John 1:1-5 - You Can Know God

Intro

Hook

Years ago, I sat in this youth group with many friends. Some of those friends are people you know, like James and Hannah. But many of those friends went a different direction. Brothers I spent time with, played games with, laughed and cried with are now walking distantly away from God.

There is this social media trend known as deconstructing.

This is not because they were all in for Christianity and then discovered that it was fake, it was because there was something eating away at it. It ate at them as they sat in those seats and it was never addressed.

It was doubt.

Most of you here have grown up in the church, or Christian school, and you have gone through the motions. You have believed ideas about God, you may have championed those ideas.

But the common thread I notice amongst high-schoolers is this: what if it’s all fake? What if I fell for the greatest scheme in the whole world? What if I spend all this effort to live in a Christian way and it’s all for nothing? I could have been having fun! i could have been doing what I want.

They saw people in the church hurt other people. They saw hypocrisy, they saw lies, they saw faulty arguments. They saw people just believe things without thinking critically about it. They were hit over the head with the Bible and told to obey without being explained why.

They go online and read arguments and experiences from other people.

Terms are used like “religious trauma and abuse” that bring comfort to their soul and they find other voices that share the desire for escape that they do.

Finally, at 18 or older they cut the ties. They finally are free to experience and believe what they want and not what their parents want.

But there is something they do not consider: maybe the whole time, the Christianity they thought they believed in was false. Maybe they misunderstood the whole point. Maybe they didn’t walk away from Christianity. Maybe they were never part of it in the first place.

1 John 2:7 ESV

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.

Sometimes that is hard for me to believe, but it is what the Bible says.

Perhaps you think to yourself now: “I have those doubts. I don’t want to be like that, to fall away, to find myself cast away from God and never returning.

Do you have those doubts? Then let us go to a book written for people like you.

Intro to the Gospels and Gospel of John

After Jesus lived, died and ascended on this earth, God had four men each write their own book, retelling the events of his life.

We call these books the four gospels, gospel meaning “good news.”

What people don’t know, is that while these gospels all share similar events and agree with each other, each of them is written to a different audience and each focuses on a different beautiful aspect of Jesus and his mission.

Matthew: Written to the Jews, focuses on his fulfillment of the OT as the Promised Messiah and King.

Mark: Written to the Romans, focuses on his incredible power over everything and his humility as a servant.

Luke: Written to the Greeks, focuses on Christ’s perfection in his humanity and wisdom.

John: Written to the World, focuses on the deity and love of Christ.

The nice thing about John is that he does not leave you in the dark on why he wrote his book.

John 20:30–31 ESV

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but 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.

He wrote these things down. HE wrote them so that you would have so much assurance that what you are reading is true and real.

There is one truth. One right view on everything.

One right view on religion, abortion, sexuality, morality, salvation.

How God Guarantees You Can Know Truth

1. God’s Truth Comes from Himself (v. 1)

Explain “Logos”

A communication by which the mind finds expression

In short, idea is expressed in reality.

Why does John

The word of God is so in line with his character that everything God says is a perfect reflection of him.

2. God’s Truth Made the World (vv. 2-3)

3. God’s Truth Can Save You (v. 4)

4. God’s Truth Will Win (v. 5)

Who is this truth? It’s Jesus.

God’s truth was so out of reach he came and man to bring that truth to man.

Conclusion

Application: You can know God and relationship with Him is the answer to your hurting life.

John 1:18 ESV

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.