Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The prologue to John's Gospel is very profound, telling how Jesus came as the true light that gives light to every man who comes into the world. It's through redemption that we become God's children and share in that light. Today, more of how the light redeems us in a series on The Light Has Come. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, John chapter one is full of mystery and deep revelation and forms the basis for your teaching today on The Light Redeems Us. The light does redeem us.
And you're absolutely correct, Dave. Those opening verses remind us of the coming of Jesus Christ, the darkness of humanity, but also the uniqueness of Christ. You know, in verse 14 of chapter one of John, it is one of the most explosive verses in all of scripture.
The Word became flesh. And how exciting it is as we think about the Christmas season that we get to honor and worship the one who came to bring light and that light brings redemption. I'm genuinely excited about a book that I'm holding in my hands. It's entitled Without Excuse.
It really is based on the book of Romans where it says because of creation, people are without excuse. How I wish I could show this book to you and that you'd be able to see it with your own eyes. 365 pages, one for every day of the new year on topics such as biology, anatomy, astronomy, geology.
It would be an education for you to go through this book, spend 10 minutes a day reading, studying all the way through colored pictures showing the uniqueness of God's creation. We're making it available for you for a gift of any amount. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com.
That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. The title of the book Without Excuse, the subtitle, The Compelling Evidence for Creation. Now let us listen carefully. Verse 14 of John chapter one is the most explosive verse in all the Bible. This verse shattered the religious world. The word became flesh. Let's think about why this particular word was so powerful and why the average person living in John's day could have never accepted this.
Let's talk about the Jewish community. I checked with my good friend Michael Radellnik about this and asked him whether or not the Jews were expecting a divine Messiah. Now a divine Messiah was predicted in the Old Testament in Isaiah chapter nine. But after the Jews came back from captivity, they interpreted that phrase and those teachings differently. And they could not accept a divine Messiah. That's why throughout the rest of the book of John, whenever Jesus claimed to be God, the people were taking up stones to stone him because they said, you cannot be a man and claim to be God. So for them, the idea that the word became flesh was unthinkable. It was idolatrous.
But let's think of the Greeks. You remember back to the days when you studied philosophy, Plato taught that there was a sharp distinction between matter and spirit. Spirit was the soul.
Spirit had certain knowledge. Two plus two is equal to four. Two plus two is always equal to four.
There's nothing as certain as the fact that two plus two is equal to four. That in Plato's mind, generally speaking, was what he called a form which was certain, but it existed in the soul. As for matter, it was always corrupt and imperfect.
So a Greek reading, John 1.14 would read this way. In the beginning was the word. The word became flesh. The word became imperfect.
Because the word took on humanity, because it took on a human form and a human body. As a matter of fact, in the Christian church, there was a great heresy that arose. And the heresy was that Jesus Christ was only a phantom. They said that when he walked, he left no footprint because he really did not exist as a human being. He couldn't without being imperfect. So you can see here that when John says the word became flesh, he was saying something that was difficult to grasp.
But thankfully, it is true. Now notice the rest of the verse. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory as of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth. The word became flesh. The Greek word for dwelt among us is the word tabernacle. Jesus came and he tabernacled among us. Now in the Jewish mind, they would immediately think of Exodus chapter 33.
There in Exodus chapter 33, the tent of meeting, the tabernacle was established and Moses would go in and the glory of God would appear. And now in the book of John, what you're going to see is a replacement motif. Jesus is going to replace all of the Old Testament sacrifices, all of the Old Testament rituals of worship. When you look in chapter 2 of John's gospel, you'll notice that Jesus claims now to be the temple, destroy this temple, and he's referring to himself. I want you to think along with me about all of the changes that Jesus brought because he is the true temple. Think, for example, of the fact that now Jesus is the place of worship.
You no longer go into a temple. You no longer go into the tabernacle to worship Jesus as the high priest did. Rather, Jesus now is the point of worship.
When we come to the Father through Jesus, we have full extended access into the presence of God and the worship of God. So he becomes the place of worship. He becomes the fulfillment of the law. You remember that in the tabernacle itself there were tables of the law. And Jesus, of course, fulfills the law on our behalf, does everything that the law requires, lives a perfect life in our behalf.
