Themes of the Bible: See for Yourself (John 1)

 

Themes of the Bible: See for Yourself (John 1)

For those who are doing the homework and prereading for next week, next week we’ll be in Matthew chapter 5. Matthew, chapter 5 is the beginning of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. For this this week though, we’ll be in John chapter 1. If you remember when we first started this series, I said that whenever somebody comes to me, and they say, ‘I'm new to the Bible, where do I start reading it?’ Different people have different answers, but there’s a pretty common answer, and for good reason, and I always tell them, John, read the Gospel of John. John is the book that you want to start with, and again, there's no right or wrong answer, but that's what I always say. And preparing this message from John chapter 1 I was reminded why, because this book is dynamite. It is pure gold from start to finish. When they compiled the New Testament, I really wish that they would have put the book of John first, because after 400 years of silence when Nehemiah and Malachi get done speaking and then 400 years of silence, I wish that John chapter 1 verses 1 through 5 are the first words that God speaks after that. Listen to these words: [Read John 1:1-5]. Verse one, ‘in the beginning was the word’ so the beginning of all the things was the Word and notice word is capitalized there. This isn't like a word in a book. This is a personal name that's being used here. ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.’ So, this word is a ‘He.’ ‘He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made without him. Nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, that the darkness has not understood it.’ In other words, this being came to Earth in the darkness of the Earth, but the darkness and the people living in the darkness didn't recognize Him for who He was. That’s the first five verses.

That right there is an earthquake. It is a philosophical, intellectual, moral earthquake from start to finish. But I want you to stop and think about this. It's an earthquake in our day, but it's also an earthquake in their day. Think about when John is writing this, the era that he's in and what people are thinking and what people are doing. You have this era and you've have a generation of philosophers coming out of the Greco-Roman universities. Stoics and hedonists, and skeptics and Epicureans and all of these brilliant people that have read all of these works of history and all of these ideas that they've come up with, and what are they trying to do? They're arguing trying to make sense out of what it is that is behind this universe, because obviously something is behind the universe. It's funny to me, we think of atheism as this long lasting theological belief, but the truth is that atheism is a lot more of a modern concept than a lot of people understand. If you go back into the ancient times to the cavemen, what do you see in their cave drawings? These ancient primitive people are drawing these supernatural beings on the walls of caves, and from then on a belief in a “higher power” “creator god” whatever, has really been the solid testimony of humanity throughout history that we all acknowledge. There's got to be something behind all of this, a first cause that made everything and put it all in order. And that's what all of these philosophers are arguing and saying, that there's some force or something back there. Something's behind the universe. Something is making it go. Something is giving us meaning. There has to be, and it only makes sense. Something gives us purpose. Something makes us desire justice, even when we don't give it.

Notice that whenever you tell people that obviously there is a moral law that is written upon people's hearts, one of the common arguments back is, ‘well, that's not true. Look at all the bad stuff that people do.’ But if you're trying to acknowledge and demonstrate the existence of a moral law that we all know, whether we want to obey it or not, don't look at the way people act. Look at the way people react. In other words, you can have somebody that has suppressed the moral law to the point that they just go out and steal whatever it is that they want. And so you can point to them and say, well see there must be no moral law because look at what they do. Yes. But then what happens when someone comes up and steals something of theirs? Are they going to think that that's right? No, intrinsically they know there's something not right about that. Look at the way people react. Why is it that we desire justice, even when we don't give it? There's got to be something that causes that, that need for math and order and the orbits of the planets and the stars? The astounding symmetry and harmony in nature? And the truth is, there is no explanation for these things if you begin with the non-existence of a mind behind the universe. And so all these philosophers are trying to figure out what it is and they all have different names for it, but the name that they all kind of agree on is ‘logos.’ There's something behind all of this and we'll call it ‘logos.’ And all these different philosophers will have different names for that logos, and they can't agree on what it is. And in these five verses that I just read to you, John drops a bomb on all of them. You know what he says? He says your logos has a name. That logos that makes everything work. That is the mind behind the universe. He has a name. It's not a thing that you're looking for. It is a person that you are looking for. You want meaning and purpose. You want to know what all of this is about, and you want to understand it, it's the word with a capital W. And then he makes five direct claims about this word and you saw it right there. This word is divine. It is God. This word is personal. You can know Him. This person who is God is eternal. He has always been he was there in the beginning, and he will always be. This person is the source of all life. There is nothing that you see that was not created by Him and through Him, and this person is Jesus Christ. You want to know the foundation that makes everything? Jesus Christ is your answer. That's what he's saying in those five verses. I want you to stop and think about what this means. John is saying is you don't have to be a philosopher to figure this out. You don't have to be an elite. To understand all of this. You don't have to be a scholar. You can be a little child and be able to communicate with the logos. Because it's a person, even a child can come and get to know a person. You don't have to be some bookworm. And some scholars think about how offensive that would have been to the elites and the philosophers, all these people that have studied and they think that they understand and they're arguing with each other. And then John comes along and suggests that a child can know more than the most profound and respected and well-read and intellectual philosopher. That is insulting. And it is today's well. I mean, there's a reason why the last place you want to go if you're looking for solid, devoted biblical teaching is academia. You go to the place where you got the people with the most alphabet soup after their names, the people with all the degrees from all of the leading universities, and look at how they regard faith. ‘Oh, that's for the trailer park people. That's for the people that can’t think like we can.’ It's the exact same thing that is still going on. It's insulting to the proud to suggest that you can have a brilliant mind at Harvard University that has read all of the ancient works of history, and has come to a conclusion and they know less about the logos and what makes things work than the woman living in a little trailer on the edge of town who has submitted her life to Jesus Christ. That is insulting to the proud, which by the way, should be exactly what we expect if you're a student of the Bible. What does the word say? That God opposes the proud and he will give grace and he will show mercy and favor to the humble. God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and proud and arrogant. He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. It's exactly what you're seeing here in these first five verses.

