He Has Made Him Known

[0:00] I've come up with a new TV show. Yeah. It's called Soul Care Pastor. Soul Care Pastor.

[0:13] And what is basically is these episodes of a guy named Pastor John who is treating various kinds of soul sickness. And this show kicks off in Christmastime.

[0:27] And the first episode is, Tis the Season. Pastor John gets a call from a frantic wife. Her name is Lisa.

[0:40] Something's wrong with my husband, Steve. Will you help? Pastor John says, I'll be right there. Because Soul Care pastors make house calls.

[0:54] Pastor John shows up. Knock, knock, knock. Where's Steve? Lisa, he's in his man cave. And so Pastor John starts walking down the stairs to the basement man cave where he'll find Steve.

[1:07] And the first thing he sees is Steve's hands in his easy chair facing a screen. And he knows right away, based upon his right hand, what's going on. He's got remote hand.

[1:20] It's a vice-like grip on a remote control. It comes from excessive binging. Pastor John looks back and he says to Lisa, Lisa, I think we've got a case of indoxia.

[1:35] That's right. What? What's that? Lisa asks. Pastor John says, well, you've heard of insomnia, chronic not sleeping. Indoxia is chronic not glorifying God.

[1:50] Because on a side note, doxa is the Greek word for glory as in doxology. Praise God for a moon. So this guy looks like he's got indoxia.

[2:04] Pastor John, being the seasoned pastor he is, he asks this question. Lisa, who's been buying all the Christmas gifts for your family? Lisa says, well, Steve has been.

[2:14] Can I see his wallet? And as soon as Pastor John touches his wallet, it is ice cold. Because his credit cards, they've got this thing called greedy burn.

[2:29] It's like freezer burn. It desensitizes your spiritual sensitivities. It's a kind of materialism.

[2:41] Run amok. And it results in indoxia. Remote hand. Greedy burn.

[2:53] Pastor John says to Lisa, Lisa, I just need you to watch. I need to watch Steve's eyes as I read this scripture from Isaiah 9, 6 and 7.

[3:05] Pastor John pulls out his Bible and into Steve's ear he says, To us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called.

[3:17] What's he doing, Lisa? He's rolling his eyes. Whatever. Pastor John says, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace.

[3:31] What's he doing, Lisa? He's rolling his eyes. Of the increase of his government and of peace. There will be no end. What's he doing? He's rolling his eyes.

[3:43] Pastor John, what are you going to do? I need 100 cc's of Jesus awesomeness stat.

[3:53] We need an IV drip of John chapter 1, verses 14 through 18. We're going to let some truth about Jesus get into this man's soul.

[4:06] So he goes from endoxia to doxology. To give him praise and glory to Jesus. When you see the glory of the one and only Jesus, the only way to respond is to believe and marvel.

[4:29] When you see the glory of the one and only Jesus, the only response is to believe and to marvel.

[4:40] And so this morning, I want to help you experience John chapter 1, verses 14 through 18 as an IV drip for your soul.

[4:52] To give you life. To make your heart cry out, show me your glory. So children, if you're in the room and you've got one of these bulletins, here's what I want you to do.

[5:06] You go to the back side of your bulletin, and I want you to write five things down on the left margin. I want you to write this. His presence. And then I want you to write this.

[5:19] What is the next one? His glory. And then His person. And then His grace. And the last one is His revelation.

[5:32] We're going to look at five reasons why you must believe in the one and only Jesus so that you can see, believe, and marvel.

[5:46] Because we all have endoxia. In some measure, right? Okay, let's look at the first reason why we must believe in the one and only Jesus Christ.

[6:01] It's in chapter 1, verse 14. We read this. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Billy, a couple weeks ago, helped us understand what that word, Word, meant.

[6:15] God's authoritative announcement. Thus saith the Lord. The Greek word, underword, is the word logos.

[6:29] And in addition to, if you had an Old Testament background and you're reading John chapter 1, you would know right away, okay? This is thus saith the Lord who's going to take on flesh. But if you didn't have an Old Testament background, and let's just say you were a Greek, that word logos would actually mean something.

