The Divine Light

John 1:1-13

John 1:6-13.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. ⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. ⁸ He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. ⁹ That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. ¹¹ He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. ¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: ¹³ who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Last week we studied from the gospel of John that Jesus is the Word and the Life. Today we will study that Jesus is the Light. V 4, “The life was the Light of men.” Five subsequent times in the verses ⁶ to ¹³ Jesus is referred as the Light. From science let us get an understanding of why this idea of light is attached to the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we think of light, we take it for granted because we are so used to it. Life is full of darkness and light. We understand them without a scientific explanation. But whenever there is a term like this used to describe the Lord Jesus Christ or God Himself, it behooves us to dig a little deeper into the concept to see if we can’t see that God is viewing far more than we might see on the surface.

We experience light in a static way. It is either dark or light or some degree in between. For us, light is on and off, it is present, or it is absent. We look at light as some kind of static condition.

To give you a scientific definition of light might help expand our understanding, and then we can apply it to what we are learning here about the Lord Jesus Christ. Light is energy. Science defines light as luminous energy, as radiant energy, as electromagnetic energy.

Light is moving at a speed of 186,282 miles per second. It is anything but fixed. It is considered as a wave, as a corpuscular or quantum phenomenon. Light in great measure, indescribable as to the power and the source of that power. The quantum idea is a testimony to the fact that it cannot be comprehended as to the source from which it draws its velocity and its very existence.

Light is a wave, moving at 186,000 miles per second. This wave can hit the retina of the eye, and when it does that, it makes things visible. It illuminates things. All colour depends on the light. Where there is light, we see.

Where there is no light, we do not see. It is high-speed energy that hits the eye and makes things visible. When you think about light in that way, you are seeing it or viewing it in a way that is directly applicable to the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is divine power in the spiritual realm, making things visible.

When the Light, the spiritual light of Christ, hits the living soul, which would be equal to the open and functioning eye, everything is illuminated in the spiritual realm. The Light, according to John, is none other than the eternal life who is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Word that comes from God.

• Jesus is the Word because in Him, God speaks.
• Jesus is the Life because through Him God gives life.
• Jesus is the Light because by Him everything in the spiritual realm is illuminated.
• Apart from Him, there is no Word from God.
• Apart from Him, there is no life.
• Apart from Him, there is no true understanding, but all is darkness.

John has captured some very basic things, simple on the surface and yet profound to express who this person is that we call the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the living wave of divine power, moving at infinite speed, shining brightly into the spiritual realm to illuminate all that is otherwise dark. The Word is Life, who is the Light that overpowers the darkness. The darkness cannot overpower the Light.

Our Lord Jesus Christ makes everything spiritual truly discernible and visible. We see the way the spiritual realm truly is only in the light of Christ. Apart from Him, everything is dark. Even in the world of religion, everything is dark without Christ.

John introduces us to the one who illuminates the spiritual realm. John is identifying the Light. He refers to it six times, and he will refer to Christ as the Light again in the gospel. John is going to do in this opening chapter is to turn that Light on some very essential, foundational, bottom-line, bedrock, spiritual truths.

He is going to shine the Light where the Light initially needs to be placed for us to understand the foundational realities.

• The light of Christ will shine and reveal the nature of true ministry.
• The Light will shine and reveal the very nature of the Saviour Himself.
• The Light will shine and reveal the nature of sinners.
• The Light will shine and reveal the nature of believers.
• The light will even illuminate the nature of God.

We will see the truth about Christian ministry, the truth about Christ Himself, the truth about sinners, the truth about believers, and the truth about God when the Light shines. Most importantly the Light is none other than Christ.

The arrival of the divine Light drives the darkness away from these foundational realities. John has a gospel objective here. He says at the end of his letter that he has written all these things that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing, have life in His name.

This is a gospel effort and an evangelistic book. John wants us to be saved and knows that can only come when we understand the gospel. These are the foundations of the gospel that John shines the light on at the very beginning.

