Sunday Gathering - John 1 : 1-18 - Andy Holingum - Sermon Only

Morning everybody. So, if you've got a Bible, you might want to find the book of John, which

is in the New Testament, the second half of your Bible, and it's the fourth book in.

So we're going to be, as Nick says, starting a great series going through the Gospel of

John. I don't know about you, but sometimes in our home we end up discussing how things

that are happening in the world, or things happening in the community, or things happening

in the church even, affect our understanding of Jesus and colour it and shape it and that

kind of thing. And then every so often, and then that starts to kind of give us a bit

of a distorted view of who Jesus is and what he's about. And then every so often what we

do is we come back to scripture and we get that distorted view realigned and recorrected.

And this morning's passage is no exception to that, right? This is a fantastic introduction

brilliant at the start of a new year brilliant at the start of a new series brilliant at the

start of a new book we're getting the opportunity to realign actually who is this Jesus that we

worship and that we sing about and that we pray to you know how can Neil stand here and talk about

at his grand old age going on new adventures with Jesus you know because that is the kind of God

that he is. And so we're going to be looking at this in John chapter 1, 18 verses. I've got 10

points because this chapter is so rich, all right, in describing who Jesus is. And it's kind of like

the big intro before John gets into all the detail of Jesus' life. It's like one of those films or

one of those books that gives you the big picture to start off with. And then it's going to dive

into the detail as we go through it. And that's what we're going to see in the coming weeks.

we're going to see the detail of Jesus' ministry and life on earth.

But this morning, we're into this wonderful introduction.

Just a bit of blurb first about the book itself,

because if this is new to you,

then John is one of four people that give us eyewitness accounts.

The next slide, Grant. Cheers. Thank you.

John is one of four people that gives us eyewitness accounts

of what Jesus did when he was here on earth 2,000 years ago.

and just like if you go away on holiday with a group of mates

and then you all come back

you all have a slightly different take of what happened on that holiday

and you all have a different view

because you view things through your own eyes

and your own experiences and your own way of looking at life

and so these four people that have written for us

about the lifetime of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

all give a different take on what happened

in that period of Jesus' ministry on earth 2,000 years ago.

So, for example, if you read Matthew,

Matthew tells a lot about the parables of Jesus.

So the parables are those stories Jesus told

to get across what it means to follow him,

to get across what it means,

what the kingdom of God is all about.

But if you read John, you won't find a parable.

At least I hope you won't, because then I've got that wrong.

So now you can all look when you get home.

But he doesn't do that.

So John's emphasis is much more on the miraculous.

John's emphasis is much more on the supernatural power of God

working through Jesus because he's trying to convey

a sense of Jesus truly is the Son of God

and getting across that from more of a miraculous perspective.

And so we'll see that as we go through the chapters in the coming weeks.

It was written towards the end of the first century.

It's the last of the four Gospels that were written.

John was in Ephesus at the time.

I say John, that is the perceived wisdom of the intelligent theologians way beyond me,

that this was written by John, Jesus' disciple,

the same guy who wrote the three letters of John at the end of the New Testament

and the book of Revelation at the end.

So that's all I want to say about that.

But that gives you a little bit of context, hopefully, for John.

So let's read the passage and get into it.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made.

Without him nothing was made that has been made.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

There came a man who was sent from God.

His name was John.

Confusing, because that's not this John who wrote the book that we're talking about, all right?

He's talking about, John is writing about John the Baptist when he says that.

There came a man sent from God.

His name was John, John the Baptist.

He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.

He himself was not the light.

He came only as a witness to the light.

The true light, Jesus, that gives light to every man, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him,

the world did not recognize him.

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name,

he gave the right to become children of God.

Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision,

or a husband's will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

we have seen his glory the glory of the one and only who came from the father full of grace and

truth John testifies concerning him he cries out saying this was he of whom I said he who comes

after me has surpassed me because he was before me from the fullness of his grace we have all

received one blessing after another for the law was given through Moses grace and truth came

through Jesus Christ no one has ever seen God but God the one and only who is at the father's side

has made him known wow I mean there are like 10 15 20 sermons in this passage alone it is so rich

in terms of conveying something of Jesus and this passage does away with the kind of transient

temporary lightweight concept we might have about who Jesus is and it's John is throwing at us at

the beginning, a mass of information, a mass of stuff about who this Jesus is that he's going to

go on and talk about for the rest of the book. Next slide please, Graham. So 10 points quickly.

