Episode Transcript
Well, welcome to Living Hope Church. Happy Sunday, everybody. Alright, happy Sunday to one of you. You can open your Bibles to the book of John. John is where we're going to be today. If you don't have a Bible with you, but you have a phone that often has a, you might have a Bible, the Bible app, and you can open that up. And if you don't, you could open a browser to John chapter one. All of that will take you there. I'm going to be reading from the ESV, if that is of interest to you. This is the version of Bible that I'm reading from. We're starting a new series today and we'll be in the book of John for a little while. We'll just put it like that. John is 21 chapters long. We're starting in verse one of chapter one today and we'll just walk verse by verse through this entire book, not today, to clarify, because that would be a really long time. So hopefully you have your Bibles open to John chapter one. Before we jump into this, I want to let you know of just a few things coming up. Hopefully you grabbed a bulletin on your way in and in that you'll see some announcements, some events coming up, one of which is a lecture that the museum is putting on, bringing in a speaker for this coming Saturday. You'll be speaking at 10 o'clock, and I think one o'clock or one o'clock, I think. And in between that, those two lectures, there'll be a lunch. If you plan to come to that, and maybe you've already been thinking about coming and hearing from Scott Stripling is who's coming to speak. If you plan to come, but you have not yet let Pastor Carl know, please do that specifically if you plan to come and stay for lunch. There's already over 100 people who are going to be here, 120 or 130, I think, be here that plan to be here for lunch. And if you'd like to eat while you're here for lunch, please let him know. Also, we have a business meeting next the last Sunday of this month. If the potluck at four and the meeting will be at five, if you're a member, please mark your calendars for that. And then lastly, some years ago we started encouraging you to read one book every quarter that kind of walked along the theme of what we're doing or what we're teaching in in the life of the church. And this year is our mission words, our gather, gather, grow, and go. And so this year, we're spending our time looking at going or evangelism in the life of the church and outside of the church specifically as we think about evangelism. And the book of the quarter is, I have it here with me, it's just called evangelism, what an appropriate title. And I made a video a little while ago kind of introducing this book. As you know, or maybe you're new here and you don't know this, last year, it's weird to say that already, but last year we changed the name of the church to Living Hope Church. And so now we have some shirts and some stickers and some kind of swag kind of stuff. Maybe you've seen some people with that already. But anyway, if you read the book of the quarter and you let me know, or one of the pastors knows something that you learned from that, you can get one of those free items, a free sticker or something, okay? If you like some more details, I made a video, some information about that. Somebody has already finished the book, by the way, and told me this morning, "Hey, I finished it, what do I get?" So, courage, you pick it up, there's some copies in the foyer, you could look at the church app, the church website, if you'd like to grab a copy online for yourself. Anyway, John chapter one, let's begin. Let me just pray. Jesus, we come before you today as the one who gives life to all. Every one of us here in this room woke up this morning with breath in our lungs, and that was not a surprise to you, because you gave us the life that we have today. We recognize here this morning that because we have life, you have a purpose for us. You've designed us with a purpose, and as long as you give us breath in this world, you want to work in our life. So, as we spend time in your Word this morning, Lord, I ask that you would reveal to us a little bit more about who you want us to become as we follow you, and for those here today who may not have a relationship with you, Lord, that your spirit would stir our hearts and remind us of your power. Every one of us of your power this morning. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. John chapter one is where we'll start, and I said we're going to start a series through this whole book. So, I just want to spend just a few minutes giving you a synopsis of this entire book, just an overview, if you will, on the author and the book, and then what we'll do is we'll zoom in a little bit further and further as we go. So, before we read, just want to give you an idea of where we are. So, John, the author of this book, as you know, is not actually listed as someone, as him saying, "Hi, my name is John," and I wrote this book. He's listed as, or referenced as, by his own penmanship, if you will, as the disciple that Jesus loved. He doesn't say, "Hi, my name is John," and I'm writing this letter, or I approve this letter, but rather I am the disciple that Jesus loved, and that's how he references himself. History tells us clearly over and over that he is the author of this book, even the people that he trained later on who are reading his writing, said, "Yes, that was John," and it really was him that wrote this book. It's assumed that John also obviously wrote first, second, and third John. He also wrote Revelation as well, according to his own words. And also, this book of