The Exclusivity of Jesus Christ

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  The Exclusivity of Jesus Christ

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  Please turn in your Bibles to John chapter 1. We'll be in verses 10 to 13 this morning, continuing our exaltation to Jesus Christ, as that is so fitting all the time, but particularly this time of year. And I'm thankful that just a service, whether in the song we could sing that just says, come, let us adore him, or a creed that we would recite together that, though, is unfamiliar, I'm sure to just maybe 1 or 2 of you. I know the rest of you memorize the Athanasian Creed. It's just always on your mind. But that. And then to open the Word of God to look to Christ is truly the best thing we could do with our time together. And it's really where we fill up our minds, where we set our minds on things above that we live out of the rest of the week. I was reminded of how hard that can be this week. Um, just when I went to take a walk through my neighborhood and I had been listening to a podcast of a preacher, and he was just talking about how with the, you know, advent of the internet and everything that comes with that, the information that comes at us so fast that we just get things in soundbites in small parts, and even our theology comes at us that way. That we just kind of, you know, take a little bit here and take a little bit there and just patchwork it together. But he said, you know, what it used to be is if you really wanted to know something, say about Christ, you would have to dig a little bit harder, a little bit deeper by going to a library or somewhere and getting a book and learning about that part of the character of Christ, his personal work in a larger context, whereas now we just kind of find it pretty quick and it's in our minds, and then it's gone. And so he used all this to talk about, hey, maybe this time of year it's good to meditate on Christ and just try to hold a thought together on something like his incarnation and that he is completely God and he is completely man. And I thought, I'm going to go walk through my neighborhood for a few minutes and do that. I can do that. And I couldn't do that. As in, I'm 30 seconds down the road and one of my new neighbors who I do want to get to know and, you know, invite the church and find out where he stands with the Lord. Uh, is out there looking at his new driveway and wants to tell me about his new driveway. When I, pious as I am, am trying to think on the glories of Christ and the incarnation, and now I'm talking about his driveway. So, okay, I move on from that and then round the corner to my next neighbor who was putting up his Christmas decorations. I think I'm going to cut through the woods where, you know, I can truly take in the glory of God and nature and not be interrupted. And sure enough, deer start flying across my path. They wouldn't even let me sustain a thought for five minutes on Christ and His person and work. I don't know where you need to go to get away to have time to do this. I just use it to say when it comes to our hearts being lifted up. I hope that this month, the theme of this month of trying to focus all our attention in the Gospel of John, verses 1 to 18 on the magnificence of Jesus Christ, his pre-incarnate glory. As we saw at the beginning of John in the first 3 verses, pre-existent before all creation, coexistent with God, and self-existent, not dependent on anyone outside of himself. And that those thoughts then, coupled with last week's in verses 6 to 9 of that, he didn't just stay far away, but he was the light that shone in the darkness, even though the darkness could not comprehend it. He sent a witness, John, and he testified about the light, the light to come into the world, to give it a knowledge of the truth of who Jesus is, that these thoughts, these glorious thoughts on Christ, wouldn't just be something that we feel like, okay, I'm good. I got it for the hour and a half I was here, and then we go off the rest of our way. No. The goal of this month. And why even we gave you the challenge to say, read through the Gospel of John while we're doing this, is so that these thoughts come back to you every day, and that they do bless you day and night as you meditate upon them, so that you would prosper and grow in all ways, and that God would want you to this month. I mean, that's the goal. I know reading a creed together... so outdated. Um, you know, so not relevant. Especially. Well, it is relevant. But that's just me being exaggerating. You know, when there's churches, I, a friend sends me a clip of a church that's doing, you know, of course, Christmas at the movies. And the pastor comes out of the stage. You know, I tried last week with Fred Rogers, so, you know, sue me. But this guy came out as John McClane from Die Hard and then preached a sermon on the spiritual lessons of Die Hard. And if you're like, okay, I know Die Hard and there are no spiritual lessons there, I'm with you. If you're like, what's Die Hard? Don't worry about it. It's a battery. You put it in your car, it charges, you run off of it. You know, we're reading something. Creeds that are thousands of years old. But what they're to do for us is to remind us that there is nothing, no one more important to get exactly right than the Lord Jesus Christ, because eternity hangs on what you believe about him. And not just believe about him, but he changes you and gives you new affections, and you follow him because you love him. You obey him because you love him. That's what's at stake with Christ. And so it is important for us, like we have done this month, to say, let's slow down, let's say a creed together. Let's be reminded of what happened when God became man. And so let's look to our text this morning, John 1:10 to 13. I will read the larger section all the way back to verse one. And that way we can see in its entirety what John is trying to teach us this morning, and then talk about the exclusivity of Jesus Christ, that he demands us to know him and come to him and receive him exactly the way that he is presented in the scriptures. Follow with me.  
