What's so great about Jesus?

[0:00] Good morning. The scripture for today comes from John chapter 1 verses 1 to 18. Please follow along in your own Bibles, the bulletin, or the screen.

[0:15] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

[0:34] In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light.

[0:54] 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.

[1:10] He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

[1:21] 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 the men, but of God.

[1:38] 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.

[1:53] 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. And from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

[2:08] For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father's side.

[2:22] He has made him known. This is the word of God. Great. Thank you, Annabelle. Okay. I wonder if you have ever heard of the Indian parable, in which there are a bunch of men, five or six men, depending on the parable, blind men, who hear that this creature has come into their village, this creature is called an elephant, but they have never seen an elephant, and so they decide we must go and discover what this creature is like.

[2:54] And so they go into the village, and each one takes hold of a different part of the elephant, and depending on which part of the elephant he holds, he describes it in a different way.

[3:06] And so one takes hold of his trunk, and he says, this creature is like a thick snake. And another takes hold of his ear, and he wages and says, no, no, this creature is like a fan.

[3:17] And another takes hold of his leg and says, this thing called an elephant is strong and sturdy, like a pillar, like a tree trunk. And another one takes hold of its tail and says, no, no, this creature is like a rope.

[3:29] And on and on they go. And the point of the analogy is that nobody really has true perspective on life. Nobody really has the right to any truth claim.

[3:42] We all just view life through our own perspective, and our version of truth is just that. It's our version of truth. There's no such thing as independent truth. We all just mediate truth through our experiences.

[3:56] I wonder if you've ever heard of that. And it's often used when it comes to faith. I mean, who are you to say that this is true? Maybe this is just your experience. Any truth claim, especially a religious truth claim, is subjective.

[4:11] Now, of course, I hope you can see there's a problem with the analogy. The problem is the analogy only works if the person telling the analogy does have perfect perspective.

[4:22] If they can see the whole story and the elephant, and they know it's an elephant, and we, the suckers that are in the story, are the only ones that can't see what's going on, right? The analogy doesn't exactly hold water.

[4:35] But, of course, what if we are all to some degree blind? What happens if we all do have imperfect vision, and our perspective in life is somewhat tainted?

[4:46] How would we find out what is true? What is real? What if we are, in some measure, trying to find our way through life, trying to work out what is right, what is real?

[5:01] Well, friends, what happens if we couldn't find our way to truth, but truth came looking for us? What if rather than us trying to discover our way to what is right and light and real, if those things came to us?

[5:18] This morning, we are starting John's Gospel, and we're going to be going through this for the next, I think, 10 or 11 weeks, the first four chapters. And we are looking this morning at the introduction to John's Gospel, what is often called the prologue.

[5:31] And John's Gospel is all about Jesus Christ. John wants us to see very clearly who is Jesus, and why did He come, and what His claims are.

[5:43] John wants us to understand Him. And John is one of the few authors that actually tell us his purpose for writing his book. Most biblical authors want us to work it out, but John tells us, if you go to the very end of John's Gospel, in chapter 20, he actually says it here in verse 31.

[5:59] I'm sorry, I don't have it on the slide. He says this, these things, I've written these things, these things are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His name.

[6:13] John wants us to very clearly see who is Jesus, to understand Him, because John knows that by seeing Jesus and understanding Him, that changes everything. Life and life is found in Him.

[6:27] And so today we're going to look at this introduction to John's Gospel, and we're going to look at it through the lens of three questions, right? Who is Jesus? Why did He come? What should we do?

[6:38] Three simple questions. So let's dive in and look at it. Firstly, who is Jesus? Verses 1 to 5. John has a lot to say to us about Jesus of Nazareth.

[6:49] He wants us to see that Jesus of Nazareth was not simply a wise man, or a special religious leader, or a special figure. Not just an influential man of history. John wants us to see that Jesus of Nazareth is nothing less than the God of the Old Testament.

[7:07] And we see this in the beginning. Look at how he starts off. He starts off his Gospel's biography of Jesus with these words. He says, In the beginning. Now, for us, that might not be particularly relevant, but to every Jewish reader of his Gospel, those three words struck a chord.

[7:25] Because every single Jewish reader in the whole of Israel would automatically know where those words come from. Do you know where they come from? Genesis 1, right? Remember, every Jewish kid from the age of probably three or four would start to memorize the first five books of the Bible?

[7:41] So every kid would know the first three words of the entire Bible. Genesis 1 verse 1 says, In the beginning. In the beginning. In the beginning, God. Now, Genesis is not a cosmology textbook.

