In today's sermon, we're beginning a new series on the Gospel of John.
John 1-1 starts with these words,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
A few verses later, John refers to Jesus as the Light.
Now, why did John use these terms to describe Christ's person and work?
That'll be the focus of today's study.
When I've talked about Jesus to those who are from other belief systems, other religions,
when I talk about Jesus to folks in those environments, what's interesting is they don't
spit back at me a bunch of bile regarding Jesus. They don't say, Jesus, ah, we don't need him. They
don't do anything like that. They tend to compliment Jesus. What I found when I'm talking
to those of other belief systems is that they tend to compliment Jesus. They say, Jesus, yes,
Jesus. And then they'll talk about how he was a great leader, how he's a great teacher, a great
motivator, a wise man. He's a very wise man. Some will say he was a great prophet, a great prophet,
but you know what they won't say? They won't say that he was God. And that is the one distinction
that John verses 1 through 18 labors to make again and again and again and again as we go through it.
If you've ever heard anyone talk about Jesus as a great teacher, a great rabbi, a great leader,
a great prophet. He was all those things. Amen and amen. But those things don't save us. We are not
saved because Jesus was a great teacher. We are not saved because he was a great prophet. We're
not saved because he did any manner of great things, even miracles in times past. Those things
don't save us. What saves us principally is this, that he was God in the flesh. He was God incarnate.
That God came down. That he who pre-existed all of creation came down from his throne to go to a
cross. He died, he was buried, he was resurrected three days later, and now he sits at the right
hand of God the Father. We aren't saved on the basis of things that he said or did apart from
the divine nature by which he did them. Now, why would anyone from a different belief system
give credit to Jesus at all? Why would those in other belief systems talk about Jesus positively?
Well, here's the thing. It doesn't cost them anything to do that. In fact, even just in
secular society. There may be celebrities, politicians, any manner of people who will
quote Jesus, and they don't see any problem with that, even if they're not formal believers.
They'll quote Jesus in reference to wise things that he has said. Now, why again do they do that?
People want the latitude to quote things Jesus said without falling under the authority
of those very things. They want Jesus, and they like a Jesus who is like this kindly
gentleman from centuries past, this kindly gentleman that said wonderful, sweet, loving
things to people centuries ago. And if he was with you right now, he'd say wonderful, sweet,
loving things to you as well. They wanted Jesus that they can define as just this kindly gentleman,
this itinerant rabbi who went around loving people. Now, is that Jesus depicted in this word?
Well, yes, he was a kindly itinerant individual who went around healing people. And he said all
manner of sweet things. Absolutely. With that said, the problem they have is when this same one
says anything that conflicts with the way they want to build their lives, and furthermore,
he has the authority to enforce that which he has said. You see, that's the demarcation line
that the early church faced. The early church, their problem was this, that many would credit
Jesus for things that he accomplished, and maybe even some of the miraculous things that he did,
and yet they would strip him of his divinity.
Some of the early church councils, the main arguments, the main fights they had
were with regards to the person of Jesus.
Who was he? Was he God in the flesh? Was he God-like? Was he a demigod?
What was his nature?
With that said, John 1, verses 1 through 18, is written late in John's life,
and the intention of this gospel is to explain forthrightly to any and all who would read it,
any and all who would encounter these words, that this Jesus is not just a mere, nice, kindly man.
He's not just a mere kindly rabbi and prophet and leader and teacher and all these things.
He is God in the flesh.
In the beginning, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John doesn't start with any salutations.
He doesn't say, hey, everybody, it's me.
He doesn't start with letters.
You know, the way you write emails, you know, sometimes we labor over that first line of greeting and so forth.
He doesn't bother with that.
He gets to the meat right in the first line, in the beginning,
what should have resonated with his audience the way it resonates with us.
Because where did we first encounter those words?
What book?
Genesis.
Genesis 1-1.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
John knows what he's doing here.
He says, in the beginning.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Now, in just a moment, we're going to talk about what that means, that reference to the Word.
But like I said at the outset, as we go through this book, as we go through the Gospel of John,
that he is intent, absolutely 100% intent in telling his audience that Jesus is not simply
a kindly gentleman, but rather this is God in the flesh. And John says, I have the receipts
because I was there on the mountaintop when the father said, this is my son. John is regularly
going to talk about himself as an eyewitness to these things. He's not going to say, I heard from
a guy who heard from a guy who have heard from my brother's sister's uncle's friend. I heard from
someone out there about these things. He's not going to say that. He's going to say, I saw it.
