The Excellency of Jesus Christ
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The Excellency of Jesus Christ
Please turn in your Bibles to John 1. We will finish the prologue, verses 1 to 18 this morning, and finish our advent series by looking at the Excellency of Jesus Christ as presented in unparalleled splendor in verses 14 to 18. We have seen his eternality in the first few verses. We've talked about the enlightenment he brought to man being the light to came into the darkness. And we talked last week about his exclusivity, that he alone was able to give the right to those sinners who would believe in his name, the right to become children of God, born not of blood, not of the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God. And this week we're going to look in closing at His Excellency. And a wonderful way to end, because now more than ever, it's perhaps easy to miss the excellency of Jesus Christ, his superiority, his supremacy, his preeminence, his perfection. I could go on all day. And yet words would fail me. Because who could say enough to exalt the name of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God and Lord of Lords and King of Kings? He can't be explained by words, but what we do see of him and know of him we do want to say, because we have seen the light, whereas the world is the opposite. It says the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not what?...comprehend it, verse 5. It couldn't understand it. It was too much for the world. And so whatever the world sees of Jesus Christ, they miss who he truly is. They screw it up. They did it back then and they still do it till today. I present to you a recent article from the Wall Street Journal headline, it pays to have long hair in a beard in Utah. Jesus models are in demand. Bradley Olson wrote just a few days ago, Bob Sagers was walking around an indie music festival because that's where you would find a character like this. When a friendly stranger approached and asked for his number. Has anyone ever told you that you have a Jesus look to you?, the man asked. According to Sagers, a 25 year old who works as a cheesemonger at a grocery store. And those of you who don't know what a cheesemonger is, it is a merchant who specializes in...cheese. Good job. He said, I really didn't get that line a lot. Sagers, who is six foot 5 with dirty blonde shoulder length hair and a beard, he says gives him Irish and Scandinavian vibes. I mean, that's exactly what we would think of a Jew over in Old Testament times...somehow with dirty blond shoulder length hair and a beard that has Irish and Scandinavian vibes. And he's 6'5", so he says, I make a pretty tall Jesus. The article goes on to say that there is a growing demand for Jesus models in Utah. Parents want their kids to be able to have a picture of them with Jesus. One photographer, Michaela Avalos, just gives this one caveat. She said, if your kid doesn't like taking pictures on Santa's lap, he probably won't like this experience with Jesus either. Kids either love it and it's the best thing ever, or it's a terrifying moment and even traumatizing. Um, it's not just a challenge for these kids. It's also for these models. Jai Knighten, he is the good lookingguy in the blue, writes about some of the challenges he faces. He says portraying Jesus can be tricky. One person who hired him wanted him to be, quote, "the most Christ like person you can be. Or people will be able to tell through the photos that it's not real", right? If you don't appear to be the most Christ like person in the photos, then just a total scam. No chance this guy is actually Jesus. He said that he has tried to portray Jesus in a way that's similar to how he's depicted in The Chosen, a series that has gained a following among Mormons and other Christians that Pastor Adam has never watched. He bases his character on the lead actor, who is warm and jovial, often laughing with disciples. Quote, "stoic Jesus is intimidating. A Jesus who smiles and pats you on the back is much more relatable." And one other model, the man with the giant piece of wood on his back. Um, his name is Terry Holker, and he's been a model of this for decades. He's been doing it, but he says he doesn't charge anyone for the privilege, but he does sell reprints at gun shows to recoup some printing costs. So what a guy. Uh, his line really is a summation of all this when he talks about his life as a Jesus model. He says, "I don't know how many homes in the Utah Valley have a picture of me in their living room. If you look at a Jesus picture and you don't know the model, you might be like, whoa, it's Jesus. But if you know the person, it hits different. People are like, yeah, that's actually my neighbor." This, you know, is a sad summary of a world who does not know the excellency of Jesus Christ. The closest they can get to it and want to bring their family towards it, would be hiring a Jesus model and having their kids get pictures with him. But the truth is, if you don't know the Jesus of Scripture and have a mind to understand the excellency of Jesus Christ, how could one ever expect you to say what is true about him? To understand who he is as he is revealed in the Word of God. And so, as we bring our series to a close today, my prayer is that we will for a final time before Christmas holiday. Why we have focused here is because we do want our hearts to be lifted up in worship of the true Christ, the real Christ, the one who is blazing and blinding in his glory when seen through eyes of faith. So follow with me as I read verses 14 to 18 about the excellency of Jesus Christ.
