John 1.18
Milk
June 23rd 2013
Welcome, welcome and thanks for coming. May the Lord be with us in abundance today.
Let’s worship the Lord.
MUSIC
Corporate prayer.
SHAWN prays
Alright, we left off at verse fourteen in John chapter one.
In these first fourteen passages John the Beloved makes mention of John the Baptist in verses 6-8, saying:
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
And after our passages for today he will return to the topic of John the Baptist starting again at verse 19.
But as mentioned, John’s narrative is not chronologically driven but more stream of consciousness, touching and tapping on points as they are brought forth to him by the Holy Spirit and filling in some of the gaps present in the synoptic gospels.
So having made mention of John the Baptist back in verses 6-8, John comes back and touches on him again and then wanders off talking about the Lord again.
So let’s stand and read what our text says for today, in verses 15-18.
Ready? Speaking of Jesus, who he said in verse 14 “became flesh,” the beloved writes:
John 1:15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, “This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.”
16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
“And the word was made flesh” (as prophesied) and dwelled among us . . . (Verse 15)
John 1:15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, “This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.”
Witnesses are important in biblical teachings.
Deuteronomy 19:15 tells us that in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall all things be established.
So here we have John the beloved citing the fact that John the Baptist bore witness of Jesus the Messiah.
And he quotes him, saying John the Baptist said, upon seeing Jesus:
“This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.”
We will look into John the Baptists life in the next few weeks and talk about the chronology of his birth and ministry relative to Jesus’, but when he was in the midst of preparing the way for the promised Messiah he told the people who came to Him
“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” Matthew 3:3
Later in this very chapter we will read where the Baptist, upon seeing or witnessing Jesus will say:
“This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.”
So AGAIN we see how John does not write in the chronological sense but more like from the heart and Spirit moving within him.
In any case, he is telling us (the reader) that John the Baptist bore witness of Jesus, saying:
“He that cometh after me” (meaning, there is a person who will follow-in behind me in ministry) is “preferred before me” (meaning He is superior to me in every way – so much so, the Baptist will say in other places, that he is not worthy to even tie his shoes) and then the Baptist will add, “for He was before me.”
That last line is yet another proof John the Belove gives us (in his narrative) that Jesus came from heaven, that he had a preexistent life (which no other man had).
He does this in the first three verses of the book (In the beginning WAS the Word) etc.
How do we know that this is what the Baptist means and what John is trying to prove?
John the Baptist was older than Jesus. By about six months, I think. So while John the Baptist was physically older that the Lord, he was still able to say:
“But He was before me,” – “coming from above,” which is why the Baptist did not feel worthy to even tie His shoe or in baptizing Him in the first place.
16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
Remember, back in verse 14 John the Beloved said that Christ was “full of grace and truth.”
Here in verse sixteen he is referring to that comment, and saying that as yet another witness of Him, he had (as one of the apostles who walked and talked with Him when he became flesh) “received of that fullness” Jesus had.
Why does John the Beloved speaks of Jesus having “fullness” (or of being “full of grace and truth?”)
Have you ever heard me or someone else describe Jesus as all God and all Man?
This is one of the passages that support that claim.
He was not 50% man and 50% God making one full person. He was all man, inheriting all the elements and properties of a human being from His physical mother (and He was all God – or that “Word that became flesh” was filled to the brim (inside, the force that animated Him and moved His) was 100% God.
Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Colossians 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.
Half man half God is neither man nor God. But if He is completely Man in a body of flesh wherein all the fullness of the Godhead dwelled bodily, He is ALL man and ALL God.
Get it?
In the Book of Judges we have an Old Testament picture of our Lord.
Gideon was facing a battle with the Midianites and when Gideon was prepared to go to battle with them the Lord said to Gideon (in Judges chapter 7)
The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, “Mine own hand hath saved me.”
In other words, if you go against the Midianites with that army of 32,000 men your men will think they won the battle by their strength and not mine.
So the Lord says in verse 3
“Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.”
But that was too many.
Judges 7:4 then says:
“And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.
5 So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.
6 And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.
7 And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.
So now we are looking at three hundred men against 135,000.
That’s like thirty men against 13,500 or three men against 1,350.
In other words, God wanted to show that He would be the one who won the battle for them and NOT their own strength.
