John chapter one beginning in verse one. This is God's Word eternally true And I'll speak extra loud for those of you who are in bowling zone back there And if you need to if anyone needs to just come up front don't worry about that I'm gonna bother to buy stuff if you need in the middle of sermon come up and just sit closer. That's fine by me But I'll project here John chapter one verse one. This is God's Word eternally true in the beginning with the word and the word was with God and the word was God He was with God in the beginning through him all things were made without him nothing was made that has been made in him was life And that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God his name was John. He came as a witness testifying concerning that light So that through him all men might believe he himself was not the light he came only as a witness to the light the true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world He was in the world and though the world was made through him the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own but his own did not receive him Yet to all who received him to those who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or a husband's will but born of God The word became flesh and made is dwelling among us we have seen his glory the glory of the one and only who came from the father full of grace and truth Here ends our reading there's a responsive thankfulness is printed for you in your bulletin or no it's not it's not there You have to look up that I know it's really hard probably I've memorized it but it is up here the word of the Lord thanks indeed let's pray You know living in this world you know in this building right now we're a minority Most people in the world are not Christians now people are in nations that have Christianity as its background But in terms of people who are born of the spirit who worship and follow the one true God who spin their Sunday mornings worshipping him that were a small group among a much larger group in the world You all left neighborhoods this morning where most people were still in their homes and not planning on going anywhere that had something to do with the worship of the one true God And that was a little bit of the consternation into which John wrote his gospel the three other gospels had already been written John and his readers were probably aware of them all that all been written about 30 years plus before this and so John comes around and says what else do God's people need to know And God sees that and inspires these things that John communicates in John's gospel to his people One of the questions they had being people it seems like as we read the gospel John from a Jewish background One of the questions they had is why with Jesus giving all these proofs in his teaching but in his miracles Why isn't that our brothers and sisters Jews? Why in they believe? Why are we a minority among the Jews who should have seen all these things and said this is what the Old Testament spoke of This is what we were looking forward to and among our contemporaries now in AD 90 probably most Jews don't believe Why is it and that's why John writes this book explaining why most Jews in the first century and on into our day haven't believed but we can't even from our non Jewish background We sit in the same shoes as the Jewish believers to whom John wrote we look around and say why am I the only person in my family who believes or why am I the only person on my street who believes? Why am I a minority? Why is there bowling going on on Sunday morning and be gracious with these folks here? I mean love them and you'll find out why in the sermon why I really love them okay but this is not how it should be Everything should stop on this day of the week and we should do what we really could be doing all seven days but God says well reserve one for me to give me worship and thanks and praise and to consider me so as you go into your wake of working and serving people you'll do that for my glory and because you understand they bear your they bear my image. So in your introduction there if you like throwing out blanks in an outline that will help you work through this if you want to just listen that's fine too but that's what we're talking about most people that's your blank there most people have not become Christians this was true in the days of Jesus on earth right Jesus is on the cross and he doesn't have a majority group of people there saying hey get him down from there most people have not believed during Jesus days on earth and they follow him as you'll see in John 6 because he gave him bread physical bread but they really hadn't believed and when he started talking about more spiritual things most of them left there from that scene in John 6 but most people have not become Christians they didn't become Christians in Jesus' day they didn't follow him throughout the first centuries that's true here John is writing 60 years after the death of Jesus and still it's the case that most Jews have not been convinced that Jesus is the king that God sent from heaven that Jesus is God himself coming from heaven to save God's people as he always had promised to do from Old Testament times it was true 60 years after that most Gentiles didn't believe either Christians were a minority by far in the first century so this has always been true Jesus spoke of it in Matthew 7, 13 and 14 narrow is the path small is the gate and only a few find it this path to eternal life most enter through the wide gate and travel on the broad road that leads to destruction most enter through it Jesus said there Matthew 7, 13 and 13 and 14 so we talked about last week as we looked at this text a few things just to get us up to speed this will be fast number one John brings up here that Jesus is not only as we've been talking about for a month or so prior to this Jesus is not only the human son of David you saw that there in Matthew the two blind men they call Jesus son of David they understood he was the king David's sons were the kings over God's people so John brings us out in chapter 1 Jesus was not only a son of David descended from David in his humanity coming from David's line and properly anointed as king by John the Baptist who pointed people to Jesus in part by that baptism which was an anointing of Jesus as king but John brings out that Jesus is the son of God from heaven the eternal son of God from heaven and that's your first point there Jesus is eternal God who came to earth from heaven and so that's shown