Jesus, the Deliverer of God’s People

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Transcript:

John chapter 1, we’re going to look at this again and talk about Jesus, the deliverer of God’s people. I want to ask you a question starting out. Do you remember who your childhood heroes were?

Anybody? Brother Jack. Roy Rogers.

Okay. Why was Roy Rogers your hero? He was the good guy.

Okay. Better than having your hero the bad guy, right? Anybody else?

Brother Ward. Lone Ranger. Okay.

Same thing because he was a good guy? All right. Anybody else?

Who? Tarzan. Tarzan, okay.

Brother Phil wanted to be Tarzan when he grew up. Well, I did. Why was Tarzan your hero?

Well, I think that was something good that he had to go away. And I like to bring him through these things. That’s pretty cool, too.

Anybody else? My grandmother. Your grandmother?

I didn’t keep my hero because I didn’t worry about anything. I knew my grandmother was taking her. Okay, one of the good guys, too.

Sandy, Superman. Why was Superman your hero? All right.

And also one of the good guys. Anybody else? Have childhood heroes?

That’s okay. If you don’t want to raise your hand and tell us, that’s fine. I guess I’m more boring than you all.

I’ve always been kind of a history nerd. Some of you all know that. And some of my heroes were some of the people we were taught about in school.

And some of it was because they were the good guys. Or at least we were taught in school. I know things are a little more complicated in real world history than just saying these were the good guys.

But for the most part, my heroes were some of the people that we were taught about in history class. I think of the Minutemen at Lexington and Concord. You know, the British are coming.

We were talking about that. Somebody mentioned to me, I think it may have been Brother James, mentioned to me Wednesday night when we were talking about Nehemiah and putting the people on the wall. Was that you that said it sounded like the Minutemen?

That wasn’t you? Okay. That was you.

That was Brother Phil. Okay. I’m giving Brother James credit for what you said.

But I admired the Minutemen. They were ready at a minute’s notice to defend their country. And when he reminded me of that, I thought, I wish I could find a clip or had some way to play it for you of Andy Griffith telling the story of the Bayberry Minutemen.

Some of you all may remember that. I thought of George Washington and the story especially, and we’ve probably all seen the famous painting of him crossing the Delaware. And what we don’t know is that he was crossing the Delaware River in the dead of night in a last-ditch effort, putting everything on the line, risking everything to try to sneak around and get behind the British who were encamped at Trenton and try to turn the tide of the war because things weren’t going well.

And if it hadn’t worked out crossing the Delaware like that, the war could have very easily been lost. They taught us about Abraham Lincoln and freeing the slaves. And again, I know there were more things going on behind that, and it wasn’t just him, but we were taught he freed the slaves. And they’d go deeper into history, and they’d tell us about people like Joan of Arc.

And, well, come to hear the rest of the story now, I’m not sure she was a good hero hearing those voices. I don’t think that was of God. But she was hearing those voices from those saints telling her, dress up like a man and go save France from the British.

In one instance, I miss Ralph being here tonight, but in the other instance, with all these heroes being people who fought against the British, I’m glad Ralph’s not here. I might have some explaining to do. But they would talk about these people.

And for me, as we studied history, the people that stood out in my mind, the ones who were the larger-than-life figures, were the ones who set their people free. I mean, that was well before I was down the line to being Mr. Libertarian and leave me alone.

Even then, the idea of helping people be free, something about that resonated with me. And so those people that we could look at in history and say, these were people who helped their people be free, those were my heroes. Those were the people I looked up to.

And for some inexplicable reason, Teddy Roosevelt too. I think it was something about putting on the hat and charging up the hill. I don’t know that he freed anybody, but he looked good with what he was doing.

But most of my heroes were the freedom fighters and the liberators and the deliverers. And as we’ve read through this passage a few times now, and we’re going to read through it again tonight, what we see is that Jesus was the deliverer of his people. He was the liberator of his people, not in the sense of a George Washington or of a Joan of Arc or of any of these characters from history, an ordinary person could.

