I do invite you to reach for your Bibles this morning and turn with me to the book of John, John chapter 1, as we continue our new study of this wonderful gospel letter. If you were with us last week or visiting with us and need kind of a refresher of what happens in the book of John, John, of course, is one of the four Gospels. He's going to write primarily focused on the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. His ministry And, John tells us in John chapter 20, verses 30 and 31, he does this so that you might believe. That you might see Jesus Christ as Son of God, Savior of sinners, and that by believing, you may have life in His name, and life everlasting. And John's gospel opens with a poem, and the first 18 verses comprise a poem. We looked at the first five last week. This week, we'll look at verses six through 13, and then Lord willing, next week, we'll conclude this poem looking at 14 to 18. And all of that sets the stage for what John is gonna address in the remainder of the letter. And so really, you have a three-week introduction to this letter. that is speaking about Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior of sinners. And I find this an important topic. It's one that we all need to hear, no matter where we are, no matter where we find ourselves this morning. For if we are firm believers, solid in our faith, and walk with the Lord joyfully and gladly, we never grow tired of this story, do we? It is always a joy to hear it, to hear it proclaimed, and it renews and refreshes us, it strengthens us and encourages us. If we are here today and we are a Christian but we are struggling, we're facing difficulties or challenges, to that person this brings us that shot in the arm we need. It is the medicine, it is the healing, it is the understanding that our God is good and He will do everything He said He's going to do. Or maybe you're here this day and you do not yet believe. To you, John writes, turn to Christ today. It is not too late. The hour is now. The hour of salvation is at hand. Come to Him while there is yet time. And so all of these things will be addressed across this letter, and we'll cover some of these this morning. To that end, I invite you to turn with me to chapter one, starting in verse six. I would like to read for us the word of the Lord. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. This is the word of the Lord. Would you please bow with me as we go to him in prayer and ask his blessing upon this time. Almighty God, we have heard your word. We have sung your praise. We have confessed our sin. We have heard the beautiful words of repentance and forgiveness that is offered to us in and through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so now in this time together, as we reflect upon these truths, Would you give us eyes to see, and ears to hear, and hearts that are receptive to this good news, that we might live changed and transformed lives. Oh Father, show us the way through your word. I pray these things in Christ's name, amen. In a lot of ways, what John is doing in this prologue and throughout his letters, he's building a case. He is making an argument. He is giving you a legal argument for Jesus Christ as Son of God, as Savior of sinners. And when one is building a case, particularly a legal case, it's important to have evidence. It's important to have witnesses. Now I can't speak to the legal world, some of you might be able to, all I know I get through television. But scripture tells us, particularly in the Old Testament and in the law, that in the event that a legal matter comes up it should be taken seriously on account of two or three witnesses. This is taken up all throughout the New Testament. Matthew repeats this. You can find it in the letter to the Hebrews. Paul tells Timothy the same thing. And elsewhere in Scripture, there's many places that we're told to not simply take something because it is told to us, but to trust the Word of God and to trust the evidence of a multitude of witnesses. And in great counsel there is great wisdom. John takes this up in a lot of ways. Like I said, he's forming a legal argument here. And so this morning he starts presenting his witnesses. He starts making his case that Jesus is who he says he is. And this morning we're gonna see that in three different areas. We're gonna look to the prophets. The prophets make a case for Jesus Christ as Son of God, Savior of sinners. We're gonna see John tells us that nature, that creation itself, as we talked about a great deal last week, creation proves Jesus Christ as Son of God and Savior of sinners. And then thirdly here, the work of Christ, the work of Christ. Or you could put it differently, Christ himself testifies that he is son of God and savior of sinners. And so here in this prologue, we get three different witnesses and we'll consider each this morning, learning what they have to share with us. Let's begin with the prophets. And here, we open up our letter with John. Now, it's important to remember, this book is written by John, John of Zebedee, one of the apostles. But this is not that John. In fact, the author John is never directly referenced in the letter. He doesn't reference himself, and we don't know why. We don't know why. But here, we get John. Now, in the other gospels, where there's many Johns referenced, you get them with their specific titles. In fact, you would expect here it to say John the Baptist or John the Baptizer, as he is often called in the other gospel letters. But here it's simply John. So I'm going to try very carefully this morning to refer to the author of the book as the author and John the Baptist as John, so that we don't get confused. But this John that our gospel writes about is a prophet. He is a prophet, the greatest of the prophets, as Jesus calls him, and he brings with him the force, the authority, the backing of God himself. And so let's look at him for a moment and ask, why is he a credible witness and what is he telling us? First, he's a