Sunday April 11, 2010 "Who Is This Jesus?"

This begins a new sermon series in John's gospel.

John's gospel is built around seven signs or miracles, seven discourses, and seven sayings. This series will take a look at these seven sayings: the I Am statements.

I am the Light of the world.
I am the bread of Life.
I am the door.
I am the good shepherd.
I am the resurrection and the life.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
I am the true vine.

To get into this series I felt it necessary to understand how John's gospel "works." He lays this out in his prologue (1:1-18).

Verse 1 and verse 18 are essentially saying the same thing. The Word was with God (pros ton theon- literally "toward God") and was God. And in verse 18 we read that the One and Only Word is at the Father's side. He is now where he was before time began. What John's gospel seeks to tell us is the story about the blip on the screen of eternity when this Word became flesh and took up residence with us.

This Word, while he was here, was named Jesus Christ. He was full of light and life. Light and life are the two things that frame God's activity in creation. First in Genesis 1 the word demands light and darkness is put in its place. Lastly in Genesis 2 the Word breathes into humanity the breath of life. This creator Word of God was not diminished when he became incarnate. He was stilled filled with that which made him God- Light and Life.

This Word, while he was here, was filled with grace and truth. He was filled with the strange paradox of complete holiness and complete love. This paradox that demands righteousness and yet loves sinners, that judges the nations, yet forgives the repentant, lives in perfect harmony in the person of Jesus Christ- even as his deity lives in perfect harmony with his humanity. They are both at once all the time.

This story of Jesus is a story about God. It is a story about God's holiness and love in our midst all at once. This is a story about God's glory on display! God's glory upon which no one can gaze but which we can behold in Jesus. The beauty and irony of John's story is also filled with tragedy.

He says that the Light shined but the darkness did not comprehend. The Word came to that which he created but the created did not recognize him. The Son of God came to those who were his own but his own did not receive him. This is a story that has tragedy beyond compare.

But it is also a story of hope. "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."

I am preaching this sermon series so that we might understand who Jesus is, recognize who Jesus is, and receive who Jesus is. And in so doing experience the irony of calling the glory of God our savior and friend.

Pastor Scott
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