Light, Life, Love in John

I'll read with you in John chapter 4. John chapter 4. If any have trouble hearing me, don't hesitate to put your hand up so that I know. I tend to have a soft voice. The children at home when they were little didn't always think so, but let me know.

Like I say, don't hesitate. While the sisters don't speak, they sure can raise their hands if they need to hear me better than I'm speaking, so feel free to do that. Ephesians chapter 4, speaking of the Lord Jesus, it says in verse 11, He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.

Now there's no time to go into it, but I believe most of us believe, maybe likely all of us, that we don't have apostles and prophets today. What we have left to us are evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Now the Lord Jesus Himself was the perfect example of that, and that is seen very clearly in what we call John's Gospel.

Turn with me to John chapter 1. John chapter 1, and reading that verse 1, during the night I woke up and I was reviewing a lot of things in the scriptures and going over in my mind what was on my mind for today, praying about it, and as I was lying in bed all these different scriptures came to my mind, not all the ones I'm going to read, but the connection of all of them, and I was sitting here amazed this morning because every one of them was mentioned in ministry this morning, and I thought, thank the Lord for that, to see the hand of God because the brethren were thinking along the same line that I was thinking of during the night, and it's kind of encouraging when you see that. John chapter 1, verse 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

Let me stop here for a minute. There are two different words, Greek words that are used for the word was in at least the first 14 verses of this chapter, likely down further. I just haven't looked at it much further, but in verse 3, All things were made by him.

That is a different word, were, was, is. That's a different word from the words that are used of the Lord Jesus. Verse 6, There was a man.

That is the same word as you have in verse 3, All things were made by him. In fact, you could translate verse 3, All things became by him, and without him nothing became that had become. And verse 6 could read, There came or became a man sent from God whose name was John.

But all the other words down to verse 14 are the simple verb to be. You say, well, in this chapter, is there a word that is used of the Lord Jesus the same as verse 3 and verse 6 of John the Baptist? Yes, there is. Verse 14, The word became, was made flesh.

And Brother Smith, I think mentioned kind of indirectly this morning in his ministry that John had a purpose in writing 1 John. And one of the purpose was to deal with the error that the word Jesus was not truly a man. See, we have trouble today with the deity of the Lord Jesus, but in John's day, it was a problem with the Lord Jesus, people denying that the Lord Jesus had come in the flesh, that he was truly man.

And verse 14 is the death blow to a denial of the humanity of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus in verse 14 became something he had never been before. The word became flesh.

Up to that point, it's always is and was because it's the eternal present. It's the unending identity and continuance of the Lord Jesus from eternity past right through forever. But that's not my subject.

Notice with me down at verse 7. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of the light, of that light. That was the true light which lighted every man that cometh into the world.

He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not. Just go with me to chapter 3 for one verse, 19. And this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

Now turn with me to chapter 9. If you don't know the story of the blind man that was blind from birth, I'm not going to take time to give that to you. You'll have to read that at your leisure if you ever get that kind of time. But at the end, we have the Lord Jesus speaking to the man and in verse 35, the Lord Jesus says, chapter 9 verse 35, Jesus heard that they had cast him out and when he went, when he had found him, he said unto him, dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, thou hast both seen him and it is he that talketh with thee.

He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. I'm going to stop here for a minute.

John's gospel can be divided many ways. I've read many outlines of John's gospel. The problem is they're all correct.

It's like a tapestry and you pull anywhere and it just all wiggles. It's just amazing the threads that run through it. In fact, a long time ago, brethren spoke about it being a picture of the tabernacle and they would go from the outer court in to the holiest of all, John 17.

And I could never see that, but a while back I was reading in a book and it said that's the wrong way to do it. You work from the holiest of all out. And as soon as they said it, I began to look at it and I said, sure enough, that's the way it works because we beheld his glory.

How did they do that? They had to be in the inner sanctuary to be able to behold his glory. But then the Lord Jesus is seen as the light and the life and the love. And we haven't really looked at that yet, but I'll give it to you.

In the holy place, not the holiest of all, the holiest, what was there? There was the light. There was the bread, the life. And there was the golden altar of incense, the devotion of the Lord Jesus, the love to the Father.

And then you go beyond that, that takes you to chapter 12. When you come to chapter 13, the Lord Jesus is washing the disciples' feet. So now we're stepping outside the tabernacle and we're at the laver.

And then you go from there to the cross. Now we're at the altar. And then chapter 17, you have the priest who is interceding on behalf of others at the altar and the Lord Jesus in the presence of God.

