John 1:1-18 - Caleb Richardson

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was

with God, and the Word was God. He was with God

in the beginning. All things were created through

him, and apart from him, not one thing was created

that had been created. In him was life, and that

life was the light of men. That light shines

in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not

overcome it. 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 was not the light, but he came to testify

about the light. 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.

He came to his own, and his own people did not

receive him. But to all who did receive him,

he gave them the right to be children of God,

to those who believe in his name. who were born

not of natural descent or of the will of the

flesh or of the will of man, but of God. The

Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed

his glory, the glory as the one and only Son

from the Father, full of grace and truth. John

testified concerning him and exclaimed, This

was the one of whom I said, The one coming after

me ranks ahead of me, because he existed before

me. Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace

from his fullness. For the law was given through

Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son,

who is himself God and is at the Father's side,

he has revealed him. You may be seated. All right.

Well, morning again. Get those little blue Bibles

out. If you don't have one, grab one. So a lot

of times you start a book of the Bible, it's

a huge challenge. And I'm kind of almost overwhelming

until you get into it. But this one I am super

excited about. And I think it's super timely

for us. Because my experience, I've been here

in Alaska my whole life. And this time of year.

is usually one of the hardest for us call it

march madness i call it march madness because

it seems like you get to this point and all of

our lives start to unravel not all of us at the

same time hopefully not but here's the reality

like we live in a broken world don't we and in

this time of year whether it's your marriage

or your job or You're just tired. You've been

sick. It's easy to just get in a funk. And I

think this book's really appropriate for us because

it's going to do something. It's going to take

our eyes off of our junk, our situation. It's

going to cast them on Jesus. So it's good timing

of it. And as we begin our journey through John.

I want to challenge and encourage you, maybe

in a way that I have never done. If I could force

you to soak in this book, to marinate in this

book like a fat steak, I would. Because I know

it will change you. Guarantee it. I was talking

to Brittany. I didn't bother to interview this

time, but we were talking. I threatened, but

Brittany got up here for the book of Ruth, and

she read every week. Remember that? Well, whenever

you're like, Zane was getting ready to read,

and I'm back to reading this passage over and

over and over and over and over again, because

you don't want to make a mistake when you're

standing up in front of everybody. But one of

the things that happened as I was talking to

Brittany about it is, I mean, Ruth is kind of

a hard book to read initially. It's kind of like,

really, that's a cool story, but what does that

mean? but how it came alive to you. And I thought

that was really profound. I guarantee if you

soak in John, if you read it regularly, if you

write all over it, everything that sticks out,

you circle it, highlight it, talk about it, make

your notes on the side, do whatever you got to

do to spend a lot of time. And I would even encourage

you, like, do it every day for a while. Don't

just wait for where I'm at. read ahead read it

again read it again and let it soak try to understand

what it is and if you don't understand it that's

okay we're going to tackle it verse by verse

word by word we're going to walk right through

this thing so um so on the front of your books

there's of this gospel of john notebook is these

three words read reflect and respond you see

that look at the front of your book not the front

open it the cover like All the way close. See

what it says right in the front? Read, reflect,

respond. That is what I want us to do in this

series. Read it, reflect on it, talk about it,

and then respond with your life. See, the Gospel

of John is one of four Gospels. You may know

a lot of this, but I'm just going to help you

read. I'm going to kind of put it in a place

that you, oh yeah, that's right. But it's one

of four Gospels. Each of them presents Christ

with a distinct emphasis. Okay? So it's important

to understand, like, Matthew, Mark, and Luke

are what they call the synoptic gospels, meaning

their stories are kind of like a timeline of

Jesus. John doesn't do that. Matthew focuses

on Jesus' kingship. Mark focuses on Jesus' servanthood.

Luke focuses on Jesus' manhood. And John focuses

on Jesus' godhood. Okay, so that's kind of the

focus of John. Let's pray. We need help with

this. I need help. You need help understanding

it. And we just need the Spirit of God to work

in us. So let's pray. Lord, we come before you

because we're just dark -hearted sinners in need

of your grace. And we've got this phenomenal

gospel of John in front of us. Lord, our prayer

is that these words don't just stay flat on the

page, that by your Spirit you'll make them come

alive to us and help us to understand and help

us to transform our very lives. We need you,

Jesus. We need you, Spirit, to do a work in us.

