Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Since the beginning of the year, I've been studying the book of the Gospel of John.
[00:00:09] And I want to open up the Gospel of John with you today. And just going to look at a few verses together.
[00:00:15] And as we look at these few verses, we're going to see the mystery and the wonder and the incredible magnitude of eternity and its special plans in each of our lives.
[00:00:26] Going to call this. This changes everything.
[00:00:30] And that's what the Gospel is called and purposed to do is to change everything.
[00:00:37] I meet lots of people who love Jesus, but their relationship with him is like a friend. You know, they occasionally text and they occasionally meet up.
[00:00:46] They occasionally have some good memories that they make.
[00:00:50] I have others met other people that love Jesus, but they love him like a good work colleague. They hang out with him and they do things together.
[00:00:58] But the relationship that God wants to have with us is deeper and more profound than a good friend or a good work colleague or someone that you will occasionally connect with and enjoy their company.
[00:01:12] And we're going to see in these opening verses of John's Gospel that Jesus in these opening words challenges the very thought of a mediocre Christianity in a way that I believe is going to help us to know something fresh of the Lord in our lives.
[00:01:31] So let's look together.
[00:01:32] John's Gospel, chapter one, verses one to five, Says this.
[00:01:41] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
[00:01:52] It's a good idea. Why don't we read it together?
[00:01:59] Don, you can close your eyes and recite it.
[00:02:04] Come on. Here we go. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
[00:02:16] All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
[00:02:23] In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
[00:02:28] The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
[00:02:36] John doesn't open this chapter with a manger.
[00:02:41] He doesn't open it with a lineage.
[00:02:44] He opens it with eternity.
[00:02:47] This is not a gentle introduction that tries to bring the reader slowly into his narrative.
[00:02:54] It's a wrecking ball to small, casual, convenient Christianity.
[00:02:59] John is deliberately echoing the words found in Genesis 1, where those words say, in the beginning, God created the heavens and earth.
[00:03:13] In the beginning God created.
[00:03:15] But here's the difference.
[00:03:17] Genesis tells you when the world began.
[00:03:22] John tells you what was already true when that beginning happened.
[00:03:29] In the beginning was the Word not became the Word, was was the Word.
[00:03:37] When time began, he the Word. Christ Jesus already was.
[00:03:45] When space unfolded, he already was.
[00:03:51] When atoms form together, he already was.
[00:03:57] This is not the beginning of God. This is the beginning of everything that is not God.
[00:04:06] We read in verse three, all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
[00:04:17] That means he, the word Christ Jesus did not come into being.
[00:04:25] He is not some form of spiritual upgrade that evolved over time.
[00:04:30] He was and is and is to come.
[00:04:34] It means he's not a moral teacher who arrived late in history.
[00:04:40] He is the eternal Creator who stepped into his own creation.
[00:04:47] And if that's true, trivial Christianity dies immediately.
[00:04:53] I'm going to give you five things that this makes a significant, relevant impact to my life and to yours.
[00:05:02] First of all, the word is not an add on.
[00:05:07] John uses the word in the Greek. Much of the New Testament was written in the language of the Greek. And it says this word that in the beginning was the Logos.
[00:05:20] The word now. This meant something to the Jews and it meant something to the Gentiles.
[00:05:28] To the Jews, the word Logos means that God creates by speaking our language. Our words are really important today.
[00:05:40] It's amazing how you can declare things over your life and over circumstances that then become the narrative to which you live up to.
[00:05:50] God spoke. He said, let there be light, and there was light.
[00:05:58] God creates by speaking. And the Jews had a complete understanding of that.
[00:06:04] Also the Jews understood that God's word accomplishes his will.
[00:06:10] In the book of Isaiah, chapter 55, it says these words that God's Word will not return to him. Void.
[00:06:17] If you've moved home and you've had some mail for the previous occupier of the home and you don't know where they've gone to, and you might just write RTS on the envelope, put it back in the post box, return to sender and it will go back to the originator without accomplishing its intention.
[00:06:35] It's not communicated what it meant to communicate. It's not been understood. In a way it was meant to be understood. It's returned void.
[00:06:44] God's word never returns void.
[00:06:47] When he speaks, it always goes to his intended recipient. It always accomplishes his intended purposes.
[00:06:55] And the Jews understood that.
[00:06:57] Also the Jews understand that God's wisdom is alive and embodied.
[00:07:03] We read analogies in the Book of Proverbs. That wisdom cries out into the street, talks about the woman of noble character, talks about the wisdom encapsulated in in form that wisdom is embodied. It's not just a philosophy. It finds its place in lives.
[00:07:21] To the Greeks, Logos was understood as the rational ordering principle of the universe.
