SPEAKER_01: We're normally study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get back to Matthew next week.
SPEAKER_01: Today I'd like you to turn in your Bibles if you have them.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have one, like one to follow along, raise your hand up real high.
SPEAKER_01: We're look at uh John chapter one, the prologue.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: Lots of people making New Year's resolutions around this time of year, and perhaps you are among them.
SPEAKER_01: Um I like to just think about what kind of trajectory I would like to begin the new year with.
SPEAKER_01: And uh so I'm gonna I'm gonna call this uh little study that we'll do out of the prologue of John's Gospel, beginning again.
SPEAKER_01: And um, I had this question kind of crossed my mind as I read through this, meditated on this, and marinated on it all week long.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, I've been marinating on it for a couple of weeks, but what would it look like to begin every day conscious of the fact that Jesus is the word, Jesus is the life, and Jesus is the light of God in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: A Christian is a person who has God as their Father, Jesus as their Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit as their comforter, keeper, and counselor throughout life.
SPEAKER_01: A Christian is a person who has come to see that Jesus knows better than they do in every category of life, including spiritual life, interpersonal relationship life, work ethic, finances, social life, their understanding of human sexuality, their physical, emotional, and mental health.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knows better than I do, than you do, when it comes to any of those categories of life.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we do is we find ourselves as Christians bowing before him.
SPEAKER_01: See he doesn't come just as a counselor or a life coach, he comes as a king.
SPEAKER_01: And what do you do with a king?
SPEAKER_01: You bow before the king, you serve a king.
SPEAKER_01: And so when Jesus is our king, we bow before Jesus intellectually, we bow before Jesus emotionally, we bow before Jesus spiritually and morally.
SPEAKER_01: And in every way we recognize Jesus as the king we've always wanted and the king we've always needed.
SPEAKER_01: These are some of the same reasons why John actually wrote this book that we call the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, many other signs John wrote, lots of signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And they're not written in this book.
SPEAKER_01: But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, not just another religious leader among many, but that he's the Christ, the anointed one of God.
SPEAKER_01: The Messiah is the Old Testament version of that word Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's not his last name, it's his title.
SPEAKER_01: So that, John wants to persuade us, so that you might be it's not just to win the argument, it's that in believing you might have life in his name as you set the course, the trajectory for 2023.
SPEAKER_01: If you're looking for a sure and a certain word, if you're looking for a life that is flourishing, if you're looking for a light that will push back on the darkness that's all around you, and we're honest around this church, the darkness that sometimes takes up residence inside of us and tries to gain a foothold inside of us.
SPEAKER_01: If we are looking for a light that can dispel even that darkness, John says, I seek to persuade you that Jesus really is the one.
SPEAKER_01: You need look no further.
SPEAKER_01: Turn to him.
SPEAKER_01: And so we come to this very interesting, you know, really honest couple of verses in chapter 20, which is really at the end of the book.
SPEAKER_01: And it's interesting to me that John puts that toward the end of the book because what he's basically saying is, I wrote all this other stuff before it, so that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That you'd believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that in so doing, you would find life in his name.
SPEAKER_01: Here we have his strategy: evidence, evidence, evidence.
SPEAKER_01: These signs, these ones.
SPEAKER_01: I've chosen these signs.
SPEAKER_01: And there are seven of them in the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: And there are seven discourses of Jesus in the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: He's really careful.
SPEAKER_01: He's a very selective writer.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants you and I to know that Jesus is the one.
SPEAKER_01: We need not look any further.
SPEAKER_01: He really is.
SPEAKER_01: So the strategy is there, the subject matter is there, all in these verses up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: The subject matter is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And the purpose for writing is up there as well, so that we might come to believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: John records the seven I am statements of Jesus, where Jesus, in a multi-layered way, poetically, with these amazing images, says, Here's who I am.
SPEAKER_01: If you're interested in knowing me, here's who I am.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the light of the world.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the bread of life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the door.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm the true vine.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus isn't playing around.