by John in verses 1 through 3 Jesus was the word verse 14 the word became flesh and wealth among him and we saw him but this word is God himself and Jesus was God and he was with the father from the beginning there was not a time when Jesus didn't exist and so when we saw Jesus John says when he dwelled among us this was not Jesus knew from 27 years ago or 30 years ago this was eternal God with no beginning who came to earth and dwelled among us and so we have to understand that but this is the thing that people don't believe that Jesus is eternal God he's not just another man he's not just a religious teacher he's not a Jewish man who deserves to be put on the cross to put it in the opinion of most Jews during the writing of the gospel of John just as a Jewish man who deserved to be put on a cross a blasphemer but Jesus is eternal God who came to earth from heaven now number two as we said most people don't believe most people don't believe and Jesus said this here's a SAT word for you who are still in a high school axiomatically it's an axiom it's something that's true all the time okay you physicists see axioms too don't you and that a thing in physics yeah axioms something that's always true it's proverbial something that's always true it's just out there it's always the case and Jesus said this Paul said it in 2nd Timothy 316 something axiomatic he said and indeed all who desire to live Godland Christ Jesus will be persecuted because you'll be the minority or Jesus said as I mentioned in Matthew 713 and 14 you know enter he says enter through the narrow gate the small gate because most centers through the wide gate most are on the the broad road you know the inspiration for the ac song which is a great song with terrible words the highway most are on the highway to hell the three way four lanes on each side 70 miles per hour most centers through it so most people don't believe from last week we learned one reason why and that's your a point just to mention it they don't believe they're not believers because they can't they can't believe because they do not have spiritual life so last week we talked about how people are born spiritually dead but the Jesus gives them spiritual life and then they can hear with their ears see with their eyes believe with their hearts and understand but but last week we talked about this life aspect and how Jesus and John one John brings up to our in front of our faces and in our minds that in him was life he says they're in verse 2 or 3 right verse 3 in first four in him was life and that Jesus had been granted by the father John chapter 5 21 and 20 26 that Jesus had been granted by the father to have life in himself and to give life to whom he was pleased to give it and the reason why people don't believe is they are spiritually dead so the gospel comes and it's like talking to a person in an open casket they don't respond and so that's what the gospel is like to a person who's spiritually dead they hear the words they hear the words well they don't hear the words the words bounce off their head you know if you can see the sound waves but they don't hear them and they don't respond they don't have the ability to hear and believe not number or letter B letter B that's this week what we're talking about this week letter B why else don't people believe how else does God put this what does he how does he shed light on this that's a foreshadowing there they don't be they don't and can't believe because they are in spiritual darkness they're in spiritual darkness and that's why they don't believe they're in spiritual darkness so they can't see which in the Bible means understand we use it that way too they're in spiritual darkness so they can't see they can't understand spiritual things they see physically but are blind spiritually that Jesus says in John 12 46 he says if anyone follows me I the walk in the light I won't let them continue on in the darkness and Jesus I was the last verse that Jim read for us this morning everyone's in spiritual darkness in an environment of spiritual darkness except my people Jesus says those who are following me I am providing for them light and they see spiritual things they understand spiritual they understand spiritual things thank you Mike so we use this term all the time when you're explaining something to somebody you typically don't say understand what do you say yeah see first you do this and then you put this over here then you screw it in see see as a synonym it's a it's a it's a figure of speech figure to not literal it's a figurative thing see we use that word all the time to mean understand to know and to understand okay and so that's what we see here all through the gospel of John this idea of sight being more than just having things from white waves hitting your rods and cones in the back of your eyes and having a message sent to your brain that says that is a Christina there but that's what that and so scripture uses it that way just as we say see and when you understand scripture does the same scripture does the same thing this is what Jesus spoke of quoting Isaiah in Matthew 13 that was the trail end of the parable the sower and the soils to him read it for us this morning and Jesus said the disciples are saying you know what's this mean and Jesus said this is what Isaiah talked about you know and when we spoke to Isaiah in his time and his era as he's talking during the time of like Hezekiah and before it's about 700 BC he commissions Isaiah to be a prophet for him and he says you're gonna speak things and no one's gonna understand they're gonna see with their eyes but not see with their hearts they're gonna hear with their ears physically here but not here with their hearts and understand and so they won't turn and believe Isaiah but you better preach this but if they do turn and understand I'll heal them and so this is this is what Jesus says in response to the disciples saying why are you talking in parables nobody gets it nobody understands nobody sees and he says they don't get it because they don't have spiritual sight they don't have light they are existing in darkness I was in my crawl space a bunch yesterday got some dehumidifiers in the crawl space I was checking to make sure they were working they're not but they've got you know little I did buy a new one last night off Amazon but they've got little things on the top and so there's like this much space between the insulation and the top there now that the fans all are on the side so that's okay you engineers relax but I'm