The Prologue in Poetry

Transcript

Well, family, if you’d be so kind as to turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter one. If you’re here this morning and you don’t have a Bible, there are some Bibles below the seat in front of you. You can find our passage there. And if you don’t have a Bible at home, you’re welcome to take that with you so long as you promise to read it, okay? Family, we’ve just spent the last three months or so walking through the first 11 chapters of Genesis in a sermon series that we called A Beautiful But Broken World, where we took a deep dive into the origins of everything we know concerning our world. We explored the beauty of creation, not just the earth, the skies and seas, planets and animals, but most profoundly, the creation of humanity, which is the apex of God’s creation. We looked at the intimacy that God intended

for us to have in the garden. We looked at the tragedy of the fall, the spreading of sin, God’s judgment in the devastation of the flood, and then the pride of humanity at the Tower of Babel. And through it all, we followed this thread of promise, the whisper that came shortly after the fall, the promise of the coming head crusher. And with that promise, the world has ached for rescue and has experienced this deep longing for restoration. And now, this morning, we’re stepping into a new sermon series through the Gospel of John. But here’s the thing. John’s Gospel is not altogether disconnected from everything we just preached on in Genesis. In fact, they are in many ways tethered together. So we’re not just dealing with a new sermon series or a new story. It’s essentially the next chapter in the same story. So today, as we begin this new sermon series,

I wanna do something a little different than we typically do when we begin a new sermon series. Rather than spending all of our time looking at the, and I know this is kind of nerdy, but I like doing it, you know, the historical background, the structure, the author, the literary style, all the overall things necessary to create context for the book. Today, I wanna set the context for the Gospel of John in just one sentence. Just one sentence to frame the who, the what, and the why of the Gospel. That way, we can spend the majority of our time together tracing the lines between what we talked about in Genesis and where we are going in John’s Gospel. Okay, so if you’re the note-taking type, here’s my sermon series context in one sentence. Are you ready? I think I might’ve put it up there. Yeah, there you go, one sentence context, okay.

The Gospel of John is written by John, the beloved disciple, to present Jesus as the eternal Son of God, and it was written so that we might know him, believe in him, and have life in his name. Amen. Now, to be clear, that’s not just my summary. That’s actually John’s summary, for the most part. In fact, listen to what John says at the end of his Gospel in chapter 20, verses 30 and 31. He says, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name. So everything in this Gospel flows from that single purpose to reveal who Jesus is so that people would believe and live. All right, so now that we got the who, the what,

The Word

and the why out of the way, now we can spend the rest of our time tracing the lines from the garden to the Gospel, from Genesis to John. Now, before we do this, let me just read our text for us, and then I’ll pray, and then we’ll dive into the tracing of the lines. John chapter one, verses one through 18. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 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 bear witness about the light

that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 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. For from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father’s side. He has made him known. This, family, is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, as we open up your word this morning, we do posture ourselves in deep dependence. We confess that we need the Holy Spirit to bring light to this text so that we might see Jesus, believe and have life in his name. So we pray, oh Lord and God, that you would come and be our help this morning. We need you. We love you. Conform us more into the image of your son

through this exploration of your word. We pray these things in Christ’s name. Amen. Okay, so to help us along this morning, I’ve broken this sermon into five sections that I think will help us understand not only what this passage is about, but also help trace the first 11 chapters of Genesis to John one. Okay, so we’re gonna look at the word, the light, the incarnation, the right and the glory. One quick note before we dive too deep into things, this section that we’re looking at this morning is what’s called the prologue, which just is a cool fancy word of saying it’s a kind of summary or introduction to the book. But even though this is an intro, this is definitely more than just your basic overview. This prologue lays out the major themes that we’ll encounter throughout this entire gospel. So in a sense, everything we’ll unpack over the next year