  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. There was the true light, which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and those who his own did not receive him, but as many as received him. To them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." He who has ears to hear, Jesus said, listen up. Open our hearts and our ears and our eyes this morning we pray, Father, to see the wonderful truths about your Son this morning. Amen.  
  Two years ago, Ligonier Ministries, founded by a trusted theologian, R.C. Sproul, now with the Lord, partnered with LifeWay and put out a survey that wanted to see what evangelicals believe, a state of our theology. And this was in 2022, and an evangelical was somebody on the front end who agreed to this, that we affirm that the Bible is inerrant and infallible. And also, we believe that Jesus' death on the cross is the way that sinners are forgiven. But when some of these questions were asked, they were surprising. Saddening, really, revealing that the exclusivity of Jesus Christ is the only way to God is not something that we can assume evangelicals believe anymore. When 56% of respondents agreed with the statement that God would accept worship from other religions Judaism, Islam. And if these surveys accurately represent evangelical views at large, then I am not assuming that even in our congregation this morning, those of us who would say, man, I'm at Hickory Bible Church because I affirm or I believe that the Bible is inerrant and infallible, and that Jesus death on the cross provides a way for sinners to heaven. There could still be some that say, you know what? I'm not sure we can be so dogmatic that ours is the only way you know, that God would accept worship from these other monotheistic religions. Well, that would be contradicting the claims of Jesus Christ, who says exclusively, no, I am the only way you come to God. You come through me or you don't come at all. That's an exclusive claim that may not fall on our Western ears when we are wired, if you will, to be told that exclusivity is the problem. We need inclusivity, you know. We don't want to leave anybody out. We don't want to offend anyone. But the problem is that Jesus Christ is not afraid of offending you. When he came, he wasn't afraid to offend his listeners, to tell his listeners radical things like this when it comes to the exclusivity of believing and following him, so much so that it would divide house and home. Listen to his words in Luke 12 verse 51. Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? And of course everyone's like, yeah, don't you know all the songs about peace on earth? Goodwill to men. Like we all just get along. He says, do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you no, but rather division. From now on, 5 members in one household will be divided. Three against two and two against three. Now, that happened yesterday in our house over the last piece of dessert. Much more important matters here. He's addressing the matters of following him. They will be divided father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother. Mother in law against daughter in law and daughter in law against mother in law. What is he saying there? That when I came, I divide humanity, I divide history. We know that just by looking at our calendars before Christ and A.D. Anno Domini in the year of our Lord. You know, I went to my arch nemesis, Google AI once again to see what Google had to say about, does all history pivot on Christ and Google AI even agreed that yes, before Christ BC stands for before Christ, AD for Anno Domini. But their explanation at the bottom of the page was about inclusivity, that some use BCE and CE rather than BC and AD, so as to be inclusive so that they won't offend people who don't consider Jesus to be Lord. Well, see, they softened it because it's not just about not considering that he's Lord, it's rejecting him outright. That's what divides all of history, in all of humanity into two camps. And it's not the camps of atheists and theists. Otherwise, that survey from LifeWay is fine, right? If it's just about atheists and theists, then we're okay with all the other monotheistic religions. As long as you believe in God, as long as you believe something, you're good. But Christ's own message is no, all of history and humanity divides on me, the Son of God, that everyone who exists is either in Christ or not in Christ. And the only way to be in Christ is to be born again, to receive me, to believe what I say about myself. The things we said and sang this morning. So that is how John brings us into advent. He doesn't bring us into it in the way that Matthew and Luke do that we read this morning at a manger scene where all is calm and all is bright. No, John's introduction into the person and work of Christ is where all is dark and all people are sinners. That's how the story of Jesus starts. And what we're going to see today in 10 to 13 is where all of his gospel, the story he's going to tell in 21 chapters, is really summarized here in these four verses, because these four verses divide out rather neatly ten and 11 into the rejecters and 12 and 13 into those who receive him. And why I say that's a summary of his gospel is because as soon as this prologue ends in verse 18, John 