The Word Revealed

Let me ask you, when you go out to a restaurant, which some of us do a little too often, I put my family in that category. Do you get to the stand and the host or hostess ask the question, how many kids menus? That happens for our family most places we go, partially that's because I have a 13-year-old who's going into high school next year, a 12-year-old, a nine-year-old, and a six-year-old. And so the host or hostess is trying to figure out, you know, how many kids' menus does this family want? And the answer to that I think depends on what's on the kids' menu. Now, when I said that, if you thought, yes, if chicken nuggets are on the kids' menu, then I want one. How many of you adults would claim and confess in here that you're a kid? A chicken nugget fan? All right, a few of you guys, I've seen some adults go to restaurants and they get chicken nuggets off the kids' menu, anyways, I don't mean the food, I mean what's on the kids' menu because those things can be fun. You know, my wife loves to color. If we're at a restaurant and she's in the mood and she's got those little pack of crayons, she'll just be going away and we'll be talking and she'll turn something around and it's like, you know, artwork that should be in a museum. I don't know how she does it. I definitely can't do any of those things. I go after the mazes or the word searches. Anybody like word searches here? They're fun, right? I know it's like hard to admit that, but you see something like this, these jumbled letters and an opportunity to go on a word search. I love being able to kind of like take a look at the words that you should be able to find and you find like the first couple letters and oh, is that it, no. Is that it, no? But then like it's a little tricky. Sometimes it's diagonal, sometimes it's backwards. What I really, really love is when my kids start to look for a word, they're trying to find it and they say, Dad, this word's not on here. And then I just motion in the direction of it and their face lights up and they're like, whoa. It's as if I almost made this thing show up on the page. And in reality, it had been there all along, right? It's a pretty amazing thing. These things are fun. But today as we're looking at our passage, I think we're gonna have a pretty similar experience as you see being circled on here. We've been walking through this 'Drama of God" series and we've seen how God has been revealing Himself to us. We've been able to discover that creation in God's mercy in the fall with sin, in His promises to Abraham and to Moses and to David. We've gotten to see God reveal His heart and His nature to us. And today we're gonna turn the page, we're gonna move into the New Testament and we're gonna be in John's gospel. And John begins by introducing us to the Word. By the way, that was there the whole time. I'm not sure if you knew that, it was right there. We see the idea of the word being explained to us and I think it's important for us to understand what John is getting after. First, by the way, this is the book of John that we're gonna be looking at and I don't want you to be confused by the name John. I am a John and so I know sometimes it can be confusing if you come here on a Sunday morning and you say, I'm looking for John, good luck. There's a number of us here and so we have to make sure we're not confused as to which John we're talking about. The Apostle John wrote this book we're gonna be getting into, but he's writing later about John the Baptist and so I'll make that clear as we move on here, but it's John the Apostle of Jesus who wrote this book and he did so because he had a purpose for us. I want us to see that purpose together. If we look near the end of the book, John chapter 20, he reveals it to us. Let's look at that together. John 20, verse 31 says this, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. This is John's stated purpose. As we open up the gospel of John, we have to remember that John wrote these things so that we might believe who Jesus is, everything He's done, everything He is and why and that by believing we'll have life in His name. Hang on to that idea, but I want us to think about the idea also that John introduces Jesus to us, and as he does, he introduces Him to us as the Word. Let's look again at John chapter one verses one and two. It says this, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Leave that here for one second. The idea that John opens his gospel by talking about the Word, that this is his introduction to Jesus is really critical for what we're gonna look at today. And maybe if you're a student of the Bible, you've heard some of the explanations already about why John has introduced Jesus as the Word. He could have chosen a whole lot of different descriptors to give us explanation, but he chooses to introduce Jesus as the Word. Some have said and rightly so, that John is reclaiming a Greek philosophy term. He uses the term logos in the Greek and so there's a whole bunch of understanding around that. We definitely see him calling back to creation, the Word and we'll get to that in a moment, but I think the main reason that we should focus in on why John calls Jesus the Word is because Jesus reveals God to us and Jesus Himself brings God's will into existence. Think about how our words do that. I've got thoughts in my brain, I've got desires in my heart, but you don't know what they are. They're not existing in the world yet, they're just in my mind and in my heart, but the words that I speak bring them into existence. They help to make those things reality in the world. They move my thoughts and my desires into action. And so in the same way we see that Jesus is speaking the Word of God to us, revealing God to us and bringing His will into existence. I