The Word Became Flesh and Pitched His Tent Among Us
First B Jackson
2022-12-04

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

----
Boy Scouts had a breakfast down the hall in between services, so there's all kinds of pandemonium. We might sing a few people in. If we start singing some of these Christmas songs, we'll get them down the hall. So if you would, stand with me. I'm glad you're here and glad I'm here, actually.

With all of the sliding around we've been doing this week, it's nice to all be in the same place. Good go tell it on the mountain.

Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born, While shepherds kept their watching or silent flocks by night. Behold throughout the heavens, there's shown a holy angel chorus that hailed the savior's birth. Earth, go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born.

Down in a manger, the humble Christ was born, and God sent us salvation that blessed Christmas Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. Amen. Alright. We're going

to sing Oh Little Town of Bethlehem. Philip Brooks wrote this song. Pastor, he's a he's a preacher. I guess a lot of them were probably written by preachers but this one, I really appreciate. Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem.

For Christ is born of Mary and gathered all above. While mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wandering love. Oh, morning stars together proclaim the holy birth and praises sing to God the king and peace to men on earth. How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given. So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven.

No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in. Oh, child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray. Cast out our sin and enter enter in. Be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings help.

Tidings oh come to us abide with us amen

y'all can have a seat I've got a few announcements to kinda get through this morning. Monday night at first B is happening its own. Carl is preaching tomorrow night. A message from Mark. He's starting the parables of Jesus in the book of Mark.

We will have meal music and a message. The meal will be a Mexican feast provided by Felix in Guadalupe and then the band will play the music. We'll play some Christmas songs and some gospel songs and then the message will be from the book of Mark by Carl but after that, after all of that, as if that were not enough but wait, there's more. We have a gospel conversation afterwards. That's actually a lot of fun and it's nice to kind of bounce ideas off of each other and even ask questions if you want to.

So, Monday nights at First B is happening. Oh, that was Friendsgiving for Thanksgiving. Children's Christmas choir is happening. That'll be two weeks from today. They'll be performing at 10AM.

It's one service on the eighteenth, 10AM. One service. All the children, are welcome to be a part of the choir. They're doing rehearsals downstairs in between services, so from, ten to eleven downstairs, this week. Next week is the last rehearsal, and then they'll be performing on the eighteenth.

Lisa Landis' number is up there if you would like to get in touch with her. This week is the week for the Jackson Hole Women's Community Bible Study Christmas Luncheon. So, pretty much it's a come one, come all event, worship, message, lunch, December 7 at twelve. If you are going to go, it'd be nice to let them know that. So there's no charge.

It's open to the public. Lots of people have donated so that they could present this. So it's going to be fun at the Snow King Ballroom, December 7. That's Wednesday at noon. Angel Tree.

So Tanya is here this morning. If you have any questions to ask her in person, she's here and around and you can get the answer straight from her. But if you need to text her during the week, that's her number up there. There are tags on the tree, and I think you all know how it works. We used to put stickers on the back of the tags that said, Return the presents with this tag attached to it by such and such a date.

I just noticed this morning, there are no stickers on the back. Please bring them back. And bringing the tags back with them stuck to the box, that would be a good idea. I might make some of those after the service. But Angel Tree, Tanya is taking care of that.

Next week, so one week from today, in the evening, 04:30, traditional Christmas caroling around Jackson. So we'll probably send a delegation to the square. We'll probably send some folks some folks we know that are sort of shut in and stuck inside the house. And, we might find some indoor places, we might find some outdoor places. If you have someone that you know that you would like for us to go to their house and sing to them, would you let us know so that we can kind of make a route and get around and see as many people as we can and, bring a little bit of Christmas joy.

Caroling is at 04:30, and then we'll reconvene back here 06:00 for the chili cook off. If you have a recipe for chili that you just love, there will be given out prizes for best overall and spiciest and, I don't know, most original, something like that. Buzzard Breath chili cook off on the same night as Caroling, December 11. That's next week. Boy Scouts did breakfast down the hall this morning.

That was great. Just a mention for the Boy Scouts and First B's involvement with them. I am the chartered organization rep. So I'm a Boy Scout. And the church, wherever it has been in Jackson, we've the church has existed since 1911.

This church has it lists since 1911. And the Boy Scouts have been meeting at First B for ninety plus years. Ninety plus years they've been using that we've been affiliated with one another. So that's kinda cool. They blessed us with breakfast this morning.

If you'd like to help out with connect hour or Monday night, like I said, Felix and Guadalupe are cooking tomorrow night. They committed to doing one per month. They do the first Monday of each month. But if you'd like to do one just every once in a while, let us know and we'll sign you up for that. I think that's it.

