The Wonder of Jesus Christ

Transcript

GRM 943
12/18/2005
The Wonder of Jesus Christ
John 1:1-18
Gil Rugh


John’s gospel chapter 1. We look at some of these areas related to the birth of Christ, sometimes around Easter time we talk about the death of Christ. They are matters that we review again and again as God’s people, not only on these special what we call holidays, but for us this is ongoing through the year. This is what life is for us. Jesus Christ, who He is, what He has done, our relationship to Him, our life in Him and the glorious destiny He has provided for those who belong to Him. He went to prepare a place for us and if He went to prepare a place for us He will come again to receive us to Himself so that we can be with Him where He is—in the presence of the glory of His Father.

I want to talk just a little bit about the person of Christ and the work of Christ to remind us of the wonder of Jesus Christ. You know when we first come into the salvation that God has provided in His Son, we are in a sense of awe and amazement at who Jesus Christ and the work that He has accomplished on the cross so that we might be saved. But you know that wonder and amazement and thrill ought to grow, not diminish. And we should never tire of the wonderful truths concerning Jesus Christ and all that we are and all that we have in Him. I want to look first at the wonder of His person and then the wonder of His work.

You have John’s gospel, put a marker there, and now you have a greater challenge. Go to the book of Micah and that’s in the latter part of your Old Testament. And you get past the middle where you have Psalms and you go through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and then Hosea and these minor prophets. They get smaller in size. Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah. And that’s why we have an index in the front of our Bible, for those minor prophets. You could just start there. I used to always keep my finger in there and that way if they said something I could check the page number and get there quickly. We’re on page 1306 in my Bible and since none of you are using the same one who knows what’s on that page in yours. Micah 5:2, but as for you Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you one will go forth for Me to be a ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. A remarkable verse, written hundreds of years through the prophet Micah, before the birth of Christ. And it was from Bethlehem that the future ruler of the nation Israel would come. That in and of itself is remarkable. Bethlehem was a little nothing of a place, not considered significant. And we know as the story has unfolded, now that it has happened, that He will not only be born in a little, insignificant place called Bethlehem, but He will be born in the most insignificant of places in that little insignificant town. He’ll be born in a stable in the town of Bethlehem.

The one, the middle of this verse says, who will go forth for Me, for God, to be ruler in Israel, the one who will be the Messiah of Israel. And when He rules His kingdom will have no end, and Jerusalem will be the capital of the world, and the Jews will be the focal people of the world. And this ruler will come from Bethlehem. And perhaps the most remarkable of all are the last statements of the verse. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. Here is someone who is going to come from Bethlehem who did not have His beginning in Bethlehem. Here is one who will rule and reign over Israel and from Israel over all the earth, but He dwelt in eternity. That had to be a puzzling statement, even to the prophet who wrote it. How can this be. Comes from a little place that isn’t considered significant even in Judah, Bethlehem, and He’ll be the ruler. That’s remarkable enough, but He’s going to be one who has lived in eternity. That can only be God, only God is eternal. Everything else apart from God Himself has had a beginning. But this one who will come from Bethlehem has dwelt in eternity.

Now you come to John’s gospel chapter 1 and we have the unfolding of this marvelous truth. Not emphasizing the fact that He is to be the ruler, but emphasizing the fact that He is the one who has dwelt in eternity. And He has come to be the Savior, not first of all the political saviour and deliverer, but He has come to be the spiritual deliverer so that He can establish a physical kingdom composed of people who have been spiritually delivered through faith in Him.

