Finding Jesus

(Word Became Flesh: Part 1 – John 1:1-18)

Introduction

Welcome, we are starting a new series called “Finding Jesus.” So here is the thing. Jesus is the central character of the Christian faith. Everything as a Christian rests on the claims of Christ. If Jesus is who he claims to be, then this changes everything. However, if Jesus is not who he says he is, then

Paul said it best in 1 Corinthians 15:17-19: "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied."

I will admit to you that if Jesus is a liar, then everything in our faith is a joke. I like to let people know that this is a safe place to come and explore the claims of Christ, because if what Jesus says is true, then we might be the most self-centered, cruel people on earth if we do not choose to share Jesus with others. So, for the next who knows how long, we are going to be walking through the life of Jesus by walking through the Gospel of John.

About the Series

In this series, we will walk through the Book of John. This is only one of four accounts of Jesus' life. There are three other accounts of Jesus' life: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So why John? Why not Matthew or Mark? Well, great question. The other books are great; in fact, the first gospel account I ever read was Matthew. I picked John because out of all the gospel accounts, the Book of John focuses more on the deity of Christ than the other three. We will most likely cross-reference the other books as we go, but the Book of John truly does stand alone in comparison to the other three. But if I could give you one interpretation to read John through, that is the Book of John is “all about Jesus.”

I want you to think of the four gospels in the Bible as portraits of Jesus. What I mean when I say this is imagine that you went to have a photo shoot taken of you. When you showed up, there were four different camera people there to take your picture. Now, imagine each one of those camera people's jobs were to take a picture of you doing the same thing, but from different angles. One took a picture of you from the front directly on, one from the side, one from only the back, and the other from a raised platform looking down. Now every one of those camera operators would have a different perspective on you. Now I’m sure you would agree that the shots would look much different. One cameraman might say, “Did you see that big ketchup stain on David’s shirt?” The other might say, “No.”

Why? Perspective. Depending on where the cameraman was standing, the ketchup stain might show up or it might not. Understand that the four gospels are simply different people recording the life of Jesus from their own unique perspective. So the Book of

Bold Point: John gives us a unique perspective of the Jesus deity.

About The Book of John

So here is a little information for you on the Book of John.

- This is one of the earliest accounts of Jesus' life

- At the end of the Book, we learn that it was written by the disciple who is described as the one whom Jesus loved.

- The author of John is unknown.

Most people believe it was John, the son of Zebedee, one of Jesus' disciples. Now there are multiple Johns all throughout the Bible. John, son of Zebedee, is not Jesus' relative who we will read about early on in the first part of this book.

- The Gospel of John was believed to be written 85-95 AD, and for you Bible nerds, that’s about 55 to 65 years after the crucifixion of Jesus.

Why is this important? Because the author of this book was alive when Jesus was murdered and raised from the dead. This is a first-hand account of the life of Jesus. This person broke bread and spoke to Jesus directly. So that’s a little bit about the Book of John.

So

let's dive into this extraordinary account of Jesus' life.

The Word in the Beginning  

John 1:1-4  

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through 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.

Enter into the scene a man named John. This is John the Baptist. What do we know about this character, John the Baptist? Well, we know that John's mother was Mary, who was very old when she had John, and Elizabeth was Mary's first cousin who had Jesus. So that made John the second cousin of Jesus. Then we know that John was seen as a very wild man.

In Matthew, in all four gospels, it describes John as the voice crying out from the wilderness, and in Matthew 3:4, it describes John as wearing a garment of camel hair and eating locusts and wild honey.

Then interestingly enough, Jesus describes John as the prophet Elijah in Matthew 11:14, who John denies to be in the beginning. Then we also see that John referred to Jesus as the greatest man that has ever lived in Matthew 11:11.

So when John comes out of the wilderness like some kind of crazy radical,

what does he start doing? He starts proclaiming boldly that he is preparing the way for the Lord as predicted by the prophet Isaiah. Verse 23. It is as if John is an Old Testament prophet introducing us to the New Testament. Look at what John says he is preparing the way for.

- The one who comes will make people children of God vs. 12

- The logos becomes flesh. God becomes flesh vs. 13-14

- The only true son of God vs. 14

- Grace upon grace is coming vs. 16

- A chance to see God vs. 18

- Someone greater than John, the greatest of any man ever born vs. 27

- Savior of the world vs. 29

- The one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit vs. 33

Prophecy Spoken

Now all of that does sound truly incredible. Understand that everything John is proclaiming is not new news to the Jews. Their prophets Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah predicted and proclaimed this would happen. The Jews had been waiting for this. What was new was that John proclaimed he was here and that he was Jesus of Nazareth.

You see, Jesus never made it a secret that he was God, but many failed to see God before them. Why? Because it was Jesus of Nazareth, an ordinary fisherman from the town of Nazareth, and we all know nothing good comes out of Nazareth John 1:47.

They let Jesus go unnoticed because he was common to them.

Bold Point: God will often use ordinary, common aspects of your life to connect with you most intimately.

Don’t miss this. So often we want God to show up big and send this giant sign glowing, lighting up, saying, “Here you go, here I am.” When often God chooses to work through the subtle, ordinary things. We are just so focused on building our own kingdom that we allow the noise of ourselves to drown out the guidance of God's spirit in our lives.

Bold Point: We must pay attention as followers of God not to miss the quiet whispers of God and the gentle guidance of his spirit.

Maybe like John, we need to get away in the wilderness and remove all distractions and simply listen. Listen to what God wants to say to you. Forget about the notifications on your phone, the unanswered messages, the emails, and the workload waiting for you on Monday. When was the last time you stopped and got alone with the Father? All Christ ever wanted was a relationship with you.

Consider this that graphic from on the four ecosystems of maturing in Christ.

What is missing? Is one of these areas of your life out of balance. Just as a plant needs water to live, it also needs sunlight. To much water will drown the plant and too much sunlight will burn it. As christians we also need health eco systems.

Some of you are starving because you have not worship in your life. Some of you are burning out church because you have no community and some of you are not growing, because you do not serve. We need all 4 of these environments in our life to mature in the fullness of Christ. Remember Jesus just wants to have a relationship with you and if Jesus is who he says he is, then we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.