Well, great to see you this morning, folks. My name is Graeme. I've got the joy of being the pastor here at the church.
Let me encourage you to have John chapter 1 open in front of you.
And we're just going to pause as we begin this afternoon and we're going to pray.
So let's close our eyes, let's just still our hearts as we come to God's words today.
The words of Psalm 18.
This God, His way is perfect. The word of the Lord proves true.
He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.
So, Father, we pray that you would help turn our eyes to that which is true today.
By turning our eyes to your Son, Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Well, with John chapter 1 open in front of you, let me just tell you what we're going to be doing as we build up to Easter,
which is just around the corner. We're starting a new series today that we've called Ichthus,
which I'm sure the Greek boffins out there will know is the Greek word for fish.
So what the earliest Christians used to do to let each other know that they follow Jesus
is that they drew a fish symbol in the ground.
Because Ichthus is a Greek acronym for the phrase,
Jesus Christ, God, Son, Savior.
So this was their common confession about all those who followed the Lord Jesus.
And it's why, besides the cross, the fish has become the recognized symbol for Christianity down the ages.
As many others, countless others, make this their confession too about the Lord Jesus.
And so what we're going to be doing on the Sunday mornings as we work our way up to Easter
is we're going to be thinking and working through some of the key moments in Jesus' life.
These moments that take us to the heart of who he is and what he came to do.
Because I recognize there's many of us here today who are investigating the Christian faith,
which is a wonderful thing. You are so welcome here.
Let me just encourage you that there is no greater place to start thinking through those claims of Christianity
than by looking at the life of Jesus Christ as we find him in the Gospels.
And for those of us here who are following Jesus, maybe we've done so for a week,
maybe we've done so for many years.
It's my prayer that we would increase both in our knowledge of him
and that we would increase by God's grace through his spirit in our affections for him
as we together we savor the saviour.
And so let me just get, crack on, get us to the first one of these.
Let me just tell you about an experience I had recently on the city bypass.
So I'm in the car and I'm heading out of town.
Now you get the whole idea of a bypass, right?
That you try and bypass the traffic.
Well, this particular day I was driving out of town and I'm hitting the bypass
and I recognise that the cars are crawling along.
Now normally when you see that you recognise that it's because
either some of these cars broken down up ahead, maybe their battery's gone flat
or it's because people are trying to join at different junctions
and it slowed the thing right down.
But not in this particular day.
So the bypass was crawling along
and do you know what was making it crawling along?
It was the sun.
It was so unbelievably bright
that drivers couldn't see where they were going.
The sun was forcing them to slow right down
and the speed of the bypass dropped to about five miles an hour.
It was an incredible thing to see and think about.
I wonder if you've ever had an experience like that.
I guess that's kind of why they invented sunglasses, isn't it?
I was thinking of it this week.
Google's a wonderful thing.
And I didn't know this until this week
that apparently the sun is 93 million miles away from the earth.
Did you know that?
Learned something today, right?
Great fact.
93 million miles away from the earth.
And it got me thinking,
I wonder how,
if that, from our point of view,
is how we react to something that is 93 million miles away,
how bright must the sun be?
And then I got thinking,
I love to think on these things.
I wonder how close one could get to the sun
before you just shriveled up and died.
What could we take in?
How close could we get
before simply our bodies just gave up the ghost?
Here's the thing about this passage today.
If that's the case with the sun,
then how much greater the case
if we were to ever encounter the one who made the sun?
Now here's the confession
that you know if you are an Old Testament Jew.
Really simple.
It goes like this.
You cannot look on God and live.
You cannot take him in.
If you were to take it in,
you wouldn't be here to tell the story.
You cannot look on the God of the universe's glory,
his greatness, his goodness,
his otherness,
his majesty,
his holiness,
his splendor.
This is who the God of eternity is.
And you know as an Old Testament Jew
that you cannot look on God and live.
And you find this repeatedly in the Old Testament
when people encounter the living God.
The prophet Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 6,
he fears for his life
when he finds himself in God's presence.
Because he realizes he's not aware of his smallness,
he's more aware of his sinfulness.
