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Hello, everyone. We're back to
have a little more look at the Gospel of John. We're in chapter
one. We call this food for thought
for the Gospel of John. And I hope I'm not going to be
confusing, but here's my problem. I have John the disciple who
wrote the Gospel of John talking about and quoting John the Baptist,
who was the official announcer of the Messiah to Israel. prophesied
in the Old Testament Scriptures just like the Messiah himself
was prophesied. So I am going to go back and
forth a little bit here. I'm going to try to keep it clear
and hopefully keep it simple. We talked about John the Baptist
in the last video and this time we're going to bring up some
more. It's going to take a while because John chapter 1 has quite
a bit from John the Baptist. I want us to understand how sharply
focused John the Baptist's message was. What I'm going to do is
read John 1, 14 through 17, and then we're going to comment on
verse 15 quite a bit. Let's go then. In John chapter
1. Verse 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. John bare witness of him and
cried, saying, this was he of whom I speak. He that comes after
me is preferred before me, for he was before me. And of his
fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the
law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Okay, that's a relatively short
reading. And when he says in verse 15 that John bear witness
of him, he's talking about John the Baptist. So John the disciple
inserted a quote of John the Baptist. Now, quite frankly,
if I were reading John 1, 14 and went right to verses 16 and
17, it would make a lot of sense. So it seems to be interrupted
by this quote in verse 15. And to make it a little harder,
John the Baptist is quoting himself, a statement that points to a
conversation he must have had some other time. And not only
that, It seems that John says something just like it again
later on in verse 27, which I'll just read it right now. John
the Baptist saying, he it is who coming after me is preferred
before me, who shoelatched I am not worthy to unloose. Okay,
so John the Baptist is quoted. And when he says, this was he
of whom I spake, Kind of implies he said this before. He must
say it a lot. We know that this statement is
very important. And John evidently said it more
than once or alluded to it because it was so important. And the
statement basically is saying Jesus was physically born after
John the Baptist. And that was by about six months.
But in the bigger reality, Jesus came way before John as
a matter of fact Jesus was long before all of us He is the eternal
Son of God And we saw that back when we started this series in
verses 1 through 3 in the beginning was the word the word was The
same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him
without it was not anything made that was made And it seems very important to
us. Actually, it seems very important to John the disciple to make
sure we know who Jesus is and not just what he did. So John the Baptist is pointing
out that he says, I was born before him, but he's actually
before me, and therefore he's preferred. He's the important
one. We like to use the word preeminent
with Christ, which means he has first place. He is more eminent,
he is more important than anybody else. He came before us all.
That way when John says in verse 14 John the disciple says in
verse 14 The word became flesh the word was made flesh and well
among us We're getting an amazing statement that God became a man
Messiah is the second person of the Godhead It's a strong
statement. It's an important statement.
John the Baptist's ministry was to introduce and promote the
person and work of Christ. And John the disciple stated
that. Right after what I just read here, one through three,
you go a little farther down to verse six. There was a man
sent from God whose name was John. That's John the Baptist.
The same was for a witness, to bear witness of the light that
all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. So John's weaving John
the Baptist's testimony in and out here, and I'm trying to keep
it clear. So as John the disciple says,
and the word became flesh and well among us, and we beheld
his glory, the glory is of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. You could just go right on down
to verses 16 and 17, and it says, enough is fullness of all we
received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. But just at that one
moment, verse 15, he inserts John the Baptist, who says, this
was he of whom I speak. He that comes after me is preferred
before me because he was before me. Doesn't that sound like a
real riddle? Well, welcome to the mysteries of the gospel.
Now, as I said already, John the disciple wants us to know
who Jesus is and not just what he did. And it's very important
what he did, but if we don't appreciate who he is, we don't
really appreciate what he did. This was my problem when I was
young. I had heard about Jesus and I had heard about him teaching
and healing and saying wise things and being a good person and dying
on the cross, but I didn't grasp This was God who did this for
me and nobody else would have died for my sins And so it wasn't
just a martyr's death that Jesus had it was a sacrificial Gift
to pay for my sins that no human could do And I hope next time
or soon I'll get to that wonderful verse 29 where it says behold
the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world But what
I want to do right now is think a little bit about John
the disciple's fuller statement. In other words, I want to take
a look at what Jesus did and is still doing. Now I've read
verse 14, 16, and 17 several times already. I don't want to
wear you out. So I'm just going to summarize
the points that we can learn from this. And there's really
quite a few. Number one, Jesus, who is called the word of God,
became flesh and dwelled with us. Number two, people could
behold his glory. And his glory, it wasn't just
charm and personality or powerful things or wisdom of words. His glory came from the Father. Divine glory is shining on people. Jesus could say, if you've seen
me, you've seen the Father. Thirdly, Jesus was full of grace
and truth. The idea of appearing before
God in his full glory could be painful if not deadly. No man
shall see God and live. But when Jesus came, veiled in
flesh, a kind of a filter in which we could behold him, but
he was full of grace and truth. And this grace and truth is something
that other people could receive. They could partake of it. So
it's a benefit. This grace is an unending source
for us now the way my Bible says it And of His fullness have all
we received, and grace for grace. Some Bibles say grace upon grace. Some Bibles say grace after grace. I'm fond of saying grace after
grace after grace after grace after grace, like standing on
a bridge over a river, and you see all this water coming down,
and you look underneath you, and it's passing onto the other
side, and all that water's going away, and you look back where
it came from, and it's still coming. It doesn't run out. That's
what the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is like. It's unending.