I mean, it takes extraordinary courage to do the things that they did. But an ordinary person could, with the right tools and the right backing, go and launch a political revolution and set their people free. I mean, anybody could conceivably do that.

But not anybody could do the things that Jesus Christ did. And as I look at these people who were my heroes growing up, I think as much as they were larger than life figures and as much as I wanted to follow their example and be like those people, how much greater is Jesus Christ than those liberators? How much greater an example is He to follow?

Ladies and gentlemen, if we. . .

Excuse me. I hate it when the mind moves faster than the mouth. That’s my excuse at least. If we look in admiration to these good guys, these guys who helped the people out when they were in trouble, the guys who set their people free.

And yes, I might include Superman in some of those in those categories because if you were being, I don’t know if this happened with any of them, but if you’re being tied to the railroad tracks, somebody coming to set you free would be a good thing. You might want Superman to come along. But if we’re willing to admire these regular people and comic book superheroes who came to set people free temporarily, how much more should we admire and be amazed by the one who came to do what only he could do, which was to set his people free from their sins.

See, only one person could deal with the problem of sin. Anybody can deal with the problem of injustice or oppression or crime, but only one person could deal with the problem of sin. And tonight we talk about, folks, the ultimate hero.

We talk about Jesus, the deliverer of his people. We talked this morning about him being the message of the prophets. Well, the message of the prophets wasn’t, again, just that he would come when God had promised all of this time that he would send Messiah to his people.

It wasn’t just, I’m going to send somebody to rule over you. It was that he would send somebody who would save his people from their sins. Throughout the entire Old Testament, as I told you this morning, the entire Old Testament points forward to Jesus Christ. The entire Bible points to Jesus Christ, but the entire Bible also has running through it a single theme that you can find played out in every single book and that theme is redemption.

And people claim the Bible is just a human book, just a human invention. You know, we could talk about contradictions that are or are not there. I don’t believe there are any.

But even without getting into the technicalities and the specifics of what people allege to be contradictions, it’s incredible to me to take these 66 books written over a period of about 2,000 to 3,000 years in three different languages on three by 40 different authors, all sorts of types of literature, all sorts of genres dealing with all sorts of subject matter, and yet there’ll be a single, consistent, harmonious theme running throughout it, and that being God’s redemption of lost and sinful man. And so this message of the prophets wasn’t just that Jesus would come, but what He was coming to be, and that was the deliverer of His people. John chapter 1 verse 1 says, 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. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 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 that light. That was the true light, which lighteth 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.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

And John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. And of His fullness have we all received, and grace for grace.

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared Him. And again, if you wonder why I read the whole, not the whole chapter, but the whole passage each time, even though we’re only going through a couple of verses, it’s because I want it to be a habit for us not to ever just take one or two verses out of context and make the twist them and torture them until they say what we want them to say.

But to look at the verses around it, look at the context and see what is it that God is really saying here as a whole. And then dive into it and take the details and see what He has to share with us. Tonight we’re going to look at verses 9 through 13 just briefly in the time that we have left tonight.

We have a very brief amount of time left tonight. That’s all right. We’ve talked already about Jesus being the deliverer of His people, of God’s people.

Starting in Verse 9, it tells us, He was the true light, and He lights every man that cometh into the world. Okay, that certainly does not mean, as some might take it, it does not mean that every person is going to be saved. That’s unfortunate.

I mean, I don’t say that gladly, that, hey, some are in and some are out. That’s just the way it is. If we could say that, that, hey, not everybody’s going to be saved, and we’re okay with that, then what are we doing calling ourselves missionary Baptists?

But the fact is, God has presented man with his offer of salvation. And insofar as we are capable of understanding, I believe it’s God’s prerogative to offer salvation. And insofar as we understand it, I believe it’s man’s prerogative to accept or reject that offer.

And as much as it says in the Bible that God is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is merciful and not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, The Bible is equally clear that not every man will take him up on that. And so it must mean something else when it says he’s the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. To say every man that cometh into the world apparently is just a phrase that they used in that time they would have understood to mean everybody.

