Well, happy, happy, happy New Year. All right, well, if you haven't noticed yet having a little bit of voice problems today. All right. So that means two things I need out of you. Number one, I'm gonna need you to listen quickly. And number two, just pray that it makes it that it makes it. This is round three, and I think the Lord is going to do it. I've been thinking all week just about last year, the year 2024, and how incredibly special it really was. For some of you, it was the first time or the first year that you placed your trust in Jesus, and so just last year, you were seeing what it looks like to walk in his fullness. For some of you it's the first year you jumped in with us as a church, and you're seeing what biblical community looks like and what it looks like to worship Jesus as part of a church or part of a group, and it was incredible, incredible for you.
For some of you last year, it was your first mission trip last year or the first time you jumped into a life group or the first time that you actually trusted God with your finances and began to give and watch him bless you and your family for the first time. Maybe last year, you took up what it looks like to read your Bible daily or to pray. Listen, for this church last year, and for a lot of you personally, it was an incredible, incredible year. We had the biggest Easter, the biggest Life Group attendance, the biggest Christmas Eve services. It was a great year. We launched a counseling center. We launched and launched a new commons area, and it was incredible. But here's what I want us to do, but not want us to do. I want us to celebrate what God did, but I don't want us to miss what God wants to do in this year in 2025.
Man, I've just been thinking this year, what if this was the year for you? You know, what if this was the year that actually you sold out and began to really trust Jesus and really follow one of your lives? Speaking of Jesus, today, we are kicking off a brand new series for the year that I think, I know I'm the eternal optimist, right? I think it could be the biggest Kingdom Impact series, and I think it could be the biggest series for your life starting today and going actually through about the middle of May. You heard that right. All right. You heard it. We are going to launch into a series that walks through the gospel of John. Now, that totally intimidates me, all right? Totally does. I don't commit to anything but Melissa for that long, right? I just don't, but the book of John, if you could just have one book, well, let's say years from now that that persecution hit us and, and we had to choose one book to just kind of, kind of crumple up and put it in our pocket to keep with us, man, it would have to be the Book of John, and I mean, how many times have you heard, right?
If you wanna start reading the Bible, starting, John, if you wanna start following Jesus, read, John. Well, what I wanna do for these next months is I wanna show you why it's John and through John and through this gospel I wanna show you and do my best to show you who Jesus is. You know, you know, John is incredible, incredible, incredible guy to be able to do this. I, I can't think of a better way to start this whole journey off than to really look at who is it that wrote this book that we call John. It's actually the Apostle John. It's one of the 12, not just one of the 12. It was one of the three, and really you can make an argument that he was the closest to Jesus, the closest person on this planet that that walked with Jesus. John was one of the disciples that was walking by the sea that day.
Remember that Jesus said, throw down your nets and follow me. He was the disciple that was in that room. When that 12-year-old girl was raised, he was the disciple that got to see the, the upper room, right? He leaned up against Jesus's chest and spoke to him and asked, who's gonna betray you? He's the one that at the day that Jesus transfigured on that mountain, he got to see this moment, and now we are pulling into John's life at this very moment where it's years later, years later, he is probably 90 years old. He's been exiled to Patmos, the evil ruler. Dominion has come out of power. He's now come back into Ephesus and now John, the closest person that was left on this planet to Jesus. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he begins to write this book. This is John, the guy that in his book that we're gonna study for these next months that doesn't even refer to himself by name.
He just calls himself the one in whom Jesus loves. That's not a braggy statement. He's just saying, Hey, I'm a fisherman that God loves, that Jesus loves. He sits down at 90 years old, the last disciple left, and he writes this gospel. Can you imagine John's life at this point with me just for a minute? Can you imagine him walking the streets of Ephesus? Can you imagine how many times people stopped him in the street going, just tell me about him, right? Just tell me what he did. Tell me what he was like. Tell me what he looked like. Tell me how he talked. Tell me about the time, right? How many times in John's life, this is just my imagination, but how many times did it probably happen, right? We know you walked with him. Tell us about that 5,000 day, right? Tell us about the snack pack becoming the buffet, right?
