Jesus - Creator, Savior, Lord, and King #12 Jesus Way Prepared by John John 1:1-14

 

Jesus - Creator, Savior, Lord, and King
#12 Jesus Way Prepared by John
 John 1:1-14

Introduction/ Background

I was trying to find a place in the New Testament. to begin the sermon series on Jesus as Creator, Savior, Lord and King. It was pretty hard. I mean it’s all about Him isn’t it. I think I spent more time trying to find the right text than I did researching the text. Finally, as I was reading through the Gospel accounts and how they introduced Jesus, I came to John Chapter 1. John the apostle gives a bridge between the Jesus the Creator and Jesus the Savior and Lord. Later we’ll see John present Jesus as King when we get into parts of the book of Revelation. In addition to that, John also introduces us to John the Baptist in a way that show the Baptist as a bridge between the old and new testaments. So we are going to begin in the book of John and the story of the Baptizer, John.

In the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi gives a prophecy for the returned captives to look for a new day. Malachi 4:5-6 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: 6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

Then for 400 years the revelation to Israel goes silent, no prophet is called, and no prophecy is given until the voice of angels are heard speaking to Zacharias, Elizebeth, Mary and Joseph. Matthew, Mark and Luke in their Gospel record those events, but John doesn’t. His Gospel account was written decades after they synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Those accounts follow the same basic timeline starting with Jesus’ birth. But John starts with Jesus’ deity. He doesn’t start with Jesus as man, but with Jesus as God. He starts not with a point in time, but with eternity. Pretty ambitious for a simple fisherman.

The Gospel of John is called the non-synoptic Gospel, while Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels. The world synoptic means “with one eye” and the first three Gospel accounts basically tell the story of Jesus in the same order and share many of the same details.

John’s Gospel also tells the story of Jesus but from a different eye, a different perspective. He wrote about 40 years after the first Gospel accounts and it tells us of many details Matthew, Mark and Luke didn’t. This is true partly because John was closest to Jesus and because much of the early ministry of Jesus was seen only by the earliest disciples like John. That is why only John records the story of the wedding at Cana, the conversation with Nicodemus or the woman at the well.

Jesus, The Means of Life and Light - John 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Jesus is the Word, the Logos To Man

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. What a profound, powerful, peerless proclamation of Jesus.

John’s Gospel begins with a statement that any Bible reader and certainly any Jew of his time would understand as a reflection of Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Moses was inspired by the Spirit to write God’s beginning of creation, but John was inspired by the same Holy Spirit to write about the Creator of the beginning.

Quote: Genesis and John both start from ‘the beginning,’ but, while Genesis works downwards from that point and tells what followed, John works upwards and tells what preceded…. Time and creatures came into being, and, when they began, the Word ‘was.’ Surely no form of speech could more emphatically declare absolute, uncreated being, outside the limits of time. – Alexander Maclaren

John declares Jesus without directly naming Him, instead he calls Jesus, the Word. In Greek this is O Logos. This is an old word in the Greek language used by Homer the great myth teller and by the Stoic philosophers. Logos means revelation as both reasoning and speaking, but when you say O Logos, “The Word” then it can only mean the One who spoke creation into existence and who is the expression of God to us.

John says that the Word was in the beginning with God. John 1:2-3 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. Therefore, we know that the Word is not an abstract force, or a power of nature, but a person.

Jesus, The Life and Light of Man

He says, John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. By this he declares that Jesus, the Word was not just the creator of the material, inanimate world but that he was the life of all things that live. Without the Logos life cannot exist for He was and is life itself.

John says, the Logos was life and the life was our light. Jesus not only communicated the knowledge of God, the knowledge of salvation, but he was life and light. John is using the word Greek word gnosis, knowledge, and show the truth that people like the Gnostics of his and later times would pervert. They said then and they say now, knowledge is life, knowledge is light. But John says, No, It is not a higher knowledge or light that is life, but it is the Logos. It is Jesus, the Jesus Creator, Savior, Lord and King who is life, give life and through life gives us the light that we might see God.”

Then in John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. The light of Jesus shines in the darkness, not just in the past of creation or the present of John writing in Ephesus, but it continuously shines, breaking through the darkness of sin, ignorance and pride. It shines, He shines today, tomorrow and for all eternity.

John then victoriously declares that the darkness comprehended it not. This word is an interesting word, καταλαμβάνω katalambanō; and has several shades of meaning. “To take eagerly, to seize, possess, apprehend, attain, come upon, comprehend, find, obtain, perceive, or overtake.”

If you look at different translations, you see these different definitions. The ESV says, “the darkness has not overcome it. The Tree of Life version says, “the darkness has not overpowered it.” The Amplified Bible tries to put all the definitions together and says, “the darkness has never overpowered it [put it out or absorbed it or appropriated it and is unreceptive to it].

The KJV says, the darkness could not comprehend the light. Darkness had no way of understanding it, therefore it could not overpower it, or stop it. The light of Jesus shatters the darkness, but the darkness cannot never stop the light.

Next in vss 6-9 John moves from the beginning of creation to the beginning of the Gospel.

John, The Messenger of The Logos - John 1:6-9

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him (the light) might believe. 8 He was not that Light but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

John’s Mission

John the apostle then points to John the Baptist who came to prepare the way for the Jesus the Logos, Life and Light. The Apostle writes of John and says he was sent from God. He came to be a witness and to bear witness of the light for this purpose that all men through Jesus the light might believe.

