Matt Chandler - Through the Word

If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab those. We’re going to be in John chapter one. While you’re turning there, just a couple of things: our sixth graders have joined us in here. Those who are kind of moving out of Kids Village and into middle school ministry are with us today. If you are one of our sixth graders, I would love for you to stand up for me so I can see you, and then we can celebrate that you’re with us. Go ahead, you can do it! Hey, look at me real quick. We do not think you are the Church of tomorrow; we believe that God has given us you and Christ in you as a congregation. We are eager that you are among us this morning, so welcome to what, when I was a kid, we called «big church.» So again, welcome!

Another thing that I want to lay before you, and hopefully we will have some information rolling out in the next couple of days: there are some massive floods taking place in southern India. I don’t know if you are aware of that or not, but it’s making Houston’s situation last year look pretty small. We have a lot of members with family members living in that area of southern India who are unable to contact them. I don’t know if you know this, but all those airports are shut down; there is no way out. It is turning out to be what will likely be a humanitarian crisis on a very large scale. Our elders are looking at how we might step into that and help. But just know that right now, there is a real catastrophic situation occurring in southern India, and many of our members are directly affected by this, so I just want you to be aware of that as you pray. Again, we will roll out some information in the days and weeks to come about how we want to try to partner and help in this area.

Now, to say that I’ve been eager about the Gospel of John would probably be to undersell what I have been feeling. I’ve experienced a little personal renewal while looking at the life of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John, so just to warn you, that’s probably going to come out today. If something happens today, that’s what’s happening!

The Gospel of John is a little bit different from the other three Gospels, which are called the synoptic Gospels, right? So, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are written by and large in the same kind of order and the same kind of language. Sometimes the stories are chronologically exactly the same, and sometimes the wording is almost exactly the same. Then John comes at it from a different perspective. That’s why you’ve got the three synoptic Gospels and you’ve got the Gospel of John. Some of the most beautiful pictures of who Jesus Christ is can be found in the Gospel of John. You’ve got these seven miracles that reveal his divinity. You’ve got the seven «I am» statements. You have the woman at the well. I mean, I could just keep going! You have Lazarus being raised from the dead. You’ve got all these stories that many of us who have grown up in church have digested, and they’ve helped us understand who Jesus is and at times combat the lies surrounding who he is now. I’m eager to dive in with you.

I know you’re there in John chapter one, but John really helps us out by just telling us what he’s trying to do in his Gospel. This is John 20, starting in verse 30. Now I’ll put that on the screen while you stay right there in one, alright? We’ve got a clock! Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples that are not written in this book, but these—this book we’re about to read—are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So John is saying, «Hey, this is what I’m trying to do; this is what I’m about.» Since this is Scripture, this is what God wants to accomplish in you and in me as we dive into John for however long we’re going to be in there. Here’s what he says: that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ.

When the Bible says that Jesus is the Christ, it lays before us that Jesus is the solution to sin and death, which leads to the next piece: that he is the son of God. Jesus has not been merely a philosopher or some sort of moral teacher; instead, he is the Christ, the very son of God. Then you’ve got this beautiful little text here that we may have life in his name. So again, even the way that this is written implies that life is found in his name—not just by following his teachings, not just by knowing the stories about him, not just by having this vague general sense that, yes, Jesus is my «homeboy,» but rather that he is the Christ, the Son of God, and in him—which is ultimately a reference to what it means to have union with Christ—which would make a great sermon series! But I shouldn’t bring that up today on the first weekend of a sermon series. However, maybe one day, by the grace of God, in a summer series, next fall, or three years from now when we finish John, we can dive into union with Christ.