Receiving Jesus – mfairlady

Mary Fairchild

The following is the phonetic reading of the expository teaching of Pastor Jim Mooberry. John 1:6-13; “Receiving Jesus” 11/09/1985.

“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 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.”

The man of Jesus Christ is a very interesting and historical figure and when we turn to the Bible to get the historical account of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ we find that of the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they begin their story about Jesus Christ by placing him in a historical setting. Matthew and Luke begin their story about Jesus Christ with the historical circumstances surrounding his birth. Mark begins his gospel with the historical circumstances surrounding the beginning of the ministry of Jesus Christ on earth which had its beginning at his baptism by John the Baptist. But, the gospel of John is unique in the way that it begins for he begins his gospel, his story about Jesus Christ, with the theological statement about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that statement directs our attention to ETERNITY PAST. (scratch in recording…) …as the second person of the Trinity. What happened in Bethlehem was that the eternal Son of God, the Word of God, took on full humanity in the birth by the virgin Mary. So, Matthew, Mark and Luke are primarily historical in scope. They start in time with the appearing of Jesus Christ in history in some fashion. John is eternal in scope in that he points us back to eternity past and he said, “Jesus Christ, his person, already was existing and he had no beginning.”

Let’s review verses 1-5 where John presents Jesus as the Word that is the ultimate revelation of God…words communicate something and Jesus Christ is the ultimate communication of God. First we see his eternality in verse 1: “In the beginning was the Word.” Now, when you go back to the beginning of all things as we know them John says the Word was already existing. Jesus Christ has no beginning as to his person or his being. His co-existence with the Father: “he was with God.” He along with the Spirit, the three in one; three persons in one God, not three Gods, it’s a mystery. It is the Trinity; they were existing together co-equal from all eternity. He was there. And then his deity is very clearly stated in verse 1, “The Word was God.” That’s everywhere presented in the Scriptures. Matthew says, “behold, a virgin with child and she’ll bear a son.” Quoting Isaiah the prophet, “and they shall call his name Immanuel” which is translated ‘God with us.’ Paul says in Colossians 2:9, “For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.” JESUS IS GOD.

“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 any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” John 1-5

Next we see John talk about the Word in creation in verse 3, “All things came into being by him and apart from him nothing came in to being that has come into being.” Jesus Christ is the agent of creation. Psalm 36:3 says, “By the Word of God the heavens were made.” The universe in its entirety owes its existence to Him. The Word in eternity, the Word in creation, and then he moves to the Word in the world—the Word’s relationship with its creation in verses 4 and 5.

First of all, he is the source of light and life, “In him was life and the life was the light of men.” What does it mean? It’s a scientific principle that life can only come existing life. Life never comes from inanimate matter. Now, where did all of this life come from that’s around us and in us and in creation? It has all come from the one from whom within there is life; self-existing; God. The Son of God communicated it his life that the creation might live. He is the source of life. Not only that, he is the source of eternal life. That spiritual quality, that spiritual life that has an eternal value which is the real life of God.

He is the solution to two of man’s most basic needs. First of all we are dead in sins and trespasses we all have no spiritual life when in this world. Jesus Christ is the source of life when we are born again. We are also blind in our sins because of our death in sin and he is the light. He communicates illumination. He alone, John begins, is the source of eternal life. All the rest are frauds….. all the rest are liars. He alone is the source of eternal life and also in verse 5 he is the revealer of the light “and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not lay hold of it literally.”

John has begun by showing us that Jesus Christ as to his person, we have to look clear to eternity past and we find him already there. And as we move toward history we find that he is the creator and when history comes about he is the revealer of life and light and so now he moves from eternity to creation to what is known as the incarnation. Incarnation means to take on a human form. The Son of God took on a human form and became human.

A lot of people don’t realize that they think that he must be 50% God and 50% man. He is 100% God, never ceased to exist as God, and he is now 100% man. He is a unique being in the universe; the God-man Jesus Christ. The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity took on manhood. That’s what it means in verse 14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Verses 6-13 are John’s initial statements about Christ’s sojourn on the earth and how the earth or the creation responded to him. Our outline today is:

The Word presented.
The Light presented and the Light rejected.
The Light received.

