Prologue - Part 3 (1:14-18)
The Gospel according to John • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Over the past few weeks we’ve started working our way through the Gospel according to John. We’ve been going verse-by-verse, thought-by-thought through the book and we’ve actually touched base on a number of different topics because we’re in the prologue of this book. Like I mentioned last week, because this is the prologue of John, we will touch base with all of the topics that he has presented to us over the course of the entire series, in fact, one of the topics that we’ve mentioned in the prologue, we’ll actually focus on next week.
As we’ve worked through the prologue, we’ve spent our time talking about the person that John calls the Word. He starts off this paragraph by talking about how the Word was in the beginning with God, the Word is God, the role of the Word in creation (in that the Word created all things), and the life and light that comes from the Word. Now because of hindsight, we know that when John refers to the Word, he’s actually referring to Jesus and we actually know that from the passage that we’re studying this morning. So in essence, what John has taught us so far is that Jesus was in the beginning with God, Jesus is God; John has taught us the role of Jesus in creation was that Jesus created all things, and John taught us that true life and true light comes from Jesus Christ.
In the process of explaining that, he took a couple verses to speak of John the Baptist and the role that John the Baptist had in bearing witness of Jesus (and he’ll talk about that again just briefly in this morning’s passage and we’ll actually focus on John the Baptist a bit more next week as well). And now, as we study this last portion of the prologue, we get into John’s main point in this paragraph. He’s defined who the Word is, he’s explained that the Word brought life and light into the world and thus salvation to mankind. And now, in this last portion, he essentially gives us the purpose for God to send his son as the Word. Or put differently, John is expressing the consequences of Jesus’ incarnation as well as the overarching reason for the incarnation.
Grab your Bibles and turn them to John 1:14-18.
As you turn there, let me explain the structure of these last three sentences, how they fit into the overall prologue that we’ve been working through, and how we’re going to study them. These last three sentences end the prologue that we’ve been working through, so it is vital that we remember the whole context of what John is trying to get accomplished. Remember, that the purpose for the entire book is for those that read it to believe in Jesus Christ and that by believing they would have everlasting life. So, it would make sense that in a prologue written for a book that’s dedicated for the belief in a person, that the author would spend some time expressing who that person is. Which is exactly what John has endeavored to do in the first 18 verses by explaining who Jesus is—the Word who is God, by explaining the salvation that comes through the Word, and now by teaching what the consequences of the incarnation and the consequences of salvation are.
We’re going to separate these last five verses into two sections: (1) in Vs. 14-15, John really emphasizes the incarnation of Jesus Christ, so we’re going to take those two verses to really dig into what the incarnation is, how it affects us, and how important it is, (2) in Vs. 16-18, John essentially writes about how the Word makes known or reveals who the Father is and by expressing how the Word reveals the Father, he also gives us the overarching purpose of the incarnation and ultimately salvation that comes through believing in Jesus (but we’ll get to that a little later).
Let’s read John 1:14-18
14 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. 15 (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.’ ”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
The Incarnation of the Word — (1:14-15)
The Incarnation of the Word — (1:14-15)
As John wraps up the prologue, he explains the significance of the Word, Vs. 14, “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.”
Now, we lose some of this significance and we lose some of what it would’ve been like as someone who read this book for the first time 2,000 years ago because we have hindsight. As we studied this passage, most of us knew that this was talking about Jesus Christ (not to mention, I’ve been saying for three weeks that this is talking about Jesus Christ), but take a moment to imagine what it would’ve been like to either read this or hear someone read it to you for the first time. In fact, why don’t we do that? Let’s start in Vs. 1 and read through Vs. 18, and let’s read it like its the first time we’ve read it or heard it and let’s imagine what the original audience would’ve thought when John finally explains that the Word, who is God, became flesh and that Word is Jesus Christ. (At the very least, this will help us keep this all in context)
John 1:1-18, “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 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. 15 (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.’ ”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
Now, I think you’ve noticed that as you read through the paragraph in one sitting, John is building and building and what we get in Vs. 14, is the climax of everything that John has written about the Word.
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Let’s take a moment to look at that phrase.
What this is describing, is the term that I keep bringing up, this is the incarnation.
Now some of you might not know that term and quite frankly that’s ok because you’re not going to find the word incarnation in the Bible, it is a term that the church utilizes to explain the birth and really the human life of Jesus Christ.
Let me give you a dictionary definition that I think would be beneficial for you to know. The Lexham Bible Dictionary says this, the incarnation is “The doctrine . . . that Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten before all the ages and of one substance with the Father, was made flesh through the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, making Him truly God and truly human, possessing two natures, which are not confused, changed, divided, or separated.” Or put differently, Jesus Christ is completely God and completely man.