Lord, give me the words to say today. In your

name we pray. Amen. Okay, we call these books

gospels because gospel means good news. So in

a dark time of the year, guess what? We're going

to talk about good news. That's what we get to

talk about. So it's good news. So John, who is

one of Jesus' closest disciples, in fact, John

thinks that's such a good deal, he calls him

the one Jesus loved. It's kind of weird. But

John is one of the few disciples that has actually

not been martyred. He's actually old when he

writes this, and very old when he writes this

book, but he's writing because he has really

good news for us. And we're going to see this,

and I want you to turn up to page 116 in those

little books. Look at John chapter 20, verse

John 20:31

31. It's like at the end of the book. There's

one more spot, but 20 verse 31 gives us why he's

writing this. He says this in verse 31. But these

are written so that, underline that. I'm going

to tell you to underline a lot of stuff because

I want you to highlight that. These are written

so that you may believe, underline that right

there, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of

God, and that by believing, you may have life

in his name. By believing. John is not just writing

to help us get to heaven. Probably the most read

book when it comes to people like, you need to

read the Gospel of John if you want to get to

heaven. No, John is not about just getting us

to heaven. John is writing this that we might

find real life, fullness of life in him. So,

if that's what he's writing about, let me just

say this to you. If you are in this room and

you're a skeptic, John is a book for you. You're

not sure what to think about Christianity. Maybe

you've done this. You've dipped your toe in it

a few times. John is a book for you. But maybe

you're new to the faith, like several of us in

this room. You're new to the faith. You don't

really know a whole lot. You're trying to learn.

John is a book for you. Maybe you've been a believer

for many years, a long time. John is a book for

you. And probably more importantly, if you are

a believer and you have... really fallen into

apathy with your faith, John is the book for

you. So I really want to challenge you. Like,

there's not a person in this room, myself, starting

with myself, that this book isn't going to be

important. And so let's jump in and let John's

gospel take us on a journey, all right? Ready?

We're just going to walk. Like I said, if you

guys are new around here, we're not going to

miss anything. We're going right through it,

one word at a time. Going to walk right through

it, and it'll be here forever in this book. So

here we go. Jump, by the way, if you do the math,

we might be here for a lot of months. But here

we go. Verses 1 through 18 is a prologue, or

what I like to call the foyer of the book. Right?

You ever play laser tag? And you're in, you go

in, you're all geared up, and you play laser

tag, and you're out in the foyer, right? And

you go, okay, we're going in. You've got your

teams established, and you don't even know what's

in there. You've never been into the laser tag.

And you go in, and all of a sudden, you go in,

the strobe lights are going, the music's going

like this, and you're trying to run around, act

like you're somebody bad, and you're going to

shoot somebody. And then you get done, you're

sweating, and you come out to the foyer. The

foyer kind of is the... prologue of what's going

to come, but it's also a great place to continue

to come back to. So these 18 verses that we're

going to look at are really helpful as you go

through John to come back and remember these

18 verses. It's kind of how it's set, and John's

going to start really high level for us. He's

going to get just way up in the air, and he's

going to say, this is what matters. This is really

important. Here's part of the prologue. The goal

of the prologue is to blow your mind about who

Jesus is. write that down the goal of the prologue

is to blow your mind about who jesus is and i

hope it does by the time we're done he wants

us to see the number one the greatness of christ

that's the first thing we're going to look at

the greatness of who he is okay john chapter

one verse one says this in the beginning was

the word and the word was with god and the word

was god okay Kind of a weird sentence structure,

the word. John doesn't just first tell it. He

just tells us first straight up who Jesus is.

Before there was a beginning, there was Jesus.

That's how he's saying it. Before there was the

beginning, before this world existed, there was

Jesus. There's never been a time when Jesus did

not exist because the word was. Word is Jesus.

That's what he's using it for. And so Jesus always

was. In another way of saying it, it's kind of

a weird way of saying it, you'd say Jesus always

was wuzzing. Jesus always was wuzzing. John wants

us to understand. It's all right, guys. Up here.

John wants us first to understand that God is

the center point. of everything he's the center

point of everything and guys this is our biggest

problem in life isn't it we don't we lose sight

of who's the center i think i'm the center my

problems are the center my family's the center

my agenda is the center and jonda says no i want

you to understand how big jesus is and he is

to be the center point everything so we begin

with god We don't talk about anything of Jesus.

A lot of the other gospels start with how Jesus

was born. This one just starts off saying, oh,

by the way, this Jesus we're going to talk about,

boom, he's God. He's the creator of all things.

He's the word. The word is logos in Greek, okay?

