WEBVTT 00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:22.800 Uh, friends, that is an amazing passage of Scripture. 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:28.800 You'll notice that as it was read, it's it's sort of poetic in the way that it comes across. 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:30.719 Um, that makes it difficult to read. 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:32.880 So you read that extremely well, thank you. 00:00:33.119 --> 00:00:54.159 Because there's rhythms and plays on words, and what John is doing in the first 18 verses of his gospel, of his account of Jesus' life, is introducing to us all of the themes that he's going to develop as he goes through the rest of his account of Jesus' life. 00:00:54.320 --> 00:01:01.679 You can take almost any word from that prologue and then read through and trace the development of that word as you go through. 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:06.640 That's why it's there, that's why it's there, so you can so you can trace those themes through. 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:16.000 The last couple of weeks, uh, as I've been doing a lot of driving, I've had uh an audio version of John's Gospel playing on a loop. 00:01:16.239 --> 00:01:23.680 And each time, and I've been particularly focusing on this idea of Jesus as the word, because that's the topic of the sermon. 00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:29.760 Um uh and next week you're doing Jesus the light, and then the following work, Jesus the Savior. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:35.200 And all three of those themes come out of those 18 verses, but are developed as you go through. 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:39.840 You also take the word receive to those who received him. 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:59.599 Look at the way that he keeps on using that word through the rest, and it'll give a really rounded understanding of how important it is to receive Jesus to those to live in him, to abide in him, the way that's developed. 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:11.759 But my job is to look at the way that the word, this idea of the word, those first words of John's gospel, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. 00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:13.919 He was with God in the beginning. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:17.599 Before we go any further, I'm going to pray. 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:20.800 And I'm going to pray a really old, old prayer. 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:33.919 It's a prayer that Anglican Christians, I'm not sure if you know very much about the history of Anglicans or the Church of England, but there was a guy called Thomas Cranmer, and he wanted every English-speaking person to know the gospel. 00:02:34.319 --> 00:02:39.840 And there was a king who was a bit of a rogue, but he gave Cranmer a chance to change things. 00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:56.639 And so he set about trying to set up a system of church that would make sure, even if the existing minister wasn't, didn't really know the gospel, would make sure that the people in the congregation would hear it week in, week out, week in, week out. 00:02:56.719 --> 00:03:01.039 And he wrote prayers that would collect the prayers of the congregation together. 00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:04.080 They've come to be called collects. 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:07.120 They collect the people's prayers together. 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:12.800 This is the collect that he wrote to be read today. 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:15.120 Let's pray together. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:19.360 Blessed Lord. 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:59.199 Would you grant that we may in such way hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of your holy word we may embrace and ever hold fast to the blessed hope of everlasting life which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:00.240 Amen. 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:05.520 Some of those old guys knew what they were talking about, didn't they? 00:04:06.479 --> 00:04:09.199 I wish I had the old guys. 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:10.800 I'm not talking about me. 00:04:12.479 --> 00:04:13.840 Thanks very much. 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:19.199 In the beginning was the word. 00:04:19.839 --> 00:04:22.800 And the word was with God, and the word was God. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:25.759 He was in the beginning with God. 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:32.959 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 00:04:33.839 --> 00:04:36.639 Hopefully, you're following along in the text there. 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:38.480 Jump down to verse 14. 00:04:39.199 --> 00:04:45.920 And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:52.480 Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:58.079 I've been tossing around an idea for a while now. 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:04.160 I just want to share it with you, and you can work out yourself whether it makes any sense of what we're going to be talking about in this. 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:09.279 But two sentences. 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:15.600 Works without words are ambiguous. 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:23.279 Words without works are hypocrisy. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:26.720 Did you follow that thinking? 