Episode Transcript
Welcome to Living Hope Church. We're glad that you've chosen to join us today. We've been going through for the last, oh you know, one week, today's week two of this series that you may believe starting in the Gospel of John and so if you have your Bibles, hopefully you opened it to John. Chapter one is where we'll be today looking specifically at verses 10 through 18. Now let me just pray here and then I'll kind of give you an intro to where we've been and where we're going and we'll see what God has for us today. So join me as we as we pray. Lord we come before you today as the ruler of all. That song is still spinning through my mind right now. You are the ruler of all, of us, of all things around us, the problems that are going on in our life, the stresses, the anxieties that we might be carrying with us, the doubts that we might have about various things in life and in faith and spirituality, whatever those things might be Lord. You are the ruler of all and as we spend time in your word, pray that you would help us to submit our hearts and our minds to you as our ruler, as the King of kings, as the Lord of lords, as we spend time in your word, as we spend time thinking about what is about to be said, the things that I say Lord, that I would submit to you in my words this morning as my ruler. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright verse one, verse 10 is where we'll start and then we'll go through verse 18. If you weren't with us last week or if you were with us last week, I want to give you a brief intro of what we talked about last week and then also specifically John's purpose in this. So first just leave that slide on the screen, go back one, actually that slide's fine, the Jesus, the Revealer of God. So that's John's premise in these first specifically 18 verses and then as we go through the rest of this book, John's desire is for us to know who Jesus is and for us to believe in him. So let me just give you a synopsis of what some of the things we talked about last week. So this is written, this book is written specifically to the Jews and also to the Gentiles. Now why is that important? It's because it's written to religious people and to non-religious people. It's speaking to the realities that we see in our world around us, not just the church, the church world with church lingo and all of that. Last week we dove into the reality of the struggle between light and darkness, between life and death. Now regardless of your religious background or not, we all know there is a battle between good and evil. We all feel the tensions around us, around morality and immorality, all over the place. Also John spoke to the question that I think all thoughtful people would ask in the world and perhaps you at some point in your life asked this question, maybe if you weren't raised in a religious setting. Where did all of this that we see around us? Where did it all come from? And how is it all still going? Now thoughtful people would ask that question, how did we come to this place and how is it going to end? How are we where we are today? John says that it all came to be and is held together by Jesus Christ. He is the instigator of life and he is the sustainer of life. That's what John tells us. So in the opening verses of this book, John is answering the deep quandaries of the thoughtful person and pointing to Jesus Christ as the one every person needs. So lastly, we know that people want to know if God can be knowable. We see that in every culture in every time. Over years, people want to know can God be knowable? Every culture thousands of years have sought or created a deity to worship or a force that's out there that they can connect with that's more powerful than themselves. Think about that, right? Think about cultures all around the world. They're looking or creating some sort of God, something that they can worship. In pursuit, in this pursuit, man has been led in many different directions and created for themselves many different gods. John, the author, tells us in this passage that the one so many have been searching for, the name that has been missed or misunderstood by so many cultures, by so many nations, by so many religions, is the person Jesus. The problems that John was writing to solve and the problems are of today are not so different after all. Just like 2,000 years ago, people of all tribes and of all tongues still want to know three things. Where did everything come from? Will good win over evil in the end? And thirdly, can God truly be knowable? And John answers those questions. I put on this on the screen. John's big idea in this passage is this. You can put that next slide up. Jesus is the only complete demonstration of God and the only way to be in our intended relationship with God. Jesus is the way we can see who God is and Jesus is the only way that we can have the relationship with God that God desires. It's no other way that we can be in right relationship with God apart from the person of Jesus. Now John's very clear about that through the entire book, but we just need to hone in on that. So maybe jot that down. That's John's big idea, especially here in