John 1:1-18

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Sermon Text

Sermon Text: Scripture

Call to Worship

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Psalm 147:1 CSB

1 Hallelujah! How good it is to sing to our God, for praise is pleasant and lovely.

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Passage:

Formation Journal Page Number: 11:58-12:38 3:22-4:15 4:29 -5:18

John 1:1–18 CSB

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. 9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13 who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. 14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified concerning him and exclaimed, “This was the one of whom I said, ‘The one coming after me ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ ”) 16 Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, 17 for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.

Opening Illustration:

Lottery

If Jesus Is God it changes everything.

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Getting into the Sermon

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Apostle John vs John the baptist

Setting the stage of who Jesus is

Jesus was definitely real

In the day there were two questions - Was Jesus a man - but I never met someone like that

John is trustworthy in recording Jesus’ quotes, then he is trustworthy in his commentary.

If Jesus was God - everything changes - we have to react.

The other question is Is Jesus God

John 1:1–2 CSB

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.

So John is being explicit - Jesus is God low-goes

Now John calls is referring to Jesus as “The Word” and that can seem weird to us. So there’s a few things going on here, which will be helpful for you to understand.

First, some greek philosophy understood “The Word” as being the force that controls and moves the universe. They would speak of it as an impersonal force that still had some sort of plan. Kind of how we might use “the universe” today. People will say, “The universe doesn’t want this to happen” or some such. That’s not actually referring to the physical world, but the idea that there is an impersonal force directing things.

Many Jewish philosophers of John’s day who spoke Greek and understood greek thinking, took that term and used that to describe God’s action and presence.

THis is especially the case because in the old testament there is reference to God’s word. For example, when God created the world he spoke it into existence. He used his words.

Or

Psalm 107:20 CSB

20 He sent his word and healed them; he rescued them from their traps.

and Psalm 33:6

Psalm 33:6 CSB

6 The heavens were made by the word of the Lord, and all the stars, by the breath of his mouth.

Here you see the use of “the word. - low goes” So even before John, Jewish religious leaders already had a concept of the logos - the word for something like God in action.

So John takes that idea and pushes it further. He says that the word - God’s action and presence - is describing a person - God the Son who was actually God.

Now, this all seems hard to understand and it should be hard to understand. When we are talking about God, we are talking about something far above us. We can’t comprehend all of God or explain all of God. The Bible isn’t an anatomy book of God, it is what God has revealed to us. So here is what is revelaed to us - there is one God, who exists in three persons who are the same in substance, equal in power and glory. However ,there are different roles in our salvation, at it’s

Economic trinity: the Father plans it, the Son accomplishes it and the Spirit applies it.

Now, he isn’t focusing on the Spirit here, he is focusing on Jesus. SO look at how he goes on to describe Jesus’ work

John 1:3 CSB

3 All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.

He is saying that Jesus is the one who created things. He is all powerful. He is God. This is so important because we can have a tendency to tame Christ - to treat him as someone who just validates our parking - he saves our soul and is a pretty nice guy.

Think of it this way, in something that is a surprise to no one, I really like the MCU movies, and sci-fi, fantasy stories. In those types of movies and shows there is something called power creep. So someone gains power over the course of the show.

Superman is a great example - he started out being able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, then he started to fly - right, it’s a bird it’s a plane, it’s superman.

Then he was able to turn back time by flying around the world so fast.

This is what we do with people and problems in our lives. Our problems can get bigger and bigger. They become insurmountable - we start to think that they have all the power. Think about politics - how easy is it to start to think that the government really controls us.

They have some control, but they aren’t insurmountable - they are just insurmountable to us.

Worry can power creep

Anger —> Bitterness

Sin

They are not bigger than God, and to say it more specifically, they are not bigger and more powerful than Jesus.

If He is the creator He has the power.

But while our imaginations allow power creep for problems or people we usual default to power erosion for Christ. He get’s less powerful in our imagination and faith. WE start to think he can’t do things.

Power erosion is when we start to forget Jesus’ true power.

So we accept Jesus to punch our ticket for heaven but not to help our marriage

We accept Jesus to punch our ticket to heaven but not to take care of our needs

We accept Jesus for heaven but not to take care of our kids,

We accept Jesus for heaven but not that he is the one who knows best about life. If we live his way, we are going to miss out.

The problem becomes the big thing and Jesus becomes the small thing.

If Jesus is God, it changes everything.

John 1:4–5 CSB

4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

He not only created everything - he gave us light. The ability to understand.

But he isn’t just the creator he is the source of life and light. The darkness couldn’t overcome it

John 1:6–8 CSB

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light.

He talks about John the baptist. There was a lot of confusion about who John the baptist was - so Jesus is being clear here.

