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In the Beginning Was the Word

December 4, 2022 · Harmony of the Gospel

Scripture referenced 23 passages

The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.

  • Psalm 95 opening call to worship, quoted partially: 'come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let's come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song'

    1 Oh come, let’s sing to Yahweh. Let’s shout aloud to the rock of our salvation!

    2 Let’s come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let’s extol him with songs!

    3 For Yahweh is a great God, a great King above all gods.

    4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth. The heights of the mountains are also his.

    5 The sea is his, and he made it. His hands formed the dry land.

    6 Oh come, let’s worship and bow down. Let’s kneel before Yahweh, our Maker,

    7 for he is our God. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep in his care. Today, oh that you would hear his voice!

    8 Don’t harden your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,

    9 when your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work.

    10 Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways.”

    11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They won’t enter into my rest.”

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2 Thessalonians 3:16

advent reading: 'now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way'

16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with you all.

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Luke 2:32

quoted during offering: Simeon prophesying Jesus as 'a light to reveal God to the nations and the glory of the people'

32 a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.”

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John 1:1

the Word was in the beginning with God and was God, contrasted with Genesis 1:1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

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Genesis 1:1

compared to John 1:1 as both beginning with creation, but John pointing to before creation

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

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John 1:4-5

in Jesus was life, and the life was the light of all mankind, and the darkness did not grasp it

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.

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John 1:6-8

John the Baptist sent from God as a witness to testify about the Light so all might believe

6 There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.

7 The same came as a witness, that he might testify about the light, that all might believe through him.

8 He was not the light, but was sent that he might testify about the light.

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John 1:9

the true Light coming into the world enlightens every person

9 The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world.

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John 1:10-11

the world came into being through Him yet did not know Him; He came to His own and His own did not accept Him

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him.

11 He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him.

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John 1:12-13

as many as received Him were given the right to become children of God, born not of blood or flesh but of God

12 But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name:

13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

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John 1:14

the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, glory as of the only Son from the Father

14 The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

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John 1:15

John the Baptist testifying that the one coming after him existed before him

15 John testified about him. He cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.’”

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John 1:16

of His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace

16 From his fullness we all received grace upon grace.

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John 1:17

the law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ

17 For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

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John 1:18

no one has seen God at any time; the only Son has explained Him

18 No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.

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John 7

Jesus speaking plainly to Pharisees and scribes about himself

1 After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he wouldn’t walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him.

2 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand.

3 His brothers therefore said to him, “Depart from here, and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see your works which you do.

4 For no one does anything in secret, and himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.”

5 For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.

6 Jesus therefore said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.

7 The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil.

8 You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled.”

9 Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee.

10 But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but as it were in secret.

11 The Jews therefore sought him at the feast, and said, “Where is he?”

12 There was much murmuring among the multitudes concerning him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others said, “Not so, but he leads the multitude astray.”

13 Yet no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews.

14 But when it was now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught.

15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How does this man know letters, having never been educated?”

16 Jesus therefore answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.

17 If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or if I am speaking from myself.

18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.

19 Didn’t Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?”

20 The multitude answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?”

21 Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel because of it.

22 Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a boy.

23 If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me, because I made a man completely healthy on the Sabbath?

24 Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”

25 Therefore some of them of Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this he whom they seek to kill?

26 Behold, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is truly the Christ?

27 However we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”

28 Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don’t know.

29 I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”

30 They sought therefore to take him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.

31 But of the multitude, many believed in him. They said, “When the Christ comes, he won’t do more signs than those which this man has done, will he?”

32 The Pharisees heard the multitude murmuring these things concerning him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.

33 Then Jesus said, “I will be with you a little while longer, then I go to him who sent me.

34 You will seek me, and won’t find me; and where I am, you can’t come.”

35 The Jews therefore said among themselves, “Where will this man go that we won’t find him? Will he go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?

36 What is this word that he said, ‘You will seek me, and won’t find me; and where I am, you can’t come’?”

37 Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!

38 He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.”

39 But he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus wasn’t yet glorified.

40 Many of the multitude therefore, when they heard these words, said, “This is truly the prophet.”

41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “What, does the Christ come out of Galilee?

42 Hasn’t the Scripture said that the Christ comes of the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”

43 So there arose a division in the multitude because of him.

44 Some of them would have arrested him, but no one laid hands on him.

45 The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”

46 The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this man!”

47 The Pharisees therefore answered them, “You aren’t also led astray, are you?

48 Have any of the rulers believed in him, or of the Pharisees?

49 But this multitude that doesn’t know the law is accursed.”

50 Nicodemus (he who came to him by night, being one of them) said to them,

51 “Does our law judge a man, unless it first hears from him personally and knows what he does?”

52 They answered him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search, and see that no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”

53 Everyone went to his own house,

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John 8

Jesus telling Pharisees they would die in their sins unless they believed 'I am'; incident of woman caught in adultery; 'before Abraham was, I am'

1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

2 Now very early in the morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him. He sat down, and taught them.

3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the middle,

4 they told him, “Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act.

5 Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say about her?”

6 They said this testing him, that they might have something to accuse him of. But Jesus stooped down, and wrote on the ground with his finger.

