Latest / Bayside Davis Podcast / The Gospel of John | John 1:1-14

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The Gospel of John | John 1:1-14 · Bayside Davis Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Bayside Davis podcast.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: You are now listening to our current teaching series in the Gospel of John.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to be in the book of John.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: John is one of the Gospels, but not one of the Synoptic Gospels.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: So Matthew, Mark, and Luke are what we would call synoptic gospels.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: They follow a historical narrative of Jesus' life from birth through the crucifixion and then the resurrection and then the ascension to heaven.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: John takes a very different route than the other gospels.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And as we're about to see in the very opening of the book, it's a very different tone.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really a beautiful opening.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: But John's book was really written so that people would know that Jesus is God.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's a lot of discrepancy, there's a lot of counterclaims to that, right?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And even today there's arguments floating around that like Jesus never actually claimed to be God.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so yes, he was a prophet and he was a messenger of God, but he never actually claimed to be God.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so John's gospel is literally written to put all of that to rest.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to answer one of the most important questions that will ever be asked.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I did bring my son today, Carter, he is six, about to be seven.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he is, I know, crazy.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: I could keep a human being alive for that long.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Mostly my wife.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: But he's in the phase, parents in the room know that every kid goes through where all they ask is one question.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you, before I had children, I thought that I was smart.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that I was intelligent.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: But there's only so many why questions that you can answer until you get to a point where you're like, I actually think I'm pretty dumb.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't know how anything in the world works.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: My son asked me uh last night as it's just pouring at our home.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, Dad, is it gonna flood?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, No, Boba, it's not gonna flood.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Why?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, it's not gonna rain enough here.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because in this part of the country, it just doesn't rain that much.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: But why?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, because that's just the way that it is.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Don't talk to ChatGPT.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I realized, like, I understand like one level or layer of most things, but once you get to the third why, I'm completely lost.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I don't know.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not smarter than a fifth grader, it turns out.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And my son just absolute everything.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why, dad?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Why, why?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Carter is trying to make sense of his world, and that question never really goes away.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we're not as incessant about it, and maybe we actually learn to ask more intelligent questions, but they're all actually asking the same thing.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: But what I've realized, trying to raise human beings, emphasis on the word trying, is that all of these questions, as he's trying to make sense of his world, actually have very little bearing on his world.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like I could answer why it doesn't rain very much in Northern California and what that has to do with our atmosphere in this part of the world, or I could explain gravity to him as he's asked me to do many, many times.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: I explain all of these things to him, but ultimately it has very little bearing on the outcome of his life.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's actually a question that is far more important than all of those, and it's one that all of us has to ask.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, according to the book of John, it is the most important question that will ever be asked in the history of humanity.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that question is simply this Who is Jesus?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Who is Jesus?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: The single most important question that you can ever ask, and the single most important question answer that you will ever find.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I did some homework last night.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: I asked Perplexity, Chat GPT, Claude, all of the AIs, soon to be our overlords.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I said, who are, since you're gonna be our boss soon, who are the most influential human beings who have ever lived?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now if you take a list of six people, six humans that have ever lived, four of them are almost guaranteed to be on every list.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Every result, I found these four.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: You wanna know they are?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So the first one's Muhammad, this is in no particular order.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: The first one's Muhammad, founded Islam, uh, uniting politics and spiritual leadership, over 1.8 billion followers of Islam today.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: The second one was Sir Isaac Newton, maybe you've heard of him in the great city of Davis, revolutionized physics, right?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the third one was Jesus, the central figure in Christianity, over two billion Christians in the world today.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last one was Buddha, who brought enlightenment and originated Buddhism, impacted philosophy, meditation, and ethics for over 500 million people worldwide.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Four of the most influential human beings who have ever lived.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: You want to know what's even crazier about all four of those?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Neither of them were public figures.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Isaac Newton was uh a physicist, scientist, whatever you want to call him, and then the other three were philosophers.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't kings, they weren't emperors, and yet their impact has impacted billions of people.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing only one person on that list ever claimed to be God.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: So you have one of the four most influential human beings who has ever walked the earth, and his claim is that he was God.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, this list is according to Jesus that he's not correct, right?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is assuming that Jesus' claims were not true.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Could you imagine that this list is what it is, and yet we all believe that Jesus was God?