Through the Word

hi Pastor Matt listen thank you for downloading or streaming this sermon pray that it blesses your heart two quick things that I want to lay before you before we get started in the proclamation of God's Word the first is and I love that you're dialing in to hear what the Lord's put on our heart here at TVC but I ask that you would only consume these messages as supplemental and in no way replacing your commitment and your listening to your local church pastor these are good gifts of God's grace for the people of God to grow in and yet they are not to replace ever meant to replace our belonging to a covenant community of faith where we are the the second thing want to lay before you is is that there are a lot of man-hours that men and women here at the village church put behind not just the creation of this but the creation of all kinds of resources that are meant to help you grow and develop as a disciple of Jesus Christ and so if this blesses you or the other resources that have been created have blessed you would you consider giving back to the village church to support not just these things but the creation of even more resources for you and really for anyone who wants to indulge in them now I pray that God stirs your affections for Jesus Christ as you listen now to the proclamation of God's Word [Music] [Music] well good morning it's good to see you if you have your Bibles go ahead and grab those we're gonna be in John chapter one while you're turning there just a couple of things our sixth graders have joined us in here those who are kind of moving out of kids village and into middle school ministry they are with us today and so if you are one of our sixth graders I would love for you if you'll just stand up for me so I can see you and then we can celebrate that you're with us go ahead you can do it Hey look at me real quick we do not think you are the Church of tomorrow we think that God has given us as a congregation you and Christ in you and so we're eager that you are among us this morning and so welcome to what when I was a kid it's called big church and so again welcome in another thing that I just want to lay before you and hopefully we'll have some information rolling out to you in the next couple of days there are some massive floods taking place in southern India and I don't know if you're aware of that or not but it's making Houston last year look like something pretty small we have a lot of members with family members that live in that area of southern India unable to contact their family members I don't know if you know this but all those airports are shut down there's no way out it is turning out to be what will will be a humanitarian crisis at a very large scale and so our elders are looking at how we might step into that and help but just know that right now there's a real catastrophic thing occurring in southern India and many of our members are directly affected by this so just want you to be aware of that as you pray and again we'll roll out some information in the days weeks to come about how we want to try to partner and help in this area so I have been to say that I've been eager about the Gospel of John would probably be to undersell what I have been feeling I've experienced kind of my own personal little renewal looking at the life of Jesus Christ in Gospel of John and so just to warn you that's probably going to come out so he just if something happens today that's what happens now the the Gospel of John is a little bit different than the other three Gospels which are called the synoptic Gospels right so Matthew Mark and Luke are written by and large in the same kind of order in the same kind of language sometimes the stories are chronologically exactly the same and sometimes the wording is almost exactly the same and then John he comes at it from a different perspective that's why you've got the three synoptic sand you've got the Gospel of John and some of I think the most beautiful pictures of who Jesus Christ is it is found in the Gospel of John you got these seven miracles that reveal his divinity you've got the seven I am statements you you have the woman at the well you have I mean I can just keep going here you have Lazarus being raised from the dead you've got all these stories that many of us who have grown up in church I've kind of digested and it's helped us understand who Jesus is and at times combat the lies around who he is now and so I'm eager to dive in with you and I know you're there in John chapter one but but John really helps us out by just telling us what he's trying to do in his gospel this is John 20 starting in verse 30 now I'll put that on the screen you stay right there in 1 all right we've got a clock now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book but these this book we're about to read are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ that he is the son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name and so John is just saying hey this is what I'm trying to do this is what I'm about and since this is Scripture this is what God wants to accomplish in you and in me as we dive into John for however long we're gonna be in there and here's what he says that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ so when the Bible says that Jesus is the Christ it slain before us that Jesus is the solution to sin and death which leads to the next piece that he is the son of God so that Jesus has not been in turn a philosopher some sort of moral teacher but instead he is the Christ the very