John begins a very familiar verse, John 1:1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. You could do a whole series of extended length just studying John 1:1. The amazing truth that is compressed in that verse. Jesus Christ here is called the Word. There are many titles for Jesus in the Bible—Christ, meaning the anointed one, identifying Him as the Messiah. We refer to Him as Jesus Christ and He is so identified at the end of John 1:17. Jehovah Savior Messiah, anointed one. But in verse 1 John calls him the Word and as the Word of God He is the one who expresses God, who makes God known. Our words reveal who we are. They not only reveal who we are, what we are, they reveal our will, our desires, and so on. We are with someone, perhaps a spouse, and you’ll say, tell me what you’re thinking. I’d love to know what’s going through your mind. Because we want them to open up and reveal themselves to us and we need them to speak to do that. Jesus said, it’s out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. So we find out what’s in a person’s heart and mind when they talk, and the more they talk, the more we get to know them, the more they reveal themselves. And so when you talk about Jesus Christ being the Word of God, you’re talking about Jesus Christ being the revealer of God. The one who will manifest God in a fuller and clearer way than has ever been done before. And this draws from the Old Testament background where the Word of God is said to to do the will of God. God’s word brought about creation, God’s word brings about healing and deliverance. God’s word reveals His will.

Turn back to the book of Psalms, right in the middle of your Old Testament, Psalm 33:6, by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, by the breath of His mouth all their hosts. In fact in John 1 he’s going to emphasize that Jesus Christ, the Word of God, is the creator. And that ties. If we went back to Genesis 1, which we won’t now for time, we find there God said, let there be light and there was light. God said and it happened, God said. His word has life, it has power. And the word of God is alive and powerful as Hebrews 4:12 says. So here you see the power and working of His Word. It does His will, accomplishes His purposes, does His work. It creates.

Turn over to Psalm 107:20, and you see how His word is personified, given life. It acts as His representative. He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. The Word of God accomplishes His purposes, His work. So it reveals Him, it makes Him known, it does His work.

So when you come back to John 1, when you use the title, the Word, to speak of Jesus Christ, you are telling a truth concerning Him. He is the one who will reveal the Father and make Him known. He is the one who came to do the work of His Father. He’s the one in whom we will come to know God in a fuller way than can be known in any other way or means, through any other person. In Hebrews 1 the writer to the Hebrews starts out by saying, God spoke in many ways and in many portions in times past. He used a variety of prophets and other people, used a variety of means to communicate His will. But in these last days He has spoken to us in one who is a Son, the fullest and most complete way to make Himself known. So when you say that in the beginning was the Word, you’re talking about the one who is the fullest manifestation of God the Father, and one who most fully accomplishes the purposes of God in His work in the world.

Several crucial things said about Jesus Christ as the Word of God in verse 1. In the beginning was the Word. In the beginning. Well when is the beginning? Well whenever the beginning was, the Word was. No, clearer than that. Where in your Bible do we have the beginning? Well, let’s start at the beginning—Genesis 1:1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. That’s the first reference point we have to mark time. Before that there is eternity. God tells us some things that happened in eternity. We’re going to find out one of the truths about eternity in a moment. But Genesis 1:1 is the first time mark that we have that we can identify with, when God began His work of creation, Genesis 1:1. Before that we are in eternity and that never had a beginning. And we would have no reference points that we could identify in eternity.

In the beginning was the Word, and that verb was is in the imperfect tense. And I know that thrills your heart. Well the imperfect tense refers to something that happened over time in the past. We say it is continuous action in past time. So you want to talk about something that happened over a period of time in the past, you use the imperfect tense. So what he is saying is when you get to the beginning the Word had already been existing. In the beginning the Word had already been. So come to Genesis 1:1, Jesus Christ has already been living, existing. When you get to the beginning the Word already was. He is not tied to the beginning, for He has no beginning, as we will see in a moment, for He Himself is eternal as God. He’s the one, remember in Micah 5, that dwelt in eternity. So when you get to the beginning as we know the beginning when we have a time marker, a reference point, Genesis 1:1, the Word already was. So the Word was in the beginning, it was already existing.

