Grace Upon Grace
Sermon Audio
Sermon Notes
Now today we’re starting a new teaching series called Visible God, and it’s all about seeing God through the life of Jesus. We’ll be in a book of the bible called the Gospel of John, studying the life and words of Jesus recorded by an original follower of Jesus. We’re using an original source, an original follower of Jesus, to study the life and words of Jesus, which has left a meteoric size impact on our world, changing the terrain of humanity forever. In fact Time magazine once said nobody’s had more books written about them than Jesus. Apparently Dos Equis commercials are wrong...The most interesting man in the world’s Jesus!...Time said Jesus is the most written about, talked about person in history. He’s had such a massive impact on our world, that even those who aren’t Christians have to acknowledge the magnitude of his impact.
Historian and author H.G. Wells said, “I’m a historian and not a believer. But I must confess as a historian, that this penniless preacher from Nazareth, is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.”
Napoleon said, “I know men, and Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world, there’s no possible comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I have founded empires...upon force...But Jesus founded His empire upon love; and at this hour, millions would die for Him.”
Gandhi said, “A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act!”
Einstein said, “I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene... No one can read the Gospels, without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”
Look it’s a known fact, the life and words of Jesus impacted and changed the terrain of humanity forever. But to have his life and words impact and change the terrain of your life, you need to get to know him...You need to get to know not opinions about him, but the truth about him. The truth about who he really is and what he came to do, from an original source, an original follower of Jesus. So let’s turn to John 1:1-3, and get into it. Open your bible to the middle and look for Matthew, a few books to the right of that is John. We’ll be in John 1:1-3. The title of today’s message is Jesus Is Our Visible God, and here’s the big idea. Jesus is our visible God. He came to give us grace upon grace...Jesus is our visible God. He came to give us grace upon grace.
Context:
Here’s your context. John’s the author of this gospel, this book of the bible, and he writes it around 85-90 A.D. John was a very close friend of Jesus, he was a part of Jesus’ inner circle, and historians tell us at one point he was literally boiled alive for not denying Jesus. They’re not sure if it was boiling water or oil, they just know he was boiled alive for not denying Jesus. But he ends up surviving it, he’s badly scarred from it, and yet he still won’t deny Jesus. Even after going through all that pain, he still won’t deny Jesus. So they end up exiling him, they put him in isolation on an island called Patmos off the coast of present day Turkey, but he still won’t deny Jesus. No matter what they do to him, he won’t deny Jesus, and when he gets out of exile you think he’d go in hiding but he doesn’t. Instead he spends the rest of his scarred life, teaching people about Jesus. What we have in our hands today, is that teaching. Let’s check it out.
The Word:
John 1:1-3 states, “In the beginning was the Word...” John uses the Greek word logos here, it’s translated as the Word, and the Word is something significant to John’s readers which were primarily Jews and Greeks. It was central to Jewish theological and Greek philosophical thinking. The Jews believed the Word was an agent of creation, because when God speaks things come into existence. So for the Jewish reader John 1:1 echo’s Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created...” But the Jews also believed the Word was God’s message to His people. It’s how God speaks to us and gives us His laws, His standard of holiness. Now the Greeks didn’t believe all that. They believed the Word was more like a principle of reason, an internal rational thought helping to govern our world. So the Word was a significant piece of Jewish and Greek thinking, and John has immediately captured the attention of his readers by talking about it.
Again vs. 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” There’s a little Trinitarian langue here. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. Notice he also doesn’t say the Word was “nearly god,” “like a god,” or even “a really great and wise sage.” He says the Word was God, and he pushes this point further in vs. 2.
Vs. 2 says, “He was in the beginning with God.” Now John’s saying the Word is a man, the Word is a person, and He, was in the beginning with God. Simply put, whoever this person is, he’s our God who eternally existed in the beginning, he’s the one who created all things.