[6:48] It had a philosophical meaning. And it would put something like this. The logos is what explains all things. It's the explanation for all things.

[6:59] So a Greek would understand, with no Old Testament background, when he would read John writing, in the beginning was the logos, he would understand it or she would understand it as, in the beginning was the explanation for all things.

[7:12] And the explanation for all things was with God. And the explanation for all things was God. He, the explanation for all things, was in the beginning with God.

[7:26] John is making a huge claim. The explanation for all things is a person. So this word became flesh.

[7:38] When you read that word flesh, it's what theologians call the incarnation. Has anybody had carne asada before? Yeah, I see that hand.

[7:52] Carne asada, carne is Spanish for meat. And so it's a very crude way of describing kind of humanity. And that's John's point.

[8:03] John is saying the word in all of his glory became meat, human flesh, in all of our humanity, with the exception of the sinful nature.

[8:16] The word became flesh. And the next word is really important. And dwelt among us. It actually means to pitch a tent.

[8:29] To tabernacle. And if you are familiar with the Old Testament, you'll remember Exodus 25 or 33 where God commands Moses to build him a fancy tent called a tabernacle.

[8:43] And then what Moses would do, he pitched this tent, and then God would come down in a pillar of cloud, and he would dwell with his people.

[8:58] John is intentionally riffing off that when he says the word became flesh and tabernacled among us. Because what he's saying about Jesus is this.

[9:09] He's better than a tent. He's better than God dwelling with us in a tent. He is God dwelling with us in a person.

[9:21] And so what we're seeing here is his presence. Why you should believe Jesus is, unlike anybody else, the one and only, is that he's the greater presence.

[9:33] He dwelled with us in his flesh. And he dwelt, he came in his flesh for a reason. So that we could have a relationship with God.

[9:50] But I want to just make one point before we move on. Did you know that Jesus is still incarnate? Right now? He's still in the flesh.

[10:04] It's not like he decarnated after his death and resurrection when he went up to the Father's right hand. Verse 18. He's in the flesh now.

[10:16] And so when he comes back, he's coming back in the flesh. And we'll see the risen, radiant, and reigning Christ face to face.

[10:27] So the first reason why you must believe in the one and only Jesus is his greater presence. He is the word become flesh.

[10:38] The second reason is his glory. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory.

[10:50] Glory is of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. When John says, we beheld his glory, the we is him and the original disciples.

[11:01] We saw his glory. When he was ministering among us, we saw his glory. You might be wondering, what is glory? Well, glory is the visible or audible display display of God's majesty.

[11:17] It's what theologians called theophany. And so when we read John saying, we behold his glory, we beheld it, John wants that to trigger something in your mind.

[11:33] Exodus chapter 33, verse 18, where Moses says to God, please, please show me your glory. God dwelling in the tabernacle.

[11:47] Moses wants to behold his glory. He's like saying, show me your glory. And God responds, you can't handle my glory. Well, God says, I'm going to cause my goodness to pass before you and I'm going to announce my name before you.

[12:07] But in order to do that, you can't see me, Moses, because if you see me, any man that sees me will die. So you can't see me. But I'll tell you, I'll put you in a cleft of a rock, I'll tuck you in, and then I'll show you my backside glory.

[12:27] Well, you can't see my glory and it's full, otherwise you die. So here we have in John 1, we beheld his glory.

[12:37] We beheld his glory. In that Exodus 33 and 34 passage, it goes on. It goes on to say that God is gracious to whom he will be gracious.

[12:53] And then in verse 6 and 7 is this glorious words where God goes before Moses and he says, the Lord, the Lord, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

[13:15] Notice what John beholds in verse 14. We have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the Father.

[13:26] That word only is a very special word. It means one of a kind, one and only. There's nothing, no one like him. Glory is of the only son from the Father.

[13:39] So, so John is saying, we beheld his glory and it's a unique glory to this one. And then he tells us what this glory is.

[13:53] He says, full of grace and truth. Here's how you need to interpret full of grace and truth. When you hear the word full, you need to think abounding.