That who is he,
an unclean human being,
a sinful human being,
to come into the presence of the three times holy God.
He falls down and he declares,
woe is me,
I am done.
We see it again similarly.
Ezekiel,
he finds himself in the presence of God,
a prophet,
falls on his face.
And you get this constant refrain in the Old Testament.
You'll see it on the screen.
Who is able to stand before the Lord?
This holy God.
Which is a cracking question, isn't it?
Who can stand before him?
And so with that backdrop,
you can appreciate the sheer audacity of the claim
that John makes in the prologue of his gospel.
If you've got it there,
John chapter 1.
Who can see the glory of God
and live to tell the tale?
John puts his hand in the air
and he declares,
I can.
I can tell you.
What does he say at verse 14?
See these words.
We have seen his glory.
Now either your boy is wearing some spectacular sunglasses
that offer him some unparalleled UV protection.
He needs to get a patent on that quick.
Which given we're talking in the first century,
we're calling that unlikely, okay?
Or something's happened.
And what's happened,
verse 14,
and this is where we hit the jaw-dropping claim
that's right at the heart of the Christian faith,
that the words became flesh.
The words,
the one,
if you want to scan your eyes back
to the beginning of John's gospel,
when your boy doesn't go for any small talk,
does he?
He just goes straight for the jugular.
What does he say?
The words who John has introduced us to at verse 1.
The word who is eternal.
This is what we're learning about the word.
The word who,
through whom all things were made.
The word,
the one who sustains the stars and planets.
The word,
the one who gives life to every human being
who holds our lives in his hand.
Let me just take this opportunity to say,
in our world at the minute,
let's not lose sight of the fact
that our God is sovereign,
that it's him that holds our lives in his hands.
So we act with wisdom.
We wash our hands.
We want to love the people around about us
by doing that and by visiting
and by going to see them
and helping them in any way that we can,
kind of loving our neighbor.
But let's not lose sight of the fact
that our lives and our times
are held in the hand of our good father.
So back on track.
The word is Jesus.
This is what he's saying.
The word is Jesus.
It was him who became flesh.
Jesus Christ,
get your heads around this,
took a human body.
And whilst not relinquishing
one ounce of his deity
as God in the beginning,
he stepped into our humanity.
He entered our existence.
He inhabited our skin.
He stepped into our situation
in all its frailty,
in all its brokenness,
and all its vulnerability.
Jesus Christ,
the theme of heaven's praises,
the one on whom angels long to look,
God became flesh.
in what is known as the incarnation
in Christian circles.
And the old hymn we used to sing,
thou who was rich beyond all splendor,
all for love's sake became us poor.
Thrones for a manger did surrender.
Sapphire paved courts for a stable floor.
Thou who was rich beyond all splendor,
all for love's sake became poor.
There's a reason that this doctrine,
this truth,
has been and will be celebrated
by Christians down the ages.
And we saw him, says John.
Worth maybe dipping into this guy, John.
He's a fisherman
who Jesus called to come
and be one of his 12 disciples.
John finds himself,
not just one of the 12,
but part of the inner three,
along with James' brother and Peter,
meaning that he gets to watch,
he got to watch Jesus up close
and personal in action, right?
Brought into things,
seen things,
the teachings,
the interactions,
the miracles,
the people whose lives
Jesus transformed,
who he called to sin no more
after they'd encountered him.
He heard Jesus explain his mission.
And here's something cool
I was thinking about this week.
At the end of John's gospel,
what does he tell us?
He tells us that Jesus
is hanging suspended on the cross,
bearing the sin of all those
who would look to him in faith.
Jesus points to his mother Mary,
or rather, sorry,
looks at his mother Mary,
speaks in her direction,
who's standing next to John,
and says to John,
John, you take care of her
as your own mum.
And church tradition,
if you look it up,
tells us that John cared for Mary
for something like 11 years or so
before she died.
Now, here's the point.
These two are living together.
Right?
Probably having an educated guess
that they're not making small talk
with one another.
Right?
Another tea vicar?
No, they're not doing that.