So he fulfills the law. You'll notice also that he becomes our sacrifice. No more sacrifices are necessary because Jesus now offers himself. In the Old Testament, the priests offered the sacrifice.
In the New Testament, our high priest becomes the sacrifice. And so what we have is the fulfillment of the Old Testament all resides in Jesus. When he came, as the text of Scripture says, he dwelt among us and we have seen his glory. Now, when you think of glory, you immediately think of the Shekinah glory in the Old Testament where there was a bright light and where the glory cloud actually filled the area and filled the temple. And Jesus indeed did do that when he was on the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus was the glory of God. And three of the disciples were to behold him in all of his glory. But that's not the only way in which Jesus manifested his glory. In chapter 2 of John's Gospel, Jesus performs a miracle.
He turns water into wine. And it says that the disciples beheld his glory. Later on in the Gospel of John, Jesus is predicting his death.
And he says these words. He says, the time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. So we see the glory of Jesus in his power, in his ability to do miracles, but we also see the glory of Jesus in his suffering and his willingness to die.
And you know, when you and I pray that God will be glorified through our lives, we should not think that there's going to be some kind of Shekinah glory. If we are as obedient to God as Jesus is, Jesus Christ will be honored. He will be glorified in our individual lives in the warp and woof of our common experience. So here in the text, we see Jesus, first of all, as the creator, as the revealer, as the one who gives light. And then we see Jesus also as the redeemer who redeems us from our sins. And he came to dwell among us.
And that's what Christmas is really all about. We also see that he's a divider. He divides the crowds.
You'll notice that it says these words. He was in the world, verse 10, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. They did not accept their creator. He came to his own in the sense that he was the creator and created all things. And his own people did not receive him.
They did not receive him. But to all who did receive him who believe in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God who were born not of blood. There is a new birth that you must have to become a child of God that is not of blood. It's not something that you inherit through your parents.
You can't say to yourself, well, you're a Christian because your parents were Christians. There is a birth from above that is not of blood nor of the will of flesh. It's not something that is willed because your parents wanted to have a child nor of the will of man.
It's not the kind of thing that men can scheme or men can will and dream up. But there is a special birth from above. It is called the new birth. And by the way, did you have any say in where you would be born or whether you would be born? Absolutely not. Do you have a say in whether you're going to be born from above?
Yes, you do. But the reason that you desire to be born from above is really a gift of God. God helps you to see that you must be born again through the conviction of the Spirit, through the preaching of God's word.
You begin to realize that you need to be born from above. And so the glory of Jesus is manifested by his coming. And the fact is that the world of people, the Jewish nation, did not receive him. Now, some did.
You know that some did. But as a nation, the nation did not accept him. And Jesus always is dividing people. And by the way, it does say in verse 16, and from his fullness we've all received grace upon grace.
The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The one who brought grace is rejected on earth today. And the reason for that is because in many respects, what he brought is such a condemnation of our own need. The fact that we need his grace, we need to humble ourselves to receive it, and we need to understand who Jesus really was and why we desperately need him.
Let's help us nail this down. What does this passage of Scripture really teach us about Jesus and about our need? First of all, let me say that Christ is the final and most complete revelation of God. Christ is the final and the most complete revelation of God.
After all, who would know what God is like except God himself? And at Bethlehem, in that manger, yes, there was God in the flesh, and there's nobody else out there like him. In the third century, there was a man, one of the Roman emperors by the name of Alexander Severus. Alexander had seen that the Christians had been so marginalized and so persecuted throughout the centuries that he said to the Christians, what you can do is go into the Pantheon in Rome. And by the way, the Pantheon still exists in Rome.
If you ever go to Rome, go into the Pantheon, a first century building, still standing, amazing in its architecture and in its structure. But he said, here is the place where all of the gods are gathered. You can now put up a statue of Jesus along with all of these gods because we're giving you tolerance.
And the Christians said thanks, but no thanks. They said Jesus does not belong in the Pantheon of gods. He does not fit next to all the other Roman gods. And I say to you today that if you wanted to put up a statue of Jesus in the Pantheon, don't put it where all the other gods are.
What you'd have to do is to put it at the very, very top of all of the other gods because he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and there is none other like him. Only Jesus is the one who is the light of the world, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. One day I was having a discussion with someone who belongs to the religion of Baha'i and he was telling me that, you know, there are plenty of people who receive enlightenment. He said that our founder has received enlightenment and light since the coming of Jesus.