7 But when they continued asking him, he looked up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.”

8 Again he stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground.

9 They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone with the woman where she was, in the middle.

10 Jesus, standing up, saw her and said, “Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?”

11 She said, “No one, Lord.” Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more.”

12 Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”

13 The Pharisees therefore said to him, “You testify about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”

14 Jesus answered them, “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from, and where I am going; but you don’t know where I came from, or where I am going.

15 You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one.

16 Even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me.

17 It’s also written in your law that the testimony of two people is valid.

18 I am one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”

19 They said therefore to him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me, nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

20 Jesus spoke these words in the treasury, as he taught in the temple. Yet no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

21 Jesus said therefore again to them, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sins. Where I go, you can’t come.”

22 The Jews therefore said, “Will he kill himself, because he says, ‘Where I am going, you can’t come’?”

23 He said to them, “You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world.

24 I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

25 They said therefore to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning.

26 I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you. However he who sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these I say to the world.”

27 They didn’t understand that he spoke to them about the Father.

28 Jesus therefore said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I say these things.

29 He who sent me is with me. The Father hasn’t left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”

30 As he spoke these things, many believed in him.

31 Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples.

32 You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How do you say, ‘You will be made free’?”

34 Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin.

35 A bondservant doesn’t live in the house forever. A son remains forever.

36 If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

37 I know that you are Abraham’s offspring, yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you.

38 I say the things which I have seen with my Father; and you also do the things which you have seen with your father.”

39 They answered him, “Our father is Abraham.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.

40 But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham didn’t do this.

41 You do the works of your father.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God.”

42 Therefore Jesus said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven’t come of myself, but he sent me.

43 Why don’t you understand my speech? Because you can’t hear my word.

44 You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.

45 But because I tell the truth, you don’t believe me.

46 Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?

47 He who is of God hears the words of God. For this cause you don’t hear, because you are not of God.”

48 Then the Jews answered him, “Don’t we say well that you are a Samaritan, and have a demon?”

49 Jesus answered, “I don’t have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me.

50 But I don’t seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges.

51 Most certainly, I tell you, if a person keeps my word, he will never see death.”

52 Then the Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets; and you say, ‘If a man keeps my word, he will never taste of death.’

53 Are you greater than our father, Abraham, who died? The prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?”

54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is…

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John 14:6

used as benediction: 'I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me'

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.

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John 20:31

John states he wrote so that readers may believe and believing have life in His name

31 but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

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John 3

Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night; 'you must be born again'; 'whoever believes'

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

2 The same came to him by night, and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.”

3 Jesus answered him, “Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom.”

4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?”

5 Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom.

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’

8 The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9 Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?”

10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things?

11 Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness.

12 If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

13 No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

15 that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

17 For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

18 He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

19 This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.

20 For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.

21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”

22 After these things, Jesus came with his disciples into the land of Judea. He stayed there with them, and baptized.

23 John also was baptizing in Enon near Salim, because there was much water there. They came, and were baptized.

24 For John was not yet thrown into prison.

25 There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John’s disciples with some Jews about purification.

26 They came to John, and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, the same baptizes, and everyone is coming to him.”

27 John answered, “A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven.

28 You yourselves testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before him.’

29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. This, my joy, therefore is made full.

30 He must increase, but I must decrease.

31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.

32 What he has seen and heard, of that he testifies; and no one receives his witness.

33 He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true.

34 For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for God gives the Spirit without measure.

35 The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.

36 One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

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John 4

woman at the well, belief as central theme

1 Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John

2 (although Jesus himself didn’t baptize, but his disciples),

3 he left Judea, and departed into Galilee.

4 He needed to pass through Samaria.

5 So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph.

6 Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”

8 For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

9 The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. So where do you get that living water?

12 Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, as did his children, and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again,

14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

17 The woman answered, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You said well, ‘I have no husband,’

18 for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”

19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

20 Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father.

22 You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews.

23 But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers.

24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah comes, he who is called Christ. When he has come, he will declare to us all things.”

26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.”

27 At this, his disciples came. They marveled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, “What are you looking for?” or, “Why do you speak with her?”

28 So the woman left her water pot, and went away into the city, and said to the people,

29 “Come, see a man who told me everything that I did. Can this be the Christ?”

30 They went out of the city, and were coming to him.

31 In the meanwhile, the disciples urged him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

33 The disciples therefore said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”

34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.

35 Don’t you say, ‘There are yet four months until the harvest?’ Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already.

36 He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit to eternal life; that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

37 For in this the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’

38 I sent you to reap that for which you haven’t labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39 From that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, “He told me everything that I did.”

40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two days.

41 Many more believed because of his word.

42 They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

43 After the two days he went out from there and went into Galilee.

44 For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

45 So when he came into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast.

46 Jesus came therefore again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water into wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.

47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him, and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

48 Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.”

49 The nobleman said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

50 Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.

51 As he was now going down, his servants met him and reported, saying “Your child lives!”

52 So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.”

53 So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” He believed, as did his whole house.

54 This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.

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Malachi

referenced regarding John the Baptist turning hearts of fathers to children and children to fathers

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Hebrews

cited twice: Jesus as the exact representation of God

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Recap

The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.