son of God and then you've got this beautiful little text here that we may have life in his name and so again even the way that this is written that life is found in his name not by just following his teachings not just by knowing the stories about him not just about kind of having this vague general sense that yeah Jesus is my homeboy all right but but rather that he is the Christ the Son of God and in him which is a reference ultimately to what it means to have union with Christ which would make a great sermon series but you shouldn't bring that up today on the first weekend of a sermon series but maybe one day by the grace of God summer series or next fall or three years from now we finished John we can dive into union with Christ and all the implications of what it means when you take us and you put us in Christ so that his righteousness is our righteousness and our sin he bears and that the power of Christ has made available inside of us by the Holy Spirit of God but again we don't have time to preach that so this is what John is trying to accomplish is what God wants to show us as we dive into John Jesus is the Christ he's the son of God and that you may have life in his name now with that said let's dive into these first five verses John chapter 1 starting in verse 1 in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God he was in the beginning with God and all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made in him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome and I love the way John starts this book where he says in the beginning was the word because John isn't waiting around to let his readers figure out that Jesus is God right if we look back across the other Gospels you have everything from a genealogy to a virgin birth to Abidjan just like first sentence alright here's where he just coming strong and here's what he says hey when was Jesus he was in the beginning where was Jesus he was with God who is Jesus oh yeah he is God so in your first sentence John has just unloaded on all of us the thrust of his book that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God in that in him his life he comes this Jesus comes and puts on flesh I don't know if you've ever spent just a moment or two meditating or thinking about the fact that Jesus is Co eternal with the father has always been will always be and he put on flesh and dwelt among us he became a baby in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God now staring at this in the face I know the Trinity can be daunting and I was hesitant to say Trinity there because you only got two parts of the Trinity you have God the Father and God the Son spirital show up shortly he's always been there also but what we see here is you've got the father in the son and the father is God and the son is God and for many many many people this is a difficult abstract idea that's hard for them to grasp in all its richness and beauty and I will certainly not be able to do it justice today in fact there are other religions that this kind of is a breaking point for them right that that would be certainly true of Mormons this would certainly be true of Muslims like this idea the God is triune is an extremely difficult concept for many people to digest and yet it's one of the more beautiful realities of our God that he is God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit one and so maybe let me try to help a little bit here when it says that Jesus is the word if you do a little bit of study in the Old Testament how often this concept of word here is use the Greek word is logos here it has all sorts of Greek implications but that's not where I'm going with this the Word of God is in several times in the Old Testament described as one sent forth by God to accomplish the purposes of God and then returns to God now that sounds a little bit like the word so in the old set like you remember preachers will oftentimes use the the verse my words will not return void right then I speak them they accomplish my purposes and return to me I that could very well be in fact many commentators would chalk that up as a messianic prophecy not fodder for preachers to be confident right so it's funny this I think this text is about Jesus and the coming of Jesus and the power of Jesus and what Jesus is going to accomplish and preachers like I can't feel right because I think we've all heard some sermons that that failed I'm talking out here how about me right there's a reason that there are three years worth of our sermons that are not on long if you were here for that you know why now here's a read this I think it's fact have you ever been around something you're just trying to figure out what they're thinking like people who have good poker being you're around me just can't quite like your insecurities are flaring you know I do that I'm going to they're not like me did that bother them do I bother them do I like what is going on in their heads well if I could simplify what one of the ways that the early church fathers tried to help us understand Jesus Christ being fully God and fully man and God the Father being fully God and fully God is that human words relate to their inaudible thoughts the way that the human divine Jesus relates to the invisible are you with me in that so the only way for you to know what's going on in my head is for me to say it right yes and I know don't please don't email me well what about body language what I'll even give you body language for where I'm going so thanks for setting me up to win all right so how