The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: Bridging Eternity

Episode Date: August 11, 2019

The unique claim of the gospel is that through Jesus Christ, Holy God, built THE bridge to and for sinful man.

Amen and amen. How we doing church? Everybody good? You're looking good. I'll squeeze in there together. I hope you meet somebody. That'll be cool. Hey, if you got your Bibles, go to the Gospel of John, chapter one.

We're going to spend a long time going right through this, verse by verse. And I would like to welcome all of our campuses all over the city. So welcome to Arlington. Welcome to Bay Meadows. Welcome to Mandarin. Maybe you have a little more room today. Welcome to Baker Correctional. By the way, I'll be there tomorrow preaching live at Baker Correctional.

So everybody say a prayer. around four and seven o'clock, all right? Hopefully you pray harder than your clap. Don't worry about it, man. That's fine. No, that's why I'm going. Ain't taking you. Don't worry about it.

Hey, and for the very first time, we have 1122. It's crossed over a bridge. We crossed over the Buckman Bridge. And would you please welcome our Fleming Island campus who is online? Amen. Way to go. Way to go. Everybody scoot in at Fleming.

Just so we know here at San Pablo. It's crowded here too. We were in overflow at our 9 o'clock service at Fleming Island. We're also in overflow at the 1122 service at Fleming Island. Amen, amen, amen. And we had five salvation this morning at Fleming Island at the very first service ever. So welcome. So glad you guys are a part of this church.

We're one church. This is one church in a bunch of different locations, okay? And so we just added one more room to the house this week. Also, this is another big week as we start this seven-week series on bridges, and we're going to milk that analogy for everything that's worth. And we also know that it's a week of transition because our kids are going back to school. Can I get a witness? Come on, mammas.

Come on. Talk to me, right? So with that in mind, this matters to me a lot. If you were a teacher, a coach, and administrator, would you please stand up at all of our locations? If you're a teacher, if you're in the school, whether it's homeschool, private school, public school, whatever it is, all right? Stand up and stay standing. Stay standing. I want to see your faces.

All right, now look at me. Don't sit down. You aren't very good listeners. Listen, at every location, listen, what you do matters more than you'll ever know. I was led to Christ, not by a preacher, not by a pastor, not by an evangelist, but by a coach. And so wherever a Christian goes, there goes the gospel. And I get it, man, I get it. We live in a world where it is increasingly less popular to be vocal about the gospel in your classroom.

And so may you declare and demonstrate the gospel everywhere you go. Stay up, don't sit down. I'm telling you. I hope your kids listen better than you do. Listen to me. Stay right there. God has anointed and appointed and assigned you in that classroom. And may you, may you, like Jesus said,

may you receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And may you be a witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, in your classroom and to the very ends of the earth. And I bet you, I promise, if you will be faithful to demonstrate and display and declare when you can the gospel of Jesus Christ there will be a day a thousand years from now and we will be standing together in heaven and there will be people there and when they say how did you hear about this Jesus they will point to you and say because I had that teacher because I had that coach now may you I commission you as a missionary into your school and may you take the gospel there for the

glory of God amen if you get fired call me I'll help you find another job ready go to the the mission field. Amen, amen, amen. Thank you, thank you. All right. We're going to be in John Chapter 1. As you know, we are doing the seven-week series on bridges because, you know, we're the city with seven bridges. I don't know them, but hopefully by the end of this, I will. I've been here since 2003. I know the Buckman because it takes me hunting, and I know Dane's Point because it takes me hunting. I don't know about the rest of them, but we're going to learn all about them. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what a bridge is. It's very simple. It means you are here, you're trying to get there, and there's something in the way.

There's an impossible or an impassable chasm, and you've got to get from here over this thing to there. And we're going to study seven places where Jesus builds a bridge. Racially, socioeconomically, religiously, emotionally, a bunch of bridges that Jesus builds. But we are going to start with Jesus building this eternal bridge. You see, one thing that we can all agree on, regardless of what your worldview is, we all agree there is something that has gone horribly wrong with this human experience. I mean, something is wrong. You can call it what you want to.

People like me call it sin, but everybody agrees that something has grown wrong. And all throughout human history, every people group, every people's, has tried to build a bridge back to that perfection, that place, God, whatever you would call it. In fact, every major world religion is built on that premise. God is there, we are here, and it is up to us to build this way from here to there. And then comes the gospel. And the unique claim of Christianity, the unique claim of the gospel found in this book, is that God built the bridge towards us because the span between us and him was impassable and impossible. So as believers, we believe that the solution is salvation, the solution is.

is not self-help. That if we could get us there, we would have already gotten us there. But we need someone to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. And so in John chapter one, the gospel of John, we get an account of this eternal bridge that has been built. John 1-1 starts out this way in the beginning. All right, I got to stop there. That's why it takes them so long.

