As we read this text this morning,
as we begin our service, it should be becoming sort of familiar
to you. You should start to have this
cadence. Like, wow, I can just about say
the next word. And the beginning was the word. The word was with God. And the
word, I wanna encourage you to put this to memory. It would
be well with your soul. We're going to focus on verse
14 this morning. I'm just going to give you a little road map
of what we're going to do. But we're not going to preach the
whole verse. We're just going to deal with the fact of the
Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us and seeing the glory
of the Word, if the Lord wills. But as we gather each week, you
hear me say, if you go back and you listen to sermons, if you
just go to the church website and you click on the introduction
to sermons, you'll hear one of a dozen statements within the
first minute. And all of them will either relate
to one of three things. I've noticed this about myself.
It either relates to suffering as a people and how the word
of God and God's grace and fellowship with the saints is sufficient
to carry us through it. Or it will relate to our habits
of prayer and the discipline of being in the Word of God.
Or it will relate to something about our worship and our affections
and how the Word of God would stir them. Nothing's gonna be
different this morning. Because as we gather each week,
as we gather midweek, as we gather in Bible study, as we gather
at home by ourselves, as we do life for the glory of Christ, a lot of times we fall prey to
this mindset that we must do something better. Preachers are no different. Pastors,
people like me who teach, as a teaching pastor, which is sort
of redundant, that's what pastors do, it's very easy for me to
sit up and labor, not after night, and contemplate, because you
know, my mind is never, never sits still, but it's terrible
when I go to bed. If I go to bed willfully, It's
a terrible thing. It's just constantly moving,
thinking. I can never get away from thinking. But if I just
sort of fall asleep standing up and then just carry my sleepy
body to the bed, I'm pretty good. And I do that most nights. I'm
just, I can't, what am I doing? Why am I holding my shoe in my
hand up to my, you know, what's happening? I'm just going to
go to sleep. But one of the things that I contemplate and I pray
often probably many times a day, is, Lord, what is it that I am
to do to get your people to hear? What is it, Father, that I am
to be accountable for? Lord, use me in a way that your
people would hear, your people would see, your people would
grow, your people would believe, and hold fast to the confession
of their hope who is in Christ Jesus. Lord, use me in some way
that they would stay unified, that they would care more about
their spiritual family as a church than anything else in life, about
your glory than anything else. And these are passing prayers.
These are like three second thoughts in the midst of other things.
And the one thing that I have to be reminded of continually
by the Spirit is what I feel and think versus what Christ
teaches as truth is completely different. Are you at war in
your flesh like that? I pray that you say you are.
because we are at war. We're at war in our flesh. No
one is immune to it. Not one single person in this
building, not one single person on the rolls of our church, not
one single person that is in fellowship on a regular basis
is exempt from that type of warfare. Not one person. Every one of
us know the truth here, but we continually fight the feelings
and the thoughts of the things that are not true. Like, it's
up to me to make sure this church grows. That's a lie from the
devil. It's a lie from my own flesh. Well, I better get my
communication skills really to the top notch, baloney. What
if I don't say the right thing? Or what if God's word is read?
Does it matter? I often thought about, and I've
never done this for fear of rage, but I often thought about one
day, what would it do if we were all gathered one day and I just
read John's gospel? First of all, everybody'd be
like, he's been reading for 90 minutes, because that's how long it takes
me to read it out loud. 90 minutes. And everybody'd be going, I gotta
go. He did not even preach. But I would say, I would suggest
that that would be more fruitful, not if it was every single time,
but it would be more fruitful than if I commentated an hour
on one verse. Why? Because it's not about what
I do, and it's not about what you do. So you come here this
morning with a lot of presuppositions. Some of you come here this morning
wishing that you could have stayed in bed. We could all miss that. Our flesh goes, wow, I'm tired.
It helps us understand what the disciples were going through,
the inner three of the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was in there praying
his soul out, so much so that his capillaries and his skin
bled, popped, burst from the anxiety. And he says, just keep
watching, pray. And they go to sleep. Why? Because they've been up for days.
What do you do? So somebody hitting you with
a hammer in the shoulder and going, don't feel that. OK, I
don't want to hear it. Don't have any pain now. Keep
watching, pray. And Jesus comes out several times
to catch them asleep. He says, can you not just pray?