The Word was with God. That means He is personally distinct from God the Father. We say it just says the Word was with God, but we’ll clarify it in a moment. He was with God. That means there is a distinction between the Word and God, and you’ll see in the context as we move through, God here referring to God the Father. We’re talking about verse 18, the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father. So you’re talking about God the Father, God the Son, and here he will talk about the Word and God distinguishing God the Father and God the Son. The Word is distinct from God the Father, and yet He is identified with God—the Word was God. He is of the same essence, He Himself is deity, He is God, but He is distinct from His Father. We could talk the same way. You could have a father and a son, and you distinguish them, they may even have the same name. They partake of the same essence, humanity, but they are distinct persons. Now the analogy with the trinity, of course, breaks down completely. But we have to keep the distinction between what we call the members of the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and yet Father, Son and Holy Spirit all partake of the same essence. They are deity, they comprise the one God. There are not three Gods, there is one God eternally existing in three persons. There is not one God who manifests Himself in three ways. I keep hearing this heresy called in church history, modalistic monarchianism, meaning that there is one God who manifested Himself in three modes. So you hear people use the analogy, well a man can be a boss at work, a husband and a father. Just like God………. No, that’s heresy, that means there is only one God and only one person who manifested Himself in three ways. There is no analogy of the trinity, it is totally unique. Now I’m not saying you can never use that analogy and make clear it’s a partial analogy, but be careful. We tend to make analogies and then build our theology on the analogy. And now we’re standing out here on air, and then we’re in theological trouble. The trinity is totally unique. It’s not one person manifesting himself in three ways as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It’s three distinct persons that exist eternally as the one God. And I don’t understand it. How would I understand it with this pea brain? And there is nothing to compare it to, because there is only one God. So I have nothing that is an exact comparison to that in every way. Don’t run up and flood me with ones you think may be possible, take my word for it, there aren’t any illustrations that won’t break down.

The Word was with God, the Word was God. That’s as clear a statement as you can have. The Word was God. Another grammatical note here, sometimes you have cults come to your door and talk to you and they deny the deity of Jesus Christ. And they want to imply they have this great knowledge of the Greek text. And you take them to John 1 and say, see it says the Word was God. And they say, well you have to understand in the Greek the word God sometimes has the definite article and sometimes it does not. The definite article is “the.” And the last word here, the Word was God, does not have the definite article so it should be translated the Word was a god. Jesus Christ wasn’t God, He was just a god. I shared with you before, I invited some of those to meet with me in my office one time and bring their Greek scholars with them. So they did, and we had an interesting time. In the first place you have to show them how to hold the Greek Testament right sight up, let alone know what it is. The Greek article has nothing to do with that. Just let me make note of the verses and then we have to move on or I’ll get sidetracked here.
Verse 6, there came a man sent from God. That word God there in the Greek text does not have the definite article, but they don’t translate it there was a man sent from a god. There was a man sent from God. The presence or absence of the article doesn’t determine whether you’re talking about the one true, living God or not. People that talk like that don’t have any understanding of the Greek use of the definite article. Verse 12, but as many as received Him to them He gave the right to become children of God. Children of a god? Doesn’t have the definite article. Verse 13, who were born, last part of the verse, of God. Small g? No, but it doesn’t have the definite article. Verse 18, no one has seen God—there’s no definite article. No one has seen a god? Didn’t they see Jesus Christ? Of course you’re talking about the living God. No one has seen the living God at any time. No definite article. So I just throw that in for free, my salary is the same, so that we don’t think, I wonder………. The people couldn’t find anybody in their denomination that knew the Greek and could talk about it. I’m not saying they’re not because they do have a Greek text, a version of their translation with Greek notes in the back. And whoever put the Greek notes together knew Greek. But he was a liar and a deceiver, because I got out all the sources they quote and they changed the quote that they refer to. They’ll quote A. T. Robertson, the great Southern Baptist Greek scholar, who has written a number of works on the Greek text of the New Testament, and they change it. They just change what he said to may it say the opposite. They’ll change what he writes and say that the absence of the article means this means a small g, not the living God. A. T. Robertson, and they reference it. I get out the reference and show them, here is what A. T. Robertson says, that’s not what’s here. They said, oh you must have a different version of that source. Well I said, you bring yours in and let’s read it. They never came.

All right, all that to say this is as clear a statement of the deity of Jesus Christ as you could have in your Bible. This is as strongly said as it could be. In fact, in Greek you couldn’t say, the Word was the God at the end of verse 1, because that would mean that all there was to God was the Word. And that’s not all there is to God because the Father is God and so is the Spirit. So this is said the only way it can be said to make the point. And unregenerate, unbelieving men corrupt the clearest statements of scripture.