1. The Light of Christ illuminating the true nature of ministry.

The true nature of ministry is gospel ministry. V 6-8, There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. ⁸ He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

The essence of gospel ministry, which is the responsibility of every preacher, every believer is that we are all to be giving a witness to Christ. The essence of the nature of gospel ministry is right there established for us at the very beginning of this gospel.

Since the purpose of it is evangelistic, this is critical to John, that we understand the nature of Christian ministry. Why do we as believers in the world some of us preach and what is to be the theme of our preaching? “There came a man.”

Up to this point, from V 1-5, John was talking about the uncreated One, the eternal One, who in the beginning existed already, who was with God. Jesus was with God distinct from God and yet was God. He is the One who created everything that exists, and nothing has come into existence that He didn’t create. He is life itself and gives that life, and He is Light.

The eternal Son of God, the second member of the Trinity. V 14, “became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John talking about God who became a man.

We have a shift in V 6, “There came a man.” We move from the uncreated One, the Creator, the eternal One, preexistent, coexistent with God, self-existent to a mere man. John will give us many things that give testimony to Christ.

He will point us to the testimony of the Father. He will point us to the testimony of the words of Jesus, the works of Jesus. He will point us to the testimony of the Holy Spirit, to the testimony of eyewitnesses of His miracles, to the testimony of His disciples.

John will give us at least seven different lines of evidence to show that V 14 is true, that the eternal, uncreated Word of God became flesh. But he begins by pointing us in the direction of this testimony that comes from a man named John.

Another man named John. John means gift of God. John the apostle is the writer, but here he is referring to a different John the Baptist. We know him as John the Baptist, because of his ministry of baptizing people in the Jordan River who had come to him to hear that Messiah was coming. They needed to repent and get their hearts right.

To symbolize their desire to be washed and cleansed from sin, John put them through a baptism, which was really what they did to Gentiles who were outside the covenant when they wanted to become a part of worshiping the true God and become a part of the religion of Israel.

John had a massive amount of people coming from Jerusalem and Judea to prepare for the Messiah. He was baptizing them, and so he became known as John the Baptist. He is the last Old Testament prophet. There hasn’t been one for 400 years until he arrives.

We can read about him in detail in the early chapters of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He is the last Old Testament prophet. He is the greatest man who ever lived up until this time.

Matthew 11:11, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Why?

More intellectual?

More spiritual?

More influential? No John the Baptist is the greatest man who ever lived up until his time because no man ever had a greater responsibility or a more privileged duty. He introduced people to the Messiah. That made him greater in terms of responsibility and privilege than anyone who had ever lived.

He was bold, forthright, and yet he was humble. He was resolute. He was so faithful to the preaching of the truth that it cost him his head. We are introduced to John the Baptist.

His ministry is defined. V 7, This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. The model for gospel ministry. John lays this down at the very outset. If his purpose is to cause people to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing have life in His name, then that becomes the mission of every true believer and every true preacher.

V 6, There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. John the Baptist was prophesied to come in the Old Testament.

Isaiah 40:3, The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. He is the one spoken of at the end of Malachi who would come before the Lord’s arrival. John comes from the Lord in a very direct sense, as he is prophesied. Clearly, by prophecy, he is sent from the Lord. John’s parents were barren.

They were in their eighties. They had never been able to have children. He was miraculously conceived, which adds another component to the fact that he is definitely sent from the Lord. His conception is a miraculous conception.

John was sent from God. Luke 1 that his arrival was announced to his father by an angel who came from heaven. John is a man sent from God in a completely different way.

Luke 1:80, So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel. He is the true prophet. In Matthew ¹⁴ and 21, we read that everybody thought he was a prophet. Everybody believed he was a prophet because of the nature of his ministry and the nature of his preaching.

This bold, powerful, humble, effective prophet comes along. But he is a man! The contrast!

• The Lord Jesus was from all eternity.
• John came into being in time.
• The Lord Jesus is the eternal Creator.
• John is His creation.
• The Lord Jesus is God.
• John is sent by God.
• The Lord Jesus is the Light.
• John testifies about the Light.