So if you take the tabernacle and move from the inside out through John's gospel, you do have a nice picture of the tabernacle. Although my preference when it comes to John chapter 13 is not so much the laver, although I allow that, but I really believe it is Numbers 19, it is the ashes of the red heifer, but that's another story. But let's go to chapter 10.

The Lord Jesus in verse 9, he says, I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. Let's go to chapter 11. Chapter 11, and down the chapter, let's go down to verse 21.

Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. So in chapter 11, we have death. Chapter 12, notice what happens.

Verse 1, then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.

Verse 10, but the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death because that by reason of him, many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. Now the last verse of chapter 12, Lord Jesus speaks and he says, I know that his commandment, verse 50, is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak therefore as the father said unto me, so I speak.

I'm going to stop here for a moment before we read in chapter 13. The Lord Jesus is seen in John's gospel as the evangelist, chapters 1 to 9. He is seen as the shepherd, chapters 10, 11, and 12, and he is seen as the teacher, chapters 13 to 17. So we have a trilogy of the life of the Lord Jesus.

When you go to chapter 18, the Lord Jesus is in the garden and we have a story there that is not found in the other gospels. Men come with lanterns and torches to find the Lord Jesus. Isn't that amazing? They come with lanterns and torches to find the light of the world.

And what happens? He says, I am he. And they see his glory, the I am, and they did not fall backward. They went backward and fell to the ground.

In the presence of deity, they had to bow. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And so they saw the light of the world.

That links with chapters 1 to 9. When we come to chapter 19, what do we have there? We have the good shepherd giving his life for the sheep. That's chapters 10, 11, and 12. And when we come to chapter 20, the Lord Jesus is seeking to bring the hearts back of his own people and we have the love.

And so we have light and life and love. 1 to 9, 10, 11, and 12, 13 to 17. Now the other threads run through there, so you can't just say, okay, it's all about light in chapters 1 to 9. No, there's that beautiful verse, John 3, 16.

So like I say, the threads are like a tapestry and they, wherever you pull on the love thread, you see it wiggle through the whole book. But nevertheless, the theme of the first part is the Lord Jesus brings light. In 10 to 12, he brings life.

And having loved his own, chapter 13, he loved them unto the end. So you have light, life, and love. You have the same in 18, 19, and 20.

Now let me show you something in chapter 20 for a moment. Chapter 20, right at the end, verse 30. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. Now supposing you had an old copy of John's Gospel at your house, and you had someone who was interested in John's Gospel, and you went and you got it, and chapter 21 was missing. And you gave it to the person anyway, and they had never read John's Gospel, and they maybe weren't saved.

Would they even know that chapter 21 was missing? The way it ends. Notice it again. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. Would you get the impression that that's not the end of the Gospel? No you wouldn't, because it sounds like the end. So what's the purpose of chapter 21? It seems like it starts up over again with some narrative, little biography.

Well, because this is the third. It's a trilogy of trilogies. One to nine, you have light.

And it's evangelism that's in view. Then 10 to 12, you have shepherding, the shepherd, the Lord Jesus as the shepherd. And then you have the Lord Jesus as the teacher, evangelist, pastor, teacher, like you have in Ephesians chapter 4. So what's happening in chapter 21? The Lord Jesus was amongst them before, and as he was amongst them, he was the evangelist, the pastor, and the teacher.

But now he's on the shore, and they're in the boat. And we often think of the sea as a picture of the world. So here's the Lord Jesus on the shore.

Is he fishing now? He was fishing in chapters one to nine. No, he's not. He's directing the fishing, just like he is today.

He's on the other shore, and he's directing the fishing. But then he says to them, come and dine. Now what is he doing? He is feeding them, the shepherd.

And then he begins to teach them a few more things, encourage them to follow. And so in chapter 21, you have fishing, feeding, and following, all three. And so what you have is a diminished kind of a summary of the whole book.

And so chapters 1 to 9, you have fishing. Chapters 10, 11, and 12, you have feeding. Chapter 13 to 17, you have teaching them how to follow.

You have the same over again in 18, 19, and 20. And then you have it again in chapter 21. Isn't that amazing? Let me give you something else that made me...what I was thinking about this morning, Psalm 23.

We believe in the divine inspiration of Scripture, but how it happened, we really don't know. I believe it happened different ways with each man who wrote, as he wrote, guided by the Holy Spirit, but perhaps with thoughts in his mind. And you know what I think? I can't prove it, so it's just a suggestion.