The Lexham Bible Dictionary then goes on and says this, “Although the term ‘incarnation’ does not appear in the Bible, Christian tradition has long held that Jesus is God incarnate: The Second Person of the Trinity descended from heaven and became human.”
So this is what Vs. 14, is describing when it says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
And for anyone who hears or reads this for the first time, it is a shocking statement that The Word who created all things would humble himself and become the very creation that he created.
And yet, that’s exactly what God did through Jesus Christ. Now we know that John has connected this book to the OT in a number of ways, including the very first verse by utilizing the phrase “in the beginning.” In this phrase, he’s actually connecting the passage again to the OT, but more specifically to the tabernacle and he’s doing that with the word dwelt.
The word dwelt is translated from the Greek word, ἐσκήνωσεν, which derives from the word σκηνοω (and this is what makes that word so cool) σκηνοω essentially means “to pitch your tent among” or quite literally, it means “to tabernacle with.”
So what this verse is literally saying is that Jesus, the creator became flesh and tabernacled with us.
So let’s think for a minute, what was the point of the tabernacle in the OT? The tabernacle is found particularly in the Mosaic books and its eventually replaced by the temple of Solomon. Both the temple and the tabernacle were the place in which worship of Yahweh was centralized or in other words, you went to the temple to participate in worship.
And if you remember with me, the first time the tabernacle is mentioned in the Bible is in Exodus. God gives Moses all the regulations necessary to build this temporary, moveable temple and after Moses finishes building the tabernacle, the cloud that shrouded God covered the tent and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And throughout all of Israel’s journey the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle during the day and the fire of the Lord was in it by night.
The tabernacle was literally the place in which God chose to be among the Israelites
And what John is saying in 1:14, is that Jesus—who is God, who is the creator has come in flesh to be among his people.
This might just be here to add to the shock value of the creator becoming human flesh, but I think it actually does more than that—it (1) shows that God had planned for this all along and (2) it shows the great lengths that God would go in order to be with his people.
So what we get in John 1:14 is that the almighty, creator God humbled himself and became human and in doing so tabernacled amongst his people
And then John says, “and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
If we keep the concept of the tabernacle in mind and we think about what Exodus 40:34-35 says about the glory of God and the tabernacle I think we’ll have an idea of what John is saying. Let’s look at Exodus 40:34-35, “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.”
Now that’s a little vague and it doesn’t explain much about what it means by the “glory of the LORD” so let’s look at another passage in Exodus that might help us understand a little more of what the Bible means by the glory of the LORD. Turn to Exodus 33:17-23
In Exodus 33, Moses is speaking to Yahweh at the top of Mount Sinai and Moses makes a very profound statement right before Vs. 17, in the previous section Moses makes the statement that if God’s presence doesn’t go with him, how can it be known that he and the Israelites had found favor in God’s sight? And he states that it is God’s presence that makes them distinct from all the other nations on the earth and then in Vs. 17, this is how God responds:
“And the LORD said to Moses, ‘This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name. 18 Moses said, ‘Please show me your glory.’ 19 And [God] said, ‘ I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,’ he said, ‘ you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.’ 21 And the LORD said, ‘Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.’”
So, when the Bible talks about seeing the glory of God in this sense, it’s literally talking about seeing part of the essence of God or physically seeing God. C.H. Dodd says that the glory of God when utilized in this sense, refers to a “manifestation of God’s presence and power.”
Now back in John 1:14, the author is continuing to connect the Word who became flesh with Yahweh of the OT, and in this particular phrase he’s making the implication that when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, they were able to see God’s glory. Or put differently, by seeing Jesus; they saw a manifestation of God’s presence and power. Or by seeing Jesus; they saw God.
Which if you’re familiar with the earthly life of Jesus Christ, that’s actually not a surprising statement, because Jesus himself says this later on in John 14:8-10, Philip tells Jesus that if Jesus shows the apostles the Father that would be sufficient evidence to believe Jesus’ statement that Jesus was leaving to prepare a place for them and that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And Jesus responds with this, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”
So even Jesus himself makes the statement that he is God and that those who see Jesus ultimately see God the Father as well. And in contrast to Moses on Mount Sinai and Moses in the tabernacle later on, who though he was in the presence of God, could not see God entirely—this is a significant difference
So when John in John 1:14 says that they have seen the glory as of the only Son from the Father, he legitimately means that they have seen God’s glory through the Son and the glory itself was full of grace and truth.