I heard it. I touched him. I witnessed all of these things. And I believe, and I want you to
believe too. And here's what you should believe about this Jesus. And that's where verse one
opens. All right, let me reread verses one through three, and then we'll work our way through as
time allows. Verses one through three. In the beginning, in the beginning was the Word. And
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were
made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made. All right. In verse 1, John
is making two theological statements. Now, the first is to refer to Jesus as the Word. He does
this several times. He refers to Jesus as the Word. The question is, why? Wouldn't it be simpler
to say, in the beginning was Jesus, in the beginning was the Messiah, in the beginning was
Christ? Wouldn't it be simpler to do that? Why does he say the Word? Why does he say, in the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Well, theologians have
explained this in two different ways. Number one, they talk about the historical context in which
John wrote. At that time, at that time, the world was populated with great thinkers, and those
thinkers were influenced by Greece. And Greece's approach to philosophy and logic and even theology
was very abstract. And when Greek philosophers talked about the universe itself, they had a word
to describe the fabric that holds everything together,
and that word is logos.
That was the word that the Greek philosophers would use.
So in a sense, you could argue that what John is doing
is he's taking a popular term, popular phrase,
and he's saying, yes, there is a fabric
that holds the universe together,
but by the way, it's this guy, Jesus Christ.
In the beginning was the word.
He was with God.
He was God.
And he formed all things.
Verse three, all things were made through him.
Without him, nothing was made that was made.
In a sense, he may be referring to Greek philosophy when he refers to Jesus Christ here as the word,
to go over and against the modern popular teaching of that time.
With that said, there's a second possibility with regards to why he calls Jesus the word here.
Now, let me ask you a question.
What do words accomplish?
What's the purpose of words?
Communication, right?
Words help reveal things about one another.
Now, let me ask you a question.
There is one thing I hate above all things.
One food substance I hate more than anything else?
Now, how do you know that?
How do you know I hate celery?
How do you know it?
Well, you know it because I've told you time and time again.
I don't think a Sunday goes by
I don't allude to the horrors of celery.
Someone sent me a picture of celery this week.
I couldn't get off my phone fast enough.
But you know that because I revealed it.
I revealed something about my nature,
something about my likes and dislikes,
something about myself.
I have told you time and time again.
And because of that, you know it to be true.
That's a revelation.
but the revelation came through words.
It didn't come because you've ever seen me eat it.
I would never do such a thing.
It didn't come because you've seen me push it away.
I wouldn't even be in the same room as it.
It didn't come through observation.
It came through revelation because I told you.
So when you talk about words, words are revelatory.
This whole book right here is a revelation.
This is 2,000 pages of God telling you about himself
and telling you about his plan for your life.
This is God's word, his revelation to you and I.
Now, in one sense, you could say
this is the greatest revelation we've ever been given, the word of God. What could be better than
that? Well, I'll tell you. What if the word, what if the word, what if the word that's open every
Sunday here on the table, what if the word was to be made flesh? What if God said, I give you
my word, I will tell you about myself, but what if the word became flesh and dwelt amongst you?
would that not be a finer revelation of who i am than even what you have here well the short answer
is yes there's no greater revelation god has ever given mankind about himself than when he sent his
only begotten son the second member of the trinity to walk and dwell and speak and breathe amongst
his people the word was made flesh and that's what gets john so excited he says for years we had this
we had the old testament we had the prophets we had what they told us about god but in due time
The Word became flesh, and He dwelt among us.
And by the way, this is not some demigod.
This is not like God's cousin who came down.
This is God Himself.
This is the one who fashioned the cosmos.
This is the one who made the universe.
Now, that's the second of the two theological statements
that John labors over in verses 1 through 3.
It's the second main thing he says.
