Milk
John 1:4
May 19th 2013
Okay. Welcome. I apologize to any and all who felt put out by the delays. They were not taken lightly.
I’ve learned some great lessons about trials and “patience in tribulation” over the course of these months and want to thank you for bearing with us.
We praise Him for His wisdom in seeing us through getting approved to now using these facilities for His purposes.
There are a number of people who deserve great recognition for contributions beyond measure. My flesh would like to put your names on a small monument here . . . but only God deserves such recognition.
So I am not going to name names. It’s antithetical to “not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing” AND to the notion that all contributions in the church are equally important.
But I will describe acts of unpaid kindness and generosity toward the cause as they continue to amaze me.
One couple helped deconstruct the former set and lights – boxing and storing them all, and doing the door decor.
Three or four brothers went over to the former television station and helped move everything out of it and into here – at moments of risk to life and limb – believe me.
One sister provided us with all the carpet in the building. Another brother helped move it out of storage.
Some of you offered furniture. One brother moved the heavy counters at the back from a Blockbuster that had gone out of business.
Another brother purchased the toilet and sink – out of the blue.
We had a sister and her husband donate hours and hours of time to do all the art over the windows, and to clean and paint the trailer.
Many of you came and painted. Many of you came and swept and cleaned and mopped.
We had teens moving and measuring carpet. We had a team move thousands of pounds of books overhead in storage.
One brother made himself a constant servant running and cleaning and climbing and stapling – whatever was needed – he did it.
And then he and his wife decorated the bathrooms.
We’ve had brothers install cabinets, and of them one put us in contact with the right contractors who oversaw the construction.
Right when we started we had a couple handed me a check for five thousand dollars to help get the building ready and we’ve seen several hundred dollars come in ever since.
Two brothers revamped the bathrooms and one of them served tirelessly in overseeing their remodel.
Several men – (five to seven of them depending on how you define men) –
risked their lives twice to move the cross and put it in place.
And we had other miracles too.
There was the non-Christian president of a Mechanical Engineering company come in and give us a very costly appraisal of the buildings heating system – for free and within an hour of being here.
When we first started out we had a Christian pastor contact me, and in the name of God come in with his construction partner and supply us with a very expensive bid to add the room at the back.
A few days later, when we were trying to figure out how we could pay them, a brother I have known for years sauntered up and casually mentioned, almost under his breath:
“We’ll I know how to do all that.”
I didn’t believe him at first.
But he did. Tirelessly. Typically alone, and until the end . . . without price.
From him, to all the rest of you who have tried to help but showed up to a locked building, we thank . . . in the name of our King.
It is moments like this that tell me that “I am only not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation,” but I am not ever ashamed to be called a Christian with brothers and sisters like you around.
We thank you for your prayers.
Your time.
Your support.
You’re helping hands.
Giving what God has enable you to give.
All of you – whomever you are, and however you have helped, to get this place qualified, in the name of the King. Thank you, thank you.
So let’s all now pray and offer this facility up to God.
(PRAYER)
Thank you for “your sovereign hand.”
For life itself.
For seeing us through.
For the hands and hearts of all who have labored to put this place together – for their time
prayers
skill
financial sacrifice
materials
“bless this place to prosper your work here in Utah.”
“make it a place of spiritual industry, a factory aimed at producing fruitful Christians.
“let truth fill the air,”
“love fill hearts and conversation,”
“faith be generated”
“hope abide”
A sanctuary for your use and good.
Protect it
(END PRAYER)
Okay, just for some clarification and reaffirmation.
I am a firm believer in growth. Part and parcel to growth of ANY kind is change.
Change typically presents us with new challenges and difficulties.
In the name of our quest to worship God in “Spirit and in truth” it is my purpose and intent as pastor to lead whomever graces this place into a dynamic, discipled relationship with the King.
I am perfectly aware of HOW inviting we could make our gatherings. Do you know how well a live band rocking out cool Jesus tunes would go over in here?
But I am certain this approach (while immediately inviting) will NOT increase your faith or strength in being His disciples.
So today, at this first gathering in our own location (so to speak) I want to address something that I believe is often misunderstood – worship – then we will get into our verse by verse study of John (or Hebrews).