The phrase grace and truth is a significant phrase because its calling back to a similar statement mentioned by Moses when Moses sees the glory of God on Mount Sinai right before he bows his head and worships God, in Exodus 34:6b-7, he says this: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”
While the terminology isn’t exactly the same, the idea is the same. That the same God from Exodus 34:6-7 who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness is the same Jesus who is represented in John 1:14 who is full of grace and truth.
Now John takes a moment, and this is what would be considered a parenthetical phrase or sentence (something that is included here, but not necessarily the point of the sentence), John says in Vs. 15, “John [the Baptist] 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.’”
And I’m not going to take a lot of time on this sentence for one primary reason, the author briefly mentions this here, but he actually goes in depth about it in Vs. 19-34 and so I don’t plan to take a ton of time studying through this today, because we’ll actually be talking about it for the next two weeks.
However, I will say this, because the author is building up to what we’ll study over the next few weeks, I will say that in this brief statement that the author makes, he makes the statement that John [the Baptist] bore witness about [Jesus]. And we’ve spoken about what it means to bear witness about someone or something, so it gives us the impression that John knew who Jesus was and actively proclaimed the truth about Jesus
And the author makes the statement that John was crying out this particular statement, “This was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.”
This is such a profound statement because it gives us some insight into why John believed and why John taught that all people needed to repent because the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. And the reason is quite simple, he truly believed that the person who was coming after him ranked before him.
Or put another way, John recognized that Jesus (even though Jesus’ ministry starts after John) was actually in control and actually had more authority than he did and this is why, because Jesus was before John.
John recognized where he stood in comparison to Jesus Christ and he openly proclaimed that truth because he recognized that Jesus was the same God of the OT, full of grace and truth—it would behoove us to recognize and remember the same truth.
So, what John has expressed by mentioned John the Baptist here is that John the Baptist also recognized who Jesus was and that compelled him to proclaim the truth about Jesus Christ, but like I said, we’ll talk more about that over the next two weeks as we dig deeper into Vs. 19-34
So, what John has told us in Vs. 14-15 is that the Word became flesh and we know that the Word is synonomous with Jesus, so Jesus became flesh and he dwelt or he literally tabernacled among us and by seeing Jesus in the flesh we have seen God the Father, both full of grace and truth. In addition to what we call the incarnation, he’s also explained to us what John’s reaction to Jesus was probably in an attempt to point out that other people had recognized who Jesus was as well.
The Word Reveals the Father (1:16-18)
The Word Reveals the Father (1:16-18)
16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
The author makes the statement “For [or because] from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”
Or put another way, because of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, which is what John is referring to here when he speaks of God’s fullness we have all received grace.
And I think that this is such a familiar concept to anyone who has come to know Jesus Christ that it doesn’t necessarily need a lot of explaining. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that we have been given grace and mercy through Jesus Christ and if you don’t understand what that means, think with me for a moment.
The Bible tells us that all men are sinners in the sight of God and what that simply means is that every person here is guilty of breaking the law of God. And before you can argue against that point and say, “yeah, but I’m not that bad, I’ve only lied or I’ve never murdered anyone,” let me remind you of what James 2:10-11 says, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.”
So what James teaches is that sin isn’t based on degrees or ranks. To God, sin is sin and if you commit any sin you’ve broken the whole law.
And what we learn particularly from the OT, is that no matter how hard we try, we can’t possibly live to the standard of the law that God has given us.
And yet, God is merciful and gracious and he’s recognized that we can’t live to that standard, so he sent his son to die on the cross as a substitutionary atonement for our sins.
So when the Bible speaks about the grace that God has given us or the grace that we’ve received, it’s speaking of a gracious or merciful behavior given by someone to another person. Or put differently, its undeserved merit in that God is gracious to us despite the fact that we don’t deserve his grace.
So, because of Jesus’ incarnation, we’ve received grace, but that’s actually not what the verse says; the verse says that we’ve received grace upon grace. Well, what does that mean?
It means that before Jesus came, God was already showing grace. So let’s ask ourselves, in what way did God show mankind grace? And I know we can offer many suggestions of how God was gracious to the Israelites—bringing them out of bondage in Egypt, giving them safety and defense against their enemies, and giving them multiple warnings against sin in hopes that they would repent; but I have another suggestion.
God was showing them grace by giving them the law—and I know that might sound odd, but hear me out.
How did people in the OT know what was right and wrong? Multiple times throughout Scripture the phrase, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” is used. Which implies that when people don’t have some sort of code of ethics, they do whatever they want.