SPEAKER_01: He's not trying to hide himself.
SPEAKER_01: He's not in any way trying to shroud who he is.
SPEAKER_01: He is boldly, plainly, and poetically, and just in case you're wired poetically, or just in case you're like me, you're more kind of thick headed and you just need it said straight up.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: He's saying it straight up.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm the door.
SPEAKER_01: Bonk.
SPEAKER_01: How bluntly.
SPEAKER_01: You looking for a way to the Father?
SPEAKER_01: You're looking for a way to God?
SPEAKER_01: Do you want to know what?
SPEAKER_01: You want to know where to find real life?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, I'm the way, I'm the truth.
SPEAKER_01: I don't point to the way and the truth and the life.
SPEAKER_01: I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_01: It's a bit of his ontology.
SPEAKER_01: It's about his being.
SPEAKER_01: It's wrapped up in who he is.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just something he points to or can give you.
SPEAKER_01: It's who he is.
SPEAKER_01: You really don't need to look any further.
SPEAKER_01: So, in his own words, there you have it up on the screen pretty boldly.
SPEAKER_01: The reason I go back to it over and over again is because my subjective feelings need the objective truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: I might wake up in 2023 on the 1st of January and go, man, 2022 just wrung me out.
SPEAKER_01: It took my soul and dragged it through the dust and the dirt and the mud.
SPEAKER_01: And I got so angry and I was sick for so long, and I had to struggle in so many different ways, I just don't know why I should even be looking forward to a 2023.
SPEAKER_01: And here's Jesus saying, Because I am all of these things.
SPEAKER_01: Come and believe.
SPEAKER_01: And man, John is seeking to do that as he even begins in the first 18 verses of John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: Now, before we read these, and I might actually have you read the scripture out loud today, if you don't mind, I've got parts for all.
SPEAKER_01: I've got parts for men and for women.
SPEAKER_01: You just follow up on the screen in a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray for us as we have this, our first Bible study of 2023.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, thank you for your word that it's living and active, that you're faithful to not leave us in a cold, dark, and silent universe, but to break through with words of life and light in the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And we turn to him, we pray for a clearer vision of your truth, a greater faith in your power, and a more confident assurance of your love for us in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's read the scripture from the first uh, I think I'm gonna put the first 14 verses up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a paper Bible or a Bible on your device, swipe there anyway, but let's read aloud from the slide here, because you might on your device or in your lap, you might have a different translation, and so it might sound like we're charismatics or something if you start you know reading from a different translation.
SPEAKER_01: We just want let's all read it the same way.
SPEAKER_01: First 14 verses, anyway, right up here, and nothing wrong with that, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: If you are, that's good.
SPEAKER_01: Um ready?
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
SPEAKER_01: He was in the beginning with God.
SPEAKER_01: All things came into being by him.
SPEAKER_01: In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shone in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
SPEAKER_01: There came a man sent from God, whose name was John.
SPEAKER_01: He came for a witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him.
SPEAKER_01: He was not.
SPEAKER_01: He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.
SPEAKER_01: He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him.
SPEAKER_01: But in as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born.
SPEAKER_01: And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_01: Now look with me in your Bible if you have it with you.
SPEAKER_01: And I know I've tired you just a little for public reading.
SPEAKER_01: So let me let me just read the last four verses here, because I think there's this, I love this, the way this sort of bookends work here.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: John bore witness of him.
SPEAKER_01: This is John the this is John the Apostle talking about John the Baptist bearing witness of Jesus, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And cried out saying, This was he of whom I said, he who comes after me, has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me.
SPEAKER_01: For of his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
SPEAKER_01: For the law was given through Moses.
SPEAKER_01: Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: No man has seen God at any time.
SPEAKER_01: The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's really awesome to every now and then pull out if you have a copy of a Greek dictionary or access to one or one online or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting to look at that last little phrase.
SPEAKER_01: He has explained him.
