Original subtitles

Welcome to the seventh in a series of 14 talks

designed to introduce you to the God who is there

my name is dawn carson and we're trying to work

through some of the bible sweeping themes today I

should briefly tackled two more

the God who is coming is simply a way of getting

at the fact that the old testament the part that

takes us up to the period just before jesus finds

many ways to look forward to a visitation from

God himself a visitation that will change

everything

this

Of expectation waiting for God to come russia's

forward until it bursts into the second theme the

theme that Christians call the in carnation the

God who becomes a human being

When you take the time to reflect deeply on what

the bible says about this event you are likely to

respond in one of two ways you may judge these

claims so bizarre or so intrusive into your life

that you decide to walk away

or you may judge these claims bazaar yes yet

spectacular Lee wonderful drawing us onto look at

jesus with eyes of wonder and hearts full of

Frank adoration

only

It was emotions and thought of atrophy dd are

likely to remain entirely unmoved

this is the seventh in the series

Well we have finally come to the new testament

you knew that we would get there if you waited

long enough

so I hope that you will open your bibles in the

next few moments to John chapter one John chapter

one

This talk has the rather

The frankly amazing

theme the God who becomes a human being

It presupposes that this God keeps telling us

that he's coming

in one sense he comes to abraham and calls him on

his pilgrimage he comes to moses and gives them a

certain task he comes to David and

establishes a dentist e

in the old testament through large numbers of the

books of the profits that I have alluded to but

we haven't really looked closely to any one of

them God is repeatedly said to come he sometimes

Comes with judgment people speak of the day of

the lord the time when the lord comes the day of

the lord would be wonderful when the lord comes

and God says no when I come the day of the lord

is gonna be full of darkness and not light this

is going to be judgment so sometimes God comes

not only upon his covenant people with judgment

but the God of the bible is the God of all the

nation so we holes all the Nations to account

righteousness exhausts of people but sin is a

reproach to any people in the bible so God

promises to come and visit the babylonians with

judgment or the pagan cities of tire and

With judgment and so forth and he also comes to

his own covenant people with judgment

it also keeps promising to come with forgiveness

with the ultimate dividend King with

transformation

we saw one of those passages briefly in the

prophecy of isaiah chapter nine words that we're

familiar with from handel's messiah from nowhere

else when ultimately there is a King coming who

will reign on david's throne

and the

His kingdom will never end and it will also be

called the mighty God the everlasting father and

then there are other passages where you you you

get this anticipation of someone who comes who is

God God is coming and yet East tied somehow to

this debated finger one of the most remarkable

passages in this respect is by another profit the

profit easy kill an easy kill chapter 34 the

prophet izzie kill whose writing at the beginning

of the sixth century Bc the word of the lord came

to me son of man prophecy against the shepherds

of Israel now that does not

The people who keep the sheet literally but the

rulers the nobles uh the monarchs as they come

and go the leaders the priest prophesied against

the shepherds of Israel who only take care of

yourselves whoa to you shepherds of Israel it

will only take care of yourselves should not

shepherds take care of the flock you eat the

Kurds clothe yourself with woolen slaughter the

choice animals but you do not take care of the

flock you have not strengthen the weak or heal

the sick or bound up the injured you have not

brought back the strays or search for the lost

you rule them harshly and brutally so they were

scattered because there was no shepard

She wandered over all the mountains and every il

they were scattered over the whole Earth and no

one searched or look for them and then what God

says in many different ways through verse after

verse after that verse is this

I will not only judge the fall shepherds I will

become the shepherd of my people

This is what the sovereign lord says first 10 I

am against the shepherds and will hold them

accountable I will remove them from tending the

flock

And then he goes on to say

verse 12 a shepherds look after their scattered

flocks when they are with them so well I look

after my sheep I will rescue them from all the

places where they were scattered on a day of

clouds and darkness I will bring them out from

the Nations and gather them from the countries I

will bring them into their own land I will pass

them on the mountains of Israel I will tend them

in good pasture I myself will tend my sheep I

will have them lie down declares the sovereign

lord I will search for the lost I will bring back