these verses that we'll look at. Now my goal today is very connected to this, and it's this. It's the next slide there up there. This will kind of guide some of what we talk about that we here today, listening, would deeply believe that the Christian's position, if you're a Christian, if you're a believer in Jesus, that your position as God's children through Jesus is the most significant identity that we can have. There's a lot of other identities that the culture desires to put on us, that even the church desires to put on us that are separate from us being children of God. This identity, if we truly hold to it and deeply believe it, I believe we'll transform every single one of us a little to be more like God, to be more like God's desire for us than who we are today. So let's read this passage and then we'll see here what we, God has for us. Look at verse 10. This is the second part of what we talked about last week. Last week was about Jesus before he was in the world, and it concludes in verse 9 saying that he was about to come into the world. Verse 10 is Jesus in the flesh. So let's look at verse 10. He, Jesus, was, or actually specifically the Logos, the Word was in the world and the world was made through him. Yet the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. Verse 14, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son, from the Father, full of grace and truth." John bore witness about him and cried out, "This is he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me,' because he was before me. For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace." Verse 17, "For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father's side, has made him known." Lord, we look at this passage and we see that you are the Creator of the universe and a God who is not far from us but chose to come near. And as we spend time in your word, help us to draw near to you, because we know, Lord, you have already drawn near to us. In your name. First point on your outline is this, Jesus will be rejected by some. Now John has already made the statement that Jesus is the Creator of all things. He is God, he was with God, so we begin to see the first person and second person of the Godhead, the God the Father and God the Son. We see Jesus being that second person there. Now John is very pointed, he goes through the rest of the verses, we talked about this last week, how he's making the case that Jesus is the Creator and sustainer of all things that are life and light. And now he begins to shift. He says, now at the end of verse 9, he says, he wasn't in the world, this was before he was in the world, this is who he is, this is the picture of who the word is, and then we celebrate this at Christmas, don't we, when Jesus was born. When he came into the world and that's where we pick up in verse 10 and you would assume that the Creator, the sustainer of the world, would be expected, would be accepted by the world, but we see that not to be the case. Let's look at what the Bible says here in verse 10. He, the word, was in the world and the world was made through him, were referencing back to verse 3, your rivals should be open to chapter 1 of John, look at verse 3, it says, all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. The second part of verse 10 reminds us that the world was made through him and it's repeated in both of these places because John wants us to get this idea, God, Jesus, one, made the world and then he stepped in to the world. Now why do we start, why does John start off verse 10 like this and it's for this reason, he's about, he's leading up to something, he's saying, all right we're gonna start here, he's the Creator, don't forget that, he's the sustainer, don't forget that and we're gonna lead up to this one three-letter word, yet. Do you see that there? Go to the, I think, yeah the next slide there, the first point on your outline, Jesus will be rejected, there's the verse there, printed, yet is the word that is coming. John is drawing our attention to this, this big idea in these two verses, it is a big idea that's still true today. Jesus, the Creator of everyone and everything was and still is rejected by the very people that he made. That's John's point here, he's the Creator, he's the sustainer, everyone get that picture, we all understand, wow, look at him and then he stepped into the world and you would think, oh maybe they're gonna accept him, yet they rejected him. Our efforts in evangelism, no matter how skilled you are, will not always result in people receiving Jesus. Now to some of us that's a comfort, Jesus in the flesh couldn't even make this a reality for himself, even Jesus as he walked this world, people rejected him. So for us to assume the only way to achieve success in the arena of evangelism, it's for people to say, to follow our needs and say, yes I'm gonna believe in Jesus Christ, I think we would be mistaken, because even Jesus, as he walked along and he healed people, there were still people that said, no I don't believe in him. The Creator of all things is still rejected and was still rejected by the creation. Jesus as the revealer of God shows us in true fashion