John 1.14-18-Testify: Not Me! Fullness in the midst of Failing

-Testify: Not Me! Fullness in the midst of Failing

Testimony-“Not Me!”: Fullness in the midst of Failing

This week was a huge reminder to me at just how important our witness is and how it’s not meant to end with you or me, but like John, we must carry the torch to those perishing…what are you talking about preacher?

Well we have a lot of folks in the community that are sick with the flu, …you look at the news and everybody seems to be in panic over the coronavirus …it’s just another reminder of the both the fragility and the brevity of life.

Most of the time, we take it for granted, because of the leaps that medicine has made. But even then…the older we get, when family and friends around us pass, it’s like God reminding us more and more frequent that we need to get our houses in order.

As far as the brevity, and I’m saying this mainly to the younger group… it amazes me, confounds me at how fast it has all gone by…and the older I get ,the more perplexing this truth is…we are truly like grass, here today and gone tomorrow… my point is this…if we who have been given the Christ, don’t tell them who are lost, who will? If our faith isn’t doing anybody any good but us… then maybe it is no faith at all.

Some might say that our witness is solely in how we live… and I get that…. but I want today to sit a little on the other side of the argument. And it is this…”if it were ourselves that was the object of what we were giving witness to, there would be no other factor but exactly that, how we live…but as Christians, this is simply not the case, in fact, my argument is that it might not be the case at all…

One of the biggest things every minister has to wrestle with, and every Christian should as well is “does what I proclaim match up with my life. On one hand it should. But on the other hand…and this is my proposition today… it shouldn’t…not even close

Moving can be very stressful. I think the unpacking is the worst part of it all. I was outside with my wife discussing some things and I saw something that had gotten broken from one of the kids jumping on it…and in that moment, my flesh came out and just lost my cool.

And then I noticed somebody from the church, witnessed it…and I thought as I went inside the house,…man, I just messed up my witness. And the reality of the matter is that my wife and my children know my shortcomings, they get to see my failures much more than you do…why am I telling you this? Because the most important thing to me, the thing I want more than anything, is for them to see Christ, not me…, but, and I need to make this distinction…it’s not our righteousness that we are proclaiming, but His, if all they see is our lives it will fall well short of His Glory and fullness …all this to say…this week was a good reminder for me that I am free…

I am free from the weight of attempting to keep the law in order that folks will think well of me. I am free to tell of the Gospel “the good news” that Jesus has come and Fully paid what is lacking in me as a husband, a dad, a minister…am I spiritually frail? You bet!! Do I have failings, do I fall? Do I sin?YES, yes, and Yes? But does that make me a failure…not at all, in fact it might be the very thing that keeps me seeking the fullness, the adequacy, the grace and truth of God in His Word. And I want you to be free too…

So without further adue, Let me tell you …about 2 very successful witnesses (also frail imperfect witnesses…whose witness was not of themselves, but of someone that wasn’t at all frail…perfect, glorious…FULL.

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We left off with this verse(14) last week, but it deserves another look…God in Skin, in the flesh-the incarnation, that is what we have been learning about here in the prologue of John. And no other verse perhaps describes this like 14.

The text says that this man(JESUS) dwelt among them…us. The word for dwell here is actually “tabernacled” in other words like a tent…it gives imagery to God in the OT tabernacling with His people, Emmanuel “God with us”.

John in this passage gives us the evidences, the observations, the qualities of Jesus being the Christ. But it’s more than that, He telling it from a first hand experience and example. He was there, He lived with him, did ministry with him 24/7 for more than three years…you guys at best see me a few times a week. The point is, if there was a crack, if Jesus had any, and I mean any, especially with His claims to Deity, John, and the rest of the disciples would have saw it.

NO…He dwelt among them, He lived with them…

Next phrase“We saw His glory”- Now this might be a testimony to the actual transfiguration of Christ, with Peter, James, and who…JOHN same person that wrote this gospel.