All right. If you hear these words, see, John is writing to a mixed audience of Jews and Gentiles, Greek thinking people and Hebrew thinking people. And so probably he is writing this account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, to a group of believers, both Jews and Gentiles, who believe that Jesus is the Christ, and he's writing to them in Ephesus, this big metropolis city. And so when he starts out, and he says, in the beginning, every Jewish person there that grew up memorizing the scripture, want to guess where their mind goes?

Back to Genesis, chapter one, verse one. I heard it from the front row. Front row always knows best, okay? The way the whole thing starts is this way, in the beginning, God. And so he is going to talk about creation here, and he wants to loop all of his Jewish believers in. And the Bible wants us to know that before the beginning, there was God. In the beginning, God created the heavens in the earth. You see, there is no way that no thing acted on no thing, and out of that came something.

It's just impossible that God was not created. He is not the created one. He was there before there was creation, and he acted on this thing. Listen, I have a biology degree. I have a BS in biology. Emphasis on BS, okay, cause. Not the biology is not important. It just was useless for me.

And so I would go to class, many, many classes. I was going to be a doctor, Dr. Martin. That was my plan, all right? It didn't work out. So I'd be in class, and we would talk about the beginning of all things, and all my professors agreed that there was the beginning. It grew by four billion years in the four years I was there, which I was like, hold on, man.

You were four billion years off. If I'm like one number off, you count mine wrong, and you still have a job, whatever. All right. And so, I would say, so how in the world? I just came out of physics class, and physics class says, if no thing happens on no thing, then no thing happens. But what you're telling me is no thing happened on something, and something had explained this to me.

And they say, shut up. And so I ended up in seminary. That's how that worked out, okay? the point of this is that it's a lot that God was there from before the beginning here's why this matters to me and you today like right now in this moment you are not an accident

you did not climb out of some primordial ooze and then you fast forward a few billion years and now here we are in church together no no no no no God planned you God purposed you God actually created you to image him that thing you have in you,

that feeling that leads to action that you have in you, towards your spouse, towards your mom and dad, towards your kids, that thing we call love. It's not just an overactive pituitary gland that release something in your brain. Love is a real thing because God is love and you were created in the image of God. In the beginning, the word.

In the beginning was the word. And if you've got to stop again, see how the word is capitalized here? Because our English translation word is from this Greek word Lagos or Logos. And now, as soon as John uses the word word or Lagos, all of the Greek thinking people are now on board with what he's talking about. He has built a cultural bridge between the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers here.

And he says, in the beginning was the word. The word was this idea in Greek ideology that the word or Lagos is like the source of all intellect, the source of all creative thought and being. For you Star Wars nerds, it's like the force. Regardless of how much you related to the force, you all believe that there is a force. And what John is going to do is saying, you're right. You're absolutely right. But this force is not a nameless, faceless being.

This force has a name, and his name is Jesus. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. Now, if you paid attention, you have to go, okay, John, which one? Like, was he God or was he with God? Could you can't simultaneously be with and was. Do you understand that?

So which one is he? Is he with God or is he was God? Which one? And John's going to go, yep, because you got to read more than one or two verses to get this, but the doctrine of the Trinity matters. And here's what this means. There is one and only God. Shima, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

And yet God is three distinct persons. God, three persons. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. All co-equal, all co-existing, one God in a perfect love relationship with himself. If you think about it too much, it'll blow your brain up. But that's because we ain't that smart. It's so funny when people are like, well, I just can't understand it so it can't be true. Oh, you dummy. It's like our brain is the size of a Dixie couple and we're standing at the Atlantic Ocean. I'd be like, I'd like to get it all in here. It ain't going to go, darling. You understand what I'm saying? If you could completely understand the intricacies of the godhead,

then you might have a pride problem. Do you understand that we are created by him, for him, through him, and to him? One God, three persons. It matters a lot because we're also created in his image, that God in and of himself didn't need anything. He's in a perfect love relationship with himself, needing nothing. The reason God created you and me, it's not like he's walking around heaven going, what am I going to do with all this time and space?

I have an idea. I will create children in my image that will sing to me on Sunday and disobey me the rest of the week. That sounds like a great idea. Just because he wanted to. And the word was with God and the word was God, which is really, really important. If we're created in his image, this also means that you and I were created four relationships. that Christianity is a team sport. You're not supposed to do this on your own.

And I'm talking to all you people that listen online and aren't plugged in anywhere. Plug in. In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God. And the word was God. Verse two, he was in the beginning with God. By the time we get to verse 14, we're going to find out that this word, his name is Jesus. He's co-equal and coexistent with God the Father.

Verse three, and all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. Well, the Bible wants us to know is that Jesus is not a man that was super good and righteous and God bestowed some kind of special blessing upon him, that from the beginning, the second person of the Trinity co-existed in the Godhead, and everything that was made has been made by Jesus. So has Jesus been made? Look how nervous you are. One guy got it right. Probably came to 9 o'clock.