that just because someone likes the idea of God, they won't always like the reality of God. People may like the idea of a Savior, but the reality of Jesus being their personal Savior demands they recognize that they're a sinner. Even though Jesus came to his own people who in theory would know him and believe in him or at least receive him above other things and other people, they even rejected him. This is the Jews specifically, even though he was in the world, it's verse 10 there, and he was made through the world, yet they did not know him. His own people, he came to his own people, it wasn't even just, he came to a bunch of Gentiles who wouldn't have known anything perhaps of the Old Testament, of all of the prophecies. He came to the Jews who have been studying God's word for years. They have been waiting and waiting. A Messiah is gonna come, a Messiah is gonna come. Here's what he's gonna do, here's where he's gonna be born. And then Jesus shows up on the scene and he says, "Yep, I'm here." And they say, "Nope, we're going to reject you." Jesus came to the world even though he knew he would be rejected. Was that a surprise to Jesus? When he stepped in, he said, "Why I thought everyone was gonna love me?" That he was well aware of what was going to happen. John regularly points this out throughout his letter, since the purpose of his letter is to make the case, to believe in Jesus. He points out that not everybody does. And he points to their hearts. He says, "They wanted to see a sign and this person wanted to see a sign and this person wanted to talk privately with Jesus and this person had these questions." They point out, John points out the questions inside of people that are keeping people from believing that he is the Savior. Now you think perhaps that John, if his case is, "I want all people to believe in Jesus." John would at least start his book off saying, "Look, everybody loved Jesus." You know, like kind of a buy-in. If I can tell everyone that everyone loved Jesus, then everyone else listening would think, "Oh, well I want to be on board with that." But John's very honest. Not everyone believed in him. And this was a reality then and this is a reality today. Now a question or something for us to hold on to, to consider a thought, a truth. Jesus gives people permission to reject him. He is God, amen? He is sovereign over all things, but that doesn't mean that he practices the power over all people that he could. He could show up in some grand way to every single one of us and bring about us believing in him. I'm sure as God he could do whatever he wants, but he gave us a choice. And because he gave us a choice, he knew that some would reject. God could reveal himself in such a way and he will. One day he will come again, amen? And every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is a nice person, that he is Lord over all things. He will show himself in such a way that no one will be able to say, "I don't really believe in that God." Everybody will. But here's the thing, while we are taking breath on this earth, before that day comes he's giving you and I a choice. Do you want to willingly submit yourself to Jesus? God values faith. As we see Jesus talk about often throughout the Gospels and it will be its faith that pleases God. God will let you and I do our own thing. He'll let us walk in our sin. He'll let us walk in rejection of his commandments. Wherever you might be today, God will let you do that for as long as he wills it. As long as you desire to run from him. You and I have to know something. It's not God missing out on contentment and blessing by us rejecting him. It's us missing out on contentment and blessing when we reject him. We are the ones missing out. And so perhaps a question to ask yourself, are you making room for Jesus in your daily life? And perhaps we might answer quickly and say yes of course. And so if someone watched your life for 24 hours with that question in mind, would they conclude the 24 hours and say yes this person makes room for Jesus? When we say, "Well I don't know if I make room every 24 hours." Then the question is, are you accepting, receiving Jesus or rejecting him from certain parts of your life? John concludes this, begins this story saying some will reject him. He also recognizes that some will receive him. That's the second point there. Jesus will be received by some. Verses 12 and 13. What a great place for us to shift to because it can be really depressing to think about all the people that are rejecting Jesus. And even for us at times to reject him from every part of our life. But he says here, specifically in the area of salvation, people will receive him. Look what it says, verse 12. "But" very important. Again, three letter word. "But" there are some who reject but some who will receive. "But to all that is in the world, not just the Jews, but to all" or as some of your Bibles might say, "but to as many as did receive him." And the word "receive" here, it's important that we pause here. The word "receive" means this. It's to take someone's outstretched arm. So imagine you have an arm reaching down to you from heaven, from Jesus, and to