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, yes, Jesus was God, deity, and he is one of the foremost influential human beings who has ever walked through.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's crazy.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: If he's God, there is no list, he's the list.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so the list assumes that Jesus isn't who he said that he is.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: But what if he was?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Not just a few things would change, not just a handful of things would change.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: If Jesus is who he said he is, everything must change.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so as we ask the greatest question, the weightiest question that will ever be asked in the history of humanity, the history of creation, who is Jesus?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: We go to Jesus' closest friend, John, for the answer.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he writes this in John chapter 1, a beautiful prologue to the book.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: He was with God in the beginning, through him all things were made.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Without him nothing was made that has been made.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the word, a parallel to how the very first book of the Bible starts, Genesis.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: In the beginning it says God created.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: John, in a parallel, a throwback to Genesis, writes, in the beginning, the Word.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: In the beginning, the Word.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Who is Jesus?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been at Davis uh any amount of time, you know that I got into triathlons recently.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: And really only because I couldn't afford therapy, so I thought I'll just go brutalize myself.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um as you could probably tell, I'm not built for swimming.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, not very streamlined, uh, but I figured out how to drown forward.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's a um really productive.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: I started doing triathlons, and so I got into Iron Man, so I did a couple half Iron Man's.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm training now for a fold.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do not cheer, because it's not impressive.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I was on a flight recently, I have my Iron Man bag with me.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting next to this guy, he's looking at it, and I'm like, Yeah, I did that.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Oh, you do Iron Man?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Yeah, you know, no big deal.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, I've done a few of those.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Oh, how many have you done?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I've done 15.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Cool, cool, cool.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a loser.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: But when he said that, the whole dynamic changed.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And this poor man, for the rest of this flight, I'm like, tell me everything that you know.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me the secrets, tell me what to do, tell me what not to do, because I want to be where you're at.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, it's like he became the goal.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, I want to be that, I want to, I want to be able to do that.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: So all of a sudden, you are uniquely positioned to speak into my circumstance and situation, right?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if Jesus is who he said he is, everything has to change because he becomes uniquely equipped and positioned to speak into the brokenness in my life, to speak into the inadequacy in my life, which is why this is the most important question we will ever ask or answer.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because if Jesus is who he says he is, everything in my life has to change.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Not just some things, not just most things, everything.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because no matter what I'm navigating, he is uniquely equipped and positioned to speak into my life like nobody else.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: If Jesus is who he says he is.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the Gospel of John was written to answer that question.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he wants his readers, his audience to know beyond the shadow of a doubt, Jesus is who he claimed to be.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't have time for all of it, but we're gonna look at three claims about Jesus, three essences or elements to who he is and why this changes things for us.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is this Jesus is God.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: It says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, in the beginning, this actually tells us a lot about Jesus.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: In the beginning, meaning before creation, because nothing had been created yet.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: So if Jesus was there before things had been created, that means that Jesus is not created.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: That he is an eternal being, that he just is and was in the beginning, before creation, meaning that Jesus is not creation.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then it says the word was with God.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if he was with God, it means that he was unique from God.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because you can't be with somebody if you're the same thing.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: So by saying that the word was with God, he's drawing a line to say that Jesus is unique from God, that he is individual from God.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: So not only is he before creation, that he is not a created being, that he is and was and always will be, but he was with God, meaning that he is unique and set apart from God.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: But then he says this, and this is where it gets confusing, that the word was God.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Claiming and reinforcing the fact that Jesus is not just a prophet, Jesus is not just a mouthpiece of God, Jesus was not just a good guy or a good teacher.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: The word was God, meaning what?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: That Jesus is God.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: A claim that Jesus Himself actually backs up in 14 chapters, John 14, verse 9.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now you wouldn't say this if you were just simply the Son of God, right?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because I brought my son today, and if you can't tell from where you're sitting, I have a gigantic head.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's truly large.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you'll never see me in a hat, not because I don't like wearing hats.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to wear a hat.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: No hats fit me.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I have a massive head.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: My poor wife had to give birth to two children who take after their father and also have massive heads.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: So she had to somehow get those out of her body.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: But she knew what she was signing up when she said yes to marrying me.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you saw my son, you would see that my son also has a massive head.