WEBVTT 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:21.920 Good morning to you all. 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:22.719 Welcome. 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:24.640 This is a bit strange, isn't it? 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:27.920 Uh thank you for your uh patience. 00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:32.159 Thank you for those of you who showed up at half past eight to to make things work. 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:36.240 It was all a bit kind of frantic right up to the wire, but we got there, didn't we? 00:00:36.399 --> 00:00:41.200 And uh thank you for those of you who have come to celebrate our uh first Sunday. 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:49.679 My name's Mark, I'm one of the leaders here at the church, and uh it is uh a great thing uh to be starting the new academic year in this new uh venue. 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:54.640 If you've got a Bible uh or if you need a paper Bible, you can grab one at the front. 00:00:54.719 --> 00:00:57.600 I'll pray, I'll close my eyes, and you can sneak down and sneak back. 00:00:57.679 --> 00:00:58.079 That's fine. 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:02.799 Uh, or if you've got one on your on your phone, uh turn it up again to to John chapter one. 00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:05.680 We're going to be starting that series, as has already been mentioned. 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:07.840 Uh basically, uh, we'll do it in two. 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:08.879 We'll do it up to Christmas. 00:01:08.959 --> 00:01:17.599 We'll do a short Advent uh series then and we'll pick it up in the new year, but we'll get uh up to uh the end of chapter six between now and Christmas. 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:22.400 Uh let me pray uh for us as we as we begin. 00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:27.200 Lord, we do indeed uh need you. 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:41.599 You have been so kind and good and gracious to us as a church family in bringing us uh to this place, in walking with us all these long years, in growing us, in sustaining us. 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:44.480 And we praise you uh this morning, Father. 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:57.920 I pray that as we begin uh this uh this gospel account of the life of the Lord Jesus, uh, that you would help us uh to see him as John sees him, to see him clearly as that majestic eternal one. 00:01:58.319 --> 00:02:03.599 I pray for those who perhaps are struggling in their faith or have questions about the Christian faith. 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:14.159 Would this gospel series bring them back uh to those first principles, uh, as it were, to what really matters and the essence of what it is that Christians uh believe? 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:18.719 Uh be with us now by your Holy Spirit, we ask, in the name of Jesus. 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:19.840 Uh Amen. 00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:21.120 Amen. 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:28.400 Uh take a moment and just uh think uh about where it is at your happiest. 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:36.240 Can you remember a time that you felt kind of truly uh happy and at peace and at rest uh in the world? 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:38.639 Uh where was that place? 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:39.840 Where is that place? 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:46.639 Uh if you're like Andrew Woodmartin, it's maybe here in this very room uh watching uh watching movies. 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:50.800 Uh what are you doing in your happy place? 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:51.919 Who are you with? 00:02:52.080 --> 00:03:00.960 What is that place of of just ah that soul sighing rest when everything seems to be right? 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:07.439 Is there anywhere in your life that you go in order to feel that? 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:15.520 Maybe you get out of the city, you get on your your bike, and you get out into the countryside, and there you feel at rest. 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:18.400 When was the last time you you felt that? 00:03:20.639 --> 00:03:28.560 Those times and peoples and places and experiences, those are what enrich our lives, aren't they? 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:33.360 They make us feel uh alive, they make us feel a bit more human. 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:45.919 The hard thing about those is that they're they're fleeting, they pass us by, we have to go back into uh into normal life, our family commitments, our work commitments, all of those, all of those things. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:04:05.120 And and we wonder, is there can that sense of full life of uh of abiding rest and peace and oneness, uh, can that can that travel with me into those uh into those other experiences, into those other uh spheres of life, where can I go to to get that? 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:10.719 Christianity is concerned about those sorts of questions. 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:22.000 Christianity is concerned with helping you to answer that place of where do you feel truly at peace, where your life, your flourishing is maximized. 