John 1:1-18 – Jesus The Saviour

If you would like to grab a Bible that should be near you, uh please do.

We're gonna be in John chapter one, starting at verse one to verse eighteen.

On page eight eight six, if there's a bible around you, if you brought your own Bible, you'll have to find it yourself.

John one, verse one.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

He was in the beginning with God, all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

In him was life, and the light, the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

He he came as a witness to bear witness about the light, and all that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made through him.

Yet the world did not know him.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him, but all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son, from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John bore witness about him and cried out, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.

For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is the Father at the Father's side, he has made him known.

Amen.

As we come to God's word, let me just pray for this time.

Let's pray.

Loving Father, I thank you for your word.

I thank you that by it we get to see and know you.

And I pray in this time, would you move by your spirit?

Would you speak to us that we might know you more fully and deeply, and that you might be honored and glorified.

Amen.

Advent is a wonderful time of year.

It's a happy time of year for us all.

And this year at City Church, in this season, we've been walking through chapter one of God's Gospel John's Gospel, not God's Gospel, John's Gospel for our Advent series.

And this is one of the four Gospels that speaks about Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, exposing truths about who Jesus is.

And in our Advent series, we've considered Jesus the Word, Jesus the light, and today we're thinking about how Jesus is the Savior.

And I wonder, as we sit here, I wonder how captured you are by what we celebrate at Christmas.

I wonder whether your heart is once again being moved if you're a Christian and shaped by what Jesus did for you over 2,000 years ago.

Because it's easy to let this just pass us by without being reminded of the beauty of what's happening.

Maybe you're more focused on just all the things that need to get done.

As Christians here today, there should be a distinct joy we feel at this time of year.

There should be a distinct thankfulness we feel at this time of year.

Because the Christian faith sets itself apart from every other faith and every other worldview.

If you grasp the truth of what we celebrate at Christmas, we will be in awe.

Because in our world today, we can often and easily forget the distinct taste of Christianity compared to other beliefs, other worldviews.

We can fail to see how radical what we believe is.

Increasingly, in our Western worldview, it can feel as if as people we are just headed in the same direction.

We're just living our lives in our different beliefs and going in the same direction.

We feel like if you believe something, that's fine as long as it doesn't harm someone else.

And at the end of the day, we're just all finding our way through life.

It's as if we're at the bottom of a mountain looking up.

And God is at the top of the mountain, whatever God you want to put there, whether it's a religious God or a secular God.

And what we believe is we're just seeking to kind of climb to the top of this mountain.

We're all aiming for the top, on our own ways, in our own beliefs.

And at the end of the day, we'll all end up in the same place.

Yet here in John 1, John the Gospel writer makes it clear that the truth of Advent, the truth of Christmas, the truth of the Christian faith separates itself above other beliefs, other worldviews that emphasize it's about what you do, it's about what you contribute to it, it's about your energy, your efforts.

Christian faith is not about what you have done or what you will do.

Because it is instead of us working our way up to God, the radical thing is that the God of the Bible, the God of all, the creator God, came down.

And that is a game changer.

The madness that God came down, if we allowed that to just sink in for a moment, the one who spoke everything into being came down.

The one who sustains everything came down.

The one who keeps every star and planet in place came down.

The one who is eternal, who has always been and will always be, came down.

The one who fully and completely knows you came down.

The one who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, came down.

That should just overcome us with awe when we realize what is happening.

If we allow that to actually sink in.

Why would he come down?

Why would he choose to come down?

Lowering himself, taking on flesh.

And the simple answer is to save us.

That is why he comes, to save his people for his glory and our good.

That is what he has done.

And John writes this gospel with a clear purpose in mind.

And in chapter 20, he tells us his purpose.

Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

This is the goal, this is the desire of why John writes, inspired by the Spirit, so that you might know life, true life in who Jesus is.

That's why John writes this gospel account.