It means conscious or the force behind all things

that have ever been made. And it's a word that

we don't even understand totally, but it's driven

by an understanding of Greek philosophy and all

sorts of things, but it's this idea that everything

starts from the word. And by saying that Jesus

was with God and was God, John establishes the

idea right there of the Trinity, Father, Son,

Holy Spirit. We're not going to spend a lot of

time here right now. But it's this idea that

one God, three persons in a love relationship

with each other. Perfect relationship. So right

out of the chute, he says, Jesus is creator of

all things. He's God. And he was with God. Trinity.

Doesn't touch on the Holy Spirit yet. That's

coming. But this is in the first part. We begin

to even see that there's a three -in -one picture

of God. Again, the goal here is to blow your

mind. Before we ever get into details of who

Jesus is and what he did, blow your mind. Like,

who's at the center here? Not Caleb. Not you.

Jesus. John chapter 1, verse 2. He was with God

John 1:2

in the beginning, and all things were created

through him. And apart from him, not one thing

was created that has been created. Everything.

He says, has been created by Jesus. Sometimes

we separate Jesus and we just say God created

all things, right? In this situation, he says

Jesus was right there. This Jesus that walked

among you, which we're going to get to in a second,

was the creator of all things. He's the creator

of the universe. Colossians chapter 1 verse 16

Colossians 1:16

and 17 says this, for everything was created

in him or by him, in heaven and on earth, the

visible and the invisible, whether thrones or

dominions or rulers or authorities, all things

have been created through him and for him, for

he is before all things, and by him all things

hold together. Okay, if you don't see Jesus yet,

Maybe you're a little skeptical. You don't see

Jesus as really the one who created all things.

You're missing all of what the Bible says. The

Bible is just loaded with Jesus is this kind

of guy. This is who Jesus is. Colossians just

points us there as one example. The little book

I've been reading, picked up this last week,

it's called The Gospel Way Catechism, poses this

question, what is the center point of everything?

poses that question. What is the center point

of everything? And the answer, he says, is God

is center and point of everything. In him, all

things come to be and are held together. He has

no rival. And that's what John is trying to do

right out of the shoes. He's saying, look, nothing

else in the universe is as important as Jesus.

He's the center point. God the Father, God the

Son, and the Holy Spirit. That is the center.

And I want to swear, he's church, he says, church,

I want you above everything else to see who is

most important. Now, as we move to verse 4, we

take, he takes it one step farther. We're going

to get to kind of the second point of his greatness.

The greatness of Christ's love. So we just see,

first of all, the greatness of who he is. creator

of all things, can't get much bigger. And then

he's going to hone in on the greatness of his

love. Look at verse 4. In him was life, and that

life was the light of man. That light shines

in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not

overcome it. See, in these verses, we are introduced

to two metaphors that are going to run through

the book of John. We need to remember as we come

back. Then two of these metaphors, and they describe

what Jesus brings as he steps into our broken

and jacked up dark world. I was just thinking

last night, and I was flipping through and watching

all the stuff that's going on in the war around

the world. We live in a pretty broken world right

now, don't we? The God of the universe stepped

into that world. He stepped into that world and

he says, I've got... I want to show you two different

things that I bring. It's not the only things,

but two. I'm going to do it through two metaphors.

He brings life and he brings light. In Jesus

is life. If you want real life with purpose and

with meaning, it is only found in Jesus because

Jesus is life. It won't be found anywhere else.

It won't be found in your achievements, how good

your marriage is, how well your children do.

It's only found in Jesus, real life. And then

he says Jesus is light. See, where light goes,

darkness is dispelled, revealing the true nature

of life. Like, he says when that light shines

in the darkness literally means It shines continually

in the darkness, meaning that Christ is continually

bombarding every corner of our hearts that are

of darkness through the work of his Holy Spirit.

If we're in Christ, if we embrace this light,

he's penetrating our darkness. That's what he

does. But sadly, the majority of mankind, according

to this, reject the light. Look at verse 6, starting

in verse 6 says, that there is a man sent from

God whose name was John. By the way, this is

not John the author, it's John the baptizer,

the different John. We're going to touch on that

as we go into the book. He came as a witness

to testify about the light, so that all might

believe, underline that. By the way, every time

you see the word believe in John, underline it,

okay, as we go through it. All might believe

through him. He was not the light, that's John,

but he came to testify about the light. The true

light that gives light to everyone has come into

the world. Straight up, John the baptizer came

as a witness to tell as many as he could about

Jesus, the light, and that Jesus was for all

people and is today for all people. That's his

point. Look at verse 9. See, the true light that

gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

I mean, the God who made all things has come

to us. And I could just stop right there. In

that whole thought, if it's true, if the God

that made all things really exists, and it's

true, and he chose to come to you, that ought

to blow your mind. Why would he do that? Because

everyone needs a, every one of us need a savior.