If this profound truth offended people then, well, of course, it's going to offend people now, and not just the professors at college universities. A buzzword of our culture today is, ‘I'm a spiritual person.’ And we have a lot of people that will be sipping their lattes, and they'll say, ‘well, I'm a very spiritual person, but I'm not religious. I understand the importance of being spiritual. I want to be in touch with all this stuff going on out there, but old-time religion and stuff isn't for me. It's stifling, and it's smug. I don't want that. But I do want to be a spiritual person.’ That's the modern spirit of the age that we're dealing with in our culture today in America. If you haven't picked up on this, we don't have a lot of esteem for the old wise scholars. That's not where we place our emphasis. Where is American emphasis placed? Well, there's no question we are enamored named by these new spiritualists. We want the trendsetting, the fad driving youth culture. Everybody wants to be young, everybody wants to think young, everyone wants to look young, everyone wants to sound young. And these words of John offend that youth culture as well. Why? Well sociologists have done studies of the moral beliefs of this youth culture and here's what they have found about the three driving characteristics of moral beliefs of young people, regardless of generation: They have very strong moral feelings. They oppose injustice. They oppose the violation of rights. They oppose the exploitation of the poor, and it really makes them upset when they see those things. And they have no compassion for someone who would do anything like that.

Along those lines, they believe that morality is self-evident. They don't need to explain to you why exploiting the poor is wrong. They don't need to explain to you why injustice is wrong, or the violation of rights is wrong. It is self-evident that it is wrong. And yet, and here's the kicker, even though they have strong moral feelings and believe morality and self-evidence, the number three thing that the sociologists have acknowledged that young people are moral relativists. In other words, they are the same people who will say ‘what's right for me is right for me and you should not tell me any differently and what you believe is right is right for you. I'm embracing my truth and nobody can tell me any differently regarding what it is that I believe. Don't tell me who I should or shouldn't sleep with. Don't tell me what I should or shouldn't believe I will decide for myself and you can decide for yourself.’ This is subjective moral reasoning. I hope that you see this because it's not difficult to understand that all these beliefs combined together are incredibly incoherent and inconsistent.

It's very easy to demonstrate. Let’s look at the Taliban that's taking over Afghanistan right now. They forbid women to go to school. If you’ve seen any of the videos that are posted to social media, you have all of these young girls who have been going to school for the last 20 years, we're having to bid farewell to their classmates and their teachers, because they will no longer be allowed to go to school. Now what do we say to that? We see that and we know that's wrong. It's self-evident, obviously you're telling girls that they can't go to school and be educated? That's wrong. Well, wait a minute. Who are you to say that, isn't that just your western view that women should be allowed to go to school? Isn't that your white superiority you're imposing on another culture, your cultural beliefs just because in America that's wrong? This is the bullying this is what we're talking about. When these views are inconsistent, and they don't connect. So, when wrapped up and labeled as ‘modern spirituality’ this concept is still inconsistent and ungrounded. Just like the ancient philosophers, modern spiritualists acknowledge there's a logos but they're confused about what it is. They don't know how to pinpoint it. And the word offers a better option, a better option than modern spiritualism and a better option, the old-time religion. The word is totally different. And it's something brand new, and you start to see the way it comes into the world starting in verse 35. There are so many good verses in here, but I want to jump ahead to verse 35.