Tell us, tell us what it was like when he sweat drops of blood for my sin. Tell us what he was like when he looked at you. He rebuked you, but he probably put his arm around you and said, it's for my kingdom. John, tell us what it was like. Tell us what he did. Tell us the moment. This probably happened to him so many times, but now he's been following Jesus for over 50 years. He's feeling the pains of people walking away from Jesus. He's feeling the pains of people really not understanding Jesus, and now John, the one that knew him best, writes this gospel. Matthew's already been written, Mark's already been written. Luke's already been written. They're already in circulation, and John looks at those guys and says, Hey, they told you what Jesus did. I want to tell you who Jesus is.
So listen, church, for these next months, we're simply going to follow John's journey and we're gonna focus on this potential life changing book that God has given us to show us who Jesus is, and listen, these words have the potential to change your life. So if you've got a copy of scripture today, I want you to open to the fourth book of the New Testament, the fourth book of the New Testament. Turn with me to the book of John, but don't go to the first chapter. I know that's what you wanna do, all right? Don't do that. We're gonna get there. I promise you, you're gonna think at many times we're not gonna go there, but we're gonna get there. Okay? I want you to go ahead and turn with me to John chapter 20. John chapter 20, to which you're like, well, Matt, why would we start this whole thing off at John 20?
Well, I'm glad you asked that because John 20 actually gives us the main idea, the main thought, the thesis statement, if you would, of the whole book. It gives us the purpose. There's not a better place to start than that. So John, chapter 20, here we go. We're gonna wear this book out. I'm telling you, by May, you're gonna throw this book in your, you're gonna throw your Bible in your front seat of your car, and it's just gonna open to John. All right? Here it is. John chapter 20, verse 30 says this, John says, Jesus, this is the end, right? This is towards the end of the book. Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. It's so weird. You're like, okay, John, why do you, why would you tell us that? Here's why.
Look at the next verse. John says, look, I didn't even write everything down, but lemme tell you why I wrote this down. But these things verse 31, but these things are written that you may believe. Alright? Circle that word, star that word. Draw an arrow. For those of you that do the doodly, little arts and the deal, do that end right on that word, right? These are written that you may believe that what? That Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and here it is. Circle it again, by believing that's the title of the message, by the way, by believing that you may have life in His name. Now, to which we could say, shut the book. Let's go to Ryan's, right? No, no, no. It's not what we're doing. It's not what we're doing. Why? Why? Why? Because there's so much in this statement, and John, after all these 20 chapters, John says, lemme tell you why I've written this book.
I've written it so that you may believe so. You may believe in what? That Jesus is the Messiah. That Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the son of God. And when John says, and when you do believe, when you do believe, here's what it is. Here's the promise. You can have life. You can have life. Yes, you can have life now in the fullest, and the joy and the promise and the protection and the purpose and enlightenment of, of who Jesus is, but also importantly, yes, you can have life in eternity. You can have it forever with the one Jesus and whom you have believe you can spend eternity with him. So church, yes, this book is gonna tell us so much of what Jesus did, but don't get so caught up on just what he did, that you miss who he is. That's John's point.
John wants us to know who he is so that we can believe and when we believe we can receive him, you're gonna see that at the end, we can receive him, and when we receive him, we can have life. John 14:6. We'll get to it in a couple months. We can have life in him the way, the truth and the life. This is the book. In fact, if you flip over even one more chapter from 20 to 21, you'll see that John closes this whole book up with saying that I've written all of this so that can trust and believe. Lemme read it to you. This is after the Peter moment. We're gonna get to that later on in John chapter 20 after Peter is, is brought back by Jesus, right? Watch what it said in John 21, 20. It says, Peter turned and saw that the disciple and whom Jesus loved, that's John's name for himself all the time, was following them.
This was the one that had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and said, who's gonna betray you? Lord? Verse 21. When Peter saw him, he asked, Lord, what about him? In other words, in other words, Peter's going, okay, Jesus, I know that I'm with you, but what about John and Jesus answered if I wanted him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me. You can write the word believe there it works. Verse 23. Because of this, the rumors spread among the believers that the disciple, that this disciple, this is John talking about himself, would not die, but Jesus didn't say that he wouldn't die. He only said if I wanted him to remain alive until I return. What is that to you? So John says, look, I was there. There's a bunch of rumors about me not dying.
