| Jesus: The Prequel |
|
|
|
|
JESUS: The Prequel John 1:1-14 (1-2) Audio The Apostle Paul said about Jesus in Colossians 1:28 We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. And that’s my desire as well – to proclaim Jesus in order to help you become perfect in Him. So last week we talked about Jesus. Today we are going to talk about Jesus. Next week we are going to talk about Jesus, and the week following that as well. The first sermon ever preached in the history of the Church is the one Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost. And if you will read Acts 2, you will see that the topic of Peter’s anointed sermon was Jesus. He preached, then he called them to repent of their sin and be baptized. And 3000 people were saved and baptized that day. Not a bad beginning for the Church. In Acts 9 Saul, whose name is later changed to Paul, gets saved. V.20 of that chapter says: At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Paul later wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. So again today we want to look at Jesus. Turn to John 1. Matthew and Luke begin their Gospels with a recording of the events surrounding Jesus’ birth, and we will look at those next week. Mark begins his Gospel with Jesus’ baptism and then just jumps right in to His ministry at 30 years of age. Nothing at all about His birth. John, on the other hand, begins theologically rather than biographically and takes us back to before time began and says: (read John 1:1-2). Being a former English teacher, let me give you a brief language lesson here. Meaning is communicated primarily through the use of words. Yet words can have more than one meaning. If I say to you: “You seem very gay today”, what would you understand me to be saying? In this Websters’ New Collegiate Dictionary which my wife’s 2 grandmothers gave to her in 1959 when she began high school, gay is defined as 1. excited with merriment, 2. bright in appearance or color, 3. given to social pleasures. Synonym: lively. Antonym: sober. But the word “gay” has another meaning today, doesn’t it. So for you to interpret what I am saying when I say “You seem very gay today,” you need to know which meaning of the word I am intending. “In the beginning was the Word.” John was trying to communicate something to us here. The term God had him use here is “logos”. It was a term that was used by Greek philosophers to denote the Controlling Reason of the universe, the all-pervasive impersonal Mind which ruled and gave meaning to all things. But John is giving new meaning to this term “logos”, or Word. He is not using it the way the Greek Philosophers used it. A word is a means of communicating what is in your heart and mind. It is a thought made available to others. And Jesus is God’s heart and mind made available to man. He is God’s expression of Himself. In the beginning, He was. We said last week that the writers of the Bible declare Jesus to be God. Jesus Himself declared that He was God. And as God, He is eternal, even as the Father is eternal. Although He was born in a human body at a moment in history some 2000 years ago, the Son of God had existed from eternity past with His Father and with the Holy Spirit. Jesus is eternal God. The first activity we learn about is in v.3 (read). V.10 says it as well: The world was made by Him. Hebrews 1 begins: In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. (1-2). Colossians 1:16-17 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Think about the first verse of the Bible – Genesis 1:1. I won’t ask you to, but how many of you think you could quote it? In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Does that contradict what we have just been reading? No. It only confirms that Jesus is God. The God Who created the heavens and the earth is Jesus. How did He do it, and when did He do it? Time after time in this first chapter of the Bible we read: God said “Let there be…and there was.” He spoke and it came into being. Some of you might reply: “But that’s not very scientific. How could someone just speak, and have this universe appear?” Good question. How scientific is it to believe that it just appeared without someone speaking? Once there was nothing and then suddenly there was something? Even the big bang theory requires faith. For it to be scientific it has to be observable and repeatable. Otherwise it is just theory, and you must have faith to believe theories, whichever one you believe. I believe God spoke, and this creation came into being. That is no less scientific than believing it just happened. Both are positions of faith, and I have put my faith in what the Bible says: Jesus was there in the beginning, and He created the universe and all that is in it. As I sat at my computer Friday morning, I wished I had more time to research and understand genetics. But from the little I understand of the complexities of our genetic makeup as human beings, it would take far more faith to believe all of that just happened than to believe God created it. I have enjoyed using my GPS, a Global Positioning System. When we were standing on the beach on the My GPS connected me to 9 satellites that all triangulated on me to tell me where I was. If I were lost in the woods and had a map with GPS coordinates on it, I could check my positional coordinates on my GPS and find those coordinates on the map and see exactly where I was. Who, in their right mind, could find my GPS and map sitting by a campfire, my GPS turned on and showing 75% battery power still remaining, tracking 9 satellites, the fire burning, and assume those things “just happened”? It would be like finding a car with its motor running and tank half full of highly refined gas and believing it just happened. Yet intelligent people believe the universe just happened, our galaxy just happened, our solar system just happened, this earth just happened, life just happened. And these are people who won’t play the lottery because the odds are too high. In the beginning God (Jesus, God the eternal Son) created the heaven and the earth. The verses we read from Colossians