I guess we can make a few of those without being criticized too much, but mostly we're not up here to give suggestions. But here's a suggestion. I believe John likely was reading Psalm 23 when he wrote chapters 10, 11, and 12 of John, and I'll tell you why.

Chapter 10, it's the shepherd leading people beside still waters and green pastures. Chapter 11, there's a family and they're going through the valley of death, and the Lord Jesus is making sure that they fear no evil. At the end of the psalm, thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

Chapter 12, here's Lazarus, and he's sitting at a table, and we read that outside they want to kill him because he's been raised from the dead. I mean, can you imagine if you had a neighbor and you went to their funeral, and next week there was a knock on the door, the doorbell rang, and you opened the door, and they say, hi, I just thought I'd come and have coffee with you. Well, that's what happened.

I don't know if they had coffee, by the way, but you know what I mean. That's what happened. And so here's Lazarus, and it says he sat at the table, and a table was prepared before him in the presence of his enemies.

There was also an anointing with oil. Thou anointest my head with oil. Well, there was anointing in chapter 12, and then I purposely read the last verse of chapter 12, where it says the words are life everlasting, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Isn't that beautiful, that correspondence between Psalm 23 and 10, 11, and 12? Kind of amazing to me, the wonder of the Word of God. Now, chapters 1 to 9, we read in chapter 3 that men love darkness rather than light, but the Lord Jesus is the successful evangelist. And in chapter 9, as the evangelism section closes, there's a man who loves light rather than darkness.

He looks on the face of the Lord Jesus. And so what we have in chapters 1 to 9 is how you and I can go about successful evangelism. Chapters 10, 11, 12, I've already mentioned that.

I won't take time for 13 to 17, but the Lord Jesus, let's just look at chapter 13 for a moment so that you see that there. It's clear that chapters 10, 11, and 12 are the shepherd, but notice what the Lord Jesus says in verse 13 of chapter 13. He says, you call me master, which is the Greek word for teacher, and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.

And then he goes on in the next few chapters, 13 to 16, to teach the disciples. And so chapters 13 to 16 is teaching and 17 is the prayer of the Lord Jesus. So you have the evangelist, the pastor, and the teacher in these over and over again, in this triple triplet in the gospel according to John.

Now, what I had in mind to talk about in detail just for a few minutes, I'm not going to take long, is we get the instruction from watching the Lord Jesus and the disciples how to go about evangelism. Now, the assembly here is about to start a series, so it can apply, it can help them, but all of us should be evangelizing all the time, so I believe it can be a help to all of us. So let's go back for a moment to chapter one.

We're just going to touch briefly on some things that will help us in our evangelization and especially the assembly at this moment, but all of us can use these helps that the Lord gives us in giving us a picture in the Lord Jesus Christ himself and in his disciples. Now, verse six again, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. Now, let's go down the chapter to verse 23.

John says, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord as said the prophet Isaiah, and they which were sent were of the Pharisees. Now, let's go down to verse 29. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, saith, Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

Now, John has disciples and in verse 35, again the next day after, John stood and two of the disciples and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold, the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. Now, the fact that it says that two disciples heard him speak along with other things in the original language have satisfied me that the first time the Lord Jesus said, Behold, the Lamb of God, adding, that taketh away the sin of the world, that was a proclamation for everyone to hear.

But the second time, I believe it was a quiet contemplation. He is now looking at the Lord Jesus and considering him as he walked, and I think he just quietly said something like this. I mean, this is the right reading, but I'm putting it in modern terms.

Hmm, hmm, the Lamb of God. And it's just a quiet contemplation. And in doing that, the disciples leave him and they follow the Lord Jesus.

And that was emphasized this morning. There is no greater witness than our love for the Lord Jesus and living a Christ-like life to begin to attract people to the gospel. Now, that's not enough.

People sometimes ask, well, what's more important, preaching the gospel or living before the world? And my answer is, which wing on a plane is the most important? You need both. But if we're not in love with him, we're not likely to pass on the message. You remember back in Exodus chapter 12, if the household be too little for the lamb, it does not read in Exodus 12, if the household be too big for the lamb, get a second one.

Because the lamb is always greater than the need. And when they had, oh, I can't eat anymore, knock on the neighbor's house and let them share it. And when you and I get filled with the Lord Jesus, it's not hard to get to the neighbors.

That's what we need to do, occupied with him. And John, he's just looking on the Lord Jesus and he says, hmm, the lamb of God. And the disciples leave and they follow the Lord Jesus.