He says, not only in the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,
but he goes on to say, this One, this One,
made everything that you see in the world around you.
this one made the forest, and the trees, and the fauna, and the leaves, and all these different
things. And not only did he make that stuff, like some sort of cosmic Bob Ross with a great canvas,
not only did he make all that stuff, but even now, it is Jesus Christ's power that keeps the entire
cosmos from falling apart and disintegrating. It keeps every molecule in the exact place it needs
to be, the Word of God, and the Word is Christ. So in John verse 1, John parallels the creation
account in Genesis. Again, he knew what he was doing. He said, in the beginning. In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth, but in the beginning, Jesus was a principal means by which
this happened. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that was made.
Now, if you ever read the book of Hebrews, what's interesting is the author of Hebrews starts the
same way. Who wrote Hebrews? God only knows. There's a lot of speculation. It might have been
Paul or Barnabas, Apollos. There's different guys. It could be. We don't really know, but what we do
know is this, that the author of Hebrews opens up his epistle in the exact same way as John did.
Listen to how Hebrews 1, verses 1 and 2 starts. God has in these last days spoken to us by his
Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, whom also he has made the world. Both John and
the author of Hebrews, they not only want to say that, by the way, Jesus is the Son of God,
but they also labor to make the point that this Jesus is the one who created and formed all the
things around us. That transcended. Whatever the common understanding of Jerusalem and Judea
and Ephesus and Thessalonica, whatever the common understanding was about Jesus at that time,
it was far less than what John and the author of Hebrews are trying to explain.
They're not just saying he was a great man, a great prophet, a great leader, a demigod,
sort of God, what have you. They say this one, this one who came in real time and space and was
born in a manger and went to a cross, he now sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. And
by the way, he is God. There's references in verse 1 of today's text and verse 18 called
bookends to the Trinity. John is not content as we're going to see time and time again with any
lessened understanding of who Jesus was and neither should we be. All right, let's look at verses 4
through 13. Verse 4 through 13. In him was life and the life was the light of men and the light
shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. Now there was a man sent from God
whose name was John. This is a reference to John the Baptist. This man came for a witness, to bear
witness of that light that all through him might believe. Now, he was not that light. So John the
Baptist, many asked him, are you the Messiah? Are you the promised one? And he would say, no, I'm not
even worthy to tie the sandal of the one who's coming, right? So in verse 6, it says, his name
was John. He came to be a witness of the light, but he was not that light. Verse 8, he was said to bear
witness of the light. He was not that light, but this is the true light which gives light to every
man coming into the world. He was in the world. This is a reference to Christ. And the world was
made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive
him. But as many, as many as did receive him, to those he gave the right to become children
of God. Not just peons in the kingdom, but sons and daughters. To those who believe in his name,
not those who earned their status, but those who believe in his name, were born not of blood,
not of the will of flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. In verses 4 through 13,
John changes his metaphor up, right? On the one hand, he'd been talking about the Word. The Word
is made flesh, right? He talks about Jesus as the Word, but now he uses a different metaphor. Now
he's talking about Jesus as the light. Now, what does that intimate? I mean, everyone knows what
light is. They knew what light was in the first century. We know what light is now, but what did
that into me? What did that convey? Let's say that you go into a room, a darkened room, and you turn
on a light. What happens? What changes in that environment? During the course of the week, I'm
at church at various intervals. Sometimes it's in the morning. Sometimes I'm at night after a
session, meetings and the like. But on many occasions, I go into that kitchen back there.
Now, you know how many windows that kitchen has? None. I mean, it's got the little things in the
door right there. But what I find is that each time I go in the kitchen routinely, especially
if it's the night, it's pitch black in there. But there's usually a little bit of light coming from
out here that sort of shines in there a little bit and many times I say to myself it's usually
because I have something I have to throw away. I say I can find the trash can even though it's
really just about pitch dark so I kind of reach around try to find it so I can throw my you know
coke can or whatever I need to throw away. The amount of times I've hit my kneecap on something
in that kitchen it's a veritable minefield if you don't have the light on. I mean you should see me
I sort of sat there one day I was just in agony and I keep doing it because I'm silly. I don't
know why I keep doing this but the amount of times I've had issues in that very kitchen there's a
stool that showed up. I don't know where it came from. There's a stool in there that's now the bane
of my existence when I go in there. But I always think I got it this time. This is the time I've
got it. This is the time I'll navigate it. I keep thinking if I just remember to take so many steps
left, so many steps right, I'll be good. With that said, wisdom says turn on the light. Wisdom says
you don't want to bang your knee. You don't want to mess things up. You don't want to miss the
trash can because that's happened too. Turn on the light. So what is the principles? What does
light do for us? Why do we have lights in our house and in the room and the like? Well, there's
four benefits. There's probably more, but there's four key benefits that light brings. Number one,
light allows sight. Light allows sight. When the light is on, you can understand your reality.