SPEAKER_01: And see that it's really the same root that is the word realized in verse 17, that grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And here at the very last bit of verse 18, he meaning Jesus, has explained him, meaning God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has explained God.
SPEAKER_01: He has helped us realize who God is.
SPEAKER_01: Which is fascinating to me because this whole thing began with in the beginning was the word.
SPEAKER_01: He has explained him.
SPEAKER_01: If you're curious about God at all, look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He has revealed him, he has explained him, he is the exact representation of God's brilliant, luminous, splendorous glory.
SPEAKER_01: Look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: How will you set the course for this year?
SPEAKER_01: How will you begin again?
SPEAKER_01: Is it possible to begin again?
SPEAKER_01: So much has gone on in the past.
SPEAKER_01: I'm reading a book.
SPEAKER_01: I think I mentioned it last year, started reading this book, and I have to keep my dictionary handy because this is one of those books.
SPEAKER_01: It's a tome.
SPEAKER_01: But it really is quite brilliant, and I highly recommend it to you.
SPEAKER_01: The prologue to John's Gospel, Christopher Watkins says, must be one of the richest, most poetically potent treatments of any theme within or outside the Bible's pages.
SPEAKER_01: Uncurling tentacles of meaning in all directions.
SPEAKER_01: So beautifully said, so poetically said by Watkin.
SPEAKER_01: And again, I'm really enjoying the book.
SPEAKER_01: I just really want to focus on these three metaphors, if you'll allow me to do it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the word, Jesus is the life, Jesus is the light.
SPEAKER_01: Here we have that right, really in the first five verses, actually, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God.
SPEAKER_01: He was in the beginning with God.
SPEAKER_01: All things were created by him, and apart from him, nothing has come into being that has come into being.
SPEAKER_01: In him was life.
SPEAKER_01: And the life was the light of man.
SPEAKER_01: And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not understand it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is God's self-disclosure.
SPEAKER_01: He's the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: He's God's self-disclosure.
SPEAKER_01: He's the eternally relevant, sure, certain word that can never be deconstructed.
SPEAKER_01: No matter how hard our world works to deconstruct language and meaning, which then leads us to despair and confusion, particularly the youngest among us, to great confusion.
SPEAKER_01: And here, into all of that kind of chaos, comes God saying, a word that is eternally, it's timeless.
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: That means before the beginning even began, in the beginning, he already was.
SPEAKER_01: And that's in the imperfect tense, that verb, meaning continually, he is already and continues to be the word of God, the self-disclosure, the self-revelation of God.
SPEAKER_01: John claims that Jesus existed before the creation event, was actually present at the creation event, and actually was the active participant in the creation event.
SPEAKER_01: By him all things were made.
SPEAKER_01: Apart from him, nothing has come into being that did come into being.
SPEAKER_01: It sounds so much like what had already been written in an epistle by the Apostle Paul by this time in Colossians chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: And if you have time later, encourage you to go and read that on your own.
SPEAKER_01: But the claims about Jesus in that early letter, they're so bold, they're astonishing.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the Apostle Paul saying the same thing the Apostle John here is saying.
SPEAKER_01: You need look no further.
SPEAKER_01: He really is the one.
SPEAKER_01: By him, through him, and for him, all things came into being.
SPEAKER_01: You included, me included.
SPEAKER_01: You know the meaning and the purpose for your life?
SPEAKER_01: The meaning and purpose for my life is him.
SPEAKER_01: I look to him for that.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the Christian gospel is rooted in language, Eugene Peterson said.
SPEAKER_01: God spoke a creation into being, and our Savior was the word made flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 14, right here in John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus really is the word.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus really is the life also.
SPEAKER_01: He is the designer and the source of life.
SPEAKER_01: All life and all of creation, really, is what the claim is in the first couple of verses there.
SPEAKER_01: But let's just talk about our little sputtering lives, okay?
SPEAKER_01: In this big universe.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, if you haven't taken the time to go online and check out some of the James Webb space telescope photos and just to continue to see how big and massive this universe is, it's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: And the bigger it gets and the more massive and complicated and beautiful it all gets, the more I sit here just with my mouth hanging open.