I'm going to invite up the Johnston's. So Grace and Berkeley and Maria and Robin.

Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning everyone. If you don't know us, I'm Berkley. This is my wife Grace and our daughter Robin. We I have been blessed to be a guest at First Bee for most of my life whenever I visited Noni to me, Maria, Berkley Johnston, my grandparents.

And Grace and I have lived here for about a year and a half and have been a part of this church and have loved being here weekly with all of you. So we're gonna read the advent this morning. This Sunday, the second in advent, we light the candle of peace. As we prepare to celebrate the coming of the prince of peace, we are 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. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Robin. So sweet. Alright. Would you stand?

We're going to sing about the worthiness of our worthy savior. Watch the key change on the third verse.

Worthy you are worthy king of kings, lord of lords, you are worthy worthy, you are worthy, king of kings, lord of lords, I worship you. Holy, you are holy. King of kings, lord of lords, you are holy. Holy, you are holy. King of kings, lord of lords, I worship you, keychain.

Jesus, you are Jesus, king of kings, lord of lords, you are Jesus, Jesus, you are Jesus, king of kings, lord of lords, I worship you.

Amen. And then, Emmanuel, speaking of that, God is with us. It means God is with us. The sermon today, I'm gonna talk about the transcendence of almighty God, but the way that he fleshed that out quite literally is he went from being absolutely transcendent to being absolutely imminent in the person of Christ. Emmanuel, God with us.

His name is called Emmanuel. God with us revealed in us. His name is called Emmanuel. Let's sing it again. Emmanuel.

His name is called Emmanuel. God with revealed in us his name is called Amen.

Y'all can have a seat and I will invite the ushers to come forward and thankful for this season, thankful for this time and the God with us. Jesus, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your humble obedience to your father's will. I thank you that empowered by the Holy Spirit, you came into this world, into the darkness, into the woe, into the tribulation.

You came in and you made sense of it for as many as would receive you, Lord. I pray, Lord, that we would be, as the continuing body of Christ, that we would be proclaiming your good news, that we would be God with the community, that we would accompany that you, by your spirit, would accompany us into the world around us, and that you would reflect your light, that life that was a light of all men, that you would reflect that through us onto this community, and to the very uttermost parts. In Jesus' name, we ask that you'd bless all that is placed in these plates, whether it's actual, fiscal, financial type resources, or whether it's the time we spend, the conversations we have, the meditations of our heart, the intercessory prayer. Lord, we pray that you'd multiply them and bless them to do your kingdom's work, we would be about our Father's business. In Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you, Judy. So, this morning, we're up to well, there it went. The prologue of the Gospel of John. That's it's not that we're up to that. It's that I when I was considering Christmas and considering this, way back when when we started our Harmony of the Gospel study several months back, I said, I'm skipping Christmas.

We do it every year, and we'll do it again next year. But for my harmony, we started actually with Jesus in the temple as a boy when he's 12 years old, and he was doing the same thing that he does. When he's in the temple, he's proclaiming God's word. I mean, he is God's word according to our text today, but he's always teaching. I mean, he's not grandstanding.

He's just simply stating the truth of God as it is. So when I was considering what to do today, I've got four gospels to go on for the Christmas story. And I think that if you go chronologically, which I like to do, the prologue of the gospel John is certainly first. Actually, the first line is in the beginning. What does that make you think of?

First line of Genesis. Right? First line of Genesis is in the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth. Well, if you have a chronological Bible, I have a Reese chronological Bible down the hall in my office.

And if you got a if you have a chronological Bible, in the beginning was the word. John one one precedes Genesis one one. He's talking about that time when God was trinity together when there was nothing else, and he created ex nihilo out of nothing. But it this is a mind blowing chapter. It's a mind blowing first 18 verses.

I'll say this, that when I have a chance, we have a bunch of these. Usually, have a bunch of Gospels of John on hand. They're thin. They're not very long. Usually, it's about 25 or 30 pages.

I don't see any page numbers. This one's longer than that, but the writing is bigger and the book is smaller. But I tell people all the time, if you want to see a clear picture of who Jesus is and why that matters, read John. So if anybody ever asked me, What should I read first? Where should I start?

I mean, that's where we started in our study here together a long time ago, the Gospel of John. John one:one is a great place to start. In the beginning was the word, logos. Logos is content. It is the communication of God.

It is everything that God wanted us to know is logos, his content. In the beginning was the word. Think about this. God started speaking before any of us as human beings ever even existed. He spoke us into existence.