So, there is our first lesson. First of all, enjoy the Lord. And that's the starting point.

Verse 38, then Jesus turned and saw them following and saith unto them, what seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted master, where dwellest thou? We would say today, where do you live? And he said, come and see. Now, let's go down to chapter verse 46. I'm going to back up in a minute.

But Nathanael said unto him, this is to Philip, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said unto him, come and see. What worked for the Lord Jesus will work for you and me. Come and see.

And that's what the Christians here are already doing. They're bringing people here. Good for them.

It's a good work. Keep up your good work. We're trying to do the same with migrant workers back at home.

And two Lord's Days ago, Joyce sent me a picture and there were 25 migrant workers from Jamaica sitting in our gospel meeting. And I tell you, when you get occupied with the lost, you are not overly occupied with the faults of one another. One of the best ways to keep happy in the Lord is get your focus out there where it really belongs.

And so here, Philip just says, come and see. Let's back up a little bit. Verse 39.

He saith unto them, come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. Notice what happens next.

Verse 40. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon and saith unto him, we have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ, and he brought him to Jesus.

And when Jesus beheld him, he said, thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone. So what happens here? They spend time with the Lord Jesus, and then they bring somebody else.

A lot of these stories about Spurgeon and other people, I'm not sure if they're true, but they make good illustrations anyway. And it is claimed that Spurgeon said that there will not be a soul in heaven without a human thumbprint on their soul somewhere. Brothers and sisters, the best way to reach people is one at a time.

That's what works. Now, when I have meetings, we give out lots of invitations. But mostly, it is that personal contact that makes the difference.

It is the one-on-one, and that's what you see here. Notice verse 43. This is directly the work of the Lord Jesus.

The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee and find Philip and saith unto him, follow me. Now, Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Peter findeth Nathanael and saith unto him, we have found him of whom Moses and the Law and the Prophets did write.

Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, and Nathanael said unto him, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said unto him, come and see. What happens? One after another, one at a time. And there are times in, I would say, likely all my brethren's experience when they have seen God work.

One brother was telling me from Cedar Rapids, from Marian Assembly, and likely some of the folk here will know this story, working in the hospital, went by a room and a man is shaking his bed. And this brother went in and he said, what's the problem? He said, I'm going to hell, I'm going to hell, I'm going to hell. And this brother said, I've just got one word for you.

When we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And the shaking stopped. And the brother said to him, what now? He said, I'm on my way to heaven.

He said, how do you know that? He said, the Lord Jesus died for me. There had been a work of God. And someone just put that one last touch, but it was God's work.

And our brethren love it, I love it, when you go for a gospel series and God has done all the work before you get there. It makes it so easy. We trust that that has happened here and will happen.

But God can work and bring souls to us, but we have our work to do as well. Now, I want you to notice something in verse 45. If you were to read this in the original, it would read something like this.

The one of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write, we have found him. And that's the order in the Greek language. And then he says, Jesus, the son of Joseph.

That's next in the order of the Greek text. And the last thing he says is, the one from Nazareth. Why? He was, I'm not sure if he was conscious of that, whether Philip did that consciously, but if he had said, we found Jesus of Nazareth and Moses wrote about him, he'd been gone already.

So the last thing he says is, the one from Nazareth. And by that time, his curiosity is piqued. We don't have to preach everything in the first shot.

A brother told me that he did this himself. He was driving down the highway and he picked up a hitchhiker. I don't pick up hitchhikers, only because I am scared that I may pick up the wrong one.

But he picked up a hitchhiker and they're sitting in the car driving along and the brother looked at him and he said, are you ready to die? Well, can you imagine? The man at 60 miles an hour was ready to go out the door, even though he would hurt on the pavement. There has to be caution and wisdom in the way we approach people. And certainly, Philip, consciously or not, I can't say, he leaves the possibility that he will not accept it right to the last.

And so we need to pray for wisdom when we deal with souls to see if we can say things in a way that will just reach them with the gospel. Now, we'll have to leave it there, but go with me to chapter 3 or chapter 2 at the end. Verse 23.

Now, when he, the Lord Jesus, was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men and needed not that any should testify of man for he knew what was in man. Now, in the original, there is a but before chapter 3 and verse 1, but there was a man.

It's not a particularly strong particle. There are two buts in Greek, and this one's kind of a weak one, but it's still there. And it does seem to give a little contrast.