[00:07:32] John says to both the Jews and the Greeks, you're both right, but you're both not going far enough.
[00:07:41] Because the Logos is not an idea.
[00:07:44] It is a person.
[00:07:46] The Logos is God.
[00:07:49] And that means this. You don't add God to your life. You calibrate according to his existence.
[00:07:57] He predates your life.
[00:07:59] He predates your culture.
[00:08:02] He predates your preferences.
[00:08:05] He predates your politics. He predates your trauma. He predates your success.
[00:08:11] You don't fit him into your schedule. You recalibrate your entire existence around him who was and is and is to come.
[00:08:23] If your political ideology sits above Christ, then repent and realign.
[00:08:31] If your cultural identity sits above Christ, then repent and realign. If your wounds define you more than Christ defines you, then repent and realign. If your ambition outruns your obedience, then repent and realign.
[00:08:51] If the Word is not your foundation, you are building on sand, and sand feels stable until the storms hit.
[00:09:04] Second thing we extract from these verses is the Word is not threatened by your moment.
[00:09:12] We often feel in this life that we're trapped in sequence.
[00:09:17] We, in the middle of a crisis, will understand the circumstances that maybe led up to that moment.
[00:09:24] If you've had a car crash, you might have flashbacks to the moments that led up to that occasion. Any crisis. We begin to see that there's a sequence of events.
[00:09:36] And when we're at that moment, we also begin to understand and think and maybe try to imagine what the consequences are ahead of us on that timeline.
[00:09:48] We imagine what may be and that trapped in sequence of what has led up to it and what may be ahead of it. That feeling of being trapped in time creates within us a sense of urgency.
[00:10:04] It creates pressure, and it can cause us to feel a sense of panic. It can cause us to feel like we're surrounded by our circumstance.
[00:10:16] But listen to this.
[00:10:19] The Word who created time is not trapped inside it.
[00:10:28] He, the Word. Jesus is never surprised by your moments.
[00:10:35] He's never rushed by your moments, and he never needs to improvise.
[00:10:43] So I want to exhort you, Church, to put your trembling timelines into the hands of God, the One who is outside of time.
[00:10:52] And trust the One who is outside of time to help you who is in time.
[00:10:58] I find that anxiety shrinks when sovereignty expands.
[00:11:03] If your view of God makes him reactive, anxious, or scrambling in your ideation, your theology is too small.
[00:11:12] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God, and the Word is God. In your life today. And the Word is God in Exeter today. And the Word is God in your family today. And the Word is God in your business today. And the Word is God in your illness today. And the Word is God in your relationships today. The Word was and is God and there is nothing that surprises him.
[00:11:41] Thirdly, the Word is personal.
[00:11:45] It says the Word was with God and the Word was God.
[00:11:54] Before molecules, before galaxies, before DNA, there was relationship.
[00:12:03] At the center of the universe is not chaos, it's not dark matter, it's not physics, it's not randomness. At the center of the universe is a relational love.
[00:12:20] God is love before anything began in this world.
[00:12:28] God is love and the Trinity as we know it, the Father, the Son and the Spirit, all present at this time that John is capturing here this moment of eternity that he gives us a glimpse into.
[00:12:48] The Father, Son and Spirit have this relationship together.
[00:12:53] And the creation flows from that relationship. And the creation invites you and I into that relationship.
[00:13:01] This means that love is not an evolutionary accident.
[00:13:10] This means that communication is not a social invention.
[00:13:18] This means that community is not optional.
[00:13:23] This means that isolation is a distortion of God's truth.
[00:13:29] This means that hyper individualism is rebellion against your design.
[00:13:36] You cannot have a private, self contained Christianity.
[00:13:45] If you claim deep theology but avoid fellowship, you are contradicting the very nature of God.
[00:13:55] That nature that you claim to follow.
[00:13:58] You break by avoiding fellowship.
[00:14:04] The eternal God exists in communion.
[00:14:08] And you think you can thrive outside of communion?
[00:14:13] No.
[00:14:17] It has been fashionable in recent years, something that has even got a title of deconstruction.
[00:14:28] People, they say, well, I want to go through the word of God and I want to take out of it everything that I've understood to be a social construction.
[00:14:38] And one of the things they often take out of that is a sense of a need to belong to a church community. Now church communities can look different.
[00:14:46] They can fill cathedrals, they can fill homes.
[00:14:50] Community has various expressions and various demonstrations.
[00:14:56] But if you deconstruct and you isolate, you are breaking the very nature of the design of God in your life.
[00:15:06] It is not good for man to be alone, or woman or friend.
[00:15:16] It is not good.
[00:15:19] The disciples didn't just fall in love with Jesus teaching or miracles.