Now if you know anything about the Baha'i faith, you know that it teaches truth or supposed truth that is contrary, very contrary to what Jesus taught, but that's a separate subject. But I said to him, you may think to yourself that you have the light of the stars, but when the sun comes out, the stars fade into oblivion because the light of Jesus obliterates all the other lights and all the other teachers of the world. So Jesus stands alone, King of Kings, God of all gods, and there he is in the manger, hailed in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate deity. God has come to us.
So Jesus is the last and the most complete revelation of God. Secondly, and let me take this from my heart to yours, without Jesus, without you knowing him, without you receiving him, as John says here, you are simply managing your darkness. Now in one of these messages, I'm going to be emphasizing the fact that many people are simply finding different ways to manage darkness and calling it light. You know, the Bible is so explicit in the way it describes things. It says the way of the wicked is deep darkness.
They stumble and they don't know what it is that they're stumbling over. Have you ever been in real darkness? And you don't know whether or not you're standing on a stone or a piece of gold.
You have no idea, but you keep going along, managing your life that may be falling apart in so many different ways. Without Christ, there is no light. Finally, what we must realize is that if you have the desire to choose the light, choose the light.
And you can do that even today. You can choose the one who came to bring us life and to bring us light. Many of us, when we think of the name John Bunyan, we're reminded of his Pilgrim's Progress, but he wrote another book entitled Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. And what Bunyan said in that book is it was really his own autobiography, his own struggle to believe. In his case, if I've read it correctly, it took several years for him to finally come to the assurance of faith. And he was wrestling, first of all, he said that as a sinner, nobody could out sin me. In terms of the blasphemy, the way in which I lived, I was the chief of sinners. But what happened is this great sense of conviction came to him, which he fought.
He put it off for as long as he possibly could. But then he began to search and the disquiet within his soul led him finally to read the scriptures and to come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. And he wrote and he said, even when I had a good attitude, it did not change my relationship with God. What changed my relationship with God is trusting the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I could not make that righteousness any better and I could not make it worse by my attitude.
But there it was. He said that when I repented and trusted the righteousness of Christ, and I'm quoting now, I was loosed from my affliction. The inner torment of soul. If you today are sensing within yourself that need for the light of Jesus, you can believe on him. You can open your life to him and you can say today I trust you because the light of God has come into the world.
He is the light who enlightens everyone, but gives special light to those who believe on him. Let's pray together. And our father, we want to thank you today for the coming of Jesus. We pray that you might help us to identify our darkness. And we ask Lord that you might give us the grace that we desperately need to believe on Jesus. For those Lord who know you as savior, but are walking in darkness, may they come to the light to restore their fellowship with you. And for those who've never believed, we pray father that they will come to the light. And in that light they may receive grace and help and healing and forgiveness. We thank you that the light has come in Jesus name.
Amen. My friend today, I hope that you share my burden. God has given me a great burden for people who walk in darkness because the Bible says they stumble and they don't know what it is that they are stumbling over.
Darkness, terrifying, hopelessness. That's why we here at the ministry of running to win are so deeply committed to getting the light of the gospel to as many people as possible. And we want to thank you in advance for helping us. But the new year is just around the corner and I'm holding in my hands a book that is going to be a blessing to all who read it.
I can't tell you how excited I am. This book will teach you about botany, astronomy, design, history, creation science, genetics, all of God's creation. When I read any of the entries, I put a smile on my face.
I should say it puts a smile on my face because I marvel at the uniqueness of God. Now you will have an education that will help you to defend the faith, to share the faith with others and it will give you a basis for awe and worship. For a gift of any amount, we're making this book available for you. Here's what you do.
Go to rtwofferer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And during this Christmas season, I know that you have many opportunities to give to many ministries. Would you pray about the possibility of helping us here at running to win?
We are in 50 different countries in seven different languages. Connect with us right now and ask for the book without excuse, a book on God's creation. Here's what you do. Go to rtwofferer.com.
That's rtwofferer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win comes to you from the Moody Church in Chicago to help you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Next time we learn how the light reveals us. Teaching taken from John chapter 3. Plan to join us. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
