The Christ
The Story - How the Bible Explains Everything March 29, 2026 John 1:1-18 Notes
If God has come near… do we recognize Him? Because it’s possible to: know the story… but miss the Savior; to be religious… but not have a relationship with God.
That was the tragedy of the first century. And it is still the danger of the twenty-first. What we need is not more information about God, but an introduction to God. We need a true revelation of God. We need to see and know Jesus for who He truly is and the relationship He offers to know God.
And that’s exactly what the opening of John’s Gospel gives us. It doesn’t begin with a manger…it begins with majesty! It begins “in the beginning.” And it pulls back the curtain and shows us who Jesus really is!
In the gospel of John, he presented a beautifully poetic and theologically rich prologue to show that Jesus is the eternal Word who became flesh and tabernacled among us, revealing God’s glory and inaugurating the fulfillment of the Story.
Audio
Good morning, church. It's great seeing all of you here this morning. And it's a great day. It's the day that we celebrate Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem and remembering that next week, next week, we're in our Easter countdown. It's one week from Resurrection Sunday, one week from Easter.
And it's an important day in our church calendar because it's a day that we make much of every Sunday as the day that Jesus was raised from the grave, but especially at Easter Sunday. And it's a day when people are more likely to attend church when we invite them. And so at first service, I already met a couple of people that received one of those invite cards that you have in your seats. One of them told me that a co worker had given them that card. They had just moved here from out of town.
And so right away attending church. And so those cards are tools for you to use. And so this week is our final week. Praying for inviting people. Here's the thing.
We know that we can do all kind of advertising on social media, we can put yard signs in our yards, we can have invite cards. But the most powerful thing we can do is personally invite someone, hey, come to church with me. We can sit together, maybe we could go to lunch afterwards, those kind of things. And here's the promise I'll give you. If you'll invite someone to church, I promise you that they'll hear a clear, clear presentation of the gospel, that they'll clearly hear about Jesus and have an opportunity to respond to the gospel.
And so especially next Sunday, we're gonna have special music. We're gonna have baptism. We're gonna have so much. We're gonna have personal testimony time so much that you're gonna not wanna miss it yourself, but especially you're gonna wanna bring somebody. So we're praying for guests to be here not just because we care about a crowd, but we care about changed lives.
We care about seeing people come to Jesus. And if you've never checked out the other room, like if you're in the gathering place right now, maybe you'd like to attend the worship center that we're in right now, or vice versa. Because when you come back next week, one or the other might be full. And so be willing to check out either place next week. Because we do have two services in two locations in our Wilson campus.
And so we encourage you to find a seat in one of those locations. If you're on a service team. We really, really, really need you next week for guest services. And all those locations. So we're encouraging you to be prayerful.
Be ready to serve next week. Now, we've had a busy weekend already. A week ago, we went around Wilson and we hung bags on doors, inviting people to fill the bag with non perishable foods that we could donate to the Hope Station. And so then last week we did that. We said, if you'll put it on your front porch, we'll come back around on the next Saturday, which was yesterday, and we'll pick it up and deliver it to Hope Station for you.
And I'd like to just share with you what we did together. Partnering with our neighbors in Wilson, we were able to collect 369 bags of food yesterday in Wilson and 137 bags in Rocky Mount for a total of 506 bags. And if you just kind of weigh that out, that's over £10,000 of food that we donated to these two food pantries. Amen. Praise the Lord.
And so I was going through the food pantry there at Hope Station yesterday, and I met with Bonnie, who's the director of the pantry, and she was just so thankful. She said, you just don't realize how much we rely on Eastgate Church doing this annual food drive. I think we're in our 21st year of doing it. We started doing it in 2005. And so she said she didn't have to tell me because I went and looked around the pantry.
The shelves were barely empty. I mean, they just barely had food. And we were loading the shelves up. We had a team in there, not only out in the city, but we had a team in there organizing the items and putting them on the shelves. So we're so thankful for what God did.
And at the same time, we put door hangers on every door, inviting them, guess what? To Easter Sunday next week. And so thank you for your obedience to show up and work hard these past two Saturdays, helping feed the hungry, but also working hard so that those that are hungry for Jesus will have an opportunity to come. Easter is coming. It's next Sunday.
Keep it in your prayers. Keep inviting. Well, let's dig in. We're continuing our series entitled the Story how the Bible Explains Everything. We're convinced that the Bible is.
Is not just a group of disconnected stories, but it's really one big, overarching, metanarrative one story. And we're looking for Jesus on every page because we're convinced that every great story has a hero. And the hero of the Bible is Jesus. He's the hero of the story. And that's what we're talking about today.
And over the past eight weeks we've been in the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and last week we read the last words of the Hebrew Bible. And I would remind you if you weren't here last week, the Hebrew Bible is organized differently than our English translation of the Old Testament. In the English translation of the Old Testament, the last book of the Bible is the prophet Malachi. That's our last book in the organization of the English Bible. But the Hebrew Bible is ordered up a little differently.
In the last book of the Bible. In the Hebrew Bible, they have the same books just in a different order as Second Chronicles. And the last four words are Let him go up. We talked about that last week. And so they went up and King Cyrus of Persia sent them out of Babylonian captivity, set them free, said anyone who would go back up and rebuild the temple of the Lord God.
And they did. But when they rebuilt it, we talked about this last week. The glory of the Lord did not fall upon the temple as it had during Solomon's Day. In fact, Ezekiel saw a vision that the glory of the Lord, the spirit of Lord, had departed from the temple, had departed from the city, and paused on the threshold and went out to the Mount of Olives and had left. And between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament, it's often referred to as 400 silent years.
And so they're waiting, they've gone up. But God had not come down until Jesus comes. You see, we can try to go up, but we will fail to go up unless he comes down. And that's where we're at in the story, man. We've been eight weeks getting here and we're finally to the New Testament.
We're in the Gospel of John. The silence has been shattered. The author of the story has written himself into the chapter. He's put himself into the story. Not only that, it's Palm Sunday, as we mentioned before.
It's the triumphal entry. And the people during that time when they received him, they cried out, hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And it was a mixed crowd. I'm sure it was on a Sunday, first day of the week. And they were receiving him.
They're waving Paul Branch and they're probably looking for many of them, looking for a revolutionary, a king to overthrow the Romans that were over top of them ruling over them. They were looking for a revolutionary, but instead they found something better, a revelation of God himself.
And indeed, we can see what a mixed crowd it was, because perhaps in that same crowd, there were people who said hosanna on Sunday, who said, crucify him on Friday.
Not everyone understood that Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world. That raises a question for us today. If God has come down, if he has come near, do we recognize him? Do we see him for who he really is? Because it's possible to know the story and miss the Savior.
It's possible to know the Scripture and miss the Savior. It's possible to be religious and not have a relationship with God.
And that's the tragedy of the first century. But it's also the danger of the 21st century that we could know much doctrine. We could know about Jesus and not know him, not be in relationship with him. And what we need today is not more information, but we need an introduction to God through the person of Jesus Christ. And that's exactly what the Gospel of John gives us.
It does, not surprisingly, begin as some of the other gospels do. It does not begin with a manger, but it begins with majesty. It begins with King Jesus in the beginning. And so in the Gospel of John, we see presented a beautifully poetic, a theologically rich prologue that declares Jesus as the eternal word of God who became flesh and tabernacled among us so that he reveals God's glory and inaugurates the fulfillment of the story, which is God's story. I believe as we look here and see Jesus as the eternal Word who came down to dwell among us, that we will see four revelations that portray and show us that Jesus is the hero of God's story.
So let's dig in. Gospel of John, chapter one, starting at verse one. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made.
That was made in him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him. Yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name.
He gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out. This was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.
For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side. He has made him known.
This is God's Word. Amen. We're looking for four revelations of Jesus as the hero of God's story. Here's the first revelation. Jesus is revealed as the Sovereign Word.