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:37.519 It's a misconception to think that actually Christianity is about uh repression and giving up and abstinence and all of those sorts of rule keeping or faking it, coming in with your painted-on smile and saying, yeah, no, everything's fine. 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:39.199 We all know what fine means. 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:42.399 It means feelings internal, not expressed. 00:04:42.560 --> 00:04:44.639 And everybody comes, oh fine. 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:49.920 They think that that is the sum total of Christianity, but that's a misunderstanding. 00:04:51.439 --> 00:05:03.040 The book that we are beginning, the book of the account of the life of Jesus, written by John, is concerned with these sorts of questions. 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:08.240 John, for those of you who don't know, John was a close friend of Jesus. 00:05:08.399 --> 00:05:19.759 Not only was he one of the twelve, but there was kind of in the twelve, there was like an inner circle of three of Peter, James, and John who were uh who were particularly friendly with Jesus. 00:05:19.839 --> 00:05:24.560 And and this is his account of the life of Jesus. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:36.480 We can be confident that this is John's account, that this isn't some kind of Dan Brown-esque uh later edition from the the second or or third century. 00:05:36.639 --> 00:05:47.519 We can be confident that John wrote it and that he wrote it around about 90 AD, so around about uh 55 to 60 years after the uh events. 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:52.879 We can be confident of that because we have the textual manuscripts. 00:05:52.959 --> 00:06:08.879 You can go to the Chester Beattie Library here in Dublin, or you can go to uh to the museum in Manchester, and you can see uh fragments of John's gospel from about 60 years after the time that they were written, from about 150 AD or so. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:27.279 In his letter, so John wrote a gospel, that's what this is, a gospel account, but he also wrote letters, and in his first letter to the church, he talks about what I'm going to tell you is the things that I have heard, the things that I have seen, and the things that I have touched. 00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:34.319 He proclaims himself to be an eyewitness to the life of Jesus. 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:44.399 That that phrase of things heard and seen and touched, that's an ancient way of kind of uh going in and saying, I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:45.920 That's how you did that in the ancient world. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:49.360 I'm going to tell you by what I heard, what I saw, and what I touched. 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:56.480 John is saying, I can give you a legal disposition that what I'm telling you is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. 00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:00.079 But why did he write this account of the life of Jesus? 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:04.480 We've got three others: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:09.120 And John comes in, uh, essentially writing the latest one. 00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:16.160 Mark's writing around about 50, 55, and John is using him as a as a source in his writing. 00:07:16.240 --> 00:07:18.240 But why does he write so late? 00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:22.319 Why does he see fit to write another gospel account? 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:25.519 Well, he tells us, actually. 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:29.839 He tells us, uh, not at the start of the book, but right at the very end. 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:34.560 In John chapter 20, he gives you the purpose for writing. 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:37.839 What do you hear what he says about why he was why it was that he was writing? 00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:44.800 He says, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 00:07:45.120 --> 00:07:57.600 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. 00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:07.920 He begins by saying, If I was to kind of write down all the things that Jesus did, there wouldn't be enough paper to contain it all. 00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:16.399 I'm not writing an exhaustive history of the life of Jesus, I'm writing a particular history of the life of Jesus with a particular purpose. 00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:17.759 And what is that purpose? 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:21.279 That you may have life in his name. 00:08:21.439 --> 00:08:27.759 And that that that phrase that word life will come up all the way through the gospel. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:29.439 It is a mega theme. 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:34.879 It's the word Zoe, where you get the girl's name Zoe from the word life. 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:43.919 He wants you to know life by knowing this Jesus that he's going to tell you about. 