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Central Baptist Church, Okinawa

To Know Christ and Make Him Known

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John Chapter 1 verses 19 to 51

The Anointed One Appears

The entire Old Testament has served to prepare the Jewish people for this moment in history. The prophets from years gone by have taught the Israelites to look forward to this moment. John the Baptist was sent by God to link the Old Testament times and the New Testament times. He announced that the Anointed One was coming, and prepared the way for the Messiah by telling people that they needed to repent of their sins.

John the Baptist draws many people to hear him. A delegation from Jerusalem is sent to interrogate him. This delegation asks him if he is the Messiah, or the Elijah, or the great Prophet. He denies being any of these people, and says that he is merely the one sent to announce someone who is much, much greater than he is.

When John the Baptist sees Jesus, he says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” In the Old Testament, the Israelites were taught to look forward to God’s salvation through the rituals associated with the Passover. During the Passover, they remembered how the blood of a sacrificial lamb was used so death would not take them. John the Baptist tells his hearers that Jesus Christ is the final, perfect Passover lamb, the one who covers the sins of all who believe so that death will not take them.

John the Baptist had to become less, so that Jesus would become greater. John sent some of his disciples to follow Jesus, and these disciples brought others. Soon, Jesus had a band of disciples who believed in him. Jesus, who is the eternal God and also man, promised to reveal the eternal God to these disciples.

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A Charge and the Gospel

John 20:30-31 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

People that write books have different reasons for doing so. Some authors write books to make money, supporting themselves from the proceeds. People in the academic world write books because they are expected to do so. They must “publish or perish,” since only those that write well are able to get and keep a job in the academic world. Some write simply for the joy of writing, and some write to bring glory to themselves. John’s purpose for writing is different than any of these. John writes to bring glory to Jesus Christ.

Over the next few months, we will be going through John’s Gospel together as a church. It is appropriate, then, to think about John’s summary of his book, which appears in chapter 20:30-31. John wrote so that people throughout the entire world would be able to hear and understand that Jesus is the Messiah predicted in the Old Testament, who is both God and Man, and who died for the forgiveness of sin, so that those trusting in him would have eternal life.

However, there is another reason why these verses are so appropriate for us today. Besides serving as an introduction to the Gospel of John, they also help us to understand the role of a minister. These verses not on summarize John’s Gospel, they are closely related to the entire message of the Bible. The entire Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, teaches us about Jesus Christ and the salvation that he brings. Since this gospel is at the center of the Bible’s teaching, it should always characterize the messages that the pastor preaches. As a church, you must pray that I would preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and preach it well. Pray that our God would change the hearts of people so that they would be able to believe in him and trust in him for eternal life.

John begins by saying that Jesus did many signs, far more than John has written in his book. The signs that John has written about serve to help people to believe that Jesus is one sent by God who brings about salvation. Let’s think for a moment about some of the signs that John tells us about. Jesus’ first public miracle is his turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. This sign had an affect on his disciples. John tells us that, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him” (John 2:11). His disciples believed after they saw what he did. Likewise, when Jesus fed five-thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, the result was the same. People believe that he was the Messiah. John tells us, “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” (John 6:14).

Perhaps the greatest sign from Jesus was his resurrection from the dead. During one confrontation with the Jews, he explained the way that he would die. John tells us in 2:18-22 that “the Jews said to him, ‘What sign do you show us for doing these things?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.” His resurrection from the dead served to confirm all that he had said, and it served to give hope to all of those who would believe. Jesus was the first to be raised into everlasting life, but he would not be the last. All who believe in him know that they will also be raised from the dead one day. Jesus’ miraculous signs were so clearly involved in all that he said and did that John feels free to use them to stand for all that he said and did. God used them to confirm Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God to all of those who had ears to hear and eyes to see (Matt 13:16).

