Happy New Year! I've been thinking all week about last year, the year 2024, and how incredibly special it was. For some of you, it was the first time you placed your trust in Jesus, and so last year, you were seeing what it looks like to walk in his fullness. For some of you, it's the first year you jumped in with us as a church, and you're seeing what biblical community looks like and what it looks like to worship Jesus as part of a church. For some of you last year, you went on your first mission trip, or it was the first time you jumped into a life group, or the first time that you actually trusted God with your finances and began to give and watch him bless your family for the first time. Maybe last year, you took up what it looks like to read your Bible daily or to pray. For this church last year, and for a lot of you personally, it was an incredible year. We had the biggest Easter, the biggest Life Group attendance, and the biggest Christmas Eve services. It was a great year. We launched a counseling center. We launched a new commons area, and it was incredible. But here's what I want us to do: I want us to celebrate what God did, but I don't want us to miss what God wants to do in 2025.
What if this was the year that you sold out and began to trust Jesus and follow him with your lives? Speaking of Jesus, today, we are kicking off a brand new series for the year that I think could be the biggest Kingdom Impact series, starting today and going through about the middle of May. You heard that right. We are going to walk through the gospel of John. Now, that totally intimidates me, alright? I don't commit to anything but Melissa for that long. I just don't. But if you could have just one book, let's say years from now persecution hit us and we had to choose one book to crumple up and put it in our pocket to keep with us, it would have to be the Book of John. Think of how many times you have heard, if you want to start reading the Bible, start in John; if you want to start following Jesus, read John. Well, what I want to do for these next months is show you why it's John. I want to do my best to show you who Jesus is.
I can't think of a better way to start this whole journey off than to look at who is it that wrote this book that we call John. It's actually the Apostle John. He’s not only one of the 12, he was one of the three closest to Jesus. And you can make an argument that he was the closest person on this planet that that walked with Jesus. John was one of the disciples who was walking by the sea that day when Jesus said, throw down your nets and follow me. He was the disciple that was in that room when the 12-year-old girl was raised, he was the disciple that got to see the upper room. He leaned up against Jesus's chest and spoke to him and asked, who will betray you? He was there the day that Jesus transfigured on that mountain. And now we are pulling into John's life, years later. He is probably 90 years old. He had been exiled to Patmos by the evil ruler Dominion. He's now come back into Ephesus and now John, the closest person that was left on this planet to Jesus, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, begins to write this book.
This is John, who doesn't even refer to himself by name in the book. He just calls himself the one whom Jesus loves. That's not a braggy statement. He's saying, I'm a fisherman that Jesus loves. He sits down at 90 years old, the last disciple left, and he writes this gospel. Can you imagine John's life at this point? Can you imagine him walking the streets of Ephesus? Can you imagine how many times people stopped him in the street saying tell me about him, tell me what he did, tell me what he was like, tell me what he looked like, tell me how he talked? This is just my imagination, but how many times did it probably happen? Tell us about the 5,000 that day. Tell us about the snack pack becoming the buffet. Tell us what it was like when he sweat drops of blood for my sin. Tell us what he was like when he looked at you, he rebuked you, he probably put his arm around you and said, it's for my kingdom. John, tell us what it was like.
By now he's been following Jesus for over 50 years. He's feeling the pain of people walking away from Jesus. He's feeling the pain of people not understanding Jesus. And now John, the one that knew him best, writes this gospel. Matthew's already been written. Mark's already been written. Luke's already been written. They're already in circulation, and John looks at those guys and says, Hey, they told you what Jesus did. I want to tell you who Jesus is.
So for these next months, we're simply going to follow John's journey and focus on this potentially life-changing book that God has given us to show us who Jesus is. These words have the potential to change your life. So if you've got a copy of scripture today, I want you to open to the fourth book of the New Testament. Turn with me to the book of John, but don't go to the first chapter. We're going to get there, I promise you. But turn with me to John 20, which gives us the main idea, the main thought, the thesis statement, if you would, of the whole book. There's not a better place to start than that.
We're going to wear this book out, I'm telling you. By May, you're going to throw this book in the front seat of your car, and it's just going to open to John. John 20:30 says this at the end: Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these things are written that you may believe (circle that word) that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing that you may have life in His name.
John says he’s written it so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God. And when you do believe, here's the promise: you can have life now in the fullest, and the joy and the promise and the protection and the purpose and enlightenment of who Jesus is. But also you can have life in eternity. You can have it forever with the one Jesus whom you have believed. You can spend eternity with him. So church, yes, this book is going to tell us so much of what Jesus did, but don't get so caught up on what he did, that you miss who he is. That's John's point.