John that we read here today that you have in front of you, is not, it's one of the four Gospels, but the other three Gospels are known as synoptic Gospels. Can you say synoptic? Synoptic Gospels. And what they do is they just give you a play-by-play of Jesus' life, starting from the beginning and walking through his life. And what John does, who wrote this book after the other three Gospels called the synoptic Gospels, is he says, "I'm not just going to, I don't want to just give you a blow by, a play-by-play of Jesus' life. Yes, you're going to get that, but also I want to give you the reason for why Jesus came and really explain to you the purpose of his mission." John also we know is the brother of someone else named James, and they were the sons of somebody named Zebedee. Isn't that a fun name? I didn't see a Zebedee up here earlier, maybe next time. And also, Jesus calls them the sons of thunder. That'd be a cool or strange, I'm not sure. We also know from John later on in this book, one other thing that we learned from him is that he's faster than Peter, another disciple. So he humbly throws that out later. We'll get to that in like two years. So come back in two years and we can read through that together. This book, John is making the case here as we lean in the case for this. For all people to believe in Jesus as God, he starts off the first 18 verses which we'll read today in this prologue making the case that Jesus is the best and only true representation of God. This book, though simple and straightforward in some ways, is also confounding to the most educated of theologians. It's shallow enough for a new believer to wade through and understand, but also deep enough for one of the greatest theologians to swim through and not even touch the bottom. What is the purpose of this book John tells us in chapter 20? Again, be back in two years and we'll dig into this in more detail. In John chapter 20 verse 30, he says this, "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book." That is the book of John. Here's what he says in verse 31, "But these are written, these things that I wrote for you, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." That's his purpose. He writes this entire book for that purpose. As we think about that, I don't know if you've been on jury duty before and actually served, not just called to jury duty, but actually had to serve on jury duty. Some of you have, and maybe some of you even if you haven't, you've been in a courtroom. We'll just use kind of, there's this piano over here. I'm just going to use this through our time. As imagine there's a case, you're in a courtroom over here. We'll just imagine this space over here is a courtroom. What John is going to do through really this entire book is he's going to make a claim about Jesus and then he's going to say, "I'm going to substantiate my claim by showing you the things that Jesus did to prove what I just said about Jesus." John, what he does in the verse 18 verses is he makes a claim about Jesus and then he says, "Let me show you how that is actually true." Therefore, we see in verse 31, "These are written that you may believe that Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, there is His purpose for the book." We see two reasons. Maybe you want to jot this down, two purposes for this book simply in that verse. In John 20, 31, we see an evangelistic purpose. I want you to believe that Jesus is Lord and also he says, "The written so that you may believe." In other words, it's an apologetic purpose as well. An evangelistic purpose and an apologetic purpose. John deeply wants people to believe in Jesus Christ. He deeply wants people to believe that Jesus was not just a man who came that had good teachings, but rather he was someone worthy of you staking your life on. The word life, we're going to see all through this book. It's a theme that John holds onto in this. Why though, is believing in Jesus so important, so vital? Well, according to John, it's this, "So that you may have life." Now, here's the reality. If you don't care about life and the reason, the word life is not just breath in our lungs, but a relationship with God, is connection with God. If you don't care about connection with God, this book may be like, "Well, I don't really care. I don't really mind." But the reality is most people, whether they're Christians or not Christians, want to know something about God. Does God exist? Isn't that a question that all people ask? Is God real? Did God really create things you believe in God? Why do you believe in God? What happens to us after we die? Is there really a God that I'll have to stand before? Is there really a heaven? Is there a hell? The root of that is, is there God? And if so, should my relationship with him matter? So let's zoom in a little bit more this week, and next week we'll look at this two-part case that John is drafting for us about Jesus. John was known as, Jesus was known as a person who, to those reading, really was a human, but there was deceptions beginning to creep into the church about Jesus. And here's what they were. One of these beliefs was, and particularly relevant to this week and next week is this, that Jesus was just a man who did not possess the authority and identity of God. So people, even shortly after Jesus came, died, and rose again, were like, "Yeah, that was just a man." And John said, "No, he wasn't just a man. He was someone worth paying attention to." So look at our goals here. I put this on the screen. John's burden, John's goal in this, the apostle John