John - In the Beginning w/Scott McConnell

My name is Scott.

A little bit about me.

I, would you open the cap?

Yeah, and you set it right here.

I've been in a power chair now for nine years.

I had a bad fall at work and suffered a spinal cord injury.

So I use a power chair.

A couple things about my spinal cord injury are,

one, I have a really hard time staying warm.

And is anyone else in here a little chilly?

Or is it just me?

Dad's shaking his head no vigorously, my dad.

So I already turned the temperature up a little bit.

So if you get warm in here, it's my fault.

Don't think it's on anyone else, or it's by coincidence.

You may need to sweat a little bit

for me to get through this.

So we suffer together.

And so we'll grind through together and we'll get there.

I also stay tilted back in my chair pretty far.

That helps me regulate my blood pressure.

So that's why you'll see me reclined.

And I drink quite a bit of water.

I'm not capable of drinking regular water.

So I drink flavored water.

I drink Diamond Mountain Dew and flavored water.

I'm allergic to regular H2O.

I want to say a couple things.

One, I really appreciate Steve being here today.

Steve, how many years have you been

leading worship in the Quad Cities?

18 years leading worship here in the Quad Cities.

And so I'm so grateful for that.

When Pastor Greg told me that he and Pastor Jen

were gonna be gone today, I said,

okay, you know, that's cool, but can we please find somebody

to lead worship?

Because you cannot replace what we just had

in here this morning.

And Pastor Greg had offered to do like a recorded worship

and some things which would have worked okay,

but you really can't replace what Steve did

for us here this morning.

So I'm really grateful.

And it takes a special person to just step in

to a church that you haven't led worship in before

and just be able to plug and play.

And he did a great job at that today.

And it was also awesome to have Chris

bring in his personality and his freshness

and his attitude today.

Can we just give him some thanks as well?

It really helps when you're sharing the word

to have some energy when you get up here.

And I feel that today that both of them

were able to bring that.

So I'm really, really grateful for that.

So I appreciate all of that.

I do miss Pastor Greg.

The last time I preached, when I came up, he booed me.

And that may have been my favorite greeting of all time.

Because for someone to boo you,

they have to know you pretty well.

To throw a boo, they have to know

that they're not gonna throw you off

and that they're probably gonna laugh.

Or it's really awkward.

So Pastor Greg is in Des Moines today

with his son Wally, and they're enjoying some time together.

So I'm really grateful for that.

And as has already been said today,

I'm really glad that they get to do that

and that we still have a good crowd.

We're still having fun and we still trust

that God's able to work in our midst today.

Amen?

Amen.

Every once in a while for some energy,

I asked Chris to throw on a let's go.

So can we practice?

Let's go!

Yeah!

Let's go! Yeah!

That's the new amen.

You can still do an amen,

but that's the new amen that he's bringing.

So I appreciate that.

Today I wanna talk about the gospels

and we're kicking off a series on John specifically.

But I wanted to talk about the gospels for a moment.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

are the order that they appear in our Bible.

And the gospels are the foundation

for the New Testament,

but really for our understanding of the whole Bible.

Because as we as Christians understand the Bible,

it's focused on the life of Jesus.

There are lots of other places in there that are important,

but it all is focused on the life,

the death, and the resurrection of Jesus.

So why do we have four gospels?

Why don't we just have one?

We have four gospels because it's valuable

to have four different perspectives on the life of Jesus.

Each gospel writer had a different personality.

Each gospel writer was writing

for a little bit different purpose.

Each one was probably writing

to a specific church or group.

They're actually letters.

And each one was writing at a little bit different time.

And they each had,

I think I've mentioned their own personality.

So if there were four people in this room,

not to make it about me,

but for a moment I'll do it for the example,

to say, hey, I wanna write to you about Scott.

You would each say something a little bit different

about how you know me, how long you've known me,

who you were telling my story to,

and what the point of that was.

If it was for a newspaper article,

you would speak about it differently

than if it were for like a book or something like that,

or for if it was just a general introduction.

Hey, I wanna let you know about this person

you're gonna be meeting.

Here's a little bit about him.