And when people do whatever they want, it tends to lean towards sinful behavior—think of Genesis 6 right before the flood, in Genesis 6:5, “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” And while there were people throughout the OT that followed God even without the law being written down—Melchizedek, Noah, Job, and Abram, the majority of them were extremely wicked and every intent of the thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually.
By giving the people the Law, God was showing the Israelites what was right and wrong—he was showing them grace because those that live in unrepentant sin cannot be in the presence of God. He was giving them the law so that they would know that sin is wrong and they would repent and turn to him.
Paul reflects the same line of thinking concerning the law in Romans 7:7-13. Paul in explaining the purpose of the Law and explaining how sin works makes this statement (in a question and answer format), “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart form the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.”
I recognize that’s a long passage, so let me try and simplify if for you—Paul is making the argument that the law itself was a good thing. And he’s trying to prevent people from saying that the law was evil because it taught us what sin is and if we didn’t know what sin is, we wouldn’t have sinned.
Paul is making the argument that while the law does teach us what sin is, the purpose is for us to know what sin is and then repent from that sin. The issue that Paul is confronting here is that sin itself, utilizes the knowledge of the law to tempt us to sin more. Or put differently, the sin nature within us when it learns that something is sinful causes us to want to commit that sin more.
However, the law itself is still a good thing—it is sin that is evil.
Essentially, what I’m getting at and what Paul is getting at in Romans 7, is that the law was given in order for us to understand what sin is, repent from that sin, and turn to God. Without the law, we wouldn’t repent and thus we wouldn’t go to God for salvation.
So what John is saying here is that we were already given grace through God giving us the law, but through Jesus, we’ve received more grace on top of the grace that we’ve already been given—and he reflects that idea in Vs. 17.
Vs. 17 states, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
So knowing this actually does something significant for us. Sometimes in our modern-day NT church, because of our high emphasis on the grace that we receive from Jesus Christ, we think that the Law itself was bad and we can sometimes allow that thinking to prevent us from actually reading and studying the law in the OT.
But from what John has just told us, the Law itself was not bad—it was grace given by God. And thus, while not every part of the law is applicable to us in our current time period, it wouldn’t hurt us to read, study, and understand what the law requires—in fact, according to 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture [including the OT law] is breathed out by God and [is] profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
And my argument here is that by taking the time to learn what the law required, we can still take part of the grace that God gave when giving the law—not my trying to fulfill the law, but by learning the law, we gain a bigger idea of who God truly is.
And then John wraps up the prologue with this final sentence, which honestly, might seem like its out of place, but I assure you that this is actually the whole point that John is driving at. He says in Vs. 18, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
And let’s be honest, that verse makes almost no sense, its confusing, isn’t it? So, let’s take a moment to break it down
He starts off with a phrase that makes complete since, “No one has ever seen God.” And that’s absolutely true—though you might be thinking, “But didn’t we just study about Moses seeing God on Mount Sinai or in the tabernacle?” Let me remind you, that the Bible doesn’t say Moses saw God, it says that Moses saw the glory of God because God himself, said that man could not see his face. So John’s statement here is still valid, no one has legitimately seen God.
And then he makes this statement, “the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him know.” And this is where it gets a little confusing because of the way that its worded, but let me assure you John worded it this way on purpose.
So let’s look at this in a grammatical sense. He says “No one has seen God” and then there’s a semi-colon, so while this is the same sentence, this isn’t the same phrase and then when he says, “the only God, who is at the Father’s side” he’s not referring to the same person. He’s referring to the person of God who sits at God the Father’s side. He’s referring to Jesus.
He’s making the argument that no one has seen God [the Father], but Jesus, he has made God [the Father] known.
And some of the other translations actually render it that way, KJV, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” NLT, “No one has ever seen God, But the unique one, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us. CSB, “No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.”
So, you might ask, why exactly does the ESV say it in such an odd manner?
Because its following what the Greek says a little closer than the other translations, in the Greek John refers to both persons as God. So is that important?
From a literary standpoint, probably not—it makes it a little confusing and maybe difficult to understand and a regular author probably would never have done it, but remember all Scripture is breathed out by God.
So the question then is, why did God choose to say “No one has ever seen God; [but] the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known?”
Can I suggest that it isn’t a literary choice, its a theological choice.
Remember that the whole purpose of John is to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that by believing in Jesus we might have eternal life.
John 1:1 starts the process of explaining who Jesus is by saying that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
And through the whole prologue, John has been explaining the significance of the Word and the salvation that the Word, who is Jesus has offered to the world
And now he is at the culmination of everything that he has been trying to say. That this Word, who gives light and life to everyone, who came in order that those who would believe in his name would become children of God, who became flesh in order to pitch his tent among us, who has given us all grace upon grace is not only Jesus, but Jesus is God. And all of this was set into motion in order for us to know God.