[7:55] It's not trying to tell us everything, answer all our cosmological questions. It's not trying to tell us how old the earth is, the age of the universe. Genesis is telling us the who behind the what.

[8:08] Who created the universe? Well, Genesis tells us, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And so every Jewish kid would know, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

[8:21] And John borrows these three words, and now he's talking about Jesus, and he says, In the beginning, Jesus. He calls him the Word. We're going to talk about that in a few minutes.

[8:31] John's got a very unique name for Jesus, the Word. In the beginning was the Word. That's Jesus. The Word was with God. That means, The God of the Old Testament, As the Old Testament would have understood him.

[8:42] Jesus was with him. Not the same as him, But with him. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. So, And that opens a whole, Lot of questions about the Trinity, And how does the Trinity work?

[8:58] If you've got questions about the Trinity, Come and chat to me. I'd love to talk through that with you. But, But what John wants us to see here, Is that, Jesus is a personal being, Distinctive from God the Father.

[9:10] He's not just a, A different manifestation of the Father. He's distinctive. And yet, Equally God with God the Father. And then, Echoing Genesis even further, John tells us that, Jesus Christ is at the very heart of all creation.

[9:25] Everything that exists. Look at what he says in verse 3. He says, All things were made through him, And without him, Was not anything made, That was made.

[9:35] It's a very wordy way of saying, Jesus Christ is the creative power, The creative genius, Behind every single thing that exists, In all this material world.

[9:48] So think of our, 100 billion light year wide, Observable universe. That's, As far as I can tell, That's the latest we understand, How big the universe is.

[9:58] 100 billion light years in length. Jesus Christ, Is the creative genius, Behind all of it. All the galaxies, And the solar systems, And the universes.

[10:10] We sang earlier about, He holds all the oceans in his hands. The oceans are nothing. He holds the cosmos in his hand. You know, From galaxies, To subatomic particles.

[10:21] Jesus Christ was there, Before the beginning of our material world, Speaking it into existence. All things were made through him, And without him, Was not anything made, That was made.

[10:33] All things including, Life. All life. Look at verse 4. In him, Was life, And the life, Was the light of mankind. The light shines in the darkness, And the darkness has not overcome it.

[10:47] In other words, Jesus is the, The source, The original source, Of every living thing. So think about this, You, You're at your desk, And it's getting dark outside, And you, You turn on the light, You switch it on, The light switch turns the light, But, But if it's not connected to a power source, Doesn't matter how many bulbs you've got in there, Globes, Or how fancy the wiring is, Or how beautiful the light bulb looks, If it's not connected to a source, It's nothing.

[11:12] Jesus is the original life source, Of everything that exists. In him is life. And that life, Was the light of mankind. Now, We could spend a lot of weeks on this, But John's point is this, That the one that we've come to know, Is Jesus of Nazareth, Who, In verse 17, John eventually reveals him, He says, Jesus Christ, The one who has existed for all eternity, Through whom all life, And reality, And existence, Derives its being, This is Jesus of Nazareth.

[11:43] And, And we often think of Jesus as, Gentle and lowly, And kind, And meek, And just gentle babies on his lap, And that's true, He is kind, And gentle and lowly, But he's also infinitely majestic, The creator of every single star and galaxy, And every semi-tomic particle, Jesus, Is the creator of it all.

[12:06] Now, Just a side comment here, This is not John's main point in this passage, But a side comment here is this, And he's going to make this point again, And again throughout his gospel, One of the implications of this, And this is really, At the heart of Christianity, In some ways, Is this, That, You will never, We will never ever, Experience life, Hope, Lasting joy, Lasting peace, Enduring confidence, All the things, All the things that we so desperately long for, And existentially crave in our gut, Those things, We will never find, Apart from union, Uniting ourselves with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, John's going to tell us again, And again, And again, That all life, By which he means, The existence of life, But also, Existential life, The fullness of life, Existence and fullness of life, Are found in union, Being one, With the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, He is life,

[13:08] How do you say it? In him is life, And the life was the light of all mankind, I think this, Raises a question for us, He has a question for us to ponder, For those of us that are Christians, I know not all of us here, Would consider ourselves Christians, But for those of us that are Christians, I wonder whether our lives, And our prayers, And our worship, Reflect this, When we come to church, And we worship God, It's very easy just to be blase, Or familiar, Or just, Kind of our minds drift, And we sing the songs, And, But who is it that we stand before?