V 7, “as a witness” or for a witness. He comes for a witness. “He came for a witness” is a better way to translate it because the Greek is not a person but the message. He came for a message. “He came for a message, to testify.”

He came to step into the courtroom of the world and give evidence of the Christ being the Son of God. This is the reason why he came. He came as a man who had the true evidence from heaven regarding the Light. He had the facts by which to give the message, the testimony to the court of the world, so that they would understand the truth about the light.

V 7, This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. Gospel ministry is about the Light. It is about Christ. It is giving the facts, the truth, the evidence concerning who He is, why He came, and what He has done. That’s gospel ministry.

To give the facts concerning the One who is the Word, the Life, the Light, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to demonstrate that indeed the Word became flesh, dwelt among us for thirty-three years, put His glory on display, the very glory that belongs to One who proceeds from the Father, full of divine grace and truth.

All true Christian ministry is established here as being Christ dominated, and Christ centered. This is the true nature of Christian ministry is about Jesus Christ. John points people to the Saviour. V 15, John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ”

John is giving his testimony. He was crying out, shouting at the top of his voice. John was talking about the One who, though man, is also the eternal God. He gave constant testimony concerning Christ. V 29, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

V 30, This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ V 34, And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” V 36, And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”

John’s testimony. Christ-centered testimony, and it continued to be the subject of his preaching. This is a foundation which Paul builds on.

1 Corinthians 2:2, For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

2 Corinthians 4:5-6, For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶ For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Acts 1:8, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

We going to give the same kind of testimony in the courtroom of the world of the evidences that point to Him as the Saviour, the Son of God, so that people can believe in His name and be saved.

• Christ is our subject.
• Christ is our theme.

There is no other subject.

There is no other theme. V 8, He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. John the apostle says that John the Baptist was not the Light but He came to testify about the Light. That’s what true preachers do.

That’s what true believers do. We testify about the Light. John knew he wasn’t the Light.

John 3:25, Then there arose a dispute between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification.

When we see in the Gospel of John the word “John,” most of the time it’s John the Baptist. There is only one other John in the whole gospel of John, and that appears four times, and that’s John, the father of Peter. John the apostle never uses his name.

He chooses to call himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” So, when we see “John,” most often it’s John the Baptist. We have John the Baptist, and his disciples are having a discussion with a Jew about purification.

John 3:26-30, John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ ²⁹ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. ³⁰ He must increase, but I must decrease. John knew he was not the Light, not the Christ. Let me fade away and let Him take the spotlight.

John 5:35, He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. He was the lamp (or the light) that was burning and shining, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

What is the issue here? The word “lamp” in John 5:35 is luchnos means “a portable lamp”. A small portable oil lamp with a little wick. John was that kind of light. He was a derived light.

V 8, He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. Here the word is phōs, essential light from which you get “photography,” “photosynthesis.” The Greek word “pho,” is “light.” Jesus is essential light. John is a lamp that reflects that light in the same sense that you and I are the light of the world, and we are not to hide our light.

John illuminates the nature of true gospel ministry. All true ministers, faithful witnesses, center on the evidence and the facts concerning the person and work of Christ, to make the case that He is who the Scripture says He is.

That’s the theme of all preaching by all obedient, loyal, faithful ministers and Christian witnesses. Ministers are not priests.

• We are not priests.
• We are not mediators.
• We are not sacred agents who somehow draw down through ceremonies and rituals some kind of divine life and grace and dispense it to somebody else.
• We don’t do that; it is a deception.
• We don’t bring divine grace through any sacramental means to people.
• We are not spiritual advisors.
• We are not coaches.
• We are not helpers, psychologists, who through our good advice make people feel better about themselves.
• We are not miracle-working healers who have some kind of anointing from heaven that exalts us above everybody else.

No preacher is anointed in any supernatural way above anybody else. There is no such thing in Scripture. All true ministers are sent from God to declare the true witness and testimony concerning the Light, concerning Christ, who alone dispels the darkness.

When we give the true and accurate and complete testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are loyal and faithful. In our WCF Church as long as you have been coming, you will see Christ the theme of everything.

