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 In today's sermon, we're beginning a new series on the Gospel of John.

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 John 1-1 starts with these words,

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 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

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 A few verses later, John refers to Jesus as the Light.

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 Now, why did John use these terms to describe Christ's person and work?

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 That'll be the focus of today's study.

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 When I've talked about Jesus to those who are from other belief systems, other religions,

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 when I talk about Jesus to folks in those environments, what's interesting is they don't

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 spit back at me a bunch of bile regarding Jesus. They don't say, Jesus, ah, we don't need him. They

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 don't do anything like that. They tend to compliment Jesus. What I found when I'm talking

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 to those of other belief systems is that they tend to compliment Jesus. They say, Jesus, yes,

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 Jesus. And then they'll talk about how he was a great leader, how he's a great teacher, a great

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 motivator, a wise man. He's a very wise man. Some will say he was a great prophet, a great prophet,

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 but you know what they won't say? They won't say that he was God. And that is the one distinction

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 that John verses 1 through 18 labors to make again and again and again and again as we go through it.

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 If you've ever heard anyone talk about Jesus as a great teacher, a great rabbi, a great leader,

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 a great prophet. He was all those things. Amen and amen. But those things don't save us. We are not

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 saved because Jesus was a great teacher. We are not saved because he was a great prophet. We're

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 not saved because he did any manner of great things, even miracles in times past. Those things

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 don't save us. What saves us principally is this, that he was God in the flesh. He was God incarnate.

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 That God came down. That he who pre-existed all of creation came down from his throne to go to a

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 cross. He died, he was buried, he was resurrected three days later, and now he sits at the right

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 hand of God the Father. We aren't saved on the basis of things that he said or did apart from

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 the divine nature by which he did them. Now, why would anyone from a different belief system

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 give credit to Jesus at all? Why would those in other belief systems talk about Jesus positively?

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 Well, here's the thing. It doesn't cost them anything to do that. In fact, even just in

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 secular society. There may be celebrities, politicians, any manner of people who will

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 quote Jesus, and they don't see any problem with that, even if they're not formal believers.

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 They'll quote Jesus in reference to wise things that he has said. Now, why again do they do that?

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 People want the latitude to quote things Jesus said without falling under the authority

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 of those very things. They want Jesus, and they like a Jesus who is like this kindly

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 gentleman from centuries past, this kindly gentleman that said wonderful, sweet, loving

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 things to people centuries ago. And if he was with you right now, he'd say wonderful, sweet,

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 loving things to you as well. They wanted Jesus that they can define as just this kindly gentleman,

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 this itinerant rabbi who went around loving people. Now, is that Jesus depicted in this word?

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 Well, yes, he was a kindly itinerant individual who went around healing people. And he said all

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 manner of sweet things. Absolutely. With that said, the problem they have is when this same one

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 says anything that conflicts with the way they want to build their lives, and furthermore,

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 he has the authority to enforce that which he has said. You see, that's the demarcation line

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 that the early church faced. The early church, their problem was this, that many would credit

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 Jesus for things that he accomplished, and maybe even some of the miraculous things that he did,

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 and yet they would strip him of his divinity.

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 Some of the early church councils, the main arguments, the main fights they had

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 were with regards to the person of Jesus.

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 Who was he? Was he God in the flesh? Was he God-like? Was he a demigod?

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 What was his nature?

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 With that said, John 1, verses 1 through 18, is written late in John's life,

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 and the intention of this gospel is to explain forthrightly to any and all who would read it,

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 any and all who would encounter these words, that this Jesus is not just a mere, nice, kindly man.

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 He's not just a mere kindly rabbi and prophet and leader and teacher and all these things.

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 He is God in the flesh.

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 In the beginning, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

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 John doesn't start with any salutations.

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 He doesn't say, hey, everybody, it's me.

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 He doesn't start with letters.

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 You know, the way you write emails, you know, sometimes we labor over that first line of greeting and so forth.

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 He doesn't bother with that.

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 He gets to the meat right in the first line, in the beginning,

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 what should have resonated with his audience the way it resonates with us.

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 Because where did we first encounter those words?

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 What book?

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 Genesis.

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 Genesis 1-1.

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 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

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 John knows what he's doing here.

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 He says, in the beginning.

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 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

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 Now, in just a moment, we're going to talk about what that means, that reference to the Word.