[14:06] When you hear the word grace, you need to think steadfast love. When you hear the word truth, you need to think faithfulness. What Jesus, what John is claiming about Jesus is he is the ultimate incarnate theophany of God abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

[14:26] He is the greater glory to be beheld, to be seen, a glory full of grace and truth.

[14:38] You know the difference between Exodus 34 and John 1 is? Exodus 34, God verbally announces who he is, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

[14:50] And you get to see Moses' backside glory. John chapter 1, John says, we beheld all of his glory and he was full of grace and truth.

[15:02] We saw it. We saw it. When we talk about God's steadfast love and faithfulness being full of grace and truth, we're talking about God's loving commitment to faithfully do what's good, what's best to his people.

[15:21] We're talking about God showing his love to you for you experiencing the life that comes from his love. I'm going to stick with this point a little longer so hold on with me.

[15:39] There is an emphasis all throughout the Gospel of John on beholding of seeing Jesus. Last week, Matt helped us understand the seven I am statements of Jesus with that added awesome one of before Abraham was I am.

[15:58] Well, John contains as well, he documents seven signs of Jesus Christ that display his glory so you can see his glory so that you can see his abounding steadfast love and faithfulness.

[16:15] Remember, he turns water into wine in John 2. He heals an official son at the end of chapter 4. He heals an invalid at the pool of Bethesda at the beginning of chapter 5.

[16:26] He feeds a multitude at the end of chapter 6 or early in chapter 6. He walks on water at the middle of chapter 6. He heals a man born blind in chapter 9 so that he can see.

[16:41] And then, remember in chapter 11, he waits to go to see Lazarus so that God would be glorified. And then he raises him from the dead.

[16:53] All for us to see. But the greatest sign of the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, takes place in chapter 19 of John.

[17:07] Where Jesus up on a cross is displaying the abounding steadfast love and faithfulness of God when he says it is finished.

[17:20] The incarnate God dying in the place of sinners like you and me. It was a display of God's full grace and truth so that we could have a relationship with him.

[17:39] Experience life in him. His glory is a greater glory. glory. It's better than some audible announcement because when you open up the pages of the scriptures you can see Jesus with eyes of faith.

[17:56] It's a visible display. Do you remember at the beginning of this point I said John said we beheld his glory? Well, we can be a part of that we.

[18:09] We can behold the glory of Jesus to the one and only Christ. You just got to open up the Bible. You got to open up the gospels.

[18:20] You got to see him and believe in him and maybe as you're hearing this you feel the dripping of Jesus awesomeness in your soul and you're saying oh I want to see that more.

[18:32] I want to see him more. It's not too early to be thinking about reading your Bible going forward in the year 2020. Maybe you need to start in the gospel of John and you start every day by saying oh Lord Jesus show me your glory.

[18:52] That's the second reason why we believe in the one and only Jesus because if you see him, see his glory, the only response is to believe and to marvel.

[19:04] The third reason to believe in this one and only Jesus is his person and that's in verse 15. And you'll notice right away that it's parenthetical.

[19:15] There's parentheses around it. So here is John the apostle who's going to quote John the Baptist. And just as a side note, if you don't know already, John the Baptist was born six to eight months before Jesus.

[19:34] So in verse 15 John writes of John the Baptist, John the Baptist 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.

[19:47] It sounds kind of like a riddle, doesn't it? The reason why John has this here is he's getting us ready for what John the Baptist is about to say in chapter 1 verses 19 through 28, behold the Lamb of God who's come to take away the sins of the world.

[20:05] And then he says, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. What's all that about? Well when he says he who comes after me, John the Baptist is saying about Jesus, well he was born after me.

[20:20] He's got a later birthday than I do. And in that culture what it typically meant is if you were older you had a higher degree of honor and respect than someone who was younger. And then he says, he who comes after me ranks before me.

[20:34] So he totally flips that whole idea. And the idea there is this one who comes after me surpasses me. He's more important than me. And the reason why he's more important than me comes in the next little piece because he was before me.