When the light is on, you can understand your circumstances. Reality is given contours by
lights. If all of us were to practice after worship let out, all of us were to practice
closing our eyes to find our way to our cars,
what kind of mess would we all be in?
If we all closed our eyes and literally tried to funnel
our way out of this room, it would be a scene.
Why? Because apart
from the light, apart from being able to see,
we can't define the contours of where our next
footfall is going to land, let alone
anything else, let alone dangers we might otherwise
engage in. Light allows
sight. Number two, light reduces
risk. Through allowing sight,
it reduces risk. When our path is clear,
we're able to avoid dangerous things.
When God came into this world through the person and work of his son,
when he shed light on certain sinful behaviors and attitudes and approaches,
it helped the people to steer clear of those things
and to avoid risk that would otherwise instill them or destroy them.
So light reduces risk, which is one of the reasons that we turn on the light.
Number three, light's comforting.
Light's comforting.
Have you ever been a child or had a child who, at nighttime,
you tuck them into bed or you get tucked into bed when you're a small kid,
And the request of the child is what?
Daddy, could you leave the light on?
Don't forget the night light.
Is the hallway light on?
Things like that.
Now, why does a kid ask that?
Why do you ever ask that?
What's the point?
Well, light's just comforting.
Because apart from the light, in the darkness, we wonder what monsters exist.
We wonder what monsters exist under the bed and the like.
And we can be told a hundred times there's nothing under the bed,
there's nothing under the bed, there's nothing under the bed.
But when it's dark, when it's dark, we can't really be sure.
but there's something about light that gives us some comfort.
Number four, light also gives knowledge.
Light gives knowledge.
If we were given a newspaper in the dark,
you'd know it was a newspaper.
You wouldn't have doubt about that.
You could figure out this is a newspaper,
but what could you discern from its teachings?
What could you learn from it?
In the darkness, nothing.
You would have the basic understanding
of what it is that you're holding
and how it could serve you,
but apart from the light being turned on,
the knowledge that is written on its pages
would be of no value to you.
So light allows sight, it reduces risk, it comforts us, and it gives knowledge.
Now all of that and more can and should be said of Jesus Christ.
There was a time when mankind was adrift.
There was a time when mankind was left in the darkness, so to speak.
When mankind enters into this world, apart from the light of Jesus Christ into our light,
apart from his revelation to us, what are our options without any external transcendent light?
Well, our options are to muddle our way through this world,
to stub our toes time and time again,
to lack understanding of why we're here and what we exist to do.
And apart from Jesus, apart from God,
apart from the one who formed us, instructing us about who we are
and what our place is in this cosmos,
we are going to be left to struggle and to flail.
What John is saying here is that God, in times past,
he revealed himself to us through his prophets, through his word.
But then he gave us his son to give us greater clarity as to who we are
and what we exist to do. Imagine you have a man, and he goes out in the gulf here, and he goes out
in a boat. Imagine he goes out there a little ways. He doesn't really know what he's doing. He goes to
bed, and he wakes up, and he looks around, and he sees nothing but water. Nothing but water. Now,
what is his options at this point for getting home? What's his options for navigating? What can
he use? Yeah, he can use the stars. He can use the stars. If he sees nothing else, if all he sees is
water, what most people try to do in that context, in the context, let's say that this is the human
life. What most people try to do when we're adrift in the world around us, when we don't look for
transcendent sources of help, what most of us do is we keep throwing down buoys behind us in our
experience. We throw down some buoy in our experience and we say, well, that's where I was
10 years ago and this is the lessons I learned and this is where I am now. And we navigate on the
basis of who we are and what we've done in times past. That's the way most people navigate. But a
wise man, especially if you're out in the ocean, a wise man cannot learn a whole lot by throwing
out buoys. All the buoys do is mark where he's been. They don't necessarily tell him where he's
going. So what does that man need? What does the captain of that boat need? Well, what he needs is
a transcendent source of revelation that's greater than himself. He needs a transcendent source of
knowledge, a fixed point of reference that he can utilize in order to navigate the world around him
rather than just relying on his own experiences.
