Well, we are continuing our series in the Gospel of John. So if you will, you can turn with me to John chapter one. And if you want to follow along the Q Bible, you can turn with me to page 886. Page 886. We will be reading verses one through 18. John chapter one, beginning at verse one. Hear now God's holy word. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 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 lightens 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. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. And from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. And thus far the reading, of God's Holy Word. If I didn't know better, I think that John followed the advice of my former college speech professor. He told us this, tell them what you're going to tell them, then tell them, and then tell them what you just told them. In the first eighteen verses, John introduces the book to us by essentially telling us what he's going to tell us. Then he tells us, and then at the end of his book, he tells us what he just told us. And since this book is all about Jesus, we should not be surprised that the introduction is all about Jesus. Last week, we noted that these opening verses that Jesus is God. Jesus is the creator and sustainer of the universe. Jesus is a human being, and so he is the God-man. And we noted that Jesus, as the God-man, reveals God to us. This morning, we're going to finish looking at the introduction here. And the first thing that I want you to see is that Jesus is the Christ. Now Christ is simply the Greek word of the Hebrew term Messiah. It refers to the one who'll be anointed by God. That's what Messiah or Christ means, the anointed one. So it refers to the one who'll be anointed by God to come and deliver God's people, to deliver sinners from death and destruction and give them eternal life. Now John doesn't use the term Christ here in these opening verses, but the idea is here for sure. In verse five, Jesus is referred to as the light shining in the darkness. And in verse nine, he's called the true light who has come into the world. And the word darkness is being used here metaphorically to depict sin and evil, lies and death. Darkness, in this sense, is the opposite of light, which refers to righteousness and truth and life. Jesus is the light who has come into the darkness. Now we learn in Genesis, though, that when God first made the world, he made it very good. Human beings weren't in darkness or living in darkness at the beginning. The problem started when the first two human beings, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God. It was then that darkness crept over the earth. And ever since, life in this world has been marked by evil, misery, frustrations, disasters, and death. That's why Paul calls it this present evil age. In the history of mankind, beginning with Cain killing his brother Abel, is one tragic story after another. And not just the history of mankind as a whole, everybody's personal history is as well. G.I. Williamson tells the story of a man listening to his pastor read Genesis chapter five. And this chapter briefly discusses Adam and his descendants and the short account is given of each person. And each account concludes with these words, and he died. Over and over again, so and so lived, and he died, and he died. And the man listening to this suddenly realized, at least in a more profound way, that this is our human condition. Our life story and everyone's life story will conclude with these same words, and he died, or and she died. That's why Carl Truman, a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, is wont to say at a wedding that this will not end well. Now of course he doesn't say that, but those words are certainly true, aren't they? No matter how long and happy that marriage might be, it's not going to end well. Because eventually one person is going to die, and then the other person is going to die. You see, death destroys all, it takes away all good things. And so this man listening to this refrain, and he died, and he died, realized that this is our human condition, and that therefore we need a savior. We need someone to come who could destroy death and bring life to the dead and the dying. Now it's in the midst of this darkness, in the midst of this dark world, that Jesus comes as the true light. He comes to scatter the darkness. He comes to save us from it and give us life and life abundantly. He comes to make us light. And in the Old Testament, Isaiah prophesied of a light coming to people who walked in darkness and that this light would be the Christ Jesus, John says, is that light. He comes to save us. He is the one who saves us from the darkness. Also in John, in verses 16 and 17 of our text here this morning, John says that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament law. That's how we also see that Jesus is the Christ. He is the light, but he's also the fulfillment of the Old Testament law. And in these two verses here, 16 and 17, John compares the Old Testament with the New Testament or with the coming of Jesus. And in verse 16, he says that from Jesus's fullness, we've all received grace upon grace. Now the NIV, which is probably a better translation at this point, says this. We have all received grace in place of the grace already given. And then verse 17 fills out the point John is making here. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Now, as we make our way through this gospel, we're going to see that the religious leaders of the day, the scribes and the Pharisees, they all believed that Jesus was not the Christ. They thought he was an imposter. They even thought that he was of the devil. They believed that they themselves, of course, were disciples of Moses and that they were the children of Abraham, but Jesus had nothing to do with God, had nothing to do with Moses, and nothing to do with Abraham. But here in a nutshell, we see the reason the scribes and Pharisees were wrong. Jesus is not against the Old Testament or against Moses. He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. He is the one Moses said would come, and therefore he is the one we need to embrace and believe in and follow. You see, the law that was given through Moses included a number of redemptive or ceremonial laws that pertain to atonement, salvation, forgiveness, cleansing, holiness. For example, Moses commanded Israel to offer a number of animal sacrifices for the atonement, the forgiveness of their sins. In fact, one of the key festivals in the Old Testament was the Day of Atonement. And Moses gave careful and detailed instructions to the people of God of how they were to observe the various rituals of that festival. And that law that Moses gave and was given to Moses, which he passed on to Israel was gracious. That's because they depicted the way of salvation and pointed to the one who would one day accomplish salvation. And what is more, all these laws were means of grace, much like how baptism and the Lord's Supper are means of grace for us today. God uses these things, and God used those things in the Old Testament to administer his grace and salvation to his people. However, all those laws in the Old Testament didn't and they couldn't give life or grace or salvation in and of themselves. And that's because they weren't the truth, they were simply copies or pictures of the truth. You see, the blood of bulls and goats didn't atone for sins. They were simply copies and shadows of what would really take away sins. The blood of animals pictured, therefore, and look forward to the sacrifice of Christ. Just as the water that we use today and the bread and the wine in the Lord's Supper look back to the sacrifice of Christ, these very ceremonial laws look forward to the work and sacrifice of Christ. And so the law that Moses gave could not in and of itself procure the salvation it symbolized, signified, and administered. The only way, therefore, for the saints in the Old Testament to have their sins forgiven and to be saved was for Jesus to come and fulfill the Old Testament. The copy had to be replaced by the reality. The shadow had to give way to the truth. Now again, God administered salvation in the Old Testament under Moses. But again, it was only on the basis of the future work of Jesus. Even as God administers salvation to us today on the basis of Christ's past work of salvation. And so God truly forgave the sins of the saints of the Old Testament. but it was not on the basis of the blood of bulls and goats, but on the basis of what that blood typified and pointed to, namely the blood of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. And that is what John is saying here. In Jesus, we have received grace in the place of the grace of the law. The law, which was given through Moses, administered saving grace through types and shadows that were ineffective in and of themselves. But now, grace and truth, not the copy but the real thing, came through Jesus Christ. So Jesus is the very embodiment of salvation, of grace and truth. In Him, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Not in the law, not in keeping the law. In Jesus, we have these things. He is the truth, salvation itself, and not a copy or picture of how God saves. He is salvation itself. He is the real McCoy, as it were. Another way of seeing the difference here between the Old and New Testament is to know that salvation was not inseparably tied to the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament. And the same, of course, is true with baptism today. In the Old Testament, you could be saved apart from being circumcised or attending the day of atonement, even as today you can be saved apart from being baptized or partaking of the Lord's Supper. Salvation is not inseparably annexed or tied to these rituals. They are means of salvation. They are means that God uses to administer salvation, but they are not salvation itself. And that's the key difference. Jesus is not a means of salvation. He is salvation itself. He is grace and truth. Not a copy or type of the way of salvation. He is the way of salvation. Salvation was given or administered through Moses based on the coming of Christ. Salvation came through Jesus Christ because he is that salvation. And that is why you can't be saved apart from Jesus. You can be saved apart from one of the means of salvation, like baptism or the sacrifice in the Old Testament, but you can't be saved apart from Jesus, because he himself is the very embodiment of salvation. He is redemption, and it's only in him that we can be saved. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can come to the Father, including Old Testament saints, except through him. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. The law ends in him. It finds its completion in him. Moses wrote about him. And all the promises of God are yes and amen in him. He is the Christ, the Savior of the world. So then in these opening verses of John, we have seen that Jesus is God, He is the creator and sustainer of the world. He is a human being. He reveals God, and he is the Christ. That's what John says here about Jesus. But how do we know that Jesus is who John says he is? How do we know that he really is the God, man, and the Christ? But one of the burdens of this gospel is to show or prove that Jesus is indeed the Christ. And we catch a glimpse of how John is going to do that throughout the book in these opening verses. And the key word here is witness. We come across it with respect to John the Baptist. And in the Old Testament, God told his people that every charge in court must be established by two or three witnesses. And although Jesus, because he is God, doesn't need anyone to confirm who he is, doesn't need any witnesses to support his claim, God does accommodate us and provide for us a number of witnesses and signs to all demonstrate and prove that Jesus really is who he says he is and who John says he is. And one of these witnesses, who is an eyewitness, is John the Baptist. And God sent John to perform this very role. He was a prophet. And even the scribes and Pharisees and the people of God recognized that John was special, that he was a prophet. In fact, Jesus says he was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, in light of the fact of his relationship with the Savior, with the Christ. And John came to testify that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the true light. John wasn't the Christ, although some people began to wonder if he was, but he wasn't. He was simply a prophet who pointed people to Jesus, telling them that Jesus, this one is the Christ, telling them that they need to follow him and believe in him. And part of John's witness for us is recorded in verse 15. John testified that Jesus is greater than he. And even though John was born first, even though John's ministry took off first, Jesus ranks before him and is greater than him. And John testified to the greatness and to the superiority of Jesus. And so John the Baptist is very much like an expert witness at a trial. He is sent by God, and so he speaks for God. And that qualifies him as an expert witness when it comes to identifying who the Christ is. He is a prophet of God. He is speaking the very words of God. And so we need to listen to him, and he knows what he's talking about, certainly when it comes to who the Christ is. And he, as it were, takes the witness stand and points the finger at Jesus and says, that man, you see that man? He is the Christ. You need to follow him. Now John the Baptist is not the only witness. Another witness mentioned in the opening verses is that of John himself and his fellow disciples. Verse 14, John says that he and those with him, when he uses the word we, we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth. And as you know, John and the other 11 knew Jesus quite well. They were his disciples, they lived with him for three years. They talked with him, they ate with him, they saw him interact with other people. They saw him minister, they saw him teach, they saw his miracles, they saw him die, and they saw him after he rose from the dead. They witnessed all these things and more. And through it all, they saw in him the glory of God. As God incarnate, Jesus displayed the glory of God in himself and in the things that he did. And John says, we saw that with our very eyes. We touched that. We handled the word of life. And so by knowing Jesus personally and being with him during his public ministry, John was an eyewitness to the fact that Jesus is God incarnate, that he is the Christ. And he literally saw the glory of God in the man, Jesus. At the beginning of verse 14, rather, John says that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Now that word dwelt, as many of you I'm sure know, is literally pitched a tent. It means to tabernacle. In the Old Testament, God dwelt among his people by a tent, by the tabernacle, then later the temple. and the glory cloud would come and fill the tabernacle and the people of God would see and know that God is in their midst and that he's dwelling among them in a tent. But now God has pitched his tent among us by becoming flesh. He dwelt among us as one of us. He became a human being. And John, in seeing the man Jesus, and in seeing what he did, didn't see a glory ground. He saw his glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And so part of the evidence that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, are the testimonies of John the Baptist, the prophet, and the first disciples. Now being confronted with Jesus, either in person, like John, when you see Jesus face to face, or when you're confronted with Jesus as you're being confronted with him right now through the word of God, which is the living word of God, you will have some kind of response. Being confronted with Jesus demands and produces some kind of response. You might reject him, you might ignore him, you might embrace him, but respond in some way you will. You can't help but do that. And your response will either be negative or positive. You might think, well, I'm just neutral. I'm not really for or against, I'm just, you know, I'm just neutral. But a neutral response is a negative response, because you are being confronted with your creator and your maker, and the one who is the savior of the world, and to not heed him and embrace him is too objective. call it