What an unbelievably important calling was John the Baptist’s. He was sent as the last Old Testament prophet and also as the first New Testament prophet. He ties together the forerunner prophecies of Isaiah and Malachi, and is the first fulfillment of the over 3000 prophecies given in the Old Testament of the coming of the Messiah, the Christ.

How important was John the Baptist? Jesus said, Matthew 11:11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist:

And in Mark’s account he says it was with John that the Gospel begins. Mark 1:1-8 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; 2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. 3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 4 John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. 5 And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey; 7 And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. 8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.

Some people don’t want the Gospel to begin with the Gospels. Instead they want the Gospel and the New Testament to begin at the death or Jesus. They do this so they don’t have to explain why the thief on the cross was saved without baptism, church membership, any works but only through faith in Jesus as the coming King. So, they say, well he was saved like the people in the Old Testament, well first we know that Hebrews 10:4 say, “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” And when you read Mark chapter 1, Mark 1:1-2 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; 2 Behold, I send my messenger which shall prepare thy way before thee”, then you know that the Gospel, the good news of Jesus, the message of the Kingdom of God “repent and believe” started with John the Baptist.

The cross was the price for the Gospel, the resurrection was proof of the Gospel, but the beginning of the Gospel was John preaching “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”

John was saying, “Get ready the King is coming, and He is bringing His kingdom with Him.”

John has one more vital truth to impart in his introduction to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was the truth that Jesus who was the eternal God of creation, the giver of life and the imparter of light, came to earth, took on human flesh and became a man. The Creator humbled himself and became a part of that which He had created. Look at vs. 10

Jesus, The Man - John 1:10-14

He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 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: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Jesus As Man

The world was His creation, and He came to walk as a man in that which belonged to Him by right of creation and yet John says in amazement “the world knew him not.” Not only did the world not recognize him but even His own people that He had called through Abraham, delivered through Moses and returned from captivity by Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah, those people, His people rejected Him as their own. They refused to trust Him as their savior, their Messiah, their King.

The world as a whole then and even now doesn’t know Jesus. The nation of Israel then and now still won’t receive their rightful Messiah and King, but just as the darkness of the world couldn’t stop the light of Jesus, neither could the ignorance of the world nor the coldness of the Jews leaders stop Jesus from being know and welcomed by so many others.

John 1:12 But as many as received him.” Here is another of those miraculous Biblical exceptions. If not for those exceptions, no one could be saved, but because of them anyone may be saved. “But as many as did receive Him.” They saw the light; they heard the Word and they received Jesus as their savior and then look what Jesus did, what Jesus still does today.

John 1:12 to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name! Put an exclamation point on the end of that sentence because, as the old timers used to say, “that’s shouting ground.”

What is it to believe on His name? It is to believe the truth of who Jesus is as He is named by John. He is named creator, He is named God, He is name man. He is named the life and He is named the only true light. To those who believe on His name, then by His power He makes them, wait for it….. He makes them the children of God!

Paul joyfully exalts in this sonship in Romans 8:14-17 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;

John then explains further so that there is no misunderstanding about what he means. The children, the sons and daughter of God John 1:13 “were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

This was not something that could be achieved by any natural means, power or strength. Nor could it be achieved by our will, our intellect, our knowledge. But it could only be accomplished by the will of God.

And then John tells us, the will of God in vs. 14. John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

God’s will, God’s plan of salvation, God’s adoption of sinful man to become the children of God was simply but emphatically this, The Word, Jesus was made flesh and dwelt among us. John gives his testimony to this truth “we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father” a glory full of grace and truth.

Later in his Gospel, John writes John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Do You Believe on the Name of Jesus?

John wrote at a time in which Christianity was gaining a small foothold in the world. A time when the people of the world began to see the light through the darkness. Back then and today, the darkness couldn’t stop the light and so it began to counterfeit the light, to corrupt it from the glory of Jesus the word and the light and turn it into Jesus as just a symbol, a small part of the something greater than Himself. The darkness tried to confuse the truth and say that Jesus only knew the truth, but he was not the truth personified. He showed us the light, yes but He was not light itself. He led us to life, but He was not the source of all physical and eternal life.

Years later John writes a letter to those most are precious to him in 1 John 5:13 “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

Believe, John says, believe on the name of the Son of God.

Unfortunately, to so many today Jesus in not God, He is not the Creator, the life giver, or the light. Instead, He is just a teacher, an example, at best a prophet who can tell us the way, but He is not the way itself.

The question I must face then is this, Do I believe in Jesus as John declares Him, do I believe on His name or do I twist the truth and filter the light until Jesus fits into my human dispositions, conceptions and limitations?

If Jesus is not all that John declares him to be then Jesus is nothing at all, its all a lie, a myth, a nice but untrue story. It’s yes or no, true or false, commitment or rejection, faith or folly. It is only if you believe on His name, who He truly and fully is, that we can find forgiveness, salvation and eternal life.

And if all those things about Jesus are true and I have believed on His name then how can I not every day live a joyful, faithful, obedient life for Him? Too many of us are just shuffling though life when we should be jumping in joy. We are living, forgiven, heaven bound, children of God. We are believers in Jesus, our Creator, Savior, Lord and King and our lives should show who we are.

Conclusion

Paul’s Praise Picture of Jesus

Hebrews 1:2-4 (God) Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; 4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

I need that Jesus. John’s Jesus, Paul’s Jesus, the apostles’ Jesus, the real Jesus. I need to truly, fully, and absolutely know Him and for Him to be my Jesus.