Latest / Arrow Heights Students / Compelled by His Beauty (John 1:1-18)

Transcript

Compelled by His Beauty (John 1:1-18) · Arrow Heights Students

• 0:07
  All right, well, let me kick off the year. Let's just get straight down to it, and I'll tell a at least slightly embarrassing story of myself.
• 0:15
  So there I was. I was in a small town called Louisville, Kentucky, and a quite beautiful girl named Katie was freshly on the market. And she's going to be really embarrassed. I told her I was going to tell her this, but we were acquaintances, at least, you know, probably, you know, we were friends.
• 0:35
  And I was compelled by her beauty, both physically and of her character. When I beheld her, I thought, you know, I thought there might be an inkling of a chance that she date me. I was absolutely compelled to pursue her. So I did.
• 0:55
  And I remember one particular occasion looking for any excuse to say anything at all. We were about to cross paths, but we were still actually kind of like an awkward distance away.
• 1:05
  But I made it clear with my body language that I was coming to her.
• 1:09
  And it probably felt to her like an eternity as I walked up to her and I look at her and I'm thinking, I still have no idea what I'm about to say.
• 1:23
  A recipe for disaster, right? So I don't know what I'm gonna say. And I'm like, how do you do that?
• 1:34
  Ooh. Who said ooh?
• 1:36
  That's not very nice.
• 1:39
  And I'm probably stuttered through it. It's not necessarily as clear to me as she probably remembers it. Even I was.
• 1:48
  My play, I guess, was that she was wearing a name tag and I was a new member of the church. And so I was like, you know, how do I start serving? Was kind of the question I came up with.
• 1:58
  But the bottom line is it wasn't that smooth.
• 2:01
  It wasn't.
• 2:03
  But the smoothness of it, thankfully, is not the point I'm trying to make. The point I'm trying to make is that when she was revealed to me to my eyes, I felt compelled to her.
• 2:15
  I wanted to pursue her.
• 2:17
  And I think that's what we're doing and what we see in the prologue of John.
• 2:22
  So the prologue of John is the verses we're covering today, John 1:1 18.
• 2:28
  And this passage is perhaps the most magnificent piece of human literature.
• 2:36
  I know it's a huge statement to make, but it is magnificent.
• 2:40
  In it, we see a depiction of Jesus christ that I think is so compelling, no one can truly fully understand it and yet reject him. It is that compelling. The beauty of Christ is that compelling.
• 2:55
  And in this section, Christ is said to have been with God, to be God, and have put on flesh, to Dwell among us to be God, to be with him, and also to put on flesh are three things it's hard for us to fathom can happen to God.
• 3:13
  And Jesus was more than a compelling person.
• 3:17
  He was, is. He is someone that demands our attention and our affection.
• 3:23
  The unseen God was revealed to mankind in the flesh.
• 3:29
  A God we could not see.
• 3:31
  He was revealed in the flesh. How can we not be drawn to him in love and adoration?
• 3:37
  How can we not respond to this?
• 3:39
  The gospel of John wants us to respond to Christ.
• 3:44
  The gospel of John has a very, very clear purpose, like a thesis statement, except he puts his towards the end of the book. He says, these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. That is John 20:31.
• 4:03
  Now, we won't get to that verse for quite a long time. I think probably the last Wednesday of the school year.
• 4:11
  But it is the guiding principle of the book. Everything here is written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
• 4:22
  That's the guiding principle. So John's main idea, if I was going to boil it down to something shorter, is the theme of the book. I like to give a main theme of the whole book. Believe in the Word made flesh.
• 4:35
  Believe in the Word made flesh. It's simple. It's perhaps the simplest one that I've covered so far. In youth.
• 4:42
  Believe in the Word made flesh. If you believe you will have life in his name, eternal life. The gospel of John's message is simple. Believe, have eternal life.
• 4:54
  Now this book is both simple and profound.
• 5:00
  It is both easy and difficult. It's both lofty but real.
• 5:06
  The one true God, whom we cannot comprehend, who we could not see, made himself intimately knowable through Christ, and we can know him.
• 5:16
  So this first passage, John 11:18, has this as its main idea. So this is the main idea of this passage, which is on your handouts that you could have gotten. You can take notes on those.