That's crazy talk. I'm gonna die one day. But then watch what John says right here, and then we're gonna go to the beginning in verse 24. Here's how he closes his book. He says, this was the disciple who testifies to these things and whom wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. In other words, John is going, Hey, listen, all this, I wrote down. I wrote it down. It's truth. I was there. I experienced it. Why did I write it down so that you can believe? Verse 25 years, the last verse of the book, Jesus did many other things as well. If everything one of them was written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. So church, this is such a cool ending to John's story. Such a cool ending to John's book.
Why? Because on Jesus. Why? Because it's saying, Hey, for those of you who haven't given your life to Jesus, John says, I wrote this to show you his love. He's saying, for those of you who have given your life to Jesus, maybe you're a baby Christian or just for a couple years, I've given this to you to clarify who Jesus is and to show you how to walk in Him. And for those of you, John says, that have been walking with Jesus for years and years, maybe even like John for over 50 years. At this point, I'm writing this to you to give you a deeper understanding that you may believe in the one that can give you life. John says, I've given you 21 chapters, Matthew, mark, Luke. They've given you some of the others. It's just a small sample to help you walk in Jesus's fullness, to allow Jesus to completely consume you, to give you life, to bring you from the darkness and bring life to you.
That's what the book is, is to show us Jesus, the hope and the desire of this whole book is so that you may believe. Now, I told you, we're gonna get there. Flip back to chapter one. Here we go. All right, chapter one, the longest introduction, the longest, longest introduction, 20 minutes of intro for 20 weeks of John. I thought it was kind of cool. All right, there it is. So as you're flipping to John, let me show you a couple of things about this book that is gonna help you make sense of what we're gonna be reading over these next weeks. It may sound like a little academic, but I wanna give you some word counts of the book. Why? Because anytime you're studying the Bible or anytime you're studying any book, actually, that there is, if you can see how many times a word or a term is used in that book, you can really see what that book's about.
In fact, if you take the book of Leviticus and you see how many times that blood and atonement and sacrifice is used, you quickly see that that book was written about the sacrifices to the priest to show them what to do. If you take the book in the New Testament of Philippians, right, written by a guy in jail, on a death sentence, and see that in that small book 26 times is the word joy used, you quickly see that that's what the book is about. It's about having joy in that Christ. Well, what about John? Lemme give you five words to know that, really describe what John is and where we're going. Here's the first one. I put 'em in your notes under the phrase words matter. Why? 'cause I couldn't come up with anything better. Here it is. All right. Here, it's first word I want you to write down is the word, Jesus.
Why? 'cause it's a great Sunday school answer. It's the beginning of the year, and 275 times in the book of John is the word Jesus used. Now, that tells us something, doesn't it? It tells us, really, that that's what this book's about. It shows us the purpose of the book, right? John only talks about seven miracles of God. Six of them are unique to him. But John looks at the other gospels and says, Hey, let me show you the who behind the what Jesus did. Let me show you. John is saying, what has taken me 50 years to put into these thoughts. Obviously, Jesus is the thing. Second word is I want you to write down or phrase, so I want you to write down the word God/Father, God/Father. Why? Because it's used 175 times in 21 chapters. Obviously, this book is written to us to show us the link between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, 175 times.
This is used in some context, talking either about God, the triune God or God the Father. Now, you gotta go the context to know which one, but you gotta see the link that's between them is massive. Here's the third word I want you to write down. We're gonna talk about it at length in just a second. It's the word believe. The word believe 98 times, do you realize how many times that is in 21 chapters? Your English teacher would've been mad at you, right? 98 times the word believe is used that you need to believe, that you should believe, believe in. You may believe. We're gonna talk through that in just a minute. Here's the fourth one. It's the word truth. The word truth 52 times is the word truth mentioned in the text. I can't think of a better word for us to spend some time looking at in the context of where our world is than truth.
Here's the last one. It's life. It's life. 48 times, I know you're like, Matt, you're such a nerd. No, it's gonna make sense in just a minute, right? 48 times I didn't look, I, I didn't like read it and like do a tally mark, right? You can find this on the internet, right? 48 times is the word life given, life given. Now, leave that text up there. Leave that. Leave that graphic wine. Because if you look at the idea that Jesus and God, the Father has asked us to believe the truth, to give life, what have you seen? You have seen what the whole book is about, haven't you? It's exactly what it is. It's all about Jesus. Not necessarily the teachings. The teachings are great, but some of us are educated well beyond our level of obedience, right? Some of us know way more.