This is all a picture – a picture of God using weak things to overcome the mighty, a picture of Christ to come, and a picture of Christians overcoming spiritual warfare by and through the spirit and not the flesh.
How do I see all these things in this story of Gideon going up to war against the Midianites?
In Judges 7:16 we read that Gideon:
“divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.”
This is a “picture” of the coming messiah.
The pitchers were jars of clay (pictures of the Word becoming flesh) and underneath those jars of clay the three hundred men had burning candles (pictures of the fullness of God – fire – dwelling within Him). 100% earth 100% fire.
And see, the Midianites were all down in a valley, like masses of grasshoppers.
And Gideon and his three troops of a hundred each were surrounding them in the foothills. And when Gideon gave the command the men surrounding the valley began screaming and they all broke the clay jars.
What happened?
The light from the fire within the clay jars beamed forth freaking the massive armies out. And they flew into this mass confusion and in it someone stabbed someone, causing another to stab back and before you knew it they found themselves in an all out war with each other.
All of that literal history of a literal war with real literal people presents us with some pictures.
It is a picture that shows by small means God overcomes the mighty.
It shows that He fights our battles.
And it shows that it is the light (or spirit within) that overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds, not the jars of clay which we inhabit.
If we were to hold up the Bible we could say that the Old Testament is a type of the flesh, of God showing that by and through the flesh and the Law holiness, perfection, and peace is impossible – He wants Man looking to Him.
And the New Testament is a type of the Spirit overcoming the flesh we inhabit.
And through it all we get a picture pointing to Christ – the jar of clay filled with fullness of God in fire.
Similarly, we remember when Jesus was up on what they called the mount of Transfiguration.
And there the fullness of His glory shined forth out from amidst the clay of His earthly body, frightening Peter, James, and John. Same picture.
The interesting thing is scripture ALSO tells us that we can have (LISTEN) the fullness within us too.
Huh? What?
That’s right, God desires that all who are His, all who believe on Him would also be filled with Him.
At birth, we are filled with the self.
At rebirth, we are introduced to a regeneration by fire,
And in the end we are to become like His Son – containing the fullness of God.
Consider what Ephesians 3:14-21 says.
Listen carefully now. You ready? Paul writes:
14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
(referring to that Spirit within us, that flame under the clay, that light exuding from our King on the Mount of Transfiguration – He desires that we, as believers, might be strengthened with MIGHT . . . BY HIS SPIRIT in the INNER MAN!)
(stay with me now . . . this is important)
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; (Listen)
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
Here in John we learn that the fullness dwelled in Christ. And in Colossians we learn that fullness was the fullness of God.
And now we are reading that this is the very thing God wants for all who follow His Son! And how does he describe this:
Listen carefully again:
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
Christ was born this way – 100% man 100% God . . . but we cannot get around the fact that all who believe on Him will get that way.
How does it happen?
What does it actually LOOK like in real application?
Listen to these words again. Paul gives us a formula, almost, saying:
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; (Listen)
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
“Christ is dwelling in us by faith,” and as a result we “are rooted and grounded in love,” and in this state we begin to comprehend (with all the other saints) what Paul says is the “breadth, the length, and the depth, and the height” (that is the first, second, third and fourth dimension of Christian living) AND (he says) “to know the love of Christ,” which transcends intellectual knowledge THAT (listen) “we might be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Whoa.
Bringing it all down the end result is being filled to the brim with God who is . . . love.
All of this is to bring all who are His to the point where they, like Christ Jesus, are filled with love (or the fullness of God) which is LOVE.
The flesh is all about the self, the Spirit all about others – love.
The flesh is all about our will – the spirit all about His will (who is love).
Jesus, being all Man and all God, understood fully the will of Man, the draw to feeding and appealing to the self, the desire to have His way, but being all God, was able to overcome the will of His flesh (self) by the will of God within Him
fully.
And THIS is the place where God seeks to bring all of those who are His.
We can’t do it with only some of God in us – the flesh is too present. It comes ONLY by and through a greater and greater presence of Him within.
Here’s the deal until we die physically, we will ALWAYS be 100% men and women –flesh.
We have never been 100% God though. So our flesh dominates our existence.
