Courage for Life Study of John - Chapter 1

[Music] welcome to the study of John I'm an white and we're gonna be talking about chapter one in the Gospel of John today the appearance of the Son of God in human history is that's the primary theme of what we're going to be looking at but our author John and I witness to the life death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ wants us to know who Christ is so he starts our chapter out by telling us all about Christ's character so those first fourteen verses we're going to look at who Jesus is the second section in this particular chapter is going to talk to us about John the Baptist and how he responded to Christ and that's going to cover verses 15 through 39 and then as we get into verses 43 51 there's last eleven verses we're gonna see how the first disciples responded to Jesus and so the main theme and what I want our takeaway from today to be is to say do we really know who Jesus is so let's start with those first verses verses 1 through 14 and John tells us in the very first verse he says in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God so we know Jesus was with God we know Jesus is the word and then he also tells us in verse 2 he Jesus was with God in the beginning and that all things came into being all of creation came into being through him and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being now we talked about in our introduction to the book of John we talked about how the entire Bible is the entire theme as primarily God's reconciliation with mankind and so through the book of John it's probably the greatest book on the character and life of Jesus Christ that you or I could read that would strengthen our belief an understanding of who he is and get to know him on a more personal basis so God desired from Genesis to Revelation to reconcile with you and I and Jesus Christ through him he provided that opportunity to reconcile so in those first verses those first 14 verses that were talking about we find out that he was with God in the beginning that through him all things were made that in him was life in verse 4 and that Jesus came from the father became flesh and was full of grace and truth and made his dwelling place among us we see that in verse 14 now the verses 4 through 8 talk about Jesus as the light of the world and you know I really want to stop a little bit for a minute there and just talk about that light because I don't know what situation you might be in but I know on days that I'm struggling when I go to God's Word it oftentimes is like a light it's like a light bulb going off because I'll go in and I'll be struggling in a particular area confused about a particular choice or decision that I need to make and then I just get before God and when I open this word it speaks to my heart and often it's like literally a light bulb going off and there's that aha moment and I go ok god I know what I need to do and my heart settles my anxiety settles and I move forward so in verse 4 John tells us that Jesus is the light of all mankind he tells us in verse 5 that that light shines in the darkness I know when I travel to other countries and even here in the United States there's a lot of darkness there's times that you and I are going to find ourself in dark places but when we carry Christ light with us that light shines and sometimes in those darkest places and I know in places that I've been in in India and in Argentina and in other places and like I said even here in the United States when I find myself in a dark place it seems like the light shines even brighter John came as a witness to that light in verse 8 and that white gives light to everyone we learn throughout the rest of the book of John that Jesus is the Lamb of God he is the Son of God he is the Messiah he is the king of Israel and he is the son of man and we'll talk about that as we go through each of these chapters but what I want you and I to get out of this study is to really get to know Jesus to get to know his character we're gonna see him interact with so many different people with John the Baptist with his disciples with the Samaritan woman at the well and all throughout these different accounts what we're gonna see is a very compassionate loving light of the world that is our Savior and that desires to have a personal relationship with us now let's look at verses 19 through 39 where we're gonna talk about John the Baptist comes on the scene John the Baptist preceded Christ and he tells the disciples that he's baptizing in the Jordan River he is the one who is the voice calling out in the wilderness making the way for the Lord so John the Baptist knows exactly what his position is and he is preparing disciples for Jesus before Jesus even arrives on the scene so as we look in verse 23 of chapter 1 we see prophecy fulfilled now love the prophets I love to teach through the prophets if we go back to Isaiah and we go back to verse chapter 40 verse three we see that Isaiah prophesied that there would be a voice that is calling clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness that voice is John the Baptist so as John the Baptist and verse in chapter 1 verse 23 fulfills that prophecy by crying out and preparing the way for Jesus in verse 126 he is the one who stands among Jewish leaders priests and Levites yet they don't know him that happens to with us Jesus can be standing right here in front of us the Word of God can bring his character to life right in front of us but sometimes we still don't know him John the Baptist tells us in verse 27 that he's the one who comes