"And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about him and cried out, saying, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. For of his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten who is in the bosom of the father, he has explained him."
Father, we ask this morning that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened to know the hope of the calling that we have in the gospel, the glorious riches that we have as inheritance of Christ, and of course, the surpassing greatness of your power available to us who believe. We ask that we would see through eyes of faith the glory and excellency of Christ this morning. Amen.
So a few days away from Christmas, if someone were to ask you today, maybe that neighbor that you have invited to the Christmas Eve service, thinking that might be a good opportunity for them to come and learn more about Jesus. Maybe that neighbor would ask you, hey, by the way, you say you're really into this Jesus guy. What makes him so great? Why is he so excellent? You know, you seem to really believe that. What's so great about Him? How would you answer that person? What would you say? Where would you start? What about his life comes to mind that you would be able to answer the question, what makes Christ so excellent? Well, it's in our text today and it's rather clear and really simple. It's just in two parts. The greatest answer we could give if somebody is interested in Jesus Christ and what makes him so amazing is to tell them of the person and work of Jesus Christ...in those two clear and simple categories...to have those categories in your mind today as we look at those five verses. What makes Jesus Christ so great is who he was and what he did. To not feel like we have to fish around for answers and reach too far as to look to the Word of God. And even this morning, if we're going to talk about the excellency of Jesus Christ, it should jump off the page to us that he is the most glorious person who has ever lived. And I want to add, as we get into this study today, that if you have been invited here and we're thankful you're here, but you're somewhat of a skeptic to this whole idea of religion, you have your reasons for that and you're unconvinced of Christianity. I would just ask you, though I am a complete stranger and you have no reason to listen to me. But I would ask you to consider what do you have to lose by learning more about Jesus today, to maybe set a little bit of that skepticism aside, and maybe have more of a curiosity? What is it about the excellency of Jesus Christ that I should be amazed by, and give the Word of God a chance today in your curiosity, rather than leading with skepticism. Let the Word of God show you how wonderful Jesus Christ is.
So let's start with the excellency of the person of Jesus Christ. Again, who he is just in his nature. We'll look at his work later, but just start with this. If somebody wanted to know what makes him so great. First you would start with his person and it's right there in verse 14, the apex of His excellency in verse 14 is this...and the word became flesh. That God became man. And this exalts a particular aspect of the excellency of Jesus Christ we'll call his humility. Uh, that's what verse 14 is rich with...the condescension, the coming down. We last left off with this word and the word in verse one, where it says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Co-equality co-existence with the Creator God, that he is there and now he has come. And what humility for Jesus Christ...above us in every way as the eternal Son of God. It's hard for him. I mean, I guess it's hard for us to understand the humility of that because, you know, when we meet people and when we want to impress them with our credentials, if you were to meet somebody and they had any idea of self-awareness and modesty, they probably wouldn't start with boasting in how much greater they are than you, how different they are than you. That would be a turnoff. But not with Christ. Because to start with, the person of Christ starts with him being God. And there's no way for him to set that aside, to not talk about that. And we've seen that in the last 13 verses in the last few weeks we have been in John chapter one. We have seen that John makes it very clear from the beginning of this gospel that Jesus Christ, the pre eternal word equal with God, has come to the world, the light of the world, the life for the sinner. Life eternal that he is God and He alone can save. And yet we see his humility in verse 14...the word became flesh and dwelt among us. This is the first part of the excellency of Jesus Christ. It's in a category that we wouldn't associate with glory. It's the category of humility. J.I. Packer writes, "the Almighty came to earth as a helpless human baby, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as the truth of the incarnation." And think about just the opposites of something so amazing as is the Son of God coming to earth to be born of a woman, the word becoming flesh. Things like in Isaiah 6 we read Isaiah 6:3 that when the prophet sees the pre-incarnate Christ in his glory in the heavenlies, and all the angels are flying around him, crying out, Holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is full of his glory that can't be contained. And yet his glory that can fill the whole earth now is in the womb of Mary. Or at the end of Isaiah, Isaiah 66. The omnipotent and omnipresent and omniscient God says this about himself, "Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool". What, then