The pastor opened Advent by walking the congregation through the prologue of John's Gospel, the first eighteen verses, as a way into the Christmas story. He traced how those verses frame everything that follows: who Jesus is, where he came from, and what it means that he entered the world in human flesh.

What was said

John's Gospel, the pastor noted, is short enough to read in a sitting but starts with eighteen verses that are genuinely hard to absorb. He described them the way a film's opening credits work: enormous in scope, then narrowing down to something you can follow. The prologue begins before Genesis begins, before creation itself, and it restates its central claim more than once because the claim is so difficult to hold onto.

That claim is that Jesus, the Logos, the divine Word, was present with God and was God before anything existed, and that everything which came into being came into being through him. The pastor connected this directly to the exchange in John 8 from the previous weeks, where Jesus tells the Pharisees, "Before Abraham was born, I am," and where he asks them, "What have I been saying to you from the very beginning?" The answer, John's prologue insists, is that God has been making himself known from the start.

The prologue then steps down from that height to introduce John the Baptist, a man with two eyes and a mouth, someone you can understand. His role was not to be the Light but to point to it, so that all might believe. The pastor kept returning to the word "believe" as the thread running through the entire Gospel, chapter by chapter, from the disciples at Cana to Nicodemus to the woman at the well.

Verse 14 is where the prologue becomes Christmas: the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us. The pastor used the word "tabernacled" there, noting that for John this was not metaphor. John had literally camped with Jesus. The transcendent God made himself imminent, close enough to see and to know, full of grace and truth. That is the movement the whole prologue makes, from before time into a specific human life.

The pastor then walked through what it means to receive Jesus, drawing on verses 12 and 13. Receiving him is the same thing as believing in his name. It is not a checklist. The right that comes with it, to become a child of God, is given, not earned. He compared it to the suspension of disbelief that happens at the movies, except that here what gets suspended is the disbelief a person has been holding onto, and what replaces it is trust in a God who is genuinely good.

He closed the sermon's argument with three stories from his own ministry: a friend who had been suicidal and who broke down weeping in John 8 and said, "I'll take that." A man from Pinedale who called the church on a Wednesday saying he knew he needed to be baptized. And a homeless man who walked down from the Ranch Home parking lot on a Friday, could barely read because his eyes had been burned, and ended up with a 243-page large-print Gospel of John printed in the church office. All three stories carried the same point: the story of Jesus, taken in willingly, changes people. The gospel is not only transcendent. It is imminent, available, and it works.

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  1. Pastor Aaron described the prologue of John's Gospel as transcendent but said it becomes more accessible as we get to know Jesus in an immediate, personal way. Has there been a moment in your own life when something that once seemed too hard to grasp about who Jesus is suddenly became clearer? What changed for you?
  2. John the Apostle tells us he wrote his Gospel 'so that you may believe, and believing have life in his name.' Pastor Aaron said belief and receiving Jesus are the same thing, not a checklist of do's and don'ts but simply trusting Him. What does trusting Jesus actually look like in the ordinary decisions of a regular week?

