The word became flesh

[0:00] Amen. Turn with me, please, to John chapter 1. John chapter 1. Thank you to the musicians, to take you folk, to Gerald for leading our worship. We've chosen some great songs this morning. Hopefully your heart became strangely warmed as you were singing them, affirming you in your faith once again. Next week I'm on holiday. Lucille and I head off to, as she was staying stored on the way for a few days. No idea what that's going to be like. So we're looking forward to that. That'll be good. Immediately after the service, I need to see someday. I'm chatting to somebody. But if you want to see me before that, grab me. Please grab me right after the service and we can chat if you need to grab me for something. That would be great. I know I'm out this evening as well, so you can see me this evening. We are beginning to look at the text now of the Gospel of John. We started looking at the background to this, looking at what the book of John or the Gospel of John is all about. And we are looking at a massive passage this morning. And we're going to have to go through this quickly. John chapter 1, reading from verse 1.

[1:09] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made. Without Him nothing was made that has been made.

[1:23] In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. That's John the Baptist. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through Him all might believe. He himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.

[2:07] Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, nor of husband's will, but born of God. The Word became flesh, and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

[2:38] John testified concerning Him. He cried out, saying, This is the one I spoke about when I said, He who comes after me has surpassed me, because he was before me. Out of His fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God, and is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known. We'll end our reading at the end of verse 18. How do you preach on these 18 verses in about 30 minutes? It's a monster of a passage, passage, but we'll try and make some sense of this this morning. Let's just ask for the Lord's help.

[3:32] Our loving Father, we thank You for Your Word, Lord, and we thank You for the various genres in Your Word, whether it's poetry or narrative or historical facts or theology. Lord, we come to such a large portion of Scripture that was written by the Apostle John under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We are in holy ground this morning. Help us, Father, as Your people to make sense of this. And if there be any here who do not know Jesus as their own Lord and Savior, I pray, Lord, that something of Your Son would be impressed upon them this morning. So, Father, be with myself as the preacher. Who is sufficient, Lord, to preach on these words? Who can plumb the depths of what is said here? But help us, Father, to make some sort of sense of these, that we might be blessed and that we might praise You and glorify You. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I wonder if you recognize this image. This is something you often see in cinemas. I don't often go to the cinema. I must confess, I never enjoy the trailers at the start. I just think, wow, I never came for this. I came for this film. And you have to endure a lot of these. If you're like my wife and I and you're trying to find a movie, we can spend an hour and a half on Netflix just trying to see something. That looks good. Oh, there's a wee trailer. Well, watch the trailer. I'm not watching that. And so it goes on. And we end up after about an hour saying, let's just play Pandemic or some other game. Just do anything but watch mediocre rubbish in movies. You struggle to find a good movie. It's not the easiest thing done.

[5:17] Today, what we're doing this morning as we look at this passage, we're looking at a trailer, you could say. Trailers are designed that you've come to watch a movie, but the film producers will say, this is a movie you might be interested in. They pick the best bits and they show you in quite an interesting way. They show you wee snippets. This is what's happening. Oh, and you'll see this and you'll see that. And at the end of it, you're supposed to go, I wouldn't mind seeing that. I'm going to watch that. That sounds very exciting. John in his gospel is basically in the prologue, first 18 verses.

[5:53] It's like a trailer of what's to come. You're not getting everything, but you're getting wee snippets about what will be unpacked in the rest of the gospel. And if you pick this up for the first time, you may not understand fully, but you do know that in these first 18 verses, you're encountering somebody who is very different. And that's what certainly struck me as I, before I became a Christian, reading the gospel of John, didn't understand, especially these opening verses.

[6:24] But I was aware you were not speaking about Napoleon or someday earthly. The material here is presented in such a way you're left going, wow. If that's who Jesus is, if that's what the rest of the gospel is going to unpack, I'm going to read this gospel. And that's what we're doing. You remember last week, we looked at the gospel of John, an overview in a sense, not how it's divided, but we looked at John's purpose in writing this, and it's mentioned right at the very end. You remember 92% of John's gospel is unique to him. He's not one of the synoptic gospels, the seen together gospels. They overlap a lot. John's gospel is very unique to him, and it deals with mostly just the last few weeks of Jesus' life. But you remember the purpose. Jesus performed many other signs, John 20 verse 30, and the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book, but these are written. He says, I've included these things, that you may believe that Jesus is the

[7:32] Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing in him as the Messiah or Christ, the Son of God, you might have life in his name. That is what John is doing for us here. He wants us to look at Jesus, to consider him, that he is the Christ. He is the anointed of God. He is the Son of God.