00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:35.120 If you do things, you can't really work out why you're doing them unless the person doing them is telling you. 00:05:36.639 --> 00:05:39.279 Why is the person sweeping in the street? 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:44.480 Is it because it's outside their front gate and they're just interested in that? 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:47.279 Or are they paid to do it? 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:48.480 Why are they doing it? 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:50.160 Unless they tell you why they're doing it. 00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:52.560 You can make it up, but you can't be sure. 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:55.279 It's ambiguous, their work by itself. 00:05:56.319 --> 00:05:58.800 Why did that person give that money away? 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:09.120 You can make up ideas, but unless you ask them, unless they tell you, unless there's the words there, why they did the work is ambiguous. 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:15.439 But then if you say you're going to do something, but you never do it. 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:22.480 If you have the words but never the actions, you're a hypocrite. 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:28.160 Wonder how that works together with this idea of the word. 00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:34.480 We may or may not come back to that, but you can talk about it afterwards. 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:41.040 You may have heard people say things like, preach the gospel, and when necessary, use words. 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:43.680 That's attributed to St. 00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:44.959 Francis of Assisi. 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:51.680 There's a particular series of words that I apply to that pattern of thinking, but I can't use them in church. 00:06:53.839 --> 00:06:54.079 St. 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:59.600 Francis of Assisi never said that, and from what we can tell of his minister, he would have hated the idea. 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:10.480 His great work, pretty much the only thing we have of his, finishes with, Blessed are those whom death will find in your most holy will. 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:20.399 People who are so caught up in God's will that death is not a frightening thing for them. 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:22.800 How is that possible? 00:07:22.959 --> 00:07:24.879 Well, it's only by the word. 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:33.120 It's only he Francis was a person so devoted to telling people about God that he even told animals. 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:38.079 All of creation needs to hear the word of God. 00:07:38.959 --> 00:07:43.519 He's a bit nuts in certain areas, but he is a word person. 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:46.160 Christians are word people. 00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:50.160 We're preaching, teaching, proclaiming, telling, testifying. 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:52.240 That's the kind of thing the Christians do. 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:58.720 And when we meditate, we don't aim for a vacancy of mind. 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:07.279 We don't wait for God to speak through events and coincidences and into silences. 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:11.439 Nor do Christians listen to God in prayer. 00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:13.279 No, that's actually an axymoron. 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:15.040 Prayer means ask. 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:22.240 No, we follow the pattern of the Psalms, we Christians. 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:26.720 How does Psalm 1 talk about meditation? 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:39.919 Well, it says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. 00:08:40.240 --> 00:08:45.039 And on his law he meditates day and night. 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:53.600 Our meditation as Christians is taking God's word and turning it over in our minds. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:09:09.039 The Jewish people were at times known as a nation of mutterers, because they were told by God that as they walked along the road, that they would mutter under their breaths the word of God, rehearse the law. 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:21.759 They would have the whole of the first five books of the Old Testament memorized so that they could talk it over to themselves as they walked, because they were the people of the Word, and we are the inheritors of that title. 00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:26.399 How does the Bible begin? 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:29.919 What are the words with which Genesis begins? 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:37.840 John expects us to know Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 00:09:39.279 --> 00:09:48.639 As he writes this beginning, he expects certain words and phrases to make us think, oh, oh, that's what you're talking about. 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:51.200 How does Genesis begin? 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:56.399 In the beginning. 00:09:57.759 --> 00:10:01.919 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the voice and the earth. 