In the Begining

We are in the new year, and as it happens every new year people start making resolutions. For the month of January no matter what time I go to the gym there is never any parking spots. But after the first month, miraculously more parking spots become available. The beginning of the new year is always a period of refreshment and renewal. 2019 is history, 2020 is here full of new life and new promise. That is what God was promising Israel in our first reading today. Even as Israel is in captivity in a foreign land, the prophet Jeremiah writes of a new beginning—a day when God will restore and renew his people, giving them a fresh start. Despite what has gone before—the nation’s sin and rebellion, their lack of faith and vision—God will bring them home and establish a new covenant with them. It will be a joyful new beginning. Could you use a joyful new beginning in your life right now? Just as God gave Israel a new beginning, God is willing to give you one as well. You can enjoy a new covenant, a new beginning with God through Jesus Christ. Read John 1:1-18, Prayer Today’s reading talks about “The beginning”. Not the beginning of time, not the beginning of the world but the beginning of our salvation. Our salvation has always been a part of God’s plan. That’s why from the beginning Jesus was with God.” In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” Every year we make these resolutions to get into shape, to lose weight, to get out of debt, but how many of us make a resolution to make a new beginning with God?! You’re probably thinking “Pastor stop it. You know that making a new beginning with God only happens during Lent.” Why? Why is it that we think that our relationship with God can only get closer, get stronger only during special times of the Christian calendar? God made a new beginning with us when he made the Word, flesh. When the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. This is John’s introduction of Christ to us. Why does John introduce Christ in this fashion? John 20:31 “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” John is about to tell us the complete story of Christ and he wants to be sure that we understand who Jesus fully is. In these first 18 verses there are so many things that we learn about Christ, and I want to make sure that we don’t miss thm. In verse 1 alone there are 4 things that we learn about Christ: 1. Jesus is eternal a. “In the beginning” reminds all of us of the opening verse of the bible in Genesis 1. John, with his opening words, is saying that the Word "was" already in existence. The Word already "was" "in the beginning" and is soon shown to be God's agent of creation (Jn 1:3-4), i.e. the originator of all things. The verb (was) highlights the eternal pre-existence of the Word, i.e., Jesus. Before the universe began, the Second Person of the Trinity always existed; 2. Jesus is the Word a. This is God’s ultimate disclosure of Himself in the person of His Son. 3. Jesus is distinct from the Father a. John says “ the Word was with God”, with is a preposition that shows proximity and relationship. John is pointing out that the “Word” he is talking about is a person, with God, and therefore distinguishable from God, and enjoying a personal relationship with Him. 4. Jesus is God a. The “Word” is God’s OWN self. The Word, as the Second Person of the Trinity, was in intimate fellowship with God the Father throughout all eternity. The "Word" does not by Himself make up the entire Godhead; nevertheless the divinity that belongs to the rest of the Godhead belongs also to Him. But Jesus in His incarnation, did not cease to be God but took on a genuine human nature/body and voluntarily refrained from the independent exercise of the attributes of deity. 5. In verse 3 we see that Jesus is the creator a. The Word that brought the world into being has become incarnate in the person of Jesus. Just as in Genesis, where everything that came into being did so because of God's spoken word, so here God's Word created everything. 6. In verse 4 Jesus is the life, the source of all spiritual life a. Jesus gives life and light and is life and light. “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” 7. Jesus confronts and divides us, verse 9 a. Verse 9-11 read “"The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him". This not only refers to the people in the biblical era but to us as well. How many families do you know that have been divided because of Christ. 8. Verse 14, Jesus is God in our flesh a. Jesus became what He was not (a man), without ceasing to be what He was (God). Incarnation is not metamorphosis. Jesus was enfleshed. God was enfleshed. b. God became man. In Jn 1:14 John tells us that God's Word, his Self-expression, has become flesh. This is the supreme revelation. The Word, God's very Self-expression, who was both with God and was God (Jn 1:1), became flesh: he took on our humanity, save our sin. God chose to make himself known, finally and ultimately, in a real, historical man. In brief, the Word became flesh means that God became man. 9. Jesus reveals God’s grace, verse 14, 16-17 a. Verse 14 describes the glory of God manifest in the incarnate Word as "full of grace and truth." Jn 1:16-17 says, "Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (NIV 2011). Jn 1:16 is a verse that has been interpreted and translated into English in various ways: "grace for grace" (KJV); "grace upon grace" (ESV, NASB, NRSV); "grace after grace" (Holman); "one blessing after another" (NIV 1984); "one gracious blessing after another" (NLT); "gift after gift after gift" (The Message). John is saying that the grace and truth that came through Jesus Christ is what replaces the law; the law itself is understood to be an earlier display of grace. Thus, the law was given by grace, and anticipated the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. 10. Verse 18 Jesus is the only revealer of God the Father a. Only Jesus has seen God and only through Jesus can man see God. That is why the way we live our lives is so important because just as Jesus is God’s presence, we are Jesus’ presence. When other’s look at us, they should see Christ. Sin has caused man to never be able to feel close to God. Jesus, the Word, the Son is the only one who is inseparable from his Father. How would Jesus make God the Father known to fallen sinful man? Through this, his incarnation, birth, life, death, resurrection. To bring us close to the Father, he himself had to be viciously and brutally cut off for a time. To make God known to man, Jesus paid an eternal price. What is God like? Who is God? How can I know God? God chose to reveal himself in the most personal and intimate way when God became a human being. This God is Jesus. In this new beginning of 2020, if you want to know God just know that you can know God clearly through Jesus. So if others want to know God, let’s make sure that they can see Jesus clearly through us.