Start with Christ
Notes
Transcript
Grace for the Other: Start with Christ
Thesis: Christ is for you and for me, together in Christ, we are his church.
Sermon Outline for “Start with Christ”
John 1:1-18
1. Prayer: We are people easily swayed and distracted. Would you plant our feet firmly in your truth and your revelation. Would you, in your mercy open our eyes to who you are and love you for it. We are in awe of you. Would we be in awe of your word.
2. Introduction: It matters what you build on and how you build it. Doesn’t it? There have been a number of homes springing up in the neighborhoods of Kirksville. It is quite fun and intriguing to watch their metamorphosis from heaps of disorganized dirt and roots to a sparkling new home.
2.1. While I am by no means an architect or a builder, I have noticed a couple of rudimentary things of the home building process.
2.1.1. They make space for the home. They clear away what it is there and they remove any hindrances to its place.
2.1.2. They also lay a foundation. Anyone who builds a home knows that what you put on the base is determined by what is holding it together. They pour concrete over the rebar and thus the foundation is laid.
2.1.3. Upon the foundation they then build and trust what it placed atop it, because there is a firm foundation and when storms come, it will stand firm.
2.2. I was watching a documentary on the tornado in Joplin Missouri back in 2011. They were talking about how the buildings were not prepared for the 200mph wind the buildings experienced.
2.2.1. Of the 161 fatalities and the 1000 injuries received, it is estimated that 84% occurred because of structural failure.[1]
2.2.2. A team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology evaluated and reviewed the tornado and its affects. When looking at building damage they stated, “It was immediately apparent to the team that none were designed specifically for tornadoes, an expected outcome perhaps, as tornadoes were one of few hazards not yet considered in design standards and building codes at the time.”[2]
2.2.3. Further, many were taken off guard by the tornado because they had experienced a number of false alarms with the siren system. So they ignored it.
2.3. Story of the 3 little pigs.
2.4. What do you do when storms come into your life? Do you withstand them and learn from them, or are you crumpled? Do you seek reliance on God or yourself? Do you ask for help or do you isolate yourself from the voice of grace and truth from God’s people?
2.5. What Pastor Ben and I want to communicate in this series is this, “Christ is for you and for me, together in Christ, we are his church”
2.6. The desire is to draw us into the beautiful picture of who are to be as the Church, Christ’s Bride.
2.7. Today, we will be dealing with the first portion of this statement, who Christ is. To know we are as image bearers, we must start with our Creator, and as children of God we must look to Christ who is our King and our brother.
2.8. Transition: The best place to start is with Christ who is the head of the church and the bridegroom of His Bride, the church. So, we turn to his incarnation in John 1 to discover and remember who the incarnate God is.
Please stand for the reading of God’s Word
John 1:1–18 (ESV)
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2He was in the beginning with God.
3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
8He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15(John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”)
16For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
3. Narrative Context: This is the beginning of the narrative of John’s Gospel and verses 1-18 are considered to be the book’s prologue. They introduce what the rest of the book is to be about. These verses address the advent of Jesus and why he took on the form of humanity.
3.1. The purpose of this book is stated in John 20:31 (ESV) 31but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Transition: With that purpose we have the first few verses of John’s Gospel.
4. Vv.1-5 The Eternal Son
John 1:1–5 (ESV)
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2He was in the beginning with God.
3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
4.1. “In the beginning…”echoes the very words of Genesis 1.
4.1.1. “The account must reach back to the eternal, divine Word, God’s agent in creation and the fount of life and light.”[3] D.A. Carson
4.1.2. This is not that in the beginning, we, you, or I did. It is not mother other earth or the unintelligible will of the “universe”
4.1.3. Hebrews 1:1-3, “1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”
4.2. This Word spoken of in verse 1 reigns over the very words of Scripture
4.2.1. “In short, God’s ‘Word’ in the Old Testament is his powerful self-expression in creation, revelation and salvation, and the personification of that ‘Word’ makes it suitable for John to apply it as a title to God’s ultimate self-disclosure, the person of his own Son.”[4] D.A. Carson
4.3. All creation was formed through the Word, that is Jesus and not a single thing in all creation was formed through any another means than the second person of the trinity.
4.3.1. Colossians 1:15–20 (ESV) 15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
4.3.2.
4.4. He also is the life that brings light into darkness, that is sin and death, and all the powers of hell have not conquered over him.
4.4.1. Colossians 1:12–13 (ESV) 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
4.4.2. Because of his victory, death has lost its sting 1 Corinthians 15:54–58 (ESV)
4.4.2.1. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
4.4.3. Illustration: have you ever been outside around noon on when the sun is high in the sky and you simply cannot see it because of the cloud cover? The sky is so overcast that it begins to look like night is falling but you look at your watch and “nope” its midday. Its quite gloomy and a bit ominous, but then off in the distance you see a coruscation of light pierce the veil of cloud cover and there is hope that the sun is still shining.