[00:15:27] They fell in love with his. Fellowship is communion, is relationship.
[00:15:34] And that's what we as a church are called to do.
[00:15:37] Not to fall in love with our gatherings on a Sunday, not to fall in love with the activities, not to fall in love with the things that we do when we gather together. But we're called to egg each other on, to fall in love deeper with Jesus, because at the very epicenter of creation is a God who is relational.
[00:15:59] I'm going to pause a moment. Got two more points to get through. But the statistics tell us that we have an isolation loneliness epidemic in our world.
[00:16:12] And in a way, the very nature of that phraseology, an epidemic of loneliness, it highlights that science and social science has understood something of the nature of God, that he's made us not to be alone.
[00:16:30] He's designed us not to be in isolation.
[00:16:34] If you are lonely and isolated, it might just be.
[00:16:43] It might just be that there's a mindset in you that a stronghold that needs breaking, that stronghold might be that the enemy has got into your life from a very young age and he's caused you to feel rejected and unlovely and unliked.
[00:16:59] And therefore every room you walk into now, you assume that people are going to reject you.
[00:17:04] So you don't walk in rooms as much as you should.
[00:17:07] And if there is an environment where people are going to show interest in you, you particularly avoid those you don't get involved in connect groups because they're too intimidating and because the rejection, if that comes, will be too hard for you.
[00:17:24] And I believe our Lord wants to break every stronghold that sets himself up in opposition to Christ.
[00:17:33] Let's pray together.
[00:17:37] I thank you that you break the chains.
[00:17:42] I thank you that there is no one in this room or watching online that is called to be alone.
[00:17:53] And I pray for every seed that the enemy has sown in hearts and minds that have distorted that truth, that you would come with your healing balm and you would come and bring a revelation of the kingdom that breaks every aspect of rejection in every life in this place.
[00:18:20] And I pray that the next chapter of every life in this room will be of thriving in the purposes and the things of God, in fellowship with God and in fellowship with others.
[00:18:39] So let your anointing come and bring that reset and that healing and that deliverance.
[00:18:52] In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:18:58] Just to press home one point on this, a little bit more on this particular aspect, I find that when you go through some of the most difficult days, the instinct can be to withdraw.
[00:19:13] And I think there's an aspect of that, that's pride, that we don't want to be seen as weak.
[00:19:24] I think an aspect of that is pride because we. We don't want to be looking like we need other people in our lives.
[00:19:33] So we withdraw.
[00:19:36] And if you reflect right now that you're withdrawing, I Want to ask that the mercy and the grace of the Lord will touch your life and that you will run towards the purposes of God in Jesus name.
[00:19:52] Fourthly, from these scriptures, the Word is Creator.
[00:19:58] It says all things were made through Him.
[00:20:04] Jesus is not just our Redeemer, he is architect, Creator, innovator.
[00:20:18] Right now there is a trend in society that is a really dangerous trend. It's called manifesting.
[00:20:28] When I grew up in church, manifesting was when the touch of God came upon you and your body reacted in some way. But manifesting today is a is a new age origin principle.
[00:20:41] And I've seen numerous TV programs recently where people are saying, I'm going to win this. I've manifested it.
[00:20:47] What they mean is that there is a will of mind over matter. They put in their life and they try and perceive the result that they want. And then they convince themselves that by focusing their energies and focusing their intentions that they can make that happen.
[00:21:05] It's dangerous.
[00:21:07] It's anti God.
[00:21:12] It tries to convince you that your thoughts and emotions can create your desired outcome. It's potentially seductive for a world that has been made in the image of God with the creative abilities of a God that was able to speak and make things happen.
[00:21:30] It's a counterfeit.
[00:21:33] It's a shadow of the intended purpose of God because we were made in his likeness with the ability to create. But what manifesting does is you can do it.
[00:21:46] Manifesting replaces surrender with self exaltation.
[00:21:52] It crowns individuals as being sovereign of their own life.
[00:21:57] You are not the architect, you are and not the one that is sovereign over your own destiny and reality.
[00:22:08] He is.
[00:22:13] But there is creativity in you.
[00:22:16] And your creativity flourishes not when you assert control, but when you yield it to the creative spirit that's within you.
[00:22:29] When you yield your business to the sovereign purposes of God, you will find a greater expression of creativity that comes within your life.
[00:22:41] When you yield your education to the creative architected purposes of God, you will find that your mind will stretch and you will go further.
[00:22:51] When you yield your relationships to the purposes of the Divine, you find that he brings his creativity and and his solutions and his wisdom into your relationships. When you bring his ways and you yield to his leadership, you find that your leadership grows and develops because you're now emulating him in your work.