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Alright. Shall we start?
Hey. Good morning, everybody. It's about that time. Hi, Bobby. How about we we begin by worshiping in song?
So here's a good word from Psalm 95 to lead us into worship. It says, come. Let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let's come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. Wanna stand with me?
We'll start by singing, oh, come all you faithful.
Okay. Here we are. Alright. Announcements are Monday night at first B. Is it happening,
Carl?
Yes. Yeah. We're on tomorrow,
cook. We're in March at before, and we're beginning perils. Wonderful perils. Fantastic. All right.
06:00. Meal, music, and a message down the hall. That's from last week. Children's Christmas Choir is meeting day between services. So at 10:00, if you have a child here that would like to sing in the Christmas production that is happening on the eighteenth, so that's two weeks from today, one service at ten a.
M, they're going to be singing together. So I see a row of people right here upfront who are in this Children's Christmas Choir. Meet Mrs. Landis downstairs 10:00 when the service and Sunday school are over. The JH Women's Christmas luncheon is happening this week.
That is December 7. So if it's sixth, seventh, that'll be Wednesday at the Snow King Ballroom. Please, let them know if you're gonna plan to attend, but I'm sure that there'll be space for you. Worship, message, lunch, up at Snow King's Ballroom, twelve noon this Wednesday. Angel Tree, if you have any questions, there are tags out on the tree this week.
They've been up for a week or week and a half now. If you have any questions about anything, just text Tanya, Tanya McDaniel, my wife. (956) 357-3676, and she can answer pretty much any of the questions that you have about the Angel Tree. That is blessing a lot of people. Chili Cook Off is happening this coming week on Sunday, December 11.
We'll start caroling Christmas caroling 04:30, and we'll go around to various locations around together. Some of us will be walking, I imagine some of us will be driving. And if you have somebody that you say, I really would love for Christmas carolers to go visit, if you'll let us know, we'll try to hit those people too, okay? Please let us know. But 04:30 caroling starts, we come back here and have a warm chili cook off.
And there are prizes available for some of that. We call it the old buzzard breath chili cook off. It's very festive. That's happened at 06:00 next Sunday. Boy Scout breakfast.
This Sunday, Boy Scout breakfast down the hall. There are lots of Boy Scouts. They spent the night. A lot of them spent the night here in the church last night. And so the bleary eyed Boy Scouts are down there, and they're preparing all kinds of stuff for you.
Please plan on attending between services. One other thing, they have been meeting at First Bee wherever First Bee was because this church has moved since 1911. It's moved at various times. But they have been meeting for ninety something years. The Boy Scouts have been affiliated with First Bee or we've been affiliated with them, however that goes.
Pretty cool. But they're down the hall preparing your breakfast, plan on having some pancakes down there. Connect hour is happening. That's it today. Monday night, if you would like to sign up as a volunteer, Felix Felix and Guadalupe do the first Monday night every month, but there are usually three of them available, for Monday nights during the month.
And I think that might be oh, Grace and Berkley Johnston. Would y'all come forward? They're gonna be on the red mic. Hello, church. Hello.
We are
Berkeley and Grace Johnston. If we haven't met you, I've been coming to first be visiting with my grandparents, Berkeley and Maria Johnston for my whole life in the last year and a half or so. It's been awesome to be here regularly with you guys and just be part of this church. So we're thrilled to be here and to read today's advent reading.
And this
is Robin.
Oh, this is Robin.
She's the star of the show.
This Sunday, the second advent, we light the candle of peace. As we prepare to celebrate the coming of the prince of peace, we're reminded that God's timing is always perfect, and his provision is always sufficient.
Second Thessalonians three sixteen says, now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.
Amen. Thank you, Johnstons. And would you stand with us and we'll sing. God rest you, merry gentlemen.
God, thank you for the comfort and the joy that you bring us, that we can recognize your grace. Lord, that we would this morning and that it would bring us joy, to recognize the favor that you have. You're always leaning in our direction, giving us favor. God, that we would recognize it this morning, that you'd fill this place, that you'd fill us with your peace, with your joy. In Jesus name, amen.
Rivermore rivermore. Now the gospel truth of all, it shall not kneel, it shall not faint by his blood in his name and his freedom. I am free for the love Jesus Christ who has resurrected me. Praise the father.
You can have
a seat here for a moment. This is the worship through giving part of the service. I'll invite the ushers to come up forward and say, come. I'll come Emmanuel from Luke two thirty two. This is a seminary.
He's prophesying about Jesus. He says he is a light to reveal God to the nations, the world, and he is the glory of the people.
To perform
this in
a rage. Yep. God almighty, we thank you for the opportunity to be here together celebrating you, lord, celebrating the incarnation. Jesus taking on flesh, dwelling among us. Lord, I'm prayerful and hopeful that as the continuing body of Christ on earth, Lord, that we would be fleshing out for others the good news of the gospel.
That we'd be leaning towards people with favor. That we would have that we'd have a quality that draws people into the kingdom. That we we would be reflecting the light, the capital l, light of life, Jesus Christ. Lord, would you give us exactly what we need, Lord, to be able to lay it out there for people. I pray, Lord, that you would take the resources that we give you and that you would multiply them.
We know that nothing that is done for the Lord is ever in vain. So, Lord, I pray that you'd take the resources that we give, that you'd multiply them and bless them, that you would do your kingdom's work. Lord, in our hearts and among us, to each other, but beyond that, Lord, to, the rest of this community and the outside world all the way to the very uttermost parts. Lord, would you have your will and your way among your people who are here in humble obedience and agreement, that you, Lord, stepping into, this world, was the best thing that has ever happened for any of us. Lord, you're the center point of all history.
It is your story. In Jesus name, lord, we pray that we'd be caught up in it. Amen. And it's time for children's church downstairs. December Christmas season and children's church just kinda go together.