00:10:04.159 --> 00:10:09.039 How does John begin with John's account of Jesus' life? 00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:12.639 In the beginning. 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:16.159 Using the same words as the start of the Bible. 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:17.919 He takes us back to creation. 00:10:18.159 --> 00:10:20.639 He wants us back at the very beginning. 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:25.919 He wants us to know that this is an Old Testament pattern of thinking. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:32.879 In the beginning was the word. 00:10:34.799 --> 00:10:42.960 This word, this word is not just the means of creation, this word is God Himself. 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:51.759 None of this rubbish that you'll hear from Jehovah's Witnesses saying that this word is a God. 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:59.279 No, if John had wanted to say that this word was a God, there was a different word to use. 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:02.639 The word he uses here is theos, God. 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:10.240 If he wanted to use it meaning divine or a God, he would have used a different word, theos. 00:11:10.399 --> 00:11:16.399 It's only one word, one letter difference, but we know that one letter makes a big difference in a word. 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:20.960 Like the difference between prostate and prostrate. 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:24.080 It means something very different. 00:11:25.279 --> 00:11:36.240 John is very, very carefully saying here that this word that was with God in the beginning is God Himself. 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:45.120 Later on he says, I and the Father are one. 00:11:45.279 --> 00:11:47.360 That's what this word says. 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:53.120 Whoever has seen me has said the Father is what this word says. 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:58.080 This word is not God like, this word is God Himself. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:05.360 And John then ties up in verse 3, going back to the word beginning again. 00:12:05.679 --> 00:12:14.799 He wants us to be back there at the point where nothing became something as a result of the word. 00:12:18.559 --> 00:12:24.080 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:34.799 There is nothing, friends, in all of existence that does not know that existence to this word who is God Himself. 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:44.480 Every atom that makes up your body exists because this word spoke it into existence. 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:52.320 Now, from that, do you get something of the scope of the power of this word? 00:12:53.919 --> 00:12:59.200 Do you get something of the scope of the authority of this word? 00:13:00.559 --> 00:13:07.039 Do you get something of the scope of the ownership that this word has over everything in creation? 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:11.679 Just from the opening in the beginning was the word. 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:25.679 Now you'll be looking at some of these themes more in the coming weeks, but you'll notice that in verse 4, John changes from Paul talking about the Word to talking about light. 00:13:25.840 --> 00:13:34.399 And those of us who know Genesis won't be surprised by that, because we know the very first words recorded of God in the Old Testament. 00:13:36.159 --> 00:13:44.480 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and void, and the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep. 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:50.960 And God said, Let there be light. 00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:59.200 The light has shined in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:01.759 That is this word that we start. 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:11.200 In the first couple of words of John's account, we're talking about something creation-size big happening here. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:21.440 You need to have all of the Old Testament and everything you know about God from the Old Testament in your minds as you read, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:23.360 He was with God in the beginning. 00:14:23.679 --> 00:14:29.360 Through him all things were made, and by him and nothing exists except was made through him. 00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:44.240 We're going to go on in just a second into verse 9 and verse 14, looking at this word who comes into the world, looking at this word who takes on flesh and dwells among us. 00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:47.919 But before we go to that, I just want you to pause. 00:14:49.440 --> 00:14:53.840 Pause and appreciate the wonder of who this word is. 00:14:55.919 --> 00:14:57.919 Appreciate his power. 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:01.840 Appreciate his authority. 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:09.120 Appreciate whether you have a relationship with him or not. 00:15:11.039 --> 00:15:14.960 Do you know if you have a relationship with this word or not? 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:38.720 What do you think are the consequences of not knowing or not recognizing or being estranged from the word who is the creator of all things, who owns all things, who you would not exist except that he spoke you into existence. 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:57.759 And with that very firmly in our minds, we start to appreciate how extraordinary a thing it is that this is a word who made his dwelling among us. 