At rebirth we are introduced to God within. We are born-again. (Stay with me) and from this point forward we are learning to DIE to our fleshly presence and desires and to live by, and fortify, and increase the presence of our spiritual.
So that we can, in time, come to comprehend all the dimensions of God, and to live by God – who is love.
You name the sin and I will show you a catering to the flesh, to the will of natural Man or woman, to who we are by birth.
Listen – it’s all from the SAME place and in God’s eyes it is all the same – carnal, fallen, and of this world.
Why?
Because it is NOT love.
Stealing? Unloving, self, clay.
Gossip? Unloving, self, clay.
Hate? Unloving, self, clay.
Prejudice? Unloving, self, clay.
Lying? Self, self, self.
Clay, clay, clay.
But it need not ALWAYS and EVERYTIME be so.
We can overcome the clay, breaking it, as it were, and letting the little light shine.
And there are a thousand ways to Sunday which Man has attempted to do it – many of which I have personally embraced as a means to discover or to get God in me, to rule over the clay. As it were.
We’ve touched on them in the past because they are always being flaunted about as “the way” to “enlightenment” to bringing the light to its fullness within, right?
New age is huge today.
Easter Metaphysics.
Embracing the dark fully.
The counterfeits are a dime a dozen and all present their own solutions.
Now, God knew from the get-go what the solution would be – His Son coming and doing it all for us.
But along the way He gave us examples of how human beings are incapable of reaching this state in any other way.
First He gave us the model of Adam and Eve and free will.
Choose to love me or not. I’ll give you everything, we’ll communicate openly. You have a gorgeous, fully stocked, garden provided – nothing bad present. Heaven on earth. It’s yours.
But if you want to do your will, go for it.
It’s gonna end badly. I mean, your first born son will kill the second, but hey – I’ve gotta give the human race the chance, right?
So, the fall.
And God says, “All right, let’s go with another model. At a certain point in time, when the world is filled with clay-figures lacking light completely, I will elect a nation.
And I will give them my Laws. And I will be their God and they will be my people.
Enter the nation of Israel.
In and amidst God says I will give you my Law. This is my legislature and it is an appeal to your clay, your flesh. It’s external regimentations aimed at keeping you in the right path.
You will decide to obey the demands of these Laws or not. If you obey them I will bless you and if you disobey them I will curse you. And along the road I will be there to lead and guide you. I will be longsuffering, I will be patient, and you will learn and know in time that I am God.
Okay?
Additionally I will send prophets to warn you (externally), I’ll send you signs and wonders, I will make you a mighty nation.
Deal?
You wanna be my people and I will be your God?
Now listen – God knew that the Law would not work. He has always known what would work and what would not.
But as a means to prove this through historical human models (and according to His grand view of things) He has chosen to preface the bring forth His Son as the only solution in these ways that He might reach all.
So the Law . . . God’s perfect will among fallen Man.
Given to a Nation He elected who were (and are) fastidious in relation to many parts of it. Through foreknowledge God knew the Nation would really adhere to the ritual of the law, the writing and record keeping of the Law, the legislation of the law, and for some of them, keeping the law through deep devotion to God.
Listen to Romans 10:5
“For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.”
Was the Law good? Certainly. It was of God. And there was a “righteousness” of it – but not a perfection.
Why not a perfection? Because nobody on earth was ever able to keep it – except one.
We’ve tried. Boy how man has tried. We’re still trying!
Keeping Sabbath days.
Trying, trying, trying not . . . . to covet.
Really working at honoring our parents.
But the Law was given for a purpose, a specific reason in the grand economy of God.
First, it appealed to what God wants al His children to live by – love! Love for Him and love for others.
Romans 13:10 says it well:
“Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
Adam and Ever were given the chance to love God on their own . . . but said, “ahhhh, nope. We’re gonna try another way.
So God said, okay, let me give you love in written form since freewill verbal open form doesn’t work with you all.
In other words, “if you obey all my words and law written in stone you will be a loving people. And you will be like me, God . . . who is? That’s right, love.
James said:
James 2:8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
Did it work? Did the law, working on the clay from the outside in, bring the Nation of Israel (or anyone in it) to perfection ( . . . to operating by perfect love for God and Man)?
Nope. Never.
When the early church was just underway some of the Jewish converts tried to bring elements of the Law back from Judaism into Christianity and this is what Peter said to them:
Act 15:10 “why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?”