trying to see this and I've got a little light on the end of the bill of my cap but then I've got trifocals and so I'm trying to do this but then the light goes up and I can't see and finally this one that I was a pretty sure wasn't working I had to drag it out like 50 feet out of my crawl space you know my crawl space at the highest point I can kneel in the top of my head will hit the rafter so it's all crawling around stuff and so but I had to get it out in the full light to see what the dials meant on the top because I couldn't couldn't quite read them because it was too dark I couldn't see I couldn't understand when I pushed this what was that doing is that setting it on the two hour four hour timer or is that putting on it on continuous is that changing the amount of humidity I'll allow in the crawl space whatever but you need to have light to be able to see and this is what scripture is getting at so Jesus says there in Matthew 13 you'll be ever hearing but never understanding ever seen but never perceiving so there's an understanding issue there's a perceiving issue here that causes people not to believe so number one there be one you've been in his fans there when a person sits in a completely dark room just a few things about darkness when a person sits in a completely dark room and tries to evaluate something they get the picture completely dark room and they're trying to evaluate something like a dehumidifier or whatever I was fixing a sliding door like a pocket door recently and I couldn't quite see the mechanism up there and I but once I got right up there and put some light on I could see it and then I could fix it but if you can't see if you're in a completely dark room and try to evaluate something A three things A you mis-evaluate so key mis-evaluates or incompletely assesses it if you're in a completely dark room you mis-evaluate what's in the room or you incompletely assess it and you don't understand it so you might be able to feel around saying that dark room and say oh this is a chair I think this chair is blue you don't know it's a guess and you mis-evaluate second thing B if you're in a completely dark room you often don't know something's even there right if you're just sitting there in a dark room there will be I mean you can't see anything you don't even know it's there to even start evaluating it or that it exists to start evaluating it and then see if there's another person in the room just bear with me assume the person's being quiet if there's another person in the room he will not be able to recognize who it is could be your best friend could be something someone you've never seen before if the room is completely dark and they're not speaking you can't recognize who's in the room with you maybe you can hear someone moving around say who's there right you can't evaluate properly you can't recognize who's in the room so number two the person in darkness is functionally blind and so John gets at this Jesus gets at this and all these kinds of languages you know in darkness that's one not having light not understanding and then being blind okay so being in complete darkness functionally you're blind you can't use your eyes to understand anything so number three person in the dark is functionally blind number three Jesus in the writers of scripture teach us with clarity that all are born okay bear with me here some are born blind like the man in John John 9 but all are born physically born in spiritual darkness scripture is very clear about this Jesus is very clear about this John is very clear about this Isaiah is very clear about this people are physically born in spiritual darkness and are functionally blind to spiritual things that's the natural state of men and women boys and girls physically alive physically typically can see spiritually blind cannot see in utter complete darkness unable to see and what the Bible means is not able to understand things that aren't physical okay so we see this in verse five look at verse five the light shines in the darkness at this point it's talking about Jesus okay in him was life in that like with layman the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not what understood it a darkness doesn't understand Colossians 113 look at the front of your bulletin very first thing you've got here under the congregational response on the colder worship for his rescue does from the dominion of darkness this is scripture declaring that people until they're rescued by Jesus are in the kingdom of darkness there are in spiritual darkness and anything that's in their room so to speak that is spiritual they cannot see because they are in utter spiritual darkness and perhaps they don't even know it's there maybe they know something's there they have an inkling something's there but they can't identify they can't recognize it because they are in spiritual darkness and so scripture is teaching us this about unbelief why is there unbelief because people are in spiritual darkness they can't see what we see we're in the room and the lights are on or we've got what's the military have night vision goggles so we're seeing everything and nobody can see it but us for us the lights are on in the room and we're saying can't you see Jesus and he's right here doesn't make any sense that he said people following him for 2,000 years declaring him to be raised from the dead that he has followers who his disciples didn't abandon their faith when Jesus was killed they went out and they want to update and they said he rose from the dead and I touched him he physically rose from the dead kill me if you must but I won't lie about his resurrection and all the disciples died because of their faith in Jesus except for John who apparently dies in natural death but all the others are martyred they're killed for their faith and they will not all have to do is say okay I give up the Jesus isn't you know raised from the dead so make any sense that the church is around if Jesus isn't raised from the dead Paul says our faith is useless if Jesus isn't raised from the dead if Jesus declared which he had over and over again to his disciples something like 13 times before the cross happens he declared some over and over I will rise on the third day and he doesn't do it the disciples go out and proclaim that no they feel deceived is what happens they don't tell anyone else to follow Jesus because they feel foolish and they just want people to forget about the fact like Peter in the high priest court guard is we want people to know there's a follower