The Debbie Taylor Williams Podcast

Debbie Taylor Williams: Father, we do praise you. Thank you for Jesus, the word. And we pray that each one of us will hear many words from you that we will take home and that will be transformative as we apply it through prayer and the power of your Holy Spirit. And it's in your name we pray for your glory, amen.

Okay, let's look at this. we have a lot of verses to cover, and I am so excited about being here and covering them with you. One of the things that we want to look at just very quickly, in case you weren't here for the introduction last week, is who is John and why did he write this? So I want to cover just a couple of those things very quickly.

John the Apostle, he was a disciple that he describes himself as the one that Jesus loved. He was a brother of James. Jesus named him and his brother sons of thunder because one time they were angry and they asked Jesus, "Do you want us to call down fire from heaven and just consume this whole Samaritan city?"

And Jesus called them sons of thunder. And we are going to see in the book of John how all of a sudden this man, John, this disciple that was a son of thunder, he is going to use the most tender, loving, observant ways to describe Jesus. He is transformed. And that may be one of our first golden nuggets, is that time with Jesus is transformative. Anyway, we want to say hallelujah, amen to that.

He was in the inner circle of Jesus with Peter, James, and John. It was Peter, James, and John that were invited to the Mount of Transfiguration. It was Peter, James, and John that he would have those inner times of communication with. He was at the cross. We don't find Peter at the cross. We don't find the other disciples at the cross. They have run away, but he is at the cross.

And not only that, but this is the author of this book is the one to whom Jesus entrusted his mother, Mary. That's significant. So when you read these inspired words, you know how important they are. He was the first one at the tomb. He outran Peter. Peter stuck his head in to look in the tomb, but it's recorded in scripture that John was the first one to look and believe.

So that tells you just a little bit about John. But there's some things in the book of John that are unique. 90% of what is in the book of John is not in the other synoptic gospels. The synoptic gospels are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew was written to primarily Jews to prove to them that Jesus was the promised Messiah. For instance, Matthew started his introduction with the lineage of Abraham.

Mark wrote primarily to Romans, to a Roman audience. Luke, he wrote to the Greeks, to the Gentile audience, and he started with a lineage of Adam. But when we get to John, he's like, "Oh no, Abraham's not good enough. Oh no, Adam's not good enough. We're going back to before the beginning." Isn't that exciting?

So we're going to find some things in the book of John that are not included in the other gospels. The seven "I ams," the seven feasts, the seven witnesses, the seven signs of Jesus's divinity, 75 of Jesus's attributes, and the Lord's high priestly prayer that's in John 17 is only recorded in John.

But also in what the Lord has just tickled me so much about as I have read and reread and reread and reread John this summer, he started just popping out all these words. The same words, a repetition of words. And I started paying attention and noting them, and there is such a significant number of words that are emphasized more in the book of John than in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Contemplate these with me. 13 times he refers to the Son of God. 16 times he uses this word "born," born of the flesh, born of the spirit. 16 times he talks about light and the significance. 17 times he talks about eternal life, whereas Matthew only referred to eternal life four times, and Mark two times, and Luke three times.

Glory he talks about 17 times. He uses the word truth, truth, truth, truth more than any other gospel. As a matter of fact, Luke is the only one who also used that, but here's the biggie. You're in for a treat. It is in the book of John only that we have recorded the words "truly, truly." John caught that.

It wasn't enough, which the other gospels have, for Jesus to say "truly" and then he would go on with a statement. John caught it that Jesus said, "truly, truly." And when Jesus says, "truly, truly," we're going to hear in a minute what that "truly, truly" means as we progress through the chapter.

He talks about love. There's 26 times "testify," "witnesses," "testimony" is used in the book of John 26 times. "Word" 32 times, "believe" 50 times. The word "world," look at that, 57 times, whereas only 11 times in Matthew, four times in Mark. John picked up on Jesus's talking about the world, the world, the world, the world.