All right, so you have in the beginning was the Word, He was eternal with God, the Word was with God, He was distinct from God the Father. But the Word was God, He was identical in essence with God. He was in the beginning with God. So that’s important to stress because that’s where we can mark some definitive point, Genesis 1:1. Before that we are just in eternity and the things that are revealed by Jesus Christ existing in eternity, we have no reference points to identify. All we can say is that was before Genesis 1:1. But how you identify anything before Genesis 1:1 as far as a timeline would be impossible.

Verse 3, all things came into being through Him. Now we’re going to have an elaboration, and I want you just to be aware of it, from verse 2-13. And then verse 14 will pick up and connect right back to verse 1. In the beginning, verse 1 says, was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. Verse 14, and the Word became flesh. Now verses 2-13 are an elaboration of who the Word is and His becoming flesh. But the connection will be from 1-14 directly. But we have to elaborate. He was in the beginning with God. What was He doing when you get to the beginning? Well verse 3, all things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. We have a lot of debate and discussion going on in pseudointellectual circles today about creation. And some are appalled that some schools who want to even mention the possibility that a creator is one of the options for the existence of things, when everybody knows they just evolved. And I still am not able to follow the arguments. I thought science had to deal with what can be observed, shows how ignorant I am, and I haven’t talked to anybody who observed the big bang or explosion that brought it all about. At any rate, I take it by faith. Hebrews 11 says, by faith we understand that the worlds were created out of nothing. It is an article of my faith. I believe it because the Bible says it. Now they may say you are a fool. That doesn’t mean I think the Bible contradicts true factual science, I do think it contradicts in multitudes of ways the presupposition of some men who are scientists.

The real issue comes down to a spiritual issue. It’s not just Genesis 1, it’s John 1 also, because John 1 says all things. And that expression all things means all things taken individually. We might say every single thing, all the things taken separately that have come into existence come into existence through the creative act of God, as it’s described in Genesis 1 and elaborated in Genesis 2. And we’re told here all things came into being through Him, talking about the Word, Jesus Christ. All things came into being through Him, and if that’s not clear enough, let’s put it negatively. Apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. ……There is nothing in the created world that came into existence apart from the creating work of Jesus Christ. That is the root problem and the basis for all the opposition to the teaching of creation. It is rooted in the opposition against the living God and His Son, Jesus Christ. Isaiah develops this where God declares Himself the creator, but the people will not bow to Him as the creator because they do not want to bow to Him as their sovereign. But He says by virtue of my act of creation I have sovereignty over you all. A world that has rejected the sovereignty of the living God also rejects the truth concerning Him, and that He is their creator. There is nothing that has come into existence………. We say, could God create sin? No. But sin is not an essential part of the creation, and it will some day be abolished again. If God created it, there was no sin. Sin came in as an act of rebellion and there will come a future time when the creation will be perfected and there will be no sin present. But all created things owe their existence to the creating God, and thus must bow before His sovereignty. And that is Jesus Christ.

Turn back to Colossians 1. This begins to boggle your mind. We started with Micah and you have an insignificant nothing of a town called Bethlehem and the ruler of Israel is going to come out of Bethlehem. And furthermore, He’s going to be one who has lived in eternity, which means He has to be God. And then John explained to us, He was already living when you get to the beginning because He dwelt in eternity, as Micah said. He’s distinct from God the Father but He Himself is also God in essence. And He is the one who created everything. And now you have that one born at Bethlehem in a stable. Let’s go see the one who created every single thing that exists. That’s Him. Let’s go see the one being raised in a carpenter shop, that’s the one who created everything. The one weary and tired, walking down the dusty road with His small band of disciples. That’s the one who created everything. And as Colossians says, He’s the one in whom all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, that’s Colossians 2:9. I want you to go to Colossians 1:16, for by Him all things were created. You’ll note Paul says the same thing that John says, let me express this to you so you get the scope of this. This includes the things in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him. By Him, through Him, for Him. Everything. Visible, invisible; angels, created by Him, through Him, for Him. People, by Him, through Him, for Him. I mean just go on, there is nothing. That’s what John said, apart from Him nothing has been created that has been created, nothing has come into existence apart from Him. He is the sovereign, creating God.