And the reality is for us today, we are either gonna leave here, this building, knowing the life we have in Jesus, or we leave here rejecting the life that is on offer.

That are that those are our options.

Because Jesus did not just come as a cute little baby over 2,000 years ago for us to feel warm inside.

He came to bring salvation.

Salvation that brings life, salvation that brings adoption, and salvation that brings understanding.

Salvation that brings life.

Consider the claim that Jesus is making.

That he says, in him he has life.

John the Baptist says that about Jesus, and John the Gospel says it in verse 4.

Look at verse 4.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

Last week we considered Jesus the light and how light is a metaphor for life itself.

But the implication of this is outside Jesus there is no life.

And though John states that Jesus is the source of all human physical life, he is pointing to spiritual life here.

He is pointing to the life that we long for.

This profession is one that declares to you and me today, you're either alive or you're dead, spiritually speaking.

Because the options are accepting Jesus as the source of life or rejecting him.

That's what John says.

Because sadly, we all know, though, what deadness feels like, spiritually speaking.

I know that each of us in this room have experienced that.

Consider the season we are in.

Our culture at this time puts such a heavy weight on this season.

We think this is gonna be great.

Whether it's an expectation on the gifts you will receive, you just think, oh, if I get that gift, if I get that gift, I'm gonna be so happy.

I'm gonna be so excited, I'm gonna be full of joy.

It's gonna be the best day ever.

Or maybe you're a food person like Mark, who just thinks about food.

He's just like, oh man, Christmas Day is gonna be amazing.

I'm gonna get to eat as much food as I want.

I'm gonna be stuffed, I'm gonna go into a food coma.

It's gonna be so good, and I'm gonna feel so satisfied.

Maybe it's more about just the experience of being with friends, being with family, the actual experience of laughing together, having good times together.

We're gonna feel all snuggly and Christmassy and warm inside.

It's gonna be wonderful.

People do this around us all the time.

You do this all the time.

And yet, if you're seeking to find the source of your life in things like this, they will fail you constantly.

They will never live up to your expectation.

You get that gift and the appeal of the gift soon fades away.

You get that food and you're stubbed and you think, I'm satisfied.

Yet a few hours later you are back in that kitchen, scrounging for more.

And let's be honest, there's at least one blow-up each Christmas relationally, whether it's over the preparation of a food or someone didn't get what they hoped for.

None of these things that we hope that we place upon Christmas will do it for us.

They won't actually truly feed what our soul longs for, the life we long for.

And don't hear me wrong.

On Christmas Day, you will see me if you see me, eating until I am stuffed.

I will enjoy good gifts, I will enjoy being with friends and family.

But they are not the source of life.

All of them are good, but we easily place this wrong weight that they cannot take.

They will fail you time and time again.

But our culture itself actually exposes this lie.

Did you know that there is a term called Christmas blues in our culture that actually people describe the feeling and experience even during or after Christmas where it hasn't actually lived up to the expectation?

They feel down because they've put such a pressure on this season, a pressure that it cannot take.

They've built it up to give so much, and it ends up leaving people utterly discouraged.

Because it will not live up to that weight.

Instead of giving life the life that they so long for, it robs them of life.

And this will always be the case, no matter what it is.

If it is a created thing, the life we long for will never be found.

It will fail us time and time again.

And Jesus here comes and he exposes this reality for us, saying, Outside of him you will not find life.

Your soul longs for it, and yet you won't find it outside of him.

The salvation Jesus brings offers life.

But the fact he can only do this is because of what he did.

Look at verse 5.

Verse 5 says, The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Last week, Mark preached on declaring the reality of Jesus as light, this image of darkness, this image of light being metaphors for life and death.

And that is what is at stake.

That's why it's so important to consider, to be reminded of.

That as God looks down, he knows what is needed.

Your spiritual deadness was so devastating, the reality of you working your way out of the darkness was impossible.