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: You don't even need to know what I look like.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: You see my son, you're like, yep, that's Cameron's kid.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Massive head, massive head.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, even though he has the likeness of his father, you would never look at my son and go, because I've seen Carter, I've seen Cameron.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm unique and individual from my son.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: And though he has my likeness, though he has my traits, though he has some of my personality, poor kid, he is not me.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: So when Jesus says, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father, he's not just claiming to be the likeness of God, he's claiming to be God.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because the only way that you can make that claim is by saying, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father because I and the Father are one.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: So he has the likeness of God, but he was with God, but he is God.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing that we learn about Jesus that has to change everything is that Jesus is God.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in the opening of John, it says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: The word here that is used for the word word, confusing, is the word logos.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's a Greek word.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, to the Greeks, logos meant reason or a rational mind that governed the universe.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: The translation is literally logic, but not just like your logic in a situation, but the underlying logic that kind of rules humanity and society.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it was to the Greeks, but to the Hebrews, logos meant a divine revelation or God's spoken word.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: So John knows exactly what he's doing by opening his letter this way, because he's appealing to his Greek audience and his Hebrew audience, and he's saying the logos that you've been chasing after your whole life, that you've been attributing the order of the universe to for both groups, it's the same thing, except it's not a thing, it's a person, and his name is Jesus.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so John is being very intentional, and he's being brilliant here because he's appealing to two different groups of people, and he's saying the logos that your world and universe and life revolves around.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just a concept.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, it's not even just divine, it's deity.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's deity in the person of Jesus.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the logos.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then it says that he was with God.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now the word here with literally is translated to to or towards.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: So the language that he's painting is almost as if from the beginning of time, the before the beginning of time, in eternity, Jesus and the Father are like face to face.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is the language that he's conveying that he was with God, but they were face to face, almost like a mirror image of each other.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they're just radiating love and joy, right?
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's who God is.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: And as a mirror, face to face, it's like they're bouncing this off of each other.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because he was with God, face to face.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, uh many years ago, they did a very famous uh social study where they brought a bunch of strangers into a room.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody knew each other, and uh they would pair them up, complete stranger, you had never met before, and then you had to make four minutes of uninterrupted eye contact.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're the only people in the room, one-on-one, you didn't know this person, four minutes of uninterrupted eye contact.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Introverts are ready to die.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Extroverts are like, four minutes is all?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: I go 20.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And what they found was at the end of this social experiment, complete strangers with no words spoken, no touch given, just uninterrupted eye contact.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know what they found?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Increased levels of intimacy, greater levels of emotional connection.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, one of the couples even got married after the experiment.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, single people, just look around the room and make eye contact with somebody.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: They can't, they can't help it.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's science.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Just lock eyes, like it's over.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're getting married, baby.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: All the introverts in the room are like, I'm just gonna listen to the rest of this message with my eyes closed.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's why every time I get into an elevator, I stand opposite everybody else.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you're not getting my eye contact, extroverts! Eye contact is one of the most powerful things that you can give somebody.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right when I discipline my kids, or when I reaffirm my kids, if they've had a tough day, if they're struggling, if they're discouraged, when I really want to connect with my kids, what do I do?
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: I get down on my knees on their level and I give them my eye contact.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I tell them, if you ever do that again, I will end you.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Or I tell them, look at me.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: I love you.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Mom and I are with you.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: We believe in you, and I give them my eye contact.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you give somebody your eye contact, you're giving them you.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus and the Father says before the beginning of time, it says that they were to or they were towards each other, they were giving each other their eye contact.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus was with the Father, and it builds and creates and generates intimacy on levels that we've never experienced before, but it doesn't stop there because it says that he was with the Father, the word was with God, but then when Jesus is born, they called him Emmanuel, which means God with us.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning that since before the beginning of time, Jesus was facing the Father, and he's receiving the love and the joy from the Father, and he's bouncing it right back like a mirror image, and they have eye contact and they have intimacy and they have connection.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: But then when Jesus is born, it says that he is Emmanuel, God, with us, meaning that he's no longer just facing the Father.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's facing us.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's given us his intimacy, he's given us his eye contact.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's not just facing the Father, he's facing us.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: The question that we have to answer is, Am I reflecting him?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: What is prayer if not simply giving God your eye contact?