Can you not stay awake? But what does he say to them?
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Friends, we all
come here today in weak flesh, including your pastor. We are
here today in a weak flesh. None of us are standing in the
strength of our own understanding, the strength of our own wisdom.
None of us are standing in the strength of our own training.
I pray not. None of us are standing in the
strength of our own bodies and our own health. But we as God's
people, under the banner of the gospel, stand in the strength
of God, which is the gospel. And when we're not here, When
we're not together, it's like a little slice taken away, not
just for those who are missing, but for us who are here. And
we lose and we lose and we lose. And then a lot of times what
happens, worldly demonic influence is when we think we have to have
therapy over Christ. That we have to have therapy
over theological truths. Yes, there are times for therapy,
but friends, they don't help us walk our faith. They don't help us live for the
glory of God. And they don't help us escape
temptation. They don't help us escape lies. They don't help
us stand fast in love and assurance for eternity. The word of God
does. and the word of God together.
God has chosen through natural means to grow his church in supernatural
ways. Paul would say to the Corinthians,
Apollo's plants and so-and-so waters and this person does that,
but God gives the growth. So no matter how eloquent, or
poorly I teach this morning, no matter how prepared or professional
I may be, if God doesn't do a work in you today, nothing's going
to change. And when we assemble together,
we're not coming with our best. We're not even coming with our
best attire, much less our best presence, our best mind, our
best intentions. We're coming broken and saddled
with the world, frustrated and fearful, tempted and somewhat
in despair at times, are we not? But the good thing is, is that
God, is with us, and His Word is true. And if you're looking
to escape life, friends, you're looking in the wrong way. You
need to be looking to embrace the gift of God, which is every
circumstance you're in right now, by the power of His grace
given to us through the simple hearing of His Word. Do you know
that the Holy Spirit works supernaturally through the natural hearing of
this English Bible? And if this were a Spanish Bible
and you could understand Spanish, it would work in that language.
If it were the French Bible, it would work in that language.
God works through the hearing of his word. It doesn't matter
whether we comprehend it or understand the depth of it. What did Abram
know about Jesus? Nothing. But he was righteous
because he believed God. part of the conversation in our
men's group yesterday morning. And the Word of God, as we've
seen, was with God and is God and was in the beginning. And
in verse 14 it says, and the Word became flesh. Think about
it for a second. The Word became flesh. This Word
of God, that we think automatically of as the Bible, Which is okay, because the Bible
is the Word, the written Word that reveals God, who was revealed
through Jesus Christ, as we'll see this morning. And this human
language on paper, the Word of God, is the revelation of God
to us. And through the revelation of
God to us, the Spirit of God, through that revelation, brings
to life dead people, spiritually dead people, He transforms them
into newness of life because of what Christ, the living word,
did when he became a human being. And this is what John is setting
up so beautifully here and so powerfully. I wish, I wish that
none of us had ever heard this verse before. I would love to
have received this gospel for the first time in the first century. And what it must have been like
to take this scroll and to read it, and to walk out in front
of God's people at the assembly and read it. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made
by Him and through Him, and nothing that was made was not made if
He didn't make it. In Him was the light of the life
of men. And so on, and so on, and so
on. The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness shall not overcome it. And then all of a sudden,
we hear it. We get this picture of God, who
is the Word, who is the Creator of all things. And we get the
picture that He is the Savior of His people. And we get the
picture, and we start seeing the images, and the theology,
and the teaching, the doctrine of Scripture. And we begin to
feel this burning sensation in our soul, because our adrenaline
is pumping through our body. Because what we're hearing with
our natural mind has been transposed into understanding and wisdom
through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. And we're
not now hearing a good story and hearing a good descriptive
of God. We are seeing Him face to face
in the Word that is spoken to us. And we begin to see that
He came, and He's the true light, and He gives light, and He brings
birth, and He is the one who is the author of salvation and
redemption. And one thing leads to another,
and then all of a sudden these words we hear. And then the Word
became flesh. Can you imagine? Can you imagine what that's like
for the first time? Put yourself in those shoes right
now. The Living Word became flesh
and dwelt among us. What would you think? My friends,
by the Lord's power and grace this morning, I want to show
you what you should be thinking. I want to show you what John
has established here. I want you to see that something
grand has taken place in the world. And something grand is
taking place for you this morning. And God the Spirit will have
to perform it. It's not my job to change you. And it's not my
job to instruct you in a way that I know you'll get it. It's
my job to teach the Scripture as it's written, that God would
teach you. Let me ask this question. Do
you pray for that? Have you come here this morning in prayer,
asking God to give you understanding. Out of my entire preaching ministry,
whatever that means, but of all the years I've been preaching,
I hear two complaints. Take a stab at what they are. You preach too long. Talk too much. And sometimes
your vocabulary befuddles me. Because nobody says befuddled.