receive is to take a hold of the hand. And then we see a secondary word that explains this a little bit more in the context of what we're talking about. So follow me here. "To all who did receive him," secondary word that explains this a little bit more, "who believed in his name." Okay, so the word "believed" is a different Greek word than the word "received." And this word "believed" is the Greek word, from the root word "pistis," which means anybody? "Faith." So this idea is who received him, that has reached out and held onto the hand. And then the second word, "who believed in his name," that is, "to who held on tightly to him," who had faith in something or particularly in Jesus, to place your confidence in Jesus. So what's this picture that we get here? Imagine you're dangling from a cliff, and you're hanging on for your life, because if you fall, you will fall to your death, and Jesus comes over the edge, he reaches out his hand, and he says, "receive and believe." So here's what he's saying, these two words here, "receive is," here's my hand, and we could say, "Jesus, I will receive you, but in order for us to be saved, we have to let go of the other rock over here." Because as long as we hold on to what we had before, what we thought was gonna keep us safe, and we try to hold on to Jesus, we're not actually holding on, giving our confidence over to, believing in Jesus. We're saying, "Jesus, I like the idea of you being my Savior, but I'm not really sure if I'm willing to let my whole life be in your hands." And here, John is saying to all who received him, grabbed onto his hand, and believed, that is, to let go and put all of my confidence in Jesus to them. So we have that picture here, and it's important for us to hold on to that before we look at the next phrase here. Now, Jesus makes this point, John makes this point, that some will reject Jesus, and some will receive him. If we zoom out from the book of John for just a moment, we see in the first part of John, verses chapters one through chapter 12, we see stories over and over again of people who have rejected Jesus. And then later on, chapters 13 through 21, we see people who have received Jesus. And so John, we kind of hold on to this idea. Some will reject, say, "I don't want your hand, Jesus." Some may even say, "I'm gonna receive, I'm gonna hold on to your hand, but I'm not really gonna let go of this rock over here. I want to hold on to something else, and I like the idea of this Savior." And then John also shows us that there's others who say, "I'm gonna hold on to Jesus, and I'm gonna let go of everything else." And that's what he's talking about. And when you do that, we get this next blessing. We get this next blessing. Look what it says. "He gave the right, the authority, the ability to become what, or who, children of God. To those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." Now to the Jews, this meant something significant to them. So we have Gentiles, we have Jews. To the Jews, this was significant. Now why, you may ask, because to the Jews, they thought because of our heritage, we already are children of God. Remember that conversation they had with Jesus at that time? We'll see later on, actually. They said, "Well, we already are children of," they said Abraham, actually. And so because of their lineage, because of their descendants, they thought, "Well, we're already a part of God's family. It's fine. We don't need you, Jesus." Now to the Gentiles, they thought, "Remember, here's the law, God's here's the word, here's God, the all-creative, powerful force, and now they're told, if you believe in Jesus, you can be related in relationship with the creative power of the universe, who is a person." Now this is significant to both parties. Remember, he's right into the Jews and to the Gentiles, and he wants to grab their attention. And so both pictures, both audiences, are have this picture in their mind, receive and believe. And when you do this, you get to be a part of the family of God. Some Jews are gonna say, "I don't know what you're talking about, because I'm already a part of the family of God. Forget you, Jesus." And some Gentiles are gonna say, "Well, that sounds nice, but that sounds very legalistic, that sounds very particular. Only one way to God? I mean, is this the same conversations we're having today? Right? That seems very, like, I don't know about that. I mean, I like this way. This way should get me to God, and this way should get me to God. Seems kind of judgmental to say, "My way can't get me to God." And here Jesus is, there's one hand reaching down, one way to become children of God. So he shows us, here's what's so important about trusting in Jesus. Relationship with God. You all want that. And again, we said, I said last week, if you don't care about a relationship with God, then you're checking out at this point. But to all who do want to have life, not just in their flesh, but in their soul, they're paying attention. Now, because the key thing here, that we're leaning into, the key point here, is us being children of God. This is not a concept that is only in the Gospel of John. This is a concept that we see