Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him, and without Him
was not anything made that was made.
And Him was life, and the life was the light of men,
and the light, the shyness, and darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
The same came for a witness to bear witness to the light
that all men through Him might believe.
He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness
of that light.
That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
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 a 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 Bear witness of him and cried, saying,
this was he of whom I spake, he that cometh 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,
No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten son which is in the bosom of the father
He hath declared him and this is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him
Who art thou and he confessed and the night not but confessed I am not the Christ
And they asked him what then art thou Elias and he said if I am not
Art thou that prophet and he answered no
Then said they unto him who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us what sayest thou thyself
He said I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight the way the Lord has said the prophet desires
And they which were sent were the Pharisees and they asked him and said unto him
Why baptizes thou then if thou be not that Christ nor lies neither that prophet
John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not.
He it is who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose shoes latcheth I am not worthy to unloose.
These things were done in Beth-Abrab beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
The next day John seeeth Jesus coming on to him, and saith behold the Lamb of God, which takeeth away the sin of the world.
This is he of whom I said after me comeeth a man, which is preferred before me, for he was before me.
And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore I come baptizing with water.
In John Bear record saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.
And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same as he which baptize it with the Holy Ghost.
And I saw, in Bear record, that this is the Son of God.
Again the next day after John stood and two of his disciples and looking upon
Jesus and he walked and looking upon Jesus as he walked he saith behold the
Lamb of God and the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus then
Jesus turned and saw them following and saith unto them what's Eekie they said
unto him rabbi which is to say being interpreted master where dwells thou he
saith unto them come and see
They came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day for it was about the tenth hour
One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peters brother
He first findeth his own brother Simon and say thon to him
We have found him a size which is being interpreted the Christ and he brought him to Jesus and when Jesus beheld him
He said thou art Simon the son of Jonah thou shalt be called Sifas, which is by interpretation a stone
the day following Jesus go but
The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee and find a Philip and saith unto him follow me
Now Philip was of Bethsaida the city of Andrew and Peter
Philip findeth Nathaniel and saith unto him we have found him of whom Moses and the law and prophesied right Jesus of Nazareth son of
Joseph and
Nathaniel said unto him can there any good thing come out of Nazareth Philip saith unto him come and see
Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and saith of him,
Behold, in Israel I am indeed, in whom is no guile.
Nathaniel saith unto him, When it snows thou me,
Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee,
When thou was sitting under the fig tree, I saw thee.
Nathaniel answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God,
Thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him,
Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believe us thou,
Thou shalt see greater things than these.
And he saith unto him verily verily I say unto you hereafter he shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man
Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for this wonderful church. You've given us your Lord. Thank you for the King James Bible
Thank you for the book of John dear Lord. We thank you for our pastor. We ask that you please bless him as he preaches your word in Jesus name
We pray amen
Amen. Okay, we're starting a brand new book tonight the book of John
And I would say that the Book of John, the Gospel according to John, is probably one of the most famous books in the entire Bible, of course, specifically in the New Testament.
And if you think about it, you know, when people around the world in different mission fields, when they're getting saved, a lot of the times they will receive the Gospel of John, right?
If they can't necessarily receive an entire Bible old in New Testament, the best book to give a brand new convert is the Gospel of John.
emphasis on salvation.
And if you think about it, the Gospel of John is, although very complex, very simplistic
as well in its style.
In fact, it is said that the Gospel of John is shallow enough that a child can wait in
but deep enough for a theologian to drown in, essentially saying that it's very wide
in its spectrum of knowledge and simplicity and doctrine.
It's a wonderful book and it puts the cookie on the bottom shelf, especially when it comes
to the matter of salvation.
And so I'm looking forward to teaching through the book of John for these next 21 possibly
plus weeks because some of these chapters are fairly lengthy and I think tonight actually
will be broken up into two parts.
Now let me just start off by, let me give you some foundational teachings regarding the
Gospel of John just to kind of give us a plenary understanding of what we're dealing with here
when it comes to this specific book.
the author of the book. Now it is generally agreed that the disciple John
who's the son of Zebedee, the brother of James, is the one responsible for writing
the Gospel of John. And he thinks he's a double pastor of course. I mean my Bible
says right there, the Gospel according to John. Well here's the thing though is
that the author didn't put that in his book. He didn't put that in his epistle.
And in fact
When you read the book of John, you'll actually never find the name John in the Gospel regarding the disciple John.
Obviously, we find John the Baptist mentioned multiple times throughout the book of John, but John, the son of Zebedee,
you know, John, the brother of James, is actually never mentioned in the Gospels.
The sons of Zebedee is mentioned.
John the Baptist is mentioned, but the disciple John is actually never mentioned.
Now, a lot of times people will look at something like that and they'll say, well, that's evidence
to prove that possibly that he's not the writer of the Gospel of John because he doesn't
accredit himself, he doesn't mention himself as being the writer of the Gospel of John.
But let me just give you some internal evidence to possibly point to the fact that it was the
Although the disciple named John isn't mentioned in the gospels, you know the disciple whom Jesus loved is, right?
And in fact, it's mentioned about five times or so in the Gospel of John.
And obviously, that alone doesn't necessarily prove that it's John, but let me give you
some scripture here to possibly point to the fact that that's what it's referring to.