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:54.399 That might sound strange uh to your ears, but it's a case that John's gonna be making over the next weeks and months that we uh study this book. 00:08:54.559 --> 00:09:07.279 He wants you to know that if you want to find that place of true peace, satisfaction, uh, to truly have life, that you don't so much go to a place, but you come to a person. 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:14.480 Today we're just gonna uh look a little while at the first five verses. 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:26.320 We'll do the the whole prologue, which is verses 1 to 18 next Sunday, but we're just gonna zoom in on the first five verses of how he introduces his gospel because it's different, right? 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:28.480 Where's the where's the shepherds? 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:36.879 Where's the where's Bethlehem and uh and angels uh singing and wise men coming from the from the east? 00:09:36.960 --> 00:09:38.399 There's none of that here. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:47.840 You think about it this way, Matthew, Mark, and Luke almost kind of build their gospel from the from the ground up. 00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:52.000 John builds his gospel from heaven down. 00:09:53.120 --> 00:10:00.320 Matthew, Mark, and Luke start in time and space and then make the case of who Jesus is. 00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:04.480 John starts definitely, he starts in eternity and he starts in heaven. 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:08.159 He starts there with Jesus. 00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:15.360 And so he begins, the opening words, in the beginning was the word. 00:10:20.399 --> 00:10:23.360 We all, I'm sure, have some sort of mental image of Jesus. 00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:28.559 If I just ask you to close your eyes for a second and uh and say, think of think of Jesus. 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:32.159 You kind of get him in your mind's eye there. 00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:36.000 Uh he's the he's the fourth member of the Bee Gees. 00:10:36.799 --> 00:10:40.639 Uh he's there, he's got his his long flowing hair. 00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:43.519 It might be blonde, he might be a brunette, who knows? 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:52.080 Uh, but he's quite tall, uh, he's quite serene looking, looking like the kind of guy that you know would give a lamb a good cuddle uh and be quite gentle. 00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:55.440 He's a he's a white Anglo-Saxon uh Protestant. 00:10:55.600 --> 00:11:11.519 Uh you might uh or you might, uh if you're particularly cultured, have in your mind's eye uh, you know, a uh a painting, a renaissance painting, or or you might think of a sculpture uh like the like the Pieta where he's there kind of draped on the arms of his mother. 00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:14.399 You might have that image in your in your mind. 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:20.159 Uh the thing that uh we need to know from reading the start of the of John's gospel, they're all inadequate. 00:11:20.559 --> 00:11:26.559 They're all inadequate images, none of them live up to the reality. 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:31.200 He begins with the words in the beginning. 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:55.919 What that means is that no matter how far back you go, whatever your understanding is of how we got here, and I'm sure there are a multiplicity of understandings in this in this room, no matter what your concept of origin is, when you go right back to that origin point, he's there. 00:11:56.480 --> 00:11:57.919 That's what John's saying. 00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:03.360 Whatever your theory, he's there in the beginning. 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:06.080 In the beginning was the word. 00:12:07.679 --> 00:12:09.360 Who is Jesus? 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:14.480 Well, he is the uncreated creator. 00:12:14.639 --> 00:12:20.159 You know, people often kind of they throw out the question, well, if God made everything, then then who made God? 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:23.919 Well, then who made the thing that that made God? 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:26.000 Or who made the God that made the God that made the God? 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:28.639 And you kind of get this infinite regression. 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:34.399 Some people like to throw that out as an objection to belief in God or to the idea of Christianity. 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:38.399 That's an objection that was kind of answered long before Jesus ever came on the scene. 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:40.799 It was answered by uh by Aristotle. 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:56.320 Uh, and he talked about how actually, when you go right back to the start of everything, what you need in order to kind of make sense of the rational universe that is around us is you need a you need a first mover who isn't himself moved. 00:12:56.480 --> 00:13:04.399 Or he talks about an uncreated creator or an unmoved mover who gets everything going. 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:08.559 And what John is saying is that's Jesus. 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:11.360 He is first principles. 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:17.919 He takes us further into that thinking when he describes him as the word. 