of Jesus he's ashamed so people are functionally blind second Corinthians 4.4 says the God of this age is blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see they cannot see the light of the gospel when did that happen well that happened in the garden okay spiritual death happened spiritual blindness happened and we carry on that trait from Adam not of brown eyes or black hair or whatever we have but we carry on that trait of spiritual blindness born into spiritual blindness the God of this world Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ so a there three a both in Jesus down earth and today unbelievers who are spiritually in total a totally dark room unbelievers who are spiritually in a totally dark room this is all believers they're in a spiritually totally dark room misevaluate or incompletely assess the things they hear about Jesus understand this a person in the darkness will have wrong conclusions about the things in the room is Jesus here now yes he's here he's with us but if you don't have light if you're in the darkness you don't see him you don't understand that he's here you don't understand that he's living you don't understand that all of us in this room are different because he is living you don't understand that all of us are conforming to a certain pattern of how we live because he's our king raining from the right hand of God and we follow our king what's your law Jesus and we follow it and that's what makes us different or set apart or or holy to use the religious word for that so unbelievers cannot see the things in the room they cannot understand what's truly there because they cannot see so John three three Nicodemus is wow you're doing all this stuff but I don't get it and Jesus cuts to the the chase not the Blake the chase he cuts to the chase and says unless the man be born again what comes after that he cannot what what can't he do what you don't you have the ability to do unless you're born again see unless a morning here's why you don't understand Nicodemus and this is what Jesus chives Nicodemus with in verse 10 you're a teacher of Israel and you don't understand keyword you don't understand these things why doesn't Nicodemus understand because verse three unless you're born again you cannot see you cannot understand the kingdom of God you can't understand that the king comes and is born in a manger and that he's despised from the people and that's what Isaiah 53 is talking about the God's king the son of David is despised and rejected by his own people and put to death that's why you're confused Nicodemus that I haven't come in glory you've got this inkling Nicodemus comes to believe we'll see that at the end of John but but you've got this idea in your head that the God's king the son of David will come in glory and it'll rain from the the throne in Jerusalem and the nations will stream to him and everyone will recognize him and Nicodemus is confused he's like but you're just you've got a few disciples and I'm having to come to you at night probably Nicodemus coming at night because all the ruling counsel didn't believe in Jesus and he's a little bit scared like the blind man's parents in John 9 because they knew the ruling counsel didn't believe in Jesus and the ruling counsel had made it known if you follow Jesus you'll be put out of the temple not allowed to come in here so Nicodemus you don't understand yeah you can't see the kingdom of God because you need to be given sight you're in spiritual darkness you cannot see the kingdom of God you don't have that ability to see so it happens with Jesus in our day he's misevaluated over and over not only during the time of his presence on earth during the first century but during our day as well think about the way Jesus is misevaluated in his final trial before the ruling council he's evaluated as a blasphemer in John 9 that we read they say we don't even know where it comes from well in John 6 the people are saying but he can't be our king he's from Galilee it's commonly known that Jesus is from Galilee but the ruling council is confused they also say remember what they say to the deployment we know this man is a sinner I think that's a misevaluation they're in darkness but what happens to this man who now sees Jesus finds him and says do believe in the son of man which is we'll get to it later but it's basically a sin in them for the son of God or the son of God come to earth who's the son of David it's all that wrapped in one do believe in the son of man and what's the response I believe and he bows down and worships him not only does this man have physical sight now he has spiritual sight and that's what Jesus is doing especially when he heals blind men he's showing there's yet physically but there's a spiritual way in this is in which this is true as well so Jesus is misevaluated some say he's the Christ others say how can we beat the Christ come from Galilee Jesus is called all kinds of things he's just the carpenter's son he's frequently called just a prophet who do you think he is oh I think he's a prophet kind of Jesus had that role but that's not all of who he is he's called rabbi teacher as I said sinner but people aren't evaluated they're not doing a complete evaluation of who he is this is God come to earth and yes he's he's king and he's prophet and and he's teacher and he's rabbi but he's not just any of those one things but everyone thinks he's just one of those things and if you ask a friend today who's kind toward Christianity who you think Jesus is they'll probably say why I think he was a good teacher it's a pretty safe response there that's a response of someone who's in spiritual darkness okay so that's why they don't believe that's why they're out there and not in here so be be people naturally don't and can't recognize who Jesus is and that is he is the son of God whom they need so verse five here look at verse five again the light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood it so people unless they've been pulled out rescued from spiritual darkness Colossians 112 through 14 unless it been rescued from the darkness that they've been born into spiritually they see Jesus and they don't understand him but look at verse look at verse 10 there here's the issue he was in the world Jesus was God Almighty eternal God and though the world was made through him the world did not recognize him because they're sitting in a dark room and they can hear Jesus fiddling around with something over there but they can't tell who it is they can't discern this is