No. No. If everything was made by Jesus, and Jesus made everything. Then did Jesus make Jesus? No, no, no, no, no. That Jesus has always eternally existed as the second person of the Trinity, God, the Son. Now, I know some of you are here, and you're like, hey, wait a minute, man, you invited me to this thing. You said he was funny and practical.

What the heck are we talking about? The Trinity and the Godhead. Here's why it matters. Here's why it's so practical. If you don't understand the character and nature of God, then you will never know who you are because you were created in his image. If you can't understand, I'm telling you, A.W. Toes are something. says the most important thing about you is what you think about when you think God. And God in and of himself is a perfect love relationship.

And God's love for God's self overflows into this thing that we know as creation. And everything that has been made was made through Jesus Christ. This is how Colossians is going to say it in Colossians chapter 1, verse 15. If you've been around at least a couple of years, this might be a little familiar to you. talking about Jesus, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Like the reason that you're sitting here breathing right now is because God sustains our life. If he stops, we're done. and he is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning, the firstborn, that word there is prototoko, it means like prototype. He is the prototype from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross. That God decides, because God is sovereign, he does what he wants, that God decides one day, I'm going to make. stuff to display my glory. And in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And there's nothing there.

And then he just says, let there be light. And there's still nothing there, but at least you can see it. And he just starts saying and stuff happens. And if you pay attention to the creation account in Genesis chapter 1, you will see that in the six days of creation, there is a rhythm to it. In days 1, 2, and 3, God creates environments whereby he fills them in days. four, five, and six. Like in day one, he creates the, he creates light. And in day four, he creates sun and moon and SARS to fill that space, the heavens and the earth. And in day two, he makes,

he makes the thing called the seas, the ocean. And in day five, he creates the sea creatures that will fill that space. And in day three, he creates the land and vegetation, the woods, praise God. And then in day six, he creates animals and birds to fill that place that he created. There is a rhythm to the creation of God, which is, by the way, I think if you'll put your hand right here, you'll fill this rhythm to just remind you where you came from. If you go out to the beach, you'll see this rhythm of the waves, just to remind us of the created order. I think this is why singing is such a big deal in the scriptures. God says, sing to me. because when you line up the rhythm of your heart to the rhythm of God's song,

I think it reminds us that we were created by this God. And then he looks and he goes, it's good. It's good. But God's not just good. He's better than good. And so he creates image bearers, image bearers. God says, let us make mankind in our own image. Who's he talking to?

One God, three persons. And then the Bible says that he gathers together the dust of the ground, The Hebrew word for dust is Aram. We get the name Adam. So he gathers together to Adam, the dirt, the dirt, and he makes like a dirt clay man. But the Bible says he is not yet a living creature. And then he breathes the breath of life into Adam. The way John says it is this.

In him was life, and the life was the light of man. In God was life. And Genesis tells us that God breathes the ruach of life. into this very first human being. That word ruach in Hebrew, it means breath, it means spirit, it means wind. And the Bible wants us to know that God breathes the breath of life into the nostrils. That's important. Details are important in the Bible.

There is not a wasted word in all of the scripture. This means this isn't Steph Curry from the third heaven like way back there. Hope you catch it. No, no, no. God, face to face, nostril to nostril, lip to lip with the very first human and life. Here's why it matters. Adam opens his eyes. The very first human being opens his eyes and he is face to face with his creator as Heavenly Father. And that's what every single one of us were created for. That moment. You know how sometimes at work, especially if you don't know Jesus,

hang in here with me. You know how sometimes you're crushing it at work? You achieved all your goals. Just went on a sweet vacation. You basically did all that the world has to offer. And it's fun for a minute, but at night when nobody's messing with you and you're laying in the bed, you think, is this it? It feels like they're more. You're absolutely right. Because you were created for that kind of intimate relationship with your heavenly father. And then God looks at him and he says, it's not good for man to be alone because he knows,

man, you leave a man alone long enough. He'll burn down the whole thing. So he gives him a wife so he'll know what to do. And then he starts walking in the garden with him. How many of you know that God is into relationships, not rules? A lot of people think that to become a Christian just means there's a whole bunch of things you're not supposed to do. A whole bunch of rules, don't do this and don't do that and don't do this and don't do that. Did you know that in God's original design, there was only one don't?

There was a whole bunch of commandments, but there was only one thou shalt not. Don't eat from that tree. It'll kill you. It'll ruin everything good and godly in your life. But there was a bunch of dues. subdue and cultivate. Adam and Eve, go to work with me, to glorify me, that you are going to co-create on this playground called Earth, to my glory,

that you are going to rearrange the raw goods that I have given you for human flourishing. This is, by the way, why I do not believe in a sacred, secular divide when it comes to work. That what you do if you build a house is no more or less God glorifying than what I do when I preach the Bible. That God has called us into this thing to co-create with him. He gives them commandments like this. Eat of all the trees. Just eat and eat and eat of whatever tree. Just that one.