John wants us to know who he is so that we can believe. And when we believe, we can receive him. And when we receive him, we can have life. John 14:6, we can have life in him, the way, the truth, and the life. This is the book.
If you flip over one more chapter from 20 to 21, you'll see that John closes this whole book up by saying, I've written all of this so that you trust and believe. In John 20 after Peter is brought back by Jesus, Peter turns and sees that the disciple and whom Jesus loved (that's John's name for himself) was following them. This was the one that had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and said, who's gonna betray you? Verse 21. When Peter saw him, he asked, Lord, what about him? And Jesus answered if I wanted him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me. Verse 23. Because of this, the rumors spread among the believers that the disciple, that this disciple, this is John, would not die, but Jesus didn't say that he wouldn't die. He only said if I wanted him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?
So John says, I was there. There's a bunch of rumors about me not dying. That's crazy talk. I'm going to die one day. Here's how he closes his book: this was the disciple who testified to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. In verse 25, the last verse of the book, Jesus did many other things as well. If everything one of them was written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
So church, this is such a cool ending to John's book. Because it's saying, for those of you who haven't given your life to Jesus, John wrote this to show you his love. For those of you who have given your life to Jesus, maybe you're a baby Christian or just for a couple of years, I've given this to you to clarify who Jesus is and to show you how to walk in Him. And for those of you who have been walking with Jesus for years and years, maybe even like John for over 50 years, I'm writing this to you to give you a deeper understanding, that you may believe in the one that can give you life. John has given us 21 chapters, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They've given you some of the others. It's just a small sample to help you walk in Jesus's fullness, to allow Jesus to completely consume you, to give you life, to bring you from the darkness, and to bring life to you.
The book of John will show us Jesus. The hope and desire of this whole book is so that you may believe. Flip back to chapter one. It may sound a little academic, but I want to give you some word counts of the book. Anytime you're studying the Bible or any book really, if you can see how many times a word or a term is used in that book, you can see what that book's about.
In fact, if you take the book of Leviticus and you see how many times blood, atonement, and sacrifice are used, you quickly see that that book was written about the sacrifices to the priest to show them what to do. If you take the book in the New Testament of Philippians, written by a guy in jail, on a death sentence, and see in that small book 26 times the word joy is used, you quickly see that's what the book is about. It's about having joy in Christ. Well, what about John? The first word I want you to write down is the word Jesus. 275 times in the book of John is the word Jesus used. Now, that tells us something. John only talks about seven miracles of God, six of them are unique to his book. But John looks at the other gospels and says, let me show you the who behind the what. The second key word is God or Father. It's used 175 times in 21 chapters. Obviously, this book is written to us to show us the link between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, 175 times. The third word is the word believe. The word believe is mentioned 98 times. The fourth one is the word truth. 52 times is the word truth mentioned in the text. I can't think of a better word for us to spend some time looking at in the context of where our world is than truth. The last one is life, and 48 times is the word life given.
Putting all five words together: Jesus and God the Father have asked us to believe the truth that gives life. It's exactly what the book is. It's all about Jesus. Not necessarily the teachings. The teachings are great. But some of us are educated well beyond our level of obedience.
There is not one teaching of Jesus in the whole book of John. Not one parable. It's all about who is Jesus. John shows us his character. He shows us his witness. He shows us his power. He shows us a couple of miracles to show Jesus is God, and that if we believe we're going to see that we can have life. That's the gospel. That's what the whole book is written about. Jesus is the only truth. Jesus is the only one that brings life. Jesus is the only one that holds the keys for eternity. And John says repeatedly, that is what you need to believe.
Let's talk about belief for a minute. When we read all these terms, we need to know what they are. This word believe it's one of the strongest words in the whole Bible, but it's also one of the most misunderstood words in the whole Bible. Many of us have taken this word believe to just be this intellectual knowledge of something, but that is nowhere near what believe means, especially in the Book of John. Belief describes the act of fully trusting based on truthfulness and reliability.
Believing is more than just simply agreeing in our minds that something might be true. Believing is always demonstrated through trust and action. You cannot believe until a faith step is taken. If I had a chair sitting right here, I could talk about that chair all I wanted to. But I don't believe that chair actually holds me till I sit in it. See, so many of us have taken believing in Jesus to the level that we just need to believe that there was a Jesus. That is nowhere near what belief means.