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 But like I said at the outset, as we go through this book, as we go through the Gospel of John,

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 that he is intent, absolutely 100% intent in telling his audience that Jesus is not simply

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 a kindly gentleman, but rather this is God in the flesh. And John says, I have the receipts

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 because I was there on the mountaintop when the father said, this is my son. John is regularly

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 going to talk about himself as an eyewitness to these things. He's not going to say, I heard from

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 a guy who heard from a guy who have heard from my brother's sister's uncle's friend. I heard from

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 someone out there about these things. He's not going to say that. He's going to say, I saw it.

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 I heard it. I touched him. I witnessed all of these things. And I believe, and I want you to

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 believe too. And here's what you should believe about this Jesus. And that's where verse one

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 opens. All right, let me reread verses one through three, and then we'll work our way through as

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 time allows. Verses one through three. In the beginning, in the beginning was the Word. And

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 the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were

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 made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made. All right. In verse 1, John

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 is making two theological statements. Now, the first is to refer to Jesus as the Word. He does

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 this several times. He refers to Jesus as the Word. The question is, why? Wouldn't it be simpler

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 to say, in the beginning was Jesus, in the beginning was the Messiah, in the beginning was

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 Christ? Wouldn't it be simpler to do that? Why does he say the Word? Why does he say, in the

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 beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Well, theologians have

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 explained this in two different ways. Number one, they talk about the historical context in which

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 John wrote. At that time, at that time, the world was populated with great thinkers, and those

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 thinkers were influenced by Greece. And Greece's approach to philosophy and logic and even theology

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 was very abstract. And when Greek philosophers talked about the universe itself, they had a word

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 to describe the fabric that holds everything together,

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 and that word is logos.

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 That was the word that the Greek philosophers would use.

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 So in a sense, you could argue that what John is doing

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 is he's taking a popular term, popular phrase,

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 and he's saying, yes, there is a fabric

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 that holds the universe together,

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 but by the way, it's this guy, Jesus Christ.

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 In the beginning was the word.

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 He was with God.

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 He was God.

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 And he formed all things.

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 Verse three, all things were made through him.

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 Without him, nothing was made that was made.

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 In a sense, he may be referring to Greek philosophy when he refers to Jesus Christ here as the word,

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 to go over and against the modern popular teaching of that time.

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 With that said, there's a second possibility with regards to why he calls Jesus the word here.

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 Now, let me ask you a question.

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 What do words accomplish?

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 What's the purpose of words?

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 Communication, right?

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 Words help reveal things about one another.

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 Now, let me ask you a question.

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 There is one thing I hate above all things.

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 One food substance I hate more than anything else?

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 Now, how do you know that?

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 How do you know I hate celery?

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 How do you know it?

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 Well, you know it because I've told you time and time again.

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 I don't think a Sunday goes by

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 I don't allude to the horrors of celery.

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 Someone sent me a picture of celery this week.

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 I couldn't get off my phone fast enough.

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 But you know that because I revealed it.

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 I revealed something about my nature,

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 something about my likes and dislikes,

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 something about myself.

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 I have told you time and time again.

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 And because of that, you know it to be true.

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 That's a revelation.

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 but the revelation came through words.

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 It didn't come because you've ever seen me eat it.

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 I would never do such a thing.

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 It didn't come because you've seen me push it away.

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 I wouldn't even be in the same room as it.

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 It didn't come through observation.

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 It came through revelation because I told you.

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 So when you talk about words, words are revelatory.

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 This whole book right here is a revelation.

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 This is 2,000 pages of God telling you about himself

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 and telling you about his plan for your life.

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 This is God's word, his revelation to you and I.

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 Now, in one sense, you could say

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 this is the greatest revelation we've ever been given, the word of God. What could be better than

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 that? Well, I'll tell you. What if the word, what if the word, what if the word that's open every

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 Sunday here on the table, what if the word was to be made flesh? What if God said, I give you

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 my word, I will tell you about myself, but what if the word became flesh and dwelt amongst you?

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 would that not be a finer revelation of who i am than even what you have here well the short answer

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 is yes there's no greater revelation god has ever given mankind about himself than when he sent his

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 only begotten son the second member of the trinity to walk and dwell and speak and breathe amongst

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 his people the word was made flesh and that's what gets john so excited he says for years we had this

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 we had the old testament we had the prophets we had what they told us about god but in due time

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 The Word became flesh, and He dwelt among us.