Why? V 7, This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. The purpose: All might believe through him.

Who’s “him”?

Not Christ. Through John!

Do people believe through a man? Yes!

What’s the Great Commission?

Matthew 28:19-20, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Why do we need to preach the Gospel to everybody? Because if they don’t hear the gospel, they can’t be saved.

Romans 10:11-14, For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. ¹³ For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” ¹⁴ How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? ¹⁵ And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!” John is a model. John came for a witness, to give testimony about the Lord Jesus Christ, so that all might believe through his preaching, through his ministry. People come to salvation by believing preachers, by believing the evidence they present, by believing other Christians who have taken the gospel to them and explained it and given the facts and supported it.

The goal of gospel ministry is believing through our preaching.

1 Corinthians 9:16, For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!

Romans 1:16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

It may be foolishness, 1 Corinthians 1, may be a stumbling block, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God unto salvation. 2. The light illuminates the nature of the Son of God. The true nature of the Son of God.

• We would know from the Old Testament the second member of the Trinity.

• We would know the Trinity because we see all three persons of the Trinity engaged in the Old Testament.
• We would know that there is a relationship between the members of Trinity.
• We know that there are conversations between the members of the Trinity,

“The Lord said unto my Lord,” in the Psalms. We would know something about the nature of God because His attributes are disclosed in the Old Testament. We know a lot about Him. But there would be a measure of darkness until the light appears, and the light illuminates Himself.

The light shines to reveal the very Light itself, the very essence of Christ. V 9, That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. When Christ arrived, now the second member of the Trinity becomes clear to us.

Now we see who He is.

• We know from the New Testament that He was working in the Old Testament.
• We know Christ was a spiritual rock, for example, that brought water to the children of Israel in the wilderness.
• We know other things about Him that are referred to in the New Testament.
• We know that He was the One on the throne in Isaiah 6 of whom the angel said, “Holy, holy, holy.”
• We know that He is the Savior of Isaiah 52 and 53, the One who would be our substitute.

But there is still shadow around that until we come into the New Testament and the Light arriving illuminates Himself. We see the light of the glory of God like never before, shining in the face of Jesus Christ.

Which is more glorious, which is more instructive? To see a cloud of fire at night, a cloud of light in the day, leading the children of Israel, or to look into the face of Jesus Christ?

• He is the effulgence of the Father’s glory, the express image of His person. (Hebrews 1)
• He is the One in whom the Godhead dwells bodily. Colossians 1.
• He is the one in whom the glory of God is revealed, full of grace and truth. John 1.

The light shines on the true nature of gospel ministry and it shines on the Light itself. He is the true Light.

• He is the true Light, as opposed to borrowed light, secondary light, derived light.
• He is the true Light, as opposed to shadows and symbols.
• He is the pre-eminent, all-glorious emanation from God.

The glory of God shines in Him, more brilliantly than in any other revelation and consequently enlightens every man who sees Him for who He is.

What does it mean, “enlightens every man”? There is complete enlightenment about who He is not available in the Old Testament. No one really could see the full glory of Christ until He came into the world.

• He enlightens every man.
• He is the only Light for every man.
• Everyone who is enlightened is enlightened by Him.
• Everybody who understands salvation and His role as Saviour, everyone who understands that understands it because they see Him for who He is.
• Everyone who is truly enlightened and sees the supernatural world the way it really is because he has seen the light of Christ.

You can’t be saved apart from Christ.

John 8:12, “I am the Light of the world. No man who follows me will ever walk in darkness.”

The only light the world has is Christ. He is the only light that can enlighten anyone and everyone. His light is the only sufficient light.

John 3:16-21, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ¹⁸ “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. ²¹ But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Again, John’s theme of believing in Him for salvation. The light of salvation shines only in Jesus Christ.

Christ is to the souls of men what the sun is to the world. He is the center and source of all spiritual light. Like the sun, He shines for the common benefit of all mankind, for high and for low, for rich and for poor, for Jew and for Greek.