• 5:28
  The Word is the creator God, who became flesh in order to provide grace, that you might receive him in faith and see God face to face.
• 5:41
  The Word is the creator God, who became flesh in order to provide grace, that you might receive him in faith and see God face to face.
• 5:53
  Let's read the passage. We're going to read all 18 verses.
• 5:58
  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
• 6:05
  All things were made through him. And without him was not anything made that was made.
• 6:10
  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
• 6:15
  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
• 6:20
  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
• 6:35
  He was in the world, and the world was made through Him. Yet the world did not know him.
• 6:41
  He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
• 6:45
  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
• 6:58
  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
• 7:07
  John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.
• 7:15
  For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.
• 7:19
  For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus christ.
• 7:24
  No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side. He has made him known.
• 7:32
  So this passage answers the question, who is the Word?
• 7:38
  Who is the Word?
• 7:40
  Now this is the same question I think the entire book kind of seeks to answer. And we could do a deep dive into each phrase, each word of this prologue and maybe never be able to finish. But we're going to consider how this question is answered and how you must respond to the Word.
• 7:59
  So I have kind of above those points, a question and an answer and then a point.
• 8:05
  So the point is, what do we live in light of this question and answer? So the first one is, who is the Word?
• 8:11
  Christ is the Word and the Word is the Creator, God himself. So the Word is Christ the Creator.
• 8:19
  So therefore, point one, you owe your life to Him.
• 8:22
  Christ is the Creator.
• 8:25
  You owe your life to Him.
• 8:28
  We see in verse one, in the beginning was the Word.
• 8:31
  The Word already was in the beginning.
• 8:34
  He is primary to creation. So he already was. What does this imply? It means he's the Creator.
• 8:42
  One of the most important themes in the Bible is something called the Creator creature distinction.
• 8:49
  You could write that down. It's one of the most important themes in the Bible, I think, the Creator creature distinction. What this distinction this term means is that everything falls into this categorization.
• 9:00
  There are creatures, which is everything physical and even immaterial, such as angels.
• 9:06
  And there is the Creator, who is God.
• 9:11
  And there is one God. For if there were two Gods, then logically there must be someone higher that made those.
• 9:18
  And then the higher one would be the Creator, and the lesser would themselves be creatures.
• 9:23
  So there is a creator, one Creator, and there are creatures other than God. Nothing existed before creation. It was just God.
• 9:32
  Verse 3 says, all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
• 9:38
  So these verses also remind us that God created all things out of nothing.
• 9:43
  Out of absolutely nothing.
• 9:46
  That's amazing.
• 9:48
  And that's important because if he used some stuff and kind of molded the earth together from stuff that already existed, we need to know, well, where did that stuff come from? Is that stuff God? But God is powerful. He needs nothing. He doesn't need clay to mold. He doesn't need someone to give him clay. He can make it out of nothing.
• 10:08
  And the Word who is Christ? Is that creator, God. He is the Creator. Sometimes we think of the Father as the Creator. And the Son and the Spirit are just there. They all work together.
• 10:21
  They are one God, and He is the Creator.
• 10:25
  And because of this, because in the beginning he was.
• 10:31
  God is independent.
• 10:33
  He owes his being to nobody.
• 10:36
  He doesn't owe his being to another Creator. He doesn't owe his being to matter that he can scrape together. He owes it to no one. He is self existent from all time.
• 10:47
  He does not need anyone or anything else to be who he is and to be happy. He is content and happy. And he is God without anything else. So we don't add to Him. We don't satisfy a need in him or something that is lacking. We. We don't satisfy him by loving and worship and obeying Him. He needs nothing.
• 11:11
  And we often think of religious, the Christian life that way.
• 11:16
  But foundationally, you owe your being to him. You owe your existence to Him.
• 11:24
  And then verse one and two continues. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
• 11:33
  Now you've probably heard, especially if you've grown up in church, you've probably heard these verses a lot.
• 11:39
  We kind of think we understand them, but if we're honest, if you really break it down, it can seem kind of confusing, right?
• 11:46
  I don't ever say, I am Austin and I am with Austin.
• 11:50
  Sounds awkward, doesn't it? It sounds awkward.
• 11:53
  Why? Because this implies both sameness and differentness.
• 11:59
  Both same and distinct.
• 12:01
  Well, the Scriptures talk about God in a distinct way.