So I told you all that when we started this Harmony of the Gospel study several months back that I'm going to skip Christmas, I'll come back to it. Skip Christmas, come back to it around Christmas because we're going tell this story every year from now on, okay? But I want to do it today through the prologue of the Gospel of John. So I've been going through Matthew, Mark and Luke, but John, for the past few weeks, I went through John seven and John eight, and it amazes me every time I read it. The Gospel of John is really short, actually.
Here's a little copy right here. And it's only like 25 pages. I don't know, might be longer than this one. But it's not very long, 21 chapters, but they're short. And it tells the story of Jesus from an enlightened view.
All of the other gospels have been written by this point. And John, eyewitness John, there at the crucifixion, handed over responsibility for Christ's mother while on the cross. Right? John is the one who's writing this. It's beautiful.
He starts off, and whenever I tell people, What do need? When they say, What can I do? What can I do to get into this? I say, Read the Gospel of John. Start there.
It's not long. It's easily accessible. I say, But the first 18 verses will blow your mind. The first 18 verses are going be hard to get through if you get to that and you go, I don't know anything this guy's discussing. I don't get it.
I say, Well, just get through that first 18 verses and then as you read it, come back and see if it makes more sense. Does that make sense? So the seventh chapter and the eighth chapter that we just read, Jesus has been talking to Pharisees and scribes, and he's had mercy on that woman that was caught in adultery. And we've seen in these two chapters Jesus just speaking very plainly about himself. Now when Jesus, the unique one, speaks plainly about himself, it is mind blowing, and it's hard to comprehend.
But we're going to go back to the prologue of the Gospel of John. Read that. There are three verses that you got in your email this week, if you get our emails, that are the first two and then verse 14. So we're going through 18, not one through 14. We're going through 18.
And I want to start off like this. This is the greatest story ever told. That's told four different ways, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But it's the greatest story. You put all those together and it's just beautiful.
But if I had to say the prologue of John's Gospel is sort of like the opening of this big drama. If you go to the movies, and you see the screen turn dark, you'll see coming attractions and all that. You'll see the rating system. Then the screen goes dark, and it used to be that the curtains would go zzzz, and it gets a little bigger for the main feature, right? So that darkness opening up, and then the curtains drawn out and usually some ominous big music, maybe Don LaFontaine, the voice in the world.
That guy. It starts really big, and it'll be a name that'll flash up like universal or paramount. It's no small thing. It's always enormous. If I had to say the prologue of John's gospel is sort of like those opening credits.
If you watched, there are some of them that are kind of famous. Forrest Gump has this feather that's lilting, right? And it's floating by and you see nothing but clouds and sky and a feather and then it swoops down and up a steeple and then back up it goes. And it comes down and it lights on Forrest Gump. That's who the story is about.
This is going to be sort of like that. So it's huge. I'll say that it's transcendent but it also brings it into the imminent, into time and space. It starts before time started, and it will go into eternity future. So this is it.
The prologue of the Gospel of John. Starts off this way. In the beginning now what else starts off in the beginning? Genesis. But if you have a chronological Bible, John one one precedes John precedes Genesis one one.
Genesis one:one is about creation. John is about before that, right? And even Genesis is too. But John one:one says, In the beginning was the word, logos. Logos is about content.
It is the revealing of exactly what it is that God would have us here. The logos, the divine word. In the beginning was the word. Now, last week, this struck my attention. And there are several places from last week if you go back through, you'll see that, man, John has a very consistent message.
So he's speaking to pharisees and scribes, and he's speaking to them very plainly. And he says something to them that's hard to deal with. He says, I'm going away, and you'll look for me, and you will die in your sin. He's speaking to Pharisees who are supposed to know to be looking for Messiah, they are at this point rejecting him. Where I'm going, you cannot come.
And so they were saying, surely he will not kill himself. That doesn't make any sense. Well, at since he says where I'm going, you cannot come. And he was saying to them, y'all are from below, and I am from above, and you are of this world. And you're judging, he says earlier, things by the flesh.
I'm not of this world. Therefore, I said that you would die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am Man, that I am ties back to Genesis and Exodus, and it keeps on tying back. Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. Jesus is saying, I am the way.
I am the truth. I am the life. He's saying it before he gets to John fourteen six where he says that explicitly out loud. And then they were saying to him, who are you? Who are you?
And Jesus said to him, what have I been even been saying to you from the very beginning? Think back to this, in the beginning. In the beginning, Jesus is the word. He has been saying this. God has been saying this from the very beginning, and the word was with God, present with God, and the word was God.
Trinity, mind blowing. Transcendent, something that we can't quite grasp or get our hands around because it's mind blowing. That's why I say, Man, just get through the first 18 verses. Then you'll get to a story. It'll say, okay, John the Baptist started talking about this guy, and this is what he said.
And it goes on through to the cross and then the restoration of Peter. All of that in the book of John. These first 18 are so transcendent. They're just a little bit beyond our grasp until we get to know who Jesus is in an imminent way. He's all around us.
He always has been. But until you humble yourself and say, I accept that. I want that. Show me, Lord, who you are. So apostle John, I'm only less than a verse in here.
In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And he was in the beginning with God. Restating it. He was there. He was there.
John, the apostle, is writing about him. I know it's hard to understand. He's restating it again. I know it's hard to understand. But he was there in the beginning with God.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Yep. He was there. Actually, he goes on to say, all things came into being through him. He's speaking to Jesus.