the son of God whom I need this is my future judge I will face him one day at that last day they can't they don't recognize him and that's the problem so so verse 10 there you know he's in the world and though the world was made through him the world did not recognize him verse 11 he came to the that which was his own the Jews but his own did not receive him see how this isn't talking about receiving Jesus into your heart like we talked about it is American evangelicals this is something about the Jews they didn't receive Jesus as their king they didn't hell him as their king they didn't exalt him as their king instead of receiving him as their king instead of receiving him as son of God come from heaven whose son of David to be king over us they reject him and they put him on across why because they can't recognize him what a Peter and John say about Jesus only through the name of Jesus he's the only name is the only name given among men by which men may be saved and they saw him but they didn't see him they heard him but they didn't hear him they saw with their eyes but they didn't see with their hearts they did not understand they did not understand they were they were in darkness they did not recognize who Jesus was and that's true today a lot of people especially if you're in a country like ours with the Christian background a lot of people know some things about Jesus but they don't recognize him for who he is so see see so people people a they incompletely assess things because they're in spiritual darkness they may not know they they mis-evaluate him they don't recognize who Jesus is because they're in darkness they can't see the contours of his face how how you know tall he is they don't know it's Jesus there so to speak and then see yet unbelievers claim they claim and believe they really believe this when they claim it unbeliever claim and believe they see it all they believe they're seeing everything they claim they're seeing everything they say well I see all I need to see and then I'm evaluating Jesus correctly and that you're a fool so that's why unbelievers look at us as they do they don't know they're blind that's the problem with the Pharisees is Jesus concludes his sign in the temple when he tealed this blind man this man born blind from birth he says that these people the Pharisees are blind and they respond are you saying that we're blind too in other words we're not blind we know you're a sinner they think they have all the facts they think they're in a room with light they think they're seeing everything and they're all these things that they're not seen in the room around them the Pharisees were indignant John 940 some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this as Jesus talk about blindness and sight speaking of the blind man who now saw spiritually and they say what are we blind to Jesus said if you were blind you would not be guilty of sin but now that you claim that you can see your guilt remains and so the people around us remain guilty and remain convinced that they're seeing everything they're blind they're in darkness they don't know they're in darkness and they don't know they're blind and so they think when they look at spiritual things and when we look at spiritual things that we're seeing the same set we're seeing all the same stuff and that they've evaluated correctly and that we've made some mistakes in our evaluation but what's happening instead is we're seeing a thousand things in evaluating it correctly and they're seeing a hundred only the physical stuff and so then they sit upon us and judge us just like the Pharisees did to Jesus here he is the giver of light and they're saying you're the one in darkness unbelievers around you are often like this they assume they can see they assume that what you believe is not there they don't recognize Jesus but they believe they have all the information and that they have disbelieved in him correctly. So three three good news a few people do believe you know what you're here the question given that all are not only spiritually dead but also spiritually born blind and spiritually born in darkness is how does anyone believe that's the question how does anyone believe all are born in darkness and can't see because we need light to be able to see. So number three here's your blank here I believe you believed the message about Jesus because Jesus gave you light Jesus gave you light that's why you see that's grace right there you didn't have the ability to see and you saw and you didn't have the ability to see and he looked upon you and mercy and mercy and he gave you light so look at verse four verse four in him and Jesus was life and that life was the light of men okay here's that that all and everybody and on the whole earth question from from Sunday school if you're in Sunday school all who see have gotten their light from Jesus that's what this is communicating here there's nobody who sees there's nobody in the light except those who have gotten light from Jesus now verse seven looked down to verse seven this is talking about John the Baptist and John says of John the Apostle says of John the Baptist in verse seven he came John the Baptist came as a witness to testify concerning that light so that through him all men might believe through Jesus you have believed because Jesus gave you light and so John came to say that John came to point people to this so Jesus could give people light that they might that they might believe verse nine verse nine the true light Jesus that gives light to every man again every every man who believes there's no one who's believed who hasn't been given light by Jesus so the true light verse nine the true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world and then John 1246 Jesus said I came into the world as a light so no one believes him he should stay in darkness and so the reason you as a believer have not stayed in your normal state stayed in darkness as Jesus said is because he came into the world and he gave you light and with that light he made you a lot he made you a live and then he gave you light so you could use your alive eyes in the light to see to understand spiritual things that your neighbors can't see don't have the ability to see and so they don't understand they don't understand so A and you're out line three A light is Jesus and John use it refers to the ability to understand so again people who don't have white don't understand that's verse five B after Jesus gave after Jesus gave you spiritual light after Jesus gave you