is hinted at right here in these opening verses. And then there’s something else to keep in mind as we move through these verses this morning. John doesn’t just write this prologue as a straightforward narrative. John writes this prologue in poetry. So its structure has rhythm and repetition and symmetry, and then it kind of breaks into some asymmetry. So as we move through these first 18 verses, it’s worth keeping in mind that we gotta slow down in some spots and let the words hit you, not just like data, but like a hymn, like a song that introduces a story in symphony. So this section is very much theology wrapped in poetry, which I think is beautiful if you know what you’re looking for. So let’s begin with the word. Look at me again in verses one through three. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God,

and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. So right away, you can kind of catch the poetic rhythm of what John is doing here. But more important than the poetry, I wonder, did you catch the very first words of John’s gospel? In the beginning. These words, by design, are meant to pull our focus back to the beginning in Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So John is not just randomly quoting the opening line of the Bible here. He’s not just giving us a poetic introduction. He’s making a theological declaration here. Genesis begins with what God did in creation. John begins with who God is in creation. Before light ever pierced the darkness, before time began, the word was. It wasn’t becoming.

It wasn’t arriving. It just was. This means the word was eternal and self-existent. And John notes that the word wasn’t just with God, as if it was simply present alongside of God, or in close proximity to God in creation. John says the word was God, meaning this word was a distinct person. This is a bold and clear claim about the identity of Jesus. John is establishing the fact that Jesus is not just God’s messenger. He’s not simply a prophet speaking on behalf of God, like all the other prophets we see in scripture. No, Jesus is God in full, the eternal, self-existent, divine word that was both present and participated in speaking creation into existence. Now, why does John refer to Jesus as the word? Why not the son right here? Why not just say Jesus? Why choose the word? Well, John poetically and theologically uses the word

because words reveal. John calls Jesus the word, which in the original language is logos, to make a powerful, layered statement about who Jesus is and what he’s come to do. Jesus is the word because Jesus is how God speaks to us, clearly, personally, and powerfully. Just like our words reveal who we are, how our words expose our thoughts and our hearts, Jesus reveals or exposes God’s thoughts and heart. So when John calls Jesus the word, he’s saying Jesus is the full message of God. Jesus is God speaking, not simply in sentences, but in a person. Jesus is God’s ultimate self-expression. He’s not just what God says, he’s how God says it. Hebrews chapter one, verses one and two says it this way.

Long ago, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son

— Hebrews 1

(ESV)

.

And that’s the point. Jesus is the final word, the personal word and the living word. So let me just say it like this. If you ever wanted to know what God is like, look to Jesus. If you ever wanted to hear God speak, listen to Jesus. If you want to see the glory of God, behold the word made flesh. And then we see in these next three verses how John begins to accentuate this reality that not only is Jesus the eternal word that was there in the beginning with God, but it tells us that all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. In other words, everything in this world owes its existence to the self-existent word. From the stars in the sky to the skins on your hands, from Mount Hood to the beating heart that sits in your chest, to the breath in your lungs,

everything is owing to the word that created. Colossians 1.16 says it like this. For by him, all things were created, that him being Jesus in heaven and on earth. All things were created through Jesus and for Jesus. So Jesus is not just present in creation. He is the agent of creation. Jesus is not simply a part of the story or in addition to the story. He is the author of the story, which means before Jesus was ever laid in a manger, he laid the foundations of the world. Before Jesus took on human flesh, he spoke human flesh into existence from the dust for man. And listen, this same word who created all things in the beginning, including the garden, is also the promised one that was spoken of in the garden. You remember Genesis 3.15, right after sin enters the world, God with his word curses humanity,

but in his goodness, he also speaks a word of promise. He says, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. This was the first whisper of the gospel, the promise of the coming redeemer, the head crusher. And here’s what’s crazy. The word who created the world, including the serpent in Genesis, is the same word who has now come to crush the head of the serpent in John. The creator is stepping into creation, not just to fix what is broken, but to overthrow the one who broke it. So we’re not just being introduced to Jesus as the divine word or the logos, we’re meeting the one who has been promised ever since Eden, the long anticipated hero of humanity. Here in John one, in this new beginning,