And isn't the world an issue for you and me right now and the state of the world? So we're going to pay very close attention to what Jesus says about the world. And then this will really blow your mind, the last key word that I want to bring to our attention today. 79 times Jesus talks about his Father. Father, Father, Father, Father, whereas Matthew only seven, Mark twice, and Luke five times. 79 times.

So there is so much for us to learn, to pay attention, and we begin, of course, with 1:1, "In the beginning," as you know. But friends, look at verse 51. Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man." And friends, when he says that, he is talking about the end of this age.

And so John in these 51 verses, he encapsulates everything from before the beginning to the end of this age, this world as we know it. That's why I have on this t-shirt. Can you all see what my t-shirt says? It says, "Normal isn't coming back, but Jesus is." Can I have a hallelujah? Hallelujah. That's why I wore this.

We want normal. We want the Garden of Eden, amen? Normal, the Garden of Eden, isn't coming back, but Jesus is. And he is taking us to heaven and he is giving us that beyond Eden that we could only hope and pray for. So let's look first at this very first division here where we are seeing how Jesus is God, the self-existing word and life, the creator who came to the world.

And I want us to read through this passage, even though you've studied it, it is beautiful, isn't it? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And then pay attention to the next word, "he." The word wasn't just an inanimate object. The word is we are already being told is a "he."

"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. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John."

"He came as a," and start paying attention to these words, the repetition, because nothing is by accident. "John came as a witness to testify about the light so that all might believe through him. He was not the light," he wasn't Jesus, "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," Jesus was in the world, "and the world was made through him, but the world did not know him. He came to his own. He came to the world he created," in other words. "He came to his own, and those who were his own, the people, the Jews, did not receive him. Creation received him. 'I'm going to walk on you, water, and you're going to hold me up.' And creation held him up."

"'Storm, creation, I'm going to stop you.' And the storms obeyed him. Creation obeyed him. Nature obeyed him. Mankind continues to be in rebellion to the one who created them. He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him. Verse 12, 'but as many as received him, to them he gave the right.'" You were given the right to become a child of God.

"even to those who believe in his name, who were born," and you know you're going to hear about the birth over and over and over, spiritual birth. This is a key word. All of these words are just being introduced right here in this first chapter. "who were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

Let's stop right there and look at this first key word, because you think, "Well, why in the world would John say 'In the beginning was the word'?" Well, we know that that word in the Greek means "Logos," but it goes even back further. In the Aramaic, it is the word "Memra." And it is used in place of using the word God.

The Jews so highly reverenced God that oftentimes they would just simply refer to God as "the Word." And so that was significant. It would mean something to the Jews, whereas you and I might read, "In the beginning was the word," and that might not mean anything. But also to the Jews, the word was something concrete.

If a word was spoken by God, it was as if it was already done. We see a beautiful example of this in creation in Genesis 1:3. God said, "Let there be light," and what happened? There was light. "Let there be seas streaming with fish." The word went forth, and what happened? It occurred.

We see the beautiful example in Matthew 8:8, where the centurion went to Jesus and he said to Jesus, "My servant is dying, but just speak the word." The centurion had told Jesus, he said, "I have servants under me, and when I speak and tell them to do something, they do it." And he said, "You don't even need to come. Just say the word."

Do you have that faith? Do you have that knowledge that God can speak the word? Jesus can speak the word in your life, and there can be understanding of how to break free of sin? There can be wisdom given to you that you didn't have before? Ask him like the centurion did. God, just speak the word. That is faith.

Because the word is Jesus. The word is God. If the word can create the world, and the word can heal, and the word can do all that we're going to look at, the word can be active and dynamic in yours and my life. Take that golden nugget home, sweet friend. Take that golden nugget home.

We see a second key word in this passage that we've read, and that is the word "life," and this means self-existent, indistinguishable quality of life. God isn't going anywhere. He can't die because he's incapable of dying. He is life. And this word "life" in this passage is "Zoe." And it is different from two other forms of life, one being "bios," biology.