What do you think they're talking about?
Do you not think they're spending
every waking moment
talking about Jesus?
Remember when he said that?
Oh, how cool was that?
How brilliant was that?
Do you remember when he did that?
I could not believe it.
Do you remember how the crowd reacted?
Do you remember how they marveled
at his teaching?
Like they'd seen nothing
like this before.
And so John,
having lived this kind of life
and having thrown himself
into chewing it all over,
has written this gospel
so that you and I,
down the generations,
would find ourselves here
able to read about
the life of Jesus.
And as you read his gospel,
the thing is that you get a sense
that this guy's never stopped
being thrilled
with the risen Jesus.
maybe a challenge for some of us today.
Have we grown cold
in our affections for him?
You've been a Christian for years.
Today, are you still thrilled
with the person
and the work of Jesus?
You know,
I think about the Christians,
particularly I'm thinking about uni,
the lecturers who have had
the greatest impact on me
as I've journeyed through.
And it's those who I can tell
have just never stopped
thinking about Jesus.
And they are 80,
pushing 90,
they're still learning things,
they're still marveling at this.
I've got a guy,
a lecturer,
who weeps his way
through Hebrew poetry.
He just finds it that beautiful
that he encounters
the God of the Word
and this is him.
John has never stopped
being thrilled
with the person of Jesus.
How can John say
that he's seen God's glory?
Let's rattle through
three quick things from this text.
He can say it
because he saw Jesus.
John wants us to know
where Jesus came.
Okay, 14 to 18 in the text,
follow with me.
Verse 14, it says,
he dwelt.
He dwelt quite literally.
He tabernacled.
That's the word.
If you know your Old Testament,
this is the tent
that we read about
in the Old Testament
that Israel carried with them
before the temple
was constructed.
The tabernacle
that signified God's presence
with his people,
that God desired to dwell
with his people.
And where has the word dwelt?
It's tabernacled.
Where?
Among us.
With us,
as we were singing about earlier,
because you might have
half expected,
given who Jesus is,
that when he came to earth
that he would go straight
to the palace.
And we have to say
that that would be humility
enough on his part
if he did that.
Having waiters serve him,
having people bow to him,
making sure that the world
recognizes him.
But where is he?
He's not locked away
in the green room
of some concert venue,
saying to the bloke
on the door,
would you make sure
that no one gets in here
unless I say.
He's not in the business class
of British Airways,
saying,
can you just draw
the curtain please
so I don't have to interact
with the riffraff
who are in the economy class.
Where is he?
No.
Born in lowly Bethlehem,
grows up in joked
about Nazareth.
And where is he so often
in the Gospels
when he's not praying?
Who is he with?
He's with people.
People.
Engaging them,
teaching them,
healing them,
helping them to think,
listening to them,
eating with them,
crying with them,
speaking with them
to the extent
that people look on
and they mockingly
give him the nickname
the friend of sinners.
As he steps in,
as he calls a world
to himself
and says,
you need to stop
going your own way,
you need to turn
from your sin,
repent,
start going my way,
Jesus turns up
and offers the world
himself.
Of course,
as we see Jesus
interacting with a world,
this is how we should
interact as those
who would follow him,
by engaging with the world,
loving the world
with the heart of Jesus.
Do you see how
in the person of Jesus,
God chose to dwell
among his people
in the most personal way possible?
He dwelt among us.
John wants us to know
where he came,
he wants us to know
how he came.
End of verse 14,
he came full of grace
and truth.
You get the same
double words again
at verse 17,
for the law was given
through Moses,
grace and truth
came through Jesus Christ.
And we think about
that word,
grace.
You know,
mercy,
not getting something
that we do deserve,
that's the definition
of mercy.
Grace,
getting something
that we don't deserve.
God's grace to us,
to undeserving,
rebellious human creatures,
comes not in the giving
of stuff,
but it comes
in the giving us
of his son.
What we need to understand
is if in the person
of Jesus,
it's as if God
has reached into
his inner being
and he's plucked
out his own heart
in giving us
his son Jesus.
