The Great Reveal // The Resume of Jesus

John 1.

Have you guys ever had a misunderstanding about something?

I still have a misunderstanding about why we're still doing this daylight savings thing.

You know what I mean.

Maybe you've had a misunderstanding or maybe you've been misinformed.

I had a friend a while ago.

He invited me to go on a hike to Mission Peak.

You guys ever hiked Mission Peak before out in Fremont?

Anybody, okay, a couple of you guys have.

So here's the thing about hiking Mission Peak that I was not aware of.

First of all, mission Peak is a three-mile hike to the top, but that's not the biggest problem.

The biggest problem is there's very little shade going to the top, very little shade going to the top.

Now, the day my friend invited me to go on this hike, it was almost 90 degrees outside Friends.

That's a problem.

And if you can't tell your boy's white.

So I'm like, hey, I thought there was shade.

I didn't realize all that.

What was involved?

It was 90 degrees.

So I'm like I'm going to wear a sleeveless shirt, so I go up there.

I didn't bring any sunscreen.

Some of y'all in the room that's how some are before you know.

You know where this is going.

So we hike up, we're having fun, we're taking cool pictures.

You know this is going.

So we hike up, we're having fun, we're taking cool pictures you know all this stuff.

And we come down the mountain and you know it's hot, y'all it's hot and my arm just like brushed up against something and I was like whoo and I'm telling you, from like from my elbow to my shoulder it was like tomato red.

Now, some of y'all have never had a sunburn in your life.

Consider yourselves blessed, but let me just tell you this sunburn was like one of the worst sunburns I have ever had, and I had it because I had a misunderstanding of what was involved hiking Mission Peak.

Misunderstanding of what was involved hiking Mission Peak.

I bring that up because a lot of people have some misunderstandings about Jesus.

Some people think Jesus is a genie, that his job is to come in at the very key moments of my life.

I'm going to tell him my wish and he he's going to pop out and voila, my dream is going to come true, whatever I want.

Some people think Jesus is a fire insurance agent.

I talked to somebody one time.

They said, hey, me and Jesus got a deal.

I said you got a deal.

He's like yeah, we got a deal.

I don't need to talk about Jesus because we got a deal.

I'm not going down, I'm going up.

Well, some people think Jesus is well, we can call him tweetable Jesus that Jesus agrees with us on whatever the social issue or political issue of the day is.

Just take a reason, just tweet up.

You can fill in the blank whatever you want, whatever the misunderstanding is about Jesus out there and there's a lot of them, and we're actually starting a series today but we're going to go chapter by chapter through the book of John, because John reveals who Jesus actually is.

In fact, in John, chapter 20, it says why the book of John was written.

John 20 · chapter mention

John 20, verse number 30, it says this.

It says but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the what are the next three words?

The Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name.

So John was written so you would know who Jesus is and, as we're going to see over these next several weeks and months, so you're going to have an intimate relationship with him and over the next four weeks we're going to be in the very first chapter of John.

We're starting a four-week series entitled the Great Reveal.

The Wait Is Over Now.

The reason why the subtitle is the Wait Is Over is because for hundreds and hundreds of years, people had been waiting and waiting and waiting for the Messiah to come, because when the Messiah was going to come, they knew he was going to bring life and purpose and hope.

And when Jesus came, the wait was over.

And what John does is John reveals who this Jesus is.

So we're going to start off.

We're going to start off today.

We're going to do something a little different.

That we don't usually do is our friends at the Bible Project.

What they did is they put together a video overviewing the book of John and what the book of John, kind of, is all about.

So take your chances of the screens and let's queue up this video.

The Gospel According to John, it's one of the earliest accounts of Jesus' life and we learn at the end of the book that it comes from one of Jesus' closest followers, called the disciple whom Jesus loved.

Now he appears many times in the story itself and there's some debate about whether it's John, the son of Zebedee, one of the twelve, or a different John who lived in Jerusalem and was known in the later church as John the Elder.

Whichever John it was, the book embodies his eyewitness testimony and it's been brilliantly designed with a clear purpose that he states.

Near the end, john says the story is written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John believes that the Jesus you read about in this book is alive and real and that he can change your life forever.

