John 1:10-14 Bible Teaching

John 1.14 – part III
June 16th 2013

So here we are, in the Gospel of John, chapter one, verses 10-14.

So let’s open with PRAYER (as the early church did) dedicate some time to hearing and singing the Word put to music (as the early church did), and then we’ll spend a few minutes in corporate prayer before getting into scripture (as ? ? ? , thas, right, as the early church did).

PRAYER
MUSIC
CORPORATE PRAYER

Last week in our coverage of these passages we talked about how verse 12 has a few applications – depending on where a person is in their walk with the Lord.

We know from scripture and from experience that there are people who are considered babes in Christ, feeding on the milk of the Word and re-learning to walk with Him as their lead.

By and through exposure to the Word, and the subjection of the will of the flesh to the ways of the Holy Spirit, people mature in Christ.

This spiritual maturation does not occur for everyone in the same way or time. But I can guarantee that time in the Word accelerates the process.

So even if you feel stunted in your growth, know this – you are growing, and your weekly being in the word here (in addition to any study or hearing of the word you do in addition to this) is culminating in changes in you of which you presently may not be aware.

So let’s stand and read our passages (one more time) since next week we are going to leave this introduction of John and get into his amazing narrative.

Ready?

10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which 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 was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

“But as MANY as received Him to them gave he power (or the right) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”

Some final thoughts regarding this passage. There are a lot of ideas men and women have come up with when it comes to what actually transpires when a person comes to faith.

We hear from some that we are dead in sin and cannot do anything on our own.

Conversely, we also hear that we all have a choice whether we will receive what God is offering or not.

The Bible presents us with several propositions which do not make our understanding of the process any easier, that is for sure.

For example,

John 6:44-45 says
“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

We know from verse 13 that as many as received Him He gave the power to become the sons and daughters of God, but what transpires allowing some to hear and receive and others to refuse.

I would strongly suggest that nobody in this fallen world would choose to pursue after God unless He first drew them, called them, invited them.

There are people who like to teach and claim that God only calls some, but to this I do not agree – He calls to all – and I would add He calls to them constantly.

That word – all – is one of the most used words in the Bible – did you know that?

None is used 341 times but all is used 4686!

In one of those instances (1st Timothy 2:4) says, speaking of God:

“Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”

Second Peter 3:9 supports this position, saying:

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

If this is the case, and none can come to Him unless He calls them, I think we are safe in saying “He calls to all.”

The question then becomes, why do only some receive or hear or accept His call?

Jesus said it best in John 3:19:

“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

This love of darkness somehow acts to cover or coat human sensory perception – or at least their spiritual sensory perceptions.

This is what Jesus said:

Matthew 13:15 “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”

So we pray for them, we share with them, we hope they will become seekers of truth rather than those who try and refrain from the light, and we long for the day when the light will shine in the darkness and that they will comprehend it.

Until this happens it is impossible for them to understand or receive what God is offering.

1st Corinthians 2:14 says it well:

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

I’ve been in outreach ministry full time for a number of years now.

I’ve been privy to all sorts of reactions to the Word being presented. I would suggest (and this is by no means the final word on the subject but I would suggest this simple rule when it comes to those who receive what God offers all:

Those who seek find, or, seekers find.

Show me a true seeker (and God knows the heart of every one of us) but show me someone who from the heart wants truth and I guarantee that individual will receive Him at some point in time AND as long as they remain seekers of truth.

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Verse 13

13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

In other words, taking verse 12 and 13 into account, power is given (to become the sons and daughters of God) to those which were born.

Automatically we know this is not talking about the first birth, our natural birth where and when we came into this fallen world, but the second birth.

We will learn in a few chapters where a man named Nicodemus comes to Jesus and Jesus tells Him that in order to see the Kingdom of Heaven he must be “born-again.”

The best translation of this phrase is “born from above.”

1st Peter 1:23 describes it for us, saying:

“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”

That’s a pretty radical statement isn’t it?