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:24.960 John calls Jesus the pre-existent word. 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:30.879 In the original, this is the uh this is the word logos. 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:34.399 He is the logos. 00:13:35.279 --> 00:13:39.200 The logos was a was a loaded phrase in the ancient world. 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:41.360 It meant it meant a number of different things. 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:47.840 Let me run through kind of what they mean because it also kind of resonates with where people tend to come from today. 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:59.440 For some people in the ancient world, the the logos was the rationality that underpinned all other reason. 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:13.600 So if you're a scientific, rational person, if that's your disposition, if that's your your bent, then for you the logos is the bedrock of that, the bedrock of all reason and your ability to think. 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:18.639 It's like it's like the logos is the yardstick that makes reason reasonable. 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:21.600 Like how do you judge that you are being rational? 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:27.440 And what the Greeks understood was that the logos was that, he was fundamental reality. 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:48.159 For others, who perhaps were more mystical in their thinking, who who thought a lot about uh the the essence of your your consciousness or your soul, for them, the logos was that divine spark that lived in everyone. 00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:50.080 It was your consciousness. 00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:57.360 You think about you think about it for a second, it begins to kind of cook your brain of what does it mean for you to be a conscious being? 00:14:57.519 --> 00:15:03.519 What does it mean for you to be aware of your surroundings and aware that you're here this morning? 00:15:04.799 --> 00:15:10.799 Well, the ancient philosophers thought, well, it's the the logos, is that divine spark. 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:24.799 For those who had a biblical background, it would have been the uh the Jews in the ancient world, they would have had in their minds something else. 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:33.360 They would have heard these words in the beginning was the word, and their minds, perhaps in your minds as well, went immediately back to where? 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:35.279 To Genesis 1. 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:39.679 In the beginning, God created the heavens of the earth. 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:43.039 And how did God do it back in Genesis 1? 00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:46.240 How did God create the heavens and the earth? 00:15:46.799 --> 00:15:56.159 And God said, Let there be light, God speaks, and creation comes into existence. 00:15:57.759 --> 00:15:59.919 But John says, in the beginning was the word. 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:06.559 Or their minds might have gone back to somewhere like Psalm 33. 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:19.519 Psalm 33, verse 6 perhaps puts more, even more of a finger on it when it says, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, their starry hosts by the breath of his mouth. 00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:36.399 The word in in biblical thought, in Jewish Old Testament thought, is the creative agent that brings about everything that is around you, everything that you see in this room. 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:44.960 For John, uh the the logos is something that connects with with each of those. 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:52.240 That as they uh that as the the Greek sat down and read his account, I thought, oh, this he's telling us about fundamental realities. 00:16:52.399 --> 00:16:55.360 He's telling us about that that divine spark, that consciousness. 00:16:55.519 --> 00:17:03.600 As the Jew reads it, he's he's taking us right back into those first principles of of biblical theology and of what God has done. 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:16.960 The logos in John's mind is fundamental reality, it is the thing that gives your soul its meaning, and it is the agent of God in creation. 00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:19.039 But here's the surprising thing. 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:23.200 Here's the new thing that John brings to the table. 00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:33.839 The logos is not a force, it's not an idea, it's not a philosophy, it's not an energy, it's a person. 00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:36.640 It's not an it. 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:38.960 It's a he. 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:44.240 In the beginning was the word. 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:47.200 He goes on, verse one. 00:17:47.599 --> 00:17:54.559 In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. 00:17:56.640 --> 00:18:00.880 You see the emphasis in verse two, he, not it. 00:18:01.279 --> 00:18:05.200 He was in the beginning with God. 00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:14.720 Here we see the the personality of the word, not so much, not personality in the sense of, oh, he's quite extroverted, you know, good sense of humor. 