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 And by the way, this is not some demigod.

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 This is not like God's cousin who came down.

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 This is God Himself.

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 This is the one who fashioned the cosmos.

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 This is the one who made the universe.

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 Now, that's the second of the two theological statements

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 that John labors over in verses 1 through 3.

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 It's the second main thing he says.

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 He says, not only in the beginning was the Word,

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 and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,

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 but he goes on to say, this One, this One,

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 made everything that you see in the world around you.

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 this one made the forest, and the trees, and the fauna, and the leaves, and all these different

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 things. And not only did he make that stuff, like some sort of cosmic Bob Ross with a great canvas,

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 not only did he make all that stuff, but even now, it is Jesus Christ's power that keeps the entire

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 cosmos from falling apart and disintegrating. It keeps every molecule in the exact place it needs

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 to be, the Word of God, and the Word is Christ. So in John verse 1, John parallels the creation

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 account in Genesis. Again, he knew what he was doing. He said, in the beginning. In the beginning,

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 God created the heavens and the earth, but in the beginning, Jesus was a principal means by which

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 this happened. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. He was in the

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 beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that was made.

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 Now, if you ever read the book of Hebrews, what's interesting is the author of Hebrews starts the

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 same way. Who wrote Hebrews? God only knows. There's a lot of speculation. It might have been

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 Paul or Barnabas, Apollos. There's different guys. It could be. We don't really know, but what we do

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 know is this, that the author of Hebrews opens up his epistle in the exact same way as John did.

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 Listen to how Hebrews 1, verses 1 and 2 starts. God has in these last days spoken to us by his

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 Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, whom also he has made the world. Both John and

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 the author of Hebrews, they not only want to say that, by the way, Jesus is the Son of God,

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 but they also labor to make the point that this Jesus is the one who created and formed all the

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 things around us. That transcended. Whatever the common understanding of Jerusalem and Judea

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 and Ephesus and Thessalonica, whatever the common understanding was about Jesus at that time,

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 it was far less than what John and the author of Hebrews are trying to explain.

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 They're not just saying he was a great man, a great prophet, a great leader, a demigod,

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 sort of God, what have you. They say this one, this one who came in real time and space and was

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 born in a manger and went to a cross, he now sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. And

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 by the way, he is God. There's references in verse 1 of today's text and verse 18 called

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 bookends to the Trinity. John is not content as we're going to see time and time again with any

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 lessened understanding of who Jesus was and neither should we be. All right, let's look at verses 4

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 through 13. Verse 4 through 13. In him was life and the life was the light of men and the light

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 shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. Now there was a man sent from God

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 whose name was John. This is a reference to John the Baptist. This man came for a witness, to bear

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 witness of that light that all through him might believe. Now, he was not that light. So John the

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 Baptist, many asked him, are you the Messiah? Are you the promised one? And he would say, no, I'm not

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 even worthy to tie the sandal of the one who's coming, right? So in verse 6, it says, his name

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 was John. He came to be a witness of the light, but he was not that light. Verse 8, he was said to bear

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 witness of the light. He was not that light, but this is the true light which gives light to every

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 man coming into the world. He was in the world. This is a reference to Christ. And the world was

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 made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive

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 him. But as many, as many as did receive him, to those he gave the right to become children

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 of God. Not just peons in the kingdom, but sons and daughters. To those who believe in his name,

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 not those who earned their status, but those who believe in his name, were born not of blood,

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 not of the will of flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. In verses 4 through 13,

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 John changes his metaphor up, right? On the one hand, he'd been talking about the Word. The Word

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 is made flesh, right? He talks about Jesus as the Word, but now he uses a different metaphor. Now

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 he's talking about Jesus as the light. Now, what does that intimate? I mean, everyone knows what

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 light is. They knew what light was in the first century. We know what light is now, but what did

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 that into me? What did that convey? Let's say that you go into a room, a darkened room, and you turn

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 on a light. What happens? What changes in that environment? During the course of the week, I'm

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 at church at various intervals. Sometimes it's in the morning. Sometimes I'm at night after a

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 session, meetings and the like. But on many occasions, I go into that kitchen back there.