Common phrase at that time, like I would say everybody and their dog. Some of you all have heard me say that. Well, everybody and their dog was at Walmart today.

As far as I know, there weren’t dogs at Walmart. It’s just a phrase. And so for them to.

. . I dug and dug and dug into that one, trying to figure out what.

. . Okay, there’s got to be something deeper that it means saying, every man that cometh into the world.

It just means everybody. And He’s the light which lights every man that comes into the world. And did some more digging around in the New Testament where it talks about Him being the revelation of God.

But see, we’re able to know that there is a God by looking around at creation. God’s revealed Himself somewhat through creation, that He exists. We can see that in Romans chapter 1.

We also have a conscience where God has engraved His moral law on our hearts. And so even men who have never heard of the God of the Bible, even men who have never heard of Jesus Christ, know it’s wrong to steal and to murder and to commit adultery and all these things. And yet God is most fully revealed in Jesus Christ. And so the only way that there is light for men to know who God is or know the way to Him is through Jesus Christ. And so what this verse is saying is that Jesus Christ is the true light, the full revelation of God to all those who are on earth.

Now, unfortunately, still not everybody is willing to receive that light, as even this passage claims. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. We talked about that last week, that He was in the world. He came.

He was born among us. The world was made by Him. Jesus didn’t just show up at the manger.

Jesus is co-eternal with the Father. And when creation was going on, He was right there, involved in it. The Bible says in numerous places that all things were created by him.

It says, and the world knew him not. Even in his time, many of the people rejected him. And if they had completely understood who he was, they might not have crucified him, which was God’s plan all along for him to come to die for our sins.

Verse 11 says, he came unto his own and his own received him not. The first thing that we need to know about Jesus as the deliverer of God’s people is that he came to fulfill God’s promises of deliverance to the Jews. First and foremost, he was sent as a fulfillment of God’s promises.

All throughout history, God had been promising to the Jews, his chosen people, that he would deliver them, that he would set them free. And you know what? From time to time, he would raise up men like Moses.

He would raise up men like Gideon. He would raise up other people who would drive out the oppressors or who would lead the people into freedom. and inevitably they would sink back into bondage, spiritually, politically, economically.

Otherwise, they would slip into bondage. Each of these men were deliverers, but they were imperfect deliverers. And the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to deliver His people, to redeem His people, came in Jesus Christ, who was able to once and for all deal with the problem of sin.

I’d encourage you sometime when you’ve got a lot of time on your hands to go and read through the book of Hebrews and then read through the book of Hebrews again And read through it again. It’s a hard book. That’s why I say read through it again.

I still haven’t read through it enough times to completely understand everything that’s in there. But the whole book deals with the fact of Jesus being not only the high priest but also the perfect sacrifice. That what the system of sacrifices did, that what all of these types and shadows, these pictures throughout Jewish history had been unable to accomplish in full, Jesus accomplished in full.

See, the greatest problem that the Jewish nation had throughout their history was not the Philistines, it was not the Egyptians, it was not the Babylonians, it was sin. And Jesus Christ came to fulfill God’s promise of deliverance to the Jewish people by dealing once and for all with the problem of sin. So when it says He came into His own, it means He was born and walked among the Jewish people that God had ordained Him to be a part of.

But we can’t just leave it there and say that salvation is only for the Jews, that Jesus is the Savior of only the Jews. That would be unfortunate. That would be bad news for most of us.

As far as I know, I don’t have any Jewish ancestry. Most of you all probably don’t either, just by statistics. So that would completely leave us out.

But it says, he came unto his own and his own received him not. But the Bible is clear there were some who received him. As many as received him.

His own received him not, verse 11. But as many as received him, as many as did receive him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. And so not only did Jesus come to fulfill God’s promises of deliverance to the Jews, Jesus came to bring salvation to all who would receive it.

And folks, that offer is as good tonight as it was 2,000 years ago when it was first offered. As many as receive it, he said. Does that mean it’s man’s idea?