Now, first and foremost, when you read the book of John and primarily in John chapter
one, you have this great story of Jesus Christ having this discourse with Peter, right?
the Lord asks Peter,
love is thou me more than these, right?
Cause Peter went fishing, he's a fisher.
That's what he went back to.
And of course Peter says,
Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
And then Jesus responds with,
feed my sheep, feed my lambs.
This takes place three times.
Well, at the end of that.
Peter looks back and he sees the disciple whom Jesus loved following and it also states
that this is the same disciple who leaned on Jesus' breast at the Last Supper.
Then later on in that chapter it says that this is that disciple that testified of these
things and that wrote of these things, essentially showing us that the writer of the book of
who lean on Jesus' breast at the Last Supper and it's the same man who is referred to as
the beloved or the disciple whom Jesus loved, right?
You say, well, that still doesn't point to it being John.
Well, when you read all four Gospels, you know, you come to the conclusion obviously
that there's, from the twelve disciples that Jesus selected, there's specifically three
that are part of the inner circle, right?
You have Peter, James, and John.
So the twelve are really important.
They have a specific task.
They're selected by Jesus Christ.
But of those twelve, you have three
that are part of the inner circle that are really important,
that spend the most time with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter, James, and John.
Now, John and James are brothers.
Peter, he's not necessarily a brother of Peter, of John and James, however, we see
that throughout the Gospels and according to the book of Acts, the ones who are always
paired together is who?
Peter and John.
Peter and John essentially share a lot of the stories in the gospels and in the book of Acts, they're always together.
And so if we're to take that evidence and look throughout the gospels, we can easily say that the disciple that Peter was talking about in John chapter 21 is John, okay?
Because of the fact that in general we see John always paired up with Peter, he's always around Peter, and they're kind of always competing with one another.
You know, they're kind of not at variance with one another,
but kind of competing with one another.
They're counterparts to one another.
And so we would say, I would say conclusively
that that's who
John chapter one is referring to he's the one whom Jesus loved obviously he's
being modest when he makes that statement he's not given his name
it's just an act of modesty when he says that he's the disciple of Jesus love
he's the one that lean on Jesus's breast and of course according to John
chapter 21 that would mean that he's the one who wrote the gospel now let me say
this is that at the end of the day it doesn't really matter
I do believe that John the disciple is the one responsible for writing the Gospel of John,
but at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter because God is ultimately the author
of the Bible.
He's the author of the Gospel.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God.
We also know that holy men of God speak as they're removed by the Holy Ghost.
So ultimately, God is the one who authored the Word of God.
Humans are simply the instruments that God uses to pen down the scriptures and of course later on to preserve them.
But with that being said, I do believe that the disciple John, son of Zebedee, the brother of James, is the one responsible for this particular book.
Now this book was written approximately around 90 AD.
And it's of my humble opinion that it's possibly the last book of the New Testament that was written.
And I preached about this multiple times before.
I do believe it's the last one.
It's generally agreed that the Gospels
were actually written last, but I think.
the last of the Gospels was possibly the book of John.
Now I think that first, second, and third John
were written first, then the book of Revelation,
and then the book of John.
And in fact, John chapter 21 towards the latter end
was possibly written by someone else
since it's testifying of the author.
So it's possible that someone else wrote that latter end,
but I do think that it's the last book to be written.
Now let me give you some other things
regarding the Gospel of John and its relation
Matthew, Mark, and Luke because, you know, the gospel of John is actually very uniquely different
from the previous three gospels. And obviously we know that all four gospels testify of the ministry
and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, right?
It's all from different accounts, different perspectives, but when you read the first
three Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, you end up coming to the conclusion that they
actually have more in common with each other as far as what the backbone of their content
is for their Gospels than the book of John.
they're commonly referred to as the synoptic gospels.
So they're actually studied kind of together among scholars.
They're referred to as the synoptic gospels,
meaning that they're kind of read together.
And it's actually theorized that Matthew and Luke
actually essentially wrote their gospels,
you know, using the book of Mark.
So they actually claimed that Mark was written first
And then Matthew and Luke was written there after kind of deriving content from the Gospel of Mark.
Obviously, you know, that's neither here nor there, but that's essentially why they claim that,
because they're so similar one to another. Even a lot of the events are kind of chronologically
stated in the same way. And when you look at these three Gospels...
You come to the conclusion that when you look at, for example, the Gospel according to Matthew,
that Jesus Christ is portrayed in the book of Matthew as well as the king of Israel, right?
that he is sent to preach forth the kingdom of God
upon the earth and essentially it's the gospel
that's directed towards the Jews.
And a lot of the parables, for example,
towards the latter end of the book of Matthew
is geared towards the Jews.
And in a very negative fashion, obviously.
But a lot of the book of Matthew has to deal with
the kingdom of God, Jesus Christ being the king of Israel,
him being that Messiah that's gonna come.
And so we see that with Matthew.
When it comes to the Gospel of Mark, on the other hand, it seems to emphasize Jesus Christ
as being a servant.
who suffers and when you read it a lot of the emphasis though you see the kingdom of God being
preached much of the emphasis is on the miracles that Jesus Christ is performing and more specifically
the exorcisms. So there's a lot of spiritual warfare taking place in the book of Matthew and so
more emphasis in the book of Mark is placed on the works of Jesus Christ more so than the teachings
Luke portrays Jesus Christ as the Son of Man, right?