What is the contrast? There are times like Acts chapter 2 when God will do a marvelous revival work, but much of the time, it's the ones and the twos. And the Lord Jesus, here's the multitude, and they're ready to receive him. Really? Well, he's not convinced, but there was a man.

His name was Nicodemus. We'll leave that for a moment. Let's go to chapter 4. The Lord Jesus, in verse 3, he left Judea and departed again into Galilee.

He must needs go through Samaria. Then he cometh to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now, Jacob's well was there.

Jesus, therefore, being weary with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. Now, this is about the woman at the well. I think, again, taking it, most of us know this story.

Let's go down to verse 15. The woman is promised everlasting life, water springing up. And in verse 15, the woman said unto her, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

Jesus said unto her, Go call thy husband and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thine husband, in that saidst thou truly.

Now, here's a woman, and she's at one end of the spectrum. In chapter three, you have a man, and he's of the highest order. Here is a woman likely of the lowest order.

Some have said, well, you know, she could have had been married and the husbands died, five of them, and this is just number six. I said, well, true enough, but any woman who can wear out five husbands and is on number six is not your average lady. So no matter what way you look at it, she must have been a bit of a rough character or something.

Isn't it interesting, by the way, she's not happy until she gets to man number seven. Isn't that beautiful? Number seven is the one that makes the difference. So let's assume that she's a pretty rough character.

So you have Nicodemus, and it reads, art thou the teacher in Israel, likely the top theologian. And you know, when that happens, if we saw someone, a bishop or somebody way up in an archbishop in a church, say, wow, what influence. Well, who had the most influence? The woman in chapter four.

And here's what it teaches me. When we reach out in the gospel, consider the possibility of any person, because you don't know. You may knock on the door and somebody may come to the door and you say, oh, no, should have gone to the next door.

I wish they weren't home. Don't look at it that way. One preacher told me, this is many years ago, not one of these brethren, by the way.

So you don't need to wonder if it's one of them. He said to me, you can't make a silk purse out of a pig's ear. And I said, God can.

God can. And I don't know if you call this lady a pig's ear. I expect to meet her in heaven, so I better be careful what I say about her.

But at the same time, she says, come, see a man that told me all things. And by the way, the word man there is mankind. It wasn't men in the male sense.

It was, she said to the people of the city, come and see. She starts a revival. So in this gospel series that you're about to begin, when these raucous young people come today, see beyond that and think of the worst one who will really try your Christian patience and think, God may be able to use them.

You know, a rocket out of control is not a good thing, but if you can get your hand on the steering wheel, it sure will take you a lot further than a bicycle. And so you never know. Some of these young people may be like a rocket and you can't grab them, but if God saves them, he can put reins on them and he can make them into something.

So all I'm saying, and I want to stop here, is as you start your series, think of the potential, whether it's the highest chapter three or what seems to be the lowest chapter four, whatever it is, see potential everywhere. Expect to make eye-to-eye contact with people and look for opportunities. Maybe a coffee shop, go in there and sit for a while and do nothing.

Don't get stuck in your face in that so that people get the idea, I don't want to talk to anybody today. I saw two girls in Sam's Club standing like that side by side and I said to one of them, while they were waiting for their pizza, I said, do you know this girl? Of course I knew they did. She said, yeah.

I said, are you friends? She said, yeah. Well, I said, talk to her. Instead, they're both like that.

Pretty soon we'll find that our tongues will atrophy and we won't be able to talk because we don't talk, we'll just need more fingers. So, but be where the people are. One other thing, Jesus being wearied with his journey.

One night, I'm taking longer than I expected, one night I was in the gospel series in a tent in our home area. I went out because we'd put lights on in the window and I wanted to see if they were shining properly and I went outside. It was dark.

I could hear voices. Pretty soon our neighbor, Ted, comes by and he said, Reverend Beatty, as he calls me, he said, Steve wants you to talk to him. Steve was a rough neighbor behind us.

He said, Steve wants you to talk to him. He wants to know more about salvation. It'll only take a minute.

And I was exhausted. And I said, Ted, it takes more than a minute. And I'm thinking, let me talk to him tomorrow.

But Ted started preaching to him, said he was saved and he started talking to him. He said, explain to him about salvation. Before I could open my mouth, Ted's explaining the whole thing.

And Steve says, I get it. Yeah, I get it. And I was going to miss an opportunity.

You know what happened? That man died within a few months. And if it hadn't been that night, it likely would have been never. So even when you're tired, in season, out of season, get to work and God will bless your labors.

The Lord Jesus was the evangelist and he wants us to be evangelists too.