Such is his great love
for a lost world.
He came full of grace
and truth.
And if you think about it,
in theory,
he could have come
and not brought grace
and truth.
He could have come
and he could have
laid down the law.
Right?
I don't know
if you've noticed that.
It's what they do
in rugby.
I remember growing up
playing rugby,
never really understood it.
You commit a foul,
you need to back off
10 metres.
And if you don't
back off 10 metres
by the time the ref
sees it,
you're back another
10 metres.
And technically,
you can keep on going
all the way to the
tri-line if you keep
making the same mistake.
The ref says,
get back,
get back.
You committed a null foul,
get back,
get back.
I was thinking this week,
Jesus could have so easily
come and said,
see those Ten Commandments.
You know those Ten Commandments,
the ones that you stink
at keeping?
I'm here to make it 20.
And you know what's happening.
If you don't believe it,
he's going to be 30.
He's going to keep on going.
No,
in Christ,
John says
that we have received
grace upon grace.
In other words,
God's grace to the world
and that in
which in particular
he has already
consistently shown
to his people
down the ages
reaches new heights
in the coming of Jesus.
I encourage you
to come along
the next few weeks.
We're going to see
exactly how that grace
works itself out
specifically in Jesus' life.
Come back next week
and we'll see another
wonderful truth
about who he is.
But you see for now
that he has come
full of grace
and truth.
Talking of grace,
our little girls,
their favorite game
at the minute,
one of their favorite games
is to run into any room
in our house,
to shut the door,
turn the lights off
and say spooky,
spooky.
They love doing this.
Which is all fun
and games, right?
Until somebody's
banging heads
or somebody's
running into a cupboard
and spooky, spooky
turns into daddy,
daddy, mommy, mommy.
But here's what
they're gradually learning
in the school of hard life.
School of hard knocks,
the school of life.
That you can't see
where you're going
and you don't know
what you're doing
when you're living
in the dark.
What does John
call Jesus
at verse 9?
He calls him what?
The true light.
The light
by which you can see.
The light
that shines
into the room
of our dark existence
where we are
groping around
trying to figure
our existence
and our lives out.
What does the light
bring as he shines?
He brings truth.
Truth about us,
truth about our world,
truth about our God,
truth about our predicament.
And so the wonderful thing
about these verses
is if you're here today
and you want to know grace,
if you're here today
and you want to know truth,
John's pleading with you
to see that you are living
your life in the darkness,
that you are on the wrong end
of this holy God's anger
against our sin.
And he's begging us
to come in to know the truth,
to come to the light
by giving our lives
to Jesus Christ.
John wants us to know
where he came.
He wants us to know
how he came.
Finally, he wants us
to know why he came.
Here's the thing
that I've noticed people do
when they know
that a baby's on the way.
They start trying
to guess the sex,
right?
And they say,
well, I've got a feeling
that it's going to be a girl.
It's got a hunch
it's going to be a boy.
And you say,
how do you know?
And you say,
well, I guess my sister's
baby, right?
And I think I've got
a kind of gift in this.
And you say,
well, maybe you got lucky
with a 50-50.
But people say that,
don't they?
They try and guess.
I've got a feeling.
I know.
And the thing is
that people also do that
with God.
I think God might be like this.
On and around,
I couldn't possibly believe
in a God like that.
But what this truth,
the incarnation,
is telling us
is that when it comes
to what God is like,
we no longer have a choice.
God has made himself
fully known.
How do you know
what the baby is
when it comes out?
Here is God in the flesh.
Here is God
making himself known
to a world.
Why do we know that?
Because of what John says
about Jesus at verse 18.
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,
he has made him known.
It's out in the open.
Jesus, the one who,
and you've got to wonder at this,
the one who has been
from eternity past,
who was face to face
with the Father,
right,
which means he's qualified
to tell us
and to show us.
Jesus has taken on flesh
and come down to us
with the words of the text,
the express purpose
of making the Father
known to us.
In other words,
if we want to know
what God is like,
we need look no further
than to look
to the Son, Jesus.