want you to look at what Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter one, verse one and two. It explains the same idea. It says, in the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets and many times and in various ways, but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son whom He appointed heir of all things and through whom also He made the universe. We understand this idea that although God has been speaking to people for eternity since the creation began, that we also understand that in these last days, although He spoke through prophets, you remember Moses, that He spoke through a burning bush that in these last days He's chosen to reveal himself and speak to us by His Word, Jesus. Jesus, by everything He says, by everything He does, He is a representation of God. He helps us to understand who God is and He brings his will into existence. Here's our main idea for the day. I want you to write this down. We're gonna kind of orbit around this throughout the course of a day today. Main idea is this. When the word Jesus is revealed to us, God can be known and we can find life in Him. When the word Jesus is revealed to us, God can be known and we can find life in Him. How does that happen? Well, we're gonna look at a couple different points and dig into this John chapter one passage bit by bit here. First, number one, the word Jesus revealed God, the word Jesus revealed God. Let's look again at John chapter one, verses one through three and we'll see how this plays out here. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. We see this idea of Jesus being eternal, divine and the agent of creation. Eternal, divine and the agent of creation. Let's start with the first point. Jesus is eternal, as the Word reveals God to us, we see that Jesus is eternal. When you're gonna introduce Jesus to someone, maybe you would think to start with the Christmas story, right? Maybe you would start to think with Jesus born in a manger. We're very familiar with that. John doesn't start there. Maybe you would think to first introduce Jesus in His miraculous work, right? His earthly ministry, His first miracle or some sort of milestone there. John doesn't start there. Remember, this is the Apostle John. He was the witness of Jesus. He was a part of Jesus's ministry. He was there for all these things. John doesn't start there. Instead, he says something so profound and so revealing to the nature of Jesus. He says in the beginning, Jesus was. In the beginning, Jesus was. Remember the beginning, that phrase, how does Genesis 1:1 open? In the beginning, God. How does John 1 open? In the beginning was the Word, and so this profound statement Jesus was, is so important. Remember back to Genesis. Let's look at it together. Genesis 1, verses one through two says this. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters and God said, let there be light. And there was light. We see first in the beginning that God was already there, that God was already present. And not only that, he was speaking, he was creating. It's incredible to realize that and now John pulls back the curtain of reality to us and helps us to see that Jesus also was. Over and over and over, we see this statement in Genesis. It says, God said, and it was so. God said, and it was so. And now we realize that in this, Jesus was there. Jesus has always been, He didn't begin to have existence right there at the manger. He always was. And so that's profound for us because it helps us realize that Jesus was also there for every milestone in history. He was there when God was making His promise to Abraham. He was there when King David was crowned. Jesus always was, but not only was He always there, the second point, Jesus is divine. Jesus is divine. Jesus wasn't just there as some eternal heavenly spectator cheering God on from the sidelines saying, that's amazing. I'm here, I'm watching this. No, Jesus is also revealed as divine. Let's look again at John 1 verse one. It says, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Leave that there for one second. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. See, Jesus is being described. He's being described here as being with God and also being God. Does that feel like a contradiction to you? It's not, it's hard to get our minds around sometime, but it's a beautiful revelation that John is giving us. We're starting to get into a portion of what's called the Doctrine of the Trinity, and it's a beautiful understanding. We start to see God revealed to us as Jesus is revealed here. We see that God has revealed himself as co-eternal, coexistent, co-equal persons of the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit. The Spirit's not mentioned here in this verse, but He is mentioned a few verses later, but we do see is that Jesus is God. He is a distinct person of the Trinity and He Himself is God, one with God and in very essence, God. And while this is profound, I want us to realize it also is very critical to our faith, to our understanding of who Jesus is. Two subpoints here to pay attention to. First, Jesus is God. Don't miss that. Don't get confused by that. Jesus is God. He is in essence God. He operates with the same power and authority of God. He's not a created being. He's not someone who was sent by God as an angel who was doing some of those things. He is Himself God, and that's really, really important for us to understand. He has the same authority and power as God because He is God. But second, He is one with God. So He is God, but He is also one with God. He is a distinct person of the Trinity. God the Son. Remember John the Apostle wrote that the purpose of his writing was that we would believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and here he's revealing to us that Jesus is