Your Invitation, Part 2

Take your Bible, if you would, please, and open up to the Gospel of John, the first chapter. The Gospel of John is all about beholding your God. John wants you to understand the awesomeness of God.

He wants you to understand the beauty of God. He wants you to understand all there is to know about God. Now, I want to remind you, and I think this is very, very important, that each Gospel expands on one phrase of the Old Testament.

To emphasize that Gospel, for instance, Matthew's Gospel takes a phrase from Zechariah 9, verse number 9, which says, Behold your King. Remember when Christ came into Jerusalem on the backside of a donkey? That's what Zechariah 9:9 is. It's all about a fulfillment of the coming King.

And Matthew's whole Gospel is about honoring the King and his kingdom. He's all about the royalty and the majesty of Christ. So he takes that phrase from Zechariah 9:9, Behold your King, and expands on it all throughout his Gospel about the King of glory.

Then you come to Mark's Gospel, and Mark takes a phrase from Isaiah 42, verse number 1, which says, Behold my servant. Had a brain freeze just for a moment. Behold my servant.

And everything in Mark's Gospel is about the humility and the service of the Christ. Because a servant was going to come, and he was going to serve the people of God. And so Mark would take that phrase because he wants you to behold the servant.

Zechariah says, I want you to behold the King. So Mark expands on it. Mark expands on it.

Then you come to Luke, and Luke takes his phrase from Zechariah 6, verse number 12, which says, behold a man whose name is Branch, which is another name for the Messiah. Because the Messiah is a man. The Messiah is a king. The Messiah is a servant.

And so Luke takes that phrase, Zechariah 9:9, Behold a man, and expands on it and talks to us about the humanity of deity all throughout his Gospel. And then you come to John's Gospel, and John, he takes his phrase simply from Isaiah 35, verse number 4, which says, Behold your God.

In fact, let me read to you what it says. It says in verse number 2, They will see the glory of the Lord. It's all about Israel and their restoration.

It's all about Israel and coming to grips with their King. And he says, they will see the glory of the Lord. Remember it says in John 1:14, And we beheld His glory.

The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So Isaiah the prophet says, they will see the glory of the Lord. And then he says, The majesty of our God.

And then listen to the next phrase, Encourage the exhausted. It's just so good. You're going to see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of God.

So Isaiah says, I want you to encourage the exhausted. I wonder today if you're exhausted. God is the only one who can encourage you.

And then listen to what he says, Strengthen the feeble. Knowing that the Lord your God is coming and you'll behold His glory and His majesty. This is what's going to encourage those who are exhausted.

This is the one who's going to strengthen those who are feeble. And then he says in verse four, Say to those with anxious hearts. You have an anxious heart this morning.

You have a heart filled with worry. You have a heart filled with uncertainty. He says, say to those who are anxious, Take courage. Fear not.

The reason we're anxious, the reason we worry is because there's some fear of the unknown. No control of that which we cannot see.

We become anxious. We become fearful. And he says, tell those who are anxious to take courage and do not fear.

Here comes your phrase. Behold your God. Stand amazed at your God, for He will come with vengeance. The recompense of God will come, but He will save you. That was Israel's hope. So John takes that phrase, Behold your God.

Like Matthew would take the phrase, Behold your King. Like Mark would take the phrase, Behold my servant. Like Luke would take the phrase, Behold a man. Stand amazed at this man, this servant. He says, Behold your God. Because He wants you to be absolutely astonished at who your God is.

And so once he does that, he begins his gospel. He begins his gospel with the identity of Christ. And then he talks about the testimony to Christ.

And then he gives your responsibility to the Christ. That's the first 13 verses. We began 17 weeks ago in verse number 1 with the identity of the Christ.

We said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him.

And apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

He says, let me give you the identity of the Christ. So he speaks about His eternality. He speaks about His personality.

He speaks about His deity, His creativity, His vitality, and His invincibility. We covered all that weeks ago. If you weren't here, you can download it.

You can listen to it on our podcast, our website. But it's important to understand the identity of Christ. That's how John begins.

Behold your God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I want to tell you to behold your God, everything about Him.