The whole point that John is driving at is that God sent his Son not just for our salvation (though that is a significant piece of it), but rather through the grace and truth that comes through Jesus Christ, mankind could actually know God. The purpose of salvation is for us to know God.
Or put another way, everything that has occured throughout history from creation to the incarnation of Jesus Christ, to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ all happened for in order for us to know God and that by knowing God we bring him glory and enjoy him forever.
In the remaining few minutes that we have, let’s talk a bit about application.
Application
Application
One of the key things that this passage should do for us is to change the way that we think about our relationship with God and our salvation. I say that because this passage tells us essentially what the consequence of Jesus’ incarnation was and the purpose for him coming to earth and we might not have thought of it the way that John thinks of it.
Application for 14-15
In Vs. 14, John tells us about the incarnation of Jesus Christ—which again I can’t stress this enough, is a fundamental doctrine for Christians. In other words, if you actually claim to be a Christian, you have to believe that Jesus is God and that God came in the form of a child to live a perfect sinless life, die on a cross as our substitution, and rise again. You have to believe that if you’re a Christian.
So, my first question is, do you actually believe this? Do you believe that Jesus Christ came to atone for your sins, because until you do, you actually aren’t a believer in Jesus Christ and I know that from Romans 10:9, that to be saved, you have to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. For God to raise Jesus from the dead, he had to come and live on earth. Do you believe this?
If not, let me encourage you to figure out way you don’t believe this. Maybe it seems farfetched, maybe it seems too ridiculous, and I get that; but let me encourage you to search it out through Scripture. Actually read the accounts of the crucifixion in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and particularly focus on the aftermath of the crucifixion. What you’ll notice is that after Jesus’ death, his apostles all ran and hid and after three nights Jesus arose from the grave and physically went and spoke to his disciples and from there, his disciples spread the word.
And maybe that’s the part that you have an issue with and maybe you think that all of those disciples were just lying about seeing the resurrected Jesus, so let me ask you, what would the disciples have benefited from telling a lie about Jesus coming back from the dead? You might suggest that the primary benefit would have been that they were able to start a religion with them on top and in control—so let me remind you that most of them suffered extreme persecution because of their belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If they were simply lying about it, why would they choose to die over a lie instead of recanting? Why would the disciples who died a martyr’s death choose to die instead of recanting and living if everything they said was made up? That seems more farfetched to me than the resurrection.
Might I implore you to reconsider your unbeliever, repent of your sins, and turn to Jesus Christ. John 1:14 tells us that Jesus became flesh to dwell with us and that includes all who call on his name.
For those of you that do believe in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, you are a believer in Jesus, let me ask you to focus in on the word dwelt.
We’ve spoken about how that word literally means that Jesus pitched his tent among us or Jesus tabernacled among us. So my question then is, are you tabernacling with Jesus? Jesus came to this world in order to dwell with us, are you dwelling with Jesus?
Do you spend time seeking him? Do you read his word? Do you pray to him and with him? If not, why?
If nothing else, from this morning you’ve seen how God planned and organized all of history in order for you to know him, in the sense that he wants to have a growing relationship with you. Is your relationship with him growing?
If you find yourself in a time of life where your relationship with God really isn’t growing, its stagnant—let me encourage you to repent, turn to Jesus, and seek him with all of your strength, mind, and soul.
Application for 16-18
Those verses speak about this great grace that we’ve received on top of the grace that we had already received.
Let me encourage you to reflect on the grace of God that you’ve seen in your life—not only in your salvation, but in your daily life. How has God shown you grace today? Reflect on that grace and give thanks.
Secondly, let me point out again that the initial grace that John is talking about is found in the Law given by God—the OT law. While it isn’t the point of this passage, let me encourage you to remember that all Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable—even the OT law. Thus, take advantage of having the Bible (even the OT) and learn to love it because the Bible is a means of grace that has been given to us for our growth.
And finally, from Vs. 18, recognize that your salvation is more than just a “get out of jail free card.” Your salvation was given to you by Jesus Christ for you to know God on a personal level. Your salvation was given so that you could know God
Use everything God has given you to grow your relationship with him
Endeavor to know the God that revealed himself to us and grow in the grace and truth that he has extended to us.
Put simply, recognize that your salvation enables you to know God—take advantage of every means, particularly Scripture, that God has given you to grow in your relationship with him and pitch your tent with him. Seek him, commune with him, reflect on his grace, and grow in truth.