It's the part of our life that we see: our arms, our legs, our heart that pumps blood. And it is also distinct from another word for life, "psyche," from which we get the word psychology: our emotions, our temperament. So in this passage when he said "In God was life," he's talking about the "Zoe." And he is talking about the indistinguishable, indestructible quality that is self-existent in God.

And so he is saying in Jesus, he is life. And this is the life also that Jesus gives to the person who calls on him and confesses him as Lord and Savior. You have in you now through the Holy Spirit the indestructible quality of eternal life. Now, we also looked at this word "light," and it's a third key word that I want us to look at here.

16 different times, as I've mentioned, it's spoken about in John. And "true" is spoken of 20 times in John. And so we see Christ is the true light of the world who enlightens the one who believes and receives his spirit and is born of him. Friends, so many people are seeking truth. They're searching. Just last month, I don't know if you paid attention to the Burning Man festival in Nevada, out in the desert in Nevada.

How many of you know about that? It was begun in 1986, I believe, and people gather for the arts and for drugs and for orgies and for all these different things. And there is a nine-foot structure of a man that the final night of the week-long festival is set aflame. And this Burning Man, I can show you an image of it later if anybody wants to see it, is lit on fire to dancers going all around it.

And much merriment, shall I say in milder terms. And at the same time a temple that's been constructed out in this desert for this week-long celebration, it is also set on fire. But that temple does not have a God in it. There is not the worship of the living God in it. 80 to 100 thousand people gather, seeking, seeking the light, seeking truth, seeking life.

And you and I are not the torchbearers of something physically constructed to light fire to an effigy of a man which is creepy as far as I'm concerned to set on fire a man, set on fire a temple. But we are the torchbearers to carry how people can experience this true light, the true light of Christ.

Now, this fourth word, "believe," is very important. You know it, you've been in Bible study for a long time perhaps. It's used 50 times in John. But this word "believe" when it says in the scripture, "as many as received them, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name," this does not mean head knowledge.

It does not mean acknowledgment. Do you remember when Jesus came to Nicodemus and Nicodemus said, "We know that you are from God"? That was not faith. That was not faith. It is not head knowledge. James talks about how even the demons believe that Jesus is the Son of the most high God.

One time when Jesus was getting ready to cast out a demon, he said, "I know that you are," he pleaded with him, "Son of the most high God." The demons recognize who Jesus is, but they are not going to be in eternity with we who are believers. We have to be careful right here. And this may be some reason that as you and I gather, the Lord is clarifying our thoughts, the Lord is fine-tuning us.

Because it's not an easy-believism that is just a head knowledge. Rather, this word also explains as we look at this word "born," and we cannot just pick one verse out of the Bible, we have to understand the comprehensiveness of it. He says that, let me read this again in verse 13. He said to those, and we have to continue the sentence.

So let's start back up in verse 12. "As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name who were born." Did you hear that? "who were born, not of blood nor of the will of man," so that's saying it's not an earthly birth, "but of God."

And of course we will be looking at this. This word "believe" and "receive" that are used right here in the Bible, if you study your Greek, it means to believe and receive as in to actively accept with the intent to obey. It's not the demons' believing. It's not just an inquiry or an acknowledgment like Nicodemus originally had. "We know you're from God because nobody could do these signs."

It's different. And we have to be careful because I'm afraid that there are a lot of people going through the motions and perhaps even thinking they're a Christian, but they have not been born of the Holy Spirit. Now, as we look at this second division, we come to 14 through 34. Let me read this.

"The word became flesh," in doctrinal terms this is called the incarnation. "The word God became flesh and dwelt among us. We saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about him," this is John the Baptist, "and cried out saying, 'this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me.'"

Even though I was born first, he existed. There we have that word "life" again. "For of his fullness we have all received and grace upon grace." And verse 17 is so important. "For the law was given through Moses, grace," sweet, sweet grace, "and truth finally truth were realized through Jesus Christ."

