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B. Jesus makes a striking statement to his
disciples in John 14:7. He said, “If you had known
SUBJECT:
me, you would have known my Father also.” The
F.C.F:
disciples had been with Jesus for three years. They
PROPOSITION:
had seen his miraculous signs, they had heard his
INTRODUCTION:
teaching, and they asked him questions which he
A. Before we embark on our study for this
answered. And still Jesus could say that they had not
evening, I want to draw out a final conclusion from
yet known him.
last time. As you may recall, we distinguished
This is a prominent theme in John’s gospel,
between the natural and supernatural, the phenomenal
that even though the people may profess their faith in
and noumenal, and highlighted the philosopher’s
him in some way shape or form, still they do not
dilemma was that there is no staircase to bridge the
really know him. It is a challenge to us to dig in deep
two. So we tend to consider this world the world of
and to realize that we do not yet know him in his
fact, and the upper story world as the world of faith.
fullness. We have not yet fully come to terms with
And, we said, the incarnation of Christ is the
who he is. We do not yet truly believe that Jesus is
key to both. When the Word became flesh and dwelt
the Christ, the Son of God, and so to some extent we
among us, the noumenal became phenomenal, the
are not yet fully enjoying “life in his name.”
supernatural intruded into the natural, the world of
C. Last time we found that the Word became
faith, which should never have been separated from
flesh; the noumenal became phenomenal so that there
fact in the first place, came crashing down into the
is really only one truth. The Word entered his own
so-called world of fact, so that faith was revealed as
creation in our time and space as a matter of
factual.
historical record. He tabernacled among us: the true
Now here’s the question for you: Why should
glory of God filling the tabernacle of his body, God
anyone be a Christian?
drawing nearer to us.
(People will give mercenary answers: “It’s
D. Now we need to draw out further
helpful, peace of mind, direction, salvation.” But the
implications of what has happened when the Word
primary reason we should become a Christian is
was made flesh and tabernacled among us. And what
because Christianity is true. It is objectively true.
John says happened is “grace upon grace.” (16) What
That’s what John is insisting when he says, “The
do you suppose he means by “grace upon grace”?
Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have
(One form of grace came through Moses, and now
seen his glory….” On the strength of the evidence,
another form of grace has come in Christ.)
we must embrace Christianity because it is
It is obvious that John is now setting up a
objectively true. In fact, if it is not true, I mean really
deliberate contrast between Moses and Jesus. John
true, objectively true, then you should not believe it.
the Baptizer is also mentioned in this context as a
You should find something else, whatever really is
merism, a figure of speech in which the bookends
true, and believe that instead, because if it is not true,
include all the books in between. So mentioning
it is not worth believing, and you are a fool to believe
Moses and John in close proximity really points to
it.
the whole order of Old Testament prophets and their
Remember how John concludes his book: “30
messages, from Moses to John. And in this deliberate
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of
comparison, we will find that there truly is no
the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31
comparison, that Jesus is incomparably greater than
but these are written so that you may believe that
Moses.
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by
This is one reason why it’s clear that John
believing you may have life in his name.” He is
was writing to Jews and not to Gentiles. Gentiles
asserting that these signs really occurred, not in the
would not really care that Jesus was superior to
realm of faith, but in the world of fact. And it is on
Moses, while Jews would find it stunning and
the strength of this evidence that we are to believe
absorbing. And this is especially true of nonthat Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and so to
Palestinian Jews who were being excluded from the
have life in his name.
synagogue for their faith in Jesus. The synagogue
We will pick this up again at the end.
was only devoted to Moses. They had some grace,
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THE WORD AND MOSES
(John 1:14-18)
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but not grace upon grace as we find in Jesus.
Another reason why it’s clear that John was
writing to Jews is because this text is nearly
unintelligible apart from its obvious allusion to a
prominent event in Moses’ life from Exodus 33 and
34. Let’s go there after we take care of one other
matter.