[7:53] He is not just another historical figure. And he writes to produce a response all the way through John's gospel. We'll be seeking for a response. When you encounter Jesus, how do you deal with him?

[8:07] And his response that he wants and that the Holy Spirit wants is that we might believe in him. Now, you might think, well, I'm a Christian. This is for non-Christians. You couldn't be further from the truth, to encounter Jesus, to believe in him more, to love him more, to trust him more.

[8:23] And that's basically what we're doing. So, we've called the series that you may believe. Now, imagine you didn't read the end of the book, and you didn't know the purpose, and you start from John chapter 1, verse 1. And it really begins with a bang, doesn't it? In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The early church, after the apostles had died, and we all had that was their writings, they had to try and make sense of who Jesus was.

[8:57] And John's gospel was very important for understanding who Jesus is, the person of Jesus. And that is what you have here. And these 18 verses, packed full of theology, and we can hardly do justice to them. And all I can do is basically what John is doing here, he gives you them in almost every verse, half a verse, you need to stop and suck the, what is John saying here?

[9:24] We don't have time to do this. This is just a trailer. There'll be wee bits, but enough for you to go. That's, that's whetted my appetite. I look forward to that being unpacked later on in the gospel of John. I want to read the gospel of John. I want to know the gospel of John better. So let's look at three things very quickly this morning. In this form of a trailer, things will come at you, and just embrace them. May they warm your heart and think, yeah, that is my Savior. That is the one that I am following. So first of all, John makes some very clear statements in these 18 verses.

[10:00] First of all, who Jesus is. He presents to us a clear statements about Jesus and who he is. First of all then, I don't have these sub points down, so you'll have to look at them. So first of all, who Jesus is, first sub point, he is the eternal God. He is the eternal God. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. I remember as a young non-Christian reading this and thinking, well, I don't understand what that is. And I just moved on to verse 2 and 3 and 4, and I went, well, don't get that. I'll see maybe if the rest of the book becomes clear. It's a strange way to begin to, to our ears. If you said to someday was the word, they would look at you and think, what are you, what are you talking about? I don't get that. I don't get what that means. It's a strange way, but it's John is writing to Jews, and he wants to assume that they have a working knowledge of the Old Testament. To the first verse in the first book, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The wee phrase unto them, you, the Edith mentions in the beginning, they go, they don't go to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born in that sense, beginning the creation of the world. And John wants to establish that Jesus existed before the foundation of the world, in the beginning, when God was creating the world. It's very different from

[11:35] Matthew. And Luke, Matthew has Jesus descending from Abraham. He is a Jew, a descendant of Abraham. He takes him back there. If you share that with somebody in the estate here, they'd think, that's not really, Abraham, don't really know who he is, not really bothered. Luke, you think, well, Luke, maybe you're interested in Luke. Luke will take him back to Adam. He's a son of Adam. He is, he is right away back to the beginning when we were created and so forth. But John doesn't begin his gospel by saying, there was a wee town called Bethlehem, and in this town there was a manger, and Jesus was born as radical. And we'll look at that Christmas again. He, his begins with a bang. He takes, who is this Jesus? Does he take us back to Palestine or whatever? Does he take us back to Israel? He takes us right back to the beginning of the, this is the one you're considering, the eternal God. He was with God, not at Bethlehem, in the beginning. And Jesus will mention this himself in John 17, and now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. No one here can say that. We glory at any time, but glory before the world began. And John the Baptist, and we'll look at this in a few weeks' time, and we'll look at John the Baptist's ministry next week or two weeks' time. He mentions in verse 15 of this passage, he who comes after me has surpassed me. Why? Because he was before me. Now, John the Baptist was born before Jesus, you remember. Elizabeth was pregnant before Mary. So, in that sense, he wasn't before him. But John recognizes he's before him. He's superior in every way. He comes to reveal God.

