A Tour Through John, Lesson 2

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/tour-john-lesson-2/" target="_blank"><strong>website.</strong></a></p><p><strong>Comment</strong>: A prologue is important -- like the introduction of a book. It's a good habit not to skip over these, as they usually set forth the agenda of the writer, and make it easier to understand the work. John 1:1-8 is the key to appreciating the entire Gospel of John.</p><p>10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own,and his own people did not accept him.</p><ul><li>Here is the great irony: The creation did not recognize the creator.</li><li>As a Jew, descended from the tribe of Judah and the house of David, Jesus came to his own people, but was rejected.</li><li>Jesus was not <i>accepted</i>. What does this mean?<ul><li>His <i>message </i>was rejected. See John 12:47-48.</li><li>This does <i>not </i>mean that people didn't "receive him" into their hearts (through prayer -- the modern evangelical tradition). Receiving Christ means accepting his teaching.</li><li>Thus the modern doctrine of "accepting Jesus" is wholly without biblical foundation.</li></ul></li></ul><p>12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.</p><ul><li>Those who accepted him were privileged to become children of God (v.12).<ul><li>"Believing in his name" means trusting Christ, not ourselves or religion, or our religiosity.</li><li>Notice that those who receive him are not <i>actually </i>children of God, but only <i>potentially </i>his children ("power to become").</li><li>To become his children, they must be born again (v.13).<ul><li>They are <i>not </i>born as God's children:<ul><li>of blood (by birth). ["Bloods" (KJV) is Greek <i>haimata,</i> or "drops of blood."]</li><li>of flesh (by human desire or effort)</li><li>of the wil