The God Who Was There

Flesh and Blood: The Gospel According to John pt. 1

Welcome, it is really incredible to see you guys tonight. We’ve been praying for this evening and school year like never before. We are excited to be in life with one another this year, life centered on and around Jesus. Let me take just a second to talk about the Table and where we’re going, and what we’re doing.

Very simply, I believe I wasn’t really discerning what God was doing in our college ministry. We had a bumpy year last year. Through a lot of conversation, mutual submission, and even submitting this plan or where we felt like we were being led to our student leadership team we believe God is forming us and leading us to be who we were really meant to be all along, and tried to be last year.

So, what is the Table? The Table is the worship gathering of Grace Collegiate Ministries. We are calling it the Table because the most consistent thing we’ve done every time we’ve gathered is take communion. This is the pattern of Jesus, to welcome anyone and everyone to his Table. Communion is where we meet Jesus, where we’re reminded again and again of presence with us, his incarnation, his flesh and his blood. Since we’ve started this thing we have always, always ended our gatherings with communion. The Table is where Jesus welcomed the sinner, the struggler, the hurt, the broken, the lost. This is what we want to drive home every week, that no matter the week you had, no matter how hard life is, you are welcome to the Table of Grace with Jesus.

So, if this is your first time you can expect that we will faithfully and consistently do four things here. 1. Point you to Jesus in all things. Not just here, not just Sunday. But that all of life is submitted to the Lordship of Christ. 2. We will worship Christ together. 3. We will proclaim Christ. 4. We will respond to Christ. Our prayer and hope is that you find a deep sense of community here, where the way of Jesus can actively be lived out.

Okay. That’s that. The Gospel According to John. If you have a Bible flip to John, if you don’t there are a stack of them to my Right. Feel free to keep one.

John has written this gospel because he has something to say, namely something to say about Jesus. He tells us in his gospel why it was written: These things were written so you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John’s point is Jesus, and not just Jesus and not just some superfluous type of belief, but belief that changes everything. You’ll see in this book two types of belief. Those who believe and receive life, and those who believe and are looking for their own gain. Over and over again you will see the beauty and centrality of Jesus.

John is also a book of signs. You will see Jesus perform these very important very central signs. Now, signs point to things, these signs performed by Jesus are pointing to things we need to know if we are going to know Jesus. We will hit every one of these signs and what they are pointing to, what truth about Jesus does John want us to see, what truth about himself was Jesus trying to point to? We will see each of those things. The point of this series is that we get face to face with Jesus. The God who put flesh and blood on himself so that we might know him, and by knowing him have life in his name. The point of this book is Jesus, and the point of Jesus is that we would have life! Very real tangible life in him now, not some future abstract type of life to one day have and experience, but life in him now!

Okay, so we’re just going to spend the entire school year going through John, verse by verse for 32 weeks. You ready?

, lets read verses 1-4.

“In the beginning was the word...” alright stop. Does that phrase make you recall anything we’ve seen in the Bible before? What is it? right? Right. So, what is John instantly trying to help us see? That all of history is about Jesus. That he is the preeminent one, he is the one this whole story is about, not just this story of the gospel of John, but all of it. This whole book, all of life is completely full and found in Jesus.

“…and the word was God.” Man, thats important. Not just for this book but for all of life. Most of us have an image of God. When you think of God what do you see? Is he vengeful and wrathful? Like Zeus is he ready and willing to grab his lightning bolts and strike you for your sin? Is he demanding and petty? Demanding that you get your act together and get in line or you have no part with him?

Or is he like Jesus?

That’s the point of this verse. From the outside John wants you to see God is like Jesus. How you see him acting, how you see what he’s doing, who he associates himself with, God is like Jesus.

In fact everyone repeat after me: God is like Jesus. Again. Write it down. Make a note in your Bible. God is like Jesus.

“In him was life, and that life is the light of men and women.” We need to see he’s bringing his entire point of writing to this. Remember the point ? This was written so you would believe that in him is life! Life is offered to you in Jesus!