• 12:06
  They progressively reveal to us that there is one God, right? There's one God, and there is the Father, and there is the Son, and there is the Spirit. Yet they are not three, but one God.
• 12:19
  There's an ancient creed called the Athanasian Creed that helps us. It gives us good grammar, good language to say.
• 12:25
  It says, thus, the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. Yet there are not three Gods. There is but one God. It's simple, right? There's not three, but one.
• 12:37
  The creed helps us understand that the Word which is the Son is God, even as he is with the Father and the Holy Spirit. So John is showing us his trinitarian theology, and it is telling. I think that the very beginning of this gospel, which, as I said, has a very simple message, believe in the Word made flesh and have eternal life. It's telling that he starts with the doctrine of Trinity in the first place in this gospel. I think it reminds us that this concept of the Trinity is central to the gospel.
• 13:14
  We kind of think of this as something for scholars to think about that has little relation to us. But if we destroy this doctrine, we have no gospel.
• 13:24
  We don't have the Creator, we don't have the Savior, we don't have the Sanctifier. We need this doctrine.
• 13:31
  But further students, see verse 4.
• 13:34
  In him was life.
• 13:37
  Just as life itself was created by the One who is life in Himself, so also, as your spirit spiritually dead, your only hope for eternal life is in this word.
• 13:49
  In the Son. There's no other hope. To have eternal life, to be rescued from your sin and the punishment that you deserve for your sin. Except in the Son.
• 13:59
  In him is life. There is life nowhere else. You can search far and wide. You can have every experience under the sun, and you will find nothing but death.
• 14:10
  Only the sun has life, and he is also the light.
• 14:17
  This is another major theme in the gospel of John.
• 14:21
  Light versus darkness. You'll probably hear me bring it up several times. Light versus darkness is huge in this gospel.
• 14:28
  But importantly, it's never a question of which is going to win, who's winning now and then, and who's ultimately going to win.
• 14:38
  Verse 5 says, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. We know the conclusion from the beginning. The light will overcome the darkness as it already has.
• 14:50
  And this is incredibly good news for you today.
• 14:54
  If you are in spiritual darkness, if you feel like you're far from God, then You need the light.
• 15:02
  And if you trust in the light, be the light will expel the darkness. That is guaranteed.
• 15:08
  So don't remain in the darkness. If you feel far, then go to the light.
• 15:14
  The light is available through faith. Go to him.
• 15:18
  And remember, whether you do or not, you owe your life to Him. He has given you breath. He has given you life. He has given you everything.
• 15:30
  So when you choose to watch another episode of whatever, when you choose to hit the snooze button on your alarm or doom scroll for another hour while you're in bed, things that we're all predisposed to, are you giving your life to the one who gave it to you? Or are you stealing your life and breath to serve yourself?
• 15:50
  You owe your life to God. There are better ways to live.
• 15:56
  Being raised in the culture that we live in, you probably, without even thinking about it, hold and assume these politically important rights like the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You've probably heard, I hope you've heard those words before.
• 16:16
  And that means for a lot of us, I can do what I want short of breaking the law, to pleasure myself, to be happy.
• 16:25
  The pursuit of happiness, that becomes the ideal, the ultimate.
• 16:30
  But the Bible doesn't really speak like that.
• 16:33
  Ultimately, believers are eternally happy.
• 16:39
  But the goal, the high light, is not the pursuit of happiness, it's the pursuit of Christ.
• 16:45
  And the happiness is given to you.
• 16:48
  So the Bible doesn't talk like that. Yet we so often choose those things that I listed above over pursuing the Lord.
• 16:57
  But we owe our life to Him. Without Christ, we have no life.
• 17:02
  We need Him.
• 17:05
  And without Christ, we also have no light.
• 17:09
  No light.
• 17:11
  When I thought about that, I imagined because, probably because football season has started, I imagined a running back taking a handoff with a blindfold on.
• 17:19
  Can you imagine that? What would happen?
• 17:23
  I heard a boom. Yes. He would not do well. He would probably get crushed.
• 17:29
  We need light. It's obvious. We can't do anything without seeing. And Christ is your spiritual light in a very dark world.
• 17:39
  And the further you move from him, the darker and darker and darker things get. The harder it is to see the right way, the harder it is to feel his presence and his love.