Like the sun, He is free to all, all may look at Him and drink health out of His light. If millions of mankind were mad enough to dwell in caves underground or to bandage their eyes, their darkness would be their own fault and not the fault of the sun.

Likewise, if millions of men and women love spiritual darkness rather than light, the blame must be laid on their blind hearts. But whether men will see or not, Christ is the true sun and the light of the world. There is no light for sinners except in the Lord Jesus.

As the sun is the light that lights the world, so Christ is the Light that lights every man. There is no other light.

• If you accept the Light, you are saved.
• If you reject the Light, you are judged.

How did Jesus manifest Himself? V 10, He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He was in the world. He was in the world that He made. The world was made by Him. He was in the world for 33 years.

He was present in His creation. For 30 years in Nazareth, the people had Him in their neighbourhood, and the first time He came back to preach, they tried to kill Him. He ministered in the land of Israel, banished illness, banished demons, demonstrated His power over nature. He was the mystery of godliness, God in human flesh. He was the invisible God made visible.

He was in the world, the very world that He made. He demonstrated His creative power. Gave people limbs, gave people organs, gave people eyes, and new hearing mechanisms. Gave people life from the dead, controlled storms, walked on water. He showed His creative power.

He put Himself on display by being in the world. This is the greatest manifestation of the Saviour, the second member of the Trinity, who would be our sacrifice.

The coming of Christ enlightens us about the nature of spiritual ministry, and it enlightens us about the nature of the Saviour Himself. 3. The Light illuminated the true nature of sinners. To get the gospel in our mind and understand its urgency and importance and understand the truth John makes this unmistakably clear.

V 10, He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. We understand that men are sinners.

Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

• We understand the fall in Genesis 3.
• We understand that mankind is cursed.
• We understand that God must drown the whole human race very early in the book of Genesis because He sees only evil continually.
• We understand the depth of human depravity from the history of the Old Testament and as well as the New.
• We understand the wretchedness of the world.

Never has that wretchedness and the profound nature of that darkness been more on display than when people reject the Light.

• It’s one thing to reject the light of the law and the words of Old Testament prophets.
• But it is a far more indicative thing to reject Christ.

This is incomparable testimony to the depravity of man. Put the blazing Light of heaven, full of grace, full of truth, in the world of sinners, and when they reject Him, you will have the most dramatic evidence of the depth of their depravity.

• One thing to reject a man, a prophet.
• But it is quite a flagrant thing to reject the living God in human flesh.

Never has the depravity of man been so clearly revealed as when the Light came into the world and exposed all that was hidden in the darkness of the human soul. How wretched are you when you resent Jesus Christ, when you will not believe in Christ, then, ever since then, or now?

Rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the most devastating indication of the depth of human sin.

V 10, and the world did not know Him. Romans 1 says, “They don’t know God.” John 1 says, “They don’t know Christ.” Still true today. Engulfed in spiritual death and blindness, they love their sin.

John 3:19-20, And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

They plunge deeper into the darkness. To those that are perishing, the Light is foolishness. He gave ample evidence to the generation that were there when He arrived and has left ample evidence in the testimony of Holy Scripture.

John 5:31-47, Jesus says,

• Can’t you believe My words?
• If you can’t believe My words, can you believe My works?
• If you can’t believe My works, can you believe My Father?
• If you can’t believe in My Father, can you search the Scripture?
• For they are they that speak of Me.

There is plenty of evidence of human sin, human depravity, but never is it starker than when people know about Christ, have the truth in their hands, and reject Him. Because the Light has never shone in such glorious brilliance. The people who plunge deeper into the penetrating darkness demonstrate the sinfulness of sin.

V 11, He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. It means His own place, His own people, His own country, His own nation, His own town and those who were His own did not receive Him. The very people who claimed to believe in the true God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Old Testament. They were the most religious people on the planet.

Romans 9:3-4, For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, ⁴ who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises;

We find in the law, the prophets, the historical writings, and the Psalms all those categories in the Old Testament numerous times this phrase by God: “My people”.