John 1:9 CSB

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

Jesus was the one true God - he is the light- everybody is responsible for their sin and their rejection of God, because Jesus has given light to everyone.

John 1:10–11 CSB

10 He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

The world didn’t recognize him, even his own didn’t see him.

because they were in the darkness - and what that means is that all of humanity was seperated from God. God brings light, sin brings darkness.

All of humanity was in the dark. we were created to have a realationship with God. We were created to follow his lead. He is the creator he knows how life should work.

So we are under the threat of punishment for our sins, AND we are relationally sepearted because God can’t have a relationship with sin.

So that break in the realtionship creates a whole in our lives. and people living in the darkness start to try to fill it, with man made gods.

So they carved idols, sometimes they made golden calfs.

The world didn’t recognize him because of power creep —> I want God to be a particular way to solve my particular problems the way that I want them solved.

For the early jews that was political freedom from Rome

For us it can be that we want God to ok our sexual desires, get me into heaven and rubber stamp my life - but that’s not God.

I want a God who is going to solve all my problems and there shouldn’t be any difficulty.

But when we live like that, we are doing the same thing as the ancients- we are creating our own idols, saying this is what is what God should look like and anything else isn’t real.

But that’s ridiculous if there is a God then he is above us and he dictates down to us. He reveals himself to us.

People don’t want the true God, they want someone to get them into heaven and rubber stamp my life- you know they want,

they want a pokemon. But that’s not real. It’s not real.

One of the reasons why power erosino happens is because we Don’t want Jesus to dominate our lives, we want him as our pet who get’s us into heaven.

Why don’t we recognize him - because we make god’s of our own imaginations. We don’t want to have to submit to God.

If we recognize Jesus as God we have to submit to him as Lord.

John 1:12–13 CSB

12 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13 who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

not everyone is a child of God - by the will of God

Here’s the first question - have you received him?

But living our way doesn’t work because we didn’t write God’s manual.

Ikea furniture

Maybe you are here and you’ve been trying to live your own life, and you are frustrated and you want it fixed, but you still don’t want to submit to the manual.

That’s not how things work. If there was another way to become right with God, he wouldn’t have sent his son

the best thing you can do is stop what you are doing and receive Christ.

the Gospel

we can actually live a meaningful life - living to spread God’s glory in the world

God draws us to him

Here is the question - are you seeing him? Have you made the decision to follow him?

John 1:14–15 CSB

14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified concerning him and exclaimed, “This was the one of whom I said, ‘The one coming after me ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ ”)

quick summary

John 1:16–18 CSB

16 Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, 17 for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.

For those who have received him, what have we received? We have received grace, and fullness and love.

If we miss this - then Jesus just becomes a peace loving hippy, who validates our parking in heaven. But he has no impact on our day to day lives.

Here’s why it matters to us. We can all fall into power erosion thinking when it comes to Jesus. We can forget his true power.

Sometimes we don’t him too, we want to ignore it, becasue if He is God then he is the Lord Maybe you have fallen into power erosion because you just want to keep Jesus on a leash. You don’t really want to submit to him.

But sometimes it’s the day in day out daily grind of life that causes us to slowly start lowering Christ in our hearts and minds. We didn’t set out to do it, but we fear creeps in. Doubt creeps in, not major doubt, just the little by little subtle kind.

What really starts to happen, is we stop praying and we start trying to solve things ourselves.

Power erosion’s biggest symptom is that we stop praying.

When we stop believing we stop praying. and we live as if we are on our own.

But God wants to be our problem solver. It honors Him that we go to him. Now obviously he works through doctors, counselors, other people. He is working through other people.

He works through systems and people, but he is the one working.

But we can fall into a habit of power erosion where we try to solve our problems ourselves, sometimes using the things that God ordains but ignoring him in the process.

We generally think in terms of individualism where being needy is annoying to other people. But the ancient world was organized around a different system - patron client system. You went to your patron to solve your problems. He may use other tools, but you went to him first. Usually, literally first thing in the morning.

prayer is not annoying it is incense

Handling things yourself was essentially saying that your patron was weak. He couldn’t handle it. Or you don’t really need him. Going to your patron rightly recongizes him as the one who can handle things.

This is why we want to live all of life through prayer. Jesus’ power hasn’t waned, it hasn’t eroded. It’s not just unwise to ignore prayer - it’s insulting to God - because it treats the all powerful Christ as if he is optional.

Church plant to church

Because Jesus is god We want to do all of life through prayer together

invite people to church

If this is true - then this should change the way that we pray. We want to live all of life through prayer. He is the one who get’s things done.

and it changes all our lives as we live it out together.

Lord’s Supper:

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 

Benediction:

The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD makes his face shine upon you and be gracious to you:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.