• 17:50
  So let me ask, have you felt like you don't know what to do? Like you don't know God's will for your life?
• 17:59
  We think about that a lot, don't we?
• 18:01
  Well, maybe you've blindfolded yourself in sin.
• 18:05
  Maybe you've turned out the lights in spiritual sleepiness.
• 18:10
  Wake up. You owe Your life to Him. He has given you everything.
• 18:14
  And according to John, all you need to do is believe in Him.
• 18:19
  So that's who the Word is. Our second question, who is the Word? He is the content of the gospel and fulfillment of all prophecy. So point number two is you. You have no excuse to ignore Him.
• 18:37
  Since he is the content of the gospel and the fulfillment of all prophecy, we have no excuse to ignore Him. He has arrived.
• 18:45
  The man whose name was John is, of course, none other than John the Baptist, the greatest and the last of the prophets. Verse 7 tells us that he came to bear witness about the light. And the light is the Word, who is God, who is the Creator, who is the Savior, who is Christ.
• 19:03
  And what he says shows that all prophecy points to Christ.
• 19:08
  We see this in Luke 24:27, which says, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. The Scriptures were written about Christ.
• 19:22
  So the Word that John prepared the way for was the fulfillment of all of this prophecy.
• 19:28
  And Luke 24 actually fills it in a little more and says, he also fulfills the law of Moses.
• 19:34
  And verse 17 expounds on that in John 1. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus christ. So Christ fulfills prophecy and he is the content of the good news. The good news is all about Him.
• 19:48
  He is the good news.
• 19:51
  See, John testified about the light, verse seven, that all might believe through him.
• 19:59
  And if you do believe in him, verse 17 says, you will receive grace and truth.
• 20:05
  So the question today for the year is, do you know the Word? Do you know Jesus?
• 20:12
  I'm sure you know about him. But do you know him? Do you really know him?
• 20:18
  In one sense, I know Russell Westbrook. I could tell you a lot about him. I was a big fan. But do I know him, really?
• 20:30
  No. I've never met the man.
• 20:32
  But I know my friend Jared, a really good friend of mine.
• 20:38
  I could tell you even more about him. I've seen him at his best and at his worst. I could always count on him to have my back, just as he can count on me to have his. And even though we live far apart now, the closeness of our friendship has not completely disappeared. He's my friend. I could call him today.
• 20:56
  Students. Jesus, as he is portrayed by John in this gospel, is someone that you can be friends with. Like that you can know him intimately. He knows you at your best. He knows you at your worst. You can always count on him and go to him. Even though he might be physically Far from you. He is spiritually near to you. If you trust in him, you can truly know Him. And John is at pains to say that in order to know him, you must believe in Him.
• 21:24
  He has revealed Himself. He has fulfilled it all. He has come. He has arrived. We are left without an excuse.
• 21:33
  And that brings us to the third question and point. Who is the Word?
• 21:37
  He was God Himself, who was rejected by his own people, but then gives life to those who receive Him.
• 21:45
  So point three, you must receive Him.
• 21:47
  You must receive Him.
• 21:52
  Now, if you were coming to this passage with a completely blank slate in your mind, no knowledge of Jesus in His life, then I think verse 10 and 11 would shock you.
• 22:05
  The Word was God Himself. So if you're reading at his blank slate, you've established, okay, this Word is God Himself. He was light in the darkness, and he came to his own people, and they did what?
• 22:15
  They rejected Him. How could they reject Him? He is God himself. All things were made through Him. He is the light. He gives them life.
• 22:23
  Yet his own people rejected Him.
• 22:25
  So that's shocking.
• 22:27
  Now, the main point for John's readers is this verse 12.
• 22:31
  But to all who did receive him, though people rejected Him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
• 22:49
  And we'll unpack even more about this being born of God, this idea in John chapter three. But these verses point to two true and compatible realities.
• 23:01
  First, you must receive Him.
• 23:04
  To receive him is to believe in his name and all that he did and represented.
• 23:09
  We are sinners.
• 23:11
  And you might be rejecting Christ even now, either explicitly rejecting Christ or even implicitly rejecting him by living your life without any regard to Christ.
• 23:22
  Many of us that have grown up in church are guilty of this, at least at some point in our lives of implicitly rejecting the Lord.