John says that he writes so that people would know that “Jesus is the Christ.” Some people think that “Christ” is Jesus’ family name and that “Jesus” is his given name. However, “Christ” is more like a title that Jesus had. Just as we might use the title “sensei,” with someone who is a teacher, we use the title “Christ” with Jesus. John writes his book so that people would know that Jesus is “the Christ,” the promised one that the nation of Israel had been hoping to see for so long. He is the one who was anointed by God “with the Holy Spirit and power” (Acts 10:38) to reveal the things of God to his people and to bear the sins of his people (Hab 3:13). John says that he writes so that people would know that Jesus is the “Son of God.” That is to say, he is God. He is eternal, “He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:2). He created all things, and “without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). John’s gospel tells us that Jesus is fully, completely God.

Furthermore, John’s gospel tells us that Jesus is fully, completely man. John says in 1:14 that “The Word [referring to Jesus] became flesh and dwelt among us.” Since Jesus is both God and man, he is the perfect person to serve as a sacrifice for our sins. As a man, he is a fitting substitute to pay for the sins of men. As God, he is able to pay the infinite penalty that is due to men for their sins. By his death, we are able to have live, if only we would believe. John’s Gospel compels us to seriously consider Jesus’ life and the words he spoke.

This book was written with evangelistic purposes in mind, so that those who do not believe would be compelled to do so. Yet, the results of John’s writing extend past evangelism, since those who already believe will surely have their faith strengthened as they read this book. In light of this, there are several ways in which we can apply these verses to our lives. First, there is an application for those who are not yet Christians. John’s purpose in writing this book is primarily evangelistic. He writes so that those who do not believe that Jesus is the Christ would believe. John writes, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:16-18).

When John says that God the Father “gave” God the Son, he is referring to Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus bore the full punishment for the sins of his people so that they would not have to be condemned for their sins. Also, he gives them his righteousness, so that they would be counted as righteous before a holy God. If you believe in him, trusting in him as your Savior, you will have eternal life. If you have never believed and trusted in him, the application for you is simple. Believe! Second, there is an application to Christians.

John knew that his book was going to be read and re-read by people in the Church. Though his main purpose in writing might have been evangelistic, his book has further results for Christians. As it is God’s word, it serves to strengthen the faith of believers. There is a certain misunderstanding with respect to the gospel that we need to avoid. Some people think of the gospel as something that is a part of the beginning of the Christian life, but that doesn’t have a great deal of importance for those who already believe. Yet, we need to understand that the gospel is a permanent part of our faith.

In the twelfth chapter of Romans, Paul tells us how we should go about living our lives as Christians. He says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:1-2). Listen closely to the first part of the first verse. “I appeal to you therefore.” When he says “therefore,” he is talking about everything that he has said up to this point. He is talking about the first eleven chapters, including the first five on the gospel.

The gospel itself is the foundation upon which we are to live as Christians. When Paul says that we are to live lives that are “holy and acceptable to God,” he knows that we will only be able to do so if we are thinking about the grace that God showed towards us when he saved us.

Third, as Christians we need to realize our responsibility towards the lost. In Central Okinawa (including the islands of Okinawa-jima, Iheya-Jima, Izena-jima, Ie-jima, Kume-jima), there are about 1.25 million people. Only about 7,500 Okinawans, less than .6%, claim to be Christians. If John were to examine the lives of most Okinawan people, he would tell us that they live in darkness. Rather than worshipping the one, true God, their lives are devoted to appeasing the spirit world so that they would be able to have a better life. They perform rituals for the well and spring spirits so that they would have water for their crops. They perform rituals for the tree and rock spirits so that the tree and boulder spirits would not hurt them. They perform rituals for their ancestors so that their ancestors would help them with all sorts of problems in life. Perhaps most of all, they perform rituals to the fire god, who they believe acts as a mediator between them and the higher gods. So, if someone is sick in the family, they might go to fire god, hoping that the fire god would be able to help cure that sick person.

Really, they don’t know that “there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (Tim 2:5). They don’t know that only one person is really able to help them with the biggest problems in life. Jesus is the only one that men need to pray to in times of trouble. He is the Great Physician, the one who is able to heal not only the body, but the soul as well. He is the one who raises men from the dead spiritually as well as physically. And he doesn’t just heal people for a short time, but he heals them forever. Just as he was raised from the dead, so all who believe in him will also be raised from the dead. By believing in him, men are given eternal life in his name (John 20:31).