And just an aside, I’ve mentioned about angels before. Angels are not eternal. I think the evidence of scripture is, the angels would have been created on the first day of creation. They are not enumerated in Genesis 1 because that’s not God’s intention to tell us about the creation of spirit beings, it’s to talk about the creation of the physical world and the inhabitants of the physical world. But they are created beings, and their existence is related to…. existence. We saw when we looked into Hebrews, they are ministering spirits, sent to serve on behalf of those who are the heirs of salvation.

Colossians 1:17, He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He not only created everything, He holds it all together. I have no fear about this, we’re going to have a catastrophe and civilization will be gone, because I’ve read the last chapter. It isn’t going to happen. There are going to be great catastrophes that happen, but not great catastrophes that will bring an end to this world. It won’t happen. No great asteroids are going to collide with earth and that will be the end, nothing like that. Science fiction has a place, I guess, if you like science fiction. But keep science fiction as science fiction and biblical truth is true truth.

All right, so Jesus Christ created everything, He is the one through whom the Father created all things. Go back to Hebrews 1. I was going to read it to you, but it’s too good. I quoted part of this for you. Verse 2, God in these last days has spoken to us in one who is a Son, whom He appointed heir of all things. Incidentally, the word Son there does not have the definite article, it’s in one who is a Son, partakes of the quality of sonship. It’s unique. It’s like Jesus partakes of the quality and essence of God. Now He was God, He partakes of the essence of deity. As one who is a Son in whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. God the Father through God the Son with the creating activity of the Holy Spirit, because when we read Genesis 1 we read the Holy Spirit hovering over the initial creation. So you have the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, all actively involved in the work of creation.

Come back, and on your way back to John stop in I Corinthians 8. We’re going to get here soon in our study of I Corinthians, we’re in chapter 6 and this is chapter 8. I Corinthians 8:6, and he makes clear there are many gods and many lords, many people call their god, God and you’re supposed to be politically correct today and not imply that your religious beliefs are any more true than anyone else’s, which is an argument of silliness. But verse 6 says, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things. We exist for Him. One Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. So there again you have the distinction between the Father and the Son. And the Father is the one from whom everything comes, the Son is the one through whom everything comes. The Holy Spirit is not brought in here but there are other passages we could look at that clearly present His deity. He, too, partakes of the essence of deity. What I want you to note is, it’s from the Father through the Son. There is order in the Godhead. This preceded creation. This is important. There was order in the Godhead before Jesus Christ stepped from His throne in glory, was born at Bethlehem, because even the work of creation took place with order among the members of the Godhead. There weren’t three equal persons doing the same thing, no one arranged under another. There was order within the Godhead. Not inferiority of persons, but order of persons. Even before there was creation, let alone the birth of Christ at Bethlehem. Now Jesus Christ set aside some of those characteristics that were His as deity when He became a man, Philippians 2 tells us, but that’s not when the order was established within the Godhead. And we will go back to that order when sin is finally dealt with, and we’ll cover that when we get to I Corinthians 15.

Come back to John 1. So we have the Word in His uniqueness as God related to the Father and the work of creation in verse 3. And in Him was life and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. Life and light, two concepts key to John’s writings. And he uses the words life and light many times, many more times that the other New Testament writers all put together, in his gospel, in his epistles and in the book of Revelation. In Him was life. Now all life of all kind was found in Christ, He’s the creator. In fact in Acts 3:15 He’s called the author of life, Acts 17:28. But I think in the context here he’s talking about true spiritual life ultimately, because in Him was life and the life was the light of men. And that light of men is spiritual light, so the light he’s talking about—in Christ is found spiritual life and that spiritual life is what enables you to know God. God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all, John wrote in I John 1. And light is the ability to see and to know. We turn the lights on in here and you can see. If we turned all the lights off and then did things up here and then asked you what you thought you’d say well I didn’t see a thing. How am I supposed to know what went on? I didn’t see anything because I was in darkness. So light becomes the picture, and it contrasts with sin, because those in sin are in darkness. Verse 5, the light shines in the darkness, the darkness did not comprehend it or overcome it. Light contrasts with darkness. Those in darkness have no true understanding or knowledge of spiritual truth. They do not recognize truth, even when it’s present because they are in darkness. Those who are in the light recognize and understand spiritual truth.