As the Sovereign Word, the King of glory, the God of very God. It begins as the Book of Genesis. Does I remind you that this is one book. It's called the Bible. Greek is biblos.
It literally means the book. It's one book written by over 40 human authors over a period of 1500 years, organized in 16 or 66 books rather. But it makes up one book. And here we see the Apostle John clearly connected to the first three words in our English Bible. The Book of Genesis.
In the beginning. In the beginning. That's how he begins. In the Greek, it's arche. He says in the beginning, archeological.
And then he speaks of Logos. It's where we get the word archeology, by the way, the arche and the Logos. It's the study of first things, the study of beginnings or foundational things. And he begins it like this. And this word Logos in the Greek was very well known in Greek philosophy as a founding principle, the thing that underlines.
It's the unseen truth that embodies everything. And so he's clearly. Here's John. By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he. He's connecting the story of Christ to the whole story, all the way back to the Book of Genesis, right in the beginning.
No one can miss this, that he's beginning at the beginning, before all time. He's connecting Christ to this and as the organizing principle of reality, using this philosophical thing. But he's embodying it with even more saying he's gone God, a very God, that he's the Creator God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. Well, there's the Trinity.
He is God, but he's also has his. He's his own person. So there's the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. He's revealing something about the Trinity. Verse 2.
He was in the beginning with God. He's making sure we didn't miss that. And then he clearly says, he's God's agent of creation. He's the Word that says let there be light. He's the very word that causes all creation to come into being.
All things were made through him. And without him was not anything made that was made. He's the Creator God. He's the Sovereign Word. And in him was life.
He's the source of life. He's the one who breathed into Adam and made man a living soul. He's the creator of God. He's the source of life. We're only in verse three now, verse four.
That life was the light of men. Here again we see the echo of Genesis 1, chapter 1. Let there be light. And light was separated light from darkness. And there was night and there was day.
And this is Genesis stuff, verses one through four. He's saying there's Christ at the beginning and he's active in creation. He's the Sovereign Word. He's making a clear claim here that everything, the long awaited Messiah that they've waited for is actually here. He's come down.
He's become one of us. He's the sovereign God, the creator God, the source of life. When Paul's writing to the church at Colossae, he says something amazing. He says that everything was created by Christ, through Christ and for Christ. Listen to what he says in Colossians.
For everything was created by Him. All things have been created through him. And for him he's before all things. In other words, his existence is not dependent upon creation. He's the Creator who stands outside of creation.
And by him all things hold together. He's the sustainer of all things. So all things are held together by Him.
Are you in charge of your next breath? Are you in charge of your next heartbeat? Everything is sustained by him, held together by Him. And here's the thing, the clarifying thought here. Created through him and for Him.
He made it for Himself. He made you for Himself.
Now my wife and I have three kids. And via our three kids we have 10 grandchildren.
Sometimes when we first had our kids, I guess parents, I don't know what we're thinking. When we have kids, we're like, we love each other and we want our love to grow and so we have kids. I don't think we think about it a lot. We had our kids in our 20s. We weren't thinking very clearly about a lot of things in their 20s.
And you're so blessed. You're so excited. You bring the baby home. There's baby showers, and there's joy and there's wonder. And then by night three, with sleeplessness and dirty diapers and everything, you go, why did we make this baby?
I'm kidding, right? We know why we did.
We made these children because it's an expression of our love. And we made it because our loved ones. You know, it's a philosophical question. You can answer it later. But we don't have to answer it on behalf of God.
Why did God make you for Himself?
He made you for Himself. Was he lonely? No. He lives eternally in the Godhead. The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit in perfect unity.
Never lonely, never sad. But he wants to grow. He wants to share his glory. And so he creates everything. And he creates us in his own image for himself.
What?
Because he loves you?
Made us for himself. I can't get past it. I could just stop here and go home. He made me for himself. And then I rebelled and so did you.
He came and died for me. To buy me back. Oh. And therefore Paul says in Philippians, God exalted him to the highest place. He was already at the highest place.
But because he went so low to the cross and to obedience and to the grave, that he raised him to an even higher place and gave him the name that is above every name, that the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. He made us for Himself.
He's the Creator God who made all things.
Do you remember the story in the Book of Mark, chapter four? It's one of my favorite stories. Jesus was tired. He'd been working hard, preaching. He asked the disciples to move out to the Sea of Galilee.
I think Jesus loved boats and water. I can relate to that. I love to get out on a boat too. I love to get out on the water. Something about it is calming.
Unless a storm comes up. That's what happened in Mark, chapter four. A storm came up. He was out there with seasoned fishermen who grew up in the city of Capernaum. And that was a fishing village.
They knew storms. But this storm, the way you read it in scripture, it was unlike any storm they'd ever encountered. It was like a hurricane gale that came up. And there's Jesus. He's tired.
He's asleep in the boat. They don't want to wake him up. He's tired. But the storm got so bad that even Peter, James and John, the four professionals, we better wake Jesus up. We're going to die, Lord.
Don't you care that we're about to die? And they wake him up. And if you see it depicted in some movies, they'll dramatically have him stand up in the boat. Peace, be still. You know, and maybe that's how it happened.
I don't know. I have more of the idea that he raised upon one elbow and very quietly said, shh. Peace, be still. And the disciples that were terrified by the storm, the scriptures say they were terrified by what was on the outside of the boat, were now terrified by the man in the boat. And they said, who is this man that even the wind and the waves obey him?
I'll tell you who he is. He's the Sovereign Word. The wind and the waves obey him because he created them. He made them for himself. All he had to do is say, shh.
And there was complete silence. Oh, he's the Creator God. So here's the question today. If the wind and the waves obey him and recognize him as creator, why don't you, and many of you are going through a storm in your life today, and you're crying out, just like the disciples, lord God, don't you care that I'm going to drown, that I'm going to die here? Don't you care?
And he does. But the question is, who's in your boat? Is he in your boat? Is Jesus in your boat? And have you called out to him as Lord?
He's the Sovereign Word. That leads us to the second revelation. We're at verses six through nine now. The second revelation is this. Jesus is revealed as the sent word.
He's the sent word sent of the Father. We see in verse 6 that the gospel writer, the Gospel of John, who is John the Beloved, one of the 12, is now writing not about himself. And this John is not John the Beloved. This is John the Baptist. Okay, Verse six.
There was a man sent from God. So God sent John the Baptist, whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light. Who's the light? Well, the light is the Word and the word is Jesus.
Okay, so he came to bear witness, to be a forerunner, a proclaimer of the Christ. And to be clear, he was not the light, verse 8, but came to bear witness about the light. That was his purpose. He was sent of God to do that, to bear witness about the light that people might believe. It's kind of like this.
If you go to a courtroom, and I hope you don't have to, but if you go to a courtroom, someone comes out and precedes the judge and say, hear ye, hear ye. The Honorable John Smith is now presiding. All rise. And you rise and he comes in. He takes a seat in his black robes and.
And then you can be seated. Or when the president or the governor or whoever comes in, somebody always comes in first and makes a proclamation. And then everybody recognizes this person of authority. That's what's going on here. The king of glory has come down.
And of course, there needs to be a forerunner that comes ahead of him. Now, this John the Baptist was sent by God. We see John say. And he goes on to say that he's not the light. Verse 9 clarifies that the true light, speaking of Jesus, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
So he was sent by God, too. He was coming. He was sent by the Father to be the light. Let me give you a few verses to consider. Malachi, the prophet is the one who foretold that one named Elijah would come again.
Elijah, and if you'll remember, didn't actually die, but was carried to heaven in a fiery chariot. And so to this day, the Jews, when they do the Passover meal, they save a seat for Elijah because they still are looking for him. They're still looking for him, and they're still looking for the Messiah. But Elijah has already come, and so has Messiah. And so we see in Malachi, we see chapter three and chapter four.
I've put them together here in chapter three. Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. That's what John claims. He says, I'm a preparer of the way. We see in the Gospels.
