1. Just who is He?
Jesus. All about Life
13 September 2009
John 1:1-14 
We beginning a time here in Sydney – and in particular at Wesley Mission – when we shall focus upon the Person of Jesus Christ, as we follow a media-driven campaign which draws people’s attention to his message and call today … entitled Jesus. All About Life.
The question of how we legitimately communicate the gospel remains an urgent one for the Christian Church and provides the setting for all Christian mission. For an organisation like Wesley Mission, which strongly advocates that the gospel is both ‘word and deed’, we ask ourselves the question, ‘Just who is he?’
Our enquiry this evening takes place in the opening verses of John’s gospel which are often referred to as The Prologue. I confess to preferring to think of the section as serving the gospel in the same way that an overture does a musical oratorio. Themes, which are introduced here, will emerge and re-emerge throughout the gospel.
John opens his work with language which deliberately alludes to the opening verses of Genesis. Barnabas Lindars describes these words as ‘a work of immense assurance and literary power’. This is made clear as we journey from creation itself to the climactic moment when the fullness of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ is made plain.
The opening provides signposts for the major themes of the gospel, but their primary purpose is to point to Jesus Christ who, in the opening five verses, is said to be God, the giver of life … and the light that dispels the darkness.
The mission of Jesus Christ is constantly changing from age to age and, of course, finds different expression from place to place. The consistency of the gospel does not lie in always being the same, but in the way it reflects God’s mission to the world, which we discover in Him.
John begins his gospel and plunges immediately into the most profound thinking and invites his readers – and, as a consequence, ourselves – to consider the claims of the gospel upon life itself. The identity of Jesus Christ is not just the subject of a fascinating enquiry for religious people, but is fundamental for all who seek an answer to the meaning of life – and demonstrates just who God is.
After such an introduction, no-one should rush into the gospel without a focus upon the Saviour, to whom it points. He is, in every sense, the life-giver. One writer passes comment that living in the Prologue is like ‘standing in the foothills of an awesome mountain range, catching a breath-taking glimpse of massive, snow-capped peaks reaching up through the haze’.
John himself has become an agent to communicate the sweep and wonder of God’s message of salvation.
In answering the question ‘Just who is Jesus?’ I want to refer to three aspects of these opening verses in John’s gospel.
Jesus is a person who shares Himself - He offers an opportunity to see – v.10
John has already offered a breathtaking panorama of the Word, through which the whole universe came into being (v.v. 1-3). This Word is the very secret of life and light (v.v. 4-5). You could argue that John’s gospel has many staggering claims, but nothing is more stupendous than the description we read in these early verses. There is such intense power to be found in relatively few words.
This Word is the source of life and is seen in human form. He still holds the key to life for all who would seek to find him. Presence remains the foundational principle of the mission of God, who is alongside us for love’s sake.
Our mission to the world can only make sense in so far as we are committed to expressing an effective presence in day-to-day living.
Jesus came into a world of strife, moral decadence and religious division. It occurred at a time when people felt under pressure from a political regime that both restricted their livelihood and minimised their sense of esteem and identity. Our modern world, though different in some aspects, is not without similarity in terms of the challenge of the coming of Jesus.
- The light has come – v.5
Much enquiry into religious meaning is like a search in the dark, whereas the Christian faith is bound up in the story of light. We are a people of light, who have met the light of God in Jesus Christ.
At creation, God spoke:‘Let there be light; and there was light.’ (Genesis 1:3). Out of the life of God issues forth a light which dispels darkness and fear. The concept of darkness was one that was so often associated with chaos. In the gospel, we shall be introduced to the way in which Jesus will give light to a blind man (John 9). He is the light of the world … and we will be encouraged also to ‘walk in the light’.
John is essentially saying that all true light in human experience derives from God himself. R E O White explains this: ‘However dimmed or diluted by mistakes, misunderstanding or malice, all that is good, all that is true, is prompted by the eternal Christ, and guarded by him so that it is never totally extinguished.’
Ian Barclay tells the story of how he took a party of teenagers on a midnight walk on the Isle of Wight. It was a beautifully clear night and they could see a good number of those 10 octillion stars in the sky. As they approached a hill, it appeared one had fallen out of the sky ahead of them. Ian picked up a glow worm which was bright enough to read by. All the darkness of space could not extinguish this glow work’s light!
- The light creates and makes possible
The light which points the way has nothing unreal or shadowy about it. By contrast, all other lights are imperfect and flickering. The light draws out the hope and potentiality which lies in every person.
When we offer the good news, it is in the conviction that this news is able to create new life and empower people to live as never before. It is light ‘in darkness’.
Dr Gardner Taylor tells the story of how he was preaching in Louisiana during the Depression. Electricity was just coming into that part of the country, and he was out in a rural, black church that had just one little light-bulb hanging down from the ceiling to light up the whole sanctuary. He was preaching away and, in the middle of his sermon, the electricity went out. The building went pitch-black, and Dr Taylor didn’t know what to say, being a young preacher. He stumbled around until one of the elderly deacons sitting at the back of the church cried out, ‘Preach on, preacher! We can still see Jesus in the dark.’
- The light can be, and often is, rejected
There is also a sombre theme in this opening chapter: this light comes into a world of darkness and some will discover it … but some will not. There are those who will turn their back on him.
Rebellion is a strong word, but it describes the reaction of so many to the best things in life – and rebellion can lead to the rejection of the gospel. Jesus. All About Life doesn’t guarantee that all people will respond to him and it could well sharpen the context in which some will reject him.