the strays in other words all these false

shepherds are just ruining the flock I myself

will be there shepard

And then after saying this again and again and

again about 25 times God himself is going to

shepherd his people he's going to come he's going

to do the job himself he then says

verse 23 I will place over them one shepherd my

servant David and he will tend them he will tend

them and be there shepard I've a lord will be

their God and my servant David will be Prince

among them ida lord of spoken

So somehow this promise of God himself coming

an attic King coming get merged into one

so when we come to the new testament the four

first books of the new testament are often called

gospels Matthew Mark luke and John they all begin

a little differently but they all begin in some

way with uh coming of jesus

before him there is always mention of John the

baptist who points out who jesus is and then luke

sky

For example d picks and angelic visitation to

mary promising her a virginal conception

A miraculous thing

such that the child born in her would be called

the son of God

And then in chapter two of that book the familiar

Christmas story

In matthew's gospel the thing is looked at less

from mary's perspective and more from jesus

perspective and more more from joseph's

perspective mary was be trove to Joseph and then

he discovers she's got pregnant

don't forget that in that society they couldn't

go off somewhere in the corner and have a little

chitchat and she could try and convince them it

was a miracle

You you didn't have that kind of easy free

conversation than there were chaperones and

guardians around all the time

but God visited Joseph as well and insisted that

this was his doing she was a virgin and Joseph

when the baby came was to give the baby the name

jesus

Jesus is simply the Greek form of joshua

and joshua means

yahoo way saves that is the name of God in the

old testament

connected to I am who I am

God saves and you are to give this baby the name

jesus because he will save his people from their

sins

That's already in the first chapter of Matthew

chapter one verse 21

which means in a sense the whole rest of the book

of Matthew the first gospel is to be read as the

gospel in which he always save his people from

their sins

that's what jesus does

Every chapter of that book can be Fed under the

theme

John's gospel begins a slightly different way it

does not begin with the historical developments

Joseph and mary

Beth La hem in the visit of the shepherds things

like that

it begins by thinking about the coming

The coming of the eternal son the coming of God

in theological terms

let me read the first eighteen versus sometimes

called john's pro log in the beginning was the

word and the word was with God

and the word was God

he was with God in the beginning through him all

things were made without him nothing was made

that has been made

in him was life

And that life was the light of all people the

light shines in the darkness and the darkness has

not overcome it

there was a man sent from God whose name was John

he came as a witness to testify concerning that

light so that through him all might believe he

himself was not the light

he came only as a witness to the light the true

light that gives light to everyone who is coming

into the world he was in the world and know the

world was made through him the world did not

recognize him he came to that which was his own

but his on did not receive him yet to all who did

receive him to those who believed in his name he

gave the right to become children

God children born out of natural dissension or of

human decision or husbands will

but born of God

the word became flesh and made his dwelling among

us we have seen his glory the glory of the one

and only son who came from the father full of

grace and truth

John testified concerning him he cried out saying

this is he of whom I said he comes after me as

surpassed me because he has he was before me

Out of his fullness we have all received the

grace in place of grace already given for the law

was given to moses grace and truth came through

jesus christ and no one has ever seen God but the

one and only son who is himself God and isn't

closest relationship with the father has made him

known

Let me run through the thought of this very

quickly first

you cannot help but see that this one who's

coming is simply called the word in the beginning

was the word we might say in the beginning was

God self expression in the beginning God

expressed himself in the beginning was God self

expression and this self expression was with God

god's own fellow and the self expression was God

god's own self

And already your heart begins to flutter in your

mind wonders what's going on here how do you

think in those terms

That's what the text says

this one who becomes flesh who takes on human

identity

is one with God god's own agent and creation

god's own self

Even the term word is an interesting choices and

it ha how do you think about to

How do you think about a jesus what title is

adequate for him I can imagine in john's head