Absolutely not. God set all this in motion. That’s what it’s talking about here when it says, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And I’m getting ahead of myself here a little bit. But it’s not as though man said, hey, how can we get back to God? As I pointed out last week, when it talks about Him bringing us life, when it talks about Him bringing us light, the things that we were lacking, our complete spiritual blindness, our complete spiritual helplessness, we weren’t interested in finding a way back to God.

We weren’t interested in reconciliation with God. And yet God, out of His goodness, said, I’m going to offer salvation to mankind. See, for Jesus to die and reconcile us to God was not our will.

It was not our idea. All of this came about simply because of the goodness of God and saying, I’m going to offer them what they don’t deserve in the first place. And now because of that, salvation is available to all who will receive it.

To as many as received Him, gave He the power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. Not by works, not by human effort, simply by trusting Him. When it says believe on His name, it doesn’t just mean that we believe Jesus existed, that we believe God is real, but to believe that Jesus Christ really was the unique Son of God who came and died on the cross as the only acceptable and fully acceptable sufficient payment for our sins.

That there was nothing else that could accomplish that. In whole or in part, it was all completely Him, and He paid for all of it. To believe on His name, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.

So Jesus came to fulfill God’s promises of deliverance to the Jews. Jesus came to bring salvation to all who would receive it. And Jesus came to make God’s enemies into His sons.

When I came across the passage, and we’re almost finished, when I came across the passage a couple years ago that talks about, I believe it’s in Romans chapter 5, that we’ve been made at peace now with God through Jesus Christ. It hit me for the first time that we were, by default, the enemies of God. I was already saved at that point, but that was a sobering thought because being raised as a small child in church, I thought, hey, I’m pretty good. As a matter of fact, I grew up in kind of a legalistic church, and I thought I was a little bit better than everybody.

thought I was pretty good. And to realize that all that time, I was an enemy of God. Not because God hated me, but as the Bible says in the book of James, I believe it’s in the book of James, that friendship with the world is enmity with God.

That to make ourselves friends of the world, this sinful, wicked system we live in, to be friends with that, to love sin more than to love God, makes us His enemies. We’re not God’s enemies because He’s mean and vindictive. We’re His enemies because we fired on Him first. He was our king and we revolted.

We declared war on him. And yet Romans chapter 5 tells us that because of Christ we have peace with God. That’s incredible.

That God is the one. God was the, for lack of a better word, the injured party. God was not the one who started the war.

And yet he was willing to make provision for the peace. God was willing to give up everything for the peace. God was willing to give his own son.

And because Jesus Christ came now, he says, keeping in mind that we were enemies of God. Jesus Christ came and now as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. And I’ve told you before, I think when we’ve talked about the prodigal son, it would be amazing enough if God were to forgive us for our sins because of Christ. It would be amazing enough if he forgave us and said, okay, you’re going to be like the hired help in heaven.

If you’ll remember the story of the prodigal son when he went back to his father, he wasn’t asking, can I be your son again? He said, can I work for you? Your servants live better than I’ve been living.

And so if God had forgiven us and made us like the hired help, that would have been incredible enough. That would have been merciful enough. And yet God is abundant in the mercy that He has.

That He’s willing to take us. We’ve been His enemies. We have sinned against Him.

As mankind, we’ve sinned against Him in every conceivable way, spit in His eye on every occasion we’ve had opportunity to do so. And yet because of what Jesus Christ did, He’s willing to embrace us not just as friends, not just as acquaintances, but as His sons. Ladies, I’ll take it a step further and say you can be His daughters as well.

That’s not just an offer for men, but we’re His. We’re not just at peace with Him, we are His. And when you really let it sink in, I hope that you’ll think about this through the week.

I don’t have time to go into any more detail with it tonight. I hope you’ll think about it through the week, but let it sink in. What it means is that before we trusted Christ, we were enemies of God.

By our own desires, by our own actions, we had made ourselves enemies of God. And yet God made the provision for our peace. God gave His Son, and now because of that, He welcomes us as His children.

Folks, what an incredible thing that was accomplished by that baby from the manger, that He would grow up to die for us, that He would grow up to deliver His people from their sins.