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The Word - Meeting Jesus In John 1 Pt. 1 · Time with God with John North

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning. As we start this week, I want to
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  Speaker 1: take you on a journey of getting to know Jesus.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I want to title this week's theme simply Meeting Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: You may feel like you already know Jesus. You may
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  Speaker 1: feel like you don't know Him at all. Well, the
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  Speaker 1: apostle John introduces Jesus in the first chapter of his
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  Speaker 1: account of Jesus' life, and here's how he starts. In
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  Speaker 1: the beginning was the Word.
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  Speaker 1: Well, in John's introduction, the word refers to Jesus. Let
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  Speaker 1: me ask you this question, who was Jesus before he
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  Speaker 1: was born?
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  Speaker 1: That's not the way we usually think of someone, is it?
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  Speaker 1: We normally think, well, this person's life began when they
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  Speaker 1: were born.
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  Speaker 1: But Jesus is different from any other person. Jesus is
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  Speaker 1: God the Son, and in the beginning was the Word.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: When John says that, he's echoing the very first words
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  Speaker 1: of the whole Bible.
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  Speaker 1: Which say in the beginning God created the heavens and
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  Speaker 1: the earth.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it tells us that God and Jesus was in
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  Speaker 1: the beginning. He was there already when He created the
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  Speaker 1: heavens and the earth.
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  Speaker 1: The description of God's eternal nature in the Bible implies
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  Speaker 1: to us that time is a feature of this created universe,
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  Speaker 1: but God existed before time even began along with the universe.
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  Speaker 1: Paul writes to Timothy, uh, about God giving us Christ
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  Speaker 1: Jesus before the ages began.
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  Speaker 1: He writes to Titus the same thing. He writes to
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  Speaker 1: the Corinthians about the wisdom of God which God decreed
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  Speaker 1: before the ages for our glory, and Jude writes in
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  Speaker 1: his little book in the Bible, to the only God,
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  Speaker 1: our saviour, through Jesus Christ, be glory, majesty, dominion, and
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  Speaker 1: authority before all time and now and forever.
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  Speaker 1: Well, time's a feature of this created universe, God existed
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  Speaker 1: before all time.
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  Speaker 1: It's almost impossible for us to understand that phrase before
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  Speaker 1: all time because everything about our existence is time bound.
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  Speaker 1: We're a part of the created universe. We can't comprehend
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  Speaker 1: existence outside of time, and these verses reveal God making
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  Speaker 1: a series of decisions before time began. But what does
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  Speaker 1: even that mean?
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  Speaker 1: How can decisions be made in sequential order without time?
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  Speaker 1: All we can say is that there are dynamics in
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  Speaker 1: the reality of God's existence that just have not been
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  Speaker 1: revealed to us. At the very least, God is not
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  Speaker 1: just somewhere way up the continuum from us.
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  Speaker 1: Rather, he's not at all even in the same category
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  Speaker 1: of being as us. He is completely other, and his
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  Speaker 1: existence is beyond our ability to comprehend because he exists
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  Speaker 1: outside of time. He sees and comprehends all of time
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  Speaker 1: at once.
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  Speaker 1: When I was younger, I used to wonder how God
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  Speaker 1: could hear and respond to billions of Christians around the
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  Speaker 1: world praying at the same time. Now I realise the
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  Speaker 1: situation is way more mind blowing than that.
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  Speaker 1: In the eternal now outside of time, God is hearing
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  Speaker 1: and responding to all the prayers of all Christians of
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  Speaker 1: all time. And when I really want to bend my mind,
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  Speaker 1: I consider that God is both aware of everything happening
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  Speaker 1: across all of time, and He is also shaping what
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  Speaker 1: happens through answered prayer.
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  Speaker 1: And through his own decisions and decrees he's shaping what
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  Speaker 1: happens while also allowing beings he created with the right
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  Speaker 1: and freedom to choose spiritual beings like us and angels
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  Speaker 1: to make choices within the boundaries he has set.
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  Speaker 1: In the beginning, when time started because the universe was created,
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  Speaker 1: God the Son, who later added humanity to His being
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  Speaker 1: and was born into our universe as Jesus of Nazareth,
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  Speaker 1: was already there. Tomorrow I want to ask the question,
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  Speaker 1: if God is so far beyond us, does that mean
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  Speaker 1: He is unknowable? I'm John North.
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  Speaker 2: To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.