In the Beginning Was the Word (John 1:1-5)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:05.400 Let's turn on our bibles, and or you can simply turn your attention to 2 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:12.910 John, Chapter One, John One versus one through five. This is a 3 00:00:12.949 --> 00:00:19.149 very poetic section. John begins his letter, or rather his Gospel, with 4 00:00:20.510 --> 00:00:26.980 and here we have some very wonderful things to consider. John One versus one 5 00:00:27.059 --> 00:00:33.299 through five. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with 6 00:00:33.500 --> 00:00:38.530 God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. 7 00:00:38.649 --> 00:00:43.649 All things were made through him and without him was not anything made. 8 00:00:43.850 --> 00:00:49.250 That was made in him was life, and the life was the light of 9 00:00:49.369 --> 00:00:55.640 men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. 10 00:00:57.359 --> 00:01:00.880 You may be seated. I'm so excited to begin preaching the Gospel of 11 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:07.390 John, one of four gospels in the Bible. Do you know what a 12 00:01:07.510 --> 00:01:11.670 Gospel is? Hopefully you know what that word means. Gospel means good news, 13 00:01:11.750 --> 00:01:17.709 right, these are announcements of good news about Jesus. When we say 14 00:01:17.870 --> 00:01:22.620 Gospel, though, as kind of a type of book, what we're talking 15 00:01:22.659 --> 00:01:26.659 about are these. You could think of it just as biographies. There are 16 00:01:26.739 --> 00:01:32.859 four biographies that begin the New Testament about Jesus, right, and that's not 17 00:01:33.010 --> 00:01:37.370 unusual. Even today, you might go to the bookstore and find five or 18 00:01:37.450 --> 00:01:42.129 six biographies on a particular person. Why would you write a biography about someone 19 00:01:42.170 --> 00:01:47.129 that's already been written? Well, you know the answer right there are different 20 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:49.920 ways that you can tell the story, the ways that you can express the 21 00:01:51.079 --> 00:01:56.719 history. You can emphasize different things, point out different aspects, and that's 22 00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:00.760 one of the reasons that we have of these four biographies, so this one 23 00:02:00.469 --> 00:02:06.469 by a man named John, and so that's why this is called the Gospel 24 00:02:06.510 --> 00:02:13.430 according to John. And as we begin this book, John Begins in a 25 00:02:13.550 --> 00:02:16.979 different place than some of the other Gospel Writers Do. Some of the other 26 00:02:17.099 --> 00:02:23.539 Gospel Writers Begin with what they all do, begin with that Jesus as birth, 27 00:02:23.219 --> 00:02:30.569 and they talk about his life, his genealogy. Even John Begins with 28 00:02:30.889 --> 00:02:38.449 his Eternal Birth, His eternally begotten nature. He doesn't start in the in 29 00:02:38.569 --> 00:02:45.960 the in the stable and in the manger where he became incarnate. He starts 30 00:02:46.199 --> 00:02:53.439 with the nature of Jesus as divine, as God, and in this he 31 00:02:53.879 --> 00:02:55.879 jumps us, or he plunges us, right into the deep end, you 32 00:02:55.919 --> 00:03:02.150 might say. He gets US thinking about some very weighty things, very glorious 33 00:03:02.310 --> 00:03:08.949 things, right from right from the start, and if you felt this morning 34 00:03:09.110 --> 00:03:14.139 that that happened here at our church as well, that we started in a 35 00:03:14.219 --> 00:03:19.900 very heavy way, very weighty way. I make no apologies. Right the 36 00:03:20.419 --> 00:03:24.500 the Scriptures, God himself does this sometimes. You might think about a job. 37 00:03:25.539 --> 00:03:30.490 The Way God is sort of plunges job under the weight of his glory 38 00:03:30.689 --> 00:03:37.930 by expressing all of these things about himself, things that are so different from 39 00:03:37.969 --> 00:03:44.639 job, so so different from job, so transcendent and beyond who he is 40 00:03:45.080 --> 