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:08.480 Again, I'm going to work you hard here because I'm going to make you think about a whole stack of stuff that you may or may not have known from the Old Testament. 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:13.440 But the more we understand our Old Testament, the more we will understand what is happening here. 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:19.440 God spoke so that we would understand what he was going to do in the world one day. 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:23.200 Look at verse 14 with me. 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:30.240 The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:35.679 Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:41.440 Now, of course, we've skipped a couple of verses that are important, but you'll be looking at those in the coming weeks. 00:16:41.679 --> 00:16:45.759 But what does it look like that this word became flesh? 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:54.559 The more we understand the way that God starts Genesis, the more strange the idea is that the word becomes flesh. 00:16:54.720 --> 00:16:59.519 Because this is God, the transcendent God becoming flesh. 00:16:59.679 --> 00:17:14.000 The word transcendent, actually, it's one of the words that I think our friends who are coming from an Islamic background, our Muslim friends, find this aspect of Christianity about the most difficult aspect to get their head around. 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:25.920 But it's because they have what is maybe a more developed and sometimes more true understanding of the transcendence of God than what we might have. 00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:33.519 The idea of transcendence is that God is not a part of creation, he is separate from it. 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:35.519 That's a really important idea. 00:17:35.599 --> 00:17:37.279 It is a biblical idea. 00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:40.319 God is not contained within creation. 00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:45.440 In fact, the majority of religions of the world believe that that's exactly the way it is. 00:17:45.680 --> 00:18:00.240 If you think about the old uh sort of Norse gods or Greek or Roman gods or the uh gods of the Vedic texts from India, the gods are all part of creation or form parts of creation. 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:04.799 So you have the god of thunder, a part of creation. 00:18:05.039 --> 00:18:10.000 You have the god of this mountain over there, a god that is a part of creation. 00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:23.920 Uh the Australian aboriginal deities and uh so the uh Uluru, the rock, is a deity who has become dormant or died, and so the people of that place venerate that rock. 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:36.079 That's why it's now illegal to walk and climb on Uluru as rock, out of respect for the beliefs of the people there, that that is their god, a part of creation. 00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:58.799 In some of the ancient Vedic Indian texts and a lot of texts that are still believed today, the the earth and the sky are the result of a huge battle between two deities, and one killed the other, and the one that was killed became the earth, and the other in in um rose up in victory to become the sky. 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:01.839 Deities that are part of creation. 00:19:02.240 --> 00:19:08.559 And the creation narrative in Genesis goes through and actually names some of these gods. 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:11.119 He says, Oh, you worship light and darkness. 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:13.279 They're concepts that you worship. 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:17.599 Now the God we're talking about spoke, and those ideas came into existence. 00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:20.640 Oh, you worship the sky and the sea. 00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:25.039 Oh, no, no, the God we're talking about, he spoke, and the sky and the sea came to his. 00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:26.720 Oh, you worship fish. 00:19:27.119 --> 00:19:28.960 You've got fish deities. 00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:33.440 Oh, no, the God we're talking about spoke and they came into existence. 00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:39.119 He's not in creation, he is apart from creation. 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:41.759 He created and sustains all things. 00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:43.759 That's the God we're talking about. 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:54.559 And the extraordinary thing, once you start to get your head around that, you start to realise how amazing a thing it is to say the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 00:19:54.720 --> 00:20:05.200 You start to understand why our Islamic friends would find that so difficult to understand, because they do understand something about the transcendence of God that sometimes we might forget. 00:20:05.839 --> 00:20:07.680 But we need to hold those things together. 00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:15.920 We need to be filled with wonder at the extraordinary thing that God, the transcendent God, has done by becoming flesh and dwelling among us. 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:26.240 And actually that phrase, dwelling among us, should also blow our minds because he uses another Old Testament reference there. 