Before we start let s ask for God s help in the understanding of His Word. On our recent holiday in March Heather and I went to Jervis Bay down south.

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1 The True Light (John 1:6-13) 29 th March Intro Please keep you Bibles open at John 1:6-13. There s an outline to take notes if that helps you concentrate Before we start let s ask for God s help in the understanding of His Word. Let s pray Intro On our recent holiday in March Heather and I went to Jervis Bay down south. On one of our adventures we came across an historic lighthouse called Cape St. George Lighthouse [Powerpoint 1 Lighthouse] As you can see there s not much left of it now. The lighthouse was built in 1860 and was only operational until 1889 The lighthouse should never have been built in that location and the appropriate authorities were never consulted before it was built The problem was - the lighthouse was not visible from the Northern approach to Jervis bay and was barely visible from Southern approach. When ships approached they only saw the light at the last minute by which time they were inside a small bay now called Wreck Bay and the ships were unable to navigate their way out and often ran aground From 1864 to 1893 there were 23 ships wrecked in that little bay no wonder it s now called Wreck Bay (pause) Page 1 of 12

2 2 The purpose of a lighthouse is to guide ships to safety and guide them into a safe bay. This old lighthouse didn t do that it was like a false light guiding them to the wrong dangerous bay instead of the safety of Jervis Bay Which brings us to today s passage and the apostle John introduces us to someone who is called the True Light The Importance of the True Light (vv6-9) But first the apostle John introduces us to another person in v6 He s a man named John and sent by God This John is not the apostle John the writer of this book This John is actually John the Baptist and We hear about John the Baptist s birth in Luke chapter 1 and his parents are Elizabeth and Zechariah who are to have a baby in their old age - An angel appears to Zechariah before John is born and says about John: [Powerpoint 2-Birth of John] 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. So there s John the Baptist s job to bring people back to God and he s like the powerful prophet of the OT Elijah and he s preparing people to meet the Lord. Page 2 of 12

3 John the apostle confirms John the Baptists job in verse 7 3 He says John the Baptist came as witness concerning the light Who is this light? Well it s the same person as we heard last week being described as The Word It s Jesus the Son of God Here s how Jesus describes himself in John 8:12 [Powerpoint 3 Light of the World] 12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. So John s job is to be a witness to Jesus the light of the world The Greek word for witness is where we get our English Word martyr from A martyr is someone who dies witnessing about Jesus something that will happen to John the Baptist later in John s Gospel. And I ve said many times before names are really important in the Bible John s name means God is a gracious giver And that s what John is doing preparing people to receive God s grace Remember grace is God s free gift to us And that Gift of Grace is this light that John is witnessing about this free gift of Jesus It s like John is in a courtroom and giving evidence that this light is the real deal. And the purpose of John s witnessing is there in v7 Page 3 of 12

4 [Powerpoint 4 through him all might believe] 4 so that through him (through John s witnessing) all might believe If John doesn t witness how can people believe? And it s the same for all of us If we don t witness how can people believe? It s like what the apostle Paul says in Romans 10:14-15 [Powerpoint 5 how can they believe] 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! What are they believing in? Jesus in his death so we can the forgiveness of sins and in his resurrection so we can have eternal life with God John s a signpost pointing to Jesus! We are a signpost pointing to Jesus! The apostle John goes on to clarify in verse 8 that John the Baptist is not the light in case people are following John the Baptist and that John the Baptist is only a witness to the Light Jesus Then in verse 9 the apostle John describes Jesus as [Powerpoint 6 True Light] The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. Page 4 of 12

5 5 By true light we mean genuine and not false, not pretend the real deal a light that illuminates and enlightens people - not in a physical way like the sun but in a spiritual sense giving us knowledge and understanding of God and who Jesus is and why He came and giving us understanding of God s Word and showing us the darkness of sin We sometimes use the expression to shed light on something meaning that it gives an explanation or understanding of something that s what Jesus does The writer and theologian J.C. Ryle puts it this way: [Powerpoint 7 JC Ryle quote] Jesus is to the souls of men what the sun is to the world. He is the centre and source of all spiritual light, warmth, life, health, growth, beauty, and fertility. 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. [Powerpoint 8 JC Ryle] So, likewise, if millions of men and women love spiritual "darkness rather than light," the blame must be laid on their blind hearts, and not on Jesus. "Their foolish hearts are darkened." (John 3:19; Romans 1:21). But whether men will see or not, Jesus is the true sun, and the light of the world. There is no light for sinners except in the Lord Jesus Page 5 of 12