I want you to give me the key words from our
text in John 1:14-18. What are some of the key terms
or ideas which you find repeated? (looking for
“glory,” “grace and truth,” and “seeing God.”) With
those key terms in mind, let’s go to the background in
Exodus 33:
I. THE OLD TESTAMENT BACKGROUND.
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name.”
So Moses asks for one thing more. “18
Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” What was
he asking of God? He wanted to see God in all his
fullness. This larger, comprehensive, beatific vision,
he thought, would be the only thing that could sustain
him through this trying ordeal. He had met God at the
burning bush. He regularly met with God as he sat in
a tent, veiled from God’s presence. But now he asked
for no veil, but to see God in all his glory, face to
face. So notice this is about “glory.”
And God agreed, with one exception. “19
And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass
before you and will proclaim before you my name
‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will
show mercy.” God would pronounce his covenant
name, the Lord. He would reveal his goodness and
his sovereignty to show mercy on whom he will show
mercy. “20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face,
for man shall not see me and live.” Notice this
second theme of seeing God and not seeing God.
“21 And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a
place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22
and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft
of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I
have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand,
and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be
seen.” Skip down to 34:5.
“5 The LORD descended in the cloud and
stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the
LORD. 6 The LORD passed before him and
proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful
and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in
steadfast love and faithfulness….” It does not come
across as clearly in English, but these two
characteristics of God, steadfast love and faithfulness,
also have their counterparts in John’s prologue.
“Steadfast love” is another word for “grace.” And the
root idea of “faithfulness” is to be “true” or “truth.”
So here at this meeting between Moses and God we
have God’s nature described as “grace and truth.”
A. This story follows on the heels of the
golden calf incident. While Moses was meeting with
God on Mt. Sinai receiving the Law, the people made
and worshiped a golden calf as their god, violating
the covenant. They wanted a god they could see. So
in 33:1-6, God declares that he will no longer go with
his people for fear that they will rebel again, and he
will destroy them.
The people are alarmed at this, but even more
Moses who pleads with God to renew the broken
covenant and once again go with them. We pick it up
in 33:12:
“12 ¶ Moses said to the LORD, “See, you
say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let
me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have
said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found
favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found
favor in your sight, please show me now your ways,
that I may know you in order to find favor in your
sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.”
He says, “Teach me your ways so that we will not
offend you and you can go with us.” God promises to
go with them once again. “14 And he said, “My
presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
But Moses wants to be very sure. “15 And he
said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do
not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be
known that I have found favor in your sight, I and
II. THE MEANING.
your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that
we are distinct, I and your people, from every other
A. What this means is that Jesus is
people on the face of the earth?” And God agrees to
incomparably superior to Moses for three reasons:
his request. 17 And the LORD said to Moses, “This
1. First, Moses met with God, but Jesus was
very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you
the one he was meeting with. God declared his name
have found favor in my sight, and I know you by
and his glory, namely that he was “full of grace and
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truth.” And John tells us that Jesus was likewise “full
of grace and truth. Moses only met with God; Jesus
was God.
2. Moses brought the grace of the Law; Jesus
brought the superior grace of grace and truth. John
writes in verse 16: “And from his fullness we have all
received, grace upon grace.” What does that mean?
Literally it is grace in place of grace. So grace upon
grace is a good translation in the sense of one kind of
grace being laid upon another kind of grace. What
two kinds of grace are we talking about? John tells us
in verse 17: “17 For the law was given through
Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
The Law of Moses was a kind of grace; now in Jesus
Christ, a superior kind of grace has come. One is the
grace of type and shadow, the other is the grace of
reality and fullness.
Not long ago, someone asked me how people
were saved in the Old Testament. The answer is
precisely the same way as in the New Testament. In
the Old Covenant, the people believed God and
obeyed his commands. If they sinned, God made a
provision for their forgiveness. They were to bring a
sacrifice, and the sacrifice would pay the penalty for
their sins. So salvation was trusting God’s grace in
the sacrifice. Now, in Jesus Christ, grace and truth
have come. Jesus was that sacrifice to fully pay for
our sins. So God’s law came through Moses, but
Jesus has brought the reality, the fulfillment of that
Law, “grace upon grace.”