Stay away from that one. But you eat of all the trees. The Bible says that they were naked and unashamed. Can you think about that for a second? Can you imagine being naked and unashamed? I know some of your 20-year-olds are like, yeah, shut up, okay? Your day is coming. Stood.

And then my favorite commandment in the Garden of Eden, be fruitful and multiply. Glory to God. You know what this is? This is Hebrew for Bown, Chick-a-wow-wow. That's what that means. In the context of marriage, and everything is set up for us to be in this face-to-face,

walking around relationship with God, and everything goes awesome for like a page in my Bible. Now, I have the extra large print, so it may be a half page in your Bible, but it goes south quickly. Essentially, Adam and Eve say, forget you, God, we got this. We want this our way. That is what sin is. It's not just bad stuff. Sin is when I say, my way, better than your way. And that sin separates us from that face-to-face

intimate relationship with God. You see, God is holy, God is perfect, God is just. And for us to be in his presence, we must be perfect and holy and just. And so God comes to Adam and Eve and to demonstrate his justice, he kicks him out of the garden. But to show his grace, he does two things. One is he gives what theologians call the proto-evangalion, the first gospel. He says, Eve, I'm going to put enmity between your all three and this enemy. And there will come today where this enemy will bruise his heel, but don't worry. This Messiah, this Christ, he's going to crush his head. And then he kicks him out of the garden, but on their way out, he makes a covering for their sin and shame. And for the very first time, blood is shed for the covering

of sin. And the reality is because Adam is our first granddad, every single one of us were born into sin by nature and nurture. And maybe if you're new to church, you might be a little offended right now and you say, are you calling me a sinner? Yes. You are a wretched, wretched, crooked, depraved, idolatrous, egomaniac. Think it's all about you and the fact that you're a friender.

right now exposes your sinfulness sinner. Can I get an amen? And those are your friends. It's just true, man. It's just true. Now, you know this to be true because if you got kids, did you have to teach your kids to sin? They're really good little liars and cheats and biters. Are they not? All right, me too. You too. And that's, let me think about it. Even if we lay about the perfect law of God, I'm not even talking about ban these commandments. We can't even obey our own commandments. Have you ever let you down? Have you ever said, I promise I'll never and then didn't follow through with it? For sure. What if the only thing we were judged on was the times we said, I ought to or I should? We'd still fail miserably. And because of that sin, we have been

eternally separated from God. You see, when we determine punishment, it's not just what you do, it's who you do it against. Right? We all know this to be true. I covered this a couple weeks ago. if you leave here today, you get mad, you kick the wall, that's not awesome. You kick your kid, that's against the law. You kick a policeman, you're going to jail, right? You kick your dog, that's terrible. You kick a cat, it's totally not a sin. Everybody knows this, okay?

Don't send no emails of some cute cat. Or anyway, when we sin against an almighty everlasting God, it requires an almighty everlasting punishment that is where we find ourselves. So it creates an impossible divide. An impossible divide. The flaw with the primary religious M.O. of our day that all roads lead to heaven is this. First of all, it assumes that you have what it takes to make the climb up to the top of the mountain. And it assumes that the path that your own actually leads to God.

Well, what the scriptures would say is that you will get to a place where you find an impossible. impassable and impossible chasm that no matter how hard you try, no matter how good you do, no matter how much you pray, you just can't get over the chasm. So what is one to do? And so John answers the question. So what do you do if you realize God is there and I am here? And something is beginning to stir in me that knows I need to get there and not here. And here's what John says. John says, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcom. coming. And now it gets kind of weird because he's going to talk about John the Baptist. And so we're going to wait until next week to unpack a bunch of these verses,

but we'll read them and then come back to him next week. It says there was a man sent from God whose name was John. Again, that's John the Baptist. And he came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe. All right, hold on. Participate here. That who might believe? One more time, like you're really into it like I am right now. That who might believe? There you go. If you've done that the first time, we get through this thing faster, okay? So here's what this means. I don't know what your last church told you, but the Bible says that if you fall into all category,

you might believe that Jesus came for you because he did. That matters. Regardless of your marital status, regardless of the struggles that you have, regardless of your orientation, regardless of your political party affiliation, regardless of where you grew up and what you did and what you've been doing and even some of you planning to do it again this week.

No matter who you are, if you were in the all category, and when Jesus died on the cross, it counted for you. If you would just believe, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. All right, back to Jesus. Verse 9, the true light, which gives light to everyone. To who? To who?

All right, you cut it down to two. That's better. Listen, this is what it means. If you fall into everyone category, then you can be a Jesus follower. If you fall into everyone category, then Jesus came to rescue you, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. In other words, God is building a bridge by sending Jesus to rescue us. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. That the creator steps into his own creation, and we are so blinded by our own egos and insecurities that we miss in.