“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”

You may wonder why I am such a fanatic on the Word of God – either the word that created the worlds, the word that became flesh, OR the Word that we have in our hands, it is God’s word that brings new creations, new life, new perspective – whether that word is what He speaks, what became flesh, or what is printed.

So John says, those who were born, but NOT of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

What do these four statements mean:

Those born 1) NOT of blood
2) NOT of the will of the flesh
3) NOT of the will of Man . . .
4) But of God!

Those “born of blood” are not given the power to become the sons of God.

Quite the opposite, in fact. Those born of blood (or from their human fathers and mothers) are alienated from the power to become His sons and daughters NOT empowered.

The human blood does more to get in our way from becoming His children than assisting us in finding Him.

It’s intriguing, but the best human blood, blood that has not been tainted by all sorts of human malfunctions, genetic tweaking, and centuries of generational influence was pulsing through who’s veins?

The first human child born after the fall – Cain. And He turned out to be a murderer so what does that tell us about our blood.

No, those born of blood are probably about as far (in that state) as receiving Him as possible – it’s just not “in” us.

We do NOT naturally want what He wants. From the time we enter this world as infants we want to be coddled, fed, given everything we want, praised, clapped for, celebrated over, catered to, and nearly some level of almost every other description of serving the self you can imagine.

But God is at the polar end of such attributes, and as Love, adores all the attribute that are nowhere found in natural men and women of blood – attributes like love, selflessness, kindness, seeking the betterment of others, returning good for evil . . . in other words everything Jesus was.

Get it?

Additionally, by blood may also refer to being from the bloodline of Abraham, something the Jews thought was their ticket.

Here, John says not so. There is no being God’s son through lineage. Remember what John the Baptist said to the Jews who were relying on blood lines for their heavenly identity?

Matthew 3:9 “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”

So we don’t become his children by blood.
John goes on:

And NOT by “the will of the flesh.”

What does this mean? Most commentators think this is a redundancy of the first line, with blood and flesh simply representing our natural physical nature.

I think the Holy Spirit through John was saying something more.

If “by blood” refers to ancestral ties to salvation and/or our natural state coming into this world, I would suggest the will of the flesh speaks to our ability to progress, achieve, and succeed as human beings.

While sinful in the blood, due to Adam’s fall and Federal Headship over the human race, we are created in God’s image and have quite frankly amazing abilities in most areas of human existence.

I am astounded by the abilities of human beings when I watch programs like “Modern Marvels” or “How it’s made.”

Going all the way back to Noah’s ark the Tower of Babel, and the Roman Empire we see first hand the abilities that lie in the flesh of humanity – all because of God-given characteristic.

And while I am additionally amazed by God-given attributes present in animals – the beaver and his damn building
the ant and her mound building
the intellect in eagles have to drop objects from great heights as a means to break them open to eat,
and monkeys natural skills at community building . . .

their skills are limited in scope and in comparison to the creation God made in His image – Man.

Even fallen man.

Unfortunately, fallen man looks over his or her attributes and successes and worships himself, the creature, instead of the Grand Creator who infused him with the skill and reason and logic to create.

This is what I think John is saying here.
The will of the flesh – our abilities to solve problems, help and assist others, climb mountains, cure disease, reach the moon, write books, walk on burning coals – whatever we do and use to better ourselves will NOT, in the end, make us a child of God.

Although men today often suggest otherwise.

There is a giant swell today in humanist circles (and I mean it is enormous and is only growing like a cancer in the hearts of humanity) which speaks to people learning to tap into “the god within us,” or even put more boldly, it unabashedly claims:

“You are god.”

It’s tough to trace the origins of this idea (except from the beginning of the world) but it has long thrived in what we might call the metaphysical faiths like Eastern religions – especially Hinduism.

These mind science faiths worked their way into world consciousness through what is generally known as New Age, which is a conglomeration in philosophy of TM (transcendental mediation) and bubbles up through many, many facets of American life today including seemingly innocent things like motivational speaking and yoga.

The idea is always the same – in your flesh you ARE god . . . you are just failing in your attempts to be fully god.

When we do – when man does – we will dominate our circumstances and there is NOTHING that we cannot overcome or achieve.