We say that in my house, but, huh? Confuses me. And every now and then I'll chase
a rabbit into the wrong hole and look at it for an hour when
we're supposed to be squirrel hunting. But you know what? We need to
pray for God to help us understand. When we look at the narrative
of John, we'll see some intelligent people. We'll see the most educated
people the world has ever seen, with no likeness in contemporary
times. Let me tell you that again. The
Pharisees were the most intelligent human
beings ever to walk the face of the earth. Nicodemus by name, the teacher
of all Israel, had memorized with any prescription of recall
the entire Pentateuch. That's the first five books of
the New Testament, and we're fussing about a chapter. There was never, there's never
a people, PhDs of PhDs could not touch the academic power
of the Pharisee's brain. It's not possible. And yet these
people with all of insight and all wisdom and all academic prowess
could not comprehend single thing Jesus said. So much so that when he spoke
in parables, they thought him a fool. So they left him alone. You know why? Because God blinded
their eyes. And when the disciples, who could
not even read or write very well, went out and preached, the powers
that be looked at these men and they, what is the word? Astonishment. They were astonished that unlearned,
ignorant, grammatically corrupted men could have such wisdom. Best ways to make someone angry
and put them in their place is to make them feel stupid. That'll
get you in a fight quicker than anything. And the Pharisees felt stupid
in the face of the disciples. The living word. Do we pray for
God's word to open our eyes? Do we pray when we come to the
assembly, God, please show me Please help me here. Do we expect
God to work, or are we putting it on ourselves? See, we as pastors
can sinfully put it on ourselves, and we as parishioners, church
members, spiritual family, can put it on ourselves. What's up
to me, boy? I better pay attention. Good! Pay attention. But the
power of God can overcome everything. Remember the other building,
when Jamica was pregnant? And the Sullards were pregnant,
and Robin was pregnant, and all these people, and all these women
ready to give birth, and it's 106 degrees in the building.
And the air conditions are running. And one of them going, ah! You
know, because that's the noise it made, and we tolerated it.
Remember that? And if it was hot in here today,
we'd be fussing about it. Because we get used to it. We
get used to just sitting and hearing words and leaving church
and going about our business. We need not be used to it. We
need to be prayerful. We need to be mindful. This is
a command of God to His people that we assemble together and
belong to a local assembly. You cannot fulfill one command
in the entire New Testament if you're not part of a local church.
Not one! Not one. especially understanding the
Word of God. We want somebody to explain it
to us. We want somebody to show it. Even if we explain it to
each other, friends, if the Spirit of God does not give us great
understanding, we will not have it. And some of us are saying,
well, I just don't think I'm going to get that, or God's not
going to give me that. Why? Why? He uses the nothings of
the world to explain away the truths of the mystery of the
gospel. He created all things and He
was rejected by all. And He graciously willed and
purposed and decreed to save Himself a people. And the Word
now has become flesh. You know what that should help
you remember? That salvation is not like a
board meeting with a corporation. Salvation is not something that
the Godhead sat around in a boardroom absent from the minds and the
eyes and the ears of creation. and just established the plan
and said, okay, it's done. Approved. Wait a minute, you're
saying that God didn't decree? Yes, God decreed salvation. It's
a done thing. But salvation in time was what? Visible. That which we have seen,
which we have heard, which we've touched concerning the eternal
life, which was manifest to us that we now proclaim to you that
you may have what? John says in 1 John, he says
that we have fellowship. We know we have fellowship with
the father and with the son, and that you may have fellowship
with us, that your joy may be full. You want fellowship with
Christ? You got to hear his word. You
want fellowship with Christ? You need to be in fellowship
with Christ's people. The world has nothing for us, beloved.