going round and round various titles and names

and expressions that could be used and he

remembers for example that in the old testament

we read again and again the word of the lord came

to the prophet saying

so God has disclosed himself in revelation ru

rivers John one God spoken something came into

being by the word of the lord the heavens were

made

god's word

Creation

even god's word and in saving people transforming

people God sent forth his word and he healed him

quoting from the psalms all these things that

god's word accomplishes he reveals he creates he

transforms and he thinks yes that's the

appropriate expression that summarizes all who

jesus is

He's got self expression

he is there with God in the beginning

God is one and yet there is a complexity in him

from the very beginning he's this word is god's

on fellow

and he's god's own self

And then what is predicated of him

well first he's god's on agent in creation

through him verse three all things were made

without him nothing was made that has been made

in him was life and that life was the light of

all people

the light shines in the darkness of the darkness

has not overcome it

That's the way the book begins

but then we're also told that the word gives us

light and life you know some books you only read

once you have a trip let's say to La and you pick

up a who done it in the book shop in the airport

and by the time you get to La you found out who

done it and you decide this is not a book you're

going to keep in your library so you put it in

the seat pocket in front of you and the cleaners

take it out and you'll never read it again in

fact it's even possible six months from now when

you make another busy trip to La you will buy the

same flipping book and read it again because you

remember how it went and it's possible

But there are other books where you read the more

than once don't you their books you like to pour

over the quality of English prose and might even

be a who done it but it's got the atmosphere

exactly right or it describes a part of the world

where you live and and and you enjoy thinking

about it you read it once for the plot and you

read it for the characterization that you read it

again for all the little touches and nuances you

got a real kick out of it

Now the question is to John Wright his book as a

throwaway tracks to be read once or is it the

sort of book where he wanted it to be read again

and again and again

I think you can show that he read it he wrote it

in such a way that he expected you to see new

things from and as you keep reading it if you

read verses four and five without ever having

read the rest of the book all you read so far is

versus 12 and three how would you understand four

and five

verses three through him all things were made

without him nothing was made that has been made

you're talking about creation and it was life and

that

The light of all people that is he had life in

himself and he gave life to all human beings that

was their light that it is that they're there was

darkness and then there was like the line shines

in the shines in the darkness the darkness of

nothingness before he came along and created

everything in other words you can understand

verses four and five entirely with respect to

verses three and four and I suspect if you are

reading it through the first time that's the way

you understand it

and then you read

six

There was a man sent from God whose name was John

he came as a witness to testify concerning that

light so that through him all might believe he

himself was not the light he came on as a witness

to the light and you start seeing how light is

now got overtones not of physical light in the

nothingness

that existed before the creation now light has

some sort of over tone of revelation or truth or

something like that is revealed

And the same sort of bore a Le revel later e over

toni's clear and clear as the book goes on thus

we read for example

A little further on in the book

that men love darkness rather than light because

their deeds are evil

people choose the darkness because they're afraid

to come to the light three 20 all those who do

evil hates the light and will not come into the

light for fear that their deeds will be exposed

those who live by the truth come into the light

you see in this kind of context light is not the

light of creation it's the light of revelations

to the light of truth

and now you go back

Read verses four and five in the light of all of

this by the time you get to John chapter he says

I am the light of the world in him was life

and that life was the light

of all people the light shines in the darkness

the darkness of moral corruption and rebellion

and the darkness has not overcome it now you have

another set of overtones do you see

And you ask which is true jesus the agent of

physical light and life and creation or jesus is

the one who brings revelation and transformation

and overcoming moral darkness and the answer of

course is

yes

because you're supposed to read it both ways as

the book is is the way the book has been written