And it emphasizes what? His humanity.
We see a lot of his humanity being displayed in the book of Luke
as well as his desire to save those who are outside of the nation of Israel.
So a lot of mentions of those who are, you know, foreigners and strangers from Israel
are talked a lot about in the book of Luke.
Now, the Gospel of John, on the other hand, emphasizes the divinity of Jesus Christ from the very beginning, right?
as him being the Son of God and that through his powerful miracles and messages
essentially pointing to himself as being the source of eternal life.
And make no mistake about it, the book of John is just saturated
with passages regarding salvation and you know, I always find it interesting
that when you're dealing with soul winners or those who are true preachers of the Gospel
you can kind of sift through who are the righteous ones and who are not.
based upon, listen to me, what Gospels they use, okay?
You say, what do you mean by that?
Well, obviously Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John,
they're all the Word of God.
But when it comes to evangelizing,
those who have the right Gospel often stick to what?
The Book of John.
Whereas, unfortunately, a lot of false prophets
will twist scriptures from Matthew, Mark, and Luke
to teach a false Gospel.
This is why you see a lot of, you know, repent.
you know for the kingdom of heaven is at hand they'll often teach a repent of your sin
false gospel utilizing the synoptic gospels as their evidence for doing so whereas the gospel
of john is actually meant to be used in our evangelism in our sony because it's the cookie
that's placed on the bottom shelf and it's the gospel that emphasizes how to be saved more
clearly than any other gospel okay and so it's a very powerful book here now think about this you
the four Gospels, the first three which are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels,
these are some of the similarities that they share. For example, all three of those Gospels,
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, talk about the virgin birth, Jesus Christ being born of a virgin.
They all talk about Jesus Christ being baptized by John. They highlight the temptation of Jesus
They also refer to the proclamation of the Kingdom of God, some of them through parables
as we mentioned.
We obviously see Jesus Christ casting out devils in Matthew, Mark and Luke.
We see the famous story of the Transfiguration, right?
Where Peter, James and John are taken up to that mount to see the Transfiguration of Jesus
Christ.
This is highlighted in those first three Gospels.
in Matthew, Mark and Luke,
whereas these are actually absent
in the Gospel of John.
Isn't that interesting?
So the structure of those previous three gospels
are almost identical,
whereas John seems to follow an unorthodox structure
when he starts off the gospel,
where he starts off his letter.
These events are actually absent.
You don't see them in the gospel of John.
And in fact, there are some certain teachings
in the gospel of John that are unique to the gospel of John
that are not found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
For example, Jesus turning the water into wine.
That's actually absent from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, right?
In John chapter 2, we find that miracle of Jesus turning the water into wine.
The famous story of the resurrection of Lazarus is also unique to the Gospel of John.
Think about this, a lot of the most memorable statements are found where in the Gospel of John.
And in fact, you know, virtually everyone, well, when I say everyone, I'm painting it with a broad brush,
a lot of people in this world can quote John 3.16.
I mean, it's a very famous portion of scripture that even unsaved people know about.
The famous story of Nicodemus and the famous phrase of ye must be born again is found and
is uniquely distinct to the Gospel of John.
Think about this.
You know, the seven IMs of Jesus Christ are only found in the Gospel of John.
You know you have I am the bread of life. You have I am the light. I am the door. I am the vine
I am the good shepherd. What else is there? You know before Abraham was I am and then you have
Jesus saying I am the way the truth of the life these statements are unique to the gospel of John
They're not found in Matthew Mark or Luke and then lastly, you know though the other
Gospels have
the cleansing of the temple recorded, they've actually placed or only highlighted when Jesus
Christ throws out the money changers and cleanses the temple towards the end of his ministry,
whereas in the Gospel of John we actually see it at the very beginning of his ministry
and there's no contradiction here, it's just that he did it twice.
But that is unique to the Gospel of John. Let me give you some other things regarding the Gospel
And that is the purpose of the miracles.
You know, the miracles is something that we see
in all four Gospels, right?
We see Jesus Christ performing miracles
in all four Gospels.
But, the reason for the miracles are different between John and the others, okay?
For example, in the Synoptic Gospels, we have instances where Jesus Christ refuses to perform
signs in order to validate who he is.
You know, when he provides sight to the blind, the Pharisees come and what do they say?
Show us a sign, right?
And what does Jesus say, there shall no sign,
a wicked and adulterous generation seek it after a sign,
and there shall no sign be given into it,
but the sign of Jonas the prophet,
and then he goes on from there.
We also have,
during the temptation of Jesus Christ in the wilderness, where Satan is essentially tempted
Jesus Christ to display himself as being the Son of God so that when he cast himself from
the temple, you know, the angels would come and bear him up, essentially tempting him
to show himself that he is God, the Son of God.
And in both instances, Jesus Christ refuses to do so.
So although we see him performing miracles, we see that in the previous three Gospels
He almost seems to refrain himself from doing certain miracles in order to validate who he is.
Whereas, in the Gospel of John, it seems as though he performs a lot of these miracles
in order to generate faith that he is the Son of God, okay?
And here are some examples.