here, is this. The case that he is working to make is this. Jesus is the authentic light or demonstration of God. There were others who pointed to people to God, but no one who authentically was the image and deity of God. That's the case that he is making. Sure, other people may talk about God, but no one truly was God like the Jesus that I walked with. And so for us today, in the few minutes that we have, we'll move right through this text. Is this. My goal is this, that we would not only believe Jesus to be the light, as John says, but that we would also invite him into every place in our life, particularly the places we haven't yet invited him, so that we may experience life or connection with God and health. So let's read chapter 1 verse 1 together. It's not on the screen. If you have your Bibles there, you can read with me. In the beginning was the Word. We'll just read through verse 9. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God. In the beginning, He was 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." And then he says in verse 6, "There was a man sent from God whose name was John." This is a different John than the person who's writing. He came, this is John the Baptist specifically, 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. We'll close with verse 9. "The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming in to the world." Well Lord, we look at this passage, recognize you as the light of the world. We often talk about you as the light of the world at Christmastime. But you're a light who shines into the darkest places of this world and of our hearts. And so today Lord, I ask that you would reveal to us parts of our life that we haven't let your light shine into. That we would invite you into those places and trust you to do a better work with our life than we can do with ourselves. In Jesus' name, amen. Point one is this, Jesus has the power, authority, and identity of God. Point one there, verses 1 through 3, really draw this out for us. You could write that in your outline. Jesus has the power, authority, and identity of God. In chapter 1, verses 1 through 9, we see a parallel that John is drawing with Genesis chapter 1 as well. And so as we walk through this, you'll see some parallels that John is intentionally making or drawing from Jesus as he's considering some of the people who are reading this. Now, what is the word? In the beginning, which we also see Genesis 1/1 in the beginning, but John says was the word. If you were with us a few weeks ago, I think on Christmas Eve, we walked through this passage as well. We'll have a different focus today. The word is, in Greek is the word, "logos." Can you say "logos"? "Logos." And that meant two different things to different audiences. So John, as he's writing this book, he's saying there's some people that I'm writing to that are Jews who have a history of church life, if you will. And then there are other people on this side who have really no history of church life, religious life, understanding about what scripture says about God. And so John's purpose, remember, is not just that the Jews would believe, but that everyone would believe. And so because of that, he presents a case to both sides. He wants both audiences to understand what he's saying. And so to the Gentiles, the Gentiles over here, this audience, he says, "In the beginning was the logos, and to them that was the epitome of divine expression." The Gentiles considered the logos to be this creative, powerful force in the world. How did all this come to be? Well it was the logos. The logos did it. Well, can you see the logos? Can you touch the logos? Well, no, you can't. But the logos just kind of did that. That's what the Gentiles believed. And the Jews, on the other hand, believe something different. They consider the logos to be another expression of God. So think back to Genesis 1, for example. God created the world by what? What did he do to create? He spoke. He used his words. Throughout the Old Testament, the Jews also spoke about God, or talked about God as one who speaks to express his self, or himself. And so they had great significance that they held. The Jews did to the Word of God. God said this, "We better listen." And so here, John's drawing this picture. He's saying, "To you all who think that the logos is just this creative force, I have something to tell you. You all who care about this God out there, but you don't really know how to connect with him, I have something to tell you. And to all of you who care about God, that is, the Yahweh that you've worshiped for thousands of years, I have something to tell you. The case I'm here to tell you about is Jesus. The person is Jesus. To the Gentiles, John is making the point that the creative, all-powerful force has a name, and his name is Jesus. And to the Jews who considered the logos to be another expression of God, he says, "This voice, this person, this Word of God has a purpose, and he came in the flesh, and his name is Jesus." Look what it says in the beginning. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. The logos was with God, and the logos was God. And so we see here, there's differences, and there's similarities. There's unity. Verse two, "In the beginning, he was with God in the beginning." Now there's a he. There's a gender attached to this. So now we see this as a person. Matthew's genealogy goes back, if you look in Matthew chapter one, goes back to Abraham. Luke's genealogy at the beginning of his book, those are called the synoptic gospels, right? Luke's genealogy goes back to Adam, and John says, "Okay, you all have a picture. They gave you a picture of Jesus's fleshly life. I'm going to give you a picture of Jesus's spiritual life." In the beginning was Jesus, not when Abraham was, and then from there, that's when Jesus came to be, not even from Adam. John's like, "I'm going to show you that before all things Jesus existed." Jesus even says this, "Before Abraham I was." John the Baptist, who was born before Jesus, says, "Before he came, he who is coming was before me." Interesting to think about as I was walking through this is, Jesus is the oldest man to ever be born. It's kind of interesting. Sometimes thinking about authority as well, we might say, and you might say this as well, "I have authority," or "I should be able to get in front of the line," or whatever that picture might be, "authority," because I was here first. Jesus uses that as well. You all think you have authority? Well, I was here before you. I was here first, Jesus was. For by him, Colossians chapter 1 verse 16, "For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers, all things were created by him." Jesus demonstrates this point to be true, this point on the outline, that he's power, he has authority and the identity of God. He does this in his own actions. He heals the sick. That requires power, doesn't it? He creates all things, like I was just reading, in Colossians. He calms the storm. He has power over creation Jesus does. And Jesus saying, even though he's speaking to his identity, he says, "I and the Father are one." He's speaking about his identity. Now, what does this mean for you and I? What does this mean for you and I? First off, we see all things were created through Jesus and by Jesus, and because of him, all things hold together. That, I think, requires us to ask ourselves a question. Where in my life am I considering the commands of Jesus as suggestions? If he really has all power and all authority and one is one with God, is there a place in my life that I'm saying, "Yeah, I know Jesus wants me to do this, but I don't really want to do that, and I'm going to do my own thing instead of what Jesus has called me to." Really, what we're asking is this. Is there a place in my life that I'm lowering my view of Jesus than what he's worthy of? Is there a place that I'm considering Jesus to be the size and have the authority and the power that I want him to rather than what God said, what the power and the authority and the identity that God gives him? Point two on your outline. John begins to continue to craft this case. Here's the courtroom there. He says, "To the Jew, to the Gentile, this creative force, this voice of God is shown in the person of Jesus, and he was the one who was there at the beginning." Then John leans into this metaphor of life and light. John uses this metaphor of life and light, this picture of life and light, through his gospel. Look with me at verses four and five. Point two on your outline, you see on the screen is this. Jesus gives life and light. In him was life. The word is "Zoe" in Greek. The life was the light. Same word like we get "phos" for photo. For example, "phos" was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. There's symbolism here of physical life and physical death, also spiritual life and spiritual death that he draws. Look what it says there. I think that's on the screen there. In him was life. The word is the source of life. Now, why is that even important? Because again, to the Gentiles, they're saying, "It's just this kind of force that's out here that gave life to the world." Or to those who maybe aren't in the Christian church today or in a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church today, those who are not Christians would say, "All the things that we see around us, those just evolved over time." That just came to be over millions of years. This changed into this, and this changed into this. The question that you might ask is this, where did life actually begin? How did it start? If you put a rock on a shelf and wait for millions of years, are you going to come back and find an elephant? You probably aren't. I haven't tried it, but I would assume you probably aren't going to be able to do that. You take something dead and you leave it there for a really long time. It doesn't suddenly come to life. Life has to start somewhere. John's case here, in him, was life. You wonder, friends, where did life come from? I'll tell you where life came from in Jesus Christ, who was there at the beginning. You look even at the world around us. The way that we have life in this world is because there is light. If you take out the light, things begin to die. We see that with plants, don't we? Most plants and most animals. If there's no light, then things begin to die. Jesus, he says, is the life and the light. Why does he say that? He's saying because he was there before all things, and he's the one that gave all things their beginning. If he's the creator of all things, doesn't he then have authority over all things? That's John's point here. As he's in this courtroom, if you will, that we're able to experience, he's saying, you, people listening, you wonder where your life came from. I'll tell you where your life came from. It came from Jesus. You wonder how you're able to wake up in the morning and do anything. It's because of Jesus. John, through his entire book, 21 times, John uses this word light in comparison to this person of the word. Over and over, he uses the word life. More than any of the other New Testament