Sermon Tone Analysis

I've heard it said that you can’t improve intelligence…you may have heard you can’t fix stupid.

Well that’s just wrong.

There was a time when conversations with my father were regularly confrontational…especially conversations about our faith.

Then I got smart....I just stopped talking to him about it.

In fact when he would bring it up, I would look to change the subject.

We both loved Jesus, we just couldn’t agree on who he was.

Have you ever found yourself in a conversation about Jesus that just s got confrontational for seemingly some unknown reason?

I figured out why…because you were talking about different people…I mean the same Jesus, but you both see Jesus differently.

Think of it like this, one of you may have seen Jesus as holy…where the other saw Jesus as loving.

Or one of you see Jesus principally as just…and the other understands Jesus as forgiving.

Now think about the good conversations about Jesus…did you share an understanding of Jesus?

Think about the people who influenced our faith…what did they do?

I think back to my friend Guinea Legg...

Loved me…he introduced me to the Jesus who had changed his life…then he told me the truth about my own life

And because of his influence in my life, my life began to change.

That’s what happens when we follow Jesus.

We begin to think and love like him.

That’s what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

It’s always been this way, because our salvation didn’t start with us…no it started with Jesus and the Gospel of John helps us understand that our roots go back well beyond our baptism…well beyond Rock Hall.

In the gospel of John we will find the refreshing, healing water, that flows from a limitless spring to give life to all around it.

That’s why we are going to be studying the Gospel of John for a while.

Because I want us to have a common language, a common understanding of who Jesus is, and what he did, and how he calls us to live…so we can think alike when it comes to Jesus and we can act alike in matters of faith.

And what are the matters of faith?

Is it just church?

As we will learn, faith is the background to everything we do as a follower of Jesus.

Gospel of John is different

Matthew-Jewish - promised messiah

Mark-Roman Christians - Son of God

Luke - Greek Christians - humanity of Jesus

John -

Who is John? from a friend of Jesus

Inner circle

John doesn’t introduce himself…he needed no introduction, but he does tell us why he wrote.

Gospel of John - written to prove the Deity of Jesus

7 Signs

7 Discourses…answers

7 feasts

Where the others start with the birth of Jesus, John begins with the birth of Jesus’s ministry on earth, but he frames it as being an extension of his ministry with God the Father.

God revealed in Jesus as the WORD

Understood as Word…we have to know the word to obey him

Semitic root for “word” dabar…thing, event, action…

God spoke in creation

When John wrote the GoJ, large majority of Xians were Greek…logos was reason of God…the mind of God…the ordering principle of the universe…for Greeks much larger idea than just a Messiah

John was able to explain the historic, Jewish understandings of God and Jesus the Messiah to a gentile world that held the power.

This is a wonderful lesson to us.

We have to know the DABAR in order to share the logos.

John wants us to know...

God has come to the world in Jesus to be known.

Funeral…not knowing anyone…people only knowing me by my collar.

We have to know Jesus in order to obey his call on our lives to follow him and tell others about him.

WE know him when we understand the life that we have been given…and this life, that many fail to understand, is exactly what the WORD of God came to show us.

John wanted them to know this picture of God’s love.

God who would give himself to people…even though they didn’t or wouldn’t recognize him

God revealed in Jesus as the LIGHT

Cafeteria table story

Its hard to be in a room full of people and not be accepted.

Jesus didn’t do anything awkward…in fact he did something amazing…gave us life.

And yet, many of those he gave life to failed to recognize him…when he made himself more obvious than a clumsy football coach....he was as obvious as light.

And yet he was rejected by his people…and he continues to be rejected.

But this doesn’t have to be.

John wants us to know...

God has come to the world in Jesus to be accepted.

God can be seen..there is no reason for anyone to continue in darkness

Verse 8 says that John…that is JTB, was a witness to the light.

That is to say that he wasn’t the light of God, he was just a lamp.

Our house on KI is in a community that would loose electricity all the time.

At night, a lantern can make a big difference…eventually you can get used to it.

Even though we had to huddle around it to do anything like read a book.

But it would be silly when the electric came back on to not turn the lights on.

Sometimes the light we get used to is our religion…or our spiritual disciplines…or our generosity…all those things are good, but none of them are Jesus.

Other people the lamplight shines out of their family…or their hobbies…or their careers…good things, but not even close to the real light of their life.

So often though, people get satisfied with a lamplight when they have access to real light.

We don’t have to keep hovering around the lamp....there is a light, bright enough for all, available to us…we can see him, we can receive him, believe in him, and become children of God…it doesn’t matter who you are, where you came from…you can be born of God

God revealed in Jesus as the FLESH

Now up to now, John hasn’t really pushed any buttons for people…especcially for his greek audience.

The Word that was, the Word that was with God, and the Word that was God—The word was light…the life of men…so far so good...

But now he unloads on us....that Word has become flesh.

Jesus didn’t take on the form of humanity…he took on flesh.

Not like a puppet either.

He was God in the flesh.

I remember when we brought our first child home…I was amazed at how helpless he was…can you imagine the humiliation of being the creator of the universe and now being a baby needing to be nursed…only able to cry out for attention

Jesus was a divine manifestations.

He held all the tensions I mentioned earlier…holiness, and forgiveness…justice and love…grace and truth.

He displayed them perfectly.

Grace and Truth

I shared last week that most of us are more comfortable with God being one or the other....usually we want a God of grace when we mess up and a God of truth when someone else messes up…but that’s another story.

Jesus was both…the fullness of grace and totality of truth.

How else would we really know God?

The Israelites had the law....but legalism had been a poor motivation for a disciple....God knew we needed a relationship that was formed in grace and truth.

John wants us to know...

God has come to the world in Jesus to love.

That’s what happens when you combine grace and truth…it leads to love.

I think of people like John Perkins.

You may not have heard of him but he was involved in the civil rights movement…especially in MS.

His brother was killed by the police when he was young…he was arrested as a young man during a protest march and during his arrest, he was beaten severely.

He shares his story of hating the people who hated him…and not really understanding why.

But when he found himself in the hospital, he was confronted by people he hated taking care of him…and it changed his life.

Acts of compassion…love has changed the world.

Love comes out of this tension of grace and truth…and when people experience love, it gives them hope.

Hope that things aren’t as bad as they were…hope that things will get better…hope for tomorrow.