a moment ago had a couple of interesting phrases: Colossians 1:16-17 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. “Visible and invisible”. The visible we understand – the observable creation: stars and the sun and moon, mountains and oceans and lakes and trees, animals and man. But what is this “invisible” creation? Thrones, powers, rulers, authorities. In addition to the physical world we can see, there is a spirit world that we cannot see. Ephesians 6:11-13 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. The spirit world is God’s creation, too. But just as there is rebellion against God in the physical creation, there is also in the spirit world. Satan, who was once Lucifer, the angel of light, rebelled against God and led a rebellion in the spirit world. He and 1/3 of the angels rebelled against God and were banished from heaven. Their mission now is to try to get more and more of this physical world to rebel against God. And that’s why you and I struggle so much. There is an invisible enemy who is scheming against us. We struggle against him, and the only way for us to be successful God says, is for us to daily put on the armor of God. But that’s for another sermon. “In Him all things hold together.” Jesus holds this universe together. And He wants to hold your life together as well. If “In Him all things hold together”, then without Him all things fall apart. Let me just quote for you from commentator William Barclay: “All the laws by which this world is an order and not a chaos are an expression of the mind of the Son. The law of gravity and all the so-called scientific laws are not only scientific laws; they are Divine laws. They are the laws which make sense of the universe. They are the laws which make this a reliable and a dependable world. Every law of science and of nature is, in fact, an expression of the thought of God. It is by these laws, and therefore by the mind of God, that the universe hangs together and does not disintegrate into chaos.” Jesus, the Son of God, existed from eternity past and is the God through Whom the Father created the heavens and the earth. Let’s take a look at something else about Jesus prior to His coming to this earth. There is an interesting Being Who appears at times in the Old Testament who is referred to as… THE ANGEL OF THE LORD. Who is this Being? There are more than 60 references to the Angel of the Lord, and often He speaks as God and even is referred to as Jehovah. Go back and read Genesis 22, the story of Abraham preparing to sacrifice his son, Isaac on (v.16-17). This same being speaks as God to Hagar in Genesis 16, and to Jacob in Genesis 31, to Moses in Exodus 3, and to Gideon in Judges 6. Some have suggested that these are actually the Son of God appearing prior to His incarnation, prior to His coming to this earth to be born as Mary’s baby. So prior to Jesus’ birth He existed. He lived in heaven. Philippians 2:5-7 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. In heaven He had equality with God the Father. But He laid that aside to come to earth. 2 Corin. 8:9 says For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. He was rich. How rich? Rich with all the riches of heaven. As Creator, all we see is in reality His. Those galaxies we saw on the screen last week, things and places of incredible beauty that are beyond our normal sight, they are all His. And He enjoyed them all ever since He created them. Yet for your sakes He became poor. He left His eternal home in heaven to come to this earth. Did you exist in heaven prior to your coming to this earth as some teach? Were you born in heaven with a spirit body, born of a heavenly father and mother to await your being sent to earth for a time of testing? Those who teach this doctrine do not teach it from the Bible. They are in fact doing what Jesus condemned in Matthew 15:6 you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. In Jeremiah 1:5 when God says Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” He is not talking about Jeremiah’s pre-existence but rather about His own foreknowledge. Even before Jeremiah was conceived, God knew he was going to be, and had plans for Jeremiah. And He has plans for you as well. The verse we looked at a moment ago said For your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. Jesus laid aside all that He had as Eternal God, and became a poor earthling so that you might be made rich. How rich are you today? I’m not talking about the balance in your bank account. God is not at all concerned about whether you have a hundred or a million dollars in your account. But how rich are you in the things of the spirit? That is what’s important to God, and ultimately what’s important to you. No matter how much you think otherwise, money will not make you happy. Money will not make you fulfilled. Money will not meet the deepest longings of your heart. Today Jesus offers to you true riches – riches that no one can take away from you – riches that will go with you into eternity. He offers you peace in your heart, joy in your soul. He offers you His love. He offers you complete forgiveness of your sins and freedom from guilt. He offers you a personal relationship with Himself. Jesus became poor so that you might be rich, eternally rich. For although the Bible nowhere indicates that you have existed from eternity past, it does indicate that you will live forever. Your soul, which has been with you since the moment of your conception, will never die. It will live forever, either in heaven with Jesus, or in a place of eternal suffering, separated from Jesus. That’s what the Bible says, and that’s why Jesus left the joys and delights of heaven to come to this earth – so that you could spend eternity with Him rather than eternity separated from Him. Will you commit your life to Him today, receiving Him as your personal Savior and placing your trust in what He did when He died on the cross for you? People did that last week, and the week before, and we are praying that people will do that again today. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|