In light of this great salvation that Jesus offers (Heb 2:3), we at Central Baptist should have compassion for the Okinawan people, who are trapped in darkness. We know that all who receive Jesus and believe in his name, he gives the right to be called the Children of God (John 1:12), and we must bear the responsibility of telling them about the Christ who is able to set them free from their bondage to sin (Rom 8:2). It might seem like an impossible task. There are so many that don’t know. There are so many that are slaves to sin. Yet, we are able to go and tell them about Jesus, knowing that he is with us and that he has all authority in heaven and earth (Matt 28:18-20). He is the one who is able to save people here in Okinawa, just as he is doing in the rest of the world (John 3:16-19). Years from now we will be able to say that his “light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). In the chapter that we have been looking at today, Jesus gives an instruction to the disciples that has bearing on how we should live today. He tells them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21). You are sent to be a witness of the light in a dark world.

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Not That We Loved Him (1 John 4)

1 John 4:1-21

As I was preparing for this message, I realized that I was going to be teaching on probably the most famous portion of the Bible that says “…God is love…” in 1 John 4:8.  Of course, the reason it is famous is not because people actually understand what love means.  It’s famous with many men and women who actually hate Christianity because they have their own ideas about what love is.  Love seems like an idea that anyone can define personally and, so, the idea that God is love makes them very happy because it fits exactly with their idea of who He should be.  What they don’t want from God, however, is the love that He has offered.  They also only want love if it’s how they’ve defined it and not necessarily how God has defined it.  They want love on their own terms and they want God on their own terms.

I’ve told a number of you a story about something that happened on the Oprah Winfrey show a number of years ago.  There was a discussion about God.  Of course nobody in the room, including Oprah, seemed to know much about who God is.  One woman said this:  “I don’t think I believe in God.”   Oprah responded by asking:  “Do you believe in love?”  The woman stated that she did.  Oprah replied, with all the wisdom of the world:  “Then you believe in God.”  Is this true?  By saying God is love are the Scriptures really saying that love is God?  Is anything that we decide is love is what God is?

Well to answer this, we should listen to John at the beginning of this chapter again:  1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

John is warning Christians of something we need to be careful to listen to.  The plain fact is that there are many false prophets and teachers in the world that are claiming to represent the truth.  We are commanded by the word of God to test every spirit.  We are commanded to take captive every thought to the Word of God and measure it against the Word to determine if it is true.

Life would be much easier if false teachers had red horns, sharp teeth, tails, and looked really mean and evil.  In classic American films, the bad guys always wear black and have evil eyebrows.  But in the real world, false teachers often sound very convincing, look really nice, and smell really good.  They might even have a huge following and be on TV claiming to teach the Gospel.  They tug at our heart strings.  They  seem to be saying things that must be true because so many people follow them, listen to them, and even proclaim how their lives have been changed.

Now, I love the Internet and e-mail as much as anyone but one thing that I really do not like are those e-mails you get with stories created to make you cry or feel good.  A few years ago, I received an e-mail from a close female friend of the family.  The story was designed to make everyone feel really warm by telling a tale that Jesus one time found Satan with a world full of sinners and asked Satan how much he wanted from Jesus so that Jesus could “buy” them from him.  It seemed like such a beautiful tale of how much Jesus loved these wretched creatures that Satan owned and that Jesus would be willing, in fact, to give His life to Satan for them.

The problem with the story is that it was a lie.  Jesus didn’t save men from Satan ultimately but He redeemed them from the wrath of God.  Jesus didn’t give His life to Satan, He offered Himself to His Father.  I lovingly responded to the friend instructing her that this was not the Gospel and that central to the Gospel was that we know what Christ has actually done.  She responded in a way I’ll never forget because it is the spirit of our age:  “I know, Rich, but it’s just a good reminder of how much God loves us.”