that second person of the Trinity. See, God isn't like some divine transformer, you know? It's like I'm God the Father. I'm God the Son. I'm God the Spirit, no, God is revealing Himself, has revealed Himself as Trinitarian, as three distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. And it's a beautiful, wonderful revelation 'cause it helps us understand that Jesus has always been God and has always been a distinct person within the Trinity, God the Son. And maybe you're wondering, well, did Jesus claim this? That's a question that we maybe asked. Is this something that's been ascribed to Him or something that has evolved over time to be part? But did Jesus claim this? And the answer is absolutely yes, He did. And I'm gonna show you something beautiful in a second. But there are places where Jesus says things like I and the Father are one, He certainly claims to be God and be in unity with God. But this passage I love, it's in John chapter eight, verse 58, and it says this, let erase these here for these guys. Go ahead with that. John 8:58 says this. Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Does that seem profound to you? Let me explain why it is. Before Abraham was, I am. Jesus is claiming both His eternality and His identity as God. He says before Abraham, hundreds of years before this time when He was speaking, Jesus says before Abraham was, that means that He preexisted him, His eternality. And then he says, I am. And it was such a profound statement that those were listening were ready to stone him to death because He used the same words that God used when He revealed himself to Moses. When Moses said, who is it that I should say sent me? And He says, I am that I am. So here, Jesus is both revealing His eternality. He preexisted Abraham. And His divinity because He is God. So we see that Jesus is eternal. We see that Jesus is divine. We also see that Jesus is the agent of creation. That the Word revealed God helps us to see that Jesus is the agent of creation. Now, buckle up for this because this is beautiful. This is absolutely wonderful. Let's look at John chapter one, verse two where it says this, through Him all things were made. Without Him, nothing was made that has been made. Man, through Him all things were made. Without Him, nothing was made that has been made. This is amazing insight, but let me just make sure that we're understanding the completeness of the statement. This is saying that everywhere, everything that ever has been, ever, Jesus made, that Jesus was the agent of creation. We could rewind back to Genesis and look at the places in which we see that God spoke and it was so, it was Jesus who was bringing those things into being. And I wanna point out two important truths that'll help us to really grapple with this and make sure we understand and clearly see what's being revealed to us here. Number one, Jesus made everyone. Follow me on the logic? If Jesus made everything, then Jesus made everyone, right? If Jesus made everything with no exceptions, then Jesus made every one. And here's why that's important, because as we're walking through the chronology of the scripture, as we're looking through each passage, the ways in which God is revealing himself, the ways in which we see God at work, we don't think of Jesus as just the next important chapter of that story. We don't see Jesus as the next in line after other important figures in scripture. No, no. Jesus made them. So when He's speaking to the people of his time and He's talking about Abraham and Moses and David, by claiming this, He's saying that Jesus made those people. So of course His supremacy is way greater than anyone else who could claim importance in the faith. Jesus made everyone, but also Jesus was not made. This leaves no room for this idea. And some would claim it, because you understand and you hear the phrase God the Son. And some think, oh, that's created order. That somehow God the Father conceived of God the Son, that God the Father made God the son. But John's gospel leaves absolutely no room for that because he says right here that without Him, nothing was made that has been made. Jesus was not made. Instead, all things were made through him. That's a critical understanding for us, understanding how God has revealed in this passage. So first the Word revealed God, but number two, the Word revealed hope. The Word revealed hope. I want us to look together at the next portion of this passage in John chapter one. Let's look in verses four through 13, which say this, in Him was life and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John, that's John the Baptist. Don't get confused. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light. So that through him all might believe, he himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world, he was in the world. And though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or of a husband's will, but born of God. As we think about the word revealing hope, I want us to look at a couple specific pieces here. First, hope in the darkness. Did you pick up on the very beginning of that passage where it talked about this, that there was light shining in the darkness? In order for that to be the case, we have to know that there is darkness. We have to realize that when sin entered the world, that the world became very, very dark. That people were cut off from their relationship with God and left to their own devices. And so pride and depravity and selfish desires rose up and everybody was kind of doing their own thing, wandering around, an awful, terrifying existence wandering around in the dark. As I was thinking about this, the picture that came to my mind, maybe you remember this, maybe you don't, I'm not sure, I'm not gonna poll anybody for age or anything like