is a house that you could build for me? And where is a place that I may rest? The answer...a Trough. You can't build a temple. Anything big enough to contain my glory. And yet I'll come in a manger. Do you see the juxtaposition of this glory of the Son of God coming in with the humility to our world? This is the excellency of Christ. And if you're giving consideration to Christianity this morning, maybe there could be a thing that doesn't add up for you. And it has nothing to do with Jesus, but it has everything to do with us as followers. Maybe some of the skepticism is derived in that you may have had an experience around Christians that left you saying, those people are anything but humble. You're right. We're nothing like our savior in that regard. We do not come close to his humility. How can any person in all history come close to that...God becoming man? The word becoming flesh. So you're right. Maybe there is a failure of Christians to exemplify the humility of Christ, but you can't put that on him. He is the perfect example of humility, and we see it there in verse 14. He became flesh and he did this. He dwelt among us. He didn't just do a high end by, you know, a quick appearance, you know, like famous people tend to do, important people tend to do...you get all pumped up to go to some autograph signing or see some celebrity or famous person and you get them for like five minutes. They sign a few things and they're out. That's not what Jesus came and did, is it? It says he dwelt among us, meaning he took up residence near us. That word for dwelt. It's a Greek noun meaning a tent, and John turns it into a verb. He says, he dwelt among us. He tented among us. He camped with us. For those of you Patagonia, people who love your camping. He came into that campsite as gross as it was and put up a tent right next to yours. I say that because I think of how gross camping can be...taking my kids each summer. This one, this past summer, Roan Mountain...we get there and in traditional North Carolina, unpredictable fashion. Within, I don't know, not moments, but definitely within a few hours of getting there, the thunderstorms come, the rain comes down and the floods go up, as the song says. And suddenly we're trying to dig trenches around our area so that the water doesn't come through the tent. And as gross as that is, not more than an hour later, even worse, two church vans pull up of a youth group and we have to sleep next to them. You know how bad camping can be. Pales in comparison to Christ coming to this world and dwelling among us. And it's not really, John thinking of camping as much as he uses this word, a tent, referring back to the tabernacle. That's where he wants your mind to go when you read this, that the tabernacling among us has the language of the Old Testament dripping from it, because this is what God did with his people, Israel. Go back to Exodus chapter 25 and you'll see the first mention of this. Israel has been freed from the oppression of Egypt, and they've been out a few months on their own in the wilderness. And God wants to give them a visual representation of that cloud that he led them with...fire by night, cloud by day. And maybe he could sense in them that they would get this idea that one day they would wake up and that would be gone. So what would be kind of the permanent fixture for them to know that he is with them. Well Exodus 25, if you're there now, tells you, and this is the language that John is borrowing from in our verse about him dwelling. This is what God has always done. Exodus 25:1, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for me. Take up an offering from every man whose heart moves him. You shall raise my contribution. And then in verses 3 to 7 he says all the things to give, because what I want you to do is build me something. Verse 8, let them construct a sanctuary for me. Why? He's the God who doesn't dwell in anything made by human hands. Well, it's for them. You do this for me, but it's really for you that I may dwell among them. That's why I want a tabernacle. That's why I want a tent. So that you would know that I am with you. Now, I'm not just going to come and go. I'm with you now. You are my people. And so he says, construct a tent, a sanctuary, a tabernacle, that I may dwell among them. And they do that. And then he gives them explicit commands for how to do this. And then if you go all the way to the end of Exodus, this is the dwelling of God with man in glorious form. Exodus 40, the end of the book, verse 34. Then the cloud, God's cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. So throughout all their journeys, when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, they would go out. But if the cloud was not taken up, they stayed. And that staying was God's proof that he has come to dwell with them. And this is the idea of what we see throughout the Old Testament God dwelling with his people, even when his people didn't want to dwell with him, even when they rejected him. And that's a sad picture, going all the way back to Genesis of what was lost when Adam and Eve sinned. At first they had perfect dwelling. Talk about a perfect place...Garden of Eden. All their needs met. But what made it the greatest place to be was that Adam could walk with God there. He could have perfect fellowship with God there. But this was lost when Adam and Eve sinned, when they disobeyed and ate of the tree that they were not supposed to. And notice the sad picture of this fellowship being lost in verse 8 of Genesis 3, after they had sinned, but before they had been kicked out, they knew before God said anything to them that something was different in their fellowship with him. Listen to it in Genesis 3:8. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, something that they would have been familiar with. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Sin does that. It distances us from God. And it's not just God being separate from the sinner. The sinner in his or her own conscience knows also there's something different. Nobody had to teach Adam and Eve that...that in that moment they knew they had to make their own way. That's why in verse 7, they knew that they were now naked and they were ashamed. They sewed fig leaves together to make a covering for themselves. And then they took cover from God rather than be drawn towards the presence of God. They hid themselves from him. That's what sin does. It pricks the conscience and poisons the heart to think God is no longer someone I should be near, but I should move away from. Rather than seek his presence, as is written in the Psalms. The nearness of God is my good. No, the nearness of God is not my good. This is the distance that has now been formed between God and His creation. And the big story of the Bible...let's go back to John 1...is God providing a way back to fellowship with him. But it would not be like all the false religions out there that make it about you working your way back to God's presence. It's something you could never do on your own. It's God coming to the sinner. No other religion gives a hope that God would make a way for you back to him. Christianity is unique and it is God who comes to save us. And this is all the first reason that we have to be amazed by the excellency of Jesus Christ. It's in his humility coming in humanity to dwell among us. So there is his humility in part one of verse 14 that makes him so great. But look what it's married next to. Right after we see this out of this world display of humility for God to come to us, then we get out of this world with his glory. It's as if John puts the two most opposite things together...humility and glory. It's very hard for us as pride filled individuals and glory seeking individuals to see humility and glory in our own lives next to each other and make it work. Because what do we do the moment we taste some form of earthly glory? We lose all what?...humility. They don't marry well together for us fallen people. But yet in verse 14, the excellency of Jesus Christ is those things are next to each other. They come together that because he came in humble human flesh and dwelt among us, then we could see his glory. And what kind of glory is it? It's glory as of the only begotten from the father, full of grace and truth. That's the most glorious thing about the person of Jesus Christ, is that he revealed to us out of his fullness these two qualities grace and truth. Jesus is the most glorious, gracious, and truthful person the world has ever known. It's not even close. And John says, we saw his glory. Well, what is the glory that John is speaking of? Well, John walked with him, and John talked with him...John the Apostle. He would have been with Jesus at his transfiguration. He would have seen but been taken back by that in just that moment, that the glory of God and Jesus Christ was showing around him, but couldn't stay near. No one can see that God. No one can see that glory and take it in. It was true in the Old Testament. It was true in the New Testament. If you go back to the Old Testament, back to Exodus again, there's only one person in the Old Testament that ever thought, hey, you know, it would be cool. I want to see the glory of God. I think God and I are on such good terms here. I'd like to see it. It was Moses. And it does say Moses was the most humble man that ever walked the earth. But he had this idea that, you know what I need to see? I need to see the glory of God. And so in Exodus 33, we read of Moses saying, I pray God, show me your glory. And this is God's response. I myself will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. So he says, okay, I'll do that. I'll make all my goodness pass before you. All my goodness is a summary way to talk about the glory of God. As in all the qualities of God that make him God, all of his goodness, every quality, every characteristic that you could think that makes God wonderful and worthy to be worshiped...comprises his glory. That word for glory in the Old Testament is a word for something weighty and worthy. And sowhen he says, I will make my goodness pass before you and proclaim my name, you will get to experience that. But look what he says in verse 20, you cannot see my face, for no man can see me and live. And in fact, there's a place by me, I'll put you there in that rock. And it will come about that when my glory is passing by I'll put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. That's the closest anybody can get...hidden in the cleft of a rock covered by anthropomorphic language, the hand of God. Until he passes by. And I will take my hand away. And you will see my back. But my face shall not be seen. But it wasn't just this glorious light so brilliant that Moses had to hide. It was the glorious truth that God wanted to reveal about himself. Listen to Exodus 34:5. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with Moses as he called upon the name of the Lord. And then the Lord passed by in front of him, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth. Now why did I take us all the way back there to get back to John 1? Because all of John 1:14 is full of this flashback, both in this idea in the Old Testament, that God would tabernacle amongst his people, and when his people wanted to see the glory of God revealed. It was not going to be revealed in the Incarnate Word. It was going to be revealed in the spoken word. God saying this about himself. What did he say about himself? Well, all these wonderful truths that make us want to praise him for who he is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger. And then these last two words in verse 6 of Exodus 34, he's abounding in loving kindness and truth. Now you say, well, how does that connect to our verse?...in Verse 14. Because the word lovingkindness, it's the best word in the Old Testament, because the lovingkindness of God, any time you see it brought up, is this gracious act of God to love the sinner, even when the sinner does not want to love him in return. Now, if you can come up with a better definition of the word grace, then go for it. Really, when you hear loving kindness in verse 6 of Exodus 34, you're hearing the word grace. And then he says, I abound in loving kindness or grace and truth. Go back to verse 14 of John 1. What kind of glory did we see when we beheld the glory of Jesus Christ? He was abounding or full of what? What two qualities?...grace and truth. What's John's whole thesis of this gospel. He wants to show you that Jesus Christ is God, so that you would believe and have life in his name. And so he connects you back to Exodus 34 at the high point of God revealing Himself and His glory to Moses. And you say, wait...those qualities revealed about God in Exodus 34:6 are the same exact qualities that make Jesus so glorious. So it throws aside some of the heresies of the early church that some extend to today that want to say, like Marcion did in the second century, that, oh, you know, the God of the Old Testament, he's this bad guy. But man, we love Jesus in the New Testament. So unhitch from your Old Testament, we can't learn anything about God there. Really?...sounds to me like that's the same God, the one who is overflowing and abounding in grace and truth to his people is the same one that John said, "We've seen his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the father..." Just like the father, the same loving kindness and truth. We know the father, we know it in the son. Then he goes on to say in verse 15, this is what John testified about, this fullness of grace and truth. John testified and said, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me has a higher rank than I. For he has existed before me. John the Baptist's testimony the entirety of his existence, and I do mean the entirety of it. Life begins at conception. John the Baptist is in the womb of Elizabeth, his once barren mother, and in the womb...Luke 1:15 an angel says to Zacharias, your wife will have a child, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb. Why is that important? Because John the Baptist entire life was testifying to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, even in the womb, already full of the Spirit. How this stuff works itself out if you get caught on that detail, but you're okay with the incarnation, come on. Full of the Holy Spirit in his mother's womb, Mary, who now is carrying Jesus, goes to meet her cousin Elizabeth. Luke 1:41, and when Mary came into the house and greeted Elizabeth. Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting the baby, John the Baptist, leaped in her womb. Why did he leap? Well, we all know babies move around in there. I don't know this by experience, but I've been told. Why is it that John the Baptist is suddenly dancing a jig? Well, Elizabeth, full of the Holy Spirit, so we know we can trust what she's saying, says this verse 44, behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. It wasn't just kicking for the sake of kicking...Joy. John the Baptist, in the womb of his mother, was leaping for joy when Jesus comes in the room in the womb of his mother. I mean, all of this is, as Packer said before, something so miraculous and mysterious it blows our imagination. But it's true. And so back to John 1:15. He is saying every part of John's life he understood even before any person could understand something. He knew who Jesus Christ was. In fact, before he even saw Christ, he was testifying that what? I'm just the forerunner. I'm not the Christ. Look at down in verse 19 when they're asking him, who are you? And he says, I'm not the Christ. Then they said what do you say about yourself? Verse 23, he quotes Isaiah 40, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, "make straight the way of the Lord". Now he still hasn't met Christ...seen Christ. But then we read in verse 29, the next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, look, behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Every point in John's life he's giving testimony that Jesus Christ, who he is before he's even seen him do any work. He knows him that he is the Son of God. Further testimony to the excellency of both the humility and the glory of Jesus Christ. Somay I ask you this morning, just in the first part of this whole thing, as we're just exploring the humility and the glory of Jesus Christ in his person, are you amazed by him? There's no one like him, and we haven't even talked about any of his works yet. But just the testimony of the incarnation, the word becoming flesh and dwelling among us and revealing the glory of God to us, full of grace and truth. And that's just this person who he is.