Hebrews 7:19 says it well:
“For the law made nothing perfect,” and for anything to enter God’s presence and dwell therein perfection, whether we agree with it or not, is required.
Perfection? Perfect love.
And the law could NOT get anyone, from the heart to perfectly love God or neighbor.
In fact (and of course God knew this) the Law actually works upon the clay of Man in the opposite direction.
Listen (and this is hard for so many people to believe – especially in this state) The presence of Law in the lives of clay-men does nothing but make us sinful.
Huh?
How could Laws from God, which are in and of themselves good and perfect and right, make us more sinful than we already are?
It’s a huge discussion, actually, one that has taken years for me to get my arms around, but let me appeal to scripture to aid our understanding.
First of all, the presence of the law creates sin, so to speak.
Romans 5:13 says
“For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”
What this is saying is while there was sin present before Moses gave the Law it was not charged against people because the rules weren’t “posted” so to speak.
The police cannot charge you with a crime if there is no law against the activity you are doing.
A law has to be on the books so to speak. So when there was no law given by God (between the time of the Fall and Moses) sin was present, but nobody could be charged.
Got that? So then what is the result of the Law being given by Moses?
Guilt!
And with guilt comes anger, rebellion, frustration, temptation, basically sin.
Listen – the presence of the Law produces SIN.
Romans 4:15 says:
. . . the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Listen to what 1st Corinthians 15:56 says:
“The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.”
The strength of SIN is the LAW!
That’s right. Put rules on paper, govern yourselves or people with external rules and you will surround yourself in . . . sin, NOT righteousness.
Whoa.
How on earth does that work?
We use this example often, but pretend I am holding the Law of Moses up to you all right now.
External rules from God aimed at getting you to love Him and your neighbor.
Some of you will look upon them and you will become angry, rebellious!
“Forget this guy, you think, I’m not gonna follow his rules.”
And the presence of the LAW shows or proves that you are sinful. “The strength of sin is IN the law,” Paul says.
But sin manifests itself in a number of different ways, doesn’t it. So where some of you will respond to the presence of the Law with rebellion, others will respond to it with . . . pride.
“Well, you might say in your heart, “I do that one, and that one, and, and, and I would NEVER do that one and that one and that one.”
And the law serves to show that in your clay you are proud – one of the main sins, right?
And then in your pride, you look around and start judging others who are obviously failing to keep the law.
And the strength of sin, once again, is proven to be in the presence of the Law.
To the Nation of Israel, who received the law from Moses, the purpose was to bring them to their knees.
To make them humble, reliant upon God, constantly – from the heart – seeking to relate to Him despite the rebellion or pride.
Galatians 3 says it perfectly:
(24) “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ . . .”
What that means is the presence of Law, which is the strength of SIN, was to bring the Nation to seeing the need for the Messiah.
For them to be humbly readied for Him when He came, because they were certainly failing under trying to keep the law, weren’t they?
The imagery of a school master is really good. Imagine you are trying to learn to love God and neighbor (from the heart) and standing over you is a bespeckled school master with a cane under his arm.
And every time you strayed to the left or to the right, the schoolmaster whips the came out over your hand, or shoulder, or head.
In time, you would realize you are not capable of learning to love by the schoolmaster.
He gives guidance and stinging and relentless direction, but every attempt produces in you either feelings of rebellion or contempt, or pride . . . when the real purpose of the school master is to cause you to break.
See, there are some of you, when you look up at the law, you see failure.
You are presented with the firsthand reality that you are a failure to some of it . . . or all of it.
Now, let me point out that if a person looks up at the law and sees they are a failure or rebellious to any of it, they are guilty of breaking all of it.
The Law is all encompassing.
We cannot please God by adhering to some of it, but failing to adhere to other parts of it.
In fact, Galatians 3:10 says
“For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”
James 2:10 says:
“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
So once again, the law serves to show or prove ALL men sinners. That is its purpose.
It’s purpose was never to make men loving of God and neighbor from the inside because that is NOT real love.
It’s purpose is to prove to all people that they are failing and need a better solution, a better way, a Messiah, a Savior.
This is why John wrote in verse 17
17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
We’ll continue on in this direction . . . next week.
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