DA Carson says, Belief in John's Gospel is never mere intellectual ascent or mere verbal profession. It always involves a personal trust in Christ. Complete dependence on his work and a relationship that transforms both thoughts and behaviors.
Belief is not belief until I take a step. Here's how my mind works: I will give you three dimensions of biblical belief just as bullet points so you'll know anytime I say the word belief, you can think of these three words. For me, belief is trust. Belief is commitment. And belief is action. If one of those three things is not present, then you don't believe.
In other words, you can talk all you want to about something, but if there's no trust, you are not submitting to it. If there's no commitment, you are not giving your heart to it. And if there's no step of obedience, you have not believed. This is what gets us in so many theological arguments over whether somebody is saved. Anybody on this planet can say that they believe, but until you trust, commit, and act, you are not a follower of Jesus. You're not. But there's hope in this. John has written us a whole book telling us how we can believe.
So church to believing is not simply to acknowledge, but it's placing my hope, my trust, my life, and Jesus. And for him to take me to the point where I begin to walk that out in my life. I walk it online, I walk it in person, I walk it at school, I walk it in family. And because of what Jesus has done and because of who Jesus is, Jesus has given me life. It's changed me to the point that I'm sitting in the chair.
Now, for chapter one. John skips the genealogies. He skips the manger, and goes straight to the eternal. John 1:1 says, in the beginning, was the word. And the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Matthew and Luke started with Bethlehem. Good for them. They paused at 12 years old. Then they moved to the three years of ministry. But John goes all the way back to the beginning, before anything existed. In fact, John starts his book with the same quote that the whole beginning of the Bible starts with.
John goes back to give us a few attributes of who Jesus is. I want you to write down a couple of these. Number one, Jesus is eternal. He has always existed. He's part of the trinity. In other words, Jesus did not begin to exist at some point because the Father God needed to come up with a way to deal with our sin. Jesus has always been and will always be.
It makes it so much sweeter to think about the incarnation in the Christmas season. God the Father didn't come up with some idea one day for Jesus. He’s always been there. It makes Christmas so much more humbling and sweeter to know that from the beginning of time Jesus has been ruling, yet Jesus put on flesh.
Jesus was the word. In Greek, this word is logos. It means that he was the essence, the very foundation. The Greeks didn't know how to explain the foundation of all existence. So they came up with this word logos, the word of God.
God's word was his essence. But now John says, Jesus is the very essence of the eternal God of all time. That's who Jesus is. He's the very representation of the eternal character, of the eternal love of the eternal God to us. He shows us the eternal nature of who God is. Jesus was not just this limited-time guy who walked on the earth. Yes, he did do that, but that is not all Jesus is. He is the eternal God of the universe.
The same verse says, that Jesus is not just eternal; Jesus is God. There's not God and Jesus. I know in our prayers we slip into that. I even find myself doing that sometimes, but that's not it. Jesus is God. He's the great I am. He was. He is. He will always be. Jesus is the Word of God and is God. He's the perfect expression of God to all mankind. As God showed us who he was in the Old Testament, Jesus shows us who he is in the New Testament. Leviticus shows us that God is holy. That's what we see in how Jesus walked out his life. In Exodus, we see that God is a deliverer. That’s what we see in Jesus as He cast out demons, as he healed the sick, and as he a rose the dead. In Deuteronomy, you see that God is full of love. That's who Jesus was, like when he dealt with the lady committing adultery. In the Psalms, we see that he's tender and he's long-suffering. That's what we see when Jesus welcomes the children, and he deals with the boneheaded disciples over and over. In Isaiah, we see that God is compassionate, like when we see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and weeping at Lazarus's death. Jesus is the perfect expression of the eternal God to us. Some of our friends out there, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Muslims… they've missed this. They've made Jesus into the first thing that was created one day when God needed a plan.
No, no, no. Jesus is eternal. If you've missed that, you've missed God. He's not just a good prophet, not just a good guy, not just a good savior. He is the eternal God of the universe. He has always been and will always be. That's what John says.
Look at John 1:3. Through him, all things were made. And without him, nothing was made that has been made. Not only is he God, not only is he eternal. Number three, he is the creator of all things. I know this blows some of your minds. You're like, well, I thought God was the creator. He was. It's Jesus. Once again, Jesus was not created to come to earth. He wasn't on this long vacation that God finally went and found him and said, Hey, go to work. He's always been working. If it has been made, John says, it's been made by Jesus. Jesus is the creator, the sustainer, the Savior, the Messiah. I love how Paul sums this up. In Colossians 1:15, he just says that He is the image of everything that is God, and he created all.