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: Why would the God who did all of that and can do all of that even think at all about imprinting his image in a little speck of dust called gem?
SPEAKER_01: That's mind-blowing.
SPEAKER_01: And why would he do that in you as well?
SPEAKER_01: It's just astonishing.
SPEAKER_01: It's wonderful, is what it is.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, in his own language, uh in chapter 14, says things like this: I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.
SPEAKER_01: No one comes to the Father but through me.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to know God, Jesus is the door to knowing God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the door to the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting to me.
SPEAKER_01: This little triplet, way, truth, life is just slightly parallel to what we have in chapter one, in a way, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Here's Jesus, the word.
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of like truth.
SPEAKER_01: Here's Jesus, the life.
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of like life.
SPEAKER_01: And here is Jesus also the light that brightens my way.
SPEAKER_01: Because thy word is a lamp into my feet and a light into my path.
SPEAKER_01: And so over and over again in John's gospel, we have both Jesus and John both speaking poetically and plainly to help us come to this conviction, this place that we understand that Jesus is the source that we're looking for as we move through life.
SPEAKER_01: And if we want to intentionally set a trajectory for this year, spiritually speaking, oh my goodness, let's head in the direction of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now, a lot of other churches will bang on the moralism drum.
SPEAKER_01: Let's head in the direction of being better people.
SPEAKER_01: Let's head in the direction, and there's nothing wrong with some of that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But ultimately, if I want to transcend politics, if I want to transcend the things that divide us, I have to go to something that's higher than those things.
SPEAKER_01: And there really is only one thing that is the highest thing, and that's Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus is preeminent, when he's first, when and I loved it that we began this way.
SPEAKER_01: When we walk into this room, and the first thing we do is say, holy, holy, holy.
SPEAKER_01: Did you feel your soul drawn into his presence?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it didn't.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe for you it was just too much by road at that point.
SPEAKER_01: But for me, it was like holy, holy, holy.
SPEAKER_01: Oh come to be awake to his presence here when you walk through the door.
SPEAKER_01: And let's do that together.
SPEAKER_01: Let's be the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: Let's find in Jesus the word, the life, and the light.
SPEAKER_01: I love it that he didn't say in the beginning was the hum.
SPEAKER_01: I love it that he didn't say, in the beginning, was this political party or that political party.
SPEAKER_01: I love it that he did not say, in the beginning, was a proper ordering of societal justice.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm for justice.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not what he said was in the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning was the warm, fuzzy feeling of L-U-V.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't say that either.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't reduce love to love.
SPEAKER_01: Because love, the love that God is, is the kind that enters and pierces the darkness on a rescue mission and suffers and lays down his life for those who are trapped in the darkness and can't seem to overcome the darkness, as it says here.
SPEAKER_01: And he, the light, comes into, and it's all it's not effortless.
SPEAKER_01: He has it, it's costly, but he does it motivated by this great love.
SPEAKER_01: L O V E.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you Shorten it to L-U-V-E.
SPEAKER_01: L-U-V.
SPEAKER_01: God had not created the world to just be a feeling.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm I I feel like we're adrift and somewhat off course because we're thinking with our feelings too much.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean intuition is bad.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that.
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't mean, but think of how many times you say, well, I feel this, and I feel that.
SPEAKER_01: And what you really mean is I think this or I believe that.
SPEAKER_01: And we're getting sloppy and we're just getting lazy and we we've we've sort of begun to use, put thinking into the place where feelings are supposed to be, and feelings into the place where thinking is supposed to be.
SPEAKER_01: And Dallas Willard does a brilliant job of sorting that all out for us in a book called Renovation of the Heart.
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't read that, it's a great book to look at it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I digress, I've gotten off track.
SPEAKER_01: Please forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_01: I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_01: He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.
SPEAKER_01: See, he's picking up on what John says here in the prologue.