that, but in 2010, there was a really horrific mining accident in Chile. Anybody remember that? In 2010, there was this mining accident. Apparently a giant piece of rock fell through the shaft that was the entrance to this mine and there were 33 workers who were trapped underground for 69 days. Can you just imagine that? Can you imagine all of a sudden being cut off and all of a sudden being in the dark and being terrified? And we can ask some questions. Were those people alive? They were. Were they truly living or were they walking around in a terrified, dark existence? I mean, you can imagine if you're in the dark, right, you've got your hands out, you're feeling around, you could never take a step forward without really carefully walking to make sure you don't fall off something or bump into something or you know, there's danger in that, right? Yes, they were alive, but it was a terrifying existence where they were looking for even the smallest glimpse of light. I read one article that said that, you know, they would turn on their lamps as a treat to themselves so that for a few moments they could see, but for the most part, they lived in the dark. That's desperation. So as we picture the world that way, and then we think about this reality that into the darkness, the light shined, available to all, overcoming the darkness, what a beautiful reality that was. And even beyond that, as we look a few verses later, we'll see that not only was the light of life coming into the world, but God wanted to make sure that people didn't miss it. People were so used to the darkness that God wanted to send a witness to ensure that people didn't miss it. Look at John chapter one, verses six through eight. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This is John the Baptist. He came as a witness to testify concerning the light so that through him, all might believe. He himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light. Think about this reality that God commissioned a witness to go before Jesus, to be someone to point attention to the light, to give direction to help people understand that there was hope in this. And I think that reveals God's heart. I think it helps us to remember that God wants people to find rescue. God wants people to not wander in the dark. So much so that He commissioned a witness to ensure that people didn't miss that hope and that hope is Jesus, the true light. And again, if we look further in John's gospel, we'll see that Jesus Himself claimed this for Himself. He testified to this truth. He identified as being this light. Let's look together at John chapter eight, verse 12. It says this, when Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. I think it's an incredible, incredible hope that we find hope in the darkness. But we also find in that, and Jesus was alluding to this in that passage here, we find hope of life. Hope of life. This wasn't just a word of encouragement from heaven. This wasn't just a, hey down there, I'm sorry that it's so dark. Hope you're doing okay. It wasn't that, right? Jesus was a blazing beacon of life that was being shown in the darkness because Jesus Himself is that hope. Let's look together at John one, verse four, which says this, in Him was life and that life was the light of all mankind. Again, go back to this picture of the mine. You're in the dark, you're terrified, you're life is uncertain. And then all of a sudden, a light breaks through that barricade and you start to be able to see a light getting brighter and brighter coming towards you. Are you just excited that you can see again? Like is that the primary thing going through your mind or is it instead that it's your rescue? Instead, do you start to realize that this light that was coming towards you is gonna bring hope of new life? That yes, maybe you exist, but more than that, you could be freed from this terrified darkness, that you could be freed from this existence in the dark and you could regain real life outside the barricade of those things. And I think that's important for us to see as well, not only hope of life though, but last, hope of adoption. And we see this as we look further on to this chapter. It took together in John chapter one again, which says this, He was in the world, meaning Jesus, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive him, yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or of a husband's will, but born of God. I think this is shocking and also wonderful at the same time. I think it's shocking truth and I think it's wonderful hope, shocking truth for this reason. We see in this passage that Jesus came to His own. We just learned that Jesus made everyone, right? So Jesus came to dwell among the people that He created. He was coming to humanity, but not just humanity. He was coming to God's people, Israel. As we've been learning through this entire series, we see that God covenanted with these people, that God made them a promise. He established them as a people, and Jesus was coming to those people. Those people had been longing and looking and waiting for a Messiah. And when Jesus came, they didn't recognize Him. They rejected Him. The religious leaders who were carrying the law so deep, the religious leaders who were so intent on paying attention to the scriptures that they held so dear, when Jesus showed up, they rejected Him. What a shocking reality that is. But at the same time, while it's shocking, it's also a wonderful hope for us because John's declaring that life is not just found now through one lineage, that you don't have to be a member of the family tree of Israel, but instead we can be grafted in to this family that God is creating and giving us hope of life and what a beautiful reality that is to think. Imagine this contrast that you could