Look at verse 10. He was in the world, and the

world was created through him, and yet the world

did not recognize him. He came to his own, and

his own people did not receive him. Okay, so

let's just unpack this for a minute. See, the

Jewish Pharisees, which we kind of have a bad

taste in our mouth about the Pharisees, right?

Think about what the job of a Pharisee was. You

ever heard of the Pharisee? You may know what

I'm talking about. The Jewish leaders that Jesus

clashed with. If you've read any of the Gospels,

you see he can clash with these guys. They were

the religious elite. And the Pharisees, their

job, they were to be set apart to know God's

Word so well, to know this so well. A lot of

them had it memorized, most of it. That when

the Messiah would come, they would know it. That

was their job. Problem is, they fell in love

with the rules and they missed out on the relationship

that God was offering. Fell in love with the

rules. Religion took over. They became, in another

way of saying it, is that they became the center

and not God at the center. Which is what John

starts off by saying, is that God is at the center.

And so, they missed it. They missed it. See,

you and I can be in the church. We can be around

this. You can read your Bible every day and miss

Jesus. Don't miss Jesus. You belong to him. He

came after you. The Beatitudes Jesus talks about

in a couple of the other Gospels is a famous

Sermon on the Mount. Beatitudes start with kind

of this rising sunshine, sunrise. It kind of

talks about the process that we need to go through

as we begin to go, oh, I get God. And the very

beginning of it is what? Blessed are the poor

in spirit. Meaning you look at your life in the

darkness of your own life and you go, I know

I can't do this. I'm broken. I'll step aside

from being the center. In fact, you begin to

look at your life and go, man, I am so jacked.

See, the Pharisees couldn't do this. They're

looking at their life going, I'm pretty good.

One who's poor in spirit looks at their life

and goes, I'm really honest. I'm not doing that

good. So I need to be set aside. In fact, I'm

looking at my sin and my brokenness, and it grieves

me because I know what I'm doing to my Savior.

And so I mourn over that. So that's the start

point. Jesus came after you, though. Don't miss

him. Look at verse 12. But to all who did receive

him, he gave them the right to be children of

God. To those who believe in his name, who were

born not of natural descent, nor of the will

of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

Going to come back later and talk about what

it means to be born again. It means newness in

Christ, starting over. To receive, when he says

to receive, to receive is to believe. In the

gospel, John, believe, when he says believe,

means to believe in. Okay? Not to believe that.

That's information. To believe that something

happened, that's information. But to believe

in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, I need a

chair. So, if I look at this chair, how many

of you believe? that this chair can hold you.

Yeah, duh. But to believe in this chair means

I actually rest in it and I release in it. And

that's what the difference is. Because I don't

just believe that. How many of us believe that

God is good? How many of us believe that, that

he came to save us, but do you believe in what

he's done? Is your life saying, that is what

I put everything into? That's what John's going

to call us to in this book. To believe in is

to put trust in it. I know that's hard. Some

people think it's weak to do that, and I would

say it's not. It's the other way around. To believe

in is to put your trust in. Those who received

the light became children of God. John also had

this to say in another John, 1 John. which is

a different book. 1 John 3, verse 1, the first

1 John 3:1

part of that verse, he says, see that what great

love the Father has given to us, that we should

be called children, or God's children. And we

are. I love that. And we are. Why? When you put

your faith in Jesus, he takes over. And you're

his child. Now, go back to verse 14. And starting

in verse 14, we begin to see the greatness of

Christ's grace. So we just have, it starts off,

we've got the greatness of Christ, and then we

see the greatness of his love demonstrated toward

us, and now we see the greatness of his grace.

And I need to drink. Here we go. In verse 14,

the word became flesh and dwelt among us. I love

this verse. This is the coolest verse. The Lord

became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed

his glory, the glory as the one and only Son

from the Father, full of grace and truth. Okay,

let's unpack this. This verse describes what

we call incarnation. It's the most remarkable

miracle. And it's... Really hard to put a metaphor

to it, but years ago when I did Young Life, we

always talked about the incarnation, meaning

God coming to us, putting flesh on, coming one

of us, hanging out with us, setting up his tent

with us. And so I used this illustration, and

I would have a bring in. Sometimes I think I

should do this all the time, these kind of illustrations,

because we think high school kids need it. They're

actually smarter than most of us some half the

time. But I put in this big bowl with a goldfish.