And then verse chapter four, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And so we see that they were looking for Elijah. And some of the people that were following Jesus came to him and said, hey, wait a minute, you know, we thought Elijah was going to come first. And Jesus said, you're right. And in chapter 11 of Matthew, he says, for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.
And so Jesus identifies John the Baptist as the Elijah fulfillment. And so it's clear. He also says about John, he says, john is the greatest who's ever been born. Of woman until this time. But the least of these in the kingdom will be greater than John.
John is really the last Old Testament prophet. Now, you might say, well, he's in the New Testament, isn't he? He is, but he's really the last with the Old Testament anointing prior to the fall of the Holy Spirit and the creation of the church. And so he's the greatest prophet up until then. And so we've already got Genesis in verses 1 through 5, now 6 through 9.
We have the prophets. We have the greatest prophet. Did I tell you it was one book? One story? What a beautiful.
What a beautiful first chapter. John is getting ahold of everything back here, and he's saying it's all fulfilled in this hero of the story, Jesus. He's the sent word. And so we read Paul in the book of Galatians who says, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son. That idea of the fullness of time is the idea of a woman who's expecting that there's a place of fullness when the baby must come.
And there was a ticking clock in the fullness of time. And God only knew the time when it was time for his Son to be sent. And so he comes. And then when he comes, he doesn't come the way they were looking for him. The people are confused about it.
Even some of his disciples were confused. If you'll remember, in the book of Luke, chapter 24, after Jesus was crucified, after he was buried and raised from the grave, there were a couple disciples who didn't know. They hadn't got word yet that Jesus had been resurrected. And they're leaving Jerusalem. They're on a road called Emmaus.
I don't know where they're headed, but they are depressed. They're just like, oh, man, we thought he was the one. Now what are we going to do? It really seemed like he was the one. And I think Jesus really enjoyed this.
By the way, the resurrected Lord, he just pops up next to him. What are y' all talking about? I'm like, that had to be fun, you know? And they said, have you been living under a rock? You don't know about what happened to Jesus?
We thought he was the one. They crucified him. And he began, the scripture says, to explain to them from the law and the prophets how the Messiah had to suffer and die and be raised again. And the scripture says their heart started catching fire. And they were just.
And they said, please stop. Night's coming. Let's Go over here and get a meal. And he was like, I've really got to go. He's having so much fun with this.
You know, he is. And they please come. And he comes in and he breaks bread with them, and they still haven't recognized him. And they ask him to say the Baruch, the prayer over the bread. So he takes the bread and as he breaks, breaks it.
Baruch hata adonai elohim alach ha' alam hamasi lehim minha eretz amin. And as he does that, they go, it's the Lord. And then he's gone. And instead of checking into the hotel, they run back to Jerusalem to tell everybody. You know, we learn something about Jesus.
He's raised from the grave. He's the scent word. He's the sent word. And he tells them everything. Now we get it.
We get it was back there. We just missed Isaiah 53 that said he would suffer. We missed Psalm 22 that quoted verbatim what he would say from the cross. Eloi, eloi lama sabekthani. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
We didn't connect the dots, but he just did it. They're fired up. He's the sent word, you see, they had the scriptures, but they missed the Savior. And so do you. You know the stories.
You know about Jesus. Do you know Jesus?
And that leads us to the third revelation of this hero, the great hero of God's story. And it reveals him as a saving word, as the saving word. Verses 10 through 13.
He was in the world, and the world was made through him. He's in the world that he made. He's crucified on the tree that he created by the people he made. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him. Yet the world didn't know him.
The world didn't recognize the One who made them. Worse than that, though. This is worse than that. He came to his own, to his own chosen people, his own people. To the Jewish people who had the book.
They had the first 39 books. They had the book that told all about him, and they missed it. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right, the authority, the right to be adopted into his family. This Word is powerful.
This word, the right. It's the Word has the idea of the privilege to call God Father and to be adopted into his family because you've received and believed in Jesus the Son. This is The Savior. His word. His name means salvation.
He's the saving word. As we.
These pages sometimes just stick together, y', all, as we consider this. It reminds me of a story in the Book of Acts, Chapter 3, Book of Acts. The church is founded. Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father. Peter and John, they're preaching, and it's time for the time of prayer in the Jewish temple.
And they go up and they get ready to enter through one of their favorite gates. It's the gate called Beautiful. They're about to go up, and there's a man there, a lame man, lame since birth, who's collecting money, alms for the poor. It's his job. His parents probably drop him off every day since he's been grown because he can't work.
He's lame. He's not able to walk. And Peter makes a mistake. He makes a mistake, and you know it's a mistake because he looked straight at him, and we all know don't look at somebody when they're asking for money. We know that, right?
Yeah, we know. Don't look at him. Because if you look at him, I'm kidding, right? Peter looked right at him. He said, silver and gold have I none.
But what I have, I give to thee. Rise up and walk. And here's a man that never had to learn to walk. A lot of us got a lot of bruises from how, you know, learning how to walk. This man jumped up and started dancing, leaping in the air and chased after Peter and John as they went in and.
And started here. Listen to these two guys. They told me I could walk in the name of Jesus. And, boy, it created a crowd. Before you know it, the temple guards are trying to figure out what the ruckus is all about.
And they report to the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin, which is the political leadership of the Jews, have them arrested and thrown in jail overnight. Then the next morning, Peter and John appear before them, and they say, we thought we told you guys to stop talking about Jesus. And what name did you use? You begin talking about Jesus.
How did this man get healed? And. And you'll see in your notes how Peter responds. Let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead by him. This man stands here before you whole.
This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And here Peter is quoting the Psalms. So we had the book of Genesis, we had the prophets. Now we got the Psalms.
Psalm 118, verse 22. The stone which was rejected by you builders speaking of Jesus, and he's saying you rejected him. But his name is a saving word. Even his name, Yeshua, Jesus, means God's salvation. His name is a saving word.
And there's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. That's the third revelation that we see. And now we come to the fourth and final one. And that is Jesus is revealed as the supreme Word. He's the final word, the ultimate word, the last word.
No other revelation needs to be said. He's the fullest expression. You want to know what God's character looks like? You want to see God? Look at Jesus.
He is. In him is the fullness of God. And so we look at verses 14 through 18. Now these final verses, and we see this exclamation. And the Word became flesh.
This is the incarnation. There never was a time when Christ was not. But there was a point in time when the author wrote himself into the story and became one of us. Never was a time when Christ was not. But there was a time when Jesus, the man, the man, the human, 100% human, 100% divine, a little over 2,000 years ago, came into this world.
Cyrus told them to go up. They couldn't get it done. So he came down. The Word became flesh and dwelt. The word here in the Greek, you'll miss it in English.
Dwelt literally has the idea to pitch a tent or to tabernacle. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. The temple they built held no glory. But the glory of God came and he tabernacled among us. And Peter says he became the cornerstone.
And he not only became the cornerstone, but the apostles and the prophets, the foundation. And we as believers become living stones in this new temple which is called the Church. We are his body and he is the head. He's the supreme word. Then we have that.
He's the one that shows us this glory. And here we see in verse 14 that John the Beloved, the author here by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, not John the Baptist, but John the Beloved, who's writing this. We see him in the Word, we. And we have seen because he saw him. We've seen his glory.
He was upon the Mount of Transfiguration when he saw him revealed. He saw the risen Jesus he saw his glory. Now, glory is hard to define. We know it when we see it, though. When we see a beautiful sunset, we go, that's glorious.
When we see a newborn in the arms of, of a new mama, we go, that's glorious. We look at a scene with mountains or of a beach and we go, wow, that's glorious. And so it's kind of like beauty or majesty. You can't find it in a laboratory. You can't really scientifically define it, but you know it when you see it.
We've seen his glory as of the only Son, literally the. The only begotten. Begotten, not created. There never was a time when Christ was not. He comes from the Father.