In these first four verses we have a robust theology of who Jesus is: He is the Word of God - the very message of God. What God is trying to say to the world is communicated through Jesus. He was from the beginning. All things are made through him, this entire story, your entire story is about him. He is the one that all of life is central for. Life can be had in Jesus!

We could just stop right there right? We could spend the entire semester just talking about that! But there’s more. Let’s look at .

“And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.” This is probably one of the most important verses in the entire Bible. Jesus puts on flesh and dwells among us. The word for “Dwells” is the greek word “Eskonosen” it means literally “Tabernacles.” Can anyone think of a time when a Tabernacle was important in the Bible? Exodus right? In the dessert. The Tabernacle became the Temple. The Tabernacle is where God met with man, where Heaven and Earth meet. John is pointing us to something about Jesus! That 1. He is the NEW TEMPLE which we will see later in the gospel, but that he is the place where God meets man. 2. He is invoking more of the story of history and centralizing it around Jesus. He starts with and he brings Exodus into the story here. The story of a broken, dirty, sinful people wandering the dessert because of their sin, trying to find home and the ONLY hope they had was the tabernacle in their midst. That God has not abandoned them, that he would meet with them.

Jesus is that tabernacle. Jesus is where God meets man on two fronts. 1. That Jesus literally steps into human flesh, this is a metaphor that is completely true. God meets man in flesh in the body of Jesus. Fully God and fully man. 2. That he dwells with his people, makes himself know through the Word that became flesh. He makes himself known just like he did in the Tabernacle with Moses he does so with Jesus!

“From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” From Jesus we receive grace upon grace. This isn’t cheap grace. This is grace that is FULL of truth. This isn’t grace that says “Anything goes it’s all okay because I’m nice.” This is grace that says, “You cannot be okay, you will never be okay, you’re looking in all the wrong places for all the wrong things. But that’s okay, not because I’ll sweep it under the rug, but because I’m good.” This grace shows us the love of the Father. That God would rather die for his enemies than kill them. This is grace the cries from the cross “Forgive them! They don’t know, they don’t know.”

The interesting thing about the greek word Eskonosen, is that it is final. The word dwelling isn’t like, “Hey I dwelled at UT Tyler for 4 years, but I finished my degree and now I dwell in Dallas.” It’s not that type of dwelling. It’s just, “I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.” It’s permanent.

Man, are you tired? Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Are you all kinds of broken? 1 part scared, 1 part lonely? You worried? You full of holes? Are you wondering what Jesus could possibly have to say to you? He says, “Im here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“I’m not going to leave you when you don’t get it right.”

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I’m not going to punish you.”

“You’re welcome in me!”

The story that we need to see tonight is the God who is fully present with you. The God who dwells with man. The idea is brought full circle by John at the end of Revelation when he says “We will dwell with him (Same word) forever, and he will be our God and we will be his people.” The story is the God who is there. Not the far off God clamoring for you to get it right, to respect him, to follow his rules, its the story of the God who would rather die for his enemies than kill them. It’s the story of the God who says, “I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.” It’s the story of the God who made his way to you when you were unable to make your way to him.

Before we take communion, I want to read one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite authors. He reminds us of how absurd this story is, but how good it is. Because communion is where we go to respond to Christ. I want that response to be soaked, to be dripping wet in two things: 1. That you are fully aware of the reality of Christ’s presence with you, of Christ’s commitment to you. 2. Of your total need of him. That we really are desperate for Jesus.

Frederick Buechner writes:

“You are week, but he is strong. You are a villain, but he is a hero. Your legs are broken, but his are not, not a bone in his body is broken. But he so loved. The world. So loved it. The alphabet of his grace is sufficient. His jokes are so big and simple no one has though of them yet. Walk close, because he’s right there.”

The beauty of being in Christ is that in all your weakness you have nothing to fear. What that means is that you get to tell the truth. The truth about who you are. Who you really are. Not the version of you that looks good. But the broken version of you. We’re going to that table to tell the truth about who we really are. Because it’s there that we will see who Jesus really is: The God who is there.