Verse 11, and he came to his own. It's going to get more specific. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. All right. There's a couple of things here. First of all, he is for sure talking about religious Hebrews in the first century. The crazy thing is, if you read through the four Gospels, the four accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the religious people were most likely to miss Jesus.

In fact, like the Pharisees, if you've been reading through the New Testament, you see the Pharisees keep popping up, they're like the Klingons and Star Trek. There's always around. They're always the bad guys. Now the crazy thing is, is that the Pharisee, that word means separated one, and what they would do is that they would study their Bibles so much, they would learn the law so well that they made rules about the rules about the rules to make sure they didn't break the law. And over time they fell in love with their rules. And the Son of God is standing three feet from them. They literally can smell his breath.

They're at a dinner party with them and they can't recognize them. for who he really is. And you know who always picked up on who Jesus really was? The shepherds, the sinners, the tax collectors, the prostitutes. You see, because fundamentally the problem with the religious people is that they were self-righteous. They declared that their righteousness was because of their own self. And these sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes, they knew they needed a savior. And so they recognized them.

And so the Bible says Jesus came to his very own and his own people didn't receive him. So for sure, it's talking about religious Hebrews in the first century. But today, I think this verse matters in our church. Here's what freaks me out as the lead pastor of 1122. We'll have, I don't know, we'll have about 12,000 people in attendance this weekend. And we will have over a million podcast sermon watcher. listeners around the world this week. Okay?

And when I'm afraid. And look, the church, that is Jesus' own people. And Jesus is in our church. I know there's a bunch of you, and you know church. But do you know Jesus? It's not the same thing. I know that you know like the evangelical game, man. You've been in it.

You've been in it. Some of you, you've been in Sunday school since, you know, you and Moses were there together. You've been at this thing a long time. You know how it goes, man. You're checking the boxes and checking the boxes. and you show up every week because that's just what you do. And you know every Christian radio station we got in town, and boy, we got a bunch of them, right? And you go from Caleb to the promise to the message, and you just beep right back, you know,

and you've got multiple translations of the scriptures that you bring in here, and you even know the time in the sermon when you're supposed to moo. Like, when I say something awesome, you go, mm-hmm, and you write something down. You don't do anything about it, but you move and you write that thing down. And you know the part of the song where you like pledge allegiance to Jesus, right? You close one eye, and then you put your hands up. And on the back of your swagger wagon, you got a fish for dad, big old studly fish. You got a little fit fish for mom.

Then you got like six little guppies for all your children and little tiny fish for all your compassion kids, man. And you're playing the game. The question is, do you know Jesus? It's not about rules. It's about a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's why this place is a movement for all people. Hey listen, if you fall like in the center, prostitute, tax collector, they were terrorists, if you fall into that category, I got good news.

Jesus died for you and you can be saved. And he does. Jesus came to save us from sex drugs and rock and roll. And he also came to save us from Sunday school. I'm telling you. Because there's a bunch of people that think that because I've done this, God owes me heaven. and you were standing on the wrong side of the chasm of eternity. And so what I pray for, God saves all kinds of people here at our church.

And I pray to God for the older brothers at 1122 that are standing outside the party, looking down their nose at all the sinners coming in, that God would soften your heart and the scales would fall off of your eyes and that you would meet the eternal Savior named Jesus. And stop depending on your own performance and pretending. And so he says, he came to his own and his own people did not receive him. Verse 12. Now we're going to shift into the good news.

You know, good news always enters into dark places. All of that diagnosis was about who God created us to be and how we fell. And then it starts this way, but I've told you this before, while doing Bible study, that in the Bible, I like big butts and I cannot lie. This is a transition. However, we're going to go in a different direction. but to all who did receive him. You know what you receive?

You receive a gift because salvation is a grace gift. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name. What John is going to do is he's going to say to believe is to believe is to believe. And this word here, believe in Greek is pastuo. You need to learn this word. Say pastuo. Again, pastuo. It does mean to believe, but it means.

means to believe in, not believe that. I'm telling you, man, Jacksonville is full of people in churches that believe that Jesus is who he says he is. Even the demons believe the same thing. But they have not bestuoed in Jesus. Pestuo means to believe in, to trust in, to commit my whole life into. The best example I know is this. You are, everybody I can see this sitting down, you are currently pastuoing in your chair.

And I don't know how much you know about chair. Now, in the past seven years since launching this church and six more campuses, I know more about chairs than I ever dreamed I would know about chairs. I know about cloth and I know about what you can put in the seat back and I know how many pounds it'll hold and I know about wits. By the way, if we'd tighten up a little bit, we can reach more people, but whatever. That's mostly on me. Look at me. That's why I stand up the whole time. All right.

So anyway, when you walked in here today, I don't know if you examined the chair and made a conscious decision. I am going to trust my weight on this chair. In fact, even if you can't remember the moment you decided to put stuo in the chair, I know by your current posture that you are pastoowing in the chair. To believe in Jesus, like he's talking about is this. It is just to admit it, I'm a sinner, I need a savior. It's not about me making better decisions. I need Jesus to do for me what I could never do for myself.