He begins with His eternality. He's always existed. He's always been.

And he moves from the identity of the Christ to the testimony about the Christ. And that's all about John the Baptist. He says, there came a man sent from God whose name was John.

We spent five weeks on the phrase, there came a man. Who was this man? John the Baptist. There came a man sent from God whose name was John.

He came as a witness to testify about the light, said all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. This was a testimony about the Messiah.

John knew the identity of the Christ. And so he became the quintessential testimony, the forerunner to the Messiah. He says, I was a testimony so that all might believe in the light.

And that was John's emphasis from the beginning. As he concludes in John chapter 20: therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, verse 31, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

The whole purpose of the book is that you might believe. That's why 92 different times the word believe is used in the gospel. Behold your God. Believe in your God. Stand amazed at your God. So it begins with the identity of God.

And then he gives us the man who gave the greatest testimony about God.

And now he comes to verse number 9 and says, OK now this is your responsibility to the Christ. This is your invitation. The opportunity for you to come to the one whom I described to you.

The one who has been testified by John the Baptist. Now is your opportunity to come. Now is your opportunity to believe.

Now is your opportunity to embrace this Messiah, this Christ, this word that became flesh. And this is what he says in verse nine to 13. There was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man.

He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. He came to his own and those who were his own did not receive him. But as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God. Even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor the will of man but of God.

This is your invitation. And John will give us many invitations all throughout his gospel because he wants you to believe in the God you have just beheld.

And that's why that's why we open our Bibles and we read our Bibles because 2 Corinthians 3:18 says that we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. In other words the Bible is like a mirror that reflects to us the glory of the Lord. And so when you open your Bible and you begin to read behold your God, behold the glory of your God and therefore with unveiled face we are changed from one level of glory to the next level of glory even by the Spirit of God.

How do you grow in Christ? By beholding the glory of Christ. You can't do it without your Bible because the Bible reflects the glory of the Lord. And when you open it up you see nothing but his glory, nothing but his majesty, nothing but his sovereignty, nothing but his holiness.

Because the Bible is all about our great Redeemer, Jesus Christ our Lord. So John says this is your invitation. So it begins with a revelation.

We talked about this last time we were in John. He begins with a revelation by saying in verse number 9 these words, there was the true light which coming into the world and enlightens every man. That's the revelation of God.

The true light, 28 times in the New Testament, 23 times in John's Gospel. Because John wants you to know what is true. And so he emphasizes the truth of God.

This was the true light which enlightens every man. We know that Malachi 4, verse number 2 talks about the Messiah being the son, S-U-N, of righteousness. Who will rise with healing in his wings with the salvation of God and the protection of God.

But he is called the son of righteousness. And Zacharias would say in Luke's these words in his song in verse 78, he says the sunrise from on high will visit us to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Malachi references, I mean Zacharias references Malachi in his song to let you know that the sunrise from on high, the son of righteousness has come and he is going to enlighten every man and guide us in the way of path, in the path of righteousness because man is in darkness.

The world is in darkness. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse number 4 or verse number 3, and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Satan blinds the unbelieving mind that he cannot see the glory of the Lord.

Over in Ephesians chapter 4, Paul says in verse 17, so this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind being darkened in their understanding excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart and they having become callous have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. That's the world. They're engulfed in darkness but yet the Bible says the revelation of God was seen.

The true light enlightens every man and we told you last time we were together how does he do that? He does it in two ways through creation, Romans chapter 1 and through conscience Romans chapter 2. The man, because he is blinded by Satan and bound by his sin, he does not see the glory of the Lord. John would say it this way in John chapter 3, verse number 19. This is the judgment that light is coming to the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil for everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

It's amazing. You see every man is enlightened through creation and through his conscience because eternity has been set in the heart of a man.

Over the years I've had many opportunity to talk to people who claim to be atheists and agnostics and they would begin by saying well you don't need to talk to me about God.

I don't believe God exists. I said yes, you do. You most certainly do believe God exists.

I know that because eternity is in your heart. So you know there's life after death. The question is what is that life all about.