Some of it would depend too on what part of my life

you know me from.

One thing that's always interesting to me is

whether someone knew me before my injury

or after my injury,

because for the vast majority of you in this room,

you know me as someone that uses a power chair,

and you know me as someone who is a quadriplegic.

There's some people in the room, my parents,

who've known me my entire life.

And so they have a lot different perspective

on where I'm from, who I am, what I'm like.

Oh, and I also wanna give a shout out.

There's two special people here today.

One from Oklahoma, my niece, Lily,

and also my nephew, Grayson, who's here from Kansas.

So can we welcome them today with a hand?

So it's really neat that they get to be here today as well.

So each person has a different perspective.

I have a picture of me holding my nephew Grayson

before my injury, and it was just a few months before that.

So to me, that's a special thing

that I have that picture of me holding him.

But throughout his life and throughout my niece's life,

they've known me as Uncle Scott that uses a chair.

So I just bring that up to say,

the different phases of life that someone knows you in,

that they've heard about you in, that they've seen you in,

change how they talk about you,

the stories that they tell about you.

So when we ask that question,

why are the gospels different?

Why do they tell different stories in different ways,

sometimes in a different order?

They knew Jesus in different ways.

Some of them knew him personally.

One of them we know did not, Mark did not.

And then even those who wrote them

that we understand to be his disciples

had different relationships with him.

John writes about himself in the third person

as the one who Jesus loved.

He had a special relationship with Jesus.

That's how he thought of himself.

So that's a little bit about the gospels.

Now, when we get through that,

and we're gonna talk about John a little bit in particular,

I'm gonna use an analogy for that,

but before I do that,

let's go back to the friendship for a moment

and let's hear some of the traits

or some of the interests that you look for in a friend.

I think I heard Star Wars up here,

and we're joking, but that's also true.

Is that fair to say?

It's a common interest.

There's some people in this church that I know

I can talk to Star Wars about,

and especially if there's a new series, a new episode,

I kind of edge over toward them to say,

hey, what did you think about this?

I think I saw an advertisement for a show called Acolyte.

Okay, I didn't know that that was coming out

until just last night, so that was cool.

And Andy's nodding his head vigorously,

so he's just outed himself as an adult nerd,

which I'm very proudly one as well.

I read the books.

That's how much of a nerd I am.

I read the books about the characters

that don't even exist in the movies.

So that's me.

What about other folks, an interest or a trait?

I was over, I was listening in,

and Joe, did I hear you say acceptance?

Yeah, that's a trait that he looks for.

That's really important.

What about other folks?

Something in a friend.

Silly, yes, I hear that.

I would say my answer would be a sharp sense of humor.

That's why I like Pastor Greg.

He's willing to boo me.

I love that.

That's a good trait in a friend.

I think I heard loyalty.

Where did I hear that from?

Okay, Robin, thank you.

Now you were watching online last week, right?

Maybe?

Probably, okay.

I say that because I was listening.

I was here, but I think I might have went out

because I was cold, surprised.

So I think I saw you on there.

So it's always great to see people

who are watching on Facebook too.

Any other traits or interests?

Let's do one more.

Authentic.

Authentic, all right.

That's been a really big one,

especially probably maybe in the last 20 years,

we've heard that word a lot.

Authentic, someone who's willing to be real with you

and share with you where they're at.

All right, very good.

Now I wanna look at the gospel writers.

I wanna look at Mark, Luke, and John

and their personalities a little bit,

as they might be.

Now I am, as I often do, taking wide liberties here.

So I wanna put that out there upfront.

These are examples at times a bit silly, not exact,

to help us have a conversation and have an understanding.

But we have to keep in mind that it's,

I'm taking some liberties.

Now, Scott, why would you do that in a sermon?

It has a certain amount of risk in it.

Yes, that's true.

But another friend of mine, Jesus, told parables, right?

He would talk about God's word through telling farming

stories, through telling fishing stories, things like that.

And as we know, when you talk about God's kingdom as a tree,

there's gonna be some flaws in that example, right?

We can only take it so far before we go,

all right, we're talking about a tree, okay?

But he was willing to do that and take some risks

to communicate his message.