Yeah. That makes sense. But he was speaking since the beginning. Father, son, Holy Spirit. In the beginning was the word.

Now, I thought about this because last week, in the last few weeks, we've been in John seven and eight. We went through Jesus' discourse with the pharisees and the scribes in the temple, the feast of tabernacles, and then the lady who was caught in adultery and hit the grace that was shown to her that he did not condemn her. And then the next week, he's speaking again in the temple near the treasury hanging out and just teaching, not grandstanding, saying it as it was. And this is one of the things that he said to them. He said to them, again, I'm gonna go away and you'll look for me and you Pharisees and scribes, you proud religious, will die in your sin.

Where I am going, you cannot come. And so those Jews were saying, surely he's not gonna kill himself, will he? Since he says, where I'm going, you cannot come. And he was saying to them, y'all are from below. You judge, he's already told him in the paragraph before this, y'all judge with earthly, fleshly judgment.

You're not looking at this by the spirit of God. You're not open to the spirit of God. You are from below, and I am from above. You are of this world. I'm not of this world.

Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am. Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. And then they were saying to him, who are you? Who are you? I don't get it.

I don't get who you think you are. I don't get who you're saying you are. Everything you say seems to be outside of my scope. It seems to be so transcendent and it's blowing my mind that you could think you are. I think you might be crazy.

Who are you? And Jesus said to them, what have I been saying to you since the very beginning? Oh, that ties in. That beginning, it ties in with this. In the beginning was the word.

He's been saying this from the beginning. Before there were even human beings, Psalm 19 says that day after day, night after night, creation declares the glory of God. Day after day, night after night. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God. Jesus, second person of the trinity was with the father and the spirit and the word was God.

Now, when people ask me where I should start, usually I do say, read the book of John. But I say the first 18 verses are gonna blow your mind. It's ridiculous. It's it's so far out there. The scope is so large that if you just start there, you just think, I don't get this.

I don't understand it. By verse 19, it'll just go into a narrative story. It'll say, okay, there's this dude. His name is John. John testified about Jesus and then it gets to be easier to understand.

That's the point of the first 18 verses. The transcendent God becomes flesh and dwells among us. We'll get there at verse 14. It's the coming down from so far outside. Transcendent means surpassing all else, preeminent or supreme, lying beyond the ordinary range of perception.

And that's what God is. But he chose to show who he was in an imminent way by sending Christ. John says, I know it's hard to understand. I'm gonna reiterate. He was in the beginning with God.

He's already said it once. He was in the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. No.

Really. He was in the beginning with God and all things that came into being, everything, everything that came into being came into being through him. He was the agent of creation. There at the very beginning, even even before that. And apart from him, not even one thing came into being that has come into being.

There is nothing outside of the scope of what Jesus has created. There's nothing else that can be known or seen that he didn't have a part in making. In him, Jesus was life, and life was the light of mankind. Everyone is looking to trust someone. The gospel of John is all about belief.

It's all about belief from the first chapter, second chapter, third chapter. Maybe I'll get to it right up here. And the light shines in the darkness. The light, that's Jesus. He's described as word, logos, which is the content God wants for us to know.

And life, I'm the way, the truth, the life, Jesus said, John fourteen six. All of the themes of John are contained in these 18 verses. And the light, the life was the light of mankind, and that light was shining in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it. They just didn't get it. A man came, one sent from God, and his name was John.

Finally, something I can understand. Okay. This guy, John, two eyes, one nose, a mouth, sent from God to proclaim something. It says, John the Baptist is the guy. By the way, since John the apostle or John the evangelist the apostle was the one that's writing this, it can be confusing but this is about John the Baptist.

It says, there was a man who was sent from God and his name was John, John the Baptist. John the apostle was actually a disciple of John the Baptist. John the Baptist had been filled with the spirit since in his mother's womb, and he understood the scriptures, and he understood them because they were illuminated by the Holy Spirit. He came, John the Baptist came as a witness. He was there to testify about the light.

That light is Jesus. And why did he do that? He did that so that all might believe through him. Actually, if you go into John's book and you read it at one sitting, it's possible. It's easy.

It's not hard to read. It's 25 pages long on a regular Bible. You get to John twenty thirty one and he gives his purpose. It says, a lot of things could have been written about Jesus, but these things have been written so that you might believe and believing have life in his name. He's saying that John the Baptist had the same exact testimony.

He came as a witness to testify about the light so that all might believe through him. The might in there is signifying it's a subjunctive tense. There is the possibility is laid out there, but it's contingent upon whether you believe it, receive it, or reject it and disbelieve it. So that all have the possibility of believing through him. Now, he was not the light.

