Watch & listen to every sermon on your favorite podcast software:
Information about this sermon:
Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: John 1:14-18
We all long for the strength to face the life we are living. In the shadow of darkness strength is determined by things such as, position, power, wealth, and influence. The more we have then the stronger we believe we will be. This lie of the darkness is a never ending path of being “enough”, our strength always being dependent on whether we have “enough” of whatever it takes to be strong. Jesus came into the darkness to free us from the lie and give us grace upon grace. The gift of His undeserved favor is the strength that we need to face the constant struggles of our lives.
Transcript
This is kind of the the Calm before the storm right Lord help you if you need to go shop tomorrow that is not thee you with you and hopefully you can be a Bright Light Of Hope to all those who are going to be having much different feelings and thoughts in their hearts and Minds come tomorrow uh but in this uh in this Calm before the storm uh we have the opportunity to finish up uh our our series on John’s prologue that’s John chapter 1 verses 1-8 if you’re just joining us today don’t worry I think you’ll still uh you’ll still fully Embrace uh what what’s going on but this Series has been all about uh the Advent of Hope Advent is the season where we we remember that Jesus has come certainly we uh we celebrate that he continues to come into our lives every day uh but Advent is the special time where we’re really preparing and taking special stock of the fact that Jesus has promised to come again and when he comes he’s going to make all things new so far we we’ve looked at this uh the hope of Advent as it’s been revealed to us in John’s prologue how the hope of the Gospel gives us meaning we looked in the beginning at uh that God’s intentional that we are the intentional creation of God who had us in mind Jesus having us in mind before he even created he planned even before the world began how he was going to save us secondly in the second week we looked how the hope of the Gospel gives our lives purpose just like John the Baptist Who Bore witness and testified to Jesus who is the hope the light of the world so we whether we’re in the boardroom whether we’re at the dining table whether we’re uh in a living in an assisted living community we are sent by God to give witness to give testimony to the hope that we have in Jesus that’s what he’s called us to that’s our purpose last week we looked at the hope of the gospel and how it gives us our true identity in the darkness of this Fallen World there is confusion that abounds about what human identity is all about that existential question who am I people are desperate they’re confused and they’re suffering because they’re looking for it in all the wrong places but we learned last week through the prologue that when we’re in Christ that we have been given the right in Jesus to become children of God that’s who we are we’re heirs to the
kingdom this morning we end the series so far as I just said John’s answered the questions of our desire for meaning our longing for purpose and our need for identity to know who we really are this morning in verses 14 to 18 we turn to how the gospel the Light of Christ gives us strength for living and the way verses 14 to 18 answer that question might be a little bit uh surprising and actually might irritate us a little bit uh because it might not be the way that we think it should give us strength for living because verses 14 and 18 they don’t lead us to a a a stronger self-reliance or a stronger self-confidence which ordinarily is what we associate with strength for living right but they do point us to Reliance and they do point us to confidence only that their strength is only found when they’re directed away from ourselves away from ourselves and directed towards the Divine word of God who has come into this world any hope for the strength of living can only be found when our lives are completely reliant on Jesus and confident in him alone every moment of Our Lives it’s counter to what our nature believes and wants to believe we want strength to be able to to handle life on our own we want to be uh independent we don’t want anyone else to you know we don’t want to have to depend on anyone else that’s the sinful nature within us that’s just the sinful nature in US wants to be independent in every way but God wants us to find strength not by trying to handle everything on our own not trying to be independent but by becoming completely and totally reliant on him and confident in what he has done for us what he continues to do for us now and what he has promised that he will ultimately do for us in our future and by the way that’s what Sundays are all about that’s what they’re supposed to be about anyway uh G God gave us the Sabbath as a rest he made Sabbath for us he didn’t make us for the Sabbath he made it as a time for us to reorient our lives to repent of this insatiable need that we have for Independence that we uh exhibit and we live into every
week and in in the process find forgiveness and renewal in our utter and complete dependence upon him alone and in so doing we find that strength that we so desperately need uh to get through life that’s what Jesus was talking about in Matthew chap 16: 25 25 when he said whoever would save his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it so this morning let us find our strength for life in Jesus through these final words of John’s prologue I invite you to either open up your bulletins or uh if you brought your Bibles I encourage you to bring your Bibles I know as anglicans that’s not something that we uh uh we typically do uh and we kind of make it easy on you by printing it up here or putting it on the but you know it’s nice to have your Bible with you and you can mark it and you can say David was so wrong here uh and you can mark that down and then afterwards you can come up and we can have a conversation and I’ll praise the Lord that the holy spirit’s at work and uh where where I’m wrong I will confess it uh but I encourage you if you haven’t gotten that that that perfect gift for someone yet get get them get them a Bible and bring it with you and come on come on in as we uh as we dig into God’s word together but in verse 14 this is what this is what John wrote In The prologue and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory glory as of the only father only son from the father full of grace and truth there may be no more powerful a verse or profounder verse in all the scriptures is John