1:19 through the end of chapter 12, his three years of ministry really is a broader picture of this verse 10 and 11. He was in the world, but the world didn't know him. They didn't receive him. If you are reading in the reading, plan on your own about the life of Jesus in John right now, you should probably be around chapter somewhere between chapters 11 and 15 if you're trying to keep up this month. So you end on Christmas Eve taking in all of the Gospel of John. I hope you're doing it. I hope it's encouraging your faith. I hope it's drawing your eyes and those who are in your home with you to Christ. We were we were talking about it this week and we were in John 11 talking about Lazarus and him being resurrected. And we just go around and say after we read, what did you see? What's amazing about Jesus? And and one of our kids says, well, what's amazes me is on one hand Jesus can weep, and on the other hand, he can raise Lazarus from the dead. He gets the deity and humanity of Christ. That's why we do this. So our eyes and our kids eyes and friends eyes would be open to the glory of Christ. That's the purpose of it. So we would adore him for all of who he is. Well, the first 12 chapters of John, he is showing us in 10 and 11 that the majority of the people that were there when Jesus came into the world and came into his own, rejected him. The minority that receive him, we start seeing in John 13, in the upper room, he's down to his disciples, and they're with him all the way through the end to John chapter 21. So I wanted to just put that on the outset, because we'll be moving around through the Gospel of John today, because the parallels are so poignant when we take 10 and 11, as the Lord has come, but the world did not receive him. And that's the first 12 chapters of John. They did not receive him. They rejected him. But when you hit the pivot point, the hinge on which the Gospel of John turns is into chapter 13, the last few days of his life, where he's with his disciples. Those who received him believed in his name as verses 12 and 13 talk about.  
  So let's first start with the joy to the world the Lord has come, and yet the world did not rejoice in his coming. Verse 10 he was in the world, and he's not in the world. And the way Pantheists say, God is in the world, he's in the trees and he's in the carpet and he's in my sweater. That's not what he's talking about. He was in the world. It means he came into the world as a man. God in human flesh. Romans 8:3, God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Or Philippians 2:7-8, he took the form of a bond servant made in the likeness of men, and was found in his appearance as a man, or Hebrews 2:14 therefore the children share in flesh and blood, children of man. And Jesus himself likewise also partook of the same. This was the consensus among the writers of the New Testament. Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world as a man. Why did he come into the world as a man? John says in John chapter 3 verse 17, God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Why did he come into the world? Jesus says about himself, I came to be the suffering servant. I didn't come to be served, but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many. Mark 10 says here in John 3:17 that the world might be saved through him. That's why he came. That the world would see their Savior, that the world would know their creator, that the creature would worship the creator. But verse 10 says, he was in the world, and the world was made through him. We already learned that back in John 1:3, everything came into being through him, and yet the world did not know him. And this is probably John speaking broadly to the Gentile world, the world of fallen humanity in the broadest terms. God comes into the world that he creates and the world doesn't...What's the word there in verse ten? Know him. That means they didn't recognize him. They didn't acknowledge him. Romans 1 talks about this, that the creature doesn't acknowledge its creator even though he's there and he's walking amongst them. The world didn't recognize him. And that's bad. The world's rejection of Christ. But what's worse is in the next verse, verse 11. Not just the world in general. The Gentile world. The fallen world of humanity. He came to his own. John goes further in. Now he gets specific. Who were Jesus's own? The nation of Israel, the lost sheep of Israel. The chosen people of God. If you know your Old Testament, you know the nation of Israel was God's chosen people throughout the Old Testament. He constantly is calling them his own, his possession, his people. Exodus 19. For instance, Moses is about to give the people the law. They've been delivered from oppression in Egypt. Exodus 19:3 Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the sons of Israel. Exodus 19:4 you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle’s wings, and brought you to myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples. For all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. God wanted Israel to know that they were his possession. They were his people. And throughout the Old Testament we hear echoes of this. Psalm, chapter 50, verse 7, hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, I will testify against you.