The Lord God, creator of all, seeing every person's rejection of him, seeing every sinful thought and deed, living how we want to live, every act against his design and his desire, is the one who has given life to people, did not just choose to leave us in it.

He didn't just say, Oh well, I'll leave them.

No, he comes bringing salvation.

But the beauty of salvation is made greater by understanding the darkness.

Because often we want to think we're better than we are.

We often don't want to think we're bad, we don't want to think the world around us is that bad.

But John exposes the fact of what Jesus says about the darkness.

See, we don't just sin because that is who we are, that's just in us.

It is actually much deeper than that.

Jesus exposes it in John 3.

He says, This is the judgment.

The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light.

You completely miss Christianity if you believe it's just about rule keeping.

It is far deeper than that.

It is about your love, it is about your affections.

Because each day when you sin, you don't choose your own way instead of God's.

You don't need to work yourself up to that.

None of us wake up in the morning and think, right, Duncan, today's the day you're gonna treat mean people meanly.

You're gonna be mean to everyone around you, you're gonna think bad things, you're gonna mock people, you're gonna be horrible today.

You can do it, Duncan.

Do it today.

None of us think like that.

We don't.

We don't have to be won into sinning, into rebelling.

We do it because Jesus says we love it.

We love the darkness, we love it, and we can't even realize that.

Because in the darkness you are blind to your reality.

Even though you are dead, you do not even know it.

But the beauty that Jesus is saying, He is the light, he is the one that comes to expose the darkness, to reveal it to be dark.

That is glorious to say to you, there is a better love for you.

I have a better love for you.

That if you're a Christian here today, you should rejoice knowing that the darkness of death itself has been revealed to you.

And you only know that because he has done it.

But don't neglect it.

Because Jesus, as the light, the one who longs to bring you life, continues to desire for you to have more life.

That's what he wants.

That is Jesus' aim.

Come have life, come have life.

Because the light working in us daily exposes the darkness we feel and experience.

Brother, sister in Christ, know it is Jesus' goal to bring you further and further into the light.

To expose every dark area of your life.

Like a skilled surgeon, through the work of his spirit, he is longing, longing desperately for the dark areas of your life which bring death to be cut out.

That's what he wants.

Because all darkness is like a cancer that spreads and destroys.

But the reality is having Jesus expose those dark areas is at times painful.

It is hard to see the darkness of who we are as people as we reject him as the creator God.

But it is through that that we will know greater life in him, in Jesus.

And it's because of the great exchange that the depth of your darkness has been taken by Jesus.

Because though he became a baby, he did not stay a baby, he grew into a man.

And he is no ordinary baby or man, he is the word, the light, becoming flesh.

And he became flesh to be able to enter our darkness.

Not just enter it, but destroy it.

Being found in human form, feeling the nails driven into his hands and his feet on the cross, hanging there, facing death in its face.

And though Satan, the ruler, the one who is over the darkness, who loves death, who loves darkness, who longs for you to stay dead, thought he dealt a fatal blow.

Death could not hold him, as the one who is the true light.

The light who could never be overcome by darkness.

Jesus, though dead, he did not stay dead, he rose victorious, revealing life that he has won for us.

The life he promised to win.

And we sit here over 2,000 years past this event that Jesus did.

But the reality of that event should grab us, should strike us, and say, who is this man?

That he would do that, that God would come in human form.

That reality should amaze us.

That the one who is the source of life, the creator of life, became flesh, so that we might have eternal life in him.

Bringing salvation from death.

The death we so often feel and experience, yet knowing death does not have the final say on us.

The light of the world, the word become flesh, has spoken and declared victory.

Though we could not overcome the darkness, he has done it for us.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Do not believe the lie of Satan, the one who we whispers death over you.

Do not be fooled by him who only wants death for you.

Strive after Jesus.

Step further into the light.

Study his word.

Come to him in prayer, knowing that in the light you will find life, the life that you long for.