do we know what what's going on in God's heart his mind what does he love what does he hate what is he bothered by and yes and amen to the Word of God but in this text he's not talking about the Bible he's talking about the Sun he's talking about Jesus Christ and so Colossians 1:15 the Apostle Paul says it like this he is the image of the invisible God you want to know what God's like you want to know what God does how God feels what God works at what he delights in what he is harsh towards what you want to know what that is you better get your eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith Friedrich Bruner says this we long to know who God is and what God thinks and does in Jesus his most personal word God has spoken to us in the most human way possible giving us his innermost thoughts and heart in deeds that are as profound as his words and the believing human race has experienced deep help ever since your knee-jerk reaction my knee-jerk reaction because of our humanity is to think God is disappointed and he is angry and he is frustrated and he totally regret saving us almost everyone I talked to if we can get past how well-armored we are right behind Christian lingo and bumper sticker theology has this kind of haunting sense not of God's pleasure but of God's disappointment and so because we we won't give God the benefit of the doubt in what he says about us in the word in the scriptures he gives us Jesus and it'll blow your mind when he meets the woman at the well it should change your life when a Pharisee sneaks in the middle of the night and says how how do I be born-again right wait where's life we can see that you have power but where do we go for life I know this isn't it where do we go and you see Jesus's compassion and His mercy and his love and maybe by the grace of God in our divine imagination we could see the warmth of his eyes staring into human failure knowing that he was gonna be enough to cover it you with me and so he gives us Jesus so we'll see and believe because it's so hard to believe we know us right like when no one else is around there we are but that's not all that's going on here yes in the beginning was the word but follow this he is the maker of all things look at verse 3 all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made so again John is not slow-playing the deity of Jesus Christ here right I mean he is just gonna harp on this over and over and over and over again throughout this entire gospel right who made everything the Word made everything who's the word Jesus is the word where is Jesus in the beginning right next to God who is Jesus he is God and we know from our Bibles in fact it's no small thing that John begins his gospel in the beginning was the word because how does the Bible begin in Genesis in the beginning God created and we know from the Genesis narrative that God created everything that was by what speaking by his word so that Jesus is the active agent in creation if we had time which we don't we'd go back to Genesis 1 and you would say you would see let there be let there be let there be well who is the Word of God who is the inaudible Express or who is the Preston of the inaudible God Jesus the word is the creator of all things and it states it positively and negatively he created all things and nothing exists that he did not speak into existence he's not slow playing the deity of Jesus Christ he is not a good moral teacher he is not a philosopher you cannot categorize Jesus as one of many ancient philosophers you cannot do that if you run across people that think Jesus is a good teacher then they're certainly not getting that from what the Bible says about Jesus nor what Jesus says about Jesus like this isn't this you cannot reconcile but I think Jesus was a good moral philosopher and teacher while simultaneously looking at the teachings of Christ where he claims to be God you can't do this it's it's not reconcilable you must submit to Christ as not just king of the universe but it's God in the flesh we see this again this kind of creative act of God in Jesus in Colossians 1:16 by for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether Thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him now one commentator I read I love guys who have imagination he said if you could maybe if you could get a microscope and you could see underneath everything in creation so you could see past the atoms and past the particles inside the atom and you could see like you could just get as deep as you could you might just using our divine imagination see this tiny little inscription that said made by JC right like if you just get deep enough right if you get past the molecules and atoms and the dark matter or whatever right if you could just get deep enough you'd see this tiny little inscription made by JC look at me that includes you and that includes me and Jesus created all things according to Colossians by and for himself look at me that includes you and me which means I was created and you were created for Jesus which is why John is making the argument that you can only find life in him why because that's what you were created for now if that's true and it's true then man that should help us make sense of our angst right because if I have been created by Jesus like you get down into the essence of Who I am you got a little inscription made by JC for JC like you find that inscription on me then it makes all kinds of sense of why my job is never altom utley gonna be satisfied satisfying to me because I am NOT made but made