2023.08.06 In the Beginning...
Jesus Stories • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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In the Beginning...
In the Beginning...
Genesis 1:1-4, 26-27, 31 • John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
4 And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness.
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind.
5 And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it.
Years ago, we were in a crowded place. I don’t even remember what it was … a restaurant, a store, somewhere with a LOT of people. The kids were still fairly small and Isaiah had gone a little bit away from us, and I needed to collect him back … maybe it was a restaurant and our name had been called.
I could see him, but there were so many people in between us, I decided to call him instead of squeezing over to him … but in a crowd like that, the last thing I wanted was for some stranger to know his name, so I shouted “Z”! We had never used that before, but he instantly knew that was him and the name stuck.
I didn’t want strangers to know his real name because there’s power in knowing someone’s name. Terrible people can use a child’s name to convince them they’re trustworthy.
Crazy fans can find out where their idol’s hotel room is if they registered under their real name. If you remember the story of Jesus sending the demons into the herd of pigs, Jesus asked them, “What is your name?” Having their name gave him some control or power over them.
Throughout the Scriptures, we’re given countless names for God -
Adonai - Lord
Yahweh - I am
El Shaddai - God Almighty
Yahweh Gibbor - Almighty Warrior
Elohim - God
El Olam - Everlasting God
El Roi - The God who Sees
…and that’s just scratching the surface.
Jesus gets several names, too:
Son of God - claiming his divinity
Son of Man - claiming his humanity
Immanuel - God with us
Jesus (Yeshua) - Yahweh saves
Christ (Messiah) - God’s Anointed One
Today, we get another name for Jesus that appears nowhere else in Scripture:
John calls Jesus “Logos” - The Word
[Chant]
In the beginning was the Word
And the Word was with God
And the Word was God
And the Word became flesh
And the Word became flesh
And dwelt among us
The Logos was Jesus - and Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.
So let’s talk about what we learn about God as we walk through this passage:
In the beginning the Word already existed...
1 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
We see the creation story in Genesis 1. In John 1, we see BEHIND the creation story!
We see that Jesus “already existed” in the beginning. We see that Jesus was not only WITH God, but Jesus WAS God.
Not only was Jesus PRESENT in the beginning...
3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.
We also see that all of Creation was created THROUGH JESUS! Nothing … ABSOLUTELY NOTHING was created except through him!
Anybody’s head exploding with this?
Many Christians grow up with a sense that Jesus didn’t exist until Mary gave birth in a stable and laid his human frame in a manger. But that’s not what the Bible says. The Bible emphatically states that Jesus’ birth was NOT his beginning!
In fact, as a part of the Godhead, Jesus HAS NO BEGINNING. He claims that he is the embodiment of the beginning in Revelation 22:13.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
[pause]
What can we learn about humans?
Well, John points directly at human life:
4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind.
That’s the backside - on the front side...
Genesis 2:7
7 Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.
We were created through Jesus Christ, and it is HIS very BREATH that breathed life into you and me! Hallelujah!
Now, drop down to John 1:14
14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
[LONG PAUSE]
What do you learn about YOURSELF?
What do you learn about YOURSELF?
What do you learn about YOURSELF?
You and I live in a broken world. It is that broken world that speaks our flaws repeatedly in our faces as children, into adolescence … and in adulthood we repeat them to ourselves!
Oh, Child of God, how I wish you could hear the Truth. You are busy repeating to yourself the exaggerations and lies you grew up with that this world and the master of this sinful world planted into your head and heart.
It is precisely those exaggerations that prevent so many from receiving the love and mercy God wants us all to experience.
I’m too slow to go anywhere as a baseball player
I have unmarketable skills that will make me struggle all my life to make ends meet
No one listens to me, so it doesn’t matter whether what I say is genius or absurd
No one will ever value me very highly, so I should limit my own sense of value
I’m a giant dork and nobody really likes me.
I’m an impostor and some day I’ll be found out.
What were you told? What do you repeat inside your head?
We speak of God’s grace and mercy, and truthfully, we all have those devastating tapes playing in our heads. And they play on repeat, don’t they?
They shout that God’s grace is real, and that God is truly as remarkable as people say … but you’re not eligible. Your inadequacies make you ineligible for God’s grace. Sure, he can forgive anybody … except you!
In Willie Wonka, the factory used a device called the “eggdicator” to determine whether a chocolate egg is a ‘good egg’ or ‘bad egg’. When Veruca Salt is told she cannot purchase one of the geese producing chocolate eggs, she jumps up onto the ‘eggdicator’ and she’s thrown down the chute with the rejected eggs. Wonka says, “She was a bad egg.”
The world has been saying that about you and me since we were born.
But you know who has NOT been saying that about us?
Logos - The Word - Yeshua - The Christ - The Son of God - Jesus has not EVER said that about us.
While we’ve been convinced that we’re ineligible for God’s grace, His Son has been screaming “ELIGIBLE” every time the world speaks horribly about us!
Too slow to go anywhere in baseball - ELIGIBLE FOR MY LOVE AND GRACE!
Unmarketable skills - ELIGIBLE!
No one listens - ELIGIBLE!
Giant dork - ELIGIBLE!
I’m an impostor and I’ll be found out - YOU ARE ELIGIBLE TO BE CALLED A CHILD OF THE MOST HIGH GOD! MY GRACE IS AWAITING YOUR ACCEPTANCE, AND MY LOVE HAS ALREADY MADE EVERY NECESSARY ARRANGEMENT FOR YOU TO COME IN!
You! You're eligible. And one of those arrangements that has been made for you …
On the night Jesus was betrayed, he celebrated a meal with his friends. During that meal, he told his friends and us … that we are eligible to receive Him.
[Communion]