6 Jesus being the true light implies than that there are false lights just like our 6 lighthouse at the beginning Jesus the true light leads to safety and to Heaven But false lights don t do that For the Jews at the time of Jesus they had false lights people like the Scribes and Pharisees that had bogged people down with so many man-made rules that the people were in danger of missing the true light Jesus and many missed Him! For the Gentiles at the time of Jesus they had false lights too they had put their faith in great Philosophers like Socrates and Plato and in Greek or Roman gods and in clairvoyants and fortune tellers and astrologers And for us in our day there are many false lights too other religions like Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam and in fact any teaching or teacher who is telling people they can get right with God in any other way than through Jesus the true light is in fact a false light and we should have nothing to do with them! Except of course to tell them about the true light! So we ve seen the importance of witnessing about this true light so that people believe in the true light And we ve seen the importance of the true light it leads to safety What must we do with this true light? What to with the True Light (vv10-13) Well part of God s love and grace to us is that He gives everyone a choice [Powerpoint 9] Page 6 of 12

7 7 Everyone can choose whether to reject the True Light or receive the True Light We often hear people today saying God is not a caring God he doesn t care about what people are going through Reject it (v10-11) But there in v10 we have Jesus the true light coming into the world to lead people to safety and even though Jesus created the world and everything in it the world doesn t recognize him and they reject him In recent weeks at Scripture I ve done a little survey to see how many kids in my Scripture classes go to church and it would be 10% at the most. So many families in our community are not interested in the True Light they re off following other false lights Even when we re evangelizing in the main street of Toukley we would probably 10% of the people taking a tract or stopping to talk People are too busy for God and have pushed His Son Jesus right out of their lives We also see in v11 that even though God sent his Son Jesus in the flesh to live with the people of Israel this same people He had given a special revelation to time and time again the same people He had rescued out of Egypt and brought out of exile the same people who were expecting the Messiah God s chosen one to come and save His people they still did not receive him and rejected him. And the result for all those who don t receive this True Light is the same today as it was in Jesus day they will remain in the darkness of their sin and their Page 7 of 12

8 sins will not be forgiven and they will not be safe but will be in danger that 8 leads to being separated from that true light forever! Receive it (v12-13) The other choice of course is to receive the True Light To receive the True Light means to believe in His Name to believe in the name of Jesus and we re not just talking about believing that the True Light is called Jesus Believing in His Name is much more than that The apostle Paul describes in Philippians 2:5-11 what believing in His name is like: [Powerpoint 10 Name] 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, Page 8 of 12

9 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 9 in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So believing in Jesus name means believing Jesus is equal to God; that he became human; he died on the cross for our sins; he rose again and lives in the highest place; and His whole purpose is that everyone should bow down at His name and that everyone should confess He is the Lord of their life That s what receiving the true light means And John goes on to say in v12 that by believing in His name we have the right to become children of God It literally means we have permission to become part of God s family and we can call God Father, Daddy, Abba, Papa And notice this right to become children of God is available to ALL who believe it s not restricted by nationality, race, colour, social status If we choose to believe in Jesus God sees us as one of His children regardless of how anyone else sees us and thinks about us And notice too in verse 13 we don t become children of God by any human means Page 9 of 12

10 10 We don t become children of God by some sort of inheritance from our parents or grandparents; nor do we become children of God by sexual intercourse and conception; nor by some human decision to include us in God s family No John says we become children of God by being born of God What does born of God mean? It means our whole life being changed by God s Holy Spirit when we believe in Jesus and that Spirit changes us and transforms us Jesus describes it like this to a fellow called Nicodemus in John 3:1-7 [Powerpoint 11 Nicodemus] Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him. 3 Jesus replied, Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. 4 How can someone be born when they are old? Nicodemus asked. Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother s womb to be born! 5 Jesus answered, Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, You must be born again. So in a nutshell being born of God means that when you believe in Jesus your sins are washed clean (water) and you have a spiritual re-birth so that you are Page 10 of 12

11 changed in such a way that your whole being is now heading in the direction of 11 God and not away from God Conclusion Just to sum up then. There s a handy way to look at John s Gospel we ve talked about it in our Growth Groups: There are 3 keys to looking at John s Gospel: 1. Witnessing 2. Believing 3. Life [Powerpoint 12 3 keys] In this passage this morning we ve seen those 3 keys come into play: 1. Witnessing John the Baptist is a witness to the True Light Jesus and we too can be witnesses John is a model for us 2. Believing that s what the people who received the True Light did they believed and that is the whole purpose of witnessing so that people believe 3. Life Believing leads to Life being born of God being born of the Spirit which gives everlasting life Page 11 of 12

12 Friends that s why Jesus is the True Light He is the only one who can 12 transform our lives and lead us to the safety of Heaven Let s pray Page 12 of 12