by my job and for my job I have been made by Jesus for Jesus it makes sense why Lauren as amazing as that woman is will never be for me what I most deeply meet because I have not been made by Lauren for Lauren I have been made by Jesus for Jesus it makes sense why my kids as much as I delight in them will never ultimately be satisfying to me because I have not been made by them or for them I have not been made by sex or for sex by money or for money I have not been made by success or for success I have been made by Christ for Christ and life is found there and there alone and this is what we're seeing in this text my ancient friend Augustine says it this way you move us to delight in praising you I'm gonna come back to that phrase for you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you so I love the first phrase don't miss the first phrase for the point that's being made in the second you move us to delight in praising you so here's here's the human experience right I just can't wait for fill in the blank and then what happens a lot of times we actually get to step into that I can't wait for right I can't wait to get this promotion to get this car to get this house to get this relationship for this for that for this and we step into it and there's this moment of praise like I'm not lying there's a you get that promotion you start a business right right you you kind of graduate and get your first job you get that first house you get married to find a friend group that you're gonna do deep life with you have a child you finally make the kind of money that you thought maybe you would eventually be able to make and there's a moment of praise in that there's this moment that feels like you've arrived but it doesn't linger it does not linger because you're not made by or for so what does a Gustin mean here and I don't mean 2xg Agustin but when Agustin says you move us to delight in praising you he's talking about moving us out of praising these other ancillary things like it's a very different thing to say ah thank you God for this job thank you God for this house think you got for this money think you got for this relationship thank you God for this thank you God for this thank you God all of that is good and right and beautiful but there's this thing that happens in the soul because of the word where we finally just go thank you and we relinquish everything else and and that's what you see so often in the Bible when men and women are praising Jesus in the midst of some of the most horrific difficult circumstances imaginable why can the Apostles praise the name of Jesus after they had the flesh beat off their back and they they leave the same he'd recovered in their own blood and swelling they left singing and rejoicing like what is that it's relinquishment it's praise you for whatever you have me I am yours come may you are my king then Louis just cuz I'll make somebody a little bit more modern agree also CS Lewis says it this way if we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world right you were made by Jesus for Jesus feel like God my job's not satisfying you okay because your job wasn't meant to satisfy you just be free uh-uh stuff with my spouse yeah she or he probably has similar concerns you guys weren't made to complete one another you were made to go on this journey with one another growing in a love for the beauty of Jesus Christ who made you for himself right then I could just keep putting anything in our lives in this category you have been made for him by him and if we could ever get that be serious about it I think some of the lingering angst that exists in our life might begin to evaporate over a period of time then look at what comes next after this I mean you because there's some pretty crazy bold statements that John has made right out of the gate he then rolls out an invitation and a purpose look at this in him this verse for in him was life and the life was the light of men now now remember what what he said earlier what's the big purpose of John that you might know that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that life is found in him why because you have made been made by him for him and so now you've got this invitation to come into life so again the the picture of Jesus in the Bible is not a furrowed brow angry Jesus but a warm forgiving welcoming Christ you know in two separate places in the synoptic Gospels Jesus is called the friend of sinners and one of those texts he's accused of being a drunkard and a glutton because he would be with have dinner with hang out with sinners for hours on end I can only imagine the beating Jesus would take in social media as he did ministry in 2018 if he were here we see in the book of Hebrews that that we have in Jesus and empathetic high priest have you ever thought about Jesus that way look at me empathetic how rare is human empathy and yet you and I get divine empathy like to think about the darkest moment of your life being broken and angry and weepy and there there's no hope and all is lost and to think of Jesus not as a furrowed brow I came after the cross you're not gonna trust me to take that image out of our head and replace it with what we'll see in John with Jesus full of empathy and grace being tempted in every way that we are tempted and yet without sin not condemning but saying I know I'm here I know I'm here not what I can't believe you oh he totally believes that you did that that's what the cross is all about right again Bruner who for me as has been a guide through the Gospel of John