He's full of grace and truth. And then we have this little parenthetical comment, verse 15, John. Now we're not speaking of John the writer, the author. Now we're speaking again about John the Baptist. Okay, we're back to John the Baptist.
John bore witness about him, about Jesus, and he cried out, this was he of whom I said. And now this is a mouthful right here that John declares because it sounds a little bit like a sci fi episode. It sounds like some sort of strange time warp situation here, but let me help you with it if I can. He who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. He was after me, but he was before me.
Actually, this is what he says. Here's what John's referring to. He's related to Jesus. You remember, He's a son of Zechariah the priest and Elizabeth in their old age. And it was a sign given to Mary when she conceived.
Hey, here's a sign Gabriel gave, gave her. Your relative Elizabeth is six months along. And then that's John the Baptist. And so you see, cousins keep up with stuff like this. I'm six months older than you.
And so John is saying what he's saying. He's saying this like I'm before him. He who comes after me ranks. You know, he comes after me, so I'm six months older. So he comes after me.
But actually he ranks higher than me because really he came long before me. He came in the beginning because he's God. Now does that make sense? It makes sense to me now. Still kind of hard to get a hold of.
From his fullness. We have all received grace upon grace. And now we've got the law. Verse 17. John's trying to grab everything back here and put it all inside of Jesus because that's where it belongs.
And he says the Law was given through Moses. But I'll tell you what. Grace and truth came through Jesus. He's superior to the law. He's the supreme word, the last word, the final word.
Grace and truth are in him. The law was a tutor, a servant, to direct us to see how sinful we are so that we would recognize that we need a savior. He is the Savior. And then we have this closing statement. No one has ever seen God.
Somebody like I thought Moses saw him. Yeah, well, if you go back there and look at that closely again. God hid him in the cleft of a rock and allowed him to see the backside of his glory. And then he came down the mountain and his face glowed so much that the people couldn't look upon him because the glory of God was still reflected on his face. That's where the hymn writer writes that beautiful hymn, right?
Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me, Let Me Hide Myself in Thee. Talking about that rock, that cleft, where Moses was hidden by God. And he said, let me see your glory. I just want to see your glory. He said, well, you can't see my glory and live, but I'll let you see part of it.
But there comes a day when we'll see him face to face. Because of Jesus. No one's ever seen God, but the only God. Verse 18. The only begotten, the only Son who was at the Father's side.
He's made him known. You want to know God? Know Jesus. You want to know about God? No.
Know about Jesus. You want to be in a relationship with God, get in a relationship with Jesus. Call on him as your Lord and Savior. Paul writes in the Book of Hebrews. I say it's Paul.
We're not sure who wrote the Book of Hebrews other than the Holy Spirit. We know the Holy Spirit wrote it. It's either Paul or. I'm also a proponent of the possibility of Luke being the human author. I'm not sure which, but I know this.
Here's what the author says. In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by His Son. The Son is the radiance of God's glory in the exact radiance representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. The name he has inherited is superior to their names.
So here he is. He's the last Word we heard from the prophets. We heard from the ancestors. But in these last days, we've heard from the final Word, the supreme Word, the Last word, the ultimate word, and that's Jesus. It reminds me of a story from 1961.
The Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, he was the first human in outer space. First, first human to orbit the earth. And a famous quote was attributed to this atheist cosmonaut. He says, I looked and looked, but I did not see God in outer space. I didn't see God in the heavens.
CS Lewis, who was still alive during this time, famously responded. He argued that looking for God in space is like Hamlet looking for Shakespeare in the attic of his castle. He said, shakespeare isn't a character in Hamlet's story. He is the author who created both the castle and Hamlet himself. Hamlet will never find Shakespeare by exploring the stage.
The only way Shakespeare could ever. Excuse me. The only way Hamlet could ever meet Shakespeare is if Shakespeare writes himself into the play and church. That's exactly what John is telling us. No one's ever seen God.
You can walk all over life stage, and you'll never find him through your own human effort. But if you look to Jesus, he's already been written into the story. The author has already written the hero into the story. If you want to know God, you must know Jesus. Today we've seen that Jesus is sovereign.
He's sent. He's the saving word, and he's the Supreme Word. Last week we ended with Let him go up. The people were called to go up to rebuild the temple to seek God. But we see that they were unable to seek God and find God on their own effort.
But God has come down in the person of Jesus. We saw on Palm Sunday that the people cried out, hosanna. Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. But they were a confused crowd. They welcomed him as king.
And by the end of the week, another crowd said, crucify Him. I guess the most important question for us today is found in verse 12 of our reading today. But to all who did receive him, to them who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Have you ever made that decision? The King has come.
The Word has spoken. The glory has returned. The author of the story has stepped onto the stage. Will you let him write you into his book, his book of life, into his story? Let's pray.
Lord, thank youk for Jesus. We've been preaching and studying for eight weeks. And finally, in this ninth episode, we see him revealed in full glory. And I pray for that person that's here today. And you've never recognized Jesus.
He made you for Himself, and you've never received Him. You've never believed in his name. He made you for himself.
Would you do that today, right where you're at, right in your seat? Prayer's just talking to God. Would you talk to the Father right now and pray with me? Pray like this. Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner, but I believe you died on the cross for my sin.
I believe that you were raised from the grave and that you live today. I believe that today I humble myself and I ask you to come into my life and forgive me and adopt me into your family. I want to be a child of God. I recognize you as my Savior and Lord, and I want to follow you all the days of my life. If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing the Bible says if you confess him with your mouth that he is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved right where you are right now.
Just pray. Lord, thank you for saving me. I want to follow you now. Help me to grow in following you. Others are here, and you're praying for someone that you've invited to church, and they haven't come yet.
I just want to pray with you right now. We've got this whole thing of cards in front of us that we've been writing names down for people, people that we're inviting this week. So, Lord, I pray for these names. I pray, Lord, that you would move their hearts to come to church and to hear the gospel. I pray for us as people who are talking about Jesus, that you'd give us clarity of thought and clarity of voice to talk to people about Jesus.
And we pray that many would come to Christ not just in our church, but in all the churches in Wilson County, Nash County, Edgecombe county, where our two campuses are preaching. But, Lord, recognizing that we want to see the gospel saturate our whole Judea, Lord, we pray it now in Jesus name, Amen.
Audio
Good morning, church. Thank you so much for being here today. We are continuing a series called the Story where we've been going pretty swiftly through the whole narrative of scripture. We can't cover every bite, that is for sure. But in 12 weeks, we're kind of hitting some of the main themes and we are turning the page today into the New Testament as we welcome the King Palm Sunday.
We're welcoming King Jesus today and we're going to spend a lot of time on that. We're going to be in the Book of John, chapter one. And if you've got your Bibles with you. But I want to remind you of something. Next week is Easter.
We've been preparing for this for weeks and we've been praying for you, for your families, for your co workers. We've been praying for you every single week. And so we've got some more tools here. If you haven't had the opportunity yet to pick these up or to pass these out, we've got some more tools for you to use. I want to remind you of something people are more willing to try Easter or try church out on Easter Sunday.
There's a couple of times a year where people are less reluctant to see what's going on. And so use this invitation, use this opportunity. And I've been noticing something. I just think people lately are more open to these kinds of things, more open to the faith conversation. I'm noticing this at least in my personal life that I'm able to have faith based conversations very easily with people, even though sometimes they find out I'm a pastor, which scares people.
But generally people are kind of open to talking about it. And so use this tool, use this opportunity to bring some of your loved ones to church. And we're going to be faithful to preach a clear gospel Next week, Resurrection Sunday coming y'. All. So let's enjoy that together.
I've got an eager expectation of what God's going to do. So here we go. We're hopping into the New Testament today. We have spent eight weeks covering some of the highlights of the Old Testament, from creation to the flood, to the covenant, to Abraham and to the Davidic covenant of a king is coming and to the prophets and the exile. We kind of touched every one of those little pieces.