"No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God, Jesus, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him." Jesus has explained God. He has explained him. When it says no one has seen God at any time, you may think, "Well, now Moses used to meet with God face to face and talk."

But God did not reveal his whole self. Even when Moses wanted to see him, he said, "I will put you in the cleft of the rock." Last week or week before perhaps, I was driving up here to church and the sun was so bright it almost blinded my eyes as it shone beyond the clouds. I stopped and I looked, I was like, "Lord, are you coming? Is this it?"

It was brighter than any light I'd seen. I could not keep looking at it because it was hurting my eyes. Friends, we cannot see God and live. That is explained to us. He appears veiled to people. But John said that they saw Jesus's glory through his flesh. And he's testifying and he's saying, and John the Baptist is saying this also because he cried out and he said, "This is whom I have said."

And then he said, "Grace and truth were realized in Jesus. The law was given in Moses." John's father was Zacharias the priest. John the Baptist grew up seeing the temple lambs being slain because nobody could keep the law. So a lamb would be sacrificed for the sin of the person bringing the lamb because sin has to be paid with. There is a price for it.

Look with me in these next few verses because we continue with the testimony, that word again, of John the Baptist. "When the Jews sent him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'who are you?' and he confessed and did not deny but he confessed, 'I am not the Christ.' And they asked, 'What then? Are you Elijah?'"

Now, Elijah had been dead for over 800 years, so you might be thinking, well, these Pharisees, they're just off their rocker. But no. When the angel Gabriel told Zacharias that they were going to bear a child, Gabriel told them that he would come in the spirit and the power of Elijah. Jesus said in Matthew, "if you can hear it, Elijah has already come," referring to John the Baptist.

Remember Elijah didn't die. He was taken up in a whirlwind into heaven. And Malachi said, I think it was Malachi 4:5, said that God said he was going to send Elijah before the great and coming day, the terrible day of the Lord, referring to the end of this age. And so they were like, "John, what are you doing here? Who gave you the right?"

What is so beautiful about John, he didn't say, "Do you know that I am a miracle child born of the priest Zacharias? Do you know that Jesus said there is no man greater than me? Do you know that we are cousins and God Almighty, Lord, sent me to be the one to announce the Messiah's coming? Do you know who you're talking to?"

But that's not what John said. John said, "I am a voice. I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the paths of the Lord." He was a voice you can go and read in the other gospels where he called people to repent of their sins, to be ready for Christ. Friends, you may say, "I'm a nobody. I'm a nobody, but I have a voice." Do you?

As God sent John the Baptist, and he says it right here very clearly that God sent him, Jesus sent you. Remember, Matthew 28? "You will be my witnesses." Jesus sent you. There is no difference. We can be the voice in our generation, and that is a golden nugget for every single one of us to take home.

So we continue reading and looking at this passage. I skipped over this word "grace," but I want to go back and touch on it for you. There's a great definition that the Blue Letter Bible gives of this word "grace." Through pity for sinful man, think about that, through pity for us, Christ left his state of blessedness with God in heaven and by his sufferings and death procured salvation for mankind.

Through pity for us, through pity for us. This word "glory" refers to the absolute perfect inward personal excellence of Christ. It's used repeatedly in the book of John. This word "testified," we'll be looking at this word again and again and again. And he testified Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

That was his message. John the Baptist testified, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Now when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming, and he looked at him, our passage tells us, he's looking at his cousin that he grew up with. And he says in this passage, "I did not know him."

He doesn't mean he doesn't know who Jesus was, they grew up together. He didn't realize that he was the anointed only begotten Son of God. John is standing there at the river Jordan proclaiming the need to repent, to be saved. And here comes his cousin. And the Lord had told John, "He on whom you see the spirit descending as a dove, that's him. Messiah, Christ."

And John, the cousin, is standing there, and here comes Jesus. And he's like, "Oh my gosh. He's the lamb." Only one word was all over Jesus when John saw him: die. Because that's what the lamb did. He had seen it all of his upbringing, people bringing their lambs and the lamb dying for the sins of the person.