So Jesus Christ is the life, and that life is the light. Spiritual life is found in Him. He’ll elaborate this down in verse 12 when he says, as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even those who believe in His name. Those who are born of God, verse 13 says, those who are born from above as Jesus will tell Nicodemus he must experience, in John 3. In Jesus Christ was life and the life was the light of men.

Turn over to I John 5, all the way back and just before the book of Revelation. John wrote three epistles—I John, II John and III John. I John 5:11, incidentally verse 10 says if you do not believe what God has said, you are declaring that God is a liar. The one who believes in the Son of God, verse 10, has the testimony in himself. The one who does not believe God has made Him a liar because He has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. When God says something, here it is concerning Jesus Christ, you take God’s Word. Anytime anyone disagrees with God, what God has said in His Word, they are declaring God is a liar. That’s the point. Verse 11, the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. The only place to find spiritual life is in Jesus Christ. All religions are not created equal. We’re not all going to the same place, just take different roads. All are on different roads, but there is only one road going to life. It’s a narrow road that you enter through a narrow gate. It ends in life. All other roads are variations of the same one. You enter through a broad gate, you travel a broad road and you end up in hell. Jesus said, contrasting only two alternatives. Not many alternatives, two. That’s the testimony of God here. God has given us eternal life. This life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life, he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. We need to be careful, we start to get soft. One man who claims to be an evangelical, when asked about were Muslims going to heaven, he said I can’t make that judgment. Well God has already made it. You either believe what God has said or you don’t. You say well you’re against everyone. I’m just on God’s side. I’m against everyone God is against and I’m for everyone God is for. Isn’t that, when you think about it, the only choice that makes any sense? I mean God has spoken. Do you think I am going to stand up and say, you lied. I mean what kind of fool would do that?

You see the emphasis is on the life. The life is in the Son. You either have the Son or you don’t have life. Come back to John 3:36, he who believes in the Son has eternal life. He who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Life is in the Son. It’s the whole message of the birth of Christ. The One in whom is life has come to earth. John 14:6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. It is exclusive, it is narrow, it is the only way. But it’s the only way you need. He can save anyone, He will give life to anyone who believes in Him. People say, it’s not fair. Why not? God has provided a Savior who is a sufficient Savior for all who will believe in Him. Believe in Him. If you’re a Muslim, believe in Him; if you’re a Hindu, believe in Him; if you’re a religious Protestant, believe in Him; if you’re a Roman Catholic, believe in Him. God commands all everywhere to repent. Salvation is found in His Son for all, everywhere.

Come back to John 1. In Him is the life, and the life is the light. You’ll note the two go together. You must have life to have light, you must have spiritual life so that you can know the things of God. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit, to bring the understanding of truth as God has revealed it. It begins when He opens our eyes to see and believe the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. And now we grow in the knowledge and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The light shines in the darkness, the darkness did not comprehend it. And it’s true the darkness did not understand it, but probably this word is better translated did not overpower it in spite of its opposition. Darkness refers to sin. Turn to John 3:19, this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. People living in sin don’t want to come and have the light of God’s Word shining on them, do they? No. In fact, even as a believer, when you start to get into sin, what do you want to do? Stay home, I’m uncomfortable. I mean we talk about we sin in darkness. You go to the streets of our big cities, they are more dangerous at night. Why? Same street. Having grown up in a city environment, there were streets I would walk down in the daytime, I wouldn’t think of walking down at night. Why? People did terrible things under the cover of darkness. Why is the unbelieving world so offended with the Word of God? It’s light, and their deeds are darkness. It’s God’s truth, revealing the awfulness of their sin and they hate for that to happen. So darkness refers to sin.