We are lights in the world. We are not of it. Salvation is not a remote thing
that happened behind closed doors. Jesus didn't come and was taken
off quietly as to save him shame. Jesus didn't come into the world
and just stay in obscurity and come out in grandeur and say,
guys, I've died for you and I've been raised to life. Take my
word for it. No, he was humiliated. The God
who created all things, the living word. Became nothing and was humiliated. He was shamed, he was mocked,
he was refused, he was spat upon, he was wrongly accused. He was
dragged out and beaten and whipped and a crown of thorns pressed
into his scalp, stripped naked and put a pillar on his shoulders
and told to walk to his death naked. The Scripture says that
they pulled his hair out, and they pulled his beard out, and
they hit him with rocks, and they spat upon him. This is God. Salvation is not a foreign exchange
that took place in the mysterious realm of God. It is effectually
accomplished by the grand wisdom of God, who came to be with us. Who came to live among us and
suffer as one of us. and more importantly, suffer
in the place of us. See, when we see that the Word
became flesh, we need to recognize the difference between the God
of world religion, the Great High One, the great essence of
all faiths, that there's some powerful being. Oh, they all
believe in God. No, they don't. There is only
one God, and His name is Jesus Christ. And He created the universe,
and He came to earth, and He lived as a man, and He was crucified,
and He rose to life, and He ascended, and He's coming again. Christianity is not an option.
It is the only way. Jesus Christ is not one prophet
among many. He is the God who became a man
who is still God. This is intimate, folks. The
God of Islam is not intimate. The God of Islam sits so far
away and must be appeased by good works, must be appeased
by jihad or fatwa, must be appeased. But he's distant. The God of
the Jews was distant. Judaism is a false religion. Don't forget that. And it was
a false religion for a long time. and still is today. The difference
in Judaism and Islam and the cults is nothing. Well, they
use our Bible. So what? Atheists use our Bible
too. They can't see it. Jesus Christ,
the living God, came to earth. The shadowed portions and the
veiled symbols of Judaism was no more, were no more. They were
gone. Now the God of glory walked among
men, face to face with us, in the flesh, that we may touch
Him and hear Him and eat with Him and see Him and behold Him. But he did not come in the flesh
the way others thought he might. He did not come in the flesh
in his incarnation the way he shall come in his parosia, his
second coming. That's what that word means.
He did not come, he came in humility. He's not coming in humility ever
again. He shall come in power with force
and reign supreme. He shall be the judge and the
ruler and the executioner of justice. The God of glory is with us,
showing us personally His everlasting gospel and revealing His glory
to our faces. The word there, next to the very
next line, it says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among
us. A literal translation would say,
and tabernacled with us. Tented with us. He put a tent
up. Now, I'm not going to say that
I can prove that John is referring to the illusion of the tabernacle,
but I'm willing to say that because he started out with the writings
of Moses in the beginning and came to his own, and then the
word dwelled among us, I think he's keeping the tradition. Robin
and I, years ago, back when Katie was an infant, we were, members
of the JEA in Savannah. We wanted to learn Hebrew. It
didn't go too well. Learning Hebrew from a Jewish
rabbi is really difficult. It's a lot different than the
Hebrew you learn in seminary, which is Hikvu, not Hebrew. But I remember having conversations
with Jewish people there who knew I was a Christian pastor. And they were always engaging
about the gospel of John. The gospel of John. We know the
gospel of John is the most Hebraic or Semitic writing of the entire
New Testament. They say that. The question is, was John then
referring to the tabernacle? Well, let's just say that he
was. For the sake of argument, what would it mean for us? What
was the tabernacle? If you read through the Old Testament,
if you read in Exodus and Leviticus, and you see what the tabernacle
was, the tabernacle was the temporary setup for worship and sacrifice,
wasn't it? The tabernacle was the focus of Jewish life. It centered on it, of Hebrew
life, Israelite life. It's centered on it. It was a
central point. It was the theme and the motif
of the people of Israel. They camped around it. And now
Jesus tabernacles with us. We camp around him. Maybe. God says in Exodus 25, and let
them make a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. So the
very nature of the tabernacle was the fact that God's presence
was with his people. And now we see the Word of God
living with humanity literally in the presence of His people.