00:03:47.080 that by the end of it all, job what can only do is put 41 00:03:47.159 --> 00:03:51.759 his hand over his mouth. Sorry, I've got nothing else to say. 42 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:58.949 Right, and this is true of the beginning of John here, Jesus is, 43 00:04:00.229 --> 00:04:04.469 I'm so important to us for his closeness to us, his presence with 44 00:04:04.629 --> 00:04:10.580 us. He is called Emanuel. This is the name that was given to 45 00:04:10.620 --> 00:04:15.780 him, a name that was prophesied about, a name that means God with 46 00:04:15.019 --> 00:04:19.899 us. Jesus is so close to us, he's so intimate with us that 47 00:04:20.259 --> 00:04:26.250 in Colossians, when Paul Talks about him, he describes him as being the 48 00:04:26.529 --> 00:04:33.089 head of the body of which we are members. How connected is your arm 49 00:04:34.170 --> 00:04:42.600 to your brain? Pretty connected. How connected is your other arm to your 50 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:46.560 other arm and your foot to your knee, to your nose, to your 51 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:53.029 ear. It's one body and that's the way that we are described, are 52 00:04:53.149 --> 00:04:57.870 our relationship, as the church is described, with Jesus. It's that close 53 00:04:59.110 --> 00:05:04.189 and yet at the same time he's so far away, so beyond us in 54 00:05:04.350 --> 00:05:11.379 every way, so infinitely beyond us. We can be barely begin we can 55 00:05:11.459 --> 00:05:16.060 barely find ways to speak about him. How John, of course, does 56 00:05:16.259 --> 00:05:23.529 find ways and he is guided by the Holy Spirit, he is given words 57 00:05:23.689 --> 00:05:29.089 by the spirit that might express these things to us. But I promise you 58 00:05:29.170 --> 00:05:33.209 you will never understand them in a way that you feel like you've mastered them. 59 00:05:34.370 --> 00:05:39.399 You will never understand things about the nature of God and the nature of 60 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:43.519 the son of God in a way that you feel like I got it now, 61 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:49.189 and of course it should be that way. Would God be truly God 62 00:05:49.310 --> 00:05:53.470 if you could master him, if you could comprehend him, if you could 63 00:05:53.670 --> 00:05:59.069 understand every part of him? Of course not. But that doesn't mean we 64 00:05:59.189 --> 00:06:03.980 have no knowledge of God or that he's completely understand that we're not able to 65 00:06:04.060 --> 00:06:09.579 understand anything about him. One way you might think about it is the way 66 00:06:09.699 --> 00:06:15.459 that John Calvin describes God's speech to us. He talks about God speaking to 67 00:06:15.579 --> 00:06:23.050 us like a like a nurse or a or a some kind of care worker 68 00:06:23.490 --> 00:06:29.170 might speak to a little child. Right, sort of baby talk, right 69 00:06:29.490 --> 00:06:33.399 when we are when you have a small children who are beginning to understand our 70 00:06:33.439 --> 00:06:38.600 language, we speak to them in a way that they can understand right. 71 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:43.759 We simplify our concepts, we simplify our vocabulary, we we do things for 72 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:50.149 them that tell them true things without necessarily getting into everything. God does that 73 00:06:50.310 --> 00:06:55.470 with us in a way. It's not that he's trying to hide something from 74 00:06:55.509 --> 00:07:00.629 us. No, he reveals to US everything that we need. But as 75 00:07:00.829 --> 00:07:04.019 he reveals to US everything we need in a way that we can understand, 76 00:07:04.620 --> 00:07:11.620 we also have to remember that he is very beyond us. The Deuteronomy twenty 77 00:07:11.620 --> 00:07:16.850 nine says the secret things belong to him, the revealed things belong to us. 78 00:07:19.850 --> 00:07:25.490 So here in the gospel of John, we have revealed things. This 79 00:07:25.610 --> 00:07:30.319 is the good news according to John. For you, this is the good 80 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:34.319 news, this is the Gospel about Jesus, for you to understand, even 81 00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:39.879 as you sort of stretch your mind understand these things, even as you recognize 82 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:44.470 there's limits to how much you can understand at the same time, remember that 83 00:07:44.509 --> 00:07:49.029 it's given to you for you. In fact, John says this himself. 