1:14 this is the climax of the whole story this is the this is the verse and the moment that separates Christianity from every other religion in the world this is the moment CS Lewis called the Grand Miracle the grand Miracle because it’s the Miracle by which all other Miracles are all pointing towards John 1:14 just proclaimed that the word who is God who was with God at creation as we have talked about in this series The Very voice of God who created all things he humbled himself and became part of the creation he who birthed the universe into existence has been born into the universe as a created the universe that he created don’t don’t report me to the uh to the uh you know the heresy police on that that was just that was just a slip he was not created he was begotten not made I know that that’s the
Creed you know the fancy theological word for this is the uh is the incar Incarnation that God incarnated himself meaning he put on flesh and became one of us this is the Fulfillment of God’s promise to Isaiah and to many of the other prophets too but specifically in Isaiah uh this is what we’re told the Lord himself will give you a sign behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear his son and shall call his name Emmanuel God With Us this is the Fulfillment of it all right here in John 1:14 uh this is the moment God has now come among us but I love the way that John in particular here in the prologue I love the way way that he describes it because he doesn’t just describe it in some cold terms of some disconnected event that happened to happen in history uh he says the word became flesh and dwelt Among Us he dwelt Among Us that that’s the Greek word for dwelt it means to uh to put up a tent and to encamp with with the rest of the uh the noads uh we would would say today something like the word became flesh and moved next door
I love the language because it captures the full essence of what the Incarnation is all about it means to convey that God chose to come and to be with us as one of us while remaining at the same time fully God John captured the intimacy of God’s presence that is with us in the Incarnation in Jesus Jesus it’s deeply relational it’s not just disconnected in some way he didn’t just come uh as some King on a High Throne in the palace that no one gets to see or gets to be with he came and dwelt among us to be with us to be with you and me and the glory of God that that all of humanity has longed to see and to experience and in fact has tried to to to generate for themselves going all the way back to Genesis but then even if you look at Moses Moses longed to see the glory of God didn’t he do you remember that story but he couldn’t because if he saw it he he’d be destroyed and so God just had to pass by him in a cliff with his face shaded so that he wouldn’t be destroyed he wouldn’t die the glory of God has now come to us in Jesus and in him in Jesus we see the full glory of God is what John’s telling us and what does John tell us as we look when we see and look upon the glory of God in Jesus what is it we see we see grace and truth when we look at the glory of God we see grace and truth glory is of the only son from the father full of grace and truth you know there’s a lot you can focus on when you’re talking about the Incarnation in fact I’ve got a whole another Ser sermon about it that’s coming up on Tuesday um uh there’s so many different ways you can go but if we just stick with John right here John’s calling us today to focus how the Incarnation is the embodiment of the fullness of God’s grace and truth in the world Grace being that unmar favor that God has towards us that Jesus who knew the darkness of our sin before creation itself before he had even created us he knew our Rebellion against God Before Time even began and yet he created us anyway that’s what Grace is all about but not only did he create us he created us knowing what he was going to have to do to save us to be with us to dwell with us both fully man and fully God to know our pain and sorrows and to ultimately pay for our sin and Rebellion with his own life on the cross and he didn’t do all this because we deserve it he didn’t do all this because we had earned the right we had paid our dues we had done enough of the right stuff for him to now say Okay they’ve done enough I’ll
come but solely because he loves us and Longs for us to know his heavenly father and to have a relationship with him once again but Jesus not only came in Grace We’re told he also came in truth meaning Jesus Is God he is the truth all that he says all that he does is what the father says and what the father does he is truth the Incarnation is the embodiment of both God’s grace for us and his truth revealed to us time the truth that we are sinners who are in desperate need of a savior yes verse 16 and 17 I’m skipping over the the the par the paraphrase there or the parenthetical note about John the Baptist uh you can read that one for yourself verse 16 and 17 reemphasizes this point and continues it it says from his fullness we have all received Grace upon Grace for the law was given through Moses but Grace and Truth through Jesus Christ through Jesus we have received Grace upon Grace as if Grace wasn’t enough what what does that mean what that means is the kind of Grace that Jesus has for us it’s abounding or another way of understanding it Jesus Grace which is the grace of God for us it’s unending it’s not limited in any way this is probably the hardest thing in the world for us to grasp isn’t it that his grace isn’t Limited in any way it does not have an expiration date