You know, by the way, also we see that when he performs these miracles,
he couples them with a specific teaching dealing with that miracle.
You know, he talks about the fact that he in John chapter 6 that he's the bread of life
Then what does he do? He multiplies the fish and the bread essentially showing that he's the bread of life
We also see in I believe it's John chapter 9 where he talks about the fact that he's the light of the world
And then what does he do? He gives sight to the blind man, right?
Essentially, proving the fact that he's the light of the world.
We have the famous story in John chapter 11, where Jesus Christ talks about the fact that
he is the resurrection and the life, and then he displays that by how?
By resurrecting Lazarus from the grave.
So we see that that is something that is unique to the Gospel of John, where miracles that
he's performing are done in conjunction with his teaching in order to validate his identity
And so very important there and in fact, let me read to you from John chapter 20 and verse 30 says that many other signs
Truly the Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book
But these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you might have life
through his name and so very important there
Now, I will say that one thing that you will notice with the Gospel of John is that much
of what he does, much of what Jesus Christ does regarding his miracles and his teaching
is very public.
Or sometimes in the other Gospels, he's like, don't tell anybody about this, right?
It's very private.
In fact, one particular example that I'm thinking of is that when he resurrects Jairus' daughter
who died.
And when Jairus' daughter dies, he immediately goes to heal her, right?
And he brings her forth, he resurrects her, he brings her back to life,
and then he basically says, tell him no man of this, right?
He says, feed her, you know, give her some food, but don't tell anybody about this.
Whereas when you look at the story of Lazarus, for example,
he loves Lazarus, he loves Mary and Martha,
and when he hears that Lazarus is sick, he just tarries for a couple of days
and just basically lets him die.
So instead of going to Lazarus to wait with the same urgency as he went to
Jairus' daughter, he just waits a couple days and lets Lazarus die and
specifically says that he's doing it for the glory of God. Why? Because he wants to
show that he is the resurrection and the light. And when he resurrects Lazarus
from the grave, a bunch of people are there. He's very open about that miracle
that he's performing there. So it's very, very unique to that.
And quite frankly, you know, when it comes to the parables,
there's so many parables that are mentioned in Matthew, Mark, and Luke,
but there's actually only one parable that's actually mentioned in the Gospel of John,
and that's in the beginning of John chapter 10.
That is unique to the Gospel of John.
The synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke seem to emphasize
the fact that God is the Father, and emphasizes the Kingdom of God,
whereas John seems to put place to emphasis on Jesus Christ Himself
to God the Father and the fact that he's the source of everlasting life.
And so very important there, I know you guys are super thrilled about all that information.
You memorized it all.
This is life changing.
You're no longer depressed and you won't struggle with any kind of sin anymore because
of it.
I'm glad I could help.
Now the Gospel of John can be broken up into three sections and so over the next 21 plus
weeks or whatever, this is what we're going to cover.
Section one can be described as or labeled as his public ministry and this is from chapters
through 12.
From chapters 13 to 17 is essentially his farewell to his disciples.
And then from chapters 18...
221 is this crucifixion and his resurrection.
So for the next 12 plus weeks,
we're gonna be covering his public ministry.
So let's start off in verse number one, okay?
So let's talk about the word from the beginning,
the pre-existence of the word.
It says in verse number one,
in the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God and the word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made
And it was life and the life was the light of men and the light shineth in the darkness and the darkness
Comprehended it not now right off the bat. This is vastly different from Matthew Mark and Luke, right?
Matthew Mark and Luke follow the same structure whereas John is just like well in the beginning
Give him a call back to Genesis chapter one now
Why does he do this because of the fact that the gospel of John is emphasizing the divinity of Jesus Christ?
The mere fact that he's stating in the beginning was the word
You know
He's telling this to an audience that is obviously familiar with Genesis chapter one that understands that in the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth
And if it says here that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God,
it's obviously making the connection that Jesus Christ is the Word that was used
in order to create all things that exist.
Let me read to you from Genesis chapter one verse number one.
It says,
God said let there be light and there was light and God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness
So first and foremost what we see here is that Jesus Christ is referred to as the word right and when we think about the word
What are we talking about? We're talking about the Bible?
We're talking about the word that you know where God said let there be light that is Jesus Christ
And yes, it is accurate to say that this is also Jesus Christ because he is the word of God
This is exactly what he says. This is exactly what he is now. This is important to know because of the fact that
You know, you have a lot of false forms of Christianity out there.
Christianity, so-called, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses,
that seek to strip Jesus Christ from his divinity
and claim that, oh yeah, he's God, but he's actually a God.
He's not the God, he's not Jehovah God, but folks, as I mentioned earlier regarding the
seven IM's, Jesus Christ specifically said, before Abraham was IM, specifically referring
to that Old Testament, tetragrammaton, the Jehovah, Jesus Christ is Jehovah God, okay?
That's what it's referring to there.
And look, if that's not the case, then why do they pick up stones to stone him for?
You know, it's just like, oh, what are you guys talking about?
I'm just saying, you know, I'm just using improper English here.
No, obviously the Pharisees knew exactly what it was referring to when he said before Abraham was,
I am, he's referring to the fact that he is Jehovah God from the Old Testament.
Let me read to you from Colossians chapter 1 and verse 16 regarding the creation here.
