It Was Jesus All Along

Greeting

Now, let’s dive into part two of our series, This is the Gospel.

Church, if I could please urge you to watch last week’s message. This is a series that has a lot of meat to it. I made this statement last week, “if you baby Christians, you’ll produce baby Christians…”

And this week, I am going to build on what we’ve already learned about the Gospel.

So go with me to…

Reading

John 1:1–3 (NIV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

John 1:14–16 (NIV)

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.

It Was Jesus All Along

Introduction (Reading It the Right Way)

One of the things that I enjoy doing with my sons is making puzzles.

Are there any other puzzle families in the room?

We don’t do it all the time… like I grew up with a family that ALWAYS had a puzzle in work. Every time I’d go over there was a family puzzle that they were all contributing to. We’re not THAT committed, but we do enjoy a good puzzle.

And the thing about puzzles is you can’t see the whole picture by only looking at one piece.

The piece is necessary, and the picture is incomplete without it, but the piece itself is not the whole puzzle.

And I want to use that as an analogy this morning because it will help you understand what I am about to say next.

Your Bible is like a puzzle.

I didn’t say it is a puzzle, I said it is like a puzzle.

Here is what I mean by that…

We live in a time when people will put their favorite scriptures on their bodies. Or they’ll write a citation of a verse on their eye black in a sporting event.

And sometimes, that leads people to read the Bible one verse at time. As a matter of fact, we have something called the Verse of the Day that can even be sent to your phones.

Now, please do not take what I am about say as a critique of reading your bible that way. As a matter of fact, that’s a good way to approach your Bible for personal devotion.

But, only reading a verse of the Bible and thinking you have seen the whole picture is like holding up one piece to the puzzle and thinking you’ve seen the whole picture.

There comes a time in the life of a believer when you need to start putting verses together, and chapters together, and books of the Bible together, so that you can see the whole picture.

Transition

And this idea that I’ve been pulling on this week is the idea that too many of us have settled for pieces, without having seen the picture. The pieces are great. You need the pieces.

But don’t stop until you have seen the picture.

So, as we keep moving forward with our series about the Gospel, let me give you the best picture of what the Gospel is, and then we’ll start breaking this into pieces.

The Gospel

Jesus came to proclaim the Gospel. As this was happening in real time, it was like pieces were being given to his hearers.

Now, we have the benefit of having a written record of what Jesus taught, and also what his disciples and followers taught from what they received from Jesus, and finally, what was continually spoken to a select number of his followers.

Said differently, we have a more complete picture than even those who first heard from Jesus.

What I want to share with you now is the complete picture of the Gospel.

We know that Jesus came to proclaim the Gospel, and last week we learned that the Gospel is the announcement of the Kingdom of God. So what are the pieces that make up the Gospel?

I have a list that I want to share with you.

This list might slightly differ from teacher to teacher, but most would agree that these eight proclamations, or some would call movements, form the message of the Gospel.

Jesus is One with the Father,

He takes on human flesh, fulfilling God’s promises to David,

Died for our sins in order to fulfill the law,

Was buried,

Was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures,

Appeared to many

Seated at the right hand of God as Lord,

Will come again as Judge.

We’re going to preach through these throughout this series so that we would learn to see the picture of the Gospel. What I will spend my time today is looking at these first two beliefs about the Gospel; Jesus is One with the Father and He takes on human flesh.

There at the Beginning…

Let’s go back to our reading in John’s gospel.

John’s Gospel is an incredible telling of the life of Jesus, and he is the only writer of the Gospel to take us all the way back to the beginning. The reason for that is John is the only one of the disciples who was given this perspective.

You see, the of all of the Apostles, only John lived into old age. Last week I shared with you all that the first followers of Jesus were all martyred.

John however was exiled and spent the rest of his life alone and separated from the church. During this time of being alone, God spoke to Him and He received the last book of our Bible, the book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation gave John the perspective of what will come in the future, and He had a vision of Heaven. He’s the only one of the Apostles that had that revelation.

So when John writes His gospel, he has a unique perspective that the others didn’t have, and that is the full perspective of Jesus.

We have summed that up in this statement about John’s perspective:

John was the only disciple to see Jesus on the cross, and then to see Him on the throne.

So John’s Gospel doesn’t start with the physical life of Jesus, he goes all the way to the beginning of creation. John writes, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.”

Who or what is John talking about?

The word. It was the word that was in the beginning. It was the word that was with God. And then John says that the word was God.

John is giving us a piece of the puzzle.

He is showing us that the Word is both With God and Was God.

But then John goes on to say, “He was in the beginning with God.”

Ok we have another piece to the puzzle.

John describes the Word as a person, because now John is calling the Word “he”. So the word is much more than just something that is spoken or read, but the word is personified by John.

Then John one more piece of the puzzle by saying, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

If you’ve ever read the beginning of your Bible, the Book of Genesis, it reads a lot like John’s Gospel and what we just read right now.

Here is the reason why - the Genesis account of creation is an incomplete account of creation.

God gives the creation account to Moses, and gave to Moses everything that he needed to know about how God created everything in he heavens and on the earth.

Genesis starts with “In the beginning…” and John starts with, “In the beginning…”

Are these two in conflict with one another?

Absolutely not. They are each pieces of the larger puzzle that is being put together piece by piece until the picture is fully revealed to us.