Number one is Jesus is in the beginning, he is the word. Jesus is in the beginning and he is the

word, John says. So he describes Jesus as the word. He communicates who God is. That's why he uses that

word he communicates who God is but the key thing I just want to pull out of this to start off with

is Jesus is there in the beginning so we can go Angie and I can go back and we can talk about

the days before we had a granddaughter we can go back and talk about you know in the beginning when

we have kids but there's always a before we can talk about when we got married but there's always

a before you can talk about your life but there's always a before John is using this phrase not to

say that Jesus was there in the beginning of what I'm talking about, he's using this phrase to say

Jesus existed at the very beginning. There was never a time when Jesus did not exist. He's always

there. And we can talk about, so if we talk about, you know, how did the universe come about

scientifically, you know, we can talk about a Big Bang, but we're left with questions about, well,

what happened before that? Where did the materials come from that made the Big Bang? What caused

that to happen there must have been something before but john is saying there is never a before

jesus he's there at the beginning and i'm gonna do i'm gonna try a bit creative we'll see how we

get on i'm not exposing you there but i want you to imagine this chair is like the foundations that

john is setting out and what he's telling us about is jesus is there at the beginning but the next

thing he tells us about, in the very next phrase, the word was with God. He tells us

that Jesus was with God. So not only is Jesus there at the very beginning, but at that very

beginning, he was with God. Two things he's telling us straight away. Jesus is at the

beginning and he's with God. But the next thing he tells us, is that not only was Jesus

with God, Jesus

was God. Whoa, stop messing

with my head, John. It hurts.

It's difficult, isn't it? Jesus is there

at the beginning. He was with

God, and he was God.

And on my left, I think it already,

and we're only in verse 1, right,

of this whole book, and my left thinking, what is

he talking about? How do we do this?

And what we're going to see here,

particularly in the beginning of this passage,

is there are aspects of who

Jesus is that we will never

fully grasp. And we

are left standing in wonder and awe and worship at the mystery of who God is. There is plenty

coming down the road that we can understand and we can grasp, but there are also aspects of God

and aspects of Jesus that just leave us. We are in awe of you, Lord, and our tiny finite minds

cannot grasp everything about you. Wonder of wonders, you know, and that's why we worship.

and that's why we love him and that's why we stand in the door and it's a humbling thing

to stand to stand and realize this is who jesus is there at the beginning he was with god and he

was god and then he goes on next point uh groan next slide thank you through jesus all things

were made through him all things were made without him nothing was made that has been made all that

stuff we read in Genesis, it's Jesus speaking it out. That's what John is telling us. Jesus was

there at creation speaking it out. He is the one. It was made by him and made through him and made

for him. So I need another chair. Quick, Dan, I'm going to make this one. So this is the fourth kind of

foundation John is telling us about Jesus. Before we get on to the real stuff that we all know and

love. You've got to remember this now. He was there in the beginning. He was with God. He was God,

and he is the one who spoke creation into life. Jesus is the one who brings creation. Jesus is

the one who speaks into the chaos, and creation is established. And so John begins to describe this

almighty, all-encompassing, you know, we run out of English words to grasp the awesomeness of God

and the awesomeness of Jesus and who he is and the power that is his and everything about him

like that. And I kind of, you know, it's like, you can look at in a book, can't you, at a picture

of a waterfall, a big impressive waterfall, you know, like Niagara Falls. You can look at a nice

picture in a book and all you're doing is just using your eyes looking at the picture and yeah

that's going to be big isn't it it's impressive it looks impressive but I tell you if you go there

if you go there it's a completely different thing because the whole experience all your senses

are taken up with the noise the thunderous roar of the water coming over you get drenched by the

spray completely, that enormous amount of water that is constantly going over the top and never

stops and never stops and never stops, unless it freezes of course, which does happen, but it's

going over the top and nothing can stand in its way. And the contrast of being there and experiencing

that in the full of your senses compared to just simply looking at a picture, that's something of

what John is trying to do here as he introduces us to this Jesus. Next one, in him was life,

in him was life and that life was the light of men. You see, Jesus, he spoke creation into life

because he is life himself. He still speaks life today into the dead places of our hearts

and into the chaos of our lives.