  I am God, your God. It doesn't say that about any other peoples. My favorite latter prophets, minor Prophet Amos, chapter 3, verses 1 and 2, hear this word which the Lord has spoken against you sons of Israel, against the entire family which he brought up from the land of Egypt. Listen to what he says about them. You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth. So back to John 1:11. Jesus came to his own. The people that were looking for the Messiah, that should have known better. And what was their response to him? In summation, those who were his own did not receive him. Notice it's not the same word as in verse 10. The Gentile world just didn't recognize him, didn't acknowledge him, didn't know him. But it says Israel, they recognized, but they did not receive him. And that word received means it literally to grasp on to something being handed to you. The Messiah was being given to his people. And Acts says he was given over by them to be crucified. What a rejection. And so these two categories, whether it's for the Greco-Roman reading this in a world of many gods to learn that the true God, the true light, came into the world and the darkness didn't recognize it and receive it, and they would be convicted, or the Jew reads this and says, yes, he came to his own people. He had a particular reason to reach them. He was their long awaited Messiah, and they acknowledged they would have known him. But they said, no, you're not. We reject you. In fact, we want to crucify you for making yourself equal to God. So he has been rejected. And that is the first part of the book of John, those three years that he covers in the first 12 chapters. If you've been reading through it, you see that it's the majority of rejectors, not receivers. And what I want to do this morning was just take a few minutes here, kind of to get the most we can from this. When it comes to how does this change my life? What do I do with the information in verses 10 and 11? What can I learn from this that helps my own heart to diagnose where I stand with Christ today? Or if I stand in Christ today, how can I better reach the people around me? How can I understand what may be their condition that keeps them in the darkness? Now, generally speaking, what keeps people in the darkness is their unbelief. We can all agree to that. It's not believing in Jesus Christ. That's the goal of the Gospel of John, that you would believe that he is the Son of God and have life in his name. But there are examples, even just the first few chapters, of what people's particular reasons are or problems are that cause them to reject Christ. And so I just want to introduce you to some people as we walk through these chapters, we'll meet the first one in chapter 1 and just give you some categories for your thinking this morning of why people don't receive him, why they reject him. And the first category is this people reject Christ out of biblical ignorance. That would be maybe just step one to rejecting Christ. Biblical ignorance. People reject Jesus because they are ignorant of what the Word of God says about him. We meet a fellow like that in John chapter 1. We don't even have to go far. His name is Nathaniel. Jesus was starting to gather followers to himself. Verse 43 Philip was following him, and Philip wants to introduce his friend Nathaniel to Jesus and listen to what Philip says in his excitement. John 1:45 we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets, wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. So here Philip's excited, says to this guy, Nathaniel, hey, the Bible, the Word of God, the Old Testament is speaking clearly here. Moses and the law and the prophets. We found the Messiah. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathaniel, if he knew his Bible, would have been like, what? That's amazing. What's his response in 46? Cynical. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? There's a bit of biblical ignorance here, and it's revealed in what he says, particularly about Nazareth. He's showing that maybe in his mind, the Messiah had to be a somebody, not a nobody, because Nazareth was a nobody place. And if the King was going to come back to lead Israel out of their current oppression under Rome, and if he was going to be the one to bring in the kingdom of God, he couldn't be this lowly leader, this scorned Savior. Except if Nathaniel would have known Isaiah 53 to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Verse 2. For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of a parched ground. He had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised, and we did not esteem him. So, Nathaniel, he just thinks, yeah, really? Some small town, some dot on the map our Messiah can't come from there. Is biblically ignorant of a premier passage in the Old Testament. The points that our Messiah wasn't going to be somebody that was going to cause headlines because of his prominence. Fortunately for Nathaniel, Jesus doesn't give up on him. Look at verse 47. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and said to him, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. Nathaniel says to Jesus, how do you know me? And Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathaniel answered back, Rabbi, teacher, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. So happy ending to that story. All it took was Jesus ministering to this man who initially was cynical, doubtful, doesn't believe it because of biblical ignorance to a degree. Boom, pivots just like that. That's what understanding more of the Word of God can do for a person. Did the same thing for Nicodemus. Chapter 3. Look at verse 1. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, who came to Jesus by night thinking, hey, Rabbi, teacher, we've got you pegged. We've seen the signs, we've heard about them. And you can't do those unless God is with you. Notice he doesn't say God is you. Jesus answered and said to him, truly I say to you, unless you're born again, you actually can't see the kingdom of God. Unless you're born again Nicodemus, teacher of the law. You have no idea what you're seeing. You're seeing signs. But you think because you have this partial knowledge of who the Messiah is and what the Kingdom of God is about, that you've got me pegged, but you're missing me entirely because you just think God is with me, just like he's been with everybody else. You're not saying that I am God. And in order to see this, you need to be born again. And this is where Jesus brings Nicodemus back to the Word of God to open his eyes. Look at verse 5. Truly I say to you, unless one is born of the water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. He's reciting Scripture. He's talking about Ezekiel 36. Nicodemus, like the rest of those Pharisees, thought it was the Mosaic law. It was the old covenant. It was you working your way to God, not God coming your way, not God coming to you, not God working in you, giving you a new heart. That's what Ezekiel 36 taught about the New Covenant. Listen to verse 25. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. For the moralist, the legalist, the Pharisee who thinks I just need to be more ethical, moral law keeping, a better person in order to make my way to God. Ezekiel 36 teaches the opposite. There is nothing you can do to impress a holy God. You need to be changed from within. You just don't need behavioral adjustment. Moral reform. You need to become a new creature entirely from the inside out. That's the new birth. But notice when he gives you his spirit. Ezekiel 36:27 I will put my spirit in you and cause you to walk in my statutes. There's the obedience God desires after he changes you from the Inside, not you trying to change yourself from the outside. So those who reject Christ out of biblical ignorance, whether Nathaniel or Nicodemus, who when you read on in the rest of the story of the gospel, he comes to be a man of faith. By the end of the story, he's there for Jesus to take him down off the cross. It's good news, in both cases for Nathaniel and Nicodemus that biblical ignorance can be overcome. Praise God for that. You don't have to stay in darkness by having the light of the Word of God in your life. In fact, many of your testimonies here this morning, I wouldn't be surprised if that's how you came to faith, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ, the Word of God. So I would say the I don't want to maybe say the vast majority, but a good amount of people in here would probably say if I was, hey, what's your testimony of becoming born again? Being a Christian? It was you sat under preaching or teaching or a study or a verse in the Bible, whatever it might be, like the testimony of Augustine, of just being told to take up the book and read and he opens to it, and he reads a passage of make no more provision for the flesh, don't walk by the flesh, but put on Jesus Christ. And that, boom, did it for him. It's probably done it for a lot of you in here. You understand? That's how God gives new life. So may I encourage some of you not to give up on that in your ministry to other people, in your evangelism, to other people. Just keep bringing the Word of God to them. It doesn't return void, friend. You just don't know when that return date is. But you bring them the Word of God because you trust it has the power to change them. And that's what we learn as we walk through the Gospel of John. Those who didn't reject him, those who received him like a Nathaniel or Nicodemus, it was through understanding more of the Word of God about Christ. First reason people reject him is when they're stuck in their biblical ignorance. Here's the second reason we find as we walk through this gospel, people reject Christ out of spiritual superficiality. I'd like you to meet the woman at the well. Moving from chapter 3, talking about Nicodemus to this Samaritan woman who meets Jesus at a well on a hot day, she would represent those who initially reject Christ because all they want to do is deal with their life at a skin deep level. They're spiritually superficial. They know some things. And when you read all of chapter 4, verse 7 to 29 about this woman's testimony, she knew enough about religion. Even in verse 9 when she meets Jesus, this Jew, to say, like, why would you even talk with me? Don't you know that there's a rift between us, our people? Down in verse 20 when she says, our fathers worshiped in this mountain. And you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men and women ought to worship. So she knows enough. She's spiritually superficial, and it's shown because when Jesus starts talking to her about eternal life, verse 13 and 14, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give shall never thirst again, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. What's her shallow response? Okay, fill her up, sir, give me this water so I'll not be thirsty again. And I won't have to keep coming out to this. Well, you see, if you present the gospel in a shallow and superficial way, just about meeting your needs, the physical ones, it's all about you and your life being made better. Who's going to refuse that? I mean, it's all around us. Ran into a guy this week. You know who I've known for years, and he's into the word of faith. And name it and claim it. And I'm with my son and he we're talking and he turns and before he leaves, he says, hey, I want to ask you something. Okay. Go ahead. What are you believing on the Lord for right now? And you see my eyes rolling. So I am just like, what am I doing here? And my son just goes… heaven. And I was like, yes. Like, dude, you just got put in place by this kid. You think we were going to say like, yeah, like this 12 year old is going to go, yeah, I'm believing in the Lord for a new PlayStation or that I would, you know, be this great and famous. No, he just goes heaven. Amen. That's the point I've come to give eternal life. Guy didn't have a response. That's the superficial spirituality of somebody who just wants something to meet some immediate need. But they're not thinking about eternal life. And she wasn't thinking about eternal life. And what usually is the thing that keeps people at the surface level that they won't go deep is well, we learn it in John 3 verse 20. Everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. It's a person's reality