It says, for by him, referring to Jesus Christ, we're all things created.
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by him and for him,
and he is before all things and by him all things consist."
The Bible also says in Hebrews 1 verse 1,
God who at sundry times in diverse manners spake in time past,
unto the fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
I want you to notice this, whom he had to point at
of all things by whom also he made the world,
referring to Jesus Christ's participation
in the creation period.
So even though Jesus Christ isn't explicitly mentioned
in Genesis chapter one, we know that he was there.
Now obviously when you read Genesis chapter one,
you can come to that conclusion
because of the fact that later on in the chapter
it says what, let us make man in our image.
And obviously, we're not trying to go back to the Hebrew here,
but if you did, you would see that God in Genesis chapter 1 is Elohim, which is plural,
meaning that there's more than one, not more than one God, just one God and three persons.
And if he's saying, let us make man in our image, he's obviously referring to more than one person.
Now, this is why it's important that we're not just Torah observers.
Anybody who says, well, you know, I'm just sticking to the Pentateuch.
I'm sticking to the Torah, then you don't know the Bible.
Because you need the entirety of Scripture to understand the Bible.
And in fact, if you, you know, understood front and back, Genesis to Malachi,
you still don't understand anything.
Because it's necessary to have the New Testament in order to shed light on the old.
You know, and it's important for you to believe on Jesus Christ in order for you to understand the Bible, period.
But once you understand that Jesus Christ is the word that was in the beginning with God and that he is God man
Genesis chapter 1 just has so much more meaning now
It puts the pieces of the puzzle together
It helps us to understand the eternity of Jesus Christ the fact that he's always been the son of God
He's always existed. He was not created
He is eternal because he is God
And so this is a very powerful portion of scripture here in John chapter one because it's telling us that the word was in the beginning before the creation even was there.
He pre-existed that the word which is Jesus is with God, but it's also he's also God himself showing us that he's part of the Trinity.
And of course it says all things were made by him and him was life and the life was the light of men.
We'll get into that in just a bit.
So, after the description of the eternal word that pre-exists even creation, now we get
into the forerunner of the word.
Okay?
Look at verse number six.
There is a man sent from God whose name was John.
Now, John here is now referring to the disciple, John is referring to John the Baptist.
It says in verse seven, the same came for a witness to bear witness of the light, capital
He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.
Now, I don't know about you, but when I read this, I'm like,
man, John is important because you're barely six verses in
and already we're talking about John the Baptist.
He played an important role in the ministry of Jesus Christ.
He is his forerunner.
And of course, we know that John the Baptist
is prophesied of in the book of Isaiah
that we just completed.
And it states here that God sent John to be a witness of the light.
And I want you to notice this, that all men through him might believe.
Now, what is this telling us?
It's telling us that God requires a vessel to go out and get people saved.
Are we sinners? Of course. Are we imperfect? Of course.
Are we fallible men? Of course.
But God chooses to use these earthen vessels in order to get people saved.
And without the earthen vessels, people cannot be saved.
Just as accurate as it is to say that you cannot be saved without Jesus Christ,
it's just as accurate to say that you cannot be saved without having someone sent from God to give you the gospel.
And here we have one of the greatest examples of that.
John the Baptist, where it states that he's coming to bear witness of the light, which
is Jesus Christ, so that men through him might believe.
And let me just remind you today, fundamental Baptist, all men need to believe through you.
You are being sent by God.
God is sending forth you into the harvest to go and preach the Word of God, and this
world will die and split hell wide open if you don't do something about it.
The responsibility lies upon you,
not just the person to the right of you,
not just to the person to the left of you.
I'm talking about the man in the mirror
is the individual responsible to get people saved.
Look, folks, you know, the Bible tells us we are as workmanship created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.
Obviously we have a purpose in this life.
God has a predetermined course for us to follow, but let me just tell you, this specific revealed
will of God for every single person in this room who is saved is to go out and preach
the gospel and get people saved.
And let me ask you this, are you fulfilling God's will for your life on a weekly basis?
Are you going out there and preaching the gospel?
I'm not asking you if you are placing a Bible verse
on your social media.
I'm not asking you if you're arguing with people online.
I'm not asking you if you are, you know,
putting that you're Baptist on your bio
and you're doing your social,
and I'm not against social media.
Obviously, you know I'm not against social media.
I believe we should have our fishing pole in every pond.
And I think that's valuable, okay?
But at the end of the day, you know, that is no excuse.
We need to make sure that we are person going out there
to open our mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel.
And let me just say this, you know, I don't take biblical advice
or Bible interpretations from people who don't read the Bible cover to cover,
who don't go to church, and don't go soul-winning.
I don't care how many degrees you have, how many scholarships you have, how many degrees you have,
if you're a master in divinity, if you're a bachelor's or whatever,
I don't care how many pieces of paper you have on your wall, where you're graduated from,
how many followers you have, if you don't have those three, your opinion means nothing to me.
It means nothing. You gotta be a doer of the work, amen?
I much rather take advice and biblical interpretation from someone who consistently reads the Bible cover to cover every single year,
goes to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Thursday evening, and preaches the Gospel on a weekly basis than any of these scholars, West Huff or whatever, on the Internet.