But beyond that, it speaks to the witness of His perfect character and nature, His preaching and love towards the people…I mean are you kidding me, Can you imagine witnessing all that?

“Glory as of the only begotten from the Father”- In other words, this Glory, this admiration that John witnessed first hand, and is writing about here…so far surpasses our comprehension that it is in a class by itself…we know because he uses the word “begotten”

As I mentioned before, This does not mean that Christ was created…what it refers to is His preeminence, the preeminent man…in other words, His uniqueness, there could only be one, never have they ever seen someone so perfect, so complete…in every way, unique.- on the inside, not the outside…His heart, His being, Perfect-as if He came from God, as if He was and is God?

“Full of Grace and Truth”- In this person, In Christ Jesus was the FULLNESS of Grace and Truth. Perfectly, perfect grace and perfect Truth, wrapped up in flesh. We are going to dive into these deeper as we work through John, but for now just understand He is giving witness, to the only person whose character and nature, and life could have ever qualified as flawless…and it was so, in every way. There were no failings, no shortcomings, no sin, no gaps…think about that. Think deeply.

15- Here, John the apostle, goes back to John the Baptizers witness, saying that he also witnessed first hand the Messiah, and “testified…crying out…higher than I... existing before me!!

The Baptizer will testify to much more we will see, but here, he is saying, don’t look at me…NO, don’t you dare, Not me…

Jesus is who you are seeking, He is the Christ!! He existed before me…In other words, He’s from Heaven…He’s from the eternal past…He is the Alpha, He is the beginning, The Creator of all…Ancient of Days, The Author and Perfecter of our faith, Author of Life, Author of Salvation, Firstborn over all Creation, the Amen, the First and the Last, the Word of God, these are His names, Not my names…His. Hallelujah, Amen! It’s all about Him!

16- The Apostle continues “For of His Fulness, notice it doesn’t say “for of this fullness, but of His Fullness…important distinction. Fullness, same fullness talked about at the end of 14…

does this mean that somehow we are graced with the same perfection that Christ beheld…No, not even close. Does it mean that there isn’t any fruit that ought not to be a witness to others of His Spirit dwelling in you…not at all.

But as imperfect saints, instead of attempting so hard to BE a perfect witness, we ought to give greater effort to the telling of the Perfect Savior.

It also means that as sanctification and conviction of sin, from the Holy Spirit, takes hold of us, that it is inherent that we will more noticeably see our shortcomings and failures, so that in the process, we might become more humbled, a greater dependency to God. And it’s in that dependency…, where He is Lord, that we find His fulness. It’s not about seeing ourselves as righteous, but Him who was…and was in Full.

when we see Him magnified and exalted as He ought, His Holiness surpassing higher than the heavens. And we see our helplessness, our frailties, all our sin, laid bare on the table, ugly not worthy of anything but death. It’s when we see the difference, the distance, between the Christ, that actually came and tabernacled with us…that we are able to see “GRACE upon Grace” Grace upon abounding Grace. Grace is receiving something you do not deserve. Mercy is NOT receiving the something you ought-death.

17- John then expounds on this Grace upon Grace. And it’s here that we see a shift in the passage. The Law sometimes called the Law of Moses, or the first 5 books of the Bible, gave us all the do’s and don’t’s…it showed us God through His expectations…His law. Was it a bad thing…not at all, without it, without the OT we would know nothing of what God requires of us…the Israelites loved the fact that God would stoop to even gracing them with His law.

Think about it, before God made himself known to Moses, they didn’t know what pleased God? But What was its purpose? To show us, to convict us, to allow us to see the distance, between us and God…that we could never, as hard as we might try, cross that chasm. The the requirement was perfection…and so therein lies the problem… a real need for a real Savior. In steps God, Grace and Truth…in flesh.