Let’s look, first of all, at the light presented in verse 6-8. “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.” Now, when John says “there came a man from God named John he’s not talking about himself, he’s talking about John the baptizer—John the Baptist. Malachi 3:1, the prophet said almost 500 years before Jesus Christ, “Behold I’m going to send my messenger and he will clear the way before me and the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple.”

In the Old Testament there are prophecies predicting before the Messiah would come, the Christ, he would send his messenger to prepare a way for him. Isaiah, 800 years before Jesus Christ said this, “A voice is calling ‘clear the way for the Lord’ in the wilderness and we find that John the Baptist is the fulfillment of those prophecies. In Mark, the beginning of his Gospel, as we said, it begins with his ministry on the earth and in the very second verse in Mark’s gospel he says, “As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight” and then he says “John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching.”

John is the forerunner of the light and we have a one word description of his work by Mark, “He came preaching.” That word literally means proclaiming. John was the herald of the King. Now, in those times, when the king would come to a city, there was one who was appointed to run before his chariot to get there ahead of him and to let the city know the king is coming. “Prepare the city the king is coming.” This is the herald; this is John the Baptist’s work in a word. He proclaimed the coming of the king. He was Jesus Christ’s advanceman. John was appointed the herald of the king. His task was to go before Jesus in time to prepare the world, or the people for the coming of the Messiah. He built up an expectation in the nation of Israel. People were going to him to be baptized and they were listening to his message and they had an expectation that he was coming and this was John’s work. We see this summarized by Matthew 3:1-6. He had a tremendous ministry and was very popular….

“In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea. And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all of Judea, and all the region around about Jordan. And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.”

Tremendous ministry…all of Jerusalem and all of the area around the Jordan River and Judaea were going to him and as they came to him confessing their sins they were saying, “John, I hear what you are saying. I believe Messiah is coming. I am getting myself ready mentally and spiritually for that event and I come to you to demonstrate it to be baptized as one who has faith in your message.” Now I think the secret of his ministry, found in the book of John is that “he was sent by God.” When someone is sent by God they have a power and authority like no other. He was sent by God.

Let’s take a look closer at his mission in verses 7 and 8: “The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not the Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.”

Now, his mission is expressed twice by the word ‘witness’ here. It was a court or legal term for ‘giving testimony.’ John the baptizer was God’s witness giving testimony concerning the Messiah who was coming. Just as you would see in regular court setting of someone on the witness stand under oath giving testimony to what they’ve seen and heard that is jar main to the case. John the baptizer was God’s witness telling the truth; giving testimony to all that would hear about the coming of the Messiah. The coming of the Light into the world.

The purpose of this ministry is in verse 7 “that all might believe through Him.” That’s interesting because light really needs no witness. If you are in a dark room and you turn on a flashlight it just shines. …except if you are blind. There was a story told one time by Dr. Gray Barnhouse, a great preacher of a generation ago, and he was teaching during a black-out in England. Now, most of you probably know what a black-out meant; that when the bombers were coming over all of the lights were shut off or curtains were pulled that would seal the light off so that the bombers could see no light and know they were over a city or over a refinery or whatever and drop the bombs.

And so he was preaching his church during a black-out so all of the lights were shut off and there was this huge skylight in the room that he was preaching in …. Someone accidentally pulled the switch and the lights came on. It sent this shaft of light right up straight into the night and the minute that happened the whole congregation just gasped because they knew what the significance of what the accident meant. Accept Dr. Barnhouse saw down in the front row a blind man tugging at his neighbor saying, “What happened….what happened?”

You see, the Light needed to send a witness into the world to tell us, the blind of the world, that He was there. John the Baptist was that witness. His responsibility is to witness. The Holy Spirit will convict men and women. That’s the same responsibility for us today. As Christians, we simply testify as to what we have seen and heard regarding Jesus Christ. We have come to know Him, we have come to experience His salvation, we have come to understand why we are saved because He died for us and when we put faith in Him our sins are cleansed and forgive.

We are simply witnesses. It is not our responsibility to convict people to bring them to faith. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. Our responsibility is the same as John’s. We give testimony. We witness concerning the life. John’s object was to point men to Christ and that also is the same as us. We don’t point to ourselves. John the Baptist didn’t point to himself. He pointed others to Christ and that is our responsibility, too. We have tasted of the Lord and found Him to be good and when others ask for the hope that we have we point to Him.