That is what he wants for us.

Life.

Knowing he did not just leave you to your own devices, but stepped into your darkness and dealt the fatal blow.

If you know Jesus here today, you get to know his salvation of life.

His salvation also.

Brings adoption.

Look at verse eleven.

He came down, he came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

When you consider what God has done in Jesus, it's astonishing, it's amazing that he offers life.

And we don't deserve it.

We've done nothing for it.

But he doesn't stop there.

God could have chosen to just save us and say, right, I've saved you, I've given you life, and that is glorious and that is gracious.

But he doesn't just choose to save us, he adopts us.

Jesus' salvation brings adoption.

With adoption, we enter into a new family.

That shapes everything.

True adoption does not see you lesser than Christ, but sees Christ.

As the Father, God the Father, gazes on his children, he sees his son, whom he loves.

So complete was the work of Jesus that it is our right.

John does not say to you, you've been brought into the family as a friend or as a servant.

The wonder of this is that Jesus enters our darkness for us, he gives us the same rights as though we had always been children of God.

That is the beauty.

In our culture, we struggle with this idea of true adoption.

We can act as though a family who adopts is kind of that's their backup plan.

We can think though a family who adopts and have biological children like the adopted children are lesser.

That is a lie.

Every child in every family is a blessing from God to the parents of that family.

They belong, whether adopted or biological, those children have equal rights in that family.

Those children share the realities of belonging to that family.

That is a beautiful display of the gospel.

I wish I could do a biblical study on adoption and the heart of God in adoption.

The God who declares himself to be the father to the fatherless in Psalm 68.

The God who has within his redemption plan to save people has so intrinsically put adoption at the heart of what he is doing.

God has a high, high, high view of adoption.

Because he has a high view of us because of Jesus.

Children who have been one, who have been adopted because of Jesus.

That was not the backup plan.

That was the plan.

Can you imagine?

Just imagine the joy of the Father and the Son and the Spirit considering together, considering what they were gonna do, what they did that Christmas.

They were just thinking about people and thinking, man, people don't even know how much we love them.

People don't even really grasp how much we are gonna do for them.

They can't even begin to comprehend our love and our care and what we are working out.

It is so staggering what we are gonna do, they'd never even imagine it.

Even though this was gonna come at the greatest cost ever, given.

One God, Father, Son, and Spirit.

And even though the Father gives up his son, whom he loves and has always loved, and even though the Son lays down his deity, becomes a man, face death, the weight of all sin, upon him who knew no sin, it was gonna be worth it.

This is what God has always determined to do as Father, Son, and Spirit.

Do you see it?

Do you feel that the plan being worked out that tells you, brother or sister in Christ, you're part of the family.

You are my son, you are my daughter, God the Father declares.

In you I delight.

Because the failure to know this, the failure to allow this to really capture you, is that it will leave you continually working your way to God.

God says, look at Jesus, He has worked for you, He has done what is needed for you to become my child.

This is your identity, Christian.

This is our identity.

Before anything else, we are children of God.

That is who we are.

Secured by our Savior.

Nothing can take that from us.

My security is not just temporary but eternal.

This changes everything.

Our identity as children gives us purpose and meaning and focus.

We don't need anything the world has to offer because we know the source of life.

We don't need to be shaped by what's around us, because we are complete as children through Christ.

We are justified because of Jesus.

We are righteous because of Jesus.

We do not cling to an identity that is fragile, but one that is blood bought, which has made us children of God the Father.

The Creator God declares his care, his love for you in this.

He never saved us to just be servants, but rather, his salvation is so much greater as he adopts us into the family, declaring his love for us.

Salvation brings life, salvation brings adoption.

And finally, salvation brings understanding.

Look at verse 14.

Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Being around church, we can pick up on biblical talk a lot.

That each year, if you've been in church a while, like myself, you'll hear these things.

You'll hear the word becoming flesh and just think, yeah, that's what happened.