all throughout the New Testament. And I make that point here just to emphasize that. Let me read a couple passages from particularly Galatians 4, Romans 8, and Ephesians 1, which Pastor Les read earlier. Listen in as we think about, as we consider the power of us being in relationship with God. Not from a distance, but as sons and daughters of the Creator of the universe. Listen to Galatians 4, 4 through 7. But when the fullness of time had come, when the right time had come, God sent forth His Son, Jesus, born of a woman, which is what we celebrate at Christmas, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. So that, whenever you see so that in the scripture, you always pay attention, so that why did He come? Why did Jesus come? So that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba, Father." There's that relationship term, that close terminology there. So that, so you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if you're a son, then you're an heir through God. Romans chapter 8, "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but," again, transition word, "you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba, Father.'" In Ephesians chapter 1, He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ. Here again and again, we see why did Jesus come? Well, He came to save us from our sins. Yes, that is true. And there's more, friends. There is more. It's not just, "All right, now that one day when I die, I get to stand before God," which is very amazing in and of itself, "stand before God, not as a sinful person, but as redeemed and righteous because of Jesus Christ." Not just that, but even while we take breath on this earth today, we can know we are children of God. Our identity has changed from being enemies of God to friends of God, and not just friends, but sons and daughters. Verse 13, look at that there, "Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man." What are you saying? It's not something that we did by ourselves, but God did this. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 make this clear that God did the work. Titus chapter 3, listen to this, "But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared," so imagine here, this picture, I'm going to read through the rest of this, you're dangling on the rocks, you're going to fall to your death, there's that possibility there, and Jesus, He saved us, not because of the works done by us in righteousness. We could do nothing as we're dangling there for our life, but according to His own mercy, by the washing and regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, Jesus came, He reached out. John digs into this concept being born again in chapters 3, verses 1 through 15, when he's talking in Nicodemus. Here's a point here we want to consider. Jesus is to be received and to be believed as our Lord. If we do that, we'll have life in our souls, not just our flesh. Now why is this so important? Jesus makes a profound promise to those who give Him their life. Is this not a profound promise? Have you given your whole life to Jesus? I'm not asking whether or not you believe Jesus is God, or whether He's good, or whether He's a Savior, or even that He loves you. Those are all good things to believe. In many ways, that's kind of the, I'll take your hand, I like this concept of there being a Savior. But have you given your whole life to Jesus? And if so, is that evident? Would Jesus even agree with that? Or would He say, no, so far I just have your hand, but the other one's still holding on to something else over there. And when we live in this identity as children of God, we will love other people in a different kind of way. We'll forgive other people, we'll encourage other people, we'll have confidence in the identity that God has given us. We'll treat other people with kindness, and we'll believe what God says about us. If we shift our attention even to perhaps sin or addiction, things like alcohol or drugs or pornography or whatever those things might be, when we say, I'm a child of God, we don't participate in those things. It's not that I'm living in the shoulds, but rather it's, wait a minute, am I practicing the identity that God has given me? As I do whatever it is, whatever sin is drawing me back, oh, I don't want to do that, wait a minute, I am not a person in chains anymore, I am free according to what Jesus has said. I'm feeling like I'm unsure if I can sustain this part of my life, it's hard, wait a minute, I am a child of God, and because of that, He has given me significant strength because of the spirit that's living inside of me. If I live in the identity that God has chosen to give me, as His sons and daughters, fear that I have, shame that I have, insecurity that I have, they don't plague me day in and day out because I wake up in the morning and I experience something, oh man, I'm afraid of doing that or I'm feeling insecure about this relationship or this person or this situation, wait a minute, I am a child of God. Can someone say I'm a child of God? Say to the person next to you, you are a child of God. Point three on your outline is this, Jesus who is in the flesh is the Word. Now again, we