He is the very agent of creation. Apart from him, not even one thing came into being that has come into being. He was there. He was a part of it since before anything was. God created ex nihilo out of nothing, and Jesus was the agent through which he did that.
In him, Jesus was life, and the life was the light of all mankind. Wow. And the light shines in the darkness. It shone then, and it shines now, and it will shine forevermore as we just sang. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it.
What have I been saying to you since the very beginning? God is leaning towards them with favor. This is amazing. It goes all the way back. Like I said, transcendent.
Hard to understand. We weren't there. It's no wonder that it's difficult to understand. A man came once sent from God and his name was John. We can understand that.
Okay. I know a guy named John. That makes sense. Two eyes, two ears, mouth. I get that.
He was once sent from God and his name was John. That's John the Baptist, forerunner of Christ. In Luke and in Matthew and Mark, we get fuller understandings of why this would even be included right here. But he was the forerunner to kinda, as Malachi says, turn the hearts of the fathers toward their children and the children towards their fathers. He was the one to call for repentance and making straight the way of the Lord.
He came as a witness. He came as a witness to testify about the capital l Light. He came as a witness to testify about this light that was the light of all mankind. So that why'd he do it? John, I love John.
John the apostle and John the Baptist. But John the apostle, I love it because he tells us why he's writing. He tells us in John twenty thirty one, these things I have written down so that you may believe, and believing have life in his name. John says right here that John the Baptist, and John the Apostle was one of the disciples of John the Baptist. Before John the Baptist pointed out Jesus and said, you go after him.
I must decrease. He must increase. Jesus is the one. The reason he was testifying was so that all might believe through him. If the might bothers you there, that's a subjunctive grammar thing, it means that really you have the choice of whether you will believe this or not so that all have the opportunity to believe through him.
Now this guy, John the Baptist, was not the light. He he said so. But he came to testify about the light. He came to testify about Jesus. This was the true light.
The true light that coming into the world, stepping out of his transcendent, holy, divine nature and into, taking on while still maintaining that, taking on human flesh. This was the true light that coming into the world enlightens every person so that all might believe. You can reject it, but you also have the opportunity now to wrap your mind around something that is transcendent because of his imminence, because he is here. He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him. I know it's hard to understand.
I'm saying it again. Everything that was created was created by Him, and there was nothing created that wasn't through Him. He was in the world though. How does he step into his very own creation? I know it's mind blowing.
But the world came into being through him and yet the world did not know him. I think about those pharisees and they're just going, who are you? What are you talking about? I don't get it. And he said, just very plainly, I know it.
I know. And my heart breaks for you. You have to just trust me. In John, it's about belief. Belief.
In the first chapter, he came into his own, and his own rejected him did not believe him. Second chapter, the disciples came to believe in him there at that wedding at Cana. Third chapter, Nicodemus is coming to him. A Pharisee coming to him at night checking it out saying, we know that you must be from God. Nobody could do this except that they were.
Oh, are you this great teacher of Israel, Nicodemus, and yet you don't know this? Whoever believes, whoever believes fourth chapters, woman at the well, belief is what it's all about. It really does make a difference. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him. Yet the world did not know him because it just couldn't believe that.
He came to his own and his own people. Although since the very beginning when God spoke things into being and then told the story, knowing that it was his word, they still had a hard time seeing his logos, Jesus, as his word. He came to his own. His own people did not accept him. But as many as did receive him, as many of the people that did say, I'm willing, Lord, I'm willing, show me who you are.
I trust you. As many as did receiving, to them, he gave them the right to become children of God. That's an amen moment right there. As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. It wasn't a checklist of do's and don'ts.
It was just as simple as trusting Jesus. As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. To those who believe in his name. Again, John restates. If wondering how you receive him, it is to believe in him.
Those who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of any man, but of God. That is mind blowing too. In the third chapter, all of these themes that he's bringing out in this prologue excuse me. He's bringing out these themes in the prologue that are gonna come out throughout the whole Gospel of John. We'll hear them again and again, repetition and variation.
It is one of the most artistic creations. It's the simplest Greek in the New Testament. I had a professor that was fond of saying, It is shallow enough that a child can wade in it, but so deep that an elephant could drown in it. Right? The more you read it, the better it gets, and it's short and easy to get to.
You must be born again is what he tells to Nicodemus. And this says right here, As many as received him, to those who believe in his name, those are the ones who received him. They were born, how? Of God. That's pretty good.
But it does take trusting him. I mentioned in the movie, sometimes in the movies, the big start is to kind of bring it all out here, and then it focuses the attention. And then we kind of go along for the ride. There's a suspension of disbelief that happens in movies. There's actually, at some point in the believer's life, a suspension of the disbelief we've been holding on to.
Does that make sense? Now, trusting that a movie is true is crazy. Trusting that that is true and good and just becoming the biggest fan of that movie ever, putting your faith in that, that's crazy. That doesn't help. But placing your faith in the faithfulness of a good and loving creative God is the right thing to do.
And it makes all the difference in the world. It makes all the difference in the next world. Actually, 14 here, and the word, that is Jesus, logos, the divine content. Hebrews says he is the exact representation of God, and the word became flesh. It took on flesh, the incarnation.