00:20:28.160 --> 00:20:34.319 Made his dwelling among us is a translation of really saying he pitched his tent among us. 00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:47.680 And that idea of pitching his tent is actually an Old Testament term for where God tabernacled among us. 00:20:48.400 --> 00:20:51.759 Now, some of you are nodding because you know that word tabernacle. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:54.240 Some of you don't know that word tabernacle, and it's fine. 00:20:54.319 --> 00:20:56.160 I'm going to tell you what the tabernacle is. 00:20:57.279 --> 00:20:59.759 John expects us to know Exodus. 00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:06.319 Most of us probably know Exodus chapters 1 to 20. 00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:09.279 That's the bit that they make movies about. 00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:21.519 The people in slavery who through extraordinary series of plagues, especially the last plague, death which came and killed all the firstborn. 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:29.279 And yet death passed over those who had killed a lamb and put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. 00:21:29.839 --> 00:21:41.279 And every year the Jewish people remembered that day when they when the angel of death passed over them because of the blood of the Lamb, and God rescued them in the Exodus, brought them out. 00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:46.079 And that's where people think it finishes. 00:21:46.400 --> 00:21:53.759 But that's Exodus is 40 chapters long, and that's just the first 20 chapters. 00:21:55.920 --> 00:22:02.079 The majority of sermon series on Exodus look at chapters 1 to 20 and Sort of don't do the rest. 00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:05.839 But the rest actually is the climax. 00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:13.279 The rest is the climax that actually, if you read it, to us seems terribly tedious and boring. 00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:16.880 Because we don't really appreciate what's going on. 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:35.920 The huge purpose of God in wonderfully and miraculously bringing his people out of slavery leads to this amazing 20 chapters about making a tent. 00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:39.519 That's God's big purpose. 00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:42.319 And you think, what on earth is that about? 00:22:43.440 --> 00:22:45.200 But it's not just a tent. 00:22:45.680 --> 00:22:50.720 See, this tent, 20 chapters of describing what goes on around the tent. 00:22:50.960 --> 00:22:54.400 Who was allowed to go into various parts of the tent? 00:22:54.640 --> 00:23:05.839 How the tent was to be made, what dimensions the tent was to be, different sections of the tent, even the stitching of the tent was to be done the way that God said it was to be done. 00:23:06.079 --> 00:23:10.160 The decoration had to be done the way God said it was going to be done. 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:13.039 Who could go into which part of the tent? 00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:24.079 How close the rest of the people could get to the tent, when they had to get farther away from the tent, because the tent was the one, the place that was to be right in the middle of the people as they travelled. 00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:30.160 When they set up camp, they set up that tent, and all the tribes were in a circle around that tent. 00:23:30.400 --> 00:23:38.319 And so it was a series of concentric circles because then there was this area outside the camp, which was further away from God. 00:23:39.119 --> 00:23:47.039 And if you had become unclean, you had to be in that area outside the camp, further from God. 00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:52.240 You could be made unclean by any number of everyday things. 00:23:52.559 --> 00:23:56.640 Being unclean doesn't necessarily mean that you were had committed a particular sin. 00:23:56.720 --> 00:24:06.480 It just meant that if you touched, if your relative had died and you touched them in preparing them for burial, which is what you were supposed to do, that made you unclean. 00:24:06.559 --> 00:24:12.559 And so you had to be away from the tent because it reminds you'd been in contact with death. 00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:21.440 And that kind of thing can't come close to God because the center of the tent was the holy of holies. 00:24:22.079 --> 00:24:32.559 The purpose of the tent was that there was going to be a place on earth where God would dwell with people. 00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:43.759 That had not happened in the world since Genesis chapter 2. 00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:55.759 Genesis chapter 3 records that the everyday event for humans was that God would walk with them in the garden in the cool of the day. 00:24:58.799 --> 00:25:08.000 And then humans rebelled, and in order that they would not be wiped out, God removed his dwelling from them. 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:14.240 Because his dwelling would bro his presence would break out against them and destroy them. 00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:17.519 Because his holiness was so great. 00:25:19.359 --> 00:25:23.200 How on earth would God dwell with a people again? 00:25:24.559 --> 00:25:28.559 A people who were through everyday life just tainted with sin. 00:25:33.359 --> 00:25:42.400 God rescued his people by the blood of the Lamb and gave them a tent where he might dwell in their midst. 