There's a lot more there. Go back and study that stuff in your scripture. You'll be blessed by it. But we're turning the page now into the King has Come. We've titled today's sermon simply the Christ and the good news today is that the reason we celebrate Palm Sunday is because indeed shout hosanna.
The king has come, and he's come, and he's alive today, and he's active today. He has not ceased to be working with his people for 2000 years. And so Jesus is in. I pray he is in the room today. Otherwise, we have no business being here.
And so the Lord is here with us. And I pray he will speak to you boldly and encourage you where you need it. The author of the story has written himself in. In. And that's what's great about Palm Sunday.
The author who wrote it all has also written himself in. And we ended last week, those of you who are with us. We ended with these words in the Hebrew Bible. The last words of the Hebrew Bible say, let us or let him go up. And now we turn the page to the New Testament we got.
God has now come down. So this is great news, and I pray it will be that to you today. But here's what I want to challenge you with. The truth is this. God has calmed down.
He has come near. Jesus has come, and he has an open invitation to you and is welcoming you into his kingdom and to be a part of his purpose and his mission on earth. And he has created you specifically for that purpose. And that's where you will find the most joy and satisfaction in life. But the question is, just because all of that is true does not mean you perceive it.
You can know the story and totally miss the Savior. You can know the books. You can have read them. You can have grown up in church. You could have heard all of the wonderful stories.
Your family may have dragged you into church every single Sunday. That does not mean you caught it, might have missed it. And a lot of people around you have, and we don't. We want to do our very best. I think one of the things that scares me the most here, as a pastor and as a person that's interacting with people around our city is I don't want them to miss it.
I just don't want them to miss it. So this morning, here's my prayer for you. I'm not trying to give you more information about God, although you may get some. I'm trying to give you an introduction to God. And so we're going to be in John Chapter one today, and we're going to see God pulling back the curtain and saying, here I am.
I've shown myself to you. So in the Gospel of John, chapter one, the apostle John, the disciple John, has written this very poetic and Theologically rich prologue that takes us all the way back to Genesis 1. He's different than the other Gospels. He doesn't go back to like the genealogies in the birth. He goes all the way back to Genesis 1.
And it's a faithful reading. And what we're going to see is the text give us four very clear revelations of Jesus and how he's the hero of the story. Now, I've been saying this all along. I want to remind you of this again today. You and I are not the hero of the story.
And that is a good thing. It might not sound like a good thing, but it is a good thing. If you'll take it this way. If we were the hero, if it was up to us, we're in big trouble. We're in really big trouble.
We're not the hero. Christ is the hero. He's always been the hero From Genesis 1 now to John 1, all the way to Revelation in the end. And so that's where we're digging in today. We're going to see John telling us things about four revelations about Jesus as heroes.
Here is that reading. Let's read together. John, chapter one, 1:18. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. Don't miss this. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made. That was made in him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
Now there was a man sent from God whose name was John. This is John the Baptist Church. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. Now the true light, which gives light to everybody, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made through him. Yet. Yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him.
Church this is good news to all who did receive him, who believed in his name. He gave the right to become children of God, who. Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor even of the will of man, but of God. This is one of my favorite verses in scripture, church. John 1, verse 14.
And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him. He Cried out. This was he of whom I said, he who comes after me, ranks before me, because he was before me.
For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side.
He has made him known. God bless the reading of his word. Amen. This is great news to you and I today because we are not born of blood. We are born of the Holy Spirit.
When we come to Christ Jesus. This is the great news of the gospel today. So here's the first revelation. The first is this. Jesus is revealed as the Sovereign Word.
Word is going to be our key word today. It's the key word from John. He's the Word. He was, is, will always be the word of God. And I'm going to talk about aspects of that as we dig into the scripture today.
He's revealed as the song Sovereign Word. John, unlike the other gospel writers, goes all the way back to Genesis 1. I would encourage you read through the gospels this week. Passion Week is one of those wonderful weeks where you can go and zoom in on everything Jesus was doing from triumphal entry to resurrection, everything he was doing along the journey. There's only two weeks like that in the whole Bible.
Genesis 1 where we have the account of the seven day creation and then we have the Jesus Passion account of his seven days of triumph, Crucifixion, and then triumph. So these are the wonderful places. I think in my opinion this is one of the reasons that John goes back to Genesis as he's zooming in again on the fact that John or that God Jesus was there all along. And his words are very specific. These things are not accidental.
He wants to remind us of something that we may have missed. Jesus is not just Messiah. He's not just Savior. He's King, He's Lord, He's God, He's Creator. He says all things were made through him.
Nothing was made that wasn't made by Him. There's nothing that we see, perceive that we touch. Nothing exists that we know of that is not of Jesus. And so then he goes on to use some Genesis style words. He says in him there was life, all things were made.
And then he says, and there was light. So that's really like a one to one with Genesis 1. Genesis 1 says, for in the beginning, God created life, okay? And then the first things he speaks are what, what is the first words of God? Let there be light.
What do we have Here in Him there was life and light. I kind of have this visual of the Word. The way that it seems John is describing is that God shows up, begins creating, and he speaks, let there be light. And the voice that came out was the Word of God. Right here in the very beginning, Genesis Chapter one, we have the Trinitarian God on display.
God the Father creating, God the Son, the catalyst or active agent in creating. And then, if you remember, in Genesis 1, it says the Spirit is hovering over the waters. So here they are. The Trinitarian God is on display. And here, John brings it all together and begins to unpack it.
Don't miss this church. Jesus is more than just your crucified Savior, risen Savior. He's your King, he's your Lord, he's the Sovereign Word. Paul writes to the Colossian Church in Chapter one. He says, everything was created by Him.
All things have been created through him, for him, he is before all things, and by him all things are held together. So not only that, everything that is made is not only made by him, it's made through him and for Him. Which means us. We're not made for our own, just whatever we want to do. Some kind of selfish adventure.
No, we were made for the hero, Jesus, and He's the sustainer.
So that nice deep breath, that was Him. That was Him. And we take these things for granted. There's science. Oh, there's these reasons.
And the earth just keeps spinning. But let's just consider some of this stuff. It's spinning just right. We're just the right distance from the sun. Everything's working out just right so that we don't either melt or freeze.
And we're taking the next breath. We could wake up tomorrow and not take the next breath. This is wonderful news. And so Jesus has sustained, he has created. Paul goes on to write to the Philippians Chapter two.
He says, therefore God has exalted him to the highest place and given him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. Every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So he's the sovereign Word. One of my favorite stories in Scripture. I was working on it again this week in Mark Chapter four.
I think it's in several of the Gospels, but Mark Chapter four is one I've preached on before. And I really am fascinated by this story because the disciples in Jesus, they're trying to get away for a moment. The crowds are really getting Thick Jesus is having to work day in and day out. Some of you might feel that way. It's like, man, I just got.
I need a break. And the disciples are certainly feeling that way. And so they pull away and everything seems like, okay, we're gonna take a breather. You ever been ready to take the next breather? Maybe you need a vacation.
You just need a weekend off. And you're pulling away. And that's when something happens. Like, happens to the disciples. They're just trying to take a boat ride to the other side and a storm shows up.
But, God, I was just trying to take a vacation. Why has it rained my whole vacation out? Some of you have had that happen. God's got a whole different plan for you than whatever you think it is you're trying to. So here they are on the boat crossing the Sea of Galilee and a huge storm comes up.
The Bible describes it as water is flooding into the boat and Jesus is on the front of the boat. The Bible says he has a cushion, he's sleeping.
That's a whole different. I could preach a whole different sermon on what do you do when it feels like God is sleeping. That would be a pretty good one because he's not. He's active. You just don't always perceive it.
But here he is in the front of the boat and I could just picture the disciples. I would be like, them. They're probably got buckets out paling water out. They're freaking out, like, ah. And Jesus is snoring.