I think there's something there. Another thing that we learn about
the tabernacle and the Old Testament is the tabernacle was an expression
and a central point of holiness and intimacy. Because Moses got
the law and he wrote it, God wrote the law on tablets, correct?
And Moses comes off Sinai and sees what? Aaron. having melted the gold and created
a calf and worshiping the calf, leading the people to worship
the calf. So Moses throws the stones down
and breaks them. So he has to go back up to the
mountain and say, God, I broke the tablets. I'll write them
again. And this time to protect them,
they put them in the Ark of the Covenant. not this time, but
it's probably the original intention of God's plan to begin with,
but he never got off the mountain the first time. I have had it. I've gone for whatever, you know,
like we are as parents. I just go to the store for 10
minutes and the whole house is torn up. Maybe some of you don't
know what that's like. Have kids. But the tabernacle
held the law of Moses. The tabernacle contained the
very description of the holiness of God in writing. The tabernacle
was the place where God met man, the mercy seat, in the Holy of
Holies, in the center of that large tent, where God met man. Jesus Christ is the mercy seat. Jesus Christ is the true Lamb. Jesus Christ has come down and
condescended out of glory. so he can meet with his people. It's a place of intimacy. It's
a place of knowledge. The tabernacle of Israel was
a place where man heard from God, received the message of
the word. You remember. And the parents
of John the Baptist and Zechariah, his lot came up where he would
go in and offer the sacrifice, and there the angel of the Lord
spoke to him. Many times throughout history,
God would speak when they would enter the Holy of Holies and
tell the leader, tell the high priest, tell the chief priests
what he wanted his people to know. Jesus tells us everything
we need to know about God. Redemption is found in the tabernacle.
What does that mean? What is redemption? Under the
law, almost everything is purified with blood. Without the shedding
of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins and the very first sin. The very first sin where Adam
and Eve disobeyed God and trusted in the story of Satan, rather
in the truth of God. God killed an animal to cover
their shame. It didn't take it away. It didn't
clear, as we talked about yesterday morning, it didn't clear their
conscience, but it did show that the wages of sin is what? Say
it. Death. The wages of sin is death. The
tabernacle was representative of death. It is where sin was
atoned for. Symbolically. Over and over and
over and over. Again and again and again. It's like Brother Mike mentioned
Wednesday night about the blood during the Passover feast running
down the street into the river because of all the lambs that
were slain. It's a serious issue when we
offend the holiness of God. And the tabernacle was a constant
reminder of the curse of sin and the redemption that was to
come through the Lamb. And in that, the tabernacle was
a reminder and a place of celebration. Because as the sacrifices were
made, there was jubilee, there was forgiveness, there was redemption,
there was cleansing, there was intimacy with God, and God's
people rejoiced in that. Do you rejoice in the idea of
being intimate with God? We sang that last stanza of that
song we sang this morning. When that day comes, even how
great thou art, both of those last stanzas talk about the day
when we will no longer be in this life, in this temporal vein,
in this suffering place, but that Christ will come back and
we will be with Him. Friends, that is our longing.
That is the longing of the saints who have died before us, who
await that day when Christ shall return and they shall be made
whole. Be careful. Be very careful,
beloved, of people who would teach you that Christ does not
promise a resurrection of your body. There's celebration. But the
tabernacle had some negatives. The tabernacle for Israel was
temporary. They had to take it down and
put it up and take it down and put it up. We were part of a
church plant in 1998. And we rented a facility in one
of the colleges where we were able to go in and use a really,
really nice auditorium. But we had it made, but it was
still a lot of work. We had to get there at like 6.30
in the morning. And we had to set up all the sound equipment.
We had to set up all the classrooms. We had to set up all the stuff
and put out all the things. And it was laborious. And then
when we get through, we had to pack it all up. So it was several
hours before and several hours after. We never had a place to
call our own. And then we built a building.