John the Baptist came as a witness to the Light. Now, John says here that John the Baptist was not the Light. He was not the Light, but he was a witness to the Light. John the Baptist was a great man but he was not the Light. He was like a moon to the sun. He reflected the glory of the true Light but he was not the Light. Now I believe that John probably inserted this to answer those that followed John the Baptist as some messiah figure.

Twenty some years later, the Apostle Paul found some of John the Baptist’s disciples in Ephesus and there was a cult at that time following John the Baptist and so the Holy Spirit through John the apostle writes “John is not the Light he is the witness to the Light.” I like what wrote in a commentary on this passage, “What an assurance on the world far away from God that the light must have one to proclaim it. The creator must have one to introduce Him into His own world and then it was necessary to say that this introducer was not the light lest men should mistake the witness to Christ for the Christ he witnessed to.” John the Baptist was sent from God to present the Light.

Now we see the response from mankind to the light. In verses 9-11 we see that the light was universally rejected at least at this point in the passage. “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 into his own, and his own received him not.” John 9-11

What does this mean? First of all, let’s look at verse 9. “The coming of the light.” My Bible translation is not quite on the mark and I’ll explain to you what I mean… it’s a very difficult construction in Greek. But I believe what should be read is this way, “There was the true light coming into the world which enlightens every man.” There’s 3 or 4 ways you can translate this construction of Greek, but concerning the context I believe you should translate it that “there was the true light coming into the world (the incarnation) and that light is the one who enlightens every man. He doesn’t do it just because he’s coming into the world. He’s always done it and will always do it. He is the true light and the word there means genuine or original or real… the genuine article, “the” light and he is coming into the world. I think that’s the first mention of the incarnation. He is leaving his place of eternity of the throne of God and is entering into our realm. Then he says “this is the light which enlightens every man. Now, this is very problematic. What does this mean? There’s a number of possible meanings here. I’ll give you three of them this morning… the last one is the one that I prefer.

First of all, I don’t think anyone would accept this first one, some have said that universalism is taught here. That is that Jesus Christ enlightens every person spiritually therefore every person is going to be saved eventually…and that’s what it says right here. But, the rest of the Scriptures are entirely against that translation. In fact, even John himself doesn’t allow for that because later in his gospel in chapter 8:24 he records Jesus as saying to the Pharisees, “Unless you believe that I am He you shall die in your sins.” So, Jesus says ‘Unless you put faith in me you’re going to die in your sins.’ Not everyone, unfortunately, is going to be saved. Only those who accept Christ by faith as their Savior who believe in Him and his work. So, I do not believe that he enlightens every man unto salvation.

Others believe that he means that he being the life principle, that he is the reason that we all live and that the life that we have is just a chip off the block and that he is the life principle which gives life to all men. Now, I believe that that is in essence true, the reason you live is because you have been given life by God. If you were to withdraw that life you would die immediately. But, I don’t think that’s really the point of these verses in the context that ..John is talking here about either rejecting or accepting him and I believe there is a parallel passage in chapter 3.

And the third understanding as I believe he is saying it is that Christ is the illuminator in the sense of being the judge. Look in chapter 3:19-21, the same three elements here: First is the light comes into the world and comes to man verse 19: “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” It’s like there’s a light in this huge dark room and instead of men coming over to it they run and hide from it. The light has come into the room and into the world. Some reject it (vs. 20) and there is the accepting of some in verse 21.

All men are confronted by the life whether it is in only through creation at this point, through the Word of God, through his incarnation, or one day on the day of judgment the light will shine on them and confront them. 1 Corinthians 4:5, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.” Paul says that in the day of judgment God will illumine and manifest the reasons we’ve done things in our life and we will be judged. In the gospel of John I believe he is specifically referring to Christ coming into the world as the light of the world.

Barret says this, “Christ, as the light of men, gives men true knowledge and by shinning in their midst he submits them to judgment.” In other words you can’t remain neutral once you’ve been confronted with Jesus Christ. If you don’t know Him as Savior and I proclaim to you that he is your savior that he died for you will you accept it then you are put in a position where you no longer can be neutral. You either have to say no or yes… Christ is the illuminator. He is the one who confronts all men.