being shaken that they're actually a sinner in practice, and not just in theory. And when that gets shattered, when that gets pierced through with the light, suddenly they see the Savior as not just, he can give me some of these things that I want, but actually he can meet my deepest need, I need saved. We see that in the life of the woman at the well when Jesus calls her out, he says, go tell your husband to come here. And the woman answers and says, I have no husband. And he says, you correctly have said, you have no husband. You've had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly. And she stopped because, okay, I perceive you're a prophet. I'm. I'm dealing with somebody different here, and it ends up leading her to go back and tell the city that she's from, that she has met the Christ. What breaks through the superficiality of a spiritual person is recognizing in themselves that they truly are separated from God because of their sin. That's my testimony. I mean, I knew the Bible, but it took a counselor at a summer camp saying, Adam, you know, you say you're this sinner who's trusted in the Lord Jesus, but can I, like, point out the sins in your life this week that you could give a rip about? And I was like, okay. And on that porch, he just told me. And it was the first time in my life where my eyes were open to see, oh, I'm not just a sinner in theory like the Bible tells me. I'm actually one in practice. And if that's my practice, 1 John would say, then you can't say you actually know God. And that's what the Lord used to save me, a superficial spiritualist. If I had to put a term on it, biblical ignorance wasn't my primary problem. It was not seeing myself rightly. But once you see yourself rightly as a sinner, then you know, okay, I need this savior. Francis Schaeffer was a Presbyterian pastor, evangelical theologian, cultural apologist. Maybe you heard of him. He lived in the 1900s, had the L'Abri fellowship over in Switzerland, you know, really suffering for the gospel over. No. I'm kidding. But he was brilliant. He was a C.S. Lewis type, and he was used by God in great ways to lead people to Christ who just had questions, especially in the turbulent times of the 60s and 70s as the world was changing around them. How relevant is Christ to the problems we face? And in a time where people were, you know, the culture is changing, morality is changing. You would have thought some people would have said, you know, the last thing you should tell people is that they're sinners. That'll push them away. But Schaeffer took the opposite approach. In one of his books he wrote. He wrote this about us understanding our true sinfulness. He wrote, A negative message is needed before anything positive can begin. There must first be the message of sin and judgment. There are times in ours are such times when we cannot expect a constructive revolution or a revival. If we begin by overemphasizing the positive message, people often say to me, what would you do if you met a modern man on a train and you had an hour to talk to him about the gospel? I would spend 45 minutes on the negative to show him his real dilemma, to show him that he is more dead than he even thinks he is. He is morally dead because he's separated from the God who exists. Then I would take 15 minutes to tell him the good news. Is that the way you think about evangelism, I mean, the culture wants to push on us to drop the sin thing, okay? Just speak to people's felt needs, you know, because otherwise they'll just immediately be offended. But if you really care about that person and they're living in a culture that the last thing is going to tell them is that they're the problem. You have to paint the picture dark, right, in order for the light to break through it. If you just paint the picture all bright and good and okay, then what's my problem? If God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life, is my intro into evangelism? Why do I need a Savior? If he already loves me and my life is just exactly the way he wants me to be, and I'm perfect the way I am, I don't need a Savior. But what Schaeffer went on to say is, I believe that much of our evangelistic work today is not clear, simply because we are too anxious to get the answer with having a man realize the real cause of his sickness, which is true moral guilt. So back to the second point. What you find with some people in the Gospel of John spiritual superficiality. The rich young ruler in the synoptic accounts who thinks he's pretty good at the surface, but he doesn't really see his sin is deep within. He loves his stuff, idols of the heart more than he loves his Savior. That's the second category. Good news about this woman. She changed. Third one, though, is the saddest of them all. People reject Christ. This is the last category and this is the broadly speaking. You know, the one that Jesus encountered the most, the religious narcissist. People reject Christ out of religious narcissism. Unsaved religious people seek their own glory instead of God's. They're self-deceived because they're self-loving. We read about this in John chapter 5. As you see, I'm just walking through this gospel, one chapter at a time, showing to you the type of people that back in verse 10 and 11, he came into the world and his own did not receive him, but rejected him. Here's another group of rejectors. Verse 18. The Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath, but calling God His father, making himself equal with God. They're not listening to his words, even though he's saying the Father is the one showing me all these things, doing all these things. I'm just here on his behalf. He says the witness of John. Look at John 5:33. John was sent. He testified to this. You're not believing him. The witness of my works, verse 36, the works that the Father has given me to do, the very works I do testify about me. But you won't believe that. The witness of the Father who sent me, he testified of me. But you don't hear his voice at any time, because you don't have his word in you, because you don't believe him who he said. He keeps saying, you keep rejecting me. You think you have all the answers. Verse 39, you