And we thought, finally, we have arrived. We have our building,
which comes with a building fund, comes with management, and all
sorts of things. And we thought we were permanent,
but God saw something different there, and that church no longer
exists today. It's another congregation who purchased that church. The tabernacle was temporal.
And in the same way, Jesus Christ came to a temporary place to
dwell with His people. Temporarily. He came and He was
incarnate. He was fully human. And then
He died. And then He rose from the dead.
But He didn't stay on the earth. For He was only here for that
one purpose. To pay for the sins of His people. To propitiate
God's wrath. And then he's left and he promised
he would come again. He's not a temporary priest. He's not a temporary savior,
but he was temporarily with us on this earth. But there will
come a day where he will be with us forever. Even the temple in
70 A.D. was destroyed. Why? Because it
was worthless. It was useless. It had served
its purpose as a picture of Jesus. Another thing that I want to
bring out about the tabernacle and the temple is that it was
weak. It never accomplished anything. It just pointed to the truth. Not one sin was ever forgiven
there. Not one ounce of God's wrath was ever satisfied. Not
one false testimony or one lie or one aggravated spouse was
ever given redemption. But the wrath of God was just
stayed. He stored it up and He waited.
And He waited and He waited and He waited and He waited. From
Adam and Eve until the day of the cross, God waited. And he
held his wrath against all those who are the elect of the Old
Testament, who had believed in God by faith. And he held his
judgment that they deserved, that he had held up for them,
and he poured it out on Jesus. Then his judgment was satisfied. The tabernacle was weak. In the
same manner, Jesus stepped out of glory into weakness, but beloved
Jesus' sacrifice wasn't weak, it was effectual. It did what it was intended to
do. The tabernacle and, the tabernacle
was a weak representation of the temple, and the temple was
a whiny weak representation of Christ. It was a measured shadow of what
the scripture says were copies of heaven. And then the true
from heaven came down, not as a copy, but as a living essence
of God. And that is the word that became
flesh and dwelt among us. Paul says to the Corinthian church
in 2 Corinthians 8-9, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor,
so that you by His poverty might become rich. Now, many people
in our world today have taken that as a key verse of their
wicked theology that says that Jesus came that we might have
earthly treasures. I don't know what Jesus was telling
the rich young ruler to give it all away. I don't know where
they get that except that usually the men who purvey such things,
they have treasures but nobody else does. The point in that is that Jesus
Christ, as Paul would say to the Philippian church, though
he was equal with God, he did not take equality with God something
to be grasped, but became a slave. Now what kind of king disguises
himself, takes off his priestly robes, takes off his crown, moves
his guards away? And where he used to walk down
the street and people would stop and bow and put their face in
the dung of horses, they would spit upon him and
tell him to move out of the way, beggar. And that's such a poor
illustration of what God has done. For what king is of equal
power to God? None. We have seen the glory
of God face to face. We have beheld the glory of God. The glory of God. We've seen
it. Now the word there for seen illustrates
an idea that it's seen with awe and with focused attention. Now
of course when Jesus comes back we will see his glory, won't
we? We will see his divine power, we will see his presence, we
will see his lordship, we will see his superiority. That by
the power of his word he shall speak and everything that he
decrees shall come to pass. There's no motion of a wand,
no motion of a hand, no incantation. It is what God wants. Jesus Christ
will say it. It will happen. It will take
place. He will set His enemies under His feet. He will bring
justice against all the reprobate. He will renew and regenerate
or glorify the elect and we shall be with Him forever. There'll
be no mistaking that Jesus Christ is God in His second coming.
He shall come. like the twinkling of an eye,
with the sound of many trumpets, and the peals of many thunders.