84 00:07:49.110 --> 00:07:54.709 If you turn to the end of the book, John Talks about his letter, 85 00:07:54.750 --> 00:07:58.350 he talks about why he wrote it. So, if you look, 86 00:07:58.740 --> 00:08:03.259 for example, in versus thirty and thirty one, he says this is chapter 87 00:08:03.339 --> 00:08:07.420 twenty. Says, now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of 88 00:08:07.500 --> 00:08:13.009 the disciples which are not written in this book. Right. So, John 89 00:08:13.089 --> 00:08:16.970 says, I didn't include everything. There's a lot more I could have said, 90 00:08:16.009 --> 00:08:20.009 but didn't. But what does he say in Verse Thirty One? These 91 00:08:20.050 --> 00:08:26.639 are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son 92 00:08:26.759 --> 00:08:31.120 of God, and that, by believing, you may have life in his 93 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:35.879 name. See, John didn't write these things to confound you, to make 94 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:39.720 you give up your hands and say, well, I guess, I guess, 95 00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:45.269 I just don't won't know anything. No, he specifically wrote these things. 96 00:08:45.309 --> 00:08:48.710 In fact, he left out some things and gave you these things. 97 00:08:48.870 --> 00:08:54.710 He was that precise about it for a particular reason, so that you would 98 00:08:54.740 --> 00:09:01.179 believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that, 99 00:09:01.379 --> 00:09:07.059 by believing in him, you would have life in his name. I want 100 00:09:07.059 --> 00:09:11.250 you to treasure that verse as we go through the gospel of John, as 101 00:09:11.289 --> 00:09:13.330 we think about who he, who Jesus, is and what he has done. 102 00:09:15.090 --> 00:09:18.649 Come back to that verse again and again and remember the purpose for which 103 00:09:18.370 --> 00:09:26.279 God has given to you this book. And so, as we consider that 104 00:09:26.679 --> 00:09:33.559 and these other things, let's begin at John's beginning, versus one through five. 105 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:39.789 In the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the 106 00:09:39.830 --> 00:09:43.750 word was God. He was in the beat, he was in us are, 107 00:09:43.909 --> 00:09:48.909 he was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him 108 00:09:48.950 --> 00:09:54.340 and without him was not anything made. That was made in him was life, 109 00:09:56.539 --> 00:09:58.940 and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in 110 00:10:00.019 --> 00:10:07.889 the darkness, in the darkness does not overcome it. So in these reverses, 111 00:10:07.090 --> 00:10:11.289 a John begins to introduce us to Jesus, this Jesus that he's going 112 00:10:11.370 --> 00:10:16.610 to tell us about, Jesus who will have conversations with people, Jesus who 113 00:10:16.610 --> 00:10:22.279 will perform miracles, Jesus who will tell us and teach us things, Jesus 114 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:28.879 who will eventually die on a cross and be crucified and then rise from the 115 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:33.639 dead. That Jesus, that John is going to talk to us about the 116 00:10:33.679 --> 00:10:37.110 John's going to teach us about we he we start out by this way. 117 00:10:37.190 --> 00:10:43.509 He is described as the word, the one who is spoken, and we 118 00:10:43.629 --> 00:10:50.379 read that he was in the beginning and he was with God. This tells 119 00:10:50.379 --> 00:10:56.100 us that Jesus, the son of God, is very