John 1:6-13--Light to the World Week 2

Have you ever heard the phrase “seeing is believing?” Sometimes we say this phrase, or we highlight the reality that in order to believe something, you have to be able to see it with your own eyes. And we have this idea that in order to believe something, or to really appreciate it, you have to be able to see it for yourself. A picture alone won’t really do it justice. Think of something like the Grand Canyon. How many have ever been there? I haven’t, but these are the types of places you say “oh you have to see it to believe it.” Or if you’ve ever been to the Black Hills, seen the buffalo roam, or places like Devil’s Tower, just incredible places, you might say you have to see it to really appreciate how wonderful and glorious it actually it. ‌ I remember such an experience in my life. I was a missions major in Bible college and I had to do a summer internship. I spent 2 months in the summer of 2007 in the mountains of Riobamba, Ecuador. We were 10k ft above sea level, and Riobamba pretty close to Mt. Chimborazo, among some of the highest elevations in South America at 20k feet. It was about a 2 hr drive to the base, but you could look out the window and see then entire mountain when it wasn’t cloudy. Such a beautiful sight! In fact the missionaries had a little window in their shower area, which was in an upper level of the house, and you could look outside while you were taking your shower in the morning and see out over all the houses and they had a clear view of Mt. Chimborazo—imagine that every morning! And we drove to the base, which started at 14k feet and hiked up to 17k feet, the rest of the trip I’m told would have taken 8 hours, and you only do it at night due to to the cloudiness, and it’s a very dangerous ascent, lives have been lost trying to climb the mountain. But it was marvelous and beautiful to see. The type of thing where a picture doesn’t do it justice. You have to see it in order to believe how wonderful it truly is—seeing is believing. ‌‌ But as we come to our passage today, we see that while seeing is believing might work in our physical world, seeing is believing does not really hold up to spiritual things. In fact, it is possible to see or know first hand spiritual facts, or have spiritual knowledge or experiences, and still reject them when it comes to believing. This is especially true when it comes to the message of Jesus—seeing does not always equal believing. And in our text this morning we’re going to learn about the message of Jesus and this message coming into to the world and how there were many people who saw him, who saw the things that he did and heard his teaching yet they still rejected him. When it comes to Jesus, seeing is not always believing. And our passage points us to the reality that there is a difference between seeing and believing. And not all those who see will end up believing. So as we begin to look at our text, the big idea I want you to remember is this:‌‌ Big Idea: when it comes to the message of Jesus, seeing is not always believing