• 23:30
  But you are responsible to turn from your sin and trust in Him.
• 23:36
  He's not closing the door on you. You must turn to Him. You must receive Him.
• 23:42
  The second reality that is also true. It is only by God's will that you can be born again.
• 23:48
  God's sovereignty over salvation means that it is guaranteed for those who believe.
• 23:54
  Sometimes we worry about God being sovereign over salvation.
• 23:57
  Rather than making us puppets, this gives us assurance. It means that God has foreknown you. He has foreloved you before the foundation of the world.
• 24:08
  Because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word loved You then, before you existed, before you had life in your lungs, before you were a concept in someone's mind.
• 24:19
  And you can know this if you believe in Him.
• 24:22
  Your new life in him is not something that comes from your own works and your own efforts of flesh and blood. It is not being born into the right family.
• 24:32
  You cannot be saved by your will alone. It must be by God's will. Will. And again, you can be sure because of this, if you feel convicted of your sin and you turn from your sin and believe, then you can know that God had your name written in his book before all ages. You can be confident in that. That is assurance, students.
• 24:57
  Knowing that God can give you new life, you can be born again by his will.
• 25:06
  My younger daughter sometimes crawls to the edge of the couch when she's up there between Katie and me.
• 25:14
  And I don't know what she's thinking. She must just be blindly trusting that we will catch her when she goes headfirst off the side, which we have done a number of times. We will catch her.
• 25:26
  I don't think she's fallen. I know Annie fell. She fell off the couch a couple times, you know, first kid trying it out.
• 25:35
  But the point is, God doesn't lose focus like I do. He doesn't get distracted and let you fall. If he has chosen you and adopted you, then you will not fall. He will always catch you. You can have the faith of a baby, the faith of a child.
• 25:51
  You can trust him if you receive him.
• 25:56
  Now, the fourth question or the fourth answer. Who is the Word?
• 25:59
  He is God, the Son who assumed human flesh. So point number four, you can see yourself in Him.
• 26:08
  God the Son. Assumed. We say put on assumed is maybe an older word for it. He assumed human flesh, so you can see yourself in him. Verse 14 says the word became flesh and dwelt among us. This verse alone is one of the most fantastic verses in the Bible.
• 26:26
  And when I say that you can see yourself in Him, I want to tell you what I don't mean. I don't mean that we can just think of Jesus as we think of ourselves.
• 26:35
  We cannot change who he is. And there are countless ways that we are not like him and he is not like us.
• 26:43
  But God put on flesh for a reason.
• 26:47
  He assumed human flesh for a reason. The Son entered our world in a physical way by becoming man and uniting his deity, His Godness, with humanity. Manness so when we look to Jesus, we see God. We see God, but we also see a person who resembles us. He looks like us.
• 27:13
  He's called the image of the invisible God. Which means that every person that has been made in God's image can see themselves in Him.
• 27:22
  Men and women alike can see themselves in Christ.
• 27:27
  So look to Jesus, students.
• 27:29
  He endured temptation just like you, exactly like you.
• 27:35
  Satan attacked him with external temptations. He didn't experience them from within. Like us, he experienced external temptations, yet he did not cave.
• 27:45
  When you experience temptation, you too can escape them. If you're in Christ, he can get you out.
• 27:52
  Look to Jesus, students.
• 27:54
  He can sympathize with your weaknesses.
• 27:57
  You get tired, hungry, sick, sad.
• 28:02
  He knows what that is like in an experiential way.
• 28:07
  The pain that you might be enduring now or have endured, or will endure. He knows what that is like. He actually experienced those things.
• 28:18
  God became flesh to experience what God in himself does not experience.
• 28:24
  Because God is not driven by emotions or experiences. The world does not affect God, right? He is independent, like we said earlier. But Christ as true man did experience those things. God put on flesh to sympathize with your weaknesses, to endure temptation, to provide a way of escape for you. So look to Jesus, because whatever it is to be a person that honors God in the midst of a hostile world, he is that. He can show us the way. He can take us on the way, and he can do it for us.
• 28:57
  And you can be his friend.
• 29:01
  He put on flesh to dwell among his creatures so that you can know him intimately and be his friend.
• 29:10
  You can believe in Him. You can leave behind your sin and choose Him. You can be adopted and counted as his brother or sister.