The book's design is really cool.

Its first half opens with an introductory poem and a short story.

That's followed by then a big block of stories about Jesus performing miraculous signs that generate increasing controversy, and it all culminates in his greatest sign, the raising of Lazarus, which creates the greatest controversy as Israel's leaders decide to kill Jesus, and that launches into the book's second half.

These chapters focus on Jesus's final night and last words to his disciples, which are followed by his arrest, trial, death and resurrection.

The book concludes with an epilogue.

And we'll send you the rest of the video tomorrow via email.

Okay, so check your emails tomorrow.

John is—you guys were all like, oh, what's up?

John is one of four gospels, one of four biographies about the life of Jesus.

Right, we have Matthew, mark, luke and John.

All right, let's try it again Ready Matthew, mark, luke and John.

Now, each one of them is written to a specific audience, for a specific purpose.

So, for example, matthew is written to a Jewish audience for a specific purpose.

So, for example, matthew is written to a Jewish audience to show that Jesus is king.

Have you ever read the book of Matthew?

Maybe you started your 40 days of growing deeper reading and you opened up to Matthew, chapter one, and you're all excited because the whole church was doing it.

And you open up and it says Abraham fathered Isaac, isaac fathered Jacob, jacob fathered Judah and his brothers, and this person fathered.

And you're like what am I reading right now, pastor Nate, how is this going to make me go deeper?

Here's why Matthew started with the lineage of David, because to a Jewish listener, to a Jewish reader, the line, the lineage, was extremely important, because they knew the lineage was going to of the Messiah, of Jesus being king was going to come through the line of David.

So Matthew started with the lineage to prove that Jesus was king.

Because he was talking to a Jewish audience and every gospel was written with a different intent, to a different audience, and while the gospels were not specifically written to us, the gospels were written for us.

This takes us back to the book of John, where John says I'm just going to reveal to everybody, the whole world, who Jesus actually is.

And in the process of him doing this, he's going to shatter some paradigms that people have.

He's going to step on some religious people's toes.

He's going to hurt some people's feelings.

This is why Because he wants you to know that Jesus is the Son of God.

And he starts off John 1 in kind of a unique way.

He kind of gives the resume of Jesus.

Have you ever put together a resume before?

Have you ever lied together a resume before?

Have you ever lied on a resume before.

Everybody's like, oh, can I raise my hand, I'm in church, a resume.

A resume talks about your history, kind of who you are.

So John 1, he begins with talking about the resume of Jesus and we're going to pick it up in John 1, verse 1.

John 1:1

And if you're ready for it, would you say amen, here we go.

John 1, verse 1.

John 1:1

My goal is to keep us awake this morning on time change Sunday.

If you're going to stay awake, will you say amen, come home, let's go.

I see you in the balcony.

No, I'm just kidding.

John 1, verse 1.

John 1:1

It says this we're going to have fun today.

I'm excited about this.

John 1, verse 1, it says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

John 1:1

You confused.

How can the Word be with God but also be God?

Hmm, what is going on here?

Before we talk about this, we got to establish something.

The first part of the resume of Jesus is this is that Jesus was the word, jesus was the word.

Now, the word word and this verse comes from the Greek word logos.

Everybody say logos together, ready Logos.

What the Greeks of this day would do is.

They would have endless debates arguing about what is the logos of life, what is the purpose and meaning of life?

And meaning of life?

Because the Greeks knew that if they could discover the logos, then it would answer life's biggest questions that you have.

Why am I here?

What is life all about?

Where can I find meaning?

Where can I find purpose?

Where can I find identity?

And John says Jesus, he's the logos.

This is what life is all about.

And then he's going to spend the rest of this book showing this.

And he says in verse 2, he says he, the word which was Jesus, was with God in the beginning.

In verse 3, all things were created through him and apart from him.

This is Jesus.

Not one thing was created.

That has been created.

So it's been made.

It's been made by Jesus.

Now Bible students in the room Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1.

Genesis 1:1

You guys remember what it says In the beginning God.

God created, john 1, 3.

Jesus created.

You know what John is saying.