you read it and reread it and see more and more

connections

The light gives us light and life then we're told

verses 10 to 13 that the word confronts us and

divides us verse 10

He was in the world that is the world he had made

and though the world was made through him the

world did not recognize him

he came to that which was his own his own home

his own people his own people did not receive him

People did not look on jesus and say uh you're

finally here the light of the world

Many were puzzled by him some were repulsed by

him

because even if they did see the light they were

ashamed in his presence and prefer the darkness

to the light

And so his very coming did not guarantee

universal revival everybody turning to him

some did receive him

They believed in his name we're told verse 12 and

to them he gave the right to become children of

God children born not of natural descent is not

just natural children that are in view or of

human decision from sexual intercourse or a

husband's will assuming he's taking some sort of

primary role in the conception no no these people

are not simply humanly born they're born of God

now that's a theme we'll come back to next week

that is they are different because God has done

something new and then there is a new creation

there is a new birth he starting something over

in them and they truly believe who jesus really

is

And then versus 14 to eighteen with this week

lows

you may recall that earlier this morning we look

at the remarkable passage rather briefly exodus

32 33 34 where moses comes down from the mountain

and the people are in an orgy of idolatry

And moses praised before God and wants to see

more of god's glory show me your glory

And God says I will cause all my goodness to pass

in front of you but you cannot see my face and

live there are six major themes in those verses

that are picked up here in these versus

you know how when you're dealing with a community

that knows a book or a film you just quote one

line and the whole scene comes back to mind my

son for whatever reason has a formidable memory

when it comes to movies and so you simply drop in

one line and he'll tell you the whole scene or or

you say do you remember the

The third film in the star wars series where

something rather happens you quote the whole

thing he's got this formidable mind for audio

visual recall what can I say I don't have it

For people steeped in the bible as many as the

first graders were if you read through these

verses together your mind is gonna go back to

exodus 32 33 34 let me show you and we're done

The word became flesh the word became a human

being that's what it means this word became

something that he wasn't

he already existed he was god's own agent and

creation but now he becomes a human being and

made his dwelling among us

Now the expression is quite literally he

tabernacle among us

he tabernacle among us and for anybody with an

old testament background you can't help but

remember that the tabernacle is what God said up

at the time of signing I at tabernacle with this

special most holy room where only the high

priests could go in on behalf of everybody else

once a year with the blood of the sacrifices it

was the place where sinners met God it was the

great meeting place between a holy God and

sinners provided for by this blood of the bull

and the goat that was brought in by the high

priest was the great meeting place between God

and human beings and eventually it's the temple

that replaces it and now in

Chapter we're told the word became flesh and he

tabernacle among us

and then the very next chapter chapter to jesus

insist that he himself is the temple of God

That is jesus insist that he becomes the great

meeting place between rebels and this holy God

If the rebels are going to be reconciled to this

God they've got to come through the temple

and in the temple

Much of john's gospel explains how that so

look what else is hear

the word became flesh and made his dwelling among

Sea tabernacle among us we have seen his glory

the glory of the one and only son who came from

the father full of grace and truth we have seen

his glory

what wasn't the moses asked for show me your

glory

and God said

I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of

you

On John plays with this theme of glory right

through his book

And chapter two for example when jesus performed

his first miracle turns water into wine at the

marriage and cane of galilee we're told at the

end of it that

the disciples saw his glory the other saw the

miracle

they saw that it was saying something about who

jesus was they saw his glory

and then eventually you get to John chapter 12

where

jesus is to manifest god's glory by going to the

cross

Where is god's glory most manifested

When jesus is glorified lifted up and displays

god's glory in the shame and ignominy and

brutality and sacrifice of across

When we think of god's glory we think maybe have

some spectacular visionary scene with the Chicago

symphony playing along with the with the the

Boston symphony and a presumably this one here in