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 Now, you know how many windows that kitchen has? None. I mean, it's got the little things in the

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 door right there. But what I find is that each time I go in the kitchen routinely, especially

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 if it's the night, it's pitch black in there. But there's usually a little bit of light coming from

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 out here that sort of shines in there a little bit and many times I say to myself it's usually

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 because I have something I have to throw away. I say I can find the trash can even though it's

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 really just about pitch dark so I kind of reach around try to find it so I can throw my you know

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 coke can or whatever I need to throw away. The amount of times I've hit my kneecap on something

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 in that kitchen it's a veritable minefield if you don't have the light on. I mean you should see me

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 I sort of sat there one day I was just in agony and I keep doing it because I'm silly. I don't

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 know why I keep doing this but the amount of times I've had issues in that very kitchen there's a

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 stool that showed up. I don't know where it came from. There's a stool in there that's now the bane

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 of my existence when I go in there. But I always think I got it this time. This is the time I've

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 got it. This is the time I'll navigate it. I keep thinking if I just remember to take so many steps

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 left, so many steps right, I'll be good. With that said, wisdom says turn on the light. Wisdom says

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 you don't want to bang your knee. You don't want to mess things up. You don't want to miss the

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 trash can because that's happened too. Turn on the light. So what is the principles? What does

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 light do for us? Why do we have lights in our house and in the room and the like? Well, there's

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 four benefits. There's probably more, but there's four key benefits that light brings. Number one,

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 light allows sight. Light allows sight. When the light is on, you can understand your reality.

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 When the light is on, you can understand your circumstances. Reality is given contours by

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 lights. If all of us were to practice after worship let out, all of us were to practice

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 closing our eyes to find our way to our cars,

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 what kind of mess would we all be in?

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 If we all closed our eyes and literally tried to funnel

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 our way out of this room, it would be a scene.

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 Why? Because apart

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 from the light, apart from being able to see,

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 we can't define the contours of where our next

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 footfall is going to land, let alone

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 anything else, let alone dangers we might otherwise

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 engage in. Light allows

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 sight. Number two, light reduces

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 risk. Through allowing sight,

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 it reduces risk. When our path is clear,

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 we're able to avoid dangerous things.

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 When God came into this world through the person and work of his son,

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 when he shed light on certain sinful behaviors and attitudes and approaches,

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 it helped the people to steer clear of those things

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 and to avoid risk that would otherwise instill them or destroy them.

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 So light reduces risk, which is one of the reasons that we turn on the light.

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 Number three, light's comforting.

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 Light's comforting.

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 Have you ever been a child or had a child who, at nighttime,

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 you tuck them into bed or you get tucked into bed when you're a small kid,

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 And the request of the child is what?

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 Daddy, could you leave the light on?

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 Don't forget the night light.

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 Is the hallway light on?

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 Things like that.

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 Now, why does a kid ask that?

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 Why do you ever ask that?

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 What's the point?

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 Well, light's just comforting.

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 Because apart from the light, in the darkness, we wonder what monsters exist.

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 We wonder what monsters exist under the bed and the like.

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 And we can be told a hundred times there's nothing under the bed,

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 there's nothing under the bed, there's nothing under the bed.

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 But when it's dark, when it's dark, we can't really be sure.

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 but there's something about light that gives us some comfort.

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 Number four, light also gives knowledge.

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 Light gives knowledge.

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 If we were given a newspaper in the dark,

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 you'd know it was a newspaper.

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 You wouldn't have doubt about that.

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 You could figure out this is a newspaper,

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 but what could you discern from its teachings?

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 What could you learn from it?

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 In the darkness, nothing.

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 You would have the basic understanding

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 of what it is that you're holding

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 and how it could serve you,

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 but apart from the light being turned on,

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 the knowledge that is written on its pages

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 would be of no value to you.

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 So light allows sight, it reduces risk, it comforts us, and it gives knowledge.

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 Now all of that and more can and should be said of Jesus Christ.

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 There was a time when mankind was adrift.

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 There was a time when mankind was left in the darkness, so to speak.

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 When mankind enters into this world, apart from the light of Jesus Christ into our light,

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 apart from his revelation to us, what are our options without any external transcendent light?

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 Well, our options are to muddle our way through this world,

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 to stub our toes time and time again,

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 to lack understanding of why we're here and what we exist to do.

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 And apart from Jesus, apart from God,

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 apart from the one who formed us, instructing us about who we are

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 and what our place is in this cosmos,

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 we are going to be left to struggle and to flail.