00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:54.880 A whole system of sacrifices so that they would understand that the only way you could move from being unclean to being clean was by the shedding of blood. 00:25:56.319 --> 00:26:03.279 The only way that you could even move from being clean to being closer to God in his holiness was again by the shedding of blood. 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:08.720 How on earth was God, the holy God, going to make a dwelling with his people? 00:26:08.960 --> 00:26:16.480 The only way was by our sin being atoned for, so that his holiness would not break out against us. 00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:25.599 That tent became the temple, which again had in the middle the holies of holies. 00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:29.680 God dwelling with his people. 00:26:54.400 --> 00:27:01.920 This holy God took on flesh and pitched his tent among us. 00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:10.319 We have seen his glory, the glory as of the one and only, full of grace and truth. 00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:22.880 Have you noticed that I haven't said the name of the word yet? 00:27:23.039 --> 00:27:25.680 That's because John hasn't said the name of the word yet. 00:27:26.559 --> 00:27:27.519 Look at the text there. 00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:32.880 How long does John take until we find out who this word is? 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:35.599 Which verse is it in? 00:27:38.559 --> 00:27:39.519 Yeah, go on. 00:27:40.240 --> 00:27:40.880 17. 00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:47.759 He waited, he makes us wait 17 verses until he introduces that this word is Jesus. 00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:51.519 Jesus is the creator God. 00:27:52.720 --> 00:28:00.079 Jesus is the one who has who is God who has pitched his tent with us. 00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:05.759 So that we would not be estranged from God's glory anymore. 00:28:10.160 --> 00:28:13.359 I hope that get makes you excited about reading the Old Testament. 00:28:14.240 --> 00:28:19.039 Because the more you understand that, the more you will understand the wonder of what God has done in Jesus. 00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:32.240 I've got to wrap up in a minute, but I just want to do something with you. 00:28:33.839 --> 00:28:41.200 Just show you a little bit about what John does as he takes this idea of the word going through. 00:28:41.440 --> 00:28:48.400 So the first two things I did was just show you how incredibly incredibly important it is to understand that this word is God Himself. 00:28:49.279 --> 00:28:53.759 His extraordinary power, his extraordinary authority, the one who spoke and all things exist. 00:28:54.079 --> 00:29:00.640 You would not exist except that he created all things and sustains all things. 00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:10.000 And therefore your relationship with this word is the most important thing in your life, whether you know it or not. 00:29:12.319 --> 00:29:24.319 And that he loves you so much that even though his holiness cannot bear your presence because of your sin and my sin, he has created a means by which he can dwell with us. 00:29:26.880 --> 00:29:28.319 Now that is love. 00:29:29.839 --> 00:29:33.200 And we find out as we go through it is costly love. 00:29:35.279 --> 00:29:41.519 But let me start running through just a couple of examples of how John develops the idea of the word. 00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:43.759 Chapter 2. 00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:45.279 Would you turn that there? 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.720 I won't give you too much, but it's Passover, you see in verse 13. 00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:56.240 He's gone up to the temple. 00:29:56.319 --> 00:29:59.200 This is the bit where he's driving out the money changes. 00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:12.880 He makes a there's a uh a reference to the disciples remembering verse 17, that it was written, so the quote the Old Testament, what's happening here has got to do with something that God planned in the Old Testament. 00:30:13.039 --> 00:30:16.160 You only understand it if you understand the Old Testament really well. 00:30:16.240 --> 00:30:24.720 But actually they only understood it, not just because they understood the Old Testament, but also after Jesus rose again, they thought, oh, that's what was going on. 00:30:25.359 --> 00:30:27.680 That keeps on coming up in John's Gospel. 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:33.440 So the Jews, verse 18, said to him, What sign will you show for us doing these things? 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:38.799 And Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and in three days there's the temple. 00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:42.000 The tabernacle becomes the temple, the dwelling place. 00:30:42.160 --> 00:30:44.960 Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 00:30:45.200 --> 00:30:51.200 The Jews then said, It's taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days. 00:30:51.519 --> 00:30:54.799 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 00:30:55.039 --> 00:30:59.599 The temple, the dwelling place, the tabernacle of his body. 00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:12.799 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken. 00:31:14.400 --> 00:31:17.279 He's developing that theme of the word. 00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:22.400 Next chapter, he speaks to Nicodemus, who's supposed to be a teacher. 