close to God. 120 00:10:56.179 --> 00:11:00.620 He was distinct with from the father. He, as we confessed earlier, 121 00:11:00.820 --> 00:11:05.250 was not the father himself. He was with the father, distinct and distinguished 122 00:11:05.289 --> 00:11:11.649 from him. He was with God from the very or even in the very 123 00:11:11.730 --> 00:11:16.169 beginning. But then John Not goes on to say also, but the word 124 00:11:16.929 --> 00:11:22.480 was God, which means, though he is distinct from the father, that 125 00:11:22.679 --> 00:11:28.320 he and the father together are God, the Holy Spirit, as well, 126 00:11:28.360 --> 00:11:33.789 as John will teach us a later. This means that, as we confessed 127 00:11:33.870 --> 00:11:35.750 earlier in the affanation creed, when we think about God, we don't think 128 00:11:35.789 --> 00:11:41.389 about the Father God, the father as one God and Jesus as another God. 129 00:11:41.990 --> 00:11:46.659 Notice he doesn't say and the were these. These two were two gods. 130 00:11:46.779 --> 00:11:52.659 Know, they were one God. Notice what he also says. He 131 00:11:52.820 --> 00:12:00.340 also says that this word in verse two was in the beginning with God, 132 00:12:01.809 --> 00:12:07.529 and this is a very curious way of speaking. How do you be before 133 00:12:07.690 --> 00:12:18.679 the beginning. How do you put a was before the beginning right? Grasping 134 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:24.159 at something like this is trying to it's like trying to look out and fix 135 00:12:24.279 --> 00:12:28.200 your eyes on on the Great Ocean. Let's say you're on a ship. 136 00:12:30.110 --> 00:12:31.509 You're on a ship in the middle of the ocean and you look out at 137 00:12:31.549 --> 00:12:35.350 this great vastness and you try to sort of put your finger on it. 138 00:12:35.429 --> 00:12:41.149 It's very difficult. This is an analogy that Crossostom, the great pastor theologian 139 00:12:41.230 --> 00:12:46.059 of the fourth century, used to describe what we just read. When not? 140 00:12:46.259 --> 00:12:48.379 When you're on a ship and you're close to the land, you can 141 00:12:48.419 --> 00:12:52.620 see ports and cities, you can see shipping containers, market places, but 142 00:12:52.620 --> 00:12:56.299 when you're out at sea, you're in the middle of nowhere and you just 143 00:12:56.419 --> 00:13:01.730 sort of see this vastness. That's what trying to think about before the beginning 144 00:13:01.889 --> 00:13:07.850 is like, isn't it? When you when you think about this, he 145 00:13:07.009 --> 00:13:13.960 says there's this is sort of emptiness and unlimited expanse, and this is where 146 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:18.519 John The evangelist takes us at the very beginning of his Gospel. Try to 147 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:22.759 do this for a moment. Think about the beginning. Okay, in your 148 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:28.470 own minds. Think about before today, so yesterday, and then the day 149 00:13:28.509 --> 00:13:31.950 before that. Let's go back to your birth, let's go back to your 150 00:13:31.110 --> 00:13:35.029 parents birth, your grandparents, your great grandparents, great great great keep going 151 00:13:35.350 --> 00:13:43.340 back and back and back, further and further, as Hilary of pontiers put 152 00:13:43.379 --> 00:13:50.220 it, think back through the ranges, backward over space and time. Centuries 153 00:13:50.220 --> 00:13:54.379 are left behind and ages are canceled. Fix in your mind what date you 154 00:13:54.539 --> 00:14:01.090 will for this beginning. I find that point, find even that nanosecond at 155 00:14:01.129 --> 00:14:05.730 which time and space begin. Fix your mind there and yet you still, 156 00:14:05.929 --> 00:14:11.919 he says, miss the mark, for even then he of whom we are 157 00:14:11.960 --> 00:14:18.960 speaking was he was before the beginning. Survey the universe. I'm continuing the 158 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.039 quote here. Survey the universe. Note well what is written of it. 159 00:14:24.590 --> 00:14:28.429 In the beginning, God