If you want a little deeper reading on this, like extremely deeper reading on this, Athanasius wrote long, long ago, like the 300s. Athanasius wrote on the divine on the incarnation of the Word, on the incarnation of the Word. Every day, I think. On the incarnation of the Word. And the Word became flesh.
He took on flesh. So his transcendent God is now in a form that we can understand and appreciate. Like I said about John, Oh, I understand that. Two eyes of nose and mouth can communicate, understand, grows up. I get that.
The word took on flesh and dwelt among us. The dwelt there is tabernacled or pitched his tent. You all are campers. I'd hate to be a camper right now. I'm glad the Boy Scouts spent the night inside last night, not outside.
But he pitched his tent among us. I mean, John's speaking this literally. They pitched tents together and they camped together. But he's saying the word, all that is contained in God. The content that he chose was delivered through Jesus.
And he hung out with us. He camped out with us. He stayed here with us. He taught us. And we saw his glory.
And his glory was as of the only son from the father. Amen. He's an amazing, amazing teacher, rabbi, merciful empath, but he was more than that. He was full of grace and truth. Amen.
And the word became flesh and dwelt among us That's Christmas. We saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15, immediately oh, yes, this is as Christmas y as it gets. Okay. There you go.
Sorry. Gimmicks. John one fifteen. John one fifteen talks about John the Baptist again. John the Baptist, good guy, amazing guy, really, really outside of the box thinker because he was filled with the spirit from his mother's womb, he was seeing the scriptures as they ought to have been seen.
I have to say, even today in the church, a lot of times we take a more pharisaical stance because we treat Trinity of God as Father, Son, and Holy Book rather than Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Rightly illuminated and understood by the Holy Spirit, his book will draw people to him. But without the spirit, without the spirit that empowered Christ and indwelt him and kept him going, it can be misunderstood pretty easily. John though got it. John got it and understood it.
He testified about Jesus and he called out saying, this is the one. This is the one. This is the one that I said. He who is coming after me has proved to be superior because he existed before me. What?
Do you remember last week when the end of our the sermon last week, the end of the passage and the last part of John eight, they were saying, you're not better than Abraham, are you? He said, listen, Abraham was overjoyed when my day came. What? Before Abraham was born, I am. He was pointing to the fact that he has always been, and it sounds crazy to hear it with human ears without any kind of illumination by the spirit.
It sounds crazy, and they treated it as crazy, and they picked up stones and wanted to kill him. But even before he arrived on the scene, John the Baptist was saying, he who is coming after me has proved to be my superior because he existed before me. He has always been. This is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. For of his fullness, John says about Jesus, John the apostle says about Jesus, for of his fullness we have all received.
And grace upon grace, God's unmerited favor on top of God's unmerited favor. Just to know him would have been great, but we got to spend time with him. We got to have him explain the scriptures as they were supposed to be understood. We got to understand him in a way that when the redemptive time came, he empowered us to carry forward this message. And if you are a believer, it is because they carried forward this message.
All of his fullness we have all received in grace upon grace. For the law was indeed given through Moses. It was. Last week it said, but the law was weak. It can only show us our fault.
But grace and truth, grace and truth have come to be realized through Jesus Christ. There is a loving, omnipotent God that will not force himself on you. But he has made a way. In that way, he has communicated through the divine logos, through the divine word, through Jesus Christ. The law was given through Moses, and it points out our lack, But grace, the unmerited favor, and the truth of God's holiness and his transcendence have been made imminent in the person of Jesus Christ.
No one has seen God at any time. Jesus mentions this several times throughout the gospels. But God, the only son, second person of the Trinity, who is in the arms of the father, he has explained him. Explained him. He's he's told us everything we need to know about God.
He showed us everything that we need to know about God. He, as Hebrews says, is the exact representation of God. Amen. That's the end of the prologue. Now oftentimes, like I said, when people come in, they say, where do I even start?
We we had a guy, Tanya and I had a guy before we moved to the mission field who was a good close friend of ours that we loved dearly. And he was in desperate shape. Really, really difficult time. When he came in, was suicidal. And he began to live with us.
He lived with us for two straight years. And he went to church with us. He did everything with us. He didn't say much, hardly ever said anything, but he was just hanging out. And after, I don't know how many sermons, how many church visits, one night at home, he just said, I don't see the difference.
I do everything y'all do, and y'all are filled with hope, and you're able to get up the next day and not want to kill yourself. I'm not a pastor. I'm not a missionary. It wasn't my job. But he said, I don't get it.
I said, man, have you ever just have you ever just read the story? Like, just read the story. It's not long. You read it. You're you're a reader.
Read it. And when he got to the eighth chapter right after the woman caught in adultery and Jesus saying who he was to the Pharisees, he was balling. And he said, I'll take that. I'll take that. It got him.
The word makes a difference. The word Jesus made the biggest difference that can ever be made, but the story of Jesus is the story that makes the difference. So that is one example. After I got to be here, I thought, I can't do this. I don't how am I going to do this?
I was going to go build buildings somewhere in the world where they spoke Spanish. I wasn't going to do this. I get here, start work on a Monday. I can't do this. How am I gonna do this?
A guy calls on Wednesday, and he said, I got a feeling I need to be baptized. And I was like, this is the weirdest phone call I've ever gotten. But, I mean, I am at the First Baptist Church, so I guess that's the place to call. You know? And I said, well, why why do you think you need to be baptized?
Are you are you a believer? No, man. I need to be baptized. I was like, are you doing it because you're afraid of something? You feel like that, you know, being dipped is gonna do something that wards off evil spirits or something?
