Starting a new series examining the Gospel of John

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So, for each episode, we will finish with expositing the Word of God. When I preached, I used to use 30+ scriptures in a sermon and someone once asked me why I used so many. My answer was simple There are no words of mine that can break any yoke or change any lives. Only God's word can do that. I am just the guy connecting the dots. Besides exposition, there is also topical preaching and that has essentially taken over in churchianity today. The primary problem with this is that it allows pre-bias seep into the process and instead of seeking God for what He wants to say through His word, preachers leverage the bible to support the topic they have decided they want to preach about. So, instead of hearing what sayeth the Lord, we hear what sayeth Pastor Bob. The best way to preach then is to exposit. We will start with the Gospel of John and go chapter by chapter. So, this month we will cover chapter one, and next month it will be chapter two. This prevents me from deciding ahead of time what to speak about and hopefully, will allow God to speak.

So, when I read John Chapter One the first thing that stands out to me starts at the very first verse:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

So, what is God saying? His word, is not some abstract thing. In the beginning was the Word. Note the word, Word, is capitalized. That is because it is a person. The Word was God. Later in the chapter it says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This is obviously referring to when God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Word. This is why it is so staggering to see people who say that they are Christian leaders be so careless with the Word. To be careless with the Word is to be careless with Christ Himself. To be deceptive regarding the word is to be deceptive about Christ. To lie about the Word is to lie about Jesus. This is an admonition to all believers and in this new world of social media, it is also lying to repost other people lying. Retweeting other people lying is lying yourself. It also does not matter if you think your lying is justified somehow. God never asks us to be deceptive. There is a fantastic set of verses in Job Chapter 13 that asks, will you lie on behalf of God? Do you think you can fool Him as you fool man? Does not His majesty terrify you? I know in this age of diabetic, feel-good false gospels, the church never hears about the majesty of God and certainly not about being terrified by it. We should never lose sight of the fact that His word is not something we should take so casually. The word is Jesus. Continuing on:

⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. ⁸ He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. ⁹ The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. ¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

The verse I want to drill down in is verse 12, which explains that God gave the right for us to become children of God if we receive Him, and believe in His name. This is very important in light of the recent election season when we heard from a variety of false teachers that voting somehow was central to salvation. Mario Murillo and Greg Locke are lunatic teachers who have consistently said if you choose to vote Democratic then you are hell bound and unredeemable. Charisma News went beyond the lunatic fringe however. They sent out Jack Hibbs, once respected, twice to put forth these spiritual bullying teachings. The first time Hibbs actually taught that Jesus would be waiting for us on Judgment Day with our voting records in His hand. So, salvation was no longer contingent upon saving faith in Christ, which is based upon John 1:12. We are considered children of God not because we are registered with a political party or cast a vote a certain way but because we believe in His name and we receive His gift of salvation. Make no mistake about it. Adding anything, including carnal voting, to salvation is pure heresy. The second time he was trying to bully people who might choose to not vote at all and he wrote the following:

"As messy and as dirty as this year's election is, I am grateful that God is using it to separate the wheat from the chaff, the Christian from the almost Christian" - Jack Hibbs

So, according to Jack Hibbs, God was using the 2024 election to separate the wheat from the chaff, which is a biblical reference for separating who is going to heaven or hell. Chaff according to the bible will be burned in the unquenchable fires. So, Hibbs was saying if Christians did not vote for Donald Trump, or chose to not vote at all, then they would burn eternally in the unquenchable fires. That teaching is demonic and again flies directly against John 1:12. Hibbs, Murillo and Locke were certainly not alone but were the more "in your face" examples of the New Apostolic Reformation's dominionism eviscerating scripture and not caring that they were butchering the very requirements for eternal salvation. Verse 13 reminds us that once saved we are born not of the flesh, nor fleshly politics, but by God. Continuing on in John Chapter One.

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵ (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'") ¹⁶ For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

Let's take a deeper look at verse 16 here. From the fullness of Jesus Christ, we have received grace upon grace. Sometimes we bifurcate the law and grace as separate concepts because Paul said we are now under grace instead of the law but there is grace within the provision of the law. God did not have to provide the law. He did not have to provide anyway for redemption at all. Additionally, the law is always skewed by preaching to be negative but God did not give it to His people as punishment. It was for their own good to keep the law, even though their flesh would never be able to. Likewise, our flesh could never adhere to the law but that does not make it bad. It is still in our best interest to abide in it. Thank God however, that He provided us grace upon grace! Now we are no longer under the law, provided by the grace of God but instead are solely covered by the grace upon grace of Christ.