Minneapolis joining in together and maybe a great

choir of voices and and spectacular uh array of

lightning and thunder in the background glory

maybe it's a Super nova that you see through it a

telescope

But the most spectacular display of god's glory

he's in a bloody instrument of torture

Because you see that's where god's goodness was

most displayed

Oh it's nice to sing the hallelujah chorus

But you also have to sing on a Hill far away

stood an old rugged cross the emblem of suffering

and shame

Because they're going to display his glory

In christ jesus

Who else became

our tabernacle

Our temple the meeting place between God and

human beings

Do you see the end of this verse

the word became flesh and made his dwelling among

us we have seen his glory the glory of the one

and only son who came from the father full of

grace and truth when God in tones who he is

before moses in that cave and exodus 34 he

describes himself in a variety of ways included

among them are he is full of the words are hard

to translate

full of

Love and faithfulness in hebrew the same words

for grace and truth

God displays himself not only as the God who will

punish sinners but he's full of grace and truth

and forgives

and now John reflecting on who jesus is who

manifest god's goodness his glory in the cross he

says he was full of

Grace and truth

The grace and truth and brought him to the cross

And paid for our sins

Indeed John bore witness to him John the baptist

all the biblical writers tell us that the four

runner announced who jesus was before jesus came

and then he has out of his fullness outta the

fullness of jesus we have all received grace in

place of grace already given that's exactly what

is meant we had received a grace now we've got a

great that substituted for it it doesn't mean

grace on top of grace merely added up like

presence around the Christmas tree piled up one

on top of another blessing after blessing that's

that's not what has meant we have all received

A grace in place of a grace already given what

does that mean for the next verse tells us for

the law was given through moses that's taking you

back to exodus 32 33 34 the law was given to

moses grace and truth came through jesus christ

In other words the gift of the law was a gracious

thing it was a wonderful thing it was uh a

gracious gift that God gave to his people as he

brought them along the pilgrim way in preparation

for who jesus was

but grace and truth products at alls

that came through jesus christ

not in the display of glory to moses in a cave in

the display of jesus and a bloody sacrifice on

the cross

The law covenant was a gracious gift from God but

now jesus is going to introduce a new continent

alternately grace and truth this is a grace that

replaces that old grace it's a new covenant in

fact it's more than that no one has ever seen God

is not what God said and exodus 33 no one can

look on my face and live

The one and only son who is himself God

and his in closest relationship with the father

has made him known do you hear what this text is

saying

Do you want to know what God looks like

Look at jesus

No one has seen God and God in all of his

transcendent splendor we still cannot see until

the last day

The word became flesh

God became a human being that's why later in this

book just before jesus goes to the cross he says

to his own disciples have have I been with you

all this time and yet have you not known me he

has seen me has seen the father

Do you wanna know what the character of God is

like

Study jesus

do you wanna know what the holiness of God is

like

study jesus junior the wrath of God is like

study jesus you wonder what the forgiveness of

God is like

Study jesus do you wanna know what the glory of

God is like

Study jesus

All the way

to that executable cross

Study jesus

May I tell you what concluding story

It's it's an old story now

my first degree was in chemistry and mathematics

at mcgill University in Montreal a long time ago

now

And um

Somewhere along the line I'd be friended a

wonderful

Pakistani gentleman

he was twice as old as I was he had come to

mcgill to do a phd in Islamic studies

miguel had a very fine Islamic Institute at the

time and um he left his wife and two children

behind in Pakistan um and so he was lonely and

somewhere along the line we were in the man's

dorm and I befriended him and

it dawned on me after a while he was trying to

convert me to his love

I was a bit

Thick but eventually I realized that's what he

was trying to do so I thought maybe I should

return the favor

except that he was a trained was longfellow jen

and I was studying chemistry you know

I remember walking down the Hill one night on

pine Avenue um he agreed to come to church with

me wanted to see what it was like and he said to

me Don you study mathematics yes

yes

if you have one Cup and then you add another Cup

how many cups do you have well I studied

mathematics so I said to

if you have two cups and you add another Cup how

many cups do you have left I said three if you

have three cups and you take away one Cup how

many cups do you have I said to so far I was