credible witness because he is human. John, a man sent from God. You may ask yourself this morning, why is that good for us? Why is that beneficial that we recognize the humanity of John the Baptist? Well, let me ask you this, what are you? Human. Doesn't it give you confidence when someone like you gives you evidence and testimony and shares the truth, or to put it differently, doesn't it bring you great comfort that God can use people like you and me to proclaim his good news? Isn't that wonderful that he can use sinners like us to proclaim his message? We should thank God that he uses men like John the Baptist. But it's not just he is a man that gives us confidence. John was a human or man, the text says, sent by God. And this was foretold. This was not something that we look at this and go, oh, well, that's new. Actually, you should have been ready for it, particularly the Jewish people should have been ready for it because the prophet Malachi speaks about the prophet John. Malachi 3, chapter 3, verse 1. He says this, speaking ahead to what was to come, behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me, me being the Lord. And so Malachi many years before this moment says, God will send a messenger before the one who is to come. And then here you get John saying, I am here, he is coming. And if you look at John, or if you were around during that time, he's known for kind of his rough look, his demeanor, his presence, the fact that he ate locusts, we like to key in on that. He was kind of a scrappy looking guy, and so you might not think of him as, this is the guy we need to listen to. But when you tie in who he was, that God said he was going to come, and the fact that he speaks on behalf of God, then his authority is clear. And that authority, it's important, isn't it? Consider this. Sometimes I need to get the attention of my children. And whether I'm being lazy or I'm busy, I don't want to go get them myself. And that's the beauty of having multiple children. You can employ them to your efforts. And so I'll say to one child, go get your brother. And they will go and gladly do something that they think gets their sibling in trouble. So they do that with great joy and they run into their room. Hey, you've got to come in here. And statistically speaking, I've got about a 30% chance of that message being received. Oh, they'll hear it, but they will not respond. Why? Because to one brother from another brother, there is no authority. Even though there's an age gap, even though there's a difference there in size, it does not matter. You carry no authority over me, says one brother to another. Now, what if the message is sent like this? Go get your brother and tell him mom or dad needs him in the kitchen. Uh-oh. Now they know they're in trouble. But the sibling goes and goes to the other sibling and says, your mother said come to the kitchen now. Completely different message, right? And most likely, not always, most likely, it's going to be received. Why? Because there's authority behind it. The one who is sent goes with the authority of the one who is sending. And so far as they can be trusted and so far as they relay that message accurately, it comes with authority and power from one who can carry out discipline. Well, the same goes here. On his own, John the Baptist, who is John the Baptist? Why does he matter? What is important about him? Why is he significant? He's just another man in Scripture. But John the Baptist sent by God is a prophet, is a messenger, is a spokesperson. And his words are not his words. His words are the Lord's words. That's what defines a prophet. A prophet gets a message from the Lord and delivers it to God's people. And so far as those words come true, they're proven to be a valid prophet. But it's even more than that. John represents not just a messenger, not just a prophet, but the prophets. John himself represents the entirety of the Old Testament. All of the prophets. Jesus says he's the greatest prophet, the greatest one to come. And so John comes and he, as we'll talk about in a moment, he begins preaching a message of the kingdom of God is at hand. And it's not just that he's speaking, it's not just that he's speaking on behalf of the Lord, he's speaking on behalf of the entire Old Testament canon and all of the prophets that went before him. He's speaking on behalf of Jonah, the reluctant prophet who said, destruction will come lest you repent. He is speaking on behalf of Isaiah. You are to be judged for you have rejected your God. He is speaking on behalf of Malachi. He is speaking on behalf of Zechariah. He is speaking on behalf and we could go through all of the prophets. The weight of his message is trust that God will do what he says he will do. And what was that message? He comes with such authority, He comes with such power, not in and of Himself, but through the Lord. What does He say? Well, John tells us, He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light. Go back to the first five verses. What is the light? Jesus Christ. that all might believe through him. What was the message of John the Baptist? In Jesus Christ there is life. Trust in him. See him. Believe in him. And then I love this tagline here at the end. He himself was not the light. John recognized that and he wanted people to see it. And the author says, now be very clear here, the one who proclaims the message is not the messenger, the author. He is simply the mouthpiece. He says, believe that which is coming. And we're gonna see that once we get toward the tail end of this chapter. We're gonna see an interaction between John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. And we're gonna see this play out. But he wants people to know very, very clearly, it is not my word, it is the Lord's. And I'll tell you the same thing as your pastor. You've called me to preach and proclaim the word of God to you on a weekly basis. But please do me a favor, listen with your Bibles at hand. Go home this week and check what I