at once go from being someone scared and wandering in the dark, someone who was desperate and terrified to being rescued not only into life, but also into adoption as a child of God, that you could be embraced and welcomed and safe as a family member, a child of God. It's a wonderful, glorious, beautiful revelation that we see here. So we see the Word revealing God. We see the Word revealing hope, but I want us to make sure we don't miss this third point that the Word revealed in the flesh, that the Word was revealed in the flesh. Look together with me at John one, verse 14 as we continue through this chapter. It says, the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father full of grace and truth. God has always been speaking to His people. He's always been interacting with His creation. If we go back to Genesis, we see how God was walking with Adam and Eve through the Garden, having a relationship face to face. But we know as we read through scripture that that relationship was severed, it was broken. This is where the darkness came from, that now people didn't have that opportunity to be in close relationship with God. And God the Son comes in the flesh to restore that relationship, to reclaim that relationship face to face, close proximity, no longer distance. God has always been speaking to His people. He's always been interacting with his creation. If we go back to Genesis, we see how God was walking with Adam and Eve through the Garden, having a relationship face to face. But we know as we read through scripture that that relationship was severed. It was broken. This is where the darkness came from, that now people didn't have that opportunity to be in close relationship with God. And God the Son comes in the flesh to restore that relationship, to reclaim that relationship face to face, close proximity, no longer distance. And we can see a few reasons why He came in the flesh. The first is that He came to fulfill his promise. The Word revealed in the flesh came to fulfill His promise. Again, you just think about the beautiful culmination of what it means for Jesus, the Son of God, the eternal and glorious one, the one who was the agent of creation to become human, to become a man, to step into creation. And he did that, first, to fulfill His promise. We've been reading through the scripture account, we've been seeing these promises of God and now in Jesus, John reveals to us that Jesus is the new and perfect Adam, the promised seed of Abraham's covenant. That Jesus is the fulfillment of the law of Moses in bodily form. That Jesus is the promised king of the forever dynasty of David. And we see that He's the great mediator of the promised covenant we learned about last week in Jeremiah. Jesus Himself is the fulfillment of God's promise. And we see Jesus affirm this Himself. Look together with me at John chapter five, later in John's gospel where he says this to some religious leaders and Pharisees of the day. He says, you study the scriptures, speaking to those Pharisees. You study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify about me that you refuse to come to me to have life. Jesus is saying you've missed it. You've been walking around, holding onto these scriptures thinking in them as eternal life, but I am the fulfillment of the promise. I am the one who has come to fulfill all those things you're talking about. You're missing it. It's an incredible thing. 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul says this, for no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ. And so through Him, the Amen is spoken to us by the glory of God. Every promise that God has made, every promise that was foretold in the Old Testament, they are yes in Jesus. The Word came in the flesh to fulfill God's promise. But second, the Word revealed in the flesh came to die. Came to die. I think we have to make sure that we soberly remember this in our minds, that Jesus came in the flesh and we can read through all the gospel accounts, all the wonderful things that He did. He certainly came to live. He came to live a life that was perfect, that was sinless. He ushered in a kingdom that He was bringing. If you read through the Sermon on the Mount, you can see all the ways in which Jesus was describing this kingdom living and was living it out. Jesus was an incredible teacher. He was healing, He was loving on people. He came to live, but He also came specifically to die. He became flesh, became a man so that He could die. And He made that very clear, in case you're ever thinking to yourself, Jesus' death was a tragic ending or an unfortunate demise of a wonderful teacher. You're wrong. Jesus made it clear that He intentionally and purposefully came as a human to die. Look up with me at John chapter 10 as we look later in John's gospel. He says, these are Jesus' words. The reason my father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down and I have the authority to take it up again, this command I received from my Father. Do you see the beauty of the Trinity at work there? Did you see how that was playing out? Jesus claims both He has the authority to lay down His own life. He has the authority to take it up and that the Father willed it. And so he was bringing that will into existence. It's a beautiful and wonderful truth, but at the center of it, we see that Jesus Himself unified within the Godhead, was working to accomplish His will. The Son of God came to die and he came to die willingly and His life had a purpose. That's the third point here, that the Word became flesh to give us life, came to give us life. His death was very purposeful because you see, God wanted us to know Him. Remember back in the beginning when I was talking about through this different series, we had all these different things that