as the head crusher is finally revealed to humanity, he’s not just being revealed, but he acts, which brings us to the second section, the light. We see this in verses four through nine. In him was life and the life was the light of men. 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 bear witness about the light that all might believe in him or through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light, the true light, which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. Okay, so before we move forward, let’s just go back to Genesis one, right before light breaks into the darkness of our world. Genesis one two says, the earth was without form and void

and darkness was over the face of the deep. So this is the scene of the pre-creation world, chaos, emptiness, unformed, unfilled, uninhabitable, and full of darkness. And what’s the first thing that God does? He speaks with his words, let there be light. And there was light. So God’s first act after creating the world was to speak light into the darkness of the world and the light complies to the word’s commands. Now John tells us the same thing is happening here again, just on a deeper and more profound level. This time with this first act in the new beginning, light breaks into the darkness again, except this darkness isn’t physical darkness, it’s spiritual. So this darkness that John is referring to is not the absence of light, it’s the presence of sin. And into this darkness, once again, God acts. But he doesn’t say let there be light,

instead he sends the light. The text tells us that in him was life and the life was the light of men. So Jesus isn’t just bringing life and light into the world, he is life and light personified. You remember when we were going through Genesis, we talked about this glorious light that was displayed in Genesis one long before the sun and moon and stars even existed. That same glorious, self-illuminating light has now come to us in Jesus. When John says in him was life, he’s not talking about the word being simply a biological reality or bringing physical life into reality. This is divine life, eternal life, the kind of life that will never have an end, the kind of life that doesn’t just animate bodies but regenerates and restores the soul. John says, or Jesus says in John 11 25, I am the resurrection and the life.

And it’s this life, this divine, uncreated, infinite light that has now dawned on humanity to offer us humanity, life, and is therefore the light of men. That means that men need to have this life, not just eternal life, but a flourishing life to see clearly, to think wisely, to think rightly, to love deeply. In other words, men and women need the light to expose the spiritual darkness all around us and the spiritual darkness that sits in our own hearts. And this illumination comes only from Christ himself as he shines the light into our hearts. And then John drops this gem of a sentence that is both beautifully poetic but defiant. He says, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. And here’s the point that John is making poetically. Darkness tries to fight against this light. Darkness attempts to hide itself

or resist itself from the light, but it can’t win. And to be clear, this is not just poetic, this is a cosmic reality. Light brings a waging of war. Light versus darkness, life versus death, Christ versus chaos. And every time there is a battle between these opposing forces, the light will always win. The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So this same God who spoke light into the universe now shines his glorious light into the human heart so that we could see Jesus and that in seeing him, we can see the very glory of God. But John understands that for us to see the light, the light needs a witness.

Just like the sun and the moon in Genesis were placed there in its perfect place to govern and guide, John the Baptist is placed here to point and proclaim. The text tells us of John the Baptist that he was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. And that word witness is key here. John didn’t come to be the light, he came to point people to the light. And John’s job was simple, prepare the way and point people to Jesus. And family, honestly, this is the job of every Christian. This is the role of every believer, of every church, of every sermon, of every Christian parent, every Christian coworker, every Christian neighbor and every Christian friend. So if you’ve ever wondered what is your unique role in the storyline of human history, here it is. You’re a witness to the light. You prepare and you point people

and you pray and you trust and you ask for the spirit to open up the eyes of the spiritually blind so that they might see Jesus, the light of the world. And then in verse nine, John gives us this profound declaration. He says, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. And here is what John’s getting at. Jesus, and listen, this is important in Portland. What John is saying is that Jesus is not just one light among many other lights to help us see God. Jesus is not a prophet among other prophets who offer some spiritual insight or illumination about God. He is the true light, the original light, the exclusive light, the uncreated light. And he has come into the world to reveal light in the darkness and to save us from our sins. Isaiah nine two says, the people who have walked in darkness