I also know that you believe in God. Romans 1 tells me that you suppress the truth. You push that truth away.

You push it down in unrighteousness. You engulf your life with sin whether it's some kind of sexual sin, some kind of alcoholic or drug abuse, or some kind of gambling addiction. You just press that truth down by trying to hold it away from you by engulfing in unrighteousness.

You are suppressing the truth. Don't tell me you don't believe in God. You love your sin. You press your sin down, or you press the light down so that your sin will come up and you do it with your sin. That's what atheists do. That's what agnostics do.

Don't believe what they tell you. Believe what God says. They're blinded by Satan.

They're bound by their sin so they will not believe. The revelation comes. The true light enlightens every man because the light came to the world. Verse 10. He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. This is the rejection.

Number one was the revelation. Number two is the rejection. The world did not know him.

They did not want to know him. They did not want to be a part of him. And we can understand the world.

But then it says this. It says he came to his own and those who were his own did not receive him. That's what's absolutely astonishing.

We understand the world's rejection of the Messiah. But what about his own people, the Jewish people, the Hebrew nation? How was it they couldn't connect the dots? How is it they could not believe? How is it they could not understand the truth of the gospel? How is it they didn't understand who the Messiah was when their Old Testament is replete with prophecies and promises concerning the arrival of the Messiah?

Behold your God. Behold a man. Behold your king. Behold my servant. All prophetic.

All expounded upon by the gospels. How did they not behold the Messiah? How is it they rejected him? And they did. Even though they knew.

Who he was. Listen to what Peter says. Peter says this in Acts chapter 2, verse 22.

Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus of Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst just as you yourselves know. You know he performed miracles.

You know he proclaimed the message of the gospel. And you know he proved his Messiahship. You know.

Don't say you didn't know because you saw. And then he says, this man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. He came to his own and they did not receive him.

Verse 36 says, therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. You yourselves know. You saw the miracles.

You heard the message. He proved his Messiahship. And you said no.

You did not want that king to rule over you. And then again in chapter 4 after Peter and John were arrested, after healing a lame man, Peter says, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this name this man stands here before you in good health. He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief cornerstone.

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name in heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. Again, Peter takes him back to the Old Testament to show him that he is the chief cornerstone. But you rejected him and you crucified him even though you knew who he was.

They rejected the Messiah. Over in chapter 5, these words were spoken. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you had put to death by hanging him on a cross.

He is the one whom God exalted into his right hand as a prince and a savior to grant repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these things. And so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.

And one more, chapter 10, listen to this, verse 38, you know Jesus of Nazareth. How God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power and how he went about doing good and he and all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him. We are witnesses of all these things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put him to death by hanging him on a tree. This you know, but they did not receive him.

He came into his own and his own did not receive him. In John's first invitation, he gives you a revelation about God that he enlightens every man that has come into the world. Everybody who lives, everybody who is born into this world is enlightened by God through creation and through conscience because the law of God has been written on their hearts according to Romans chapter 2. They know.

And yet because of their sin, they suppress that truth. They just love their sin more than they would ever love the one who would save them from their sin. And so that revelation came.

And in spite of that revelation, there was a supreme rejection. We understand the world rejecting him. We can grasp that.

But Israel? How does Israel reject their Messiah? How does Israel turn their back on the King that came, the Messiah that arrived when they had the oracles of God? They had the Old Testament. The world did not. The Gentiles did not.

But the Jews did. They had the Scriptures. They could put the Scriptures together and understand that the Messiah had come.

But they rejected him. How sad. How sad.

And that is so unfortunate because their rejection of that which they know to be true will give them the worst of hell. Listen to Hebrews chapter 10. The book of Hebrews was written to Hebrews, Jews, the nation of Israel.

And in it there are warnings. Hebrews chapter 2 was the first one. How shall we escape judgment if we neglect so great salvation? But Hebrews 10 is another warning.

There are five of them all together in the book of Hebrews. He says, for if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. If you sin willfully having the knowledge of the truth, which the nation of Israel did have, and you reject your Messiah, there is no sacrifice that will save you.