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Simply allowing yourself to be face to face with your creator, just as he was face to face with God, and to receive the love and the joy that the nature and character of God emanates, and then to bounce it back like a mirror.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's what we're called to do.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 28, right?
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes back from the dead.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was so important that he came back from the dead to tell us, go make disciples.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Go out into a cold, bitter, dark, broken world and reflect not the world, reflect him, reflect his love, his joy, his mercy.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because he is with you.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: And if he is with you, it means that he is to you, he is towards you, he is facing you, he is giving you his eye contact.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Will you give him yours?
• 20:30
  unknown: C.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: S.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis writes it so brilliantly.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Christianity, if true, is of the utmost importance.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: If false is of no importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: John claims right off the bat the word was with God and the word was God.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying that Jesus is God.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: If Jesus is who he claimed to be, everything has to change.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: I can't just show up on a Sunday and give God my eye contact on a Sunday.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because if he is who he says he is, my entire life has to rearrange around that.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that I no longer reflect the culture around me, the world around me, the relationships around me, but I move my entire life to reflect who he is.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what I was made to do.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he's given me his eye contact.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Will I give him mine?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: The very first thing that we learn from the book of John is that Jesus is God.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Full stop.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't stop there.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing that we learn is that Jesus is creator.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: All the way back in Genesis chapter 1, we see the parallel, starting in verse 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Colossians 1 16 actually says this for in him all things were created.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the creator.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: John is telling us this because he wants us to link the works of creation in the Old Testament to the words and works of Jesus in the New Testament.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Saying that this is not a separate entity.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: The same person that hung the moon and the stars.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you followed the Artemis II journey, you saw those pictures of earth.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: The same one that painted earth into the night sky is the same one who walks with you now.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's the same one that we worship today.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's the same one that we pray to.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: He is the same God.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it's why in Genesis 15, when God makes a promise to Abraham, he brings him out of his tent so he can look at the stars in the sky.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And God says that I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, illustrating the promise, but also reminding Abraham, nothing is too big for me.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes when you get caught up in the rhythm of life, God wants to bring you outside to remind you how big He is.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing is beyond him.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: No matter how far off track you feel like your life has gotten, the God who had the power to put breath in your lungs, the God who had the authority to make you has the authority to remake you.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what he has been doing since the beginning of time.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: So John wants his audience to understand and remember that Jesus didn't just show up in the New Testament.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus has been there from the beginning, from before the beginning.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it says, from him everything was created.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that we see, touch, feel, experience is the work of Jesus.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: So is the redemptive work.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new is here.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't just have the power to make you, he has the power to remake you.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is your testimony, this is my testimony, this is the testimony of the church.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been here for any amount of time, you know this is really close to home.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: For me, I grew up with a very bad relationship with my dad.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: I got kicked out of the house in 17.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, when I was 15, I grew up in a Christian home.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: My dad was a pastor, everything was great.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: But when I was 15, my parents started to fight.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people grew up in houses where that was normal.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: I did not.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it really caught us off guard.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then over the over the course of time, the fights started to get more frequent, they started to get bigger.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: I started to wonder, like, man, what is going on in a very stable home?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: It became a very destabilizing thing.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then one day when I was 15 years old, my dad sat me down and he said, Cameron, your mom and I are getting a divorce.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and by the way, all of this is your fault.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: At 15 years old, I ran away from home because I could not carry the weight of that statement from my father.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't figure out what was so broken in me that I was breaking my family.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: 17 years old, I got kicked out of the house, lived out of my car for a few weeks, couch surfed for a while, didn't know where my next meal was coming from.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: And there were many moments in that season I looked up to God and said, Really, God?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Is this what I get for following you?
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Is this what I get for loving you?
