The Word
Notes
Transcript
You know I love the Christmas story because it was an event that completely changed history.
Because almost every single scholar whether they are a Christian or Atheist will tell you that Jesus coming was one of the most significant events in history (they may not believe He was God), but they will tell you His life impacted the world in a way that almost no other has.
And so usually when we talk about this event we look at the books of the Bible called Matthew and Luke and they tell this beautiful narritive of the story of that birth of Jesus that we just saw in the video.
But I want to look at the book of John today, because at lot of us know this but their are four books of the Bible that we call Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
And each of these books looks at the same story of Jesus’s life, but it does it from different view points.
Its kind of like how when they record movies they do it in a way where their are multiple angels recorded
And one angle might show some things that another angle will not.
And really that what these four gospel writers are doing and each one of them has an area that they emphasize
Matthew emphasizes Jesus’s teaching
Mark Emphasises what He did
Luke Empasizes His Feelings
And they John emphasises Who God is.
Which is why a lot of times people recommend the book of John to someone who has never read the Bible
And so today I love this account John gives because while it does not tell the warm fuzzy Christmas story we love, it helps paint a picture of who God is and you will notice almost every verse builds on to who Jesus is
Because the truth is a lot of times we do not have a great understanding of God.
Sometimes our view of God looks like this: (picuture of big white beard)
Sometimes our picture of Morgan freeman (from bruce all mighty
And othertimes we get this (picture of white Jesus)
Which Jesus did not look like this.
But this morning my hope is for us to understand and dive deeper into who God is and begin to paint a picture of who He is because the truth is who He is impacts who we are.
And so we are in John 1:1-14
And you will notice this passage talks about “The Word” and really they are using this term to talk about Jesus.
Because John (who writes this) writes his gospel at this time for a range of audiences and
at this time there were philosophical idea that their was somthing in the universe responsible for making everything and making order out of it called the “logos”in greek which translated into english is “The Word”
And so in a way we see John introduce Jesus by saying this thing you know about that created everything and made order is actually Jesus.
And so when you see the two words “The Word” it is referring Jesus and so we are going to be starting in John 1:1-6 and my hope today is by us learning about Jesus, we will learn about ourselves as well.
So it says this:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
So John starts and He takes us back to Genesis and He tells us in the beginning was the word.
Basically before anything was even created Jesus was their and not just that, but He was with God and He was God.
And you read this and you kind of go okay Jesus was with God, but He was also with Him?
Thats a little confusing isn’t it?
But what John is doing is He is actually introducing a theological idea that is called the trinity where we believe that we serve one God
But that God has three persons being God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit
And this is a really complex concept, in fact almost every theologian agrees that we cannot wrap our head around this idea that we have one God who is three persons in one God.
And this does not describe accurately, but men I can guarentee that almost all of us have 3 in 1 shampoo right?
And this is kind of a way you could talk about God
because we have God the father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit.
And I know so far this is a very academic sermon and you are probably thinking “okay so why does this matter?”
And let me tell you why this idea of trinity matters, because it actually means that even though we serve one God, God is never alone and before thisworld was even created God was in community
But here is the thing the God of the universe was in community then community should be pretty important in our lives as well.
And this is one of those things I probably drill into us but In but God creates us live in community with others.
Also it matters because since Jesus is part of the trinity it means He is fully God and Fully man.
Which means He experienced the pain we have gone through, it means He has been tempted how we are
Which means we have a God that is not far off but He has been where we are and relates to us in a way that we cannot even imagine.
I mean think about it because if I tripped off this platform and broke my arm some of you would be concerned others might laugh
But if you also tripped off the platform and broke your arm you would probably be a little more sympathetic, because you went through that.
And really we have a God who has been where you have been and does not just know about the pain that you go through, but personally has lived through it.
I mean this idea of God being a trinity really is actually strong statement and I could probably go on awhile about that.
But lets look at this next part because it says through Him all things are made, and without Him is nothing.
and not only that but it tells us that in him was life and light
So basically He created everything and everything He created is good.
Which means you are good, it means the world we live in was created good.
You know I think so often as Christians for some reason we get this mindset that the world is just evil and that is it.
But if God is good and created every single thing around us then it means that everything was created good
the issue is sin entered the world which means the world has been corrupted and instead of goodness there is pain and hurt
Its almost pizza (Pizza is good isn’t it?)
I love pizza, but if mold begins to form on the pizza its probably not that goof right?
And really sin has made our lives moldy and if we stopped their we would probably say yeah the world we live in and even our lives would be a lost cause.
But look at verse 5 because their is darkness but, it says the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome the light.
You know their can be darkness in the world, but the darkness cannot overcome light.
I mean think about a light, because if we covered the windows and turned off all the lights in the room it would be pitch black, but if I had even the smallest light you would be able to see it.
Why because light overcomes darkness.
And really this is why we don’t just look at our lives and the world and say lets throw them away like bad pizza, but we look at them and realize God can move in our lives and world
Even in the darkest places.
God can move in times you feel like you might be a lost cause
God can move in peoples lives that are seem broken
God can move in your neighbor that might drive you crazy
God can move in your child that might be far from Him.
I mean we believe we serve a God that the darkness cannot overcome.
And I want to jump to verse 9-13 because I told you were were talking about Jesus coming right. Here’s where the shift comes it says this:
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
So it says the light was coming into the world,
Basically Jesus was coming into the world,
But here is the issue, because while Jesus has come, it says His own did not recognize Him.
Isn’t that interesting.
The very people God created in His own image did not recognize Him.
And I really I found myself this past week asking myself have their been times where I did not recognize God.
Because throughout the New Testament people do not recognize Jesus because they have their own idea on what God looked like.
And the truth is so often we do not recognize God because we want to try to make God in our own image rather than allowing Him to make us in His.
And its really bad when we do this
Its kind of like I remember being a kid and a lot of pizza places (IDK why my illustrations are about pizza this week) but they always had this option where kids could get a regular pizza or create their own where they would bring out the dough and toppings and the kid would make it.
And it sounds cool but kids would make nasty germ filled pizzas that did not taste very good
And really when we form God in our image we take this thing that is good and alter how it should look.
We need to be people who do not reject God and shape Him to our image but follow Him fully.
And here is the beautiful thing about this passage is it says there are people who accept Jesus, and because of them accepting them they become children of God,
Mean their identity has changed.
And here is the beautiful thing because our identity is made up of a few things
There are things that describe us
If you were going to talk about my identity you would probably say
He is a Dad
He likes to go on walks
Sometimes he is awkward
And for a lot of us their may be parts of our life that we may say are negitive parts of our identity
We might say shame is part of our identity
We might say brokenness is part of our identity
But the beautiful thing because when we accept Christ into our life our identity moves out of this brokeness to being made new in Christ
Our Shame is redeemed
Our hurt healed
And we still have parts of our identity where I am still a day or go on walks, but ultimately our identity is rooted in that we are children of God washed in His blood.
And let me just end by reading this last verse (verse 14) because this is how this section ends. It says:
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
I love how this passage ends because it ends saying that Jesus (fully God and Fully Man) has come
And the question we have to ask is what does this mean for me?
Because this is the event that changes history.
And we have to ask ourselves this event has changed history, but do I want it to change my life
Because I believe we serve a God who desires to change your life and I guess as we close I would love for us to ask ourselves Jesus has come, but have we aloud Him to dwell in us.