But now John's going to tell us about his work. What work has he done that we are the glad recipients of?...Verse 16. What makes him so excellent in his work is the grace that we have received, and not just a small portion of it. How much grace we received. Verse 16...loads of it. Grace upon grace upon grace is what John is writing. I loved reading this in all different kind of translations this week, because it just reminded me of how wonderful the grace of God is to me in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not just a small thing, it's an unending thing. And the only way we get the unending supply of the grace upon grace of God is in his work for us, the sinner, at the cross. It's the greatest gift we could ever be given. That word grace means gift. And if we know the nature of a true gift, and we know the nature in the Bible of true grace. It's not something that you earn or deserve or somebody is obligated to give you. If somebody is going to truly give you a gift of grace...this wasn't that they were hoping to get something back from you. If it's with pure intentions, right? I mean, even think about this week. I know we would say, well, you know, the reason I'm giving people gifts this week is because it's Christmas. Is it though? I mean, by the calendar it is. But what really moves you and motivates you to rack up the credit card debt? It's your love for the person you're giving the gift to. It's because you truly love them. Now, you might feel obligated because okay, this is that certain time of year, but if it's really from the heart that you love this person you want to give this gift to. When Shannon opens up, you know, her gift in the driveway, the Tesla, you know, the new Cybertruck. It's the Hot Wheels version. She'll have to look hard to see it. But if you asked me. Oh, Adam, why did you get your wife the Cybertruck? I'd say it's my duty. It's Christmas. I have to. No, I'd say because I love her. Why did you get your kids those gifts? I love them. You know, and then they give me some great stuff back in return. And then I take it on the scales of Adam's justice. And I look at the price tags on it all. And if it comes out even that was a good Christmas. Is that what you do? Because it has to be all even stevens, doesn't it? No, that's not the way Grace works. And if it's what John is highlighting here about our receiving the grace, the fullness of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, there is no comparing it, is there? That's not how the gospel works. Romans 4:4, the one who works his wage is not credited as a favor, as what is due, but the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly. His faith is credited as righteousness. I hope you love that, believer, about the work of God for you in Jesus Christ this morning, that you owe him nothing. He gave you everything for your salvation. Now what you can do in return, out of gratitude for that great salvation is what? Love him. Live for him, serve him, worship him. But you're not earning anything in doing that. That grace that he's shown you. That grace upon grace or in some of the other translations out of his fullness we've received grace in place of grace already given that you say, oh, of course I want to...Whatever I can do for you, Lord, because I love you. Because you first did what? What does Romans 5 say? You demonstrated your love for me. You first loved me. And that's not a debt that you could ever pay God back for. You know that...you couldn't. You couldn't live the perfect life that would pay for you. He could though, and he did. And that's the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The excellency of his work is that when he came to die on the cross, his work on the cross was a sacrificial death in your place, his perfect love for you, his miraculous resurrection is the final proof that it went through. All of it's true, all the works of Christ that only he can do, that we could not. All are gifts we receive by faith, not by work. Sowhen you want to tell somebody about Jesus Christ and how great he is...you can't miss this point this morning that the greatest part of the work of Jesus Christ is what he did for you on the cross. His greatest work was not healing the sick, and it's not to give us perfect health. His greatest work was not helping the poor, and he didn't come to get you out of debt financially. His greatest work was not fighting the powerful elites so that you can stick it to the man. His greatest work was not inspiring people to achieve all their earthly dreams. We're just called to follow him. His greatest work was going to the cross, to die for sinners so that we could be forgiven of our sin. To know what makes Jesus Christ the Son of God, both in his person and in his work, so amazing is that he came to save. That in the gospel of Jesus Christ He provides total forgiveness of all sin for every sinner who believes the truth that Jesus Christ taught and receives the gift of his saving grace. Forgiveness that is so complete that it eternally removes all of your sin, all of your shame, all of your guilt, all of your punishment, and replaces it with the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. That then assures you that you will never be separated from the love of God forever. What else could he give that would top that? I mean, just add all that up in your heart right now. Sure, he was a healer and a helper and a fighter and an inspirer. He did those things, but they were all means to the one great end of why he came to be the Savior of the world. So you and I could be forgiven. That’s what allows you to worship him and exalt him and love him this Christmas more than anything else you could hope for. How do you know it's all true? Well, it's right