Vs. 3, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” So the Word, this person, is the God who created “all things.” He’s the one who created the stars in the sky, the 6 sextillion planets in the known universe, the rain that pours, and the ocean that roars. He’s the one who created the very hairs on your head and every taste bud on your tongue, allowing you to delight in what you eat. Praise God for that! I’m gonna enjoy me some Jeremiah’s Ice later!...He’s also the one who created you with a unique DNA, giving you unique fingerprints, with a unique gifting, to fulfill a unique purpose in this world. You exist because of Him, and won’t ever find rest in life or reach your full potential in life, until you find it in him. Colossians 1:15 says, “He’s the image of the invisible God!” Vs. 16-17 says, “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. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” In him, this person, this God that John’s talking about, ALL things hold together. When it feels like your life’s falling apart, it’s usually because you’re trying to hold your life together without the Creator of your life. You’re trying to hold your life together by holding onto a created thing or person, instead of holding onto your Creator. But our glass house lives can’t be held together or find rest without our Creator God. St. Augustine once said, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” When we become united with our Creator we’ll not only find rest, we’ll also find the very reason we were created, giving our lives so much meaning and purpose. But who is he? Who’s this Word, this person, this Creator God who eternally existed in the beginning? John tells us in vs. 14-18. We’ll cover vs. 4-13 next week, but look at what John says in vs. 14-18.
Vs. 14 states, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...” You know who that is? That’s Jesus!...John’s talking about Jesus here!...He’s saying Jesus is the Word, the person, the God who eternally existed in the beginning and created all things. He’s telling us Jesus is our God who put on flesh, who became flesh, and we call it the incarnation. An easy way to remember what the incarnation means is to think Mexican food. Think carne, as in carne asada, because the word carna means meat. So the in-carnation, means “God with meat” or “God in the flesh.” A lot of problems can be solved by Jesus and Mexican food...Now what this means is Jesus is our fully human, fully divine God who chose to put on flesh, to feel the weakness of the flesh like we do. He chose to put on flesh, to move into our neighborhood, our tiny little speck of the universe, to feel the weakness of the flesh with all its temptations, frailty, sickness, sorrow, even death on the cross. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
Look Jesus knows our pain, he knows what it’s like to bleed and tear...Jesus knows what it’s like to bleed and tear...Are you bleeding and tearing over somebody betraying you?...Jesus was betrayed by Judas and people he loved too...Are you bleeding and tearing over the death of somebody you love?...Jesus wept over the death of his friend Lazarus...Are you bleeding and tearing over temptation, wrestling with resisting temptation?...Jesus wrestled with that too. He was tempted in the dessert and even sweat drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. He never sinned, but he wrestled with temptation too...Jesus knows what it’s like to experience bleeding and tearing, just like you...It’s what makes Christianity so unique compared to all other religions in the world. It’s that we have a God who put on flesh, who came to us, who moved into our neighborhoods to suffer and die on our behalf. We call it “the gospel,” it means good news. It’s good news because it means we don’t have to try to work our way to God, work our way to heaven, hoping to climb the morality ladder high enough to get in. Instead it’s Jesus who comes down the ladder to save us, to live the perfect life we haven’t lived, die the death we deserve to die for our sins, and then carry us up the ladder on his back. Other religions teach you have to climb up to God, but the gospel teaches you can’t climb up to God, which is why God had to come down to us. John’s saying that God is Jesus...John’s saying that God is Jesus, and he “became flesh,” to sympathize with us in every way, to die for our sins, and take us to heaven.
Again vs. 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 truth. 15 John bore witness about him...” That’s a different John, it’s John the Baptist. We’ll learn about him next week.
Vs. 15, “John bore witness about him, and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” That’s what Jesus came to do, he came to give us “grace upon grace.” What an amazing, hopeful expression that is. John’s saying Jesus is full of grace, he has an endless supply of grace. That means you don’t ever have to worry about Jesus saying “Sorry can’t help you today, can’t hear your prayers today. You met your prayer quota for the month.” He won’t say “Sorry can’t forgive you for that sin anymore. My grace jar’s depleted.” You don’t have to worry about any of that, because he has grace upon grace! It’s like an endless, overflowing, cascading fountain of grace. You have one grace cascade on you, then another cascades, and another, constantly being cascaded by his grace upon grace.