A missionary, home on leave, was shopping for a hand-held globe of the world to take back to her mission station … to help people see a bigger picture of the world. The clerk showed her a reasonably-priced globe and another one with a light bulb inside. ‘This is nicer,’ the clerk said, pointing to the illuminated globe, ‘but, of course, a lighted world costs more.’ And it does!
Jesus is a person to be trusted - He gives a challenge to believe – v.12
As we have established, we are to be a community that lives alongside those in need, offering a message of hope. Jesus not only came alongside us, but he challenged us to believe.
No-one who met Jesus in the gospels was left as they were before he came to them. His presence brought the challenge to ‘receive him’. This means more, for we are to ‘believe in his name’.
The very mission in which we engage needs to have incorporated within it a challenge to receive Christ; to believe in him. One of the reasons that I have no hesitation in supporting a specific time of mission is because it is vital to have moments when we offer the gospel to ourselves, to the wider community and at the heart of our city.
It is a sad statement of John that even though Jesus had made the world, yet he was unrecognised by so many. Even when he healed the sick, raised the dead to life and brought sight to the blind … there were those who couldn’t or wouldn’t recognise who he was.
Jesus was and is One to be trusted. This very word speaks with clarity to those whose dignity and sense of value has been damaged by life. Jesus Christ brings a better way and offers love to make possible the changes required to bring about his new life.
Not only does God love everyone and present new life, but this offer also meets a universal sense of need.
- Receiving is the doorway to a new life in God
God deals with the very issues that block us from receiving his love. He offers forgiveness for the sin and selfishness which is part of what it means to deny the love of God. These have corporate, as well as individual character.
E Stanley Jones once re-defined the seven deadly sins as ‘politics without principle, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, business without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice.’
The Christian faith is about God’s gift of love in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul later described this as an ‘indescribable gift’ (2 Corinthians 9:15).
- Believing is to be ‘in his name’
God not only deals with the situation of our lives in relation to sin, selfishness and separation, but offers a means of believing … which is ‘in his name’.
The core of our preaching is the offer of a Saviour … and the way we believe is through the same name of Jesus Christ. From the Old Testament came a pattern in which names of God explain something of the revealed character of the person who bears it. So to ‘believe in his name’ means to accept what his name says he is!
Sanders and Mastin, in their commentary, spell it out: ‘Trust and obey him, and accept him as what he claims to be.’
- Receiving and Believing are still necessary today
The dual aspects of response were already proven in the life of the early church. In a real sense, it is not just about what will happen, but what is happening!
On many occasions, I have preached in the open air … and when it has involved barracking and shouting from the audience, I have recognised a familiar question that emerges along the lines of: ‘Why is it that Christianity has been around for 2,000 years and it has made little difference to the evil in the world?’
I have made the same kind of response as Billy Graham, Donald Soper and countless other preachers … and that is: ‘With so much soap, why is there so much dirtiness in the world?’ It needs to be applied to make a difference!
So light and life have come, and are applied to our lives as we both receive and believe in the name of Jesus Christ. It is like turning on the light or beginning life with a capital ‘L’.
Jesus is a person who transforms life - He enables the right to become – v.12
Those who did respond to Jesus Christ, were given a new authority and a new power – that is to become the children of God. Such a possibility did not come about through natural, physical birth. This came about from the glory which is God’s immediate presence – and the grace which is God’s free gift to us – and through truth which is the reality about God and life.
As people perceived his glory, grace and truth, they faced the challenge of receiving him and believing in him. We are called to share in this mission and to enter ever more deeply into our understanding of this glory, grace and truth for ourselves.
In the early days of the church, both Augustine and Chrysostom are reported to have said, ‘It is beyond the power of man to speak as John does in his Prologue.’ What they were seeking to say is that they were convinced that we are listening to something quite unique and God-given in these words.
- An inward work needs an outward expression
What God offers in Jesus Christ enables us to enter into the life which transforms. This work is from inside-out! This is the power to become … the new life we find in Christ affects everything about us – relationships, values, lifestyle and priorities. It does not help if we couch this work simply in religious language.
When a person receives Jesus Christ into their life, then it affects everything and remains the most powerful witness of the Christian Church:-
- We have people who volunteer time to care for others because of what Jesus has done for them.
- We have people who have given up highly paid jobs to take on new roles because of what Jesus has done for them.
- We have people who turn to us to find hope and we tell them what Jesus has done for them.
- He brings life to fulfilment for all who discover him
The deepest needs are met in Jesus Christ. The offer of God that we make is an indiscriminate offer of care and compassion. This has underpinned our mission for close to two hundred years. Our gospel message takes us further as we offer the grace of God.
The great message of John’s gospel is eternal life (20:31). C S Lewis wrote in his modest but remarkable essay, God in the Dock, ‘The great thing is to be found at one’s post as a child of God, living each day as though it were our last, but planning as though our world might last a hundred years.’
- This is from first to last a work of God
Eddie Fox, who will be with us in Sydney in October, and George Morris, in their book Faith Sharing, insist that ‘it is God who converts.’ The goal of evangelism is not to convert anyone, but to share the good news. They wrote, ‘Evangelism is not something we do to people, but something we do with the gospel.’
Some studies in 2007 showed that when people earn a gift card, as many as 20% of these cards are never used. In the USA, this amounted to $972 million in 2005. The top reasons for not using cards were:-
- They didn’t have the time!
- They didn’t find anything they wanted!
- They lost the card.
- They simply let the card expire!
It is possible to turn away from the best offer in all the world … the life of Christ. Could you refuse such a gift? Don’t be tempted to do that today, but open your heart and life to the gift of Jesus Christ.
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