The Light

have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness on them has light shown. And this prophecy some 700 years before this gospel was ever written finds its fulfillment right here in Christ Jesus, the light of the world, amen. And this light has not only come into our world to overcome the darkness only, it’s also come to restore our image of God, which brings us to section three, the incarnation. And we see this in both verse 14 and verse 18. Verse 14 says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory as the only son from the father full of grace and truth. And then verse 18, no one has ever seen God, the only God who was at the father’s side. He has made him known. Family, these are some of the most mind bending

and worship inducing words in all of scripture. The word became flesh. John doesn’t say the word became a man or the word took on a human body. He says flesh as a kind of poetic but crude word aimed to hit the ears so that it provokes you. So it’s on purpose because John wants to emphasize the beauty of this reality, the incarnation. God, the creator of everything and everyone takes on human flesh. He wraps himself in the skin of mankind that he created, which means Jesus took on all the things associated with human flesh. He took on weakness, hunger, sleep, tears, blood, and breath. He stepped into the frailty and mess of our humanity without losing, and listen, this is super important to understand, without losing one ounce of his divinity. So he didn’t just become less God to become more man. He became fully man without ceasing to be fully God.

This is what theologians call the hypostatic union. That God is at the same time fully God and fully man. He didn’t just appear to have flesh. He didn’t just disguise himself in flesh. He literally became flesh. This is crazy. The uncreated took on the created. The infinite put on finitude. The word who spoke galaxies into the universe and galaxies into being now has a tongue and a heartbeat, a skeleton, tear ducts, fingernails, and why did he take on this flesh?

Don’t miss this. To dwell among us. To be with us. That word dwelt in the original language is translated tabernacled, and it’s meant to take our minds back into the wilderness when the presence of God filled the tabernacle and lived among the people of Israel. Back then the glory of God was surrounded by these kind of curtains and clouds and sacrifice, but here the glory of God walks among humans and human skin, and John tells us that Jesus took on human flesh so that we can see him full of grace and truth. This is how God decides to make himself known to the very humans he created. Verse 18 says, no one has ever seen God, the only God who was at the Father’s side. He has made him known. God was invisible, unseeable, and really unapproachable until Jesus took on human flesh, which means that Jesus is not just a glimpse of God.

He’s not just a shadow or a representative. He is what you might call the exegesis of God, the exposing, the explanation, the unfolding, the translation of the invisible to the visible. Hebrews 1.3 says it like this. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. Colossians 1.14 says he is the image of the invisible God, and all this talk about image should really bring us back to Genesis 1.26 when God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. You see, humanity was made to image God, to reflect him, to look like him, to reflect his justice, his love, his beauty, and his truth, but sin has shattered that image in so many ways. Now, we didn’t stop being image bearers, but that divine image in us got very distorted, clouded by pride and cracked by the fall,

and so what does God do? He takes on the flesh of humanity. He becomes like those he created to restore the image that was broken, to perfectly reflect the image that we were originally meant to bear. God sends us the true image of God and of man to save us. He sends the son, the one who is at the father’s side and whom the father has known and who makes the father known, so Jesus doesn’t just restore the image of God in us, he reveals the image of God to us. He shows us what God is like. He perfectly displays what the father is like. Have you ever wondered what the father is like? Look at Jesus, kind and compassionate Jesus, who cares for his people, who loves so much that he lays his life down. This is an exact picture of the father to you,

The Incarnation

and I know that many of us have broken pictures of what an earthly father looks like. The heavenly father is not like that. The heavenly father looks like Jesus, and without Jesus taking on human flesh, we could not see God. We could not see the father. But even though Jesus, through Jesus, the light has come in human flesh to reveal to us what God is like, humanity in their sin still rejects him, which brings us to section four, the right. It’s in verses 10 through 13. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,

nor of the will of man, but of God. So here’s what John is saying here. The creator stepped into his creation in the form of human flesh so that the world might see him and know him, but they still don’t recognize him. He walked into his own world, and he was treated like a stranger. He came to his own covenant people, the one in which the Old Testament scriptures have long pointed to, and they closed the door of salvation. John is painting here a really heartbreaking picture if you think about it. This is Genesis-level heartbreak. I mean, let’s just go back to Genesis 3 for a second. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of day. They knew him. They knew his presence. They knew his voice, and yet they chose to reject his word of security and safety, and in their rebellious sin,