[20:51] Do you understand what he's saying? This is a claim of deity. This is saying that this word became flesh and who dwelt among us.

[21:02] He is the eternal God. God. It's similar to what we read in John 8 58. Before Abraham was, I am. Jesus is claiming I existed before Abraham.

[21:14] The people who he said that to flipped. They couldn't believe what he was hearing. They picked up stones to throw at him. They were so mad. What this is the claim is his person is a greater person.

[21:27] God. He's the eternal God made flesh. And the way to respond to this is John the Baptist's cue from chapter 3 verse 30 where John says he must increase but I must decrease.

[21:45] In other words, if he's greater than John, he's also greater than you. He surpasses you. He's greater than any of us.

[21:58] He's the word, eternal word become flesh. The second person of the Trinity become human. That's the third reason to believe in the one and only Jesus, that he is one of a kind.

[22:12] It is his greater person. He's eternal. The fourth reason to believe in the one and only Jesus is in verses 16 and 17. It's his grace.

[22:27] Now, I tried to already make a case saying that when John says that Jesus was full of grace and truth, he's riffing off of the Exodus 34 statement of God where God says, I'm abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

[22:44] So grace is John's way of referring to God's steadfast love. His undeserved, unmerited favor to people who don't deserve it.

[22:58] Now, in verse 16, we read this, for from his fullness we've all received. I'm going to come back to that word received in a second, but that word fullness, that abounding, he unpacks.

[23:13] It's grace upon grace. Do you see that in verse 16? This fullness is grace upon grace and when you read that, it sounds like that those who receive Christ's fullness receive measure upon measure of God's grace.

[23:29] It's like strata of grace building up on each other, but it's not quite that. I'm going to make a technical observation. You ready? That word upon in verse 16, grace upon grace, the most frequent and common use of the Greek word of that means grace instead of or in the place of.

[23:58] And so if you were to take it that way, here's how it would read. It would read something like this. For from him, his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace, grace instead of grace, which sounds kind of odd, right?

[24:15] Until you look at verse 17. 17 explains what John is meaning. He says in verse 17, for the law was given through Moses, a kind of grace.

[24:29] Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. There was a lesser grace, God's steadfast love, giving his people the law of Moses, which pointed to God, exposed sin, and anticipated Jesus.

[24:44] And then there was the greater grace that fulfilled it in the person of Jesus Christ, which gets to the how.

[24:56] Jesus taught in Matthew 5 that he came not to abolish the law of Moses, but to fulfill it. All that the law of Moses requires and anticipates is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.

[25:14] He's the greater grace. And so, that's why we can say if we're in Christ, we're no longer under the law.

[25:27] Because Jesus fulfilled it all. In John 3, 16, we read this. For God so loved the world that he gave the law of Moses, that whoever obeys the law of Moses will receive eternal life.

[25:46] Right? Totally wrong. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only greater grace son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

[26:04] Which brings me to that word receive. For of his fullness we have all received. What does that mean? What kind of receiving are we talking about?

[26:17] Well, John already answered that question for us in verse 12. Would you look at verse 12 of chapter 1? John writes, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name.

[26:30] To them he gave the right to become children of God. to receive the fullness of the one and only Jesus is to believe in him.

[26:44] To trust in him. He's the greater grace. He fulfills the law of Moses. And of his fullness we receive by believing.

[26:58] That's the fourth reason why we should believe in the one and only Jesus. He is the source of greater grace.

[27:11] The fifth reason why you must believe in the one and only Jesus is his revelation. In verse 18 we read, no one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

[27:35] We're immediately in verse 18 met with a problem. No one has ever seen God. And you may be thinking, well that's right because you can't see God. And to a certain degree you would be correct.

[27:50] But remember what Exodus 33 20 says. You cannot see my face for man cannot see my face and live. The real problem is we can't see God lest we die because he's holy and we're not.

[28:10] Remember Moses only saw the backside glory of God in Exodus 33 34. The problem is if we see God we die. And the solution is here in verse 18.

[28:25] The only God. God. It's the same only from verse 14. The one and only. The one of a kind God. The incarnate God.