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: For being committed and faithful to you?
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Is this what I get?
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have a dad.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know where my next meal is coming from.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have a roof over my head.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then fast forward many, many, many years later.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting at home in a shelf in my kids' room and broken.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I told my wife, I was like, babe, I got this, don't call anybody.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so I fixed the shelf.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting on the ground and uh I put it back on the wall.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as I put it back on the wall, I feel a little three-year-old hand on my shoulder.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: My son was three at the time.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know he had been watching me the whole time.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, growing up, there's a lot of things I never heard my dad say.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so the day my son was born, I made a promise to myself and to him that his father will he will hear his father say these things.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so just about every day of that boy's life, I look him in the eyes, I give him my eye contact, and I say, Carter, I love you.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Carter, I am so proud of you.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want him, I need him to hear his father say those things because I know what it feels like to not.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: And as I put that shelf back up on the wall and I finish anchoring it to the wall, I feel a little three-year-old hand on my shoulder.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: I turn around, my three-year-old son looks me in the eyes and he says, Dad, I'm so proud of you.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I just start sobbing, like ugly crying on the floor of my kids' room.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Carter's like, I thought that was a good thing.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Why is dad crying?
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: When he says it's to me, it's a good thing, and I just said it to him, and now dad's crying.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you, I wasn't crying because I missed my dad.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't crying because it hurt.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: I was crying because in that moment I was so overwhelmed by the goodness of God in my life.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: That Jesus, through his redemptive power, has allowed me to experience the love of a father through the love of a son.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because if he had the authority and power to make you, he has the authority and power to remake you.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: You are never too far gone, you are never too far off track, and John wants you to understand that the same one you pray to, the same God that you call upon, is the same God that hung the stars in the sky, that set Saturn in its orbit, that put the sun where it sits, and the same God who made you can remake you.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you can experience the redemptive work of Jesus.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because he is creator.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: And if he is creator, it means that he can recreate.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: The third and final thing that we learn about Jesus is that Jesus is life.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: The Greek word beginning, and in the beginning was the word.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's a Greek word arche, which is an ancient Greek term meaning beginning, origin, first principle, or foundational source.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: But in philosophy it denotes uh the fundamental substance or ultimate cause of all things.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: It says, in the beginning was the word.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Here, John isn't just telling us who Jesus is, but he's telling us what he is.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: He is life, he is the ultimate cause and foundation of everything.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think about my kids.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because in most things, right?
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: Or as John is illustrating, even with Jesus, that he is the source of life, but he's also the reason for life.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: He's the source and the reason.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: I look at my kids.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: We are the source of their life.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: We literally created them, but we're not the reason for their life.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: They'll grow up, they'll find a career, they'll chase after Jesus, God willing, they'll find a spouse, they'll move out.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: My little girl will break my heart one day.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're the source of their life, but we're not the reason for their life.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then I look at our dog.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're not the source of our dog's life, but we are the reason for her life.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: She lives to please us.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Everything we are her world, everything that that dog does, she just exists to serve and love us, right?
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're not the source of her life, but we are the reason for her life.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then I look at our cat.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not definitely not the source of that cat's life.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: But that cat is convinced that he is the reason for our life, that we exist to serve that cat.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I hate that cat.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: What is John saying is that Jesus is not only the source of life, but he is the reason for life.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Look what he says in Colossians chapter 1, verse 17, for in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him, and for him he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: What is John, what is Paul saying in the book of Colossians?
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: That Jesus is the source of all life.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: That everything that we have, everything that we interact with that we experience is because of Jesus.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: But he's not just the source, he's also the reason.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: The very first verse before this, Colossians 1:16, says, For in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: But then he says, All things have been created through him.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Ready?
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the most important part.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: And for him.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Everything has been created through him and for him.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning that all of this is not just by Jesus, it's not just because of Jesus, but it's for Jesus.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: The way that I work my job, it's for Jesus.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: The way that I interact with other people, it's for Jesus.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: The way I encounter creation, it's for Jesus.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's not just the source of life, he's the reason for life.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he's facing me.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, am I facing him?