In the darkness of our secular age,
most people are relying on their experiences
and their emotions and things intrinsic to this.
They keep dropping buoys
and navigating on the basis of the buoys.
What they don't do is look skyward and say,
I wonder if God has spoken.
I wonder if there's a transcendent frame of reference
that can teach me who I am, how I should live,
what I should do, what I should not do.
Most people navigate on the basis of the buoys,
but it's wiser to navigate on the basis of light.
What we see here in verses 4 through 13 is this idea,
this idea that a light has come.
A light has come, and cruelly, ironically,
the light came to the very people who were told to expect the light.
And what did they do?
Well, here we read that he came to his own, and his own did not receive him.
He came to the people who were told to expect the light,
who were given prophecy after prophecy after prophecy,
that told them what to expect, who to look out for roughly,
roughly when he would come, where he would be born, all that sort of stuff.
and when the guy who showed up, when the guy who showed up fulfilled all of the old test prophecies
to a tee, when that guy showed up, they killed him. He came to his own, the own did not receive
him. The source of greatest light that he had ever asked for or desired came to them, and they
rejected him and hung him on a tree, hung him on the cross. Why? Well, John will tell us. I'll swear
several times in his gospel, I'll tell him this. He says the reason that they did it, the reason
that they killed him. The reason our generation would kill him still is because men prefer the
darkness. Men prefer the darkness because their deeds are evil. They don't want the transcendent
lights. You know, they don't want that stuff per se. They're more content navigating on the basis
of what they find in here and dropping the buoys down to explore their reality. But that's not
sufficient. Later on, John's going to say this. He's going to say, this is the great condemnation
that the light that came into the world,
and the men loved darkness rather than the light
because their deeds were evil.
For everyone practicing evil hates the light,
does not come to the light,
lest his deeds should be exposed.
You know, I don't know if you know this,
but South Mississippi's got a lot of bugs.
We live in a swamp.
We live over by the Trudy-Kabuff River.
We live literally like you can throw a rock
and you'll hit swamp.
When the rains come,
we're always worried about these hurricanes and storms
because we've had four feet of water under the house.
We have an elevated house.
With that said,
I think I've seen every type of bug and insect that the South has to throw at you,
milling around at different times under the house or in different areas of our neighborhood,
just all manner of different things.
And one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty is that you go under our house
and you turn on those lights, what happens?
Well, the bugs don't care for that.
You move the pallet of wood that's been sitting under your house for four years
for the first time you move it, you go, ah!
There's all these bugs, and what happens when you move it?
Well, they all flee, they all scurry.
In a sense, this is what this passage is telling us.
John. It says that men like cockroaches when faced with the light. Men don't like the light either
because it shines a light on their deeds and their deeds are evil. You know why the world hates it
when you quote this? You know why the world hates it when you put this even on a Facebook post? Even
apart from any other context, you just quote scripture. Why can that rile people up? Because
oftentimes, oftentimes it redresses things in their life that they want to keep doing that this word
is saying that they should not. Oftentimes it's because this word challenges them with regards to
some presupposition that they've built into their actions which comforts them and which this word
convicts them of. So that said, the light, if the word, if the book is a light, if the people hate
the book telling them what to do and what not to do, how much more so they hate it when the word
became flesh and stood in front of them and instructed them and talked to these men about
their sin, about their actions, about their deeds, and when his words were recorded and quoted years
later. It's not that the world is neutral towards Jesus. They're flat out not. The world is at
enmity with Christ, not only because of what he said, but because he has the authority to fulfill
it. Again, people don't mind kindly Jesus, but a Jesus who not only tells them how to live,
but has the authority to rule over them when or if they do or don't, that's a Jesus that they
reject. All right, for time's sake, let's look at our last verse for this morning. Let's look at
verse 14 verse 14 verse 14 says this and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld
his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth the word became
flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory is the only beginning of the father full
of grace and truth remember that when john is saying this for you if you and i were to write
down something like that it would be poetry for John it was history John was saying these are
things I saw these are things I experienced when he was on the mountaintop he was transfigured a
radiant light came down it wasn't just a radiant light filled his face and colored every part of
it was also Elijah was there and Moses was there and it wasn't just that Elijah and Moses was there
it was that the God the Father's voice said this is my son and whom I am well pleased listen to him
John saw that.