if you're listening to this podcast six years from now and you want to know the commentaries I use don't email me because I won't remember but it's Bruner's and Carson's commentary are the two primary ones I've been using here but here's Bruner again Bruner says this is the invitation come into union with the word who made you and you will come to life you came from him please come back to him you were made for him the result of this union will be more than human existence it will be life that's the invitation happening right now and then look at look at the victory that comes from this Oh to verse 5 there's something that happens here in the Greek I'm gonna point it out even though I don't like to do that a lot I never want to rob you of confidence from just reading that book in front of you and knowing it and understanding there's something really cool here that I want to point out and it you can see it in English I just want to highlight it right look at verse 5 the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it now you know here's fun up until now in our first five verses all of our verbs have been various forms of past or past continuing and now for the first time we've got a present continuing so that John is not saying that the darkness once was beaten but that the darkness has been defeated once and for all in fact if you write in your Bibles you can circle the S on the end of shines right because that it's present continuing action you could even add the preposition on to the word shine and then on top of that because it's present continuing you could you could add the phrase still even on so that this might read the light shines on still even now in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it right so the light of the word made flesh the one who is in the beginning with God the one who is God in the flesh his victory over darkness has seen most fully in his crucifixion and subsequent resurrection is continuing to shine on if you think about the forces aligned against Jesus Christ on the cross it reads like the who's who of earthly and heavenly powers so let me go through like when when Christ has a rest and he's beaten the beards pulled out of his face he spit upon he's punched he slapped he's mocked he's stripped naked he's nails driven through his hands and feet now keep in mind every muscle necessary every gland required every piece of wood the iron required the rope required was all created by who Jesus you can't spit on Jesus's face without the capacity for your muscles to work up the spit in your mouth and spit it out and if you want to talk about the relinquishment of Jesus Christ to the will of God the Father and his own will to purchase for himself many sons are purchased from the Father it's Jesus allowing what he created and what he dissolve in an instant to assault him what's happening in that moment is is you see what are the powers array against Jesus in his passion the the power of sin now let's think about how powerful sin is sin fractured the universe every aspect of it what we're seeing in southern India right now is a result of a fracturing of the universe caused by sin you and I have a tendency to think about sin in regards to bad deeds sin is so much more complex and and woven into the fabric of our creations beyond kind of our imagination maybe one day we'll do a series on just sin you'd be excited about that one huh yet what we see here is the power of sin and death are arrayed on Jesus he is arrested he is assaulted he is mocked he is belittled there's all sorts of violence falling on Jesus not just physical violence he is dehumanized he is mocked and belittled he is tortured and eventually killed but it's not just sin but it's also Satan and I know Satan kind of fell out of favor in the Enlightenment period where we just think it's ridiculous to believe in an actual devil was he have a pointy tail and a pitchfork I I don't know what he looks like there's certainly not a lot of descriptions other than an angel of light but I can tell you this you disbelieve in him and demons to your own peril I don't think there's a demon under every bush but they're under a few sometimes it's just a nail in your tire right if you read this present darkness right it's sometimes it's not a demon trying to make you crash your car sometime you just ran over a nail and that happens in a Genesis 3 world but but you make light of Satan and demonic powers to your own peril the Bible is full of even what we read in Colossians is the principalities and powers right that's not talking about governmental powers that talking about spiritual powers in the heavenlies so you've got sin and death you've got Satan and demonic forces and then you've got kind of these gosh honor this union between things that don't agree on anything that agree in order to kill Jesus the eternal word you've got the secular world who's crucifying Jesus Rome right but who also is there the Pharisees and Sadducees religion like when does the secular world and religion come together and go yeah let's do this together very rarely and yet they join hands here to do what to kill the word and even the faithlessness of his cowering disciples join in the allegiance of all these foes to kill the word you're like oh man that's probably overstated well Judas is the one that betrayed him Peter was the one that denied him where was the rest of the group in kind of supporting him in the darkest night of human history okay I'll say nobody knows because they ran in the head not long after swearing they