We have yet discovered all of the grace that he has for us.
The grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. We are able to partake
of this grace, receive it, and benefit from it. Now, by contrast,
Moses gave us the law. And the law is something which
reveals the truth about God's nature, God's will, and the nature
of our sin. Now the law is good because we
need that knowledge. We need to know what God's like.
We need to know what he loves, what he hates, and what he wants.
We also need to understand why we are able to please him. because
of a thing called sin. Sin isn't just something you
do, it's a condition you're in when you're born in this world,
and you can't deliver yourself from it. So we keep sinning.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So what
Moses did is good, but in and of itself, that can't save us.
The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Jesus gave us truth that told us about God's deliverance from
sin. We call that gospel truth. In Ephesians 4, 21, we call it
the truth as it is in Jesus. Jesus also gave grace with that
truth. Grace, okay? This enables us
to repent, to change our minds. It enables us to believe, receive,
and obey God. We had to be changed on the inside.
We had to be saved from what we've done, and we also have
to be saved from who we are. So the the grace that goes with
that truth of the gospel It's spiritual life that empowers
us to believe that truth to believe it to receive it to be Transformed
by it through the grace of Christ and the truth of the gospel We
are delivered from the penalty of our sin and the power of our
sin nature Okay, what a great statement now, I'm gonna read
it through one more time John the disciple said, and the word
was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now we quote John
the Baptist. This was he of whom I spake.
He that comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before
me. John the disciple now gets back
on the page. And of his fullness have all
we received, and grace for grace, grace after grace after grace.
For the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Okay, so the point, the point
is really understanding who Jesus is, embracing it. Many people
don't know, they either don't know from simple ignorance or
they really don't want to know that Jesus Christ is actually
God in the flesh. The second person of the Godhead.
Glorious Savior, Messiah. But he has all authority given
to him. But he came in gentleness. He
came with grace and truth. Moses did his job. He gave us
the truth about God and sin. But Jesus came to show us the
truth about God's deliverance from that sin and he became that
deliverance He's that deliverer. He will offer himself now We
need to make sure we're clear on who Jesus is and that means
he's not only savior, but he's Lord and so the question is Are
you just learning about Jesus? Are you looking for Jesus just
to help you out here and there when you have problems? Or are
you ready for his complete solution to your complete problem? If
you haven't received the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal
Lord and Savior, then that's the thing to do right now. As
many as received him, to them gave he the power, the authority,
the right to become the children of God, which were born not of
the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, nor by, oh, I missed
one, not by the bloodline of who you are, and not by the will
of the flesh, not by the will of man, but you're born of God,
and it's new birth we need. Transformation from this truth,
which Jesus not only has done, but is doing, And he will keep
doing till the last sheep is gathered in. Now, this is a message
we've got to take to the world. This is what will not save the
world, but save people from the world. And we need to keep focused. John the Baptist knew his message.
John the disciple recorded John the Baptist's message, but he
also wove it together with more gospel truth. and gives us the
rest of the story. Hopefully, we will keep continuing
food for thought from the Gospel of John. Let's pray. And Father,
I thank you for what you've done and are yet doing, for the promises
that show us what you will yet do, and all of your blessings
are flowing through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
came. He's alive today after dying
for our sins. He's alive evermore to save people,
come into their lives, and one day he's coming again. And one
day he's gonna make everything right. Give us that hope, give
us that faith, and give us that message so it's burning in our
hearts to tell others. I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.
John the Baptist - Continued
Series The Gospel of John
John the Disciple wrote the Gospel of John. In this gospel, John includes the testimony of another man named John - John the Baptist. "Who is Jesus" is just as important to know as "What Jesus did."
| Sermon ID | 72221720322307 |
| Duration | 15:47 |
| Date | |
| Category | Devotional |
| Bible Text | John 1:14-17 |
| Language | English |
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