John was not the light, but he did come to testify about the light. Okay. Back to the mind blowing transcendent God. Now, this was the true light. This was the true light that coming into the world enlightens every person.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him. Doesn't that just sound like monstrous, huge, overarching? It it it does. Well, the prologue of John's gospel, if I had to explain kind of what it is, it's like the opening credits, maybe the opening scene of a movie. And when you go to the movies and you're sitting in there and you've watched the common attractions, and maybe the green screen comes up that tells you what the rating is.

And then it used to be that while you're at the movies, it would go from being about like this, it'd go. You remember that when the curtains would go out further? Now the big show is on. And the big show, often, it would start out with somewhere out in way out in outer space, and it would be just stars or maybe one star swirling. And then a world is formed.

This is just Hollywood, right? Universal. Paramount.

Orion Pictures.

You know, it's something enormous. But then it kinda comes down to showing a mountain maybe. Or like Forrest Gump, the opening scene of Forrest Gump. You remember the feather that's floating and it's up in the clouds and it's just lilting around. Then it dips down and you see, oh, there's a church steeple.

Woah, it goes back up again. It keeps on floating around and there's some live oak trees. Then before long, it lights on forest. The story's going to be about forest. John's prologue is kinda like that.

We're halfway through the prologue right now, but it shows the transcendence of God. Wow. How could it be that he was there before any of this existed? And that none of this existed without him. He was actually the agent of creating all of this.

It's lilting up there, but then it's coming closer and closer. Verse 10 says, he was in the world. He he was here. That same one that created all of this, he was here. And the world came into being through him, and yet the world did not know him.

They didn't recognize him. I mean, he looked like us. He had two eyes, a nose, a mouth. He was like us. He was born in the same way.

Although it was kind of strange circumstances. We'll learn about that in the next few weeks again. The world didn't know him. He came unto his own people, and his own people did not accept him. How does that sound?

John eight? John seven? Actually, accepting him, receiving him, believing him. In the book of John, it's definitely about believing him. They were rejecting him outright.

Now, they knew the scriptures. Actually, when Jesus said, what have I been saying since the very beginning? The very beginning, all of the speaking that God had been doing was about him and telling the story but on their own, judging with the flesh, they didn't recognize him and actually pilloried him. But as many as received him oh, that's a great news. But as many as received him, it was possible to let go.

I mentioned movies. If you go to a movie, there are some pretty fantastic movies out there right now. They're just way out there. When you go in, if you go in and you think, Oh, I see the strings that are holding Peter Pan up. I see all of the things.

It's hard to suspend your disbelief. But man, movies have gotten pretty good. The CGI in there and you could see it and go, Man, that's amazing. How did they make that person fly? Well, you have to kind of have a suspension of disbelief to really enjoy a movie.

Now if you get into a movie so much that you start dressing like the characters and you just devote yourself to it, that's crazy. Okay, that's nuts. But this is the greatest story that's ever told because it's true. I mentioned at a funeral the other day that there's faith and there's faithfulness. In the Bible, it's the same word.

Pistis is the word. And John uses it all the time. And when it's talking about believing in, you can believe in something that is not true and it does you no good. But your subjective faith that you've been given a measure of, everybody wants to trust someone. The measure of faith that you've been given, when it is placed in the faithfulness of God, who is true, who is transcendent, but also present, imminently in Christ, available by a spirit, that is where you receive and are given the right to become a child of God.

As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name. John backs up and says it a different way. You receive by believing. What you believe is what matters. What you believe will take you into what you do, but belief happens first.

It's not a list of do's and don'ts. It is simply looking at and seeing Christ as he presents himself, straightforward, as John presents him, as John the Baptist presented him, as all of the Old Testament presented him and saying, I recognize that this is light and this is true, and I will accept the light and the truth that you've given me, God. He gives you the right to be a child of God, to those who believe in his name. Those who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh. This is not just the common way by the will of man that someone is born.

People want to have a baby, they have a baby. Sometimes they struggle, but that is the way that it normally is, by will. Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So John in in chapter one gives us the whole concept of being born again right here. Now, it's gonna come up again in John three.

All of the themes of the whole book of John are contained in this prologue. All of them. It matters what you believe. It matters what you receive. It matters that you're born again.

Just look at this. As many as received him. Who who are those people? Those are the ones who have believed in his name. As many as received him, those who believe in his name, they were born of God.

Not just the normal way everything happens. They're born again because they've trusted in the word. One fourteen. About as Christmassy a verse as you can find. In one place, and the word, the divine content, exactly what God wanted to express to his creation, and the word became flesh.