What John is doing is he's pressing into who Jesus is. Do you know there's not one teaching of Jesus in the whole book of John. There's not one parable. It's all about who is Jesus. What. What John does is he shows us his character. He shows us his witness. He shows us his power. He shows us a couple miracles to show us that what Jesus is God, and that if we believe we're gonna see that in a minute. If we believe that truth, we can have life. That's the gospel. That's what the whole book is written about. Why? Because ultimately, Jesus is the only truth. Jesus is the only one that brings life, and Jesus is the only one that holds the keys for eternity. And John says over and over and over again, that is what you need to believe. You can believe anything else.
You can believe all else, but that one thing is what we have to believe. Now, let's talk about belief for a minute. I know, I know, I know. You're like, Matt, this is so nerdy. No, it's not. No, it's not. Why? Because now, when we read all these terms, you're gonna know what they are. Okay? This word believe it's one of the strongest words in the whole Bible, but it's also one of the most misunderstood words in the whole Bible. Why? Because many of us have taken this word believe to just be this intellectual knowledge of something, but that is nowhere near what believe means, especially in the Book of John. All right? Especially it is in fact, write this down. Believe, I'll put this in your notes. Believe describes the act of fully trusting based on truthfulness and reliability. Now, here's what that means.
That means there's the believing is more than just simply agreeing in our minds that something might be true. Believing is not just just agreeing. Factually believing is always demonstrated through trust and through action. You cannot believe until a faith step is taken. Does that make sense to you? You cannot believe based on just saying something you cannot believe based on just agreeing with something that's not. If I had a chair sitting right here, I could talk about that chair all I wanted to. I could talk about the beauty, the design, the fabric, the sturdiness, but I don't believe that chair actually holds me till I do what? Sit in it. See, so many of us have taken believing in Jesus to the level that we just need to believe that there was a Jesus that is nowhere near what belief means. In fact, DA Carson, I was reading one of his commentaries on John last month.
He says this, I put it in your notes. Belief, I quote in John's Gospel is never mere intellectual ascent or mere verbal profession. It always involves a personal trust in Christ. Complete dependence on his work and a relationship catch this, a relationship that transforms both thoughts and behaviors. Now, look, I, I hope when I grow up, I can talk like that. All right? I get it. For some of you, you got that. I had to read that like 20 times, but then I was like, whoa. Belief is not belief until I take a step. Here's how my mind works. Lemme give you three dimensions, a biblical belief just as bullet points so you'll know anytime I say it, the word belief, you can think of these three words. Here they are. For me, belief is trust. Belief is commitment, and belief is action. And listen to me real closely, if one of those three things is not present, then you don't believe.
In other words, you can talk all you want to about something, but if there's no trust, you are not submitting to it. If there's no commitment, you are not giving your heart to it. And if there's no step of obedience, you have not believed. This is what gets us in so many theological arguments over if somebody is saved. Is somebody not saved? Did somebody really give their heart to Jesus? Why? Because you, anybody on this planet can say that they believe, but listen, until you trust, commit, and act, you are not a follower of Jesus. You're not. I know it's like, wow, Matt Thanks for the harshness on day one of the year. No, there's hope in this. Why? 'cause John has written us a whole book that we're about to spend a whole lot of time telling us how we can believe. So church to believe is not simply to acknowledge, but it's placing my hope, my trust, my life and Jesus.
And for him to take me to the point. I begin to walk that out in my life. I walk it online, I walk it in person, I walk it at school, I walk it in family. And because of what Jesus has done and because of who Jesus is now, Jesus has given me life and it's changed me to the point that I'm sitting in the chair. Does that make sense? That's belief. Okay, so with that little introduction, John chapter one, John chapter one, flip over to John chapter one. Why? 'cause John is about to come out of the blocks with no introduction, alright? With no couth, as John does all the time. He's about to set the tone and tell us exactly who Jesus is, and we're just gonna write down five quick attributes this morning of who he is. Alright? So here comes Jesus.