Number four, he's the life and the light of the world. People say all the time how exclusive can you be to think that Jesus is the only way. To which I say, if you show me another God that is eternal God and creator, then we can talk about them being the way too. But there's not one. You see, we talked about this a little bit on Christmas Eve. When we lit our candles, we lit them as a representation of the light and being the light of who Jesus is. He wants to give us life and illuminate our path.
John 1:4 says, in Him, in Jesus was, and that life was the light of all mankind. Not some of mankind - all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome. Light is used seven times in these opening verses to describe Jesus. John is going back to the beginning again. One of the first things that God created was light. Because light is fundamental for everything else on this planet to live. And what better description is there of who Jesus is! John says, light is not only fundamental, but light brings life. We call it photosynthesis. John wouldn't have known that word, but he knew Jesus and he watched Jesus walk, and he watched when people encountered Jesus for real, he gave them life and light.
Light also drives away the darkness. It drives darkness out of our lives. If the lights are on, you can avoid the darkness. Jesus illuminates. He lights the path in front of us to show us the way to help us with decisions to make the scary things come to light. It creates color. Light brings out the true beauty in everybody. CS Lewis says, everything in the dark looks the same. But it's only in the light that true distinctiveness and uniqueness are shown, and in the same way, we are at our best when we are in full fellowship with the light of Jesus Church, light is fundamental to all creation. Jesus creates life. Jesus sustains life. Jesus gives new life. Jesus brings out new life in us by shining his light into us. Then darkness has no rule.
But then John gives us a little commentary on another guy named John, which is really confusing, but it's John the Baptist. Look at John 1:6. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. That's John the Baptist. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light (concerning Jesus). So that through Jesus, all might believe. John the Baptist was not the light. He came as a witness to the light. Verse nine: the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own man. But his own did not receive him.
John has shown us all of these beautiful attributes of who God is, all of these beautiful attributes of Jesus. And John is saying it's so sad that despite all Jesus did, despite all Jesus is, many then, and many now just don't get it. They just don't believe. They may believe there was a guy named Jesus at some point. They may believe that there was a carpenter's son named Jesus at some point. But they're not trusting. They're not committing. They're not acting. They're looking for something else. They can't see past their own life. They're blinded by the darkness.
Does this describe where your life is, stepping into 2025? Maybe your whole life you've known that there is a Jesus. You've known that you should do something with Jesus. You've known that Jesus was a good guy. But have you believed or are you following the mold that he just talked about right here, “but his own did not receive him”? Have you trusted in Jesus and committed your life to Jesus, the eternal God creator, giver of life, and giver, a light Jesus? If not, what's holding you back?
Jesus wants to give you his light and he wants to save. Look at verse 12. Oh, this is so sweet. Yet, to all who did receive him (you see that a gift is not yours until you receive it) to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
It's not just about who Jesus is. It's about the fact that he wants you to believe. He wants you to believe so that he can give you life. He wants you to believe so he can give you himself. He wants you to believe so that you can walk in fullness and he can forgive you. He gave them the right to become children of God.
Verse 13 says, children born not out of natural descent or human decision, or even a husband's will, but born of God. Now, here's the most famous verse right here. The word (that's Jesus) became flesh. In other words, he became one of us and he made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus’s fifth attribute this morning is that he not only wants to dwell among us, but he wants to dwell in you. I can't think of a more encouraging way to start the year off than to hear that the Creator, God, eternal of the universe that gives light and life to everything, doesn't just want to dwell. That word dwell right there means that he literally tabernacled. In the Old Testament, the tabernacle was the place of God. It was the place where God's presence rested
Jesus tabernacled among us. Jesus this time breathed the Holy Spirit into us, so that not only does Jesus want to tabernacle among us, but now the creator, God, sustainer, giver of life, giver of hope, wants to tabernacle, or dwell, in you. That's incredible. He’s not an ethereal God that is out there. He wants to be in here. But it only happens when we believe and receive. When we believe and receive, when we trust, when we commit, and when we act, Jesus steps in and dwells in us.
Here's the question today, has Jesus dwelled in you? Have you received? Have you received the free gift of the Messiah, savior, creator of the world, Jesus, to save you? The word became flesh and dwelt among us to give you life.