There is only one and that is Christ crucified. He says in verse 27, But a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

How much severe a punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, is regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and is insulted the spirit of grace? For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of God.

Let me illustrate this for you in the scriptures. Turn with me in your Bible to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10.

And let me make this statement. The judgment of God is not related to your sin as much as it is related to your rejection. Sitting under the gospel is high-risk behavior.

And Jesus illustrates that in Luke chapter 10. Let me say it to you this way. Sinful rebellion to the Christ is not nearly as severe as self-righteousness.

And it's illustrated in Luke chapter 10. In Luke chapter 10, in verse number 1, you have the commission of the 70. And this is so beautiful because we don't even know their names.

But they had believed in the Messiah. And so the Lord commissions them and sends them out to preach the gospel of the kingdom. The key phrase is found in verse number 9 and verse number 11, which says, the kingdom of God has come near to you.

These are the first testimonies of the kingdom of God. He gathers these 70 together and he commissions them and sends them out. Listen to what he says.

He says, now after this the Lord appointed 70 others and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. They were many John the Baptists. They were like forerunners as they would go to the cities, the cities that Jesus was going to be at.

And so they were like many JBs. They were going out as forerunners to clear the path, to pave the way. The kingdom of God has come near to you.

Now listen carefully. After the commission, He gives the motivation. And the motivation is supreme.

He says this, verse 2, And He was saying to them, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Understand that the harvest is judgment.

Joel 3, verse number 12 tells us that the harvest is judgment. Matthew chapter 13 verse number 30 tells us that the harvest is at the end of the age. It is God's judgment.

So here is the motivation. This is God's love for the world. This is God's compassion for those who are going to be judged.

This is God's compassion for those who are going to one day be executed. He says, the harvest, the judgment is huge. It's mammoth.

But the laborers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest, the Lord of judgment, to send out laborers into the place He is going to judge. Note this.

The executioner, Christ, was executed by those who one day will be executed. And yet the executioner says, beseech the Lord of execution so that those who are destined for execution will hear the truth of the gospel.

God has taken no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Never does He do that. His compassion for the multitude is great. His heart for the unbeliever is great.

And so He motivates them. That's why Paul says, Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We know about God's judgment. We know about His terror. We know about these things. Therefore we persuade men.

Listen, the greatest motivation of preaching the gospel is to know that people are destined to be executed by the executioner. But the executioner says, Pray the Lord of execution that He would send forth laborers to those who will one day be executed, that they might hear the truth of the gospel and believe and not be executed. That's the motivation.

And then He says, He's so interested. He says, Go. Hurry up.

Urgency. Behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes, and greet no one on the way.

What do you mean? Don't say hi to anybody? No, no, no, no. Don't befriend people so that you are distracted. Don't let your friendship with others distract you from the sole purpose of your mission, because judgment is coming.

And then He goes into the whole proclamation about the kingdom of peace and going into a city and telling them, Peace be upon you, because you have received the king and his kingdom. But for those who don't receive the king and his kingdom, dust off your feet and say to them these words. And these words are important, because whenever you preach the gospel, this is how you end your preaching.

You don't end your preaching by saying, I'm going to pray for you. You don't end your preaching by saying, I hope one day you give your life to Christ. You always end the proclamation of the gospel with a warning, always.

That's the true preaching of the gospel. It ends with a warning, and listen to the warning that Christ gives. He says in verse 11, the kingdom of God has come near.

Verse 12, I say to you, it will be more tolerable in the day for Sodom, in that day for Sodom, than for that city. It will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for the most immoral city that ever existed than for those who heard the preaching of the gospel. Think about that.

Read on. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! Where's Chorazin? Chorazin is two and a half miles from Capernaum. Capernaum was the hub of Jesus' ministry, His Galilean ministry.

Bethsaida is a little further up. Bethsaida is the home of Andrew, Philip, and Peter, three of Christ's disciples. Bethsaida is the place of the feeding of the five thousand.

Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! Later on it will say, Woe to you, Capernaum! He talks about three of the best cities. And then He contrasts them with three of the worst cities when it comes to sinful behavior and sinful rebellion. He says, Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than it will be for you, Chorazin, than for you, Bethsaida. Sidon was a Canaanite city. Tyre was a pagan city. It's modern-day Lebanon. And those in Tyre would come down and they would capture Jews and take them as slaves. And the Jews hated the citizens of Tyre and Sidon.

And Jesus says, Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! Because when judgment day comes, guess what? It will be more tolerable for them than it will be for you. Why? Because you saw all the miracles. You heard the message.

They did not. Judgment is not related to man's sin. It's related to man's rejection of Christ.

And the more knowledge you have of the truth, the worse the judgment will be for you. The best place in all the world for you to be is right here. But if you reject the Messiah, this is the worst place you could ever be.

He goes on to say this, and for you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades. Ah, Capernaum. You can go there today.

Walk through the ruins of the city. Be in the same synagogue, same location of the synagogue that Jesus would cast out demons and preach the gospel. You can stand in that place.

You can see Peter's home. You can see the ruins of Capernaum. Capernaum was that hub of Christ's Galilean ministry.

And you see, the citizens of Capernaum and Bethsaida and Chorazin were not like the citizens of Nazareth, his hometown. They threw Him out. They wanted to stone Him.

But nobody in Capernaum wanted to stone Jesus. Nobody in Chorazin hated Jesus. Nobody in Bethsaida necessarily turned their back on Jesus and hurled insults at Him.

No, no, no. They were very kind to Jesus. They ate with Jesus.

They heard His messages. They heard His miracles. They were with Him.

And they loved Jesus. But they did not receive Him. They did not believe Him.

They did not embrace Him. So Christ says, Capernaum, Chorazin, Bethsaida, you're the best of the best. But people like citizens of Sodom, Tyre, and Sidon, the worst of the worst, their hell will not nearly be as bad as yours.

Yours will be worse. There are degrees of punishment in hell. And those who hear the gospel, know the truth, and reject that truth, the hottest of hell is reserved for them.

Think about that. And Christ says, this is the warning you give to people. You've heard the gospel.

You have no excuse. Yes, the law of God has been written on your heart. Yes, you see God in the creation of the world, the revelation through His creation.

You see all that. But now you've heard the truth. Now you've been given the truth.

Now you're responsible to receive that truth. And if you do not receive that truth, having known the truth in the fullness of its revelation, because Christ is coming to your city, and He will perform miracles, and He will preach the same gospel, if you do not receive Him, having knowing that truth, your judgment will be more severe than all the Sodomites, all the homosexuals, and all other sin in hell. Simply because God does not judge on man's sins, He judges on man's rejection.

So important to understand that. And this is John's invitation. He came to His own, but get this, His own did not receive Him.

They did not embrace Him. They did not believe Him. They rejected Him.

How sad is that? But, but, verse 12, but as many as received Him, to them gave He power, or the right to become children of God. To them He gave honor. To as many as received Him, they were honored.

How? They became children of the living God. So you move from the revelation to the rejection, to number three, the reception. And I wonder if you've received the true and living God.

If you have truly believed in His name, because that's what He says, but as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name. Do you believe in His name? Do you even know what it means to believe in His name? Because you read last week that there were many who believed, but Christ did not entrust Himself to them. There were many who believed, but were fearful of those who would come against them, and so they loved the approval of man more than the approval of God.

So in reality, they had a superficial belief. Do you really truly believe in Him? Have you received Him enough to believe in His name? What does that mean? That's next week. You have to come back.

Let's pray. Lord God, I pray for everyone in the room that they would know You and not reject You. Oh, they heard today.

Now they're without excuse. The judgment will be severe for those who reject You. Please, Lord, let no one here today reject the Messiah.

Let them believe in Your name, who You are, Your attributes, Your character, that You're the Son of God, the Son of man, the Son of righteousness, the Messiah, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Oh God, we realize that You died for sinful man, and You have come, and You ask and beseech, pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into that place of people that will be judged, that they might be without excuse because they've heard the gospel. But some, some will receive and have the right to become children of God because they believe in Your name.

May that be all of us today, Lord Jesus. That's our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.