have to remember who the audience is here, the central crux of this whole prologue is found in the opening lines of verse 14. The Word we've been talking about for so long, the creative force as some might have it, the expression of God, the light in darkness, the good in all of this evil is in the flesh. Now John hinted to this truth over and over again through these previous verses and his case has been building up, has been building and building and building to this point in verse 14. And then he comes out and he says it. We've been talking about who the Word is, we've been giving you hints, you all know what we're talking about and then he says in the flesh he came and the Word, the Logos, became flesh and it's important to note that the Word flesh is not the sinful connotations that we see like to avoid the things and the sin of the flesh that we see in other parts of the New Testament, but he took on physical flesh, karn, like we are with, we wear today in our bodies. He took on flesh and then he dwelt, the Word is tabernacled, among us and we have seen or behold his glory, the Word glory is doxa, like doxology, the glory as of the only Son. The only Son, the only, John 3.16, for God to love the world, they gave his, some might say only begotten Son or only Son. The Word here, only Son, as I have written on the screen in ESV, is the same Word. It's only begotten or only Son from the Father. Now the phrase became flesh. Jesus as God was uncreated and eternal and he became, is the emphasized word here, took on humanity. This reality is the most profound because it indicates something significant that we often miss. God became something else and while he stayed as himself, he looked like something else. The immutable God who doesn't change became. Now for the Jews reading this, they are going, wait a minute, God is the same God yesterday today and forever, right? And now you are saying he came as someone else, as something else, he was infinite and in the flesh he became finite, he was born. He is an all powerful God and then in the flesh he took on limits, didn't he? He took on limits. He didn't lose himself though, remember. So that means that while he was in the flesh, his true identity was still present. What is he saying here? This is why he says, John says, and we have seen his glory because he didn't lose his glory when he took on flesh. And through his earthly ministry, through his earthly ministry, we see over and over again him displaying the glory of God. One, for example, one place that we see this is the Mount of Transfiguration. We see that, we are like, wow, that is significant. That is not just some man. There are other places as well but perhaps most significantly where we see the glory of God displayed in the person of Jesus is through his teachings and his healings. People saw him from a distance and says, that just looks like a normal man. And then they walked up to him and they listened and they said, we have never heard anyone who is taught with such authority. And they saw healings that he did, again displaying his power over all creation. The Creator became like his creation. This is not like the gods of the pagan world. The pagan world, their gods were to some far off and unknowable and others, they became very noble. They named them, they put true pictures of them. And then for the Jews on the other hand, their God was so holy, so distant, they wouldn't even say his name. And now in both perspectives where God is super knowable and knowable and God is so far away, he cannot be knowable, here John says, he became like you and me. Verse 18 is the, well verse, and so his, this concept is also, Colossians chapter two, verse nine says, for in him was the fullness of deity and it dwells bodily. This is a profound concept that is basic to our faith, a requirement in understanding to our faith and also one of bottomless depth in our theology. We say to a five year old to a seven year old, Jesus is God. All right, this is important. Without this fact, we're going to miss something significant in salvation. And theologians for decades still haven't wrapped our minds around this concept of Jesus being God. What does that mean? Verse 18 is the ending and where we find the title of really this message as well. Jesus is God and even though we've never seen God, we have seen Jesus and Jesus has made him known. Here's what he's saying. Do you want to know God? He asks the Jews and the Gentiles this, do you want to know God? Well, here's Jesus. And by the way, if you don't like Jesus, then you don't want to know God. That's just the reality. And so to all the Gentiles who are desiring to know this floating creature or this distant force in the distance and then to all the Jews who say, no, we are already children of God. We know God because we have the Old Testament and he's like, wait a minute, no, no, no, you have to hold on to Jesus because until you do that, you're not actually going to know God. So what? The answer to the religious person's problem and the answer to the atheist's questions are found in Jesus. Point A on your outline there is this. Jesus came near. He tabernacled. That is to live in