Incarnation. If you want to read more on this, if you're looking for something that you haven't read this Christmas season, De Verbi Dei De Verbi Dei by Athanasius. It is on the incarnation of the word of God. On the incarnation of the word of God by Saint Athanasius from the fourth century, three hundreds. It's really good.

He goes into what it means. And the word became flesh, took on flesh. Transcendent God came to be born. And we'll hear the story to poor poor mother on a journey, in a stable, of an inn, took on flesh. The transcendent God had imminence, and he dwelt among us.

The word dwelt there is tabernacled, which really means pitched his tent. He pitched his tent among us. He camped out with us for a while. John, think about this. John the apostle literally camped out with Jesus.

Like, to think that all of the fullness of the godhead contained in Jesus, and we're camping with that guy. Wow. I'm glad the boy scout slept inside the church and not outside the church last night. Freezing cold out there. The word became flesh and Jesus pitched his tent here.

He didn't have to. He could have stayed in heaven, but that would have left us longing. It would have left us hopeless. And so by the will of the father and power by the spirit, he came and he dwelt among us, pitched his tent among us. And we, John says, of himself and the apostles, but I I think it extends to us too.

And we, those who have received and believed and been born of God, called children of God. We saw his glory. Glory as of the only son from the father. We saw how it was, and it was full of grace, unmerited favor. Full of grace.

God is leaning towards us with favor and he's doing so by sending his son full of grace and full of truth. That's a Christmassy verse. That's a good one. Good one for your Christmas card right there. Okay, back to something we can understand.

It's not as mind blowing. John, John, you remember John the Baptist? John, John testified about Jesus and he's called out saying, yeah, this guy, this guy. He pointed to him and he said, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This this was the one of whom I was speaking, saying, he who is coming after me has proved to be my superior because he existed before me.

Now last week, when I closed last week, if you think from John eight, John eight, the pharisees were trusting in or actually, it wasn't the pharisees. These were some of the people who said that they were willing to believe, but they were of the line of Abraham. And they said, wait a minute. What are you saying if we believe in you that we'll be free? We've never been enslaved to anyone.

We we're children of Abraham. We're good. God's chosen people. Right? He's he gave us father Abraham.

We're good. Jesus said, no. Listen. Abraham was overjoyed to see my day. Abraham got it.

Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. He who is coming after me has proved to be superior, John the Baptist says, because he existed before me. How is that? We know John the Baptist is a little older than Jesus. Earthly manifestation.

But John the Baptist, by the power of the Holy Spirit, understood that Jesus has always existed. He became flesh. He dwelt among us. Yes. He pointed him out.

He recognized it by the Holy Spirit. He'd been filled with the Holy Spirit since his mother's womb. He was coming after me as proved to be my superior because he existed before me. Remember last week that they said, you're not saying you're better than Abraham, right? You're you're you can't be.

Crazy. Father Abraham is the best. He's he's it. Jesus said, Abraham was overjoyed to see my day. Let me tell you the truth.

Before Abraham was born, I am. Wow. To take the first person progressive present tense and say, I am. That's the name of God. I am.

And they said, you're not even 50 years old. You're saying you're older than you you saw Abraham? Before Abraham even was born, I am. And they picked up stones because he came to his own and they knew him not. John the Baptist.

He was coming after me as proved to be my superior because he existed before me. John the apostle, you go and go after him. I've got to decrease. He's got to increase my time here. What I've done is just point you towards him.

For of his fullness, John the apostle says, for of his fullness, Jesus' fullness, God's fullness, we have all received. What we received was grace, unmerited favor. Upon grace, unmerited favor on top of that. The fact that he came is grace. The fact that I got to see him firsthand and camp with him firsthand, that he turned over responsibility for his mother on the cross to me, John says.

It's grace upon grace upon grace. So much favor. And the law was given through Moses. Yeah, the law was given through Moses. But all the law could do, as we saw last week, was point out our lack.

Point out our sin. Point out how we were falling short of the glory of God. The law was given through Moses. But grace, the unmerited favor, and truth were realized, made incarnate, put here for us in Jesus Christ. That's why we celebrate Christmas.

Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. God, the only son though, who's in the arms of the father, he has explained it. He showed us what God's like. He showed us what's God like.

When that woman was caught in adultery and he did not condemn her but extended to her grace. He showed us what God is like. He's waiting for us to suspend our willful disbelief and place the faith that he has given us in him. I told three stories at the end I had not planned on telling in the first service, and I told only half of one of them, but I got more time in this service. One of them is there was a fellow that lived with us for two years before Tarni and I moved to the mission field.