And we have to see
that there's nothing
other than lovingly,
loving consistency
between the Father
and the Son.
He is
the exact representation
of God the Father.
He is the image
of the invisible God.
And what that means
is that if you and I
want to see
what God is like,
if we want to know
what he thinks,
if we want to hear him
speak to us,
then we simply have
to look to Jesus.
John says,
we saw his glory.
As we looked at the Son,
we saw his glory.
You know,
just as we close,
I wonder if you're here today
and you're saying to yourself,
that's all very good
for this guy
because he saw Jesus.
Maybe if I had seen Jesus,
if I see Jesus,
I too could see his glory.
I'm never going to see Jesus.
How can I see his glory?
Well, just as we close,
let me tell you one story
to help convince you
on this a little bit.
It's a story
I recently heard
from a Christian speaker
who works down in London
called Richard Bergonin.
He's the author
of the Word One to One.
And after one of his talks,
he was telling this story.
A Chinese woman
ran up to him
and she proceeded
to tell him the story
about how she became
a Christian.
And I don't know if you know this.
Many of you know
that when Mao
was in power in China,
he wanted to put an end
to Christianity.
He wanted to stamp it out.
He wanted to stop its spread.
And one of the ways
that he tried to implement that
was to tell all the Christian missionaries
to get out.
And the Christian missionaries
had no choice, really.
They had to get out
and they took everything with them
except their Bibles.
The local people,
after the Christian missionaries
had left,
they picked up these Bibles.
They had absolutely
no interest in reading them.
But what they realized
is that these Bibles
were made of really,
really good paper.
Really good paper.
They could feel it.
So they thought,
that would make some great
wallpaper for our houses.
So they went back
and they started
rolling this paper
on their walls.
And this lady
was one of,
I think she was
the fifth generation
of people
who had become Christians
by reading about Jesus
in the house
of the wallpaper.
And they nicknamed it
the Bible Room.
And so she was one of the,
she was, I think,
the fifth generation
of people to become Christians
in the Bible Room.
So what that means,
here's the point,
if you and I,
by faith,
have eyes
that will see Jesus
for who he truly is,
as we read of him
and encounter him
in the pages of the Bible
and trust him
as our Savior and King,
if we will have eyes
to see it,
we too can say with John
that we have seen
God's glory.
And that's why,
if we want to see
our friends
and our family members
and become Christians,
come to know Jesus
for themselves,
and that really is
the heartbeat
of this church,
then the best way
to do that
is to get reading
the Bible with them.
Where are they going
to meet Jesus?
As he walks off
the pages of Scripture.
For God who said,
let light shine
out of darkness,
made his light
shine in our hearts
to give us the light
of the knowledge
of God's glory
displayed in the face
of Jesus Christ.
Why don't we just
take a moment, friends,
and let's respond
to God's words today.
Today,
I want you to do
a couple of things,
maybe just in the silence.
Maybe you're here today
and you don't know Jesus
as your Lord
and your King
and your Saviour.
Just to encourage you
to use this moment
just to think about
his claims
as we've read about them
there in John chapter 1.
And also,
if you're here
and you are a Christian,
I want you to both
maybe bask in the truth
of this,
but I also want you
to pray for a friend
that you can think of
in your life
who you desire
and you long
that they would come
to know Jesus.
So maybe just in the silence
now and then I'll pray.
Why don't we just lift
our prayers to God
knowing that he hears us
because we pray
in Jesus' name.
And so Father,
we thank you,
gracious God of heaven,
for this time together today.
Thank you, Lord,
for the freedom
that we enjoy
in this country
to meet together.
And it's our prayer
as we've heard your voice
today as it resounds
in John chapter 1.
We ask us, Lord,
we ask you, Lord,
that you would help us
this week
to lift our eyes
off of ourselves.
Lord, we know
our proneness to wander.
We know how much
distracts us
and we pray
that you would
help us look to Jesus
and in so doing
savor something more
of your glory.
Lord, we ask
that your spirit
would come
and he would help us
this week
to do just that.
Thank you
for this time together.
We commit this time
to you in Jesus'
precious name.
Amen.