• 29:19
  You can belong in Him. You can have value and worth in Him. You can have true and lasting joy in Him. You can face suffering with a clear head and heart in Him.
• 29:31
  You can live in him each moment of your life and be saved at the end of it.
• 29:36
  Believe in the Word made flesh.
• 29:39
  You can see yourself in Him. He knows what you are experiencing.
• 29:47
  And the fifth question, who is the Word?
• 29:49
  He is the physical manifestation of God himself.
• 29:54
  So point five is you can see God in Him.
• 29:58
  That's the glory of the Word putting on flesh. We can see ourselves and God in the same person.
• 30:06
  You can see God in Him.
• 30:08
  So in the flesh, the Word which is Christ revealed the glory of the Father.
• 30:15
  Verse 18 adds, no one has ever seen God.
• 30:19
  God, the only begotten Son who is at the Father's side. He has made him known.
• 30:26
  Now I added this Word begotten, which is a word I think should be in the text and in verse 14. Glory is the only begotten Son from the Father. There are some debates about that, but I think this idea that the Son is begotten of the Father is there.
• 30:42
  But the point is that God is invisible to us.
• 30:45
  You cannot see God. He is spirit. Spirit is immaterial. He is outside of creation, though not absent, though not working in creation. He is separate from us.
• 30:58
  And things that are not material, like God, don't refract light. So we literally cannot see Him.
• 31:04
  But God the Son put on flesh. He entered the physical world in a different way so that we could see God. We could see him, feel him, know him intimately.
• 31:16
  God had revealed Himself through the Word, the Law, the prophets, the writings, the Old Testament, and in other cases, like at the burning bush to Moses. But nothing, not the pillar of cloud, not the burning bush, not voices from the heavens. Nothing was as clear a manifestation as Jesus.
• 31:36
  When God the Son put on flesh, that is the clearest that we could see God. And. And because of that, Jesus made a God we would have no hope of ever finding truly and made him intimately knowable. You can actually know God.
• 31:53
  And in revealing the Father, the Creator, he reveals grace and truth.
• 31:59
  Grace, a good gift from God. And in this saving grace, it is an undeserved gift that you can receive through him, through faith.
• 32:09
  And truth is the real objective truth of all things that Jesus confirmed in his life.
• 32:15
  This is why we will later read Jesus as saying that he is the Way, the Truth and the life.
• 32:21
  And we see here that we receive grace upon grace. It's an odd phrase, but what it's saying is that grace was given to Israel through the law and the prophets. But Christ seeing that grace stacks even more on top of it. Yes, we have the Law, the prophets, the writings, we have Scriptures. But how about this? I will reveal myself in the flesh.
• 32:43
  More grace.
• 32:45
  He revealed the Father himself and initiated a new covenant with his blood.
• 32:50
  So look to Jesus, students. He reveals the Father.
• 32:55
  A mountain of grace awaits you. Your sin, no matter how great, will be toppled by his grace.
• 33:04
  Sin is nothing to his grace to you.
• 33:08
  God might be mysterious.
• 33:11
  The Bible might be confusing. Maybe religion in general is mysterious to you. Well, I want to challenge you this school year to look to Jesus and consider him. If you have not, he makes God knowable to you by making you knowable to you.
• 33:30
  Looking to Jesus can be like looking in a mirror that shows you your sin as you see the perfect one and shows you your Savior, the way to be saved from yourself.
• 33:42
  So who is the Word?
• 33:44
  The Word is the Creator God who became flesh in order to provide grace that you might receive him in faith and see God face to face.
• 33:54
  Behold him.
• 33:56
  Remember how I told you that I beheld my future wife and that compelled me to go to her even with no plan in mind.
• 34:05
  Behold Christ. Be drawn to him. You don't need to plan it out what you will say, what you will do next. You don't need to clean up your life first. You can just go to him and know him and be his friend and and he can be your savior.
• 34:21
  Let's pray.
• 34:23
  Father, we thank you for the Word made flesh.
• 34:27
  God we pray that those who are far from you or who are seeking you would believe in the Word and have life help us all to look to Jesus in our everyday lives for forgiveness, for joy, for counsel, for wisdom, for life, for light.
• 34:45
  We pray this in his name.
• 34:47
  Amen.
• 34:49
  Okay so before you.