Jesus, was the embodiment of all that God showed himself to be in the Old Testament, He was the fulfillment of all the OT prophecies, He was the Incarnation in the flesh…Full of Grace and Truth, the completion, the fulfillment of Truth…

The text (v17b) says that Grace and Truth were “realized” through Jesus Christ. Maybe John is speaking of a perfect man, finally a person that got it all right-being slaughtered, hung on a cross, and then maybe the realization, the picture of the OT sacrifice, the requirement of an unblemished lamb, offered for the sins of the people at the tabernacle.

You see, it wasn’t just His perfect life that John witnesses, but He witnessed His perfect death, and His perfect resurrection, and perfect ascension. It wasn’t just the perfect nature and character, all the perfect words at the perfect time through His preaching and teaching, and living.

It was more than the miracles, it was who the man was behind the miracles…His miracles were more than a witness, they were God’s grace, grace upon grace, showing love when and wherever He could.

But John, even after all that, we have to recognize the fullness of what He witnessed, what He came to realize…that this man, to whom was such a big part of John’s life…was actually who He claimed to be…the source of all Grace and Truth, God, and the only means by which we see His Fulness.

18- He first speaks of God’s invisibility and there are a number of passages in the Bible that speak of this. But He does so implying that though He(the Father) is invisible, He has shown Himself, through the exact representation of His being and nature, Jesus Christ, the unique, the only one, no one even comes close, so don’t even try…Jesus, HE and He alone, has explained, expounded, God to us, Emmanuel.

What we lack in all our attempts to be good, do good, to be righteous, to Love God and others…Christ did it. He realized it, He fulfilled it, He fulfilled the Law perfectly, and then fully paid the price for sin, again, perfectly. Grace and Truth… realized.

The OT was God sending us the instructions and telling us “good luck” …His intention was not to leave us in that state. We just had to come to a realization as mankind, that we needed something greater than ourselves, that we needed Him personally… We had to come to our bottom…

the NT is Christ, the God-Man, deity in the flesh, showing up at our door, at just the right time and saying, here’s how to do it, in fact, let me do it for you…and then us saying what do we owe you, and Him replying…don’t worry, I paid for it.

Boice states, under the law, God demands righteousness from people: under grace, he gives it to people. Under law, righteousness is based on Moses and good works; under grace, it is based on Christ and Christ’s character. Under law, blessings accompany obedience, under grace, God bestows his blessings as a free gift. (in other words, obedience accompanies the gift of grace). Grace upon grace…undeserved, unmerited, lavishly bestowed, overwhelmingly poured out love…

The point is in the midst of our failings, don’t look for God in anyone or anything other than the Fulness of Grace and Truth, Jesus Christ. We all look up to people, my heroes live on in the pages of theological discourse that they have left. But my idol, my God is Father, Son, and Spirit, and was fully put on display and exampled for us through the perfection of the Son, our unique Savior and Lord, my God and King, Creator of Everything, Jesus Christ, He is the only one that has explained , revealed“shown” God to me.

1) Realize the Fullness of Christ(grace and truth-grace upon grace.

2) Be a witness to that Fullness…and do it in the midst of your failings and shortcomings

I want to go back to this idea of the tabernacle…

…it was also where sacrifices happened. There was no access to a holy God without the means of a sacrifice…”Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin(). Nothing has changed… you and me both still require a sacrifice for our sin, Jesus God became that for us on the cross.

For those that are still in unbelief…Listen to what Boice

says “This(Jesus) is the answer to the supreme question of man in all the ages of human history. It is far more important than any scientific question or political question.

How can a sinful man, corupt by nature, approach a holy God? We all need God, but how can we find him? How can we come close enough to him to understand him? How can we become acceptable before Him? How can we know forgiveness of sin? How can we know Gods peace? How can we find fellowship with the one in whom we live and move and have our being? The answer is in the tabernacle and in Christ whom the tabernacle prefigures.

Fullness; full of Grace and Truth, Grace upon Grace, truth Realized in Jesus Christ, No one has seen the Father, But Christ has explained Him. Let’s Pray…