so that you may believe that He is the Son of God, and in him you may have life too. So it wasn't just to those who did it at that time. It applies to all of us. And it was John's hope that you would go through this process as well. You would believe in his name, receive this free gift of salvation, and then have the authority and the privilege and the power the the right to be called a child of God. Now the last verse that we want to look in he you see this little dash right here, he makes a further description of how someone became, how they went from not being a child of God to being a child of God. And so this is the last verse that we'll look at. But there's so much here that's so good, and I really hope you're still dialed in and paying attention so they have the right to become children of God. What kind of children? Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband will, husband will but born of God. What a phrase to be born of God? How did they become children of God? They had to be born of God. Well, what does that mean? Well, it's what theologians call regeneration. It's the act of God imparting spiritual life to those who don't have it, and guys that is necessary for all of us to become children of God, because, again, of our sinful nature, which leaves us spiritually dead. Of course, the moment that we put our faith and trust in Jesus, we believe in his name, as he said in verse 12, right here, and we receive His gift. We're not only forgiven, but the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, unite to our spirit, making us spiritually alive again. Where you're born of God, you become a new creation. In Christ, you're not who you once were. You've been changed into someone different. You now have his spiritual DNA running through you. I've shared this illustration with you before, but Rankin William, in his book union with Christ, uses the example of how the difference between Batman and Spider Man helps us to see what happens with us the moment we say yes to Jesus. Batman is a superhero has all of these really cool external gadgets. They're external, they're outside of him. They're part of his suit, or they're different things that he drives or flies and all of those kinds of things. But Spider Man was different. Peter Parker got bitten by a radioactive spider, and then his nature was changed. As a result of that, he now had a new power in him. It became part of him. He was no longer just a man. He didn't have just the nature of a man. He took on also the nature of a spider so that he could now be called a spider man, nature of a spider, nature of a man. He became something different in the moment that you believe in Jesus' name, just like spider man, something alien to you, something from outside of you that was not there before entered into you and changed your nature
as well. You became someone different. That's what John is saying here in verse 13, the people who believed in Jesus' name had their nature changed. Listen, this is the difference. We're not just talking about being legally adopted into God's family. God is not sitting up in heaven and has these little papers right and, and he's got your name on it, and those who are in the family and, and some people get a stamp of approval in in just like you're the same person you used to be down here. He just put a little stamp of approval on his book up there in heaven somewhere. That's not what he's talking about. In order to enter into the family of God, they didn't need a stamp of approval. They didn't just need to be given okay, you can use the title now. They had to actually become someone different. They had to be born again so they became a different. Person to become now part of God's family, to become God's child. I know there's nobody really listening to me out there today, but I'm going to keep preaching it anyway, because if you would have heard what I just said, you probably wouldn't be able to stay in your seat. I'm getting fired up, up here and just getting going. So I'm going to keep going, because this speaks to me. I cannot believe what John is saying here. These people were changed at the core of their being, so that they were now, listen to this, by nature, part of God's family. By nature, part of God's family. So please know today that if you've said yes to Jesus, this is exactly what's happened to you as well. You are, by nature, part of God's family. You've been changed. You're not who you once were. You no longer have a sin nature. You've been made holy. You've been made righteous. You're accepted, you're blameless before him. And listen, this new nature of yours is one that's filled with spiritual fruit of love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self control and so so watch this. You don't have to walk around trying to change yourself now into someone who is loving. You don't have to walk around trying to change yourself into someone who's joyful. You don't have to walk around trying to change yourself into someone who is patient, or someone who is kind, or I don't have any self control. I'm trying to change myself into a person who has self control. No, no. If you have a new nature and you've been born of God, you have his spiritual DNA running through you. You are loving. Now in Christ, you are patient. In Christ, you have self control. In Christ, it's who you are. Because you're born of him. You're part of his family. Now born into the family, so now you're just learning how to exercise the patience that you do have in Christ, that's where the learning and the growing comes. You have it. I don't need the seven steps on how to become a patient person. I am patient in Christ, I just learned to walk in the patience I already have. Once I realized that I am patient, it's part of the spiritual DNA. Then it's amazing how all of a sudden I can experience a lot more patience. You know what? I mean? No, no, I'm trying to become patient. Well, you're going to not be patient the rest of the time, right? So, I mean, this is, this is what. This is why it's such a big deal that we focus on. Oh my gosh, if we got what John is saying here, that to those who do receive this gift, you are born, you're changed. This is who you are now. Quit walking around trying to change yourself into someone that God already says you are. Just learn to experience who you already are and the benefits that you have in his name. That's the application for those of you who have said yes to Jesus, I want you to lean in on that this, this Christmas, and go as we think about the true light coming into this world to give a gift of us being born again, into his family, that if you've received it, that's happened to you, That is who you are. So now it's time to just believe it. Count it to be true, even when you don't feel like it is trust in what God says about you and know that your Heavenly Father's DNA is running through you and it flows out of you in action. It flows out of you in speech, it flows out of you in behavior. Now, so keep your eyes fixed on Him and who he says that you are, and if you don't, you've never believed in Jesus's name. You haven't received him. As John said earlier in the passage, would you do? Would you do so today?
John says that the true light that gives light to
everyone, not some people. Everyone, open and available to everyone. Was coming into the world. He came into this world for you to bring you out of spiritual darkness and into his wonderful life, into his family. And if you'll believe in his name today, you'll receive him. Then he will forgive your sins, and you will be born of God. In that moment, you will look the same on the outside, you're still going to have the same personality, but the core of your being, you will be someone radically different, in the same way that Peter Parker became Spider Man, you're going to go from who you were to a child of God. And it happens the moment you receive it, moment you believe in his name, and so I want to give you the opportunity to do that right now, to believe in his name, to receive this gift and be born of God. Would you close your eyes and bow your heads with me as we begin to pray?