Get the big, fattest goldfish I could find. Stick

in this bowl. And I says, you know what? This

bowl is like you and me. Or this goldfish. We're

swimming around there. That's our little world.

And how crazy is it if I said, you know what?

I really love this goldfish. I want to dive in.

But I can yell at this goldfish. But I need to

actually become a goldfish so the goldfish understands.

How much I love him. And then I'm going to go

into that bowl. So it would be like me turning

into a goldfish and jumping into this bowl. And

you're going, that's ridiculous. And I'd say,

yeah, this is ridiculous too. That the God of

the universe would choose to come and live among

us. That's exactly what he does. And not only

does he come and live among us, he came in the

most poverty way. He became a tiny little goldfish.

The worst of the wimp is little goldfishes. And

then he would go into the bowl and he says, now

I'm going to believe I was a perfect goldfish.

And I'm going to take all of the sin of all the

other goldfish upon myself. I'm going to suffer

and die in their place, be crucified for them

because I love them that much. That's how ridiculous

this is. The God of the universe says, the word

became flesh. Wait a minute, he made flesh, right?

Yep. And what did he do? He dwelt among us. Meaning

he got in our bowl with us. Hebrews chapter 4

Hebrews 4:15

verse 15 says this. For we do not have a high

priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.

But one who has been tempted in every way as

we are. Yet without sin. What does this mean?

Jesus knows how you feel. Gets it. He knows how

you feel. He knows your struggle, March Madness.

He knows what you're going through right now.

I get it. He says, I get it. I've walked in your

shoes. I felt your pain. I know what you're dealing

with. Oh, and by the way, I created all things.

I made you. I know you pretty well. He did not

stay distant, though. He came to us. You and

I couldn't get out of the bowl to save our lives,

could we? But he could come in, and he did. He

moved in, the word here is he moved into the

neighborhood or he pitched his tent among us.

Don explains that when Jesus came, became flesh

and dwelt, pitched his tent, literally what that

means, in the midst of humanity, man and woman

saw his glory. Here, characterized as full of

grace and truth. And what we'll see as we work

our way to the cross of Christ. is that becomes

bigger and bigger and bigger on display and it

will be seen most in the cross of Christ. Look

at verse 15. John testified according to him

and explained, this was the one I am whom I said,

the one coming after me ranks ahead of me because

he existed before me. John is just pleading the

case again, right? Indeed, we have all received

grace upon grace from his... Now, that's a verse.

I want you to circle that grace upon grace. John

is saying, from the fullness of his grace, what

is grace? Getting something you don't deserve.

That's grace, right? From the fullness of his

grace, we have received one blessing after another.

Here's how it works. You get grace. followed

by grace. It's grace upon grace upon grace upon

grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. It just

keeps going. That's what you get. Grace is not

just a one -time thing. You get it all from him.

This is what this is saying. It's grace upon

grace upon grace upon grace. John, now look at

verse 17. For the law was given through Moses.

Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. This

reminds us what we looked at in Romans 5, verse

Romans 5:20

20. I'll just go there real quick. It says this,

the law came along to multiply the trespasses.

What did the law do? It took a magnifying glass

and said, look how much you cannot accomplish

perfection. You cannot earn your way to God.

It shows us that. But where sin multiplied, which

we see, happening all around us, grace multiplied

even more. Grace upon grace upon grace. See,

your sin is not too big for Jesus. Your sin is

not too big for Jesus. Whatever your sin is right

now or has been, it's not too big for Jesus.

There's more than enough grace to cover your

sin and to give you an overflowing free and victorious

life. Now, I said at the beginning that this

gospel is for all of us, right? From the skeptic

to the apathetic believer. Why? Because grace

upon grace has been given. And it's given for

you to experience an overflowing, free and victorious

life. If you know Jesus, Believe in Jesus. The

fullness of his grace is yours. But you can know

that Jesus' grace exists. But do you, have you

believed in his grace? Meaning, are you trusting

him for his grace? Because if you do, that grace

is yours. Grace upon grace. John concludes this

prologue in verse 18. Remember the foyer. We've

got to keep coming back to these truths as we

go through it. Verse 18, no one has ever seen

God. And the one and only Son, who is himself

God, and is at the Father's side, has revealed

him. Where do we see God, church? In Jesus. As

you look to Jesus, God the Father is revealed.