I might have mentioned him before, but I don't think so. He came in. He was suicidal to the house. And he slept with a knife under his pillow, actually. It's kind of scary.

Not homicidal, but definitely suicidal. Been through a very, very hard divorce of his parents and was forgotten about, left and neglected. We loved him. He saw something actually, he worked with Tanya. He saw something in her that he could not explain and was drawn to it.

Then met me, and then we invited him to come in. And he started just doing whatever we did. When we went out to dinner, he went out to dinner. When we went to church, he went to church. He went with us pretty much wherever we went and he just lived with us for two years.

He dwelt among us. Good guy. He watched country music television all the time. That doesn't help depression by the way. He was We loved him.

But one day, we had been to church that morning. We had been to church that evening. We went Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. That's the way we did. And he always went with us.

And he came home and he said, What's the difference? I'm like, What in the world? It was pretty loud. He barely spoke. What's the difference?

I go with y'all. Do everything you do. I've been doing it for two years, and I don't understand why it is y'all can wake up and have hope and I cannot. I don't know. But I do know this.

Have you ever just read it for yourself? Like instead of just hearing a sermon here and there, have you ever just dug in and just read it for yourself? Have you ever started like with the Gospel of John? You know, it's not long. You can do this.

He's a reader. He started reading the Gospel of John. And I saw him start. He was in my living room. He started reading it.

And he read chapter one, chapter two, chapter three. He's reading along. He gets up to chapter eight. And I didn't know I wasn't reading it with him. I'm just doing what I do.

Actually, was building a guitar in the kitchen. That's what I was doing as a hobby I had. And I look over, and he's crying. And he starts wiping off huge tears. And he said, I get it.

And it was chapter eight. It was right after Christ had extended grace to that lady. Actually, his difficult divorce was caused by an adulterous affair between, you know, mom and dad, both actually. And when Christ extended grace and then explained who he was to those, it clicked for him, made a difference. Amen.

Transformed his life. He now has I didn't tell the aftermath of this in the first, but he now has a wife and a child, and he has a great job, and he is a witness for the kingdom, for the truth of the gospel. Another thing, I might have I don't think I've told this one in here either, but when I got here ten and a half years ago and started doing this, I was scared to death. And this is one of the first passages that I covered while I was here, actually. And when I first got here, though, I started on a Monday.

And on Monday, I was thinking,

God, I don't know if

I can do this.

What in the world? I'm the pastor of this church. That's crazy.

I don't think I can do this. Help me. Help me. And on Wednesday of that week, I got a call, pick up the phone. First Baptist Church, this is Ray.

He goes, yeah, I think I need to be baptized. I thought, okay. First Baptist Church, I guess this is the place to go. What makes you think you need to be baptized? Are you a believer?

Have you I just need to be baptized. I was like, well, I mean, that's kind of a that's a step that you take when something else has already happened. What's happened? I just woke up this morning and felt like I need to be baptized. I was like, that's interesting.

And so you called the Baptist church. That makes sense. And so I said, well, let's talk about it. And what do I have? What do I have to offer him?

This. Have you dug in? Have you talked about it? And I didn't read the whole Gospel of John to him, but I did say, yeah, man, there's John the Baptist started talking about this guy Jesus and we talked and we talked. That guy accepted Christ over the phone.

Like, I can't do this, Lord. How can I do this?

He accepted Christ over the phone. It's not because of me.

But God's word, he wants to communicate himself. However he does it, that's his business. But I know he uses his word. I know that. The mind blowing first 18 verses are so that when I tell people to read the gospel of John, say, just get past those first 18 verses.

Keep on reading. When it clicks for you, go back and read them again. It'll make more sense the next time. Third story. Actually, that guy, aftermath of that was when I I said, so, where are you?

I said, are you here in town? You want to come on over? And he goes, no, I'm in Pinedale. Why'd you call the First Baptist Church of Jackson? You know what?

When I moved here, only knew one other pastor in Wyoming, and it was Jim Silvey in Pinedale. And that guy went to his church that Sunday, was baptized there, and still goes to church there. It's pretty cool. Praise the Lord. Third guy on a Friday here.

I was here. It was still I probably haven't been here a year, two years maybe. It's January, freezing cold. Like it was 17 or 18 degrees below zero the night before. And it was supposed to be even colder that night.

So it's a Friday morning. He comes in into the office. Bald guy. He's got a Chinese tattoo on the back of his neck. I told this story on Friday at a funeral.