were being revealed, different ideas of Abraham's promise and things to Moses, all that on that, that word search grid, right? All these different things that were coming into being, we could see a clear picture of God's revelation. We saw what he was doing with Abraham and with Moses and with David. We could see all that, but we also had all this marring, all this barrier that was coming into place as we saw sin, just continue to stack up the barriers between us and God, rebellion and pride and selfishness, violence, addiction, slander, jealousy, betrayal, greed. Fill in the word that you want to use. We know that the world is broken, and if we're honest, we know that that's the problem. We have no ability of our own to break through that barrier. We have no ability of our own to allow that sin to go away. And so that barrier that's come into place has become the problem. We could do nothing to get rid of that, we could do nothing to, no sacrifice, no effort, no work on our part could do that. But this is why Jesus came. Jesus came to die and he did it on purpose. The Word became flesh so that in His death, we could have life. The word became flesh, spilling His blood, dying on a cross willingly, brutally and horrifically, but not tragically because in the spilling of His blood, all of this sin was covered over, all of this brokenness was done away with. And as it is, we see that the covering of the sin by Jesus's blood reveals life, real and true life that we can find, those barriers removed. This life revealed to us. And by the way, Jesus didn't stay dead. He died on our behalf. He shed His blood to overcome death and to overcome sin. And the way that He did that was because He was resurrected. He went first in proving that He was the source of life. He is the source of life. And three days later, He didn't stay dead in the tomb. God raised Him in power and He lives today as the glorious Son of God sitting at the right hand of the Father, our Savior, our Overcomer. He proved to us that He is powerful enough to overcome sin and overcome death, and He invites us to follow him into that. Yes, amen. What beautiful, wonderful truth this is. Remember the main point of today, you can see it on the side screens, when the Word Jesus has revealed to us, God can be known and we can find life in Him. Look, humanity wants this, whether you think it or not, maybe you talk to friends and you think, you know, I'm a believer in Jesus, or maybe you've not yet done that and you think people don't really want this, they don't want to. I promise you, people want to know God and they feel distanced from Him. People want to understand who God is. Do you know that every day, 200 times a second, the question is put into Google, who is God? Worldwide, 200 times every day, every second, that phrase, who is God is put into Google. Think about how many queries that is. I'm really bad at math. I won't try and do it, but that's a crazy amount of people who are searching for the question who is God? Because they feel distant, because they feel like their life is incomplete. Because they feel hopeless. Why? Because they're in the dark, because they're feeling desperate, because they have no hope. And God in His Son has made a way for us to have life, for us to know Him. And in knowing Him, to find that true life, it's an incredible reality. Not only to be able to know Him, but also to be able to be in a place where we could be adopted to be called His child, to be safely a part of the family of God, not just living an existence, but living real and full and true and free life that is found in God as a child of His. And I want us to remember that John's gospel was written, not just that we would know this, but that we would believe this. Those were what he said, right? John 20, he said, these were written so that you would believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised one, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His name. It was John's hope. It is God's hope. It is my hope that you would believe on the name of Jesus and find life. If you've never done that before, I'm not finishing up right now, but I'm gonna tell you at the end, I've been praying for you. If you've never before put your faith and trust in Jesus, all week, I've been praying for you that you would do that. That you would believe who Jesus is, and that by accepting, by believing the truth of who He is, that you would find life out of the darkness and you'd be freed from the hopelessness that you have. There is life beyond this dark existence and it can be found in Jesus Christ. In a moment, I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna pray specifically for those of you who may not have yet done that, but I do want to give three challenges to those of you who are believers in Jesus today who claim to know this truth and are walking out the faith that we together have been given in Christ. Three quick points that I think would be really powerful and important for us to pay attention to together. The first is this together, friends, let's see Jesus clearly. Let's see Jesus clearly, let's take serious the revelation of scripture. Do you realize that we have the very Word of God in our hands? Whether it's in a physical Bible you brought with you to church today, whether it's on a digital device or maybe none of those things, you could still go on Google and instead of typing in who is God, you can type in the Bible and you can have access to it. Right now, today, God has given us His inspired Word. He's given us the truth of who Jesus is. But let's see Him clearly. You may have a Jehovah's witness come knock on your door, wanna have a conversation with you and what they're gonna tell you that Jesus is not, He's a created person, that He is not God. He'll