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:20.400 No, personality in terms of his personhood, that he's not a a force or an energy. 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:22.880 He was with God. 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:32.640 This this phrase with uh means means to be face to face with, towards, in relationship with, that's what it means. 00:18:32.799 --> 00:18:38.079 Uh to me uh to be facing, looking at God. 00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:48.880 What this means is that the word is himself a distinct person from God the Father, but in eternal relationship with him. 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:53.680 There was no time when there wasn't the word. 00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:56.160 The word was there in eternity. 00:18:56.319 --> 00:19:05.920 It's over and against our uh our friends in uh who who are Jehovah's Witnesses, who would say, no, no, actually, actually, Jesus is the first created thing. 00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:08.000 That's not what this is telling us. 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:16.880 He's saying that the word, who became flesh and who we know is the person Jesus Christ, was in eternal relationship with the Father. 00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:22.640 And he goes on and says, And the word was God. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:31.119 Not simply that the the word was himself divine and distinct from God, maybe a demigod or another god from somewhere else. 00:19:31.279 --> 00:19:34.000 There's a very there's a very particular word if you were to write this. 00:19:34.079 --> 00:19:38.559 If you want to just say that he was generally divine, that's not the word that John uses. 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:51.039 That's the word theos, but he doesn't use that word, he uses the word theos, saying that he was God, that he shared in that divine essence that God the Father has. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:20:01.279 So the word is a distinct person from the Father, sharing in the nature of the Father. 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:08.559 It's quite technical, so let's just try and land the plane here and to work out why any of that matters. 00:20:10.799 --> 00:20:29.680 Well, to the to the atheist who's skeptical about the existence of God, John is saying that what underpins your rationality, your ability to think, is the God who is absolute reality, who gave you your brain and your rational functions. 00:20:29.759 --> 00:20:35.599 He is the one who helps to, who he is himself the yardstick of your reason. 00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:48.799 Moreover, he is saying to us that us who search for the other, for experiences of the transcendent, those things that we long for. 00:20:49.039 --> 00:20:56.240 John's saying, don't search for an don't search for an it, don't search for an experience, search for a he. 00:21:00.640 --> 00:21:13.680 John is saying that God is not simply absolute and uh and and sovereign and separate and transcendent and removed, but that he is personal, knowable. 00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:19.119 So we'll see more of next week that he's made himself known. 00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:20.880 That is what the word has done. 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:27.039 The word has come as the ultimate self-disclosure of who God is. 00:21:28.079 --> 00:21:37.599 Some people like to talk about the uh the illustration uh when they're kind of comparing world religions, this idea of uh of uh of God's elephant. 00:21:37.839 --> 00:21:55.839 Do you know the this this image where or this story that is told that there are blind men all kind of feeling at an elephant, and there's the uh there's a king who sees the whole picture and uh and he sees that it's an elephant, but there's these blind men and they're grouping at it, and and somebody says, Oh, it's it's like a it's like a large leaf. 00:21:55.920 --> 00:22:03.839 I'm uh this is a large leaf feeling at his ear, and so it's no, it's a Snake, and he's at the business end of the elephant, you know, he's got the tail, right? 00:22:03.920 --> 00:22:09.440 Um you don't want to be the blind guy down there, and other people are going, no, it's a tree, and he's hugging onto the leg. 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:17.680 And people think that that's what world religions are like, that we're all just kind of feeling and groping the same elephant. 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:26.720 It's a weird way to think about divine religions, but here's the difference with Christianity, and here's what explodes that whole analogy. 00:22:27.200 --> 00:22:32.640 One of the things that explodes that whole analogy is that the elephant spoke. 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:36.079 God has disclosed himself. 00:22:36.319 --> 00:22:46.799 Imagine, instead, you got those blind guys, and they're all kind of feeling the ear and the tail in the trunk, and the elephant goes, I'm an elephant, stop me in my tail, I'm an elephant. 00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:52.000 Imagine if the blind guys are like, Oh, no, no, no, it's uh it's a it's definitely a snake. 00:22:52.640 --> 00:22:55.039 I'm an elephant, you're tugging on my tail. 00:22:55.440 --> 00:22:57.200 That's what God has done in Jesus. 