And the challenge that John puts straight here is,

do you want life?

Do you want life?

And you need to encounter Jesus because he is life with a capital L.

It is in him that we find life.

And he still speaks into the chaos today

and carries out that creative act.

It's like, have you ever seen The Truman Show?

So The Truman Show, if those haven't seen it,

it's a great film with Jim Carrey.

That's kind of incidental.

but he's born on a soap opera

and he lives in a soap opera

and the whole programme is around the fact that

they keep him in a place where he thinks that is real life

and eventually he starts to twig that maybe it isn't

and so there's a big lake in this soap opera

and he gets on a boat and he sails to the end of the lake

and he hits a wall

and then he escapes and discovers what it's like

that is what it is like

our life is like that

that we live in this bubble of a soap opera, of reality TV,

but actually there is so much more, and that is found only in Jesus.

That is John's contention.

That is what we grasp with as Christians as we follow him,

that we want to discover that life that Jesus brings.

So we pray to Jesus to speak acts of creation into our lives.

We pray to Jesus to speak acts of creation into Jordanthorpe

and Batemore and Low Edges and around here.

We pray for Jesus to speak acts of creation into our families and into the church.

When we eventually get to John chapter 10, we will discover Jesus said,

I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.

Is your life full?

Is Jesus bringing you fullness of life, that richness?

Or has Christianity become boring?

Wow, am I allowed to say that?

you know because if we're honest then actually we're not all in the place where neil and sheena

are looking for adventure and opening to god to hearing that and maybe some of us need to be you

know and our christianity can become boring it can become routine our day-to-day reality of life can

be separated from what we're doing here on a sunday morning but jesus comes to give us life

there's got to be more to it than that there's got to be a way of discovering who we worship

and sing our songs to and pray our prayers to

and read the Word about has something to say and to do

in the very nitty-gritty, earthy stuff

that we go through day by day, week by week.

He has come that we may have life.

And so our prayer should be,

O God, O God, O God,

let me see and experience and have and embrace this life

that you have come to give.

Next one, the light shines in the darkness.

So Jesus is the light shining in the darkness.

The interesting thing about this,

and maybe one of the challenging things John tells us,

is he describes this world as a dark place.

The world without Jesus is darkness.

And we'll see why that is in a minute.

And so he describes Jesus coming to this world

as like this light shining in a dark place.

And yet, as we know, the darkness has not understood it.

And it doesn't take much for us to realise that

if we try and talk to people about Jesus today

or we look at what's going on.

You know, it's hard work.

The darkness has not understood it, how true that is.

And yet all of us were born into that darkness.

All of us did not understand at one point.

All of us had to respond to the light that was shining.

And this analogy of light and dark will resurface as we go through John.

You see, it's not...

And it's a really stark, stark statement, isn't it?

And I've had debates with you before about how can you describe the world as a dark place without Jesus?

But that's what John is telling us.

And that's the reality of a creation that has turned its back on God

and living in the consequences of those decisions and the mess that that creates.

And so Jesus comes as a light to shine in that darkness.

You see, it's not that Jesus is another religion.

It's not that Christianity is just another option.

It's not that Jesus even can be the one who comes and fixes your problems.

Sometimes I worry that we give that emphasis a little bit too much.

It's not that you can add him to other things in your life.

It's very stark.

We live in darkness, and we do not understand the light.