Jesus came to His own people, and those who were by their own statement His own people did not receive Him.

How deep is depravity? The greatest illustration of human depravity in history is the Jewish rejection of Christ when He was here. There is nothing parallel to that! John is going to show us the history all through this gospel of Jewish rejection of Christ.

4. The Light illuminated the true nature of believers. V 12, But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those

who believe in His name

What does it mean to receive Him? It means to believe. They are parallels. “As many as received Him to those who believe in His name.” To believe in His name is to receive Him, to receive Him is to believe in His name, to believe in His name is to believe in what His name means, and it means all that He is.

There will be some who will believe. The word “but” is a small, powerful fulcrum that makes a dramatic shift from the previous unbelief. But as many as received Him or believed in Him, He gave the privilege to become children of God, and that’s the true nature of believers.

What are we?

Are we just people who follow creeds? Are we just people who go through religious ceremonies? Are we just people who have a certain moral code that we live up to? No. The true nature of believers is we are children of God.

We don’t find that clearly indicated in the Old Testament because the people in the Old Testament would only call God Father in a creative sense, not in an intimate, personal sense.

We cry “Abba, Father,” we speak to God as our personal Father because we are His everlasting children. Because we received Christ and believed in Him. We believe in His name, and therefore, we have the privilege “to become His children.”

We were created physically, and as believers in Him, we have become children, we have been created as spiritual children. This is the second creation. This is the reason it is called “the new birth” or being “born again or being “born from above.”

The One who created us materially, physically, will create us spiritually. This One is Christ Himself. Nothing was made without Him in the physical creation, and no one is spiritually re-created without Him, either. “As many as received Him, believed in His name, to them He gave the right to become created children of God.”

He creates us. Christ creates us anew the second birth, regeneration. The true nature of a believer is not a person who is guided by a moral code or an ethical system, but a new creation, a child of God everlastingly true.

John, one by one, shines the light of Christ to illuminate the nature of ministry, to illuminate the Saviour Himself, to illuminate the condition of sinners, to illuminate the nature of believers.

Conclusion

The Light coming into the world also illuminated the true nature of God. If men are as sinful as they are, if they are as wretched as they are, if they love the darkness as they do, if they are spiritually dead and spiritually blind, how can they possibly believe?

How can they possibly receive Christ?

How can they possibly become children of God?

How can they possibly be born again?

How can it happen? V 13, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

To be a child, you must be born, new birth, regeneration. Who were born not of blood.

What does that mean? Heritage. Don’t come down from your ancestors. That’s not how you become a child of God, not because of your parents or your grandparents or your family. Nor of the will of the flesh. Not because of personal effort, personal moral effort, personal spiritual effort, and personal religious activity.

“Nor of the will of man.” The acts of others, some sacramental system, some system of religion plied by so-called priests on your behalf. You are not going to become a child of God by family heritage. You are not going to become a child of God by personal effort.

You are not going to become a child of God by some manmade system. Impossible.

How? You were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. Only God can do this miracle. We are introduced to the true nature of God regarding the gospel. God is by nature a Saviour.

He is a Saviour whose mighty power causes us to receive His Son and to believe in His name. John will say much more about this later in the gospel, but at the very foundation we need to know that in this ministry of evangelism and gospel presentation and giving testimony and witness to Christ, God will work to give life to dead sinners. It is His heart to do that.

God our Saviour. Paul repeats it again and again. God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially those who believe. He is a saving God.

Who is a pardoning God like you? Read Ezekiel 36 and 37. God presents the New Covenant of salvation. Read Jeremiah 31. God is by nature a Saviour. It’s in His heart to give life to dead sinners. This is what we need to know as the foundation, the bedrock essentials for Christians.

We need to know that God by nature is a saving God who gives life to dead sinners. We need to know that believers are those who become by new creation eternal children of God. We need to know that sinners are deep in blindness and darkness and flee the Light.

We need to know that Christ is the only true Light to lighten every man. We need to understand that the nature of ministry, then, is to present Christ and give testimony to Him and see what God will do for His own glory.