Jesus is God.

He's not just a prophet, he's not just a good dude, he's not just like a teacher.

Jesus is God.

And this text brings to the surface something that Colossians 1 calls the Godhead.

You may have heard the word Trinity.

Have you guys heard the word Trinity before you heard the word Trinity?

Right?

What's the Trinity?

What's the Godhead?

God the Father, god the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

So we have one God and three distinct persons.

One, one, one God, three, just one.

What does it mean?

And and and?

What are the different roles of the Godhead God the Father, god the Son, god the Holy Spirit, like?

What are their primary roles?

Well, guys, I'm so glad you've asked.

I'm going to answer your question.

This is what God the Father does.

God the Father, he is the functional head of the Trinity of the Godhead.

That's his role.

The Holy Spirit, he draws us to Jesus, he comforts us, he resides in us, he convicts us.

Have you ever maybe been listening to a message, or maybe you've been reading scripture and you just felt something in your heart where you're like, ooh, I should probably be doing that or ooh, I probably shouldn't be doing that.

Or maybe you're talking with somebody and you're like I should say something about Jesus to this person.

Have you ever thought where does this come from, something about Jesus to this person?

Have you ever thought where does this come from?

The Holy Spirit?

That's what the Holy Spirit does.

Now you can grieve the Holy Spirit and if you tell the Holy Spirit, no, no, no, no, you can grieve him and eventually he'll stop speaking.

But the Holy Spirit, he convicts us and he produces fruit in us.

Some of us in our Christian life, we're trying to produce fruit on our own.

It's like man.

This person's joyful and this person has peace and this person has contentment.

I want that.

So I'm going to try to be joyful and I'm going to try to be happy and I'm going to act like I'm happy but I'm not really.

I'm going to try to be loving, even though that person's a jerk.

What is wrong with that person?

But I love you and we try to produce something in us.

That's not our job to do.

The Holy Spirit does this.

You know what our job is to do Surrender.

And when we surrender to the Holy Spirit, you will find the Holy Spirit producing things in your life that you're like what is going on?

Where typically you would just fly off the handle and you would say some words that you probably shouldn't be saying in a church building or 1115 service, but now you're like, whoa, I'm calm.

What is that?

The Holy Spirit producing fruit in your life.

We have God the Father, we have the Holy Spirit and we have Jesus, and his primary role was to be the sacrifice for our sin, to die in our place.

Now, if you want to dig a little deeper into the Godhead and learn more about the Trinity, there's an excellent book by a guy named Joe Thorne.

It's called Experiencing the Trinity and it's very practical, it's very digestible, but he communicates it in an understandable way.

And what John does in John 1 is he brings up the Godhead, he brings up the Trinity and he says guys, on the resume of Jesus, the first thing you need to know is that he is the word, he was at creation, he was the creator.

This is who he is.

He's the logos.

And because he's the logos, verse 4 tells us he's a place of life.

In verse 4, it says this.

It says in him in, jesus was life and the life was the light of men.

Number two Jesus is the source of life.

Jesus is the source of life.

Can we say that together, ready, jesus is the source of life.

John's going to write, john writes about this in verse 4, and then he's going to go and write more and more and more about this and then in chapter 10, verse number 10, he's going to say he's not just the source of life, but Jesus brings abundant life and this really matters.

This really matters, especially if you're in here.

Maybe you're skeptical about Christianity and maybe somebody like dragged you here.

Maybe you're like trying to figure this whole thing out.

Maybe you're in here and you're a follower of Jesus but you just have so many doubts and so many questions and you've watched a bunch of videos and you've read a bunch of stuff.

You're like I just don't know.

I want you to lean in for just like the next three minutes, because this is really, really important.

Every person on planet Earth is looking for meaning, purpose, identity and self-worth.

This is not a faith thing, this is a human thing.

The world that we live in says the starting point for meaning, purpose, self-worth and identity, the starting point is looking inside of yourself, at your feelings, at your experiences, at the things that you think in the moment will make you happy, Because this is the source for all of these things.