neutrality if you will, call it thinking you're being neutral, you're not being neutral because you are rejecting. By not coming to me, you are rejecting your maker and savior. Well John highlights both of these negative and positive responses here in our text. And he also highlights what happens if you do embrace him. In verse 10, John says that Jesus was in the world that he had made, and yet the people he created and the people he sustained and gave life to did not know him. God himself came in the most intimate and personal way to the people he had made in his own image, and yet they did not know him. They ignored him. They didn't take notice of him. They rejected him. Imagine a son growing up in his father's house. He's supported by his father. He enjoys many gifts of his father, room and board, a car, computer, all these nice things. But the son refuses to acknowledge that his father is his father. He ignores him. He has no relationship with him to speak of. He acts as if his father doesn't exist. That is what people are doing when they refuse to acknowledge God and refuse to acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Paul says in Romans 1 that all people know God because God clearly reveals himself to all through his created world and through our very own constitution because we are made in the image of God. And we can't help but know God because God has made himself known to us. But we have rejected God. We do not honor or serve him, Paul says. And that by nature we suppress the truth and unrighteousness. We suppress the thing that we know And now God has come, revealed himself in an even greater way, in a more intimate and personal way, and instead of seeing, as John did, the glory of God, they did not know him. And here we see the power, the ugly, destructive power of sin. It blinds us to the truth. It keeps us from seeing the obvious. we end up refusing to acknowledge our maker and our savior. But in verse 11, we see another negative response to Jesus. Because Jesus not only came to the world, he came to his own people. The nation of Israel was God's chosen people. To them, Paul says in Romans 9, belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. They had the written word of God, which spoke of Christ. God knew them and revealed himself to them in a way that he did not know and reveal himself to everybody else. They had an intimate relationship with God. And so of all the people in the world who should have recognized and accepted Jesus, it would have been the nation of Israel. But as a whole, they didn't. Jesus came to his own people, and his own people did not receive him. And once again, we see the blinding power of sin. When we are dead in our sins and trespasses, when we are spiritually dead to God, We can't even see the God we claim to know and serve when that same God is incarnated right before our eyes. Isn't that amazing? And unfortunately, these same two responses happen today. There are people who don't grow up in church, who don't have the privileges of being a part of the people of God, but they reject or ignore Jesus when they are confronted with him. And there are some people who grew up in the church and who experienced all the blessings of being part of the people of God, and yet they don't truly know Jesus. They ignore him. They don't care about him. They just go and do their own thing. And in the short, they reject him. Now I truly hope and pray that none of you here today respond to Jesus like that. I want you all to know him, to believe in him, to receive him, because look what happens if you do in verse 12. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. When you embrace Jesus, He not only delivers you from death and sin and destruction, give you eternal life, he makes you a child of God. You become the most special person in the entire world. You receive all the benefits and privileges of a child of Almighty God. You have an eternal inheritance, access to God, grace, mercy, forgiveness, dignity. You have everything as a child of God. But do notice that you need to believe in order to be a child of God. And it's important for you to understand and to get this, that you don't become a child of God on the basis of who your parents are, or on the basis of your grandparents, or on the mere basis of being baptized in part of a church. Verse 13 makes that clear. You become a child of God by receiving Christ. To them, he gives the right to become children of God. You need to believe, you need to receive him. Who is Jesus? Jesus is God incarnate, the God of man, the person who made You, the person who made all things, the person who sustains you in all things. And he is the Christ, the Savior of the world. And you know this because of the testimony of John the Baptist and of John, which is recorded for you here in the Gospel of John. And why should you receive Jesus? Why must you? You must because Jesus, because of who Jesus is. He is your God. He is your Savior. And he will give you the right, the authority to become children of God. So come to him now, if you haven't already. And if you have, then take heart, because you are indeed a child of the Almighty. Let us pray. Our Father and our God, we do thank you for the word. We pray that, Father, that you would enable each person here to understand, to see the kingdom of God, to see who Jesus truly is. They might believe in him and believing in him might have eternal life. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.