But first, I want to set the stage for a moment. You’ve got John the Baptist, who's Jesus's earthly cousin, he has come to prepare a way for Christ and He is announcing to anybody and everybody that Jesus is on his way, the Messiah that you've been waiting for look up because he's on his way he is here amongst us and you will soon see him. He's telling everyone about it, but nobody knew him yet. Then a little way further, they're hearing about Jesus, but they don't know him yet. And then we get to verse 35. [Read John 1:35-39].

So, it's about the 10th hour, four o'clock in the afternoon. They want to know who Jesus is. They've heard about him, but they want to know who this Jesus is. They want to know what he's all about. Hey, teacher, who are you? Where do you come from? What are you all about? And Jesus does not turn around and give them a lecture. He doesn't turn around and give them a speech. He doesn't turn around and try to persuade them with commands to let you know who He is. So, what does Jesus say? I think there's a lesson here for us. Jesus says, Come and see. You're curious. You want to know, come on. Come check me out. Come and see who I am. Come and see what it is that I do. Come and see how it is that I speak. That's what I'm inviting you to do. This is not old-time religion that says you are to blindly follow because it was good enough for your father. No, that's not what Jesus is saying. He said, Come and see. This isn't modern spiritualism that says, ‘well, it really doesn't matter what you follow, but if you're interested, I'm going in this direction.’ No, come and see. It's a ‘examine the evidence for yourself and come to your conclusion’ approach. Now we're going to skip the next few verses about Andrew and Peter, and let's pick it up in verse 43. [Read John 1:43-45].

Hey, by the way, is that not summing up where we've been so far this year, that every page of the Old Testament, the books of law, all of that stuff, that we sit there and say, ‘Why am I reading about the goats and all of this stuff? I don't get it.’ It's all pointing towards Jesus and everything the prophets did and Jonah fleeing and not wanting to go to Nineveh, demonstrating those key lessons to love God and love your fellow man, that Jesus would later teach. Every page of the Old Testament is pointing towards this, and that's exactly what Philip is saying right here. Verse 46. [Read John 1:46].

So, you get what happens here, Philip says, I found the Messiah, we found Him, and he's over there. And Nathanael has questions about that. Because he says it's Jesus of Nazareth. And he knows that the Messiah is coming from the city of David, which is Bethlehem. It's not Nazareth, so, something's got to give here. Does anything good come out of Nazareth? It's a backwoods town. And did you notice Philip’s answer? Philip’s answer was very similar to what you heard before. It’s the same answer that Jesus gave; come and see. Instead of sitting there and coming up with all your objections, and the reasons that you think it's wrong, why don't you just come and see for yourself?

Think about this in our context today. Rather than sit there and come up with all the reasons that this Messiah, this Jesus can’t be who you're looking for. Why don't you just come see for yourself? If there is one message that we should be taking to a skeptical world is that not it? Tell the skeptical and unbelieving world, ‘why don't you just come and examine and see for yourself? Stop taking other people's word for it. Come and see this Jesus.’

Let me give you one more example. You can flip a couple pages over to John chapter 4. Jesus is talking to a Samaritan woman, which by the way, a lot of people would have raised eyebrows at that. What is Jesus doing talking to a Samaritan woman? The Samaritans were not our friends, not God’s chosen people. Women are not well respected in the culture. So, what's going on here? Why is he doing all of this? I want you to pick it up in verse 24-25 of this chapter, okay. [Read John 4:25-29]. Could this be the Christ? Could this be the Messiah? Once again, He is saying that rather than going through all of these intellectual arguments, just come with me and see.  

We have talked in recent weeks about the prevalent injustice in the world. We've talked about how obvious it is, and it's all around us. And Christians should be doing something about it. The logical question that the world has is this, ‘How can there be a loving and merciful God with all of that stuff that you guys have been talking about happening?’ You have families that are losing their fathers or mothers because of COVID, you have others losing the ability to provide for their families because of COVID vaccine mandates, you have natural disasters that are occurring all over the world, so how can there be a loving and merciful God with all of this suffering that's happening in the world? How would Jesus answer that question? Here's what he would not answer. He would not give the New Age spirituality that says, it's difficult to make truth, so you find something and you cling to it. I don't know what it may be. Maybe it's to hermit yourself away. Maybe it's to find a new age teacher that you can find strength in and maybe it's to disciple yourself and meditate and come up with something maybe it's drugs, maybe it's alcohol, whatever it is, find something that can get you through. That's not how he would respond to that question, and I'll tell you how else he wouldn't respond. He wouldn't respond with the old-time religion, saying, ‘would you stop asking questions. Who are you to question God for what happens? Shut him out. It was good enough for your father and your father's father so zip it, and just believe.’ So, what he would say. Jesus would respond, did respond and say, “Come and see. Follow me and see if I can't make sense out of all of this. I understand you got questions. I understand that you're hurting and you're suffering. Follow me.”