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: I had a friend go on a mission trip to Africa years ago, and she came back and she was telling me about it.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, I went to one little village, and they bring us into their home, and in their home is just a circle hut.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: And we walk in, and all of the furniture in this hut is facing the center of the hut.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: And in the center of the hut is a table like this, and on the table is a little wood carving.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's their idol, it's their God.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so she asked them, like, what is this about?
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, Oh, well, here in our home, everything faces that which we worship.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, Isn't it the same for you?
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: I remember hearing the story.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: I come home, I walk into my house, I'm looking at my house, and I'm like, everything is facing the same thing.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: The TV.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of an indictment on me and all of Western culture.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: But even a step beyond that.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just look at your home, look at your life.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: If we get really honest, my entire life, the people I spend time with, the way that I spend my money, it's all facing the same thing.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm really honest, that thing is me.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Everything in my life is oriented towards me because I am the object of my own worship.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: What is John saying is that Jesus is not just the source of your life, he is the reason for your life.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning, what things in your life must be rearranged if he is who he said he was.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that everything in my life faces and reflects him.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not me.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: Trust me, the world does not need more Cameron.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you are struggling to go 35 minutes with Cameron.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: The world needs more Jesus.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I have been called to face and reflect him to the rest of the world.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: A process we call sanctification, that day by day, the more that I spend time with him and the more that I face him and give him my eye contact, I look less like Cameron and more like him.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: I look less like me and more like Jesus.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: So that the rest of the world would see and know that Jesus is God.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because the truth is, anything outside of Jesus only leads to death and degradation.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: So my son Carter's in a big space phase right now, if you couldn't tell.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so what he's really worried about right now is black holes.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Bubba, I think we're okay.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but I think we're okay.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, Dad, what if we cross the event horizon?
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what?
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you know anything about black holes, you know that there's something called the event horizon.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: And once anything passes the event horizon, nothing can escape the gravitational pole of the black hole.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: Not even light, which is why black holes are called black holes.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because light cannot escape them.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm doing some research, and I'm like, can anything escape a black hole?
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like, no, nothing can escape a black hole.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: Once it crosses the event horizon, it's done.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so it is with the power of sin and death and shame and guilt in our lives.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: That as broken people in a broken world, nothing could escape the black hole that is sin.
• 35:42
  unknown: Right?
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: The book of Romans says that the wages of sin is death.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: And nothing could escape that.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is life.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, in just a few verses, verse 5, it says, The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: That nothing could escape the black hole that is sin and death and guilt and shame.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we know this.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because no matter how good I try to be, there's a little voice at the back of my head that says, I know what you did last week.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: I know the thoughts that you really think.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if everybody else in this room knew that, they wouldn't want you here.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing can escape the black hole that is sin in our lives.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is life.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: And according to the book of John, life that is a light to the world and the darkness has not overcome it.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so he came and gave his physical life so that we may have spiritual life.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: Look what it says back in Genesis chapter 1, verse 2.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: And God said, Let there be light.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Sound familiar?
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: Back to the book of John, chapter 1, verse 4.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: The light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus has always been bringing light into our darkness.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because he is God, he is uniquely equipped to step into and speak into our life.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: He is creator.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: He has the power to make you and he has the power to remake you.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he is life.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: The life John says that is a light for all mankind.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: He gave us physical life, he gave us the breath in our lungs, he gives us spiritual life, and he offers us eternal life.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if Jesus is who he says he is, everything must change.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because if he is who he says he is, the dead things in my life can be brought back to life.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: If he is who he says he is, the broken things in my life can be made whole again.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, who is Jesus to you?
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: John makes the claim, the argument later back by Jesus Himself.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is God.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if Jesus is God, everything has to change, not just today, but for forever.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because he is Emmanuel God with us.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: He is to you, he is towards you, he is facing you, he is giving you his eye contact.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: All I want to ask you this morning, will you give him yours?
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: And let him begin to change you.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: Let the one who had the power to make you begin to remake you.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let him begin to take the broken pieces of your soul and make you whole again.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's still Jesus, it's always been Jesus, it's never going to stop being Jesus.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: Will you give him your eye contact?