What?  It’s not a reminder at all if it’s not what happened.  Love rejoices with the truth.  Right?!  But, you have to understand that many of us are not really testing the spirits that are making us feel good against the Truth.  Many of us are led astray by many false ideas because we’re not testing the things we hear or read.  Just because it feels good doesn’t mean it is.

John gives us a very basic test in verse 2 by declaring:  “2…every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God….”  At first, it might seem like everyone you meet could be trusted because, after all, who denies that Christ has come in the flesh?  This is the season, after all, when the whole world is celebrating the birth of Jesus.  All over are trees and Christmas lights and people are giving each other “seasons greetings”.  The reality is much different though.

When John wrote this, there was a heretical group called the Gnostics.  They were named after the Greek word for knowledge, which is gnosis.  The difficult thing for Greeks to believe, due to their philosophers, was that Christ could have come in the flesh.  Death was, to them, an escape from physical things.  Flesh was evil.  God could not take on human flesh because that would corrupt Him.  Many believed Jesus was God but they taught that Christ only seemed to come in the flesh.  This is why John, in his Gospel and his epistles, makes such constant reference to Jesus’ real humanity.  You see, to John and to all Christians, we must testify to the truth that Christ was fully God and fully man in one person.  Those who deny his humanity are false teachers and we know they are false because they deny this.

But the sense of what John is saying is not merely that we believe that God once took on human flesh in a manger two thousand years ago.  The verse literally says that Christ has come in the flesh meaning that He still is in the flesh.  The divine nature and the human nature of Christ are still united in the one person of Christ as He reigns on high.  False teachers always deny one or both of these very central truths.

Modern liberal scholarship about Jesus can best be summed up in a single word:  unbelief.  It is so common that it pervades the Churches and many of us today are infected in very subtle ways.  There is a tendency in the Church today to think of God and our relationship to Him as completely spiritual and something that the mind or flesh does not participate in.  But God redeems us in the whole person when we are born again and is redeeming our flesh as well as our mind.  Our flesh was created good in the Garden but it was our hearts from within that defiled from the inside out.

An Anglican bishop was recently asked what would happen to his faith if conclusive proof was found that Christ was not raised from the dead.  He responded, foolishly, that his faith did not depend upon the physical resurrection of Christ.  Now, I’m not suggesting we should expect evidence to be coming out that disproves the resurrection but, beloved, the physical resurrection means everything to our faith.  That Christ’s physical body was raised from the grave means the difference between being alive with Him or still dead in your sins!  Christ’s humanity is central to our salvation.

John continues by exhorting us with great affection: 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.  5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.  6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.  

Paul notes in Ephesians that we all used to walk according to the pattern of this world.  John is saying the same thing here.  We are those who, at one time, thought just like the world thinks but, when God saves us from the world, He saves our minds too.  Our minds are not instantly transformed, however, which is what Paul notes in Romans 12 as we are commanded to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  God transforms our thinking as we grow.  We were once fools but He gives us wisdom as we grow.

I described it to the Wednesday night class this way.  Our minds are like a tuning fork.  If you’ve ever picked up a tuning fork, you can actually hum at the correct note and the tuning fork will start to vibrate in your hand.  The fallen mind is like a tuning fork that resonates with the spirit of the world.  We still have sin that abides within us and God is working in us to make us more like Him.  In the meantime, however, we need to recognize that this sin nature is within us and clouds our thinking.  Sometimes the world will send us really nice e-mails that make us cry and respond or make us say:  “Why, that’s just common sense.”  We need to be on our guard, however.  Christ told us that out of our hearts proceed all manner of things including blasphemy.  Hollywood tells you to listen to your heart while God tells you that’s the last place you ought to rely upon for truth.

We’ve been redeemed to overcome the world and its upside-down thinking about reality.  We have been redeemed and the other tuning fork resonates with the things of God.  We recognize that they are the things of God not by first testing with our heart but by going to His Word.  Those that belong to God listen to His Word because their hearts respond as His Word resonates within them.