00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:31.599 Chapter 3, verse 11, Jesus says to this great knowledgeable teacher, Truly, truly I say to you, we speak, Jesus says. 00:31:31.759 --> 00:31:33.440 Notice the word language there. 00:31:33.680 --> 00:31:40.480 We speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not believe perceive our testimony. 00:31:40.799 --> 00:31:47.680 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how do you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 00:31:47.920 --> 00:31:52.079 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 00:31:52.240 --> 00:31:58.559 And as Moses, reference to the Old Testament again, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, that's an Exodus story. 00:31:58.880 --> 00:32:06.400 So must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that any every whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 00:32:06.640 --> 00:32:08.720 And then you get John 3, 16. 00:32:09.680 --> 00:32:12.480 Look down to John chapter 3, verse 31. 00:32:13.759 --> 00:32:17.039 He who comes from above, he's talking about himself, is above all. 00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:20.799 He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. 00:32:21.039 --> 00:32:22.799 He who comes from heaven is above all. 00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:25.440 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard. 00:32:25.599 --> 00:32:27.599 Yet no one receives his testimony. 00:32:27.759 --> 00:32:31.759 Who receiv whoever receives his testimony, notice the word language here? 00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:38.799 The speaking, the testimony, the sp Look at verse 34. 00:32:39.039 --> 00:32:42.799 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God. 00:32:44.559 --> 00:32:47.279 Who do you go to to hear God's words? 00:32:48.960 --> 00:32:50.319 You go to Jesus. 00:32:53.839 --> 00:32:55.680 For he gives the Spirit without measure. 00:32:55.839 --> 00:32:58.720 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 00:32:58.880 --> 00:33:02.559 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. 00:33:02.720 --> 00:33:05.519 Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life. 00:33:05.680 --> 00:33:07.920 But the wrath of God remains on him. 00:33:08.480 --> 00:33:13.599 You can go chapter after chapter and see these things happening. 00:33:13.839 --> 00:33:14.880 Turn to chapter six. 00:33:14.960 --> 00:33:17.440 We're going to skip one, and this is where we're going to end. 00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:27.519 We find out through John's Gospel that Jesus' words divide into people who do believe and people who don't. 00:33:27.759 --> 00:33:34.000 We find out that the signs he is doing lead to people believing, but not in a way that makes Jesus trust them. 00:33:34.160 --> 00:33:36.880 There's a way of believing that isn't really believing. 00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:38.880 Signs won't do the job. 00:33:39.119 --> 00:33:43.200 Words and responding to Jesus' words is what does the job. 00:33:43.759 --> 00:33:45.839 But Jesus' words are hard. 00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:50.960 And in chapter 6, people hear Jesus' words, and some of the people start to leave him. 00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:53.359 Verse 60. 00:33:53.839 --> 00:33:57.279 When many of the disciples heard it, they said, This is a hard teaching. 00:33:57.359 --> 00:33:58.799 Who can listen to it? 00:33:59.839 --> 00:34:06.480 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, Do not do you take offense at this? 00:34:06.799 --> 00:34:11.599 Then what are you Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 00:34:11.840 --> 00:34:14.239 It's the Spirit who gives life. 00:34:14.480 --> 00:34:16.400 The flesh is no help at all. 00:34:16.639 --> 00:34:20.719 The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 00:34:21.840 --> 00:34:24.159 Skip down to verse 66. 00:34:26.719 --> 00:34:31.599 After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:34.400 Do you get that in your mind? 00:34:35.199 --> 00:34:40.320 Jesus has got a following, and because of his words, people start to say, This is too much. 00:34:40.559 --> 00:34:43.360 I'm not going to follow those words anymore. 00:34:44.400 --> 00:34:47.280 So Jesus turns to the twelve in verse 67. 00:34:47.440 --> 00:34:49.440 Do you want to go away as well? 00:34:50.960 --> 00:34:55.840 Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? 00:34:56.639 --> 00:34:59.280 You have the words of eternal life. 00:35:16.239 --> 00:35:18.079 Do you want to know your creator? 00:35:21.440 --> 00:35:22.960 You must listen to his word. 00:35:25.039 --> 00:35:29.039 If you reject Jesus' words, you reject Jesus the Word. 00:35:29.760 --> 00:35:34.559 And if you reject Jesus the Word, you also reject the Father. 00:35:36.800 --> 00:35:38.719 That's a hard word, actually, isn't it? 00:35:41.519 --> 00:35:43.599 I am the way, the truth, and the life. 00:35:44.400 --> 00:35:46.719 No one comes to the Father except through me. 00:35:51.679 --> 00:35:59.840 But what extraordinary love that the word became flesh and pitched his tent among us. 00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:07.599 So that glory that would have broken out and killed us now through the blood of Jesus. 00:36:11.199 --> 00:36:12.960 It is no danger to us. 00:36:14.320 --> 00:36:18.960 It is actually the means by which we can come and dwell with him. 00:36:22.719 --> 00:36:25.119 What have you learned from God's word today? 00:36:26.079 --> 00:36:33.199 That would what what what do you want to thank God for as a result of hearing that? 00:36:37.360 --> 00:36:38.480 Just note that. 00:36:40.880 --> 00:36:43.599 Note that that's what you're going to talk to each other over coffee about. 00:36:46.639 --> 00:36:51.440 What does hearing this word today lead you to want to ask God for?