They finally come up and shake him. Master, do you not care that we're going to die?
They're terrified in that moment until. Until the man stands up and says, peace, be still. Now, church, I gotta ask you something. We've been talking about miracles week in and week out, and that's part of what I've been hoping to develop as we've gone through this series is do we believe in the miracle working God? Because part of what's happening, I think, in the church is that we're getting away from really just believing these things.
We used to believe as children when we were kids and we heard God created the heavens and the earth, we'd go, cool. Now we're so scientific and confused. We're like, I'm just not sure. Or did he really flood the earth? Or did he really use a boy to kill a giant?
Or did he really tear down some walls with trumpets? What? He tore walls down with trumpets? Yes. Yes, he did.
And here, the word of God, Jesus, the son of God, Is able to, with his voice, with his word, is able to stop a storm. Now, I believe that. I believe that wholeheartedly. Because if I don't, then all of this is a big waste. But if it's in fact true, then God is good beyond measure.
And so now here's what happens to these disciples. They're scared of the storm the Bible seems to describe. Now they're scared of the man who is this guy who can stop and calm wind and wave. The question then, church, is this. It's not whether or not a storm is coming, church.
This might sound like bad news, but it's not meant to be. There are storms coming. If you haven't faced any yet, I don't know how you've accomplished that. You've probably faced a few, all of us. The longer that time goes on, there will be new challenges, new storms.
As we age, there'll be new discomforts. Some of us are facing right now. Some of us are facing death in our families or disease in our families. Some of us are facing storms. The question isn't whether those things will happen.
The question is who's in the boat? Who's in the boat? Because if he's in the boat, then the fear should be subsided. Now, I could say, well, he's the Sovereign Word. The same God who can calm storms, he can call mine.
So I'm inviting you church today. Have you called Jesus, Lord, not just Savior. Oh, I've heard the stories. He died on the cross. I've heard.
No, no, no. Is He Lord of all? Does he calm the storms in your life? Because he will and he can. But he's waiting for an invitation.
He seems to be a gentleman. For whatever reason, God does not force himself on us. He could. He has every right to. He has every power to.
Instead, he waits for us to welcome him in. So I'm inviting you to do that today. That's the first. That's the first revelation we see of Jesus. The second is this, that Jesus is revealed here as the sent Word.
Y' all are going to like these. Because I love you so much. I've given you 4s words, all right. You might remember them. Probably not.
These are hard to remember. I found a lot of people, they remember the stories, they remember the points. Cool with that? Whether they get the applications. Not always happening.
But I'm trying to help. Let it never be said I'm not trying to help. Sovereign Word. Now, he is a sent word. The Bible says in verse six that sent from God.
God has sent witnesses for thousands of years up to this point, so that the people would be expecting a king, expecting a savior. Now they miss it. The Bible says they missed it. Here we have John on display, verse 6, verse 7. It says that this man who was sent from God is the name.
His name is John. He came as a witness. This is the one we know now as John the Baptist. He was the last of the prophets, really, if you want to say it this way, he's really the last Old Testament prophet. He's the bridge from old to new.
He comes preaching in the wilderness. There's someone coming, a of whose sandals I can't even tie. I can't even tie his shoes. That's how great he is. He's prophesying that in the wilderness, y', all, someone's coming, and he's the prophet.
And the minor prophets are doing that. You go back to Elijah, to Elisha, to Isaiah, to Jeremiah. These prophets are saying, hey, look, Israel, you're a mess. You need to straighten up. But I have great news.
A king is coming. Now John gets to see it. What's wonderful about John is he gets to actually experience the coming king. And so this is what this little passage, this little paragraph is about. And it's important for us to know this, that Jesus is not just some random appearance.
He's not just God's random. No. God has been very, very carefully and directly planning this. God is not an accidental kind of God. He is at work, and he is calculated.
And the way in which he's working in your life, it might look like chaos to you. I bet it does. But not to him. He's got a plan and a through line where he is working it out. And now he's using John as the final vessel.
And what we see is the prophets, the prophecies of old are beginning to be fulfilled. Malachi, chapter three. It's the last prophet in our Bible, right? And he writes in chapter three, behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. I will send you.
Excuse me, Elijah the prophet, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. So now the people are expecting Elijah. Does God here mean like Elijah is going to rise from the dead and it's going to be actual Elijah? No, no. Jesus tells us what was meant by that.
Look at Matthew, chapter 11, verse 13. All the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. So one is coming who is of the type, the prophetic type of Elijah. And Jesus tells us who that is.
It's John the Baptist who comes preparing the way. We just sang that. Prepare the way. He's in the room. This is what John is doing now.
In a way, I'm doing that. Hey, look, Jesus is here. He's with me. He's with the believers in the room. The question is, is he with you?
Because he's come. He's been foretold, and now he's active. He's alive today. And so God has sent John. Paul writes to the Galatians.
He says, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son. Now this fascinating thing happens, and we see this wonderful life. Read through the Gospels this week and just see all the wonders of what Jesus has done on earth and now the wonderful thing he's doing in his church. This is all here in the New Testament. But we get this fascinating story where Jesus at this point now has been crucified and resurrected.
And when he appears In Luke chapter 24, he begins to appear to his disciples. Paul writes that at one point, he appears to somewhere around 500 of them at one time. So over 500 people saw the resurrected Jesus. That's good evidence. That's really good evidence for the resurrection.
But we see this one appearance. It's a pretty famous one. I've heard it preached many times. In Luke chapter 24, Jesus kind of appears alongside some guys that are walking to a little village called Emmaus. And they're bummed out.
They're distraught because they've been following Jesus and Jesus has been crucified. Jesus has been buried. And there's starting to be some rumors that the body's gone missing. So if they didn't believe in resurrection, and it seems like they didn't, they're thinking, man, not only was our guy killed, but somebody stole the body. Like this is messed up.
And so they're on this journey. The Bible simply puts it this way. They did not recognize him. They did not see him for who he was. So Jesus, here, he is taking the walk with these two disciples to Emmaus, and he begins to unpack the scriptures.
The Bible says he begins to reveal how the prophets in the Old Testament were pointing to Jesus. And as they're going to stop along the road to have a meal and to stay the night, he, Jesus, was going to keep going. And they said, no, no, no, no, no. Come in and eat with us, be with us. We want to talk more.
And as he's breaking bread, doing the Lord's supper meal, doing that moment with them. Suddenly he vanishes. And then they look at each other like that was him. Like we missed it. We didn't notice.
Maybe it was the fact that they just weren't expecting. None of the disciples were expecting the resurrected Jesus. Even though he had said it over and over, he'd been pointing to it. Yes, I'm going to a place where I will be crucified. I'm going there.
But don't worry. In three days, he's even told them how long it would take. Mine is the sign of Jonah. In three days, I'm coming out of the belly of the well that was. They missed it.
You and I would have missed it, too. Why? Why would we have missed it? Because it's not every day you see somebody get out of the grave. Right.
I've never seen it. And so they were surprised by this. So here's Jesus walking with them. That story, I think, is meant to also remind us of something. That some of us have been walking with the sent Word, who has been speaking truth to us in His Word all these years, and that somehow the Savior might be walking right beside us, and we just don't recognize it.
Church, some of you need to hear this today. God has not fallen asleep in the front of your boat. Christ Jesus has not stopped walking with you. He's there. Perhaps you moved.
Perhaps. Where do we see Jesus? Where do we hear him speak? Where do we hear his voice? Friends, if you're not spending time where God is speaking and you're not hearing his voice, don't complain.
You have no right to complain. I never hear God's voice. You never read either. I never hear his voice. But you never pray.
It's where so many of us are. We struggle in this. And we wonder, where did God go? God didn't go anywhere. We moved.
So here they have the Scriptures in their hands. They hear the Word spoken, but the Savior's walking with them. Church, I just. What I long for more than anything is that you wouldn't come to this church week in and week out and somehow miss the Jesus that resides in this place. This isn't a place where we come and hang out.