search the scriptures. You think that in them you have eternal life. And it's these scriptures that you religious Jews are the experts of that you don't see. All signs point to me. What's the heart of their problem? Verse 42, you do not have the love of God in yourselves. Verse 44. How can you believe? How can you have faith when you receive glory from one another? And you don't seek the glory that is from the one and only God? What he's saying here is the problem with these Jews is they weren't biblically ignorant and they weren't superficial. They were deep, but they were just turned in on themselves. They loved themselves. They loved the glory, the slapping each other on the back. Hey, you're the most holy man I know. No, no, no, no. You're the most holy man on earth. We're all the most holy men we know. And some people are in Christianity. Maybe don't talk that same way, but they're still in it for the same reasons that the Pharisees were. They're in it because of what it gives them. Some people are in Christianity because of the attention it gives them, The friendships it gives them. The influence it gives them. The authority it gives them. The sense that they're better than everyone else. They're in it for every reason other than the main one. They're not in it for the glory that goes to God and God alone when you love him with your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the sad part is, unlike those other categories, these people in chapter 5 did not turn. In fact, that's where this gospel turns from rejecters to receivers, because at the end of chapter 12 he says this about them. Many of the rulers John 12:42, they were saying they believed in him, but because of the Pharisees, they wouldn't confess him for fear of man, that they would be put out of the synagogue. Why? For they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. That'll keep a person from coming to Christ all the way. People that he would even say, yeah, I kind of agree with some of that Christianity stuff. It sounds pretty good, but they won't come all the way because they love the approval of man and what it would cost them to want to live for the approval of God more than the approval of man. You can't live for both at the same time. The gospel is an either /or. It's not a compromise. Matthew 6:33. You can seek first the kingdom of God, or you can seek first your own kingdom. Matthew 7:14. You can enter heaven by the narrow gate, or you can enter hell by the wide gate. Matthew 7:21. You can do the will of God the Father, or you can do your own will. Matthew 7:24. You can build your life on Christ's words and wisdom, or on your own words and wisdom. Mark 10:29 you can leave it all behind here for eternal life in heaven, or you can have it all here and lose heaven. Those are the parameters that Jesus paints. It's the approval of man. It's what you want for yourself. It's your own self-love and your inability to turn outward and say, no, I want to live for the Lord, I love him, I love his glory, not my own, not to me, not to me, but to your name be the glory. The religious narcissist can never get out of their own way, because everything they do, ultimately is to turn back, to give themselves glory. That's where we end in John 1:11. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.
  Now here's the good news this morning, verses 12 and 13, just like in John 12:50, then turns the hinge to John 13 and now he's with his disciples, and they're with him until the end, and he loves them until the end. They have received him. That's the story in the second half of John, the last few days of his life. And it's also the story in summary. Look at verse 12, no longer rejectors. These are the receivers. As many as received him. That same word that we talked about in verse 11, to be offered something and not grasp it to the ones who are offered Christ, and they hold on to him. To them he gave the right to become children of God. They took hold of the eternal life that was right in front of them. Did they have their doubts? They did. But John 21, they were with him to the end. They didn't turn back like in John 6 when many of the disciples turned back and Jesus turns to them and says, are you going to go with the rest of them? And what does Peter say in response? Where else would we go? You have the words of eternal life. Those are the ones who received him and them, he gave the right to become children of God, and then said in a different way to those who believe in his name, to receive him, to take hold of Christ, and to believe in his name, or talking about the same thing. Even though they're different phrases, both are biblical ways to talk about saving faith, trusting in Christ, and that trust is built on all of which we've already talked about. We've talked about you can't remain biblically ignorant and receive Christ. You have to know the true content of the faith and not just say it's true, but have a conviction that you would live for it, die for it, even because you love him, because he first loved you. That's what verse 12 is saying in summary. To become a child of God, then, is to realize that you first been loved by the Father, loved by the Son, born by the Spirit, because it's he who gives life. That's what John 3 taught us, wasn't it? That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. It's not something you can do to yourself. Verse 13 drives that point home. Just if you read verse 12 without 13, you might think, oh, it's all about me receiving Jesus. It's all about me believing in his name. I can do it. Verse 13 says, not so fast. How are you born again? Look at verse 13, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. Three negatives to one positive. Here's how you're born again. You're born again of God. Salvation is all of God. Every category that you could try to think of. To say no. But it's I did something says it's not of blood. Meaning like the Jews who thought just because they were children of Abraham, they were in the family. That's how they got in. Modern day. My parents are Christians. My grandparents were Christians. My great grandparents were Christians. I'm a Christian. I was born into a Christian