hitting on all cylinders

so he said Do you believe that

the father is gone yes

oh I could see where this was going

you believe that jesus is God yes you believe

that the Sun is that the holy spirit is God yes

so if you have one guard plus one God bless one

God how many guards do you have

I was studying chemistry I was supposed to answer

that

the best I could do was listen if you're gonna

use a mathematical model then let me choose the

branch of mathematics

lets talk about infinities infinity plus infinity

plus infinity equals

Infinity

II served infinite God

well he laughed and thought it was a great joke

and we went that was the level of our friendship

and we weren't getting anywhere suddenly it

dawned on me about November that he never read

the Christian bible he didn't want it never held

one in his hand so and bottom one

I brought him a Christian bible he said where do

I start he didn't know how it was put together he

didn't know about the old testament and new

testament he didn't know about the gospels he

didn't know about moses and where you fit in the

whole thing he had heard all of these names of

course from the coke on but he didn't know how

the bible were

And I didn't know what to suggest to him so I

said well why don't you start with john's gospel

so I showed them where it was and Matthew Mark

luke and John start with john's gospel

but of course coming as he did from Asia he

didn't read books the way I would read a book you

know how many pages kinda get through tonight and

the more the better

no he had a different style of reading where

you'd read something and then you stop and you

think about it and turn it over your head go back

and reread it was meditating he was reflecting

was thinking about it he didn't stop

Ask me any questions he just he just read quietly

That Christmas I brought them home to my parents

who at that point lived on the French side of of

our capital city auto mall on in a place called

Hall

And it transpired that my father had heart

problems and my mother and I spent most of our

time in the hospital and my dear friend muhammad

youssef was um left largely on his own by the end

of that Christmas break it turned out that um dad

was fine so I ask to borrow the car we only had

the one so I could take to take a moment use of

to see some of the sites in the capital city

and we went here and there and eventually went to

our parliament buildings and in those days there

was much less security than there is now we got

in one of these guide tours 30 of us being

Around the rotunda at the back where the library

is and the Senate chambers and the House of

commons and the rogue's gallery of Canadian Prime

ministers from sir John a macdonald and and and

so forth and all of these

comments that filled in a bit of Canadian history

we listened we got back to the Central fiery and

there there are these huge pillars and at the top

of each color is a little fresco where there is a

finger and the guide explained there is our stall

Government must be based on knowledge there is

socrates for government must be based on wisdom

there is moses for government must be based on

law he went all the way around

and he said any questions

My friend piped up where is jesus christ

The guy did what gods do under such circumstances

they simply say I think your partner

So mohamad did what foreigners do under such

circumstances they assume that they've been

misunderstood because of their thick accent so he

said it more clearly and more loudly where is

jesus christ

And now there were three groups in the way of the

Canadian parliament listening to a Pakistani

Muslim ask where jesus was

I was looking for a crack in the ground fall into

I had no idea where this was coming from

finally the guy blurted out what the why should

jesus be here

We'll have a look shocked

He said I read in the Christian bible that the

law was given to moses but grace and truth came

through jesus christ where is jesus christ

The guy said I don't know anything about that and

I'm not heard under my breath preach it brother

Did you see how it looked to muhammad's point of

view he was a Muslim he understood about a God

who has laws who has standards who brings terror

who sits in judgment over you

God who is sovereign and holy and powerful he

understood all of that

But it already been captured by jesus full of

grace and truth who displays his glory

profoundly in the cross

And becomes the meeting place between God and

sinners

because he dies a center's death

Let us pray

Lord you know all of our hearts and minds as we

sit here quietly

Some of us have been believers for a long time

But we've seen equally begun to cherish sin again

and we are ashamed

Help us to see that when we send you are always

the most defended party

But that our hope to is in you

and the sacrifice you have provided in the person

of your son

We have no other hope

And for some of them gathered here this this is

new but it's wonderfully new

Help them to cry the quietness of their own minds

and hearts even now lord be merciful to me a

sinner

For jesus sake

Amen