made the heaven and the Earth. This word beginning 160 00:14:28.669 --> 00:14:33.990 fixes the moment of creation. You can assign its date to an event that 161 00:14:35.149 --> 00:14:41.340 is definitely stated to have happened in the beginning. But this fisherman of mine, 162 00:14:41.539 --> 00:14:45.179 he's speaking of John, he says, this fisherman of mine, unlettered 163 00:14:45.259 --> 00:14:50.820 and unread, is untrammeled by time, undaunted by its immensity, he peers, 164 00:14:50.860 --> 00:14:56.250 has beyond the beginning, for his was has no limit of time, 165 00:14:58.490 --> 00:15:05.850 no commencement. The uncreated word was in the beginning. It's amazing, this 166 00:15:07.159 --> 00:15:13.960 past tense of before time, before the beginning, thinking of things before the 167 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:20.320 before. It confuses, it perplexes. Going back to Chrysostom again, he 168 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:26.549 says, finding then that the was in the text exceeds its imagination. The 169 00:15:26.629 --> 00:15:28.950 intellect has no point on which to focus its thoughts. You just sort of 170 00:15:30.590 --> 00:15:35.779 feel like you're out at sea, looking intently onward, but being unable to 171 00:15:35.860 --> 00:15:41.059 fix its gaze, the intellect becomes weired and turns back to things below. 172 00:15:41.980 --> 00:15:48.500 Indeed, the ex Russian was in the beginning, is expresses, is expressive 173 00:15:48.539 --> 00:15:56.049 of eternal and infinite being. This is so important to say because there are 174 00:15:56.129 --> 00:16:03.129 people who have said the opposite. There are people who have said that no, 175 00:16:03.450 --> 00:16:07.759 the word was created, that there was a beginning for Jesus Christ, 176 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:12.960 not in his incarnation but in his divinity, that as a begotten Son of 177 00:16:14.039 --> 00:16:17.840 God, He was begotten into this world, that there was a time when 178 00:16:17.879 --> 00:16:23.629 Jesus wasn't and then he was, the problem with this, as we read 179 00:16:23.669 --> 00:16:29.070 in the affeination creed, is this this is that this undermines the very divinity 180 00:16:29.110 --> 00:16:33.100 of Christ. It makes him at least a second class God or are some 181 00:16:33.340 --> 00:16:40.019 other kind of thing. It puts Jesus in his quote unquote, divinity, 182 00:16:40.580 --> 00:16:45.779 on the same category, basically, with us. It's strips away Jesus Christ 183 00:16:45.860 --> 00:16:51.929 of his divinity, which ultimately ends up stripping away our salvation. If Jesus 184 00:16:51.970 --> 00:16:56.090 Christ is just another created being and nothing more than that, then we have 185 00:16:56.250 --> 00:17:00.769 no hope in him, we have no salvation in him, and all of 186 00:17:00.889 --> 00:17:11.599 God's promises to come and be our savior our null void. This error called 187 00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:15.710 Arianism, is what these various people I've been quoting we're fighting against. They're 188 00:17:15.710 --> 00:17:21.869 speaking so eloquently and persuasively about this because it really mattered. They were in 189 00:17:21.990 --> 00:17:26.190 a moment of time when this doctrine, this important point about our salvation, 190 00:17:26.430 --> 00:17:33.460 was being underminded, a point when it was threatening to come undone in the 191 00:17:33.579 --> 00:17:37.940 church. Praise be to God that there were people who stood before us, 192 00:17:37.980 --> 00:17:44.180 who went to the scriptures and read it and read it carefully and thought carefully 193 00:17:44.220 --> 00:17:47.890 about phrases like this. What does it mean to be before the beginning? 194 00:17:48.250 --> 00:17:52.049 What does it mean that he is uncreated? And Eternally Begotten of God. 195 00:17:53.490 --> 00:17:57.410 But these, as you see, are not just old debates. If they 196 00:17:57.490 --> 00:18:02.960 feel just like old debates, that's because we are resting on them. It's 197 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:07.000 because we have the great comfort of being able to walk and to say, 198 00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:11.680 yeah, of course, the Trinity, but it's not of course the trinity. 