Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - 4 Reasons We Can Trust Jesus | Advent | John 1:1-3

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

So why is Jesus's birth such a big deal? How can we know he's for real? Why should you even trust Jesus? Tanya (and John) share four reasons why you can trust Jesus as found in John 1:1-3. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: John 1:1-3 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. Today we're looking at how the Christmas story unfolds in the first three verses of John, John chapters 1, 1 through 3, and we're going to find that the real Christmas story isn't a hallmark movie. If that were the case, there would definitely be a small town. There would be a woman who moves back to said small town from her big city job.

There would be a guy who's a firefighter that saves her, when she moves back, and there would be a Christmas lighting ceremony and a parade in the street where they kiss while the snow is falling and live happily ever after. Our culture has bought into a narrative that the true meaning of Christmas is being together and more moments of nostalgia and love. Today we're going to look at the way John, the disciple Jesus loved, delivered the Christmas story in the first three verses of his gospel account. He doesn't start with one night in Bethlehem.

John opens, In the beginning was the word, and the word was God, and the word was with God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him, not one thing that was created has been created. John totally gets the beauty of a trifecta. He tells us three times, in uniquely beautiful ways,

what we need to know. The word is the beginning. The word is the creator. But what happened in the beginning and who or what is the word? Well, first let's focus on the first three words. In the beginning. The way John begins his gospel should take us back to the pages of Genesis 1-1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The one John is about to introduce didn't come into existence here in the the New Testament. John is taking us back to the creation story to help us understand who the word is. Now, if we were going to try to fit John's account of the Christmas story into the nativity set we put up at Christmas, I have no idea where it would go. How do you build the creator of the universe into the nativity scene? Okay, next, let's talk about what John means when he says in the beginning was the word. And the word has a capital W. The most important things, to know about the word with capital W comes a little further down in verse 14. It says the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. The word is Jesus Christ. So that little baby in the manger

in our nativity scene is the word. And the word was God and was with God. That kind of changes our perspective on the Christmas story, doesn't it? John spends the first three verses telling us the most ultimate things he can tell us about Jesus with human language. And when we understand that the whole Bible is about Jesus, we read with amazed knowledge that Jesus Christ was with God and is God and came to lay down his life for us. Now, John knows what he's about to do in this gospel. He's going to show us through his own eyewitness account why we can trust Jesus. But he begins by laying a foundation for our trust.

In the verses we just read, he gives us four reasons we can trust Jesus with our lives. First, the nature of his timing. My grandpa puts his trust in savings bonds because they've been around longer than the companies publicly traded in the stock market. They also haven't made them a lot of money, but he trusts them for their longevity. The way John started his gospel takes us to a place outside of time. Before there was even a beginning and before there was any created matter, there was Jesus. Paul says in 2 Timothy 1.9 that God gave us grace in Jesus Christ before the beginning of time. We are about a blip on the timeline of humanity, yet the creator of the world

knew us and loved us in pre-eaternity. Now, we get concerned about timing all the time. Maybe you're going to be looking for a new job and you're anxious while you wait to find out where you're going to live or what your schedule is going to be like. You can trust Jesus to be with you in your times of waiting. If he gave you grace before the beginning of time, won't he be with you today? Second, the nature of his identity. At the end of verse one, John tells us the word was God. John gives us his most weighty theology with the most simple words, probably because he doesn't want to give us any room to misunderstand. What this means is that with every word you read about Jesus, you are going to get to know God.

For anyone who has ever wanted to know God, he is revealed to us through Jesus. Jesus is the heart of God and the power of God. Sometimes we're hesitant to follow Jesus because we understand his heart, but failed to believe in his power. And this is why it's so important to know that Jesus is God. When Jesus says in Matthew 1624, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,

he's doing more than telling us to lay down our lives for him. He's telling us we will follow him in the power of the resurrection. There is nowhere we can follow Jesus, where he does not have the power to save and keep us for eternity. Third, his relationship to God. You've heard of the Trinity, which is that God is one being and three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Two of them are mentioned in John 1-1, the Father and the Son.

The word Jesus Christ was God and he was with God. Or in other words, he is God and he has a relationship with God. He fully images God in all his character and all his words. It's important for us to understand that Jesus is fully God, because if he was not, there would be more to do for our salvation. But because Jesus is God, he perfectly accomplished our salvation. We tend to misplace our trust when it comes to being able to stand before God and take some of that responsibility on ourselves. And we know we're doing this when we strive to earn God's favor and earn other people's favor. but we can remember that Jesus, who is God, saves us completely,

and God relates to us as he does his son. When he looks upon us, he sees the finished work of his son. Fourth, his relationship with the world. All things were created through him, and apart from him, not one thing that was created has been created. The one that came to earth as an infant is the one who created. aided us. The one who called the disciples, broke bread, turned water to wine, rebuked the money changers, prayed in the garden, died on the cross, rose from the dead, is the creator of the

universe. We tend to think of Christ as meek and mild and believe that as we follow him, we will need to be sure we're still taking care of business on the side. We tell ourselves we can submit to him in some areas, but we still want to keep other areas for ourselves. But we are saying this to the one who was not made. John makes it very clear that anything in the category of made was made by him. There is no name we can make for ourselves that will compare to the life he's calling us to live under his authority. We can celebrate Christmas with all the traditions and gifts and still feel empty.

We can stack our closets and garages with new things and have fabulous experiences and still have empty longings in January. This was the kind of Christmas a lot of people celebrated when Jesus was born because they were looking for something different. John tells his reason for writing near the end of his gospel in chapter 20 verse 31. He says, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. We can search for life in lots of empty places, but when we trust in Jesus and His Word to be our authority, we actually find life.

This is the meaning of Christmas, and it is available to all who believe. Before you forget, sign up for the brand new TMBT newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes, and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help you beat the midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.