And the greatness of Jesus explains the greatness

of the Father. He didn't just leave us out there

to say, ooh, this force. He says, I'm coming

to you in a way that you can understand and you

can grasp. I'm going to come in human form. And

I'm going to walk among you, fully God and fully

man. The Gospel of John wants us to see Jesus

for, who he is, and to experience Jesus on the

ground level, to believe in Jesus as the one

true God. And one of the things John is going

to do is he's going to go really ground level

for us. He's going to go right down to the ground

level. He's going to show us the interactions,

but all of it is to help us so, yes, I believe.

And I need this, church. Because even as a pastor,

even as somebody who preaches, who spends time

in this, I struggle with my belief. My belief.

You all do. Help me. The Gospel of the Way Catechism

book I was telling you about, I just read. When

asked this question, who is God the Son? Jesus.

Who is God the Son? Answered it this way. God

the Son is the eternal word who took on humanity.

Jesus of Nazareth, Messiah of Israel, and King

of the world. He is not a life coach or a therapist

who affirms all your desires, but the great physician

whose blood heals our sin -sick hearts. That's

who Jesus is. My hope as we go through John is

that my eyes and that your eyes will be turned

to Jesus. that you will experience the fullness

of his grace, that you will believe in God, the

God who's come to us in a way that you've never

believed before, that your life will rest on

it, that he will be center of your life. To the

skeptic who might be here today, my hope is that

you would believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior

of your life. To the new believer that's here

today, that Jesus is and that you would begin

to believe who Jesus is and what he's done will

capture your whole life. Some of you have stepped

in, you put your toe in, you believe, but he

has not yet begun to capture your whole life.

I pray that as you go through this series that

the depth of it will just grow deeper. That you

will not view Jesus according to your ways, but

that you will surrender your life fully to Jesus.

For the believer, Whether you've just been doing

okay or you're apathetic or maybe a little bit

right now, you're falling asleep off the wheel,

that Jesus' fire would begin to roar inside of

you. I'm going to just say this before you. If

you're in any one of those categories, your prayer

ought to be, God, Jesus, roar inside of me. Meaning

a fire. Light the fire, the Jesus fire inside

of you. That's why I mentioned at the beginning

how important it is for you to soak. read, marinate

in John. Because one of the things it'll do is

the Spirit of God speaks to us through His Word.

And it'll drive it into your heart. And some

of you are probably good at memorization. Pick

verses to memorize. Let's just soak in that.

Let the richness of it change you. I want the

band to come up now. And I just want to, as we

prepare to respond, it really can be summed up

in these few words. My prayer is that we surrender

all to Jesus. That's it. We're going to go to

a time like we do every week where we have communion.

And as we look at the Lord's Supper, we're looking

at the central act of grace upon grace. What

Jesus did. It gives us grace upon grace upon

grace. Jesus offered his body and his blood as

the atoning sacrifice for our sins. In John chapter

John 6:35

6, verse 35, Jesus declared, I am the bread of

life. I am the one who sustains you and nourishes

your soul. If you are a follower of Jesus, you've

said yes to Jesus. When you take that communion,

you look at it and say, Jesus, you are the one

who sustains me, who nourishes my soul. That's

why we do it every week, that you come back to

that point every time. And then the cup. Matthew

Matthew 26:28

chapter 26, verse 28 says this, for this is my

blood. What Jesus said to his disciples, this

is my blood of the covenant, which is poured

out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Church,

as we close today, my encouragement is no matter

what you're dealing with, get your eyes on Jesus.

Fix your eyes on Jesus. Run to Jesus. Let's pray.

Lord, as we come before you, I ask that if there's

anyone even in this room that has not surrendered,

put Jesus at the center, that that was where

we start today. Friends, if that's you in this

room and you've never surrendered your life fully

to Jesus, I pray right now where you sit, that

you would just say, God, I need you. I know I'm

a sinner. And I know you're the Savior. I don't

know much else, but I give my life to you. Lord,

as we become, step into this book, I pray that

you become so big in us, to us, that we will

see you, Jesus, for who you are. Change us, transform

us. We know that we get all of our purpose, sustenance,

And vision for this life comes from you, Jesus.

So we go all to you. We run to you today. In

your name we pray.