00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:00.079 That is what God has done in the Word. 00:23:00.559 --> 00:23:06.799 He has disclosed Himself to us, He has revealed Himself, He has made Himself knowable. 00:23:09.680 --> 00:23:11.359 What did the Word do? 00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:14.160 Carrying on verse 3. 00:23:15.440 --> 00:23:23.279 All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that has been made. 00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:28.720 In Genesis, God spoke creation into being. 00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:39.359 That's why in the in Narnia, Aslan sings creation into being. 00:23:39.440 --> 00:23:47.440 Uh, it's also if you uh uh are a student of the Silmarillion, uh Luviatar sings Middle Earth into being. 00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:51.279 Uh first Sunday here, we need to have a kind of Lord of the Rings Middle Earth reference. 00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:52.079 You're welcome. 00:23:52.160 --> 00:23:54.000 Uh we have saddled in, we've arrived. 00:23:54.160 --> 00:23:54.720 Good. 00:23:57.599 --> 00:24:01.359 God spoke creation into being. 00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:08.880 Now John is telling us that the word is that personal agent of creation, the Jesus. 00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:15.200 And that's what Paul says in Colossians that everything was made by Jesus and for Jesus. 00:24:16.799 --> 00:24:20.160 Without him was not anything made that has been made. 00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:23.359 You think about that for a second. 00:24:23.839 --> 00:24:26.319 How marvelous and remarkable that is. 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:33.680 Matthew, Mark, and Luke talk about narrative stories. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:44.799 Particularly Matthew and Luke go into detail about Bethlehem, and Matthew talks about the uh the star of Bethem, and Luke talks about the star of Bethlehem guiding the wise men. 00:24:44.960 --> 00:24:46.640 You know what John's telling you? 00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:53.039 John's telling you that Jesus made the star that shone over the place of his birth. 00:24:54.400 --> 00:24:56.000 Jesus made the star. 00:24:57.359 --> 00:24:59.519 He spoke it into existence. 00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:03.680 That shone over the place of his birth. 00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:08.079 He has made every subatomic particle. 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:10.240 He has made the crab nebula. 00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:12.319 He has made you. 00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:14.880 He has made me. 00:25:18.079 --> 00:25:19.119 Think about that. 00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:33.440 You are a created person, created not just by your parents, but created by him in a fundamental sense. 00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:35.759 And what does that mean for your life? 00:25:37.200 --> 00:25:42.960 Well it means it means lots of things, but one of the things that it means is it means that you belong. 00:25:44.400 --> 00:25:48.480 You're made by a person who knows you. 00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:50.799 You belong. 00:25:51.839 --> 00:25:53.440 You belong to him. 00:25:55.519 --> 00:25:57.039 You belong with him. 00:25:59.920 --> 00:26:01.440 What is your life? 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:03.920 It is his. 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:06.480 And it comes from him. 00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:17.920 Maybe one of the things that will happen in the course of this series is that you will really get to know the Jesus to whom you belong. 00:26:19.759 --> 00:26:21.599 In whose image you were made. 00:26:24.480 --> 00:26:26.079 And what did the word bring? 00:26:26.319 --> 00:26:27.599 We're nearly finished. 00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:30.640 It might not always be this way. 00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:32.000 But first Sunday. 00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:33.519 We'll ease our way in. 00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:37.279 In him, verse 4. 00:26:38.079 --> 00:26:39.920 In him was life. 00:26:40.799 --> 00:26:43.279 And the life was the light of men. 00:26:44.240 --> 00:26:47.200 The light shines in the darkness. 00:26:47.680 --> 00:26:50.480 And the darkness has not overcome it. 00:26:53.680 --> 00:26:56.000 I changed my mind on what this means this week. 00:26:56.079 --> 00:26:57.200 That's quite exciting. 00:26:58.880 --> 00:27:07.599 I think I always read it as it's the it's the it's the light of salvation that has come. 00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:12.000 It's the the life, the resurrection life of Jesus. 00:27:13.039 --> 00:27:14.880 I don't think it means that. 00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:23.359 I think certainly that's picked up in uh in other parts of John's Gospel and becomes bigger and bigger in the course of John's Gospel. 00:27:23.440 --> 00:27:27.279 And I'm happy for you to disagree with me, but I'm going to make a case that it means something else. 00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:36.319 I think that John is so steeped in creation in Genesis 1. 00:27:38.640 --> 00:27:40.640 That it means something else. 00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:54.799 It means something like that this is the in him was the light of creation shining in each human conscience. 