And not pause to consider why.

Why did Jesus, why is Jesus the word?

Why is he the one to become flesh?

Because the word becoming flesh shows God's intent, God's desire to help us to understand who He is, to see Him, to know Him.

He longs to be known by us.

Because there is a difference between knowing things about someone and knowing someone.

Each week I come into town on the Lewis, and while I'm there, I'm I'm looking at people, observing them.

It's a good way to pass the time.

Now, as I watch people in a non-stalker way, I learn things about them.

I see things they do.

Maybe I hear a conversation they have.

And in my mind, I can draw conclusions, they're this type of person.

I've seen them do this, I've heard them respond to other passengers, maybe heard them engage with someone else.

But to say I know them would be utterly untrue.

I don't know them.

I may know some things about them, but even those things are so limited, because I've not spoken with them.

I've not talked to them, I've not heard from them.

See, this is the idea that John 1, John in John 1 is exposing.

That the word become flesh.

This is by our words we express who we are as people, as we engage with one another.

And here the very essence of who God is has come in the flesh, and the goal is clear.

Look at verse 18.

No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

God wants to be known, he wants us to understand who he is.

That is why Jesus is the word, the essence of God.

And because without choosing to do this, we could not know him.

We could not even begin to fathom who he is.

And this does not mean we know him fully.

We will continue to grow in our understanding of him in our limited capacity to limited degrees.

And what we find is God who longs to reveal his glory towards us.

Because we have been made for that glory, to see that glory, to know that glory, to enjoy it.

Because the reason we chase after earthly things is we are chasing for glory.

And yet they don't give us what we long for.

Searching to know the kind of glory that captures us and utterly transforms us.

And God has made it so.

Coming in flesh, revealing his glory, the one who delights to show us grace and truth in himself.

Saying to us, I have a far better way of life than you could even imagine.

Anything you think is good, anything you think is the best thing for you, probably isn't.

That I have what will bring you true lasting life.

The salvation Jesus brings is ultimate salvation.

That can never fail.

It can never fail to give our souls the satisfaction we long for.

Because there is no end to the grace he gives.

Look at verse 16.

From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

Jesus is full.

He is full of grace and he is overflowing, giving grace time and time again, and he will not run out.

He supplies us with grace in the highs and lows of life to be able to face each day, to be able to go through this life, seeing and experiencing more of his grace.

As we cling to Jesus, as we look to Jesus, we will grow in our knowledge of his grace towards us.

We will experience it more in our lives as we pray to him, as we seek him in his word, as we seek to display him to those around us.

This is where we will get to taste his grace more and more.

In this Advent season, if we take it for granted, we miss the purpose.

The purpose that has been designed, not by you, not by me, but by the Creator God, who has given life and created all things.

And as Christians, you have been invited into something so much bigger, so much more glorious than you can even comprehend.

To know that Jesus, the Savior, has won so much for us.

It is not about you striving, about you working.

But as John, the writer of this gospel says, it's about you believing in the one who has done it for you.

It's about you depending upon Jesus by what he has done and bought for you.

That he has bought life never ending.

As children of the Father, as those who get to know God, this will radically shape your life if you allow it.

If you actually take time to dwell upon what this season is all about, what God has done.

Knowing that He does not call us to work our way up the mountain, knowing that He chose to see us in our helpless state to come down to rescue us.

To say, Come, know life in me.

Let me pray.

Loving Father, I thank you for your word.

I thank you for the truth of it.

I thank you that by your word, through your spirit, because of Christ, we can know you.

We can experience you.

We can see you.

That you've worked that for us.

And I pray for everyone in this room that we would not leave rejecting the life that is on offer.

That we wouldn't leave thinking that our dead ways are better.

But that we would know that you just want us to know true lasting life in your Son.

Help us to see, give us eyes of faith, and help us to rejoice in this season at all your blessings that you give towards us.

Amen.