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 What John is saying here is that God, in times past,

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 he revealed himself to us through his prophets, through his word.

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 But then he gave us his son to give us greater clarity as to who we are

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 and what we exist to do. Imagine you have a man, and he goes out in the gulf here, and he goes out

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 in a boat. Imagine he goes out there a little ways. He doesn't really know what he's doing. He goes to

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 bed, and he wakes up, and he looks around, and he sees nothing but water. Nothing but water. Now,

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 what is his options at this point for getting home? What's his options for navigating? What can

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 he use? Yeah, he can use the stars. He can use the stars. If he sees nothing else, if all he sees is

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 water, what most people try to do in that context, in the context, let's say that this is the human

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 life. What most people try to do when we're adrift in the world around us, when we don't look for

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 transcendent sources of help, what most of us do is we keep throwing down buoys behind us in our

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 experience. We throw down some buoy in our experience and we say, well, that's where I was

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 10 years ago and this is the lessons I learned and this is where I am now. And we navigate on the

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 basis of who we are and what we've done in times past. That's the way most people navigate. But a

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 wise man, especially if you're out in the ocean, a wise man cannot learn a whole lot by throwing

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 out buoys. All the buoys do is mark where he's been. They don't necessarily tell him where he's

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 going. So what does that man need? What does the captain of that boat need? Well, what he needs is

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 a transcendent source of revelation that's greater than himself. He needs a transcendent source of

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 knowledge, a fixed point of reference that he can utilize in order to navigate the world around him

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 rather than just relying on his own experiences.

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 In the darkness of our secular age,

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 most people are relying on their experiences

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 and their emotions and things intrinsic to this.

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 They keep dropping buoys

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 and navigating on the basis of the buoys.

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 What they don't do is look skyward and say,

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 I wonder if God has spoken.

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 I wonder if there's a transcendent frame of reference

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 that can teach me who I am, how I should live,

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 what I should do, what I should not do.

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 Most people navigate on the basis of the buoys,

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 but it's wiser to navigate on the basis of light.

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 What we see here in verses 4 through 13 is this idea,

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 this idea that a light has come.

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 A light has come, and cruelly, ironically,

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 the light came to the very people who were told to expect the light.

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 And what did they do?

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 Well, here we read that he came to his own, and his own did not receive him.

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 He came to the people who were told to expect the light,

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 who were given prophecy after prophecy after prophecy,

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 that told them what to expect, who to look out for roughly,

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 roughly when he would come, where he would be born, all that sort of stuff.

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 and when the guy who showed up, when the guy who showed up fulfilled all of the old test prophecies

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 to a tee, when that guy showed up, they killed him. He came to his own, the own did not receive

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 him. The source of greatest light that he had ever asked for or desired came to them, and they

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 rejected him and hung him on a tree, hung him on the cross. Why? Well, John will tell us. I'll swear

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 several times in his gospel, I'll tell him this. He says the reason that they did it, the reason

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 that they killed him. The reason our generation would kill him still is because men prefer the

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 darkness. Men prefer the darkness because their deeds are evil. They don't want the transcendent

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 lights. You know, they don't want that stuff per se. They're more content navigating on the basis

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 of what they find in here and dropping the buoys down to explore their reality. But that's not

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 sufficient. Later on, John's going to say this. He's going to say, this is the great condemnation

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 that the light that came into the world,

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 and the men loved darkness rather than the light

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 because their deeds were evil.

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 For everyone practicing evil hates the light,

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 does not come to the light,

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 lest his deeds should be exposed.

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 You know, I don't know if you know this,

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 but South Mississippi's got a lot of bugs.

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 We live in a swamp.

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 We live over by the Trudy-Kabuff River.

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 We live literally like you can throw a rock

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 and you'll hit swamp.

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 When the rains come,

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 we're always worried about these hurricanes and storms

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 because we've had four feet of water under the house.

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 We have an elevated house.

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 With that said,

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 I think I've seen every type of bug and insect that the South has to throw at you,

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 milling around at different times under the house or in different areas of our neighborhood,

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 just all manner of different things.

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 And one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty is that you go under our house

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 and you turn on those lights, what happens?

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 Well, the bugs don't care for that.

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 You move the pallet of wood that's been sitting under your house for four years

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 for the first time you move it, you go, ah!

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 There's all these bugs, and what happens when you move it?

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 Well, they all flee, they all scurry.