Sometimes for us, even as Christians of decades standing,

we can feel that, yeah, yeah, I get that about darkness,

but of course we're not like that

but the problem about darkness is sometimes

is we get used to it

so in the summer

if you can remember summer

so Angie and I might be doing

a bit of gardening outside

and it's getting late and I'll always say

yeah come on let's go in, let's go in, it's enough now

and Angie being Angie will go no no no

we can get some more done

and so eventually we'll go in and we'll go into the house

we'll put the light on and then we'll look out the window

and go blimey it's dark

how did we see anything

Because we get used to it, don't we?

Because our eyes are very clever and adjust as much as they can.

And so we get used to it and we don't realise actually we're in darkness.

And so John is saying, you know, he's describing this place that we live,

this world, this society, as a place of darkness.

And Jesus is the light that shines.

He's very stark.

Next one, Graham.

Not only is there a light shining in the darkness, but Jesus is the true light.

So there are many voices out there clamoring to be the way to live life

and the way to do stuff.

But John is really clear telling us Jesus is the true light

that gives light to every person coming into the world.

There is one true light.

I gather last week there was a power cut in wood seats.

I saw a bit on the prayer thing about it.

The thing about a power cut, isn't it, is it's unexpected,

so you're not prepared.

and suddenly you're in darkness if it happens at night time.

And then you're stumbling around aren't you

and you're trying to find doors and you hit a wall

or you're trying to find a wall and you go through a door by mistake

and you trip over things because you're fumbling around trying to find candles

if you've got any, do you remember where I put the candles

and where did I put the matches and you can't see

and so you're fumbling around, that is the nature of darkness.

But when the light comes on you can see all the obstacles.

You can see the mistakes you were making

when you were going to the wrong place

and you didn't mean to go there, you meant to go there.

And the light has that effect.

And so Jesus is the true light that shines

and brings that understanding and gives light

and tackles the big issues of life.

Saying, why am I here? What is going on?

How do I make sense of my life?

How do I make sense of what's happening?

Jesus is the true light that shines into the darkness

and brings those things.

Next one, Graham.

racing through this. Now Jesus is not recognized or received. Verse 10, he was in the world and

though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was

his own, but his own did not receive him. See, though we are made in his image, though we are

created, remember the foundations John laid, though we are created by him, though we were created for

him such was the nature of the world that we turned our backs on him and we failed to see him

and people say don't they and we say I don't need God I don't want God if I do want a God then I'll

make him something that I can manage and can live quite happily with and I'll decide what God does

and doesn't do you see but John is telling us the root problem of humanity is that we do not

recognize Jesus. And if we do recognize him, then we don't receive him. We reject him because we

don't want to surrender because we like our bit of darkness. That's what he's saying. And yet there's

an incredible contrast in these verses to me that talks about the mission Jesus has come on

and therefore the mission that he calls you and I to in this world.

And the contrast is we've got this powerful God that I suppose theologically we call the omnipotence of God,

this all-powerful God who can do anything.

As we've said here, we've got Jesus who was there in the beginning, who was with God, who was God,

who created everything that we see and experience around us.

and that is the power of God

and he created this humanity

which turned their backs on him

if you had the power

to create something

that was yours

and then that something turned its back on you

and pretended you didn't exist

and stuck two fingers up

and had nothing to do with you

what would you do with it

and yet Jesus

comes to this humanity

that has rejected him

He comes to this humanity that lives in the consequences of that rejection of God,

the mess, the chaos, the disaster, and the pain, and the anguish.

And he comes to that to reach it again.

And it's interesting to me, he comes to that, and we'll get to it again in a minute,

he comes to that humanity with no guarantees.

He's left the glory that was his, and he's come down to earth.

and come to that humanity with no guarantees of how people will respond.

He's come to that humanity that will blaspheme against him,

that will swear against him.

He comes to that humanity that ultimately puts him to death.

And yet he comes because he hopes and longs for people will turn to him.

He comes because, as we read in Hebrews,

for the joy set before him he endured the cross and despised his shame.

He comes because he knows men and women will respond to him

and he loves having those brothers and sisters

and he's calling them to come.

And so he comes and it's just like that mission.

He calls us to that same act of service as mission.

You know, we cannot expect everything to go hunky-dory.