I love it. John skips the genealogies. He skips the manger, and he goes straight to the eternal right? John, chapter one, verse one. Here it is. It says this, man, I've been waiting to do this for a long time. Actually, I've done it twice already today. Here it is, says this. It says in the beginning, was the word? And the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God In the beginning. Did you see what John does? He, he looks at Matthew and Luke and he go, Hey, those guys, they started with Bethlehem. Good for them. They, they paused at 12-year-old. Jesus gave him a little check mark, and then they moved to the three years. But John goes all the way back to what? He goes back to the beginning. He goes back to before anything existed. In fact, John starts his book with the same quote that the whole beginning of the Bible starts with it
but many of you read this week in your new Bible plan that you've already missed one day of. There it is. All right here it is. John goes all the way back to give us a few attributes of who Jesus is, and I want you to write down a couple of these. Here's the first one. Number one, he says this, number one, Jesus the word, that's what John says, is eternal. That's what John just said, right? He's eternal. What does that mean? That means that he has always existed. He's always existed. He's always existed with the Father as God. That's it. He's part of the trinity, right? In other words, Jesus did not begin to exist at some point because the Father, God needed to come up with a way to deal with our sin. That's not how it works. Jesus has always been listen closely and has and will always be.
You know what this does? It makes it so much sweeter to think about the incarnation in the Christmas season we just came out of. Doesn't it? Why? Because God the Father didn't come up with some idea one day to go, I got an idea. Jesus. That's what I'll do. No, it's always been that. Doesn't it make Christmas so much more humbling and sweeter to know that from the beginning of time Jesus has been ruling, but yet Jesus put on flesh. What did he say? He said that Jesus was the word. He was the word. He was in Greek. The logos. The logos right here. What does that mean in Greek? It means that he was the essence. He was the very foundation of the Greeks. Didn't know how to explain the, what the, the foundation of all existence was. So they came up with this word of logos, the word of God.
Now, when you look at the Old Testament, you gotta think about it that God's word was his essence. But now, John says, now Jesus, catch this. This is huge. Jesus is the very essence of the eternal God of all time. That's who Jesus is. He's the very representation of the eternal character, of the eternal love of the eternal God to us. He shows us the eternal nature of who God is. So if you kind of kind of fell into some kind of thinking that Jesus was just this limited time guy that walked on the earth, yes, he did do that, but that is not all Jesus is. He is the eternal God of the universe. That's Jesus. But also, secondly, same verse says, not only is he that he's also God. Jesus is not just eternal. Jesus is God. There's not God and Jesus. All right?
I know kinda in our prayers we slip into that. I even find myself doing that sometimes, but that's not it. Jesus is God. He's the great I am. He was. He is, and he will always be. Jesus is the Word of God and is God. He's the perfect expression of God to all mankind. Listen, as as, as God showed us who he was in the New Testament, Jesus shows us who he is. I mean, in the Old Testament, Jesus shows us who he is In the New Testament, when you think about it, man, Leviticus shows us that God is what He's holy. That's what we see in how Jesus walked out his life. In Exodus, we see that, that God is a deliverer. What do we see in Jesus as He cast out demons, as he healed the sick and as he a rose the dead.
When you look at the book of Deuteronomy, you, you see that Jesus is full of love. That's who Jesus was. Remember when he dealt with the lady committing adultery? In the Psalms, we see that he's tender and he's long suffering. That's what we see when he welcomes the children, and he deals with the boneheaded disciples over and over. When Isaiah, we see that he's compassionate, and what do we see in weeping over Jerusalem and weeping at Lazarus's to Jesus. Listen, is the perfect expression of the eternal God to us. I hope that's making sense to you. Why He's God. And if you've missed this, you've missed Jesus Church. Listen, you got to lean into the fact that Jesus is God. Why? 'cause some of our friends, some of our friends out there, Jehovah's witnesses, Mormons, Muslims, they've missed this. They've missed it, and they've made Jesus into the first thing that was created one day when God needed a plan.
No, no, no, no. Jesus is eternal. If you've missed that, you've missed God. He's not just a good prophet, not just a good guy, not just a good savior. He is the eternal God of the universe. He has always been and will always be. That's what John says. That's what John says. But not only that, look at verse three. He keeps going. Not only is he eternal, not only is he God. Look at verse three. It says this. Through him, all things were made. And with him, nothing was made. That has been made. And without him, nothing was made. That has been made. Write this down. Not only is he God, not only is he eternal. Number three, he is the creator of all things. He's the creator of all things. Once again, I know this blows some of your mind. You're like, well, I thought God was the creator.