And people say, "Well, why did Jesus insist John baptize him?" Because Jesus was getting in the water in the cesspool of our sin. He was identifying with us, somebody that needed to be washed of their sin so that we might identify with him, raised out of that baptismal water, glorified with the Holy Spirit on us.

John said, "Behold the lamb of God." But when you read in Genesis 22:8, you understand this. And if you don't know this passage, go back and read it. God had said all the way from Genesis that he would provide the lamb. He would provide the sacrifice. And he did it for Abraham with Isaac, and he did it for you with Jesus, and he did it for me with Jesus.

I want us to look very quickly, and I'm not going to have time to read all this, but I want to go ahead and jump down all the way to when Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him in verse 47. "Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and he said of him, 'behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit.' And Nathaniel said to him, '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.' Under the fig tree is a Jewish idiom for somebody who is studying messianic prophecy. And so Jesus had seen Nathaniel and what he was studying. And I'll have to get back to this 'truly, truly' in just a second."

"Let me go back here. This Jewish idiom, Nathaniel said, 'Rabbi, you are the Son of God.' In other words, you knew what I was reading! You knew! He said, 'You are the king of Israel.' And Jesus answered and said to him, 'because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.'"

"And he said to him, 'truly, truly I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man.'" This is the first time we see that word "the son of man." The son of man is a reference to the end of the age. It is a reference to a time period that you and I may be alive or we'll hopefully be raptured.

But the end of the age is the end of this world as we know it, and it's always referred to in when Jesus says "truly, truly." It is the Greek word "amen" that is usually said at the end of a sentence. If I was to say something from the scripture and you agreed and said "Amen," that's that word. You agree with what was just said.

But if somebody says "truly" before and definitely "truly, truly," he is saying, as Jesus was saying, "I'm not just passing along some information to you from God. I originated it. I originated it. Listen up. I originated it." And he says, "Nathaniel, you've been studying the return of the Son of Man. You've been studying the Messianic Age."

And he says, "You are going to see it. You are going to see it hereafter." He wasn't talking about right then hereafter. If you're not familiar, you can look at Daniel 7. "I kept looking in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man was coming." The son of man prophesied in Daniel.

Luke 17:24, Jesus says, "for just like the lightning when it flashes from one part of the sky shines to the other part of the sky, so will the son of man be in his day. Just as it happened in the day of Noah, it will also be in the day of the son of man." People were eating and drinking and going out to burn nine-foot men, and the floods came and the son of man is coming.

Luke 21:27, "Then they will see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." And all you have to do is read Revelation. Normal, the Garden of Eden, is not coming back on this earth, but Jesus is. Can I hear a amen? Truly, truly, we say.

So in John 1-11, we have in the beginning before our earth and time as we've even known it existed, and we have the son of man in the end. What's your takeaway? We know Jesus is God who created us to live with him and for him. We know that we are forgiven and become God's children.

It is a false... it is a lie when you hear somebody say, "Well, we're all God's children." No we are not according to this scripture that we just read. And we know Jesus is returning and you and I are his voice, and we need to pray every day, "God, let me be your voice today." Are you ready for Jesus? Because he's going to appear with the angels. Will you be his voice?

Would you right now write down how the word has spoken to you? The Voice of the Martyrs is a group that speaks for Christians who are being persecuted, who cannot speak for themselves. Jesus is in heaven. We are to be the voice of Jesus speaking for him. Would you, as we close, praise him with me in one voice using these attributes?

We'll begin by just saying, "Lord, you're the Word, God, Creator." Would you worship with me now? Lord, you are the... read out loud, loud. Lord, you are the Word, God, Creator, Life, Light, True Light, Glory, Grace upon Grace, Truth, Lord, Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Jesus who baptizes us in the Spirit, Rabbi, Teacher, Messiah, Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, All-seeing El Roi, Omniscient, All-knowing, the Son of God, King of Israel, Son of Man, Amen.