And if anything outside of you, be it another person or God or societal constructs, if they're going to say anything that's contrary to how you feel, what they are doing at best is being unloving and at worst they're being bigoted and they're being hateful, and what society tells us to do is deify ourselves and make ourselves the ultimate God and make ourselves the ultimate authority, which is why, when anything questions how we feel or what's going on in here, we always society tells us to get upset and repulse against that, because that is the problem.

Tells us to get upset and repulse against that because that is the problem.

So here's a question How's this working out for society?

How's this idea of everything comes from within and how I feel?

How's it working out?

Sometimes I like to nerd out on data.

Any of you guys like nerds, like me, I love like nerd out on data and like, okay, like what's actually going on, right?

So this week I did some nerd now on where we are as a country not worldwide, but as a country when it comes to our mental health, and I want to read some of these things to you.

In the last five years, depression in the US has tripled.

Us suicide rates are at an all-time high for 2022 and 2023.

We don't have the full statistics for 2024 yet.

At 49,000 plus people each year committed suicide.

The last time we were even near there was during World War II in the 1940s.

Up to 90% of doctors' visits are stress-related and 60% of college students meet the criteria for a mental health condition.

Here's why I bring these numbers up, because, with the brokenness of the world and the philosophy of the world, every statistic you'll read anywhere tells us it's just not working.

No matter how many Disney songs we have stuck in our head, no matter how many Disney songs we have stuck in our head, no matter how many Disney princess movies we watch, no matter how many songs we listen to or how many shows we like, they are trying to indoctrinate us with something they are telling us is not working.

And this is what John says.

John says identity, purpose, meaning, hope, self-worth is not found inside of yourself.

It's found outside of yourself, in a person.

His name is Jesus, because Jesus is the place where you can have life.

Jesus is the place where you have meaning, because he is the logos.

That's who Jesus is.

He is the source of life.

And when we realize that he's the source of life and we embrace it, verse 4 tells us we're going to see that that life was the light of men, and verse 5 tells us what that light does.

That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

Jesus, he's the light.

Now you think about what light does.

Light dispels darkness.

You guys ever.

You guys ever wake up in the middle of the night because you got to go to the bathroom.

You guys ever wake up in the middle of the night because you've got to go to the bathroom.

For some of you, this is like a nightly routine, right?

I'll tell you what.

I turned 36 in a couple months and I'm like man, I really can't drink any water after 9 o'clock anymore.

No-transcript.

So to go to the bathroom, start.

You don't want to turn the light on because either you're going to wake somebody else up or you're going to wake yourself up.

So what do you do?

You try to walk in the dark to the bathroom.

How many of you know that's risky.

You might step on something.

Or you might do that thing where you just stub your toe oh man, because you can't see and you're trying to make it to the bathroom.

And you get in the bathroom and you go to the bathroom and I want to say a joke right now, but I'm not going to and then you go back to bed and you hope that you don't wake up, or that you don't wake up.

No, you hope you don't wake anybody else up.

Please, please, if that's how you feel, talk to us.

We're available for prayer afterwards.

We'll talk to you.

And the reason why I have a hard time with the bathroom you stub your toe, whatever is because it's dark.

You need light, and what light does is light dispels darkness.

And something else that's interesting about light is when light is shining like the sun.

You can try to block it out, but you can't put it out.

You can't make the sun disappear Now.

You can try to cover it, you can try to ignore it, you can try to forget about it, you can try to act like it doesn't exist, but guess what, guys?

The light is still shining.

And for some of us, we have spent our lives trying to ignore or forget about Jesus or act like he doesn't really exist.

But the challenge with this is, for some of us, we're running from the very thing that is going to bring life to our lives, because what light does is light brings life, and the enemy wants to blind our eyes from the light of the gospel.

This is what 2 Corinthians 4 says If our gospel is veiled, if it's hidden, it's veiled to those who are perishing In their case.

The God of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.

The God of this age is Satan and he'll do anything to blind you.

Stage is Satan and he'll do anything to blind you.

He'll use the allurements of this world, he'll use money, he'll use your past trauma.

He'll use your disappointments, he'll use your hurts.

He'll even use religion to blind you from the truth of the gospel.

In seeing Jesus accurately.