SPEAKER_01: Some Bible scholars think that John wrote the prologue, those first 18 verses that we've read now.
SPEAKER_01: They think that he wrote that after he wrote the rest of the book.
SPEAKER_01: He kind of went back and said, I'm going to come up with this little section right here that's going to be sort of a foreshadowing of the entire book.
SPEAKER_01: Is that possible?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think it is possible.
SPEAKER_01: I know a lot of modern writers actually do that.
SPEAKER_01: They write their forew or their preface after they've written their book.
SPEAKER_01: And so it very well could be that that's what he did.
SPEAKER_01: Because in those 18 verses, we really have sort of a summary statement of everything he's going to say in the rest of John's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: As he points us all the way, not all the way back to Abraham, not all the way back to David, not all the way back to just that first century or anything like that, but all the way back to the beginning of time and even before the beginning began.
SPEAKER_01: Because before the beginning began was the beginner who began all of the stuff that began.
SPEAKER_00: And he is the word.
SPEAKER_01: Because of Jesus, we do not have to remain blinded by spiritual darkness.
SPEAKER_01: But according to John, he's describing here what is kind of indescribable, and that's why I'm so glad John is the poetic gospel writer that he is.
SPEAKER_01: I often need the gifts of the poets and songwriters to help me, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Analytic, theoretical, you know, propositional guy.
SPEAKER_01: I need their insight and their words.
SPEAKER_01: Because there comes a point where when we're talking about God, we must acknowledge we cannot define God.
SPEAKER_01: We can describe God.
SPEAKER_01: And we do best, we do that best when we use the words that God has given us to describe Himself.
SPEAKER_01: And those words, at least for this morning, are word, life.
SPEAKER_01: Light.
SPEAKER_01: And as you set the trajectory for year, year, I wonder what it would look like to begin every day conscious of the fact that Jesus is the Word, Jesus is the life, and Jesus is the light.
SPEAKER_01: Thank him that he's not left us alone in the dark to come up with us ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Thank him that it's not God as you understand God to be.
SPEAKER_01: Because when I'm left to that, this sort of contemporary notion of you, you know, you, what do you think, God, you know, as if it's up to me who God is?
SPEAKER_01: You know.
SPEAKER_01: Well, if that were, if I were to answer honestly, I'd say, well, God looks a whole lot like Jim.
SPEAKER_01: God likes everything Jim likes.
SPEAKER_01: And God is bothered by everything that Jim is bothered by.
SPEAKER_01: So what happens to us as human persons created in the image of God is that our tendency is to create God in our own image instead of living safely, blessedly in the image of God, the way He's created us.
SPEAKER_01: And so He's the designer, He's the Creator, He's the Word, He's the life, He's the light.
SPEAKER_01: And the more we consider these powerful images, we begin to realize John's claim that the, and I think the entire Bible's claim, is that Jesus is the antidote to a dark, cold, and silent universe as the Word.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the world, antidote to a world of confusion and uncertainty, a world without meaning, purpose, and hope.
SPEAKER_01: And that Jesus brings the light of God's salvation and the possibility of a flourishing life by that light and that word, and it all breaks through the darkness that surrounds us and that tries to rise up within us as we turn to Jesus and bow.
SPEAKER_01: Lift up the empty hands of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And what do we get?
SPEAKER_01: It says here at the end of this.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: What do we get?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the law was given through Moses, verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: Grace and truth are given through Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but uh while I appreciate that the the law is articulated clearly in the Bible that I know what God's standards are, and I think the law is good, but here's what I need: grace and truth.
SPEAKER_01: I just I'm not good.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe maybe you are.
SPEAKER_01: It's not enough to just tell me what the rules are.
SPEAKER_01: I need grace and truth.
SPEAKER_01: I need to I need to be moved.
SPEAKER_01: I need to tremble in his presence.
SPEAKER_01: Because he, the Almighty, holy God, has set his love on me, sinner though I am, broken though I am, and he's called me, he's chosen me, he's called me to himself.