And how do we come and follow a guy that isn't physically here anymore? Now you understand why we spent the past seven months going through the Old Testament and learning that we can trust the authority of Scripture, how we know that what we have in that Bible is accurate, reliable, transmitted history of him. We know who Jesus was, and what he taught because we have his word, and you can't pick parts of who Jesus was and what he said and say, ‘Well, that's pretty cool. I can go with that. I like the fact that he was talking to a woman when that wasn't really acceptable in his culture. I appreciate that about Jesus. But there's other stuff that's too outdated. I'm not going to believe that the whole stuff about sexuality. I don't think that somebody from way back then can know, so I'll come up with my own ideas on that.’ If you're doing that, if you're picking and choosing the verses that you like, like Burger King having it your way and you're picking off the onions and the pickles of Jesus because you don't want those (that is the worst analogy I think I've ever come up with). If you're doing that, then what do you honestly have when you get to the end and you pick and choose the person that you like? Jesus? What are you really worshiping? You're worshiping yourself, your own mind. Who is it that determine what was worthy of worship there? You did. You put together this creation and that's what you're worshiping, which means you're really worshiping yourself. Even if you put a little Jesus nametag on it.

Ok, before we finish up, I have one more thing for you. Let’s jump to verse 40. [Read John 1:40-42]. So, we know that John the Baptist brings Andrew and at least one other disciple to see Jesus. John believes that Jesus is the Messiah. And then we know in verse 42, that Andrew brings his brother Peter and says, ‘You got to come see this guy. We found the Messiah.’ And the same thing happens with Phillip and Nathanial. There is a common thread for how most people find Jesus, and it is through someone else who has already found Jesus. That's you and me. We're in this thread. It reinforces the idea that Christianity is an encounter with a person. It's not go, lock yourself in a study and read and look at all of these ancient works and try to decide what's true. It is come with me and encounter a person.

As far as we know Andrew, the disciple, he never spoke to large crowds. Maybe he did, but there's nothing in Scripture that suggests he was ever out in front of people. Okay. But I want you to consider what his singular acts of witness to his brother Peter accomplished. If you ever pause to consider this, this guy who never spoke as far as we know for the large crowds stop and think about what he did. Peter will become the leader of the disciples and as far as we see, Andrew was totally fine with that. Andrew was fine being in the background, as Peter was out front, and Peter spoke to 1000s upon 1000s of people. But, what if there had been no Andrew?

Few people know the name of Edward Kimball, a Sunday school teacher in Boston during the 1850s. Kimball was a timid, soft spoken, reserved man. In April of 1855 Kimball’s Sunday school classroom would be visited by a young man who had recently taken a job with his uncle, and his uncle and told him that he could only have the job if he came with him to church. Kimball would later write that he had, quote, “seen few persons whose minds were spiritually darker than was his this young man.” When he came into the Sunday school class, Kimball decided that he would, despite his own hesitation, visit this young man to follow up with him at the shoe store where he worked, hoping to explain to him how much Jesus loved him. When Kimble got to the store, he turned and started home having decided the effort was probably useless. But Kimble says the Holy Spirit prompted him to turn back around and just go for it. He stumbled over his words talking to the 19-year-old boy. He said later that he could never remember exactly what he said just something about Christ and His love. He admitted that it was a ‘most weak appeal to get to know the real Jesus.’ But God use that weak appeal to convince the 19-year-old heart of Dwight L. Moody. The man who would become arguably the greatest Christian evangelist of the 19th century. Moody would preach before 1000s at a time in America as well as Europe, and it is calculated that between his sermons, the Moody Bible Institute, Moody Bible radio and other avenues that he created. Dwight L. Moody has had a direct hand in the salvation and discipleship of over 200 million people. Now, if you were an older Christian, you probably know who Dwight L Moody is. But no matter how familiar you are with Christianity and its history, I don't think any of you know who Edward Kimball is. But just like without an Andrew, there would have been no Peter. Without an Edward Kimball walking hesitantly into the shoe store of Dwight L. Moody, there would have been hundreds of millions of people who wouldn’t have heard the gospel message from him years later.

You may be the Edward Kimble and there may be someone in your midst that God is preparing to have an incredible impact on the world around us for the kingdom of God. But they may not receive that call unless you have the courage to go and say, ‘come and see.’

Let’s pray.