When we worship anything, we
Recognize it as someone or something that is worthy of honor, allegiance and adoration.
It is not about us (at all). It is not about what we like or what we resonate too – worship is not about us – it is all about the thing or being that is being honored.
Jesus said that the Father seeks to be worshipped in Spirit and in truth.
We can no more control or invoke the Holy Spirit than we can the wind.
The Holy Spirit operates like the wind. We cannot capture Him and make Him present or bring Him forward with amplification or better presentations. That is emotionalism guising itself as spirit, as worship, as God present.
No, the Holy Spirit moves according to the mind and will of God. So we invite and wait upon Him to move. The Spirit. Not the emotions or things that work upon them.
So that is the Spirit.
Then we have the truth.
In John 17:17 when Jesus prayed to the Father and He said, speaking about His disciples:
“Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word . . . is truth.”
With the Father’s Word being truth – I believe hearing, singing, memorizing and reflecting on it is one of the best ways to worship God in Spirit AND in truth.
(beat)
We are calling this place “the factory” for two reasons. First and foremost it is dedicated to producing disciples of Christ.
This does not happen through human attempts or systems but by His Spirit AND the hearing and learning His word.
Therefore our focus will always be on His Word.
The formula is biblically simple:
By hearing the word, faith is produced (Romans 10). When faith is present, hope abides. And when faith and hope are at work, the potential for a disciple to love as God wants us to love grows commensurately.
We realize how people love music that appeals to the heart and emotions in church. But we are convinced that in and through reading and hearing His word people will grow more legitimately as believers.
So there it is.
After singing these next passages put to song we will then take a few minutes and converse with our God through silent prayer.
When we come back, I am going to present to you all names of people who need prayer among us (if you aren’t aware we have a clip-board list available for you place a name which we’ll pray over as a group ) . . . then we’ll get into our verse by verse teaching.
So now . . . the Word in Song.
Worship
Corporate Prayer Time
Alright, last week we touched on the ever familiar John 1:1
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
We talked about how in the Old Testament there was only God, and there are only a couple of references to God as Father or God as Son.
This is because God had NOT taken on flesh yet so therefore there was no Father/Son construct, remember?
So let’s move into the first passages of the Gospel of John and learn more about the Word of God.
We are going to do this by reading the first fourteen verses – which will take a few weeks to get through they are that full.
Verses one through two present us with one concept, verse three presents us with another, and verses 4-14 present us with yet another.
In thinking of ways to disciple and raise each of you up as stronger believers the thought came to me that I do most of the talking in our gatherings.
So I thought, when we read the passages through at the start we’ll all stand and read them together before we talk about them?
So stand with me and we’ll read our text for today beginning at John 1:1 and ending after John 1:14.
Then we’ll break them down.
(All stand and read the text together)
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Alright, sit down and let’s get into it. (verse 1 &2)
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2 )The same was in the beginning with God.
We noted last week that John, just like Moses, resorts to a similar introduction of “In the beginning.”
The purpose we stated was to show and prove Jesus Christ as divine as anything that was in the beginning would certainly be God.
We also pointed out last week that Jesus made it very clear that other human beings WERE NOT from the beginning but were created from the clay and given life by the breath of God.
So right off the bat John separates the Lord from all other.
But we must not that in so doing John is speaking of Jesus the Man.
This point can get lost when we read scripture because there are times that are speaking of Jesus as God, and there are times when scripture speaks of Him and makes references to Him and His humanity.
As a means to describe Jesus the Man as being different from the rest of us, John details His God person (that went unseen or wholly unnoticed) by most of the world when He was alive.
And he does this by talking about Jesus existence before the world was – an existence that separated Him from the rest of humanity.
Now, we also talked about this name or title that John has given Jesus the Man – the Word.
And we noted that if we took God in the Old Testament sense, we essentially would have to picture, according to scripture, of an all consuming fire.
All light, no shadow, no father, no Son, just a self existent, consuming fire of pure light and pure love.
In my opinion, that is the best description of God (in the Old Testament), of God the Father (in the New), and of what existed inside God the Son when He became flesh, and what occurs when the Holy Spirit falls – an all consuming fire.