Turn over to John 12. There’s a lot of discussion going on about Christmas and the birth of Christ, and should we say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. You know, I don’t care. I realize the world is offended by Christ, at least a number of them are. Some people, not even believers, are religious enough to see the foolishness of we want to exclude Christ from everything. I mean people who are talking Merry Christmas and who are putting up Christmas trees and giving gifts and going to church and having special services are just as offended by the pure truth of God’s Word as the pagans who openly defy God’s Word and don’t want any mention of Christ in any kind of word. We don’t want to get confused here, and we think oh we’ve accomplished something, now they’re saying Merry Christmas. I signed that petition, I paraded. Well you know many of the people that would have been for that would become your enemy if you sat down with them and told them, you know the birth of Christ is God’s clear declaration of your totally lost condition. Jesus Christ’s coming to earth at Bethlehem is just God’s clearest statement that there is no hope for you to escape the penalty of hell. All your good works, all your religious activity mean nothing. That’s what the testimony of Christmas is. If you could be saved in any other way God would not have had to send His Son to be born at Bethlehem, and then suffer and die on the cross to pay the penalty for sin. Yet multitudes of Protestant people are sitting in churches at special services and never contemplated their awful lost condition as sinners, and their hopelessness. They’re trusting going to church. Not only the Protestants, but the Catholics. Just to limit it to those who tend to celebrate the birth of Christ.

In John 12:35, and we are at the end of Jesus’ public ministry. John 13 we begin the Last Supper. John 12:35, Jesus said to them, for a little while longer the light is among you. Walk while you have the light so the darkness will not overtake you. He who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the light, believe in the light so that you may become sons of light. And Jesus left and hid Himself. But even though He had performed many signs among them, they were not believing in Him. The light was present, but they loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. And nothing could change their love of their sin, their self-righteous pride.

Come back to John 1. And he talks about John the Baptist in verses 6-8, who came to testify about the light. Now the Apostle John wrote the gospel of John and he’s writing about John the Baptist, two different Johns. So one is John the Apostle, one is John the Baptist. John the Apostle is writing about the ministry of John the Baptist, the man sent from God whose name was John in verse 6. And he came to testify about the light. Verse 9, there was the true light. John wasn’t the light, he was to testify about the light. This was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man. Jesus Christ came from heaven through the birth of a virgin at Bethlehem to reveal God. Light had come into the world in a fuller and greater way than it had ever been present before, providing light for every man.

He was in the world, the world was made through Him, the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. Those who were His own refers to the Jewish people. Here is the creator of the world present in a human body, but all the fullness of deity dwelling in His body, Colossians 2:9. And the world didn’t know who He was. We have that Negro spiritual, we didn’t know who He was. Didn’t know He was the creator, the sovereign God, creating God. And He came to His own people, the Jews, that had been selected out from among all the nations to belong to God, and they wouldn’t receive Him. The world didn’t know Him and the Jews wouldn’t receive Him. We say now God was in a fix—the world didn’t know who He was, the Jews wouldn’t receive Him. Now what? All part of the sovereign plan of God.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right, the authority, to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name. Who were born not of blood or the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. Doesn’t change God’s plan. There is salvation in Jesus Christ. Doesn’t matter that the vast majority of people in the world do not know Him, refuse to receive Him. As many as do receive Him, receive authority to become children of God by an act of His divine power. Because they are born, verse 13, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man. It’s not human means it’s of God. I cannot baptize you into salvation. Your parents cannot do something to make you saved. It’s a sovereign act of God, and a sovereign act of God when He moves on a heart that that person believes the truth of the gospel and is born again, born from above, receives life, becomes a new creature in Christ. And now has light to know and grow in the knowledge of God.