It will not be ignored. At 4.20 this morning, I woke
up with a thunder in my ear, like a 25-second thunder peal
just rolling in the background. And I thought, either my children
are bowling upstairs, or it's about to get bad. And I go outside
and look, there's not a cloud in the sky, but there's lightning
way back off to the west. I just hear it rolling. We don't miss the subtlest of
storms, nor shall we miss the divine magnificence of the glory
of Christ and His return. But friends, many people missed
the glory of Jesus in His incarnation. Why? Because they didn't care
to look. They didn't care to look. Some
of us who profess Christ this morning, we sit here with a stale
vision of Jesus. And like I like to say often,
we often have a caricature in mind rather than the truth. We
have this mealy, peasant-minded, but yet somewhat hypified man
who's a pacifist and willing to do anything to gain his sheep
back into his fold, which he would. He gave up his glory. He gave up his life. And we consider Jesus a desperate
being, a desperate man, a desperate God, who's banging on the door,
hoping someone will bring him in to sup with him. And that's
not the Jesus of the Bible. Are we seeing the face of God
in Jesus Christ? As 2 Corinthians 4 often reminds
us from this pulpit. Even if our gospel is veiled,
it is veiled only to those who are perishing for the God of
this world has blinded the eyes, listen to this, of the unbelievers
to keep them from seeing the glory of God. But it says in verse six, God
who said, let light shine out of darkness has shown in our
hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. Everybody wants to see God. Everybody
wants to see God. They want to see the movement
of God. They want to see the power of God. They want to feel the
presence of God. If you want to see God, if you
want that experience, look at Jesus. There's nothing else to
see. But yet so many saw him and never
saw his glory. But to say they didn't is a lie. For Jesus showed His glory. John
bore witness, John the Baptist. He says, I saw the Spirit descended
from heaven like a dove, and it remained on Him. John the
Baptist saw the glory of God in Jesus Christ. The Scriptures
go on to tell us in John 4, Do you not say there are yet
four months, then comes the harvest? Look, I tell you, lift up your
eyes. Lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for
harvest. See, the glory of God is seen
in the redemption of His people. The glory of God is seen when
people come to faith. As we talked about the apostolic
authority of Paul a few Wednesday nights ago and that the apostles
were sent on a mission in order to open the eyes of unbelievers
that they may see and behold and believe. We've seen the glory of Christ. In John 11, 45. Many of the Jews
therefore who had come with Mary and had seen what they did, they
believed in Him. What is John 11 all about? That's when Jesus raised Lazarus
from the dead. He showed His glory. He revealed
it. But it wasn't this precursor
walking by, oh yeah, there's Jesus. Wow, what a glorious man.
He wasn't glorious because of the way He looked. He wasn't
glorious because of His oration. He wasn't glorious because of
His stature with men and His position of authority. He wasn't
glorious because He was high-ranking in the Sanhedrin. Quite the opposite. He was not much to look at. He
did not have an office in this world, for his office was out
of this world. He did not have a lot of people
who cared to put him in a place except that they wanted to make
him king at times when they weren't trying
to kill him. He's going to be our king or
he's going to be our kill. Jesus' glory was seen in what
He taught, and how He saved, and how He lived, and what He
revealed about God the Father. Men of Galilee, why do you stand
looking into heaven? He asks. This Jesus, who was taken up
from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him
going into heaven. Isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting? We're
looking for Jesus who is here in His Word. And sometimes, I
mean, I say, well, who would stand there and look in heaven
and just wait? Well, there's plenty of cults that we know
through history. In my lifetime, several cults who just camped
out and waited for Jesus to return and then killed themselves. See, seeing Jesus reveals is
the revelation of His divine attributes through the light
of His humanity. Let me say that again. The Word
became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen His glory.
So through the light of the humanity of Jesus, we see the divine glory. It wasn't a transformational
thing. It wasn't Jesus shining over here one day as a supernatural
being and then over here He's sort of coming like a superhero
that disguises His identity. Jesus Christ revealed Himself.
as the only begotten of God. And that's our sermon for next
week, when we start to learn the depths
of the Trinitarian teaching of Scripture that starts in Genesis. The question then I leave you
with today is, have you seen the glory of God in Jesus Christ?
Have you seen? Do you now see? the glory of
God in Jesus Christ. When you hear the words that
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, does your spirit identify
with that reality? Does your mind comprehend as
best it can that great ineffable reality? Ineffable meaning it's
hard to comprehend, it's really unknown fully. Are you looking into the Scripture. As I began this sermon this morning,
are you praying for God to give you the eyes to see and behold
the glory of God? Are you peering into the pages
of this text that you may have intimacy with the Lord Jesus
Christ who came to this earth, beloved, to give you eternal
life? And He did. Who to call you the
children of God, and so you are. Why does it matter? We get it.