So John says that in the beginning of all things was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Then, as an apparent means to emphasis the point, he adds in verse two:
2. The same (meaning the Word) was in the beginning with God.
I think John repeats this point to insure there is no mistaking the point – Jesus, the Man Messiah – AKA, the Word – was in the beginning with God and he was the Word, or shall we say, the Word of God.
See, John had said that Jesus (the Word) “existed before the creation,” (in the beginning was the Word) and that he was with God, but he chooses to emphasize the Word’s union with God.
In reiterating this idea he assures us that that union was not one which occurred over time or that the Word was somehow not with God from before the start of all things, but that the Word was God from the start.
Everything else (that is created) relates to God as a created thing, but not the Word.
He, inside His flesh was always present, from every point of view and at every epoch of time, the Word was there.
In is interesting to read how John describes the Word’s location with God. Later in this chapter (at verse 18) John writes:
“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”
We often wonder how Jesus is one with the father, or where Jesus came from. His flesh came from Man, no different than yours and mine – through His Mother, Mary – but His spirit, His real essence, the Godliness was and is where? “In the bosom of the Father.”
This gets pretty heavy but the Greek word for bosom is synonymous with the English word “creek,” and so what we have is “Jesus is in creek where all things flow from the Father.”
Now think about this question for a minute. Hebrews and Deuteronomy tells us that God is an all consuming fire.
He’s not a man, nor animal, not physically formed edifice but He is an all consuming fire of pure holiness.
And what does scripture tell us flows from this all consuming fire of holiness?
Light. Life. Creativity and creation. Love. Peace, and Joy. Justice?
Absolutely.
Provision – spiritual and physical nourishment? Absolutley.
And listen . . . do you know what else flows like a creek from the bosom of God Words.
Listen to the creation account in Genesis:
Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Genesis 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
Genesis 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
We note that the very first verse in Genesis says, “In the beginng God created the heaven and the earth,” but in subsequent verses we are told how He created the Heaven and the Earth – by His Word . . .
“by saying . . . and it was so.”
And these “Words,” these sayings, flowed from God, or came from the bosom of God, even as Jesus Christ is from the bosom of God.
Verse three, speaking of “God the Word” or the “Word of God” (even Jesus Christ)
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, (and now verse 3) ALL things were made by Him (the Word of God) and without The Word of God was not any thing made that was made.
From the bosom of God flowed the Word, giving form and existence and life to anything that was made.
All things were made by Him – everything we can see and everything that remains invisible to us – created by the Word of God.
Colossians 1:15-17 says it well. Speaking of Christ Jesus Paul writes:
“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”
First Corinthians 8:6 makes the matter on how God created even more clear, saying:
Listen closely:
1st Corinthians 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
Of “God the Father” all things come by Christ Jesus, the Word, who made all things.
Ephesians 3:9 reiterates this point for us, saying:
“And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.”
By His Word, which He spoke, from His bosom, all things visible and invisible were created.
Hebrews 11:3 adds even more to the thought, saying:
“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
I mean do you know what this passage is saying? It tells us plainly that in the beginning God did not create things out of pre-existing matter but from nothing
“so that things which are seen (the world, cosmos, stars, each other) were NOT made of things which do appear.”
From this we can agree that if the Word created ALLLLLLLLL things He created all things.
But we need to be careful. Even though the passage says:
“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God”
Is it NOT saying that God created the worlds through faith (He possesses) but that we understand He created all things through the Word by (our) faith.
Get the difference?
In any case, this pre-existent creative activity was done through the Word of God, emanating from, flowing from the One God of holy consuming fire.
If we jump ahead a few verses we are able to discover something amazing about this creative spoken word of God. Ready? Verse 14
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
From verses 1-3 (and then 14) we are able to get a vague idea of what actually existed underneath the flesh of our Lord, so to speak . . . ; what thrived in Him and enabled Him to overcome sin and death was and is the Word of God, made flesh.
And as a first witness of His human personage, John the beloved writes his witness that says:
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
With God being love, we know that all of the expressions (words) and actions emanating from His very heart and essence came fully from our all-consuming fire-God and into His Only Begotten, who is full of grace and truth.