Now, he says that this light is coming and first he says that it is rejected. First by all men in verse 10. He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. The world here is the word ‘cosmos’ it means ‘human society’ which is now disobedient to God, its under the rulership of Satan, it is composed of dead, blind people and when the creator of the light came into the creation no one even recognized it. The Light joined its own creates but they didn’t recognize their own maker. I think this is limited to mankind. I believe that the beasts and the rest of creation probably recognized him. You never read in the Scriptures where any of the creation other than man is disobedient to the Word of God.

God appointed a fish the fish did what God said…. God said something to a donkey, the donkey did what God said… the rest of the creation understands and submits to the creator. Only man doesn’t recognize him. Why? Because of the blindness and ignorance caused by human sin. We are blind. In fact, Paul said no one’s even looking. Romans 3:11 “..There’s none who understands.. there’s none who seeks for God.” No one’s really looking. Why? Isaiah said for all of us have turned to our own way. We’re all lost. We’re on our own trip and we’re blinded to the true God. The condition still exists today. We are born that way. Men and women out there are not looking for God…. The thing is though, when the Spirit of God begins to work in a life, according to the choice of God, that person suddenly begins to be drawn, suddenly begins to look for an answer, suddenly is arrested, and sooner or later they come in faith. Not because they would have ever naturally looked for God but because the Spirit of God has drawn them.

Then we see the specific rejection of His people of Israel in verse 11: He came to His own and those who where His own did not receive Him. The first “His own” is neuter in Greek it means “His own things.” He came into his own land, his own city Jerusalem, his own temple. It’s his. And secondly, the ‘his own’ is masculine and means his subjects. His own people rejected him. It’s one of the saddest verses of the Bible. Isaiah, long before this, predicted, in chapter 53, that the Jews would reject their own Messiah. In Isaiah 53:1 He says, “Who hath believed our report? And whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” Who has believed our message? The answer: no one.

Now, you’ll note up to this point that unbelief is universal and if it weren’t for the grace of God it would stay that way. If it were not for the fact that God does something in the lives of certain individuals to bring them to himself we would all just go our merry way and we would end up in hell where we deserve to be because we choose to go there. We choose to go there rather than to come to the light because we love our evil deeds. But, because of God’s grace this unbelief is not universal. We see in verses 12 and 13 that there are some who accept him: “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.”

These rejections did not frustrate God’s purpose. God had a solution for this and the solution is that he is going to create a new people. A new creation. All of the world is guilty before God and rejects their own creator and now grace acts. This grace makes lost sinners children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Why do I say grace acted here? Why do some receive Jesus Christ while others continue in their rejection? In our own day and time… why do some come to the Savior and the rest of them don’t and they continue on in their rejection? It’s not because there’s something better in you then there is in them. The Scriptures tell us very plainly that we are all fallen, depraved, and sinners… Why did you who have come to Christ come if it wasn’t your own idea?

“But I said unto you, That ye also hath seen me and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I shall no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” John 6:36-37

“And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.” John 6:39

“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:44

What is Jesus saying? He’s saying that because the deadness of sin, the blindness of our hearts we will never come to God unless God draws us: ‘no one can come to me unless the Father draws him…and if the Father draws him I will raise him up on the last day.’ What’s he saying? He is saying that those who the Father draws always come. It is the doctrine of the election of God. It is a difficult doctrine for the human mind to accept. But the truth of the matter is that if not for the grace of God acting in your life and my life drawing me to the Savior I never would have come. It’s grace.

Let’s look at the membership of this new race that God is creating in verse 12: “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.” First of all you see its membership ‘as many as.’ That’s its membership: as many as. Secondly, its terms of admission ‘received him even those who believed in his name.’ To receive him is to believe in his name.

I can give you an illustration of that in Acts 8:14 to receive something biblically is to believe it in this sort of context: “Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John.” Now, those in Samaria didn’t welcome the word of God into their house or into their hearts necessarily in that picture it means that they believed the message. To receive is to believe. Receive doesn’t mean accept into your heart. It doesn’t mean accept Jesus into your life. It doesn’t mean to receive the indwelling of Christ. Those things happen as a result of believing. Those are faulty evangelistic terms. We believe in Jesus’ name and then we become the children of God. This is a work of God.