Jesus is God, okay. Let's move on to other things.
Teach me how to live. Teach me how to talk. Teach me
how to walk for Jesus. That's what a lot of people think.
Well, Paul tells us how to walk for Jesus. Put not your mind
on the things of this earth, but put them on the things of
eternity. What is the center of eternity? Jesus Christ. We don't seek the scriptures
for the lesson and the points of how we act, or what we say,
or how we endure. Do this, this, and this when
the wind blows this way, and this will happen. No, we just
stand wherever we are, and Christ is our victor. He is our victor. And even if the lions devour
our bowels, or the sword takes off our head, or the pyre glows
with our flesh, we win. That's a really macabre close.
My brother, sister, I don't believe any of us in our lifetime will
probably see that type of martyrdom. So let's enjoy the little bitty
tiny martyrdom that we do have. Let's enjoy the nuances of a
first world living, the frustration, the aggravation, the pains and
the sufferings that we have. And at the bare minimum, let's
keep our eyes on Christ and those things. But unfortunately, sometimes
it takes the most tragic of circumstances for us to see that Christ is
enough. And the more we gather, the more
we hear, the more we pray, the more God shows us. And the more
we see of Christ, the easier it is for us to say it as well
with my soul. The easier it is for us to say,
I'm at peace. The easier it is for us to say,
I have a reason for my hope. See, that's what Peter says,
to give a reason for the hope that you have, when you are gathered
and imprisoned and the cost of your life Be ready to give a
reason for the hope that you have. What is the reason, beloved? Jesus Christ tabernacled with
us. And he has redeemed us. He's
the fullness of God's glory. That means everything that's
available to see of God is completely seen in Jesus. He's the righteousness
of God. No longer does the law of Moses
sit at the precipice of righteousness, but it is Jesus who fulfills
all the law. He is the atonement. He brings
his people to God. Otherwise, we would not be able
to even see him, much less be with him. Jesus is the knowledge
and the wisdom that comes from God, that all that the Father
is has been revealed through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Redeemer,
the one who came to earth for his own people and satisfied
the penalty of their sins on the cross. Our sins are paid
for, beloved, because of what Jesus did by coming to this earth. And Jesus came to the earth in
weakness and frailty for a little while, temporarily, and has now
ascended and is glorified through His resurrection, and He is permanently
our King, and permanently our High Priest, and permanently
the Lamb of God who has taken away our sins. And in Jesus,
much contrast to the tabernacle, is the focus of all worship.
He is the joy of heaven. He is the glory of glories and
he is the rest for our souls. And I pray that you be encouraged
by this truth. I pray that you would be empowered by this truth. That you wouldn't just let it
go here and come out here, but that it would stay there. And
my prayer for you is that if you have not believed that through
hearing who Jesus is and hearing the good news of God, that He
came to die for you to satisfy God's judgment against you and
your sin, that you would be made alive, that you would trust in
Christ, that you would believe by faith. Let's pray. Lord, would your word rest and
cement and anchor and hold fast in our hearts and souls today? Lord, we thank you for such truth.
We thank you for the opportunity. For the right. be children, to
be in your household, to be in your family so that we actually
can hear your word with full understanding that we are privy
to the glimpse of your glory, not like Moses veiled from the
rear as you pass by the father through Jesus. who as we'll see
in the weeks to come has made you perfectly known because He
is your begotten Son, the only begotten Son. So Father, as we
worship through song, as we fellowship together, let our lives intertwine
with such intimacy that Jesus Christ is the center point. that our joy comes from the Gospel,
that our understanding comes from the simplicity of the Scripture. And Lord, I pray that the children
who have passionately sat here this morning, as they hear these
things, maybe even without comprehension, Father, the words that they hear
settle within their hearts, and by Your Spirit, Lord, You'll
give them understanding. Father, I pray the salvation
of those who are lost, that your will would be to bring them to
Christ. And Lord, I thank you. I thank
you for protecting us as a people, as a congregation. Allow our
gospel, allow your gospel and our testimony of your gospel
to go out into the world where we live and that all that we
are and all that we have and all that we do give glory to
you in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you.