And so I'm gonna do a little bit of that today.

Now I'm going to talk about Mark

as if Mark were my friend.

Mark and I would probably get along pretty well.

And I'm doing this according to the style

of how he wrote his gospel.

Mark is a straight to the facts person.

He's not as worried about giving you background information.

He jumps right into it.

When he wrote his gospel, he started it with,

this is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And he goes, boom, he starts talking about John the Baptist,

and he starts discussing Jesus' ministry.

He gets right into it.

He's willing to end a sentence abruptly.

He is even ends his gospel very abruptly.

There's not a lot of transition there.

And he focuses more on the action of what Jesus is doing

than long sections of what Jesus said.

So I think Mark and I would get along for those purposes.

I like to say things in as short a way as possible.

At times, of course, sometimes I'm long-winded.

But oftentimes I like short conversations.

I like conversations that are very much to the point.

I don't mind when someone ends a conversation

by just saying what they have to say and walking away,

because I'm prone to do that myself.

When I'm with friends that I'm close with,

and especially ones that help me

quite a bit around the house,

they know my personality.

They know I'm not trying to be bossy or order them around.

So it's short and quick.

Please move that there.

Please do that.

Do this.

Then we're gonna do this.

Thank you very much.

When I don't know somebody as well,

or they're maybe a little bit more sensitive person,

I say, you know, I'd really appreciate it if.

Would you please do?

And that's good.

That's an important way to build a relationship.

But I think Mark and I would get along

because there probably wouldn't be a lot of that.

There probably wouldn't be a lot of pleases and thank yous.

There probably wouldn't be a lot of long conversations.

Now, Luke,

Luke started his gospel by saying,

I've researched, I've looked through every account,

and now I'm going to write to you

and tell you everything that I've learned.

And Luke goes back before Mark does,

Luke researches not only Jesus and John the Baptist,

but the prophecies about them before they were even born.

And then he tells about when their mothers were pregnant.

And then he tells about when they met each other,

they were cousins.

So Luke, also he likes to go in order.

He does a lot of research and he goes through

and he tells the story.

I think I would get along really well with Luke,

especially if we were having more

of a historical conversation.

We were giving context.

You can trust that he's going to use more words

than my friend Mark would,

but it's for a good purpose.

He's always headed somewhere.

He has a plan in his mind.

Now, John, oh, John.

We would probably have the least in common.

John is more of a poet.

John, he was willing to use a lot of words

to say what he has to say.

John is the kind of person I think where if I would say,

John, can you explain to me what you meant

when you said that?

He might say, well, what did that mean to you?

That is one of my least favorite questions in the world.

And I think, you know, I was listening to,

when someone does an interview with a song artist

and they ask that question, what was that song about?

You know it's coming, but I still can't stand it.

Well, I just want that song to be about

whatever it's about to that person.

Okay, that's great, but what did you mean?

What were you actually writing about?

What were you thinking about?

That's what I'm interested in.

What's the history of it?

What people were in mind?

But a lot of times you don't get that from an artist.

And I think from John, it would be hard

to get that from him.

When he tells his gospel story,

he starts back before the beginning of the universe.

That's the kind of guy John is.

He goes so far outside of the box.

It's worth it in its own way.

And we'll get to that here in a moment.

We're starting a series on John.

But he takes a completely different route.

Now I'm gonna take my liberties even a little bit further.

I'm going to say what their Facebook posts

would have looked like.

All right, we're stretching it, but we're getting there.

How would Mark, Luke, and John say happy birthday

on Facebook to their figurative wives?

Okay, their imaginary wives.

Mark, I think he would have gone this route.

Happy birthday to my wife, I love you.

I'll stop.

That's it.

He goes on, he posts, he tells her he loves her,

he moves on.

All right, here's how I imagine Luke might have posted it.

Happy birthday to my wife of 15 years.

I love you so much.

Here are some pictures of our life, our journey.

And by the way, here's an article about marriage

that you may enjoy to read that's been helpful to us.

It's a research base, it gives a history.

He gives you a small homework assignment.

And it's more sentimental, but it still has,

it's chronological, it has a point, and he goes through.