[28:36] Jesus Christ verse 17. He has made him known. It's a fancy word.

[28:49] Biblical scholars throw around the word exegesis. It's a way of studying the Bible. It's the making known of what the Bible says. You do your exegetical work.

[29:01] And that's the word we have here. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side. He has exegeted him.

[29:14] He has made him known. He has put him on full display. time and again in the Gospel of John. Jesus says something. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

[29:27] Because I put him on display. I am the visible theophany of God. It's where John 1 has been moving all along.

[29:39] This prologue lands here. The one and only God. Fully God. Fully man. Jesus Christ. He has revealed the unseen God whom if we saw, we would die.

[29:56] But if we see Jesus with eyes of faith, we don't die, we live. He's one of a kind. He's the one and only.

[30:10] Our seeing God in the face of Jesus Christ, when accompanied by faith, doesn't result in our death, but results in eternal life, experiencing his fullness of grace and truth, his steadfast love and faithfulness towards us.

[30:28] For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes him shall not perish but have eternal life. So what we've learned here from John chapter 1, 1 through 18, is that the logos, who is Jesus Christ, the word became flesh, the one and only, has made known the unseen God.

[30:50] If you see him, you will die. And he's made him known, showing him his glory, an incarnate glory, full of grace and truth, that if we receive, we live.

[31:01] He came to reveal the Father and to reveal salvation in him alone.

[31:15] So why must you believe in the one and only Jesus Christ? Well, his presence is a greater presence. His glory is a greater glory. His person is a greater person.

[31:27] His grace is a greater grace. And his revelation is the greatest revelation, ultimate revelation of God himself. There's no greater.

[31:41] So how do we respond to this? Well, let's say you came into the building this morning and you had a mild or major case of indoxia.

[31:54] Chronic, not glorifying God. Here's how you respond. You don't need a soul care pastor to show up to your house.

[32:07] You need to see Jesus in his glory. You need to see him. You need to open up the pages of the scriptures. And you need to call out to him, show me your glory.

[32:21] God is most pleased to show you his glory. It's like the IV of 100 CC's of Jesus awesomeness starts to drip into your soul.

[32:33] So you need to see him. But not just see him, you need to believe in him. You need to receive his fullness of grace and truth.

[32:48] You must believe. You must say yes. You must take that step. And if you're in the room and you've never put your faith, belief in Jesus before, what a day to do it.

[33:03] Come to Jesus. Say to Jesus, I will receive your full grace and truth. I'll receive it by faith.

[33:15] And you will live. See, believe, and finally, marvel. Marvel at him.

[33:26] He is the one and only God. The one and only from the Father, full of grace, the truth. And when you marvel, it just, it just crowds out any indoxia in your soul.

[33:43] It moves you from chronic not glorifying to God to eager wanting to glorify God. God. And that's not just a good place to be at Christmas time.

[33:57] That's a good place to be for the rest of your life. Jesus never gets old. And if you think he does, it says more about you than him.

[34:10] What this also does, this marveling at him, not only does it compel worship and glorying him in our own heart, it compels us to want others to see, believe, and marvel at Jesus too.

[34:29] It compels us to want to go tell it on the mountain that the word has become flesh. It compels us to tell people, Merry Christmas, happy incarnation.

[34:44] compels us to want to sing joy to the world. The word has come.

[34:59] When we see Jesus for who he is, the only response pleasing to Father is to believe and to marvel.

[35:11] Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for who you are. Spirit of God, we know that your ministry is to glorify the Son, so would you exalt the Son in our lives?

[35:31] Would you help us to not only see Jesus, but to believe in him, and in believing in him, marvel at him?

[35:43] And God, we ask that even two days from now, during this Christmas outreach, that as a result of our limited efforts in pointing others to this one-of-a-kind Jesus, God, would you do a work that only you can do?

[36:04] That others would see him and believe him and marvel at him? God, we're asking that you would add to our number over the next year, and at this time next year, God, we would be singing with more people who marvel at the Son.

[36:23] We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[36:35] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.