Told part of it anyway. We're talking, and I said, Well, what brings you in this morning? You know, what is it that we can do? We have a benevolence fund. We can help with things.

I thought that might be it. I said, what do you do? He said, I've been drunk for about twelve years. And I was talking to the only person I really listen to in the world. I called her last night.

She lives somewhere else. He said, I call her mama. She's not my mama. I don't get along with my mama. He said and I said, I can't keep doing this anymore.

I can't keep living like this. And she said, I'll tell you what you do. Sleep tonight. He was sleeping in his van in the ranch home parking lot. He said, Sleep tonight.

And when you wake up in the morning, go find somebody who'll tell you about Jesus. Isn't that good advice? So he did. He walked by all through on cash. He walked right past St.

John's, actually. But he walked on down, he found this church, and he came in here and found me. And I asked him about what the tattoo on the back of his neck said because it was in Chinese, and he said, It says, Trust no one. That's a hard guy to start off with right there. But I said, well, I want you to realize this.

You did trust was an American that did that? He said, yes. I said, you trusted an American who does not speak Chinese to write trust no one on the back of your neck for the rest of your life. So, you trusted him. You're looking for somebody to trust.

Anyway, I said, have you ever read the gospel of John? I said, we could pray the sinner's prayer right now. I said, but I'm afraid what would happen is it'd be a flash And then you'd get, okay, I'm good. And then you just go from there. I said, I would think the best thing you could do is get to know who Jesus was and the best way I know how to do that.

It's the book of John. And I said, I've got a bunch of little ones out there, and I went and grabbed one. And he goes, I can never read that. My eyes are burned up. I burned them up in the Oregonian Desert, wander in the desert years ago.

And I said, well, that's tough. I got to read it to him, I guess. But I said, how big would the print have to be for you to be able to see it? He said, it had to be big. And I said, Like this big?

He said, Yeah, probably about that big. I said, All right. So I went and I printed him on our printer a Gospel of John that was two forty three pages long because I had to have one inch words, you know? And so I bound it for him and I gave it to him. And he left from here relieved in a way because he had heard about Jesus and had some hope.

He hadn't prayed the sinner's prayer, you know? But he was feeling lighter, feeling like he could do it. I said, check-in with me daily. Check-in with me and let me know. What time service on Sunday?

Everybody always asks what time service is on Sunday. He said, I'll be there. I will be there. I'll be there at nine. I'll probably be there at eleven too.

I said, alright. I'll see you then. So Saturday night, ten I'm still here at the church and finishing up, getting ready for Sunday morning. And we're studying John together at that time, you know? And he I get a call.

And the call is from the jail. And from the jail, I hear a lady's voice. She's jailer. And I hear this in the background. And she says, yes.

Is this Ray? I said, yep. She said, I'm calling. I said, what is that noise in the background? She said, that is a guy.

Name the guy's name. He is pounding his head against the cement wall until I call you and tell you that he says he's supposed to be at church on Sunday morning, and I can promise you that he is not going to be there because he's in jail. And I said, Well, tell him to stop hitting his head. I've heard it. He's fine.

You know? But can I come see him? And she said, Yes. So I went down there to see him. And he said, I'm really upset.

He said, because I'm in here. I don't have my glasses. I don't have that thing that you printed out for me, and I'm just stuck here. And I'm feeling really kind of hopeless. I said, Well, you're not drinking.

That's helpful. And I said, what happened? He said, I was sleeping in my van, and I got up to use the bathroom at the Ranch Home parking lot. And there was another guy I let sleep in the back there with me. And the van was running, and because my keys were in the ignition, it was running, and we had been drinking.

And he said, I got a DUI, and they brought me in here. I said, well, think I could probably get you off those charges. I'm no lawyer, but seriously. He had not been driving. He's just sitting there, warming himself.

It's 20 below. I said, but I can get you a Bible. I can get that handled, whatever. He was in for a few days and they let him out. But around here, they have a program that if you will, as you're sober, they'll let you out.

If you promise to be in at seven in the morning, seven in the evening, blowing the tube, you blow zeros, you get to stay out of jail. Right? And so I said, when they gave him that, he came back daily to see me. He'd go blow in the tube, he'd come see me. And we talked through the gospel of John, and we talked through it for a while.

And he became transformed by encountering the living word of God. And it was amazing. Now, we still struggle with sin, and he went in one morning to blow in the tube, and he didn't blow zeros, meaning he had something to drink the night before. And it showed up, and so they're gonna put him in jail. And when they went to put him in jail, they said, just sit right here in the vestibule of the jail, you know.