authors, we see John leaning into this word, the word light and life, because he wants people to understand the way that you can have substance in your life is because of Jesus. Again, remember his point, I want you to believe. I want you to believe. So every time you wake up in the morning, you have breath in your lungs, it's because of Jesus. He's the one that originated that in you. So what does this mean for you and I? Maybe you already believe in Jesus. We see that he is the life and the light. What does this mean for you and I? Now imagine, we have a courtroom over here, so we're going to build a house over here. Imagine your house and in your house, let's say, let's just say for the purpose of this, you're a Christian. And so in this house, you have a front room, you have some bedrooms, you have a living room, you have a kitchen, you have some closets and so on. In this house, you have invited Jesus into the front room. And so the front room, you don't have, by the way, you don't have electricity in this house. It's a side note. In this house, you have invited Jesus into the front room and because Jesus is light, the front room now is light. And so you've invited him and say, "Jesus, I would like you to come into my house. It's dark. My house is dark. And by the way, your house is your life," if you didn't figure that out. "This house, you've invited him. The front room is light." And you're like, "All right, Jesus is now a part of my home, a part of my life. I've invited Jesus in. And so now I'm going to go about and I'm going to tell people, 'Jesus is great. Jesus is awesome, which is great. Do that.'" There are at times parts of our home, parts of our life, that we've kept the door shut. We've let Jesus into the front room, the living room, the kitchen, the dining room. You're like, "See all of this. Look how pretty everything is." But there's the down the hall and to the left. Don't go in that room, Jesus, because there's some messy things there. If Jesus is one who gives light and life, and he knows better about your life and my life, and will do better things with your life and my life than we ever could, John's making the case here. Don't just invite Jesus into the front room, into the pretty spaces, but be willing to let him go down the hall and open that back door, open that bedroom door, the closet door, and say, "I'm going to let you go in there too." Now, that back room might be where you store secret sin. And that back room might be where you store shame. And that back door might be where you store guilt. And that back room might be where you store doubts. And you don't want Jesus to go down there because it's all pretty up here. That's where you've got all the things organized and everybody can come in and see. And Jesus says, "I've come to bring light. And when I bring light, there will be life. There will be connection with God. So let me go back there." And that makes us ask the question, is there any back room in my life that I haven't let Jesus into? Is there a part of my life that I've said, "I, God, you can stay over here, but back here I'm going to keep that to myself." And he says, "You know, when I go back there, I show grace. I show love. I show mercy. I bring healing. Let my truth speak in the darkness. And when truth steps into darkness, there is always freedom. Bondage, darkness, truth, freedom. It always works that way in the kingdom of God. And we are His children. So ask yourself, where might the lies I'm holding on to be keeping me in bondage? Lord, we need Your healing. In places that there's darkness in our life, maybe here today, those who are thinking about spaces that they're holding on to in the back rooms of their life that they haven't shown anyone else. Pray for everyone here today, myself included, that we would be a people that let you into the back rooms of our life, that trust that your way is better than our way, that trust that your grace and your mercy is greater than anything that we could imagine, that we would have the courage to let you in and trust you as King in Jesus' name. Point three on your outline. Jesus provides proofs for himself. Usually in a court case over here, there we're making a case somebody else brings in the evidence. Jesus, because he is the author of all things, was there when all evidence was created, was he not? And so Jesus, or John, I should say, is using an example of here's evidence that Jesus is who he says he is. Look at verse six with me in John chapter one. "There was a man sent from God." And by the way, is Jesus God? All right. So there was a man sent from God and his whose name was John, and this specifically is John the Baptist. But to be clear, John was not a Baptist. Verse seven, "He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe," again, we see the word believe. This is the purpose that I want you to believe, that all might believe through him, through John the Baptist, pointing people to Jesus. He, John the Baptist, was not the light, but he came to bear witness to point people towards this light. So John, let's just talk about him for just a minute. John was prophesied long ahead of time. Isaiah chapter 40, Malachi chapter 3 talked about how someone was going to come to point people towards Jesus. His life, his ministry were foretold by an angel to John the Baptist, dad, saying, "This guy's going to be really great." According to Jesus, he was the greatest man ever to live other than himself. Why was he great? He had a miraculous birth. He was announced by an angel. He was raised by righteous parents. He was filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb, and he was related to Jesus, which is super cool. And he was also a forerunner to Jesus' ministry. This is who John the Baptist is. He's building this case. There was man sent from God, John the Baptist. The ministry of John points to something significant that we can't miss, that Jesus fulfills his promises. John was promised beforehand, and Jesus stepped in. God stepped in and said, "Yes, we're going to fulfill the promise that I've put before you." Jesus' fulfillment of Scripture is one of the most powerful evidences of his identity. It's not just John, the only person who is related to him, because that's not necessarily, if you bring somebody into the courtroom, you're like, "Hey, this person's a good person. Let's ask his family members." They might say, "No, yeah, he's really cool just to get their friend off the hook." But here we see John is not just the only one to give evidence to the significance of Jesus. Jesus fulfills other prophecies as well. Now, prophecies are just things that are written about Jesus before he was born, that is particularly in the Old Testament. It's assumed that Jesus fulfilled somewhere at least, conservatively, about 300 prophecies while he lived in his three years. What that means is this, hundreds of years before Jesus was born, people wrote down stuff about the Messiah. Jesus comes hundreds of years later and fulfills in the three and a half or so years of ministry about 300 or more of those prophecies. That's pretty significant, isn't it? Somebody could write that about him and then Jesus fulfill it. Now, mind you, Jesus didn't have to go searching through the Old Testament to fulfill prophecy because he's also the one who made the person who wrote the prophecy. So he's very aware of what was written in the prophecies about him. So what does this mean for you and I? What does this mean for you and I? The author is making the point here, as you can see, that John the Baptist is not the main man, but Jesus was. He's the most important. And even years after Jesus left, there were factions of Jews that were still holding tightly to the ministry, to the work of John the Baptist, to the baptism of John, that is repent and not the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that is of Jesus. And you can read more about this in Acts chapter 19. Paul goes to Ephesus and he sees people and they're like, "Yeah, we're Christians." And he's like, "Do you have the Holy Spirit?" And they're like, "No, what's that?" And he's like, "Wait, what do mean? You've been baptized, right?" And he says, "Yeah." They said, "Yeah, we've been baptized, but into the baptism of John the Baptist, not of Jesus." What's the point? Just like John the Baptist, it can be very easy for people to see you rather than Jesus. Just as John had to regularly promote Jesus and point people to Jesus, so do you and I. People will look at your good works, your kind deeds, your faithfulness to God and all of those things and it can be very easy for them to say, "Yay you," whatever your name is. "Yay you," "Go," you're such a great person, rather than Jesus is pretty amazing. And their life is witness that God is living inside of them. Here's the question. Do you bear witness of Jesus? I don't know about you, but I want to be proof of the power of Jesus. For people to look, and this is not prideful, this is humble, and I hope for all of us as well, for people to look at us and say, "I don't see this person," whatever my name is, even though, yes, I see them, but I see a more powerful God inside of them. I see something significant about them that's not like normal people. I want others to look at my life, our life, as a church and say, "Well, clearly Jesus is real. Clearly he's real." Look at these people. Clearly Jesus transforms. Let's look at the last point. Jesus brings light to dark places. Verse 9, "The true or original light," that is not a reflection of the light, not another version of the light, but the true light, again, remember the Gentiles, they're thinking, "All the creative force, the powerful force that's out there, where light comes from, where life comes from," it's just kind of a force, but here the true light, the authentic light, the logos, is Jesus Christ. We're going to see more of that next week, which gives light or enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. Verses 1 through 9 is the setup for Jesus coming. Verses 10 through 18, we'll look at next week, is Jesus actually being in the flesh in the world? The light we've been talking about isn't staying in the distance. And John here, imagine this courtroom here, John is presenting as the lawyer, he wants the people listening to believe, he says, "All of this, all I've been talking about, the one who has power, who has authority, who's the deity of God, who gives light, who gives life, this God, this person, I've been talking about, this logos, is not just going to stay in the distance somewhere, but is about to show up and illuminate dark places. Does the world need light? I mean, some of you have watched the news this week, I didn't, so I'm going to take your word for it. Does the world need some light? Does the world need truth and love and hope and grace and mercy? That is the light of Jesus, that is the person of Jesus stepping in to the world. We know the world needs light. We know it because it is dark. And John here is saying, "You all know, you Jews know, you Gentiles know the world needs hope. You know that the world needs peace and grace and mercy. And