spiritual light then then you could spiritually see not before it but after after he gave you spiritual light then you could see and you could properly evaluate Jesus and recognize that keyword from verse 10 Jesus comes into the world it comes to his own but they did not recognize him but once Jesus gave you light in your life when he gave you light you recognize you had heard about him before maybe you had been in church a bunch maybe you hadn't been in church but you had heard of Jesus but once he gave you light you recognized him some of you remember the time it happened I remember the page I was looking at in the gospel tract as my sister shared it with me and I understood and I saw for the first time why Jesus died on the cross and I saw my sins were in his body and he was suffering the penalty that I deserved so that I could be forgiven I saw for the first time I had heard Jesus died for your sins I had heard about heaven I had heard people believe in Jesus go to heaven but I hadn't seen it they were just things I could repeat right you know you know you know nasty Christian people right they're people were in the church who can't see right they're a lot of people like that you know and then I'm watching right now Victoria the masterpiece theater thing it's on prime is on prime it's about Queen Victoria in England and they're talking about Christian things and it's like none of them believe but they're talking about you know being Christian people and we should do this and that kind of thing there are lots of people if you've been there's a wild big box or lots of big boxers but but the little box you know people who actually see that's a smaller number but once Jesus gave you light if you were in the church you went from being in that big box just someone who knew about Jesus to knowing him to recognizing him to understanding his wrong words John is using that describe you as a as a believer so you could spiritually see once you gave you that light and you could properly evaluate Jesus and recognize who he was and believe three three naked name is couldn't see so he couldn't understand three ten but once you can see once Jesus gives you light you can see see see the letter see Christians are those to whom God to whom Jesus gave light such another way of putting it Christians are people to those who Jesus has given light this is why Christians are called in scripture two things that relate to this they're called in scripture things like people the people of light Jesus says that in John 1236 calls believers the people of light those are people in the kingdom of light there's a people who see as opposed to people who are still in the dominion of the world darkness and and living in darkness and Paul calls or sorry that's Luke records that Jesus calls believers sons of light sons of light where the people who who see and have light we succeed and understood who Jesus is those still in darkness cannot and so a person doesn't recognize and believe in Jesus because they're still walking they're still walking in darkness now so here are a bunch of applications for you knowing this number four knowing this knowing that belief only comes from Jesus intervention you have believed knowing that you have believed only because Jesus intervened when you were dead he made your life when you were blind he made you see and once he made you see because he gave you life you became person you can see you were still in darkness so he gave you light now that you understand this and that people outside the church that people haven't believed they're dead they can't see they're in darkness they can't evaluate now that you understand these things knowing that belief comes only from Jesus intervention of giving spiritual life and light so those two things we learn in John 1 that Jesus has given you is giving you life is giving you light and that's why you believed and John's first audience is saying oh that's why our brother Jews and our sister Jews haven't believed Jesus didn't give him life didn't give him light it's not because he hasn't provided enough evidence it's not because he didn't provide enough evidence when he was living on earth he provided plenty of evidence what John refers to in John 2030 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of its disciples which are not recorded in this book but these these few that I've given you in this book I've recorded that you might believe or continue to believe that he is the Christ the Son of God that believing you might have life in his name so only through Jesus intervention of giving spiritual life and light and that these things are not abilities a person is born with so here's what you understand from John 1 the only reason you believed with Jesus gave you light and life and and and those who haven't been given life and light those with whom Jesus has not intervened and changed their abilities and given them light they don't understand and that's why they don't understand they don't they don't disbelieve because they're a bad person and you were a good person you were a bad person they were a bad person you were a blind person they were a blind person you were a dead person They were a dead person. You were a person in darkness. They were a person in darkness. And Jesus came and gave life to whom he desired to give it. And he gave you light. And that's why you saw. And that's why you believed. So understand these things. A, first of all, understand why so many people don't believe. Quit being confused about that. Understand why so many people don't believe. The light of Jesus in his gospel shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. Verse five, that's verse five.
Darkness has understood. So understand this. Don't be perplexed by this. Don't be discouraged that people haven't believed. Don't think that the fact that the majority hasn't believed is reason for you not to believe. That's not the reason. It's that the majority doesn't know the truth. The majority's blind. The majority's in the darkness. And that's why they don't. That's why they don't believe. So belief is not natural. Know this. It only came to you. It only came to anyone who's believed through the supernatural intervention of Jesus. So understand that. Understand. That's why the world is the way it is today. Okay. So that's application one. Application to be. Understand why unbelievers can be arrogant. Understand why unbelievers can be arrogant in their disbelief and about their disbelief because they don't know their endarteness.