Everything in the Old Testament is necessary in order for us to complete the puzzle, but John has new information because He has seen Jesus.

Remember, John has seen Jesus on earth, on the cross, in his resurrected body, but he is the only disciple to also see Jesus on the throne.

So that gives him the authority to write this:

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John now suddenly sees the word who was in creation, and the word that was One with God, decided to leave the Heavens and take on flesh in order to dwell among us.

John is saying that it was Jesus in the beginning. Jesus is one with God. And this Jesus whom we all saw with our own two eyes came from the Father and he came full of grace and truth.

That’s yet another piece of the puzzle…

And just to make sure that he was able to get everyone on board with this, and to make sure that he wasn’t on an island, he quotes John the Baptist, who said this about Jesus:

John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”)

So this Jesus, is one with God, He is there in the beginning, he steps into our world, and after he has defeated our enemies, he is seated on the throne of heaven as the Eternal and Righteous King.

Let me try saying it this way now…

The Old Testament gives us pieces of the puzzle.

Then Jesus is born and his life gives us more pieces of the puzzle.

Jesus preaches the Gospel of the Kingdom, and that gives us more pieces of the puzzle.

Then we have the death, burial, and resurrection, which is more pieces of the puzzle.

And then John is caught up into heaven by Revelation and he sees Jesus sitting on the throne, and he has a whole new understanding of creation, and now he fully understand who Jesus is.

Jesus is the picture of the Gospel

When you put all of the pieces of the puzzle together, we see Jesus for all of who he is.

John said this this way, “Out of his fulness we have received grace upon grace…”

The reason we need to teach you the Gospel is because we want you to see ALL OF WHO JESUS IS so that you can receive more grace to the grace you’ve already received.

It’s grace upon grace.

It’s waves of Jesus over waves of Jesus.

Paul said it this way, “The fulness of the Godhead dwelled in Him bodily.”

All of God and the story of God is contained within the person of Jesus. And when you receive Jesus, you have received everything!

The Gospel for Us

If you lived during the time of Jesus, or maybe shortly after his life, it’s like you are being handed pieces of the puzzle in real time. As the pieces of the puzzle are being made, they’re being handed to you to put together a picture of the Gospel.

And do you know what you don’t have the benefit of?

A completed picture to look at as a guide.

You see, when I make a puzzle with my kids we look at the whole picture and that guides us as to how we are to put the pieces together. For those in the first century there is no box. They don’t know what they are building until they are done building.

But for us, we get to apply these first to Gospel truths. Not only is Jesus one with God, but Jesus came and dwelled among us.

For them, it was this realization that Jesus didn’t start walking with them on the day that He came to earth, but since the very beginning He there. Since the beginning He knew what was going on in their life, and he waited for just the right moment to make his physical entrance into their world.

And for you that are here, I want you to know that Jesus didn’t just show up into your life today, or the first time that you felt Him in a service. Jesus has been present all along.

Jesus was there when you went through some of the darkest moments in your life. Jesus was there when you felt the pain of rejection. Jesus was there when you lost your child. Jesus was there when your marriage fell apart. Jesus was there when you fell back into that addiction.

Jesus was there, because He’s always been there.

And just like he entered into the story of humanity two thousands years ago, there’s a moment when Jesus enters into your story.

Maybe it was here in one of our Sunday services.

Maybe it was through a conversation with a coworker.

Where ever it was, you need to know that Jesus has entered into your story.

How will you receive him? What will your response be?

Over the years I’ve seen these kind of responses play out…

The Hurt Response If Jesus was there, why did I have to go through what I went through? Humanity has a free will. Jesus doesn’t impose His will on people. Because of that people are going to make mistakes. Some are going to dive deep into sin, and sin has consequences. Not just on the person committing the sin but on the people around that person. If you decide to respond to Jesus right now through your hurt, it is like a sick person refusing to take the life saving medicine that they are being offered. Don’t allow your past to hold your future hostage.

The Skeptical Response For others of you, there is a skeptical response. You think that all of this is emotionalism and that the church has somehow, for over 2,000 years now, preyed on the emotions of people. The problem with that line of thinking is lies run their course and they eventually die. But do you want to know what I know about truth? The truth always comes out. When 500 followers of Jesus began to spread this message, the reason it’s been sustained this long is because the truth is out. We invite you to keep coming and keep searching, because your skepticism doesn’t bother or scare Jesus.

The Faith Response You are beginning to see that all the pieces of your life are starting fit into the picture of God’s love for you. Your life isn’t perfect, but no one’s is. There has only been one perfect person and that was Jesus. You don’t know everything, but you are willing to give the one who does a shot. So today, through nothing more than faith, and maybe even a bit of “I tried everything else,” you are going to give Jesus a shot.

Conclusion

Today, we’re going to celebrate Baptism Sunday, and these are all people who have said yes to Jesus! These are all people who are choosing the response of faith.

The writer Paul says of Baptism that when we are baptized, we are baptized into Jesus. That is why we invoke the name of Jesus in Baptism. All things are complete in him, and now you are also complete in Him.

If you are feeling like life is incomplete right now, then the best thing I can do is point you to the person who is complete, and who will complete your life, and that is Jesus.

When you have Jesus, you have everything. You never lack anything. You’ll find your story, in His story.