This is the essence of “the will of the flesh.”

John tells us “nope.” Won’t do it. Cannot become even a Son or a Daughter of God this way.

He adds one more, saying

“nor of the will of Man.”

Here we again might think this is one in the same thing as the will of the flesh and while they are obviously related, I would suggest trying to become a child of God through the will of Man means more pointedly by or through man-made religious practices, sacrifices, and observances.

We’re not children of God through blood, we’re not children of God through the will of the flesh (or tapping into the potential in the flesh) and finally, we cannot become a child of God by the constructs, programs, and or rituals of Man.

Even good Christian church membership cannot make a person a child of God.

Let me put it to you this way:

You could be born from the family line of Peter, get baptized, live an austere and devoted life where you serve the church and community with utmost devotion and it will not make you a child of God.

You could attend church twice a week, fast every other day, wash yourselves in holy water, give all of your earthly possessions to the poor, and genuinely have a heart for the poor and suffering . . . . but these things will not do ONE single solitary thing to make you a child of God.

Since the beginning of time Man has employed all manner of methods for getting adopted by God.

We’ve built enormous altars and edifices, we’ve beaten ourselves silly, we’ve offered up human sacrifices, and paid through the nose to buy our way into His presence.

It won’t work.

For a thousand plus years Men have told us there are things we can and cannot eat and drink and smoke IF we want to be His children. They have told us to observe this holy day or that to please Him.

But listen to Colossians 2:16

“Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days.”

This is religion. This is the product of mans thinking, not Gods. Listen to Micah 6:6-7

“Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

Men often infer that the answer is yes to these queries.

But in a remarkable passage following in right after (at Micah 6:8) listen to what it says

“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

If scripture shows us anything it show that by and through our own flesh and blood and efforts at religion it is impossible to meet these three simple demands of God – to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.

Something else has to happen . . . something else has to occur for us to meet these basic expectations of God.

We must be born, reborn, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of Man . . . but of God.

Until this occurs, Man will resort to all kinds of attempts at living life in the every present evidence of His presence.

Some are in open rebellion to Him, claiming He does not exist and there is no need for Him.

Some believe they are His by virtue of the fact that they exist – and He must accept them as His automatically.

Others create and worship replacements for Him, becoming the sons and daughters of false, lesser gods.

And as mentioned, many embrace and practice religious attempts to either please Him . . . or even hide from Him behind them.

When Adam and Eve sinned, and saw they were naked, instead of coming to Him as they were, sinful and full of self-will, they chose a course that continues to be chosen over and over and over again today – to hide behind religion.

In their case, the religion they hid behind were . . . fig leaves.

Genesis 3:6 tells us why they ate the fruit and then verse 7 says once they ate it:

“the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”

It is somehow just part of the fallen nature of Man to somehow believe we can fool or trick God . . . that we can put up all kinds of barriers to hide behind and that He either can’t see behind them or appreciates our efforts at apparent modesty.

HA. HA. HA.

It is significant (and full circle) that when Jesus was on the earth we are told of an event that occurs shortly before His death.

Matthew 21 tells us at verse 19 that one morning when Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem he was hungry and from a distance saw a fig tree.

It was full of beautiful leaves and had the appearance of bearing plenty of fruit underneath and from afar. Verse 19 says:

19 And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.

The parallels are obvious but applicable in several ways. Of course the Messiah had come to the nation of Israel as the promise redeemer.

It was full of leafy green leaves, appearing holy, living according to the idea that by blood they were Gods, proud of the works of their flesh, adhering to the will of Man, but underneath it all they were not children of God, but merely bore the outward signs of being so.

By withering the fruitless fig tree before Him Jesus provided some symbolism for the coming end of the dispensation of the Children of Israel.

But there was also a tie in to His actions for all of us and to Adam and Eve – God hungers for real relationship from His creations and people hiding behind fig leaves of religion will never do.

Not by blood, not by the will of the flesh, not by the will of Man . . . but “born of God.”

How? How are men born-of God?