[13:35] And only God can really reveal God. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. And then you have it. The Word was God. Verse 18, no one has ever seen God, but God, the one and only who is at the Father's side, speaking of Jesus, has made him known. The one who is at the Father's side in the beginning of the world is God, God the Son. And as I say, this is a big topic. He's not just a historical figure. He's the second person of the Godhead. He is God the Son, equal with the Father. One God in three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Not three gods, one God in three persons. And this whole relationship, Father-Son, is really there to express the closeness of the Father and the Son.

[14:30] And Jesus will say in John 10, in John's Gospel, as I say, we'll unpack all these later. Jesus makes it very plain. I and the Father are one. The Jews would have known exactly what he's saying by that statement. He and the Father are one. The Father is God. He is God. And there is no difference in the essence between the Father and the Son. Colossians 1.15, the Son is the exact image or representation of the invisible God. That's why Jesus says, how can you say, show us the Father and I have been in your presence. To see the Son is to see the Father. And you could take up the whole sermon and a month of sermons just in this one verse. But that is basically what is happening here. He is the eternal God. But secondly, under this heading, who is Jesus, he's not only the eternal God, he is the creator God. And the word, which means logos in Greek, was very widely used in Jesus' day. We never use the word logos nowadays. Nobody would know in Weston Hills hardly what the word logos means. But in Jesus' day, it would have been very widely known. To a Jew, the term the word relates to the creation of the universe. The word that created, God said, let there be light. And there was light. The word is the irrational principle that created, shaped, and ordered everything in the universe. In other words, logos with a capital L is God. There is no other word, the other logos, a very familiar word to them.

[16:15] There is only one, and that word is God. But John says, Jesus is the logos. Jesus is the word who was not only with God in the beginning, but created things in the beginning. And so, he is the word who created.

[16:34] In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God said, let there be light, and there was light. Jesus was not just there, he created. Verse 3 of the passage we read, through him, still speaking of Jesus, the word, the word, the eternal God, the logos. Through him, all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. Didn't create some things, he created all things. Colossians 1.16 says, by him, all things were created, things in heaven, on earth, visible, invisible, thrones, powers, rulers, authorities. All things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him, all things hold together. He created, he sustains, he keeps all things. And it's quite something. He created all things. But John, even in this passage, here's another part of the trailer, you're just getting these thrown at you. He's the eternal God. He's the creator God, but he becomes man. Our creator God becomes man. That's the next thing he tells us here. He becomes man. The word

[17:48] God becomes flesh. He who created all things, who was with God in the beginning, who existed before this wee planet existed, comes to this planet. It really is, if this was a science fiction thing, you'd go, wow, that sounds great. I'm really into that. This powerful being comes to this earth. How does he come? He comes in weakness. He became flesh. He didn't become power. He didn't become this great radioactive thing that comes and just dissolves everything, that when people see him, they fall at his feet as though dead. Christmas, he comes. He's born in Bethlehem. He grows up in Nazareth. Can anything good come from Nazareth? He's born into a feeding trough. You couldn't make this up. He comes in meekness, and the word becomes flesh and makes his dwelling among us. He becomes human in that sense.

[18:44] He becomes that which he wasn't before. He takes on human frailties. I like the way it says he became flesh. It doesn't just say he became a man. He became flesh, and what that means is he took on everything that relates to being a human. Weakness, tears, weariness. He became flesh. You and I are flesh, and all that's involved in that, and he becomes flesh permanently. Bruce Millen says this, the act of self-humbling on the part of God is irreversible. He is the eternal Emmanuel, God with us.

[19:25] God the Son, without ceasing for a moment to be divine, has united himself to a full human nature and become an authentic human person. God with us. He becomes man, ever to be the God-man. The verb became, he became flesh, basically expresses his properties change in that way without being God, a new condition, something he was not before. And the tense of this is permanent. He is, it's definite, it's a complete action, no going back on the incarnation. It wasn't a drama that he puts on like an actor, putting on a cloak, goes to heaven, takes it off, and back to what he was before. He's different in that sense. He is the God-man. C.S. Lewis calls the incarnation the grand miracle. As it says, if you'd never read this before, and you've seen movies about powers coming to this earth, planetary things or whatever, this is a bit like that in the sense that here is our creator God now coming to dwell with us. We take this for granted that God walked on this wee planet, left his footprints in the soil, our creator God who was with God in the beginning.

[20:51] This should shame us if we're not amazed at this. Dorothy Sayers, I think I've quoted her before, humanist says, from the beginning of time until now. It's the only thing that's ever really happened.