[13:47] We stand before, The sovereign, Uncreated, Eternally existing, Uncreated being, One with God the Father, Distinctive from the Father, From whom all life and being, And purpose derives it existence, This is Jesus, Now look at what, John has to say about this Jesus, He calls on the word, Verse 14, Then he says, And this Jesus, The word, Has become flesh, And dwelt amongst us, So, Second question, Jesus, Who is Jesus?

[14:18] The eternal, Uncreated, Ever existing God, Why did he come? Question 2, Verses 1, Verses 14 to 18, Now, This Jesus, Who is God, Why would this incomprehensible deity, Who is infinitely bigger, Than anything that our minds, Can fathom and understand, Why would he squeeze himself, And limit himself, Into, Something as small, And insignificant, As a human being, With all our failings, And foibles, And failings, And mistakes, Why would this being, Come and be with us?

[14:58] Well, John wants to tell us, No doubt you notice, John's got this very unique name for Jesus, What does he call Jesus? The word, Right? He says here, In the beginning was the word, He's talking about Jesus, And the word was with God, And the word was God, He was in the beginning with God, Why does John call Jesus the word?

[15:18] And that's a very strange name for Jesus, Well, There's a couple of things, I think there's two things in particular, Firstly, In the Old Testament, The word, God's word, Has a very particular, And important significance, God's word, Is very closely associated, With his character, And God himself, And God's word, Accomplishes many things, So for instance, In Genesis 1, God speaks, And his word, Brings creation into being, In, In, At Mount Sinai, God speaks, And he forms a community of people, His people, It's his word, That creates the community of God's people, In Psalm 107, God says, His people cried out to him, To rescue them, And he sent his word, And his word rescued them, Psalm 119, That amazing psalm, And talks about how, God's word comforts us, And guides us, And leads us, And leads us to salvation, And, And, Gives us hope, And gives us clarity, And protects us, God's word, Does all sorts of things, And of course,

[16:19] The very famous chapter, In Ezekiel 37, Is the valley of dry bones, There's death, There's no life, And God tells Ezekiel, Speak my word, And my word will create life, Throughout the Old Testament, God's word, Creates life, Rescues, Saves, Redeems, God's word, Accompasses all these things, And John now says, Jesus, Is the word, Made flesh, All those things, That God does, In the Bible, In the Old Testament, Jesus is the one, Who's doing those, But there's something more, Than this of course, Isn't there, What do our words do, Our words reveal, Who we really are, Remember how Jesus says, Out of the overflow of our hearts, The mouth speaks, When we speak, Often we reveal, What's hidden in our hearts, In our lives, Friends, How many of us have, Found ourselves, I don't know if you've ever done this, You say something, That is very true, But not maybe socially appropriate, And as you say it,

[17:20] You wish you could grab those words back, Right? And you can't, They're gone, They're out your mouth, Why? Because, And why do you want to take them back? Because they reveal, What's really going on, Right?

[17:32] Or how many times, Have we seen somebody famous, Maybe a celebrity, Or somebody, Being caught, Saying something on camera, And they didn't know, They were on camera, Right? And it reveals, What they really like, Behind the PR scheme, And the well manicured presentation, And then what happens, They all issue, Some kind of very flaky apology, And they'll say something like, You know, I apologize for my words, That's not who I really am, I'm not really a racist, And you'll think, Of course you are, Right?

[17:59] Because, When you didn't know, The cameras were on you, Your words revealed, Who you really were, They showed exactly, Who you were, Right? Our words, Reveal something about, The hidden nature, Of what's inside of us, Our words give manifestation, To what's unseen, Unknown, Our words reveal, The unseen secrets of our hearts, For better, Or for worse, Sidebar tangent, This is one of the reasons, Why it's so important, For married couples, To make sure, That you're not just, That you're getting time together, To share what's really on your heart, You're not just managing, The households, And kids and stuff, You can go on a date night, Or have time together, Because actually, What builds intimacy, Is sharing our hearts, Is seeing what's going on, Inside of our hearts, Is our words, Words reveal, What's inside of us, Now what does John say here?

[18:49] John says, Jesus is the word of God, What does that mean? He's the one, Who reveals, The unknown, Unseen God, What God is really like, And that's what verses 14 to 18, Are all about, Look at them with me, Why did this uncreated being, Who spoke the ever expanding universe, Into existence, Who is utterly beyond comprehension, Why did he take on flesh and blood, And dwell amongst us?