And sometimes what can happen is we can be so blinded that we miss the light of Jesus.

But, friend, when we embrace who Jesus is and we embrace his goodness is, and we embrace his goodness and we embrace the fact that he came and died on the cross for our sins, we put our faith and trust in him.

We have to realize that now he is the light and now we have the light and what the light does is the light dispels darkness.

Some of us, we look around the world.

Can we just be honest?

The world, can we just be honest?

The world's crazy, the world's wild.

A lot of crazy things happening right now.

You know, you get on your social media and you like doom scroll or you like turn on the news and it's like, wow, like in a five minute period I just saw like stories of like 50 different people dying.

You know it's like what is happening right now 50 different people dying.

You know it's like what is happening right now.

The world is dark and we have a choice.

We can live in fear and like, what are we going to do?

Like I don't understand.

Like why is the world like this?

It's, you know, it's these people, it's those people, it's that people.

Or what we can do is we can let the light shine on the darkness.

When I grew up I grew up in church.

Any of y'all grow up in church we used to have a Sunday school teacher.

She used to make us sing.

I'm not much of a singer, some of y'all Y'all know that and she used to have us sing this song.

It's called this Little Light of Mine.

Some of y'all know what I'm talking about.

She would say all right, we're going to sing this little.

We'd sing it every week.

Like, is that like the only song like known to Sunday school, like can we sing something Every this little?

She'd be like all right, everybody, get your lights out.

Now, if you've sung the song, you know what that means.

Get your lights out, all right.

And if you didn't have your lights out, she'd be like I see you, get your light out, get your light out.

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine, this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

Oh, I got to clap.

I got to clap.

This is good.

Who's that?

Who's that?

Who's that?

Thank you, thank you, groupies.

I appreciate it.

And then there was one part oh, rob's got his light out.

Then there was this thing we get to this part.

This is like the part that, like we liked as a kid, I was hiding it under a bushel.

And what would you yell If you were in there.

You know, hide under a bushel?

No, no, I'm going to let it shine.

Hide under a bushel, no, I'm going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, and we would let, we would just keep shining it.

Let it shine, let it shine, and we would just keep shining it.

And you know, there's some pretty good theology in that song, because even in the midst of the darkness of this world, we have to let the light shine, because the darker the night, the brighter the light.

And honestly, like really practically okay, really practically when you're in a dark season of your life, you need to run to the light of God's promises.

When you have a friend that's going through a hard time, listen to them and hear them, but ask them hey, can I pray for you about that?

Whether they know Jesus or not, can I pray for you about that?

And it's so easy for us to curse the darkness when really we just need to light a match.

It's so easy for us to wallow in everything that's happening around us.

But God has not given his people the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

And this is what Jesus does.

Jesus, he brings light and he dispels darkness, and the darkness does not overcome the light.

Who is Jesus?

He's the word, he's the source of life, he is light.

And there was somebody named John that was sent by God to be the very first witness of this light.

This is what it says in verse 6.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

He came as a witness to testify about the light so that all might believe through him.

He this is John.

He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light.

Now I want to give you a super quick commercial for next Sunday.

Next Sunday, we're going to talk all about this guy, john.

It's John the Baptist and the unique things that he did and the type of person that he was that allowed him to shine his light to others and allowed him to make a difference in the world and make Jesus known, and we're going to do a case study on the life of somebody that makes a difference in the world.

So next week you're going to want to be here, because this is what John did in these verses and the verses to come.

He says in verse 9, that the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

He was in the world and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him.

So Jesus was in the world that he created, and yet the world missed him.

How did they miss him?

He came to his own verse 11.

His own people did not receive him, and I just want to stop for a second and say this If you've ever been rejected because the Jews rejected Jesus, if you've ever been rejected because the Jews rejected Jesus, if you've ever been rejected or betrayed by those closest to you, by somebody close to you, you're not alone by a best friend, by a family member, by somebody.

Jesus experienced that too.

In fact, we're going to see later on in John that the people in his hometown, they tried to throw him off of a cliff.

You're not alone.

And while there were people that rejected him, there were others that believed in him.