He goes, I just know that I woke up this morning and I knew I had to be baptized, so I called you. So I said, Well, this is what I've got, man. This is the story of Jesus. And I was like He said, I'll take that. And I said, well, where are you?
He said, Pinedale. I said, why'd you call the First Baptist Church of Jackson? But you know what? I only knew one other pastor in all of Wyoming. The only guy that I knew was Jim Sylvia at Pinedale Bible Church.
And I know he's an evangelist, and I know he's a great guy that'll bring That guy started going to church there. He still goes to church there. Isn't that amazing? I guess, Lord, I guess we can do this. One more quick story.
I told at Helen's funeral the other day, just a brief little bit, there was a guy that wandered in here on a Friday. And as he wandered in, he said he was disheveled and pretty rough, bald man. He had a Chinese tattoo on the back of his neck. And he came in and he said, I have been drunk for the last twelve years. And I was like, okay.
He said, I've been homeless for a long time. I burned up my eyes. I could barely see, and I'm desperate. I said, Okay. Well, here you are.
This had been a few years in. I said, You're in the right place. This is good. And he said, I called the only person in the world that I trust last night. And she's not my mama, but I call her mama.
She said, All right, buddy. Listen. When you wake up in the morning as sober as you can get, go and find somebody who'll tell you about Jesus. He was sleeping in his van in the Ranch Home parking lot, and he walked down here, and he wandered in, and I was the guy. And I said, well, man, I I said, we could pray the sinner's prayer right now, but I have a feeling if you've been in any homeless shelter, you've been exposed to that.
I said, yeah. I said, do you know who Jesus is? Do you know who God is by looking at who Jesus is? And he said, no. And I said, well, have you read the Gospel of John?
He said, no. And I said, well, I'll I'll get you one. I went and got one of these little deals right here. He goes, I can't read that. My eyes are burned up.
I said, How big would the print have to be for your eyes to be able to read it? And he said, Pretty big. I said, Like an inch? He said, Yeah. I made him a Gospel of John.
It was two forty three pages long. Printed it no joke, printed it on our printer right there. And we started reading it together, and when it looked like he was weary, said, Man, just keep on coming back. That was Friday. Saturday night, I got a call from the jail.
And the jail I could hear the lady on the phone. I could hear in the background this. When he left that morning, he said, I'll be there Sunday morning. I'm not ever going to miss. I'll be there Sunday morning.
It's all right. So Saturday night, about 10:00, I'm finishing up in here in the background of her talking. And I said, Ma'am, what is that? She said, That's a prisoner beating his head against the wall because he said he's supposed to be there tomorrow morning. And I can promise you he ain't.
He is not going to be there. And I said, Alright. Can I come see him? So I went to see him. And he said, I left that Bible you gave me and I'm stuck in here.
And I'm going to be here a while. He's 17 below zero. He was running his van to stay warm. He actually was in the bathroom when he came along and his vehicle was running, so he got a DUI. He hadn't been moving.
I was like, Man, I'm not a lawyer, I think I could get somebody off on that. Through the process of him getting out, going back in, having to blow in the tube every day to prove he's not drinking, he was able to read that Gospel of John. And it changed his life. It really does work. The gospel is real, and it is right here and available.
It's imminent. It's not just transcendent where it'll just blow your mind. You can't ever understand it. It is something that as you take in the story of Jesus and willingly take it in, it will transform your life. I want to pray.
I'm going invite the elders to come forward. We're going into a time of communion right now. And this is a symbolic representation of taking Jesus in. Lord, would you help us? Would you help us when everything seems to be so dark around us all the time and we're not getting it, would you show us your light?
Would you allow us to accept who Jesus is? Would you allow us to allow you, the ever existent, eternal one, into our day to day life in time and space? Would you transform us through Jesus Christ and the spirit that empowered him and raised him from the dead. In Jesus' name, Lord, we pray. We give up to you right now anything that we may be holding against anyone else.
Would you cleanse us, Lord, from our sins? I pray that you would make yourself known to us, Lord, through your word. Amen. Now at this season, we often I mean, and rightly so, we're we're celebrating the birth of Christ, the incarnation of God into human flesh. And this is representative of that body that started.
And he walked by the spirit of God empowered, and he walked it out. The painful road, the Via Dolorosa. He walked it out perfectly. When he met with his disciples in the upper room on the night that he was betrayed, John spends four chapters talking about this supper. He says after supper, after they had finished eating, they Jesus took bread and he broke it, and after he blessed it, he said to them, this is my body which is given for you.
His perfect record. What he had accomplished in the flesh. He said, this is my body which is given for you. Take this and eat and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Lord, we ask your blessing on this cup as we distribute it, Lord, just like the bread, the body, and blood, Lord.
I pray that you would impress upon us the necessary work that was done on that cross when you shed your innocent blood voluntarily on our behalf. Would you bless it, Lord? Amen. In the same manner that he had taken the cup, the bread, he also took the cup. He said to his disciples there with him, this is the new covenant in my blood.
He was making real the promise of God. Who's taken upon himself ascends the world. This is the new covenant in my blood. Take this and drink and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Thank you, Lord.
I'm going invite the band back up. Would you stand with us? And we're going to sing what we believe. As a benediction today, I'll just skip forward in the book of John again. John fourteen six, Jesus answered, Thomas has said, I am the way and the truth and the life, Thomas.
There's no one that comes to the father except through me. In Jesus name and for his sake, may we go forward Resting in his peace, resting in his comfort, resting in his joy, but not just resting in it. Spreading it. Go go and telling it on the mountain as it were. In Jesus name, may we go forth reflecting God's glory onto a world that is in darkness.
Amen.

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Written up from the message given at First B Jackson. If something here reads oddly, the recording is the record.

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