It's a place where we come and experience the love and mercy and grace of Jesus. I pray you get that today. I pray you hear his voice today and recognize Him. Here's the third. This one is where, in some ways, this is probably the saddest moment of today's text.
Jesus is revealed. He's revealed here in verses 10 through 13, as the saving Word as the saving word. He's sovereign, he's sent. The prophets were foretelling it. But now, third, he's salvation.
He's the saving word. And the Bible is very careful. Verse 9, it says the world he sent to it. The cosmos is the Greek word here he sent. Sent to the world.
Not just to any, to everybody. And the Bible says, and to the very world he created. And yet. And yet they didn't know him. They didn't know him.
His own people did not receive him. What he's speaking to there is the Jewish people. Don't miss this at all. Church today because. I don't know, I see things on Facebook and Instagram sometimes where people were having an argument about, was Jesus white, was Jesus black?
No, I got news for you. Jesus was brown, he was Middle Eastern. I guess that's okay to say. He's a Middle Eastern man, He's a Jewish man. And so he's neither of those things that we.
I don't even know. Why is this even a discussion? I have no idea. And God, I've heard people argue, what color is God? Well, God the Father, created all things.
I don't. Jesus says he's spirit. I don't think he picked a color. I think he likes them all. So he's the saving word.
He shows up. And the people, his own people. This is the sad moment of the story. Verse 11. The Jewish people, they did not receive him.
They reject him. But here's the great news. It quickly turns. Verse 12. To those who believe, friends, this could be you today.
For those who believe, he is given the right to be children of God, born not by blood, but by the will of God.
This is why Christianity is incredibly good news to all people. Not just some people, all people. Because it's not about your skin, your race, where you were born, was I poor? Was I rich? None of that matters in Christ Jesus.
It's about where you're born again by the will of God, because of belief in Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord. And that's where it begins. So now we have this Jesus who has shown up and really totally shifted the whole idea of what it means to walk with God. The idea of the very words of children of God. For thousands of years, the Jewish people believed, we are the children of God, the people of God.
And to be fair, they still could be if they placed their faith in Jesus. But that's what's shifted now. The people of God, the children of God, are those in Christ. And that could be and should be you and I. Peter, in fact, begins to preach this gospel. And it gets him in a whole lot of trouble.
All of the disciples, I don't know if you've ever done the research on this. All of the early disciples and apostles, most of those 500, even most of them, are martyred for their faith because they go out and proclaim this good news with great boldness. And the people, at least the Jewish people especially, wanted nothing of it. They did not want to hear it. Even the Romans were very put off by it.
And so most of them lost their lives for their faith. I think that's also good evidence for the resurrection. I've never met anybody that would be willing to die for a lie. But they didn't think it was a lie. They believed it.
And they were willing to take it to the grave. I think that's great evidence for that. Jesus really did come, really did save, really did rise from the grave. I really believe that. So Peter, he comes testifying this.
You can find this in Acts, chapter eight. He goes and he heals this lame man. And then he begins to come into the Sanhedrin and preach. And they're getting pretty mad about it. They come and question him.
In Acts, chapter four. They say, by what power or by what name have you done all this? And Peter does something that I would recommend to you. He begins to quote scripture to them. This is in Acts, chapter 4.
But Peter is here quoting Psalm 118. He says, Let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God now raised from the dead by him. This man stands here before you whole. You want to know how he got healed? The name of Jesus.
This is the stone. This Jesus, he's the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which you must be saved. Now, church, it seems to be that not only Jesus, but his disciples and everyone who followed him in the first century on to now, they're all telling one clear message.
There's one way. One way. And it's frustrating to a lot of modern hearers. Are you sure? I mean, that sounds so exclusive.
That sounds so mean. I think telling people a lie over and over would be mean. Because I could say all my life, you know, there's a lot of ways you're going to be fine. The way you're leading your life and you're following this religion you're following, this God you're following, you're following your own. Hey, you know what?
Just chase your own dreams. And like, for so long, for many years, we've been saying, you know, you just follow your truth. Your truth is your truth. That's illogical. Let me just put that out there.
I mean, maybe I'm being too heady about it. That makes no sense. I can't have a truth and you have a truth, and those be different things. Then none of it's true. No, that's actually, I think, very.
I think that's actually very harmful to people to go on telling them a lie rather than to say, hey, I know this is hard to hear, but I want you to know something. I wholeheartedly believe there's only one way to heaven. There's only one way to know God, to see his face, to live a life even on this side of heaven that has true purpose and meaning. There's only one way, and Jesus says it plainly. John 14:6, I am the way, not a way, the way, the truth and the life.
And if you miss that, he says, and no one comes to the Father, but by me. All that sounds exclusive, I know, but doesn't God have the right to be exclusive when he wrote himself into the story? Doesn't he have that right? Doesn't he have the right for us to come to him and say, you know what? Your way and not my way, and you're the way.
So there's no gray here, Church. I bring all that up to say, you can't be neutral on this issue. This Jesus, he comes into the world that he created and it says, they did not know him. He comes to his own people and they reject him. You don't have the opportunity to say, I like this Jesus, he's pretty cool.
But I don't really want to do all the Jesus stuff. Then you've rejected him. I'm sorry, if you've taken that stance and you've not received him, then you've rejected him because there's no opportunity to sit in the middle. So C.S. lewis, I think, put it better than anybody I've ever heard.
He said, there's really only three ways to look at Jesus. He's either Lord, that's what I believe, King of all, or he's a liar or he's a lunatic. And I think that's about as good as you could put it. Because if he said the things he said and did the things he did, he either thought that he was the Savior and he wasn't, which makes him loony. And there have been a lot of people like that even lately that think they've got it all figured out.
I mean, there's even been people in American history that thought they were the Messiah and they end up being in the loony bin. Not Jesus. Okay, is he a loony or is he a liar? He claimed these things and he knew they weren't true. Why are we still talking about that Jesus then?
Well, that's not the case is why. Because he is Lord. He actually did do the things he actually is. The thing he claims to be. Son of God, Messiah, God, Creator, sustainer of all.
So, church today, I beg you to not try to sit in the middle anymore, because there's no middle. It's interesting that almost every world religion and almost everybody I ever meet, they're okay with Jesus.
I like him. He seems like a nice guy, a healer. Have you read the Gospels? Because it ain't all that. He calls the Pharisees, the legalistic people of his day.
He calls them whitewashed tombs. He says, you guys are like.
You are like the graveyard. Well, that doesn't sound like Jesus. Nice and meek and mild. That's not all he is.
You know where he's meek and mild is with the humble. So when you approach him like that, he's so kind and gentle because you come with a heart that's open. But when you come with a bitter and stubborn heart, he's got a different word for you. But he still loves you. He still has a plan.
I'm inviting you today. Church, don't sit in the middle. Even Christians in the room today. Stop running your life as if he's not Savior. And Lord, why is it you just keep going through day to day as if just Jesus isn't your king?
It doesn't make sense. Here's the fourth. Here's the fourth, because I got a four pointer today. I don't always do that. All right, so I'm having to go.
If you got questions about any of these, I'd love to talk more in the lobby with you, but here's the fourth. Jesus is the supreme. He's revealed as the Supreme Word. He's the final word. When I say supreme, I mean he's the final.
When he gets on the cross and he says, is this finished? That's a final act. It is done. Your salvation is sealed. Sin has been conquered.
Death has been destroyed. This is what Christ has done by the resurrection, by the cross and resurrection. And so he's the supreme word. And one of my favorite verses here, 14, he has come in the flesh. He has dwelt among us.
I talked about this last week. This word dwelt among us literally means in the Greek to fix or pitch one's tent or tabernacle. So when he comes saying this, he's saying, the temple on the hill is not where I'm at anymore. The temple is now here and now church. Those in Christ.