[19:17] Because he wants to make known, What God is like, Look at what he says in verse 14, The word became flesh, And dwelt amongst us, And we have seen his glory, Glory is the visible manifestation, Of the holiness, Or the distinctiveness of God, God is holy, He's completely unlike us, And his glory is his visible manifestation, We have now seen, The distinctiveness, The glory of God, How?

[19:43] In the person of Jesus, The word became flesh, And dwelt amongst us, And we have seen his glory, Look at verse 18, No one has ever seen God, The only God, Who is at the Father's side, But he, Jesus, He has made him known, Jesus called the word, Because he reveals, What is unseen, And unknown about God, To us, And so the point of John's prologue, In this, These verse 18 verses, Is that Jesus is nothing less, Than the manifestation, Jesus wants us to know, And see, And experience, What is this unknown, Unseen God like?

[20:18] He's Jesus, Now the question is, What about God, Does Jesus reveal? I mean there's a lot about God, He is this diamond, That every facet reveals, Has another aspect of his glory, And his majesty, His holiness, His splendor, His tenderness, His omnipotence, What aspect about God's, Infinite characters, Does Jesus reveal?

[20:40] Well there's a lot, But John has something in particular, There's one thing in particular, He wants us to see about Jesus, Look at what he says here, He references the Old Testament, A whole bunch of times, And look what he says in verse 14, The word became flesh, And dwelt amongst us, You might know this, The word dwelt there, It literally means, He pitched his tent amongst us, Jesus came and pitched his tent, Amongst us, But it's also, That word dwelt, Is also the word that's used, In the Old Testament, For the tabernacle, Okay, If you remember, The tabernacle was this tent, That was in the wilderness, In the desert, And the tabernacle, Was the precursor, To the temple, So remember God's people, In the Old Testament, They're walking through the wilderness, Towards the promised land, And they are sinful, They are rebellious, They don't really follow God, How does God respond, To their sin?

[21:33] In amazing grace, He says, I will come and dwell with you, And so he tells Moses, Build a tent, I will put my presence there, My glory there, Isn't that amazing? How does God respond, To our sin?

[21:44] He comes to us, He comes close to us, And in the tabernacle, His presence is there, And it's the one place on earth, Where heaven and earth meet, Where God's presence is, This place is called, The tabernacle, John uses that very word, And says, The word became flesh, And God tabernacled amongst us, In Jesus, What's John saying?

[22:06] The tabernacle is gone, The temple is gone, Who's here in this place? Jesus, The presence of God, The one place where heaven and earth, Are going to meet, In the person of Jesus, Okay, And then John says this, The word became flesh, Dwelt amongst us, We have seen his glory, And when we see his glory, What do we see?

[22:26] Full, Full of grace, And truth, Full of grace and truth, Again, It's an Old Testament reference, Do you remember, In Exodus 32 to 34, The people of God, Are walking through the wilderness, And they're on the way to the promised land, And God says to Moses, Moses, You must take my people in, And Moses says, God I can't do it, These people are rebellious, They, I can't control them, They're like, Wayward two year olds, God I can't do it, And he says, Eventually he says, Okay God, I'll do it, But you must go with me, And God says, I'll go with you, And then Moses says, God please show me your glory, I need to know that you're with me, Show me your glory, And God says, Okay I will, And so he shows, He reveals his glory to Moses, And what does he do, He hides him in a rock, And he says this, I am the Lord, The Lord, A God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, And abounding, In steadfast love and faithfulness, And through the rest, The Old Testament, This is kind of God's nickname for himself,

[23:28] This is God's description of himself, Who is the God of the Old Testament? Well supremely, He is the God who is abounding, In steadfast love and faithfulness, But another way of translating that is, Gracefulness and truthfulness, Who is the God of the Old Testament?

[23:48] He's the God who overflows, Abounds, He's the God who meets our fallenness, And our brokenness, And our mistakes, With steadfast love, Faithfulness, Truthfulness, And grace, Well how does John describe Jesus?

[24:05] He says, Here is Jesus, Full of, Grace and truth, Steadfast love and faithfulness, John is telling us, That the God who met Moses, In the wilderness and exodus, Is the same God who walked the streets of Jerusalem, The person of Jesus Christ, And then look finally at verse 17, He says here, Verse 16, What else does John say?

[24:28] From his fullness, We have all received grace, Upon grace, Upon grace, Out of the abundance of who Jesus, Jesus is like this, This spring, A well, That never ceases to bubble up, And what bubbles up from him?