it’s not a get out of jail free card that we got once but now it’s gone you can’t use it again Jesus Grace is not something we just need once and we no longer in life have any more need for it the truth of God and to understand that why we keep needing it you have to understand the truth of God and what its purpose really is is it just so that we can all feel like we’re the straight A student say hey I’ve got the truth of God perfectly here uh I’m the the excellent one if we really understand what the truth of God is all about then what you have to understand is the truth of God exposes us that’s what it does it exposes us when you gaze at the truth of God and His glory what do you think it reveals about
yourself it exposes us as Sinners and that’s not just once that’s every day that’s every moment and every day God’s grace is new and it calls us it calls to us it beckons to us it beckons to us to repent and to believe to trust in Jesus again turn our lives back over to him see when we’re when we are in Jesus we are a people of the Incarnation we live lives of the Incarnation a people whose lives reflect the humility that Jesus has shown by coming down and becoming one of us and when we reflect on Jesus humility first and foremost by looking at the glory of God in Jesus and daily seeing God’s truth how we have fallen short of God’s glory that’s what we see if you’re reading God’s word every day and you’re thinking how great you are uh and that and that you’ve got it and that you understand it all perfectly and that you’re better than everyone else you are not reading it right you aren’t Paul said in Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God when you stare at the glory of God it reveals our own fallenness our own fallenness and our desperate need for salvation if we wake up every morning thinking I’m good I’ve got this I don’t need any help then the truth of go of the God’s Glory it’s not in you and it’s not in me and the pride of our own sinful nature is still fully fully in control of Our Lives you know CS Lewis he reflected on this in this way he said when a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him that’s a man who stared at the glory of God but when a man’s getting worse he understands his own Badness less and less just becomes second nature because the more we look into the glory of God in Jesus the more of us that sees how much we’ve fallen short there’s always a little there’s always more to be revealed there’s always more that he wants to redeem there’s there’s more that he wants to transform by his grace in our lives when we stop seeing it when we start thinking no I’ve I’ve already got that thanks I can move on from it then the truth of God isn’t in us we’re not looking at the glory of God at all we’re just looking at the glory of ourselves 1 John 1:8 John said it this way if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth it’s not in us it’s not in us if Jesus had come in nothing but truth there’d be no there’d be no hope there’d only be despair but Jesus came in Grace and Truth Grace upon Grace abounding Grace unending Grace God’s grace in Jesus it that is our strength for living because every day when we see the truth of our sin his cross stands before us welcoming us to come and to die to ourselves and receive for forgiveness and renewal of Life once again forgiveness renewal yes Jesus died once for all upon the cross we’re not saying I’m not saying that he’s dies every day for the Forgiveness of our sins but we need it daily we are called To Die daily to our sins we need his help we need his grace to rescue us from his truth the grace and truth of Jesus they call us to a life of daily dependence upon him and upon him alone and in our humble dependence upon him it’s there and it’s only there that we find the strength that we need for living because it’s there in complete dependence Upon Jesus that we find the confidence to face life and all its challenges all its struggles all of its heartaches all of our failures friends the grace of God in Jesus it’s not a cheap Grace it’s a Grace upon Grace but it’s not cheap Grace it’s costly a costly Grace to to quote dri bonhof for it cost Jesus his life it cost us our lives of selfish self-reliance and to a life of humility with God and with one another see grace without truth it breeds deception and and moral compromise but truth without Grace it leads to Despair and ultimately to death think about it for for just a minute as we as I close this up if all Jesus came and was Grace what would your life look like I know what mine would
uninhibited I’d be one big self justificatory about everything I did it’d be a constant abuse of other people and God just to satisfy my own desires to do the things I want I’m free now I can do whatever I want right but if all Jesus came and was truth what would your life look
like my guess is you’d be a self-righteous jerk because I promise you because this is what the scriptures tell show us is that I promise you we wouldn’t see our own sin but we would be consumed by everybody
else’s or if you did have the eyes to see the truth of your own sin if you did have that there would be nothing but Despair and self-loathing but thanks be to God that Jesus has come he’s come to be with us and he’s full of the father’s Glory of GRA gra and Truth he loves us so much that he came knowing the truth of the darkness of our sin and Rebellion to give us the eyes to see it and by Grace he gave us life for our his life for our Redemption that we might find the strength for Life As We live a life more and more dependent on him every single day may this Christmas enlighten his grace and his truth in our eyes as we stare at the glory of God and our savior Jesus and may it give birth to a humility that only can come through the Incarnation amen