a tent, to set up shop. His plan wasn't to stay forever, but to stay for a while in the flesh. And this is an Old Testament reference or correlation. God in the wilderness tabernacled with what people? The Israelites, right? Tabernacled, hung out, spent time with the Israelites. And this was special to them and something they held in high regard the Jews did. But the presence of God was not in the flesh while he was in the wilderness, was it? How did God manifest himself in the wilderness with the tabernacle? Through fire and through a cloud. That was God's presence is here. Look, there is fire there or there is cloud there. And so the Jews knew this. They said, when God shows up, when God tabernacles with us, it's through fire, something that we can't touch. We can't really, we don't want to come close to it. It's terrifying or a cloud, something we can't truly hold on to. And here, John says, God's going to show up again. He's going to tabernacle with you. And they're like, wait, I know that word. I know what you mean by that. But wait a minute, he's in the flesh. This is different than what we know. The connection to the tabernacle is significant because that's where people met with God. Now, Jesus is where people meet with God. Without Jesus, you don't meet with God. And for them, they say, we know the tabernacle, that structure, that's where we meet with God. And now Jesus is the one that you want to meet with God. Now you come through me. We sing a song about this, "Hark, the hero of angels sing. Veiled in flesh, the God heads see. Hail'd the incarnate deity. Pleased as men with men to dwell. Jesus, our Emmanuel. Jesus came near." And then for John, to be making the case that Jesus, the one they killed, was God, was that same God that they so revered that must have just cut to their heart. To some of them, Peter makes the same claim. If you read Acts chapter 2, Peter begins this case and he talks about how the Old Testament is pointed to Jesus. He says, here's all the things that Jesus did. He truly was God. And he said, and by the way, y'all killed him. And then some people, they're cut to the heart. And they say, what must we do? And he says, believe in Jesus. So what? So what? The God who was far off is now close. He didn't become less of a God. He didn't send a messenger in his place for us. He didn't send us a letter declaring his love or his good wishes for us. Rather, he came. We believe the Scriptures and others that tell us God came near in the person of Jesus. But many times, you and I don't feel this to be true. This is when it's time. Have you ever felt like that? That God isn't close. This is when it's time to have faith in the facts rather than letting feelings decide the truth. And this is hard. This can be hard when I feel like, especially if things are going very, in a challenging way, if things are falling apart, I feel like God is far away. He's not answering my prayer. And yet we say and we see in Scripture that God came near. Jesus came near. I believe that. And the Scriptures tell me that, but I don't feel that right now. And friends, this is hard to say, and it's hard to believe and to practice to say, God, I know your word to be true, even though I don't feel this reality true in my life right now. Now, sometimes God does come near in the form of another Christian. And sometimes God does come near in the form of a loving community. And sometimes God does come near in the quiet time that you have with Him. And yes, sometimes God does just feel distant. Others in Scripture have shown this to be true. God, where are you? Some have asked. And this is when gritty perseverance and eyes looking to God's faithfulness is what needs to dictate our life. Feelings of loneliness aren't sinful, but they're often solvable. Sometimes I'm feeling lonely. I feel like God is far away. And so I isolate rather than perhaps the way that God's going to demonstrate His love and His faithfulness and His kindness is through Christian community. Let's look at the last point here together and then we'll close. Jesus is or showed grace and truth. Jesus is both grace and truth. Now, what is grace? Grace is love, it's tolerance, it's I'm going to give a pass. It's to show kindness, it's to give benefit, it's to give blessing beyond what you're obligated or required to show or give. Now, what is truth? Truth is laws, rules, a specific path. The Old Testament law was not a display of God's grace in many ways, but God's demand for holiness. Now, I don't know about you, but we can often have a tendency as humans and as Christians to lean more on one side, the grace side or the truth side. This is sometimes seen or perhaps the tolerant side or the rural side. This maybe is most seen in parenting, where one person is more of, "Oh, yes, you can do what you want. Yeah, sure, you can have your third cookie tonight. I know it's nine o'clock, but still, it'll be fine." And then the other person, the other parent is like, "What are you, they've already had," and there's that balance back and forth of, "Here's grace and here's truth." Some friendships are like, "Here's grace and here's truth." In the Christian church, we can lean