We will be shouted at.

We will be sworn at.

We will be told what a load of rubbish.

All of that and we should expect that.

But what we need to recapture is that servant heart of Jesus

in coming to this world.

Next point.

To all who received him, we read in verse 12.

To all who received him, to those who believed in his name,

he gave the right to become children of God.

Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision,

nor of husband's will, but born of God.

You see, what does it mean to receive Jesus?

It's got to mean more than knowing about Jesus.

I can bore you silly going on and on and on

about Meg and our granddaughter,

or about our daughters, or about Angie.

And I can tell you all about them,

and you'll know about them, right?

But when you meet them and encounter them in person,

it's a completely different thing.

So there's something about receiving Jesus

that is encountering him as a person.

But it's much more than that as well.

It's a seismic shift in who we live for.

No longer living for ourselves, but living for Jesus.

It means it's got to be more than a box-stick exercise.

It's got to be more than turning up on a Sunday,

putting hands in the air, singing songs.

It's got to be more than praying even for that.

It has to be something that changes our lives,

that causes us to make different decisions

from before we knew Jesus,

that causes us to start to live by a different set of values

than before we knew Jesus.

It has to have that impact on it.

When we receive Jesus, that is what it's about.

John is not talking about just adding Jesus to everything else you do.

He's talking about a revolution that goes on in your life

because you have encountered the author of life.

Okay, we're running out of time.

We'll do one more.

The next one then, Graham, please.

Yeah, so, verse 14.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,

and we have seen his glory.

The glory of the one and only who came from the Father,

full of grace and truth.

You see, Jesus, you know, if you've got Eugene Peterson's The Message,

this is a well-known verse,

God became flesh and moved into the neighborhood, hence the picture, right?

This God, with all of this stuff, all of this power,

left that behind and came and lived in the neighborhood,

came to us, became a baby.

He moved from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows

in order that he may reach the lowest of lows in this world.

And he surrendered his power and his glory and his majesty and came to this earth

and causes us to be men and women who do the same,

who leave the comfort that we have and the security that we have

and walk out into the mission field to tell people about Jesus

and to serve and to, in that sense, ourselves,

let go of those things that are, you know, our power bases, if you like,

at what we feel good at,

and to walk into the way that he has called us to.

You see, God hasn't remained distant.

He hasn't remained a God on a throne so far away.

And this is what makes Christianity so unique.

All the other religions of the world are about trying to reach God,

doing things to get there, trying to get better.

But Jesus says you can't do that.

And so Jesus has come down to us in our mess,

in our sin, in the state of our lives

and offers us life.

That's why we're saying,

you laid aside your majesty

and gave up everything for me.

You know, he reached down to us.

He has not stayed distant.

You know, and he has come down to you and me

and he's pitched a tent in your back garden

down your street

that you may see the glory of Jesus

at work in your life

and that I may see it in my life.

We're going to wrap it up there

because we're running out of time.

But just as we finish,

I do want to give opportunity for prayer this morning.

You know, maybe some of the things I've said,

actually two things.

One is, you know, I talked about

maybe for some of us,

Christianity has become boring.

And actually hearing somebody say that is releasing

because you kind of want to be honest about it.

And there's an opportunity this morning

to come to the front

and let's pray and let's find together this Jesus who offers life,

who offers, you know, to lift us out of that.

Maybe we've got into a routine, maybe it's become dull,

maybe we've lowered the bar,

and I believe Jesus wants to meet you this morning

and rekindle passion for him in your life that stirs and shakes

and passion for his mission.

The other thing, I just think this morning as we were worshipping,

I just had a picture of

a toffee apple

which is a bit weird

actually I had this yesterday

and I thought that's a bit bizarre

but it came back this morning

and it's like

we want our Christianity to be sugar coated

we want it to be nice

but actually when we bite into it

we discover the apple

underneath is rotten

and you know that horrible taste

and for some of us

we feel we want our Christianity to be

sugar-coated and make it nice for

us. But the challenge this

morning is Jesus is so

much more than that. So much

more than that. So maybe the band

can come back. We could sing.