We are going to get into this specifically when we come to John chapter three when a man named Nicodemus comes to Jesus (by night) and Jesus tells Him the very same thing John is relation to us here in John one –
That if a person is even going to see the Kingdom of God they must be born-again, or, from a better translation, they must be born “from above.”

“That which is flesh is flesh,” says Jesus at that time to Nicodemus, “but that which is spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say you must be born from above.”

Prior to the coming and suffering and resurrection of the Lord, the Children of Israel, elected by God (or chosen by God to be used for His purposes) the COI related to Him as “their God” with them as “His people.”

The phrase in the Old Testament is always God being “their God,” and them being “His people.”

And while there are a few occasions where He refers to the Nation of Israel as His children, they are most often referred to as the Children of Israel and NEVER is He called their Father.

See, the relationship between the Children of Israel and God was established on obedience to the Law.

Jeremiah 7:23 says it well, where God says:

But this thing commanded I them, saying,

“Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.”

There was a relationship there – He was their God and they were His people – by and through obedience to the Law, but the ONLY way to become His Sons, and daughters – where we can actually refer to God as our papa, comes by and through being born of Him – not through any other attempt, effort or appeal.

What makes it possible for fallen creatures in flesh and blood to become literal children of God the consuming fire?

(long beat)

John tells us in verse 14:

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

By or through our first parents no human being can be called a child of God neither can any person rightfully call Him papa.

By and through the law (which nobody was ever made perfect) can any person become a child of God nor rightfully refer to Him as Papa.

By and through accomplishments, good deeds, a life well lived, or any other means can any person who have ever lived be child of God nor rightfully call Him Papa – except one.

The Word.

Who, because

. . . God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, (the Word who became flesh and dwelled among us) that “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

We celebrate His arrival on Christmas day, looking into manger scenes and reading the first chapters of Luke as a means to create images of this GREATEST of ALL gifts to humanity past, present, and future.

But He and His coming was described and prophesied for centuries prior.

Three chapters into Genesis (3:15) God tells Satan that through the seed of the woman Eve (note, not Adam) a being was coming that would overcome him and his ways.

Speaking of the Messiah God told Abraham later in Genesis (18:18) that all the Nations of the earth will be blessed through him.

Isaac (Gen 17:19), Jacob (Numbers 24:17), and Judah (Genesis 49:10) are all told that Shiloh was coming.

Through Isaiah (9:7) tells us that through Him the Government of David will never cease.

We know from Micah (5:2) that He will be born in Bethlehem.

Daniel tells us precisely the time of His birth in Daniel 9:25.

Isaiah 7:14 tells us He will be born of a virgin and Jeremiah tells us that there would be a massacre of infants resulting from His birth.

Hoses 11:1 speaks of His flight into Egypt.

And again Isaiah (9:1-2) describes His ministry in Galilee.

Moses described Him as a prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15)

Psalm 110:4 says He will be a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

And regarding His death for the sins of the whole world,

Isaiah 53:3 tells us He would be rejected by His own.

Psalm 41:9 tells us He would be betrayed by a friend.

Zechariah prophesied that He would be sold for a price of thirty pieces of silver and the next verse says that silver would be used to by a potter’s field. (Zechariah 11:12-13)

Psalms (27:12) says He would be falsely accused, Isaiah 53:7 says He will be silent in response to the accusations, and chapter 50:6 describes the fact that He would be spit on, slapped, punched and that His beard would be ripped from His face.

Psalms (69:4) says He will be hated without a cause, and Isaiah 53 adds that He would suffer vicariously and be crucified with sinners.

Psalm 22 says they will pierce His hands and feet, that He would be mocked, and given gall and vinegar to drink.

Zechariah reveals that His side would be pierced (Zechariah 12:10) and Psalm (22:18 and 34:20) says lots would be cast for His coat and that not a bone would be broken in His body.

Isaiah 53 says He will be buried with the rich.

And Psalms (16:10 and 68:18) says He will resurrect and then ascend on High.

For this, and what we are about to read in the narrative of His life by John, the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, so that any and all who receive Him can receive the power to become the Sons and daughters of Pappa . . . even God.

Let’s pray.
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