3. Moses asked to see God’s glory (his face);
Jesus is the face of God, which the apostles truly saw.
“18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is
at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” So the
experience of the Apostles was superior even to that
of Moses. Moses only asked to see what they fully
saw, but he was denied.
B. Why did this matter? As we’ve said before,
this would have had great importance for John’s first
readers, non-Palestinian Jews who were being
excommunicated from the synagogue. The Jews who
rejected Jesus, supposedly for the sake of remaining
true to Moses, and so excluded them, were rejecting
the one who was superior to Moses in every way!
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found the end of our quest. There is nothing more to
look for. And we will see this unfold as we study
through John’s message. When you’ve found the end
of the quest, the thing to do is to stay there, no matter
what.
B. It matters also in our thinking about the
Old Testament and the New Testament. From the
very beginning, followers of Christ were faced with
the dilemma, “Now that the Messiah has come, what
are we to do with the Old Testament?” Can we ignore
it, disregard it, discard it? Is there anything of value
in it yet since now Christ has come?
The answer is in what John tells us about the
ministry of Jesus—it was “grace upon grace.” The
Old Testament was a form of God’s grace and still
hold’s lasting value to us as the first act in a two act
play. There we see spiritual realities depicted in
living color. We see what the kingdom is like, what
holiness entails, what spiritual warfare is about, and
how the Lamb of God was offered for our sins.
C. And it matters with respect to truth.
1. We need to grow into this understanding
that Bible truths are real truths, or our faith will be
shaky and will likely collapse under pressure. A dear
friend of mine lost her mother suddenly under very
painful circumstances. My friend was a life-long
church member, but she was suddenly plunged into a
crisis of faith. Her question, “Why did God let this
happen?” soon became “Is God really there?” Now
what had caused this? Well, you see she had never
grown beyond a metaphysical, noumenal,
legend/myth/fable faith.” For her there was “real”
truth, like her mother’s tragic death, and there was
“Bible” truth, which she was not sure she trusted
anymore. She needed to know that her “Bible” truth
was “real” truth.
2. Secondly, we owe it to skeptics and
unbelievers to show then that they cannot reject the
faith so easily. They cannot simply dismiss God’s
Word as myth, legend, fable or mere “Bible” truth.
We owe it to them to show them that the Bible’s truth
can stand the scrutiny. When the historicity of the
New Testament is compared to that of other historical
documents from the same time period, documents
which are accepted by scholars without question, the
New Testament has vastly superior evidence for its
III. THE APPLICATION.
authenticity.
But now the question comes to us. Why does
Let me give you one example. You may have
this matter to us?
heard the name of Plato, the Greek philosopher who
A. It matters supremely, for in Jesus, we have
lived about 400 years before Christ. Students in
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universities will read Plato’s writings in classes.
Scholars don’t sit around debating whether Plato
really lived, nor whether his writings are authentic.
Yet the earliest copy of Plato’s works that still exists
is from 900 A.D., over 1,200 years after Plato wrote.
John wrote his Gospel some time before 100 A.D.
The earliest portion of a copy of the Gospel of John is
from 130 A.D., less than 50 years after John wrote.
Nobody questions the authenticity of Plato’s writing.
Why would anyone question the authenticity of
John’s Gospel? There is vastly stronger documentary
evidence for the New Testament than for any other
ancient book. This is just one of the indications that
Bible truths are real truths.
3. But the third reason why this is important
is that John in his Gospel gives us seven signs that
Jesus is the Christ. He asks us to believe, to put our
faith in Jesus, to stake our lives and futures on the
reality of these signs. And we need to be clear that
these really happened, that there is within the Gospel
of John itself convincing proof, sufficient to
demonstrate to us that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God,” not simply as a matter of faith, but as a matter
of fact. If we are not convinced, we will always be
hesitant. We will always hold back and hedge our
bets. We will keep our options open and fear to serve
the Lord with glad abandon. We will not fully
“believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,” and
so we will not fully “have life in his name.”
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