He saw that.
He said this one, this incarnate Christ,
he existed way back when he's formed everything.
And in due time, he came to those that he had made
and he lived and dwelt among us.
The word became flesh and dwelt amongst us
as a concept of tabernacling.
Remember in the Old Testament,
they had the tabernacle, the temple,
God dwelt in the midst of Israel.
Well, here he's saying he did it again.
Guys, he's saying, you remember when God came down
and the tabernacle, the Shekinah glory that dwelt
on the Ark of the Covenant, in the
tabernacle, and then later in the temple. God was
amongst his people. Well, here he's saying he's
done it again, but he's done it even better.
In times past, we had an ark, and it
was hidden behind a cloak, and no one could go in there,
and no one could encounter God in that context, but
in due time, he came to us, and he
dwelt amongst us, and we beheld him, and
we saw it, and we're writing down what we saw.
The glory of only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth.
The question as we close this morning
is that we can take that for
granted, and we can say, yeah, he did that,
Yeah, amen.
But you notice John is like marveling at it.
He understood these things better than even we do.
But even understanding it better, his mind is blown.
He's marveling at it.
And he's marveling at it for two reasons.
Number one, he's marveling at it because how impressive and amazing and glorious and majestic God is.
That's what he just says here.
The glories of the only God and the Father, full of grace and truth.
So he marvels at how awesome Jesus is.
How amazing, how just wonderful and majestic Jesus is.
Absolutely, that's one of the things that amazes him that causes him just to stand back
even as he's writing these words and to process the glory and the majesty of his God.
So that's one thing.
That's one thing that he focuses and lingers on here.
But the second thing is I think John's surprised that given who God is,
given this majesty and this holiness and this radiance and this awesomeness and this majesty,
all these different things, given that, who he is, why in the world would he come to save you?
Why did he come to save John?
In Psalm 8, the psalmist asks the same thing.
He says, who's man that you should do this?
King David looks to the stars.
King David looks to the stars and he asks God,
God, what's man that you're mindful of him?
Have you ever asked that question, why you're worthy of any of this?
Again, we can sometimes take it for granted and go, well, I'm pretty awesome.
Doesn't surprise me, God would think I'm pretty awesome too, right?
We can fall into that mindset.
But even King David, as awesome as he was, he stood back and he says,
Who is man? Who am I? A king among people. Who is man? Who am I? That you're mindful of him.
You see, a right understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ not only sees God as majestic and
amazing and transcendent and glorious and all these things, but it also understands that we
are wicked. And it's a surprise that he wants anything to do with us. And yet he does. Despite
who we are, despite our brokenness, despite our failings, despite things, as we've said before,
You've committed sins this past year,
especially in the course of your lifetime,
that if you were to name them to others in the room around you,
they'd shy away from you right now.
But the God who knows all that and more,
who knows every thought you've ever thought,
he not only doesn't shy away from you, but he embraces you.
Who is man, oh God, that you're mindful of him?
Who is man that you, this majestic, amazing, transcendent king,
would want anything to do with us,
let alone, let alone come to die for us?
It's one thing that you formed us.
I can get that.
Maybe we'd spin the world like a top and stand back to see what we would do.
And it's another thing that you sort of throw us some revelation from time to time.
You throw us some prophets or an angel or two.
I get that too.
But the idea that you would come to us, that you would live with us,
that you would tabernacle with us, and that you would die for us,
I don't get it.
John marveled at this.
We take it for granted.
As we go through the book of John in the next number of months here,
we should stand back and remember that this author, this apostle,
this disciple. His intention, on the one hand, is to tell a skeptical society who Jesus was
to help convert and save the lost. Absolutely. Is that part of his intention? Sure. But his desire
for you this morning as a Christian in 21st century Gulfport, Mississippi, it's not simply
that you would acknowledge the basic truth that Jesus is God. You knew that when you came in,
but rather that you would appreciate him all the more for what he's done for people like you and I.
This is the gospel. This is the narrative, and we're going to build upon it in the weeks to come.
Let's pray.