Yet there appears to be a memory disease infecting the church today. We forget where God found us. We forget where we were before we received the awesome gift of grace upon grace. The NAR has infected the church to convince them their enemy is not the devil but rather is the world. So, the church extends the bony finger of accusation against the very people that need the gospel the most. The devil is laughing because the NAR church spends most of its efforts hating other people in the name of carnal politics and the cause of Christ is damaged.

¹⁹ And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" ²⁰ He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." ²¹ And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." ²² So they said to him, "Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" ²³ He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said." ²⁴ (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) ²⁵ They asked him, "Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" ²⁶ John answered them, "I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, ²⁷ even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." ²⁸ These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

So, here we start to get into John the Baptist. We see his humility on display first and throughout his ministry. His job was to represent Christ, to make straight the paths to Him and for Him. He was the herald of Christ and we would do well to emulate that and learn from him. Notice that the religious leaders asked him to speak about himself - what do you say about yourself? His answer says nothing about himself and only about who he serves. Once again, we would do well to emulate because in today's apostate church. It is all about the cult of personality pastors saying, "look at me" instead of look at Christ. My pastor once said to me, any sermon must come back to the cross of Christ or it is not worth preaching. We are no longer the ones crying out in the wilderness. The wilderness is still there. The barren places of this world. The wilderness the lost live in, including the lost sitting in the wilderness of the pews of America. What makes us the voice crying in the wilderness is not our efforts but the gospel. It is not politics and preaching morality to the people who think the things of God are foolishness but rather the gospel. It is not self-help or motivation - it's the gospel. John was considered the greatest man who ever lived but he understood that he was not even worthy to untie the sandals of Christ. Let's take a look at how Matthew Henry's Commentary looks at these verses:

"After Malachi there was no prophet until John the Baptist came. He appeared first in the wilderness of Judea. This was not an uninhabited desert, but a part of the country not thickly peopled, nor much enclosed. No place is so remote as to shut us out from the visits of Divine grace. The doctrine he preached was repentance; Repent ye. The word here used, implies a total alteration in the mind, a change in the judgment, disposition, and affections, another and a better bias of the soul. Consider your ways, change your minds: you have thought amiss; think again, and think aright. True penitents have other thoughts of God and Christ, sin and holiness, of this world and the other, than they had. The change of the mind produces a change of the way. That is gospel repentance, which flows from a sight of Christ, from a sense of his love, and from hopes of pardon and forgiveness through him. It is a great encouragement to us to repent; repent, for your sins shall be pardoned upon your repentance. Return to God in a way of duty, and he will, through Christ, return unto you in the way of mercy. It is still as necessary to repent and humble ourselves, to prepare the way of the Lord, as it then was. There is a great deal to be done, to make way for Christ into a soul, and nothing is more needful than the discovery of sin, and a conviction that we cannot be saved by our own righteousness. The way of sin and Satan is a crooked way; but to prepare a way for Christ, the paths must be made straight-- - Matthew Henry's Commentary

There is so much truth and beauty in these words. No place is so remote as to be shut out from the visits of divine grace. Yet in the run up to the election that just passed you had false teachers like Jack Hibbs saying if people chose not to vote they would literally be consigned to hell. Lunatics like Mario Murillo and Greg Locke said anyone who voted Democratic was likewise, going to hell, and were beyond the redemptive powers of Christ. Think about that for a second. Salvation was no longer contingent upon saving faith in Christ but instead upon our carnal voting record. How absurd and blasphemous. As John the Baptist was making the way straight for the literal Christ, the gospel makes the way to our souls straight but only if we preach it. The way of sin and Satan are a crooked way that must be made straight in order to prepare the way for Christ. That is never accomplished through preaching politics, hate, division, money, greed, fame, or any of the other topical distortions that pollute the pulpits today. Let us continue in the scriptures:

²⁹ The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰ This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.' ³¹ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel." ³² And John bore witness: "I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. ³³ I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' ³⁴ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. ³⁵ The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶ and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" ³⁷ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸ Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, "What are you seeking?" And they said to him, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?" ³⁹ He said to them, "Come and you will see." So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. ⁴⁰ One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. ⁴¹ He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which means Christ). ⁴² He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas" (which means Peter).