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 In a sense, this is what this passage is telling us.

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 John. It says that men like cockroaches when faced with the light. Men don't like the light either

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 because it shines a light on their deeds and their deeds are evil. You know why the world hates it

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 when you quote this? You know why the world hates it when you put this even on a Facebook post? Even

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 apart from any other context, you just quote scripture. Why can that rile people up? Because

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 oftentimes, oftentimes it redresses things in their life that they want to keep doing that this word

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 is saying that they should not. Oftentimes it's because this word challenges them with regards to

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 some presupposition that they've built into their actions which comforts them and which this word

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 convicts them of. So that said, the light, if the word, if the book is a light, if the people hate

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 the book telling them what to do and what not to do, how much more so they hate it when the word

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 became flesh and stood in front of them and instructed them and talked to these men about

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 their sin, about their actions, about their deeds, and when his words were recorded and quoted years

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 later. It's not that the world is neutral towards Jesus. They're flat out not. The world is at

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 enmity with Christ, not only because of what he said, but because he has the authority to fulfill

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 it. Again, people don't mind kindly Jesus, but a Jesus who not only tells them how to live,

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 but has the authority to rule over them when or if they do or don't, that's a Jesus that they

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 reject. All right, for time's sake, let's look at our last verse for this morning. Let's look at

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 verse 14 verse 14 verse 14 says this and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld

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 his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth the word became

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 flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory is the only beginning of the father full

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 of grace and truth remember that when john is saying this for you if you and i were to write

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 down something like that it would be poetry for John it was history John was saying these are

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 things I saw these are things I experienced when he was on the mountaintop he was transfigured a

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 radiant light came down it wasn't just a radiant light filled his face and colored every part of

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 it was also Elijah was there and Moses was there and it wasn't just that Elijah and Moses was there

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 it was that the God the Father's voice said this is my son and whom I am well pleased listen to him

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 John saw that.

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 He saw that.

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 He said this one, this incarnate Christ,

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 he existed way back when he's formed everything.

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 And in due time, he came to those that he had made

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 and he lived and dwelt among us.

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 The word became flesh and dwelt amongst us

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 as a concept of tabernacling.

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 Remember in the Old Testament,

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 they had the tabernacle, the temple,

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 God dwelt in the midst of Israel.

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 Well, here he's saying he did it again.

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 Guys, he's saying, you remember when God came down

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 and the tabernacle, the Shekinah glory that dwelt

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 on the Ark of the Covenant, in the

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 tabernacle, and then later in the temple. God was

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 amongst his people. Well, here he's saying he's

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 done it again, but he's done it even better.

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 In times past, we had an ark, and it

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 was hidden behind a cloak, and no one could go in there,

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 and no one could encounter God in that context, but

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 in due time, he came to us, and he

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 dwelt amongst us, and we beheld him, and

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 we saw it, and we're writing down what we saw.

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 The glory of only begotten of the

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 Father, full of grace and truth.

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 The question as we close this morning

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 is that we can take that for

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 granted, and we can say, yeah, he did that,

435
00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:42,720
 Yeah, amen.

436
00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:45,420
 But you notice John is like marveling at it.

437
00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:47,620
 He understood these things better than even we do.

438
00:25:47,620 --> 00:25:51,640
 But even understanding it better, his mind is blown.

439
00:25:52,460 --> 00:25:53,120
 He's marveling at it.

440
00:25:53,120 --> 00:25:54,300
 And he's marveling at it for two reasons.

441
00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:58,160
 Number one, he's marveling at it because how impressive and amazing and glorious and majestic God is.

442
00:25:58,220 --> 00:25:59,060
 That's what he just says here.

443
00:25:59,140 --> 00:26:01,560
 The glories of the only God and the Father, full of grace and truth.

444
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:04,440
 So he marvels at how awesome Jesus is.

445
00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:08,460
 How amazing, how just wonderful and majestic Jesus is.

446
00:26:08,540 --> 00:26:12,920
 Absolutely, that's one of the things that amazes him that causes him just to stand back

447
00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:17,520
 even as he's writing these words and to process the glory and the majesty of his God.

448
00:26:17,620 --> 00:26:18,580
 So that's one thing.

449
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:20,840
 That's one thing that he focuses and lingers on here.

