The Light Has Come

Sunday, January 8^th 2024

 John 1:9–13; Isaiah 53:1–11

 Introduction

Believing in Jesus Makes You a Child of God

 Jesus the TRUE Light

The world is in desperate straits. It is full of darkness—the darkness of sin and despair, of sickness and death, of corruption and hell. The darkness looms over the whole world.

 This is the problem dealt with in the present passage. There is hope in Jesus Christ, for Christ is the true Light, and Light dispels darkness.

 “John's point is that the Word who came into the world is the light, the true light, the genuine and ultimate self-disclosure of God to man.” DA Carson

 "The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous man runs into it and is safe.” Proverbs 18:10

 Jesus The Creator Rejected by His Creation

“He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

 “This is a sad verse. He was a stranger in his own house. He was unknown amidst his own handiwork. Men whom he had made, made nothing of him.” C. Spurgeon

 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:3,4

 Jesus was rejected by men so we could be accepted by God.

 Jesus Revealed and Received by Some

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

 ‘But…” means a dramatic shift and contrast.

“receive…believed…become” – Look at the verbs

 Children of God - The fact is that only those who believe in Jesus have the right to become God's children and call Him "Father" 

 “…who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

They were born, but it was not a natural birth. “Blood” refers to human ancestry. “The will of the flesh” refers to the decision of human parents to have a child. “The will of man” refers to human willpower.

 “The birth of a child of God is not a natural birth; it is a supernatural work of God in regeneration. A person welcomes Jesus and responds in faith and obedience to Him, but the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit is ‘the cause’ of regeneration.” Edwin Plum

 Just as we had nothing to do with our physical birth, so we had nothing to do with our spiritual birth. We can’t take credit for it. We can’t boast in our wise decision to believe in Christ. All glory must go to God.