Sermon Tone Analysis

Call to Worship: John 1 (the Prologue)

Hark!

The Herald

Hope of the Nations

Kids Moment - Magi? - complete the nativity scene

Giving

Prayer - family news

Thank you!

For all your prayers and messages and cards and treats - Gordon’s cardiac ablation procedure on Dec 16 - recovering well.

We felt very supported and cared for.

Update on Brittney & Steve - baby Emma Grace

Pray for Bowdlers who have had to postpone travel due to positive Covid tests

Sermon: The Light Has Come

Today, we begin a series that will take us through the first nine chapters of the gospel of John.

Then, during Lent, we’ll continue and work out way through chapters 10-20, finishing up on Easter Sunday.

This means, that for the next 15 weeks, 16 including today, we’ll be working our way through the book of John.

This is likely a part of the Bible you’ve encountered before, but maybe you’ve never read it all the way through.

So, I really encourage you to read it.

I’m working on a plan for us to read it together during Lent, as we did with the Gospel of Luke last year.

But it would be wonderful if you would read it through on your own, sometime in the next few 8 weeks.

Maybe read it in a translation you’re less familiar with - or read a familiar and unfamiliar translation side by side.

There are many ways you COULD read the Gospel of John - don’t get stuck on all the possibilities.

Just read!

As we begin our journey through a gospel, a few reminders about how we can properly approach this genre of text.

This is different territory than the prophets who so dominated the last part of November and December, or the narrative texts from the Old Testament that we read earlier in the fall.

We have to shift in our approach.

The first four books of what we call the New Testament are gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.

A gospel is a text that bears witness to the life of Jesus.

Each gospel has its own flavour - or vantage point.

We hear the voice of the gospel writers in their accounts of the birth, life, death & resurrection of Jesus.

(Though not all of them will include all of the same events or details, much as we all recount things a little differently!)

These were written decades after the events they describe - and were meant to function as origin stories for first-century Christian communities who were living in the shadow of Roman occupation.

This is how things came to be.

This is the kingdom that stands in bold opposition to the Empire.

These texts re-oriented believers, encouraging them to carry on, and these texts called new people to faith as they encountered the Jesus to which these accounts give witness.

Now looking at the Gospel of John, in particular.

Judy Fentress-Williams writes:

"John is the last of the Gospels in both canonical order and date of authorship, probably written between 95-105 CE.

The exquisitely elusive words of this Gospel are directed to a faith community struggling with their identity.

Externally, there are the ongoing pressures from the Roman Empire.

(Scholars debate the intensity of that pressure.)

Internally there are divisions over doctrine.

The community to whom the Gospel is addressed is most likely diverse in ethnicity and religious backgrounds.

There are competing theologies and doctrines, primarily centered on the answer to the question of who Jesus is.

In response to this confusion, the Gospel presents a metaphorical universe, one that stands in stark contrast to the audience’s fractured reality, crafted to introduce them to the Jesus they all thought they already knew.”

We will spend the next few months working our way through the Gospel of John.

And even spending this kind of time, we will only scratch the surface.

I will invite you to read this fourth book of the New Testament alongside on your own.

And, we for Lent, we will once again read through the gospel as a community.

But a reminder that we are much different from John’s original audience.

And yet, we too are facing divisions over doctrine.

We too experience external and internal pressures.

And we too are in danger of thinking we already know who Jesus is… but John’s gospel will direct our attention to Jesus once again.

And some things John will show us might be familiar, but others are likely to surprise us.

As we read John in the coming weeks, both together on Sundays and on our own, may we also encounter the Jesus to whom the gospel bears witness.

Prayer of illumination...

In the Call to Worship, we heard some of the opening verses from John 1 - The first 18 verses of the gospel are referred to as the “Prologue” or the Overture.

And we read a section of them together as our text on the fourth Sunday of Advent.

The two high points in the Prologue are v 14 and 18.

Now, because we are potentially, OVER-familiar with these words, let’s read them in the First Nations Version I mentioned earlier.

In these verses, we see glimmers of the wonder that is the Incarnation.

Jesus shows us who God is - what God is like.

God made flesh.

God, who cannot be seen, made visible.

But now we come to the second part of John chapter 1 and a note here, that John the beloved disciple and John the Baptist are two separate people.

You’re hearing John, the gospel writer speaking about Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist.

Got it?

… starting in vs 19, and reading from the Common English Bible:

John the Baptist knows who he is and what his role is

not the Messiah

not Elijah

not the Prophet,

but the voice crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord

John points to Jesus

v 29 Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the [cosmic brokenness] of the world!”

John not only knows who he is (and isn’t) and what his role is, but he also recognizes the true identity of Jesus - and His role.

Jesus is the Messiah, the Lamb of God, and He will take away the sin of the world.

Not your mistake over here, and that issue over there, and my error in judgment or blatant disobedience, but the EVERYTHING BROKEN, EVERY systemic evil, every personal failure.

Do you remember how in Luke, Jesus' identity was this big reveal… it took several chapters, and there were a few points before Peter finally blurts our “You are the Christ!” that Jesus even shushes demons who recognize him… saying “it’s too soon.

Shh!”

But here in John, Jesus identity has been on display throughout the Prologue, and then here it is again.

Jesus’ identity will be on display from the very beginning in this account.

This is the Messiah.

This is the Lamb of God.

This is the one who will take away the cosmic brokenness.

In the final section, we see people begin to follow Jesus

from Robert Williamson (Bible Worm) three entry points to becoming a disciple:

Your teacher says “there’s the lamb of God”

Your friends says, “hey!

We found this guy...”

Jesus says, “Follow Me” directly to you.

How then do you answer the questions?

Who are you?

Who do you say Jesus is?

Are you a disciple of Jesus?

Has your teacher pointed to Him? (And if they haven’t, why are they your teacher?) Have your friends told you and pointed to Jesus?

Has Jesus Himself said, “Follow Me”?

All three are valid origin stories.

As you begin 2022 - are you a Jesus follower?

It’s okay to answer no to that question, by the way.