450
00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:26,640
 But the second thing is I think John's surprised that given who God is,

451
00:26:27,180 --> 00:26:31,200
 given this majesty and this holiness and this radiance and this awesomeness and this majesty,

452
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:35,100
 all these different things, given that, who he is, why in the world would he come to save you?

453
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:37,340
 Why did he come to save John?

454
00:26:38,540 --> 00:26:40,360
 In Psalm 8, the psalmist asks the same thing.

455
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:42,120
 He says, who's man that you should do this?

456
00:26:42,860 --> 00:26:44,380
 King David looks to the stars.

457
00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:46,560
 King David looks to the stars and he asks God,

458
00:26:47,360 --> 00:26:51,360
 God, what's man that you're mindful of him?

459
00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:54,420
 Have you ever asked that question, why you're worthy of any of this?

460
00:26:55,500 --> 00:26:58,500
 Again, we can sometimes take it for granted and go, well, I'm pretty awesome.

461
00:26:59,020 --> 00:27:01,240
 Doesn't surprise me, God would think I'm pretty awesome too, right?

462
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:02,800
 We can fall into that mindset.

463
00:27:03,120 --> 00:27:05,820
 But even King David, as awesome as he was, he stood back and he says,

464
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:11,880
 Who is man? Who am I? A king among people. Who is man? Who am I? That you're mindful of him.

465
00:27:12,540 --> 00:27:18,100
 You see, a right understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ not only sees God as majestic and

466
00:27:18,100 --> 00:27:22,880
 amazing and transcendent and glorious and all these things, but it also understands that we

467
00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:28,900
 are wicked. And it's a surprise that he wants anything to do with us. And yet he does. Despite

468
00:27:28,900 --> 00:27:33,960
 who we are, despite our brokenness, despite our failings, despite things, as we've said before,

469
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:35,960
 You've committed sins this past year,

470
00:27:36,140 --> 00:27:37,400
 especially in the course of your lifetime,

471
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:39,540
 that if you were to name them to others in the room around you,

472
00:27:39,580 --> 00:27:40,920
 they'd shy away from you right now.

473
00:27:41,020 --> 00:27:42,860
 But the God who knows all that and more,

474
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:44,400
 who knows every thought you've ever thought,

475
00:27:44,940 --> 00:27:47,560
 he not only doesn't shy away from you, but he embraces you.

476
00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:50,260
 Who is man, oh God, that you're mindful of him?

477
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:54,780
 Who is man that you, this majestic, amazing, transcendent king,

478
00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:56,080
 would want anything to do with us,

479
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:59,140
 let alone, let alone come to die for us?

480
00:27:59,700 --> 00:28:01,240
 It's one thing that you formed us.

481
00:28:01,420 --> 00:28:02,120
 I can get that.

482
00:28:02,180 --> 00:28:04,820
 Maybe we'd spin the world like a top and stand back to see what we would do.

483
00:28:04,820 --> 00:28:08,940
 And it's another thing that you sort of throw us some revelation from time to time.

484
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:10,840
 You throw us some prophets or an angel or two.

485
00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:11,900
 I get that too.

486
00:28:12,140 --> 00:28:15,140
 But the idea that you would come to us, that you would live with us,

487
00:28:15,180 --> 00:28:17,920
 that you would tabernacle with us, and that you would die for us,

488
00:28:18,360 --> 00:28:19,260
 I don't get it.

489
00:28:20,420 --> 00:28:21,600
 John marveled at this.

490
00:28:22,580 --> 00:28:23,540
 We take it for granted.

491
00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:27,840
 As we go through the book of John in the next number of months here,

492
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:32,040
 we should stand back and remember that this author, this apostle,

493
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:37,440
 this disciple. His intention, on the one hand, is to tell a skeptical society who Jesus was

494
00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:42,760
 to help convert and save the lost. Absolutely. Is that part of his intention? Sure. But his desire

495
00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:46,660
 for you this morning as a Christian in 21st century Gulfport, Mississippi, it's not simply

496
00:28:46,660 --> 00:28:49,960
 that you would acknowledge the basic truth that Jesus is God. You knew that when you came in,

497
00:28:50,260 --> 00:28:55,760
 but rather that you would appreciate him all the more for what he's done for people like you and I.

498
00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:59,660
 This is the gospel. This is the narrative, and we're going to build upon it in the weeks to come.

499
00:28:59,660 --> 00:29:00,360
 Let's pray.