everything gets messed up, and what’s the first thing they do? They hide. They cover themselves. They distance themselves. They resist him. They don’t want to see God, and in Genesis 4, it takes it even a step further. Cain, the firstborn of humanity, he brings an offering. He knows who God is. He’s not ignorant, but when God accepts his brother’s offering and not his own, he does not turn back in humility. He turns in envy. He turns in violence, and he murders his brother. The first generation after the fall confirms the reality that humanity has moved from walking with God to hiding from him, to rejecting his voice, to killing his image-bearers. That’s the progression of people in our fallen world. God has made himself known, but they reject him. That’s the pattern, and John is telling us it still happened even when Jesus became flesh.

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. You know, a lot of people in our world, they say things like, well, if I could just see God, well, then I would believe. If God is real, then where is he? Why doesn’t he just show up and prove himself to be God? Then everybody will bend their knee. Well, here’s the sobering reality. He did. He did. God stepped into the world he created. He took on human flesh. He walked among us. People heard his voice. They watched him heal the sick. They saw him raise the dead, and yet they still rejected him. You see, the problem isn’t that God hasn’t revealed himself. The problem is that our hearts don’t want him. It’s not about evidence. It’s about desire. It’s not about visibility. It’s about our sinful hearts

that love the darkness rather than the light. The scripture is clear. We suppress the truth in unrighteousness, meaning we plug our ears, and we close our eyes because we don’t want him. This is what sin does. It darkens the mind. It hardens the hearts. Even when the light of the world stood right in front of the world, the world still chose the darkness. And really, if you think about it, this is what makes God’s grace so amazing, that even in the face of rejection, Jesus did not walk away from us. He kept loving us. He kept pursuing us. He kept going all the way to the cross. He asks the Father to forgive their rejection of him because they don’t know what they’re doing.

And this same Jesus, who was rejected by many, still loves, he still pursues, and he still invites us to him. This is why John says, to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Though many in the world rejected him, some did receive him. And that word receive here means to welcome him on his terms, to take hold of him, to entrust your life to him. And for those who did receive him, listen, he gave the right to become children of God. This means he gave the authority, the legal standing, the adoption that is sealed in the courts of heaven. And family, listen, you need to know this. This is so important. Receiving Jesus isn’t just about the forgiveness of sins. Yes, that’s part of it, but it’s primarily about adoption. Receiving God, or God receiving you,

isn’t about God tolerating you. It’s not him just pacifying his anger towards you because of your sin. Receiving God, or him receiving you, is him naming you. It’s him legally declaring, you are my child. God says to us, beloved child, you are mine, and nothing can take that right away from you. I have legally sealed all of your divine rights and your divine privileges as my child with my own blood. Do you know what this means, family? It means that you are fully accepted, not tolerated. You’re not just forgiven, you’re brought into the family of God. It means you’re loved with the same love the father has for the son. Have you thought about that reality? It means you have a new name and a new nature and a new heart and a new home in a world that’s constantly asking the question, who am I, where do I belong?

God answers, you are my child, you belong to me. I have you in the grip of my grace. Being a child of God means you have an unshakable security in a world full of instability. It means you have an inheritance that can’t be touched by a volatile market or politics or aging or death. It means you have access to the father so you can approach the throne of grace with confidence. It means you’re never alone. You have the indwelling Holy Spirit as the guarantee and a guide. It means that you are a part of a family that spans nations and generations, not just this church but the church and perhaps the most powerful reality. It means that you are being conformed into the image of the son. He not only makes you his child but he makes you look like his own child. Family receiving Jesus means

you’re not just saved from something, you’re saved to someone. You’re becoming more like Jesus and one day you’ll see him face to face and you will be made perfectly like him. Listen, being a child of God is not a sentimental idea. It is a supernatural reality. It is your highest identity, your deepest security and your truest freedom. This is why we call each other brothers and sisters and family. We don’t call each other those things because they sound cool. If anything, they sound very uncool to a non-Christian world. It sounds very strange. We call each other brothers and sisters and family because that is our reality. Because every single one of us who has received him by faith are his children. It’s not just a metaphor. It’s a legal reality. It’s a right. And one of the reasons why God calls us his children and brings us into this adopted family