And John testifies of this, saying
(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Alright, jump back up with me to verse four where John the beloved enters into another area about the Word and His glorious make-up, saying:
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
We know from the previous verse that by the Logos or Word the world was originally created.
One part of that creation consisted in forming clay but another part of the creation consisted of God breathing into that clay (the breath of life – we find this in Genesis 2:7) causing him to become a living soul.
So He created Him of the clay and gave Him life. He is, after all, the living God.
We have to smile a bit when we think of all the pagan dead gods people adore and worship because none of them can create life from nothing.
But here John, once more, proves that Jesus is God, calling Him life itself.
It was one thing for John to say that Jesus was “in the beginning with God” and even that “He was God,” but he really backs up the position when he says that “All things were made by Him” and now, now he even goes on and says that He is the one that gave (and gives) all things life!
(In fact he refers to the Word as life itself)
The growing grass, the flying birds, the beating heart – in HIM (as the Word) is life!
This is actually a much higher claim than to simply claim that Jesus created the material worlds.
I mean, it would be one thing to go and take “clay-dough” and form a figurine from it but it would be an entirely different matter to actually animate the figure and give it life. (just ask Dr. Fronkenstien)
So what John says here is profound when we think of our King.
As the Word of the all consuming-fire all things were spoke into existence including life itself.
And on the seventh day God, who created all things by His Word, rested.
But that world – full of life / full of light / full of creation that God said was “good,” fell into sin.
It is not by mistake that Satan and his works are called darkness, death, destruction, deception, decay, devilishness.
While the antithesis to Him and His ways, even Jesus Christ, is called light, love, creation, growth, joy, and life.
But God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
And as His Son, He brings “life” to every situation where Satan has caused “death.”
Satan produced physical death. But Paul said in 2nd Timothy 1:10
“. . . our Savior Jesus Christ, hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
Where Satan’s work relegated all of us to a state of hell, Jesus said:
John 11:25 I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
Where Satan give nothing but misdirection, lies, and death to all things, Jesus said (in John 4:6)
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Where Satan ruled by and through sin from every man, Jesus reins by grace! Listen to Romans 5:21 which says
“as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
And where Satan produces all sorts of counterfeits for humans to embrace and follow, John the Beloved wrote in 1st John 5:12
He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
And we would be remiss if we didn’t remember what Jesus said in John 10:10 :
“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
To have Christ is to have life; without Christ all life is incomplete.
So John makes it clear that Jesus was “in the beginning with God.”
(That makes Him God).
He is “the Word of God”
(That makes Him originate from uncreated God directly).
That He created all things (that makes Him God)
He is the “life” of all things (another attestation to His divinity as only God gives life) and now, in the second line of verse four, John tells us that
“and the life was the light of men.”
As the Word He described and taught and revealed things.
As “the Light of world,” He did the same.
This life within Him is a light to all men.
It reveals, heals, cures, warms.
Receive the life in Him and be filled with light. Reject the life in Him and be filled with darkness.
He is so much the light that Revelation 21:23 says that there will be no more sun or moon when everything is said and done.
Why?
He will be our light in the city of heaven.
Listen to Revelation 21:23
“And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”
Obviously, if God is a consuming fire, God then is light, and with Jesus being “the light of men,” we have yet another proof of His divinity.
James says that with God there is no shadow, no obfuscation, no shades of anything. Just light.
Isaiah says that in the end, once this world has been rolled up and dashed away that (Isaiah 60:19)
“The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.”
Again, the parallels are obvious.
Just as Words revel and describe, so does light. We speak of “shedding some light on things,” etc.
It seems that Jesus is both Light in a literal sense and light in the sense of illuminating all things.
Created all things.
At the beginning of all things.
Life of all things.
Light of the world.
God.
By Him we are able to see truth distinctly. In Him we can judge all things.
Prophetically speaking, Isaiah said that:
“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”
Upon this point verses 5 through 14 speak. And we will cover these next week.
Let’s pray and then stand with me as we learn a new simple song.
PRAYER LIST TIME
STANDING SONG
(ISAIAH 33:22)
“For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.”