SPEAKER_01: And that involves repentance.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it does.
SPEAKER_01: I must turn away from my selfishness and my sin and to him in faith, believing.
SPEAKER_01: That's so true.
SPEAKER_01: John is not just talking about believing in God, however you imagine God to be.
SPEAKER_01: This is the God who's revealed himself as word, as life, and as light, and as more, but at least for this morning.
SPEAKER_01: What if we got a glimpse of just those three?
SPEAKER_01: And that we set our course this year to live with Jesus as the word in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: The very source of life that we draw on.
SPEAKER_01: And the one who, by his glorious light, can push back the darkness in our own souls.
SPEAKER_01: John was not talking about some amorphous, shapeless spirituality, subject to his imagination or your imagination, or somehow subject to our momentary moods and feelings.
SPEAKER_01: The ancient songwriters of Psalm 27 said it this way: The Lord is my light and my salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And then the next line that comes right along, but it's basically whom shall I fear?
SPEAKER_01: That's the that's when you turn to him and you see him that way, that's a natural question.
SPEAKER_01: It's rhetorical, and the idea is you don't have to be afraid of anybody.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Lord is your light and your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore there's nothing to fear.
SPEAKER_01: The emphasis on light and darkness, Tim Keller says, comes from the Christian belief that the world's hope comes from outside of it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus comes as a light because we're too spiritually blind to find our own way.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus became mortal and died because we are too morally ruined to be pardoned any other way.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gave himself to us, and so we must give ourselves wholly to him.
SPEAKER_01: As we enter this new year, as we begin again, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice, O people of God.
SPEAKER_00: The word has come.
SPEAKER_01: He's brought life, and he has the light that I need and that you will need as well, to begin to dispel the darkness around us and the darkness that rises up within us.
SPEAKER_01: That darkness could look like so many things.
SPEAKER_01: And even as I was preparing for this particular Bible study this week, it it can come from so many different sides.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's just amazing how that darkness will masquerade like something else as it approaches your mind, your heart, um, and seeks to derail you or in some way distract you from your focus being on him, the one you really need.
SPEAKER_01: I'll close with this Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote.
SPEAKER_01: Look up you whose eyes are fixed on this earth, you who are captivated by the events.
SPEAKER_01: This is just so, so, so brilliant.
SPEAKER_01: Captivated by the events.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have the right one up there, do I?
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_01: Look up you whose eyes are fixed on this earth, who are captivated by the events and changes on the surface of this earth.
SPEAKER_01: Look up you who turned away from heaven to this ground because you had become disillusioned.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's you.
SPEAKER_01: Look up you whose eyes are laden with tears, you who mourn the loss of all that the earth has snatched away.
SPEAKER_01: Look up you who cannot lift your eyes because you are so laden with guilt.
SPEAKER_01: Is that you?
SPEAKER_01: Look up.
SPEAKER_01: Your redemption is drawing near.
SPEAKER_01: And it has in the person and work of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And one day he intends to return and complete the unfolding of his kingdom and set all things right.
SPEAKER_01: What would it look like this year?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: What would it look like for you to wake up and every single day live with a conscious understanding that Jesus is the word you've been looking for, the life you have always wanted, and the light you have always needed.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, thank you for this passage.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, I want to know you that way this year, this day even.
SPEAKER_01: So stir us all to go back to the beginning and to begin again with the beginning in mind.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that your mercies are new every morning.
SPEAKER_01: And so for the next 364 days of this 365-day year, I pray that we'd be aware of that and aware of you, Jesus, as the sure and certain word we hope to hear, need to hear.
SPEAKER_01: The truth that we need to know, the assurance of your presence, your power at work in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, bring us the life and the light by the Holy Spirit as well.
SPEAKER_01: And may we, as your people, reflect your glory in our homes, in our cars on the way home, in our places of work, in our neighborhoods, as we gather with friends and family, and as this year begins to unfold, whatever it holds, Lord, may we have that calm, confident assurance that you hold your people fast.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And amen.