199 00:18:11.910 --> 00:18:15.549 We say, of course God is this way and revealed in this way, 200 00:18:17.269 --> 00:18:21.990 only because he tells us this in scripture and only because we've taken the 201 00:18:22.150 --> 00:18:25.750 time to think about it, to reflect on it and even go through great 202 00:18:25.789 --> 00:18:30.299 controversies to make sure we understand, at least as best we can, what 203 00:18:30.460 --> 00:18:38.220 God means. And it matters a great deal because our very salvation depends on 204 00:18:38.339 --> 00:18:45.089 it. There are all kinds of implications of these facts, but first and 205 00:18:45.210 --> 00:18:48.450 foremost, we might say, as it tells us, John is telling us 206 00:18:49.009 --> 00:18:52.089 that this Jesus, who would be born of a woman, born under the 207 00:18:52.170 --> 00:18:56.119 law, as Paul puts it, this one who would come and do these 208 00:18:56.200 --> 00:19:00.759 signs and miracles, one who would come and die on a cross, was 209 00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:11.589 and is and always will be God. As he says in verse three, 210 00:19:11.789 --> 00:19:18.190 all things were made through him. He is not created, but Jesus is 211 00:19:18.309 --> 00:19:22.309 the Creator everything you look at everything, you see, everything that ever was 212 00:19:22.589 --> 00:19:29.180 and ever will be are because of Jesus, this one who would be born 213 00:19:29.380 --> 00:19:33.220 in a manger and wrapped in swaddling close. It's because of him who created 214 00:19:33.339 --> 00:19:41.089 all things. In Him, he says verse four, was life, and 215 00:19:41.289 --> 00:19:48.089 this life was the light of men. As we understand these words life and 216 00:19:48.170 --> 00:19:52.920 light, you want to think of them in very broad terms. Physical Life, 217 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:59.200 physical light, the Sun and the moon were created by Jesus, but 218 00:20:00.519 --> 00:20:03.680 also in terms of our intellect, in terms of our knowledge, our capability 219 00:20:03.720 --> 00:20:10.069 of knowing things, in terms of blessedness and joy, in terms of our 220 00:20:10.349 --> 00:20:15.750 moral state, to be united with God, to know him and rest in 221 00:20:15.829 --> 00:20:22.859 him. All of these things are from Jesus, our Savior, and this 222 00:20:22.059 --> 00:20:29.900 means that as we go on to read and hear things about the gospel of 223 00:20:30.019 --> 00:20:37.009 Jesus, we need to stand in awe of him. It means that, 224 00:20:37.089 --> 00:20:41.369 as we perceive this world, we need to understand that our whole world was 225 00:20:41.529 --> 00:20:45.450 made through him, Jesus, who existed eternally with the father, is God. 226 00:20:48.009 --> 00:20:55.319 We should also understand that this reality concerning the divinity and purpose of Jesus 227 00:20:55.400 --> 00:21:00.680 prepares us to understand not just the work of creation now, but the work 228 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:06.670 of new creation that is coming in his coming. That's what John is preparing 229 00:21:06.750 --> 00:21:10.549 us for. He's telling us that this light and life that came into the 230 00:21:10.589 --> 00:21:15.990 world when God said the word let there be light, and through Jesus the 231 00:21:15.230 --> 00:21:21.460 world came into being and light came into being. As Jesus is coming again, 232 00:21:21.859 --> 00:21:27.819 God is speaking a second word and he's creating something new. Talk about 233 00:21:27.859 --> 00:21:32.779 good news, especially when we remember the fact that the world has fallen, 234 00:21:33.289 --> 00:21:37.930 that in our sin, it has fallen into disrepair and sin and misery and 235 00:21:37.009 --> 00:21:47.559 all kinds of of other things. But now here comes Jesus, who was 236 00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:51.440 the light and life of men and is the light and life of men. 237 00:21:51.839 --> 00:21:55.480 God is doing something new and you know what, listen to verse five. 238 00:21:55.880 --> 00:22:03.549 The light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it. Nothing 239 00:22:03.670 --> 00:22:07.670 is going to stop Jesus. Nothing will stop Jesus. He is bringing about 240 00:22:07.829 --> 00:22:14.549 something new, something wonderful, something glorious, something eternal, and he will 241 00:22:14.750 --> 00:22:18.619 overcome it as easily and as quickly as the light in your bedroom, or 242 00:22:18.700 --> 00:22:22.900 the darkness in your bedroom is overcome. When you flip on the light. 