So you have then verse 14, and the Word became flesh. So verses 2-13 elaborated on the coming to earth of the Son of God and the result of that coming—life and light is here, salvation has arrived. So we go verse 1, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. Verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. The Word that was in the beginning, the Word that was with God, the Word that was God. The Word became flesh and all the fullness of deity dwelt in bodily form. That’s amazing. I don’t know how it could happen, how the eternal God could dwell in bodily form, be now God and man. It’s not enough that my mind cannot contain the concept, understand with any fullness the triune God that exists eternally in three persons as one God. And now I have one of the persons of that triune God in a human body, and being truly human but no less divine. And He’s walking this earth, He dwelt among us, John says. That word there, tabernacled. In the book of Exodus remember when they constructed the tabernacle and then the glory of God, the Shekinah, came down. That glory manifested the presence of God among His people. And so here His glory tabernacled among us in a fuller and greater way. God’s presence is among men.

It’s the glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. So you have those who want to reject the deity of Christ say, see He was begotten of the Father. If He’s begotten of the Father, that means He had a beginning. Well you know we have to let the scripture define what we’re talking about. Turn over to Hebrews 11:17, by faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten. That account is in Genesis 22. If only begotten means the only one that Abraham generated, we have a problem. Isaac was not the only son that Abraham generated. He was not even the first son, Ishmael was. And Isaac wasn’t the last son either, because he had other sons and daughters—those children born to his wife, Keturah, after his previous wife’s death, Genesis 25. So he’s not the first son, he’s not the last son, he’s not the only son. But he is the unique son, he’s the son of special favor, he’s the only son of this kind.

In John 1:12 we can become the children of God, and in other passages we’re called sons of God, but Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son. None of us are a son in the way Jesus Christ is. He is unique and He is divine as well as human. And His sonship precedes His birth at Bethlehem. So we talk about the eternally begotten Son, a relationship He has always had with the Father. We have Father, Son and Holy Spirit existing eternally together in those relationships. So when you read only begotten, it just simply means unique, one of a kind, a special Son, the Son of love. He is full of grace and truth.

Down to verse 18, no one has seen God at any time, the only begotten God. There He’s not only the only begotten Son, He’s the only begotten God. Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. Some of you talk about doing exegesis of the scripture. This is the Greek word we get the word exegesis from. He had exegeted Him, …., exegeted Him, explained Him, interpreted Him, made Him known. The one in the bosom of the Father, it is one of the most intimate of relationships with the Father, because of His unique relationship to the Father. He’s come to earth to make the Father known, to reveal the will of the Father and provide the salvation and fullness of God’s grace and truth. There were grace and truth before this. Abraham was saved by grace through faith, but the fullness of grace and its ultimate provision and the fullness of truth comes in the one who Himself is truth and the source of all truth and the source of all grace—the Son of God.

So we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. I mean we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of understanding of what all is entailed. And in a hundred billion years we will not have exhausted our knowledge of this God and His Son, because we will always be finite beings learning. And God is an infinite being without beginning, without ending and it is not possible for us as finite beings to every exhaust the knowledge of Him. We need to be careful lest we become proud and arrogant thinking, well I just know so much of the Bible. By God’s grace we are privileged to know all He has chosen to reveal, but even there we have our hands full, don’t we, of trying to plumb the depths of what He has made known. But we are privileged by His grace through the life and the light that we now have in Christ and the ministry of the indwelling Spirit to grow in the knowledge of the one who is the Savior. May God give us the grace to share this glorious message with many people. You’re buying presents, you’re busy, you have parties, you’re doing a lot. Do you really know what is worth celebrating? Do you know the wonder of it all? Jesus Christ is the Savior. You can have forgiveness and cleansing in Him. You can enter into life. He came that we might have life, that we might have it more abundantly, if you believe in Him.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for such a Savior. And Lord there is so much we don’t understand, but the marvel is what we are privileged to understand by your grace. Thank you for your Son who came to be our Savior. Thank you that in Him there is life and that life is the light of men, and through Him we come to know you. Thank you, Lord, for your wonder of salvation. Thank you for your grace that is available to all everywhere who will respond in faith to the message of truth. We praise you, in Christ’s name. Amen.