Verse 12 says but to all who did receive him, this is Jesus.

He gave them the right to be the children of God.

To those who what's that word?

To those who, in his name, how are you, how do you have the right to be a child of God?

It says right there you have the right to be a children of God.

If you're a really good person, you have the right to be the children of God if you don't mess up, if you believe in you.

It doesn't say that If you believe in his name, you're a child of God.

There ain't no fine print y'all.

There's no disclaimer To those who believe in his name and when you're a child of God, you have the forgiveness of your sin.

When you're a child of God, you have eternal life.

That is who you are.

I was listening to a very well-meaning Christ follower the other day and tremendous person and they were talking about somebody that was not yet a follower of Jesus.

That person never trusted Christ as their Savior and they were calling that person a child of God and they were saying man like you're a child of God, you're a child of God, but this person has never believed.

This person is a creation of God, but not a child of God.

Every person is a creation of God, but not a child of God.

Every person is a creation of God, but to be a child of God, they need to Verse 13,.

Who were born not of natural descent or of the will of the flesh or the will of the man.

Can we say those three words together Ready Grace and truth.

Jesus was the perfect embodiment of both.

Can we say those three words together Ready Grace and truth.

Jesus was the perfect embodiment of both Grace, truth, grace, truth.

And oh man, I said this at 10 o'clock service, but I could talk for 10 minutes about this, but he's up here, so we don't got 10 minutes.

Think about this.

A lot of us have a natural bent towards either grace or truth, right, like some of us are like more grace people, others of us are like grace.

We need truth.

That's a problem, right?

That's what we need.

We need both.

You need friends that love you unconditionally.

You also need friends that love you enough to tell you the truth and sometimes we push against truth and sometimes we need it but also, but also, but also, we need people that are gracious and loving.

This is a tension to manage.

We know none of us get it right, but I'll tell, need people that are gracious and loving.

This is a tension to manage.

We know none of us get it right, but I'll tell you one.

That did Jesus.

He was the full embodiment of truth and grace, 100% grace, 100% truth.

This is who he is.

So what do we do with all this?

What do we do with this resume that Jesus had, that he's the word, that he's the source of life, that he is the light to our lives.

What do we do with all of this?

Three thoughts and we're done For some of us.

We need to trust Jesus for salvation and become a child of God.

Trust isn't just some intellectual thing like oh, I believe in him.

No, it's a heart posture.

It's I'm making the decision to turn from my sin and put my faith and trust in him.

I made that decision late in my high school years.

Hey, I came to God, literally just broken, and repented.

It's like my sin was so real to me and I'm like Jesus, I need you, lord, I'm putting my faith and trust in you.

My life has never been the same For some of us.

We need to look to Jesus for life instead of all these other things out there.

Guys, I get like there's so many allurements in the world.

There's so many temptations.

There's so many things that are telling you life is found over here.

Guys, can we just come back?

Jesus is the logos.

Jesus is life.

Maybe you're going through a really hard time right now, man, we all.

It's like there's a lot of people going through a hard time.

Can I just say, friend, let Jesus bring life to your soul.

He is life.

Number three instead of being scared of the dark, can we just uncover the light?

Can we just hey, guys, this is a dark situation.

I have my choice right now.

I'm either going to get scared and I'm going to be tripping out over that thing or I'm going to do that.

That's bad.

My God is greater.

That's bad, my God is greater.

That's horrible.

Good thing Jesus is still reigning and he's still in control.

That politician do that over there, who they think they are.

It's okay, jesus, he's my leader.

It don't matter what's happening.

And the darker the night, the brighter the light, and this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

Come on, can you do it, bro?

Can you do it?

Can we do a duet, guys?

I've never done it.

Mason will let me do this Uh-oh.

Can we got this Listen?

This little light of mine.

I'm gonna let it shine.

Come on y'all.

We haven't heard this.

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Would you do the bushel?

Oh, hide it shine, let it shine Would you do the bushel.

Oh, hide it.

All right, go.

Hide it under a bushel?

No, I'm going to let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel?

No, I'm going to let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel, I'm going to let it shine.

Let, I'm gonna let it shine.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.