Now John might have said,

our story reminds me of a Greek play.

And I'm sorry this post is going to be so long.

And whenever I read that, I flinch.

But our true friends will read our whole story.

Leave a comment if you want to.

Now he's done so many things I don't like already.

He's already started with something I have no idea

what he's talking about, a Greek play.

And it's one of those posts where you have to click it

to see the rest.

And then you have to click the three dots after that

to see the whole thing.

And I'm like, this is not what Facebook is for.

It's not for short essays.

But he's gonna go on, and then he's even going to do the,

leave a comment, right?

My true friends will read this whole thing

and leave a comment.

And I'm going, okay.

So now you're saying if I don't read the whole thing,

I'm not a true friend, and I'm supposed to leave a comment

to show you that I really read it.

Now to some, that's romantic.

Romantic, right?

His wife, maybe that would be the most meaningful to her.

He's going to express himself in a more long form way.

He's gonna use more words.

He's gonna compare it to something.

But it's not my vibe.

If you look at my last Facebook post to my wife

on her birthday, I'm pretty sure it was,

happy birthday to my wife, I love you.

Okay?

Which I think she's okay with.

She's come to expect.

That's not a surprise to her.

But they're each different.

They're each unique, and our personalities line up

differently with them.

And so I've left out Matthew just because I didn't have

as much time.

And I like Mark and Luke more, and I had to include John

because that's who the series is about.

Personality, right?

So that's a little bit about the gospels.

But we need different voices, don't we?

We need different voices to stretch us.

If I only, if I just read the book of Mark again and again,

I would enjoy it.

But I would miss a lot, wouldn't I?

I would miss what John has to say about the Holy Spirit.

I would miss what John has to say about Jesus'

special relationship with his disciples and how he

prepared them for his death and resurrection.

I would miss John 3.16.

For God so loved the world that he sent his only son.

And there are a lot of other great verses that are in there.

And the story of Lazarus is in there, which is one of my

favorite passages of all time.

So I'm really glad that there's those different voices,

those different ways of saying things.

And even though John is different, and our personalities

would probably be different in person, he tells us a story

in a different way that we need.

Some of us because we relate to it most,

because it makes the most sense to us.

And some of us because it's a little bit outside

of our comfort zone or what we're used to.

And we need that too.

Now I want to go now and I want to read

the beginning of some of chapter one of John.

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God

and the word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made.

Without him nothing was made that has been made.

I had a friend in college who read this in high school

for the first time and he said when he read it,

he was in a room by himself but he stood up and clapped.

Because it's so beautiful, it's so well written,

it's so powerful that it's worth standing up

and clapping for.

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God

and the word was God.

John is going back to tell the story of Jesus before Adam,

before the Garden of Eden, before creation.

He's even going so far back that he's telling the story

before the first Adam, A-T-O-M of the universe.

He's taking us to a place and reminding us

that Jesus' story starts before we ever heard

the name Jesus, back before there was ever

a single prophecy about him.

He was with God and he was God.

John has absolutely no doubts whether Jesus was the Messiah.

No doubts whether he was the son of God.

He doesn't feel like he needs to take us down a path

in order to help lead us there.

He makes it very clear.

I wanna read a little bit more of chapter one.

He said, the word became flesh

and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory and the glory of the one

and only son who came from the Father

full of grace and truth.

And two more verses, in him was life

and that life was the light of all mankind.

The light shines in the darkness

and the darkness has not overcome it.

Let's go.

Amen, amen.

John tells us some powerful words about Jesus,

about who he is and what he's about.

He's the light that nothing can overcome.

He is God wrapped in flesh

and he has called us to be sons and daughters,

to be welcomed into his family,

to be children who are then given his spirit.

John is gonna have a lot to say to us in the weeks to come.

I wanted to share with you a little bit

about who he is in personality,

what makes his gospel a little bit different,

and where he starts.

In the beginning was the word.

Jesus starts all the way back

from before the beginning of the universe.

He is God.

He is the light that no darkness can overcome

and he lives in us.

He gives us that light that no darkness can overcome.

No darkness can overcome.