4.5. Doctrine to glean
4.5.1. The Word, who is Jesus, is self-same God
4.5.1.1. In other words, is fully God and one with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit
4.5.2. The Word has distinct personhood separate from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.
4.6. Transition: Jesus, who is the word and is the life of the world, was testified about by an interesting figure named John.
5. Vv. 6-9 John testifies
5.1. John 1:6–9 (ESV)
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
8He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
5.2.
5.3. V. 6 John is not simply any many, he is sent by God to proclaim truth
5.3.1. There are many who have claimed they were sent by God, but we find John’s veracity in that what he preaches is affirmed in the text of Scripture. V. 4-5 speak about the word as the light and v. 8 shows us that John is testifying about this light.
5.4. 2 Corinthians 4:5–6 (ESV) Paul echoes John’s witness
5.4.1. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
5.4.1.1. Jesus is the one we proclaim in the same pattern as John the Baptist.
5.4.1.1.1. Do we proclaim ourselves and our accomplishments? Do we make our business as witnesses of Jesus or of another?
5.4.2. “You are to witness to what he has revealed, to make known to others the doctrine that he preached, or taught by his apostles. Mind that you do not tell any other. You are not sent to be “an original thinker”, to make up a gospel as you go along; you are a witness, that is all, a retailer of Christ’s truth, and you miss the end of your life unless you perpetually witness, and witness, and witness to what you know of him, and to what you have learnt from him.”[5] C. H. Spurgeon
5.4.3. We are witnesses to the light, we are not the source of it. If we preach a Gospel that does not start with and point to Jesus it ceases to be good news.
5.4.3.1. I will say it again, when anyone preaches a Gospel that does not start with and point to Jesus, it is not the Good News we stake our lives on.
5.4.3.2. 1 Corinthians 15:17–19 (ESV) 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
5.5. Transition: There were and are two responses to the message John proclaimed, rejection and acceptance.
6. Vv. 10-13 Rejection and Acceptance
6.1. John 1:10–13 (ESV)
10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
6.2. The very world that was made through the Word refused to know him.
6.3. He came to his own, the Jewish people, and they rejected him to the point of crucifying him like a thief.
6.4. But before we indict the Jewish people with a rejection that we would never do, I’d like us to consider the story of someone I attended Moody alongside.
6.4.1. A few days ago, I received a text from Anessa with a link to an article of someone we had attended Moody with. He had finished his graduate degree in theology at Princeton and he was ready to share his writing with the world. I read the short article with sadness.
6.4.2. Here is an excerpt of what he said, “For most of my life I have believed that the divine is something, or someone, up in the sky—an eternal, ethereal space that is beyond our sensory grasp—which is occasionally bridged to our finite world… But no longer do I look to the beyond. No longer do I look up. The divine is here and the divine is all around us, because truth and goodness move upwards—up from the ground, up from the soil from which we came and to which we still belong, up through our bodies and into our creaturely lives.”
6.4.3. His understanding of the divine is that it is one with the earth. This is not the story Scripture tells us. Rather, in the beginning God created…or in the beginning the Word was… In the beginning it was not Mother earth giving life.
6.4.4. I wonder to myself, how was he so deceived, and I have to think that he was wooed by another gospel. His affection and his longing has been tied up in someone or something other than Jesus Christ.
6.4.5. Gal. 1 Paul talks about a situation where certain people had added on to the Gospel, circumcision. These people were are often referred to as Judiazers. And to the churches in Galatia who have been deceived, Paul says this, “Galatians 1:6–9 (ESV) 6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”
6.4.6. Oh that we would stay faithful as a church to the Gospel of Jesus not taking from it or adding to it, but reveling in the beauty of it we find within the text of Scripture!
6.5. But there is hope for those who place their faith in Jesus!
6.5.1. “By themselves, vv. 10–11 would be grim indeed; but vv. 12–13 immediately soften the sweeping rejection of the Word by indicating that, as in Old Testament times, there remains a believing remnant.“[6]
6.5.2. For those who place their faith in the name of Jesus they will be children of God walking in the life that brings light to the world.
6.5.3. This belief is not merely cognitive, it is all encompassing and holistic. It requires your mind, will, body, and heart. One goes from death in sin, to life in Christ and is a new Creation (2 Cor. 5:17)!
6.5.4. Ephesians 2:4–10 (ESV) 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
6.5.5. Ensure that you do not over individualize vv. 12-13 and remember that this is speaking not only to you as person but to all of us who make up his church.
6.5.6. This is a passage for individuals within the church, not the individual outside the church.
6.6. Transition: The Word spoken of in verse 1 does something profound and miraculous. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
7. Vv. 14-18 The Word Made Flesh
7.1. John 1:14–18 (ESV)
14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15(John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”)
16For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
7.2. “Dwelt” is getting at the tabernacle-ing of God with his people. The hope of the tabernacle in the wilderness and Solomon’s temple are fulfilled in the person of Jesus.