I don't care about their opinion, they mean nothing.
Plain and simple.
Why because according to the Bible God places an emphasis on the witness who is sent by God to bear witness of the light that all men through
He might believe okay, and you look I don't care how eloquent people are online
It doesn't matter to me how popular you are because that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the eyes of God
Anyways at the end of the day. What is your resume?
What is the work that you're putting in?
What are your credentials regarding salvation?
What are your credentials regarding the doctrine
that you believe?
What church do you go to?
Who's your pastor?
Well, you know, I don't really do the church thing.
So many false prophets out there.
Yeah, you're one of them.
You're one of them.
I don't agree with you regarding your Bible interpretation.
Anne?
You don't even go to church, Instagram is your church.
So why do I even, why do I even esteem?
Do you think, why do you think I esteem what you mean?
Oh, you know, why don't you just answer me?
Because you don't go soul winning.
You don't go to church.
You don't read the Bible.
And quite frankly, you're probably not even saved.
I want to talk to the John the Baptist.
That's who I want to talk to.
Okay.
Now love what it says in verse eight.
He was not that light.
We'll send to bear witness of the light. Why? Well, because John the Baptist was so godly
The people were kind of wondering as this is this the Christ
All right
He's obviously bearing witness of the light in such a manner that he's letting his light so shine before men and
To the point where the religious leaders are coming to him and just like hey tell us tell us plainly. You know, who are you?
First Corinthians 3 5 says who then is Paul and who's a Paul's but ministers by whom he believed even as the Lord gave
to every man. Did you know you're given to every man so that that man can be saved?
There's someone in this world this week that is requiring for you to obey the Great Commission,
to go out there, to knock on the door, and to get them saved. They don't know that that's what they need.
They don't know that that's their life-changing decision that they're gonna make, but you know it.
And God's requiring it of you to go out there
and preach the gospel.
Don't take it lightly what you do.
Don't take lightly the work of soul-warning.
When you go out there on a weekly basis,
don't think, well, this is just a chore that I have to do.
You know, sometimes it may feel that way,
but let me just remind you that you are making
an eternal impact on people's lives.
People are being saved.
And so that's important.
And look, folks, even if you don't get someone saved
this week, do some soul-warning at least.
You know this past this past week we're out preaching the gospel and man
It was just a lot of Catholics and these are some hardcore Catholics. They're Mexicans and
They spoke only Spanish and
You know, I'm like preaching my son was with me and and my family was with me
And I'm just like it's gonna be one of those weeks
You know, and I'm just talking to people. They're just like so catholic. Oh, you know, I'm like, all right, you know
And you know, I talked to this one lady and I don't know
I think this is like maybe the sixth person I talked to and I for sure
I thought to myself like this person's probably not gonna get saved and she didn't get saved
But I was like, you know, I'm gonna warn her anyways
And she's like, I'm Catholic and we get saved through the saints and I'm like, dang this this lady's damned
You know, and and I'm just like, okay
Well, I said, um, do you believe the Bible?
And she's like, you know, what kind of Bible is that?
You know, is this like a Protestant Bible or something?
And I'm just thinking to myself, well, you know,
don't you claim to give us the Bible?
You know, what difference does it make, you know?
So I started courting the scripture,
telling what the Bible says, this is all in Spanish.
And, you know, she's like, no, you have to do works.
You gotta make sure you behave yourself.
You know, all the nonsense that they spew.
And I responded with, you know,
And he told you that all you have to do is believe on him to be saved
That it's not by your works just believe on him
Would you believe him?
She said yeah, I would I said well guess what that's what he said
I said John 3 16 John and I started quoting all these scriptures from the book of John
And she just kind of like looked at me, you know, and I'm just like that's that's what Jesus said
And she goes no you still got to do works
I said so if he said not to do works and only to believe on him are you still gonna believe you have to do work?
She's like yes, I'm still gonna believe I have to do work
I said so even if Jesus said it I said okay, and I just thought I said well according to the Bible you're gonna go to hell
That's what the Bible says
You know I said, but you don't have to go there
God made provision so that you could be saved through Jesus Christ by your faith in Him.
And you know, I was preaching to that woman and she wasn't liking it, but as long as she was listening, I'm just going to give it to her.
And I'm like, if I'm not going to get anywhere to save her, I'm going to go out kicking at least, you know what I mean?
And there's like kids and I'm just like, you know, I'm just kind of telling her.
And you know, she didn't get saved.
But thankfully the door right behind me, you know, the guy ended up getting saved there.
So, you know, it worked out.
But you know that the point is is that as we're gonna see you know the lights shine it than the darkness and the darkness
Comprehended it not
So darkness does it just can't understand the light and obviously sometimes we get frustrated with people when we're at the door
But we do have to understand that people are just spiritually blind
You know just remember what it was like when you were unsaved
Maybe someone gave you the gospel and just went right over your head. Why?
Because the the light shined it in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not and we just need more light
People just needed more light
We needed more light until the light of the glorious gospel of Christ was the image of God shining to us and we understand the gospel, right?