That I believe, somehow, when he died on the cross, I can't even fully explain it, but I believe it counted for me. even if you can't fully explain penal substitutionary atonement and double imputation that God made him who was without sin to be sin for us that we would be made his righteousness some of you're like I have no idea what you're talking about sweet if you trust in Jesus you're all in and that you would confess him as Lord he says to all who would receive him to all who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God that God does it like when you become a Christian, when you become a Jesus follower,

Jesus doesn't merely forgive you of your sins. That's what I was taught, which leads to performance and pretending. Because I thought if Jesus wiped the slate clean, then what I would do is I'd go get it all dirtied up again every year and come back to summer camp, be like, hey, Jesus, you can wipe this all for me again. The other thing is it leads to pretending, because you don't want anybody to see your junk. Jesus doesn't simply wipe your slate clean.

He writes his name. in your place and we get credit for his perfect righteousness. I told you this last year at the Tim Tebow golf tournament thing. I won. I won the whole thing. Now, by I, I mean, I was on a team and it was a scramble, and Josh Scobie was on my team. Remember our old kicker for the Jags? Well, now all he ever does is play golf, apparently, and he's literally like a scratch golfer.

And playing golf with him on a team is like the gospel. I hit it in the water. He hit it in the hole. We write down birdie, and I won. I have a trophy. There were two teams that had professional golfers on it. Whatever. I beat Jason Day. That's a fact. I beat him. Imputed righteousness of Scoby on my card, and I beat him. We sin. Christ is perfect. We get credit for his righteousness. Listen, he gave us the right to become children of God. God doesn't just forgive you at the cross. He is a lot. He is. adopts you. Oh, what manner of love the Father has lavished upon us that we, anyone who would

believe, that we would be called children of God. The God doesn't just forgive your sins and say, all right, now get to work. That God adopts you into his family. Think about adoption. The parent always chooses the kid. Have you met any kid that chose their adoptive parents? No. And why do they pick them? There's no tryout. Can imagine how terrible that would be? Hey, we're thinking of adopting. Can you give us eight, we've got a bracketology set up, okay? There's going to be some fitness accounts. We're going to do a little math study, see who cleans the toilet the best, and then we're going to keep it.

No, no, no, no, no. That it's by grace that adoptive parents choose to be the parents of that child. They pay the full price. Ain't no discounts. And then when that kid comes into their family, they change their name. And that kid is a co-air with all of the other kids. That's what happens in the gospel. but to all who did receive him who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Verse 13, who were born. That's an event. Who were born. Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. If you're a Christian, look at me. The reason that you are a Christian, the reason that you follow Jesus, is not because you're smarter than the rest of the world. the reason that you are a follower of Jesus is not because theologically it makes sense to you and everybody else hasn't caught up with you.

The reason that you're a Jesus follower is not because your morality is so much superior than everybody else. It is you are not saved by works. You are saved purely by grace, not of your own works, lest any of us boast. It is by grace that we have been saved. Which means, which means that in the church, church in the church. There is no place for prejudice. There is no place for racism. There is no place for any follower of Jesus to look down his nose at any other human being as if you were in some position of power because you pulled yourself up by your bootstraps. Are you kidding me? It is by grace

that God picked you. And the only way you can look down your nose at any other group of people is to take your eye off of the cross of Jesus Christ. And then you get to this verse. All of that leads you to verse 14. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the Father, full of grace and full of truth. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. So the Word who was God became flesh and became one of us. That the Galactic God of the universe dressed himself in humanity. It was born in a manger in Bethlehem and became one of us. Hebrew says that we have a great high priest who can empathize with us.

That he has been tempted in all the same ways that we have. That Jesus was tempted just like we are tempted. That Jesus has been let down by his friends just like us. You ever have a friend lied to you? So did he. Have a friend curse you behind your back? So did he. have a friend run out on you when you need it on the most, so did he, that he has been through it all.

To come and to be the perfect sacrifice for us, but also, before he went to the cross, to communicate to us what it means to be in right relationship with the father. I used this illustration years ago. When I was in college, I stayed in this apartment. It was awful. I mean, it was really awful. It got condemned while I was there, okay? but before it got condemned, the building next to it had been condemned years before, and they tore the building down. And so where the building used to be, now there was just this big vacant lot, this big concrete slab, vacant lot.

It's kind of all cracked up. And so I'd have to walk through the vacant lot where the concrete slab was to go to class. And so when you'd walk through, there were these huge carpenter ants everywhere. I mean a bunch of them. There were big old ants, and they were huge. I think they were carpenter ants. And there was this kid. I had this neighbor kid that lived in my building, and he had a big wheel.

