In the Beginning Was the Word
First B Jackson
2022-12-04

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

----
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.