The temple is now here. We have constant. Do you understand? We have constant access to the throne room of God, the holy of holies. We go there with our prayer in Jesus name.
This is new. This is what it means to be in Christ. We should be taking advantage of that. Why do we do that? So little says he dwelt among us, his only son.
I want to explain just a little verse here and then we'll finish the point together. Verse 15 says something strange and I didn't want to overlook it for you. It says that John bore witness. John the Baptist bore witness about him and cried this out. He said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me.
That sounds weird. Alright, what is John all about there? What's he talking about? Well, here's what he's talking about. John the Baptist is Jesus cousin.
He's his older cousin by Elizabeth, and he's a few months older. And if Jesus family is anything like the Combs family, there's a pecking order among the cousins. All right? So when I would go home to be with all my cousins and it was a glorious time, right? We all go home for Thanksgiving or Mother's Day maybe or Christmas time, and we would all pile into my grandma's basement and the pecking order really mattered.
Whoever was the oldest kind of ran the show. That's how we rolled. And so we would get down there in the basement and as long as my brother wasn't in the room, I was in charge. And my brother was often not in the room because he wanted to hang out with the uncles. He was getting too cool for the kids.
And so I'd be down there ringleadering and just, you know, anybody that was bleeding, I probably had something to do with that. I mean, we were getting into stuff and having fun. And so that's how we ran the show. There was a pecking order in my family. John the Baptist shows up saying, hey, look, I know I'm older, but y' all need to hear this.
I'm not compared to him. He ranks way above me. Why? Because he's the eternal God. Yeah, he's born after me, but don't miss this.
John understood this John the Baptist knew. Yeah, we're. He's my cousin, but I'm scared to even use that terminology because he's king of kings. He's Lord of lords. Hebrews says in fact that he's the last word, the supreme revelation.
He has a superior name. Hebrews 1. It says, in the past, God spok to our ancestors through the prophets and at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
The name he has inherited is superior to theirs. He's the final word. He's the name by which everybody is saved, by which every knee will bow. Do you believe that today? I pray you do.
I want to end with this final story. Some of you may remember this. This is a little before my time, but in 1961, there was the Soviet astronaut. And I may butcher this name, but his name was Yuri Gagarin. I think is how you say this name.
If I got any science buffs in the room. I've told people this before. When I would visit family and they had like the big encyclopedia set, I always would pull S. This is back. Some of you don't remember this, but before smartphones, we'd get bored sometimes. And so I'd pull the S because S had the space section.
And I always liked sci fi. I liked space. I liked the shuttles, you see all the Apollo crafts. But this Soviet astronaut, he became the first human to orbit the Earth. And he said something interesting.
He was kind of a famous atheist. He said, I looked and I looked, but I didn't see God. That's what he said as he spun around the Earth. I looked and I looked and I didn't see God. And I really like how C.S.
lewis responded to him. I'm giving you a second C.S. lewis quote today. I would recommend his readings to you. They're great.
But he had a cheeky response, which I really love. He said, you know, looking for God in space would be like Hamlet looking for Shakespeare in the attic of his castle. Shakespeare isn't a character hiding in the attic. He wrote Hamlet. It'd be like somebody in one of Tolkien's writings or you name your favorite book for them to be saying, where is the author?
Now, that makes no sense. No, no, no. You don't go to space looking for God. I Tell you where you go to look for God. You zoom in on Jesus.
He's the author of creation. He's the one who has now come into the story and church. I'm a wholehearted believer that he's coming again. He's come, he's coming again, and he's the hero of the story. And if you get to know him, it's really good to get to know the king.
It's really good to get to know the king. Some of you are trying to live your whole life and you don't know who the king is. You're trying to go through this whole thing and you've got no help because there's only one king and he wants to be known. This is what's unique about him. There are rulers all over Earth right now, and they would like very much to just have more and take more and be selfish.
They have no interest in you. That's not God. God has every right to those things. And in spite of that, he wants a personal relationship with you. It's wild.
Why aren't you accessing that? Why hasn't that become your daily walk? Because you're not going to find God just walking around looking at the stars. You don't need a telescope. You need a word in your hand.
And you need to spend some time in prayer. If you want to know who the author is, look to Jesus. Let me end with these thoughts. I said this in the beginning. I want to close with this.
Let's just let this kind of set for a minute. The Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, it ends in the book of second Chronicles. Not like ours, not like Malachi. It ends in second Chronicles with these words, let him go up. And then our New Testament begins with, hey, here comes Jesus.
God came down. That's how the New Testament begins. On Palm Sunday, some 2,000 years ago, the people were shouting, hosanna, hosanna. They saw something in Jesus. Here comes a guy that might restore.
But what they were expecting is someone who would take over and conquer Rome so that Israel could be a nation again. And that was never his purpose.
For some of you today, I pray you will see Jesus for who he is. Not a king of your desire. He is Savior and Lord. He is king for who he is. And that's better than the idea you had.
The question then is, will you be like them, shouting, hosanna, hosanna. But by the end of the week, shouting, crucify. Because they missed it and you don't have to. Christians, this is for you, too. This Is certainly for those in the room who have not yet come to faith.
This is for you. Hear this. But for believers in the room, does your life look like the king is on the throne every day? Or are you going about your business as if you're in charge? How's that going?
I encourage you, my friend. Cry out, hosanna. Blessed be the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Let's pray now together. Church.
Heavenly Father, we are thankful that you're in the room, that you are the king who has come and that you would come to be with a people like us. I feel very small in that idea. That in little old Rocky Mountain, this little old church here you are. I'm amazed by that. That when I go home tonight and I lay beside my bed and lift up prayers to you, that you are there.
I'm fascinated by that. Who am I that you would care? But you do. God, I pray that you would encourage the church in the room today, the believers in the room today, that their life does not have to look the way it's been looking. They do not have to go about their day without the king.
They don't have to go about their day like these disciples on the road to Emmaus who didn't even notice that Jesus was walking with them. God, let us not be like that. Let us be the kind of disciples, the kind of believers, the kind of church that obviously is walking with Christ. That the city would know it, that our communities would know it, our workplace would know it, that this guy's different. This lady, she's different.
There's hope in her. There's joy. Where do you get your peace? Oh, people will start to notice. I promise you, friend, they will.
God, would you let us walk with you closely. Let us not go another day, let us not step our foot out of bed tomorrow without first inviting you to walk with us. I don't want to think another thought. I don't want to take another step in this life, Lord, without you, I don't. I beg you, Lord, be with me.
Help me to never forget you. That you would be the king on the throne of my life, the center of my heart. I ask you, Lord, for that non believer to come today. If you've shown up today, I don't know what caused you to walk in the room. Maybe it's been a difficult day.
I bet it has. I feel a compassion for you. I want you to know that. But you're here for a reason. This is the clear truth that I pray you'll Hear today and respond to it because it demands a response that Jesus Christ has come, the King of the universe, the Son of God.
He has come. What will you do with it? Because there's only two ways to respond. A gift has been given and there's only one way to God the Father, and it's through Jesus Christ. Will you receive it today?
I beg you, don't wait another day. Don't wait another moment, because it's not promised. Will you respond in prayer with me right now? Lord Jesus, I believe today. I believe that you died on the cross for my sin.
I believe that God raised you from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. That gives me confidence that not only have you conquered sin, but you have conquered death. Lord, I put my faith in that today. And I'm asking you now, Lord Jesus, would you guide my steps now? Help me to walk with you.
Let me not go another moment of my day without you. Dear friend, if you prayed that prayer, Prayer, we're so thankful for you today. We're asking also that you will take the next step by letting somebody know. Let the person who you came with, let Josh out in the lobby know as you leave, hey, you know what? I said yes to Jesus today.
We're going to be praying for you. And we're praying right along with you too. Lord, guide our steps. Help us to be lights in the city that where we go, you will go. And your name would be proclaimed and lifted high.
We pray all these things in Jesus name, Amen.