Sit right here. We'll do your paperwork and get you in. Well, knew he didn't have his glasses. He knew he didn't have his Bible. They were in the van, and it was parked where it was gonna be towed, and he couldn't afford for it not to be towed.

So he left. So he fled. So he escaped from jail, basically. Now, that got him about six months in jail. He did go get his glasses.

He did go move his van. He did get his Bible. And in jail, for the next six months, he read that Gospel of John. Transformed his life. He had told me before that, his mother, his actual mother, had been, I don't know a decorous way to say it, basically a playboy bunny.

She was somebody who carried cigarettes around the club and had never paid any attention. He never knew a father. And he hated her guts. But in the transformation that happened from him encountering Christ, he was transformed. And so I took him to rehab when he got out of jail, and he spent the time he needed to be in rehab.

And when he got up to the steps about making amends and forgiving people, he said, I gotta go to my mama. And he went to her and forgave her before she passed. Isn't that great? Now, I'm not saying it's a magic bullet that everybody who reads the gospel of John is gonna have it transformed. There are still people who are gonna read it in disbelief.

But if you will open yourself up to the word of God, he still works. That's my point. And tell them the three stories I told, that's the whole point. It's amazing that he still works. All right.

We're going into a time of communion right now. This is, I believe, a way of saying, I am letting go of my way, Lord, and I'm trusting in the perfect life that you lived in that perfect record representative of the body of Christ. Right? He walked it out. Incarnation.

He walked it out in the flesh propelled by the spirit. He did it perfectly, and he lays his perfect record out there for all who will believe. And he does so by shedding his blood on that wondrous cross. And so this that we're going to do is representative of saying, I want to receive you. I want to believe you.

I want to be born again. Or I have been born again, and I'm taking this in just to remind myself. In Jesus' name, I pray that everyone who partakes today would be filled with his spirit, would see the word fresh and anew illumined, that it would not be just father, son, and holy book, but that the Holy Spirit would accompany and illumine the scriptures so that we can understand them. In Jesus name, I'll call the ushers forward, and I'm going to slip step over to piano and sing a song with Judy. Amen.

The wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died. My richest gain, I count but loss and poor content on all my pride. Forbidden Lord that I should

So Jesus on the night that he was betrayed. Now there are four chapters in the book of John with all the teaching building up to that moment, but on the same night that he was betrayed, he said to his disciples in the room there with him and they recorded it for us to see that he said, this is my body which is given for you. Take this and eat of it in remembrance of me. Do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. And that perfect record that he walked out in the flesh, he voluntarily sacrificed.

He voluntarily gave it up by shedding his blood at the hands of evildoers, crucified between two thieves. He laid down his life as a ransom for anyone who would simply trust him, believe in him, receive the gift God had given. Now, that blood that was given was precious and given over sacrificially. That's what we're representing here with this little cup of grape juice. Lord God, I pray that you'd bless for every person who partakes of it here this morning, Lord.

And if there's anyone here who must let it pass because they just don't believe at this point, Lord, I pray that through the witness of the people here sitting around them, that you would show who you are. Incarnational ministry that God would be among them, that they'd see your spirit active in the lives of their friends around here. In Jesus name, lord, I pray for your blessing on this cup. Amen. See

from his his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingle down. So rich I'll crown. Of nature mine that were a present far too small Love so amazing. Things so divine. Demons my soul, my life, my

In the same manner that he had taken the bread, he also took the cup, And he said to his disciples there, and it still rings to us today that it's representative of the new covenant. This is the new covenant in my blood, Jesus said. Take this in. Take it in. And do it as often as you will in remembrance of me.

We're thankful, Lord almighty. Amen. Would you stand with me and we will sing Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee. This is a joyful message, a joyful time of year. We're going to sing both verses.

Joyful, joyful, we adore you, God of glory, lord of love, Hearts unfold like flowers before the opening to the sun of love. Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, drive the dark of doubt away. Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day. All thy works with joy surround the earth and heaven reflect thy rays. Stars and angels sing around the center of unbroken praise.

Field and forest, veil and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea, chanting bird and flowing fountain, call us to rejoice in thee.

Amen. And as a benediction this morning, I'll just skip forward in the gospel of John to John fourteen six, where Jesus answers Thomas' question, where is it, Lord, that you're going? He says, just trust me, basically. I am, Jesus says, the way, and I am the truth, and I am the life. And there's no one that comes to the father except through me.

Lord God Almighty, may we be expressing that in the way we use our words and our deeds this week. Would you shed light, the light that is the life of all men? Would you shed that light through us, Lord, so that people who are wandering in darkness may see it and be drawn into relationship with you. Amen.