A moment here about verse 41 and the glorious words to Simon, who would become Peter - we have found the messiah! This is the entirety of the gospel. We have found the messiah. We have found our Deliverer. We have found our King. The world may never admit it but they too are seeking their messiah. They are seeking the peace can only find in Jesus. The peace that surpasses all understanding. They are seeking deliverance from the miseries of this life. From the hatred that is all around us. From the sin we are so easily ensnared by. We are all seeking joy. We are all seeking love. Not love as the world delivers it, full of conditions but the agape love of a God who refused to leave us where we were. We have found the Messiah. Who is that messiah for those in the world? Who are the idols they turn to instead of God? They turn to the idols of money, power, greed, fame, lust, pride or any number of idolatrous pursuits. We should always remember that is where God found us. The more frightening proposition is what messiah those in the church have chosen. Sure, they pay lip service to Jesus but they pursue the politics of this world. They pursue prosperity. They pursue false signs and lying wonders. They pursue carnal idols and political messiahs. Jesus once taught that when we have convinced ourselves that our darkness is light, how deep is that darkness. The number one mission field today is in the church in America and that is because while they have found A messiah, they have not found THE Messiah. They have what the bible refers to as a form of godliness while denying its power. The modern worship music is largely unbiblical, self-centered, and leads people away from Christ. That is followed by a 20-minute sermonette that is always topical, relevant, but neither gospel-centric or accurate. They are largely designed to make us feel better about ourselves instead of feeling better about our Messiah. After that we hand over ten percent of our money in exchange for being promised heaven while never changing anything about ourselves. Saving us cost God everything, yet we think our salvation shouldn't cost us a thing. Yet here we see in the first chapter of John's gospel account the story of John the Baptist declaring behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! We see here the calling of the first disciples with the glorious declaration that we so desperately want every to say - we have found the Messiah! Now, the chapter ends.

⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." ⁴⁴ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." ⁴⁶ Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." ⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!" ⁴⁸ Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." ⁴⁹ Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" ⁵⁰ Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." ⁵¹ And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

There is so much here. Let's start with how cheaply we can treat things like prophecy or biblical insight. Jesus essentially gives Nathaniel a word of knowledge, a prophetic word to break through the unbelief and automatically he declares that Jesus is Son of God and the King of Israel. Jesus tells Nathaniel, just you wait. You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man! Just realize now how easily we are amazed and how quickly we ascribe what we see or hear to a sovereign move of God. We can be so easily duped in the church today because we want to believe. I remember the televangelists from the 80's would have ear pieces in and someone would be relaying personal information to them about people in attendance so they could pretend they were receiving words of knowledge. More recently, we had Shawn Bolz from Bethel use a smart phone openly to pretend to prophesy and give fake words of knowledge. In this day of social media, all it would take is an email address on an event registration form to be able to discover all sorts of information. Now Jesus was obviously telling Nathaniel the truth but his reaction reveals how easily we can be deceived if we are not careful. Do not be taken in by false signs and lying wonders. Gem stones, gold dust, angel feathers and glory clouds are fake and man-made. Can God do it? Sure, He is God - but why would He! Jesus has so much more to show us just like He explained to Nathaniel here.

Secondly here we see how we should handle unbelief. Nathaniel's initial reaction is a mockery - can anything good come out of Nazareth? Is Phillip offended? Does he bark back at Nathaniel? Does he criticize him? Nope. He just says - come and see. That is what we need to say to those we are witnessing to. Come and see. Come and see the peace I have. Come and see the joy I have. What is the church showing the world instead. Disdain, hatred, and blame. We hide behind verse fragments taken out of context and given to us by NAR leaders who have purely carnal agendas. There is a great portion of scriptures in Acts 19, when Paul is preaching the gospel in Ephesus:

Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. 9 But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. - Acts 19:8-10 (ESV)

So, Paul is speaking boldly in the region for three months when some locals refused to believe and publicly maligned the early Christianity that Paul was establishing. Can you imagine what some of us would do today? We would be posting memes and tweets disparaging them. Consigning them to hell. Pointing our finger of accusation against them. How dare you malign our way, our faith. We would happily spread lies and disinformation against those who had become obstinate. No love. No grace. No mercy. What did Paul do? He left them. He went to a different location and in doing so, all of the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the gospel! That is what is at stake! Every time we waste our lives and witness by making enemies of the very people who need salvation the most - people do not get to hear the gospel! Jesus Christ died for our sins and you too can have His salvation. God has chosen the church as His vehicle for carrying the gospel to the lost. I pray we remember that and get back to it.

Reverend Anthony Wade - November 22, 2026

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.