[24:44] Not condemnation, Not the pointed finger, Telling you how terrible you are, Grace, Upon grace, Upon grace, Upon grace, Friends, There's no human being in the world, That doesn't need grace, Every one of us need grace, We need grace for our sin, And our failings, We need grace for our shame, Because sin doesn't just condemn us, It makes us feel gross, We need grace for our shame, We need grace for our sufferings, And our difficulties in life, We need grace to carry us home on this journey, In Jesus Christ, Is fullness of grace and truth, Who is Jesus?

[25:24] Why did he come? He came to reveal God to us, And what does he reveal? Out of his fullness, Grace upon grace, In this passage, John tells us about two other very prominent people, Who were used mightily by God, And who both had a lot to say, Look what he says about John the Baptist, In verse 6 to 8, He says here, There was a man sent from God, Whose name was John, Now, John, The author of the book, Is not talking about himself here, Okay, John's talking about another John, So John the author, Is talking about another John, Called John the Baptist, And he says, There was this man, He came from heaven, From God, His name was John, John the Baptist, He came as a witness, To bear witness about the light, That all might believe through him, He was not the light, He came to bear witness about the light, Okay, So we're going to talk about John the Baptist next week, But notice what John the author wants us to see, John the Baptist was a pretty big deal, He had this amazing ministry, And thousands of people flocked to hear him, People's lives were turned around,

[26:26] Thousands of people, The crowds were getting baptized by him, People listened to him, His message changed their lives, John was a big deal, But what does John the author say? He wasn't the light, He wasn't the Messiah, He wasn't the Savior, Grace and truth did not come through him, Grace and truth came to Jesus, What did John say?

[26:50] John said, Don't listen to me, Listen to Jesus, He's the one, And then John says the same thing, Verse 17, The law was given through Moses, Grace and truth came through Jesus, Who was Moses?

[27:00] Moses was a pretty big deal, Right? Moses was the great rescue of God's people, Out of Egypt, He went to Mount Sinai, He got the Ten Commandments, The Bible says, Moses spoke to God face to face, Like a man speaks to his friend, Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Everything that the nation of Israel know about God, In the early centuries, Comes through Moses, Moses is a big deal, But what does John say?

[27:29] He wasn't the word made flesh, He wasn't the revelation of God, He was not from the beginning, Nothing was made by him, Or through him, Or for him, Moses taught God's people a lot about God, But he wasn't made God in flesh, He couldn't bring grace and truth, Only Jesus can, Jesus is those things in and of himself, And friends, The point is this, You may be a spiritual seeker, You may be trying to find out, What is this faith thing like?

[28:02] Where is hope? Where is life? Where is, What is the purpose of life? Friends, You may be on a spiritual journey, Maybe you're just an ordinary person, Trying to make sense of life, Maybe you're trying to make, Navigate your way through the complexities of life, Maybe you're a Christian, Who's some way stuck in your Christian life, Your Christian walks become apathetic, What is John wanting to say to us?

[28:27] He's going to say, You don't just need a pastor, You don't need a Christian counselor, You don't need a spiritual guru, They're not going to solve the problem for you, You don't need some transcendental meditation, In a temple somewhere in the Himalayas, Friends, The only place where the deepest longings of your soul, Are going to be met, On the person of Jesus, Jesus is life and light, And grace and truth, And at the very best, All those people can give you some wisdom, Maybe they can point you in the right direction, But they are not life in and of themselves, You have to encounter the living God, You have to come to the eternal God, The source of light and life and hope Himself, And the good news is this, Jesus has come to us, Jesus has come for us, Who is Jesus of Nazareth?

[29:20] The eternal God, The uncreated one, The creator of all things, Who existed before the beginning, Why did He come? He came because in Him is life, And grace and truth, And He came to bring those things to us, That we may encounter grace upon grace, Final question today, Who is Jesus?

[29:42] Why did He come? What should we do about it? What should we do? Well, Look at verse 9 to 13 with me, Jesus has come, How should we respond?

[29:54] And John tells us, He's got a very specific response, In fact, Look at verse 11 here, John tells us how to respond, He says, He came to His own, And His own people, But they did not receive Him, But to all who did receive Him, Who believed in His name, He gave the right to become, The children of God, Friends, Jesus has come to us, Jesus has come for us, How should we respond?

[30:24] Receive Him, Receive Him, Receive Him as your King, Now, When we hear the word receive Him, That's a little bit difficult to understand, Because these days we talk about receiving something, That's very passive, Right?