And so that is what John the Baptist was doing here. Look at verse 9
He says that referring to Jesus was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world
By the way, not Muhammad not Islam not Buddha
not Hinduism
The man that lights every man that comes into the world is Jesus Christ
You know, I don't care what people say. Oh, I'm so enlightened. No, you're still in darkness if you're not saved
Jesus Christ is the source of all light. He is the light and if you claim to love the truth
But it doesn't bring you to the foot of the cross to be saved then you're still in darkness according to the Bible
He lights every man to come into the world and obviously we can interpret verse 9 is as you know implying there that God gives us a measure
Of light when we're born, right? We have a measure of truth in our hearts
We have the law of God written in our hearts that God wants us to respond to that ultimately
Positions us to be saved right?
It says in verse number 10
He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not he came into his own and his own received
Them not so we see the forerunner of the word, but we also see the rejection of the word
Because even though he's the light the lights every man that comes into the world
Even though he created the world the Bible says here that he was in the world and the world didn't know who he was
And he came into his own and his own received them not
Now this is specifically referring to the fact that he came to his creation and his creation rejected him
But more specifically he came to Israel and Israel rejected him
Okay
Because his own is referring to the fact that he is of Judah
He's a Judean. He's coming to those of Judah and they are rejecting him
Okay, and so this is why the punishment of the Jews is so grievous in the Bible
This is why the curse of Israel is so grievous according to the word of God because of the fact that they
Jesus came out of Israel
People want to boast like oh, you know Israel's so important because that's where Jesus came out of that actually makes the punishment even harsher of how much
Sorrow punishment
So he be thought worthy who have trodden under the foot the blood of Christ, right, which is exactly what Israel did
Came into his own his own receive them not and you know, this is very poetic
because it's kind of giving us this grievous state here,
this grievous statement of the fact that,
in spite of the fact that he made the world,
he's lighting every man that comes into the world,
he's coming to save the world,
his own are not receiving him.
But then it says in verse 12,
as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,
even unto 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.
So we see the rejection of the word, but then we see the receiving of the word.
And the Bible is telling us here that although there are people who reject Jesus Christ,
That's actually synonymous with not believing on Jesus Christ because the alternative here
is the person who receives Jesus Christ is the person who believes on Jesus Christ.
So it's biblical to say I receive Jesus Christ as my personal savior because what are we saying?
I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I love verse 12, you know, and if you do any amount of soul-winning, you quote verse 12 quite a bit.
And in fact, it's probably one of my favorite portions of scripture to quote when giving, when teaching the concept of eternal security.
Because of the fact that the Bible teaches that once we get saved, we become children of God.
We become sons of God and then we relate that to the fact that the recipient of our message has a mother and has a father and even if they were not to speak to their mother and their father from here on out, it will not take away the fact that they're still children of those parents.
Well, in like manner, when we get saved, God becomes our heavenly father, we become his children and even if we're not living a life that's pleasing unto God, we're living in disobedience to God, it doesn't take away the fact that we're still the children of God.
That's a wonderful promise, you know. Behold, what manner of love the Father epistodied upon us that we should be called the sons of God, the Bible says.
Beautiful. And so, you know, and by the way, this is a great verse also to show that not everyone is a child of God.
Which is another Catholic statement that they like to make. I mean, I literally heard that this week, we're all children of God.
And I quoted in Spanish in John 1-12, I quoted the verse in Spanish, and I said, so it says
you have to become one, so you're not one.
And he's like, well, yeah, yeah, but X, Y, and Z, and Catholic this and Catholic that.
But here it says that he gives us the power to become the sons of God to those who believe on his name and it states here that those
Who believe on his name here here and we see the concept of being born again first being mentioned before chapter 3
He says which were born
Not of blood
Meaning that you cannot be a child of God simply because your parents are saved
You know God has no grandchildren. He can only have children
You know, and this is should be a great motivation to us as parents to pray for the salvation of our children
But also to give them the gospel, right?
And that's a sermon for another day, but we need to make sure that, you know, our children are receiving a
daily weekly dose of the gospel message
You know that we're teaching them the word of God.
We're teaching them the gospel.
Obviously it's a lot different with our children
and it would be with the person at the door
because that person at the door,
we're probably never gonna see them again.
But our children need to kind of be weaned onto the gospel
because some of these concepts
kind of go over their head a little bit.
But we can't just think,
well, you know, they're already growing up
at Christian home, it's gonna happen eventually.
No, we need to make sure we do our part
because being born again is not of blood.
They don't inherit salvation through us.
You know they can they're more likely to get saved because we're saved
But it doesn't negate the fact that we need to make sure we do our part to get them saved
He says not which were born not a blood nor of the will of the flesh. We can't will ourselves to be saved through the works of our flesh
He says nor of the will of man
No one can force you to be saved. It says but of God. God is the one who
Converts us to become children of God through our faith in Jesus Christ
You know, I think God that the Bible teaches this concept of being born again and being a child of God, we're adopted
Why because of the fact that it just adds that much more sweetness to the message of salvation for me
You know because obviously God, you know, the Jesus Christ is my God, right?
He's my Savior. He's my Messiah, but God the father is also my father though, right?
Meaning that he pities me
Meaning that, you know, and by the way, like as a father with my children, my wife often reminds me like this is how God sees us sometimes.
Where we pity our children. We have such unconditional love for our children, you know, and sometimes it's just like, you know, the way we treat our children, we're tender with our children, we discipline our children.