is because the Christian life was never meant to be a solo journey. When we receive Jesus, we are born into and brought into a new community marked by grace and this community, it finds its greatest and most practical expression in the local church. Family, this is why membership is so important to Christians because it identifies those who are in this related relationship in this localized expression of the family of God. We are brothers and sisters and we are displaying that locally. And friend, listen, if you are here this morning and you are not a Christian, if you have not received Christ, this text rings true for you. You can receive him today. It’s not enough to know about Jesus. It’s not enough to admire Jesus as a good teacher or even live in a way that is morally equivalent to him. You must receive him by faith and you can receive him now

by turning from your sins and turning to Jesus, making him your Lord and Savior. And he will most certainly forgive your sins, but most importantly, he will give you the right to be a child of God. If you wanna know more about what it means to follow Jesus, to be God’s child, please talk with anyone in this room after the service. We would love to help you know what it means to receive Jesus and his free gift of salvation and this free birthright that belongs to all who believe. Romans 8.15 declares this right that we have by faith so beautifully. For those who have received Jesus, you have received the spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by whom we cry, Abba, Father. Amen.

The Right

Family, this reality of being an adopted son and daughter is one of the reasons why we should be a people marked by adoption. Because it most profoundly puts on display the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we take on that reality of adoption, we display the beautiful news of Jesus Christ who has adopted us and grafted us into the family of God. It is such an amazing picture. We should be people of adoption. Amen? Okay, family, this brings us to our last section, the glory. Verses 14 through 18. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory as the only son from the Father full of grace and truth. 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. For from his fullness,

The Glory

we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God, who was at the Father’s side. He has made him known. God moved into our world, and the word dwelt among us. What came with this was something that the world could never fully comprehend it and has never fully seen before. God’s glory. John says, now we have seen the glory. The glory as of the only son from the Father full of grace and truth. So not only was glory partially seen before, like something Moses observed on Mount Sinai. This glory is not just a glow behind a veil. This is glory you can touch. Glory that healed the blind. Glory that bent down to wash the feet of his disciples. Glory that was crowned with thorns

and lifted up on a cross. That’s what John says we have seen in Jesus. And not only have we seen his glory, we have received his grace, all of which flows from his fullness. And you know what this means for you, dear Christian? It means that he’s not operating with a limited supply of grace. He’s not rationing out grace as if grace might run out. From his fullness, we have received grace upon grace. And family, that’s a beautiful phrase that you need to memorize. It means grace stacked on top of grace. Grace replacing our previous grace. Grace that is heaped upon grace. It’s wave after wave of mercy crashing over the shores of our sin. Dear Christian, have you been weighed down by your sin this week? Do you feel distant from God because of it? Are you believing that God’s forgiveness and grace has run out for you this time

because you’ve repeated that same sin again this week that you shouldn’t have done? Jesus said there is grace upon grace. The same grace I had for you last week, I got more to give. When you feel that grace has run out on you, he has more grace to give. That’s why we call it amazing grace. That’s why we call it marvelous grace. But family, to celebrate the significance of this grace and to fully appreciate his glory, we need to remember the backdrop of Genesis. This isn’t grace that flows out of nowhere. This grace and glory comes to us in the wake of exile. Remember Genesis 3, verses 23 through 24. Therefore the Lord God sent them out of the garden of Eden. He drove out the man. After Adam and Eve rebelled, they were exiled. They were cursed and cut off from the presence of God.

And the glory of God was removed from them. Humanity’s default posture ever since has been outside the garden, separated by sin, wandering around without the presence of God and the light of God’s glory was dimmed. You remember Genesis 11? Jan preached this so wonderfully. Humanity tried to climb their way back to the presence of God by building a tower. And in the process, instead of seeing God’s glory, they stole his glory. At the tower, man attempted to reach into the heavens and showcase their own glory through their own efforts, with their own hands. I mean, this is what we see in chapter 11, verse four. They said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves. Family, this is glory thieving. This quite literally is the opposite of what John the Baptist does.