Remember the big wheel? How many people remember the big wheel? By show of hands? All right. All right, millennials, Google it real quick. Okay? So the big wheel is totally made a plastic, had a big old wheel in the front, hence the name.

And so you couldn't see over it, so you could never tell where you were going. And in about three seconds after you'd ride it, it'd have a flat spot, so it'd be like, you know, to keep you all off balance all the time. And it was real low. It was about this tall, so you couldn't see it riding around cars

so you were sure to get run over. Okay. Now, it's a wonder any of us survived, right? You hear that millennials? It's amazing. I don't know how we're here. We had no seatbelt. We had no helmet.

It's probably you had lead paint, all right? But that's why our generation is tough because all the weak ones are dead. So anyway, I'm sorry to offend. If you need a safe place, pray about it. So what his kid would do is the ants would be running around on this concrete slab, and he would get on his big wheel and he would ride through the ants and power sliding and just crush the ants, kill the ants. He thought it was awesome.

The kid was psycho. And then when all the ants eventually would dissipate and kind of be like, this ain't good and they would run in high. He would go into his house and he would come back and he would take jelly and he would smear strawberry jelly all over spots on the concrete slab. And I'm telling you, the ants would get on Twitter and they'd be like hashtag best jelly ever. And all of them in the whole city of Richmond would show up on this lot. And then Psycho Kid would just murder aunt after aunt after aunt.

Now, I don't have some kind of great love for ants. But if I did, if I loved these ants, and I had some kind of relationship with these ants, and I wanted what was best for these ants, I could try to communicate. I could get up. He didn't get up early, so I could get out there early, and I could say, hear ye, hear ye ants. Run away. Psycho boy is coming. And though the jelly may taste sweet for a moment, it will lead to you getting squished by the big wheel turn away from the ants.

And if all the ants gathered together to hear me preach, they would just look up and go, look at the size of that shoe. That's it. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. For me to communicate with ants, I would have to be an ant. I'd have to grow up in the little ant village, learn ant language, know all the ant customs. And then one day at just the right time, I could say to all the ants, behold ants, I know that the strawberry jelly tastes is sweet, but trust me, trust me, trust me.

You want to stay away from that. And I'll tell you what, if you just hang on a little bit and follow me to the other side of the road, what you don't know is that psycho boy's mom won't let him cross the road. And so follow me, and I will take you to the promised land. Amen? And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. It's not exactly the doctorate of the incarnation, but it's not exactly the doctorate of the incarnation, but it's pretty close.

The God of the universe dressed himself as a man. And tabernacled among us is literally the Greek word. Tabernacle. Eugene Peterson, who wrote a paraphrase of the Bible that we call the message, the way he said this verse this way. The word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood. Fleming, that's why we moved into the neighborhood, because that's what the gospel does.

But literally in Greek, the word became flesh and tabernacled among us. Now here's the thing about the tabernacle. The tabernacle was given to us by God. It was a place of worship. It will eventually become the temple. The reason that God institutes the temple or the tabernacle is because we are not perfect. That on the back end of the law, there's 613 laws in the Old Testament. And right after Moses gives the Ten Commandments, right on the back end of it is instructions on how to build an altar,

how to sacrifice, and how to build the tabernacle. The tabernacle was the thing that you went to do because you could not keep the law. You see, the law for us is really, it is a map to show us what it looks like to live in a right relationship with the Holy God. But the law is also a mirror for us to see that we can't do it. And just like in all of our bathrooms underneath the mirror, there's the sink. Because you look at the mirror and you go, uh-oh, something needs to change. And down here in the sink is to help you make a change. and the word became flesh and tabernacled among us.

See, John's going to go on to say this. He says John bore witness about him and he cried out, This is he of whom I said. He who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. For from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. There's no grace in the tabernacle. In fact, the tabernacle was a system of sacrifice and a system of rules. There was an outer court, there was an inner court, and then in the inner inner court, there was this little room called the Holy of Holies.

And in the Holy Holies was a box called the Ark of the Covenant. Inside the Ark of the Covenant were the Ten Commandments. And every single person broke every single commandment every single year. And so one day a year was called the Day of Atonement. The high priest would go past the outer court, past the inner court, through a series of ceremonies to sanctify himself, to make himself clean. And there was a curtain that went from the very top of the tabernacle to the very bottom, and he would go to the other side of the curtain, and he would enter into this room called the Holy of Holies, where the very presence of the holy, perfect, just God was.

And if this high priest, if he were impure, if he did not consecrate himself and clean himself exactly the way he was supposed to, then the presence of the perfect God would kill him in that moment. In fact, when he would go in on the Day of Atonement, he would have a rope tied around him with a bell on it. And so the assistant high priest, you know, the VP is waiting by the curtain. And if he heard the bell stop ringing, he'd drag his dead boss out. And now he just got a promotion. Now he's varsity.