John says very simply:  “6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

Do you want to tell truth from error?  Read God’s Word.  Do you want to know who belongs to God?  They are those that listen to His Word.  If you get a story from someone and they say “…this means so much to me…” but you point out that God’s Word says this is wrong but they don’t care about what God has to say then they do not know God and you should not be deceived.  Now, you should certainly pray for them but don’t let your emotions carry you away in agreeing with those who disagree with the Word of God.  Trust God’s Word first and last in all things.  Don’t change the Word because your heart is commanding it but let your hearts be changed by the Word.

We are all prepared now, I hope, to learn anew from God on what He means by love rather than what we think it is.  We are prepared to hear:  “7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

I hope you have been really paying attention the last few weeks because this theme keeps coming forward like the refrain to a song.  We love one another because we are born of God.  We love because love is from God and we are from God.  If we do not love then we do not know God.  Notice that it doesn’t say this:  “If you love then you will learn to know God.”  No, we love because we know God, because we are born of Him.  We love because we have life.  If we do not love, we have no life and we do not know Him. 

But what is love?  What does it mean that God is love?  John answers that question very directly:  “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”

Oh!  Do not miss the profound love found in this statement.  What love is this!  What love is it that God sent His one and only Son.  His Son whom He loved from eternity and had perfect, unbroken fellowship along with the Holy Spirit.  You see the profound truth is that if God had never created man He would have been perfectly content in Himself.  He did not need us to express love.  Love has existed forever within the community of the Godhead as Father, Son, and Spirit love each other with a perfect love.

But God sent His one and only Son, whom He loved, to a world that hated Him – to a world of men who were dead in their sins and trespasses.  There was nothing that God gained by sending His Son to die for us other than a love that He decided to lavish upon us.  This is a love that we cannot comprehend.  A love that we will never grow tired of praising when we are in glory with Him as we contemplate the great grace of our God toward us.

He continues “10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  Do you see this?  God did not love us because we loved Him but it says that God loved us even though we did not love Him.  His Son came to pay for the sins of a people who only had incurred wrath and judgment.  He came because God cannot look upon sin.  Every single one of our sins was added to Christ on the Cross and, before we even knew Him, before we loved Him, our sins were put on Christ and He who knew no sin became Sin for us.  He who had never displeased His father took on the wrath for sin that we deserved.  You see, that when God commands us to love our enemies it is because God loved us while we were His enemies and, by His love, we were redeemed to Him!

How can the following ever be read as a burden once we have really fallen at the foot of the Cross in gratitude:  “11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.”

This isn’t Law, it’s the response of the Gospel.  Of course I love those who you love God.  How could I not love them for you have shown much more love and much more forbearance toward me.

It is very telling to me that the world right now is very content to proclaim “Peace on Earth and good will to men” because they think they know what it means.  But, like most things, this is a spirit that needs to be brought captive to the Word of God where Christ states in John 14:27 – “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

That same Apostle who recorded those words of Christ tells us even more in 1 John 4:18-19:   “18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.  19 We love, because He first loved us.”

There is no fear now.  There is no condemnation.  There is no judgment.  There is peace.  The world seems to constantly be seeking peace and to offer peace but the most important kind of peace is the kind that only Christ can give.  That peace is peace with God Himself.  The world believes in every kind of love except the love that God gives.  That’s because the world thinks that what love is begins with us, but perfect love begins with God.

Because God first loved us, He sent His one and only Son to die for us.  Because God first loved us, our dead hearts heard the Gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection heralded to the world and our dead hearts of stone began beating with life.  Because God first loved us, our feet ran to the Cross and answered:  “Yes Lord!   I believe that you are the sacrifice for my sins and have satisfied the judgment of God that I deserved.  I have peace with God through You, Lord!”  Because God first loved us, we behold the wondrous salvation we have received and our hearts burst forth in joy.  Because God first loved us our hearts answer back in love as God’s love resonates within us.  We love God and we love others because God first loved us. Beloved, we know what love is because God first loved us.

Contact

904-0316 Okinawa-ken, Nakagami-gun, Yomitan-son, Ōki, 327−3
098-989-8811
Sunday School: 9:00 AM
Worship: 10:00 AM
Tuesday English Class: 10:00 AM

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