[00:23:15] And whatever your job, whatever you do with your hands during the week, or your mind, or your heart, whatever you give yourself to, if you will allow your life to be yielded to the purposes of God, your work is spiritual.
[00:23:29] You don't have to work for the church to be involved in spiritual activity.
[00:23:33] Your work is spiritual when it's yielded to God.
[00:23:37] You can have the best ideas around your boardroom table because you are yielded. And the Spirit of God can speak to you. He can bring divine revelation into your life. He can allow those gifts of the Spirit to bring you knowledge and insight that you don't have.
[00:23:53] Why? Because in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God, and the Word is God and the Word is in you.
[00:24:05] Everything's spiritual when it's submitted to the Creator.
[00:24:10] If Christ is Creator, then nothing in your life is secular.
[00:24:20] Nothing.
[00:24:23] Fifthly, the Word became flesh.
[00:24:32] We read those words later in John 1. It says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
[00:24:39] This is the collision of eternity and history.
[00:24:48] Jesus didn't simply observe humanity, he entered it.
[00:24:58] He came and experienced what it is to feel hungry, to experience fatigue and tiredness.
[00:25:10] He experienced grief, he experienced the feelings of rejection.
[00:25:18] He experienced physical and emotional pain.
[00:25:23] He didn't just observe us, he came among us.
[00:25:29] He entered the timeless.
[00:25:33] The One who was and is and is to come steps into time that he created to be with us.
[00:25:42] Around AD 250 there was a big plague epidemic that hit the Roman world.
[00:25:52] And during this plague of the Cyprian it was called, it was a city called Carthage.
[00:26:02] And some of the documents about this, this plague, that there were bodies just piled up and rotting in the streets and that those who didn't die left the city because they didn't want to die.
[00:26:20] So the city population either died or left.
[00:26:26] But there was a bishop, the Bishop, the Cyprian, he called on the Christian community to run towards the city to care for the hurting, to care for the dying. And they knew that it was likely to impact their well being and their life.
[00:26:50] And I just imagine this scene of everyone on their evacuation out of the city and the Christians walking in the other direction towards it.
[00:27:00] Why do they do that?
[00:27:02] Because the Word became flesh and dwelt among our lostness and our darkness. And the Church goes to those people and those places that are dark, that are lost, that are broken, that are hurting. And it takes healing, it takes hope, it takes light.
[00:27:20] Because we have a God who moves towards suffering, not away from it.
[00:27:24] And because of that his people move towards suffering.
[00:27:29] When the world runs from the broken, the Church should run towards them.
[00:27:34] If your Christianity keeps you comfortable, insulated and distant from the pain around us, then it does not look like the Word became flesh.
[00:27:50] So five simple principles to add on to our lives from these few verses summarize them for you.
[00:28:03] He, the Word is not an add on.
[00:28:06] He, the Word is not threatened by your moment.
[00:28:10] He, the Word is eternally relational.
[00:28:13] He, the Word is the Creator.
[00:28:17] He, the Word becomes flesh.
[00:28:22] This is not a lifestyle enhancement.
[00:28:28] This is a cosmic reality.
[00:28:32] And here is the application for your life and for mine.
[00:28:36] Stop fitting Jesus into the spare component parts of your life.
[00:28:44] Rebuild your life with him in the center and everything else revolving around the Word.
[00:28:55] Recalibrate your identity according to the Word.
[00:29:03] There are so many identity tools in our world today.
[00:29:09] There are so many psychometric tests that you can do that try to highlight the skills, the gifts, the capabilities. There are so many psychological tests that will try to analyze your weakness or analyze those things that are problematic in your life.
[00:29:28] But the Word says some things over you.
[00:29:32] And that Word existed before any of those tests came into being, before any identity was stated over a people group in society.
[00:29:44] In the beginning was the Word.
[00:29:47] Recalibrate your identity around the Word of Christ.
[00:29:53] Let your priorities be recalibrated by the Word.
[00:29:57] If it doesn't sit in the priority of the Word, then don't let it sit in the priority of your life.
[00:30:05] Recalibrate your relationships according to the Word.
[00:30:09] Recalibrate your ambitions according to the Word, and recalibrate your fear according to the Word.
[00:30:20] Because the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not, will, not, cannot overcome it.
[00:30:32] The light shines in every dark chamber of your heart and your mind, and the light shines. And if you will allow the light to shine, there is no power that is greater.
[00:30:47] So the only question before we pray together that I would like to ask you is this.
[00:30:55] Is your life aligned to the light?
[00:31:01] Or are you still trying to manage Jesus like some sort of accessory in your week?
[00:31:13] John, in this explosive opening to his book, doesn't leave room for any middle ground.
[00:31:26] Neither should we.