And they think they're seeing everything. So they think they're seeing everything. And they're according to them, you know, they're making the logical decision. And so they look down at you. They're arrogant. Some are. They're arrogant to you. Combine this with the sin nature and one of the fruits of the sin nature is pride. Right. And one of the things we do in our sin nature apart from the Spirit is we suppress the truth that Jesus is real. That he's the son of God. That he's the final judge and the judgment is coming. And so understand the arrogance and it's not that they're seeing the same things and coming to a bad decision. They're not seeing what you see. They're in darkness and they're saying, how can you believe this? You know, some of you are in families where you're the only one who believes and you believe differently than what your family believe when you're growing up and they're saying, you're nuts. Why do you believe this now? And so understand that and understand they're looking down upon you and for your faith. It's because they can't see everything. They think they're seeing everything and that you're an idiot. So get that. That's what the Pharisees are doing. They don't know the room is totally dark to them. They don't know that they've made a conclusion based on ignorance. Understand their perspective, not having all the facts and that they still have just their sin nature in them and not the Spirit of God too. So their pride can run rampant. See, see, next application for you. So we understand why so many people believe we understand the arrogance and the looking down of those who don't believe upon us because they think they're seeing everything then see be confident in your belief, be confident in your belief even in the light of massive unbelief in the world. You have been given light by Jesus verse 4 verse 9 and therefore can see unlike Nicodemus in 3-3. So you have evaluated Jesus correctly. You've recognized him, verse 10, verse 12, and received him based on the superior amount of information that you have that you've been given by that you've been given by Jesus. So don't let a room full of people in darkness, yelling that there's no chair in the room, cause you to abandon your face that there's a chair in the room that you can clearly see. It's like talking to somebody from the year 1500 who says people up in the air together with 40 other people flying from New York to Los Angeles, there wasn't New Yorkers from London to Athens, ridiculous. Understand where they're coming from, it's the year 1500, they've never seen an airplane. But you living in 2020 have superior knowledge, you can see and you've seen all your life all in feet, low and slow, you can see a lot. All these planes look way up in the air, you go up in the air and come down from the air and land and people get out of the plane. They've been flying around in it. That's what unbelievers are, they're people who don't know planes that people can fly yet. And they're calling you ridiculous for the idea that people can fly. We can see who Jesus is and they can't. They're in a dark room saying there's no chair in here and there are four chairs in here, but they can't see it. So be confident in your face because you see and they don't. This is really why John is writing the gospel. All the other Jews they don't believe, but be confident in your faith, continue in your belief that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God because you see your eyes aren't blind, you're in the light, they're in the darkness and that's why they don't believe. D, D, be humble about yourself and about your believing. Be humble about yourself and about your believing when you look at nonbelievers. That's you those unbelievers are you apart from Jesus intervention which you did nothing to merit. You didn't merit Jesus coming and giving you life and light so that you can see. So be humble. Understand that your belief is only because Jesus intervened in your life and that the nonbelievers, the difference between you and the nonbeliever is that Jesus didn't intervene in their life. You have no ability difference between you and the non-believer in your state of disbelief. The only thing that was different was that the Father said Jesus him and Jesus says I'd like to give him life. This is one Father that you've given to me. Here goes and he sends you his Spirit and gives you eyes to see and ears to fear. So be humble about yourself. Be humble about your believing. Don't look at the nonbeliever and look down upon them and say disgusting. Don't look their lives and what they're doing and look down upon them because that very well could be you. The only reason you're not walking the way they're walking. You're not living the way they're living is because Jesus gave you light and you could see oh that's a dangerous part of the room. There are venomous snakes in that corner but someone walking in darkness walks into the snake pit over there and then E. Be patient with and pray for your nonbelieving friends. If you are the fact that they're not believing because they haven't been given light they can't do anything about that. They can't. Any more than you could do anything about that. You didn't pray to Jesus oh give me light. Jesus gave you light and then you looked. He said wow this room is bright when he gave you light and so be patient with and pray for your nonbelieving friends, your nonbelieving family, your nonbelieving neighbors, all the people around your co-workers. Be patient with them. Jesus said I came that they might have life and might have it abundantly and so have that be your goal for them and be patient with them because Jesus if he's going to give them light and light he'll do it at just the right time and so don't despise his timing in the life of an unbeliever. They may come to believe so be patient and pray for your nonbelieving friends, relatives, co-workers and neighbors and so here's how. Here's how I can interact with nonbelievers. One, speak to them of Jesus. Jesus sold his disciples before he ascended to have an X-18. You are to be my witnesses. So speak to these people who are in darkness, speak to them about Jesus. Number two, know that they may not have interest. So speak to them about Jesus and know that they may not have interest. That's Matthew 3, 18 and 19. They may be that soil on the path. They may hear and say no thanks but speak to them. Be a witness for Jesus. They may not have interest but a your response then if they don't have interest. Don't be mad. Don't be mad. The