[21:04] In other words, compared to everything else, nothing's happened. But the greatest happening is that God comes to earth. You, as I says, if you watched a trailer for a movie with a superior being coming, it would light my switches, it would float my boat. I'd go, that sounds great, I'm going to watch that.

[21:21] What happens when he comes? What's this film all about? Sounds powerful. It's not a love story. It's not, I can cope with that. Yeah, it's quite made of a car chase, but yeah, we can deal with that.

[21:32] God the creator comes to this earth. God in Christ unites himself to his creation permanently. He tabernacles among us. The tabernacle was such an important thing in Israel's day, where the tent went, God's presence went. We are going up to Stornoway, and I can't believe the amount of stuff you have to take up there. But the most important thing is the tent. When are we stopping Stornoway? We are sleeping bags sleeping under the stars. You hardly want that in the Seychelles. You certainly don't want it in one of the islands in the northwest of Scotland. The tent is important. You want the tent. Jesus, tabernacle, God, tabernacle. He's not in a human tent as he did in the Old Testament. He comes personally, and he comes in glory. He comes in glory. The Word became flesh, made his dwelling dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only. We will see his glory as we go through the gospel, and his teaching, and his miracles. This is not just a good teacher who challenges folk. He does things, walks on water, raises the dead, that you go, wow, this isn't

[22:54] David Beckham. This isn't Taylor Swift. This is an encounter with the living God. And therefore, John tells us he is the eternal God, the creator God. He becomes man, and he comes in glory, and we will consider his glory. But secondly, John tells us what Jesus came to do. He tells us in the passage, he comes to bring life. You remember last time I said the topic of life is very important for John, not so important for Matthew. The kingdom of God has come. But for John, the whole point of Jesus coming was to bring life. And verse 4, in him was life. It is very important. John 20, you remember, he's the Christ, the Son of God, that by believing in him, what? That you might be clever, you might be smart, you might have peace. No, you might have life, eternal life. He comes to bring life. It's why he comes. And it's the most amazing thing. He comes to this planet to bring life to this planet. John 11,

[24:05] I am the resurrection and the life. Who spoke like that? No man spoke in this way. I am the way, the truth, the truth, and the life. In him is life. Life is in him. If you want eternal life, it's found not in a doctrine, it's found in a person. It's found in Jesus. Life, abundant life here, eternal life, and the life to come is found in Jesus. But he comes not only to bring life, but to bring light.

[24:39] Verse 4 and 5, that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. For John, life and life are very close together. Seven times in this passage, the word light is mentioned. It's very important. Light, light, light, all the way through.

[25:00] He comes to dispel darkness and ignorance and folly. He comes to dispel the darkness of sin. He comes as a bright, shining one to come into the world. Verse 9, the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. This burning one. I'll tell you, if a seraphim or a cherubim, one, just one of them flew through this room, boy, would be on one knees shaking, thinking, wow, what was that one created being? But he who is God comes as light and life. Thirdly, as I say, you're just getting these thrown out at you. Grab some of these. He comes with truth and grace. He comes in glory.

[25:47] That's his glory. He comes in truth and grace. John tells us twice in this passage, verse 14, we have seen his glory, the glory of the only one who came from the Father. How is this glory seen?

[25:58] It's full of grace and full of truth. Verse 17, the law comes through Moses, but grace and truth come through Jesus Christ. Two words stand out, glory and grace in these. Now, they're quite different from each other. If he only came in glory, you can imagine if you were writing this as a novel, I want the creator to come to a planet, and I want him to come in glory. He would come with lightning bolts coming out of him. He would come very different from anybody else. You'd go, wow, you'd create him six feet tall, whatever, all these big biceps coming in glory. But coming in grace is quite different. The two words are quite different. Grace very much speaks of love and compassion and meekness. We find it hard to marry those two. Hollywood can't marry those two. You're either Bruce Willis or your mother Teresa.