after John and in verse 27 he also tells us that he is the one whose straps of his sandals John the Baptist is not worthy to untie and then the very next day as we go into verse 29 we're gonna see John encounters Christ where he's baptizing on the Jordan and I want to take you just like as we go through the Bible every time we go and we're asking questions of the text I want us to sit here and see this scene John the Baptist is baptizing and Jesus comes forward and immediately John cries out and says the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world he recognized Jesus right away he proclaims that the very reason that he is baptizing believers is in preparation that Jesus might be revealed in verse 31 and he testifies that through a vision he saw the Spirit coming down from heaven as a dove and remaining on God's chosen one which is exactly what happened let me tell you a little bit about the backstory between Jesus and John the Baptist because I think it's really fascinating if you go in and you read the book of Luke it's about a hundred verses but it's well worth finding this out and it starts in chapter one and goes all the way through chapter 2 verse 20 we find out that Mary the mother of Jesus and Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist our relatives and that when Mary is pregnant with the Messiah Jesus the Son of God she comes to visit Elizabeth and her six month of pregnancy and the minute that the baby in her stomach in Elizabeth's stomach hears the voice of Mary the baby leaps so John the Baptist is born Jesus is born they meet and John the Baptist baptized as him so there's a special relationship right there already the rest of the chapter one of Luke covers Elizabeth's birth John the babs's birth and you you'll learn a little bit more by comparing those Gospels but let's go back now so we've talked about the relationship with John the Baptist's in Jesus so the beginning of this chapter we looked at who Christ is and what his character is now we've read our next section of this chapter which are verses about John the Baptist and how he responded to Christ with humility and knowing his position and preparing the way for him now let's take a look at those first four disciples because in the final verses of the book of John we're gonna see Jesus recruiting his first four disciples so the first disciple is Andrew he was actually Andrew and another follower were one of the disciples of John the Baptist so is John the Baptist is baptizing and he sees Jesus come forward and John the Baptist testifies to who Jesus is Andrew decides to leave along with one other and follows Jesus then he goes and tells his brother who is Simon Peter and Simon Peter decides to follow the Messiah so now we have a couple of disciples that have followed they immediately see Jesus they know who he is they believe they receive and they follow then Philip encounters Jesus the very next day and Philip on Jesus's way to Galilee he finds him discovers who Christ is and follows him immediately okay so now we're gonna talk about these last six verses in this first chapter of the book of John where we're gonna see Jesus encountering Nathaniel Philip goes and tells Nathaniel we found the one that Moses talked about in the law we found the Messiah come and see so Nathaniel makes his way over to see and Jesus tells him right away I saw you before Philip came to you I saw you under the fig tree Nathanael questions and recognizes and then proclaims that Jesus is the Son of God the king of Israel but Jesus replies to him you will see greater miracles than these and what Jesus Jesus is telling him is that you're gonna see heaven open up and the Angels ascending on the Son of God you're gonna see great miracles and that's something that you and I are gonna study throughout these next chapters as we see Jesus performing miracles so let's summarize okay in Chapter 1 we learned about Jesus is the light he's the son of God he is the Messiah king of Israel and He is God in the flesh we saw the character of God in these first verses of chapter 1 of John we see that Jesus is deity he's worthy of honor and praise and he's worthy to be followed John the Baptist humbly testifies to who he is and the first disciples recognizes deity and follow him so what is our primary timeless life lesson that we need to get out of this study today it is that Jesus is worthy of honor and praise and he's worthy to be followed so the question is how are we gonna apply this lesson to our life we need to be asking ourselves do we recognize Jesus for who he is do we give him the honor and the praise that he so deserves and do we accept and believe and how are we following how are we responding to him are we dropping everything like his disciples are we acting in humility like John the Baptist so ask yourself that question today how am i responding to Christ and challenge yourself and join us for Chapter two thanks for being with me today god bless you you [Music]

Channel: Ann White - Courage For Life

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Keywords: light of the world, following Jesus, bible studies, bible study, book of John, bible studies for women, Jesus is the light, the lamb of God, Jesus Messiah, Jesus is king, follow Jesus, bible studies for beginners, bible studies for life, how to study the bible, Ann White, Courage for Life, women’s audio bible, free bible app, free download, st john, who is john in the bible, help for life, bible video, video lessons

Id: JBEzjVDfsSI

Length: 13min 11sec (791 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 30 2019