say. I have no authority. I have no power. As I told someone this week, my goal in ministry is to never have an original thought. And if I say something that's wrong, come talk to me. Find your session. Find your elders. Let them know. Because we want the truth. We want the pure truth from God, not from man. John came speaking that message of truth. And he gives us a credible, credible Witness, one that can be trusted. And so we might ask ourselves, what should we do in relation, in reaction to John? Look to the one he's pointing to. He says, don't look at me, look at him. And so how do I respond to John the Baptist? You look to the one he's pointing to, which is Christ. Christ, the light of the world, the Son of God, the Savior of sinners. But John the Baptist is not the only witness we have in our text. We also see here in our second section that creation itself points us to Jesus. I love what Dr. James Montgomery Boyce says in his commentary on this section. He says, this moment spoken of here by John records the greatest event in human history. The very word of God who created all things, sustains all things and provides light and life to his creation was coming into the world. And this light will provide illumination to all. Jesus Christ is coming. What a remarkable statement. Think about it. Go all the way back to Adam and Eve at the point of judgment in Genesis chapter three when God is bringing down His wrath upon them for disobeying and He's telling them life's about to get hard. You're gonna toil as you work for the wife, pain and childbirth. You're gonna try to overthrow the authority of your husband. And to the serpent, he's cursed. But in there, there's hope. For one will come. The seed of the woman will crush the seed of the serpent. Hope will come. And take it from someone who's been in Genesis recently and made it through nearly to chapter 30. Generations upon generations upon generations and he's not come yet. And then we could keep going through Exodus, through Leviticus, through the Old Testament canon. We can go through those years, through those peoples. And we're told He's not there yet. In fact, the Old Testament closes with a hope. He is coming. Don't lose heart. And so to get to John here, to get to this point in history and say He is finally coming. Oh, what good news. Oh, what good news. The light of the world is coming. I love what our text says here about this. The true light which gets a light to everyone was coming into the world. And then it tells us he was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. We've got two different uses of the word world there, one being creation, all things, the universe, the known world that we live in. But then we've also got world there meaning people, His people, the people that He made And so we've got two groups there, the world, creation itself, and then the people that He made. And each of these groups are given a couple of options, trust in the light, receive the light, be blessed by the light, or reject it. Come to the light or fear the light. And so what happens? Well, generally speaking, The people reject the light. They reject the message. They flee from God and godliness. They prefer to live in the dark. They prefer the ways of the world against the ways of God. In fact, they fear Him. They fear His truth. They fear His message. But how about creation? Doesn't creation to this day testify that there is a God? Doesn't creation to this day do exactly what God says it will do? I remember a sermon, and if you can look it up online, most powerful youth sermon. It's got many titles. It was given by theologian Paul Washer. You can say what you will about Paul Washer. Sometimes I think he's kind of angry, but he gives this message. And in this sermon, one of the most famous sermons ever delivered at a youth conference, He points us to creation, and he says, God spoke to the wind and the waves, and said, wind, you will blow this way, and you will operate in this fashion, and you will do so until I tell you to do otherwise. And guess what? The wind has obeyed him from that word forward. And then God looked to the waves and said, you will come this far. And God looked to the stars and said, you will sit in this place. And God said to the plants and to the animals, you will act according to these principles. And all of those things said, yes, Lord, that which I will do and has done so obediently until this day. And then Paul Washer, and he does it far more dramatic than I can, in his sermon, he says, God then looks to man and says, man, love me. And man, of all things that God created, looked back and said, no. Oh, that we would look to the example of creation. Oh, that we would look to the example of the created order, for it tells us, it reminds us, it calls and draws us to the fact that there is a God. I remember once as a young man, almost 20 years, as a child, almost 20 years ago, sitting in Old Lebanon Presbyterian Church at a camp meeting, listening to someone, I had no idea who he was at the time, a man by the name of Dr. Dominic Aquila. He came to this camp meeting and he started giving this example. of the water cycle. And it was long. I remember that. It was a long example. And it went on and on and on and on about the water cycle and how water at a certain degree will evaporate and go into the sky to then be collected by the clouds and it will group together under certain circumstances due to its molecular nature. and at a certain temperature that water then becomes so heavy that it cannot remain where it is so then it falls back to the earth and then there's this cyclical nature and he went on and on and on about this and the point of it being and part of it was a literal example of just the vast nature of this system we have in place. all it would take is just a microscopic change. All it would take is a few degrees difference, and then our world, which is orderly, would be thrown into chaos. And yet, it still functions. We all may think it functions a little too