243 00:22:26.779 --> 00:22:30.130 There's this shell, Silverstein poem that comes to my mind all of a sudden. 244 00:22:32.490 --> 00:22:34.769 Shell Silverstein, for those of you don't know, as this children's author, 245 00:22:36.450 --> 00:22:40.930 writes a bunch of poems in the late s and S, so that's 246 00:22:40.970 --> 00:22:49.119 why I know. So he writes this poem where he says something like wouldn't 247 00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:55.519 it be wonderful if God would just turn off the light? Because if God 248 00:22:55.599 --> 00:23:00.349 would just turn off the light, you wouldn't see skin color, you wouldn't 249 00:23:00.349 --> 00:23:04.309 see rich and poor, we'd all just be there together. And it's a 250 00:23:04.349 --> 00:23:07.069 nice thought, right. He's saying sort of if you if God would just 251 00:23:07.190 --> 00:23:11.509 turn off the light, it would have this kind of equalizing power, right, 252 00:23:11.589 --> 00:23:15.180 and we would just be peopled in a room no longer all of these 253 00:23:15.299 --> 00:23:26.769 differences of visible John Takes it in another direction. God says that through Jesus, 254 00:23:26.930 --> 00:23:32.650 the turning on the light, so to speak, this these things that 255 00:23:32.809 --> 00:23:37.170 we want, these things that we hope for for unity, for reconciliation, 256 00:23:37.529 --> 00:23:44.279 for peace, for justice, for hope for morality, for comfort and knowledge 257 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:51.160 and all of these things. It happens not when God covers up, but 258 00:23:51.279 --> 00:23:56.710 when God exposes and when God brings something new. And that's hard because as 259 00:23:56.990 --> 00:24:00.630 people who are often living in the darkness. We run and we hide and 260 00:24:00.710 --> 00:24:08.589 we try to get away, but Jesus overcomes the darkness. We're going to 261 00:24:08.710 --> 00:24:12.539 hear a lot more about Jesus. We're going to hear a lot more about 262 00:24:12.539 --> 00:24:18.700 the implications of these things, but I hope you walk away from today is 263 00:24:18.900 --> 00:24:25.490 maybe just a little bit of silence, just standing with your mouth open, 264 00:24:26.730 --> 00:24:32.809 wondering, filled with awe at who Jesus is and what he has come to 265 00:24:32.890 --> 00:24:41.400 do. It's amazing, it's difficult to find the words to talk about and 266 00:24:41.559 --> 00:24:48.680 yet it's so true. These are not just grand, big philosophical ideas. 267 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:56.750 They are reality, they are reasonable, they are true and they will have 268 00:24:56.190 --> 00:25:02.589 God will have his effect in time and in space because, as we see 269 00:25:02.589 --> 00:25:04.390 in the very next verse and verse six, there was a man sent from 270 00:25:04.390 --> 00:25:11.220 God whose name was John. How earthly, how practical, how how simple, 271 00:25:11.380 --> 00:25:17.579 how ordinary, a man whose name was John. Next time we'll hear 272 00:25:17.700 --> 00:25:21.809 more about this John and who he was and what he did, and he 273 00:25:21.930 --> 00:25:26.369 will tell us that he came not to be the light but to bear witness 274 00:25:26.410 --> 00:25:29.930 about the light, to teach us about the light, to tell us about 275 00:25:29.930 --> 00:25:33.049 the light. I pray that God will help us to understand these things, 276 00:25:34.329 --> 00:25:41.519 to be humbled by this saving mission of Jesus Christ and to be saved by 277 00:25:41.559 --> 00:25:44.359 it. Let's pray