[26:53] You're nowhere in between. They just have Stephen Seagal or whatever. He must have made about a million films, and every one's exactly the same. You just come big biceps. You come and beat folk up, and that's the movie. That's Hollywood. That's all they can dream up. Coming in with greater power, we are the US of A. We'll have Captain America sorting everything out. That's all they can. They can only think power. They can only think glory. But to come with grace and truth, to come with glory in that way is quite something. They are so important. John doesn't have the transfiguration. You'd think he would have. If there's one thing that happened to Jesus, you would include it. He doesn't, because John, in many ways, isn't interested in the razumataz, although he presents a very powerful Jesus, he's interested in the grace of God that comes to us. And you remember Moses says to God, show me your glory. What did the Lord do? Did he put on a big lightning display like the opening of the

[28:01] Paralympics? God says, I will cause my goodness to pass in front of you. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and compassion on whom I will have compassion. And then we're told the Lord comes down in the clouds, stood there proclaiming his name. He passed in front of Moses. And what does he say? What does the glory of God look like to Moses? He doesn't come, I'm God. I was with God in the beginning. Hollywood would do that. Bring it on. I can sort you all out. He says this, the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate, the gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. That is the most, even as I'm reading it, I feel a shiver going down my spine. That is the God the world needs.

[28:54] If God came only in glory, no one would survive. No one would deserve to survive. We should all be under the wrath of God. But he comes with love. He comes with grace. Moses came with the law. The law condemns us. If Jesus came only with the law, we would be condemned. But he has to come with grace. And he has to come with truth. We will hear of his teaching. He will reveal the Father. He says, I'm only coming to tell you what the Father has told me to say. This is important. This is who he is and this is who you are.

[29:30] You need to respond to me. You need to realize who you are and who he is and his holiness. He comes to bring grace. So who is he? He's the eternal God, the creator God, the God become man. He comes in glory.

[29:46] What does this glory look like? He comes to bring life and light to dispel darkness. He comes to bring grace to a world that doesn't deserve grace. He comes in truth. We can trust his teaching. Imagine you had read this. Or you had never read the gospel of John. Or you just read this from, you came from the planet, whatever, and you read this. And you heard that our creator came. And this is how he comes, with love and grace and grace and mercy and compassion. What would be the next question you would ask? The next question you would ask is, what happened next? When Jesus came, what happened when the creator God came to your planet? Please tell me. It's like the wee trailer. Wow, this is amazing. This person came. He is God.

[30:34] He comes with love and grace. How was he received? John tells us how Jesus. Thirdly, Jesus was received. And with us, I'm finished. John the Baptist is sent to prepare the way for Jesus. After 400 years where God did not speak, no prophets were sent to the Old and New Testament. Imagine that, 400 years, the silent years. He doesn't speak. And then John the Baptist, this Elijah-like figure, we'll look at him in a few weeks' time. He comes to prepare the way. How does he prepare the way? He comes to bear witness concerning the light, the light that's come into the world. And you know his ministry. It was a baptism of repentance. To prepare the way for Jesus, people are sinners. They need to hear that he who comes is holy, and that people need to repent. And that's what Mark begins his gospel. Look at his words.

[31:33] At the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way. Make straight paths for the Lord. So, John came, John the Baptist, and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

[31:50] His gospel, Mark's gospel, when this Messiah comes, the Son of God comes, full of grace, full of truth, people need to repent. Jesus, right at the very beginning, you realize something why he came. He came, but he came to deal with our sin. He came to deal with that which separates us between God and man.

[32:17] Matthew records Jesus' first sermon. From that time on, Jesus began to preach. So, here is the Son of God come down. What is he going to be? His first sermon. Is it going to be, don't worry, folks, I'm here.

[32:30] Let's bring it in. Let's have a hug fest. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. That is what this small planet needs to hear today. They need to repent, because our Creator, our God, we have wandered from him. We have doubted him. We're not interested in him. We need to repent. We need to become aware, first of our sin. Peter, when he explained the sermon in Acts 2, this, now that he's emboldened to preach, he explains who Jesus was. You crucified God, raised him from the dead. They say, what must we do?

[33:06] These people on the planet at that time, what must we do with this Son of God that we have crucified? Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins.

[33:20] Jesus, there's not a person here this morning, needs to know that we need to have our sins forgiven. You have to deal with a living God. He came with grace and truth. He comes to you this morning with grace and with truth, with love and compassion. What will you do with this Jesus?

[33:40] And that is what John wants. He wants people to have eternal life, but eternal life is in Jesus. They need to consider him. You need to believe in him. You need to trust in him. John preached for a response. Come, be baptized for the repentance of sins. Come, believe in the Messiah who is to come.