7.3. “In John’s Prologue, once the identity of the Word is grasped, the incarnation is seen as a stupendous act of revelation, of divine self-disclosure; but if the identity of the Word is not grasped, the incarnation itself is a nonsense.”[7] Carson
7.4. When God takes on flesh, it is a redemption of our humanity. From Genesis on, he has always had a plan for the uniting of heaven and earth in the 2nd person of the trinity, Jesus. God did not see fit to discard our creatureliness, but to embody it and thereby endure its frailties and temptations. Having endured to the point of death unblemished by any sin but that of others, he rose from the grave, and has ascended to sit at God the Father’s side.
7.5. This is the hope John the Baptist was point to and so too we must point to Jesus! Point to him in your family, in your work, in your resting, and all that you are and do.
7.5.1. Jesus affirms John’s testimony in John 8:58 (ESV) 58Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
7.5.2. Before all things, God the Son was.
7.6. Grace and Truth
7.6.1. The glory of God, the glory that shone in the face of Moses from being in the presence of God, are embodied in Jesus. The grace of the law and the work of God through Moses was to look forward to the coming incarnation of God.
7.6.2. Grace for the Other, Jesus is fully human and fully God. He redeems out of death what only he can.
7.6.3. Grace is used 4 times in verses 14-18. Jesus is the embodiment of God’s grace towards humanity. He is the grace we need and the only way to right relationship and standing with God.
7.6.4. But this grace is not meant to end in a cul-de-sac, it meant to flow down stream and be seen in the way we live. If we are children of God, we are to live like it. We as his church are to live in his grace and in so doing give grace to ourselves and to others.
7.6.5. Ephesians 4:32 (ESV) 32Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
7.6.5.1.
7.7. Transition: I would like to bring this rich text to the point application. Here are a few of the innumerable ways of applying this to our lives.
8. Application
8.1. Proclaim surely who the God of the Gospel is. There are many good and true things we can say and believe about who Jesus is.
8.1.1. He is fully God, fully man, the life of the world, the light of life in this dark world, he is the fullness of God’s grace and truth, and he is the full revelation of God the Father.
8.1.2. “We have a sure word but not the last word. There is no truth that cannot be plumbed more deeply or applied more broadly.” Dr. Jerry Root
8.1.3. We can and must profess who Jesus is without the arrogance of being a know-it-all. We are but beggars turned saints pointing to the Bread of Life.
8.2. Live as a Witness
8.2.1. John was a witness and so are we to be!
8.2.2. As we have experienced God’s grace for us, so we are to have grace for others.
8.2.3.
8.3. Explore the riches of the God’s Word and the church spoken of within!
8.3.1. Explore the truth of God’s Word.
8.3.1.1. Men and women have died and given their lives that we might have the Word of God in modern English today.
8.3.1.2. William Tyndale (1494-1536) was executed by strangulation and burned at the stake for daring to translate the original Greek and Hebrew into the common language of the land, English. King Henry VIII and the pope had condemned Tyndale’s efforts and punished him for it.
8.3.1.3. We ought to treasure the great accessibility to the word of God that we have.
8.4. We are a local expression of the global and historical church. We must admit that we are where we are today because we stand on the shoulders of giants. We have the word of God in modern English and numerous other languages because men and women gave their lives so that you and I and so many others might be able to read God’s word in our own language.
9. Conclusion – start and end with Jesus
9.1. I’d like to return to the story of the Joplin tornado, there was another reason I did not mention before that added to the destruction and loss of life. It was communication.
9.2. In the U.S. 74% of tornado sirens are false alarms. This led many to distrust the siren system on that fateful day in Joplin May 22, 2011.
9.3. Here is an excerpt from an article that details the fallout of the storm, “A storm just north of town, unrelated to the Joplin tornado, prompted an initial tornado warning and round of sirens, adding to the confusion. Two waves of sirens sounding in quick succession was not common, leaving many uncertain as to what it meant. Some people wondered whether it was an all-clear. And as the sirens were only meant to be heard outdoors, some residents indoors did not receive any indicators that a tornado was inbound. Most of the survivors searched for evidence of a tornado with their own eyes. But much of the local news coverage at the time was fixed on the northern storm, and to make matters worse, a curtain of heavy rain hid the tornado from sight. Alas, most people continued about their business, only grasping the grim reality once the tornado was almost upon them.”
9.4. My friends what voice do you look to when disaster looms? Who we listen to and learn to trust plays a large bearing on how we prepare for danger. Do you look to yourself? Do you look to your spouse? Do you look to your parent? Do you look to your best friend? Or do you look to God and his people, through whom all other voices must be filtered?
9.6. Here the words of Hebrew 3:7-8, “Hebrews 3:7–8 (ESV) “7Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,”
9.6.1. Would we learn from the past and hearing the tornado sirens, hearing the dangers God’s Word identifies, would we find our refuge in him. Let us pray.
[1] National Institute of Standards and Technology “The Joplin Tornado: A Calamity and a Boon to Resilience, 10 Years On”
[2] Ibid.
[3] D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 113.
[4] D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 116.
[5] C. H. Spurgeon, “Witnessing Better than Knowing the Future,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 39 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1893), 499.
[6] D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 125.
[7] D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 130.