You know, we recognize how frail they are and how much they want to please us. Well in like manner, that's how God views us sometimes, right?
What it means to be a child of God
Look at verse 14 here. It says 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 father full of grace and truth
So it's very important here in verse 14 to understand
That it's saying here. It's talking about the incarnation of the word, right?
And it's great that the chapter first begins with in the beginning was the word
lest any should think that the word was created in verse 14 when he's born.
Verse 14 comes after verse 1.
It's explaining to us that the word has always existed.
And folks, Jesus Christ did not become the Son of God in Bethlehem's manger when he took
When he was born of Mary, he did not become the Son of God.
He is the eternal Son of God.
And look folks, one of the best passages to prove this is Daniel chapter 3.
And it comes from the mouth of an unsaved man who understood this.
You know that he saw a fourth in the furnace and the fourth is like unto the Son of God.
Not son of the God, sons of the God, son of God.
Referring to a pre-incarnate Christ.
And this is important because this is essentially identifying the fact that Jesus Christ took
on human form, the flesh he was born like every other person is in his life.
Two thousand years ago in Bethlehem's manger the word of God is made flesh.
He dwelt among us meaning that he experienced the humanity of men.
He experienced the sufferings of men.
And the Bible says there that he is full of grace and truth.
How can that be, you know?
And I just don't understand that.
That just doesn't make any sense to me, you know?
Well, it's probably because you're just not saved.
And at the end of the day, once we get saved,
a lot of these things we have to accept by faith.
The Bible says, great is the mystery of godliness, right?
God was manifest in the flesh.
And you know what, we can't understand these things
to its fullest extent because of the fact
that these are heavenly things
that sometimes are just too high for us.
And I don't think that, you know,
I don't think we need to illustrate it in different ways.
I think we just have to believe what the Bible says.
You know, I'm not into apologetics.
It's not my thing.
I'm not into trying to convince a Muslim of the Trinity.
You know, they just need to believe what the Bible says.
What argument would you use against the Muslim to prove that Jesus Christ is God and that the Trinity is real?
John chapter 1 and
If that isn't cut it for them, then you're going to hell
can't help you
because I
Had to believe about my faith and so do you I
Don't need you know God doesn't need to give us like a a structural argument or interpretation of
the Trinity or something like that
God just commands us to believe it, it's just like these three are one, got it, I believe
it, the Word of God was made flesh, I believe it, plain and simple, without controversy
great is the mystery of godliness and so this is referring to, obviously it's not explicitly
talking about Bethlehem's manger but this is John's version of it, right, because he's
See how much more I can cover here all right let me cover these last couple verses and I'm done
Look at verse 15
John bear witness of him and cried saying this was he of whom I spake he that comeeth after me is preferred before me for
He was before me and of his fullness have we have all we received in grace for grace for the law was given by Moses
But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ
No man has seen God at any time the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father
He hath declared him now what this is referring to it's actually a callback to Exodus chapter 33
where God specifically tells Moses that no man shall see God and live.
And obviously this is referring to God the Father.
Now what this means, I don't know, we could obviously speculate that this means that if you were to stand before
God the Father, you just completely disintegrate. You couldn't stand before Him.
His holiness would absolutely obliterate you
because no one can actually stand before him
and actually live, which is why he could only show
his back parts to Moses.
And even then, like the radiation was just like,
it was just, you know, Moses came down from the mountain,
he's just like glowing, you know?
And that was only his back parts.
Whereas the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus Christ
declares God the Father because he's his son.
And so, what is this telling us?
It's telling us that no man has actually seen the face of God, the Father,
although we can't say that we've seen the face of God through Jesus Christ, okay?
Hebrews 1 3 says who being the brightness of his glory referring to Jesus and the express image of his person and
Upholding all things by the word of his power when he hath by himself purged our sins sat down to the right hand of the majesty on high and
You know that the simplest way to explain this would be the fact that when you see Jesus Christ as Jesus Christ holds Philip later on
You know if you see me you've seen the father
You know, it's just like pastor. How did you look like when you're a kid?
Well, if you see my son Bruce, you're basically looking at me
And anybody who's seen pictures of me when I was a kid
is just like, whoa, that's identical to Bruce.
And there's even instances where it was like,
that's identical to Isaias.
That's just like, they're twins.
Because, well, if you've seen Isaias, you've seen me.
At five years of age if you've seen my son Bruce you've seen me at eight years of age
That's exactly what I look like well in like manner
Jesus Christ is the express image of God the father and I'm gonna stop there because we're gonna cover the second half
I want I don't want to rush through this because there's a lot of great truths found towards the latter end of this chapter here
Great chapter here. I'm looking forward to teaching through the book of John.
A lot of wonderful truths. I hope you enjoy it. Let's pray. We'll finish off the service.
Father, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the Gospel of John. Lord, what a powerful book.
And it's so refreshing not only to start a new book, but just specifically in the New Testament
and to study the life of Jesus Christ through the testimony of the disciple John.
that it may inspire us Lord to preach the gospel, may it inspire us to study the word of God that
much the more Lord and have a greater appreciation for the gospels and specifically for the gospel
of John Lord. And I pray that you'd help us to be as John the Baptist a witness of the light that
all men through us might believe as well. We love you. We thank you. Pray the things in Jesus' name. Amen.