He was. It's Jesus. Once again, Jesus was not created to come to earth. He wasn't on this long vacation that God finally went and found him and said, Hey, go to work. It's time. No, no, no. He's always been working. If it has been made, John says, it's been made by Jesus. Jesus is the creator, the sustainer, the Savior, the Messiah, and I love, love, love. I put it in your notes, but I don't have time to read it. I just want you to read it later. I love how Paul sums this up. In first, in Colossians 1:15, he just says that He is the image of everything that is God, and he created all. So what is John saying? John's saying, you gotta know this Jesus. Why? Because he's so much more than just a man. You're asking questions about. He's eternal.
He's God. He's the creator of the universe, and because of all of that, catch this. Number four, he's the life and the light of the world, of the world. Man, I get people all the time going, Matt, how exclusive can you be to think that Jesus is the only way to which I go, well, listen. If you show me another God that is eternal God creator, then we can talk about them being the way too. But there's not one. You see, we talked about this a little bit at Christmas Eve, right? When we lit our candles, when so many of you were here, we lit them as a representation of the light and being the light of who Jesus is. Why? Because that's who Jesus is, that not only is he God, not only is he eternal. Not only is he creator, he is the one that does what and wants to do what?
He wants to give us life and illuminate our path. Listen to what the elder John says in verse four. It says, in Him, in Jesus was, and that life was the light of all mankind, not some of mankind, all mankind. Verse five, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome. Now, you gotta look at this 'cause what life light is used seven times in these opening verses to describe Jesus? Why? Why, why? 'cause What is John doing? He's going back to the beginning again. What was one of the first things that God created? He created light. Why? Because light is fundamental for everything else on this planet to live. And what better description is there of who Jesus is? John says, light is not only fundamental, but light brings life. We call it photosynthesis. John wouldn't have known that word, but he knew Jesus and he watched Jesus walk, and he watched when people encountered Jesus for real, he gave them life and light.
What else does life do? Light do. It drives away the darkness. It drives darkness out of our life, and it and it, if the lights are on, you can avoid the darkness. Can I get an amen and not stomp on the pinky toe while going to the bathroom at night, right? Jesus illuminates. That's what he's saying, that he lights the path in front of us to show us the way to help us with decisions to make the scary things come into life, but also light. It creates color. You ever thought about that? That it's light that brings out the true beauty in everybody? Can you see me right here? Right? I'm just kidding. And I love how CS Lewis puts this. CS Lewis says, everything in the dark looks the same, but it's like, oh, why did I think of that? Right? It's only in the light.
CS Lewis says that true distinctiveness and uniqueness is shown, and in the same way we are at our best when we are in full fellowship with the light of Jesus Church, light is fundamental to all creation. And what is? What is John saying? So is Jesus. Are you seeing it? Jesus creates life. Jesus sustains life. Jesus gives new life. Jesus brings out new life in us by shining his light into us. And what happens? The darkness has no rule. When the light of Jesus gets to shine and to our souls, you seeing the argument that he's making here in his first eight verses that he is eternal. He is God. He is the creator. He is the giver of life and light. But then John gives us a little commentary on another guy named John, which is really confusing, but it's John the Baptist. All right?
Look at verse six. He says, there was a man sent from God, whose name was John. That's John the Baptist. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light concerning Jesus, right? So that through Jesus, all might, circle it again, believe. He, that's John the Baptist was not the light. He came as a witness to the light. Verse nine, the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. What is? What is John? John, the apostles going all the way back and he's saying, Hey, listen, this guy's gonna tell about, Jesus gonna tell us about Jesus gonna show us how Jesus is gonna save the world. Watch this. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, that's Jesus. The world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own man. Listen to this. But his own did not receive him.
So so, so what is John doing here? John has shown us all of these beautiful attributes of who God is, all of these beautiful attributes of Jesus, right? And John is saying it's so sad that despite all Jesus did, despite all Jesus is, many John is saying then, and many now just don't get it and just don't believe. Yeah, they may believe there was a guy named Jesus at some point. Yeah, they may believe that there was a carpenter's son named Jesus at some point. But they're not trusting. They're not committing, they're not acting why? They're looking for something else. They can't see past their own life. See past their own fulfillment. They're blinded by the darkness, which I just need to pause and say this. Does this describe where your life is stepping into 2025? Maybe just maybe your whole life you've known that there is a Jesus.