well after this week, but we know that our God put us in an orderly world, and that order points to the fact that there is a God. He was in the world. The world was made through him. and yet the world did not know him. How sad a statement is that? The very creation, created by its creator to reflect his image, to reflect his glory, does not see him. Even worse, they reject him. They reject his message. But John tells us quite clearly that the truth still stands. It's even worse than the fact that the world rejects him, it's the particular people of God rejected him. The Jews, the very people that were called to herald his coming, they turn him down. They're the ones that are gonna shout, crucify him. They're the ones, despite the scribes and the Pharisees, the protectors, the keepers of the book, the ones who were to know it, to heed its message and tell people what was gonna happen, those people missed it. and yet they reject him as well. Creation itself testifies to the fact that there is a God. Now let me warn us dear friends, people are still doing this today. They're still looking at this world, they're looking at all that is around them, they're looking at what he has placed us in and how he keeps it all together and they're saying no. May we be very careful of this mindset of it creeping in, of promoting man's superiority, of saying that we can affect and change that which God has ordained to be so. That's a hard message, isn't it? It's a pretty, it's a pretty terrible thought. John the Baptist said Jesus is coming. People said, you don't know what you're talking about. Creation said our God has made us and he is real, and we say, no, he's not. So where are we left? What are we to do? Well, we keep reading. That's what we do. It's not a total message of doom and gloom, of loss and sadness, because there is a way to become children of God, and that is to receive the Word of God, or to put it differently, as we did last week, to receive Jesus Christ. We see this in our final two verses here. And I just want to encourage you, dear brothers and sisters, while many rejected the messenger and the message, all did not. Listen to what it says. But to all who did receive him, let's pause there, people received him. They heard the message, accepted the message, and submitted themselves to it. to those who believed in His name. There were some who did believe in His name, and throughout the gospel, we'll go through case study after case study after case study for chapters, and we're gonna interact with people who responded to the word and the message of God. One of my favorite, John 4, the woman at the well. But this should give us hope. We are not without hope. We can believe in Him. The sacrifice, the Savior accomplished His task. To all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, what is to come for them? He gave the right to become children of God. To have an identity, to have a purpose, to have a title, to have a position in the kingdom. to those who believed in Him, who submit themselves to His Word and to His teaching. And that might be a confusing string of words, and the commentators agree with you. To all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. I just need to say here quickly, this is not a passage that says Jesus gave you the ability to choose Jesus. It's not He's purchased the option, now if you pay for it, you may have it. And time will not allow me to dive into that deeper. All I can say to that, and then I'm gonna say something to it, stick around. Because for chapters we're gonna go through particularly John chapter 3. We're gonna have a thorough investigation of this passage But I'd point your attention to sections like Ephesians 2 point your attention to Titus chapter 3 When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. It is only by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon your life that you can be open to the truth of the Word of God and then can repent and place your hope and trust in Him. You cannot see without eyes to see. The passage or the scriptures tell us we are dead in our sins and trespasses. Westminster Confession of Faith 14.1 addresses this, telling us it is through the hearing of the Word of God that the Spirit often awakens our hearts, convicts us of our sins, and calls us to repent. So I ask you this morning in conclusion, what do we do? I was listening to Alistair Begg this week as he started a sermon series on the book of Jonah, and he asked an important question, why? 66 books, you get 66 chances to proclaim the word, the message of God, and you pick this one, why? And so I ask us this morning the same question, why? 66 chances, here you go, a fourth round of a similar story. so that you might become children of God. We have heard the messenger. John the Baptist says, turn to the light. Creation itself points us to him and to the light, to our creator. But at the end of the day, it is only by and through the power of the Holy Spirit that we will believe. To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And so I plead with you, dear Christian, believe in him. Trust in him. Hope in him who saves us from our sin and draws us to himself. Let us pray. Almighty God, we need you. The world points us to the fact there is a God. We have people in our lives that point us to the way, that show us this is the path you must take. Go this way, go to the Savior. But at the end of the day, it is only by and through your spirit we may believe, and so pour your spirit out, O God. Wherever we find ourself this morning, if we not yet believe, may we believe. If we are struggling, may we get an extra dose of your grace and mercy this day, that we might have peace and rest. For those that are walking moderately for you, O God, may we promote this message. May we proclaim it to the world. The Savior has come. Look to the one who gives us the light. Thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to be before your word this day. We pray for your people in Christ's name, amen.