this one is in the person, where this comes from is the person of Jesus Christ, and he's about to show up. Are you listening? Are you paying attention?" We asked this question, I put it on the screen. How does the light of Jesus help us? I think it's a practical question that we can ask as we close. The first thing we see is this, it separates us from sin. Separates us from sin. John, speaking chapter 12 in this book, again, come back in a year and we'll be there. "I have come into the world as light," Jesus speaking, "so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness." Second Corinthians written by Apostle Paul in chapter 4 says that the God of this world, that is the devil, has blinded the minds of unbelievers, keeping them from seeing the light of the gospel. There's that house again, right? We've invited Jesus in. And as soon as you invite the light in, and as soon as we invite Jesus in, the darkness, the sin, the lies are dispelled. Sin, I'm sorry, the light separates that sin. The question is, where is their sin, and am I inviting Jesus into that place? Because naturally, you can't have Jesus and sin in the same place, co-exciting, right? That's not going to happen. I can't hold on to a lie and hold on to the truth at the same time. I can't have hope and be hopeless at the same time. I can't have love and have hate at the same time, in the same place. But we invite Jesus into that. The second thing is this, light, this light illuminates the truth. John, in the book of 1 John says this, listen in, it's not on the screen, chapter 1, verse 5 and following, this is the message that we have heard from him and declare to you, God is light. And in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. And then thirdly, on your outline, if you want to write this down, it's not there, but you could just write it in this light. How does the light help us? Yes, it separates us from sin, it illuminates the truth, and also directs our path. Jesus said in John chapter 8, verse 12, Jesus spoke to the people again, he said, "I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will not walk in darkness. They will have that light and they will have life." Again, we see John holding on to the light and the life over and over again. Jesus says, John 14, 6, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Jesus is the one who directs our path. Hey Gentiles, hey you don't know anything about God, you want to get to this God? I'm the way that you do that. Jews, you who have hold tightly to the God of the Old Testament, you want to know how to get to him? It's through me. Your Word, Psalm 119, 105, your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Don't know where to go, don't know what to do. He says, "Hold on to me, trust me." And specifically, your Word is this lamp. You see the parallel there by the way? In the beginning was the word, "Hold on to the Word." Your Word is a lamp unto my feet. Jesus, you are a lamp unto my feet. And so is the Word, the written Word of God. What does this mean to you and I? Am I allowing the light, the power, the Word, the truth of Jesus into every part of my life? Is the Gospel changing you? That's the question. Is the Gospel changing you? I said at the beginning, my goal is this, that we would not only believe Jesus to be the light, but that we would also invite him into any dark places inside of us so that we may experience life. Friend, what part of your life do you need Jesus to bring healing to? What part of your life do you need to invite Jesus into? Because you don't want it to stay dark any longer. You don't want to deal with the burdens of whatever that may be. And Jesus comes in and says, "I have a better way. I have a better way." Jesus, we come before you as we close here. We want to be people that hold on to the light, hold on to you. To not be people that do our life kind of behind the curtain and let other people see what's in the light and we do our own thing back by ourselves, give us the courage this morning, Lord, to invite you into any dark places. As we take a moment here and close this time in prayer, Lord, reveal to us what places we're withholding from you and give us the courage to let you change us. Thank you, Lord, that you have come into this world to give us life, to give us true connection with you, a true relationship with you. And if there's anybody here today that has never invited you in to their life to give light to them, Lord, that your spirit would do a work in them this morning in Jesus' name, I pray. If you would like to pray with myself or Pastor Les, we would love to do that. And if you have questions just about Jesus, we would love to talk with you about him as well. My prayer for all of us this week is twofold. One, that we would spend time with Jesus this week and ask him, is there anything in the back room that doesn't have light? And then also, we would trust Jesus to be the light desiring to shine out of us this week, that we would be a vessel of his light everywhere we go. Lord, as we leave here today, you have sent us into darkness not because we by ourselves are light, but because you are light inside of us. Help us to believe that, to have courage as we step into dark places, to be who you've called us to be. And also, Lord, as we desire to shine brighter, that that would happen as we invite you into more parts of our life where there is darkness, to let your truth shine through the darkness, let your freedom bring us joy and peace in our life. Lord, that we would hold on to you. In Jesus' name I pray everyone said. Amen.