[30:38] You receive a text message on your phone, Or you receive an email, Or if you're in trouble, You receive a summons, From the courts, Okay? Maybe you don't want to receive it, But you receive it, And it's very passive, It's that thing you do about it, It just arrives in your inbox, Or it arrives at your door, And there it is, But that's not how John uses the word receive, What does he mean when he says, Receive Him?

[31:02] John's thinking about the way we receive, A dignitary, Or a president, Or a king, From a foreign country, Right? A dignitary comes from afar, And they come to Hong Kong, And what do we do? We roll off the red carpet, And we get the police force on the sides, And we welcome them, And all the police are standing in their best gear, We welcome them with arms, We orientate our schedule around them, A foreign dignitary comes to Hong Kong, And a whole cavalcade of cars go before, And police cars with sirens, And everybody has to stop their agenda, For this dignitary, It doesn't matter if you're late to the airport, You can miss your plane, The king has come, Right?

[31:42] It doesn't matter if you're late for a meeting, They've come, The king has come, And so all the traffic lights stop, You get to a green light, Doesn't matter, Your car will stop, Public transport stops, Everybody stops, Because the king, Or president, Or the premier has arrived, We welcome them, With open arms, Sometimes I chat to some of you, And I say, Hey, Do you want to get lunch this week?

[32:06] And you'll say, My boss is in town, Right? When your boss comes to town, They rearrange your whole schedule, Your whole calendar is put on freeze, Because your boss is in town, You welcome, This person of honor, John is telling us, That the universe is true king, Heaven and earth's king has come, And we are to receive him, We are to throw wide the doors of our hearts, We are to roll out the red carpet, We are to reorientate our schedules, And our gender, And the purpose, And the goals of our life, Around the king who has come, And we are to receive him, To welcome him with open arms, To orientate our lives around him, And when we do, We find life, And light, And grace, And truth in him, To those who receive him, Who believe in his name, He will give the right, To become the children of God,

[33:07] Friends, Have you received him? Have you believed in his name? Not just intellectually, Not just culturally, Not just going to church, And joining a CG, And joining a nice community of people, Have you in your heart of hearts, Received him?

[33:25] Have you bowed down to the king? Have you said, Jesus have your way in my life? John wants us to know, That if you haven't done that, You'll always be in the dark, The darkness comes to shine, And the light comes to shine in the darkness, The darkness has not overcome it, But if you do not receive him, You're still in the dark, John wants you to walk in the light, He wants you to encounter, Grace and truth, Friends, Have you received him?

[33:58] Maybe you did that many years ago, Have you received him recently? Have you opened wide your heart to him? Is he your king? We're going to learn a lot more about Jesus, In the coming weeks, But John wants us to know, Who is Jesus?

[34:12] He's the eternal, Uncreated God, The one who holds, All the universe and the cosmos in his hands, The one by whom, And through whom, And for whom, Everything exists, He is the one whom, Light and life, And grace is found, And he's the one who's come to us, And why did he come to us?

[34:31] That we might know what God is like, And what is God like? At the heart of God's heart, Is a benevolent, Creator of the universe, Who is for his people, Who has come, Not with a stick, Not with a pointed finger, But has come with grace, That we might come home, And how does he want us to respond?

[34:52] To receive him as our king, Let's do that now, As we come in prayer, Let's pray together, Lord Jesus, As a church, We talk about you often, But God, We do confess, It's very easy, To become, Overly familiar, And overly blasé, About you, God, We can sing the songs, With half-hearted hearts, But God, I pray, Won't you open the eyes, Of our hearts, To see you, To see you, In all your majesty, And your glory, To be in awe of you, Astounded by you, And to fall down, On our knees, At your feet, Once again, God, We want to receive you, We want to welcome you, With open arms, God, We want to, We want to roll out, The red carpet, And say, Christ the king, Come and have your way, In our life, God, For those of us, This morning, That have never done that, I pray, Won't you, Open the eyes of our heart, Give us faith, Help us God, To see you, And to trust you, God, For those that, Maybe did that, Many years ago, And we've, We've kind of relegated you, To a back room,

[35:52] And we've got on, With our lives, And you no longer, Have that place of honor, In our lives, God, We confess that, And we ask you, To forgive us, And help us God, We want to bring you, Back into the center stage, And welcome you, Once again, Jesus, Come and be big, In our hearts, And in our eyes, We pray, In your name, We pray these things, Amen, Amen, And we pray,