00:27:56.559 --> 00:28:04.160 The divine light, the divine life that God has placed in you and I that longs for eternal things. 00:28:04.400 --> 00:28:10.160 That's the light and the life that was that was in him, it's been given to us. 00:28:10.799 --> 00:28:21.279 Because that was it was the light of men, it's the light of illumination, of conscience, of reason, of morality, that that light has shone on us. 00:28:21.839 --> 00:28:24.240 And what does he mean by the darkness has not overcome it? 00:28:24.319 --> 00:28:48.559 It means that ever since our first parents rebelled in Genesis 3, though it has been, though our conscience, our morality, our image barreness has been marred and broken and twisted and distorted, it has not been overcome, it has not been obliterated, that there is still something in each of us that longs and yearns for eternity and transcendence. 00:28:48.720 --> 00:28:59.039 And what John is saying is that the word has come into the world that will call that part of you out, that will summon that part of you. 00:28:59.119 --> 00:29:16.400 And those of you who come to faith in the Lord, you will find that compelling, and you will find that that life, that light is fired, that those embers, though they they grow dim because of sin, they begin to flicker and to flame. 00:29:18.640 --> 00:29:20.559 I think that's what it means. 00:29:20.799 --> 00:29:27.359 The light that shines in the darkness, the darkness in John's gospel is a moral term, it's not just nighttime. 00:29:28.079 --> 00:29:36.160 Darkness is not just the absence of light, it is positive evil in John's gospel. 00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:49.680 And he's saying that even though the darkness has pervaded across our world, still that light shines, and it has not been overcome, and it will not be overcome. 00:29:50.079 --> 00:29:53.279 Jesus comes to fully make it known. 00:29:56.400 --> 00:30:03.839 We know that at some deep experiential level that we have these longings and these desires that cannot be met by anything in this world. 00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:04.400 C.S. 00:30:04.559 --> 00:30:06.000 Lewis said it like this. 00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:16.400 He said that he has concluded that I feel if I feel in my heart longings that nothing in this world can satisfy, I must conclude that I am made for another world. 00:30:21.200 --> 00:30:28.640 The light that shines on men and in men and women's hearts has come into the world. 00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:37.279 It is telling us that God did not abandon humanity in Genesis 3. 00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:47.279 Though he had every right to, he could have snuffed out our light, started again, but he didn't in his grace and his goodness. 00:30:47.519 --> 00:30:49.440 He persevered with us. 00:30:49.680 --> 00:30:52.799 We are still image bearers, even in our sin. 00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:57.680 We're like myrrhers that have been cracked. 00:30:58.079 --> 00:31:01.200 We reflect something of what it means to be an image bearer of God. 00:31:01.279 --> 00:31:05.440 We reflect something of what it means to be human, but it is distorted. 00:31:07.200 --> 00:31:08.880 The image doesn't look right. 00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:19.359 The light, the word has been made flesh as that perfect image bearer, and to restore our image-bearedness. 00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:27.039 God has not human abandoned humanity, he has not abandoned you. 00:31:30.079 --> 00:31:36.240 He has left the flickering embers of his life, his light, in your heart. 00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:47.519 And Jesus has come to fire that flame and to renew your life in the light of his glory and his grace. 00:31:51.440 --> 00:31:52.960 Where are you happiest? 00:31:54.160 --> 00:31:58.160 Where do you go to feel truly at peace and at rest? 00:32:01.039 --> 00:32:13.920 The answer that Christianity gives is that we find it most fully not in a place, not in a thing, not in a experience, but in a person. 00:32:15.519 --> 00:32:23.920 And that in coming to Him we find that we ourselves become more truly human. 00:32:25.599 --> 00:32:26.480 I'm excited. 00:32:27.519 --> 00:32:30.640 I'm excited to journey with you in this place. 00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:34.799 I'm excited for restrictions lifting tomorrow that'll allow more people in here. 00:32:35.279 --> 00:32:38.079 I'm excited to journey through this gospel with you. 00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:46.240 May we know the life that the Lord Jesus has brought to the world for us. 00:32:47.680 --> 00:32:48.720 That's my prayer. 00:32:51.119 --> 00:32:52.319 Let's pray together. 00:33:01.200 --> 00:33:07.920 Lord Jesus, we praise you that you have come into the world, bringing life and immortality to light through the gospel. 00:33:08.079 --> 00:33:18.079 And we thank you that you are that pre-existent one to whom we belong and in whom we find life. 00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:24.880 Help us by your grace to live into that life. 00:33:28.480 --> 00:33:29.839 To be those lights. 00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:35.839 That city on a hill shining so that others might be drawn to it. 00:33:37.839 --> 00:33:40.720 We praise you for your grace to us. 00:33:43.279 --> 00:33:54.480 And we pray that in our lives, in our world, that the darkness would continue to be pushed back and that the light of your kingdom would shine all the brighter. 00:33:59.119 --> 00:33:59.759 Amen.