And he would go in. This is a really big deal. And every single year, this priest would shed the blood of a lamb, and he would sprinkle the blood over the Ark of the Covenant for the Day of Atoment. that the blood of a lamb would cover over the sin of the Jewish people for one year, and they did it year after year, after year, after year. And then when Jesus shows up on the scene, the word became flesh and tabernacled among us. This John, the Baptist, that we're going to talk about next week, he said,

behold, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of the entire world. Jesus tells us what it's like to be in right relationship with Jesus, I mean, with God, the Father, through Jesus. and then on the cross, on the cross, after Jesus is tried, tortured, brutalized, they drive nails through his hands and through his feet. And on the cross, the last thing Jesus said is this. He pushes up on his nail pierced feet and he says, it is finished. And the price has been paid. And the moment, historically speaking, the moment Jesus says, it is finished.

an earthquake cracks right through Jerusalem, right through the middle of the temple. It cracks right through the holy of holies. And in this earthquake, this curtain that separated God's presence from God's people, it was torn from the very top to the very bottom. And Jesus says, it is finished. And in that very moment, a bridge is built to you and me. an eternal bridge from God to us. And it comes with an invitation.

Come to me. Come to me. And so the key question is this. The key question is this. Have you ever crossed that bridge? Not have you tried to be good. No doctrine exams here. No, how long have you been going to church?

That's not what we're talking about. have you crossed that bridge from death to life? Have you crossed that bridge from this side to that side? And then in all actuality, we don't even have the ability to cross the bridge on our own. So actually what happens is when you realize that by the grace of God, when he allows you to understand, it's not about what I have done, it's about what Jesus did for me on the cross. Then you would say, Father, here I am.

I don't need self-help. I need a savior. Father, would you come get me? People ask me, how come God doesn't answer prayer? Do you know he answers the most important one every single time? 100% of the time. The only prayer about yourself that will have eternal significance is when you pray that. Jesus, I surrender my life to you.

And 100% of the time when you pray that prayer, then God, since his son, Jesus Christ, over this eternal. bridge known as the gospel to rescue anybody that believes that when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for you. So have you made that trip from here to there over that bridge to salvation? You see, I put it in your notes. The point is this. The unique claim of the gospel is that through Jesus Christ, holy God built the bridge

two and four sinful men. And the Bible says that all who call. call on the name of the Lord will be saved. So if you're in the everyone category, if you're in the all category, no matter what you've heard about what you've done or who you are or what you're into, that any person that would say, I surrender my life to Christ, then the Bible says that you will be saved, rescued, that God built this bridge, that you and I are unable to build to him. And so all weekend and all of our services, people have been making that decision.

they have been deciding to surrender their life to the Lordship of Christ. God saved me a long, long time ago when I was in high school, and in this church, you're probably sitting within three feet of somebody that God saved at some point. It's not because they're awesome, it's because God is awesome. And for his glory, he sent Jesus to rescue you. And the offer is to anyone who would believe, anyone who would admit it, all right, I'm not a mistakeer that just needs to make better decisions. I'm a sinner in need of a Savior.

For anyone that would pursue, when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for me. For anyone who would confess, all right, God, I give up. Save me. Would you bow your head and close your eyes? And if you, for the very first time, are ready to surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, if you are ready for Jesus to come and rescue you and take you over the bridge of the gospel, the life, death, and resurrection, to be given the right, to be called a child of God, not just forgiven, but adopted into his family. If you say, that's me, would you raise your hand right

where you are? Lift it high in the air and say, Father, here I am. Would you come and rescue me? Would you take away my sin? Would you give me your righteousness? Would you adopt me and change my name, put me into your family forever and ever and ever? Our good and gracious Heavenly, Father, God, I thank you, and I praise you that there is salvation in your church. God, I thank you that today you came to your own people and some of them did recognize you. And Lord, I thank you that you demonstrated your love for us and this, that while we were still sinners, that Christ died for us. And God, I thank you, and I praise you that you did not stay dead.

That three days later you put an exclamation point on it. You put death to death and you resurrected to a new life that we would be resurrected in you. We pray this all in the good, strong name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Would you please stand as we respond around here, we always respond to the gospel. We respond by bringing our tithes and offerings for all of us that are regulars here. We bring our first and our best financially to God as worship, just to say, we love you because you first loved us by sending us your best in Jesus Christ. And when that curtain was torn, we are invited into the throne room of God

because he is the almighty sovereign king of the universe, but if you're a believer, he just happens to be your dad. He says, hey, you've got some stuff going on? Why don't you bring it to me in prayer? And then every week we also sing, we join our voices together and sing. We're going to sing a song called What a Beautiful Name. The name of Jesus means Savior. And there's two reasons.

There's two parts of this song. I want you to really pay attention to. It starts out this way. You were the word in the beginning. That's just what we studied. Then when you get to the bridge, it talks about the veil being torn. So when we get to those places, I want you to sing it like you mean it. So let us pray and let us bring, let us sing.

Let us respond.