You've known that they should do something with Jesus. You've known that Jesus was a good guy, but have you believed or are you following the mold that he just talked about right here, but his own did not receive him? Have you trusted in Jesus and committed your life to Jesus, the eternal God creator, giver of life and giver, a light Jesus. If not, what's holding you back? 'cause Here's what Jesus wants to do in your life. He wants to give you his light and he wants to save. You say, Matt, how do you know that? Well, look at the next verse. Look at verse 12. Yet, oh man, this is so sweet. Yet, to all who did receive him, you see that a gift is not yours until you receive it. Right? Yet, to all who did receive him, to those who, what again believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
Man, are you seeing it? It's not just about who Jesus is. It's about the fact that he wants you to believe. He wants you to believe so that he can give you life. He wants you to believe so he can give you himself. He wants you to believe so that he can walk in fullness and forgive you of all that you have been and said, you free. That's what he's saying right here. He gave them the right to become children of God. Verse 13, children born not out of natural descent or human decision, or even a husband's will, but born of God. Now, here's the most famous verse right here. Verse 14, the word that's Jesus became flesh. In other words, he became one of us and he made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from the Father, what full of grace and truth.
In fact, write down the fifth attribute, and then we're gonna be done this morning. Jesus, not only is the creator, God, sustainer, giver of all light and life, John says, Jesus not only wants to dwell among us, but he wants to dwell in you. In you. I, I can't think of a more encouraging way to start the year off than to hear that the Creator, God, eternal of the universe that gives light and life to everything, doesn't just want to dwell. Verse 14 among us. You know, that's what he did, right? He walked among the people, he talked among the people. That word dwell right there means that he literally tabernacled in the Old Testament. What was the tabernacle? It was the place of God. It was the place that God's presence rested. His word rested, his power rested. And what does it say in it?
It's saying that God, Jesus tabernacled among us. But what did Jesus do at the end of his ministry here? He didn't just tabernacle among us. He went back to Genesis chapter one, when God breathed the life into us. But Jesus this time breathed the Holy Spirit into us, so that what not only does Jesus want to tabernacle among us, but now the creator, God, sustainer, giver of life, giver of hope, wants to tabernacle, wants to dwell in you. That's incredible. Why? Because he's not an ethereal God that is out there. He wants to be in here, in here, but it only happens when we do what? When we believe and receive. When we believe and receive, when we trust, when we commit, and when we act, Jesus steps in and his ruling and reigning, and he tabernacle. He dwells in us. Here's the question today, I, I don't know a lot of you, in fact a whole lot of, you're welcome to church today, right?
But has Jesus dwell in you? Have you received? Man I like that word. I know some of you, you're like, I don't like the word receive, man. It gets me on a weird path. Have you received the free gift of the Messiah, savior, creator of the world, Jesus, to save you? Not do you know about him, but have you given him your life? John would say, this man, after 50 years, this year is good talking about the feeding of the 5,000. But what's even better is the word became flesh and dwelt among us to give you life. Would you pray with me, Lord Jesus today as we close up this time of message, God, I, I have to believe that today there are people in this world, in this nation, and in this church that may have known a whole lot about you, but have never received you in your love and your grace.
But God today you tell 'em that they would just believe and receive. They can know you. You know what your head's bow and your eyes closed is? Is that you today and in our last service, as soon as I gave this invitation to a young man from the very back corner of the room, I don't even think he did, about seven steps before he got to the front of the room, he said, man, I need Jesus today. Is that you today? As the creator, God sustainer, giver of life and light calling you to submit your hope and trust in life in Him today? If it is, as soon as I'm done praying in just a second, would you just walk up to myself or one of these other counselors today and just say, Hey, I need Jesus today. We'd love to pray with, you'd love to pray over you, show you what it looks like to invite Jesus into your life, but maybe today you know Jesus, but oh, oh man, you've just been seeing him as a little baby in a manger and not as the creator God of the universe. Maybe today you need to say to Jesus, I want all of you. Thank you for being the word, Lord, walk with us in these next couple of minutes. Jesus, walk with us as we take next steps in our faith to love you, and it's in your name we pray. Amen.