home. I've done Christian things my whole life. I'm a Christian. I've never not believed. It could be true. Could be true. God is the one who gives life. But if the only way you know how to describe your faith is to say, I was born into a Christian home, and I've always been going to church, and, you know, I'm a Christian. He says, well, you're not born of it's not born of blood. You know, some guy came up to me afterwards, first service and said, oh, the Billy Graham quote, you know, God has no grandchildren. You know, you don't get in just by family lineage. You have to be born again, no matter if every single person in your family history around you and you got better odds than anybody else, you still don't come in just because of the family you're born into. Okay? Pastor's kids, missionary kids, whatever kids here, you come by yourself. You got a great cloud of witnesses around you cheering ya. You put your faith in Christ, come to Christ, live for Christ, love Christ. But you've got to put your faith in him. It comes down to what you say about him, not what everybody else tells you about him, what you believe about Christ. That's how you're born again. Okay, maybe you don't think it's about the family you're from, but you think about. It's the things you do. I read my Bible, I go to church, I do all these external things. Well, he says right there, you're not born again by the will of the flesh, something external. So all the all the list of things you might list out and say, that's how I'm in the family of God. That's how I'm a Christian. John says. Nope, you don't will yourself in externally and you go, okay, right. It's internal. I gotta have that burning desire. Well, he says, you're not born of the will of man, as in man doesn't will himself into it. So it's not the blood and it's not the flesh. It's not external. It's not. What is it? You're born again of God. And you say that leaves me desperate. No chance on my own to come to Christ. Oh, yeah. Yeah. See, the moment you start seeing, I have no chance on my own. Now you're getting very close. Because you're completely helpless and hopeless about apart from what? Crying out to God save me, the sinner. Because everything else, the bad things that I can see myself doing and even the good things that I would think would make God want to save me. None of it counts. I'm desperate. Yes you are. What do I do next? Cry out to him. Lord, save me, the sinner. The world doesn't get that's how it works. They think it's got to be something else going around. I was reminded of that. I just was reading an article in the Guardian on how Notre Dame that burnt down in 2019 rebuilt. You've seen some of the pictures on the internet. It's beautiful. Listen to this writer's response to walking into this beautiful new cathedral. He writes. When the powerful and melodious organ starts up its 8000 pipes, carefully cleaned of the lead dust that came from the burning roof, the forms of their repeating vertical cylinders fortuitously echoing those of the bunched colonettes of the stone pillars. The whole building sonically and visually resonates the human voices of a choir joining this big sound machine from near the other extremity of the 128 meter long structure, make the cathedral into a musical instrument from end to end. I'm not religious, and I found 1 or 2 aspects of the mass I attended on Monday a touch creepy and the magnificence of the multi-sensory experience won't convert me, but it's impossible not to be moved. So this writer comes in there just seeing the beauty, maybe understanding in part why great cathedrals alike like this were built throughout the ages to exalt the glory of God, to make you look up. But when he wrote at the end, you know that magnificent multi-sensory experience won't convert me. Well, you're right, nothing will convert you outside of the grace of God in Christ. Nothing outside of being poor in spirit, broken in spirit will bring you into the kingdom of God. It's the only way you come. The only way that John says we are born again is by the work of God. And that is a miraculous work. Friends, we won't fully comprehend the teaching here about our inability to save ourselves, but we can't deny what John is saying. That this salvation is all of God. And yet he could still he could say this at the beginning and end in John 20:31 saying, I wrote you all this so that you would believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that you would put your life in his hands, that you would trust him for eternal life. Changed from the inside, new affections, new loves for the Lord Jesus Christ above everything else. I pray that if you're not in Christ today, that you would see that there's only two categories for where you stand before him today. Now, you may be curious. You may want to know more. And that's what we're here for. You may have more questions to ask because you're going, I am biblically ignorant, I don't know, or I have been spiritually superficial. I've just been in church my whole life and never thought this deeply on my salvation. Well then, keep pressing in. If that light is piercing the darkness of whatever has been the fog in front of you for so long. But if right now there's nothing holding you back, you don't need any more answers to questions. You know you're a sinner. You know you need a Savior. Then call upon the Lord Jesus Christ now and be saved.
  Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your grace to us in Christ this morning. Thank you for your kindness to us in him. Thank you for the amazing gospel according to John that just exalts you Christ, right from the beginning in your in your magnificence. Is God fully God, truly God, completely God, and then brings you down to earth man, truly man, completely man like us in every way except for sin, so that we can see that there has been a way made between God and man, one mediator between God and man, you, the Lord Jesus Christ. Give new life today. I pray and encourage the hearts of any here today who have been far from you. They know you are the way, the truth, and the life, but they haven't been looking to you. Renew their affections for you this morning we pray. Amen.