Notice it says that we believe in His name. What is his name? His name is Jesus. Somewhere in this New Testament it says that that name means he is the Savior because he saves his people from their sins. The name Jesus means the savior the one who saves us from our sins. To have faith in that name is to faith in him as your personal savior from sin. That’s what it means. To believe in the name of Jesus Christ is to believe in him as the savior from your sin. Have you done that? Have you believed that when Jesus Christ hung on the cross he hung there for you? That when he was dying he was being judged in your place? That your sin was put on him? He didn’t have any sin but your sin was put there. In Isaiah 53 says “by his scourging we are healed.” What does that mean? That means that Jesus Christ paid our penalty. That’s what his name Jesus means. He is our savior from our sins. He died, he paid our penalty, and now God says if you will believe in him in that regard, that he is your savior, he paid your penalty, that its sufficient, you have authority to become children of God.

First its membership, then we saw that its terms of admission, and then it privilege. The privilege of this new race that God is creating—we have the right to become the children of God. King James says the power to become the children of God. It means authority or right. What does it mean to become the children of God? Well, by becoming members of a new family by faith in Jesus Christ it means that we partake of the divine nature. We become members of his family by partaking of his divine nature—being a new person. We have a relationship with God as our father. That’s something that we don’t have apart from Christ. We are heirs and co-heirs of Jesus Christ with all things. As family members the inheritance is ours. There’s many other things that you will never fully appreciate until that day when we are in glory together. But becoming members of the family of God begins by personal faith in Jesus as our savior.

Let’s look at the life of this new race… John reveals that the work of God is in this act of saving faith by those who receive him. Because they have been born again they have been regenerated which means to be given new life. They have been born from God. In John 3:3 Jesus is going to tell Nicodemus ‘truly, truly I say unto you unless one is born again, that is regenerated, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You’ve got to have a new life. The life you have when you are born the first time is not enough. You have to be given the new life, the spiritual life and be born again. Well, how does that happen? He says it’s not, first of all, by blood. It’s a term there that’s in plural, it’s literally ‘not by bloods.’ That means it’s not by human descent. It’s not by your natural birth contrary to what the Jews thought, ‘where sons and daughters of Abraham…we’ve got it made..’ John says ‘no, the new birth is not the same as your physical birth.’

Secondly, it is not by the will of the flesh. It’s not by natural desire. Contrary to what some say, it is not because you want to become and you make a decision of your own will. It is something God does for you. Third, he says it is not by the will of man—that is not by natural power or resolve. Contrary to humanists that say we are our only savior—we ourselves are our only savior. It isn’t going to be because men band together to make a brave new world. It isn’t because men get together and say ‘how are we going to save our civilization from ourselves.’ It has nothing to do with the will of man. It is of God. We are born again by God’s power. It is a miracle.

Again in chapter 3(John 3:6-8) Jesus says, “That which is born of flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound there of, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” Jesus says you can see the effects of the wind but you don’t know where it’s come from you don’t really see how it works it’s the same thing with the spirit of God and new birth. We see the results. We see people’s eyes opened and they see for the firs time ‘Christ died for me… he’s my Savior’ and a new life starts and we see the evidence of it. It’s like the wind. The Spirit of God has been there. They have been born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Salvation is of the Lord. The act of receiving Christ, of putting faith in Him coincides with the infusion of divine life.

Are you a member of this new race? …if this is the first time you have ever heard anything about this.. or maybe you’ve heard some things about Jesus and about his death and things but they never really came together before. Are you believing this morning? Are you right now realizing that Jesus Christ when he died he died for you? The writer of the gospel of John says ‘On the day that you believe that and in so doing are receiving Christ as your savior is the day that you are born again and come into the family of God. If you’ve never taken the time to consider that, never made an affirmation of that faith and said ‘Yes I believe that.’ Won’t you do that as we close?

Father in heaven we thank you that the light came into the world and that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And his glory was beheld; glory of the only begotten Son. And Father we also thank that not only did he come into the world but he accomplished a work while he was here that procures our salvation…..

WORKS CITED

KJV John 1:6-13
“Receiving Jesus” by Pastor Jim Mooberry 11/09/1985; Village Church of Bartlett.

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