Again vs. 16, “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” This is the 2nd time John mentions Jesus having “grace and truth.” The first time was in vs. 14 where he says Jesus is FULL of grace and truth. What John’s saying is Jesus isn’t partially grace or partially truth, he’s equally FULL of both grace and truth. Now we’re not as balanced as Jesus in this are we? I mean some of us are more grace people and some of us are more truth people. If you’re a grace person then you’re like “The Jesus I know and love tells us to not judge, to not cast stones at people, and said let he who hasn’t sinned cast the first stone!” They’re all about the grace, all about Jesus walking around in a toga, just hugging people. It’s not a side arm should bump hug either...It’s a chest bump, double arm, bear hug...Grace people are very welcoming, they accept us for who we are, and they’re very affirming. But they’re sometimes affirming to a fault. They’re sometimes affirming to a fault, meaning they neglect to speak the truth, they neglect to see the rest of Jesus’ words that say “go and sin no more.” Unconditional affirmation isn’t helpful, it’s harmful. It’ll make people feel loved, but it won’t help them overcome the sin issues that’re robbing them of the joy, that God intends for them. Unconditional affirmation isn’t helpful, it’s harmful.
But if you’re a truth person, then you’re leaning is to be quick to cast the first stone, or at least to pick up the stone. You’re quick to point out the splinter in other people’s eyes, but you ignore the plank in your own eye. Truth people leave little room for others to make mistakes, and to be restored by grace. They’re sometimes admirable because of their strong principles, strong values, and willingness to stand up for what’s right, and fight against what’s wrong. But when this gets pushed to an extreme, when people speak truth without grace, it can be very hurtful, degrading, even spiritually abusive. The truth person needs to humble themselves first, remembering Jesus said “Let he who hasn’t sinned cast the first stone,” before they speak the truth of “go and sin no more.” John tells us Jesus balanced this out perfectly. He was equally full of both grace and truth. He was full of grace serving people, having compassion on people, even welcoming and eating with sinners. But he was also full of truth talking more about hell than heaven, teaching his followers to obey all he commanded them, and often challenging religious leaders in their hypocrisy. Jesus was full of both grace and truth. We’ll wrestle with that balance and sometimes get it wrong. But we need to be balanced in grace and truth, like Jesus.
Again vs. 17, “...grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” There it is, there’s our theme for this series. Jesus has “made him known,” he’s made the invisible God visible. John’s saying when we see Jesus, we see God...When we see Jesus, study the life and words of Jesus, we get to see God. We get to see who God is, and what God came to do. John’s telling us Jesus is that God, and one of the things he came to do, is to give us grace upon grace. Jesus came to make the invisible God visible, and to give us grace upon grace.
The Big Idea:
Let’s have the worship team come up and get to the big idea. Here’s the big idea. Jesus is our visible God, and he came to give us grace upon grace...Jesus is our visible God, and he came to give us grace upon grace...Do you want to know God?...Do you truly want to know God?...Do you want to know not opinions about God, but truly know who God is and what God wants for your life?...John, an original source, an original follower of Jesus is saying “Then look at Jesus... Look at Jesus...Look at his life and listen to his words. Then turn your life over to him, because he’s our visible God, who came to give you grace upon grace.”
That’s John’s goal in all this. In John 20:31 he says his goal, his reason for writing this, is so we’d believe in Jesus and have eternal life in his name. His goal is for us to meet God...His goal is for us to meet God, walk with God, have a personal encounter and deepened relationship with God. John didn’t risk his life getting this message out, being boiled alive, to teach us about a historical figure who lived a good moral life, and had an impact on our world. He risked his life getting this message out, so we’d come to see, know, meet, and trust in Jesus, as our visible God. So let’s meet with Jesus, and keep meeting with Jesus throughout this teaching series. Let’s meet with Jesus today, and let’s seek his cascading grace upon grace for our lives. Let’s pray.
Historian and author H.G. Wells said, “I’m a historian and not a believer. But I must confess as a historian, that this penniless preacher from Nazareth, is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.”
Napoleon said, “I know men, and Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world, there’s no possible comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I have founded empires...upon force...But Jesus founded His empire upon love; and at this hour, millions would die for Him.”
Gandhi said, “A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act!”
Einstein said, “I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene... No one can read the Gospels, without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”
Colossians 1:15 says, “He’s the image of the invisible God!” Vs. 16-17 says, “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. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
St. Augustine once said, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”
Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”