tell you that He is a god. They will say, but He's a created being. And that's not true. You may have a Muslim friend who will talk with you and they also believe in Jesus' existence, but they will say, you know, Jesus is not God. There's only one God. You believe in three gods. That's not true. We just learned about that today, right? Even worse, you in your own heart may make Jesus lesser than He actually is. And the way that we combat that, the way that we ensure that we understand seeing Jesus clearly, is if we spend time in His Word and we take seriously the revelation of God so we can know and see Jesus for who He really is. So I encourage you see Jesus clearly. Number two, walk in the light. Jesus has been revealed here as the light of life. He says, those who follow Him will not walk in darkness. So believer, where are you still walking in darkness even though you follow the light of life? Cut it out. Don't do it. There's no reason to. Can you imagine being a person trapped in a mine and then the light of life breaks through that and you say, yeah, I'm just gonna hang out in the mine for a little bit longer. You know, I kind of like it over here. I got this little space that I created for myself. How crazy would people think you are if you chose to stay in darkness when you've had the light of life brought to you? I don't know if it's an addiction. I don't know if it's a wrong relationship. I don't know if it's a broken thought pattern. I don't know if it's something else in your life. Maybe it's something with your finances, I don't know. But I do know this, keeping things in the shadows, holding things in the darkness, you stay trapped. Drag it into the light and allow the light of life to illuminate and heal and redeem all parts of us so that we can fully embrace and live the life that He's given us to live. Walk in the light and I pray today that you would give great consideration to where there may be places in your life where you're still walking in the dark. Number three, live as a witness. Live as a witness. God saw fit to send John the Baptist ahead of Jesus to be sure nobody missed Him. And Jesus commissioned His followers, says, you will be my witnesses He said, to ensure that no one misses Him. We, if you claim to be a follower of Jesus, you are a witness for Christ. Are you bearing out that witness in the way you talk, in the way you live your life, in the people you interact with? We just got to a see a wonderful commissioning by a young couple who are going in faith to another continent to be sure nobody misses the light of life. Surely we can do that in our neighborhoods. Surely we can do that in our workplaces. Surely we can do that with our own family, with our own kids, with our own friendships. We are called to be witnesses. So where are we living as a witness? I'd ask you today to pray. Where do you need to step up in living out the witness life that God's called you to? This is a wonderful, beautiful revelation that the Word, Jesus, has been revealed to us and we've learned about what it looks like to see God because of this, to see hope because of this and realize that Jesus came in the flesh for us. So let's live in that reality today. Would you pray with me? As our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, I'm gonna invite our prayer partners to come down front. I wanna tell you how thankful I am that you've listened today, that you've given consideration to the teaching of the Word today, for the grace you've shown to me. It's a wonderful, beautiful truth that I believe God wants to use in your life today. It is powerful. Not my words, but His words are powerful. And if you're here today and you've never before put your faith and trust in Jesus, I'm going to pray in a moment, I'm gonna pray for you and I'm gonna ask you to be bold at the end of our service and come down and speak to one of these prayer partners and let 'em know that you're walking in darkness and you want to find the light of life, that you wanna live the real life that only Jesus brings. You can do that today. All you have to do is take that step to do what John said, that you would believe in who Jesus is and in believing, you would have life in His name. I pray that you would take that step today. For believers here, I pray that you would take those challenges seriously, that you would look closely to see, am I taking Jesus at His word? Do I see Him clearly? Am I living in the darkness or do I need to get rid of some of that stuff and do some business about walking things into the light or about living as a witness? I pray that today you would come forward and speak to one of these prayer partners if you'd like to, or speak to another brother and sister in Christ and work these things out so that the light of life would shed illumination on your life. Father, I thank you for this day. I thank You for the beauty of Your Word. Thank You for the grace You've shown us in teaching us these things and helping us to see the reality of who You are, what You've done. God, You have done wonderful, gracious, mighty things for us. Who are we that we would be considered a child of God if we would put our hope and faith in You? God, I pray today for those who have never yet before taken that step, that You would give 'em courage to help 'em know that people here love them and want more than anything, to see them come from the darkness and into the light. I pray for our church today, God, that You would use each of these challenges to help us to see You clearly, to not live in the shadows and to live as a witness so that no one around us would miss the light that was coming that could bring hope in life. God, thank you for all the ways in which You've revealed Yourself to us. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.