on, "Here's grace," and then other churches, "Here's truth," or "Here's rules," or "Here's legalism" on some side. Some people leave the church because they're like, "I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. I don't know what the gospel is because I don't hear anything about truth." They just, "Everything is fine, whatever you would like to do." And so I'm gonna, I don't get a whole picture of Jesus. And then you have the other side of, "Here's truth," or "Here's laws," or "Here's rules," or "Here's religion." It's like, "I don't like that Jesus either." And so we live, even as Christians, in the struggle between how to balance grace and truth. Have you felt this before? I don't, am I, should I be kind? Should I forgive them? Or should I say, "No, that was wrong." Should I say, "Yes, you can have a fifth cookie," or should I say, "No, it's time for bed." I don't know which one I should do. And in a religious and emotional sense as well, in the church sense, as a Christian, we struggle. Which way should I go? Grace or truth? Jesus, though, modeled this beautifully. He walked the line between grace and truth in everything that He did. I want to give you three examples before we close. In Jesus' walking through, one of the Gospels speaks of Jesus interacting with a woman caught in adultery. You know the story, perhaps? The woman is brought to Him and they are asked, "Jesus, should we really, should we let her go or should we stone her? What should we do?" And so Jesus, He kneels down, He writes, and He says, "If you haven't sinned, you cast the first stone." Now, what He didn't do there was, "It's fine, she just slipped up." It was a mistake. It was one night. It's not a big deal. That's not what He did, right? That would be way on the grace side, perhaps. And He also didn't live on this side saying, "Yep, should have killed her before she got here." Like, you read the law? Like, that's not what He did. He walked the line and He said, as He dismissed her, "Go and sin no more." We look way back to the book of Genesis. We see God practicing grace and truth with the first sin. Adam and Eve sinned and we see what God did, how He responded. He said, "Well, as we know later on in the scriptures, that the wages of sin is death, and so here's what God did. An animal is going to die, and I'm going to clothe you with their skin." We see grace and truth. He could have smote them dead and started over again, but He didn't do that. He walked the line of, "Here's grace. I'm going to cover you. I'm going to hide your shame, and I'm going to dismiss you, send you away from the garden. That's my truth. That's my judgment. And yet, I'm still going to bring about Jesus through both of you." And the Gospel, friends, is a display of grace and truth. John 8, 24 says this, "Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." The Gospel is good news, and it's good news because Jesus came to save us from dying in our sins. The Gospel is good news because we are walking the line between grace and truth. So what? Here's the question. Do you find yourself liking the love of God more than the law of God? And why? Maybe ask yourself that question. Or do you find yourself practicing the law of God more than living in the love of God? And again, ask yourself why. What do you, which side of those do you need to grow on? I am sure for everyone here today, and myself included, I need to practice and work on spending time with Jesus and figuring out what is that balance between the love of God and the grace of God as a child of God. My goal, I said at the beginning, is this, that we would deeply believe that the Christian's position is God's children. You and I, through Jesus, is the most significant identity that you and I can have. We have that identity because Jesus walked the line of grace and truth. Every single one of us have experienced that if we've trusted in Jesus. And I want to make this offer today. If you've never, you've never let go of this rock. You like the idea of Jesus, the love of Jesus, the grace of Jesus, the saving concept of Jesus, but you've never let go of your other thing that today you would choose to not only receive, but believe in Jesus as your Savior. Lord, we come before you today as the people who desperately need you, regardless of where we are, every day we need you. And we praise you, that you have brought us into your family. You did the work. You went to the cross. And you've called us to have faith in you. For those here today, Lord, who do not know you, have never let go of themselves and trusted themselves completely to you. Lord, I pray that you would work in their hearts this morning and they would choose to do that very thing. And also for those who have chosen to do that, Lord, that you would help us each day to hold on only to you and not reach out to anything else, that we would remind ourselves that as your children, the best place for us to be is in your arms. As we may experience fear and hardship at times, the best place for us to be is holding on only to you and nothing else. And thank you for the grace that you show us each day when we struggle with that very thing. In Jesus' name, Amen.