there. It says of his fullness we have received grace upon grace, for the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. The truth of Christ. This is how we know it's true. Everything he said and did proved that it's true. I mean, who else could you depend on that would make it true? Verse 18, you would want to know the person that's been with God forever, who is the only person that's been with God forever? The Son of God, begotten of the Father, who is in the bosom of the Father. He has explained him. That's who you can trust. That's how you know it's true. Just like if you were to ask a grown adult about their parents and they were, you grew up with them. You were around them all the time. What's your dad like? What's your mom like? Well, I can tell you about mine from the beginning. And if somebody else came along and said something about them, I would say, you know, that's actually not that accurate. I was the closest to them. That's what John is saying here. If you want to depend on the truth, realize through Jesus Christ he only can explain the Father because he only has been with the Father forever. And he says he was in the bosom of the Father. This is just a picture of perfect love. There's no way that John can express a closer relationship. To show you that the only begotten Son, who fully and perfectly knew the Father now, can fully and perfectly make him known. That's the truth that you can depend on. Jesus message his whole life, the truth that he spoke. John 5:19, The Son could do nothing of himself unless he sees his Father doing it. Whatever the Father does, the things the Son also does, what is he saying there? Everything I do, I see the Father do. All my works, his works. John 7:16. My teaching is not mine, but his teaching who sent me. So not just everything I do, but everything I say. It's something that the Father said. That's how you can trust me. If that's not enough, if you just don't trust my works and my words. If you want to know about my will, where does it all come from? What drives me? John 5:30, I do nothing on my own. I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Who else could explain God the Father to a dying world, but God the Son, who could say...all my works, all my words, right down to the will...all of it is from the Father. None of it...I'm coming up with myself. He has explained him. Knowing God and Jesus Christ is everything to us. It's so important. It's the first and last thing he prayed in John 17. If you want to look there. How important was it for us to know everything we can know about the Father? The first thing he prays as he opens his high priestly prayer in John 17. This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Last thing he prays in Verse 25 and 26, O righteous Father, although the world is not known you yet, yet I have known you, and these have known you that you sent me, and I have made your name known to them. Why did he do it? What's behind it all? What's so great about the gift of knowing God and Jesus Christ? Here it is. It's his final words in this prayer. And I will make your name known so that the love with which you loved me may be in them. How good is that? That's why he came. So you can be forgiven to have eternal life. And what is eternal life?...to know God the Father. And what's so great about being known by God the Father? That you would know his love the same way his eternal Son knows it. Can anything compare with that? Can anything come close to that today? What could fill your heart with more hope, more joy and more love than to be loved by your creator and to know you can count on it, because he sent His Son to die on a cross to prove it to you. That's the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Are any of us worthy of a grace as amazing as eternal love and eternal joy? No, it's not something you earn. It's something that is given to you...grace upon grace upon grace. That's the beauty of this gospel message. Just when you think you can get to the end of the supply, it comes and hits you with another wave and another wave and another wave. And it overwhelms you. What's better than being overwhelmed by the love of God being poured out in your heart by the Holy Spirit?, Romans 5:5. I mean to know from the inside he knows everything about me. He's seen everything I've done, and he loves me still. It's the most precious truth any heart could have.
So I pray that the days remaining we have before Christmas celebrating our Savior in all of his excellence. You would see the excellence of his person and his work. And if you don't know him today. Honest question...What more do you need to know about him? What could be better to know about Jesus Christ than his love for you? I would say there isn't anything better than that. I know there's other things. There's grace upon grace. There's grace gifts he gives us in life beyond saving grace. There's things that we can look at with new eyes to see how good God has been to us. But it has to start with the most important thing that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. He's revealed the Father to us. Trust him today. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your perfect Word. We thank you for its power to save. We thank you that you have the words of eternal life and can draw all men to yourself even right now. The person that is coming here feeling the farthest away from you, the most distant, like Adam and Eve, hiding from your presence. Now, in the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, they would have eyes of faith to see for the first time you calling them to yourself to come to believe in him and be saved. Only you could do that work Spirit and we pray you do. Give life, give light, come to them Christ, we ask. Amen.