[34:01] John is preaching the same message. Come in repentance. Come in faith. Come and trust in him. Now, how did the people respond? Well, you know how the people responded, but imagine you didn't, and you read this, and you knew nothing of the Bible, and you're reading this as a religious book, and you're thinking, wow, that sounds really powerful. So, what happened when he came? John tells us the way was rejected. The word was rejected. If the incarnation is staggering, the reaction of those whom God created is equally staggering. Verse 11, he came to that which was his own, but his own, but his own did not receive him, his own people. Jesus came to his people full of grace and truth, and they rejected him. In Matthew 23, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you kill the prophets, stone those who are sent to you. How often I long to gather your children together as a hen gathers its chicks under his wings, but you were not willing. As he approached Jerusalem, Luke 19, and saw the city, he wept over it. If you, even you, had only known this day, what would bring you peace? But now it's hidden from your eyes. Paul speaks of Gentiles. Our minds, our understanding is darkened, separated from the life of God because of our ignorance due to the hardness of our hearts. If many people do not see the Lord in a measure, a human level, it's because they do not want to consider Jesus. They don't want to see him. There's a, I've mentioned this poem before called Indifference by Studdart Kennedy.

[35:44] I'm going to change the word Birmingham to Edinburgh because it's equal. It says, when Jesus came to Edinburgh, they simply passed him by. They never hurt a hair of him. They only let him die. For men had grown more tender. They would not give him pain. They only just passed down the street and left him in the rain. And that is how people view. They don't hate Jesus. They're just indifferent to him.

[36:13] They really don't care. If he was standing in Prince's Street preaching, they would walk past. They're really not interested. They might not crucify him afresh, but they are not interested.

[36:23] They rejected him. But if verse 11 ended this passage, it would be the most heartbreaking thing. As a movie, I wouldn't watch it. I'd find it too depressing. I think he came, the creator came, and he was rejected. That sounds too depressing. I think I'll watch that. I'll watch Groundhog Day or something. I'll watch something else. I can't read that. That's heartbreaking.

[36:45] But it's not how it finishes. He tells us, but yet to all who did receive him, there were people who did receive him. They became the right to become children of God. How did people basically accept him? We've dealt with this before the new birth. It wasn't because they made a decision. He makes us very clear. It is such a key verse, verse 13. We become children of God. Everybody who accepts Jesus becomes a child of God. Children born of natural descent, it's not because you're Scottish or because you went to Israel or something at one time, not because of natural descent, not because of a human decision. Some Christians think, well, I made the decision. It's not. It's because you were born of God.

[37:34] He made you alive. Later on in John 3, Jesus will flesh this out. He'll say to Nicodemus, you need to be born again. How can I be born again? It just blows his switches. How does this happen?

[37:48] He will tell them, you need to be born from above. And that is, it is those who receive him. It is those who are born from above. So, I'm finished. Time has gone on. What do you think of that trailer? Is that, is he somebody you want to find out a bit more about in the Gospel of John? The one who comes, who came over 2,000 years ago, is the eternal God. He is also the creator God, your creator and mine.

[38:14] He became a man. He lived among us. We want to hear what he said, what he did. He comes in glory, see his miracles. He is the light of the world. In him is life. He comes full of grace. He comes full of truth. Many people are rejecting him. They're indifferent to him. But as God has worked in our heart, we love him. We know him. We want to receive him more and more as the weeks and months that go on as we look at this passage together. Let me close in the last verse, because this really is one of the best verses in that passage. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God, and is in the closest relationship to the Father, has made him known. Who would not want to know more about him? Let's stand and we'll sing. You are the Word of God, the Father. Speak to our great God and our great Father as we close our service in prayer. Our loving Father, Lord, who can plumb the depths,

[39:16] Lord, of who you are and your great creative power. We thank you for your Son, who was with you in the beginning, who created all things. We thank you that he came. He tabernacled among us. He came full of grace and truth. He didn't come with law, Lord. We could not survive. But we thank you for your grace.

[39:35] We thank you for the truth. We thank you that he is life and that he is light. We pray, Father, as your people, that we might not become familiar with these things, and dare we say it, even bored with these things, but we might thrill at Jesus, that we might love him more, understand him more, as we begin our studies in this great gospel. So, Father, lead us and guide us. Be with us this week. Be to us all that we need. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, folks.