Shammah Temple Fellowship: Sermon of February 1, 2024
By Pastor Egide Nibitanga
Theme: How the Apostle John reveals who Jesus is.
Reference scriptures: John 1:1-18
John was one of the most beloved disciples of Jesus, with James, Peter… John wrote to all the mankind, from South to Nord, East to the West. John focused more on Jesus’ ministry, His godliness, that He is God, the word who was always with God. This book has five parts; the Godliness of Christ, Public Jesus’ ministry, Jesus’s secret ministry with His disciples, Christ suffering and resurrection, and finally Jesus concluding His work on earth, appearing before His disciples and leaving the ministry to them.
In Kirundi, there’s a saying that “a story told by an eye witness is better told than that who heard it from others.” This, therefore, suggests that Jesus having lived with John, the latter has a lot say about Him, his master and close ally in the ministry. He lived with Jesus, took time to know Him, and came to understand Him more.
So, how does John, the disciple, describe Jesus?
- Jesus as God
Jesus is revealed as the God, the savior, the Lord of our life. John better describes His Godliness in the passage we’ve read.
How can we say He is God?
- Everything that was created was created by Him. He is not just a disciple as some may put it, He is the Word, who was with God, who was always God (John 1:2).
- He existed before other things came to existence. In the holy trinity, Jesus, the father, and the Holy Spirit were always one. Jesus tells people that He was there even before Abraham. He is “I am”. He wasn’t just born when He came to this world.
- Jesus as a light in the darkness
Not only light, but also life, truth, righteousness, that is coming in the middle of the darkness of the world.
How is Jesus revealed as a light?
- He enables the ones in darkness to step into a new life of God’s grace and mercy (John 1:14).
- He gives to those receive Him an eternal life and being called a child of God (John 1:12).
- Jesus as our only way to the Father
- He enables those not yet in the righteous path in. Jesus is actually the one and only path to God. “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind,” (1 Tim 2:5).
- He is the one who reveals God the father to us. “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with Father, has made him known” (John 1:18).
- He makes people children of God through the cross. “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” (John 1:12).
In short, John’s gospel reveals Jesus to us in a way that we can easily understand who He really is. Jesus is God, Jesus is the light in the darkness, and Jesus is our only way to the Father.