world, God's own people, the Jews, had no interest in Jesus being their king and Jesus response to them is not anger. It's father forgive them for they know not what they do. That's Luke 23, 34. There's patience. Patience with those who say no that's not for me. Or you guys are crazy. I hate Christians. Why are you hanging out with those guys? Be patient. Be patient. Don't be mad. Say father brings forgiveness to this guy. Be understand their disbelief and be compassionate. Be compassionate. Right? Like Jesus was and across. Father forgive them for they know not what they do. But we saw the example in Matthew 20. The two blind men come to Jesus and let's say why Jesus healed them because he has compassion on these blind men. His compassion on these blind men. So where to be like Jesus? Be compassionate to the blind men and women, boys and girls around you. They're blind. Don't get mad at the person in a wheelchair because he can't run up the stairs. When I was in diapers, I don't know how old I was. It was before I don't know, three years old or something. We had company at our house and we came back from Don and Bob's in Rochester, New York, beaten dinner and it was pitch black, dark. And in the hubbub of coming back and having company from being out at a restaurant, everybody went inside and they forgot to bring me inside. And this was 1970 and so no child seats. I was sitting in the front in the middle. You know, so my mom and dad could put their, you know, Frank extends his dad's move, you know, put the hand out. And so I was just sitting there on the front seat in the darkness. And so I had seen my dad, you know, do this with the gear shift. And so I scooted over, cars parked on a steep hill. And so I pulled that gear shift and went into neutral and went back down, down the driveway across down that steep driveway across the street of the neighborhood, Cobb's Hill Drive. And I went into the street, across the street, totaled the car. The next day, the tree service came and they had to remove the tree because it was damaged enough that it was a dangerous thing. But my dad always felt bad. And I never felt bad. I'm rolling remember, but he said, I came out, we heard the commotion, he came out. I went into, you know, open the front door and I was yelling at you, what are you doing? What are you doing? He said, like you could understand what you were doing. My dad felt guilty, told us dying day that he had yelled at me, what are you doing? He said, don't do that with the unbeliever in your life. They're a baby and diapers who thinks it's cool to go like this that makes you a big person. And they're just pulling that. They don't know what the consequences are. And they can't see what the consequences are. They're in darkness. And they're behaving like someone who's in darkness and walking in ways that bring them, that bring them harm and potential great harm. So be compassionate. And then as you're compassionate to the spiritually blind people around you, see pray for Jesus to get them light. That's the thing that needs to happen. Pray for Jesus to get them light. I shared about Jesus with them, said something about Jesus to them and they were like hard soil, the soil on the path. And so what needs to happen now? They need to have light. They need to have light to pray that Jesus would give them, give them light, bring them into the light. And don't abandon them. That is, don't abandon them in terms of talking to them. Talk to them again. Because if you've been, you've talked to them about Jesus and they had no interest, don't say, well, that's it for all eternity. Okay? Pray for them then. Say they need light. They don't have light. They're not seeing Jesus. I talked to them about something like that. I don't see it. There's no chair in this room. And they walked away. So pray that Jesus gives them light. And then when you have opportunity again, talk to them again about Jesus. Talk to, if you have opportunity, talk to them. Don't give up. Don't give up. Because the next time you talk to them, Jesus may give them light. And then they may, they may see. Okay? So speak to them again about Jesus. And this is what Paul says, you know, pray that I may be bold in my talking to people that I should do it as I should. And then number three, because know that in the future, know that in the future, Jesus may give them light. In the future, Jesus, even the first time when you talk to them, he didn't give them light. And they still remain in darkness. In the future, he may give them light. Right? Think about yourself. How many times did you probably, even growing up in a theological liberal church, I probably heard enough of the gospel to have believed 20 times before he gave me light. And I went, I see. And so don't give up and talk to people again. I know that in the future, Jesus may give them light. And then seeing, they will believe.
So know that in the future, these people who are now in darkness, Jesus may give some of them light, even some that you've talked to. And they've shown no interest. And then seen, they'll believe. Sometimes people talk about the doctrine of election, and that's discouraging. It's not discouraging, because we know all it needs to happen is for Jesus to flip that switch in somebody. And that that switch can be flipped in sol of Tarsus, who's persecuting the church. Anybody, and that's a, that's a poll, that's a point. Paul makes him first time at the one. If I can believe, anyone can believe. Because I'm the chief of sinners. I've persecuted the church. So don't give up, keep praying for people, that Jesus, praying to Jesus, that Jesus would give these people who are now in darkness, light. And then as you have opportunity, talk to them again, something may change. And that's something needs to be that Jesus has given them, given them light. So summary, summary. You have believed because Jesus gave you light to see by. You have believed because Jesus gave you light to see by. Having light, you can see and understand. That's why you understand the gospel, because Jesus gave you light. Now you can see, you can understand who Jesus is, and because you understand who he is, you have believed. You have believed, that's your blank fare, believed. Those Jesus hasn't, those Jesus hasn't given light, don't say. Those Jesus hasn't given light, don't say. And therefore, haven't believed. It's that, it's that clear. And so be compassionate on those who haven't believed yet. Be grateful, be humble about yourselves, because Jesus has done that for you. Let's pray.