would ever do that right and so we see all of this and so what happens the world turns dark right middle of the day it goes dark like can't see hand and from your face dark but what happens well gosh you know what happens Sunday happens the resurrection occurs and the power of sin the power of Satan the power of the secular world the power of dead unorthodox wicked religion that seeks to control manipulate and overpower the weariness of disciples all of it conquered in the resurrection and the light shone in the darkness and the darkness could not overcome it and John is really serious about you and me to this day knowing that that's an ongoing continuous act so this is like I I love this because if you start thinking about the sorrows that you and I can in do in life and a broken world sometimes those sorrows are on us because of just the brokenness of a Genesis 3 world sometimes we are attacked we are misunderstood we were misrepresented we are characterized but but the victory of light over darkness Trump's the the plans of Satan the plans of demonic creatures it Trump's the plans of the secular world it Trump's the plans of organized religion - - instead of letting us be free and alive in Christ control and manipulate and build a kingdom unto itself look at me it overpowers our look at me our failures as followers of Jesus anybody ever fell asleep praying anyway just like I'm gonna just dive into the Lord here Jesus I I love you so much so I I think it was Philip Yancey who said like because we can be so self-condemning in that moment Philip Yancey drew like as I was reading one of the books he drew my attention cuz I would all sometimes do that where I'm just praying and then you know it's been 20 minutes I'm like oh gosh okay was that the third heaven I don't think so Philip Yancey talked about what how safe does a child have to feel to fall asleep in their father a mother's arms there's stuff that was a better way of looking at it than my self condemnation [Music] so again John is assuring his readers then and now that the light shines on even on the failures of his disciples over the power of sin and death over the power of Satan over the power of the secular world over the power of empty controlling religion and into the souls of his sons and daughters so I know we're in different places today across this room so like many of us I'm I'm talking about Jesus in this way and you're like oh my gosh that's him I know him that is I love this yes and and some of us like I just want to be real honest like somewhere on the journey faith took a back seat somewhere on the journey faith took a back seat it stopped being a priority in our lives and maybe that happened gradually over a period of time for others of us still there's a moment that we can name where we knew God cannot be good because this happened and we turned our back others of us we just find in us just an apathy right and it's just it's just an apathy and even in one breath we'd go oh that sounds so good oh I would love for that to be true our souls just feel stuck just apathetic the pleasures of this world to be enough for now I'm too tired to make any other move too much is going on my worlds broken these things can't be true for me that's why I'm so excited for you to watch who all Jesus redeems and rescues loves on and calls from death to life in the next few months and or year let me I want to end my sermon with this quote again come into union with the word who made you and you will come to life you came from him please come back to him you were made for him the result of this reunion will be more than human existence it will be human life you were made by him and for him and nothing on earth will satisfy you until you come into union with what you were created for let's pray father I thank you for these men and women I thank you for your grace on us you have made us for yourself I just ask that as we consider these things as we gaze upon your beauty this morning as King David would write about in Psalm 27 as we seek you in your temple that you would give us eyes to see ears to hear heart that longs pray for the angst that many of us might be feeling in this room and I pray that the word preached today would provide an answer so for men and women who feel empty and men and women who feel like no matter what they drink they can't they can't be satisfied and what they eat they can never get full and what relationships they're in are always Hollow there's always something wrong or what some experience of loss that has them unable to kind of enter into this rest I ask that your word would provide them by your spirits power answers today for my brothers and sisters my friends who trusted their souls to you years ago and have for whatever reason put their faith in the back seat and you are kind of a tag line to their life but they certainly are not pursuing you loving you worshiping you chasing you just pray that the word preached the word received this morning my jostle our hearts and then there might be a prayer of relinquishment it says I've been made by you and for you help me asking all things that you would deepen our love for our worship of and our delight in Jesus who was in the beginning who was with God who is God it's for your beautiful name I pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 24,402

Rating: 4.8469944 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, Through The Word, Heaven on Earth

Id: 6-xOWD7q6JY

Length: 41min 21sec (2481 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 20 2018