When John the Baptist steps on the scene, he points people to Jesus. He says, he must increase, but I must decrease. The Tower of Babel, God’s response was not gracious. God came down, not in approval, but in judgment. He scattered their language. He scattered their plans. He kept them from glory thieving. And God’s message was clear. You cannot climb your way back to me and I will not share my glory. But now, family, in the wake of the word made flesh, we see this kind of reversal of the Tower of Babel, the word becoming flesh and dwelling among us. Do you understand what this means? It’s the opposite of Babel. It means God, in humility, took on flesh and came down to dwell with his people. But this time, not in judgment, but in mercy. Not to destroy us, but to give us grace upon grace.

Not to confuse us like at Babel, but to clarify through the word. Not to scatter a prideful people, but to gather his children together. Not to push us away, but to pull us in, to make his name known and to have his glory fill the earth through us. You see, God has come down, because no matter how tall we built a tower, no matter how strong we thought we were, or how righteous we aimed to be, we could never reach heaven’s gates on our own. We needed a rescue. We needed the promised head crusher, not just to crush the head of the serpent, but to crush our pride and our glory thieving, to save us from the sin that was killing us and keeping us from him. No matter how hard we try, no matter how sincere or spiritually we claim to be, no matter how moral we think we measure up,

we could never keep the law of God perfectly, and that’s why Jesus came down. Verse 17 says, for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The law that Moses gave to us revealed our need. It exposed how far we fall short. It shows us the separation that sin causes. But the law, as beautiful as it is, could not save us. It could not cleanse us. It could not bring us to God, so Jesus came to us, not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. He came in human flesh, carrying grace and truth in his hands. He came down because never in a million years could we climb up. He came near because we kept wandering away from him. He came in flesh so that we might finally see and know the heart of God. Galatians 3.13 says, Christ redeemed us

from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Philippians 2.6-8 says,

though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross

— Philippians 2

(ESV)

. Family, he took the curse so that we could receive blessing. That’s grace. He descended so that we might be lifted up. That’s grace. He made God known to us so that we could know him. That’s grace upon grace upon grace. From Eden to exile, from Babel to Bethlehem, God has come down to make himself known. And family, that’s good news. And that’s what this gospel of John reveals so clearly. We could never get to him, so he came to us. The question this passage presses on us is not, will God let me come near?

The real question is, will you receive the God who has already come near to you? Because he has, and he is full of grace for your failures. He is full of truth for your confusion. He’s full of mercy for your mess, and he’s full of glory for your worship. And from his fullness, we have received grace upon grace. Here’s the deal, from Genesis to John, it’s always been one story. Creation, fall, curse, exile, confusion. But now, a new chapter in the story has begun. The promised head crusher has come, not only to deal with our sin, but to make himself known so that we might believe and live. Jesus doesn’t just fix the beginning. He is the new beginning. And over the next year, as we walk through this gospel, as we behold Jesus, the word, the eternal son of God, my prayer for us is that our vision of Jesus

would become more clear, that our affections for Jesus would grow deeper, and that our lives would be more fully shaped by his love. That as we watch him walk the roads of Galilee, as we listen to his voice calling his disciples and teaching the multitudes, as we see his compassion for the lost, the helpless, and the irreligious, as we stand in awe at his cross and his resurrection, that we would be more captivated by his glory, that we would be more conformed into his glorious image, and that our capacity to worship him for who he is would increase, amen? Family, be praying to that end week after week, because we need it. We need to see this Jesus in the gospel of John, because it’s life-giving, and it changes us. Let’s pray. Our father and our God, we thank you that you did not leave us on your own,

but you came and you made yourself known to us. We pray, oh Lord and God, for this next year, that we would encounter Jesus in ways we’ve never encountered him before, in magnificent, powerful ways. And we pray that your spirit would aid and govern and point us, just like John the Baptist, to this Jesus, so that we might live and believe in greater degrees. Oh God, we need your help to do that. We pray that you would meet us in the depths of the gospel of John. We pray these things in Christ’s name, amen.